I'm Dyeing

Yep, dyeing Easter eggs.
Aren't they pretty? Sarah says the blue ones look like Daddy's work clothes. (Camo!)

Instead of leaving on our big trip today, I'm going to be climbing into my own warm bed here in Washington tonight. Because, as usual, we are having to get past a few road blocks before we can leave.

But first, let me show you how we dyed our Easter eggs. You probably know that we try really hard to avoid food dyes. What we've suspected for years is finally starting to be covered by the mainstream media. Food dyes might not be safe. I've read a number of recent articles (here and here) that call into question the safety of food dyes and the possible reactions that some people have to the dyes used in certain foods.

Anyway, I am always trying to live as naturally as possible, which is pretty tough these days. But we have a lot of fun finding ways to make it work.For dyeing our Easter eggs, we just used things we had on hand in our house. I have used berries as a food dye before, but we didn't have any this week. No pink eggs this year. We did have some turmeric (a spice) and a head of red cabbage. Perfect.
I poured 4 cups of water, 1 Tbsp of vinegar, 1 Tbsp of salt, and about 6 Tbsp of turmeric into a pot. I let it simmer until it was mixed pretty well. Then I turned off the heat and the kids added the eggs. We let them soak for a couple of hours.

I chopped up the head of cabbage and added it to a pot of 4 cups of water, 1 Tbsp of vinegar, and 1 Tbsp of salt. I let this simmer for about 30 minutes and then we turned off the heat. The kids added the eggs and we decided to leave the cabbage in the pot instead of straining it. We were wondering what the eggs would look like and were pleasantly surprised with some neat designs on our eggs!

And then we took the eggs and had a yummy lunch the next day. It was great!

Anyway, we are still headed to the east coast this week. When? I don't know. It wouldn't be my life if everything wasn't complicated.

We picked up the camper from the storage lot and had some issues that had to be fixed before we could leave. Nothing major, but still things that had to be done before the camper could be used. (Cleaning, fixing a water valve, replacing a light fixture, etc.)

Just after I'd sent an email to my family letting them know about the potential delay, I got a phone call. It was the surgery scheduler from the hospital in Georgia. One of the surgeons that is operating on me next month just had a death in his family and had to cancel the surgery. They offered to reschedule, but it changed everything. In the end, I did schedule the surgery for a week later than originally planned. Because of the changes, the second surgeon isn't going to do my ear surgery in Georgia. I'll have to have it done here in Washington instead.

I will have my salivary gland removed in Georgia, which is great. The bad part is that I'll have to have 3 more surgeries for my ears when I get back to Washington. And I'll likely be driving from Georgia to Virginia by myself after the gland removal surgery. I bought my mom a plane ticket to Georgia so that she could come to be with my kids and then help me drive up to Virginia after the surgery. But because of the change in the surgery date, I won't be able to have her there. I tried calling the airline and they told me I'll have to buy a new plane ticket. Considering that the cost of gas is already nearly $4.00/gallon right now, I'm not exactly jumping at the chance to pay for another plane ticket (for the same exact flight, same ticket fare, just a different date.) I'm pretty certain that I'll be just fine to drive anyway, so I'm not too worried. I might just drive to my friend's house in North Carolina and invade her house for a stop along the way.

Yesterday we celebrated the girls' birthday a little bit early and we spent today getting the camper ready for the road. In the next couple of days, we'll be setting off for Georgia. Again. I never thought I'd be saying that.

Before we leave I will have to share some birthday pictures and a special post about homebirth. It's going to be a fun week!

Food Budget

I have had many people ask about our food budget and, specifically, how we eat mostly organic food. I have never written about budgeting before so this is my first attempt! I can tell you that our food expenses have gotten much lower now that we are in Washington. Our expenses have always varied when we move as I try to seek out new food sources and find my groove. (That's an interesting part of military life.)

When we lived in Arizona, there was a year-round farmer's market and we had easy access to local, organic produce and meat. In Georgia I spent a lot of time at the local health food store because they had a good selection of local, organic produce and meat but it was much, much more expensive than buying from the source. I even went out of state to stock up on meat when we lived there. There is a CSA there that delivers as well. In Virginia there was a decent selection of organic produce at the local supermarket but it was not local. The farmer's market was seasonal. We did have an abundance of organic, locally pastured meat. There was no local CSA for produce. Here in Washington, we are blessed to have a CSA that delivers produce and an almost-year-round farmer's market. Obviously, each area is very different and the climate dictates the growing season and availability of local produce. Plus, it is sometimes hard to find sources for good food if you don't know the area yet. I always go to www.localharvest.org to check for local CSAs and then scout our farmer's markets from there.

That said, most of our food does come from the CSAs and farmer's markets. And more and more, we are making food from scratch at home and buying less and less from the store. In turn, we are spending less and less on food. So while $400/month buys a lot here, it doesn't buy a lot in other areas of the country and it varies widely based on what's available in our area.

In an average month, we spend around $400 on food for our family of eight. This is 2 adults, 2 boys that almost eat as much as adults, 2 preschool girls that eat an average amount of food, and 2 toddlers that are always hungry. We also only eat meat a few times a week. Take that for what's it worth. (Disclaimer: I'm not saying everyone can, or should, eat what we eat or spend what we spend, or anything else. This is just what works for us.)

Monthly Food Budget

Produce CSA box, delivered weekly (includes 95% of the fruits and vegetables we eat)

Cost: $148 for the month

Meat (local grass-fed beef, chicken, and occasionally turkey or pork)

Cost: $50-60 for the month

Baking & cooking supplies and dried goods in bulk (flour, honey, sugar, raisins, rice, eggs, etc.)

Cost: $140-$155 for the month

Supermarket (for us-the commissary)

Cost: $40-70 for the month

Total: $378-433 for the month

Produce: Almost all of our produce comes from the CSA box that is delivered weekly. Sometimes I will grab something at the farmer's market, but for the most part I get everything in the CSA box and can add/delete items to make sure I always have what I need coming in the box.

Meat: I always try to buy beef in bulk and store it in the freezer in our garage. It's cheaper to buy a 1/4 share of a cow than to buy individual cuts of meat. When I buy chicken, turkey or pork, I get it from the farmer's market. Because we don't eat it everyday, we save money since meat is our most expensive food.

Baking and cooking supplies: I just found an awesome, local source for organic flour. I can get enough organic flour to last for the entire month for around $25-30. Costco sometimes carries local, organic eggs but when they aren't available there I can get them from the farm directly or from the farmer's market. I buy organic sugar in bulk at Costco, as well as organic olive oil, organic raisins, organic peanut butter, organic quinoa, organic steel cut oats, and whatever other things I find. The selection varies and sometimes I go there to buy something and they don't have it. Plus, whatever I buy usually last longer than a month. I usually go to Costco once or twice a month and I typically spend $45-75 per trip.

Supermarket: There are only a handful of things that I buy in a grocery store these days. I do buy milk there because it is cheaper for me to buy organic, local milk there than it is to buy it from the source. I buy organic yogurt there and the kids it quite frequently. I also get organic, canned beans there because I can't get organic, dried beans anywhere else. (Although I will have to check the place where I buy the bulk flour and nuts because it just occurred to me that they might have them there.) I buy organic pasta sauce there because it is so much faster than making my own. I sometimes buy cheese from the commissary, sometimes from the farmer's market, and rarely from Costco. We try not to eat much cheese but it is a guilty pleasure and Jason loves it, so we usually have some in the house. Another treat are the organic animal crackers from Costco which are perfect for snacking when we are running errands and require zero preparation. Our organic butter has been coming from the commissary or Costco, depending on who has it cheaper at the time. I also buy dry cereal from either place, depending on who has the lowest price.

The amount that we spend always varies quite a bit based on what I have left in the pantry. It's usually staggered so that we don't run out of meat, flour, peanut butter, etc. all at once. I spend more when we're traveling because we eat more convenience foods. For example, when we were in the camper I made a lot of rice, pasta/vegetable dishes because rice/pasta is easy to store and cook and storage space was extremely limited. We ate a lot of oatmeal, yogurt, and dry cereal for breakfast because we didn't have time or space to make hot breakfasts. I was spending around $30/month on bakery items (mostly just sandwich bread) but now that money is spent buying extra flour and yeast since I'm making my own at home.

Although I don't clip coupons, I think I'm still saving money. Eating less meat/dairy, making more foods from scratch, and buying from the source have cut our food expenses a lot. I know we will not always be able to eat an organic diet for $400/month, but as we start to explore growing our own food we might be able to maintain something close to this amount. Thoughts?

P.S.- Speaking of food... I was about to hit 'publish' and then came across this blog: http://fedupwithschoollunch.blogspot.com/. What an eye opener! This is what kids are being fed in school? I had no idea! While I don't exactly have fond memories of the school lunches I was forced to eat as a child, I surely didn't realize that so much of what we ate was just pure garbage. I am also pretty sure that my parents had no idea that from middle school through high school I only ate Snickers bars and drank fruit punch from the a la carte line in the cafeteria.

A Week of Meals in My House

Before I post the details about my food budget for all who have asked, I wanted to post an example of what we eat. I don't make meal menus because I am a procrastinator and because our food on hand differs each week. We have a few things that we eat pretty regularly and a few freezer meals that I make in advance when I have time. (We ate a lot of freezer meals when we were living in the camper!) If you want recipes, let me know and I can post them. I never follow recipes and am forever modifying them to what I want, but I should be writing things down.

Day 1

Breakfast: Omelets with spinach, onion and a sprinkling of Parmesan cheese (We eat omelets a few times a week and what I put in them always depends on what comes in our CSA box-sometimes spinach, collard greens, peppers, etc.)

Lunch: Raw veggies with hummus, yogurt & fruit, granola (The hummus is homemade, the produce is from our CSA box, and the yogurt is store-bought.)

Dinner: Cabbage Runza casserole (This is cabbage, onion, ground beef, cheese & pastry layered in a casserole dish. It's delicious and it's a great way to get my kids to eat a TON of cabbage.)

Dessert: Pear pie (We have had an abundance of pears this month so I've been using them in everything lately! This is not a healthy dessert when you consider the amount of butter I used, but it was delicious.)

Day 2

Breakfast: Crockpot oatmeal with cinnamon, apples, raisins, flax seed, and brown sugar (I modified this recipe from Kate's blog. I use either steel cut oats and add a bit of extra water, or just use the regular organic oats. It cooks overnight so it's ready to go in the morning and I like to drizzle it with a bit of coconut milk.)

Lunch: Sandwiches with peanut butter and honey, yogurt & granola, apple slices (We didn't can any jellies this year and our supply ran out so we've been using honey more often until berries are in season again.)

Dinner: Leek & Potato Soup with bread (Confession: I had never had a leek until I started making this soup recently. I usually make soup once a week and the type depends on what's in our CSA box. My kids are particularly fond of the leek soup and cream of celery soup. Both of these soups are pureed so they are thick and smooth and very filling. I had green onions a few weeks ago and rinsed them, chopped them, dried them, and popped them in the freezer to be easily added into any meal.)

Day 3

Breakfast: Cereal & fruit (Dry cereal, often Cheerios, is for the days when I'm too busy to make something. On a super busy week when I have to run out somewhere , the box of cereal saves me.)

Lunch: Tortilla chips with salsa, yogurt, fruit salad (We love Mexican food and eat it at least once a week in some form. I make it from scratch so I consider it pretty healthy since it's full of fresh veggies. I buy the organic tortilla chips in huge bags from Costco. The fruit salad is never the same-it also varies based on the contents of the CSA box. Right now it's mostly apples, pears, and citrus fruits.)

Dinner: Thai chicken stir-fry (This is one of our favorite meals! I never make it the same way twice. Last week we had this beautiful veggie in our box-Romanesco broccoli! I added it to our usual stir-fry ingredients of broccoli, onions, and peppers. Sometimes I serve the stir-fry over noodles and sometimes I add in cabbage and omit the noodles. I make the sauce with organic peanut butter and a delicious bottled Thai sauce. There is nothing funnier than watching my kids slurp up long strings of onion and cabbage just like it is spaghetti noodles! Oh, and speaking of spaghetti, we do eat that as a fast meal when I'm in a rush. I like to layer spaghetti ingredients and spinach leaves in a casserole dish and bake it. Yum!)

Day 4

Breakfast: Breakfast bars (This is a recipe of my own creation using oats, Cheerios, raisins, and coconut along with some "secret" ingredients like wheat germ and flax meal.)

Lunch: Sandwiches with almond butter, oranges, carrots (This was our picnic lunch at the park so I grabbed anything portable. The artisan bread book has an amazing recipe for sandwich bread and it's the best sandwich bread I've ever tried. We always used to buy the organic wheat sandwich bread but this is so much better!)

Dinner: Mexican vegetarian mix on tortillas (This was my homemade salsa with tomatoes, peppers, onions, black beans, corn, and cilantro. I rolled it up in tortillas but I sometimes layer it on tortilla chips and melt cheese on top. If we have avocados I will make fresh guacamole too.)

Dessert: Bubbly Pear cupcakes (It's a long story, but I had this old bottle of champagne that had been sitting around for years. When googling recipes for pears cupcakes, I found one that called for bubbly in the mix. I decided to go for it and I made the most delicious, moist, pear cupcakes. They had a cream cheese icing. I couldn't believe how good they were!)

Day 5

Breakfast: Oatmeal (on the stove) with honey and raisins (My dad got us hooked on this oatmeal. I love trying new types of honey-right now it's blueberry honey from a local farm. I have never had a problem finding delicious, raw honey wherever we live. Perfect for oatmeal on a chilly morning!)

Lunch: Peanut butter & honey sandwiches, yogurt, fruit salad (I always mix it up by adding different things to the oatmeal. Brittany gave me the idea of using chia seeds as a topping for yogurt and oatmeal.

Dinner: Omelets stuffed with the last of the Mexican mix (Jason calls these "MVF omelets" because we've seen similar omelets on Man Vs. Food. These particular omelets were filled with my salsa and veggies, black beans, a bit of shredder cheese, and sour cream. They were oh-so-good in a bad sort of way.)

Dessert: Grapefruit Morning Cake (This was a recipe I had never tried and was considering using it when I have guests over next week so I wanted to test it. The cake uses the fresh juice of 2 grapefruits and oatmeal, among other things. Then you top it with the grapefruit wedges and a bit of yogurt. Tasty!)

Thursday is the day my CSA box shows up. For those wondering, this is what it looks like.

Day 6

Breakfast: Grapefruit morning bars (These were the leftovers from dessert.)

Lunch: Hardboiled eggs, yogurt & blueberries, veggies & hummus

Dinner: Pizza Night!!! (For the past several weeks we have been enjoying the most delicious pizzas ever. I've tried some interesting ones-like caramelized onion & Gorgonzola cheese- and some traditional ones-like cheese pizza or pineapple pizza. We usually have it with a fresh salad and some raw veggies. The bottom line is that the homemade pizza crust is what makes it so awesome.)

Dessert: Chocolate Lava cakes (In case you haven't noticed, I have a sweet tooth. We usually have dessert a couple of times during the week and sometimes I just feel the need to make something really sweet. The chocolate lava cakes were a fast recipe and I made them the size of mini cupcakes so they were a small portion.)

Day 7

Breakfast: Caramel Pecan Sticky Rolls (To die for. Seriously. The recipe was from the artisan bread book. I picked up some organic pecans from the bulk section of the store where I buy my wheat. The kids told me I was the best mommy ever. The rolls were that good.)

Lunch: Grilled cheese sandwiches, salad, fruit (I like to add things to the sandwich-like avocado. Some of the kids prefer tomato. The salad is mixed with whatever veggies we have on hand-spinach, carrots, cucumber, red onion, tomato, etc.)

Dinner: Chili & bread (I did not eat chili until I was in my twenties and even then, I'd only eaten it one time in my life. I had never cooked it until recently. Now chili is one of my favorite meals. I make it with very little meat or without meat at all and I use fresh, organic produce. Sometimes I hide things in it (like pureed squash-I hide that in spaghetti sauce too) and I use flax meal to thicken it up. This is a perfect freezer meal.)

There you have it. That's what we ate last week. You also have to remember that what we eat varies by season. I am finishing up a post about how much I spend on food each month. Everything we ate during this week was organic except for the Thai sauce. The meat for the 3 non-vegetarian meals was locally pastured. All of the produce came from the CSA box-except for the beans, which were canned. I think our meals are pretty "normal" when compared to what most Americans might eat. (I am not really sure what "normal" is though!) I didn't include what we drank because we are boring and only drink water. I also didn't include snacks because I rarely prepare anything for snacks. I let the kids grab a piece of fruit, some crackers, or veggies & hummus. They'll eat whatever is in sight so it's pretty easy. That's it-food for 8 for a week.

I'd love recipe ideas so please feel free to share what your family loves to eat!

My Newest Addiction: Freshly Baked Bread

As if my coffee addiction is not bad enough, I am now hooked on freshly baked bread. I guess there are worse things that could happen. And my family seems genuinely pleased with my infatuation with creating the perfect dough.

It all started a couple of weeks ago when I mentioned on Facebook that I have been wanting to bake my own bread. I gave away my bread maker more than 10 years ago because I rarely used it. And, until now, I thought that was the only easy way to make homemade bread. I was very wrong.

Immediately after I posted on Facebook, several people told me that I needed to get the book "Artisan Bread in Five Minutes A Day." I checked it out and did what any impatient girl would do... I ordered it from Amazon right then. Two days later the book arrived and I have not stopped baking since then.

Do you all know about this book? If you do, then why have you not told me about it?! Seriously, this book is amazing!
In fact, I had to buy new, larger flour canisters to support my new addiction. Here you can see my big-enough-to-feed-an-Army sized jars of wheat flour, white flour, and the sugars. I found a local source for bulk organic flours, nuts, oats, and dried fruits. I am in heaven.

So here's the deal:

The book is based on the discovery that you can prepare a large batch of wet bread dough that will keep in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks, allowing you to quickly bake small batches using the ready dough. It's very fast and very easy and you don't need a bread maker or any other special equipment. In other words, even if you have 6 children, you can still bake your own fresh bread each day because it is just that easy.

For the first few days I experimented with loaves of white or wheat bread so that I could get the feel for making the dough. I used the bread in place of our usual store-bought organic bread for sandwiches. It was simple enough that I was expecting a disaster in the kitchen and it just never happened. (Disasters in other rooms, yes, but not in the kitchen.)

Using my stand mixer, I just added water, yeast, salt, and flour. It makes a perfect, moist dough. Then I toss it in the fridge and cut off chunks as needed to bake each day.

After quite a few loaves of bread, I decided to expand my horizons a bit. Next I made the most delicious, sweet, sticky caramel pecan rolls that our house has ever seen. It was a Sunday morning treat that my kids will never forget. They were proclaiming their love for me for the rest of the day.

A recipe for olive oil dough got me thinking that I really should try making a pizza. I've made my own pizzas many, many times but have not once attempted to make my own dough. The olive oil recipe was simple and I tossed the dough by hand to make a large pizza crust. I used a store-bought sauce (Newman's Own Organic Marinara) this time because I wasn't sure how it would turn out. I sprinkled the sauce with fresh basil. Then I added a layer of fresh spinach leaves from our co-op box and topped it all with a shredded block of organic mozzarella cheese. I made a second pizza with the same ingredients and then added a bit of local sausage that I seasoned with spices and browned first. Jason loves meat on his pizza.

I have to say that those pizzas were amazing. The crust was perfect! They were so delicious that I never want to order pizza delivery again. Even the kids agreed that it was the best pizza they'd ever tasted. And it only took me 5 minutes to mix the dough.

It's only been two weeks, but I am in love with "Artisan Bread in Five Minutes A Day." I love the feeling that comes with making something that tastes so good. I love being able to control the ingredients that are going into our breads. We have never been big bread-eaters, but my kids always had sandwiches a few times a week and now those sandwiches have become a special treat. I am afraid to even say it, but for the first time in my life I think I am starting to love cooking and baking. (What?! Did I really just say that? I used to hate cooking!)

I don't know what is happening here. I bake my own bread? What is next? Will I start growing my own vegetables in the backyard? (Don't answer that.)

I Love Worm Poop

In my garage there is...

...a pile of lumber scraps.

...a shelf full of power tools.

...a pile of boxes to donate to the thrift store.

...a big, pink hula hoop.

...a messy collection of bikes and scooters.

...a box full of worm poop.

What? Yes, I said a box full of worm poop.

A large plastic bin holds a happy worm family that lives in our garage and eats our waste. It's called vermiposting and it's a natural, easy way to dispose of food scraps and other organic waste. In return for your waste, the worms provide you with their waste, which is the perfect addition to any garden.

We always used to have a compost pile in our backyard for disposing of organic waste, but it soon became too difficult to find the time to go out and turn it often enough. I filled it up too quickly with grass clipping and soon the pile was larger than me. Enter the worm bin. The worm bin requires very little maintenance. It's small and compact. It's very efficient. I like efficiency.

I made our worm bin by drilling holes into the tops and sides of two large Rubbermaid bins and their lids. You can see an easy tutorial here. The holes allow for ventilation and the dark color of the bins keeps it dark inside so the worms are happy.

Inside the bin is a busy, thriving worm poop facility. The bottom of the bin is covered in a layer of shredded paper. I used to use newspaper for this until a friend gave me the idea of using the paper scraps from my paper shredder. I had been recycling the shredded paper without even thinking of using it for worm bedding. (Genius!)

The shredded paper is what the worms use for bedding. I place a moist piece of cardboard over the top of the paper to keep everything damp. (Not that that is a problem in Washington.) Every couple of days I bring our food waste out to the garage and bury it in a corner of the worm bin. The worms eat the food scraps very quickly and I collect the scraps in a metal compost container under the kitchen sink.

Our worm bin is bustling with activity. I started out with about 2 pounds of red worms but there are many, many more than that in our bin now. They can devour all of the food scraps for a family of eight in just a day or two. It is amazing! As the bin fills up with worm castings (aka poop) I can use their waste to fertilize our plants. I wish we had a garden, but we don't have the space. (I want to try square foot gardening on our deck though.)

A worm bin is an excellent project to do with children. It's green-you can't get much more environmentally friendly than using organic food waste to create organic waste fertilizer! Learning about vermiposting affords great teaching opportunities for homeschooling families too. (Field trip to a worm farm, anyone?) Worms bins are easy to maintain and they are very clean. There is no odor from our bin and zero mess. The entire process is fascinating for kids and costs nearly nothing.

Do you compost or vermipost? I'd love to hear about it!

He Who Dies With the Most Toys Wins

We have caught the dreaded stomach bug. Like a friend said yesterday, in a large family, a stomach bug spreads like wildfire. It's the truth. We have had 4 kids puking, 2 kids not yet puking, and 2 terrified parents praying that we don't get it next. I can't even remember how many times I cleaned vomit last night. The thing with so many little kids is that nobody can make it to the bathroom and they run toward Mommy. Ick. I can feel the cooties crawling around this place.

Anyway, back to my already scheduled post...

He who dies with the most toys wins.

Or so it seems.

It's getting harder and harder to raise children who value people and not things. At this time of year, I am always struck with the urge to purge toys and clothes and clutter from my home and my life. Anyone else get that urge?

Lately I have been struggling with the realization that having six children has really allowed me to accumulate an incredible amount of stuff in a short amount of time. I started out with good intentions, asking that friends and family not give gifts for Matthew's first birthday. I requested no plastic toys for Christmas. But people just don't feel like they are showing love if they are not wrapping up a bright, new toy. In fact, some of our extended family just refused to acknowledge our requests at all, and the toys continued to pile up at an alarming rate.

When Leila and Sarah were born, we received more clothing than 2 little girls could ever possibly wear. I tried to take a photo of them in each outfit before passing them on to a needy family who had surprise twins (as in, "Surprise! You just gave birth but there is another baby in there!") And once the novelty of buying cute, matching clothes for identical girls started to wear off for our family and friends, I started shopping consignment sales. These days, most of my girls' clothes came from consignment sales and the rest I buy with the birthday money that they get each year.

In fact, I would estimate that about 15% of my kids' clothes were purchased new. It makes me feel good to save money and find the value in reusing things instead of purchasing new. It's a beautiful thing. This article about materialism suggests keeping 14 outfits per child for each season. I think we have even less than that for each child, judging by my laundry piles. And with 6 kids, even 14 outfits feels like a lot!

When it comes to toys, I am losing the battle though. It seems no matter how many times we clear out a heap of toys, more find their way back into our home. This year I have devised a plan. I've noticed that my kids really only play with a few toys, no matter how many toys we have in our possession. For Matthew, he only loves cars. He has a wonderful Plan City set of roads and buildings that he uses to play with his Matchbox cars. He likes Legos too, but cars are his one true love. Joshua plays with the little cars, our set of Automoblox cars, and video games. Leila & Sarah love dolls and pretend play. Nathan and Ryan love wooden blocks and Legos. Anything that falls outside of those categories is not worth keeping. And so, my plan is to stick with what the kids love and keep toys that encourage open-ended play as much as possible. We have limited space and we move frequently so there is no sense in letting the toys accumulate to obnoxious levels.

Because we live far from family, many of our family members have started to send money for us to buy Christmas gifts for the kids. This is great because we can get things that they really need or want, and that will get the most use. For example, the girls are going to take ballet classes and they will get a new bed. Joshua will get a new loft bed in his room. Each child will get one toy from Santa. From us, they'll get a few movies, games, and some not-so-fun things like pajamas (a family tradition) and shoes. Only getting one toy means we can really pick something special that will be used and enjoyed. I have always preferred the wooden or handmade toys over the plastic junk that was relegated to life at the bottom of the toy box. Those are the things we have kept, even when I'm lugging six boxes of toys to Goodwill.

Coming from a family of hoarders (ok, not really, but almost) it has been hard to remind myself that stuff is just that. Stuff. We can't take it with us when we die. But really all it takes are a few military moves and then you start to realize how much junk you have collected. Oh, and living in a camper helps with that too.

It's hard to teach our children not to be materialistic when you see families at church with expensive, matching, monogrammed outfits. It's tough to share with them a love for giving to others when childhood has become a commercialized competition to collect the latest toy.

Somehow, in the midst of amassing a giant pile of toys, I've been struck by the need to change my ways. In my shift to a greener lifestyle over the last 8 years, I have the desire to rid myself of plastic and disposable conveniences. In raising a small herd of children, I am seeing the value in the old phrase "less is more." Because when you have six kids, less is even too much sometimes!

Now, I want to ask you... How do you cut down on excessive gifts at this time of year? How often do you sort through your toy box or closet? What do you do with the things you no longer need? Favorite charities for donating?

If you have a chance, read this article and tell me what you think.

Healthy Eating Without Breaking the Bank

I can't even count the number of times that I have had someone ask me how we can afford to feed a family of eight on one income. One military income. And what they don't usually know is that we eat fresh, organic, healthy foods and I rarely use coupons. How do we do that on such a limited budget? Because we are basically locavores.

A majority of what we what our family eats each week arrives on my doorstep on Thursday mornings in a brown cardboard box. It's always like unwrapping a special gift when we look inside our box and see what foods we'll enjoy in the next few days. Where does this mystery box come from? From a CSA. CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture and it's a beautiful thing. All across the country, farms of all sizes offer their bounty to local customers who pay for a share of the crops.

CSAs support local farms and are better for everyone involved, from producer to consumer. Instead of buying produce that's been trucked or flown across the country, we get fresh, local produce that was grown right in our area. This also means that we eat foods that are in season. Right now we are eating a lot of root vegetables, apples, and pears. It's a throwback to our past, when families grew and gathered their own food and had to eat what they could store through the winter.

Eating local foods is better for the environment because the foods require less energy to pack and transport. Local foods are also better for the families eating them because they are fresher and don't have to be artificially ripened (which is a scary process) and most have been minimally treated with pesticides and other chemicals because these foods are being grown during their natural growing seasons and not mass-produced for year-round consumption.

In fact, all of our produce comes from our CSA box or our local farmer's market. And it's all organic. Our CSA box has enough fruits and vegetables to last us an entire week and I can pick up anything else I want at the farmer's market or even have it added to our CSA box. Most of what we eat is produce! It might sound crazy, but my kids love vegetables. Brussels sprouts, spinach, broccoli, sunchokes, parsnips, kale, beets, beans, and cabbage are the foods of choice right now. Yes, my kids eat kale and they love it!

I grew up eating boxed macaroni and cheese and frozen fish sticks. I didn't have my first taste of salsa until I was nineteen. I had never tasted chili until I was in my twenties. My idea of vegetables was frozen corn or carrots. I didn't know any better and this was what I thought was good for me. When I had kids of my own, everything changed. I remember another new mom telling me that she fed her kids a raw diet and they didn't drink milk. I started reading and learning about diet, nutrition, and "green" living. I stopped using harmful chemical cleaners and started eating healthier foods. I have read a lot of books about natural living, but one of my favorites is a new book called "The Conscious Kitchen." It goes over (in great detail) the reasons for choosing local, organic foods and has tips for finding sources for them. It also discusses the healthy ways to cook the foods and keep a green kitchen. (Teflon-coated pans? Ick! How about a nice cast-iron skillet instead?)

Another key to keeping our food budget low is eating meatless meals several nights a week. We're not vegetarians, although I was one for 8 years. (I started eating meat again when I was pregnant with Matthew. It was Jason's fault, of course.) We eat meat a few nights a week. Meat is more expensive than produce and so we limit it.

The meat that we do eat comes from CSAs and the farmer's market. Next year we will have a 1/4 share of a cow (already butchered and wrapped) to stock our garage freezer. Right now, I buy smaller amounts of meat and store it in the freezer. The meat that we do eat is local, grass-fed beef and organic, free-range chicken or pork.

We don't buy meat in the grocery store. (In fact, I buy less than 25% of what we eat at the grocery store.) Grocery store meat terrifies me. Why? Feed lots terrify me. Have you ever seen a feed lot? I have seen them in real life. Cows stand in their own feces with their bodies crammed together in wide, brown expanses of dirt without a trace of grass to be seen. That is not how cows are supposed to live. Cows are meant to eat grass, not soy or animal by-products like they are often feed in feedlots. Feedlot cows have to be treated with antibiotics because they get sick living under those awful conditions. Antibiotics scare me too. (C. Diff, anyone?) But that's a whole other post... someday I'll write about how antibiotics nearly killed me.

Besides the obvious benefits of eating meat that is free of hormones, antibiotics, and pesticide residue, the meat just tastes better and is better for the environment. Grass fed beef has a delicious flavor. I love acorn-finished pork. Free range chicken even looks more appealing than the bleach-dipped, chlorine-smelling chicken sold in the grocery store. (Blech!) We love buffalo and yak too, although we don't have those locally here in Washington.

Most of our family's diet consists of produce, but we do eat our fair share of eggs and yogurt as well. I have been known to have an omelet every morning some weeks. Sometimes we'll have omelets for dinner and I'll make them with spinach and onions and sprinkle them with (organic) cheese. Our eggs come from either the CSA, the farmer's market, or the grocery store, depending on how quickly I run out of eggs between shopping trips. The eggs are always free range and organic. I wish I could be like my friend Michele and have my own fresh eggs in my backyard, but I deal with enough poop already, so that isn't happening right now. My kids eat (organic) yogurt almost every day and we buy it in bulk-plain so that we can flavor it with cinnamon and granola or fruit.

Our family does not each much cheese (although I love cheese) and we don't drink milk. What cheese I do use for cooking is organic and often local. I do use milk for cooking and the kids have it several times a week with their cereal or in hot chocolate. I buy organic (usually local) milk, although we have used raw milk in the past. Despite what the advertisements might make you think, humans do not need cow's milk to survive. How absurd is that? To think that humans would have to rely on the milk of another species for survival? It just doesn't make sense. Human babies need human milk, and yes, I'm one of those moms that nurses my babies until they self-wean. Most of my kids had never even tasted cow's milk until they were 2 years old. (And they didn't eat any food until they were a year old, but again, that's a whole other post.) We do not eat soy of any kind. We limit milk and consume cheese in moderation.

The rest of our food comes from whole grains and the herbs, spices, and oils that we use for flavoring. I love freshly baked bread but don't have a bread machine anymore, so I am guilty of buying bread (organic) right now. I use organic, whole wheat flour for all of my baking and I make almost everything from scratch. I do use store-bought pasta because honestly, who has time to make their own pasta? Anyone? I love cooking with quinoa and a household staple- rice. We have oatmeal several times a week, which I buy in bulk (I love Costco for that!) and the organic, steel cut oats are perfect with apples, cinnamon, and coconut milk drizzled on top. I also like to hide ground flax seeds or wheat germ in just about everything I bake and in oatmeal. Even Jason can't tell the difference! (I hide veggies sometimes too.) I buy herbs and spices from the farmer's market and if they are fresh, I freeze them. I also use a lot of organic olive oil for cooking. I even use an olive oil sprayer to spritz oil on my iron skillet when making omelets or when baking, so I never need to use cooking sprays or toxic, non-stick pans.

Many (most?) of you probably think I'm crazy. Or if you've been reading my blog long enough, you already knew that. But I promise that there are good reasons for eating local, organic foods and it's not as difficult or expensive as you think. In fact, I feed our entire family of 8 for around $400 a month. I just prepare the meals myself, using as few pre-packaged ingredients as possible. The local farmers are my best friends. I get excited when I score some delicious raw honey or when something new shows up in my CSA box (like sunchokes) and I have to try out new recipes. I say that I hate to cook (and sometimes I do) but I love to eat. And I'm committed to eating the healthiest foods I can find.

My own mother does not agree with the way we eat. She won't even eat the food in my house. She will actually pack her own food (plastic fruit cups, bags of fake mashed potatoes), etc. when she comes to visit. I'm not one to judge someone else's choices, so I keep my mouth shut. It kills me sometimes though. She definitely thinks that I'm insane. She won't change her ways, but I would give anything to get her to read "The Conscious Kitchen." Maybe someday...

Check out LocalHarvest for information on CSAs in your area. Many farmer's markets are not active in the winter (unless you live somewhere like Arizona-how I loved the farmer's market there!) but find out about your local farmer's market. Find other families in your area and split a share of beef with them so that you can fill your freezer with good, fresh meat from a local farm. Take your kids to see a nearby farm where the food is grown. My kids have more respect for food after visiting so many farms and seeing where our food comes from. Forget clipping coupons and challenge yourself to go a week (or month, or two) without using any canned or pre-packaged foods. Try a vegetable that you have never had (or even heard of) before. You will probably be surprised at how cheap (and easy) it can be to eat healthier foods.