Organizing-Life » thoughts + perspectives

sunrise

This is my favorite time of the day…sunrise.

My daughter and I rise to wash up, dress, and get ready for the day in time to meet the sun as she is rising in the east. It is quiet as I steal these pictures of fresh calmness and awakening. No traffic rumbling on the road yet, just a few birds singing their wake-up songs and the soft din of our heater. I can smell newness in the damp leaves on the ground as dreams of the activities in the day to come dance in my eyes. For a moment, my heart is filled with optimism, inspiration, and supreme peace.

I revel in this serenity. I add a cup of coffee, a few scrambled eggs (only to be stolen by my daughter’s hungry grabby hands) and a bit of reading. These early morning moments are fleeting. I don’t know where they run off to during the day. But I do know these bits of peace return each morning to greet us early risers with joy and gladness.

Have a wonderful day all.

one small change ~ February Ziploc elimination

In the month of February, challenged by Hip Mountain Mama to make One Small Change, I declared Ziploc Elimination in my home. (In January I decided to break our reliance on paper towels. You can read about our month and my washie tutorial here.) THIS was a difficult challenge. We use Ziploc baggies all the time in a snack-on-the-go, freezer meal family. But to give it a try, this task required my sewing machine, a bit of cash, and quite a bit more effort that simply snatching one of those disposable, petro-baggies before hurrying out the door late for another engagement.

We use Ziploc baggies for so many things in our home. Organizing the junk drawer, storing linens, sorting toys and puzzles, and even keeping papers (stick your paper recipe card in a Ziploc, and it will never again get destroyed by spaghetti sauce splatter.) We store snacks, freeze meals, save dry foods, and sometimes marinate in Ziplocs. I know that the plastic against food isn’t the best, and the wasted plastic in the landfills is even worse, but cutting our dependence on these baggies is certainly the most difficult in the kitchen.

To begin to eliminate Ziploc bags in the kitchen I substituted sewn snack baggies for crackers, goldfish, and pretzels, and tried out Kids Konserve stainless steel snack containers for wet snacks like grapes.

Kids Konserve is a lovely brand of eco-friendly food saving products. I tried out their stainless steel snack containers with lids for kiddie snacks. The tops fit pretty tight so grapes didn’t leak and make a mess, though I wouldn’t recommend these for yogurt. The kids couldn’t get the tops off the containers without help. They are lightweight, but don’t dent easily. (My kids tried throwing them on the floor already.) They are dishwasher safe, but obviously don’t nuke these in the microwave. They are small enough for toddler portions, but for an adult, they’d most certainly leave you hungry.

The only complaint I have about these petite, indestructible, cuties is that they are expensive. Three (3) of these little guys run you about $18 plus shipping and handling. Although they will probably last you a lifetime, we will probably lose these expensive snack containers in no-time. (These comments aren’t in anyway connected to Kids Konserve and are simply my opinions.)

I also stitched up a few snack sacks from cotton scraps and PUL fabric (polyurethane laminated fabric.) PUL is a unique laminated fabric that acts as a moisture barrier. Since I didn’t want the laminate to touch the food, I simply lined the pouch with another layer of 100% cotton fabric and stitched in a Velcro strip to close up the baggie. Just toss the sacks in the laundry when it needs a cleaning. These diminutive snack sacks measure about 4″X6″ and fit enough food for a rather large toddler snack like dried fruit, cereal, goldfish, cookies, crackers, pretzels, nuts, yogurt covered raisins, bagel chips, popcorn, trail mix … you get the idea. There are plenty of tutorial about how to make these around the blogosphere so I will not bore you with another one here. Go here, here, or here if you’d like to learn how to stitch your own.

Purchasing PUL is a bit tricky actually. It isn’t sold in retail stores that I know of, but there are Yahoo purchasing co-operatives like this one or this one that purchase colored and printed PUL fabrics regularly, but you must become a member to place an order. (Just a note, I already had PUL in my fabric stash before February. It would probably take you a few months, give or take a bit, to get that PUL order in hand.) And I think this site also sells PUL, though I haven’t purchased from this retailer personally. Additionally, PUL is not bio-degradable. But you can stick it in the laundry or simply wash it in the sink and use it again and again and prevent hundreds of Ziploc baggies from facing a forever-fate in our landfills.

Reusable containers required a bit more effort to launder and wash than simply grabbing another plastic bag out of the drawer, but we probably kept 50+ Ziploc bags out of our landfills in the month of February alone! Yes, you can wash and reuse Ziploc bags, but preschool teachers aren’t going put an empty plastic bag back in your toddler’s lunch box. But a stainless steel container in a toddler’s lunch tote isn’t going in the trash! Yeah for less trash!

If there had been a bit more time, and a bit more money, I might have tried out other Ziploc-substitutes for larger food storage like Pyrex. I tell you though, What do you put cheese in after you open that plastic vacu-pak wrap? A Ziploc? Saran-Wrap? Tupperware? making sure your food isn’t touching something plastic is quite a feat.Does anyone put their cheese in an earthenware dish with a clay top and stick that in their fridge? What do you do with toasted seaweed sheets after you open the plastic baggie? A Ziploc? Glad-Ware? Why is everything packaged in plastic to begin with? This brings me to March’s challenge: responsible packaging consumption.

My one small change for March is to blog 20 days about packaging consumption. We all love snack-size convenience, but the environment doesn’t love snack-size packaging. We like Costco economy, but the environment doesn’t like plastic-shrink-wrapped jumbo sized packaging. Are there ways we can consume less plastic and paper packaging, cut down the amount of trash we toss out, and reduce the number of items we place in the recycle bin every day? Tune in for 20 days of discussion about how to purchase less packaging. Here is to a greener earth for everyone.

And, go to Hip Mountain Mama’s blog to take a peek at what others are doing to make One Small Change.

creating random

I can’t create random. As much as I try to make arbitrary, organic, unplanned…my paintbrush, pastel, or pencil still has purpose. My drawings feel charted and specific. But you look at Tyler’s or Sydney’s art and their visual stories are so…random. They are wonderful creations that feel “in the moment”, fluid, dynamic, and spontaneous.

Isn’t it interesting that adults who have lost so much of that ability to let go, wander, dabble, and meander try so hard to reclaim these qualities. Isn’t it strange that from an adult perspective all of those words mean “do-nothing”, but from a toddler’s perspective, to waffle, wallow, and bask, are words of profound productivity.

These watercolor pictures are pen drawn by me, and mostly watercolor painted by Tyler (I am pretty sure you can tell which watercolor painting I did.) Yes, the second is my attempt at a car…even with the dinosaurs you didn’t think we could get too far from wheels did you?

embroidery goings on

I haven’t felt very inspired lately…but I’ve been working on these projects at a slow pace.

Thinking in the shower, before drifting off to sleep, driving in the car (not the best place to be day-dreaming) about what interests me, what I feel is close to my heart, and what will be my next design project. Pulling out my sketch notebook from under that incessant pile of fabrics to jot down a few words, or a small graphic in many iterations–usually in pencil, sometimes in color. Many times it is a panicked rush to get my ideas out of my head and down on paper since I can’t remember well.

When I scrape together a bit of time, I sift through my fabrics…letting the colors and textures be my guide. What thread? What roving? What floss? Buttons, zippers, snaps? What tools do I need? Where is my measuring tape–wrapped around a toddler’s leg, stuffed in a toy-box. Where are you slide ruler…I haven’t seen you in weeks? I gather everything in my arms and dump it on my work space, my dining room table.

I think about seam allowances, french seams, gathers, pleats, top-stitching, and pockets finalizing the pattern in my head, and on paper. I cut with hesitation. I sew with trepidation, sometimes eagerly, and still sometimes with frustration. I clip, iron, hem, and finish.

Sometimes it comes out better than I had imagined. Sometimes it is a flop. Sometimes I change course part way through. Other times, I set aside the project altogether for a while. Sometimes a long while. I am always learning new things about the way fabric behaves, or mis-behaves. How to use new tools. How to create better corners and curves. Each step is a journey toward perfection and what a journey it is.

The panda up top is an original work in progress. The hand-embroidered work below are to be placemats, part of a themed set. More to come.

thinking about living

I never thought I’d want to live in the country. As a kid, I abhorred living a 30-minute drive away from friends, no trick-or-treating because the houses were too far away, getting snowed in and having to cancel social engagements, and living the slow-life. How then did I decide to attend a college in rural Maine?

By the time I finished undergrad, I wanted a bit of life in the fast-lane. I wanted nights clubbing with friends. I wanted cultural diversity. I wanted politics and swag. I wanted urban living where neighborhoods are walkable and a work desk that was a few blocks away from home. So, I snagged a job, in politics, and moved to Washington D.C.

My 20s were filled with nights out on the town and traffic held up by the Presidential motorcade driving up Connecticut Avenue at rush hour. Farmers markets on the weekends. Wonderful dining at some of the nation’s finest restaurants and some of the best dives. I met lots of interesting characters, volunteered to help combat adult-illiteracy, and I had fun.

After I married, I moved to the suburbs and started a family. I felt I had been there, done that, had a lot of fun, and I was ready for a new phase in my life. I now live in an over populated suburb, next to too many people, stuck in traffic and road construction, battling bad municipal water, vehicle emissions, no open yard, and a really high cost of living.

I am tired of keeping up with the Joneses, who ever they are. And I want my children to be able to grow up amongst nature. I want them to find bugs and spiders. I want them to see what they planted grow and produce food to eat. I want them to respect the forest, it’s plants, and it’s inhabitants. I want them to learn how to swim, ski, and ice-skate, and experience this plant’s awesome gifts of nature.

It just broke my heart the other day when my son asked if he could put on his boots and go outside to play and I had to say “no” because we don’t have anywhere to play out front. (The other problems were that his sister and I were sick and that the snow is so deep he wouldn’t be able to navigate in it anyway.) I so wish he had a place outside to build that awesome snow fort…and maybe I wish I just had snow-pants.

There are certainly some things I like about this heavily populated area. The grocery is less than two miles away. The farmer’s market is less than a mile away. Local farms are less than a hour drive in the car. We have access to so many international foods and natural food products. Cultural diversity is rich here. The public school system is healthy and the infrastructure is perpetually on the front political burner.

There are a lot of things keeping us here in suburbia, and I suppose I am just going to have to be smarter than the average Jane and think up creative ways my children can learn about what is real in this world and how to deal with what is not. But maybe, one day, my children will be able to play outside every day; and it will just be a given that that is what living is all about.

opening your ears…open your mind

I must admit that I was, well, near irate at our pre-school’s switched decision to now NOT to hold make-up days. Wednesday, February 17th marked the end of a 3 week-no-school streak. Snow, more snow, and more snow and the fact that the state and county road crews here aren’t equipped to handle nearly 3 feet of snow, and over-development means there is no where to put the snow, were the reasons why we all were cooped up inside.

E-mails have been flying around our co-operative pre-school about make-up days, possible tuition reimbursements, and county school closing policies (which we generally follow…generally.) My first reaction to all of this was “why am I paying for school days when the school isn’t open but could be open since the parking lot is cleared, no one takes a bus, and neighborhood streets are clear? Why can’t we hold make-up days or get a tuition reimbursement? Why is the Board correspondence so annoyingly vague?” We even started looking at other pre-schools for fall enrollment.

And then I took a breath, (and another with some calming lavender essence) and took a step back. Perhaps switching schools could be a good idea. Perhaps we’d face many of the same governance problems at a new institution. And maybe there are circumstances we can understand that might shed more light on why the Board decided to not to follow county policy. Maybe I should ask someone who is part of the Board about the reasons underpinning their decision. Hummm, maybe that last one is a good idea.

And so I did ask. She and I are going to meet up soon to chat about our the school, mom life and our children who will hopefully be in the same classes next year. (Sydney is currently enrolled too, and we do hope to stay with PNS…i.e. I hope they have based this decision upon reasons we feel we agree with.) The outcome of all this remains to be seen, but I feel better about handling the situation in a constructive manner. Usually I don’t.

turning into my mother

There are times when I swear I am turning into my mother. Do you get that feeling ever? I say things that are in her likeness, like “be safe” when my husband leaves for work. I worry about the same things for my children that she worried about for me and my sibling. “Oh, you aren’t getting enough exercise outdoors.” And perhaps the most striking to me is that we are creatures who seek more and more of the same things.

My mom was always “way into healthy living.” I mean whole grains before this was “in-fashion.” Forgoing over the counter medications and turning to natural remedies. She preferred organic vegetables and raw milk on our table and didn’t use harsh cleaning products in our home or chemical-filled cosmetics.

Now that I have children, I too am seeking a similar healthier lifestyle for my household. I mop my floors with white vinegar and water. I choose put natural ingredients in our bodies and on our skin. And as the one who does most of the purchasing, I choose more green, sustainable, healthy products.

I haven’t always been so inclined to think about health and eco-sustainability. In my younger days, commercial and mass-popular was the way I went. This switch here is a slow process that requires a lot of effort for me, but we are making baby steps. I wonder if she felt the same.

I remember my mother doing her photography. She had one of those old-fashioned cameras with a beautiful wooden frame on a tripod, and you dip under the sheet cover to peek at the shot (which is up-side down.) She would take classes, trek out to weird locations to take her shots, like that old-fashioned coke machine abandoned in a near-by hay field, and then go back into her dark-room to develop. I never understood her passion until now. Perhaps my misunderstanding was in part because as a child model posing wasn’t that much fun, or very comfortable. I was prickly, cold, twisted, unbalanced, hot, full of sand, hay, or mosquito bites, and otherwise just uncomfortable. But the shots came out well.

Now that I sew, embroider, knit, applique, felt, and otherwise craft, I can understand why she loved so much creating something for only herself and her sanity. I feel accomplished, at peace, and proud, when I sit down at my sewing machine to whip up a few grocery totes, or a dress, or a new stuffed lovie for my children. I gain perspective on what is important in life and what I can let go of when I am knitting those stitches one at a time. And the looks on my children’s faces when they ask “is that for me mommy” and I nod “yes” just makes my heart swell up so.

Designing, constructing, and creating is something I have been doing since before I can remember. (I have pictures.) In elementary school, without knowing it, I did batik, candle making, natural fabric dying, clay sculpture, drawing, painting, block printing, silk screening, and so much more. Perhaps my mother picked my school because she knew how wonderful it felt to create something unique.

I am adopted so my mother and I share no genetic relationship. Is it just gene-pool luck we have come to love many of the same things, or is it a mother-daughter thing? Or perhaps something I learned from a very special, and accomplished, model of artistry?

ice

Still trying to get the hang of this camera…might be worth it to read the manual? Nevertheless, I got to take a breath of fresh air and captured this outside our home.

Beautiful, unique, cold, wet, and wonderful! I do love parts of winter so much.

And on a totally different note, the birthday banner and the birthday crown I posted here are from SouleMama’s books The Creative Family: How to Encourage Imagination and Nurture Family Connections, and Handmade Home: Simple Ways to Repurpose Old Materials into New Family Treasures.

snow…and more snow

It was like this Friday night.

And then there was a lot of this…and this isn’t over yet.

After the flakes stopped falling we finished with about 26″ of snow. When I couldn’t stand it any longer, I took my still coughing sick self outside for a bit for some shutter-time. This is what the camera caught.

And then it was time for a bit of comfort.

We’ll see if we can get geared up this morning to head out for some snow play. I am not sure this is going to happen since the snow is deeper than the kids can walk in, and Sydney, poor thing, is sick with a fever and a cough…(I think she got what mama had.) Nevertheless, we can enjoy the winterscape from indoors too with a mug of hot chocolate, warm cozy blankets, and lots of cough drops. We are expecting more snow Tuesday!

Stay tuned for some more crafty tutorials. Sewing some organizing solutions this week.

snow around here

I thought I was moving south I tell ya! After digging my car out three times in one week my last winter in Waterville, Maine (in addition to towing the car out of the parking spot once, yep, a total of 3 feet,) I decided it was time to move south…to a place with no snow. But it still snows here. I am greatful for some white to cover the ugly brown we live with from late November to early March, but I thought it would be a bit more balmy down here south of the Mason-Dixon line. The schools let out early, the grocery stores clear out of milk, bread and eggs and kitty litter, and people panic down here when the weather man suggests snow. Hasn’t any one around here heard of snow tires? Nope.

But a bit of the white stuff does mean a large bit of fun for little ones. Even though I have a cough from the nether-world, (recovering from something that hit me hard last Friday with a fever of 102 degrees,) I spent 30 minutes finding and applying snow gear: boots, hats, and mittens, to my two toddlers for a bit of outside time. I managed to grab my camera before heading out and this is what the lense caught. Snow isn’t really that bad if I don’t have to shovel it, and I can stay home.