Happy Consualia!

I'm a total nerd, right? In researching some things for Saturnalia, I discovered two other holidays that book end that Roman festival. December 15th is Consualia, the feast day of Consus, the God of the Storage Bins. It's one in a long line of harvest holidays.

It's a fun little holiday considering Roman holidays work good for texas because the seasons allign better than those of colder climates. My last harvest was two weeks ago when we finally got a hard freeze. I'm celebrating by putting some seed money in the silos and cleaning and refilling my flour/sugar/bean jars.

Always being one for a project, I've decided on my new year's resolution. 2009's resolution was a mixed bag. We wanted to save a lot of money. That was a mixed bag. We saved as much a we could before various things happened - major car repairs done only to have a car crap out completely. Then sulla started school. We had to replace a water heater and the windshield wiper motor on my car died while taking the boys to school during a rain storm. There went 400bucks.

So this year, rather than just saving money, I'm looking for something more holistic. It's going to be a DIY year, mostly based on home cooking. I've started reading ahead to get a jump on spring. There's been a lot of news and articles lately about food politics as well as "back to the land" recession reaction. This is nothing new to me, I'm just now feeling the fire. Lake Worth still does not have recycling and the white person in me hates throwing out all that trash from pre-packaged foods. So here's the plan of action:

• Grow more of our own food - always always
• No eating out at all! - this one is going to be a toughy, especially with the kids. when the weather is crappy, it's just easy to go to the local fast food place to play. But with many of the establishments still using STYROFOAM!? i cant stand it anymore.
• Staying away from packaged foods - this has lots of benefits. No artificial flavours/preservatives, less waste, no spooky plastic chemicals. I haven't decided about what to do about town talk - I can find decent food there.
• Crack out the sewing machine and knit more
• Reduce, reuse, blahblahblah
• Learn more about basic home repair and do it myself where safety and skill isnt an issue - like the damned fence in the back yard. Build a chicken coop so we can get chickens and guinea hens. And building that damned solar oven I've been wanting to do for the last two summers.

I'm even looking into recipes for condiments and basics like crackers - these will probably be more for fun than practicality. But what's life if you can't make it fun.

We will see how far I can take this.

some new mama-related stuff

as opposed to new-mama related stuff. nope, none of that in this house.

i found a new blog i really like - it's all about the hat - found her on feministing - she's an AP mama who also does no 'poo.

and it's weird, now that the little people are getting older, a lot of the trappings of AP arent so obvious anymore - im not nursing constantly, i dont wear agrippa anymore. it's not like i can bring up crunchy pregnancy/birth much anymore. but it's fun to read about it.

and speaking crunchy, or anti-crunchy, stuff here's some new crap in a can being sold.


there is no mention on enfamil's website about what this thickening agent is. all i can think is that it is supposed to curdle in the stomach and react. yuck!! and what about choking hazards? both boys were pukers and having to hork up this murm, i cant even imagine. and what about malnutrition issues with the "feeling" of being full, but not calorically full? im sorry enfamil, the "natural way to help keep your baby feeling satisfied" would be to feed your child when they are hungry, no matter what hour. there is also the notion that an infant's restlessness at night is a protective measure against SIDS. but fuck that, get yourself the binkie-buddy and never have parent your child between the hours of 9pm-9am again!!

advent calendar 11,12,13 - random bag

day 11 -



i totes meant to post this on thursday when it happened. one of the cool things about living within strike distance of a joint naval air station is that it's the air show everyday. one of the crappy things is that it's the air show, everyday, often at 11 at night. but the other day i really thought lack of caffeine was making me see things. nope. the space shuttle's trip home included a path directly over our house. i guess the last time that happened was 1997.

day 12 -
i have a twin in jersey. they even used "rub two brain cells together" - i use that all the time. i would totally write a note like this. and passive-aggressive notes kicks so much more ass than post secret. i remember reading an article in the city paper in DC when they guy first started doing it - sounded interesting and cathartic. now everyone just seems to be out-emoing themselves. if i wrote a post secret it would be "im only doing this to get interwebs attention." id do it in sharpie on some wistful sunset picture. then id throw glitterglue on it.

day 13 - ugly christmas sweater generator sorry no photos. dont feel like it.

advent calendar day 7 and 8

sundays have turned into "screen-free" day (besides very basic e-mail checking and if we need to find something) so i didnt get to do the advent calendar. kinda forgot to do the boys' real life ones as well. whoops. so you folks get a two-fer.




i remember seeing these when i was pregnant with buddyone. i think they only had 6 or 7 of them at the time. they've really expanded.

who thought mono could be so cute?

advent calendar day five - chung chung

on a sesame street kick.

i'm thankful for...

(taken from melissa)I'm really friggin' thankful for Raffi. I grew up listening to Raffi and now the boys are listening - on my old cassettes, too, though ive only got one surviving one now. Buddytwo asks for "rassi" the second he wakes up. he even prefers it to fall out boy! and i can listen to raffi all day and not want to shoot myself - which is quite an accomplishment for "children's" music.

and in the hopes of upping my visitors im going to post the translated lyrics to les zombis et les loups-garous (zombies and werewolves) 'cause ive googled and gotten nothing! i borrowed corner grocery store from the library and wasnt really paying attention until i caught some words with my super e-l33t high school french. there were no liner notes. so here we go, things in parentheses are only guesses, bold type is the call, regular type is the response, and i cant remember how to type the accent marks. i dont know if this is a french-french song, or a french-canadian song.

Croyez-vous que les zombis (la)? (x4)
les zombis et les loups-garous

Madame Zombi est (les) mechant
Madame Zombi est (les) mechant
Mais sa soeur est plus mechant.
Mais sa soeur est plus mechant.
Oui, sa soeur est plus mechant
Oui, sa soeur est plus mechant
mais sa mere est la plus mechant!

Croyez-vous que les zombis (la)? (x4)
les zombis et les loups-garous

les loups-garous etes (les savage*)
les loups-garous etes (les savage)
mais son frere est plus savage.
mais son frere est plus savage.
oui, son frere est plus savage
oui, son frere est plus savage
mais son pere est la plus savage!
mais son pere est la plus savage!

Croyez-vous que les zombis (la)? (x8)
les zombis et les loups-garous

Translation:

Do you believe in zombies?
Zombies and werewolves

Mrs. Zombie is bad/naughty,
but her sister is worse/naughtier.
Yes, her sister is worse/naughtier
but her mother is the worst/naugthiest!

Do you believe in zombies?
Zombies and werewolves

Werewolves are savage/wild
but his brother is savager/wilder.
Yes, his brother is savager/wilder
but his father is savagest/the wildest!

* personally i do not hear a soft "a." it sounds more like "sew-vage" but all the french interweb dictionaries are giving me bupkiss and "savage" fits the context.

niftiness catalog choice

saw this on yahoo this morning. catalog choice lets you opt out of recieving catelogs. awesome! im all for not recieve junk mail but also a big part of not spend money isnot being tempted by the shinies that come in the mail. magic cabin is my poison. not only do they send a catelog practically every month, but they also own hearthsongs which has almost the same thing and they add 2 new things to their catelog and send you another. one step ahead is just as bad.

we dont have recycling where i live so anything to simply reduce the amount of trash we make is good by me.

and while you're at it dont forget to stop your other junk mail, too.