At the end March, we decided to go vegetarian. It’s something I’ve toyed with for a long time, and tried twice in the past, but never been able to stick to. Not because I miss meat though, more because I miss the no thinking involved with eating meat in your diet. I mean, it’s so much easier to eat meat. You just cook it and eat. But when you’re a vegetarian, you have to think about what meals you want, what’s in them, and how to keep up with your body’s need for iron and protein and things that you get in meat. That’s the first question people always ask me. “What about the GIRLS! They need so much iron at this age!” Well, yes. I know that. I’m a girl too you know, and I also need lots of iron. You’d be surprised at where you can find iron though, and to be perfectly honest, we’re eating SO well these days, that I am 98% positive that all of us are getting a lot more iron than we were beforehand.
So why go vegetarian? Well, there are lots of reasons, but the biggest reason is because animals are being farmed like produce, and not living, breathing, feeling creatures. We watched Food Inc, which is perhaps the most devastating documentary I’ve ever watched. It took us a month to get all the way through it, and the girls kept walking out. In the end, we stopped watching it and waited until they were in bed. It still took me a month to get up the courage to finish it. I’m very glad we did, and though I know it’s based around food in America, New Zealand really isn’t that different. We have the same ways of breeding and farming animals, and you never fully know exactly where anything you eat comes from, unless you grow it yourself. The more I talked about it, the more interested Siobhan became. Ollie and Aleeya were a little more whiny, both of them weren’t very pleased about no meat in their diets, and Ollie still buys ham and chicken for his sandwiches.
Anyway, it took us awhile to get rid of the meat in the freezer and to fully commit, and I have to admit that, I really don’t miss eating meat at all. We still drink milk and eat fish and shellfish and eggs (I only ever buy free range eggs, and yes I know some fish is also farmed and poorly, I try to make the right choices about what I’m buying), but we’ve cut out everything else. It takes a little more planning, but I’ve started to go through our cookbooks – Elsie bought me a subscription to a Healthy Foods magazine which I get once a month and there are some lovely vegetarian meals in there too, and I write on our whiteboard the meals I’m going to cook for the week, which means I don’t end up with a bunch of ingredients that I then have no idea what I’m supposed to be doing with. It’s been great. We’re eating such lovely meals now, and most of them are amazingly fast and straightforward.
Siobhan has really taken to it, she loves it and Aleeya has slowly come around too. I let her help me choose a meal and prepare it, and she’s starting to get into it too. We eat so many different things now, instead of just mince, and everyone is a lot happier. It took me about three weeks to get used to the change in diet, but now I feel great. My moods are a lot more stable, I’m losing a little weight, and all the awful digestion problems I’ve had for YEARS are going away. I feel great! It’s definitely been worth all the effort, it’s not much more expensive and best of all, we’re not giving money to the industry who thinks that keeping an animal in a stall all its life, unable to move or do anything, just so that we can eat their flesh, is an okay way to treat another living creature. I thought I’d miss chicken terribly, but I haven’t even really thought about it. And while I at first decided that on occassion we’d eat organic meat, I’ve decided against that.
I’ve never felt so relaxed and good, mentally and physcially, and I totally credit the fact that I’ve replaced meats with beans, peas, lentils and a larger variety of vegetables. Whoever says you need meat to get a balanced diet is wrong. Iron is found in a lot of different places and we’re getting loads more of it, as well as more fibre, rich proteins, omega oils and vitamins than we did before, and you can see the difference. I’m really thrilled, and I don’t plan to ever eat meat again, I really had no idea how it made me feel. I no longer feel heavy and bloated after I’ve eaten, I have a lot more energy (though at first I had much less) and my children are learning more about where their food comes from, how it’s produced, and how to make lots of new and extremely tasty meals. We’ve only had one that was a flop. Everything else we’ve tried the entire family has loved.
Posted in Family, dropping the pounds, food | 5 Comments »
Ohai readers! Actually, I’m fairly sure you’ve all gone, and I truly don’t blame you at all. I have really had nothing at all interesting to tell you, which makes blogging very, very difficult indeed. Anyway, let me thrill you with yet another story about my teeth. I shall endeavour to come back and be more interesting and more dedicated. But until I get a job and actually have a reason to get out of the house and be around people again, it might take me awhile to figure out any thrilling ways to entertain you about the boringness of my life!
For as long as I can remember, I’ve had this intensely irrational fear of losing my teeth. It’s one of those fears that creeps up on me and terrifies me into believing they’re all going to fall out of my head and I have been plagued by nightmares where my teeth just crumble and flake and fall out, and I’m spitting my teeth out into my hands. It’s really, really terrifying. I wake up in a cold sweat.
When I was 16 I think…maybe 15, a few friends and myself got drunk at one of their houses and then decided to go for a walk down to this park. The girl whose house it was decided that we’d take a shortcut through someone else’s property. This involved jumping down over quite a high wall. I’m 5’2, so pretty much everything is very high. So we’re sitting on the edge of it, and a dog starts barking hardcore, so we jump, and one of my friends who is behind me, and much larger than I was fell on my back and smashed my face into the ground. Which was gravel. We get up and dust off, and I’m thinking “wtf is that warm shit dripping onto my hand?” I look down, and it’s blood. My teeth punctured my bottom lip and I am bleeding like you see in movies! It was terrifying! It didn’t even hurt.
Anyway, we walk to the hospital, because I lived in a very small town, and it wasn’t far…and they tell me it’s shredded, and there’s no way they’re going to be able to stitch it, so give me some tissues to staunch the bloodflow and send me on my way. Anyway…that little venture cracked my two front teeth, but they were fine, and I was terrified of the dentist, so I ignored it. Then, my parents let me ride one of those little motor scooters so that they didn’t have to drive me around the place all the time. I played a little game one night of seeing how fast I could take the corners. You’re starting to see where I’m going with this, right?
I actually made it all the way home, where I screamed into our driveway and slammed on the brakes…on gravel. I lost control of the bike and skidded off. I was wearing a helmet which is lucky, because my head didn’t smash like an orange, but it wasn’t a full helmet and I cracked my teeth..again. This time, I did go to the dentist. He decided they needed root canals, and when he started drilling, I whimpered, and he said “Did you feel that?” And I..stupid girl, went “uh..uh huh?” I honestly don’t think I felt a thing, but I was so scared because he wouldn’t give me an injection. “Oh.” He says…”in that case, you’re fine!” And he filled the little hole he’d made and sent me on my way. Why was this stupid? Because by the time I actually went in to get them fixed, I was 23 and it came straight out of my stupid pocket. And holy shit did it cost me an arm and a leg. I asked the dentist who did it, if I’d ever be able to get braces, which had been my dream ever since I was 12 years old. ”No.” He said. “Your teeth will never be strong enough.” I was -devastated-. Truly.
I can’t tell you how badly I wanted them, and what a massive crushing blow this was. Anyway, years and years went by, and I hit thirty, and my grandmother had left the grandchildren money when she died. I had more than enough to make an appointment with the orthodontist and see for sure whether or not I could get braces. They told me yes, and promised me that braces moved so slowly that teeth which had root canals were never in any danger. So I went ahead and had them fitted. It took two teeth being pulled out to make room for the rest to move back. That was stressful, but it was fine. I wanted it done, and I was going to do whatever I needed to, to do it. I still had dreams where my teeth were all falling out…and even though my dentist had to keep pausing to shake out his hand and almost put his foot up on my chest to yank my teeth out..and told me in no uncertain terms just how strong my jawbone and teeth are, I still felt as though they were ready to crumble on me at any second.
Anyway, two years with braces left me with straight teeth, and a wire along the back of my teeth at the bottom. It’ll be there, probably forever. But somehow, it dislodged itself a couple of days ago, and then last night I had a look at it in the mirror, and when it moved, part of my tooth moved with it too. I was horrified! A whole big chip of my tooth had been taken off by this wire! It was my dream coming true in front of my very eyes. I showed Ollie, just to be sure and he freaked out and told me to stop touching it. So I rung the Orthodontist today, and they said no one could see me until Monday. Ollie got shitty and called them back demanding that I be seen because I couldn’t go all weekend with a broken tooth. They fit me in today. I spent the whole day so worked up and terrified that I barely managed to keep any food down, and all I could think about was how much it’d cost to be fixed, how broke we now are, the kids, the mortgage, my still not having a job and a dentistry bill hanging over my head.
3pm finally came around and in I went. “Oh, it has come loose.” She said, and went about yanking my face around and scraping glue off. “Are you sure that’s not part of my tooth?” I ask, not really wanting to know the answer. “Yep, just lots of glue.” She said, drilling the last of it off and regluing it back down again. I can’t even begin to express the huge amount of relief and foolishness I felt. She did say that sometimes the glue looks so much like teeth they have to test it, if it’s glue it turns grey and if it’s tooth it stays white. She said, that in the history of their practice, no one had lost any parts of their teeth. And I almost cried in both relief and embarrassment. I know that it fooled my husband and that I have a truly insane fear attached to my teeth breaking and falling out, but there is nothing in the world to stop you feeling like a stupid child when you’re ready to go in there and scream the practice down, only to realise that you have totally overreacted.
Posted in teeth, teh suck | 7 Comments »
Posted on 9 April '10 by kelly, under teeth, teh suck. 7 Comments.
I’ve never taken the girls to the movies at night before. We always go during school holidays, in the afternoon. But New Moon? Well that’s a film I had to see at night. I waited, two weeks to see it, so that we didn’t have to put up with stupid teenage girls with their stupid talking and giggling all through the movie. Anyway, I went in at lunch time to buy tickets for 8pm, I got back row seats almost directly in the middle and Extreme Screeeen. Oooh the loud and excitingly massive theatre! I like the back row, because people talking behind me irritate me way more than the people talking in front of me.
At least, that’s what I thought. Of course, the people sitting right in front of us were the most retarded bunch of girls ever. I swore. I did. And I was THIS close to kicking two of them in the back of the head. So apparently were the girls. Aleeya said “did you see me put my leg out?” To which I replied “I did!” And she said “that was me trying to kick their seats, but my legs weren’t long enough!” I do love my kids. They’re all kinds of wonderful. Aside from that, the did a really good job on the film. They did. No, really. It was very well done. So, why am I feeling let down?
It’s very hard to explain. Or maybe it isn’t. I want to be on the fence about which character I love, but I’m really not. I am an Edward girl, all the way. Jacob in this film, is fantastic. He’s deliciously muscular and half naked all the time and he smoulders. Also, his teeth just break my heart. Perfect. Truly and utterly perfect. He’s a great character, warm and sweet and delicioussss! But the real problem is, I don’t like Bella. I’ve never liked Bella. She is the worst Mary Sue character IN THE WORLD. Her only flaw is that she falls over. Uhm…everyone falls over. Oh and she gets paper cuts and hangs around with creatures that are way too strong and want to drink her delicious blood.
It’s sad when Edward leaves. But it’s not sad that he leaves Bella. It’s sad that he’s NO LONGER IN THE MOVIE!!! OH MY GOD!!! And when they bring him back? For goodness sake. Can’t we have him being the beautiful creature he is, rather than some morbid, yes okay fine – he looks like he’s dead and he should…since he is…but he is beautiful! And they do not make him beautiful! Also, not enough kissing…not enough Carlisle and definitely, definitely way too much Bella.
Sorry. It wasn’t my favourite book of the series, and while the special effects were very special, the movie did not meet my expectations. All you people out there squeeing over how awesome it was? You built up my excitement, and I’m not exactly sure I walked out feeling like it was a good reason to spend $40.
Next up? Zombieland! I won tickets today!! We’ve already seen it, but I tell you what, THAT is a film I would spend money on to see again. Luckily, I don’t have to! I highly recommend it, if you liked Shaun of Dead, you’ll like this one. The did an awesome job on it. And as much as I don’t want to admit it? I am, sadly…a fan of zombie movies. So excited to get to see it on the big screen! YAY!
Posted in Family, fangirl | 7 Comments »
Posted on 27 November '09 by kelly, under Family, fangirl. 7 Comments.
You thought I missed a day and gave up on my blogging after only two days, didn’t you? Admit it. You know you did.
I haven’t. But! I really didn’t have a lot to say today. I did terribly boring things, like grocery shopping and dancing around my house, since, that’s the only place I really get to dance these days. Speaking of dancing, we’ve been watching Glee, which is perhaps the coolest show I’ve seen in a very long time. It makes me happy. And sad. And I laugh sometimes until I cry. I’m still in love with the little gay boy and his practicing the Single Ladies dance in his basement. It stuck. Ollie was hesitant to watch the show at all, and I had to get snappy at him. He loves it just as much as I do. My husband, is a total sucker for musicals and dance movies. Glee is like his number one show, I swear.
He’ll try to tell you its something manly, but you don’t have to believe him anymore, since I already told you what it truly is. So we watched that awhile ago, and it must have come on iTunes the other night, because, the next thing I know, Ollie is out on the balcony, Single Ladying. It really helped that Justin Timberlake also did it on Saturday Night Live that time. And so naturally, I had to join in. I was whipping his butt, right up until I tossed my head, and that’s when it all went downhill. I pulled something! It hurt for two days. TWO DAYS! The Single Ladies dance? It’s a killer. Siobhan was thoroughly impressed however. And I imagine our neighbours were too. Luckily it was light enough that we weren’t in the security light spotlight, because losing while you’re on the spot like that? Would have been completely embarrassing.
I’ve just hit 42k on my novel, and I think that means it’s time for bed!
xx
Posted in blogging, fangirl, life | 2 Comments »
Posted on 25 November '09 by kelly, under blogging, fangirl, life. 2 Comments.
Or rather, spiders.
You see internet, I am one of those girls who hyperventilates at the sight of spiders. I try very hard not to do this, because honestly? Have you seen spiders? They are TINY! Unless you’re in a crazy country like Australia, which by the way, I saw no spiders in thank god! But I can’t shake it. I forced myself to hold them for awhile, when I was pregnant with Siobhan, and I didn’t seem to mind them at all, but I think that’s because holding a spider seemed so much less daunting than holding a newborn baby. I was nineteen, trust me, it was daunting!
Anyway, last night we’re in bed, and Ollie is stubbornly reading and grunting at me every time I dare to strike up a conversation with him, I lay there and sigh and glance up at the roof, and helloooo nurse! Spider. It’s lurking in the corner where ceiling meets wall, with its little hard black body and its filthy eight leggedness and I’m hissing, and nudging my husband “Nobby! nobby look!” You have to say it quietly, just in case they hear. Spiders have an amazing sense of hearing you know. It heard me. Ollie grunted, and I’m almost whimpering as it turns around, very slowly and deliberately, and loses its footing. I KID YOU NOT! How can something with EIGHT legs lose its footing?!?! I’m shrieking and diving under the covers and he’s shouting at me about how I’m ruining his book!
I know right? I’m ruining his book? There’s a massive spider up there, as big as my thumbnail, sliding down the wall where it’s going to lay in wait so that it can leap into my mouth while I’m asleep and he’s telling me I’m ruining his book!!! So I stay very still, with just my eyes showing, making sure that creature stays exactly where it is, and he finally claps his book shut and with a sigh of annoyance gets out of the bed. He picks up his bookmark and a baseball cap and I’m comptely confused. “What are you doing? You’re just as scared of it as I am!” “No I’m not, it’s to catch it incase it falls.” He replies, standing up on the bed, fully nude, all stretched up there trying to catch a spider.
Eventually he gets rid of the cap and just uses his hands. I’m admiring his butt, which from that angle was worthy of the comparison to Michelangelo’s David, and he finally catches it. Drops it, internet….and flails all around the place recatching it and doing his best not to let it scramble right up his arm into his hair. But the most fun, was watching him toss it out the window. You see, the latch at the top, really is at the top and our bedroom faces straight out onto the road. He was torn between stretching up and being caught by passersby or ducking down and not being able to open the window. In the end stretching up to open the window won out and he finally managed to flick the demon out the window, however, the wind last night was massive! I’m surprised the spider made it out the window, without being blown straight back in again. It was, great.
Remind me to tell you about the time he ran outside in my pink bathrobe.
Posted in blogging, life, love | 9 Comments »
Posted on 24 November '09 by kelly, under blogging, life, love. 9 Comments.
