To Spank Or Not to Spank?

I might be opening up a can of worms today, but I'm going to do it anyways. My question for you is "Is it ok to spank your kids?" When I was little, my parents spanked me as a form of discipline. I can remember 2 distinct times that I was spanked. It hurt my feelings way more than it hurt me physically. However, it set the precedent that if I did something wrong, spanking was a possible consequence. I have to say that it was an effective discipline technique. All my mom or dad had to do was start counting and I knew that I better stop what ever I was doing or else I might get spanked. On a side note, I never knew what number my parents were counting to (10, 5, 3?) so by the time they got to 2, I made sure I was done being bad. Pretty smart on their part. Because of my experience growing up, I was pretty convinced that it is ok to spank your child.

However, recently I have begun to rethink my position. Harper has started to smack my hand if she doesn't like what I am asking her to do. For instance, if I take the TV remote away from her, she throws a mini temper tantrum and will smack my hand. When she does this, I immediately tell her "No hitting." It has occurred to me that telling her that it is inappropriate to hit is in direct contradiction to the idea of me spanking her (I haven't actually had to spank her yet, just thinking ahead for when the situation presents itself).

What do you guys think? If done in a loving and controlled way, is it ok to occasionally spank?

Bad Guys Beware

So, many of you already know this, but some of you may be wondering why my handsome husband shaved off all of his nice hair. Well, the reason is that he was accepted into the police academy. He's in his his 3rd week (of 22 weeks) of hell academy, and he's doing great. He admits that it's challenging, but he is excelling at the physical training and thinks that he just aced his first written exam. I knew that being a police officer was a good fit for Rob. I'm just really happy that he is excited to go to work every day. Now if I could only get used to his shaved head, we'd be in good shape. 

Take Me Out To The Ball Game

Harper went to her first official baseball game on Saturday. The Nashville Sounds are the minor league team affiliated with the Milwaukee Brewers. The game was great. The Sounds won in the 10th inning. Harper loved it. Every time the crowd cheered, she thought they were cheering for her. We had great seats - so good, in fact, that James Denton from Desperate Housewives was sitting right in front of us (although I no idea who he was until someone pointed him out to me). Harper was way more interested in the mascot, Ozzie,  than she was in trying to spot celebrities. She was also very interested in the ballpark food - even getting her first (of many to come) taste of a Coke Icee. She also watched her first fireworks display and loved it - not a single flinch. Outings like this remind me that we were blessed with a pretty good kid. It was a long night, but she was really good the whole time. We will definitely have to go to another game soon.

Someone's getting sleepy...

Sound asleep only to wake up clapping when the Sounds made a great catch. I think she's going to be an avid baseball fan. 

Kiwi

I saw this video the other day on one of the blogs I read and I keep thinking about it. I had to watch it a couple times before I understood what was going on. Here is a link to the original post. The author, Steve, has a great commentary on the video that I think is really helpful. Enjoy.

When the Science Hits the Fan - The Dark Side

As is usual for a Wednesday night, Harper and I had dinner with our friend Katie last night. During dinner, the topic of white meat vs. dark meat came up. I knew that there was a scientific reason for the difference between the two, but I fumbled the explanation. So...I looked it up this morning and here's what I found. 

Dark meat has more myoglobin (a protein that delivers oxygen to muscle tissues, very similar to hemoglobin) in it than white meat does. The more myoglobin the tissue contains, the darker it will be. 

Think of a turkey. Turkeys don't fly, but they do plenty of running around. Their leg muscles (drumsticks) get a lot of use, but their chest muscles (breast meat) do not. Muscles that do a lot of work and require a lot of endurance need more myoglobin than other types of muscle. That's why drumsticks are dark meat and breast meat is white. 

As far as the nutritional differences between the two types of meat, dark meat has more fat. This is again because these muscles require more energy (stored in fat) than white meat muscles do. However, nutritionally speaking dark meat isn't all bad. It contains more Vitamin A, B vitamins, and iron than white meat. 

Just wanted to give you some food for thought. Now that I've made everyone including myself hungry, I will be signing off. 

Pasta Pictures

Nothing interesting to say this morning. Here are some pictures of the kiddo to hold you over until I can think of something to tell you. 

Grounds For Change

I'm not really a coffee drinker. I'll have the occasional McDonald's iced coffee, but that's about it. My husband, on the other hand, is somewhat of a coffee connoisseur. Every month we get gourmet coffee delivered right to our door. While Rob insists that this is the best coffee in the world, we are about to make a change. We are going Fair Trade. 

The term Fair Trade can be applied to any number of goods. It basically means that:

• * Producers receive a fair price - a living wage for their goods. A minimum floor price is also set and abided by. 
  
• * Forced labor and exploitative child labor are not allowed.
• * Direct trade practices are employed. Importers purchase from Fair Trade producer groups as directly as possible, eliminating unnecessary middlemen and empowering farmers to strengthen their organizations and become competitive players in the global economy.   
• * Producers have access to financial and technical assistance.
• * Sustainable production techniques are encouraged.
• * Community development is a goal. Fair Trade farmers and farm workers invest Fair Trade premiums in social and business development projects like health care, new schools, quality improvement trainings, and organic certification.
• * Equal employment opportunities are provided for all.
• * Transparency is important. All aspects of trade and production are open to public accountability.

Sounds pretty good, right? But what are the real world benefits of Fair Trade coffee? Well, I'm glad you asked. 

• * Empowered by the economic stability provided by Fair Trade, members of the COSURCA coffee cooperative in Colombia successfully prevented the cultivation of more than 1,600 acres of coca and poppy, used for the production of illicit drugs. 
  
• * In Papua New Guinea, the AGOGA cooperative, is investing in a medical team to meet the healthcare needs of its isolated rural community. 
• * In the highlands of Guatemala, indigenous Tzutuhil Mayans in the La Voz cooperative are sending local kids to college for the first time. 
• * Near Lake Titicaca, in Peru, the CECOVASA cooperative is assisting members from Quechua and Aymara indigenous groups in raising coffee quality and transitioning to certified organic production. 

Fair Trade coffee is available in most grocery stores and coffee houses. Will Fair Trade coffee cost a little more than the Maxwell House that you usually buy? Maybe. But it seems worth it to me. We are going to start ordering from this company. But there are lots of other online outlets as well as local stores to get it. Look for the Fair Trade logo to know that you are getting certified Fair Trade products.

Please consider switching to Fair Trade coffee. A little change on your part can make a big difference in someone's life.