Unspeakable

          In general this blog is about my life and making it a happy one by living simply. Not today. Today I'm preaching awareness. Child abuse awareness. As many of you know I live in South Florida. I'm not sure if it's made it to national news or not but our news stations have been continually covering a horrific case of child abuse and neglect. I won't go into too much of my own description but you can read about it here. (There are a lot of links with a lot of information but I do encourage you to read.)

          Long story short, these children were neglected and abused. One ends up dead and one severely burned with chemicals.

          This little girl and her brother were adopted. Meaning the Department of Children and Families said these people are fit to be parents! How is it that adoptive parents are so looked into but this is what they do to children? Why did they want the twins? To torture them? As a status symbol? I can't find it in my heart to say these people had any good in them at all. One of their neighbors even said he didn't even know any children lived there. 

          Also the Department was notified of possible abuse and didn't act immediately. Instead waiting too long and letting this little girl meet such a fate. There is some say that people knew of the abuse and didn't do anything about it. So if the department acts so slowly and people are to afraid to say anything, how do these little voices speak? 

          Children are innocent. It's everyone responsibility to make sure they stay that way. Speak up, speak out, let it be known. Save our children.

          For Nubia there was no help and that just shouldn't happen. 

Taking Family time

          Today Doodle Bug had his first field trip. They went to see a production of The Jungle Book. It was a really cute play and the kids all seemed to have fun. It was just me and one other room mother plus the teacher but the kids all behaved very well for us. This is one reason I love being able to be a stay at home mom. Other wise I wouldn't get to experience these times.
          On Friday we will be traveling to go visit the in-laws up north a bit. It's time for some family time, so I'll be gone from now until next Wednesday. Hopefully I'll have some new, fun, amazing thing to share with you! See you then!

Technology, when is it too much?

          I grew up in the country. We didn't have AC, we heated the house in the winter with a wood burning stove. For as far back as I can remember I helped bring the fire wood in. We didn't have very good TV reception and only got 2 channels on rabbit ears on the TV in my parents room. We did have a VCR and a Sega Genesis. I watched a lot of Disney movie and I can only remember playing Sonic and Tails every now and then. We finally got satellite when I was 14. We also got a DVD player around then. Most people had already had those too. We had computers. It started with one and then my dad built more! I didn't even know about cell phones until 2000. Car phones where still a big thing to me! Game Boys where popular and I never touched one. I was perfectly content with the low tech country life. I played outside. I read books. I made things. I interacted. I didn't sit with my face glued to a personal game device or phone. 

          Now being a mom I want my children to grow up like that. So much easier said than done. First of all we do partake of *what I think are* luxuries such as AC, cable TV, Internet, and cell phones. In today's society these are things that most people say they can do without. We can if we have to. I do however feel kids today need to put down the personal devices. Between seeing teens who won't stop texting, kids playing personal games while out to dinner, and seeing a family sitting in a restaurant not even talking to one another because they each had some sort of technology in their hands, I'm worried for our kids. I don't think you need to take them away altogether because they are handy at times. I do however believe we need to take them out of our hands and realize there are people and things around us we are missing out on. It worries me to see kids who get bored without technology. Why can't we just talk to those who are with us instead of texting everyone else we know? My Mom's one friend (who is not American by the way) actually told her, "I can't talk to you when you do that." I think he's got it right. He has a modest home, and isn't all caught up in technology. He sat on a wall for over an hour, just waiting, and enjoying the day when my Mom's flight was late. How is it we American's have become so addicted to our technology? Most say they can't live without it. I feel bad for us in a way because we are so addicted. But on the other hand we are lucky to be able to connect with anyone, anywhere. But when is too much too much? When has it gone too far? When will we look up from our gadgets and realize we don't even really know the people who are right within arms reach? When will we enjoy each other again without worrying about our cell phones and who's on the other side of it?

          So to sum up, technology is a good thing... in moderation... and at the right times. It's up to each of us individually to put down our gadgets or just plain leave them at home or power them down and just enjoy the people and things around us. We do still live in a beautiful world. We miss a lot of it though. Like Route 66, we are losing touch with our roots. We can do without so much technology but if we lose our roots we're really just alone.

          Yes, I know I'm using my laptop and my wireless internet right now. But I'm also the only adult at home and the kids are sleeping. So yes, I do think it's okay right now. :) Thoughts? Comments? Ideas? Let's hear it!

Getting fresh

I'm working a lot more fresh fruits and veggies into my family's diet. We all love them but sometimes get bored and want something different but can't figure out want to do to make them like-able again. Unfortunately when we get bored we stop eating them! Well except Peanut, give her a bag of grapes and she's happy. Banana? Sure she'll take that too. That fruit plate you ordered instead of fries, oh yeah, she thinks it's all her's! So this week I probably spent 2/3 of the grocery budget on fresh fruits and veggies. I made two fruit salads, a cucumber-tomato salad and have been snacking on fresh veggies. These are the two salads I made last night.

 
The fruit salad has cantaloupe, mango, kiwi, and grapes. The first one I made had strawberries in it but it made it just a tad too sour for me although the family loved it. 3 pounds barely lasted 2 days! The cucumber-tomato has of course cucumber, and tomato plus white onion, vinegar, extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper. They are awesome! I strongly suggest going out for some fresh made salad fixin's and Get fresh! Just throw your favorites together and enjoy. Your body and taste buds will thank you!

So, my Mom wants to be a mermaid...

          So, yeah, you read that right. My Mom wants to be a mermaid... for Carnival (Cozumel, Mexico's annual Mardis Gras that is held around February every year). She spends as much time on the island as her life will allow and in general blends with the locals. But anyway, I've been charged with costume construction. So last weekend we head out to the fabric store and she bought these.

to start making this. (the adult one shown in peach, of course!)

Peanut also fell in love with it.

So there will probably be a toddler version sometime too!

Either way, stay tuned for this construction! I don't usually use factory made patterns so it's a big switch for me. Let's see what I can turn out together!