Organically Inclined

How to Use Vinegar – 5 Ways

Mish — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 13:37:48 +0000

5 Ways to Use Vinegar

“But I hate using vinegar to clean, Mom,” my oldest daughter Lydia said, “it makes everything smell like pickles!”

And she’s right. For a little while, everything in the room being cleaned does smell like pickles, but once the pickle smell evaporates, the only smell left behind is – well, nothing. Vinegar is the ultimate anti-bacterial cleaning agent. It is acidic enough to kill germs, completely non-toxic and makes things shiny!

Also – since I’m notoriously cheap, vinegar is about the cheapest cleaner you can find and if you are so inspired, you could make your own. I haven’t done it yet, but hmmm….I smell a homeschool project!

1. Degrease your stove top. We have a lot of cooks around here. My two middle sons, my daughter, my husband and me occasionally, when I get a chance to cook something. Something is always cooking! And the stove top gets a little, shall we say, grungy. Straight vinegar in a spray bottle, sprayed on not only gets off the grease, but leaves a streak-free shine on the knobs and door.

2. Clean out the coffee pot. When we lived in Vermont, we had very hard water. I used to get mineral build-up in the coffee pot and in my tea kettle. I bought one of those little mineral collector metal things (it looks like a round metal sponge) to collect the deposits, but eventually that has to be cleaned too! Running white vinegar through the coffee pot or boiling it in the tea kettle removed all of the deposits with only a quick rinse after to make sure the coffee didn’t taste funny.

3. Odor eater. We have had a few issues with, well, let’s say there are a couple of small children who occasionally don’t make it to the potty. No worries, I don’t get mad about it, but I do have to take care of cleaning it and eliminating the odors. Spraying the affected area completely with vinegar spray disinfects the area and eliminates the smell.

4. Kill bugs. Seriously. I had an ant problem where one older child who shall remain nameless left some sticky stuff on a window sill. Ick! The ants were everywhere. I cleaned the sill and the wall (and the floor) with vinegar spray and water. Then sprayed the whole area down again with vinegar. I was so disgusted I almost dispatched my husband to purchase Raid, but then came back to my senses and didn’t. I couldn’t imagine spraying that toxic stuff near my kids play area. A few ants came back. I sprayed vinegar again. A couple of days later, no ants. We went from hundreds to three, to two and then none in two days time. Perfect!

5. Kill weeds. We have some really nasty, “pricker bushes” in our yard. Since we our new to this yard, we find them occasionally when we run barefoot playing soccer. They are awful and hard to pull (ouch) or dig out. I got out the vinegar, poured it on top, and presto, chango – weed dead and easier to pull out by the roots. Be careful though – it will kill any plant. It’s not toxic at all to other plants though, so as long as you get it directly on the weed you want to kill, you should harm the other plants around it. You can also clip the weed (we did this with very invasive burdock) and then pour vinegar directly on the roots.

Oh yeah – one more – make pickles! We did. They’re fabulous!

Technorati Tags: cleaning, green cleaners, non-toxic cleaners, vinegar, white vinegar

Of Walnut Trees and Tomato Plants…

Mish — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 01:44:34 +0000

My eggplants are dying and some of my tomatoes. And my peppers stopped producing. I was starting to think my thumb was black. The symptoms were very strange. Healthy plants suddenly just wilting and then perking up again. The eggplants in particular would grow, produce flowers, wilt and then perk up again. But too late to produce an eggplant. Some of the tomatoes started to do it too.

I was completely puzzled. My tomato plants suffered from little pest damage, were planted in beautiful compost, and had received PLENTY of rain, sun and heat. I really was convinced that I was just a bad gardener and resigned myself to never finding out what I had done wrong.

Then, during a search for blight symptoms for my squash (another story!), I found this from the horticulture department at Iowa State University:

Walnut Toxicity
Black walnut trees produce a toxic material (juglone) that can injure and kill solanaceous crops (tomatoes, potatoes, peppers and eggplant) and other juglone-sensitive vegetables in the garden. Symptoms of walnut toxicity include stunted growth, yellowing and wilting of foliage, and death of susceptible plants. Juglone is present in all parts of the black walnut tree (fruits, leaves, branches and roots). The sources of juglone in the soil include both living and decaying plant material. Rain droplets leach juglone from the buds, leaves, and twigs. The decomposition of leaves and other plant debris by soil microorganisms also releases juglone. Living roots exude juglone into the surrounding soil. Generally, the greatest concentration of juglone in the soil exists within the dripline of walnut trees. Nothing can be done to save juglone-damaged tomato plants. Simply remove and destroy dead plants. Gardeners who have large walnut trees near their gardens should consider alternate sites. If alternate sites are unavailable, plant tomatoes and other susceptible plants 20 to 25 feet beyond the dripline of walnut trees to minimize walnut toxicity problems. Corn, beans, onions, beets, and carrots are tolerant of juglone and can be planted closer to walnut trees provided the area receives sufficient sunlight. Walnut trees that are 75 to 100 feet from the garden shouldn’t be a big threat to tomatoes and other juglone-sensitive vegetables.

Walnut Toxicity! Who knew? Certainly not me! I have three black walnut trees in my yard and one has a dripline that hangs directly over – guess where? Yup, the tomatoes. We’ll just have to wait it out this year and move the tomatoes out to the corner next year! Urban farming certainly isn’t easy – but I’m happy with cuke production as I just canned about 12 pints of pickles!

Technorati Tags: gardening, organic gardening, tomatoes, urban farming, urban homesteading, walnut trees

Babies Don’t Keep…the poem has an author!

Mish — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 12:00:12 +0000

I posted this a while ago and a lot of people seem to be looking for it – so here it is again.

Babies Don’t Keep
by Ruth Hulburt Hamilton

Mother, O Mother, come shake out your cloth,
Empty the dustpan, poison the moth,
Hang out the washing, make up the bed,
Sew on a button and butter the bread.

Where is the mother whose house is so shocking?
She’s up in the nursery, blissfully rocking.

Oh, I’ve grown as shiftless as Little Boy Blue,
Lullabye, rockabye, lullabye loo.
Dishes are waiting and bills are past due
Pat-a-cake, darling, and peek, peekaboo

The shopping’s not done and there’s nothing for stew
And out in the yard there’s a hullabaloo
But I’m playing Kanga and this is my Roo
Look! Aren’t his eyes the most wonderful hue?
Lullabye, rockaby lullabye loo.

The cleaning and scrubbing can wait till tomorrow
But children grow up as I’ve learned to my sorrow.
So quiet down cobwebs; Dust go to sleep!
I’m rocking my baby and babies don’t keep.

Technorati Tags: attachment parenting, babies don't keep, baby poem, mothering, ruth hamilton

Summer Nights

Mish — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 14:47:49 +0000

While I am not a huge fan of summer weather (I hate heat!), I do love hanging out outside all afternoon and well into the evening with the kids. Sometimes I wish I had the money for big trips far away, but when I sip on my drink and eat my steak and corn that my husband expertly grilled for me, I know that things really don’t get any better. I love watching the kids run and scream (who cares what the neighbors think?) through the pool, chasing each other with squirt guns. I love to watch the kids ride their bikes well into the night. I love to snuggle a kid, wet from the pool, in a towel while we watch go from “blue dark” to “black dark.”

Sometimes I wonder if I’m providing every experience a kid needs. I have friends who take their kids to far off places and always seem to have more money than I for movies every week and trips to Paris or Dublin or even Florida once a year. But I also know that they miss out on everyday experiences because they’re so busy working to pay for the new gadgets, the movies and the trips.

I may not always be happy that I can’t take my kids to go, go, go…but I am happy with my life and the choices I’ve made to be there for my kids all of the time. I wish everyone could feel so lucky!

Technorati Tags: fun, homeschooling, life choices, summer, unschooling

Quote of the Day

Mish — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 22:00:39 +0000

Courtesy of the Riesenbergs, an unschooling family with 9 kids in Ohio…

“Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.” –Albert Einstein

Technorati Tags: einstein quote, radical unschooling, unschooling

How to Use Baking Soda – 10 Ways

Mish — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 12:25:59 +0000

“Baking soda, baking soda,” my friend said. “Everywhere I go people say use baking soda for that. But all I ever use baking soda for is baking.”

My friend is right. Using baking soda seems to be one of the ultimate “green-living” tips – especially for the glossy magazines who can’t see beyond baking soda and overpriced “green” cleaners. But truly baking soda can do a lot of things, without harming the environment or you and your family.

What is baking soda? According to wisegeek.com, “bicarbonate of soda, sodium bicarbonate, and, less commonly, saleratus, is a chemical salt with diverse practical uses. With a chemical formula of NaHCO3, baking soda is a white powder with crystalline grains. Although it can be produced by artificial means, in its natural form, baking soda is called nahcolite, taking its name from its chemical formula.

“Baking soda is weakly alkaline. As such, it acts to neutralize acids and break down proteins. This quality accounts for its usefulness as a tenderizer and a leaven. Also, it is baking soda’s neutralizing action on acidic scent molecules that makes it an effective deodorizer. Added to the water when doing laundry, baking soda stabilizes the pH level, enhancing the detergent’s effectiveness. Baking soda may also be added to swimming pool water to balance the pH and keep the water clear.”

Here are some great uses for baking soda:

1. Cleanser. Sprinkle baking soda on your sponge and clean out your sink, pots or bathtub.

2. Carpet freshener. Sprinkle on your carpet. Let it sit for a few minutes, then vacuum.

3. Throw onto fires to extinguish flames. Recently my husband was grilling and didn’t realize the drip tray was full from our last grill out. The tray caught on fire and flames were…well let’s say we’re pretty calm people and this scared us a bit. Alex ran in to get the big bag of baking soda, a quick douse and the flames were out. Fortunately, John moved the chicken out of the way first, so we still had dinner!

4. Wash your fruits and veggies off with a little baking soda in water. This will help remove pesticides without leaving behind a soapy taste!

5. Baking soda, followed by vinegar will clear drains. After the mixture foams up (let the kids watch) pour boiling hot water down after it.

6. A quarter cup in the washer will brighten your laundry. If you’re out of detergent, it can be use on its own or with some vinegar to wash the load. You might never go back to regular detergent!

7. Place a paste of baking soda on bug bites to relieve itching. Alternatively, place a cup full in the bath.

8. Sprinkle baking soda into stinky sneakers and allow to set overnight. The results will amaze you!

9. Place a cup full of baking soda in the kiddie pool. It will keep it clearer and fresher longer. Just get a net for the bugs and leaves!

10. Use it in place of toothpaste. Really. It works just fine.

Technorati Tags: baking soda, baking soda uses, green cleaner, household cleaners, natural cleaners

Eating Simple = 30 lbs Gone!

Mish — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 13:30:40 +0000

I am concentrating on keeping my eating simple. I’ve found that if I just eat simple food, without a lot of “stuff” – side dishes or sauces and dips for example – I eat less and feel more full. It’s been hard for me to disconnect from food. Food was the only thing I had in common with my parents, for example. It seemed like no matter what was going on between us personally (and there was usually a lot), if someone just fried up some chicken or grilled some steaks, all was well.

While I still love to eat yummy things, not making as big a deal out of meals has made it easier for me to lose weight. I don’t have a scale here at home, but the last time I stepped on a scale was at my son’s doctor’s office. I weighed…well, it’s embarrassing…I weighed a lot. More than 200 lbs. I was shocked because while I certainly didn’t feel fit, I didn’t feel huge.

I resolved then and there, though, to lose weight. I read a few books and was inspired to do some belly-busting, gut-wrenching workouts and eat only lettuce. That lasted about two days. So, I devised another plan.

I decided I would eat only things that God intended us to eat. Food that’s been here forever. I also resolved to put exercise back into my life more regularly, but not kill myself running an excessive amount of mileage or jumping up and down in the living room.

One thing I discovered, and still have a problem with, is leftover food. I realized that I was probably putting an extra 400 calories or so in my body everyday by simply eating what the kids didn’t eat. Leftover peanut butter sandwiches, a half of a granola bar, the end of a juice box! My kids knew when to quit, why didn’t I? I immediately resolved that as much as it killed my frugal side, if the kids didn’t eat it I wouldn’t either. The compost could have it or the trash…and I would just have to get over it.

My other little habit? Eating a little piece of a brownie or cookie and doing it like seven or eight times. Rather than just sit down and enjoy the small brownie my daughter made, I kept sneaking pieces all day long…thinking that just one bit wouldn’t hurt.

So, now when my daughter makes her divine brownies (and really, they are the best), I eat one. But just one. And then I move along with my day. I believe the key to my weight loss so far has been less about how much I eat, but rather how I eat it. I’m not the kind of person to sit down with a bag of chips on the couch. But I am the kind of person who will snag three out of the pantry. I believe this comes from the huge restrictions I had on food when I was a kid. I was only ever “allowed” two cookies after dinner…or I had to eat the whole sandwich right there and then. I wasn’t allowed to leave the table until every last vegetable was gone, creating a life long hatred of vegetables that I have only recently begun to get over. My parents need to control everything I ate (as well as a bunch of other stuff) led to a “need” on my part to sneak food even when I became a grown up and didn’t have to anymore.

That’s why I stopped controlling every bite that goes into my kids mouths. I bring home good, fresh food – along with some treats (or my daughter and I make them) and I let them eat how they will. This post more clearly explains it.

My kids are healthy, thin and energetic. And I never hear a thing about weight or anything else. I’m glad. I don’t want them to view food as reward or punishment. I want them to eat because they need fuel to do other things. Which is how I’m starting to view it.

Once I let go of “food as entertainment,” I was able to move on. I’m writing a book about my experiences now and will share some of the recipes and other strategies that have helped me so far.

Like I said before – I’m not skinny (probably never will be) – but I feel good and most important, I don’t worry about what I eat anymore.

Technorati Tags: christian weight loss, god diet, God-Given Diet, losing weight, paleo diet, Weight loss

Quote of the Day – John Holt

Mish — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 12:49:58 +0000

“Children do not need to be made to learn about the world, or shown how. They want to, and they know how.” -John Holt

I love this quote. It helps me when I think we’re not doing enough “homeschooler” things. The only problem I have with being a homeschooler is that I occasionally feel like I’m inadequate for the task. Sometimes I don’t want to try and make everything we do a “learning experience.” Then I remember, living and learning go hand in hand. That if I answer the questions my children have and if we look things up and discover things together – that’s learning. I don’t have to try and push and make them journal all of their experiences or create experiences just for them to learn things. We follow our curiosity and we follow our passions and eventually we learn what we want to do and what we don’t want to do.

A process of elimination. I tell my children frequently that they should explore and do things that interest them. “But what if I don’t like it?” my son asked. “Well, then, you can cross one more thing off the list of what you don’t want to do when you grow up.” Sometimes, I think, it’s important to explore things that you might have a small interest in if only to learn that you don’t like it. If you don’t explore it, though, then you’ll never know and you may find yourself always wondering…

Technorati Tags: homeschooling, how to unschool a large family, john holt, radical unschooling, unschool, unschooling

Book Review: “What Really Matters”

Mish — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 14:55:40 +0000

“What Really Matters” by David Albert and Joyce Reed is a remarkable conversation between two homeschooling parents and advocates. Joyce Reed is a retired Associate Dean at Brown University and homeschooled her five children. David Albert is a writer and homeschooling father of two.

Reading through their experiences and thoughts on life learning is a breath of fresh air. This isn’t a book about how to teach your kids. It isn’t about which workbooks to buy and which curriculum to follow. It doesn’t give you a schedule, or worksheets or tell you that kids need a gold star at the end of each day.

Imagine you are a new homeschooling parent (or even an old one like me), and David and Joyce sit near you at a restaurant. They start to have this amazing conversation about homeschooling and what they did and what they think and you get to hear all of it (much to the annoyance of your partner sitting across from you).

Joyce says in the chapter, Perfection is the Enemy of Excellence, that “…schools – and often parents, and ultimately the kids themselves – are bound up in this concept of perfection. Kids begin being tested (and trained for testing) from kindergarten on, so it is not surprising that many young people will go without sleep or play to achieve straight A’s and strive for perfect SAT scores – even though they are told that the best colleges and universities do not admit students simply because the have a perfect record, that these institutions want an interesting person, too. The perfection-obsessed kids rush around the world doing “community service” by trying to demonstrate their interest in cheetahs in Africa, orphans in Thailand, schools in Peru (often ignoring, or asking for a contribution to their travels from, their elderly grandfather who would simply love to have them read the Sunday paper to him or put the worm on the hook as they do a little fishing together).”

David responds that while both he and Joyce have benefited from going to college, neither had the benefit of being homeschooled. “Attend to your six-, eight-, or ten-year-olds’ learning needs and desires today, learn to listen really, really well and act upon what you are hearing, and I can virtually guarantee that the future – college or no – will take care of itself. And relax: Perfection has absolutely nothing to do with it, and there is no such thing as excellence that transcends the dogged pursuit of it.

“Remember that whatever is going on in school, at home you have the choice to make sure that love and listening are in no short supply. And ultimately, that is all that really matters.”

With flashes back into their own childhoods and homeschooling days with their own children, what we, the reader, learns from this book is not how to homeschool, but that life is learning and learning is life. Once we decide that learning only happens in a formal setting – be it at school or home – we limit ourselves and our children.

There are many, many pearls to glean from this book (did I just mix my metaphors?), but what I got was a reinforcement of something I think I knew already, but doubt occasionally. What is that? The simple truth that being present and living in the now is the most important thing. Seeing and hearing and paying attention to your children and to the world are what’s important. Always striving and waiting for the next thing is what dooms us to unhappiness. “I’ll be happy when I graduate and get a “real” job and have a better car and a bigger place to live.” These are not the messages we need to be sending (or receiving). Things are good now. Enjoy the journey. Because that’s what really matters.

A copy of this book can be purchased at the Natural Life Books website.

Technorati Tags: david albert, homeschool, homeschooling, john taylor gatto, joyce reed, natural life books, unschooling, what really matters

Workbooks

Mish — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 12:01:00 +0000

Do workbooks equal good homeschooling?

As a kid, I loved workbooks. I loved workbooks in school and I loved the ones my mother bought me at the store. I also loved the activity books they sold around Christmas time. I loved to color the pages, do the word puzzles and answer the questions. It was something I was good at and I felt a sense of accomplishment at the end of each page. However, I have had a lifelong issue with seeking validation, perhaps related to my love of workbooks!

My boys don’t like workbooks. Not even a little. They don’t like activity books or workbooks. They think they’re silly and a waste of time. If I suggest getting out one of the expensive workbooks I purchased at the school supply store (a favorite place of mine), they sneer and hem and haw. They sigh heavily and bargain with me about how many pages they have to do before they can go back outside and play.

My oldest, who is now off on his own and no longer homeschooling, liked workbooks as a small child. Or maybe he didn’t and just learned that if he did them quick I’d get off his back! Either way, I thought for a long time that the only way to teach kids things was to get them a workbook. Weird, huh? Well, we live and learn.

Jack is 5 and he hates workbooks. Hates them. And I can’t blame him. For their time, workbooks probably seemed like a good idea. But in the age of computers and other technology like the iPod Touch, having to work in a workbook just seems silly. Now, I know that there are some that will say that we need to teach our children how to work in a workbook and how to look things up in an encyclopedia. Why? Is the Internet going to go away anytime soon? I seriously doubt it. I used to spend hours laboriously looking up things in the library. I did, for the most part, love that work. But I have not lost my love for research – in fact, my day job depends on my ability to research – and I do all of it on the computer now. I still love my books, but I also love my laptop and my Kindle.

What is the difference if Jack learns math and reading in a computer program or, GASP, at the grocery store, rather than in a workbook? There is no difference. In fact, his ability to use technology, I believe, will only help him because I’m pretty sure that when he gets his first job as a fighter pilot (his current career of choice), they’re not going to give him a workbook with the controls of the plane illustrated on it and if they do, he’ll be so happy to be a fighter pilot that he’ll do the darn thing anyway.

“But how will your kids learn how to do things that suck if you don’t teach them?” I’ve heard this question for many years, in a variety of forms. How, the question goes, will kids learn to do things that aren’t “good” for them but that they have to do anyway, if we don’t make them get up every morning at 7 am, trudge off to school and then leave them there for hours doing work that is uninteresting?

Why on earth would you want to make someone do something that is unfun or uninteresting for no reason? I mean, life throws us enough curve balls. Things happen. Some days we get to go to the dentist and some days to the beach. It’s not a blast going to the dentist, so should I make my child go to the dentist everyday so he can learn that sometimes we have to go to the dentist? Umm….I don’t think so.

Kids know that sometimes bad things happen, so why not enjoy the good stuff while we can? I have three children who have worked at jobs. They don’t always enjoy getting up and going to the jobs, but they enjoy the reward they get from the job and that’s enough to motivate them. Just like everyone else. I didn’t have to make them practice getting up everyday at 7 am just so someday they would. That’s silly.

Anyway, workbooks aren’t fun to some people. So don’t do workbooks. Just because you homeschool or unschool it doesn’t mean you have to have a school at home. What fun would that be? Isn’t the reason you left school to get out of the “school” way of doing things? I want my kids to learn. And I want them to love to learn. Forcing them to do boring, uninteresting things just because it’s what I did when I was kid is silly. If I wanted to be like that, I’d make them go to school.

Technorati Tags: curriculum, homeschool workbooks, homeschooling, radical unschooling, unschooling, workbooks