Sunday, January 11, 2009
A note about formatting!
This blog is text heavy, I think - and I just want you to know I'm working on it! I want to be able to do the amazing things with photos that Sara Janssen just did on her terrific blog; but I'd settle for simply figuring out how to add more than one picture to my text .... I promise, in the coming weeks, to make the blog more appealing to the eye!
Hunger, Part III: What I'm Cooking Today
My friend, Sabbath, a birth worker in Des Moines, has just requested, via Facebook, the recipes for what I'm cooking today ... My status line indicated I'd be carmelizing some onions, and putting bread up to rise.
The best thing is, I had already planned to come over here and blog about these recipes because they're FRUGAL! And healthy. And yummy.
So -- here's what we're eating this evening (before my Friends of Iowa Midwives Virtual Steering Committee Meeting!).
ONION SOUP -- a riff on a recipe found in one of my favorite cookbooks: The Soup Bible.
You'll need -- 3 lbs of yellow onions, 2 tbs butter (real), 2 tbs olive or canola oil (the lighter the better), 2 - 3 cloves of garlic, 4 - 6 cups of stock (chicken if you use it, light vegetable if you don't, bonus frugality points if you make your own!). Oh, and some brown sugar, salt and pepper, and a dash of vinegar (rice wine or apple cider are best). And I'm throwing in leftover potatoes (from our garden) and parsnips that I roasted for last night's dinner.
You'll do -- in a nice, large, heavy bottomed pot or dutch oven, melt the butter and oil together. Add the onions, which you've already peeled and sliced into rounds, and some salt. Slowly, slowly, slowly cook them - the technique I use is: turn up the heat hella high for about 2 minutes while stirring gently the whole time, getting them all nice and warmed up. Then turn the heat down as low as it goes, or maybe up 1 or 2, and cook for 30 - 90 minutes, stirring every 5 - 10, or 15 - 20 (you'll find I'm not that into precision) - as they turn soft, and then pale yellow, then golden hued. When they get golden hued, add a tbsp of that sugar - light brown works best, white in a pinch, and the 2 - 3 cloves of garlic, crushed. Keep cooking until the onions are darker golden. Then turn off the heat.
About an hour before you want to eat this soup, add the stock and a splash or two of the vinegar. Slowly slowly heat it up again, to a good warm temperature. Salt to taste, pepper, too.
Now this is a darn frugal soup. And Wyatt loves it. Tonight, we will add to it, as I noted above: roasted parsnips and potatoes. Also, some croutons from a bag we have in the cupboard. You could make your own (croutons) but I find that tedious. The recipe book suggests lots of gruyere cheese -- but boy is gruyere expensive, and I don't find that the soup needs any dairy to make it great. If you find that it does, my husband recommends a small spoon full of sour cream. And he's right - especially if you add potatoes, the sour cream is great.
MOLASSES BREAD WITH COOKED GRAINS -- I take this straight from the only cookbook you ever need, the best cookbook in the world: Deborah Madison's Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone. . A great thing about this recipe is that making your own bread is frugal in the extreme (pennies on the dollar to bake instead of buy), its a good workout (kneading bread is hard work!), and this particular recipe uses yesterday's leftovers, too.
You'll need: an envelope of yeast, some sugar, 1/4 unsulfured molasses, 3 tbs canolal, corn or sunflower oil, salt, water, 2 cups all-purpose flour, 3 - 4 cups whole-wheat flour, and 1 1/2 cups leftover cooked graincereal (wheat, rice, oatmeal, seven-grain, etc.) Today, we're using what was left over of an amazing Snowy Saturday morning breakfast of Bob's Red Mill 4-Grain Cereal. (Just a side note: yesterday, I cooked that up, added maple syrup and some milk, and we felt like kings and queens eating that yummy, healthy, cheaper-than-the-packaged-flavored-oatmeal-that-you-buy-in-the-store porridge).
You'll do: stir the package of yeast into a 1/4 cup of warm water, add 1/2 tsp sugar. Set it aside in a warm place until it foams, about 10 minutes. Meanwhile, butter or spray 2 8X10 loaf pans, and oil a big bowl for the dough. Note: This is a great step for kids - Wyatt absolutely adores watching the yeast bubble, and talking about how bread is "alive." In fact, now I feel guilty for doing this while he was asleep this morning - the kid loves to bake bread.
In a big bowl, combine 2 more cups warm water, the molasses, oil, 2 1/2 tsps salt, and the cooked cereal. Add the yesaty water, then the 2 cups of white flour, a cup at a time. Follow with a cup of a time of whole-wheat flour, stirring with a big wooden spoon (or gathering it with your hands) until the dough leaves the side of the bowl. Turn it out onto a floured surface, and knead until it is "smooth, but still a little tacky" (Says Deborah M). Add flour as you need to.
Note -- this is a pretty darn tacky dough. If you keep adding flour, it will get shaggy (which you don't want) and/or too dense (which you also don't want). Just have faith in the bread - adding up to 4 1/2 cups whole-wheat flour, in my experience, is OK.
Turn the dough into the oiled bowl, cover (with a warm damp cloth), and set aside in a warm enough place to rise until doubled - about 1 1/4 hours. In the last 15 minutes of rising, preheat oven to 375. Turn the dough out again and shape it into loaves, put in the loaof pans. Set aside again until doubled, about 40 - 50 minutes.
Bake for 50 minutes.
This is one of our favorite yeast breads. It is versatile (you can vary it almost anyway, depending on what cereal you use), high in iron (molasses!), and yummy. Its also really light, for such a fiber-rich and dense bread. And, it will be great with the onion soup tonight, and even better in the morning with some sweet butter and pumpkin butter (see my pumpkin butter guilt note, below...).
Enjoy!
The best thing is, I had already planned to come over here and blog about these recipes because they're FRUGAL! And healthy. And yummy.
So -- here's what we're eating this evening (before my Friends of Iowa Midwives Virtual Steering Committee Meeting!).
ONION SOUP -- a riff on a recipe found in one of my favorite cookbooks: The Soup Bible.
You'll need -- 3 lbs of yellow onions, 2 tbs butter (real), 2 tbs olive or canola oil (the lighter the better), 2 - 3 cloves of garlic, 4 - 6 cups of stock (chicken if you use it, light vegetable if you don't, bonus frugality points if you make your own!). Oh, and some brown sugar, salt and pepper, and a dash of vinegar (rice wine or apple cider are best). And I'm throwing in leftover potatoes (from our garden) and parsnips that I roasted for last night's dinner.
You'll do -- in a nice, large, heavy bottomed pot or dutch oven, melt the butter and oil together. Add the onions, which you've already peeled and sliced into rounds, and some salt. Slowly, slowly, slowly cook them - the technique I use is: turn up the heat hella high for about 2 minutes while stirring gently the whole time, getting them all nice and warmed up. Then turn the heat down as low as it goes, or maybe up 1 or 2, and cook for 30 - 90 minutes, stirring every 5 - 10, or 15 - 20 (you'll find I'm not that into precision) - as they turn soft, and then pale yellow, then golden hued. When they get golden hued, add a tbsp of that sugar - light brown works best, white in a pinch, and the 2 - 3 cloves of garlic, crushed. Keep cooking until the onions are darker golden. Then turn off the heat.
About an hour before you want to eat this soup, add the stock and a splash or two of the vinegar. Slowly slowly heat it up again, to a good warm temperature. Salt to taste, pepper, too.
Now this is a darn frugal soup. And Wyatt loves it. Tonight, we will add to it, as I noted above: roasted parsnips and potatoes. Also, some croutons from a bag we have in the cupboard. You could make your own (croutons) but I find that tedious. The recipe book suggests lots of gruyere cheese -- but boy is gruyere expensive, and I don't find that the soup needs any dairy to make it great. If you find that it does, my husband recommends a small spoon full of sour cream. And he's right - especially if you add potatoes, the sour cream is great.
MOLASSES BREAD WITH COOKED GRAINS -- I take this straight from the only cookbook you ever need, the best cookbook in the world: Deborah Madison's Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone. . A great thing about this recipe is that making your own bread is frugal in the extreme (pennies on the dollar to bake instead of buy), its a good workout (kneading bread is hard work!), and this particular recipe uses yesterday's leftovers, too.
You'll need: an envelope of yeast, some sugar, 1/4 unsulfured molasses, 3 tbs canolal, corn or sunflower oil, salt, water, 2 cups all-purpose flour, 3 - 4 cups whole-wheat flour, and 1 1/2 cups leftover cooked graincereal (wheat, rice, oatmeal, seven-grain, etc.) Today, we're using what was left over of an amazing Snowy Saturday morning breakfast of Bob's Red Mill 4-Grain Cereal. (Just a side note: yesterday, I cooked that up, added maple syrup and some milk, and we felt like kings and queens eating that yummy, healthy, cheaper-than-the-packaged-flavored-oatmeal-that-you-buy-in-the-store porridge).
You'll do: stir the package of yeast into a 1/4 cup of warm water, add 1/2 tsp sugar. Set it aside in a warm place until it foams, about 10 minutes. Meanwhile, butter or spray 2 8X10 loaf pans, and oil a big bowl for the dough. Note: This is a great step for kids - Wyatt absolutely adores watching the yeast bubble, and talking about how bread is "alive." In fact, now I feel guilty for doing this while he was asleep this morning - the kid loves to bake bread.
In a big bowl, combine 2 more cups warm water, the molasses, oil, 2 1/2 tsps salt, and the cooked cereal. Add the yesaty water, then the 2 cups of white flour, a cup at a time. Follow with a cup of a time of whole-wheat flour, stirring with a big wooden spoon (or gathering it with your hands) until the dough leaves the side of the bowl. Turn it out onto a floured surface, and knead until it is "smooth, but still a little tacky" (Says Deborah M). Add flour as you need to.
Note -- this is a pretty darn tacky dough. If you keep adding flour, it will get shaggy (which you don't want) and/or too dense (which you also don't want). Just have faith in the bread - adding up to 4 1/2 cups whole-wheat flour, in my experience, is OK.
Turn the dough into the oiled bowl, cover (with a warm damp cloth), and set aside in a warm enough place to rise until doubled - about 1 1/4 hours. In the last 15 minutes of rising, preheat oven to 375. Turn the dough out again and shape it into loaves, put in the loaof pans. Set aside again until doubled, about 40 - 50 minutes.
Bake for 50 minutes.
This is one of our favorite yeast breads. It is versatile (you can vary it almost anyway, depending on what cereal you use), high in iron (molasses!), and yummy. Its also really light, for such a fiber-rich and dense bread. And, it will be great with the onion soup tonight, and even better in the morning with some sweet butter and pumpkin butter (see my pumpkin butter guilt note, below...).
Enjoy!
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Hunger, Part II: Lactivism!
Aaron and I practice attachment parenting and natural family living. The only baby book we ever had in our house was by William and Martha Sears, and we found that, for our family, doing things like babywearing, co-sleeping in a family bed, and using non-coercive child guidance (rather than discipline) worked best most of the time.
One of the main manifestations that our approach to parenting and living with Wyatt has taken was breastfeeding. He weaned himself (with a bit of encouragement from mom and dad) when he was 3 1/2 years old.
Quite simply, breast is best! When it is possible for a mom to nurse her baby, both receive tremendous benefits: increased immunity and optimal nutrition for baby, relaxing hormones and often accelerated weight loss for mom, bonding for both. There are potentially no bottles to sterilize, and no cost of buying formula (wow, that saves a ton of money).
If a mom and baby share sleep and nurse on demand through the night, both tend to get better sleep. And, if a mom and baby nurse on an airplane, especially during take-off and landing, the suckling motion actually stops baby's ears from popping, resulting in a happier (quieter!) baby.
So it disturbs me that flight attendants on Allegiant air recently made such a fuss over a mom's attempts to satisfy her baby's hunger.
When a baby is hungry and a mom can satisfy that hunger in the most nutritious, affordable, and comfortable way possible, why on earth would someone want to stop them? This isn't just a "mom" issue, either -- it is a feminist issue. Women's breasts have been objectified by the media for so long and in so many ways that the simple act of feeding a child makes others uncomfortable, seems obscene, might even be taken as erotic. As women reclaim our bodies from objectification, lets reclaim our ability to feed our children, to sate their hungers.
I would love to boycott Allegiant, but don't plan to fly with them anyway, so my boycott is rather meaningless. Instead, I'm going to write to their corporate headquarters in Las Vegas, and demand (calmly and politely) that Allegiant create a family-friendly policy that comports with most state laws and grants women the right to nurse in any public or private place where they are otherwise welcome and permitted.
Maybe you'll join me in this little bit of lactivism?
One of the main manifestations that our approach to parenting and living with Wyatt has taken was breastfeeding. He weaned himself (with a bit of encouragement from mom and dad) when he was 3 1/2 years old.
Quite simply, breast is best! When it is possible for a mom to nurse her baby, both receive tremendous benefits: increased immunity and optimal nutrition for baby, relaxing hormones and often accelerated weight loss for mom, bonding for both. There are potentially no bottles to sterilize, and no cost of buying formula (wow, that saves a ton of money).
If a mom and baby share sleep and nurse on demand through the night, both tend to get better sleep. And, if a mom and baby nurse on an airplane, especially during take-off and landing, the suckling motion actually stops baby's ears from popping, resulting in a happier (quieter!) baby.
So it disturbs me that flight attendants on Allegiant air recently made such a fuss over a mom's attempts to satisfy her baby's hunger.
When a baby is hungry and a mom can satisfy that hunger in the most nutritious, affordable, and comfortable way possible, why on earth would someone want to stop them? This isn't just a "mom" issue, either -- it is a feminist issue. Women's breasts have been objectified by the media for so long and in so many ways that the simple act of feeding a child makes others uncomfortable, seems obscene, might even be taken as erotic. As women reclaim our bodies from objectification, lets reclaim our ability to feed our children, to sate their hungers.
I would love to boycott Allegiant, but don't plan to fly with them anyway, so my boycott is rather meaningless. Instead, I'm going to write to their corporate headquarters in Las Vegas, and demand (calmly and politely) that Allegiant create a family-friendly policy that comports with most state laws and grants women the right to nurse in any public or private place where they are otherwise welcome and permitted.
Maybe you'll join me in this little bit of lactivism?
Friday, January 2, 2009
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Homelessness, Hunger and Hypocrisy Part II: Hunger
Wyatt has learned the words "I'm starving," and I'm sorry to say that he's learned them from me. I am one of those people who would rather be cold, dripping wet, or exhausted, than hungry. Yep, I'm one of those people who feels my insignificant hunger as though it is the end of the world -- I feel my blood sugar drop, my stomach rumble, and I get close to insane. I've learned to keep snacks in every purse, in the car, in my office .... and I've given up on ever doing a fast to detox or cleanse. Aaron and I tried a three day liquid fast once, when we lived in Alabama and I was reading Dr. Weil's 8 Weeks to Optimum Health. By the end of the second hour I was so hungry, just plain starving, that I gave up. The knowledge that I wasn't supposed to access food made me want it more than I would have, had I just started the day normally.
I've been thinking about hunger recently, in light of what everyone is so prosaically calling "this economic downturn," and a terrific hour of programming on NPR (which I have searched the archives for, to link it here, and can't find it!) a couple of weeks ago, focusing on the plight of soup kitchens who are facing increasing need with decreasing resources. I've been thinking about hunger, too, in light of a "treat" I bought myself recently, and that I've been feeling awkward and guilty about.
Every time I go grocery shopping, I budget in a small treat. The treat changes frequently: Aaron sometimes wants chocolate soy milk, Wyatt often wants fruit snacks, the other day I saw a perfectly ripe persimmon and brought it home for the three of us to share. I shop every 10 days or so, and budget the treat into meal planning expenses.
Well, 2 weeks ago I bought a treat that cost a bit more than usual -- I spent just over $12. on a small package of goat cheese, a beautiful jar of pumpkin butter, and a sleeve of salteen crackers. If you haven't tried this combination, and you're a fan of goat cheese, you have to try it .... seriously. That's a pretty expensive treat -- and its one that only I enjoy. Wyatt used to like goat cheese quite a bit, but his 4 year old palate isn't as sophisticated as his 3 year old palate was; and Aaron hates goat cheese almost as much as he hates papaya. So it was an expensive treat, and only for me.
As I hear Wyatt say "I'm starving," and hear NPR talk about true hunger, and hear myself worrying about the huge heating bill we got in the mail, while spooning goat cheese onto my saltine, I feel a bit guilty. We can afford it, yes - it only put me $2.84 over my budgeted $125. for 10 days (including the holiday meals). But, still .... just think of what $12 could buy in necessities, rather than luxuries! Ramen, apples, potatoes, bread, lettuce, sweet potatoes, onions, cheese .... $12 is a huge luxury - and a small bit of the necessary.
I don't actually believe in feeling guilty -- it doesn't do much good! I believe, instead, in doing better (when we know better, we do better, I hope). So, I've decided that, as long as we can afford the small luxuries of a treat with our necessary groceries, we can also afford to help those who are truly starving, truly hungry (in body and in spirit). I'll donate the exact amount of our "treats" to a food bank, either in the form of a monetary grant or an equivalent amount of food; and, our family is going to work with the Homeless Assistance Team at the United Church of Christ here in Des Moines, volunteering once a month to help end hunger here in the city.
That seems more effective and productive than trying to eradicate "I'm starving" from the language I use each day.
I've been thinking about hunger recently, in light of what everyone is so prosaically calling "this economic downturn," and a terrific hour of programming on NPR (which I have searched the archives for, to link it here, and can't find it!) a couple of weeks ago, focusing on the plight of soup kitchens who are facing increasing need with decreasing resources. I've been thinking about hunger, too, in light of a "treat" I bought myself recently, and that I've been feeling awkward and guilty about.
Every time I go grocery shopping, I budget in a small treat. The treat changes frequently: Aaron sometimes wants chocolate soy milk, Wyatt often wants fruit snacks, the other day I saw a perfectly ripe persimmon and brought it home for the three of us to share. I shop every 10 days or so, and budget the treat into meal planning expenses.
Well, 2 weeks ago I bought a treat that cost a bit more than usual -- I spent just over $12. on a small package of goat cheese, a beautiful jar of pumpkin butter, and a sleeve of salteen crackers. If you haven't tried this combination, and you're a fan of goat cheese, you have to try it .... seriously. That's a pretty expensive treat -- and its one that only I enjoy. Wyatt used to like goat cheese quite a bit, but his 4 year old palate isn't as sophisticated as his 3 year old palate was; and Aaron hates goat cheese almost as much as he hates papaya. So it was an expensive treat, and only for me.
As I hear Wyatt say "I'm starving," and hear NPR talk about true hunger, and hear myself worrying about the huge heating bill we got in the mail, while spooning goat cheese onto my saltine, I feel a bit guilty. We can afford it, yes - it only put me $2.84 over my budgeted $125. for 10 days (including the holiday meals). But, still .... just think of what $12 could buy in necessities, rather than luxuries! Ramen, apples, potatoes, bread, lettuce, sweet potatoes, onions, cheese .... $12 is a huge luxury - and a small bit of the necessary.
I don't actually believe in feeling guilty -- it doesn't do much good! I believe, instead, in doing better (when we know better, we do better, I hope). So, I've decided that, as long as we can afford the small luxuries of a treat with our necessary groceries, we can also afford to help those who are truly starving, truly hungry (in body and in spirit). I'll donate the exact amount of our "treats" to a food bank, either in the form of a monetary grant or an equivalent amount of food; and, our family is going to work with the Homeless Assistance Team at the United Church of Christ here in Des Moines, volunteering once a month to help end hunger here in the city.
That seems more effective and productive than trying to eradicate "I'm starving" from the language I use each day.
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Homelessness, Hunger, Hypocrisy Part I: Homelessness
It has been bitter cold here, in the -20s at night, and I've been thinking alot about people who don't have four warm walls around them. On Sunday night, the city of Des Moines tore down the huts of a long-standing homeless community on the banks of the Des Moines River. The eviction of the community's residents came after a fire that was caused when a resident kicked over a propane heater while sleeping - it exploded, severely injured him, and burned the hut down.
The city is going to find emergency short-term shelter for these people - and plans to build an additional and larger shelter in Des Moines are being "fast-tracked" against the wishes of constituents who fear lower property values as a result of the shelter's location. So perhaps good will come of this -- short-term, warmer, safer housing and a larger shelter for those in need.
But as I read the articles and view the pictures, I see something else, something that is being lost: the sense of efficacy and community and activism that the residents of the homeless gathering felt. This is a long-term (at least 18 month-old) squatter's community, serviced by community organizers, activists, and people of faith. Tearing down the huts represents more than a material loss -- it is an immaterial loss of community.
Immaterial. In our culture, we think of immaterial as unimportant -- lets rehabilitate that word, rehab it (to keep with an architectural theme). To lose the immaterial: a sense of efficacy, togetherness, community, peace and safety - feels as important as to lose a home.
Thinking about all of this has made me realize, too, how petty my own home-related concerns are. Mindful of the environmental and pocket-book costs of heating the house, I stress when I put the heater above 66 (68 is my limit!). Getting the water bill yesterday, I was stunned to see that some new taxes have doubled doubled our monthly bill - from a usual $40 for sewer, trash and water to $93. This is a significant jump for us, especially in the winter when Aaron is unemployed - and I stressed about it for a good day or so.
But, the thing really is, we can afford it. We can afford to have the heater at 68 when we need to, and we can insulate the house even better to keep it warmer, and less drafty. We have running water, and a water heater, and plenty of blankets.
Even more than that - we have the immaterial: a family, a community, respect and love for each other, joy in our days. For that I'm grateful.
The city is going to find emergency short-term shelter for these people - and plans to build an additional and larger shelter in Des Moines are being "fast-tracked" against the wishes of constituents who fear lower property values as a result of the shelter's location. So perhaps good will come of this -- short-term, warmer, safer housing and a larger shelter for those in need.
But as I read the articles and view the pictures, I see something else, something that is being lost: the sense of efficacy and community and activism that the residents of the homeless gathering felt. This is a long-term (at least 18 month-old) squatter's community, serviced by community organizers, activists, and people of faith. Tearing down the huts represents more than a material loss -- it is an immaterial loss of community.
Immaterial. In our culture, we think of immaterial as unimportant -- lets rehabilitate that word, rehab it (to keep with an architectural theme). To lose the immaterial: a sense of efficacy, togetherness, community, peace and safety - feels as important as to lose a home.
Thinking about all of this has made me realize, too, how petty my own home-related concerns are. Mindful of the environmental and pocket-book costs of heating the house, I stress when I put the heater above 66 (68 is my limit!). Getting the water bill yesterday, I was stunned to see that some new taxes have doubled doubled our monthly bill - from a usual $40 for sewer, trash and water to $93. This is a significant jump for us, especially in the winter when Aaron is unemployed - and I stressed about it for a good day or so.
But, the thing really is, we can afford it. We can afford to have the heater at 68 when we need to, and we can insulate the house even better to keep it warmer, and less drafty. We have running water, and a water heater, and plenty of blankets.
Even more than that - we have the immaterial: a family, a community, respect and love for each other, joy in our days. For that I'm grateful.
Friday, December 12, 2008
So, long time, no posting!
Here it is, already mid-December, and I've not written since September 3rd! The lag is in part, of course, because once the semester starts I get too busy to do much of any "fun" writing - its also because I've been doing a lot of academic (and still fun) writing -- I've had an article accepted to the International Review of Qualitative Research, and one in a new book that will be titled Feminism, Fashion, and Flair -- and I've found it hard to go back and forth between the two types of writing. Also, FACEBOOK has been my downfall - I tend to post quick things there, rather than elaborating here.
But, to be honest, one of the real reasons I found it hard to find time to blog was that you all started making comments! Knowing that people were reading, and engaging, and commenting had the paradoxical effect of making me SHY and reticent to write. ARGH.
I don't write this to invite less participation from you - I write it to, ironically, invite more.
Tell me what you think: Why do we write? Why do we write publicly? How do we handle the vulnerability? Is it hubris to blog? When you read a blog, why do you do it? Why do you visit this particular one?
I had a friend say to me in early September that he was surprised I wasn't writing about more political things - that I was choosing to blog on the personal (Wyatt's first day of school, yoga, etc.) -- but to me, as a feminist, the personal is of course political - I intend to write a lot more about that, in the coming weeks - how we live our lives is a political decision. Its a spiritual decision, too. And often, I am so less than perfect - I'm in progress, to be sure -- I want to hear about you and your processes for becoming a consistent person, for living your values in your day-to-day life. That's what my blogs title is about: I value books, simplicity, and life (smillassimplelife!) - and I plan to blog more and more about those values, as 2009 dawns.
I'm going to come back here weekly, if not more often, and I really look forward to continuing a series of conversations about writing, living, reading, cooking, yoga-ing, teaching, loving, and praising. I hope you'll come back weekly, if not more often, and commenting away.
But, to be honest, one of the real reasons I found it hard to find time to blog was that you all started making comments! Knowing that people were reading, and engaging, and commenting had the paradoxical effect of making me SHY and reticent to write. ARGH.
I don't write this to invite less participation from you - I write it to, ironically, invite more.
Tell me what you think: Why do we write? Why do we write publicly? How do we handle the vulnerability? Is it hubris to blog? When you read a blog, why do you do it? Why do you visit this particular one?
I had a friend say to me in early September that he was surprised I wasn't writing about more political things - that I was choosing to blog on the personal (Wyatt's first day of school, yoga, etc.) -- but to me, as a feminist, the personal is of course political - I intend to write a lot more about that, in the coming weeks - how we live our lives is a political decision. Its a spiritual decision, too. And often, I am so less than perfect - I'm in progress, to be sure -- I want to hear about you and your processes for becoming a consistent person, for living your values in your day-to-day life. That's what my blogs title is about: I value books, simplicity, and life (smillassimplelife!) - and I plan to blog more and more about those values, as 2009 dawns.
I'm going to come back here weekly, if not more often, and I really look forward to continuing a series of conversations about writing, living, reading, cooking, yoga-ing, teaching, loving, and praising. I hope you'll come back weekly, if not more often, and commenting away.
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