Monsanto and a Plea

I'm sure that recently I've annoyed the crap out of quite a few friends by spamming social network feeds with news about The Monsanto Protection Act being signed into law under the House Agricultural Appropriations Bill.  There are so many things I wish we could have had the chance to do, but it was done so quietly, amidst the fervor of the Supreme Court discussions of Equal Rights for people of the LGBT community, that not enough people were aware in time to stop it.

I am dismayed.  As I'm growing spiritually, mentally, and physically, taking better control over what goes into the bodies of my family, becoming more aware of our impact on the environment and the creatures that use it along with us, I am finding myself more and more frustrated with the state of our nation's food system (education system, political system... those are a completely different post). 

BUT, now is not the time to sit back and lament.  The phrase "Vote with your wallet" has never been more relevant.  What you buy MATTERS.  Every time you buy a product that has been Genetically Modified, or sprayed with commercial chemicals, you're essentially saying that "This is OK.  This is something I am comfortable giving to my family/putting into my body."

IT IS NOT OKAY.  And we need to make our voices heard.  I've included two lists: the first includes the companies that use Monsanto products (alphabetized from the graphic below).  The second is a list of seed companies that use GM or Monsanto seeds.  Copy and print these lists to take with you when you go shopping.  It will take some work and adjusting, but it's better than the alternative!

Additionally, it is time to speak up.  If you care, take the time to contact your local representative.  Sign a petition for GMO labeling.  Share this information with anyone you can.  Now that Monsanto is above judicial reproach our only defense is the knowledge we use and pass on to keep each other safe. 

Without further ado:

Companies that use Monsanto/GM products:

Aunt Jemima

Aurora Foods

Banquet

Best Foods

Betty Crocker

Bisquick

Cadbury/Shweppes

Campbells

Capri-Sun

Carnation

Chef Boyardee

Coca Cola

ConAgra

Delicious Brand Cookies

Duncan Hines

Famous Amos

Frito-Lay/Pepsi

General Mills

Green Giant

Healthy Choice

Heinz

Hellmans

Hershey's Nestle

Holsum

Hormel

Hungry Jack

Hunts

Interstate Bakeries

Jiffy

KC Masterpiece

Keebler/Flowers Industries

Kelloggs

Kid Cuisine

Knorr

Kool-Aid

Kraft/Phillip Morris

Lean Cuisine

Lipton

Lowa Linda

Marie Callenders

Minute Made

Morningstar

Ms. Butterworths

Nabisco

Nature Valley

Ocean Spray

Ore-Ida

Orville Redenbacher

Peppridge Farms

Pepsi

Pillsbury

Pop Secret

Post Cereals

Power Bar Brand

Prego Pasta Sauce

Pringles

Procter and Gamble

Quaker

Ragu Sauce

Rice-a-Roni/Pasta Roni

Smart Ones

Stouffers

Tombstone Pizza

Totinos

Uncle Bens

Unilever

V-8

Monsanto/GM seeds  (copied from HERE):
**some companies with Safe Seed pledges are on the list, because, though their seeds are non-GMO, they are supplied by GMO profiting companies.
 
American Meadows
Anderson’s Seed & Garden, Inc
Audubon Workshop
Ball Horticultural Company
Breck’s Bulbs
Bunton Seed
Burpee
Cook’s Garden
Corona Seeds
DeBruyn Seed Company, Inc.
Dege Garden Center
Dixondale Farms/The Onion Patch
Earl May Seed
Early’s Farm & Garden Centre
E & R Seed Co
El Seed
Farmer Seed & Nursery
Flower of the Month Club
Ferry Morse Fukuda Seed Store
Gardens Alive
Germania Seed Co
Garden Trends, Inc.d/b/a Harris Seeds
Germania Seed Company
Grimes Horticulture
H.F. Michell Company
HPS
Jungs
Lindenberg Seeds
McClure and Zimmerman Quality Bulb Brokers
Meyer Seed Co of Baltimore, Inc
Mountain Valley Seed
Ontario Seed
Ornamental Edibles
Osborne
Otis S. Twilley Seed Co., Inc.
Park Seed
Park Bulbs
Park’s Countryside Garden
P. L. Rohrer & Bro., Inc.
Pinetree
R.H. Shumway
Rocky Mountain Seed Co
Roots and Rhizomes
Rupp
Seeds for the World
Seminova
Seymour’s Selected Seeds
Snow
Southern States Cooperative, Incorporated
Stokes
Spring Hill Nurseries
Totally Tomato
T&T Seeds
Tomato Growers Supply
The Page Seed Company
The Vermont Bean Seed Company
Tomato Growers Supply Company
Vesey’s Seeds
Vis Seed Company, Inc.
Wayside Gardens
Willhite Seed Co.
William Dam Seeds

Dear mom on your iPhone: Seriously, how dare you?

I saw you sigh as you sat down on that bench after your kids went screaming onto the jungle gym, like you actually need a minute of peace to think.  How dare you have your own train of thought.

I watched you hand your kid a Happy Meal  instead of bust out a tupperware full of nutritious fruits and vegetables that were cleaned, cut, and packed with love.  How dare you think you deserve an easy day every now and then.

I heard your minimal reaction to your preschooler hitting the ground too hard at the bottom of the slide.  How dare you teach your kids to brush it off and move on.

Why can't you be like the mom over there, that's reading a book? At least she's engaging her mind.

Why can't you be like the nanny over there, who's knitting a shawl?  At least she's being productive.

Why can't you be like that group of women, who chose to meet here to let their kids play and socialize?  At least they're socializing, too.

Why can't you be like the helicopter mom, judging every other person on this playground because NONE OF THEM are 100% focused on their children?

How dare you be a realistic representation of us all?  How dare you.

SURPRISE! Women like sex, too.

I'm going to talk about some pretty adult stuff right now.  If you aren't interested in hearing that women have sexual desires, too, then go read something else.

Brutal, open honesty here.  It may be rambling, as I have so many things clamoring to be voiced that I can't really keep track of them, so I hope you bear with me.

You see, women have this thing called a clitoris.  And it makes sex pleasurable.  Some women have high amounts of hormones that make them want sex more often.  Some have low levels of hormones, which equates to a low sex drive.  Regardless of how much sex we crave, we still crave it.  I am speaking to you as a woman with a pretty high sex drive, who gets turned down by her husband often enough for it to matter.
  

But you know what?  No one talks about a woman's needs.  The phrase that 'a man has needs' gets thrown around so often, as an excuse for sleeping around, excessive masturbation, and porn addictions.  Within the rape culture we're currently faced with, this is the premise for so many violations of too many victims.  How many times have we heard about a woman claiming that her primal needs were the cause of her inappropriate actions?  Every once in a while we hear of a teacher having inappropriate relationships with her students and I can only recall 1 violent woman-on-woman rape being discussed on the news in my adult life.

When you're hungry, does your body involuntarily find and consume food?  When you have to pee, does your body get up on its own to find an appropriate facility?  Your body gives you signals for what it needs and you make a conscious decision to fulfill those needs.

Making a conscious decision to use another person, against their will, for your sexual urges is inexcusable.

But, "Men get turned on easier than women."  Puh-leeze.  You know what feels good for women?  Vibrations.  You know what vibrates?  A car engine.  Sit in the car with your jeans hiked up against your crotch and see how long it takes before you're ready to go home and take care of that urge.  Multiply that by however many times a day you're driving somewhere, and you've got a primal need to be fulfilled.  Bicycles?  Same problem.  Accidentally bumping into something at crotch height, or having something brush your nipples while wearing a thin, or no, bra.  The sight of a man (or woman, if that's your preference) in shape, or with specific features that we find attractive.  A man who smells nice.  A man who gives us just enough attention to make us feel special.  All things that turn the key to get that motor running.

You know what we do though?  We make a conscious decision whether to act on those desires or not, Just. Like. Men.  But we don't get credit for it, because we don't have a penis.  That second 'brain' men are endowed with that somehow allows their actions to become excusable?  We don't get that.  If a woman chooses to go home and masturbate instead of having an affair with that co-worker that's making passes at her, well, it's easy for her, she's a woman.  If a woman's partner isn't interested in having sex and she decides to just wait until they are, well, that's just fine for her, she's not a man.

Having an extra appendage does not impair judgement.  That is proven by the many good men who do respect boundaries.  Being turned on makes decision making different, to be sure, but not difficult.  

The differences in our sexes don't make any of us less human.  We all deserve respect as a people, not a gender.

But, I don't have a penis, so what do I know?

I've discovered how our parents did it (not THAT 'did it')

I know how generations before us kept up the perfect housewife routine, and why they are so confused as to why, as parents today, we just can't keep up with everything:

Their outlet WAS cleaning.

I discovered this last night as I folded laundry, in a quiet room, by myself, while Captain was downstairs entertaining the 3 squalling Cabin Kids.  

If I was being productive, I had an excuse to be left alone.

Holy-Kraken.  

Now, I'm not saying the only outlet they needed was a scrub brush and a pair of rubber gloves, but during the day when they reached a breaking point they didn't have social media to connect to.  Video games weren't something everyone had.  A cell phone wasn't in their pocket to provide the instant gratification of the quiet that is the eye of the storm.

I've been fighting a congestion headache for a week.  A WEEK.  It feels like my brain is about to ooze out of my tear ducts (you're welcome for the image).  Captain had been really understanding all day about letting me escape to our bedroom for a few minutes of staring at a wall in darkness and silence, and had even encouraged me to take a 2 hour nap.  But immediately upon exciting the sanctuary of our bedroom the pain doubled from the general noise that occurs from having little people in your house.

So, after dinner, I went into the kitchen and loaded the dishwasher.  People left me alone.  Interesting.  After bathtime, I folded and put away 3 full baskets of laundry (all washed that day, even!).  No one even came to see what I was up to.

It's like there was an unspoken announcement that I was doing something B-O-R-I-N-G, and therefore wasn't worth the task of finding.  

Never thought I'd say THAT.

Now I just need to figure out how to legally put my kids in a padded room during the day so they don't destroy the rest of the house while I'm at it.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

We love themed stuff here in the Pirate house so, naturally, St. Paddy's Day is right up our alley!  

Of course, most of our holidays are centered around food...

Naturally green waffles from Paleo Parents topped with butter and honey jams, natural pork sausage, and broccoli scrambled eggs with raw cheddar and organic ketchup!

Egg salad with avocado mayo, cucumbers, and raw sauerkraut on top of diced celery.

Took a break from cooking and eating to paint our nails!

It's not St. Paddy's Day without corned beef and cabbage!

Dessert was a pistachio milkshake!  It was SO good.  Just shelled pistachios, a bit of raw milk, and some natural ice cream.  Not as green as I'd hoped, but the combo of salty and sweet in glass was phenomenal.

We hope the Luck of the Irish was with you and yours today!!!

Paleo No-Bake Freezer Cookies

I am a sucker for No Bake cookies.  Normally made with peanut butter, chocolate, copious amounts of white sugar, butter, and oats.  Not-so healthy.  I could eat an entire batch by myself.

I recently joined a clean eating group on Facebook through my Crossfit box and have taken one in a series of 4 'Master' Paleo cooking classes.  At the first class one of the gym members turned me on to Hemp Hearts.  Huge, amazing amounts of plant based protein, from a totally renewable and environmentally friendly resource.  I dig it.  They're crunchy-ish.  I decided to try swapping my usual Grape Nuts with them to top my Greek yogurt in the mornings and it's definitely a change I can keep!  They're pricey, but the serving size is so small that they go a long way.  For some reason once I'd tried them, I thought, I wonder how these would do as a sub for oats in No Bakes?  Thus the experiment commenced.

Hemp Hearts, Coconut Butter, Sunflower Seed Butter, and Chia Seeds are things you may not already have in your pantry. 

Ingredients: 

1/4 c. coconut oil*
1/4 c. coconut butter (optional- I added it to see if it would help keep the cookies firm)
1/4 c. canned coconut milk*
1 c. honey*
2 Tbs. cocoa powder
1/4 c. sunflower seed butter*
1/2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
1 c. hemp hearts
1 c. chia seeds

Melt coconut oil and butter together on stovetop over medium heat.  Add milk, honey, and cocoa.  Bring to boil, stirring frequently, then boil for one minute, stirring constantly.  Remove from heat and immediately mix in seed butter and vanilla.  Add hemp hearts and chia seeds and stir well.  Using a tablespoon, place drops of cookie 'batter' onto parchment or wax paper and place in freezer to set (do not stack them until they have firmly set!).  Store in freezer until you are ready to enjoy them!  This recipe made 24+ cookies.

They definitely are not a classic No Bake, but they are T-A-S-T-Y!  A perfect quick fix for a sweet tooth!

I would like to suggest using a granulated sugar instead of honey, as the honey seems to prohibit the cookies from maintaining solid form unless frozen.  DARN, sounds like I need to make another test batch soon!
 
*Any of these can be subbed- oil for ghee or clarified butter, coconut milk for another milk, honey for a different natural sugar, seed butter for nut butter.  If you try this with any changes, please let me know how they turned out!!

**Edited to add:  Both of my morning trainers thought they were great!

In defense of being self-centered.

I've been thinking a lot lately about adult relationships. 

We went to a birthday party the other night and I realized that I. Am. So. Boring.  And can be perceived as very self-centered.  

Several years ago someone told me that I wasn't the type of person she was interested in being friends with.  There were a lot of other things said in and around it, but that was the gist, and it hit me HARD.  It plucked at my insecurities and made me question the person I was.  It still makes me question the person I'm becoming.  A blessing in disguise, for sure, but blessings like those are painful.

It made me realize that I AM self centered. 

Because I don't have anything to talk about other than the small circle of a world that makes up who I am.  Stuff about MY kids.  Stuff about MY husband.  Stuff about MY crafts.  MY workouts.  MY feelings, thoughts, opinions...  I don't have a sports team that I know the statistics of and can discuss for hours.  I don't have a job that broadens my perspective of the world at large.  I don't have an education that affords me high class discussions with worldly people.

I've been struggling with being more inviting.  Asking people how they are doing instead of just responding to their questions about me.  Swallowing my fears of being rejected and asking new people in my life to do things with the familiar ones.  Taking chances and going to new things.  Admitting that I'm not familiar with certain territory and am totally out of my element.

One of these things is not like the other...

I'm TRYING.  And it's HARD. 

But, it's what I have.  I hope along the road I find more people that enjoy listening to random stories about my kids, pregnancies, and marriage.  Because I AM a mother and a wife.  I pray that those more in the know than I can offer advice regarding the current craft pattern I can't wrap my head around.  Because I AM a crafter (albeit a novice at everything).  I dream of a time when I can be an inspiration to women on the road to a healthier lifestyle.  Because I AM on that road.  I ask that the people I meet be accepting of the fact that I don't have more to offer.

Because this is my life now.  It is small.  There's not a lot of variety.  

I am greater than the sum of my parts.  And if you can't accept that my focus is on the things that are important to me, then maybe you aren't the kind of person I'm interested in being friends with anyway.