We're Back!

We didn't end up camping, or even hiking, because it was too cold. And we were tired. But we managed to find an amazing Indian buffet in Pittsburgh, drove around the city a little, and enjoyed the drive back together. We also stumbled across an amazing little town where we bought some herbal tea and bulk spices. Then we came home and watched A River Runs Through It, which is really one of my very favorite movies of all time. Here are some pictures from our day.

Shopping This Month

Say it ain't so...but I think we're actually going to try this month's shopping without Aldi's.

Why, when it's worked so well for us? Well, for one thing, we're continually tweaking our eating habits based on health, economic, and ecological concerns. One tenet that fits nicely into all three of those is to reduce our consumption of animal foods even further. I've heard so many people say how much they saved on their grocery bills by cooking one vegetarian meal a week or more. Well, we've been trying to do a similar thing with vegan meals, with a frequency of more like 3-4 times a week. Not because we don't love eggs and dairy--we do--but our goal is to consume these foods whole and in high quality (which means no reduced-fat substitutes), but low quantity. This allows other foods--namely grains and vegetables--to come to the fore, which is a good and healthy thing.

I have to say that since we've started to try to eat this way, I feel like my hunger levels and my weight have both magically stabilized. I'm not as desperately hungry between meals, and it's increasingly easy for me to stop when I'm full. And while I finish off many nights with a mug of hot chocolate (made with whole milk and enough Ghiradelli to float a battleship), my weight has remained very stable--more so than when I was more careful about eating and exercise than I am now. Go figure.

Anyway, because of our emphasis on grains and vegetables, we're not purchasing much of the foods (cheese, sour cream, and prepared foods) on which Aldi's provides the highest savings. The vegetables and such are still cheaper, but it's difficult to get them to last through the month. Throwing away produce doesn't save money. And if we're talking about the difference of several dollars or less, there's also the consideration that Aldi's is a round trip of 80 miles--not exactly insignificant in terms of time, money, or our carbon footprint. By contrast, within 7 miles of our apartment we can hit Costco, Trader Joe's, Whole Foods, and any number of regular local grocery stores. Due to the changes in how we eat, and the rising price of gas, I think we may be able to swing it.

Another consideration when we're buying mainly these products is the circumstances of their production--which I don't know. We by no means eat entirely organically, and in the past I've paid little attention to the designation, but once again: things change. As we consider the fact that we would now like to have children before too long (still several years though, FYI), I've started to consider what goes into my body for more than just my own sake. It's a well-known fact that environmental contaminants concentrate at the top of the food chain (biomagnification). Within the bodies of those animals, many substances become even further concentrated in fat cells, in the placenta, and in breast milk. Hundreds of known carcinogens and other harmful chemicals have already been found in umbilical cord blood. This is an unpleasant thought. However, studies have shown that individuals can reduce their own consumption of pesticides by approximately 90% by choosing organic versions of only the dirty dozen, many of which are plentiful in Matt's and my diet.

So. There you have it. I'll continue to update our progress, in terms of both recipes and finance.

Chocolate Mint Cookies

Here's our variation on the infamous Neiman Marcus cookie recipe, based on what we like and/or what we had on hand.

Chocolate Mint Cookies

2 sticks butter
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
2.5 cups blended oatmeal**
1.5 cups whole-wheat flour
½ tsp. salt
1/3 cup cocoa powder
½ tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
12 oz. chocolate or chocolate-mint chips (I used Andes)

** Measure oatmeal and blend in a blender to a fine powder.

Cream the butter and both sugars. Add eggs and vanilla; mix together with flour, oatmeal, salt, baking powder, cocoa powder, and baking soda. Add chocolate chips. Roll into balls and place two inches apart on a cookie sheet.

Bake for 10 minutes at 375 degrees. Makes 5 dozen cookies.

I've learned to slightly underdo the flour in cookie recipes, especially when using whole-wheat flour, because it leads to moister cookies--so in this case I decreased the flour from 2 to 1.5 cups. The original recipe also called for a grated Hershey bar, which I didn't have, so I substituted cocoa powder; I only had 1/2 tsp baking soda (since we use it for everything) but the original called for a whole teaspoon. They still came out great--subtly minty, actually fairly healthy, and nice and chocolatey. Yum!

While We're Doing Updates...

You may remember the Feline Pine experiment, in which I detailed our eagerness to abandon traditional clay-based cat litters for a variety of health and hygienic and environmental reasons. Well, to make a long story short...we did end up with a liberal amount of sawdust tracked around (though to be fair, we had all hardwood floors at the other apartment, making it much more obvious), and Matt felt like it didn't keep odor down as well as, say, Tidy Cats Small Spaces, which is what we reverted back to and use currently (in an effort to keep track of which of the many brands/varieties to buy when we're at the store, we conveniently created a jingle to the tune of Wide Open Spaces by the Dixie Chicks). I don't know whether I agree, but it's a co-venture and so we want to find something we can both get behind.

I know this is incredibly crazy-sounding, but we keep debating whether we could just toilet-train the cats. Resources on the Internet abound, and it seems like we might be good candidates because first of all, our cats are pretty consistent about using the litterbox, regardless of contents or location; and second, we have very few guests, and so the concern over the door being closed/the lid being down/ someone being offended should we be lucky enough to find cat pee/poop in the toilet, is pretty low. It's usually just the two of us, and we'd be more inclined to applaud and then post a picture on the blog.

So...we'll see. Right now it's still in the talking stages.

Herbal Update (plus the strawberry plant)

Herbs thyme, rosemary, and lavender are absolutely flourishing in their makeshift, cat-proof window box. Each has grown a fraction of an inch since we planted it, and the leaves are green and healthy. Likewise, the strawberry plant seems to thrive on neglect out on the patio.
Basil is another story. Droopy, wilted...hmmm. Too much water, too little water, too little sunshine? (It does appear that the basil is in the darker corner of the windowbox.) We're clueless, and on the fence about whether to try to nurse him back to health, or to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs and just make pesto out of him now before he's beyond salvage. A difficult choice indeed.
In terms of further gardening, I wrote a letter to our apartment managers awhile back asking if we might have a bit of earth to plant some peppers and tomatoes this summer, since our spot at #78 on the waiting list for the Reston Community Gardens doesn't look very hopeful. I received back a very nice voicemail saying I could call them back to "discuss some options," but we haven't actually connected yet. Here's hoping--it would be so nice to actually put some plants in the ground!

Last Weekend

We took a nice little hike this weekend nearby at a historic mill--nothing stunningly picturesque, but it got us out of the apartment for some fresh air for a couple of hours. And it was the maiden voyage of my new hiking shoes, which you can see in action below.If I haven't mentioned yet just how much I love Merrell footwear, let me do it now. They're just the most comfortable, supportive shoes I've ever worn. For the first time ever, my feet don't hurt after work or when I'm out and about. This is a revelation for me. I have a fuzzy, fleecy pair of clogs that I've worn every day since I got them in September, and then I have a pair of black wipe-clean-easily clogs that I wear at work. Since I'm not one to fix what isn't broken, I happily went with another pair of Merrells when picking up hiking gear.

Anyway, here are a few more scenes from the hike.

Further Additions to the Midwifery Library

My lovely mother was kind enough to send me the books that follow for my birthday. In addition to the books I got last week, and a couple of kick-ass videos (thanks, Matt!), I should have plenty to keep me busy and learning for a long time.

Adventures in Natural Childbirth. I'm guessing will be just what it sounds like. One of my goals for a birth library is to have not only books that will inform (both me and others), but ones that will inspire--especially with true stories. I think this is such a book.

Gentle Birth Choices. Research-based, convincing, and it has one of the cutest covers I've ever seen.

Heart and Hands: A Midwife's Guide to Pregnancy and Birth. Goes beyond the usual textbook of pregnancy-related concerns to address things like emotional preparation for birth, herbal supplements, and other non-mainstream approaches.

Other than that, last night I worked 7pm-7am--a lady of the night once more. I actually still felt pretty good when I got off, but after a delicious breakfast cooked by Matt, I collapsed into bed and didn't even move until 4pm--which was later than I had intended to sleep but which ended up being fine, since work asked me to come in tonight as well. As far as the rest of the week goes, Matt leaves for Pittsburgh on Wednesday, and I'm driving up to meet him on Friday; we're hoping to camp overnight on Saturday. We'll see if weather permits!

Threads

It's supposed to be cool and rainy today, which is disappointing because we're itching to use our new hiking/backpacking gear. But we are planning to take a walk, and do some cooking (of course), and just maybe tidy up the apartment, which has been a tad bit neglected since this has been an exceptionally busy week for both of us.

On another interesting note, yesterday marks the first time I've ever gotten my eyebrows threaded. Having been cursed with dark, bushy eyebrows since the age of about ten, I became a regular waxer during and after college but dropped it in favor of erratic self-tweezing when we entered our period of extreme frugality while saving for our wedding. Two things I never liked about waxing were the cost (around $20) and the skin irritation I experienced afterward. Enter threading, recommended to me by several of my Indian patients whose eyebrows I had complimented. Because the hairs are pulled out by a a tight loop of thread which is run over rows of unwanted hair, it doesn't remove or damage the top layer of skin like ripping off a piece of hot wax does. Oddly enough, it's also incredibly precise. Because the town next to us, Herndon, boasts a large Indian population, I had no trouble finding a great local place (Maria's Place, which I would highly recommend) to get it done; best of all, I paid only $8 for the shapeliest eyebrows of my life. Yes, it's fairly uncomfortable, but it's so effective and done very quickly. Consider me converted: unless we move to an area where it's suddenly unavailable, I don't think I'll ever wax again.

My New Favorite Shirt

which we bought on clearance at the Hudson Trail Outfitter's sale.

I Know Readers of Our Blog Will Appreciate How Cool This Is

The Work I Do

"To love what you do
and feel that it matters—
how could anything be more fun?"

- Katherine Graham

I spent 10 hours yesterday in some of the most intensive, one-on-one labor support I've done in a long time. Virtually all of it was spent standing, walking, or squatting--very little time tethered in bed. I love natural childbirth because I love watching women listen to what their bodies tell them to do. There are the predictable aspects and behaviors, but then there are always certain gestures or rituals that are completely unique to each woman, but that remain consistent throughout the labor.

And at the end of it all there was a lovely baby girl in the room, birthed by somebody who didn't believe she could endure an induced labor with no pain medication, but who ended up doing just that. It literally brought tears to my eyes when she said "I couldn't have done this if you hadn't believed in me."

I can't wait to get into a profession where I can spend more of my time believing in women this way.

On a related note, last night Matt and I watched Patch Adams for the first time, at my parents' suggestion. We loved it. We were fascinated to find out that Patch Adams actually lives and practices in West Virginia, about four hours from where we are now. That he wants to open a free rural hospital based on natural healing and the arts. Uhh...sound familiar? Something on his website that caught my eye:

"An apparent secret in the practice of medicine (so easily erased when business is the context) is how care is bidirectional. This intimacy is as important for the care giver as it is the patient. The bidirectionality of healing is at the core of preventing burnout. The business of medicine has connected the word care with the concept "burden," to describe all who need care, who are not wealthy. But we found the unencumbered practice of medicine is an ecstatic experience."

It's Only Tuesday.

I haven't blogged much this week because it's only Tuesday and I've already worked twice as many hours as I'd intended. As a result, I feel like it should be Friday, and I still have two 12-hour shifts to go. On the positive side, I'm getting more comfortable with a wide range of things at work and have been getting into some more complex patient care situations, which keeps things dynamic and interesting.

Today I was supposed to be off, but agreed to come in from 7-11, and didn't end up leaving until almost 2:30. I thought about taking a nap when I got home, but ended up making a batch of these instead.
I used a half batch of butter spread (so 1 stick of butter to 1/4 each of canola oil and water) and also swirled in a little cocoa powder, and they turned out pretty well. They're not stunning, and I wonder if the flavor wasn't a little muted as a result of less actual butter, but that might be an added benefit as they're now not only healthier, but more conducive to portion control as well. I also started a new batch of yogurt in the crockpot since we were running low.

Fun With New Camera

(Which is a Rebel XTi, in answer to a recent comment/question.) Today we drove up to Harper's Ferry...


...then came home and planted some herbs.



Some basil, rosemary, thyme, and lavender. We're going to start them in a windowbox and see how that goes. If they survive long enough to get big, we'll move them out onto the porch as it gets warm. We're also hoping to start some tomatoes and peppers out there, along with a strawberry plant.

I know what you're thinking: a strawberry plant? But you have to pick off the blossoms the first year and so you won't have any strawberries until next year! Matt tried that one at Home Depot today. Well, not only have I found little evidence to say this is actually necessary, had I not been dissuaded the first time I heard that argument (from my mother when I was eight), I could have started harvesting strawberries by the time I was nine and been at it for the past 16 years. So: no time like the present, I say, and we're going to get started now.


In other hopeful news, yesterday we hit up the Hudson Trail Outfitter's annual clearance sale and got me outfitted for some backpacking this summer.


As you can tell, we can't wait :)

Author of Pushed at Georgetown This Weekend

Who: Jennifer Block
Where: Georgetown University
When: Saturday, March 15, 2008 at 1:00 pm
What: Lecture, Reading, Book Signing
How Much: $10, pre-registered or at the door

More information here. Should be excellent!

Like a Kid in a Candy Store

Is how I felt when my super-fabulous in-laws were kind enough to give me an Amazon.com gift certificate for my birthday. The possibilities were endless!

Once I came back down to earth, I tried to think about the most sensible way to go about making my selections. This meant weeding out books I could easily get at the library, ones that I could potentially find at a used bookstore, and those I couldn't see myself reading more than once. In were books that would help make up my future professional library, as well as lifestyle-oriented books I might want to refer to on a regular basis.

Here's what I eventually (and I do mean eventually--I'll bet I devoted a good two hours to this) decided on:

Your Money or Your Life, by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin. Consistently rated one of the most inspirational guides to managing personal finance in keeping with personal goals. A good review can be found here.

Simple Prosperity: Finding Real Wealth in a Sustainable Lifestyle, by David Wann. An equally good review from the same site here.

Ina May's Guide to Childbirth, by Ina May Gaskin. The book that Alice Walker says has the "power to change the life of everyone born on the planet," by one of the foremost natural childbirth experts in the modern world. For parents, practitioners, and everybody.

Spiritual Midwifery, by Ina May Gaskin. A timeless classic for midwives.

The Birth Partner, by Penny Simkin. I gave away my first copy and am excited to get my hands back on this great resource for supporting women through labor. Information on positioning, breathing techniques, masssage, and lots of other awesome skills that I'm hoping to incorporate more into my nursing practice.

I can't wait!

Sister Act

Yesterday I was excited to finally get to talk to my sister, who's currently studying abroad in Bolivia. She's tried to call before, but because of the utterly craptastic reception I get from T-Mobile, I've always missed her calls. She's calling from a phone booth in South America, and I'm the one dropping the calls. Great.

She's doing a great job down there, but of course it isn't easy. Her stories bring back memories of when Holly and I were in Mexico together during nursing school. The exhaustion which comes from meeting so many new people and constantly speaking a different language than the one you think in, eating unfamiliar foods, the disbelief that there can really be so many poor hungry homeless dogs, and remembering that story from Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark about the family who brought home a Chihuahua that was really a rat. Add that to your challenging academic coursework and some serious gastrointestinal upset and boy, time has never passed so slowly in your life.

It goes without saying (though I'm going to say it anyway) that you learn some hard lessons, though. One of the biggest for me was how deeply ingrained is the assumption that if a person speaks your language poorly or not at all, he or she must be less intelligent than you. I was ashamed to realize that some formulation of this idea had existed in my subconsciousness--not in a malicious way, but in a gee-I-never-really-thought-about-it way. But my first few days in Mexico, as I babbled my kindergarten-level Spanish grammar to have people look at me either with contempt or confusion or pity, I wanted so badly to break through the confines of my inferior language skills and yell "Hey, where I come from, I'm considered kind of SMART!" I can only imagine how painful that is when it doesn't go away, when you're not going home in three weeks (or ever), and when it's combined with so many other obstacles to getting a decent job and schooling and proving what you know (or hope) is true about yourself. I had always had sympathy for non-English speakers, but this newfound empathy dawned on me with a whole new appreciation for the fact that they had knowledge and skills of their own--which I could no more understand than they could mine.

Anyway, I'm sure Rebecca will come back with revelations of her own. (Which may include one of mine--I'm not leaving the country again for at least two years--though I did subsequently get married in the same country that had caused me to say that.) Either way, we're all proud of her and miss her lots! Keep up the good work, Sneebs!

2008 Goals Update

Since my birthday is in March, it makes a good check-in time for the goals I set at the beginning of the year. I try to evaluate again at the beginning of the summer, and then once again at the beginning of the school year. If I were ever NOT in school, like that one year in 2006, I would just do it in September, I guess.

Here's a look at how I/we have fared in the first quarter of 2008:

Do 30 minutes of activity every day, and closer to 60 on the weekends. We did pretty well at this to start out, but lately we've fallen totally off the wagon as Matt has developed some pretty painful tendonitis along the side of one foot. He had been beating the pants off me in the walking-to-work department (as it is still dark when I go to work), but lately it's just been too uncomfortable (and very likely detrimental) for him to walk to work either. And I'm not too proud to admit that when Matt doesn't walk, well, I don't either. However, we're hoping to get this under control soon so that we can get out and enjoy the weather.

Use the car as little as we can. See above. Having a repair on the car last month sort of jolted me with how much we really do need it still.

Go back to cash envelopes for Groceries and Entertainment. We haven't done this since February, in part because we're still banking in Iowa and we do what we can to avoid ATM withdrawals out here. And because I'm a little lazy about it. But, I know that we get two fee-free withdrawals from our bank a month, and we would be smart to use those to fill an envelope for each of these categories, because I know that we've been overstepping them a little bit by using our debit cards and "just keeping track." This month we'll get back on track and be better about staying within our limits.

Pay off both car loans by August. So far, we're pretty much on track for this. I'm hoping it stays that way.

Learn more about investing. I haven't done as much with this as I could. We have an ING Savings Account that we contribute to at least monthly, and we definitely have an active plan for reducing our debt, but I know this is the next important piece to our financial puzzle. Two books I'd like to read soon are Simple Prosperity and Your Money or Your Life, and I need to master the basics of index funds.

Continue to make an effort to eat high-quality unprocessed foods. "Continue to make an effort?" Boy, did I give myself a lot of leeway in the wording of that one! Anyway, this is something we're sort of spotty about. While we do cook the majority of our food from scratch, we would do better to include more produce and less animal fat, unprocessed or not. To that end, we plan to be more diligent about what I call the Four S's (soups, salads, smoothies, and stir-fry), and we're switching from breakfasts of mainly eggs to mainly oatmeal and smoothies. We've started making whipped butter (which is great!) and using more olive oil, and making sure to have a vegetable with dinner. We could also stand to drink more water.

So, in other words...it's a good thing the year is still young!

Our New Camera Has a Timer

A Very Vegan Birthday Cake

Prepared by Matt, compliments of Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home.

Six Minute Chocolate Cake

Cake
1 1/2 cups flour
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 cup cold water or brewed coffee (we used water since I had bad luck with coffee making Matt's birthday cake)
2 tsp vanilla
2 Tbsp vinegar

Glaze
1/2 pound bittersweet chocolate
3/4 cup hot water (if you're avoiding animal products), or milk or half & half
1/2 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 375.

Sift together (or, if you're like us, just mix) the flour, cocoa, baking soda, salt and sugar into an ungreased 8 inch square or 9 inch round baking pan.

In a 2 cup measuring cup, measure and mix together the oil, water or coffee (we used water), and vanilla. Pour the liquid ingredients into the baking pan and mix the batter with a fork or a small wisk. When the batter is smooth, add the vinegar and stir quickly. There will be pale swirls in the batter where the baking soda and the vinegar are reacting. Stir just until the vinegar is is evenly distributed throughout the batter.

Bake for 25-30 minutes. Let the cake cool.

For the glaze, reset the oven to 300. Melt the chocolate in an overproof bowl or skillet in the oven for about 15 minutes. Stir in the hot liquid and the vanilla until smooth.

Spoon the glaze over the cooled cake, and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes (or put in the freezer for about 15 minutes) before serving.

The cake was good last night, but it was GREAT today. Don't ask me why that is. The cake itself is very moist, and so mild that it would be nothing to write home about without the showstoppingly intense chocolate glaze (which I'm not sure is really the right word for it) on top. Together, they're addictively perfect, and even more so topped with a little powdered sugar and some fresh berries. We liked it so much that we had it instead of dinner.

The Cider Head Rules

You may recall that the painful rash on my face which plagued me for months last year was diagnosed as atopy. One of the hallmarks of this condition is itchy, flaky skin--a trait familiar to me, and common to many of my family members. One of its more frequent and irritating manifestations has been in an itchy, flaky scalp.

For awhile I had pretty good luck with Pantene True Confidence Anti-Dandruff Shampoo. Then that got harder and harder to find. It seems that you can still order it online from some places, but that's hit-or-miss, kind of expensive, and not at all convenient. So I switched to a CVS-brand shampoo which, after an initial adjustment period, worked pretty well. (And which I was often able to get for free.) Then this winter, that stopped having much of an effect at all--I was miserably itchy and embarrassingly flaky, especially after taking a hot shower. Hoping for a more holistic fix, I turned to the Internet--where there is a strong rally of support for apple cider vinegar (or ACV, as it's fondly known) as the solution for all things flaky. While there are a variety of ways to use it--rinsing with it, spritzing with it, leaving it on, rinsing it off, and even taking it internally--I decided to start with a 1:1 ration of ACV to water, applying it to my head and hair after shampooing and leaving it on through the rest of my shower. Then I rinsed it off. (Though it still generated enough fragrance to prompt Matt to poke his head in and ask if I was "making salsa in there.") After drying my hair, the normal irritation and flaking that I notice after showering were probably a good 80% reduced. My hair really didn't smell like vinegar, and it's also supposed to be good for increasing shine and reducing buildup. I didn't condition after that and I don't know that I really would need to.

One of the other natural fixes for a flaky scalp is said to be tea tree oil, so I looked for a way to incorporate this as well. Matt has long sworn by Nature's Gate shampoo, and I have always loved its hippie smell and natural image--so when he told me that they have a tea tree version, I thought it might just do the job. I started using it at the same time as the ACV, so it's difficult to sort out where the most benefit might be coming from, but I'm happy enough to continue doing both.

Lincoln Cottage at the Soldiers' Home

Very interesting place.

Today

I feel very lucky to be spending today with my wonderful husband, as well as the amazing woman who gave birth to me!

Mount Vernon