Bananna Muffins
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Harriet's Writing
My sister is called Ella. I love her because one day she watched my fairy dance so she thought I was good. She wears glasses. She loves green peas and is a vegetarian. She is bigger than me because she is 13, and she hates sushi.
Sunday, May 18, 2008
Saturday, May 17, 2008
Some of Isabella's writing
No dead animal, nor any of its body parts, has ever passed my lips. I have not once consumed a steak, sausage, or pie, or claimed a pig’s life by jamming it between a piece of bread with some tomato sauce. I have never eaten a wine gum, jet plane, milk bottle or roasted a marshmallow over the fire, in the last six months that is. I know, you probably thought I’d been a devoted vegetarian my whole life, my parents forcing me to live on a strict diet of tofu and lentils, but really I just wanted an exciting introduction. I have however, been planning on becoming vegetarian most of my life, I could just never quite part myself from bacon on my pancakes or chicken in my butter chicken. That is, until last November, when I saw a short PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) film exposing the cruelty behind harvesting meat, (which I’ll admit, had me in floods of tears) and shortly after, while volunteering for Greenpeace, read a poster saying:”You can’t eat meat and call yourself an environmentalist”. Sheepishly I decided that now might be the time to become a vegetarian.
Ever since I joined Greenpeace at the age of five, my mother has been wondering when I’ll become a vegetarian. The one fundamental flaw she noticed about this however, was the fact that I don’t like vegetables. Unfortunately I was so caught up in my decision to become a vegetarian that I forgot all about this, and it was not until about a week into my vegetarianism that I realised how difficult meals were going to be when I didn’t eat the meat option and didn’t like the vegetarian option. The other thing I failed to notice before becoming a vegetarian was how many dead animals’ parts companies have managed to sneak into everyday products. I would never have guessed that cows skin tissue is an ingredient in cheese, nor that gelatine (boiled hooves) was present in most lollies, ice-cream, jelly, and marshmallows, in many bars (snack bars, muesli bars etc.), fruit yoghurts and licorice. You’d be amazed at the weird looks people give you when you turn down lollies saying that you’re "a vegetarian”. I am now prone to check the ingredients list on the back of everything before I eat it. I bought a paddle pop the other day (as you do) and my friends thought I was a nutcase when they saw me reading the back, they said “You can’t put meat in an ice-cream, you’ll be fine. Just eat it.” But they were proved wrong, when the beloved rainbow paddlepop of my childhood turned out to have gelatine in it. That was a sad, sad day.
Although there are many things I miss eating, being a vegetarian definitely has its upsides, number one being I can now call myself an environmentalist! (yes, I did take that poster very seriously). The process of killing, shipping and preparing a single chicken wastes hundreds of liters of water and fuel, and releases many toxins into the air making it bad for the environment (and the chicken). Knowing an innocent animal isn’t born simply to live a life of misery in a cramped environment where they are overfed a concoction of hormones and gm ingredients along with their usual feed is a comfort. A life for a chicken, where by the time they are a month old they are adult size, causing organ failure and very commonly broken legs because they cannot support their weight is cruel.
Although Vegetarianism is harder than I thought it would be, I’m incredibly glad that I’ve done it, it’s given me something to be proud of, made me healthier, saved me money and made me feel better about the impact I have on the planet. It has also shown me that not everything is as it seems, and sometimes what you see everyday in the supermarket has caused unimaginable suffering. Now if only I could develop a liking for more vegetables.
Ever since I joined Greenpeace at the age of five, my mother has been wondering when I’ll become a vegetarian. The one fundamental flaw she noticed about this however, was the fact that I don’t like vegetables. Unfortunately I was so caught up in my decision to become a vegetarian that I forgot all about this, and it was not until about a week into my vegetarianism that I realised how difficult meals were going to be when I didn’t eat the meat option and didn’t like the vegetarian option. The other thing I failed to notice before becoming a vegetarian was how many dead animals’ parts companies have managed to sneak into everyday products. I would never have guessed that cows skin tissue is an ingredient in cheese, nor that gelatine (boiled hooves) was present in most lollies, ice-cream, jelly, and marshmallows, in many bars (snack bars, muesli bars etc.), fruit yoghurts and licorice. You’d be amazed at the weird looks people give you when you turn down lollies saying that you’re "a vegetarian”. I am now prone to check the ingredients list on the back of everything before I eat it. I bought a paddle pop the other day (as you do) and my friends thought I was a nutcase when they saw me reading the back, they said “You can’t put meat in an ice-cream, you’ll be fine. Just eat it.” But they were proved wrong, when the beloved rainbow paddlepop of my childhood turned out to have gelatine in it. That was a sad, sad day.
Although there are many things I miss eating, being a vegetarian definitely has its upsides, number one being I can now call myself an environmentalist! (yes, I did take that poster very seriously). The process of killing, shipping and preparing a single chicken wastes hundreds of liters of water and fuel, and releases many toxins into the air making it bad for the environment (and the chicken). Knowing an innocent animal isn’t born simply to live a life of misery in a cramped environment where they are overfed a concoction of hormones and gm ingredients along with their usual feed is a comfort. A life for a chicken, where by the time they are a month old they are adult size, causing organ failure and very commonly broken legs because they cannot support their weight is cruel.
Although Vegetarianism is harder than I thought it would be, I’m incredibly glad that I’ve done it, it’s given me something to be proud of, made me healthier, saved me money and made me feel better about the impact I have on the planet. It has also shown me that not everything is as it seems, and sometimes what you see everyday in the supermarket has caused unimaginable suffering. Now if only I could develop a liking for more vegetables.
Tuesday, May 06, 2008
School Hols
The girls went back to school today after two weeks holidays. The weather was a bit wet and blustery most of the two weeks so a number of movies were seen. Harriet managed Horton and Nims Island for a friends birthday and with her grandmother while she and I went to see Spiderwick with some other friends, 5 mins into it all 3 children were on mothers knees. Isabella and I got a lovely day to ourselves and went to see Lars and the Real Girl as well as getting to have a relaxing time at a cafe and do some shopping for her without two small people in tow getting bored. Harriet is turning into an excellent pet owner, I have to admit I did think that after a week and the novelty wearing off I might be chief in charge of rabbit care but Harriet is tres responsible with cuddling, feeding and caring for cinnamon. He is either the world's most mellow bunny or a little specially abled but I don't think it matters in the rabbit world, because he happily gets carted round everywhere with Harriet. Harriet has also discovered the joys of silent reading choosing all chapter books at the library last week. She even asks to go to bed so she can silent read.
We did a major changing rooms exercise the first weekend, well we thought it would just take a day and night..try 4. We swapped Isabella into the smaller room and put Harriet and Billy (out of our room) in together. Harriet and Billy are loving being roomates, the room has a fairy grotto feeling as Aunty Sarah kindly let Harriet use the fairy lights we had at her fairy party and they make an amzing installment in the centre of the room with fairies and butterflies entwined in them. Billy asks numerous times to go to bed but hasn't quite mastered the art of staying there yet. He has become a little fashion obsessed and goes to his drawers carefully selecting outfits which he likes to be coordinated from top to bottom. If he had his way he would have several changes each day but his mean mother is limiting it to only when he is wet or dirty. Today his plan to get round this was to select a new outfit then demand a bath at 1pm so he could change. When I told him baths were for after dinner he proceeded to install himself in an empty bath anyway and find bath toys that were still full of a little water and get his clothes wet enough he could put his chosen outfit on.
This term harriet is doing gym and starting back at bollywood, Billy will continue with swimming and is starting dance and miss Isabella has her first 'out of the family' babysitting gig looking after 3 kids on a monday afternoon a few houses down from us, she is playing netball and soccer and still volunteering for greenpeace one afternoon a week.
Looks like the calender won't be getting any less full this term.
I would post some pics but our home computer has got some nasty turn itself off a few minutes after starting up bug and the photos are stuck in there.
We did a major changing rooms exercise the first weekend, well we thought it would just take a day and night..try 4. We swapped Isabella into the smaller room and put Harriet and Billy (out of our room) in together. Harriet and Billy are loving being roomates, the room has a fairy grotto feeling as Aunty Sarah kindly let Harriet use the fairy lights we had at her fairy party and they make an amzing installment in the centre of the room with fairies and butterflies entwined in them. Billy asks numerous times to go to bed but hasn't quite mastered the art of staying there yet. He has become a little fashion obsessed and goes to his drawers carefully selecting outfits which he likes to be coordinated from top to bottom. If he had his way he would have several changes each day but his mean mother is limiting it to only when he is wet or dirty. Today his plan to get round this was to select a new outfit then demand a bath at 1pm so he could change. When I told him baths were for after dinner he proceeded to install himself in an empty bath anyway and find bath toys that were still full of a little water and get his clothes wet enough he could put his chosen outfit on.
This term harriet is doing gym and starting back at bollywood, Billy will continue with swimming and is starting dance and miss Isabella has her first 'out of the family' babysitting gig looking after 3 kids on a monday afternoon a few houses down from us, she is playing netball and soccer and still volunteering for greenpeace one afternoon a week.
Looks like the calender won't be getting any less full this term.
I would post some pics but our home computer has got some nasty turn itself off a few minutes after starting up bug and the photos are stuck in there.
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