Tulip Festival

We went to the Thanksgiving Point Tulip Festival last week on Brian's day off. Neither of us had ever been, so we were excited. The tulips were a bit of a letdown because most hadn't opened yet. Oh well. We still had a nice time getting out together.

Pictures looking up are always unflattering. Also, it's a family tradition to have things growing out of your head in photos.

We splurged and bought food there--a funnel cake and supposedly Peruvian empanadas. They were exorbitantly priced, the empanadas weren't good, and we both felt funny the rest of the day. Needless to say, we will not be buying food there if we go again in the future. I guess I'll have to get my Peruvian food fix someday in the future when we have enough money to take a trip to South America.

We would have liked to rent a segway to play with, but I didn't think they would let us hook Camille's stroller up to the back like a trailer.

Why Chemicals Aren't Bad

Chemicals get a bad reputation. It is a scientifically proven fact that you are, in fact, made of chemicals. Take a look at the following picture, courtesy of Everyday Scientist:

If you saw a label full of those hard-to-pronounce chemicals, would you steer away from that food? The only thing that is chemical-free is a vacuum. I know that when most people use the term chemical, they mean synthetic chemicals. Well, synthetic chemicals can be bad, and they can be good. Natural chemicals can be bad, and they can be good. In 2001, researchers from California who studied natural and synthetic chemicals in the human diet wrote, “Among the agents identified as human carcinogens by the International Agency for Research in Cancer 62% occur naturally: 16 are natural chemicals, 11 are mixtures of natural chemicals, and 10 are infectious agents. Thus, the idea that a chemical is “safe” because it is natural, is not correct” (source, emphasis added). 

Chemicals benefit you more than you probably realize. When you got up, you dragged yourself out of your high density polyurethane foam bed, took a shower in water made clean using chlorine and ammonium sulfate, soaped yourself with soap containing surfactants and fragrance, used shampoo, shaved, used a blow dryer, brushed your teeth, all with the aid of over 200 chemicals (source).

Just in terms of food, the positive difference that chemicals make is enormous. "Without these important crop protection and pest control technologies, U.S. food production would decline, many fruits and vegetables would be in short supply, and the price of food would rise. What’s more, America’s production of important fibers for clothing, such as cotton, would decrease as farmers would lose their harvests and livelihoods to crop pests and diseases" (source).

Next time you buy all-natural, organic food, think of what that really means. The legal definition of organic is hazy. Just because something says organic doesn't mean it contains no pesticides. And natural or all natural has no legal definition--none.  Are there really any benefits to buying organic, or are they just perceived?  This quote is from Wikipedia, and is backed up by nine sources: "Evidence on substantial differences between organic food and conventional food is insufficient to make claims that organic food is safer or healthier than conventional food.^{[3][4][5][6][7][8][9]} With respect to taste, the evidence is also insufficient to make scientific claims that organic food tastes better.^[5][3]"

So, what I'm trying to say is that you shouldn't get caught up in the natural, chemical free, organic bandwagon just because it sounds healthy and good. Farmers that use pesticides do so because it helps them produce better crops. I don't recommend drinking the pesticide, but used correctly, it is beneficial. Our bodies usually can handle small amounts of toxins pretty well anyway. But if you eat enough lima beans, the chemicals in there can kill you. We just want the benefits of the chemicals we use to outweigh the risks, and there are companies and agencies that test that.

If you google all natural or chemical free, you'll be sure to find tons of people using hokey science, unfounded claims, and scare-tactics to promote their agendas. If you really want to understand more, take a chemistry or biochemistry class. And if you do buy something organic, I won't judge you.

If you read this far, congratulations. I could go on and on about things like this--SLS, parabens, GMOs, vaccines, but I'll probably go back to posts full of pictures of Camille now.

Reasons My Daughter Is Crying

I haven't really ever used tumblr, but this one tumblr (are they called tumblrs?) has gotten some attention recently, and I went and had a look at it. I found it pretty funny, probably because I can relate. Camille can be really whiny sometimes. So, I made my own post of "Why My Daughter Is Crying."

Daddy left and she couldn't follow him.

I'm not holding her.

She pooped.

I'm changing her poopy diaper

She couldn't get in the dishwasher.

She couldn't get the hood off her head.

She is wearing a bike helmet.

I wouldn't let her go in the bathroom with me.

Spring was here

We had some beautiful spring weather for a week or two. This morning we were greeted with snow. It was just a dusting, but still a let-down after 70 degree weather.

While the weather was warm, we increased the size of our garden and planted some colder weather vegetables. We don't have a rototiller, so we used a shovel and a pickax to dig up the lawn where we extended the garden. It was a lot of manual labor, made more difficult because of a leaky sprinkler head that Brian fixed.

Camille continues to be really cute and get into trouble. She learned to like being outside, and now always wants to either go upstairs and deshelve the DVDs and pull on cords, or go outside. She spends a lot of time hanging on the baby gate at the bottom of the stairs or standing at the sliding glass door looking outside. Yesterday Brian went out to play basketball, and Camille tried to follow him out. I put her up so she could watch out the window, and she kept banging on the window. Finally, I bundled her up, put her in the stroller, and put her out by the basketball hoop. She loved it. (And I got stuff done.)

I know she's tiny in this picture, but she has a huge grin on her face.

Brian is keeping busy with work and Young Men. Yesterday he had to be at work at 3:30 AM for a baseball game. And then the baseball game was cancelled.

I've been working on some spring cleaning. I made a big list of cleaning chores, and I've been trying to get one done a day. It's been going pretty well except that the harder, more tedious things are left. I've been wanting to learn something new and try things out of my comfort zone, and my latest exploit has been learning html. So far I can make a page with a heading and paragraphs using notepad as an editor. This is something that is way out of my comfort zone.

Holly caught a snake. After not helping with the kitchen mouse, she redeemed herself by getting this. I saw her poking around in the grass one afternoon, and the next time I looked out, she was standing guard over her prize.

And to end, here is an opinion question: Is it worth it to get a bike trailer? I've been watching craigslist/KSL classifieds for a good deal, but I want to be sure it would be a worthwhile investment. Comments appreciated.

Happy Easter!