PadawanOfHappiness

As I have started to eliminate some of the processed foods, I have a varied approach.  Sometimes I try for less processed or processed but NonGMO foods, and sometimes I go for things made from scratch. Items that I now make from scratch (at least 90% of the time) Pasta sauce Pie crust Cookies Granola Items that I make from scratch occasionally Rolls Bread Pretzles Items that I swapped to NonGMO Baking Powder  Things I am trying to find alternatives for Instant Oatmeal Chicken nuggets Stove Top Stuffing Bisquick pancake and baking mix For the instant oatmeal I found a few recipes on line that I will try out.  I do actually have the time to make regular old fashioned oats in the morning, but the problem is one of texture, one of my kids doesn't like it and I can relate.  So rather than fight that I want to look for better healthier options.  The reason I picked this was a friend posted a comparison of the ingredient list for Quaker Oats Instant oatmeal in the US v...

With the whole scaredemic of the Covid years, it has awakened me in many ways.  I became more politically active than I had been previously, I became more aware of the pitfalls our society, and how unhealthy we are as a whole.  Not just physically but also emotionally and spiritually. It opened my eyes to how much other entities want to control individuals, they want to treat us as stupid children and have us just accept what they offer us, because they are only "looking out for our best interests." Well you know what, for the most part companies, governmental agencies, and government bodies are not looking out for the individual, they are looking out for themselves.  We have it so good right now, clean water, food, and most of us are not working in hard labor industries, we have gotten soft.  Mentally and physically. Right now I am looking at food companies and trying to figure out what is good for us vrs what is bad.  My favorite principle to live by is KISS, ...

  Just two infograhpics, I really don't need to add much commentary to them, I think they speak for themselves. Source Source here (note the numbers will change because you will be looking it up at a different time than when I took the screen shot.)    

  I took this screen shot today Sep 10, 2021 around 4:20 PM EST This is not data taken from a fringe site it is respected Worldometer is a provider of global COVID-19 statistics for many caring people around the world. Our data is also trusted and used by the UK Government , Johns Hopkins CSSE , the Government of Thailand , the Government of Pakistan , the Government of Sri Lanka , Government of Vietnam , Financial Times , The New York Times , Business Insider , BBC , and many others. source   And lets not neglect that you hear all over social media and the news OMG the children and delta is so much worse for them, there are so many being hospitalized. I look at this official data for my state and I think why the hysteria?  Do you wonder that as well? Earlier today I joined a webinar hosted by The Boston Globe (not right wing fringe organization) and Boston's Children's hospita l.  I loved that one of the panelists called this out... it is a paraphrase from what I w...

There is a vexxing thing about science, and that is it takes time.  It takes time to prove or disprove theories, which is hard to swallow when there are big things going down like the COVID-19 situation.  But knowing it takes time, makes it more palatable to follow a theory when we know nothing. Here were are some 20+ months later and we should have some data on some things but yet we have very little.  I have to wonder why is that?  I especially wonder when the mantra of "follow the science" has been tweeted, shared, shouted, and printed all over this earth and cyberspace too. I am going to limit myself mostly to the ever present mask situation.  Early in the pandemic we had the flip flops of no mask, then mask, and the contradictory opinions of the WHO and CDC, but with the "follow the science" mentality I could work with it because as I said above it takes time, and quite frankly perhaps we had learned more, this didn't seem so wild and crazy. But then I aske...

Over the weekend Henri was making its way towards the Padawan household and honestly I was a bit meh about it. My biggest concern was keeping the little Padawans indoors without going nuts. I will admit that I have come a long way since we had our whole house generator installed in terms of my worry and concern during extreme weather events.  And the impetuous for us installing the generator was repeated ice storms that left us without power for days, and not a tropical storm or hurricane. My kids, however were pretty fearful, heck after all the COVID hysteria they are pretty fearful in general.  This is a very sad fact that I am sure many parents can relate to, and even adults are more fearful in general it is not limited to just kids.  That fear is running the lives of many and I would go as far as saying it is ruining their lives. Let's face it we are safer now than we were as kids.  Also, we know a lot more about COVID now and how to treat it, therefore we are sa...