~ Retro Talents ~

I have been thinking a lot about the lives of my family and how differently I live today compared to how my grandparents and great-grandparents lived.  There are so many talents they had that have been totally lost and I have been thinking of ways to restore those talents in my life.  Now I don't think they would consider them "talents."  Canning, freezing, quilting, sewing, gardening...these abilities were a way of life for them and were necessary for survival.  While I think of these activities as a hobby or craft, I am sure they thought of them as vital to putting food on the table and clothes on their backs and staying warm at night.  But regardless of how I label these abilities, I still want to be able to do some of these things, to remain in touch with their way of life and to improve my own quality of life.  And who is to say that such skills won't be necessary again some day in the future?  One never knows what the future holds.  So I will keep you up to date on my progress!

In my future!!!

 My first endeavor is taking an online course on preserving food.  I miss the Farmer's Market food so much this winter and thought perhaps I could grow enough extra to can and freeze this summer for the winter.  So I went online looking for books on the subject of preserving food and found the USDA website which is full of preserving tips and offers an online course through the University of Georgia on canning, freezing and drying foods.  I will grow some foods for preserving and purchase others at the Farmer's Market.  I am excited!

My next step was to plan my garden and I purchased the book "Square Foot Gardening" from Amazon (actually it is an ebook and I am adjusting slowly to the idea of ebooks because it saves so much space.) I am using a trial offer of plangarden (@plangarden.com) to do what else? Plan my garden :)  Here is a picture of my plans so far:

Again, I am excited and this mild winter weather has made me feel like I should be out there digging around. But it won't be long 'til spring arrives for real!

Square Foot Garden!!!

So I remember I am not supposed to say it's been so long since I posted but it has been so long and I am working on some plans to alleviate that.  I think my Mom really misses my posts and I miss this outlet to write things down.  So I have dusted my old laptop off and deleted lots of extra junk off of it and it seems to be running better for now.  I will keep it ready for more blogging and hopefully I won't go so long without writing it down.  Writers should write even when the backspace bar sticks...arrrgh!

Love your heart...it is the only one you've got :)

A few days ago was the six month anniversary of my heart attack and closely coincided with Wear Red Day for women's heart health.  I wasn't working that day and so I didn't get out but if I had I would have probably worn red.  Usually I am not all about special health concern days and if anything I would rather have worn a shirt saying "Ask Me About My Heart Attack" and then offered some advice to the curious.  But truly I don't think anything I could say would change a single mind because most people just don't think it will ever happen to them.  I certainly didn't, despite all the risk factors working against me:  strong family history, smoking, high blood pressure, weight issues, poor food choices and stress galore.  

I watch co-workers eating outrageous food choices, fighting high blood pressure, smoking like fiends, unwilling to exercise, and working in jobs that are super stressful and I know their day is coming.  I don't wish this on them at all, on the contrary, I am so sad for them because I know they might not be as blessed as I was.  I have exercised most of my life, I recognized somewhere deep inside that I was probably having a heart attack, and had my husband with me to get me help immediately.  That is not always the case.  When they make fun of my "rabbit food lunches" while they eat processed, nutrient-poor, stripped down, worthless food full of trans fats and wash it down with high fructose corn syrup delivery systems called "Mountain Dew" or "Dr. Pepper" or worse DIET drinks, I sincerely pray for them because they need help to change.  Having a heart attack woke me up but I hope they wake up without one.  Time will tell.

It has also been six months since I smoked and that really feels good.  I rarely think of smoking anymore.  Most of the triggers are long gone although yesterday when I started the fire for the grill (yes it was 60 degrees yesterday!) I had a huge desire to smoke hit me out of nowhere.  Then I realized I used to smoke a cigarette or two while I waiting for the coals to be ready for the food and my brain remembered that, too!  It quickly passed but took me by surprise.  I know if I ever smoked one cigarette, I would be smoking all the time in no time.  So I am glad that most of the time, smoking never occurs to me at all.  

Another project I have been working on is my own Smashbook called "All Things Food" and it is sooooo much fun.  My Mom gave me a journal for Christmas that was similar to a Smashbook and with more help from my Mom I turned it in to a book for the subject of food in my life.  Topics include my garden plans, recipes, menu plans, notes from my preserving course and gardening book and food prayers.  Food is such a vital part of everyone's life and in food prayers I list the people who I pray for to be healthy and make good food choices and pray for them all to return to eating food more like God had in mind for us.  Here are some pictures of the binder:

The front

The inside cover

The Back

Thanks Mom for all the materials to make an awesome place for "All Things Food!"  I write in it almost every day.  I have just about given up on ever losing much weight.  I think menopause and quitting smoking in the same year have caused my body to store every ounce of fat it can.  But I walk hard most every day and still do Pilates and some free weight lifting and I am concentrating on feeling good.  Maybe someday the scales will concur with my habits but for now I am over the numbers!

Well I think that is a lot of catching up I have done and I will hopefully keep up to date.  I love you all and will post to you soon :)