The Bucket in my Shower

I’m bothered by what I see as a societal ill that no one is really addressing: we are, in our crazily-connected, paperless, modern lifestyle becoming ignorant and uninformed.  Nobody reads the news anymore.  Instead, people read links on FaceBook, or they think that the Yahoo! headlines for the day are “news.”  People are more informed about Caitlin Jenner than about the drought affecting everyone in the Pacific Northwest. 

 

In our house, we get the local newspaper, and I’m honestly considering subscribing to the Seattle paper in addition, just for better coverage on national or international issues.  Does it cost money?  Sure, about $15 a month (gasp!).  Does it use up paper?  Yes, paper that can be recycled or composted or made into hats.  Could I possibly get all my news online instead?  Sure.  But none of these affords me the opportunity to teach my children to be informed and think critically.  What I worry about far more than the expense and inconvenience of paper is raising uninformed and un-intellectual children. 

 

Tony and I often converse about things we read in the morning paper (modeling, I like to think, intellectual curiosity and critical reasoning, though it is inadvertent – we like to read the paper and talk about current events), and Charles is old enough to be drawn into conversations, such as the one we had this weekend about the shootings in Charleston.

 

Now there was a tough subject to talk about with a six-year-old.

 

I mean, how do you even navigate that?

 

But perhaps a better question is, do you want your child to learn how to think critically and how to react to racism and tragedy by TEACHING him or do you want him to just “figure it out” based on whatever he might hear from the people around him?  Are you more worried about “burdening” your children with “worries” about the world, or about preparing them to deal with those issues and make the world a better place?

 

So we talked with Charles.  I don’t know the perfect things to say about race and racism in America, but I do know that I can have an honest conversation with my six-year-old about racism as I understand it and how we combat it.  I can talk to him about the bad people in the world and how they are so full of hatred for skin color that they do terrible things.  We can talk about how skin color does not determine what kind of person you are.  We can wonder about why a person might be so awful.  We can brainstorm ways to react to racist remarks.  We can talk about guns and violence.  We can talk about the value of human life.  We can talk about our friends who are minorities and some of the things they experience in their daily lives that are different than what we, as white people, experience.  And sadly, we can have these conversations often because in the past year, there’s been lots and lots in the news about racist violence.

 

We talk about sexual assault (my kids, at a young age, know that NO ONE is allowed to touch them if they don’t want them to and that they will NEVER get in trouble or get us in trouble if they tell us about a situation in which they felt uncomfortable or compromised – find the language to TALK to your kids about this!), gay marriage, equality of men and women, how we choose candidates for mayor or president, ecology of fish habitats, and sports.  Before you scoff, so much can be taught through sports and professional athletes about dedication, hard work, and sometimes, well, what not to do.

 

I don’t expect my children to grow up being crusaders (though if that’s what they want, fine), but I do expect them to grow up with an intellectual understanding of the challenges of our society and with compassion.  Also, I expect them to speak out and speak up when they see something that isn’t right.

 

It’s not all heavy news that we talk about over breakfast and dinner.  Sometimes, it’s useful stuff that merits widespread awareness.  For instance, the West Coast drought, snow pack at 0%, and a  PUD line repair conspiring to push us into a water crisis.  You’d better believe that my children know we need to conserve water right now – we are working on good conservation habits like turning off the faucet when we brush our teeth.  And poor Jamie, who wants nothing more than a “water” birthday party this weekend, will have to make do with the kiddie pool and the water table instead of the gushing slip-n-slide.  It’s going to be a long, hot summer.

 

I saw a local business pressure washing their parking lot this past week, so I called them and told them (nicely) about the drought and THEY HADN’T HEARD.  They were gracious about it, and turned off their pressure washer, but still.  How can you not know this?

 

As for me, I keep a bucket in my shower.  Every morning, when I wait for the hot water for my shower (which I keep trying to shorten and which I don’t take at all some days) to travel from the garage to the upstairs, I put the bucket under the faucet and fill it up.  Two-and-a-half gallons is how much water it takes to get the shower hot.  Two-and-a-half gallons when we aren’t supposed to wash our cars or water our lawns.  Two-and-a-half gallons that I then distribute between my outdoor plants.  Today, the front-yard roses.  Tomorrow, the hydrangea.  The next day, the rosemary bush.  You get the idea.

 

I do the same with my watering can at the sink.  I keep my watering can next to the kitchen sink and as I’m waiting for the water to get hot to wash dishes, I fill the can.  I also dump half-filled and abandoned glasses of water into the watering can or the dog dish or the water table outside. 

 

It’s water I already pay for that was doing nothing besides going down the drain.  I know this is a stupidly small act of conservation, and I know that conserving this amount of water each day instead of running the hose doesn’t amount to a hill of beans in the fight to keep agriculture from losing crops this summer, but it makes me feel good.  Combine that with the fact that I don’t water my lawn or wash my car, and won’t for the whole summer, then maybe I am making an impact.

 

What if we all did little things like this?

 

What if we all subscribed to the newspaper and made an effort to be informed, hold conversations with our children about current events, and start viewing real-world issues not as “adult” issues, but as issues that children can and should learn about?

 

What are we here for if not to make the world a little bit better?  Why did we have children if not to raise them to make the world a little bit better?

Weekend Reflections

Last night, as the kids drifted off to sleep for the second night in a row of exhausted, early bedtimes, I snuggled into Tony on the couch and a wave of contentment washed over me.  “This,” I thought, “this is what it’s like to love one’s life.”

 

 

It’s human nature, I suppose, to constantly want better.  I know I do.  I work hard to improve my life every day.  I do my best to be the best: the best mom, the best wife, the best me.  But in striving to be the best in the future, sometimes I miss the fact that everything is the best right now, too.

 

 

That might not make much sense, but it’s the truth: everything is perfect, even if nothing is.  This weekend was full of love, happiness, and accomplishment.  I might want to make more money, buy a bigger house, sleep more, and be able to do a pull-up, but without those things, there is still laughter, there are still household projects, there are still new bikes and bubbles and fresh strawberries.

 

 

I ran 6.4 miles on Saturday.  The dog ran 5.3.  Tony ran 4.2, and Charles biked 4.2.  Jamie rode 4.2.  It was the perfect way to start Saturday.  I made flourless chocolate cookies and Shaksouka for dinner (you MUST try it, it was delicious). 

 

 

We worked in the garden all weekend and on furniture refinishing and rearranging.  We danced and sang and jumped and tickled and read and drew.

 

 

 

It was just ordinary life, and yet it was wonderful.

Slightly Greenish Thumb

The spinach seeds I planted this year were duds.  I did not replant because, you know, I had a baby.

 

The lettuce plants were eaten by birds.  Lesson learned, next year they will be encased in mesh while sprouting and shiny ribbons will be tied to the fence around my garden.

 

I gave up on squash after they all died last year. 

 

I have begun to think I need a “garden consultant” – someone who can show me how and where to plant things in my garden, and visit it periodically to show me how to grow them.  After all, as I walk through the neighborhood, I see magnificent gardens with giant assorted squashes, huge lettuces, corn, beans, raspberries… so many good things.

 

Actually, I did successfully grow beans last year, but no one eats them but me, and there were too many beans for me.  So, no more beans.

 

I had one raging success this year, however: my tomatoes.  I started them inside, and now have 14 plants going strong (in the interest of full disclosure, only 12 of those were from starts… I also bought one plant and my mom bought me one plant).  They are beautiful, and laden with tomatoes in varying stages of ripeness.

 

The cherry-sized tomatoes are all starting to ripen, and the beefsteak-sized ones are still light green and growing.  Next year, I hope to plant heirlooms, too.

 

I love the idea of eating things I grow myself, mostly because it means I don’t have to go shopping.  How great would it be to go and pick lettuce right before you make a salad?  I don’t know, but I hope to find out next year, when I WILL grow lettuce plants successfully.  Maybe I’ll get my mom to help me with my garden – she seems to have a killer one at the beach.  You’d think that with our amazing Skagit weather, I’d be able to grow all sorts of awesomeness.  Conclusion: the problem is me.  So!  I’m going to learn.  Any recommendations on vegetable garden books?

Watch My Corn Pop up in Rows...

Hooray, we finally got our vegetable garden in! In one respect, at least, it's good that we have had such a cool spring-- our lateness on getting the garden planted will not adversely affect the veggies.

It all started a few months ago when Tony ground up a couple of giant cedar stumps. We then got some cement landscaping brick, and Tony laid it all out according to my master plan. This morning we went and got two truckloads of garden soil, some peat moss, and our seeds and starts to put it all together. We finished off with some Buster-proofing: a nice garden fence.

We'll have sweet corn, zucchini (what garden is complete without too much zucchini?), cucumbers, turnips, pumpkins, watermelon, jalapenos, and basil. The watermelon is an experiment, I am really not sure it gets quite warm enough here, but we'll see. I picked up t the jalapeno plant because I thought it was a bell pepper plant, but no worries, my guacamole will be nice and hot this summer! I also have a nice tomato plant, an "Amelia" tomato given to me by a coworker, in a bucket. I have about half a row left, so I am open to suggestions for completing the garden.

The rest of the garden, the flower part, is doing well, also. It has been quite rainy the past week, so my peonies are mostly bud, but here is one pale pink bloom:

I am now 17 weeks pregnant! That's over 4 months! That's 3 weeks to the halfway point! Thats, thats... that's almost too much to think about!!! We have another appointment at the women's clinic this week, and we will schedule the big ultrasound then. We are still adamant about not finding out the baby's sex, but we will soon have more detailed photos of our little kidlet in utero. I am feeling well, though I go back and forth between days during which I want to eat everything in sight and days during which nothing really sounds good. Today and yesterday were "nothing sounds good" days. I have mostly just eaten a lot of kiwi fruit. I need to go shopping now, though, so perhaps something will strike my fancy! Still not eating chocolate, or even much cheese... pregnancy is so weird!