Author Archives: Melissa | Growing Green Nutrition

Moving day

As we sat on the couch Saturday night, Matthew mentioned the possibility of rearranging our apartment to make the space a bit more livable for the next few months, until we upgrade to a 2-bedroom.  The basic plan involved swapping the sofa and our bed, so we could go to bed at night and have our own schedule, without fear of waking The Dude.

After sleeping on the idea, we woke on Sunday morning, talked it over a bit more, and jumped in to the project.  Matthew disassembled the bed, and stood the mattress and platform on their side to make room for the sofa.  I moved a few other things, and cleaned some long-unseen areas.

After settling Gabriel in the one clear, out of the way bit of floor, we picked up the sofa and carried it through the kitchen and into the bedroom discovered it wouldn’t fit through the bedroom doorway.Continue reading “Moving day”

Green Grinch musings

One of our basement storage spaces holds a small stockpile of Christmas-themed gift bags and tissue paper that I painstakingly smooth out and fold whenever we receive gifts.  While reusing these materials certainly qualifies as green, it also perpetuates the standard that gifts be wrapped (or bagged) in a disposable way.

If I don’t want to receive gifts in disposable wrapping, why would I continue to give gifts concealed in that manner, regardless of the used vs. new status of the gift bags and tissue paper?

Lying in bed last night, I solved my present-wrapping dilemma.  We have numerous receiving blankets (hand-me-downs, not new material) that are far too small to be useful for The Dude.  Sure, they have pastel colors and baby-themed prints on them instead of the traditional red and green, but the Green Grinch doesn’t really get hung up on little details like that.  The blankets will be the perfect size for most of my gifts, and with a few safety pins or bits of ribbon to secure them, I’ll be good to go!

In the spirit of a holiday with “more joy and less stuff,” check out these suggestions from The Center for a New American Dream.

Finally, a bit of food for thought, first a health-related article, then, an environment-related article (these are non-Christmas related, because I am, after all, the Green Grinch 😉 ).

From “Treating a Nation of Anxious Wimps” (follow link to read full article):

Yet the great secret of medicine is that almost everything we see will get better (or worse) no matter how we treat it. Usually better. The human body is exquisitely talented at healing.

The bottom line is that most [acute] conditions are self-limited . . . . Taking drugs for things that go away on their own is rarely helpful and often harmful.

From “Will nature always be the last book on the shelf?” (follow link to read full article):

Here were brand-new books on some of the most important challenges facing society today — now priced to move at about $2.50 — and they’d been left behind by the swarming scavengers, lingering on the shelves in the company of the odd, obscure, and obsolete.

It made real for me the now ubiquitous adage that conservation must strive to be more relevant to people.

All I want for Christmas

Would that be the two bottom teeth?  Or the two top teeth?  Either way, The Dude has it covered now (photo evidence of the bottom teeth in yesterday’s photo).  I’m glad that’s all he wants for Christmas, because that’s all he’s getting, at least from Mommy and Daddy.

I’m definitely a Christmas slacker this year.  We don’t have a Christmas tree (no room in the inn!) or any decorations.  We do have a few strings of colored LED lights in our front room, but we pretty much leave those up all winter, to combat the dark dreariness, so they don’t count as holiday decorations.

I planned to take a cute picture of The Dude in a Santa hat, and send it out as a Christmas greeting, but we don’t own a Santa hat, and I haven’t gotten around to buying, or, ideally, borrowing, one.

It all feels like just one more thing this year — something for which I have neither the time nor energy.  I feel a little guilty, a bit like Scrooge or The Grinch — after all, this is “Baby’s First Christmas,” which only happens once.

The thing is, he will remember absolutely nothing about the holidays this year. And, to be fair, we’ll be spending Christmas at my parents’ house, where we can enjoy their tree and decorations. Plus, the various sets of grandparents will make sure that there are presents under the tree with The Dude’s name on them.

Also, while I can do without the commercialism and consumerism of the holidays, I am excited to experience them through the eyes of a child in the years ahead, so I am NOT a total Grinch.  I anticipate celebrations filled with the love, warmth, and family traditions that really make this season special.  Until then, I hope The Dude enjoys his two four front teeth 😉

Update: I may not be the first to claim the title, but I dubbed myself the Green Grinch — it has a nice ring to it!

Percolating

Number of draft posts started in the last week (and by “started,” I mean they have titles): 6

Number of published posts in the last week: 1

Sigh.  Maybe one of these days . . . .

Until then, here’s a gratuitous baby picture to make up for my lack of posting 🙂

Wonder(ful) bread

We may, on occasion, take things to extremes here in the Green Life household.  On Sunday, I biked to church, and a fellow parishioner commented on my “extreme cycling.”  Perfectly dry pavement, no precipitation on the radar, and almost 32° F?  NOT extreme, especially not with the help of my trusty balaclava and super-warm mittens.  Sometimes one person’s extreme is another person’s normal.

So, bread.  We’ve been making our own bread for quite awhile now, but our neighbors inspired us to branch out a bit.  First, we borrowed their Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day cookbook.  Good concept, but lacking our beloved whole grains.  This led us to the follow-up Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day, which had a couple of recipes that seemed close, but not quite right, due to the presence of some white flour.  Surely we could make a great, basic whole wheat bread with 100% whole wheat!Continue reading “Wonder(ful) bread”