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Monday, February 22, 2010

It feels like spring is here

We had the most lovely weather last week, it was warm with a gentel breeze, blue skies and my sweet husband picked me some Daffodils for me and brought them home. They are so cheery so I thought I would share a little bit of spring with you.


Hope your having a great week x

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Food Inc

Aaron and I recently watched a few documentarys. Last year we watched Supersize me which just reaffirmed our conviction to not eat any fast food and we stay away from processed pre packed food too.

A month ago we watched Food Inc. This was a real eye opener as to where our food in the USA comes from and how it is treated. This is not a film that is against meat or will try and gross you out, but it is truthful and hard hitting.

Let me Share some facts that hit home to me.

  • Most stores have thousands of food choices... WRONG.... its corn products revamped.
  • In the USA there are only 13 slaughter houses that deal with slaughtering our meat
  • Ecol i is so prevalent because of bad hygiene in these slaughter houses they wash your meat in ammonia.
  • Animals are feed corn not grass, causing bad living conditions and harming your food
  • 5- 6 company's control the meat market so no matter how its labeled it has come from one of the top meat packing companys.
  • The consumer YOU, have the power to tell companies what you want, every time something passes by the scanner at the checkout you are voting for what you want, the store supplys what you want.
  • Fruit that is not in season is ripened with ethylene gas and leaves friut like tomatoes tasteless,
To that end Aaron and I are now eating mostly vegetarian and organic. We are buying from local farms, as much of our shopping as we can. Eating seasonally too.

I highly recommend watching the Documentary as so much more is covered.



10 simple things you can do to change our food system: Learn more about these issues and how you can take action on Takepart.com
1
Stop drinking sodas and other sweetened beverages.
You can lose 25 lbs in a year by replacing one 20 oz soda a day with a no calorie beverage (preferably water).
2
Eat at home instead of eating out.
Children consume almost twice (1.8 times) as many calories when eating food prepared outside the home.
3
Support the passage of laws requiring chain restaurants to post calorie information on menus and menu boards.
Half of the leading chain restaurants provide no nutritional information to their customers.
4
Tell schools to stop selling sodas, junk food, and sports drinks.
Over the last two decades, rates of obesity have tripled in children and adolescents aged 6 to 19 years.
5
Meatless Mondays—Go without meat one day a week.
An estimated 70% of all antibiotics used in the United States are given to farm animals.
6
Buy organic or sustainable food with little or no pesticides.
According to the EPA, over 1 billion pounds of pesticides are used each year in the U.S.
7
Protect family farms; visit your local farmer's market.
Farmer's markets allow farmers to keep 80 to 90 cents of each dollar spent by the consumer.
8
Make a point to know where your food comes from—READ LABELS.
The average meal travels 1500 miles from the farm to your dinner plate.
9
Tell Congress that food safety is important to you.
Each year, contaminated food causes millions of illnesses and thousands of deaths in the U.S.
10
Demand job protections for farm workers and food processors, ensuring fair wages and other protections.
Poverty among farm workers is more than twice that of all wage and salary employees.

Jobs that I currently hold

Its been a while since I posted last and thats because apart from bouts of sickness and money worries, nothing much has been going on. Apart from my job hunting which is a continuel endevor and seems involve mostly sitting at my computer filling in forms. Its a waste of time, applying for jobs online is futile. This is one point the internet really fails a great way to find jobs but to "get" the job. It has always been hard to make your Resume/Cv stand out from the rest when handing them into a particular job, for the most part though you had the oppurtunity to meet the person hiring you when you handed in you Resume/Cv, there was your opportunity to shine, juggle tell a joke, what ever came to you at that moment. Not anymore. The process couldn't be any less personal, unless of course it was randomly chosen like some lottery draw. Now you fill in a form and attache it to your email and send.

Arrgghhh I cant express my frustration enough.


Needless to say my job hunting hasnt been going to well. More so that the competition is huge everyone is looking for work right now.

So my jobs to date are:

Shabby Chic Furniture - Sold 2 items made $100 ( we cleaned our garage out now I have a work space I can get more done on this end, and its finally getting warmer)

Art Teacher - I have one private student and have advertised classes for children at a Teaching resource shop in town no takers as yet. I have posters around town too.

Janitor at a Gym - I got a job cleaning a Gym 3 night a week, Friday 9.30 -12.30 Saturday 6.30 -10.30 Sunday 6.00 -10.00 its basic wage and humbling but we need the money. I get free Gym membership so does Aaron and free Tanning.. Thats a plus. Its physical work and Im please about that, I was aching the first night as we did 6.5hrs in training.


Artist - Not sold anything yet, but Im hoping to have a exhibition at Starbucks for 3 months and most people sell their work thats on display.


Ill add to this list shortly

Hope everyone is staying positive despite the pressures of this system. Dont forget we are in the final few seconds of this worn out old system and we just have to keep faithful and loyal to the end. Our needs are known. Never has anyone righteous been left entirely. He is not unrighteous as to forget your works.