Simplicity in food

My good friend Jackie introduced me to a book called Simplicity Parenting. I have been reading it slowly and soaking in some wonderful ideas that really make sense to me at this moment in my life. The chapter I am currently reading is dealing with the importance of regular rhythms for kids. Regular schedules and activities become anchors for kids who have so much going on in their lives. I think this is even true for me – I like routines and rhythms in my life.

One area I want to inject good rhythm into is food. The author suggests having a regular menu plan according to the days of the week (i.e. Tuesday is rice day, Wednesday is soup day, etc.). I LOVE this idea. Since the end of last year, I’ve been attempting to plan out the week’s dinners ahead of time to avoid the dreaded standing in front of the fridge thinking, “WHAT can we EAT!?” Coming up with meals on the fly was stressing me out, and also leading to some food waste. Having a plan has been super-freeing! So I’m excited to simplify even further by having a category for each day. Hopefully it builds in a good and predictable rhythm for our family.

An app called Zenbe stores my grocery list, which I update as I plan the week's menu.

I’m thinking something like this (examples in parentheses):

• Monday: soup/stew (chicken soup, beef barley soup, chili)
• Tuesday: vegetarian night (bean and cheese burritos, quesadillas, falafels)
• Wednesday: rice+ (roast chicken, stir fry, chicken a la king, ma po tofu)
• Thursday: leftovers and sandwiches
• Friday: rice+
• Saturday: pasta (chicken and sun-dried tomatoes, pesto)
• Sunday: Meal with our house church

I think I’ll do it for awhile and see how it goes. Perhaps if it works well, I will menu plan lunch as well (currently I scrounge around). The author brings up that if you have a regular rhythm, it also makes breaking out of rhythms really exciting.  ”I know tonight is soup night, but we’re going out for dinner!”

The Green Triangle

Hanging out during my workday break at m’s co-op preschool, I started chatting with one of the wonderful teachers. We talked a little about simple living, and she suggested a book to me called Living Simply With Children, written by Marie Sherlock. I can definitely relate to the ideas of this book.

One of the ideas that really struck me was in Chapter 14, when the author explains Ernest Callenbach’s Green Triangle theory.

“In Callenbach’s model, the points of the triangle are Health, Environment, and Money, and his hypothesis is that what benefits one of these three typically benefits the other two. A good example is riding your bicycle more. Good for your health (exercise), good for your pocketbook (savings on gas, parking, maintenance), and good for the earth (less pollution, less resource depletion). 

Those of us who embrace simple living believe that Callenbach’s Green Triangle can easily metamorphose into a square, a pentagon, even a hexagon and beyond.”  – p. 225

I LOVE this idea. A couple years ago I remember marveling at how God’s world order works. It seems that when we live as God wants us to, we please God, we are happier, and those around us are happier. A win-win-win. It seems so freeing – that we can look at ways to bless the earth, bless those around us, please God, and that it can end up leaving us happier/more fulfilled. I’m looking for these kinds of green shapes in my life. A few from recent times:

• Making my kids some clothes out of our old worn out clothing – I love the creative process, the kids get “new” clothing, less trash is sent to the landfill, money is saved

I wore my white Gap long-sleeved t-shirt for years and years until it was out of shape and sad. I made this toddler shirt for m, and even kept the old label.

• Starting a worm bin – the worms get food, our kitchen scraps are taken care of, little m likes observing the process, we get a wonderfully rich organic matter to add to our garden, we get better vegetables growing, two of our plastic bins have fresh new purpose
  

  Worms!! The bin was set up by J - it holds food scraps and torn newspaper.

• Using cloth instead of disposable paper products – (cloth diapers, wipes, napkins, hankies, and even female sanitary products) – soft, durable, lint-free (I mean, who wants bits of tissue left anywhere?) and I’ve heard that cloth diapers can live a wonderful second life as cleaning rags

Our pile of hankies - 9"x11" rectangles of soft knit, cut from previously-loved t-shirts. When m has a runny nose she yells, "I need a HANKY!"

Okay, so some of the things listed sound totally disgusting. But once you get past some of that yuck, you can really do so  much. So freeing and fun!

Making hand soap from bar soap

These past few years I have been especially interested in learning how to do things myself. Part of that is wanting to live a more green life (I am going for a deep forest green, if possible), and part of it is for the love of the making. I am amazed at how easy it is to access do-it-yourself information in this day and age. Weeks ago I was scrolling through my Google Reader and came across this blog post on making liquid hand soap. So inspiring! I ordered some glycerin on amazon.

Yesterday J picked up the last piece of our soap-making project – a beautiful bar of Mrs. Meyers soap. YES! During our nightly ritual of watching Star Trek (currently  we are on Voyager, Season 5), J and I sat and took turns grating the entire bar of soap.

We simmered the shavings along with some glycerin and a gallon of water.

That was it. We left it to cool overnight, and when we found it in the morning, it was a bit chunky on the top. After just a little tiny bit of water and a nice blending with the immersion blender, we proudly filled our one gallon jug with our new hand soap.

Super-doable, fun, cheaper than buying refills, and will create less plastic garbage. A win-win-win-win.  Definitely doing this again.  Try it and let me know how it goes for you!

On the eve of my little boy’s first birthday…

Our family has been going through so many transitions lately. Little m started preschool, and today just got her first haircut. And the little o has been eating up a storm, and was holding onto a little chair and walking today (he looked like a little old grandpa with a walker). I’m just amazed at how fast they are growing up. I feel like I blinked and then they were grown. The days can be so crazy and exhausting sometimes, but the years sure are flying by.

Kicking it old school!

Lately I have been wanting more and more to know how to do things.  Since becoming a stay at home mom, I have gotten interested in growing my own food, sewing clothing for my kids, and baking bread from scratch.  Really, I think it’s how I am wired – I get lots of satisfaction from making things.

All of this has been amplified in my mind since reading the Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder.  I blazed through them (apparently they are geared towards kids ages 4-8) and grew more and more amazed at what Pa and Ma could do on their own!  Anyone hunt wild game and then preserve it for the year?  Build a log cabin and attach the door without nails?  Harvest and dry out some straw, then soak it, braid it and make straw hats?  Sew clothes without a machine?  I like to knit, but Almanzo’s family washed and sheared the sheep, carded and spun the wool and then began to knit socks!  WHAT!?  Seriously, I was shocked. They just knew how to do things.

I really do love living in this day and age.  Modern plumbing, grocery stores, sewing machines, etc.  But sometimes there is something soulful about the work, about the process itself.  My grandfather figured out how to build a house on his own.  My dad always says that you learn things by doing.  I’m in.

My mom is a crafter!

One of my mom’s special skills is making things out of cardboard.  I remember how she told us to go take naps, and then spent hours with a razor blade and a huge cardboard box carving us a wonderful play house.  I love it.

Last week, I asked her to make m a little play stove out of cardboard.  She definitely outdid herself.  Cardboard + contact paper + soy milk lids.  Wow.

Seriously?  Wow.  When I looked shocked, my mom said, “What were you expecting?”  Ummm…clearly something not nearly as awesome.  I should have known.  Yay mom!

Turned a corner!

The O is now almost four months.  SWEET!  Some time ago, he turned a corner – started sleeping through the night more often, is generally happy to be awake and lying around, started taking these incredible naps.  PHEW!  So while we still have rough days, we have emerged from the fog and are finding our rhythm.

At times, (like this very moment), I have some space.  It has been great getting back into a bit of crafting.  Recently, I found this post on how to fuse plastic grocery bags together to make a waterproof material.  Here’s my first sewing project using the fused plastic:

I put diapering stuff in it and slip it into my backpack.  I love how people post tutorials to help others learn.  Let me know if you try any fused plastic projects.

Living above my grandma

Little m with her mom, her mom's mom, and her mom's mom's mom. 5/2008

After graduating from college, I moved to San Francisco with two dear friends. At the time, I was working towards my teaching credential at SF State. Since then I have lived in this same place, above my grandma. I appreciate living near her more and more. It was really exciting for all of us when little m was born in 2008. Then, my Pau-Pau also became a Tai-Pau.

Now, she lets me store my big, impossible-to-lug-up-the-stairs-with-two-kids double stroller in her flat. On non-rainy days, we will tromp down the front stairs, and let ourselves in. I call out, “Tai-pau?” And m copies me, “Tai-pau?” She will greet us with a big smile. We announce that we have come for the stroller. Sometimes she will sit and hold the O while I act as a spotter for the m as she climbs into her side of the stroller. (She is a big girl, and her favorite phrase as of late is, “No, I do it!”) Tai-pau will tell O, “Good boy” and smile at him, and he will do his best to coo at her and let her know he loves her, too. I strap the boy in, and then Tai-pau will say, “See you later” to which m replies, “Bye-bye!”

I once went down to get some milk from my grandma without m. When I came back upstairs, m was very upset with me, and demanded I take her to see Tai-Pau. So we went back down, and I explained what happened. My grandma was clearly pleased. Awhile back she offered m a banana when we came to visit. The next time we went down, m said, “I want a banana!” Now she gets one almost every time we visit.

Newborn O with two of his Bok-Bok and his Tai-Pau. 9/2010

Little m also loves visiting with her Bok-Bok and Bok-Gung, my other grandparents.  Bok-Bok (my grandma) always brings her little treats – breadsticks, crackers, and once a pair of beaded slippers (which she calls her shiny shoes).  A year ago at the family Thanksgiving meal, when m was a slower walker, she found her Bok-Bok’s golden-colored slippers and put them on.  She proceeded to carefully walk around in them, making the whole family crack up!

When I remember, I am thankful. I realize it is unique for my kids to grow up around three of their great grandparents, all four of their grandparents, lots of grand-aunties and grand-uncles (gruncles? New word?), aunties, uncles, cousins, and friends. Feeling rich with relationships this season.

Mom of two

So I joined the mom of two club a little over two months ago.  It has been crazy, as evidenced by my not posting in awhile.  All my hobbies have come to a halt.  The ample free time I used to enjoy during m’s three-hour nap is basically gone. Also, I had forgotten how many diapers a newborn goes through, and how much care they require.  Wow.

However, it is such a blessing having O.  He recently started smiling at me.  He is growing like a champ.  And I especially love that my kids are siblings, that they have each other in the world, and are so related to one another!  Awesome!

A couple things about being a mom of two:

1.  Strangers like to congratulate me for having one boy and one girl and say that now I can stop having kids.

2.  The kids often appear to be conspiring against me.  “Okay, you cry at two in the morning.  Then when you are calm, I will wait till they lie down a minute, then I will cry.”

3.  We cannot pick anyone up in our car.  The car seats fill the backseat.

4.  You can love the second one just as much as you love the first.  It was hard for me to imagine when I was pregnant with the O.

5.  My main goal is to get both kids to sleep at the same time.

 

Also, I am so thankful that m has adjusted to her new little brother.  Initially it was really hard on her to have him around.  She was a lot quieter and just looked sad.  And I missed her a lot.  She had been my sidekick for almost two and a half years.  We went everywhere together, just us.  I felt so badly the first few days after coming home from the hospital that I even took her out to the park and was running around and sliding down the slides with her (not a great idea after giving birth).  I’m so glad to see her back to her old rambunctious happy self.  My new life feels like craziness, but I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

Must…finish…projects!

It is now the beginning of September.  We are expecting our second kiddo at the end of September.  It’s shocking to me how quickly the time has gone.  I’m excited and nervous and all sorts of other emotions.

But anyway, one thing I’ve been doing is trying to finish various projects before the baby comes.  I’ve also made a list for J…poor guy.  My list is more fun stuff – sewing, knitting, drawing.

Recently I felt inspired to make a dress for m out of J’s old shirt.  I was very pleased with the result.

I also repurposed some comfortable worn out t-shirts into little newborn shirts for the new baby.

I forgot how tiny m was when she was born.  She’s so sturdy and wild now, it’s hard to remember what it was like when I held this 5 lb newborn in my arms.  Making the newborn shirts brought me back to that moment, and made me excited to meet my second little one.