I saw on the today show (I think it was yesterday) a story about how the price of gasoline continuing to rise is going to be causing the price of milk to jump to $6.00 a gallon in very short order! I hope that they are mistaken, milk is already more expensive than soda! It is hard enough to get kids to drink milk INSTEAD of soda because kids prefer the sweetened drinks. But if the price of milk continues to increase, I’m concerned that for economical reasons the parents will be encouraging the kids to be drinking sweetened drinks in place of milk, which could lead to health problems down the road such as obesity and diabetes.

As part of the news story they were showing some new milk cartons that they say will start to show up on the store shelves soon. I’ve already seen them at Costco; they are squarish and a little bit awkward to handle. The newscasters reported that the reason for the switch to the different jugs is because they can stack them tighter in the truck, which reduces the transportation costs. Well, I’m all about reducing costs!

Posted: July 2nd, 2008 under Business, Finances/Money, Food and Beverage, Health, Issues, Life, News, Parenting, Shopping.
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I’m not usually that scatterbrained that I forget what day of the month it is!  I guess staying home on maternity leave has just run the days together and I forgot that today was the first day of the month.  So what, you may ask?  Well, I decided I wanted to go to the grocery store today - BIG MISTAKE!  The first of the month is the day that the social security checks, and the pension checks, and all the food stamps come out and the grocery stores are MOBBED worse than Christmas time!

I got stuck behind a lady (shopping with four kids) who had FOUR CARTS full of things at checkout, and when the cashier had rung up the order the lady realized that she didn’t have enough money/food stamps to pay for it all so they had to start digging through the carts to pull out items that food stamps wouldn’t pay for.  The kids all started crying because the toys she had promised them had to be left there.  I stood in line for a WHOLE HOUR waiting to check out.

Mental note to self - always look at the calendar date BEFORE going to the grocery store!

Posted: July 1st, 2008 under Business, Food and Beverage, Life, Shopping.
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Over the past several months I’ve been dismayed over how much food our family throws away.  It seems that no matter how hard I try to plan to cook the EXACT right amount of food for a supper, I frequently have leftovers.  In my haste to clean up after supper, I usually just put some kind of plastic wrap over the top of the serving dish and put it in the refrigerator.  Weeks later I discover it got pushed to the back of the refrigerator and is now growing green and gray mold, and it gets thrown out.  Very frustrating!

So I have bought some of those partitioned plastic covered dishes and now after supper (if I have leftovers) I take them out of storage and prepare the dishes for a complete meal.  Meat goes in one section; veggies go in the other two sections.  Then I put THOSE in the refrigerator, and the next time I’m hungry, instead of rummaging around looking for a “quick snack” or making a PB&J sandwich, I’ll pull out one of those prepared meals and warm it up and eat it.  It’s quick and easy (the dishes are dishwasher safe) and I’ll be throwing away less spoiled food!

Posted: June 23rd, 2008 under Blogs, Family, Finances/Money, Food and Beverage, Life, Shopping.
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Today I have to run to the grocery store and shop for the weekend at camp, and I have to do the laundry and get packed. It is a lot of work to pack up a family with a baby!

We are planning on having guests for the weekend at camp, so I have to buy extra food and plan out some special menus. The guests this weekend are my hubby’s boss, wife, and daughter, so I’m kind of excited and nervous at the same time. I’m not quite sure how to keep the daughter entertained for the weekend, I hope she brings something of her own, like a book or some video games!

I’m hoping for a good weekend, so we can do some boating.  Maybe we can teach the boss’s daughter how to water ski!

Posted: June 13th, 2008 under Blogs, Entertainment/Fun, Family, Food and Beverage, Home and Garden, Life, Parenting, Shopping, Travel.
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I was sorry to hear about the salmonells scare associated with tomatoes this week.  It seems that every couple of months there is another scare about something bad happening with our foods!  This type of thing happening over and over again is very distressing.  What is wrong with the quality controls that are supposed to be in place?  Shouldn’t the FDA be on top of this kind of thing?  Aren’t there inspectors to keep this type of thing from happening?

My own family has been very lucky in that we have not had any direct negative effect from these food scares, but it is still very distressing that it is constantly happening.

Posted: June 11th, 2008 under Blogs, Food and Beverage, Health, Home and Garden, Life, News, Shopping.
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