Birthday Fun, Good Times, Good Times

While doing my garden walk through today, I saw a dark something or other in the sweet potatoes, so I stopped to look. There was this beautiful butterfly emerging from its chrysalis, so I ran to get my camera to capture it before it flew away. When I first saw it, it was still damp. By the time I got my camera, it had dried off quite a bit, so I'm sure it was going to ready to fly off soon. Isn't it beautiful? Just another blessing from doing my daily "chores".

I'm sure better authors than I have done some brilliant parables regarding the butterfly as he emerges from the chrysalis, but I can't help but see this wonderful phenomenon as a type of our lives. I won't bore you with the analogy. I just hope you will spend some time today thinking about it!

I had a great weekend with my family. I celebrated my birthday, and Dorian and his family as well as Darius and Alicia joined me in Daytona. We spent some time at the beach, shopping, playing games, and watching baseball. It was great. A big thank you goes out to those who joined me for making it special for me.

It has been an issue for our family, this food thing. In the past, when we have had family activities, they have been very food centered. In fact, when we rented houses for everyone to stay together for a couple of days, our main activity has been preparing various dishes to show off our culinary skills. Since we have made some dietary changes, we have had a hard time finding other activties to replace our previous ones, and it has been a real challenge.

When the children were little, we used to play games. Granted, many of them were sedentary as we were too fat to do many physical games with them. Once Dorian became a teenager, we didn't have as many family activities as he spent a lot of time with his friends. The younger boys and I spent a lot of time doing 4-H projects and running the store. Roger worked his regular job and worked at the store after he got off work, so there wasn't a lot of leisure time although we did spend a lot of time together.

The point being, we lost a lot of the game playing we used to do. I had the bright idea to play some games at my birthday party, and it seemed that everyone had a good time. It didn't take up the time having a feast would have, and I'm sure some didn't enjoy it as much as they would have enjoyed the traditional Bar-B-Q, but I did the best I could coming up with family unifying things. When I am with the grandchildren, they enjoy playing card games and doing crafts, going to movies, and such, so that is working out ok. It is the big kids that are hard to amuse!

I am going to start a file of games that we can pull out at a moment's notice. I'm not good at remembering this kind of stuff, so I have to write it down. I used to have some great books when the children were young, so I'll have to dig some of that up. I'll bet it would help if I started a prize box too!

Yesterday at church, I had to give a talk in Spanish. I didn't do very well for the talk part, but I guess my testimony part was ok. I wish I knew more verbs and nouns. I still struggle with conjugating in the past and present tense as well. We had a nice treat as well as Darius was the 2nd speaker, and he did a great job. He used Alma 37 as the basis for his talk with the Anti-Nephi-Lehis and their committment to not pick up weapons of war once they were converted to the gospel. When we are committed to something, amazing things can happen. The Spanish members love hearing a gringo give talks in Spanish, especially when they can actually understand him!

3 of the Spanish sisters gave me gifts. It is very humbling when they do that as I know that their means are very slim. They always remember me on my birthday and at Christmas. They are truly a blessing in my life. I consider them my friends as well as my sisters even though the language barrier prevents us from sharing as many things from our hearts as we would if we could communicate better. It truly speaks to the fact that we communicate more from our heart. I love the card from Graciela. The card was Spanish, and of course, she signed it in Spanish "para mi amiga y hermana".

Volunteers

Doesn't all this greenery look lush and beautiful? This is our volunteer sweet potato patch. We planted NONE of these plants. They all volunteered to be in our garden this year based on some roots left over when we picked last year. This is truly a beautiful stand. Isn't it neat thinking that there is food under it? You can never starve when you have a garden.

I was thinking this morning as I combed the garden and yard for weeds that I might be going crazy. Surely anyone knowing what I was doing would think so. I have even potted some up to show to a friend who knows wild plants. I decided though that it doesn't matter what they are. I know the big danger is that I might juice something poisonous, so it is more important to know what plants we shouldn't be eating. I think I know those, so I am not worrying about it. I don't think I have anything poisonous in my yard.

Just to be safe, though, I only add one different kind a day. That way if it does make me sick, I'll know not to use it again. It is all getting a little blurry though, so if I'm serious about this method, I should be a little more systematic about it. The other worry would be that the plants picked might not taste good. I have not found that to be the case, surprisingly. I heard someone say you should taste the plant to see if it tastes good, and if it tastes good, then pick it for your salad or green drink. That wouldn't work for me. One of the things I've been putting in my drink is something I don't like to take bites of: aloe. It is weird how the plants have a good flavor when they are all mixed together. One day there was a slight bitter taste, but it was not unappealing. Maybe my tastes are changing. I suppose if you're used to soda pop and Koolaid, my green juice might not appeal to you at all.

Last night when I got home from work, Roger parked in a little bit different place. When I got out of the van, there was a beautiful dandelion plant. I was thrilled and couldn't wait to pick it today. Most people have tons of dandelions, but we don't here for some reason. All the organic stores sell dandelion greens, so they are being cultivated nowadays. I really like them. I would plant them in my garden, but that seems really absurd...isn't it? One of the other things I like about picking weeds for my drink is that it is hard in the summer time to find greens for juicing here in Florida. Lettuces and other greens thrive in the winter time, and we have more than we can ever use. That dries up as soon as the spring heat sets in. I think I had lettuce this year until about April. So being able to pick weeds that don't seem to mind the heat at all is a nice boon. Likewise, the weeds don't thrive as much in the wintertime, although there are some.

One thing I've noticed in my daily collection walks is that different things sprout at different times. I know this sounds obvious, but right now there are thousands of tiny weeds sprouting that waited until this particular time to do so. Some of the others are waning (not too many though). Some weeds only grow in certain areas. It is very interesting.

One thing I have been picking the last couple of days is volunteer watermelon sprouts. Roger emptied some of our compost bin into a couple of our raised beds. We started doing that a few years ago when our bins were full but our boxes were lying fallow. (Nature abhors a vacuum, don't you know?) We've been eating a lot of watermelon since our garden is producing so much, and the volunteers are producing far more than can ever survive as plants, so I am thinning them for my daily drink. Then I had a bright idea while eating my watermelon today: why not save the seeds, rinse them off, and plant them in my little sprout planting system (like I do the sunflower seeds). I think they taste similar. They are good in the drink, anyway.

It makes me think we buy a lot more stuff than we need, especially when it comes to food. There is an old pioneer saying: make it do or do without. We have truly lost sight of that in our current economic plenty. Perhaps our tight money times will lead us back to that way of living.

Personal Development for Smart People

While it's fresh on my mind, I'd like to give a heads up to Steve Pavlina. I've known about him for about 6 months now, but I have tread lightly trying to figure out if he is for real or not. He makes a living out of helping people improve themselves, and he sells a lot of self-improvement type books and products. My reason for mentioning him is that I find his business model pretty interesting. I believe he has gotten into this business by his own self-improvement lifestyle. Each month he does a 30 day trial of something he sees as an area he would like to improve in his life. He has some pretty interesting trials. He started doing this in 1993. He said he got the idea from the shareware industry where they will let you download software on a 30 day trial basis.

In the self-improvement vein, he uses the rationalization that anyone can do anything for 30 days. If you find out after the 30days is over that you don't want to continue the activity, you can do so, but you commit at the onset that you will stick to the plan for the designated 30 days. Some of his trials he has adopted, and others he has let go. His criteria for accepting the practice is interesting as well: if his life is improved with the new habit or activity, he will continue doing it. (There was one trial he did with sleep habits that did vastly improve his life, but he felt like it was too difficult to implement into his schedule and his family's schedule.)

Here is his website:
http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2005/04/30-days-to-success/

He gives a list of suggested 30 day trials. He chronicles his 30 day activities on his blog: http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/

I don't read his stuff every day, but I am definately fascinated by his methods. I think the business model is one that could be emulated as well. I have always believed we would have a better country if people were not so dependent on "the man" for how they support themselves. There is only one way to make a living, and it is by depending on ourselves, our gifts, our talents, our enthusiasm, our energy, and our smarts. While the income may not be as dependable as a traditional job, it is more rewarding in lots of other aspects. Of course, that goes back to the old adage that "money isn't everything". Of course, for some people, money IS everything, so none of the other perks mean anything to them.

For me, the biggest advantage is that I can schedule my time to do what I want to do. Yes, I have to schedule time to do the actual work needed to keep my business going, but because I like doing this work (usually), that is not a difficult thing to do. Of course, if one is self-employed, the choice should be something that is enjoyed enough that time will want to be spent doing it.

I am actually trying to change this up a bit right now. I am feeling impressed to move on. I am not sure where this will end up, but I am sure it is going to happen as I follow the direction into which I am being led.

Isn't life a wonderful thing when someone like me can decide that I want to do something different, and then I can actually do it? I will be 55 this month, and I am sure this is a pattern I will follow all of my life.

I am always excited when something new looms on the horizon. Some of the best times in my life have been when change has brought me to a new place. I can remember almost all of them vividly. Even moving from being a single person to a married one, and then from a couple to a family are changes that make life more interesting. I definately am not one to sit in a stagnant pool. I can even recall times when as a child changes came about. When my sister(s) were born, the family dynamic changed. Moving from one house to another brought more exciting elements into our life as did my mother's choice of husbands. Joining the church was another amazing change of very long lasting consequence. Some changes were more welcome and enjoyed than others, but none the less, the element of change kept things hopping. I thrive on this apparently.

I never realized this until a couple of years ago when I knew there were going to be changes in my life. I could just feel it! As an adult, I have learned that I usually have an inkling that change is in the air if I listen closely enough to the spirit. I usually don't know what the change will entail, nor do I know which area of my life it will affect, but I know to look for it and consequently welcome it as something that will benefit my life.

I forget about the fact that something good will come of it when the change comes in a difficult, challenging manner. I tend to think of it as an O-Crapper until I see the intended result down the line. Such has been the state of affairs in the last year of my life. It has been an incredible roller coaster ride that didn't look like it would be very much fun at the beginning. Still not sure about some of it, but I'm trying to have faith!

The fact is that change (and the resulting positive benefits) NEVER comes without a price. Sometimes we might decide that price is too high for the benefits we see that might be attained. Unfortunately, we cannot always see all the benefits, and this limited eyesight causes us to sidestep something that could bring many great things into our lives. Other times, change is thrust upon us. We try to hide from it if it is seemingly unpleasant, but we will not reap the benefits until we fully embrace it, pain and all.

Isn't this aversion to pain and discomfort a funny thing? For me, it has really caused me to waste a lot of time while I tried to avoid them. Ultimately, the pain and discomfort don't go away; they are temporarily assuaged until I accept their reality and succomb to it. As I get older, I would like to learn to consent earlier to the imagined unpleasantness as it is never as bad as I think it will be. (Real pain has come more often in ways I could not control.) Then I would be able to reap the benefits sooner without wasting the time avoiding something that never happens. That is a nice goal for this new year (decade? millenium??).

Summer Camp Comes to a Close

Last day of summer camp for this year! Angelina got a nice certificate for her efforts and a ball with the signatures of all her coaches. At the beach on the way home, she found a starfish in one of the tide pools which certainly bodes well for her week.

I think she had a good time although I know she will be glad to be back home. I hope she can remember all the things she did so that she can tell her family about it. She is already talking about next year!

We went to the game last night; it was a double header, but she didn't make it through but a couple of innings before she was bored. Rich Hill pitched who is a player in rehab I think, but he was pretty stinky. Hope he hasn't quit his day job. I guess it will be a few years before baseball camp actually involves baseball!

I am trying to post videos on UTube, but it takes a long time. Most takes have to be done several times, so I don't know if it is my connection here at the hotel or my computer or the nature of the downloading beast.

The beach was absolutely gorgeous this morning and this afternoon. If not for the sun, I'm sure we could all stay there forever. I couldn't believe how temperate it was and how calm the water was. It really has been a nice time for all of us.

I found a health food store in Ormond Beach which is about 20 minutes away. It has a juice bar which is great along with organic fruits and vegetables. They also carry items made by Glaser Farms. This is a raw foods farm in Miami that ships dehydrated items through out the health food circuit. I bought a couple of treats for Roger and Darius. Love's Whole Food Market for those traveling in this area.

Summer Camp

We're in beautiful Daytona Beach again at our first annual Grandma and Grandpa summer camp (girls first). The Daytona Cubs Single A ball club is hosting a baseball camp for ages 7 to 12, and we signed up Angelina to go. Instead of just running her home each day, we rented a room on the beach, and we are seeing the sights along with her morning "lesson". Today we went to see the sun rise before class started and went swimming this afternoon. It has been wonderful beach weather if you don't consider the daily afternoon thunderstorms. We also brought puzzles, crafts, and games to do in the "off" season. We are hoping this is something we can do each year with the grandchildren; we got the idea from Jac's mother who does this with her grands each year. It is a very smart idea!

I am trying to put some videos we made on UTube. Here is the URL I think:

http://www.youtube.com/user/desacad

If You Can't Beat 'Em, Eat 'Em!

I've been wanting to write about this for some time, but many things have been going on. I'll update first, and then I'll hit my main topic.

July 18 - Our sweet Angelina had a birthday! She's 7 now. I can still remember her as a baby, so it is hard to believe she is so grown up. We had her party at the ball park in Daytona, and it was very nice. They gave her lots of attention which she loves.

July 27 - Darius turns 27 which seems even more incredible. I can still remember when he was born. I can remember gazing at him once when he was laying on his quilt at the foot of the stairs. He was always stretching like he was trying to fit into his new body. I wondered then as always how his life would turn out. Alicia had a nice party for him at the park on Forest and Beach. Alicia's mom, dad, and sister were there as well as Dorian and his family, Roger and I, and JaRay and his friend from Utah, Randy. It was nice, and the food was terrific.

July 27 - Sweet baby Brooklyn received her name and blessing in the Timaquana ward. She was blessed by her daddy, Orion, of course, and assisted by her two grandpas, two of her uncles (including Darius and Kevin (I think that is his name), Bro. Gavelin, and some other people I didn't know. It was very sweet. She started crying which makes me think she doesn't like all the attention like her grandma. (Come on, you've got to give me something here.)

On the baseball scene, we attended an end of the year dinner for the Suns this week and learned that the Dodgers would be leaving the Jaxsonville affiliate for a closer site out west as I previously predicted. It is disappointing for those of us who are Dodger fans, but we are hoping for bigger and better things for whichever team comes in. One of the players said that the Marlins were looking at this park; their current AAA affiliate is in New Mexico, so that seems like a strong possibility as noted in a previous blog entry. Not being a big Marlins fan, I would be more excited at seeing their opponents. The advantage of having a AAA affiliate is that there are only 2 leagues. Each major league team has one AAA affiliate, so when you are watching a AAA ball club through the season, you have the chance of seeing 1/2 of all the major league ball clubs during the year. These guys are only one step away from the majors as well, so that is exciting in itself.

The East coast AAA league is called the International League and has such great clubs as the Toledo Mudhens (made famous by Jamie Farr in MASH) and the Durham Bulls (also made famous by a movie, now that I think about it) as well as the Pawtucket Red Sox for those who love them. Not so fan friendly Yankees are included (the team we all love to hate); the Mets are in the Pacific League (for now anyway since they are in New Orleans which seems more eastern to me). Each year this stuff gets shuffled around so there are no guarantees, but this year the following teams are represented in the IL:

Cleveland Indians, Chicago White Sox, Washington Nationals, Tampa Bay Rays, Pittsburgh Pirates, Philadelphia Phillies, Cincinnati Reds, Baltimore Orioles, Boston Red Sox, Atlanta Braves, Minnesota Twins, NY Yankees, Toronto Blue Jays, and the Detroit Tigers. As I said, all of the other teams are in the Pacific League. I guess there is always a possibility that if the Marlins moved over to Jax, they would stay in the Pacific league. That would be weird though and a lot of travel for the western teams that had to go to their stadium. Currently they are flying to New Orleans though, so who knows? What do you think?

Jesus pitched Saturday night but received a no decision since the score was tied when he left after 7 innings. He won his previous game out of town. He seemed to be struggling at this outing with only 2 strike-outs in 7 innings. His ERA was 2.85 going into the game and is now at 2.99 which is still excellent.

On to main topic: Each morning that I am home, I work outside for as long as I can depending on my schedule. This is usually about 45 minutes, but if I only have 15 minutes, I don't feel badly about that. I am learning that the important thing is that I am out there every day if possible even if I just walk around. (I try to do that on Sunday; it is a wonderful Sabbath activity to sit on our garden benches and walk on the mulched paths.) There are a couple of benefits (besides the obvious) for being out there every day.

The obvious benefit is that more work gets done. It is very easy for a garden to get out of control with even a little neglect. I've learned that the hard way. It is amazing how easy it is to stay on top o it when you spend a little time out there each day.

That was my initial reason for setting that as a goal. Well, actually, my goal was to spend 15 to 20 minutes a day in the sun. During my juice feast I had committed to do that. When my friend, Geri, was visiting from Utah, she was telling me about a vitamin D deficiency she has, and I decided that my goal was a very important one I would try to maintain. What better way to get 15 to 20 minutes worth of sunshine than to spend a few minutes in the garden? I'm not much for walking aimlessly around a track. I've tried that MANY times in the past, and I really hate it. I thought about biking, but I haven't got a bike right now, so the garden won the toss.

I didn't expect many more benefits than ample Vitamin D production and a better tended garden, but something unexpected resulted. Each day I start out by pulling a few weeds and then I collect produce that is ready to eat. One day I decided to save back a few springs of the weeds I was pulling for the green drink I make for breakfast each day. I started out with weeds I knew were edible like sorrel and red raspberry leaf. Then I added one I didn't know figuring if it was not good for me, I'd know soon enough. (I made sure I showed it to Roger, so he could show it to the doctor in the event an anecdote was needed. See, I'm responsible.) Since then, I've added a few others. Today I was up to about 2 cups of weeds in my drink! Awesome, don't you think.

I am very interested in finding out what the unknown weeds are, and I have planted some in a pot to take to my friend, Leisa, who knows the wild edibles. I am going to mention it to others in our church branch who are hoping to be more self-sufficient.

You would not expect the drink to be good with weeds in it, but they are the tastiest ones I have ever made. Saturday I was not home, so I ordered one at the juice bar from Native Sun (minus the weeds, of course), and it was amazingly bland in comparison. Good enough, of course, but not as tasty as the weed-infested ones. I am very excited by this development, and I can't help but think of the benefits that come from drinking a green drink every day from produce just picked from the garden.

For those who would like to try it, here's my recipe:

1/2 cup water in the blender
several stalks of celery cut in 1 - 2 inch pieces

Whirr this up until celery is liquified. Add garden weeds. Whirr til liquified.

Then I add whatever produce was picked: tomatoes, banana peppers, a cucumber, some parsley, a sprig of fennel.

Grind til all is liquified on the highest speed. Some might like this as a smoothie, but I strain it through a nut mylk bag. The add some sol. (This is Himalayan Salt rocks put into suspension with water. You can use sea salt. It doesn't take as much as you might think. Go easy til you find out how much you want.)

Delicious, and you gotta think: Nutritious! I have so much energy from drinking this it is incredible. Let me know if you try it and what you think.

So, if the weeds in your garden are getting you down, if you can't beat 'em, eat 'em!

My next experiment is the grasses: could they possibly taste worse than wheat grass? I don't think so. That stuff invades my garden with no fear at all! Let's see how they are after they've been run through my wheat grass juicer!

Stretching is good

We returned from our trip to the beautiful North Carolina area on Tuesday, but it was a couple of weeks too early. We really like that area; it is hard to come home.

The Southern League All-Star game was pretty interesting. We wanted to watch our Suns players who made to the All-Stars this year: Juan Gonzalez, Adam Godwin, Lucas May, James McDonald, Russell Mitchell, and Jesus Castillo.

Jesus is the pitcher we sponsor on the Suns, so we were especially anxious to see how he did. He seemed nervous before the game, so I am not sure he knew what to expect. Anyway, he had 2 people on base when the next hitter, Chris Coughlin, (who ended up with the MVP because of this play) had a 3 RBI home run. Then Jesus went on to be the only pitcher of the night to strike out the side. (At all-star games, the pitchers only pitch one inning.) The other Suns players did all right. Nothing special. The Northern division won as per usual.

Ivan deJesus, Jr. was a 2nd baseman on the world team Future game. He got on base a couple of times, but he was picked off when he tried to steal. That was a little painful. The World team shut out the American team.

It made me think about how we get used to our present level of activity. When we watch the Suns, we see certain players outshine their team mates and their opponents. Then when they are in a different venue, they are not as spectacular as they are in their comfort zone.

I think we are all like this. We accomplish what we think is our best given our current circumstances. When we put ourselves in the next level, we realize we need to stretch a little more. Until we get into that new, more difficult environment, we have no realization that more is possible, or even needed.

Stretching is good. Unfortunately, we resist it with every fiber of our being.