"Smart" Choice Labels

Being a mother of 3 hungry little beasts my household isa hefty cereal consumer. And by cereal, I mean healthy, low sugar cereals such as cheerios, Kashi and Total. Fruit Loops, Cinnamon Toast Crunch and Cocoa ANYTHING are banned in my kitchen. In my opinion, those have slightly higher nutritional value than sending your kid off to school with a Snickers bar for breakfast.

Apparently the "Smart Choice" label, which is being slapped on cereal brands everywhere to help parents make healthier purchasing choices, fails to agree with me. According to this article: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/05/business/05smart.html?_r=1&partner=rss heavily processed, sugar-laden cereals such as Fruit Loops are getting this seal of approval.

On a similar note - I am not a popular mother among neighbor children. Nor (I presume) will I ever be. Last week, we took the kids swimming and brought along a 7 year old bratty little boy that Jacob recently befriended. I packed a lunch consisting of bean and cheese burritos, fresh picked apples, and a bag of chips. A good balance of fun and nutrition, I thought.

The boy was excited about the bean and cheese burritos until he opened one up and realized it was not a lard-ridden carb wrap filled with lard drenched beans and cheese that he had anticipated. Nope. Instead, it was a whole wheat tortilla filled with fresh picked diced tomatoes, beans, cheese, avocado and sour cream. The kid promptly (and rather rudely) told me that he didnt like my food and that he just wanted the chips. He continued by telling me the juice box I supplied him with was gross. And after he squirted it out on the sidewalk he asked for a soda.

I ordered him to eat my crappy food because in our household we have to eat the healthy stuff before we get any of the snack food. And as for the juice box - well he was going to have to make do with good old fashioned H2O because I don't allow my kids to waste money and food like that, so he wasn't going to get away with it either.

Bottom line - I sent the kid home at 430 with a very hungry belly. Do I feel bad? Not one bit.

Seriously...

The following is a FB status update of someone I know and comments supporting it. I originally had inserted my own little smart remark to each comment, but ultimately I realized that the clever art of brainwashing will trump logic and reasoning any day.

And we wonder why our students are falling behind in science when compared to the rest of the modern world. Hmmmm......

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1st day at school and they teach my kid about the Big Bang. So, we spent the evening teaching him about God's creation that took 7 days, not millions of years. I gotta stay on top of things at that school.

WHAT?! That's not allowed!!

I hate that! I remember when they did this with ***. I told *** to raise her hand and ask if this was fact or theory?! She did and then said the bible is fact and that's what I believe!

It's totally allowed. And totally unbalanced. I always taught it as a theory and then also presented Creationism to balance things out. "Some believe... and others believe..." My students always ended up asking what I believed. Once they ask, we can tell!

For me, *** is the one that is always confused after those "lessons" and we go through the explanations, but *** is the one who "clears it all up" for anyone who will listen! He's my feisty one!

Wow! On the first day of school? Geez! Was it in ***'s class? I'm sure he thought it was all silly. I remember thinking it was silly when I was a kid.

I think God did a "bang" of a job creating this world:) AMEN!

Where do your kids go to school? For some reason I thought you were homeschooling.

They are in a Montessori program at XXX. I homeschool 2 days and they go to school 3 days.

Nice! That's the best of both worlds.I'm really surprised that you'd have that problem there. There are so many Christian parents there. Don't be afraid to speak up. The school will respect the parents' wishes. It's easier than swimming upstream.My kids have been at Alta for 5 years and haven't heard of the Big Bang yet. Partly I think it's ... Read More because we've been blessed with Christian teachers every year, but I know that the active and involved Christian parents hold a lot of sway.Don't forget Moms In Touch, too. I think **** is leading a group there.

Folks, please disregard everything you learned in geology and most of the material you absorbed in biology - because apparently its only THEORY. Folklore passed down from generation to generation and translated over and over is a much more reliable source supported by irrefutable FACTS.

Buttons...

Bring it on. I dare you.

Thats the kind of mood I've been in for the past week or so. Its great if I have to deal with idiots like my smug next door neighbor. Not so good for the rest of the family though.

Everyone has that one button that sets them off and mine, fortunately, is pretty difficult to push-very few people are successful at it. But now that mine has been set off, I must learn to overcome it and not let it consume me.

Im hoping my girl bonding time tonight will be some welcome therapy. The plan is to cook a several course meal together and feast afterward. One of the gals is into green-living and is bringing her co-op grown organic veggies and the other is a fantastic cook. I can't help but think dinner will be a success! Jake and his friend are pretty excited that they get to reap the benefits of this girl-fest.

My mood is improving already.

OId and Forgotten

I never imagined work would make me feel so good and so bad at the same time. Today was a surprisingly emotional day. I spent the day conducting client interviews on people who use the Personal Assistance Services program through a State of Nevada funded program. Part of our duty is to monitor the level of service the grantee is providing to its clients. I went into it somewhat blinded since I really did not have a lot of knowledge about the program itself - only that people who qualified could receive a care attendant for a determined number of hours to assist with daily living tasks (anything from bathing to housekeeping).

My first in-home appointments today involved an older folks. The first was a couple in their late 80s. The husband was trying so hard to take car of his wife, when he could barely take care of himself. She could hardly speak or move and he could barely hear. Communication between the two was minimal but the husband was determined to care for his ailing wife even if it cost him his own. It made me think of Jake, because I know he would be that man if we were in that situation.

Another man on my interview list surprised me when he told me he was in his 90s; because other than his inability to move about easily, I would've guessed he looked like he was in his late 60s or early 70s. The poor man almost brought me to tears. He was genuinely happy - although I couldnt figure out how. He lives in a trailer and has no family other than some stepchildren that dont bother to contact him. His wife had recently died and from the looks of it, he had gone out of his way to provide her with the best possible care and attention until the day she died. Again, he looked as he was almost unable to care for himself, so I have no idea how the man was able to assist his ailing wife. The thought of that alone made me hurt inside. But then he said something so selfless that I had to look away so he would not notice the tears welling up in my eyes. He mentioned that all his funds were in a trust, but that his wifes wishes were that her children (his stepchildren) receive certain financial benefits. So even though they do not call, visit or write, he continues to pay out because this is what she wanted. Not once did he complain about his living conditions nor the fact that his lack of funds drive him to build his own homemade home modifications so that he can get about his house more easily.

What made me feel the worst: the realization that most of these people were excited to see me and talk with me because other than their personal care attendants, they don't have a whole lot of interaction with others. Not one asked me for Identification.

Its just a Phase.......

This is related to my earlier post (and theory) about everyone being a freak. I thought my rebeliousness and thirst for constant excitement was only something I was going through. Maybe a pre-mid life crisis of some sort? Or maybe it was that I never really got to experience it during my younger years? Nope. I have come to the conclusion that this is a perfectly normal phase. At least from the photo evidence I see on FB, most of my other friends (even the uber-religious ones!) are letting loose and pulling the sticks out of you know where.

So to elaborate on my theory... I think most of us live the wild days during our teens and early 20s. Then we settle down, get married and have kids. During this period, we (I can only speak for the women) decide that we must be mature and essentially grow up to be responsible adults. So we do the "right" things. This includes joining playgroups, church stuff, learning to cook, non stop talking about your babies... you get the picture - be it a grim one. This is all fine and dandy - at least for a while. Then you wake up one day, realize that your life is limited to a constant discussions of yours and your "friends" birth experiences and what recipe you perfected the night before. Your low rise jeans are quickly metamorphasizing into mom jeans and your lingerie drawer is filling up with granny panties.

Then there is a magical day. It creeps up on you so fast that its difficult to pinpoint the actual moment when it becomes vivid. You realize that you are still a person. One with wants, needs, and goals. Its clear now that this person you thought you were required to become was never a prerequisite to parenthood. Its possible to have fun, be wild and immature and break free from the conservative chokehold on occassion.

The other day someone at work gave me a piece of advice: "Don't lose Laura" is what she said. I responded with "I just found Laura". And I am completely satisfied with my self-discovery.

Random thoughts for the day:

Crickets: How do they all manage to sing in unison and how can one tiny insect make such an intense sound?

Swimming: Why do I float so well? Even after losing so much weight, it takes almost no energy for me to tread water. Am I full of air?

Everyone is a freak. It doesnt matter how professional, how educated or how innocent one looks.

Cash for Clunkers? Why does the federal government favor the car industry so much?

Cover up!

Why must my 4 yr old daughter be required to wear shorts under her dresses? Granted, its been a while since I was a preschool student, however, I am pretty sure the little boys are not secretly fantasizing about the little girls wearing nothing but underwear under their dresses. Its completely ridiculous in my opinion - and I plan on ignoring this little modesty rule. Beside the fact that dresses look cute on little girls, the added benefit is that they are easy - throw on some undies, the dress and, voila! The kid is dressed. Adding the extra step of finding acceptable shorts to wear underneath the dress eliminates all of the cuteness and convenience benefits.

On a similar note - elementary students in our school district are prohibited from wearing anything with spaghetti straps. OMG, a shoulder is exposed! Shield your eyes! Do we live in Iran? Maybe I should send my kid to school wearing a burka.