strange winter

This has been the strangest winter that I can possibly remember. Here it is almost March, and we have had only 2 big snow storms this winter...of course now that I actually put that in writing I'm sure it will snow every day in March! I'm definitely not complaining about the mild winter, having temps in the high 40's and sometimes 50 degrees for several weeks in a row has been wonderful for me. The fact that the big snow storms were in the mid-atlantic states instead of up here was totally fine with me. And here we are, having another "big" storm where they are getting feet of snow in NY and even the mountains of Maine, but where I live...5 inches of rain, possibly more. I can't even remember the last time we had a prediction for that much rain from one storm.

I'm not entirely sure how I feel about global warming, man made, just nature taking its course, whatever, but the weather around here has been weird for what is going on a year now. After the summer of rain...now we have a winter of rain? Are we turning into Washington state? Snow in Florida, warm temps up here, are we turning into Florida? All the damage to the earth aside, I don't know if I would completely mind having a mild winter going forward :-) Is anyone else having a strange winter?

House Temps

We keep our house at a balmy 60 degrees in the winter. This is actually quite a bit warmer than we have had it the past two winters. We used to keep it at 55. We have a very large house and only one zone to use. What does this mean for Matt and I? Well, it means that we dress in many layers. I am wearing 3 shirts and a sweatshirt, Matt wears more layers than me including long underwear. We live in Maine and are used to cold. My mom's house was always cold and drafty growing up, so I adjusted.

What does this mean for my crazy 21 month old? Well, it means in the morning I dress her in layers, turtleneck onesies, stretch pants and then another pair of pants over the stretch pants, sweatshirts, thick socks and she has some little ugg like boots for running around inside. I have really good intentions, but now it is 9am, the sweatshirt is off, and we are down to one pair of pants. By the time Matt gets out of work, the boots and socks will be off too, and most likely the arms will have come out of her onesie while she runs around half naked. All that running around she does must really keep her warm! Or she is crazy :-)

changes

We are thinking about selling our house. Well thinking is not really the correct term. We have a realtor coming on Wednesday to see how much we can get for it right now. We were thinking that with the first time home buyer tax credit ending in a couple months, maybe just putting the house out there would be a good idea. I like my house, it is nice and big and roomy for a large family. It is two houses up from my mom, which makes morning coffee visits very easy. However, we need the equity that is in our house to pay down some of the other debt we have. We are probably one of the few households that still have equity in their homes after the disaster that is the Great Recession.

We also have some land that we have equity in...of course land is definitely not selling right now. The fact that we have both is great...the fact that we can't afford both...really really bad :-) So, we have come to the conclusion to try and sell them both and see which way God leads. Part of me really wants to sell the house, move into an apartment, and build a smaller house on our land. It would give us some much needed debt relief, and it would also help me in my ever constant quest to simplify.

Maybe I just can't stay in one place for too long, hence the constant moving of furniture and rooms in my current house. Will it be difficult to move to a smaller house, well I am assuming yes, but I think it would be rewarding too. Obviously this is the worst time to be putting my house on the market, and maybe if I waited 5 years, we would have more equity, the house would be completely finished and more attractive to a buyer. But maybe if we wait the economy will be worse and we won't be able to sell the house...or the land...and we will continue to be stuck.

I am kind of excited though, to see what happens next. Will we move into my mom's again? Highly unlikely, but you never know what kind of sacrifices you will make for financial security :-) All that being said, if someone has a great desire to buy our lovely home in central Maine (someone like my brother and sister-in-law perhaps), let me know :-) Or if a couple of acres of land sounds right up your alley, again, let me know! Otherwise, we are going to be cleaning, organizing, and trying to hide all the toys Emma has accumulated in the past 21 months! Wish us luck!

food rut

I have been in a food rut as of late. I have seen so many movies, and read so many articles on the state of our agricultural system, that I am pretty much doomed if I eat anything. This winter we don't have a CSA, so I am destined for the grocery store. We do have a farmers' market twice a month, but getting there is just not happening. Either Emma is sleeping, or it is snowing, or there is something else happening. I guess I can't keep making excuses though. It's not good for me or my family.

But what can I buy in February in Maine? Well, I think potatoes and winter squash are about the only options. And even those may not be available at this point. This year was not a good year in Maine for potatoes because of the blight issue that ran rampant through the state...

I used to be able to buy canned tomatoes and canned beans and make a lot of meals with that, but now with BPA being front and center in every canned food, I can't even do that. Can I just say that I miss chilli? I do buy dry beans for beans and rice. Black beans, pinto beans and navy beans...I probably have 15 pounds of them in my dry goods drawer. Now if I can just figure out how to make refried beans I would be all set. The tomatoes...well I am hopefully going to remedy the tomato issue by planting 20 tomato plants this summer, and crossing my fingers to get enough to can all of our tomato needs for the next year.

I do buy organic at the grocery store, it isn't an option anymore to buy conventionally farmed veggies or fruit, especially with Emma eating it. The problems that I have? It is super expensive, and most of it comes from other countries. So I try and buy only in the US, which limits what I can buy each week. There are a lot of local root veggies/winter squash sold at the grocery store, but it isn't organic, I guess I need to research those farms and see if they spray.

Everyday I am consumed by this. Does anyone else have this problem? How do you justify eating non-organic foods and meats? Sometimes I wish that I was blind to the issues of our food system, of course I know better than that. Do people in other countries have the same problems as we do? I'm not entirely sure. I think that in other countries it is typical to buy mainly local ingredients, cook from scratch everyday, pay more for their food.

It's frustrating to try and find foods that my whole family will eat. I think I could be happy as a vegetarian, in fact I pretty much am one. The wee one still doesn't have enough teeth to chew up a lot of the veggies that we buy, and she doesn't like potatoes (how that is possible I have no idea). So she eats squash, peas, corn, and carrots...hmmm...not entirely balanced. The hubs, well he would be in heaven just eating processed crap all day every day. He agrees that we need to eat organic, but if he has to prepare something it doesn't get eaten and "we have no food to eat." The helplessness of men...

So, needless to say, I am back to green smoothies. It is something that Emma will drink, and they help me feel a lot better too. Spinach isn't necessarily in season in February, but we have organic baby spinach from Mass, so that is justified I guess. I think I am just ready for summer, for fresh summer produce, and hopefully to be able to have enough stored up for us next winter, so I am not worried as much as I have been these past few months about what the heck we can eat.

Seeds!!!

Yay! My seeds came in! I am so excited. Of course now I have to figure out how to start them indoors. Hmmm...maybe I should have thought of that a little bit more before I ordered said seed :-) I think a trip to the greenhouse will be in order for this weekend. Also a trip down to my mom's to steal what I can from her garden supplies. I mean, she isn't starting seeds this year... ;-)

stuff

We have too much STUFF! It is driving me batty! I mean, Matt and I had a lot of stuff before Emma came along, and now to add Emma's stuff in with ours...it is absolutely insane. Then you add Christmas into the mix...I have been reading a lot about de-cluttering as of late, and I would REALLY like to do that. It just never seems to work out. And I hate to say it, but I am one of those people that thinks "well, I might need that for something at some point." Mainly because I will get rid of stuff only to realize a week later that I now need that very thing. How realistic is that though? Am I just making myself need things that I have gotten rid of? I have no idea.

I think that I would really like to go through some of the "stuff" we have though and get rid of most of it. Just Emma really need 100 stuffed animals? Probably not. Does Matt need clothes that he has had since high school? Again, probably not. Although as far as the clothes go, it would be nice to have some grubby clothes for him for when we actually work on the house. Do I really need all the wine glasses that I have? I'd like to say I will have this really elegant dinner party and use all this beautiful stemware, but that is never going to happen.

I would love to have a yard sale. I don't think I am motivated enough to try and price things though. So I will probably just make some trips to Goodwill. Will I ever find the time to actually go through all the rooms in this house? That is the question. Maybe this weekend we will work on it...or maybe we will just sit around and watch movies and eat food :-) The latter sounds more likely.

What are you doing to de-clutter? Or am I completely crazy? Does anyone else feel like they accumulate a bunch of crap around the holidays from well meaning family members? And is there a way to refuse said "stuff" before it invades your life?

so cute :-)

Emma (20 months) and I built a block tower with some nesting blocks. I left the room to check my e-mail, and I hear the blocks come tumbling down. At that point Emma ran out to me and was really upset. I said "oh, the block tower fell over." Emma "yeah." me "did you knock the block tower over." emma "no, pooh." Then she proceeded to whine about pooh knocking the blocks down :-) I walk into the other room and lo and behold...there is pooh in the middle of the block tower. I tried to explain to her that telling on Pooh for knocking over the tower isn't really good, especially when the force behind Pooh was her :-) Very cute though for a Friday afternoon!