Friday, February 24, 2012

HB363

House Bill 363 is a bill which would allow Utah Schools to drop sex education classes, and prohibit them from teaching about contraception if they choose to keep sex education classes at all.  Research shows this is not the direction we ought to be moving.

I understand the reasoning, that we don't want to give young people the impression that we approve of them becoming sexually active at young ages, or outside of marriages, but we have got to put the practicality and health and safety of our young people ahead of our ideology.  This bill is a message bill, and the message it sends is that our ideology matters more than our youth.

There are going to be young people who have sex before we'd like them to.  By not even talking about it, not only are we not preparing them to be responsible when they choose to have sex, but we're not even giving them tools to wait for sex either.

I'm deeply disappointed by the vote our state house has made today, and encourage everyone to contact their senators and ask them to vote no on this bill.  It's a mistake, and we owe our youth better.

Here's a great article on why Abstinence Plus education is the most effective.  Send the link to your senator, and let your House representative know that you're disappointed by his or her vote.

Friday, February 17, 2012


Occasionally I receive products from BzzAgent to try out and review.  The most recent was Comforts diapers, wipes, and sippy cups.  These are found at Kroger brand stores.  Here in Utah, that's Smiths and Smiths Marketplace. 

I'm not usually a huge fan of store brand diapers.  They're thinner, the gussets are often flimsy, the tabs are weak and there is usually a terrible fragrance added.  Comforts diapers were thinner, and the gussets were not as substantial as a higher quality brand name, but overall, I think they worked well.  They are not scented and didn't cause rash problems on baby E's backside.  We had one blow out with them, but an occasional blow out when he's wearing disposables is not unheard of.  The tabs are the velcro type tabs, and held really well, an I didn't have any tear off on me.  

Price wise, they're less than brand name diapers, even from costco.  If I combine coupons and sales, I can still get brand name diapers for less, but these would work well for the in-between coupons/sales periods.

I actually really liked the wipes.  They are not scented, and didn't cause rashes either.  They felt fairly thick, and I would buy them again.  

I initially loved the sippy cups.  My 18 month old liked them better than his other sippy cups, and drank more from them.  My only concern was how thin the plastic was, and sure enough, after a couple of times being thrown "overboard", the bottom of the cup split open.  If your baby doesn't throw his cups down, or you are more attentive than I am, these are great cups.  We'll continue to use our second cup while running errands, but not in the high chair anymore.  I especially like the built in cover for the mouth piece.  Baby E liked it as well.  I'm not sure I would buy the cups again because of the thin-ness, but if you're using them instead of the take and toss type cups, these are definitely a step up.  They don't leak, and the mouth piece has a cover, which is great for carrying drinks around in the diaper bag.  I've also seen a leash you can attach to sippy cups, which might prevent them from getting cracked when babies throw them.  


Wednesday, February 01, 2012

Winter Gardening

CP and I decided to tackle the green house today.  He had some tomato plants that he had started that really needed to be planted, so today was the day.  We didn't mop the floor, but we cut out most of the dead plants and watered everything, and swept, and moved empty pots out.  We also cleaned up around the little table.  All of a sudden smallish people want to sit at it again...



Chopped

This is what happens when you have 20 minutes before dinner has to be on the table, you haven't been grocery shopping all month, and you spent an afternoon in a Las Vegas hotel room watching Chopped on Food Network (I wish Netflix had food network shows, but it's probably good it doesn't).  It's kind of hard to make something fancy in 20 minutes with food storage food, but here it is...

Salmon Patties with white rice and dill sauce, and broccoli.  My kids thought it was fun anyway.