Summer is here and so is the dirt! In our family, summer means no shoes, as small a shirt possible (for me) or none at all (for the boys), cut off pants, lots of playing in the yard and garden, and bikes, bikes, bikes. The screen doors open and the windows are left unlatched so that the house is breezy and warm; the clothes are hung to dry in the yard; we play significantly more; music pours out of our outdoor speakers; generally the atmosphere around here breaks loose from being closed up through the fall and winter. This means fun but also dirt, grass stains, dust, debris, and smudgy hand prints all over the house. Personally, I think it is well worth the trade.

For Bell Bell, summer means lazing around the house, preferably the laundry room sink, basking in the sun and shedding her fur everywhere. Guadie prefers the yard under our giant azalea we have named "Big Boy" but shedding all over none the less. If only I could do that, minus the fur that is. For me, summer is a shift in cleaning up fur as well as much more fun that hibernating in doors over the winter.

When I first moved in with Jules, I was amazed at the sheer number of cleaning products he had under the sink. There were at least 10. I usually stick with about three: Windex, bleach, and wood polish. When the floor started to look dull, I embraced Quick Shine as well. Those seem to clean most everything. I'm sure there are specialty products out there that are necessary for certain surfaces (just like bleach can't be used on our hardwood floors) but we have a fairly simple, none specialty house so I'm just not aware of them.

Around here, I began cleaning the floor with Murphy Oil as I'm sure most anyone who has owned hardwood floors has done at some point, but the stuff is expensive! So I began to search for other alternatives that wouldn't kill our floors. I'm not one for chemicals (my skin freaks out with hives) so as basic as possible is the route most traveled around here.

When I first read about alternative floor cleaner, many contained large amounts of water. This made me nervous. Water and hardwood floors are sworn enemies! But cleaning with water made much more sense than cleaning with salad dressing. Yes, salad dressing. Equal parts white vinegar (Do Not Use Apple Cider, Red Wine, Balsamic) and vegetable oil (olive oil, baby oil, mineral oil) can be sprayed onto your floors and then buffed clean with a mop or towel as a homemade alternative to expensive or chemical cleaners. The idea seemed crazy. Oil and Vinegar, really!?! But I read it time and again. So I tried it when Jules was at work in a small corner to see if it would kill the floor. I would suggest this to anyone before they use alternative products, wither they are home cleaners, lotions, laundry detergent what have you. Always try a small spot to check before diving in full bore. Needless to say, it worked. In fact it worked so well that I didn't have to use the Quick Shine at all. Even Jules (the household skeptic) commented on how great the floors looked. Salad dressing, who knew!

Not only are vegetable oil and white vinegar exceptionally cheap, they are something we most always have around so there is not worry about running out of them when needed. Basically, the vinegar cuts grease and grime while the oil polishes. Together they work wonders without any harmful water to ruin your hardwood.

The drawback is that it's stinky to an extent. Let's be real, you are using a vinegar which doesn't necessarily smell the best. In less than 20 minutes however, the floors are dry and the smell is gone. Secondly, you are going to need to shake the bottle up repeatedly because the mixture separates. Though I used an old 1 pint vinegar bottle and poured the cleaner directly onto my rag, a spray bottle would probably work wonders and make the job much faster. We just didn't have one in the house. Regardless, I'm going to be hard pressed to find another product that makes the floor look anywhere near as great! User beware: this product works so well you are going to want to dance across the floor in your socks and undies like Tom Cruise in Risky Business.

So let the freedom rock and gangster rap flow through our backyard and the dirt fall where it may. My salad dressing and I will take on the fur, the grime, and the smudgy hands! The summer has come and we can't wait to get out and play!

Jules is the primary income for our house. Though I have a job, it isn't really a job. I work 3-4 nights a week in the kitchen of a local restaurant for minimum wage and tips. It isn't rocket science, or brain surgery, or police work. It is nothing compared to working with at-risk kids like I used to. Now, if I screw up or make a mistake someone doesn't get their dinner when they thought they would. I can live with that.

By no means does this imply that I don't take my job seriously or try to do it well. I really like working in restaurant kitchens with their adrenaline-based, fast paced lifestyle. I just mean that the stress is different and the consequences not quite so extreme. Our household could exist without my job (it would be very tight, but possible). My job is the latte job. It allows us to go out to eat, to get lattes, to shop at thrift stores on our Saturday walks, to go to Chuck E. Cheese or bowling for family night. It is the cushion of money that makes us feel safe.

My real job is taking care of Jules, our house, and our son. I homeschool the Spicy Barracuda because his birthday misses by 4 days for kindergarten entry. I clean (though I'm not very good at it) and make our meals. I manage the grocery lists and household projects. But most of all, I do research and look for ways for our house to run more efficiently. Coupon clipping, meal preparation, gardens, root cellars, rain barrels, these things all take time and which is at a significant premium with both people working full time. By not working full time, I can take on these various household chores with enjoyment and gusto allowing Jules to relax after work. It also means no child care and the ability to lower bills.

This last year the goal has been centered around food. Before the Spicy Barracuda and I, Jules spent about $250 a month in the dreaded task of grocery shopping and ate tuna fish and nachos as his staple meals. Oh, Bachelor food, what would the world be without you? With the onset of actual cooking, and some meal planning our grocery bill has plummeted. We purchased an apple tree, two blueberry bushes, and planted the garden. The root cellar began to be dug so that we could use the dirt to fill in the multiple large raised beds and have somewhere to store our veggies once we harvested them. Composting was used to temper the dirt with organic material so it would be good soil for the plants. The rain barrels came about to water the food we would be growing. The bulk food purchasing was to help with the food bill until the plants actually could be harvested and wound up slashing our garbage bill along with it. Along the way much more has transformed and as we walked around the yard yesterday, I was amazed at all that had been accomplished.

So, on to the next real project for our household! The bills. The grocery bill might have plummeted with the arrival of the Spicy Barracuda and I, but the rest of the bills definitely went up. With two more bodies occupying the house during the day, a lot more was being used at a higher frequency. When Jules and I sat down and discussed it there are about three main bills in our house and two miscellaneous. Electric, Natural Gas, Water are the big main bills. Cell phones and Gasoline are the two others. This next year our focus is going to shift from infrastructure for our food to infrastructure for our bills.

Electric
Our house is a 50's style atomic ranch. It is fabulous! We have tried to keep the style throughout even including furniture and colors. For this reason, energy efficient appliances aren't really going to work out very well. However, by purchasing only two a month, we can outfit the whole house in energy efficient light bulbs without one killer monetary hit.

Another big energy sucker is our dryer. It heats up the house tremendously during the summer and only adds more money drain in the air conditioner trying to compensate. Luckily our entire neighborhood has been outfitted in the backyard for umbrella clothes lines. No more dryer in the summer!

Lastly, the purchase of a solar water heater would do wonders for some serious decreasing. The main use of our electric right now (other than appliances) is the hot water heater. The current state and federal rebate/tax credit programs make the purchase ($2,500) almost break even within a year and that doesn't count the amount saved on the electric bill. I have my fingers crossed for next year's tax return outfitting our house with solar for heating the water. Photovoltaic cells for complete energy dependence is completely out of reach right now and no where near practical. Not only is it not sunny enough here, but the total cost is like $25,000. Hah! I don't know about your household, but we aren't getting anywhere near that much back in a tax return!

Natural Gas
Our Natural Gas is only used for the furnace. The local National Forest allows for firewood permits at $5 a chord. We did some talking with our older neighbors who used to heat their house solely with wood and they have said four chords was the magic number. Another declaration on their part was how wonderfully fun it was to go up and spend the day out in the woods cutting. We will see! For $20 of heat for the whole winter it will be well worth the exercise!

Turning the furnace off also allows us to store more in our root cellar because the furnace shares the space. Without the added heat of the furnace the space stays cooler and more damp, both major pluses! However, the insulation down there could use a major revamp as well. It keeps the cold down and the heat in the house where it should be. So we will be reinsulating.

Water
It takes one major weekend rain event (sometimes daily rain event) to fill up 1-1 1/2 rain barrels. This means during the rainy season here, we will have to have more than the current five barrels if we want to maximize the amount of harvest. Right now we have enough water to have disconnected our toilet from city water, and have back stock for the summer. With more water we will be able to expand our rainwater usage into the daily small loads of dishes I wash by hand and the car washing throughout the year. This leaves showers/baths, three loads of laundry, and one load of dishes a week as the only major uses for our city water.

Currently, the water we harvest with our rain barrels comes off the back porch and runs through a rather old, metal gutter. It works for getting the water off the roof, but makes for the water uncertain for use as anything other than irrigation and toilet flushing. A replacement gutter made from high impact plastic is needed along with a leaf guard system to keep the water filtered.

By surveying our yard, we think we have space for 8 more barrels tucked away in the far corner of the yard and along the unused side of the house. With small stands and a nice wooden screen (so you don't see them) the addition will be highly useful and very inconspicuous.

Cell Phones
Jules and I switched to a shared minute plan quite a while ago. This brought him over to Verizon where most all of his family and mine get their cell phone service. With Verizon, if you call or recieve a call from someone who uses Verizon the call doesn't charge you minutes. This alone made the cost of our phones dramatically decrease. When we signed up, we did what most people do and went highly safe with the amount of minutes being used. Now, it has become clear we can most likely downsize our plan without much of any change in our useage.

Gasoline
By paying attention and grouping errands I've managed to only fill up my gas tank once 10-12 days for about $20. However, Jules is a teacher. One of the cardinal rules of teaching is that you do not live in the same district that you teach. This allows you to have a personal life and not run into your students everywhere at the least opportune times. (I once ran into parents of students while buying a large amount of alcohol for a friend's college graduation party.) He drives his truck quite a ways twice a day as a result.

However, Jules loves to bike to work. This commute is 60 miles round trip, and though he used to do it at least once a week, the toll on his body and time is extreme. Luckily, in September when the new school year starts, the completion of a significantly closer mass transit system will be in place allowing for the commute to take much less toll on his body. This means he can bike/ride to work two, three, or even more times a week. Not only will this make him personally feel better, but it will help with gasoline quite a bit.

The changes for next year will definitely be a more noticeable cultural shift than this years. Hopefully, the Barracuda is young enough still for the views of the mass culture to not affect him too much. Whether all of these ideas will come to fruition the same with this last year seems to be falling into place one can only wonder, but by having a plan and writing it down the ideas are at least in place for us to slowly move toward them. This last year has (and continues) to be a tremendous success in my book allowing for high hopes for the future.

The Spicy Barracuda sees Jules a lot. He sees me a lot. However, with our work schedules been opposed and the budget for child care limited (non-existent), he doesn't see much of both Jules and me at the same time. So Thursday nights and Saturdays have become Family Nights. This is specific time which has been set aside for us to do things as a family. Sometimes it is watching a classic movie. Sometimes it is going to Chuck E. Cheese or bowling. Sometimes it is riding our bikes to the park and the local hot dog shop or playing games together around the table after dinner. It doesn't really matter what the activity as long as it is spent as a family with the central point of playing together. Honestly, it is pretty great.

Today, Family Day was spent at the Farmers' Market. The Farmers' Market is filled with family friendly activities and plenty to see. With Guadalupe still having a bit of angst when it comes to strangers, she reluctantly stayed home. Hopefully, if The Walks continue she will soon get to come along. Being a gardener, the whole experience is quite voyeuristic for me. I want to see what other people are growing, and how well they are growing it. I want to ask them questions about having bees and harvesting honey. I want to marvel at their beautiful flowers, upon flowers, upon flowers. I want to taste the cheese they may from their cows and marvel at how different all of it is and how they made it themselves. I want to show the Barracuda how beautiful leeks grow with their leaves all fanned out and how many varieties of pears exist. I want to taste, and talk, and see, and experience the energy of people who spend their lives growing and creating sustenance.

Jules loves all of the above things as well, but particularly he likes the food. Street food is something I could live on for a good 4 years eating it every meal of every day. Jules might be able to for the rest of his life. Farmer's markets are a wonder at all the different kinds of delectable street food. There was exotic coffee and local wineries. There was a stand with three different kinds of kettle corn. (It was very difficult to resist and I don't know if I will be able to next time.) There were tamales, and gyros, and Asian stir-fry noodles. There were muffins, and cookies, and breads of all kinds. There were jams, honeys, and pestos. There were dozens of kinds of cheese - Jules favorite! People were selling eggs, seafood, and grass fed beef by order. We settled on pears, honey, goat cheese, a blueberry cornbread muffin the size of Barracuda's head, a giant cookie, and two meditarranian gyros filled with sweet spicy chicken, rice, and fresh veggies and yogart sauce. Our little red wagon was quite full, as were our tummies.

The Spicy Barracuda's favorite part are all the people. People watching and street entertainment are some of the finest around at street fairs and farmers' markets. There were hippies playing tight rope on a slack line. Barracuda had to try! There were hacky-sac circles. Barracuda really wanted to try. There were people doing paperwork on blankets, couples cooing over each other on benches, families with children running about. There were musicians ranging in age from three violinist girls who were about 10 to a man dressed just like Jimmi Hendrix. There were string quartets complete with cellos. There were drummers in circles. There was even a gorgeous woman rhythmicly moving to African dance who was just plain mesmorizing. (I think African dance might join my Life List.) Watching all the different urbanites which flock to these events for leisurely fun is quite the example of all different walks of life being able to coexist and have fun together. The Spicy Barracuda ran through the park, created his own music with a favorite stick, poked the stick into the fountains, said hello to just about anyone and everyone, danced a bit, and then got into the car to drive home quite tired.

The rest of our day was spent working in the yard and prepping for the summer which is definitely on the way. Current, Spicy Barracuda is passed out in a tent which was quickly pitched in the backyard when he decided at dinner to try camping out. Sleeping outside in a tent is something he has done a couple of times before on family camp outs, but doing it solo is a new experience. We will see if he makes it the whole night.

The greatest part of Family Night is that it not only gives us a chance to be together, but it allows us to interact in a completely stress-free way. Wandering about the Farmers' Market has no time constraints, not expectations to live up to, no deadlines or social graces which need to be upheld. More over, you can see all different kinds of people freely being themselves and this encourages the same behavior in us. We can come home and enjoy working in the yard while the Barracuda and Guadalupe play together being a silly as can be. Overall, the implimentation of Family Nights have helped with all of us trying new things and becoming much closer together.

Things We Have Learned About Our Rain Barrels
Firstly, rain barrels, the way we made them, cannot withstand a curious four and a half year old little boy climbing upon them to see how much water rained last night. The spigots will fracture right off causing 55-110 gallons (he tried it twice!) to gush out in a nice uniform arch and course toward the foundation of your house much faster than the small child can realize what to do. Luckily, the washers seem to help immensely allowing for the plastic couplings to break clean and not stretch out the holes in the barrel. Equally lucky, if this should happen in your residence a well placed finger from even the smallest hand can plug the hole. After much yelling, getting quite wet, and finding every possible water receptacle in or around our house the barrels were drained. A mad rush to Home Depot and much prayer for it to not rain, allowed for replacement parts and a quick fix.

For those of you who haven't yet purchased the supplies for your rain barrels might I now suggest the $0.79 bright yellow plug which can fit into the ABS pipe bridge between the two barrels. This plug will fit into the sandwich piece (trap adapter) which holds the ABS pipe to the rain barrel. By blocking the bridge pipe, even if it does rain, all that will happen is your barrels will fill in the space above the overflow allowing you a temporary hiatus on the broken barrel filling with water. It will not prevent flooding if it rains like it did for Noah, but it will hold off a shower or two and saved us. For 79 cents it is worth it!

Lesson Number Two happened just today. Rain Barrels cost much, much more money if you wreck your significant other's truck on the way home from picking them up. Our three rain barrels just increased in price $500 not including what our insurance will tack on each month in increased fees. Drive home very slowly, even when you are only 5 minutes from your turn. Do not allow for any distraction, regardless of how minor. Better yet, find a way for him (or both) of you to go and get the rain barrels so that you aren't borrowing a vehicle when you apprently have an issue with rear ending the guy infront of you. At least tax returns are coming and Jules is understanding beyond belief.

When the idea of starting a garden first was broached to Jules, it wasn't one he immediately enjoyed. Well, that isn't true. He liked the idea of a garden well enough, however, he liked the idea of a yard much, much more. Initially, I'd planted a few fringe veggies around the edges and had a three tomato plants squished into one big pot. The turning point occurred when salsa found its way into the house. Jules LOVES Mexican food. Fresh salsa from our yard definitely made this garden thing a bit more worthwhile.

Now, the garden is extensive featuring seven 4 foot by 9 foot raised beds, a strawberry patch, blueberries, an apple tree, and an herb garden. It is wonderful! I'm bouncy about it whenever something new sprouts or we visit the local nursery. With all that produce we need somewhere to keep it.
Living in only 900 square feet, storage is at a premium. We just plain don't have the space to accumulate much. I quite like it as that means there is much less to clean and it is much easier to keep life simple. The drawback becomes having places to put all our extra bulk foods, canning, and fresh produce. My first thought was the garage, but Jules put a big veto on that one. It was for the best, we have way too much in there anyway. So next came the rather radical idea of a root cellar.

The very words root cellar seem archaic, but it makes a whole lot of sense especially as times get tougher and money gets even tighter. Basically a root cellar is a way to let Mother Nature do the refrigeration for you. Good root cellars both borrow and keep the cold. By digging in the ground well below the frost level the temperature remains as fairly constant 52 degrees and is slow to be effected by the extremely cold surface temperatures. In this way the veggies and fruits have protection from frost, and extra refrideration from the warm house temperatures. You can then emitt the extremely cold night air into the cellar (via vents or windows) allowing for the temperature to cool to between 32 and 40 degrees. With a pan or water for humidity (so the veggies don't crack or wilt) and two air vents to allow cross movement of air to avoid rotting, you're basic requirements are met. This gives you an extremely large, electricity-free, refridgerator. A finished or unfinished basement, an under the stair closet, a corner of your garage, even a hole in the yard can function as a perfectly good root cellar with little to no work after the initial set up. Canning and dry goods can also work well in a root cellar with only a small partition between the foods that need high humidity and cooler temperatures. In this way you can store large amounts of food and be able to "bulk up" when various fruits and veggies are in season and significantly cheaper not to mention better tasting!

Our root cellar is being put in by The Spicy Barracuda and I hauling up one 5 gallon bucket of dirt at a time. We are hand digging it out of what Jules has coined our "Hole." I honestly don't think he took me seriously when I said I was going to dig us one. But shovel and adz in hand the Barracuda and I began digging away. It is just plain hard work, but the exercise is wonderful and all the dirt has done nicely to fill our raised beds in the garden. The cellar is now coming along very well and we are beginning to consider shelving. The space is beginning as a way to hold our canned foods (most of this year's planting) and our dry bulk storage of 2 gallon buckets. As the space widens, and our garden yeilds increase, the Northeast side will become our actual root cellar to hold the cabbage, potatoes, carrots and such. The task has really been good for my exercising, and the Barracuda can now swing a adz like a pro! His arms are becoming very strong and he is really learning the value of watching his hard work patiently turn into a finished product.

Mostly I have been amazed at how simple this process has been. Though the work is physically tough at times, and you definitely get tired, the actual complexity of the project is minimal. You are mainly just digging away. There are many books which have been written on the subject and have helped me quite a bit when I first began and now as the spaces is coming to a point of some really setting up. Mike and Nancy Bubel have written Root Cellaring: Natural Cold Storage of Fruits and Vegetables as a guide for anyone considering such an undertaking. The book is complete with plans, explanations, crop varieties, and stories of people from all walks of life and how they have created cellars for storage. Whether you are urban (like us), suburban, or rural there is something in this book which will suit you! My copy came from Powells. As far as I know they will ship just about anywhere!

Even if you do not have a garden or a space big enough to put in more plants than you already grow, help the local farm community at your local farmers' market. The markets are free, full of great family events and street entertainers, and provide you with a sense of knowing where your food comes from. This produce is normally cheaper by miles than the produce in the grocery store because you don't have to pay for the middle man and the enormous costs of all the overhead for the supermarket chains. Can it up, support your local community, and store it away to have great tasting veggies and sauces all winter long!

Peter Pan was a great success! Much rapture was had when the last duels broke out. Much wonder at all the discussion of fairies. Flying was amazing as was the idea of living underground and having a tree as a door. Pirates definitely one out over mermaids and little care was placed to the Redskins. More than anything, the idea of sitting down and listening to a story together has been fostered to the point Barracuda now asks to read together. Even if the entire story is lost to him, the desire to sit down and read is considered a solid victory to me.

So, now we are on to our next book: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. The Barracuda is excited and so is Jules. Peter Pan was a bit painful for Jules to get through. His adult cynicism discouraged the wonder of the book a bit and made it hard for him to relate. But, Tom Sawyer. There is a boy Jules can relate to! Growing up in a small town on the Mississippi, living on stories and mischief, sneaking away to get into trouble with boyhood friends, trying to win the favor of a girl - this could easily be written about Jules himself.

I'm hoping this story reignites some desire within Jules to read with the Barracuda at night. Jules read, and the Barracuda loved it, but I would much rather the experience be mutually enjoyable rather than a chore. Unfortunately, most of the books Jules remembers enjoying as a child are just a bit too intense for The Barracuda right now. In a year or so, it will be Jules wanting to read at night exalting in The Last of the Mohicans,Treasure Island, and the like.

Hopefully Tom Sawyer gives Barracuda just enough encouragement to go out and have wonderful stories and adventures in our backyard, but not quite enough to go out trying to win the favor or girls. After all 4 and a half is a bit young!

""Oh, they just have a bully time - take ships, and burn them, and get the money and bury it in awful places in their island where there's ghosts and things to watch, it, and kill everybody in the ships - make 'em walk a plank. they don't kill the women - they're too noble. And the women's always beautiful, too." Chapter 13

It secretly amazes me how wonderful our life is. I'm hoping others out there have the same feeling.

We aren't perfect; we have problems. We bicker. Our son has moments of being naughty. I'm not very good at keeping the house tidy. Jules' socks stink. We don't have much money in savings. I don't have a degree yet. We all have and do things that annoy the crap out of each other. Keeping up with close friends gets put off regularly. We don't exercise or brush our teeth like we know we should.

But our life, the stuff that really matters, is disgusting great. We all Love each other and make it a point to let each other know. We spend time together regularly and feel appreciated (most of the time). We're happy and fulfilled. Spicy Barracuda is curious, stimulated, and actively pursues knowledge. We are healthy. Our little house fits us, we can live within our means (sometimes barely). We have fun together. We are all comfortable enough to be silly, weird, and stupid together. At the risk of sounding too sappy and Hallmark-wonderful, I'll stop there.

The best part of all is that we can share our aspirations with each other and strive to make things happen. This support is something I've never really had much of. Though my family has always been financially supportive (sometimes astoundingly so) much of the time we're on entirely different wavelengths with life.

As such, my Life List has been posted along the tabs at the top of the page to remind me of the various things I would like to learn, see, and accomplish . To me it puts my thoughts down in print so that I can work toward them (even subconsciously) as a way to make my life feel more fulfilled. It seems to me that too many people feel that there is either no time in their current lives or all the time in the future and wind up standing at 60 wondering why they never fit in any of the things they really wanted to do. Still others (I fit in here) never consciously sat down and thought about the things which would make them feel as though they had really lived.

John Goddard is the poster child for the Life List, and though I don't necessarily believe in the degree of his self promoting, the message of dreaming and going for it is one of quality. I hope to promote such ideas in my son and live this message by having a list of my own which I can check off.

The more I look at it, the more the shift in our life hasn't been so much into simplicity (though this has occurred) it is in changing the perspective of how live to appreciate the small things we do every day. What used to be the mundane, annoying little things we had to fit into every day have now become events. We celebrate the activities by doing them together and making something positive occur from them. It is through these "events" that we can appreciate the small, normal things that make our life. We had normally read before bed time, but make an event out of choosing a classical chapter book and creating a story. It constantly rains here, but we made an event out of it by harvesting the rain and really quantifying the water to be useful. Everyone has to go to the grocery store, but we created an event out of it by limiting the trips to once a month, choosing to really create our food every day from scratch, watching it dwindle and then refilling it as a family. Mornings were just dragging ourselves out of bed, till Jules and I decided to make an event out of them by creating personal time for ourselves. Everyone walks their dog (hopefully), but it has finally come time to make an event out of that as well by creating "The Walk."

Our beloved Guadalupe is newly 6 months old and with that has come quite a bit of territorial behavior. She adores her family (even Bell Bell) but being a shelter rescue if anyone else moves too fast she gets very scared and sometimes snippy. That has always been true. However, if a total stranger comes up to her on the street when we aren't right there she will down right freak out at them. This is completely new behavior. She has always been territorial around the house, but frankly, I kinda liked that with Spicy Barracuda and I being home alone during the day. It makes me feel very safe to know that when I am walking my dog with my child, or at home alone, I have something there which will protect me. However, getting angry at strangers who just find her cute isn't going to work.

So I began to read up on Rottweilers and found out that this is really, really normal. It isn't an obedience issue. She comes when called, even if she doesn't want to. She doesn't jump up at people and quiets her barking when told to. She sits, fetches, and heels very well. She adapts to new rules incredibly fast and has never been even slightly aggressive to anyone in the family regardless of how the Barracuda wrestles with her. She just doesn't like anyone else to mess with her at all.

All the books have said the same basic thing: Rottweilers need activity in large amounts or they become temperamentally aggressive. So The Walk has been instituted. Every morning the Spicy Barracuda mounts his noble stead (a rockin' little bicycle) and we go for a very brisk 1 hour walk around the neighborhood. The last 10 blocks or so we race so that the Barracuda has to ride as fast as he can, I jog, and Guadie full on runs. We arrive back to the house panting and significantly more mellowed out for the day.

The exercise has done wonders! The winter nicely gave me a present of about 10 pounds to shed and this exercise has been very helpful. The difference in both Guadie and the Barracuda is equally amazing. When we missed The Walk only one day due to some broken plumbing and spewing water taking precedence, they both were hyped up beyond belief. It was one frustrating bouncy day around our house! Apparently this really gets the ya-ya's out of both of them and is great for me.

By leaving the house at 9 o'clock (no exceptions) we arrive home at 10:00 and don't have time to lazily begin our day. It is hard to let time get away from you when your wake up call is power walking! When we come home we have breakfast, brush our teeth, and begin with school for the day. The structure of having a specific starting point has made a wonderful flow. It provides the Spicy Barracuda with a specific, definable moment when things are going to start during our day. He knows what to expect and when things will be happening. Before this, time was the major designator and he is still too young to be able to really wrap his brain around what all that means. When we get home from The Walk he is ready to go. Who knew setting aside one hour in the morning could alleviate so many problems for the rest of the day!

Spring break arrived and though we had planned a long awaited camping trip with the Spicy Barracuda, a forecast of 38 degree highs and 100% chance of rain kinda killed it. So, off to my family's beach house we ventured instead. The four days were wonderful! After the first two of pouring rain and crazy wind, the skies were cloudless and in the seventies.

The Barracuda loved it, Guadalupe loved it (her first time at the beach) and it definitely showed me the extent that our family's lifestyle is a bit off from center. To open up a pantry and see stacks of cans was odd. To not have a bins of bulk food and be making meals from scratch, was odd. To be without Jules (he stayed home for most of the trip), was odd. But most odd of all was the water!

Having rain barrels of water has changed the way that both Jules and I look at the consumption of our water. The idea of rain barrels began because in the summer it is as though someone turns off the rain faucet. It completely dries up (not even a shower) for at least a good two months and more like three. The bummer with this is that it is the prime growing season and thus, if you want a garden you have to pay for the high priced irrigation from city water. City water around here increases almost 20% in the summer! With 90-100 degree days the water is a must and so we figured why not harvest the water for free during the rainy season (the other nine months of the year).

We started small with only two barrels set up and an incomplete overflow valve. Sure, it rained a lot here. Sure, everywhere on the internet cautioned people at how quickly rain barrels filled up. But, come on. We just had them hooked up to the small porch awning not the whole roof, and two barrels is 110 gallons of water. No problem, we had a couple of weeks to get it all perfected.

In one weekend rain event we had a barrel and a half full. And it was still coming! We hadn't anticipated this kind of water falling from the sky. I have lived here my whole life and never really thought much of the volume of water when it rains. It doesn't pour, it just rains...all the time. What were we doing to do with all that water?!? We didn't want the barrels to become completely full, and flood out the makeshift overflow creating a nice eroding river in our backyard.

There had to be something, so we brainstormed. We couldn't use it to cook with because the gutters are dirty. We couldn't drink it for the same reason. The crops weren't in yet so watering wasn't necessary and the rain was watering for us. Dishes and laundry were out for the same reason we couldn't cook with it. Jules came up with it at last - the toilet. It didn't matter how dirty the water was if we were just using it for flushing the toilet!

We figured we could make use of the water (and mainly keep the barrels from flooding) for the next couple of days (it rained all week) until we could acquire a third barrel and establish the overflow. Problem solved, at least temporarily.

How much water do you think it takes to flush your toilet? I had never thought about the toilet this way. Who really wants to think about their toilet? Uh, not me. But it is one of the most highly used appliances in your house and a very simple machine. Once you turn the water off at the wall you get only a single flush. You then have to take the back lid off and fill the tank up again to the water line (literally a line in the tank) to get another flush. This is normally done automatically through the wall and that is why you turn it off. I had no frame of reference as to the water capacity of our toilet. The tank didn't look that big, eh, maybe a gallon or something. NO! It takes almost four gallons of water with every single flush of our toilet!
To put that into perspective, those are two liter soda bottles and

that is only one toilet flush.

The average person flushes the toilet 8 times a day. For those of you who work outside the home and your house (and toilet) sit unused all day this might not be much, but the Barracuda and I are home almost all day, every day. That is a lot of water (and money) literally being flushed down the toilet. Jules and I could not figure out why the water bill had spiked so much since the Barracuda and I moved it. We accepted it, but were baffled. Now, we have the answer. Somewhere between $20-$30 of our water bill was just toilet flushing.

Everyone's toilet is different, and you can calculate the amount of water you toilet uses (a great bored out of your mind activity to do with the kids) by visiting this website. If you live in a large household, this probably wouldn't work for you. There are only three of us here so we are able to pull it off very, very simply. A large kitty litter container is exactly the right size to fill the tank of our toilet now that two bricks have been placed inside. You flush, you fill. The difference is actually surprisingly minimal except in your perception of personal and household consumption.

I had no idea we used the amount of water we did. With the extent of the global water crisis leaving more than a billion people without clean water to even drink, I am so taken aback by us using four gallons of fresh water just to flush our toilet. Though I do not see our small simplification of using rainwater to flush the toilet as a way to save the impoverished of the world, the perspective it has given me on just how much I take for granted will stick with me for a long time to come.

Both of my boys have passed out; Jules on the couch with Bell Bell squarely on his chest, Spicy Barracuda snuggled in bed with Guadie guarding his feet. This leaves me awake to listening to the fire dwindle down and Jules' heavy breathing. I like the stillness of the nights especially with the rain falling outside. Our rain barrels have filled much faster than anticipated and have increased from two to four with another couple coming as tax returns are deposited.

The increase of our rain barrels required a trip to the hardware store, some discussion among various male employees about the right way to secure specific things (thank you Ron, Scott, and Val), and me dutifully pushing the cart because I'm way out of my element.

The hooking up of our rain barrels and outfitting them to work properly was all Jules. He was amazing! I can use the truck to acquire them from the industrial supplier, I can haul them home and wash them out, and then I can stand back and realize I'm clueless on how to make the rest of it work. Jules tried to show me plans. He tried to explain. But, it wasn't until we had all the pieces home and he was actually outfitting the first barrel that I really was able to figure out what all was going on. Now that the process has been repeated four separate times, I get it quite well and could probably do one myself. So here goes with me trying to explain...

Materials for 1 Barrel
1 3/4 inch hose bib (1/4 turn)
1 1/2 inch coupling 2 inch extension
1 package rigid sealing lock nuts (found in electrical conduit section)
1 roll 1/2 inch Teflon tape (520 inches)
2 2 inch ABS Male adapters with Lock Nut
1 2 inch ABS pipe (the really long one)
2 2 inch ABS pipe elbows (90 degrees)
1 can ABS cement
1 downspout adapter
1 flexible downspout
1 cheapo plastic garden pot with 9 inch diameter
1 roll of screen (like for a screen door)
9 1/2 inch screws
6-8 miscellaneous screws
large rubber band

Tools
Power drill with 1/2 inch drill bit
adjustable diameter wrench
Dremel (so helpful, but not imperative)
X-acto knife
Jig Saw
hose
Spoon
screwdriver
black Sharpie marker
hack saw

Drill multiple small holes into the base and 2 inches up the sides of the 9 inch garden pot. This will allow for the water to freely enter the rain barrel, but for junk from the gutters and mosquitoes to be screened out. Unroll the screen and cut two sections 6 inches high by 18 inches wide. Make an X with the screen over the opening of the pot. Press it down into the pot so that the base and side holes are completely covered (and in some places overlapped) with the screen. Wrap the screen around the lip of the pot using a spoon handle to push it underneath. Have another set of hands screw the 9 1/2 inch screws around the edges, working as you go, to secure the screen inside the pot. This pot will sit in the hole you are going to drill into the top of the rain barrels, and hold down the newly rerouted downspout.

In order for water to enter the rain barrels, you need to cut a sizable hole in the top. The most important thing to remember when cutting the holes into the barrels is that you are dealing with water. This means the seals need to be tight and in order for that to be the case, the holes need to have smooth edges that are just barely big enough. Remember, you can always remove a little more plastic, but you can never put the plastic back after you've cut too much.

Find an item in your house that has a 9 inch diameter. It can be the lid to a standard juice pitcher (that's what we used), a bowl, a jar, it doesn't matter as long as the diameter of the lid is 9 inches. Trace the outline of this lid onto the center of the rain barrel. Use the 1/2 inch drill bit to drill three successive holes about 1 millimeter from the the traced line. This will allow you a starting place to begin using the jig saw to roughly cut out the hole. Come as close to the line as you feel comfortable without going over it. Once the hole is cut, use the X-acto knife to scrape any squiggly edges of plastic. If you don't own a Dremel, see if your neighbor (father, brother, sister, mother, mail man, coworker, anyone you can think of) does. Though the Dremel is not so imperative you should go buy one solely for this project, it is so helpful. Use the Dremel to router away the last remaining plastic up to the line, leaving a smooth buffed edge. At this point, put the screened pot into the hole to check that it fits. The lip of the pot should hang over the edge enough to keep it securely fastened and prevent mosquitoes from entering.

Remove the pot from the hole and set it aside. Now that you have been sure it fits, you won't need it again until the end. Drill a hole 1/2 inch in diameter about 4-6 inches from the bottom of the barrel, making sure to X-acto and Dremel the edges of the hole. Using the 1/2 inch diameter, two inch long coupling extension and the package of rigid sealing lock nuts (they look like lock washers with a nice rubber gasket) you will next create the spout of your barrel. The basic idea is that you screw the extension into the hole sandwiching the barrel with the washers on either side. This is significantly easier said than done! If you know someone with freakishly long arms (Jules is 6'4" tall and fits this description) make them some cookies and recruit them for this mission! In all honesty, this process caused much cursing from Jules and a lot of frustration. In the end the first barrel was the only one we used the extra rubber gasket for. The later barrels still have the interior washer, but no rubber gasket. This removal increased the threadability so that Jules could really get the washer on. If you are careful with your seals, the double washer is a bit excessive for all the frustration it causes.

Whether you decide to sandwich the washers or not, here is the process for the spout. Place rigid sealing lock nut onto the coupling making sure the blue washer is facing the threads. Next wrap the threads with an ample amount of Teflon tape. Don't be stingy with this stuff, it is amazing! Using some serious brute strength screw the tape covered threads of the coupling into the barrel until you start to smuch the rubber gasket. This should be a very tight fit. If it isn't the pressure from the full barrel of water will cause a leaky spout and much annoyance later. If you are feeling gung ho and really up for a challenge, have your freakishly-long-armed friend use a wrench to fix the other rigid sealing lock washer (rubber gasket facing the barrel) to the other side of the coupling on the inside of the barrel. This is done by tipping the barrel over and having the person lay on the side, straining to reach the spout and fix the coupling. This is by far the hardest part of the process.

At this point your barrel is almost complete. The only other task is to complete the overflow valve. We had no idea how fast our barrels were going to fill up. I honestly thought the overflow valve a bit superfluous, but now see its importance. Without this valve, once your barrel fills, the water would begin back up and soon flood from any place possible. Not good. The overflow is used to direct excess water away from the foundation of your house and into a safe runoff area. The other benefit of the overflow valve is to fill other barrels. The overflow valve connects very easily into another barrel causing them to fill in succession after the initial barrel reaches maximum capacity. For anyone living somewhere with even moderate rain this is a great way to increase the amount of money saved on irrigating a garden. In our city, we also receive a generous deduction in our sewer bill with every downspout we detach into a rain barrel set up. At any rate, the overflow is necessary whether to fill another barrel, or merely to save you from flooding.

To create the overflow you will need to find the center line of your rain barrel. On most this is a simple process of finding the molding lines which run right across the top. Follow these lines down about 4 inches from the top of the barrel and trace the diameter of the ABS pipe on the side of the barrel, centered around the mold line. Use the 1/2 inch drill bit to drill a couple of successive holes in the plastic as done previously to begin jig sawing a hole. After the hole has been cut with the jig saw be sure to X-acto cut and Dremel the edges for a secure seal.

With the hole in the top and now a hole in the side, you can adequately rinse out your barrels. This is important not only for the smell (ours were used and thus had quite a pungent aroma within them) but also to remove all the pieces of plastic which have been cut, Dremeled, and X-actoed into squiggly little bits. These are not things you want clogging up the spigot of your barrel when it is full of 35+ gallons of very cold rain water. So remove both caps from the top of the barrel and take a hose to the inside. It took about three different rinsings and shakings for the barrel to really be rid of all plastic and smelly remnants. Though they look big the barrels are very, very light. They are merely bulky. However, you will most likely get a bit damp and dirty doing this so keep that in mind.

The overflow valve is a very simple attachment consisting of two Male ABS adapters with lock nuts. The adapters sandwich to either side of the rain barrel and create a place for a piece of ABS pipe to securely fit and maintain a nice seal. The adapters should have a white washer inside of them which also helps form the seal. When coupled with Teflon tape and a liberal slathering of ABS Cement, the entire connection is quite watertight. If you are wanting to hook up successive barrels, the overflow would fit directly into another male adapter on the next barrel creating a bridge for the water to flow across. The length of this bridge is determined by the size of your rain barrel stand. Our stand was designed to hold five barrels making the overflow pipe about six inches long. Between four and six inches is a good size.

Wrap the threads of one male adapter with Teflon tape and screw the adapter directly into the barrel. Just as before this should take an output of some brute force as the connection should be very tight. From the inside of the barrel, screw the lock washer over the threads sandwiching the barrel in between. Use the hack saw to cut a 4-6 inch section of ABS pipe and fit the pipe into the male adapter so that it sticks out from the barrel at a 90 degree angle. Use the ABS cement as directed to liberally slather the connection. This stuff dries fast and doesn't like to come off of your hands. If the overflow is fitting into another water barrel, the second male adapter would be sandwiched around the second water barrel and the ABS pipe would fit across. Both connections would be covered in ABS cement to ensure no leakage around the seals.

To have the single barrel set up, fit one of the 90 degree ABS elbows onto the end of the ABS pipe and point the opening toward the ground. Measure the length from the opening of the ABS elbow to the ground and subtract 2 inches from that length. Use the hack saw to cut a section of ABS pipe to this measurement. Fit the pipe securely into the elbow and attach the second 90 degree elbow to the end of the vertical pipe. Point the elbow in which ever direction you would like your water to overflow. At this point you can either fit another section of ABS pipe out of the elbow on the ground, or you can let the water run off from there. Cut a 6 inch by 6 inch square of screen and fold it over the end of your overflow pipe (or elbow) securing the screen with the large rubber band. This is to ensure that mosquitoes don't fly through the pipe and lay eggs in your rain barrel. Do not use the ABS cement on your overflow connections. If you ever decide to add onto your rain barrels you will have to buy completely new pipe. The cement does not come off. It was designed by NASA or something and is crazy adhesive!


You now have a complete rain barrel set up that merely needs to be connected to the gutter. Unhook your current down spout and set it aside. We haven't really figured out a very good thing to do with the old downspout so anyone out there who comes up with a neat idea, let us know. Attached the downspout adapter to the base of your gutter system with a few miscellaneous screws and the flexible downspout to the other end of the downspout adapter with a few more miscellaneous screws. The flexible downspout will probably have to be shortened, just be sure you allow for enough tension that it is pushed taught into the water barrel. Line your water barrel set up on the stand and place the screened in pot (from the beginning of this process) back into the top hole. Manhandle the flexible downspout into the screened in pot so that there is enough tension for the downspout to keep the pot in place and the pot to keep the hose in place.


The learning curve on this process was very rapid. By even the second barrel, Jules was moving at a much more rapid rate. The repetition of drilling, jig saw cutting, X-acto trimming, and then Dremeling the holes is exactly the same for each incision and thus leads itself to some significant muscle memory. Secondly, as we have begun such projects as the rain barrels and their stand we have slowly acquired the necessary tools and workmanship to be able to attempt future endeavors. Combined with the added bonus of Guadelupe's expert supervision, we have been able to accomplish much more than I would have felt comfortable with alone.

The entire project (and indeed our complete lifestyle simplification) has been a process of slowly gaining more and more knowledge to be useful in the future. We are relying on each other and talents we never knew the other (or ourselves) possessed. The moral, I guess I'm trying to convey, is to not be intimidated by the magnitude of a project such as this. Make a list, take it to the hardware store, talk about it with guys like Ron, Scott and Val. Get to know your neighbors by asking if anyone has a Dremel, power drill, or hack saw. Tell them what you are doing, let them know they can come and help. Strike up interest not only for yourself, but to make social connects with others. We did not know what we were doing before this and are learning as we go. If you take your time and thoughtfully progress through, you'll come up with great results.

Another great resource we discovered was Instructables. Type in rain barrels, green house, deck, or whatever else you might have been fantasizing about building. The directions are great, with pictures and process explanations all along the way. Be willing to surprise yourself and your family; Jules certainly did with us. (Can you tell I'm really proud of him!)

Jules is not a veggie man. That's okay, I love him anyway. Slowly, I'm converting him over to my wiley vegetable ingesting happiness. He even caught himself off guard the other night at dinner when he asked "Please pass the broccoli." The request was quickly followed by, "I never thought I'd say that." With Jules vote of approval broccoli slaw has become a family favorite around our household, but unfortunately one thing the Spicy Barracuda won't touch. He'll eat asparagus, but not broccoli slaw! Sometimes this kid is crazy. A food processor is a great help at getting the broccoli in little bits without covering your counter in broccoli dust, but it isn't essential by any means. Mainly, the broccoli is just chopped all up so that it is fluffy and not an overly blocky, crunchy mass on the plate.

Broccoli Slaw

Ingredients
1 small onion, halved and thinly sliced
4 slices of uncooked bacon, bacon fat, anything bacon-like
5-6 small crowns of broccoli
1/2 cup of grated Parmesan cheese (optional)

Dressing
2 Tablespoons brown sugar
1/4 cup of vinegar or lime juice
3/4 cup of yogurt (any desired flavor, we use peach)
1/2 cup of mayonnaise

I always make the dressing first and let it sit a bit before I mix the salad all together. ("A bit" is sometimes just as long as it takes me to do the other things, and sometimes earlier in the day when I have a minute.) In a cereal bowl, start with the brown sugar and stir in the vinegar/lime juice until the brown sugar is melted and smooth. Next mix in the yogurt with a whisk, lastly whisking in the mayo. The dressing will be runny, sweet and slightly tangy. If it is too sweet or too tangy, add a bit more mayo to balance it out. If too bland or thick add a bit more sugar or vinegar (respectively). Unfortunately like any salad dressing, this isn't an exact science. We have figured out what our family likes, but it is so personal. Give it a try, and be willing to perfect it on the second attempt because this salad is one that is hard to go wrong with.

When the dressing is all mixed up, I cut the bacon and the fat into small bits and fry it up in a saute pan on medium high heat. A minute of two later I dump in the onions. Stirring, them together so the bacon fat coats the onions and distributes the taste. When the bacon starts to brown, I turn down the burner to medium heat and let them simmer a bit.

While the bacon and onions are simmering, cut the crowns of broccoli into bits your food processor can manage. You can use stems and all. Pulse in rapid succession about three times till the broccoli is ground up, but not completely pulverized. The point is to have crisp broccoli bites, so if the broccoli is too fine it becomes soggy with sauce; if it is too large, it is in crunchy chunks and the flavors don't meld. Place all the processed broccoli in a large bowl.

Mix the Parmesan cheese in with the broccoli until it is thoroughly incorporated. Add the bacon and onions from the stove along with any drippings and mix thoroughly again. Lastly, thoroughly mix in the dressing.

You can now either eat it right away, or set it in the fridge to be eatten later. This is a great picnic salad, summer munching fare, or quick side dish. What I really like about it (other than getting Jules to admit he wants more broccoli) is that the cost is incredibly cheap. By using bacon bits and pieces, one of the smaller onions in the bag, some cheapo grated Parmesean cheese, and odds and ends from the fridge for dressing, you create a really tasty quick side dish. Those are the favorite in our household.

My son and I have begun reading Peter Pan before bedtime. This is my attempt to have him exposed to great literature and use his imagination. A great added perk is the wonderful conversation which has spun out of it and all the questions he is now asking. His patience for listening has become quite impressive and he rarely interrupts any more, content to just listen and ask his questions later.

I would like to clarify that we aren't talking Disney. There is a great dislike within me for how much Disney steals, rewrites, waters down, and generally simplifies leaving so little left of substance. I enjoy the animated movies as much as the next guy (and some of the music is incredibly well done), but I don't feel that having a child watch Pocahontas or Beauty and the Beast does the actual tales any justice whatsoever. Alright, I'm stepping down from my soapbox now.

The beginning of the story is a bit convoluted for younger children, but I think the idea of having to give the book a chance is important. Sometimes it is the first hundred pages you have to diligently plod through, not just the first twenty-three. At any rate he hung in there till Peter showed up to have his shadow stitched back on and is thoroughly entranced at this point.

Taking the time to spend a good thirty minutes or more in the evening just sitting next to him and sharing a story is a simple pleasure we rarely engaged in before. By the time he was to go to bed, I was more looking forward to personal time than thinking about the opportunity we were passing up. It wasn't until we learned of the need to homeschool him next year (his birthday misses the cut off by 4 days and the district turned down our appeal) that I decided it was necessary to begin actively engaging him in literature. We have gone to the library for quite some time now, and he reads almost completely without aid, but I mean real literature; time-honored, classic books. It has turned into a real bonding experience for us and hopefully something he will fondly remember when he is older.

Peter Pan is an enchanting story so entrancing to children and adults alike it has become embedded in our culture. The best part, for me as a parent, is now re-reading the story and finding so much of the language deeply poignant and touching. The whimsy and mystical approach to which it is written are things that might fly completely over his head right now, but I hope will stick in his mind somewhere if only to give lingering wonder to other aspects of the world.

Stars are beautiful, but they may not take an active part in anything, they must just look on for ever. It is a punishment put on them for something they did so long ago that no star now knows what it was. So the older ones have become glassy-eyed and seldom speak (winking is the star language), but the little ones still wonder. (pg. 22)

Perhaps in reading to my son at night, I can rub away some of my glassy eyes and re-instill a little wonder in myself.

Today we celebrated the Spring Equinox in our family by making chocolate pumpkin brownies out of the last of our cans of pumpkin. In planting a substantially larger garden this year, I'm attempting to stay in season with the fruits and veggies we eat. Pumpkins are definitely august and winter fruits so baking up the last pumpkin brownie muffins seemed an appropriate way to usher in the spring.

We are lucky in that our house was previously owned by someone who loved flowers. Bulbs of all different types began sprouting up this last month and are beginning to bloom. They are a wonderful splash of color to move around our yard by transplanting and separating the bulbs. The front and side of our house are now covered in Narcissus so that passers by can see our cheerful flowers. They are also beginning to grace the spots between larger trees and bushes in the backyard as they continue to multiply. I cannot help but try to save them because they are so beautiful. Flowers are something I never would have appreciated or spent money on had it not just occurred without our intention. The flowers have been great additions inside as the rains are starting to come more frequently now. Just another reminder to me to stop and start observing the things around me rather than rushing through the day from one chore to another.

With the coming months our backyard of fruits will begin to come into season meaning an end to the heavy dense desserts the winter months lend themselves so well to. Chocolate Pumpkin Brownies are a great closure to the chilly temperatures, but more importantly they are a wonderful way to enjoy a glass of milk and an hour or so with the Barracuda.

Spicy Barracuda loves to bake things together. He enjoys everything from cracking the eggs to adjusting the levers on the mixer. We get to talk about all sorts things and it is a good way for us to have conversation around a subject that isn't intimidating. Lately we have also been working on fractions since he has noticed all the numbers on the measuring cups and spoons. He never ceases to amaze me with the things he notices and is curious about. More than anything it is a way to slow down the hectic pace of our days and fit in some one-on-one time where we solely focus on creating something together. I get to laugh at the amount of batter he can get all over his face, in his hair, up his nose, covering his ears and Lord only knows where else when he licks off the mixer attachment. He gets a great sense of accomplishment in being able to help and watch the ingredients come together turning into a delicious snack. To me he is not only learning the valuable skills of cooking and seasons, but also how to enjoy conversation and time with someone without the television on. Perhaps I'm just old fashioned, but I like the idea that my child likes to just sit and talk with people for stimulus instead of plugging in to an electronic gadget.

Chocolate Pumpkin Brownies

Ingredients
1 stick of butter
2 cups of sugar
2/3 cup of apple sauce
1/2 cup sour cream
1 can pumpkin (1 home quart or 1 large Libbys)
2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup unsweetened cocoa
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp all spice
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 cups dark chocolate chips

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix together eggs, sugar, applesauce, and butter. Blend in pumpkin and sour cream. In a separate bowl sift together cocoa, flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, all spice, baking powder and soda. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet, mixing completely before adding more. Fold in chocolate chips. Pour into greased muffin tins and bake for 15-25 minutes. This recipe makes two dozen, if you can keep them around that long.

The Spicy Barracuda is currently sick with Jules and I fending it off. Today was a day of snuggling on the couch, watching movies, and taking it very very easy. Barracuda is allergic to most all over the counter kid's medicine due to a filler that is commonly used. Rather than hives and vomiting on top of being sick, we resort to using herbal remedies. (Jules would like me to rephrase that - nasty herbal remedies.) I'm a big fan of not using the chemical products, but since most herbal remedies need to be used when you first feel the onset of sick coming, they are hard to use with a child. If the Barracuda had told me a week ago he was starting to feel like he might be getting sick, we wouldn't really be here right now playing catch up with battling viruses. I must say, however, at four and a half he does remarkably well with the whole feeling icky and taking medicine thing.

Our household uses horehound when we are sick with colds. Horehound is an herb that has been prescribed from as far back as the Greek physician Dioscorides in 40-90 AD. He advocated a concoction of horehound for tuberculosis, asthma and coughs. The herb is an effective immune booster. It is quite nutritious, containing vitamins A, B, C and E, essential fatty acids, iron, potassium and marrubin (an expectorant). Mainly, Horehound has proven to be effective in loosening phlegm and mucus in the bronchial tubes and in the lungs, however it will also relieve coughs and sore throats. The German government's committee of herbal experts, known as Commission E, has sanctioned horehound for use against bronchial problems, including laryngitis.

Footnote: Information and recipe acquired from A-Z Health and Beauty
http://health.learninginfo.org/herbs/horehound.htm

Horehound works really well for us, but I will warn you it tastes terrible. There is no getting around it. Jules and I create a fowl tasting (and smelling) tea by using 1/4 cup of Horehound and letting it boil on the stove till it is the color of hardwood stain. By condensing it this much you only have two swallows to get down, and only have to ingest it about 4 times. Though it will not make you feel amazing, it will prevent you from becoming full blown sick. Having the Barracuda try this, however, would be completely useless. So, he uses a cough syrup.

Horehound Cough Syrup
1/4 cup dried horehound
2 cups of water
3 cups of honey

Put horehound and water in a pot and heat until boiling. Let steep 10 minutes and then strain. When cooled add honey and mix well. Bottle up for use later.

Originally I wanted to grow it in our garden, that is until I got a look at the plant. As much as horehound is a wonderful medicinal herb, it isn't going to win any beauty contests. Also, it is related to mint and will take over. Hard to kill and a glutton for punishment, the plant will grow most anywhere and is very difficult to get rid of. Well, that killed the garden idea. Now, we pick horehound up our at a local herb shop and it is very reasonable in price when purchased in loose leaf bulk. It can be purchased at some natural stores in cough syrup already, but when I purchased it this way for the Barracuda at Whole Foods it was almost 10 dollars a fluid ounce! So, we kept the jars and now I make it.

In our house sick also means it is time to start defrosting the chicken stock from the freezer. Whenever chicken is on sale, I usually buy at package or two for the sole purpose of making chicken stock. Usually it is chicken quarters or thighs, but it doesn't matter. Whole fryers work as well, they are usually just more expensive than a package of pieces.
Chicken Stock
Ingredients
2 chicken quarters
5 celery stalks, tops too
3 carrots
1 onion
1/2 stick of butter
4 garlic cloves
3 rosemary sprigs
4 thyme sprigs
2 bay leaves
salt and pepper to taste

Directions
Cut the veggies into large pieces and then dump everything into a giant stock pot and heat on high until boiling. Boil about 5 minutes and turn down to low/medium heat. You want it to simmer all day, just below a boil. Stir frequently and check the water level so that the ingredients stay below the water level. After 6-8 hours, use a strainer to drain the liquid into another bowl. At this point the chicken should have fallen apart off of the bones. I separate the chicken (as best I can) and dump it in with the liquid and freeze it into tupperware containers. The murshy veggies then go to our compost pile. These become the bases for soups, sauces, and casserole all month. It stretches one package of chicken a long long way. I'm sure the same thing would work with veggie stock if your household didn't do meat.

To turn the chicken stock into soup all you need to do is re-add some onion, carrot, a clove of garlic (due to being sick), and some noodles. This means our family can have home-made chicken soup in about 10 minutes on the stove.

It works out really well for us to readily have the chicken stock all made up. I can either defrost it the night before or pull it out and microwave defrost it if I forget. By using a day off to make up three or more Tupperware containers, I don't have to bother with the extensive cooking during the times when life is so crazy I can't think about it or when I feel just as yucky as those I'm cooking for.

When we make stock, we turn off the heat and let the warm smell of the soup fill the house. The Spicy Barracuda and I snuggle up on the couch and he read a book to me while I knit. We have great conversations, watch a movie together, and just enjoy each others' company. In this way, soup and stock are great ways to not only nurture your body but each other as well.