The second trip to the fair was Monday night, when DH and I went after dinner, just a quick trip to go see a free concert. Brandi Carlile, a folk singer who opened for the Indigo Girls last summer at the zoo, was performing. It was totally packed and we were lucky to get a bench in the back where we couldn't see a things. We could hear though (despite the annoying people behind us who kept talking, things like, "Is this the song I've heard on the radio?" "I don't think it is." "It might be." Etc. At the start of every song, until when Brandi finally sang her most popular song, "The Story," I wanted to turn around and shout, "Yes, THIS is the EFFing song, so shut the F up!" Why go to a concert and talk through the songs, even if it is free? Brandi played for 90 minutes, so it was definitely worth the $8 admission price to the fair! We were there late enough to see the fireworks, too, which was fun. There are fireworks every night of the 12-day fair.

Then yesterday we went again, Dh and I with the two boys (DD didn't really want to go this year). Actually, the 13 year old went in the morning with 2 friends, dropped off by another parent. They had a blast and enjoyed their freedom, and by the time the friends left, the rest of us arrived and so DS met up with us then (he was out of money, so he was happy to see us!). We spent about 5 hours wandering around, going to see the art building (a favorite of us adults), the Eco building, the educationa and creative activities buildings. We shopped around the newly revamped and spiffy International Market (which used to be rather seedy and crowded, maybe like going to Mexico), ran into some friends and chatted, ate even more fried and non-fried food, and even sampled the Pig Lickers-- chocolate covered bacon (me and one DS liked, DH and other DS didn't). We topped the day off with a big bucket of Sweet Martha's cookies and milk from the All-You-Can-Drink Milk booth.

We were relieved to get a seat on the shuttle bus that would take us back to the park-and-ride lot, where we hobbled to our car, tired and full and Fairly Happy!

BUT, yesterday I picked up some fudgesicles on a whim at the grocery store. My mom bought these and ice cream bars a lot when I was a kid, so there's that comfort-thing going on for me with them. It was a nice treat last night, something cold and chocolatey, and it's much easier to eat 1 serving when that's all you've got on the stick. And they are only 90 calories, 1 gram of fat. There's still the high fructose corn syrup to contend with, but maybe I'll look around for a healthier brand (but I'm not doing the non-sugar-sweeteners). But for now, these are a good little treat to have when I want something sweet... small and satisfying.

And I can go back to those memories of ice cream dripping down my arm on a hot day, trying to lick fast enough to keep up with the drips. Licking the popsicle stick clean and then trying to sharpen them into pointy "knives" on the cement steps. Running through the sprinklers, scabs on my knees...

And now we just got home from our 4-day trip to Davenport, Iowa, to visit DH's birthmother, who we are close to and who just moved there from Tennessee, and his half-birth-sister who has lived there awhile. Davenport is a mid-sized town with quaint older sections and expanding newer sections. We really didn't try to DO anything there--- we wanted to relax, so we hung out together playing games and watching the Olympics, cooking, talking, shopping a bit, going out to a movie, and visiting bookstores. The Sleep Inn hotel was nice with a good breakfast and a little exercise I managed to use twice! We let our twins with their permits practice driving on freeways there and back for awhile, and that was okay too.

DH and I even managed to go to a service at the little Unitarian church in Davenport. We happened to drive by it and thought we'd give it a try... it is always something we mean to do when we visit another city but usually sleeping in or doing something else is too tempting. But this time we let the kids stay at the hotel and veg out and we went. It was a little awkward to make small-talk in the social hall for coffee before the service. People were friendly enough but there were gaps when we stood around unsure of ourselves. The service was very nice and reflective, with an okay speaker (ministers are often on vacation in summer), good readings, songs from the same hymnals we use back home, and the great feeling of being at home in a new place because we all share the same religion. We really have only been to one other UU church besides our own, so it was interesting to see how another church does things. And the small building was gorgeous, with so many windows around their chapel with a view of their woodsy property.

August came on with such a whirl-wind for us, maybe now I'll have a chance to cool it down a bit. We had DD in the kid-section of the Uptown Art Festival the first weekend in August, showing and selling her work (she does drawing, painting, photography, mixed media and computer art). She has never done this kind of thing, so there was a lot for us to do in helping her get ready, like figuring out how to display work, what to sell, figuring out how to make prints of her work, putting together greeting cards made of her photographs, etc. In addition to that, she and her brother turned 17 that weekend, so there was birthday stuff to prepare, a birthday barbecue we held to have friends and family over... too much to do!

Now we're down to a few weeks of summer... it feels like a blur all of a sudden. We haven't gone to the beach even once (teens don't seem to be big on this). We'll have to see if I can get them there sometime...

We left Friday morning. Since we were driving right by Mankato, MN, DH kindly suggested we could drive by the Betsy-Tacy houses there, since II'm such a big fan and haven't seen all the restoration the houses have been undergoing. Both Betsy's house and Tacy's house looked fabulous, and I was impressed that DH remembered exactly how to drive to them (my sense of direction isn't that great). After this, we drove all across SD and listened to Harry Potter 7 on audio CD, arriving at the well-advertised Wall Drug about 7 pm. (Anyone who has driven across SD on I90 knows how well Wall Drug over-hypes themselves with countless signs.) We got out there and walked around, shopping the touristy mall and eating an adequate dinner in their restaurant. Oh, I forgot-- we did stop in Mitchell, SD, to drive by the Corn Palace, their big tourist attraction. DH wanted to just glimpse it, so we drove by (a Taj Mahal-looking building made of corn cobs, o-kay...) and got some coffee in town.

Arrived in Rapid City at our Microtel hotel aboout 9 pm. I was relieved to see that my rather elaborate process of choosing a hotel to stay at (involving reading reviews on several websites and making charts) had paid off, and our room was pleasant and clean and simple and not too expensive. We had 2 queen beds, and 1 queen bed for 3 teens can be tight, so it was nice to see that there was a long window seat with a comfy cushion that could be slept on too. Very small pool, but our kids weren't into swimming.

SATURDAY
We got up as early as we could (which wasn't that early!) for the hotel continental breakfast and to go on our sightseeing way. Our first stop was Bear Country USA-- a nature park that promised many wildlife sightings. You drive your car very slowly along a 3-mile road, woodsy and prairie settings for different animals. We saw several elk, which were very impressive with their amazing antlers. We saw a few different kinds of mountain goats, artic wolves, black wolves, a brown and a white buffalo, very friendly little burros who almost wouldn't let our car pass (animals are free to walk up to the road), a peacock, and then a large area with dozens of bears. We could hardly count them-- bears sleeping, bears lumbering, bears swimming in a pond, bears walking along the road and even a bear who started biting on the plastic cover of a tire on the back of this one SUV-- he kept biting and wouldn't let go, eve though the car tried to inch away. We got it on film! After the drive, you get out of your car and see animals in large pens-- many baby bears, porcupine, fox, otters, badgers, stuff like that. And of course a big gift shop.

After more driving, our next stop was Mount Rushmore, amazing to see after seeing pictures all my life. Younger DS put money in one of the binoculars and saw great details, like Roosevelt's glasses.

More driving and then it was Crazy Horse, another amazing site. We got to see a 20 min film about it that helped us know more of the background and details. I never know that the man who started and worked on Crazy Horse for 30 years before he died was Polish, and now some of his 10 children carry on with the project. He died before the face had any real definition, which is just tragic! The scope of this project is just mind-boggling... like the fact that the Mount Rushmore heads are just tiny in comparison to what this sculpture will be when done-- they could fit on Crazy Horse's shoulder, much smaller than his head.

More driving to get to Custer State Park. I'd heard it was gorgeous and that there were a few features we should see. We drove the 18 mile Wildlife Loop where we'd been assured we'd see amazing wildlife, like their buffalo herd which is one of the world's largest, or big-horn sheep, elk, carribou, prairie dogs, begging burros, birds, etc. Unfortunately, we went during a hot part of the afternoon and we hardly saw anything-- just a few deer and antelope. The drive is very pretty and changes scenery a lot, but it was disappointing to scan the landscape for an hour looking and looking and seeing nothing! Luckily we'd seen all those animals that morning at Bear Country.

We also drove on Needles Highway to leave Custer State Park, which is a 14 mile drive (on very windy mountain roads, we didn't realize) where the land formations are claimed to be amazing. We were starting to wonder where these needles were after we drove for a half and hour and didn't see anything. But then we did come to them-- massive granite pinnacles that look like tall columns on mountain peaks. Very impressive and we had to get out of the car to gaze in awe and take pictures. (Yay, we saw something!) And as we drove out of the park, we came across Sylvan Lake, which was also breath-taking-- a lake partially surrounded by gargantual boulders, so it looked other-worldly.

Then the long drive back to Rapid City, where we finished off our long day with a drive-in restaurant dinner, a stop a a bookstore, and the fervor of watching a late showing of the new Batman movie in its opening weekend.

SUNDAY
It was hard to decide what to do... there are so many places out there (all a long drive away from each other), and we didn't want to overdo it. So we settled on the Cosmos Mystery Tour, a silly touristy place that had a crooked house built on the slant of a hill, so your sense of gravity was thrown off. It was impossible to walk straight up and down, and at some points you could stand on the walls. They had a board slanting upward and they showed water and a ball running uphill. It was good for a laugh.

Next was driving out to the Badlands, which were about an hour outside of Rapid City. We drove on 2-lane 44, which was way off the beaten trail. There was N-O-T-H-I-N-G for miles and miles, just grassland stretching on and on. Of course, some of us got hungry and waited for the next town to stop and get something to eat. The first town the map showed was Scenic... we pulled in and saw one tiny street with old wooden shacks and a liquor store and some old-West type jail. It looked like a ghost town so we didn't bother stopping. Drive another half hour to the next town, called Interior, with an old sign boasting "Bar, Sandwiches, Pizza," so DH pulled in. It looked rather rundown but I imagined a seedy little diner with a waitress and some basic food. But it was definitely an old bar, smoky and dark with old vinyl booths, old-timers sitting at the bar yacking, and a cracked window for us to look out. We waited and no one acknowledged us sitting in the booth. After awhile, DH got us and went to the bar to ask, "We're looking for some food?" The guy at the bar laughed, said all he had were some DiGiorno pizzas he could heat up for us. "Anywhere else we could get something to eat?" Well, there was a lodge down the road but he didn't recommend it, since he'd gotten sick the last time he ate there. Otherwise there was nothing else around. "It don't pay to come to the Badlands hungry." DH thanked him and we slunk out. Funny thing was, I came across this article when I got home, a guy looking for food in the Badlands and ending up at the same place. Same people too, though he was offered a few more food items. Check it out!

We ended up driving into Badlands National Park and out the other side to find a glorified convenience store to eat at: hotdogs, nachos, pop. We were grateful!

And then we drove back through the park, which had more amazing land formations of a totally different kind. Dry, dusty, striated mountains that made it look like a desert scene, or something from Mars. Everything was pale and yet brilliant in the endlessly sunny sky. We got out and climbed some of the rock formations. I couldn't do much but the kids and DH went one or two stories up, and people were all over the mountians like ants on a hill. Some people climbed precariously high to overlook the deep canyons and it was scary to watch their kids sitting so close to dropoffs on this crumbly dry stone.

And then it was back to Rapid City, where we were just going to take it easy. After our long drive and a rest at the hotel, we went off to dinner at a restaurant in an old firehouse. We sat on the patio and listened to their live band made up of 10 highschool students playing big-band-jazzy stuff with their saxes, trombones, trumpets, guitar, drums and keyboard. Good food and the music was good too. After dinner we walked around downtown Rapid City to see the bronze, life-sized statues of presidents they have on many corners. Some ice cream, and then back to the hotel to sack out.

MONDAY
It was our long drive home, which Harry Potter 7 continued to help us through. This time we drove a different way so we could stop in De Smet, SD, for the Laura Ingalls Wilder sites. There were several buildings, and even though the kids protested about spending 90 minutes doing a tour, I think they did enjoy the historical aspect of it, though they've never been into the LIW books like I was. The tour guides did a great job of telling the stories so that those who weren't familiar with them could still get something out of it. We saw 2 school houses (one that the Ingalls had actually gone to school in, one a replica of where Laura had taught), and 2 houses (one the Ingalls had lived in on their claim, one Pa had built in town). It was so interesting to see the size of the rooms and imagine a family living is such close quarters... and to see where they'd actually lived.

After this more driving to get home at 10:30pm. It felt like we were gone longer than 4 days! So glad we had such a great trip.

(Note: The article on dining in Interior, SD, is copied in the "continued" section below, in case the link didn't work.)

On the Road: Desperation Dining (Interior, SD)
By David Hanson
My first Front Burner entry involves Twizzlers. And later Doritos plus Budweiser. It’s a long story that begins with a slow, pinkly smooth sunset over South Dakota’s Badlands. It ends with a quiet, blue-green sunrise over grasslands. I’ll stick to the food part.

With night falling and the asphalt between me and the nearest town/anything, Rapid City, South Dakota, stretching fast behind me, my lack of food didn’t concern me. I was aiming straight for the tiny town of Scenic. The New York Times has cited the Old Longhorn Saloon as having the best burger and coldest beer in the middle of nowhere. As the sky turned from dark purple to a matrix of stars so dense it looked silver, I pulled the last Twizzler from the dashboard and imagined bellying up to the bar beside tattooed Tony and his biker gang who call the saloon their local watering hole. But Scenic was dark as I approached, including the Old Longhorn Saloon. Closed on Mondays. It was Monday.

What does one do when the best/only saloon in the middle of nowhere is closed? Luckily, despite my increasingly frenzied state of mind, there aren’t many opportunities for a wrong turn in South Dakota. I tacked north for the next town, Interior.

B-A-R. Three red neon letters floated on a 50-feet pole in the night sky. If a child drew a bar like a child draws a house, it would look like this one: Plain, one-story, door in center, windows to side. Dark wood interior, pool table, long L-shaped bar, jukebox. A Lakota Sioux man sat on the L’s corner and a white man in all denim sat, slightly swaying, across from him. The bartender stood behind, hands resting on bar. At least, that’s how I remember it.

I threw a leg over a stool. They looked at me, smiled whiskey grins, and got back to their animated, old-time-friends conversation. I ordered a Budweiser and scanned for food options. The bartender, a very nice, sober man whose girlfriend was asleep in a corner booth, gave me the run-down: pizza, burger, burrito, all microwaved. I went with the Doritos dangling from the wall. Two bags. Two Buds. Dinner in Interior, SD.

I doubt B-A-R has a website and it has certainly never made a food blog. That makes sense. But it’s there when you need it.

For the rest of this story, including where I ended up sleeping, continue reading here. The only subsequent mentions of edibles are whiskey and powdered iced-tea, drank straight, 7 hours apart. But the views are amazing…

There are moments like that as a parent, where a look your almost-grown child gives you will remind you of them at a littler time, or an object will send you back (like those red Little Tykes cars with the yellow roof; our neighbor has one in her front yard, and for how many years were two of those a staple in our own yard?). As they get older, sometimes it's easy to forget they were ever in need of diapers... I'm glad these glimpses come back to remind me.

And I can hardly believe that my twins will be 17 next month, will be seniors this year, and could possibly be leaving for college in a year (they might be staying home for college... nothing has been decided yet). They will have their last first-day of school in a few weeks! Wah, I think I'm going to be a basket-case this year! During the toddler years, nothing seemed to go very fast at all, but looking back, it has all gone by in a blur.

I'm sure you'll hear more from me on this subject in the near future!

It took a few months but I relented, and when he ended up with a free ticket because he'd volunteered to be on several panel discussions, I decided "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em." I drove seperate so I could go off whenever I wanted and take a break. And durn it all if I didn't have a good time after all!

This convention is HUGE. There were at least 2800 people in attendance, and they have a very elaborate programming guide that they give you when you check in. At any time, there are dozens of activities going on for you to choose from, and this con was going on from Thursday through Sunday. There are panel discussions on numerous topics, from Pirate Talk, to How to Get Published in SF, to Subervting Tropes, and my favorite, The Pun-el (a panel which involved lots of audience participation in making lots of puns). There was a room set up as an anime lounge, with Japanese animation playing 24 hours a day, and a SF movie lounge filled with old couches showing other movies as well. There were party suites open at night with free food and themed activities, like a Xena-versity where my husband won a button doing Xena trivia, or the Tardis Tea Room, decorated to look like the Dr. Who Tardis (British telephone booth) and serving tea and biscuits. There was the House of Toast which served toast with dozens of topping choices, and a Space Lounge serving smoothies, lite by dark-lite and offering glow-wands.

There was a lot of entertainment offered too, a masquerade show (lots of people walked around in bizarre SF-related constumes all weekend), DJs playing dance music, comedy acts, an art display area where artists could show and possibly sell their work (DD showed some of hers). There was a dealer room selling SF-related wares. My mind is spinning just thinking of all there was to do there. Some of it didn't interest me or went right over my head, but there was certainly enough for me to do. And to have some down-time, too, like reading flopped on our hotel bed, or going off to finally see Sex and the City at the nearby mall. And the people watching was great!

And it was fun to be with my family and see them all so happy and excited to be there. I ended up not even missing doing the 4th-of-July things. We could have seen fireworks from the great view from our hotel window, but I was too busy listening to and groaning at a bunch of puns at the time. It was an amazing convention that took a lot of work to put together and run... it boggles my mind to think how they even manage something this big. But one thing is true-- those SF&F folks sure know how to have fun!

... to go strawberry picking! We try to do this every summer, drive out to a pick-your-own farm in Afton, to pick the sweetest, best-tasting strawberries that you will never find in a supermarket. This year it felt like a lot of work, since the berries were small and it took a lot of picking to fill our containers. But it was definitely worth the labor, and it gets us all out in the sunshine, on a farm (which is a big deal for this nerdy family who prefers to stay inside a lot of the time). We came home stained with berry juice, full of fruit (sampling as you pick is not discouraged), and now there are 30 lbs of berries in my fridge!

I'll get some help with the cleaning and picking-off-the-stems, and then most of them will be frozen on a cookie sheet in batches. They go into freezer bags and then you can take out as much as you want throughout the year, for smoothies or with some yogurt or for desserts.

The season is late this year, so there are still a few weeks to get out there and pick. I highly recommend it!

Especially grateful for these small things after visiting our neighbors (see previous blog), the ones whose 20 year old son was murdered early Wednesday morning. DH had ridden by their house yesterday on his bike, saw the dad sitting on his front steps and stopped to talk. DH said the house was swarming with kids, and maybe we should bring something over for them to eat and serve to all the guests. It felt like something small we could do to show support and help out, and cooking is right up my alley.

So, this morning I made huge batches of Chicken Pesto Pasta (something I throw together: pasta, homemade pesto from the freezer, green beans and chicken breasts diced up) and brownies, so we could bring a bunch over to their house and have some around here for dinner. I felt awkward and anxious about actually bringing the stuff over (my own insecurities) but it was all fine. They appreciated the food and we got to talk to people and just be there for them. There were a lot of kids there, friends of the young man, and they have been a presence for the family, wanting to help and to express their love for their friend.

So, all of this puts Life into perspective. How good it is and how short, and what is important after all. It's sad to have to learn these lessons through so much pain... especially for the family and close friends. And for us, we will do what we can...

And here is one of the newspaper articles about the situation, one which does a nice job of letting us know more about the young man I have watched run around the neighborhood ever since he was little:

****************************************
Joseph Sodd III, 20, apparently was going home on his moped when he was attacked near the U of M and Augsburg campuses.

By DAVID CHANEN, Star Tribune staff writer

Last update: June 19, 2008 - 9:45 AM

Joseph Sodd III lay bleeding and unconscious in a busy Minneapolis intersection early Wednesday. Just hours earlier, in front of his teen dance students, the college senior had previewed an original piece composed with rap music that "he hoped would make the audience remember me."

Presumably driving home on his moped from the University of Minnesota's West Bank area at about 2 a.m., Sodd may have been attacked during a robbery near 7th St. and 19th Avenue S.

A passerby saw him in the street and called police. Sodd had been stabbed once in the throat. The good Samaritan tried to render aid, but Sodd died later at a nearby hospital.

The 20-year-old had recently come home to Minneapolis after his junior year at the renowned Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle, where a school official said Sodd's passion for dance and living had made him a beacon of the department.

After watching the NBA championship game Tuesday with his dad, Sodd hooked up with friends on the University of Minnesota.

"I'm all about forgiveness at this point," his father, Joseph Sodd Jr., said Wednesday. "I can't be angry. Do you think my son would want that?"

At that moment, Ian Huddleston slowly walked up the sidewalk at the Sodds' house and fell into the arms of his best friend's father, sobbing uncontrollably. The boys had met at the Perpich Center for Arts Education, the state's arts high school in Golden Valley.

"First time I met him, he was dancing to the music of the Velvet Underground. I knew then I needed to be his friend," Huddleston said. "I feel cheated he won't even make it to his 21st birthday."

It's too early in the investigation to know if robbery definitely was the motive, said Lt. Amelia Huffman, head of the Minneapolis homicide unit. Sodd's moped was left behind at the intersection of 7th St. and 19th Avenue S. in the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood, she said. It's a high-traffic area, and police hope someone who saw or heard the attack will come forward.

Video: Friends remember Joseph Sodd III

Video: Police investigating latest murder

(You can see the plaque on this sight, click on the little picture to read it.)

I changed my name to Alberti because it’s easier than Jarosz and gets me to the top of lists with that A-name (I swear I’ve gotten opportunities by having an A-name!). And I like the name. And so even though Bob’s adopted so we’re not a bit Italian (and even though we named one of our sons Dante), we celebrated!

It reminds me when we were in this palace in Munich a few years ago, a long hall with tons of large, gold-framed portraits, and we started seeing the name Alberti all over. How odd… I guess it’s not that uncommon of a name in the world and has Spanish and German connections, as well as Italian.

And now your history lesson for the day is over. ;-)

On my plate is a smorgasboard of dried fruit: a sexy looking slice of peach that could have been painted by Georgia O'Keefe, pear, pineapple (the kind that is not covered in sugar), prunes, persimmon, cranberries, a date and some flattened banana that Trader Joe's makes and is very good. It's all very good! I have a piece or a bit of each, measuring it up to fit in a half-cup measure, which equals 2 servings of fruit on my eating plan.

I had never really eaten much dried fruit before... I'd buy it and forget it, or be tempted by junk food instead. But this winter, in my efforts toward eating healthier, I've been aiming for 4-5 fruits a day (as well as other healthy stuff like veggies). And winter is a tough time to be eating fruit, I found out. Yes, I like apples, oranges, grapefuits and such, but I'd get tired of them. Dried fruit was a treasure... there are tons of different kinds, each with it's own texture and flavor. I like the chewiness of it too.

Now summer is on its way, and I'll be glad for the coming of all the good summer fruits. Maybe I won't rely on dried fruit as much (it unfortunately, isn't cheap), but winter will come all too soon...

But first we'll enjoy summer!

I continue to pack the lunches myself, even though DH says the kids could pack their own. They are certainly old enough, but hey, I still like to be in control of what my kids are eating, making sure there is some kind of balance. I want them to have enough food to get through the day, and not too much of the "treats." And the lunches have morphed a lot over the years, as my knowledge of nutrition has grown. If I thought it would work, I would pack *more* highly nutritious items in their lunch than I do, but I don't think they would eat them. So the lunch is a compromise.

The drink this year is tap water in a reusable plastic water bottle. When the kids were little, I gave them money for milk (apparently now you can't just buy a milk on its own, you have to buy a whole lunch, or so I am told). When the kids didn't want to wait in the long line to buy milk, I switched to juice boxes, but these are pretty small and kind of pricey. Last year it was store-bought bottled water, and the kids didn't seem to mind just having water. I hated all the waste of those bottles though, so this year we switched again.

There's always a sandwich, or two in the case of my 7th grader, who started to want more. I think this is a big growth year for him, and he doesn't get to eat lunch until 1:30. The bread has to have a whole grain as the first ingredient item (I've gotten very picky about bread, since we eat so much of it), preferably 100% whole wheat. And now I'm looking for bread made with sweetener other than high fructose corn syrup. Not easy to do! I try to avoid that substance whenever possible, since it's so unhealthy in many ways. And now that the kinds of bread I usually buy tend to be over $3.00 a loaf, I'm contemplating making my own bread. We go through a lot of bread in a week! So we'll see about that.

Sandwich filling is either deli lunch meat (I try to get it on sale), free venison salami from my dad's hunting expedition, or PB&J. Sometimes PB& Banana. These are the basic sandwiches that all the kids will eat, and they don't mind repitition.

Always fruit, though I'm finding they don't always eat it (I saw 3 apples on my daughter's bed last week, sigh!). Sometimes clementines, sometimes bananas, though the high schoolers have such heavy backpacks that the softer fruits will get squished. So apples are best.

In year's past, the treat was usually 1 item, a baggie with some cookies, a Little Debbie cake, a granola-type bar. The trick is that I'm still trying to avoid HFCS and also trans fats, and a lot of processed food has one or both of these items. And the kids appetites have gone up, too. So now they get a sweet treat (some cookies in a bag) and something crunchy (chips or snack foods that fit my criteria). One good thing about allowing them to have these things in moderation in their lunch every day is that it seems to lessen their desire to "pig out" on these foods when they are available at an event or party. They used to eat them like deprived souls. Now it's not such a big deal.

And that's the contents of the lunch. I use little zip-lock-type bags for the items, and I wish we could get away from using them, but I know that the plastic containers we'd have to use would be a big inconvenience for me and the kids. Kids with heavy, stuffed backpacks don't want to haul home lunch containers, and I really don't want to wash them every day, so there. I try to be as Green as I can, but sometimes you just get by with what you can do.

It's funny, my kids just don't have the kinds of lunch experiences I had when I was a kid. DH and I can reminisce about the plastic lunch trays, the lunch ladies who slung heaps of food on your tray, the school-made pizza, the beef stuff that looked like barf on mashed potatoes scoopeed with an ice cream scoop. It seems like nobody makes real food anymore for kids in schools-- maybe some private schools do. Now it's all lunches sealed and heated in plastic, little cardboard trays. I wonder if it will ever change!

Now go eat yer lunch...

Today I've been thinking about the changes that have happened for me physically in the last 6 months. Last fall, I got a fortuitious mailing from Fairview Clinics, where I go for medical stuff. They were offering a weight-loss program, free to the first 200 applicants who qualified, which would involve a session with a nutritionist to get you on an eating plan, and then sessions with a health coach every 2 weeks for 6 months to help you fine tune and problem solve as you working on eating healthy and getting some exercise. You had to have a certain percentage of body fat (which I did) and fill out some forms. So, even though I wasn't sure just what they would be recommending, it was free, so I signed up. Having one-on-one attention was a plus, since I've tried doing stuff on my own for so long and always fumbled.

The eating plan turned out to be very sensible, do-able and really focused on healthy eating-- basically counting servings of food categories a day, so many proteins, so many vegetables, and encouraging whole grains and discouraging fake diet foods like frozen diet meals or artificial sweeteners. That really fit with my own philosophy. So I made changes and have found that I feel 100% better than I used to. I have tons of energy, my mood is very stable, and I seem to have helped my brain chemistry too, because I haven't been depressed like I used to be. I appreciate food a lot more now, too. I can work treats into my plan, and when I have them, I really take the time to enjoy them.

Today at church, I was going with the 7th graders on their visit to the Zen Center, which is about a 10-block walk from our church. I was thinking as I walked with them what a difference there is in my body and what it can do. A year ago, I was having such knee pain and back pain, I had no stamina and just walking 2 blocks would be hard for me. I would feel exhausted. But I've been exercising regularly, and very slowly working up the amounts and exhertion so that my knees could get stronger. Now, I could agree to go on this walk, no problem, no fear that I wouldn't be able to keep up, that I would be in pain the whole time, that I would be winded. I have some confidence in my body again, that I can do things, that I can keep up! Let me tell you, when you are very fat and out of shape, you lose that confidence and it is so very humiliating and scary. I have a new appreciation for my body!

I still have a long way to go. Since November, I've lost 28 lbs so far, and since my very highest weight a few years ago, I've lost 42 lbs. I'm confident that I can stick with this plan for good. I feel so much better eating this way. Now I'm just waiting for summer to come and the new rounds of fresh veggies and fruits that I can get at the farmer's markets. I could use the variety!

The other thing is that my older teens are staying home from high school today, and they probably should have stayed home yesterday as well. This is because absolutely NO LEARNING is going on because the South High girls' basketball team has gone to the state tournaments, and so yesterday and today (because they won yesterday's game) students are allowed to be absent and go watch the tournaments during the day. My kids said that no one was there yesterday, a handful of kids, so they either got to watch movies or go to the library. What's the point of being in school then? They are getting caught up with homework at home, and my son is even so bored he has a) emptied and filled the dishwasher on his own, b) run a load of his own laundry, and c) I caught him actually hanging up and putting away the clean laundry he has had sitting in a basket in his room for awhile!

I just have to say it though-- how come a basketball game is so important that all the kids in a school miss two whole days of learning? It is people running after a ball, for chrissakes! (Can you tell I'm not into sports?) I just think that the priorities are a bit screwed up. I'm just sayin'.

I'll quit complaining now.

We are in a sticky spot because DH is self-employed, as am I, and so we do not have the benefit of a company to take some of the brunt and cover us under some group policy. We get to do it all on our own. So right now we pay almost $1000 a month for our family of 5. I have a more expensive policy by myself and a lower deductible ($500) because I have more health issues and need the coverage, at leas for now. DH and the kids are on a less costly (but still expensive) policy all together, and their deductible is $2000 each per year, and so we basically have to pay for any doctor visits and treatments out of pocket.

So we are paying the nearly $1000 a month and we've had hundreds of dollars in medical expenses to cover on our own as well. I just opened the bill for my pap smear. That's almost $300. Should I have skipped it this year? But then I can't get my birth control prescription refilled.

DH has pills now for high blood pressure and high cholesterol, which he tried for a long time to control through diet and exercise. It didn't work. So now he has prescriptions that cost $150 a month that we have to pay out of pocket.

DH makes a decent salary but we are finding it hard to get on top of all these bills, and cover his tuition expenses for taking college classes to finish his degree. And then there's the twins on the verge of going to college, and what if they actually want to get their driver's license (they have permits right now but aren't interested in driving)? That would be another $250 a month for the two of them, if they keep their grades up.

So hey, let's get a Democrat in office who will actually change the way the health insurance in our country works, one that supports the PEOPLE in our country and places a priority on HEALTH through preventative care. Other countries do it. It's well past the time that we should have done it too.