It's Black and White

We'll, it's amazing what you can get done when you don't have a full schedule of classwork hanging over you head.  In a stroke of inspiration last week, I cranked out two environmental posters.  I'm open sourcing them which means that I hope someone sees them and uses them. No permission needed.  Let me know if you have any ideas that we can develop together. -Jason

 Save the Wells- A play off of the 80s slogan Save the Whales

Buy Local - An attempt to stop and make you think 

why we buy organic when we can

Free School Meals: Necessity or Abuse?

It's 2 AM. And while it's not the dreaded 4 AM, I still can't sleep. Since I don't have to study (woohoo!), I figured I'd write!

An acquaintance on Facebook recently posted a link that states for the 2011-2012 school year, Walmart will feed every child that attends a Dallas Public School a free breakfast. The initiative is called "Breakfast in the Classroom". The Dallas Independent School District (DISD) is one of only 5 major school districts in the country chosen to share a 3 million dollar Walmart Foundation Grant that funds the program. The link above lists a myriad of reasons why a good breakfast is so important to a student's productivity in school, and I agree wholeheartedly with every one.

For the 2009-2010 school year, just over 80% of students enrolled at my daughter's elementary school were eligible for free/reduced breakfast and lunch. Of that number I am unsure just how many participate, but the Breakfast in the Classroom link states nationally less than half of those eligible for free breakfasts (doesn't specify lunch numbers) currently take advantage.

I love how the Walmart website states that students will "enjoy nutritionally well-balanced foods like breakfast wraps, yogurt, or fruit.." Yet this local Dallas news video link shows them eating fast-food-looking pancakes with syrup, orange juice, and what appears to be chocolate milk. But the vagaries of what they will serve is actually not what I'm writing about here today.

This can be a touchy subject and please read (and believe) my words - I know there are families/children in the Dallas area that are in desperate need of this kind of help. Walmart is providing a huge service to those families, and in turn to DISD so the school system (i.e. taxpayers) doesn't have to foot the bill. In theory it's a win-win, the private sector helping the public sector. What I have a problem with are parents taking advantage of the system and getting free lunches for their children when they have no need (breakfast has now been taken off the table for this discussion since Walmart's backing that in our city). It all comes down to priorities.

I personally know children that receive free lunches from the state/federal government that have iphones, ipods, excessively large flat screen TVs, and every gaming system/game/and DVD on the planet. And I don't mean the parents have these things - I mean the children! There is no way around it - it is completely unethical. Obviously I'm not talking about those families with a true need, but there are numerous instances - at my child's school, let alone all of the schools - where the parents choose not to buy good, healthy food for their children in favor of electronics and the newest gadgets.

In January we joined the Urban Acres organic food co-op. I had wanted to do this for a while, but $50 every two weeks seemed like an awful lot to spend on fruits and vegetables. Let me tell you folks - it is a steal. Every other Saturday I receive over 30 pounds of fresh, completely organic, in-season fruits and vegetables. Our family of five has never once been able to finish it all before the next pick-up. My kids eat at McDonald's probably twice a year - and it's usually while we're on the road heading to and from the east coast. I can assure you that many of the families claiming a need for free lunches spend $100/month on fast food when they could spend it on organic, nutritious food - and not use the government's money to feed their kids.

I guess some would say my 12, almost 11, and 4 year olds are deprived. None of them have a personal phone. None of them have an ipod. None of them have a gaming system - either personal or family-sized. We don't even have a TV! When the economy tanked in late 2008 we did what we had to to survive. We moved from a 3000 square foot house to a 1500 square foot rental to the 1000 square foot home we currently own. My three kids - gasp! - shared one room for the first two years we were in this house! My two oldest children even received free lunches from February 2009 through May of 2009. And they were a godsend. However, while on these free lunches we weren't buying souped-up cars, any electronics, cigarettes (that now cost around $5/pack! - I remember when they were like $1.50!), etc., etc. It is all about priorities. Why should someone else have to pay for my child's food because I am unwilling to? Note I didn't say unable - those people need help for sure.

I was recently talking to someone (and for the life of me I can not remember who it was) who told me that when he was a boy (in the 1940s/1950s), families who were receiving monetary assistance from the state would get periodic unannounced home checks to make sure they weren't lying about their financial situation on paper. While I am not advocating for this - I do feel like it is a major invasion of privacy - I think alot of abuse of the system would be prevented this way.

I don't have all of the answers (or even any, really) needed to address this complex topic. However, I have a starting point for many families - as I've said, it's about our priorities.

P to the R to the I to the O to the R to the I to the T to the I to the E to the S! Get 'em, people!

Let's help those that truly need it, but take responsibility for our financial situation - and the basic nutritional health of our children - when we can. -Carrie

This is My Life

[Author's note: I'm having major problems with blogger for some reason and can not fix some of the spacing issues on this post.  So sorry for the look of this!  I guess it goes with the topic!]

I happened upon a post today from a blog I visit a few times a month. Chiot's Run chronicles the life of an organic gardener. She does this through her absolutely beautiful photography. Today her post showcased her line-drying laundry. It just so happens that I did laundry and hung it out to dry this morning as well, but I couldn't help but laugh at the juxtaposition of her laundry next to mine.

Photo from Chiot's Run. Note the nice, matching linens, and nice, light-brown clothespins.

Yes, in theory they match since they are all blue - but boy do they have a story to tell! 
Once used during surgery, these "linens" were long ago rescued from the surgery floor 
by my surgeon Uncle who couldn't bare for them to be tossed in the trash after one use.

 Grey, weathered, rusty clothespins.

Holey, stained, fairly nasty - though clean - kitchen & cleaning "linens". 

Yes, this is my life.  Recycled, reused, weathered, stained, and holey.  I'd love to say I wouldn't have it any other way - but I don't know if that is always the truth.  Sometimes we feel sort of junky with all of our various piles of compost, dirt, mulch, chicken run refuse, building materials, logs & sticks waiting to be used in the chiminea, gardening supplies, etc., etc. laying all around our small yard.  While they are in some semblance of order it occasionally hits me - "Is it all worth it?"  

• Is it worth saving every kitchen scrap to be reused somewhere on our property?  
• Is it worth bringing home apple cores left from apples eaten during kid-sporting events - instead of just throwing them in the trash at the ballpark or soccer field?  
• Wouldn't it be more aesthetically pleasing if we finally went out and actually bought some cute kitchen towels?  
• Is it worth gathering discarded items from the side of the road with the thought that 6 months down the road we can use it for something else instead of having to buy brand new?   

The answer to all of these questions is a resounding - YES!  It certainly would be more pleasing to the eye if we bought new kitchen towels - but what's the point?  There is absolutely no need to throw away these perfectly functional surgical towels just so my laundry looks pretty for my neighbors.  I can bring some flowers into the house if I need a beauty-fix.  It's completely possible that Chiot's Run could have just purchased these new linens to replace her way-past-their-prime older linens.  Please understand that I'm not out to disparage Chiot's Run in any way - that's not what I'm trying to get at here.  It was more just the shake-your-head-and-have-to-laugh-or-you'll-cry kind of epiphany when I saw her post.  Here's what I'm trying to say, and perhaps not as eloquently as I thought while it was forming in my head: the positive in all of this is that no matter what the rag - we're both trying to make a difference, no matter how small.  In attempting to line-dry our clothes - something that is idyllic and lovely and a pain in the butt all at the same time - we're doing just one tiny thing to help the environment.  And if this is my life, then I'll take it. -Carrie   

A Spiritual Lesson from a Mother Hen

There's something very sublime, spiritual almost, about connecting with life around us. If we listen carefully, we learn lessons coming from the most unlikely of places. Landscape Architect and Environmentalist Grant Jones says that studies tell us all the time what common sense used. He believes we can cut to the chase by just listening to nature and observing. The other day I posted a little STORY of moving the chicks into the house to avoid an arctic blast which came through our area. The other side of the story is enlightening and I want to share it with you.

Carrie managed to move the chicks and the mother back to their home outside and when released back into their coop, the momma (Hopper), first out, did a little dance for joy followed by a the scratch, scratch, shuffle, peck that chickens do. Hopper called for her chicks who came out with equal elation to their old quarters. They were happy to be home.

These birds will never know what we did for them. They will never know that we possibly saved their little lives. All they know is that we put them in a tiny container and took away their Hilton of a coop. All they remember is a temporary period of cramped quarters in less than ideal circumstances.

Sometimes we ask God, "Why me?" when we hit a rough spot in our lives. We go kicking and screaming the whole way through phases of our less than ideal circumstances. To me, the story of Hopper and her chicks reaffirms the truth that I first discovered as a private in the Army. I believe in a god who I trust above me to be in charge of the circumstances of my life. I believe he is looking after me and that I'm being cared for even when I'm not always comfortable in my situation. I can take peace and solace in that and thank Hopper for reminding me of that lesson. -Jason

$9.96 for a Head of Lettuce?!?!?!?

On Wednesday morning I was perusing the local grocery store fliers when I came across something that made my head spin. I was incensed! Not only have I never used that word in a sentence before, I don't think I've barely even felt that emotion up until 3 days ago! What has happened to us as a culture?

It appears that Tom Thumb (a Safeway brand) has decided to help the American consumer who has no time, no sink, and no ability to pull apart their lettuce by (gladly) offering 6 ounce Romaine, Green Leaf, or Red Leaf lettuce "Singles". Neatly packaged in a plastic bin with a beautiful farm scene on the label (they couldn't get any further from farm fresh if they were trying), they've "Triple Washed" the single leaves to make your lettuce-eating-experience even more pleasant. The cost for all of this convenience? What amounts to $8.32 per head of lettuce when on sale, and $9.96 per head when not on sale. PEOPLE ACTUALLY PURCHASE THIS! A typical head of Romaine at Tom Thumb costs $1.99 when not on sale and weights about 20 ounces. Instead of taking one minute to wash and pull apart a head of lettuce at one's home, people are willing to spend as much as $7 dollars more for not having to deal with a few specks of dirt. Plus, in order to equal the amount of lettuce in a usual head, you'd have to buy 3 & 1/2 of these packs (so more plastic wasted).

Here's my offer to those in the North Oak Cliff area and please tell all of your friends: I will pull apart your lettuce leaves, wash them, and will only charge $5 per head - an amazing savings of $2.00! -Carrie

A TV-less Life

It was 10am, nearly two months ago. I had just finished volunteering at a local hospital and headed home to get some chores done. As I pulled into our driveway my heart skipped about 10 beats. The smashed glass, easily apparent from the busy road we live on, screamed "YOU'VE BEEN BROKEN INTO!" I immediately got my wits together and called 911. Jason was of course 30 minutes away at school and not answering his phone. I waited outside for the police to arrive. There was no way I was going to investigate the house on my own, even though I was sure no one had decided to stick around since they made the whole operation so blatantly obvious - even from the road.

It took about 15 to 20 minutes for the police to show up. During that time I made a mental list of all of the things they could have stolen. I was just so grateful that no one was home when the break-in occurred. My eldest son was actually supposed to be there (though no cars would have been in the front hinting of this), but in a strange turn of events earlier that morning plans changed and he left about two hours prior. The police arrived, pulled their guns (that made it all the more real & scary), and explored the inside of the house.

When the "all clear" was signaled I followed inside and was relieved to find the only thing stolen was our TV. Let me re-phrase that - Jason's TV. In a previous life, his pride and joy. Well, I probably shouldn't put it like that, but he did like it. It was a large flat-screen he had purchased almost 4 years back in our higher income and more-mindless-consumerist days. It was quite expensive at the time as the technology was fairly new. It killed me to purchase it, but it was one of those "I've worked so hard [and indeed he had] and I deserve to relax" kind of arguments, and it was hard to disagree. He was the sole bread winner and extremely hard worker, and I wanted him to be able to have something he could lose his mind in now and then. Fast forward 4 years - we'd never buy a TV such as that now. But we've changed alot since then, too. The loss of that TV was a blessing in disguise - and no, I don't mean because of a large insurance pay-out. We ended up not even claiming it as our deductible is so high. So new window - check. New door - check. But did we get a new TV, you ask?

We have now been without that TV for two months. Other than the fact of feeling violated because someone broke into our home, honestly I couldn’t be happier. The kids (ages 3, 10, & 11) haven’t suffered in the least. Our 3 year old, especially, would be in a catatonic state when the TV was on. And when it wasn’t on, he would almost constantly ask me to watch something. He NEVER asks now, and just plays by himself or with his siblings. There wasn’t even a hard transition period – we were like “We no longer have a TV,” and his response was “OH NO!!!... Well, OK!” (scampers off to go play). That surprised me the most. I figured he’d be scarred for life!

The benefits are endless. No more ads encouraging us to eat crappy food. No more ads telling us our clothes aren't the hippest styles. No more Victoria's Secret commercials popping up while my kids are watching when I can't find the remote. No more worthless entertainment & celebrity "news". No more reality TV that so easily draws you in. More family time. More time to draw, read, and play the piano. More time to cook. More time to clean! Well, that may not be a positive, but you get the drift. People – including kids(!) – can survive, and even thrive, without TV. I swear! I can’t promise we’ll never have a TV again, but it is definitely now on the bottom of our “wants” list. Note I didn't say "needs"! -Carrie

Halloween Non-Gluttony

I know this post is a bit late, but I wanted to get it out in cyberspace nonetheless. My brothers and I grew up in the woods on a dirt road with only a few neighbors. Rereading that it sounds like we were raised by wolves! No - we lived in a nice house with real, wonderful parents. But because of the scarcity of homes on our street we didn't really do the trick-or-treating thing there.

However, we lived less than two miles from our 5 closest cousins who lived in a much larger, more traditional neighborhood. This became our haunting grounds every October 31st. The moms would stay behind and hand out candy, while the dads walked (often more like ran) the eight of us around. We each got a glow stick to wear around our necks (seriously one of the highlights of the night - we only got a glow stick once a year). The houses weren't too close together or too far apart (most of the lots were approximately 1/2-1 acre). We hit as many houses as our little legs could carry us. There was always so much anticipation for the candy that would soon fill our bags. What kinds would we score? How many of each? Etc., etc. Then there was the organizing and trading when we got back to "base camp" (my uncle's house).

I don't know if I've gotten too old or cynical or jaded or what, but Halloween seems to have lost some of it's mystique. The picture above was taken two weeks ago. Crowded doesn't even begin to describe it. Because we now live on a busy, fairly major thoroughfare where no one trick-or-treats, we walked the mile to our old neighborhood to partake of the festivities. We literally know most of the people who live there, so we were also looking forward to catching up with a few of them. However, it quickly became apparent we wouldn't be staying very long. With every house we attempted to get our son up to the porch, I literally started feeling sick to my stomach. I just couldn't shake the thoughts of "What are we becoming as a society?"

Somehow, in recent years, our old historic neighborhood has become something of a "destination" - a holy grail, if you will - for candy seekers. I haven't been able to come up with a solid reason as to why. We've heard horror stories (no pun intended!) of people going through 2,000 pieces of candy, or a couple of hundred dollars worth of candy - in only 30 minutes. I would guess about 95% of the trick-or-treaters do not live (or have never lived) in the neighborhood - and it's a large one with 700 houses. I can appreciate perhaps wanting to take your kids to a safe neighborhood. I really can. But what kills me are the kids (and adults!) who aren't even dressed up at all, walking up to the homeowner and just sticking out their bag. What happened to common courtesy? Another frequent sight are the parents who drive their kids from house to house because they are literally too lazy to park the car and walk. Folks, these houses are not far apart - the lots are each 1/6 of an acre. Yes, the argument could be made that perhaps they have a disability or something. This could be true - but it's probably 1% of those driving. After one street, we walked home.

Like the juxtaposition of the candy with the healthy stuff?

Over the next 24 hours I saw posts on Facebook of people saying their kids collected 7, 8, and 9 pounds of candy. So I weighed our son's. After only eating about 4 or 5 pieces, his total collection came to just over one pound. And I couldn't be happier with that one pound. He got to engage in a fun, time-honored tradition dressed as a muscle man, he practiced his manners - always saying thank you for everything he was given, we had a nice family walk on a gorgeous night, we saw some old friends, and he got a bit of candy to boot. I guess I just wish more people would relish the whole act of Halloween instead of making it a race to see who can collect the most candy in the shortest amount of time - while throwing manners and common sense to the wind. Did anyone else experience something like this during Halloween, or am I just getting too old (and cynical) for my own good? -Carrie

Automated America

A while ago I asked the question, “Do you think we are too busy as a society?” Here’s another, “Do you think we’ve all gotten a little lazy?”

I walk into my local Big Box Supercenter and half the people are well past the sizes that they should be. More and more you see people maneuvering around in motorized carts, and while I know some legitimately need them, by and far I believe they are enabling the overweight to get “overweighter.”

Evolution takes hundreds and hundreds of years to make major changes to a species. The human race has managed to reinvent ourselves in about a hundred years, and the advent of petroleum in our lives has introduced a slew of issues our culture and bodies were not prepared to deal with. For instance, our bodies are hard wired to store extra energy we take in because we simply didn’t know when the next meal would be. Today’s farming techniques uses copious amounts of fossil fuels to produce consistent crops year round and at far greater yields. An acre of corn used to produce 20 bushels of corn and today pushes close to 200. This surplus is transformed and mutated into cheap cupcakes, Twinkies, and soda.

Cars now carry us to and from every place we need to go, sometimes just a few blocks at a time. Big machines pick-up building materials and load them onto trucks like a child with his Lincoln Logs. Plastics are poured and molded in seconds to replace the wooden objects we took hours to make just 20 years ago. Mundane tasks like washing the laundry not only got our clothes clean, but kept us healthy through exercise. Not to be hypocrites - we are relative newbies on this journey to get back in touch with our roots. We still use a washing machine (though rarely use a dryer), we still use cars (though we use bikes when possible), we still use the air conditioning (though very rarely – it is a common occurrence for it to be over 90 in the house), and we still love unhealthy food (both of us could lose some weight but agree that it's nothing a vacation at an Amish Resort wouldn't fix).

A good hard day’s work used to involve several hours of physical labor followed by the satisfaction of seeing your fields grow and crops multiply. Years ago, when we were a nation of farmers, we had to toil daily to work our land and from what I’m seeing on my little fraction of an acre, the land doesn’t “give” you anything. You have to work to get those veggies! Today we teach our children to go get good educations so that they can become doctors and lawyers, engineers and architects, all for the pleasure of working under the air conditioning and going to Disney every year with the family. I’m not saying we should be teaching our children to become ditch diggers, but there’s nothing wrong with getting your hands dirty and as I’ve stated before, it’s healthy for you. Maybe even a little spiritual. -Jason