Overwhelmed Families and How To Deal

A member of the Catholics for Zero Waste (CZW) facebook group asked this question:

Can we talk practical solutions for busy and overwhelmed families? I am feeling super discouraged because I am so overwhelmed already and I feel like all attempts at reducing plastic waste are all ways to make life way harder.

Several people responded with their approach (do what you can!) and tips for how they handled things.  A really thorough response came from member Tricia Koroknay-Palicz, who composed her post from her cell phone while in a hospital waiting for her newborn to awake!  Congratulations, Tricia!

Her organizing principle comes from this Washington Post quiz based on the book and project Drawdown.  Read more about this here.  She works through each point and applies it to her family.

Tricia Koroknay-Palicz I think about this too. My mindset on this is that (i) we are called to what we can do / give what we can give joyfully. and this looks different for different families. and we need not compare ourselves to them. (ii) I try to prioritize our household actions in this arena based on two factors: impact of the action, and how much of a sacrifice/challenge the action is. For thinking about impact, I found this article helpful.

My takeaways from it included: 

(i) cutting down on food waste and eating more plants and less meat are both amongst the top 5 things one can do, impact-wise. Both of these also help our families budget, and fasting days are part of the Christian tradition. 

(ii) using water more efficiently helps keep our water bill down! in our house this means keeping the water level on the lower side at bath time, and only letting the kiddie pool be filled once per day at maximum. we could also hook hoop our gutters to rain barrels and use this water for watering the garden, but I haven't gotten round to that. you can often get water barrels for free. 

(iii) in the energy category, switching to wind energy was highest impact. PEPCO actually allows third parties to provide energy to pepco customers, and if I remember correctly we switched over our electricity to 100% wind energy through such an arrangement and this resulted in a lower per unit energy cost and brought down our electric bill by 20%. 

(iv) in the transportation category, shipping goods more efficiently and flying less both appear. flying less is good for our family budget (e.g. spending a summer vacation week at a state park within a 3 hour drive from home rather than flying to a far off destination). and shipping goods more efficiently can mean dropping our amazon prime membership and just waiting until we have a number of things in our amazon cart before clicking the buy button (orders over $35 get free shipping). 

A few other things I have found to work for our family are: using whatever paper already comes into our house, such as paper bags, packaging materials, junk mail etc as art supplies for my daughter; trying to do things locally whenever possible to reduce our car use; intentionally nearly always only buying used stuff - we use value village like other people use Walmart or target; wearing out our clothes and shoes; buying produce at Bestway (much less packaging!) or through lancaster CSA (we found cost very reasonable, cheaper than any other supplier of organic food, with no packaging, and not much more expensive than our local regular grocery store; eating seasonally (e.g. eating local peaches from the grocery store when they are in season rather than ones shipped from South America out of season; using Tupperware and reusable lunch bags rather than disposable lunch baggies / sacks. 

Further down the thread she includes these other points:

 a few more things that we do as a family: if we can't buy an item used, we do without. this meant sleeping on a matress on the floor for a year while I waited for a king size bed frame with drawers underneath it to appear on craigslist (did you know you can save searches and set alerts to yourself when an item you are looking for appears!). you can also do national searches of craigslist. and ebay can be good for hard to find items. 

we buy larger packages of things (cheaper and reduced packaging) and subdivide for use (I use bread bags to store meat in our freezer, and glass jars that come with my husband favorite salsa for raisins, olive oil, and other pantry staples.).

my husband and I are both known at our workplaces for our willingness to take home whatever leftover food there is after a meeting.

we use dryer balls instead of dryer sheets.

we use cloth napkins instead of paper napkins.

we have longer intervals for laundering towels (2x per month), sheets (1× per month except for potty training child) and certain clothing items. this lowers time, energy, and water spent on laundry!

Mondays with Laudato Si' - 8/26/19

2. This sister now cries out to us because of the harm we have inflicted on her by our irresponsible use and abuse of the goods with which God has endowed her. We have come to see ourselves as her lords and masters, entitled to plunder her at will. The violence present in our hearts, wounded by sin, is also reflected in the symptoms of sickness evident in the soil, in the water, in the air and in all forms of life. This is why the earth herself, burdened and laid waste, is among the most abandoned and maltreated of our poor; she “groans in travail” (Rom 8:22). We have forgotten that we ourselves are dust of the earth (cf. Gen 2:7); our very bodies are made up of her elements, we breathe her air and we receive life and refreshment from her waters.

Nothing in this world is indifferent to us

Week in Review - 8/23/19

Friday's collection of articles, etc found around the internet this week.

Zero Waste:

CNN talks about Trump and plastics

Tiny pieces of plastic found in Arctic

Economics:

The power of the consumer

Wisdom of the saints:

How should the rich relate to the poor?

Other Environmental Concerns:

Forest Fires in Brazil

Bishop Barron Explains Catholic Social Teaching:

Bishop Barron on George Will's The Conservative Sensibility

Hope

A lovely article on how going local can save the world  Here's a quote.

"There are two key instructions to tease out. First, I seek the restoration of relationship, with both my neighbor and my place, which doesn’t depend on my cleverness, the sophistication of my technology, the money at hand, or the permission of politicians. I restore my relationship with strong doses of affection and humility, and by keeping my work, like the honeybee, eminently local.

Second, that we, each of us, are capable of countless small acts of care, and in such is the restoration of the wild, the world, and the culture. In such is the conversion of the displacing colonist to the helpful, welcome guest."

Great Advice

I just wanted to post a picture of Mary as Queen.  A few years ago I consecrated myself to Mary on this feast day!

Here's a link to a wonderful zero waste blog.  This post has really solid advice.  I encourage you to read it thoroughly and refer back to it if you are a zero waste beginner, or if you find yourself stumbling or backsliding on the way.

Little Daily Actions Feature - Preventing Food Waste at Home

I think once a week, this blog will focus on how we can care for creation through our little daily actions.  The phrase comes from Laudato Si'

“There is a nobility in the duty to care for creation through little daily actions, and it is wonderful how education can bring about real changes in lifestyle.”  Pope Francis – Laudato Si 211

(I stole that quote and layout from here.)

Right now on the facebook group Catholics for Zero Waste (CZW), we are going through a list of 11 ways to Stop Food Waste I just happened to find in a personal finance newsletter my father in law always give us.  He's really into that sort of thing.  Truthfully, I've never found it all that useful.  And it is true in this case as well.  A couple of the suggestions are good, but then most of them border on the absurd or just don't seem very practical.  Anyway, inspired by this, I thought I'd post my own, probably pretty obvious ways, to avoid food waste.   I am definitely a work in progress here, as I struggle with this.

***********

But before I begin, I do want to note that when we try to prevent food waste we are battling nature!  Food naturally begins to decay from the moment it is picked, harvested, butchered, processed, etc.  It's the nature of the beast!  So honestly I don't think we can ever have a 100% no waste system.

What we should have is regular ways to deal with unwanted or rotting food besides sending it to the landfill, dumping it down the garbage disposal or incinerating it.  Two ways to deal with this are:

1.  Feed it to animals such as chickens or pigs. 

If you have chickens or pigs, I'm jealous!  But also we should encourage restaurants and hotels to contract with farmers to deliver their food waste to them so that the food gets eaten instead of thrown out.  And this will save on big plastic bags of feed to the animals too!

2.  Compost.

Composting should be happening in every household.  Just like taking out the trash.  Everybody should have access to either municipal composting services, private composting services, neighborhood compost cooperative efforts, composting in your own kitchen or backyard, or places you can take your compost like farmers markets or grocery stores.  Everyone should be able to compost!  This is a goal we need to be working towards actively in our local communities.

You can go to this website to see if there is a composting service near you.  I don't think their database is all inclusive so if you don't see anything in your area, I encourage you to keep investigating.  If you want to start composting yourself, there is much information out there on the internet or in book form.  Go for it!

My ways to prevent food waste:

1.  Clean out your fridge every week.  This can take me all of 2 to 5 minutes.  I tend to do this on the night I put my compost out (I pay $25 a month for a weekly compost pick up.  I know I'm lucky!).

2.  Make leftovers the lunch default (either eaten at home or packed for lunch at work/school) or make one night a week the official 'leftover night.'  Even if it is just dibs and dabs added to the plate along with the main dish, you are using it up!

3.  Freeze any vegetable scraps to make broth with.  This will prevent you from having to buy vegetable broth.  Once I build up enough scraps, I throw them into my crock pot with water and lots of seasonings and let it cook all day.  Then I strain it and put it into big Ball canning jars (leave an inch or so of space at the top) and put into my freezer.  Luckily I do have an upright freezer in my garage).  I use this broth, and also chicken broth I make from bones, to cook rice and quinoa in, instead of just plain water.  Any time I need broth, these are my go to's.  It honestly doesn't take much effort at all if you have a slow cooker and I have stopped buying commercial broth in those vacuum packed boxes or cans.

4.  If you have too much of something and you can't deal with it right away, put it in the freezer!  I tend to forget this and wait too long.  As I say, I am a work in progress!

5.  If your parish does any food collection for local food banks or soup kitchens, stick a reminder up and clean out your pantry BEFORE foods expire.   I'm happy to report I am getting better at this one!

Mondays with Laudato Si - Paragraph 1

1. “LAUDATO SI’, mi’ Signore” – “Praise be to you, my Lord”. In the words of this beautiful canticle, Saint Francis of Assisi reminds us that our common home is like a sister with whom we share our life and a beautiful mother who opens her arms to embrace us. “Praise be to you, my Lord, through our Sister, Mother Earth, who sustains and governs us, and who produces various fruit with coloured flowers and herbs”.[1]

Thoughtful Video on Why Christian Morality Promotes Human Flourishing

This video has some great thoughts and asks some interesting questions about the role Christian morality plays in 'prosperity' by which I think is meant human flourishing.  Of course, sin and the pace of modern life and the corresponding modern worldview obscure much of this, often deliberately.

I think Church teaching always calls us back to living Christian morality out authentically.

While this isn't directly on point when it comes to zero waste, I think if we want to change our throwaway culture we need to examine our values so to me this video belongs here.

My Approach to Food

Right now, at this point in my life, I am an Ethical Omnivore.  Long time ago I was a vegetarian for a few years, but being married to a meat eater and pregnancy changed that.  I still think being a vegetarian who watches refined carbs and eats some animal fat in dairy or eggs can be very healthy.  I think that can be an ideal way to go.

I don't have a problem with vegans either.  But I seriously doubt that all people can be vegan.  I don't think it is a universal solution to what ails us environmentally or even in our treatment of animals.  I think we need to really reform our food systems we have now, but I don't think that calls for everybody becoming vegan.  Though if more people were vegan, those who could hack it that is, it might very well be a good thing for the planet.  However, I think it takes so much planning and energy to be vegan and I think it may cause long term health problems too.  And a lot of urban veganism is based on eating lots of not local and highly processed foods.  But I think sprinkling in some fast days once in a while when one eats like a vegan is a very good thing to do.

This is all my personal opinion.  I believe there is a wide gamut within Catholic Church teaching in how you choose to intentionally nourish your body.  After much thought and much effort to try and eat according to my own values, I've come up with my own personal approach to food.  Much of it is based on the Institute for Functional Medicine's Core Food Plan.

So I have 16 ideal guiding principles right now, which are these:

• I try to eat locally, humanely produced meat, eggs and dairy
• I try to eat seasonal vegetables.  I want to begin preserving more food.
• I try to source staples that aren't local from ethical companies
• I would like to be completely meatless on Mondays and Fridays
• I think one meal a day should be meatless
• I think meat should be most often served in dishes where you can really stretch it
• I think portion size is important.  The protein should be no more than the size of your palm
• I think half your (dinner) plate should be veggies, then 1/4 complex carb and 1/4 protein.
• It's not a bad thing to fast and/or go vegan once in a while
• Sugar should just be an occasional treat - like when you are celebrating a birthday or holiday
• I try to get most of my sugar from eating whole fruits, 1-3 servings a day
• Controlled portions of maple syrup or honey are okay but go very lightly!
• I'm gluten free and I really do think it helps with my arthritis.  I won't go back.
• I also tend to avoid cow dairy because it is known to be inflammatory
• I also avoid soy - my daughter was taken off soy for her thyroid issues.  Most soy is GMO, industrially farmed, and probably isn't really good for the environment or our health.  
• I try to avoid processed foods.

I am a work in progress.  I'm pretty good on the avoiding sugar thing except it is summer and occasionally I've given in to ice cream for no reason at all except I was craving it!

For the last few years I have bought meat and eggs from a local farm.  Other meats I have gotten from a local organic grocery store chain that only buys locally.  I get my goat cheese and sheep yogurt there.  

Buying meat and dairy (except for the cow milk I get for other members of the family - that comes in a returnable glass milk bottle) means I'm not zero waste.  They all come in plastic.  Therefore I try to really reduce any plastic in all other areas as much as possible.  Gluten free stuff also is often packaged in plastic.  But since I buy very little processed stuff, I don't really bring in a lot of plastic packaging that way.  I do bring in some though.  For instance, gluten free crackers are something I buy and they all come in plastic liners inside the box.

Most zero waste cooking blogs or youtube channels are by single urban vegans.  I think they have a lot to offer but it doesn't translate well into cooking for larger families who aren't vegan.  I myself have been cooking for seven for years now.  If you are buying organic, pastured, grass fed meat, eggs and dairy, it is very costly.  In this blog, I hope to explore how to cook for many in a healthy way that honors the animals who provide such good nourishment for us.  To me it is better to buy less meat, etc that is humanely produced and make that work by stretching it.  Moms of many probably already know this but I'll go ahead and just briefly list ways to do this.

• Make chili, stews and soups
• Stir fry
• Casseroles
• Use up leftovers
• Use bones to make broth
• Meat salads: lots of greens, salad toppings, leftover meat or some crisp bacon crumbles

Meatless, nourishing, frugal meals for large families:

• Vegetarian chili
• Vegetable soups
• Stuffed baked potatoes
• Frittatas (especially good for using up leftover rice, noodles or potatoes)
• Salad with lots of hearty toppings, cheese, nuts and seeds, sliced hard boiled egg

Of course, one way to ensure access to good food is to grow your own!  That's out of reach for many, but perhaps slightly more accessible than many realize.  Any little thing you grow yourself helps!  Even if it is just an herb garden on your window sill or a tomato plant in a pot on your patio.  And if you can have your own chickens to provide eggs!  Well, that's wonderful!

To me, in my journey, I think to be aligned with my Catholic faith, I need to produce more and consume less and what I do consume I need to do thoughtfully and intentionally.

I'd love to hear your thoughts, ideas or practices you've developed to answer all the questions that come up when food buying and providing nourishment for your family.

Plans for This Blog

Image by KatieDobies 

What I really want to establish is a website devoted to helping Catholic consumers' buying and lifestyle habits being more aligned with Christianity.  But I don't have the wherewithal to do that.  So while I wait for that to happen, I decided to just create this little blog.  I know I'll barely be able to manage that even, but I have so many ideas and thoughts swirling around in my head, I have to have some place to dump them!

I'm thinking of having regular posts at regular intervals (daily?  Every other day?  Not sure yet) but I'd like to categorize them in the following way (Maybe.  I'm thinking as I go):

• Laudato Si' - I think I might just post a paragraph at a time so that anyone following along will be able to read the whole thing eventually, bit by bit.
• Posts/articles giving practical tips on food, shopping, composting, recycling, etc
• Maybe a Friday weekly feature with a links round up of internet articles
• Book/movie reviews
• Gardening, permaculture, local food, seasonal eating, food preservation
• Ethical buying on a budget
• Season of Creation
• Celebrating the liturgical year with creation in mind
• Health
• Promoting dialogue between adversarial positions on the environment
• Parish life
• An ongoing exploration of the connection between Christians and God's creation.

I think I might start off with this set up:

Monday - Tips, suggestions or thoughts on how and why to live as an intentional consumer

Wednesday - Laudato Si'

Friday - Links to interesting articles I found during the week

Why Zero Waste?

Zero waste is kind of trendy right now and that might put you off or that might intrigue you.  I don't know how much I really like the term myself, but since it is out there, I'll use it.  Zero waste is really about cleaning up after yourself.  You know how moms get after their kids to clean up after themselves?  Or parks ask visitors to not litter or to leave no trace?  Zero waste is the same thing but with a larger view.  It looks at how much trash and pollution an item generates when made and what happens to it once you don't want it anymore.  The truth is for many, many items we've created a horrendous amount of waste we've got to deal with in the making and the disposing of all the junk we consumers like to buy.

Zero waste is basically trying to establish habits so you don't make such a mess all the time.  However, trying to be purely zero waste will drive you crazy!  It's hard because we have fixed the system so that if you don't deliberately think things through and develop better practices, if you just go with the flow and never examine your lifestyle, you can't help but being a big destructive slob like the 98% of everybody else around you. We are consuming and wasting at a frantic, self-destructive rate. But one by one we've got to change.  And every little bit of change helps. I think it is imperative we change our consumer habits, and we need to put pressure on corporations and the government to act responsibly.  I think we need everybody on board with this to turn this ship around.

To me trying to be zero waste really connects me to my faith because it involves sacrifice.  It's a little bit in the tradition of aesthetic saints like St. Francis of Assisi, who gave up everything his rich father offered him.  He deliberately embraced Sister Poverty.  I'm not going that far, but I am deliberately embracing Sister Inconvenience.   That sounds pretty wimpy to me, but for me, it's a huge step.  I'm a long, long way from holy.  I am ensconced in my ivory tower of thoughtless consumption for every single whim that money can satisfy (at least temporarily).  I am slowly breaking free but pretty much everything is against me in this including my own deeply ingrained habits, my family's expectations and habits (which I helped form!), and the consumer, materialistic, suburbanite culture that surrounds me.  Zero waste is definitely counter-culture.

Two and a half years ago I lunged into zero waste as Lenten fast.  It was hard and abrupt.  Most people need to do it incrementally for it to stick.  You try to get into the habit of remembering to bring your own bags with you when you shop.  You try to remember to print double-sided whenever you've got to print something out.  You try to eat more leftovers and not let the food in your fridge go to waste.  That sort of thing.  All that is wonderful!  Slowly as we become aware of better and better ways to do things, we can incorporate them into our lifestyles.

I am hoping that this blog will help with that journey and that change of habits.  I also hope that it will keep readers informed about what's going on to solve the problem of all this harmful waste and how the Catholic Church is addressing the issue.

I just became a grandmother!

I have a little 3.5 day old grandson now.  And I have five adult children who are all setting out into the world, beginning careers, earning degrees, trying to establish themselves in the year 2019 and all that entails.  I worry for the future though.  I worry for our planet, our food, our air and water.  I worry about all the anxiety and rush and alienation and corruption and perversion and mass shooters and all that culture of death stuff.  I worry about the future of the Catholic Church, poor Bride of Christ who has been so mistreated and betrayed by her clergy.  I worry about a culture that wants to fill up the empty God-sized hole in our hearts with things and pleasure and power. 

I live in a wealthy area.  My husband makes a good living and I have every need and luxury.  I have a nice air condition/heated home.  I have all the appliances and a car and money to put gas in that car.  I never go hungry.  I get up each morning and drink some lovely coffee.  I never have to go without.  I often think about how Jesus said it was easier for a camel to pass through an eye of a needle than for a rich man to get into heaven.  That's kind of startling because I know that I am probably richer than most of the world.  I didn't even set out to be.  It just sort of happened.  I am grateful for it all.  But I think I've been stealing from others.  I think I've been stealing, without even thinking about it and just sort of going along with the flow, from my children and my grandchildren.  I've been stealing and abusing the poor.  I have.  All. the. time.  I never meant to, but once I found out I was complicit, I didn't want to do it anymore.

I think it's time to really ponder all this and then do something about it.  I think it is time to stop taking for granted all the stuff and conveniences I've been showered with all my life.  Because it is too much and it is making it harder for me to get through that eye of the needle.  Lots of stuff spoils you.  It warps the soul.  It makes you narrow and blind and self-serving.  And that is the opposite of trying to be Christ-like. 

It occurred to me that from my present situation living right now, my greatest connection to the world around me is that of consumer.  I am a wife and mom and sister and member of a parish.  But the thing I actively do daily that I don't even think about much is . . . consume. 

How can my role as consumer draw me closer to Christ?  Because that's my ultimate relationship, yet everything in the world wants to diminish that foundational role.  I, myself, often forget it for large swathes of time.  Just today, on this Solemnity of the Assumption, a plea came into my prayer at Mass.  It welled up in my heart, unbidden.  Because it has been in my mind so much of late:  Lord even though I always forget about you, even though I go through my days shallow and distracted and peevish and all the rest, let me be connected to You.  Even if I can't feel it or am unconscious of any connection, be my anchor!  Let it be at some mystical level and present, even if I can't know it!

So this blog is about how to wrestle with consumerism from a Catholic point of view.  If you are Catholic and care about creation and want to live your life like you actually did care about God and the consequences of your lifestyle, then you may be interested!