Yup! I have gone off the radar for a while but have now decided to stop using the Technorati tags so the burden of putting them on won't hinder my need to blog and blog properly. (People who know me well will know my incessant need for doing things properly.)

So on this typical day while Jack is asleep, I'm on my phone typing out a blog entry. And yes, I've been MIA because I've been enjoying motherhood. Jack has been real fun to be with and I have been taking him out shopping, meeting friends, to the kiddies playground, and to the park. When tired, we just stay home and spend time with the cats.

And so, I've been trying to be a better cat parent to my cats, who have invariably been sorely neglected when Jack was born. Now that he can stroke them gently, feed them and call them by name, it's been easier spending quality time with them. Especially with Boy.

I have rearranged their litter boxes so that cleaning them is a better user experience for me and they get more space to hang in. Their room is now airier but now I need to resolve the problem of heavy rain which soaked through the plastic covering. My ever-innovative mom promised a proposal by tomorrow.

I haven't touched milk since I last blogged. Sure I get some in the cheese or yogurt I eat and some in coffee drinks outside but I don't drink it by itself anymore. The thought of a poor cow screaming for her calf taken away from her at birth troubles me and similarly, I haven't had beef since, save for Ikea meatballs which I realised a little too late.

Still the point is to reduce consumption, because to be draconian about it is almost a death sentence to any resolve. It gets too hard so people give up. So it has become a game of substitutes. Rice milk instead of cow's milk, fish instead of beef, pork, or chicken. Beans instead of meat.

Hubby's been enjoying the alternative foods I cook now. Jack is like his dad, eager to sample new foods. So I cook at home much more now and we buy with wherever possible, perhaps 3x a week, humane organic food and we eat out less.

We have bean burritos weekly - it has become a family fave. Grilled cold water fish with organic vegetables is a staple. I only ever cook chicken for the cats and even so I am pondering buying cage-free organic chicken for them and Jack. It costs $20 a chicken vs $5 but that is the cost of eating out once so why not?

Already I am buying cage-free organic eggs which cost $12.50 for 12. If you eat at Ya Kun it is $1.20 for 2 eggs. So it is a treat for Jack and I to share 2 sunny side up eggs, 3x a week. I run through the whole cooking experience with him and he's absolutely fascinated.

Honestly, knowing that the hens didn't have to suffer the cruel factory farming life makes the eggs taste better. That and a dash of extra virgin olive oil.

Technorati: eating humanely, organic living, cats and babies