Trying, wearing...

This weeks Currently list includes trying, wearing, choosing, laughing, tasting. This week has been really interesting because it is the first full week that Tris and I have lived together since 2010. t has been fun discovering all of the mundane things that I take for granted daily are things that I have missed doing with her. With the exception of two nights, I have cooked full meals from scratch and tried a few new recipes. When the kiddos aren't home, I don't do this normally; I usually eat cereal or nothing. We have had a few bumps in the road, but only small ones. I think this may work out well.

Right now I am trying to think. Maybe I could modify this to tried. I tried a new crockpot recipe. I made potato soup. It was amazing! And probably really fatty, but I will just have to hike a bunch this week.

Crockpot potato soup:
Bag of frozen hash browns
Can of cream of whatever you like soup (I used asparagus)
Box of broth (I used veg)
Half of an onion
Salt and Pepper
Block of cream cheese

Cook everything but the cream cheese on low for 5 hours. Add the cream cheese (cut in small chunks) for the final half hour. Boom! Easy soup!!!

I am wearing hiking clothes. We are about to go hike Little Elden Trail to Elden Springs. It's a short hike (4 miles), but I haven't done it before, so I am pretty stoked to hit the trail. Tris and her friend, Nicole, are also going. Yay for hiking buddies, since I usually hike alone.

I am choosing a positive attitude. Yesterday was a bit of a trying day and I am not sure how well I slept last night. I dreamed a lot so I am still pretty out of it. Those of you who know me personally, know that my dreams are avid, intense, and seem so real to me that I feel like I have been running all night. Or in the case of last night, crawling slowly and painstakingly to a destination that never gets closer. No, I don't want to evaluate this dream.

I am laughing at my hair. I am trying (yes! I found something!) to grow it out so I can dread it, but it is thick and awkward. Today I look like I have a combover. A wavy, thick, disgusting combover. I am hoping that in a few more weeks, it will be long enough in the back to make a full ponytail, not just one that has to be re-tied every time half of the hair falls out. I have an unnatural fear that I don't look gay enough when my hair is like this. I know it's dumb!

I am tasting my crunchy, granola cluster cereal. It's some maple pecan something that I bought for half-off because it was going expired. Tastes fine to me. And it stays crunchy in my almond milk.

I'm off to my hike. I will be posting pictures of the garden soon. I just planted the beans in the Three Sisters plot yesterday. I am excited to watch them grow up the corn. They are called Rattlesnake Pole Beans.

Again with the lemons and blueberries??? Yes.

I can't help myself. I made lemon blueberry muffins for the week this morning. I haven't tried one yet, but I'm about to. I got the recipe from Gimme Some Oven. Thought I would share because, like most recipes, it can be modified to meet your dietary needs.

Loving, craving...

My friend Linz, of Ot and Et, from high school and beyond writes a weekly link-up called Currently. In order to encourage myself to write a bit more, I thought I would join her. This week's theme is loving, craving, missing, listening, wishing.

This week, I am loving having T and the boys home. Wednesday was particularly awesome because the boys came home two days earlier this week and T came home for good. She got a job here in town, so no more long distance, no more traveling to a good-foresaken town in the desert, and no more stressing over who will watch the kids when my classes are scheduled late.

I am craving vegan food. I have been eating such crap lately. I just want to eat fresh, homemade, delicious, vegan food. Last weekend, our friend Scout came up for a visit. He is an amazing vegan cook and baker. We ate thai and mexican and fresh strawberry shortcake. Later in the week I made Lehsuni daal with rice and naan. That satisfied my craving for a little while, but I need more!

I am missing the boys. T, the boys and I went up to Page this weekend to visit my folks and my sisters. The boys wanted to stay with them until Thursday and I grudgingly relented. Even though my parents live relatively close, we don't get to see the family very often. The boys are probably already up and hoping at least one cousin is awake to play with. You'd think I would sleep in when they weren't home, but no, I was up at 6:25 this morning and T is still sleeping.

I am listening to our parakeets chirp and sing, the traffic on the road below, the fish tank bubbling and wash machine spinning. The birds outside are chirping also and Antigua and Makaha are diligently answering.

I am wishing T would wake up! Man, can she sleep! All of the apple butter is going to be gone from the market again and I don't think my heart can handle that!

In other news, the veeerrrryyyyyy slow-growing garden got pummeled by quarter sized hail last Tuesday, but seems to thrive on beatings because it has bounced back beautifully! This year, I have tons of different kinds of beans, strawberries, chives, tomatoes, chili peppers, leeks, corn, watermelon, pumpkins, and more. Hopefully all of this summer rain will really boost their growing potential!

My Dear Friend Needs Your Help

Until now, what I knew about anorexia and bulimia was learned from After School Specials and biology classes. What I know now is that my very lovely friends daughter may be dying because of these eating disorders. What I know now is that mom and daughter and sisters are suffering. What I know now is that our community is suffering.

I am pleading for anyone who may read this post to follow this link to her fundraising page. If you can't donate money, please consider sending love and light to them. This mama and this child are our sisters and daughters, our wives and mothers, our friends and members of our community. Her story may be yours, her daughter may be yours, her mother may have been yours, struggling to save your life. No amount of support is too little.

Goodbye Facebook

Or at least I am really thinking about it. I mean what do I really use it for? I keep in touch with my really good friends via phone calls, text, and letters. The rest of the people on my Facebook are people I don't really know anymore. I do like seeing T's updates now that she is back on, but really that's about it.

During the elections, I had a hard time even getting on because so many of my "friends" were voting with their wallets and not their hearts or even their brains. I wasn't one of those people who said we couldn't be friends anymore, but I certainly was thinking it. I was also thinking that having a diverse group of "friends" could open my eyes and let me see things from their perspective. That being said, I never friended Mitt Romney, but I did write to him.

Seeing what everyone is up to fills up space in my day that I don't really have time to spare. I do love the networking aspect of Facebook, but in the interest of spending more quality time with our kids, frugality (with my time and energy), saving my eyesight, and saving my voice (from yelling at stupid posts), I am going to shut my Facebook, at least for a while after this weekend.

In return for not being on Facebook, if anyone wants to know what's going on in my life, I will post on here as often as I can. Starting now.

I just began my last semester at Northern Arizona University as an undergraduate. I will graduate with a Bachelors of Science in Environmental Science with an emphasis on Biology. I am looking forward to a river trip down the San Juan River after graduation, but still for a class. When I finish with this degree, I have two choices, get a real job or go to grad school and stay at my bookkeeping job, that I enjoy. If I do decide to get a job, I hope it will be with the US Geologic Survey here in town. If I go to grad school, I will let you know what I do when I think of something.

Tris is still working for Harley two hours west of here, so we are still doing the weekday long distance thing. Although saying goodbye on Monday morning will never be easy, the weeks slip by quickly and we are reunited faster than five days actually feels like. She and I just flew to northern Minnesota and picked up a truck that her Dad and Mom gave to us, sort of a long time loaner. We drove it back last weekend. I sure do love being on the road with her. Before she got the truck, she was still riding her motorcycle back and forth, even when the temp was below zero. Talk about being on edge until she arrived at work! Having the truck will ease a bit of anxiety for both of us. She has been applying for jobs in this area and I just know one will come up that will suit her perfectly.

The boys, oh my sweet babies, are growing up so quickly. A1 started the 9th grade in August. He likes to remind me that he will be driving sooner than not. He is loving his art class and hating jazz band. Although, I think he really does love it. He has a real passion for drawing anime. He's looking forward to learning French next year, in addition to Spanish. He is also rocking at the saxophone.

A2 moved from Waldorf school this year into an arts school, the same one as A1. He is playing the trumpet and looking good while doing it. He likes skinny jeans, alright, loves skinny jeans. I would love for him to rock a cardigan or two, but baby steps, Mommy, right? He is looking forward to taking choir, tap dance, and African dance next year, along with the rest of his classes. He is no longer the shy boy who hid behind his hair in the second grade. Ms. Jessalyn Hall would be so proud of the boy he has become.

K-Man is in the third grade at the local Waldorf school. This year, he started the shelters block that has him doing a five paragraph writing assignment, mostly working on it at home. He is terrified of missing the due date. All Christmas break he stressed about having to work on it. He's be chugging along ever since. His project is a gypsy wagon. Not only does he have to write about it, but he has to build a small replica of one. He's been painting and planning and building. I will post pictures when he completes it. It's been hard for me to let him do it on his own. Those times he feels overwhelmed and stressed, I just want to hold him and tell him what to write or how to build, but that won't teach him independence. So I help, but not as much as my heart is screaming for me to.

That's the quick wrap up. I will try and post some sort of status weekly, at least. Next week, Sunday to be exact, Tris and I are starting the Whole Living magazine 21 day detox diet. I'll have to change a few things to accommodate our vegan lifestyle, but it should be amazing. I'll post a few of my favorite recipes. Happy new year, ya'll! Say no to Facebook in 2013!

Twenty Babies

I am so fucking mad right now. I am shaking so hard I can hardly type. Twenty babies were killed today. Who are you blaming? The government for not having tighter gun control laws? The state for not helping its mentally ill citizens? One of the victims who was a "strict" mother?!?! When you point a finger, three are pointed back at you.

When will we all understand that we are doing this to ourselves? Some madman isn't just coming in a killing our children.

We are! WE! ARE!

Every fucking time we turn on that television, video game, or ipod touch to have some "me time" we are destroying a part of our childs' brain. Every time we don't feel like cooking and pick up fast food, we are destroying our childs' brain.

Do you let your child (CHILD!!!) play Black Ops? Halo? Your child? Your. Baby. Do you let them watch violence on TV in movies? Read it in books? Then not talk to them about it? We are doing this. To our own children.

On the rise: Cancer. Murder. Obesity. ADD. ADHD. Autism. Bi-polar disorder. Rape. Substance Abuse. VIOLENCE.

Take a stand for your children. Take a stand for yourselves.

We don't know what GMO's do to our bodies. Research barely knows.

We don't know much about what TV and video games do to our brains. Read some research not paid for by the Ad Council or Nielsen Ratings people. (The link is just one of many on the subject. This one is by Mary G. Burke, M.D., published in the Brown University Child and Adolescent Behavior Letter.)
       
"While watching VEM (visual electronic media), children are often left alone, and tend not to turn to their parent when scared. With more and more time spent in front of the screen, children have less opportunities to experience "inter-subjectivity." We have to be concerned that this loss impairs our children's empathy and capacity to form social relationships." Mary G. Burke, M.D. (The bold face was added by me.)

We don't know what all that junk food does to their developing brains. READ! Learn! We are responsible for this. I am responsible for this.

I am not a perfect parent. I yelled at the boys today. I fed them pizza. I will never be perfect, but I do not ever want to pick my CHILD up from school in a body bag and I don't want you to either.

We are responsible for this. We are responsible for letting our priorities be Snooky, Apple, Nike, NBA, NFL, Halo, Black Ops, McDonalds, Kraft, Coca-Cola, LaBron James, Lindsey Lohan, glorification of the Hunger Games, vampires.

Our real priorities are feeding our children food WE grow so WE KNOW! what it is grown in. Playing games with them. Gardening with them. Throwing snowballs with them. Going to their plays, concerts, poetry readings. Not fucking pulverizing their brains and deafening their ears with television. Not desensitizing their emotions violent video games and movies. Not medicating because it's the quickest way to get kids through the doctors office to keep HMO's happy.

Forty plus parents. Eighty plus grandparents. Countless brothers and sisters. And TWENTY babies. All suffering or dead. Families will be torn apart. The children left may be orphaned by proxy.

When will you take a stand and say NO MORE!?!?!?

With Fall

Fall at Lake Mary. I didn't take this picture, but you bet your bottom I will be out photographing this year. 

Here it comes; the inevitable change of the seasons. Fall is making it's way to Flagstaff and my brain is slowing down and I am looking inward. Watching the yellowing aspens twinkle in the sunlight, my thoughts are no longer on vacations and outings, but on my home and my family.

I feel like I received a great lesson in gardening in this climate and, next year, I should be able to harvest enough food to preserve, not just eat right away. I was able to preserve just a bit of basil from the farmers market, which will be mighty handy in the coming months. I am also freezing some hatched green peppers today to use when our winter needs a bit of warmth.

A few weeks ago, Tris, the boys and I collected about two cords of firewood and will be getting two more cords in the coming weeks. It was an amazing day that taught me how well our family works together. We were rewarded the next day with a movie treat. The family that works together, plays together. That's for sure.

Last weekend, we drove from our abode in Flagstaff, Arizona to Grand Rapids, Minnesota. More lessons on the road, for sure, but again we pulled together as a family and made the trip fun and somewhat leisurely. We went to Minnesota because Tris sister, my sister, Cassie, married her best friend, Clay. It was an amazing ceremony and one that Tris and I had dreamed up for ourselves. The perfect wedding, if you ask me. The love on the grounds of that camp must have been felt for miles away because my heart is still singing with it. Being with Tris's family can change a life. Being part of it is a blessing beyond measure.

I am looking forward to rosy cheeks, wet boots, knitting warm mittens and socks, wearing sweaters, sledding, snowball fights, splitting wood, collecting the fall harvest, learning to build cold frames, reading by the fire, hot chocolate, tea, warm soups, advancing my crockpot cooking skills, baking pumpkin pies from scratch, anything pumpkin really, and having friends visit.

Here are some recent pics:

After our wood collecting. Family is the best thing ever.

My loves and our one day haul...well part of it, nicely stacked and ready for splitting. 

Warm woolys I finally finished for Tris's birthday. Here's to more!