A couple days ago, Cora asked me why I haven’t bought Pirate Booty recently; that and Veggie Booty have been regular snack treats in our house, and it was a fair question.

I explained to Cora that one of the main ingredients in Booty is corn, and over 85% of corn in the USA is genetically modified. I’d called Robert’s Snacks, combed their websites, sent emails – and been told explicitly that yes, they use genetically altered crops. And while our diet may not be 100% GMO-free, it’s rather close, and that’s on purpose.

I’m not trying to get into a conversation on GMO foods here – that’s a much longer post, believe me, and I’ve made it a couple times. But this did lead us to a child-level version of that conversation, and I spent a few painful minutes talking through GMO crops and why we choose not to eat them with the girls.

Yesterday was dominated by a bad weather threat all over north Texas; after the events in Oklahoma on Monday I spent the entire morning working on turning my fear over to God and leaving Him in control of my girls. Not an easy task when you’re a mama, but I tried. As I saw the weather forecast predicting that the bad storm would hit right around school pick-up time, I decided to play it safe and had the girls come home from school after lunch.

In other words, Early Release Day.

In other words, Extra Play Day.

Yesterday afternoon Maddie came out of school distinctly subdued. She had a couple papers in her hand and immediately handed me her backpack, keeping the loose papers to herself. “Do you want me to put those papers in your backpack?” I asked.

Maddie handed me one, and as she did I caught a glimpse of the other, retained paper – a math test with the score written in red. “You can have this one,” she said, handing me her vocabulary test. “But not this one,” and she waved the math test.

“Baby, is it because of the grade on the math test?” I asked.

She nodded.

“Honey, it’s ok, we all miss some sometimes.”

So Maddie handed me her math test and burst into tears.

She made an 89.

As you can’t help but be aware, I got an awesome new blender about a week ago. I’m lucky there’s a seven-year warranty on this thing, because I’m certainly going to wear the motor out before then.

Cora’s favorite smoothie right now is: one whole orange (peeled); one pint of whole strawberries; one banana; one cup of homemade plain yogurt; and, unbeknownst to her, a handful of fresh spinach leaves.

I made this smoothie for her last night with dinner, and I had to make three full batches of it. That’s three pints of strawberries, folks. Suddenly the sixty-eight pounds we picked a few weeks ago doesn’t look as big in the freezer any more.

I’ve started experimenting more with what’s going in them, and quite like a green smoothie I make for myself every morning now. A friend of mine told me she puts half an avocado in any fruit smoothie – it doesn’t add any taste, but adds a creaminess and some healthy fat to help with the blood sugar spike from all the fruit. So I’m starting to do that, too.

The upshot is that the poor blender’s been working overtime, and I’ve made copious trips back to the grocery store for more produce.

This fresh, healthy eating thing is getting expensive.