Autism: What can YOU do to help?

As a Mother of a 10 year old boy, and a 7 year old girl, I'm often asked about our lives with autism.  I'm often told "I feel so sorry for you..." or other similar endearments.  Honestly though, feeling sorry for me does nothing, nor does it do anything for my countless friends whose children have autism.  A better statement would actually be a question "What can I do to help you?" or better yet, even an action out of understanding.  These actions do not have to be complex, and if you are worried about it, they honestly don't even have to directly involve caring for the child with autism if that is out of your comfort zone.  Here is a list of things that people have done to help me, or I wish they would.  Many have been perfect strangers whose names I don't know and may never see again, and some have been friends, church family and relatives, but honestly, most have been strangers:


 Recognize a mother or father dealing with a behavioral crisis and keep the judgements quiet and assess the situation to see how you can help. 

Here are some examples for people you don't know: 

• Maybe they need a hand with their non autistic child so they can better tend to the child who is melting down. 

 

• Offer to take their other child to the bathroom for them (assuming you are the same sex)  I've had women who are perfect strangers offer to take my younger daughter to the bathroom when she is doing the potty dance and her brother is in full blown rage and it's been a God send.  You can't imagine what it's like to deal with that and try to make your young one ignore their needs at the same time because you can't be two places at once. 

•  Accompany them to the car in the parking lot and return the shopping cart for them or help get their non autistic child buckled in.  

 

• Hold doors, bags, the hand of an upset sibling, talk to them, ask their name, they are traumatized by their siblings meltdowns too.

• If you have experience (or just aren't afraid) jump in there and see how you can help with the child.  Friends at church have taken my son on countless elevator rides so I could take communion or have my feet washed on Maundy Thursday, or sometimes even just hear a sermon.  

• If you know the person, offer practical help...call them when you are going to the grocery store and see if they need anything....they will gladly write you check for a few groceries if it means they don't have to risk a grocery store meltdown to pick up milk, cereal and meat for dinner.  If you can afford to make an extra meal for them, it will always be appreciated.  If you can't afford to, ask them if they would like you to make one with groceries they pay for...I would never turn that down!  Parents with a child on the spectrum often struggle to even have family meals, and the parents go many a night without dinner until after the kids are in bed...and are forced to eat far too much take out, believe me this is not pleasurable.  

 

• If you don't cook, offer housekeeping services occasionally.  

 

• "Adopt" their non autistic child for activities with your kids.  Families with autism are often home bound and the siblings naturally do not get the play dates and social activities they should because it can be near impossible to attend these things due to the child with autism's behaviors and needs.  If your kids are going to dance, soccer or little league, consider blessing a family with autism by offering to take their non autistic child along to these things.  My daughter has to miss out on a ton of these things because it is impossible for me to transport her to them.  Offer rides to Sunday school if the family can't attend consistently, offer rides to VBS in the summer...VBS rides are crucial for us!

 

• A friend and his fiance recently "kidnapped" my daughter for the day as a surprise to all of us and took her shopping and errand running with them, as well as out for pancakes and ice cream.  She was in her glory and hasn't stopped talking about it!  It doesn't take much, she just wants some normalcy too!

 

• If the child with autism gets respite care, offer to hang out with the sibling during those same times so the parents can get a break, take a nap or have a date.  Even time to shower is a prized experience for us.  

 

• If you are bold and unafraid, offer to get to know the child while the parents are around, in the home and community and determine if you can help watch them occasionally while the parents get some time away.  You might be surprised at what you can handle, and you'll be blessing to the child with autism...they DO notice and they DO want social experiences.  You'll make a treasured friend for life.  

This list is just the beginning, but I hope it helped you learn that you can make a huge impact on a family dealing with this struggle by just realizing everyday things others take for granted are monumental for us.  Thanks for reading!

Unplugged

To quote one of my favorite Katy Perry songs "Do you ever feel like a plastic bag, drifting through the wind, wanting to start again?  Do you ever feel so paper thin, like a house of cards, one row from caving in...."  From her hit "Firework".  Sometimes that is how electronic media has made me feel.  I've been following an awesome blog about unplugging from distractions and being more family focused.  You can check it out at Hands Free Mama.   The author has some really awesome insights on how this busy, over scheduled, fast paced world is affecting our health, and our children's well being.

Image courtesy of Danilo Rizzuti at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

My husband and I have been looking at ways to simplify the often overwhelming media distractions in our home and our lives.  Facebook seemed like the first place to start.  DH deactivated his account and we decided to share one.  Then he decided to remove himself from that because he just didn't like what some people  he knew were using facebook for.  He particularly had a problem with blatant attacks on posters for sharing opinions.  On Facebook there is a freedom of speech like we have never experienced in "in person" relationships.  A "I'm on my soap box and if you don't agree with my viewpoint, I'm gonna repeatedly throw it in your face" war amongst some.  What innocently started out as a place for people to connect became very toxic last year during the election, and unfortunately, some of that toxicity carried over well beyond the election.  We now find ourselves marked and judged by some because we don't share the same beliefs about politics or what is best for this country.  In a real life relationship, you change the subject and move on, but on Facebook, others join the debate on both sides and things can get hairy quick.  The argument will be brought up repeatedly.  Then you have to decide who stays and who goes if it gets toxic enough.  For us, it's when we can't post anything without having our beliefs thrown back at us, even a "non political" piece.  At that point, it matters not to us "how" we know the people, nobody has a "right" to access to us on facebook.  We are not alone, I have other friends who have lost connections with others on facebook due to differences in political affiliation or spiritual beliefs.  It's so sad to think a culture so rich and diverse as ours can't simply get along in the sand box. However, I don't take it personally, facebook is a networking tool only, not a popularity contest.  I have lots of friends and family that I'm not on facebook with and I find it is just a healthier place when I keep my friends list to around 100 people.  I regularly prune out inactive people or deactivated accounts to keep about this number.  A few weeks ago, I deleted 25 alone.  I cannot imagine how those with friends lists in the many hundreds or even 1,000 can stand what their news feed must look like on a daily basis!

Anyway, add in the messenger programs and mobile apps that accompany Facebook, and it can rule your life quickly if you let it.  I never jumped on the "check in" bandwagon....but some cannot use the restroom without posting that they just did so!  HA HA!  So, in an effort to place a boundary on how much time this social site takes from our day, we have deleted it from mobile phones and the ipad....so if we go on it, it's a deliberate act, not just something we did because the phone blinged! 

Next on the list was TV.  We had a combined problem of needing to cut costs, limit the kids screen time and what they were exposed to and wanting to limit our own TV watching.  We bit the bullet, cut the cord to the satellite TV, figuratively speaking, and invested in a couple of Roku units.  One for the living room and one for our daughters room.  We also have a gaming console capable of streaming, but it's a far simpler process through the Roku, so we primarily use that.  We got 3 sets of rabbit ears for our TVs, the cheapest ones turned out to be the best in terms of channel selection and quality of picture...it's amazing how many channels you can pick up for free.  Someday we may upgrade to a whole house antenna, but for now this is fantastic.  With the Roku we can pick up news from the major national networks a few hours after it airs, DH can even watch a stations newscast from his hometown in WA state.  The ones we thought would take it the hardest, the kids, have hardly noticed the sattelite box is gone!  They watch the shows they have always liked via the Roku  now on either netflix, hulu plus or amazon prime.  The combined monthly price of those subscriptions comes to $16, versus a sattelite bill of low 50's with tax, and we have a TON more available to us.  Our sattelite package was much more basic than what we can now stream.

The next thing to go is going to be the "smart phone" distraction.  For now I'm controlling mine by just not having the apps on my phone.  DH's phone is beginning to act up, and he has found a new carrier he intends to go with in the next week or so and downgrade to a good quality samsung flip phone and pay per minute service.  This is going to save us alot of money, even though we were getting a good deal already.  I have more of a need for a smart phone being in school than he does, in fact it will be required equipment for PA school, so for now I'm staying put.  However, if anything happens to mine, I will be switching because I prefer the idea that I can pay 10 cents per MB of data use only when I need to use it, 2 cents per text or 5 cents per voice minute, rather than paying a flat monthly rate for unlimited data I hardly use!

I can't say enough about how much "unplugging" is doing for our family and our life!  I encourage you to really take stock of how plugged in you are, versus how plugged in you need to be!  We sleep better, have more patience with eachother and have more energy, not to mention maximize what we can get done in a day!   Studying is far easier without blings of instant messages, and alerts and our kids don't have to worry about us being lost in la la land instead of present with them.  Give it a try!  What have you been doing to unplug lately?

Functionality and Autism

As the mother of a 9 year old with autism, diagnosed at the tender age of "just" 2 years old, most of my life as a parent has surrounded the special needs world.  Even having a neuro typical daughter of 6 doesn't do much to pry me from this world.  My son with his high needs takes up every ounce I have to give, my daughter, by no fault of her own, drains my energy to the negative numbers.  However, when they are getting along and "Buddy" learns something from "Sophie" I am ecstatic and overjoyed, and it's all worth it. 

One of the worst questions I've had to deal with, as the parent of a child with autism is probably asked of me in hopes of softening a blow.  However, I think it makes it worse.  That question, that I've been fending off for years is "Is he high functioning?" when people hear I have a son with autism.  It is usually asked with an expectant tone, one that expects I'll say "Yes".  How do you answer that?  High functioning to who?  What does "high functioning" actually mean?  Does it means a child dresses themselves and can follow some simple directions?  Does it mean he doesn't look all that different from his/her peers in a social setting?  Does it means he's intelligent or gets good grades?  What does it really mean?  Does it mean "he causes you little trouble" or "he'll be just fine in a few years...".  Probably second most loathed to this question is "Will he grow out of it?"  Autism is now being changed with the next DSM V edition later this year to be termed "Autism Spectrum Disorder".  I'm not sure how they plan to address levels of functioning within it, but one of the things that will not change is that Autism and Aspergers are still Autism, they are still impacting someone's life, an entire families life, in a way that will not be the "straight and narrow".  Our celebrations will be different, whether celebrating a 9 year old stooling on the toilet (still waiting here) or a 7 year old playing with a peer for a few minutes without a helicopter parent at his hip, or a 4 year old that didn't scream uncontrollably while her Mother went to the bathroom.   Our struggles will be different, yet the same, from one family to the next.  Each child will have his or her own unique behaviors and struggles, but the overall impact on the family is typically easily defined:  Exhausted parents, siblings who can display amazing tenderness and extreme frustration all in the same day, a family that "doesn't get out much" and nothing going according to the plans made by the grown ups any given day.  Parents often learn to live around a constant low level anxiety and nagging....that is what gives us autism Mom's "super hero hearing" and "x ray vision" and that innate sense that something is afoot when the house seems normal to an on looker at any moment.  We can plot and plan our childs next move, after years of observing their rituals.  We have child proofed our home in an ever evolving way to levels beginning to compete with a professional facility.  We have different goals and different things that we praise with our children.  However, at the end of the day, the "level of functioning" doesn't matter.  Whether my child is low or high on the autism spectrum doesn't matter, it is still going to mean that the life we parents envision at the outset is going to look very different, perhaps for a very long time.  Peers are taking their boys to little league and karate and etc...I am still praying for completion of potty training and the ability to go out in public without my child making a scene that has security threatening to call the police.  My son still prefers ABC type light up toys for toddlers and watches blues clues, Dora and The Backyardigans, while other kids are watching tween shows on the disney channel.  Childhood lasts quite a bit longer with autism.  However, it doesn't mean I love him any less, in fact I might even love him more, BECAUSE he is different.  He notices the world in a way neuro typicals never will.  He sees the smallest of detail, and remembers every place he's ever been, even if it was once and he was "too young" to remember. 

My answer to that question?  "No, on a spectrum scale he is pretty severe".  I'm usually pretty emotion-less and matter of fact about it.  If what someone fears when they ask is my answering "no", they have nothing to fear.  I am not going to sob and have a pity party.  He is still my son and always will be.  I am tired, but I am not taken down by this.  Parents of autistic children are some of the hardiest folks around.  We tolerate tantrums, melt downs and even aggression that make most people recoil in shock.  However, when that isn't the case, we are also the receivers of the biggest hugs and loved by the biggest fans.  We are cheer leaders, innovators, therapists and teachers...all learned "on the job".  I'm so thankful for my "job".  Dwelling on that feeling makes the bad days just a little better! 

Three Little Words....

It is that time of year for the three little words that either bring a sigh of relief or a tear to the eye of parents all over the USA.  "Back To School" Whether you sigh, cry or cheer depends on your childs age, grade and temperament and maybe on the school your child is going to.  Many of us crawled to this moment on narcotics for chronic pain, while others said "NO!" I don't want them to go I cherish this time...and a few others fell somewhere in the middle.  

This year, my kids are both at a new school...and for the first time ever, they are in the same school.  "Sophie" is in Kindergarten and "Buddy" is in 3rd grade.  I was most concerned about "Buddy" because this would be his third elementary school in three school years.  He started in the school system at the tender age of just 3 because of his disabilities.  He had early childhood for 3 years before he went to Kindergarten and stayed at that same school through 1st grade.  By the end of that year, he wasn't doing well at that school and seemed to need a more restrictive environment.  He was moved to a school that was well known for it's disability services in the district, but also was a traditional K-5 school for over 600 children too.  We had some good and bad experiences there, which included the washing out of his service dog, a tragic situation that is still yet to be resolved.  However we are letting lawyers handle that while we get busy with moving on.  We feel like his not doing well at that school was partly to do with that situation and partly to do with some personality clashes in his educational team.  It is sad that such clashes turned out best solved by moving the child to a different school, but it was clear to me that no disciplinary action was going to taken for the things that went on, and if we kept "buddy" there for the future it was going to be bleak and full of more clashes.  On top of that, district restructuring for specialo education was underway with an initiative to move displaced special education children back to home schools, with a history making attempt to offer the same services at the almost 30 elementary schools in our district.  At first I had rejected this suggestion, because "Buddy" had been through so much already this year.  However when I found out the exact layout of his next three years of school, my husband and I talked it over and I agreed to tour the home school that "Buddy" would attend, as well as "Sophie".  I was surprised to find that I liked it, alot more than I intended to!

"Sophie" had been tested to determine if she would go to Kindergarten or 1st grade, if you missed that story you can read it here  testing.  The result of this testing was not entirely conclusive, some subjects proved that 1st grade would be better, and others suggested Kindergarten was the way to go.  All told, we had some tough decisions to make.  The answer came in the form of an unexpected opening in the Dual Language Kindergarten program offered at this school.  The concept is designed to teach spanish dominant children in their own language, gradually increasing English skills, while immersing English dominant children in the Spanish language.  Roughly 1/3 of the class are children from English only homes.  Another third are likely from Bilingual homes and the remaining third from Spanish only homes.  At the K level, the day is taught 90% in spanish and 10% in English.  At this age, the English dominant children catch on vary quickly and acquire the language from their environment the same way they learned their own language.  It was pretty amazing to see the first day of school Sophie's teacher point to her seat and say entirely in spanish to "sit down at her seat please" and she did it, without hesitation.  You don't realize how much of our communication is non verbal.  We are at the end of the first week and everyone's nerves are settling and "Sophie" is excited to be learning all the new things she is learning in Spanish.  Since she already meets all K objectives in her native language going into K, we really do not feel we have anything to worry about.  The program does all the regular assessments any K class does throughout the year, and if you think about it, shapes are still shapes, colors are still colors, the alphabet is still the alphabet, with a few added characters and 1+1 =2 no matter the language it is taught in.  The goal of the program is that each year the day will be taught more in English an less in Spanish, and that by the end of grade 5, all children will be functionally bilingual at an age appropriate level.  This will be so valuable to all the children involved.

"Buddy" is doing well and I honestly haven't seen him this happy at school in quite a few years.  He even has adjusted well to seeing me at school dropping off and picking up "Sophie" even though he is bussed in.  Everyone comes in through the same doors and he has surprised everyone.  He is not clinging to me and making demands of being torn between bussing or riding with me.  He indicated a clear choice of wanting to ride the bus.  He comes out of the building before "Sophie" each day, makes a beeline for me, hugs me, asks when Daddy will be home and then says "Bye Mom see you later" and gets on his bus.  The bus has to go to another school to pick up more kids before it begins drop offs, so he gets a nice long 45 minute bus ride even though we live only 0.6 miles from the school.  This gives me 1:1 time to walk "Sophie" home and connect with her.  Not too many parents are walking their kids from my side of the attendance zone, so the group of kids "hanging" with the Mom walking her child seems to be growing everyday.  I have a feeling I'll have a whole bunch of "kids" by the end of the year!  Today we took a little different route to stay with a shy and scared 5th grader who was feeling upset because she was the only child walking to where she lived and scared to walk alone.  She stayed with us and took a shortcut through our neighborhood.  I felt bad for her because she was expecting her Mom to show up and walk with her and the Mom hasn't been showing up.  You realize God puts you right where you are needed if you let him!

Day 28

I'll bet some of you thought my lack of communication means I didn't last.  Well, you would be WRONG I am happy to say.  Today is day 28 of the fast food free journey.  (In fact I can count on one hand the number of meals eaten out at all).  The only set back since my last journal was wrought out of pure necessity and I made the best decision I could at the time.  About 10 days ago, Sophie smashed her head on a part of the computer desk (I'm still not exactly sure HOW) and needed a trip to the ER.  After the drama of that subsided, we were hungry!  The event had occured just as we were beginning to think about lunch on a Sunday late morning.  Sophie and I were starved, a long way from home, and I had only a few dollars cash on me and eating a sit down meal somewhere was not an option financially.  So, we went to Arby's.  Like most little girls, Sophie loves a good helping of macaroni and cheese...and Arby's offers a cup of Kraft in their kids meal.  It's not perfect, but to me it beats the saturated fat content of a happy meal!  At least it is something in my house she would eat at home.  I opted for a simple roast beef sandwich.  None of this tasted bad, but after so much time without, I could see a marked difference in my body for a couple days after as I "digested" this imitation food.  Imitation food is correct...you can read about an experiment where someone took a McD's cheeseburger and let is sit on a shelf in the open for 1 year  and the thing did not mold!  Cheeseburger after 1 year

So I just made it through a 6 day trip back home, which involved spending 6-8 hours on Amtrak trains with an 8 year old with severe autism and a 5 year old daughter, just me, no other help.  I am proud to say I made it through the whole thing, round trip without any fast food consumption for myself.  The kids did get to do a Mc D's trip with their grandparents, which is a treasured time I wouldn't take away from them.  I am just getting to the point that I feel that is ALL I want for our family is the occasional splurge.  I'm even noticing my children are not asking for the golden arches much anymore.  When they do get it, they rarely finish it, this includes Buddy, who could have been the spokes child for McNuggets at one time.  When I did snatch a bite of his, I spit it out it tasted so horrible.  So, in 2 days, I'll be able to say I survived a 30 day Downsize with limited exposure of only 2 fast food incidents for myself.  DH hasn't been quite as lucky, he's had some moments when he's had to give in, but they have been few, far between, and "just enough" food to get him home.  He's lost 10 lbs in the process!  I've lost about half that, it figures, men always do shed weight much easier than women!

A venture to the farm

So, a few weeks ago I was posting about my desire to get away from commercially produced food and animal product and "get back to the farm".  This should be relatively easy to do living in Southern, WI where many farms are only a 15 minute drive west of the Interstate.   It took me a couple weeks of researching and getting back to people.  Farmers are not nearly as internet dependent as we city folk and some have taken a full week to respond to my emails during this busy season of harvest.  I wanted to make it to the farmers markets these past 2 weekends, but my illness with vertigo and migraines prevented that.  Today, we woke up a little late for the farm markets and went out to breakfast.  Then we make a family break away to a small family hobby farm in Franksville.  They have apple orchards for fall, raspberries in season right now and a variety of other things, and a fall country store that will soon open with pumpkins, gourds and decorations.  Anyhow, the adult daughter at the property took us around and showed us all of her birds, some are hobby only and some are raised for meat.  They have pet ducks and chinese swans as well as I think French swans that were once only raised for Royalty!  They have a whole gaggle of white Christmas Geese being raised for the holidays....the turkeys for Thanksgiving are babies right now, just able to start getting out of their hen house to look around.  The egg laying hens were a blast, all different colors and personalities.  Sophie loved throwing them some seed and treat.  There were pet goats too, which Buddy just loved.

These are our eggs, noticed that out of two dozen there are very few white ones, most are some shade of green or brown.  This is related to the breed of the chicken and what is in their diet.  It makes a huge difference in thickness of their shell and in taste!


Sophie accidently cracked one on the way into the house, so we captured a pic to show how golden the yolks are and how even the egg white takes on a color from the diet, which is lots of grasses and grub, as well as left over vegetables at dinner and etc.
The chickens we purchased are going to be the true test of this.  I have long begun to despise cooking chicken at home due to the dried out flavorless pieces you end up with.  Even buying "Amish" chicken that you'd think was raised better hasn't necessarily been better.   So, this is the least my chicken has ever traveled to make it to my table...20 miles!  I bought 2 chickens, they are sold for $3 a lb.  These are not your average teeny little store bought chickens...these babys have muscle and are very lean and heavy duty, one weight in at 6lb and the other at 7lb.  The first thing the farmer mentioned and the next I noticed is they are not a skin and bone with some slimy breast meat in there like you are accustomed to from the store....these babys look more like small turkeys!  There is no way we would eat a whole roast chicken just us of that size without having to eat it for a week...so I plan to try my hand at cutting down and deboning tomorrow and freezing it into multi meal portions.  I can't wait to see how it tastes!

(2) Organic, Free Range chickens, farm direct, $3 lb...these babies are 5-7 lbs each!

Then after we left that farmer, we found a roadside stand with lots of fresh from the earth finds....so fresh that the potatoes are in a bucket of dirt and you pick them out yourself and clean them at home!  They look fantastic....all my produce cost me a grand total of $10.50.  Between the eggs, the 2 hearty multi meal chickens and the produce, I spent all told about $50 today....and it felt so good to give it to the people who worked hard to make it instead of to a grocery store.

Farm Stand finds

Then home it was to put all my other shopping from pick n save and aldi away, and I made burgers on the grill complete with smokey BBQ sauce, bleu cheese, avacado, tomatoe and lettuce.

Complete with a big salad of mixed baby greens, farmstand grape tomatoes, orange and red bell pepper strips and bleu cheese and  vidalia onion dressing. 

The kids loved the farm and playing with the birds and goats.  Sophie is getting the idea of where food really is supposed to come from and is already denouncing fast food on her own without alot of prompting from me.  Buddy is a harder sell, but we do have him down to one happy meal a weekend and that is it.  That is a huge improvement from where we were, he would drive a hard bargain and "expect" one for every task he completed.  We are happy to break that cycle.  He is better for it, now we just hope and pray he opens his palate a bit more!

DH and I have each lost about 6 lbs during this venture, most of it appears to have come off in waist measurement sheerly as water loss and loss of "swelling" in overall tissues as the toxic salts of fast food make their way our of our bodies.  After 17 days Fast Food Free, I am no longer craving taco bell as I drive by and the idea of a burger from any fast food chain now that I know about the feed lots and the fact that I'd be eating burgers from 1,000 cows at a time (This is per the CDC)...I can "just say no" and eat a snack or get home for lunch! 

Day 15 of "downsize me"

It's been awhile...and I bet some are wondering if my lack of blogging means I've actually fallen off the wagon....HA!  Not totally, only one time did I cave in, and not for the reasons I usually would.  Today is day 15 if the flub up doesn't reset my count.  What was my flub up?  On Monday, I actually suspected that part of the illness of sudden onset migraines I was experiencing might have been some sort of wierd sadistic "detox" of fast food and it's excessive sodium and preservatives, fat, calories and cholesterol from my system.  Since recently prescribed migraine medicine was doing little to help me, and I was desperate for relief from my throbbing head...and a recent rewatch of "Supersize Me" had indicated serious withdrawal headaches being an issue with fast food addiction...I caved.  I got a chili dog and fries at Dairy Queen. The hot dog was all beef and I just tried to block visions of CAFO cows (combined animal feeding operation) in my head.  I shared the fries with my kids so as to spread out the misery.  I waited patiently (at the train station with the kids who were entertaining themselves watching trains) to see if my misery would come to some abrubt ending.  However, to my dismay it did not.  It didn't get any worse though either.  By the next day I had full blown vertigo and headed back to my Doctor for the 2nd time in 4 days.  With prescriptions for steroids, antibiotics and anti vertigo medication, I loaded up and slept it off for a day, taking yesterday very easy, thanks to my husband putting family first and taking the time off work to care for the kids.  Today I am much better and on my way back to sanity.  When your world is spinning around you while you are standing still, the idea things could ever get better again seems far away.

I've spent some time during  my sojourn from fast food locating farms and farm markets to begin purchasing all my meat, eggs and seasonal poultry from.  I have tried my first ever purchase of organic grass fed beef and used it in spaghetti sauce.  It was the best spaghetti I've ever made...a taste of the meat alone you could really taste the variety in the diet of the beef right in the meat.  It was more filling, everyone ate a smaller portion, it cooked quicker and had only 1/4 the amount of fat to drain off as a traditional pound of CAFO beef would.  It just LOOKED healthier.  Even "Sophie" ate every bite, and she is normally difficult to get a bite of meat into.

We resumed our long missed home dairy delivery of Oberweis Dairy milk.  I love this milk for a few reason, 1) the beautifully crafted glass bottles it comes in, shown left 2) the fact that these bottles are collected each week, sterilized and reused just like days of old and giving this planet a much needed break and 3) the milk itself is "cow to front door" in about 36 hours on average...the milk you buy in a store is at least a week old by the time you get it, even longer if it's organic and you don't live in an area where that is a hot selling item.  4) the milk is from cows on small family dairy farms right here in our county and other surrounding counties...so I am shopping local and that is a no brainer.  Oberweis strives to be "better than organic" with standards that go beyond that of organic dairies.  The cost is about that of Organic, roughly twice what your standard large commercial dairy milk goes for, but the taste is better 10 times over.  The milk is pasteurized at minimum necessary temperatures, preserving most of the original nutrients and rich flavors.  In fact, it's so rich that a glass of skim milk has the rich taste of the watered down 2% most grocery stores carry.  The amazing fact for us is that the consumption of milk by our family has gone down by 1-2 gallons per week, since it's so much more satiating,  and the kids gladly prefer it.  "Sophie" asks for the "fresh from the farm" milk and "not" the plastic tasting stuff in a jug.  As expensive as it sounds, it's easily off set by the lack of spending on eating out and fast food...and still ending up spending  less overall. To see if you can find milk in glass bottles take a look at this site: Dairies using glass bottles