Maddening Mondays - Are You Politically Active????

Since I have been busy rearranging furniture in my house and attending to other family matters, I haven't given a lot of time or thought to what I would blog about here today. I decided to pose the question - Are you politically active?

If someone had asked me this 20 years ago or even 10 years ago, I would have answered NO. Sometime in the last 5-10 years, my husband started getting more politically involved, so the natural result was that I did too. It started with watching certain TV talk shows and listening to radio shows. Once I became more aware of how the system worked and what the parties and organizations stood for, I realized that I could do my part to effect change at a grassroots level.

The logical first step was to identify the party affiliation that most closely resembled my views. For me, that was the Republican Party (at the time). I had previously been registered with the Democratic Party (because my parents were). Same for my husband. As time goes on, I realize that I still identify with some of the Republican Party platform, but am an Independent in other areas.

The next step was to do my civic duty and vote in the elections. The general elections, the primary elections, the school board elections, the special elections. While I may not have seen the desired outcomes, I had hoped for, I did participate.

During the last Presidential elections, my husband and I attended the Iowa Straw Poll. Neither of us had attended this before, but we enjoyed it and learned a lot. Later on we attended our county's caucus.

Most recently my husband was a delegate to our county convention and our three kids were junior delegates. My husband was selected as a District Delegate and a State Delegate. The kids are also Junior Delegates to the District and State Conventions. The kids are starting this process much earlier than I ever did.

Another thing that has been an education for me is to get involved with legislation at the grassroots level. Rallying support for an issue, developing a bill, seeing it introduced at the state level and the process it goes through to become a law, has been a great educational tool, both for myself and our children. Great civics lessons.

The advent of the internet and blogging has increased the amount of information on issues significantly and allows you to easily gather information about a topic. Blogging allows you to share your thoughts and get others feedback.

A quote I have read: "All it takes for evil to flourish, is for good men to do nothing." This is not an exact quote and I have been unable to locate the exact author of the quote, but some attribute it to Edmund Burke. I realized that if I am not going to be active and do something, then I have no right to complain if I don't like what is happening in my world. Given the events of the last 2.5 years with our nation's economy, political climate, financial uncertainty and a slide away from the Constitutional principles set forth by our founding fathers, I feel the need to become politically active, not only for the sake of myself, but for my children and future generations that follow.

So my final thought, are you politically active? If the answer is no, I must ask, why not?

Scrappy Saturdays - Online Scrapbooking Classes

I thought I would try to round up the online websites that have scrapbook classes. This is by no means all of the sites, just the ones that I am familiar with. Most of them have a variety of classes, ranging from free, to self-paced, to month long and some even have longer, more involved classes.

Big Picture Scrapbooking - www.bigpicturescrapbooking.com

Jessica Sprague - www.jessicasprague.com

Get It Scrapped - www.debbiehodge.com

Two Peas in a Bucket - www.twopeasinabucket.com

That is all I can think off off the top of my head and I know there are others out there. I will add them as I find them.

Scrappy Saturdays - Mini Album Idea Book Download

Oh My Crafts has a free download for a Mini Album Idea Book.

I am not sure how long it is available, but should be for a while. Just came into my inbox.

Since it is put out by Oh My Crafts, they do include advertising in it, but the ideas are really cute and I hope to try them out soon. I have had a Bind It All tool for over a year and a half and have never used it. I have lots of great ideas but haven't gotten around to them yet. Maybe this will get me to use it.

Foodie Fridays - Food Inc. on Oprah

I am not normally an Oprah viewer, but my MIL called to tell me what was on her show today. She recently saw the documentary Food Inc. and decided that she had to do a show on it. Our family watched Food Inc. recently with our traditional foods group (a chapter of the Weston A. Price Foundation) following a potluck.

The documentary uncovers what the industrial food system has done and is doing to our nation's farmers and to our nation's (collective) health. Various clips were run and she then interviewed Michael Pollan (author of the Omnivore's Dilemma and more recently Food Rules) who gave an overview of the changes over the past 50-60 years (nearly a complete monopoly over the meat in this country, production practices, huge amounts of antiobiotic use in animals, etc.). One of Michael Pollan's food rules is "If your great-grandmother wouldn't recognize this as food, don't eat it. (slight paraphrase)"

Oprah also interviewed Alicia Silverstone, who went vegan and improved her health (that would not work for me cause I LOVE MEAT!), but she did advocate eating more whole foods and produce. So that part I can agree with.

The final segment she interviewed Steve Ells, founder of Chipotle Grill. While I was not able to watch the entire third segment, I did gather that he sources as much sustainably raised food as possible and more of the dollars spent, go back to the farmer/producer.

As Oprah said, you need to see this and make your own decision. I urge everyone to see this movie. Buy it, rent it, go to the theatre! We need to make conscious decisions about the food we put in our bodies. If you have seen this documentary, please share your thoughts and ask those in your sphere of influence to watch this movie and make their own decisions.

Thrifty Thursdays - Saving Money by Cooking from Scratch

When we started changing our diet to more natural and organic foods almost 11 years ago, one of the first things we did, was to decrease and eventually eliminate some foods. When I say eliminate, I need to clarify. We eliminated the processed, boxed version and replaced some of them with a homemade, made-from scratch version when possible. The others that we couldn't replace, we simply quit eating.

With the power of the internet at your fingertips (either in your home or at a local library) you likely will be able to find a recipe for almost anything. Not only will you save money by making it yourself, instead of paying someone else for making it, packaging it, marketing it, transporting it, storing it and selling it, but you will you save yourself from all the additives and preservatives that extend shelf life. In other words, you will know what is in your food, because you made it and you know the source of your ingredients (not some "natural flavorings" or other catch-all terms).

While we don't make everything from scratch (I am still trying to find a suitable replacement for canned tomato soup, etc), we keep looking. Next on my list is to find a good ranch dressing. I also have some great cracker recipes to try that a friend gave me. Much of the delay in me trying these things, is having a schedule that is too packed to allow time for trying them out. We have begun to cut back on outside commitments to really focus on what is most important to us and our family. My hope is that simplifying my life will free up more time to do these type of things that we desire to do.

One of the first websites I found with recipes for cooking almost anything from scratch was Hillbilly Housewife The site has extensive amounts of recipes in all categories. Other sites I have used are:

Food Network

All Recipes

Recipe Zaar

Be aware that some of these sites will have recipes specifying canned, boxed or other processed items as ingredients. I look at recipes and base my decision on whether to try or not, by taste. If I think it looks tasty, then I will go about changing the source of ingredients. For example, it it calls for chicken broth, I will try to replace it with homemade chicken stock if I have it, or use an organic chicken base and water, or thirdly canned chicken stock (with a SHORT ingredient list).

Of course, there are tons of cookbooks out there to make nearly anything from scratch as well. In fact you may have a few of them in your kitchen. Some that I have are: Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook, More With Less, Whole Foods for the Whole Family, The Maker's Diet and Nourishing Traditions. Most likely the older versions of the Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook will be what you are looking for. Sometimes older church and/or community cookbooks can be a good source of from scratch recipes. Most current ones rely heavily on a can of this, a package of that, or a box of this.

I hope this will give some food for thought and I look forward to your comments and suggestions on cooking items from scratch.

I avoid recipes that require non dairy whipped topping, high fructose corn syrup, etc. If I end up using one of those recipes, then I will use whipped cream or honey in place of the two ingredients I just listed. Automatic replacements are butter for margarine (won't eat that). While margarine may be cheaper to buy, my health is not. I will pay for and eat butter.

Not only does cooking from scratch save you money, it will likely save your health. We spend almost nothing on health care and choose to spend a little more on certain food items which cost a bit more (like the butter I mentioned above). We tend to rely on whole foods for our diet, that is not to say that we don't eat any junk food because we do. Our health has improved dramatically and the only time we see a medical doctor is for regular checkups or stitches.

Wordless Wednesdays - Man 'O War (Kentucky Horse Park)

Tasty Tuesdays - Wild Rice Soup

This is a recipe from my late Aunt Eileen (who was also my godmother). She was a wonderful cook. We have many, many recipes that she shared with us over the years that have become family favorites. I am sure you will love this one as much as we do. I plan to share more of her wonderful recipes over time.

Wild Rice Soup

6 Tbsp. butter or marg.
1 Tbsp. minced onion
1/2 cup all purpose flour
3 cups chicken stock
2 cups cooked wild rice
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup half and half
2 Tbsp dry sherry (optional)
snipped parsley or chives.

Melt butter in saucepan, saute onion until tender. Blend in flour, gradually stir in broth. Cook, stirring constantly until misture comes to a boil and stir one minute. Stir in rice and salt: simmer about 5 minutes. Blend in half and half and sherry. Heat to serving temp. Garnish w/parsley.

Variations: Add 1/3 cup minced ham or chopped cooked chicken, 1/2 cup finely shredded carrot and 2 TBSP chopped/crushed sliced almonds with rice and salt.

NOTES: Below are some additional things that my sisters and I have done, especially if we are short on time (with kids and jobs, sometimes time is just short).

I do not buy and cook the real wild rice that takes forever. I use the Uncle Ben's stuff and it works just fine too. For the 1/2 and 1/2, I use about 1/2 of that and then the rest with regular milk so it isn't soooooo thick. I usually cook and add in a couple chicken breasts. The sherry is optional but I usually add it and it does add a nice flavor.