Monday, March 22, 2010

Farmer in the dell...


Brian and I have just finished reading Alisa Smith and James MacKinnon's The 100 Mile Diet, A Year of Local Eating (ok, I finished reading it...Brian skimmed through the bits he thought were the most intersting) and I have to say that we have been further inspired to try this for ourselves.

I say "further inspired" because this idea of eating foods that have been grown in and around the Ottawa area is something that has been a growing concern/interest for us in the last few years. Last summer's copious rain through the month of July did not help our small backyard garden grow into the cornucopia of fresh vegetables that we had hoped for, but we did get a few tomatoes and some green peppers, a whole lot of salad and some fresh basil and cilantro out of our little plot of dirt. Our tiny garden was nothing like the massive gardens that used to feed my family growing up (or the even bigger garden that my aunt and uncle had out at their place-that thing seemed to go for miles...or at least it seemed that way when you were out there weeding for hours), but the Lilley family garden made me want more...more land, more garden, more sky...just...more.

I want to wake up to the sound of birds and the rooster crowing, not the deafening roar of dozens of planes taking off overhead (which by the way, is how we go to sleep some nights too). I want my own horses. I want to smell the sun warmed grass and feel just how small and insignificant I am as I stand under clear blue skies.

I want to grow my own food and eat it, knowing exactly where it came from and what wasn't sprayed over it or forced into it to make it grow three times larger than normal.

I want to eat eggs from my chickens. I want to eat my own chickens, not ones that have been forced to grow bigger and faster than God and nature ever intended and whose skeletal structures cannot support their own body weight...

I want a goat.

Since I can no longer eat anything containing gluten, nor any dairy products, without my stomach ballooning out very painfully to the size it was when I was 6 months pregnant with the twins, I want to be in complete and utter control of everything that goes into my gullet.

Three of the four children keep telling us they want to move to a farm too (mainly so the dogs will have more than enough room to run free)...Jamie is the holdout, although Brian and I think that he is the one who would end up having the most fun...like the dogs, Jamie likes and needs space to run...

Crap. We're turning into those hippies Brian likes to mock. In our nearly 14 years together, my husband has mocked minivans and their drivers (we now drive one), ADHD (we have 3 of 4 kids and one wife diagnosed with it), celiac disease (um, got that now too), food allergies (check on that one) and people who homeschool their kids...

Maybe he could start mocking the rich and that farm will become more than a dream...


*Photo reprinted with permission from Ad Meskens, Wikemedia Commons

Thursday, March 11, 2010

So What's New With You?

I am probably the world's worst blogger.

I'm guessing that most people who do this update every day, but either A) they have far more interesting lives than I do and/or B) they do not have four children who are now home all the time.

Nope, it's not March/Spring break here yet.

We are homeschoolers.

Yep, you read right...homeschoolers.

We decided to take the plunge one month ago...telling the kids that this is an experiment (and one that can end at any time if they or I decide that things are not going well and we can no longer stand the sight of each other)...but so far, things have been going remarkably well...my biggest fears were that the four of them would be so sick of being around one another that there would be massive fights and screaming that could be heard from Ottawa to Toronto...or that I would be curled into the fetal position by the end of the day, hiding from them, Brian and the pets...

There have been a few moments where the boys have tried to beat each other about the head, but I put that up to them being boys (and brothers)...but the weird (and wonderful) thing has been the stunning lack of fighting, screaming and temper tantrums (from them too)...

Being home with the children all day means a few things for me...things that I was aware of, but hadn't really focussed on...like the fact that there is very little "me" time (not that there was a whole hell of a lot of it to begin with, mind you)...but that marathon I was training for? Yeah, that's going to have to wait...and updating this blog? Well, I'm a little slow on that too...

And along with home schooling, there have, of course, been new health issues to deal with...specifically, celiac disease.

I've known for quite some time now that something was up with me; I just didn't know what...and no, it's not official yet, but since I went gluten free a few days ago and last night ate one (one) piece of garlic toast with my (gluten free) dinner and my stomach blew up five inches larger than it had been before I ate the toast and was so painful I wanted to scream and because of the ten most common symptoms of the disease I have six of them and fall into the two major groups of people who have celiac disease (Type 1 diabetics and those of European descent - Scotland and Ireland are included in that - damn Viking raiders)...I'm placing my money on celiac disease...I'm actually pretty good at self-diagnosis and don't jump on any bandwagon, but yes, before you say anything, I do have a doctor's appointment on Monday and will be bringing this up with him...

By the way, the brown rice bread I bought on the weekend tastes like mdf...going gluten free is NOT something I would do if I felt I had a choice...well, I do have a choice, I suppose...I could keep eating gluten loaded stuff and suffer excruciating pain and eventually become malnourished, but I elect not to do that...

Want to know what else has been going on that has prevented me from posting here as frequently? Well, the puppy keeps eating our floors, for starters...

Yes. Eating. the. floors.

Seems Max has some separation anxiety issues and to deal with things, he has destroyed shoes (mainly mine, although Brian did lose one pair a few months ago), furniture, toys, pencils, books, boots, mittens, hats and now the linoleum floor in the hallway...

Max now has a cage...which he actually seems to enjoy, although he apparently might have to share it with Emma, who told me several times yesterday that she wanted to be in the cage too (locked in)...and when I told her it was against the law for parents to lock their children in cages, she pointed a finger at me and told me accusingly, "You never let me do anything!"

My life may be crazy, but it's good...