Thursday, March 24, 2016

Empowering Our Children Through Self-Defense

Anyone viewing the latest news stories can quickly figure out that we live in an unsafe world.  As our children get older, we have less control over them and they begin to branch out more on their own, spending more time away from us and with their friends.

This can be a hard adjustment.  We know that we would lay down our life for our children and would do anything to protect them.  Now that they spend more and more time away from us, we begin to realize that we will not always be there to protect them.

I am once again dealing with this reality.  I pray for safety but also realize that free-will means that others can choose to do evil.  I was recently blessed with the opportunity to sign my child up for self-defense classes.  We are both glad I chose to do just that.

We went together to a Jujitsu style self defense class that lasted for 2 hours.  We warmed up with some intense calisthenics including jumping jacks, squats, push ups, bear crawls and monkey walks. We still felt the affects two days later.

We moved into defense from a frontal attack, then a rear choking attack, and finally a mounted attack.  We were able to practice with trained partners and felt like we really gained some skills.  My teen was able to flip a grown man down to the ground and left feeling very empowered and wanting to continue training.

A real attack would happen faster and of course the perpetrator would be more intent on attacking.  This means we have to continue to practice until the moves become second nature.  The scenarios may not simulate an attack exactly, however, it teaches that we do not have to be a passive victim.  We can fight back and impact the attacker.  I believe that will instill a bit more confidence, make us walk a bit taller, and portray ourselves as a less then easy target.

If any of you have teens or even younger children, find a class and sign them up.  Go with them and then continue to practice what you've learned.  Hopefully, you will never need these skills, but as with any emergency, it is better to be prepared.

Sunday, March 13, 2016

Food Poisoning or Stomach Virus

Ahhh, the title says it all.  That was my life for four days last week.  No fun.  For a few minutes I thought I was going to die, but I lived, so life goes on.

Most of us know we should listen to our inner voice.  Knowing is not always doing. It seems like each time we don't, we vow to do better and absolutely listen next time.  We still end up ignoring the voice every now and then.

Such was my experience last week.  Tried a new to us local restaurant.  After ordering, we noticed the floor wasn't as clean as it should be.  The food came and it didn't taste as good as it should have for a simple vegetable omelet and roasted potatoes.  The 'salsa' I asked for to put on my potatoes was more like canned tomatoes.  They tasted off also. The coffee was not as good as it should have been and that is a definite sign not to have breakfast somewhere. But we soldiered through it.

Now I can't say with 100% certainty that this restaurant's food is what made me sick.    However, it was the only thing different I had.  The leftovers I had for lunch was the soup  I made for the previous supper with no ill effects and all members of the family had eaten it also.  I had some newly purchased bulk dried figs from a health food store.  So in fairness, I threw out everything I had eaten in the past 24 hours regardless of how much was left. The rest of the soup went and the figs went. Other than the breakfast, that was all I had eaten before feeling ill.

Live and learn.  The restaurant is off the list, forever.  I am feeling great again.  Life is good and my inner voice will be a little easier to hear next time.

Sunday, March 6, 2016

It's not Garbage, It's Compost

Composting is something I've been doing for years now.  It is definitely a know better, do better topic.  I have composted when living in a mobile home park, a half acre yard, and on a small acreage.  It has several advantages and no downside that I know of.

I try to eat a lot of fresh fruit and vegetables and use them in my cooking also.  That means veggie scraps.  Growing up we had chickens and no garbage pickup.  This meant feeding scraps to the chickens and occasionally to the pigs if grandpa had some at the time.  I have never had chickens as an adult so what would I do with the scraps.  Composting was the logical choice.

I have had a garden regardless of the size of the property I've lived on.  I use soil, so it is only natural that I would want to make soil.  Composting makes the best, sweetest smelling soil imaginable.  I have never had problems with my compost pile having bad odors.

I have had some wonderful plants come up in my composts piles.  I currently have a 10 foot peach tree that came up in a compost pile about five years ago.  It is a great producer and very healthy. I moved the compost pile on the tree's second year and it has continued to prosper.

I have also 'grown' tomatoes, pumpkins, squash, and cucumbers in the compost.  These were volunteers that came up from scraps I composted.  They are always very healthy plants that produce well with no effort on my part.  Here is a picture of last year's compost pumpkin vine in May.

I collect my food scraps, egg shells, coffee grounds, and occasional paper towel.  Yesterday it was potatoes that I forgot about in the bottom of the pantry. Now those babies have odor.  I gather my compost ingredients on my kitchen counter in a plastic container I've saved from artisan lettuce, cool whip, or currently from cream puffs eaten at Christmas.  I empty as needed which may mean 1-2 times per day or every other day.  Usually it doesn't go longer than that as we tend to fill it fast.

It is now time to start a new compost pile and I've changed the location.  I've started by laying down cardboard to keep weeds from prospering in it.  Kitchen scraps are put on top and after doing some spring yard work today, there is now dried leaves and stalks over what you see in the picture below.

Every person should consider composting if  they have access to any amount of yard at all.  It is a win-win endeavor.  An added bonus is an on-demand source of earthworms for fishing.


Thursday, March 3, 2016

Finding Vegetarian in Rural Areas

Eating out since deciding to go vegetarian has been a challenge.  More so because I am also wanting to choose food for its nutritional value which rules out things like french fries.  I live in a vegetarian desert as far as eating out is concerned.

I had two appointments today that were 2 1/2 hours apart.  One was before noon and one was after.  This meant I could eat out for lunch.  Sounds exciting and it would be if I were in the city, but I am not.

I ran over the local restaurants in my head.  Fast food came down to Wendy's for a baked potato and a salad.  My last baked potato there was undercooked so going there was not appealing.  Usually I enjoy Wendy's, but I wanted something else.

We have a great Mediterranean place where I used to eat gyros.  Since gyros were no longer an option, the only other thing I could think of was falafel.  A calorie check last time I ate them revealed that they are not on the healthy list since they are fried and have a lot of calories.  Thank goodness we were blessed with a Panera Bread restaurant about two years ago.

Even then my choices were slim.  Thank goodness the ones they had turned out to be wonderful.  I had a half Mediterranean veggie sandwich and a half quinoa salad.  Both were outstanding.  I thought that I had eaten that type sandwich one other time, but I don't remember it being as good.

I do have one recommendation.  I asked for a spoon to eat my salad.  That enables me to get all the little pieces of quinoa and almonds and works for the greens also as they are finely cut. My mouth is watering just thinking about it, and I would certainly have the same meal again in the future.