One of my joys of ws is having lots of sprouts to share with others. It's is sad that you had to give away those you would have planted. We humans also go through seasons, some where we are busy and active and others seasons where we need to re-coop our physical and mental health through less activity. Great that your family members are able to use your sprouts and seeds. That way you will be able to visit and see them grow. Sounds like you have enough planted in your gardens to allow you to putter and enjoy gardening at a more relaxed pace this year. Saturday evening I sat in my backyard satisfied with the results of a busy day transplanting and moving garden plants around and contemplating the work that needs to be done in the next week. The quiet and wafting lilac scent was relaxing.

The funny thing that got me ready for motherhood the most was that while I was pregnant with Rhiannon and couldn't get a teaching job, I worked in a nursing home. I did just about anything, and towards the end I did mostly baths. After changing all the adult undergarments a babies diaper was nothing. Also learned lots of tricks about putting on clothes on those who aren't cooperative. But the biggest thing was that we had residents that couldn't eat solids so every meal that they served, they would put in a blender. It could be a ham sandwich, pizza, roast, apple pie, broccolli, anything that the regular meals consisted of was purreed for the residents who needed help eating or didn't have teeth or other problems. I learned so much about respecting the elderly and have such an appreciation for them now because of my experiences. Stacie

ideefix, I am right there with you. That said, there is no dissuading them. They are older parents who are set in doing what they want to do. All I would do is offend them and I do love these very loving people. I live in the heart of the country where very strange names aren't that uncommon. We have lots of people with Dreadlocks and see names like 'River, Yuba, Canyon, Sierra or Tahoe'. (I can't even remember the *really* odd names I've heard!) In my experience, these kids often change their names when they hit their teens. I've seen it time and again. I know one 'Tahoe' who changed his name to 'Wyatt', his middle name. Then again, my oldest sister's daughter named her girls 'Rocca and Yarrow'. I could see 'Yarrah' perhaps, but it appears they have an 'O' fetish. When she was pregnant, Aimee and I were hoping they would have a boy and name him 'Almond'. Then they would have an Almond and Rocca. LOL!

I've been told by my doc that being truly allergic is different than being "sensitive" to some foods. My brother always got mouth sores from eating oranges but the doctor said he wasn't allergic, he was just "sensitive" to that particular item. I can't stand those bath and body shops or candle places because I'll promptly become congested and get a headache. It's not an allergy, it's a "sensitivity" according to the doctor. They aren't life threatening, just inconvenient and uncomfortable. I have developed a sensitivity to bees sometime in the last ten years, and so I carry an epi-pen. It sucks being a farmer and being "allergic" to my pollinators, LOL, although my reactions have not been extremely severe. Again, the doc says it's not a true allergy, but could develop into more severe reactions, thus the epi-pen (which I've never used). He also conjectured that bees have a more potent venom developed from trying to adapt and survive all the chemicals we feed insects to kill them, but that was a personal theory and studies are still being done on that. As for the breastfeeding link to allergies, I don't know but I'm not impressed. I breast fed my first daughter and she has seasonal allergies but not food allergies. I bottle fed my second one and she's healthy as a horse. I know Maggie and I have discussed this too and her breast fed baby is the one with all the allergies. I was fed Carnation milk and karo syrup and have no food allergies at all. As I stated, if a child in Makayla's school had a life threatening allergy to peanut products, I'm sure those products would be banned. I don't have a problem with that, my issue would be that two kids have allergies which are apparently not life threatening (since one of the kids sits at Makayla's table due to their assigned seating for lunch), and I can't see banning an everyday substance if it's not necessary. That's an over-reaction and unnecessary. Maybe it's just here, but all parents got a message from the school that snacks provided for consumption by the class as their "every day" snack cannot contain peanut products. Everyone has complied without complaint as far as I know because that was a reasonable request. Oh, and children are not allowed to "swap" lunch items, which I also think is reasonable in kindergarten, although I would have an issue with that being a rule for older kids who need to learn to think independently. I don't think keeping an allergic child out of school is a good option either, that's another over-reaction. That child will eventually have to function in the outside world and the isolation won't help them do that at all. That person is going to have to find behaviors and adaptations that are acceptable to most of society and live with them thoughout their life, isolating them from the rest of the world won't help them gain that ability. As for the child at the ball game, there are a couple of places in this part of the country where there WILL be peanuts. One is at baseball games and another is that steakhouse chain that encourages you to throw the peanut shells on the floor. I don't think I'd take a peanut allergic child to either of those if I were a parent and had a kid with a deadly allergy. I don't have a problem with not giving an allergic person specific foods. Amanda had a friend in high school, Becky, who had the weirdest food issue I ever heard of. She was PKU intolerant, and so was her younger sister. It's apparently inherited, and the body lacks the enzyme necessary to break down the animo acids in protein (or is it the other way around?). Anyway, this kid couldn't have protein rich foods. At all. She had a special formula that she got from Michigan State University that she lived on, and she couldn't eat meat, beans, peanut butter, cheese, yogurt, eggs. It was amazing. No artificial sweeteners either, no diet pop, no sugar free gum, but she could have all the full sugar stuff she wanted. I was one of the few overnights she was allowed because most other mothers were too afraid that they'd slip and feed the kid something she wasn't supposed to have, or wasn't willing to remember all the dietary don'ts. I figured in high school she was responsible for not eating something she wasn't supposed to have, but she would regularly "sneak" sugar free gum and make herself sick, I have no idea why. At least I didn't feed it to her! Annie