Apple Cider Vinegar

It may sound kooky but the stuff seriously does work wonders! In the past, when I'd read or heard about certain home remedies it sounded like more of sham or just a little too crazy to try out. Maybe you've even seen the books on the many uses and applications of apple cider vinegar and passed it off with a "yeah, right, I'm sure it really works" (said or thought in a sarcastic tone). If so, hold the skepticism, pass the cider vinegar and try it one when one of the following situations presents itself. (If you do try it out, please share your experience under this post in the comments section)

Note: I use Bragg's Apple Cider Vinegar - it's unfiltered and unpasteurized so has more of the effective things (that's the technical term for whatever makes it work!) in it, but there are other brands available, too. The cheaper kinds you find in most grocery stores may work to a certain extent, but I can't vouch for it since I've only used Bragg's. You may need to go to a natural foods store, organics section of a grocery store (or the Internet) to find it. As I'm not a medical doctor and have never been to medical school, please check with your doctor, pharmacist or naturopath first if you have any medical conditions which may be adversly affected by an unpasteurized product.


Sore throat: Slightly dilute the cider vinegar with some water and gargle at the first sign of a sore throat. I (and others in my family who've tried this) found it to work most effectively when you first feel like a cold or sore throat is coming on. However, even if it's full-blown, it still hels. Try gargling several times a day and it seems to help the symptoms go away faster.

Acne: I tried this on a whim. (For those of you who've seen "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" just substitue the apple cider vinegar for Windex and you get the picture). When you spot a pimple, pour some cider vinegar on a cotton ball (dilute with some water if you like) and brush over your skin. When I've done this in the evening, by the next morning, the redness is gone! A few more swabs and the pimple disappears.

1st Degree Burns: When you've touched something hot - stove, iron, etc. immediately pour some apple cider vinegar over the spot and it helps the burned area from blistering. My mom did this after she burned a large area of her hand - something that normally might leave a scar - and her hand healed completely. I've tried this on myself and my children and have found it to be effective. Plus, because the pure cider vinegar requires refridgeration after opening, it feels soothing to have the cool liquid poured on it.

Mosquito Bites/Poison Ivy: Dilute the cider vinegar by half with water and bath the affected areas with the solutions. It helps take away the itch, though you may need to do this several times for permanent relief. My husband had a good case of poison ivy and used this remedy to relieve the itching.

These are the four areas where I've personally seen the effectiveness of the cider vinegar, but given the size of the Bragg Cider Vinegar book, this is only the tip of the iceberg. At minimum, you have something that's good to use in your cooking. ;)

What are your experiences or maybe hesitations in using apple cider vinegar? Share your thoughts in the comments section under this post.

Garden Journal

We are at the cusp of a bountiful harvest season...

This week we got in our first cherry tomatoes. Sweet and juicy! It caught be by surprise as I was intending just to harvest some parsley, but then I caught a glimpse of red deep within the tomato plants and close to the ground. It took a moment to register that there were indeed tomatoes that were actually ready for the picking! So I went on a hunt and have continued to do so throughout the week.

Our zucchini's are crazy. I'm positive they grow from barely there to more than a foot in length overnight because I check them frequently.

We've had quite a few cucumbers as well with more on the way.

I just noticed yesterday that we have a number of borlottie beans - again a surprise because they blend in well with the foliage.

The loofah I planted is doing okay and I hope we get at least one from it before the cold hits.

The potatoes must be getting close to harvest time and the mesclun mix is ready for picking. Spinach is coming along nicely too.

Dave have yet to be successful in growing onions or peas - any tips?

The deer netting we put help has helped the pole beans to stage a comeback as well as the lamb's ear.

Praying for some rainy days to come as we've had a dry spell for a while.

Praising God for His amazing creation and His gift of 6 ft tall tomato plants!

Strange...but true

I've become increasingly conscientious of the ingredients not only in the food we eat, but also in the products we put on our body. After all, the skin is the body's largest organ and a lot gets absorbed into our system through the skin.


For a while, I've been using the "natural" deodorants - the ones without the aluminum, parabens and other sketchy chemicals which are found in much of the deodorants in retail stores (except for most natural food stores or sections). If any of you have tried natural deodorants, you probably found the same thing I did - they were great at not yellowing or staining the armpits of your shirts but they didn't rate so hot on the odor prevention scale. Nature's Gate was the brand I found to be best at odor fighting.


And then, in doing some research I'd encountered a tip that baking soda works well as a deodorant on the body as well as it does in the fridge. At first I was skeptical - there was no way plain old baking soda could do better job than the manufactured deodorants which were formulated after much research and testing. I hestitated to try it, not believing it would really work.


But on a day when I knew I would see anybody besides my family, I decided to try it. It was kind of scary - would I be really sweaty and smelly? Even more than when using the natural deodorant? After all we were in the heat of summer. Bravely, I put some on and would peoridocally check for any hint of odor. Anybody who is of an origin other than North American is probably shaking their head at this - yes, we are obsessed with the cleanliness and lack of stinkiness of our bodies in this part of the world.


What were the results? It worked! I am not kidding - it really worked and better than any deodorant I've ever tried in my life (and I've tried quite a few in search of freedom from odor).

If you are interested in trying this experiment, here's what you do: wet underneath your arms with water, sprinkle some baking soda on your hand, rub the baking soda under your arm and - voila! - you're done.

A couple of user tips: If you sweat a lot you may need to reapply the baking soda a couple of times throughout the day, but it is amazing how much sweat and odor the baking soda can take. Use enough to get a light dusting of the soda under your arm but not so much that if you're wearing a dark shirt, the baking soda will leak through with sweat (this happened to me once) - no worries if this does happen, as baking soda also is a natural cleaning agent and may even help get your clothes cleaner!

It seems really silly to be writing about all this, but I had to share it because 1) it's cheaper than store bought deodorants and it works better 2) it's environmentally friendly and 3) it's another example of the beauty and simplicity of God's creation - he fitted our bodies to work the best with the things He created for us.

If you do try this experiment, consider sharing your thoughts here under the comments section.

Garden Journal

We had a great stretch of weather last week - for several days it would rain around evening and be sunny during the day. The plants loved it and shot up in growth. We had to water for the first time in a while this morning, but God also gave us plenty of water tonight with some thundershowers.



The last batch of peas I planted are up, as is the spinach, mesclun mix, yellow beans and loofah. The earlier batch of peas and beans are starting to wrap themselves around the pole supports. I think we need to plant earlier next year that we did this year. The butterfly weed I planted doesn't seem to be doing anything, but maybe it will surprise me yet. We've been enjoying the blueberries as they've ripened but I think the birds got to our raspberries before we could harvest any.



There have been some "marauding varmints" as I sort of affectionately call the deer that venture up from the valley to our street. (Seriously, though, they have a whole valley to eat from. Why do they need to snack on our garden?!) They mowed down the lamb's ear, nibbled one of our pepper plants in half and taken some bites of our beans and tomatoes. Grrr!


I'm not sure about our carrot crop this year - I don't think we'll have as many as last year and it will be surprising if we get any loofah since we planted it late, but you never know. We're still in the experimental and learning stage of our gardening and I'm sure God will have much to teach us along the way.

Garden Journal

We were gone for a few days and how our garden has grown!

The zucchinin is a foot taller, has more flowers and little baby fruit can be seen. The tomatoes are still happy and growing, though the ones closer to the sidewalk are much shorter - not sure what might be going on with the soil there. The potatoes really shot up and needed to have hills of soil piled around them. Only 3 or 4 of the pea plants grew - not sure what happened to the other seeds. Carrot seed are up but the ones in the front aren't doing as well. May need to reseed and add compost. The bean and onions also showed some growth. We have several ripe raspberries and the blueberries are close to ripening. The rhubarb is showing more growth, too.

We had a ton of weeding to do - I doubt I'll order from that place again. Too many weeds - including bindweed are sprouting. I think we've harvest at least 5 pounds in weeds so far.

Today I planted some mesclun mix, more peas, "gold mine" yellow beans and luffa.

With rain in the forecast every day this week, I praying it will continue to help our garden grow.

Park the Car Small Step

Maybe going without a car all the time, or even most of it, is impractical or challenging for you in your current life situation. Here are a few ideas for small ways to keep the car parked:

• Choose to walk, bike, take the bus, carpool just once a week
• If you run out of something, ask a neighbor to borrow it (a great way to build good relationships with your neighbors - especially if you return their borrowed egg in the form of freshly baked cookies!)
• Offer to run an errand for a friend or neighbor while you are out and about - it saves them having to use their car and they may return the favor
• Look for ways technology can save you some trips (e.g. online banking, automatic bill pay) - this will also save some trees

What are some small ways you've discovered are helpful in keeping your car parked? Post your ideas in the comments section.

Being Green is not Easy! Part One

With gas prices on the rise and a continued awareness of the harmful effects of a car on the environment, I've made more attempts to use my bike for errands with the kids. So far, it's been a rousing failure.

Our first attempt was a couple of months ago in the early warmth of May. Anticipating a refreshing bike ride in sun and light breeze, I asked my husband to hook up the bike trailer to my bike so I could take our three children to the local library. He looked a little skeptical at my request because that would mean hauling our 4 1/2 and 3 year old in the trailer and putting our 19-month-old in the baby seat. However, he gamely complied, though not without joking that he also hitched up the wagon and lawn mower to my bike as well.

Undaunted, I got the kids into their seats and tested out "invisible footprint" minivan. It worked! Feeling pretty good about myself, I biked us all to the library. No problem at all.

The kids enjoyed their time playing in the children's section while I selected six books to take home instead of the usual eight (it was becoming difficult to keep track of all the books). Before heading home, they burned off some more energy at the playground which was just next door. We were still in good shape and right on schedule for getting home in time for lunch.

As I pulled into the driveway, I was elated with how well the bike trip had worked out - now I had a way to get all of us to local places without using the car! Then an inconvenient truthy presented itself...While getting the kids and the books out of the trailer, I counted only five of the original six books. I counted again. And then again. Yes, five books when there should have been six. So I looked in the trailer, around the trailer, in the backpack praying that sixth book would materialize.

When it stayed missing, I asked my oldest child if she knew what happened. "Oh, Reesie threw it out of the trailer," she matter-of-factly replied. In disbelief, I asked my daughter and then my son, the book tosser, the same question several times. Each time came the same answer.

What was an eco-conscious mom to do now? Desperately looking at my clock, feeling low on energy and patience, I did the only thing I could - I loaded the kids into the car and retraced our route. As I scanned the sidewalks in vain, I imagined the disapproving looks on the librarians faces when I confessed we lost a book because my son tossed it from the bike trailer. I ended up going all the way back to the library without seeing it. I began to pray some good hearted citizen had already found and returned it. Halfway back I saw it and was flooded with relief as I picked it up and dusted it off, greeting it as a long-lost friend instead of a temporarily misplaced loaner.

Of course, I can't help but see the humor in this situation...cancelling out the good of the bike ride by driving all the way to the library, getting less books to make them easier to locate only to lose one, children who live the philosphy, "easy come, easy go." God must have had a good chuckle that day - my husband certainly did. I admit I did too.


Have your attempts to become more eco-conscious fallen short of your goal? Share your stories in the comment section.

Garden Journal

The beans are growing like crazy - most of them are up and the pole beans are already several inches high!


The zucchini's bloomed...



...and the peas and potatoes are starting to make an appearance.


We've entered a cooler weather pattern this week - high's in the upper 60's, mid-70's and chances of rain all week, though we've only had a smattering so far.

The black-eyed susan's are starting to bloom, the lavendar's been in full bloom for a week now and the painted daisy's have died out for the season. Can't wait for everything to fill in over the next couple of months!

Diaper Wipes Small Step

To follow up on my last post, here's a small step you can take in reducing waste if you have small children but are not ready to commit to cloth diapers.

Instead of buying the pre-packaged wet diaper wipes, use washclothes instead (obviously, ones set aside specifically for this purpose and not used for washing faces!). The ones made for babies are perfect both in size and texture. If you want to be even more economical, make your own by buying full-size washclothes, cutting them into fourths and stitching the cut edges. A little extra time, but can save money. Store the washclothes in the bathroom and wet them as needed.

If you are using cloth diapers, it's easy to toss these cloth wipes right in the diaper bag with the used diapers. If you're using disposables, just keep a bag handy for storing the used wipes until its time to launder them.

A side benefit of using cloth wipes - they aren't irritating like the store-bought diaper wipes can be, especially if you have a child with sensitive skin. When my children would have a diaper rash and I'd use the diaper wipes, it seemed to sting them and cause their bottoms to become more red. With the water and cloth wipes this never happens.

Ditching the Disposables

God increasingly has convicted me of how much garbage we throw away in this disposable society. As parents of three small children, one of the most consistent and prolific forms of our garbage was disposable diapers.

When we were expecting our daughter, we looked into a cloth diaper service, even had the first batch ordered and ready to go. However, the first time we used one, she soaked it through with sweat (it was August) and it seemed bulky and awkward. The fact that the hospital provided us with disposables which lasted for the first two weeks of her life, and we had gotten used to them, didn’t help much. At the time, it seemed the only thing to do was stick with the disposables.And so it went for two more children and four plus years, until finally, God revealed there was another way.

First, one of my cousins with a daughter about the same age as our youngest had been using cloth diapers for almost a year. She showed me what it looked like and affirmed she liked them much better than the occasional disposable she used when they had an outing. That planted the seed. Then, in a conversation with another mom at our church, I learned of a whole new generation of cloth diapers…and a new vocabulary with it. Just Google “pocket diapers” and you’ll come up with a gaggle of fun names – Fuzzi Bunz, Happy Heiny’s, BumGenius, all of which offer the Generation Next of cloth diapers.

After doing much research, I decided it was time to take the plunge and order them. So far, we’ve been pleased with how relatively easy they are to use. Sure there is a little extra work on the laundry side of things, but since a mom who doesn’t like to do laundry designed them, it really is not that time consuming. And your contact with, um, poop, goes up but you can’t avoid that reality even with disposables. However, the benefits far outweigh any downsides...knowing we are reducing landfall waste, huge cost savings after the first year (the inital cost outlay for us equalled what we spent in one year for diapers) and saving money on diaper creams (you can’t use them with these diapers). Even the laundry detergent recommended for cleaning the diapers is environmentally friendly because it’s vegetable based and you only need a half tablespoon per load!

One thing I've discovered with all the use the diapers are getting is that the odors become harder to get rid of. After checking out the Fuzzi Bunz information site, it looked like all that was needed was some extra rinsing and using a full scoop of the detergent. That seemed to help.

Have you ever tried cloth diapers? If so, what was your experience like? Any helpful tips for parents new to the experience? Post your thoughts in the comments section under this post.

Garden Journal

The beans are here! Today we noticed the asparagus beans (pole beans) had poked through the soil. It feels kind of like giving birth all over again, except less painful. I didn't expect to see them for a few more days but I guess they liked the rain followed by the heat.

More flowers on the tomato plants - looks like we'll lose one plant though.

"One Plant" Small Step

Trying to be a better steward of God's earth can be overwhelming and exhausting as I'm discovering. There is so much to do and we are so used to a certain way of life that trying to change our habits and thought patterns is challenging. With this category, I'll attempt to create manageable (and hopefully, fun!) ways of "undoing." Your ideas and experiences will be much appreciated and can be shared in the comments sections of these posts.




Helping to increase the world's food production (see this post) by 50% may not be possible by one person. However, if each person in this country chose to grow just one type of food which they enjoyed eating, I'm sure this would go a long way in helping the food crisis. (Sorry, no uplifting, verifiable statistics to accompany this as I'm not a mathematician, but anecdotally this makes sense, at least to me.) So how can you help? Here's the small step you can take:

• Pick just one of your favorite vegetable or herb (you could choose fruit if you have enough space and right growing conditions)
• Choose a space in your yard or a large pot if you don't have a yard
• Order some seeds or buy a plant of your food favorite from the local nursery
• Plant it
• Water as needed, make sure it gets the right amount of sun and watch it grow
• Harvest and savor the taste of your homegrown ___(fill in the blank)___

Note: Herbs are about the easiest thing to grow - in pots and outside. Basil, especially, is a super producer. Many veggies, too, can be grown in pots as well as the ground, so if you live in an apartment, about all you need is a sunny spot (veggies need 6-8 hours of direct sun).

Note of Caution: The "One Plant" Small Step may turn into two plants, then three and soon you may find yourself tearing up your yard. Don't fight it, just "grow" with it!

Garden Journal: Heat Wave

It's been in the low 90's 3 out of the past 4 days. What crazy weather - a warm start to May, then it took a chilly turn, and now we've jumped to July-like weather. Lots of watering needed though God did bless us with some rain last night.

Put in some more plants Saturday morning - sedum (the taller kind), lamb's ear, slow-to-bolt cilantro

Today we planted the asparagus beans, purple king beans, Italian red bush beans, first set of peas, fingerling potatoes, first set of carrots and the cucumbers.

Tomatoes are loving the heat as are the zucchini. The bishop's weed I planted up front is not doing well - may need to pull it out.

The black currant bushes are holding their own and are getting new growth.

Checked the potato traps again - doesn't seem to be too much of a wireworm problems. Slugs are still loving my lettuce!

Harvested some oregano and rosemary today. Basil is growing well, as is the stevia and thyme.

So much weeding, ugh! - the topsoil we got is riddled with seeds of all kinds. Maybe look into a different place for ordering next year's batch of topsoil.

Garden Journal

God graciously has sent us more rain these past few days. Today and through this weekend, it's supposed to be hot and humid - temperatures in the mid-80's to low 90's. The tomatoes are loving it and have already shown progress in growth.

The blackcurrant bushes are holding their own after travelling across the country, shut in a box for 8 days - may need to offer them some shade protection on the hottest, sunniest days.

Slugs are loving the lettuce bed and I've already harvested some of the potted basil.

Gardening - why bother?

With so many posts dedicated to gardening, you may wonder, "what's the point?"


I used to feel the same way. After all it seemed like a lot of work, especially when going to the grocery store was so much easier and provided immediate gratification. My philosophy on gardening used to be "if I have to water it, weed it and feed it then I don't need it." How things change!


So why spend the time, energy and money in gardening, especially organic gardening? Here are a few reasons:

• According to a report released by the UN this week, world food production must increase by 50% by the year 2030...without doing so the rate of world starvation will increase.


• Food prices are rising for a variety of reasons - increasing cost of gas, increased demand in food in general as the middle-class worldwide is growing, competition with alternative, "sustainable" energy sources


• Sketchy regulations of how our food is grown to how it gets to our table (the more I read, the less confident I become of knowing exactly what it is I am eating - the organic food industry itself has loopholes and a sliding scale of what it means to be "organic")


• The best reason of all...it has given me a deeper appreciation for God's creation - the delicate systems and balances He put into place, how things are interdependent on one another and we can't always know how to counterbalance our actions in a way that doesn't cause more harm than good. Organic gardening is, to me, interfering as little as possible with the resources God has laid at our feet. It's a struggle and doesn't always generate the results that I want, but it does increase my trust in my Creator. And that makes it worth every penny, hour and ounce of energy I spend.

Garden Journal: Making Progress cont'd

Read Parts One and Two of this series by clicking here and here.

Sunday
Our day of rest - I am so grateful for our Sabbaths! However, as Dave considers gardening “active worship” since he doesn’t get to do much during the week, he took time to reform one side of our old beds with border stones (to preserve the soil), loosen the soil and water the plants.

Weather: a repeat of Saturday but a little warmer



Monday
Slower day today. Dave and I both were feeling the effects of head colds.

Dave took a trip to Home Depot for more edging material and grass seed for the front and back gardens. Then all of us headed out again to the garden center - this time it was for the veggies and herbs!

This time, we returned with:
6 beefsteak tomato plants
3 cherry tomatoes
1 heirloom pear tomato plant
2 orange peppers
2 red peppers
2 zucchini
1 bag of fingerling seed potatoes
1 square of red onions
3 white onions
mixture of herbs - thyme, basil, parsley, oregano and stevia
packets of seeds for spinach and mesclun mix
packets of seed for butterfly weed (a last minute addition to the border plants)
1 nasturtium (Brie’s choice)

Still no luck on the remaining border plants but will probably get these the end of the week.

I worked up the energy to get all the plants, except for the strawberries, peppers and the kids flowers in. Dave got the grass seed spread in back and in front and covered it with straw. He also added the edging to our front, right border. We needed to water everything again and are hoping for some good, soaking rain soon.

I think the worms like the chicken poop - I had to move some of the border plants I had originally placed on Saturday and noticed some nice, juicy worms underneath them. The birds have been enjoying our efforts too, as they are finding bugs to eat and I think they’ve spied the grass seed.

Weather: much warmer and humid, started out with a light rain in the morning, then cleared to a sunny/partly cloudy day

Total invested to date: about $900
Hours invested: 16+

Garden Journal: Making Progress cont'd

Read Part One of this multi-part series by clicking here.

Saturday:
Up early and a little tired and sore from yesterday’s efforts. We finished moving all the earth though it seemed to take forever! We took quite a number of barrowfuls to the back to even out where we had edited out the pachysandra. Dave rotatilled the area and then packed it down with a tamper. We’re slowly reclaiming the backyard. Just in time too, as the kids, won’t have much space to play up front with the new garden in place.

Before we had completed moving the dirt, we took a trip to the garden center.

My focus was getting the plants for the borders and letting the kids choose some annuals which they would like to plant. I wasn’t able to get everything I needed, but here’s what we ended up with:
2 bishop’s weed (need more)
2 lavender plants
11 sedum
2 flats of orange and white zinia
a few nasturtiums
1 black-eyed susan
1 painted daisy
6 marigolds (Reese’s choice)
1 petunia like flower (Brie’s choice - need to look up the name)
2 strawberries

I got the wrong kind of sedum - I wanted the taller kind but somehow overlooked them and ended up with the shorter, ground hugging kind. C’est la vie! I may get some of the kind I originally wanted because they are great to look at and attract the bees.

I also need more bishop’s weed and snow-in-the-summer to fill out the borders of the garden.

Dave stopped at Home Depot to get edging material so our soil wouldn’t run off when it rained. At first, I resisted it, because it’s plastic, but it definitely was the right move because it keeps the soil in place and will prevent the garden hose from crushing the flowers as we water the garden.

When we returned home, I realized we needed to get some straw and composted chicken poop. I had been hoping to score some free mulch by another neighbor who had to cut down a tree but no such luck - they needed it. Dave went to pick those other two items while I took the kids to the park for a break from the yard.

Once the kids were down for a nap, we finished moving the soil and began planting and transplanting. I am so grateful of the plants we choose a few years ago, by happenstance, as many of them propagate well and enabled me to move them around. I also put our straw pathways in place which will help us avoid compacting the soil.

By the end of the day, I had gotten most of the border in place and had transplanted most of the plants which needed to be moved, in addition to on-the-spot weeding and watering the newly planted additions. For most of the plants, I added 1-4 scoops of composted chicken poop to help them out.

Our main problem in the old beds is bindweed (that stuff is tenacious!), clover and bulb plant leaves. I’m realizing that while I like the look of bulb plants when they bloom in the spring, I begin to resent their leaves and how long they stay around. How weird is that! I guess it’s because I look at the space the leaves are taking up and what I could plant in their place. Not sure if we’ll replant the bulbs -still need to figure that one out. Also, I’m discovering quite a number of slugs who like to hang out on the undersides of our edging stones - the ones I find end up in soapy water. They’ve been enjoying the leaves of our rhubarb plants.

Weather: a gorgeous, sunny mid-60 day. Again, perfect for planting.
Total invested to date: about $700
Hours invested: 11+

Garden Journal: Making Progress

(The first in a many-part series of our garden progress)

We’re nearly there on the re-landscaping of the front yard and praying we’ll have a harvest that rewards our efforts. At the very least it will be a great learning experience.

Here are the details...

Friday:
We got the earth delivered around 4 p.m. 6 yards of it. I wish I had pictures but our camera had a glitch so we lost them. :(

Thankfully, it was dumped exactly where we needed it, though it still took just over an hour to move it around. Brie and her friend had a great time digging in it and climbing the hill. They also helped a little with the shoveling!

Two hours later, we got the second load of 6 yards. This one was trickier since it needed to be moved to several spots. Before we headed in for the night we were able to fill the beds on the side of the house and begin to shape the bed next to the house.

Weather: low 60's - perfect earth-moving weather!
$ invested so far: 430
time invested so far: 3 +

Saving Trees (and your nest egg!)

Here's a great site I found out about: https://www.catalogchoice.org/dashboard

If you click on it and take a few minutes to sign up, you can opt out of some of the catalogs you receive in the mail. I don't have the stats on hand right now, but it is amazing how many trees can be saved when just one person opts out of receiving one catalog.

Plus an added benefit that I've discovered, is that when I don't see the items "I just have to have" I'm less likely to spend money. This is a phenomenom I've discovered since having three small children (it's just not as easy to dash out to a store - a definite blessing in diguise!). Without going into stores, I don't know what I'm "missing" so I'm less likely to buy. It's funny, too, because when I go into stores now I alternate between the overwhelming amount of stuff there is and starting to think, "Oh that would be nice to have."

I think the same applies to catalog shopping - if you don't see, you won't think you need it.

Any other tips on reducing mail or to share your experience...post a comment.

Gardening Journal

For a couple of years now, we've been growing our own vegetables organically and with great success (thanks be to God!). This is the first year where we are expanding our efforts which involved more planning and potential for combatting pests and diseases. This journal will track our experience and hopefully help others as they experiment with organic gardening practices. We are located in Zone 5.

Catching Up

Weather notes: May started out unseasonably warm with only a few frost nights. This latter half of the month has been really cool - barely making it out of the mid-60's, especially here near the lake. Nighttime temperatures have hovered around the mid-40's. Had quite a bit of rain in the past couple of weeks. We're headed into a warm, sunny spell for this long weekend.

So far, we've modified our plans back because our original plans required more time and money. "Phase 2" of our garden expansion plans will happen next year.

The most challenging piece of this has been the planning...what to plant, in what quantity and where, since, of course, I need to do a wealth of research and work out a tricky crop rotation schedule. :)

Before last week, all we could show for our efforts were a few herbs planted in pots (and placed on a sled for easy transport into the garage in case of frost!), some lettuce planted along the side of the house, and faint areas of regenerating grass from the places where we dug into the sod to outline the anticipate garden. Oh, and lots of paper with drawings and notes.

Last week we started making some progress. Dave rented a sod cutter and took out the grass where we will be planting. On the weekend, I was able to get some free mulch from neighbors who had to have a couple of maple taken down, and this past week, Dave borrowed a rototiller from other neighbors (thank God for good neighbors!) and turned over the soil. Here's what it looks like now (for a before picture, just imagine grass, actually weeds, where the soil is now):

Total $ invested so far: 250

Total hours invested so far: countless

We've also done some weeding, creating mulched pathways so we can avoid compacting the soil, and moving around a few plants. I also moved the stones which lined our front beds to the side of the house to create four 4X4 raised beds. I'm closer to completing our planting zone and rotation schedule and will post that when it's completed.

Today, we have 12 yards of topsoil (which is 30% peat hummus) being delivered and so will be spreading that around to create the new beds. The above cost also includes the price of 5 pea/bean towers we purchased on line. They'll give an artsy flair to the garden!

Looking forward to a long weekend of earth moving, stone moving, plant moving and planting.

Undone

Then said I, Woe is me! For I am undone and ruined, because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!
(Isaiah 6:5 AMP)

So often when I am made aware of how we humans are degrading the earth - this amazing gift from God - and, ultimately, each other, this is the exact response (the quote from Isaiah) that I have.

We have been given so much, so much more than even we are aware, and we take and defile it. Much of the time this is done out of ignorance for we who are temporal, here for a moment, can't always know the impact of our actions. It is the next generation, or the one after that, which identifies exactly "what went wrong" with our thinking. Perhaps, this isn't surprising, as God often is subtle, quiet. It may be His way of ensuring we, His creation, don't enter the dangerous mindset of believing we can fix everything.

However, when God enables us to see the error of our ways, it seems to me the only response is to fall before Him, ask His forgiveness for the part we played and ask Him to cleanse us. It also is an opportunity for praise for He has revealed His holiness and glory to us - we have received a glimpse of the Living God!

This is rather a long introduction to say: Welcome! The purpose of this blog is to capture the journey God has invited me on. It is a journey where I often stop in wonder and delight as He reveals the secrets of His creation and shows how our bodies are specifically designed to function at their best when we reverantly use the resources He has provided. It is also a journey of heartbreak, despair and helplessness. These are vital to the journey, for without them, I would be less inclined to change. This is not to say I believe I must shoulder the responsiblity for all the damage we are doing or that I've got it all figured out. However, I believe if we all do our part and pay more attention to how we are living, choosing to honor God with all our actions, then this will add up and make a huge difference.

At the writing of this introduction, I believe God would have me share the knowledge He is giving me and my struggles in living with this knowledge, particularly in the areas of:

• food - from how it gets to the table to what we decide to ingest
• cosmetics - from knowing what is in them to freedom from surface-level beauty
• consumer economy - how our purchase decisions help or hurt us and the world
• environment - sustainable practices, helpful resources

I pray this blog would strengthen you for the journey God places you on and that you would share your experiences, knowledge and struggles.

For God and His glory,

Andrea