The Story of Stuff...

Here's a link to an interesting video! Check it out!!

http://www.storyofstuff.com/

Valentine's Day...

Today is Valentine's Day. Big deal, huh? Last nite we went with friends to a local venue to hear one of our favorite bands, The Wheezetones (two members have asthma - hence, the "wheeze" in Wheezetones!). The question was asked of our men friends "what are you getting your wife for VD?". Three out of four (my DH being the fourth) said they were buying flowers and jewelry. Jerry & I have never "done" Valentine's Day really. He has asked if I want roses or "flowers"... and my response has always been that I'd rather have flower seeds or seedlings that I can plant and have flowers all spring / summer / fall. Do you know how many packets of seeds or seedlings you can buy for the price of a dozen roses? Holy cow! We tried going out for dinner a couple times only to be told that the particular restaurant we went to did not take reservations or call ahead seating... and the wait would be 2-3 hours, or at another restaurant one needed to make reservations & we didn't think that far in advance to do so. Thank you, but NO! We used to buy cards for each other but really nothing else.
So... this morning in honor of Valentine's Day... I put a corned beef, potatoes, carrots, cabbage & a bottle of beer in the crockpot to have for dinner tonite. Ooops... guess I should've saved that for St. Patty's Day! Oh well! Corned beef & cabbage it is! We're going out with our friends again tonite to hear the Tijuana Gigolos (band). Another fun nite spent with friends & Gigolos... who could ask for more?! :o)
Be sure to give your honey a squeeze & tell 'em you love 'em!

John 3:16

God is Good...All the Time!!

Tonite my daughter & her husband had a baby girl! I was halfway across the country -unable to be at the birth in person but they called as she was beginning to push... and five minutes later the doctor said, "It's a girl!" and the sweet cry of Madeline Claire was heard for the first time. I'm sure I heard angels singing at that moment! Baby Madeline weighs 6 lbs. 1 oz & is 19 1/2" long and has lots of dark hair!
Mommy & Daddy are doing well... I'm curious how the two older girls are going to react to a "real" baby - she's not just the baby in mommy's tummy anymore!
(obviously this picture of Madeline was taken just shortly after she was born... more to come!)

Stand Up and Say "Ah"

My husband found this little article in the February 1947 edition of The Reader's Digest. I thought it was very interesting & worth passing along - considering this article was written more than 60 years ago! Almost Prophetic!

STAND UP AND SAY "AH"
Michael Wright in Better Homes & Gardens


This is how it is in Britain. The doctor got back to his office just at two o'clock. "How many?" he said to his nurse.
"Forty."
Casually, he put on his white jacket and poked his head into the waiting room where the 40 patients sat. "Will those of you troubled with headache please stand," he said.
Six stood. The doctor took identical printed prescriptions out of his desk and handed one to each of the six and dismissed them.
Then he said, "Will those of you troubled with a cough please stand." Another group got up, and again he handed them printed prescriptions and dismissed them.
The others he took one by one into his private office for a few minutes. Two hours later the office was empty, the 40 patients gone. This was an average of three minutes to a patient.
And that, Dr. Edward H. Ochsner of Chicago testified at the recent Wagner-Murray-Dingell bill hearings in Washington, is how it is with socialized medicine in Britain.
In Germany, where they also had a compulsory system, some doctors did even better - 30 to 40 patients in one hour.
This is how most doctors believe it will be here in America if our own womb-to-tomb compulsory health scheme becomes law.

Something to think about........

Mid-week -- Progress being made little by little

In the last couple weeks I've been making a HUGE effort to reduce our waste (garbage). My recycling boxes have become fuller (plastics, glass, aluminum cans, newspaper) and our weekly garbage pick up has been reduced to 1 large paper bag of garbage. Hardly worth what I'm paying to have the garbage picked up but I'm sure the neighbors would frown on having my measily bag of garbage in their dumpsters! I have a few paper shopping bags to use for garbage...although I hate to kill trees just for the sake of not using those ^*#@ plastic bags! Since I've been using my recycled/fabric shopping bags I have very few plastic bags left... I've returned A LOT of them to the recycling box at WalMart, a local grocery store & a thrift store (they asked for them!). I'll save a few for the garage sale the end of March.

I'm currently looking for an inexpensive container to keep under the sink to put table scraps in before taking them to our compost pile. A large coffee can would work... but I don't buy coffee in cans - I buy organic/free trade coffee that comes in bags. Anyone have any ideas? Taking scraps to the compost pile isn't such a huge deal... but it's at the back of our yard & if there's snow I don't want to wade thru it to get to the pile... nor do I want to dodge the dog poop landmines. Yeah... I need to scoop poop, too! Should've done that yesterday! Maybe today.

I read recently that fluoride is NOT GOOD... and was needing toothpaste... so I bought some fluoride-free toothpaste & mouthwash. (I should get a water filter to put on the sink and also one for the shower to get rid of chlorine & fluoride. Apparently you can also absorb both chlorine & fluoride thru the skin!) I started buying sugar in the raw a while back... but have yet to get completely away from refined sugar altogether. I also must confess that I have almost an entire bag of white flour in the pantry, along with a large box of Jiffy mix. When they're gone - they're gone!

We typically have a rather late breakfast so early/mid-afternoon we've been having a fruit smoothie for lunch ... yogurt, strawberries, blueberries, banana, a squirt of Agave nector & some flax seed... a little ice & blend! So yummy, good for us & it holds us over until 6:00 when we have dinner!! We have a few pork items in the freezer... and just like the white sugar & flour - when they're gone - they're gone! No more pork. That does cause some problems with breakfast as we've been used to having bacon, sausage, or ham to make breakfast skillet meals (we have this a few times a week). We also prefer pork roast over beef roast... but there are other meat alternatives... turkey, venison, elk, lamb or buffalo are great!!! We do eat salmon & chicken quite often... should get in the habit of buying more fish and more vegetables. Another thing we're getting away from is "processed" foods - sandwich meat, certain cheeses, boxed "anything"... and really watching the labels of canned goods! SPLENDA is splashed all over the labels of canned fruit these days! Speaking of preservatives... I was looking thru my spices the other day & found a container of ACCENT! Remember this stuff? 100% MSG... SO BAD for you! I remember my mom always had this stuff in the spice cabinet! I hate to waste stuff... but I thru it in the garbage! Jerry thinks life will come to a halt without Lowry's Season Salt (no MSG) but I did buy a container of Sea Salt & have been using it... he's not complained or said he notices a difference... so that's a good thing?

Other than these few small changes... things are basically the same around here. Jerry's been listing & selling quite a few things on eBay. My downsizing continues... boxes are being filled with "garage sale" items to be sold at The Mother of all Garage Sales in March... and other boxes are being filled with things I can't seem to part with that will be taken with us to the cabin.

Just another day in paradise...

Friday Jerry went to screen for another medical study. The study isn't for a couple weeks - and is 2 or 3 weekends - but the pay is good! Friday nite we heard two great bands... String Demons and The Dubious Brothers & Sister Red... and spent some quality time with our friends.

Saturday brought another gun show. I typically don't care for them (did you read my earlier post about gun shows?) but went anyway. I'm glad I did... as I ran into a gal I had grown up with, went to school & church with. Her husband was a vendor at the gun show so she was there to be with him. Jerry & I went to a couple antique stores & got a few little things... bargains I'm sure! Upon our return home we got dressed to go to a birthday dinner with friends and then to the home of other friends for a while. Two late nites!

This morning we went to breakfast at the home of one of our sons. We had a wonderful breakfast and enjoyed visiting with everyone who was there. At one point his girlfriend & I decided to make a quick shopping run... to a local *health food store* not far from their house. Homemade ice cream was waiting for us when we got back. Jerry & I were home by 5:30... and have been just hanging out watching some TV... and now "What About Bob?" (one of my favorite movies!).

These past few days I've been reading two books... kind of cross-referencing them I guess. "Natural Cures 'They' Don't Want You to Know About" by Kevin Trudeau and "The Maker's Diet" by Jordan Rubin. These are quite interesting... I'll be sharing some of the lifestyle changes we're making along the way. These are, of course, "baby steps" (in the infamous words of Bob Wiley - "What About Bob?").

It's been a slow week!

I'm not complaining, mind you, just making note of it! Last weekend we traveled to the home of my father-in-law to spend time with family at the funeral of a dear uncle! He had been a SeaBee during WWII; the local Color Guard gave him a 21 gun salute & Taps was played as he was laid to rest. It was, of course, a sad time - but also time to reconnect with some of Jerry's cousins & other relatives.

Skeeter got to spend some quality time kenneled at the veterinarian's while we were gone & was VERY excited to be home. I don't know if he missed his tennis balls or me more!

Tuesday was auction night. Jerry bought some more stuff... but not a lot! eBay sales have been doing well so I can't really complain about that either!

Yesterday I finally knuckled under and called a local moving company to move our stacking washer/dryer out of the kitchen down to the basement. It was not an easy move for them by the sounds of it... but at least it's done! The washer/dryer has been sitting in the kitchen since we moved in - in November & we've been hauling our laundry to a launderette every week. Ugh! Our landlord came over & changed out the hoses & I did a load of laundry last night. Today is supposed to be REALLY nice, so I'll do a load of towels & hang them outside to dry in the sun! We moved the Hoosier cabinet into the space where the washer/dryer had been which made more room in the living/dining room.

Hopefully this trend will continue & the rest of the week / weekend will be calm.