Spark Joy: An Illustrated Master Class on the Art of Organizing and Tidying Up

February 26, 2016

...he illustrations are Japanese-cute line drawings. It doesn’t look like any cleaning or organization book I’ve ever seen, and that is what makes it special. Kondo understands that tidying is a spiritual activity, not an organizational activity. The same week we got this book, we also had a library book out about home organization. Erik had grabbed it off the new book shelf at the library without looking at it until we got home. It shall remain name...

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Kelly Update and a Great Podcast

Mr. Homegrown

December 9, 2016

Domesticus

7 Comments

...s this blog focuses on do not get counted by economists. All that cooking, cleaning, gardening, child and elder care count not one bit towards the sorts of calculations economists obsess over such as gross domestic product and the Dow Jones Industrial Average. This is particularly unfair to women who tend to be more responsible for what happens in the home. And let’s not even get into the ethical difficulties of placing a dollar value on human bei...

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Happy May Day! Boycott Amazon, Whole Foods Target and Instacart

Mr. Homegrown

May 1, 2020

Thoughtstylings

3 Comments

...ons by supporting Amazon, Whole Foods, Target and Instacart workers and not crossing their picket line. Workers at these dystopian corporations are walking out during their lunch break to ask for protective equipment, hazard pay, paid sick leave, cleaning supplies and contact tracing. Chris Smalls, a former Amazon worker fired from his job for complaining about conditions tweeted, “It’s time to join up! Protect all workers at all cost we are not e...

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How to Deal With the Dreaded Pantry Moth

Mr. Homegrown

October 15, 2020

Animals, Insects

5 Comments

...tation as well as reduce the population, but they are not a substitute for cleaning and putting things in jars. Incidentally, what we call “pantry moths” encompass a variety of different insects with colorful names such as the Drugstore Beetle, and the Confused Flour Beetle. All these bug-a-boos just love post-agricultural human habits of storin’ up food. Like cats, roaches and mice they’re with us until we devolve away from our agricultural ways,...

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Jas. Townsend’s 18th Century Cooking

Mr. Homegrown

December 19, 2016

Fermentation, Food, Food Preservation, Recipes

16 Comments

...te Townsend’s well researched videos. You can tell he’s having a good time making them too. Kelly wanted me to highlight the portable soup video I embedded above. And note that it’s just one of four videos on portable soup! There’s also a fascinating series on 18th century breads. If Townsend’s video output isn’t enough for you he’s got a website containing the recipes and videos called Savoring the Past. Does Townsend sleep? I’m glad he doesn’t b...

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