>Oh, the compost, it happens.

>Compost. It cuts down (significantly) on the amount of kitchen garbage. It gives my garden soil an extra boost of nourishment. It cuts down on our trips to the brush dump and leaves fewer leaves for the city trucks to pick up.

Compost is awesome. It takes time, it’s a slow process, and eventually it happens. Before and after pictures can be fun, but I rarely take them. I concern myself with adding goodies to the pile and stirring it once in a while. Well, I do admit, we’ve knocked down an old fence and trimmed a tree to make room for the bin. There’s a little effort once in a while.

There are specific “recipes” a home composter can use, but I’m pretty easy about it. If the compost is too dry, I add more wet ingredients (and I use the term ingredients loosely). If it’s too wet, I start adding dry ingredients like dried grass clippings. But right now, the decomposition is not happening smoothly.
Husband added a batch of wet grass clippings after he mowed the lawn last. This usually works great; the heat of the pile increases, speeding up the process, and the grass itself decomposes quickly. This time, though, the Week of Constant Rain hit the Midwest.
The additional moisture made the grass clump together, develop mildew, and stink.
The continuous rain made any other dry ingredients that were set aside, well, just as wet as the grass clippings.
The result: Eeew.
Today I’ll add the usual kitchen waste and stir what I can to separate the clumps of green and, um, grey-green. If the sun stays out, there may be hope for a few dry stacks from the beyond-bloom daylilies and other past-their-prime perennials.
But even if I don’t “fix” it, eventually, next spring some time, I’ll have a pile of luscious, deep brown compost to mix with my garden soil. No complaints here. Compost, no matter what I do, will happen.

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>Back to — school supplies!

>I’m seeing school supply tips all over the blogosphere. Suddenly Frugal talked about it. Mir at Wantnot even found a Back to School deal from PayPal. Others either agonized over the purchases or moaned over the time and money spent. Really, I’m not kidding, there are ways to outfit the family for school without breaking the bank. Trust me. I’ve been outfitting entire classes for 13 years.
Think of the basic 3 Rs: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. Reuse: a good quality backpack will last several years, reducing your time investment and your frustration while you reuse it. We sent Amigo’s Jansport backpack in for repairs last summer, free of charge. It’s worth the investment. Recycle your children’s art projects. When you’re done displaying them on your own refrigerator, send them to Grandma’s refrigerator door.
Stock up. That sounds backward, but it isn’t. School supplies are cheaper right now than they will be in January when your child’s science folder breaks into pieces. Buy two of everything now. You’ll be glad later.
Reuse. Scissors, rulers, pencil cases, binders, and more, can last for more than one year. I used hand-me-down supplies when I went through graduate school. Honestly, I never bought a folder or binder or notebook; we had plenty in the house already. It was fun using La Petite’s old pencil case from middle school, decorated with sketches and doodles of rabbits, when sitting in a serious curriculum theory class. The professor probably wondered why I kept smiling.
Read the sale ads. I stocked up on supplies for my class’ Writers’ Workshop last week at Target. They had composition books at 2 for $1, while the office supply store down the street still priced them at $2 apiece. Tar-jay had cute notebooks, too; I went back later with La Petite. She bought color-coordinated notebooks in several sizes for her upcoming journalism classes.

Writing this post reminds me that I have work to do. I need to browse through the reading textbook for fourth grade before I relax and do any pleasure reading. Back to work; I’ll be setting up my classroom soon.

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>Mmm…banana bread

>It was 80+ degrees and humid, my back was in agony, and I couldn’t let the bananas just sit there. So — I waited until evening, mixed up the batter, and baked a double batch of banana bread. (The eggshells and banana peels will become compost, but that’s a different sort of recipe altogether.)

One Loaf of Banana Bread

2/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup margarine or butter, softened
3 eggs or 3/4 cup egg substitute
1 cup mashed ripe bananas (about 2 medium-large bananas)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 2/3 cups flour (I like 1 cup all-purpose flour and 2/3 cup whole wheat)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
(optional) 1/2 cup chocolate chips or 1/2 cup walnuts

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray an 8 or 9 inch loaf pan with non-stick cooking spray.
Beat the sugar and butter/margarine in a medium bowl with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, bananas, and vanilla. Beat until well blended.
Mix together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon. Stir into the banana mixture just until moistened. Blend in chocolate chips or nuts. Pour and scrape batter into the loaf pan.
Bake the 8 inch pan for 60 minutes, 9 inch pan for 45-50 minutes or until toothpick test comes out clean.
Cool 5 minutes. Loosen sides of loaf from pan. Remove from pan and cool completely on a rack before slicing.
Mmmmm.
Warning: Teenagers in house will inhale this. Make two if you want some for yourself.

I have two zucchini sitting on the counter waiting to be diced or shredded into some form soon. And there’s always the ever-growing rhubarb. The family will not go hungry.

Thanks again to Betty Rohde of the Super so fat, low fat, no fat cookbook. This recipe is adapted from hers. If you bake it the low-fat way, it has only 1 fat gram per serving.

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Reduce, reuse, and recycle: the chair project

Take two white molded plastic chairs, dirty and grungy beyond description.
Scrub chairs to remove dirt.
Coat with plastic primer to make sure paint will stick.
Paint selected portions of chairs (or have your daughter do it).
Let paint dry completely.

Attach removable rummage sale stickers to chair in random pattern. Paint chairs thoroughly with main color. Let dry. When chairs are dry, carefully remove stickers.


The result: the formerly old and junky chair becomes a simple polka-dotted accent piece for the deck. Bring out the cappuccino!

There’s a table to match, but I don’t have the heart to take it away from the bunny just yet.

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>More on the first apartment…

>The carpet is plain and indestructible.
The bathroom is, well, unique.
Did I mention the lights?


The lights all have longlasting energy efficient bulbs. They stick out of the fixtures because the fixtures are old (it’s a college apartment!). The light fixtures themselves are decorated with — mallard ducks. Why? I’m sure we’ll never know. Maybe the owners or builders got a good deal on a large flock, er, quantity of these.

I just hope the wildlife on the overhead lights is not an indication of the wild life yet to come between these well-worn walls.

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>Daisy’ Top Ten List: #7 is True.

>7. I resist buying wrapping paper whenever possible.

It’s the green combined with the frugal in me. Wrapping paper seems so wasteful. Use it once, then throw it away. It can’t be recycled, it can’t be burned in the fireplace (too many chemicals), so it ends up in a landfill after one use. Does this make sense? Not to me.

My family gives me a hard time about this. I give in at Christmas, and I don’t complain if other family members buy wrapping paper (but it’d better be on sale!). But for birthdays, father’s day, and most other gift-giving occasions, I like to revive the first two Rs: reduce and re-use.

When I open my own presents, I carefully refold the paper for later. Smaller scraps will wrap stocking stuffers or combine with another coordinating wrap. Gift bags and tissue? Multiple uses. Small, attractive shopping bags? Again, multiple reuses. Bows? If possible, I set them aside to be part of another gift. Curling ribbon, well, I admit that’s hard to salvage.

But my favorite of the Green Wrapping techniques is this: last year’s cards become the next year’s tags. After Christmas (sometimes months later), I go through the holiday cards and cut them apart into gift tags. They’re unique and fun, and honestly — I haven’t bought gift tags in twenty years.

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>Three things I hope my children will inherit

>There won’t be any heirlooms or trust funds, surprise visits to the Antiques Road Show, or other unexpected windfalls for my children to inherit. Instead, I wish for them these three thoughts, these three concepts.
I hope my children will inherit a passion for learning. Whether they seek knowledge through books, the Internet, or quality cable television, I hope they will always want their minds to grow.
I hope my children will inherit an attitude of caring and stewardship for the world they live in. They might take on the reality of slogans such as Think Globally, Act Locally and Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. Maybe they’ll grow gardens or have compost bins of their own. Their generation may find new, more efficient ways to care for and preserve our Earth. Whatever the future holds for the land around them, I hope my children take an active part in it.
And finally, I hope my children will inherit an appreciation and enjoyment of stories, their own and those of others. Family stories, often passed on in the oral tradition, are part of the fabric of our lives. (“Brother, you’re adorable.” “Mom! She called me adorable! Mom, what’s adorable?”) Those stories we learn from others are part of their fabrics, woven to complement and contrast our own. Stitched together, they make a patchwork quilt of both harmony and dissonance, and ultimately a richness that cannot be equaled.

Would you like to join the Group Writing Project organized by Jordan at MamaBlogga, click here for more information or a submission form.

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>Daisy’s Top Ten: #3 is FALSE

>

3. I am an expert in flower gardening.

This is a trick question. I grow vegetables; La Petite is in charge of the flowers around here. I thoroughly enjoy the process: the planting, the weeding, and of course, the harvest. Preparing compost for next year is slow and steady, much unlike my fast-paced and stressful work as a public school teacher. The garden and the compost help me slow down in this speedy and multi-tasking world. I grow a few herbs, too, and I’m still learning how to incorporate them into my cooking. Harvesting fresh basil smells so good!

So no, I’m no expert. I learn a little more every year. I grow a simple vegetable garden, and my darling daughter puts flowers around the deck and the house every year.

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>Daisy’s top ten: #2 is TRUE

>2. I rode a motorcycle before I drove a car.

My brother and I learned to ride a mini-bike (50cc) and then an on/off road Suzuki 185 when we were in our early teens. The day I got my driver’s license, I took the test for my motorcycle temporary, and followed that with the regular cycle license soon afterwards. It came in handy. During the fuel crisis of the late 70s (hmm, sound familiar?) I was filling the tiny tank much less often than my friends were filling theirs. I actually saw more of my paychecks from my summer jobs because it took so little gas to run my “wheels”.

So when Husband insists he’s getting convertible and calling it his “midlife crisis,” I counter with the statement that when he gets his convertible, I’m getting my Harley. We’d have a lot of fun following each other down the highways!

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