Raw Transition Time

Around this time of year, I transition to a high raw diet. I eat at least 50% raw year-round, but I really start to crave more in the spring. As an added benefit, I tend to drop some weight when I up the raw content of my diet. I think that's because I don't eat starchy food when I'm eating 80% raw. I hate to admit it, but the bread I love to bake may not be the best thing for me or my waistline.

It has taken me a while to figure out what a raw food day looks like. Looking through raw "cook" books is very misleading. A lot of the dishes are high in fat, with heavy use of nuts and avocados and coconuts. Those dishes are OK once a day or as a small treat, but eating like that all day would not be a healthy choice.


Typical meal plan:

*Green Lemonade (4 kale, 4 celery, 1 lemon, 1 fuji apple, run through the juicer = 12 oz)

*Whole fruit as desired

*salad (spinach, red pepper, zucchini, carrot with sun-dried tomato vinaigrette is the current fave)

*2 raw cookies (homemade in my new-to-me dehydrator from Goodwill)

*bottled green juice as a mid-afternoon snack (I work full-time, so fresh juice is not an easy option)

*dinners are mostly raw, with a few cooked meals for comfort

In the past, I haven't done a lot of raw dinners; the husband was not really on board with it. He has always been willing to try new foods, but has been understandably leery of raw dinners. But, he has really changed his eating habits in the last 6 months. He has a huge salad every day for lunch, and has lost about 20 pounds as a result. So, this is an experiment, for both of us. It's like learning to cook all over again; discovering what we like to eat, what is easy to prepare, what is worth the extra effort. It's fun!

AT Cure - Week 3

Unintended blogging vacation due to beautiful spring weather, gardening, and bike riding.

I have been working on week 3 of the Cure this past week. In some aspects, this was a bit more challenging.

The tasks:

1. Vacuum, dust, and mop throughout your home. Check.

2. Clean your entrance and any related closets. Check.

3. Arrange to have all repairs taken care of. Check.

4. Declutter your entrance. Check. The outbox was very liberating for getting rid of my "extra" handbags. I think now I can finally give them away.

5. Move all old mail, catalogs, and magazines to the Outbox. Surprisingly, these items do not accumulate in my entryway. They are all in a basket in the living room. So, I'll get to them this week (Week 4).

6. Look into what you would need to create a Landing Strip. I already had a pretty good one in place. We come in through the kitchen. Just inside the door to the dining room, I have a chest. I keep my shoes in the bottom two drawers, my keys and phone in a pretty wooden bowl on the top, my purse on the floor to the left, items to go out (library books, etc.) in the second drawer, and items that come in (bills, letters) in the top drawer. I check the out drawer on Monday, when I do errands. I check the in drawer on Friday, when I pay bills. The only thing missing, is a place to hang our coats. We have to walk them through the dining room to the foyer coat closet. Often they wind up on the backs of the dining room chairs. But, I am reluctant to put a coat hook in the dining room!

7. Cancel any unused subscriptions. I still need to do this. I have a real weakness for magazines and try to limit myself already. I currently subscribe to Real Simple, Lucky, Money, Health, and Organic Gardening. I need to cancel Lucky (who am I kidding, I'm not buying any new clothes!). The others stay, but are on probation for actual usefulness.

8. Identify cool and warm rooms. Cool: bedroom, bathroom, office. Warm: foyer, kitchen, living room. I disagreed with the book suggestion that the foyer is cool. For us, it is a guest entrance not a family entrance. So, I want it to be warm and inviting.

9. Apply the 80/20 color rule. Color. Not my best subject. I have spent all week agonizing about color. The way color is approached in this book is not clear to me. So, I spent a lot of time studying color in other books and magazines. I think I have an emerging idea of how I want to use color in my home, but I'm still working out the details. Expect another post on this subject.

10. Cook two meals at home this week. Again, no problem.

11. Design an invitation for your housewarming. Not interested.

I hope to start on Week 4 today and work on it throughout the week. So far, I am really enjoying the process and have been able to maintain the results. My kitchen table is still clear!

Self Portrait Challenge - Political (3)

This is my manifesto. I try to make choices that reflect my principles.



This month's theme has been difficult. It's a balance between saying enough and not saying too much. I had a different, possibly more controversial, idea for this week, but I can't seem to figure out the self-timer on my camera! So, I guess I have next week covered, assuming I can find the manual, and the courage...

AT Cure - Week 2

I was really looking forward to week 2, because my kitchen is a source of distress and frustration for me. It is not a whole lot better, because decluttering can only do so much.

I use my kitchen a lot: I cook at home almost every night, I bake on the weekends, we eat most of our meals in the kitchen. It is a big room but the layout of the space limits the work zone to one tiny corner. And storage is a joke. The whole thing is slated for remodeling in about two years.

Before AT:





After AT: Yes there is still clutter on the table and in the bin on the wall. It belongs to my husband. I will try to get him to tidy it up today. Wish me luck! I wonder if I could find another home for the vacuum...

There's still more stuff on the counters than I'd like, but I lack enough accessible storage to put it all away. I'm short and my cabinets are tall!


So, this week's tasks:

1. Fix one thing yourself. I will oil the kitchen cabinet hinges.

2. Clean your kitchen from top to bottom and throw away old food. Check.

3. Buy a water filter and use it. I've been using a Brita pitcher for time immemorial.

4. Run your hands over every wall. That's a lot of walls! I'll try to get to this today.

5. Clear space for an outbox. I am using a corner of the basement.

6. Clear one surface and use the outbox. I've used the outbox for the laundry room (last week) and the kitchen (yesterday), so I think I've met this requirement.

7. Buy fresh flowers. Yeah, right.

8. Determine your style. From the list in the book, I'd have to pick Organic Modern. I have found the book Yes No Design by Diane Love to be very helpful with this in the past.

9. Find a new recipe and cook one meal at home. I cook a lot already. No problem.

10. Choose the date for your housewarming. I'm not really sure I want to do this...

Self Portrait Challenge - Political (2)

I choose organic gardening and native plants and fresh produce. I choose a garden that is alive with birds and bees and butterflies and all manner of interesting insects. I choose health and exercise and fresh ripe tomatoes.

Apartment Therapy

So, this week I found Apartment Therapy. Yes, I live under a rock. Although I live in a house, not an apartment, there is much to love. I also learned about their book: the eight-step home cure. I bought it instantly.

My home does not reflect my style. My mother said it best (as only mothers can), “I thought you preferred clean lined, minimalist homes? You certainly don’t have one.” Ouch. Guilty on all counts.

Almost all my furniture is “inherited” from my mother-in-law. She is very generous and I am very cheap, so I have learned to live with her style. But I am bothered by it on a subconscious level. I try to combat the uneasiness with a never-ending series of de-clutterings and trips to Goodwill. I know I won’t really feel comfortable until I buy some furniture of my own choosing and get rid of what doesn’t work.

I think I need to start with the eight-week deep treatment cure. At least it will encourage me to clear out once-and-for-all. And maybe I’ll even get rid of some furniture?

The eight-week program covers the rooms/spaces in a typical one-bedroom apartment: kitchen, front hall, living room, office, bathroom, and bedroom. Living in a house, I have more rooms than that. But, those are the rooms I use most, so I will focus on them first.

I took my before pictures yesterday morning after I finished my weekly cleaning, but without the benefit of any additional tidying. I only uploaded one shot of each room to this post, but there are more. I'll show them when I get to that room in the program.

Kitchen

Foyer

Living Room

Office

Bathroom Bedroom

I also tackled the laundry room yesterday. It has been a disaster lately.

Now it is restored to its proper order. Let’s see if I can keep it that way.

Week one tasks:

(1) Make a complete list of repairs and solutions.

* Kitchen: squeaky cabinet hinges, an easy fix

* Kitchen: broken windowpane, can fix it myself
* Kitchen: bad area of subfloor at the back door, this will wait until we remodel the kitchen (next year, I hope) as it involves tearing up the tile floor

* Bathroom: the “three year” floor. We had an emergency rip up of part of the bathroom floor a few years ago. I could not find new tile that was the same size as the existing (hexagonal) tile, so we pieced the broken tiles together and put them back on the floor, intending to replace the whole thing in three years. It’s really ugly, but I have it mostly covered with a rug. This will have to wait until I have the funds to redo the entire floor.

* Bedroom: another broken windowpane, can fix it myself

I know I will find more repairs as I go along. I am complacent about many things that are “wrong” with the house.

(2) Vacuum and mop the floors. Check.

(3) Remove one item from your home. That will be the bag of clothes for Goodwill that has been sitting in the hall for three months.

(4) Buy fresh flowers. Hmmm. Not really a flower person. And I have “bad” cats. Maybe I’ll get a nice silk orchid arrangement.

(5) Sit for ten minutes in a part of your home you never sit in. I sat in the armchair in my office. Although I spend a lot of time here, I’m usually at my desk. This room continues to elude me; I have tried several times to decorate it. The room is too big to be an office, so I try to make it do too many things at once: office, library, art gallery. It has zero flow. And the chairs don’t work. And the bookshelves are cluttered. And, it’s one of the first rooms you see as you walk in the house, so no pressure, really!

(6) Look into earth friendly cleaning products. Already use Seventh Generation, Bon Ami and Method (almost) exclusively.

I plan to post photos as I go along to remind me of my progress.

Spring Fever

Last weekend, the weather was perfect: highs in the upper 60's, blue skies, gentle breeze. It promised spring. Gleefully, I headed outside to work in the wildflower garden, tidying up dead leaves and trimming spent seedheads. Under their snug bed of mulch, the plants have started putting out new growth. I lounged on the deck, making a list of the garden projects I want to accomplish this year. We have a mostly shady half-acre lot in suburbia, which is honestly overwhelming at times. This year I vow to be focused.

(1) Grow strawberries on the deck. (I already ordered the plants!)
(2) Add to the native wildflower garden. (I already ordered these plants, too.)
(3) Grow herbs on the deck: oregano, sage, rosemary, basil, cilantro, parsley.
(4) Grow veggies on the deck: peppers, tomatoes, lettuce, spinach.
(5) Grow watermelons in the front yard!

Necessary garden-related chores this month:

(1) Check on seed starting medium and potting soil. Buy more if needed.
(2) Sterilize flats and pots.
(3) Start seeds!
(4) Prune, tie-up, and topdress blackberries.
(5) Plant strawberries (Whenever they get here. Are they here yet?)
(6) Divide daylilies.
(7) Topdress perennials, shrubs, new trees.
(8) Trim mulhy grass.
(9) Clear out bed at mailbox for April planting.
(10) Prune shrubs.
(11) Sew a gardening apron.
(12) Sew a clothspin bag. (OK, not really garden related.)

Of course, today it is cold with a wintry mix. At least I can sterilize the flats and start my seeds…