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I think it’s commonly assumed that “going green” will cost more — in cleaning products, wooden toys, organic foods, bio-diesel for the car and alternative energy electric bills! I’ve even been told that to stay on a budget, I should skip organic produce for awhile. (Maybe I’m just being picky, but I just don’t have a keen interest in chemical laced foods…)

Well, there are a few ways to go green without dishing out the extra dough for specialty “green” products and services, including:

• cleaning the house the old fashioned way (hydrogen peroxide, vinegar, baking soda, borax, etc - with cleaning towels and an regular ol’ mop),
• using cloth napkins instead of paper towels,
• buying natural, wooden toys used (or on extreme sale)
• joining an organic farm co-op or grow some of them yourself
• use a car-sharing program, mass transit, carpool, or walk and bike when possible.

I shared last week how tight our budget has been and how my grocery bill tends to be a little higher than I’d like. Well a sweet friend brought my attention to these local workshops regarding living a sustainable life on a budget! This lady has managed to feed a family of 4 on only $65 a week and has eliminated her trip to the grocery store all together, which is really quite impressive when you add that she does so while feeding them all organic, natural, sustainable foods. I hope to take the introductory class with some girlfriends and begin to reduce my grocery bill. If I could manage to spend only $60 a week, it would be a savings of $150 a month, which could go towards debt/savings/health care. I also can’t wait to learn more about canning, since our yard last year was literally SQUISHY with cherries, figs and apples while we wondered what to do with it all! If I get to one of these workshops, I’ll definitely report back with any great tips I learn.

In the meantime, we have been a lot more cautious of where our money is going, particularly if we are out as a family for the day. For example, we normally go to lunch of some sort on Sundays after church, and often this bill is anywhere between $15-30 bucks! This week we went to Cha Cha Cha’s and split a huge grilled veggie burrito, and chips and salsa, and waters between the three of us, for a grand total bill of $5.50, and it was plenty to hold us over until we got home for snacks later in the afternoon. (I wonder just how much that annoyed our waiter, lol!).

And I’m out of creamer for my coffee as of yesterday, but instead of going out to get creamer, I’m just switching to tea for awhile, lol. Baby steps, baby steps…

Today is Mother’s Day- woot!
I still can’t believe sometimes that I am a mom. I was putting Lil’ E’s sneakers by the door the other day while he was at the nanny’s so I could get some work in, and I had to do a double-take. Little miniature sneakers? Which belong to my son? Weird…

Yesterday I got to rent a Zipcar and bop around for some errands, which was really nice. It’s great to know the work of hauling bags of groceries on your sore shoulders, but sometimes the luxury of a vehicle is like getting a facial or something. Which I really wouldn’t know because I have never had a facial. I’ve never even had my eyebrows waxed. Amazing, I know. Just can’t justify the cost of stuff like that.

Ironically, what I CAN justify the cost of is truffles. Glorious little black mushrooms that rock my world. I finally got a 1/10th of an ounce sized truffle for $3 at the Farmer’s Market yesterday. Truffled sea salt on your popcorn- better than sex. (Okay, slight - only SLIGHT- exaggeration there.)

So what are my grand Mother’s Day plans? Well, you guessed it! Work! But first, I will point out that Hubby got up with the kiddo today, made me coffee and eggs with tandori naan (delicious bread!). He’s taking him out to the toy store today so I can work (so I might garden a little first, it is Mother’s Day after all!). Later tonight, Misty and I plan to have a light salad dinner with a bottle of Trout Trilogy 2004 Cab, a “splurge” on a $10 wine for Mother’s Day!

Hope all you other hard workin’ mamas (so if you are a female and have kids, that’s you) have a superb day!

Pescatarianism (more on Wikipedia and Pescatarian Life) is similar to Vegetarianism in that the meat of land animals (beef, pork, chicken, etc) are avoided, whereas a Pescatarian will allow for the consumption of seafood, and maybe eggs, dairy and honey as well. Perhaps more similar to Pescatarianism is the Mediterranean Diet. In the article, the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition explains the following typical Mediterranean eating habits:

The diet is characterized by abundant plant foods (fruit, vegetables, breads, other forms of cereals, potatoes, beans, nuts, and seeds), fresh fruit as the typical daily dessert, olive oil as the principal source of fat, dairy products (principally cheese and yogurt), and fish and poultry consumed in low to moderate amounts, zero to four eggs consumed weekly, red meat consumed in low amounts, and wine consumed in low to moderate amounts, normally with meals.

Growing up in southern Florida, our meals fairly frequently consisted of a very similar food pyramid, one that was low in processed foods and sugary carbs, while high in fresh fruits and vegetables and fresh-caught fish (thanks to my dad, fisherman of the Gulf!) I’m sure most of us have heard about the numerous health benefits provided by healthy fats (omega’s and other essential fatty oils) found in things like olive oil and high in certain seafoods. From brain development to heart health, studies of those in the Mediterranean have shown amazing health records when compared to the typical American diet.

I have one grandmother suffering from serious heart problems, another suffering from both Alzheimers and, just found out this week, terminal colon cancer. My grandfather has struggled with high cholesterol and heart problems as well. Hubby’s grandpa battles Diabetes. Sure, we kinda assume that such things come with the inevitable advancement of our lifespan on Earth. But what seriously gets to me is the quality of life so many are living, when studies show that changes in diet and exercise early on can play a vital role in your health for years to come.

Now, please note: I’m not a band-wagon kinda girl (at least, I like to think I’m not!). I don’t usually pick one specific, rigid way of believing something and then stake my whole-hearted little flag on it. I think life demands a little more flexibility than that. That is, a life involving relating to other odd human creatures. But I have really been giving veganism/vegetarianism and the various versions thereof some intentional consideration, and at this point have “decided” that the above mentioned food lifestyle is a smart choice for me. Why?

Fish/seafood significantly lowers risks to a variety of known illnesses, particularly cardiovascular disease. Olive oil, nuts, whole grains, and a little wine each day also prove beneficial to your health and well-being (fatty oils which lower the BAD cholesterol, flavanoids containing antioxidants, etc etc). While I did wonder about including seafood in with an Ovo-Lacto Vegetarian diet, I found that, for me, the benefits far outweigh the threat of toxins such as mercury and PCB. In this interesting article, Charles Santerre, a “foods and nutrition associate professor who specializes in chemical contaminants in food” explained what the proper intake of various seafood is:

The safest seafoods are farmed and wild salmon, along with oysters, shrimp, farm-raised channel catfish, farm-raised rainbow trout, flounder, perch, tialpia, clams, scallops and red swamp crayfish. These have the lowest level of mercury and can be eaten more than once a week. Canned tuna, crab, cod, mahi-mahi, haddock, whitefish, herring and spiny lobster have slightly higher levels of mercury and should be eaten no more than one meal per week.

Some seafood should be limited to just one meal a month: tuna steaks, red snapper, orange roughy, pollack, halibut, northern lobster, marlin, moonfish, saltwater bass, wild trout, bluefish, grouper, croaker and sablefish.

In another article, I find yet another reason my Lil’ E is such a smart young whipper-snapper:

For infants and young children, the authors found that omega-3 fatty acids from seafood likely improve early brain development; children could obtain that benefit from pregnant or nursing mothers who consumed fish.

In addition to the health reasons, there are, of course, environmental/ethical ones. I’ve written before about the “cost” that the livestock industry has on the environment, and this 12-year-old girl wrote an informative, concise article about it in the Vegetarian Times!

So, there it is, not the entire exhaustive concordance to the way-Vivian-operates-with-food, but a basic bloggy style explanation of my big, definitive “decision”.

Okay, I debated a little about sharing the following story with you all, I really did. In the end, I have to just get it off my chest.

So after leaving my purse on the Trimet bus last Friday, I found myself goofing up again not two days later on the MAX light rail. Hubby, Lil’ E and I were on our way home from William’s birthday party on Sunday when it happened.

Lil’ E had begun to snooze on my lap, and I wasn’t far behind. Sure enough, another passenger thinks I look like the ideal Chatty Cathy to strike up a conversation with. With all the politeness I could muster, I responded to the man’s questions.

“Oh, he is two and a half”, I replied with a weary smile.

“Oh, that’s a lovely picture of your daughter,” I went on.

The passenger had a heavy set build, a business casual outfit and a OHSU badge (Oregon hospital), along with a bike helmet. That’s about as much as I can remember. He went on to tell me the heights of EVERY MAN in his daughter’s family tree because I was dumb enough to comment that she looks older than 8 in her school photo. Enough, I was thinking, how can I back out of this conversation. Why can’t I be like Hubby and be fine with just completely ignoring people!?

“Wow”, I continued to remark, gradually getting more and more obvious (I THOUGHT!) that I wanted to do just about anything but talk at the moment.

And then it happened.

“That’s crazy”, I said, with a complete lack of enthusiasm. Then I heard myself say, “And how tall is her mother?”

…

First, Hubby jerks his head sideways at me in horror.

Second, the marathon conversationalist takes on a whole new tone.

“Excuse me?!

-I’m a girl!”

…

OHMYGOD. Oh.my.gggaaaaawwwddddd.

It doesn’t even stop there. Had I retained any brain cells, I might have covered up my faux paux with something like, “Oh, sorry, I meant to say her father… heh heh… whew, it’s been a long day!”

But no. No, that’s not what I said.

“Oh, I’m sorry… I — I couldn’t tell…. your…er… hat…er”

(I still contest that there was not one defining feminine trait to this character. NOT ONE!)

I felt like I was melting. I wanted to get off at the next stop and wait for the next train, but I was frozen in my seat.

The man woman ended up shrugging it off and continued to go on and on about his her tall daughter, which only made the whole thing more awkward. I was like three feet off the bus already when he she was still calling out to me the name of the preschool his her daughter attended. I MEAN - HOLY CRAP!

I have no idea how I could have avoided this run in with the anonymously gendered passenger, but sometimes I need to keep MY BIG FAT MOUTH SHUT and let the weirdos talk to themselves.

EDIT: Thanks to the folks at www.trimetiquette.com for agreeing on just how embarrassing that was.

Today started out as a pretty great day:

After pulling a late night of work, I slept in a bit on the couch while Lil’ E ate breakfast and watched Sesame Street. I got moving, did some chores and so on. I had a call with a prospective new client and it went fantastically (SO crazy how it came right in as I reduce my involvement at another). It was a beautiful day, low 70’s, sunshine and breeze, so Lil’ E and I headed out to the supermarket for rabbit bedding and a birthday gift, with a quick stop at the park.

On the way home, late afternoon, Lil’ E was passin out on the bus and I have a metal basket on wheels to drag/push around, (as well as two sweaters we stripped off in the heat and a plastic bag of left over burritos from the lunch we half ate). We were on one of the old buses (you know, with steps up instead of a curb level floor), and I pulled the chord, beckon E to rouse himself, “LET’S GO, BUDDY, THIS IS OUR STOP!” We tumbled off (quite literally) and made our way to the next stop for the bus home.
No sooner did we sit down when I went to grab my cell phone for the time. Cell phone, I think, … Huh, I feel like I am missing something.

Ya’ll: I did. I really did just leave my purse on the public transportation system. Complete with the following items:

• keys
• cell phone
• check book
• id
• 2 debit cards

What does this mean? We spent the early evening running to get cash out at the bank before closing the account, canceling our other banks debit card, canceling our cell phone and HAVING A FLIPPING BABY COW.

At this point I am also concerned with the fact that my address is on the checks and they have my house keys. FANFLIPPINTASTIC!

But, hey, its cool. It’s cool. Everything always turns out a-okay in the end, right? This week was so great, it was farting happiness. So the cosmos were bound to send me a little -okay, maybe big- hiccup. I’m still staying positive, so TAKE THAT, COSMOS! Whose cryin’ nooooooww?

It’s funny how you can sometimes feel like the only person in the whole wide world with a particular issue.

I’ve seen plenty of other mom’s while I ride the bus, certainly, but for some reason I never expected to cross paths with them once more in cyberspace.

This week on Activistas there was this post, regarding the family-friendliness of the Tri-met, Portland’s mass transportation system which includes bus, light rail and street car. I thought it was pretty interesting to read the experiences of the various moms who, like me, use the bus exclusively and how this works for moms of young children to get around town, essentially without a trunk for strollers, groceries, library books, and “stuff”.

While I realize this may not be of interest to all of you, I wanted to draw your attention to it. I mean, in the grand scheme of the country moving towards not relying so heavily on their automobiles, I can imagine this being an issue in the next 50 years. How does a family live without their vehicles? What would that look like for cities across this country and how can they plan to accommodate our little one’s and all the “stuff” that comes with them?

So something to chew on!

Any one else agree that Easter came entirely too early this year?!

I mean, once this weekend is over, we’ve got like one semi-decent holiday on July 4th and then that’s pretty much it for this year’s magic until next Halloween!

I didn’t even see it coming, to tell you the truth. The signs of Spring were all around, I even blogged about it right here at MamaNeedJava, but then every one had the flu for like two weeks and it sucked out all the lead time we had to anticipate Easter. Now its Sunday? Sunday?!

Hubby and I are really excited to go to our first Bat Mitzfah on Saturday, woo hoo! Then I’ll very likely spend Easter laying the groundwork for the chicken run, (oh the joys, the lovely day that will soon come when my kitchen does not have the distinctly musky smell of chicken sh*t. There’s a deeply reflective Easter thought for ya!) And while on the chicken subject, I so can never again bring myself to eat an animal I now call a pet. Just wrong. Their sweet little thighs… that soft warm breast… with SALT AND PEPPER?! Wrong, I tell you!

So yeah, I don’t quite know where this post is going anymore so I guess I’ll move along.

Yep, one Gold Sex-Link, one Maran, and one Rhode Island Red. I got them at two weeks old so they won’t be in the brooder (a box with heat lamp) in our kitchen for more than about 4 weeks. Yay! What should I name them???

Here’s what I’ve designed for a portable coop and run so far. It’s using the old rabbit hutch as a coop for them to lay, and then building a predator proof run from 2×4’s and wire mesh walls against it. Exciting stuff, huh?

We’ve got a great little backyard, as you can see from these photos of Lil’ E and his new bud from the “child-swap” situation, Finn. All it needs is a few chickens!

Why raise chickens in your backyard? BackyardChickens offer these reasons:

• Easy and inexpensive to maintain
• Eggs that are great tasting and nutritious
• Chemical free pest control
• Fun and friendly pets with personality (yes, you read that right)
• Free fertilizer
• Weed Control
• Uniqueness- Be the cool person in town that grows their own eggs!

For more information about raising backyard chickens, check out the following links!
BackyardChickens.com
MadCityChickens.com
Livingscape Nursery; Chicken Fest (where we got our chicks!)
Urban Agrarian blog
wiki-How; Keeping Chickens in the City
The City Chicken
My Pet Chicken

Is “going green” really just a feel good fad? Now it seems “greenwashed” is the popular term of choice. While I think its a step in the right direction to see such global awareness of “green” practices, I must admit it got a little out of hand when NBC did “green” week and pushed Seventh Generation products in just about every show.

But its not the consumers fault! Or is it? I mean at what point do we need to wise up and think about whether the choices we are making are truly good for us and the world at large? I find that lots of people like to “go green” in one sense, but halt when that choice impedes on their level of comfort. I believe the shift needs to go deeper, and thus I agree with the “greenwashed” whistle blowers. Let’s put our thinking caps on and spend a little time pondering the actual environmental impact of our daily activities, and then take “simple” steps to reduce, reuse, THEN recycle- even if that means we won’t be the “cool” green gal on the block.

Here’s Mama’s Five Signs that YOU have been greenwashed:

#1- You wear t-shirts, buttons or purses with “green” slogans which you bought from places like Walmart, the antithesis of anything local and sustainable. (Edit: Done this one myself!)

#2- You spend extra money on “green” foods like Fruitabu so you can continue adding to the local landfill, rather than eating organic fresh fruits and vegetables in the first place. (Edit: Done this one myself!)

#3- You drive a Hybrid rather than walk, bike or bus it. (Edit: Okay, I can’t afford a Hybrid, but I wanted one!)

#4- You switched from traditional household cleaners to “green” household cleaners rather than just using vinegar, baking soda, hydrogen peroxide, so on, which are far less expensive, extremely effective, albiet less show-offy. (Edit: Done this one myself!)

#5- You pride yourself in all the recycling your doing, but you still don’t wash the jars and cans before tossing them into the yellow bin, ensuring that they will end up in the landfill anyhow. (Edit: Done this one myself!)

Can you think of any others? I’d love to hear your thoughts! (Edit: thoughts on other quirks of being “greenwashed”, not thoughts that showcase you hardly read this post and took the whole thing to mean that I must believe I am oh-so-much-greener-than-you.)

There was a time when I had a great idea to confess something in my blog every Saturday. I have since come to the realization that a daily schedule is much too impractical for me. But why throw the baby out with the bath water?! Confessions return! (Just at random dates and times).

Why this sudden twinge of conscious? Maybe it’s because I’m reading a memoir (I can’t wait to add my favorite quotes from the book soon!) or maybe its because my friend and neighbor just confessed on her blog.

(Or maybe its just the opposite of what a true confession is, and serves only as a way to vent my annoyances from time to time with the added protection of self-realization therefore I-don’t-need-you-to-point-it-out-because-I-already-know, and-wow- I’m bold enough to act like I don’t care what you think, while retaining a slightly self-conscious feeling I can’t quite get rid of about the whole thing, hence this parenthetical addition/disclaimer/explanation - which could very well be just about my own desire to play with the type of odd literary techniques being used repeatedly in the memoir I’m reading.)

Laughing yet? Unsure what to make of this?

I judge drivers (but in a VERY hate the sin, not the sinner kinda way- this is SO not personal):

• I judge drivers who charge up their vehicles to go less than a mile away.
• I judge drivers who wait in line at a drive-through.
• I judge drivers who assume that our situation of carless-ness is not truly by choice, and that I am somehow wanting sympathy for my mode’s of transportation.
• I judge drivers who assume I am secretly hoping for the offer of a ride in a cramped car as opposed to bus/bike/walk alternative.
• I judge driver’s who think 5,000 dollars is not a lot to spend on what is essentially a large appliance.
• I judge drivers who pass me by when I am walking a mile in the rain from a Zipcar with my toddler and a carseat.
• I judge drivers who line up at stoplights during rush hour while I watch them from the bus bench- drivers who think it is essential to take up a spot on the road and pollute the world by having ONE PERSON IN A VEHICLE BUILT FOR 5-7 rather than carpooling or some other alternative.
• I judge driver’s who think I want to take pity on them for not having as many options as I do, as if they really, really would use them if they lived in a place that offered them.
• I judge drivers who assume that I am judging them, because how dare they think I am so pridefully judgmental?

Forgive me?