My heart aches for the people of the Gulf Coast whose lives have been radically altered by Hurricane Katrina. However, as I read news stories about the event, one statement in many different articles keeps catching my eye. People who stayed to live out the hurricane say that the hurricane passed, things seemed like they would be all right, but then the levees broke and the worst devastation came.

The worst devastation came not from nature, not from the storm, but from man's interference with the natural order of things, from our desire to make homes and cities in places that they have no business being. We have the scientific knowledge to do things like cloning, but the moral implications are tremendous. We have the knowledge of how to make areas best suited for low-density living accommodate large urban and suburban communities, but we need to consider the not only the environmental but also the moral implications. Is it right to invest millions or billions of dollars of construction, infrastructure and consumer goods in an area that is routinely devastated by nature? If the areas didn't have a false sense of security from the leevees, would there be the large cities and urban environments that suffer greater devastation from the environment (devastation in the loss of life as well as loss of property and infrastructure that will need to be rebuilt)?

Part of me feels cruel for voicing these thoughts. I do not blame these people for their suffering. I do believe that the army corp of engineers felt it was doing good with the levee system and the work they did over the last century restucturing the Mississippi River (that is a subject that fascinates and horrifies me). However what are the long term ramifications? Is it right for us to attempt to control our environment to a minute degree, then be surprised and horrified when nature throws off these shackles?

I've finally clarified my thoughts on having a fourth child. I want another child. I do feel that there is another member of our family that should be here. I do not want another baby. I have no desire to be pregnant again, give birth again, breastfeed for another 3 years, change diapers for another 2 years. I'm enjoying being at a different stage of life, one where we can drop all the kids of with grandparents for all afternoon while Luis and I go off by ourselves, one where I can work on the computer or sew for an hour without having to supervise a toddler closely, one where I know that I'm on the tail end of my breastfeeding career.

Unfortunately, you can't get a child without a baby unless you adopt, which is something we've never felt called to do and is something I doubt we'd do.

So, even though I've clarified my thoughts, and after discussing it depth with Luis found out he feels similarly, we are no closer to deciding if we should try for number 4 than we were last spring.

Over the last few years, Luis and I have been changing the way we eat. It started with gardening. Eating vegetables or tomatoes picked fresh in the garden that day is such a delicious way to live. Then Luis saw "The Meatrix" and was finally ready to purchase natural beef rather than support factory farming. We purchased some laying chickens for fresh eggs daily. In the last year, our push has been to eat more local foods and more seasonal foods. Fruits and vegetables purchased from a farm stand or picked ourselves at local U-Pick places put the taste of store bought foods to shame. We will not purchase strawberries, watermelon or peaches from a supermarket anymore. As part of our push to eat local and support small businesses, we decided to stop eating at fast food and chain restuarants. Part of this decision had to do with our other eating changes as well. Once you develop a taste for fresh foods, fast food and chain restuaurant foods don't taste nearly as good as they used to. We'd end up feeling sick to our stomachs and generally ugh if we ate fast food, regardless of which brand. This summer, we decided to raise a flock of meat chickens. I've missed the flavor of chicken, but have a hard time spending $2+ a lb for naturally and humanely rasied stuff. They are growing right now, and we will be butchering them in fall.

It's been a series of small changes, but what a difference each has made, both in the way we live and the way we enjoy our food. Not eating fast food and selecting small businesses to support instead means we travel differently. We enjoy more of each town we visit, meet people and learn more about the community than we would if we just picked up some fast food burgers. We travel at a different pace; even if we are just passing through a town, we are forced to drive through it to find that little diner or restuarant, thereby seeing more of the town and learning more about it. It makes our trips feel more relaxed; we take longer for lunch and enjoy it more. Such a small change makes such a big difference. We are more apt to stop in at a farmer's market for quick snack on a Saturday morning. We are more likely to try regional specialties. Our relationship with our food has changed too. We value each steak, roast and hamburger more when we know the farmer who raised the cow we eat. We savor the flavor of the tomatoes, broccoli and spinach more when we know how much work we did growing, harvesting and storing it.

Life is better when we can slow down, taking the time to appreciate and savor every flavor that comes our way. Supporting the independent business and regional differences, taking time to see more than just the highway, connecting with our foods and communities, these are Good Things.

So I heard on NPR today that studies have shown that Echinacea does not work to prevent colds. They interviewed some doctors about these studies and all the doctors were saying how some people will still take Echinacea because they have given themselves the mental illusion of Echinacea working. The medical professionals were extremely condescending. Before I will believe three scientific studies over centuries of folk wisdom, I want to know what form of Echinacea the subjects were given and a few more details about the studies. Excuse me for not ditching my herbals in favor of allopathic meds just because a scientific study says I should.

Abigail has been at my ILs since Sunday. We were in there for dinner and I asked her if she'd like to spend the night. She did and asked MIL, who of course was thrilled. Luis and I told her if she wanted to spend a second night, she could. She called yesterday and asked to spend a second night. They went to the zoo and out to eat yesterday, and I'm sure she has been having a great time. Luis is picking her up after work today. I told her last night that if she wanted to spend a third night, just let me know, but she didn't.

We have a set of stores in southwestern WI called Bargin Nook. They are a charity store, but the interesting thing about them is that Lands' End donates their unsellable stuff there. Things that have been returned, maybe things that have small tears or monograms. Old catalog lines or items from the outlets that haven't sold. Things like that. I stopped by the closest one yesterday looking for a winter coat for Isabella and some backpacks. The big LE warehouse sale is this week, and these were the main things the kids needed. I figured if I could get them at the Bargin Nook 20 minutes away, I wouldn't have to drive an hour to the warehouse sale. I found Isabella a Squall Parka, a backpack for each girl, a shirt for Abigail and a pair of water shoes for Vincent. Every thing was LE; everything was in perfect condition. The grand total? $29. Woohoo! I adore bargins like that. The kids still need some snow pants, but I'm not driving all the way to Dodgeville just for these.

BTW, I have no idea why there is this huge blank gap under my last post lately. I haven't changed my template or anything. It's really strange and bugging the beejeeebees out of me.

It was a hot one here today. The temps were in the upper 90s easily. We spent the day at the lake of a nearby state park with friends. It was a glorious day to be at the lake. The wind is always zippy up there, and the water felt wonderful. We played for hours, and Abigial discovered the joy of being tossed up into the air by the papas, then splashing down into the water. Unfortunately I wasn't as vigilant with the sunscreen as I thought I was, and I'm paying the price. My back is rosy and my shoulders are a bit sensitive. I did better on the kids thankfully; Vincent is fine and Abigail and Isabella only have rosy cheeks.

I'm still plugging away on the stole for my sister. There are about 6 weeks until the wedding, and I have about 125 rows to go. If I do about 8 rows a day, I can have it done in less than 3 weeks. Lace is not very fun, nor is knitting alpaca in the heat of summer. I wish I'd been more diligent last spring!

I just finished a very interesting book. It was called Braving Home, and it is about people whose homes are in tenous or unusual places, but who like it there and have no desire to leave. It was fascinating and many parts of it resonated deeply with me.

Just rambling on a rainy Saturday morning...

I'm starting to think people around here are overly dependent on air conditioning. As a child, we had a window air conditioner. It went on only a few times a summer, mostly on those 95+ degree humid days. It was turned on in the late afternoon and ran until the cool of the night set in during the wee hours of the morning. Most of my friends' families were similar. We do not have air in our home. It is very old with radiator heat, and central air would be impossible. We do have two window air conditioners, one of which we have never installed and the other of which we haven't used in three years. I close the blinds on the east side of the house in the morning, on the west in the afternoon. I open windows to catch the cross breeze, and leave them open at night to welcome the cool air. If it's really hot (over 90 and humid), we'll open the laundry shoot (about 1' square) and blow cool air up from the basement to the second story. We all cope with it just fine, yet we know many people who turn on their air the instant it is 80-85 degrees out, and simply cannot handle the idea of living without their air. We don't live in an apartment or in areas that are over 95 for weeks. Our nights cool down nicely. None of us has a health condition that would make handling heat hard and I'm not pregnant (the reason the window air conditioner went in 3 years ago). There really isn't a huge need for most people around here to have their air on for much of the summer. However, many spend their day in climate controlled officed and buildings. Their bodies are not given the chance to adjust to the heat gradually as the days warm up. I think this simple fact is the reason so many people cannot imagine life without air conditioning anymore. 85 degrees is absolutely gorgeous for most of us who are able to let our bodies adjust naturally to the seasons, but may bring complaints from people I know who live in air conditioning. It's too bad that so many people are missing out on the seasons like this.

The same thing can be said for heat in the winter. We keep ours at 60-61 degrees, and many people think we are nuts.

I fell off the weight loss wagon about 5 weeks ago, but the good news is I was still maintaining my weight. It stayed the same over 5 weeks, which I feel is a pretty good accomplishment. I've started getting serious again this week. I've dropped 1.75 lbs this week, bringing my total weight loss so far to 28 lbs. I've still got another 11 I want to lose at this point. It's amazing how well the classic "eat less, exercise more" regime actually works!

I've decided to work on weaning myself from emoticons. I was listening to something on NPR the other day (actually, it may have been WPR now that I think about it) which helped me make this decision. Someone was talking about how writers through the centuries managed to portrary emotions, thoughts, feelings and tone without resorting to little clusters of characters with special meaning. Too true. So instead of hammering home my emotions with emoticons, I decided I should start trying to simply be more expressive in my writing.

Now if only I could learn proper use of commas. I had a language arts teacher in 7th grade who instructed us to put commas "anywhere you would naturally pause while speaking". That has forever messed up my punctuation usage.

I'm hosting my sister's bridal shower today. The flowers are arranged, most of the food is done, the games are ready. I hope it will be a fun day. It will be at my aunt's house an hour away since most of the guests live up there. I'm going without the kids, and I'll be getting there early to set up and staying late to help her clean up. I figure with driving, set up, clean up and the party itself, I'll be gone about 7-8 hours. We'll see if Luis appreciates my day more after this day is through. After a day like this he always appreciates the work I do around the house much more for a while.

Vincent qualifies for speech therapy through the county. Unfortunately, due to scheduling issues on the part of the therapist and coordinator, the review of his evaluation with me won't be for two weeks, and therapy can't start until then. He'll only get about 2 months from this before he turns three, but hopefully that will be enough. We don't know if we want to go through the school district once he's over three.

Abigail and Isabella are doing great with their swimming lessons. Isabella is still scared, but she's overcoming it and trying some new things. We went camping over the weekend, and the campground had a pool. I couldn't get over the change in their abilities in just on week of daily lessons.

It's summer solstice today, longest day of the year. We'll have a little family celebration tonight. The girls love this sabbat. We have them jump a candle instead of jumping a larger fire, and they think that is great fun. Some friends are having a celebration and bonfire on Thursday, so we'll be getting two celebrations this year.

We took out Vincent's stitches yesterday. The finger tip is healing up pretty well, but he is definately going to have a scare. I also think that he will end up losing his fingernail. It's getting really ugly looking.

I was browsing at my neighbor's garage sale yesterday and saw some size 8 shorts. I was feeling like my 10s were a bit big in the waist, and curious, I tried to pull on a pair of size 8s. They FIT, even wearing them over my khaki capris. 8 was my goal size, but since I still have another 12-13 lbs I'd like to lose, I could easily end up in a 6! I even bought a two piece swimming suit on Monday. Granted the bottom is a skirtini, but the top is a true bikini top, not the more modest tankini. My upper abs are looking good, if I do say so myself. Those darn lower abs, not so much. I think it's due to the c-section with Abigail, and I doubt they will ever really firm up.

This summer school and swimming lessons every day thing is kicking my butt. The transportation sucks, and while it's cool to see the girls progressing in their swimming already after just 3 days, 1-2 pm lessons are totally screwing up Vincent's sleeping. Abigail also wanted to take the bus home. The first day, I called after the bus was 25 minutes late demanding to know where she was. They found out the buses hadn't left the school yet, and it would be another 20-30 minutes. I had them pull her off and picked her up myself. The second day, I didn't even bother with the bus, but we decided to try it again yesterday. The buses left the school 20 minutes late, and then when she was dropped off, it was 2 blocks away from where the letter said her stop was. I was waiting at the prescribed stop, and Abigail walked herself home, crossing a moderately busy street to do so. Luckily I had my phone with me and a friend was at our house, calling me when Abigial showed up by herself. I was livid and called the school district in fury. Apparently the bus company changed the stop and was supposed to call everyone to let them know. We were never called, and I know that for sure because I check every single missed call via caller id for my business. I left a scathing message for the bus company yesterday too, and they had better call me back this morning. I haven't decided what we are doing about bussing today. Sigh. She really enjoyed the bus and is excited about it, but with only 50 minutes for lunch, changing and getting to the swimming lessons if her bus is on time, I don't know if I can keep on taking the chances of it being so late.

A speech therapist is coming to evalute Vincent today. He's been improving, but not as much as I'd hoped. We are going through our county's birth to 3 programs, so this would only a few months of therapy if it's warranted, and it's home-based, play-based so I can see what they are doing and continue myself. We can stop at any time if we we decided we didn't want to do the therapy afterall.

This one is a cyber-pbbbbtttt to everyone in my life who claims that eating a diet of whole food doesn't really matter, or that there is no harm in feeding the kids junk for a day or two. I'm seriously considering making copies of the article to give to some of these people.

From On Wisconsin, the UW-Madison Alumni magazine:

In 1998, Wisconsin's Appleton Central Alternative High School was dealing with worrisome discipline problems in the classroom. Students were caught with drugs and weapons. They were hostile to each other and to their teachers, and their behavior was out of control.

Did the school turn to a psychologist, a consultant, or an educational specialist? No - they contacted Paul Stitt MS '69, the owner of Natural Ovens Bakery.

"When the Appleton school system came to us and said could you help us, we said we'd love to," Stitt says. "And we said, 'Certainly, we know how to correct the situation. Throw out all the vending machines with all the high-sugar, high-fat foods; throw out the pop machines loaded with sugar; put in water coolers; and start educating the kids about what they need to do to be good to their bodies'."

Stit and his spouse, Barbara, underwrote a program that allowed the school to start serving a menu emphasizing fresh fruits and vegetables, whole-grain products, entrees free of chemicals and additives, and energy drinks.

The results were dramatic. Truancy rates took a nose dive. Grades shot up. Vandalism and littering went down. The alternative school went five years with no expulsions, no dropouts, no drugs on campus, no weapons and no suicides. It was the only school in Appleton with a perfect record during that period.

Although the food costs were higher, the school saved money because it no longer had to pay for a full-time police officer, and with better discipline, it was able to increase class size from eight to fifteen students.

And this:

The Appleton program was originally inspired by Barbara Stitt's work as a probation officer. She realized that a lot of her probationers were junk food junkies who lived on soda, caffeine, and sugar, and not much else. When she showed them how to follow a healthy diet, those who stayed on it were amazed at how different they felt, and their improved attitudes and behaviors helped them stay out of jail.

And this:

One technique that Stitt says was especially effective with the Appleton students was an agreement that if the kids would eat healthy for a month, then they would get a junk food day. But after one day of eating all the snacks, desserts and soda they wanted, he says "they were so shocked and dismayed at their awful behaviour and the terrible way they felt that some of the teenagers actually begged us never to require another junk food day. They couldn't believe that they could go from feeling so good to just becoming an animal. No one ever imagined that a simple thing like vitamins and minerals and so forth could make such a huge difference. They thought it was a lack of religion or training or home life or something else."

Mary Bruyette, and English teacher at the school, concurs. "Students told me how awful they felt after the junk food day, and they said they never wanted to feel that way again."

A year ago, my aunt's long time boyfriend died suddenly at the age of 55. It was a shock, to say the least. Today, there was a memorial golf outing and picnic fundraiser for the American Diabetes Association in his memory. We were gone all day, as Luis did the golf outing. It was a very nice day, except for our emergency. The picnic was at the AmericanLegion hall and park. Vincent and Luis were playing on the turret gun (as all American Legions and VFWs have in their parks) when Vincent's finger was smashed in a part that still opened. The pressure was so intense that it blew out the bottom of his finger. It was really deep and wide, and even Luis felt it would need stitches. (When it comes to illnesses and fevers, I'm the voice of reason and treatment; injuries are his specialty and he treats almost all of the kids injuries.) We rushed him to urgent care, and he ended up with 5 stitches in his finger tip, x-rays to make sure the tip of the bone wasn't crushed and a huge bandage. He was great during the waiting, screamed and cried during the injection and suturing, and then happy the rest of the evening. Luis feels just awful, but it was an accident.

Summer is here. Lazy, crazy days of summer. Daisy and Brownie Scouts, homeschool gym, homeschool art, science club and soccer are all over for now. Time to relax, except for the fact the softball starts next week along with summer school. Abigail asked to take some summer school classes this year. They are really cool little short courses. She is taking Spanish, Art Around the World and Fit Kids (gym games). Plus swimming lessons are offered too, so both girls are taking those. You can't beat the price. Abigail's taking 3 classes in one session and both girls have 2 sessions of swimming lesson; the total cost was $15. Unfortunately I was thinking the sessions were 2 weeks long. I was willing to work around 3 hours of classes every day for 2 weeks and swimming lessons every day for 4 weeks. Unfortunately, they are 3 weeks long, and I didn't realize it until too late. So they have swimming lessons every day for SIX weeks. Ugh. I don't do so well with long term commitments that happen every single day. I'm really not looking forward to this, but at least they will be a lot more comfortable in the water by the end of this. That will be very good for when we go to Mexico in the fall.

The garden is loving the hot weather we are having here lately. I've harvested a ton of spinach and salad greens already. Much of the broccoli (we have 40 plants so far) is getting ready for the first harvest, and I'll need to start the second group of seedlings very soon. My carrots had a really low germination rate so far this year, unfortunately, but the squash and pumpkin vines are growing nicely. I'm trying to grow two of the squash (one summer and a small winter one) vertically this year. It would save so much garden space if this is successful. I normally don't grow much squash because I don't want to give up that much garden for those long vines, but it's something we really like to eat. I'm also trying potatoes for the first time this year. They look beautiful. I need to hill them up some more this week. My pear trees are fully leafed out now, and the cherries that are on my little cherry tree are starting to get a little blush at the bottom.

Abigail has been asking to color her hair a wild color for months now, probably since last fall. We told her repeatedly that she could do it in summer. Today, we picked up a box of temporary plum hair coloring, and she and Isabella now have adorable pink-purple hair. It should wash out in 8-10 shampoos, but they are hoping that it lasts a long, long time.

Okay, the real reason we picked up the hair coloring is I have been wanting to put purple streaks in my hair for a year now, but kept putting off buying the box because it's so not how other people see me and I didn't want to freak out some of the people I know around town, plus I was having a hard time visualizing what it would look like. Since the girls wanted to do this too, it seemed like a perfect time to indulge my desire without looking too totally freaky. I absolutely love it, and definately will be doing this again. To heck with other people's opinions, this is fun.

I've been struggling with the decision of whether or not I want a fourth child again. On the one hand, I'm really enjoying the freedom that comes with the children getting older. I like not having a child in diapers, being able to run out alone or drop the kids off at a friends for a little while if I need to do something. Parenting the way I believe infants deserve is very draining. I'm not sure I have it in me to deal with the intensity of the first year again, as much as I enjoyed it. I don't know if I want to take on another toddlerhood, or to change the dynamic of our family again. Part of me is also a little nervous about labor again; the last birth was so intense that I don't know how I'll handle it again if it's like that.

On the other hand, it is wonderful to bring a new person into the world, to nourish and care for them, to guide them, love them and watch them grow and learn. I've said for years that I want four kids, do I really feel complete now? I think I could stop now and be comfortable with that decision, but there would always be a little kernel of doubt and regret in the back of my mind. Each age is so wonderful, from those little newborn days with the soft skin and long fingers, to the toddler exploration age, to the preschool learning sponge stage and the elementary growing up stage. It would be fun to watch one last child go through these stages.

Luis really wants one more, but even he admits that he isn't the one who handles most of the parenting. Is it fair to him to stop now, when he wants one more? Is it fair to me to have another when I'm not sure? Will I ever be sure if we stop at three? I know four is my limit, and if we have four, there won't be discussion of five. I just can't see either of us doing that.

I'm conflicted, to say the least. However, I'm starting to lean more towards having a fourth. Six months ago, I was no where near as conflicted as I am now. Six months ago, I was definately not ready, but now? Maybe.

Maybe.

We spent the weekend at our friends' cabin with them. We get up there once a year, hopefully more often this year. It is such a peaceful and beautiful spot. I took time each morning to walk alone along the road. It's off the beaten path, a gravel road in Amish country. As I walk along, I can see the hoof prints of horses and the lines of the carriage tires. I hear no traffic, just the sounds of pheasant, turkey, bluejays, even a hawk screaming. Today I heard the gentle clip-clop of a horse-drawn buggy in the distance. It is such a peaceful start to the day. We can't wait to get back up there again, though hopefully it will be warmer! It was a cold, wet weekend, and we were thankful for the woodstove in the cabin. There is no heater, just the woodstove, which made everything cozy. Luis and I found morel mushrooms in the woods for the first time this year. We had never tried them before.

We also stopped at a large Amish nursery just up the road. I had been looking for a dwarf cherry tree this year. I bought two dwarf pear trees, but the nursery we normally by from was out of the Northstar cherry trees I wanted. Low and behold, I found them at the Yoder's greenhouses. They were so healthy and beautiful, I was just thrilled. They were even just the right height to slide into the van and make it back to the cabin, then home, without spilling dirt all over. I now have my Northstar dwarf cherry planted in the backyard. :) After giving up on it for this year, I'm very happy. I have to remember the Yoder's for next year. They were so personable and caring about their plants, making sure to tell me how to prune the tree and advising my friend about her blueberry selections. Places like that are a joy to buy from.

I had a weight goal I wanted to have met by today. I wanted to have lost 24 lbs from Feb 14 until today, about 13 weeks. I lost 22.5. I'm slightly bummed that I didn't make it, but considering that my size 10 pants are getting looser and I know that I'm adding even more muscle with my additional workout at the YMCA, I'm not too upset. I've lost a lot of weight. Now my next goal is to lose another 16.5 lbs between now and Aug 1, which would bring me back to the weight I was around the time we got married and into the healthy weight range for my height. We haven't decided yet about baby number 4. I'm kind of thinking of trying in July, which would of course alter this goal. However, I'd still be at a much healthier weight for pregnancy that I was any of the other three times.

I have to frog the Jig sweater I was slowly working on. I've realized that with my weight loss, it will be too big. I'm not willing to waste the yarn making something that won't even fit. The Jaegar Aqua was a serious investment for me. The Evening in Eden stole is coming along nicely. It will be for my sister to wear after her wedding on the beach this fall. The evening will probably be cool, and with her strapless gown she'll need something on her shoulders. It is so elegant and cozy in the cream alpaca. I want to make one for myself; I really like the lace pattern. I'm thrilled that she picked out something that looks so pretty while being so easy to create, at least as far as lace goes.

Isabella started soccer tonight. She was so excited, but a bit nervous when she was actually there. It helped that our neighbor's son is in the program too, and they ended up on the same team. She's a Bobcat. ;D She gave it her all, in her own way. She didn't want to steal the ball from the other kids (perhaps all those conversation about waiting your turn and not taking things from other kids have sunk in finally?), but really enjoyed kicking when the ball happened to come her way. She has 5 more game nights, and she can't wait. She really enjoyed herself.

Speaking of Isabella, I've been working with her on reading. Abigail did great with the Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons method (though we only did about 50 of the lessons). Isabella, not so much. I think she'll be more of a sight words reader. She can remember most of the sounds we've worked on, but anticipates the ending of words when she reads them and has difficulty with the process of blending sounds together when sounding something out. She'll says the sounds S, A, T, but when putting them together, she might say "Sam" instead of "Sat". It can be really frustrating, for both of us. I got the first set of Bob Books from the library to try with her, and I may have to buy them. We have the level 2 ones already, but with Abigail I never bought the level 1 books. Isabella sat down with me and read the first book almost right away. The book format instead of just a list of words to read really helped her confidence and concentration. The repetition of the words is great for someone like her who reads more by the word then by the sounds. We worked on the sounds C and D yesterday, and she read the second book yesterday, though the word Sad was a source of frustration as she kept wanting to say Sat.

It's tricky though because she is very smart with a pretty good memory. After only a couple of times through the first book, I think she is just reading it from memory, cued by the pictures. Today I had her touch under the words she was reading, just to make sure she was actually reading instead of just reciting the story. It did alter her cadence, so I think she has been just reciting some of the last few times she read that book to me.

It's trash days again this weekend. Two weekends a year, one for each half of town, residents can put out pretty much anything for trash and have it taken away. There are no quantity limits, and people only need to buy stickers for stuff like tires. We love these weekends. Curbside shopping at it's finest! Last weekend was time for our half of town, and we got so much out of the house. Some of it truly was trash, but we neatly put out (rather on display) all sorts of things that we might have saved for a garage sale if we'd chosen to do that this year, things that didn't go on freecycle or were just too small and random to freecycle (though having successfully freecycled an open bottle of Newman's Own salad dressing, minus one salad's worth of dressing, I can say that many small and random things will easily go on freecycle, LOL). Almost everything was gone by the time the trash trucks came around on Tuesday morning, picked up by other trash shoppers.

In exchange for our stuff, Luis came home with the following: a boatload of perfectly good large flower pots, some never used, which I wanted for the front porch; a running lawn mower; a large wooden clothes drying rack for the basement; a working computer with a better processor than ours; a trailer(!) for his atv; metal tiki torches; trays and pots for starting seeds indoors; and some smaller stuff. These weekends are the ultimate in finding your treasure in your neighbor's trash.

Our freecycle group has just branched off with a barter and exchange group as well. I hope it takes off. We love to barter, and there are some things I have really been wanting to barter for.

I've had extra weight hanging around for quite a while now. Okay, since Abigail was born. It was never enough to get me motivated to do anything about it. I put on another 10 lbs last fall and winter and that was it. I started working out and watching my portion size, caloric intake and fat calories in February. I've lost 19 lbs so far. Woohoo! I have another 20 I want to lose. I have been doing Nordic Track for 45-50 minutes a day (30 in the a.m., 15-20 in the p.m.) and a Pilates intermediate workout in addition to my normal walking everywhere, gardening, etc. To be honest, I'm really enjoying the exercise and the stength I'm feeling in my stomach muscles. I've never had a strong abdomen, so this is really cool. I was wearing a size 12 (honestly though, they were tight), and now I can easily fit into size 10. The one pair of skinny size 12 pants I didn't wear all winter because they looked awful one me? I can now pull them off without unbuttoning them!

We joined the Y this weekend, something for all of us. The kids can do their programs at a *much* lower cost if we are members. Around here, the Y is the only real place for soccer, gymnastics, swimming lessons year 'round, etc. They also offer homeschool swimming and a homeschool gymnastics during the day time, instead of having everything in the evening hours. Abigail has mentioned many times that she'd like to take gymnastics, and Isabella would really like to try soccer in the fall. I'm excited about their fitness center. It's newly remodeled and pretty nice for a town this size. The Precore (sp?) machine is too fun. I've been doing 35 minutes on that the last few days and enjoying it a lot. I have also been trying to figure out exercises for my triceps (getting those saggy mom arms, ugh), so the tricep machine is too cool. Luis is thrilled to have a place to swim laps all year, and he really likes to do free weights. So, even though it's $50 a month, we'll definately get our money out it.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7184763/

I knew that there were some families like this, but I had no idea it was considered the norm these days. Reading about these people's lives was horrifying for me. I cannot imagine a world where my children's lives are that scheduled, a world where my family interacts so little with each other, a world without free time for imagination, play, long walks and conversation. There are times when I feel my kids are doing too much. For us, that means art once a week, play group twice a month, science club once a week, homeschool gym once a week (fall and spring), girl scouts once or twice a month (depending on girl). We eat dinner as a family every night, even when it means eating at 4:50 to make a 5:30 girl scout meeting. It's maybe once a month that we don't eat together. The kids have hours outside every day in spring, summer and fall, time to just be kids, to play hopscotch, ride bike, play superheros and run back and forth with the neighbors' kids. I didn't think my reality was that different. The two next door neighbors are also at home moms. The kids run around together, and we all keep eye out. It's not unusual for my kids to play next door for a few hours, then her kids come over here or go on a walk with us. They all have time to just be.

We were at the library the other night, wasting an hour while Abigail was at her Brownies meeting. I was talking with the children's librarian about various things. She's probably in her 50's, a really neat woman and fun to talk with. I told her some story about Vincent and the goofy things he does; she asked me to keep on telling her these stories because they give her hope. She said that she's noticed kids don't have as much imagination these days, that they play differently and interact with the world differently than they did in years past. If the lives of the families portrayed in this article are even remotely like the norm, then it's no wonder children are out of touch with play, imagination and family interaction. I hope this article was sensationalist, that the children studied in LA are not the norm for the US. I hope that most of the kids out there have large sections of each day to just be kids, without orchestrated activities, TV, video games or electronic media.

Now that I'm not tired, I can explain the last post more coherently. It was a cohesive thought until blogger ate half of it.

We live in an extremely Chrisitian community. There are about 30 various Chrisitian churches in this town of 10K, incuding a fair number of them fundamentalist or conservative Christians. The Christian culture is very strong here, almost overwhelming. The court house on the square downtown plays music year round; in December that music is Christmas carols, not just secular ones, but also religious ones. There was a huge upset a few years ago because someone complained about the fact that a monument to the ten commandments was in a public park. The city sponsors an Easter Egg hunt. This is a very Christian town.

Compounding this is the fact that the homeschooling community here is dominated by conservative Christians. I'm talking about the kind of Christians who feel that Catholics and Lutherans aren't real Christians (not just my impression, but that of some Catholics and Lutherans I know too). We have our core group of homeschooling friends, but we cautiously guard our religious beliefs from others in this community. We were asked to stop attending a dance class when I simply let it be known that we were not Christian. We left our 4-H group because it was overtly Christian. Abigail came back from a Girl Scout Thinking Day activity having learned "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands". When Isabella joined Daisy Scouts, I checked with the leader if they did any religious content, and was told "well, this is a Christian organization". NO, according to Girl Scouts International IT IS NOT.

So, while members of the conservative Christian community may claim they are under attack, that their values and beliefs are being banished from our society, from the perspective of someone outside of the mainstream, I can say it's not true. The Christian culture is everywhere in our society, from the obsessive coverage of the Pope issues (would it be covered so much if it where the Dali Lama or a Muslim leader?) down to the way that store clerks assume they should wish me a Happy Easter and people think I'm happy to hear "I'm praying for you" (when I haven't asked them to) or have them tell me "Jesus Bless You".

Honestly, I wouldn't even mind these biases so much if there even the slightest bit of fair trade on this. If the media covered other religions as obsessively as Christianity. If conservative Christians could accept that other people have a right to believe in other religions. If the courthouse here played traditional Jewish songs around Passover, Islamic ones for Ramadan, etc. If people who felt it was okay to share their religion with me wouldn't judge my family for being Pagan, wouldn't ostracisize us due to their unknown biases.

I always listen to NPR while exercising. Tonight the show was about the judiciary and whether it's under attack from the Judeo-Christian religious right and Congress, or would activist judges simply being properly treated through an impeachment process. One thing really struck me. One person advocating judicial impeachments kept referring to "people of faith". He kept saying that the "people of faith" were fine until activist judges started removing prayer from the schools, the Judeo-Christian Ten Commandments from courthouses, making abortion accessible, saying s od om y is legal and allowing gay marriage. I find this use of the term "people of faith" used to describe those who oppose these court decisions to be unbelievably conceited and insulting. I am a person who has a great deal of religious faith. I am not, however, someone who believes in the Judeo-Christian god. I want prayer out of the schools and the Ten Commandments off of public property. I believe that gays should marry and the goverment has no business creating laws regarding the s ex life of consenting adults. Don't use the term "people of faith" unless you mean to include people of ALL religious faiths.

While I am on this topic, the Pledge of Allegiance annoys me to no end. Specifically, the inclusion of the words "under God" is irritating to me. These words were added in the '50s during the Cold War as a way of seperating the US from the "Godless Communists". First, I see it as state-sponsorship of religion. Second, if the US wants to acknowledge a higher power, who gets to pick which one? Why must it be "God" rather than the name of another diety such as "Buddha", "Allah", "Goddess" or whatever? Why isn't it just "One nation, under {insert diety name here if desired}, indivisible with liberty and justice..."? So many children are forced to say this in public schools, and that just makes me sick. Sure, it's called voluntary, but how many kindergarteners are going to tell their teacher that they don't want to recite this because their family doesn't believe in God? How many seventh graders are willing to withstand peer pressure and the idea of being perceived as different because they don't want to say the Pledge or the word God? It's voluntary%


ARGH. This post was a lot longer, but somehow part disappeared in publishing. I'm too tired to recompose it. Surfice to say there was more ranting about the Pledge as well as complaints about people claiming this is a Christian nation founded by Christians, and I gave this link.

After months of introspection, I am ready to talk again. Winter is for hibernation for many species, and I tend to hibernate mentally over the winter months. Spring is well sprung, and I am ready to emerge from a winter's sleep.

The garden is well planted already this early spring. I made a serious attempt to start my own seedlings inside this year, and it has paid off. I transplanted the broccoli outside last week, and all survived. I even have 6 extra plants to share with my neighbor. The tomatoes are growing well downstairs, along with peppers, eggplants, lavender and basil, all awaiting warmer early summer weather. In the garden outside, I have so far planted my carrots, lettuce, spinach (180 plants, OMGosh!), radishes, beets, peas and potatoes in addition to the broccoli. I've gotten serious about my gardening this year and making the most of our limited space. Successive crop growing is a must for us, and the spinach and radishes will be done just in time to clear out that bed and plant the sweet corn. I'm growing both bush peas (progress no. 9) and trellis ones (sugar snap) this year to compare yield and decide which type to continue with in future years. This is the first year for potatoes, so my expectations are very low. It seem to take a few years for me to get the hang of new veggies. I have big goals for the garden this year, and a second chest freezer to fill up with produce for the rest of the year. I really hope to grow enough broccoli, spinach, carrots, beans, beets, tomatoes and grapes (for jelly and juice) to put away enough to last us most of a year.

The dwarf fruit trees are going in this year too. I'm definately getting two for pie cherries, and then either two apple or two pear. Maybe both apple and pear. I haven't decided that yet, but need to in the next month.

We are doing pretty well otherwise. Abigail is 7 now, a reading fiend, music nut and goofy girl. Isabella is 5, with a gap in her smile now that she has lost two teeth. She's still an interesting one to parent, a combination of spunk and caution, outgoing and introvert. She's so totally me, oh bother. Vincent is two and a half. He is totally Luis as a child, which is unbelieveably frustrating sometimes. He's so smart and stubborn, a good problem solver, and totally impish. We've been debating speech therapy for him, as he is definately delayed in his expressive speech, but undecided at this point. His speech is improving, and he has gained a larger number of new words in the last few weeks. He's really improved in the last month, and we are thinking he's probably just a "late talker", rather than in need of actual therapy.

So, I'm back and hopefully will be posting here much more regualarly again.