How to Save When You’re Shopping at Whole Paycheck

Being economical while trying to stay true to the food values I mentioned in my last post has been sort of a challenge. I bought free-range, cage free chicken at Whole Foods for some chicken roll-ups I made and the price made me want to cry. You can buy two bags of frozen, tasteless chicken or 4 breasts at Whole Paycheck. And yet it sort of made me feel good at the same time. I’ve just had to re-configure my grocery spending.

Rather than make meat the main ingredient in my meals, I’ve been using a cookbook called Almost Meatless that focuses on using a little meat and making it go a long way.

The recipes are fantastic. They incorporate a lot of the vegetarian philosophy into cooking for omnivores. It is broken out into sections on lamb, chicken, beef, pork, and eggs and how to cook with them but use less of them. I absolutely love it. Using the recipes in this cookbook, it isn’t painful to buy meat at Whole Foods – because when you’re only buying a 1/2 pound or less, most anything is reasonable.

To be clear, I don’t usually buy more than meat at Whole Foods. I can usually get a better price on both organic and conventional fruit at my other favorite grocer Harmons. We’ve been focusing on having on hand more fruits and vegetables. And we’ve cut back on spending money on junkier food like chips and treats, even fruit snacks. My new favorite thing for my toddler is Stretch Island Fruit Leather.

My friend turned me onto them and I absolutely love them. They have no artificial sweeteners in them – just straight fruit like they should be. And as you can see they come in a rainbow of colors and flavors so I never get tired of them!

Another thing we’ve done is switch back to all-natural milk from Winder Farms. This one is a hard one for me – after spending $4 per dozen on cage-free, range-free eggs, I have heartburn over spending another $16 on 4 gallons of milk. I keep telling myself it’s ok and that it’s worth it. It does taste really good. In order to balance this, I’ve started using up the dry milk in our food storage. I had some before, but I just inherited tons more from my grandma. I tried adding dry milk to our milk once it was half gone, but my husband had a heart-attack over it. It just doesn’t taste like regular milk. So instead, I use dry milk in all my cooking and baking, instead of our Winder milk. It has definitely helped our milk last longer in the fridge.

Any tricks of the trade you’ve learned?

Happy New Year! Here Are My Goals

I love goals. I write them down every year and I enjoy checking them off. The year I met my husband I wrote 1) Meet my soul mate. 2) Marry my soul mate. I was three months late on the second one but I still consider it mission accomplished So anyway, I am also interested in other people’s goals. So share yours! Tell me what you’ve resolved to do this year. Here are a few of mine:

• Spend Less Money at Home Depot. When you buy an old house, this comes with the territory. You’re constantly spending your Benjamins fixing up the place. A little paint here, a new toilet there and you’ve spent your entire “flexible spending” budget. I’m over it. My goal in 2010 is to sell my house and buy one that allows me not to spend even $1 at Home Depot. That might be a stretch. Maybe I’ll just start shopping at Lowes.

• Be More Conscientious When I Cook. I keep hearing all about the inhumane way they treat poultry. My husband watched a program about it and nearly threw up. They shred the chickens immediately after they lay eggs. I’ve read they pump them full of hormones to have them reach full growth faster so they can sell them faster. They cut off their beaks so they can’t peck each other since they’re jam packed together in a cage. Poultry aren’t considered live-stock so there are no rules on how they are raised. Gross! And meat farmers aren’t any better. They also pump their cattle full of hormones. They get more money for using corn for their cattle instead of grass which they can naturally process. Corn makes them bloated and they have to be cut to let the air out. Gross! So to my point: I am going to be more conscientious about where I buy my meat, what kind of eggs I buy, and what kind of poultry I get. I know Whole Foods has higher standards for meat and poultry than other stores around here. But you can also purchase meat and poultry from local farmers. Unfortunately there aren’t a lot of local farmers around here who have free range poultry or grass-fed cattle. I found a couple meat producers I like, and am especially impressed by Bar 10 Beef. but the only farm that has everything I want is Running Water Farms Evanston, WY. I might have to make a trip up there and freeze the meat….

• Get Out of Diapers. My goal is to get H. pre-school ready by next September. This includes getting him potty trained. Right now he is showing zero interest. The only thing he likes to do on his potty is stand on it. He knows when he’s poopy, he knows when he’s wet (he’ll announce it to some degree, but then lie about it when I ask him if he’s ready for a diaper change). He doesn’t seem to mind sitting in his own poop. So this one may take a while. The doctor said to work on it when he’s 2 1/2 – 3 so we’ll see how the summer goes…

Anyway, those are some of mine. What are some of yours?

The Vaccine Debate

I am always surprised by the passion (and sometimes mania) of people who hate Western medicine. I find their opinions and beliefs interesting and worth listening to, but I rarely find myself agreeing. And it’s not because I think it’s a perfect science. But I have great respect for doctors and nurses that I’ve worked with – or who have worked on me. I have a respect for their knowledge and schooling – and I find it so bizarre that people who have never studied ANY medicine (be it Western, Eastern, homeophathy, Chiropractic) are somehow pinnacles of knowledge on the subject.

Take for instance Jenny McCarthy. Playboy model turned actor turned mother turned activist. Why is anyone listening to her? What kind of credible history or knowledge does she bring to the table besides a rhetoric of anti-vaccine hatred and emotional hysteria? It seems to me she is like any mother who just wants answers for why her child is autistic. But to blame vaccinations for it and come up with proof from thin air is pretty shocking to me. The fact that people are blindly listening to her makes her downright dangerous.

WIRED is one of my husband’s favorite magazines. They recently featured an article on the rage against vaccinations and talked a lot about Paul Offit, a pediatrician who co-invented the rotavirus. The article points out:

This isn’t a religious dispute, like the debate over creationism and intelligent design. It’s a challenge to traditional science that crosses party, class, and religious lines. It is partly a reaction to Big Pharma’s blunders and PR missteps, from Vioxx to illegal marketing ploys, which have encouraged a distrust of experts. It is also, ironically, a product of the era of instant communication and easy access to information. The doubters and deniers are empowered by the Internet (online, nobody knows you’re not a doctor) and helped by the mainstream media, which has an interest in pumping up bad science to create a “debate” where there should be none.

I still don’t think I fully understand why so many people are backing away from tried and true measures like vaccinations. Do we just have it too good (not to have polio, mumps, measles, etc) that we start philosophizing too much? Do we really want to live like a third world country? Or should we just be grateful for the scientific approach to medicine that we have in this country? In saying that, I totally get that there is a lot of greed that goes into Western medicine – but there’s a lot of good too.

Before smallpox was eradicated with a vaccine, it killed an estimated 500 million people. And just 60 years ago, polio paralyzed 16,000 Americans every year, while rubella caused birth defects and mental retardation in as many as 20,000 newborns. Measles infected 4 million children, killing 3,000 annually, and a bacterium called Haemophilus influenzae type b caused Hib meningitis in more than 15,000 children, leaving many with permanent brain damage. Infant mortality and abbreviated life spans — now regarded as a third world problem — were a first world reality.

McCarthy and other “anti-toxins” advocates who work with autism are convinced that vaccinations cause autism because autism gets diagnosed around 18-24 months – which is when kids get vaccinated. But seriously? That’s when you would be able to find out if something is wrong with your kid. My kid is 2 and I can totally see how it takes a while after they’re a tiny baby to notice the difference in their behavior to that of their peers. It just seems so strange to link a correlation between these two based on nothing.

To be clear, there is no credible evidence to indicate that any of this is true. None. Twelve epidemiological studies have found no data that links the MMR (measles/mumps/rubella) vaccine to autism; six studies have found no trace of an association between thimerosal (a preservative containing ethylmercury that has largely been removed from vaccines since 2001¹) and autism, and three other studies have found no indication that thimerosal causes even subtle neurological problems. The so-called epidemic, researchers assert, is the result of improved diagnosis, which has identified as autistic many kids who once might have been labeled mentally retarded or just plain slow. In fact, the growing body of science indicates that the autistic spectrum — which may well turn out to encompass several discrete conditions — may largely be genetic in origin. In April, the journal Nature published two studies that analyzed the genes of almost 10,000 people and identified a common genetic variant present in approximately 65 percent of autistic children.

Another thing that kills me about anti-Westernists is the fact that their solutions or treatments to anything are FAR more unstudied that anything in Western medicine. Anytime I talk to people who try herbs or homeopathy, they always think things work that are not FDA approved, or researched very well.  I know it’s hard to get the FDA to approve anything without a lot of research and time, but isn’t there some safety in that? The article talked this too – some of the Autism activists are recommending Vitamin D as the cure-all:

The speakers told parents not to despair. Vitamin D would help, said one doctor and supplement salesman who projected the equation “No vaccines + more vitamin d = no autism” onto a huge screen during his presentation. (If only it were that simple.) Others talked of the powers of enzymes, enemas, infrared saunas, glutathione drips, chelation therapy (the controversial — and risky — administration of certain chemicals that leech metals from the body), and Lupron (a medicine that shuts down testosterone synthesis).

Why do people support other treatments that are highly inventive, under researched and kind of risky rather than just going with rational scientific methods? This is the question I pose to you. I really am blown away by it all. Why are parents so CERTAIN they’re right?

Music Movies and Marriage

The second time I met my husband he said to me – out of the blue – “we really need to discuss your musical taste. I went through your music at your house and it made me cringe.” Excusez-moi? This was pre- me falling madly in love with him, so I just stared at him like he was a mere placeholder and laughed.

But after a few dates and me figuring out he was perfect, I came to realize that he is an incredibly music snob. And that he is usually right about music. Ok maybe always. It’s been difficult to maintain my own sort of musical identity being married to such a strong musical influence. He scoffs at Kelly Clarkson, rolls his eyes whenever Taylor Swift comes on, makes fun of all my Top 40 or R&B, and won’t even discuss listening to Dixie Chicks. Ok maybe I don’t have great taste when it comes to music – but I just like songs I can sing along to.

I seriously find myself stuttering when people ask me what kind of music I like. I think to myself: “what would he say” and then I sputter “um Radiohead. ColdPlay.” and that’s always the only two that come to mind. I can’t ever seem to get out all the others:  Imogen Heap, A Fine Frenzy, almost all Opera and Broadway numbers,  Norah Jones, Snow Patrol, Beck, Pink, Gwen Stefani…I just sit and try to channel my husband….And this is coming from me: a Type A, strong-willed feminist with clear ideals, opinions, and goals with a dominant personality to boot.

I feel so insecure listening to my music in the car with him, it’s unimaginable. He has so influenced what I think is good or bad that I can’t hardly bear to control the radio station in front of him. So throughout our marriage I have refused to let him also influence me in the only other arena in which he has strong opinions: Movies.

We do movies separately – me with my girls and him with his friends. That way I can enjoy my girl movies with relaxed pleasure, never wondering if he’s lurking in the background puking at my chick flicks.

So you can perhaps imagine my surprise today when I found him playing music from my all time favorite movie (this month) New Moon. New Moon. Twilight Saga New Moon that my husband has teased me atrociously for devouring in book form and patronizing in movie form multiple times when it’s still in theaters.  It seems today for the first time our worlds have collided. He likes something I like! It felt like a victory.

Here is one of my favorite songs from the movie set to clips from the show. I dare you not to cry!

Don’t Stop Believing. Hold onto that Feeling

I have Journey in my head. I don’t even like Journey but my friend made me an awesome CD to brighten my spirits a few weeks ago and I can’t stop listening to the first song on it. It’s the Glee version of “Don’t Stop Believing.” Fantastic.

I don’t know why, but the thought keeps coming to me that I never blog about anything religious or spiritual. And I keep wondering why I don’t bring it up. I don’t know if it’s because this blog started out as mostly as an outlet of a working-and-stay-at-home-mom, and thus my posts are typically about work or mommyhood or what. Maybe it’s because I respect what other people believe and don’t like to push my beliefs on anyone else, or make anyone uncomfortable. Or maybe I’m just uncomfortable putting this big, huge, important part of me out there for speculation.

I’m not sure what it is, but today I re-watched Elder Jeffrey R. Holland’s General Conference address about the Book of Mormon and it did something to me today. It made me think about the importance of sharing your beliefs without fear. There’s so much on blogs these days – and Facebook – and TV – and the internet – and everywhere else that speak so loudly and so brashly against the things of God and the things that I believe in. The things of God are quieter, softer, and more peaceful  – and thus harder to get if you’re not listening. Sometimes I think we have to be more vocal and more clear than we usually are if we’re going to counteract the things that seek to destroy the things of God.  Just so it’s clear – I’m a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. A Mormon. And I know God lives. I know Jesus is the Christ and Savior of all mankind and it is only through him that we can be saved. I know Joseph Smith was a prophet of God who restored The Church in its fullness. And I know the Book of Mormon to be a true and living testament of Jesus Christ. And if you’re not LDS and ever have questions about The Church, I’d love to help answer them.

I love Holland’s address at General Conference – it is so powerful. Today it helped me remember what I already know.

and part 2:

Am I Too Late?

Halloween was a week ago. Scratch that – almost two weeks ago. So is it too late to post my kiddo’s Halloween pics? Probably, but I will anyway. He was a scarecrow. Obviously. He had to be something from Wizard of Oz!

Halloween was fun this year. Last year it sucked because that’s the day we discovered how allergic H. is to peanuts. The day care fed him a PB&J and he blew up like a balloon. We had to take him to the hospital and everything. $2100 later we knew not to feed him any nuts. That was a fun lesson to learn on Halloween night – the night everybody passes out M&M’s and Snickers that we can no longer eat!

So anyway, this year we went to our church’s Trunk or Treat, and then went Trick-Or-Treating with our friends to another area. H. loved it once he got the hang of saying “trick or treat” – (sounded something like “tickteat”). And afterwards we just separated out the candy with nuts (half the loot). I guess one good thing about a nut allergy is that he’ll only be eating half his candy every year.

Anyhoo, that’s all I’ve got right now. We’ve been working so many hours (wahoo!) I can’t seem to figure out a time to write for myself….

Funeral Potatoes Stink

I got asked to make Funeral Potatoes for the luncheon after a funeral today of one of our church members. And I just realized that I have never made them before! Being a Mormon staple, you’d think I would have some experience with them, but thankfully this is my first (and only) time.

Let me tell you that Funeral Potatoes stink up your whole home. I’m not sure with high-saturated-fatty ingredient it is that is the real culprit, or if it’s just the combination of all those lipids, but it smells terrible in here. I’m having a hard time working.

So I’ll write.

Speaking of food, my family is compiling a really fun recipe book. I wanted to do this one one from BHG Life in Photos – A) because I do the copy writing for the products on their website and B) because it’s the cutest recipe book I’ve ever seen. And C) because it’s cheaper than the other ones around too. But it only holds 10 recipes and we have a ginormous family. So we opted for one on Shutterfly instead.

I’m really excited for this recipe book. We’re all getting one for Christmas. Our theme is “Family Favorites” – so all 6 of my siblings plus all their kids each get a page to put their favorite dishes. I have some awesome cooks in my family so I’m really excited.

This kind of project really makes me happy. My family is pretty scattered all over the country so it will be a nice way to have a reminder of them in my kitchen. I’m just happy no one chose funeral potatoes as their favorite dish.

Miscarriages and Other Things That Don’t Make Sense

I found out I had miscarried the same week I found out they gave the Nobel Peace Prize to Obama. Nothing on earth made sense last week. Miscarriages never have made sense to me. The only thing they tell you is that it’s nature’s way of eliminating something that’s not right. That something was wrong and the body knew it. Although this Darwinian explanation may make logical sense, it doesn’t make any emotional or spiritual sense to me. I was pregnant. I had a growing baby inside of me. Everything was fine and suddenly it wasn’t.

The first time I miscarried was within the first 3 months of our marriage. It was a honeymoon baby and so unexpected I actually took 4 pregnancy tests (all positive) before I accepted the answer. 9 weeks later I was staring at a silent monitor that registered no heart beat, then laying on a gurney in the O.R. praying the anesthesia would hurry and take over. Then eating graham crackers in the recovery room with my concerned husband.  3 1/2 years later history repeated itself. My life right now feels like one long, bleak episode of deja vu.

The only thing know that makes this all sort of bearable this time is that I know if you let God heal your hurt and your anger, you can come out alright. And you can be a comfort and help to other women who go through it too. I know that the women in my life who have gone through this before me have certainly been a strength to me. Plus I guess all heartbreaks, disappointments, traumas, and painful experiences can be for your good if you let them, instead of letting them harden you. Which is hard not to do. . .

Most people who haven’t gone through something like this don’t know what to say. They try (bless their hearts) to think of things to say. But really everything just comes out so cliche and insincere at the time. The best thing you can do is just cry with them or tell them you’re so sorry. Because there are no other words on earth that can help.

For example, things like:

You’ll have more children. There will be other babies.

Even though this is  statistically realistic, it doesn’t really make you feel better. You’re not thinking of other babies yet. You’re grieving for this one.  Because I wanted this one. This baby. It’s not like my pregnancy with H. replaced my first one. Each pregnancy is very individual. And you deserve the right to mourn for it.

Well at least you weren’t further along.

You can’t imagine (unless you’ve been through it) how emotionally attached you become during pregnancy – even in the first weeks. It changes your life – you’re sick, you’re tired, you’re excited, you start making plans. You’ve told people. And then when you lose it, it’s like the future goes dark for a while. It isn’t how far along you are that is the issue. It’s the fact that the future has been taken away from you. It’s like when you’re dating someone you love and you make all these plans with them – they’re part of your life, part of your soul. And then something shifts and suddenly you’re broken up and you have to remap your entire life. Have to figure out who you are without them. It’s that altering.

I decided that life right now is a mess of things that don’t make all that much sense. And I think I have learned to really appreciate the people in my life who are true soul mates. True friends. Experiences like this make you appreciate having people to turn to who will mourn with you and comfort you in times of need. What would life be without these angels?

HS Reunions and Married Life

Last weekend was my husband’s 10 year reunion. Not only did we go, but my husband was (unluckily for me) Class President, so we were in charge of it. But it was actually fun. My husband planned the entire thing by himself, we had it at the Crimson Room at the University of Utah, overlooking Salt Lake City at sunset. It was a beautiful room, the food was good, and the people were really nice. I got to be the cashier at the front desk. Since I didn’t go to school with my husband, and therefore didn’t really know anybody, I “manned” the money table.

Being the cashier was perfectly entertaining. I got a front-row seat to meet all the people my husband went to school with – and I got to people-watch to my heart’s desire.

The ones I paid most attention to were the girls who came alone to the reunion. That hit close to home. I was that girl/woman for a long time. I was never the type to always have a boyfriend – I didn’t like men enough to keep them around just for company, so I was always the girl who went to company parties, events, movies, etc. alone. And I went – just like these girls – with my head held high, daring anyone to question my independence. Looking at this girls at the HS reunion made me respect them. And it made me so grateful that I’m married.

I keep wondering why so many people are getting divorced. I’m not talking about the people who really need to get out. I’m talking about the people who want “out” because they’re bored. I’m so over it. They think their life will be happier if they are single again or with someone else. Why would you choose to leave this life? Being married comes with its challenges, but c’mon! Don’t get me wrong – I was happy single. But being married is so much more fulfilling, so much less lonely, so much more fun, so much more comfortable. At least for me.

I think the reality of life is that most of the time happiness is a choice. The people I know who weren’t happy single aren’t happy married either. And if you’re unhappy in your marriage, you’ll probably be unhappy divorced. Because the problem is probably YOU! So any relationship you carry yourself to is going to have a dysfunctional element to it. I think people need to stop living the illusion that if you can just have something different you’ll be happy. Maybe true happiness comes from choosing to make the best out of what you’ve got. What do you think?

The Wizard of Oz Analysis

Wonderful Wizard of Oz

I’d like to contest that I have seen the Wizard of Oz more in the last 3 weeks than anybody on earth. Anybody except my son. My almost-2 year old is obsessed with the Wizard of Oz. Having gone nearly 2 years without watching TV, this movie surge is a bit surprising. But not inexplicable. I’m afraid it’s my fault. Well, both mine and my hubby’s fault. We decided to decorate our baby room with old-school Frank L. Baum Wizard of Oz decor.

Here’s just a few of our books about the W.O.O. that we displayed at his birthday party.

And of course the Wizard of Oz cake…which he devoured with ferocity.

I guess considering this kind of start, it should come as no surprise that he’s a big fan of the show. I didn’t think of it as brain-washing or subconsciously influential at the time, I just thought it was cute to try out a theme for our first born.

But now I see that our son as no choice but to absolutely adore Wizard of Oz to the point where he’ll watch nothing else. Nemo? No. Cars? Not for more than 5 minutes. Wizard of Oz? He’ll watch every part of it with active interest, even the black and white (sepia) parts, the scary flying monkey parts, everything.

The first 10 times I watched the show, I couldn’t believe how impressive the costumes are – even in today’s standards. And the acting! Unparalleled. Judy Garland was only 15 or 16 at the time and she’s so good! And the witch is awesome too. H loves the witch – every time she comes on he shouts “Kitch!” – (we have enunciation issues).

But the last 10 times I’ve watched it my opinion is reflecting my irritation of having to watch it again and the behest of my son. Like I think it’s so rude how Uncle Henry and Auntie Em don’t stay looking for Dorothy very long during the cyclone. If my kid (or niece) was out there – I wouldn’t just bail on them!

And what kind of good witch would let a child wander around Oz for days and days so she could “learn a lesson” rather than just letting her go home right away? (Glinda tells Dorothy she’s always had the power to go home – she just wouldn’t have believed her. She had to learn for herself). Right, Dorothy who just landed on a wicked witch, suddenly saw color for the first time, hung out with munchkins and saw Glinda floating in a bubble “wouldn’t have believed.” Riiight.

I could go on. It’s just obvious that I need to stop watching this show! Any ideas for other movies kids can get hooked on that I can use to switch him?