Still Throwing Down

A day or two ago Jon hung the punching bag on the back porch. Now, instead of getting sent to the guest room for time-outs, Zephyr gets sent to the back porch for four-minute rounds. Most of his undesirable behaviors recently seem to involve aggressive acts. Two recent examples are attempting to push the laptop off the ottoman, and hitting the furniture with his toy broom. A few well-read friends who are also mothers of sons have suggested that Zephyr may be going through a testosterone surge. So the punching bag gives him an appropriate outlet.

This morning, I walked out to watch Zephyr throw punches. A moment later, I turned around, walked into the kitchen, and asked Jon, "Did you talk to him about technique?" "A little," he answered. "He could probably use some more instruction." I demonstrated a few pointers for Zephyr, and on the way back through the kitchen, Jon said, "I love that that was a normal conversation for this house." Me, too.

But that's not the throwing down I mean to write about today. This week is "No Paper Week" for us in the Extreme Eco-Throwdown. It's so easy it feels like cheating. As far as I can tell, we're pretty much over disposable paper goods. All of them, except Q-tips, which were also off-limits during plastic-free week, since they come encased in plastic. All paper goods? you may be wondering, incredulously. Yes. There's probably just one you can't get your mind around, but here's a hint: it's biffy-rific.

Plastic-free week wasn't quite as much of a cakewalk. I think I missed chapstick, face cream, and sunscreen most of all. We reached for the lemon juice a couple of times, and had to put it back and either squeeze a lemon or use a substitute. I walked in on Jon making soup for dinner and asked him where he got the carrots- whoopsie. We were invited to a potluck with little notice. "We'll be grilling," Jessica said. "Bring some veggie dogs or something." We made some curried red lentil soup, which didn't grill so well (just kidding.)

Jon and I both agree that the hardest part was snacks. No crackers, no cereal, no cheese, no nuts, no yogurt, no raisins. We made popcorn. I awakened hungry in the middle of the night once, and had to make myself a sandwich, which seemed like a lot of effort when I could have grabbed a handful of cashews and gone back to bed. We got lucky; plastic-free week coincided with the arrival of a new vendor at the Farmer's Market, a German baker who sold fresh homemade pretzels and pastries sans wrapper.

On Friday we'll start with Eating Local Week. According to the rules, local bakery items are okay. So, it's kosher to buy bread from the local bakery, but what if I want to make my own bread, with unlocal yeast? It seems like that should be allowed. Local protein sources include pecans, pistachios, peanut butter, and eggs. Maybe pinto beans, I have to look into that. There's a good amount of local produce available right now- greens, asparagus, cucumbers, plus all the stuff I froze or canned last harvest season. We have peas and strawberries in the greenhouse. Carbs might be limited to my homemade bread, biscuits, and granola, which never cease to thrill us. Oh, and we can get local tortillas quite easily. Is frozen custard from the local scoop shop allowed? We've already decided soy milk is going to be our big cheat. But again, no cheese.

What about coffee for Jon? That just might qualify as medicinal.