Nella Vita di Apples

We’ve all heard that an apple a day keeps the doctor away. Simple, true, effective. But it seems that the world is so much more complicated than that. I read this interesting article in the New York Times about how today’s obsession with eating only healthy, “good” foods may be manifesting as eating disorders in our kids. This really saddens me, but I can understand all the guilt that is now placed on the foods we eat. The battle lines used to be very clear, say cookie vs. apple. Choose to eat the apple, and congratulations, you’ve made the right choice, good job. But now, an apple is no longer an apple. Sure you’ve chosen the apple, but what kind of apple did you choose? Was it an organic, pesticide free apple? Was it a locally grown? Was it a genetically modified apple? Was it just a freaking apple?

Not that I’m any sort of authority, or that my opinion particularly counts, but I’ll give it anyway. On organics, I understand that chemically drenched apples are not good, and I think that it is a good goal to try to eat organic when possible, but honestly, I’m not going to lose any sleep over allowing a non organic apple to pass my lips. I think the goodness and nutrition from the actual apple, outweigh any of the bad things that may also enter my body. Also, this is not Snow White; eating so called poison apples are not going to result in me dropping dead. Sure you could argue that over my lifetime eating non organic foods could kill me, but I am much more likely to die from other things before that actually happens, and the truth is that I can’t weigh potential negative outcomes of every decision I make; I would lose my sanity and probably kill myself, thus having a shorter life regardless of eating non organic foods.

Another issue is where the food comes from. In the ideal world, I would eat organic locally grown apples, but let’s be honest, the world is not ideal and there are other factors to consider (ie availability, cost and convenience, but I won’t go into those here). If the choice was either a locally grown apple or an organic one from afar, I would choose the local one. I would rather have an apple drenched in pesticides than one drenched in oil, so to say. I like knowing that I am supporting the local economy, preserving local farmland, and reducing transportation related pollution and oil dependency. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find any good statistic that looks at pollution generated from pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, etc versus pollution generated in the transportation of food (if anyone has any for or against please share). Another reason to favor local is fact that it may have better nutrition because it was picked when it was ripe perhaps only a day or two ago, as opposed to being picked early and then packaged and sitting for days while being shipped across the country (or world). Good article from Time found here. That being said I also sleep soundly knowing my tummy is full of the digesting apples of far away lands.

What about genetically modified (GM) food? This is something that has been going on for thousand of years, but only in the last twenty years or so has genetic engineering become a very exact science as opposed to methods like cross pollination. In general, I think discovering and creating ways for plants to be stronger and have the ability to survive in previously unfavorable environments is a good thing. Unfortunately, I think some GM foods were modified for the wrong reasons. “Roundup Ready”, or crops that were modified to be able to survive otherwise fatal sprayings of pesticides does seem wrong. But what about “Golden Rice” which has been modified to contain higher levels of Vitamin A or peanuts without their allergens or bananas that have human vaccines to diseases like Hepatitis B in them. Clearly there is a lot of good that can come from this, but like most new advances they need to be done cautiously and carefully. Doing some research on this it turns out that there really aren’t any GM apples, so we can forget them anyway for this discussion.

Does the fact that I don’t exclusively eat organic apples mean that I hate my body and want to get cancer? Does the fact that I don’t always eat local make me a bad citizen who is addicted to oil? I really don’t think so. I take pride in my flexibility and ability to balance conflicting ideas and competing issues. Because at the end of the day the decision I make is to moderate. Some times I’ll eat organic, sometimes I’ll eat local, and sometimes I don’t, and that is ok. And I think that is what we need to be teaching kids. The decision that should be made is the decision to eat apples over cookies. Of course, in keeping with moderation there is nothing wrong with eating a few cookies here and there!

Nella Vita di Quilters

Recently, I’ve started teaching myself how to quilt (pictures to follow shortly). I find that for the most part it is very relaxing, sort of like putting together a puzzle. And I enjoy the calmness and solitude it offers after long days at work. Of course, teaching myself comes with a lot of frustrations as does the fact that most new skills take patience and practice. The internet has been great; there are countless old biddies (and young hip crafters) who have generously posted tons of how to tips and methods, so I am not completely learning in a vacuum.

Still, I must admit that it can be very lonely. It takes a lot of time and work, and I can’t help but wonder how much more enjoyable it would be if I was quilting as part of an old fashioned quilting circle. I think most quilting circles were more of a social outlet anyway, the quilts were just a by product of the gossip and laughter. I feel as though today it is easier than ever to keep in touch with friends, what with facebook, emails, messaging, cell phones, etc. Yet, I feel as if we are definitely missing something in the lack of face to face contact. Even getting together for a meal and drinks is lacking the deeper long lasting impact that a quilt could hold. Within every stitch is the memory of the laughter and the togetherness. I’ve found that when I look at things I have made, I remember where I was when I worked on it, what I watched on TV, songs I sang along to. I can’t help but wonder how wonderful it would be to look at a quilt (or blanket, scarf, scrapbook, etc) and be able to see the faces of friends and loved ones and hear their voices and laughter instead. Perhaps it’s a bit of a nostalgic whimsy, but I think we need to bring back the quilting circles of yesteryears!

Nella Vita di Sleepovers

About a month or so ago, we watched Shane's parents dogs while they were away for the weekend.  Molly loved having her "Uncle Rocky" over ("Aunt Xena" not as much).  She made sure that Rocky got to sleep on JC's bed, and then she laid down next to him in the same

 position!  Being a whole lot bigger than JC, poor Rocky didn't fit completely on his bed.

Nella Vita di Wedding Plans

Well Shane and I sent it the contract and deposit for our wedding venue.  This is our first official step towards making the whole wedding thing come true.  We like to joke that there is no turning back now.  We will be married on Sunday, May 30, 2010 at Stonefire Station.  We are planning on having the ceremony around 3 or 4 in the salon, followed by cocktail hour on the pergola and patio, and then dinner and dancing til Monday in the ballroom.  An old friend of Shane's was married there a few years ago, and when we started our search he mentioned this firehouse reception he had been to.  My only rule with a reception location was no firehouse or veterans hall, so I immediately ruled it out.  While doing my own search, I came across this gorgeous Venetian Pallazzoesq hall about a 20 minutes outside of Cville in Barboursville.  Turns out it is the same 'fire station' Shane was telling me about.  It actually was a fire station years ago, but was converted into an event hall when the new fire station was built.  So it ended up being perfect for us on so many ways, picturesque in a rural country setting, large enough for 200 people, the flexibility to host both the ceremony and reception, gorgeous architectural features, Venetian characteristics, adaptive reuse, and extremely affordable.  The only thing that would have made it better is a mural of flamingos on the wall (oh well guess they'll have to be represented the old fashioned way ;) ).  I had the opportunity to go to a wedding there in October and see how beautiful it looked all decked out.  And Shane and I visited last May or June when we first started looking, and I noticed that all of the flowers blooming around it were a gorgeous shade of dark purple which just happens to be one of our colors.  Our next big hurdle is to figure out our guest list.  Our contract includes 200 chairs so in essence we need to get it down to 198.  Seeing how Shane's alone is over 150, we're going to have to start making some tough decisions...maybe we'll just have a wedding lottery!

Nella Vita di Kitties

Let's not forget the kitty cats.  They have been fighting with each other a lot so its rare to get a picture of them being nice together.  They were enjoying a serious cat nap when this picture was taken.  Pollux is on the left and Castor is on the right. 

Nella Vita di JC

It's good to be a dog!

He can be cute when he wants to be though.  It's hard to get upset for him sleeping on the forbidden furniture when he looks this damn precious!

Nella Vita di Furry Friends

Haven't posted pics of the animals recently, so here are some from the past few months.  More to follow soon.

Molly likes to sleep curled up real cute and delicate.

JC likes to use Molly as a pillow.  She has gotten fatter since moving to the country so she makes a soft pillow. 

Molly is mad that I disturbed them.  JC could care less.

 

Molly loves her fox toy, though it is really JC's 'baby'

Still, she loves to use it as her pillow.  She usually lies down wherever JC happened to have dropped it. 

Nella Vita di Crazy Parents

So for our Valentines 'date,' Shane and I went ice skating.  It's something we've wanted to do since we met, but since we rarely have time during the week or weekends when we are both off it hasn't happened.  Needless to say it was tons of fun and so nice to actually spend an afternoon like a 20 something engaged couple should.  

While we were there though, I saw some parenting behavior that just made me so disgusted.  Usually I'm not the type of person to judge or criticize someone's parenting skills.  For one I am not a parent so who am I to say anything.  For two, that's just not the type of person I am.   I'm much more anything goes, to each their own, and que sera sera.  But the bottom line is I've been reading parenting books and magazines since before I could even physically have a baby, have spent a great deal of time with kids of all ages through personal life, work, and volunteering.  Plus I have common sense.  

That being said, why the hell would you take your toddler ice skating?  This little girl was probably a year and a half, maybe just pushing two.  Walking is a skill that has been barely mastered and for some reason this mother thought that she could handle gliding through ice on shoes with razors on the bottom.  I can totally understand wanting to expose kids to new things while they are young and all of that, but I mean really.  The little girl was completely using buckets to hold herself up while her mom held her diaper and pushed her forward.  So pretty much the mom was pushing the freaked out child while causing her a wedgie at the same time.  And to make matters worse they were right in the middle of the lane where the fast skaters were, forcing them to skate around them and causing people to crash into each other.  I was so disgusted and livid that someone could be so thoughtless and execute poor judgement.  I don't believe in violence or hitting, especially of children, but I must admit I was tempted to skate blades first into the little girl, just so I could teach her mother the lesson that an ice rink is no place for a toddler and if you don't want your precious future figure skater to lose a finger you had better at least move over to the edge of the rink.