Don't give up on me (or the earth or istormy or God's love)

I am still here, just lacking motivation to blog. I have loads of things in my head that I want to share here, but I just can't get motivated to get stuck in. Don't give up on me, this place will get interesting again. I think I just need to get caught up on editing pics then I'll feel freed up to jump on in.

Meanwhile, here's my Lana doing what she does best.



And happy Earth Day. This world may be corrupt due to our own errors, but it's still God's artwork. He made it and looked at what he made and said it was good. And put us in charge of us. Lets try to be better stewards with what he's given us.



I wanted to share the sermon from my Church on Sunday. You can listen on live. Our preacher is amazing at helping us understand the scriptures in a truly dynamic fashion. He is so articulate and has definitely been given a gift. On Sunday he started a series about the seven churches in Revelation. Please listen to this sermon and be prepared to be blown away with how passionately God loves us. I particularly loved what he said about Genesis.

Click here to listen, you won't regret it

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How to make a self watering container

I've read that a self watering container is best for growing vegetables in, because they can take as much water as they want, when they want, so less risk of over or underwatering. It's also less maintenance for the gardener, as they don't require watering every day.

But they can be pretty pricey. We bought 2 medium sized self-watering containers for $10 each, and that was as cheap as we had seen them. We were going to need more than that but were about out of money. So we decided to make our own, cheaply.

WHAT YOU'LL NEED





A regular plant pot or tub
putty
scrap fabric
scissors
a smaller tub for insert/reservoir - make sure it fits the bottom of your tub without leaks in the sides
A piece of piping, or you could use an empty plastic bottle


1st
Fill in any drainage holes in the pot. You can use putty or line with a bag etc.


2nd
Poke holes in the insert/smaller tub.


3rd
Cut up strip of fabric and thread them through the holes in the insert. These will act as the wic, to suck up water from the reservoir.




4th
Cut up piping, or plastic bottle. We will be using this to fill the reservoir with water, every few days.



5th
Cut a hole in the insert, to place the piping.



6th
Place insert in pot, make sure there are no gaps.







7th
Have your kids help you if you want. They come in handy for that.





8th
Try to stop your 7 month old from ingesting too many microbes





9th
Fill with dirt, plant your plants. Water from above once, then fill the reservoir. From now on, only water from the pipe.

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Food Net

Is this just a Lincoln, Nebraska thing? This is fantastic, I don't know why it took us until now to discover it.

Food Net is a non profit, volunteer run organization, whose slogan is "Tummy fill, not landfill". They encourage stores and food businesses to donate the produce and foods that they are about to throw away, because they're at or past sell by date, then they let people come and take a portion of it for free, at particular pick up points on particular dates. There are many locations throughout the city and many times through the week.

We went yesterday. Rene and I were each allowed to sign up, so we got double the amount. We brought our bags and just filled up with what they said we were allowed. The only things that weren't in fantastic condition were tomatoes and bananas and bell peppers. The tomatoes worked fine in a sauce for enchiladas last night and and the bell peppers will most likely go in a sauce too. Or a curry. The bananas were perfect for banana bread, which I also made last night and enjoyed a slice of this morning for breakfast.

Additionally, we got 3 packs of donuts (not so healthy, but the kids were thrilled!), 2 heads of lettuce, 2 bags of salad, 1 large potato, 1 bag small potatoes, 3 turnips, 1 summer squash, 1 bag green beans, 1 package broccoli, 2 avocados, 1 slice apple pie, 1 cinnamon bun thingy, 1 poppy seeded artisan loaf, 1 pack sprouted wheat bagels and 1 round pesto bread thingy (which tasted great with butter and mozzarella, then put in the oven for a bit last night, to go with the enchiladas and salad. All for free. And we were doing our bit for the environment, by saving it from the landfills.

It was also an enjoyable experience, all huddling together outside in the cold, waiting for our number to be called to go inside the church and collect the goodies. There were people of all different ages, cultures, shades, colors, accents and no doubt fascinating stories to tell. Everyone was extremely friendly, open and helpful. There was a spirit of community like you just don't feel when you're walking through Hyvee with the posh folk.

I'm thinking we'll be doing this a lot more often! I wish every city had one.

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What do you get?

Firstly, thanks to those of you who e-mailed me and messaged me to ask me to keep posting about the food I cook. You made me feel all fuzzy inside.

I've decided to take on the Food Waste Reduction challenge at Crunchy Chicken's website.



So what do you get when you take the leftover crusts from the kids grilled cheese sandwiches (sorry Rene I didn't tell you what went in it!) and the bits of carrot cake they left on their plate because it didn't have frosting on it, and try to reuse it??

Scrummy bread pudding.




And what about the veggies about to expire in the crisper? Turnip, eggplant and orange pepper...not exactly the type of veggies you'd think would go together. But they went great in a made-up-as-I-went-along curry. I call it Clean Out Crisper Masala.

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Earth friendly cleaning

This is not my photo, I grabbed it from the web cause I couldn't be bothered taking my own.

Ever since finding out that breastmilk contains toxins, because of all the chemicals in our environment , I've been trying to slowly reduce the amount of chemicals I'm exposing myself to. Zoe's not showing signs of giving up nursing, at 15 months old, plus I'm growing a baby in there, so that's double reason to try to keep the toxins at a low level.

I bought these laundry magnets and though I'm not 100% convinced they work...I am at least able to reduce the amount of detergent I'm using. The clothes are getting clean with just the magnets but they still smell bad sometimes. I only need about 1tbsp detergent per load and its working out pretty well.

And I've started making my own cleaning solution for cleaning kitchen/bathroom etc. It's made of vinegar, water, lavendar essential oil and tea tree oil. The vinegar cleans, the lavendar helps with the stink of the vinegar and the tea tree oil is a natural disinfectant.

It works fantastically well, I especially am pleased with how it cleans the floor. Instead of a big bucket of soapy water which ends up filthy, I'm just spraying the floor with the cleaning spray, then moping it with a damp sponge. The floor is shiny and not sticky. And I don't have to worry about nasty chemicals which are often more dangerous than the germs we're trying to clean with them!

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Help the Earth by surfing the web

I thought THIS looked pretty cool. It's an Internet search page, which uses the yahoo engine, and spends money earned through advertising to plant trees.

They claim "For every 1000 searches made, Ecocho grows 2 trees
- this offsets a ton of greenhouse gases."

Seems worth the click to me.

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