Seeds, Science and Saving Our Water

Ah, Florida. Spring was fleeting, and now it's summer-hot already. Oh well, it was nice while it lasted. Along with the heat has come the realization that this is when I usually (accidentally) kill off my plants by forgetting to water them. This year I'm using water-saving pots AND I put "water plants" on my daily to-do list. Hopefully, the poor little guys will last longer this year. Actually, it's the seeds sprouting indoors that are struggling right now. They did so well at first, then one day, they were all, well, smooshed. Another morning I found them strewn about like rose petals at a wedding. Eventually, the plant-killer puked black, organic soil and seedlings on my beige rug and I finally caught on. Stupid cat. Sure, she's taken out my pothos and peace lily, but I assumed the little seedlings were too small to be of any interest to her. I was wrong. I planted more seeds and crossed my fingers, and now I'm searching for a safe place to hide the little plants at night. Interestingly, my children also nibbled on our plants, but they each tried a leaf of the more mature basil. The six-year-old declared it tasted like pizza; the three-year-old declared it was a bad idea to eat a huge basil leaf.

Speaking of basil, meet Basil, our resident toad, peeking out in the picture above. We're pretty sure he's a toad because he lives in the bottom of our basil pot, on dry land, and hops out when we water it. We carefully water from the top, instead of filling the reservoir, so as not to disturb him too much. He keeps coming back as soon as the plant sucks up a bit of water, so we figure he just thinks we're the
housekeeping crew.

This may be a bit off topic, but it made me think, so I offer it to you. My family spent a day at the Gulf Coast Exploreum Science Center in Mobile, Alabama recently. Very highly recommended, by the way! One of the permanent exhibits is about the human body. It shows the different systems, how it all works, how it's all connected, and other cool stuff. It also offers many hands-on experiments, and everything is focused on good overall health. There are even stations in the exhibit where locals can check in regularly and keep track of their vitals. While we enjoyed the exhibit, and really, the whole Exploreum, very much, we couldn't help but notice how many morbidly obese families were going though the exhibit, and worse, taking nothing away from it. One display showed restaurant vs. appropriate portion sizes, and my husband heard a large woman declaring that she could never eat that little. I saw another very overweight woman doing an experiment for her large child, who couldn't be bothered making the effort. Throughout the exhibit, we didn't see one family of large people do or say anything to indicate that they "got it", or to teach one of their children. I hope we missed those families. I hope that we saw the exceptions, not the rule. Maintaining good health, including a healthy weight, is so important not only for us, but for the environment.

Finally, I read this month's issue of National Geographic; it's a special issue dedicated entirely to the global water crisis. Cool: a picture of an ice carving in the frozen Kennebec River in my home state of Maine. Not cool: almost everything else. The water crisis is really scary, and I suspect that it's far more advanced than many of us on public water realize. I encourage you to pick up a Nat Geo and read it for yourself. However, I read that and this month's issue of Discover Magazine back to back, and it ALSO contains discouraging water news (and a story on the epidemic of childhood illnesses). While both are valuable and interesting resources, I suggest reading Tiger Beat or Soap Opera Digest or something in between to avoid the staggering depression I battled for a few days after reading all that sad news. Fortunately, when I came out of it, it was with a renewed sense that this little effort of mine, no matter how small, is worth it.

Fighting for a Seat on the Wagon

If living a sustainable lifestyle were easy, everyone would do it, right? New challenges continue to pop up, but that's why I'm blogging this - so you can see 'em coming if you're going through this too! There was some illness and injury, a little Internet overwhelm, and a touch of blonde. Allow me to elaborate.

As you may have guessed from my previous post, my kids have been sick. We're still not sure what's up with my son; more tests are needed. My daughter has a staph infection for the fourth time this year, and we can't seem to kill it. We've traced it back to a spider bite I had a while back, but we need more tests to figure out if it's become resistant and if I'm still carrying it. Personally, I feel just fine, but I'm not 3. In any case, they're both feeling much better, thank you, although our healthy, hippy house is now home to more antibiotics than you can shake a stick at. The extra hours at various doctors and hospitals and pharmacies definitely cut into my thoughtful food preparation time, and I haven't been shopping in a while (just ask my husband).

I did manage a quick trip to Ever'man's, the local whole foods co-op. I picked up a number of grains and a gorgeous wild rice and lentil mix. It's so lovely, I'd like to just stare at it. But I can't, because it's in a plastic bag. In fact, they're all in plastic bags. Suddenly I'm thinking of that island of trash in the ocean, the giant man-made landfill that's poisoning the ocean. Glass! I need glass containers to put my grains and beans in, then I can reuse the plastic bags and save the whales. You would think that finding air-tight, glass storage containers would be easy, right? Nope. I spent about 2 hours online, both "Googling" and "Binging" them, but with little success. I just wanted some of those Mason-jar things with the rubber gasket and flip-top lid I remember from my childhood. Apparently now they're called "French Hermetic Terrines", are pretty expensive, and are chronically out of stock anyway. I'm still not sure what I'm going to do about my pantry. Maybe I'll just pig out and eat everything and then I won't have to worry about storing anything.

With all the stress and distraction of the kids and containers, I haven't been eating well. Ok, I've been eating worse than a frat boy. Although I always strive to give my family balanced meals, I personally had Goldfish crackers and wine for dinner one night. Another time I tried to make nachos out of stale taco shells and processed cheese. There. My confessions are out in the open. Needless to say, I wasn't feeling too well myself by the end of the week so yesterday, I fasted. I love a good fast (I elaborate here). To break my fast, I chose oatmeal. Proper, steel-cut oatmeal that you cook, in a pot, with a wooden spurtle. I'm only second generation American of Scottish descent, so I know oatmeal. Apparently Homeland Security thought the IRA was hiding in my Irish oats, though, because I almost killed myself trying to get into the freaking tin. (See the picture for an idea what it took to open it!) By the time I got it open, the water had boiled down, so the oatmeal boiled over and trashed my stove. Mind you, by this time, I hadn't eaten in about 36 hours, and this is not the best time to test my emergency response skills. Eventually, I got my oatmeal. I was delicious, and almost worth the trouble.

3 weeks into the Momnivore Challenge, and I've learned a lot. I've learned I'll starve if I worry about every little thing, like the fact that none of the grains or beans I bought were locally produced. I'll settle for the fact that they're all organically grown, minimally packaged (bought from bulk bins), and purchased locally - and that they're real food, of course. I've learned that it's easy to fall off the wagon, but it's not a big deal to hop back on again. And I've learned that I'm barely 2% smarter than a tin of oatmeal.