I can’t decide if I want to see Food, Inc., or if it will just send me totally off the grid.

As the whirlwind of my life seems to be calming down a little, oh how I find I miss blogging! I’m back, but sage is going to be a different place. Less reposting deals from other sites, more ‘Holy crap how do I deal with this economy with six mouths to feed?’, less round-up of crafts I want to do, and more what I’m actually doing. (Read: more mommyblogging) Please join me!

What have I been up to for the last three months?

• Physical therapy for the little guys, who aren’t quite walking yet but will be soon. They’ll be 15 months tomorrow.
• Lots of projects and cooking with the big brother.
• Mostly, marriage repair, a category I’ve never excelled at but that we desperately need after 12 intense years, two cross country moves, countless job changes, and four kids.
• Uncabling! We are an AppleTV and DVDs from the library household now, and couldn’t be happier.
• Trying to budget, finally, after living for years like just hunting for bargains would be enough.
• Tons of cooking, especially the once-fearful whole chickens.

I don’t know how often I’ll blog. I don’t know if I’ll always be on topic. But I really miss writing, so write I will.

No matter how busy my life has been, I’ve always had the time to post before. This past week, not so much, and this week doesn’t look much more promising. I love blogging, so this is definitely not the end, but until we finally emerge from cold and flu season, posting might continue to be irregular.

As usual, this isn’t sad news, it means that I’m so busy *doing* that I don’t always have time to chronicle it, and there haven’t been any deals so fantastic that they’ve garnered their own posts, or I would have posted them. I did manage to get a BeCentsAble post up this week.

Quick links…

• A new set of printable coupons for organic and natural items! I’m printing the Organic Valley on every computer I can find, we go through a lot of dairy products around here and even moreso when we switch to whole milk with the little boys in TWO WEEKS!
• Pretty soon there will be Terracycle drop offs in Home Depot and other big box stores. All of my saved up Luna Bar wrappers will finally have a place to go
• Crafting a Green World has some quick sewing patterns (cloth napkins and more) to help you ditch the disposables.

I have a lot of links and good stuff for sage reads this week, but it’ll post tomorrow so we can focus on the CPSIA today.

Despite massive crafter and consumer outcry, as well as that of resale and thrift stores and even public libraries, it looks like the CPSIA (Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act) is going to go into effect, and soon. One of the first lessons you learn when being trained in public policy is to consider the unintended consequences of whatever you are advocating for, since change never happens in a vacuum. With CPSIA, all products intended for children under 12 years of age will be required to have third party testing for lead and phthalates. However, the act does not have any exceptions for items that, by their nature, wouldn’t have even a trace of lead. Like, you know, cute handmade kids’ clothing. Natural wooden toys, library books, and stuffed animals will all require expensive third party testing.

So clearly this is bad news, bad news that isn’t going away.

Etsy as an action kit (PDF) you can download, but I’ll make it easy for you. Call your member of Congress. The Capitol switchboard is 202-224-3121, just ask for their office. (If you don’t know who that is, find out.) Don’t worry, they won’t actually answer the phone. An eager 23 year old staffer will, though, so please tell them that you are a constituent — they’ll probably ask for your name and address — and you’d like to see a delay in the implementation of the CPSIA to consider exemptions for one of a kind items and those made with natural materials.

It will take you two minutes or less to do this, and no one really bothers to call Washington about anything, so when a member of Congress gets even five messages about the same issue? They take notice. Why should you believe me? Remember, this is what I actually do for a living!

I’ll get off my soapbox now

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So, how was your weekend?

So much chicken!

Sunday: Mac and cheese with chicken, kale, and white beans (actually constructed from leftover and not too bad!)

Monday: I’ve got chicken, tomatoes, and green beans in the slow cooker with a lot of garlic. Will finish off with some feta cheese at the end and make some rice pilaf. It smells awesome!

Tuesday: Grilled pesto chicken and polenta

Wednesday: Out? Take out? Mama needs a break

Thursday: Pierogies with turkey kielbasa, onions, and sour cream

Friday: Almond chicken (this is a family favorite — very easy and very tasty — see the original Martha Stewart recipe below) and sweet potato fries

Saturday: Pizza night!

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ALMOND CRUSTED CHICKEN
Serves 4
3/4  cup dry breadcrumbs
Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper
1 1/2 cups sliced almonds, broken into pieces
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons water
2 whole boneless skinless chicken breasts
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 tablespoons canola oil

1. Preheat oven to 400º. Place breadcrumbs in a medium bowl, and season with salt and pepper. Place almonds in a separate bowl, and set aside. Place eggs in a small bowl with 2 teaspoons water, and beat lightly. Dip chicken in egg mixture, wiping away excess with your fingers, and dip in breadcrumb mixture. Dredge until lightly coated. Dip in egg again, and then coat thoroughly with almonds.

2. Heat butter and oil in a 12-inch ovenproof skillet over medium heat. Sauté chicken until nicely browned, about 3 minutes, and turn over. Cook 1 minute more; then transfer pan to oven, and bake until chicken is cooked through, about 10 minutes.

I know, I’ve been kind of a lazy blogger lately. I got swept away with the holidays, school break, illnesses and teething. It’s not going to get any easier, as I’m picking up an additional day at the office as of this month, and I have also resolved that this year is the year of *being* rather than *doing* after 11, yes 11, years where we have had one form of major upheaval or another in a row (new jobs, babies, 1000-mile moves, dot-com bust, graduate school, and more). I can list them all out for you if you don’t believe me!

Here’s what else we’ve been up to, sagely…

• The wonderful JessTrev’s comment reminded me that I too had endured a hassle of a process to transfer an Rx to Walgreens to obtain my $25 gift card, but obtain it I did and now I’m waiting for some good deals to roll in so that I can see how far I can stretch it! (And this week at Target you can get a $10 GC for a transferred or NEW Rx. Much less hassle with a brand new one, I assume…)

• Like everyone else, I’m super confused about what is going on with homemade and second-hand goods in relation to the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (the “CPSIA”). And remember, I am a government affairs professional by trade, so if I’m not getting it, I can only imagine how inscrutable it is for those of you with no experience with the federal government. When there is clarity, I hope to be able to pass it along.

• I’m suddenly obsessed with obtaining pieces of my great grandmother’s china. I have a covered serving dish and a few dessert plates and a few other family members have some other odd items. I think I would ultimately like enough that I could serve dinner to my immediate family occasionally, when my boys are old enough not to be a complete risk for breaking anything.

• I’m planning two birthday parties for March (how did this happen so quickly???), looking for a beach rental back home for August, and starting the hunt for daycare in the fall, all with an eye to making the best choices for our family while minding our budget and the earth, too. It’s a tall order sometimes, but that’s why we start early.

• Twittering! I just started yesterday, so join me for deals when I find them and other ramblings.

• Someone please send me their old sippy cups so that we can find one these boys will use without buying out a plastic factory in the meantime! I want to be done with bottles ASAP! What I might be done with, amazingly enough, is buying formula. We have a bit of a stockpile and the little boys are eating more and more solid food each day, so my days of chasing Earth’s Best coupons and having to go to the store constantly might finally be coming to an end. Anything that gives me more time with these guys and less time with a shopping cart is good in my book!

We’ve had a little bit of a crazy time!

There’s been a nasty but quick stomach bug going around that seems to have a long incubation period so it’s made a few stops in our house. After P and then my husband had it and a week went by, I thought we were in the clear, but Thursday it was Baby A, Friday it was me, and this morning Baby R was the latest victim. Baby E’s the only hold out, so we’ll see what happens…

Add to that a pile or three of snow, snow day and school closed now for the holidays, the start of Hanukkah, a million teacher gifts to buy, and a huge flood of comment spam that had me closing down comments and deleting several hundred more (!), and I’ve gotten a little bit behind. Luckily, we’re all on the mend, the latkes have been eaten, the coupons have been reallocated to those who wanted them, and hopefully this week will go a little smoothly than last. Sorry for the interruption and let me pass on one quick deal:

Gaiam has 4-pack of Seventh Generation Stage 6 (35+ lbs) chlorine-free diapers for $40. Add them to your cart, and apply coupon CSFFX to get them for $17 + $6 S/H = $23.

That’s 104 Size 6 diapers for $23! Unfortunately, it’s Size 6 only, but I’m sure it will help someone out. Back with more tomorrow!

Lots of stuff, make sure to read all the way down…

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You know why I’m participating in MPM so much these days? It helps me write my shopping list at my desk at work. I just look up this post on Google Reader and I’m good to go

Sunday - Pizza night, a few days late!

Monday - Baked Potato bar

Tuesday - Queso burritos (from the Whole Foods rotisserie chicken sale, of course)

Wednesday - Tater tot casserole (with homemade cream of mushroom, so hopefully it won’t be too scary. This is the first time I’m trying this, so we’ll see how it turns out!)

Thursday - Pasta with beans and greens

Friday - Take-out. P will be at MIL’s, so we’ll put the babies to bed and enjoy a quiet dinner.

Saturday - Chicken chili

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Also on my shopping list, a FREE Happy Bites Organic Toddler Meal! PDF coupon via Attention Target Shoppers, but since we have no Super Targets in my entire state (boo!), I’ll be getting mine at Whole Foods. Note the expiration date (12/21/08) and get yours this week, too.

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I have a pile of coupons (well, three piles, actually) for Seventh Generation cleaners, diapers, paper products, and some other natural/organic household and baby misc that I will be posting tomorrow. The catch is that they expire 12/31/08, but I know someone will get some use out of them.

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Totally unrelated question: I cut up a few of my husband’s old plain white t-shirts to knit some dish scrubbers, and was pretty excited by the results and how fast I could knit them up. I made two today, while hanging out with the little boys and doing the last of the holiday packing and card writing, so I think they averaged less than an hour a piece! Does anyone know a resource for cutting the shirts more efficiently? That took me a lot of time and came out uneven (in a bad way) in a few too many places.

Look! My doll sitch is on ohdeeoh!

The comments have me thinking I could get him the identical plastic dolls he wants but then maybe go the more sage route for the accessories. I’m not even certain he realized any of the stuff on the box came with the dolls, honestly. Very helpful!

sage finds will be up early tomorrow.