Write for the Joy of it

I've always been told that writing is in my blood. My grandfather was both a journalist and novelist. He wrote for papers in both Ontario and New Brunswick. Some of my fondest memories of him involve him sitting in front of his trusty typewriter, refusing to learn how to use a computer. My father is a writer as well. He has a column every week in the local paper. It was given to him after his many, many letters to the editor, almost always on the topic of politics.

It has been suggested to me recently that I should "pick a couple of topics to write about and master them", but I can't help but feel that it would take away the joy of writing. I write to express my feelings on subjects that influence my life in one way or another. I write to wind down after a wild day of chasing around very energetic children. I write to escape.

So, from now on, I will be making zero effort to narrow down my blog. I won't be writing solely about nutrition, news or pet peeves. I will write whatever comes to me, because after all, this blog is for me and if it helps someone, motivates someone, informs someone, or simply puts a smile on someone's face...well that will be a great bonus.

So, thank you to those who have enjoyed reading my blog posts at one point or another. There will be many more to come...as I will be writing for the joy of it!

Texting While Driving

Dear Joe Texter,

Ever since New Brunswick made it illegal to text while driving you have become an even bigger hazard on the road. Instead of occasionally glancing down at your texts, you now feel the need to hang your head down low and not remotely discreetly check your texts, while driving, anyway. Who do you think you're fooling?!

I see you at every single stop light, traffic jam and driving 120 km/hr on the highway. I see you in parking lots, running stop signs, nearly rear ending the person in front of you... YOU are everywhere!

What will it take for you to get that it's illegal for a reason? A bigger fine? Or will you only learn this lesson when it's already too late?

When I drive my precious cargo around, aka my kids, I don't want to see you. I don't want to take every precaution to get my kids around safely, just to have you screw it up.

People die for all kinds of reasons everyday, but this killer is 100% avoidable. So, next time you get into your car, turn your cell off and put it in your glove box because your texts can wait!

Sincerely,

FRUSTRATED

Miss Bree at k945-welcome!

Miss Bree is a welcomed new addition to the k945 Moncton team! This morning Josh made a comment about his love of bacon and how it would make a nice birthday present. Bree responded with "I like you too much to buy you bacon" and followed it up with a lesson on nitrates in bacon and other processed meats.Radio hosts have an incredible opportunity to educate and be positive role models. Go Bree!!

Tragic:Forgotten Babies Die in Sweltering Hot Cars

In the United States alone, 506 children have died, between 1998 and present, as a result of being left in a hot vehicle. 52% of these children were deemed "forgotten" by their caregivers. (http://www.ggweather.com/heat/)

A 12 month old baby girl  has died after being left in a sweltering hot car. The mother is being charged with Second Degree Felony Child Abandonment. The incident took place outside an elementary school, where the mother is a teacher. This was just yesterday, May 17, 2013, in Dallas, Texas.

On May 16, 2013, an 11 month old baby boy was found dead in the family vehicle, after the mother left him there and went inside their home. Six months prior to this incident, the mother was charged with Driving While Intoxicated and Child Neglect. She had been found passed out in the car with the baby beside her, the car was still in drive. She is charged with Aggravated Manslaughter. This took place in Miami,  Florida.

On May 10, 2013, a 5 month old baby girl was found dead in a parked car outside of a highschool in El Paso, Texas. The mother is a teacher there. No charges have yet been laid.

On May 8, 2013. a 2 year old boy was found dead in an over heated car in Sweden. He was found 8 hours after his father forgot to drop him off at daycare. He could be charged with Aggravated Manslaughter.

In more than half of the cases of children dying in heated cars, the parents have claimed to have forgotten their child, specifically when doing things outside of their routines. The most common scenario is of a parent who doesn't normally take their child to daycare and forgets the child, goes to work, and only realizes what they've done once it is already too late. As for the other 48%, 29% die from getting into an unattended vehicle and become trapped, 18% are left intentionally and 1% is unknown. This tells me that 81% of these deaths could have easily been avoided.

When we live our lives by a very strict routine, we do things without thinking. We wake up, have a shower, get dressed, eat breakfast, brush our teeth, grab our bag and head out the door. Sometimes we perform all of our daily tasks and hardly have any recollection of doing them because they are such ingrained parts of our daily existence. But lets say tomorrow you wake up and your spouse asks you, amidst morning household chaos, to take your son or daughter to daycare. They even go so far as to strap him or her into their carseat for you and while you finish putting your shoes on, your child falls asleep in their seat. This scenario is all it takes for a child to be forgotten. 

So, I ask you, does this make you a bad person? Does forgetting your child in the car make you a child killer? Isn't the heart ache enough punishment to this families? But that said, how do you prove it was an accident?

My heart aches for the families who lost their babies in situations just like these. We, as parents, have to devise our own reminder systems to insure that no baby is ever forgotten. 

Our First Family Organic Garden

Do you ever wander around the grocery store, over-thinking every purchase decision you make? Whether it's because of the pesticides used or the unpronounceable ingredient list, most of us have second guessed our grocery purchases at one point or another. This has become even more true for me since I started making homemade baby food and organic carrots became no longer available at our grocery store.So, I decided to take matters into my own hands...literally.

After taking Holistic Nutrition last year, I had every intention on starting a vegetable garden with my family, but something about being enormously pregnant, and the extreme heat, made me keep putting it off.

So finally, last weekend, me and my family chose a variety of organic seeds and a little dome with pods of soil to start some seeds before planting them outside. Most of the packages said that germination (when the plant starts to grow from the seed) would take place between 7 and 14 days. After only 5 days, our cucumber plants are already an inch above the soil and our tomato plants are roughly half that size.  So exciting! My kids are so interested in watching them grow and keep asking how long until they can see the vegetables. What a great experience for them! We're still waiting on the cayenne peppers and green peppers to make an appearance, but I'm sure they're on their way.

Once the final frost has come and gone, we will be transplanting our mini plants into our new garden and also planting zucchini, green beans, carrots, lettuce, snow peas, garlic chives and chives. There is something so thrilling about knowing that we will be growing our own food, in organic soil, in our very own backyard! Up until recently, I knew absolutely nothing about gardening, but after researching online, and having a great conversation with a seasoned gardener, we're off and running!

When gardening, you can have a fair amount of success with little to no prior knowledge, but one thing I recommend looking into is companion planting. There are plants that are best grown near each other and others that should be kept at a distance. For example, planting basil near tomatoes can actually help improve their taste. Planting onions near carrots help repel carrot flies, etc. There is so much information on the internet on this topic. Just type "companion planting" and you will have tons of sites to reference.

I have no expectations for our first garden, but with the amount of positive attention these little plants are getting, I'm sure it's going to be great. I highly recommend planting a garden with your family. It's a great activity for everyone to be involved in and the kids love to see what can grow out of even the tiniest little seed.

Happy gardening!

Missing Person:Timothy Bosma

Last Monday, Timothy Bosma, a 32 year old Hamilton, Ontario man, disappeared. After placing an ad on Kijiji to sell his truck, he took two prospective customers out for a test drive and never returned home. Bosma is married and has a 2 year old daughter at home, worried sick and hoping for his safe return.

The first clue in his disappearance was his recovered cellphone on Friday in Brantford, Ontario. Unfortunately in tracing his cellphone usage, the police discovered that the suspects had purchased a cellphone under a false name and had since discarded the phone. They were able to contact a man in Etobicoke who went on a test drive with the two suspects the previous week. He was able to aid in the description of the suspects, specifically a tattoo on one's wrist that said 'Ambition'.

Second came the arrest of 27 year old Dellen Millard, one of two suspects in Bosma's disappearance. Millard's wrist bares the tattoo described. He was found, while driving, in Mississauga, Ontario. He is being charged with forcible confinement and theft over $5,000. He is currently not "talking". The second suspect, and Bosma, are still missing.

Third came the discovery, on Sunday, of a truck matching the description of Bosma's 2007 Dodge Ram. The truck was found inside a large black trailer, parked outside Dellen Millard's mother's house. The trailer had been parked there since Thursday.

As of today, the Millard's family Hangar 53 at Waterloo International Airport is being guarded and searched for any clues in Bosma's disappearance. Meanwhile, many news publications are issuing reports of hopelessness and a mother and her baby girl are home waiting for news on their missing loved one.

This case breaks my heart. An innocent man has been taken from his family. He is a father, a husband, a son and friend! I don't know him or anyone who does know him, but my heart goes out to them all. I cannot get this family off my mind! This could have happened so easily to anyone! How many people do we all know who use Kijiji regularly as a means to purchase or sell new/used item?! I know that from now on, not a single Kijiji transaction will take place at my home and if I should sell something, I will be meeting the purchaser at a public location, with my husband, during the day. We can never be too careful!

I am sending my positive thoughts and prayers to Timothy Bosma and his family and hoping that somehow he is returned home safely.

Note: Timothy Bosma's remains were discovered Monday, May 13, 2013.

Day 2-No dairy

Day 2 of a "2 week no dairy" challenge and I am completely fascinated by how many things contain dairy and how this is forcing me to be more mindful of what I put into my body. I am very guilty of boredom eating and reward eating, but this challenge is a good step away from all of that.

Every item I consider buying at the grocery store has to be thoroughly inspected for dairy of any sort and the best part is that after inspection, I put half the things down because by that point I'm disgusted with the ingredient list. The concept of "if you can't pronounce it, don't eat it" is making more and more sense to me.

Dairy is hidden everywhere. I've noticed that most things contain "milk ingredients"-whatever that means-and/or straight up milk, butter, cheese or casein (specifically in processed meats). So, to do a true dairy elimination, you need to be hard core about it.

This whole thing is making me increasingly aware of how well I thought I was feeding my kids, especially in regards to my son's school lunch, when really I was giving him way too much dairy and way too much sugar. By cutting out the dairy products in his lunch alone, he is consuming 5 less teaspoons of sugar a day. That's a huge deal!

It's also forcing me to rethink how I eat "healthy" things, but then corrupt them in one way or another. The perfect example is my salad of romaine, walnuts, sunflower seeds, apple, homemade dressing (extra virgin olive oil, vinegar, garlic and mustard) and top it off with a bunch of cheddar cheese cubes. I'm delusional!

I generally think of myself as a fairly healthy eater, but this challenge is showing me how much I can improve. I don't think my favourite blue chip nachos and cheese snack was doing my post-baby figure any good, but neither are my dairy-free Hello Dollie squares.

Time for a change!