Real food anywhere?

Lately there have been a lot of stories in the news about our food being messed up.  Pink Slime in hamburger, Fresh Squeezed Orange Juice that is not so fresh squeezed, Wood fillers in tacos?  It seems in this world where everyone is trying to earn a fast buck that some folks don't seem to care what they're selling out there.  You really can't trust anyone now days. 
These food stretching ideas can't be good for us as allergies and illnesses are cropping up everywhere.

What ever happened to the FDA (Food & Drug Administration) doing their job and protecting us?  I remember being taught that they formed this administration to make sure our foods were pure because hotdogs and bologna were filled with the scraps of meat and other stuff that no one wanted to eat. 

Y does everyone want my money?

It seems the only time the phone rings, especially my cell phone, it is someone wanting to sell me something.  I’m on the Do Not Call list, but that doesn’t seem to stop them at all.  They still keep on callin.

My mail, I don’t see any letters anymore…it’s just ads and bills.  I’m on that mail preference list too.  :p

The TV, I fall asleep because there are too many commercials.  It probably doesn’t help at all that there isn’t a lot worth watching on TV anymore. 

The internet…well for now I have done a very good job of blocking those ads.  But I know it is coming.

The radio… I listen to “commercial free” radio that has commercials.  I once sent in an email because the ads were being played over the music.  It didn’t stop the ads, but they got their act together.  They tried to argue that they don’t play ads…um I beg to differ.  Business gives you money and you announce it repeatedly, that’s an ad.

I don’t answer my phone.  I don’t answer my door.  My husband thinks that I’m paranoid…although, he is beginning to agree with me about it not being worth it.  He’ll answer and be stuck telling them no and them not listening.

It used to be that we had free TV that was paid for by advertisers.  But no more…we pay for TV AND we get ads.

Yes I get that these folks need to make a living, but couldn’t they do it the old fashion way…make good products that people want?  Sigh!

So the Drama!!!

Oh the joys of dealing with little drama queens! 

Some days I really wonder why I continue to work on the costume committee for Darly's theater group.  I guess it is because usually the only stressful part is the costume fitting & parade days where the kids get to try on the costumes and help choose the one they want for the show and then the director decides if that's what they had in mind.

Normally costume fitting only drives me nuts when we have a child who treats the costume closet like their own personal closet and keeps trying on more and more costumes (but hold this one for me in case I don't find anything I like better!)  There's also the typical rudeness we have where I'll be talking with one person and a child will INSIST that they need to be dealt with RIGHT NOW!  I've gotten pretty good at the hand thing with them though.  And with the closet shoppers I've gotten good at telling them to leave once they have the required number of costumes.

For this show though we had a bit of extra drama in that so far I've had a hard time locating enough costumes for the entire cast and the cast aren't that impressed with the style of clothing that was typical in the 1920's.  If you do a quick search you'll see that the style back then for women was a very form hiding look...they wanted to look masculine...they even went so far as to bind their chest to look flat chested.  So our girls aren't impressed with the non body hugging dresses.  One girl has only tried on one outfit so far and she didn't like it.  I'm going to ask the director to speak to the cast because this IS what she wanted.

Another problem we've had is kids getting upset when the cute costume that they wanted doesn't fit them and it does fit another cast member.  MEOW!

In the end it will all work out just fine as it always does...it's just the stress of getting to that point.  

C food diet

Back on Feb 24th my cousin posted on Facebook that she was going to try out a "C" food diet.  The idea is that you should not eat anything that starts with a C and is bad for you.  She wanted folks to join her in her quest.
So FIRST we had to agree upon what C foods were "no-nos."
the easy ones Cake, Cookies, Candy... I added in my weaknesses Chips, Crackers.  It was agreed by everyone that dark Chocolate did NOT count as a bad C, because dark chocolate is good for you in moderation and would keep us from killing anyone.
Then we had to decide how long we were doing this for.  Cousin said just the month of March.  I decided that since we were only 2 days into Lent, that I would go for the remaining part of Lent.  But I didn't do my official weigh in until March 1st.

Things started out pretty well.  Except that Darly asked me to get her some chips that first week.  ugh!  My weakness!  But you'll be pleased to know that I only slipped on Sun Chips which are mostly good for you.

My next slip up was on the 29th of Feb.  That was our first Soup Supper at Church for Lent and I just totally spaced out that I shouldn't be having that brownie & cookie.  (yes, technically a brownie doesn't start with C but hey, we all know it's really a cake!)  So since it wasn't yet March 1st (a minor technicality) I didn't put too much weight into it.

Since March 1st I've been pretty stellar at this diet if I do say so myself.  I did have one night where that box of Turtles was just singing to me...but I went and made myself a bowl of strawberries instead!  :D

I did notice that last Thursday when my cousin went to the Strawberry Festival she and her husband enjoyed some Strawberry Shortcake with lots of cream!!!  I had to give her a hard time about that because clearly the CAKE and CREAM both start with C and are no-nos.  Her sister ratted her out and told us that she also had a CUBAN sandwich for lunch that day.  I gave her a pass on the sandwich because I know it contained no real cubans ;o)  Cousin claimed that at first she didn't have anything but the strawberries and just gave the cake and cream to her hubby...but then claimed extreme heat fatigue and that she forgot about the diet...that she proposed.  LOL!  Oh well one slip up isn't gonna hurt...much. 

We are now half way through and I'm down 2 and a half pounds.  Not too shabby!

See, I can give up cookies and cakes pretty easily.  But I'm a salty snacker, so that has been the hard part.  I've got a strategy though.  On days when I really need something to much, I've been having a hand full of peanuts instead.  See, salt + protein.  Not salt + carbs.

If I manage to drop another 2.5 lbs by the end of this, I may keep it up.  But you will probably see me having a cookie on Easter. ;o)

Scheduling fun!

Having so much fun working the schedules for this Spring/Summer.

1st Darly's Birthday.  Turns out the best day for her party will be on her actual birthday...but that's a Sunday.  Hopefully her friends can come.  She sent them all a "Save the Date" email.  I hope she told them it's on a Sunday.
2nd Darly's Confirmation.  Yay she gets confirmed this year!  But the first date chosen for this to occur is a weekend that Hubby has a HUGE important thing at work!!  He can't miss this unless he's dead (and let's not hope for that!)  So we spoke to the Pastor and he was okay with moving the date...but then we needed all the other families involved to agree also.  I believe that we got the okay for that.  WHEW!  UPDATE: Yes they did approve moving Confirmation up a week so DH can be there.  YAY!

and then there are Summer camps and a possible youth mission trip.

Girl Scout camp is only one week and unless she chooses to not go it is set.  I should really go register her for that.
UPDATE:  I went to register for Girl Scout camp on the 15th and the camps that Darly wanted to attend are already FULL!!!  Crazy because registration for these camps just opened up on the 6th.

CYT camp is multiple weeks but the week she really wants is of course the same week as Girl Scout camp.
UPDATE: Well since Girl Scout camp is out, Darly CAN go to CYT camp that week instead...which means it won't interfere with her doing the mission trip.

And the mission trip is during the CYT camp time.

So Darly has to choose.  She's bummed because she really wants to do it all.  

Since Darly can't go to Girl Scout camp this year...at least not the one she wanted, I'll check and see if there is another one that she can do, but she may not want that.  We have a friend at Church who owns horses and due to her and her husband's work schedules they aren't able to ride the horses as much as the horses need it...so she has asked Darly to come out and help her ride the horses.  WOW!  Darly couldn't be more thrilled...free horse riding.  The horse that Darly will get to ride is supposed to be a sweetheart that is very good with children.  So this could be a match made in heaven.  (must get Darly a riding helmet...much cheaper than paying for camp though!)

Worlds are colliding!

Argh!  I find that I no longer have a safe place to vent in my life because everything is connected.  Darned Google!  Ooh that's a place to start, I can get rid of G+ since I'm not using it...no one else is either... and that would free up some things.

But I have a lot of worries on my chest right now and I can't really say anything about them.  No sympathy required or requested as they aren't anything that is live changing or anything like that.  Just a lot of little frustrations that I would like to vent about, but I can't because there are too many eyes out there...even with my little barely read blog.  sigh!

Ah!  I've just went and opted out of a bunch of Google Settings... deleted my Google + and Buzz (they're still doing that???)  It said that the Google + would take a few days to get rid of everything.  hummm sounds fishy to me.

I hope that will help me be less connected to everything.  Funny, Google asked why I was leaving...I said because no one is using Google + and that having all my accounts connected had people I didn't want seeing my stuff.  hummm that sounds a bit contradictory but I didn't know when I started this that G+ folks could see my Blogger.