Light at the end of the tunnel

As Thanksgiving quickly approaches, I am getting more and more excited about it. You know when you have one of those weeks and you are just over it almost before it begins? It starts out rough on Monday and all you can do is look toward the light at the end of the tunnel (in this case, Thanksgiving) and hope time will move faster toward that light? Ya, I'm there. I'm ready for a break and after Thanksgiving, Christmas is only weeks away which means vacation, curling up on the couch and reading, and yearly traditions with my family. I CANNOT wait. In the meantime, though, I plan on doing lots of baking and Christmas decorating and snowflake making :)

Adventure Account

This past week I think I made one of the best decisions of my life! Well, this may be a slight exaggeration, but still. I have been talking about this for quite some time and in going with one of my goals for this year, which is actually doing and not just talking, I finally opened a bank account specifically for the purpose of saving money to go on adventures. And it's about time. There is so much in this world that I want to see and do and I don't want money, or really the lack thereof, to stop me anymore. Hence my new "adventure savings account." I don't have an abundance of money to save but I figure every little bit counts. And as I have a dear friend moving to Nicaragua in 2 short days, I want to begin finding a way to visit her when it becomes too grey and gloomy here to bear. This is just one of the many adventures I hope to have. Maybe a visit to Hilde in Norway or a celebration of my fabulous roommate's graduation will be funded as well :)

School lunch

I am saddened as I read this article. How can we say with a clean conscience that the tomato paste on pizza is a vegetable? How can we serve french fries every day and expect kids to make healthier choices? Of course a 3rd grader (and a 12th grader for that matter) is going to choose french fries and pizza over a salad and pasta. But what if the french fries and pizza weren't an option? What if they were given healthy options from which to choose, instead of whole grains and salad versus fat and sugar? Children would have the opportunity to make a choice between multiple healthy foods and would learn how to eat well and take care of their bodies. It only makes sense to provide children with healthy food that tastes good. In my opinion, the future of our country depends on it. Not to mention the health of our children, who should be the most important thing to us. It breaks my heart that children are fed foods that are bad for them yet labeled "healthy" all for the sake of money and politics. Access to food is a basic human right. Why can't we treat our kids better? What have they done to deserve diabetes and obesity?

"food" for thought

I am passionate about food. I love preparing and enjoying delicious food. 2 years ago, I made the choice to stope eating meat and become a vegetarian. This was a long time coming for me, I think, and the journey I was on that led to this point was enlightening and horrific and inspiring all at the same time. My senior year of college, I took a class aimed at assisting students who had previously been abroad to integrate global thinking into local living. It was the best class I ever took and definitely the most impactful (I mean, I'm now a vegetarian thanks to this class). We talked alot about our food system here in the U.S. and how far it is from being natural and sustainable. Instead, it is about efficiency, assembly lines, and profit. How sad that something as beautiful and life-giving as food has become so tainted. As a result of incredible articles and documentaries (particularly Food Inc.) and a passionate, knowledgeable teacher, I felt convicted about eating meat. And since I could no longer feign ignorance, I took the leap and stopped eating meat altogether. And I have never once regretted this decision.

Being a vegetarian is my small contribution to the world. It is my way of standing up to our unethical food system. It is my way of saying I don't agree with raising animals like products to be manipulated, like they aren't living, breathing creatures. It is my way of saying I am not ok with how much land and water are used to raise cattle that could be used in much more sustainable and useful ways. It is my way of saying I believe animals should be allowed to roam free and eat grass, not corn. It is my way of saying I don't want all the antibiotics and chemicals that are pumped into animals to ever enter my body.

What brought all this to the forefront of my mind today was an article in the Seattle Times about the local food movement in the US and how it could be and already is a solution to global hunger. After reading the article, I stumbled onto the author's blog. He is a pastor in Spokane who is passionate about growing local food, feeding people, and teaching people about good food. I'm inspired and will now be following his blog.