I want it all?

Have to get in the groove again, with this blogging thingy.  Half the fun of posting is the comments, but if you've been missing from the internets (well the blog portion of it), then no one comes by to check in on you anymore.

Ah, fickle bloggers, how soon we forget.

Entirely my fault, letting work get in the way.  I really shouldn't do that, should I?  Nor should I let my on-the-side writing, attending children's games, carting them to practice and lessons, making and having dinner together as a family, getting kids into bed, or ready for school, or some time with hubby (yes, you can use your imagination [and yes, I just went there]) get in the way of blogging, right? Oh, nor the occasional book reading for book club, attending said book club or any other female gatherings I can squeeze into my life.

Right?

Nah, I didn't think so.  I think I have my priorities straight.

So, is the definition of a woman who has it all one who is a blogging, Facebooking, working mommy, who manages to attend all functions of her children, squeeze time in for hubby and deal with the domestic duties?

Pshaw.  I'm pulling your leg.  That's just my life.

Random Tuesday with Thoughts on the side

Positive is a state of mind, don't you think?  Monday I decided to enjoy the sunshine, try to stay focused and try not to let the stupid stuff at work get to me.  Guess what?  It worked.  I was in a good mood that night.  Mr. Wild got the marinated chicken and veg on the skewers before I got home, got it on the grill.  I made the rice and peanut sauce and the daughter sat the table.  I had a little Alice White Lexia wine, a sweeter type, but went well with the chicken.

I picked out Alice White merely because of the name.  The Alice White name, not the Lexia.

There's a pinot noir out there I really like.  I had it once, like 18 months ago (maybe two years), at a girlfriend's house.  I always forget the name and I always ask her again.  I think it's Clois du Bois pinot noir and I think I haven't bought it for my own self consumption because it's over $10 a bottle, at least where I looked.  Yup, I admit, I buy cheap wine.  But you can find ones that are drinkable, right now, and refreshing, even under $10.  My sister had a nice red when I was visiting.  It was smooth and drinkable, but $20 a bottle, so I don't think I'll be buying that brand anytime soon.  I should buy the Clois du Bois for my birthday.  Just because.  And hey, 39 only happens, what, like 20 times in a lifetime.

My writing mojo, where is it?  I think it got sucked away with the stuff that is called my job.  The work can be strenuous on the mind and body, but the environment also makes it worse.  Nuff said.

Glee.  I have to admit, I actually like this show.  I DO NOT take it seriously.  And that's the way to watch it.  I don't care about the plot lines.  I just want to see how they mash up popular songs or interpret tried and true show choir tunes.  Yes, I've been known to hum and sing along.  And dreaming of my high school and college days (yes, I was musically geeky for that long) in a show choir.  Of course, this was the big hair days.  I tried for big hair.

That's 1991 people and fuzzy enough you can't see who is who.  Fair enough!  I will say, I did not achieve big hair, and may I remind  you that even short haired people could achieve big hair.  Actually, I'm looking at the outfits, and there have been worse.  These aren't so bad.

I'm still on the lookout for high fructose corn syrup.  To add more challenge to my shopping (because, you know, my life isn't busy and complicated enough), I'm trying to think about Jamie Oliver and avoiding processed foods.  I suppose, though, the 20 Lean Cuisines I bought for my and Mr. Wild's lunches is a bad example.  But, I am stopping to think about the premade stuff.  I am swearing off Hamburger Helper, though it really helped us through a jam here and there.

But, I'm working for my kids being healthy in their choices.  School lunches here are not my kind of idea of the best stuff.  And I really hate that there are milk flavor choices.  My daughter always picks chocolate and even when we discuss better choices, she still picks chocolate.  Let's have plain milk, please.  And let's work on those menus and try to get rid of all those fried/breaded/frozen foods.  Sign the Food Revolution petition and you can catch up on the ABC series on-line, too.

Ok, enough randoms for today.  Click the button above and check out more randomness with Keely.

Organicize me

After spending time with my sister and seeing how much organic stuff she was buying got me thinking.  She could buy it easily in the grocery store.  I did know it was more money, but after seeing a news piece on a study about high fructose corn syrup(courtesy of a FB friend), I had really gotten into examining my ingredients more for the high fructose stuff.  Started finding it in things I didn't want to find it in.  Spending this spring break with my sister, I read her organic labels and find that all the time the high fructose stuff is not in the organic things.

So tonight I put my sleuthing cap on and went to start looking for stuff without high fructose corn syrup and organic labels in my town.  My son, who can't say the words together ("they're like a tongue twister"), asks me why I didn't want it in our food.  I told him the gist of the study: that rats were given the same amount of calories and one set of rats had a drink with regular sugar in it and the other had high fructose corn syrup and though they had the same amount of calories, the high fructose group gained more weight (this was something I suspected, but never really though about it until seeing a study prove it brought it to my attention that I needed to get us off the stuff).  He got it and said "ohhhh" and turned and started digging through the yogurts to see what didn't have it.  I, myself, am not going to go overboard and ban sugar all together, but I think we can cut out the high fructose.  Most yogurts do have high fructose corn syrup.  I started to realize organic OR natural labels usually meant regular (or organic) sugar on the back and we could buy some things at a reasonable, though slightly higher price.  HFCS is cheap sweetener, I will have to pay more for real sugar.

I don't think I'm going as far as buying organic fruits and veg or organic milk.  I think that's just going to put a strain on the food budget.  As it is, I have signed up for a CSA (community supported agriculture), which I know will be local produce once it starts producing.  I may not buy organic mac and cheese.  I keep thinking, "well, it's still processed," but maybe for in a pinch I could have some on the shelf.  I probably will buy the store brand organic ketchup (no high fructose corn syrup), and support the products that have more natural, simple ingredients in my processed foods.  One bonus find today: Simply Go-Gurt.  All natural ingredients and no high fructose corn syrup!  Score!  Dannimals Crush Cups also are made with sugar.  Now I know all these are made with sugar and I should probably get my kids to eat the stuff without sugar, but I say baby steps.  All in good time.

I've also been watching Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution, which started on TV at the same time I saw the article on the high fructose stuff.  So I'm all for this food revolution (except I am sucking because we had Papa Murphy's pizza last night and Subway tonight, I promise, I'm getting better), and I'm wishing Jamie would come to our town and fix our school kids' lunch programs.  That needs major help!  We need to stop breading all our meats and look for lean cuts.  I also caught another FB friend who mentioned Clean Eating, something along the same lines as Jamie is promoting, cook from simple ingredients from scratch.  Another trick I've tried is instead of having my husband pick up pre-formed frozen beef patties, I'm buying fresh ground beef, make my own forms of patties and freeze them myself for use later.  There's all sorts of ways I can get into this and it's only the beginning.

We're starting our own food revolution at home.  My hope is that my kids will enjoy the fresh veg we get over the summer and start to get a taste for the good stuff and perhaps we'll transform all our own eating habits.  This is even an off-shoot from me making my own cakes and frosting from scratch to avoid mixes and transfats in pre-made frostings.  OK, so 3 sticks of butter in frosting may not be the best for you, but cakes should be for special occasions when it is shared by many people, so we don't all over-indulge.  I fear I have become a crazy woman, but it is to create better eating habits in my husband and children, so we can all live longer and healthy lives.  To me it's about getting back to the basics.  I suppose maybe next you'll find me on a small hobby farm growing my own food, including meat. Ha! Just kidding.  That won't happen anytime soon.

We interrupt this regularly scheduled program...

For a well deserved spring break with my sister and her family in Tempe, AZ.  Frequency of blogging may be interrupted for soaking up sun, checking out the zoo, seeing the Grand Canyon, hikes in the desert mountains, playing with cousins, swimming in the heated pool, checking out museums, and enjoying the company of relatives.

Cheers!

Ok, ok, should I Tweet?

I'm not sure about this.  I don't have a smart phone and I'm too cheap to pay for texting to Tweet on the go.  I know one can Tweet on-line, but I already do that with FB, don't I?  And I have more space to write things on that anyway.  But I was reading a random author's blog and she suggested three agent/editors that Tweet information on working in the field of writing.  So I wonder, do I join and follow them?  Maybe I should check it out.

Oh, God!  Another login?  Another password?  Am I too old for this?  I can't remember all the things I log in for now.  Barely.

I'll let you know if I try this out.  I know I can link it with my blog or with my FB.

I wonder how many sites I have signed up to that I have forgotten about.  My login is just out there floating in tons of places, I am sure.

Depressing post to follow: avoid if you want to feel good: Random Tuesday Thoughts

I avoid talking about my job.  Often because I've seen examples of what happens if/when an employer gets wind of your blog and your comments get around.  But today is one of those days where I really can't stand it and I need an outlet.

I know there are things that must be done to save the budget.  But some of these things grate against my sense of justice in the world.  And it hurts me to go against my sense of justice.  Eats at me, makes me angry, makes me depressed.  I used to like my job.  It used to be doing stuff that I went to school for and being creative.  Now I'm doing nothing I went to school for and I don't get to be creative.

The worst part is, I am only sticking with this job because of the health care.  I have excellent health, dental and vision care and that is all this is worth to me.  But it is getting to the point where it's not even worth that.

The only thing holding me back is knowing that we couldn't afford this health care on our own.  Orthodontics are not cheap.  Neither are glasses.  The fear of some health catastrophe, big or small, that could just set us over the edge of not having enough money to live as we are now, which is by no means extravagant.

If health care was not connected to our jobs, would people be happier finding things they wanted to do and did well, rather than staying in jobs because they paid the bills and covered the health costs?

Oh, I suppose I'm talking rather close to communism, eh?  From each according to his ability, to each according to his need?  Though, the original theory wasn't all that bad.  It just didn't take into account that people are greedy and power hungry and that those running a country want to live the good life because they can and they can order people around to do what they want.  Maybe countries are too big to sustain the kind of small-town-everyone-represents-himself-in-the-discussion-until-we-come-to-a-compromise-we-can-live-with type of government.

Also, I wonder, what if we made serving in government like jury selection?  Put everyone's name in a computer, hit a button and next year's slate of representatives is printed out.  No more campaign, campaign finance.  Sure there's bound to be some idiots who couldn't handle it, but is that much different that some of what we have now?  Pain in the *ss to have to leave your job and go serve, but how is that different than those who serve in the military and get called up.  Hold the job open until the service is done.  Right?

Ok, now I'm ranting and heading down tangents and I realized this is a random sort of post.  Guess it just became my random Tuesday.  Darn depressing.  I guess I'm not even elated about health care, because I'm worried it doesn't do enough.  But honestly, I wanted something rather than nothing.  I just hope the special interests didn't mess it up royally.

I should leave you before we get down a darker path.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Since my blog is all dressed up with no place to go, I thought it might be good to just give a shout out to the blog world in general for today's holiday.  Though, upon thinking about it, I believe that most bloggers (I hope) are out enjoying the sunshine.  Now I need to go find my green clothes to wear.