Eating of the Good Land
I just read this email I received and I felt sad to read the plight this woman had with diet, weight, nutrition, exercise, etc. Millions of Americans feel the same way and have the same struggles.

Here was my response: I understand not liking fruits and vegetables and I know you promised you won't like them, but I have just one point to make. The food industry in our wonderful country is not set up to keep people nourished with healthy, satisfying foods. ("Satisfying" is definitely important isn't it? But, so is nourishment.) No, the food industry in the US has one primary goal: profitability! This means fruits, veggies, snack food, restaurant food, whatever, has to be able to travel well and look a certain way in order for it to sell. This is the goal. I would love for you to try something: find a farmers' market near you or an organic, natural food store and try some of the fruits and veggies sold there. Better yet, since it is August in America, see if you can find a friend or neighbor who has grown something in their own garden. Trust me: I do NOT like tomatoes from the grocery store, but a homegrown tomato is delicious! Try it with a little salt or even salad dressing. Buying produce at the grocery store that is shipped on average 1500 miles and may not even be in season where you live will not taste good!

I have really been enjoying Barbara Kingsolver's book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. It is truly a delicious read. She makes a fabulous comparison to telling a teenager it is really better to wait to have sex for when it is right. (She doesn't say "according to God's plan" here, but that is what I am thinking.) Point being, eating foods as God intended, in their season tasts way better! Anyway, I was recently pondering this in a conversation I had with the Lord, and lo, and behold, I stumbled upon this passage:

And the Lord said unto Joshua, This day have I rolled away the reproach of Egypt from off you. Wherefore the name of the place is called Gilgal unto this day. And the children of Israel encamped in Gilgal, and kept the passover on the fourteenth day of the month at even in the plains of Jericho. And they did eat of the old corn of the land on the morrow after the passover, unleavened cakes, and parched corn in the selfsame day. And the manna ceased on the morrow after they had eated of the old corn of the land; neither had the children of Israel manna any more; but they did eat of the fruit of the land of Canaan that year. And it came to pass, when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes and looked, and, behold, there stood a man over against him with his sword drawn in his hand: and Joshua went unto him, and said unto him, Art thou for us, or for our adversaries? And he said, Nay: but as captain of the host of the Lord am I now come. And Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and did worship, and said unto him, What saith my lord unto his servant? And the captain of the Lord's host said unto Joshua, Loose thy shoe from off thy foot; for the place whereon thou standest is holy. And Joshua did so. (Joshua 5:9-15 KJV)

So let's see. The Lord rolled away the reproach of Egypt (the world) and the children ate the produce of the land of Canaan (THE GOOD LAND) and they didn't have to eat manna anymore! Then, the Lord's host showed up and said, you're standing on holy ground! Wow!

Much grace and mercy to you! He has already accomplished everything needed for us to walk in newness of life! Be encouraged!

Putting it all on the line

I quit using my clothes dryer on May 7th and embarked on a new journey in the land of "Mount Washmore." The truth is: I am loving it! Any excuse I can find to be outside to do housework and I am all over it!

I made an initial investment of about $20, buying clothesline, clothespins, hooks, pulleys, and a laundry basket. My goal: to makeup that $20 on my natural gas bill with PG&E the first month. The benefits so far have been even greater than I bargained for. I have brought my natural gas bill down from $47 to $26. In addition to the economic benefits, I could probably sing praises for doing laundry "European-style" all day long. Of course, it doesn't hurt that I live in sunny Sacramento, California. My clothes are dry in about the same amount of time as using the dryer.

The big question for many is not about saving money, however, it is about saving time. Is it really worth it? Let me count the ways. . . I am a procrastinator at heart. I have always been pretty good about keeping up with the washing step--it grosses me out to have smelly, dirty clothes sitting around. Then, I can also keep up with "rebooting" the laundry--rotating the wet stuff to the dryer. My problem lies in the next two final steps: folding the laundry and putting it away. I inevitably ended up with a pile at some point during the week on my couch, dining room table, bed, wherever. UGGGHHHH! So the best news (next to saving cold, hard cash) is that my new method seems to have cured me of my procrastination. I basically do a load a day. I have enough line space to hang one really large load or sometimes two smaller loads at a time. I only have one laundry basket. (This is enough for our modestly-sized home.)

As much as I would love to say I am invested solely for the planet, for future generations, for energy conservation and lowering my personal carbon footprint, I am afraid we live in a culture that still cries loudly for immediate gratification and personal benefit. Having said that, I can say without reservation I remain committed to this cause for reasons difficult to put into words. The smell, ahhhhh the smell of sheets freshly dried on the line, the crisp feel of clothes I would never have taken the time to press, the brightness of the whites (without additional chemicals), and my kids want to help! It looks like fun to hang the laundry, and in a way, it is. There is more to the aesthetic of line-drying--a "somebody's home" kind of feeling that takes me to another place in another time. Many of our own mothers hung the clothes on the line. Why did they stop? There is joy in the work.

On Sunday, June 24th the Sacramento Bee had a front page piece on the rising costs of utilities. They reported consumers enjoyed two decades of low natural gas prices before they started climbing several years ago, according to the director of the University of California Energy Institute in Berkeley. According to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics between March 2002 and March 2007 natural gas costs have risen 70.68%.

My family (4 people--2 adults and 2 kids) does about 7 loads of laundry per week. I have a natural gas dryer. I also have a natural gas hot water heater. My newest plan: on June 15th, I switched to washing all laundry in cold water only. According to research conducted by Procter & Gamble, households can save up to $65 a year by making this switch. (Based on national average electric cost (2/07), water heater at 140F, warm to cold switch, and 7 loads/wk.) So, my goal is to shave another $5 per month off that PG&E bill.

Happy line-drying!