Been a While...

Wow, it has been a while since I posted, but hey, that's what the Holidays will do! I just wanted to share a different project I've been working on - it's called Cre8 and Re-Cre8. It's a blog about making useful stuff and making stuff useful. Let me know what you think!

Wrap Rage

I went to Amazon.com today and found a messgae from Jeff Bezos right there on the front screen addressing "wrap rage". I was so excited to see that they have acknowledged this is a problem and are doing something about it. I hate these clamshell plastic packaging. I always end up cutting myself trying to get them open. It also really sucks to try to get a kid's toy out of the packaging while they are standing next to you harassing you and you have 50 million little do-dads to unravel. Not to mention the useless waste from this packaging. Now COSTCO needs to just follow suit. They are really the worst offendor.

A Lesson and Hope in These Tough Times

"Somewhere along the way, we, as a society, got lost. We thought that having it all would lead to happiness. Truth is, having it all only erodes the value of having. It leaves you with less. Less satisfaction. Less understanding. Less meaning. And less joy." - Green Bean

I just read this quote over at The Green Phone Booth. It really struck a chord with me. I can see this so much in children. The more toys they have, the more they seem to destroy them and treat them poorly. they do not find value in their toys. They are not "special".

The more we have, the more we want. It becomes an unquenchable thirst for things. I remember growing up the wonder and excitement of going through the Sears Wish Book, daydreaming about the toys I might have and what I might do with them. But, it was the dreaming and fantasizing that was the great thing. It reminds me of another quote. This one is from the kids movie "Escape to Witch Mountian". The older sister (what's her name?) tells her brother: "If we have everything we could ever want, we would have nothing left to wish for." Okay, I'm paraphrasing here. That always stuck with me.

Having things comes with a price. You have to manage these things and worry about them. Things tie you down. You give up a little piece of freedom and a little piece of time with each possession.

Choosing to have fewer things this year and choosing to buy more food locally and make more food from scratch has truly been a wonderful experience for us as a family and for me in particular. I appreciate my raspberry much more knowing that I can have it fresh only within a certain season. I appreciate my basil spice, fresh from my own garden. I am more sensitive to where these things come from and the cost to the society to create them.

Lord knows, I have so much further to go. By most standards, I don't live simply. It is only in comparison with the way I used to live. But with the little steps I have taken, with each thing I let go of, the more full my life feels.

Getting Kids In Touch with Nature

Having 3 little boys and witnessing the effect that television can have on them, I have become pretty gung-ho about making sure they experience nature and gain an appreciation from the natural world. I find that if you spend two hours exploring the outdoors (be it in my back yard, at a park, or camping) they are much happier kids than after the same two hours of being inside watching TV or even just playing with toys.

Unlike previous generations when you went outside to play at the first chance and came inside "when the streetlights came on", it is an effort to get these kids to spend time outside. I found a great new resource that is just starting out called "Nature for Kids". It is a blog and a discussion forum and additional resources all about just activities to do with kids in Nature. I just love the concept and I hope that it gets much more participation!

May I Have Your Weeds, Please?

I don’t know whether it is my quest for a simpler life or the pain of the economy, but I have become very fascinated with the idea of foraging for food in my own back yard – or other people’s back yards as the case may be. I have discovered that all kinds of yard “weeds” are edible and also have a lot of nutritional benefits. There are even organizations that are just dedicated to promoting this as a practice good for the environment.

For example, naturalist “Wildman” Steve Brill has a whole website dedicated to it. He includes tons of information on identifying plants that are edible and is working on a book for foraging with kids. An organization called Plants for a Future has a searchable database of edible plants with all kinds of information on uses of the plants and any hazards or warnings about their usage. It is an excellent free resource.

Some of the weeds I’ve tried so far…

• Purslane – This is an exceptional weed. I love the taste of it (it is juicy and citrus-like). The leaves are high in Omega-3 Fatty acids and the stem is high in Vitamin C. I spotted some Purslane in a friend’s yard and transplanted it to my herb garden (as pictured). I would be very excited if it took off in my own yard! I’ve eaten this right off the stem and put it into my “Garden Weed Pesto”.


• Dandelions- Everything about the dandelion is edible. The greens are even sold in stores like “Whole Foods” for use in salads or to be cooked like spinach. The flowers can be eaten in a salad or used to make wine. I also used the greens in my “Garden Weed Pesto”.


• Wild Blackberry – We have some of this in the back yard (as well as the local park). The kids gathered some black berries and we tried to eat them with whipped cream. The flavor actually wasn’t that great. Maybe they weren’t ripe enough. I’m going to see if they are better cooked or in a fruit smoothie.

Things I’m going to try soon include clovers and oxalis. We have a ton of this and I’ve read you can cook it up the clover as you would spinach (oxalis should only be eaten in small quantities). Maybe I could make a nice weed quiche.

Some words of caution… There was just a story on the news today about a whole family that got sent to the hospital from poisoning due to insecticide on their mint leaves.

1. Don’t eat any foraged food that is from an area that may be exposed to insecticides, road salt (from snow), or any foreign chemical substances that you don’t know about.


2. Make sure to clean anything that you pluck from your yard thoroughly.


3. Make sure you can absolutely, positively identify something before you eat it. Many plants in your yard are poisonous.

I’m not sure that my neighbors appreciate the encouragement of clovers and dandelions in the yard. Good thing we don’t have a home owner’s association!

One More Thing - A Book Thing

This one is in the spirit of life simplification. As I have been trying to find good home for books I am ready to let go of, I came across this organization in Baltimore, MD: A Book Thing. It seems that the main point of their organization is to give books away for free to people who want them. What a great idea! They need book donations, especially children's books. They also need plastic grocery bags - and I'm always looking for a new home for those as well (although I have started using BAGGUs for grocery shopping to cut down on the use of plastic grocery bags).