In the News...part 2

Several posts back I wrote about the so called experts that want to take away obese children from their parents and among other things do away with advertising "unhealthy" foods to children.  Today's news has prompted me to continue this topic.

McDonald's (every child's favorite place and home of the Happy Meal) announced that they are going to begin serving apple slices with every Happy Meal.  Isn't that exciting!  They will replace half of the fries in the Happy Meal with apple slices.  Every child is thrilled.  Thank goodness they will offer the option of all apple slices or all fries.  But let's see them get that order right...Jaydon and I have learned to check his sack before leaving the drive thru window to make sure that he has a toy for a boy (Barbie didn't do much for him one night) and the ordered barbecue sauce to dip the McNuggets in (the sauce I have in the fridge doesn't do the trick on the McNuggets).

Recently I had picked up a child's meal at Subway for Jaydon.  Typically those come with a small sandwich, a choice of apple slices or yogurt, and either milk or a juice box.  And they pack it in a cute little re-usable tote bag (no toy but the bag is usually ok, too).  Jaydon ate the sandwich but not the chosen yogurt or milk, so I put  both in the fridge to save.  I took them to work a day or two later as part of my lunch.  First surprise was the milk.  It was 1% milk...just to note here that I buy 2% but really, 1% for children?  Yuk, watered down and tasteless liquid.  Then I started on the yogurt.  It tasted funny so I read the label...non fat yogurt.  Yuk, again.  So, I wonder now what is the deal here?  Do they want today's children to look anorexic?  They will surely starve if all they have is apple slices and non fat food.

My Mind (AKA The Salad Spinner)

I've decided that my mind is like a salad spinner (you know, one of those little bowls you put wet lettuce in and it spins the water out).  What, you say, a salad spinner?  That's right, a salad spinner.  I have all these thoughts in my head that are always spinning around; I think a lot and my mind travels down many roads.  I realized that lately I've been having a thought overload.  I just have too many things to think about and I feel that I'm going to short circuit.  I've even found that I can't think more than a day or two in advance to make up to-do lists and shopping lists.  Five minutes into the future is about all I can deal with. 

Then I realized that my brain is like the basket of my salad spinner.  It is full of thoughts and is just spinning around.  So now when I find myself thinking about something fairly useless I've started telling myself to stop the spinner (my salad spinner has a little black button that you push to stop it) so I push the button so to speak on my mind and tell myself to take that thought out of the basket and get rid of it.  Sometimes the thought is something stupid that I have no reason to even be thinking, sometimes it is about something that happened in the past (good grief, no use thinking about that, it is over) or sometimes it is worrying about something in the future. 

When the spinner is going too fast or is too full that is the time to push the button and stop the spinning.  It is like cleaning house in my brain.

Leonardo Da Vinci

I had to write a paper for my last class and the instructor was pretty picky about what he wanted. In flipping through the text book for the class I saw a picture of Leonardo Da Vinci's painting The Last Supper.  So I wrote a paper on the making of the painting.  I enjoyed the research, so much so that I've added Leonardo to my reading list of things I want to read about someday.

I knew that he was a very talented artist but had no idea what a genius he was.  He not only painted but he designed "war machines" and dissected dead bodies among other things.  What I thought was interesting was that very often he never finished a project.  He had different reasons for not finishing, usually because the project wasn't turning out like he wanted but often he just seemed to get distracted with another project.  Another interesting fact was that he carried notebooks around with him all the time.  He would either sketch ideas or write down thoughts.  In one case his grocery list was scribbled in the book!

I don't profess to be anywhere near his intellect but I did relate to not finishing projects.  I love to start something but have a hard time finishing unless I'm under a deadline and have to get something done.  I also have quite a few notebooks laying around and even have a small one in my purse.  And I find myself interested in many things.  So I decided that I could relate to the genius who painted The Last Supper.

Speaking of the painting, I should note that within a few years after he finished it that it had been reduced to just blobs of paint.  The surface had been prepared correctly but instead of painting on wet plaster Da Vinci choose to paint on dry plaster using a mix of oils and tempera.  The result was that the paint began to flake off in a very short time. Ever the experimenter, his idea did not work.  What we see today represents careful restoration and only about 20% of the painting is actually original work. 

And, the final note I should add is that he was probably a homosexual. All in all I enjoyed writing the paper and found his life very interesting. 

In the news

One of the major topics in the news yesterday was the proposal to take obese children away from their parents.  This one had to be thought of by a "real deep thinker" because it is absolutely ridiculous.  Will that really help these children?  The answer is a resounding NO!  And what next, will they take away a child because the parents didn't remember to brush his/her teeth before bedtime?  That sounds silly, but it's right along the same line.  If they will take away a child because they are overweight, what else will they use as an excuse to take a child from his/her parent?

Now I do agree that there are overweight children and adults out there, no doubt about that.  And very often the child that is overweight is accompanied by an overweight adult.  This leads everyone to think, "uh oh bad eating habits and no exercise".  But this may not always be the truth either.  While a good diet and exercise benefits children and adults of any weight sometimes that is not the answer to loosing weight.  There are some people that just can't loose weight no matter how hard they try.  Besides, how do you define over or underweight?  Aren't we all a little different?  Do we need to conform to a specific norm?

Today's news showed that certain manufacturers have agreed to stop advertising their products to children since they are not "healthy".  One of othe items featured in the news spot showed Tony the Tiger as one of the unadvertiseable items...can you imagine?  Frosted Flakes aren't good for you?  I've eaten them all my life and I don't think they have negatively affected me. 

And what about the west coast proposal to ban putting toys in kids meals from fast food restaurants?  What, are they looney?  No wait, they don't have kids.

Enough for today, hope I've made my point.  I just heard the toaster oven ding, so that means that my very healthy french bread pizza is ready.  I'm going to go enjoy it, along with a very cold, delicious and healthy loaded with calories Coca Cola. 

Emma and Ellie - 13 days old

Emma and Ellie (I noticed that both have their left hands out of the blanket and positioned similarly...is that a twin thing?)

Emma, sleeping so sweetly.  She had her feeding tube removed while I was visiting.

Ellie, sweet Ellie!  You can tell how small she is in comparison to her Daddy's hand!

Both girls are doing very well.  Emma is out of the incubator and both are eating very well. I got to hold both of them again today, and came home with that wonderful baby smell on my sweater! We thank God for their health and for blessing our family with such sweet little girls!

Happy July 4th!

I've fallen behind on blogging, due mainly to the complications and distractions of life!  But I've told myself it was just a "Summer Sabatical"!  One distraction has been school and my current class, Western Civilization until 1715.  I've been buried writing a paper on Leonardo Da Vinci and will do a post soon on that subject. 

Part of the reading for the class has had to do with the development of Christianity and the persecution that the early Christians went through.  What were those enlightened Romans thinking?  And later on, the enlightened leaders of the Church were just as bad in persecuting any one who dared to even think differently, or to think at all.  Can you imagine being accused of heresy for daring to suggest that the earth is not the center of the universe?

So my readings and study this summer has made me really appreciate the Fourth of July holiday and the freedom that we celebrate.  I can not imagine not having the freedom to believe as I choose and to live as I choose.  If the whiners and protesters that are always complaining about America don't like it, they need to leave!  Maybe a short sojourn in another country would enlighten them!

So, Happy Birthday America!  May God Bless You With All His Blessings!

(Next post, coming up soon....more babies pictures)