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And a couple Halloween night pics too!

Today was a real eye opener for me, not that anything incredibly new happened, but it was just sort of filled with little ways to reduce, reuse, recycle and limit your carbon footprint and all that and it happened so effortlessly that I am left wondering why in the world didn’t we do this sooner?

Let me explain:

Today we had to run a few errands at lunch time- our first errands via bicycles. A normal trip out to Freddy Myer’s on Broadway takes us by car about 10 minutes with traffic lights and parking. By bike? 15 minutes, tops. I couldn’t believe how quickly we were there, and how easy it is to pull Lil’ E behind me on a trailer- I could hardly tell I was pulling the extra weight in comparison to having him up on a seat. One of the things we needed from Freddy’s was rain boots for Ethan, because we’re going with the church to Sauvie Island Pumpkin Patch tonight and it might be muddy. We found some for 14.99, though he liked a different one with a dinosaur face on it but they did not have it in his size.

After we got several bags full of things stuffed in the bike trailer (there sure is a lot of room in that thing!), we stopped to split a grilled veggie burrito at Cha Cha Cha’s for 4.00. Next door is Bella Stella Resale, where I knew she’s had a good selection of random used rainboots and coats in the past. So I popped in and low and behold- the dinosaur boots were there, in his size, slightly used, for $6.99. (Needless to say we’ll be returning the other ones!)

Upon returning home in again what felt like record time, we were greeted by a box full of produce from Organics to You, our first weekly order of home delivered organic produce and grocery items. Here is what came in this week’s “small” bin for $30:

• 4 Gala Apples - *LOCAL, farm direct*
• 4 Fuji Apples - *LOCAL, farm direct
• 3 Bartlett Pears - *LOCAL, farm direct*
• 3-4 Bananas
• 1 Cauliflower - *LOCAL*
• 1-2 Leeks - *LOCAL, farm direct*
• 1 Kale - *LOCAL, farm direct*
• 1 bunch Carrots - *LOCAL, farm direct*
• 1 bunch Parsley - *LOCAL, farm direct*
• 1 bunch Green Onions - *LOCAL, farm direct*
• 1 bunch Celery - *LOCAL, farm direct*
• 1-2 Onions - *LOCAL, farm direct*
• 1-2 Delicatta Squash - *LOCAL, farm direct*
• 2-3 baby Bok Choy - *LOCAL*

Everything was in great shape, fresh, not over or under ripe at all. I was delighted to see things I don’t normally pick out, like Bok Choy and Delicatta Squash, as well as some yummy favorites like Cauliflower and lots of apples. We have so much that I will have to go down to the one person bin for next week, or skip a week.

I must say, being on the bike for the errands kinda took the “errands” part of it out of the trip. Unlike a car, there is fresh air, scenery, you take back roads and kinda just enjoy yourself. Lil’ E took a nap, Hubby and I got some exercise. No wonder people do this in Europe all the time. What is America thinking???

Anyway! It was also VERY NICE to stop at the bank and deposit the sale of the car today. Whoopie!

Final thought? Carpooling is not only green, its also sweet. Our friend Eric offered to tote us to Sauvieland tonight, thanks Eric!

With the rainy season upon us, its not always easy to bus it to the farmer’s market these days. With the sale of our car impending, and no bike trailer to carry groceries, getting produce and grocery items will be a bit difficult, to say the least. But I’m really apprehensive about the trailer, for irrational fears of having the most precious thing to my heart trailing around behind my bike on the side of a busy road. Anyway, I typically bring $40 to the Portland Farmer’s Market each week. I look for the best deals (which aren’t always organic but at least local) and then I spend a little at the grocery store for items not produce related. The market runs every Saturday from May - December.

All of these complications lead me to look into the home delivery service, as I often see various vans outside the doors of houses in our neighborhood, dropping off groceries and bins of food.

Several full-fledged grocery stores, such as New Seasons Market, offer this service for a fee, and many local farms offer “drop off” sites for a seasonal membership (Sauvie Island Organics, for example, rounds off to about $25 a week, from my math, which is pretty good, but you have to pay $805 for the 8 months of service, and you still have to go to the drop off sites on the right days.)

What I want is something without a fee, that tells me what I’m getting each week, and that provides more than just produce. Oh yes, and if you could just leave it on the door, thanks. Is that too much to ask?

Apparently not! Organics to You offers home delivery of fresh organic produce from several farm locations, and all you have to do is schedule for the size bin you want (one person, small family, large family, etc) including extras such as “Juicer Bin”, “Kids Bin” etc. To top it off, they offer an ever expanding selection of high demand grocery items, such as bread, milk, butter, yogurt, cheese, eggs, coffee, - even Chai! (Meats are coming soon!) You see the price (and, by the way, the brand) for what you’re checking off and it all adds up to one sum which you can either pay in advance with your credit card or leave cash under your door mat! The prices, compared to non-discounted items at, say, Wild Oats (prices I am most familiar with) are by and large comparable, if not cheaper, (although for the time being, I do have Hubby’s 20% discount) PLUS you are not paying for gas OR the time/chore of getting your groceries each week.

Pro’s: esp without a Hubby discount: no travel and very little time invested (takes two minutes to fill your order). Price is reasonable, and best of all, it makes it very easy to stay within your grocery budget, as most of us would do if we actually saw the total adding up AS WE WERE SHOPPING!

Con’s: If you are not concerned about organics AND you are not a big produce eater, then obviously its cheaper to go to your local grocery chain.

Below was this week’s bin for a “small family”, which costs $30. I think its MORE than enough for us and I might go down to the one person bin every other week, and with the savings buy some grocery items such as my milk, bread and eggs.

SMALL BIN

Hello, For the week of October 22nd. ENJOY!

1 Pomegranate
4 Gala Apples - *LOCAL, farm direct*
3 Bartlett Pears - *LOCAL, farm direct*
2-3 StarKrimson Pears - *LOCAL, farm direct
3-4 Bananas
1 bunch French breakfast Radish - *LOCAL*
1-2 Onions - *LOCAL, farm direct*
2lb. Red Potatoes - *LOCAL, farm direct*
6oz. Crimini Mushrooms - *LOCAL, farm direct*
1/2lb. Green Beans - *LOCAL, farm direct*
1 Lettuce - Some *LOCAL*-’last of the local lettuce’
1 bunch Chard/Kale - *LOCAL, farm direct*
1 bunch Broccoli - *Local*
1-2 winter Squash-(Gold Nugget) - *LOCAL, farm direct*

*LOCAL* = locally from supplier
*LOCAL, farm direct* = Locally direct from farmer

I’d like to add that even the website for this organization is impressive to me- with recipes, community pages, so on. I will get my first delivery next week, and I’ll let you all know how it measures up!

Heart of Autumn, by Robert Penn Warren

Wind finds the northwest gap, fall comes.
Today, under gray cloud-scud over gray
Wind-flicker of forest, in perfect formation, wild geese
Head for a land of warm water, the boom, the lead pellet.

Some crumple in air, fall. Some stagger, recover control,
Then take the last glide for a far glint of water. None
Knows what has happened. Now, today, watching
How tirelessly V upon V arrows the season’s logic,

Do I know my own story? At least, they know
When the hour comes for the great wing-beat. Sky-strider,
Star-strider- they rise, and the imperial utterance,
Which cries out for distance, quivers in the wheeling sky.

That much they know, and their nature know
The path of pathlessness, with all the joy
Of destiny fulfilling its own name.
I have known time and distance, but not why I am here.

Path of logic, path of folly, all
The same–and I stand, my face lifted now skyward,
Hearing the high beat, my arms outstretched in the tingling
Process of transformation, and soon tough legs,

With folded feet, trail in the sounding vacuum of passage,
And my heart is impacted with a fierce impulse
To unwordable utterance –
Toward sunset, at a great height.

e.e.cummings
[l(a]

l(a

le
af
fa

ll

s)
one
l

iness

My son loves this book from the library, but has got it in his head that any tree with lots of leaves under it is “Fall leaves Fall”, lol.

The autumn equinox just passed (almost unnoticed, sadly!) and as I pointed out in my post yesterday, fall is upon us. I’m enthralled with this season right now because I never had much of a Fall growing up. I can very distinctly remember the one fall I spent NOT in Florida as a child, when I spent 4 months with my mother in central Louisiana at the age of 8. There was a harvest or street festival we went to, the air was chilly, and she remarked at how gorgeous the bright yellow trees were in the fall.

Florida trees do not turn yellow. They are primarily one of two types: on the coast, its the quintessential Palm Tree, and inland (Lakeland), its the great big mossy oaks. They give you lots of leaves, albeit dry brown ones that kill your grass. And there are days so hot in a Florida September that you can fry an egg on the sidewalk. There are CHRISTMAS DAYS so hot in Florida that you can lay out on a lawn chair in your bikini and get a tan. A small handful of you might think that’s totally cool, but trust me, 23 years of it and I’m done. Where’s my Bing Crosby and my White Christmas, darn it? (Rainy christmas, ie. Portland, is a step in the right direction, lol).

Anyhoo, despite the gazillion things going on today, Misty and I managed to trek over to People’s Coop Harvest Festival. It was awesome! Below are some pics. (BTW, this is a great idea, People’s! What a wonderful help for those going sans automobile! More grocers should offer such service!)

Apple Press:

Mmmmm….. free tasting…

More?

Pumpkin carving contest!

Say Cheese, Misty!

Ok, this is not the Harvest Festival, this is from our family day on Sunday… Despite what this look might tell you, Lil’ E WAS happy about his bunny balloon hat… no, really, he was, promise.

That’s what life feels like for me lately. It seems I should be a little further along sometimes, having gotten my “edumacation”, being married for nearly 5 years, a mommy for 2+pregnancy, working, bla bla bla- those should surely qualify me for a self-titled “intermediate”, right? Instead I feel in so many ways as though life has just begun. As though my lungs are crushing with the weight of my first breath of oxygen: I know nothing.

Yep, the lovely twenties, full blown in effect.

One of my many humble philosophies on life is sort of a “mind over matter” one- with regards to vices, depression, stress, so forth. Though I must have a zillion crutches that I don’t even think about or consider them as such, the ones I recognize I typically do away with rather quickly. Example- if I notice I’m using wine to “relax” too often, I’ll begin to formulate a different way to relax that is healthier, no side effects, etc etc. Aromatherapy, massage, yoga, whatever. I even considered recently the homeopathic medicinal value of herbs such as St. John’s Wort or Kava, though in the end even those had side effects I’d rather not deal with, not to mention that you cannot be on them while pregnant or nursing and that chapter of my life isn’t exactly over yet, so might as well not even get started on the treatment.

Side note: I recently read an article in a parenting e-zine where the writer and mother of the story confessed that she turned her weekend vice of smoking a little weed while her son is not around into a “one hitter” commonality whenever she needed to “get through the day” with her son. I wanted to scream at such stupidity, especially as nearly every single comment (there were over 80) to the on-line article went back and forth between arguing about the legality of pot or the irresponsibility of the mom while she is the care-giver for a young child, etc etc. While all those arguments are interesting, I felt like they really missed the point. Why not get to the deeper issue (IMHO) and learn to deal with your stress and anxiety as a mother without “mother’s little helpers” at all? Perhaps such levels of annoyance indicate a major change needs to happen, as in, more sleep, better diet, a little exercising, prayer (yikes, touchy subject!) or even counseling. I also feel, (though this opinion might get me stoned), that too many (esp mothers) turn quickly to the latest prescription drug for helping them cope BEFORE giving the aforementioned suggestions a hearty attempt. (Okay, that’s all I’ll say now about my extreme skepticism of allopathic medicine! Another day, another post)

As for me, I “confess” that I can fall into mild feelings of lethargy, depression, anxiety or what have you, certain circumstances trigger it more than others of course. I can tell when I want to “hide” that the cloud is over me. Luckily, it rarely effects my ability to fulfill responsibilities, although it does make doing them more difficult. Anyhow, this all to say that I am sort of in one of these periods lately and have the foreboding feeling that it hasn’t even completely run its course yet (it’s only the beginning!)- with upcoming cold, sunless, rainy days of Portland’s winter ahead, the holidays without friends and family around, hubby working double shifts nearly every day, and my only “hey, let’s go chill” friend starting a full-time job and having her mom come live with her, all of this seems to be indicators to me lately that I’ve got to catch this mood at the beginning and prepare for the “dark night of the soul” that could be quite lonely if I don’t proceed carefully.

This post has taken a slight detour from its original “I might finally know that I don’t know anything” but trust me, its all related!

So I’m open to anything, bar substance abuse, traditional Western medicine, lol, and perhaps some others things I haven’t thought of, to help me trudge along this phase with a deeply joyful heart. I have absolute assurance that this won’t happen without a much greater awareness of the daily conversation God is having with me, and perhaps I could even try responding more often in prayer instead of avoidance. From there, I’ve got to start reading some good books, doing my yoga again, and making sure my oil burner is always going with lavender, chamomile, and clary sage. Another tip: avoid too much refined sugars, alcohol and caffeine (yes, even here at “mama NEED java” we can all agree on the “too much of a good thing” factor )

If any one else can relate to what I’ve just shared, here’s a toast to your journey onward. To the other’s, I apologize for wasting your time on a very Vivian-centered subject (esp since my last post was one too!) and promise to upload a great movie tomorrow of Ethan singing songs.

Wow, is it really July?

Lil’ E turns two years old this month. I’ve been a mommy for 2 years. Holy cow.

On another note, I wanted to share some photo highlights of the last few weeks:

The Vintage Goodness shoes has a little story to it: I bought those shoes at a resale store down the road, Rerun, for 5 bucks. A few weeks later, I was shopping at a larger resale store on Hawthorne called Vintage House, and the shoes, exact same but slightly less wear, were behind a glass case and on sale for $69!!! They pulled them out for me, as they came with a box, and these shoes were made in like 1974 or something. The bargain shopping section of my heart was very proud!

Other than this, work has kept me pretty busy this week so I’ve not read much of my reading list yet, just a few chapters of A Hundred Years of Solitute. Vehrdey en-terrr-esteeeng!

This week we start working on the top stairs unit of the old house we are living in. It was built in like the 20’s no doubt, and has since been split so that each floor is its own apartment. The family that we moved with has moved into the downstairs unit and we have been staying in the studio/office in the backyard for the last two months, sharing a bathroom and kitchen, etc with the other family. For a list of hilarious inside jokes (I think?) about how this is all going, check out Chris A.’s experimental site, “Sometimes Friends Fight“.
I feel very fortunate that our landlords are into sustainability and green building. They have encouraged us to look for low VOC paints for the walls, remnants of wool carpeting for the bedrooms, and bamboo wood floors for the living and dining rooms. I’m so excited!!!

Church today was interesting, I even thought I might need to blog sometime about it… maybe call the post, “The Inerrant Word of God”. I’ll let you use your imagination at this point. It will probably be far more interesting than my actual thoughts!

Thanks, Eddie, for your encouragement about reading all those books! See- you’re holding me accountable, I love it!

Wow, I said that WAY too many times in high school. My senior year, I missed 57 days in the first semester alone. School went WAY too slow for me. I still managed to make straight A’s though- and that, ladies and gentlemen, is what’s wrong with kids today.

Anyway, I wanted to offer you people an apology for just taken off like that the last week or so. Right after New Year I headed out of town, (south to Naples area and across to Miami) on a magazine assignment (ew, that sounds so self-important). I got back in Sunday evening and took a few days to adjust. Aside from driving nearly 3-5 hours every day with a one year old, the trip was really interesting! Lil’ E was on his blessed best behavior, even with a cold, and the interviews and pics came out pretty decent. (I’ll share when article is published– Maybe I’m being presumptious!)

So I plan to take a sec to upload a little slideshow of the pictures I took, but my new camera was on crack and several of the miami pics were destroyed, so I’m left with just a handful.

Yeah, I know, you were really looking forward to another slideshow excuse for a post.

Here’s the other thing. I plan to begin to focus the theme of this blog a little more toward parenting and work from home issues. Less of this mindless rambling I do to make myself laugh and chuckle and think I am oh so hilarious while you are very very very bored.

SO- don’t ask when I will get around to changing up categories and what not, but it will be soon. Before Feb. 7th, because I hope to have a sub-domain for the LOST blogs by the time they start again. And I can’t do THAT until Chuck offers his free time to guide me through it. (shameless beg).

Well I’m off to bed! Early bird gets more work done!

“It’ll nearly be like a picture print by Currier and Ives…These wonderful things are the things we remember all through our lives”

Well its Christmas night and I, for one, am glad! Not that this holiday season wasn’t wonderful- it actually was! We hung out here in Lakeland, just us three, and had a such a great time: Christmas Eve was spent bike riding to the park, Christmas Eve candle lighting service, and dessert at Harry’s downtown with lights at Munn Park to finish off the day. Christmas day was warm (literally, that oven gives off some HEAT!), and though the weather outside was FRIGHTFUL (thunderstorms, warm rainy, muggy central FL Christmas) we bunkered inside and opened gifts, watched U2 videos (which turned out to be pretty worshipful to me!), cooked ALLLLL day long, and sat ourselves down to an absolute feast. Later we had coffee and Sirop Gateau. We played with Lil’ E’s new toys and watched Christmas movies.

I look forward to this time of year, I don’t dread it or get through it like some. Even when the reality of traffic and long lines at the mall hit, or just when I think that I have allowed the ideals of that Currier and Ives/Norman Rockwell/Hallmark holiday to rob me of the joy of my experiences, sure enough I go to bed Christmas day with no regrets. This year was truly one of the best ones yet.

Still, as it comes to an end, I don’t feel the need to linger. I put Lil’ E’s plaid Christmas pj’s in the dirty clothes today and realized he won’t ever wear them again- that was a strange feeling. To see the fleeting season through the growth of a child did make me sad to see Christmas be gone already, but I just begin to think ahead to the cold fronts, Valentine’s Day, celebrating my birthday with R & R next door, Springtime/Easter, you get the picture. Life is cyclical. But each cycle looks a little different from the last. And so we move on.

I may not get the chance to blog in the next few days, I have work to catch up on and a little boy I like to play with needs my attention otherwise so we’ll get back on schedule after the New Year, deal?

Merry Christmas every body!

I strongly recommend that all you female readers grab your closest gal pals, stuff your oversized purses/diaper bags with candy and small bottles of wine, and go see The Holiday. OHMYGOSH it was more fun than I’ve had in YEARS! The pizzeria boys asked us if we were in high school- LOL!