My Smart & Motivated Friends Part II: Recycling Round Up

We met Casey and Joseph through our good friends Julie and Chris. Casey and Joseph used to divide their time between their West Seattle home and properties in Winthrop, WA. When we met, they worked all week in the city, then trekked over the Cascades on the weekends, where their dog Meg (aka "Nutmeg") roamed free and they played frisbee golf on the 18 hole course that they designed and built. After one weekend throwin the 'bee and cooking 'dogs on the grill, we were fast friends.

Last year the boys sold their Seattle home and relocated to Winthrop, where their hearts were set. Winthrop is a scenic destination in Methow Valley, rich with cross-country skiing trails, fishing spots, and other outdoorsy activities. The hotbed of industry it is not. In order to justify the move, they had to figure out how to pay the bills. It just so happened they also wanted to contribute something valuable to the community.
Like other small Western towns, the region is served by a processing center where citizens can bring their own recycling. Since many residents live there by choice, the community has historically cared for their environment. If your favorite thing to do is fish in the river, you have a vested interest in keeping that river healthy. So the people were driving their cans, bottles, and newspapers weekly to Methow Recycles.

Enter Casey and Joseph, who identified a need for more comprehensive recycling services for residents, businesses, and visitors. Established in 2010, Recycling Roundup picks up curb-side, helps distribute the center's commodities (i.e. recycling bins), and provides the center with a predictable revenue stream. Casey claims Methow Recycles is a dream to work with. They don't run on tax dollars, but rather are sustained by good business sense and a passionate community.
Although the center runs a model rural program, they still haven't wrangled the management of organic waste (get it- Wrangle? Roundup? Yeah.) Together with Joseph's alma mater Seattle University, and other community stakeholders, Recycling Roundup is developing a program that taps into the collective knowledge of MBA students and undergrads to successfully reuse agricultural bi-products, forest waste and food waste.

Not bad for a couple of city mice who wanted to make it in the country. If you don't live in Winthrop, and can't support Recycling Roundup firsthand, do us a favor and throw some old magazines or beer bottles in your recycling bin, and be happy it's that easy. You can also like them on Facebook by clicking here.

Wish you were here

One day when I've got Seattle in our rearview mirror, I will not think of my time here as lonely. But the truth is, some days are. Seattle's not to blame; there's been moments or stretches of loneliness in every city, at every age. There's something about cold winter days, being stuck inside, living on a budget, that makes days seem a little long. All I want to do is drink coffee and watch movies, but Edie does not think that's a good way to spend our day.

Loneliness can lead to productivity, or it can lead to wasting time on the internet, or to cleaning house, or cooking, or writing that email I've been meaning to write. Some days I wish I lived near my mom or sister or Michelle. Most of my friends I make plans with ahead of time. I don't just swing by their house and watch t.v. We plan events. With my family ladies, I could drop by unannounced with my baby, sit at the kitchen table talking and drinking coffee, chopping carrots to make chicken pot pie for dinner. That is what I want to do today.

This afternoon Edie and I sat at our front window, watching people walk by and crows pick around our yard. Edie talked to the birds and made confetti out of Kleenex. Dave will be home soon, and I might convince him to treat me to a lamb burger and glass of red wine at Eva. And I rented Stand by Me. Sounds like a suitable, wintery Saturday night date.

My Smart and Motivated Friends Part I: Clean Livin'

One morning this winter I was washing dishes or sweeping the floor, immersed in some passive activity, thinking of how proud I am to have friends who are organic farmers, recycling-business owners, and environmentalists. I have friends who do honorable things with their time and energy, and want to shed light on their endeavors.


Let me introduce you to Rachel. Like me, she's an East Coast transplant who settled here with her husband and 3-year old daughter. I met Rachel through a former colleague of my sister. Years back when I was moving cross-country, he passed on Rachel's number and told me to look her up. We hit it off after a few hip-hop classes with a teacher named Dax, and the rest is history.

Always a green gal, Rachel began volunteering for the Washington Toxics Coalition to satisfy her interest in toxics such as pesticides and mold. To be honest, I've always been annoyed when asked to take my shoes off in my friends' homes. They're part of my outfit, okay? Well, there's a ton of chemicals on our streets and sidewalks, and those chemicals swell whenever it rains and carries runoff. You wear shoes in your house, you track all that junk inside. If you have kids who play on the floor, you expose them to lead and other surprises from our periodic table. So now I get it. We take off our shoes.
"Come in! And take off your shoes, fools".

Rachel has applied her knowledge of green living to create a consulting company, Healthy Home Focus. She also got certified by the American Lung Association to assess families' homes and advise on improving air quality (think asthma due to mold spores).

Tonight I was dealing with a slow tub train, and reached for the Drano. While reading the directions, the label essentially said if you hold this product too long it'll make your eyeballs bleed and burn your skin off. I couldn't bring myself to use it, so I turned to Healthy Home Resources to see what Rachel would do. Here's the green prescription: 1/2 cup of baking soda, followed by 1/2 cup of white vinegar. Cover, let sit for 5 minutes, then flush with a pot of boiling water.

I did the whole thing twice- and it worked! And now we're not going to die with Xs over our eyes from poisonous gases. Hooray for Healthy Home Resources! And stay tuned for Part II of this series...

Breakfast for dinner (and other weekend highlights)

It's Sunday evening and I'm recovering from our jam-packed weekend. Who do we think we are- a couple of D.I.N.K.s? Lots of stuff happened. Edie had some memorable moments, including her first foray into the world of solid food. Awe.some. Some babes start eating earlier (like Edie's cousin Camden) but our pediatrician gave us the green light at 6 months. Edie ate a couple bites of rice cereal enthusiastically, then I think she got exhausted. It was pretty entertaining.

I'm looking forward to Edie's culinary adventures. For some reason I think she is going to be a good eater, which is a long shot, because Dave and I were collective awful eaters growing up. But our girl has had a healthy appetite since the moment she was born (in the hospital we called her Edie the Eater). We'll see!

Speaking of eating, today I had breakfast for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Breakfast was oatmeal, lunch was bacon, eggs, and baby carrots. Dinner was gluten-free pancakes, real maple syrup, chicken sausages. Breakfast is the best meal of the day, so why not keep eating it?

Yesterday we celebrated Dave's grandma Edith's passing. She was a great woman who lived to be 100! Throughout her life she was very devoted to her family, the quintessential t.v.- watching, card game-cheating, mashed potato-making grandma. Dave has really fond memories of growing up near his grandparents, which is a wonderful thing to have. We're lucky that Edie got to meet her namesake last summer. It's my favorite memory of grandma Edith.

Lastly, we took a family outing to this great indoor pool and swam around with Edie. Dave is a total ham- going through the water features, blowing bubbles, making faces...I think he might've had more fun than her.


It was a good, crazy weekend by all accounts.

Camo Baby

Can you find the baby in this picture? She's conducting a covert operation.

"Just not now"

I went to Crossfit tonight after putting the little girl to bed. It was a good one- warm up consisted of tossing a medicine ball with a partner, then dips and pull-ups (5 sets of 3, each). The workout of the day was called Helen. Crossfit has all these 'Girls' workouts- not sure why they're named Fran, Helen, and Angie, but they'll put you in your place. Helen is a 400 meter run, 21 kettlebell swings, and 12 pull-ups, three times, as fast as you can.

Dave and I have each been going twice a week, because that is all we can accommodate budget- and time-wise. We flirt with the idea of going more, but there is no childcare and really no extra money laying around to pay for it. Believe me, I've checked.

You can't progress when you workout twice a week. You can maintain, but you can't really improve. I'm jealous of the other women who are beating me. My latent competitive edge comes out, and I'm up against women who go three or four times a week. I just have to tell myself, "Not now". I know that the time will come when Edie's a bit older, we have more money, or we find a Crossfit that has a kettlebaby room.

I try not to get down about it, because it's great that I'm still going at all. Any time something pops up that I want- new work clothes, skis, an iPhone, I think "Just not now". I've chosen to work part-time, and I love spending time with Edie, so I wouldn't trade my work schedule for more money (besides, that would require additional daycare tuition, so it's just a vicious cycle).

What I should do is dedicate one more day to doing Crossfit workout at my house. Maybe I'll weld some old coffee cans to a lead pipe and pump iron in our decrepid shed. Or buy a used running stroller now that Edie is 6 months, and go running on our days together. That actually sounds pretty good.

Kale, glorious kale!

Our Paleo experiment was informative, an exercise in creativity, and oddly appealing towards the end. But we are done with it, at least for now. Yesterday I checked out our grocery budget from last month, and yep, we're done. As I told my friend Erin, it's like going on a lobster, Kobe steak, and truffles diet. It's just not practical at this time.

Dave and I both enjoyed eating more veggies. Just heat up some olive oil, toss in some salt, and voila-- delicious kale! Or eggplant! I also made some sweet-potato fries more than once. But the meat-eating was a little OOC (out of control, for the uninitiated). So yesterday I made a sandwich and fell back into the Barca-lounger with a sigh of relief that I didn't have to spend quality time with the stove in order to eat.

For now, we'll aim to shop the perimeter of the grocery store, eat foods with the fewest number of ingredients, and limit refined sugar. But we already knew that!

In totally unrelated news, I'm really enjoying my job, and Edie is really enjoying her feet. I get to work on some marketing and graphic design stuff, and Edie gets to explore uncharted body terrain. 2011 is starting off fine, just fine.