Mulling it over

Ryan, Tessa and I had a really nice Valentine's evening. I picked up some king crab at Costco, and I made a simple dinner of steamed crab with garlic butter, cheesy orzo, and broccoli, with brownies for dessert. I used Great Aunt Helen's dishes - the ones my mom gave me when Ryan and I got married - because they are covered with little pink roses and lots of hand-painted gold flourishes, and most appropriate for Valentine's Day and tea parties. (The rest of the year, they sit in a cupboard...but oh I do love them.) Ryan and I drank wine from our wedding crystal, and Tessa had her milk in a fancy glass. I lit every candle (you know that's a lot - I LOVE candles) in the house and we ate by candlelight. Tessa and I even got dressed up.

After dinner, when Tessa was snug in her bed, Ryan and I stayed up and talked about the ideas I've been discussing in my blog. Though this time it's coming from me, Ryan was the person who first told me about the simplicity movement (Voluntary Simplicity and the book "Your Money or Your Life") and he is certainly on board with the concepts. Without even realizing that I had been writing about it, Ryan proposed a vegetable garden for this year. It's nice to be thinking on the same page.

Here is what I know for sure:
- I'm ready for change
- My spiritual quest is tied to my quest for a healthy body, healthy planet, healthy life
- I am seeking sources of inspiration from Buddhist, Christian, Jewish, Islamic, and other spiritual sources (although it really seems like I'm on the Buddhism track right now, it's not because I'm becoming a Buddhist, it's because it's easier to be focused on one thing at a time in my learning to gain understanding)
- I believe that taking steps toward a healthy planet will actually assist me in having a healthier pocketbook in addition to a healthier body

And in a more concrete way, I know that:
- I want a vegetable garden
- I want to stop buying unnecessary items (a.k.a. most of what I buy)
- I want to hike, camp, snowshoe, spend time in my yard, play on the beach
- I'm going to shop more at PCC and the farmer's market
- I'm researching different food ideas....gardens, root cellars, canning, bread making, jam making, self-pick fruit
- I want to eat more seasonally, and I'm researching how to do this
- I am attempting to lower my carbon footprint by using less energy in our home

Would you even believe that I'd like to make my own cheese and yogurt?! According to A,V,M it can take just minutes to make once you have the system down. She described the process for making mozzarella, and it does sound simple. It would be amazing to make sandwiches this summer from home made bread, home made cheese, and garden grown tomatoes and basil...I think I'd feel like I'd climbed Everestt if I did that.

And yet I do NOT wish to be a pioneer woman. I do not wish to add to my "to do" list so that I feel more inadequate, frazzled, rushed. I just have to figure out how to do these things joyfully, or not do them at all.

In good news, I went to Thriftway (I had to do some banking there, too, as there is a WaMu branch there) this morning and bought a gallon of milk. I stood in front of the case, looking for my usual organic brand, and now they are carrying another brand labeled organic, but this one says "Locally grown!" in big letters. The difference? $6.19 a gallon for my usual organic brand (I try not to look at the cost of the non-organic brands, because I get so horrified at how much I'm spending), and $4.69 a HALF gallon for the "local" brand. I stood in dismay: I'm committed in theory to spending my money on local food, but the price is really awful. I piked up the local one, and read that it's from "Roy, in the shadows of Mt. Rainier." I picked up the other one, and read that it's distributed in Duvall, Washington. Duvall? That's right around the corner, more or less - HURRAH! Finally, I caught a break. I do not need to pay over $9 a gallon for milk. Ha.