Free Dinner!

On Friday night, after work, Jesse asked me, "So where do you want to eat tomorrow night?"

"Tommorow night?" I said. "What's tomorrow night?"

Jesse shrugs, and explained that his boss told him that since he worked extra hard this week, he should take his family out for dinner this weekend, and the company would reimburse him. Cool!

So tonight, we went out to The Rainforest Cafe. Very fun place to eat! And usually very busy and definitely not cheap. The ceilings are covered in trees and vines. There are elephants and gorillas that periodically become mechanically animated and make noises and move around. There's a "starry" sky, and rainbows, and butterflies on the walls that flap their wings. And giant fish tanks filled with large, exotic fish! And every half hour, there's a thunderstorm with flashing lights and loud thunder sounds. We've gone a couple times before for special occasions, and neither of the kids seemed upset by it. But this time, Jacob was definitely a bit scared by the thunderstorm. He got a really worried look on his face, and after it was over, he just wouldn't stop talking about the "loud" noises coming from "that tree" (it did have a lot of strobe lights shining on it...). So when the 2nd thunderstorm came around, I held him on my lap and covered up his ears. That seemed to help a bit. Of course, after that, he couldn't stop talking about the loud noises and would point out that he needed his ears covered. All in the sort of broken-up speech of a 2-year-old, of course. He and Melinda both absolutely loved the rest of the environment, though, to the point where they barely touched their food, they were so busy looking around! And of course, even though we stuffed ourselves full with a large appetizer on top of our large dinner plates, we still made room for the yummy "Volcano" dessert - thick slices of brownie cake with ice cream and whipped cream and fudge all put together to form a volcano shape, topped with a dazzling sparkler when they bring it to your table!

It was such a nice change from our normal meals lately. And one of the best parts is that we have plenty leftover for lunch tomorrow!

The leaning snowman

Today, we had the second snow of the season. It's been a while, hasn't it! I wasn't feeling that great today, but Melinda's incessant begging caused me to finally force myself to get everyone bundled up to go outside and play. It was the perfect snow for snowballs and snowmen. So, we went ahead and built a snowman. He was standing up so nice and straight when we built him. It was the first thing we did outside. We stayed out for about an hour, also playing with snowballs, and sledding down the hill again (thank goodness both kids were fine with walking back up after the ride down, I was happy to stay perched up on the sidewalk at the top of the hill!). When we came in, the kids had a nice "warming up" bath. When they were dressed again, we wandered back toward the front room and looked out the window - and the snowman was now leaning to the side. A couple hours later, it was getting dark, and the snowman was leaning even further over. We all thought he would fall down any second! Kinda looks impossible in the picture, doesn't it? When Jesse finally got home, he went outside to try and fix it. His attempt resulted in the beheading of Mr. Snowman! (But oh, the kids got a good laugh out of that!!). He quickly made a replacement head, but Melinda wasn't happy that it was smaller than the head he originally had.

Not that it really matters - the snow has already changed over to rain, and it's supposed to rain most of the night and be warmer tomorrow, so the snowman probably won't survive anyway.

Oh, and yes, the snowman has too many sticks. Melinda did the arms, but Jacob wanted to help too, so he gave the snowman a tail. There's also one sticking straight forward out of the bottom snowball... Melinda says that one is a belly button. Of course!

The Future of Food

Jesse and I watched a documentary a month or so ago, called "The Future of Food". To me, this really seems like a film that everyone should see, if they have a chance to see it. You can read the synopsis of the movie from their website below. My summary? Basically, if you watch this movie, I think you'll agree with me that it's easy to predict where the famine and pestilence in the last days might come from. Nothing good can come from essentially forcing farmers to farm a certain way or a certain type of produce. It not only harms the farmers themselves, but affects the nutritional intake of those who eat the food (that's us, folks!), and the ability of the earth to sustain the growth of the food (for instance, instead of farmers rotating crops, farmers have begun growing one crop over and over and over again... NOT good for the earth). I think that by watching this movie, you'll also find additional wisdom in the counsel given to us to grow our own gardens, become self-sufficient, and have at least a year's supply of food. Not that I'm good at *any* of that yet, but I can see the wisdom in it!

We viewed "The Future of Food" with our Netflix account. You might be able to see it if you have a similar movie rental program through Blockbuster, or even local rental chains might have it available if they carry other documentaries.

You can watch a trailer of the movie here.

There is a revolution happening in the farm fields and on the dinner tables of America -- a revolution that is transforming the very nature of the food we eat.

THE FUTURE OF FOOD offers an in-depth investigation into the disturbing truth behind the unlabeled, patented, genetically engineered foods that have quietly filled U.S. grocery store shelves for the past decade.

From the prairies of Saskatchewan, Canada to the fields of Oaxaca, Mexico, this film gives a voice to farmers whose lives and livelihoods have been negatively impacted by this new technology. The health implications, government policies and push towards globalization are all part of the reason why many people are alarmed by the introduction of genetically altered crops into our food supply.

Shot on location in the U.S., Canada and Mexico, THE FUTURE OF FOOD examines the complex web of market and political forces that are changing what we eat as huge multinational corporations seek to control the world's food system. The film also explores alternatives to large-scale industrial agriculture, placing organic and sustainable agriculture as real solutions to the farm crisis today.