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Finding peace within the big waves of life. Video taken on land tended by the Pomo peoples along the Pacific Ocean in Northern CA.

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Extra cardboard from Christmas?? You can kill grass and plant something new!

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Extra cardboard from Christmas?? You can kill grass and plant something new!

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You can also put it directly over your grass and plant an alternative to grass that requires less mowing and is probably better for the soil!

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Sheet mulching with cardboard  #gardeningtips #sheetmulching #mulching #healthysoil #nativeplants

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1. Look for opportunities to mulch or compost your tree! Many community centers will host events to take your tree off your hands!

2. Create coasters out of the trunk

3. Use pine needles in Simmer Pot (below) or save for scent

4. Create a bird habitat by leaving it your back yard and putting up bird feeders/ DIY some pinecone and PB feeders

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Ingredients

Water

1/2 bag cranberries

1 Tsp Vanilla Extract

2 cinnamon sticks

1 orange/cutie, sliced

Rosemary/Christmas tree needles

Instructions

Stick everything in a pot with water and let simmer on the stove or in a Crock pot! It will make your home smell wonderful. You can also experiment with how much you want of each ingredient- more cranberries for sweetness, rosemary/pine for sharper smell, more cinnamon for a spicier scent, etc.

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This recipe was in House Beautiful magazine featuring an excerpt from a cookbook written by Pamela Anderson. She is not famous for cooking, but this recipe is outstanding. I modified it a little and get rave reviews. It will go well with Baird’s mocktails.

Vegan Artichoke Dip

Here are my changes:

1. I skipped both the overnight and 1-hour soaks. Instead I covered the cashews in boiling water and microwaved them at full power for 8.5 minutes. Every microwave is different, so start with 5.

2. I cut the onion in half, thinly sliced it, and then caramelized it.

3. When the onions were almost done, I added 1 lb. fresh spinach.

4. I used roasted garlic.

5. I didn’t add lemon at the end.

6. I used avocado mayonnaise.

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Festive Mocktail Recipes! (thanks Baird!)

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Festive Mocktail Recipes! (thanks Baird!)

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Orchid Thief (Easy)

1 oz orange juice

2 oz club soda

5 drops vanilla or vanilla extract

Shake orange juice and vanilla together with ice, strain into a chilled coup glass, and top with cold club soda. Tastes like a creamsicle!

Non-Alcoholic French 75 (more investment)

1/2 oz lemon juice

2 oz club soda

1 oz tonic water

1 oz Sweet-Bay Peppercorn Shrub*

Lemon Twist

Shake lemon juice and shrub in ice-filled shaker, pour into a chilled coup, top with club soda, tonic water, and lemon twist.

* Shrubs are flavor-packed mixers which are generally non-alcoholic. Most liquor stores will have options—look for something with citrus and herb flavors—or you can make your own with this recipe (feel free to cut in half)

5 medium lemons, peeled, fruit reserved

1 small grapefruit, peeled, fruit reserved

1 1/4 cups granulated sugar

1 1/2 tsp ground black peppercorns

1 tsp flaky sea salt

3 sprigs of thyme

3 cloves, crushed

2 bay leaves

In a medium bowl or large jar, add citrus peels, sugar, peppercorns, salt, thyme, cloves and bay leaves.

Muddle (crush with a muddler or the end of a mixing spoon), making sure the sugar is worked into the peels and the peels express their oils and start to get flattened out. Set aside at room temperature for six hours or overnight. The sugar should be mostly dissolved.

Juice the reserved fruit and add to the mixture after it’s set. Stir to dissolve sugar and salt, strain through a fine mesh strainer or a few layers of cheesecloth, press the solids to get the last juice out, and store in an airtight container.

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[Take Note & try to replicate for your 2025 - make one for your context!]

Advent Calendar, written by Janet Cooper, a member at All Saints Lutheran in Blue Springs, Missouri.  Each day is dedicated to a creature or plant that lives in the diverse ecosystems of Missouri, and her reflections help build relationships and understanding about the interconnections of all life. It is a fresh and delightful way to reflect during Advent, and Janet gave me permission to share it with all of you. In addition to the written reflections, a calendar of pictures for each day provides a visual connection as well.

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Just imagine all the ways life is connected that we haven't happened to discover yet!

-- Sent via Phoebe from her daughter, Thea 😁

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Timothy Snyder compiles short thoughts on resisting tyranny. #15 makes the point that we're part of a network of helping organizations that like "a thousand points of light, are best seen, like stars at dusk, against a darkening sky." Choosing where we spend our time, energy, money and conversation, even when not overtly political, is an act of trust in other humans and creates a "civil society."

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From our Board Treasurer, Eleanor Tunney.

"This is the fountain at the DeQuattro Cancer Center in Manchester, CT where I sometimes meditate between appointments."

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Thanks to Rev. Christyn Koschmann

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Psalm 104 (Lutherans Restoring Creation Earth Day Worship)

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This whole album is phenomenal but this song might be my favorite of the year. It’s very poetic and vibe-y and about life and all that good stuff through the metaphor of surfing. Good one to listen to with a cup of tea and a sunrise/set.

https://open.spotify.com/track/7if42bWRZ9x0xofHy4EMtV?si=1T2iNYBiTd-QDwrq-1vlJg&context=spotify%3Aalbum%3A0db5o1FtmNXhIfxi3gXs51

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The simple pleasure of being in nature, present in the place and the moment, grateful for all those who have helped sustain beauty and abundance in the world around us. Let us be good stewards, too, on behalf of those who come after us.

--Henry

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Thanks to Larry Erickson for sharing FREE access to this material. Who in your life speaks this language and can keep sharing it with those who work and steward the field of the energy economy? www.routledge.com/9781032499413

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Excerpt from Refugio Faith by Debra Rienstra

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I got to hear from the author of this amazing book, Deb Rienstra during the 2024 BTS Convocation (which LRC supported as a partner - see/hear more here).

Refugia is a term used in ecology referring to amazing examples of life re-emerging out out disasters such as volcanic explosions because there were small areas of life which held on. The concept of Refugia Faith first struck me as potentially isolationist and I worried that we may all start sinking into a fear of caring only for "our own". However, the voices and examples of how we can learn from nature's exemplars of resiliency helped me see our particular work with LRC as critical even amidst systematic and economically powerful evils. Lifting up and leveraging each other's learnings doesn't just make us feel good - it works - in the long run.

Phoebe