Month: April 2018

Triple Berry No Sugar Muffins and Five Easy Things to Help Our Planet

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Have you ever noticed when you do one thing, several other things fall into place at the same time? It’s kind of like the above quote, “A Manifesto for a Simple Life;” when we stress less for instance, we laugh more.  Recently, it occurred to me that by becoming a more sustainable family;  growing our own food, making our own meals from scratch, concocting our own cleaning and household supplies, that we are naturally moving in the direction of becoming a zero waste family too.  And going in the direction of zero waste, melds perfectly with a vegetarian lifestyle and minimalism. And all of these things naturally move us in the direction  of supporting our earth.

Now I don’t want to give you the wrong impression; we are still far away from where Bea Johnson’s  family, is at, check out her book called, “Zero Waste Home,. But we have come a long way from the days of ordering two large pizzas every Saturday night and putting out two cans of garbage each week. (P.S. even though those pizza boxes went into the recycling, you know darn well, that anything with cheese stuck to the lid is going to end up in the landfill.)

If you are reading this blog, you  are probably like- minded and jive with what we are doing and like us, have stopped using plastic water bottles long ago, in favour of reusable ones. You probably have invested in a good quality hot beverage cup, and  even take it when you visit your favourite coffee shop; ’cause most places give you a discount when you bring your own cup now. You probably bring cloth bags when you shop and have ditched the tetra juice containers for your kids too. They were never the healthiest choice anyway. But I’m wondering if you have taken your zero waste to the next  level? (I know some of you have,  as I spied my sister C’s bamboo toothbrush on a weekend retreat last fall. She has always flowed in the green stream)

I thought I would share a few things that our family has chosen to do, which are not drastic steps but easy- peasy ones that anyone can incorporate. You may already be doing them. Bravo! They do make a big difference in our garbage output.

Five Easy Things to Help Our Planet Earth

Stop using paper towels. Instead, cut up old bath towels and kitchen clothes and turn them into rags to clean with. I use old socks that have lost their partner, (if you are a large family, you can relate) to dust with and I have some great micro fiber clothes my  sister B gave me. You just wet them, wring them out and clean; only elbow grease is required.

My little yellow plastic stacking set up for my cleaning rags. (This stacking bin was my mom’s and is ages old) As my oldest son Clark says, if you have things that are plastic, just use them! Notice the black socks…great for dusting and remind me that I should do it more often~

 

Get rid of the kleenex boxes. We use homemade handkerchiefs instead. I actually feel so pampered when I have a runny nose and use one of my beloved hankies to blow my nose with; like I’m a princess. It’s such a relief on the pocket book and the recycling bin, not to fill it with empty kleenex boxes. Remember, just because something is recycled, doesn’t mean it’s the greenest way to go.

Beloved hankies make me feel like a princess.

Paper Napkins are a thing of the past. We only use cloth napkins now, or as my eight year old says, “my sleeve works great too!” This was an easy first elimination and several years ago, my sister J, gave me some lovely cloth napkins that we use all the time, but you can easily make some from fabric scraps.

Paper lunch bags and Plastic Sandwich wraps. Again, this was an early change for us. Each family member has a reusable lunch bag, and when I have old sheets, I whip up a new batch of snack/sandwich bags. In the old days, or so I have been told, a hard boiled egg,  or baked potato etc, would be wrapped up in a cloth napkin and tied and that would be lunch. When I help out at my children’s school, I’m always so surprised to see so much packaging; granola bars, goldfish crackers in little bags; and don’t even get me started about the packaging involved with the lunchables! We can do better, all it takes is some planning and some reusable containers/bags.

Made out of an old cotton sheet, little bags make great sandwich and snack bags

Like an assembly line, the children all have their own thermos, water bottle and sandwich holders. The cotton bags keep their wraps from getting mushy next to their veggies.

No more plastic garbage bags; You know those white ones that we put in our household garbage cans? I don’t know what your set up is, but we have a black   garbage bin attached to the cupboard under our kitchen sink. When I open the door, it swings out and I dropped my garbage inside.

 

I know too easy and eventually I want it gone/empty, but until then, just getting rid of the plastic white bag is an easy first step in eliminating some plastic. Every day I just dump the contents into our main garbage can in the garage and put the pail back under the sink. Did you hear about the story of the young sperm whale that washed up off the coast of Spain in February? The whale was found to have 64 pounds of garbage in his digestive system; including plastic trash bags. If we all just stopped using plastic bags in the world that would be a huge step in saving our planet…and the animals we share it with.

As EARTH DAY approaches (April 22nd), join me in thinking about five more things that we can give up in favour of a healthier life, a healthier planet and a richer experience on earth. On this journey, I’ve discovered that I still have far to go before I’m living the life that I have imagined, however living mindfully inspires me to do more.  I feel empowered knowing that we all vote with our consumer dollars and I’m consciously aware that change happens only when we start using those dollars wisely.

And before I close I wanted to share a recipe that I made recently for a healthy, triple berry muffin, without SUGAR! Talk about doing something and then there being another spin off. I love baking for my family but I’m passionate about eliminating crack , oops, sugar from our diet. I think we can do one thing and allow something even bigger to come into our lives. Good health! Happy Children! a Blessed Planet!

Triple Berry, No Sugar Muffins

2 1/4 cups flour…I like to use 1/2 white and 1/2 whole wheat

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tbsp orange rind grated

1 cup mixed frozen berries

2/3 cup butter melted

2/3 cup liquid honey

2 eggs

3/4 cup milk…I use almond milk

Directions

In a small bowl mix the berries with the cinnamon.Set aside.

In a large bowl, mix the rest of the dry ingredients, along with the grated orange rind. 

In a medium bowl, mix the butter and the honey. Add the slightly beaten eggs and the milk. 

Make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients and pour in the milk mixture.

Now fold in the cinnamon and berries.

Remember to only mix until combined…muffins do not turn out well when over mixed

Spray muffin tin…and for regular sized muffins, spoon the batter filling each tin about 3/4’s. ….however I like mine bigger.

Finally, if you want a bit more of something….try a sprinkle of cut up walnuts…a healthy addition too.

Bake in preheated oven 400 degrees F for 15 to 18 minutes

Although this recipe makes 12 regular sized muffins…I like them big so I double the recipe and it makes 18 muffins for our family….but oh, they go fast so get ready to make another batch soon.

I used the triple berries from Super Store and some honey that I’ve had in the cupboard for ages….what a hit!

I made these muffins last Thursday, on wear a sports jersey to school day, in memory of the Humboldt Bronco’s. The kid’s didn’t bat an eye when I told them they were no sugar muffins….”can you make more?” is all I heard.

Since I will start work later this week at  my seasonal gardening gig,  and this will be my last blog post for the week, I thought I would share a YouTube video called, “Earth Day.” I hope it inspires you to  take a moment and look around your part of the world…and bless it. This is our home, let’s take good care of it, if not for ourselves, for our children and their children, and all the creatures great and small who we share the world with.

Until we meet again, may you be well, happy and peaceful.

Blessings from Hope

Hopeful Healing

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I missed writing my minimalist Monday post yesterday. Partly, due to the fact that our three youngest children were playing with their youth orchestra at a music festival out of town, and partly due to the fact that I’m oh so very sad.

 

Victoria, William and Kathryn, on our way to the Kelowna music festival

The little girls warming up….I can hear them CLEARLY, even though everyone was warming up…that’s a funny thing about being a mom….you can always pick our your child’s voice in the crowd, or in this case…their violin.

 

William warms up intently….he really enjoys playing cello and during the actual performance his head and facial expressions were expressive….way to go Will….you guys got GOLD!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You have heard me say this before; “we are all connected.” And never do we feel it more than when there is a tragedy. When I heard the news about the Humboldt, Saskatchewan, Bronco’s hockey team’s bus crash last Friday, my heart broke; so many lives lost, and so many families changed forever. What I keep thinking about over and over is why. The accident was so bizarre and out of the blue. I mean, if there had been a terrible blizzard, maybe one could wrap their head around it, but there doesn’t seem to be any other reason, other than the bus was at the intersection at the wrong time. As my son Clark said, “what makes these events tragic, is how random they are.”

The YouTube video below by Lorri Brewer illustrates how connected we truly are….

We Are All Connected from Lorri Brewer on Vimeo.

Having been changed forever when my father was killed in a truck accident when I was a young child, I have a clear sense of the magnitude of a family’s loss. And being a parent, whose worst nightmare  would be to lose a child, this accident hits me deeply.

And as if that wasn’t enough horror in our world, there was yet another chemical weapon attack in Syria, where once again, crimes against humanity have occurred.  I’ve been crying deep inside for the victims of this most recent poisoning and all the families effected in the bus/truck accident. How do we go on amidst constant tragedies in the world? How do we support one another?

Here is one way another grieving person (Sylvie Kellington)  chose to help the Bronco’s families with; “A Go Fund Me, :page. We can all help to make a difference.

It felt, so flippant writing about another way to become more minimal and environmentally proactive this week. While those things are important, at least to me, stopping and feeling the pain from loss  seemed more appropriate right now.  Some would say, “oh Lee, stop watching the news shows, or stop reading the news on line.” But if I did that, I’d feel like I was turning my back on people’s pain and grief. As hard as this is on my heart, I want to be impacted by their darkest days. I want to be reminded, that in a blink of an eye, our lives can change. We are all living on this large, spinning planet; gravity holding us to the earth, but in more ways than one are we truly one family. And we need being reminded of that. Because, although we may not be able to avoid horrific, random accidents, we can make a change with regards to how we treat each other, and make a stand on how dictators around the world are acting.

How can we move forward with hope in our hearts and allow healing to occur. How can we change what is happening in our world to our fellow humans?

I ask these questions and seek the answers and thought I would share an article with links that I came across on the net. Since I’m not a psychologist, or a grief counselor, I needed to find ways to process the most recent events and the following article and links inside of it have been beneficial to me. Maybe, you too, would find them helpful. Check out: We humans~How to be More Hopeful, written on Apr 3, 2018  by

It was a timely article for me and highlights eight Ted talk speakers, who are inspiring. I particularly appreciated the writer, Andrew Solomon, who said:

“You need to take the traumas and make them part of who you’ve come to be, and you need to fold the worst events of your life into a narrative of triumph, evincing a better self in response to things that hurt.”

“Grief is like the ocean;

it comes in waves,

ebbing and flowing.

Sometimes the water is

calm, and sometimes it

is overwhelming. All we

can do is learn to swim.”

Vicki Harrison

 

While I would love to crawl under the covers today or to sink deep into a fiction novel, that flies me far away from real life issues,  I am choosing instead to stay connected with others and “listen deeply and intentionally,” as  Dave Isay,  founder of the NYC-based nonprofit StoryCorps suggests, allowing others to share their story of love, wisdom and courage,   to fill me up, instead of depleting me. As he says, “it can sometimes feel like you’re walking on holy ground,” when you listen to these stories.

And if there was ever a time I need that, we ALL need that on this earth, it’s now. It’s when we break open and allow grief to change us, that we return to the NOW, and remember what’s truly important.

“Simply Loving each other”….and maybe that is my minimalist post after all…because nothing is more simple and yet powerful than that!

Until we meet again, may you be well, happy and peaceful.

Blessings and love from Hope

Minimalist Monday~Letting Go of What Doesn’t Serve You

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Welcome to another Minimalist Monday post. In a few short hours, the last Monday of Spring break will be over and everyone will be back to their respective schools/jobs. It was a fabulous break in so many ways. No we didn’t go to Hawaii, or to Mexico, like many of our children’s friend’s families. One family even went to Cuba and Will said another is off to England for a month. WOW! It was wonderful none the less, although we rarely left our subdivision. Sometimes, keeping things quiet, relaxed and simple are the best ways to enjoy a break.

At least in my opinion.

I continued to get more pruning done since I last wrote. David and Clark also accomplished a lot. They took most of the second wooden retaining wall down and hauled it to the land fill. All 800 pounds of it~! Once Harrison’s attic space is complete, (David is working every spare moment on it) we can get going on the second river bed rock wall above the pool. And then we can plant it with herbs, and edible flowers, which is perfect for our pollinators. Check out the plants that pollinators love.

Do you see all that old retaining wood in the middle of the bed…well David and Clark finally cut that up and hauled it away. We are one step closer to the next rock wall being built!

We concluded the Easter Egg hunt in the attic space we are building for Harrison, who will be home from University in three weeks!When it’s finally done we can start working on the rock wall again.

The children practiced their music, their math and their reading everyday in the morning and then spent the rest of the day outside riding bikes, playing in our play ground, or jumping on the trampoline. We even invited a few friends over to play, which was nice for the children to reconnect with their friends, since two weeks is a LONG time when you are six and eight. Grace even had a friend over.

Our Easter Weekend was more minimal than is past years and started out with a good April Fool’s joke–or at least I thought it was one. On Easter Sunday the children burst into our bedroom really early and exclaimed, “it’s snowing!” I laughed sleepily into my pillow, “oh that’s a good one guys.” “No, really mom, it’s snowing!” they all chimed in unison, as they opened our bedroom curtains to show a white out outside our bedroom window.

Saturday had been glorious. Okay, maybe a bit brisk, but the sun was shining and the sky was mostly blue. What had happened? The sky was now heavy with white clouds, and big, fluffy flakes were gently falling, covering the ground in a thick quilt of  more white.  No green was showing. “Ahhhh!” I said, collasping into my pillow and pulling the comforter over my head.

David, laughed and got out of bed to take the kids to the kitchen for Sunday breakfast. Normally, it’s their tradition to make pancakes and waffles with fruit on Saturday and Sunday, but since it was Easter, there were cinnamon buns and everyone was looking forward to that treat. “Do you want anything mom,” they asked as they left my bedroom. “Spring,” I said, and  promptly went back to sleep. I dreamed a weird dream about our neighbours ripping out all their lawn and laying down carpet, upon which they exclaimed , “It’s so easy to keep clean. You just vacuum it!”

I woke up a while later rather groggy, residue from my dream still lingering, and stumbled into the bathroom.  I was shocked to see blue sky. The grass was even green. Had I dreamed it had been snowing a few hours earlier? “Where did the snow go?” I yelled towards the kitchen, in which David replied, “all melted!” That was the strangest Easter morning I have ever experienced in all our years in our little town. Now when we lived in Calgary, Alberta, many years ago, that wouldn’t have been an uncommon occurrence, but not in the Okanagan.  (Do you doubt global warming when you wake up to a blizzard on Easter Sunday in the Okanagan?)

Needless to say,  I flew into action as I didn’t want to waste a moment of this promising day. I had much to do. Get the turkey in the oven, ice the bunny, carrot cake, I had made the night before.  Peel all the vegetables and generally get ready for our Sunday dinner.  Clark and David were hauling the broken down retaining wall out of our yard and into David’s company truck, which he had for the weekend so it was my job to get the scavenger clues distributed for our Easter egg hunt.

No time to waste!

The kids helped me decorate our carrot cake/bunny cake

Ta Da….Bunny 2018

While I took the little kids to their orchestra rehearsal for their upcoming festival, Grace iced the sugar cookies she had made…they were delicious with a hint of almond in the icing, yum!

These sugar cookies turned out perfectly….thank you Grace!

Grace agreed to take the little ones for a walk while I set out the clues around our yard and the day was well on it’s way. As I was moving through the yard, dropping clues among plants and faeries, I was thinking about how great this spring break was for our family. I was also pondering what I wanted to write about for this minimalist Monday and suddenly it came to me. Over spring break we did a few things in the name of minimalism.

 

Grace took the kids for a walk, while I put out all the Easter egg hunt clues…See what a nice day it turned out to be. You would never know it had snowed heavily earlier in the day and everything was white.

Only seven of us around the table this year…small but lovely. Happy Easter!

The first step to moving towards minimalism is: “let go of what doesn’t serve you any longer.” But it’s a constant process. Last summer, at a golf tournament, David won a golf bag and putter. They were both good quality but nothing David needed, nor did our sons, who also play a bit of golf. So one night, David did a bit of sleuthing to see what these items would sell for and then he listed them on Kijiji. Within a day he had two people interested and by day two he had sold the items.

Sold…bag and putter and no longer collecting dust in the garage!

The man that bought them was thrilled with the price and the value and kept saying, “this is just what I have been looking for.” David felt really great about selling the items and knew that they would be put to good use. The money also came in handy, as we were able to help out our two University sons with a bit of money to tide them over until the semester ends.

Win/Win!

Then a few days later the twins invited a friend over for a play date. As it turns out their friend has a little brother. Bonus! I pulled out Will’s old bike with training wheels and the big wheel tricycle that we have  been tripping over and asked the mom if she thought her little guy could use them. She smiled brightly and said she would gladly take them, as they can always use more outdoor toys. I smiled too, as we tucked them into the back of her van.

Will’s little bike with training wheels and the Big Wheel, found a new home!

Walking back to our house with a tiny bit emptier garage, I suddenly felt lighter. I was so inspired by letting go of these items, that I cleaned the whole garage. Once it was done, we could actually find what we were looking for. The rest of spring break was even better, as the little ones could wheel their bikes, scooter and plasma cars, in and out of the garage without bumping into things that they no longer played with.

Win/Win!

And so while we are well along the path towards minimalism, it reminded me that you have to be ever vigilant and get rid of stuff as soon as you recognize it is no longer serving you. Although we did a huge declutter, a few years ago,  I am always combing through drawers and closets to make sure we never get into that space again. It reminded me that it’s so easy to let the bigger stuff stay because it’s not like you can just donate it in a bag to Good Will. And speaking of Good Will, I just saw a CBC, “Marketplace,” show, discussing what happens to all our used clothing. Check it out!

If you think that someone is happily using your donated clothing, think again. I had no idea, but most of the clothes that gets donated, ends up in land fills, either in our country, or abroad. It was shocking. And so, as we make a list of what our children need in the way of new clothing, ’cause they are growing out of everything, I’m going to be a mindful consumer this spring. I will try to purchase fewer items of good quality so we can wash them again and again and they continue to look great. Also, by buying good quality, when you do let them go, the chances of them being used until they are truly worn out is better. People appreciate good quality cotton clothing.

Well, that concludes my thoughts for this Monday. If I don’t post it soon it will be Tuesday…PROBABLY will be, as I’m on the west coast and it’s already April 3rd where my blogging site is located.  Anyway, it’s all good! I hope you enjoyed your break and if you too are moving in the direction of becoming a minimalist, the next time you trip over something in your house, garage, or yard, set it aside and find a home for it. A place that will appreciate it and the side benefit is that you will feel lighter as you move along this journey we call life.

One final thing I want to leave you with is a prayer. Part of taking a minimalist approach this Easter was to remind our children that it’s not about the Easter bunny and getting stuff. While we all enjoy a bit of chocolate, I wanted to teach them why Christians celebrate this holiday. I pulled out a few of my treasured childhood Christian related books,  and we read bible stories. Will, Kate and Tori sat quietly, attentively, listening to the stories of how Easter came to be. Finally we found a lovely sweet prayer at the end of one of the books  that resonated with all of us. I hope you enjoy it as much as our little ones did and I hope you know too, how much you are loved.

God Whispers to us in our hearts:

“Do not fear, I am here

And I love you, my dear,

Close your eyes and sleep tight

For tomorrow will be bright~

All is well, dear child.

Good night.”

Until we meet again, may you be well, happy and peaceful.

Blessings from Hope