Turns out that two studies done in the U.S. have shown that there is mercury in 50% of HFCS samples. For people drinking lots of pop and sugary drinks as well as eating lots of processed food may be getting a daily dose of mercury. A seriously dangerous metal associated with nerve damage and ADD.
The worst part is that the FDA knew about this for three years and never bothered to reprimand the manufacturers of HFCS or inform the consumers. Pretty typical of the FDA.
See the article here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/leslie-hatfield/our-melamine-theres-mercu_b_161334.html

I found this on someone else’s blog and thought I would do it myself:

1. I was born in Quebec (Drummondville).
2. I spent most of my life in Alberta.
3. I hate Edmonton.
4. I wish I lived in a small house on a small plot of land and had a large garden with apple trees, raspberry bushes and strawberry patches.
5. I love being a mama.
6. I have two boys and one daughter.
7. I recycle.
8. I am vegetarian. I want to be vegan but I can’t give up the cheese and butter.
9. I think plastic will be the end of us all and I am trying to replace ALL of my plastic stuff.
10. I was married at 19.
11. This year we’ll celebrate our sixth year anniversary.
12. That will also mark six years together.
13. We had known each other for seven weeks when we got married.
14. He is the best husband I could ask for and I am more in love with him every day.
15. I have always wanted kids.
16. It has always been my ambition to raise my own kids.
17. My mom was a stay-at-home mom.
18. I have always known that I would home school.
19. We are unschoolers.
20. I don’t use products in my hair. Well, maybe three times a year. 
21. I use only natural products.
22. I don’t believe in Global Warming but I still care deeply about the environment.
23. I have one tattoo and I hate it.
24. I love breastfeeding.
25. I breastfed all three of my kids.
26. I was not breastfed.
27. We co-sleep with our baby.
28. We never let our baby “cry it out.
29. We both wear our baby in the sling.
30. I feel sorry for the kids who have to cry all alone in their cribs.
31. I am very sensitive to artificial scents.
32. I hate it when someone smokes close to me or my kids
33. I hate wearing socks and shoes…even in the winter. 
34. My first birth was a hospital birth.
35. I hated it.
36. My second was a home water birth.
37. I loved it.
38. My third was a waterbirth in a midwife operated birth centre.
39. I loved it even more.
40. I loved birthing in water.
41. We don’t take our kids or ourselves to the Doc for no reason. 
42. I throw away their prescriptions. I use their diagnoses and then find a home remedy for the problem.
43. We don’t vaccinate.
44. I love to cook.
45. I like bland food. I think of it as actually tasting the food instead adulterating it too much with salt and seasonings.
46. I make most of our food “from scratch.”
47. I don’t like eating white flour or processed food.
48. OK, that’s not true. I love crap food but I feel guilty if I eat it. 
49. I bake bread every few days. It’s half whole what, half whole grain.
50. I am trying to lose weight
51. I love to sew.
52. So does my husband.
53. We rarely use patterns (too cheap to spend money on paper).
54. Sometimes I tear old clothes apart to use them as patterns.
55. I love taking pictures
56. I go to bed way too late every night but I blame my hubby for that.
57. I like scrapbooking. I think that that is probably my only “normal” hobby.
58. I love drawing. I use charcoal, conte, soft pastel and oil pastel.
59. I want to learn to paint with oils.
60. I let my kids watch way too many movies.
61. I love fruit. I would eat just fruit if I could.
62. I can’t get enough of Chocolate Silk.
63. I try to fill my kid’s playroom with natural materials and fibres.
64. I am addicted to book. I read, read, read. But I also love buying books, even if I don’t read them.
65. I generally dislike most people. I don’t know why. Maybe it’s because I feel misunderstood.
66. I don’t go to church.
67. We used to for years but we just don’t buy it anymore. It’s elitist and inconsistent and the people seldom practise what they preach.
68. I love the earth but I hate being cold or too hot. So I tend to stay inside too much.
69. I like playing sports with my husband.
70. I used to live for rock climbing.
71. Now I can never get away or find money.
72. I hate it when mothers say they HAVE to work. You CHOOSE to work. If I lived in your big ass house and had two SUVs I’d HAVE to work too. I live in a trailer because I CHOOSE to be home with my kids.
73. We have fostered dogs in the past but I don’t think we will anymore. They share sicknesses with our dogs, bite our kids and chew their toys.
74. We have a cat we rescued. I love him and hate him. I’d like to pass him on to someone but no one wants to take him off our hands.
75. I don’t listen to the radio or watch TV.
76. I hate commercials.
77. I miss really good sushi.
78. The avocado sushi I make is only OK.
79. I love chocolate. But only dark chocolate. And only the good stuff not the Nestle crap.
80. I hate large corporations but I shop at them because I am cheap.
81. I hate governments but what can I do?
82. I love dancing.
83. I love music.
84. I love learning.
85. I love going out.
86. My parents are still together.
87. I think midwives are so wonderful.
88. It frustrates me when people blow their money on crap and tell me they’re broke.
89. It frustrates me that I do the same thing!
90. I love authentic ethnic foods.
91. I will try almost anything once.
92. My husband needs a little convincing but he is trying very hard!
93. It bugs me when people structure their kids’ playtimes.
94. It bugs me when people don’t let their kids move, touch or climb on things. How else do they get to learn.
95. I wish I could keep up with my housecleaning.
96. I hate it when people won’t give things away but try to sell everything. How greedy can you get? I donate everything!
97. I don’t believe in Karma but I sure hope it’s real.
98. I don’t think I am a particularly kind person. I try to be and used to be. I guess the city does that to people.
99. I give myself to people easily but I don’t give second chances.
100. I suppose that’s why I have so few friends.

I guess Peta was in D.C. all last week handing out fur coats to bums! They are trying to prove that wearing fur doesn’t elevate you to a higher class. Take that you snooty, murderous bitches!

But seriously, what a wonderful way to do some good in the hood, make a statement and bring some kind publicity to the cause. Peta has pulled some bad tricks that have done more harm than good for their image and the image of vegans all over. Some not so great stunts include the ads about Santa not coming this year (about milk causing erectile problems) and the dumping of manure at the studio of the chef who cooked horse on his show.

Even their request that  and Robins make a breast milk ice cream was a little odd. Granted I think it was more of a statement than a serious request but still.

I think we have all come to expect crude and unusual stunts by the Peta crews so it is refreshing when they get a real winner.

In other news…

With the holidays over I am trying to focus on eating vegan again. Goshdarnit, that cheese gets me every time. But being that I can’t seem to find any free time to exercise with a new baby around I am really going to have to stick to my vegan diet if I want to lose weight.

I am not just wanting the diet for the lower calorie intake. I want it for the animals too. We are so close. It’s just the cheese and no matter what any veggies say, soy cheese is just plain ol’ awful!

I also stumbled upon two new musical artists (new to me anyways) on someone else’s blog the other day. I have been wanting some music that is funner and more relaxing. These two artists really capture the essence of summer vacation and even when I am just a few songs in to their albums I feel so much happier and relaxed.

So yesterday I went and bought Cocoby Colbie Caillat and Sunseed by Hayley Sales. Ahhh…

Oh, and by being smart at Christmas time, in respects to spending money, I managed to be able to start 2009 with a fresh start.

The newspapers always talk about how mid-January is the worst time of the year for depression because that’s when those Christmas credit card bills start coming in. Well, no sir, not me. I am in better shape financially now than I was before. We talked with my family and decided that spending time together was more important than gifts and skipped the gift buying! I wished I could do that with everyone but good luck getting my hubby’s family on board.

1. Reduce the amount of unnecessary items we purchase. Every few months I go through my whole house and send about two bags worth of stuff to my sister or Goodwill. This is a clear indicator of how we consume too much stuff. In many places of the world there are people who are barely surviving on less than what would be allocated for one person. Yet in the U.S. (Canada ranks a tiny bit better) people consume ten times what is allotted per person. I am sure that if you just take a look at your house you can see thousands of dollars of worth of rarely used items. Not only that, but most of those items are likely purchased using credit. This is a very unstable existence!

2. Borrowing more books/movies etc. from the library instead of buying them. Same premise as #1.

3. Reducing the amount of dining in/take out we participate in. Take out food is over-packaged with materials that aren’t always recyclable. This contributes to overfilled landfills. Also, any form of eating out is often unhealthy (especially compared to home cooked wholefoods meals) and far more expensive.

4. Trying to unload my plastic junk. Now this one requires some buying but it is a long term investment that is good for the family. Plastic is horribly toxic stuff and the sooner I can get it out of my home the better.

5. Using my computer and TV less and lowering my heat in the winter. This little effort can save hundreds of dollars over the course of a year. It’s funny that what benefits the environment often benefits my budget. I can’t lower my heat too much with a new baby in the house but I do try to lower it during the day. I also plan on spending much more time outdoors when it gets warmer out and that will mean a lot less time when the TV is on. We don’t have cable but we use it for watching movies and as a CD player these days.

6. Going fully vegan. The only vice left is cheese! We have given up all meats, eggs and all dairy except cheese. This will need to be a slow transition if we are going to stick to it but we will get there, so help me, by the end of 2009. The meat and dairy industry uses up piles of land and contributes to greenhouse gas emissions tremendously through all the different attributes of farming (from cow farts, to transportation of goods, to processing, to packaging).

7. Not eating any processed food. This is one that won’t be very hard for us to acheive. We didn’t eat much before. The processing of food often exposes it to chemicals and other garbage. It also reduces the nutritional value of many food items and makes them higher on the Glycemic Index scale. This means you aren’t nourished adequately and your body sends you signals to nourish it causing you to overeat and gain weight. Eating fresh foods means less packaging and less of a carbon footprint from all the over-packaging and processing.

8. Eating/buying items locally. Also buying organic food. I already boycott anything from Mexico (because of the pesticides) and try not to eat things from the USA either because of the GMO. The hardest will be giving up avocado but, I will likely allow myself to indulge in the healthy fruits and veggies. I want to start shopping at the Farmer’s Market more often too.  This also means that I’ll have to stop shopping at Wal Mart. Ha ha ha. I have hated shopping there but it is the closest store to my house and the prices are often what we can afford as a family of five living off of one income. But I am hoping that we can save a lot of money by changing our buying habits and can afford to shop in more local shops. Organic farming is much easier on the environment and the fruits/veggies from organic farms are often more nutritious and contain less pesticides. Another perk is that they cannot contain any GMO’d products.

9. Getting back to using cloth bags instead of taking plastic ones. We are pretty good about this one. When we do forget and are only buying a few, easy-to-carry items we often decline a bag and then just bag it in the car with one of our reusable bags. My goal for this year is to stop forgetting to bring the bags!

10. Streamlining our errands (ie. wasting less fuel because we go out to go get one container of soy milk).

Other, more personal goals:

1. Cheap dates. There are so many activities that are considerably cheaper than a dinner and a movie. We have thought of going swimming, going for walks on walking trails and playing tennis. There is also dancing at a latin club (we are taking lessons in the spring). These activities have the added benefit of offering quality time together and making our bodies healthier.

2. Exercising regularily and losing my baby weight.

3. Clearing out debt and not buying any large items with credit. Learning to have patience and save for the items we need.

4. Being more involved in my children’s education (see last post for details.

As much as the New Year is about setting new goals for ourselves it is a time for reflection.

When I sit back and think about the goals I had for myself for 2008 I realize why so many people don’t bother with resolutions.

In 2008 I wanted to eat healthy, lose weight and run the yearly marathon in my city. I did none of those things. I cheated on my vegan diet, I didn’t lose weight and I didn’t run any races at all. To be fair I found myself pregnant in February and up until that point I was working very hard and was on the right track for meeting ALL of my goals.

My goals for this year are pretty much the same. I want to eat vegan, exercise daily, lose weight, make better consumer choices (better for my budget, my health and the environment), and run that marathon.

I have also added some parenting goals. Like actively being part in my children’s education. All three are too young for school (my eldest is only three and a half) but I figure that they are never too young to be taught at home especially since they will be unschooled at home anyways.

I want to spend more time working on the alphabet with them and reading to them. I want to take them on nature walks (where they can collect nature samples, paste flowers into their Nature Journal and take pictures of the things that are either alive or too big to fit in the box) and I want to take them to different educational venues like the Space and Science Centre, local protests, the library, the museum, ethnic restaurants and such.

I want to limit their movie viewing time and increase the amount of free-play they get. I want to increase the time they get every week for making art (using watercolour and acrylic paint, wax and pencil crayons, sidewalk chalk, bathtub crayons etc.), singing songs and playing with musical instruments.

I know they will only truly grasp a new concept when they are ready to and therefore is no sense in torturing them to listen to a “lesson” on grammar. But just because their schooling is unstructured and unconstrained doesn’t mean that I can be lazy about it. The earlier that I allow them to follow their natural thought processes, the earlier I will be able to see some results. Children, even toddlers, are much more capable than we give them credit for so long as we allow them to take risks and learn from the outcomes. I don’t know why people insist on doing everything for their children. Even if you know their tower of blocks will fall over don’t interfere. They don’t know that it will fall over and when it does they’ll have learned something!

I am also trying to allow them to share stories and ask questions more and more often. This is very hard when I am busy and would rather say, “That’s nice sweety. Now please go away.”

 

So far in the year I have failed pretty miserably at most of my goals. I have had cheese and junk food. I have not excersized every day and I have forgotten to bring my cloth bags with me to the grocery store (which we were so proficient a remembering until the last month or so)! But I am going to keep trying and when my husband gets back to work tomorrow it should help us get out of our lazy holiday slump and back into our healthy routines! *Knock on wood.* Ha ha ha.