What We Ate

for dinner this week.

MONDAY

Southwestern Scramble (scrambled eggs, black beans, mixed cheeses)
Healthy Homefries (native potatoes fried in a tablespoon of oil with garam masala)
Native Green Beans

TUESDAY
(The day I leave early to teach yoga and make dinner before I go so it is historically very simple.)
Trader Joe's tortellini with TJ sauce
Big ol' pile of native broccoli
Kids get yogurt and honey for dessert

WEDNESDAY
Homemade pizza (whole wheat crust topped with Mama's homemade pesto with grown from the garden basil, pizza sauce and mozzarella)
Big ol' pile of cauliflower

THURSDAY
Brown Rice
Honeyed Tofu Cutlets (from Saving Dinner the Vegetarian Way)
Our own home grown runner beans
Spinach, arugula salad with sliced almonds and cranberries
Native roasted acorn squash




FRIDAY
Potato and leek soup with native veggies and made from scratch (including milk from Mapeline Farm--glass bottles!) recipe from the Kripalu Cookbook
Native roasted beets with lemon juice and feta
Kids cucumber and green pepper slices from our own homegrown veggies
Homemade pumpkin biscuits from a native pumpkin (that I cooked and mushed)


THIS IS A TRUE DOCUMENT. And I had to record it because it makes me look like the vegetarian Donna Reed, like Martha Stuart gone hippie, like the world's perfect mother!!! Wow! I'm awesome and I don't even like to cook. (You ought to see my kitchen when I'm done....)

Go Feminist Amish

There's a little known sect of the Amish called the Radical Feminist Amish.

They have one member.

Me.

And this is a call for new members. Anyone out there want to join?

When my family visited the Old Order Amish in Pennsylvania a few years ago, I picked up the best book on the Amish I've read to date: The Riddle of Amish Culture. The book is a fascinating exploration of the choices modern Amish people make in order to maintain the form of their life.

I loved the book so much, and it resonated so strongly with me, that I HAD TO STOP READING IT because I got so depressed that I cannot be Amish!

I suppose you think this makes me slightly crazy...and maybe it does, but let's consider that the Amish are not merely "old-fashioned" people. They are people make conscious decisions about HOW they want to live in this mixed-up, fast-paced, digital universe.

I'm reading a parenting book now, The Hurried Child, that touches on some of the same issues: our lust for speed, the pressure-cooker of achievement, success at what cost to our innocence?

So, maybe I am crazy because I think little girls shouldn't wear lipstick and childhood should be saved from the violence of the media (the only reason you don't think it's violent is because you ARE IMMUNE after watching one zillion images of people hitting/killing/destroying one another). If you can sit in front of the nightly news and eat pie, then you are officially desensitized.

All of us are making choices about how we live. The cool thing about the Amish is the incredible thought, prayer, and meditation that goes into the preservation of their traditions. It's not easy to be different in a world where sameness is a sign of success--but, hey, you gotta be who you are! Even if you're a feminist Amish on the inside!

Notice how I am wearing an apron while outside on an Easter egg hunt! Such Amish fashion! (okay, minus the pink color and the length and the shoes....)

Call Me Feminist Duggar

There are some things I just do differently.

Like how I think.

Today, in my free time (the ten minutes of it), I will have a chance to read the non-fiction book I'm absolutely adoring, HOW TO BE A WOMAN, and later, when the children are asleep, watch my favorite television program, the ONLY one I watch on TV, 19 Kids and Counting.

So let's compare and contrast.

Caitlin Moran, the author of HOW TO BE A WOMAN, writes about feminism, pubic hair, Brazilians, her first experiences with masturbation in such a hilarious, profound call to arms that one is left longing to, simply, be her.

Michelle Duggar, with her brood of 19, will not wear a skirt that falls above her knees. None of her daughters wear pants. No one in the entire family dances. They don't want to arouse any desires inappropriately.

Who is the person who can love and admire both these women?

Well, me.

And they do have some things in common.

Here's Caitlin. This is the picture from her book cover. (c. Christ Floyd)
See how she has long hair. And you can't see it in this photo, but she's wearing a dress!

Here's Michelle. Look! She has long hair. And she's wearing a skirt.

And they ARE both mothers. It's like they're practically the same person.

These are the two biggest feminists in my life right now. Michelle doesn't call herself one, but that's okay with me! A powerful woman is a powerful woman no matter what you call her, or what anyone ELSE calls her and tomorrow I'll post a picture of MYSELF so you can see how much we ALL look alike.....