It's Over

Our one week Tech Fast officially ends today. 
Which means I can now blog from home...which I am doing

Some lessons learned  ( from my perspective)
 I check email a lot. 
I check it because I can not because I need to. Really, any time there was a pause in my life, I reached for my phone.    And, once I am on email, I often get sucked into other things.  I'm considering scheduling time to check my email. 

Limiting access frustrated some people. 
I was surprised and uncomfortable by this.  I don't like to upset people. Next time I will do a better job of letting people know when I'm available and how to contact me if you REALLY need a response quickly.  And, I want to experiment with how to use technology in ways that support my life...so I may have to get more comfortable with people being frustrated with me ( this may include my kids.)

It was challenging business-wise
Technology takes some bandwidth for me. I am learning a lot related to how to run a small business...including quite a bit of online learning.  I do have easy access to the library and there were times when it was not convenient.  And I lived through it. 

I liked my off line time
I read, drew, talked with people, went on my walks, went to bed early.  It was healthy to have protected off line time.  I would do it again.

Blogging at the Library

Blogging about a tech fast when you work from home presents a bit of a challenge.

So, I am at our local library...which lucky for me is a short walk from our home, is beautiful and has free internet. 

Three benefits to blogging from the library:

- I am making good use of a local resource.  Hopefully they get to count my presence as support and proof of a good investment of tax dollars.  ( I love libraries!)

-I schedule my time and set limits....this is something I need to do as newly self employed.

-Exercise:  I have to walk to get here...it's a short walk but it is a walk!

More benefits to a tech fast..

I got home yesterday (Sunday.) 

 Usually after being on the road , I would have booted up my laptop to catch up on email.

But, that was not an option.  So I chatted with family, took at walk and visited a friend, broke a string trying to tune my new used guitar ( which I bought from my niece, Maddy!), did some drawing and went to bed early!  And when I got on today to catch up on email...the world was still there!

I really appreciated not having the choice yesterday!  Because when I do have the choice...I almost always go on line.

Tech Fast: First Impressions

Julie- I'm feeling guilty because I'm not home experiencing our experiment.  I am staying at places with internet.  Do I use it? Is that fair?  My compromise- set limits.  I'm on this morning to check email and blog and going to try staying off the rest of the day.

My mom-  I was surprised by her reaction.  She sounded ( via email) mad.  "I'm ticked."  ( that sounds mad doesn't it)  Her perspective: email is how she communicates...will she be cut off from us?

I've emailed to explain that we are an easy 10 minute walk from our awesome public library that has free internet access from 9-9 weekdays and 9-5 Saturday.

My sister-  Sent a link to Camp Grounded...a summer camp experience that is tech free for adults.  It looks fun. You can check it out here  http://campgrounded.org/about

Mark:  When I checked in with Mark this morning (via email) here is what he said

"It has been going well.  We just hung in the kitchen chatting last night.  I like it much better than being in our separate rooms looking into light boxes.

 

Really it has been going well.  Nate and I are making dinner tonight.  Hamburgers on the grill.  Wouldn’t happen if we had the modem on.

 

Being bored is a lost art."

Logistical note: There has been a change in the "rules"  Two weeks sounded too long...we are going to try one week 4 times a year.

I don't have the boys' perspective.  They are not big email users when they do have access to internet...so I'm going to wait until I am back home to interview them.

Stay tuned...more to come

Taking a Break from Technology

The idea: What if we turned off the internet for two weeks?

Take a technological fast....a digital sabbatical.....


This is not the most popular challenge we have ever done...

in fact...it is quite possibly the least popular ( at least with our sons)

Mark and I have talked about the impact of technology on our family many times.

The amount of time playing video games is a hot topic....but we also notice that at night we are most likely to all be on separate devices.  I know I check my email more times than I need to....because I can.  And I turn on my lap top whenever I am bored.

We have tried setting limits...one internet free day a week, no internet after 9pm.   This has its merits, though it also makes either Mark or I feel like the internet police.  Who gets the popular job of reminding people it's time to get off?

Mark's suggestion was to try a complete fast.  Go cold turkey for long enough that we get our technology habits out of our systems.  

One week?  Mark thought..not long enough...so we ( meaning Mark and I ) decided to try two weeks for the first experiment.

I've been doing some checking...there are people "in this sandbox"

The Creative Benefits of taking Mini-Sabbaticals from all your Various Screens

Traveling Vegan

Lessons learned from my first experience away from home

I was visiting my son Ben at Conserve School in northern Wisconsin.

We stopped at a restaurant on the way up...I picked it because I liked the name  "Shady Sue's"
There was one "vegan friendly" item on the menu ...the dinner side salad.  It certainly made choosing dinner easy.   At least it was a good salad.  ( I did have some of my friend Mary's french fries!)

At Conserve School, it was very easy to eat vegan.  They eat healthy and plant strong in general...there is always a vegan option and an amazing salad bar ( the photo does not do it justice...sorry Scott)

I will be more prepared next time I am on the road.  I will pack snacks...healthy,  fun and easy to get to.   I used to pack snacks all the time when the boys were little...so this is returning to a habit not starting a new one.

 I am paying attention to food in a different way!  I am much more appreciative of healthy, beautifully prepared food.

Yes!

After a few disappointing meals from vegan cookbooks..we decided to change our strategy.

Why not start with Rip's recipes that have all been vetted by Texas fire fighters. (Engine 2 Diet)

Here is Mark making Rip's sweet potato lasagna.
(official name Raise the Roof Lasagna)



 As he made it he announced..."I'm not making this again...this is a lot of work."












However when eating Rip's lasagna he said

 " I will make this again...

 I would serve this to company."

Yes!

Happiness is...

soy milk creamer and a Mighty Muffin!

Who would have thought I'd be happy about soy milk creamer :)

 I really like coffee with cream. I tried almond milk and it just didn't cut it so I was getting ready to go with out coffee ( gasp from coffee drinkers).

Turns out there must be quite a few vegan coffee lovers who don't drink black coffee.  There are multiple kinds of creamers to try.

Breakfast has been a ho hum granola... fine but not very filling. So we checked out Rip's online recipes and chose the Mighty Muffin.   To say these are filling is an understatement.  You make them with 3 cups of oat bran and 6 bananas.  These things are  meal.

Our first dinners were disappointing.  We tried a chili and a Hunan hotpot.  Both C-...not awful but certainly not anything exciting.  We were not looking forward to dinner.   Mark said " We can do better than this!"

So we went online.  Rip, who inspired this whole adventure has recipes that look amazing (hoping it isn't just that he as an awesome photographer.)  And so does Fork Over Knives and my sister suggested Whole Foods  (which has a getting started vegan section with recipes)

We love food and this challenge was not about deprivation.  We knew we might need to "educate our palate: ( pretty sure Rip said something like that) but we are pretty sure there are recipes we will be excited about...and that is part of why we are doing this challenge.  We want to widen our food horizons...and ramp up the plants.

The next adventure...I visit my son Ben at Conserve school this weekend where he has quite a few vegan friends so I am going to try my hand at baking vegan cookies.

photo source:  Engine2Diet

Slaying the Five Headed Dragon

We have been looking for a  challenge 

and we finally found one.  

It has to do with food ( no big surprise if you know our family)

We are going to "slay the five-headed dragon of chronic disease—accounting for 75% of our health care costs. Heart disease, breast cancer, prostate cancer, diabetes and obesity."

We were inspired by Rip Esselstyn, former fire fighter in Austin Texas.  When he discovered one of his mates had such a high level of cholesterol he was basically a "dead man walking." he challenged his team to eat a plant strong diet for 28 days. In other words....they went vegan.   

The results are pretty amazing...but you  really should hear it from Rip .

What does this mean for Mark and I?

We officially start this Sunday (March 10) so we can end before our son Ben comes to visit on April 4.  So for you sticklers…that’s 27 days.

We have some learning to do..but the basics are no meat/ no dairy.

We will be on relaxed rules when we are guests in people’s homes...but will do our best to stick to vegan when we travel.

Getting started: we checked out vegan cookbooks from the library.  I was surprised by how many there are ( we haven’t even started looking for recipes online)  We had fun looking at recipes and pictures…there are lots of recipes to try. 

We have made our first week menu and will shop this weekend.  

We are eating down the non-vegan foods in our fridge ( eggs/ cheese/ milk)

 Here is the video that inspired our start  

Photo source: Healthy Eating Healthy World

What next?

That is the question I have been asked most often. What do you do after four year long family challenges? What do you do after you have bought nothing new for a year and eaten local and tried hard to reduce your energy use by 40 % the Madison average. What next? We have been in a holding pattern. I found my what next....I just finished my first day of the Sustainability Leadership Program at Edgewood College. I am one of 18 people who have made a one year commitment to explore what it means to be a sustainability leader and change agent. I realized right away that one of the things I have been longing for is community..I want and need company on the journey...

One of the first things we did was create a grid showing what we know/what we don't. Although we have a lot to learn ( which is why we are here) there are also strengths to draw on in the group. We are teachers, entrepreneurs, public service, environmental educators, artists ( I love that there are 4 artists)..I am the only pubic health person.

To introduce ourselves we chose a photo that "showed" how we felt starting the program. Mine was a group skydiving....this feels like starting an adventure...and I am excited to be doing this with people who are making a commitment to "be the change"

To be "Extraordinary"

I went to the Earth Day Conference yesterday...and in the session "Inspiring Change with Stories and New Media" saw the story of our family. One of the students who created the digital story about us was on the panel. The humbling part of all this was when the teacher talked about us as "one extra-ordinary family" which I don't think of us as all..but I probably grew two inches taller hearing someone else title us that. Leah ( the student) added.." when we left their house..we felt like we had to do something too. It ( telling our story) definitely made an impact on my life." Here is the story Leah and another student created. Greener, Faster, Better, Stronger This was the first digital story they have ever created. They did this as part of a class.

Two more loans

With the repayment money in my Kiva account I sponsored two more loans.

$50 to Gbedokpo Group in Benin to purchase bunches of bananas
$25 to Naseem Begum's Group in Pakistan to go towards buying a new sewing machine for her sewing business

Feeling like a sustainable investment specialist

Instead of Christmas gifts, I added up the money I would have given to friends and family and gave a loan through Kiva.
"We" loaned $475 to Duo Carisma Group, a women's weaving group in Guatemala.

To date, they have repaid 67% of their loan ($320)

At this point, I could withdraw my money or reinvest...I decided to reinvest..

Here is the rest of our portfolio
$175 Mwale Group in Tanzania: a women's coop that sells fish
$25 Solidarios in Mexico: a women's food catering coop ( they only needed $25 more for their loan request to be complete)

We now have $90 in our Kiva Credit. Want to influence our next loan? Make a recommendation by Friday, March 30.

Check out Kiva, loans that change lives. Right now you can get $25 free to make your first loan.

Low and Local

Well...eating low on the food chain has been a less than motivating call to action for the boys. Here is what I have learned....I'm better off not to fight resistance. What can I do to make our efforts...fun, easy, popular?

So here is what we are trying..rather that just sticking to eat low..we have added local. This would include meat and cheese ( important and motivational to the boys)

The good news...talking about including more beans and grains did lead us into the discussion of whoever cooks has more control over what we eat. This led to Nate emailing my Mom for the slumgullion recipe ( a stew he loves..which includes meat)

Luckily my Mom is very responsive...he got the recipe, wrote down the ingredients, made the stew, it was delicious...he was proud of himself and ready to try that sequence again ( something I want to support)

So, if out of this effort, the boys step up and starting cooking a meal or two a week. I will claim success!!

Photo:flickr:spudvalley

Volunteer of the Month

I know I tell others "You should be willing to be interviewed, photographed, videoed. You shouldn't be shy...celebrate your successes..and share them."

It is way easier to say that to others..than do it myself.

I was hesitant to be interviewed as WI League of Conservation Voters Volunteer of the Month. I haven't been active as a volunteer lately. But in the spirit of celebrating what I have done...instead of focusing on what I haven't...here is my interview..

WLCV Member of the Month

photo: flickr silusgrok

Low on the Food Chain

We were hoping we could find one goal for the year....we all liked that "Buy Nothing new" was a year long doable challenge. So far we haven't found one that our whole family can agree to. So just to keep things going...for January we are increasing the number of times we eat lower on the food chain.

Our goal is to eat beans and grains...or total veggie meals at least twice a week. This means no meat or dairy. I have to say this isn't exactly a popular challenge for the whole family. Nate and Ben have some serious concerns..they love meat and cheese. So we'll see how this goes.

So far, I made a big pot of black beans and we had bean and corn soup and a layered tortilla Cassandre ( like Mexican lasagna..though this did have cheese in it.) Mark made dal for tonight ( Indian lential stew)

For each dish we are rating it as a family...and they we will write in the cookbook if we would make it again. No four star meals...yet!


Photo Source: Daniel Gies

The End of the 2011 Challenge

We are officially done with our "Year of Buying Nothing New"
So how'd we do..........

1. It wasn't as hard as we thought.
We found out that most of the things we wanted we could find used. We were worried about Christmas...but Mark asked the boys to make their lists early ( in September) and he enjoyed the challenge of finding books and even video games used ( the big score was Skyrum for Ben)

2. We messed up a couple of times..but not as many times as we thought we would.

-At the beginning of the year, we got carried away and bought Ian's T-shirts.
-I bought some flowers for the garden( the boys felt that qualified as new)
-Mark bought a little rug to go by the cat's litter box ( he couldn't stand the mess)
-Mark bought Nate 3 soccer jerseys that were overstock from last year ( so not really used) Other than that we can't think of any big mistakes.

We did buy the boys shoes and underwear ( so we did make use of the exceptions)

3. Did we save time/money?
In general yes to both. We saved time because there was no point in even going into most stores...which is the same reason we saved money.

However..when we did need to purchase something it took longer...either because we had to research to see if we could find it used...or we had to stop in at a resale shop a couple of times to see if we could find what we wanted.

What did we learn-
-It is easier to buy used than we thought. Even new books and video games ( of concern to the boys) become available very quickly.
- If you let people know you need something..they go out of their way to help. People have things laying around their house that they don't need (that's how I got a new used iron)
-There were multiple times we thought we needed something...and we got over it. Time passed and realized we were doing fine with out it.

So what's next...we are struggling with what our goal(s) should be for 2012...let us know if you have an idea!

What to give?

After reading "Half the Sky"...a book that shares the stories of women around the world what are marginalized because their lives are not valued but also shares stories of hope...what can happen when we invest in women.

I wanted to do something to help...since this is the season of giving, I have made a loan in our family's' honor.

How I chose-
-a woman
-a country I know ( Guatemala)
-a group...the woman is part of a lending group that will support her
-she has children that she wants to send to school

Our loan was $475 which we gave in honor of my mother and stepfather, my sister and her brother and their families, my aunt and uncle and Nate's godmother and her husband.

Here is a link to the description on Kiva

Duo Carisma Group

Merry Christmas! Happy New Year!

Blessings and Peace

Julie, Mark, Nate and Ben

Imgaine this....

it is the day of the Election Cycle.....

it is raining...grey...cold...windy

the family that is supposed to ride with you calls because (as the mom explains) she is meeting with "severe resistance".

They decide not to ride. You wish you could join them in that decision..but you are team captain ( even if there are only two families on the team)

you have to imagine all of this because...although you bring a camera with you...you can't get it to work..even after you buy new batteries..nate says there is rust inside the camera ( I have no idea why)

Imagine..that your kids are willing to ride even after they find out the other family won't be there...and your husband ...injured from a bike accident is determined to ride. and when you show up to sign in...a neighbor family shows up unexpectedly to ride with you...as part of the team.

Now imagine ..you are riding on the bike trail..the rain has stopped but you are riding in a head wind...and your youngest son says "Can we please go home"( he as very polite) And when you say..."Let's finish what we've started" You all do!

Although we "downgraded" to the 10 mile ride.. we all made it!!

We showed up because: Ginny and Greg, Connie and Bill, Jean and Mike, Carol, Janet, Pamela, Beth, Jack, Abby and Maddy, Dave, Alan, Kyle, Joan,Claire, Marjorie, Lisa and Matt, Mary, Micah and Austin...16 sponsors for a total of $610 ( above our total for last year)

Ben's teacher Alan said "All you have do to is ask" and that was true. Thank you all...for supporting us and for supporting conservation in Wisconsin!

WOW!

I am feeling more than a little humble tonight. On Monday we were at $65....but I sent out a few emails and posted to Facebook...and we are up to $395. We have awesome friends and family...thank you all so much for your support.

If you have donated or just just want to check our our page...check us out at The Them

It's Time

to ride in the Election Cycle!

Last year the boys were amazed to learn that if you ask people for money...they give! Our goal was $250 and we raised over $500. We rode ten miles and when we got done Nate said.."next year...25"

It's next year...we are riding 25 miles. This year we started a team..more people =more fun! The ride is September 18 ( Sunday) starting at noon.

If you can join our team ( called We are The Them of course) please do.
Go here and click on Join on Team (It is cheaper if you join by this Thursday Sept 1...cost $10)

If you can't ride...please sponsor us...our team goal is $1000.
To sponsor us..go to our team page

Now more than ever we in Wisconsin need to pay attention to who is elected!! You can be a part of making sure that our legislators protect the environment. Be the change you want to see in the world...join our We are the Them team and ride on Sept 18....or sponsor us and help us meet our fund raising goal.