I'm not quite sure where this post came from either...

Dear Blog,

I grew up the daughter of an ex-pediatric nurse and health visitor.  I grew up in a house where meals weren't frozen or ordered out, and where vegetables weren't a point of contention (I've been a very big broccoli fan for a very long time!).  My Mum tells stories about my siblings and I when we were young - about how I always had a banana for lunch when I was an infant, and once when at Grandma's a relative had eaten the last banana - so Grandma sent him out to get more for me for lunch (even though Mum assured her that I would easily eat something else for lunch).  I've been a big banana fan for probably as long as I've been a broccoli fan.

I grew up in a house where fruit was an acceptable dessert and where, even though we could afford to buy lunch at school, there was no reason to; Mum packed my lunch from day one, and buying a school lunch was a treat.  I grew up in a house where you don't cut up your food and then eat it, as I've observed so often; you know how to use both a fork and a knife at the same time, and so cut up your food as you're eating it.  Eating with our fingers wasn't acceptable - mainly because Mum cooked us food from scratch - and no finger foods (we still get yelled at for sticking our hands into the salad bowl!)

I got bored this afternoon, and started watching Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution - basically an American version of what he did in the UK, particularly focusing on school lunches.  It was gross to see some of the food served in that elementary school cafeteria, but I was most shocked to watch the scene where a classroom full of kids couldn't properly identify a tomato.  One adventurous kid guessed "potato."

I know that the show will have been edited to be dramaticized and such, but there are elements that are too true to what I've noticed as just too far different from how I grew up.  The culture of eating out, of kids not being taught to use a knife and fork...  The idea that anyone could expect to be healthy without eating a regular diet of fruit and vegetables, aside from their meat and starches, is just plain wrong.

I was interested in a scene in Food Inc, which showed a family which regularly bought dinner at McDonald's entering a supermarket and saying that vegetables were too expensive, that McDonald's was cheaper... just averaging at $5 for a meal for a family of 5 at said chain, would cost $25.  If a head of broccoli is $1.50 (that will feed 5 for a meal) and a package of chicken cost $5, and say, rice - about $.99 for a non-instant package (again, that will feed 5 for a meal) or pasta (comparable price) and say, a bag of sweet corn  for a $1.50 - that's less than $10 for a meal for 5 (assuming you drink water, as I know many families do), and only costs you time to make it - which depends on the cut of chicken and how you cook it, and whether or not you use a crock pot.  So I couldn't understand how McDonald's was cheaper - unless you only ordered dollar-menu hamburgers (and that's not a nutritious dinner at all).

This rambling post brings me to my point; is there any wonder that the Western World has an obesity epidemic?  And I get that a lot of people would say that people like Jamie Oliver or the government shouldn't intervene, that people should be free to make their own choices.  But what about these same people being bombarded by advertisements for "delicious" KFC, or being told that eating fresh and healthy is too expensive, or being brought up assuming school - school, the representative of everyone smarter than you in the world (at least, when you're five) - says it's okay to eat junk food...  Do the people with the power and the knowledge not then have a responsibility to step in, and try to counteract all of the negative influences - particularly in impressionable childrens' lives - before things get any worse?

I could say more but I may become incoherent in my frustration at the people of the world who make such silly decisions, and the business people of the world who enforce those decisions for monetary gain...

- Judith

Thoughts on my relative infancy

Dear Blog,

Mum and I went down to help Bekah move into her house today.  Only one of her housemates seemed to be moved in already, which meant there was plenty of space to move around and stomp up and down the stairs carrying stuff.  It was pretty fun, seeing her get all set up and unpacked...

But I admit some jealousy here.  I'm nearly 21; I'm the kid who should be living away from home, have a house full of people I'll be living with this year that are unrelated to me.  I should be the one forgetting things and not really stressing over the things that Mum is worried about, and I should the be the one acting like a grown up.

I am, for the most part, content in my situation.  I cannot live on my own right now.  Sometimes, after a day at school, I cannot think enough to do anything, let alone stand on my feet long enough to do laundry, to cook myself dinner, to go out and do groceries and chores and other things like that.  And while I have a knack for remembering things, when I'm tired, I couldn't really care if the house is on fire; I am physically unable to move.

I'm a lot better than I was a year ago.  I spent a lot of this summer out of the house, walking and spending time with friends and I'm pretty capable now.  But I can't really combine both physical activity and mental activity yet; it seems like in a day I only have the capacity for one or the other, which is what makes school tough. 

By tomorrow, things will be less whirlwind-y than today was, and I'll feel okay about myself and my situation once more.  But for right now, I'm reminded that I live a life very different from my peers, and I can only hope that God has a really good reason for it (aside from the ones he has given me so far) that makes it all worth missing out.  I fully acknowledge and accept that I will probably never know what this reason is, and it may not even have to do with me, but with another person or circumstance in my life or the lives of those around me.  Still...

This is where trusting God happens.

- Judith

The End of a Long Summer

Dear Little Blog,

It's been a long time, I know.  Too be honest, this summer hasn't been what I expected it to be - in both good and bad ways.  But the summer is ending now, and I'm all rested up and getting ready for school.

I'm starting to have dreams about going back to school.  It always amuses me how excited I am to go back after a summer, but how after a week I'm pretty over it, and all I can see is the long months stretching ahead of me... and lots of work.

When I was younger, every year we made a big school supply shopping trip, and I had to buy everything brand new - new backpack, new clothes, new pens and pencils (even if I had some left from last year) - if you can think of it, I filled the shopping cart with it.  This year - and last year - has been much more calm.  I have plenty of pens and pencils from last year, and a backpack still in great shape.  Really, all I've bought in the line of school supplies is a planner (I'm going back to paper this year), a binder (because mine was falling apart) and hand sanitizer. 

Of course, there's the part of me that's insisting on at least one new clothing item, and so I spent late last night reorganizing my closet, looking at what I had.  I might buy myself a new skirt... but I can't really justify any other purchases.

Funny how you change over time, isn't it?  Is this growing up?

- Judith