"In the Spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt." - Margaret Atwood

Spring has finally arrived to stay, after a long winter with segue ways into summer-like temperatures and dips into winter chills. A lot has been happening around here as well as in the State of Pennsylvania that has put blogging on the back burner. Bigger things have been happening in PA,  more having less of a positive spin but which have played out and affected our household; countless other less fortunate households even more so.

There's a joke that comes up during elections about how Pennsylvania is really Pittsburgh and Philadelphia with Kentucky and Alabama in between. "Pennsyltucky" has never really affected the outlying areas, mostly because we've been a blue state. (Yes, this is a wee political tangent, but it won't be long, I promise.) However, with the first Republican Governer in something like, 12 years, the budget cuts that have been resounding from Harrisburgh have been loud enough to remind us who has the giant red pen slashing services. One thing that has affected our household that really is two fold are the cuts to social services. This is one article which highlights the social service cuts in the PA Dept of Welfare. Why does this affect us? We don't recieve services but as a 3 year post-grad school professional with degrees in Social Service and Law and Social Policy, this tightens the already tiny opening for available positions to be posted. Add to that the macro take I went on my MSS and we are in even more trouble - it seems program evaluation, data analysis and research, which are my nerdy fortes, are on the back burner of a back burner.

The other sad aspect is the Department of Agriculture cuts in total of $550 million dollars. This is ginormous!  Not only does this affect the agriculture industry in terms of consumers, farmers, industry, and inspection, this trickles down to an individual level I think we can all understand, if not first hand, but from watching news footage over our years on the planet: hunger. I volunteer with the Food Bank of our local community organization in our neighborhood, the West Girard Community Council. Today this impact mean that today's biweekly cupboard had less food to offer to our participants.

While I did not intend to lay on thick the depressing political issues, it's a lens into where I'm coming from and the issues I'm thinking about. And through it all, there are positives. Like baking bread, joining a CSA (which our first pick up is today!), testing new recipes, inventing more recipes, getting our garden tilled and in order for the spring, and of course, grinning proudly as the buds shoot up as we smudge dirt across our sweaty brows. Stay tuned to this and more as the weather continues to warm.