Monday Morning Mix-Up 11/22/10

Good morning, reader friends.  As I write this I’m getting over the flu.  It’s been so long since I’ve been sick, I forgot how icky it is.  I spent the whole day in bed yesterday with aches, sore throat, and a fever, which really stunk because my kids were in school and I could’ve gotten so much done!  Having said all that, in hindsight would I get the flu shot to attempt to prevent it?  Heck no.  I know my immune system is stronger after fighting off the flu and that’s worth a day in bed.  Of course it always comes at a bad time (I’m trying to finish up my Rookie class, throwing a baby shower, and no posts are done for the week!), but letting my body work through it naturally just makes sense.  It still amazes me when I find out how many of my friends, perfectly intelligent people, dutifully get their flu shots just because their doc says it’s time…

• It’s almost time to announce the winner of the 1000th post giveaway, but there’s still time to enter.  (I’m not sure how many care to win the prize I’m offering, but there are quite a few entered so far!)
• Don’t hate me! Those of you with overwhelming email inboxes like my own may be irritated that I’ve bombed you with so many posts lately, and I normally try to space them out more, but lately there have been a lot of posts that I just have to get up for one reason or another.  Whether it’s posts about last week’s Wise Traditions conference, recipes from Barb that I still hadn’t gotten up from Halloween, recipes related to Thanksgiving that couldn’t wait, or whatever it may be, I know it’s probably been a bit much for some of you faithful readers.  Sorry about that.  Yesterday I put up a bunch all at once, so be sure to check those posts out, especially if you still need ideas for your Thanksgiving dinner.  I’ll ease back again from now on.
• Did you guys see the Save Farm Freedom Friday posts last week and all the great links there?  Be sure to check out the posts and find out how easy it is to help our beloved farmers who are being persecuted for…drug dealing?  No.  Stealing from the poor?  Nope.  Their “crime” is making Real Food available to those who value it and know how life giving it is!  Should we not have the right to feed our families what we choose?  This seriously ticks me off.  If you feel the same I hope you’ll do something:  call your lawmakers to complain LOUDLY, donate to Estrella Farm or Morningland Dairy Farm (see the buttons over to the right), or become a member of the Farm to Consumer Legal Defense Fund – they have these farmers’ backs and make sure they aren’t alone in their fight.
• Here’s something else you could do.  If you’d be willing to be on the “short list” of people we’d contact when there’s another farm raid, sign up to join the Crop Mob if you’d be able to donate at least $5 every time a farm gets raided.
• Jen sent me a couple good links last week, she’s always making sure I have good stuff to share with you in these Monday posts!  First is another “know where your food comes from” post:  Could your seafood contain toxic chemicals? Next is a video on CAFOs (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations).  It will shock you:  Video on CAFOs.
• Look at this cool news I read recently from the ‘Health Ranger’: “On the good news side of things, prayer has been scientifically proven to improve the health outcomes of patients.”
• On a totally and completely unrelated and shallow topic, I have to share this YouTube video which cracked me up.  It’s about a guy who wasn’t happy after flying United Airlines.  Isn’t the internet just grand?  How satisfying would this be if you got the runaround like he did from a company with crappy customer service, to be able to throw up your complaint on YouTube and get 9.5 million views?!  I might do this with our cable company, they bug me and need some serious competition around here.  Anyone want to sing for me?