Happy Monday

Those aren't words that usually come out of my mouth, but .. there they are. Yesterday I posted a 'bitch & blog', venting off some things that needed venting. You know what they say about women, if we don't bitch we'd blow up! The venting worked and I feel much better today. But I didn't want to leave the blog with a negative topper. So ...

Here are some things I'm happy about this morning:

*I was able to up my morning sit-ups by 5 per rep. ~ Not a huge achievement I know, but a small step. More importantly, an attainable step .. since I've obviously gotten there! I love this quote and it is something I repeat to myself when my goals don't seem lofty enough: The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step ~ Lao Tzu. ~ It may not be lofty, but it is a start. It is putting one foot in front of the other and slowly getting there.

*Speaking of steps and journeys, the kids and I are planning on walking to our playdate at Longwood Park today. ~ This is something that once was very easy for me to do, many years ago. Then, after the boys were born, the walk seemed many, many miles long, uphill both ways, and etc. It became very daunting. I haven't walked there in too many years. Oddly enough, now that we're stroller free & will be toting along any needed items in a backpack, now it seems do-able. Hopefully it will become a very regular walk for us. But, as with the one above, we'll start with one step. Sometimes Tristan sleeps late, not giving us enough time to walk, and sometimes there are errands that also need to be run. So, we'll see. It's a start though, and I'm happy about that.

*All the work we got done this weekend ~ This weekend was a wonderfully productive one. Lots of scraping, sanding, plastering, and painting inside. A new compost bin built outside (we have two now; one for filling the other for emptying), lined with chicken wire to keep nosy dogs' paws out. We cleaned out the chicken coop. We emptied out our pond and cleaned it. Hopefully this evening we will be getting a new filter for the pond. Sometimes you just have to start over. I also got several loads of laundry done and was able to hang the majority of it outside to dry. Is there anything so wonderful as laundry drying on the line?

*Family ~ I have a great husband and two fantastic kids. We also are blessed to have some truly wonderful family members in our lives. Thinking back to the 'bitch & blog' from yesterday, it is heart warming to know that my family still loves me. I can send my kids into fits of hysterical laughter simply by dancing around the kitchen, shaking my butt (actually, I am a dinosaur swinging my big tail from side to side), and making silly noises. There is a moment when you try to make your friends laugh via similar antics only to get looked at like you're a freak & you realize just how cool your kids are, how wonderful their sense of humor is. (And maybe that your butt is big, but at least they can laugh when you swing it around)

*Mother Nature ~ Suddenly, as I typed those words, that commercial where Mother Nature appears with your monthly gift popped into my head. That wasn't where I was going with this. There are so many days when I can feel overcome with self-pity. Where I sob on and on about everything that is going wrong and I don't feel taken care of. And, then, I am happy for Mother Nature. Spring that brings buds, blossoms and flowers to cheer us; birds singing, chickens laying more eggs. Summer with food growing everywhere, bringing to mind Porgy & Bess and how the livin' is easy. Fall's crisp air, a reprieve from Summer's heat. Winter's cold that forces us to take time to heal on the inside and huddle near loved ones. - I know some people would call this God's work. Call it whatever you'd like, we call it Mother Nature. But by any name, it is truly divine.

*You ~ You who take a few minutes out of your day to read this blog. I am grateful for you. Your comments and kind words mean so much to me. Even if we haven't met in any way other than online, you are so, so dear to me. You help make my day a little bit brighter. Thank you.

And, there you have it. Some things I am happy for this morning. There are many more things I could list (Jeff Bridge's acceptance speech last night for example), but I'll leave the list as it is. Thank you.

Green & Grateful

Not really certain where to begin on this one. We had a truly wonderful Christmas, meager but full of the things that truly matter. One fun thing was trying to find ways to make Christmas a little greener. We made sure our Christmas tree was grown on a local farm. When the kids went to see Santa it was at, as usual, our local library during Ye Olde Salem Christmas. Instead of using gift bags this year we bought cloth sacks from http://www.reusablebags.com/ & filled them with goodies. Gifts for pretty much everyone were homemade this year: sourdough bread (with a touch of organic 7 grain cereal & agave nectar), chocolate fudge (organic cocoa!), hot fudge sauce (more organic cocoa), herbal soap (made with herbs from our garden), and vanilla infused sugar (using both organic sugar & vanilla beans). Although I spent most of the 23rd and all of the 24th baking loaf after loaf of bread until I didn't know whether I was coming or going, it was worth it. We also used LED lights on our tree again this year, as well as the star atop it. We have some LED icicle lights for the front of our house, but not enough to cover the entire front. Since we were short on $$ we didn't buy extra lights, and just lit a strand of lights around the door and some candles in the window. We've been blessed with hand-me-down rolls of wrapping paper (some, quite literally, easily 40 years old), so we wrapped gifts with that. After all the festivities were done I spent quite a while neatly folding up tissue paper and gift bags we got for future use. We now have a gift bag FULL of tissue paper, just from this Christmas Day alone! WOW!!! Since we are now running low on gift wrap one goal for next year will be to find wrapping paper made from post-consumer materials.Even though it was a small Christmas this year, it truly was wonderful. The gifts we got and gave each other meant more. Seeing the boys learn what we believe and why we celebrate Christmas, telling them the history of it all, and seeing them believe in the magic of it all was ... well, words can't accurately describe.We did have a surprise while out today. We had hoped to find something to help with a storage issue at a local consignment shop. We weren't so lucky ~ the one item we had our eye on was already sold. We left feeling a little blue, but going over the things that are truly important to us. We decided to stop by a local hoity-toity home furnishing store to put things in perspective. It did. Things were ridiculously over-priced, and it made us feel reassured in our decisions. But, as we were walking around we spotted some bunk beds, something we want to get the boys in the future. I was checking out one set, getting ready to snort at the price tag. I turned it over, and snort I did. It was regularly priced at $750 but was marked down to $168!! We called the clerk to verify the price, he said there was no way it could be possible and called someone else. They looked it all over and still couldn't believe it to be true and called the head honcho on duty. She looked it over and said "yup, it's a blow-out!" We decided to take advantage of the opportunity and buy it. When we were checking out I actually almost asked who to make the check out to and I had to double check the date. I was completely in a daze. We had been on our way to a beer tasting when we stopped in the store to kill some time, and as we drove there I was still in a daze. All through the tasting I felt weak, as if I might just topple over. This feeling didn't go away for nearly an hour!! I rarely buy new things, not like that anyway. Sometimes you have to be grateful for the things that you can find when you're just trying to kill time and re-adjust your perspective on life. True, it isn't made of sustainably harvested wood or by local craftsmen, but it is something I will feel proud to have my children sleep on none-the-less.

Why I'm Grateful

Thanksgiving was wonderful here. We were blessed with a large bird, fresh from a local farm. We were blessed to have both family and a new friend over for dinner, which went very well with a wonderful selection of mouth-watering dishes. Shannon greeted people with "Come in, would you like to see our dead turkey?" He then kept telling people how you kill a turkey by chopping it's head off. - We are honest with them about where their food comes from and how it becomes food. He's never seen an animal killed, though he's seen us process a chicken. Sometimes though, when he talks about it all, it can come out sounding a little "questionable" - he is still only 4 after all, and being a 4 year old will repeat the strangest of things, for the strangest of reasons, at the strangest of times.
For Friday we began a new tradition of making mac & cheese, using some raw milk cheddar and some organic muenster. On Saturday we cheered the Hokies to victory over UVA (our rivals) and on to the ACC Championship game while eating bowls of freshly made white turkey chili. The kids also enjoyed chowing down on left-over turkey as we were trying to put it all up.
It truly has been a wonderful weekend. Justin watched the boys and let me catch up on some much needed sleep. It's been calm and quiet, but at the same time loud and fun. Football of course is what brings on the loud part.
Tonight we all went outside after dinner and looked up at the moon. Wonders of the cosmos are a special delight to share with people, and so it was especially delightful to share it as a family. The moon, Jupiter, and Venus were all in alignment. http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/12/081201-jupiter-venus.html
Next weekend will be the Christmas Parade for Salem, which we will be taking the boys to. My mom and step-father usually attend with us, along with Justin's brother and sometimes our neighbors stand nearby. The boys love Christmas (what kid doesn't?), and are delighted by the lights beginning to pop up. We don't start decorating for Christmas until on or after December 1st. We believe in honoring Thanksgiving. So, today I put up a few things, much to the boys' delight.
These are the things of my delight: Shannon calling reindeer "snow-deer" because they come out in the snow, not rain (today I was able to convince him they're really reindeer); Tristan seeing a commercial for the classic 'Rudolph the Rednose Reindeer' and thinking Santa has a lot of "goats" (trying to raise them rurally while in city does have interesting "side-effects"); the eager squeals of excitement when the boys see Christmas lights and decorations (or any for any holiday for that matter); and the zen-moments that occur when you're filled to the brim with happiness and contentment.

Getting over Ourselves

At first I felt the need to post a blog of apology for the negative context of my last two postings. It really isn't my normal style, though at times I feel a good "Soul-Screaming-Crying-Out-to-the-Cosmos" (and not the flowers!) is what is needed. But being negative only brings about more negativity, and that isn't good.
Yes, I feel like my neighbors need to get over themselves and their outrage that we choose to garden, have chickens, grow tall flowers, and not spray toxic weed-killer everywhere. But, I need to get over my indignity at them for their hiring a complete lawn-care team who attacks a barely 1/2 acre lot with 4 grown men and many loud obnoxious machines. That's their right, just as we have our rights. And most importantly should be the fact that we have the right to disagree without being disagreeable.
So, I'm left feeling the need to express some gratitude. Here are things I'm grateful for, in no particular order:
1) My wonderful kids who keep me on my toes at all times, but who already know about composting (who thought I would utter the phrase "NO, you CAN'T compost your cereal for the chickens, you need to eat it!!"), and who burst into tears if they find out the miss a trip to take the recycling.
2) My husband who allows me to be home with the kids, the dogs, the guinea pigs, the chickens, the fish, and who does a good job of keeping me grounded. If it weren't for him I would've already tried to concoct a complete rainwater harvesting system without giving it the true time and thought it desperately needs to make it work.
3) My chickens. The ones who we've bred for meat and who have provided us with a beyond-healthy meal that truly spoke to my soul. The ones who are beginning to lay eggs and delight us each day with a trip to the tractor. With our two new Ameraucanas who will lay blue and green eggs for us in the next month or so.
4) To Joel Salatin and Nina Planck for being sources of inspiration and information. For being the light in dark times, the encouragement needed to continue on when all odds seem against us. They don't know how much them mean to me, and they should.
5) To the folks who work with the City and who have to deal with small-minded complaints from sweet VL (and other neighbors?) who really ought to live somewhere where there is a nice, strict Homeowner's Association.
6) To Debby & Larry Bright who we get our pasture-raised, big "O" word meat from, who have been an endless source of patience and understanding. They helped us know how to fill out a butcher form and they've shown we're more than just a check to them, they're here for us in tough times.
7) To my family and friends who don't always understand me and our reasons, but who are willing to listen and maybe learn, and if not, at least politely humor me.
8) To my acupuncturist at Dancing Crane in Salem who has given me a life almost completely free of migraines. Who was the first to truly listen to my body and treat me according to that. To his wonderful father who always brings a smile to my face.
9) To the so many other wonderful bloggers online (Jenna Woginrich from Cold Antler Farm, the Dervaes Family in Pasadena) who inspire me to do more and try more.
10) To the wonderful vendors at the Salem Farmer's Market whose ranks I can't wait to join, and whose patience I always appreciate when I inquire about their growing methods. These are truly wonderful people.

I could continue this list, and in many ways I ought to. Life is wonderful. It is through hard times and hard lessons that we learn the true merit of a person. It is ok to get down in the dumps from time to time, but it is the ability to pick ourselves back up by the bootstraps, to take stock and look around and realize how blessed we truly are that matters most.
To quote Monty Python "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life" .....
Thank you all who help me remember that! I don't normally sign my blogs here, but truly, with complete understanding of the meaning of the term:
Namaste,
Carrie
(aka - Mama Taney)