Who Supports Planned Parenthood?

I've been looking for a list of companies and organizations that support Planned Parenthood and/or abortion, and the only list I can find is one that you have to purchase ($21.95): http://www.fightpp.org/index.cfm. It's from Life Decisions International and is called their "boycott list." I don't think I can really afford to buy the list, and I don't think I could handle boycotting every company on the list, but I am becoming a little bit more amenable to the idea of boycotting stuff for a worthy cause. It's kind of like organic food: I used to think, "Oh please, how could it possibly be worth my time/effort/money to think that hard about what I buy?" But now, I'm starting to see the point. I really hope Wal-Mart isn't on this list...

Farm Crawl

Doesn't this look like fun: http://www.farmcrawl.com/? You drive from farm to farm, checking out all of the animals and produce and eating yourself silly. Just think how many goats I'd get to see. It's on Sunday, October 2nd, so mark your calendars now!
Here are the links to the farms that are participating:
http://www.bluegatefarmfresh.com/
http://www.faktorwillowridge.com/index.html
http://www.peacetreebrewing.com/
http://www.coyote-run-farm.com/
http://www.crookedgapfarm.com/
http://www.dandfarms.com/http://www.facebook.com/pages/Chariton-IA/Pierces-Pumpkin-Patch/163211600308
http://www.reichertsdairyair.com/
http://www.grapeescapeiowa.com/
http://www.schneiderorchard.com/
http://www.whitebreastpottery.com/

Des Moines Farmer's Market

The Thams and Schoonover families went to the Des Moines downtown farmer's market last weekend, and it was awesome. As well as unbearably hot. I got some great stuff, including fresh almond butter (which is almost gone), cinnamon-raisin-walnut bread (which is long gone), lemon-chive pasta, a hunk of ginger, and garlic-lemon basil jelly. The jelly was definitely the most interesting find, and it's totally addictive. The flavor is really subtle, and you don't really taste it until after you've swallowed it. Very cool. Check out this and the other Blue Gate Farm preserves here: http://www.bluegatefarmfresh.com/Preserves.htm. I want to figure out how to make it, but I just discovered that you're generally not supposed to use a pressure canner on a ceramic/glass cooktop, because the top can crack from the heat and weight of the canner. Dang it. The only solution is to get a camping stove or some other stove substitute, which is probably an investment for another year. The canner itself is $85, plus the stove, plus the tools and jars...we're going to focus on freezing stuff this year instead. Luckily, you can freeze just about anything after you blanch it, so there you go. I might try drying some stuff too, like tomatoes and garlic. I want to try to braid the garlic together and hang it in the kitchen, like you see in vampire movies. Mwahahaha (diabolical laughter)...

Netflix News

Did you know that Netflix is raising their rates? I think we were paying $10 per month for the instant (internet/Wii) option plus 2 DVD's at a time by mail; the new rate is $16 for that same package. We dropped the mail-in option and are back down to $8 per month, which is okay with me. We only ordered 3 or 4 DVD's by mail, and one of them was Blues Brothers, which Isaac ordered unbeknownst to me and I didn't let him watch (partly because of the content and partly because he ordered it without asking me). Then, we lost the envelope that you mail it back in, so I have to go to the post office and get a new mailer to send it back in.
I still love Netflix, and it's still extraordinarily cheap. And someday, when I have a spare $1,000, I'm going to buy an internet-ready TV so I can enjoy it in my bedroom. What is an internet-ready TV? Check these out: http://spaceygracey.hubpages.com/hub/32-inch-LED-Internet-TV. Cool.

Simon's Birthday

Simon Wood is seven years old! Grandma, Grandpa, Great-Grandma, Great-Grandpa, and Em & Todd & the cousins came over to help us celebrate this last kid-birthday of the household for 2011. He got a ton of art supplies, which he desperately needed, and I got to make my delicious new strawberry shortcake recipe and pass it off as birthday cake. I made it with fake sugar, sugar-free glaze, and light whipped cream/cream cheese, and you would never have known.

Countdown to School

I've been telling everyone that we're starting school on August 1, and I can't believe that it's only two weeks away! Is it too late to change my mind? Can't we have another month or two? Have we really spent enough time at the pool??
Anyway, I've been buying school supplies left and right and trying to get our workspace organized, and I'm starting to get kind of nervous/excited/scared. I feel like I used to feel as a student near the beginning of the year...half excitement, half dread. My current project is printing out stuff for the kids to paste on their "workspace dividers", which are those trifold state-fair-display boards that we're going to use to give everyone some privacy while they're working independently. One of the things I've printed for them to post on their dividers is a schedule of our day, which I'm hoping will look something like this:

7:00 – 8:00:        Get up and Get Ready

8:00 – 8:15:        Bible

8:15 – 8:30:        Language Arts

8:30 – 9:30:        Math

9:30 – 9:45:        Spelling

9:45 – 10:05:      English

10:05 – 10:15:    Math Drill and Snack

10:15 – 10:45:    Geography & Book Basket

10:45 – 11:05:    Science

11:15 – 11:45:    Reading

11:45 – 12:05:    Character Training

12:05 – 1:00:      Clean-up and Lunch

So, as you can see, by 12:05 we're done with our formal school day, and the afternoon is free for catching up on work or special projects, field trips, chores, errands, and fun stuff. My main concern is the getting up and getting ready by 8 part. Yes, we used to do this every day, but we've been totally slacking off all summer. Esme hasn't seen 7 a.m. - or 8 a.m. - for weeks. Yikes.

Jobs in Carroll

I know that Carroll seems kind of lame to people living in bigger, more exotic places - you know, like Des Moines. However, I love it here (don't tell the teenage me that I said that), and there are actually a lot of job opportunities, which surprises me a little bit. I was looking through the paper (not for a job for myself, I promise), and here's what I found:
Office assistant at New Cooperative
Farmland (factory) worker
Farmland production supervisor
Farmland maintenance/environmental coordinator
RN case manager at Iowa Hospice
Cook at Charlie's
Cook at Santa Maria
Full and part-time at the child care center
Waitress at A&W
Janitorial crew in "large retail store"
Commodity handler
Mediacom sales representative
Clerk at Sara Lee bakery
Automation technician at VT Industries
Child Care Consultant at West Central Community Action
School bus drivers
Part-time at Sunnybrook Assisted Living

So get out your necktie and your resume and come on over! Tell them the Schoonovers sent you.