I decided sometime yesterday that my goal for this year is to write at least 1000 words a day.  They won’t all be on this blog, but this is going to be where I start.   There’s so much going on in my life, and it really helps to get everything out.

In July, we bought a house.  That’s the good news.  We got a great deal, more good news.  With poor credit, we were able to afford the house still – the house was financed by the seller.

The bad news, the people we bought it from tore out everything because they were going to remodel it.  This means that once you go inside the front door, the walls are down to the studs.  Plus, since it hasn’t been lived in since 2009, kids have used it for a hang-out and have shot out almost every window.

The town we live in has some pretty particular laws.  I understand why, but it’s frustrating.

We have to use an electrician and a plumber who is registered with the city.

While we’re saving to pay for the plumber and electrician, we’re living with family and working on the rest of the house.  For the main part of the house, they changed the size of the windows.  Plus, the city code says that we have to have king studs and headers for all windows and doors.  I had never heard of either of these terms before we bought the house.  It’s all good, we’ve framed in 3 of the 4 walls we wanted to form the rooms, and my husband has slowly figured out how to cut out the holes in the 2×4’s to get the king studs around the windows.

While he’s been working on the inside, I’ve been working on the outside of the house.  We’ve had to trim trees back and pick up nuts.  Know anyone who wants some shelled pecans? LOL with 3 pecan trees in the yard, we’re going to have plenty. I’ve got big plans for the yard, I just need to start by hauling all of the pruned branches into one spot and mulch them.  The yard has been neglected so long that we really need the mulch.  When we bought the house in July, the ‘grass’ in the yard was taller than my hubby.  Granted, he’s only 5’8″, but that’s tall enough!

On top of the work on the house, we’ve had car problems.  Our car with 260k+ miles decided that it was done.  That same week, the ball joint went on hubby’s truck.  We fixed his truck and are selling the car to the salvage yard.

There is still work to do, but it’s getting there slowly.  I’m so looking forward to getting more done at the house.  Today, we spent the day putting up plastic on the windows.  Or rather, I put the plastic up.  The tacks that were included in the weatherproofing kit were about the width of my thumb, so hubby couldn’t hold the tacks and nail them in, his thumb is too big.

With weatherproofing on the windows, we’re hoping it’ll be a bit warmer inside so we can get more done.  It’d be great to get everything done so we’ll be good to go once we have the money for the electrician and the plumber.

As the year comes to a close, I realized that I haven’t posted a lot this year.  There has been a lot on my mind, but it doesn’t always translate well to the screen.

I saw an article several weeks ago about the McRib.  It was talking about how the McRib is processed meat.  Well duh.  It’s a formed patty, very similar to ones made where I work.  The meat is ground, mixed with whatever ingredients are wanted, and formed with a ‘plate’ into the shape that they want it.  In this case, it’s considered a rib shaped patty.

I haven’t had much time for gaming lately.  I’m retreating from reality, just like I did when MUDding.

It’s been the holidays as well.  But that’s the end of my excuses.

I need to start writing more, so I think it’d be good to start here.  I’ll post more often, and more about gaming.

In the meantime, have a safe and happy evening, and Happy New Year to all.

Ahh yea, so I closed last time saying I’d go into the HUSSC, but never did so, didn’t I?

It’s been in the news that the USDA, or rather the branch of the USDA that is the Food and Nutrition Services (aka FNS) developed new guidelines for school lunches.  The lunches are divided into calorie ranges and a specific number of servings (minimum and maximum) allowed for one of three age groups divided into school grades, K-5, 6-8, and 9 – 12.  Let’s just forget the fact that a 5th grader needs more to eat than a 5 year old in kindergarten, right now.

On the one hand, I understand why they’ve set these guidelines, the obesity epidemic in the U.S. is out of control.  I understand that the number of calories per day is based on what a normal person should eat.

But kids are complaining they’re hungry, they’re not used to the choices, and it honestly sounds like the choices weren’t well explained.

Add to that, the food processing companies that sell to the schools aren’t keeping up with the new guidelines.  The schools have found that there aren’t enough choices offered by the food processing companies to allow them to stay within both the daily and weekly guidelines.

That’s not just counting meat/meat alternates.  They can’t find bread divided into the serving amounts they need for the smaller portion sizes.

The fruit regulations are a bit odd.  Commodity processed fruit comes packed in fruit juice.  But if the food processor repackages this commodity fruit into individual cups and distribute these cups frozen, then the fruit no longer meets the crediting guidelines because the fruit juice is considered added sugar once it’s frozen.

What really gets to me is hearing people blame Obama for these regulatory changes.  Sorry, most of this is bipartisan.  Ok, so Michelle Obama started the ‘Let’s Move’ campaign, and she’s encouraging the change in regulations, but that doesn’t mean that FNS based all their changes on her wanting healthier meals in the school.  They’ve finally looked at school meals and they’ve seen that they can’t lecture families on how to eat when they don’t have the food guidelines that meet the USDA guidelines for what we should eat at home.

Are these new regulations perfect? No.

Are they a step in the right direction? Maybe.  If the food processing companies would get their thumbs out and actually start offering what the schools need to be able to meet the guidelines.

Maybe the debate wasn’t actually much of a show.  Romney spent too much time smirking and changing his story.  Obama spent too much time smirking and looking anywhere but at his opponent or the audience.

I’ll say it flat out, though I know my brothers will disagree with me – and at least one reads my blog – I can’t stand Romney.  I feel like he doesn’t understand what it’s like to struggle.  He doesn’t understand how ‘the other half’ lives.  Ann says that they’ve had to eat pasta, but that’s not the cheapest food out there.  Beans and rice.  Boxes of mac & cheese with hot dogs.  Even Ramen noodles.  Not knowing where you’re going to get the money for your next months’ rent, or your car payment so you can keep your car to get you to work – just to fight to keep your head above water.

But that’s the result of bad choices, and he comes off as if he hasn’t made those types of choices.

That doesn’t mean I’m a democrat.  I haven’t made my decision about Obamacare.  I worry about how badly the nation’s debt is going up.  I’m not sure about some of the policies that have been implemented.  I’ve said it before, both parties are acting like spoiled children – ‘if you don’t do everything I  want, I’m not sharing my toys.’

I’ll go into the Healthier U.S. Schools Challenge another day.  Believe me, I know a lot about the HUSSC, and have some strong opinions on it.  Needless to say, I’ve been packing my daughter’s lunch this year.  Of course, I also can’t see paying $2.50 a day for a meal that she won’t even eat half of between being a picky eater, and eating slowly.  We’re always having to tell her ‘less talking, more eating.’ LOL

When it comes down to it, I’ll vote for the lesser of two evils.  I feel that we need to participate in our government even if we don’t like the results.  I know that my vote will cancel out someone else’s because they don’t agree with my assessment of who is the lesser of two evils, or because they’d prefer to vote along party lines.

As for PBS and Big Bird, Nick Jr. does well with having kids shows without commercials.  I know it’s not ideal, and I know that there are worse things we already spend our money on as a nation, but I’d rather the money being used for PBS is used for improving our schools as much as possible.  I know I could have earned so much more with a degree.  I’m still considering going back – once I figure out what I want a degree in.

I’m feeling like a bad mother tonight.  My son got home from Afghanistan on Saturday, but I missed his post on Facebook.  I have too many things in my news feed (like pictures that friends post that they like… they’re funny, but enough is enough).  I think it’s about time to start cleaning up my news feed some so I can see the important things.

I did send him a text message, even though that doesn’t really make up for not hearing his voice, and not seeing his post.

It’s about time I started posting again, once I figure out what I’m going to start posting.  My brain has been a blank lately.

It’s funny, we all pay the consequences for the decisions we make.  Some of us seem to be aware of this, and some of us take the victim route instead.

Right now, I’m dealing with the latter.  The person I’m talking about has 2 kids and has been married for a very short time to someone other than her kids’ dad(s).

She’s paying the consequences for choosing to marry someone she didn’t know for very long, or know very well.  She thinks the answer to her unhappiness lies in where she’s living.  She doesn’t want to be so far away from family, so she’s moving to OK. She’s going to have to learn that happiness isn’t tied to a place, it’s tied to the people at that place.

She’s leaving where she has easy transportation, to live 3 hours from the town she actually wants to be in.

She’s going to be more miserable.  But she isn’t willing to work on what needs to change in her thought process.  Gratefulness helps encourage happiness.

The drama will continue to unfold, I’m sure.  I just wish things could be different.  It’s going to be a long few months.

So, last weekend Romney made a choice on who his running mate is going to be.  I’ve been watching interestedly because I’m curious about whether the choice is going to be good or bad for his campaign.  I mean, he’s been sliding in the polls.

I find it even more interesting that he chose another politician with a stay at home wife.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think it’s wrong for a mother to stay home with her kids, if she can.  I’d love to do it.

Unfortunately, I can’t.  We have too many bills.  My husband doesn’t make enough.

A lot of other mothers are in the same situation.  They can’t afford to stay home with their kids.  Instead, they have to work, the kids have to be in daycare.  There are some women who can be home with their kids because they’re on Welfare, but many look down on those women.  ‘They’re expecting hand-outs.’ As someone who BTDT, I disagree, they’re trying to provide for their families the best way they can.  But I digress.

The question remains, does this show that these rich, white, middle aged men would know how to relate to those who aren’t white, aren’t men, aren’t rich – or even doing well enough financially to afford to have a parent stay home with the kids.

Religion doesn’t enter into the equation at this point.  Not even the senate’s childish attitudes, the ‘I’m taking my toys and going home’ attitude because they’re not getting everything they want.  No one gets everything they want, compromise is the only way to handle it.  It’s both parties who have put our country in this position.

What is it they say? When you’re pointing fingers at someone else, you have 3 more pointing back at yourself.  That goes for politics too.

Last year, the CDC posted a blog entry about the Zombie Apocalypse (opens in a new window/tab).  No, they weren’t actually expecting zombies to pop out of the ground.  Instead, they were trying to make a point about being prepared for bad weather.

Then last week, I was reading an email from Natural News about the zombie apocalypse starting.  Curious, I read it and got a brief overview of the gory scene last week.  A naked man chewing the face off another naked man.  The author of the article on Natural News blamed the incident on too many pharmaceutical drugs and vaccines.  I just took the article with a grain of salt.  I don’t always agree with everything on that website.

Then I got home, and found the same thing in the local paper.  Hmm, guess it’s true.

Now, they’re attributing the guy’s bad behavior to a drug.  I seem to remember a CSI episode like that.

Here’s CBS’s take on the incident.

Here’s ABC’s input.

On the other hand, the guy’s girlfriend said he doesn’t do drugs, that he seemed to be trying to turn his life around, and that he walked around with a Bible.  Instead, she theorizes that he had a voodoo curse placed on him.  One that made him act like that.

Maybe this is how it starts.

Or maybe this is just one more freakish incident in a week filled with a pot smoking mother who leaves her baby on the top of a car, a woman who masturbated for motorists on Highway 484 in Florida, a man sending dismembered body parts through the mail in Canada and an MSU student charged with killing someone before eating their heart and brain.

If you want more disturbing things that have been in the news, you can go to Dreamin’ Demon’s website. Warning, the site is graphic, but to me it’s like a train wreck – hard to look away.

I was reading the NaturalNews website the other day and saw an article that refers to the Pink Slime that I mentioned the other day.  http://www.naturalnews.com/035919_pink_slime_meat_glue_factory_food.html (opens in a new window).

In it, they talk about how consumers are driving the food manufacturing business.  If the consumers don’t like what’s in a product, they avoid it, or push back and the food processors change how they make their products.  At the end of the article, they suggest you can stay away from these additives by avoiding processed foods.

I disagree.  Scratch that, I heartily disagree.

Let’s start with pink slime.  Not the mechanically separated chicken or turkey that was associated with the picture originally, but the LFTB, BLBT.  Lean, Finely Textured Beef.  The one that are processed to remove the fat, then sprayed with Ammonia or Citric Acid.

There was no way to be sure you were staying away from this product.  If you bought a package of hamburger in the store, it might or might not have had this ingredient.  With consumer awareness, stores stopped selling anything with LFTB because consumers wouldn’t eat it.

The next one, transglutiminase enzyme, otherwise known as meat glue.  It’s difficult to know if you’re getting this.  It can be in any whole muscle item you get at the store.  It’s used to take smaller pieces of whole muscle meat, and glue them together to make bigger pieces of whole muscle meat.  Yuck.

So how can you tell if you’re getting this? About the only way I can think of is to get ground meat.  Oh wait, but the you would have chanced getting pink slime.  What a choice.

At this point, grocery stores have bowed to public pressure and gotten rid of LFTB.  One of the companies that made it went bankrupt.  The other closed at least 3 of their 4 factories. So you can buy ground beef without worrying about that.

If you get ground turkey, check the ingredient statement for mechanically separated turkey.  It has to be listed on the label, unlike LFTB.

It all come down to choosing the lesser of the evils.  Fish with mercury, poultry – unless you get poultry on the bone, you might wonder if it’s got transglutiminase enzyme, ditto for whole muscle beef or pork, or go vegetarian.

We won’t even talk about genetically modified soy.

More food for thought. I used to struggle with the fact that I’m an introvert.  When I was growing up, I’d read during my free time.  In grade school, I’d read during the time after I finished a test before the test time ended.  At least one of my teachers found it hard to get my attention when I was reading.

Now… now I’m still introverted, though not nearly as introverted as my oldest.  It’s not a bad thing, but it’s something you sometimes need to overcome to do what you’re truly meant to do.   It is easier to do so in a blog instead of in person, but easier does not mean easy.