Follow up on TOYS ARE FOR FUN!

I got a kick out of Lenore Skenazy's latest article for the Wall Street Journal. So I decided to post a link to it here, since I have talked about my irritation with toy sellers peddling "educational" toys.

She says:

Or consider the IQ Baby brand blocks at Small World Toys. These are "designed to reward infant development." That they do. They're blocks. It's rewarding when they don't fall down. Other toys at that booth encouraged "concentration and memory while reinforcing dexterity and hand-eye coordination."

Hand-eye coordination, I quickly discovered, is the go-to claim for any product that can't find anything else to say for itself. ("Develops spatial awareness" is a distant second.)

At one booth I asked the salesman if there's anything on earth that doesn't promote hand-eye coordination: "Like, if you're a baby and you grab something, even a toe, aren't you developing hand-eye coordination automatically?"

"Would you rather we not create toys?" he huffed back.

Oh brother.

Living or driving?

Walking is something that people used to do a lot. Before there were cars...

Some people had horses, but before cars, people did a lot of walking. It wouldn't have been uncommon for someone to walk several miles in a day to get to where they needed to go. Three miles one way would be nothing.

The reason I'm talking about this is because I don't have a car. My dear van that we lived and traveled in has become a burden. It has issues, expensive issues, and I just don't want to have them fixed. I had toyed with the idea of giving the van up before this after I bought the house, but I never could have done it had the vehicle not forced my hand.

It's hard not having a car. America is a sea of automobiles. Everything we do revolves around cars. Part of the reason it's so hard to live without a car is because of all the cars! You can't just walk places, because there are all these roads (with no sidewalks and steep ditches on the sides). The cars drive really fast, and it's scary.

But even where there are sidewalks, people still don't like to walk, because we are just lazy. Well, sort of. And unwillingness to use our muscles is just one part of it. The other part is that we are impatient. If I take a car 1.5 miles to the post office, I can be there and back in under 15 minutes (and that includes checkout time). If I walk, I can make it there in about 25 minutes if I'm pulling Caleb in the wagon, or carrying him on my back.

If Caleb and I both walk, it's more like 45 minutes (not because he can't walk faster, he just doesn't, he likes to make snow balls and crush every clump of snow and just generally be about 4 year old). Think of all the things that I could be doing with those 45 minutes!! And then there's the 45 minutes back and the however much time in between trips, because if you are going to walk "all the way" into town, you might as well go to the gym for a swim or hit up the library for some new books or stop at Cathy's Diner for a pancake. All that just to mail out an international package!

But who says those are bad things? Walking, however slow, is better for your body than sitting in a car. Fresh air is good for your lungs. Spending time with your son throwing snowballs and singing on your walk is better than rushing him out the door and in the carseat and out of the carseat into the post office and back in the carseat and home again. Taking the time for a swim or some books or supporting a local pie shop aren't bad things either.

But some people think that children shouldn't be walking. It's too hard. It's too cold. "I really hate to see a child walking." Really? Because children have a right to be shuttled around all day? They should never have to be cold or get tired using their legs?

We have gotten weak and flabby as a species. Instead of using our legs to get places, we go to the gym and run in place staring at the TV. We balk at the idea of walking a couple miles to get to where we need to go. We've gotten so "busy" that we can't take the time to go slower and enjoy ourselves more. The irony is our busy-ness is going to pay for all the things that we don't have time to do.

Too busy to walk or bike-because you are paying for your car (the lowest 20% of income earners spend $2,856 on yearly car costs-probably higher now because gas prices are rising).
Too busy to cook from scratch-because you are paying for someone else to process your food for you.
Too busy to spend time with your kids-because you are spending too much money on your kids.
Too busy to fix up an old house-because you are too busy earning money to pay for your new one.
And so on...

Another irony is that while everyone says that Americans are so busy-busy, busy, busy, rushing around--they spend 2.8 hours a day watching TV (according to the bureau of labor statistics)!

My all-time favorite book, Beat the System by Gary Paulson, put it this way-he was talking about television, but it really could apply to anything:

"When you are living poor and working at improving the quality of your life it takes time; not just time to work at things, but time to enjoy them as well. Perhaps a description of what I mean would be more appropriate.
When I taught at the University of Colorado I would spend hours teaching or preparing to teach for what amounted to so many dollars an hour. When I finished teaching for the day I would go home, stopping at the store on the way to buy prepared food of one kind or another (usually fattening; often fried chicken or some other quick food), and after eating I would sit down and vicariously live by watching somebody do something on television. If I were in the daydreaming mood I would dream of taking a vacation to fish or hunt or go sailing or some such endeavor--quite often something I was watching the people on television doing.
Now I no long teach at the University of Colorado, no longer earn so many dollars for hours of teaching, no long stop at the store and pick up a chicken to eat while I watch somebody else do the living.
Instead I might, typically, hunt dinner, if it's fall. Or fish for dinner if it's summer. The same hunting or fishing I would have done on vacation except now I do it for food instead of stopping at the store. If I'm not hunting I might be taking dinner from our garden system, or working at my food in some other way.
The point is that when you are living and not just watching somebody else live on the tube, it takes time to live that you would have spent watching them do it for you. I might spend hours hunting, hours that I enjoy, to bring home a few grouse or rabbits or a deer; then more hours to process the meat and prepare it for either storage or cooking. Then still more time is spent cooking it and finally, best of all, the time spent eating it. Not during any of this, at no time in this whole process of living, have I got any time to watch some silly idiot jumping around shooting bad guys on the video screen. (emphasis added)

That, more than anything else, describes how I want to live my life...minus all the shooting of animals, of course, since I'm a vegetarian. :)

Why handmade?

I was thinking about why I liked to buy things that are handmade (or make them myself), and it really boiled down to this: I want more people to have the opportunity to live the way that I live (thanks to my loyal customers).

Now before you get up in arms and start shouting that you aren't interested in living in poverty with frozen pipes, and plywood walls, and eating beans every day (we don't do this, by the way), I don't mean live the life that I live. I mean that when people work for themselves, when they can work out of their homes, their lives are enriched.

Speaking for myself only, my life has been enriched since I started working for myself.
+I have more free time (no commute, no preparations, no lunch "break" wasting my time away from home).
+I am able to be pay myself to take care of my son (which is essentially what you are doing when you eschew daycare, preschool, babysitters and nannies).
+My son is spared from being carted around to the caregiver (s), which means less rushed, grumpy transitions times, and more time to play and relax, plus a more secure attachment that I will be there to meet his needs.
+I am able to take care of my home better ("able to" does not always translate into "will" for those of us that are on the messy side).
+Just recently, I have even given up my van (after living in it for 6 months or so). I now rely on the bus, neighbors, and the occasional taxi or rental car. That saves me money in more ways than one, but I'll do a whole post on that later.
+I can work when it's convenient for me. When my son was a toddler, I mostly worked with tools at night, because he didn't want to be left alone. Now I can work with tools at half an hour stretches at various times throughout the day. I also bring my hand sanding with me everywhere so I can work at the playground or the laundromat or outside while Caleb is playing.
+I get the satisfaction of making beautiful, functional toys. After working in an office shuffling paper for 5 years or so, it is immensely satisfying to work and have a finished product.
+I am able to structure my business around my beliefs and ideals. I only use natural products, and I make nice toys that kids will enjoy and will last and finally when they are trashed, they will rot and go back into the earth instead of sitting around in a landfill for however long it takes for plastic to decay.
+Working from home is much less wasteful and more productive, which means you can do more in less time, with less money, which gives you more time for living.
+I never have to come home from work raving about how stupid my bosses are (I just rave about myself!), or how terrible corporate stores are (my brother works at Borders-he does a lot of raving).
+If I'm sick, I take the day off or work in spurts. I recover faster, because I am able to give my body time. I'm also exposed to less sickness not being in an office.
+Working for yourself encourages honesty, excellence, and diligence.

I have so many more options now that I am not losing five full days to work. That 40 hours each week? Well really it ends up being at least 50 with the commute and the prep (and that miserable half an hour stuck on to the front of your day-it used to be 9-5, but now it's 8:30-5) and maybe there is overtime. Plus once you get home, you are so drained, all you really want to do is put something in the microwave and sit in front of the tv. Now that I don't have to deal with that. I've taken to learning new things! I sew dolls, I crochet, I felt, I learn new woodworking techniques, I cook from scratch, I read long, deep books about history and philosophy and economics and science.

By purchasing things that are handmade, I'm contributing to a better life for someone. And yes, it can be more expensive (it can also be cheaper), but that also encourages you to buy less (good thing).

To be honest, I hardly buy anything besides groceries and supplies for my shop and occasionally clothes from the thrift store, but when I do, I try to always think could I get that on etsy? Could I help someone else stay home with her kids? Could I help support quality, REAL customer service, and individuality?

Why do you buy handmade?

Outdoor Saturday + Biscuit Recipe

Every week, I set aside as much time as we want to spend outside. I make a fire (as it's winter) with my wood scraps.

We cook chili in the fire and eat it with biscuits.

Sometimes I do some sanding. This week we made a snowman since it warmed up enough for the snow to be packable.

I also burned myself trying to take the biscuits out of the oven with just my gloves on and so I dropped the pan and made a mess of my oven.

I modified my biscuit recipe to turn them into cornmeal biscuits, and they were wonderful.

Cornmeal Biscuits

1 3/4 cup of flour (I use a combination of white flour and whole wheat)
1/4 cup of coarsely ground cornmeal
(basically you want 2 cups of flour/meal, you can play with the ratio, for my regular biscuits, just use all flour)
1 tablespoon of baking soda
1 teaspoon of sale
--whisk the dry ingedients
2/3 cup of milk (I use soy milk)
1/3 cup of oil
--pour the oil and milk into the flour and mix it up
--then roll it out to about 3/4 of an inch and cut out biscuit rounds (I use a glass, but you can also use cookie cutters if you are feeling creative.)
--bake them in the oven at 450 for about 15 minutes until they are golden brown on the bottoms

Enjoy! Try to set aside sometime for outside living, it's a lot of fun.

Forget the Menus!

Because we're having Pineapple this week! The grocery store within walking distance of us, Kroger, had a 10 for $10 sale on PINEAPPLE! So obviously we bought ten.


We'll probably be back later in the week to buy another ten. I bought them last night, and we've already consumed three of them. Last night Caleb had pineapples and bananas for dinner, and I had a pineapple, banana, spinach smoothie. This morning we had this big bowl of pineapple with our granola.



Let this be a lesson to you. When you are poor and you can get fresh food cheap, stock up! If you score some good fruit or vegetables, eat them every day for a week! Variety is had over the course of the year. We are feasting on pineapple now, and when strawberries come into season, we will feast on them. When we harvest lettuce from our garden, we'll eat salad every day. When you are poor, or just trying to save money, you have to take what you can get. Another example of why there can be no picky eaters!

Your marriage comes first?

I was just reading at one of my favorite sites: gentlechristianmothers.com, and I had to post this part of an article that questions baby training. I am not married, never have been, but plan to be sometime in the not-so-distant future, and this really spoke to me.

"My baby needs to learn that our marriage comes first."

Interestingly enough, there isn't a strong Biblical case for placing the marriage relationship first. The epistles, for example, in their discussion of the roles within the family, never make any statements about the supremacy of the marriage relationship over all other relationships within the family. While it is clear that our marriage is to reflect the relationship between Christ and His Church, it is not clear that we are to give our marriage relationship some sort of exalted status over the rest of the family. In fact, one might argue that, just as the Church is to focus her efforts on making disciples, our marriages are to be focused on making disciples of our children and raising them to the glory of God.

My husband and I are growing more and more disenchanted with some of the fruit we see of the "our marriage comes first" mentality. Often, all sorts of selfish behavior is excused. Infants and babies are left with virtual strangers so that parents can attempt to recapture some sort of fantasy dating relationship. Grandparents are imposed upon to watch children for "weekend getaways" and even entire vacations. (Some grandparents have been emotionally manipulated: "You want our marriage to survive, don't you? Well, it won't if we have the children under foot every day.") The children are seen as hindrances to maintaining a good marriage relationship, rather than the fruit of the relationship and a natural part of that relationship.

Worst of all is that too many of those who put their marriage first are willing, when troubles come, to abandon the marriage. The idea of maintaining a healthy marriage for the sake of the children is horribly old-fashioned. Why, it's far too child-centered for today.

However, we are gratified and encouraged to discover that there are many parents who are unashamedly family-centered. One father wrote online that he and his wife had decided to include their children in their anniversary celebration because, "after all, our children are an important part of our marriage". This inspired us, on our last anniversary, to celebrate in a different way. We decided it was one of our most enjoyable anniversaries yet! We sat at a lovely table for two and were served by a bevy of small waiters and one cute little waitress. They had a wonderful time and we were continually reminded of the fact that our marriage and our children are all wrapped up together, just as God intended.

Having a good, strong marriage does not require us to act, periodically, as if our children don't exist. We don't need to get away from them once a week for date nights. We don't need to view our children as potential marriage-wreckers but rather should view them as marriage-enhancers. Our babies will grow to learn how important our marriage is to us by observing whether our husbands love us as Christ loves the Church and whether we submit to our husbands with respect. Dumping young children with babysitters or refusing to talk to them for the first twenty minutes that Daddy is home from work won't teach them much of anything, other than that we are rather selfish and rude.

That's all I have to say, and I'm not even the one that said it!

Spinach Curry and Pita Bread

Everybody likes this one. Even people that don't like chick peas or tomatoes or spinach. My son gobbles this up, and always makes sure he has spinach with each spoonful.

The recipe is adapted from Vegan with a Vengeance to fit the needs of my small family, limited spice collection, and ease of preparation.

Spinach Curry (adapted from Vegan with a Vengeance)

• 1 (14.5-ounce) can of diced tomatoes

• 1 large onion, sliced

• 4 cloves garlic, minced

• 1 tsp of ginger powder (or a tablespoon of fresh grated ginger)

• 2 teaspoons curry powder

• 1 teaspoons ground cumin

• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

• 5 cups fresh spinach, chopped (I use about a half a bag of baby spinach-whatever I have left

• 2 cups chickpeas, cooked and drained, or 1 (15-ounce) can, drained and rinsed

1. Saute the onion for a little while..

2. Add the garlic and ginger to the mixture, and saute for a few minutes.

3. Add the spices and tomatoes; and saute for another minute.

4. I tend to add more water at some point. You want the final product to have a little bit of “sauce” to it, but not to be watery. I like to add water at some point and then let it boil off.

5. Add the spinach, I stuff as much in as I can, and put a lid on it and wait for it to wilt, then add more if there is more to add.

6. After you’ve added all of the spinach, add the chickpeas. Lower the heat and stir occasionally for about 15-20 minutes. This is what the original recipe says, but I usually don't want to wait that long. Let the water boil off so it's a good consistancy, not to watery, and eat!
   

The pita bread is basically just your bread dough (see my bread recipe), rolled into balls, and rolled to an even quarter inch thick. Let them rest for 30 minutes while you heat your oven to 500 degrees. Then bake them until they are golden and puffy. We like to dip ours in butter.