Local Dinner

Apparently a 3 1/2 hour nap is not a good idea for my baby. That second nap did not happen yesterday, and neither did my intention to cook dinner. Luckily, my husband picked up Chinese food for us from a place that only added 15.4 miles to his trip home from work. That totally counts as eating local, right? Of course, given my luck at the grocery store yesterday, their food probably originated in China.

The naps are going a little better today, but it's also the dreaded cleaning day. Yup, I'm that person. I'm the one who complains because she has to clean before the cleaning lady comes. I know, it sounds like I'm just immensely spoiled, but here's the thing: it takes me a minimum of 4 hours to clear the clutter and bare the surfaces enough so that she can get in here and clean. I try and try to keep it clear once it's done, but it always creeps back out, usually within minutes of her departure. I also try to start on Wednesday preparing for the Friday event, but it seems like the space clutters up moments after I clear it. No matter how much I do during the week or how hard I try, it's still a 4 hour Friday morning clear-out. And when I have that moment of guilt that as a stay at home mom I should be able to clean my own home, I just try to clean one room with my three munchkins pulling at me and begging me to play with them, feed them, read to them, etc. Either I'm not organized enough to manage it, or people with three tiny kids and clean homes never sleep. Me, I like sleep. And if it means I don't have to fill up my weekends and evenings with scrubbing toilets, them I'm going to keep having my nice cleaning lady handle it for me; oh, and I'm going to keep complaining about having to clean for her.

Okay, so I completely went off topic for a minute there. My husband thinks I should broaden the scope of this blog to include other environmental topics that I'll end up exploring in my journey. For instance, in researching Stonyfield Farms food I found that their yogurt cups are recycled into toothbrushes and razors. That's pretty cool, since you're supposed to toss your toothbrush every 3 months or so and for us that's 20 toothbrushes a year...okay, I don't really have a toothbrush for my seven month old yet but she's bound to pop a tooth out some day! Anyhow, this blog is really about the journey towards eating local rather than the actual eating/shopping. It's what I'll find along the way and what we can all learn from the attempt and how my kids will unintentionally thwart my efforts with their incessant need to eat and nap. It's about local cereal from the UK and pearl onions from Belgium. It's about recycled toothbrushes and Method cleaning products. While I'm at it I'll give those Seventh Generation diapers a shot. I'm a big Huggies fan, so we'll see how it goes. There's also the mystery of how I'm going to go without some food items that are currently household staples that I don't see how we can purchase locally: soy sauce, flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, pepper, peanut butter (Skippy, not that suger-free organic stuff that I did not grow up on), bread, fruit snacks, you get the idea. Hopefully the journey will be educational. It has a slim chance of being successful. And hey, at the bare minimum, it should prove to be amusing. To me anyway.