I am Feeling a Little Stuffy

  Have any of you seen the little video “The Story of Stuff”?    Go watch…Do it…Just do it…I know you want to… 

I watched this 20 minutes of fun filled information a while back and I have kept thinking about it.  It connects environmental issues with social issues.  It makes you think about the process of creating/using/disposing all of the stuff you use everyday.  Okay, it makes you feel like you are back in high school watching a video in environmental science class but if you are interested in the process of rethinking your consumer choices, you may want to take a look at this.  Plus, there’s nothing great on the magic box in your living room anyway.  If you are not up for watching the video take a gander at the facts taken from the video listed below.

I hope all you breast feeding mothers are as shocked as I was about the fact that the food with the highest contaminant level is a mother’s breast milk.  Of course, that’s going to vary from mother to mother depending on what they eat and where they live.  It just goes to show that everything is connected within the environment.  You contaminate the grass(grain) and water with fertilizer and other chemicals recklessly tossed onto earth’s surface.  The cow eats and drinks both of these now chemically laced items and also succombs to chemical “supplements” to make them super producers.  Every chemical ingested courses through their bodies.  Some of them are expelled.  Others are stored within fat or muscle cells.

The cow is butchered for food or milked for dairy products.  We process these food items with more chemicals to maintain freshness and add flavor to the food that has been already modified by synthetic materials twice over.  Meat and dairy are stored and prepared for ingestion by humans in plastic containers which will not only further contaminate the food but also sit in the growing number of landfills around the world for hundreds of years (unless recycled). 

Finally, the food is sitting warm on the table.  The mother eats her ”health” piece of food.  The chemicals from the grass, the water, the cow, the processing, and the storage container have now entered into her body and are distributed throughout along with the other environmental toxins she meets on a daily basis.  The baby nurses at this mother’s breast and peacefully consumes every chemical that met the grass, that met the water, that entered the cow, that prepared the meat, and mingled with others in the human body.  It’s the process of accumulation through the food chain.  Fascinating, yet totally disturbing.

Please, make a major change for you and your family.  Eliminate one source of toxin that is entering your body.  For example: High Fructose Corn Syroup.  Once you have settled into that routine, tackle another.  Over time, you will have made some drastic reductions in your chemical consumption and llikely a reduction in chronic/fatal disease.

The Story of Stuff: A Brief List

2000 trees a minute are cut down in the Amazon alone. That is 7 football fields a minute!

80% of the world’s forests are gone.

The US has less than 4% of its forests left.

40% of our waterways are undrinkable.

The US has 5% of the world’s population and 30% of the waste.

75% of global fisheries have been fished beyond capacity.

100,000 synthetic chemicals are used in production today.

Bromated Flame Retardants (BFR) neurotoxins (toxins to brain) are in computers, mattresses, pillows

Food with highest level of contaminants is mother’s milk.

200,000 people a day are moving to cities from environments that no longer support them.

US industry *admits* to 4 billion pounds of toxic pollution released per year (likely far more).

Average person consumes twice as much as 50 years ago.

We see more ads in one year than people 50 years ago saw in a lifetime. 3,000 ads a day!

People in US spend three to four times as much time shopping as Europeans do.

Average house size has doubled in the US since the 1970’s.

Average American creates 4.5 lbs. garbage a day — an amount doubled from 30 years ago.

For every one garbage can you put out at the curb, 70 cans were filled by all the processes
needed in order to make it.

99% of all those things we buy are not in use after 6 months.

 

2 Steps Forward for Women and 200 Steps Back

  First, I will tell you the good news.  I just heard through my email grapevine that Congress just passed a bill (HR 5781) which provides that 8 of 12 weeks of parental leave made available to federal employees shall be PAID leave.  Check here for a recap of what the bill says.  Of course, the White House is expected to veto it.  Heaven forbid we spend money on paid family leave so that talented men and women can support their families during a physically draining and stressful time.  You know, if you start paying people to stay home on maternity leave, they just might come back to work after the 12 weeks are up.  They might feel supported by employers, a sense of loyalty, and not to mention, they might actually be able to keep their financial future secure without sacrificing the American Dream of having 2.5 children.

The U.S. is the only industrialized country in the world (You got that right, the WORLD) that does not provide paid maternity leave.  We rank right up there with Swaziland and Liberia (Of course, both are third world countries) on that one.  Which makes absolutely no sense, seeing as how we have very similar economies to those countries. 

You may be thinking, “Big deal!  I’m not a federal employee!  I don’t get paid maternity leave.”  You would be right about that fact.  You don’t, at least not yet.  You see, change has to start somewhere.  First it will be paid leave for federal workers, and then you.  Slow change is still change.  It’s about time that something family friendly occurs since the original FMLA came into fruition in 1993.  Other highlights related to this:  Flight Attendents may now be eligible for FMLA and also part-time workers.

I feel particularly angry when I think about having to take unpaid leave.  I ended up deciding to leave a job I really enjoyed because it was too expensive and stressful to care for young children/infants.  You see, after using what little vacation pay I had to cover 2 weeks of my 8 week maternity leave, I had no sick days left and no employer support for having to care for family when illness did arrive.  I actually received calls at 5 weeks into my maternity leave from my boss asking if I would come back the next day.  The crazy reasoning: You’re not getting paid for staying home.  You should just come back to earn some money. 

 Tomas ended up using all his vacation for newborn doctors appointments or to care for sick children.  I was forced to go to work feverish and coughing.  By the time I was pregnant with Anson, I still had very little sick time and was crying from exhaustion by the end of the work week. Enough was enough, with having to constantly take unpaid sick days/leave and paying for daycare, the cost benefits to working fulltime was next to nothing. 

In actuality, employers don’t like the “hassle” that women of child bearing age because mothers will have to spend a portion of their days trying to raise a healthy family.  It might distract from giving a 100% to their jobs and that would be the end of the automatons, I guess.  Employers dread and will avoid having to deal with pregnant employees.  It’s the sad truth my friends.  But alas, there is hope that opinions and attitudes about raising healthy citizens will eventually change.  That this bill will slowly spread countrywide to give some mommies a well deserved boost.

 THEN, after gaining some hope for women’s issues in the U.S., I read this:  The AMA wants to pass legislation regulating home births.  What this means to you, the woman, the wife, the mother, is that a governing body could eventually deem it unlawful for a woman to have a homebirth accompanied by a midwife or alone.  Why?  Because they feel it would be better and safer for women to give birth in a medical institution such as traditional hospitals.  Perhaps if you were a high risk pregnancy that would be true, but healthy women giving birth at home have very successful and healthy deliveries.

I have but a few issues with this resolution.  One being:  Show me the proof.  I haven’t seen any statistical data showing me that if I will have a better delivery in a hospital with a doctor compared with a home birth accompanied by a certified midwife.  Second issue:  How the @#$# can you enforce this?  What’s the punishment for this crime going to be?  Are they going to follow pregnant women around to make sure they don’t give birth behind closed doors?  Third Issue:  Women are not blindly making birth choices.  A home birth is a personal choice that is made after thoughtful consideration.  I feel as if “the man” thinks the “wo-man” can’t decipher an elephant from a flea.  Fourth Issue:  You and I both know that conceiving a child in a hospital is not cheap.  There’s a lot of money that changes hands for this “medical procedure”.  If too many women decide to have home births, who’t getting paid?  Hmmm….it’s that almighty pocketbook thing again.

Anyway, I am hopping off my soap box now.  If you would like to sign a petition voicing your detest for this resolution, hop over here.  You can also click on the “Home Birth is a Choice” button to view Cruncy Domestic Goddess’ post on this issue.  It’s where I first heard about it. 

Here are a couple/three other sites to read about it on:  Here and Here and Here

 

When Crafts Attack

Now that school’s out, we have to create our own craft time.  On this day, the pirate craft created mutiny within the ranks.

More Wordless Wednesday is here

 

Why I Love “Trouble”

 

Anson is trouble.  Trouble with a capital “T”.  He is adorable with big blue/gray eyes and the cutest chuckle known to man, but boy can he get into trouble and that is why we often call him the “t” word. 

Anson has always been my loud and fearless one.  I admire that about him.  He will dive into anything that catches his eye with such focus that you can hardly tear him away for it.  His preschool teacher would always marvel at his focus on a task (except for circle time where he just couldn’t be contained).  Sometimes, I have had to literally tap him on the nose between the eyes to get his attention when he is concentrating on his next stunt.

Despite all of his trouble, he is the most outwardly loving boy ever.  I have to admit I take some personal pride in having raised 2 boys who express affection in a second hand manner.  Meaning, they don’t think twice about giving a hug or kiss.  Perhaps, they will out grow of this tender trait or maybe they will transfer their expressions of affection to the form of hearty, manly “love taps”.  You know, the manly hugs where 2 men stand about 2 feet apart, simulate a hug formation, and simply slap their hand on each others shoulders a few times.  Not too close, not too soft, just a slightly impersonal manly hug.

Even though this transference of affection may be inevitable in men/boys, I hope that Anson maintains his focus on affection.  He approaches his hugs just like he approaches each new exciting bout of trouble.  That is just one reason why I love him.  When I am having a bad day and “Trouble” wraps his pudgy little arms around me in a squeeze equivalent to a boa constrictor, all my worries melt away.  He lives in the moment, focusing on the love that he wants you to feel.  Straight from his precious little heart to mine.

Yesterday, my little buddy came up to me after I finished vacuuming up one of his messes (smashed gold fish crackers everywhere) and grabbed me around my neck in one of his classic hugs.  I literally fell over from the force of it.  He kissed me on my cheek and said, “Mommy, are you done?” 

I responded, “Yes, I am done vacuuming up your huge mess.”

Trouble pats me on the face with one hand while the other stroked my hair, “I am so proud of you mommy!”  Another ferocious hug follows.

You just can’t imagine these moments until they happen and then you wish you could bottle them up for later times when hugs aren’t cool anymore.  I sincerely hope that he continues to hold onto life with such fierce passion and also to always have a reason to be proud of his mommy.  Even if others only see the trouble in him, I will always see the passionate love he has for all.

That is why I love “Trouble”.  Well, that and because he always notices and compliments when I have popsicle toes.  (For those of you who don’t understand Anson’s toddler speak:  Popsicle toes = Polished toes.)  He’s the only male I know who consistently does that, and that’s saying something!