The Last Day of October

(this is a very long post, but do read and get to the videos at the end)













I guess I have never really liked the word Halloween for some reason. But, for what it is worth, Happy Halloween.

Our Hallween was interesting here. The kids and I spent our day here at home playing games, reading and baking. Kalen, Madelyn and I made some delicious Pumpkin Bread. It turned out wonderfully and, as usual, the process was a lot of fun.

I had signed us up to do reverse trick or treating with an organization called Global Exchange. It was really easy to get involved with this group. They sent me a box full of these fliers with fair trade chocolate stuck to them. Our job was to read up on the problems going on today with cocoa farming, familiarize ourselves with fair trade distributing and be able to give our neighbors this information as we go trick or treating. It seemed totally doable to us and a good way to get the word out.

Now, to those that don't know, we don't eat hardly any candy. Our children know chocolate and lollipops. Everything else is foreign as far as candy bars, fireballs, and gum. So, going trick or treating has never really been an interest of ours. Since we had these fliers to give out and we wanted to meet more of our neighbors, we figured we could kindly accept the candy and give it away later.

We fully informed the children of our plan and they really took to it. Some of you may feel sorry for them that they could not keep the candy and eat it. Don't. Our children know that candy is not good for them and they will gladly tell you why. We are not ashamed to go the hyperactive-free & cavity-free path.

Halfway through the evening as we were in the middle of our neighborhood, Julian offered to give the fair trade chocolate to a neighbor and tell them about it. I was so proud of him. Children truly learn from what we do and say. The kids had great attitudes and really enjoyed themselves quite a bit.

The kids did get some pretzels that they could eat. They made a big pile and we looked through the loot. We found some really interesting things that are on the market now. Kalen had a candy eyeball and Maddie had a candy tongue. Yuck! We thought it would be funny to take a photo of our kids heads by all the candy, such a contradiction. We put all the candy in a big basket and gave it to the trick or treaters that visited our home, along with some stickers I had bought for them.

Oh, by the way. If you couldn't tell, Maddie was an angel, Julian was a knight, Kalen was a penguin and Brayden was Tigger.

If you get a chance, check out what is going on with fair trade products like chocolate and coffee. We highly recommend Equal Exchange. Look them up on www.equalexchange.com. I am providing a video I found on YouTube about what is going on with child labor, trafficking, slavery, and poverty involved with cocoa farming in different parts of the world. It is sad to see that America's love for chocolate is promoting such disjustice and inequality. I also found one with Equal Exchange. Watch them. It is worth your time. I think we should take responsibitliy as consumers.