Quiet Time

I was given a special gift this morning and it did not cost a single cent. It was the gift of some quiet time. The sad thing is I almost refused it and ignored the gift. It has been a hectic but fun couple of weeks so I was up way before everyone else today. My first thought was to jump into the morning chores and tasks of the day. This morning, though, I stopped myself. I decided to take some time for myself. I sat and read quietly in the living room by the glow of the Christmas tree. It was very peaceful and relaxing.

Time for myself is one area I am working on trying to do better on. I tend to put myself and needs last and get caught up in the busyness that still plagues me. I find that I am a better person, parent and spouse though when I do take this time. I am also much more efficient in my tasks after a little break. I am glad I stopped today and took it. I feel refreshed and ready to start the day. The sun is shining and it is warm for a winter day.

Here is my first New Year's resolution: Take quiet time for myself each day.  

Home Again

I always enjoy visiting especially over the holidays but their is nothing like being home again. We made it home from my sister's house late this afternoon. Our cat, O"Malley greeted us at the door with complaints of leaving her here alone and our chickens were squawking for treats. Normalness on the Webb homestead. The rabbit greeted us as we came to her cage. As always, our friends took great care of our animals and house while we were gone.

We came home to 50 degree weather with all the snow melted. We unpacked the car and went for a walk to enjoy the nice break in the weather. My sister sent us home with tons of leftovers so I will not have to cook the next couple of days. Tonight, we will sit and watch Mary's favorite movie, "It's a Wonderful Life" and play games together. I love this time of year.

Happy Anniversary

Today is my parent's 48th anniversary., We get to spend it with them frequently because of how it falls around Christmas. My parents have spent 48 years together living together through good and bad times. They still support and love us as adults but expect us to be independent. We would not want it any other way. They are always there for the celebrations in life as well as the tough times. They still have many interests they share together and support each other as they age.

My parents raised three daughters. Even though we all live in different cities we continue to be very close.  We enjoy our times together especially when we are together as a family. Yesterday, we celebrated our family Christmas here. We opened presents and played games together. My sister has been a gracious hostess as we have invaded her house for a couple of days. She is a delicious cook. As is our recent tradition, we all contributed our specialities to the Christmas dinner. We had Ossian ham, cranberry sauce, brussel sprout casserole and Mom's homemade mac and cheese. Dessert was a combination of each of our homemade Christmas cookies.

I applaud my parents of their accomplishments in their 48 years of life together. Happy Anniversary!

Ronald McDonald House

As I have mentioned before, my youngest daughter has mitochondrial disease. This requires visits to Cincinnati Children's Hospital (about 1 1/2-2 hours away) and Cleveland Clinic (6-7 hours away). Sunday night we traveled to Cincinnati for my daughter to have an overnight sleep study completed. While there, I spent the night with her while my husband and other daughter spent the night across the street at the Ronald McDonald House (RMH). We have stayed at the one in Cincinnati as well as Cleveland.

Before Makenzie's illness, I had heard of RMH before. Had seen the little change donation boxes at the local McDonalds. I never realized what a huge impact on people's lives they have for families of seriously ill children. Our stays have ranged from 1 night to over a week. I have met families there who have been there for much longer periods of time due to their child's illness. While in the house, you will hear conversations in many different languages as people from all over the world come to get the care their child requires. As you can imagine having a seriously ill child can be stressful both mentally and financially. RMH helps with both of these issues.

Our stays have been wonderful. Family interaction is encouraged. Food is provided by generous donors to help with the financial strain. Rooms are comfortable but not such a heavy financial burden as the hotels many of us are forced to stay in to get the medical care our child needs. Most of all the staff and volunteers are friendly. Because of the way the house is laid out, families spend time together sharing stories and supporting each other. Most of all it keeps families together. In the 6 years this disease has been with Makenzie, our other daughter has spent many nights at friends and families houses because we needed to be with Makenzie. We have wonderful friends and family and they try to keep Mary's life as normal as possible but it still is disruptive to her life.

I right this to encourage people to support this very worthwhile charity. If you have one locally support it with your time. All kinds of volunteers are needed for various capacities. If you are involved with some kind of group, volunteer to make and serve food for a meal. You supply the food and you cook it at the house. While we were there a local high school group came and cooked brunch for the families.

Another option if you have a house locally is to organize a drive for necessary items. There is usually an item donation list online for each house. You can also call your local house and ask them what they are in special need of at that time. Organize a collection for these items with your local church or other civic group.

If you do not have a RMH locally, then support them financially. Make a donation to the charity. I know that Cleveland RMH charges families $20 per night to stay there but the actual cost to them is around $70 per night.

Your donation of time and/or money really does help families who are in very stressful situations both emotionally but especially financially.

Christmas

I have always enjoyed the holidays but Christmas by far is my favorite. Yesterday was especially good. We opened presents in the morning followed by sausage gravy and biscuits for breakfast. We then took some time to pick-up a little and get Christmas dinner together.

In the late afternoon our good friends arrived for the celebration. We sat and visited around some finger foods while our meal finished cooking. We then feasted on a wonderful dinner of our Christmas food favorites-ham, homemade mac and cheese, squash from the garden, sweet potatoes, cranberries and citrus fruit salad being among our favorites. Yum! We were able to get all the children and adults at one table so it was fun to visit with all.

After eating, we adjourned to the living room. We set Christmas cookies and candy out, the birthday cake for Jesus and the cheesecake my friend brought with her. We then nibbled on those while spending the rest of the evening playing some games. The best part of the evening was a game of Mad Gab with adults against the kids. It was so much fun! Of course the adults won!

Today, we head to my side of the family to enjoy our holiday time with them.

It was a wonderful Christmas Day celebration. I hope all my readers enjoyed their times with the loved ones they were with yesterday.

Merry Christmas

It has been a good Christmas this year in spite of all the challenges. Last night, we attended our church's Christmas Eve service where my husband and I play in our praise band. It is a family centered service and the church was beautifully decorated. Afterwards, people brought finger foods so we could sit around and visit.

After church, we drove around the neighborhoods to looks at Christmas lights (our family Christmas Eve or Christmas Day Eve tradition). We then finished our drive home in fresh falling snow. It was a picture-perfect ending to a peaceful night. We nestled the children all snuggled in their beds. (Makenzie was still trying to fall asleep at 1:00 AM because she was so excited about Santa coming.) We finally convinced her that Santa could not come if she was not asleep. She finally gave it up and went to sleep. It was a wonderful evening.

This morning, Makenzie let us sleep until 7:30 AM. We then saw the wonderful presents that Santa brought for them and us in our Christmas stockings. We then opened up our family presents together. We finished the morning celebrations with everyone's favorite biscuits and gravy (very southern I sure you are thinking at this point).

Now, we do a little preparation for our guests who are coming for Christmas dinner followed by an afternoon of playing games and feasting with our friends and family. 

From all of the Webb's here in Lexington, we wish you a Merry Christmas!!!  

Commercialism

I have sat watching the late news this evening. It was interesting to me how the news of the evening revolved around how bad the traffic was at the mall today as well as other stores. What stores were staying open late all the way to late Christmas Eve evening for all those last minute shoppers. The news reporter even  reported live from a store's parking lot. I have to wonder when shopping became the true meaning of Christmas.

Advertising companies spend billions of dollars each year to get us to realize that the perfect Christmas involves the perfect, expensive gifts. People worry if there will be enough for each of the children. People go in debt over their heads each year in search of the "perfect" Christmas. The good news is participation is not mandatory.

When will we wake up and realize that money never buys happiness or love. What people really want for Christmas is your love and time. That is what truly is important. As I have said before, I am not saying you should not buy presents. What I am saying is we need to stop letting "money" define who we are and our love for someone else. .

 I really enjoy Christmas baking, gift wrapping and decorating as well as going to look at the lights and walking the neighborhood in the stillness of the night to look at our neighbors light displays.  This December has been a rough one for me mentally because I have had to be an observer of many of these things. I suffered a serious fall the first part of the month and then when I was finally starting to get up and move around I got a bad respiratory infection which kicked in my asthma. I have spent much of December on forced rest. It has given me a lot of time to think and observe. I realized that as much as I try I still was succumbing to some of the merchandising and busyness hype.

In spite of not being able to do much this month, there are Christmas presents under our tree, Christmas cookies in the kitchen and the house is decorated. I have spent a lot of time resting and deciding what really was the important things that needed to be done. My husband and daughters have done a good job of stepping in and taking care of the essentials.

I am doing better but instead of rushing around trying to get things done all day I tried to keep it simple. Tonight, my husband and I went to watch a movie at the dollar theater. Our children stayed home and enjoyed a Christmas movie here. Afterwards, my husband and I stopped at a store to pick up a few essentials. We will be hosting Christmas dinner here on the 25th in the evening. Tomorrow, my husband will go in the morning to buy the perishable items we will need. We will pick up the house, bake a few more Christmas cookies and then worship in the evening at our church. This has all been accomplished with a new attitude from me which is not stressing all the details. I am thankful for time to reflect this December. It will make me think of next December differently.

Try to take time today enjoy doing something as a family. If you have not liked how your Christmas or December has gone then take some time to decide how it will be different next year. Write it down and try to follow it. Most of all enjoy today and tomorrow. Have a blessed Christmas Eve!

Cheese Ball

I always try to have some appetizers before our Christmas dinner as we usually eat later in the day. Here is one of my favorite (and also easiest). Here is the recipe.

1-8oz brick cream cheese
8 oz shredded sharp cheddar cheese
Juice from 1 lemon
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce (don't always use this)
2 Tbls small chopped onion 

Allow cheeses to come to room temperature. Put all ingredients in bowl and mix together with spoon. Put in bowl and refrigerate for a couple of hours or overnight. Serve with crackers.

You can make this lowfat by using nonfat cream cheese and 2% cheddar cheese. 

Birthday Cake for Jesus

This is one of my favorite Christmas traditions that we started when our oldest daughter, Mary, was young. We wanted a simple way to remind her that Christmas was about Jesus birth. One of our desserts for Christmas dinner each year since has been a frosted "birthday" cake. The girls decorate it ahead of time for baby Jesus.

After Christmas dinner, we put some candles on the cake. We then light them and sing Happy Birthday to Jesus. The youngest child then blows out the candles. This is a simple tradition but a small one that once again reminds us the real reason for the season.

While you are making out your Christmas dinner menu this year think about including a birthday cake for Jesus. If you have children present for your meal, think about lighting some candles on it and singing Happy Birthday.

Holiday Waste-Recycling

Yesterday, I talked about ways to precycle our holiday waste. Here are some ideas for recycling.

1) Save gift bags and tissue paper for next year after the gift is unwrapped.
2) Cut out pictures on Christmas cards received this year to use as gift tags.
3) Live Christmas trees and greenery can be composted.
4) Check out your local recycling program. Most cardboard boxes and cards can be recycled.
5) Unfortunately, most gift wrap and ribbon can not be recycled. That is why precycling these items is so important.
6) Old batteries can be recycled at Batteries Plus.
7) The city of Lexington takes old Christmas lights and electronics at their Versailles Road recycling center. Check LFUCG website for times and days. Check your local area to see if they also have this service.
8) Clean styrofoam peanuts can be bagged and dropped off at most mailing services.

This year make an effort to decrease your waste stream by precycling and recycling.

Holiday Waste-Precycling

I received our waste management newsletter the other day and was reading through it this morning. Here are some statistics they listed. These are for the city of Lexington. It produces 25% more wasted between Thanksgiving and New Year's. In Lexington, if we recycled 30% of the material sent to the landfill in that period, we could recover 10,000 TONS, save $240,000 in landfill fees and earn $1 million in revenue from the sale of recyclables. This is just for the city of Lexington, imagine if we did this all over the USA and the world. Holiday waste can not only be recycled but precycled. Here are some ideas for precycling. I will talk about recycling in another post.

1) Use or make cloth gift bags for gifts. I have found them several places this year and my daughter's birthday present sent from Amazon.com by her aunt came in a large cloth gift bag.
2) Save gift bags and reuse. You can also reuse tissue paper. Just simply flatten out and fold it to be used later.
3) Wrap kid's gifts in comics from newspaper.
4) Use kitchen or bath towels as gift wrap.
5) Send e-cards versus mailed Christmas cards.
6) Cancel all those catalogs that come this time of year and you don't want anyway. Call the company directly and asked to be removed from their mailing list or sign-up for one of the many stop junk mail services on the internet.
7) Give rechargeable batteries along with that electronic toy or gift.
8) Don't use gift boxes to wrap unless absolutely necessary. Save boxes and reuse them.
9) Invest in LED lights for your Christmas lighting.
10) Buy paper and gift bags that can be recycled. Most traditional gift wrap cannot be recycled.

Be creative. There are many ways to wrap gifts besides the traditional Christmas wrap and ribbons that are still pretty. 

Old Time Fun

Friday, I went to our friends house in Richmond with the two girls. While we were there we banned the electronics for the day (normal practice). My friend, another friend and I sat and crafted all afternoon while we visited. We all worked on different projects we were working on for Christmas presents. It reminded me that this is how people in the "olden" days (not that long ago really) used to entertain themselves and make their work go faster. They would take their woodworking, knitting, quilting or other task along while they visited with a friend. We had a nice visit, got some work done and had a relaxing enjoyable afternoon.

Our children are similar ages. My oldest daughter sat and knitted with us. My youngest daughter played various imaginative play games with the peers her age. When they got tired of that they put on their coats and went outside and played in the snow. Later in the afternoon, Mary and I played a card game with them.

Last night, we visited some other friends. We ate some finger foods and sat around and visited. After a while, we pulled out a game that all ages could play. We divided into teams and all of us from the youngest to the oldest sat in the kitchen and played.

Both of these time periods reminded me the importance of intergenerational time together. All the children involved in the game will probably have lasting good memories from our game. The children on Friday will have memories of a nice relaxing time playing with friends. I came away from both experiences feeling relaxed and refreshed. Neither of these entertainment periods cost much money except for vehicle gas to get there and last night some shared food cost.

This is my challenge to you. In the "busyness" that we have turned this season into these days, block out some time this week that you are going to sit down and play a game, visit over coffee or craft with someone. Enjoy some quiet time with some family or friends.

Christmas Snickerdoodles

One of our favorite cookies here is snickerdoodles. During the Christmas season we make these more festive by dipping them in colored sugars instead of regular sugar. They make for a pretty presenting cookies and taste the same. Here is the recipe that we use. It comes from Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook.

Snickerdoodles
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
red and green colored sugars

In a medium mixing bowl beat butter for 30 seconds with an electric mixer. add the regular sugar, baking soda and cream of tartar. Beat until combined. Beat in egg and vanilla until combined. Beat in as much flour as you can with the mixer. Stir in any remaining flour. Cover and chill dough about 1 hour or until easy to handle.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Roll half of balls in red sugar and other half in green sugar. Place 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 10-11 minutes or until edges are golden. Transfer to wire rack to cool.

Fair Trade Chocolate

One of the surprising things that I learned from Teresa Hendricks when she came to the sustainable living class to talk about fair trade was the problem with chocolate. That the harvesting of some chocolate is done by child and slave labor. This is especially true of chocolate from west Africa. Unfortunately, unless the chocolate is certified organic or fair trade, the chocolate companies have no way of knowing if the chocolate they are using to make that candy bar was not made with slave labor. Another fact about fair trade chocolate is even though we spend over 13 billion dollars a year on chocolate just here in America most small cocoa farmers are impoverished.

These facts got me thinking about my chocolate consumption. I have been doing some further research on this topic and have discovered that the chocolate I eat can be enslaving children or forcing them to work in horrible conditions. It also contributes to rainforest destruction and inhibits small farmers from breaking the cycle of poverty in third world countries. I have to think to myself, "Is that piece of chocolate worth it?"

Fortunately, I do not have to give up all my chocolate. It is fairly easy to find organic and fairtrade chocolate locally. I know for sure Whole Foods as well as Good Foods here in Lexington both carry a full line of products from candy bars, baking chocolate, cocoa and even chocolate chips. From what I have read organic is almost as good as fair trade because they have to uphold certain labor mandates. I will try to buy fair trade first but if it is not available I will look to organic. I know I will not be perfect but for now I am going to try to only buy chocolate which is certified in one of these ways.

Spend some time researching fair trade chocolate. You will be surprised what you find out. Here is a good link with which to start. Fair trade chocolate reasons

Cranberry Cookies

This recipe came from our church cookbook. If you like cranberries you will love these cookies. They make a festive presentation on a plate of cookies. Here is the recipe.

Cranberry Cookies

½-cup butter
1-cup light brown sugar
1 egg
¼-cup milk
2 Tbs lemon juice
3 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
¼ tsp baking soda
3 cups cranberries, chopped

Cream butter and brown sugar. Add egg, milk and lemon juice and beat well. Add flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt; mix. Add cranberries. Bake in 375-oven .Drop by teaspoonfuls 1-inch part on greased cookie sheet. Bake 15 minutes.

If you know or are a cranberry lover, try some of these today.

Cinnamon Ornaments

These are very simple ornaments to make with always good results. I have made them with my children when they were young for teacher and relative gifts. They still have time to dry for Christmas gift giving. Just, an obvious warning, you will NOT want to eat these.

Cinnamon Ornaments
1 cup applesauce
3/4 cup cinnamon (sometimes need more)
1 Tbls allspice
1 Tbls nutmeg
2 Tbls cloves

Makes a bread dough mixture. Roll out and cut shapes with cookie cutters. Punch hole in top of ornament with straw.Don't roll too thick or thin. Flip every couple of days until dry. Takes about a week to dry. When dry, put in string and tie it. Hang on tree or wrap and give away.

These make your house smell great. Who needs store bought air fresheners when you have these in your home.

Alternative Gift Ideas-Handmade Items

What kind of skills and special talents do you have? That is a good question this time of year when it comes to alternative gift giving. Here are some homemade suggestions from the students of the sustainable class I am teaching. These range from needing special skills to ones anyone can complete.

Basket
Birdhouse, wood carving, simple piece of furniture, picture frame or any other woodworking project
Candles-you can find "how-to" instructions on the internet for these
Friendship bracelets
Handmade quilts, clothing, doll or Barbie clothes, dress-up clothes for children or any other sewing project
Tied Fleece Blankets-instructions on internet and very simple to make
Homemade bath salts (easy and great recipes on internet)
Homemade dried fruits
Homemade soaps
Jewelry
Knit/crochet sweater, scarf, hat, mittens, ornaments
Origami
Ornaments-instructions on internet (will include applesauce ornament instructions future blog)
Paint or draw a picture-have it framed
Needlepoint or embroider something
Scrapbook page or album of special time together
Transplant or divide up plants for persons garden/home, plant in pretty pots

Hope these ideas get your creative juices running. Some of these things you still have time to complete before Christmas. Others will get you thinking for next year or someones birthday or anniversary. Happy creating!

Pumpkin Bread

This is a recipe that I use for baking gifts every year. It is moist and delicious. It always gets rave reviews. You can make it in 1 loaf pan or 3 small ones. Wrap it in pretty wrap and it makes a great appreciation gift.

Here is the recipe:

 Sift together:
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 2/3 cups flour
Add and mix with beater:
2 eggs
1/2 cup oil
1 cup canned pumpkin
1/2 cup water
Add:
1/2 cup raisins (optional)

Place in large loaf pan sprayed with cooking spray. Bake 50-60 mins at 350 degrees or until toothpick comes out cleaned when placed in center of bread. Cool on wire rack then remove from pan.

This bread is very moist so can be hard to cut or get out of the pan in one piece if not left to cool completely. I have also made this using 1/2 whole wheat pastry flour and 1/2 unbleached white flour for the total flour amount called for in the recipe. Hope you enjoy this one.

Fair Trade part 3

Below are the last 5 reasons to support fair trade from the handout I was given on Thursday.

6) Protect the environment. Fair trade supports small farmers who use land more efficiently and in a more environmentally-friendly way. It also helps farmers make the transitions to organic farming and the use of more sustainable techniques.

7) Promote democracy. Fair trade producers and workers belong to democratically-run cooperatives and community organizations. To function successfully, these cooperatives must be open and transparent in their operations. This helps foster grassroots democracy in many countries where many citizens have little experience participating in the democratic process.

8) Provide a long-term solution. One of the tenets of fair trade is that buyers and producers build long term partnerships. Unlike aid, which is dependent on donors, fair trade offers a more sustainable way for farmers, artisans, and their families to improve their livelihoods.

9) Prevent illegal drug crops. Low coffee prices mean that many coffee farmers cannot make a living on growing coffee alone. This has pushed many coffee farmers to start growing crops such as Coca and chat which are destined for the illegal drug  trade. By providing a fair price for coffee, fewer farmers need to switch to growing coca or chat.

10) Promote economic stability. In most developing countries, the majority of the workforce is engaged in agricultural activities. Buying Fair Trade Certified products helps to support small scale agriculture. This can increase a country's food security making it less dependent on foreign imports. The extra income from fair trade products can also help stimulate rural economies.

I hope after reading these 10 reasons that you will make an effort to support fair trade. It is a great way to even out the economic playing field and help decrease illegal drug production crops. Most of all every item you buy can help someone break the cycle of poverty.

Fair Trade part 2

Here are the first 5 of 10 reasons to support fair trade from a handout from Teresa Hendrick's lecture yesterday.

1) Use your consumer power to help others. By buying Fair Trade Certified products, you help reduce poverty and give farmers and artisans a fair price for their product.

2) Support education. Many farmers earn so little for their crops that they can't afford to send their children to school and their children must work to help support the family. Fair Trade Certified goods provide a living wage to farmers and artisans, helping them afford to send their children to school.

3) Empower Women. Many women in third world countries are second class citizens. Fair trade encourages women's leadership in cooperatives and supports programs that benefit women.

4) Keep families together. With today's low coffee prices, small farmers and coffee pickers not connected with fair trade are fleeing rural areas in search of work. Women and children are left behind to tend the fields and pick coffee beans and children are taken out of school. Farmers who grow fair trade products earn a living wage and keeps families together.

5) Support community development. Fair trade producers and workers belong to cooperatives and community development organizations that invest in better housing, health programs, schools, and scholarships.

I will post the rest of them later.

Fair Trade

Yesterday, Teresa Hendricks from Lucia's Boutique here in town came to the sustainable living class that I am teaching to talk about fair trade and why it is important. I have supported fair trade for many years but yesterday learned a lot of things I did not know. It makes me want to support this movement with as many of my purchases as possible.

First a little bit about Teresa. She lived in Guatemala for 18 years and her husband was born and raised in Guatemala. They own a wholesale fair trade business of Guatemalan items. Three years ago they opened up Lucia's Boutiques here in town and carry their Guatemala items plus other items from all over the world. They are part of the Fair Trade Federation. She is very passionate about what she is doing.

The fair trade movement now has its own certification. It is administered by the Fair Trade Labeling Organization (FLO) world-wide with the domestic body being TransFair USA. This label insures the consumer that strict land conservation and fair trade regulations were followed. The following link gives a good general overview of fair trade as well as current topics Fair Trade Overview

In future posts I will share Ten Reasons to Support Fair Trade from handouts she gave us. In the meantime, please check out the link above and learn more about this important movement.

Alternative Gift Ideas-Baking

One thing that I have noticed over the past couple of years is that homemade cooking is becoming a lost art. I have found that people love homemade baked goods or items they can quickly put together themselves to call homemade. The one thing people seem to love are my home canned food items especially the jams and jellies. This brings me to my next list of ideas for alternative gifts.Here are some ideas:

-your speciality homemade Christmas cookies. (I use reusable Christmas tins for this. You can find tons of them at Goodwill. I also will sometimes put in baggies and wrap in small gift bags.)
-Homemade quick breads 
-Fresh homemade loaf of bread
-homemade candies
-home canned jams, jellies, salsa, others (put a piece of Christmas material under the removable ring. Tie a ribbon around the ring.)
-jar of cookie mix with directions on how to prepare (can find tons of recipes for this on the internet)

Try some of these today. If you are giving them to a child's teacher, babysitter or other caretaker, have your child help in the preparation. As we go along I will try and include some recipes in my blog with some of the more popular items that can be made from scratch. Have fun baking.

Homeless Shelters

As I am sitting here watching the late evening news enjoying my warm house. I think about all those who have no warm house while it is so cold. It reminds me of how much extra I do have. Take a few minutes in the next couple of days. Sort out those extra warm cloths, hats, gloves, mittens, coats and blankets. Take your extras down to your local homeless shelter and donate them. People need these things this time of year to help keep them warm. Family shelters also need warm children's clothes and diapers. After you sort out your extras, maybe supplement them with buying some warm things from the store.

Alternative Gift Ideas-Charities

For the last couple years of her life my Grandmother suffered from dementia. She really had no material needs because the nursing home took care of them. Each year, I struggled with what to give her for Christmas because I wanted to do something to honor her. That is when I came upon the idea to make a contribution to a charity in her honor. I then sent her a pretty card to help decorate her room for Christmas and included a note in it describing the charity I had made a contribution to in her name.

This brings up another area of ideas for alternative gifts. Make a donation of money or time to a person's favorite charity. Here are some other ideas on this topic:

-Do locks for love in someone’s honor

-Buy an animal or animals for someone in a third world country from Heifer International or other such organization. Heifer international has a catalog for this and will give you gift tags to send in your Christmas card.
-Make a donation to someone's favorite organization in their honor
-Volunteer for a specific number of hours to someone’s favorite charitable organization in their name.

Hope this gets you started on thinking of ideas along this line.

Smelling the Roses

As my daughter has been learning how to drive the past few months, one of her favorite sayings has become "They needed to slow down and smell the roses anyways." She said this as yet another person rudely passed her because she was going too "slow" (most of the time the speed limit). Two people have even gone so far to pass her in her lane and shove her off the road. She is right in her saying in many ways. We are so busy and have to get to that next appointment that we sometimes even forget the most common courtesies. One observation our family shares with each other each year is how much more rude and pushy people get as Christmas Day closes in on them. You would think it would be the opposite in the "good will to all men" season. Yet, I too am guilty of not stopping and smelling the roses during the holiday season as well as other times of the year.

I was reminded over the weekend of how I even fall into this trap of busyness. On Thursday I tripped in the house and fell managing to bang myself up pretty good. Friday morning, I had to admit that I needed to go get checked out by a doctor. Blood work and CT scan later I was found to not have any internal injuries but had jostled my insides around to the point that I am now on doctors order to take it very easy. I wish I had a more exciting story of how I injured myself but I don't.

The point of all this is was my first thought was how am I going to get everything done before Christmas. Now, that I have had a few days to sit and think about it though I realized I had allowed myself to fall into the busyness trap. I have rethought my position and realized that the recuperation time will allow me to spend some quiet time this year. I will spend more time with the girls doing things here. I have also decided that I will take a much needed break and do some crafting and reading that I enjoy doing.

Hopefully, it will not take a fall to get you to think about what fun things you can do for yourself as well as with family and friends. I would encourage you to think of a couple of things to do that will help you "stop and smell the roses" this holiday season.

Winter

I awoke this morning to snow covering the ground. Most people think I am crazy but I love snow. I love how it blankets the ground and makes everything look new. It is almost like putting on a new coat of paint on the world around us. We don't get a lot of snow here so I enjoy our few times a year that it comes.

Snow brings back happy, childhood winter memories of when I lived in northern Indiana. I remember playing in the snow to make snow angels and forts. There was not too much sledding to be had as we lived in a very flat area of Indiana but even still I have some wonderful memories of the few times we found some big hills to sled down. My grandparents owned a lake cottage. I remember the thrill and excitement as a little girl when the lake would freeze over and we could walk out to the deep section of the lake.

The other winter sport was once a year our grade school arranged a trip about an hour north of us to Pokagon State Park. The park has a large toboggan slide there. I remember fun filled evenings of exhilarating rides down the course with family and friends. This was a double course so we would start and try to see which group could get down the hill the fastest.

My best memories, though, are the times when even my parents got snowed in and could not go to work. They would pull out a big jigsaw puzzle and we would all work on putting it together. We also would spend time together as a family playing board games. These times usually only lasted a day or two at the most but I have many cherished memories from them.

I know snow is harder to drive in and eventually gets dirty but it still brings treasured memories for me so today I will enjoy the snowfall out my window and maybe do something special with my children to celebrate it.

Alternative Gift Ideas

As I write about alternative gifts, I want people to know that buying gifts is not the problem. It is our attitude of more is better that is the problem. As a society, we think the dollar amount on the item shows how much we love someone. The idea behind alternative gift giving is not being a scrooge or miserly. If that is what we get out of it then we have missed the point. Alternative gift giving is about the attitude. Refusing to buy into the fallacy that more is better and will show how much I love you. This year, don't max out those credit cards. Better yet, don't even use those credit cards. This year set a reasonable budget and think of a gift or gifts that the person will really enjoy or appreciate. Here are some more ideas that my sustainable living class came up with the other week.

-Divide out those bulbs or special plants. Plant them in a pretty pot so they will flower around Christmas.
-Have a friend or family member who wants to learn a new skill that you know. Give them a gift certificate for free lessons wrapped up with the materials they need to get started. (knitting/crocheting, woodworking, canning, piano lessons, etc)
-Buy locally made arts and crafts, home cooked goods, soaps, jewelry from a local artisan as a gift
-Buy a fair trade item that someone needs or would enjoy.
-Make a family game night basket for the whole family include board games, snack items and drinks.
-If you can, give homemade jams and jellies along with a loaf of homemade bread to enjoy it on. Give a gift basket with some of your salsas, chips and maybe a pretty bowl to serve it in.

These will hopefully get you started. Please post comments with any other suggestions you have.

Presence Versus Presents

This year during the Advent season our church is stressing the importance of giving "presence" versus "presents". It is not to say that we should never buy any gifts for anyone but instead intentionally think about gifts for people that help build relationships. As the video from Advent Conspiracy says we spend 450 billion dollars on just Christmas gifts here in the states. We are a society addicted to busyness but in the meantime our relationships with spouses, children, family and friends suffer. Does any of this buy us the happiness that we crave?

Instead of giving the sweater they are going to return or another toy for the child who already has too many, why not think of something different this year-your time. We spend so much time running around trying to "buy" the perfect Christmas when all most people want is "you"-especially our children. So, this year think about some gifts where you can give your time. Here are some examples to get you started.

-taking an afternoon and making Christmas cookies with your child
-volunteering a specific number of hours at your friends favorite charity
-offering coupons for free babysitting to a family with young children or a special needs child (maybe even include a restaurant gift certificate so they can go on a date together)
-coupons to shovel snow, rake leaves, etc for someone who cannot do it themselves
-cook a home cooked meal once a month for a busy family  
-take your friend out for coffee, breakfast or lunch. Spend time catching up on what is going on in their lives. Better yet have them over to your house for an afternoon of catching up 
-have your friend over and bake Christmas cookies together. Split the finished product between the two of you when you are done.
-spend an afternoon creating homemade gifts with your children for their family members
-have a friend over and make some gifts together.
-buy a boardgame for a family that they can all play together and enjoy

As you can see from the examples, the emphasis is not on how much "money" but how much "time" that you spend. I hope these examples get your creative juices running. I am sure you can come up with many more. Please share your ideas in the comment section. We will all benefit from them.

Sweet Potato Pie

One thing we never havc left over at this house is sweet potatoes. We bake them like regular potatoes, peel the skins off and eat plain. Yum! Yum! This Thanksgiving though we had an overabundance of them leftover and they needed to be used. Yesterday, I decided to pull out the sweet potato pie recipe. My family considers this a special treat. Here is the recipe.

1/2 cup sugar (or Splenda)
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
2 cups mashed sweet potatoes
2 eggs
1 cup milk (I use soy)
4 Tbls melted butter
1-9" unbaked pie crust

Combine first 7 ingredients and beat thoroughly. Pour into unbaked pie crust. Bake at 400 degrees for 10 minutes than 30-40 minutes at 350 degrees. Cool and enjoy! (We like ours with whip cream on top of it.)

Hypermiling-Car Maintenance part 2

Here are the rest of the tips for car maintenance to help you increase your miles per gallon. These all come from the U.S. Department of Energy.

1) Gas mileage can be improved by 1–2 percent by using the manufacturer's recommended grade of motor oil. For example, using 10W-30 motor oil in an engine designed to use 5W-30 can lower your gas mileage by 1–2 percent. Using 5W-30 in an engine designed for 5W-20 can lower your gas mileage by 1–1.5 percent. Also, look for motor oil that says "Energy Conserving" on the API performance symbol to be sure it contains friction-reducing additives.

2) Tests suggest that replacing a clogged air filter on an older car with a carburetor engine may improve fuel economy 2 to 6 percent under normal replacement conditions or up to 14 percent if the filter is so clogged that it significantly affects your cars ability to perform. (This is not the case for fuel injected computer-controlled gasoline engines although it does increase acceleration time).

3) Keeping your car washed and waxed improves aerodynamics and therefore affects fuel economy. Engineer Tom Wagner, Jr. reported to Stretcher.com (as in stretching your dollars) a 7-percent improvement in fuel economy, from 15 to 16 mpg, during a 1,600-mile road trip.

4) Try not to use roof top carriers for extra luggage. These decrease the aerodynamics of your vehicle.

Chicken (Turkey) and Rice

I use this recipe for both leftover chicken and turkey. My family loves it. You can add more broth to the mixture if your family likes soup instead.

1-2 cups Leftover Turkey
1 cup instant brown rice
2 cups chicken (turkey) broth (we use what is leftover from turkey and then substitute with boxed broth)
8 oz mushrooms, chopped
1 medium onion chopped
2 carrots peeled and chopped
1 stalk celery, chopped
2-3 Tbls olive oil
1 tsp dried rosemary (or 1 Tbls fresh)
Salt to taste (about 1 tsp)
1/4 tsp pepper
1 tsp dried basil (or 1 Tbls fresh)

In pan, saute vegetables in olive oil until tender. Add rice, chicken or turkey, broth and seasonings. Bring to a boil, simmer 5 minutes. Serve.

This is a favorite of our families. I use it even for very small amounts of leftover chicken and turkey. This can also make a great vegetarian meal if you omit the meat and use vegetable broth instead of the chicken broth.

Potato Pancakes

What to do with all those leftover mashed potatoes. Although at my house this usually is not a problem, Mary could eat just those and skip the rest. This recipe goes back to what my Mom used to do with ours. I loved when we had leftover mashed potatoes because I knew the next meal would be have potato pancakes.

Leftover mashed potatoes
1-2 eggs depending on quantity of potatoes
2-3 Tbls flour (may need more if you have a lot of potatoes)
olive oil

Stir together potatoes, egg(s) and flour. Add flour until potatoes are stiff. Heat oil in pan. Drop glops of potatoes into oil. With spoon press down into pancake form. (If potato cakes don't hold together you probably need to add more flour or another egg). Fry on both sides until golden brown. Salt and pepper if desired. Eat and enjoy.

I know the measurements are not exact but neither is the amount of potatoes that are leftover. You will be able to tell if you need more flour or egg as they will be too runny (more flour) or too clumpy (more egg) when you try to put them in the pan. These never last long at my house.

 

Chicken (Turkey) Enchiladas

Thanksgiving is over. The food was great. Friends and family enjoyed each others company. Now, you wake up to a house full of leftovers. Warmed up turkey can only happen so many days before you get sick of it. Thought I would share some of our favorite recipes for using the leftovers. The first one to share is chicken (turkey) enchiladas.

1 package large tortillas (we use whole wheat)
4 cups chopped turkey
1-8oz bag shredded sharp cheddar cheese or mexican blend
16 oz sour cream (or plain low-fat yogurt)
1 banana pepper chopped (or 1 can diced chilies)
1 medium onion, diced
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 tsp dried cilantro (or 1 Tbls fresh)

Mix turkey, sour cream, banana pepper, onion and cilantro together in a bowl. Divide turkey mixture among tortillas. Sprinkle a little cheese on each (reserving 1/2 bag for top). Wrap up tortillas and put in greased 9x13 pan. Pour can of cream of chicken soup over the top making sure to cover all the tortillas. Sprinkle remaining 1/2 of cheese over top of soup. Cover and bake for 45 minutes at 350 degrees or until cheese is melted and bubbly.

You can also make a pan of these up and freeze them for later. Just simply thaw completely and cook according to the directions above.

Enjoy!

Happy Thanksgiving

I hope you have been finding one thing each day this month until today for which you are thankful. I find that I appreciate the many blessings I have when I realize how much I truly have. Last night, this was especially brought to my attention. About 5:30 last night my husband called to tell me he was in a minor accident. He was OK but he could not find the insurance card for when the police officer got there to do an accident report. Apparently, he had been driving down a busy road here in town. It had been raining. While trying to stop he hit a slick spot and could not stop in time. 5 minutes earlier there had been an accident in about the same place.

Eventually, I had to take him the insurance card which was sitting here at home instead of being in the car. That is when I realized that the front end of car had enough damage that it will probably end up being totaled when all is said and done. Mind you, we drive older vehicles so it does not take tons to total one of our vehicles but it is damage even Chuck is not going to be able to fix. It would require buying a whole new grill and other front end parts.

I tell you this because it could have been a lot worse. Unless it is pouring down rain or icy when he leaves for work, my husband drives his motorcycle. That morning the weather had been clear when he left for work but he had a few extra minutes and decided to check the radar. Luckily for all of us he saw lots of rain coming and decided to drive the car that day. Today, we don't have to know what would have happened if he had not checked the radar and been on his motorcycle yesterday.

That brings up my last what I am thankful for today. I am thankful that my husband was in a car versus his motorcycle yesterday. Cars can be replaced. He cannot.

Happy Thanksgiving to all today. Enjoy your time with family and friends!

Decorating Cookies

One of our favorite holiday traditions around here is decorating form cookies. Over the years, I have acquired a collection of cookie cutters for each season. Some of them are very old and come from my Grandma Buesching and a long time family friend of theirs Lorene Ehle. It is fun to get these treasured heirlooms out each season to use. We decorate cookies a couple of times of year usually for Halloween, Easter and of course Christmas. This year, Halloween was really busy for us so we decided to do Thanksgiving cookies instead. Mary had invited a friend over for the afternoon so we baked and decorated the cookies. This is a holiday tradition that the girls and I look forward to each year. 

Here is the recipe that I use. It is from the Better Homes and Garden Cookbook. The key to rolling out cookies is to flour surface well and keep dough chilled between batches. Remember, the more you work dough the harder it is to use. Also, dip cookie cutter in flour before using on dough.

1 cup butter, softened

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp cream of tartar

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp vanilla

2 3/4 cup flour

Beat butter for 30 seconds with mixer. Add sugar and beat until combined. Beat in eggs, cream of tartar, baking soda, and vanilla. Beat in flour a little at a time as you can with mixer. Stir in the rest. Cover and chill in refrigerator for 3 hours. 

After chilled, roll out dough and cut out cookies. Bake at 375 for 9-12 minutes. Cool thoroughly, frost and decorate.

I use this simple buttercream frosting to decorate. I make one full batch and then divide it into smaller bowls adding a different food coloring to each. We then frost with color of choice and add sprinkles. You can get sprinkles inexpensively at the dollar store sometimes as well as after holiday seasons. We have also used chocolate chips, red hots, marshmallows and coconut.

Buttercream Icing

3/4 cup shortening

1/2 tsp almond flavoring

1 tsp vanilla

4 cups powdered sugar

1/4 cup water

Beat shortening and flavorings together. Add powdered sugar and beat into shortening mixture. Add water and beat for several minutes until light and fluffy.

Try decorating cookies together this holiday season. I think you will enjoy it. 

Onions

Yesterday, my oldest daughter, Mary, and I started prepping the onion bed. Last year, after talking to some of the farmers downtown at the local market, we found out you could put onion bulbs in during the fall, cover them with a fabric row cover, and then uncover in the spring. Last year, it worked great. The onions produced well and I had them much earlier than if I had planted them in the spring.

The reason I decided to do this is I have limited garden space. This allowed me to have my onions out of the garden by early summer. I, then, planted another crop of vegetables within the same row. This gave me two crops within one season from the same row. The onions also seemed to grow better and taste sweeter.

Here in Lexington, I bought the onion bulbs at Southern States Farm Store. It cost me $0.99 for a small bag  that would have covered several rows. I planted them about this time last year. I then covered them with a fabric row cover purchased at the same place. I anchored the cloth down with boards and let it sit. In March (when we normally plant onions here), I pulled the fabric off and let them grow. For those of you not from this area, we are in planting Zone 6.

This was an inexpensive experiment with great results. This year, I am going to try two rows because I love the taste of homegrown onions. In addition, I am going to try this with cilantro seed. I heard that it also works well with this method. Because of our hot summers, cilantro bolts quickly here in the spring.

Hypermiling-Car Maintenance

When I started researching hypermiling, one of the surprising things I discovered was how much routine car maintenance can increase your gas mileage. I knew about tire pressure, air cleaners and timing but there is so much more. Today, I would like to share some of those with you. The following facts come from the US Department of Energy.

1) Fixing your car when it is noticeably out of tune or has failed an emissions test can improve its gas mileage by an average of 4 percent. The results vary, though, based on the kind of repair and how well it was done.

2) Fixing a serious maintenance problem such as a faulty oxygen sensor can increase your gas mileage by 40 percent.

3) You can improve your gas mileage by up to 3.3 percent by keeping your car tires inflated to the proper pressure. Under-inflated tires can lower gas mileage by 0.3 percent for every 1 psi drop in pressure.  Properly inflated tires are safer and last longer. Do NOT use the maximum pressure printed on the tire's sidewall. The proper tire pressure for your vehicle is usually found on a sticker in the driver's side door jamb or the glove box and in your owner's manual.  To maintain optimum pressure, tires should be checked on a weekly basis.

4) Take the racks off the top of your car. These decrease the cars aerodynamics and therefore fuel efficiency.

In another post, I will share some more maintenance tips. In the meantime, check your car for the above maintenance suggestions. It can decrease your carbon footprint while saving you money. 

Birthdays

9 years ago today Makenzie, our youngest daughter, became the best birthday present a mother could get. It was a total surprise. She was actually due on Christmas day and came 5 weeks early. There is also another blessing in this birthday celebration. Makenzie was not expected to make it to her 5th birthday little on her 9th. Although the mitochondrial disease is definitely starting to take its toll on her body, she continues to be with us and brings us joy. 

Every birthday as well as many other times, I am reminded that there is no guarantee on how life will go. We need to live each day to its fullest. In a world where life is hectic, we forget about relationships and how important they are. Our culture measures success by who is the "busiest" and who has the most stuff, but in the end is that what people remember you for when it is all said and done. 

The biggest lesson that Makenzie's disease has taught me was to not take life for granted. It showed me that I truly am not in control no matter how much I want to be and it started me on the long track to sustainable living. I hope we will have more birthday with Makenzie but I will enjoy whatever time we have left. 

Today, I am thankful for Makenzie's 9th birthday.

Book Review-Food Matters

I am always searching our library for new books on green and sustainable living topics. In my search I came across the book Food Matters-A Guide to Conscious Eating by Mark Bittman. In this book he talks about the typical American (and Western somewhat) diet and how it affects our environment. What is nice about this book is it is not a list of "dont's" but lifestyle changes. He does not expect everyone to be perfect. He talks about the effects of our dietary choices on the environment as well as explaining a lot of the buzzwords used today. An added bonus is that when he started eating a more plant based diet is that he lost weight without counting calories. The book also contains several recipes.

This book is worth a quick read if you can get it from your local library or find it in a used bookstore. The facts and figures he writes about will astound you. Did you know that a family of 4 eating a typical steak dinner puts out the same amount of CO2 emissions as driving an SUV for 3 hours straight and leaving on the lights on at home at the same time?  There are many more examples like this in his book. If you come across a copy, it is worth a read.

Fair Trade Items

One good alternative for Christmas gifts are fair trade items. These are hand-crafted items made by individuals in low-income areas of the world, bought from them for a fair price which then allows them to earn a fair wage. Several small cottage industries have been set-up because of this program. The items are usually well made and beautiful.

Each year, our church hosts a fair trade fair on a Sunday morning. A local business who specializes in fair trade items comes and sets them up. Our members than buy things from them before and after our services. This gives them an easy opportunity to support someone in need while getting some Christmas shopping done.

Here in the Kentucky Bluegrass area there are two shops who carry these items year round. The first one is Lucia's Boutique which is located at 523 East High Street. Here is a link to their store: http://www.luciasboutique.com/events.html  They are the ones who set up at our church. The other store is Peace Crafts which is located in Berea at 307 Chestnut Street. Here is a link to their website: http://www.peacecraftinberea.org/

If you do not live in the bluegrass region, there is a mail order business online called SERRV international. Here is a link to their website: http://www.serrv.org/

Check out these great organizations and shops when you get a chance. They make great alternative gifts  and support someone directly who is trying to support themselves and their families.

If you live here locally, stop by our church on Sunday (November 21) from 9:30-1. It is Word of Hope Lutheran and is located on the corner of Man O' War and Armstrong Mill Roads. Hope to see you there.

Bug Bite

We have had an eventful couple of days here. My oldest daughter had a bug bite on the inside of her elbow over the weekend. It looked "funny" from the beginning but nothing alarming. Tuesday afternoon, she came to me because she noticed large patch of red around it. I knew right away it was cellulitis. Called the pediatrician who told us to bring her right in to the office to get it checked out. He confirmed the diagnosis, put her on oral as well as topical antibiotics.

The next morning the spot was larger. By the afternoon it had grown to twice the size. Called the pediatrician to see if we should be concerned. He told her to immobilize arm and not use it at all and he wanted to recheck it in the morning. By bedtime, the infection was still getting bigger. We were getting a little concerned. She had been on heavy duty antibiotics for over 24 hours at this point.

This morning she woke up and the infection had not grown anymore. By midmorning it was starting to shrink and tonight it is almost gone. We are very relieved. 

We do not know what bit Mary or where she received the bite. The doctor said Tuesday that it was the third bite he had seen like that this week. We are thankful tonight the antibiotics have caught up to the infection and she is doing well. As for the bug, we hope it stays far away from here.

I suggested that November be "our thankful" month in an earlier post. Tonight I am thankful that Mary's arm is healing well and the people who prayed for us the past 24 hours.

Clean Water part 2

Here are the facts related to diseases caused by lack of clean water from the April 2010 National Geographic edition.

1) One of eight people lacks access to clean water.
2) 3.3 million die from water-related health problems each year.
3) Washing hands with soap can reduce diarrheal disease by 45%.
4) An eradication campaign that includes a simple water filter has cut the number of Guinea Worm cases by 99.9% since 1986.

For more information and articles on this subject, follow this link to the edition.  http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2010/04/table-of-contents

Take some time today and page through the articles. Learn more about this ever increasing problem in our world.

Clean Water

One large world health problem is clean water. Advent conspiracy (AC) (talked about in previous post) encourages people to spend less on Christmas and then donate money to organizations which help people get clean water around the world. According to the AC website the US spends 450 billion dollars on Christmas each year but it would only take 10 billion dollars to provide clean water for everyone in the world. Here are some statistics from the April 2010 National Geographic issue titled Water-Our Thirsty World.

1) Americans use about 100 gallons of water each day.
2) Millions of the world's poorest subsist on fewer than 5 gallons.
3) 46 percent of people on earth do not have water piped to their homes.
4) Women in developing countries walk an average of 3.7 miles to get water.
5) In 15 years, 1.8 billion people will live in regions of severe water scarcity.

These are just a few facts. They do not even begin to touch the disease and death which is caused from lack of clean water. Take a minute and check out the National Geographic magazine articles online from the April 2010 issue.

Slowing Down

Yesterday, my husband and I went for a walk at McConnell Springs. It is a small wooded area that is being restored with native species. Both of us were tired and had lots of items on our "to do" lists but this time we went anyways. On the way we took the back route out to get our minds slowed down before we got there. We had a nice walk. We did the outer loop of a little over a mile and then went to look for wildlife signs around the pond. We talked, relaxed and shared some time together. We spent about an hour of our day doing this and still got the rest of our lists done in a reasonable time period.

After we returned, my youngest daughter was trying to put together a new floor puzzle she had received for her birthday. I was trying to get some stuff done when I realized that it would still be there after I took the time to play with her. It took about 15 minutes of my time but my daughter and I bonded and spent some time together. Later, she wanted to play a card game. Thinking about our time earlier in the day, I stopped and we played the game. 

That night, my oldest daughter was reading a book for her small group she is part of at a local church youth group. She was having some questions about what she was reading. By this time I had my work done and was enjoying some quiet time to myself. I realized that I could still rest in a few minutes but not have time to talk to my daughter about her questions so I took the time. We had a great discussion.

I tell you this because it brings up an important point. "Busyness" that occupies our time is not near as important as spending time with each other. Whether that time is spent doing work together, playing or just talking with each other; it is always time well spent. Sometimes in our busy, crazy lives, we forget these things. I know I do. Part of living a sustainable lifestyle is developing relationships. It is getting off the fast track of life and stopping to spend time with those who are important in our lives-spouses, children, family, friends as well as ourselves.

Take a look at your schedule. Does it have time for yourself and others in it?

Hypermiling-Lighten Your Load

How much extra stuff do you carry in your vehicle? I think you would be surprised if you took it out and weighed it. Getting rid of extra things in your car is the next principle of hypermiling.

According to the U.S. Department of Energy, an extra 100 pounds in your vehicle could reduce your MPG by up to 2 percent. The reduction in gas mileage is based on the percentage of extra weight relative to the vehicle's weight. Therefore, it affects smaller vehicles more than larger ones. 

Take a moment today. Look at what truly is in your vehicle. Is it necessary to regularly carry all of these items? Get rid of the stuff that is not critical and start saving money through better gas mileage.   

Alternative Gift Giving

Thought I would share a gift idea that my friend started a couple of years ago with her children. Underneath there Christmas tree, she wrapped a gift with 12 envelopes in it. Each envelope had a month written on it. Inside the envelope was a piece of paper that listed a special activity the child enjoyed doing and also designated which parent the activity would be taking place with that month. The activities were all from different price ranges from going for a bike ride to going to a play together. The envelope is opened at the beginning of its designated month and then the date is put on their calendars.

My friend admitted that the first year her children were polite when they opened up the gifts and did not seem overly excited. This changed though after the first year of monthly special activities. Now, this has become one of their most anticipated gifts. My friend says that her and her husband also look forward to their "dates" each month with their children and have developed some treasured memories from them.

I give this as an example that treasured gifts do not have to cost a lot of money and to get your creative juices started. Try to think of a gift this year that gives of your time versus just a material thing. Relationships are so important and worth the time and effort.  

Advent Conspiracy

We are getting close to the holiday season here in the states. I would like to take a minute to discuss a special cause called Advent conspiracy. Holiday season seems to be a time of stress, traffic jams and overcharged credit cards. After the holidays we feel exhausted and wonder why we even did it in the first place. Then, the credit card bills come in January. Is this really what your memories to be of Christmas?

In 2006, 4 churches across the United States started a movement called Advent Conspiracy. They joined together, asked people to look at the way they were celebrating Christmas and asked them to take back the holiday from massive consumerism. Instead, they asked them to focus on relationships. They also asked people to look at their gift giving. Instead of that shirt, sweater or toy they don't need. Focus on gifts of time, service or something that will increase others relationships.

I wanted to post this now to get people thinking about your Christmas season that is around the corner. I challenge you to think of one gift that you can give this year that is a gift of time, service or something special the receiver can use to spend time with others.

I will share future posts on alternative gift ideas but in the meantime, check out the Advent Conspiracy website. Take some time to look at their videos. Here is the link: Advent Conspiracy

Hypermiling-Brake Less

Another aspect to hypermiling is braking less while you are driving. Every time you step on your brakes you are decreasing your gas mileage (you are stopping or slowing your forward momentum that your car has already obtained.) Although some hypermilers can go to what I consider dangerous extremes with this there are many common sense and safe driving practices to do this. Here are a few ideas.

1) Maintain a safe following distance. Tailgating causes you to step on the brake more frequently.
2) Anticipate stops and cost up to stops. (i.e taking foot off accelerator when exiting ramps from interstate)
3) Drive the speed limit. Most towns and cities have stop lights timed so that person going speed limit can hit most lights on green vs. red.
4) Avoid congested roadways if possible.

Try putting some of these tips in practice and see if it makes a difference on your gas mileage.

Peanut Butter Frosting

I have been asked for the recipe for the peanut butter frosting I put on my Dad's birthday cake a couple of weeks ago. Here it is:

3/4 cup peanut butter (can also use soy butter if peanut allergies in family) 
1/2 cup water
1 tsp vanilla
4 cups powdered sugar

Cream peanut butter and vanilla. Add 4 cups powdered sugar and beat until combined. Add 1/2 cup water and beat until light and fluffy. (You may have to add in a little bit more water to reach spreading consistency depending on how oily your peanut butter is.)

My Dad's favorite cake to put this on is chocolate.

Hypermiling-Slow Down part 2

After looking at your life and seeing what you can eliminate to decrease your actual time in the car, let's now discuss why it is important to slow down your driving speed while in the vehicle.

1) Most cars runs the most efficiently at 40-60 mph at constant highway speeds; efficiency decreases exponentially as car speed increases (How Stuff Work website-you can find an actual equation on this website which shows you real numbers.)

2) Use cruise control on highways when there are NOT large hills. It will maintain constant speed and save gas.

3) For each 5 mph you drive over 60 mph you are paying an additional $0.24 per gallon for gas. (US Dept of Energy).

These are some basic facts that may help you decrease your speed when driving. I will share some driving techniques and maintenance techniques that helps increase your gas mileage in later posts. 

Hypermiling-Slow Down

The first area I would like to talk about with hypermiling is slowing down. Not physically while you are in the car but even before you hit the car. This seems pretty logical but it can be hard to do. In a society where we seem to be excessively "time" crunched, we seem to always be behind schedule and late. We compete with each other on who can be the busiest and we wear that hat with pride.

Part of sustainable living is slowing down and weeding out the extras that don't enhance our lives or those of others. Take a minute today and look at your schedule. Ask yourself if each item is something that is really worth doing. Are you doing this out of obligation? Is your child overbooked and stressed out? Am I taking time to sit down as a family or spouse and share meals together? Do I have time for my family and friends? Really spend some time on these questions. You will be surprised how many of these things are really not important anymore.

I am someone who can get busy and over scheduled before I know it. I look at my activities as well as my children's and try to find a balancing point where we do things that are important but still have time for each other. We try to sit down at the table most nights of the week to eat dinner together. I am working on doing this for breakfast and lunches. I find that I spend less time in the car and more time at home with those I love.

I used to wear the busy hat with pride but then we found out our daughter has a progressive neuromuscular disease which will drastically shorten her life. Suddenly, the busyness of my life is not as nearly as important. Spending time with her and my family have taken on a much higher priority in my life. Too bad it took her illness for me to realize how important it was all along.

Spend some time today looking at your schedule and regular obligations. What can you get rid of to simplify your life and concentrate on the more important things?  Remember obligations will always be with us but loved ones will not.  

Hypermiling

One topic that has fascinated me since I found out about it is the concept of hypermiling. Hypermiling is simply using driving and maintenance techniques to increase your current car's gas mileage. It was interesting that most resources I read said you can use common sense techniques and routine car maintenance to increase your current gas mileage from 20-30%. The theory is similar to how you balance your budget. First, you cut out big wasters and then you cut out smaller ones that eventually will add up to larger amounts.


There are 6 general hypermiling areas. They are slow down, brake less, lighten your load, minimize air conditioning, regular car maintenance and avoid excessive idling. We will cover each of these areas in future posts. As all things you can take this too far. Hard core hypermilers can use driving techniques which are dangerous but you do not have to go that far and still see great results.

Here is my challenge to you. The next couple of times you fill up with gas check your gas mileage. After you have an average gas mileage with your current driving and maintenance techniques, start incorporating the hypermiling techniques. Check your gas mileage again. See if they make a difference for you.

Muffins

One good way to eat more local as well as eating healthier and lower on the carbon chain is to make foods from scratch. It is also a good cost savings measure if you are trying to cut back on spending. Cooking from scratch seems to be a lost art these days. Here at our house, we try to make as many items from scratch as possible. I will use a mix occasionally for a few items but not for muffins. In my opinion, homemade from scratch muffins are not that much more work to make than from a mix especially when you taste the flavor difference. Here is the basic recipe I use. To this mixture, I add fruit or cheese. It is a great way to use fruit that is still good but past its prime.

Basic Muffin Recipe
3/4 cups whole wheat pastry flour (can also use white flour for this)
3/4 cup unbleached white flour
1/3 cup sugar or Splenda
2 tsps baking powder
1 slightly beaten egg
3/4 cup milk
1/4 cup canola oil (can substitute applesauce for oil)

Mix dry ingredients together. Mix wet ingredients together. Add wet ingredients to dry and stir until dry ingredients are just moistened. (Add fruit if desired here.) Put in muffin tins and bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes or until they are golden brown. Let cool for 5 minutes. Makes 12 regular sized muffins. Eat and enjoy!

Variations:
To the above mixture (choose 1 combination or create your own as you feel more comfortable with this)

1 cup berries (any kind)
3/4 cup chopped apple (add 1/2 tsp cinnamon and 1/4 tsp nutmeg for extra spice)
1/2 cup cheddar cheese (add cinnamon and nutmeg)
3/4 cup chopped cranberries
3/4 cup mashed banana (decrease milk by 1/2 cup; can also add cinnamon and nutmeg to this)
3/4 cup pumpkin (decrease milk by 1/2 cup; add cinnamon, nutmeg and pinch of ground cloves)

Have fun and experiment after you get comfortable with this recipe. It makes a great snack as well as a nice quick breakfast.

Homemade Laundry Detergent

Wanted to share the recipe that I use for homemade laundry detergent. I use store bought if I am pushed for time and make this up when I have time. Here is the recipe.

*1 cup soap flakes (homemade or store bought without lotion)
1/2 cup washing soda
1/2 cup borax

Mix together and store in airtight container. Use 1/4-1 cup per load depending on dirtiness of clothes, hardness of water and size of load. I have found that 1/4 cup takes care of most laundry loads that I do.

*To make soap flakes, take bar of soap and use a grater to make it into flakes. Takes about 1/2- whole bar per batch.

Birthday Party

This past weekend we celebrated my parent's 70th birthdays (Dad's was in October and Mom's is in December). The party seemed to go well and everyone seemed to have a good time. My sisters and I wanted to do this party for them because our parents have always been very special to us. The nice thing about this party is it was not done by others we hired but by ourselves as a labor of love for them. This was their birthday presents from all of us. 

Invitations were handmade. The decorations were simple but pretty. We used pumpkins on the tables which Mom will can sometime this week. We had found some pumpkin wicker baskets also that we put on the tables filled with candy corn. The wicker baskets will be reused and the leftover candy corn will be used as treats for my friends animals. Our food was all of our specialities that we make. I made cheeseball and 2 different snack mixes. My other sisters provided another cheese ball, veggies and dip, meatballs, queso and salsa for chips and we had a pickle tray featuring all the pickles my parents and sisters had made this summer. As you can see the food was simple but feedback from others said it was delicious. People came, sat and visited plus

played games that we provided from our own homes if they chose.  

The cakes were my design. Mary, my oldest daughter baked all of the cakes from scratch. My sister Deb and I made the different frostings and decorated them. We had 4 different cakes. Mom's cake had flowers and butterflies on it and was white with white frosting. Dad's was fishing themed and was chocolate with peanut butter icing (his favorite cake). I also made a Halloween themed cake which was white with chocolate icing. The last cake was my black forest cake which was chocolate with chocolate frosting and cherries. The cakes turned out wonderfully. I'll try and share some of the recipes sometime.

I tell you all the details not to brag or bore you but to let you know how easy decorating and catering your own parties can be done. We rented a simple room in an addition's club house. We provided all of the drinks, food, and decorations as well as the entertainment. A friend of the family, hosted the party as a gift to all of us so we did not have to worry about refilling food plates. All invited said they had a wonderful time. It was a great way to honor my parents but also not break the bank and be better to the earth.

The best part was my parents asked that instead of gifts if people would donate money to two of their favorite charities. One being their church's preschool where they volunteer and the other being the United Mitochondrial Disease Foundation which is the genetic disease in which my youngest daughter has been diagnosed. 

The next time you have a big event in someone specials life like a significant anniversary date or birthday, try your hand at making some of the things yourself. You will be surprised how easy it is to do.  

  

Count Your Blessings Month

One thing that makes a sustainable lifestyle easier to obtain is to be satisfied with what you currently own. A feeling of gratitude is so important. Materialism seems to have overtaken our society. We always seem to be looking for that next thing to buy which will make us happy and satisfied. We buy as a way to compensate for the loneliness we feel. Think about it for a minute. When has buying anything satisfied you very long before you were looking for the next thing to make you happy? I found "counting my blessings" helps me realize how much I really have these days. 

November is the month in which the United States celebrates Thanksgiving. The main premise of Thanksgiving is to give thanks for the many blessings which we have been given. Last year, on facebook, my friend shared a challenge with me. I give that challenge to all of you who are reading this blog entry. From now until Thanksgiving day (November 25), write down one thing you are thankful for each day. You can do this on facebook or other social network (share the challenge with your friends) or keep a blessing jar where you put each one you write down. I was surprised last year how much this helped me realize how blessed I truly am.

So, start counting the things you are thankful for right now.

Today, I am thankful that I live in a country where I am able to vote without fear of persecution.