Breakfast at Home
December 22, 2012 § Leave a comment
The cow is milked. The chickens and ducks and sheep and steers are fed. So is the dog, after she and I romped around in the snow for a bit. She feels better, now that we went to the vet and got the tick diseases diagnosed (sigh) and got her on some antibiotics. There is a time and a place for them, and this is one of them. It’s good to see her old spirit back. And so – happy Saturday!
There is something about a late(ish) breakfast after morning chores. It makes me want to eat healthier, to crave things like, today, kale and eggs and fresh milk (in my coffee). Back in Colorado, when I worked at the horse barn, I would grab a granola bar for my pseudo breakfast at 6:45 a.m. – which didn’t really count, in my mind, as anything more than enough fuel to get me moving for a few hours. I’d go out to the stables to feed and move and turn out horses, and muck stalls, and then around 11:30 or so I’d head back home to my real meal, a substantial and fantastic brunch complete with meat and/or eggs and almost always greens (especially when I was also working at the organic farm several days a week). Yum.
There is surely a mind-body connection here. The physical effort plus the great outdoors seem to send little signals to the brain that we need nourishment! and nourishment that is natural, real, from the earth and its animals as directly as possible! So as much as I love a little pastry or tart as much as the next girl, this isn’t the time for it.
And I think that is part of why I crave this farm-life so much. It builds health up from, out from itself, in so many ways. Done well, it perpetuates health – health for humans, animals, land. And, in my opinion, communities.
I’ve been reading the book Radical Homemakers by Shannon Hayes – and, lest you be misled, this is not simply about lucky suburban stay-at-home-moms who are financially comfortable enough to be doing what they do, possibly with a nanny in tow, and possibly eco-friendly in the I-can-afford-it kind of way. (There is nothing quite wrong with that, but it isn’t a reality for most of us, right?) So, if you aren’t in this position, and it seems that you have to go to work, whether you like it or not, this book is probably equally if not more so for you. Hayes explores how the home has functioned past to present, how the choices we make are driven by and/or affect our communities and society as a whole, and how many families are assessing the current trends in career and home life and making deliberate deviations in the pursuit of health and happiness. The book is full of examples, quotes, and real people that make you think, “Huh. I could do this if they could.”
So much of what Hayes says here makes sense to me. It explains why, for so long, I wrinkled my nose at nearly every reasonable career option out there. As I read through the book, so many times I thought (in my melodramatic way) Oh my heart! Yes. This is the life I have wanted. Thank goodness the sustainable/environmental movement came along, where I could find a few more folks with my kinds of ideals, and find jobs therein. That said, as a (still) single girl, it’s challenging to think about how I can focus on home and how I can create homegrown community without a partner in this divine crime, this subversion of commercial, corporate society. But I mean to try.
Here’s an excerpt:
When women and men choose to center their lives on their homes, creating strong family units and living in a way that honors our natural resources and local communities, they are doing more than dismantling the extractive economy and taking power away from the corporate plutocrats. They are laying the foundation to re-democratize our society and heal our planet. They are rebuilding the life-serving economy. (57-58)
Read the book! And eat kale for breakfast, at a table, leisurely, like you deserve it. Your body will thank you.
Little brother’s wedding: preview
April 25, 2012 § Leave a comment
Here we are: brothers and sisters. Elena, Craig, Christopher, and me! It was Christopher’s turn to get married, so he and his (now wife!) Kim had their wedding at a beach resort on the Lake of the Ozarks. The day gave them sunny skies and a slight cool breeze. We felt happy. Can you tell?
Five Ridge Prairie
March 12, 2012 § 1 Comment
Saturday was so, so balmy in Iowa. Eerily warm for March, maybe – but we took off jackets and went short-sleeved with spring giddiness.
It is hard to find nature-walk places in this part of the state, I am sorry to say. We drove 24 miles to get to Fox Ridge Prairie, 790 acres that “exemplifies the northern loess bluffs of western Iowa with a mixture of oak timbered valleys, native prairie ridge tops and west facing slopes.” (mycountyparks.com)
The term “loess” refers to silt deposits laid down by wind activity. “Loess” is German for “loose or crumbly.” The Loess Hills in Western Iowa are fragile, easily eroded, and beautiful. Loess itself is not that unusual, but the size of the hills in Iowa – up to 200 feet thick of loess – is an uncommon geological occurrance. To learn more about the Loess Hills in Iowa – click here.
Tassie did not get to come (I wasn’t sure what the dog policy was, but based on the number of paw prints we saw, plus one black Lab, they do seem to be allowed). Mom and Dad and Craig and I went with a backpack full of egg salad sandwiches, string cheese, and apples.
I settled in to the tall grasses. I have always liked having them all around me.
It was one of those calm, outside, together times.
And then my car broke down
February 8, 2012 § 1 Comment
It’s true. We got stranded on Highway 20.
Do you know how many times I have joked about my fear of being stranded in the middle of Nebraska?
Fortunately, this wasn’t quite the middle. Rather about 3 hours from my parents’ home in NW Iowa. I called my father, as I tend to do in these situations. He said, calmly and kindly, “I guess I’ll have to come get you.”
Then he spoke with his brothers, and it turns out I was only 80 miles south of them. All Dad’s family lives in South Dakota and I never felt so glad of it till now! Two uncles came to get me with a trailer in tow. I spent the night at Grandma’s surrounded by all her familiar things and was grateful.
The other nice part is that while we waited to be rescued on Highway 20, we happened to be right next to a recreational trail. So T and I had a good walk, appreciated Nebraska for a little longer, and tried not to think about The Blue Belle’s demise.
But she is, in fact, done for. At least in regards to me! It isn’t a fix I can make or afford, so she’s up for sale (for the mechanically inclined).
Time to save. Well, first to get a job. Then to save. And to think about the possibility of a pickup.
Hike the river
January 23, 2012 § Leave a comment
So we used to do. These walks became welcome breaks from studying and working, in those graduate-school Iowa winters. Miss T and my sister and brother-in-law and I went out where the high banks and the thick ice would invite us in, and on.
We followed the tracks of cross-country skiers. The paw prints of other dogs, the boot prints of other hikers. We put our own prints in new snows.
Climbed fallen trees and ducked beneath their branches. Saw our breath turn to fog.
We loved winter. How it opened new terrain. How it made the river a favorite hiking trail.
Resolution
January 1, 2012 § 4 Comments
Isn’t it a funny word? I find it interesting how many definitions the word resolve has. What fascinates me particularly is how resolve can be synonymous with determination (“He stepped forward with resolve”) yet it also can mean to move from dissonance to consonance – most directly in music, but the idea extends to matters of opinion, problem-solving, working through an issue – ending the tension to reach a resolution. And yet – and yet – the word can also mean to separate. What?
Language is so strange. English, especially.
My conclusion, as I’m inclined towards peacemaking, is that resolutions might be built on this handful of definitions. As we make lists of what we want to do or not do this upcoming year, can we move with determination towards things that will bring us together into pleasing consonance? This doesn’t mean we all have to operate on the exact same opinions, beliefs, and perspectives – we can remain our separate, unique selves, like notes in a chord. And yet as we consider who we are and who others are and who we want to be, perhaps we can learn how to live together in harmony.
On that thought, here is my 2012 resolution list:
1. Be generous. Even when I have little. Generosity needn’t be expressed only by the giving of material things. Time, work, kind words, a small note in the mail – these count, too.
2. Be frugal. Don’t spend on unnecessary things, and get what I owe paid off. (All right, that’s a bit lofty for a year, but make significant advancements in this direction.) Debt creates discord, in one’s spirit as well as in relationships, even purely financial ones.
3. Be healthy. That means being healthy personally as well as promoting health in my environment – physically, ecologically, and economically. If my body is forced to operate on poor fuel and/or my actions contribute to degradation and toxicity around me, that puts me (and others) in a state of disrepair. True, we all age, but let’s age well. And let’s have land and water that go on being clean and fertile beyond our lifespans. Good health tends to foster happiness! And happiness tends to foster harmony.
4. Be optimistic. I must confess I have been a bit of a negative Nancy this year. Part of me wants to defend myself by saying that I feel everything strongly and express it openly so y’all get to go on the ups-and-downs with me. But the truth is that I have caught complaints coming out of my mouth far too often and have gotten into a habit of tampering my eager, rosy hopes with the dim glasses of criticism and self-doubt. (It doesn’t all get on this blog – but my friends and family have heard it more than once.) And the worst part? It drags the people around me down with me. Aiyaiyai. So optimism. Looking for good, holding onto truths, closing the door on regret and shoving aside fear and self-deprecation.
5. Be faithful. For me, this goal directs itself towards two closely related realms. First and foremost I seek to be faithful to my Father God, His saving Son, and the amazingly wildly loving Holy Spirit. Second, I will be faithful to my loved ones. This means to stand up for them. To step in for them. To be there when needed. Even to put them before myself. Because faithfulness is the fruit of the kind of love that is more than just a feeling.
Can I do it? Will I do it? The good thing is that these are not deadline goals. They are lifelong goals. (And I am a lifelong learner! Yay!) The next steps for me are to (a) remain conscious of these goals – maybe put a list on the mirror or refrigerator or nightstand, and (b) map out what changes I might make – big and small – to foster and further these things in my little old life.
I am not one of those who is afraid of resolutions! No, sir. I am resolved. Resolved to resolve.
What are your goals this year? Do you like or dislike New Year’s resolutions? Do you have any suggestions for me regarding mine?
Kinds of Honey 