Unfortunately, there are some books I should never be allowed to read but I just can’t help myself. \u00a0These are any type of memoir that involves a city girl moving to the country where she plants a garden and raises chickens. \u00a0Chickens….my dream bird. \u00a0I suppose, like my unfounded love of West Virginia, chickens are really messy, stinky birds that require tons of work for a couple of meager eggs. \u00a0Fortunately, I am not one to let reality interfere with my dreams and I do dream of chickens.<\/p>\n
These memoirs are like waking \u00a0dreams for me. \u00a0Someone actually did it! \u00a0Moved to the edge of a forest, the foot of a mountain or the middle of the\u00a0prairie and planted their dream garden and built a chicken coop. \u00a0I can’t get enough! \u00a0I just finished Animal, Vegetable, Miracle <\/em>and will have to add it to my list of banned chicken dream books. \u00a0I loved it. \u00a0The author and her family decided, after moving to a farm, to eat locally for one year. \u00a0All their food had to come from within 100 miles of their home. \u00a0Talk about adventurous! \u00a0Do you have any idea of what is in season during the month of Feb? \u00a0Nothing good I can tell you. \u00a0But they did it and they liked it. \u00a0While I have no intention of trying to eat locally all the time, I am inspired to do it more of the time. \u00a0I live in the middle of the Willamette Valley and we are surrounded by great produce all spring and summer long. \u00a0So as spring approaches, I think I’m going to try and use our local farmer’s market instead of Safeway to supply our fruits and vegetables. \u00a0In fact, as I was walking through Safeway yesterday, I found grapes from Chile, strawberries from Mexico and bananas from Ecuador. \u00a0I’m guessing it took a lot of energy to get those items here for me. \u00a0More energy than I am worth to be honest. \u00a0So even though Leina wanted a peach, we contented ourselves\u00a0with raisins. \u00a0I discouraged the watermelon whining and instead grabbed some fresh asparagus.<\/p>\n Isn’t it odd how we forget our childhood lessons? \u00a0In my opinion, one of my biggest responsibilities as a parent is teaching my children they can’t have everything they want. \u00a0I have to show them that there is a vast difference between “what is good for you” and “what you want”. \u00a0This involves saving their quarters instead of buying everything they covet. \u00a0It involves learning one scoop of ice cream is enough even if four sounds delicious. \u00a0It encompasses the art of waiting their turn and sharing with others. \u00a0And then we go to the grocery store and all these lessons get thrown out the window.<\/p>\n Want a peach in December? \u00a0No problem. \u00a0Craving watermelon on a cold March day? \u00a0Got that too. \u00a0Corn on the cob can be had any day of the week in November. \u00a0I am quite convinced that my girls believe that strawberries grow year round on any farm. \u00a0When it comes to fresh food, we have reverted to preschoolers. \u00a0We no longer wait for things to come into season. \u00a0If we want it, we get it with no thought to how it happens or what it really costs. \u00a0So I’m going to try and teach myself as well as my kids a bit more. \u00a0I’m going to take the time to read where my produce is coming from. \u00a0I’m going to remember that patience is a virtue and that it is worth waiting for some things. \u00a0Not just for my health but the health of \u00a0this planet too.<\/p>\n And did I mention the chickens? \u00a0Someday….. Someday…….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Unfortunately, there are some books I should never be allowed to read but I just can’t help myself. \u00a0These are any type of memoir that involves a city girl moving to the country where she plants a garden and raises chickens. \u00a0Chickens….my dream bird. \u00a0I suppose, like my unfounded love of West Virginia, chickens are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1108","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","category-chrissie"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2Kqhb-hS","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chrissierocks.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1108","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chrissierocks.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chrissierocks.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chrissierocks.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chrissierocks.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1108"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.chrissierocks.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1108\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1110,"href":"https:\/\/www.chrissierocks.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1108\/revisions\/1110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chrissierocks.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chrissierocks.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chrissierocks.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}