Supreme Mnemonic

So one of my fears is that I'll be stopped on the street one day and David Letterman will ask me to name the Three Stooges (whom, even though I detest, I can still name). And then he'll ask me to name three Supreme Court Justices. Let's put aside the fact that I don't live in New York, so I'm not likely to be sauntering past the Late Show headquarters.

While I'm sure I'd eventually come up with three, it seems a bit shameful that I don't know all nine. After all, I can remember all nine planets in our Solar System (well, now eight, I guess. Poor Pluto. Added for clarification: It seems that Pluto was down-graded to a dwarf-planet and we gained two other dwarf planets. Oh wait, two more. I just can't keep track of this stuff...). And so, I've taken it upon myself to memorize all of their names. And, recognizing that My Very Earthly Mother Just Sat Upon Nine Porcupines worked for me for years, I set out to create a mnemonic for the nine Supreme Court Justices. And this is what I came up with: Their Supreme Rulings Give Some Killers A Bad Sentence.

Alright, so it's not nearly as exciting as "My Very Earthly Mother...", but it gets the job done. Here we go:

Their = Thomas, Clarence

Supreme = Stevens, John Paul

Rulings = Roberts, John (Chief Justice, BTW)

Give = Ginsberg, Ruth Bader

Some = Sotomayor, Sonia

Killers = Kennedy, Anthony

A = Alito, Samuel

Bad = Breyer, Stephen

Sentence = Scalia, Antonin

As an after-thought, I Googled "supreme court mnemonic," and came upon this one, which I think is much more original. But alas, it's now out of date. But then, Flocabulary goes and one-ups me with a mnemonic that helps you remember the order in which the justices were nominated!

Studying Scandals Keeps The Giant Bride Robots All Sober
Stevens, Scalia, Kennedy, Thomas, Ginsburg, Breyer, Roberts, Alito, Sotomayor

"Giant Bride Robots?" WTF? But whatever works for ya, now you're prepared for that Man on the Street nightmare...

PS - I realize that the tie to nurturing the family and environmental issues may be tenuous, but I figure 1) in order to teach my kids anything, I need to know it first and 2) Environmental issues often involve laws. Oh, and it's fun to write about something different once in a while. So I got all crazy and wrote about the Supreme Court justices. Wow.

PPS - After trying to remember the above mnemonic all day, it just wasn't working. Instead, I came up with one that names them in alphabetical order: A Blond Girl Kissed Ross, So She Stayed True. While a bit person-specific, this is working for me much better!

Preservation Plans for 2010

Farmer's Daughter recently wrote about her goals for preserving in this upcoming year. She was inspired by reading Independence Days, a book I'd like to read at some point. This got me to thinking about how pleased I was with last year's canning efforts (my first EVER!), and how I'd like to expand on that. And so, without further ado:

Peach Jam: 1 dozen 12 oz. jars (for gifts), 1 dozen 1/2 pints for us

Canned whole peaches: 1 dozen quarts

Applesauce: 2 dozen pints

Strawberries: freeze as many as possible (whole)

Strawberry jam: 1 dozen 1/2 pints (some for gifts)

Roasted Tomato sauce: 4 dozen 1/2 pints

Whole tomatoes: 2 dozen pints

Freezer Pesto: 2 dozen 1/2 pints

It looks like I'd better start buying some more 1/2 pint jars. Fortunately, Ralph's is now selling them. So, hopefully no more broken jars.

Some provisos: I'm planning to grow strawberries this year. Hopefully, they do well. And it'd be nice to get more than six apples off of our tree this year. And maybe the peach tree will fruit this year... As you can see, I have a lot of hope for our little orchard...

Do you have any preservation plans for this year?

Cloth napkins from scraps

Now that I have my beloved sewing machine, I am now A Person Who Peruses Craftsites. Wow. I did not see that coming... But indeed, I find I am constantly on the look-out for easy projects that I can sew. Because I have yet to take a sewing class.

But I did find a few links to making cloth napkins, which was exciting to me. Because, really. How hard can it be to make a square piece of cloth? It seems like something even I could do. I already have a stash of cloth napkins (that I, ahem, purchased from Amazon. Cough, cough.), but I do feel like we're a little short on napkins sometimes. You'd be amazed at how many napkins two little kids can go through. Or maybe not.

But then I was really excited to find this link from Sew Mama Sew on how to make cloth napkins from your fabric scraps! (That's a picture of her finished napkins at the top of this post.) Now that's ingenious! Double-environmentalism! You're making a durable good from reused materials! This is upcycling in action. Now.... I just need to have sewed (sewn?) enough to generate a decent amount of scraps...

If you're a sewer, what were some of your first projects?

Weekly Meal Plan

Here we are, in the second week of the new year, and already I'm deviating from my resolution to eat seasonally. We're going on a 6-day ski trip to Mammoth, CA with another family and staying in a condo. To save money and simplify things, we're bringing food to prepare our own meals. The thought of having to incorporate seasonally available produce into our combined meal plan was just too overwhelming.

Nevertheless, here is the produce offered by the CSA for this week:
Lettuce
Tatsoi
Swiss Chard
Grape Tomatoes
Spinach
Carrots
Onions
Butternut Squash
Apples
Tangerines
Strawberry Jam

Yeah, I can't say I'm crying my eyes out not to be using "Tatsoi." No idea what that even is...

Here's my meal plan:
Dinner #1: Sweet potato and Peanut Stew
Dinner #2: Pot Roast, mashed potatoes, veggies
Lunches: leftovers, eating at the lodge
Breakfasts: Pumpkin pancakes with yogurt, granola

I have to say, one thing I like about combined meal planning with another family: fewer meals to come up with!

Send good thoughts that I don't kill myself on the way down the mountain. Lack of coordination + one year since skiing = Danger! Danger!

Weekly Meal Plan

One of my New Year's Resolutions is to eat more seasonally. In order to do this, I'll be looking at the produce that a local CSA distributes in its weekly boxes and doing my weekly menu planning around those items. Note that I'll be incorporating other items, that won't necessarily be seasonal. But my goal is not to be wholly seasonal, just more seasonal than I have been in the past (where I pretty much just disregarded what season it was!). One small step.

To that end, here is the produce listed by the CSA for this week:
Lettuce
Cauliflower
Swiss Chard
Grape Tomatoes
Beets
Carrots
Dill
Valencia
Apples
Tangerines
Strawberry Jam

And here is my first Weekly Meal Plan:
Dinner #1: (New Year’s Eve celebration with friends) Beets Mediterraneo, use with chard, in addition to beet greens; Pumpkin & pistachio risotto (can use butternut); 5-Minute fearless Bread; Gingerbread
Dinner #2: Steak w/ roasted potatoes, Roasted Cauliflower
Dinner #3: Chicken salad (use lettuce, grape tomatoes, dill, carrots, apples) Dinner #4: Chicken Noodle soup, salad, & bread
Dinner #5: Many Vegetable Stew over couscous (Freeze half)
Dinner #6: Black Beans & Rice (with sausage, onion, cheese), salad
Dinner #7: leftovers

Kids' Lunch #1: Bean burritos, peas (dried or frozen), fruit
Kids' Lunch #2: Macaroni & cheese with vegetables, hard-boiled egg, fruit

Breakfasts: Soaked oatmeal, 5-grain porridge, jam & toast, parfait

Prepare in advance: yogurt, chicken (make extra broth), beans (black & pinto), salad mixes (dry ingredients & wet), bread, mac & cheese with vegetables, granola

One Small Change

Hip Mountain Mama has come up with a great idea for encouraging us all to make changes in the new year to become more environmentally conscientious. With their One Small Change campaign, they're encouraging participants to make one change per month for the first four months of the year. This meshes with my belief that big, lifestyle-changing choices can only realistically be made one (small) step at a time. And also, conveniently, with some of my New Year's Resolutions. So here are the four changes that I will be making:

January: Implement my effort to eat more seasonally
February: Cloth hankies!
March: Compost kitchen scraps
April: Waste-free birthday party

Keep tabs on my progress in upcoming blog posts. We'll see how it goes...

Bye-bye '09!

Yes, it's that time of year for reflections.

My New Year's Resolutions for 2009:

1. Pay of my student loan

2. Start a Green Group

Done and done. Wow. I can't tell you how good that made me feel just to write that! This year I focused on making my resolutions discrete and measurable. I read somewhere if you made your resolution very specific, you were more likely to succeed in fulfilling them. Contrast "Read more" with "Read 12 books." When I got my new job, within three paychecks, I'd written a check to the DOE. And then towards the fall, I talked with some of my friends about starting a Green Group. We've met about three times now, and while it doesn't seem as "getting things done" as the book club, it is very helpful to have a group of people to talk about local environmental issues. And of course, since they're friends, it's always a fun time!

Here are some other things from 2009:

1. Lost a job. Gained a job.

2. Lost a dachshund. Gained a dachshund.
3. Gained a nephew!

4. Made ravioli by hand for the first time!

5. Started sewing

6. Finished Drake's baby book

7. Learned how to can applesauce, tomato sauce, and jam.

8. Went on *five* camping trips, a trip to Yosemite, a ski trip, and a trip back east to see family.

9. Made 2,000 basil seed starts for Earth Day, using reused materials.

10. Joined the PTA and Slow Food, USA.
11. We (um, Ross) continue to expand our mini-orchard in the backyard. We even got to harvest some apples and tangerines! And our orange/lemon tree is flourishing. The question is: with what? Oranges? Lemons? It's a mystery to us.

Goals for 2010:

1. Start composting - I really want to reduce the about of waste that we produce. Plus, this is great for gardening. It's one of those Eco-Nut 101 things that I've just never gotten around to. Risk: lots of rotting produce in the backyard. Rats (er, more than the usual).
2. Take sewing lessons - At the 11th hour this holiday season, I got a sewing machine because I decided I wanted to make something for the kids for Christmas. I managed to fumble my way through that, but I really want to learn how to use my new machine. Risk: 47 half-finished projects scattered about the house. Swearing (er, more than the usual).
3. Eat more seasonally - What, apples aren't in season in May? I really can't believe how little I know about agriculture. In order to reduce the amount of energy needed to produce our food, I will be striving to feed the family in a more seasonal (and therefore, probably local) manner. I'd like to note that we don't exactly live in Wyoming. Southern California, with it's four-season growing ability, would be a locavore's dream. Still.... Risk: I go insane with the planning aspect of this particular endeavor.
4. Oh, and exercise. Um, at least.... once a month (Don't want to overdo it or anything!). Risk: Well, at that interval, I guess the biggest risk is injuring myself.

Regardless of the risks, may 2010 be filled with happiness, peace, and love.