OOPS!

It was pointed out to me that the link is not in the email you receive. You have to go to the actual blog to link with the referral. If you want to do it without a referral to me then you can just do a search for swagcodes and sign up for yourself without a referral. I will never know! Thanks Becky for pointing out my error!

Swagcodes

I wouldn't normally put any advertisement on my blog because I am not into making any money off of my friends (well maybe some family members, LOL!). But this is a great deal and I want to share with everyone. Until about a month ago I used Google exclusively for all my searches. I found out about Swagcodes and now use them almost all the time. Why? About every 2-10 searches I get a Swagbuck. This earns me credits towards something in the Swagstore. Now, there really isn't anything I really want in this store, except one thing. Amazon.com promotion codes for $5 off your total order. It took 45 Swagbucks to get the $5 off. I hadn't shared this with anyone yet because I wanted to make sure it was legit. And it is! I just placed an order for some gift books with Amazon and got $5 deducted from the total. So not bad. You can earn codes other ways too, but you have to go out of your way. Searching is something I do anyways and they use Google and Ask for the search results. I have compared both Swagbucks and Google and they seem to be nearly identical on a few searches I tried.

So how do you sign up? Click on the banner on the right and register. Now here is the part where I do feel a little bit guilty. For those of you that register and search, I will get a matching Swagbuck for each of yours up to 100. I got this off of another blog and she is getting a match of each of my searches (but not my referrals searches). In another two or three weeks I will have maxed out her referral matching and she will have to find someone else. But so far I have $5 off for free and I am about two weeks away from getting another $5.

So for those of you who are now annoyed with me I am very sorry. For the rest, thank you and happy shopping!

Note: It was pointed out to me that the link is not in the email you receive. You have to go to the actual blog to link with the referral. If you want to do it without a referral to me then you can just do a search for swagcodes and sign up for yourself without a referral. I will never know! I think I will post this note to a new post so it can get to everyone's inbox! Thanks Becky for pointing out my error!

Health Insurance Is Killing Us All

I have heard both sides and I have worked in the health industry most of my working years. I can officially say that it is starting to get out of hand. I live in a conservative area and work in an extremely conservative area. Very few that I have talked to want anything to change. They are very afraid of changing to a government run health-care system. But I can tell you that if we dont do something then none of us are going to be able to afford any health insurance. There has to be a happy medium between the two extremes.

I am ranting because I just got my health insurance renewal. The premium has increased by 25% per month. That turns out to be 510.48 more for the year and that is just for me. Logan has his own policy and Charles gets his from work. If just mine increases 25% for the next five years then my monthly premium will be over $650 a month. And I can tell you that I have not had a pay increase since 2006. The agency I used to work for full time had nearly gone belly up multiple times in the past 3 year so no raises. Now I work for myself and I am working a contracted rate that will probably not go up anytime soon. The company I had worked for had insurance that was $130 a month for my part but you could only go to certain doctors/hospitals affiliated with the parent company of this agency. The area residents call this hospital a death hospital (you only go there to die. Very bad reputation for a rural hospital). Charles' work wanted over $600/month to add just me to his policy and over $1100/month to add both me and Logan. That was laughable! On top of all that our current policies have a $5000 deductible for me and Logan and $1500 for Charles!

Another therapist I work with said he went to a patient's home and there was a lady sitting on the couch who was fine the other day and who obviously had a stroke in recent hours. She couldn't walk or talk well and had been like that over a day. She did not seek help because she doesn't have insurance. Now this person is not likely to ever work and will be a drain on the system for years and years. Now how dumb is that!

For all the naysayers out there I just have to say that there has got to be a better way. I think we are too big a country to have a completely government run health system. It would be too complicated and is not very practical. But there has to be some kind of regulation on the healthcare industry. They should not be able to raise premiums so high. I go to the doctor a few times a year for the usual checkups and sinus stuff. Since historically hospitals can charge $30 for an aspirin you have to think that someone somewhere is getting all this money. They need to investigate where all this money is going! They say that medical expenses are one of the leading causes of bankruptcy. I think in the near future that medical insurance premiums are going to be added to that list.

Okay, I am done ranting and I guess I will now go and pay the bills.

The Good Life

Here is a short video I really liked on another blog I read.

Vacation in Vermont

We went to the Trapp Family Lodge in Stowe, VT. My Dad has a timeshare there (that he is selling in case anyone is interested!). We have never been and it was beautiful. It was such a different scene from Texas and the weather was perfect. We went from very humid mid to upper 90's to 60's and 70's. It was pretty hard to come home from that. Charles just kept saying, "I want to stay!" We did lots of activities, outdoor and in. Lots of hiking, walking in the cute little town, car rides in the mountains, working out, yoga, hanging out, tennis, movies, eating, and on and on! Here are a few pictures...

Dad (Walt) and his wife, Nan

The Boys, Charles and Logan



Grandpa and Logan
Cute picture except that Dad won and Logan had a minor meltdown right there in the shop.



Logan


Me and Charles
I didn't realize that I didn't put on any makeup that day!



This is also the home of Ben and Jerry's famous (and delicious) ice cream.





Just hanging out in a very cold stream.



The view from our condo.



Climbing wall. Logan loves these!

A fun time was had by all and we are looking forward to our next getaway!
(No, nothing planned, just dreaming)

School Lunches

I did meet with the director of Nutrition for Logan's school District. We talked for about 45 minutes and I had a few surprises. The biggest one is that the nutrition department's budget is not included in the School District's operating budget and gets none of the money from the government that goes to schools directly. They operate independently as a non profit organization. The money they get comes from sales of food, cash subsidies from the government, and donated commodities from the USDA for each meal they serve. In districts that serve at leas 60% free or reduced priced lunches (which Logan's school district does) get an extra two cents per meal served. Because much of the food that is served is from donated commodities, there is going to be a lot more soy, corn and wheat based products. The things that really put on the pounds! These very things are also given to big cow farms and chicken farms as surplus commodities with the sole purpose of a cheap way of fattening up the livestock so they can be brought to market quicker. The director of nutrition gave me lots of information including menus, ingredient lists and nutritional information for many of the lunches they serve. She has also tried to start a few programs in the classroom so that the curriculum is tied into what is current in the cafeteria. I told her that Logan came home one day and told me that he was learning the food pyramid and found out he is supposed to eat mostly grains! I was shocked because that is utterly false. The food pyramid has been changed to make fruits and veggies the biggest group. Unfortunately the grain lobbyists won when the new graphic was designed. Fruits and veggies were seperated into their own groups on the new pyramid so the grain slice is bigger than each one seperately. She wa also very disappointed to hear about all that. She agrees that she needs to work more with each school on the curriculum and training the teachers better on their programs.

After reviewing the information I think that they are doing a better job than many schools but think that a lot more can be done. The menu reads like a fast food menu and we are training the kids to eat these things every day. Even though the hot dogs are made from chicken and the hamburgers are 100% beef with no additives. The cheese pizza has half cheese and half imitation cheese (which is made mainly from soy and corn) so there is lots of room for improvement. The school follows the recommendations from the USDA. So the main thing is to change the rules that the USDA puts out. I sent out my letter to many people in government and at the school district. I have signed a few petitions to improve school food programs. There is a lot going on out there right now. Mostly because the old requirements expire this year and need to be renewed. Any changes in the program can only be made when the program is renewed. Also this turns out to be something that First Lady Michelle Obama is promoting right now. I hope to continue working with the school and writing to those in government to get better nutrition in the schools.

I also saw a great movie called Food Inc this weekend. It gives a lot of insight to where the current global food market is going. We saw the movie Saturday night and the national news showed many clips from the movie because of the recent e-coli thing. If you see the movie you will understand where the e-coli thing is coming from. Not good. I wont get into it here but check out the links.

Tomatoes

Our garden is in full swing and we have many successes and of course losses! This big success are the tomatoes. We planted four varieties this year. Cherokee Purple (Charles' favorite), Black Krim (Looks Like a Cherokee Purple and we cant tell them apart!), Persimmons, and Costoluto. The Persimmons (picture left) is a pale orange and tastes fabulous! It has a really creamy texture and is not overly sweet. The Costoluto (picture right) is an old heirloom paste tomato and so far this is the only one that has made it. The bugs and the birds seem to really like them a lot. Not sure I will though. I started new seeds today of the two favorites for fall plants and hope to replace them as they get too big.

The cucumbers and squash did not make it. A combination of vine borer worms and fungus took care of them for good. We got a few cucumbers and squash but that was it. We had a good load of radishes and we have eaten half the carrots. Turns out that Mustard likes carrots. I pulled one up to see how big they were. I walked over to Mustard to pet him and he grabbed it out of my hand! He tried so hard to eat it! Who knew that dogs liked carrots.




I also have bunching onions and basil. The cilantro bolted very early and we didnt get much out of it. I think we are having a harder time becuase of the heat. We have had over a week of 100+ degrees and I'm getting a little tired of it! I have also discovered that the Kale doesnt like heat so it is gone! I think I will try it in a winter garden. They are supposed to be okay even in the snow! Hope everyone is having a great summer!

Leftovers

Before putting in this year's veggie garden we found a few surprises. There were potatoes which we never harvested any because we thought they all died! And there were a few baby carrots. I think these are from seeds that didn't germinate (there were many!) and decided it was time when the weather warmed up a bit.

Posting Blitz!

I haven't posted in a while and I have lots of material to talk about. I just haven't gotten myself to the computer to make it all happen. Logan is sick today and so I have some time. Logan has sore throat, headache, voice is hoarse and nauseous. Sounds like it could me many things including the Swine Flue except no fever yet. Waiting to see what happens! Meanwhile I am working on the new posts including downloading almost 200 pictures!

CSA Share

Here is a picture of what we got in the share last week. Red potatoes, a zucchini, carrots, a few small but tasty tomatoes, salad greens, a very large onion, mushrooms, cucumber, radishes and kale.

The salad is done from our garden. The spinach never really came out good. I have taken it all out and planted red onions. The yellow squash is good but there are very few of them. I have had to resort to hand pollinating them. I have seen only one bee one time so far. The first tomatoes are about 1-2 inches big and should be ready in 3-4 weeks. Unfortunately we will be going on vacation about then. Our neighbor will hopefully be taking care of the garden and the animals and she may be the lucky recipient of the first tomatoes. We had a bunch of strawberries and they are really yummy. I expect only a week or two more of those. I picked the first blueberries this morning and may have a few more soon. We had my gluten free pancakes with strawberries and blueberries from the garden!

Letter about School Lunch Program

I wrote a letter about the poor state of the school nutrition program and sent it to many, from my son's school staff/teachers/administration on up to Mr and Mrs Obama and everyone in between. I just wanted to share it with everyone else too!

So here it is:

I am a concerned parent of a first grader. I am also a home physical therapist who treats mostly medically complicated patients in their declining years. More than half of the people I treat have three things in common: obesity, diabetes, and heart disease. They wonder why their bodies are failing them as I look past them into their kitchen. I see discarded fast food wrappers, bags of chips, mountains of soda and loads of other high fat, high sugar and high starch foods.

Then I sat with my son at lunchtime at his school. My son brings his lunch because he is extremely picky. But I was appalled at what the other students were eating. Most of his class had the school lunch that day. It was chicken nuggets, mashed potatoes with gravy, biscuits, gray looking green beans, iceberg lettuce, and fruit salad. The kids get to pick what they want out of the line and can add “a la carte” items. There is no incentive to pick the more nutritious items. The child across from my son chose the chicken nuggets, mashed potatoes, biscuit, and then paid extra for a bag of potato chips. Most of the other children chose nearly the same. Only three children in his class chose the fruit or vegetable. When you follow the diabetic food exchange plan this meal would equal one protein and four carb/starches. The child was a little overweight but did not look obese. A few years of eating this same diet will cause this child to be obese. The choices of healthy food available were milk, iceberg lettuce (very little nutritional value), green beans (undoubtedly canned and overcooked causing little nutrition or taste to remain) and a small portion of fruit salad. My son's school participates in a “virtual cafeteria” website that uses the actual menu to teach children about nutrition. You get a green light for picking healthy foods and a yellow light for picking not healthy foods. I checked the menu for several weeks and there was not one entrée offered that met the requirements to get a green light. Only a few questionably healthy sides were offered and some days only one at each lunch.

We are setting up our children to be obese. It was reported last year that children born in 2000 have a 1 in 3 chance of becoming obese adults. They are doomed to be fat because we don't give them better choices and we don't help them make better choices. I know the children are taught about nutrition but then we leave the choice all up to them. If given the same buffet menu as the children that day, how many of you would have skipped the mashed potatoes and biscuit and chose the green beans, fruit salad and salad? We all know what we should eat and most choose to eat the junk anyway. We need to give our children tasty, healthy food, help them make the best choice and then give them incentive to eat it! But the current system expects a seven year old to make the right choices and take all the responsibility for those choices.

The National School Lunch Program was started in 1946 to feed low income children, keep them from going hungry, and prevent malnutrition. Malnutrition should no longer be the goal of this program! As I started to research the program I was again appalled to discover that the funding for the program is tied to surpluses in the commodities markets. The program is serving the huge commercial wheat, corn and soybean farms, instead of our children. We are doing a disservice to our children and their futures. The times have changed and we should change the structure of the program so that we can serve healthier food. How about subsidizing broccoli farms? Funding should be tied to healthier foods and supporting local markets instead of the large commercial mega farms. Food preparation should be brought back to the schools instead of a factory 1500 miles away making frozen, re-heatable meals that containing three times more ingredients than normal because they need so many preservatives to keep them safe to eat.

I realize this means the schools need more money to do it the right way. Schools will need to hire chefs, nutritionists, train other workers to cook and not just reheat and serve. They will need to buy new equipment to prepare the food. Educating students in nutrition should take a bigger role in the curriculum. Don't just teach a food pyramid that supports eating large amounts of grain and think it has been covered. Integrate cooking and nutrition into science classes, arts and crafts, social studies and where ever else it can be incorporated. Give the children individual and class rewards tied directly to eating healthier at lunch time. Kids are competitive and respond to those types of challenges. It should be interactive but currently the system is too passive. Past efforts to cut out vending machines with soda and candy bars do not go nearly far enough.

The Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act of 2004 will expire this September 2009. This legislation includes all the Federal child nutrition programs, including the School Breakfast and the National School Lunch Programs, the Summer Food Service Program (SFSP), the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP), and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC). Please be a proactive voice in changing our school's nutritional standards. Please support legislative changes to overhaul our school lunch programs and provide funding to do so. Please support our children's future health and well being. Their lives depend on it!

CSA Shares Are Here

What is a CSA? It stands for Community Supported Agriculture. It is a great way to eat more locally and support local businesses (mainly small farms). I love to buy stuff at the farmer's markets but they are all about 45-60 minutes away down in Houston. I found a way for the farmer's market to come to me (well near to me). There is a local farm in a small town 20 miles from here called Cleveland, TX. I actually work in and around this town doing home health. They produce all kinds of produce and normally sell at farmer's markets in Houston. But this year they have decided to start a CSA. You "buy" a share of the crop and you pick it up at a prearranged time for the period of the subscription. Our pick-up is about 7 miles away and we subscribed for 10 weeks. I bought a "half share" since Logan eats almost nothing and I didn't think that Charles and I could eat a whole share (although that would have been more economical). Our pickups are on Wednesday evenings. They do get a few things from other local farms when the share is small.

So our first share was really nice and as of today is already half eaten. We got 3 heads of broccoli, a large bag of lettuce greens, about 25 button mushrooms, curly leaf parsley, a bunch of green onions and a small box of micro arugula. I was surprised at the micro arugula. I never had it before (the micro type that is) and it was my favorite thing. A very wonderful taste that I thought would be hot like the full sized version but it was more "warm" and very tasty. I mixed it in the salad. I also don't typically use fresh parsley but again I found things to put it in that made the usual a bit different. That's great because I like trying new things and when it is sitting on the counter and your hungry, you find a way to use it. I am hoping that they have more surprises over the next 9 weeks. Yum! We will be away for one of those weeks and plan on giving it to a friend and they can pick it up. They are also supposed to have the usual garden veg like tomatoes and squash so it should be fun to see what we get.

You can find out what your local area has in the way of farmers markets, CSAs, and local farm stands at Local Harvest. I looked at many of your zip codes and found that there was something in everone's area, although some had lots more than others. Some had everything imaginable and others only had local honey. So go out and eat your vegetables!

And my garden is shaping up well. We have been eating kale, salad greens, spinach and radishes. The first blooms are out on the sugar snap peas. We are still a month off before cucumbers and squash and probably two months from tomatoes and peppers. We are still battling the squirrels for the strawberries and they are winning! The netting is hopefully coming out this weekend and I will finally get to eat some.

I am still recovering from my sinus infection and on my third antibiotic. The third is because I had a bad reaction to the second one. Levaquin. I will never take that one again! I hope to be doing more painting and organizing this next month. We will see. I am really behind! Hope everyone is doing well! Have a great weekend!

Early Spring Harvest

We worked a lot in the garden today. Charles is building a new raised bed in the area he usually just plants rows in the ground. It is kind of a soggy area so the raised bed will make planting much better. But the best part of today was dinner. We had grilled bacon wrapped shrimp (yes we splurged!) and a salad made from baby lettuce greens and cherry bell radishes both picked from our garden. We may have some spinach ready in a week or two also. But everything else is at least a month or two away. The tomato and pepper transplants were planted in the ground today, but now we might get another late frost this week. Two late frosts? But I am prepared to protect my seedlings! Hope everyone has a great week!

We Have to Keep Up!

This video was sent to me by a friend. It is really facinating thatour technology is progressing so fast. I can be a bit of a sarcastic person so I would have had a different ending. I would have ended it with this - "So then why is our air traffic control system still using 1960's radar technology?"

Garden Veggies

I was asked about what is the easiest thing to grow. I think the cucumbers and the sugar snap peas are the easiest. Sugar snap or snow peas can be planted a few weeks before the last frost date for your area (I think you can plant anytime in April through beginning of May for northern Utah). The cucumbers and peas need something to climb on. Radishes are nice to grow because they grow really fast. This year we are planting rows of radishes with carrots planted in the same row in between each radish. The carrots grow slowly and the radishes are nearly done by the time the carrots start. This makes better use of space. We are trying spinach and leaf lettuce for the first time. I planted the seed about two and a half weeks ago and the leaves are already about an inch. It will probably be another 2-3 weeks before we harvest any of these. Tomatoes and peppers are by far the hardest. They are more labor intensive especially if you start from seed. For first timers buy the plants that are at least 6 inches tall. They need lots of fertilizer but the effort is well worth it. I have never liked tomatoes until I grew my own. They just aren't the same thing. My favorite meal last year was a salad of just tomato, cucumber and basil. Add a little red wine or balsamic vinegar and olive oil and voila! That meal is at least 2-3 months away for me though. We are also trying cilantro and green onions. I am thinking salsa! Okay, I am making myself hungry. Good luck!

It's About Time!

Yeah, I have been away for awhile. Lots has happened but mainly we have been sick. I was sick a while back and when I finally got caught up, Charles got sick. Then I got sick again. After being out of commission for five days I went back to work yesterday but barely made it thought the day. Then Charles had LASIX surgery on his eyes this morning. It went well and we are now really behind. The azaleas are in full bloom along with the four foot high weeds standing next to the bushes. Logan is in day camp for spring break, starting soccer, and is generally bored while Charles and I are alternating being passed out on the couch with trying to catch up. The house is in complete disarray and I am procrastinating getting my drivers safety course started (did I mention I got a ticket for going out the "in" at a rural truck stop near one of my patients?).

I am also starting a campaign to improve the nutrition of my son's school lunch program. He wont eat the lunch except pizza day but I was appalled at the selection of food offered to students and staff. The day I visited was chicken nuggets, mashed potatoes with gravy, biscuit and choice of canned green beans, bowl of iceberg lettuce, or canned fruit. Most skipped the semi green veggies and fruit and paid extra for the potato chips. His school offers more types of ice cream you can buy a la carte than healthy food. The school district is even registered with a nutrition website that is a "virtual cafeteria" and lists the real menu. You get a green light for picking the good foods and a yellow light for picking the bad foods. Unfortunately the school doesn't even offer any green light items except canned fruit, iceberg lettuce, canned corn, and canned green beans. That is it for the whole weeks menu. Pretty sad I think. That is why so many kids in his school are overweight. The teachers wont even eat there because they are afraid of gaining weight!

I am also trying to get the garden started but I have a slow start. We are doing all the things we did before but now we have added strawberries, kale, onions, sugar snap peas (here's to you Karen!), peppers, radishes, carrots and cilantro. I have lots more to do in the garden and I am glad for the nice weather! And there will now be a vegetable garden at the White House! I will write again when I wake from my next coma and will hopefully have something interesting to say!

Free Quiznos Sub

Found a link today to a free sub sandwich from Quiznos. Just make sure that after you click on "Get My Free Sub" that you keep that page open. Once you have your email confirmation (it took about 5 minutes) then go back to that page and under the "Get My Free Sub" button click on "opt out" so you don't get a bunch of marketing spam.

I cant eat the sub because of my gluten intolerance but Charles can. Hope he likes it! They are only doing one million and when I posted this they were only 25 % there.

Have a great day!

Catching Up!

I am finally better. I had something that made it hard for me to talk and I just coughed all the time. I didn't really feel bad except for not sleeping because of all the coughing. I got a steroid shot to help with that but not sure it made much of a difference. Anyway, lots has happened. So a quick summary.

Logan has been to the ENT several times because he may have to have his tonsils and adenoids taken out. The doctor took another culture and even though the infection keeps coming back it looks we are going to wait at least until the summer. He doesn't have any of the other problems that usually come with this like sleep apnea, snoring, fever etc. So we are in a holding pattern for now. I am really glad about that.

Charles has been working hard. His boss has asked him to start working 50 hours a week so I am back to cooking all the meals. We usually split it. But this will work out okay too. He will just get to do more dishes!

A great nurse that I used to work with died last week from complications related to his cancer. I went to his funeral this past weekend with other past coworkers. He was also a Pentecostal preacher so it was quite a crowd! He will be missed dearly. I just called to check on his wife and the answering machine picked up with his voice on the recording. Now I am really sad. He was only 10 years older than me.

We started some seeds a few weeks ago and now I am ready to put them in some bigger pots until they are ready to transplant. It looks like spring is already here though! Lots of things around here are already blooming. I am just afraid that we are still in for some cold weather and it will kill everything off!

We sprang a surprize on my Dad for his 70th birthday. We are going to meet him this summer on vacation in Vermont. He was very surpised! We had to explain it all to him though - he didn't get the hints we gave.

Well that is a quick update. Hopefully I will get a few pictures up soon.

Sick

Well, I'm sick with bronchitis. Finally, went to doctor today and took the day off of work because I can't communicate well with anyone. I am really behind in posting and so I will continue to be behind for now. When I have recovered I am just going to just pick up where I left off. Sorry! Have a great day!

Gratitude Week 4

Oops! This was really supposed to be posted last week. I guess I clicked on "save" and not on "post" - Oh well! So I have it dated the day it was supposed to happen. (not that anyone really cares - this is more of a note to myself!)

1. Bought a new alarm clock. Mine died and I hate waking in the middle of the night not knowing what time it is!

2. Finished work early and had time to read lots of blogs.

3. Got lots of stuff done.

4. Got to sleep in!

5. Had a great evening playing games and reading with Logan.

6. Volunteered in Logan's class and talked about soil. I brought in samples of different things in soil. It was a lot of fun.

7. A peaceful day!

Gratitude Week 3

1. I got my seed order today!

2. It's my do nothing day (after work of course!)

3. I got some paint to start a new project.

4. I finally got my trees!

5. I finished 6 patients in one day! That only happens when I can find people that will let me see them by 9am.

6. We have a new President! I could go on and on, but I won't here. I want this to be a peacefull blog and so I am leaving politics out of it. I have several friends and family who have very strong opinions on both sides of the issue and do not want to taint my personal (but public) journal with what could be a potentially volitle discussion. Thanks!

7. I got home from work early enough to catch up on my blog reading and writing.

Tree Sale

Well lets just say that the tree sale sucked! Now it is pretty much my fault. We should have been there earlier. The sale was from 9-2pm and we got there at about 10am. There was a line and we finally got in at 10:45 and there was almost nothing left. I asked a volunteer person what happened to all the trees? And he said "You have to get here by 11 to get what you want." I told him that I still had 5 minutes if that was the case! There were a few things, but not what I wanted to get. It was quite disappointing. Then we went to Whole Foods to get lunch. The chicken roll wraps that I normally get are no longer gluten free. So there went lunch and I just got a salad. Then we went to the paint store and got some paint since we were going to be in that area. I wanted to try a new Benjamin Moore no VOC paint in our back room. I got the primer and some paint samples/chips. We got home and I started to look up stuff on another class I was going to go to today. It is on fruit trees (but not sure I was going to be in the mood since I did not get my fruit trees). It turns out they will have a fruit tree sale next week. Yippie! This place is an hour away, but I thought it would be worth it to go twice if I could just get my trees! So I went. And guess what? They were selling some of the fruit trees that would be at next weeks sale. They had 3 of the 4 trees I wanted to get. The other one was one Charles wanted (a pear tree). They didn't have many trees so I bought mine before the class. But that meant I did not get a seat in the class before they filled up. So I waited. They said they would do a second class since there were so many people that didn't get in. After all that I am now a happy camper. I sure wasn't for a while though. Now next week I can get ready to start some seeds for this springs veggie garden!

Gratitude Week 2

1. Blue sky. The first after several days of doom and gloom.

2. I got my first two radishes out of the garden and yup, I already ate them! Yum!

3. I learned a lot at a class about fruit trees.

4. The fridge is now full! No more "there's nothing to eat in here!"

5. I found a new, very tasty side dish (or could be a good vegetarian entree).

6. I had a full day of work and stayed busy.

7. I got to read for an hour in bed, uninterrupted!

Quinoa and Roasted Vegetables

I made a new dish today that just sounded good. I had no recipe but this is very easy, especially if you have a rice cooker. Quinoa (pronounced Keen-wa) is an ancient grain from the Incas but it is really a seed. It has a very mild taste and you can use it for many things. This one is my new favorite, but my favorite before today was to mix in a little milk and berries for breakfast. Yum! Quinoa is very high in fiber (5 g in a one cup serving) and is considered a "complete" food as it has the right proportions of carbs/fats/protein and has all eight of the essential amino acids. I used red quinoa but it can come in several different colors with a light beige color as the most common.

You cook it just like rice. One part quinoa to 2 parts water (or broth). I used a rice cooker but I have also cooked on the stove just like rice. I roasted some veggies that I had on hand - one red bell pepper, two carrots, a small onion, and about a small handful of asparagus spears. If I had remembered, I think garlic would have made it even better. I did a rough chop in the food processor, but you could use your knife to chop. I was being lazy and Charles is cleaning up tonight! I added it to the cooked quinoa and topped with parmasean cheese. Charles loved it. Logan made gagging sounds but he does that to almost everything new so I didn't take it personally!

Best Life Week: Your Money Plan 2009

Oprah had Suze Orman on today to talk about money. I didn't get to finish all of the show but there are some people out there that just don't have a clue! She has a new book, Suze Orman's 2009 Action Plan, out there that you can download for free for the next week. Luckily we are right on track with her plan. We still need to reanalyse things from time to time but we are right were we want to be (except winning the lottery of course!). We got our information several years ago from Dave Ramsey. It is very similar but there are some subtle differences. I think his plan is a bit more "dummy proof" and has better backups for oopses. They did a survey of the audience before the show and found that 225 people in the audience had credit card debt of almost 2.3 million dollars! That is crazy! Just glad I don't! Have a great day!

Gratitude

As many of you know by now, I really like Oprah and her show. I tape, I mean record (Logan always asks me what it means to "tape" something?) her show everyday and watch it when I get the chance. She has always talked about keeping a gratitude journal and how it has changed many different aspects of her life. I have always wanted to do something like that but have resisted because I am not much for righting stuff down unless it is something I need to remember. But I think here is the perfect place to record my gratitude. This may be more for my benefit than for sharing our family news but you will just have to suffer with my new optimism. So I will try to post once a week a few things I was grateful for that week. I will try to write them for once each day, but I will probably not be perfect. Just a warning! So here it goes.

1. I had a day off work!

2. I got off work early! (uh, I am starting to see a pattern here)

3. It was a nice 80 degree day in January and I got to get some outdoor stuff done before the cold front came.

4. Charles helped me A LOT with the housework today. A slightly rare event!

5. Logan returned back to school. Okay that was my gratitude for the day but I am sure it was not his!

6. Leftovers 2 days in a row. I dont' have to cook!

7. Done with work stuff by bedtime. (Humm... that could be seen as a complaint, I will just call it a touch of sarcasm).

Your Real Age

With Tuesday's Oprah show Dr Oz explains about your "Real Age" as apposed to your biological age. It calculates how close your life expectency is compared to the average. According to the test my calendar age is 39.8 but my Real Age is 41.3. Humm... thats a year and a half less. I would prefer to be five years extra. Well, that will probably be calculated into my goals somehow. Take the test and post your results in the comments!

"Live Your Best Life"

Oprah started a new series this week about "Living your best life." She realized that 3 years ago she had made her goal weight and thought she had finally conquered her weight issue. Then this past year she found herself 40 pounds heavier again. She said she was so mad at herself because she thought she had put this all behind her. So she realized she was not alone, and that a lot of people are not paying attention to their bodies. So she started a new series today that addresses many aspects of life. Monday was about fitness. Tuesday is about your health and food. Wednesday is about spirit (not necessarily religion but it can be). Thursday is about money/finances/planning. And Friday is about relationships/sex. She is also going to do a 90 minute webcast next week every weekday about the same subjects in the evening. I read a many blogs and everyone is posting their "how I did on my goals on 2008" posts and other posts that say how they didn't do their goals and how they are going to change for 2009. Many are on the EXACT same subjects as this weeks Oprah shows (okay, I haven't read anyone posting goals about their sex life!). I haven't really put my goals together yet but they each touch on a similar subject that could use improvement.

**Some Oprah show links are now broken. Not sure why but hopefully they will have it fixed soon.

Recap

There are many things that I am planning to do this year to improve my life, my family's life and my surroundings. My new goals are "evolving" as I said before and I don't have them quit defined yet. My previous goals


1. Improve our finances.
2. Spend more time having fun! (Got to have #1 to do #2)
3. Get in better physical shape. (I know - practice what you preach. I am a physical therapist after all!)
4. Be more organized.

Well there is The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly!

The Good:
Our finances have greatly improved. Amazing in this economy. Our retirement funds and Logan's college fund did dive but there is more time for them to pop back up. Lots of time! We are completely debt free except the house. We still owe just over $100,000 on it. Charles' new job he got a year ago turned out to be a great thing. He has now become a permanent employee and has had two raises so far. He is also a foreman of the whole metal shop and the company is planning to expand in this year. It is a very stable company with booked contracts through 2010 and it also has no debt. The owner runs everything on profits. I have changed my working situation too. Since things were looking up I now work mainly as a contract physical therapist for many different home health agencies. That allowed me to close in my coverage area. I can get more visits done in an 8 hour day if I want to. But instead I have chosen to limit my hours so that I can put Logan on the school bus in the morning and be home when he gets off. I am also taking a day off every other week to volunteer in his class and take some time for myself. Now down to the numbers. With Charles working we have managed to save $25,000 this past year. We have it in a high interest savings account that earned 3.5% last year (just got my statement). That is our emergency fund and we don't plan on touching it unless one of us is unable to work. I think we did so well because we stuck to our budget and our best tool was to use cash for food, household stuff, and our remodeling. I also had a cash budget for Logan's clothes and haircuts. I did have to increase the food budget during the third quarter so we weren't eating pasta and rice all the time with the increase in food prices. We had enough left over at the end of the year that we bought a new TV (and of course I found a great deal). So our number one goal last year was to improve our finances. We have definitely done that. This year we will continue to save so that we are putting money in our retirement and college funds and the extra will go to some desperately needed remodeling (If you have seen my kitchen you know what I mean!).

And the fun part - we have mostly stayed at home for fun stuff. We watch DVDs that I get at the library. I just watched the Great Debators last night. Really good! We are reading more. We are spending more time in the garden working on the yard. We are trying to get more projects done. We did take some day trips this year to local happenings and parties. Nothing big, but we were never bored. This year we are planning to travel a bit which we have not done in a while.

The Bad

Getting organized. Well, in my defense we have gotten rid of a lot of stuff. I had made a few trips to drop of stuff at the thrift store and we finally cleaned out the "junk room" We plan on turning it into a loungeing room with a new futon for guests. Still working out the details on that. Overall it has improved since I have had a little more time to work on it, but here is still lots of room for improvement!

The REALLY Ugly

Getting in better shape. That hasn't gone as well. I go in spurts and do well for a few weeks then I fall off the wagon! I believe that this one is now going to the top of the list this year. I plan on making this my number one priority and will be working out a plan to do it over the coming weeks. You have to have a plan!

So now you know what I did last year. Soon I will post my new goals and will recap them as the year goes on.

Good luck to everyone in the new year!!

Change is Coming!

There are not only changes around the world, but there are some changes in MY world! It's a new year so it is that time again to recap and look to the future. I am starting off slow and so far the blog is the first step. I was getting a little bored with the layout and wanted something a little wider. Hopefully you will like the changes. In the coming days I will update everyone on the new stuff. Don't get too excited though. It's not huge but it is an evolution. It has to do with blog, house, life, blah, blah, blah...

But first things first...

1. New blog layout.

More later.