Sustainability

A woman in Oak Park was involved in a court case with her city because of the raised garden beds that she had in her front yard.

All she wanted to do was plant some vegetables for her family to eat, but apparently this was not considered "suitable plant material".



After reposting this video on facebook so many things came up. It was shared with me that she is a pretty interesting lady who apparently now lives in Seattle according to her blog oakparkhatesveggies.

And as if I wasn't already aware America is ridiculous when it comes to laws and regulations for farming. This is just one article about this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wickard_v._Filburn

As far as I know today the government pays corn farmers not to produce corn instead of corn being produced and used and made into other valuable resources, like biodiesel.

And back to this court case in Oak Park, what about someone like my parents who want to have a green yard full of native plants that do not require excess water or care like grass does. My parents in who live in Southern California decided to rip up all of their grass and plants and turn their whole front and back yard in to a dessert landscape with drought resistan plants except for the small patch of yard and raised bed in the back devoted to growing their own vegetables and fruit.

Towns like Todmorden in the UK and our small hilltop community, Bat Ayin, where many people devote much if not all of their yards to growing produce and are interested in sustainable gardening. This is how land should be used.

Sustainable gardens don't need to look like farms, beautiful gardens with bright colors and shapes can be designed using all edible plants. I have just started to garden but my dream is that one day I will have a house where my yard will be beautiful and full of yummy edible delights. What a great educational tool for our children and what a wonderful way to connect to our land and work towards sustainability!

Just rediscovered this amazingness!!! 12 months and already such a rocker!

Quiet Life

Busy busy busy that is what life has been. We made a quick decision to move about a month ago and life has been packing...baby...work...baby...moving...baby...work...baby
The truck came and moved us on the 7th and since then we have barely been home between work, weddings and trying to finish packing up and moving the last bits of stuff.

So how did this all happen? Our landlord had mentioned months ago that he wanted to sell our apartment and at the beginning of February said he wanted us to move out by the end of the month so he can show it and sell it. We weren't going to but decided it is better to move on our terms and not his and not have people tracing through the house to look at it. I have been wanting to feel settled for a while and well now we have the chance to feel more settled and try to truly become part of a community and find "home".

We knew that when we moved out of Nachlaot we would be moving out of Jerusalem, the move just happened sooner than we thought it would. We started to think of communities that we like and wanted to look at and well we kept coming back to the idea of Bat Ayin a small hilltop village in Gush Etzion, outside of Jerusalem. There are only about 150 families here and there is not always open housing, so we figured we would look and see if anything was available. We found two open places and one of them we loved and was brand new, so we decided to take it.

So here we are living in Bat Ayin with an amazing view and living the quiet life. Well or at least what seems to be the quiet life. In the past few days there have been several attacks here in Israel. I have very mixed emotions about everything going on.
This great article, Dear Palestinian Civilians, that says how I think many of us feel.
We pray that everyone here will be safe and that the land will be safe for all of us and our children.

I...I...

I did it.
I decided to make a new blog to share my ideas about yummy healthy inexpensive food.
I hope that it goes well and will help and inspire others.
Check it out!
Healthy Cheap Eats

healthy cheap eats

Saving every last penny or i guess agura in our case, is what I've been doing. Everyone is shocked when they hear how little we spend on food a month. So this got me thinking, maybe I should teach a cooking class on how to make healthy yummy food for little money. I had thought about teaching a healthy cooking class for a while now, and I was also thinking of making lots of yummy food and serving lunch once a week for a good price. But again something else I haven't gotten around to doing.
I mentioned this new class idea to a friend who also taught some cooking classes, but she said I should forget the classes and I should write a book. That is definitely an interesting idea but seems like a lot of work. So all this got me thinking and well then I thought of having a weekly e-mail, but then I thought maybe just write a blog on the food I make. Or maybe I should just do it here on this blog. Soo many ideas!!! Thoughts anyone? Anyone? Bueller?!

stir crazy

I don't know what it is, maybe its the cold weather and staying in doors or maybe its the fact that I feel very overwhelmed with all of the things I need to do and the lack of time I have to do them. Maybe it is just my feeling of needing to get out of the city. What ever it is I have this overwhelming feeling that I just need to GET OUT!! What do I need to get out of though?
Y and I have been discussing moving, I want to feel more settled have something that feels more permanent and more like "ours". Buying isn't really an option right now, but at least we want to try and find a place we like, a place to settle.
Part of all of this could be that our landlord has told us that he wants to sell, and so I now know there is an expiration on our apartment. I really love this apartment, but there are many things I don't like about it and now that I know we will need to move at some point they are all intensified.
Also probably the fact that I still don't feel like I accomplish anything. I know that isn't true, but I just wish I could accomplish more than I do each day. But well this is being a mother I guess, and well I guess I just still need to work on figuring out a routine. If only CNY would stick with a routine HA! Last night he went to bed a little later than usual but then woke up at 6:40am wanting to play, so as Dr. Sears says just roll over and play dead and he will eventually get bored and go back to sleep and well it so far has worked the few times we have tried that. But then after being up for a while and going back to sleep he slept until 11:30am! You would think that this would be amazing, but well then I never know when he is going to wake up and when he will want to nap and when he will actually go to sleep at night. hump... the unpredictability of babies! I love this little boy, sure keeps me on my toes.
SO back to how this all started, I have all of these projects I want to work on and I don't seem to ever complete them or even start them or I start and they just don't seem to be coming out the way I want them to. Maybe one day I will be a "SUPER MOM" like the ones you see on TV or in the movies that always have cute clean put together outfits with their hair done all up and their inchipped nail polish, and perfectly cleaned houses with everything in its spot and the kids always seems happy and content! Is this unrealistic portrayal of mothers whats getting me down and feeling like I am in a rut, is is the lack of permanence, is it the feeling that I just don't want to be an adult, am I an adult!!!??? What?!?!?! When did that happen?!?!
Ok back to the little many scooting around on the unswept and unwashed floor pulling everything off the coffee table!

Time Time Time

Where does the time go? The days and the weeks seems to just fly by yet it feels like I never get anything done. It is very difficult to get things done with a baby or at least with my baby. He likes to be held and he likes to be with me. He plays really well by himself but a lot of the time he will play nicely but I have to sit next to him, I can be doing my own thing but I have to sit with him. I try to wear him around the house so I can get things done, but then well things happen like what happened on Thursday...I was wearing CNY on my back and he reached over and grabbed a spoon that was on a bowl of a ton of squash I had cooked to make a souffle with and BOOM it all fell on the floor, that isn't the first time that happened, but well I guess a few casualties is better then not getting anything done.

I was feeling so sad that it felt like my house is a mess and I can't accomplish anything that I decided to see if I can find anyone to volunteer/help me for just 1-2 hours/week so I cab get some stuff done and surprisingly a few people offered and a few others offered ideas of ways to find someone. I am hoping to try and get someone to come this week, we will see if that helps and makes me feel better. It also could just be the winter. Winter seems to always make people a little bit sad and depressed, I guess because everyone is inside to stay warm and because the sun goes down so much earlier and I now that makes me tired. And well so does being a mommy of a teething baby. Being a mommy sometimes is rough!! I love it so so much but I guess I just didn't realize that even at 8 1/2 months it was still going to be so hard to accomplish anything. The things that no one ever tells us or maybe that we just don't want to believe until it happens. My respect for mothers and mothers of multiple children and single mothers has gone up tremendously!! Way to go mommas!!