Preparing for a Great Grand

Long, long ago before the days of regular ultrasound for expectant mothers, only experienced older woman could predict the sex of an unborn child with greater than 50% accuracy.  Now couples choose to know or not to know as is the case with our eldest granddaughter and her husband.  In just a few days we will welcome our first great grandchild.  My preparation for this outstanding event involved knitting and weaving. 

Wool/Bambo blend Mukluks with suede soles and matching hat.

100% cotton Great Grand Activity Blanket.

The Farmland

Davis' Farmland, a great place for young grandkids.

Ta Dah!!

Announcing a new baby girl!! Just fresh into the world. Praise God!!

How Much Do YOU Eat?

Found this blog entry when looking for a photo of measuring cups.
What an incredible amount of information all in one place.
Definitely check it out. Here's a short excerpt:


Cheryl Forberg, dietician for NBC's Biggest Loser program.
Weight Loss Secret -- It Pays to Measure

One of the first things The Biggest Loser contestants learn about is the importance of a food journal. Not only is it one of the key secrets to a successful weight loss plan, it's often a very loud wake-up call. Most of us eat (and drink) much more than we think....until we start recording it.
The more detailed your food journal entries are, the more accurate your calorie count for the day will be. The first thing you need to know is -- how big is a serving size? Weighing and measuring food is crucial in order to calculate an accurate number of your daily calories.
For this, you will need
a liquid measuring cup (2-cup capacity)
a set of dry measuring cups (1 cup, 1/2 cup, 1/3 cup and 1/4 cup sizes)
a set of measuring spoons (1 tablespoon, 1 teaspoon, 1/2 teaspoon, 1/4 teaspoon)
food scale
calculator
The food scale should measure pounds and ounces as well as grams. Most measurements will be in ounces but some foods are very concentrated sources of calories so the portion sizes will be smaller (nuts are a good example of this).

Clean up with WATER

A frequent reason for an elderly person to visit an emergency room is altered mental status. Often the cause of altered mental status is a urinary tract infection! What connection does the urinary tract have with the brain? Water. Keep yourself hydrated. Drink water first thing in the morning. Reach for a glass of water first before you choose to eat. Drink water instead of soft drinks, coffee, tea, commercial power drinks or vitamin drinks, and even fruit juice.

Water has ZERO calories and works to clean the body inside and out. Drinking plenty of water refreshes every cell in your body including the brain.

As you change your eating habits, your body will seem likes it’s rebelling. It is only beginning to function at a healthier level. Water will help in the transition by flushing out of your system any cell waste your body had stored up.

Get clean! Drink water!

Are You Insane?

FAMILY BIGGEST LOSER EVENT– 4

The definition of insanity is continuing to do what you have always done while expecting different results.

Practice saying out loud, “No, thank you. None for me right now.”
In order to give you added incentive to begin the change, here’s your next assignment.

ASSIGNMENT Think about the number of pounds that you would like to lose. Go to the supermarket. Take your cart to the aisle of baking ingredients and put into it enough 10 lb. bags of flour, 5 lb. bags of sugar, and 1 lb. packages of butter to equal your weight loss number. Study it. Try carrying it all. Think of how much more comfortable you would be if you lost that many pounds.

Food Pyramid

FAMILY BIGGEST LOSER EVENT – PYRAMID


For an explanation of this Healthy Eating Food Pyramid see:
www.foodpyramid.com/food-pyramids/healthy-eating-pyramid

If you haven’t really chosen a particular diet but prefer to create your own healthy eating program, this Healthy Eating Food Pyramid should be quite helpful.

Compare the healthy pyramid to the one you use to use:

Let's Get Started

FAMILY BIGGEST LOSER EVENT– 3

A favorite routine or habit of mine is stopping at Crown Bakery on my way home from a doctor’s appointment. I always buy a medium coffee with cream and sugar and a coffee ring (a rich, sweet, raised dough with raisins, almonds, and coarsely granulated sugar on top - yum). This is not a single roll but a whole ring. I can finish it off in two days all by myself.

Getting mentally ready to change a habit takes some serious thought. A year and a half ago I blogged the following:

"Hi, my name is Wildblues. I'm a foodaholic.

In the course of our spiritual journey we discovered the spirit-mind-body connection. When one of the links is weak, the whole chain is weak. The health of the body lends to the health of mind and spirit. With over 59 years of habitual do-what-you-want-to attitude as far as what and when to eat, making an improvement is not so easy.With the help of ChileChews Discretionary Eating Challenge we made a decision to change our eating behavior. Well... That's like sending a soldier into battle without boot camp. So we've put ourselves into Food Rehab. This boot camp for healthy living is a concentrated effort to weed out intemperate habits and learn to just say "no". "

2010 arrived with no significant change in my eating habits. No wait, I changed to coffee with milk and no sugar. Feeling pretty pathetic here.

OK, so yesterday I went to a doctor’s appointment…the question came up. Should I go into the bakery and find a healthy choice of comfort food or just skip the stop? I decided to stop, or rather I didn’t say “no” to a habit. Thankfully they were closed for vacation!

Today is a new day. A new beginning. A new decision to change a habit. Have you ever driven on a dirt road after the mud has dried? The road becomes two cemented tire ruts and it’s very difficult to not drive in the ruts. Time to create a new road! Time to get out of the rut!!

GOALS

1. Admit you need help controlling your eating habits
2. Admit that help is available
3. Seek out that help
4. Surrender your current eating habits
5. Follow a designated plan (use the buddy system if necessary)
6. Practice the plan until "no" is as loud as "yes"
7. Graduate to independent eating choices

ASSIGNMENT: OK, it’s time to put up that photo, write the date in your notebook, and weigh in. If you still don’t have a plan in mind, a list of possibilities is coming via email. A couple of you have chosen a pseudonym and are willing to share numbers. That’s fabulous and serious business. Others are still getting ready to begin. That’s fine. Keep at it.

What Motivates You?

FAMILY BIGGEST LOSER EVENT – 2

What motivates you? A healthier life style brings with it positive results – some more attractive to you than others – for instance…

Lower blood pressure
Lower cholesterol or triglyceride level
Lower fasting glucose
Less or no joint pain
Smaller clothing size
Smaller hip measurement
More natural energy
More restful sleep
Easier movement
More strength and coordination
Better circulation of oxygen to brain and muscles
A more attractive you

Besides weighing in once a week, choose other goals that will motivate you.
It’s about time for our first weigh in. Select a day, time of day and an outfit (or lack of outfit) so each week your weigh in will be consistent. Get yourself a little notebook to record your progress. Along with date and weight, I think change in hip measurement will also go in my notebook.
Remember this is a gradual process.

Slow and steady equals success.

ASSIGNMENT: Think about what most motivates you and set goals. Get a small notebook to record progress.

Study Yourself

FAMILY BIGGEST LOSER EVENT - 1
There will be announcements, updates, informational material, just general encouragement and presents!

Welcome.
The group consists of thick and thin, older and younger, active and sedentary, alone or with family, female and male, single and married, with medical issues and without, vegetarian and not, with religious affiliation or not, Republican, Democrat and Undeclared.
No matter where you fit in, we all have one thing in common –
We each desire to make a change to a healthier life style.

Some of you checked out this height/weight chart with photos.
www.cockeyed.com/photos/bodies/heightweight.shtml .
It’s kind of fun.

Let’s take a good close look at ourselves:
Get dressed in clothes that make you look your best. Dress for a photo.
Yup. The “before” photo. The photo for your refrigerator door or somewhere in sight. Have someone take a photo of you, maybe several different angles or do it yourself if you are that skilled with a camera.
This is how everyone sees you.

Of course, there are certain aspects of ourselves that we cannot change – eye color, height, bone structure, shoe size, age, ancestry. But…
we can choose to change our habits.

This will not be a how to lose weight program but encouragement to make a change, to find a healthy life style that works for each of us, and to stay with it until our habits change.

ASSIGNMENT: Make a print of your before photo. Study it. Think about your current habits. Which of them would you like to change? Choose a diet/health program that you would like to try. If you don’t know of a program, we will put together a list of possibilities. (And get rid of those left over holiday treats! Trash them, freeze them, or eat them, but make them disappear.)

The Family Biggest Loser

Whether you want to lose 2 or 20, 5 or 50, or just want to be part of an email group that encourages each other to stay healthy,

YOU ARE INVITED to participate in the 2010…

ROSENWALD FAMILY BIGGEST LOSER EVENT

There will be announcements, updates, informational material, just general encouragement and presents!

To become a participant: you must be a Rosenwald, be married to a Rosenwald, be an offspring of a Rosenwald, be an ancestor of a Rosenwald, be a friend of a Rosenwald, be a neighbor of a Rosenwald, be a co-worker of a Rosenwald, need a weight loss buddy and think a Rosenwald would do, or have a desire to be healthy and encourage others to healthier living.

To join and become eligible for email announcements, updates, informational material, just general encouragement and presents…

Email me (Susan Jeane Margaret Mary Rosenwald Peavey Bruso)
at wildbluesbysus@comcast.net
or comment on my blog
at http://www.wildbluesbysus.blogspot.com/
Just say “I want to join. Here’s my name and email address.”

For starters check out the height/weight chart at www.cockeyed.com/photos/bodies/heightweight.shtml .
Select a photo of someone with the same height and weight as you are now. This should give you a rough idea of what you look like. Then select a photo of a height and weight that you would like to weigh and check it out.
Get in mind a reasonable goal for yourself.

We will begin soon so let me know if you want to participate.
There is no cost to join. Just fun to share and pounds to lose.

Time for School to Begin

Janis, Grace, Violet, Nana and Papa went shopping for school supplies a few days ago.  Grace begins FIRST GRADE tomorrow!  To prepare for first grade she wanted a hair cut...those fantastic curls cut right off. 

Violet had hers cut also.  What could be cuter?

Only two weeks ago the doctor announced that Grace's immune system was now responding.  He had no explanation why.  Some of us who have prayed for Grace call her the multiple miracle child.

LESSON:  The Creator not only is able to heal but wants to.

August Already!?!

Oh, boy! Our few beautiful days of summer are flying by. The gardens are loving the warmth and sunshine after weeks of rain. My tomatoes look like a jungle. The bumble bees have multiplied, even saw a honey bee the other day. A friend gave me a magenta butterfly bush last spring. Large feathery blooms have indeed attracted butterflies including a large black swallow tail. Red raspberries and black currants are in the freezer along with chives, blanched kale and local corn. Still have some frozen wild blueberries from last year. My blueberry bushes won't produce for a couple years. Cucumbers are soon to be done producing. Ten pounds of cukes wait in the kitchen to become bread and butter pickles. We snack on sweet peas right off the vine. Green beans made it to the table yesterday for their first meal along with a salad of tomatoes, green pepper, onion, and cucumber - all freshly harvested. The slug population is diminishing but still takes the summer squash and zucchini. They can't stay away from those large yellow blossoms. Peaches, pears, plums, and apples will soon be ready at the local orchard for canning. Bought my first pressure canner last week and will use it to preserve something this season.

Seed selection, planting location, soil preparation, planting, cultivating, fertilizing, pollinating, insect and pest control, water management, harvesting, EATING, and storage...all take concentration and diligence, especially when avoiding chemicals in the process. But all this seems like play compared to figuring out how to feed your family year round from your own garden produce and the locally grown food you are able to preserve.

Start the process of learning to feed your family now.

Years ago I planted a purple coneflower in my back yard. It struggled along then finally disappeared. Last year three coneflower plants grew up near my raised bed - about one hundred feet from their original location. This year they are wonderful. Must learn how to preserve Echinacea (coneflower). As an herb, it has properties that help boost the immune system. Grace is currently in a doctor's care because her immune system seems to be deficient.

LESSON: Trust in The Creator and effort to cooperate with His design brings Blessing beyond your trust and effort alone.

100th Post

The largest question on my mind today...how many slugs will a nine inch pie tin full of cheap beer hold? I used to think all worms (except the earthworm) claimed The Most Disgusting Living Thing title. Slugs oozed to the bottom of the loathsome list this spring. With rain, and cool, and wood mulch, the slug samples every leaf, flower, and fruit in my garden. This morning as I picked slugs off plants with my two-stick tweezers, I held back the urge to gag. The slime and goo proved too much for me when I plopped great-great grandpa/grandma into the beer bowl. Time to wash my hands...with detergent, possibly bleach...ugh.
Dave now calls me, "Slugger".

June 19th -- on my mind

Mom's birthday. She would have been 85 this year but died of breast cancer at 57.
MRI this morning. Checking my lower back for source of pain in knees and legs. After removal of a tumor from my left thigh along with a couple hamstring muscles a few years ago, there are several possibilities for source of pain.
Dave's quartet. They sing for one of their largest audiences tonight. The guys look so pretty with their new ties.

Jennifer driving down from Maine. I'm waiting for the phone call asking us to pick her up somewhere between here and there with broken down vehicle...
Bing cherries. Possibly the most satisfying food ever created is now here in the markets. Sweet Bing cherries and tree ripened mangos what more could anyone want?
New Steps. The process goes on...nice, huh?

Sun finally broke through the rain clouds. What a glorious day!

Spring 2009

Finally Virus #OMG, the dreaded virus from hell, has drained all the mucous out of New England - again. Last year it stormed the area in January, oozed cross country to the Northwest, bumped into the moist Pacific air, sneezed itself around, engaged in nose to nose combat back through the Midwest, and coughed up a surprise attack here in March this year. Who knew those little bits of RNA could or would organize into mighty armies attacking young, old, and all ages in between?

Yesterday I took a two-tissue, no-cough drive to NH. Weeks have passed since I've seen my little girls. While Mom and Dad went out on a dinner date, they twirled in dresses I'd brought from a local consignment shop, went swinging in the back yard, played with Summer their black lab, ate supper, and colored eggs. We talked about planting while they tried on their new Dora gardening gloves. Already single pumpkin and watermelon seedlings are waiting to be transplanted.

Meanwhile when possible we've been cutting, splitting, hauling, and stacking wood. Check this out...nice, huh?

Hope For Today

Let's say you are the president-elect trying to prepare yourself to lead the world's nations into a new era of responsible, thrifty, caring, sustainable global communities. Where would you find hope? Outside yourself is my first guess. Experts? Brilliant people? Remember the definition of insanity...continuing to do the same thing while expecting different results. Hmmmm....

Shiny yellow and brown leaves cover the ground. Downpour yesterday and sunshine today confirm that the trees in my little acre have lost 90% of their leaves. Earlier Dave cut up some smaller logs for our wood stove. Then football beckoned. As I stack the freshly cut wood, motorcycles rumble by, probably from the Harley shop a couple miles up the road. (One summer we counted 86 motorcycles in one group passing our house on the way to the Interstate.) I've had my share of muffler burns. Even now our old 1976 Honda 550 4-cylinder is in the shop getting road worthy. Two gas stations four miles away are having a price war. Today $2.07/gallon. Then I cleaned out several buckets we collected rain water in this past summer. We're still experimenting with that. This week Dave will "mow" the yard again - sucking up the leaves, shredding them with the blade then dropping back down. We'll get the garden bed ready for winter. Our little harvest is over. We're still considering a baby-sized green house. These are some of our efforts in transition for what we think lies ahead.

Yesterday I spent time with Janis and the girls. Many hugs and kisses; much talking - Grace explained how the heart (with her hand over her chest) is where love and happiness come from and I explained how the heart also keeps you alive; one book reading - Dora helped Troll be nice; a little eating - pumpkin pie for the first time (definitely with whipped cream); and some shopping. Violet chose a cardboard book about Baby Jesus and the story of His birth with a little yellow button that when you press it plays Silent Night. We were only half way home when Janis told Violet to "quit pressing the button" and Violet..."It started by itself." (The button was only an ON button, not an ON/OFF.) I'm sure she went to sleep that night with the book under her pillow and her finger on the button.

The girls have no idea how difficult life may become. They find love and happiness now in family and faith.

LESSON: The Creator who is Author of our life is Source of our hope.

NYTimes DOT EARTH blogger, Kevin C. Revkin writes

"The stick, perhaps the most versatile plaything in history, was chosen along with the baby doll and skateboard by the people at the Strong National Museum of Play in Rochester, N.Y.

...so basic, so unmanufactured, can be a springboard for the imagination, a link to the nonhuman world, and a reason to get outdoors.

Reusable. Recyclable. Renewable."

HBD to Janis

In a tiny, rural, Wisconsin dairy town, population 200, in my in-laws rented farmhouse my husband and mom-in-law helped me deliver my second baby girl... a classic natural childbirth delivery. Janis came a couple weeks early so I already had a doctor's checkup scheduled for the next day. We kept the appointment. Shortly after I joined the pregnant moms in the waiting room with my one day old baby, my distraught OB came streaming into the room, spotted me, and with her shaky, clammy hands snatched the baby away! Apparently I was the next patient to be seen. The doctor did all the "right" stuff - birth certificate, silver nitrate, PKU, weigh in, and general check up. Janis was perfect.

Now thirty-five years later Janis has two girls of her own, both quite perfect. Happy Birthday to you.

CORNBREAD BIRTHDAY CAKE

1 1/4 c soymilk

1 tbs + 1 tsp white vinegar

1 cup cornmeal

1 cup all-purpose flour or whole wheat pastry flour

2 tbs sugar

1 tsp salt

1 tbs baking powder

3/4 tsp baking soda

Preheat oven to 375 F.

Grease an 8" square or round cake pan, or line with parchment paper. Combine soymilk and vinegar. Let stand while you mix the dry ingredients. When the oven reaches temperature, pour the soured soymilk into the dry ingredients. Mix quickly, and don't overmix. Pour into the prepared pan. Bake for 25-30 minutes. When done, the top will be golden and a toothpick inserted in center will come out clean. Let stand to cool before cutting.

M...O...N...E...Y

We each take home our paychecks, figure our budgets, give some to charity, pay our bills, eat our food and heat our homes. What if tomorrow it was gone? Instead of a devastating hurricane of wind and water knocking out power for weeks, we had a typhon of play money. Your paycheck was worthless, no money for mortgage, or food, or fuel, or family. What's your backup plan?

Jedimomma's blog shares some insight into the current problem with money.

Paul Grignon's 47 minute animated presentation of "Money As Debt" tells in very simple and effective graphic terms what money is...
(Google MONEY AS DEBT to watch the video from video.google.com)

For current details of today's financial situation see Automatic Earth.

Certainly the Beast of Empire grows more rapidly every day.

Family, Who Are They?

A couple decades ago in a conservative Christian church you could find me on Saturday mornings with a group of children up to four years old. We sang, told stories, played with props, learned to give money away for missions and prayed together. My soul laughed every week. I loved it. Once as we were singing about family and holding dolls representing different family members, I looked at each child with their family in mind. We were singing about mom, dad, sister, brother, grandpa and grandma, but some of these children in front of me were foster kids, some were from single parent homes, some lived with relatives. So our song about family began to change.

Today I am particularly thankful for family. Last week our youngest grandson and his mom stayed with us for a few days. Holding that squirmy, two-month-old hunk, listening to him breathe as he slept on my shoulder, whispering a one way conversation as Papa rocked him to sleep, watching him smile into his mother's face, hearing him coo his questions about life...all elements of the glue that holds families together. Our oldest granddaughter is getting married next month. It is probable that our next grandchild will be a "great" one. The beauty of that idea replaces regrets of growing older.

Kindergarten began last week. Grace brought home her first teacher's note. One comment on behavior read, "We have been encouraging her to get the things she needs in the room on her own, rather than telling other childern to get them for her." That's my girl. Not afraid to take charge. Several times when mom asked what she had learned in school that day, Grace replied, "Today I learned to be nice." (Again!)

LESSON: Seek to know each family member as an individual person that you love.

A Corny Weekend

Yesterday we packed up the van and headed out to see grandkids in NH. On the way we stopped at a small farm stand to pick up some corn, tomatoes, whatever. And there they were. The large burlap bags of corn fresh from the field. Dave and I had talked about purchasing several dozen ear of corn to freeze. Today must be the day. We bought two bags, loaded them into the van, and took off for NH. A lovely day indeed. Grace and Violet Elizabeth helped Nana husk the corn for dinner. They love this job because there's no way they can do it wrong. Slow, maybe. But not wrong. They ate their fill of corn. So sweet.

What an end to today! Severe thunderstorms yet again. Right now. Right here. It's hard not to feel guilty with this abundance of fresh water when others are worried or thirsty. Earlier this morning we were working on our tan while we husked eight dozen ear of corn. Processing corn is messy so we set up outside the back porch close to the hose and the kitchen. I blanched the cleaned ears for four minutes in boiling water. My smallest canner easily held a dozen at a time. Then I hauled the blanched ears outside and dumped them into a pail of cold water. Dave would take a cooled ear from the bucket, stand the ear upright on a nail, and cut the corn off the cob. One quart-sized freezer bag held corn from eight ears which gave us a total of twelve quarts of corn. Everything cleaned up well with the hose (and rain, the thunder started just as the last bag snapped shut). Hopefully this should last until next August. If not, we'll adjust the quantity for next year's process.

Time to check on local peaches, pears, and plums for canning.

LESSON: Working together is way more fun than working alone.

(Oh, and, just a little note. Raw corn kernel guts are organically compatible with human eye balls. Totally non-toxic.)

HAPPY 37th to JENNIFER!!!