Three Princesses

The weekend before Valentine's Day, D and I had the privilege of attending the Sweetheart Charity Ball. It was a fundraising event that benefitted Greenville's Meals on Wheels. We found out that we would be attending only a few days before the event, so we had quite alot to pull together in the way of our attire and a babysitter in a short amount of time. That time feels like it is cut in half if it involves taking a toddler and a preschooler to shop, but though it was stressful getting everything together, we had a great time when we finally made it to the ball. There was a silent auction and a Chinese auction, and we won a Parent's Night Out from the Little Gym and a gift certificate to TGIF! The dinner was nice and there was dancing too, so of course we had to break out the South Carolina state dance, the shag. It was fun to feel like a princess for an evening!

Here is little princess Cat Cat dancing at the Greenville Library's Royal Ball. She really loves her "Finduwella" dress.

And here is my little princess SA practicing her curtsy at the Greenville Library's Royal Ball.

Cat Cat enjoyed riding this dragon at the Royal Ball.

Princess SA with her Princess Beauty wand.

The whole fam with a friendly knight in shining armor whom we met at the ball.

Princess Cat Cat is always happy to wear her "bootifull Finduwella dress".

For the Love of Food

Living in France definitely influenced my views on food and eating. The French love food! Preparing it is an art and enjoying it together is a major part of the culture. Everyone knows that, but the things that I was unprepared for were the very cautious attitudes that the French have toward things like genetically engineered food, pesticides, and processed foods. These things had really not been on my radar screen before living in France. I was concerned about the growth hormones that end up in our meat and dairy products since I had just had a baby, but I really wasn't into the whole organic or whole foods thing. I was surprised to learn that many mothers in France make their own baby food and their older children's snack foods- so they can be sure of just "what is in it". Soup came in boxes instead of in cans which was new to me, but those boxes became a staple for us, and then I found out that many French women make a soup every day! What?! "Why can't we just trust Gerber and Campbell's?" I thought. Anyway, I came around to their way of thinking a bit, though I still do buy Little Debbies on occasion. Shocking, I know!

D is always teasing me that I need to just whip up a soup "a la francaise" for dinner, as if I know how to just whip anything up- I'll need a recipe, thank you very much. I wish I had a familial culinary heritage like most of my French friends, but I don't, so I have to rely on cookbooks and recipes. I will say that I have come a long way though- from making babyfood and homemade jam to adding a few French recipes to my repertoire, but I still have lots to learn as well. I am pleased that now that I can read French, I can actually use some of the cookbooks that I have bought or been given over the years.


I haven't read the famous Why French Women Don't Get Fat book yet, but I plan to. I love that the subtitle of the book is "The Secret of Eating for Pleasure", and the author touts this as a French woman's manifesto. I have been doing my own research, and though I am still stumped, I am beginning to wonder if the secret of French thinness lies in the quality of the food. Why are Americans so much bigger than French people? And why is it so hard to lose weight here in America? That we don't walk as much is an obvious explanation, but I have been to the gym and or running for several hours each week lately, and I am seeing nowhere near the results that I had imagined. And lately I have noticed that a lot of people around me seem to be fighting the same battle. French women here say that they have all gained weight too since coming to this country and attribute it to our food. When I asked one friend what French expats do to remedy this weight gain phenomenon, she said they don't lose the weight they gained either until they go back to France!

When we came back to the States, I tried to shop for organic produce, dairy and meat for awhile, and after it became too expensive, I gave up. Lately I have been having the worst time trying to lose the weight I have gained since being back here, and I am wondering if going organic would help. Jillian Michaels, author of Mastering Your Metabolism seems to think so and a number of people I have been reading lately agree. I think I'm going to give it another try and then hopefully plant a garden for the summer. At least if I don't lose weight, I should be healthier, right? The good news is, that I love food and so do the French, so my love of food can't be the problem. And what I love about the French culture is that the preparation of the food is an expression of love for those who partake of the food. Anyone who has truly labored to prepare a meal knows and understand this, but in American culture, I think this labor of love often goes underappreciated due to the vast amount of fast/ convenience food that is available to us. In addition, the enjoyment of food with others is also something that is not taken lightly in French culture. Meals are much more of an event than they are for us in the US, and eating out is way more expensive so that casual acquaintances are not often found having dinner together. Eating out at a restaurant is something that close friends do together on special occasions. I absolutely LOVE the recent movie, Julie and Julia because I can SO relate to Julia Childs as a "large" American expat living in France learning French and how to cook but also because the movie portrays marriage in a positive light and cooking as a way of loving our families well. It is a must see!

"I'm in Shock"

This is what I said to the pharmacist at BiLo today. I mean, seriously. I was completely shocked. Here I was, picking up a perfectly normal prescription- for eye drops for my daughter with pink eye. We have had pink eye (i.e. conjuntivitis) a time or two. In France they always prescribed these orange eyedrops that stained everything. Thank goodness, they washed off of the children's faces and all of the linens and clothes that we stained orange during the treatment time. But, I mean, I KNOW I never paid more than 6-8 euros for the drops. That was after the mere 28 euro visit to the doctor. Today I called the pediatrician's office. I know pink eye when I see it. I knew exactly what we needed, and I didn't need to see the doctor. So I was hoping that they would just call in the prescription for me. Alas, no, they wanted to be sure that she didn't have an ear infection. My girls haven't ever had ear infections, thanks be to God, but I guess the doctor wanted to be sure. So, after going to what will be the $98 doctor visit, we went to pick up the prescription for antibiotic eye drops. "Are we sure this is bacterial?" I asked the doctor who told me that no, we can't be sure but by the time we culture the discharge, it would be so much worse that it is better to just go ahead and treat it as if it were a bacterial infection. What? I guess this is how the general population gets resistant to anitbiotics! Anyway, after 5 days of gooky eye, it was time to do something, so that is why I took her to the doctor. But, back to Bilo.

The total cost of the medicine which comes in a 3 ml bottle (that is LESS than a teaspoon, by the way) was $94.29!!!!!!!!!!! What?! Fortunately I only had to pay $71.51. Now D has a good job with insurance for which I am very thankful, but this is a shocking price for a 3 mL bottle of antibiotic eyedrops that I have bought several times over in France for a fraction of the price. I know lots of people are scared about the "socialist" agenda of Barack Obama's healthcare reform plan, but I definitely think our healthcare system needs an overhaul. I hope that we can anticipate change. I mean we will have spent $160 on an eye infection today and it is highly contagious, so if we all get it, that will be multiplied times 4. That means that one fourth of our alloted healthcare expenses covered by insurance for the year could go to everyone in the family being treated for pink eye. Whatever, I seriously need to move back to France. Even though I did not get to have the benefit of Security Sociale, since I didn't pay into the system there, we had a WAY better deal for helathcare than in our own country.