Living-Deliberately.com

I’ve seen these done several places…a few newspapers and People magazine…comparisons of various reusable bags available on the market. None of them included the BEST bag though so I’m writing my own about my favorite bag and why I think it’s better than the others. If a week’s groceries takes 10 bags (and that’s modest, because they usually double bag), that is 40-50 a month, or between 520 and 600 bags a year FOR ONE FAMILY. It’s nigh impossible to find enough recycling sources for that many bags and a sickening use of energy and waste production. So bring on the reusable bags!!!!

Chico Bags:

I saw these little cuties in the store the other night…seemed like a good option for throwing in my purse so I’d always have on hand, not unlike the Bummi Bag I used to carry for cloth diapers and wet spills when I had babies. They are cheap (5/each) and lightweight. The website says they make sure the China-production is fair labor/fair wage. They are nylon and can hold 20 lbs. Favorite selling point? Their small size when balled up. I think I’d use these in place of a baggie…but not a grocery bag.

Ecobags, offering The Green Bag: The Ecobags site offers several kinds of bags but for grocery bag purposes, I’ll focus on The Green Bag. It’s made from polypropylene and has a flat bottom. At just a couple of bucks a piece, they are cheap. I actually don’t trust the price….the adage, “you get what you pay for” comes to mind. I need durability!! This bag may be great for a jam… just getting a few things at the store and one’s available for an impulse buy at the check out stand; I may buy one knowing I’d use it at least a few more times. But given time to think about it, I think I’d rule this out as potential clutter, not being strong enough to go the distance.

Envirosax: Oooo!!! What a pretty site! And pretty bags too! My first reaction to these bags is that I wish the straps were longer! They’d make cute messenger bags (what I use for a side-carry purse)! They cost 8.50/bag and there are a few styles currently out of stock. I do wish it were a bit more obvious on the site what the product construction is, where it’s made, and how much they can carry. That bottom seam-design seems like it would strain. But these bags are going to speak to a certain kind of customer and more power to them!

Earth Totes:

Australian site offering organic cotton and hemp bags. Oy! Pretty cool….but alas, they are Australian and that intimidates me about ordering overseas. I would definitely look for their cool designs while in my health food store. And they DO have long enough handles to be side-carry. One thing….I think I’d use this as a typical tote and not as a grocery bag because they are too hippy-cool to gunk up weekly shopping.

The Use-Again Bag: So…full disclosure…my mom owns this venture. But I LOVE these bags and bein’ her kid doesn’t keep me from getting to talk about them! The are 100% American made. Come in great colors. Nylon…so they can be balled up, folded up, washed, dried, and they’ll still be great looking and lightweight. The handles are super strong (can hold up to 60lbs for those one-trippers out there!) and have hooks on the insides so they fit into the brackets that the store baggers use.

They are pretty, durable, compact, strong…they are the total package in reusable grocery bag design. And they aren’t expensive either…10/apiece and with durability that exceeds expectations. A supply of these bags will last and go the distance with families who buy a lot of groceries. We’ve used them for overnight travel totes, quick trips to the store (they fold small and fit in a purse easily), trips to bulk warehouses, and the get used every week for the regular grocery runs.

But whatever bag you use, make the switch away from plastic!! This is one way, we ALL can have an immediate impact on our environment…for the better!

Nasty Food Of the Month: Margarine

Image from bigoven.com

I don’t think I ever understood the appeal of margarine. Greasy and weird tasting… ick. It seemed weird to me that the stuff never aged, never grew mold. But there’s a lot of positive press for it, when research is spun to isolate one element and then create a product that addresses that one element, and then science enters in, and the audience already eats a host of non-foods anyway….

My instinct tells me that no matter what the latest research says, when faced between a real food and a non-food, my body will always know what to do better with the real food.

The book Nourishing Traditions, which honestly changed my food life more than any other book I’ve read on the subject, has this to say about the globby-perpetually-yellow- I-can’t-believe-people-eat-this-stuff…..

“Hydrongenation is the process that turns polyunsaturates, normally liquid at room temperature, into fats that are solid at room temperature–margarine and shortening. To produce them, manufacturers begin with the cheapest oils–soy, corn, cottonseed or canola, already rancid from the extraction process–and mix them with tiny metal particles–usually nickel oxide. The oil with it’s nickel catalyst is then subjected to hydrogen gas at a high pressure, hig-temperature reactor. Next, soap-like emuslifiers and starch are squeezed into the mixture to give it a better consistency; the oil is yet again subjected to high temperatures when it is steamed cleaned. This removes it’s unpleasant odor. Margarine’s natural color, an unappetizing grey, is removed by bleach. Dyes and strong flavors must then be added to make it resemble butter. Finally, the mixture is compressed and packaged in blocks or tubs and sold as a health food.”

from another page:

” Excess consumption of polyunsaturated oils has been shown to contribute to a large number of disease conditions including increased cancer and heart disease, immune system dysfunction, damage to the liver, reproductive organs and lungs, digestive disorders, depressed learning ability, impaired growth, and weight gain.”

“One of the reasons the polyunsaturates cause so many health problems is that they tend to become oxidized or rancid when subjected to heat, oxygen and moisture as in cooking and processing. Rancid oils are characterized by free radicals–that is, single atoms or clusters with an impaired electron in an outer orbit. These compounds are extremely reactive chemically.”

And aw gee, free radicals are badies of the kind where the info about them is widely available. Want more facts and research documentation? It’s in the book. But really….my largest selling point against margarine and in favor of butter is how good it tastes, how real it is, (organic bodies can deal with organic foods much easier than plastic…common sense!), and good I FEEL. Saturated fat is necessary for learning, concentration, emotional stability, growth, and health. Butter doesn’t need to go through a huge process and then have nutrition and taste added in because it’s already, quite naturally, there!

One more nasty on margarine:

“I put a cube of margarine, the kind I had been selling, on a saucer and placed the saucer on the window sill in the back room of my store. I reasoned that if I made it readily available and if it was real food, insects and microoraganisms would invite themselves to the feast. Flies and ants and mold would be all over it just as if it were butter. That cube of margarine became infamous. I left it sitting on the windowsill for about two years. Nobody ever saw an insect of any description go near it. Not one spect of mold ever grew on it. All that ever happened was that it kind of half-puddled down from the heat of the sun beating through the windowpane, and it got dusty….”

This was a post after a friend introduced me to Ben Harper in January 2006. He’s still a favorite…and now I’ve realized the dream of the guitar and actually play his music.

*******

Today I got a fantastic gift in the mail. My friend Kim, who to this point I’ve only known online but plan to meet soon for our piligrimage to Baton Rouge for a gathering of friends, sent me a mixed CD of her favorites. I’d been wanting to…well, for how long? Wanted to hear Ben Harper’s music for probably years. A discussion that mentioned him was the impetus for the idea since she’s been listening to him lately. In the midst of a move over the holidays she was going far and above anything I expected to not only sit down and mix this, but to actually get it in the mail!
The whole disc is great. Better than great…dance-in-the-kitchen music-with-a-goofy-grin kind of music. How often does one find a music kindred spirit? If you have taste like me, not often. When the discovery comes and the sound resonates, it’s a rare thing indeed.
The best thing about this mix: it’s quirky and different and yet fits me like a glove. Some of the artists I’ve never heard of..Billy Joe Shaver, Gillian Welch (she sounds alot like Mindy Smith with more raw edge), Southern Culture on the Skids…there’s also lots I do know and am happy to have a recording of: the weepy beauty of Dolly Parton and Emmy Rossum, “Come On Eilleen” by Dixie’s Midnight Runner, Jewel, Queen.

There’s a list of music that has had enough influence and pure time in my life to make it on “the soundtrack of my years”. Ben Harper’s music is going to make that list. Somehow with every review I’d read, every occassional pop into celebrity news that he made, I knew that his was music worth my investigation. This CD has two of his songs on it. “Steal My Kisses” is a FUN, sing-it-with-the-windows-down kind of beat that conjures up images of afternoon sunshowers, flowered dresses, and tossled hair. “Waiting on an Angel” is soft with a lazy edge, that reminds me of sleepy-sunshine, under a tree with the one who makes me feel beautiful, fingers barely touching and wine glasses empty.

I went looking for some info on Ben…turns out one of his favorite things is Coldplay. You can hear it in the understated truth of his lyrics. In a year when one of my bhags (big hairy audacious goals) was to learn to play the guitar, Ben’s sounds like the kind I want to play.

“So speak kind to a stranger, ’cause you’ll never know. It just might be an angel, knockin’ at your door. And I”m waiting for an angel and I know it won’t be long, to find myself in a resting place, in my angel’s arms.”

I’ve recently had lots of bank exposure. I have my little bank in my former town and it’s branch, closer into the city. I have a few different kinds of online accounts and frequently spend time getting all the accounts to work together, to transfer money where it needs to go and when necessary, make it either more accessible or less. I traveled a lot last month and kept an eye out for a bank, other than the giant Bank of America, that would have locations in all of the places I was. That is no small feat! Many states, many towns…I knew I was likely going to open yet another account so that I could have local check cashing, in my new locality. I wasn’t looking forward to it.

But there was  bright green sign that kept catching my eye. True, true it’s my favorite color: bright green. And, true, true, there was a branch location in every single town I visited. I’d decided to go with them just upon that.

Then came the day I walked in. I wasn’t enthusiastic. It was lunch time. I had all four kids with me. Going into a bank is usually quiet and echo-ey and I get “looks” from navy-clad professionals who look like they’re biding their time until lunch…or 4:30…wherever it is in the day. Lines are always long. Kids are always antsy. Waiting for the paperwork process is a pain the butt.

The *very second* I walked in, two bank employees got up and welcomed me. They did not get weird expressions of dread when they saw four children walk in with me. Across from the waiting area was a plate of fresh cookies and coffee. On every table and test was a big bowl of giant gumballs. I told them that I wanted to open a new account and within seconds I was sitting down across from a guy who seemed genuinely interested in doing this aspect of his job today. Right away they both expressed that they understood I didn’t want this to take a long time and that they’d do all they could to help me get it done and on my way.

He helped me open the account; she got my children washable markers and paper to color, and cookies and napkins. It was fast. It was easy. After he introduced me to the tellers I’d likely be working with, I left happy. Even after cookie crumbs and gumball drool, they still did not seem at all fazed or exhausted that some woman brought her four busy-bodies in. In many other businesses, that would have gotten me looks of fatigue, stress, dread, and the unique, “eewwww…..your kid just got goo on my desk…thanks for making my day even harder.”

Two days later I got a hand written thank you card from him, well written and with a phone number included, should I have any questions. My debit card also came, already pinned. We did that in the office, which was groovy because I loathe waiting weeks to get my card and then more days later to get my pin separately, and then have to relearn yet another number. It was great to choose my own ahead of time.

That day I went to the drive in teller. They asked me first if I wanted the kids to have lollipops. And I got a service call, just to check to see if I was indeed happy with my Region’s Bank experience.

The day after that I walked in alone, to get some paperwork notarized. The same employeed recognized me, noticed I didn’t have my kids, and asked me how they were doing. She described their cuteness to the employee she took me to, so that I could get my needs met. At this point, I was feeling a little guilty I hadn’t spent the same amount of effort to learn their names!

You know that point where they say, “Is there anything else I can help you with today?” I think it’s been a long time since I felt like the person asking it was genuinely interested in doing more than the bare minimum. It occurred to me that these Regions folks actually like their jobs! They enjoy their days there! And it shows in how they deal with people.

Two nights after that I got a call from a hired-survey center. The deal was to answer a series of questions using a scale from 1-5; 5 being the highest. I gave Regions a straight “5″. Yes, they made me feel like my buisness was important to them. Yes, they made me feel like I was a person, and not just business. Yes, they seemed to sincerly want to help. Yes, they greeted me right away (don’t you hate walking into a place where no one will make eye contact with you?). And on and on.

It seems a little odd to be so excited about something like a bank these days. I think it’s bigger than that though. This company has obviously given some thought to branding and the new generation, which uses conversational marketing and the relational economy to stand out in their field of competitors. They aren’t striving for the status quo, which would probably still give them a successful bank business. They seem to want more than that. They intuitively understand the connectivity this day and age is seeking. Their sincerity shows. They are indeed, Living Deliberately.

It’s refreshing, in the most spring-green of ways, to not have to dread a regular chore in my routine. Going to the bank is a happy spot in my day…not just for my kids, who know they’ll get free lollipops, but for their Mom too, who won’t be treated as if she were just another faceless customer handing over her hard-earned money. So a big THANKS to Regions Bank, and in return, here’s the biggest personal referral I can offer!

We have built a table.

It is big.

We’ve joked many times that this will be a table to build a house around. A life around. It’s only a half joke.

We built it for $70 with framing lumber and a week’s time.

But this table is priceless.

10 2×8’s, yellow pine. We almost used Cypress, which had a nice Florida heritage idea to it, but I wanted imperfect, dentable, wood that would take on a nice patina in what will become a very normal life. So, plain, run-of-the-mill (so to speak) pine it was.

First, we ripped it into strips.

Then, two beads of glue on every side to be jointed. We gave close attention to how the grain was matching…or not. I wanted a sort of “butcher block” look.

Three boards, glued and clamped; the beginning of the top.

The legs were made of salvaged wood. Origonally they were the beams in some guy’s kitchen, remodled by my Dad. Then, they became legs for my mother’s work tables. Now, patina removed, they will be the legs that hold my table, pictured here with the frame.

Shortening them slightly. They had been “counter height”, 36 in, and we wanted the table to be a finished 32.

Learning to use the Router. It takes a little finesse to get it right! There are few dings and wavy lines here and there on my table…. patina!

Dad, bracing the legs. We used screws and carriage bolts. The table will need to be disassembled to be moved; it’s too big and heavy otherwise.

Lots and lots and lots of sanding.

Choosing a finish was hard! And I was considering distressing it with chains too. It became a debate between “honey” and “nutmeg”, though what I decided on hadn’t yet been presented.

The tops were ready for the planer. I LOVE the planer best of all the tools in the shop. Ugly, rough, imperfect things go in; smooth, refined, clean things come out the other side.

Clamping the top together. At this point, Dad started calling it my “aircraft carrier”.

Scraping the glue bumps; getting ready sand and grind the top.

Routing the edge. I went a groove that wouldn’t get dented too easily, nor be a food catcher.

Just taking a moment to appreciate that grain! I LOVE it. Each line represents a year of life. That always seems profound to me.

Break Time!

Sealing it to minimize warping, a real concern not using wood that wasn’t kiln dried and aged to the extent we would have liked.

I decided on a shade of stain between Nutmeg and Honey. It’s called…”Wheat”. I am using this photo to be true to the project’s process but I swear I look rather mannish in this one!

And here it is!!!! It needs to cure for a few days before we eat on it. I’m gathering chairs from various thrift stores and garage sales and painting them a royal, almost navy, blue.

It is The Table. I’m not sure how working with wood, smelling fresh sawdust, and Dad’s time heals exactly. Only that it does somehow.

Earlier this year a friend told me about the movie The Secret, which I watched online, and was quite honestly changed and challenged within the time span of it’s running. I know there are mixed reactions to the presenation, packaging, some of the claims….and like a lot of things in my life these days (is it the age?), I’m no longer interested in the debate but rather, if I value something being said, quietly taking it and applying it to my own life.

And so I began to allow the Law of Attraction to alter my thinking. Wait. That sounds a little more passive than it was. The process began as a breakdown of some of the things I frequently said, most within inner monologue, and the message I was reinforcing every time I did so.

For instance, I frequently said, “I’ll never get out of debt!” EVEN THOUGH I was working hard on a Total Money Makeover, we lived on a “beans and rice” budget, and were making great headway on the Debt Snowball. The negativity was thwarting my belief. My discouraged-self would then go shopping, where I already felt defeated, and then I’d break my budget! After watching the movie, I changed that inner groan to one of inner confidence, “We are becoming financially free!” I didn’t even want to USE the word “debt”. And so it went….when I don’t feel well, I try to say, “I’m so grateful for my strength and healing.” becuase regardless of how weak I might feel, it ALWAYS could be worse and boy oh boy am I glad it’s not! Funny thing happens….I start to cope better with the challenge. And that financial freedom? Well, sure enough we acheived it.

Around that time my business began. From the start, I’ve had articulated goals for what I want that business to bring into our lives. If it does not help us reach them, it will be instead thwarting them with it’s time consumption. I do believe the work is a gift from God and was given so that we can meet the needs of our family. “Failing to plan is planning to fail” wasn’t in The Secret to my memory, but I found the sentiment applied. I started to plan…to succeed. Why did that matter? More than touchy-feely motivation, it was instrumental in knowing how much I needed to charge, how many clients I would need to make the venture worthwhile, and where my income would fit within our greater, joint income. I know how much is too much to take on and what is not necessary or time/cost effective. We know if David’s raise will make an impact, other than just a dent in the cost of living inflation, and what kind of advancement goals are necessary to reach our goal.

How? The process of deciding what we wanted to attract, (in this case with our finances, though we’ve done it/blogged it with spirituality, food, environmental impact, etc), we broke down what we would do to then welcome that into our lives. This is different than blindly deciding one wants something and sitting around waiting for it to fall in their lap! So:

• we articulated our need (and sometimes, our want)
• we investigated what was necessary to achieve/sustain it (in this case, a dollar figure)
• we stated what we would do to bring this about (a+b=c)
• we kept our focus on the end goal

This means, if our end goal is “to be financially responsible”, we say that over and over, in the present tense. In the meantime, things around here changed a bit. Our bills became current. Then our debt was paid off. David got a raise. I got a new business. The new income is not vague: it was planned, it has a home, it meets a need. This results in wise spending, which is…being financially responsible.

The question around The Secret is “Can you have it all”. I’ve always lived with the idea that “I can have it all…just not all at once.” This means there is time to have babies and have other interests…but maybe not all at once. This means that living on one income for the sake of devoting one’s self to babies and young children can be done, even in this day and age, but it’s often not sustainable forever, but babies are not young children forever either!

I guess we have to all define what “all” is to us. I know how I answer that for myself, in light of my christianity, my responsibilty, my desires, how I was created. I beleive I can have all that God means for me have, whatever that means. And if He means for me to have it, He will give me the means to achieve it. I can deliberately seek after all that He means for me to have and I can prayerfully contemplate what that is and how I should strive to welcome it into my life.

So yes, I do believe I can “have it all” under that definition. I will seek to attract that “all” into my life. I will also seek not to thwart it’s coming through self-sabotague and negativity. When I fall, I will confess, get back up, and try again. We can call it a secret but it’s as old as time.

This post was created for the “Having It All”  blog Carnival, hosted by John Assaraf.

Head lice….the mere name can get yer scalp twitchin ‘eh? Well, I’ve learned a thing or two about this pestilence and it’s rare that I hear anyone say anything that is actually Helpful about what it’s REALLY like to get rid of them. And there’s TONS of stuff online about lice so why is it so hard?

Because the lice of today are “resistant“. That means the OTC remedies have been so overused the bugs have learned how to survive them.

The first time we had lice was three years ago. It was late summer; “back to school” had just started for the public schoolers and my kids had public schooled playmates. I’d never seen a bug for real on my own before; I had lice once as a kid… my mom washed my hair with some stinky RID, combed my hair with a tiny comb, and the ordeal was over. I was at our homeschooling convention and I looked down at my then-baby’s head whilst he slept in the stroller. Brown lice bugs really stand out on a little red-headed kid! I packed him up, left the seminar that had just started, went to the drugstore and bought RID and washed his hair. My mom looked me over (massivly thick red hair is hard to search let me tell ya) and we washed my hair too. I got the other kids home, told the friend who was sitting them, and got everyone washed. I stripped beds, washed stuffed animals, and vacuumed carpets. I assumed we were done.

I was wrong.

What followed was over FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS of trying to get rid of lice. We tried every single OTC remedy. We bought new hairbrushes, pillows and bedding. I threw away all the stuffed animals except for their “lovies”. We treated our car. We treated our house.

“They” will say this isn’t necessary. Wash hair. pic the nits. change the sheets and wash in hot water. “They” will not tell you that in some kids’ hair it’s nigh impossible to get every nit manually picked. “They” will not tell you that the bugs are resistant to all the OTC remedies.

I finally called our doctor. He called in Ovide.

Now let me tell you….Ovide is seriously nasty toxic stuff. It stinks and will give you a headache. You will have every hesitation on using it upon reading the nasty possible side effects. But the endless itching of your head will drive you to try. The utter fatigue at having to face the top-to-bottom housecleaning you’ve done AGAIN inspite of the many reminders out there that lice aren’t about cleanliness or not will make you try just about anything. Our first bottle cost $100 and we needed two of them for a family of our size.

Two months after finding the first bug, we were finally free.

The next year we had just moved to Tennessee. “Back to school” time came and guess what? So did lice. We had no medical insurnace. I wanted to try a few new “natural” remedies I’d found online that were cheaper.

Mayonaise? Doesn’t work.

Olive and Citrus Oil? Don’t work.

Blow drying your hair every day? Doesn’t work.

Manually picking? Helps but won’t guarantee you didn’t miss a few. And all it takes is a few.

Cutting hair short? Helps with the above but won’t guarantee anything either. And boy howdy do I ever get suspect of short hair cuts in the fall…..

Hair gel every day? YMMV. Didn’t have any effect on us except to cause scalp drying, which made things itchier.

All of the products sold at Walmart, Walgreens, Rite Aid, Eckerd, What-Drug-Store-Have-You….DON’T WORK.

Sweet smelling organic remedies that promise not to be toxic? The lice will thank you for giving them a sweet-smelling home and decide to build an addition for their next hundred kids.

And so…this year “back to school” time came. Teachers, it’s my understanding, no longer send home notes with students warning parents “Head lice has been discovered…please treat your child accordingly” (which practice, ironically, is what likely caused the resistance in the first place). And homeschoolers ain’t talkin’. What’s true: A) You Got ‘Em SOMEWHERE and B:) It doesn’t matter where; no one is gonna say and you still have to deal. And I can tell you: “they” say lice can’t live off a body for long, leading one to beleive that head-to-head contact is the only way to get it. I think that hooey. “They” also tell you to clean everything in sight, replace or soak hairbrushes and hairbands (even if you haven’t used them lately), and my kids NEVER go head-to-head and get away with it. I say: lice are livin’ longer than you think and they travel farther than you know.

I found the first bug on one child, while it was still a glassy newborn. I called in for Ovide from our pediatrician and had the issue dealt with within 24 hrs. It cost $10 bucks…insurance now covers it. It’s likely that in a few years Ovide will also no longer work. Such is the toxic world we live within. But hopefully my kids will be beyond the ages that likely pick the critters up. If that sounds selfish, spend a few months scratchin’ your head, feeling ostraciszed and helpless, and then get back to me.

I’ve heard there’s another rx that changes your blood so the bugs won’t like to eat it and leave. I think that scares me more than Ovide. And here’s a “haa haa”: September is “national lice prevention month”. Gee….I wonder why.

David sent me this poll today; when I voted, Ron was second, behind Fred Thompson…who, correct me if I’m wrong, isn’t officially running yet? All I’ve heard about him is that he’s a republican actor from Tennessee. As Mr. Darcy famously said in pride & prejudice, “Ah, but not handsome enough to tempt me.” :-). Sure the guy can act and is good looking, but in a field of men saying essentially the same thing as one another, which is essentially maintaining our national status quo, I’m still inspired for the candidate committed to the most change, revolution, and return to our national priorities.

Voting in this poll is easy and anonymous.

otherwise titled, “Thinking Outside the Box”.

otherwise titled, “Ron paul…does he really need the mainstream media?”

Last night, for the fourth night in a row, David and I were up until 1 am watching videos of Ron. While we’ve quietly slept and remained apolitical for years, grinning and bearing a government and system we had no hope of seeing change, there is now an awakening of anticipation….the Eminem song has a line that says, “You only get ONE shot, do not miss your chance…opportunity comes once in a lifetime.” And here it is! Someone has risen who has a REAL chance of taking this country in a different direction…what we’ve been doing for the past several decades is NOT working…. and if we are very brave and actually put our money where our mouth is, we have a chance at change, at regaining stolen freedom, to remove our froggy selves from the slow-boiling pot.

Jana Stanfield has a song on her website that has a line I’ve been pondering this week… “What would I do today if I were brave?” I’ve decided to deliberately ask myself that question every day.

One thing that was evident last night is the fact that there is an effort to squash Ron’s grassroots swelling support, to silence him down. His name is not included in the polls and the “none of the above” answer is instead rising. He was not invited to a major tax reform conference in Iowa, though his voice is the loudest, most radical, and most rational voice in congress on the topic. He also had raised more campaign money than four of the other speakers, so their straw-man of an explanation was shot down. Viacom pulled one of his highest ranking youtube videos, the interview with Jon Stewart on The Daily Show, something I bet they don’t do to anyone else’s videos, so happy are they typically for the exposure.

And yet….that video can still be watched on his website. And that led to another revelation: WE STILL HAVE FREEDOM OF SPEECH. As long as the internet is not regulated at the federal level, or taxed (and may any congressman who seeks to see that happen lose their seat), we don’t NEED the mainstream media to get a candidate and their message in our face. We don’t NEED them to spin things, explain things, manipulate us…if we are interested, we can go listen for ourselves. Mainstream media, and I think I’m tempted to include the idea that one must have millions and millions of dollars for a campaign to be successful as well, is THE BOX. It is old…maybe only as old as the last presidential campaign, but in internet-land that is ancient history. Information and ideas move much, much faster than that. The support Ron has behind him can not be bought, it can not be manufactured. It will not be traded and handed to a different, more polished and greasy manicured competitor. Intelligent people believe in what they are hearing and they are backing who they want. Being a part of the revolution, one can feel the nervousness of the other candidates, the mainstream media, and the old guard as they realize that what they’re saying isn’t being bought, that change is happening that they can’t squelch, that the movement America has been ready to embrace is leaving them in the dust.

So..no media presence can dictate who our president will be. They can’t make us vote just because it’s our “duty” to pick who’ve they’ve promoted; we’ll vote for who we believe in or not at all if recent history is to be beleived. If the name is missing from the ballot because some policitcal organization deemed him unlikely to win, the nation can rise up and WRITE HIS NAME IN.

If our government at it’s essense is really supposed to be about what the people want, then the media will either tune into what we’re saying or be ignored by those who no longer need to buy what they’re selling.

If we are brave today, what will we do? Will we allow ourselves to feel hopeful and finally fight against taxation and the removal of liberty that we’ve known for years is wrong? Will we support a candidate who says, “let’s not spread our goodness with force” and who espouses a much more kind, loving, and moralistic message of “do unto others”? A candidate who doesn’t want our children to go to war, who wants our soldiers brought home before more blood is spilled, and who encourages kindness, trade, and communicaiton with the world? Someone who beleives that things need to be done but that the free market, full of good and well intentioned, intelligent people, can do it better than a messy, top heavy federal governement can?

Well, those are the questions I am asking, breaking out of little boxes that no longer fit the changing world. Bigger than the coming election is the personal question that will influence my deliberate choices for the rest of my life, “What Would I Do Today if I were BRAVE?”

Want more Ron?

If He Can Save Us From This….

Change Your Status So You Can Vote…

Sticking my toe back in…

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And how nasty it is!

Carrageenan is seaweed you know? So it’s natural, right? Ha! About as “natural” as MSG (which comes from rice), Splenda (which comes from sugar…kinda), and Aspertame (comes from oil). One finds it in processed foods: milk, ice cream, cottage cheese, yogurt, frosting, cheese spreads, baby formula….the list is quite long.

Long ago I started weeding out and avoiding foods that contained Carrageenan for the simple reason that it is an additive used to replace fat and gelatin qualties in foods that I preferred to have in their whole state. For instance, I think MILK should be MILK…pasturize it if you must but adding crap and homogenizing it is officially taking a whole food and making it a processed food in my opinion. Until recently I couldn’t/wouldn’t afford good, unhomgenized milk, but I had avoided Carrgeenan in ice cream, cottage cheese, yogurt…I make our frostings from scratch, we don’t eat cheese spreads, I breastfed the babies, etc.

But beyond just messing with something whole and making it a “recipe”, it turns out Carrgageen, and most especially the solvents used to process it, is a highly antagonistic additive. Consider some of these quotes:

Some folks can eat just about anything. Some people might
have no problem producing a tall glass of homemade soymilk,
then converting it to chocolate milk by adding the
following ingredients: Three teaspoons of sugar. One
teaspoon of chocolate powder. Two tablespoons of Vaseline
petroleum jelly. The Vaseline might produce gastric
distress, and the soymilk drinkers would erroneously
conclude that they are “allergic” to soy. Some people
do not experience gastric discomfort caused by the
Vaseline-like food additive, carrageenan. Many people do.Carrageenan is a commonly used food additive that is
extracted from red seaweed by using powerful alkali
solvents. These solvents would remove the tissues
and skin from your hands as readily as would any acid.

Carrageenan is a thickening agent. It’s the vegetarian
equivalent of casein, the same protein that is isolated
from milk and used to thicken foods. Casein is also
used to produce paints, and is the glue used to hold
a label to a bottle of beer. Carrageenan is the magic
ingredient used to de-ice frozen airplanes sitting on
tarmacs during winter storms.

And from the same website, which is notmilk.com:

Carrageenan is a gel. It coats the insides of a stomach,
like gooey honey or massage oil. Digestive problems often
ensue. Quite often, soy eaters or soymilk drinkers react
negatively to carrageenen, and blame their discomforting
stomachaches on the soy.

Studies have been done that link Carrageenan to colonic cancer and gastro issues…hmmm, inflammatory bowel syndrome anyone? Here in our household we have well (ha haa) documented gastro issues of the rather pungent kind when nasty ice cream like Mayfield, containing Carrageenan, is consumed. Out here in our county, along with no wine, one also can not buy a brand of ice cream that does NOT contain Carrageenan. So we gave some a shot recently. BAD IDEA. On a much more serious note, our son Wheaton had an as-of-yet undiagnosed metabolic disorder as an infant and was not growing. The doctors surgically installed a g-tube in his belly and force fed him forumla containing high amounts of Carrageenan (not that they cared; it was the scientifically engineered nutrient content they were after). The more they insisted we pump through him, the sicker he became, the more mucous his body produced, and he nearly died. Rapid improvement occurred when we stoped feeding him the formula under a new doctor’s care, who wanted him breastfed and self-selecting his diet (which was all whole foods) while his gut healed. It was then that we started looking into food additives, most of which trigger our boys’ gastro-reflex issues.

During the latter half of the twentieth century, inflammatory bowel disease and gastrointestinal malignancy have been major causes of morbidity and mortality in the United States. Even with improvements in treatment and cancer screening, colorectal cancer remains the second leading cause of cancer mortality in the United States. The Western diet has been considered a possible source of inflammatory bowel disease and colorectal malignancy, and intensive efforts have been undertaken to study the impact of specific constituents of the Western diet, such as fiber and fat (1-3).

In addition to food additive uses, carrageenan has been used in cosmetics, pesticides, and pharmaceuticals, as well as in toothpaste and room deodorizers. It has been used as a treatment of ulcers and as an emulsifier in mineral oil laxatives, liquid petrolatum, and cod liver oil. However, its predominant role has been in food preparations, in which it is used across a wide variety of food groups because of its ability to substitute for fat and its ability to combine easily with milk proteins to increase solubility and improve texture. Hence, it is used in low-calorie formulations of dietetic beverages, infant formula, processed low-fat meats, whipped cream, cottage cheese, ice cream, and yogurt, as well as in other products. From its original use several centuries ago as a thickener in Irish pudding and its incorporation into blancmange, the food additive use has extended widely and cuts across both low-fat and high-fat diets. It is often combined with other gums, such as locust bean gum, to improve the texture of foods (12-14,22,41,42).

Inflammatory bowel disease and colorectal malignancy represent major sources of morbidity and mortality in the United States. A possible factor in the etiology of these pathologies is exposure to carrageenan.

The potential role of carrageenan in the development of gastrointestinal malignancy and inflammatory bowel disease requires careful reconsideration of the advisability of its continued use as a food additive.

Read the whole study here.

So my bottom line? My body was made to process FOOD. That is what I should feed it; not manufactured substitutes. Real fat is more digestable than some slimy chemical added to replace the fat, never mind all the nutritional and health BENEFITS from fat! Ice Cream should be Ice CREAM, not Ice CANCER-SLIME. Makes a real treat too, rather than a motivating force to run for the bathroom.

Think it’s nothing of consequence? Think the small stuff doesn’t matter?

I don’t beleive that life is made up of big events, like we leap mountain top to mountain top. As much as I am defined by some certain very large events in my life, for instance, being born, getting married, burying a child, moving to a new state…I am moreso defined by a million little momentary choices made day by day, year by year. Choices that build upon one another like bricks, to make an eventual wall, a life that has been lived one moment at a time. It’s why I think what milk I drink matters in the long-run and why gardening is more than growing food. It’s why making myself wash dishes when I don’t feel like it or praying when I can’t find words has value in my eternity. Kissing babies when they fall and being there to do it is Kingdom Work and if my bread comes from a plastic bag or my oven, it affects my spirit.

Inspiration today came from Fr. Stephen’s post “Losing My Religion”.

I love running. Well, not quite… I hate running. No, not exactly because I do it too much. I like the results running gives me. What else is true is that I’m a horrible runner. I’m not even sure one could call what I do “running”….it’s more like wogging, a combination of walking and jogging, done with a grimace on my face and the feeling that vomit is not far behind. No matter how often I run or how I train myself, I still can’t go faster, and it doesn’t feel better; timing my “mile” would be obnoxious. My “runner’s high” means I’ve pushed through the ready-to-puke-feeling and can actually run and feel on the verge at the same time. It’s not unlike that place in labor that is early transition: not quite the place where you are out of your mind in pain and urgently wanting that baby out but well after the place where your body is getting to serious work and you know there’s no turning back, no doing this another day, no other way out but through.

And so I run because while all this is happening to my body, my brain is pushing through the exhaustion and the anxiety. The junk in my trunk is hopefully melting down a little more. And somewhere around the third lap I start to be able to think clearly.

I LOVE this place in my mind. Ideas fall into a practical order that I can see almost tangibly and figure out how make them real; I can “see” what thing to do next. I step back from the emotion of stuff, because emotion while going through grueling physical work is too distracting, and see the elements of situations for what they are and what needs to be done. Lately, I’ve thought about my business, my book, my marriage, my kids, our future…

Today though, I had company. One of the neighbors was out on her go-cart. She had a child on a child’s-size 4 wheeler making laps with her. She (the go-cart driver) is the daughter of the woman who reported our children to the police for playing outside too much. They made circles on their exhaust-fuming machines while I tried to walk-run-wog my own. When I clung to the inside of the loop, they crossed over the lane to come at me head on, antagonizing and daring me to “play chicken”. Later, she was joined by two other girls on 4-wheelers, also making loops.

So ya know? I don’t get the appeal of 4 wheelers on a paved loop. It’s right up there with mud bogging and Nascar. Snow mobiles? Those make sense in their context. Jet Skiis…way fun. And ATV’s out in the country seem to have a purpose too. But loops on paved concrete, when gas is over $3 a gallon, and the things pollute like you wouldn’t believe, making so much noise that the drivers can’t really communicate and they weren’t even racing….well I don’t get it.

One message did come in loud and clear though. After many, many consistent reminders through church and the afternoon today, I know I don’t love my neighbors. In fact, I’m struggling with down right hatred and resentment. I’m mad at them, mad that they don’t like me, mad that they won’t even just leave me alone. Hatred and anger does not feel good. It’s not what I thought I’d have in this neighborhood, this country life I hungered for so long. Approaching them isn’t a safe idea; any thoughts of bringing a pie or cookies would be spurned. I’ve been waving at one man who sits on his swing watching me run everyday; after 9 waves deliberately in his direction on every loop (he’s about 15 clear feet from my path and stares right at the road) I finally gave up.

So how to love these people? I crossed the road when they played chicken. I made (well tried anyway) to think of other things rather than dwell on how much I dislike their pastime. I avoided eye contact and kept my mouth shut. Other than that, I’m a bit out of ideas. If you have one, I’m open to suggestions. And if you’ll pray for me, please do.

Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore’s Dilema, (on my To Be Read This Year list), wrote an article in a recent issue of The New York Time’s in-paper magazine; the kind of excellent and thought-provoking stuff that makes me loathe to admit I can’t afford a year’s subscription to this paper. You might have to register to read the article but it’s well worth it.