Blogging vacation....

Hi everyone...thanks for hanging in there with me and my delinquent blogging. I'm just two busy right now so I'll be taking a break from this for a few weeks. I thought I'd let you all know so that you didn't have to keep checking this page. Please check back later for some exciting stuff :)

Too tired but worth it.....

Last night Jason and I got invited to an Oscar party that our friends were having. It was a great time. Although I really have no idea about things like cinematography, I appreciate getting together with friends for laughs and of course the food! We were all given ballots to fill out. Now Mandi and Jason did lots of research while I just started circling movies and names simply because of their titles. I really had no strategy at all except to pick Pan's Labyrinth whenever I could. (don't even ask me what that movie is about but it got me a couple of points when the ballots were being marked). Anyways after Jason and Mandi made fun of me for this, oh and so did Scott of course, guess who tied third with Mandi and Scott? You got it...ME!!! So I say bah to doing research on who's going to win. Just pick whatever sounds the best and go with it.

However little did I know that the Oscars aren't over until late. I did not lay my head on my pillow until 2:00 am. That's no fun when you have to get up at 6:00 for work. Whatever happened to the days when I used to party all of the time, get up with no hang over and be fine the next day no matter what time I went to bed and no matter how early I had to get up. I feel more hungover today then I did then. Does this mean I'm getting old....oh how sad!

Thanks for hosting Scott and Debie....

Awww buddy.....

How cute is this guy? This is Alpine (aka Airplane, Buddy, Maeeee, and a few others). He is the one around here that keeps us entertained. He's a little crazy and always chasing Kitty, however when he wants the attention he's quite cuddly. Jason calls him "Papa's boy". Funny for a guy that never wanted cats! We're sure going miss them when we're on vacation.

Ah laughter.....

I've dove into the gmail world and I'm loving it (sorry Greg). I've now personalized my google homepage to add such things as recipes, how to of the day, and my favorite... joke of the day. The immature side of me LOVES this! Everyday I tell Jason the joke of the day. They usually aren't too funny to him but I love them. So any laughter from him is usually because of the way that I'm acting or laughing telling the joke. It's fun for him to connect with me on this level and it's good for me to be an idiot once and awhile :) Anyways without further ado here's my favorite one so far. Hope you enjoy!!!!


A wealthy old lady decides to go on a photo safari in Africa, taking her poodle along for company. One day the poodle starts chasing butterflies and before long, discovers that he's lost. Wandering about, he notices a hungry-looking leopard heading rapidly in his direction. The poodle thinks, "Oh, oh!" Noticing some bones on the ground close by, he immediately settles down to chew on the bones with his back to the approaching cat. Just as the leopard is about to leap, the poodle exclaims loudly, "Boy, that was one delicious leopard! I wonder if there are any more around here?" Hearing this, the leopard halts his attack in mid-strike, a look of terror comes over him and he slinks away into the trees. "Whew!", says the leopard, "That was close! That poodle nearly had me!" Meanwhile, a monkey who had been watching the whole scene from a nearby tree, figures he can put this knowledge to good use and trade it for protection from the leopard. So off he goes, but the poodle sees him heading after the leopard with great speed, and figures that something must be up. The monkey soon catches up with the leopard, spills the beans and strikes a deal for himself with the leopard. The leopard is furious at being made a fool of and says, "Here, monkey, hop on my back so you can watch me chew that poodle to bits!" Now, the poodle sees the leopard coming with the monkey on his back and thinks, "What am I going to do now?", but instead of running, the dog sits down with his back to his attackers, pretending he hasn't seen them yet, and waits until they get just close enough to hear. "Where's that damn monkey?" the poodle says, "I sent him off an hour ago to bring me another leopard!"

What I'm learning....

I wanted to write a little bit about this long journey that I'm on. For a long time now people have been telling me that I'm a workaholic (meaning that I'm addicted to work). It frustrated me because I thought "no I'm not", like every other person who is addicted to something says. However unlike drugs, alcohol, pornography, etc. the hardest thing about this addiction is it's acceptable. Nobody is going to think less of you if you're doing lots of things, always taking on tasks, and always saying yes. In fact I've found the opposite to be true. More people rely on you, call you to do things, make comments like "wow you're so organized". In a twisted way these things all made me feel better about myself. So after the constant chest pains, being so tired that I was having a hard time getting up to go to work, and then the icing on the cake..suicidal thoughts. I knew something was up. It was not in me to want to kill myself but after focusing on this in counselling for a couple of sessions now I've realized that my body was screaming at me that it could no longer continue this lifestyle that I've been pushing it to do for so many years. I wanted people's approval of me. I wanted to feel like I was better than others by being able to accomplish more than them. I wanted people to call me and get me involved in everything. So naturally I took on way too many things.

So it's been 3 weeks now since I've started my detox. I've learned lots. Our bodies produce stress chemicals and for most they go up and down depending on what's going on in one's life. However for me my body thrives off of stress chemicals. It needs those to function. In other words I'm addicted to those chemicals that are constantly in my blood stream. So like coming down off of any high I've been having a rough time these past 3 weeks. I've got constant headaches. I never get headaches so this is abnormal for me. Some nights I'm in bed at 9:00 because of the headaches and because I'm exhausted. I'm now trying to take one complete day off a week for rest. This means I don't even bake or do any type of cleaning on that one day. For some of you you may find this silly but for me it's so hard. I'm trying to train myself to enjoy simple things like watching TV, reading, going for a walk, etc. However I often feel bored and the headache comes back because I'm not doing something to produce that lovely chemical.

I'm so looking forward to our vacation coming up because I feel like this will give me the break that I need to cut some ties that I have. No emails or phone that needs to be answered, it's going to be wonderful, but hard. So the next time you may ask me to do something and I say no don't fall of your chair. It's healthy, normal, and okay to set boundaries and say no. It's not okay to not say no because you're afraid of what others may think of you or because you want their approval. It's a heart issue for me and I'm constantly going to have to check this. So if I'm not blogging as often as I should lets hope that it's because I'm laying down on the couch and not because I'm too busy!

More mmmmmmm Muffins....

For me nothing is more fun than baking. I love it! I always have home made muffins on hand in the freezer. It's so easy during the week to pull one out and pop it in the microwave for a healthy and yummy breakfast. In fact I get really cranky if I run out midweek and have to go back to the cereal box. So I usually try to take some time on weekends to bake some muffins for the week. I had some blueberries in the freezer that I wanted to use and I found this wonderful recipe. So I wanted to share it with all of you. There are so many different tastes in these muffins. I was a little concerned at what they would taste like but they're great! Hope you are adventurous enough to try these out for yourself!

OATS 'N WHEAT BLUEBERRY MUFFINS(KICKED UP A NOTCH)

1 c. quick-cooking rolled oats
2 small to medium bananas
1/4 c. milk
1/2 c. maple syrup
1/4 c. peanut butter
1 egg, slightly beaten
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 1/2 c. whole wheat flour
1 tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
1 c. fresh blueberries or frozen blueberries without liquid, thawed

Heat oven to 375°F.
1. In a blender, process bananas * and milk until liquefied. Transfer mixture to a large bowl. Add rolled oats to banana mixture, stir, and let stand for 5 minutes.
2. In a second bowl, thoroughly mix baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Add flour and mix well.
3. Combine maple syrup and egg, mix thoroughly, then add peanut butter and vanilla. Pour this mixture (the syrup, PB and egg mixture) into the rolled oats; stir well. Stir in the dry ingredients (flour, salt, cinnamon, and baking soda).
4. Lastly, fold in the blueberries.

Fill greased muffin cups about 3/4 full.
Bake at 375°F for 20 to 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

*For those of you, like myself, that don't have a husband at home who likes the bananas when they get brown spots all over them I wanted to share with you a trick I learned. When the bananas get past the stage that you'd be willing to eat them at simply pop them in the freezer to use in baking at a later date. When it comes time to make a recipe where you need some bananas take them out of the freezer and let them thaw on the counter for about 20 minutes. Then simply peel them and they're ready to go.

Our "Valentine's" Day....

I'm having a crazy time at work lately. I think that I'm feeling extra pressure knowing that I'm leaving in two weeks and I've got lots to do before I leave. So I got home last night after the snow had started around 5:45 and decided that Jason and I should go out to eat because I didn't want to cook. Now living in the small Village that we do our choices are limited. In fact there's one restaurant, one small cafe and one pizza place which Jason says sucks. We had a buy one meal get one free at the restaurant so I grabbed that and off we went...you know down the road five feet. We walk into a dining room that was alright but not my taste of decorating. I was feeling embarrassed so I got Jason to walk in first. We stood there for a few minutes while the three other tables in the restaurant checked out who we were (again small town, everybody has to know everybody...I'm trying to stay anonymous but I think I may be failing at that and not even realizing it). The waitress then said to us "Take a seat wherever you want" and then chuckled and added "I guess just not at the tables with other people at them". Then one man at one of those tables she was referring to said "Oh they can sit with us we don't mind". Ha ya no thanks, so off to the corner of the restaurant we went. Jason was very thankful for the fake roses that were on the table. It just made the whole Valentine's mood that much better. I pretended that I bought them for us and we had a good laugh (we don't get out much). Anyways, we ordered and were impressed with all the menu selections. While we waited we were just talking amongst ourselves like most people do when you're dining with someone else. However it wasn't long after that I realized that the three tables were all involved in one conversation about horses and barns (go figure). There was no way I was getting involved. In fact we were trying to keep our conversation low afraid that others would listen to our highly intelligent conversation (ha ha ha). We ate, the food was great, and then we got up to pay our bill. By now there was only one table left the rest had gone (however they didn't leave without starring at us trying to figure out who we were before they left). Ah the long walk to the counter getting looked at the whole way. We get to the counter. Jason hands the woman his DEBIT card, she puts it through and then hangs on to it and is moving it in different directions in the light to try to read the name on the card because it was a bit warn. Wow I thought why don't you just ask us if you're that desperate to know who we are? Now perhaps I'm being a bit paranoid here but I really don't understand this small town thing. I feel as though the waitress then discussed with the couple left at the table who we could have been after we left. Again, this may be an issue because I feel like that everytime I get my gas/mail/munchies/whatever else one may need from liquor to meat at the convenience store at the bottom of our street. Anyways, we then headed back up the hill for a night of relaxation on the couch. So for those of you who have been asking me what we did on Valentine's day there you go. That's Valentine's day in a small town for all you city folk, us country folk go all out :)

Fair Trade education continued....

In my last year of university I was taking a class called the sociology of work. It was in this class that my eyes were opened to the horrible world of slave labour. I had no idea that this existed. I, like most other North Americas, was so wrapped up in consumerism that it never even crossed my mind where my products were coming from or who made them. I never thought "hmmm I wonder why that item is so cheap". I just thought "woo hoo a cheap item, I need to buy 4". Sound familiar? Well that in the Constable residence has now changed. This video that I watched three years ago has changed my life immensely. The video is called "Modern Day Slavery". It is from the research of Kevin Bales who has a book called "Disposable People: The New Slavery of the Global Economy". I highly recommend it. You will never look at chocolate the same way again.

In light of Valentine's Day tomorrow I thought I'd enlighten you on the sweet treat that people love to give this time of year...chocolate. This is a long post and that may turn some of you off and I apologize to you for this. However there is no way to shorten what I've written because of the immensity of the problem!

Brian Woods writes “The fact that human life has come to have so little value is shocking, but it is worse when you realize that you are involved. Nothing demonstrates this better than the case of chocolate. From the African plantations via our local sweet shop, chocolate carries slavery into our homes…the international market in cocoa and chocolate helps create the conditions that lead to slavery.” According to research done by transfair Canada in Canada in 2002 nearly 47 million dollars worth of cocoa products came into our country.

Why is this happening and how did the problem become so big? According to activist Pauline Mahoney, the Ivory Coast, in West Africa, accounts for 43% of the world's 6.6 billion-pound annual cocoa crop. The International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, which is based in West Africa, reports that more than 284,000 children are working in hazardous conditions on cocoa farms on the Ivory Coast. The organization found that children harvest the cocoa beans from farms in the jungle using machetes. They also spray crops with pesticides and insecticides, without masks, rubber boots or proper equipment. These children are kidnapped or tricked to leave their home and come work on these farms. In other words, human lives are undervalued and violated just so a non-essential food can be picked and processed as cheaply as possible. (the picture to the right is a picture of one of boys backs from the first picture that was rescued from being a child slave labor on a cocoa farm in the video that I mentioned above, what you are looking at are scars from the many beatings that he would receive)

In 1995, world cocoa prices plummeted. To remain competitive and keep chocolate a cheap treat, the 3.6 million cocoa farmers on the Ivory Coast had to keep their bean prices low, and their labour costs even lower. The price of cocoa beans has halved in the last 10 years, leaving cocoa farmers unable to meet their own needs or pay their workers adequately. The cost of a chocolate bar has doubled over this time, meaning that big companies are profiting while farmers struggle. Therefore as Canadians we are contributing to this problem. Most of the big manufacturers of chocolate purchase their cocoa on international exchanges, where cocoa from Ivory Coast is mixed with cocoa from other countries. This means that none of the chocolate consumed by us Canadians can be guaranteed to not have been produced by children who are forced to work for 18-hour days, without adequate pay, housing, medical care, food or schooling.

Hang in there...I don't want to dump all this on you and not give you a solution!

There is a solution to this growing problem, purchase fair trade products. Transfair Canada is Canada's only independent certification organization for fair trade coffee, tea, and cocoa. TransFair Canada's mission is to improve incomes and living standards of small producers in workers in the South, by expanding the market for Fair Trade products in Canada. Creating and maintaining consumer awareness and confidence in Fair Trade are the central objectives of TransFair Canada.

The transfair Canada “fair trade certified logo” (which you’re seeing on the screen) guarantees consumers that their coffee, tea, and cocoa originates from Fair trade Labeling Organizations International which monitors its producers in Latin America, Africa and Asia. µCanadian importers and distributors of Transfair products must follow certain criteria such as:
1. pay a set minimum price that covers the costs of production
2. advance payments or extend credit to producers to help avoid debt while financing the next year's production
3. and agree to longer term trading relationships that provide producers with added security to plan for the future and promote sustainable production practices

Fair trade certified ensures that importers and distributors are purchasing the coffee beans, cocoa, or tea from democratically organized groups of small farmers who are listed and monitored by Fairtrade Labeling Organization International Registry. These farmers must have:
1. decent wages to the workers
2. good housing, the right to join a union, and no child or forced labour
3. minimum health & safety standards
4. minimum environmental requirements
Unfortunately, none of America's biggest chocolate companies yet offer Fair Trade. This includes Mars, the leading chocolate company in the world and the 4th largest private company in the USA. According to Candy USA Mars' three owners are worth a combined $31.2 billion. Surely they can afford to offer the Fair Trade alternative!

Fair Trade certified chocolate products have been widely available in Europe for years. There is clearly a sufficient supply of Fair Trade cocoa for the US chocolate industry given that Fair Trade cooperatives produced a total of 89 million pounds of cocoa in 2001, but sold only 3 million at Fair Trade prices. The price for these products is comparable to other products when the consumer takes into consideration that the farmers are getting a minimum price per pound, which is 30 cents more than what the cocoa market is at right now. If the cocoa market goes up the fair trade farmers are always guaranteed to be making at least five cents more per pound than those who sell their cocoa to the international exchange. Coffee and tea follows this as well. A poll done in 1998 by Transfair Canada found that 41% of Canadians would pay more for their coffee, if they knew that farmers were paid a fair price. Also because of the awareness programs done by transfair Canada, between 1997 and 1999 sales of fair trade coffee in Canada increased by 500%.

I agree with activist Pauline Mahoney who believes passionately that consumers are powerful and if we use our money with compassion and wisdom we can change the world. I have been buying and consuming fair trade products for four years now and although I’m just one person I feel as though I have made a difference through living deliberately in this way and by educating my family and friends on the decision that I’ve chosen.

Fascinating....

K, I really am trying to get back into the blogging thing. So hang in there please and thanks for your patience :) The problem is (well it's not a problem we're really excited) that we leave in three weeks for a vacation so blogging will be on hold again. However you just never know. Maybe I'll surprise you with some special pics of all of the cool places we're going to while we're away. For those of you that don't know we're off to Arizona, California and Nevada. My father lives in Arizona so we're very excited that we can go hang out with him and his girlfriend and see all the great tourist spots. Jason has screwed his back up practicing swinging his new golf clubs in the basement. I can't wait to lug those things through customs on top of all the luggage. Oh boy!

Anyways, I wanted to direct those of you interested into one of my friend's blogs. My friend Hanni has always fascinated Jason and I with his knowledge. He went to Mount A and did his honours in biochemistry (graduated the same time as me making my honours in Sociology look easy compared to the crazy stuff he was doing). He then went onto McGill to do his Masters in biochem and now he's working on becoming a doctor at Queens University. Who knew that I would ever be associated with anyone who would become a doctor? Anyways, he's a great guy and I'm very thankful that my sister directed me to his blog. His firends post medical questions that they want to know about and then, when he has the time between patients and such, he'll post responses. I find it fascinating how the human body works and Hanni (for the most part) puts it in simple terms so that my non-doctorial (does that work?) head gets it.

I have a close friend who has kidney disease and I was very curious how the human body produces urine and what that's all about. So I asked Hanni to post something about it. I thought that it was very interesting and I had no idea that pee was so important. I guess I just took for granted that my body is able to produce it and I find it annoying that the urge sometimes comes in the worst possible moments. However after reading his blog my view on my annoying urine urges has changed. Anyways, enough with the babble and my urine...hee hee hee. Feel free to check out his blog in your spare time. It's http://offthecontrary.blogspot.com/. Let me know what you think!

Mmmmm Muffins....

For those of you that know me I'm a little obsessed with baking. In fact lately I've been renting myself out on Sundays to teach people how to make muffins. Acutally just two of my friends but it's been a lot of fun. After spending yesterday baking muffins with a friend I decided this morning that I'd make myself some of my favorite muffins. After eating one when they're all warm and yummy coming out of the oven I decided to pass on this recipe to all of you. This is the best muffin recipe I have ever found. I never get sick of them. The pineapple in these muffins make them so moist. I've shared this recipe with many who all love them as well (well unless your throat tightens when you eat pineapple then they weren't so delightful for one of you). I've made a few alterations to the recipe so I'll include those in here. Let me know what you think if you venture into baking these yummy muffins!

Pineapple Muffins

INGREDIENTS:
1 1/3 cup all-purpose flour (I use half whole wheat)
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup light brown sugar, firmly packed
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup chopped pecans (I use walnuts, find they go better with the recipe)
2/3 cup rolled oats
1 cup sour milk (just add one Tbs. of vinegar to a cup of milk and let stand a few minutes to make sour milk)
1/2 cup melted butter (I use 1/4 cup unsweetened apple sauce and 1/4 cup canola oil)
1 large egg
1 can (approximately 15 ounces) crushed pineapple, drained well
1/2 cup shredded unsweetened coconut

PREPARATION:
1. In a large bowl, mix together flour, sugar, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, pecans, and oats. Make a well in the center of the mixture.
2. In a separate bowl, whisk together sour milk or buttermilk, melted butter or margarine, and egg.
3. Pour into well in flour mixture; stir to blend just until dry ingredients are moistened, but do not overmix. Gently fold in drained pineapple and coconut.
4. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups, filling about 2/3 full. Bake muffins at 400° for about 20 minutes, or until tops are lightly browned and firm. Transfer pans to rack to cool for about 5 minutes. Gently turn pineapple muffins out onto rack to cool completely. (makes about 18 muffins)

Sorry Mandi....

Mandi this one is for you from Jason! He made me do it. Actually I guess I could have said no but you know me...gotta be a brat :)

Oh dear....

Ha ha ha ha I just couldn't help myself....this ones for you dad!