Charlie's Fate

Meet Charlie. He could, actually, be a Charlotte, but considering that our house is full of rough n' tough testosterone, we assume he is a boy. Charlie lives in the window above my kitchen sink, spending his days traveling from one side to the other, occasionally "napping" up near the edge. Kevin and I spend a great deal of time watching him poke along with his little hairy legs moving purposely along the screen lining of the storm window.

I grew up here in Tennessee, and spiders do not scare me. If you do not live here, or if you have recently moved here, google "wolf spider" and you'll understand why this little guy doesn't bother me in the least. I don't like spiders and am by all accounts going to stomp anything that resembles a brown recluse or a black widow. But, I know how important spiders are to ecology in general. You don't have to be a Biology major to know their role.

So, as long as this little guy stays on his side of the window, I vow to do him no harm. He is welcome to capture and devour any stray fruit fly or ant that trys to infiltrate my home through this important portal to the motherload for insects: the kitchen. But as I was washing dishes yesterday, watching him scurry up towards the top of his perch, I wondered: am I going to kill Charlie, accidentally?

You see, this thought occured to me because I noticed a few dead ants at my back door earlier in the day. We have a pest control company come once a quarter and spray our house. I may not care about spiders, but I despise millipedes and centipedes, which are also unfortunately in abundance here in the wooded south. Oscar slaughtered one of these squirmy nasty creatures in Kevin's bedroom once soon after we moved in, and I would not have any more of them in the house. So I invite a man with a jug of pesticide into my house and I pay him $75 to spray like mad around...our doors and WINDOWS. When I saw the ants, I was so thankful that the "bug man" was here last month. Springtime comes and everything wants in the house. Yuck. But then, while watching Charlie, I wondered...am I killing his food supply? Surely he would not be munching on those ants, even if they did survive long enough to make it into the kitchen.

Am I purposely limiting his role in our world? Why even let him live in his little nook if I don't trust him to do his job? And what's to come of him? I routinely open this window to let in the breeze and thus far, Charlie has preferred to stay hidden at the top while it was open. But what if he decided to venture out, crossing the line of pesticide residue on the windowsill? That would be the end for him. Or what if some rogue insect managed to get across that chemical tripwire and into his territory? He would surely be posioned for doing nothing more than his natural obligation.

And, I get it. So what? He's a spider. A tiny little spider. He can't hurt anything, and he can't kill a millipede or a centipede, so who cares if he is here or not? The point is not whether I readily see his worth (which, I do!) but whether I am caring that my actions affect him at all. While Kevin is not quite old enough to understand the whole scenario, we do talk about Charlie and how he has a happy life (maybe? since he's starving...) and we need to respect that, since he is of no harm to us.

I can't help but project this situation onto some of the stories I hear of bullying now prevalent in schools. I often wonder about these bullies, as I'm sure you are aware, who are no longer just the "abused, neglected children" but often children from loving homes, with happy lives, and a bewildering lack of respect for other people. Simple teasing (think: boys chasing girls around playgrounds with some happy country song playing in the background) happens everwhere, but malicious tormenting of another child is beyond my comprehension. The best I can do is continue to teach my child to see that everything in God's world has worth, no creature was put here by mistake. And conversely to teach him that we need to protect ourselves from the ones that can harm us, and not simply allow them to do so just because they can.

The next time our "bug man" comes by, I will ask him NOT to spray the window above my kitchen sink. I think Charlie can handle that little area for now.

Greene Thumb Thursday: Feeding our Family

It's officially past "tax day" and here in Tennessee, that means it's time to plant our gardens! In honor of finally making it to this point in the spring planting season, I'm starting a new series that will follow my efforts to grow our own food this summer. This should provide some very interesting posts, considering that I have grown nothing but two small children and one obese cat in my quarter-century of occupancy here on Earth.

So for today's post, I thought it would be appropriate to outline my reasons behind starting a garden and lay out my ambitions for the coming months. I hate making New Year's resolutions, but I find that time is good for slate-wiping and attempting to change things, even by just a little bit. However, having a one-month old at New Year's makes it hard to concentrate on anything but taking a shower and trying to eat at least 2x a day. So this past January, Mark and I decided to make a healthy change in the way we eat. "Diet" is a four-letter word. But we both wanted to get healthy and hopefully, as a consequence, lose some of our spare flesh at the same time.

We started with a trip to our family practitioner's office for some advice. The answer? KISS (keep it simple, stupid). Fresh foods with fewer than 3 ingredients. That, literally, along with some vitamin supplements, was her answer. It's a lot harder than it seems. Our lives are so dominated with packaged foods, and until you really start looking at them, you just take it for granted that they are fine to consume. (Which, they are. This is NOT a "you need to eat healthy or we can't be friends" kind of lifestyle change for us. It's personal, and we aren't trying to project on anyone.) A quick comparison of homemade bread vs bagged bread from the store is a great example. When I make bread, I use 5 ingredients (water, flour, yeast, sugar, salt). The average bread label includes over 15. What IS all that other stuff?

So as a natural progression of trying to eat fresh foods, the idea came about to have a little garden this summer. We decided to ask Mark's grandparents if we could use a little space on their land to plant our crops, in turn being able to hopefully also provide them with fresh foods to eat during the summer months. As we talked about our initial plans, we decided that we should grow "enough" to be able to preserve a lot of it to eat during the winter months as well. As this is our first attempt, we are incredibly unsure of what "enough" really translates into as far as plants go. For the past few months we have been making preparations and getting ready for April.

The time has come to plant the garden. Only, our plans have changed a little. Mark's gparents are the sweetest in the world and they would never say "no" to any request by their family members. While this quality has given them some amount of worry and grief over the years, they are hardened in their resolve to provide anything they can for their family (did you read yesterday how his Granny still packs a lunch for his grown cousin living with them? She did the same for Mark when he was living with them, and insisted on doing so). But, as the time drew nearer to planting, we became accutely aware that possibly, they did not exactly like the idea of us having a garden there. So rather than go ahead and do it anyway (they would NEVER tell us that we couldn't), we started looking for other options.

So on to plan B. Have it at our house? While we do have a little over 3 acres of land, most of it is wooded and our yard is a wonderful rocky red clay mud mixture that has trouble growing grass. Asking it to grow veggies is probably out of the question. The solution, we think, is to build raised beds for our crops. I've been reading like mad about the square foot gardening method and I think this will work for us. Hopefully so.

As I learned in school and then really learned from experience in the "working world"...a project is only worth what the outcome proves. So, from the get-go, you need to have measurable goals to really tell if something is successful. There are 2 main goals for this adventure:

1) To grow "enough" food to supply our family through the summer months AND provide for preservation through the winter months. (This is not yet measurable, as we have yet to determine what "enough" really is. That's this weekend's chore)

2) To save money by growing our food instead of purchasing it. This seemed easily within reach when we were planning to have a row-by-row garden at Mark's grandparents' house. Now, we have to calculate the cost of the materials to build and fill our beds, and the added cost of the water throughout the summer to keep them moist. Keeping an expense journal as well as a weekly price estimate (based on grocery prices and farmer's market prices) for the veggies is a must. So is recording the amount of produce we actually harvest and use.

Will we meet these goals? Stay tuned for the weekly play-by-play and please feel free to comment and leave suggestions or tips for success!

About couponing

I've tried 3 times to write this posting. Each time, I have wound up with what I feel like is "information overload", something I am critically guilty of on numerous occasions. I was inspired to write this by my many friends who have begged me to share my "secrets" to couponing success. After writing it several times, I opted not to share the step-by-step directions for becomming a couponing queen (or king). You can, however, find these instructions over at Southern Savers in the "Getting Started" section.

But, in a nutshell, here is the basic concept:
*Say an item is regularly priced $2.99 at Publix.
*It's on-sale BOGO, which means it is half-price (you DO NOT have to get 2 to get the sale price at Publix), so $1.49
*There is a manufacturer's coupon in the paper for $.50, which Publix will double to $1.00, bringing the price down to $.49 +tax.
*Often, in the best deals, a Publix coupon will stack with the manu' coupon, making an item free PLUS an additional few cents off your total bill.


I decided, rather than fill this with scenarios like that, I would share my opinions and most useful tips for couponers. These are not time-tested and are extremely limited to MY specific life situation (1 income family, 2 kids, living in rural TN), but I feel like they do apply on a wide scale, with some imagination. I promise to try to keep them short, but I have a napping baby in my lap so I'm not going anywhere anytime soon...

Know where you are getting your coupons
First things first, right? You have to have the coupons in hand before you can use them. I prefer to use coupons that I don't have to print, but I will print high-value (over $1) ones (lots of them offered on Facebook these days). I have a pretty set collection process. I purchase 2 Sunday papers, Mark's gma gives me hers, and my sweet sweet 82 year old Nanny keeps them under a couch cushion for me until I can come pick them up. I would suggest doing something similiar with family and friends. And pay-it-forward (or...backward, in this case). We don't use the coupons much for food anymore (more about that in a later tip), so when I can get something useful for free, I will, and I give it back to our grandparents, or donate it to a food bank.

Buy only what you (or someone you know) might need
Sales very often are on a 6-week cycle. So....even if you randomly have 25 coupons for mustard, you probably shouldn't clear the shelf without good reason. This is a bit rude to other couponers. For example, in my rural part of life, we have a Rite-Aid and I know if I'm not there when the store opens on Sunday morning, I'll have zero chance of catching a sale item in stock, because of another couponer who clears the shelves. Now...I don't see the problem with going to buy what you need, then swinging back around on Saturday night near closing time to see what, if anything, is still left on the shelf. This is the time to buy "extra" items. I don't buy pasta every time it is free because we don't eat THAT much pasta, and generally, even without the coupon, it is very often on sale for less than $1 at my favorite grocery store (Publix).

Don't make unhealthy trades in an effort to save money.
It's a wonderful and often necessary thing to save money. And the most common place to start cutting back is the grocery budget. While you can get lots and lots of healthy snacks and other meal components with coupons, it can be very tempting to get the free mac and cheese and eat it with every meal, just because you have it. Often, you can get free frozen veggies at Publix, which is a great deal. And it is smart to plan your meals around what is on sale. But, while a dinner of mac n cheese with hotdogs (ever seen this supposedly "kid friendly" dinner idea??) may cost less than $1 after coupons, it will cost a lot more in the long run. Go ahead and get the mac n cheese for free (dare I say throw a bag of frozen veggies in too?), but opt for the $2 salad mix, throw some breadcrumbs on the mac n cheese, put it under the broiler and have side salads with it. We have moved to the outer perimeter of the grocery store, and as the summer season gets started, we will soon be only visiting the dairy, frozen, and baking aisles in Publix, opting instead to buy local produce and meat, and *hopefully* harvesting our own fair share of veggies in June, July, and August. This really limits our usefulness for couponing, but we have plenty of family members who can still benefit (Mark's sweet Granny still packs lunch for her 19-year-old grandson to take to work with him, so this week, I'm picking up some free cracker snacks for his lunches.)

Pick your stores and be loyal
This is a time-effort thing for me. Couponing can take up a big chunk of your life if you let it. And with two kids, grocery store hopping is just not something I want to do. So we stick to Publix for groceries and often Rite-Aid for toiletries. On the rare occasion, there is something just too good to pass up at another store, so I'll visit or ask Mark to stop on his way home from work. Plus, when you go to the same places, you will find that cashiers and others know you and know what to expect when you are in line. On the same note, DO NOT try to slyly cheat on something. While some cashiers will occasionally let something slide, it's never a good idea to demand that they make an exception to the rules just for you. Which brings me to my last tip for the day...

DO NOT watch "Extreme Couponing" on TLC.
This show purposely searches for souls without lives and an unnatural need to hoard or take opportunity from other people. They then exploit the routines of these rare individuals and cast the stereotype upon all couponers, which is not true in the least. Stores on the show have AGREED to abandon their policies in exchange for appearing on the show, making this just like any other "reality" TV series...just a theoretical reality. I promise, you would not ever be allowed to purchase 1400 boxes of cereal with 1400 coupons, at any store. Ever.

I'm still more than willing to answer any questions my lovely compadres may have, so don't hesitate to ask. I love the thrill of saving money and getting things for free, but we have finally figured out where the idea fits best in our lives. And that's the true secret to success...making it work with your life and your family.

Cookies for Jenaleigh

My good friend Martha is anxiously awaiting the arrival of her baby girl, Jenaleigh Kate, due in May. Along the way, she has come to a point where she needs to stay in the hospital for a time so the medical staff can keep an eye and a monitor on little Jenaleigh until she is ready to meet the world in a few weeks. In an effort to keep her sane, I'm sending her a little kit to make some cookies for Jenaleigh to (eventually) play with and enjoy. Maybe someday, someone (wonder who?) will make her a little felt tea set so that she and mommy (and Daddy!) can imagine that they are having tea and eating sugar cookies in a far away palace....

Back from "dreaming I had a girl" land, I realized that she would also need directions for how to make these cookies from felt cutouts. I had initally imagined this posting to be a tutorial for how to make felt strawberries, but that must be set aside for another day. Cookies are more fun anyway!

First, I'm going to share another piece of sewing advice from my Gma. Patterns are great tools, but much like defined toys, they limit the amount of creativity and imagination that can be built into each project. Gma taught me to see something and imagine how it was created, and then to re-create the process in a way that makes sense to me. This is why I dread making clothes and rarely do so. Simplicity, McCalls, etc patterns confuse me and require a great deal of concentration...which is usually in short supply at my house! So, often, I will look around and see what I can use to help me bring my idea to life.

For this project, you will need:

*Cookie-colored felt (I'm sending Martha light khaki and tan to make sugar and chocolate chip cookies)

*Icing-colored felt (Martha's kit includes pink and purple icing "blobs", red hearts, and dark brown strips for the chocolate pieces)

*Coordinating thread (I primarily use 2 strands of embroidery floss on all my felt projects, but any type of thread will work)

*Stuffing (optional)

First, look around and find yourself a good circle. Or, bust out your compass from elementary school to make a perfect one. I usually gather up a couple and then decide which will work best. I decided that the oatmeal lid was a smidge too big and the mason jar was a little small for this project. The glass was just about "right" for cookie making.

Next, you'll use your sample circle to make 2 felt circles for each cookie you want to make. I like using these disappearing ink pens on light colored felt, but regular pens work too.

Now, it's time to pick the decoration on top. I chose to do a heart shape on the top of this cookie, other options include: chocolate chips, icing "blobs", small beads for sprinkles, etc.

Next, you will attach your icing to one felt cookie circle. I used a simple running stitch here (in-and-out) for the purpose of saving time, but a blanket stitch would look nice as well.

Once your decoration is attached, choose another thread color and you are ready to connect the two circles. I always start my thread so that the knot will be on the inside of the layers and not visible on the outside.

I used a very simple whip stitch on this cookie, again in an effort to save time. A whip stitch is an edge stitch where the needle goes into the fabric, then around the edge to another point on the opposite side of the fabric.

When making these types of projects, a blanket stitch looks very "finished." To find a good tutorial on creating a blanket stitch and it's various uses, visit Stitch School. In an attempt to crank this tutorial out during naptime, I only did a few blanket stitches so you could see the difference.

When you are near the start of your stitches, stop sewing and stuff your cookie with a little fiberfil (if you want). The cookies work fine without any stuffing, but I like for them to be a little fluffy!

Finish stitching the remainder of the edge, knot your ends, and you're done!

See Martha? I promised it would be easy! For some great insight into Martha's pregnancy and unexpected hospital stay, follow her blog Bedrest, Blessings, & Baby.

Hi, my name is Chuck...

and I'm a DUMP truck! Anyone who has a toddler son probably has a good idea of who Chuck is. Kevin adores Chuck the dump truck and his dirty little crew of friends.

Now, I know it is unusual for me to write two blogs in one week, let alone one day! But I realized something tonight that amazes me, and I wanted to share.

In my journey of discovery in all things Waldorf, I've made some real interesting connections between toys and the way children play. Now, I've always been a big fan of anything educational...shapes, letters, numbers, etc. And I haven't really cared too awful much about the rest. But I've always wondered why Kevin doesn't like to play with most of his toys.

When I say "most of his toys" I really mean, like...90% of them. He likes them, on occasion, but he only enjoys playing with certain things and the rest just clutters the room, waiting for my bare foot to come down unexpectedly on it (why can't there ever be a stuffed animal under that stinkin blanket? Why does it always have to be blocks, trucks, or some otherwise jagged object?). Lately, I've been really examining which toys he chooses to play with and trying to wrap my mind around why he chose them.

A basic principle in Waldorf philosophy for child's play is well, to keep it simple stupid. Warm, inviting open ended toys are highly encouraged. Say...dolls without clothes or faces, or small wooden vehicles with wheels. Then it is up to the imagination of the child to decide what the toy is on any given day. When I first heard of this, I thought..."oh, that's neat. But not really. I mean, seriously? Do kids really do that? Yeah...right." This was a few years ago before Kevin could even play with anything. Leap Frog has the best, innovative teaching toys out there, right? Bright lights, cool sounds, all kids would adore those. And don't get me wrong, Kevin has truly enjoyed his fair share of hard plastic. At the rate of 10 minutes at a time.

Ever watched a child tear into a birthday present only to seem more interested in the packaging than the toy itself? We all think, "aw, how cute, why even spend the money on the toy, yada yada yada." Well, it finally dawned on me that maybe the kids don't want the toy because all it can be is what it is. But the box...now that can be anything. Seems more fun already, doesn't it?

In much frustration, I have walked into our living room on more than one occasion to find Kevin dipping his hot wheels into my large hospital water cup (taking them to the car wash) or bringing several boxes out of the recycling at once (to build a garage for these cars). Then on any other given day, he is at Publix (his words, I swear!) buying groceries...rather...those same recycled boxes...when I'm not looking.

So tonight, he took a book to my mom to read to him. I have not read this particular book to him and I really have no idea from where he retrieved it, actually. But it was a Chuck book. It came with his Chuck stunt park playset his adoring GiGi and PaPa got him for Christmas this year. In true PaPa form, one of the sets just wouldn't do, the boy NEEDS them all! Each set came with its own book and has some special feature, a fire truck stunt, garbage truck stunt, etc.

Well...as if the track isn't explanatory enough, the books literally spell out the story behind the playset, step by step. Like an instruction guide with pretty pictures for how to use this toy. Really...? Does my son need to know that Chuck wasn't being safe and that's how he ended up upside down on the bridge and only Rowdy (maybe?) can save him? What about the other friends? Why can't they save him? Why does he have to be stuck? Why can't he just fly down? Oh...because dump trucks can't fly? Who says?

Isn't that the point of imaginative play?

And what does it say for us when we take that role away from the child? Should we be surprised when they seem bored among a sea of definitive toys? Maybe new toys are not the answer, but different ones alltogether...

A breath of fresh air

To celebrate our 7th anniversary as a couple and our 2nd anniversary as a married union, the hubs and I decided to finally "do something" for a change. We never make a fuss of celebrating our anniversary, but a few weeks ago, The Captain (a new name awarded to Daddy this weekend by Kevin...which we have decided is his official alter-ego/trail name/online alias) had a scary panic attack and we decided a little break would be a welcomed thing.

As coincidence would be, Fall Creek Falls (a highly popular state park) was also celebrating something fun on the weekend we wanted to do a little getting away. An annual event spotlighting one of the most spectacular instances in nature was taking place just a few hours away from home. And the price was just right, so we didn't hesitate to book a room and pack a bag.

Just a few days...a Friday, Saturday, and Sunday return, but it was something to look forward to. I'll admit, in my research on the park, I found many a disgruntled visitor complaining about the lack of cell phone service...and I was so intrigued. A weekend in the woods, without calls, without texting, without interuption? And no, we don't even have teenagers living in our house (yet!). But both The Captain and I are extremely attached to our technology (a piece of me really wants another smart phone...a luxery I gave up in my decision to become a SAHM); and I am guilty of feeling the urge to update my Facebook status a thousand times a day. So a full weekend without the technology was going to be interesting, but very welcomed.

I couldn't sleep on Thursday night, it was like Christmas Eve. I was so excited to go and be with my boys. On Friday morning I woke up early to start packing the car and when we were all ready to hit the road, as I shut the door and stepped out on our porch, I took a deep breath. Fresh Air. I needed it.

This particular moment, a breath of air in the early morning of what will likely be a warm day, when it is still a little chilly out, ignites my senses and a rush of memories flash through my mind. It is all those mornings, walking out the door of my Gma's house on the way to a neighborhood yardsale. It is the morning that my Kevin was born, stepping out of the car at the hospital. It is so many of my favorite moments rolled into that one, single breath. When I take that first breath of fresh air and this particular scene occurs, I know it's going to be a great day.

As we drove along, The Captain and I talked about everything under the sun. As anyone who is in a long-term committed relationship knows, this can be difficult sometimes. Silence isn't always a bad thing, sometimes you just don't have anything to discuss. But, it's always much better (for me, anyway) to have a conversation about anyrandomthing. On our way, MapQuest (yeah, we still don't have a GPS. If a 3" box knows more about where you are than you do, you probably shouldn't be driving. Just sayin') decided the quickest route would be to enjoy the interstate for a short bit and then wind our way through several rural counties, not unlike the one in which we reside.

Near the end of our journey, both boys had given in to sleep and I was trying to spot another one of the most beautiful trees I had ever seen to point out to The Captain. In my attempt to see the trees, I had indeed missed the forrest. When I finally looked straight ahead again, there they were: the Cumberland Mountains. While relatively small in comparsion to the Appalachian counterparts just a few miles to the east, they are still grand upon first impression. The Mountains. We're here!

The fleeting little feeling that came over me was akin to the feeling I had night after night a mere 7 years ago when I would catch that first glimpse of The Captain walking into the grocery store where I worked. Ah, true love. :) And a breath of fresh air.

The weekend was full of moments of peace in nature, with the first colors of spring all around and the warm sun peeping through the green tunnel of the trails. I am still quite amazed to see Fall Creek, a mere trickle in the ground in some places, come to head at the tallest falls in the Eastern US with such a powerful force that it caused a rain-like atmosphere on the trail to the bottom, even a few hundred feet away. We were lucky enough to witness the Falls when they were full of life, in an abundance of water. Summer visitors are often not as fortunate (the park actually shuts down flow to the Falls to water the golf course during a drought).

Each overlook we came to provided its own unique view of the Plateau's natural delights, and pictures that are not done justice by the lens of a camera. It's a "see it to believe it" kind of image. Even on Sunday morning, when we all were tired and slightly grumpy to be going home, we hiked a short distance to see Piney Creek Falls before we ventured home. The lookout was on a large rock stone and standing there, I believe it would be possible for someone to convince themselves that if they leapt, they could fly.

It occured to me that if I was having this thought as a rational adult, we should probably get the toddler back away from the edge of the rock. The Captain agreed, and we departed for home. Our last breath of fresh air of the weekend.

Just as I poured over each detail of our first dates, I have sat many days this week recapturing moments from our trip. We have discovered since coming home that there are a few hidden trails of nature exploration within short drives of our house, and we would love to have some friends and family come enjoy them with us!

2011 Mark + Robin

A good friend recently mailed me a picture of my hubby and myself at my high school senior prom. I took some time to look at it closely the other day, reflecting on the past 7 years we have spent together. Our two-year wedding anniversary is this Saturday and as I sat, staring at that picture, I began to count the ways we have changed. Would 2004 Mark and Robin even recognize us as we are today? I doubt it.

I can promise 2004 Mark would never believe he had one child, let alone 2. 2004 Robin would never buy into the fact that she would be a stay-at-home-mommy. To be perfectly honest, neither 2004 Mark or Robin would probably believe that they were still together in 2011. Because, 2004 Robin was moving to Alabama in the fall and that would be the end of the relationship. 2004 Mark supposedly understood this fact and was okay with it. Or so the story goes...

Anyhow, here we are, 7 glorious years later. We've gone from a high school kid and a $10/hr delivery truck driver to what we are today. The big question for me while having a moment of reflection in that picture, however, was...who, in fact, are we today?

And then, through a series of revelations, I realized it...we are hippies. Yeah, us. We don't smoke weed, and we don't vote for Democrats...so we probably wouldn't be whole-heartily accepted by the hippie congregation, but I've discovered we meet quite a bit of the criteria.

The culminating event occured this past Saturday, while we were on a trip out to REI (yeah, as if that's not a big enough sign). We were driving along when we passed what looked like a dead animal on the road. But then, its head moved. And its feet. So it was not dead. I knew without looking at Mark that we would be turning the car around. And so it was true. When we returned to the point of impact on the animal, it looked like it had regained most of its surroundings and would probably be ok.

But...just...in...case, we (Mark) decided to pull the car over on the shoulder and at least make sure it got out of the road. A large dump truck was coming down the road and the concern in my husband's eye was real and eerily worrisome. I did not want to see my husband get squished by a dump truck to save a little groundhog.

Actually, Mark corrected me, it was a fox squirrel, and "you don't see many of them around here anymore". Mark popped the trunk to see if he could find a box to put it in. Yes...he by all means necessary was going to rescue this animal. Luckily for all involved, the squirrel jumped up and scattered off to the side of the road. His tail looked broken, but he was hobbling away at a quick enough speed, we both agreed it was ok. That, or he had rabies and it was probably best that Mark didn't get that close.

But then, we stalked it. In our car. We drove 1 mile per hour, moving as it moved from tree to tree, both silently watching this rare gift of nature. It was then, that it hit me. We are such hippies.

So, are you a closet-hippie too? I decided to compose this Jeff Foxworthy type list of things that, by themselves don't signify anything important. But, when combined, certainly endanger someone of being labeled. Here we go...you might be a hippie if (give yourself 1 pt for each yes)...

*You use cloth diapers
*You have a degree, or are pursuing a degree, in any type of wildlife biology
*You have more hiking shoes than any other type of shoe in your closet

*You are, or have considered becoming, a locavore

*You have or are planning to build a greenhouse on your property
*You (and your kids) see a non-traditional doctor and take herbal supplements as opposed to prescription meds
*You and your spouse are saving money and counting days until you can go on the perfect anniversary trip: a trip to Springer Mountain
*If you know why anyone would want to visit Springer Mountain
*You have googled any of the following, ever: recipes for sourdough leaven, slow food movement, raw foods diet, or any other freaky-sounding terminology related to food
*You have a stroller for your small children, but it's only been used a select few times and is more trouble than it's worth. Instead, you wear your little ones everywhere.

*You grow your own food
*You know what a bobbin is, and how to change it
*Your kids have lifetime hunting/fishing licenses
*You know what the abbreviation "AT" stands for
*Your kids are getting a Waldorf inspired education

Go ahead and label yourself right now if you own or would like to own a pair of FiveFingers, it doesn't matter how many other characteristics you have, only hippies could pull those off.

If you have less than 5 - probably safe from being labeled. 5-10 and maybe you are leaning, people might raise eyebrows about some of the things you do. More than 10 and you are a bonafide hippie, for sure.

It's not so bad, in fact, we rather enjoy it! Just for giggles, here's that picture I mentioned earlier: