Thoughts about Earth Day

"The Earth is the Lords, and all it contains, the world, and those who dwell in it." Psalm 24:1

With Earth day this week there has been lots of stuff in the Newspapers, radio and where ever you go about the importance of recycling and caring for our earth. So that subject has been on my mind quite a bit lately. I really like the idea of being careful with this earth for several reasons:

1. God made it for us to use but it belongs to Him (Psalm 24:1) I try to be careful with anything that I use that belongs to somebody else (actually I try to be careful with my belongings as well) and how much more I should be careful with what is God's.



2. I want the environment that I and my family live in to be one that promotes good health.



3. I have a strong aversion to wastefulness which ties in very well to being environmentally friendly.

However at the same time I have seen many people go to what I consider a too far extreme. Sometimes it seems that they are worshipping what God has created rather than God. (Just like it says in Romans 1:25) Also there are some that seem to want to place animals and sometimes even plants on the same level as humans which I believe is contrary to what is taught in this scripture: "And God blessed them; and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the birds of the sky, and over every living thing that moves on the earth." Then God said, "Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree which has fruit yielding seed; it shall be food for you; and to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the sky and to every thing that moves on the earth which has life, I have given every green plant for food"; and it was so." Gen. 1:28-30 We also see in Gen. 9:3 that God gave us animals for food as well.

As far as politics go, I am for small government so I don't prefer that lots of laws are made but I myself want to live in a way that is caring for God's earth to the best of my ability and I want to encourage those I am around to do that as well. I thought I would share a few of the things that I do to be careful with our environment and I would love it if you would also share what you do with me. One thing I have noticed is that many people have different ways that they are careful of the environment around them. Some are very dedicated recyclers, others never use any chemical for cleaning or other household stuff, others buy cars that get very high MPG or they might ride their bike or walk most of the time. I think an area that we have to be careful in is that we don't look down on somebody else because they are not doing the same things we are doing, instead I think we should look to see what we can learn from them and hopefully all of us can learn from each other. Also we all have to make our own choices for what works for our family. Some things are more time consuming and you simply might not have that time to spend right now. Anyway with all that said here is some of the things I do or am dreaming of doing:

Concerning Energy:

• We have replaced most of our regular light bulbs with florescent ones. My goal is to get the rest of them replaced as the old ones burn out.



• I hang some laundry out on the clothes line. My goal is to really up the percentage of times I do that this year, also to hang up clothes inside some in the winter instead of using the dryer.



• I try to keep our freezer pretty full which helps with energy efficiency.



• When I am thawing some food I try to think ahead and have it thaw in the fridge which helps cool the fridge more and also rather than using the microwave which requires even more energy.



• I have a baking day so that I can bake a lot in my oven at once rather than turning my oven on various times through out the week to bake just one thing.



• We also keep our water heater at as low as is safe temperature wise which saves on electricity.



• One of my goals and something I am trying to work on is to turn of lights more often so that I am not wasting electricity that way. I love light so this has been a hard one for me but with us having longer days now and big windows I am coming to realize that I don't really need the lights on all of the time.

Concerning Food:

• I grow a garden without any chemicals each year. We get a lot of food from that, I am hoping to up my yield each year. We also have planted apples tree, blueberries and strawberries which we hope to get food from before long.


• I make the majority of our food from scratch which makes less trash (from packages) and also I am able to use more wholesome and earth friendly ingredients.


• I buy local hormone free milk from a bulk tank so again there is less trash.


• A goal I have for this summer is to try for a month of so to eat a local food diet consisting of food from our garden, buying from the farmer's market and finding local, hormone free meat. We already eat some hormone free meat but I am hoping to get it figured out so that I can buy all hormone free (and hopefully local) meat.

Concerning Reducing Trash:

• We do a lot of recycling. We take newspapers and other papers and cardboard, bottles, cans and other plastic to the recycling center.


• We use cloth diapers a lot of the time. (My general way of doing it has been to use cloth at home and disposable when we go some place but sometimes I have gotten lazy and used disposable some at home as well. I am trying to be more strict about that with myself. I am also hoping we will be all done with diapers soon!!)


• We also use cloth napkins much of the time, rags instead of paper towels, hankies (some of the time we have kind of gotten lazy on that one lately), a diva cup, we rarely use paper or Styrofoam plates, I am working on getting in the cloth bag habit (I have a bunch now and I use them some but I have trouble always remembering to bring them in the store.) and just trying to reuse everything as much as possible and not choosing throw away items. (Another thing on this line that I have thought about but not tried yet is cloth toilet wipes ~ using recycled fabric of course.)


• I am trying to stop buying much in general which eliminates much of the trash that comes with packaging on new items.


• I reuse nearly all old clothes to make something new out of them like a rag, a rug, clothes or a quilt.


• We use scrap paper for most drawing and craft projects.

Miscellaneous:

• We have been working to plant a lot of flowers and trees. All the plants around us clean up the air as well as attract good bugs and pollinators which helps everything produce better.


• I try to watch how much driving I do, stay home a lot and combine errands in one trip. Also keeping you car with properly inflated tires and in good running condition helps you gas mileage to be better. I also try not to speed or gun my engine when starting and try to be aware of stop signs coming up so I don't overuse my brakes. All of that helps to reduce gas consumption. One of my goals in this area is to ride more places on bikes.


• We use natural cleaning solutions for the most part. I will admit I do still use some bleach and I am wondering whether I should try to get out of that habit.

I know there are other things we do as well but this post is getting long and my brain is getting tired. Now I would love to hear what you do or any suggestions that you have!!

Works for me Wednesday ~ fixing hair

Lately we have been trying to be more creative in fixing Mara's long hair. I found this cute book at the library which has been quite fun for giving us new ideas. It also has very nice instructions which I think are quite easy to follow.

I thought I would share one style that we enjoyed using from this book. It is the French Rope.

To start you gather a handful of hair from the top of the head and divide it into 3 sections (like for a french braid). Cross the right and then the left over the center like you were starting to braid. Then add a little hair to both the right and the left sides.
Twist both of the outside sections to the right. Then cross the right strand over both of the other sections. *Again add for hair to both the right and left sections and twist them to the right and then cross the right section over the others. Repeat from the * until you have roped all of the hair.
This is the finished product. If the hair you are doing is quite long then you can have a long rope past the french roped section. With this hairstyle it feels like you do need a third hand but it gets easier.
Anyway with 2 girls, a helpful book like this works for me!

A lot of pictures from the last few days

The past few days have been full of a lot of family time. My brother Peter and family came to visit from California, My sister Martha and her kids from North Carolina are here for an extended visit and My sister Anna and family came up from the Twin Cities. We had a lot of good times and I thought I would share some of my pictures.

On Saturday for our mid day meal we had a hotdog roast out at Mom and Dad's. Above are some of the cousins roasting their hotdogs. Below are the hotdogs. The weather was truly beautiful. There is still snow on the northern slopes and various shaded places but a lot had melted since the week before and it was very nice sweatshirt weather.

Here are the three littlest cousins (Megan, Gregory and Lars) climbing a fence.
On Saturday night we had a fun time making music together both with instruments and then our voices. It was very fun to have Peter back to play the banjo.

On Sunday after church we took this picture. It didn't turn out to great, it seems that getting all 23 of us (with a dozen kids) to all look at one time and smile is kind of impossible for us.

On Sunday night after church everybody came to our house to have tacos. This picture is of my brother Peter and sister-in-law Holly.

We also had Megan's official birthday cake. The cousins were very excited about singing to her and many of them gathered round and started singing very loudly. Megan got very scared and bawled all the way through her song.


On Monday we all went to Duluth. On the way there we stopped at Brewed Awakenings a coffee shop in Grand Rapids. (My siblings Peter, Anna (and family) and Martha (and family) all used to live there.) Martha was a barista at that coffee shop several years ago. Some friends from Grand Rapids came to meet us and visit a little.
Here are Dad, Aaron, Mom, Megan and Luke at the Coffee shop.
After the Coffee shop we then headed on our way and went over to Superior, Wisconsin to the Train Depot where Travis (my brother-in-law) needed to report for work. This is a picture of his engine. Peter, Nic, Harrison and Jonathan are in there with him at this time but you can't really tell in the picture. :-)
For lunch we went to India Palace in Duluth. It has been a favorite restaurant of some of my siblings. I had never been there before but enjoyed the food quite a lot. Above is a picture of my Chai tea which is very good.
Here is Luke and his meal of I believe Scallop Massalla and garlic chapati.

We then went to explore a park on the shore of Lake Superior. Here is part of our group.


Here is my sister Anna and I.
My cute niece Molly.
My Nephew Harrison.
My sister Keren and the way she and I looked most of the day. :-) (with a camera in front of our face.)
My Mara girl.

Aaron boy.
One of the beautiful crocuses we saw blooming.

A little trip

This week Ken had an insurance board meeting and conference down in the Twin Cities, so as usual our whole family decided to tag along. Here is what I have been up to for the last few days.

On Tuesday we left a little before noon in the hopes that we could get Ken where he needed to be by 4:30 for Board member pictures. Then I would take the kids to my sisters and drop them off and I would go back to eat at a banquet that they were having for board members and spouses. Unfortunately just as we were getting into the cities at around 3:30 our van decided to die when we were in the far left lane of traffic. Ken had hoped to be able to coast over to the right shoulder but the traffic was far to heavy and we weren't able to so we had to go to the left shoulder. A policeman came soon and kindly called a tow truck for us. He also hung around. We realized that our whole family wasn't going to be able to ride in the tow truck nor be able to stay in the van so the policeman called another one and they offered us rides.

Above is Jonathan and Megan and the policeman that they and I rode with.
Here is the policeman that Mara and Aaron rode with. Aaron wasn't so sure about the ride. I tried to encourage him by telling him that since he wanted to be a policeman someday now he would be able to know what it was like to be in a police car. That didn't help because as he said "I don't want to be the one that rides in the back!". By the end of our ride he seemed to be enjoying it a little more.
We went to a Ford dealership to get the van fixed. It was a very nice place with a beautiful customer lounge which included a separate room (with glass walls) for the children to play in. It had a lot of toys and a kids movie ("Cars") going. They also had Starbucks coffee, bottled water, cappuccino and hot chocolate all for free.
There was also this little popcorn cart with popcorn for free. They also offered to drive us to a nearby mall while they fixed the van.
We had a fun time looking around at the mall. It was very nice with plants and trees all over. There were tons of orchid plants that were all blooming. They were gorgeous. There was an elevator with a glass wall and a waterfall going down the whole side. You also had to walk across a little bridge to get on as there was a "moat" around it.

There were escalators which the kids had a blast getting to go on. (Can you tell we are from the country?) Megan wasn't so sure about them though. Ken had to carry her and then when we got to the bottom she had to carefully check it out. After looking around a bit we had supper at an Applebees that was in the mall. Our evening didn't turn out as we planned but we had a lot of fun anyway.

When we did get to Anna and Travis' around 7:30 we decided to have our little birthday celebration for Megan then. (Her birthday was the next day but Ken was going to have a super long day and we didn't think it would be nice to wake the kids up at 6 am in order to open presents.)

For breakfast on Wed. morning I made coffeecake with Juneberries in it to use as Megan's birthday cake (I decided I would do a regular cake on Sunday when Ken will be around as well as all of my family). Megan had no idea what to do with the candles on the cake. Gregory (her cousin on the right of the picture who is almost 3) quickly helped her out by blowing them out. We decided to give her another chance to try but she still didn't get it so Harrison did the job.

On Wed. morning we went to visit the flower wholesaler where I get flowers for my business (they deliver them to me). I wanted to look for some supplies and I thought the kids might find it interesting. Above is my sister Anna and several of the kids in the plant area.

After that we went to the Bakken, a museum that teaches about electricity. It is in a super cool old mansion in Minneapolis. There were a lot of neat things to see and do to help us to learn more about electricity. Anna had been able to get quite a few free passes from their library so it was a very economical outing.

This is the whole group of us except for me. We loved admiring all the neat architecture and I took tons of pictures but I decided not to bore you with all of them.

Here is Megan playing with some magnets and a tv screen that would turn all different colors when you put the magnets on it.
The day was pretty fun (except for driving through the city traffic, it made me very thankful for living in Bemidji.) It wore us all out. Above is a picture of a worn out Gregory and Megan.
That evening we went to church at Woodbury. We went early and ate at the Wednesday night cafe. (Ladies in the church take turns making a meal to serve before church, everybody pays a fairly minimal amount to pay for the food.) At church I enjoyed the beautiful singing and a class on John chapter 3.

On Thursday we all went on a 5 mile bike ride around a lake not to far from the Edward's house. In the middle of our ride we stopped and let the kids play at a park. Here are Margaret and Mara doing the "spider".

Here is Aaron swinging. I had hoped to take a lot of pictures but my batteries went dead. We saw some beautiful scenery, there were neat bridges going over streams and then we saw a lot of ducks, geese and loons. At one spot I counted 15 loons. It was so fun to hear their cry. I guess they are on their way north. Once they get to their home for the summer they will no longer be in the same lake, each couple has their own lake.

For our biking the 4 big kids each rode a bike (thankfully the Edwards have a lot of bikes) and then Aaron got to ride on a tag-along (a one wheeled bike that attaches to the back of another bike) behind Anna. He was able to pedal and told Ken that he had pushed Aunt Anna all the way to the park (but that he rested on the way home) I don't quite think he was supplying all the man power going there but they did check it out and if she quit pedaling he was able to keep them going. It is quite the cool contraption. Travis pulled a trailer behind his recumbent bike with Bea and Gregory in it and I pulled Megan in another trailer.

On Thursday afternoon my friend Christy(and kids) was able to come over for a little while so that was fun! I always enjoy getting to visit with her. We ended up leaving for home a little after 6 pm.

This weekend is also going to be busy. Ken is headed over to Moorhead for the district Republican convention tomorrow, Anna and kids are on their way up here to stay at our house and my older brother Peter and his family from California are flying in tonight. We are looking forward to lots of good family time as all 6 of us kids will be home!

Cheaper than canned pumpkin

When I was first thinking about doing this post I thought maybe I should wait until harvest time as that is the usual time to be thinking about pumpkins and squash, but then I realized that this is a good time to post about this because this is planting time. The time when we decide what we hope to be harvesting in a couple of months.

I just thought that at this time it might be good to put in a little recommendation for planting winter squash (or pumpkins if you prefer). Winter squash are very good for you! Check out this link. Squash are also great for storing so you can eat them all winter long with no need of canning or freezing. (I believe that would be why they are called winter squash.) They are also I believe pretty easy to grow. I will tell you though, I have never actually had them in my own garden. My parents grow them by the hundreds (perhaps I am exaggerating, but not by much) and they are willing to share so I get mine that way. And even if you don't like eating them plain or with butter and brown sugar (which I don't, they make me want to gag) there are oodles of other ways to use them. Here are some of the ways that I have discovered that I like to use squash:

• "Pumpkin" pie
• Yeast bread
• Quick bread or muffins (not just pumpkin bread or muffins either)
• Pancakes
• "Pumpkin Bars"
• "Pumpkin" desserts
• Small amounts that have been pureed in soups, casseroles, meatloaf,spaghetti sauce, etc.
• Chocolate cake (very moist and yummy!)

You can just get creative and stick it in anything where you think it won't be to obvious (unless perhaps you want it to be obvious. I know many people love to eat it just plain.). I love the idea that I am able to add some extra very good for you (and for us free) food in much of what I make.

Most pumpkin recipes that you find lately will call for a 15 oz. can of pumpkin but It truly doesn't need to come out of a can. You can start with a pumpkin or a squash like above. There are a couple of different ways that I know of to prepare them. You can cut it in half or smaller pieces and put it in a pan with a little water and either cook it slowly on the stove top or in the oven. (Take the seeds out and discard or save to plant next year or clean and roast them for a yummy treat.)

My favorite way however is to just wash the outside, set it in a pan with a little water in the bottom and stick it in the oven during a baking time. (I like to bake a lot at a time and so when I am doing bread, dessert and whatever else the squash can be in there as well.) I bake it until it is nice and soft on the outside.

After it cools I cut it in half and scoop out the seeds with a spoon and put them in my compost. Then I scoop out the orange flesh to use in my cooking.

I have discovered that if I want to put squash in many things it is nice to have it very smooth first. So I have been using my hand held blender to make it into a puree. I then will keep a container of squash in the fridge to always have ready to use and the rest I will put in the freezer in containers. It is quite simple, cheap and very good for you.

For more Frugal Friday tips visit Biblical Womanhood.