Pink Slime? My kids arent eating that garbage...

Start packing your kids lunch so you know what they are eating...

Seven Million Pounds of “Pink Slime” Beef Destined for National School Lunch Program

By Sarah B. Weir, Yahoo! blogger

McDonald's and Taco Bell have banned it, but now the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is buying 7 million pounds of beef containing ammonium hydroxide-treated ground connective tissue and meat scraps and serving it up to America's school kids. If you thought cafeteria food was gross before….


Related: What You Need to Know About the New Meat and Poultry Labels



According to TheDaily.com, the term "pink slime" was coined by microbiologist Gerald Zirnstein, formerly of the USDA Food Safety Inspection Service. He first saw it being mixed into burger meat when he was touring a Beef Products Inc (BPI) facility in 2002 after an outbreak of salmonella. "Scientists in D.C. were pressured to approve this stuff with minimal safety approval," Zirnstein told The Daily.



"Pink slime," which is officially called "Lean Beef Trimmings," is banned for human consumption in the United Kingdom. It is commonly used in dog and chicken food. Celebrity chef and safe food advocate Jamie Oliver featured the substance and called for its ban on the April 12, 2011 episode of Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution, which may have influenced McDonald's to stop using beef patties containing the filler.



Reportedly, Zirnstein and his colleague Carl Custer studied the substance and classified it as a "high risk product." Custer, who worked at the Food Safety Inspection service for 35 years, says, "We looked at the product and we objected to it because it used connective tissues instead of muscle. It was simply not nutritionally equivalent [to ground beef]. My main objection was that it was not meat."



Another issue is the ammonium hydroxide, a chemical that is used to kill pathogens such as E. coli. The FDA considers it safe for human consumption but a 2009 expose by the New York Times questioned its safety and efficacy. Some food advocates are asking for meat containing "pink slime" to be labeled. It's used in about 70% of ground beef in the US. "We don't know which districts are receiving what meat, and this meat isn't labeled to show pink slime. They don't have to under federal law," Bettina Siegal, a writer and mother of two who created TheLunchTray.com told NBC. Siegel has started a petition to demand the USDA stop using the product in the National School Lunch Program.



Would you allow your kids to eat ground beef mixed with "pink slime?"

Slipping down the Rabbit Hole...

Good Saturday Evening...

Just wanted to update everyone, contrary to popular belief I have not fallen down the rabbit hole with Alice, shrunk, stretched, scratched or stuffed into a teapot! Just feels like it.

I have been absent for a bit and missing you all terrible! This is day 8 after my little guys surgery. Its going to be a long few weeks yet but he is doing great. Its been a little rough on him and mom is pretty tired too.

More news from the Hollow, my blog and my website is getting an overhaul, please be patient until I get the website finished and back up and running with a brand new look. Until then, Im late, Im late... you know the rest.

hugs,
Heather

Indigo Children - Born to Lead Hard to Manage

Indigo Children – Born To Lead Hard To Manage
by Judy H. Wright

As I travel the country teaching workshops for parents, teachers and day care providers I often ask them if they recognize
Auntie Artichoke enjoys working with the parents of Indigo Children
These children are not content to color in the lines or glue macaroni on paper. They are very bright but also very active and curious.

Born To Be Leaders

Some of the children who are being born now are just arriving knowing who and what they are. They really just need parents to guide them a little and keep them safe till they are grown up enough to accomplish what they have been sent to do. Many parents and teachers are scared of such independent spirits and want to medicate them because they are easier to handle. They are usually intuitive and sensitive to the environment. These beautiful kind spirits are very hard to keep in the old rules of schools and families. They are self directed and don’t always get the “why” adults want them to do things.

A Few Characteristics Noted By Jan Tober and Lee Carol, Authors of What Is an Indigo Child

•They have difficulty with absolute authority (authority without explanation or choice).
•They simply will not do certain things; for example, waiting in line is difficult for them.
•They get frustrated with systems that are ritually oriented and don’t require creative thought.
•They often see better ways of doing things, both at home and in school, which makes them seem like “system busters” (nonconforming to any system).
•They seem antisocial unless they are with their own kind. If there are no others of like consciousness around them, they often turn inward; feeling like no other human understands them. School is often extremely difficult for them socially.
Trust Your Intuition

There are many other books out there that will give you insight into the personality of an Indigo Child. Your most important source of inspiration on dealing with your child is your heart and intuition. No one knows and loves your child as you do. Discuss and plan with the child systems to make life easier for both of you. I can usually tell because their eyes will look at you as if they can see into your soul. They are the ones who will help all of humanity to move in a direction. A leader who will lead in their own way. Our job is to keep these Indigo Children safe and recognize what they have to teach us. They are born to lead, so let’s guide and accompany them on their journey, but let them lead the way. I am sure you probably have a child or two who come to mind when I talk about an Indigo Child.

If your child has lost self esteem by trying to fit into a “regular world” please go to http://www.useencouragingwords.com/for a free ebook which will help them recognize their inner strength. You will be so glad you did.

Thanks for joining our community of caring parents, family members, coaches, teachers and mentors who want to help raise a generation of responsible adults who respect others.

Judy H. Wright http://www.artichokepress.com/You have permission to reprint this article in your blog, ezine or offline magazine as long as you keep the content and contact information intact. Thank You.

Reborn on July 14th

Look what crash landed on my deck two weeks ago. I had no idea what it was or what it was going to be. My son who is turning 10 on saturday decided we should save it. I spent some time researching catapillars on the internet so I knew what it was and how to care for it. Thank goodness she didn't die from the fall out of our tree. I also didn't know if she was ready to go into her cacoon or if she would need to eat. I had no idea what they ate, and that each species also eats something distinctive and different from the rest. I found out what we had was a tiger swallowtail butterfly. Those crazy looking eyes on top her head aren't really eyes, they are to scare off preditors because they look snake like lol. I have never seen a 2" snake let alone a scary one but it must work.

My son decided to get a piece of bark from a fallen tree and set her on that. That was all it took to answer my first question. She began to attatch herself to the bark. It also started to turn brown after two days. Then the weird stuff started to happen. Her outer body not having a leaf to wrap around it to make the cacoon started to mimic the color and texture of the bark. She started to look like a piece of bark herself lol. In my mind I am thinking "I really hope its not just shriveling up and dieing" because thats what it looked like. We decided to hope above all else and wait out the 14 days it normally takes to hatch. My son found a nice little plastic dish where he placed some rocks, grass, leaves and the piece of bark with the creature conected to it.




Tonight just after dinner 14 days later she hatched! I can't believe something so big came out of a shell so small. she is beautiful and took flight around my kitchen for a while before decideing to sit on the ceiling fan. As far as I can tell we have a girl, she has the blue markings in with the yellow and black at the bottom of her wings. Careful not to touch her with our hands we coaxed her onto a paper plate and into a plastic container so we could set her free.


I watched all 4 of my kids take her outside with my oldest setting her free into the back yard. This is the kind of stuff moms live for. It also reminded me with a little patience we can take the time to save another living creature that might not have lived without our help. My son said it was the best birthday gift he could have gotten. I told him she probably was thinking the same thing.

A Child's Wonder...

I often wonder why I never really grew up lol, I know why though its the wonder of new found things you see out of a child's eyes when they find something amazing for the first time. Its like magick, its the little things to me in life that mean the most. My kids are always out exploring something or on adventures if they weren't they would be missing all this really cool stuff.





Two years ago we adopted "Charlie" and warty toad that came to call on the kids in the evening. They would bring him in to play at night and he typically would stay around the deck and pond. It kind of reminded me of the frog prince story I read to the kids at bedtime. Charlie would come up to the back door and look in. I swear he must have did this every night for weeks. I often wonder if he also thought of the kids as new friends.











Tonight we adopted "Flop" he is much like Charlie although he is still a baby and not even as big as a quarter. He is so tiny and fragile, much like my children. So we sat on the deck watching each others faces, and flop as we took turns holding and petting him. To get an idea of his size, those are my 9 yr olds hands in the pictures. He is just a tiny guy. We found him a safe place in the flower bed to avoid getting stepped on and there he is. Maybe he will be back again tomorrow to play.
I thought I would share pics of Flop as I did of Charlie. He is a dapper looking fellow.

Buzz Buzz...

I am a glowing mother this morning. I just got a excited phone call from my son's 3rd grade teacher. I don't know which of us were more excited lol.

My little bee has now ranked in the top 5 of his school in the spelling bee, he goes on to compete more Monday...I am so excited I can hardly wait for him to get home and tell me all about it. I have to act surprised, because she wants him to tell me. I was cracking up, I am so thrilled that he has such a wonderful teacher that she could hardly contain herself and had to call me in the middle of the day.

Thats what makes a great teacher, someone who is always on top of things with her students. What really made me smile is the fact that she went on to say how proud she was of him and how excited she was to have him in her class this year and that he has been such a joy. She would like to keep in touch with him as he goes on to the other schools which he will be next year. I remember at conferences she told me He is one of those kids you want to watch throughout your school years and follow what they will become later in life. Me too, I can only imagine what great things he will do. Right now he has settled on the idea of being an arachnologist. I think thats pretty cool.

I am amazed more and more by him every day. Just when I think I can relax he shocks me with something new. I guess when he was a baby and I told him he could do whatever he wanted to and succeed, he took it literally lol.

Just wanted to share my excitement with all of my wonderful friends.
hugs,
Heather

OOAK Primitive altered art assemblage grungy book

I hope everyone had a wonderful Mother's day! I know I did, I had 4 little ones who were very creative and sneaky about surprising me this year. All of them came up with their own unique ideas of what to get me for the big day. I got some really special gifts and a party cupcake party too! I didn't even have to vaccume or clean up toys. I was made dinner, got a favorite book, movie, coffee cup and even time alone (which I would have spent cleaning had they not yelled at me lol) It was a really special day for me.

Because I have been down with a nasty cold I wasn' t able to see my mom on Sunday but I did call her and will be planning something for wednesday, this year her birthday didn't fall on mothers day so I won't miss out on that.

I was able to keep busy (while not cleaning lol) and this is my new creation though so I thought I would share.

My newest etsy listing a primitive and extremely sweet smelling, hand dyed, hand stained cloth covered book for display with my favorite photos of the witches tea done in sepia tone.
Here is the link to my ETSY click here to see more photos

Hope all you moms had a wonderful mothers day like I did! :)
Hugs,
Heather

Gossamer Fairy...

When you feel a little breeze,
or notice a tickle, or need to sneeze
or find your things are rearranged
or something seems a little strange
Look very closely and you might see
sparkly dust, or a buzzing bee:
Behold! a fairy with gossamer wings
has come to show you wondrous things!
~ written by William Allingham

My little girl is turning 4 already and watching her grow has been quite the experience! As you watch your children from one year to the next you have to laugh as each one develops their own identities, personalities and style. I was blessed with 4 a baby for all seasons, summer, fall, winter, and spring. I don't know how that happened but it did. Two boys, two girls, all unique in their own way.

This one is my spring child, my girly girl, there isn't anyway around it. She is hopelessly in love with all thats pink & glittery, playing my little pony, dress up and giving make overs to the cat.
She is my diva, my drama queen, my pout when I don't get my way girl.
She is my sparkly butterfly, my princess, my delicate flower. She is all that is sugar & spice!

She is 4, like butterflies....little girls need no excuse.


M&M Bakery made her, her very own kitty cake:

One of those mornings

Its one of those mornings after... where you have been up most of the night with a sick little one, thankful that there is pot of coffee brewing and if you can bend over without grunting, or your knees popping your no worse for ware.

After battling the sick kids two weeks ago, the colds and runny noses are starting up again. Ugh! I hate that. Spent last night with the baby in a steamy bathroom. she is so congested I had to give her decongestant and turn on the vaporizer. Its been so cold and with the heat up everything is so dry. I just hope it doesn't swoop through the house again.

Well they took my little guys picture for the paper and set him up with an ice cream party. The boy ate 10 bowels of ice cream lol. They asked him if he wanted more and he said "Im gonna eat til I puke" lol. Only mine. He didn't throw up by the way so that was good.

OK, here is the new project I was working on...had to take a break from all those witches for a bit, but these have inspired me to do witch dolls lol.
I started out with 3 and gave them all names from the 1800s. Isabella is the white one, Constance is the brown one, and Elijah is the black one. They are very extreme primitive stump doll angels and I am so happy with how they turned out. I ended up listing them on ebay but I am hoping to actually make a set for myself.

Still waiting not-so-patiently for spring!
Prim Blessings,
Heather