The lights are out

Power went out and we were hungry.  Found an old food warmer and viola! Ramen. #mushroomofcourse. Love. 

When people tell you education isn't important...

*  68% of State prison inmates did not
receive a high school diploma.

http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/ascii/ecp.txt

Raising the minimum wage - from the DOL

Myth: Increasing the minimum wage will cause people to lose their jobs.

Not true: In a letter to President Obama and congressional leaders urging a minimum wage increase, more than 600 economists, including 7 Nobel Prize winners wrote, "In recent years there have been important developments in the academic literature on the effect of increases in the minimum wage on employment, with the weight of evidence now showing that increases in the minimum wage have had little or no negative effect on the employment of minimum-wage workers, even during times of weakness in the labor market. Research suggests that a minimum-wage increase could have a small stimulative effect on the economy as low-wage workers spend their additional earnings, raising demand and job growth, and providing some help on the jobs front."

http://www.dol.gov/minwage/mythbuster.htm

Seasonal Creep

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/plants-earlier-bloom-times-hurting-some-creatures/2011/04/08/AF42He4C_story.html

Renewable Energy Production By State | Department of Energy

http://energy.gov/maps/renewable-energy-production-state

Study of Active Shooter Incidents in the United States between 2000 and 2013

https://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2014/september/fbi-releases-study-on-active-shooter-incidents/pdfs/a-study-of-active-shooter-incidents-in-the-u.s.-between-2000-and-2013

It's like they were thinking of me the day they created emojis

100 days of vegetarian

Last nights dinner forgot about this. Spinach and mushroom pizza from Giordanos, the hubs picked it up on his way home God bless him. Pasta salad - I used Just Mayo, tomatoes from the yard and some veggie mix we buy in packets at the farmers market. Zucchini fritters and just some boiled veggies with a little olive oil and some pepper. We actually got lucky on the veggies because my mother in law had a party and had a whole mess of these veggies leftover. She sent them for the chickens, but we never met a veggie we didn't like so the chickens can eat our scraps. 😁

It's easy to be a vegetarian with all these eggs!!

I actually washed eggs today. 😬

oh and one thing I've been doing a terrible job of is posting snacks. I don't eat two full meals everyday and I rarely eat three unless I'm on vacation then I eat seven meals a day. On days when I just eat dinner though, I graze throughout the day. Things that I like to graze on are coffee (a staple in most of our lives I think) it might just be considered a drink but in my mind its a meal because it can pull me through on its own when I'm hungry. I eat cereal, mixed nuts I'll eat any seed this planet hast to offer, fruit, crackers, pesto and cheese. I also eat sweets like a fiend. Nothing is better to me then a coffee and a pastry of almost any freaking kind.  

Food yum yum time

If this blog has taught me anything it's that I'm pretty much the worst at blogging everyday. One thing I am good at doing everyday though is eating.

 Below are some meals / snacks we've had in the last few days. I also had a veggie omelette, hash browns and toast (not pictured) and a slice of cheese pizza (not pictured.) 

Normally, we buy Ben and Jerrys...but this was on a sale at Jewel even I couldn't turn down and it was pretty great. The containers are good for reusing too. Bonus!

Not the prettiest but when you're hungry who cares! 😁 Tomato pesto pizza from a box, breaded mushroom caps and ranch the mf'in staple in this house lol

Saffron rice with veggies, zucchini fritters (we still have some zucchinis coming in, best plant evvvvveeerrrrr) and breaded mushroom caps again cause we use it till its gone (I'm sure you'll notice) 

100 days of vegetarian

I know it doesn't look beautiful, but it's delicious! Yesterday I missed dinner but guess what ... Here it is again! We had giordanos deep dish last night (spinach and cheese) and today I just earned it up with the veggies and soup from the day before. We love leftovers in this house. What I don't eat, my husband eats. What he doesn't finish the dogs get and if even they are to picky the chickens are much abliged! Ps if you didn't already notice I slobber in every meal! Lolll

100 days Vegetarian

Lunch. We drink Oberweis, almond and soy in that order. This is Oberweis. We love the glass bottle it comes in and the exchange program. 

Snackies

I've been binge eating this. Has anyone ever had? It's so good and full of cheesy deliciousness I can't even. One of the drivers brings it down for me from Wisconsin- God bless him. (Please excuse that chessy fingerprint next to that fine gentlemens cheese hat.)

Late night snack / 100 days of vegetarian

We had these last night and I don't feel that bad and by not that bad I mean terrible. They were delicious but seriously.

Food for thought

When I met my husband I was surprised at just how many racist comments he made about minorities, because he was an otherwise very kind and thoughtful person. Being Hispanic I found this very unsettling. Growing up my parents never really made any racist remarks. If anything they stressed the importance of not judging a group by an individual, because people in their lives had experienced racism first hand. The area I grew up in was also not divided by race but more so by income. The minorities in our area were just as well of if not more so than the majority so there wasn't really any room for judgement. Over time my husband then boyfriend and I talked about how these remarks were offensive and just not really accurate. He has made leaps and bounds in these five years. One of those being that he realized that these types of comments were just learned behavior. He had heard these views growing up and do he incorporated them into his world view. Additionally, a member of his family had a negative experience with one person from a particular group which had only added to the miconseptions he already had. He is working hard to break himself of these preconceived notions so as not to negatively influence our future children. Either way all that being said I found this article very interesting. I think a good amount of racism is learned and a large reason that it is taught is to explain to the majority group why they themselves are failing. Please read and share thought...

http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/1237796

100 days of vegetarian

Day 2 dinner

The hubs is fighting a flu so wanted soup for dinner. Mushroom, tomatoe and onion and pesto soup. Mozz tomatoe and basil salad. Veggies with sauce and homemade bread.

100 days of vegetarian

So we missed posting dinner last night but lucky for us we're eating it again right now!! We got chinese. Chinese is the easiest freaking way to eat vegetables, because anyway you eat them they tast delicious! And in my experience it is a lot cheaper too! ❤️

100 Days of Vegetarian

I've been wanting to do this for a while but I just haven't gotten around to it.ever since we started eating vegetarian a lot of people ask us if we just eat salad and bread. My waistline in my opinion is the resounding yes haha but I thought it would be cool to post 100 days of our meals too. I should say as a preface that we still eat eggs and dairy, just no meat. Day 1

Lunch time Mac and cheese - we like Annie's and it was on sale at jewel with tomato, basil and fresh mozzarella salad. Peaches for our fruit. The tomatoes and basil are from our garden. The Michigan peach is from the farmers market and the cheese is from the awesome peeps at Stamper Cheese. ❤️ 

US & UK The Least Concerned About Climate Change

<a href="http://www.statista.com/chart/3547/us-and-uk-least-concerned-about-climate-change/" title="Infographic: US & UK The Least Concerned About Climate Change  | Statista"><img src="https://d28wbuch0jlv7v.cloudfront.net/images/infografik/normal/chartoftheday_3547_us_and_uk_least_concerned_about_climate_change_n.jpg" alt="Infographic: US & UK The Least Concerned About Climate Change  | Statista" style="width: 100%; height: auto !important; max-width:960px;-ms-interpolation-mode: bicubic;"/></a><br />
                    You will find more statistics at <a href="http://www.statista.com/">Statista</a>

Obvious

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2275258/Phillip-Marshall-Former-airline-pilot-conspiracy-theorist-shot-dead-teenage-children-dog-turning-gun-himself.html

Subsidizing the Corporate 1 percent

http://www.goodjobsfirst.org/sites/default/files/docs/pdf/subsidizingthecorporateonepercent.pdf

Make love not war...

https://news.vice.com/article/some-10000-icelanders-are-offering-to-relocate-and-house-syrian-refugees?utm_source=vicenewsfb 

😩

I wonder what it feels like to love your job... That is all.

Yummy delicious-ness

So we are going to try and grow fruits and veggies over the winter this year. Getting started today with some yummy Roma's. I reused containers we've been collecting and used some old gift and reward cards I needed to recycle for name tags. Fingers crossed! Side note, in my humble opinion you just get so many ch for your money from tomatoes! ❤️

What does planned parenthood actually use their money for?

There is a huge spiritual debate related to the funding of planned parenthood and their government funding being used for abortions, but the fact is by law they cannot use government funding for abortions. Please read this article for more information: http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2015/08/04/how-planned-parenthood-actually-uses-its-federal-funding/

Holy moly! That's a lot of trees

American paper usage, ouch!!

Shoshana Berger and grace Hawthorne, readymade

Winter Flowering Plants!

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/370843350544420980/ 

I think this can apply to any of us at some point

American Middle Class / good article

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2014/04/23/upshot/the-american-middle-class-is-no-longer-the-worlds-richest.html?_r=1&referrer=

Bees in the Midwest

The European honey bee (Apis mellifera) is a flying workhorse. Managed hives of honey bees are carted around the country to pollinate berries, vegetables, fruit trees, flowers and agricultural row crops worth roughly $20 billion annually in North America, according to The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation. This prodigious import was named the state insect in Wisconsin in 1977, even though it's a non-native species.

http://dnr.wi.gov/wnrmag/2009/06/bees.htm

Bees!!

Even Lowes knows...

http://www.lowes.com/creative-ideas/gardening-and-outdoor/upper-midwest-gardening-attract-honeybees-to-your-garden/article

Help pollinate the Midwest!!

http://www.xerces.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/MidwestPlantList_web.pdf

Trash

So I've been driving by a plastic bag stuck on a corn stalk for the last few days. Finally got over my laziness and decided to grab the thing. As soon as I get out of my car I notice garbage everywhere! I loaded that bag and most of these things are one time use drink containers. #imguiltytoo #keepcomingbackitworksifyouworkit

Green update

We got a new water heater it is electric, so it doesn't use gas all the time. It uses electricity to instantly heat our water so we don't have to run and waste water. Plus it's tiny!! It takes up like no space!! 

New Years Resolution

In an effort to be more green and concious, my New Years resolution was to give up meat. Something very unnatural is happening to agriculture In the United States. We are just eating such a huge amount of meat today, that agriculture has had to take some very extreme routes to keep up. Some of these unhealthy extremes  are steroids, GMO's and unsanitary living and production conditions. Outside of the moral aspect to the animals and the people who eat them, the environmental impact has been pretty catastrophic. I read the other day that the average American today eats 3-7 times more meat then their grandparents. Last year we ate over 8 billion animals. We give more resources to the livestock we raise to eat, than directly to ourselves. It's crazy. So far I have eaten meat only four times this year. Which although I wish it was none at all, I am not going to lie going from eating meat three times a day to not at all has proven difficult. For one, meat is everywhere. My husband and I went to Cracker Barrel and I literally could only get Mac and cheese! One thing is for sure, we Americans love our meat. But animals not only use a lot of resources they directly effect their environment just like we do. Anyway, if you want more on that some interesting documentaries you can watch on Netflix include: Farmageddon, Food, Inc., Forks over Knives and Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead (which by the way is not as depressing as it sounds).

This post though is about something else. In my effort to learn more about how our meat consumption effects the environment, I actually have found out a lot of interesting things about the animals we eat. As a prior meat eater and a one time consumption addict, I found it easy to justify us eating these animals because we "needed" them to live. We don't and they like us are not only important parts of the environment around them but many of them buld strong family networks and have lifespans just as long as ours if not longer. One example I am pretty much obsessed with right now is the lobster.

Anyone who had eaten lobster knows just how delicious these little sea creatures are. Well, did you know that lobsters can live up to 70 years??!!! Or they would if we would stop eating them so much. Today, 90% of lobsters will end up on someone's plate. 90%!!! Imagine if ther was something that killed 90 % of humans??! That would be horrible!! These little guys are getting eaten like it's going out of style. Here are some facts pages about them and fishing them here in the US.

http://www.factmonster.com/ipka/A0854908.html 

http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/invertebrates/lobster/

http://www.nytimes.com/1996/04/23/us/record-catch-of-lobsters-raises-fears-of-overfishing.html

Eff you electricity

Has anyone ever seen this? It's a clay fridge, it keeps things cool without the use of electricity! The site says even milk.

http://www.mitticool.in/Mitti-Cool-Refrigerator.php 

Love is...

Handy tips

The more you know, the more you grow.

The more you know, the more you grow.

Things still made in my home state...

Just because.

OMGosh

I haven't blogged in a really long time. That's because of three things. One I've been busy - I've finally settled into my new job and we're finally married and can get back to our normal lives. Yay! :)

Two: blogging is kind of weird. It's like a journal and Facebook and forums and all this crap had a baby and it's all about you.

Which leads me to three: does anyone even care??? ...Wow, I think this stuff is interesting... Good for me?!! Why does that interest anyone else??

But that led me back to why I started this blog, which is that things are important to me that may also be important to other people. And as a human, when I find people that I relate to I feel connected and motivated and inspired to do more - and that feels good!!! =D

 

And on that note, I have this article which I found really cool on The relationship between Christianity and The Environment in the US. The Earth IS A MIRACLE. It is literally one in a billion and supports a countless number of inhabitants and ecosystems. And this lady feels the same way. 

http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/5088537