Frugal Friday

A great way to save on seasonings is to grow your own.
We have started a small indoor herb garden, with our most used and favorite herbs.
It is so easy! If you have some pots laying around like we did, gather them up and fill them with some soil and compost. Herbs aren't that picky about what kind of soil they have and most will grow in any kind of soil.

We started with just our favorite 3 :
Chives (I add this to everything!)
Basil
Parsley

Fresh herbs are much more tastier than dried ones, but remember if you are using fresh herbs you must use more to get the same flavor.

Simply find some pots laying around, or make your own out of gallon milk jugs (cut in half and use the bottom portion, but add holes for drainage). Fill with some soil (from outside). And add your seeds. Seeds can be ordered online, or bought at almost any local store, especially this time of year. Make sure you follow the guidelines on your seed packet when planting.

Puppy Play....

We were out getting dirt a couple of days ago for our herb pots. This is what Annabelle and the puppy were doing.


Where is momma?

There she is!


Can I eat this?


Sarah, no more kisses!


Yuck!

I hope you all notice the cute orange diaper she is wearing. For more on cloth diapers go here
and here.

Cloth Diapering 101 Part 2

If you missed Part 1 of this series you can read it by clicking here.

After you have your diapers (at least 10 for a full day with a new born), you may think you are ready. But wait! You still need a few more items to get started.

Just as important as your diapers your diaper pail ranks up there too. Try to get a good diaper pail that seals. You can order them on-line or simply find one at Target or Walmart. We bought ours a Babies R Us but we've seen the same thing at Target. If you can't find a "diaper pail" a trash can with a good seal will work just as well.

I keep saying a "good seal" because this is important also. Ammonia is a by-product of urine....which there will be a lot of in your diapers. After a while the ammonia smell can get really strong. Even if you wash your diapers daily. You don't want your precious baby breathing in all that ammonia....let alone yourself. So a good seal is necessary.

After you have your diaper pail you will have to decide whether you want a 'wet' or 'dry' pail. Some put water or other liquid in the diaper pail to soak the diapers. We use the dry pail method. Meaning you just put the diapers in the pail, no water or liquid. This creates less of a smell, and is much easier to carry to the washer. Plus you don't have to worry about your pail getting knocked over or a little one 'playing' in or with the water.

Cloth wipes are also a good idea. I've seen people using the "throw away" kind with there cloth diapers. It just doesn't make since. I've done this when I 'ran out' and it was very difficult. Since you had to put the diaper in the diaper pail then head to the trash to throw away the wipe(s). It just creates extra work. You can easily make your own with some flannel fabric, or use baby washcloths, or simply buy them when you purchase your diapers. Some use a solution, I have found that plain water works for us. I store our wipes in a wipe tub saved from the throw away kind of wipes. You can store them in a bowl or other container. If you keep water in the container just make sure it is out of reach of your little ones. A small child can drown in only one inch of water.

You will also need a 'wet bag' for when you are out and about. This bag is water proof and closes tightly so you can put those dirty diapers back in your diaper bag without having to worry about them. This can also be purchased when you buy your diapers.

After you have these last few items you are ready to go.

You might want to consider what kind of detergent you are using though. Some folks use a "special" detergent just for cloth diapers. I find it expensive and unnecessary. We just use a 'free and clear' detergent. Purex is supposed to be the best, but it gives my daughter a rash so we use All. When you wash your diapers you only need a small amount of detergent about 2 tablespoons. If you have a front loading washer, even less, about 1 tablespoon. Always use an extra rinse cycle to make sure all of the detergent is out of your diapers.

Always check with the manufacture of your diapers to see just how they should be washed and dried.

Fiddle Anyone??

My husband recently got a fiddle. Much to my surprise he is actually doing quite well teaching himself. Already he knows "Mary Had a Little Lamb". Although it isn't perfect yet, he sure is getting there. Annabelle just loves watching daddy play. She sits on the floor and claps for him. Then she wants her "turn" at playing too. We are hoping next year he will be more accomplished and we will be able to get her one so she can "play" with daddy.

Way to go honey, keep it up!

Going Organic!

After all of our Organic shopping last month, I was a bit overwhelmed. To make this transition easier on me and our pocket book, we have made a "top ten". This is our "priority" list. We will get these all organic no matter what and let the rest be. If I can find it organic, great. If not then we will just get what we usually bought. Every month I will be adding a new item to our "top ten" to make our list a little longer.

Our Top Ten

1. Strawberries
2. Apples
3. Bananas
4. Celery
5. Potatoes
6. Corn
7. Wheat/Flour
8. Eggs
9. Green Beans
10. Grass-Fed Beef
11. Butter

We made this list by doing lots of research of the top ten foods you should buy organic. After reading about 10 of these reports we wrote down all of the foods. Some of these foods were on every list...like apples and strawberries. Others maybe only made it to one or two of the lists. We decided which one's were on every list and put those on our top ten and took other foods that we eat a lot of and included those on our list as well. Some said bananas were safe while others didn't. Since our daughter eats a lot of these we decided to get them only organic.
Do your research to find your "top ten".

Here are a couple of resources to get you started:

http://www.thegreenguide.com/doc/93/topten

http://www.care2.com/greenliving/the-top-10-foods-to-eat-organically.html

http://www.thedailygreen.com/healthy-eating/Dirty-Dozen-Foods

http://www.foodnews.org/walletguide.php

Happy Anniversary Honey!

Today marks our 2 year anniversary. I can't believe its already been 2 years. But then again it seems so much longer than that. I hardly remember what life was life before my husband.
Thank you so much for a wonderful marriage.
Yes, we have had our up's and down's....and I know more will come, but you have truely made this a heavenly marriage on earth!
Thanks for being my bestfriend, my rock, supporter, provider, father to our children, and most of all a godly husband.
Thank you for always pushing me....even out of my comfort zone ;) When I don't think I can you are always there cheering me on and telling me that "I can". You pick me up when I fall, dust me off and of course always tell me to "try again". If something goes askew in the kitchen, you always encourage me to try again....even if I have to "try" 100 times.
Thank you for always providing for our family. Even if it means you must do things you never thought you would do or don't want too.
Thank you for being such a wonderful father to our children. It puts joy in my heart to hear Annabelle yell for "daddy". And to see her face light up when you come home. To hear her "giggle" until she can hardly breathe when you two play.
Thank you for being the godly husband the Lord asks that you be. For guiding us to our saviour. Reading to us from the Word. Helping me understand passages that just don't make sense to me. For always being there to find answers to the questions I may have, and truely doing the research to make sure you are leading your family down the correct path.
I can't image, (and don't want to) what life would be like without you by my side. And I mean by my side because you are always there by my side, never infront or behind me, but next to me holding my hand and showing me the way.
I look forward to many more years of happiness and trials, children and grandchildren, and tears, and joy.
I love you!

Getting ready for #2...

We are expecting our second child, a boy, in May. Since we don't want to give up our office space we are having Annabelle and Levi share a room. We have cleared quite a few things out of her room to make room for him. Here are a few pictures of what we did to her dresser. It used to be all a cream color.


The first two drawers are Annabelle's, the next two are Levi's and the bottom yellow one holds sheets and blankets to both beds. If you look on top of the dresser you will see two baskets, they are filled with cloth diapers. Annabelle's to the left and Levi's to the right. ;)


Levi's



Annabelle's

Banana Bread.... ;)

This is my second recipie to make from Nourishing Traditions By Sally Fallon. It uses NO sugar and all whole wheat flour. It turned out wonderful! It called for 1/4 cup of Maple Syrup which I didn't have so I subsituted honey and it was still great! I was surprised that is was somewhat sweet considering it didn't have sugar it in. We will be making this again, thats for sure.

She does have you soak your flour in kefir, yogurt, or buttermilk for 12 to 24 hrs. I soaked our flour in kefir for 24 hrs. before I made the bread. Yummy! If you haven't heard of Nourishing Traditions you can read about it here . It really is a wonderful book, I highly reccomend it!

Cloth Diapering 101 Part One

New to cloth diapers? Want to save money? Having a baby and can't afford disposables? Want to take care of the earth that God has given us for a temporary home?

There are lots of questions when you are new to cloth diapers. There are so many resources and sites to read that it is very overwhelming!

We started our "cloth diaper journey" a little over year ago when we were preparing for our first child. We went with cloth for several reasons.

• Cloth diapers are just cheaper than disposables! Its a proven fact.




• I don't wear paper underwear...and don't want to, so why would I put that on my baby?




• There are lots of chemicals in disposables....really! It will amaze you.

We are very cheap! I can't see the sense in spending $20 a week on something I will just throw away. I certainly wouldn't throw a $20 bill in the trash on a weekly basis so why would I buy diapers to just throw away????

If you haven't looked into what all is in the leading disposable diaper...please do! No wonder babies get diaper rash!

We, as Christian's are responsible for the way we live our lives. Disposable diapers create so much waste in our landfills. I don't know the exact numbers but it is in the millions or billions of oil, trees, and other natural resources we would save annually if everyone just used cloth diapers.

Now, stepping down from my soap box....what do you really need to cloth diaper.

Three months before our first child was born I order lots of pre-folds and diaper covers. I wanted to go the cheapest route. We received an organic fitted cloth diaper...and wow! It fit so much better than the prefolds. Prefolds do the job....don't get me wrong, but it does take a little longer and there is bulk if you have a small baby. About three months into cloth diapering I ordered (6) bumGenius One size pocket diapers. These are great, but we have a really small baby. She is now one year old and only 16.5lbs. She has really small thighs so these leaked some if we didn't fasten them really tight. Next I ordered (3) Happy Heiny One size diapers. We liked these a lot more, but still the same problem. Then, I found Green Acres Diapers. These are not one size but they work so wonderfully well! We had to order small, medium and will order large if the need arises. We have probably spent about $400 on cloth diapers so far....and we have a stash...a huge one!

Some sites tell you, you need this, this, and this. I won't do that because I know from our experience EVERY baby is DIFFERENT! Best advice I can give is to order a diaper sampler.

Here is a great site for any of your cloth diapering needs.
http://www.wildflowerdiapers.com/

Most of the diapers we have we ordered from them. Shannon is wonderful if you have any questions or problems and shipping is fast.

So far this is what we have:

2) Tiny Heiny diapers (these are for preemies up to 10lbs)

6) Happy Heiny size small diapers

4) Fuzzi Bunz size small diapers

3) Green Acres size small diapers

6) bumGenius One Size diapers

4) Happy Heiny One Size diapers

3) Green Acres size medium diapers

1) Knickernappies Disposanots size medium

3) Fuzzi Bunz size medium diapers

We also still have our prefolds and several fitted diapers. All the diapers listed above are pocket diapers. These are wonderful and make cloth diapering so much easier.

We have so many different kinds because our baby has really small thighs and it took a lot of searching before we found that perfect diaper. The preemie diapers still fit her and she is 1. If you have a "normal" size baby One size diapers are the way to go! One size diapers have adjustable snaps to make either a small, medium, or larger diaper. That way you use one diaper the whole time your baby is in diapers....well one type, you will need several diapers ;) If you have a small, thin baby...well then you must search to find what works best for your baby. Don't give up though! There are lots of different kinds of diapers and I promise one will work for you.

We are now expecting our second baby and we already have most of the diapers we will need. We will purchase a few more because it is so much fun and cloth diapering is soooo addictive.

If you don't have a lot of money to start out, look for used diapers. I have bought used diapers and have never had a problem.

Here is a site that should be able to help:

http://www.myuseddiapers.com/

You can also find diapers on ebay. There are lots of WAHM's (work at home mom) who sell there handmade diapers on ebay for a very good price.

Check back next week for Part Two of this post. Once you find your diapers you will need some basic info on how to clean and manage them.

Going Organic

Our computer was down, but now back up. I will be posting a "Going Organic" post today since I wasn't able to yesterday.

This is a very interesting article...a must read! I copied it from this site.

An Open Letter to Hillary Clinton

I know a lot of you out there like Hillary. After all, she won the California and New York primaries.

But the Clinton family (like the Bushes) have some dirty little secrets. Namely their ties to truly evil multinational corporations like Monsanto.

Sorry to disappoint, but I gotta post the truth.

What follows is a really well-written letter by Linn Cohen-Cole which came in my email this morning. It’s being posted around the net. I copied it from this site.

Yes, it’s long. But take the time and read it. It’s very important.

An Open Letter to Hillary Clinton from Another Wellesley College Alumna

Dear Hillary,

By polling logic, I should be your supporter - Democrat, older woman, white, liberal. I was even in a dorm with you in college. I have pulled for you for years. But something this past summer fundamentally changed my responsibility to my children and grandchildren. In the time I have left in my life to protect them and others, I need to speak out.

I saw a News Hour piece on Maharastra, India, about farmers committing suicide. Monsanto, a US agricultural giant, hired Bollywood actors for ads telling illiterate farmers they could get rich (by their standards) from big yields with Monsanto’s Bt (genetically engineered) cotton seeds. The expensive seeds needed expensive fertilizer and pesticides (Monsanto, again) and irrigation. There is no irrigation there. Crops failed. Farmers had larger debt than they’d ever experienced

And farmers couldn’t collect seeds from their own fields to try again (true since time immemorial). Monsanto “patents” their DNA-altered seeds as “intellectual property.” They have a $10 million budget and a staff of 75 devoted solely to prosecuting farmers. http://www.grist.org/comments/food/2008/01/17).

Since the late 1990s (as industrial agriculture took hold in India?), 166,000 Indian farmers have committed suicide and 8 million have left the land, and it has increased since 2002 to an average of 1 every 20 minutes (P.Sainath,The Hindu). The reasons for suicides are always complex and Monsanto is not the only giant agribusiness now in India, but it is one of the largest in India, and the main one in Maharastra where the suicides are especially high. Farmers in Europe, Asia, Africa, Indonesia, South America, Central America and here, have all protested Monsanto and genetic engineering.

What does this have to do with you?

You have connections to Monsanto through the Rose Law Firm where you worked and through Bill who hired Monsanto people for central food-related roles. Your Orwellian-named “Rural Americans for Hillary” was planned with Troutman Sanders, Monsanto’s lobbyists.

Genetic engineering and industrialized food and animal production all come together at the Rose Law Firm, which represents the world’s largest GE corporation (Monsanto), GE’s most controversial project (DP&L’s - now Monsanto’s - terminator genes), the world’s largest meat producer (Tyson), the world’s largest retailer and a dominant food retailer (Walmart).

The inbred-ness of Rose’s legal representation of corporations which own controlling interests in other corporations there and of corporate boards sharing members who are also shareholders of each other’s corporations there, is so thorough that it is hard to capture. Jon Jacoby, senior executive of the Stephens Group - one of the largest institutional shareholders of Tyson Foods, Walmart, DP&L - is also Chairman of the Board of DP&L and arranged the Wal-Mart deal. Jackson Stephens’ Stephens Group staked Sam Walton and financed Tyson Foods. Monsanto bought DP&L. All represented at Rose.

You didn’t just work there, you made friends. That shows in the flow of favors then and since. You were invited onto Walmart’s board, you were helped by a Tyson executive to make commodity trades (3 days before Bill became governor), netting you $100,000, Jackson Stephens strongly backed Bill for Governor, and then for President (donating $100,000).

http://www.financialsense.com/editorials/engdahl/2006/0828.html

Food and friends, in Clinton terms:

Bill’s appointed friend Mike Espy, Secretary of Agriculture, who immediately significantly weakened federal chicken waste and contamination standards, opening the door to major expansion of Tyson’s chicken factory farms (http://www.financialsense.com/ editorials/engdahl/2006/0828.html). Espy resigned, indicted for accepting bribes, illegal contributions, money laundering, illegal dispersal of USDA subsidies, …. Tyson Foods was the largest corporate offender.

http://www.engdahl.oilgeopolitics.net/GMO/Monsanto/monsanto.html

But what Bill did for Monsanto “genetic engineering” goes beyond inadequate concepts of giving corporate friends influence: He unleashed genetic engineering into the world. And then he helped close off people’s escape from it.


Genetic engineering is many orders of magnitude different from “normal” (even polluting) business in its potential biologic ramifications. The warning myth of Pandora’a Box - letting irretrievable things rush out into nature - has become real. The harrowing change to the world from nuclear fission and fusion is the closest parallel.

What did Bill do?

1. Bill’s put Monsanto people in at the FDA, as US Agricultural Trade Representatives, on International Biotechnology Consultive Forums, and more … (http://www.commondreams.org/headlines/072600-03.htm) or http://www.monitor.net/monitor/9904b/monsantofda.html or http://www.mindfully.org/GE/Revolving-Door.htm

2. Bill’s FDA gave Monsanto permission to market rBGH (a GE bovine growth hormone), the first genetically engineered product let loose on us (or did tomatoes with fish DNA get there first?).

3. Despite reports of bovine illness and death, Bill’s FDA did not recall it or put warnings on it. Even “a very angry, very vocal nationwide consumer base” had no impact. ” http://www.wafreepress.org/14/Envirowatch.html

4. Bill’s FDA wouldn’t even label rBGH as “present” in milk.

5. When dairy farmers tried to label their own milk rBGH-free so the public could choose, Bill’s USDA threatened all dairies that their products could be confiscated from stores. Michael Taylor, USFDA Deputy Commissioner, was formerly Monsanto’s counsel.

6. How were consumers to protect their family, given Bill’s FDA enforced public blindness, except to buy only organic? But Bill’s FDA tried to close off that last escape, proposing to include in “organic” standards, “the dirty three” a : genetic engineering of plants and animals, use of irradiation in food processing and use of municipal sewage sludge as a fertilizer. (My emphasis.) The FDA backed down.

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0DEED91E31F933A1575AC0A96E958260

Had this gone through, Monsanto could have finally labeled rBGH milk … as “organic.” And animal waste from factory farms, a pollution nightmare for Tyson and others, could have been sold as fertilizer.

USDA head Dan Glickman: “This is probably the largest public response to an [Agriculture Department] rule in modern history.” In fact the response was 20 times greater than anything ever before proposed by the USDA.

http://www.orpheusweb.co.uk/john.rose/orglab.html

Personally, I resent years of effort to protect my children and now grandchildren, from that crap.

Politically, Bill sided against small farmers and against the public’s right to know, and with Monsanto.

A snap shot of our food:

Oils: Sheep died in India after feeding on Bt cotton fields (http://btcotton.blogspot.com/). We feed our children Bt cotton, as cottonseed oil in peanut butter and cookies.

Grains: 49% of US corn acreage was planted in Bt corn in 2007. A French study proved Monsanto’s GMO corn causes kidney and liver toxicity (http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_4790.cfm). Soft drinks and candy have highly concentrated Bt corn, in the form of high fructose Bt corn syrup. The US food system depends most on two crops, soy (90% GMO, 90% of traits owned by Monsanto) and corn, the largest crop (60% GMO, nearly 100% Monsanto traits). “[E]ssentially our entire food supply is genetically modified, to the benefit of one company.” The Grocery Manufacturers of America in 2000 estimated that 70 percent of US food contains GM traits.

http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_9716.cfm

Meat: Steroids bulk up atheletes. Monsanto steroids bulk up animals - more weight, more profit. We feed our children steroids in meats. Is this why our children are fattening, like Hansel and Gretel?

Poultry: Bill’s USDA weakened chicken waste and contamination standards and attempted to allow sewage sludge as fertilize crops. I will say more about disease from industrialized poultry farms waste, at the end of this letter.

Milk: Over 30 scientific publications have shown increased levels of IGF-1 in milk with rBGH increases risks of breast cancer by up to seven-fold, also increasing colon and prostate cancers risks. Canada, 29 European nations, Norway, Switzerland, Japan, New Zealand, Australia, and South Africa ban U.S. rBGH dairy products. Bill’s USFDA put no restrictions, no warning labels (not allowing labels at all). (My emphasis.)

http://www.sustdev.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2127&Itemid=35

American children eat that food and drink that milk, Hillary. Coincidentally, American children are increasingly fat and sick.

Here, Bill ignored pleas for labeling. Abroad, Bill ignored intense international objections over the same issue - unlabeled US food exports - badly straining trading relations. Monsanto’s “good ole boy,” he betrayed American families at the deepest levels conceivable - their family’s health and their democratic right to know. He betrayed our rural life and American family farmers - backing corporation deceit and control, over honesty and clean farming.

But, Hillary, it is one thing to not label a regular ole food product to sell it, and quite another to sell a suspected-dangerous food product (rBGH), but Bill’s administration didn’t label (or stop) a well-known, terrifying threat - Mad Cow Disease.

Bill’s FDA’s August, 1997 regulation permitted “known TSE-positive [Transmissible spongiform encephalopathy] material to be used in pet food, pig, chicken and fish feed,” only requiring the label to read “Do not feed to cattle and other ruminants” in the US.

Monsanto added to the problem. “There is evidence that rbST use [Monsanto’s GE bovine growth hormone] reduces the useful lifespan of a dairy cow. … Given that the incubation period for BSE is at least three to five years and perhaps longer, rbST-treated cows could harbor “hidden” BSE. That is, they might be infected but still asymptomatic when sent to slaughter.” (My emphasis.)

http://www.consumersunion.org/food/bgh-codex.htm

Bill let TSE into our entire food chain. And who owned the feed and slaughter and genetic engineering corporations whch benefitted?

Please, tell me, Hillary, what he could possibly have gotten in friendship or favors, that could ever justify his exposing millions of people to this?

With genetic engineering itself, Bill did something to the whole world, which tried to object. Words are inadequate to express how astoundingly immoral, beyond human bounds and conceit and power, that was.

“Even for the biggest “winners,” it is like winning at poker on the Titanic.” Jerry Mander: Facing the Rising Tide

He had no right.

Do you hear that?

Bill had sex from Monica Lewinsky. That’s “dinky immoral.” That’s chicken feed immoral - excuse the Tyson pun, excuse the TSE-laced pun. Bill let genetic engineering lose on NATURE itself.

“Our way of life is likely to be more fundamentally transformed in the next several decades than in the previous one thousand years…Tens of thousands of novel transgenic bacteria, viruses, plants and animals could be released into the Earth’s ecosystems…Some of those releases, however, could wreak havoc with the planet’s biospheres.” Jeremy Rifkin, Biotech Century

Bill did this to us, like it was some nothing and he, some big dumb ass Southern boy, just smiling and getting in good with the Big Boys, thinking about as much about the consequences of something this immense and about us human beings out here, as he thought about you, when he was unfaithful with Monica. Just one big fool getting off on the power and used to getting away with things.

Terminator genes, developed by DP&L, a Rose Firm client, prevent seeds from “working” after only one season. Farmers “must” repurchase (patents and suing not certain enough control, it seems). Those “killing” genes pose the apocalyptic risk of breaking out into nature. Natural seeds could fail, too. Nature could fail.

Far-fetched?

GMO fields are already contaminating normal species (http://www.foodfirst.org/pubs/backgrdrs/2002/sp02v8n2.html. Berkeley Professor of Microbiology, Ignacio Chapela, wrote an open letter, warning the Mexican government about just this breaking out phenomenon happening in maize (http://www.slogefree.org/newsletters/News_Item.2004-12-21.4353/).
And it has already happened with weeds - pesticide resistant GMO seeds break lose and weeds become pesticide-resistant Superweeds (http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn1882-geneticallymodified-superweeds-not-uncommon.html).

But Bill’s USDA spokesman, Willard Phelps said the USDA wanted the technology to be ‘widely licensed and made expeditiously available to many seed companies.’
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=ENG20060827&articleId=3082

“Genetic Engineering is often justified as a human technology, one that feeds more people with better food. Nothing could be further from the truth. With very few exceptions, the whole point of genetic engineering is to increase sales of chemicals and bio-engineered products to dependent farmers.” David Ehrenfield: Professor of Biology, Rutgers University

Hillary, one third of the world’s bee colonies have collapsed. Gone. Farmers in India are killing themselves. Farmers and bees. Since organic farmers in India are fine and organic farmers report no colony collapse, what does these farming catatrophes say about “industrial agriculture”?

Mad Cow Disease is another direct result of industrial agriculture. And now ….

… transnational poultry factories are implicated as the source of bird flu. … Small scale poultry farms and wild birds seem not to be the problem [just as small farmers are not the issue in Mad Cow Disease], and yet “initiatives are multiplying to ban outdoor poultry, squeeze out small producers and restock farms with genetically modified chickens. … http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/feb2006/2006-02-27-01.asp “Of the few outbreaks that did occur in [Laos], more than 90% broke out in commercial poultry operations, not free-ranging flocks.” http://www.birdflubook.com/a.php?id=75

Monsanto (and others) is currently working with the USDA (http://www.farmandranchguide.com/articles/2006/01/30/ag_news/updates/update01.txt)
to force small farmers to tag every animal with a global tracking device (NAIS - National Animal Identification System). Allegedly related to food safety, Monsanto and others would be creating a vast corporate digital library on every move of small farmers’s livestock. http://goexcelglobal.he.net/~natpropg/nonais.html

But small farmers do not create the contaminated environments, do not supply the feed, do not grind up diseased animals into feed (how Mad Cow began) and then sell it. In fact, their farming methods, free range and small scale, are significantly healthier and safer for animals and food than the massive concentration of animals by corporate industrial agriculture.

Monsanto is also aggressively pushing for state laws to limit farmers’ right to choose what to plant and the public’s right exclude GE plants from their communities.

http://www.rense.com/general65/righto.htm

Cattle bloated by steroids, lapse and loss of 10,000 year old normal seeds, immense pollution from factory farms, deadly-disease-ridden feed, world-wide bee colony collapse, poisoned soil and depleted water supplies, Superweeds (http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn1882-geneticallymodified-superweeds-not-uncommon.html), lawsuits against farmers, loss of family farms, and … India farmers killing themselves in what may be the largest mass suicide in recorded human history (on average … one farmers’ suicide every 30 minutes since 2002 - The Hindu 1.30.08) - that is industrial agriculture.

Monsanto and Tyson are two of the largest industrial agricultural corporations in the world. Industrial agriculture is represented by your Rose Law Firm.

Your claim to care about food safety is terrifying double-speak given what Bill did and who you take donations from. Your idea of a Department of Food Safety would centralize control of food - in whose corporate connected hands? You talk tough about labeling food - ah, but “foreign” food - a sleight of hand tricking a public desperate for safe US food. You talk about food safety but Bill degraded food in every imaginable way and prevented minimally sane labeling.

I am a person before I am a woman. Your gender means nothing. It is a media distraction. Your policies on health and food and women and children, are meaningless in the face of connections that have threatened those groups profoundly, connections you have never denounced.

Monsanto uses child labor in India, primarily very young girls, exposing them to a lethal pesticide 13-14 hours a day, for pennies in pay. http://www.indiaresource.org/issues/agbiotech/2003/monsantounilever.html But you take donations from their lobbyists. You say you care about black people but as the poorest people in this country, they are least able to buy organic and are forced to eat the contaminated foods Bill let into our food system. The National Black Farmers Association has a boycott out on all Monsanto products.

Do you eat organic?

So, who are you with, hapless black consumers and black farmers, or Monsanto?

Mothers left to give their children rBGH milk, or Monsanto?

Women exposed to 7 times greater risk of breast cancer, or Monsanto?

Desperate farmers in India and young children forced into child labor in cottonseed factories there, or Monsanto?

Animals suffering from lives in filthy cages and disgusting feedlots, shot up with steroids and hormones and antibiotics, or Monsanto?

Our children who eat candy with high fructose Bt corn syrup associated with kidney and liver toxicity, or Monsanto?

Edwards was right about your corporate connections. I just didn’t understand until I saw that PBS show and read about Monsanto, how personally affected my children and grandchildren, and all people around the world, have been.

I will not vote for you. I will vote for someone who will commit themselves to work on behalf of small farmers and real food and decent treatment of animals and to end this industrialized agricultural nightmare that is taking us off a cliff.

Linn Cohen-Cole
Atlanta

Introduction....

The purpose of this blog is to share what I have learned while being first a daughter of God, wife, mother, and homekeeper...in that order!

God my father is number one in my life.
My husband comes second and our children follow after him.
My home is next and everything else falls in behind that.

Finding your life in his is all about being a helpmeet to your husband. Ways that you as a wife can better help your husband and be what he NEEDS you to be not what you WANT to be. Living a sacrificial life to HELP HIM.

And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him. Genesis 2:18


A B C's of Being a Help Meet

Admit when you are wrong
Be positive
Cuddle
Do it his way
Encourage him
Fix his breakfast
Give back rubs
Hug often
"I love you" should be said many times daily
Joke around in a playful manner
Know his needs
Listen to him
Manage your home well
Never hold grudges
Open your eyes in the morning and smile
Pray for him
Quit nagging him
Reminisce about good times
Show respect and honor
Trust, and earn his trust
Understand his need for reverence
Vulnerability is a feminine trait; cultivate it
Wink at him!
X is for private times
Yearn to please him
Zealously guard him with your love
From http://www.frugalhomemaker.com/