The Life of Mrs. Miles

VALINDA AND BARB'S (OLIVIA DORAZIO'S)
QUICK PAGE #4

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Isn’t this QP amazing? THANKS to my dear friend Valinda who so generously created it using my Peppermints and Polka Dots kit, which you can purchase in FULL by clicking HERE. Valinda always has wonderful giveaways on her blog too. Won’t you stop by and check her out? Just click HERE.

the CHERRIES are ripe!

did I mention the CHERRIES are RIPE?

like, did we buy a 20lb box three days ago and they're almost gone?

Hmmpf! AmyW and I are thinking on the same track – Good Summer Reads! Part of our day now consists of taking a few hours out of the hottest time of the day, sitting down on the beach and when I’m not in the water, burying my nose in a good book. WHAT have I read? WHAT am I currently reading?

JUST READ:

The Omnivore's Dilemma
a natural history of four meals
by Michael Pollan

This book was the ‘MEAL’. It was good food for my brain, being educational and fascinating all at the same time. Once I cracked the cover, I could not put it down. My time is so valuable, that it has to be a VERY good book for me to read it cover to cover, if its non-fiction. This book fulfilled my curiosity and interest in every way.

I heard the author, Michael Pollan being interviewed on NPR radio. You can listen to the audio article by clicking HERE. Michael’s book opened my eyes and mind to examine what I’m putting in my stomach, and how it is produced. His book has some good answers some of the very questions I’ve always had regarding whether its more ethical to be a vegetarian or not. He follows food from the fields (and feedlot) to your table. He explores foraging, hunting and preparing your own food. He examines whether its reasonable and even wise to eat food grown local etc.

He’s opened my eyes to the fact that corn is in almost all of the prepared foods (and drinks too) we consume. We rely on corn so much that the whole system has created a monopoly with corn production – because, we also need it for fuel now too. So farmers are producing HUGE amounts of corn, and NOTHING else. Along with this, they need fertilizers and pesticides. So what Michael does is compares this with the other type of farmer. The one who works a smaller farm, and is very diverse in both the animals sustained, along with fruits and vegetables, and how its all a symbiotic relationship – a circle of plant and animal life. The point is, if we do not become self sustaining, then we rely on ONE thing, and if that ONE THING goes wrong, we will all be in trouble. You know the old saying “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket” – he’s saying that literally about the way we grow and produce our food.

Do you know that McDonalds is allowed to spray Chicken McNuggets with the substance tertiary butylhydroquinone, or TBHQ, which is an antioxidant made from petroleum? Its sprayed right on the nugget or on the box it comes in, supposedly to ‘help preserve freshness’ Michael goes on to tell us that the Consumer’s Dictionary of Food Additives indicates TBHQ is a form of BUTANE – ya, LIGHTER FLUID. The FDA lets processers use it (sparingly) in our food. In the case of a McD’s Nugget, thats no more than 0.02 percent in each nugget. Good thing – for if you ingested a mere single gram of TBHQ you could experience ‘ vomiting, nausea, delirium, ringing in the ears, the sense you are suffocating, or even collapse!’ If THATS not scary enough for you, ingesting five grams can KILL.

I think what most impressed me, is that the author followed EVERY avenue of the food, personally. He walks us through the system and explains it all in language even I could follow along easily. I would say this is a MUST READ. If not for anything more than being more conscious of where our food really comes from and how we can make wise choices in our own lives in how and what we eat.

Sidenote: There are a few swearwords in the book. Very few, (like one or two instances in the entire 450 page book) and I don’t believe they were used to glorify cursing itself. Because I’ve made the choice to have a ‘Family Friendly’ Blog I think it best to tell you ahead of time.

So this book was my MEAL, but the following book was definitely DESSERT!

Daring Chloe

by Laura Jensen Walker

Arriving in the mail a mere week or so ago, Laura Jensen Walker’s DARING CHLOE is a must-read for lovers of a good Chic-Lit. Daring Chloe begins with us feeling the sting of being left at the alter – well, just BEFORE the alter, but ya know! Talk about having all your eggs in a basket, I think (being a former runner) it would be like spending months upon months preparing to run a marathon, only to injure yourself before the big day, or have the race cancelled – only this is x100, as its life-changing.

Poor Chloe, methinks. But, though she’s ‘stinging’, she’a a spunky gal, surrounded by a loving (ok, sometimes she can feel they’re a tad smothering) family, and her friends, who all happen to be in a book-reading group together. Everyone bands together to try to help Chloe move on (even her co-workers unknowingly ‘help’ her move forward when they have a gossip session in the work washroom not knowing she’s in a cubicle... *angst for HER*)

There’s also the best guy friend of her ex-fiance, who she wants to hate, but he’s so darn NICE...

The story just gets better and better as the book-club girlfriends decide to each choose their favorite book and LIVE the storyline in some way. Ultimately, this fun group of young women wind up in *sigh* PARIS, France. (JanMary, you would LOVE this book, having just spent some time in Paris with your husband!) (and Becks, its read now, so I’ll find a way to get it to you – a good read when you’re resting up after baby’s arrival!)

PURE DESSERT, Daring Chloe is a ‘vacation in your mind’ book. I see there’s to be another coming in the series – I know for one I’ll be lining up for that one too! To visit Laura Jensen Walker's website to get your own copy, just click HERE.

CURRENTLY READING:

I’ve JUST started these two books – I like to have one that feeds my wisdom and one that feeds my imagination.

He Speaks to Me
by Priscilla Shirer

He Speaks to Me – Preparing to Hear from God by Priscilla Shirer (daughter of Dr. Tony Evans) and published by Moody Publishers.

A Thousand Voices
by Lisa Wingate

A Thousand Voices by Lisa Wingate, published by Penguin

where I'm headed!

With no further adooo – I’m off to read! Have a wonderful day!