Popsicle ingredients

I'm not sure if I've gone too far or not...

I was walking towards our neighbor's house today to talk with them and my youngest lovely boy came running towards me with a Popsicle in his hands. It's 11 o'clock in the morning and not really a time that I would want him to eat such a thing but other kids were eating them and I didn't want to be that mean of a mom.

So I thought he was just going to ask me if he could have it. Honestly if he wouldn't have had it in his hands, I would have said no, it can wait until after lunch. But it was there and it was small and it's summer. I think I'm being a nice mom.

The next thing that comes out of his mouth is, "It doesn't have high fructose corn syrup in it. It has has nutrasweet in it, it's sugar free. Can I have it?"

Major dilemna for me. We don't do nutrasweet and that's a pretty easy one to ignore in our diet. High fructose corn syrup is a little harder to avoid, but we try our best. So, he asks the neighbor to read the label of the popsicle box for him because he knows the one thing he can't have. We just avoid nutrasweet completely so he doesn't know.

My wonderful husband happened to be with me at that time and mocked me about what I was going to do.

He got to eat it and he was happy. Now I have to figure out how much additional education I want to do or let it slide!

Seven Silly Eaters

I'm gathering the library books that are due today and just had to share a book that my family, especially the four year old, has fallen in love with. The book is Seven Silly Eaters by Mary Ann Hoberman. For our school this last year we read one of her poetry books that we really liked - The Llama who had no Pajama so we went on a search for more of her books. We requested it from our library and read it over and over again for four weeks on inter library loan. I then asked them to buy it since we loved it so much. Every time we go to the library they want to check it out but we do need to share so it will go back today.

Enjoy!

Dangerous Animal Appeal Hearing

Yesterday was a big day for our neighborhood. The city held the Dangerous Animal Appeal Hearing concerning the dogs next door. Eight "good" neighbors, three police officers and two animal control officers were present before the decision board which consisted of the Chief of Police, the Mayor and the City Administrator. We had a court reporter to join as well for the minutes of the proceedings.

Our neighbor and his former girl friend were there as well though we did not see our neighbor. He met with the board separately and was not willing to face the neighbors. We were told he was not willing to be in the room with us because he was afraid he would yell at us because he was too mad. The former girl friend stayed for awhile but then left part way through the comments.

Two of the three dogs that live next door are deemed "Dangerous Animals" by the city now. They can only be in the city limits if they meet a list of criteria and one of which is believed to be impossible to meet. The first criteria is a 100K liability insurance policy and they don't know that anyone will write that kind of policy for that type of dog. One of the dogs was already banned from the city and another one was banned yesterday. We shouldn't see him anymore after today but interestingly enough he did get out today!

We really don't think that this is over and we really don't want it to get personal. We want our children to be safe playing outside and now we feel that they are with the dogs gone. We just don't want to be concerned about their safety from other actions though.

I won, I won!!

I won a new bike! How exicting is that?

Would you still be excited if I told you that it's a 20 inch pink and purple bike with a great bell and streamers? Yes, I was the proud winner of this bike last night at the Family Bike Ride. You should have seen my boys eyes looking at it...the cogs were thinking just like mine, what in the world are we going to do with that?

I was ready to be very generous with my bounty but there were only two little girls there who would be possible recipients. One had her name drawn already and was told by her organizer parents that she wasn't really eligble to win (and I'm sure that her bike was much nicer). And the other girl of appropriate age had a brand new bike already!

It's really really girly and not something that I can pass off to my boys even with spray paint over the pink and purple. So, what are we to do? I was told that it was donated by the only store that I boycott and that I should try and exchange it there. We could use that size bike at our house next year so an even exchange for something a little more manly would be great. But, am I willing to go to that place I avoide for that or do I donate it somewhere else? If I send my husband there, is that really still boycotting the place? The distirubtion center is who actually made the donation so I don't really know how that translates into what the big box actually carries and how that will fair in an exchange.

But still, I won!

Why don't I ever learn to read the labels?

Pretzels strike again...unfortunately. I bought a bag of plain pretzel sticks the other day for an easy crunchy snack. Why I didn't read the label before I bought them, I don't know, but I didn't until just now. That pesky "partially hydrogenated" word appeared on the label! Yet, another item to cross off the list of available products to buy at the store!

We had fallen in love with some Honey Wheat Pretzel braids from Kroger that we bought based on my husband's suggestion. (He had something similar from a vending machine.) We ate them, all of us, and really liked them. Well after eating about 10 bags of them (they were $1 a piece so the price was good too), I decided to actually read the label. Guess what, partially hydrogenated stuff AND high fructose corn syrup were in those. So those have been stricken from our regularly scheduled shopping tricks.

So, what am I eating now? Celery sticks. I really need to stick with things that God made Himself when snacking! A lot less reading is involved when I do that.

Garden Notes

I'm the worst at writing down those things that you always want to know next year...so I'm going to add some stuff to my blog. I'll probably bore the very few people that actually read this occasionally! (What is so strange is that my mom is the best at writing down everything, I just didn't pick that up from her.)

We ate peas this week for the first time...we've had a couple of pods Thurs, Friday and today to eat fresh out of the pod. Yum, yum, yum. There are lots of pods on so hopefully we'll get quite a few. It was really really hot today and will be again tomorrow so that's not so great for peas though.

We saw the first tomato actually on the plant today too! I never know how long it takes from the fruit coming on until they are ripe so here's my documentation! The plant was the cherry tomato so those typically grow the shortest amount of time.

This week we have been eating lettuce and some radishes from the garden too. They were planted in February and we are finally eating it! I can't believe it's taken so long to get to a place to eat them but it rained, rained, rained on the area and it was so cool for so long it's really amazing that in the end it's growing.

I have pumpkin plants growing multiple places in the yard that grew from compost and at least 20 volunteer tomato plants growing in the garden. I haven't had the heart to pull up the tomato plants just in case other things in the garden don't grow so well. I have pulled up a ton of what I believe to be cantaloupe plants that I expect have sprouted from compost. They could be cucumber as well, not sure. I just know that 20 of them can't grow in a space of 3 inches! I have a very nice looking tomato plant growing by the compost pile that we use during gardening season!

The Pit Bulls Next Door

I never expected to be so chummy with the local animal control officers, but since they are in the neighborhood all of the time, I guess it's inevitable. The pit bulls next door are now deemed "dangerous animals" by the city. This means that they have to be secured at all times either in the house or in a pin with certain specifics like a top and sides buried 12 inches into the ground. The process to get this distinction has taken a lot of effort on the part of the Animal Control officers because the neighbor will not talk to them, answer the door or answer the phone.

I feel bad for the dogs, it's not a very nice existence for a big dog to spend all of your time in house but I feel much safer to be in and around the neighborhood. I was actually able to trim the fence row between our yards this weekend without being barked and snarled at! We had added some additional fence to their chain link fence that we may be able to take down now so I can protect the garden from the deer.

That's the excitement in the neighborhood...I feel somewhat like a busybody but we also want to be safe hanging out in our yard. The dogs have become more aggressive in the year that we have lived here and recently got out and approached a different neighbor. A formal complaint was filed based on that incident which was the same day that we were in the process of finding out how we could get them removed. Our biggest concern now that the dogs are inside all day is that the dogs will get out of the door when someone comes or goes from the house which seems to happen frequently in the night! Since they have been deemed a dangerous animal, they can be shot if they are out of their yard. Animal control is still trying to remove them so we may all be able to breath a big sigh of relief.

I'm ready to fight...

The little one came upstairs this afternoon and said, "I'm ready to fight!". It's quite the variety of items that he has chosen to be ready for battle. My favorite is the hat. Those green things are the handles of a little bag!

Hostess with the Mostess is taking a break

Sunday morning I woke up very relaxed and relieved...it was June which meant that 40-50 people were not going to arrive at my house within hours. I love having church at our house, but by the end of the month, it's time to move on to someone else's house! May was a very busy entertaining month for us. I had lots and lots of fun, but will be happy to not be doing dishes for so many people so frequently! Between, church, weekly Bible Study, a wedding shower, women's retreat and dinners during finals week we had lots of people in and out of our house. I don't know how many times I washed plastic cups and the "church" flatware. I can't bring myself to use everything disposable so we wash! Now it's June and it's on someone else's conscience and time to prep and clean!

One of my Gerber daisies finally decided to look stunning...now that people aren't walking up the steps constantly!