Blog Event!

Blog Announcement: 

What was going to be my UnPaper Event, has evolved a bit...  I've got 4  great giveaways lined up for my wonderful readers & friends, so stay tuned.  First one goes up tomorrow & the rest will be posted periodically through next Wednesday! 

A Rough Start

To the week...

I've made a promise to my dear husband that I will get up with him during the week before he leaves for work.  This is the one thing he's been asking me to do for awhile now, but I keep resisting.  Why?  Well for one, because I like sleep. A lot.  And sometimes, B still wakes up in the middle of the night & when that happens, it makes me like my sleep more.  And probably the reason others would resist is because he leaves for work around 6:30am.  This implies waking around 5:30. Ugh. Double Ugh.

So this morning we both crawled out of bed at 6:11- this is late by regular standards.  Oh well. It's Monday.

Soon after B woke up & Hubs left, I started some laundry.  Diapers had been soaking, so I finished out their cycle.  Moving on... I threw a load of clothes in.  Put them in the dryer.  No big deal.

Tried to get B to take a nap.  Left him in his crib with his seahorse singing & the room darkened.  This usually works- sometimes he fusses for about 10 minutes, but then he's usually out.  I went back downstairs, got myself a fresh cup of coffee & grabbed one of my many books that I'm obsessing over with our current diet change.  I set everything on the end table & went to clean up a bit in the kitchen.  Realized B wasn't napping, went up to get him.

Shortly after this, I brought B downstairs & he began playing with his toys in the living room.

I'm thinking you can guess what happened.

Just as I remembered the full cup of coffee & went racing into the living room, I saw him throwing the coffee mug.  Covered in coffee (luckily cold at this point), he just laughs.  And Tucker tries to lick it up.

More laundry, as he's wearing a brand new off white tshirt.  I throw some carpet stain stuff down, haul B up the stairs & strip him down.  Spray the shirt with OxyClean & let it soak.  It's not until I load the washer with the white clothes & put the detergent in that I realize that I never put detergent in the previously washed, now completely dried load of laundry from earlier.  Super.

These are the things that occur when I'm up before 7am.

How many more days til Friday again?

What's going on...

I thought I should let you all know. There's giveaways coming. Not too many, but hopefully just enough. I should be working on them right now. Like right this second. But I'm not.

Normally I just whip up a post & post it. No proofreading, no editing. That's my style. Much more real. However, with reviews & giveaways, I normally take a few days, edit, reread, etc... So, like I said, I should be working on them.  

Instead, I'm watching the Super Bowl on DVR, drinking a beer & tweeting. 

And I thought you all should know. 

(Almost) Wordless Wednesday

This is B's 'playroom': 

This is B's new favorite thing to do:

See those little spots down there? 

Here they are up close-

Still confused?

(that's a vegetable from B's Laugh & Learn Learning Farm)

Wanna know how it got there? 

B likes to throw his toys from the loft or the top of the stairs... such a boy. 

Food. Updates.

"Eat Food. Mostly Plants. Not Too Much."

Seven simple words to live by, according to Michael Pollan.

Anything we can do in our household to make us healthier & make our environment healthier should be done, right?  As parents, we strive to take care of our children & to do anything in our power to keep them healthy, but I'm learning that what we think is healthy may not actually be at all.

Have you watched Food, Inc.?  Oh my gosh. I STRONGLY urge anyone reading this to watch it immediately. It was the most eye opening, enlightening, amazing 1 1/2 hour documentary I've ever seen.  We watched it last night.  Parts of it were absolutely heartbreaking - both as a mother & as a farm family.  I have a farm in my family that will be mine one day & knowing what has been happening to farmers & their livestock is horrifying.  You owe it to your life to take the time to watch it. I promise, it will change you (if you let it).

I'm also currently reading In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan & Green Kids, Sage Families by Lynda Fassa.  I highly recommend GKSF & believe it's a great book.  I can't recommend In Defense of Food yet, but I know that once I finish it I will.

As for changes, after watching Food, Inc., Hubs has agreed to try new ice cream & to look for an alternative to Coke.  These are major changes.  I've agreed to switch all meat to organic, grass fed, no antibiotic, healthy meat- I was holding out, because 1) it's more expensive & 2) I thought I was buying 'all natural, farm grown' meat. Boy was I wrong.

Want some of your own resources to check out? Start by looking at Food, Inc's take part website.  Right there, on the homepage it talks about 5 steps you can take to improve things RIGHT NOW.  Here's a sneak peek:
5. Support companies that treat workers, animals & the environment with respect.
4. Drink more water, less sugary beverages (Right on, Hubs!).
3. Read labels- know where your food comes from.

I'll let you check out the next two for yourself.

Did anyone watch Oprah last week? Michael Pollan was on; Alicia Silverstone & Steve Ells- the Chipotle founder, were on too. Here's a clip: The Truth About Food with Michael Pollan.  The whole episode is a great resource.

If we as consumers could get informed & keep learning, things could change.  We could demand change so that kids could stay healthy.  Adults could get healthy.  Everyone could be healthier.  Future diabetes statistics could drop & that's big news for us personally- both our families have multiple people inflicted with diabetes & anything we can do to prevent that, in us, as well as our children, will be done in our household.