A spider in my orange. (And other fairly twisted tales)

I found a spider in my orange today. Not a large one. Just a tiny, little thing, who's life was cut short by my fingers when I squished it (Hey, it was in MY damn orange, I will squish it if I want to.) Although it does beg the question, how the hell did it get in there in the first place? I prefer not to think about that, and just enjoy the fruit (And again. Yes I did, in fact, eat the orange after disposing of said intruder.)
The thing is, that tiny spider makes me think about what I eat every day. Am I putting the "best" into my body?
Honestly, we are a fruit/veggie/multi/whole grain kinda household (well, except for The Man, who is a meat and potato kind of guy. But, when he is at home, he is a fruit/veggie/multi/whole grain kind of guy LOL) My children eat their vegetables FIRST, before anything else on their plates ~ entirely by choice. They like beans in many forms. And they will devour just about any kind of veggie/fruit. We don't eat a lot of meat. No pork whatsoever, very little beef, chicken, and turkey. And only a little bit of fish (no shellfish.) We do eat cheese, eggs, and drink milk (recently we cut out butter.)
Sounds like a pretty decent diet, right?
I think so.
My issue is that we live in the MidWest. Fresh produce is not readily available year round here (I just paid almost $3.00 per pound for some serously SAD looking tomatoes ~ I understand that this is less than most of you would be paying, but we also live in a lower per capita income area. So for us, that is, like WHOA ~ way HIGH!) The fresh stuff that we shell out the cash for in the Off Growing Season is often not very good quality or oddly colored (ie. Strawberries that have half white tops and berry red bottoms ?????) And even if you drive to another market (for us, another market is 25 min away) there is no guarantee that the produce will be any better (in fact, it might really be much worse.)
Now, we will still buy the fresh stuff. We always have, we always will. But is it really the "best" we can offer ourselves?
Compared to the alternatives, I think that it is. Some is better than none in my opinion (although the hormones, genetic alterations, etc. used in the growing of mass distributed produce offer another position of contention.) And for us, it is not an option to grow ourselves, visit local Farmer's Markets (great in the Summer, non-existant in Winter), or purchase everything organic (which is another Soapbox topic for me altogether.)
Right now, we do the best with what we have. And I am guessing that will just have to be enough. LOL

The Quest Begins

The quest to the land of Sewing More Than I Buy, that is.
In this lovely land, that is no huge pile of UFO's (UnFinished Objects), no HUGE pile of cut fabric, no HUGEMONGOUS stash staring at me taunting me with all the things that I must get done yet know clue exactly where to begin. In this land there is only a small amount of fabric waiting to be something beautiful. The sewing room is *ALWAYS* clean, and the machines are oiled and lint free, ready for use.
In the land of Sewing More Than I Buy, my stash steadily decreases to a point that is more manageable (and doesn't look like the inside of a fabric store threw up in my dining room.) The Man does not walk past the doorway afraid to enter the room for fear of being buried underneath the pile of it all.
Sadly, as of this moment, on the 9th day of January - the train for my trip to the land of Sewing More Than I Buy is currently moving backward.

The Man hath Cometh.

Well, blog readers (and you know who you are!) The Man has arrived. And with gifts no less. Not gifts from the dreaded InLaws, no, these gifts are ones that he used his own personal Christmas gift cash flow to purchase (The IL apparently forked over a couple of bucks so that he could have a Christmas gift, and he opted to spend it on us ~ his familia.)
For that, he is FABULOUS (I know this term contradicts my normal word usage for him, however, I can change my mind for at least 5 damn minutes every once in a while.)
We apparently do not rank among those who are worthy of a direct gift purchase by the IL. No, not even the children. Once again, they are a**holes. Need I say more.
NEWay, I will probably not be posting for the next few days due to the fact that we will be having our holiday now that The Man has graced us with his face. SO, if I don't "see" you before the Grand Ringing in of the New Year, stay safe. Have a great one.
And I will see you on the flip side!!!

Well, the Holiday has come and gone...for most of us.

But not for us.
We (meaning, I) made the executive decision to wait until The Man gets home to officially begin our Christmas celebration. And the girls feel the same way (which is a good thing, 'cuz I gotta tell you, they don't really have much of a choice. LOL)
We are going to decorate the tree tomorrow (during the time when most of you are taking yours down) and then we will wait.
I, for one, would just like to have a holiday that occurs on the day it is supposed to. This makes Christmas #3 that The Man has missed, and last year we had to wait until the end of January to have dinner and gift exchanging. If we have to wait that long this year, I am just going to do it all without him and say "Oh, too bad, so sad, sucka!" (Not really, but that is what I will be thinking while he is whining about how he wasn't here for Christmas.)
Oh, yes, by-the-by, his mother -- she is just fine. No stroke, no heart problem, and (surprise, surprise) still a beeyyaatch. So basically, he has spent the past week in misery for a grand total of NOTHING. Yippee!!

Lovely, just Freakin' Lovely!!

Ahhhhhhhh yes, it is Friday night in America. And I am stuck in my tiny corner at my tiny desk lamenting the fact that it is THIS close to Christmas, and I will have a grand total of half my family present for the holiday.
My husband's mother was admitted to the hospital 2 days ago, after presenting (what was thought at the time to be) the symptoms of a stroke.
-- I refer to her as my husband's mother because there is literally no love lost between this woman and I. I would NEVER wish any ill will upon her, and really feel horribly that this is occuring (especially at this time.) But I really think that if she weren't such a manipulative beeeeyaaatch all the time, we might have a better relationship. --
NEWay -- her CAT Scan/MRI/Whatever-test-they-ran have come back clear - so no major stroke as of yet. But the dr does feel that she is having mini-strokes, and that these will lead to a large one eventually. (Mind you, eventually could mean 10 yrs from now.) It is most certainly either that, or her blood sugar (she is diabetic), or her heart (at this point I would have been questioning exactly what it was that the doctor DID, in fact, know.)
So The Man is currently perched at her side, patting her hand, and consoling her. While we sit here about 1000 mi away.
As a general rule, I am not a bitter/hateful/generally rotten person, but they have the mother/son relationship of many varieties of animals that eat their young (not that she would actively eat her young, but that she has the same cunning, manipulative nature that animals that do predatorily consume their own species exhibit.) And, one would figure that he would rather be here (with the family that hasn't enabled his "neediness" and fed into his co-dependency and essentially held him down his whole life) for the holiday, than listening to her drone on and on with the "oh, please don't feel sorry for me. I will be just fine. Could you be troubled to hand me that paper over there though, as I feel the necessity to scrawl down my last will and testiment while I still have the strength to hold the pen in my hand" speech.
I understand that she is his mother, but (I feel) that there comes a point in everyone's life where the toxicity of a relationship outweighs the blood that flows between 2 people.
Then again, maybe I am just a great big BEEEEEYYYYAAAATCH!!!