Eclectica
I'm trying to blog this morning, and my hands are flippin' FREEZING so bad that I keep making typos that shouldn't be made 'cause I can barely move my fingers. However, I'm too flippin' CHEAP to go turn up the furnace, even though the day is overcast and the house not likely to warm up anytime soon.
It's June, goshdarnit! I shouldn't have to be relying on a furnace for heat in June!
This morning, Mark and Colleen packed their bags and headed south to warmer pastures. Okay, so chances are it will not be any warmer, and most likely it will be cooler, in Sylvan Lake where they are headed. (Something about this little town being located in a weird weather belt extending from the mountains. They always get more snow and rain than most other places in Alberta, except for other towns located deeper in the same belt.) Anyways, they had been staying here since Sunday night, on their way through from the REAL Far North, Yellowknife. (Not to be confused with the FAR, FAR North, Inuvik, or even Kugluktuk!) Yep, Canada is really flippin' big.
"Flippin'" is a word I'm favouring this morning.
Speaking of Kugluktuk, that reminds me that I know a young couple about our age, Timothy and Angela Jeske, who serve up there as missionaries for the PAOC. They are working as pastors there, serving the large native community. Drug and alcohol addictions are very rampant there. Apparently they have really been able to connect with some families through their kids church program. A couple of years ago, Timothy was saying that it costs over $1000 a month just to heat their house in the winter. That was before the gas prices got jacked so high! They can always use an encouraging comment, so if you would like to e-mail them, contact me for their address. (Sorry I couldn't find better links about them.)
It's June, goshdarnit! I shouldn't have to be relying on a furnace for heat in June!
This morning, Mark and Colleen packed their bags and headed south to warmer pastures. Okay, so chances are it will not be any warmer, and most likely it will be cooler, in Sylvan Lake where they are headed. (Something about this little town being located in a weird weather belt extending from the mountains. They always get more snow and rain than most other places in Alberta, except for other towns located deeper in the same belt.) Anyways, they had been staying here since Sunday night, on their way through from the REAL Far North, Yellowknife. (Not to be confused with the FAR, FAR North, Inuvik, or even Kugluktuk!) Yep, Canada is really flippin' big.
"Flippin'" is a word I'm favouring this morning.
Speaking of Kugluktuk, that reminds me that I know a young couple about our age, Timothy and Angela Jeske, who serve up there as missionaries for the PAOC. They are working as pastors there, serving the large native community. Drug and alcohol addictions are very rampant there. Apparently they have really been able to connect with some families through their kids church program. A couple of years ago, Timothy was saying that it costs over $1000 a month just to heat their house in the winter. That was before the gas prices got jacked so high! They can always use an encouraging comment, so if you would like to e-mail them, contact me for their address. (Sorry I couldn't find better links about them.)
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Okay, so it is now almost bedtime. The kids' movie didn't last quite long enough to finish this blog entry this morning. C'est la vie. Living my daily routine with the kids is more important than blogging about it, anyway.
I was relieved to discover tonight that I am not as sleep deprived as I thought. Although, apparently, I seriously need to work on the hours I am getting my sleep in. From this article on the same site:
When I first started my radical dietary revolution over a year ago, one of my biggest frustrations was the grocery store. Or, should I say, "stores." No longer could I find nearly everything I needed at one store. It was difficult to find the full range of organic and healthful food in the small town of Sylvan Lake, even between the two stores there. So I would occasionally shop in Red Deer as well, "stocking up" on items only available from the stores there.
But by far, the most frustrating thing was the amount of time it took to go shopping. Learning where the food items on my new diet were located. Getting frustrated because it was only hit-and-miss whether they were in stock. Reading labels and labels and labels and getting sickened to the point of vomiting at some of the ingredients, which had now been de-mystified for me as to what they really were.
At last! A simple formula for figuring out if you should buy that bottle of barbeque sauce, or jug of orange juice! This article had two major key points on deciding whether something is a "food" (nutritious and good for you) or a "food product" (manufactured and bad for you.)
1. Did it exist before the year 1903 (when the process of hydrogenation was invented?)
2. Does it take large amounts of advertising dollars to sell it? (If so, chances are that large amounts of profit are being made from its sale, therefore DO AVOID! Real food, although more expensive than food products, has never turned anyone into a millionaire.)
Also, they say, if it comes in a wrapper, it's a food product, not food. I recommend checking out the full article. It's a quick, informative, but lightly-written read.
I was relieved to discover tonight that I am not as sleep deprived as I thought. Although, apparently, I seriously need to work on the hours I am getting my sleep in. From this article on the same site:
Get to bed as early as possible. Our systems, particularly the adrenals, do a majority of their recharging or recovering during the hours of 11PM and 1AM. In addition, your gallbladder dumps toxins during this same period. If you are awake, the toxins back up into the liver which then secondarily back up into your entire system and cause further disruption of your health. Prior to the widespread use of electricity, people would go to bed shortly after sundown, as most animals do, and which nature intended for humans as well.Of course, "shortly after sundown" in this case is actually NOT that far off of what I've been doing! Okay, okay--I have just told Jason that I am going to make a concerted effort to get to bed before midnight every night. Concerted effort. That's kind of fun to say. I hope it's as fun to put into practice. See Talena, tossing and turning for an hour and a half every night before falling asleep, cursing under her breath and saying "If I'm going to be awake anyway, I may as well be doing something useful!" See Talena, getting frustrated and saying, "To heck with it!" See Talena getting toxins backing up into her liver. Oh, well.
When I first started my radical dietary revolution over a year ago, one of my biggest frustrations was the grocery store. Or, should I say, "stores." No longer could I find nearly everything I needed at one store. It was difficult to find the full range of organic and healthful food in the small town of Sylvan Lake, even between the two stores there. So I would occasionally shop in Red Deer as well, "stocking up" on items only available from the stores there.
But by far, the most frustrating thing was the amount of time it took to go shopping. Learning where the food items on my new diet were located. Getting frustrated because it was only hit-and-miss whether they were in stock. Reading labels and labels and labels and getting sickened to the point of vomiting at some of the ingredients, which had now been de-mystified for me as to what they really were.
At last! A simple formula for figuring out if you should buy that bottle of barbeque sauce, or jug of orange juice! This article had two major key points on deciding whether something is a "food" (nutritious and good for you) or a "food product" (manufactured and bad for you.)
1. Did it exist before the year 1903 (when the process of hydrogenation was invented?)
2. Does it take large amounts of advertising dollars to sell it? (If so, chances are that large amounts of profit are being made from its sale, therefore DO AVOID! Real food, although more expensive than food products, has never turned anyone into a millionaire.)
Also, they say, if it comes in a wrapper, it's a food product, not food. I recommend checking out the full article. It's a quick, informative, but lightly-written read.
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Cute Kid Corner:
Jabin is now at the "head-shaking" stage. Do all babies go through this? All of mine have, anyway. It's like they suddenly discover that if they shake their head back and forth repeatedly, the world moves in a crazy way, and keeps moving for a while even after they stop! And they can't get enough! Noah is still in this stage! Crazy kids. Oh, well, I guess it's cheap entertainment.
I've been noticing subtle things about Jude--difficult to describe--that tell me he is maturing. For one, his pronunciation has become WAY better. Despite the comment I received yesterday that perhaps I should get his hearing checked, I know it's just fine, he's just been very lazy with his words. We have been working with him on it steadily, and he has improved A LOT over the last few months. And he is continually surprising me with new words in his vocabulary, and new sounds that he is able to say. (What is with people's obsession at comparing their kids to everyone else's? So my kid can't SAY "clock" yet, but he already has a beginner's grasp of telling time! Does yours? Does it matter to me? Not two beans! Every kid is different! If he can't talk clearly at five, then I'll be concerned.)
Besides his improved speech patterns, his height has also been a dead-on giveaway that time is NOT standing still, as much as I may like it to. (Especially now that it's summer. If time were to really stand still, it should do it on June 1st. That's gotta be one of the best times of year, don't you think? Well, except maybe in Australia.) He is also occasionally becoming more considerate of Noah. Most of the time, it's still pick pick pick all day though. He's only three and a half. What do I expect, anyway? (Addendum: It has been gratifying to see Jude actually use his words more often with Noah though. I often overhear, "Noah, no! No, no, Noah!" Much better than physical force, and it usually prompts me to at least go and see what's going on. Without already being mad before I get there.)
For his part, Noah still hasn't really learned to stand up for himself when Jude is bugging him. He mostly just squeals. So annoying. However, he is trying to use words more often, although his pronunciation is absolutely terrible, and unless I really think about it, I don't realize that he's actually trying to talk. However, he is fascinated with letters and numbers, and it is so cute to see him reading his counting book, pointing at the numbers and trying to make counting words, albeit in his own little language.
I know I haven't posted pictures recently. I'll try to take some soon to get on here.
Well, this has been a rather long, eclectic post. And if I'm going to make good on my concerted effort, I better get going.
One last thing: Thank you Fence for the link to these Irish phrases. Now that I know that "fecking" isn't an only-slightly-less-vulgar swear than it's sound-alike counterpart, but is in fact a not-really-vulgar mild expletive equivalent to "darned" (which I use all the time), I think I'm going to make it a goal to use "fecking" in conversation this week. Oh, and call someone a screeching langer, just to see the confused look on their face. Irish is such a fun language. I'll just tell people I'm getting in touch with my Irish roots. (They don't need to know how watered-down they are, do they?) Tee hee!
Oh, and something else: I see there is a "war of the Rather Be's" going on with my mini-poll, including about 10 votes from someone who can't make up their mind. C'mon, everybody, give the golfer/poker player with a twitchy voting finger a run for his money! I'll leave this poll up until the weekend, and we'll see who is right, and who is dead. I mean, um, who wins. Cheers!
Jabin is now at the "head-shaking" stage. Do all babies go through this? All of mine have, anyway. It's like they suddenly discover that if they shake their head back and forth repeatedly, the world moves in a crazy way, and keeps moving for a while even after they stop! And they can't get enough! Noah is still in this stage! Crazy kids. Oh, well, I guess it's cheap entertainment.
I've been noticing subtle things about Jude--difficult to describe--that tell me he is maturing. For one, his pronunciation has become WAY better. Despite the comment I received yesterday that perhaps I should get his hearing checked, I know it's just fine, he's just been very lazy with his words. We have been working with him on it steadily, and he has improved A LOT over the last few months. And he is continually surprising me with new words in his vocabulary, and new sounds that he is able to say. (What is with people's obsession at comparing their kids to everyone else's? So my kid can't SAY "clock" yet, but he already has a beginner's grasp of telling time! Does yours? Does it matter to me? Not two beans! Every kid is different! If he can't talk clearly at five, then I'll be concerned.)
Besides his improved speech patterns, his height has also been a dead-on giveaway that time is NOT standing still, as much as I may like it to. (Especially now that it's summer. If time were to really stand still, it should do it on June 1st. That's gotta be one of the best times of year, don't you think? Well, except maybe in Australia.) He is also occasionally becoming more considerate of Noah. Most of the time, it's still pick pick pick all day though. He's only three and a half. What do I expect, anyway? (Addendum: It has been gratifying to see Jude actually use his words more often with Noah though. I often overhear, "Noah, no! No, no, Noah!" Much better than physical force, and it usually prompts me to at least go and see what's going on. Without already being mad before I get there.)
For his part, Noah still hasn't really learned to stand up for himself when Jude is bugging him. He mostly just squeals. So annoying. However, he is trying to use words more often, although his pronunciation is absolutely terrible, and unless I really think about it, I don't realize that he's actually trying to talk. However, he is fascinated with letters and numbers, and it is so cute to see him reading his counting book, pointing at the numbers and trying to make counting words, albeit in his own little language.
I know I haven't posted pictures recently. I'll try to take some soon to get on here.
Well, this has been a rather long, eclectic post. And if I'm going to make good on my concerted effort, I better get going.
One last thing: Thank you Fence for the link to these Irish phrases. Now that I know that "fecking" isn't an only-slightly-less-vulgar swear than it's sound-alike counterpart, but is in fact a not-really-vulgar mild expletive equivalent to "darned" (which I use all the time), I think I'm going to make it a goal to use "fecking" in conversation this week. Oh, and call someone a screeching langer, just to see the confused look on their face. Irish is such a fun language. I'll just tell people I'm getting in touch with my Irish roots. (They don't need to know how watered-down they are, do they?) Tee hee!
Oh, and something else: I see there is a "war of the Rather Be's" going on with my mini-poll, including about 10 votes from someone who can't make up their mind. C'mon, everybody, give the golfer/poker player with a twitchy voting finger a run for his money! I'll leave this poll up until the weekend, and we'll see who is right, and who is dead. I mean, um, who wins. Cheers!