Sunday I had pre-church breakfast at a home in Seattle where chickens take residence in the backyard. I have already expressed my fondness for the idea of urban chickens, but reading “A Delicious Revolution” by Celia Barbour made me want to don my overalls and purchase some laying hens. Barbour argues that every day we eat something–something that should connect us to our natural world, but in this day of over-processed and over-packaged food, she states, “the food that crosses your lips probably bears as much resemblance to its natural state as a chicken nugget does to a barnyard hen.” She states that a food revolution is going on, and she seems to say that this revolution is one in which anyone with money and taste buds can be involved. By buying organic and local, by frequenting farmer’s markets, by growing your own food, or by participating in Community Supported Agriculture, one can take a stand about the food they are eating.

How might our world be different if we took ownership of our food, especially for our children’s sake? What if all cities had a School Lunch Initiative that replaced over-processed, HFCS-infused mystery meats on a stick, made into fingers, or put on a bun with fresh, local, nutritious ingredients, as Alice Waters has done in Berkeley, California. Granted, Seattle Public Schools has made progress
with multigrain buns, seasonal fresh fruit, vegetarian options, and r-BST hormone free milk, but could we partner more with local farmers or p-patches for some of these meats, fruits, or veggies?

Last Friday, Justin and I celebrated our 8-year anniversary at a neighborhood restaurant that attempts to use as many local ingredients as possible, and I must say, it was delicious. What would it look like if more restaurants adopted seasonal ingredients and seasonal menu? Again, I think Seattle is ahead of the curve with such restaurants as Union, Dahlia Lounge, and La Medusa (all delicious!) that make it their mission to feature fresh, local, and seasonal ingredients. But should I have to pay almost $100 a meal for two people to enjoy the delights of fresh, local, seasonal, and organic foods? Right now, enjoying a slice of an heirloom tomato or a prairie-fed, pan-roasted organic chicken in a restaurant is an exclusive treat that few can enjoy, when it used to be a routine that most Americans What about the majority of our nation’s restaurants–can they, too, benefit from a partnership with local farmers? One might state, “But then the menus would be different from month to month! But then a meal in Santa Fe chain might be different from one in Vermont!” Yes. The towns in the US might just regain some of their regional distinctiveness again, perhaps at the expense of our all-important consistency and homogeneity in fast-food restaurants and sit-down chains. Americans might have to regain their sense of taste and seasonality in an effort to cut down on carbon emissions, support local farmers, and eat in a more healthy manner.

The other day Justin and I walked to Safeway in our neighborhood. On the end of an aisle, right next to the checkout, there was a display for 10 Little-Debbie boxed snacks for $10. Each box contained at least 1600 calories, meaning a person could buy most of a day’s worth of calories for $1. But is that the type of food that we want to encourage our American families to eat? Apparently someone close to home has thought about this, because Seattle’s Columbia City Farmer’s Market, according to the Rainier Valley Post, is doubling food stamps. This means the “money” will stretch a little further for these families at the sometimes-pricey farmer’s market. Sustainable, local food should be an option for low-income, urban apartment dwellers and middle-class suburbanites, not just a luxury that a few can afford due to lifestyle changes of neo-hippies who move to a coop, rural families that still sustain themselves through hunting, fishing, and growing their own food, or those with enough money during these hard economic times to spend on quality food. Now….who wants to help me figure out how to raise chickens?

I officially checked out of my room, turned in my grades, and completed district-directed professional development yesterday at 4 p.m. To celebrate, I went to Starbucks on that lovely, sunny, warm afternoon and then got my nails done. This time, I even got a design on my big toes just for the heck of it. Afterward, Justin and I went to Jalisco, a Mexican restaurant we like close to the theater. We ordered fajitas and enchiladas, but they charged us for two fajitas and one enchilada plate. After notifying them of the mistake, they just charged us for one entree! We walked several blocks to Intiman and went to Namaste Man, a monologue by a man who grew up in Nepal and a variety of other locations when growing up. He artfully and hilariously describes his experiences in international school and of his lack of belonging in Nepali culture and American culture.

Today is a room-temperature, yet cloudy, Saturday. We slept in (and I’ve been getting plenty of sleep lately!!) after leaving the bedroom windows open all night. I made raisin toast, eggs, and bacon for breakfast while we listened to This American Life. I worked in my garden; Justin went to Lowe’s. Today is laundry, de-clutter, vacuum, dishes, and all-around chores day. Tonight: a bridal shower (read: Mexican food and Wii games). Tomorrow, I anticipate reading and going to Ohana Project. Perhaps I shall even watch a movie (I’d love to go to Get Smart with Justin!). No grading or lesson planning awaits.

Monday (and for two weeks thereafter) I shall be attending a “Summer Institute for Biology Teaching” from 8:30-3:30 at the UW. I expect I will enjoy it, although I will be missing the home visit training and the AP Bio institute.

Well–it’s time to de-clutter. Hopefully I will blog again before two more months pass!

I worked in the garden on this glorious, 76-78F sunny day–a rare event in Seattle, especially for April. I got a mini-farmer’s burn from before I changed into a tank top. The gardening weather couldn’t have come at a more perfect time, as I had some basil, tomato, and eggplant started inside on March 1 that were ready for the outdoors. Before my outdoor adventures could begin, I had to stop by Lowe’s (where everyone else in the universe converged today) for some more garden soil to fill in my beds. They hadn’t had replenishment in 2 years and needed to be topped off.

Next came a miniature ethical crisis: should I tear out my 4 wild-and-crazy, huge, full-of-blossoms-yet-no-good-for florets broccoli plants? Normally, the answer would be “a thousand times, yes.” However, there were 4 or 5 happy pollinators enjoying the nectar of this cruciferous vegetable’s flowers. Who am I to discourage bees from my garden or to take away their food? Justin assured me that they would find sustenance elsewhere, so I ripped them out. I hope my little bee friends come back for my tomatoes, eggplants, basil, and other garden delights.

Some new developments in my garden include carrots (planted from seed outside today with the already-thriving Swiss chard), peppers transplanted outside (not doing great yet–we shall see), dahlias planted from seed near the rose bush, and alyssum planted outside near the rose bush. I also planted more peppers inside today, along with more mint and some new cantaloupe. I hope to plant mint outdoors in front of the house to serve as a space-filler with a nice scent to mask the smell of cat poop that lingers near the house. There are some cats (not Virgil–his evil cousins) that think our mulch (and my garden beds, if I didn’t have the netting) is their personal litter box.

I have decided to keep some basil indoors for kitchen use, and I’d like to use my chives and rosemary more than I do (which is hardly ever). I will likely keep some mint indoors as well. May thru July brings a new wave of planting, including hollyhocks, watermelon, squash, beans, aster, lupine, more alyssum, and who knows what else. As weather permits, I would like to use our fire pit/patio more and keep up my gardens, in general. I think what usually interrupts this process are our summer activities: when the garden usually needs the most tending and harvesting, we’re traveling or in our summer jobs/workshops.

More garden updates to come….in the meantime, does anyone know what veggie or fruit grows particularly well in Seattle or Seattle-like climates?

It’s almost 8, but I’m not ready for that yet. I have been working on the same thing all day–a lesson for AP biology–with lots of little distractions (an hour nap, working out, making lunch and breakfast, laundry). Our day started REALLY late (12:30, but really 11:30 to our bodies…). I always get in a bit of a funk on Sundays in anticipation of the next week, and it gets worse when I don’t leave the house all weekend or when I sleep in late (and nap). I feel like I am wasting time or wasting opportunities that the weekend somehow offers. I don’t feel great, so that is making all of this worse.

At least yesterday was productive and the house is (somewhat) clean. Just don’t look in the office. Heh.

Yesterday I started eggplant, mint, basil, tomato, and peppers in those little soil pods. I also turned my compost bin for the first time. I have about 3 inches of soil (yay!) and lots of maggots/fruit flies on top (boo!). I think I need to add more dry leaves or something to it to up the carbon level. Anyway, I can’t wait to get my little garden started again. I see a great Spring Break project coming up.

Time to finish this lesson and get started on something else…

I am staying home pretty much all weekend because a) the weather is “supposed” to be bad–we don’t want to venture over the passes for a hike; b) it’s the end of the month and there’s no extra cash; and c) I have a new semester starting Tuesday and I am ridiculously behind on grading (even though it’s been my life lately).

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I am working on this online bible reading plan to get through the bible in a year. Somehow I like reading it online, and then I thought about getting it emailed to me. However, the site charges $9 a year for the emails, so I guess I need to find another site.

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I finished the Miranda July book, and now I am working on 3 books: Holly Springs, Surprised by Joy, and Omnivore’s Dilemma. I want to get more seriously into reading, hiking, and knitting after my grades are due. Right now those are on hold, like just about everything else (house cleaning, hanging out with friends, etc.).

I am concerned about how stressed I am about work, especially since my visit to the ER last weekend with chest pain and trouble breathing. I still have a dull ache all around my left chest area, but I don’t know what to think about it. I had bloodwork done, and EKG, and a chest xray, but they didn’t find anything (they were worried about clotting). They suggested anxiety and internal bruising from soccer. I don’t know what it is, but it’s still bothering me and I’m worried about playing soccer this Thursday.
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My grad school application is due this Friday. I’m pretty much finished; I just need to print out all of my materials and take in my immunization records and transcripts. I will feel much better about life when all of that is done (as well as my grades).
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Paul, the guy who has lived with us in our garage for the last two years, is in a coma in the hospital. It’s not looking promising that he will get out of it this time. Please keep him, as well as his family and friends in your prayers.

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So that’s the news from around here! I know–it’s all rainbows and butterflies, right? I really am happy–I just have a lot on my mind. That seems to happen as I get older. I want to focus more on the beautiful, positive aspects of life. It’s hard to walk the line between being Eeyore and Pollyanna.

I should be doing so much right now…grading, cleaning, lesson planning, working on my application for grad school, enjoying the lovely sunny weather we are getting. However, the blog calls and it’s feeling rather neglected. I think my blog is jealous of twitter. This is how I’ve been keeping the world updated lately…one mini-post at a time. This post will be a BIG one about what’s going on in my life, and I think I will structure it based on the categories I have to the right here:

Books:
Currently reading Surprised by Joy (C.S. Lewis) and No One Belongs “Here More Than You (Miranda July)–both for book groups.

Music:
Just got DMB and Tim Reynolds: Live at Radio City and Grey’s Anatomy Season 3 Soundtrack for Christmas. In awe at Reynold’s guitar skillz.

Movies:
Depressed myself by watching A Crude Awakening about the upcoming oil shortage. Makes me want to live on a farm.

Trips I want to take in the near future:

I’d love to go to Portland for a long weekend trip to visit Powell’s. I also want to visit The Bridge church and stay at McMenamin’s Edgefield outside of Portland in Troutdale.
Quebec–just to feel like I’m in Old World Europe in the “New World”
New Zealand/Australia: it’s all about the wildlife and scenery….plus they speak English
Kenya or South Africa on adventurous days
New England/East Coast: we have lots of friends and family there
Idaho: visit J’s parents; ski or snowboard; play in snow; sit in hot springs in the cold weather

Knitting Projects:
Finished Anna’s Alpaca fuzzy black scarf. Still working on baby kimono. Might finish when baby is a teenager. Started making baby bib in purple and green jewel tones.

Seattle Weather:
Boring. Just boring. I prefer exciting weather, for instance snow and drastic changes in temperature. At least the past two days there has been some sun! I really should live further inland somewhere if I prefer such excitement.

Education:
I still have bitten off more than I can chew in my current teaching assignment: 3 preps in a high needs school is overwhelming, so I spend a lot of my “free” time working on school related work. Nevertheless, I am applying for a doctoral program called Leadership for Learning at the University of Washington (L4L at UW, shorthand). The program is mainly geared to people preparing for superintendent duties, but my focus would be on leadership for educators at the school-based level. My application is due February 1, and I still have so much to do on it. I have 2, 3-day weekends coming up.

TV:
Not much of this in my life, but I have enjoyed watching the Colbert Report and The/”A” Daily Show with John Stewart this week. I watch it online, though, which means it’s a day late.

Theater:
One of my new year’s resolutions is to actually get to the plays we have season tickets to. Seattle Rep won’t let you in late, and we inevitably get there 5-10 minutes late, at least the last few times. We have one coming up in February. Here’s to punctuality.

Technology:
Not much new in this category. I am working off of Justin’s old Vaio so we can both have wireless in the same room. Since the addition of Lesley’s cat to the household, we have not been working in the office, as we’d have to keep the door closed, and that’s a rather confined space.

Science:
I’m teaching AP Bio this year, so this week I will be working with Sordaria in a mitosis/meiosis lab. Woohoo!

Grrr…
I have too many for this category. Let me first state that I began to dislike being asked how my break was, because overall, it was a pleasant experience with friends and family, but a series of unfortunate events seemed to befall us. Let me explain.

The first leg of our trip went fine, except that I got sick the day after Christmas with a cold, right after having a sinus infection earlier that month. Being sick again meant that flying, which we did 2 days after I got sick, became ridiculously painful on my ears….and we had to do it twice that day. I couldn’t hear normally out of one of my ears, and a few days later (New Year’s Eve) I went to the doctor in my hometown. I ended up having an ear infection and got put on antibiotics that I just finished. Justin got the same bug, but it wasn’t as bad.

The next Grrr….comes from our flying experience. We just made our connecting flight from Salt Lake to Cincinnati, but our luggage apparently didn’t make it. My sis picked us up from the airport (and we got pulled over for speeding on the way to my Papa’s), and we decided to make our return trip to the airport the next morning, since our next stop would put us through Little Rock anyway. No luggage. Flight didn’t make it. “We’ll deliver it,” they said, “between 3 p.m. and 3 a.m.” 3 a.m……still no luggage. We called them. “We’ll deliver sometime today.” 4:30 pm: we got our luggage…2 days late. All of the presents I had for family I wouldn’t see again that trip was in there. Thanks, airline and baggage delivery service, for your convenience.

The time had come for our trip home. I called the night before to confirm that we had a 7 a.m. flight, which meant getting up at 4 to leave for Little Rock. “Yes,” the live person at Expedia said, “that’s correct.” 5:30 a.m. at the airport: “Your flight has been changed to 2 p.m.” Justin discussed this with an agent for an hour; they both made many phone calls. 2 p.m. remained the departure time. The glorious byproduct of this situation is that my parents were able to take us to Cracker Barrel and we has a scrumptious country breakfast (I, of course, had biscuits and gravy).

More rants: Why does UPS try to do deliveries that require signature confirmation on M-F during normal working hours? If I wasn’t there today between 10-2, why would I be there tomorrow at that time? And then, why are you not open on Saturdays?

Running:
Can we skip this one? OK, so I haven’t done much of this since Aaron, my running buddy, left. Also, I don’t have a gym membership anymore, and it’s dark before I get home (any more excuses?), so this isn’t so much part of my life right now, although I’d like it to be.

Church
So since our group isn’t meeting on Sundays anymore, we’re trying to figure out what to do next. For some, it means individual spiritual time on Sunday mornings. For others, it is visiting churches. For yet others, it is a combination of the two, depending on the week. That’s where I fit in. We’re still doing our other activities, but we’re trying to figure out what Sundays should really look like.

Exercise
I’m getting this some days, thanks to exercise videos for abs, buns, arms, and cardio. Yay! I like being sore, as it means I am making progress and working hard.

Food
I like cooking, but I don’t like HAVING to cook. I like being creative and I like having a choice. I think sometimes getting the pioneer organics box stresses me out because it’s like the fruits and veggies are a ticking time bomb that need to be cooked…RIGHT NOW!! We postponed our order for the last month, and I’m a lot more relaxed, although I haven’t been eating as many fruits and veggies. This AM I made blueberry pancakes and meatless bacon. I want to eat more healthily, so I like planning my menu ahead of time.

Friends and Family
I love you all and I don’t see you enough!

This weekend (and most of this month) has been rainy, but we managed to have a good bit of fun anyway. Justin and I went out for Thai food, went to a photography show in a coffee shop, went for a walk around Ballard, got some tea, and caught a movie on Thursday night. Saturday, after a big breakfast, we went to see Twelfe Night (the first folio spelling) at Seattle Rep and then got ready to have another couple over for bread, homemade potato soup, salad, and homemade plum-peach cobbler. We had fun just talking with our company for about four hours–something we rarely get to do. Today after church we drove up to Capitol Hill and went to the bike store so Justin’s tires could work again, and then we went for a walk in Volunteer Park in the rain. I could have walked for longer, but we were expecting a Craigslister to drop by. Knowing that I had grading to do, I did what I always do in the face of grading–procrasti-baking. Now I am procrastiblogging, but earlier I made pumpkin muffins, which were quite tasty. This weekend I’ve also been knitting quite a bit on my niece’s baby kimono. Who knows when I will be finished with it. The process is quite fun.

This week is going to be extra-crazy, as I have school- or education-related events every night but Monday this week–including Saturday and Friday. While I’m not doing that, I’ll be reading The Great Divorce for the C.S. Lewis book group I’m in.

It looks like the owner of the MacBook Pro I happen to be typing on needs his computer back (*ahem* Justin) so this mini-blog will have to do.

I’m working in my room to get ready for tomorrow, which includes a quiz, a lab, the start of a new project, a field trip, and an assembly. Tomorrow makes up for today, which was rather light on my duties as I had a guest presenter regarding BioTech Expo. I also have a student teacher, which makes life a bit easier as well.

From my room I can see the thunderstorm progress across Boeing field and I-5, There are showers here which surge at various rates, and the lightning a moment ago caused the lights to flicker and caused my monitor to get a greenish hue, which is bothering me and is persisting.

Tonight I hope to get a bit of grading done, but I don’t want all evening to be about school. Perhaps some exercising and knitting will be what I need.

This is because I can cook on a whim (biscuits and gravy at 9 p.m., anyone?), go to free museum nights without the guilt of not grading papers, sit outside in the SUN, read books for long stretches of time, nap at the drop of a hat, tend my verdant garden, and…did I mention the sun yet?

I am obviously enjoying my summer off. By off, I mean not full-time teaching. My part-time job still requires work, but it’s SO much fun to teach these students. I’m also finished by 11 each day, which means I take the bus home and can take my time if I want to. Or stop at the Bubble Tea place nearby. Or get my nails done at the South Seattle Community College training salon. Or….do anything I want :).

Upcoming Events: Film night Saturday, Camping for 2 nights with students of Upward Bound, travel to Arkansas for my cousin’s wedding, host book club, and more.

Recent Activities: Free night at Seattle Art Museum. More on this to come when I feel inspired. Walked to movie (Ratatouille) and dinner (Tutta Bella) with Justin in Columbia City for birthday (movie was a grand total of $7 for both of us!). Uneventful, yet productive, 4th of July. Recovered from food poisoning Monday. Watched Volver.

That is all. More summer deliciousness to come.

Whenever I don’t blog for a while, I end up with Monster Posts (TM), so I will try to make my update brief, yet entertaining.

So, first things first. I will go in backwards chronological order, starting with right now. I am sweaty and I just ate a banana after our soccer game tonight. I did NOT get hit in the face this week, and I did play hard defense (especially against the guys in the blue and orange socks), but we did not win. Phooey.

This week I’ve gone to an amazing AP Biology workshop where I get to do fun labs all day, get free lunch, breakfast, and 2 snacks, plus all the coffee I can drink **twitch**. I came home today with Nasonia, a tiny wasp with apparently a lab advantage over using fruit flies in genetics activities. We got to make them mate and lay their eggs in flesh fly pupae. I brought some home for future use, as they can be stored in the refrigerator until needed. We also looked at stomata, made respirometers to find out how much water plants lose under different conditions, and ran DNA through gels (like in college!). Oh, the thrill of being a science teacher! I can’t wait for tomorrow–our last day–as I hope to get a plan for how I can implement what we have learned.

I am NOT looking forward to the Friday afternoon traffic, though. I’ve been driving to and from Bellevue each day, and I’ve gone a different route each time, as the commute involves going on I-90, 405, and 520 *shudder*. It’s notoriously bad anytime, but Friday is going to be horrendous.

I don’t have anything planned for tomorrow night, but I hope to do something fun. Last night I fell asleep by 8 p.m. and the night before that, I went to a Chekhov play (Uncle Vanya) with Justin at the Intiman theater. I must say I enjoyed it–it contained elements of both a comedy and a tragedy–and it made me glad that I have the life that I do, which is always good.

Sunday and Monday night we spent on the road to and from Spokane for Justin’s principal conference. We had wonderful weather and a pretty good time in Spokane. He had almost 50 interested participants in his seminar on productivity for school administrators, so that made our trip worth it. We got back super late Monday night/Tuesday morning, which probably contributed to my sleeping so early last night.

Speaking of sleeping…it’s about that time. Oh, and if you see little blog blurbs come up, it’s because I joined twitter, this crazy service that lets you blog from your phone or a computer more often about even more mundane aspects of life in even less detail. Sweet!