Eating out of the box....

No. I am not speaking about TV-dinners or take-out!
I'm speaking figuratively. I wonder why I still work so very hard to put myself back in the box, after having broken out, over and over and over again. If you are wondering what I'm talking about I'm talking about yesterdays blog... where I say I will "...once again embark on a Vegan diet...". I have nothing against a Vegan diet, or most other diets for that matter, I just don't want to limit myself by putting another label on me or put myself back in a box. It also seems to me like it is much more balanced to go more with the flow - than you can do if you choose to label yourself in that manner... Yes, obviously I need to stay away from dairy - but everything else is optional for me and so it should be. I also believe it is much more healthy and balanced for my children to learn to listen to their body, as far as food is concerned, for what is healthy and what works from moment to moment, rather than trying to stick to or follow a very strict diet or food plan. Obviously I don't think eating "twinkies" everyday of their lives is the best solution, but within reason and if they truly listen to their bodies and spirits they will know and eat what works the best for them. It also goes hand-in-hand with the philosophy of life in general that me and my husband have for ourselves and our children.
Here I am once again eating a bit of humble pie, not much more than 48 hours after my last blog and "decision" of going vegan... realizing that I made a mistake and changing... again.
Now, honestly speaking, as far as my own eating, it won't change much at all... but I'm leaving the door open to where I can choose what works in each moment and not have a blanket-policy that I have to stay "true" to in order for my life to work right. What a relief!
Happy healthy, Out of the box eating to all of you!
Anette

FOOD ETC

Food is one of my and my husbands passions.
Some of you may know that our family has dabbled in all kinds of food adventures. What I mean is, during our 20+ year stint together, we have spent several years on a "junk-food" diet, several years as meat-eaterians, another couple of years as Lacto-ovo-Vegetarians, some more years as Vegans and, add to that another year of our family eating gluten-free and you can see that we have covered a lot of different foods and diets.
Most recently I've been eating mostly vegetarian and the rest of the family more of an omnivores diet, where 90% of the meat comes from Elk, Deer and Cows, all grass fed, and hunted or taken down by my husband and son.

Both my husband and I love to cook and experiment with new recipes and cooking delicuous food. We also brew our own beer and have succesfully created some of our own beer recipes, we've also dabbled in mead making and wine making. So anything that we put in our mouths we are quite passionate about. One of our favorite family activities is to cook or bake together and if we have no plans for the weekend, you can without fail, find all of us in the kitchen together.

One of the new directions my food-adventures is taking me is into a lacto-free world. I just discovered that I'm allergic to milk and pretty much all milk-products, so once again our family food adventures is taking another turn! After some deliberation and looking inside my heart and brain, I realize that I will once again embark on a Vegan diet - which fits both my spiritual convictions(eat no meat) and my physical body(drink no milk) - seems like a no-brainer to me. I must admit that my husband is a little bit worried, he has become quite dependent on his ham and eggs in the morning, and is currently under the conviction that unless you eat meat occasionaly you have a very hard time being a stable person... so hopefully after a few months with me on my new food adventure he will change his mind... :) Only time will tell.
It also looks like the girls will join me... but we will know for sure after Troy cooks his favorite cookies wether or not they truly have the desire to, or not. Of course if I bake some more Vegan cookies, that may level the playing field.
If any of you have any great Vegan recipes or ideas feel free to share...
Hejdå till nästa gång,
A

Plastics...

I've recently done some research because I wanted to know both #1 How bad is the PBA'a (bisphenol A) in our water bottles and, #2 How safe is pex-water-lines in our plumbing systems. Here are my results;
PBA's are worse than I thought, there isn't really a safe level of PBA's, very miniscule amounts can lead to, among other things breast cancer, prostate enlargement, birth defects and sterility in both men and women. PBA's were even found in unsafe levels in people being exposed to PBA's in packaging plants, not from drinking or eating out of plastic, but from being around bisphenol A containing plastics, in the factory.
All this is something that was discovered as early as 1997, but DOW-chemicals and several other large plastic manufacturers did not want this to become public knowledge, and they have kept trying to squelch it, and/or discredit any studies showing this and similar results for any plastics. Along with large ad-campaigns for the use and benefits of plastics.

PBA's are dangerous at any temperature even if heat does increase the amounts of PBA's contained in the water or beverage in such a container.

The other big red flag about plastics is that they are always produced in petroleum facilities and they are made from petroleum products.

Another potential problem is that there are around 50-60 other known toxins that are probably leaching out of plastics as well. Somehow most research into them is going very slowly, partially for lack of funding and partially because the "big" petrochemical companies don't want the research to come out or even be done in the first place. Even the EPA and/or people working there are funded in parts by the large petroleum companies and/or chemical companies.

As for PEX, the new plastic water lines used in plumbing, more research needs to be done. The state of California did not allow the usage of PEX until last fall, after pressure from "the big boys", but there is currently a lawsuit pending by several agencies, among others, the Sierra club and the Pipe fitters Union of CA. to disallow the usage of PEX. PEX is also not recyclable.
Solutions?
When it comes to plumbing - go back to copper maybe? - it is fully recyclable and better than anything else out there. Unfortunately, on that note - it is at least 3 times more expensive to install than anything else. And after talking to my husband, the plumber, he disagrees strongly with my views and findings on PEX. In fact we have PEX water lines through out our home, and he has been installing it since it came on the market (I believe around 10 years ago) and none of our clients have ever had a problem with it, and it is much more quiet than copper.

What about water bottles and even soda bottles if you drink that - Well, in Europe, most soda companies re-cycle the glass-bottles, why can't we do the same here?

When we go anywhere we use only stainless steel or glass. I personally don't use SIGG - Aluminum bottles with a proprietary liner that they are guaranteeing is safe, but nobody is allowed to know what is in it. Besides, their current CEO is the former CEO of one of the largest cosmetic companies in the world. A for profit company that wants us to take their word for it.... I'm sorry, but I've heard that story one too many times to believe it with that much money at stake.
Something else important to know is that the 5-gallon plastic water Jugs are NOT PBA-free so re-filling your safe water bottle out of the office purified water container is probably not your best bet.
In our family we even use glass in the refrigerator for storing left-over foods etc. Why use anymore plastic than necessary. I don't want to support the plastic industry anymore than I already do just by buying, pretty much, any item in the store, be it food or clothing or toys, the packaging is almost exclusively plastic.
Don't get me wrong there are some good uses for plastics, I just think we are over-using it esp. when it comes to storing food, drinks and perishables.
Well I will get off of my soap box now and refill our recyclable glass water bottles for todays adventures and be grateful that we have so many different choices and options at our disposal!
Hej då!

Another New Year Already...

I almost can't believe how fast this last year slipped by. It seems to have disappeared very fast.

As I was cutting up grapes for my sprouted quinoa salad, and my kids were making tuna-sandwiches, I couldn't help but notice that, the only thing originating in Utah was the Great Harvest Bread, that they were using for the tuna-sandwiches. The Tuna was from Thailand, the herbs for my salad came from Arizona, and the rest of the fruits and vegetables were grown in California and Mexico, I sprouted the quinoa myself, but I'm not sure where it grew.
Wow - and here I had just been patting myself on the back for having done "pretty good" on the new years goals from last year...

Well, the message that I'm getting today, in oh, so many different ways is that there is beauty in imperfection. Our home always seems to have at least one more project than what we have time for, and when I'm cleaning the house the same thing seems to happen, there is always that one corner or room that I just didn't get to clean before I ran out of time. The fact that it isn't perfect means that it's lived in, that things and people are still growing and learning, that I still have time to change for the better and that we all have room to play and have more fun.
So maybe there is beauty in the fact that I didn't do a perfect job on my goal from last year?

Goal #1 was to buy things locally grown and produced as much as possible.
I must admit that I have let that one slip a lot, I have let my taste buds and/or my wallet determine more what I buy than whether it is locally grown and produced. My saving grace in this category is my husband, he and my son have made sure that all the meat in our freezer is local, grass-fed and non-hormone or antibiotic treated, elk, moose, deer and cow, and even a fish here and there. We did also get some chickens this year and they do produce all the eggs that we need locally. :) We also did grow our own tomatoes and some herbs with success for the 1st time in almost 10 years - so I guess we did actually see some success even in this.

Goal #2 was to buy fare trade and organic.
That one I have not been as vigilant about as I could, but there are a few items I make sure are fare trade and organic including chocolate and coffee.

Goal #3 was to buy things with 5 ingredients or less.
This has been one of the most fun goals for the year as it really involved the whole family - all of us started reading labels and become a lot more educated consumers, and if something has more than 5 ingredients we simply make it ourselves or make do without.

Goal #4 was to only buy things that I could not reasonably make myself.
Well, where do I start? Esp. during the Holiday season did we make a lot of things ourselves, but I still haven't found the time or the desire to sew any clothes reasonably, but we bought almost only organically produced clothes on sale, or we found it used at the thrift store. Any furniture that we bought during the year was either pre-used and we re-furbished/re-finished it, or we made it ourselves. We did and do make our own beer, and even sometimes our own wine - and that seems very reasonable (and cheap), and at the same time we enjoy it a lot! All-in-all I think we did OK with this one.

Goal #5 was to buy only things that are toxin-free or harmless.
Hmmm, Yes the finish that we bought for the shelves we made for the living-room was probably not toxin-free...

As I look back, I think I did "pretty good", not so much because I was perfect, because I wasn't, but because it has made me and the rest of my family more aware and we are now conscious of what we do and how we spend our money and resources. If that is what my children learned from the year of 2009, than it was truly a successful year!

I will write about my resolutions for 2010 next time - now it's time to get back to home school and my kids.

Hejdå,
Anette

The Christmas Report

Yes,
our Christmas was a success! We had one of the most fun and exciting days together as a family, just hanging out, snacking on our favorite holiday foods and treats, talking, playing games, watching a movie and just being together.

I must admit after "Santa" got done with the wrapping and stuffing of the stockings and noticed how empty the stockings were she panicked a little bit, wondering if there was enough? Would the children be satisfied? Well, either way it was too late to change our minds and Santa and her helper both went to bed waiting for our kids to wake up on Christmas morning...

Christmas morning came and it was all good, in fact, better than good. Esp. watching the kids give each other their handmade presents, from purses to moccasins to homemade gift cards and seeing the joy and excitement in the faces of both the receiver and the giver.
Each person had a total of 12 gifts, including candies and treats, and not one electronic gadget or game was among them. There was just as much excitement over the gifts as usual, if not more, because there was less.
I wanted my children to learn about the important things in life and I think I was the one that finally learned that Christmas is not in the gifts but in the heart. I know it sounds a little corny - but is nonetheless true.
This year was for me, the best Christmas ever. For some reason the magic of Christmas seems more abundant than ever before.

Och ett Gott Nytt År till alla! And a Happy New Year to all!

December already!?!?!

Wow,
life has certainly kept me busy enough over the last almost 6 months. I can't believe I haven't written anything since June! Probably just as much because of my poor time-management skills.... as me truly being busy.

We have had both some fun times and some sad ones; lot's of vacation time spent on the river this summer, and also 3 weeks spent in Sweden, with my dad in the last week of his life and with friends and family in Göteborg. It was sad and happy and strange all at the same time, it was also comforting to talk about all the fun times we had with my dad during his life and the legacy that he left us, his children and relatives. Even though my belief is different than that of my siblings, there are still a lot of things that keep us together and we enjoy each others company. It is kind of fun that my sister and I, and esp. our daughters look so much alike that they could easily pass for each others siblings.

This year we are doing an experiment for Christmas, we are de-commercializing it and only doing a couple of presents, including stocking stuffers, and amazingly enough even the kids are excited about this, esp. after watching "the story of stuff" and talking about what we really want in life as opposed to just the next, new shiny it-thing that everyone HAS to have this year. Part of de-commercializing the Holidays for us means that we are choosing not to buy anything that is made in China... now that is harder than I thougth, almost everything plastic is made in China, most shoes are made in China, a lot of clothes are made in China and pretty much all electronics are made in China, and the list goes on......
The big deal that we really want, and that we are focusing on is spending real time together and having fun as a family - that is our big present from Santa this year. I will let you know how it all goes.

Now to check in on our other projects, things are going well, we still use and love our homemade laundry soap. The baking soda and apple cider vinegar for our hair is slipping a little bit, my husband is the only one that is using it faithfully, my oldest son still wont even try it and the rest of us are part-timers, we alternate with regular shampoo and soda. As far as my failure to find a good substitute for dish-washing machine soap, I still haven't found any, but we have stopped using the dish washer altogether and are only washing dishes by hand anymore so for us it is not a big deal. I know it sounds a little crazy - but we found that we keep the kitchen cleaner that way, we just wash the dishes right away instead of waiting for the dishwasher to run and/or waiting for someone else to fill it. To be honest we didn't try this on purpose, but our dishwasher broke and we couldn't get it fixed right away so we had to start doing the dishes by hand and after a few days of this, we decided not to replace the dish washer at all but rather stick with a plan that is both environmentally friendly and keeps our house cleaner! I call that a win-win!
I wish you all a very happy ending to another amazing year.

Summer is finally here!!!

Can you believe it's already June 25th and we are finally having summer weather!?

Three weeks ago, my husband and I came back from one of the most amazing vacations/adventures of our lives; we spent 16 days rowing a raft on the Colorado river in the Grand Canyon. Which besides being a lot of fun also was very sustainable. We carried out all of our trash and waste, used only biodegradable soap and dish soap. Burned burnable trash, cleaned up every place we visited/camped in, to the point where almost all of the places we visited had very little evidence of any modern human having been there before or after us, except for the trails of course. The Colorado in the Grand Canyon has more than 18,000 visitors every year.
Now I know it takes gas to get there, the boats we use are either made of hypalon rubber or plastic, some of the food we take is packaged more than needed at home etc etc. But on the other hand, we took re-usable plates, mugs and utensils, made our own food, powered our own boats with true hand power(rowing/paddling).
And afterward we have a new appreciation for the Grand Canyon, the river and nature and got to know new and interesting people. Plus we have new inspiration for our "daily grind" and a renewed passion for our lives.

How many times have you been on vacation to renew your spirit - only to come home more tired than before - needing a vacation from you vacation?

There are times when an "all-inclusive sit by the pool and drink pretty drinks" kind of a vacation is really what you need to rest up or a "spa go get a massage every day and learn to cook and grow your own food vacation" or maybe what you need and enjoy most is to experience a new culture during your vacation, like going to India or Spain, and then again maybe what you need more is a vacation to help somebody else, such as build a house for "habitat for humanity" or go build a water-well in South America, and finally there is always the option of staying at home - either to rest up or to work on the house/yard or maybe a little of both.
And then again there are times when if you only had the time or the money to take a vacation you'd be ecstatic.

We have actually had the good fortune to go on most of these different kinds of vacation at one time or another (including the not being able to afford one as well...).

The vacations that feed us the least are, surprisingly "the all-inclusive lay by the pool/on the beach and have somebody bring you drinks all day long" kind of vacations. Now, I admit I like laying on the beach doing nothing for a few days, but I don't like seeing food being thrown away every day when people are starving next door, or seeing the golf green being watered with cleaner water than the people get to drink, or the waste from the resort being dumped into the ocean and killing the fish and the coral. There is a reason that coral dies off quicker in the vicinity of large ocean side resorts.

Now before we even get serious about where we are going and what we are doing, we attempt to consider more than the fun-factor, we ask ourselves the following questions;
1. Will it change our lives when we come home?
2. What kind of impact do we have on the environment we are vacationing in?
3. How much energy does it take for us to get there(fuel wise)?
4. How much extra waste will I create by going on the vacation?
5. Can we do the same vacation with less waste?
6. Will we be more tired when we get home?
7. Will it be fun enough?
8. Can we afford it?
9. Can we do a different vacation that would inspire us more?
10. What is the real price for this vacation ( plus and minus)?

Of course then there are the spur of the moment mini-vacations that we like to do, for instance we all kidnap my husband and head out of town for the weekend, or we camp out over night in the yard, or just head up the canyon for a quick meal, or roast marshmallows over the fire pit for dessert.

So the bottom-line for me; is not what kind of vacation we choose (even though I wouldn't mind if I saved the world while on vacation) but that we educate ourself so that we know what we are choosing. Knowledge is power. On that note I hope we all have a great summer and summer vacation!!!