Differences

There is something that just jumped out at me as I've been reading blogs over the past week or so. There seem to be huge differences in the blogs of people who support McCain and in those who support Obama. Now this isn't a scientific study but I read a number of blogs that fall into the camp of one or the other based on the banners I see. In fact I think I read more blogs of overt Obama supporters than I do for McCain supporters. The difference is that McCain supporters seem to be more vitriolic in their writing. Political posts seem to be more prevalent and they want to point fingers more. They seem to think that life as we know it is going to cease to exist if Obama gets elected. Obama supports don't seem to see it quite the same way. They may occasionally post a link to an article or make a statement or two, but they post about a multitude of other things. They don't seem to be pointing fingers as much and they certainly don't feel that life is going to change much if McCain gets into office. They just seem less in your face. I find it interesting that the current talk about the economy has less finger pointing for Obama supporters and focuses more on changes that should be made to fix the economy. As anyone who has read my posts here knows I don't support either of these candidates so I'm not leaning toward either camp, I'm more a third party voter. Just something I found interesting...

No good reason

I'm going through one of those spells where I'm unhappy with almost everything for no good reason. Many times I get a pile of fun books with little substance and just immerse myself in those for a few weeks and the feeling passes. Unfortunately I can't seem to find enough books to keep me immersed this time as the interlibrary loans are really slow in being processed, budget cutbacks are the reason.

We finally started school last week and I'm ready to just give it up. It was a long and difficult week which added to my feelings of unhappiness. I just hope this week goes more smoothly.

The one really great thing right now is that our garden is producing lots of tomatoes. Last year the tomato plants died before we got anything off of them. This year we can barely keep up with eating them before they go bad. Since they are ripening at the pace of 1-2 a day there aren't enough read at one time to can them.

Since I don't want this to solely be a whiny post...

I've been reading a number of "green" blogs lately. I really want to do more in our home that is environmentally friendly. We conserve water and electricity, I recycle as much of our garbage as possible even though it's not convenient, and Paul does most of our errands after work to cut back on trips to town. But I'm running into a problem, how can we be more environmentally friendly without going over our food budget? We buy most of our food from Sam's Club but the over packaging is just horrible. Many times the items in a case are individually wrapped. I'd love to buy more of our staples from bulk bins at the store we purchase other things from but it would be much more expensive. We try to buy local produce that is in season but sometimes it's a lot cheaper to buy what's on sale. It's tough to balance my desire to cut our waste and still put good food on the table. As we change more and more of our habits I find that the changes are becoming smaller and more difficult but I never fail to find more things to work on.

September Gymkhana

I hadn't realized how much I missed having gymkhana shows over the summer. It was a good first show of the season. We had almost 40 riders so it was a long day but the weather was nice.

Malachi and Amigo did great, completed every event and even earned a few ribbons.





Lorna and Ginger did well even though they had a few minor stumbles. They improved a number of their times which bumped them up into the next division in most cases.

Planning

I finally got the school planning done, it took 4 days because we had some unexpected stuff come up. I tried to avoid planning much on Fridays so it's still our free day to finish things up and do some fun projects. The planning sheet looks like there are a lot of subjects but when I tallied up the number of hours we will actually be doing school each day, it is still only 2-3 hours. I'm planning on starting school next week which is really late for us, but life just got in the way.

I have good news for those who are missing all the horse photos, there will be more after tomorrow. The first gymkhana of the season is tomorrow. We are all really excited and Malachi is very nervous since it will be his first time riding. Lorna has some times to beat and a title to uphold. She was #10 overall in our club last season, she won High Points Champion in her division, and she won awards for the best times in 7 events in her division. She walked away with a plaque, a new breast collar, and lots of gift certificates. Her goal for this season is to beat her own best times and, of course, her little brother :)

Vacation

Two weeks ago the kids and I left for Washington to visit my mom, stepfather, and grandmother. We had never been up there so even though we had seen pictures we weren't prepared for how beautiful it really was.



I just loved the trees and all the green everywhere. It is such a contrast to our area with it's sand and scrub. We spent a week and, except for missing Paul who had to stay home to work, I didn't want to come home. The weather was spectacular with temps in the 70s and 80s, Paul was stuck with triple digit temps while we were gone.



We took a train trip, visited a wildlife sanctuary, saw a grist mill that is powered by water, and drove up to Johnston Ridge to view Mount St Helens (which was awe inspiring). Of course we also spent lots of time visiting and just enjoying being with family.





When we were at the house visiting Lorna amused herself with painting and Malachi just had to run. He drove the tractor, ran around, welded a bit, and ran some more :)





The week flew by for us but Paul was very happy to have us back. This was the first time in the 14 years we've been married that the kids and I have left without him for more than a night or 2, it was hard and not something we are going to repeat.

Weird Advice

I had an interesting doctor's appointment this morning. I generally stay away from doctors unless I'm really sick but once a year I have to have blood work done in order to get a prescription for the medication I'm taking.

The doctor was a bit sneaky the last time I saw her and did a few extra tests. She was very unhappy with my results, to say the least. Her answer, I need to eat more meat and less rice and pasta. When was the last time you heard of a doctor telling you that you aren't eating enough meat, specifically red meat? To my surprise she also insisted I start eating 3-4 eggs a day.

She said to cut out all cereal, chips, candy, etc. Which is hilarious since I don't eat those things on a regular basis. She didn't expect or really appreciate my honesty that my diet won't be changing.

Over the last few years I have cut almost all processed foods out of our diet with the exception of rice and pasta. I have increased the amount of fruits and veggies that we eat and I have cut my portions in half. At the same time I have decreased the amount of meats we eat to about 2 ounces in the evenings. I don't drink coffee, tea, or alcohol and only have one caffeine-free soda a day. Those are changes that I'm really happy with. Our grocery bills fall within our budget pretty easily these days so I'm not enthusiastic about making changes that will impact that.

So when asked what types of things I should substitute for rice and pasta, the doctor responded with zucchini and cauliflower. That's not exactly realistic in my mind and I told her so. I guess she doesn't get a lot of honest people that walk through her door since she didn't seem to know what to do with me :)

Election

I was tired of hearing about the election last year, so the increase in the frequency of it is being mentioned now is even more frustrating. I'm tired of hearing about the fact that you have to vote for one of the two major candidates or you are wasting your vote; and I'm tired of people who are supporting a candidate not because of their platform but because they dislike the other guy.

I will be voting for a third party candidate. I think the only wasted vote is one that isn't cast. I going to vote for the presidential candidate that has a platform closest to my beliefs on what I'd like to see happen in this country. So I'm going to vote for someone, not based on their likelihood of being elected, but on what they want to accomplish while they are in office. Then I'm going to sit back and relax because ultimately God is in control and will use whoever is in office for His plans. If God can use Pharaoh, He can use anyone.