Today is the organizing tips edition of Works-for-Me Wednesday, but I have no new organizing tips to impart. Check out my articles on Organizing Girl Scout Troop Information and Things Not To Do: Home Organizing Edition. Meanwhile, here's an idea for a homemade gift kids can use to surprise their faraway relatives! In early December, … Continue reading A Doorstop from Reused Materials, Delivered By Airplane!
Top 11 Recipes of 2011
Happy new year! For the first Hearth and Soul Blog Hop of the year, I decided to compile a list of the 11 Earthling's Handbook recipes that were most popular last year--some of which have been online much longer than one year. Just in case you missed them... 11. Improved Pasta Salad is a nutritious … Continue reading Top 11 Recipes of 2011
Greening the Employee Holiday Meal
I wish this were a story of a big project I did that made a big difference, but this one is only about a personal choice that made a small difference. It's still better than nothing! And you can't always change what big organizations do, but you can change what you do--so maybe you could … Continue reading Greening the Employee Holiday Meal
Dining at The Purple Tulip
Our son Nicholas is almost seven years old and has three possible careers in mind: railroad engineer, teacher, and waiter. This last interest has increased in the past year, and at dinnertime he sometimes wants to pretend our home is a restaurant. He got particularly elaborate during my mother's summer visit and named his restaurant … Continue reading Dining at The Purple Tulip
Granulated Garlic
Daniel and I love garlic and use it in many of our recipes. Usually we prefer to use fresh garlic, crushed in a garlic press. Every once in a while, though, we'll run out of garlic or find that our last few cloves have gotten squishy--and also, there are a few recipes like Honey Baked … Continue reading Granulated Garlic
Things Not To Do: Electronic Fund Transfer Edition
First, here is a good thing to do if you use credit cards: Arrange for an automatic payment, equal to the minimum amount you charge to that card in a typical month, to be electronically transferred from your bank account on a day before the payment is due. That way, if the e-mail reminding you … Continue reading Things Not To Do: Electronic Fund Transfer Edition
3 Good Books About Parenting
Jessica's Three Books on Thursday post today is about parenting books, so I decided to post my top three recommendations, even though they're already included in the longer list of Books That Blew My Mind. To prevent faithful Earthling's Handbook readers from feeling gypped, though, I'll first list three more books--actually, sort of categories of … Continue reading 3 Good Books About Parenting
Adventure in the Forest Across the Street
A few weeks ago, I explained how we appreciate the little forests within our city. During our Thanksgiving trip, Nicholas (almost seven years old) and I found a much larger forest to explore--in a place where we never knew there was a forest. Cousin Mike hosts Thanksgiving in his home near Albany, New York. I've … Continue reading Adventure in the Forest Across the Street
Raisin Bran Bread, Revised Recipe
Two years ago, I developed a recipe for Raisin Bran Bread to use up a bulk purchase of raisin bran cereal whose flakes were so big and hard and rough that it was painful to eat! We love the bread, so I actually bought more of that aggressive raisin bran whenever Costco issued a coupon, … Continue reading Raisin Bran Bread, Revised Recipe
The Element Bearer
My son Nicholas is almost seven years old and is growing up in an Episcopal parish that has very few children or teenagers at the moment. I've been going there for 15 years. When we had more kids, during each service a teenager served as crucifer (carrying the cross to lead the procession of worship … Continue reading The Element Bearer
Instant hummus and falafels!
My mostly-vegetarian family likes to eat hummus (garbanzo bean and sesame seed dip) and falafels (garbanzo bean and pea fritters) but both of these foods take a while to make from scratch. Practically every grocery store sells ready-to-serve hummus these days, but it is pricey and gets moldy quickly. A few stores and restaurants sell … Continue reading Instant hummus and falafels!
How a silly Website brought me a great book
I have been a fan of passiveaggressivenotes.com for some time now. It's one of those sites that perfectly utilizes the Internet's awesome power to collect silly things seen around the world. It almost always can make me laugh in that wonderfully sudden way that really dispels stress. Last summer, I saw a note posted there … Continue reading How a silly Website brought me a great book
I didn’t know that was a forest!
When my son was two to five years old, he attended a preschool/childcare center on the ground floor of a nine-story apartment tower a few blocks from my office. We commuted together by public transit and then walked from the bus stop across the parking lot that separated the building from the street. I find … Continue reading I didn’t know that was a forest!
Stewardship Talk
My church has a tradition of Stewardship Talks in the autumn, for a few weeks before parishioners turn in our pledges for next year, in which a different person each week attempts to inspire everyone to improve our contributions to the church. I did mine this past Sunday. A lot of people told me how … Continue reading Stewardship Talk
Scrap Paper Saves Money and the Environment
More than 20 years ago, inspired by Earth Day 1990 and by one of my high school teachers handing out a huge amount of paper printed only on one side that was useless after a single day's activity, I designated a bin on my desk for scrap paper: full sheets of paper with one blank … Continue reading Scrap Paper Saves Money and the Environment
Cranberry Bread Without Sugar?
This is not a recipe. It is a story of a recipe that does taste very different if you forget to put in the sugar, but the result is still edible! I have made the Cranberry Orange Bread from the 1968 Better Homes & Gardens New Cookbook (snag this one if you see it in … Continue reading Cranberry Bread Without Sugar?
Four Weeks of Pesco-Vegetarian Dinners (early autumn)
A pesco-vegetarian is someone who eats no meat except fish. That's what we do when we're at home and most of the time when we eat in other places. Last week I explained my family's approach to menu planning, which is that I write the menu and do the weekend cooking, while Daniel cooks weeknight … Continue reading Four Weeks of Pesco-Vegetarian Dinners (early autumn)
Earth-friendly Nosebleed Care
My six-year-old son, who is slowly learning to be more independent during the night, recently told me in the morning that he had had a nosebleed in the middle of the night. I changed his pillowcase--our linen closet is in the master bedroom, so he couldn't have done that without waking us--but he had taken … Continue reading Earth-friendly Nosebleed Care
Explaining Addiction to a Young Child
You might think that addiction is a topic that wouldn't come up until children are in late elementary school, going through whatever passes for drug education in their school. You might be right. Then again, your child might ask questions at a much earlier age after noticing that someone you know or a television character … Continue reading Explaining Addiction to a Young Child
Money Management and Consequences for a First Grader
Nicholas has been getting an allowance since he turned five years old, almost two years ago. He does not get the "$1 per year of age, per week" recommended by many parenting magazines--that's crazy! I use the method my father taught me of dividing the money into Spend, Save, and Share categories: Nicholas gets 50 … Continue reading Money Management and Consequences for a First Grader
The Earthling's Handbook 