The 2016 Holiday Gift Guide for (Pissed Off) Nasty Women and Bad Hombres

If you’re anything like me you realize, now more than ever, that perhaps the last thing I need in my world is more stuff.

You know what I DO need? Equal rights. Civil liberties. To feel safe. To BE safe. For those people who have been targeted by hate speech this election cycle to feel (and truly BE) safe. To support those organizations working so hard, every day, to be sure that our rights are not stripped away, one by one.

Dear Santa: All I want for Christmas is for our country to not be blasted back to 1950s America or, worse, 1930s Germany. But how do you ask Santa for that?

It’s a different world, but here’s what I’ve come up with so far: the 2016 Holiday Gift Guide for (Supremely Pissed Off) Nasty Women and Bad Hombres. 

GIVE TO ORGANIZATIONS WORKING TO PROTECT OUR PLANET AND OUR PEOPLE: This year, I’ll be asking for donations to be made in my name and will be donating in honor of others to local and national organizations that support those who will find themselves most vulnerable under our new administration. Check out Trump’s first 100 days action plan to see which people and what causes (hint: THE EARTH) are going to need some serious help. A few ideas:

• American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU): My guess is the ACLU is going to be busy over the next four years, protecting the individual rights and liberties guaranteed by the Constitution and laws of the United States.
• Southern Poverty Law Center: This organization combats hate, intolerance, and discrimination through education and litigation, particularly focusing on hate crimes and white supremacists.
• Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC): Not only can you donate in honor of someone or give them a membership, but the NRDC also has some great gift options, making this a good option for kids, too. Who doesn’t want to support the bees or the polar bears, right?
• Planned Parenthood (here’s the Indiana/Kentucky chapter, but you can select your own chapter when you donate online): I owe PP a personal thank you for the many years where my full-time jobs didn’t offer me health insurance. An extra fun fact: not only can you donate on behalf of your Great Aunt Tessy, but you can also donate on behalf of someone you don’t even know, like, oh, your women’s rights-attacking governor (*cough cough Mike Pence cough cough*). They will receive a thank you note from the wonderful people at PP. I can’t wait for Governor Pence to get his card from my donation in his name!
• A local organization serving refugees, like Exodus Refugee Immigration in Indianapolis, which is also one of the primary assistance organizations serving Syrian refugees coming to Indiana.
• Any organization, like the Arizona DREAM Act Coalition (ADAC), serving the 581,000 kids who will no longer be protected from deportation under the immigration policy Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), an Obama executive order that Trump has stated he will immediately get rid of. These kids deserve our protection, not to live under the constant fear of deportation.
• And now I’m realizing there are too many to list: GLAAD, Lambda Legal, Indiana Transgender Wellness Alliance… So many amazing organizations working so tirelessly. What organization are you excited about donating to this holiday season? 

PUT YOUR MONEY WHERE YOUR HEART IS: If you are going to buy “stuff” for people (or just stuff in general), consider these ideas:

• Open for Service: A worldwide community of diversity-supporting businesses, churches, organizations, employers, and consumers to celebrate inclusiveness regardless of politics. Sounds good to me!
• Amazon Smile: Anytime you purchase from Amazon, go to smile.amazon.com instead to support a non-profit of your choice. I have a friend who is sticking a note into the gifts of all of her relatives this holiday season, letting them know that their gift also supports Planned Parenthood. 🙂

PAY FOR QUALITY NEWS SOURCES: You know how we’re lamenting “fake” news sources and how awful the media is? You can make an impact by PAYING FOR YOUR NEWS. Subscribe to a newspaper. Support NPR. Journalists who have actual resources behind them are going to become a national treasure. Beyond content, paying for your news also provides money for copy editors and fact checkers; keeps editorial separate from ad revenue; gives resources for in-depth reporting on major issues; and allows papers to hang onto experienced reporters and editors.

• My favorite news sources: The Guardian, Washington Post, New York Times, and Christian Science Monitor. Where do you get your news?
• NPR Membership: I love NPR. I love Steve Inskeep and Renee Montagne, I love considering all the things every afternoon, I want to marry both Terry Gross and Ira Glass. I feel like I learn something every time I listen. I’ll be asking for a renewed membership to WFYI, our local station. If you can pay $10 a month for Netflix, you can pay at least that much to support a free press, amiright?

DON’T LEAVE THE KIDS OUT: As the mother of two small boys, I want them to know what it means to be the change they want to see in the world. I want them to know they have a voice and how to use that voice to speak against injustice and hate, every time they see it.

• Expand a child’s library – and mind: Check out the amazing reading list Westories.org offers at the bottom of this page, which gives tips for how to speak to kids about protesting. Particularly beautiful is A Is for Activist by Innosanto Nagara, which my toddler will be getting in his stocking. I’m really hoping he gets I Am Rosa Parks and a few others from the Ordinary People Series by Brad Meltzer.
• Couple one of the NRDC’s Green Gifts with a game or toy. Help your favorite kid Bee a Hero, then bust out a new related game, like Hanna Honeybee by Haba. (My husband asked if anyone has created a global warming/rising sea levels game yet).
• Retool your advent calendar tradition to give back to a local organization: Pick an organization in need of supplies (we’ve picked an organization that serves foster kids). Then each day leading up to Christmas, have your kids pick out one item to put in a box. Each day, you’ll watch the bounty grow. After Christmas, wrap up your box and drop it off at the organization together.

My pledge this holiday season and beyond: do what I can to support those made most vulnerable by this election cycle and current events. I can’t think of a more loving gift than to extend that gift to others.

Dusting Off the Old Blog: Year in Review

Wow, has it really been since MAY since I posted? Somewhat fittingly, it appears my last post focused on the general feeling of living life like a chicken with its head cut off, a feeling which characterized much of 2015.

I’m happy to say things have slowed down just a tad as the year comes to a close – enough for me to update the blog! – although I fully anticipate the whole “head above water” thing to jumpstart again soon enough for reasons which will become abundantly clear in just a mo’.

So here’s a sampling of what we’ve been up to since May of this year:

• About a week after my last post, we learned there would be another little critter added to our homestead. Of the two-legged variety. And, no, I’m not talking about chickens. Here’s Willem making the big announcement for us:
   

  And here I am today at 34 weeks. Baby #2 is due January 30, 2016, and we are thrilled (oh, and it’s a boy!):
  

• The Keystone-Monon Community Garden work chugged along, hitting a number of snags, all of which were pretty much out of our control, which drives me bonkers. I’ve learned a tremendous amount already about launching such a project from the ground up, and I am completely thrilled that, after one last hail Mary pass right before the changing of the guard with the mayoral elections in November, we’ve made it happen! We have our agreement with the city signed to begin building at Arsenal Park in 2016, we raised over $3,000 in 2015, we have a coalition of excited neighbors, and we’ve secured insurance. Now… WE BUILD! We’ll be picking back up in January to plan out what needs to happen to have our official ribbon cutting in May. I am hoping to still be massively pregnant by that meeting and not have recently birthed a small child… but we’ll see.
  
  Painting out the outlines for the garden:
  

• In the span of about a month, Chris and I listed and sold our wonderful first home and moved into a new one! We tried to find a way to make our old home work for our growing family, but at the end of the day it just wasn’t happening. And then we found our new home: a half-acre of land only a few blocks from our old home (in other words, in the same part of the city we know and love). Three bedrooms, two baths, a giant maple tree out front, and a garage I can actually park in. And did I mention the land? It all worked out just as it should: the first people to see our old home put an offer in the next morning, and within a month, our beautiful little homestead in the city was sold. It hurts my heart a little that I won’t get to enjoy the asparagus I planted this past spring or the strawberries and blackberries, but I can plant all of those again and then some in our new space. And, oh, I will. 

  The old house, all prepped for sale:

And the new place!

Chris and my dad building the new coop:

Moving the bees:

Our amazing maple tree:

• What else, what else? Oh, right. Chris got a new job! Well, that happened back in April, but this year he has really settled in and flourished. I am so grateful that he found a place where he can grow and be challenged and has the support to do so. Also, I quit one of my part-time jobs as of this month. It was a tough decision, but I already feel lighter. And I have no clue how I was going to pull it off once I had another little kiddo to care for all day.Oh, and Chris’ new place of employ? It’s a big enough company to host a holiday party  (I’ve only ever worked for small non-profits, so this was super novel to me – can’t resist a photo booth):

  

 And a glimpse into the rest of the second part of 2015:

 

 

 

 

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from our half-acre of happiness to you and yours!

The Sweet Daily Grind of Vacation

Vacation life, in bullet point and photo form:

• Christmas vacation started with a wonderful visit from my parents. It was the perfect combination of fun things to do and straight chilling out. We wandered around Nashville, Indiana; watched football; ate homemade chili and egg casserole and cinnamon rolls and WAY too much chocolate, beer, wine, and Bailey’s (family tradition); watched a really excellent version of A Christmas Carol; enjoyed one of my favorite Christmas movies (ahem…. Die Hard 2, of course); perused the Indianapolis Museum of Art‘s contemporary floor; and, of course, opened loads of presents.

Clockwise from top left: adorable whale rattle and fox baby booties, our new family photo, my lovely parents, me and my mom, and Boombox scanning the presents.

Clockwise from top left: Our present-laden tree, my new chalkboard drawing with Die Hard quotation, Chris and his new handknitted hat, anatomically correct gingerbread men, and Birdie getting cozy with my dad.

• Yesterday, I took the tree down so we could start Ambitious Vacation Project of 2013 (TM): replacing the carpet in our living room with laminate flooring. I am currently typing from a couch in the middle of a mostly empty, very carpetless room. With all the animals we have – plus adding a kid into the mix – the carpet is just gross. It will be AWESOME once it’s done.

The living room before.

The carpet comes up!

• In baby news, if you see a pregnant woman (aka ME) waddling along, it’s not because her belly is so giant she’s about to fall over. It’s because her back hurts so badly it has become difficult to walk. Unfortunately, this pain is most exacerbated by bending over to do work (picture weeding in the garden or – here’s the unfortunate part – pulling staples out of the floor or moving heavy furniture to allow for laminate flooring to be laid). So I felt pretty useless today. I like to be able to help, to DO, and I’ve never really had a health problem that seriously kept me from being able to do the things I want to do.

Instead, I’ve been reading a lot, doing yoga, running errands, and finishing knitting projects, like this cabled baby blanket.

• In other baby news, I’m starting to feel like I CAN’T WAIT TO MEET THIS BABY. Like, I’m ready. And I’m starting to feel excitedly impatient. Seven weeks and counting!

Today was the quintessential vacation day:

• I started with day two of morning yoga, which is helping the back out and generally making me feel better about my suddenly unwieldy frame and non-existent stomach muscles.
• Over coffee, I ordered seeds for the 2014 garden. This is always one of my favorite winter activities: dreaming of springtime’s seedlings poking through the soil, hot summer breezes playing through the bean blossoms, bees buzzing, and chickens scratching through thick grass.

• I also did an inventory of the seeds I already have from the past few years. Yikes. I wouldn’t call it a “problem,” per se, but I’ve got quite a seed library going.

• It was a balmy 45 degrees today, so after a shower, Birdie and I went for a quick jaunt around the ‘hood, then I ran some errands (including a treat Starbucks run for me and my hard working husband) with my coat unbuttoned, my window down (a little), and Birdie as my co-pilot.
• Following some afternoon baby book reading, Chris and I tucked into spicy turkey chili and fresh broccoli. YUM.

Now? Now it’s movie and snuggle time in our deconstructed home. For posterity’s sake, here’s what’s on tap for the 2014 garden, thanks to a Seed Savers Exchange gift card from my in-laws. Great Christmas gift, am I right?

• Sunflower, Autumn Beauty
• Radish, Plum Purple
• Radish, French Breakfast
• Pepper, Aji Cristal
• Pepper, Black Hungarian
• Onion, Yellow of Parma
• Lettuce, Forellenschluss
• Ground Cherry, Aunt Molly’s
• Cucumber, Edmonson
• Cucumber, Double Yield
• Beet, Bull’s Blood
• Bean, Ideal Market
• Bean, Purple Pod Pole
• Asian Green, Mizuna
• Arugula

Giving Thanks, the Wrap-Up (in Which My Family Is Amazeballs)

Right after Christmas, Thanksgiving is my favorite. I mean that in an Elf sort of way. Actually, I generally relate to this clip perhaps a little too much this time of year.

Chris and I went up to Chicago and had a wonderful Thanksgiving at my aunt’s house with my parents, aunt and uncle, and some of my cousins and their kids. Food, family, football: the Thanksgiving trifecta. It was a warm glow kind of afternoon, and I’m not just talking about the weather.

On Saturday, my mom threw us the best baby shower ever. For real, the best. It was at a tea house near their place, complete with your choice of 50+ types of tea, personal tea pots, mismatched (gorgeous) China cups and saucers, and delicious itty bitty sandwiches and desserts.

The women in my family are pretty rad, too. They are down to Earth, funny, silly, loving, generous, REAL ladies who inevitably have a serious hoot any time they get together. Our shower was no different. I think my favorite part was getting to spend the morning with them all.

That beautiful “little” girl standing next to me? I was her nanny when she was 6 months old until she was 13 months old. It’s hard to believe that was 11 years ago!

I also feel like we are so ready for this baby – at least, as far as “stuff” is concerned! Between my parents’ astounding generosity and these amazingly generous ladies, I am overwhelmed with gratitude – and BABY STUFF. I don’t know how they managed it, but we didn’t even have any duplicate gifts. Well done, family!

Wait… we’re going to be PARENTS?!

Of course I don’t have a single photo yet of my mom and me! (Hint, hint, Chris – you need to upload your shots stat). I got a wild hair when we got back home Saturday and managed to unpack and put together almost all of our goodies. Here are a few outtakes from the office/nursery (heavy on the “nursery” part):

My desk gets more and more interesting every day.

 

An army of sleepers, the most amazing chicken hat, and tiny baby booties knitted 34 years ago by my grandmother, now for our little one.

 

A blanket my aunt Beth embroidered for me when I was a baby, art I made for the kid, and the most ingenious storage idea ever for tiny baby things.

Thanksgiving weekend also meant another four weeks of BUMP WATCH 2013. We’ve learned the kid now weighs 3.5 pounds, which puts it in the 80th percentile for weight. No wonder I feel so rotund!

My Psychic Powers

Over the holidays, we found one of the Christmas cards I gave Chris in 2011. Note that we had not planned yet on chickens, and we hadn’t even discussed a puppy until, oh, September or so of this year. I’m psychic!

(And, yes, generally speaking, Chris gets at least one cute animal card for every holiday or birthday. It’s kind of my thing).

Suffering from Snow Blindness

On Christmas night, we got hit with about 9″ of snow, along with gusting winds and a blizzard warning. They weren’t kidding – our cars had cornices by the 26th! The weather outside was frightful, but the fire was delightful. Not only did we have some corn for popping, but we also had fixins to make a mean Mai Tai. In other words, we survived just fine, thanks for asking.

Frightful:

Car cornice!

There really is a car under there.

Delightful:

Birdie kept completely exhausting herself in the snow. Exhausted puppy = adorable, well-behaved puppy.

Just as the snow started getting doggified in the backyard yesterday afternoon (you know – packed down, a little muddy, and, ahem, COLORED in certain spots), the weatherman told us we might get another 1-2″ last night. Yeah… more like 4″ on top of what we already had. I know, I shoveled that beautiful fluff!

Last night:

Did I mention beautiful? What a wonderful sight to wake up to this morning.

It’s CHRISTMAS! Music, Storms, Priceless Projects, and SOMUCHFOOD

I have a confession to make: I bought the Carpenters Christmas album off the Apple store last night. Have you ever heard it? There is just something about Christmas that wouldn’t be complete without Karen Carpenter singing, “There’s no place like home for the holidays,” to me. I recognized the correct album based on the cover image – I have stared at that cover every Christmas morning, emblazoned on a bonafide record cover, not some mamby-pamby CD cover, since I was probably four.

In other words, it was totally essential to add that to the Christmas playlist today…

…along with this album, which apparently aired the same year I was born (“If you believe in love, that will be more than enough for you to come and celebrate with me” – SING IT, KERMIT!):

In other words, it has been a good day so far. I got to Skype with my family in snowy Colorado, including my two beautiful nephews, this afternoon so I could watch them open our presents (including this handknitted owl for Ben).

Then tonight, we should be getting a massive storm (for Indiana) blowing through with a predicted 6-9″ of snow. Bring it, snow! I got no place to go!

In preparation for tonight’s storm, we stocked up on supplies…

We have many good things to read (including TWO copies of this book – such a good read we bought it for each other!)…

We have a doggy to keep our laps warm…

We have plenty of eggs (and a brand new egg skelter so I can admire them – best present ever!)…

And we even made a warmer for the chicken waterer! Tin from Goodwill + lamp kit from Lowe’s = $13 warmer. Not having to refresh the chicken waterer four times a day all winter? PRICELESS. We followed the directions from the Chicken Chick, although you really only need to drill one hole and run the wiring through the screw that feeds through the side of the tin. It’s amazing what a 40W bulb will do.

The warmer for the chicken waterer gets highest marks: the Little Red seal of approval.

Tomorrow, all we have to do is watch the storm outside, skim coat a wall or two, plan out our dream furniture for the office, knit, and watch movies. Sounds downright decadent, doesn’t it? Merry Christmas, and hoping you are having an equally blissful day!

Nothing says “Christmas vacation” like an ambitious drywall-related project!

An Intimate Familiarity with Where Your Food Comes From… or TMI?

We sold our first half-dozen eggs yesterday! Not only can people come visit our backyard and meet the chickens from which their eggs came, but they can even use the handy dandy little chicken egg decoder to learn who laid which egg. Snazz, AMIRIGHT?!

And then I was thinking, is that too much information? Do people WANT to know which specific chicken laid their breakfast? *I* think it’s awesome… but then again, I’m a little weird.

Anyway, of course, as Chris said, “It will only take us NEVER” to actually turn a profit on these five little chicks, but that was never really the point.

The next chickens, though? Bring it. No darling freeloaders allowed!

Also, Christmas Eve = up early to tend to chickens and play with puppy. Feed chickens pumpkin and juicer pulp, purchase hay bale for the chickens in preparation for what may be a good winter storm Christmas night. Put together Christmas stocking for Chris. Sand and prime office walls (which we are in the midst of demolishing and making pretty again). Put turkey chili in the crock pot. Make Christmas playlist for tomorrow, then head to the liquor store and grocery store for very important stock replenishment. Block print more chicken egg cartons. Wait for boyfriend to get home to skim coat the office walls, eat chili, watch a Christmas movie, and share a fine bottle of Three Floyd’s Alpha Klaus.

This is my first year EVER not visiting family for Christmas, and I’m keen to start our own traditions. We will continue my family’s tradition of BAILEY’S IN THE COFFEE Christmas morning (a fine, fine tradition), and I think chili is a great addition, particularly since we may be snowbound soon enough. Tomorrow, I’ll make cinnamon rolls from scratch, and we’ve saved a number of our favorite Christmas movies to watch. I miss my family, but I’m also thankful to be relaxing with my honey, not worrying about the menagerie, and getting some big projects done.

“Walking ‘Round in Women’s Underwear,” Happy Solstice, and the Latest of the Duh Vignettes

Ever since I was a little kid, whenever it really starts looking seasonal out, the following song goes through my head. As a kid it was just funny – walking ’round in women’s underwear? how silly! – but I love it now that I’m older because, essentially, it’s about proudly and unabashedly cross-dressing (with your co-workers, even!) to a favorite Christmas tune. What’s not to love, am I right?

What I’m trying to say, I guess, is that we woke up to a winter wonderland this morning (and I also happen to be walking ’round in women’s underwear, but that’s a different story).

Snow banks and chicken wagons – the wind was brutal last night and today, and I had to refresh the frozen chicken waterer four times today.

Notice there are no chickens out yet. Smart girls stayed inside and cozy for quite a while this morning.

This is our first cold weather with the chickens, and I was really glad I covered one side of their ventilated roof with a towel. It has been SO windy, the entire coop would have been snowed under!

I also keep hearing that chickens are supposed to slow down or stop producing as daylight hours wane. We assumed we wouldn’t see an egg until the spring thaw, our girls were so… REMEDIAL about the whole thing. Our first chicken laid her first egg one month ago today; Boo followed soon after, then Edgar waited until two days ago. Beaker apparently felt like a total loser for not having laid anything yet, so, on the shortest day of the year, she defied all wisdom and gave me her first little pink egg. I am pretty sure this is proof-positive that our chickens are weirdos. Lovely, endearing weirdos.

12/21/12 – the world didn’t end, and Beaker’s egg laying began.

Go, Beaker, go! They finally braved the cold to scratch around in the straw.

Finally, the latest in the ‘Duh Vignettes’ series relates to selling eggs. We bought a bunch of blank cardboard egg six-packs so we can start selling to friends on a small scale. Since they are blank, I want to spruce the cartons up a bit, and I was lamenting to Chris how ridiculously expensive it is to have your own stamp made via the place I bought the cartons from (really? $45 for my own stamp? that’s cray).

Cue “duh” moment: I Google “custom stamp making,” and come across the following Pinterest board in, like, one of the first links: http://pinterest.com/arteveryday/make-your-own-stamps/. HELLO! I took two block printing classes last year. I have block printing supplies, including corkboard. Block printing is basically creating a giant stamp, for goodness sakes!

Hell, WE TALKED ABOUT MAKING STAMPS IN THE DANG CLASS. What is wrong with me?! So tonight I plan on drawing out a nice little stamp of a chicken silhouette in a space helmet for the tops of our cartons (and maybe a few others). Lovely, right?

So finally, on this last day of work, this first day of winter, and this first blast of cold weather and beautiful snow, I think I’m in the Christmas spirit. Who’s with me?

The “Duh” Vignettes, Edition One: The Grass Is Always Greener

A friend recently asked me if our girls’ eggs taste immensely different from store-bought eggs. To be honest, they don’t.

Wait, what? No, really. Don’t get me wrong – they taste fantastic, and they are about as fresh as you can get. They are also a lot stronger-shelled than store-bought eggs, and we often have to use a butter knife to break through the inner layer once we’ve cracked the shell.

Maybe it’s the fact that we have typically bought “higher end” eggs and not the 69 cent/dozen ones in the white Styrofoam containers. Maybe it’s because the chickens haven’t really been free ranging as much since the weather got colder. Who knows.

Anyway, this conversation got me thinking about fresh food for the chickens during the winter. I’ve been feeding them the pulp from my juicer, which they love, but how could I get them free range goodness without having to freeze my ass off supervising them in the open air?

Then it hit me, my greatest “duh” moment of late: open your eyes, girlfriend, and look at what’s right in front of you!

DUH! Green stuff everywhere!

We planted winter rye this year as a cover crop in a couple of beds, just for kicks. A local farmer was telling me that, in the spring, I’ll likely need to cut it back before turning it under, it grows so voraciously. Or, instead, I could use it as a tasty green thing to supplement the chickens’ diet all winter long.

Say it with me: DUH.

The chickens are not complaining about my recent discovery, although they did seem a little ruffled it took me so long.

In other news, we are trying to get into the holiday spirit over here at Space-Farms. For a variety of reasons, this season has been fairly stressful and a tad devoid of holiday cheer.

However, we both get over a week of much-needed time off work starting December 24, and I think the break alone will give us time to think, enjoy life, and maybe start considering some plans for the future.

Boombox is in the spirit!

What should one do when one has an extra Christmas card and no more people to send it to in his/her address book? Why, Google “White House address,” of course! I hear Michelle has a thing for chickens.