Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Living it Up!

I took my new stovetop popcorn popper for a test drive this evening. I had found popcorn glaze at Target in kettle corn and caramel corn flavors a little while back. It's granulated sugar and flavoring that you put in the popper with the popcorn. You have to stir it continually or the sugar will burn but the popper has a crank that turns a blade in the bottom of the pot and it worked just great. I did the kettle corn glaze and Mama loved it. It was delicious and of course the best thing is... no sodium at all, yay! So yeah, we are living it up on New Year's Eve here at the Feedin' Mama residence with our popcorn and sparkling grape juice. It's all good.

Mama and I wish you all a ridiculously happy
and blessed New Year.
Things are gonna be just fine in 2009!



Sunday, December 28, 2008

Growing Plans

I just found the greatest web site (thanks to Mr. Ted!) about square foot gardening. It's a great concept about creating gardening grids that have square foot sections in them. They can be built right on top of your regular soil but they can also be built as raised beds which is really good news for folks like me whose arthritis keeps them from doing as much gardening that they'd like to do. It's also good news for folks on low sodium diets. Everybody knows that home grown produce tastes a gazillion times better than commercially grown so you don't have to put salt on those tomatoes, peppers and beans - they're perfect right off of the vine or bush. Also, the grid sections are filled with what they call "Mel's Mix" which is a blend of equal parts compost, peat and vermiculite and it seems that by using this mix you can avoid using weed killers and such which is even better. I'm already itching to start shopping for seeds, planting season starts early here in Florida! I just have to figure out how to start a compost bin that won't cost me anything.

Friday, December 19, 2008

Remember YOU!

My apologies for the lack of posts lately, for "professional religious people" (or am I semi-pro? who knows...) Christmas time means packed schedules and we've had an uptick in pastoral care stuff to boot. We are all extra busy trying to get it all done and then sometimes you get nailed by the inevitable cold and/or flu germs that seem to love the holidays too. That's been my life for a few weeks now - busy with lots of church events and planning, I had a head and chest cold that laid me out for a while and trying to shop and bake and clean... oy! I had not been to my water aerobics class for I think almost a month and boy did I feel it. I was not sleeping as well, feeling sluggish and a little bit crabby even. (I know, that's hard to believe!) All that just melted away when I hit that wonderful warm water in the pool today. I didn't over do but I got a good workout and it did me a world of good. I'll be back on Monday and hope not to have to miss that much pool time again.

So what is your point Betsy, you may be asking. The point is that the busier you get the more important it is to remember to take care of YOU. I preach it all the time but I need to remember to put it into practice. Everyone benefits when I take time to care for me. And that is true for you too. Get out, go for a walk, crank the radio up and dance like a fool... whatever it takes. Just do it.

Saturday, December 13, 2008

Going Global on the Networking

I just joined the Eldercare Entrepreneurs group on facebook. More connections means more great information to share!

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Support Your Local Business Community

Feedin' Mama just joined up with Buy Local Jacksonville - a website that encourages support for local businesses. Although we have blog readers and website visitors literally from all over the world I still think it's important to support your local businesses, especially new start-ups and small businesses no matter where you live. If you don't live in the Northeast Florida or Jacksonville area then I encourage you to patronize the local businesses in your own community. That's in addition to the Feedin' Mama Store, of course!

Saturday, December 6, 2008

Holiday Snack Mix

I got an e-mail from Mrs. Dash... well, probably not directly from someone named Mrs. Dash but that's not important now... with a recipe for an Extra Spicy Holiday Mix. I am a big fan of the Chex Mix, especially when it's home made but of course that is just chock full of salt. This recipe looks pretty good. If you're going to a Christmas party where you or other folks who may have sodium issues are attending make up a batch of this to take along. They'll love you for it.

This is one of my favorite recipe sites, there are lots of great ones to try. Or you can let us here at Feedin' Mama try them for you... "We'll experiment so you don't have to!" and let you know how they turn out. I'm doing some Christmas baking and cooking later this week so I'll test drive this one and get back to you.

Thursday, December 4, 2008

The More You Know

I just came across the niftiest online health information site. It's from The National Insitutes of Health so it's trustworthy, that's one of the first things you need to do always... check the source of the information you find online. There's an awful lot of junk "science" and "information" out there. Anyhow, this is an interactive tutorial on Medline Plus that covers an impressive array of medical conditions. It allows you to choose from 3 presentations on your topic of choice - an interactive tutorial that asks you questions as you proceed to help make sure you are understanding the information, a straight tutorial with no input required from you or a text version of the information you're looking for. Something for everyone! The tutorials are narrated so those with vision difficulties can hear the information. They cover anatomy, symptoms, treatments... very thorough coverage of illnesses and conditions. I'm not always thrilled with the way government does things and spends money but this is first-rate, educational and very interesting. Go check it out... you may even find a disease or condition you didn't know you had! Just kidding.