Yes, I’ve decided to embark on a meat free lifestyle for a while. I wish I could say that I held some strong convictions or real compassion toward the animals, but that’s just not the case. It all started following a recent doctor’s visit where my blood pressure was a bit high. I’ll admit, I was a bit shocked. Although my race almost automatically makes me a target for hypertension, I’m at a healthy weight and consume a reasonably healthy diet. Reasonably healthy, meaning we don’t indulge in fast food or much processed junk, but I can get a little… excited on my cookie baking sprees.
Besides that, for whatever reason, going to the doctor makes me sooo nervous! Nervous like, my stomach will be in knots until I’ve made it back to my car! I’m not sure if that had anything to do with it at all though. The nurse did check my pressure twice and it was slightly lower the second time around, but the bottom number didn’t budge. Oddly enough though, just a few days later, Brian Williams had a segment on the Nightly News about how most nurses aren’t taking your blood pressure correctly, only checking one arm (like my nurse did), when they should be checking both. He also had his doctor correspondent on and she said some people suffer from, I think they called it, “white coat syndrome”, where patients become extremely nervous at doctor visits. This can result in a spike in your blood pressure! But, all of this happened well after I’d made my decision.
So here I am, meat-free for nearly a week! It hasn’t been too bad either. This was probably the best time for me to embark on this journey seeing as how I’ve been a bit bored with meat lately. And honestly, good quality meat is expensive! Besides the healthy benefits, vegetarianism may also be a bit more cost effective. All the extra money spent trying to make sure my cows ate grass could be saved by just skipping the cow and going straight for the grass myself! I tell you what though, I wouldn’t mind a strip of applewood bacon…
In other news, I’ve quickly become a homeschooler of two, much sooner than I’d anticipated. My youngest, Marlee, just made two-years-old in December; maybe she knows that’s a milestone or something, because she’s been in on the schooling ever since.
It was a little tough at first! Naturally, Marlee has a two-year-old’s attention span (approximately 2.2 minutes), and it was hard to keep her occupied with one activity. I tried having a stash of “special toys” that were only hers and she only got to play with them during school time. This included some big building blocks, board books, a bucket of beads and spoons, and a white board with a dry erase marker. She was interested in each item for the above mentioned 2.2 minutes, and then she was back into her normal mischief! I don’t know what took me so long, but I finally just sat her at the table with Nevaeh (the oldest) and I during the school hour, and that seemed to have done the trick! I think she really would rather feel like she was participating than having to play alone (right next to us) on the floor. So, whatever we’re doing, I just have a modified version of the project for her to work on. She has her own special pencil she gets to use and she even gets to color with the Sharpees (which was a BIG deal, let me tell you). The adjustments have smoothed themselves out things are going great. Luckily school only lasts about an hour though!
Nothing about vegetarianism or homeschooling in this photo, just general cuteness!
