One Elephant Went Out To Play...

Tired of reading about GM foods yet?

Sorry for the lack of updates, folks. I've been burning the midnight oil getting ready for the class I am teaching this Friday night at a scrapbooking retreat here in town. It's called "Using Transparent Elements." I am far from ready. At least it feels like I still am.

Here are the sample layouts that the students will be making in the class. (Yes, they are both the same layout, but I had to do one with the photo in both orientations, since I didn't specify which one the photo they bring should be in in.)




This blog will resume regular updating next week. 'Til then, I hope you are all well! Please share something with me that made your day/week/month in the comments section.

Hugs!

The future of food: Why GM crops threaten the sustainability of the human race (opinion)

Today's post is reprinted from the Newstarget site. This article is written by Mike Adams. I strongly encourage you to do what you can, starting with the resources listed in this article, to educate yourself on GM foods like the Terminator seeds, and oppose them.

(NewsTarget February 23, 2007) Corporations like Monsanto are playing God with the food supply. Did you ever wonder what happens when all the genetically modified, pesticide-compatible, gene-terminated, laboratory-concocted Frankenfoods end up genetically contaminating the natural crops we depend on for a sustainable food future? In a new CounterThink cartoon published today, I explore this important concept by showing the plight of a farmer fretting over an empty bag of seedless watermelon seeds.

You may find this surprising to learn, but U.S. corporations have actually designed, patented and aggressively promoted "gene terminator" plant technology that causes second-generation plants to self-destruct. By doing this, the corporation can control intellectual property (seed patents) and demand royalties on seeds from poor farmers in third world countries. It eliminates the whole practice of "saving seeds" and propagating food from one plant generation to the next -- a practice that humankind has depended on for survival since the beginning of human history.

In doing so, this gene terminator technology is a crime against both nature and humanity. To deny farmers the ability to propagate seeds from one generation to the next is to enslave humanity in a system of corporate control that violates the laws of nature and God. Care to take a guess which U.S. corporation is engaged in this activity? If you guessed Monsanto, you're right. Click here to read news about Monsanto's terminator gene at the Organic Consumers Association.

You can also follow the news on this topic at BanTerminator.org.

If you buy seedless watermelons, or seedless grapes, or GM soy products, you're already supporting the corporations that are altering the food supply. Seedless grapes are not natural, and they remove the very part of the grape that contains powerful cardiovascular medicine. Have you ever heard of the nutritional supplement called grape seed extract? Guess where it comes from? ... Grape seeds, of course. It's some of the best cardiovascular medicine known to modern science, far more potent than any prescription drug, yet with zero negative side effects. Yet food companies have removed it from the food supply and promoted "seedless grapes" as a benefit to consumers! (Of course, grape skins also contain powerful medicine called resveratrol, but grape seeds contain different medicines called proanthocyanidins and PCOs, which you can read about at the Physician's Desk Reference).

What's at risk: the future of human life on planet Earth:

In this cartoon, the farmer character is fretting over something the entire human race is going to suddenly realize one day: Playing God with seeds and the food supply for the purpose of extracting maximum corporate profits is to plae the very future of humankind at extreme risk. Suppose the terminator gene crops somehow cross-pollinate staple food crops that now feed the world... what happens then? Imagine all the wheat grown in the United States suddenly self-destructing after a single growing season. Mass starvation would quickly ensue, followed by economic collapse, military action and quite possibly the collapse of the nation itself. And the same is true in Europe, Australia, Asia and South America, too.

This is what's at stake with terminator gene technology. For the sake of maximizing corporate profits, the Monsanto corporation is willing to place the very future of humankind at risk. But it's no surprise to learn Monsanto is behind this crime against nature -- this is the same corporation that tried to patent the pig, claiming it owned the genetic code of hogs. This is also the same corporation that promoted aspartame to the world by purchasing a company called Searle, whose CEO was a man named Donald Rumsfeld. He strong-armed the FDA to get aspartame approved as "safe," and we've seen alarming increases in brain tumors and neurodegenerative diseases ever since.

I believe there is no natural law that evil corporations led by greedy men will not violate in order to increase their own power or profits. Corporations have proven they will poison the environment, kill members of the public, bribe politicians, violate federal law, engage in competitive espionage, threaten critics, bribe the media, endanger lives, wipe out animal species and sacrifice the very future of life on planet Earth in order to squeeze out one more quarter of filthy profits. And they will do it with a straight face, while actually claiming they are "green."

There will be a day when the people will rise up against the corruption and overreaching power of the corporations. In time, they will reclaim their natural right to seeds, a clean environment, and natural health remedies. Today's patent laws -- which give ownership over virtually all commonsense ideas to corporations -- will crumble, and governments that colluded with corporations to strip power, health and dollars from the people will pay the price.

Until that day, of course, it's business as usual in the free market: Screw the people, violate the planet, desecrate nature and keep that share price propped up as high as possible. That's business as usual in the United States, a nation that has sold its soul to the highest bidder on eBay and now stands as an alarming historical example of what happens when a free market economic abandons basic ethics and human rights.

Must-see documentary: The Corporation. Watch this if you really want to know the truth about how corporations threaten the very future of humankind.

What can you do about all this? Grow heirloom plants, buy organic, non-GM foods and refuse to do business with corporations that use GM foods.

Inform yourself with these online resources:

Seed Savers Exchange

The International Seed Saving Institute

Save Our Seeds

See the movie The Future of Food or buy the DVD.

Read this great article by Devvy Kidd on the future of food.

Eating organic frozen food? Buy from Amy's Kitchen, which uses no genetically modified ingredients.

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I Heart The Internet

Over the past year, I've had some really cool things happen because of blogging, things that would not have been possible through simply keeping a journal in the days pre-internet:

• I have been able to keep those friends and family that are interested in touch with our daily lives in this somewhat "removed" location.
• I have developed closer relationships with existing friends and family that keep blogs of their own.
  
• I have made some great new friends and acquaintances from around the world.
• I have found some wonderful sources of on-line news, unbiased by the money controlling major media corporations.
• I "met" successful Christian singer-songwriter Shaun Groves through his blog, exchanging a few words of on-line conversation.
• I got an e-mail from Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, knit-blogger and published knitting author extraordinaire, after asking her a question about a knitting dilemma. (I got to ask a famous knitter for help! How cool is that?)
  

Now, I get to add one more thing to the list of coolnesses. Yesterday, after using a few lyrics from her song in my post, one of the co-writers of Even If My Heart Would Break ACTUALLY LEFT A COMMENT ON MY BLOG!!

How COOL is that?!!

So...What is the coolest thing that the internet and/or blogging has allowed to happen in your life?

Carmelized Onion & Garlic Portabellas, Fancy Scrambled Eggs

One of the nice things about this low-carb cleanse I am on is that, since I am making at least some of each meal just for me anyway, I can indulge in as many onions, garlic, mushrooms, grapefruit, cucumbers, tomatoes, and whatever other things the picky eaters in my house normally limit. (Not that I always bow to the pickiest eater, which would be Jude. I tell him to pick the onions and tomatoes out.) This has also been a wonderful way for me to experiment with some new vegetable dishes, a part of the meal where I usually lack any sort of creativity.

On Sunday, I bought a portabella mushroom, which I have been enjoying two ways this week. Both of these recipes serve one as a large part of the meal, but would do nicely as a side for two. Also, I named the first dish with Colleen in mind. (Tee hee!)

Caramelized Onion & Garlic Portabellas
Serves 1-2

3 tbsp. butter
1/3-1/2 c. finely chopped yellow onion
2-3 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
1/4 Portabella Mushroom cap, diced
1/8 tsp. coarse sea salt
1 tbsp. snipped cilantro (opt.)

Melt butter over med-low heat in cast iron frying pan. Add onions and garlic and sauté until caramelized and golden. Add mushrooms and sea salt and stir until mushrooms are golden. Remove from heat, add cilantro if desired, and serve.

Fancy Scrambled Eggs: For breakfast or lunch, I have taken this a step further to make the yummiest scrambled eggs ever. Use 1/4 tsp. sea salt (instead of 1/8 tsp.) in the sautéed mushrooms. Remove from pan. Turn heat up to just below medium. Add three free-run or Omega-3 eggs to pan, and use spoon to scramble them. When still slightly runny, add mushrooms back into pan, scramble for an additional 30 seconds, remove and serve.

All I can say is: DELICIOUS!

It May Be Winter In Eden...

...But what I'm feeling is summer in my heart.
-From Even If My Heart Would Break, Franne Golde, Adrian Gurvitz

First Day of Spring?

Not so much.

Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep ...

Jude took the initiative on bedtime prayers tonight, something that happens only rarely. It's nice to see, and refreshing to only give prompts here and there.

Many parents will teach their children some kind of "scripted" prayer, often in the form of a verse or a poem, for their nighttime ritual. I remember praying the same formulaic prayer until well past ten; though it was not rhyming, it may as well have been for how well I had it memorized.

Our goal with bedtime prayers is two-fold: to help our children see God as a loving Father, from whom all things come, and to whom we can go whenever we need it (and any time we don't think we do, either.) We have never taught them the traditional bedtime verse that this post draws its title from, but we find that our prayer does follow a sort of set "pattern." (Jude often gets his bedtime prayers mixed up with the mealtime prayers--which is okay, but humourous.)

"Bless our bodies, bless our food," he began.

"Are we eating right now, Jude?" I said while pulling the covers up to Noah's chin, while he cuddled (!) the two trucks he had brought to bed with him.

"Nooo!" he said, in that 'silly me!' voice. "Help us grow up to be wise men..." He paused. I gave a prompt.

"Thank you for..." This part of the prayer usually comes up with different responses every night, but usually along the same two themes: family members, or things we got to do that day.

"Thank you for Mommy, and Daddy, and Noah and Jabin and me, and--" then he went into a rather loooong and detailed list of all his friends. We had a short discussion about the family he didn't see in church this morning among them, and then I turned to Noah.

"What are you thankful for, Noah?" wanting him to learn to participate, too, and expecting an answer along a similar bent.

Through his still-slurred language, I deciphered his response.

"Dora. Boots. Backpack." And that was the end of his list.

I feel so special.

Buzzzzed!

I started a cleanse today. I have never done an "all-the-way" cleanse before, meaning I would do some of the things they said, but fudge it here and there. I decided that it was high time to do a bit of detoxing in this body of mine, though. I have many indicators that my body needs it: the most persistent is my continuing psoriasis, most evident on my legs and upper arms, and my occasional struggles with constipation. (Did you know you're supposed to go 2-3 times per day? I had never heard of such a thing! Up till now, I was happy to go once a day, but apparently this is still the symptom of a sluggish liver.) Other indicators are the perpetually runny nose I have, and a recent lack of energy and drive that's been rearing it's lackadaisical head.

I had originally intended to do a raw-fruits-and-vegetables fast from bedtime last night until supper tonight, only. Then, this morning, I looked at the "cleansing kit" box that has been sitting on my counter for over a year, heaved a sigh, and decided it was finally time to take the plunge.

Why such reticence? Well, whilst I have given up many of my former sugar-junkie ways, I still have a certain dependence, shall we say, upon grains in my diet, which the cleanse is requiring me to give up for two weeks--to "reset" the hypothyroid gland and regulate insulin levels in my system. Although I am allowed to eat as much as I want of a wide variety of foods which are already incorporated into my diet, the idea of giving up carbs completely made me want to run screaming in the other direction so fast that I left my panties behind nervous. The only grain or legume on the "okay" list for the next two weeks is lentils. This is a legume I rarely consume, as it causes some rather obnoxious side effects in my system, making those around me demand that I supply gas masks if that's how I'm going to be, dangit. Oh, and I also have to give up bananas, tropical fruit, and all fruits, in fact, except berries, lemons, limes, and grapefruit. (Glad I have a half-dozen grapefruit and a dozen lemons in the cooler right now. What the heck am I going to do with a dozen lemons?!)

Despite all this, the thing that worries me the most, and was the biggest cause of procrastination on my part, was that I have to give up tea. Not herbal tea. (You know, that stuff that tastes-just-like-hot-water-with-some-colour-thrown-in-to-make-it-seem-like-tea.) Just black teas. But, for some strange reason, I am allowed to drink a moderate amount of coffee, which I usually avoid because it does not agree with me very well.

I can do this, I told myself this morning as I made myself a kefir shake for breakfast (bananaless, of course).

I can do this, I told myself as I was preparing lunch for the passel of kids in the house today--sloppy joes on home-made multi-grain bread. I was proud that I had not even had a craving for tea that morning, but this isn't all that uncommon, and really, I'd only been "cleansing" for a few hours by then.

I intended to skip the bread for my lunch, giving it all to the kids, but in the fluster of dishing up six children's plates, I accidentally gave myself a half-piece of bread, too--I was half-done eating it before I even realized what I'd done. Dangit. My first set-back. Still getting in the habit of being grain-free.

I can do this, I told myself again after lunch, but for some reason I seemed to be on a short leash to the hot water kettle. I kept fluttering about the kitchen, not really having anything to do, not being able to settle on anything, but not being able to leave, either. When I figured out that my movements all seemed to settle on the kettle, I decided to go downstairs and move some laundry along.

While down there, I remembered--I can have herbal tea! Maybe that will satisfy the force of habit well enough to leave it alone.

I will drink herbal tea in dire situations; for instance, if my throat is sore, I usually make a concoction of peppermint and licorice to soothe it, and it works wonders. Occasionally, if I really have consumed enough caffeine in a day, but want something toasty between my fingers and in my belly, I'm particular to a naturally-sweet flavour called "Bengal Spice," or Good Earth's "Sweet & Spicy." But it's pretty rare. Most days, I'm drinking tea because I need a little energy-booster at around 2 p.m., and having a cat-nap is not an option.

Nonetheless, I made it most of the way through my Bengal Spice by the time Jason came home--two hours later. It satisfied the habitual hand-to-mouth sipping in my muscle memory, but not the lingering drag I felt. Oh, well.

With the kids sent home, I got supper on the table. I can do this, I said again, as I skipped the baked potatoes and had liberal amounts of steamed broccoli and cheese with my boiled eggs. Wait! No I can't! I CAN'T do this! I'm fading...melting! Melting!

The dreaded post-supper drag had hit. I decided to pull out the big guns. It was time for:

coffee.

Guess we'll see if it was worth it when I'm falling asleep--at 3 a.m!

Anyway, Jason went to play squash after the kids went to bed, and I did some practicing on ye olde plastic ivories. I got to fooling around, and discovered that "The Blue Danube Waltz" sounds pretty cool if you play it entirely on the pizzicato strings instrument. So, I thought I'd share!



Have a great weekend!

Two Good Men

He taught me:

• to respect the way men think, instead of trying to change it--just work with it.
• that I am beautiful.
• that honour is the most valuable thing we have, so protect it.
• to always be aware of what is going on around me.
• that our life is what we make it.
• that responsibility and freedom have a direct relationship.
• how to punch (not like a girl).
• how to change the oil in my car.
• how to change a flat tire.
• how to make chili.
• how to make decisions.
• where my priorities should be.
• how to fight fair.
• how to tie knots.
• to be proud of my identity as a woman.

Thanks, Dad.

He taught me:

• to love myself.
• that I am more beautiful than I think I am.
• that I am needed.
• how to get around on a computer.
• to be more patient.
• how to manage finances.
• to worry less.
• to be more flexible.
• to pack lighter.
  
• how to paint a room.
• how to handle myself in a foreign culture.
  
• that I am loved.

Thanks, Jason.

You are both amazing men. Thank you for being part of my life.

Put on a Happy Face

In an effort to re-focus on my positive attitude, I thought it would be wise to make a list of the top five things about today. (I think I can find five.)

1. Noah DID NOT poop in his underwear today. (This always makes the morning better.)
2. We did a cute Noah's Ark craft using sticky-backed shaped foam, and it was a perfect opportunity to share the amazing story of how God saved his faithful servant and the all the animals during the flood. Jude and Noah loved the craft, and I think Jude started to "get it" a lot more than he ever has before. (They've heard the story lots, thanks to its popularity in children's Bible books and videos.)
   
3. Jabin has the cutest giggle EVER. I should try and record it and put a sound byte up here. And he LOVES to be tickled.
4. Jude loves to be a big helper, and feels very important when he does, so this makes my life easier as far as table setting, etc., is concerned. He often volunteers instead of having to be asked to set the table. (Although today he had to be asked for every meal, he did do two of them cheerfully!)
5. As useless as I felt today, I still managed to maintain a clean kitchen, vacuum half my house, and fold some laundry, as well as doing "school" and a craft with the kids and reading a book with Jabin. I guess today wasn't a total write-off after all.

There. I feel better already. But that doesn't mean I'm not going to go scrapbook for a half-hour before bed, still. I do have one more:

• Playing through some great old songs in one of my favourite Reader's Digest Songbook collections, which I haven't done for ages. I really must remember to de-stress like this more often. Music does soothe the savage beast, as well as the gloomy and frazzled spirit, apparently.

Happy Wednesday, friends. How was your day?

Kids for sale, going cheap!

Any takers?

Time Out!

I was jolted into reality an hour earlier this morning by the sound of my husband scraping ice off our van. I glanced at the clock, thinking, What's he doing? He said he wasn't leaving for another 45 minutes!

Then it hit me--actually, he was supposed to leave 15 minutes ago.

Yep, we missed the time change. This weekend was a jumble of time spent at home, venturing not into the snowy outer world, with nothing to remind us that time was about to fast-forward an hour. To make it worse, last night we made the unfortunate decision to stay up extra-late watching a movie and, ahem, anyway, what was originally just a foolishly-late night has now become stupidly-late. The advantage is--at least bedtime will come an hour earlier tonight!

So, you'd think in all that time spent at home this weekend, I would have found the time to blog about our adventures of late. Instead, the majority of our most precious commodity was spent knitting Ang's sweater (which is coming along nicely, by the way, Angela--it ought to be finished right about the time that winter is officially over!) and re-designing our Dream House. We are working on Dream House 2: The More Affordable, More Realistic Version. Jason and I started working on it on Date Night (aka Friday) at the Sunflower Café, and kept at it until Jason finished his ideal basement layout later last evening.

Yes, I said Date Night. We have worked out a deal with another family with boys about the same age as ours (the Gregorys) that we will trade babysitting services every other Friday (or every other Friday that no one is sick or out of town) so that we can get out. It's not even so much a matter of affording a babysitter--it's just that there is a distinct lack of reliable, experienced babysitters around that would be able to handle three boys, one of which is a baby. So, this way we both get to have roughly two dates a month, and the dates we DO have are just a little cheaper. (We might even try leaving the kids for a sleepover soon. That would be kind of weird and exciting at the same time!)

So, I've missed lots in the last couple of weeks while I haven't been posting about our family life. Firstly, Noah turned three on the 26th. We had a party the day before which was only attended by Robin Berreth and her kids, but the kids all had a blast! I made pumpkin pie tarts with loads of whipped cream for the birthday dessert. The kids ran around and had a hoot, and the adults got to share some visiting and some laughs. Good times.

Noah is saying more words every day. He has FINALLY within the last month started saying "want" and "don't want!" (Jabin already says his own word for "want" - "nana" with a pointing finger at the desired object.) Noah usually uses these phrases when he is either asking to do something, or complaining about something we asked him to do. ("Noah, go to the potty, please." "Don't want!") Yesterday he floored me and made what sounded like a complete sentence: "I don't want to!" Yipes! The boy is finally learning how to talk!

He continues to be fascinated by patterns, rhymes, and repetition. He knows (and by "knows", I mean he is actually starting to recognize and name without prompting) his letters and numbers. On Saturday, as the credits to a children's movie we had just finished watching were scrolling by, he started pointing at the quickly-moving names. "O! A! S!" And I'll be darned if he wasn't actually pointing at the right letters. The concept we are struggling with right now is "same." ("Noah, look at these three shapes. Which two are the same?" "See-cah! Tree-anguh! See-cah!" "Yes, that is what they are called, but are there two the same?") He just doesn't get it.

On the other end of the spectrum, Jabin is already showing signs of being an early talker. He learned how to say "Get it" last week. He'll throw a toy away from him, and then his little voice can be heard saying "Didit! Didit!" over and over again while he crawls after it. He has also done one-time imitations of over a half-dozen other words after I have said them. (Jar, bottle, up, down, more, let's go, etc.) I'm sure it won't be long before he rattles these off on a regular basis. He also has started to shake his head "no" when you ask him if he wants something that he doesn't. It's so nice when they start communicating! (I am convinced that Jabin's comparatively early cognitive and speech skills have something to do with the fact that I took cod liver oil in the later part my pregnancy. It was only after I gave birth to him that I started seeing research evidence that it actually makes babies smarter. I just wish I had taken it from the get-go!)

Jude is doing very well with all the schoolwork that we have been going through. It's been great fun to watch him learning and be so excited about it. We try to get to the library on a semi-regular basis to keep the supply of fresh books to read up. Last Thursday we actually made it to the library's Story Time, and the boys did a craft of making a bug mobile afterwards. That was fun. It was nicely coincidental that we had done our own bug craft the day before, and done a little reading about bugs. I intend to keep up the theme for a bit, since spring is just around the corner.

On Saturday, we started some flower seeds in some peat pellets, so that they will be nicely sprouted by the time the frost is all out of the ground. I thought it would be cheaper, easier, and more educational for the kids to grow our own seeds from scratch this year instead of buying bedding plants in a few months. I'm a little amazed that I am this organized this year--don't expect this to be a trend, or anything.

Anyway, Jude and Noah did pretty good with sticking to the project for the first 72 pellets, dropping their little seeds into the hollowed-out craters I prepared in each one, but I ended up doing the second tray pretty much on my own. That's okay--they get the idea, and as long as we can get Jabin to keep his little fingers out, and actually remember to water the things, it ought to be great fun taking the boys through the growth cycle this year from seed to harvesting sunflower seeds again in the fall.

That's pretty much all I have time to report for now (and I'm sure your reading endurance is waning), so I'll just leave the rest of this for another time, and hope that next time, I'll take the time to update our life and times in a bit more timely of a fashion. (I know. Time to go.)

The Hazards of Chlorinated Water

I just finished writing this "Letter to the Editor" of our local paper, in response to an article about a chlorine gas tank that was not properly closed, causing a small leak that inspired the purchase of new monitoring equipment. This article was on the front page. I wonder somewhat if my response to it will even be printed. Regardless, here it is for your pleasure and education:


Dear Editor,

Upon reading your front-page article in this week's newspaper outlining the dangers of chlorine gas, I was somewhat flabbergasted that this dangerous substance is used to treat our drinking water. From the article:

"Chlorine is a highly toxic compressed gas. It is commonly used for purification and disinfection of drinking and swimming pool water, in the manufacture of disinfectants and cleaning products, and as a bleaching agent.

"Chlorine is highly irritating to the respiratory tract, and if inhaled can cause lung injuries and be fatal. When mixed with other substances, it can react violently or explosively, and forms dangerous chemicals when mixed with water."

Say WHAT?! It forms dangerous chemicals when mixed with water, yet we use it to treat the very water that we are expected to drink, cook with, and bathe in?!! I realize that this is used, not just in our municipality, but the majority of water treatment plants. My question is: WHY?

To answer this question, I started doing some research. Not surprisingly, chlorination is the cheapest method of sanitizing large amounts of drinking water. (Why is everything always all about the money?) Also, there is a residual amount of it left purposely in the water after leaving the treatment centre. (This is no surprise to anyone who has ever had a drink of municipal tap water--the chlorine taste is apparent immediately.)

However, the "dangerous chemicals" chlorine gas produces when mixed with water are trihalomethanes (THMs) and haloacetic acids, which are a byproduct resulting from the reaction of chlorine with organic matter such as skin particles, hair follicles, and water-borne bacteria, among other things. The alarming thing is that these are suspected carcinogens--and a certain number are allowed to remain in our water. Yes, it is at "low allowable levels," but if we had small amounts of urine left in our water, would we want to drink it? I think not.

So, not only is some toxic chlorine gas allowed to remain in our water, but carcinogenic THMs are also allowed to remain there.

From the article "Chlorine, Cancer, and Asthma: Oh, My! Why You Might Need A Water Filter":

Chlorine and Cancer
Chlorine and its byproducts are now known causes of three of the most deadly types of cancer: bladder, rectal, and breast cancer. When chlorine is added to water, it interacts with natural organic compounds in the water to form trihalomethanes (THMs). THMs are incredibly carcinogenic. Once ingested in the body, THMs encourage the production of free radicals. These free radicals are a major cause of abnormal/cancerous cell growth. Chlorine byproducts specifically affect the bladder and rectum (due to the amount of ingested water that is sent to these organs). Once cancer has infected these areas, it can quickly spread to more sensitive and/or vital organs. According to current statistics, bladder and rectal cancer account for 30,000 deaths in the United States each year.

In addition to its causal role in bladder and rectal cancer, chlorine is now being connected with cases of breast cancer. Breast cancer currently affects one out of every eight women, and it has become one of the deadliest, most damaging diseases women face. In a new study conducted in Hartford, Connecticut, breast cancer victims were examined in order to discover possible correlations between the different cases. While studying the women, researchers came across a surprising connection between cases. The results of the study indicated that women with breast cancer had between 50% to 60% higher levels of chlorine byproducts in their breast tissue as compared to women without breast cancer. These high levels of chlorine byproducts in breast cancer victims are hardly coincidental. Just as THM-created, free radicals damage and kill healthy cells in the bladder and/or rectum, they also damage and kill healthy cells in the breast tissue."

But wait. It gets better.

Chlorine, and it's byproduct-THMs, can not only aggravate, but actually cause asthma. Have you wondered why the number of asthma cases has skyrocketed in the last fifty years? The answer could be right in your tap.

A recent European study explored this connection by studying the effects of chlorinated swimming pool water on healthy school-aged children. The study found that chlorinated water can not only aggravate asthma, but actually trigger it. One of the three blood-markers being tested for in the study, surfactant-associated protein B, was found to increase in the same amount as those found in smokers in children with the highest pool attendance! (For more information, please see the online article at http://www.respiratoryreviews.com/jul03/rr_jul03_pools.html.)

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that the same fumes that can trigger asthma symptoms from merely sitting by a swimming pool can also affect those who are taking a hot shower in chlorinated municipal drinking water. Every time I step into my shower or give my kids a warm bath the chlorine fumes are overpowering. So the chlorine in the water is a) being released as a toxic gas for me to breathe in, and b) combining with sweat, skin cells, and urine from my and my children's bodies to form carcinogenic THMs, which my 15-month-old, 3-year-old and 4-year-old blithely consume every time they pour their bathwater in their mouths (for I cannot get them to stop drinking it. They refuse.)

Although we have not drunk the municipal water for over a year, we still shower in it, brush our teeth with it, wash our hands in it, and are exposed to the chlorine gas being released from our dishwasher during the steam cycle. While chlorine filters are an option, why should entire communities be forced to add these to their home's water systems to protect themselves from something their taxes paid to put in the water in the first place? Especially when there are other water treatment options with far fewer negative side effects, such as Ozone treatment and UV Radiation treatment? Yes, these may cost more, but I think the price would be worth the gain--the health of an entire community.

After all, as Count Rugen says, "If you don't have your health, you haven't got anything."

Sincerely,

Talena Winters

Snowed In

When I was a kid, I remember having so much snow in the winter that we could build snow caves by tunneling into the side of a drift--and we would sometimes be able to fit me, my brother, and my mom in there, although it would be pretty squishy. As I got older, the drifts just never seemed big enough for this kind of winter play, so I thought that it must have only seemed like there was a lot of snow because I was a lot shorter then.

Well, now I realize that it really is possible to have that much snow.

I think we have had maybe four days in the last month where it hasn't snowed. Only now, in this north country, we don't get the nice chinooks that melt off the white stuff between drops. Everyone up here keeps telling us that this is actually an unprecedented amount of snow for this area. Aren't we lucky.

It would be nice if the weather would stop trying to set records and just STOP IT already!

This is the nice little slide set that Vicki gave us. To give you an idea of scale, I have included a summer-time picture with people in it. Our friend with the hose there is six feet four inches tall.

The second photo was taken this morning. Except for the top few inches, all the snow around this thing has been packed down hard by our dog.




Yep, we've got snow. It's been confirmed. There's a lot of it.

Food Critic

My dad says I share the ability of other cooking-minded people to be able to look at an empty fridge, shake it, and have a delicious meal fall out.

Today when we got home from church, there were five rumbling tummies coming in our door--and I had not planned anything for lunch. I opened the fridge and scanned the contents, then started taking a few things here, some leftovers there, and this and that and pulling them out onto the counter. Forty-five minutes later we were enjoying a delicious lunch of Maple-Glazed Turkey Sausages, and Curried Apple and Yam Sauté with the leftover gourmet salad from last night's supper. As we were finishing it off, and Jude was tucking the last bite of his second helping away, Jason asked him, "Did you like this meal, Jude?"

Jude looked at him with a look that said, Don't be silly, Dad. "This isn't a meal," he said. "Peanut butter and honey sandwiches, that's a meal!"

I'm beginning to feel that my talents are under-appreciated by certain members of my household. I can see it in a few years, while Jude is comparing lunches with the other kids at school:

"Jude, d'you wanna trade sandwiches today?"

"Lemme check. Uh...nope. PB & honey today. That's my favourite!"

"Darn. My mom always sends me tuna!"

"Yeah. My mom isn't much of a cook, but she does make a mean peanut butter and honey sandwich!"

Life doesn't get much better than Chocolate Chip Cookies

Oh, yeah.
Now howzabout a kiss?