Regardless of the limited availability, we still believe investing our food money locally is the best option. Actually, I stubbornly refuse to hand over our hard-earned money (whenever possible) to companies that truck in, mass-produced fruits and vegetables. You can read more about why here.

The 1st chapter of this book shares the story of an individual whose mission is to make locally produced foods a viable buying option for community members. He does this by filling an old school bus with produce and other local food items, essentially he is operating a rolling–school–bus–farmers–market in his area.

How cool is that? It actually reminds me a lot of the types of people you would find living at The Farm in Summertown Tennessee since many arrived at The Farm on a school bus caravan of sorts when the community was established.

Heck, I would even be willing to buy and operate a rolling–school-bus–farmers-market of my own here in the area.

The lost art of local food is a total shame. And I wish more people would understand why and get on board to support their local farmers.

Not only is it good business to support local food growers but it also protects the community from suffering the consequences of any unforeseen fallout or production issues or contamination that may occur at one point or another on the few large-scale farms that basically monopolize the agriculture business and provide us with all our food.

If you are curious about eating locally or if you are jaded about the state of our country’s local food affairs this book is a must read.

If the last 48 hours are any indication I’d say the answer is yes. First, while enjoying some time in mommy’s bed Everly took a header off the bed. Scraped her spine on the bedside table and then lay in a crying crumpled mess on the floor next to the bed. The result: a six inch gash up her spine and mommy worrying about neck injuries or concussion.

The next day, while I was attempting to enjoy a relaxing time in the tub Everly busts in and joins me. Relaxing and reading morphed to toddler bath party.  Oh and Adalyn is screaming bloody murder with Nathan.

After we all get out of the tub Everly joins me and Adalyn on the bed, she now smashes her face on the headboard of the bed while jumping around.

Nathan attempts to herd Everly down the stairs so I can nurse Adalyn and get her to sleep. Everly is fighting going down stairs but gets herself down about a third of the way while horsing around (“Stair Sledding” basically). Nathan is yelling for her to settle and continue down the stairs when…

Thump, whump, whump whump…. “Oh, no, woh, woh, woh” Yells Nathan as he sprints down after Everly.

“Oh shit! My kid just fell down the stairs!”

Immediately I set Addie in the middle of the bed and go running after Nathan and Everly who are now crumpled at the bottom of the stairs. Everly is crying, Addie is crying and we are trying to assess the fall damage while comforting Everly.

Mommy is only in her undies…

It was quite a scene of madness but luckily, she’s got nothing but a few bruises to show for it. She did a good tuck-n-roll down the stairs it seems. And now she’s just bit her tongue bloody…

If we can keep this girl alive through this madness it will be a miracle.

What is it about the 2-3 year old clumsiness? Is it a growth spurt, a phase or what? Do tell.

Everly,

Sorry we’ve been irritated about your consistant 2am crying that you blamed on your radio, Sweetpea. We thought you were waking and turning it on for attention. Little did we know, your radio alarm was set and it was startling you awake each night this week.

That sure explains why you came bolting up the stairs each night in terror. I certainly do not enjoy waking to a radio announcers voice, even when I am expecting it. So, I now understand your fear and frustration.

Silly us, we just thought you were up to some terrible, toddler antics. Apologies. The teething baby induced, sleep deprivation must be taking it’s toll or something.

Love,
Your very clueless Mom & Dad

Before the days of babies and backyard chickens I couldn’t fathom explaining things like where babies come from or that we eat animals for dinner. These discussions must be horribly crushing for children, right?

“Yes, Sally. Our yummy bacon did come from Babe, so to speak. We eat pigs, cows, chickens, etc…”

I think, for most of society, being so far removed from the “unpleasantness of life” makes it more difficult. I mean as an adult, if you haven’t come eye to eye with these things it is understandable that some level of anxiety would accompany trying to explain them to others.

Furthermore, when children only see foods already cut up packaged all their lives it is quite shocking to later learn about the animals those things came from.

The quest for ultimate convenience has stripped us of the life lessons and the appreciation that often comes with self sufficiency.

Take for example, the eggs Everly just asked me to make her. After watching her collect two from the chicken hutch, I felt an enormous swell of pride when she immediately asked me to cook them up for her, fresh from the hens butt.

Maybe the pride is because my girl knows where her food comes from, which hen laid them and what that hen was munching (gasp, mom’s precious echinacia again?) in the days before she produced the egg. Maybe it is because we worked damn hard to make this “yard to table” concept a reality for our kids and now we are getting to enjoy the fruits of our labor.

Another good example is, one day the backyard chickens will end up on our dinner table. However, I am not suggesting you take your kid and slaughter an animal in front of them, that isn’t the point. Heck, I’ll probably have N take care of the slaughter without me all together when it is time. The point is, it is the presented concept of a food animal that is important.

These chickens are our food, they are cute, cuddly and we love them but we have them to feed our family.

I am seriously happy to see Everly collecting eggs, asking to eat them and knowing that she’ll come away from her childhood with a better grasp of how food gets to the table, more-so than I did as a child.

“Mommy, where did this come from?” she asks pointing a the carrot on her plate. “Picked in the garden?” Why, yes. Yes, it was picked in the garden.

“Mommy, where did this come from?” she asks pointing to a piece of chicken. From an amazing chicken, sweetpea.

The lifestyle and subsequent choices we make as parents will teach our kids far more than we can imagine. That alone is enough to drive me to live more self sufficiently because I want my girls to know where food comes from and how to feed themselves, without relying on a grocery store. Someday these skills might save their lives or shape the world.

“Mama, where are the baby chicks in these eggs?”

Plus, bringing up my girls in this way indirectly teaches them about life, death and birth as they observe our day to day lifestyle.

Self sufficiency is the skill I hope to impart on my girls. What is yours?

I am here to tell you that parenting, once begun, never ever stops. You have a baby, then another, and another, and think to yourself that one day, maybe in twenty years or so, that you will have your life back and be able to just sit back and relax. But let me tell you right now—that is not the case.

I had my babies when I was very young. I was 19 when my son was born, and turned 23 just three short weeks after the birth of my third child. My two daughters are very close in age—R  is 38 and E is 37. There is only 15 short months difference in their birthdates.  That is where the closeness ends though.

E, my youngest, left my home and set up housekeeping with her then boyfriend when she was 17 and still in high school. She and her guy got married and had a baby boy when she was 25. R chose to go to college and grad school, and live the single girl life in a big city, until she met her True Love a couple of years ago. My two girls rarely see each other face to face, mostly because one live on the east coast and the other lives in Canada. They talk infrequently to each other. They get their news of what is going on in each other’s lives through me, their mother.

This has been going on for about twenty years. Now that we all have Facebook, my four children (a stepdaughter joined our family when I married her Dad in 1992) keep in touch that way. And I write my blog.

I am in a weird place now. I want to be happy and giddy and shout about E’s newly announced pregnancy to anyone and everyone who will take the time to read it. She is so very happy!  Her son will be 10 years old in April, and she has suffered through two miscarriages in those years. She asked me to go to her last OB appointment with her, I am sure, because she was afraid of being alone if the doctor found anything wrong during the ultrasound. It was the first time I have seen one of my grandchildren via ultrasound, and it was soooo amazing!

But, I feel like very squeeee and pic of a new baby thing I have made or mention of Baby to Be is a slap in the face to R. She wants a baby so very much, and I want it for her because she wants it so much. She also had a miscarriage last spring, and took it very, very hard. She was so depressed in November, when her miscarried baby would have been due, that she wasn’t able to get out of bed on many days. I understand, and I as her mother wish so much that I could kiss away the hurt.

I’m still parenting. And as usual, there are no instructions. How do you stay so happy for one, while being hopeful for the other? Do I back off posting my happiness for one to prevent sadness of the other? It is so very hard to know what is the right thing to do.

—-

Karen writes at Fabgrandma, where she tells the world way too much about herself whether they want to know it or not. She writes about her life of living full time in an RV, eating a gluten free diet, things she does for fun, and things that are important to her. She makes you look at photos of her grandchildren, talks about her husband’s survival of oral cancer, shows you things she has made. You know you want to look.

This is a totally unprofessional, explicit post. Read at your own risk or simply move on

Actually, today is his birthday if I remember correctly…

Happy birthday gay ex -boyfriend!

Hun, I hope you are having lots of catty, diva fun and that you’ve acquired all you aspired to in life. Even if you had to steal the high school band’s instruments and sell them on ebay to get it

The thing that sucks about those gay high school sweethearts is sometimes they just don’t know they are gay yet, or they just want to use you as cover so they can prove to others they aren’t gay.

I still have no clue if I was just delusional about the gay factor for the entire 4 years or if it only reared it’s head at the end. Those who witnessed it will have to chime in below.

Regardless, I enjoy gay people… just not dating them for 4 years. It kind of fucks with your head while you wonder, “did I turn him gay?” or “why is he asking about anal?”

Oh, and did I mention I have a funnnny nude photo of him somewhere? Ha! Be glad I am not sharing that here!

The one that got away?

Seriously, A gay ex-boyfriend is totally one that you should be thankful to lose, like a hairy face wart or something. Trust me. I would know.

Besides, when you don’t have a diva boyfriend competing with you for attention, winterguard solos and popularity in general, life gets WAYYYY easier. Besides you can now be free of the boy band music, the sparkly pants and the glitter hair gel he loved.

What could be better?

I don’t usually subscribe to the idea of New Year’s resolutions. I don’t like the idea that only once a year you  should resolve to do something to improve yourself or your life. I think improving and bettering yourself is something that should be done year-round, not just once a year. Self-improvement is supposed to be an ongoing never-ending process. Small goals can and should be implemented all year.

I’m also not particularly stuck on making the resolutions at the 1st of the year and diving right into them. Typically things that I resolve to do are goals or ideas that I came up with months before at the end of the previous year.

In the past most of my goals or resolutions have been sustainability related. One year I resolved to use less water and that was the year my family got me a rainwater barrel for Christmas. So it was already pretty easy for me to use the rainwater barrel to water the garden. I also got really into recycling graywater (mostly clean water that would normally be disposed of) that year.

The year we became parents I resolved to go organic as much as possible  and slowly but surely we switched over the majority of our  own diet. We also chose nothing but organic products for baby Everly that year.

As you can see most of my resolutions or goals are specific lifestyle changes that eventually amount to a larger goal; to be self sustainable, to live more simply and to get back to basics.  They are not as vague as most people’s common resolutions (aka “lose 30 pounds” or “get back into my skinny jeans”).

I’m not saying weight loss isn’t a good resolution. I know weight loss is a major goal for a lot of people. Unfortunately, without having a clear idea of what that and changes should be made, these resolutions will likely fail.

This year I want to grow more of our family’s food in our garden and rely less on other farmers and grocery stores to feed our family during the growing season. I also really want to cut down on the amount of wasted resources in our home. This means I want to preserve more of what we do grow in the garden so can be used and enjoyed for longer. Also, I would like to waste less in terms of leftover foods and whatever else that can manage to be repurposed. I hate throwing things out that can still be used, so I hope that we can find more creative ways to repurpose things in the coming year.

So, to answer the question “what can be done to keep or maintain your New Year’s resolution?” I would say the key is in what you specifically resolve to do.

If you really want to get yourself into your skinny jeans or lose weight or any other number of common resolutions then you need to think about how you’re going to get there. Instead of just waving that end result in front of yourself as the  carrot, you need to really acknowledge and understand the work that it’s going to take to get you to where you want to be.

The people who have a clear picture of the path they need to take already in their head are more likely to succeed.  This is because they’re not delusional about what they need to do to get there.  They are not scrambling to find fast or easy solutions to aid them in achieving their goals.

So maybe instead of resolving to lose 30 pounds you could turn that goal into something more attainable and more ongoing by resolving to eat healthier instead or by resolving to improve your wellness. That way you’re actually focusing on and targeting the area that needs some work in order for you to achieve your end result.

Perhaps the key to success in New Year’s resolutions is how you word what you resolve and furthermore how you look at the steps needed to get there.

What do you think the key is to maintaining or succeeding at New Year’s resolutions?

Discuss on Twitter with these links:

• I think the key to success with New Years Resolutions is_________       or
• My New Years Resolution is to ___________ 

For more talk as New Year’s resolutions visit: http://www.blogher.com/five-easy-ways-keep-your-resolutions or enter the Life Well Lived Sweepstakes here: http://www.blogher.com/life-well-lived-moments-sweepstakes-5

I’m writing this post today with my Dragon Dictation Software. I have to say the learning curves has sure been interesting.

I also think it’s interesting that it’s much more difficult to compose a blog entry this way. For whatever reason typing words as I think them is somehow easier than just talking about what happened thinking. I find myself stopping and pausing midsentence to think my way through what it is I actually want to say as I’m saying it.

As opposed to just fluidly typing my thoughts as they come to me. It really is bizarre because you think that talking your way through your thoughts with dictation software would be easier than typing them out on a keyboard but apparently I’m in the minority here because it’s a really foreign concept to me. It must just be that I’m not a good public speaker I’m not good at speaking on my feet.

The real issue is probably that I’m just over thinking things way more than he needs to be. For example, when I am showering or washing dishes I often think up blog posts, but it is probably because my hands are busy and my mind is free to wander.

It is hard to not  over-think dictating a post but I think I am getting better at it as I go. The plus side is I’ll be able to think up blog posts and dictate them now and also nurse my child all the same, and I won’t need a hands to do it.

Also, some potentially funny exchanges will likely be captured while I am parenting the girls and also trying to us my dictation software.

Have you ever tried Dictation Software?

I should start out by giving some background here. A few bloggers (here and here) are a buzz about parenting choices and being judgmental and it kind of ticks me off a bit.

I am not ticked off because they are okay with things like cry-it-out or because she admitted to NOT breastfeeding or blindly vaccinating. It isn’t the parenting choices that tick me off. Besides, I personally HATE people judging me so the last thing I want to do is get all judgey about someone else’s choices.

I am not of the same mindset on many of the parenting topics that have been mentioned lately but that isn’t the point. The person’s choices are irrelevant, the point is the intention and attitude of declaration that annoys me.

I know I am no saint regarding this. Also, I am not specifically criticizing the bloggers mentioned above. This goes deeper than a few blog posts, but the posts were certainly the breaking point for me.

Why does it have to be all or none? Why the crunchy/ non-crunchy comparison? Why talk about not being judgmental and then list all the things you can think of that you didn’t do as a parent, that invites judgement?

“I had my kids OUT of the hospital, even had one on the internet, live. I try to wear them when I can. I breastfeed them with my boob hanging out everywhere I go. I cloth diaper & use cloth pads.

We delay vaccinations, avoid processed food like the plague. We don’t cry-it-out here, we do co-sleep when needed. I grow my own food and my chickens give us three eggs every morning.”

Did you feel invited to judge me and my choices?

And, in proclaiming your own stances, like the above, are you then condemning those who choose different? It sure can be taken that way.

I know for a fact many of my site followers have taken things I’ve supported or shared out of context and felt judged or needlessly ashamed for taking a different route. For instance, when I shared info about how powdered formula ISN’T sterile.

Or homebirth. Because I choose one for myself does not mean I think you should too. I’d love to help those that are looking to explore home birth options (and I love to help more women be aware of these options) but I am not judging you for birthing in a hospital.

I do worry and sometimes cringe when I read various things people post about their own choices, don’t we all? Especially if a choice or decision was made blindly. Sometimes I even discuss these thoughts with my husband but I wont be stoning you or trolling sites and being confrontational about a difference in choice. That is the difference.

Thinking things and moving on is DIFFERENT than internalizing and then dumping your judgements on others. Whether it is intentional or not.

I respect your right to choose how you parent and what is best for you. Do I agree? Often the answer is probably no. Does that mean we can’t all play nice and still respect each other without flaming or taking sides? For some, it doesn’t and that is terrible.

I think homemade breastmilk soap is cool and when I read something I think is important I’ll often repost it on my blog, Facebook, Twitter or whatever.

To me those things are what is “BEST” for my own family. What is right for me is not necessarily what is right for someone else and that is cool but it doesn’t mean we can’t all learn about and discuss various topics, even the ones we don’t agree on.

Do I believe in and advocate for the things I am passionate about? Hell ya! But I wont be stoning anyone to death for not choosing my way and I’d appreciate the same respect and understanding from others.

I look at you and see this amazing little person. You are not a baby anymore, not physically and not mentally. Your intuition is something else and I hope you never lose your drive to press ahead and to forge your own path.

You’ve always seemed to have your own pace and time table for stuff, your own little internal compass and time table.

At about 7 months old, even though we weren’t rushing to start solids, you began stealing my food from me. I remember the first time clearly. It was on a trip, for Mama’s birthday. We were eating takeout as a special treat. PF Changs, and you just reached out and stole some food off a fork for yourself. A noodle. From there your relationship with food began.

Once solid food became a regular thing, you gradually decreased your daytime breastfeeding sessions. Just before your first birthday you settled at only nursing before naps and before bed.

Then at 16 months you weaned yourself from breastfeeding completely! Mommy’s pregnancy probably had something to do with it but we were in no hurry to end that relationship prematurely… But when you felt ready you just tapered off and eventually stopped wanting to nurse. And you haven’t looked back, even now, with your baby sister nursing in front of you.

Shortly after self weaning you also took the plunge, literally, and began rejecting your crib. This set the stage for transitions to your toddler bed which you now rock like a grownup. We hardly ever have issues with you trying to come out of your room when it is sleeping time. It is crazy!

We are also still in utter amazement over your self-led potty training. You started out loving your nakedness and that in turn taught you about your bodily functions.

Before we knew it you were succeeding at using your potty chair during your awake-naked times. Then one day you just asked to sleep diaper free and that was that. You are even having public-outing-potty-success which seems crazy to me. There have been a few accidents along the way but your maturity and your understanding of things has made you this amazing little person, way earlier than we expected.

I feel like I got pregnant with your sister, I blinked and you just transformed from a baby to a little person. I missed the exact moment of transition and am still in awe when I look at you or when I see photos/ video of you as a baby. You are such a big, little girl now. So much growth, learning and maturing has taken place in such a short time.