It's been a good long year, Baby T

This was an unusual week of sickness, though this time it was the baby and not me. Spent most of the week holding a sick (as of tomorrow!) one-year-old, and it looks like we may have another night of interrupted sleep as he tries to breathe through his congestion. There's nothing like a sick baby to make you put aside everything that is not absolutely vital to health and living. Having other children does make that tricky since I can't really focus all my time and attention on holding the sick one, but they were mostly patient with me/him.

In other news... in no particular order:

I came up with this genius plan to only check blogs twice a week. My thought was that if I only had two "sessions" a week I would see how much time I was really spending reading and writing blogs. But then I found myself planted in a chair for days and so I read here and there. And I posted here and there. And it's not nearly as fun to comment on someone else's daily happenings a week late. I don't have the luxury of big blocks of time to do any one thing...if I quit doing everything that happened in 3-minute increments the only thing left would be sleep (and not even that some nights). So I guess I need to come up with a better plan for downsizing time spent on the computer. Any ideas?

We spent the weekend at my inlaw's house (which is a little over an hour away) and enjoyed grandparent time, good meals, and some R&R. I worked on stamping projects and Christmas cards for hours- a real treat. I didn't cook at all while we were there and I slept in with Baby T while the grandparents watched the older two kids and WH went on an early-morning deer hunt. (No deer were even seen.)

We switched to an all-cash budgeting plan. I made these to celebrate. Although I think I may make these as a more permanent solution. Both make it seem really fun to have cash in my bag! Even carrying around an empty wallet that looks this good is better than carrying around... hmmm. Well, we're doing the cash thing and we have these cute money holders, so that's that.

Reading Michael Pollan's In Defense of Food. I hadn't rushed to read it because (not to sound cocky) but I knew I agreed with the premise and we have already made a lot of food changes around here. However, it's fascinating. I read half of it last night and if the baby keeps me up tonight, I may finish it by morning. I really needed another book to get me fired up about food. You might not want to talk to me for a few days unless you want to hear all kinds of mindless food history facts. It would be more fun for you to just read the book yourself.

I'm off to bed. Hope you had a great weekend! I'll leave you with these pictures of the birthday boy. I would say that I can't believe he's already one, but it's been a good, full year and we've loved having him in our family.

Why we want to farm

As usual, she says it better than anyone...she has a way of bringing me to tears, and this was no exception.

In Defense of Food, Land & Our Children

Another one bites the dust

We've whittled our way down to milk and tea (and coffee for the adults, of course) as the main beverages around here, but I still buy orange juice and let the kids have about 4 oz. a day. It's not much, but it seemed like a small morning ritual I didn't want to take away from them.

Until I noticed that my "from concentrate" juice came from many other countries. My goal: the juice needs to come from my same continent. Not real high standards here. I started buying "Not from concentrate" juice that was only from Florida oranges...still a far cry from the juice my dad used to squeeze from our three orange trees out back. I repent in dust an ashes for not appreciating that more, Dad. Pulp and all.

So, thinking that this was the better choice, I was willing to fork over the money for the pricier juice. We're not going through it very quickly anyway. And then, I had to go and read this:


Just reading the interview and the process of how juice is stored in massive tanks, stripped of everything, and then flavor packets of essential essence and oils are added back in- makes me want to swear off the stuff for life. And this is the process used for "not from concentrate" or "fresh" juice. It's SO HARD to find real food these days!

As a native Floridian, I found all the history behind orange juice- it's production, processing, and how it became a world-wide custom to drink juice for breakfast (only in the last 50 years, btw)- fascinating. I know, I'm a dork. But maybe you are, too.