Organic and Green Budget in Review



Image Courtesy 123RF

THE YEAR IN REVIEW
The last year has been truly transforming. I am proud as I scroll through the history of this blog, from my first entry to this very last one.

the numbers:
On average, I had about 500 dollars per month to spend on groceries, gasoline, and the home.

In the fall of 2011 I was able to keep my grocery bill down to between 65 and 85 dollars a week.

Outside of food, I was able to purchase gasoline, glass food storage, seeds and planters for my garden within my budget, but I went over budget about 150 - 200 dollars each time when we had events such as my children's parties, overnight guests and out of town trips or special outings.
Things got a little hairy after the new year, as grocery prices seemed to soar. I was spending on average 80 to 105 dollars a week on groceries. When it came to clothing, I hadn't discovered the world of consignment shopping yet, but was able to keep the costs down by buying clothing and shoes a couple of sizes larger for the children.
Thank you JP, who inspired me to start a blog. Thank you LM for encouraging me to keep it up, and for your everyday cheers of all kinds. To D.M-S, my friend and new partner on the herbalism path, thanks for keeping me inspired with the excitement and joy with which you approach life with our leafy companions. Thank you ST for encouraging my spiritual uplifting.  To Divina, thank you for your motherly love, support and positivity. I am so blessed with such beautiful sisters.

Thank you DT and RT for reading my posts and articles and sending encouraging words.

To my mom's group friends, thanks for your support, ideas, green gifts and books, and all in all your kindness and good naturedness. I am so glad we met!

Floury Fun

Used these flours this week for pancakes. I experimented with 1 part Sprouted Flour and 1 part Corn Flour in my recipe. A couple of spoonfuls of greek yogurt helped make them fluffy.

These two flours will go on my sustainability radar as these are two types of flour that you can make yourself.

Sprouting wheat is a fairly simple process and you could even try growing your own corn!

Little Ones, Big Lessons

Photo By Eve. In this Photo: Eve and Little Diva in utero, Spring 2007 :)

Found this informative, straightforward yet beautiful website on wonderful ways to teach our little ones. I am reminded that I don't have to put my 4 year old and 2 year old in enrichment programs right now. I just have to do what I'm already doing, which is....enriching them :)

Yuk

Being treated for Lyme. On Doxycyclene 100mg. Yuk Yuk Yuk. Been strange. feeling better on the meds, but some of the stuff I've read is scary! My daughter just finished her amoxicillin treatment after we found a bullseye rash on her leg. We got the yard sprayed with organic tick repellant and we are using lavender essential oil in everything from laundry, to floor washing, to applying it with olive oil to our skin before we go out. (ticks hate it!) I planted some lavender out front and have a plan to plant them along the borders of the forest parts of our property.

Herbal Waters at Home

Taking a page out of The Herbal Kitchen, a book by Kami McBride with a forward by Rosemary Gladstar, I created a wonderful herbal water today. This book was given to me by a dear friend and is just what the doctor ordered. Lemon and orange slices, paired with peppermint leaves from my garden and accented with cinnamon sticks was today's best thirst quencher!

Cooking with Rosemary

Rosemary Gladstar

image courtesy Sage Mountain

On Saturday I was introduced to some of Rosemary's closest friends by the amazing woman herself; nettle, poppy, and lemon balm to name a few, and learned amongst other things, how to differentiate wild raspberry plants from wild blackberry plants.

We learned the gifts of many plants in the pouring rain on an unseasonably cold afternoon. The only way I can explain how I was not as cold as I should have been is that I was filled with passion for what I was hearing. Moreover, Ms. Gladstar spoke in such a way as to deeply resonate with how I relate to the world and it's natural gifts.

And then....we cooked with Rosemary! This was truly a treat for me. I helped make nori rolls filled with dandelions that had been marinated in an italian seasoning and sauteed in olive oil, garlic and onion. The nettle soup and nettle pesto were my favorites!

She took a minute at the end of our meal to answer my question about helping my son with seasonal allergies, and in her gentle manner gave me guidance with preparing a nettle tea, as well as resources for introducing healing herbs to my children. After the session, I felt elated and stepped lighter as I walked down the driveway of Sage Mountain. "I am on the right path" is what kept popping in my head.

Sheer delight washed over me while taking a turn through the wild areas of my property with my best friend and a glass of wine the next evening after my daughter's birthday party and discovering wild raspberry plants popping up all over the place! "I have something! I have something!" I blurted out in giddy excitement. Huge undisturbed dandelion leaves for salads and wine, violets, elderberry, and possibly even Juneberry live amongst other undiscovered edible and medicinal plants in my back yard. Treasure! When we first moved to this little house, I immediately felt the magic of the garden and lanscape. I felt the urge to learn about the cultivated herbs that were there already; sage, echinacea, oregano, chive...and my curiosity led me to Gladstar's Herbal Recipes for Vibrant Health book..... and one year later I have cooked with the spirited and sparkling lady.

Little did I know that the child who loved to stare at the huge tree growing in the middle of a junkyard behind her South Bronx apartment building, longing to be nestled in it's branches, surrounded by a canopy of green, would as an adult find a home whose greatest gift would be the splendor of it's greens. Tame as well as wild laid out before me I have found a green path to take me to the heights of important knowledge to pass down to my children.

I can see the ingredients are here for a lifetime of beautiful nourishment of all kinds.

It's in the Bag!

Image from www.instructables.com

I had the BEST time making my first personalized bean bag for a dear friend's little boy last week. I'm making toys now! woah, I would never have imagined. This is a huge deal for me! Allowing myself to be imperfect and sharing that imperfection with a sense of confidence and trust as I learn the ropes of being green and mastering the art of living has been amazing.

It was simple, and although my technique was not perfect and the embroidery was a little off, I was happy with the end product....although not sure if my friend liked it! ha ha. But, hey, it's a sturdy little bag of lentils for a toddler to knock around as only a toddler can, so I hope our toddler friend has a blast with it. We've decided to build a bean bag toss game for our backyard and the personalized bean bags will abound this season! I didn't take a picture of the first one I made last week since it was personalized, but I will post the next ones while they are in progress, and I'm confident my technique will improve so that you can tell a grown-up made them, although...they ARE beanbags people....

Kids Parties on the Green Side

Fallen bamboo leaf plates, cutlerymade of corn startch, and reusable home made banners made my son's 2nd birthday party a lot greener than last year's bash. I bought some gingham fabric and made some no sew table cloths that I will be using at every outdoor party. Cute and green - a la Kermit. I opted to rent an extra table and some chairs, rather than buy. Made things easier. I am liking the rental idea for parties. Is it greener? Well, I haven't delved into the specifics of gasoline used for delivery, but I didn't have to purchase new chairs. The bouncy house was definately not the greenest, as it needed an air pump guzzling electricity for about 4 hours, but it was not a brand new purchase, and our house did not have many lights on for the duration of the party, so I think I'm on the right track....but I am learning as I'm going, and there are things I can improve upon for my daughter's celebration in a few weeks, but this has been a gratifying experience, to be sure. For more on greening up your parties, check out my take on it at the Urban Times!

How Cool is THIS?

These were taken about 2 weeks ago. My daughter found it pretty easy to plant these with me. It was a fun project and we did it in under 45 minutes. We transferred our seedlings to the hampers and as of today, we have a few green beans that didn't survive the transfer. So far the carrots, peas, and cucumbers are doing awesome in these containers. We still have some other seedlings to transfer to bigger pots and eventuall to more hampers. So far, so good!

Expunging the Sponge Part II: The Verdict

We like Dad's old cotton T-Shirts better.

Happy Mother's Day

Mother love is the fuel that enables a normal human being to do the impossible - Marion C. Garretty

Days to Celebrate

Mother's Day will be here soon, as will my children's birthdays. When I asked a good friend what she wanted for mother's day she replied "world peace". In lieu of the recent world news, my friend's wish is profound.

Image courtesy of Courtney's Confections

I asked for house peace! My husband will be taking the children for a morning at Nana's.

But, my friend's wish makes me think: What will become of this wonderful, complicated, and at times so politically broken world? How, when I get so nervous, do I maintain this eco-friendly rythm of life in the shadow of the current world geo-political climate? For instance, my fight or flight response can kick in when I begin to let myself feel fearful about the myriad possibilities of retaliation.

One thing I'm going to try is to maintain the focus on my children, friends, and close family and help them, and myself, feel taken care of and content in the present. Loving is green. Compassion is green.

"You're Putting the Vegetables in WHAT?!?!"

...so said my husband this afternoon when I returned from a local discount curtain store that was selling these for 29 bucks a pop. They are about 3 feet tall and about two feet wide. A terra cotta planter that big or a wooden one that big would cost me at least twice that much. The hamper shown here is not the actual type I am using...but I will post mine soon. They are still in the backseat of the car! If weather permits tomorrow my vegetable sprout friends will have their new home, and will grow, hopefully, unhampered.

Expunging the Sponge

After months of diligently disinfecting and reusing the same green, oval sponge it has finally quit on me. I found this product at Whole Foods this week for under 5 bucks and thought I'd give it a shot. It's a washable microfibre cloth featuring an embedded scrubber. I can toss it in the wash and this is touted to last a long time, and to be an eco-friendly product. So far, the scrubber works well, and I'm liking using a larger wiping/cleansing apparatus (huh?) for my dishes and pots. I will keep you posted as to how long this guy lasts!

Photo by: Eve

Mystery Friends

Early Spring is a great time to take inventory of what you have in your yard. MAN! all sorts of friends popping up here and there. This is the first year since we moved here in Spring 2008 (I was like, 1,000 months pregnant with my current toddler) that I have the energy and capacity to want to delve into this project: Plant Identification! Will post slideshow on flickr one of these days soon. Feel free to comment on who you think my mysterious friends are....

Oh My Sprouts!

K. Not a good shot, but if you see on the bottom
half of the picture are my cucumbers sprouting happily! They were moved from their pete discs over into these egg-cartonesque pots today. This was a bigger undertaking than I had planned for. I moved about 20 sprouts to their respective containers today during my son's nap, it took about 45 minutes to mix the new pete with water, saturate the pots, place the sprouts and cover them. My daughter needed attention and didn't want to participate (cranky!) so I needed to stop after a bit. Then before I knew it my son was up and at 'em and the evening cranked up to dinner, baths, and bedtime. It was not the best day for 'family greening' work - I still have about 50 to go. I will make a go for another chunk of sprout transfers tomorrow. Let's see if the little ones are in a better mood tomorrow!

Not Bad for a First Timer!

Happy Easter Friends!

Hmmm....Easter

Eggs, paint, candy, cellophane, baskets, decorations, trinkets, prizes, chocolate bunnies, peeps....

umm...no way. just can't bring myself up to it this year.

Today's plan:

Reuse plastic eggs from last year, put reusable stickers on them with the kids. (no mess!)

Put them in our ONE family Easter basket from last year (new tradition!) which will be donned with bows from fabric scraps, and NO fake grass (just an old blue and white gingham kitchen curtain from our previous house). Add some carrots for the Easter Bunny and there you go.

Easter Bunny will come and bring ONE good sized chocolate something for the family to share, and outdoor or crafty goodies for the family to enjoy this spring (a ball, boomerang, etc). Egg Hunt and a basket of carrots left for our real family of wild bunnies in the backyard......and....well, that's a wrap. Well, kinda: now for the question of explaining the spiritual part to these little ones of Jewish and Catholic, but kinda organized religion confused parents...

Ah...i feel better. Happy Easter!

Nice Surprise on Earth Day

Look what came today! The Compost Brackets!!! WOW. that was fast. i'm sooo excited. Will share the process of putting these together. Click on the Compost tab on the header in the future!

Happy Earth Day!!!

Ready for Earth Day

Compost bin brackets on the way, seedlings planted, eco-friendly birthday party for my soon to be 4 year old and soon to be 2 year old planned and having an Earth Day picnic on Friday :-)