Words and Signs and Funnys

Yes, we admit it. We've been so self absorbed in our house situation we have been incomplete in reporting all the goodness around. A good lesson.

Upon reading past blogs to see what we have told you all out there in our cyber family, we realized that we did not tell you so MUCH!

A biggy! Celia's first word! It all started when we were both ill about a month ago when Celia was almost 9 months. We were in Blockbuster and a young teen couple were in the same isle. The girl was quite interested in Celia and Celia stared back at her. Now Celia's been waving for quite some time, but all of a sudden she waved and then said, "Eye." What did you say? Did she say, hi, I wondered? I was sure I was mistaken.

Next stop, groceries. Celia, normally shy and reserved, started the trip out with a band by telling everyone "Eye" with a wave in the store! It was sooo funny!! Now, she's so proficient she actually says "Hi" with the "H" sound, and sometimes adds, "Hi dada!" (Like she did in the middle of the night when Steve went in to comfort her and put her back down.) Here's my attempt at a video: They never perform on cue do they? :)



Also, I have been signing to Celia since she was very little. Just easy words. At 8 months she started to do the "milk" sign whenever she wanted to breastfeed! It was so exciting to us!! So we started adding more words. Still, she just signed "milk." Ah well, we figured. This week, all of a sudden, it's like a light went on for her. I tell her "I love you" all the time in sign language and the other morning in bed she clasped her hands in front of her heart and swayed back and forth like I do when I say it and gave a high pitch "ahhhh." Here's my attempt at a video which didn't really catch it. Oh, and no there was no attempt to make myself presentable at 7am in this video:




She also started doing the "more" sign while eating. It's more like clapping, but same thing, right!? AND awhile back I figured a sign for her to show me she was done eating and I've been doing it after each meal once she slows down, and just yesterday, there it was!! "All Done." (a swipe of her hand above and across her tray) Speaking of food, this kid is so funny! She eats EVERYTHING!! Her favorites are humus (???!!!), cottage cheese and kiwi! She ate ethiopian food the other night!

Anyway, we are having SO much fun these days! We are out in the garden everyday, she's big enough to get in the backpack now for walks, she's graduated from crawling to pulling herself up on things. This is funny. I wondered why she wasn't interested in this earlier. Well, upon watching her, I realized she's too short to pull herself up to what normal babies would: the couch, the coffee table etc... So once we figured that out, she started to pull herself up to the bottom step and the stereo on the floor of her room! Yep, height challenges she will clearly face forever as a Voller. :)

Steve and I are going away for our 4th anniversary this weekend. We are going on the wine tours of Leelanau Peninsula here in Michigan and staying in an Inn on Suttons Bay! We are so excited and so in need of some time away. We are both (especially mom) nervous about leaving Celia for 2 days. We will miss her soooo much! I know, it's crazy, but it's true. Lastly, the garden is going well! Our peas and potatoes and going up like rockets and our spinach and spring greens are TRYING to make it. Some pesky bug keeps eating them in their infancy! This is the first year our beets and carrots aren't making an appereance.... hmmmm... We got rhubarb plants from our neighbor and Great Grandpa Roth and Grandpa Larry came over to help us expand our garden by 3 times!! Now it's remove all the clumps fast enough time to get in the corn and beans and cucs this week! love to you all. We know we have been distant, but we are finally in the clear with much stress and self involvement. what a relief.

ahhhh, Spring!

Our March-May - PHOTO STYLE!

We had a warm spell early April and Celia was teething. Easy. Blanket outside with frozen blueberries makes both ladies happy!





Grandma Char came over late April and we mulched the flowerbeds while Celia played in her fun tent.



Last week Celia had her first swing experience -- loved it! -- with friend, Sevi Cullum. Only 7 weeks apart you can see how tiny Celia is (in the 10th percentile says the Dr.) Are you at all surprised?



We met Uncle Andy and cousin Riley for a brisk late March walk as well.



Then for Easter in March, I got to play with cousin, Breanna



Have Grandma Judy read to me:



Get lovin' from Grandma Carol:



And of course, be with us, the 'rents and the pup outdoors.

Crawling, Teething, and Sniffling, OH MY!

April has been QUITE THE MONTH for all in the Voller Family.

First Celia:

Her first cold graced us with its appearance this month. She had a raspy gurgling cough and a stuffed/runny nose for 7 days. We were actually quite pleased with this seeing as our dr. told us that this cold is lasting 14 days in children.

She was up all times of the night. She was miserable all day. Steve and I took turns sleeping with her, bringing the futon into her bedroom to slumber. Her nose sucker got lots of action. We went through 6 kleenex boxes (did we mention Steve was sick with a cold PRIOR to Celia and then J got the cold WITH Celia, and then Steve proceeded to get another cold AFTER Celia and J? Can you say stress got the better of us?)

So she finally gets better -- starts to smile -- becomes more Celia-esque... and then one day was so FUSSY J thought she was going to jump out the window. Or off the roof. Or just run away.

Next day --there they were. 2 teeth poking through -- her top two incisors! So that little fuss budget had her reasons. I quickly chastised myself for getting upset and made a committment to be a better parent next time.

THEN low and behold -- she's getting mad again. ARE YOU KIDDING ME??!! WHAT NOW??!!! Next day -- she's crawling. Here's Steve's video. Funny. Celia doesn't drink from a bottle. It's boob or cup. But we're going away for our anniversary for 2 days and Celia will need to have breastmilk from a bottle. As you see, she was just fine with this! WHEW!!! Watch this:



I tell myself again that our baby is so mellow, I KNOW that when she's fussy something's wrong. Next time, I will understand this. Next time I'll be a better parent.

We have a blast for a week. Celia's new mobility is freeing for us both. The sun ironically shows it's face, decides to warm our Michigan soil and we venture out every day for walks, grass pulling and accidential sunburns.



And then, it happens. Celia is crying ALL DAY. Crying, screaming, fussing, crying, whining, fussing. 8 days. All Day. My nerves were like downed electric wires sparking and fizzing in the night rain. My head was ringing. My back was knotted up and would lock and ache the second I heard her voice. I was MAD. She was CLEAN, FED, RESTED, HELD, LOVED.... WHAT WHAT WHAT?!?!?!?!?! "I can't do this," I said to Steve. "I'm leaving for a few days. I'm losing it!" Cry, Cry, Cry. No matter what I did. I actually threw things. I actually yelled. I actually felt like a robot on speed.

This morning -- look at that! Her top two middle teeth. And she's fine.

And so I say again... oh! NO!! Next time, Next time, I PROMISE Celia, I'll be the better parent. I'm So sorry!

And then I realize, this is what being a good parent is. You go through very hard times. You may not take the moment to have the higher attitude, but you TRY. You may feel like your head is going to roll off in search of peace leaving your body to still totter along with a laundry basket on the hip, a pan in one hand, a garden trowel in the other, and the vacumm cord wrapped around your ankle. But you make it. You keep in the game. You pray daily for it all to end. And of course it does. You still feed, love, change, rock, sing and dance with your child. You still play with them. You still kiss them. You make it. Good parent.

As for Steve and myself, well, you can imagine what we felt like during this, both getting our spring detox groove on as well. And the fat, dripping, sour red cherry on top -- the mortgage issue. We thought surely this would be cleared up. Somehow. Someway. But it just dragged on and on and on. Our friend Killian worked his tail off to help us. Worked overtime to get us the best we could get. And in the end, it all fell through. Just last night.

Details are long and tedious. Stories are detailed and depressing. But yet we feel oddly relieved. We're out of money. We're going to sell our home, and possibly lose it to foreclosure in the process if it doesn't sell quickly or I don't get a night job. (Even through it all I will not give up my day job as Celia's mom. That is solid, in stone, sacred, we both have committed to this)

The savings are gone and the retirement is gone. This will be the first month since Oct 2006 that this all began we'll have to say we can't make our payment. And it's a relief. We did our best. We fought a good hard fight. But we looked in the mirror. Our lips were bulging and swollen, blood ran off of a gash in the cheek, our left eye had a huge black circle adorning it, our nose was off to the right. It's time to stop, we said. It's time to stop. Ding, Ding, Ding. The bell has tolled. We step out of the ring. Collapse in a chair. It will take us years to fix the damage that has occured in just a year and a half. But you start over.

We are grateful that this was so aggrivating that it knocked us into the finite knowledge of having ultimate control over our finances. We were never going to be in debt to anyone again. Not even a mortgage company. We may get a small loan for land, but then we're going to build as the money comes in. We'll rent to get our savings back. We'll start over on the 401K. It's just a circle, this life. And here we are, at the beginning. Feels good. odd.





OH! And we went to see the Dalai Lama in Ann Arbor! It was wonderful to be in his presence and hear his words. There's much to be said about this, but we've talked long enough. Here's our top three moments: The Dalai Lama ( no cameras allowed, so here's the news from that day) Eating at Zingermans. The Arb. (Celia chilling in the Arb -- Steve's bliss :) )

Celia Videos

Mama and Other Fun

Can you smell it in the air? The smell of snow is being replaced with none other than the smell of soil. Wet, cold soil as it warms... The smell of SPRING!! And what did spring bring to the Vollers? Celia seems to have officially attached her first word to something...

ME!

I hear many babies say "dada" first, but our lady now mumbles "mama" or "mummum" when she wants me or wants to nurse. Lucky me! Now whenever I hear that little voice call out "mamamamamam," I'm an absolute sucker. I stop whatever is going on and run over like a child that hears the ice cream truck on a July afternoon. She just talks talks talks! It's hilarious! And although she seems to run wild verbally these days, phyisically, well, she really wants to crawl, but not enough to bother too much. Standing -- well, that's just not any sort of fun, says Celia. Here's a video of her babbling away!



She has also taken to clapping her hands this week and waving! She has been copying us for a few weeks, but this is especially fun! Check out video 2 of copying daddy smacking his mouth.



Celia had her first illness this month too. Luckily, it wasn't so bad. She started to not keep down solids for a day and then I noticed a small temp. (and yes, took my first journey into rectalville -- woo hoo...) What did I do? The only thing that made her happy: Kept her close, went to liquids only and laid around with her all day. Her she is, too big to really be in the sling this way, but right where she wanted.



We are also happy to report that in general we are getting 6ish hours of sleep in a row!! This is HUGE!! I look back to January and the 6 months of intense sleeplessness and I don't know how we made it. But you do, right? You've seen Celia playing guitar with Steve... well, clearly I caught another special moment between dad and daughter. Celia is always in smiles when dad is around. They are quite the pair!



She eats like a little piggy too, loving her mama made food. Although it looks as if she may be ready for some finger foods, would you say?



On the Steve and Jeannie front, we have started our first indoor seeds for our expanded garden to get back to our local eating goal. We are excited to hop back on the locavore train, toot toot. It's been a bit of a bother to me to buy greens and tomatoes, but next year at this time I hope to be using up the last can of tomatoes from the garden, the last onion from storage, the last frozen peas bag. YIPPIE!

Jeannie has spent most of her time with the garden endeavor while caring for little Celia. Steve has been really enjoying his new job and he is BUSY BUSY BUSY! Every day we thank the Foremost gods for giving Steve this promotion! Now I get to stay home with babe and he gets to be happy. I'd say two invaluable aspects of life, yes?

We've had our share of trials as well. Our mortgage situation has hit the fan, as they say. Deep up to our gullets in payments for the adjustable mortgage, we have been close to drowning in the preditory lending scandals we are all hearing so much about. Yet, hazaa, we are now out of our "penalty period" to get a new mortgage and can do so without forking over cash up our wazoo to do so. Relief! But wait... everything was in the works. We were finally able to breathe. This month all savings has been depleted, the 401K cashed out to pay for our mortgage and medical bills for the birth is gone. Just in time...

Except... House value down 10,000? What? 100% loan to value ratio? No banks will refinance those 100%-er's? Explitives erupt.

This is our current head mess. Steve and I try daily to grab a broom and sweep away the fudge of confusion to see clearly as to the right path. We send out for help and guidence. We sit in silence for the magic voice of reason to speak. We smack a few bats that are making homes in our brains, only to come out at night and flutter us awake in panic... Soon, is all we can say... soon.

We are thinking of finding some people that have land or know someone that has land and seeing if they want to sell, rent or make a trade with us. We'd like to build a sustainable one room cabin with loft for around 4,000. We can grow food or cook and clean or mow lawns or shovel snow in turn for a space to practice building skills and try out a rain water shower in the cabin (rain water caught by barrel, heated with solar, and pumped into a small shower... in turn this water would be "gray water" and could be used for the garden, or even pumped back in for toilet water... I digress) as well as try to get out of debt and get our savings back and running. When done, we'll take the cabin with us, or you can buy it for a guest house. Sound fun?

We don't know what will happen here, but we are glad to be together, glad to be warm on frosty spring mornings, glad to open a fridge and have food. I think this face says it all:

Celia Slide Show!

Come see little Celia in her 6th and 7th months!

Here's a link to her slide show :)


http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=v8vu267.tcik3cv&x=0&y=puuxil


More time to come with updates and stories GALORE!

The Voller Look A Like Meter

MyHeritage: Look-alike Meter - Free family history - Genealogical research

The Skinny

We meant to write! Really we have! I actually had a wicked long, kick ass blog all ready to post, but well, January brought some adventures other than the local eating onion. So, we thought we’d give you the skinny as to where we have been during this month.

A. Celia cut two teeth at the same time. Parents, you know how that goes. Soon after, she began to go to town on my knuckles and started rubbing her tongue across her UPPER teeth! Ah me! Poor little lady.

B. For the second time in our 6 year relationship, Steve came down with a fever. And this was bad. His temperature was over 102 degrees for 4 days. So clearly he was off all baby duty. No holding, rocking, getting up in the night, comforting, putting down to sleep or nap, no nada. And yes this happened while Celia was teething. Can you see my eyes starting to twitch, my head beginning to tick?

C. During this my insomnia troubles finally got the best of me. Getting 4 hours of sleep on average every night for 6 months eventually will cause someone to crack we discovered.

Celia sleeps fairly well. She does still wake up, but goes right back down. I on the other hand wake and then become crack mommy. I cannot sleep again – even during the day. I run around like some coked up rock star minus the red leather pants (although if I had a pair, I’d probably put them on). We’ve known for a time that there was some chemical imbalance here, but we have high deductible insurance, and we thought maybe it would work itself out. Ummmm… no.

I started crying uncontrollably multiple times within that week period. I’m not exactly a crier… Well, I guess I really cry, well, never. So this was alarming to Steve. I would collapse blubbering away in deep sobs and then zone out in a mummy like state feeling kinda numb, kinda drugged. I started to run loose emotionally. Yelling, becoming irrational, losing my temper with a poor teething baby. Details are unnecessary; it was just bad.

And yes, during all this, I still cooked seasonally and from scratch. It was at this point that I started to think I might be nuts.
One day when I was peeling a squash (a very tedious task) and man handling a rutabaga, I looked up out the window and had one of those Wonder Years moments. The Byrds “Turn, Turn, Turn” plays in the background and the light gets soft around my face and a voice speaks saying, “Little did I know that the next winter, having prepared for this type of eating, we’d be in much better shape than now.” After all, I can quickly grab a bag of frozen beans, walk downstairs and get me some canned tomatoes, chuck me some dried peaches, I need a snack.

Another interesting twist of events was when I finally went to the doctor and found out that I am under the weight I was BEFORE I got pregnant. Whoopsie.
It was then that we realized things needed to change. I require an extra 700 calories a day to be a breastfeeding mama and clearly something went astray. To be Celia’s source of nutrition is an absolute gift in my eyes, and this lack of greens and fresh fruit is frankly unacceptable. Those things missing in my diet are then missing in Celia’s and well… no brainer, yes?

So, we have decided to forgo our adventure until the spring buds appear. I still plan on cooking seasonally for the most part, but we’ll just add sautéed spinach or throw a salad on the side.

Never fear, readers, the time is coming. I saw hot house rhubarb the other day at the store… spring will be here soon.

6 Month Celia

Celia has officially passed her first 1/2 year of life! And just two days after her 6 month milestone, she cut 2 teeth at the same time! Happy Birthday, little one! She's handling the pain pretty well. She's been enjoying frozen washcloths, her wooden toys and the foot of a toy giraffe to help her gnaw through the newness. Along with teeth, Celia has been sitting up on her own for over a month now! Her favorite past time again are those wooden blocks! Loves it! She has also found a new joy: the doorway bouncer. Seriously, she thinks this is the best fun created. Just watch:



Much to Mom and Dad's dismay, we still can not report very good night sleep. UG! She is eating every 4 hrs, sometimes 3, and we are in the process of figuring out if she actually IS hungry or just needs some cuddling. Needless to say, we are very tired and are looking towards the horizon for some much needed reprieve. We can not explain, although most of you parents know, how brillant it is to watch her expand and grow and take in this thing we called life. She's so aware and curious and absolutely sparkles when newness comes. Ah, if only we all could be like a 6 month old.

Local January

I was off to the store.

Every mid month we pick up our West Michigan Co Op food. Now, some cities have winter farmer’s markets. But our winter farmer’s market is different. It’s online.

How does it work? We, as members, sign in, pick out our goods from local farmers, anything from ground beef to squash to honey to goat soap. Then mid month we show up at the designated spot, pick up our booty, pay, and we then can christen ourselves with the new word on the street: We are locavores. What a couple of cheaters, huh? No, just lucky that Gail from Farms Without Harm who created this gem rocks the kazba. Mid December we had purchased what we’d hoped would get us through a month of food.

But the first week of January we realized we were out of food already. Since our goal has become to go “in season” instead of “all local” until the spring thaw I puttered over to Meijers with a grocery list of items such as potatoes, squash, rutabaga, beets, carrots, etc…

To start off my search I found a produce manager. All the books have been telling me to do this. Find the produce manager, the author would direct, tell them what you’re looking for, if they don’t have it, tell them that is what you want. Me, the consumer, will be a kick in the local food hiney, say the wise pioneers of the local food movement.

I haven’t done it yet, because who wants to bother the produce gal? I’m in a hurry. I’m a little shy. I’m just… well, I don’t wanna. But times they are a changin’ and I must too. So I found her. “What’s local?” I ask.

She looked at me puzzled and said, “Hmmmm… some of the apples are, I know for sure. Ummm… we have Michigan potatoes…. Maybe the beets… I guess I’ll have to check.” In minutes my produce angel winged over to me with a 3 ring binder that told her what was local, from the USA, or from some where else that we in Michigan wish we could be some part of our winters up here. Well, she was right the first time: Apples, potatoes, beets, turnips and herbs. That’s all she wrote.

But wait a minute. Is that squash, I see? Big orange, green and yellow bulbs of winter plenty were sticking up, their little produce vibes calling me. I know we have farmers here that grow squash and still have a butt load too. I know this because I buy from Katie at Groundswell Community Farm.

But the sticker on the bumpy orb didn’t say “From Katie’s” with a nice photo of beautiful Katie, dark hair mussed by the fall breezes with farm landscape dotting the backdrop… although that would be sooooo cool! No, it said, “From Mexico.” Mexico, Michigan maybe, I wondered. If we can go to Holland as well as to Hell right here in Michigan, why not Mexico? But, no. For some reason, even though squash would be a cinch to purchase locally, they choose not to. Why I wondered. Probably because we as consumers haven’t seemed to care one-way or the other. I picked up four Mexican Squash and said, “Gracias.”

What else did our first half of the month of conscious food eating, bring? So, ok. We didn’t realize a few things.

We had forgotten that we live with me, a full time nursing mother. I don’t know about all the ladies out there, but there are certain nutritional cravings that I still get, sort of like in pregnancy. Can I hear a hup hup anyone? So I’ve had to make an “I’m Nursing” clause in my exceptions. I won’t try to explain what this means, I’ll just know when it happens.

Next hardship? You know those days. You’re exhausted. Too much happened. You’re teetering on blowing up at your husband for no good reason. The baby’s cries feel like fingernails on a chalkboard. And it’s time to cook dinner. I used to say, “I’m going to Rosie’s for burgers!” Yet, we are very committed to no CAFO meat. This is of unwavering importance to us. So what did I do when this happened? Well, I made Bounty Rice. This is a very simple recipe that tends to have ingredients that are just around. It’s quick and can be loaded with cheese for little ones. (For any of these seasonal recipes that we’ve used this month, check out the www.myspace.com/foodclub08 blog.)

Next obstacle? When you need to just eat a quick breakfast, cereal is the way to go. Now, yes, we’re trying to get away from quick food, be more appreciative of what molecules we decide to ingest to create our inner molecules, but let’s face it, there are those times. In Greece we discovered a quick breakfast for them was a roll, a few tomato slices, a few olives, a couple hacks off the cheese wheel and strong ass coffee. AHHH! We miss Greece. But tomatoes aren’t in season, and olives are gone for a year. (Wiping a tear).

So we have opted to allow ourselves Marie Catrib’s Granola that she makes right in her restaurant weekly. I’m pretty sure, having been one of her bakers for a time, that her ingredients are not all local. But Marie and her son Fouad are the biggest supporters of local farmers that I know of in all of Grand Rapids, and therefore are a great choice. I have also found that when in a bind, I can make Breakfast Polenta – see food blog for recipe.

The biggest question that came up was, what EXACTLY is our purpose here. Are we doing this to be purists? Nothing entering the body that hasn’t been grown outside of our 200-mile radius? Are we doing this to just make sure our produce and meat are local? Are we doing away with 100% of processed foods along with this?

Which is really the whole point of this. It goes back to buying Marie’s granola. We have decided that it’s not just about being purists. For us, it’s about an expanded awareness of where our food comes and having an expanded relationship with our food and who brings it to our table. So, yes, Marie’s granola isn’t 100% local, but it all ties in. She runs a local restaurant. She supports local farmers with many of her recipe ingredients. We benefit both by supporting her. It’s pretty profound and simple all at the same time. So there we have it.

Many more obstacles reared their factory food head, but one thing began to gnaw at our current food system programmed brains... so, we confess. We have deemed January as cheater month. Now wait, we didn’t exactly fall off the wagon a week into our experiment. We have been trying to finish up items that were still in the kitchen from before but will no longer be purchased. Bags of chips, boxes of crackers, jars of olives. So although our meals have been 100% seasonal, we have been dining on these coveted snacks in between meals. We watched the last bag of Tortilla chips go into the trash. Then the cereal boxes started to dwindle. The humus container was rinsed out and tossed in recycling. The shelves began to have a Russian Cold War look to them. What were we going to do for quick snacks and such when all this cheater, sinner fare was gone in February?

After a little searching, and a little better planning, we found it can happen. Creswick Farms makes some of the tastiest jerky around! He also makes his own pepperoni and summer sausage. So a little of that, with carrot sticks, beet slices (a Steve thing I’m still not keen on) yogurt, cheese, hunks of homemade bread with jams from harvest, local nuts (yep, there’s a whole chestnut growers foundation here in Michigan), and dried cranberries or cherries life isn’t so bad… if fact, it’s pretty tasty. Our bodies are already reacting to the absence of chips and the other plethora of boxed niceties in a most interesting way. Oh, and one other snack: If you have 30 minutes try roasting a whole garlic bulb and then spreading it like butter on your bread. Believe you me, it’s like butta.

The Voller Holidays

We had a lovely holiday season! Our first as 4 instead of 3! (yep, we count the dog in that number.) The best thing about the season? We committed to going nowhere and just staying together for 5 WHOLE days! But first, the beginning of December! This is how it went!

We had J's mom's side Christmas party here, which went great! Here the Sheneman bro's and their others, as well as Mike's kids Rissa and Charlie.



We had J's bookclub party here, which was CRAZY! We had a Steve's good friend, Vince, over for a few days from Boston. We all got in the car one day and went to Lake Michigan when he was here. He had never seen it! It was FRIGID, so Celia and I stayed in the car while the boys played on the beach. I mean COLD!! We take walks everyday, but this kind of cold -- no way!





Then around came the 22nd and for the first time we celebrated Solstice. We wouldn't call ourselves Pagen or anything, but we were fascinated by this very ancient celebration of the seasons, which our family is becoming very much apart of as our Year of Local Food kicks off. Interestingly enough, many Solstice rituals are the same as the Christmas rituals and therefore we were already doing and didn't know! Go figure. So having the tree already and a yule log was accomplished. But I still did some special baking and read to Steve why this last day of darkness before the sun started to rise in the sky again was so important to ancient people. It was very nice!




And then came Christmas morning. We were so excited to video Celia's first Christmas I made Steve tape me coming down the stairs carrying Celia (as we used to do as kids) and then video Celia holding a 2007 sign... another Sheneman tradtion from when the only sound of home movies made was a flickering of the film. Then business commenced! Celia loved eating the wrapping paper more than anything. Yet, she was very grateful for 2 soft books (loads of chewing fun!), a little wooden wagon with wooden blocks and a soft teether made of organic cotton (we are now officially scared of any other product's toxicity as I'm sure all parents are!).



Steve opened a few gifts (an I-pod!), Elle opened a bone, and J opened a spice rack, books and few other fun items too. Her Muck Boots are on the way soon :)



After lazing in front of thefire with White Christmas in the background, J set to making their Christmas Dinner. Her first big, and all from scratch dinner. Here we are kneading the bread for our Sage Rolls.



The dinner of Beef Tenderloin, mashed potatoes cakes with leeks and ledin cheese, corn, rolls, and bread pudding was beautiful and thankfully soooooo tasty. After all the hard work, it better be... hahaha!



And the best gift of all!? Celia began, for no known reason, to sleep 5-6 hours in a row.... FINALLY!! We were just coming off of an every 2-3 hour wake up to eat for 1 1/2 months and we're about as fried as an egg on the stove for 4 days. This little bib, a gift from our friends the Brokas, turned out to be the best part of the holiday season!

The Local '08 Layout

So. A year of local eating. We began to discuss how exactly to go about this.

"How am I supposed to cook without cumin?!" I asked horrified.

I am not a chef by any means, but my love of cooking has taken me into a new galaxy of spice planets I never knew existed. And yet wait… I didn't even dry herbs from our garden… oops! Would I have to do with out basil until summer? What would we do until then? Questions like this began to flood our kitchen discussion and it didn't look like the sea of "huh?" was going to part anytime soon.

"Well, you can put cumin on your exception list," says always-optimistic Steve.

"No." I huffed. "I want to do this right."

After all, I think this was my idea. And although my raiding of our cupboards to store for 1 year anything that says "MADE in CALIFORNIA" or "MADE with products from ITALY, ARGENTINA, and TUNSIA," I was very surprised, when I finally took the time to look, to see how gas guzzling my food habits really are, and how difficult this might be. (no lie. My olive oil lists all 3 of these places as the origin of olive trees. That's one expensive plane trip for those tasty black or green yummies. Wish I were an olive.)

Ohhh, I love mayo too. Where's this from? New York, huh? Kinda close. All right, what the heck IS mayo anyway? Oil, water, eggs, vinegar, lemon juice… I can make that! Who knew?

Then it became even more challenging. Chicken, beef, vegetable stock? I make our own soups weekly, and this to me is like shoe shopping for other chicks… like, totally fun, you know? But I make it easy on myself and open up my can or box of stock and WALLA! Soup for the masses. So, I consulted Betty. Making my own stock, says Betty Crocker, will require the bones, organs and other such parts of our dinner we don't like to think about. Hmmm… great. I've managed to steer clear of giblets for 30 years. Guess it's time to grow up. Now vegetable stock is much easier, but we didn't plan ahead to have all sorts of local vegetables in storage for our January beginning. What to do?

What's next on the questionable list? Hmmm… I don't about you but I don't remember passing any sugar fields in West Michigan as of late. Sugar was clearly out. Honey and Maple Syrup would suffice. BUT WAIT! I forgot about Pioneer Sugar, made in Michigan from Michigan sugar beets. HAZAA! But wait… I haven't eaten bleached, white, refined sugar in five years. I bake with the raw sugar cane, a much more natural alternative for my vivacious longing for sweetness.

(A side note: knock me off my high horse. I recently learned of the inhumane treatment of sugar cane workers. My buying habits support this. My buying habits make all the decisions in this country. Make no mistake about it. My dollar is my politics. Ug! This brings up the constant question… if you knew where your food came from, who made it, how it was made, would you want to eat it? Is it ok that the coffee farmer makes 6 bucks a day while I shell out the 3.67 for my one, just one, frothy, hot, and creamy latte? Who gets this money? CEO's, producers, middle men. The person that toiled tending the coffee trees can barely feed his family. Soap Box Moment: Buy Fair Trade people!)

Was I really going to start ingesting white sugar in the name of said sweet tooth? The World Health Organization states that 6 teaspoons of sugar reduces our immune system by 25% by affecting our white blood cells. The bigger shock? One soda has 16 TEASPOONS of sugar. Ack!

What else? What about Elle? I probably won't be making her food anytime soon with new baby in tow and a commitment to make Celia's food. "Elle Pup" was added to our List of Exceptions. Nutro Max Natural was here to stay.

And what ABOUT Celia? Rice cereal, bananas, avocados, peaches, sweet potatoes; pretty typical first foods and yet, not exactly in season… well, NEVER in season for 2 of those up here in the North, eh? It really didn't take much thought. "Celia." Second thing written on our Exception List.

Now, I won't continue to bore you with the myriad of other items that came across on our, "What the?" list. In the end, this was the conclusion:

It's January in Michigan, folks, and we did not prepare a food storage from the year previous, which obviously makes 100% local eating almost impossible at this time. So we have decided to do 3 things for our local eating goal that we CAN control starting in January, and then come the first weekend in May, we are putting our heads onto the local eating guillotine. And I say, let it roll!

FIRST: We have committed ourselves to only the support and consumption of local, pasture raised and humanly treated animals that we not only know the farmer but also know the cow or chicken that ended up on our plates o' plenty. We are officially done with meat that comes from Confined Animal Feeding Operations (CAFO's).

SIDE NOTE: A note about being asked to dinner. When someone invites us into their home, takes the time to cook for us, and puts their efforts into a meal, we will eat happily and thankfully. We're not here to evangelize. This is a personal decision. We are grateful for others generosity and we'll just leave it at that. Yet, we're not allowed to call up mom and say, "Hey, can we come to dinner and would you make pineapple banana surprise with shrimp?"

SECOND: We both get our exceptions list. Celia and Elle get what they want, as has been established. Here's our current list of free-bees: (after all, says Steve, there has been trade happening for thousands of years. Some things are so special to us; we must keep them in the El Voller-o diet. Our goal is to change what has become an entirely trade guided food system relying on cheap oil and cheap labor from other countries. And most of the trade is silly. We are apple growers to the umpth degree in the glove state. But you'll find most of your apples at the store from Washington State. ???? Our local farmers grow berries, vegetables, bake bread and on and on. But next time, even in the summer food bliss, check your berry package. Does Mexico or Chile really have superior strawberries and blueberries to Post Farms that's 10 miles away that were allowed to ripen naturally, that are grown for taste not shipping?)

ANYWHO....

Jeannie

Chocolate for Winter (everyone knows chocolate releases seratonin in the brain, which in our absence of sunlight is muy importante para mi.)

Olive Oil (I will start making my own butter as soon as we get our cow share program going on – but even then – olive oil, I have decided is my drug habit I'm not ready to give up)

Spices (I've opted to keep my spice rack spinning. BUT come summer, this may change. I think it'd be interesting to see the flavors I can come up with using herbs from my garden only)

Coffee and Tea (This is comforting to me and keeps my cold winter hands happy. The only rule: Must be fair trade. If we're out to breakfast and their coffee isn't, well, H20 and I will become good friends (since OJ is gone for a year now) When summer comes, we will begin to dry herbs for next winter's herbal teas)

Almond Milk (since Celia is allergic to cow's milk (although is fine with RAW cow milk cheese – hmmmm….) I need to drink this to help with my calcium needs as I'm building little bones for baby. Again, when we get our weekly gallon of milk from our happy Lubber's Farm cow, this may change if Celia digests raw milk)

Yeast (gots to make our bread, yo)

Vinegar (I cook and clean with this -- gotta stay)

Steve

Oatmeal (I'm looking for an oat farmer, but until then, Steve eats this DAILY at work)

Coffee and Tea

Beer (We are allowed to drink local wine – there are TONS of local wineries, but beer has been a stumbling block. YES, the companies are local (Bells, Founders, Holland Brew), but where do they get their barley, hops etc… Should we be so anal to say if they don't get it from Michigan, they're out. Maybe. For now, Steve says, no)

We also get 6 out to eat allowances a year – totally free – eat drink what you want!

We can accept say a bunch of bananas from a visitor from an area where they grow. Our friends in Florida and California, I'm looking at you.

THIRD: Although we can't really do this until spring, we have decided to figure out what would be in season during winter in Michigan. What could we have stored? What could we have canned? Frozen? Dried? And although we have to count on good ol' trusty Meijers Thrifty Acres (do they still call it that?) we are only allowed to purchase and cook food that fits in those categories. Turnips, Parsnips, Carrots, Beets, Celeriac here we come!

Wish us luck!

We're off.

Food, Glorious Food!

Well, Celia has entered the land of the eaters.

For weeks now I have felt in my gut that she was ready for solids. She was never satisfied after breastfeeding, always was reaching for my food and drinks, not to mention she began to fuss everytime I made lunch or dinner... hmmm... so today was her big day! Well, I've been giving her bites of mashed bananas for around a week -- here's that video.



and today was rice cereal day. Look at the champ go!




Soon we'll post our holiday fun! Hope you all had a blissful season.

A Year of L's

Well, it's here again --- the New Year. I, like most folks, tend to think of this time as a time to make some changes. Time to reflect upon the kind of year I want... the kind of LIFE I want: sit back and follow my daydreams, my conscious unconscious, my should've, would've, could've's of 2007. And although the goals seem to go forgotten after the sparkling orb makes its desent into Time Square, the reflection to make these New Years Resolutions? -- now, that is interesting to me. Not to mention, that this year will be different. I have deemed it thus.


I call this my Year of L's.


My first L:


LOVE:

I love.
Be sure of this.
I love deeply.
Yet, something in my make-up seems to halt the expression of this love like the claustrophobic person before they make the decision to ride the elevator. Now, I'm good with words. I EXPRESS my love freely in words. Yet, it tends to come out in the "fasten your seatbelt, oxygen falls from the ceiling, your cushion can float" kind of way: those really important things you need to hear but why put TOO much umph behind them? I want people to KNOW and more importantly FEEL my love. I want to love like Celia loves. Like Elle pup loves. So, that's #1.


LAUGH:

No one can argue. Laughing = Good.
I like to laugh!
Who doesn't?
Many times though, I get frusturated, angry or bothered when really, laughing would be so much more fun. Not to mention would lighten up our already deeply encumbered lives. (not just mine and steve's but I say "our" in the cultural sense) So that's #2.



LISTEN:
I hear you. I do.
Yes, your lips are moving.
Yes, I heard your words.
But, do I really HEAR you. You know how it is. When you're having a conversation and your eyes begin to glaze over like they would if someone said "cupcake" while you were fasting. Oddly, we nod, say "Uh huh" or "Right" in just the precise places. This year I'd like to do away with that type of listening. When someone forms their emotions from their mouth, I'd like to stop what I'm doing, look right at them, and LISTEN. Put aside whatever seems to be more important in the moment -- after all, isn't there ALWAYS something to do. But I want to see and hear my loved ones. That's #3.

The last L:


LOCAL:

Go Local. Our mantra.
Support local biz, yes?
Be more involved in community, yes?
But here in lies the real reason for why I write to you all today. We are going on a journey of food inspired by the book "Plenty" by Alisa Smith and J.B. Mackinnon. We are going to attempt to eat for 1 year within 100 miles of our home. What does this mean? We are only going to buy and consume that which was grown or made within 100 miles from Rockford, MI. There are exceptions, free-bees, and a 200 mile allowance for staples that may be just a bit further away -- but that will all be sighted in our monthly chronicle of our adventure. Be sure to check the blog monthly to get filled in on this fun, crazy and some may say obsessive hoop-la the vollers will be embarking on. The last week of December we will lay out our intentions, and then as the hats are donned and the bubbly races down our collective gullets, we will indeed begin.



Let's go.

The Photo Express

We just realized we have not posted Celia photos for some time! For Shame!

Here's a little Celia photo montage.

This was at 3 months as she was teaching herself to roll and mom went nuts with excitement!

3 months -- New winter jam jams.

This is Celia at 3 months finding her feet and doing a spectacular "Happy Baby" yoga pose.

She is sooo proud of herself that she can roll and prop herself up!! - 4 months

Her first Christmas Tree Experience! 4 months.

And as always, more to come :)

The North Pull

What a glorious weekend it was!!

We enjoyed our first road trip as a family and headed towards the North!

North Ho!

To Petoskey.

Not only do we have friends there, but we've been feeling a little tuggy tug tug at the ol' pitter patter stings to just... check it out. We call it, the North Pull.

It was Celia's first extended car ride and we are happy to say, she performed swimmingly. (With a little help from Mommy going back to hang out with her every so often and read some Dr. Suess.)

The weekend was GORGEOUS -- did I already say that?

On our way up, we needed to pull over to feed Celia. The first turn off of the two-laned 131 outside of Cadillac happened to be a camp ground. We drove in and decided to keep following the dirt road -- and look what we came too!!!

It was so quiet and serene staring at the double sky image that only water can create. We stopped for a feeding and a visit to water the woods and off we went deciding to come back next year and actually camp there.

We landed in Petoskey right at the foot of their co-op, The Grain Train, and we sauntered in to enjoy something that we so wish we had in the Grand Rapids area. After basking in organic and fair trade goodness, we walked around in and out of local shops and ended up buying Celia a new winter hat!

J bought her bookclub book, Eat Pray Love, and Steve found a Rudolf Steiner book he has had a eye out for called, What is Biodynamics? He was so so so SUPER excited, exclaiming "a little place like this has a Steiner book?!?" Yeah, we know -- a couple of farm nerds.

That evening we enjoyed dinner at Ann and John's, but negelected to get any photos since Celia was inching towards bedtime -- something we have learned NOT to mess with. And she let us know, again, that she is a very flexible lady, pleasant, and exceptionally funny, but this is NOT negotiable.

It was also Celia's first hotel stay! She seemed to really like the room. Those faux paintings and 1980's color scheme ARE fascinating! She slept like a champ in her own big bed, and Steve and I got a bed to ourselves! No baby, no dog! We almost didn't know what to do with ourselves! ' )

The next day we enjoyed our complimentary Econolodge waffles and coffee (seriously, I think I love the Econolodge! -- Side note: we stayed at the Grand Traverse Resort back in May and didn't get HALF of what we got with our $50 Econo room) and we were off to meet Jen and Matt for a tour of Petoskey farm land. What a beautiful sight it was! We drove for 3 hours enjoying fall colors, "seasonal" dirt side roads winding through the hills and the multitude of possibilities. We even took Celia out of her carseat to scope the array of beauty.








It's quite interesting, Petoskey. I have always said that I wish I could live on 10 acres so that I can have my homestead, but that the 10 acres would be RIGHT at the edge of town so I could still bike into town, support local business, walk to the bookstore, be a part of the community. That doesn't exsist anymore, right? On the edge of every town is suburb after suburb after suburb. If you're in the country anymore, you are OUT there, and really, who knows when your back yard view of red maples will become the next cracker jack subdivision?

Well, I can not tell you how exciting it was to roll out of Petoskey proper and BAM! Farms! Farmhouses! Land! Hills! Trees a' plenty! Here I was, in a dream local! We could have the homestead, participate in community and be within a proper distance to market one of my ideas: to be the local fall/winter harvest CSA. (stands for Community Supported Agriculture -- in a nutshell, in the spring you pay a farmer an upfront cost, and all spring, summer, early fall you get a cut of the harvest each week of what is in season. ) And as a bonus, super plinko-esque, no whammy's plus?? Lake Michigan at your fingertips no less!

Now, don't get any crazy ideas -- we are staying where we are. But I'm always interested in possiblities. And Petoskey holds many!

Reflections in the Fall

Is there any place better than Michigan in the fall, I ask you? Really, is there?

I hear resounding no's.

The mornings are crisp as your feet crunch the fallen leaves and the frosty crystals clinging to the grasses. The skys are SO blue in the fall! Real Blue. Not the sort of white sky you can some times have here in Michigan because of the summer humidity and the dark clouds of the winter chill. BLUE! This sky against the splashes of colorful tree leaf goodness it's truly gorgeous! It's time for fleece zip-ups to come out, for knitted hats to be donned, for red cheeks to enjoy the bliss of a hot cup of coco after a misty breathed visit to the outdoors. Ahhhh, FALL!! My favorite season!



I'm so glad we gave birth to a little lady who thinks fall is just as fun. We go for a walk every morning still. This morning it was 39 degrees! Celia was still in her jam jams. I zipped her in her snowsuit, slung her in the Moby Wrap and covered her with her favorite blanket from Camille. We were off with Elle running ahead, black tail whipping the leaves as they scurried out from her path. Celia just stares at everything! She can't get over all the stuff to see! Until she just falls asleep. A nice start to a morning, I would say.

Here is fall at our home here in Rockford. Yes, we're still needing to sell the ol' house. Yes, we're still trying to move closer to Steve's place of employement. Yes, we're still always looking for land in the back of our eyes (yep, it's possible... trust me :) ). But it is LOVELY right now. I feel very lucky to be here.






Although it is a year ago this weekend that I visited Steve down in North Carolina and we found out that Celia was 4 weeks old in my belly. In 2 more weeks it will be a year from the time we made the decision that Steve would come home. Leave a dream job. Leave a 60 degree November sunshine state. Leave his brother from another mother Jeff. And he did this to be with me during the pregnancy so he wouldn't miss it. He did this to ease our financial situation we had since I quit my jobs to move and then couldn't get rehired from being pregnant. And we couldn't sell our house.

We still look back and sometimes wonder if we did the right thing. But here we are. And these pictures some how just make me smile dispite all the hardships of the past year. All I need is Steve, my little Celia, and our Elle Girl. That is MY location, location, location.