Whooo, got your attention, eh?!!
Ha, I did actually have a reason for that----it wasn't just for a jolt.
Quebec pulls sex ed
I'm just amazed at this article. They must really think we parents are complete idiots. To honestly think that pulling sex ed out of Quebec's public school system will leave kids 'groping in the dark' (oh, the pun) is just the ultimate in reliance on the government to do everything for us.
The whole homeschooling thing aside, I consider teaching my kids about sex one of the most important lessons they will learn from me, and I look forward to the moments where I will get to convey my beliefs to them on the subject. I relish the thought.
Quebec pulling sex ed!? Good riddance!!! The last line says that without a curriculum, alot of teachers will do nothing.....excellent!! Let them educate their own children about sex.
I will educate mine.
We are SO SICK
Saturday, March 1, 2008
The title says it all. We are horribly, terribly, overwhelmingly sick. James is the only one so far not suffering.
I am currently counting down the moments until I can take some decongestant spray.....3....2......1......hallelujah!!!!!
Verity started with a cough a couple days after family day. My SIL was pretty sick that last day of the renos and Verity was all over her lap, so maybe that's where it came from. It was one of those really concerning thick coughs and I was afraid it was going to turn into croup. So I took her off to the doctors where we had quite an adventure. Just as we were waiting to see the doc, the fire alarm went off and the whole building had to evacuate. The fire department showed up. It was the Shoppers Drugmart next door, but I'm not sure what exactly. Their sprinker system went off. So after 15-20 minutes we went back into the clinic and just as the doctor came along, the power went out. He still listened to her chest, there in a dark hallway with only the emergency lights on, and wrote me out a prescription by hand for some kind of steroid that would calm her lungs down.
It worked, but she still went on to develop a brutal cold with a regular sounding cough. Last Tuesday night, I started feeling a little scratchy in the back of my throat and woke up in the middle of the night with everything aching. I got into see my chiropractor Wednesday morning--whom I haven't seen for 2 months because we couldn't afford even the co-payment. I was desperate though. I couldn't sit and couldn't stand from the pain, especially in my hips. Feeling as rotten as I was, I still hauled the kids to Dundas to see her, and put up with THE most atrocious behaviour from Verity. I swear she was possessed.
She was horrible for the rest of the day and I figured something was up with her. Sure enough, just as we were getting her pj's on, she suddenly announced that her ear hurt very badly. So James took her over to the walk in clinic, just in the nick of time, and had her looked at. Ear infection.
By now, I was completely congested, to the point of pain throughout my head, behind my eyes, into my teeth. I'm used to pretty bad sinus problems, but this seemed worse. And now Honour was blowing her nose and coughing like a....I can't think of anything that coughs alot.
James went off to work on Thursday, but decided on his own (after hearing me on the phone, I would imagine) that he needed to come home. Just in time to take Jairus over to the clinic, as he was burning up and hadn't moved from the couch all morning. By now all four of us were pretty much camped out in the family room. I've never been so glad for the 5 channels we get, one which includes TVO kids.
James brought Jairus home with his diagnosis of inner and outer ear infections. He needed Tylenol and Advil for more then 24 hours until his fever of 104 came down. He's still rather lethargic and his eyes are swollen. Also concerning are his blue fingernails.
I started on a regime of Oil of Oregano, only to find out after 24 hours and 4 doses that I shouldn't be taking it during pregnancy. Rats. There is just NOTHING I can take to help this. I can't even take the extra vitamin C that I normally would because for some reason, the stuff I have warns that you shouldn't take it within 2-4 hours of taking another medication, and I'm still on meds for strep throat. If I weren't pregnant, I would risk it.....
And now my nasal spray has kicked in and I can close my mouth. What a relief. The Tylenol is still working, so I can sit here and type. And I double checked with my midwife, Tylenol is OK. Phew.
So now I'm just waiting for Honour to start with something....fever, sore ears/throat, on top of the hacking she's already doing. How about pneumonia? We haven't had that in the house for a few years. This is what I dread every winter: the moment when my entire household is sick. With 3 kids, it's just impossible to isolate any of them.
I really hope this all passes soon.
I am currently counting down the moments until I can take some decongestant spray.....3....2......1......hallelujah!!!!!
Verity started with a cough a couple days after family day. My SIL was pretty sick that last day of the renos and Verity was all over her lap, so maybe that's where it came from. It was one of those really concerning thick coughs and I was afraid it was going to turn into croup. So I took her off to the doctors where we had quite an adventure. Just as we were waiting to see the doc, the fire alarm went off and the whole building had to evacuate. The fire department showed up. It was the Shoppers Drugmart next door, but I'm not sure what exactly. Their sprinker system went off. So after 15-20 minutes we went back into the clinic and just as the doctor came along, the power went out. He still listened to her chest, there in a dark hallway with only the emergency lights on, and wrote me out a prescription by hand for some kind of steroid that would calm her lungs down.
It worked, but she still went on to develop a brutal cold with a regular sounding cough. Last Tuesday night, I started feeling a little scratchy in the back of my throat and woke up in the middle of the night with everything aching. I got into see my chiropractor Wednesday morning--whom I haven't seen for 2 months because we couldn't afford even the co-payment. I was desperate though. I couldn't sit and couldn't stand from the pain, especially in my hips. Feeling as rotten as I was, I still hauled the kids to Dundas to see her, and put up with THE most atrocious behaviour from Verity. I swear she was possessed.
She was horrible for the rest of the day and I figured something was up with her. Sure enough, just as we were getting her pj's on, she suddenly announced that her ear hurt very badly. So James took her over to the walk in clinic, just in the nick of time, and had her looked at. Ear infection.
By now, I was completely congested, to the point of pain throughout my head, behind my eyes, into my teeth. I'm used to pretty bad sinus problems, but this seemed worse. And now Honour was blowing her nose and coughing like a....I can't think of anything that coughs alot.
James went off to work on Thursday, but decided on his own (after hearing me on the phone, I would imagine) that he needed to come home. Just in time to take Jairus over to the clinic, as he was burning up and hadn't moved from the couch all morning. By now all four of us were pretty much camped out in the family room. I've never been so glad for the 5 channels we get, one which includes TVO kids.
James brought Jairus home with his diagnosis of inner and outer ear infections. He needed Tylenol and Advil for more then 24 hours until his fever of 104 came down. He's still rather lethargic and his eyes are swollen. Also concerning are his blue fingernails.
I started on a regime of Oil of Oregano, only to find out after 24 hours and 4 doses that I shouldn't be taking it during pregnancy. Rats. There is just NOTHING I can take to help this. I can't even take the extra vitamin C that I normally would because for some reason, the stuff I have warns that you shouldn't take it within 2-4 hours of taking another medication, and I'm still on meds for strep throat. If I weren't pregnant, I would risk it.....
And now my nasal spray has kicked in and I can close my mouth. What a relief. The Tylenol is still working, so I can sit here and type. And I double checked with my midwife, Tylenol is OK. Phew.
So now I'm just waiting for Honour to start with something....fever, sore ears/throat, on top of the hacking she's already doing. How about pneumonia? We haven't had that in the house for a few years. This is what I dread every winter: the moment when my entire household is sick. With 3 kids, it's just impossible to isolate any of them.
I really hope this all passes soon.
He's My Son
Monday, February 18, 2008
If you've never had the time to look at Jairus' blog, and/or just never really understood what it was he was born with, this video, created by a dad from the Pierre Robin list I've been on for years, might give you some insight. The details are a little different, but the emotions are the
same. I especially love the prayer he prayed over his boy. And that Mark Schultz song has been constantly playing in my head since I watched this.
same. I especially love the prayer he prayed over his boy. And that Mark Schultz song has been constantly playing in my head since I watched this.
February Sucks
Thursday, February 14, 2008
I'm in a lousy mood today. I'm hoping that blogging will lift my mood somewhat. But I have to get schooling done today, I've been sick lately and missed some, so I can't afford to miss today. So I'll type fast.
Yes, I have strep throat again. I had a sore throat all December, but because I was simultaneously having sinus problems, I just thought it was a sore throat related to that. Finally after like, the whole month, my midwife suggested I get it looked at. Some local clinic doctor took one look and dismissed it as a run of the mill sore throat, but took a swab anyway. A whole week later (cause it was over the New year holiday) I get a call....."Mrs. Kent, your throat culture came back positive for strep throat. Have you started antibiotics for that?".
Um, yes, because I would know exactly what antibiotic to prescribe for myself AND I could just waltz into a drug store and order it. What kind of lame brain question was that?
So, unhappily I started antibiotics for it. A five day power pill type antibiotic. After it was done, I felt better, but not all the way. So for another 6 weeks I ignored the sore throat and told myself it was just the dry winter weather and remaining sinus problems. Finally last Friday, the pain started getting worse so I went back to the same clinic, where a different doctor looked at my throat, declared it looked fine, but he would do a swab just to be sure. Of course, on Monday, I got a call that it was positive. More antibiotics. I've picked up some probiotics and am still taking grapefruit seed extract to combat it. This kills me. My insurance will pay for my prescription of a drug that I need to kill off my infection, but at the same time cause an imbalance in my system that could cause another infection. So I have to purchase excess remedies to combat this, all which cost me twice as much as the antibiotics, yet the insurance company wouldn't think of paying for that. How messed.
And how messed is PC bank? I am SO sick of them and I don't even bank with them. I tried them for a year a few years ago, just to save on the monthly fees but I ended screwing up my finances so many times because of how inconvenient they are, that I ended up paying fines that were vastly more expensive then the monthly fees from TD. I should have learned my lesson. But for reasons I won't get into--mostly financially based ones (as in, lack of money) I was forced to use my old PC account for a few things the last number of weeks and again, screwed up and was slapped with brutal charges for my mistakes. I've now paid to them twice the amount in fees that I would have paid to fix the problem I had in the first place that cause me to use them. I know that's kind of screwy sounding, but I don't want to get into details, so you'll have to try and muddle through that one.
My arm hurts because I had to get my RH shot yesterday because I'm a negative person. I mean, I have a negative blood type. On top of cold/strep symptoms this week, I've been feeling particularly big and heavy. Very uncomfortable. I wondered if perhaps she had shifted her position. Sure enough, at my midwife appointment, her head is now down. Which is why I feel like I can barely sit. I hope I'm not causing brain damage.
I had another dream last night. I won't get into it, but the gist was that I was at a highschool reunion. Strangely, it was at someones huge, grand house with a pool and everything. And Amanda Duern (now not Duern) was singing at the top of her lungs. She sounded pretty good.
And now for some exciting, positive news. Tomorrow we start redoing our bathroom. Sometime last year (and forgive me if I've blogged this---baby/strep throat brain) I announced to James that there was NO WAY my midwives were going to be coming into this house, and using our bathroom in the state it was in. Furthermore, there was NO WAY I was bringing my brand new baby into that bathtub for her first bath (a right-after-birth tradition) looking as disgusting as it was.
We knew that the bathroom wasn't the newest when we moved in. It was obvious that the fixtures and nearly everything in it was as old as the house---about 30 years. What we didn't know was how much had been covered up. The old people had painted....but likely hadn't thoroughly cleaned all the mildew or used the proper mildew resistant bathroom paint. So it wasn't long until we had a huge mildew problem--despite copious fan use. And the tub is slanted. It's an old metal tub, starting to rust in various spots, and it's not level, leaning down towards you if you're standing in front of it. Which means that during showers, water runs down it and off onto the floor. We tried numerous little things to fix this, all in vain. So slowly the wall next to the tub started to break down and destroy itself. And the linoleum beside the tub slowly discoloured and stained, indicating that the subfloor underneath was damaged. Then the taps started giving us a hard time, constantly leaking because of a botched repair someone before us tried to do. Then the sink, also metal, began to rust around the edges and drain. The sink taps became loose and wiggle everytime you turn them on or off. Many little things developed that made it into an unattractive and annoying bathroom. Plus, if we didn't fix some of the things, they would continue to rot until we had a huge, expensive mess on our hands. Something had to be done.
Problem A was no money. Even just to fix the things that were broken/destroyed would be way beyond what we could afford. Which was nothing.
Well, for reasons I won't get into, problem A suddenly had a solution. But it was a solution that I still felt meant that we would need to do this bathroom on the lowest possible budget. Habitat for Humanity, here we come.
I'd heard of lots of people donating things to Habitat---you see it on Makeover all the time. But I hadn't heard so much about people going and using things from Habitat. Still, we looked up the locations and found there were three within reasonable driving range. The first one we went to was right here in Hamilton.
We really lucked out there and found brand-new (donated demos) taps for both tub and sink for just over a hundred bucks. Then at the Burlington one, we bought a sink and toilet for 70$.
The last coup was when I checked back at the Hamilton one, still looking for a vanity. They had just gotten in a beautiful, brand new (but still discounted, of course) vanity that normally runs close to a thousand bucks at Home Depot. Complete with a matching framed mirror, we picked it up for 400$. It now sits in my living room and I cast many admiring gazes at it.
Oh, and my BIL is bringing us a tub for free. Perk of working for a home building company.
So after a trip to Home Depot the other night to pick up things you can't buy at Habitat (linoleum, a tub surround, paint, etc.) we are basically ready to start the attack. Tomorrow James stays home from work, my dad takes a day off and comes over, I take the kids to my parents, and they will take a sledgehammer to our bathroom. Ooooh, I should get some before pics now!!
My brother will arrive tomorrow night, my BIL will arrive the same time or the next morning, and hopefully the four of them will have this project done by the end of Family Day. How exciting!!!!
And now Jairus is hollering, so I must go.
Yes, I have strep throat again. I had a sore throat all December, but because I was simultaneously having sinus problems, I just thought it was a sore throat related to that. Finally after like, the whole month, my midwife suggested I get it looked at. Some local clinic doctor took one look and dismissed it as a run of the mill sore throat, but took a swab anyway. A whole week later (cause it was over the New year holiday) I get a call....."Mrs. Kent, your throat culture came back positive for strep throat. Have you started antibiotics for that?".
Um, yes, because I would know exactly what antibiotic to prescribe for myself AND I could just waltz into a drug store and order it. What kind of lame brain question was that?
So, unhappily I started antibiotics for it. A five day power pill type antibiotic. After it was done, I felt better, but not all the way. So for another 6 weeks I ignored the sore throat and told myself it was just the dry winter weather and remaining sinus problems. Finally last Friday, the pain started getting worse so I went back to the same clinic, where a different doctor looked at my throat, declared it looked fine, but he would do a swab just to be sure. Of course, on Monday, I got a call that it was positive. More antibiotics. I've picked up some probiotics and am still taking grapefruit seed extract to combat it. This kills me. My insurance will pay for my prescription of a drug that I need to kill off my infection, but at the same time cause an imbalance in my system that could cause another infection. So I have to purchase excess remedies to combat this, all which cost me twice as much as the antibiotics, yet the insurance company wouldn't think of paying for that. How messed.
And how messed is PC bank? I am SO sick of them and I don't even bank with them. I tried them for a year a few years ago, just to save on the monthly fees but I ended screwing up my finances so many times because of how inconvenient they are, that I ended up paying fines that were vastly more expensive then the monthly fees from TD. I should have learned my lesson. But for reasons I won't get into--mostly financially based ones (as in, lack of money) I was forced to use my old PC account for a few things the last number of weeks and again, screwed up and was slapped with brutal charges for my mistakes. I've now paid to them twice the amount in fees that I would have paid to fix the problem I had in the first place that cause me to use them. I know that's kind of screwy sounding, but I don't want to get into details, so you'll have to try and muddle through that one.
My arm hurts because I had to get my RH shot yesterday because I'm a negative person. I mean, I have a negative blood type. On top of cold/strep symptoms this week, I've been feeling particularly big and heavy. Very uncomfortable. I wondered if perhaps she had shifted her position. Sure enough, at my midwife appointment, her head is now down. Which is why I feel like I can barely sit. I hope I'm not causing brain damage.
I had another dream last night. I won't get into it, but the gist was that I was at a highschool reunion. Strangely, it was at someones huge, grand house with a pool and everything. And Amanda Duern (now not Duern) was singing at the top of her lungs. She sounded pretty good.
And now for some exciting, positive news. Tomorrow we start redoing our bathroom. Sometime last year (and forgive me if I've blogged this---baby/strep throat brain) I announced to James that there was NO WAY my midwives were going to be coming into this house, and using our bathroom in the state it was in. Furthermore, there was NO WAY I was bringing my brand new baby into that bathtub for her first bath (a right-after-birth tradition) looking as disgusting as it was.
We knew that the bathroom wasn't the newest when we moved in. It was obvious that the fixtures and nearly everything in it was as old as the house---about 30 years. What we didn't know was how much had been covered up. The old people had painted....but likely hadn't thoroughly cleaned all the mildew or used the proper mildew resistant bathroom paint. So it wasn't long until we had a huge mildew problem--despite copious fan use. And the tub is slanted. It's an old metal tub, starting to rust in various spots, and it's not level, leaning down towards you if you're standing in front of it. Which means that during showers, water runs down it and off onto the floor. We tried numerous little things to fix this, all in vain. So slowly the wall next to the tub started to break down and destroy itself. And the linoleum beside the tub slowly discoloured and stained, indicating that the subfloor underneath was damaged. Then the taps started giving us a hard time, constantly leaking because of a botched repair someone before us tried to do. Then the sink, also metal, began to rust around the edges and drain. The sink taps became loose and wiggle everytime you turn them on or off. Many little things developed that made it into an unattractive and annoying bathroom. Plus, if we didn't fix some of the things, they would continue to rot until we had a huge, expensive mess on our hands. Something had to be done.
Problem A was no money. Even just to fix the things that were broken/destroyed would be way beyond what we could afford. Which was nothing.
Well, for reasons I won't get into, problem A suddenly had a solution. But it was a solution that I still felt meant that we would need to do this bathroom on the lowest possible budget. Habitat for Humanity, here we come.
I'd heard of lots of people donating things to Habitat---you see it on Makeover all the time. But I hadn't heard so much about people going and using things from Habitat. Still, we looked up the locations and found there were three within reasonable driving range. The first one we went to was right here in Hamilton.
We really lucked out there and found brand-new (donated demos) taps for both tub and sink for just over a hundred bucks. Then at the Burlington one, we bought a sink and toilet for 70$.
The last coup was when I checked back at the Hamilton one, still looking for a vanity. They had just gotten in a beautiful, brand new (but still discounted, of course) vanity that normally runs close to a thousand bucks at Home Depot. Complete with a matching framed mirror, we picked it up for 400$. It now sits in my living room and I cast many admiring gazes at it.
Oh, and my BIL is bringing us a tub for free. Perk of working for a home building company.
So after a trip to Home Depot the other night to pick up things you can't buy at Habitat (linoleum, a tub surround, paint, etc.) we are basically ready to start the attack. Tomorrow James stays home from work, my dad takes a day off and comes over, I take the kids to my parents, and they will take a sledgehammer to our bathroom. Ooooh, I should get some before pics now!!
My brother will arrive tomorrow night, my BIL will arrive the same time or the next morning, and hopefully the four of them will have this project done by the end of Family Day. How exciting!!!!
And now Jairus is hollering, so I must go.
Dreams
Thursday, February 7, 2008
I have weird and vivid dreams. Anyone who knows me has likely been exposed to this. Sometimes, they're vivid, and make no sense, just a collage of scenes with people I may or may not know. But lots of times it's like I've woken up after watching a movie. Every once in a while (a very long while) a dream, or part of one comes true. Very weird.
Last night I had a dream that I died. Sort of. In my dream, when I looked in the mirror, it wasn't me looking back, but my friend Heather, who's wedding I sang at last fall. Instead of Jairus, Honour and Verity, I had three boys, but one of them was named Ashley, or some other feminine name, and he....dressed and looked like a girl.
I had been abducted, with the three kids. For a long time, I was held prisoner at some kind of abandoned campgrounds. Me and the kids thought we'd never get out. Finally, I had to take some kind of drastic and very brave action to get free---somehow it involved faking my death. I remember walking across a barren, snow covered field. There was a tombstone with a name on it. It wasn't my real name, but in my dream the name I saw there was mine.
Suddenly I was walking into a downtown building, like an inner-city rec. centre. I looked like myself again...at least, my hair was brown and I was wearing tattered jeans and other comfy, but very shabby clothes. There were a bunch of kids around doing all sorts of activities--like painting a mural. A pastor I know here in Hamilton was in charge, Pernell. I went over and talked to him and he was shocked to see me, because....I was supposed to be dead. He started telling me how this operation was going, because it was new. He gestured over to another pastor who was helping him, a guy I know in real life, another pastor from up north. I went over to talk to him as well, and he was really freaked to see me alive too. Gave me a big hug.
For some reason, I couldn't return to my family. I was totally on my own and basically had the clothes on my back.
Where does my brain come up with these things??
Last night I had a dream that I died. Sort of. In my dream, when I looked in the mirror, it wasn't me looking back, but my friend Heather, who's wedding I sang at last fall. Instead of Jairus, Honour and Verity, I had three boys, but one of them was named Ashley, or some other feminine name, and he....dressed and looked like a girl.
I had been abducted, with the three kids. For a long time, I was held prisoner at some kind of abandoned campgrounds. Me and the kids thought we'd never get out. Finally, I had to take some kind of drastic and very brave action to get free---somehow it involved faking my death. I remember walking across a barren, snow covered field. There was a tombstone with a name on it. It wasn't my real name, but in my dream the name I saw there was mine.
Suddenly I was walking into a downtown building, like an inner-city rec. centre. I looked like myself again...at least, my hair was brown and I was wearing tattered jeans and other comfy, but very shabby clothes. There were a bunch of kids around doing all sorts of activities--like painting a mural. A pastor I know here in Hamilton was in charge, Pernell. I went over and talked to him and he was shocked to see me, because....I was supposed to be dead. He started telling me how this operation was going, because it was new. He gestured over to another pastor who was helping him, a guy I know in real life, another pastor from up north. I went over to talk to him as well, and he was really freaked to see me alive too. Gave me a big hug.
For some reason, I couldn't return to my family. I was totally on my own and basically had the clothes on my back.
Where does my brain come up with these things??
Sad
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
A family from Fair Havens found out yesterday that the father has liver cancer and there is no treatment. I don't know how much longer he's expected to survive, but it doesn't seem long, perhaps only days.
Ken and Jean are friends of my mom and their 16 year old daughter was a beautiful little girl I remember teaching in children's chapel. (She's still beautiful).
Please pray for them.
Update: Ken died around 5am, Saturday, February 2nd,
Ken and Jean are friends of my mom and their 16 year old daughter was a beautiful little girl I remember teaching in children's chapel. (She's still beautiful).
Please pray for them.
Update: Ken died around 5am, Saturday, February 2nd,
Organizing, Digital Camers and Going Organic
Monday, January 28, 2008
I'm feeling organized today.
I cleaned quite profusely (I was going to say, like a maniac, but that seems a little extreme) on Saturday night, so my house was still looking good by this morning, since we're never home on Sundays. The basement is still looking nice from our full frontal attack last weekend. Still a few more things to organize there, but I need some baskets from the dollar store and I don't have any dollars right now.
The dishwasher is on, the washing machine is on, one kid is napping, one is having quiet play in his room and one is working on an activity book at the table here with me. I'm wearing some comfy-new-(loaned)-to-me maternity clothes from my friend, so I'm excited about that. Less early morning searching for clothes. At least, until I get behind on the laundry again. I know, I should think positively.
I have choir tonight, and I actually got my plan made and sent out to my 'staff' by my deadline, Fridays. So now I just have to gather up stuff...oh and maybe I should look at some of the music I don't know....
Oh, have I got a story. So, if you've been reading, you might remember that our digital camera (Christmas 06 gift from my parents) was lost/stolen last summer. I searched everywhere....or so I thought. We gave up and bought a new one last month as our christmas gift to each other.
I was inspired to start scrapbooking again yesterday and hauled all my stuff to my parents. Besides my usual two bags of stuff, I had a few other bags of miscellaneous stuff that needed to be sorted and hopefully some thrown out. I hadn't scrapped since last summer, so I hardly remembered what half the bags had in them.
I ensconsed myself on my moms living room floor and opened the first bag to see what it contained...some blank pages, some page protectors, some cutting tools.....
And our lost/stolen digital camera.
In the words of the Genie....I feel sheepish.
Anyways, I got all my scrapbooking stuff organized so now I can get back at it and maybe get somewhat caught up by the time the baby arrives. At least enough that I can make a book for her too. I'm still determined to make sure baby #4 gets something comparable to baby #1.
And onto another topic...our great Organic Adventure.
Last summer, I read a couple books that really got me thinking about our food. Now, eating better, with less chemicals and all that is something I've been interested in for a few years. But these two books kickstarted me back into a much more intense effort to make changes. When the fall arrived, I had decided to start doing a few things differently
I cleaned quite profusely (I was going to say, like a maniac, but that seems a little extreme) on Saturday night, so my house was still looking good by this morning, since we're never home on Sundays. The basement is still looking nice from our full frontal attack last weekend. Still a few more things to organize there, but I need some baskets from the dollar store and I don't have any dollars right now.
The dishwasher is on, the washing machine is on, one kid is napping, one is having quiet play in his room and one is working on an activity book at the table here with me. I'm wearing some comfy-new-(loaned)-to-me maternity clothes from my friend, so I'm excited about that. Less early morning searching for clothes. At least, until I get behind on the laundry again. I know, I should think positively.
I have choir tonight, and I actually got my plan made and sent out to my 'staff' by my deadline, Fridays. So now I just have to gather up stuff...oh and maybe I should look at some of the music I don't know....
Oh, have I got a story. So, if you've been reading, you might remember that our digital camera (Christmas 06 gift from my parents) was lost/stolen last summer. I searched everywhere....or so I thought. We gave up and bought a new one last month as our christmas gift to each other.
I was inspired to start scrapbooking again yesterday and hauled all my stuff to my parents. Besides my usual two bags of stuff, I had a few other bags of miscellaneous stuff that needed to be sorted and hopefully some thrown out. I hadn't scrapped since last summer, so I hardly remembered what half the bags had in them.
I ensconsed myself on my moms living room floor and opened the first bag to see what it contained...some blank pages, some page protectors, some cutting tools.....
And our lost/stolen digital camera.
In the words of the Genie....I feel sheepish.
Anyways, I got all my scrapbooking stuff organized so now I can get back at it and maybe get somewhat caught up by the time the baby arrives. At least enough that I can make a book for her too. I'm still determined to make sure baby #4 gets something comparable to baby #1.
And onto another topic...our great Organic Adventure.
Last summer, I read a couple books that really got me thinking about our food. Now, eating better, with less chemicals and all that is something I've been interested in for a few years. But these two books kickstarted me back into a much more intense effort to make changes. When the fall arrived, I had decided to start doing a few things differently
- I was going to start buying our meat from an organic farm in rural Ancaster.
- I was going buy our fruits and veggies organic, and all other things as much as possible, at our friendly neighbourhood Goodness Me, over on Upper Gage.
So that's what I started doing. After a few shoppings I started realizing what an impact this was making on our budget. Reluctantly, I altered the plan, and we started buying our fruits and veggies at Hamilton Produce, on Upper Ottawa. Although not organic, it was local produce, and pretty darn cheap.
The next thing to go was cereal. We are big cereal eaters in our family--always for breakfast and it's not uncommon for James and/or I to have another bowl at bedtime--especially me these days. The only sizes of cereal available at Goodness Me were itty-bitty. We'd buy 4-5 boxes, at about twice the price of similar sized boxes at Food Basics, and be out in a week. Back we'd go for more. James grumbled about this and compare nutrition labels. He was not convinced we were getting anything better at Goodness me.
After another month or two, we were still decimating our food budget. I had known that going organic would be more expensive, but I guess I just didn't think it would be that much, and that somehow I could compensate. It just wasn't happening. Every payday, when I would fund the food envelope, I'd first have to put some in to take care of the deficit and bring the envelope to zero. This was eating up alot of our overtime. I mean, Jamie's overtime.
So I made a few more concessions. I began going back to the Food Basics for a few things. This meant we were now shopping for our food at 4 different stores. 3 of them we'd try to hit in one night, and then the organic farm had to be a separate trip (by me) during the day. It was about 45 minutes of driving round trip.
Still spending too much.
I started buying all our produce at Food Basics too. I had realized that Hamilton Produce was NOT local stuff, and the extra trip was just too inconvenient.
Still spending too much.
We now limited our Nature's Goodness trip to dairy products only. I had early on decided that I disliked organic butter, so I was still getting that from Food Basics. This left cheese, eggs and milk, although we'd often get the same brand organic from Sobey's over in the Meadowlands, or Shoppers Drug mart nearby.
Still totally overspending.
Then came the new year and my finance reassessment, that I've already posted about. I did a report on the food budget for the previous months and was shocked at how much more we'd spent over those months. Anywhere between 30-50% more for the food budget.
Fortunately, by now, my intensity for the necessity of organic had waned. My alarm bells were not constantly going off. Besides the cost, it's just difficult to ensure that your family is NEVER eating non-organically. Snacks at church and friends houses, meals away from home--either at a restaurant or others' homes, I was making exceptions every time I turned around.
And now it seemed pretty obvious that we just could not afford to buy organic. How sad is that? That an average family who earnestly wished to eat better, without all the chemicals, additives and processing by-products simply could not afford to do it.
I still have one hold out...but that will probably stop too. I tried to replace our organic meat with the no-antibiotic meat at Sobeys. However, it's still more expensive, for smaller packages of meat, and with a very small selection. Out of 6 meat products I bought last grocery trip, there was only one to be found from that 'better' group. I ended up buying regular meat, at Sobeys prices, when I could have saved some by getting it at Food Basics.
So that's our sorry saga of trying to go organic. I suppose the bottom line is still that I'm preparing as much as I can without using processed stuff, and including fresh produce everyday in as many meals as possible.
But man, that family on the hamburger helper commercial sure looked happy and healthy.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
