Day 2

My legs are far too hairy for shorts (though you can't really tell in this picture but it's the only one I took that didn't make my calves look the size of a beef shank). But I wore them anyway. Constant movement is the key to fooling the eye.

Day 1

Today I wore a bathing suit bottom because I was all out of clean underwear.

By Way of Explanation

My mother and I went to see Julie & Julia today. The movie was excellent and inspired a craving for French food and blog readership. Julie Powell started a blog, during the golden days of blogging, and ended up with a book and movie. She didn't even have Site Meter to verify her growing readership. But she ended up with thousands of followers who read her every word and yes, sent her gifts. Gifts. I can't imagine. Now it seems every good blog idea has been used up. Writing about going insane. Taken. Writing about how your kids lead to the insanity. Taken. Fashion, fitness, home organization and design. Done, done and done. I have racked my brain for a good hook. Something that will draw people in and keep them coming back. Something I could do for 365 days. People seem to love things involving "A Year of..." Or maybe that's just me. And that's when it hit me. Blogs are narcissistic shrines people build to worship at their own feet. Accusing a blogger of being self-absorbed is just repetitious. You have to possess at least a small fraction of healthy self esteem to write about yourself every day and to expect anyone to want to read it (more than once anyway). So I have decided to devote a whole year to myself. 365 days of why I am awesome. And I suppose I should care if people want to read about me (and I really do) but no matter what happens, at the end of the 365 days I will still be me. And I will always be awesome.

Freaking Out About Food

As if I needed something else to freak out about. I have been reading food books all summer. And now I have just enough information to be dangerous. I am reading these:




I am a little concerned with our national food supply and our American way of doing things faster and cheaper. There are so many statistics in both books that just make me want to crawl under the bed and live on dust bunnies. How did we get to the point that the majority of our calories come from three crops (corn, soy and wheat) that have been genetically modified to be resistant to the chemicals supplied by the very same supplier of the seeds? And what's the alternative? Luckily both books are pretty detailed in offering solutions. Obviously organic produce is an option. But you have to make sure it's not coming from too far away. And then there's growing your own. Which works much better in a climate not considered "hell." And we use a lot of water to sustain our desert crops. Then there's the farmers market. I have been frequenting a local market on Friday mornings and the produce offerings are abundant. I even bought farm fresh eggs last time and I am well stocked in local honey. Sometimes they even have grass fed beef for sale. I placed an order for grass fed beef from a farm in southern Arizona because I wanted to see if we could taste a difference and I wanted to support local ranching. I know some people think suburbanites have way too much money and time on their hands and are always looking for eco chic ways to save the planet. But seriously, grass fed beef beats store bought's butt. It just had so much more flavor and texture. I am a convert. Ultimately though, the trick is deciding to eat in season and giving up things from far, far away. I had to tell my littlest she couldn't have apples this week because New Zealand was far away across the ocean. She didn't really understand but her attention turned to peaches so everything worked out. And it's kind of cool to eat things just because you need to use them up. This morning I had cereal but no bananas. Do we even grow bananas in the United States? So I looked in the fridge and I had a delicious local peach in need of being eaten. Why didn't I think of that sooner? I know it may take a little more time and money trying to eat sustainably but if I can make up for a little human arrogance by spending an extra hour a week and a few dollars more, I'm all in.

Back to School

Since we live in Hades (otherwise known as Arizona) we do things a little different than the rest of the country. We don't have daylight savings time (who needs more hours of scorching sunlight) and we go back to school in July. Not all of the schools start so early but we are on a modified year-round calendar. We have seven weeks of summer and then two weeks in October, December and March. It works out quite well. This year I have a little man starting kindergarten and I was pretty sure he did not want to deal with the intricacies of the cafeteria. So he will be taking his lunch a lot. His sister is in the 5th grade and she prefers to take lunch but will settle for hot lunch if it's something she likes. In an attempt to be environmentally friendly I decided against using plastic bags. I also wanted something to keep their lunches cold that was not made up of weird blue goo. Sounds like a job for The Container Store. I love The Container Store. So many containers. I even made the 80 mile round trip so we would have the lunch stuff by Monday. OK I am aware that driving 80 miles is not environmentally friendly but there's only one Container Store here and it's far away. We took the kids (mistake) and ended up purchasing several lunch items and an Elfa storage system for Emma's clothes. She is complaining that her room is too small so we're trying to move the furniture around for her. I really like these:



Everything fits in the little compartments and nothing has to touch! I also bought these and fill them with juice and then freeze:



Today is our first experiment with these so hopefully they will thaw by lunch. At least their food will be cold. I also bought a little chip and dip container for carrots and ranch. I think we'll have plenty of options for at least the first semester! I may start googling lunch ideas if they start complaining. But at least my husband will eat the same thing every day, without fail.

Less Stress and a Clean Pantry

I'm back from our whirlwind tour of Oklahoma. It was exhausting but I realized when we made it back home that it was stressful in a different way than usual. I didn't have to worry about the house or being the primary caregiver for the kids or the million other things I stress about. I was just busy. When we walked in the door Monday night I looked around at the semi-clean state of our house and realized I need to get busy. If this is the place we want to call home for years to come, I should care enough to keep up with it. In reality my family should care enough not to trash it but that's a different battle. So for some unexplained reason I began feverishly cleaning the pantry. A little background here: the pantry was the one area I never finished when we were doing the kitchen organization. All of my other drawers and spaces were organized and still pretty much look neat and tidy. But I just could never finish the pantry. I even started putting contact paper down but stopped halfway through. And that was almost a year ago. By the time I started cleaning, the floor of the pantry was covered with sprinkles and goo and who knows what. But I just felt like that was the thing I needed to do. My very astute MSW BFF has a theory that I'm depressed because I'm stuck in the middle of my organization projects. And maybe she's right. I certainly don't feel good when I look in my funky bedroom or wash my face in my gunky sink. So I should start where I left off and finish what I started. After I completed the pantry I just stood back for about 10 minutes and marveled at the orderliness. And now when I'm feeling a little discouraged I just open the door and peek in. Is that obsessive? Maybe, but it works for me.

Blog-cation

I know I hardly need to post this here, since I'm so bad about updating, but I will be gone until next Monday. No big projects in the works but maybe I'll get some inspiration! See you then.