I am 40

As one of my friends put it...I am FINALLY 40. The day came and went with minimal fanfare. DH had to work so we waited to celebrate until the next day. Just a quiet day at home with the family. We had birthday breakfast and cake then the next day our oldest son and his wife (yes I said wife as I am now a mother-in-law) came over for a BBQ and homemade ice cream.

One of my gifts from DH was a washed and waxed van. He knows how much my dirty van bothered me. It is quite an undertaking to wash and wax so once a year he tries to tackle it. It is once again red instead of pink:).

Why do we as a society make such a fuss over  turning 40? I don't know. It just seemed like such a big deal to me. Now it just seems like another year.

Another Unbelievable act by our government

NATURAL BARN KILLERS

First, the government started supervising preschoolers'sandwiches. Now, it's monitoring children's chores. What's next--picking out my four-year-old's bedtime story? Give them an inch, and they'll take an acre--preferably on the family farm. That's where the latest crop of regulations is headed, if the Labor Department gets its way. Secretary Hilda Solis is convinced that "children employed in agriculture are some of the most vulnerable workers in America," so she and her team wrote 200 pages of rules dictating what kids can and cannot do on American farms.

The list is so over the top that it bans anyone under 18 from working in grain elevators, feed lots, silos, stockyards, and livestock auctions. Operating power tools like screwdrivers, milk machines, or tractors? Also off-limits. Any work that "inflicts pain on an animal" is also outlawed, even though the department doesn't stipulate what that means. Would branding or tagging cattle be taboo? What about veterinary work?

Apparently, these activities are all at Solis's discretion. Her department's press release is clear, "[The government] charges the secretary of labor with prohibiting employment of youth in occupations that she finds and declares to be particularly hazardous for them." Notice there is no mention of families or the parents' responsibility to keep children safe. Under this policy, even kids' chore charts will be dictated by a Washington bureaucrat. Solis insists that her agency is "working to prevent unnecessary child injuries or deaths."

But considering the latest data, what may be unnecessary is her legislation. "The reported farm-related injury rate for youth under 20 fell by nearly half from 2001 to 2009, a U.S. Department of Agriculture survey found." I find it hard to believe that the mortality rate of a teenager working on a family farm is higher than the mortality rate of the ones walking the streets of America. If the government is really concerned about child welfare, maybe it should focus on those children--not the ones learning the value of a hard day's work.

And while Solis's "Fair Labor Standards Act" would provide some exemptions for kids who work on their parents' property, farming is multi-generational business. Under these rules, families couldn't teach the trade to grandchildren, nieces, nephews, or other relatives. Hasn't this administration done enough to destroy small business? Does it have to constrict its workforce too?

Tennessee's leaders are so livid about the regulations that they passed a bill that blocks the state from enforcing Solis's changes. "This is a prime example of D.C. way overreaching their limited powers," said Assemblyman Jeremy Faison. In Congress, conservative members are pushing a measure called Preserving America's Family Farms Act that would stop Solis's rules before they start. Like us, they're concerned the government is not only trampling on family's rights, but it's also robbing this generation of the valuable experience they gain working on a farm. As one parent said in the public comment period, " It's much better to teach these young people to work at an early age than have them getting into trouble in town because there's nothing to do." What's more, it could have the unfortunate effect of steering more kids away from agriculture because it clamps down on their involvement in groups like 4-H.

The bottom line is that these decisions belong to the family--not the Feds. The government doesn't need to swoop in and rescue children from their own relatives. In this or any legislation, family rights are the last things Washington should put out to pasture.

My New Favorite Snack

I recently subscribed to a menu planning service where they send you a week's worth of menus including breakfast, lunch, a snack and dinner. I enjoyed getting to try new recipes but ended up canceling it because it seemed to make my grocery bill more than we had budgeted. Along the way I discovered this great new snack which is now one of my favorites, besides chocolate that is...

You take a flour tortilla, spread peanut butter all over it and put a whole banana on it, then roll it up like a burrito. You can cut it into pinwheels if you want but I like to cut mine in half and eat both halves. Somehow if I leave it whole I can't eat the whole thing but I can eat both halves:) What a funny thing or brain is!

Give it a try and let me know what you think.

I am so intrigued by this

One of the blogs that I read, "Raising Olives" has a post about a Child Training Bible. At first I thought maybe this would be some sort of children's Bible with Bible stories teaching character. I am all in support of teaching our children character but really don't want to isolate Bible stories to do that. I think Bible stories are great for our children to be familiar with but I think that all too often we do our children a disservice by just focusing on Bible story characters without opening up the whole Bible to them. So I wasn't in a great hurry to hop on over to the website they mentioned but once I did I was very intrigued by what I saw. If I am understanding the website correctly you purchase a chart and colored tabs from them and attach them to a Bible and when you are in need of a verse to train your children with then you can pull from the tabs in the Bible that match the need you have. I am sure some of you could make one of these on your own but I think for me it would be better to purchase their kit to save on leg work. We may not agree perfectly with every verse they chose for every situation so I would think you could pick a different one if need be. I love that you would be using a Bible instead of various child training books and charts, which I already have or have wanted to purchase in the past.

To check it out go to www.childtrainingbible.com . One other note, I think the Bible they use the ESV Bible which you may prefer. We use the New King James Version so the tabs and chart would be all I would be interested in.