Recipe of the Month

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

12 servings

INGREDIENTS:
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
3/4 cup canned pumpkin (organic available at Woodman's and Choices)
1/4 cup water
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate
chips

DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Grease and flour muffin pan or use paper liners.
2. Mix sugar, oil, eggs. Add pumpkin and water. In separate bowl mix together the baking flour, baking soda, baking powder, spices and salt.. Add wet mixture and stir in chocolate chips.
3. Fill muffin cups 2/3 full with batter. Bake in preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes.

Sample Holiday Letter to Relatives

Dear wonderful grandparents!
The Smith Family is excited for the upcoming holiday season, although we can't really believe we are thinking about it already in October! Our children are so lucky to have four sets of loving
grandparents. And in their short lives, you have been so generous.

However, we are looking at our small home, and we need to keep the sheer volume of things to a reasonable level. Wyatt's toys are already being packed up and rotated, as there is not enough room in his bedroom and the living room to hold them all. Please be assured that we want to emphasize the traditions that foster the greatest sense of meaning and connection, and we don't want to take anything away from the holiday. In this light, we are requesting something

a little different this year for the children at Christmas. We are thinking of things that the children can enjoy all year, or the most valuable thing: your time! Here are some ideas we've gotten from other sources. Don't feel like you have to stick to it, but we wanted to give you some ideas..

· Passes to the Children's Museum

· Coupon for a day with Grandma and Grandpa, an over night, or a
specific destination (bowling, movie, whatever!)

· Read aloud a favorite book on tape. Actually, books are great!

· Organic snacks or treats (expensive for us to always buy for them)

If you must watch them unwrap something (and we are not designating that), please keep it to one toy for each child. And if you would happen to find something on e-bay or at a rummage sale, all the better! Also, we would really appreciate it if you used recycled newspaper or packing paper to wrap their gifts.

We look forward to seeing you all for the holidays, and your company is the best gift!

With love,

Greening The Holidays

Compiled by Chris Howard-Swan

WHY GREENING AND SIMPLIFYING THE HOLIDAYS MATTERS:
Number of extra tons of trash produced in the U.S. each year between Thanksgiving and New Year's Day: 5 Million

Number of trees cut down: According to the Christmas Tree Growers Association over 30 million natural Christmas trees become a part of our throwaway society each year. An estimated 10 million artificial trees are bought each year. The natural trees are cut, sold, decorated, and discarded all within an eight-week period.

Wrapping paper: Tons and tons of wrapping paper, much of it containing metal, goes through the same throwaway cycle. Reducing the number of presents bought will have a corresponding effect on wasted paper.

Holiday cards: Typically, Americans will send more than three quarters of a billion Christmas, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa cards, according to the National Greeting Card Association. If Americans sent just one out of every ten holiday cards electronically, it would save over 30,000 trees.

What about those energy and time drainers that are hard to measure like:
All the time wasted in lines at stores and in traffic;
All the stress;
All the non-perishable and non-consumable gifts never used or briefly used and tossed away.

Before, during and after: Decide how you want to feel when you think about the holiday rush.
Guilt-free holidays: Take the word ‘should’ out.

Write a letter to your family members requesting your wishes for a greener holiday.
Traditions are part of the holidays; create new traditions for your family.
Make a schedule for less stress.
Make a budget and stick to it.
Sending cards is a gift of a greeting, not an obligation.
Clutter-free gift-giving: something that isn’t necessarily a ‘thing’.

Waste and Clutter Free Gifts
The best gifts come in no packages. Waste and Clutter-free gifts are an experience, a promise of an experience, something that is consumable, something that can be planted, something that is edible, or the gift of ‘time’.

Some examples:

• Give everyone that may get you a gift the Gift exemption card

• Donations to a favorite cause or non-profit in the name of the recipient

• Savings Bonds

• Gift cards for long-distance minutes, gas, or groceries

• Gift cards for garden nurseries, restaurants, or coffee shops

• Spa and pampering gifts

• Gym or museum memberships

• Symphony or theatre show tickets

Free Gifts:

Gifts of time, such as a gift certificate for a home-cooked meal or a day of babysitting, special activities together, or to do housework i.e. a month of dishes. To create a voucher your gift recipient can "cash in," download and print these coupons or make some of your own: http://www.buynothingchristmas.org/images/resources/pdf/Coupons.jpg

Inexpensive Home Made gifts:
Record yourself reading your child's favorite book and give child the tape or CD.

Plant bulbs, amarylis or paperwhite, in a recycled pot a few weeks before and give a blooming flower.

Handprint poem http://craftscaboose.com/handpoem.html .

Home baked goods (bread, cookies, etc.), home made carmel corn, granola, bake good mixes, soup, sauce mixes, in a basket

Hand rolled beeswax candles knorrbeeswax.com.

Home made birdseed ornaments, wrapped in wax paper and tied with pretty ribbons

Home made cleaning products

Used Gifts:

Gently used items from Ebay, garage sales, resales shops, Freecycle.org Craigslist.com and other sources.

Suggestions for other holiday details:

Trees: Buy a live tree and re-plant it. Cut your own from a specialized tree farm, this protects natural forests. Recycle it after the holidays. The Sierra Club or a local nursery can give you advice about using a live tree for Christmas.

Wrapping and Cards: Make your own wrappings and cards. Decorate scrap paper or brown bags, or try potato printing on newspapers. Save and decorate shoe boxes, cookie and coffee cans to put gifts in, pieces of leftover material could be batiked, tie-dyed, or embroidered and used for wrapping gifts. Don't use foil or mylar ribbons - they never decompose. Avoid glossed, glazed or wax papers, they mess up the re-cycling process. Use cotton yarn, twine, or decorative shoelaces instead of plastic ribbon. If you do buy paper and cards, only buy those made from recycled paper. Save holiday cards and cut out designs to use as gift tags on recycled newsprint wrapped gifts to make them more festive.

Decorations: Make your own. Set aside time for the whole family to make holiday decorations and ornaments: colorful wall-hangings, pine cone wreaths, menorahs, advent calendars, garlands of flowers or colored paper, dried oranges with cloves, salt dough ornaments, dried nuts, seeds, or seashells. Visit thrift stores and garage sales in between holidays for recycled decorations. Freecycle.

Energy: Try making this a -- low energy -- Christmas by refraining from buying anything which uses electricity, by leaving the tree lights and spotlights in the attic and decorating with popcorn and cranberries.

RESOURCES:

Websites:

http://www.newdream.org/holiday/
http://www.selfgrowth.com/articles/Simplifying_the_Holidays.html
http://www.simpleliving.net/main/category..asp?catid=42
http://www.buynothingchristmas.org/
http://planetgreen.discovery.com/home-garden/simplify-the-holidays-inexpens.html
http://www.greensangha.org/action3.html

Books:

Celebrate Simply, by Nancy Twigg

Hundred Dollar Holiday, by Bill McKibben

The Book of New Family Traditions, by Meg Cox

Unplug the Christmas Machine, by Jo Robinson and Jean Coppock Staeheli

What Kids Really Want That Money Can't Buy, by Betsy Taylor

Christmas on Jane Street, by Billy Romp and Wanda Urbanska

Holistic Moms Making A Difference: Carmen Turner

I was recently honored to have the opportunity to interview one of our early members, Carmen Turner. She is very friendly, positive and easy to talk to. I have enjoyed getting to know her at different HMN events and we are fortunate to have Carmen as a member. - Chris

Chris Howard-Swan: What got you interested in holistic living?

Carmen Turner: I guess I've been interested in aspects of holistic living ever since I was a child. Of course I would not have realized it had such a fancy name at the time but my parents raised us along many of the same standards I find important for my family today. They understood that the body has the ability to heal itself in most cases, that it IS important what you eat, and that who you have around you is more important than what you own. In high school I turned in multiple rough drafts printed on the back sides of scrap paper from the library because I thought it was such a waste. I think that came from always drawing on used computer paper that my dad would bring home from work when I was little. I think holistic living is just a learning process that starts when you are young and continues as you find ways to make it your own.

CHS: What are your top three holistic passions?

CT: My top three holistic passions would be embracing hand-me-downs and used items, finding contentment within any situation, and educating myself and my family on ways to improve our quality of life.

CHS: What holistic practice or lifestyle could you not live without, and why?

CT: The holistic practice I could not live without would definitely be finding contentment with my life. It's not easy and I fail a lot but it is something I work for. If I get frustrated because the AC is broke in my car or annoyed that we are the last people in the 21st century to NOT own a dishwasher I take a minute and remember all of the stuff we do have. Then I remind myself that that's what it is..just stuff. We are happy and healthy with friends and family who love us and that's all that matters, right? Right.

CHS: What holistic practice of lifestyle do you still participate in (or refuse to give up)?

CT: I think the most "unholistic" practice I indulge in would be my addiction to Beef A Roo's fries. I can try and comfort myself by repeating in my head how they are trans fat free but that doesn't matter much, especially when I'm dipping them in cheese sauce which we all know contains next to nothing that ever resembled real cheese. Mmmm...my mouth is watering just thinking about them! Oh, and I can't stand baking with all of the substitutes. I don't mind using wheat flour and applesauce but carob does NOT taste like chocolate and stevia is NOT as good as sugar..I don't care what anyone says. If I bake brownies I want them to taste like brownies!

CHS: How has HMN affected your life?
CT: The HMN has been a great resource for my family. We are planning a homebirth for our second child and I don't know if we would have found a midwife without the HMN. It's so reassuring to speak with other women about it and know that our choice is supported!

Captain Pete and the Pursuit of Happiness By Dr John Edwards

Shower Time

Captain Pete is a bird, but not just an ordinary one like you see in the trees in the parks around Rockford or on your yard at home. Captain Pete is a blue and yellow parrot, just like the ones that live with pirates, except he lives here in your hometown. Pete is a curious bird and likes to see new things. In a lot of ways he is a lot like you and I. He plays with toys, he likes to sing, and he loves exercise. Pete is always learning new words, trying new foods, and making new friends.

Pete is a very messy eater. He loves to eat bananas but they are very sticky and he gets the fruit all over his beak and front feathers. It’s really funny to see him eat food after having a banana because it sticks to his face like green, red and orange decorations! Although everyone has a laugh when he does this, Pete learned it’s not very nice to be dirty all the time. One day he decided he wasn’t going to have a bath. He got dirtier and dirtier and dirtier. Captain Pete got so dirty his feet stuck to his perch and fruit flies were buzzing around trying to eat the bits of food on his feathers. Even his friends Doc and Aly stopped coming by because he was getting so stinky! One day Doc had to step in and stop all this dirtiness.

“Pete, this is getting gross! There’s banana on your nose, orange juice on your toes, and there’s so many flies I can’t see your eyes! I’m giving you a shower!” Doc said. Pete didn’t know what a shower was because he’d only had baths. He was a bird, and all the little birds Pete knew took baths, too. Pete wondered if he was big enough to take a shower and kept wondering about it as Doc reached his arm into the cage scooped him up, gooey toes and all. The fruit flies buzzed around them both in a big cloud until the two friends ran for the bathroom and shut the door. Pete thought now would be a good time to talk to Doc about this whole “shower” thing.

“Doc,” Captain Pete began, “all my life I’ve only taken baths. Its what little birds do. We stand in the water and splash around with our beaks. Sometimes we play with toys, sometimes we sing, and sometimes our Mama-birds will help wash behind our ears. I’m afraid that if I take a shower I will get water in my eyes and I might not be able to breathe because the water will splash me in the face. I really don’t want to take a shower,” Pete confessed, “because I’m kind of scared to.”

Doc could see his little feathered friend was actually nervous about taking his first shower, so he tried to give him some encouragement. “Pete, a shower is really just like standing in the rain except its warmer. If you’re worried about water getting into your eyes, just squeeze them tightly shut when you’re washing your face and turn away from the water for the rest of the shower. You see, there’s far more places the water isn’t during a shower- there’s space in between the streams of water, there’s space outside of the streams of water, and when you put your back to the shower there’s all the air in front of you to breathe. You don’t worry about the water when you’re caught outside in the rain, do you?”

Captain Pete thought about it for a little while and remembered that he really did like the rain. He liked splashing in the puddles and catching raindrops with his tongue. Pete decided that maybe he was just being a blueberry chicken. “No, I guess not,” he answered his friend. Doc smiled and nodded to his friend, noticing that Pete was relaxing and felt better about trying this new thing. He turned the great big knob that makes the water pour from the bathtub faucet, then pulled the metal lever that closed the tap and forced the water back up behind the wall and out again through the shower head. Whissssshhhhhh!!!! went the water as it came out of the nozzles high above and onto the bottom of the tub. Doc picked Pete up and set him down in the tub outside of the circle where the water was landing so his feathers could stay dry until he was ready to stick his head in. Captain Pete could feel the water running over his toes and looked at the spray landing in front of him. It was strange, almost exactly like rain as Doc had said, except for the drops were landing in one place instead of everywhere around him. It was like standing at the end of a rainbow and being able to walk in and out of it. Captain Pete closed his eyes, took a big breath in, and waddled forward into the spray of the shower.

“RAAAWWWKK!” Pete squawked as the water poured on his head, down his neck, and ran down his back to his long tail. Captain Pete really liked this feeling! He flapped his big wings and tried to open his eyes while he was in the spray. “This isn’t so bad. I like it. Showers feel good!” Pete chirped up to Doc with a smile.

Doc watched as the water washed the bits of food off his feathered friend’s beak and rinsed his sticky feet clean. Pete ran back and forth, in and out of the spray from the shower, flapping his wings and squawking loudly the whole time. Doc decided to tell Pete why he preferred shower time to bath time.

“It sure looks like you’re having fun, Captain Pete,” Doc began.

“RAAAWWWKK!” Pete squawked back in agreement.

Doc laughed. “Baths can be okay for relaxing or playing in, but I find I can get clean faster in a shower. Plus, showers use less water, and that’s good for the environment. When I lived in Australia everyone took showers because we didn’t have much water. I have friends who would store the rainwater in barrels and use that for their main water supply. If it didn’t rain much over the summer they had to really conserve. My buddies used to have shower races and told me I could wash my hair and get clean from head to toe in three minutes if I tried. We don’t have water restrictions here, but the three-minute game is still something I play every time I take a shower. Not only is it a fun challenge, but saving water is something I can do every day to help our planet, so that makes me feel good too.”

“Do you think I could play the three minute game?” Pete asked Doc after his story. Doing things like making the bed, taking out the garbage, and washing up can get boring for a little bird like Pete, so he’s learned that if he makes a game out of chores they’re a lot more fun.

“Pete, you’re such a little bird! Your tail feathers are longer than you are! The bathtub floor can be slippery so you shouldn’t rush, but I think you definitely could get under three minutes in the Shower Time Game.”

“Alright-y then,” Captain Pete said, spreading his wings under the shower spray. “Time me!”

Doc smiled back and said in his best game show host voice “Greetings, Captain Pete, and welcome to the ‘Shower Time Game.’ On your marks…Get set…Go!!!”

Seeing the blog through the fog

Well, I am finally making a post on the blog. I was a little hesitant about this blog business. I swore I would never be a blogger. But for a long time I swore I would never own a cell phone. And here I am. I am still getting used to this format. At this point, I am treating this as an experiment. I really enjoyed editing the newsletter and I am hoping that this will be as fulfilling. I look forward to receiving more submissions to the newsletter in its new format as well. Here goes nothing....