Monthly Archives: March 2010

>Health Coverage for all – are you listening, Congress?

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>One of the best posts I’ve read about making health coverage available to all: Erin at Queen of Spain talks about her day in the ER.

I saw a news feature about a new treatment for head lice; it’s safer and greener, a method that suffocates the little bugs rather than kills them. Avoiding pesticides on children’s heads? Good. Bad? It’s only available by prescription. Families I’ve known who’ve been repeatedly re-infected haven’t had health insurance. If payday was recent enough, they’d head to the drugstore for an over-the-counter remedy and hoped it would work. Meanwhile, their kids miss school until all the nits can be stripped using the proverbial fine-toothed comb.

Two kids talking on their way to recess:
Student 1: “Mrs. Teacher, do you know anything about insurance? Like doctors? Doesn’t everyone have that?”
Student 2: “My mom doesn’t. She wants to get a good job so she can go to the doctor when she’s sick.”
Two ten-year-olds bringing health care coverage into their real lives: what’s wrong with this picture? One was a middle-class child, two working parents with good benefits in their jobs. The other was a child of a recent divorce and a tough time financially. Both were hardworking children of hardworking parents. Why should one family have coverage and the other not?

Erin (a.k.a. Queen of Spain) was lucky; she could drive directly to the ER without a second thought.

Remember the signs at the Vancouver Olympics? You know, after the USA surprised Canada’s hockey team by beating them 5-3 in the first round.

Heck, now they have a gold medal, too. When will the U.S. find its gold medal health care? Please don’t tell me that only time will tell; we need it now.

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>Honey, I broke the shredder.

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>I’ve been cleaning and purging the basement shelves, determined not to be a hoarder. Every time I’m waiting for the washer to fill and the detergent to dissolve, I find another basement box and attack it. I’ve managed to find and freshen books that go to school or Goodwill or Paperbackswap.com, clothes that are not suitable for anyone in the house (why did I keep these?) and go to Goodwill, and more. I’ve cleaned shelves, buckets, boxes, and done so thoughtfully. Last weekend I found an old (read: older than Amigo) box of cancelled checks.

The checks were from a savings and loan that no longer exists. It converted to a bank, then merged with another, and by now I’m sure it’s been swallowed so far it’s unrecognizable. The checks date back to the days when people would get their cancelled checks back in the mail: paper checks. Honestly, you youngsters, that’s the way it was.

I looked them over. I recognized our favorite stores for groceries and sundries. The day care centers for the young La Petite and the younger Amigo. I saw the various styles of checks and remembered that we used to take turns choosing the design each time we reordered. Teddy bears, bright colors, trains, coffee motifs, initial monograms – it was like walking through a photo album of our interests many years ago.

The account number would be irrelevant; the account was closed long ago. The address and phone number would be fifteen years outdated as well. But the checks contained our drivers’ license numbers, and I wasn’t sure if there were other identifying numbers handwritten on the memo lines.

That left the shredder. I got through about three years worth of old auto loans and everyday expenses when the shredder shrugged and shuddered and announced with a groan that it was done. I unplugged it and let it rest, thinking maybe the fine appliance was just overheated. Chuck gently tugged scraps from the blades with a needle nose pliers. The shredder works now, but only for a few sheets of paper. Destroying the rest of the checks would take months at this rate.

What to do? We did the only thing left: we lit a fire in the fireplace. Chuck crumpled the checks and added one small pile at a time to the fire. We joked about burning money. We enjoyed the ambiance and watched the Closing Ceremonies while our old money burned.

I can’t imagine the next box from the basement will contain the memories – or the challenges – that this one did. Readers, what have you found when you’ve cleaned and purged? Anything challenging? Interesting? Please share in the comments!

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>Chili in the pot

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>

The Twitter Moms organization was looking for recipes that used canned food. My first reaction was to offer up the easy fruit cobbler made with a can of any fruit. It’s easy and delicious.

Then I read the directions. The request and the resulting contest called for a dish using at least two canned food items. This was a little harder in my pseudo-locavore home, but not impossible. One of my standards, crock-pot chili, uses several cans. I like it with homemade tomato sauce, but I rarely have sufficient tomato crop to make it that way for long. Chili is my standby when I have meetings or classes after teaching all day. Grandma comes over, adds the noodles, and serves it up with whatever side dish Amigo wants. In fact, to give credit where credit is due, “my” crock-pot chili was hers first.

The next requirement was to watch this video about canned food. At 10 minutes it was a little long for my taste (I’d rather read than watch videos), but I did see some interesting facts. My favorite part was the timeline in the beginning showing the history of canned food preservation. Did you know that early canned food sustained the Napoleonic Army? I didn’t, either. And that canned food was (supposedly) safe to eat after nuclear testing, making it the Thing To Have on the shelves in case of nuclear attack? Nope, I didn’t have that little piece of info, either.

But that’s not why I make chili. I keep the staples for making crock-pot chili in my pantry year round. Here it is:

Daisy’ Mom’s Crock-Pot Chili

1 can red beans (kidney beans, chili beans, or other)
1 can tomatoes (I like Red Gold diced with chilis)
1 lb. ground beef or turkey, browned (leftover sloppy joe meat or meatsauce from spaghetti works, too)
1 tablespoon chili powder
1/4 cup red and/or green peppers
1/4 cup diced onion
1 large can tomato sauce (or leftover spaghetti sauce: you get my drift, it varies)

Place ingredients in crock-pot in that order. Cook on low for 8-10 hours or on high for 4-6 hours. In true Wisconsin style, I add 1 cup elbow macaroni or pasta shells about an hour before serving.
Serve with grated cheese (I said it’s Wisconsin!) or sour cream on top. Mmmmmm.

This is not a sponsored post. It is an entry in a contest on Twitter Moms. In fact, I’m not entirely sure the widget will work; I have yet to successfully upload a TM widget to Compost Happens. Well, here goes!

Watch the Field to Table Video


Canned Food Alliance

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>Creativity; the kind I’d rather avoid.

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>Oh, lovely day. My students are expanding their outlook in a way I’d rather they didn’t.

They have a new vocabulary word. The word is Hob knocker; if you look this word up there are several definitions:

A Hob Knocker is a person that is considered cool but in a nerdy geekish kind of way. (Nickelodeon Definition)
Hob Knocker: one who goes around hitting people in their privates. (true English Definition)
Another definition is that one goes around hitting others WITH their privates. (true English Definition)

Student definition: it means someone that walks around, acts cool, does drugs and smokes.

What will they think of next? No, don’t answer that. I don’t think I want to know.

In other news, I intercepted the following note between two students.

R we going 2 play puppies at morning recess?
do you love me?

OMG! They’re only 10 years old! Between the HobKnockers and the puppies and the young love, they don’t leave much to chance.

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