Okay. Maybe not bi-weekly but, you get the drift.

• Was there some sort of fancy football game yesterday? Is it wrong that I know the Ravens won but I don’t know the name of the other team? Anyway, I’m a bad Aggie, bad West-Texan, and probably bad American because I’m totally not in to football. THIS VIDEO, however, is something I can get behind.

• Here’s an article that my friend Carly threw my way about Possum Trot, Texas, where a church of 200 members adopted over 70 kids out of the foster care system. It’s beautiful. I like that she doesn’t diminish how difficult adoption is, but she is compassionate and loving and able to see the beauty of it.  (Sidenote: After I did a little research, I came across some articles that accused this church of adopting these kids to “get more money from the state”. That opinion is, quite frankly, disgusting and bigoted and ignorant. If someone wanted to cheat the system, there are WAY EASIER ways to do so than adopting children who have been abused. Gosh, we need to get to work on dispelling these incredibly damaging myths and stereotypes about the foster care system. Rant over.)
•  Along the same lines, the New York Times posted this article written by a mom who adopted three kids out of the foster care system. She dispels “Let’s rescue them and cure them” myth in a way that is challenging and gentle. ”
  

  “My girls are not only damaged by their past, but in many ways are still caught there. Some part of them is still hiding under the bed, maneuvering to miss the jabs of the broomstick. People think the miracle of adoption is a rescue and a happy ending. My children are safer and loved now, but that’s not what people want. People want to know that it can be undone, that these children will be given back the life that was initially theirs. It’s not what happens.”

• An request for a recipe on facebook led us into a discussion about how the increase in demand for quinoa has driven the prices up so much that Bolivian people living in poverty, who have lived off this staple crop for generations, can’t afford to eat it and are suffering from malnutrition. Note: This article  is not the only side to this debate. I’m still thinking about what this means for us, but for now, it means eating less quinoa.
• Let’s talk about consumer power, shall we? In November, a law requiring companies to label foods that contained genetically modified materials was defeated because mega-corporations (read: Wal-Mart, Pepsi-Co, etc) spent millions on advertising against it. Fast forward to now, where consumers are up in arms and 20 states are considering passing label laws, which the FDA, our fearless protectors, has refused to do. This big corporations are now backpedaling and backing GMO labeling.  Will it happen? Hopefully. (In case you think GMO food isn’t that bad, ALL THE WAY back in 2002, Zambia, in the middle of a famine, refused genetically modified food in aid packages. When famine-stricken African countries are ahead of us in our consumption habits, then we know something is the matter.)
• And…because you need this and I’m feeling rather cheesy today, I present 53 Bad Jokes in Under 4 Minutes