Parks and Recreation

Has anyone seen that show.  Purty funny...and for the record, there is an actual parks and recreation department called Parks and Recreation.  Who.Knew.

Now, onto Burl...


With the weather being unseasonably warm this February, we are taking full advantage.  I'm stopping by any park that has baby swings.



Just like every other kid, Burl loves him a-good-park.  From the swings to the equipment he can climb, he has a great time!

One of Burl's favorite parts of going to a park is seeing all the people.  He is especially interested in kids his size, people walking dogs, and anyone making a loud noise.  

He loves when his cousins come along.  They fit the criteria of things he loves: kids close to his size that make loud noises AND play with him.

 Now I know that taking kids to the park is no new thing.  For me it is.  This is my first spring with Burl where he is getting just big enough to enjoy some of it.  I can't get enough of taking him there.

Awe.  Life is great!

365 Thank You Notes

Do you remember the shower that I hosted recently?  You can go HERE to read more about it.  The ladies that were there were absolutely fabulous.  So kind, so gracious, and so thankful!  I've received three thank you notes from that shower.  Three.  One from the guest of honor, one from one of the grandmothers, and one from one of the attendees.

One of the notes came on Caesar Palace stationary, straight from Vegas!  She remembered my address, stamps, but forgot stationary.  "Her gratitude could wait no longer" and she made due with what she had.

Do you know what it was like to get these thank-you's?  It was so cool.  Besides the joy that I felt to receive a hand-written notes in the mail, the letters made me feel so appreciated.  So appreciated.  The gratitude continued.  I thought, "who could I thank?"  

Just like everything in life, the more that we do something, the more that it becomes part of our lifestyle.  If I write one letter, then I think of another that I want to write.  And another.  And another.  And eventually I have to keep a list of letters that I need to write.  

{source}

What if we all became letter writers?  Specifically, thank you letter writers?  Would it get old?  Would we get tired of opening our mailboxes and seeing yet another stupid letter from a friend thanking us for something big or small?  May it never be!!!

We would become more thankful, more intentional, and more aware of all the good stuff that is going on around us.  It happened to John Kralik, author of 365 Thank Yous.  I saw an interview with him, read articles about his endeavor, and read parts of the book.  

I'm a believer now.  My life would be much better if I wrote more thank you letters.  Who can I thank next?

Blog Housekeeping

I need to take a minute to address some things and answer some questions:

1. A few people asked me why I don't buy organic foods.  The answer is pretty lengthy, but here I go:

a. If I were to buy organic food, it would only be organic produce.  Once produce is plucked from it's tree/ground/plant/etc, it starts to lose all it's good stuff (I think that "nutrients" is the correct term).  There aren't many organic farms, so most organic food is shipped over hundreds (if not thousands) of miles...thus, losing a lot of it's good stuff.   When I can, I buy local.  Right now, the local stand that I frequent doesn't have good stuff.  In the winter, I usually get my produce from the supermarket.  Even then, I know that my bananas and avocados aren't grown anywhere even close to me, but I get them anyways.  Gosh, I love them both!

A good example of this is organic milk.  Have you noticed that organic milk doesn't expire for almost a month or longer?  That's because there are just a few organic milk manufacturers.  The milk has to be pasteurized twice to make it easy to travel long distances.  If it is ultra-pasteurized, then it's got hardly any of the good stuff left.  What's the point of drinking it then?  

b. If something is USDA approved organic, then that means the food has past the government's test to be organic.  I don't know what their test is.  So far, the government hasn't done a great job when it comes to food regulations.  When I see processed foods that are organic, I read their labels, and don't know the ingredients,  I have to wonder if I trust the government's definition of organic.

c. Have you seen the price of organic foods?

Ideally, I would love to grow all my own produce, have my own milk cow and a few chickens, but that would be crazy.  All my time would be dedicated to food and I'm not willing to do that right now.  I've got Survivor to watch, Burl to play with, and friends to meet for lunch.

For now, I'll get as close to that ideal as I can without going insane.  Last year John grew tomatoes and they weren't government-certified organic, but they were incredible!  (My neighbor even wanted to pay us for them-I gave them a competitive rate.)  I don't know the science behind it, but I think picking my own tomato is better for me than buying an organic one.  Now that I think about it, that was the same time that I developed a stutter, my hair turned green and I grew a long tail...oh well.

Before I step off my soapbox, I would like to say that it's just what John and I feel is good for our family.  We try to eat the least amount of processed food that we can, but still leave room for life.  Today, we grabbed oreos and chips from the grocery store, a Subway sandwich, and hit the park with Burl.  I ate my weight in processed food and now I feel gross.  Veggies for dinner!!!

..................................

2.  Thank you for all of your advice on how to respond to comments.  I have learned that if a commenter leaves an email address when they comment, then I can respond.  Or, I could leave my own comment in the comment section, but I'm not sure that people recheck their comments that they left on other blogs.  I don't.

I was frustrated and thought about switching to WordPress.  I love how WordPress does comments!  The main complaint is that WordPress doesn't allow for widgets to be added into the HTML code, and I have me a wholelotta widgets added to my blog.  

I think that I am going to do what Paige told me to do. 

Paige said...

I use www.disqus.com for my comments. If you go to the site, it is easy to register a new account and they even have a quick app to install it on blogger. I like it because I can respond via email and the responses go under the initial comment. You can also sync it with Blogger and import all your old comments into it so if you ever decided to remove Disqus, blogger will have all the comments. I think it is better at filtering out spam posts too.

There is my answer and my advice on that.  I hope that I haven't lost too many people.   If by reading this, you think that I'm techy, well you're wrong.  My husband does all that stuff.  I just take him to a blog a like, tell him the thingy that I want, and he figures out how to do it.

..................................



3. Thank you to everyone who reads my little blog.  Some friends read this and comment, email or text me about it and I really appreciate it.  I started it as something fun to do, and it is fun to do it.  It makes it a lot of fun to get encouraging feedback.

Pics from HERE

This Week's Menu

Every Sunday, I post my menu for the week.  Nothing special, nothing fancy.  Just a way to keep myself accountable. 

This week, I'm trying the Chicken Quesadilla Pie that I've seen under Real Simple's "favorites" list for a while.  I'm sure that I'll love it-it comes with a side of avocado.  I love me some avocado!

Ham and Pea Pasta...my current fav!

Roasted Chicken, Brown Rice, Broccoli
Chicken Quesadilla Pie 

Spinach Sausage Pizza

Veggie Night...sweet or regular potatoes, black-eyed peas, carrots, something green

Cream of Asparagus Soup and Salad.  Yum.