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I awoke this morning at 3:38am, not sure what woke me or why, but I was wide awake. I picked up my phone and noticed that I had a text message, opened it and found out that I have a new niece. She is beautiful! Tried to go back to sleep, but after about 45 minutes decided that was not going to happen, so up I got. I figured this was a good time to catch up on some reading.
A couple of weeks ago I was listening to a broadcast on NPR about the Food Safety Modernization Act. I had never heard of this bill and the more I heard the more disgusted I was getting with our government, and I was already pretty disgusted! I am pretty much a right/wrong person and I always believed that our government was suppose to be for the people, by the people, but I think our elected officials have forgotten the people of this nation and focus more on corporations, that now are considered citizens! So this morning in one of my stacks of reading I came across another article on the Act. The basic take on this bill is that more of our freedom to choose is being taken away. This act requires that all companies that make food and dietary supplements be registered with the federal government (for the first time), deprive those companies to access to the courts in favor of administrative tribunals and force those companies to pay for mandatory federal investigations. This act would limit our access to supplements, lower the dose that we could get without a doctor’s prescription and allow the pharmaceutical companies to profit even more from us. To find out more go to the Alliance for Natural Health, USA at www.anh-usa.org , their website has a pre-written letter that you can send to your representatives, which I did and I got an email back telling me how important this act was and that it needed to pass. It made me wonder if my email was even read or do they just see the subject and send out a standard reply?
It has been raining here since Sunday and today the sun is shining, but rain returns tomorrow and goes through the weekend. I decided it was a good day to do some laundry since I could hang it out to dry.
Then I harvested some lavender from the garden and hung it to dry. Really want to expand on my use of lavender and have been doing a lot of research on uses and home recipes for bath salts, 
laundry spray, cooking etc – so really want to make sure that I harvest as much as I can.
I then noticed that there were many peaches left in the refrigerator. It seems that we are not eating them as fast as I thought we would, may be because we also have plums and grapes. I decided to cut some up and freeze another tray of them. Really sticky work!
Do you remember learning how to ride a bike? I don’t, but I do remember riding my bike everywhere. Stella is learning how to ride a bike, with me as the teacher. We went out and she picked 
out her first bike, all her others had been handed down. She decided on a boys, maroon bike with nubby tires. We have been going to the park up the street from our house, they have a nice dirt track. The first day I held on to the back of the seat and my back was killing me that night. I was speaking to another mom and she said her sister had told her a trick – use a broom handle and stick it in the triangle behind the seat – this way you do not have to bend over and it is not as stable for the kid. The next day that is what I did and 
what a difference I could stand up right and run along side the bike – we were getting closer. Today was the day – we did one lap with me holding on to the broom handle, the next lap Stella was riding the bike without my assistance. She still is not 100% there but she is so close – I think one more day at the track and she will be riding by herself, then we will need to work on getting started – she thinks that she needs to put both feet on the peddles and then go – this is not working so well when I do not hold on.
Off to fold the clothes, wash the dishes and shave the dog for the last time this summer. I started shaving the dog myself this summer, at first I was really nervous about it, but then I figured if I messed up the hair will grow back. Now I just go for it. Should be interesting – I am fighting a summer cold, can barely breathe out of my nose and now will be shaving the dog – wish I had a mask. Then I will need to get ready for pizza making. Stella is having her friend Mateo spend the night and he loves our homemade pizza, so whenever he is coming over for a movie, the evening or a sleepover that is what he wants to make – he loves to help with the dough. Then I let each kid do the sauce, cheese and fixins on the pizza, since we usually end up making 2 – more on that tomorrow.
