T Stands for Almost Banned, but Not in Antarctica

I hope those of you who celebrate it, had a wonderful Memorial Day and three day weekend.  Today for T, I'm taking you to Antarctica by way of my 7 continents altered book.

But first, I want to share my drink and explain the "banned" part of this post's title.  Some of you may have heard or read that Connecticut lawmakers recently tried to ban chocolate milk in schools across the state.  They claimed it was due to new Federal lunch room standards on sodium.

Critics disagreed, though, including the American Heart Association who believes the nutritional value of milk, which includes chocolate milk, outweighs concerns about the amount of sodium in diets.  Since chocolate milk provides calcium, potassium, vitamins A and D, and niacin, many nutritionists believe if it is not available in schools, children will stop drinking milk altogether.

What originally began as a bill to reduce the amount of sodium found in beverages served to school age children, was amended to include no drinks with added sodium would be allowed in schools.   This ballooned into a fight over a ban on chocolate milk.  Although not considered a high sodium drink, chocolate milk contains a small amount of sodium to neutralize the bitterness in chocolate.  However, Governor Dannel Malloy is not willing to sign away children's rights to drink this nutritional beverage.  Several statements show he will not pass any law, regardless of Federal guidelines, that includes banning chocolate milk in schools.

And I won't ban it from my table, either, although I would never feed it to Bleubeard.

On a less controversial note, it's been a hot, sticky week that turned into a muggy, spotty showers week, and I needed something to cool me off.  This spread in my 7 continents AB was just the ticket.

All of the images from both sides of this spread came from travel brochures, a source of free images,

especially those that offer lots of beautiful photos.

Note how Bleubeard left his mark when I accidentally dropped the page with the phrase "White Continent" on the kitchen floor on my way to the craft room.

My only embellishment on this page was the icy white pearl encrusted lace I used on one corner of the spread.

It took me awhile to drink my chocolate, but I enjoyed every sip of it.  And yes, I chose the mug on purpose to match both the color and "climate" of Antarctica.

As I finished my icy cold chocolate milk, I turned the spread to the opposite side

and contemplated what I had learned when I finished this spread.  Granted, I learned a few things back in 2005 when I made my first Antarctica spread, but this time I felt like I learned so much more.

For some reason, when I think of Antarctica, I think of reaching it off the coast of Australia.  I guess it's because the largest land mass is on the eastern side of Antarctica, which is closer to Australia and New Zealand.
 
But the truth of the matter is, most of the "activity" and visitors are from the western, "warmer" side, which is below South America.

Once again, my substrate contains pages from my Physician's Desk Reference, and everything else is from various travel brochures I don't remember ordering.

As a heads up, this is the final T in May.  Next week I'll be joining
this fun yearly event, which posts each Monday.  But be assured, T Stands for Tuesday will still post at 4:00 pm CDT each Monday.  As I've explained before, we in the states are on the back side of the International Date Line, so it's already mid-day to late evening on Tuesday in many parts of the world when it turns Tuesday in the states.  Thankfully, Kristin lives in the states, so for once I'm on the right side of the pond to join this fun six week event.  And I would like to encourage you to join Summer of Color (AKA SOC4), too.  You'll have fun with color in ways you had no idea you could.  And this year is no different, I'm sure.

Now it's time to please join us for T this Tuesday, and next, and the one after that, too!  All informative tirades are welcome (grin).  Art, journaling, scrapbooking, stamping, sewing, sculpting, etc. are welcome.  So is chocolate milk.  Please link below, and share your drink related post, where photos do NOT have to taken on Tuesday.