Video about global warming

This guy is kind of funny the way he argues with himself about global warming:

Danged grocery store turkeys! And Preschool is going well!

OK, so for Thanksgiving, I cooked everything we ate from scratch. I made my own stuffing using mushrooms, chopped pecans, onions, and a bit of homemade chicken broth. I made mashed "faux-tatoes" using cauliflower. I made mashed sweet potatoes with coconut milk in place of the sour cream I used to use (because sour cream gives me migraines now). I made pumpkin pie using coconut milk in place of the evaporated milk and agave nectar, maple syrup, and smidgen of Sucanat in place of the sugar with no crush at all -- just used an oven-proof glass pie plate. (no, I don't think it was Pyrex brand, I think it was Anchor Hocking, and they do call it glass, Stacy, just ovenware). It used to be borosilicate glass, but apparently they have changed it and use lime now. I made roasted Brussels sprouts with olive oil on them. I also made dh some nasty boxed stuffing loaded with MSG (but didn't eat even a tiny amount of it -- I don't even like stuffing made from bread anymore anyway, it tastes like soggy bread to me -- which in fact it is, LOL). It took me quite a while. Oh, and I made homemade cranberry sauce using the same combination of sweeteners.

So I should not have ended up with a migraine. And the first day, I was fine. It was the second day it started to kick in, and I can only conclude it was the grocery store turkey breast I bought because I was in too much of a rush to go to the health food store to buy one that wasn't injected with an MSG-laced "solution." Big mistake. I should know by now that if I eat any meat that has been processed in anyway by a mainstream manufacturer (ham, lunch meat, ground or whole turkey, etc.) that I will end up with a migraine headache. They should have to put a big warning label, "Contains MSG" on these things, but they get to hide it as "broth" or "flavor" instead. Ugh! Anyway, after a ton of magnesium and some Petadolex and green tea, I got better, but never again.

I had gone to the supermarket for something totally unrelated, now I know I have to be super careful and plan these things out better. It's partially because I agreed to take someone else's day for preschool on Wednesday, and partially because I took a first aid class Tuesday evening. I just have so much less free time with ds in preschool -- who knew?

Preschool news!
Speaking of preschool, C is definitely doing well in school and enjoying it. He really craves time with other kids, and we just don't get that all that much on our own. Not with the same kids consistently enough, anyway. His friend A and he used to get together fairly regularly, but it was becoming less and less with her in school. Now he gets to see her at least those three days a week, plus often another day or on the weekend. He also sometimes visits the kids downstairs, but they often eat dinner at 7:30 or 8, right when he's ready to go down there. They are from India, and have kept the tradition of a later dinner (which they call supper, I think). His other neighbor friend, E, is in Kindergarten, and is in both before- and after-school programs because his mom works full time and his dad, who also works full time but has earlier hours, rides his bike to work (about two blocks away) and couldn't pick him up from school. And now that he's in school and going so early with his mom, he has to go to bed at 8 PM. So we generally only see him on weekends.

Being an only child, C has a constant desire to be around other kids (or maybe it's just being my kid), so school is really the only way he can get that. We've tried homeschool groups, but they meet irregularly and are never the same kids twice. It's just not worked for us. Plus, to be honest, when it's just the two of us, we don't do much. I get drawn into the computer, and C gets sucked into his DVDs, and the whole day will go by without our interacting. Now at least we interact a bit more when we are getting ready and when we are on our way to school and on our way home. C has been learning more -- he sometimes recognizes words, can count at least to 30, and we read more when we're at home so we're both learning more about insects, among other things (we have several books about them). I didn't realize that dragonflies went through incomplete metamorphosis, for example. Or even that there was an incomplete metamorphosis, for that matter. Pretty cool.

Also, I'm now able to go shopping without ds -- while he's at preschool. Before that, if I tried to leave him with dh or a friend, he would freak out and cling to me. He doesn't do that at school. He does sometimes cry a bit, but he gets over it and is fine. He still won't stay home with dh, even after being able to stay at school, so I know it's not a permanent change. He accepts the rules at school, but at home, with us he sort of is in charge, which I know isn't good but it's the way it's gotten to be.

Anyway, I again say that I will not buy another grocery store turkey as long as I live!

This is so nice

Sesame Street needs to go back to its roots:

What is an offensive breast?

I enjoyed reading this post about how showing a breast being used to feed a baby is considered obscene, but using it to sell a product is not. I wanted to add that usually the non-offensive breasts are on waif-thin, Photoshop-retouched models. And that usually you don't see the nipple (although of course you don't usually see the nipple while a woman is breastfeeding, unless her baby pops off to take a peek around). The magazines aren't usually the same type, however. Parents or Baby Talk or whatever are targeted at mothers -- so you'd think showing a breast doing what it was made to do, feed a baby, wouldn't be that big a deal.
If you are in San Francisco, you can show your breasts in public as long as your nipples are not exposed (you can put bandaids on them, or electrical tape, and be legal because you are concealing that they are in fact breasts not just round blobs). I know from experience, you might say. Anyway, all this is to say that humans are trying to deny that we are mammals, and that women's breasts are made to feed babies, and that babies are meant to drink from them. We aren't birds, for goodness sake! Actually, even pigeons and many other birds feed their babies with food they first consume, at least. Not taking milk from another species and processing it until it's an imitation of the real thing.
Maybe humans are trying to create a new offshoot of the mammal order (or whatever the grouping is called)? Maybe there will be a new species that no longer bears live young, breastfeeds, or has hair? It will be used exclusively for pornography, modeling, and other aesthetic uses. They can all live in cities and live in condos.
Brilliant!

Ack! Today is Blog Action Day!

I am so busy today, I don't think I'll have time to do a real post that would do justice to what I feel is important. I have always felt that our environment is in need of our attention. That we have to take care of it so that it will take care of us. That around the world, people, especially women, already are doing what we can to heal our planet and protect our land for future generations. Here are some cool links in lieu of a more eloquent post: Transformational Prayer
Fifth World
Healing Mother Earth
Chipko Movement

And of course there is my friend Chasmyn's wonderful post.

Blog Action Day Monday

If you have time, please drop by the Blog Action Day website and see what you can do for the environment, particularly if you have a blog.

Walking Daddy Blues

This is funny:

Boy remembers living on Mars

OK, so this is pretty far out, but I thought it was interesting.

http://english.pravda.ru/science/19/94/377/12257_Martian.html

Socialization

Just wanted to post this link right quick on an article about socialization. Very interesting.

Breastfeeding in public (warning offensive content)

I loved this post about breastfeeding in public and how it's viewed.

Purslane Recipes

Purslane, which is considered a weed by most people, is very nutritious. It's high in omega 3 fatty acids, including ALA, and is also high in beta carotene. It kind of tastes like oxalis, another weed. Here are some links to recipes for it:
Purslane
Purslane Recipes

Hidden Names for MSG you might not know about

I have a real problem with MSG -- it often causes me to have a nasty headache/migraine. I read labels, but it's often hard to tell if something has MSG in it, so I often just make my own stuff. From this website, here is a list of some of the ingredients that have MSG in them:

MSG Gelatin Calcium Caseinate
Monosodium glutamate Hydrolyzed Vegetable Protein (HVP)
Textured Protein Monopotassium glutamate
Hydrolyzed Plant Protein (HPP) Yeast Extract
Glutamate Autolyzed Plant Protein Yeast food or nutrient
Glutamic Acid Sodium Caseinate Autolyzed Yeast

Imagine that? I knew most of these already, but there are others, farther down on the page, that I hadn't known about -- rice syrup for one. Pectin and gums, which I was avoiding for awhile, seem to also often contain MSG. What I wonder is, what about nutritional yeast they sell in the bulk bins? I would bet that has it in it, too. Too bad, because it's a good natural source of B vitamins.

Yurt

I wish I had a yard, I'd build one of these!

Unschooling -- Free At Last?

Say what you will about Abraham-Hicks, they are pretty well spoken about the difference between learning and schooling. Here is a clip from their article:

Abraham: The kinds of things they said to you were, "We thought it was going to be a whole lot more fun. We thought we were going to get to do more of what we wanted to do, and we thought we were going to get to choose." And that's the way you felt when you were born, you thought you were going to get to choose, that was the bargain.

And then somebody else says, "Well, here you are, and you don't get to choose. You don't get to choose where you sit, or when you come, or how long you sit there, and you don't get to choose what we think about. You don't get to choose when you talk, and you don't get to choose what we talk about. In other words, you are not free, you are our captives. And we are here to assert good stuff into you."

And they say, "Ah, give me a break! That's not what the bargain was. I came understanding that I am a creator. I came knowing that I get to choose." It takes years to beat that out of them. It takes years and years before they are willing to sit there and be quiet and do only what is supposed to be done when it is supposed to be done. It takes a long time to conform you into your unhappiness.

Universal Preschool?

This article basically says that schools are tools of indoctrination and standardization, and that they serve to remove children from the family. And that daycare/preschool is doing it at an earlier and earlier age. I think this is interesting, and probably true for the most part, but how do you survive outside the system? Read more of the Confessions of a Bottom Feeder article, I guess.
I was thinking of enrolling C in a co-op preschool, which is run with one teacher and the parents take turns helping out, one day out of three per week. Well, the afternoon class filled up, and neither one of us is a morning person (C slept until 10 am today, for example, and usually sleeps until at least 9). Mind you, he used to get up at 7, but that was when he was falling asleep at 7:30, something that hasn't been consistent for about a year. He doesn't settle down easily, and neither do I. I have a really hard time getting it together to get him in bed earlier than 9:30, for some reason. Time in the evening just slips away, and suddenly it'll be 10:00 and we're just getting in our jammies.
Anyway, about the school -- on the one hand, I was wanting him to have a chance to play with other kids regularly without having to drive all over creation for play dates. On the other hand, the concept of school scares me, particularly with how active C is. I worry, though, that we're not covering things that we should just because I am really bad about spending a lot of time on the computer while C watches videos from the library. I don't spend a whole lot of time talking with him, even when I'm not on the computer, because I tend to space out a lot, and worry a lot, which I hated my mom to do and now I'm doing the same. Argh!
Anyway, I understand that people are worried about preschool separating kids from their parents -- however, I think people forget that most kids already are separated from their parents most of the day, often starting at a few weeks old, in daycares.

There's a kid in our apartment complex that we have gotten to know who spends probably 9-10 hours per day at Kindercare. I don't know how this is any better than a public preschool. His parents talk about how smart he is, how much he's learned there (he's 5 and knows how to add and his letters, and some words). And how great it is that in his all day kindergarten that he's starting (a Catholic one), he will be learning social studies, science, math, and reading, among other things. In Kindergarten! This kid will also be in the before- and after-school programs there, so he will be there on the campus of the school most of his day. He gets up at 6 am to get ready for school, and doesn't get home until probably around 6 pm. He goes to bed at 8 pm. So he's with his parents probably less than three hours, much of which is taken up with getting ready for school, getting there, getting home, getting ready for bed, eating dinner, etc. Needless to say, we don't think we'll see much of him except on weekends (and Sunday is for Church).
I don't know what my point was. Just that kids are already mostly separated from their parents most of the day, with or without public preschool. Making it mandatory, however, does really seem wrong. I think even Kindergarten should be optional. It is here -- you don't have to file a "declaration of intent" to homeschool, or any paperwork, until your child turns 8, which usually happens in second grade. That is, unless your child has been in school before, then I think it starts in kindergarten.

Confessions of a Bottom Feeder

Excerpting from an interesting, kind of entertaining, article here

Many modern city dwellers survive perfectly well without a 'regular job.' We live like millionaires but would be hard put to tell you what our true career is. We survive on air. And no, we are not the crazy homeless you see rooting in trashcans. We live in picturesque, old homes with huge, jungley gardens. Not all are rented homes; many are owned, bought with land contracts (monthly payments to old owner) or those new poverty-sector Fannie Mae loans with a low downpayment and no proof of earnings or good credit, only proof of high, past rent paid by showing canceled checks.

How do we afford homes when we don't have 'regular' jobs? Well, I didn't say we don't WORK. We are well-paid for freelance work as artists, healers, mystics, organic gardeners or party caterers. We just never work 40-hour-a-week jobs hoeing other people's row--not unless we love the work; then we happily put in 80 hours.

Job-free people are easy to spot. We drive to mountain and beach on week-days--in old cars it's true--but with a proud smile because we're glad to be in the .0005% of the populace of the planet who own cars. We brake for trashcans in alleys and garage sales, because that's how we furnish our homes. We know that your second-hand, leftover stuff is as good as our firsthand. So we earned our nickname. We are bottom feeders.

Bottom feeders don't make a good living but we have a great life! We have the dollars for rent and utility money and the leftover change is for brown rice and tofu. We're into quality abundance in things other than cash: Gardens, sun, creativity, art... All we need is just enough income to get by. Often, we 'get by' with the help of our friends. Friends sleep on our couches and kick in rent and food. And in hard times, friends lend us their couches and we do the kicking in.

BFers don't have savings accounts; we have 'mattress money.' We don't have regular jobs; we have cottage industries, home businesses. True, we don't make as much as you do in your highly paid drone work, but look on the bright side, our money's all our own. We don't have FICA deductions, pension fund, Social Security deductions and we don't pay taxes. We don't have costly HMO's but not to worry. We don't have high blood pressure either.

We may be forgoing Social Security and Medicare coverage at the end of our lives because we expect--as Clinton predicts, that there will be no Social Security or Medicare by then. Not for you, not for anyone. BFers don't count on Uncle Sam or on pensions. We have learned secret techniques of Surviving on a Nickel that give creativity, earnings and bliss, and bliss is such a super vitamin that we expect to live forever.

Bottom feeders enjoy sunny days at home doing textured wall-painting or digging carrot rows in the yard, or sweating in their ateliers as much as you yuppies enjoy your caffe lattes, Beamers, IRA's and airless, gleaming, monochrome condo-sealed tombs scented with all the formaldehyde in those spanking new plywood boards.

What are the secrets of this mysterious tribe who listens for their own drumbeat and happily live at the bottom of the food chain? What are their methods of achieving a viable lifestyle in Post-Reagan times using advanced Trickle-Down theory?

BFers are often outdoors. They are a fresh-air lot. They have suntans, smile a lot and have no visible means of support. You'll find them unloading a picnic basket in the parking lot at a public park on a week-day. They carry thrift store tennis rackets, drive old Volvos, VWs or 4 cylinder Japanese cars from the early 80's. Look in the picnic hamper. It's full of SALAD. Bottom feeders are frequently vegetarian, recognizing that cows must know how much good protein is in greens, hence they have ruddy complexions and never NEED medical coverage. Their cuts and gashes actually heal without stitches, as they have amazing immune systems.

mmm, spicy peanut sauce

OK, so I haven't actually made this particular version, but when I found it, I was glad. I used to love spicy peanut sauce, but usually it's made with soy sauce, which doesn't work for me. This recipe has you use either soy sauce or salt! Cool! I do have some wheat free tamari that I use sometimes, but it's the soy that's the issue for me. Guess I had too much of it for too long or something. I like it also that they have a sweet version, which would appeal to C, since he doesn't like anything spicy.

Captain Dave's Survival Store

Just in case you were wanting to know how to survive various types of disasters, Captain Dave's has lots of stuff..

Laughing Baby

This is funny -- the baby laughs like an old man! I have a feeling the baby was an old man in a previous life...

Lots of birthdays

Two of the kids in one of the playgroups we regularly hang out with had birthdays over the weekend -- both girls, both turning two. And both moms are pregnant, and due with their third babies in the spring (one of them was planned, one unplanned and unexpected because the mom had had to use IVF for her previous pregnancy). We went to a birthday party at Gymboree on Saturday, and the other party was just a playgroup this morning. What fun! And just last week we went to another one for another little boy turning two, and we have invites for one dad's birthday party and at least one other toddler turning two.

Whew! It's hard to keep up with all this. I'm thinking I have got to start learning a craft just so I don't have to got to Half Price Books and look for a nice-looking book so often (some of them we've just regifted some of of C's old books, but we are running out of toddler books of his that are in good condition). I get so jealous, too of all the moms I know who are pregnant (three at least).

However, I have met one other mom who has only one and will not be able to have another (not only does she have PCOS, but she also has *two* blood clotting disorders). Her son is almost a year older than C, but he's about the same size. He's in daycare all day, so we only see him in the evening and on weekends. Things go fine as long as either we are outside or at the other boy's home, but if we're here, C gets all possessive of his toys and mad about the other boy having fun with them. I hope he learns to share better soon. I don't like the way he gets all bent out of shape about it. He went and closed himself in his room about it last night. Bleh!