Sunday Brunch, Revisited (Or...Be Careful What You Wish For)

Remember how I was talking about wanting to run a fake Sunday Brunch restaurant a few days ago? Looks like I might get my first chance in a couple of weeks.

Two days ago, I attended the final lecture of the Terrace Lecture Series, which happened to be about local foods. A nice young man named Pete stood up and talked about the state of local food today in Terrace. Then the audience chimed in with what they knew or were interested in finding out.

By the end of the lecture, the auditorium was buzzing. People are interested in local foods, farmers markets, supporting local farmers and more. The question was asked, "What are we going to do to harness this energy?" There didn't seem to be an immediate answer.

"How about setting up a Meetup website?" I offered. That's what the Sustainable Living group in Santa Cruz had done and it seemed to be a viable way for people to keep each other abreast of what was going on in the community. Today I set up the site and designed our first "Meetup"; a local foods brunch at my house in a couple weeks' time. We'll eat local food and network about our future plans.



I'm getting a 50 lb. sack of potatoes grown locally next week, and something needs to be done with all those potatoes, so my plan is to oven-roast a ton of them the day before, and then slice them up and fry them up with some garlic and herbs. I'll also get a bunch of local eggs and make heaps of french toast with my homemade bread. It won't be a totally "local foods" meal, but it will be a start. I wonder if anyone will want to attend? I wonder if everyone will want to attend, LOL?

I wonder if we'll eat 50 pounds of potatoes?

Around the World in 192 Meals

We were out for a walk about a week ago, when my oldest son had a great idea: why not create a cookbook with meals from every country on the earth?

First he had to figure out how many countries there are, something which proved more difficult than one might think. He settled on a list; all the countries recognized by the United Nations. There are 192 of them.



Next, he figured he had 27 months between now and the day he graduates from high school. That means that he needs to research, prepare and write up around 7 meals per month for the next 27 months.

He's blogging about his experience at Around the World in 192 Meals. If you check it out, you'll see he has two kinds of posts:

1. Posts about the country, with some information, a map of the country's location, and some links to other resources.

2. Posts about preparing the meals, complete with tons of pictures and tips.

At the bottom of each recipe post is a link to printable versions of the recipes - very handy for actually recreating the meals.

We started with Venezuala and the food was absolutely delicious. My son did a great job picking out recipes. Tomorrow we're cooking Danish food. Yum. During the rest of April we'll also do Gambia, Laos, St. Lucia, Swaziland and Paraguay. Meal planning just got a whole lot easier for me.

Come check it out and give the kid some kudos for a job well done.

One of the Rewards

When I set out on my journey to halve it all, part of the point was to free up time and money for fun experiences. Well, tomorrow I'm setting off on one of those. I'm flying down to California to stay with friends for nine days. I'm looking forward to spending time with people I love, shopping (a little), sunshine (maybe), hikes in the redwoods, music and terrific food.



I'm not sure if I'll get the chance to pop by and post, but I plan to take a ton of pictures and I'll be on the lookout for tiny, wonderful houses, and people taking steps toward sustainable living and frugality.

Check back for updates; otherwise I'll "see" you all on the 25th!

Dance For Joy

Dance classes started up again last night. This time I'm taking a choreograph bellydance one and last night's class was a lot of fun.

I find that learning to dance is as much about UN-learning old habits as it is learning new ones. When you're raised by fairly uptight WASPs, you don't embody "grace" so much as "rigidity", so I have a lot of retraining to do.



Along with overcoming my stiffness, I have to overcome certain stumbling blocks in the way I view my body. As in my long-held conviction that my belly should be under wraps at all times.

Not only is my belly uncovered during bellydance classes, it's the focus. Last night we worked on a new move called "the belly pop". Yep. Just what it sounds like.

"Take a step to your right and push your belly out," my instructor Krystyna said.

Push my belly out? Are you kidding me? After all these years of holding that sucker in?

Just when I was about to mutiny, I flashed to the conversation I'd had with my kids at dinnertime. It was more of a lecture, really. I was telling them how when you pay attention to your personal grooming and your attitude, you don't just benefit yourself, you benefit everyone around you. Studies show that if a captain of a large ship is in a foul mood, even if he stays in his cabin and talks to no one, somehow everyone else on the ship will become aware of his mood and their stress levels will rise. So, too, in a family. If one person is walking around angry or sullen, everyone suffers.

I think the same could be said for people's self-confidence. If you walk around hating yourself (or your body), you don't just affect yourself, you affect the people around you, too. You make it hard for them to appreciate you. Your family loves you - all of you - but if they say, "You look great!" and you reply, "No, I don't - look at my stomach!" sooner or later they're going to stop complimenting you out loud and that little spark of love will have been squashed.

So, go ahead - stick out that stomach. It's good for you.

I Did It Again

Be careful what you wish for.

After complaining yesterday about guests that leave too quickly, I got the other kind yesterday. Those kids stayed three hours longer than they were supposed to. Oh well. Eventually they did go home.



But then my worst nightmare happened. A mom came to pick them up and we chatted while the boys got ready to leave. After a while I said, "I'm Jennifer, by the way."

"I know. We met at the UNBC teacher training day when we spoke about what parents want from their children's teachers."

Whoops!

How is it that everyone remembers me and I don't remember anyone? I've always been bad about that and here, in this small town, it's worse because I run into people I'm supposed to know all the time. I don't know about you, but I have to see someone four or five times before I get clear on their faces and I have to be told their names at least as many times or I can't get it straight. I hate that about myself. It's one of the reasons people think I'm such a snob until they get to know me pretty well - even after we've met once I don't say "hi" in public. They think I'm snubbing them. I just don't recognize them.

Today I'm walking around saying, "Bonnie. Bonnie, Bonnie, Bonnie, Bonnie, Bonnie." Whose mother is she? I haven't a clue. I'll tackle that next time, I guess....

One reason I've been working so hard to simplify is that I want more leisure time. More leisurely time. One of the things I want to do with that leisurely time is spend it with other people.

That means I have to be crafty, because most other people in this world believe that they are supposed to be hustling around like maniacs all the time. I shouldn't point fingers; I suffer from this syndrome, too. Sometimes I'll be at a get-together and even as I'm enjoying myself I'm thinking, "If only I could check my email while we talk."

I remember a time when guests would come over and I couldn't get them to leave. It'd be two o'clock in the morning, the kids still up, and I'd think, "Man, would they just go home?" Now I can't get them to stay more then two - three hours before they get jittery and start edging for the door, and no, I don't think I've gotten that boring as I've aged. I can see it on their faces; they're missing their fix. They haven't checked their stocks in an hour. What if there's breaking news and they haven't seen it? Maybe someone's started a fight on their favorite forum and everyone's choosing sides!

What's a girl to do?



Face it, I'm forced to make coming to my house better than the internet (or tv). That's a heck of a lot of pressure. One way I lure people in is with food. Today the prey was a gaggle of teenage boys my son brought home to play Dungeons and Dragons in the basement. They were slated to be here from 10 am to 6 pm, which is pretty bold in this age of split-second entertainment. Kudos to my son to get kids to commit to any activity that lasts that long. I had to take steps to make it a success.

This called for pizza, and lots of it. And that's how I spent my day. 10 pans of homemade pizza later, plus a plateful of homemade cookies, and I think they were hooked. One kid apparently ate a whole pizza by himself. I'm feeling pretty self-satisfied tonight, but this is just the tip of the iceberg. I've got my work cut out for me if I'm going to start a slow-socializing movement here in town.

We Did It!

Congratulations, everyone - it's January 31st! We made it through the toughest month of the year (for me, anyway)!

Next month is February. I'm going to focus on one serious topic - budgets, and one that's just as serious but far more fun - love.



I don't think it's possible for a family to downsize without budgeting. A budget, for all its bad reputation, is just a tool that allows you to get control of your money. It gives you choices. It gives you power.

Love can also be a tool of sorts. You can use it as a lever to lift yourself or others out of a hole. You can use it as a blanket or a medicine to heal those who have been hurt. You can use it as a shovel to fill in chasms between you and your enemies. It's good to have in your arsenal.



In thirteen days I turn forty and you know what happens when women like me hit milestone birthdays like this: we shake things up. Big time. I'm looking forward to a very stellar year. I hope you are, too.

Traditions

On days like today my life feels very full. I spent the morning with five other women friends at a kind of women's retreat we do yearly. We gather together and spend several hours constructing collages of our hopes for the coming year. I am always amazed by the creativity and insight these women possess and now that we've done it three years in a row I am blown away by the journey we seem to be on together, too.

This is the first year I've been clear enough in my head and heart to really show up for the event and I attribute that to the halving journey I've been on for the last six or so months.



Although some days I feel like I'm not making any progress, days like this show me just how far I've come. I have the time to spend a whole day on "selfish" pursuits. I have the materials I need. I have enough organization in my life to be able to prepare without panic. I have enough clarity about my inner workings to be able to project a year's worth of themes onto a canvas.

What an amazing discovery.

This is what I want from my halved/doubled life - real experiences with real people that involve talking, creating, doing and planning. Experiences that leave me refreshed and ready for my work.

What popped up at me out of today's creative endeavor? That I'm missing what's right in front of my face. It's time to allow my children and my husband to accompany me on this flight of fancy. I need to talk to them about my hopes and plans. I need to stop squirreling away my ideas for when I'm alone. I'm strong enough not to be swayed by their opinions and emotions. I'm safe among them.

That's how far I've come. I can speak my truths out loud.

Time For A Check In

"I don't know what's wrong with us. It's like we can only think about one day at a time; we can't seem to make any plans for the future."

That's what my mom said the other day when I asked her if she and my dad were coming to visit us this year. I know exactly what she means, too. It's January, the month in which everything seems to come to a big, grinding halt. The month in which there isn't nearly enough money and way too many days. The month in which you jot down a list of things to do and then lose it immediately. The month in which spring seems light years away.



I planned to finish "halving" my bedroom yesterday, but I forgot to do it. Somehow the entire day disappeared in half-hearted internet searches and online conversations. Today I am resolved to do better.

You have to fight the January blahs actively. It's too darn cold to go outside for more than a few minutes, so I'm going to get my heart rate up inside. I'm going to put on my current audio-tape (The Year of Living Biblically) and plow through this room. There isn't a whole lot to do, so I can do it well. Then I can feel like I accomplished something.

I'm also going to look back at my "fun" plans for this month and figure out if there's anything left for the final week. I already have lots of fun things planned for February - dance lessons, a trip to California, a night out dancing on Valentine's....

How about you? Are you scheduling things to look forward to into your calendar? Give it a try - it really helps!

The Owl Waits For No Man (Or Just Say 'Yes'!)

We had a lovely walk yesterday but we didn't find any owls. We waited too late and he wasn't out there, and I spent much of the walk kicking myself for not going the previous day when he was hooting his little heart out.



It just goes to show that when someone asks you to do something fun (like finding owls) just say "Yes"! My excuse is that I was already on my way to doing something fun (lunch with my husband), but there are lots of times when I'm just too lazy to take people up on their offers.

I've resolved to change that this year. I'm going to try to say "yes" much more than "no." I've resolved to stop being such a scaredy-cat and a stick-in-the-mud.

I find that he world has a way of rushing to meet you whenever you put aside your inhibitions and take a step toward it. In the past twenty-four hours I've had two "strangers" make offers to me that have left me smiling. One offered a book and one offered a pair of speakers for my computer so I could hear a song they wanted to share. How beautiful is that?

I'm off to get started with my day. Now practice with me: "Yes! Yes! Yes!"

To Find The Owl

For today's adventure we're off to find an owl we keep hearing in the late mornings. It seems to be living in the woods near the start of the Howe Creek trail right near us. It's pretty cold today and I haven't heard him (or her) yet, but we'll head out soon to see if we can track it down.

The sun is up and everything looks pink this morning. I love the way it reflects off the trees on the hillside outside my window.



Here is a mountain in the distance that can be hidden for weeks at a time by clouds. We're having a much colder, clearer winter than usual this year.



I'll bring my camera when we walk, but I'll be surprised if I manage to take a picture of the owl. Might as well try, though, right?

Archery

My son (11) and I set out to the archery club today for the first time. I got him a recurve bow for christmas and this was our first chance to actually shoot due to severe laziness and cold weather (I wasn't going to drive him to a safe place and then stand around for an hour in the freezing cold).

The club uses the local community center during the winter months. They set up targets at varying ranges with a curtain behind them. Yep - there's a boar, a bear, a deer...



The two guys who head up the club were incredibly helpful and greeted my son like an old friend, which made him feel very welcome. They showed him a few things and let him loose and it took a few minutes but eventually he got the hang of it.

Things were set up just like over at the rifle range - a line, a range master, etc. Everything was very safe and under control.

I liked being able to see people use some different kinds of bows. The kids mostly had longbows/recurve and the adults were fairly heavy on the compound bows. I have to say I lean toward recurve, myself.

Here's the kid at the beginning of the session - he's struggling a bit to pull the string back. It was all a bit awkward at first:



About fifteen minutes into the shoot there was a commotion at the other end of the line. A little kid had just done a Robin Hood maneuver - shot one arrow and then shot another arrow right into the first one. The arrow didn't split (darn fiberglass!), but it stuck there. My camera couldn't handle the low light to take a picture of the arrows while they were still stuck to the target, but here's the kid and arrows after he pulled it out. You'll have to look hard to see them stuck together.



I only got to shoot four times. My son wasn't volunteering to give me a turn and I figured if I wrestled him for the bow it would disturb the other archers. I hit the bear once.

I'm going to pick up a wrist guard and glove for me this week and then I can borrow one of the club's bows next week. That'll be a lot more fun than sitting around watching. I think I'm going to ask for a bow for my birthday next month.

When the weather warms up they hold meets outside. John (one of the guys in charge) said they have full-size 3D targets of every mammal that lives here in the NW, and they have a bunch of African animals, too. They range them around in the woods and you have to walk around and find them, then take aim and shoot.

On Mother's Day weekend in May they have a weekend match with camping and a pig roast. Last year there were 200 participants from all over the province. I can't wait. I've been dying to go camping since we got here - it's been over four years!

Anyway, I'm stoked. Two to three hours of archery every Sunday? I'm in!

Things?/Experiences!

Yesterday I was feeling blue because I was vacuuming and the vacuum cleaner kept shutting itself off. I'll check the filters, but it might just be getting to the end of its useful life. And my son needs to pay his entrance fees for the big music festival coming up. And we need new sheets. And the kids' socks have all fallen apart at the same time....

What's the use of scrimping and saving if it just means I have to use that money to buy more things? Doesn't that defeat the whole point of the exercise?

On the bright side, today I get to go try something completely new - shooting a bow and arrow.

I bought my son a recurve bow for Christmas and today we are going to our town's archery club to learn to use it. I bought him a target, thinking he could just shoot it in the backyard but my husband vetoed that idea. When the weather gets nicer I'll start taking him out to the bush - there are several spots I know we can go where no one's around to accidently hit.

I've wanted to learn to shoot a bow and arrow all my life, but today I feel strangely blank about it all. Does this ever happen to you? It's like I'm afraid now that this dream is coming true it won't be as fun as I thought it would be. Or I won't be good enough at it - something like that. Fear of success, you could call it.
I'm determined to buck that fear this year because it really gets in the way of having a good time.

Anyway, I'll bring the camera and take some pics. Now I'm getting excited about it. Must have just been a touch of existential angst there....

Cutting Your Vacation Expenses In Half

There are whole sites devoted to this topic, so I'm not going to try to re-invent the wheel. I'll just tell you some of the tricks I've learned about cheap vacations.

Let me start by saying that vacations comes under the heading of "experiences" for me. That means that vacations are actually one of the places where I feel its okay to spend the money I'm saving elsewhere. Figuring out how to vacation on the cheap is more about extending the possibilities of the experience (and extending the vacation itself) than about being cheap for the sake of being cheap.



I live in the northwest and the rest of my family all lives on the east coast, so many of our vacations are spent in New York. Plane tickets to New York are astronomical - often over $1000 a piece these days. Since we live in a small northern town, we pay $500 - $600 just to get to Vancouver.

So we drive instead. And we've gotten the cross-country trip down to a science. Gas, hotels, and food cost about $3,000 round trip - half the price of flying!

Interestingly enough, six people driving in one van creates about 40% less carbon dioxide than six people flying in an airplane, so if your carbon-conscious you save that way, too.

Our trip takes five days and four nights. Since I know our route well, I book the hotels in advance and make sure we get a pool each night, and a continental breakfast, if possible. We get up early, pile in the car, listen to audio books while we drive, eat lunch in the car (tons of sandwiches), stop for dinner at a fast-food joint and break off in the evening early enough for a quick swim (or a few hours at a waterpark in Wisconsin), before falling asleep.

I generally get us two nights where we stay in a suite with a separate bedroom for mom and dad, and two nights in more budget accomodations.

This works for us because we've set up our lives in such a way that my husband can take his work with him. Once we reach New York we stay with family for at least six weeks. My parents have room for us, and they've installed DSL in our room so that my husband can plug in his computer as soon as we reach there and get back to work. (Poor guy - although the beauty of doing work you love is that, well, you love it!)

What would we do if we didn't have this family situation?

Well, my next option for a cheap vacation would be camping in state parks or other recreation areas. Most people have several of these within a day's drive and you can make camping as simple or as elaborate as you like.

This year my family is staying home. I'm taking a quick trip to California, but I'll be couch-surfing at friends' houses, so my flight is my only expense. Since the cost of flying is so outrageous, I called a travel agent and told her what I was looking for. Then I waited until she called back with a seat sale. If there hadn't been a sale, I wouldn't have gone.

If you're really short on cash but you want some sort of vacation, my advice is this. Pretend you've just moved to the town you live in, or better yet - pretend you're visiting from Belgium. Look up your town on the internet and read through the tourist highlights about it. Are there places you don't go because they're "just for tourists"? Try them out! Dig out your camera and photograph your town the way you would if you were just visiting. You might be surprised at some of the gems you find close at home. Set up a few days' worth of activities as if you were preparing to show a guest around, and then do them yourselves. Walk up to strangers while you do this and ask them questions about things. You might meet some new people, too.

I was just talking to a friend in the supermarket today about what if instead of taking a vacation to a far off place you stayed right where you are, but met and talked with everyone within a three block radius of your house. Like sat down, ate a meal and had a drink - took time to really talk. That might turn out to be way more fun, entertaining and enlightening than a safari to Africa ever could. I wish I wasn't so damn shy - I'd try it out.

Random Pictures of My Husband Working

It just keeps on snowing.

It warmed up a bit, though, and I knew all that snow - a foot and a half of wet, compacted stuff with a little ice on top - was going to slide off our metal roof pretty soon. Yesterday I made the kids use the side door all day, because if anyone was underneath it when it all came down they'd be toast.

I was making dinner when it let loose. Holy cow - it sounded like a freight train. Even though I'd been expecting it I jumped a foot in the air.

Here's a picture of my neighbor's garage roof just before its snow fell off. You can see how deep it is:



Here's a picture of my backyard. Yep - we were going to take the trampoline down...and then we never quite did it:




My husband looked out today and saw the neighbor guy pulling the snow off of his roof. He started to think he'd better get the snow off our back roof, too - the back half of our roof isn't sloped very steeply, so that portion wasn't likely to fall off on its own.

Here he is standing on the roof of the shed outside my window knocking snow off. I know, I know - it's a picture of his butt. Isn't that how Ree of The Pioneer Woman got her start, though? Taking pictures of her dh's butt while he and the other cowhands worked her ranch? And now she's hit the big time. Maybe someday I will, too. Come on, honey - work it!

A Plan For Fun

Have you ever noticed that once you reach adulthood, especially once you have children, that it's much easier to plan for all the work you have to do than to make a plan for having fun?

I make grocery lists, chore lists, homeschooling lists, meal lists, but I rarely sit down and make a list of all the fun acitivities I'd like to get to in the coming month.



But that's what I'm going to do today. I'm going to plug in my dance classes, my art get-togethers and my Artist's Way group meetings. Then I'm going to call up some of my friends and plug in a few lunch dates across the next few weeks.

I'm also going to make a few plans with my husband. We normally have a "date night" once a week, but lately we've been so busy it's been easy to put it off. Since our weekend evenings are kind of full, I'm going to plan a few mid-week dates. Dessert at a local restaurant, maybe, or even a late-night walk holding hands under the....uh...falling snow. (It seems to snow every day lately).

How about fun activities with the kids? I have to bully them into joining in these days, but even sitting down to a movie as a family means you've spent a little time together and have shared a common experience. We're watching a Masterpiece Theatre movie of the book Kidnapped, by Robert Louis Stevensen. Boy did the kids grumble about sitting down for it, but once it's on they settle right in. (It's long - probably four hours total, so we're watching it in stages).

I could take it a step farther, too - I often have fairly detailed schedules during the day that include exercise, school, meal prep, etc. I could plug in some short periods of "fun" right into those: 15 minutes reading a decadent novel, a bubble-bath mid-morning, a phone call to a friend late in the afternoon.

One thing that's good about scheduling fun is that once you put in on your "to-do" list you don't have to feel guilty about it anymore. You aren't taking time off from your schedule to get away with something - you're just checking off one more item! I don't mean that you shouldn't take your fun seriously - but you shouldn't feel guilty about adding joy to your day. Make sure you show up for everything on your list - your chores and your fun activities. Then you can feel like you've really accomplished something at the end of the day.

Off I go to get my calendar. What kind of fun things are you planning this month? Any good ideas for what to do with older kids?