The Growing Challenge, A Belated Update

I've been negligent in updating for The Growing Challenge. Truth be told, I'm really struggling with being a gardener this year. So many obstacles presented themselves: abnormal weather, failure to prepare all my beds adequately last fall, unsuccessful seedling starting method. If it had been only one thing, then I would have been able to (probably) keep going without losing momentum. With all of these at the same time, it makes it a challenge to get and stay excited about gardening. I have very little in the ground right now and some of the seeds I sowed haven't appeared. Some did appear and were promptly eaten by snails before I could even apply my eggshell snail deterrent. I will have to rely on some starts bought from the local farm store and sow some more seeds and cross my fingers. In the meantime, here are some photos of plants that are thriving:

Strawberries

Comfrey

A calendula that reseeded itself last year.

Soapwort, which I've recently read can be boiled and it makes a mild cleaning solution or laundry solution for delicates, kind of like nature's very own Woolite.

My new lavenders are all full of buds.

Who knew that horehound has these pretty little purple flowers? Apparently not me!

A Bright Spot in the Midst of Chaos

Aren't these flowers pretty?

Adriana brought them for me on Sunday, the family dinner day. They are still pert and perky today. What a bright spot in the mess!

I did get a good bit accomplished upstairs today, but didn't do much at all downstairs. I got my weekly grocery shopping and meal planning done, however. More cleaning tomorrow!

A Day of Hard Labor

That's what I have planned for tomorrow. Having guests over for dinner always makes a mess. That's just par for the course. What really did me in (for the downstairs anyway) wasn't having guests, but being gone or sleeping for the majority of the next three days. That's where the detritus from a dinner party turned into a chaotic safety and health hazard.

The explanation for what happened upstairs is a little different. It's just the lack of a deep cleaning and reorganization since last year, so things have gotten very disorganized and shoved in places where they shouldn't be but make easy work of tidying in the daily course of chores.

The downstairs situation was very apparent in my twisting and turning and gingerly stepping my way from one room to the other. The upstairs became apparent when we tried to find a library book that had been lost for more than a week.

To remedy this situation, I have declared tomorrow: Day of Hard Labor to Clean and Sort the House. In reality, I don't think it can be accomplished in one day, but we can at least put a dent in it.

The Wedding Album

The best man (my cousin David) wiping the girls' shoes off.

The lovely flower girls.

The bride and groom broke with tradition and saw each other before the ceremony.

The bridal party.

Those cute flower girls again!

The beautiful bride and her brother.

My Uncle Al looking very dapper.

There was dancing aplenty.

As well as cake!

And little girls frolicking in the grass.

Canoeing in the lake. That's my guy at the stern, with Juliana, then Isabel sitting with my lovely cousin Adriana and finally Maddy heading up the bow.

All in all, it was a great time. The setting was beautiful; the weather cooperated and didn't even sprinkle on us! The company was hilarious and familiar. The cake moist and delicious. What more could you ask for in a wedding?

(On the way to the wedding, we heard "White Wedding" by Billy Idol on the radio. Seriously.)

The Ball and Chain Are Firmly Attached

And the wedding is over. We are going to see my family one last time tomorrow morning before everyone disseminates across the country in the next couple of days. After a wedding photo post and recap, blog life will resume to the normal content.

Practice Makes Perfect Flower Girls

They were sure to fit some fun time in during the rehearsal!

A Success!

The dinner went great. The food was very good, with the exception that the meat was much drier and tougher than I had anticipated for some reason. I think I might have it cooked it too high and long because of getting distracted by two rousing games of Hit or Miss. (We are a hard-core game family.) It was great seeing family that we hadn't seen for a couple of years and showing our house to many of them for the first time.

I didn't actually get any pictures to make your mouths water, because I was so busy!

As a sad side note, our new french press carafe got broken on Friday. Boy, I'm sure glad it wasn't me that did it. I would have never lived that one down!

My Big Fat Greek Pre-Wedding Dinner

Thank you Jana and Angelina for taking the time to give some excellent meal suggestions. Jana, your suggestions were very good, but they scream summer to me and unfortunately, we are still having very early spring-like weather. Memorial Day is all about the bbq's and kicking off summer, but it was only in the upper 50's yesterday and we are forecasted to have rain off and on through Monday.

Angelina, you are very familiar with what's available locally and you suggested the potato dish that is kind of Greek inspired, which is a direction that my mind was already heading.

I happen to do Greek pretty well. There aren't Greek restaurants in every locale, so it's sometimes a treat to eat Greek and I happen to know that my family also enjoys Greek. (There's a really good Greek restaurant in Albuquerque that I have eaten at with all the family who is coming, except Adriana). I can also incorporate many local ingredients into a Greek themed dinner.

So, here's what I've got planned!

• Souvlaki (baked instead of skewered)-I'm going to make one batch of marinade and do several types of meat in their own dish. This will include local pork and goat (a way to introduce people to goat but still giving them the option of other meat and no pressure) from our freezer and boneless free-range chicken from our local natural food store.
• Greek salad-Salad mix and radishes from our CSA basket
• Roasted potatoes and asparagus-I'm pretty sure I can find some local potatoes at the natural food store and the asparagus is local.
• Greens and rice-This recipe typically calls for spinach, but I'm going to substitute collard greens from our CSA basket.
• Tzatziki-This will have local garlic and homemade yogurt from local raw milk.
• Galataboureko-This dessert will feature local eggs, but not local milk, because I'm running out of milk. (We only get 1 1/2 gallons per week and can't increase it because of the tight supply.)

Most of the unlocal ingredients that will go into these dishes are olive oil, lemon juice, rice and phyllo dough. The other good thing is that many of these can be completely or mostly prepared ahead of time and then cooked as they arrive or before we feel like eating. I'm hoping to get a short stroll to our historic downtown in as well, because I'd like to show off our cute downtown and the dishes can cook while we go, if that pans out.

EDIT: For anyone who cares about the details, it has just been confirmed that an aunt, uncle and cousin who were tentatively planning on coming are definitely coming. I will be feeding 12. That's doable.

Company's Coming to Dinner

My cousin is getting married next week (and the girls will be flower girls). That means family is coming up this way and we don't get to see them nearly enough. We will be hosting my aunt, uncle, cousin and cousin's wife for dinner on Sunday.

I actually really like to have people over, but we don't do it nearly enough because I feel uncomfortable with my hosting skills. The menu always stresses me out. It's not exactly because I want to impress people. Believe me, I've thought a lot about it. I think it's the feeling that I really enjoy cooking and making people happy and I want to make sure that I prepare a meal that will do both of those things extremely well.

So, I've got lots of meal ideas floating around in my head right now, but nothing that I've decided on as the perfect one. Feel free to offer suggestions if you are so inclined.


*A, if you have any requests, now would be the time to speak up! Aunt K, I know you are on the road, but if you check in you pipe in too!

Location, Location, Location

As an addendum to my post about walking, I should touch on the location of our home. We live in a small city or maybe even a town; I don't know what the population differences are in the specific definition of each. We have a lovely, vibrant, historic downtown area.

In my past few weeks of walking, I've discovered what an ideal location our house is in. We are less than 10 blocks from downtown, which houses our farmers market, local health food store, post office, library, city park, our business bank, toy store and aquatic center. It also has an assortment of shops and restaurants which we frequent less often. We also have a couple friends who are in the near neighborhood.

In addition, we are within walking distance (though not as close) to our personal bank, Goodwill, Staples and another good friend.

We live in pretty much the perfect, central location on our town.

We have aspirations to move onto a few acres in the future, but since we live in town now, I am so thankful for our central location and the ability to get around on foot much of the time.

Walking a Mile in My Shoes

I've been walking a lot lately. The reasons for this are several. The catalyst was gas prices inching ever closer to $4.00/gallon (nearly there now). There was also the issue of not driving for errands that were easily in walking distance with some planning (not always easy for the chronically tardy). Another big one is the need for exercise that didn't involve the elliptical machine that I have come to dread. With walking fulfilling so many practicalities, what's not to love about it?

Well, for the first few weeks, what I didn't love was the burning in my shins that started after a few minutes of walking. I tried different shoes, stretching, altering my step and even googling its possible causes. You know what fixed it, I think? A two minute lower leg massage. I was reading the girls their bedtime story last week and (unasked and unroutinely) Lawrence rubbed my legs. It felt great, of course, but then the next day I noticed that my shins weren't burning. It's been well over a week now and my shin affliction has vanished. Who knew it could be remedied so easily?

Just in case you're wondering how much walking I've been doing, I've been walking almost every day. For the first 19 days of May, I've averaged 28 minutes per day. There were a few days that were nearing an hour of walking and then some with no walking, but that's what the average is. We also figured out that we are saving at least $10/week in gas just by walking.

Blogging for A Year, Checking In

Can you all believe I have been blogging everyday for four and a half months now? Sure it's not always stunningly interesting, but aren't you impressed with my stick-to-it-ness?

More fun things to be posted in the future.

Where's The Goat?

On our plate, of course! Behold, my first goat burger (no lettuce so I used baby chard instead):

This is the second dish that I have prepared with the chevon that we purchased several weeks ago. The first was a goat biryani that turned out superbly. These goat burgers were also delicious.

I was anticipating that goat would taste a lot like lamb; though I had been told otherwise, I still thought it would. What do you know? It doesn't taste like lamb. It's not strongly flavored. Lawrence said it tastes similar to deer, but I've never tried deer, so I can't say myself. It is a bit like beef, but it is quite lean and a little more white meat feeling than beef, but not towards the spectrum of pork.

The girls were a bit reticent to try the goat biryani since they hadn't tried goat before. They were converts after the first bite.

And yes, for those wondering, the older two were perfectly aware that this was an animal whose relatives we saw on the farm. We are glad that we are able to connect them in a tangible way to their food sources (animal and vegetable) so that they aren't under the impression that it comes from a grocery store, clad in plastic and Styrofoam. We need to not be wasteful and to buy from farms that raise meat animals humanely and slaughter them humanely if we choose to eat animal products, and to support local farmers to keep money in our economy and also to ensure that it is fresh and hasn't significantly contributed to our consumption of gas. Maddy gets this very clearly; Isabel is catching on and Juliana will in the future. Educating our future consumers is a very important way to affect change in our food system, I think.

Sunday's Word Week #23

latitudinarian

adjective:

1. Having or expressing broad and tolerant views, especially in religious matters.
2. A person who is broad-minded and tolerant; one who displays freedom in thinking, especially in religious matters.
3. [Often capitalized] A member of the Church of England, in the time of Charles II, who adopted more liberal notions in respect to the authority, government, and doctrines of the church than generally prevailed.

Hot, Hot, Hot

This weather pretty much sums up the past three days. Hot, hot, hot; need water. We had low and upper 90's these three days. Not great for us since we just had snow flurries not even a month ago. Thank goodness it will be cooling down now.

A New Addition to My Wish List

You know how you think you want something, say a kitchen appliance, and you pine after it and finally get it, use it a couple of times and then it gets relegated to a dusty shelf in your garage or basement and it's pulled out every year or two? Well, I have added a kitchen appliance to my wish list and I just know that it won't meet the same fate.

I have wanted a dehydrator for awhile now, but didn't want to spend the money not knowing which model I would like. My good friend Angelina has one that she likes, but not having spent time with it, I didn't know the model or how much it cost. Rather fortuitously, Angelina came and cut my mint and lemon balm to dry and split with me, then she didn't have time to finish it because of a trip to Scotland (can you believe she chose Scotland over drying herbs?) so she brought it over for me to finish up the job. Now, I've had a week to acquaint myself with it. (I feel like it should have a name, but it isn't mine, so "it" will have to suffice.) I love it. I am imagining all the possibilities. Foraging for prune plums in the summer and making our own, because we go through a lot of prunes here; the girls love them and eat them like candy. Apple rings, dried berries, herbs (for culinary purposes and also soap making), jerky, making crispy nuts...the possibilities might not be endless but they are many.


It seems that Angelina's model is a slightly older one and there is a newer, though almost identical model that is more widely available than her model. It is only $56.84 on Amazon! Wow! What a deal! Here she is:

Angelina's model is available at Bi-Mart (our local multi-department kind of store, like a dated, miniature, locally owned Walmart or K-Mart) for $49.99. If I get the Amazon one, I can buy it soon with gift certificates, which means no money out of pocket. So, even though it costs a little more, it would actually be less, in a way.

No Longer Listless, For the Most Part

I've never been a list person. I keep things going in my head or I've done a pretty good job of convincing myself that I do, anyway. With my recent spate of procrastination and no motivation, I decided to take up list making as a way to motivate, track accomplishments and remind me how much I haven't gotten done, in an attempt to make me do more. It's not working very well, yet, as far as getting more done but at least I can see what I still have to do and that is actually pretty helpful. So, I will keep it up and see if I can improve.

How People Get Here, Part II

I just checked my site stats again to see what search terms were getting people here. It's always rather amusing. I will say that my Baking Soda Queen appellation is still appropriate. I've also been getting a large amount of traffic from Cottage Magpie.

With no further ado, here are the search terms leading here for the most recent 25 visitors:

• apple cider vinegar hair
• freezing homemade cream of mushroom soup
• home depot clothesline & umbrellas
• can you use apple cider vinegar in laundry
• urban homesteaders
• homemaker electric heater
• baking soda for hair rinse
• snail repellent eggshell
• baking soda for hair
• vinegar bakingsoda cleaning agent
• baking soda hair rinse
• baking soda apple cider hair
• dissolve baking soda hair bottle
• lowes retractable line

Wow. That's a lot of people interested in vinegar and baking soda! I might have to change the name of my blog to The Baking Soda & Vinegar Enthusiast.

Did I Really Need More Bags?

Why, yes, I did and to that end, I completed my second internet swap. This one was soap for reusable bulk buying bags. I've actually been belated in posting about it, because they arrived on Friday. I'm so excited to use them. I wanted to make them myself months ago, right after I made my produce bags, but I haven't been in a sewing mood for awhile. I just don't actually enjoy it that much, I've realized. So, my friend Lisa at Colors Outside the Lines suggested a trade. She sent three of them in various sizes to test out and give my opinion about. They won't be used until Friday, my regular shopping day. In fact, I was expecting them last Friday morning and anticipated using them. My mail arrived and no package. I was disappointed, but went on with my list making and then my shopping. As I was coming back from our local natural foods store, I saw a mail truck leaving my house. He'd delivered a package! The bags. It was too late for using them that day, but how weird is that? My packages always arrive with the rest of my mail.

Aren't these bags lovely?


You can get your very own set at her Etsy store, if you think they are as nifty as I do.

Procrastination Rears Its Head Again

I had many good ideas for interesting posts today. However, I procrastinated and then my children became too cranky and dinner needed to be made, so I'm posting about procrastination again.

I decided to make a list of the things that I needed to accomplish today and only one thing got checked off. I'm having some motivation issues to say the least.

Happy Mother's Day

I hope all you mamas out there had a wonderful Mother's Day.

Pox at Our Place

We've got chicken pox. Only child one down so far. Juliana started with the spots today. Some on her head are already blistering, so I think those might have been there yesterday and I didn't see them. So far she's not doing too badly, mostly clingy, cranky and wanting to nurse more frequently than normal. I think we'll have a speedy recovery. Now, I hope the other girls get it quickly and get over it quickly.

Trading in Pieces of the Modern Life

Mysti recently posted about appliances and amenities that she would give up in order to decrease consumption. I think this is an excellent topic and one that deserves serious thought. As such, I've been contemplating it over the past two days and thinking as I am showering or hanging my laundry or walking on errands, of how things have changed in my own life in the past couple of years, how it has changed our quality of life and what other changes we can make. The simple fact is that we use too much and consume too much in our Western lives. Sure, we are more comfortable and all these measures save time, but to what end? Do we work 60 hours per week so that we can afford all these modern conveniences that save us 40 hours? I don't know that it's such a great trade off. Don't get me wrong, I do enjoy many of our modern conveniences but I also think there's a beauty and simplicity, a natural peace and rhythm to doing without some things.

Here is a list of the modern conveniences that we have and that most people have and take for granted:

• Furnace/central heating
• Air conditioning
• Computer
• TV
• Car
• Dishwasher
• Refrigerator
• Stove/oven
• Clothes washer
• Dryer
• Microwave
• Hot water heater
• Electric lights
• Toilet
• Freezer

Furnace-I would be more than happy to give up my furnace and central heating for a wood stove. When we have discussed building our dream home, it has always included a masonry stove for whole house heating and not a gas furnace or electric heat. I am also very interested in geothermal heating and high efficiency wood furnaces. If one utilizes a wood stove for heating, it can also be a primary heat source for cooking.

Air Conditioning-We have a window unit in our living room that we installed the summer before last, at my husband's insistence. I admit that it is nice to have a cooler room, but I could live without it. We don't get prolonged periods of intense heat here, so it is certainly an amenity.

Computer-This is something that I wouldn't want to do without. It is my primary form of communication and I also learn a lot from it. I'm always researching and it's is an invaluable resource to me.

TV-I enjoy the TV. We Tivo many things and it is something that I would certainly give up if I had to, but it wouldn't be the first on my list. I'd actually rather give up my washing machine or dishwasher.

Car-I'd give up regular use of my car, I'd still like to have it for longer trips. I've cut down our use significantly in the past month or so. The girls and I have been walking on many of our errands. The price of gas is getting too high, too quickly to drive unnecessarily. I'd really like to switch to a smaller, more economical vehicle, but it isn't in the budget right now and hubby is also worried about me driving a smaller car in heavy traffic.

Dishwasher-Really like it, but could give it up without much pain.

Refrigerator-I would have a difficult time giving this up.

Stove/oven-I would have difficulty giving this up without a wood stove as an alternative. I cook and bake a lot.

Clothes washer-Strangely, Becca at Diary of a New Old-Fashioned Gal, just posted about the last washboard company in the US, this week. I looked at their website and considered buying a washboard. They are very reasonably priced and you never know when they might come in handy. Since starting to hang much of our laundry on the clothesline to dry, I could actually see doing this. I really don't think that it would be as difficult as one might imagine. Not that it isn't hard, but when you start to be more deliberate in your actions, you examine circumstances. Is this shirt really dirty? Does it need to be laundered? Many times I find that the answer is no. We throw things in the hamper out of habit or laziness. It is frequently easier to throw it in the hamper than it is to hang it back up or fold it and put it away.

Dryer-It is nice for smaller items like cloth wipes and socks, but it's not necessary. I wouldn't have a difficult time giving it up.

Microwave-I could give this up easily.

Hot water heater-I'd not want to give this up, but I could give up my gas hot water heater for a solar one.

Electric lights-This would probably be one of the last things that I would have on my list of things I'd give up. I'm a night person, so lights kind of come in handy.

Toilets-I've seriously tried to talk Lawrence into installing composting toilets. We have friends who are experimenting with humanure and I find it fascinating. We kind of have the "if it's yellow let it mellow, if it's brown flush it down" rule here.

Freezer-I would have a difficult time giving this up. It enables us to buy pastured meat affordably in bulk and store it long term. I also store locally picked fruits and veggies this way. This wouldn't be on my list to give up.

The biggest change that I've made in giving things up has been in the past couple of months, that's when I started hanging 2/3 (or more) of our laundry to dry on our basement clothesline. We have also started walking much more. There's something wonderful and refreshing about using our body and mind to do something that can be done so mindlessly by a machine (either the dryer or our van). I consider it organic exercise and I'm seeking ways to incorporate more of it into my life. If I can do that, I can forget about my hated elliptical machine.

What would you all give up? What do you think you couldn't live without? If you post on your blog, would you let me know in the comments? I'd be interested to see everyone's thoughts.

My Baking Soda & Vinegar Hair Regimen

These two bottles are the entirety of my hair care products. The one on the right is my baking soda solution (for washing) and the one on the left is my dilution of apple cider vinegar (for conditioning).

I know I've posted about it before, but I've had a recent conversation with a friend that made me think I should post about it again, with instructions.

I would say that I have normal to borderline oily hair, which used to be full blown oily. I had to wash it every day. About three years ago I heard about going no poo and decided to give it a try. I started by weaning to washing with shampoo every other day, then after several weeks, I switched out my shampoo and conditioner for baking soda and vinegar. When I started I was using dry baking soda, but over the time I found that making a wet baking soda solution was much more convenient. For more than two and a half years I was able to go with washing every other day, then in the past month and a half, something changed and I've gone to washing every third day. I don't know if it was hormones that changed or what, but it's simply not as oily as it used to be.

Here are the specifics, I put about 3-4 tablespoons of baking soda in my bottle (an old shampoo bottle) and add about 10 drops of essential oils (because I like things that smell good and I also experiment with scent combinations for my soaps) and top it off with water. This bottles holds about 10 or 12 ounces. For the apple cider vinegar, I use a peri bottle. I add two ounces of apple cider vinegar and top off with water.

When I'm showering, I wet my hair as normal, squirt some baking soda solution into it and massage throughout my scalp. Rinse as you would with shampoo, then I squirt some vinegar solution onto my hair and rinse.

The most difficult part was adjusting to it not lathering like shampoo.

I like this method more than shampoo. When we traveled to New Mexico a couple of years ago, I bought organic shampoo and conditioner so that I wouldn't have to be troubled with taking containers of baking soda and vinegar to refill when my bottles ran out, and I couldn't wait to get back to my regular routine, because my hair looks and feels better with no poo. Plus it is so much cheaper and there is little packaging waste.

I have used this with hair that is halfway down my back and also with hair that is just below my ears, so it can be used for any hair length.

My love affair with baking soda and vinegar continues...

Getting In Tune with My Cycle and How to Delay or Prevent Pregnancies

In the past few weeks, I've had a couple of conversations about things that I do as a matter of course that are not mainstream (me, not mainstream? go figure!). So, I figured that other gals might be curious about these practices and I'm going to post about both this week.

The first one I'm going to address is how we have chosen to deal with fertility and birth control. We don't use birth control. What started out as either my birth control pills going up in price or no longer being covered by my insurance (I can't remember which now) led us to discover and take a course in Natural Family Planning (or NFP). The method is almost identical to the fertility awareness method (or FAM). The primary difference is how one chooses to deal with the period of fertility. NFP teaches abstinence during that period, because it is primarily a Catholic promoted method and FAM advocates abstinence or barrier methods.

When we first started taking classes, in which a nice older couple who had practiced NFP for years came to our home to teach us personally, I heard a lot of snide remarks from people about the rhythm method not working for their mothers (or more typically) their grandmothers. I believe that. The rhythm method works on the assumption that women ovulate on the 14th day of their 28 day cycle, which is certainly true for some women, but not all or even most.

What actually occurred is that we learned a method for delaying pregnancy, we opened our hearts to having a second child and I learned about the wonders of the female cycle. It actually is amazing how we work and what signals our bodies sends to us that we can interpret into where we are in our cycle. When I started paying attention, I discovered that what I thought were random, painful lower back problems were actually menstrual cramps (not unlike the back labor I experienced in each of my three labors). Things I thought were yeasty problems were actually a normal sign that ovulation was approaching.

So, how does it differ from the rhythm method? That is an excellent question. It's based on science. That's a start. The basic thing that I do is take my temperature most days of the month at approximately the same time each day, give or take an hour. This is your basal temperature, which not only rises after ovulation, but stays higher if you are pregnant and is also an excellent indicator of low thyroid function if it is consistently low (as mine is, but that's another issue). Then you can basically break down your cycle into three phases, Phase 1 (starting with the first day of your period and the few days after, depending on the length of your regular cycle), Phase 2 (your fertile period) and then Phase 3 (your phase of infertility after ovulation up to the first day of your next period). Then there are two other indicators that women can use to back up their temperature observations. The first is cervical fluid. It increases and changes texture as your ovulation approaches (nope, it's not a yeast infection [likely], it's lubrication so that the sperm survives and fertilizes that egg!). The other is the feel of your cervix. It gets softer and opens slightly when you ovulate.* When one first starts practicing NFP or FAM, one usually observes all three signs to familiarize yourself with how your body works and to establish a series of cycles on charts as a baseline. As you become more practiced it becomes easier to be more lax and not take your temperature every single day and make the other two observations.

Is it more work than other methods to prevent or delay pregnancies? It certainly was a daily commitment to remember to take my birth control pill. It is more work than a tubal ligation, vasectomy, IUD, the inserts in your arm or the new hormonal birth control cervical rings. But surgery has side effects and is difficult and not always possible to reverse should you change your mind. IUD's have their own set of risks and hormonal birth control has the side effects that come with ingesting hormones. We have both decided that this is the method for us because it doesn't have any nasty side effects on either of our health, it is completely reversible, free and natural.

And it works, too. We've been using it for nearly eight years and the only unplanned pregnancy was Juliana, but honestly, when you use NFP, you know when you are bending the rules and it is a failure to follow rules and not a failure of the method if you take that risk. So, it wasn't an complete surprise to find myself expecting a few weeks later.

Finally comes the charting and interpretation of all these symptoms that you are observing. When we first started, we used a mercury thermometer and paper charts. We've long since upgraded to a digital basal thermometer (basal thermometers read by the .1 instead of .2 like regular thermometers, which is essential). A couple of years ago, I upgraded to computer charting which makes interpretation a breeze.

If you haven't had your fill of information from this post, you can find out more from the Couple to Couple League, which is the Catholic organization that we took our classes with. There is also a book called Taking Charge of Your Fertility by Toni Weschler, which I own. It simplifies it so well and makes the information less intimidating, in my opinion, than the Couple to Couple League's NFP course. The Couple to Couple League's NFP course is very detailed and taught in person, which can be a plus for some. I got my charting software from Ovusoft, which is the website that accompanies Taking Charge of Your Fertility.

And finally, one cool feature about NFP or FAM, you can use the very same method to get pregnant and many women who had difficulty conceiving were able to use FAM to successfully conceive because you are pinpointing your most fertile period, which is very important for both conception or avoiding conception!


*A little anecdote, in Ethiopia (if memory serves me correctly) it is is common knowledge that is passed onto the young women that when the cervix is open and flowing you are fertile. When it closes you are infertile!

Kale & Cauliflower...the Perfect Match

Sometimes it can be a challenge to deal with the vegetables one receives in a CSA basket. It forces me to be more inventive and try things I wouldn't try, or combine vegetables in a way that I wouldn't have though to do before. A recent combination that turned out deliciously is roasted cauliflower and kale. I started the cauliflower with some olive oil, salt and pepper first then after 10 or 15 minutes I added the kale until it was starting to get crispy. Here's the deal with it. The kale gets crispy. And it sounds weird being crispy and all, but it is really yummy. It reminds me of something, but I haven't quite been able to put my finger on it. It is satisfying in a salty, crunchy, olive-oily way that chips are, but it's kale, so it's super healthy for you on top of being good.

Could It Finally Be Spring?

I think that spring may have finally come to the Willamette Valley. I'm not talking about the teaser days where the temperature spikes and then we have freezing rain or snow two days later. I mean days that stay reasonably warm (over 55) and shower-y days interspersed with dry days. We had great, dry warm days yesterday and today. I didn't do any yard work. I think I have some sort of gardening depression settling over me. The time when I should have been feverishly working on the garden was too cold and winter-like, so it seems like it has thrown the gardening season off for me. Rest assured, I will shake it off.

I did enjoy the warm weather yesterday by sitting on the porch and sewing some buttons on work shirts that sat around all winter because I hate button sewing. It seemed more palatable to be taking the sun on the porch and doing them there.

Sunday's Word Week #22

compaternity

–noun

the relationship between the godparents of a child or between the godparents and the child's parents.

Happy Saturday!

Taking the Plunge...

into self haircuts. April has been doing this for awhile now. I hadn't the courage to do it yet. Until today. I got tired of waiting for Lawrence to come home early enough (he did my last cut) or stay late enough in the morning and didn't want to spend the money to get the mediocre cut that usually results, so I took my shears out this morning, spread a sheet in front of the mirror and started chopping. I must say it doesn't look too bad. At least as good as usual and I won't get annoyed when I have to trim the hairs that didn't get done in the first go, like I do when I have to pay for one. So far nobody has asked me what happened to my hair. It wasn't nearly as scary as I thought it would be.

Meeting Our Meat, Sort Of

A couple of months ago we placed a deposit on a meat goat, Red Sky, and waited for him to gain to the optimal weight. He was ready at the end of last week and he was processed this week. We went to pick up our chevon (goat meat) today and stopped, on the way back from the processor's, at the farm where he was raised. We met the very nice owner and her lovely daughter, who gave us a tour of the place and told us the names of all the goats! They do all have names. We got to see her rabbits and three week old bunnies as well.




The white goat with the brown head, the third from the left in the picture, was Red Sky's mother. So, even though we didn't get to actually meet this meat, we did get to meet his mother and see his farm. Doesn't get much fresher than that.