A Natural Home

(oops I found this draft that I never published- it is a fun event that happens every year in the summer- thought you might like to read about it)

Every year  all the Amish and many of the companies in the area (including ours) donate product and services to be auctioned off to help pay for medical bills in the community.

Months have gone into the planning and the days before the event everyone is stressed and running around trying to get last minute things done. Alvin’s family was in charge of getting donations and organizing the set up.

It was a frenzy of activity as black hats and white bonnets swarmed the auction area putting up tents, setting up chairs and tables.  The Amish women were busy making baked goods and teas.  The kids were running thru the parking lot with the hint of excitement in the air.

On saturday, the parking lot was packed. The school yard was packed with buggies, the cemetary had horses teathered nearby, and there were local police officers directing traffic. It seemed that all the Amish in the area had come out for the auction.

Quilts, beds, clocks, toys, chairs, tools, cedar boxes are more where being auctioned off for the higest bid in hopes of bringing much needed capital to the medical coffers.  Since the Amish do not have insurance, all the money made from the auction goes to pay for hospital bills that families can not cover.

There were tons of “englishers” non Amish there hoping to get a great deal on a quilt or piece of furniture. Suddenly pieces that would normally go for $800 were going for $2600 and up. This is a good thing as the money goes to a good cause and the community needed the extra funds.

When you used to say “I am into green”, people thought you meant money. Now, the term “I am into green.” means into sustainable organic local etc. Being into green does not mean you need to spend tons of “green” on living organically, it just means you need to be less of a spend thrift on the non organic things.

Instead of grabbing a sugary soda POP, maybe you make your own green tea. Instead of driving thru the local fast food restaurant, maybe you bring your own sandwich from home made from organic bread, organic cheese, locally grown lettuce and a vine ripened tomato. Maybe you fill your gullet with real food, instead of puffed up hydrogenated gmo food (okay off the SOAP box SUsie (sorry)).

WHen shopping for a mattress instead of going to a big box furniture store, you frequent a smaller mom and POP place that actually spent time reseaching the best mattress to carry because they care about how you sleep not so much the bottom dollar. Looking around for a sofa or couch, you look for something made in the USA, sustainable, and made from natural materials that are not coated with chemicals and additives.

Green is the new the wow, but really you have to be warry when things say “green” they maybe the same exact product as before only “remade” into a new eco packaging. Yes, sad, but advertising dollars are spent to make something into something that it is not. Oh, my really you say!

So you can go “green” in this economy, just scale back a bit. Enjoy your organic locally grown meat and produce, relax in your made in the USA organic chair, and kick back and read the LoHAS journal printed on recycled paper with soy ink.

GO green without breaking the bank…

This has nothing to do with business, but I have found that bright colors in our house help me in the winter when all there is to look at is grey/white/and grey outside. We have lived with cream for years and I was sick of it!

Since we painted the outside of our house pink to go with the original paint the house was donned in, we decided we were not going to be faint of heart in the inside of the house.

Much of our furniture is solids colors in hemp or organic cotton and well, color is nice on the walls. I went to Sherwin Williams and picked out some VOC free paints “Harmony” I think they were called. They were nice and had a bunch of colors, but nothing dark.  I picked out Geeful green for the hallways, it makes the hallway POP and brightens the dark passage way to the bathroom in the dark of night. I then placed some way cool aquatic photos that my friend POlly Cries took whilst scuba diving. A turtle, a Puffer fish, a blue fish, and a lobster hiding behind coral. They are taking up space in the hallway, making things happy!

For the dining room we choose a lemon yellow, it is bright, and looks good against the purple curtains and dark oak walnut stains woodwork (this wood work is 120 years old, so I did not stain it. Next to the dining room is the kitchen, we have a new open wall, and we went with periwinkle in the kitchen. The lemon and periwinkle look great next to each other.

We are going to do the family room with a light blue on one wall as I already have blue hemp furniture in that room and would like to keep the blue theme going. I made some wicked japanese linen curtains a few years ago and they hide the birght sun that roo gets, but let light inside without the need to turn on a light.

When it gets super cold out, and we huddle indoors, it is nice to see bright happy colors on the walls.  Pulls you up out of the greys and makes you see yellow, blue, green and periwinkle. Look, forget about painting  your house cream so you can resell it down the road, paint it for yourself. After all you live here now….

I just made some organic oatmeal chocolate chip cookies and thought I would share the recipe with all of you, who might come upon this web site.

Cookies!  Preheat to 350

1 cup sunflower oil

2 cups rice syrup (we prefer suzanne’s specialties)

1 free range egg

2 cups whole wheat flour

1 cup white flour

1 cup organic half cut oats

1 tlbs alum free baking powder

1 tsp organic vanilla

 1/2 cup sunspire dark chocolate grain sweetened chips

Mix oil, rice syrup, vanilla at high speed, till a milk white. Add 1 egg. Mix some more. In a seperate bowl ad the oats and flours together plus the baking powder. We have a kitchenaid mixer (LOVE IT)! Mix for 1 minute or so on medium high. While mixing add 1 cup of the flour mixture, keep adding till it is all mixed, will be thick. Then add chips, you can add nuts if you so desire.

Take a glass of cold water, dip a metal spoon in the cold water and use the spoon to dip out mixture one by one on a cookie sheet. Let cook for 8 minutes or so (our oven runs a bit hot so I have to watch in in the back, and sometimes turn the cookie sheets.)

Take off the sheet to cool on a cookie rack and eat (as soon as they are cool enough to eat).  I made 6 dozen but half o fhtem are gone already due to 4 boys. Bottomless pits they be! So, yum, these are good. 

I am trying my best (and this does not always work) to play a game with the kids every day. Yesterday, we played Uno, which is quite fun and lets the six year old play without issue. Of course, the baby was trying to eat all the Uno cards and that was a source of amusement.

While we were sitting on our organic mattresses with organic sheets, and a nice fluffy organic wool tufted comforter (which we do not make any more, LOL) I was thinking, what a nice way to start the day.

At night, we played Apples to Apples. We have the kid version and we just love this game. Of course I have to whisper in the six year old’s ear what things say, but still she picks out the card she thinks is most like the green card.  She won last night and had a great time playing.  Everyone laughs and hoots it up.  A nice way to end the day. I wish I could get it together enough for us to do that every day, but it just does not work out the way I want it to all the time.

I guess what I am saying, is turn off the tv once in a while, read a book or play a game with the kids, it is fun.  They have fun, and not only are you spending time together but they are learning too!

Another round of crib recalls,this time not for lead paint but for the dropdown sides. The CPSC suggests that you have static sides on your crib, not drop down. Here is a link to the article. http://blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadline/2008/10/death-prompts-r.html

Rest assured we have static sides, natural tung oil finish, and made in the USA cribs.

Last year we decided to not buy any toys for the holidays. Nothing, period, zilch! It went well. We purchased a few things for the kids that we thought they would enjoy, books, clothing, etc, but no toys.  Of course they already had toys from the store that they could play with and had tons of stuff from past years, so there was no guilt. The kids were okay with it as well, which was a plus. We told them months ahead about what we were doing. No surprises.

This year we are going to do even less.  I wanted to post this I saw on youtube.com http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K14c4NGuhDI  It is worth watching, and makes me think what can I do in my community.

I am thinking I can offer to help with habitat for humanity.  Perhaps, I can bake cookies for the kids at headstart, or give some time at a food bank one day.  I donate things all the time to Habitat and headstart, this is a no brainer, but I really did not think of donating my time.  I can get the older kids to help, this would be a good experience for them.

I guess my purpose in putting this out there, is that people spend too much on the holidays.  We finally went wholesale only and I am so much less stressed and actually looking forward to the holidays for the first time in six years. We need to spend less time shopping and more time with our families. Enjoy the day! Enjoy the season! Live!