that I wanted to buy seeds online again like I did last year. The problem is that I had recycled the last seed catalog I’d received. So I was just going to go online to choose my seeds.

Then Mark came in with the mail and what was in it? Besides a packet of LTCs (some very cool ones, by the way) was a seed catalog. Yay! Apparently I need to buy seeds. Of course, it’s supposed to snow tomorrow (maybe). But that doesn’t mean I can’t order seedling trays so that I can start my seeds indoors.

Watermelons here I come! And if I’m really lucky they might be ready by July 4th. Are you coming to my Fourth of July party? We’ll be having home grown watermelon. Other seed plans include:

• cherry tomatoes – my goal is to have them vine up the side of the library/shed
• roma tomatoes – I’m going to try canning tomato sauce this year too
• potatos – I can’t decide whether I should buy purple ones or not
• edamame – man I hope they have some this year – they were sold out last year!!!
• beets and carrots – for yummy roasts
• corn – who doesn’t like corn? I suspect that won’t be ready for the July 4th party. Sorry folks!
• pumpkin – small sweet ones. I want to make pumpkin pie from scratch this fall
• basil and catnip – herbs for me and Auto
• onions and peppers – OH and garlic! I didn’t see that in the catalog
• lettuce and radishes for summer salads
• and of course zucchini, crookneck, and winter squashes

Plus, I want to get some asparagus root tops to put in. It will be a few years before they are ready, but I can wait. And maybe Jaryth will like asparagus too. But if he doesn’t more for me. I’ve been debating trying to get artichoke to grow as well, but I’m a little bit chicken.

Of course, now that I’m all prepared to hand over my credit card to the whiles of the interwebs, my organic seed site is down! Where is their web developer??? Don’t they know I want my seeds now! now!! now!!! Edamame is disappearing from their shelves. By being down they risk my heading off to the local garden center to get my seeds! Okay, it’s 7:30 at night, so the center is closed, but I can’t say I won’t head out tomorrow… Peaceful Valley: You have been warned!

I’ve decided to compile a list of all the things that I’d like to change in my life (or do or improve, etc.). This is kinda like a master goals list. The point is that I can’t achieve my goals if I don’t know what they are. So here goes in no particular order:

• Eat less junk food – ultimately I want to get it down to 1 day a week or even just a few hours on that one day
• Bake my own bread
• Eat NO feedlot or factory meat. I want to only buy or raise my own grass fed meat and poultry.
• Have an artisan turkey for Thanksgiving in 2011
• Eat 5+ veggies and fruits per day.
• Sleep at least 8 hours a night.
• Go to the dentist every six months.
• Grow a vegetable garden – and expand it every year. This year I’m expanding to potatoes.
• Work out 30+ minutes per day (beyond our daily walk).
• Cook 3-4 meals a week.
• Read to Jaryth every night.
• Write a novel.
• Grow my site to be in the top 20 sites on About.com.
• Let’s get real, I want my site to be #1!
• Build an eco-friendly house.
• With a tower.
• Ride my horse 3-5 times a week, regardless of weather.
• Go on trail rides with Betsy.
• Paint and draw.
• Create a website for swapping books with other book artists. Or (and) mail artists.
• Pare down my stuff to be more minimalist.
• Make cheese.
• Eat only locally-grown (within 100 miles of here) food.
• Support more local artists, farmers, shops, etc.
• Give something to someone every day.
• Get a tractor.
• Chickens – for eggs and meat.
• A small cow – for milk for cheese.
• Meditate 3-5 times per week.
• Yoga.
• Writing down what I eat.
• Journaling every day.
• Learn to make sushi I made sushi on Thursday night (photos to come soon)
• start seeds for veggie garden indoors (for earlier harvests)
• clean out the creek so that it flows better
• plan a nut orchard
• plant fruit trees
• give away at least 100 books in 2011
• clean my office
• write at least 1 review of an app or book that is pending per week
• build a bookarts swap site
• build at least one of the domains that I own
• move one site off of my home server onto its own site
• send more postcards – 1 per week at least
• read 100 books or more in 2011 (I’ve already read 14 – check out my GoodReads profile to see what I’m currently reading

For this week, I’m focusing on the following:

1. Making a salad (or some type of vegetable) for dinner every night.
2. Eating junk food only on Saturday and Sunday.

What are your goals and plans? I’ll help you achieve yours if you help me with mine!

So, I’ve watched the vegetarian sushi video a couple times, I’ve bought my sushi rice and sushi vinegar (wasabi and soy sauce are already staples in my home) oh and the nori. Now I have to do two things:

1. finish my work for the day
2. stop being a wimp/chicken and start my attempt at making sushi!

Oh and we got a new 7-cup food processor (or “food robot” in my translation of the French) today. I can’t decide whether I want to make hummus first or chicken nuggets. The biggest challenge with reading a book about local food and you’re in the summer chapter is that now I want fresh tomatoes, peaches, and zucchini. I think I’m also going to make some zucchini bread tonight or tomorrow from the frozen zucchini I stored from the summer. Take THAT winter!

It’s sad, but I’ve been wishing it would snow. Right now we’re having these coldish days and sometimes rain, and that just means that you risk losing your boots when you walk anywhere on the property beyond the 1/4 acre surrounding the house. And unfortunately, Jaryth doesn’t have any puddle jumpers because we didn’t buy them when we saw them in the stores and of course, there are none now. No one buys puddle jumper boots in January, do they? I suppose I could look in a consignment store, but that would require shopping and my agoraphobia limits me to the post office and school. ☺

So my two goals for the next week or so are to make:

• vegetarian sushi
• cheese

I’ve been told before that making cheese isn’t terribly hard. Of course finding rennet could be challenging… but one step at a time. There is a beer and wine making supply company in Kirkland that also sells cheese making supplies.

And I want to make some bread. I think I need to get my Laurel’s Kitchen bread book out again. At least now I know where it is.

This book is really inspiring me, taking me back to the things that are important to me.

So, I read my previous blog post to Mark, and his first response was “Good luck!” And of course, I got a bit frustrated because that’s the sarcastic (for those playing along at home, yes, he was being sarcastic) response I dread when I talk about trying to be greener and eat more healthy.

But after we talked for a while, we came up with an initial game plan:

1. Salads for dinner – Three years ago we implemented the plan of having a pitcher of water on the table for dinner every night. This has become so ingrained that we will sometimes end up with two pitchers because he puts one on at the same time as I do. So, the new plan includes salad every night. I am in charge of the salad.
2. Getting a new food processor – The only one we have is a tiny 3-cup model that I got when I was in college. It has served us well (okay, it really has served us just okay, but we’ve been too cheap to get another) for the 13 years we’ve been married. But I want hummus! And other things you can make only in a nice big 9+ cup food processor.
3. Getting rid of the bread maker – Of course, in our tiny kitchen, getting a new appliance means getting rid of something else to make room. And the fact is that we never use the bread maker. We mostly use it for kneading, and we have a dough hook on our KitchenAid mixer, that we use more often. Neither of us like the bread mixes you can get and bread baked in it tastes dull and boring. Do you know anyone who wants a bread maker? Hardly used!
4. Getting rid of other things we don’t use – Finally, we’re going to go through our clothes, the kitchen cabinets and even (gasp!) my books and the storage shed; giving away or selling anything that we don’t use. This should free up a ton of extra space!

Determining a game plan is a great way for me to feel like we’re on the way to where I want to be. Then reading about the cynicism of Monsanto and the loss of heirloom seeds and the pro-corporate greed of our “representative” government is a little less depressing.