Well, I know eveyone is being hit hard due to the rising cost of gasoline; I live in MA and the cheapest grade is just hitting $4 per gallon. I know I sound like my parents when I say this, but I can remember literally digging around the car for change so I could get gas in high school. I've heard quite a bit on the radio and TV about how this is going to impact us, not just with respect to getting around in our autos, but everything we buy. Think about it, there is a trasportation charge added in to many things we buy every day and normally we don't even notice. Things we normally take for granted are going to be too expensive. It has already impacted how my family operates.
For example, my husband is fortunate to work only minutes from our home - he owns a pick up truck, typically not known for fuel efficiency. He has been riding his bike to work every day. We try to only make one run for errands on the weekend so we are not driving all around. More efficient use of our gasoline.
I am know contemplating riding my bike to work. This will take more planning since I am the parent getting our children off to school, but I think of how much we might be able to save and that is really appealing! I work approximately 13 miles from home, calculated using back roads. I think I could make this work, especially since my place of employment has a shower.
My feeling is that if gas creeps up to the $5 per gallon range, the bicycle could become more and more popular, inadvertently creating a leaner populous. In Europe the bike is the choice mode of transportation in a lot of cities. The flaw in this theory, of course, is the electric scooter and the smart cars that are on the market. Too many people, myself included, have been lazy too long to think about actually attempting to use the bike for anything other than enjoyment.
My second topic that has caught my interest is the alternative fuels. I'm not really well informed on this topic so I'll be brief. I cannot understand why the development of alternative fuels to power autos is not a priority in this country right now. I did some interesting reading on autos fueled by ethynol and ethynol fuel stations. I know there are other fuels out there as well, but my thoughts are we should be demanding the development of these immediately. There is no reason we shouldn't already have them.
Let me know your thoughts!
Monday, June 2, 2008
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Holy Breastfeeding!
OK, I know there are lots of different views on the topic of breastfeeding, but this is my blog. I am Catholic, not a good one, but I make the effort so my kids have some type of faith until they can choose their own.
We were recently at the Easter vigil mass. For those non-church goers, that means mass the night before Easter that started at 7pm. We got there early, knowing it would be tough finding parking and a good seat (my kids like front row!) and we did get a front row seat in the side aisle. In the front row of the middle aisle was a woman with her baby, 3 sons and husband. The baby was beautiful and very well behaved. About 1/3 of the way into this 2 hour mass, the woman begins breast feeding, right there in the front row! It also happens to be right in front of where the priest sits while the readings are being read, etc.
My feeling is that breast feeding is an intimate, private moment between you and your child. I have friends that do not feel this way and have no problem breast feeding in public. I, personally, am not comfortable with it, but realize it's done just about everywhere these days. So, yes, it made me uncomfortable, but I also feel that church is no place to be breast feeding. The least she could have done was sit in the back of the church, where almost no one would have seen her. I mean, she was breast feeding on and off until almost the end of the mass when her child feel asleep! 3/4 of the church had to walk right in front of her slowly when they were going up for communion! Maybe I'm a prude, but that just seems wrong.
Let me know your thoughts on this matter!
We were recently at the Easter vigil mass. For those non-church goers, that means mass the night before Easter that started at 7pm. We got there early, knowing it would be tough finding parking and a good seat (my kids like front row!) and we did get a front row seat in the side aisle. In the front row of the middle aisle was a woman with her baby, 3 sons and husband. The baby was beautiful and very well behaved. About 1/3 of the way into this 2 hour mass, the woman begins breast feeding, right there in the front row! It also happens to be right in front of where the priest sits while the readings are being read, etc.
My feeling is that breast feeding is an intimate, private moment between you and your child. I have friends that do not feel this way and have no problem breast feeding in public. I, personally, am not comfortable with it, but realize it's done just about everywhere these days. So, yes, it made me uncomfortable, but I also feel that church is no place to be breast feeding. The least she could have done was sit in the back of the church, where almost no one would have seen her. I mean, she was breast feeding on and off until almost the end of the mass when her child feel asleep! 3/4 of the church had to walk right in front of her slowly when they were going up for communion! Maybe I'm a prude, but that just seems wrong.
Let me know your thoughts on this matter!
Candida Update - Fight the Good Fight
Yikes, it's been a while since I have posted anything -not that anyone cares - but I like the freedom of getting on my own personal soap box in this blog; it's quite relaxing. Anyway, let's update the situation.
I decided to self-treat myself for intestinal candida, but to do so requires extensive research. I say this b/c it was my fear to start this and fail without seeing any results or even knowing there could have been results. This required much preparation. I actually found someone who had dealt with this infliction and was blessed enough to have a doctor keen enough to recognize the symptoms. This doctor gave her a website that was helpful and got me started on the right track: www.yeastconnection.com and what a fabulous website this is. From here I decided I should suck it up and purchase the guidebook and cookbook listed on the website. Which I did, on eBay. This took a while since the first book I purchased never arrived, although it's shredded envelope arrived in a US post office large ziploc basically saying "oops!" but no book to be found. I actually have found the guidebook to be more helpful than the cookbook, in case anyone is keeping score. Once I had figured out what I was going to exist on for at least a couple of weeks, stocked the house, prepared the family for what was about to commence, then I began. Hubby was very supportive and the first week was very hard.
I think it was day 3 or 4 that I noticed how clean my teeth felt. Anytime of the day or night, they felt as though I had just brushed. I guess that's what happens when you don't eat sugar/yeast/milk. By the end of week 1 I was feeling good and I remember during the second week, that foggy feeling I usually had during the afternoon was disappearing. I used to have such a hard time focusing throughout the day! I would feel so tired, like I couldn't possibly keep my eyes open until 5pm. Now I had more energy and I felt better all around.
The down side to these early days? Chicken, chicken and more chicken! I tried to have variety, but chicken is always easy. Quinoa is a life saver. If you haven't tried it, do! It's a grain, but it's my pasta substitute. The other downside? The supplements I bought to help rid your intestines of yeast are the most horrible smelling/tasting capsules I have ever encountered in my life and I have to take 6 at a time! I still have to block my nose when taking them, then eat some nuts right afterward to get the taste out of my mouth!
I have learned to LOVE seltzer water, since all you can drink is water. I needed something with bubbles to liven things up a little.
I have been eating this way for about 1 1/2 months now, and yes, I have cheated a few times. I did good for a whole month and right after that was my daughters birthday and I have cheated once a week since then. I know this is not good and part of me feels the more I cheat, the more I want to cheat, but 90% of the time I do really well. I haven't weighed myself in 2 weeks, but I had lost about 13lbs since I started at that point.
Please let me know if you have any questions, comments or helpful hints on this topic - I'd love to hear them!
I decided to self-treat myself for intestinal candida, but to do so requires extensive research. I say this b/c it was my fear to start this and fail without seeing any results or even knowing there could have been results. This required much preparation. I actually found someone who had dealt with this infliction and was blessed enough to have a doctor keen enough to recognize the symptoms. This doctor gave her a website that was helpful and got me started on the right track: www.yeastconnection.com and what a fabulous website this is. From here I decided I should suck it up and purchase the guidebook and cookbook listed on the website. Which I did, on eBay. This took a while since the first book I purchased never arrived, although it's shredded envelope arrived in a US post office large ziploc basically saying "oops!" but no book to be found. I actually have found the guidebook to be more helpful than the cookbook, in case anyone is keeping score. Once I had figured out what I was going to exist on for at least a couple of weeks, stocked the house, prepared the family for what was about to commence, then I began. Hubby was very supportive and the first week was very hard.
I think it was day 3 or 4 that I noticed how clean my teeth felt. Anytime of the day or night, they felt as though I had just brushed. I guess that's what happens when you don't eat sugar/yeast/milk. By the end of week 1 I was feeling good and I remember during the second week, that foggy feeling I usually had during the afternoon was disappearing. I used to have such a hard time focusing throughout the day! I would feel so tired, like I couldn't possibly keep my eyes open until 5pm. Now I had more energy and I felt better all around.
The down side to these early days? Chicken, chicken and more chicken! I tried to have variety, but chicken is always easy. Quinoa is a life saver. If you haven't tried it, do! It's a grain, but it's my pasta substitute. The other downside? The supplements I bought to help rid your intestines of yeast are the most horrible smelling/tasting capsules I have ever encountered in my life and I have to take 6 at a time! I still have to block my nose when taking them, then eat some nuts right afterward to get the taste out of my mouth!
I have learned to LOVE seltzer water, since all you can drink is water. I needed something with bubbles to liven things up a little.
I have been eating this way for about 1 1/2 months now, and yes, I have cheated a few times. I did good for a whole month and right after that was my daughters birthday and I have cheated once a week since then. I know this is not good and part of me feels the more I cheat, the more I want to cheat, but 90% of the time I do really well. I haven't weighed myself in 2 weeks, but I had lost about 13lbs since I started at that point.
Please let me know if you have any questions, comments or helpful hints on this topic - I'd love to hear them!
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Creating Independent Kids
Here we go...the other day my 7 yr old came home with a bumper sticker that said "My child is an honored student at .....school" HONORED student! What the hell is that? I mean give me a break! I'm so sick and tired of our kids being coddled in the school system! Since my kids were in kindergarten, if they want to invite anyone from school to a birthday party, they have to either invite all the girls or all the boys (depending on if your child is a boy or girl), or the whole class...why? So no one has hurt feelings!!! Because as we all know no one ever gets their feelings hurt in REAL LIFE! So now it has spread to the bumper sticker. You're all Honored students...so the kids who bust their ass to get good grades get NO special recognition and the kids who are trouble makers and are disruptive get a pat on the back as honored students - why should they strive for any better? Why should they want to be honor students, they wouldn't get any special treatment or recognition!!!
I think this is why we have a generation of younger employees in the workforce right now that have no work ethics! They were never made to take responsibility for their actions! Everyone is always making excuses and making up reason why they did or could not do something - it's never their fault, there is always some reason. What ever happened to "I made a mistake" or "I used poor judgement"??
I think this is why we have a generation of younger employees in the workforce right now that have no work ethics! They were never made to take responsibility for their actions! Everyone is always making excuses and making up reason why they did or could not do something - it's never their fault, there is always some reason. What ever happened to "I made a mistake" or "I used poor judgement"??
Intestinal Candida Foe Woes
OK, I kind of went on hiatus from blogging for a while, but I'm back and I'm looking for some help. I can't remember how I first stumbled across this information, but I now believe I have intestinal Candida. I've always been a little bit of a hypo chondriac, but I have so many small, non-threatening ailments, I feel I'm too young to feel so old! I can't stand when you go to see a doctor about something and they say "Well, you are getting older"...Hello! when did 38 mean I'm supposed to start looking for a cane!!! It's infuriating! I'm not saying I want to run out and start hang gliding, but I'd love to be able to go hiking with my family on a regular basis or go biking to stay in shape! I never wanted to be one of those people that just rolls over and stops doing things b/c they are getting old.
Sorry, I got off track...so intestinal Candida. I've been googling the crap out of this and I've taken many of the "tests" on various websites to see if it is likely that you have it...when a score of 180 means you most likely have it, my score was over 400. The more I read, the more convinced I am that solving this medical issue, could solve a lot of problems for me. Who would have thought so many seemingly unconnected problems, could really be connected: losing the feeling in your fingers and toes b/c they are cold, psoriasis, toe nail fungus, bad periods, migraines, feeling your heart pounding like it's coming out of your chest, shortness of breath...and many,many more!
Here is the dilemma, and it seems I'm not the only one who runs into this b/c many websites talk about having to treat yourself for this b/c some doctors don't believe it is real! The same thing happened to me when I was told I had Epstein Barr...shortly afterward I had to get a physical for a new employer and when I told that doctor that I had Epstein Barr, he said to me "that's what doctors tell their patients they have when they want them to stop complaining. There is no such thing as Eptein Barr!"...I also think that's what doctors used to say about Alzheimers and autism, so I can't understand why doctors aren't becoming more educated about this. Anyway, I do have a doctor who is pretty open minded, however after emailing her and calling her weeks ahead of my appointment to make sure she was informed on the subject, I was disappointed to find she knew nothing about it and tried to bluff her way through my appt. She did give me a prescription for an antifungal med, suggested a natural supplement to help strengthen the intestinal wall and even sent me for a blood test (I haven't heard any results yet)...but it was obvious during our discussion that she had no idea about the ailment I was referring to.
This is where I need help. From what I've read, it seems like there are two paths you can take to ridding yourself of intestinal Candida: you can go on a sugar restricted diet while taking an antifungal med and then I think once your symptoms go away you are supposed to take probiotics to put the healthy bacteria back into your body. Then you have to pay close attention to what you eat to see what your body reacts to; the other option appears to be taking something called ThreeLac or something similar which is supposed to do all the work instead of diet/meds, but costs a huge amount of money and, quite frankly, sounds a bit gimmicky. I kind of feel like I need some hand-holding here - I need a doctor who has treated this successfully before and can say, OK, take this and at the same time don't eat this, this and this. I need someone to tell me exactly what to do. I don't want to spend $250 on ThreeLac to find out it does nothing....I've done that enough on diet pills, etc. I spent $25 on brown sea weed pills that did nothing for me.
I would really love to hear from anyone that has been cured of Intestinal Yeast Candida whatever you want to call it...and I want to know how. I'm different things work for different people so it would be interesting to hear what works and what doesn't. It seems to tie a lot of things together, but am I just falling prey to some made up solution?
Another twist I just read online is that people with this affliction usually have elevated levels of mercury in their system! Obviously I don't know if this is true or not, but it mentions the fillings in your teeth having mercury in them...it wouldn't surprise me at all, and I have a ton of fillings! I wonder what my blood would show if I were tested for Mercury?
Sorry, I got off track...so intestinal Candida. I've been googling the crap out of this and I've taken many of the "tests" on various websites to see if it is likely that you have it...when a score of 180 means you most likely have it, my score was over 400. The more I read, the more convinced I am that solving this medical issue, could solve a lot of problems for me. Who would have thought so many seemingly unconnected problems, could really be connected: losing the feeling in your fingers and toes b/c they are cold, psoriasis, toe nail fungus, bad periods, migraines, feeling your heart pounding like it's coming out of your chest, shortness of breath...and many,many more!
Here is the dilemma, and it seems I'm not the only one who runs into this b/c many websites talk about having to treat yourself for this b/c some doctors don't believe it is real! The same thing happened to me when I was told I had Epstein Barr...shortly afterward I had to get a physical for a new employer and when I told that doctor that I had Epstein Barr, he said to me "that's what doctors tell their patients they have when they want them to stop complaining. There is no such thing as Eptein Barr!"...I also think that's what doctors used to say about Alzheimers and autism, so I can't understand why doctors aren't becoming more educated about this. Anyway, I do have a doctor who is pretty open minded, however after emailing her and calling her weeks ahead of my appointment to make sure she was informed on the subject, I was disappointed to find she knew nothing about it and tried to bluff her way through my appt. She did give me a prescription for an antifungal med, suggested a natural supplement to help strengthen the intestinal wall and even sent me for a blood test (I haven't heard any results yet)...but it was obvious during our discussion that she had no idea about the ailment I was referring to.
This is where I need help. From what I've read, it seems like there are two paths you can take to ridding yourself of intestinal Candida: you can go on a sugar restricted diet while taking an antifungal med and then I think once your symptoms go away you are supposed to take probiotics to put the healthy bacteria back into your body. Then you have to pay close attention to what you eat to see what your body reacts to; the other option appears to be taking something called ThreeLac or something similar which is supposed to do all the work instead of diet/meds, but costs a huge amount of money and, quite frankly, sounds a bit gimmicky. I kind of feel like I need some hand-holding here - I need a doctor who has treated this successfully before and can say, OK, take this and at the same time don't eat this, this and this. I need someone to tell me exactly what to do. I don't want to spend $250 on ThreeLac to find out it does nothing....I've done that enough on diet pills, etc. I spent $25 on brown sea weed pills that did nothing for me.
I would really love to hear from anyone that has been cured of Intestinal Yeast Candida whatever you want to call it...and I want to know how. I'm different things work for different people so it would be interesting to hear what works and what doesn't. It seems to tie a lot of things together, but am I just falling prey to some made up solution?
Another twist I just read online is that people with this affliction usually have elevated levels of mercury in their system! Obviously I don't know if this is true or not, but it mentions the fillings in your teeth having mercury in them...it wouldn't surprise me at all, and I have a ton of fillings! I wonder what my blood would show if I were tested for Mercury?
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