Thursday Thoughts

 This morning first thing after my usual "getting started things" I sat down in my chair to brush my hair prior to washing it...since my head needed a really good scratching.  I used our Roku's microphone and called up "Don't Miss This" by Emily Belle Freeman and David Butler.  The episode I watched was Doctrine and Covenants 23-26.  It was so touching that I cannot refrain from sharing.  It is about Emma Smith.

It was so nice that Emily and David took us to the actual location where Emma lived and shared part of Emma's story.  Later on they spoke of the day before she lost her husband.  Finally a sweet young girl sings a song called "How Much Can One Heart Take".  While this song is about Emma and her struggles, it could be about every woman.  We all have challenges, significant to each one of us.

Maybe when you watch this episode you will find your own heart comforted.  May this be so.

Thursday Thoughts

 The recent sporadic posts lets you know where I am!  (Two burials in ten days, two food orders plus local food shopping in four days, and so much more.  It is a full time job to be a church lady...!)

Today's "thought" is about something I did at least two weeks ago. 

One of my favorite crafts is Gelli printing to make into greeting cards. I love the colors. I love the way they play on the paper. I can never get bored but I have found a new techniques that pleases me.

These prints were a variety of techniques.  The ones with the "dots" are from using the bag that onions came in.  I spread the paint on the Gelli plate with a 4" brayer then laid the bag over the paint.  After that I placed the card stock on top, covered with a full sheet of card stock then rubbed over the top of the paper for about thirty seconds to hopefully get really good contact between the card-to-be and the paint.

You might also see some stars plus some circles of various sizes on one of the prints.  The stars come from the cap on Pellegrino bottles that someone pointed out to me might work,  The circles are from all sorts of covers as well as defunct pen tubes...the ink having dried up.

You might ask why I put a full sheet of card stock OVER the card stock that is being printed.  Good question! Easy answer: the Gelli plate is 5" by 7". The card stock is 4.25" by 5.5".  I am not fond of paint under my fingernails and all over my hands so I solve that by the big sheet.  It really helps, though does not totally eradicate the problem...since I always manage to get some paint where I don't want it, don't notice, then when I am done, discover my hands still have paint on them and the backs of the cards also have paint.  Oh well.  Amateur artist.

Thursday Thoughts!

 This week has been full here.  I bet your week has also been full.  We are only two weeks into the new year and I have already fallen off the write-down-what-you-eat-before-you-eat-it wagon.  Well, some days I am doing it, but not religiously.  I have also tubbed up a lot.  Well, some.  Today I am turning this wagon around.  

This morning one of my counselors and I made a three-hour cruise.  Actually, it was a 3-hour drive and we did not end up on an uninhabited island. We did find a grand-mom and her new granddaughter at home. We spent a moment on the doorstep as we delivered a sweet little quilt another sister in the ward had made.  At the other house (which was a LONG way away...no wonder she found it hard to get to Church...) we found a nice man and a lovely cage where he had a white peacock!  I had never seen a white one.  He had gotten it thinking it would be a mate for the peacock he already had, but it turned out to be male also!  Sad.  I wonder what their pea-babies would have looked like.  Anyway, we learned that the sister who lived in that gorgeous house had moved to Kentucky. Three years ago!  Now we will hunt her down there to say goodbye and best wishes.

On the way back we stopped in Olanta at the Thigpen Farm where Dear One and I bought Asian sweet potatoes last fall. (I have two of those little beauties in the Instant Pot with a sweet onion and a wedge of cabbage for supper.  No, Dear One will not be sharing it with me.  He had a Subway sandwich which was lunch and supper...!). We learned a lot about sweet potatoes. It looks like I can plant a few starts, but earlier than I did last year, but plan to visit the farm again in August...!

After the visiting I managed to drive myself to theYMCA where I swam for only the second time this week. It was glorious though the water was only 89 degrees!  Often it is 90 degrees.  You would not think so but you really CAN feel the difference.  The YMCA app worked today so I signed up for a slot in the pool tomorrow.  I got in more than an hour of moving through the water. I really should not glorify what I do as swimming...but I did keep moving for a long time, though not as long as when Ms Ruby is there to chat with.  THOSE are really good days!

On the way home I stopped for Dear One's sandwich but before doing that, I stopped at a new Tienda Latina on Broad Street.  It is a small shop but has quite a bit of good stuff in it!  I got some Mexican vanilla as well as a gingerbread bar and some other semi-sweet  bread-y thing. I ate some on the way home and Dear One scarfed down the rest. I really MUST learn Spanish.  DuoLingo here I come!

This darling little ball with the fluffy green hair and the green-haired, headed pen with the tip to use on your phone keyboard was a gift from the nice proprietor of Mercado Acosta.  So nice of him.

Now that I am home and stopped, I feel like a nap coming on but should not do that.  I started to write this post about things that have been on my mind this week. Instead I am just blatting on about what I have done today...Sorry.  Not at all the thing!

Thought 1:  Sometimes you can prepare a meal that you think will be fabulous and it just plain isn't.  We had a meal like that this week. I made "Healthy Vegetable Soup".  I have come to believe that when the word "healthy" is in a recipe's title, the food is probably just this side of garbage.  In this case, it was my own fault.  It cooked way too long in the Instant Pot.  I did not have time to hang around the stove babysitting the soup so I cooked it in the Instant Pot.  For a LONG time.  Mistake #1.  Mistake #2 was that when the recipe called for a 28-ounce can of diced tomatoes, I put in a 15-ounce can of "Fire-Roasted Diced Tomatoes".  Along with extra vegetable broth.  WELL...this really was just this side of garbage. I realized after talking with Dear Daughter that the problem was the fire-roasted/burned tomatoes.  I had used fire-roasted tomatoes once before and found the flavor they imparted to be nasty but did not remember.  Now I will remember.  There are two half-gallon jars of this glop in the refrigerator.  I would rather eat the leftover miso soup with udon noodles and tofu than the Healthy Vegetable Soup...!  Hopefully I will get to it before it goes bad.  Or should I say, worse.

Thought #2:  When you have a "great thought" come into your mind, after examining it closely and finding that it really is a great thought, it would be wise to act on it immediately.  No story to share, but a truth I have come to believe.

Thought #3: Our lives will be so much happier and more productive if we spend time every single day counting our blessings.  Gratitude is the very best medicine.

Thursday Thoughts: Weight Loss Strategies

 Something has come to me very recently.  Dear One sometimes tells me that my middle name must be oblivious.  There is certainly a great deal of truth to that!  How some ever,  I think I have learned something about weight loss.  Finally.

This week has been completely hectic.  Part of it has been church work, part of it has been Christmas knitting, part of it has been test knitting. Part of it has been housework even!  Most days have been so busy I have had little time to sit down to eat.

Thought #1 about losing weight: Keep your hands and body busy all the time.  No time to cast about the kitchen looking for things to eat.

Thought #2 about losing weight: Get up in the morning and the very first thing you do, finish projects you should have finished yesterday or some time earlier in the week.  Such as sorting, folding, and putting away three loads of laundry that have been smiling at you for days.  There is nothing like getting a job done, doing it well, and then seeing empty spaces so you COULD take a nap if you wanted to.

Thought #3:about losing weight Have a plan for meals.  Actually execute that plan.  This way you are not casting about the kitchen (again!) for untoward amounts of time.

Thought #4: about getting healthy! Get rid of the Halloween leftover candy bags immediately.  Like...have someone come take it away.  Of course, being cheapskates, AND having a candy monster in the house, we have not done that.  So it is there tempting, tempting, tempting those who don't want to be tempted.

Thought #5:  This is probably one of the most important thoughts: DO NOT MAKE BREAD TWO DAYS IN A ROW NO MATTER WHO MIGHT NEED IT!  It is impossible to walk away from hot bread and a dish of butter.

For myself, my plan every day is to get up, weigh myself, check, my blood glucose, check my blood pressure, record all these things. (Doctors ALWAYS ask about all these numbers when I go, so...why not indulge them and keep track myself?!) After these things, I spend time reading in the scriptures then writing what I learned and what personal revelations may have come to me.  After that, I can get rolling on the day.  These are all good things.

On days when I follow these things with the activities above, real progress is made on many fronts.  I have recorded these thoughts for myself but also for anyone else who might benefit from them, and would welcome other "thoughts" to help us all gain good health and well-being.

Thursday Thoughts

Years ago I was at Grammie Corwin's house.  We were eating a meal together, though I do not know why. I don't remember that being a regular occurrence.  At one point she said, "You need to chew your food."  I guess I was just smashing the food up enough that I could swallow it.  She even sang me a little song to the tune of Row, Row, Row Your Boat.

"Chew, chew, chew your food gently through the meal.
The more you chew, the less you'll eat, the better you will feel."  

I always thought that was a nifty little song she had made up just for me.  Come to find out, she was ahead of her time!  (Sadly, I did not take her advice until very recently!)

This week, or sometime recently:it is hard to keep track of time anymore, things move so fast-- I was listening to a health webinar.  I may not have the details entirely correct, but the essence is accurate.  The scientist doing the speaking said that there are so many good nutrients in the cells of the food we eat. In this case I think he was speaking of sulforaphane which is an important nutrient found in broccoli.  He said that there are several parts that make up sulforaphane but they are in different cells.  If you chew your food, you will break those cells open and the parts of the sulforaphane will mingle together and give you the important benefits that our bodies need for optimal health.  When you just mush up the food in your mouth and swallow it quickly, because you are in a hurry or maybe you don't like the food, well, you do not get the full benefit of that food.

So...Grammie knew some important things, even if she did not know why.  This webinar makes me more conscious of how to eat.  Often we just gobble our food, leave the table, and get on with other things.  In retrospect, that is a poorly-thought-out practice. I guess with was not thought out at all.  

Another area for immediate reformation...!

 

Thursday Thoughts

 We had a power outage on Wednesday evening.  The power was not expected to be restored until after midnight.  We are often in bed by nine o'clock.  A CPAP needs power to run. I cannot sleep without the CPAP.  Consequently, I had a lot of time for thinking.

Life is pretty good here.  And has been for many years.  Oh, there have been a few ups and downs but the downs have been bearable and temporary.  When the lights went out and it was time for bed I began thinking of people who need oxygen not only to sleep but to live. And then thought that there are probably many other people who have other needs that cannot be met when things change, like the power going out.  How to they manage?  My heart mourns for them.  For me, it is only a matter of lost sleep (though I do have two medical appointments early in the morning so that is going to be a bit of a problem for me, but not life threatening.)

There are so many people who have so many problems to deal with that I never think about.  Tonight I have.  I realize that about the only thing I can do is to pray for them, and when I see someone I can personally assist, I will do it.

When there is a change like this, it brings more compassion to my mind and heart.  And I want to be a better person.

PS. The power came on just before midnight.  I am very grateful to the workmen and women who restored power to our town.

PPS. This probably makes not a lot of sense.  I am pretty muddled.

Thursday Thoughts: Peace and Good Works

As I was reading the scriptures this morning a thought crossed my mind (possibly because in the background I could hear the news cast to which Dear One was listening):  what if instead of all the "bad news" the media was having such a great time "reporting", what if instead they spent three months actually reporting good news.  And publishing peace.

What if the reporters went around finding all the myriad good works people are performing?  What if they reported all the wonderful peaceful times in small towns and cities around this country and around the world?

What would happen if all we heard were these good works?  I think people's minds would rest easier.

Personally, I would prefer this.

Thursday Thoughts: Simple

A dear friend and former senior missionary in the Oregon Portland Mission often sends me heartening thoughts in the format of a picture with text across it.  The one I just read has really caught my attention.

Keep Life Simple 

In the picture was included a beautiful flower.  Since I don't know where it came from I decided I better not potentially infringe on copyright so I have not included the picture.  The message is clear, though!

I do not know about you, but so often the complications of life are of my own making.  It is now time to get into the "Keep Life Simple" mode.  I think perhaps with a simple plan each day, more will actually be accomplished.

What do you think?

Thursday Thoughts: Sleep

Sleep is critically important to our health.  The older I get, the more I realize this.  I am hoping some day to get it together with sleep.  When you read the magazine articles/scientific studies about how to have good sleep (go to bed same time every night, wake up same time every morning, have a bedtime ritual, stop screen time 60-90 minutes before bedtime, eat or drink no caffeine after 6 PM, etc)  I have done most of those--except the screen time--for a long time, and yet, there are nights where sleep is just plain elusive.

For the past few years, when I wake up at night, I go back to bed and try to drop off again. If I don't fall back to sleep within 30 minutes, I get up and do something productive, such as read my scriptures, knit, quietly clean up anything that needs cleaning up--and there is ALWAYS something to clean up that I did not do before bed!

Sadly, these stay-up times can last for hours.  Even with positive self-talk.  Such as, I am only going to knit two more rounds, or I will only read today's scripture goal, or I will only read one Spanish chapter, or, or, or.  Or even, at 2:30 I will definitely go back to bed.  Staying up seems to feed on itself.

Lately I have noticed that the nights when I am up for three or four hours during the night, I wake up with very nasty blood glucose levels.  Rats! 

So I was talking with Dear One.  Griping, actually, and he said he just stays in bed, tosses and turns for a while, then eventually falls back to sleep on those rare nights when sleep is difficult for him.  I think I will try that one for a while to see if that works.  I am definitely tired of feeling tired all day. 

Night-before-last was an up-most-of-the-night night.  Not surprisingly, last night I slept from 9:00 to 5:30!  Score!  And my blood sugar was happy this morning, even though I had not eaten smartly last evening.

May I say that I hope everyone who reads this post has better and better sleep.  It makes the days so much easier.