Zhu Zhu Pets (...or You've GOT to Be KIDDING ME!)

If you don't want to listen to a rant, stop reading.

If you want to know how culturally out-of-it I am, keep reading.

For the last few days, I've been following CraigsList, looking for a couple of used toys. The name "Zhu Zhu" pets is posted after about every 5 or 10 entries. Curiousity got the best of me, and I made the mistake of googling it. Here's the commercial that I've been missing. Don't push the link unless you're ready to puke commit yourself. When I played the commercial, LilDude came running in to see what it was. He'd never seen it before either. (I think this must prove that we aren't watching much t.v.) We looked over the site, watched a YouTube video of the thing in action and looked at each other like, "You've got to be kidding me!" But, alas, a mere look online will tell you that:

1. Many parents in the U.S. are giving their kids a Zhu Zhu for Christmas.

2. Most of the remaining parents in the U.S. are desperately seeking Zhu Zhu pets and will give their child's college education to obtain one.

3. A significant number of people are making a FORTUNE off these inane toys. They bought 'em up, cornered the market, and are now charging insane amounts of money to the people in #2 above.

I seriously don't get it. The toy has little educational value. (Actually NONE, in my opinion, but no one asked me.) It's use is extremely limited. And it costs a small fortune. I read one YouTube comment that said, "America deserves the coming financial meltdown. Should've bought a real hamster. At least you could've eaten it when the food runs out."

Like Cabbage Patch Baby and Tickle Me Elmo of the past, I'm quite sure that this insanity will end, probably within hours of Zhu Zhu being opened. Zhu Zhu will be the Goodwill buy of the week. And parents will be reassured that Little Johnny is indeed the happiest child on earth.

Oh, and btw,...for exactly the price of one Zhu Zhu house and pet a child in GG's orphanage can be placed in foster care. For a month.

Just sayin'.

Be a Non-Consumer. It's cool.

Katy at The Non-Consumer Advocate writes:

...here’s my very extremely complicated and high tech advice to minimize your role in climate change:

Stop buying tons of unnecessary brand new stuff.

Thank you.

Love that!

And I'm trying. With five kids, including three teenagers. Go ahead. Feel sorry for them. I do.

Occasionally.

Do you ever consider how much of your life is dedicated to the purchasing of new stuff? The organizing of new stuff? The storing of new stuff? Ever think about how those hours could be better spent?

I do.

Book: There is No Me Without You

I highly, highly recommend There is No Me Without You, a true story of one woman's attempt to make a difference in the lives of Ethiopian orphans, most of whom have been orphaned due to the AIDS crisis.

Imagine a world in which there are no adults left...

Living Free of Clutter

I just read a thought-provoking article, "Enough is Enough," that talks about how frugality "doesn't mean cutting back or using only lower-cost ingredients. It means the wise use of resources and avoiding excesses." It goes on to talk about how letting go of clutter (of all kinds) opens "space in our lives for something new to happen." In the spirit of welcoming in the New Year, it's a great read.

Where Do Your Old Electronics Go???

Anyone else catch 60 Minutes this week? If not, you might want to check out "The Electronic Wasteland" reporting on the immense numbers of used electronics--computers, etc--that are being shipped to China where the heavy metals (particularly lead) end up contaminating the country...and the people who live there. The story shows how what is sometimes advertised as "clean recycling" in the U.S. may not actually be...

How Will You Spend Money This Christmas?

A challenge for you to consider...this is a video worth watching!

P.S....anyone know how to use the embedded link from YouTube without getting the optional 14 videos posted automatically after you watch the first one? I first embedded the link. It worked fine (you got to watch the right video), but then it automatically gives you an assortment of 14 other videos to watch that have some of the same titles...and they include stuff I don't want to feature!

Let's talk CHRISTMAS!

Okay, so I know it's a bit early. But any day now, our senses are going to be bombarded with messages telling us to buy, buy, buy. Walk in any store from October to December, and you'll see Christmas (or at least the retailers' image of Christmas), plastered everywhere.

At first I thought it'd be easiest to keep my Christmas posts on a separate blog. But my life is already complicated enough, without further complicating it. So I'm going to post my Christmas reflections here.

Are you excited about the coming Christmas season? Finances a little tight? Or maybe you are looking for ways to de-commercialize Christmas and focus on the real reason for the season? For the next several months, let's consider what it takes to make this season enjoyable...all without breaking the bank!

If you are planning to make this a FUN and FRUGAL Christmas in your home, please add a comment below with your blog address and I will add your blog to a list. That way, we can check in with fellow bloggers to see their preparations for Christmas.

To jumpstart your thinking, consider the work of Advent Conspiracy. Here's a blurb from their website:

"The story of Christ's birth is a subversive story of an upside-down kingdom. It's a story of promise, hope, and a revolutionary love that is still changing the world to this day. So, what happened? What was once a time to celebrate the birth of a savior has somehow turned into a season of stress, traffic jams, and shopping lists. And when it's all over, many of us are left with presents to return, looming debt that will take months to pay off, and this empty feeling that we somehow missed its purpose.

Is this what we really want out of Christmas?

What if Christmas became a world-changing event again by turning our focus back to the birth of Christ? What could happen to your family if this focus was celebrated in loud, bold and totally unexpected ways? What if you could actually trade your season of stress for a season celebration and unbelievable memories with your friends and family? What if all of this could save a life at the same time? It can.

Welcome to Advent Conspiracy"

Embarassing, Isn't It?

Bono commented on the current U.S. financial crisis:

"...it is extraordinary to me that you can find $700 billion to save Wall Street and the entire G8 can't find $25 billion to save 25,000 children who die every day of preventable, treatable disease and hunger."

Groundnut Stew (a "10" says 'LilDude)

In our home we like to sample foods from many different countries and cultures. One of my favorite cookbooks is Extending the Table...A World Community Cookbook. It contains foods from the majority of countries in the world using recipes that don't use overly exotic or hard-to-come-by ingredients. And the best part? Most of the recipes are very kid (eating) friendly.

Tonight I made a revised version of "Groundnut Stew" from Ghana. 'LilDude said that he'd rate it a "10." That says a lot coming from a 6-year-old!

Here's a photo of my plate. It's a little deceiving since I went back for thirds on the rice/stew. :)



Here's the recipe with my revisions. Taken from Extending the Table...A World Community Cookbook

Groundnut Stew (Ghana)

In heavy frypan or saucepan, brown in 1 T. oil:

1 lb. round steak, chuck, or stewing beef, cubed (I used chicken tonight)

When browned, add 1 T. oil and saute:

2 c. onions, chopped (I use less)
1 clove garlic, minced

Add:

ground red pepper to taste
1/2. t. ground ginger or 1 T. ginger root, minced (I freeze extra ginger root)
2 c. stewed tomatoes or 2 large fresh tomatoes, mashed (frozen works, too)
1 beef bouillon cube (I used vegetable)
1 t. salt
2 c. water
reserved beef (or chicken)

Cover and simmer 30 minutes, or until meat is tender.
In a small bowl, mix:

1/2 c. peanut butter (I use chunky)
1/4 c. liquid from stew

Slowly stir peanut butter mixture into stew. Cover and simmer, stirring frequently, another 30 minutes. Add more water to thin, if necessary. Add more ground red pepper and salt to taste. Serve with rice. (I use brown.)

China Earthquake

A couple years ago, a Chinese woman lived with a family from our church and volunteered at our local school through an exchange program. She lives in the Sichuan province where the earthquake struck. Although they are some distance from the epicenter, her husband has been hiking in on foot to a very remote region to bring medicine, food, tents and other supplies to survivors. Here are two photos he took. The shelter in the picture was made by local people with whatever they could find after the earthquake.

Although I don't have a way to easily connect you to this particular village, Mennonite Central Committee is collecting donations to assist with earthquake relief.

Join the Cool Foods Campaign!

Global food crisis: What you can do

Consider what you eat

Today, the average item of food in the U.S. and Canada travels more than 1,000 miles before it lands on our tables. Through stories and simple "whole foods" recipes, Simply in Season, a Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) cookbook from Herald Press, explores how the food we put on our tables affects our local and global neighbors. The cookbook shows the importance of eating local, seasonal food and invites readers to make choices that offer security and health for our communities, land, bodies and spirit.

Increasing meat consumption has helped drive up demand for grain, and with it the price. MCC just signed on to a campaign called the Cool Foods Pledge. Amongst other consumer actions, this campaign is calling for lower meat consumption.

The Cool Foods Campaign "educates the public about how food choices can affect global warming and empowers them with the resources to reduce this impact. Join [the] “Cool Foods” Campaign and help take a bite out of global warming by changing the way you eat."

According to the Cool Foods site, the top five things you can do to take a bite out of global warming:

1. Eat Organic

I'm working on this. I'm focusing on the dirty dozen (see earlier post) and filling in anywhere else I can. It's a slow process, but do-able.

2. Reduce meat and dairy consumption.

We've never been huge meat/dairy eaters. Often as not, we have a small amount of meat distributed in a larger recipe...like vegetable/rice stirfry with a small amount of chicken or taco soup with a pound of hamburger (that feeds all of us with leftovers.) We greatly reduced our dairy consumption when we learned that Lil Dude was dairy intolerant. The toughest one is breakfast. I have a family of cereal addicts. The cereal is highly processed and dh isn't big on the double expense of buying organic milk. This is the worst meal of the day for us.

3. Avoid processed foods.

Except the cereal, we do pretty well. Again, the gluten/casein free diet that LilDude is on has helped us immensely. But the cereal is our downfall.

4. Buy locally grown foods.

I'm trying. But it's hard. It's been terribly cold and wet here. I can't even find local lettuce yet. I've been buying local spinach (but it's not organic and it's on the dirty dozen, so I hate that) and asparagus, but not much else. Yet. I'm eagerly waiting for garden produce. I have been slowly harvesting lettuce from our raised beds. We've happily eating taco salad several times over the last few weeks (with our locally grown, grass fed beef). All year we have chicken, beef and vegies thanks to canning and/or our freezers. But fresh? It's rough this year.

5. Say no to packaging.

That's automatically easier when we aren't buying much processed food. The biggest habit I lack is using my grocery bags. I've repeatedly had to send one of my big kids back out to the car to get them before we go to checkout. Do they say 40 times make a habit? Working on it...

Unclean, Unclean!!!!!

I picture it from something like a Monty Python movie. Characters swarming the streets chanting, "Unclean, unclean!!!!!!"

So how do you feel about the beef you eat? Apparently, folks in South Korea are so opposed to eating beef imported from the United States that they are ready to impeach their president over the concern. President Lee Myung-bak has been challenged to eat U.S. beef in front of a television audience in an effort to allay concerns. So far, he hasn't agreed. From one of the news articles:

A Washington-based NGO ― Public Citizen ― has found, via requests to the USDA, that at least 131 slaughterhouses in 34 U.S. states had violated the rules on the removal of specified risk material (SRM) between 2004 and 2005.

The civic group said, ``A common situation described in these noncompliance records is when over and under 30 month aged cattle are processed simultaneously, without adequate rinsing or sanitation of equipment.''

Yikes. Not sure if I'd want to import the stuff either.

Oh, wait. I live here....

Which brings to mind a video I watched last week. Fast Food Nation is a fictionalized account of the non-fiction book by Eric Schlosser. It really forces you to consider the question, "Where does my food come from?" The movie depicts everything from the extreme hardships of illegal immigrants who work in the blood bath of meat processing plants to the corrupt fast food marketers who will do anything--including risking lives--to make the big bucks. Warning: at the end of the movie I literally felt sick.

What's Your Water Footprint?

Use this H2O calculator to figure out your water footprint.

Learn more in these two articles:

Not Enough Drops

Water footprint

Human Footprint

A friend alerted me to a special by National Geographic...

"Find out in “Human Footprint” what an average American consumes — and discards — in a lifetime, all in one place at one time via a series of dramatic, revealing and informative visual demonstrations."

You can't view the whole show on-line (bummer since I don't have cable), but you can see a short video on the amount of trash we produce and another on the footprint of cars. Here's a related article on trash. Packaging alone counts for 33% of the trash we make. One obvious way to meet this challenge is to buy local and cook with fresh foods. In general, the less a food travels, the less packaging is involved. From garden to table is the shortest, least packaging route!

If anyone knows of a way to view this National Geographic special on-line, let me know. I'd like to watch it...without ordering it and creating more packaging/trash! ;)

King Corn

King Corn airs TONIGHT locally. Check your local listings for opportunities to see this production in your area.

Behind America’s dollar hamburgers and 72-ounce sodas is a key ingredient that quietly fuels our fast-food nation: corn. In KING CORN, recent college graduates Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis leave the east coast for rural Iowa, where they decide to grow an acre of the nation’s most powerful crop.

Alarmed by signs of America’s bulging waistlines, the filmmakers arrive in the Midwest enthusiastic about their new endeavor. For their farm-to-be, they choose tiny Greene, Iowa—a place that, coincidentally, both Ian and Curt’s great-grandfathers called home three generations ago. They lease an acre of land from a skeptical landlord, fill out a pile of paperwork to sign up for subsidies and discover the U.S. government will pay them 28 dollars for their acre. Ian and Curt start the spring by injecting ammonia fertilizer, which promises to increase crop production four-fold. Then it’s planting time. With a rented high-tech tractor, they set 31,000 seeds in the ground in just 18 minutes. Their corn has also been genetically modified for another yield-increasing characteristic, herbicide resistance. When the seedlings sprout from Iowa’s black dirt, Ian and Curt apply a powerful herbicide to ensure that only their corn will thrive on their acre.

By summer, their modern farm is thriving, and the Corn Belt is moving toward a record harvest of 11 billion bushels of corn. But where will all that corn go? With their crop growing head-high, Ian and Curt leave the farm to see where America’s abundance of corn ends up. As they enter America’s industrial kitchen, they are forced to confront the realities of their crop’s future: sweetening the sodas of a diabetes-plagued neighborhood in Brooklyn, fattening the feed trough of a 100,000 head cattle feedlot in Colorado. Ian and Curt are increasingly troubled by how the abundance of corn is helping to make fast food cheap and consumers sick; driving animals into confinement and farmers off the land. Animal nutritionists confirm that corn feeding makes cows sick and beef fatty, but it also lets consumers have fast food. As feedlot operator Bob Bledsoe says in KING CORN, “Americans want cheap food.”

Almost everything Americans eat contains corn. High-fructose corn syrup, corn-fed meat, and corn-based processed foods are the staples of the modern diet. America’s record harvests of corn are supported by a government subsidy system that promotes corn production beyond all market demand. As Ian and Curt return to Iowa to watch their 10,000-pound harvest fill the combine’s hopper and make its way into America’s food, they realize their acre of land shouldn’t be planted in corn again—if they can help it.

Tomato Sauce Blues...and Buying Locally

I've got the blues... I've got tomato sauce blues...

It's GONE. All GONE! Summer better be here soon!!!

Last summer I had an abundance of extra tomatoes in the garden. I froze a substantial amount. Made salsa. Ate plenty fresh. But there were more...

So I made Basic Tomato Sauce (p. 168) from the Simply in Season cookbook. To preserve more nutrients, I froze it in pint size jars rather than canning. Although it was easiest when I removed it from the freezer a day ahead, I learned that it also wasn't difficult to pull out a jar, even right when it was time to start cooking, and defrost it in a bowl of warm water. The recipe has "hidden benefits" like carrots, green pepper, onion, garlic, and lots of fresh herbs.

When I first started using this strange new concoction, I wasn't sure what to think. It looked so "un-tomato saucy" compared to the canned stuff I was used to. But, oh, how good. I could actually SEE the ingredients. Flecks of carrot. Green pepper. Herbs. Wow! What a change! Tonight, sigh, for the first time, I had to resort back to the store boughten stuff. Now I think IT looks weird!!! Talk about processed!!!!!

While I was cooking dinner I was listening to a radio show about how dependent we are on China. The commentator talked about how our credit card, buy-it-cheap lifestyle started the ball rolling. And we are now so dependent that we couldn't NOT buy from China even if we wanted to.

It's so odd to think about. One hundred--even fifty years ago--we knew where our food came from. Today, when I look in my pantry, there are few things that I can trace back to an original source. I have no idea where that tomato sauce came from...the label only indicates where it was distributed.

Did you know that most apple juice comes from China? I live near one of the apple capitals of the U.S., but I can't find frozen apple juice in any local store with apples grown on this continent. If you're interested, look on the tippy top of the edge of your frozen juice carton. Up on the edge, under where the metal lid clamps down, you might find the "made in China" label. I wonder how those apples were grown? What pesticides or insecticides were used? How the people were treated who grew the apples? How much money those people were paid? And how much fuel it took for it to reach my table?

Can't wait for summer!

Blogging Blue Jeans

Things that can make me feel guilty are also the things that can inspire…

Have you ever pondered blue jeans? Usually when I think of jeans, I think of my boys; especially at young ages, they could easily wear through a pair of jeans before they outgrew them. I used to have two goals:

1. Locate jeans that fit. (I have boys with ultra-slim waists, so this isn’t always easy.)
2. Get them as inexpensively as possible.

But thanks to a friend, I’ve started to think about other topics…like who makes jeans and at what cost? A friend just loaned me a video, China Blue, detailing the world of blue jean manufacturing in China. Young Chinese—usually women—many as young as 13 or 14, leave their families in the country to go make money in city factories. They live in “factory housing” consisting of concrete, sparsely heated rooms, housing about 12 girls/room. Each girl has her own bed…but the beds aren’t used much because the girls routinely work 18 hour days with no overtime pay. They make about 6 cents/hour. Food is subtracted from their wages as are any “infractions” such as the penalty received for staying out late one night. (For this, the girls had to work two days without pay.)

In the scenario presented, the factory owner makes about $4 for a pair of jeans and then the foreign buyer charges about 10x that for the same pair. Leading U.S. jean labels were represented as buyers.

The documentary follows Jasmine, a teenage girl who is the second child from a poor family. As the second child, she is trying hard to earn money, knowing that her family has suffered from having a second child under China’s one-child policy. After two months of working without pay, she learns that new workers typically receive nothing for their first couple months of work. Having no earnings—not even the 6 cents/hour of her peers—she is forced to continue working at the factory even as others spend a month’s pay to travel home for New Year Celebrations.

Jasmine and others typically spend up to 18 hours a day at work in the factory. Her job is to cut threads from each pair of blue jeans. This job, which must be done to perfection, pays 3 cents/pair and demands 30 minutes for each pair of jeans.

The documentary explored the role of foreign buyers who typically overlook working conditions/pay in favor of the bottom line…how cheaply can I buy this so as to make more money when it’s sold at home? A couple of U.S. buyers are named, including one store (…”Gimme a W____!!!!”) that brought a grin to the Chinese factory owner’s face.

Yes, learning all this could make me feel guilty. But it also presents a challenge! Here are some ways I’m trying to meet the challenge:

1. Buy less. Consider need vs. want. My kids probably do need a pair of jeans. They probably don’t need more than a couple.

2. Look at the label. Where were these jeans manufactured? What are the chances that the location = substandard working conditions? If you have homeschool kids—or any kids for that matter—a great exercises is to go on a “global label hunt.” Ask your child to go through his closet and create a tally/graph for the number of clothing items from each country. What does this tell you about your purchases and the “cost” involved—your cost as well as the “cost” to the folks who are making the clothes? A "bargain" for me may mean that someone else "pays the price."

3. Consider used. Can you lengthen the life of a pair of jeans that someone else purchased new? Garage sales, used stores, and trading clothing with friends are all options. I routinely swap with a friend. My daughter’s clothes go to her younger girls. Her older son’s clothes go to my youngest son. It works out great for everyone!

4. Think about the industry. Their goal is to make money. To that end, workers in the country of origin are exploited. Millions of dollars are spent in advertising to convince you that you MUST HAVE whatever is new and in-style. They don’t want you to think. They want you to buy.

What other ways can we rise to this challenge?


A postscript...

Another adoptive parent emailed this to me:

China's Stolen Children

Last week, a British television network aired a controversial documentary titled China's Stolen Children. At one point, the Chinese government tried to block the British broadcast, according to The Sunday Times. The producers summarize the documentary this way: "The film follows the parents of 5-year-old Chen Jie as they desperately search for their kidnapped son, one of up to 70,000 children kidnapped and sold in China every year as a result of the One Child Policy. It includes secretly shot footage of a trafficker buying a one-year-old boy in a park, and negotiating the sale of the child to a couple in a hotel room."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgFxEPePO6g
This is the first of nine parts. I watched all nine segments on YouTube...the entire documentary, I believe. If you watch China Blue, this helps to shed light on why Jasmine, a second child, felt it was so important to bring money to her family.

http://www.truevisiontv.com/china/index.htm
According to this, the documentary is made by the same folks who did The Dying Rooms.

'LilDude's Big Heart

Just read to 'LilDude (5) before bed. We read Everybody Cooks Rice for the first time. It led to a fascinating discussion.

During the book he asked where Vietnam was. I told him it was close to Korea, where he was born. Then, on a later page, I pointed out that China was attached to North Korea. He made the comment that his birth family could visit China. I explained that people from South Korea aren't really able to travel through North Korea to go to China. When he asked why, I explained in VERY simple terms that the leader in North Korea doesn't allow it.

He started asking questions about how much money people in Korea have. This has come up in several past discussions. I told him that South Koreans don't live a lot differently than how we live (this is in 5yo terms, mind you!), but that things were different in North Korea...that some people there don't have a lot of food. I then told him that there are ways that we can give to children in North Korea. Immediately he brightened and said, "Remember my red bag with the change in it? I can give some of that to them!" He was very excited about the prospect. I also told him we could pray for the leader and the people of North Korea. He grinned ear to ear and reminded me when the book was over that he wanted to pray for the leader from "the other Korea."

'LilDude has a BIG HEART! I'm so proud of my boy!

P.S. When we finished the book he said that he wants to "cook all the recipes from the book" together!