This post is for grandma…who hasn’t seen her baby girl in far too long…
Monthly Archives: October 2004
Heaven or Hell?
Have any of you wondered what little Mikey Seaver has been up to in the last 20 years?? Well….
I took the Ten Commandments survey and discovered that I am definitely going to hell!!
Winter Medicine Making
Every Fall, I try to prepare for the cold and flu season by making some herbal remedies to help get me through the winter. I always make some Elderberry syrup and maybe a garlic tonic…things to nip a cold in the bud. This year, I thought I would invite some people over to share in the fun of making medicines. So, I had a small group of people at my house today for a winter herbal medicine making class. It was a blast! We made a huge batch of Elderberry syrup, some nutritional vinegars, and some herbal cough drops. They all turned out very yummy! Here are the recipes we used if you are interested in trying them out.
Laura smelling the cooking Elderberries.
Rachel straining the Elderberries.
Andrea stirring the cough drop tea and supporting her back (She’s due anyday! :-))
The nutritional vinegars with Astragalus, Ginseng, Shitake mushrooms, and Umboshi plums.
Fall fun
Aside from the mental tribulations of how to best lead satisfying lives, we had a wonderful weekend!! On Sat. we went to a friends house for pumpkin bread, lentil soup and apple cider, followed by pumpkin carving! It was great to be out and social! Sometimes I feel like we are stuck in our house doing chores all the time (if max would just learn to poop out side, we could get rid of that stupid litterbox!!).
Then on Sunday, we drove out to Silk Hope for the Shakori Hills Music Festival. Toby was helping at the Biodiesel table, while K and I roamed. She loved the music. Especially the woman singing in spanish…she was mesmerized. There were also lots of people doing face painting and henna. So, of course, K needed to get a painting…
Dazed and Confused
Well, Toby and I have been talking at length (my mouth is dry!!) about our goals and priorities for our family and life. On our way to Raleigh today we wrote down our priorities. Here is my list, in no particular order:
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Have time to spend with my family and my friends(what’s the point in having a family if you never get time to spend with them)
Raise my family (meaning I don’t want to have to put K in daycare or have someone else be the mother figure to her so that I can spend more time at work)
Creating a healthy family (I want the time to make cook healthy meals for the family and make herbal medicines for them, etc.)
Work toward self-sufficiency and a sustainable home (homesteading) this one is a biggie!
When I read over my list I realized that no where in there did I mention anything about being a librarian or getting my MLS degree. And any jobs that I think I would enjoy doing after graduating probably wouldn’t even require an MLS degree. So, I am really trying to hash out why I am in this program and if it is beneficial to my goals or just a side step. I am really enjoying it. The intellectual stimulation and the people are wonderful. But that’s no reason to pay thousands of dollars. If what Toby and I want is to live more simply, more sustainably, to work the land and to get the word out to other people about living more gently on the earth, then what will an MLS get me? Contacts, yes, knowledge, yes, but I could also be taking classes at the CCCC that are directly related to sustainability while still developing contacts and gaining knowledge. I just don’t know. I know I will ultimately be happier if I get out of this rat race, but I grew up in this society and it’s hard to get rid of that little voice that keeps saying “make more money”. “buy more things”, “you need recognition from your job”. Being a mother and living simple and healthy lives gets no recognition in the society. Plus, I know that there are many things that I could learn from this program and I feel like a failure when I think about quitting, but, like I said, I feel like I am taking side steps instead of walking a straight line. Usually there is some over riding factor that makes it easier to make a hard decision like this, but there is nothing here. I just don’t know which decision would be more beneficial for everyone involved. I’d love to hear your thoughts… (if it’s too much to put in the comment section, please email me directly
Rainbow dinners and vegetable cars
Lately, many of the blogs that I read have been posting about food, especially fall harvest foods. So, today I was inspired to head to the Farmer’s Market and get some of the local goodies. Then, I went out into the back yard and picked some herbs to add to the mix. For dinner we had eggplant, sweet peppers, tomato, and shitake mushrooms stir-fried up with some garlic, ginger, lady’s thumbs, lemon verbena, rosemary, brown rice vinegar, tamari, sesame oil, and a splash of orange juice. MMmmmmm, tasty!
On another exciting note, I just found out that our car is going to be ‘featured’ at the Shakori Grass Roots Festival this Sunday, to show people how to convert their cars to run off of vegetable oil.
Cooler Weather
Wow, what a beautiful day! The sky was blue, the air was crisp…
I took K out to run some errands and she fell asleep in the car seat before we got to the store. So, I took her out of the seat (we were in Carrboro, by a nice, green patch of grass) and we laid down under a willow tree while she slept for a while. I’d almost forgotten what it was like to have her sleep on my chest. I love to kiss her head while she sleeps…
With the cooler weather, it is time to move some of my plants indoors. This usually makes the house feel a little more crowded. But, also, more like a little tropical paradise! Here’s the bedroom:
Check out the banana. It’s only one year old! I’m hoping it will fruit this next year.