Roundup...Why should you care about it?

Even if you don't use Roundup, Monsanto's #1 weed killer, you should care about it. Almost every food item that you eat (unless you eat organically) comes from genetically modified seeds. I am not opposed to the idea of gmo foods because they have done some good things like making corn able to grow closer together which means you can produce more corn per acre now. However, Monsanto modifies their seeds to become immune to Roundup which means every year the fields are sprayed with Roundup to kill weeds but not the crops. The Roundup is then in the food we eat along with other toxic chemicals. Monsanto is so big that they can conduct their own studies to produce the results that make it look like these foods are safe to eat. I heard a statistic the other day that autism is up 600% over the last 20 yrs or so. I wonder why that is???? Think about how our food has evolved over the last 20 yrs. 20 yrs ago, you didn't have 15 different flavors of hamburger/tuna/chicken helper on the shelf. These overly processed boxed foods contain so much crap and chemicals in them, it's no wonder we are seeing rises in cancer, autism, birth defects, etc. Unfortunately, our country does not require that foods be labeled whether or not they contain gmo's. The only way to know right now (unless you do your own research on every item) is to buy 100% organic products. I'm so fed up with our food system (which is why Toby and I have an organic garden this year)...everything contains high fructose corn syrup as well. It's no wonder why obesity is on the rise...not to mention, I can't believe how many young teens I see with belly fat. I don't remember that when I was in school and that was less than 20 yrs ago. There is so much processed crap in our food that our bodies cannot fully digest. It makes me want to scream....Anyways, this is the article that prompted me to write this little rant.

http://redgreenandblue.org/2011/06/08/its-official-monsantos-roundup-herbicide-causes-birth-defects/

Seeds...

Pomegranate seedlings, originally uploaded by Fluffymuppet.

We purchased our seeds yesterday from www.seedsofchange.com. They are all organic, yay! However, there are way more in each packet then we will need. So, if you would like to purchase some of the seeds from me just let me know. Each packet was between $3-$4 each with about 50 seeds in each one. We are going to have a small garden so we will only need 10-15 at most...Here is a list of what we bought and if you want a description, go to seeds of change:

CARROT, RED CORE CHANTENAY
CELERY, TANGO
CORN, SWEET, HOOKERS
CUCUMBER, LEMON
MELON, EEL RIVER
ONION, NEWBURG
TOMATO, CRIMSON SPRINTER
TOMATILLO, VERDE
SQUASH, SUMMER, YELLOW CROOKNECK
PEPPER, PIMIENTO, TANGERINE
PEPPER, CAL WONDER ORANGE BELL

Monsanto...Genetically Modified...do you know these terms?

So I know I scare myself by watching documentaries about our food, but guess what? I like to know what I am eating since I know that corn is not always what it appears to be. I just read an article in Mother Earth News Magazine (which is one of my fav magazines) titled "Genetically Modified Corn-Safe or Toxic". Monsanto, one of the biggest corn processing companies, has three corn varieties being sold by Monsanto to farmers that have become the subject of a new analysis by French Scientists. Two of the varieties have been designed to kill insects that kill the plant. The third was designed to tolerate Roundup which is Monsanto's best selling herbicide. Under current u.s. law, corps are not required to make industry conducted studies public. But in this case, thanks to a lawsuit, studies were released for independent analysis by scientists NOT being paid by Monsanto. They concluded that the data, which Monsanto claimed proved the corn varieties were safe to eat, actually suggest potential kidney and liver problems resulting from consumption of all three modified corn varieties, as well as negative effects in the heart, adrenal glands and spleen.

This is just one example of how (pardon my language) fucked up our foods have become. How do you know what to eat anymore?? Even if you eat veggies/fruits from a local family farmer, you almost have to ask where they got their seeds and do your research first. Ultimately, the only way to get around it is to grow your own food with seeds that you approve of.

The more I hear about things like this, the more I just want to move to the middle of nowhere with a couple of acres. I want a large garden where I can freeze and can my own food and not have to rely on grocery store food as much.

Toby and I are in the beginning stages of planning our garden this summer. We are trying to grow as much of the fruits and veggies that we eat everyday. We also have a few fun veggies/fruits that we are going to try. I'm really hoping every year we can do a little better at our garden since it seems our politicians are not going to help make our food any safer.

New Lifestyle Changes

Toby and I have been making some changes to our lifestyle that will hopefully result in us being healthier and reducing our carbon footprint. These are extremely important to us (especially with Toby getting into the environmental field) that we felt we had to make some changes. We recycle quite a bit already but we have decided to compost. This will be better for the landfills and also help our garden. We have also decided to do raised garden beds this year. We did this when we lived in Nashville and had pretty good success.

Since we are living in my grandma's house, we don't want to tear up her yard so this is a good option for us. That being said, there are a few things we want to eventually do that we just can't do now. Mainly, that is raising chickens for meat and eggs and goats (for fun??). We went to buy a compost bin today and apparently they only sell them during gardening season and the lady questioned why we would want to compost now. If we start composting now then we'll have some good dirt ready when we plant our garden. If we wait til the stores carry them, then we can't use it til next year (or at least later in the gardening season)...make sense stores?? We have done a great job at making homemade foods and we have barely eaten boxed food in the last year. In fact, the few times we have out of necessity or time, they have tasted so salty and nasty to me that I can barely eat them. I still coupon and I am able to find ways to eat cheap without eating that crappy boxed food (hamburger helper, etc). I meal plan around what I have in the cupboard and what's on sale. We bought a bread machine and plan on making healthier homemade breads and pizza doughs. We made our first "bread" tonight in it...it was a pizza dough. I included a pic of the finished pizza. It was soooo delicious. I am definitely looking forward to making more breads in it.


I also bought a book with my xmas money called "Building Green". It discusses 4 alternative building methods, earth plaster, straw bale, cordwood and cob. I have a dream someday that we put down some roots (where, is still the question), have a little bit of land, a big garden, a few farm animals and an off the grid house. That would be the dream for both Toby and I.

We are very excited about our little changes we are making that will make a big impact on our health and earth.

Haven't blogged in awhile...

I've been out of school since the week before Christmas. It's been very nice to have almost a month off. I like school, I really do but it seems things get put on the back burner while I'm in school. It's been nice to get some things accomplished. Toby, Wyatt and I celebrated Christmas Eve at home, just the three of us. We had smoked carp, potato soup, cheese and crackers. Growing up, we always had a nicer dinner on Christmas Eve (I remember one year having live lobsters in a cooler-dead ones at dinner-lol) and then opened a few gifts. We did just the same. We had our dinner and then we opened up our gifts to each other and let Wyatt open a few. It was a very enjoyable evening. That night after Wyatt fell asleep, 'Santa' came and brought Wyatt a train set. It was all set up for him on the floor and when he woke up in the morning he got the biggest surprise ever. He didn't know what to do at first, you could tell he was really surprised. We left our house later that day to go do Christmas at my parents house with my brother and his family, my parents and grandparents. Jake and Wyatt are about a year apart and they have moments where they are very cute and moments where they just fight, which is to be expected at that age. The cute moment though (and wish I had gotten a pic) was they fell asleep in bed together watching a Thomas video. We spent Christmas evening watching Christmas Vacation, a family tradition. The next morning, Wyatt and I made the 9 hr drive to Toby's parents. Unfortunately Toby had to work. We were only able to spend 1 whole day there but it was worth it. Toby's sister from MD was there with her two girls, 4 and 2. Toby's brother was there with his wife, son (6months) and daughter (3 yrs). With Wyatt there, that made 5 kids, one born every year! It was complete chaos the first night I got there as the girls were impatiently waiting for us to get there to open presents. The rest of the trip was enjoyable and Wyatt had fun playing with his cousins. It's been nice to be home for the rest of my time off from school. I'm trying to get some things organized around this house and it's coming along. For New Years, Toby, I & Wyatt went to a friends house. There were about 4 couples there with their kids. Wyatt was still running at 11pm when I put him in bed. But his eyes were closed within seconds. Well, I won't bore you with anymore for now...I hope everyone had a great Holiday season and a great New Year!

TTTS-Twin to Twin Transfusion Syndrome

I received our annual donation request letter from the TTTS Foundation. It made me cry. She included a story shared on the TTTS facebook page. Amber, was diagnosed at 19 weeks with TTTS. She had laser surgery at 22 weeks and delivered her boys at 25 weeks. Dayton passed away 25 hours after he was born due to heart failure. Alex lived for 10 days and passed away from lung complications. What made me cry was this, "We spent every penny we had trying to save them. After 2 trips out of state and 10 days in the NICU, I now spend my maternity leave at home alone. I hope no one else has to go through this.". Unfortunately, I know how it is to spend your maternity leave at home, alone. I went back to work within a couple of weeks. After a week or so (time is a bit blurry), my family had gone home, friends had gone back to their normal lives, husband was back to work and I was at home alone...thinking...crying...wishing. I went back to work because I felt if I was doing something that I would be better off. In a way, I was.

Why am I writing about this? I want to spread the word of this horrible syndrome. It occurs more often than SIDS and everyone has heard of SIDS...have you heard of TTTS unless someone you know was affected by it?? My doctor never mentioned anything about it. I briefly read one paragraph about it in my twin book but it said it was rare so I didn't think much about it. Anyone that is pregnant with twins needs to be notified of this. Even if they say they are not identical. I know of moms who lost their twins to TTTS even when the doctors said they were not identical. They (dr's) can be wrong.

Mary, the founder of the TTTS foundation (www.tttsfoundation.org) had twin boys who were born premature due to ttts. One survived and one passed away. The survivor, Matthew, is now a healthy 21 year old. She founded the TTTS Foundation in honor of her sons. Mary provides information about ttts, treatment, access to medical specialists, plans of action, emotional support and a circle of care program. This program provides free airline tickets and hotel stays to get to treatment centers and pays for family expenses and bereavement costs. Bereavement costs is not something you think of when you deliver your babies...we were fortunate that a local funeral home donated their time and facility to cremate the boys and provide us with urns. Mary has a forum on her website and that is what saved me. I met other mothers who were going through the same exact thing as me at the same time. They have been wonderful friends and they honestly saved my life. Mary provided us with a packet of information specifically for dealing with the loss of your babies. It is a wonderful organization...please check it out and pass this on to help spread the awareness of TTTS, www.tttsfoundation.org.

December is Twin to Twin Transfusion Syndrome month in honor of Mary's sons who were born December 7th.

Small town living

After living back in Morrison, my hometown, for a year, I am still trying to adjust. Since Moved away 13 years ago, I have lived in towns about 25,000 or larger. I really love the small town life with the exception of one thing, religion. It's a large "thing" because in a small town, religion is a way of life. It's not that I'm against religion, it's just not for me. I did not grow up in a very religious household and I just never really understood what, why and how it worked for people. I don't want to offend anyone, if it works for you and your family, great. However, I still believe that I am a good person and I will instill values and morals on Wyatt and hopefully he will grow up to become a decent man.

I like a lot of the friends I have met here. However, I feel there is a wall between us because for so many of them, religion is a big part of their life. We can enjoy each others time and have fun but when it comes to talking...there is apprehension on my part. I feel as if I have to hide a part of who I am. I will say (type) it, I don't believe-gasp! I am a spiritual person, I just don't necessarily buy into the story. I guess I am sort of chickening out by typing this out as I know some of my friends will read this. We tried to go to a church here in town once to meet people. We realized though that we would be making friends based on lies. Obviously if they met us through church they would think that we believed when in fact we don't. So we decided it was not for us. I really do like the community that a church has. I think it is a wonderful thing, it's just not for me. I guess I don't know where I'm really going with this. I just wanted to vent so to speak (type). It's just the one thing that has been really hard about living in such a small town. Toby and I have not found really close friends mainly because of this one "thing" which may seem stupid to some but we would love to have close friends that we share much in common with...