Deflation, Advocacy, & Silver-Linings

Waiting on the results of America’s (the world’s, the environment’s) future is a twisted knot of expectation, like wondering when this Grandma-gifted Halloween water balloon is finally going to degrade enough to pop.

The disappointment in what’s available however, is present and palpable. With so many mail-in ballots, we knew the results would take awhile to count, but to see such a vast amount of folks vote for a soul who spews so much hateful rhetoric is a gutting that withers us all right on down to Q.

The night before the election, he had wondered aloud, “How can anyone even like Trump? He’s such bad energy! All he puts out is bad energy!” (<—GOOD QUESTION), and this morning he said with a deflation that bellies his age, “I just don’t understand it. Can’t they see how mean he is? Do they not care about the environment at all?! How can people not care about the earth? And what does this mean for David?”

In the myopic heart-realm, we have people we love dearly who are seeing their rights rolled back due to backwards/prejudiced thinking.

In the much bigger picture: our environment cannot withstand another 4 years of the Republican party’s harmful environmental policies. In his first 4 years, Trump rolled back 125 environmental safeguards… and this is when we are poised to fall into environmental catastrophe if we don’t start working toward sustainability.

So you can spare me your wind and pearl-clutching about platform pickpoints. There are MUCH bigger issues at hand: our officials are pillaging this earth for profit at the expense of our children’s futures (and that of every species on this planet).

We’re poised at a precipice where we are ruining our environment to the point of no return, NOW is the time to start working as hard as we can to push back against catastrophe, and what I see is a country so focused on hate that they’ll troll themselves to death & delight while the earth burns down around them.

Do we have the ability to wake up and grow forward? I sure hope so, as there is far too much at stake to continue on our current path.

Continue for: examples of what we’re eating (<— going Plant-Based is the biggest —and least expensive!— thing an individual can do to lessen their environmental footprint <— also happens to be the best way to bolster your health <—and your children’s); ways Q spread light in a week of funerals and birthdays; what made our hearts brighten in a whirl of withered will.

Live Kindly, Feast Kindly, Grow Forward.

We have a handy Switch4Good sticker on Q’s mini fridge that shows the healthiest way to feast, and for homeschool work this week he also colored in the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine’s food rainbow. Gave us a chance to discuss the many ways we diversify our microbiome and fill ourselves with nutrients.

One easy-breezy way to get a lot of fruit and fiber into you: make a big batch of berry oatmeal that you can widdle away through the week. This one had the traditional blueberries, but also frozen black raspberries (saved from summer picking) and cherries.

Did you know molasses boasts a bounty of iron and calcium? I had no idea, until I watched this Dr Michael Greger video and then went down a rabbit hole reading all about this never-used-in-this-house sweetener.

So breakfast could be some health-harming/earth-ruining swill we know and love because we’ve eaten it for eons despite the harms, or it could be quick/nutritious/inexpensive health.

Here seen: oatmeal, banana, almond butter, and molasses.

What a rushed/leftover we-need-to-leave-soon-for-a-funeral lunch looks like: roasted (skin-on) red potatoes with sugar-free ketchup, black rice noodles with sugar-free peanut sauce, steamed garlicky green beans.

Taco/Tostada Tuesday Cub Edition

Lentils (cooked up like this), cashew queso, fresh greens, roasted corn, olives, and ruby kraut.


If you’re thinking, “My Goodness! They eat a lot of tacos!” we really love them, our days have been incredibly busy/packed (these are soooo quick to make), and it’s an easy way to get nutritious/plant-variant feasting into a 5 year old. <—No matter how many times he’s served a variant of this meal, he still exclaims “YESSSssSSSsss!!!” with a beam from ear to ear.

Taco/Tostada Tuesday Mama Bear Edition: same thing as Q’s, but more like a big ol’ salad on top of tostadas (<— I eat this with a fork).

Plant-Based Whole-Food Comfort Food: Shepherd’s Pie made with our Cappello Mashed Potatoes, lentils, peas, braised carrots, and a PBWF mushroom gravy (<—I need to post that recipe soon, because we make it a lot and it is gone in a breath because it is deeply loved by all.)

Worried Plant-Based means leaving behind old favorites? You just need to have the open mind to new possibilities. Eating a meal like the above doesn’t leave you sitting around wailing about missed cow carcass, it leaves you licking your bowl clean and asking for another serving…all the while lowering your environmental impact and bettering your health.

Taking inspiration from Crystal, we used our delicata squash to make something like a pumpkin pie, but Ian named it “Delicata Cake”. We used our crust bar as a base, and the squash was roasted and then mixed with cashew cream and cinnamon/nutmeg.

How good is it?

j - Ian, do you want some delicata cake, and if so how big of a slice?

i - Yes, please! And something ambitious but reasonable.

I got a good belly-laugh out of that one. <3

Preparing to go into my Uncle Gary’s funeral in Oswego. Uncle Gary was a hardworking soul who reveled in the comfort of flannel, so Ian is sporting that shirt in solidarity and remembrance.

Q made a drawing for my sweet Aunt Sylvia’s card. Remembering that she (and Uncle Gary) worked tirelessly on their garden, he drew “Aunt Sylvia watering her plants and they’ve grown into the biggest flower she’s ever seen, and it is saying ‘Thank You!’ with hearts, and it’s making her heart happy again.”

We discussed the importance of the day, but he offered his condolences unprompted, and spent the first half of the service crying quietly in my lap “because [I] feel so sad for his family.”

And on the same day of that funeral, he also sent out some love to his cousin on her birthday. What’s going on in this? Ellie loves Harry Potter, so this is “Fawkes the phoenix wishing Ellie a Happy Birthday, and down in the water is a little garden eel just wiggling around.”

Heart-Lift: the ruffled hair of a boy the day after Halloween (<—stripping all the Beetlejuice green hairspray out of those wispy locks meant for a wild mane the next morning.)

Heart-Lift: the sheer joy of a polar bear cub thrilled as heck at the first snow.

Heart-Lift: the free joy of tickles and a father who loves as well as he guides.

What’s the most impactful thing you can do as an individual to help your kin, community, millions of species, and planet? Transition as plant-based as possible.🌎♥️

Why? Plant-Based foods are environmentally imperative 🌎. They also promote ideal health💪 (which takes stress off our overburdened health care system), are inexpensive🙌, delicious🤤, & compassionate. 💕  

Why imperative, though? 🤔We’re approaching (& have crossed) climate tipping points that will doom our kin & millions of other species. 😱📣Reducing/eliminating animal products is the *most impactful thing an individual can do* to prevent worse. 🌎🔥

Why? Animal Agriculture creates more emissions than the entire transportation sector combined, it’s tied to water waste/loss/pollution (<-- freshwater is our most precious resource💧), land loss/deforestation (<-- exacerbates climate change by reducing our ability to sequester carbon🔥🌎), ocean acidification (<-- FYI 50-85% of earth’s oxygen originates from oceanic plankton🌊) & vast species loss/extinction/suffering💔📣🌎

Plus, consuming animal products is tied to increased risk of cardiovascular disease❤️‍🩹, diabetes👎, cancer👎, and chronic disease👎; whereas Plant-Based feasting is linked to preventing/reversing some of our most common diseases (<— like cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and cancer); plus it promotes ideal health & robust strength (ie Olympians, Weightlifters, Endurance Athletes are thriving via PBWFs too). 🎉🙌♥️

What organizations are promoting plant-based diets for best health and environmental stability? National Institutes of Health,  Mayo Clinic, Yale, the United Nations, Harvard School of Health,  American Heart Association, American College of Cardiology, American Cancer Society, American Diabetes Association, The American Academy of Pediatrics, National Kidney Foundation, even the Parkinson’s Foundation.

We’re all overwhelmed in one way or another, but for the sake of our kin (and the millions of species we share this planet with) we need to start pivoting forward. As someone who once rarely ate green things & used to eat animal products at every meal, I can assure you that is possible, affordable, enjoyable, & purposeful to pivot Plant-Based. In fact, our whole family is now healthier/stronger than ever. 🙌♥️

Anecdotally, our son had failure-to-thrive, was also plagued with perpetual ear-infections/sinus-infections, and had an omnipresent runny nose. What was he eating? Grass-fed milk, organic/antibiotic-free/grass-fed/local meats, eggs from organic-fed/well-loved chickens from a neighbor, every meal came with vegetables, and we limited junkfood. He was healed via a plant-based diet: he’s launched out of that diagnosis and the last time he had a sinus-infection (or was sick at all) was in 2019 when he had some cheese at a school Christmas party. Before shifting to PBWF’s he was sick every month, and how he’s a robust, vital, thriving kiddo. 🙌🎉♥️

If you think any of the above sounds over-reached/absurd/impossible, please go read the links above. I understand the inclination to hackle-raise (<—because I was once totally there) but the science is clear: any step we make forward is imperative (<—and again “STEPS” is the focus. Don’t leap, just start making steps!). It’s as simple as starting with one meal a week and growing from there.💕

We have the ability (deliciously, healthfully, kindly, inexpensively) to *preserve/protect* the planet we share with millions of species & our kin. How are we going to use that power today?✌️🤟🖖