Hippiemommy

Category: Book Talk

  • Corn, corn everywhere

    On the suggestion of a few women at GCM, I decided to pick up a copy of The Omnivore’s Dilemma – A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan. It is really good. Who knew that a book about crops and factory farming could be such a page turner?

    The first chapter discusses corn and the fact that it is present in the majority of our foods. We eat a ridiculous amount of corn.

    Corn is what feeds the steer that becomes the steak. Corn feeds the chicken and the pig, the turkey and the lamb, the catfish and the tilapia and, increasingly, even the salmon, a carnivore by nature that the fish farmers are reengineering to tolerate corn. The eggs are made of corn. The milk and cheese and yogurt, which once came from dairy cows that grazed on grass, now typically come from Holsteins that spend their working lives indoors tethered to machines, eating corn.

    Head over to the processed foods and you find even more intricate manifestations of corn. A chicken nugget, for example, piles corn upon corn: what chicken contains consists of corn, of course, but so do most of the nugget’s other constituents, including the modified corn starch that glues the thing together, the corn flour in the batter that coats it, and the corn oil in which it gets fried. Much less obviously, the leavenings and lecithin, the mono-, di-, and triglycerides, the attractive golden coloring, even the citric acid that keeps the nugget “fresh” can all be derived from corn.

    To wash down your chicken nuggets with virtually any soft drink in the supermarket is to have some corn with your corn. Since the 1980s virtually all the sodas and most of the fruit drinks sold in the supermarket have been sweetened with high fructose corn syrup (HFCS)–after water, corn sweetener is their principal ingredient. Grab a beer for your beverage instead and you’ll be drinking corn, in the form of alcohol fermented from glucose refined from corn. Read the ingredients on the label of any processed food and, provided you know the chemical names it travels under, corn is what you will find. For modified or unmodified starch, for glucose syrup and maltodextrin, for crystalline fructose and ascorbic acid, for lecithin and dextrose, lactic acid and lysine, for maltrose and HFCS, for MSG and polyols, for the caramel color and xanthan gum, read: corn. Corn is in the coffee whitener and Cheez Whiz, the frozen yogurt and TV dinner, the canned fruit and ketchup and candies, the soups and snacks and cake mixes, the frosting and gravy and frozen waffles, the syrups and hot sauces, the mayonnaise and mustard, the hot dogs and the bologna, the margarine and shortening, the salad dressings and the relishes and even the vitamins… This goes for the nonfood items as well: Everything from the toothpaste and cosmetics to the disposable diapers, trash bags, cleansers, charcoal briquettes, matches, and batteries, right down to the shine on the cover of the magazine that catches your eye by the checkout: corn.

    As a matter of fact, he even goes into the science of how, through DNA testing, Americans have a ridiculous amount of corn in them. We even have more corn in us than the Mexicans, who generally eat 40% of their diet from corn.

    Now that corn has taken over most other crops, the earth gets depleted so nitrogen-replacing fertilizers must be used. The nitrogen from those fertilizers not only ends up in our bodies, but contributes to global warming, the killing of many other species of fish and animals, and a huge loss of variety in our diets. Then again, experts estimate that 2 out of 5 of us would be dead if it weren’t for those fertilizers. That’s not so hot either.
    He goes into great detail about the genetic modifications of corn and what that means for the land, for us, and for our future. Its really good stuff.

    I know I’ve read about this before, but I found this to be a really fascinating first chapter. I’m sure I’ll keep posting about this book as I go.

    Oh, and as an interesting side note, “modifying” the salmon to eat corn is something that my brother has been working on as a genetic engineer. Good stuff, huh? Can you believe we came from the same genetic pool? LOL. He’s great at what he does though!

  • Day 1 of half marathon training

    We are finally settled into our new house! Yay! DH is dragging in some new book shelves as we speak. Once my books are in place, I’ll really feel “home” 🙂

    A group of friends and I decided to go ahead and attempt our first half marathon! Its actually a 15-miler, so it is longer than a typical “half”, but I really think we can do it. We talked amongst ourselves and decided to go with Jeff Galloway’s Half Marathon Schedule. I’m super excited, but totally nervous at the same time. I went for my first run at the new elevation (1500ft lower than our old house) and it felt amazing. I felt like I could run forever. I wonder how long that’ll last? Hopefully through May so I can feel that way on race day, hehe.

    In reading news, I have picked up several more books. The librarians here in town already recognize me when I come in the building (probably as “the weird girl with the hoop through her nose and the crazy hair, but hey… whatever). Here are my current reads:

    Patricia Gundry is an author I’ve wanted to check out for a while. This book was written when I was a year old, but it is still so applicable. I love the way that she tackles the lies that so many women believe. I will definitely be blogging about this in the very near future.

    This book was recommended by a friend, so I picked it up when I saw it for a quarter at Goodwill. It is very grace-based and I have been surprised (in a pleasant way) by a lot of things he has said. I’m still not sure if its too focused on works not mattering, but we shall see.

    John Holt is considered a “classic” for homeschooling, and I was quickly able to see why. This book has had me laughing out loud. My mom has been a teacher for the past 20 years, and I could hear her saying everything that he says in this book. I’ll be blogging about this too!

    I wish all of you a happy and blessed new year, and I am excited about what it holds for me and my family. I’m off to look up parks and hiking areas now, because my kids have been scratching at the doors to get out due to all of this snow! Have a great night 🙂

  • Even if we don’t agree, there’s a lot of wisdom in this book

    Leaving Church: A Memoir of Faith
    by Barbara Brown Taylor


    Although Barbara Brown Taylor is coming from a different place than I am theologically, I am still very glad that I chose to read this book. Her descriptions of life as clergy gave me new respect for the clergy members in my life. It is easy to view clergy as different, even the clergy members that I know, but her descriptions of how she felt when people treated her differently were more than a little thought provoking.

    I think she reminded me that it is OK to go through different seasons in your life with regards to church. She also encouraged me to explore some of the early church writings on finding God in nature, and I have really been enjoying that discovery. Her thoughts on theological and doctrinal debates made me pause and ponder.

    I don’t think many of her ideas are orthodox, at least not for the kinds of churches that I have always attended, but that didn’t bother me. There is still plenty to learn.

    Overall, I really enjoyed this book. 🙂


    See more about Leaving Church: A Memoir of Faith

  • I first started How Would Jesus Raise a Child back in 2004. Its been a long time. I’m about to go into year 3 with this book, and its only 200 pages long, lol. Sad.

    Its not that the book isn’t good. I really enjoy it. I just seem to get on tangents where I read other stuff instead. I can’t really explain it.

    I just finished chapter 7, and I wanted to talk about some of the concepts in there. Mind if I share? I’m going to share.

    OK, so think of all of the times that the disciples were dense. They didn’t get what Jesus was saying. He’d have to say it over and over. Even the Samaritan woman at the well caught on faster than they did. The disciples were still trying to figure out if someone had brought Jesus some food after the Samaritan woman left. Dr. Whitehurst says,

    …they just couldn’t converse with him at his level. This didn’t mean they weren’t bright; it meant only that they didn’t know how to translate his metaphorical language.

    Still, it must have occasioned more than a few sighs on Jesus’ part. As parents, we can’t be blamed for getting exasperated at times. Children often half listen or, within minutes, forget what we tell them. This is where we can learn from Jesus. When a follower didn’t get his message one way, Jesus didn’t keep hammering him with that same parable over and over again until he understood; rather he changed the form of his message and used it when they next “teachable moment” arose.

    Jesus’ ability to change the form of his message can be seen, for example, in the many ways he tried to teach the concept of servant leadership. In the Sermon on the Mount, he taught that God values the meek and the peacemakers. When later his disciples were arguing over who would get top billing in the kingdom, Jesus didn’t shout, “When will you get this through your heads? I told you, the meek will inherit the earth!”

    Instead, he gathered all of them together (not just the offenders) to discuss the issue in broader terms, describing the kind of behavior, or service, that would make them true leaders.

    I sat and thought about this for a while. I think I need to keep this in mind and work on this concept. I am usually pretty good at being creative when it comes to ways of teaching, but it is easy to wonder if I’m talking to myself sometimes, lol. As a matter of fact, when I first started reading this passage, I was thinking about how I sometimes space out when dh is talking to me! Its terrible! I really need to be more understanding with my kids… after all, they are working with my DNA here.
    So, piggybacking on that idea, she talks about how we need to give our kids permission to try again after they fail

    Jesus predicted failure to inoculate his disciples against disagreement and self-blame when they failed or encountered obstacles… After failures did occur, Jesus didn’t berate his disciples nor did he give up on them. After Peter’s three denials, Jesus didn’t say, “Well, it’s pretty obvious you haven’t got leadership potential,” or “I guess I was wrong about your commitment.”

    Jesus didn’t minimize failure, but neither did he hold on to it. Jesus interacted with people in such a way that if someone gave up on a goal or talent, it would be because he wanted to, not because he’d been made to feel so condemned about failures that he didn’t dare try again. This was Jesus’ secret: The moment the person wished to make another attempt, Jesus was happy to receive him. He continued working with his student from there, as if no failure had ever happened. He knew that Peter already felt bad enough; there was no need to rub it in.

    So these are my two points to work on for this week 🙂 I’m really enjoying this book, despite the fact that my leisurely pace might make you assume otherwise, LOL.

  • Review of Train Up Your Children in the Ways They Should Eat: OK, but some bad advice

    Train Up Your Children in the Ways They Should Eat
    by Sharon Broer


    When my mother-in-law gave me this book, I was a bit skeptical. Some of her past suggestions included directions on how to pick the proper switch for your child. Thankfully this book wasn’t like that – or at least it was not as outspoken about punitive ideas. I wouldn’t be surprised if she was highly punitive, but luckily that doesn’t change most of what a person would write about healthy eating.

    Overall I agree with this book. She has some great ideas and I think it gives a good kick-in-the-pants for parents who have slacked off in the food department. She comes across a bit militant, but that’s easy to ignore 😉

    My main complaint is that I was not at all impressed with her recipe for “formula”. It reminded me of something L. Ron Hubbard would suggest.I’m not sorry that I read it, but I would only suggest it to my friends who know enough about nutrition to ignore her bad advice and formula recipe.


    See more about Train Up Your Children in the Ways They Should Eat

  • From the Stacks Winter Challenge

    I’ve never done an online book challenge, but I decided to join the From the Stacks Winter Challenge  :)  The idea is pretty simple: find 5 books you’ve bought but haven’t read, and finish them by January 30.  Here’s my list:

    1. Heartfelt Discipline by Clay Clarkson
    2. How Would Jesus Raise a Child by Teresa Whitehurst
    3. The Way They Learn by Cynthia Tobias
    4. Can You Keep a Secret by Sophie Kinsella (hey, everyone needs something light, right?)
    5. Say Goodbye to Whining…. by Turansky and Miller

    I also have a million bazillion library books, including Blink, The Senator and the Socialite, Memoirs of a Geisha, You: The Owners Manual, Into Thin Air, Facing East, Crunchy Cons, Peace Like a River, More Charlotte Mason Education, Leaving Church, Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic,  Dr. Sears L.E.A.N. Kids, and The Mom’s Guide to Meal Makeovers, just to name a few…  Wow, I should be reading.  Why am I sitting here typing?!

  • Autism… I now realize how little I understood

    ..or maybe I should say I’m starting to realize how little I understood….

    I’ve been reading The Only Boy in the World this week, and it has really made me think about my past actions and feel some serious regret.

    Michael Blastland’s memoir of his autistic son, Joe, has truly struck me. I have several friends with children who have an autistic spectrum disorder, much like Joe, and as I read Michael’s words about all of the unhelpful (and hurtful) things that his friends and fellow parents said to him, I feel ashamed. I have said many of the same things. I was only trying to be helpful. This paragraph hit me hard

    “Bless him!” say those who’ve mostly not experienced his stamina. “Chidlren. They do pester, don’t they?” Friends remark that all children like routine, all children like what they know, all are obsessive at times. Such commonplaces offer reassurance: “Don’t panic, mine do it too. Joe isn’t unusual and anyway, how bad can it be? One shouldn’t fret about a little repetitive behavior in children.”

    I’m grateful for the intended consolation but, truly, they have no idea. For there’s the obsession of normal children and there’s Joe… He knows his priorities. Think drug-crazed, fanatical, murderous desperation, think lawless smack habit; think this without exaggeration; think it seriously. There’s a phrase used of Olympic champions and artists devoted to their craft: single-minded. Imagine this with absurd literality: a mind with one objective only, a single thought driving out all others, the thought of an obsessive lover, a glutton on a fast, a drowning man.

    I have often said that my kids are obsessive too, my kids get a little OCD, my kids love routine too… I was trying to help, but I now realize that I was not helping.
    As Mr. Blastland goes on to talk about Joe’s life and the way his brain (and other autistic brains) function, it is really fascinating. He talks about how adults and children relate to autistic kids, and the phenomenon that seems to follow where humans shy away from crazy, loud people (think of a drunk in a public place), and yet kids and adults are often threatened if someone is quiet and won’t move out of the way, or doesn’t understand personal space. Those quiet social differences are somehow much more upsetting to strangers.

    He also talks about the lack of imaginative play in autistic children. He tells stories from now grown men and women with Aspergers, and how they explain that they didn’t realize that other people reasoned and felt the same way as they did. Somehow their mind didn’t make that connection, and even as adults they must focus and concentrate to remember this fact.

    I really recommend this book to anyone, even if you don’t know any autistic children or adults. If nothing else, it will give you an appreciation for all of the things that your mind does without you even realizing it. You make millions of decisions based on how other people think, feel, and will perceive you. You trust what you’ve been told about dangers and possibilities. You are able to use fictional stories and imaginative mind play to think through different scenarios. The brain really is amazing, and this book has made me appreciate it even more.

    To all of my friends with autistic children, I am very sorry. I only meant to help, but I now realize that I said all of the wrong things. Please forgive me.

  • Even economists think Gary Ezzo is crazy

    Isn’t it nice when you’re reading a book that has nothing to do with parenting or Christianity and then you stumble upon a little jewel?

    …Ann Hulbert documented how parenting experts contradict one another and even themselves. Their banter might be hilarious were it not so confounding and, often, scary. Gary Ezzo, who in the Babywise book series endorses an “infant-management strategy” for moms and dads trying to “achieve excellence in parenting,” stresses how important it is to train a baby, early on, to sleep alone through the night. Otherwise, Ezzo warns, sleep deprivation might “negatively impact an infant’s developing central nervous system” and lead to learning disabilities….

    …An expert must be bold if he hopes to alchemize his homespun theory into conventional wisdom. His best chance of doing so is to engage the public’s emotions, for emotion is the enemy of rational argument. And as emotions go, one of them–fear–is more potent than the rest.– Freakonomics p. 148

    Ahh, I appreciate that the authors of Freakonomics agree that Gary Ezzo is scary. That upped my opinion of them significantly 😉 I was also happy to see that they have six children under the age of five, so they have some idea of what they’re talking about. 🙂
    Oh, and shortly after that quote, they said this

    …conventionally speaking, spanking is considered an unelightened practice. We might therefore assume that parents who spank are unenlightened in other ways — Freakonomics p. 171

    Bwahaha. 😛

  • Book Diet – Day 3 (Weekend)

    Here’s my weekend edition of our book diet 🙂 We’ve read more books than this, but this gives you a good idea. Here’s my thought for the day, courtesy of The Read-Aloud Handbook

    NAEP studies reported the more printed materials found in a child’s home, the higher the student’s writing, reading, and math skills. (NAEP 1992 Trends in Academic Progress)

  • Our Book Diet – Day 1 (10/25)

    As many of you know, I am working through Trelease’s The Read-Aloud Handbook. It has really inspired me to make sure that I am not just reading to my kids at bedtime, but rather making read-aloud time a big part of our day. I have decided to focus from now until Thanksgiving on making sure that my kids are getting a healthy “diet” of great books. We’ve slacked a lot due to our impending move, and this is something that I don’t want to see fall by the wayside.

    Feel free to join me! I’m going to try to post at least 10 books a day that we’ve read. That’s my minimum. My kids would probably read 100, but 10 is a good goal for me, as it is a reasonable amount of my day to spend on reading to them without it being too overwhelming for us right now. 🙂

    Yesterday was almost all chapter books (Winnie the Pooh especially), so today is lighter fare 🙂

    Today’s picks: (2 of these were read to me by my 4yo…)

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