It's not very easy being so opinionated....

Well it's Easter time again. Ahh that fabulous time of year that has nothing to do with Jesus anymore, and everything to do with cadbury eggs and a bunny who has a penchant for breaking and entering. I have actually relaxed a bit when it comes to Easter. When Sierra was younger I was like ABSOLUTELY NO CANDY UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES! To illustrate how crazy I was about what kind of food she ate I'll just throw out that her first birthday cake was a fruit juice sweetened organic carrot cake that I lovingly made with whole wheat flour. It wasn't half bad, so stop gagging.

Anyway I'm getting sidetracked...

So over the past few years I've graduated to buying her a couple pieces of candy. A peanut butter egg, a small bag of mini eggs and then I fill her basket with things like bubbles, a jump rope, a butterfly net, a wiffle ball bat, ect ect you get the point. She plays with those things one or two times and then they end up being neglected and ultimately thrown away in one of my "oh god too much stuff in the house everything must go" phases. Then I just buy them again the next year.

So this year I was like "I'm tired of buying plastic crap that ends up in a landfill" (thank you "The story of stuff) and on a whim said "Hey Sierra what if you asked the easter bunny to adopt a manatee for you this year instead of getting you all that stuff you don't really use?" And she said "OK!"

What? That was WAY easier than I thought. She's a good little egg that Sierra! So we went online and she picked out the one she wanted to adopt and then we emailed the easter bunny. Misson 1 accomplished. The package came today with her adoption certificate and stuffed manatee.

Now we're getting down to the wire so it's time to dye eggs. Now I've known since I was 15 about factory farms. Back then I sent my hard earned cash (oh dunkin' donuts you were such a craptastic first job) to PETA.* Refused to eat any meat (instead my diet was 50% bread and 50% macaroni and cheese), wouldn't get within 10 feet of a gillette product and my lip gloss was bonnie bell and ONLY Bonnie Bell. However this phase ended one day in my 16th year when I ate a chicken tender and then there was no stopping me. Omnivore 4 lyfe.

Somehow I managed to do a decent job of ignoring the fact that these animals are treated beyond poorly. Even during my all organic, fruit juice sweetened cake phase. It wasn't about the animals it was about what was going into my child. I sort of just went about my happy little life disassociating the egg on my plate from the poor drugged up chicken in a tiny cage that produced it. My thinking has slowly been getting back to that more and more over the past few years. I've recently been reading probably more books about food politics than I should be, and it dawned on me today that to dye eggs we needed white ones.

I can't do it. I cannot buy those white eggs. So I was having this internal battle with myself. Rob my child of a fun tradition? Well that's dramatic right? I mean the eggs ARE already there. And me not buying them isn't going to change anything right? Still...I know what would happen. I would pick them up, and have visions of those awful conditions and it would ruin my funky good egg dying time.

So then Sierra said "I saw this egg kit at Walmart when I was in there with Nana and it was glitter eggs."

"Oh" I thought. "That would work....except" I won't set foot in a Walmart. I hate that place. I hate their politics. I hate that they moved into my town and put the little guys out of business. I just plain hate them. So now I start to feel *really* guilty. Is this fair to her? I can't deny her egg decorating and dying just because of my beliefs.

So I'm happy to report I've worked it out. She doesn't feel like leaving the house today (ok then!) so I'm going to take a trip to Michael's** this week and we're going to follow Martha Stewart's instructions on how to make glitter eggs.

*If I could get that money back I would. I can't stand that organization.

**If anyone knows bad things about Michael's or Martha Stewart glitter DO NOT TELL ME. At this point I do not want to know. I will punch you squah in the face.