Reduce Footprints Wednesday's

This weeks challenge at "Reduce Footprints" is to eat local for at least 1 full day!! Wahoo!!

I know exactly where to go to get the bounty of stuff to eat "Real Foods Market"(this would be harder in the winter as they don't have as much local stuff). It will involve eating a lot of veggies and drinking local milk and eating local cheese (with local apples), yummy and a can do!!



I believe I will go check out the local farmers market this Saturday (down town) to see if it's improved this year. It hasn't been the best in the past, the one up in SLC is better, I'll cross my fingers that someone besides the local soap maker and do-dad booths will be there.

Dang I'm hungry, gotta go get me some local cheese!!

Goin' Green(er)

I am taking up the challenge to go greener...



Gigi - Over at Adventures in Gigi Joined the Change The World Wednesday challenge over on the Reduce Footprints blog.

Every Wednesday they will post a Green Challenge for the week. This week's challenge is:

At least once this week, take a short shower ... time it to no more than 10 minutes.

I am passing along the challenge to all of you. :D

Together We CAN Change the world!!

The Cycle of Too Much

Do you have too much on more than one occasion I feel like I have too much. Too many books, too many clothes, too much food even (because sometimes I don't plan very well).

I don't like having too much, it bothers me because it makes it hard to appreciate what you have and it makes it difficult to make decisions.

What do I mean? Well take the situation some ladies have when they have too many purses or shoes. They don't want to give them up because this or that purse or pair of shoes should go with this or that outfit. So you see some shoes you want or like and forgeting that you have just about the same pair of shoes at home you buy the shoes, wasting money on a pair of shoes you didn't really need (or a purse). Where is the sense of that?

So when I get in the postion of having too many clothes or what not, I purge and get rid of the excess.

What about too much food? Sometimes, because I love to cook, I buy produce for something I want to cook. Then being frugal I get home and notice that the leftovers for yesterday are enough for dinner today and should really be eatten now. Then my appetite changes and I no longer want what I intended to cook, so I have ingredients for a dinner that will never come to pass. A lot of times I go with my creativity and mix things up and use what I have, but sometimes I throw out food that should have been ate. Then there is the case of having too many desserts, you snack on dessert or whatever all day then you wont be hungry for dinner.

If you have too much food, it's more likely you will have too much weight to go with it.

I always think about things as, "Do I have enough?" If I have clothes, food and a roof over my head I am happy. Think of the endless amount of learning that is wasted because of all of the unread books on your shelf. Think of all the wasted money from food you cannot eat. What about the fully finished house that you had to have, the high end car, can you take it with you?

I am a minimalist, or I try to be. What do you minamally need? Do you really have a right to endlessly consume? Really?

Well think about this...

For the past, however long, builders have been building houses. Not starter houses, but fully finished (may be poor quality, but finished) houses. No starter houses? Why? Because the profit margin on a starter house is too low for them (or I should say was). So they glutted the market with houses. People playing along, not content to build there life up from where they are, decide they need the fully furnished (bought on credit) 7 bedroom house because others are doing it and they should be able to have a new house, of course they feel they deserve it. Plus as I said all the furniture, the best car, the newest fashions, the best toy's for their kids, the best vacations. Consume, consume (it's good for the economy anyway right?). So what do we end up with, a glut of houses, people losing their homes, all of their furniture . . . basically their freedom. Did it only affect them? Not at all!! The spending of money that everyone didn't have artificially increased the amount of all goods on the market. Increased the cost of living, doing business and the toll on the planet. So if you wanted to be the responsible one saving your money to put a down payment on a house, forget it. If you want a house you have to do like everyone else because $40,000 down or so is extremely hard to do. People borrowed all right!! From everyone else not only today but from everyone in the future. How fair is that?

Think about the garbage dumps full of 1 time use or limited use trash. What would happen if the garbage trucks didn't pick up the trash for 1 week, or 1 month or a year. How would you deal with your garbage then?

So my philosophy, is the environmentalist philosophy, Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. It is not only the way to save the planet, but it is also the way to save your money and your freedom.

My list for sustainability this year:

1. Buy handkerchiefs instead of Kleenexes.
2. Buy reusable bags, even produce and bulk bags.
3. Find a way to avoid plastic baggies and plastic garbage liners.
4. Find a way to make a better garden.
5. Plan foodstorage and how to use it (by not aimlessly buying stuff to store).
6. Reduce the amount of makeup, shampoos cosmetics that I need and use. (Don't buy something unless it is really all the way gone. Buy in bulk my soaps and shampoos. Buying only high quality organic makups because they have generally been better anyway. Etc...)
7. Use what I have, and find out what I have before I buy more.
8. Be glad that I live in America simply for the fact that I have a chance to make a difference.

~Strawberry Girl

Great Blogsites

I found some great blog sites about sustainability. Here's the links...

http://www.towards-sustainability.com/2008/03/homemade-sandwich-wrap.html

http://simple-green-frugal-co-op.blogspot.com/

I Love the Vegan Lunchbox. Here's the link...

http://veganlunchbox.blogspot.com/

New Kitty!!

Yep, I finally gave in and got a new kitty. We tried to get one about 6 years ago, but he ran away and joined the heirom of girl kitties that lives next door. So after that disappointment I have been resisting the urge to get a kitty. Plus I had a really great Cat when I was growing up. His name was Spooky, he marrowed at you and had a virtual meowing conversation with you when he came in. He was also very loving and a good purrer. He died from an infection that he got after a cat fight. This new kitty is a female, about 8 weeks old and she is a people kitty. She is a purrer and very friendly. She is a dark grey and black calico with a bit of orange. I am so happy to have her and so are my kids. In fact my two year old was so excited that she stayed up late rolling around on me saying "Kitty, kitty" and then she rolled off the bed in the middle of the night and she murrmered "Kitty" when I picked her up.

I haven't wrote in the past little while, I guess I get in a funky mood and don't feel like writing or don't know what to write.

I am in a kind of funk right now. I am trying to figure out what canidate to vote for, because I like neither McCain or Obama and Ron Paul is already out of the running. Some of my friends are voting for Chuck Baldwin but I don't know much about him. I already realise that my vote will only be a "statement" vote because McCain will win my state no matter who I vote for.

I have also been thinking about the fundamental attitudes that I should have. There is an air of "relativism" around and I got the idea when I was growing up that as long as you were not hurting anybody, whatever you did was alright. But is this idea true? On the surface it sounds good, everyone gets to do what they want to do right? So if I have sex without being married that was my right, and no one should tell me it's wrong. But what about if I get pregnant? That is where the behavior leads, to pregnancy. So if there is no chance for pregnancy is it alright to engage in sex without being married? Theoretically it's alright, but unfortunantly there are other things to consider. Like disease and like mental health. What about other ideas, like the idea that it doesn't matter what I spend my money on. Ok so I earn some money, I can go out and buy all the games, toys, magazines, clothes and junk I want. But what then happens when my decision to buy clothing that is made by underpaid children in China fuels the demand for that product and more of them are exploited. My decision to buy a game or new cell phone leads the manufactures of these products (usually the smaller ones) to demand the rare metal that is used for the manufacture of these products and a small boy in Africa has to go down dangerous mine shafts in order to retrieve it. My decision to eat junk food leads to health problems and an increased demand upon the "health care" system to "cure" my ailments. Which fuels the demand for more government healthcare because I can't afford to pay for my healthcare because I have spent all of my money on disposable products on "ME" and have no money left. If my decisions are all about "ME" then I have essentially become a burden to society.

I want to figure out how to become an "Unburden" to society. I have not been raised with the firm moral doctorine of standing up for what is right by making wise choices, but I figure that it is time I look at how I can make myself and my life as responsible as possible.

For the record, I think that the Gay movement to redefine marriage as a "union" between two consenting adults, two individual people is morally and fundamentally flawed. I can understand the idea that we should not discriminate against people who are different. But this surface reason behind the movement for "Gay Marriage" is not the whole story. The whole story is that when we change the definition of marriage and make it a matter of anti-discrimination in the courts this then becomes the tool with which the Gay and Lesbian movement will use to force religious and non religious institutions alike to do what Gay and Lesbian people deem to be moral. In fact shoving their morality in everyone elses face and normalizing abnormal behavior. I am not going to make an argument about the morality of being Gay or staight, but I do want to point out that normalizing abnormal behavior includes not only Gay and Lesbian marriage, but other abnormal behaviors as well. Cross dressing, kinky sex, public displays of lewed behavior, public neudity etc.

This kind of result has come about and will continue to come about if we allow "Gay Marriage." Do I want to see people slobbering all over each other in public, Gay or staight? I say NO!! All of this behavior should be done out of the public eye. Another more obvious and already happening result of "Gay Marriage" is the normalizing of it to our kids. They will be taught by action and by word that it is normal in their schools and elsewhere. It's not about being kind to others its about the view of life that I want my kids to grow up with.

Heck it's sad that there are people out there who struggle (or openly embrace) attraction to the same sex, why? Because I think it is a sign of the degeneration of our food supply. This may seem odd coming after such a long discussion of Gay marriage, but I think that most people even Gay people (may) believe that men and women are supposed to be attracted to each other so that they come together to form babies. That there are so many people out there who do not feel attracted to the opposite sex leads me to wonder why? In fact I have to admit that when I ate a diet that was completely denatured I felt oddly blank and wasn't normally attracted to my own husband and even I wondered what that meant. Now that I am eating a diet full of grass fed butter and free range eggs and other healthy fats I feel more and more normal and attracted to my husband. Another part of the story is the amount of hormonal disrupters out there. If there wasn't grass fed beef I wouldn't want to eat any beef at all because of the amount of hormones pumped into the beef. I have also learned about the destructive effects of soy on the body, that the Chinease (oriental people) didn't even eat soy for thousands of years until they found a way to ferment it. Even still they only eat a small amount of Soy in the form of Miso, Natto and Tempeh and soy sauce. Not the large quantities purported to be eatten by the American soy industry. It was considered a sacred crop, but only as a nitrogen fix for the soil. For more information on this visit the Weston A Price foundation online.

Lastly I believe that we should question long held beliefs and that in the rush to be "fair" we consider the consequences. I am going to post next about how the American tax system is set up. We need as a whole to start thinking through how things are set up and how they should be set up.

~Strawberry Girl