A little BIG word...how?

Wow, it's been a long time since I exercised the writing side of my brain. It's been a long time since I've exercised, period. I guess being a mom/ designer/child-care provider/homemaker/parent volunteer is keeping me busy. Not a shocker to those of you who also have more than one or two titles behind their name.

So what brings me to post today... other than I actually have more than a few free moments on this gray day to sit and contemplate my navel. Well, I guess what's on my mind is a little big word-- How?

Yep, how? Not original, I know. But it is a little word that brings up big topics. Such as--
How can I find the time to clean my house?
How can I find the time to process the remaining 40 lbs of apples in my garage?
How can I find the time to change the sheets?
How can I find the time to do the piles of laundry piling up?
How can I find the time to finish that sewing project I started more than a year ago?
How can I find the time to keep my creative juices flowing?
How can I find the time to exercise regularly?
How do I keep my daughter motivated to do her "jobs"?
How do I do I all need to do and still find time to play with my daughter?
How do I find new clients?
How do I find the time to finish the web training for the school district so I can actually update the school's web site that I promised to do 3+ months ago?
How do I find another dairy to deliver glass bottled milk in our area since the dairy we were ordering from stopped delivering?
How do I find the time to finish my book?
How do I find the time to update my Gluten-Free Guide with all the new GF recipes I've compiled or created?
OH, the "hows" just keep filling my brain. How, do I make it stop?

Well, I guess I don't. Right? Isn't this what it means to be a productive person? I could spend every "down" moment I have (maybe at most 5-10 on most days) being a lump on the couch like I did today. But really, all that did to me today was make me feel lazy and overwhelmed. Hence, the "how" question list above started to fill my brain.

But all this contemplating makes me wonder what I could do differently to feel more accomplished each day. I know the "to do" list will always be long and every growing. That's not really the problem. I love that I have things I need to do and things I want to do. What I don't particularly like these days is that I don't feel like I'm finishing anything.

Not a new problem for me, really. When I worked a traditional job in a traditional bureaucratic office, I found I always had an unfinished ever-growing to do list. But at least I could leave it a that bureaucratic office when I left it for the day.

Now that list is ever-present and full of empty check-boxes.

Hmmm... I don't think I have an answer today. But it feels good to not just contemplate it but put it out into the ether for comment. I know I'm not alone on this one. Any good ideas out there?

Well, now that that is off my chest, my 10 free minutes are up for the day. Off to pick up a kiddo from preschool.

No complaints...really. REALLY, no complaints. I'm much too busy to complain =)

Living off the earth

This time of year makes me happy. I am renewed by cultivating, harvesting, and celebrating all things green and fresh.

A few years ago I spent a weekend sawing, nailing and building five garden boxes. We dug up some grass, made some room for the boxes, and so the gardening experience blossomed.

Over the next five years or so we expanded or garden to pretty much utilize our entire backyard garden bed area as home for our fruits and vegetables every spring, summer, and fall. And I added one more box on our wasted ex-garage cement "driveway". And I can't forget to mention that we also incorporated many pots on our gravel walkway and a-for-mentioned "driveway" for tomatoes and herbs.

Our backyard is not large. Maybe the size of a nice size living or great room. But it's enough space to grow a nice variety of tasty, crisp, fresh greens and fruits.

So far this late-to-be-summer season we're harvesting peas, peas, and more peas, kale, lettuces, chard and will soon be eating fresh sweet carrots.

It takes some work, but not too much. I enjoy watering every morning. Walking around with my homemade organic "pest" tea made from garlic, pepper and mint, and spraying to deter the garden of nasty bounty-eating creatures like aphids. Pulling an invasive weed here and there. Fertilizing (organically of course) every once in awhile. Just enough work, I'd say.

Why do I do this? Yes, we love the fresh fruits and veggies. Yes, I do love watching plants grow and flourish. Yes, the garden adds beauty to our yard. Yes, I enjoy the time I have to myself. Yes, I love teaching and sharing nature with Chayse. Yes, I love knowing where our food comes from. And yes, I have bought into sustainable practices.

Why do we have space around our homes full of grass? Or full of weeds? Or full of plants that don't produce fruit? I love flowers, I love space to play. But why do we not grow more of our own food? I'm so tired of mass production farming. It just doesn't make any sense to me.

What happened to home gardens?

Over the years I've heard people discuss and argue about the reasons why our country is becoming obese and unhealthy. Yes there are many reasons for it. We've become sedentary. We eat fast food. We eat processed, chemically laced food. And there are many, many, many more reasons.

But I think many of the reasons can be boiled down to the fact that we no longer work for and appreciate food and where it comes from.

I know when my mom was a child her dad had a huge garden. Kids crossed farms to go to school. Families worked on farms. Gardening and farming was an essential part of society. They did the hard work and reaped the benefit: active people, fresh vitamin-rich foods, and knowledge of where their food came from.

Some of my generation still grew up doing Upick as a fun summer activity. Some families still had their hands in the soil.

And then somewhere along the way in the last 50 years farming became industrialized and mass produced. Pesticides became an accepted part of the process and every day people stopped having their hands in their food production chain. As a result people stopped knowing where food comes from. Today food comes from the grocery store or fast food chains. It's frozen, processed, rarely fresh.

Today many kids (and sadly MANY adults) don't even know the names of common fruits and vegetables. Let alone the fact that they don't eat them. If you don't know or care about where your food comes from or what it is, you eat fake food. Our bodies need real food to be healthy.

I can rant about this forever. But I won't. I'll just say this:

Plant one tomato plant. Plant some blueberries in your yard. A single strawberry plant. Plant a small garden. Cultivate it. Give it a little care in the form of water and compost. Then one morning when you walk out, coffee cup in hand, and you see that ripe red tomato or that sweet strawberry, pick it. Eat it. Appreciate it. Nothing is sweeter than fruit or veggies that you grow with your own hands. In your own soil. Savor that moment. And I bet you'll want more of them.

And soon you'll find you want to know where your food comes from. You'll start finding ways to know more. You'll explore farmers markets and ways to expand your little garden. You'll go to UPick farms and discover the sweetest peaches and apples you've ever eaten.

Share the experience with your kids, get their hands in the dirt. Involve them in their food chain process. Take them a Upick blueberry farm, let them engorge themselves on the UPick berries and green beans, and your kids will eat their fruits and veggies!

And I bet you'll discover that cultivating and living off the earth is how we're meant to eat. Put down the frozen foods. Drive by the drive-thrus. And stop at the farm stand instead.

The healthiest and best tasting salad you'll ever eat is the one you have by taking your favorite big salad bowl for walk, and filling it in your own back yard.

A roaring five

I know it doesn't get easier. It just changes. Or so that's what I've heard.

Five. It's a small number. But it roars loudly. And the roar is overflowing with drama.

I love being a mom. And I love my daughter more than life itself. But there are days when I don't think I can expose my exploding head to any more drama. Let me repeat that...Any More. I am filled with frustration and as they say, I have a "bad mommy day" from time to time.

How many times do I have to say "nope", "in 5 minutes", "I'm working on it", "brush your teeth", "get your shoes on", "get dressed", "I need you to listen", before it hits that amazing brain of hers? Most days I swear I'm no more than a broken record. A broken record that needs a bit of soothing glue to be put back together.

And the screaming?! How can such a sweet girl be reduced to yelling and screaming or stomping in a short second all because she does, or doesn't, want to do something. Oh, the drama.

Five, who knew it could be so loud?

I think because I was one of those little girls that quietly hid behind my mom's pant leg, hoping to hell no one would talk to me, I now have a hard time dealing with all the drama.

But I know I had my moments....

I recall when I was 10ish or so I had a not so pretty moment at my doctor's office. I had newly pierced ears that didn't heal so nicely. One morning I woke up to find my shiny little stud earring had actually popped into my infected lobe. After a morning of painfully trying to get it out of my lobe, and I'm sure after my mom had heard enough screaming, she took me to my long-time pediatrician for professional removal of the nasty sucker.

I really can't remember much from that appointment. My foggy memories consist of only a few things. Me screaming bloody murder. Screaming A LOT. The doctor trying his best to keep me still. And after a moment of his professional care, him saying, "that wasn't too bad was it." I don't even think a second passed before I abruptly stopped the screaming and replied, "when can I get my ear pierced again?" That was met with laughter. My poor doctor...and my sweet mom...Oh, how I feel their pain now.

Drama. I've always been an avid supporter of the arts. And I think I've been a closeted set designer or stage hand. But I never knew drama would consume my days all because of one little, sweet, five.

One day, after I'm sure many full of dramatic moments, we brilliantly came up with a plan to try and contain the drama but not squash it. We enrolled our little five in a real dramatic acting class. I don't think she looks more forward to anything in her week now than Monday afternoon acting class. Which I have to say makes my heart sing.

She doesn't walk to class, she runs. And when I leave her at the door, I know she is going to have two of the best hours of her week. Now that's drama I gleefully am proud of and support.

While those two hours don't contain all of the drama of the week, at least it's now some drama that has rhyme and reason. And I'm hoping it balances out the unpleasant roaring that fills much of the rest of the week.

It must sound like our house is chaotic and loud. It's not. It's just that when there are those moments...it can be overwhelming.

But I have to say, since we've created the opportunity for my little drama queen to transform herself into a thespian, the roaring seems to be becoming a bit more tame. At least that's what my hope-filled mommy-can-do outlook is telling the frustrated, exhausted, and at-the-end-of-her-rope not so happy mommy.

Every time I hear her singing or see her acting out some story she's made up, I know the drama in her exists for a reason.

Maybe six will be easier?