Picnics, Neighbors, book review and more...

We're having a picnic and bonfire tonight. Doesn't the weather look great?

It's raining and everything is wet.

But the weather people have promised it is going to get nice around noon and dry out! I hope so because microwave smores are just gross.

I just finished reading The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan. I enjoyed it for the most part- especially the time the author spent with Joel Salatin. But parts of it were quite dry. (I got a lot bored with the technical bit about how corn or fungi reproduce.) But I still recommend it for reading IF you are a mature Christian who can filter out the humanist/evolutionary hoopla that infiltrates the author's worldview. It will make you want to change your eating habits and even reconsider if shopping at Whole Foods is a good thing. It really changed my mind about fast food. If you don't want to spend the time or money on this book then I recommend watching the documentry, FOOD INC. It is a film by Pollan and the guy that made Fast Food Nation and catches the highlights of Ominvore's Dilemma. If every American watched this film or read Pollan's books we'd be much closer to getting back to an agrarian way of life and maybe my neighbors wouldn't watch the family and I sweating away as we work on the garden plot and comment. "Are you all starting a farm?", "Wow, that sure is a big garden!", "Wow, you sure are working hard!" And you know all the while they're thinking in the back of their heads, "Why don't these silly people just go to the store and buy their food." Actually I have heard my kids verbalize this. "Why can't we just go to the store to buy food like everyone else?" Someday they'll thank me, right?

The next book I'm going to embark on is Keeping Our Children's Hearts by Steven and Teri Maxwell. I'm looking forward to it. A friend from church loaned it to me and I'm very familiar with the Maxwell family. I'm sure I will benefit greatly from this read as reaching and keeping my children's heart for God is my utmost priority.

Finally, I wanted to get a cute shot of the sweater outfit that Taylor is in today. (I must keep the Grandma's content with grandchildren fodder.) Clearly she didn't want her picture taken.