I'm seeing a trend

I was a big nature-loving hippie type in college -- At least before I really got into this journalism thing. I would hike and camp and eat a lot of vegetables. Yeah, I went through a vegetarian phase and I'll admit I'm still a bit skeptical about meat products.

But as my life got busier and more focused on other things, I stopped worrying about it... Until I had children. When the ultrasound said our second child was a girl, I got extra concerned. I worry about the effect American produce and meats have on the hormones of a girl. I worry about a lot of things when it comes to food. So when I was pregnant two and a half years ago or so, I started returning to my organic ways.

Lucky for me that was also when our economy slowly started taking a turn. The price of organic milk isn't much more expensive than the non-organic kind, but fruits and vegetables, meats and other things keep going up. So lately I've been struggling with the organic vs. non-organic choices at the grocery store. Our bill has doubled from what I used to spend with two adults and a little boy. Now that it's two adults a growing boy and a little girl, things are different.

It's tricky. I want to offer the family healthy food. I want to afford it... But it also has to be easy to cook. Dang work. It always gets in the way.

Oh yeah. And it pays for that expensive food.

I see a pattern.