ChristyB in TN
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Posts posted by ChristyB in TN
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Yes for my daughter, no for my sons. I, quite honestly, didn't look at all the date for the boys but I didn't hesitate to read, research and make the appointments for my daughter to receive the vaccine. My oldest is in college and can make future decisions about his vaccinations for himself. :001_smile:
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I am blogging again and I would love it if you all would stop in occasionally! I have renamed it, gotten the silly stuff off the sides of it, and am dedicated to writing. Please be kind, I have a lot of work to do!:D http://massiveundertaking.blogspot.com/
Follow mine, I will follow yours! I have been out of the blogosphere for a while, that silly job thing I do has taken up an awful lot of time;) but I am back. My parents have decided to disown me which is surprisingly liberating so I will just say what I think and feel and will let the chip fall where they like.
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I just love you all.
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You surely can be athletic and vegan.
Have you considered a vegan protein powder? There are some good ones. You could throw a smoothie in every day with some berries.
I low carb it, but not like some LCers. I eat plenty of fruit. I do not eat much meat actually. Some legumes just not every day. The brunt of my diet is veggies. I do a protein powder because I just feel I need the protein and I do not like to eat too many eggs.
I found one I love! Soy-free Veg Protein Booster by Natureade. It's vegan!
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Okay, I don't eat dairy and the only meat I eat is fish and that is a recent addition to my diet. I am a runner and usually complete 1 marathon a year. I cannot cut carbs or I get sluggish and depressed. I think beans and rice a good for you! My rules:
at least 45 minutes of running, 6 days a week.
Yoga every day
No white rice, potatoes, white flour,
Very little corn or corn products. They just make me fat.
Very little sugar. I am addicted to chocolate almond milk and sometimes get too much. It is my vice. ;)
I love bread so eat Ezekiel bread, no white flour.
I don't think I could run any distance on no carbs. I think quality is important.
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Here's an interesting thing:
Oregon has a "gleaning program." This means they allow foundations to come through the fields and do all the clean-up and second pickings for free.
So, an example:
This year we've been on ten harvests so far with the association we work with.
Broccoli - The main crop (the good, marketable one) picked all the heads. But, broccoli grows a second crop - offshoots. WOW! That was AWESOME picking.
Apples - Backyard trees gone to waste because someone can't (old folks) or won't pick them.
Walnuts - Older gentleman, can't pick them and do the work to harvest
And so on and so forth. All of this food would have gone to waste!
What does the person/farm get? A 10% of their total crop production ($$) tax deduction.
Who does it go to? Half of the produce goes to the "army" of pickers. The other half is donated to food banks, food programs, women's shelters, etc.
HOW MUCH FOOD WOULD HAVE GONE TO WASTE?
In our county so far we have picked 110,000+ POUNDS of food this season.
And this is fresh produce - stuff the poor needs, but frankly, it's hard to come by and folks don't donate that kind of stuff.
For the second part of the observation:
Being from Iowa, PRIME farm land, I found it strange that we didn't have gleaning programs. And then I realized - WE DON'T ACTUALLY GROW FOOD IN IOWA.
No, we grow corn. We grow soybeans. In other words, we grow fillers, gasoline, unhealthy animal foods. (Cows shouldn't be fed grain - or at least not their whole lives, hence the increase of e.coli. You can read more at Iowa State University Ag Ext. They are doing a lot of research on the impact of feeding grain to cows.)
Field after field of grain that we mostly export. It's not corn like you could harvest and eat. There's a lot of confusion about this from people who don't farm. This is field corn - it's made for ethanol and it's made for feeding animals, but it's not made for human consumption unless you count corn syrup, but that's not actually for human consumption either. :glare:
Then you have soy. I'll stop there on that little soapbox. :glare: :glare:
Then you could discuss cows. And you could talk about how inefficient cows are to feed compared to something like goats and how cows require prime pasture while goats can fluorish off scrub and eat far less and their feed:meat conversion is WAY higher than cows, but I won't. I'll just not.
So, you see... We could feed far more people IN THIS COUNTRY.
But we don't.
Why don't we?
Because certain crops are heavily subsidized. My parents are soybean farmers. They are corn farmers. They are pig farmers. Those are SAFE crops. Why? They are insured (for example the drought this year.) They are subsidized. They are protected by the government. You aren't going to lose the family farm over a bad corn year unless you somehow mismanaged because the government will keep you afloat, especially if you had insurance. My parents had 120 acres planted to corn that requires an insane amount of pesticides and herbicides and rapes the ground of nutrients. Almost all of it died. They're still okay and they have hogs to feed.
The farming system is jacked up.
We NEED our farmers.
But we also NEED them to use prime land to grow food. Real food. SUSTAINABLE food.
You know what amazed us when we moved out here to Oregon?
Beyond the amazing views, lol, and all the TREES! The CROPS! We'd never in our lives seen such varieties. In the back of our heads I guess we knew someone had to be growing cabbage, broccoli, mustard, squash, apples, cherries, peaches, hazelnuts, etc. But we'd never seen it. Just fields and fields of soybean and corn and the occasional field of alfalfa.
It blew us away.
:iagree: great points. Did I mention :iagree:.
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My group is cooking for the homeless/hungry in our community on Thanksgiving day. We are cooking every darn thing from scratch because we believe that food cooked with quality ingredients and prepared with love can change lives. The difference in nutrition is insane AND I get to stand around in a kitchen and work with some of the most incredible people alive. I am so grateful. My kids will be in from college and will be working among them gaining perspective and knowledge. My 13 year old gets to see all of this and hopefully set his goals appropriately. There's more to cooking than knowing what to cook and how...why is important.
Our local public high school teaches everyone to cook. No one gets to graduate early so by the time they are seniors they have all day to spend in culinary learning to cook. I spent Sunday afternoon at a party with a local chef. He says it is awesome that so many kids are leaving school with all these skills, they don't know how little most kitchen workers actually earn and think they will all be celebrities. :001_huh: maybe logic and economics could be taught in high school? He certainly thought so.
In my area there government programs going into homes and teaching these skills to parents. They go from correct food temperatures, nutrition and how to clean. The problems are many. The people teaching it know little and very few people know that this exists at all! I think there should be groups of volunteers, much like the home makers clubs of long ago, who will do it. If volunteers do it and not government agencies, there is accountability on the side of the recipient to do well.
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Oh, wow, I am so old.
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I have 2 in a university. My daughter will think she did poorly on exams but always does great. My son knows when he doesn't do well and he is usually correct. ;) know thyself, I guess? Does your son usually have an accurate picture?
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In addition to the admirable charitable works you describe, I see this as a huge policy issue. In some states, little is available to this man. In others, much is. My brother and SIL moved to my state from Florida. There they recieved no assistance besides WIC and were regularly not making enough to have lights or food and were on the verge of homelessness. Here, they both were able to get some form of employment and after a year of transitional housing, they have a subsidy apartment. With food stamps and state medical and reduced utility rates for the low income, they do ok- this is with both parents working. A man making $20,000 a year in my state would qualify for a daycare voucher. It is much harder for the working poor to make it in some states than in others. Those are legislative priorities and decisions, plus a large network of charitable support (like utility assistance.)
It has to be a regional issue. This young man has several people from different agencies working to find help for him. The day care is all my foundation can do right now.
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I believe the numbers. I work to feed the hungry in my community every day and they are hungry for many reasons.
The homeless, particularly moms and children living in cars is growing. We have no numbers on them because they don't tell anyone most of the time. You can't get a lot of aid without an address and the government housing in y area is unsafe for anyone. I don't know how the children living there survive.
Right now my group is raising money to pay for day care for a two year old living with a single dad making $10 an hour. He has had the same job for 4 years and it is the only skill he has. He is a great dad but simply only makes enough to pay their rent and groceries. He sometimes has to leave this child with people who don't take care of him like they should. $10 an hour means he doesn't qualify for any aid and are sometimes hungry. Time for the community to step in.
Recent immigrants, legal and illegal, face hunger regularly. They either are afraid to ask for help or don't know how.
We see kids who have parents without the IQ needed to obtain food. It is not easy, always, for someone to get to an agency and apply for aid. If your IQ is below 80, it doesn't always register that you need to!
Drugs. The biggest problem we see is prescription drug abuse and it is obtained legally from the pain clinics and doctors who don't give a sh!t. I get angry just writing about it. :cursing:
Deal is,it doesn't matter why they are hungry or whether or not the parent is worthy of help. We MUST feed children as a matter of compassion. I beg you all to check into the local backpack program and see if you can donate or solicite donations. Be the person at your church who helps provide for children without making demands of them or preachingtotheir parents. see if you can help make a difference by working at an urban farmers market or help to make a community garden for a block where kids don't have access to fresh veggies. I have more,just ask!
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I would tease her mercilessly. "Whatcha reading?" " I see that kindle, can I bring mine, too?" In my office we just say it and let the chips fall where they may. I think it is honest. Don't let it fester, just call it as you see it. If she is someone's cousin, you won't be the person who tries to go around her and paint her in a bad light.
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Interesting. I'm guessing this thread would look a lot different if a lot of well-read men were posting on it.
I loved Pride and Prejudice and the Bronte sisters, but to me, those are just fun reads. I don't see them shaping a character. I wouldn't list them in the top 10.
Not sure how to list exactly the top 10, but I would include all the major religions' main holy books for starters. That would take up about half of the list, depending on how you view the religions. I would include Shakespeare (I'll cheat and say Shakespeare's greatest works). And Dickens. That hardly leaves any room for all the kajillion other ones, so I'm not even going to try to narrow it down.
I have read quite a few from the lists above, but I've never really considered myself "well-read." To be honest, I don't remember some of the stories/main points of the ones I did read. I hope that whatever was worthwhile in there stuck with me somehow.
ETA: bonus points if you read all the books in their original languages. :)
Love, love, love the thought of putting all the different holy books on there. I took a comparative religion course in college and it helped but didn't exactly give me what I probably need to know to understand the people around me. Awesome idea.
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You are not alone in that thinking.
What I find a lot of times with very old literature is that while I can read it and understand the vocabulary, the wordiness and way of speaking in it is so freaking labored that I have a hard time getting past it. It's very irritating to me. I know, some will tell me I'm bad/lame/common/lacking in something, but I'm just being honest. :tongue_smilie::D
Some I've read I really did enjoy though. The Great Gatsby is my all time least favorite one though.
The Last of the Mohicans. Can't read it because it is similar to taking Ambien. (without all that peeing in the closet and talking out of my mind, of course.):lol:
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I am going to head into a different direction with my thoughts. I believe that being well educated means knowing you must continue to educate yourself, challenge your beliefs and broaden your world. I live to read books which end up on the Booker Prize list. The classics are a given, but we have to continue to read the new ones, too. Off the top of my head:
Dickens ~I loved Hard Times. I saw personalities which were timeless.
Hamid. ~ The Reluctant Fundamentalist, Moth Smoke
Chaucer ~Canterbury Tales is a must read.
Gladwell ~ I know it is trendy to be smug about his books, they're simplistic, but I feel that even if you don't like his work it is a cultural literacy issue to at least have read something he wrote. I like him and have learned a lot, personally.
Karen Armstrong ~same as above.
To Kill A Mockingbird is another in the cultural literacy category.
Orwell
Lord of the Flies.
CS Lewis
Hawthorne
Hemingway ~ at least one of his.
Tolkien
Any Rand ~ again, I don't thnk it matters how one feels about her ideas, it is important to at least have a working knowledge of her work.
Okay, that is more than 10. I will have to think about it.
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The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan - we'd have a healthier planet if everyone read this. Might as well add his In Defence of Food: An Eater's Manifesto - we'd have healthier (and happier!) people read this one.
If the OP compiles a definitive list, will she please paste it into the first post? I'd much appreciate it!
Will do! I am hoping the weekend will bring on many more. :)
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Peace, prayers and healing to you all. :(
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You all are so awesome. I read these to my husband this morning and he loved them, too. We are now installing shelves in our office and stocking a lot of these books there. I am also starting a new book club and I want the theme to be books that change a life, a culture, a community, a world... I am not religious, this will be fun! ;) please keep the suggestions coming, I am adding to it all day, too.
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For a smallish city, we do all right. We have a population of about 20,000. Our schools are...well...maybe that is a story for another day. We have a great variety of programs for seniors, a fabulous library which really thinks about homeschoolers when adding selections. We have a decent transportation system, some great parks, and a decent Parks and Recs department. What we need are:
1) A facility for recreation that houses everything. We have a community swimming pool which is very nice, but little else. I wish we had an all-in-one facility with gym space, workout equipment, handball courts, etc.
2) Better resources for the Hispanic community. We really fail here, and many fall through the cracks of poverty.
3) Cheaper ways to take advantage of skiiing for low income families. We live in the heart of ski country and yet few of us locals can afford lift tickets or lessons.
4) Activities for tweens and teens, which seems to be an issue in many towns.
5) I think every town fails to have good lower level sports activities for high school and middle school aged kids. We complain about obesity in youth today, and yet the competitive nature and few spots available on high school teams leaves many kids left out who just want to play for the fun of playing.
6) In this age of trying to create more of a sense of neighborhood and community, I do not understand why we don't throw away the old model and start doing what many very small towns do. Why not transform our neighborhood schools into little mini-community centers which would encourage micro-communities to form? Why are we duplicating facilities and services instead of using our assets to their fullest capacity? Every school has a library and a gym, meeting space, etc. We ought to keep them open after school hours for use by the community and local neighborhood. It just makes sense.
Cindy
Okay, I think all of these things could be accomplished by a citizens group. You have fantastic ideas! You should do it! Get cozy with a librarian, start a 'Friends of the Library' group and keep those doors open in the evenings with volunteers from the group offering tutoring, chess club, language classes, book clubs...okay, now I want to do it. Our Friends of the Library is a group of elderly womenand they don't like new people. I may start something else. This could also serve as a way for your (and my) Hispanic community to get information and find resources. Hmmmmmmmmm
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We actually have all of that. We also have a crisis pregnancy house, a ...charity hub? Self Sufficiency that holds free college classes, hosts free prom dress parties, offers women's healthcare, child care, connects you with the help in the country you need, offers suits/hair/whatnot for interviews. That one is mostly for women and children, though.
We do have addiction services.
We have teen group that is huge that does community service for *large* projects.
We have a county arts council that has a main street gallery, and hosts art shows.
We have a literacy advocacy center that is constantly training volunteers, and we have a very high immigrant population.
What we could use, actually, is more full stores on main street. :C THe recession has hit main street hard, and there are many closed down shops. The lack of stores has brought in a lot of nefarious stuff happening.
Justamouse, in what state do you live?
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One of my projects is officially in the works! :party:
I'm in a large private community made up of many retirees and struggling families. We are sorely lacking a real community feel. I've seen many people get fined $250 (yes, two hundred fifty dollars) for not having their grass cut, and I've had many elderly and broke (and both) people come to the other committee I'm on devistated by this, and unable to do the work or afford to have it done for them.
So I finally got permission to start a volunteer group to connect these struggling people with friendly neighbors who can help with lawn maintenence, snow shoveling, and the like.
Now I just have to wait and see if we have any kind neighbors in our community, and I'm a bit nervous.
You are a rock star, plain and simple.
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I have loved reading these, thank you so much for responding. I think it is astonishing how many on my wish list can be solved simply by my own initiative. Im working to put the agencies, programs, churches, clubs, organizations, etc together so we all know what's available. I actually see the biggest problem is lack of knowledge of what already exists!
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I think that to lose 100lbs, weight watchers is a great idea. If you do it online it is easy and accessable. Yea, you!
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I read that. I have a client who is in his 80's and brings me books he loves. That was one of them. I love him. He also drives a convertible! :D
Just want to say "Thank you" to TWTM
in General Education Discussion Board
Posted
Amen.