fabulous Christmas gift...journal #58 12/26/2010

 

On My Mind...trusting God and living His will

Celebration...we talked with our missionary yesterday for 40 minutes...he's loving missionary work...he's excited because the area he's working in now is very diverse...this was a fabulous Christmas gift.

Praying For...Those that serve the Everlasting Father all over the world. The leaders of nations that their hearts will be softened and will desire to do right. Our Claire de Lune...a delightful darling, grandchild #7 and 3rd child of daughter #1. She is starting to talk and the sweetest thing ever. I pray for her protection, safety, joy, and health and the same for all children everywhere.  Our son in law, Rohn, is married to daughter #4. He is a patient, hard working man and wonderful husband and father. We pray for his health, joy, inspiration, security, and happiness. Praying for peace around the world and the hope that the inhabitants of this planet can step up and learn to love their fellow men. Praying for our missionary--safety, health,  joy, success, contentment.

Homemaking...at home ever so briefly...coming home to an orderly, clean home was sweet

Commitment to Health...Deliciousness...making Vegi-ghetti, a sort of hot Italian salad, for our Sunday dinner with California Kale and Spinach/Mandarin Salad...After discovering my allergy to wheat, I revisited our solution to abundant zucchini crops and wonderful alternative to pasta. I make a delicious Spicy Marinara with Mushrooms that we were just not willing to ditch. With our vegimatic or julian tool depending on the type of veggie and what sort of 'pasta' we want, I shred zucchini, banana squash, carrots, beets, turnips, butter stick squash, jicama, or other sturdy veggies for our noodles. To warm the veggies up, I mix them into the sauce about 60 seconds before we eat. It's delicious and can be made without cooking in warm weather. California Kale and Spinach/Mandarin Salad are fabulous sides for almost any meal. I love it, when cuties are in season! We shared a cinamon role last night for Christmas desert. Neither one of us enjoyed it and half of it remains uneaten on the counter. We just don't care for devalued psuedo-foods anymore.

Appearance...grey mid-calf, wool skirt, white long sleeved T, black cardigan, and red pea coat with my ever present black birkies....found a pair of black lacer boots in 6W and am looking forward to their acquisition

Scripture Meditations..."A man’s heart deviseth his way: but the Lord directeth his steps." Proverbs 16:9 It is wonderful to feel sweet assurance that my decision is correct.

Towards a Real Education...Flagg's Small Houses was a wonderful read for me with my love of stone houses. The how-tos were very clear. It's the sort of house a fit woman of 50 could build mostly on her own. Although I don't plan to do it solo, a stone cottage could actually become a reality. I'm getting ideas from The Very Small Home: Japanese Ideas for Living Well in Limited Space. The Japanese format of futons on tatami, which are then put away so that the space is usable the rest of the day is very intriguing to me. In Hawaii, I learned that small space living is desirable over living in a large home filled with stuff. To me, large house is a terrible burden. Having complete and perfect control over my space and possessions means that they have to be compact and logical. I don't want to spend time maintaining a large burden. A small house also encourages one to decorate with useful items such as windows and bookshelves and extend the living space to include the garden. Reading and studying  Memmler's The Human Body in Health and Disease is much easier than I suspected it would be. Since I've dabbled in learning anatomy and physiology for years, it seems to be a review so far. Botany in a Day or any botany book is so fun, since I love God's gift of the plant world. This study fits right in with the young people's science series I was writing before my inlaws needed my help. Finally got my own copy of The History of the Medieval World, although I've read it a couple times already. However, my focus right now is ancient history, because of the history series I'm writing for youngsters.

What's Coming...winter in Seattle

Simple Pleasure...wool...sunshine

Natural World...planning to visit Bastyr University's herb garden. Probably not much is growing this time of year, but I've an assignment for my botany class to finish. At least there is a possibility of finding something growing that I don't recognize there. If it's dry, I'll take along my country diary....

Garden Gate...Small Scale Grain Raising was a fun and educational read. After reading John Jeavons' books, I realized I needed to add grains to our garden plans for balance in the diet and materials for compost. After reading SSGR and reading a recent post by Dr. Fuhrman in the member forum of his website, I've decided to include black rice, hull less oats, and blue corn. DF ranks black rice quite highly. Wheat is out, because even the ancient forms of it make me violently ill. If someone else wants to grow it, great, but not me. Black rice is the most delicious grain I've ever eaten. It's higher in the antioxidant anthocyanin than blueberries or any other food and looks stunning under steam fried rainbow veggies with tofu. We love to eat whole, sprouted oats in our raw muesli. Although our Spencer is allergic to corn, it seems to be one of the only "bread" grains that doesn't make me sick. A blue corn tortilla is tasty and beautiful along side our tostada salad or pot of beans...

Bee News...shhh, they're sleeping...

From the Apothecary...sending an herbal multi-vitamin and adrenal  support to the missionary...once again institutional food made him sick. After trying to survive on apples and bean sprouts for three weeks, he began passing out...he needs something to build him back up in a hurry...Dr. Mom to the rescue.

Commitment to Loveliness...aloha smile...got my hair trimmed and learned that the hot rollers were the culprit in my crispy ends...I'll use old fashioned end papers to protect it against further damage and curl less often.

Image from My Life...This is R2 my father's Cadillac juicer, which he gifted to me recently. I love how quietly it runs, how easy it is to clean up, and the quality of the juice it creates. Carrot juice is now a regular on my menu. I think I'll make a pot of Dr. Fuhrman's anti-cancer soup, which has a base of carrot juice. That means I need to learn to make carrot croakers a la Helen Nearing.