Friday, March 9, 2012

Pink slime, school lunch and the Lunch Lady.

You have read in previous posts that my daughter is unable to eat school lunches.  You know, when she started school, I thought school lunch was what I had.  The lunch was served on plates on trays with ladies and nets on their heads scooping and serving. 

That's not how it is now and I had absolutely no idea until I actually saw it.  I have probably mentioned before that K-'s school lunches are served in little waxed squares with cellophane wrap and dished out on a little styrofoam tray as a carrier.

Can we all say, "Yum?"

I had a beef with the lunches when we finally figured out about a month into kindergarten that they were making her ill, school was sending her home and it was just triggering her reflux.  No problem.  I promised to never allow her to get school lunch again.

K- has recently had a hankerin' to participate in the lunch retrieval with her friends.  I came to a decision, let her in on it and it works for everyone. 

Last year, when the Lunch Lady was talking to me while I was updating 100 Book Challenge, we got to talking about K-'s school lunch intolerance.  Remembering that, I went to talk to Mrs. S- today to iron out some permission.  What we have is this-- K- may eat the fresh items that are available.  They occasionally have salads, short cut carrots and dip, apple slices, a banana and broccoli (at least those are on for this month) and Mrs. S- said that K- can come through her line and she'll let her roll with fresh stuff only.  Mandate for free lunch (there is no charge to any student in the elementary) is that they must take three things.  White milk is considered as one and it is skim.  Hooray!  If they don't have suitable "fresh" items, K- can get what she needs and place the illegal item "in the middle" so the other kids can take it if wanted.  K-'s been getting salad and broccoli from the middle anyhow, so it is the pit of extra pickin's.  K- did eat the chili a few weeks ago, which gave me an absolute heart attack.  "But mom, it didn't even give me a stomach ache or anything!"  Mrs. S- and I were discussing that today and she said, "It's because it was vegetarian!"  Well, there you go.  She said it was delicious.  It made me feel better knowing it didn't involve pink slime.  She's still not going to be cleared to eat school lunch "cooked" items.  It's not Mrs. S-'s fault.  She doesn't cook it.  She only warms it as she is supposed to do.


Rachael sent me an e-mail with a link to the pink slime report just released.  I watched the video and told her that she had missed the episode of the Food Revolution with Jamie Oliver where they showed how to make pink slime from miscellaneous beef trimmings, ammonia and a front loading washer.  The idea that unusable bits of animal are gassed with ammonia, ground up and considered meat because it is pink is just beyond gross.  What is more disturbing is that groceries (not all) are including this "lean textured meat" as a part of their meat is really nasty.  I mean, is the fattening of America and the nasticious diseases that we have in adults and children bad enough, or shall we go ahead and fill them up with chemically treated ground up bits?  Mmmmm.  Sign me up! 

My sister buys a bulk (but not all, though today I think that it will be ALL) of her meat at a local meat farm.  She said that there is a sign on their door that says, "Friends don't let friends buy grocery store meat."  I told her that I buy only Amish chickens because they aren't beefed up with antibiotics and crap.  I told her the brand that I buy and when she was an apprentice butcher, she said that was all she would buy.  She said that there was considerable difference between the Amish chicken and the more corporately grown chickens.  I know where the farms are.  I've been past the farms.  They have nothing to hide, proudly hang the sign outside of their farms labeling that they are a grower of that brand of chicken and everyone looks happy. 

I was vegetarian for years and pink slime makes me reconsider returning to that.  Truly, it isn't out of the realm of dinner offerings for me to have made meatless meals several times a week.  Even though we don't eat red meat, me thinks that veggies will continue showing up even more and more and meat less and less. 

What's your take?  Don't worry, anything you say can't offend. 

Thursday, March 8, 2012

They actually had to post a sign.

I was at school and saw two signs on the doors.  Our doors are locked down (as I believe everyone's are at this point) and one sign was giving directions on how to get buzzed in.  Many people are just shy of tossing themselves against the door.  I guess that the smaller sign wasn't quite bold enough. 

The second sign is what made me laugh.  It says something to the effect of, "When picking up your child/ren, please discontinue any cell phone use until after.  Please wear proper attire when coming into the school." In parentheses it states something about proper attire to go out into public and to conduct business and something to the effect of pajamas not being that. 

They also had to state the need for photo ID needed when retrieving a child. 

I was talking with the secretary and said, "You know, I'm sure that it was something really good that prompted the signs on the door.  I'm not digging for dirt because it isn't my business, but I can only figure that you guys would be able to write volumes."

"You have no idea.  The PTA should really consider buying me a camera."

'Nuff said.

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Celebrating with people we love.

So excited to celebrate with Janeen at Our Story (our sweet cousin) and Heather (a blogless friend-- can you imagine?!) that they are both expecting babies!  Janeen is due very near my birthday, so I've asked that she consider holding on.  (Yeah, like that's gonna happen, but she's been known to hold babies after due date.)  Baby will be joining two very excited brothers.  Heather is expecting their 4th and is scrambling to work out a house plan that will fit another human into their living space.  She's expecting sometime in October. 

As a mama who the traditional route of mommyhood didn't come by so easily for, both of these ladies know the story and know that I hold my breath until they get past the 22 1/2 week time frame.  I tell y'all, I respect women with interiors that bake and hold babies for the allotted time frame.  (Not that I don't respect other women for other things, but y'all know where I'm going with this.) 

In other baby news ('cause we get surrounded by those baby bits, don't we?), Hubs' cousin and his wife are expecting the arrival of baby Cooper this Saturday.  Mama is an ER resident at a local hospital and updated Facebook (it was sent to me since you read about my Facebooklessness yesterday) that she had delivered 12 babies in 5 days and most of those women weren't as far along as she was.  Cooper will be joining his sisters, A- and E-.  So happy for them and hoping that L- can take a spot of time off to be rested mama for a few.  I tell you, they juggle everything and it is amazing.  I have no idea how L- and B- do it all. 

Babies, babies everywhere!

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Tales from the Trenches: Friendships gone Facebook.

Hubs and I don't do Facebook.  No offense to all who do, but we're anti-Facebook. 

Y'all, we're in a minority.

There have been several occasions in the recent years that I've found out about different happenings with family and friends long after, because I was told, "Oh, I posted that on Facebook."  They forget that I'm not one of a number of friends that they have on Facebook, so thus I'm left in the dust.  I don't mean to make it all about me, but I miss the days that the telephone would ring and tell me the latest news with that member of my family or a friend. 

Don't get me wrong.  I understand Facebook being convenient and people getting together with people that they haven't seen in moons because of Facebook.  I've also see the other side where a friend actually lost her job because of Facebook. 

I've missed baby pictures.

I've missed job updates.

I've missed family updates.

I've missed requests for prayer.

I've missed praises.

I've missed frustration regarding class situations with one of K-'s friends.

I've recently missed information regarding a friend's mission trip abroad. 

I've missed a lot of things. 

How do you feel about Facebook?  Do you miss things?

Monday, March 5, 2012

My Coke Rewards for Schools: Point matching March 6-7.

Just to let you know that if you bank Coca Cola reward points for your school, they will be matching points on Tuesday, March 6 and Wednesday, March 7.  What I do is to bank points during the year to specifically wait for their point matching days.  People at work save caps for me and I help my friend Kay by inputting cap codes when they are dropped in the donation bin.  Right now, my points are maxed for this week, but I'll start putting codes in again tomorrow. 

Get more points for your school!  Go forth and donate!  (But wait until Tuesday or Wednesday!)