Some blogs you might want to check out ...

As I consider myself somewhat of a foodie, i thought these were both worth mentioning.

www.chooseveg.com

www.mennonitegirlscancook.blogspot.com

have a great, relaxing sunday, everyone! mine will be spent finishing up homework and hopefully working on my long-belated knitting present ....

love,

karen

Just a little one today

Hi, lovely readers.

Just wanted to pop my head in and say that I've decided on two big goals for the coming months: to get a compost started and to learn about how to make a very small cold frame raised bed and maybe grow some greens next spring! I really don't have a ton of space around my apartment building, but I could at least make these two things work. So I'm hoping to do a lot of reading and note-taking and hope that I can stick with it. Anything to keep me out of shopping at the Goodwill, which ironically has become my favorite pasttime lately. I must say, though, that despite the absolute plethora of them here in St. Louis, I have only been in to one (actually it was a Salvation Army) and when I recognized the familiar "shopper's anxiety" symptoms (feeling the sick need to "buy it all") .. I went up to the front, paid $4 for whatever it was I "needed," and left. Immediately felt better once that pull on me was gone. See, consumerism is nasty, even as you're downshifting .... so it was afterward that I started to have this little light bulb moment, like, here are some home projects you can fill your time with instead, and that are manageable/likely to be successful if you keep them small ..... so they are herewith added to my list.



In other sort-of exciting news, I met the makers of this little soap and fiber, etc. venture today at the farmer's market here and may try and see if i can help to distribute some of their products in Louisville. A nice part-time thing, perhaps ... their soap smells divine!

The training here is still going well and I'm carving out a good amount of time for walks, yoga video, and cooking. These are the things that sustain me, especially away from home, so I'm trying to keep them as key as getting my homework done. And speaking of that ... I'd better get back to it!!

Love and peace,

Karen



p.s. Michael you will live forever in the hearts of all those who you touched with your talent and music. Just had to add that little eulogy. I can't believe he's gone. I always said, when Madonna and Michael go, it'd be like one of the Beatles going ... really.

Hello, dear friends of mine.

Thought I'd take a little window of opportunity to post a few more pictures from the dearth I collected when my Dell was on the fritz. My second summer of Montessori training has started up here in earnest, and I'm newly re-engaged and inspired by the brilliant figure of Maria Montessori (though she, of course, would defer to her child teachers). Not homesick yet ... but that's because I have an excellent living situation and the workload hasn't gotten overwhelming to date. I'm able to cook at any time, and have been eating healthfully, with an emphasis on simple, vegan meals. I will have done yoga three times at least this week when Sunday's over. I have changed how I look at things, and this time, my focus is on the *self* -- as everything follows from there. Health and contentedness first. Hope that you all are well in your own corners of the world. Know that you are continual inspirations. This is the first day I've spent money since Monday, when I bought a $1.66 cup of tea and ate my own lunch while others brought it. It felt good to go four days without spending, and even on lunch today I only spent $6. drinking my own water bottle, and using my own cloth napkin. It feels lovely.

Tonight there's a dinner gathering (I'm going to just enjoy a beer, perhaps), and then I'm hoping to just do some quiet knitting and inner reflecting. tomorrow: big farmer's market!

I send my love.

last day of school



self-explanatory.



recently brought this to a dear friend's house for dinner. that basket is what i carry my lunch in to school.



friends' living room, minus the television (but of course!):



spent the day with these friends working on a biodynamic farm. i love rudolph steiner as farmer.



my *best* friend came to town!



i made some new friends:



took time to smell the flowers



and watch the sun set.



and, of course ... the saturday farmer's market!!











purchases!



recent flea market/yard sale finds ...

fabric for the sewing that will hopefully go on this winter chez moi:



...jars!



ahhh, simplicity ....



"What we need is a world full of miracles." ~ Dr. Maria Montessori

here's a little photographic sampling of what my eyes have seen lately ....

(above: recent farmer's market flowers that i was arranging to put around my place)


below: at Thunder over Louisville in April ... biggest annual fireworks display/airshow in the country. i spent the day happily reading, knitting, and snacking on homemade goodness while keeping an eye on the entertainment.



here is some of what i was able to see:




front porch of friend's log cabin in lexington, where i stayed to do some classroom observation recently. great place for reading.



canada geese, making a hullaballoo on his garage at sunset.


another gorgeous kentucky sunset.



lexington is really, really pretty.


flowers, Foxhollow biodynamic farm. May.


this little skink showed up on my kitchen windowsill one morning. i was so flattered!



Zen Tea House in my neighborhood, where I can spend way too much time and money eating vegan cupcakes and drinking amazing organic tea if i'm not careful.



neighborhood friend maya's vintage laundry.



recent thrift finds (actually got three of the cups):




my homemade, vegan version of "philly steak and cheese" ... that's just what it tastes like! a ton of fresh grated ginger makes the dish.


new grater, i'm grating everything these days! also, notice how my former lifelong aversion to carrots is slowly changing ...



it just ain't spring without farmer's market local asparagus! (and i am FINALLY nearly done with that awesome book....)





i'm glad to be able to upload pictures again, apparently. i think perhaps the problem was that my new file had something like 900 photos on it that i'd stored up during the time i didn't have my computer. so it opens the photos very very slowly, each time. end result? i have many more recent photos to share ... so stay tuned for more pictorials in the coming days. slowly, my life will become brighter to you again ... for which i'm much-relieved, too!

be well, friends.

karen

test photo post.

This picture of me was taken recently in front of my friend's chicken run. I love it. Let's hope I can start getting some photos up on here again. not real sure what the issue has been. thanks for bearing with me while my blog has looked so boring!

the cheese/veganism thing...

i just may order this video ...

http://www.processedpeople.com/

i watched several of the trailers (they are also to be found on YouTube) and they are very good. it's funny, i've spent the last three to four days eating much more cheese than i'm used to (i've been halfheartedly trying to cut it from my diet completely, making me a very-near vegan with the exception of honey and eggs and when i dump a little half in half into my coffee at coffeeshops, some places are really ridiculous about meting out the soy) and even though most of the cheese i've eaten is organic and/or local (i.e. SAFE cheese), i still feel "sludgy" (to borrow a word from a macrobiotic cookbook i have) after enough of a glut of it backs up in my system. why? is part of it psychological, i know that the saturated fat is going straight to my arteries? probably? but the week after my best friend was here, when i indulged in mainly a raw vegan diet (due to her inspiration, she eats so amazingly well nearly 100 percent of the time), i had more get-up-and-go energy than i had in a very long time. i actually felt ... younger. my skin positively GLOWED. i'm convinced that cheese/dairy products are an energy drainer ... the argument could be made for moderation, but the more i think about eating the milk of another species (once a great yoga teacher brought it to my attention that we are the only species on the planet that drinks another animal's milk)the more even that argument slips out of my hands. it's the only "bad" food i still crave sometimes (okay, that and plain ruffles potato chips). i NEVER crave fast food, soda, processed products. but cheese? cheese, i crave. i stopped buying it many months ago, unless i was going to feed others, viewing it as a staple party food. now, i'm not so willing to buy cream for my guests' coffee just because they drink it, or cut up cheese into cubes just because i know they'll disappear. because what happens is i eat it, too. and after enough of it, i hate the way it's made me feel.

another thing that makes me feel sludgy is too much baked stuff, even the organic variety i buy/the homemade stuff i create. we're talking corn chips, tortillas, pasta, the vegan berry cobbler i made for my dinner party last night. i almost think i should try to cut all of this stuff out to once or twice a week, and stick to *true* grains like quinoa and oats (are oats a grain? i know they're amazing for you...especially in the morning) and brown rice.

i can't eat an entirely raw diet .. i like hot, hot food too much. but mainly veggie/fruit/whole grain based ... yeah, that's the way i think i'm going to end up eating for the long haul. and that is how i eat, mostly. i'm just not entirely cured of the "standard american diet" just yet. it's amazing how ingrained in us it is to eat both too unhealthily and too much.

thanks for listening, if you've made it this far. i'm not sure this post had a point, except maybe i'm wondering how you all handle your own issues with food, being as well read and educated and intelligent as you are, and how you make it work for yourself and for your family. or how your progress is going as far as food changes that you made when you began to live a simpler, downshifted life. because i'm convinced that with a simpler outlook on life as a whole, the diet is simplified, as well. often, that's for the healthier .... this at least i hope for you.

four words

an intention, for the next 11 or so days:

Beauty.

Friendship.

Rest.

Stillness.

It was amazing to slow to the pace of a child today. How much it taught me! How much it calmed me! How easily I was made happy by painting and lounging and picnicing and smelling flowers and laughing at bubbles in the bath.

Beauty.

Friendship.

Rest.

Stillness.

The intention, the goal, and the way. Present moment.

Just thought that was something worthy of a share. Now I'm going to prepare enchilada sauce for tomorrow night.

peace,

karen

some lovely summer activities.

sunday:

spent SIX hours on a blanket in the park under the shade of a very nice-sized tree. started a knitting project that's been sitting around too long, read some of my book, ate leftover monster noodles (see bread and honey's blog) and fruit and bean dip with tortilla chips. laid down and basked in the sun, which never got too hot but was always warm enough. not a cloud in the sky.

my subletter had moved in when i returned. i was so happy to feed someone some of the leftover monster noodles and i also cooked him homemade french fries. i hope he feels comfortable in my home. i am always happy to have an excuse to cook for someone else!

monday:

spent the day babysitting a marvelous three-year-old i know! what fun we had! painting in the backyard, picknicking on a tinkerbell blanket with cheese and fruit and crackers arranged on a platter and a big bowl of "butter" noodles (actually butter and olive oil, walking around the neighborhood smelling flowers, reading a story, playing "store," listening to her play the piano. it takes a lot of energy, but i could do the stay-at-home mom thing ... it feels natural to me.

i promise to try and be able to post pictures soon!

tomorrow night i'm inviting two friends over for veggie/vegan enchiladas (using bread and honey's homemade sauce...)!

tonight's plans: a long walk in the beautiful park, and some more knitting.

did i mention that i'm buying a friend's beautiful guitar? <3

this weekend i'll attend two music events, one atop the roof of a local glassblowing factory. and perhaps help out at a new farmer's market in a low-income neighborhood.

summer is good, and so is involvement and engagement and living wholly within your community/with friends. it's a good life ....