Breathing Space

Holidays can be an extremely stressful time of the year.  Especially for caregivers.  So it's important to remember to take time for good self-care.  As an observant botanist on a talk show said, trees grow big and strong because they have their growing season and their rest season.  We humans, however, revel in our mile long to-do lists day in and day out, celebrating our exhaustion as a badge of honor.  And there's always the anti-depressants to pull us through.  Think about that.  Does that seem to be the way life should be going?

But you're going to tell me that your life and your job demand constant attention with nary a minute per day for yourself.  Been there and know that such situations truly exist.  So why not some mini giggle breaks.  As laughter is the best medicine, and stated by the infamous "they", I have a reading recommendation, which I'll give with a disclaimer.

The disclaimer is that the author is not shy about using words that might shock your grandmother.  If you're in the camp with your grandmother you might want to skip these books.  If, however, you just slide past such words and go for the giggles, I think you might enjoy.  But enough explanations.

One of my favorite giggle break authors is Sloane Crosley.  Two of her books that I've enjoyed are "I Was Told There'd Be Cake" and "How Did You Get This Number."  I like her books because they make me laugh and because they're essays, so I can pick up a book and read a short section without having to remember a plot or where I was in the story.  Essay titles include "Bring-Your-Machete-To-Work Day" and "The Good People of This Dimension."  You get the idea.

After a few pages you might be ready to get back to your real life and figure out what to buy for that favorite person on your holiday list who is simply impossible to buy for.  Maybe get them some books.

Peace

Lovely Ornaments

This month we resurrected an activity that we did last year.  It's simple and fun and the residents were anxious to repeat this project which produces such lovely ornaments.

Supplies:
  Clear plastic ornaments
  Acrylic paint
  Small plastic cups

I purchased the clear, plastic ornaments at Michael's.   They were already on sale at mid-November which gave us plenty of time to fit the activity into our holiday schedule.

The acrylic paint we prefer for this project, although any craft paint will work, is the Prang metallic paint that comes in a variety of glowing colors.  For the ornament nestled on the stars above we used Prang red and gold metallic paint.

First remove the top from the ornament.  Next, simply pour about two teaspoons of any color you choose, letting it pour down the inside of the ornament in two or three different places.  Select a second color and repeat, allowing this color to flow in between the strips of the first color.  Finally, hold a finger or thumb over the opening in the ornament and shake.  We also found that tapping the ornament lightly on the palms of our hands got the paint to flow around and coat the inside of the ornament completely.

Tips - choose two contrasting colors, such as gold and red to get a nice effect.  Also, choose colors that will create a lovely third color when mixed.  This will help avoid the muddy look.  Also, don't be afraid to try three or more colors inside an ornament.

Besides decorating a tree in the facility the residents can use the ornaments to give as gifts to family and friends.   Happy Holidays!

Update

Two short things to report.  First, I tried the written note with a resident who asks repetitive questions.  (See - Leave a Note, from 11/30)  It worked!  I used an 8.5x11 sheet of card stock and a colorful marker.  One of her questions is whether her children know where she is.  The note said, "Mary's children know where she is."  She read the note on and off and stopped asking the question as we did a craft project and found that that was enough for reassurance.

Number two, for those of you who've purchased Book Two of creative ideas.  The project for dying silk scarves with tissue paper lists the company for purchasing silk scarves as Dharma Trading Company.  However, to find them on line it's dharmatrading.com, NOT dharmatradingcompany.com.  They're two different companies.  The dharmatrading.com will get you to the scarves.

Thanks to an activity person who's gearing up to create some awesome scarves for that information.

Leave A Note

A good friend of mine recently sent me a link to an article that suggests that in some cases there might be a better or more effective way to communicate with persons with dementia.  According to the article, it seems that even though words don't always make a lasting impression, and leads to the Alzheimer's patient repeatedly asking the same question, sometimes pictures and/or the written word can prove more effective and comforting to the person.

And isn't it good to remember that even though it can be disconcerting for family members and other professionals to deal with those suffering from Alzheimer's, it can be just as frustrating for the person suffering with the disease. Family members and professionals, it seems, can be not only the caregivers, but also develop tools to become comfort givers. 

Check out the article at http://www.parade.com/health/2010/11/21-unlocking-the-silent-prison.html.  And thank you for all that you do.

Red Cabbage Divine

This is one of my favorite winter recipes.  Delicious both hot and cold.  It's sort of a sweet and sour red cabbage but much milder.

Ingredients:
  1 medium head red cabbage cut into thin strips
  1 cup pineapple juice
  1 t salt
  1/2 cup golden raisins
  Tarragon vinegar - measurement to come later
  1/300 tsp Stevia - that's a very small sprinkle

In a large kettle bring pineapple juice, cabbage and salt to a boil.  Reduce heat, cover, and simmer for 20 minutes.

While this is going on put the raisins into a  1/2 cup measuring cup.  Next, pour in the tarragon vinegar to cover.  When the first 20 minutes has expired toss this in along with the Stevia, mix, cover, and simmer for another 20 minutes.  That's it.  This is one of those dishes that tastes better the next day after it spends some time in the refrigerator getting to blend all of its flavors together.

NOTE ON TARRAGON VINEGAR: I make my own tarragon vinegar by purchasing cheap bottles of red wine vinegar and stuffing fronds of fresh tarragon into the bottles.  This tarragon is growing in my garden and comes back every year.

A PICTURE IS WORTH???   I actually did take a picture of this dish.  In fact, I took about a dozen pictures.  All of them looked like a dish of purple worms.  Sorry I had to be so blunt about it and I hope you're not eating right now. So instead of a picture of the cabbage I've included a picture of my dad.  He's 96 and doing well and he loves sweet and sour purple cabbage.  At least he loved it when he still had teeth!

Talking Turkey

Here's a quick and easy table decoration for your Thanksgiving table.  Supplies include a cardboard tube, some construction paper or wallpaper sample book paper, glue, a bit of ribbon, and googly eyes if you have them.  Drawn on eyes also work well. 

To begin, cut simple feather shapes out of the construction paper or wall paper samples and glue into a fan shape onto the back of the cardboard tube.  Bathroom tissue tubes work well, as do mailing tubes.  You could use food containers, such as containers from Pringles, but you'd need to cover them with paper or paint before attaching the feathers.  Glue or draw on two eyes.  The beaks are a small square of construction paper folded in half and pasted onto the tube just below the eyes.

We then glued the tubes onto circles of brown construction paper and added green or orange feet, which gave us a chance to use up some green and orange construction paper.  Finally, we added a ribbon to make our creation more festive.

We did attempt to attach wattles, or that red hangy thing as we called it, but that got a little too complicated so our turkeys ended up hangy thing free.  We still think that they're cute as can be and are a nice touch to the tables in the dining room.

Quesadilla

Ingredients:
Tortilla - I like multi-grain or corn
Veggies or meat or a combination of the two
A bit of cheese

Use a baking pan or a large non-stick pan.  Place tortillas on a baking pan that will eventually go into a pre-heated oven.  If you're making lunch just for yourself place a tortilla into a non-stick pan on top of the stove.  Add veggies and/or meat.  Add a bit of cheese.  Cover with a second tortilla and heat.

If I make this on the top of the stove I generally use a low heat and cover the pan.  Cooking for a group I use a 350-degree oven for about 20 minutes.  Sometimes I warm the filling to make the process go just a bit quicker.

Some of my favorite fillings include veggies with a splash of salsa or roasted root vegetables and tofu in spaghetti sauce.  Try your own favorite ingredients or flavors.  Serve with a simple salad.  I love this recipe because it's easy, versatile, and allows for variety, which we know is the spice of life.  Mom taught me that. 

Enjoy!

Attitude

This has been a busy month of traveling throughout the Midwest to conferences.  My last venture was my longest trip, a nine-hour drive that I had to make alone.  For those who travel for a living this may not seem daunting, but as someone who generally sticks close to home, I was obsessing over this trip. 

The day before I had to leave I dropped in on my hundred-year-old friend at the nursing home to see how she was doing and to share the story of my trip and my concerns.  Without missing a beat she said, "Oh, you're going to have an adventure.  You're going to see new things and meet new people and it will be wonderful."  Reality check.  I thought that the elderly were set in their ways and against change.  Who is the elderly person in this scenario, I wondered.

So I set my GPS and my attitude and took off, ready for an adventure.  I saw new places and I met some wonderful new people and all in all it was a great trip.  The day after I returned home I went to thank my friend for her encouragement and her words that nudged me to look at life in this new way.  "It's all attitude," she said.  "If you look for the good it will be there."

I've been sharing this story with friends and looking at incidents from my life as an opportunity to experience new things and meet new people.  I'm looking for the good.  I read a book that urges people to start their day with the words, "Something wonderful is going to happen today and I can't wait to see what it is."  I just might have to turn in my drama queen crown. 

A Rose By Any Other Name

We are doing the proverbial switching horses in mid-stream.  As you can see, the label for this entry is "Resources".  This will now replace the former label, "Book Reviews," which is obviously too narrow to cover all the different ways we get information about the work of Activities.  So we will move forward from this point on with the label, "Resources."

First on the resource agenda is that Book Two from Second Childhood Creations is now hot off the press and in our hot little hands, ready to get into your hot little hands if you click on the Second Childhood Creations link. 

Book Two, like Book One, has twelve, hands-on creative activities, including where to buy and how to dye silk scarves using colored tissue paper.  The scarves are awesome!  There's also a recipe for making bowls out of paper egg cartons, a puffy paint recipe, happy face pots with bad hair days, shaving cream prints, and a water slide decal project that will give you all sorts of ideas of things to create with them.  And that's just the beginning.

And as long as we're on resources ...  I recently stumbled on a book by Brook Noel titled "The Change Your Life Challenge, a 70 day life makeover program for women."  I found the 2005 edition in a used bookstore.  There is a more recent edition available on half.com, my favorite place for purchasing used books.

So what's happened in my life as I plowed along to day 9, doing one day at a time as advised by the author?  So far so good!  Do I envision a miraculous change in my life?  Maybe.  I like to keep my options open.  And I believe that if I read enough positive works from a variety of authors my life has simply got to get better.  As for now, I've been able to find my to-do list every morning without any hassle.  Onward!

Pretty Pumpkins

This is an easy activity and a wonderful alternative to handing out knives in order to carve pumpkins for Halloween.  This is also the second year we've done this activity and the residents jumped right in knowing that pumpkins don't need to have faces. Stripes, dots and swirls brought life to our pumpkins that now decorate the tables in the dining room.

As usual, we used our favorite paint from Blick Art Materials, blickacrylic.  Not pictured, but also painted, were a group of butternut squash, which took on the appearance of nesting dolls.  Try your hand at painting the gourds of the season.  Enjoy!

Question Answered and a Book

One of my friends saw my last post for a meatless beef broth and asked, why bother when you can get real beef broth right out of a can.  Short answer and big question - I'm a vegetarian and, have you read the ingredients list on a can of beef broth lately?  Besides sugar there's generally a list of polysyllabic words that sound like chemicals.  I like to know what I'm putting into my body.  It's all about choices.

A book I recently read is called "Keeper' by Andrea Gillies.  It's subtitle is "One House, Three Generations, and s Journey into Alzheimer's."  The focus of the book is on the author and her mother-in-law, Nancy, who's journey into the depths of Alzheimer's is documented.  The impact of that journey on the family is also honestly glimpsed. 

Keeper won the 2009 Wellcome Trust Book Prize, the United Kingdom's preeminent popular science writing award and the 2010 Orwell Prize. 

While the book was compelling and gave numerous reasons to fear Alzheimer's and aging, I felt that its emphasis on the loss of self and loss in general gave the book an oppressive tone.  Look around the room where you're sitting right now and notice everything that's the color blue.  Now close your eyes and tell me everything in the room that's the color yellow.  It's hard to focus on the yellow when you're looking only for the blue.

Quote by actor, Tony Curtis, who died this week at age 85.  "Service to others is the rent we pay for our time on this planet."  Wonderfully said.

Meatless Beef Broth

OK.  So you're wondering about my sanity.  How can a beef broth be meatless.  But I promise that when you cook up a batch of this broth, which can be used as the base for many wonderful dishes, the aroma of beef broth will fill your abode.

Ingredients:
   3 Tablespoons soy sauce
   2 teaspoons Kitchen Bouquet
   2 Tablespoons nutritional yeast
   1/2 cup chopped onion
   1/2 teaspoon rubbed sage
   1 teaspoon oil
   2 cups water

Combine everything in a saucepan and simmer for 5 minutes.  That's all there's to it!


Optional - go nuts and add some sliced mushrooms to make this into a delicious mushroom soup.  The broth in the picture is loaded with sliced mushrooms.  A sprinkle of Parmesan cheese on top is delicious.

Footnote:  If you're wondering about nutritional yeast it's a source of vitamins especially the B-complex vitamins and is a complete protein.  It's also naturally low in fat and sodium.  Really yummy when sprinkled on popcorn.  Available at stores that sell organic and vegetarian products.

Enjoy!

Indoor Windsock

Supplies:
  Mailing tube or oatmeal box
  Lid for the aforementioned
  Paint
  Paintbrush
  Glue Dots or other adhesive
  Ribbon or rickrack - 6 or 8 pieces, about 3 feet long plus 1 piece about 18 inches long for the handle
  Embellishments

If you're using an oatmeal box or other similar container you're going to have to cut the bottom out or make slits into the bottom edge in order to insert and attach the ribbons.

Paint your mailing tube, oatmeal box, or other container of that shape.  Add stripes or dots or stencil on a design.  You could also glue colored tissue shapes to the outside of the cylinder once the paint is dry.

Attach the streamer to the lower edge of the cylinder, sticking them in place with Glue Dots or other adhesive.  Attach embellishments to the ends of the ribbon if you'd like.

Attach the final 18-inch piece of ribbon and attach it to the top as a handle.  Snap the lid onto the container, which will hold the handle in place.

This windsock brings a splash of color to the indoors.  It's easy to construct and fun to decorate.

Enjoy!

9/11

It would seem that everything that could be said about 9/11 has been said.  But everyone has their own particular story.  The way that my husband and I experienced the event probably put us outside the box.  As we went through those days we were repeatedly tempted to say, "But wait..."

On 9/11 my husband and I were driving back to our home in the Midwest from Portland Maine.  We were listening to an audio book in the car and driving through Pennsylvania at about the time the plane went down in that state.  We were returning from an Aids ride, bicycling 400 miles in 5 days in order raise money to find a cure for Aids.  We were clueless as to what the rest of the world was experiencing.

When we finally stopped at a rest stop a gentleman outside the building said, "It's kind of strange not seeing any airplanes."  By our blank expressions he could tell we hadn't heard the news and told us to go inside the building and watch the TV.  We watched the interminable replay of the towers coming down.  The assembled travelers stood in silence, having no words to express what they were feeling about the images before them.  My husband and I, for reasons we had yet to discover, felt outside of the group.  Not a part.  We later discussed our feelings and guessed that it had to do with the week we had just experienced.

We had just come from a week of living with a diverse group of 2000 riders and hundreds of support personnel.  Emphasis on the word, diverse.  We were a mix of ethnic, abled, sexually orientated, and any other group that you want to throw into the mix.  The group had one goal in mind - to help everyone succeed.  I especially remember a veteran of many such rides who rode through the group dressed as a super hero with his cape flying out over the back tire of his bike.  As he pedaled past the novices in the group he would shout out, "Go, you super heroes!  You can do it!"  There were no "we" and "they" in the group.  There was only "us" working together to accomplish a common goal of making everyone a success.  We came away from the experience with a different mindset than the mindset that we began with.

We knew that people did not have to be about groups, about "we" and "they."  We knew that people could work together for the common good.  We had experienced it and believed that this could be translated to the world.  We experienced 9/11 with a profound sadness, not only because of the event itself, but also because of what we knew and wanted the rest of the world to know.  We had, and still have hope for creation of a world where everyone can be a winner.  So may it be.

Let it Grow

Behind our garage, which is not visible from the street, there exists a wondrous vegetable garden.  Actually, it's not all that wondrous and that's why I'm delighted it's in such an inconspicuous location. My gardening skills hover somewhere between out of control weed infestation and dumb luck.  This background information will explain a lot about my next confession.

In front of a small building that sits directly behind our house there is a plot of ground that I've designated as a perennial bed.  That should mean that the bed will be alive with flowers and other plantings that are a delight to the senses.  Dare to dream.  Before I was able to say Miracle Grow three times fast my plantings got leggy and ragged and were surrounded by numerous areas of bare ground.  And then nature, and my vegetarian lifestyle, intervened.

You see, as a vegetarian, I generate a lot of peels and seeds.  Not personally, but as a result of my meal preparations.  And as a striving earth and tree huger, I work to waste not want not.  Therefore, all of the peelings and seeds that are generated from my culinary explorations get buried in my garden where they turn into rich soil, an avocado tree or two, and various mystery plants.

Well, that's what happened in my intended perennial bed.  A rogue vine started to grow, obviously a result of my composting efforts, spreading it's happy arms in all directions and singing "Born Free" at the top of it voice.  At least, it looked as if it would sing "Born Free" if it could choose a song and have the wherewithal to accomplish such a feat.  Immediately I began to wax poetic about my admiration for the tenacity of this vine and how I must let it grow and thrive.  Truthfully, the vine was covering all the bare spots in the flower bed.

Yes, I admire tenacity.  In plants and in people.  So while I might not have a full-fledged perennial bed this year, there's always next year.  This year?  We might have some watermelons.  There are six green orbs that look promising.

Puffy Paint

When you finish making shaving cream prints (see July 20th) you end up with a lot of shaving cream mixed with paint.  It's easy enough to rinse down the sink but it's also easy to turn this mixture into Puff the Magic Paint.

The recipe for Puffy Paint is:
1/2cup of shaving cream
2 T of white glue
2 T of acrylic paint

Note that these measurements are approximations.  More shaving cream will give you a foamy texture when it dries, and more glue will give it a smoother texture.  Extra paint creates deeper colors.

We had the residents mix the colors with forks on small paper plates and then apply the paints to pieces of cardboard that had circles drawn on them.  Circles were drawn using jar lids of various sizes, overlapping some of the circles to make a more interesting design.

True confession - Week one we mixed up the puffy paint and had the residents apply it to simple drawings of flowers or butterflies using cotton swabs.  This did not work.  The impulse was to try to paint with the cotton swabs and the paint needs to be piled onto the picture.

Week two we gave out the circle designs, hid the cotton swabs, and passed out plastic spoons for the residents to use.  Every resident who participated (9 of them) was adept at getting paint to paper, thick enough, and with some semblance of order.  We do not advocate staying inside the lines, but their proficiency was outstanding.

Week three, which has not happened, will be a new piece of cardboard cut to fit inside a picture frame so they can create something suitable for framing, frame it, and have an original art piece to give as a gift or for their room.  It's a great way to use up all the picture frames from storage.  There were excited conversations about ideas for their final pieces.  Practice pieces are a wonderful way to spend an afternoon.  Everyone is looking forward to next week's gathering.

Above is Lillian with her practice piece and activity staff person, Delores.

Watermelon Salad

Stumbled upon this recipe and made a few tweaks to it so I didn't have to go out and purchase parsley and fresh mint.  No, I don't have them on hand but when I do I'll add them to the mix and amaze my taste buds.  What I did learn from this recipe was how to bring down the bite in red onions.  It's simply a matter of soaking the thin slices of red onion in lime juice, which in my case was whole (minus the peel) limes, pulverized in my VitaMix.  A lovely, gentle onion taste results.  You all probably knew that already and are wondering what planet I've been living on, or on which planet I've been living, for those of you who don't like to end a sentence with a preposition.

Ingredients:
  Small red onion
  2 - 4 limes, depending on their juiciness
  1/2 medium sized watermelon cut into cubes
  1 cup feta cheese, cubed
  3 - 4 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
  1/2 cup sliced black olives, more or less to suit your taste
  Black pepper
  Something green

Peel and halve the red onion and cut them into thin slices.  Juice or peel and pulverize the limes and add to the onion slices in a small bowl where they can rest together while you continue.

Cube the watermelon.  Cube the feta.  Gently toss the watermelon and feta in a bowl.  Add onions, oil, olives and something green and gently toss one more time.  Top with a good grind of black pepper.

Disclaimers:
1.  So what exactly is a medium sized watermelon?  Depends what part of the country you're from or how good you are at lying.  "We don't grow any watermelon under forty pounds around here!"  Get a grip.  You want 6 to 8 cups of watermelon unless you're feeding a family gathering.
2.  The salad needed something green so I went to my garden where my Swiss chard has taken over the neighborhood.  I chose a few smaller leaves and rolled and sliced them as thin as possible.  The green added a nice touch.  You can use parsley.
3.  Is it obvious that the salad in the picture does not have lovely cubes of feta?  Our local grocer only had the "all broken up in pieces" feta.  It worked well and tastes great.
4.  There are green beans on the plate with the watermelon salad.  The picture was just crying for a little contrasting color.

Enjoy!

Paul and Me

I recently read a biographical account by A.E. Hotchner entitled "Paul and Me," about his decades long friendship with Paul Newman.  Hotchner was there for the first batch of salad dressing, mixing the concoction with a canoe paddle while Newman poured in the ingredients, as well as a number of other schemes and dreams.

The book not only brought out the wonderful human qualities of Paul Newman, but also his tenacity.  The incident that sticks in my mind happened when Newman decided to build his Hole in the Wall camp for special needs kids.  He decided he wanted to open it the following summer.  All of the experts, architects and contractors, said it couldn't be done.  They gave a more realistic completion date involving a couple of years for this massive project.  Newman said it would be done.

When construction workers were unable to work in the severe winter that descended on the work site, Newman hired Canadian construction worker who were acclimated to severe weather.  Of course, the facility opened the following summer as Newman intended.

There are other such accounts of accomplishments in the face of seemingly, insurmountable odds.  Reading these had me thinking about the times I've taken the more logical path, lining up my good reasons why something can or cannot be accomplished.  Or as my good friend, Linda, says, giving away my power.

"Paul and Me" is a fun and inspiring read.  It's probably sitting on the library shelf right now just waiting for someone who could use a little inspiration.

Lesson Learned

We had our usual arts and craft group yesterday at the senior care facility (doesn't that sound better than Nursing Home) where I volunteer.  Our project was to create crushed paper art pieces.  It was a learning experience, especially for me.

Although I've created a number of these in the past and brought some of these pieces as examples, the actual "How To" was not as obvious as I imagined.  In my ignorance, I simply directed the residents to crush up the paper I provided and glue it to squares of cardboard.  The residents struggled.  Finally, I demonstrated.  Ah!  So that's how it's done.

Truthfully, I should have known better.  I'm a person who learns best by being shown.  Written or verbal instructions never quite sink in the way a demonstration does.  So here's what I learned.

Take the time to demonstrate each week at the beginning of each session.  Don't assume that because the process seems evident to me that it will be evident to everyone else.  And even after a demonstration, watch and guide without being intrusive on people's individual creative processes.

Also, while we in the midst of creating, it was evident that one of the participants was not as engaged as the rest.  It was then I noticed that she was having a hard time reaching supplies that were placed at the table where she was working.  Once supplies were moved to within easy reach she engaged. 

There's always something to learn.  Hopefully, I will keep my eyes, ears, and heart open to what the residents have to teach me and make our mutual learning an enjoyable time together.

Speaking of Just About Anything

Although this entry is under the label, Book Reviews, once again it is not a book.  This is rather a site I stumbled upon which led me to American Public Media and a program, Speaking of Faith.  I don't believe this program is broadcast in the area where I live.

Once again, thanks to the miracle of technology, which I intermittently decry, I have been able to listen to some pretty amazing presentations.  One of their offerings was an interview with Matthew Sanford, a paraplegic who is also a yoga teacher now working with injured soldiers returning from war zones.  Another program I enjoyed is "The Ethics of Eating," a conversation with Barbara Kingsolver.  Then there was Desmund Tutu's God of Surprises.

The good news is that there are numerous programs in the archives just waiting to be enjoyed.  The bad news is that I am one of the last people on earth not to own an iPod and so must sit at my computer to listen to these wonderful programs.  Other bad news is that I've run out of busy work (cleaning and sorting) so I have nothing to do while I sit at my computer and listen to these offerings. The solution to my dilemma would be to find more busy work or to purchase an iPod.  Anyone out there with an old iPod for sale?

Check out Speaking of Faith.  Presenters and topics to feed a hungry mind. 

Shaving Cream Prints

This is a fun project that takes just minimal supplies.

The supplies include:
  Shaving cream
  Liquid paints
  Paper
  Plastic spoon
  Mixing stick
  Scraper
  Styrofoam or paper plate
 

Simply spread a coat of shaving cream onto a plate and smooth it out with a spoon so it's about 1/4 inch thick.  Next, dot on some paint, as seen on the plate to the left.  I used acrylic paint on this but liquid watercolors work just as well.  Next, mix the colors together using a mixing stick (a pencil works well) as seen on the plate to the right.

Take your piece of paper that is slightly larger than the paint area and press it down onto the paint.  Pat it lightly to make sure that the paint transfers to the paper.  Now lift the paper off of the paint and behold something that looks like a mess.  Fear not.

Take your scraper, which could be a square of cardboard, and scrape the shaving cream off of the paper.  Voila!  This will reveal your beautiful design.  At this point you can smooth out the shaving cream left on the plate and add additional colors to make another design or start again with fresh shaving cream and new colors.

In the above picture you can see the paint dotted onto the plate and paint mixed with wild abandon.  Actually, I mixed it with a plastic skewer that once held a fruit kabob.  The paper I used for the print that's shown is cardstock.  I find that I get the best results with watercolor paper or white construction paper.  Dark colored paper doesn't seem to show off the design as well.

You can also write on the paper with a dark crayon, messages like "Happy Birthday", before pressing the paper onto the swirls of paint.  This way you could design our own birthday cards.

Besides birthday cards, designs can be cut into bookmark sized pieces and used as bookmarks.  When doing this activity with senior residents we took some of their creations and framed them in 4x6 frames so they could have them as art pieces.

Experiment and enjoy!

Holy Cow!

I recently picked up an audio book entitled, "The Way We Eat, Why Our Food Choices Matter" by Peter Singer and Jim Mason.  I expected a discourse on nutrition with a smattering of food ethics thrown in for good measure.  And I've been more attracted to non-fiction just because so many fiction books have dust jackets that announce, "Mandy was anxious to return home after her honeymoon and begin life as a married woman.  And then they found that dead body in the basement."  And then there is always, "They were a happy family.  Typical in so many ways, until the accident and that dead body in the basement." 

Anyway, with my interest in nutrition I thought this would be something I'd enjoy.  And maybe a bit of information that might help me decide how much I want to pursue vegetarianism, which has been my general path of choice.  This vegetarian bent began when I read that the fossil fuel fiasco we're facing could be solved if everyone ate vegetarian.  Eat your grains, beans and veggies and save the planet.  I can do that!

Hold on to your socks, and don't continue reading this blog entry if you're squeamish or are eating your lunch.  This book traces three families and their food choices, going from a typical American diet of meat and potatoes with a good dose of fast food, to a family that chooses organic.  And then the authors went on to investigate where the food comes from, what labels really mean, and how animals that produce the bulk of our meat are farmed.  This includes cows, pigs, poultry and their eggs, fish, shrimp, and other seafood.

The image that  keeps dancing around in my head are two of the methods for disposing of chickens who are no longer able to produce eggs at a profitable rate.  One egg producer, with the aid of a bulldozer, simply dug a large pit and buried the chickens alive.  Another fed the live birds into a wood chipper.  Yes, these were the extreme cases, but many other stories of animal treatment were not all that inspiring.  Unfortunately, there are no general standards against torture when it comes to farm animal treatment in many segments of the industry.  It's basically a nod to common practice. 

A good thought provoking read.  And maybe another reason to give the vegetarian life-style some serious thought.

Ch Ch Ch Chia

I recently read a book (so is this a book review or a recipe) called "Born to Run" by Christopher McDougall.  It tells you everything you've ever wanted to know about running, running shoes, and the greatest runners of all times, the Tarahumara people who live in the Copper Canyons.

In this book is a recipe for a beverage consumed by the Tarahumara people which seems to give them incredible stamina.  It's known as iskiate.  One of the ingredients in this drink is the chia seed, that innocuous little seed used to grow hair on the infamous Chia Pets.  I've been acquainted with the nutritional value of chia seeds and already had a supply that I would occasionally slip into my morning fruit smoothie. 

The recipe for iskiate is simple -
     10 ounces of water
     1 T Chia Seeds
     Squirt of lime juice
     Dash of Agave nectar for sweetness (optional)
Shake up all the ingredients in a jar or bottle and allow to sit overnight.  The chia seeds will soften.  Drink and go find something to do with all of the wonderful energy that you'll feel.

My version of this drink is to put the water and a whole peeled lime into my Vita Mix and liquefy.  Next I add the chia seeds and the agave nectar.  And if you remember from the incredible chocolate dessert from some weeks back, agave nectar is a preferred sweetener because of its low glycemic index, which means it goes into your system slowly and does not cause a spike in blood sugar.  But back to the subject at hand.

For those of you unfamiliar with chia seeds let me quote from the book.  "As tiny as those seeds are, they're superpacked with omega-3s. omega-6's, protein, calcium, iron, zinc, fiber, and antioxidants.  If you had to pick just one desert-island food, you couldn't do much better than chia, at least if you were interested in building muscle, lowering cholesterol, and reducing your risk of heart disease; after a few months on the chia diet you could probably swim home."

In a pinch I've used plain orange juice and chia seeds when I was out of limes.  It seemed to work just as well.  No jitters or other effects.  Just lots of energy. 

So now we come to the warnings and other things to think about.  The first time I concocted a batch of iskiate and drank it I wanted enough energy to get a good start on redoing an overgrown flowerbed.  I decided that if I got a good start I might have the project finished in a few days.  Actually, I had the project finished in a few hours with enough energy left over to do a second flowerbed, and all before lunch.

Wanting to see how much more I could accomplish that day I had another glass of iskiate after lunch.  Caution!  Come bedtime I was still vibrantly wide awake.  Tried this a second time about a week later to see if this was a fluke or a result of the drink.  Spent another night alert and ready for action.

Finally, like any other nutritious food,  iskiate is not a magic bullet.  Don't expect to indulge in a diet of junk food and have one ten-ounce drink make you feel great.  Also remember to hydrate.  Water is magic and essential to life.  Happy running!

Oh, You Beautiful Doll

The other day I was visiting one of my friends who now resides in a nursing home.  We sat and visited for a while outside, enjoying a lovely summer's day together.  When we went back inside the fun began.

On the way to her room we passed through a group of elderly gentlemen who were sitting and visiting and telling elderly guy stories.  As we approached one of the men said, "There she is!" and reached for my friend's hand.  She gave his hand a warm squeeze.  Another of the gentlemen said to my friend, "I'm not even going to ask you how you are because you're always wonderful."

A third joined the conversation as we passed and said, "She feels wonderful because she was looking at me," to which a fourth replied, "No she wasn't.  She was looking at me!"  In all the years I've been volunteering at this facility I have never witnessed such a genuine and warm outpouring of admiration for true beauty.

"You have quite a fan club," I whispered into her ear.  She smiled her lovely smile.  Did I mention that my friend was in a wheelchair and is 100 years old.  I guess beauty and charm know no boundaries.  So much for the myth of youth and beauty.

Let THE SUN Shine

This isn't a book that I'm going to tell you about, but it's certainly one of my favorite reads.  And a funny thing happened on the way to my reunion.  We'll get to this good read in just a minute.

It seems that I've reached that time in life when high school reunions pop up.  This is year number 50 for me and my classmates from an all girls school.  Women were arriving from all over the United States for the celebration.  One of my good friends from high school was driving up a day early and we were going to have a pajama party.  We hadn't seen each other in 45 years and felt we had a lot of catching up to do.

Our lives had been diverse - she married to a rancher out west and raising 10 kids, while I lived in urban settings all of my adult life.  When she arrived and the hugs and lies about, "You haven't aged a bit," had been exchanged, my friend said she brought a copy of her favorite magazine to share with me.  The name of the magazine was The Sun.  I no longer buy numerous magazines but subscribe to only one.  That magazine is The Sun.  I guess that after all these years we're still pretty much alike in our tastes.  Now, I'd like to tell you why I like this publications and recommend The Sun to you.

First, I like this magazine because it's ad free.  That alone is worth about a zillion points in my book.  Next, it always has something in it that will make me think or expose me to people and ideas that enrich my life.  There's always an in-depth interview, a short story or two, and comments from readers on various topics.

On the down side, the magazine is only about 50 pages and I generally read it cover to cover on the day that it arrives.  Then I have to sit there patiently tapping my foot until the next issue arrives.

You can go to the website of The Sun, edited and published by Sy Safransky, and get a taste of what to expect.  There's even something about a free trial.  Free is good.

Do you have any favorite reads to share?  Sharing is also good.

New Twist On Tabbouleh

In the summertime I like to eat something that's nutritious, easy to make, and on hand.  Add to that, made by someone else, and it would be the perfect food!  Here's something that fulfills almost all of those goals.  It's a slight twist on one of my favorite grain salads, tabbouleh.  The twist is to substitute quinoa or millet for the bulgar wheat.

Start with 2 cups of cooked quinoa or millet.
To that add:
2 chopped tomatoes, or 1 can of diced tomatoes well drained
Small cucumber, peeled, seeded and dices
1/4 cup minced onion or thinly sliced scallions
1 cup or more finely chopped parsley
1/4 cup fresh, chopped mint 
Any other veggie that you know and love

Dressing:
1 lemon, peeled and seeded, or 1/4 cup of lemon juice
Up to 1/4 cup olive oil
Clove of garlic, or more
Salt and pepper to taste

Place the dressing ingredients into a blender or Vita-Mix and blend on high until it's well blended.  Toss it with the other ingredients.  Enjoy, or chill your masterpiece to enjoy later.

NOTE:  I leave out the mint because I don't particularly enjoy mint and I usually don't have it on hand.  Tabbouleh purists around the globe are probably up in arms and ready to tell me that I'm not creating real tabbouleh but I've already substituted quinoa for bulgar so just get a grip on yourself.  I've oftentimes made this recipe without the mint and the world continued to spin on its axis.  Whew!

Taking Time

I recently received an email from one of my granddaughters.  It was one of those emails that was full of accusations and lies.  They're easy to spot because they're done up in a lot of large red font and they talk about patriotism and our Christian nation.  They go on to rail against an individual or a company or a segment of the world population.  They're also easy to discover as lies by simply doing a Google search.

I was especially disturbed to get this from someone so young.  This particular grandchild is a pre-teen and gleefully spreading dissension.  I immediately thought about an incident I read about in one of the books by Anne Lamott.

It seems that Anne was out with one of her friends.  This woman was in the last stages of cancer and her friends would take her out in her wheelchair whenever she was feeling up to an outing. Anne took her along that day when she was shopping for clothes.  Anne set her friend's wheelchair outside a fitting room and would come out to model dresses as she tried them on, asking for input.

After trying on one particular dress Anne came out of the fitting room, turned right and left, and finally asked her friend, "Does this dress make me look fat?"  Her friend replied.  "Anne, you don't have time for that."  Her friend died two weeks later.

So with the precious time that we have upon this earth it might be good to ask ourselves, on occasion, exactly what we want to use our time for and whether activities, such as spreading dissension, is worth our time.  I'm still waiting to get an email that asks me to send to everyone I know some facts about and incredible company, human being, or segment of the population who is making this world a better place to live.  I think I might actually send on such an email.  

The Big Bang

Here is an easy project for a Fourth of July decoration that's suitable to hang over tables in the dining room or use as a centerpiece on table tops.

Supplies:
Mailing tubes
Paint - white and blue
Paintbrush
Red paper stars
Painter's tape
Glue Dots or other adhesive
Sparkly things to poke out of the top

These firecrackers were easily made using mailing tubes that we painted white.  Next, when the tubes were thoroughly dry, we taped them with painter's tape and added the blue stripes.

Red stars, cut out using a punch, were then attached to the side of the tube with Glue Dots.  The sparkly sprays that we used were purchased at Michaels for a mere 99 cents each.  We did stuff a bit of white tissue and paper toweling down the tube in order to hold the sparkly spray in place.

Lacking a shopping trip to Michaels you could also use pipe cleaners with cutout stars or sparkly beads attached.  Some red, white and blue silk flowers would also be nice, especially if used as centerpieces.

The best part of this activity?  We actually completed it well in advance of the holiday.  Funny how those holidays seem to sneak up on us.

Swimming Against the Current

I recently heard a discussion about swimming lessons for infants and toddlers.  It seems that after many years of belief in the value of swimming lessons for infants, pediatricians came out with a statement saying that this practice, especially for children under the age of four, would give a false sense of confidence to mothers as well as to the children.  Talk about putting a damper on things!  (Sorry, I couldn't resist.)

Well, it turns out that pediatricians have now reversed their advice.  It seems that they've come to the conclusion that swimming lessons for children as young as 12-months could actually be beneficial.  They even have statistics to back this up, which is something they, obviously, didn't have to back up their initial declaration. 

This caused me to think about the amount of advice that's out their and question what's worthy of belief.   It also made me wonder if people are losing their ability to follow their instincts and trust their feelings.  Or have we come to believe that it's more important to find and listen to experts, especially experts with a lot of letters after their names.

Visiting with dad everyday in the Memory Care Unit where he now lives and getting to know the other residents as individuals, rather than as people in various stages of dementia,  has changed my view about this condition.  Also, whenever I attend meetings with those who work in the field of dementia it's rather easy to pick out those experts who probably don't spend a lot of time in such settings, but rather learn through meetings and continued study.

Let's hear it for continued study, but let's also go swimming with the toddlers every once in a while. 

Take Your Oxygen First

I recently picked up a copy of "Take Your Oxygen First" by Leeza Gibbons who co-wrote the book with James Huysman, PsyD, LCSW and Rosemary DeAngelis Laird, M.D.  It's a book that documents the challenges of living and coping with a family member who has Alzheimer's.  The difference with this book is that it emphasizes the importance of good self-care for the caregiver.

"Take Your Oxygen First" covers not only an overview of Alzheimer's, but also writes on the importance of exercise, eating well, sleep and other self-care topics as they relate to the caregiver.  There is also a section of caregiver resources, directing care-givers to organizations for information and/or support.

Along with the scope of the book I especially like the clear writing style.  It's a great resource for anyone whose life has been impacted by Alzheimer's Disease. 

Lovely Scraps

I really enjoy doing this project not only with other people but also on my own as a way to clean up some of the odds and ends that I've accumulated in my studio. You know the things I'm talking about - too small to be a major player in an art piece yet too nice to throw away.

The supplies I use for this project generally consist of:
cardboard or scrap of some such board, about a foot square
paint
odd bits of paper, fabric, yarn, trim, and things that glitter
gloss gel to use as an adhesive

I simply paint the piece of cardboard one or more colors, allow it to dry, and glue on the odd bits of pretty things that have been collecting. Saved bits of yarn after a knitting project or fabric scraps are especially useful for this project. And the resulting pieces are often pretty enough to frame.

I've recently been experimenting with box covers using random pieces of paper and ribbon to make interesting pieces. "Interesting" is a kind word to use for some of the results!

Enjoy!

Person Care

OK, this isn't actually a Book Review, but rather a review of a company that I was recently introduced to at an Alzheimer's conference. The company is Person Care and the representative of the company that I had the pleasure of visiting with is Bob Finnie.

Person Care has a wide range of products that address the needs of the aging population. The product on display that I was most fascinated with was the Medication Center with Talking Alarm Clock. This system allows you to set up medications for an entire month. For those of you needing to provide such a reminder for someone you're caring for or for yourself, this is it!

A link to the Person Care's site is listed right at the top of this page under "Resources". Take a look around at all the wonderful information and products that they offer.

Spring Spinach and Strawberry Salad

This salad is so lovely because it's a great base for all sorts of creative additions. But let's start with the basics which are alliteratively wonderful.

Ingredients:
Fresh spinach
Sliced strawberries

Dressing:
1 T apple cider vinegar
3 T olive oil
1 T orange juice concentrate
Dash of curry powder

Place the spinach and strawberries on a plate. Whisk together the dressing ingredients. Drizzle.

Some of my favorite additions to this recipe include avocado and sliced mushrooms. You can also top this salad with sliced chicken or seared tuna and turn it into a main course. Just add your favorite bread and you have a light summer lunch. Add a hunk of chocolate cake for dessert and you have another pound on your hips.

Whatever.

Mayday!

Isn't it odd that the internationally recognized distress call is also the name, with a slightly different spelling, May Day, of the celebration of the coming of spring. The second, May Day, involves dancing and May poles and bonfires and cavorting, which just might lead to a distress call. A slightly humorous and ironic juxtaposition.

Another such ironic juxtaposition is shown in the picture of the road that's in front of our house. Yes, after 110 years we are finally getting new sewer, water, sidewalks, curb and road. Everything will be beautiful once it's finished. The sign in the quagmire tells us not to park on the street between the hours of 7AM and 5PM. Thank you, to those concerned about our safety amidst the construction, for the helpful and necessary (?) sign.

And finally, I want to tell you about a juxtaposition of words that makes me laugh every time I share this incident. My husband and I were driving back from visiting some out of town relatives. I was doing the driving. I soon realized that my husband was looking at me. Softly he touched my face with his fingers and said, "When the sunlight hits your face like that" (Oh my goodness, I thought, a beautiful, romantic moment!) "I can see this really long hair growing out of your chin." I explained the facts of aging to that man that I love and told him I would pluck as soon as we got home.

When I related this story to the Tuesday arts and crafts group at the senior care facility the women, as expected, burst into howls of laughter. Then the group got quiet and the women started to relate how much they longed for simple, romantic gestures. "Men just don't realize how important it is," they said, nodding to each other. These are women in their 70's and 80's. There's still time to let them know.

Hold the Dead Bodies

One of my favorite pastimes is reading light fiction, which is sometimes difficult to do while performing any number of tasks in the course of a day. Let's hear it for audio books!

Fortunately, our library has a large selection of audio books. And our librarian is constantly adding to the collection with newly released titles. That's the good news and the bad news. The good news part has to do with the number of audio books available. The bad news has to do with subject matter. Reading the back of an audio book container to get an idea of content I 'm all too often met with the same, "Marjorie and Milton weren't expecting to find a dead body in the honeymoon suite when they entered their room blah, blah, blah." And so I made a request.

"Is it possible to get some audio books without dead bodies in them," I asked our librarian. She told me that someone else is requesting more romance novels. Hers is not an easy life. It seems that publishers give the public what it wants and right now the public wants murder and mayhem. As an example, the other day, while waiting in a check out line, I overheard a young man tell his companion that he only needed a few more kills to reach 10,000. I do believe he was referring to his video game expertise.

But fear not, I have found a few good stories without undue amounts of blood. If you're looking for the same I have some recommendations. I'm in love with any book by Alexander McCall Smith, who's done the "No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency" series as well as another series set in the UK. I've recently listened to "Major Pedigrees Last Stand," and many months ago enjoyed "The Elegance of the Hedgehog." And although some of these books would never be classified as great literature, I didn't have to mop up any blood when I finished listening to them.

Do you have a favorite author or series to share? Would love any suggestions.

Earth Day - Give it a Rest

In an attempt to live a more sane life I'm always looking for ways to extricate myself from self-induced madness and my endless to-do list. You know, take time to stop and smell the roses.

Recently I read a suggestion that it might be a good idea, in our hurry and do more world, to go back to the biblical example of a day of rest. I've also heard that there's actually some good science behind the idea of taking time to take time to, you know, smell those roses. I decided to give it a try.

Instead of using Sundays as a day to catch up with my work, I decided to use it as a day to catch up with myself. On Saturday evening before I go to bed I turn off my computer and my cell phone. They stay off until Monday morning. That goes for TV and electronic games of any ilk.

What do I do all day Sunday? I only do things that would not appear on my to-do list. I try to have food prepared ahead or to eat foods that are simple to prepare. I'm going to clean up my bike during the week and have it ready. It's that bike that's been sitting in the basement for the past two years while I keep saying to myself, "I really should get my bike out." I'm planning a field trip to an art museum with my daughter. I don't take the time to see her often enough. And isn't it all about taking the time? Was I waiting for someone to give me the time to do these things?

I'm now starting to get into the rhythm of this Sunday thing, which I admit, had me a bit at loose ends. I felt I should be doing something. Perhaps I've morphed into a "human doing" and it would take some time to get into the mode of a "human being". On the plus side, my Mondays are more productive and I re-enter my work world with renewed energy.

So on this 40th anniversary of Earth Day I'm moved to ask if this could make a difference. What if everyone turned off their computers, cell phones, and the host of other electronic devices that we just can't live without for one day a week? What if we all gave it a rest.

Stoned Bugs

When perusing cute idea sections of magazines I always linger over pictures of painted rocks or stones that people use as accessories for their gardens or as table decorations for garden parties. "We should paint some stones," I would hear myself thinking. The "we" is the Tuesday afternoon group at the senior facility where I volunteer.

The one problem I found with this project is getting the right sized stones, which would involve scrounging through the neighbor's rock garden or the city park in the middle of the night and risk arrest as a stone thief. And so I decided to make my own stones.

Stone Recipe, better known as Play Clay Recipe on the Argo Starch Box:
1 cup Argo laundry starch
2 cups baking soda
1 1/4 cups cold water
1 Tablespoon oil - the recipe recommends Mazola corn oil but I only had olive oil in the house and it worked just fine.

Mix together the starch and baking soda in a medium saucepan. Add the cold water and oil and stir until smooth. Cook over medium heat until the mixture reaches the consistency of mashed potatoes. Turn the mixture onto a plate and cover with a damp cloth. Refrigerate until it's cool enough to handle. I found that this took about 10 minutes, or the time it took me to cook up another batch.

Remove from the fridge, knead, and form into round and oval pieces for bugs and bees, or some round flat pieces for faces and free hand creations. Allow the pieces to dry. At this point I painted my "stones" with primer before I took them to the group for decorating. I'm not sure if the primer is a necessary step.

I did get a comment from someone that Argo Laundry Starch is not that easy to find in most grocery stores. However, the starch box recommends it for use with irritated skin, including diaper rash, which leads me to believe that cornstarch might be a likely substitute. They both seem to have the same consistency. I'll have to give it a try.

You can also use this play clay for making other wondrous things, like bowls and statues. The clay can be kept in a tightly covered container in a cool place for up to two weeks.

Enjoy!

Chocolate!

One of my most ardent searches as I pursue a life of healthy eating has been for a wonderful, creamy, chocolaty dessert. Get real! However, I do believe I'm on the right track with this particular recipe.

For one, it contains agave nectar as the sweetener, which has a low glycemic index so it is slowly absorbed into the body preventing spikes in blood sugar. It's also dairy free even though it's as creamy as can be. However, it's still high in sugars and carbohydrates so moderation is appropriate. As Hugh Mackay says, "Nothing is perfect."

Recipe:
2 ripe avocados
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/2 cup agave nectar
2 teaspoons vanilla

Whip all the ingredients together. Place into a covered container and cool it in the fridge or the freezer for about an hour. Serve.

A few lovely scoops of this concoction along with some sliced strawberries make a lovely dessert. I recently served this to three of my friends and they gave it six thumbs up. Then we went outside with bubble wands and sent soapy bubbles throughout the neighborhood. I have some pretty neat friends.

Enjoy!

No Body But Me

Here's a fun experiment. Ask a friend or acquaintance how much money you would have to pay them in order for them to let you put some sugar in the gas tank of their car. Tell them that you've always been curious as to what, exactly, would happen to the engine and how far you could actually drive and other fascinating things like that.

OK. That's probably not a great idea. So let's talk about pets. Do you know some loving and responsible pet owners who would never feed their pets people food. Note: people food is food that people eat. Sometimes guests in the house might sneak a pet a cheesy chip or some kind of fried puff and the owner of the pet gets rather bent out of shape explaining how unhealthy, yadda yadda, while refilling the bowl with more cheesy chips or fried puffs for the guest to eat. People are peculiar animals.

And finally, why do people spend decades ingesting non-food items and generally abusing their living bodies, only to be front and center when someone dies, explaining how important it is to have proper respect for the body of the deceased. A little late, don't you think?

Did you already guess? I'm a reformed junk food junkie, which is almost as bad as a reformed smoker. When I'm not looking up recipes for tasty salads I'm fantasizing about bacon cheese burgers. Would love it if you have a tasty salad recipe and would be willing to share. Perhaps a salad that tastes like a bacon cheese burger.

Thank you

Sweet Onion Bread/Crackers

According to the Mayo Clinic website, wheat allergy is one of the most common allergies in children. There goes the old peanut butter and jelly sandwich! But fear not. All is not lost. There are some pretty darn good options out there that don't take a lot of work. This is a recipe I got from my daughter-in-law that requires just a few ingredients and a dehydrator. She said that the grand kids love these and there's a wonderful aroma that fills the house whenever she makes these. Better yet, there are as many variations out there as there are imaginations.

Ingredients:
1 large sweet onion - Vidalia onion is great
1 cup ground raw sunflower seeds
1 cup ground golden flax seeds
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup Bragg liquid amino
Optional - Splash of Agave nectar - I don't do this option

Process the onion in a food processor with the S blade until very fine. Most recipes warn about doing the onion in small batches and not letting the mixture get mushy. I do mine in my Vita Mix and get it mushy.

Pour this into a bowl with the other ingredients and mix to blend well. Spread about 1/4 inch thick onto teflex sheets for a bread-like product and thinner for crackers. If you don't have extra teflex sheets then parchment paper does just fine. After about five hours or when the top is dry flip it over onto the mesh tray and carefully peel the teflex or parchment paper off. Continue dehydration until desired dryness or crispness is reached. Round dehydrators tend to keep the center moist even with a longer drying time. I have the Excalibur, which dries bread and crackers evenly.

Variations I have known and loved include adding a can of drained, dices tomatoes along with some of my homemade pesto. I've also added salsa and a dash of cayenne pepper for a Southwestern flavor.

Although I prefer the crackers, I sometimes make a large bread-like square. It's flexible enough to use as a delicious sandwich roll up.

Enjoy!

Jamie Oliver

With all the talk about health, good eating, and decreased life expectancy, (Yes, Virginia, your children will probably have a shorter life than you) it's nice to find someone who's working at the grass roots level for change. That person is Jamie Oliver who's started a food revolution.

I initially saw a presentation by Jamie Oliver on TED.com. And now he's bringing his message, ideas, and recipes to the American public via network TV and the Internet. Starting this evening on ABC at 8:00 Central Time, Jamie Oliver will hit the airwaves. If you miss it, you can see the full episode with minimal commercials by going to abc.go.com/shows/jamie-oliver-food-revolution.

I watched the promo for the show this morning and also looked around Jamie's website which is packed with great recipes. I hope you give yourself the gift of this wonderful resource and enjoy the caring compassion brought to this sometimes incomprehensible subject - food.

Beaded Trim

This month I want to teach you how to add beaded trim to your creations. Beaded trim looks great on the edge of a painted flowerpot or along the edge of a decorated box. Other trims, such as tasseled trims, also look great. You only need a small piece so this is a good way to use up what you already have on hand or to shop the remnant bin for small pieces at a bargain price.

The way I'm going to teach you is through a 2 minute video that I posted on Youtube. Just go to the Youtube site and then go to scckits. It's the top entry that comes up, "flower pots".

The secret to attaching trim so easily is the adhesive that's used, which is gloss gel. Even though gloss gel is sold as an additive for acrylic paint in order to get a some wonderful texture in brush strokes, it's actually a great adhesive that I've used for all sorts of applications, many of which will be coming up in other Fun Time Projects.

Enjoy!

Nutty Sandwich Filling

This is one of my favorite sandwich fillings because it's easy to make and tastes delicious. There are all sorts of variations that you could do with this but let's start with the basic recipe.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup raw almonds

1 cup raw sunflower seeds

1/4 cup finely diced onion

1/2 cup finely diced carrot

1 T soy sauce

Juice of 1/2 lemon

S&P to taste

Place the almonds and sunflower seeds in a food processor and process until very finely chopped. You also might be able to accomplish this with a blender.

Put the nuts into a bowl and mix in the onion and carrot. Blend well. Mix in the soy sauce and lemon juice. Add S&P to taste.

Store in a container in the fridge. That's it! You now have a healthy and delicious sandwich filling.

Additional Notes:

Although the recipe specifies almonds and sunflower seeds, the seeds I had on hand when first making this recipe, you could also use walnuts and pumpkin seeds. Once I had some cooked broccoli on hand so diced up the stems and put those in too.

Taste before adding the salt because the soy sauce is already salty and you might not need any additional salt.

I especially like this filling in pita bread or rolled inside a large lettuce leaf. Romaine works well.

Enjoy!

Mister Roger's Neighborhood

I recently had lunch with a business acquaintance who is also a dear friend. It was a time to catch up with each other and talk about what's been going on in our lives. We hadn't visited with each other for about a year.

The best part of visiting with this gentleman is the fact that he lives within a sphere of possibilities and his upbeat attitude is wonderfully contagious. I always leave our meetings in a positive frame of mind. This time when I left the restaurant I also realized that I was but one short block from a used book store. Bonus!

Book stores, especially used book stores, are high on my list of places that I like to visit. I enjoy simply walking through the aisles and looking for something to catch my eye. That day I happened past a cart with a collection of audio books that had just come into the store. There, in the top row, was a slim box that contained the audio book, The Simple Faith of Mr. Rogers." It was on sale for $4.95.

For Mr. Rogers' fans or for anyone who needs an uplifting reminder of a man who blessed the earth with his presence and his devotion to children, as well as the child in all of us, this is a great read. I'll admit that disk one had me in tears. Figure that one, Mr. Freud. Later in the book I felt that the author focused a little too heavily on her own experiences while I wanted to hear more about Fred. This will not keep me from listening to this book again in the near future. It was a great boast during the rainy days of spring when it's too easy to forget the sunshine and growing season that are just around the corner.

Two positive encounters in one day. Thanks, gentlemen!

Tempeh

What, you may ask, is tempeh, and why would I want to put it into my body? Great questions! Tempeh is a fermented soy product that's high in protein. And although tempeh is like tofu in that it's made from soybeans, it is a whole soybean product with different characteristics and textural qualities. Tempeh's fermentation process and use of the whole bean gives it a higher content of protein, dietary fiber, and vitamins compared to tofu. It also has a firmer texture and a stronger flavor than tofu. And because of its nutritional value it's sometimes considered a meat analogue. That means that some people consider it a great meat substitute for vegetarians.

So now that you know all about the great nutritional aspect of tempeh and are a rather adventuresome type of person, you probably want to know what to do with a block of the stuff once you get it home.

I once had a recipe that made tempeh into a fake chicken salad, which was actually quite tasty. However, it contained gobs of mayonnaise, which can make most any concoction rather tasty, but doesn't do much for heart health.

What I do with Tempeh -

I simply slice a block of tempeh into strips about a quarter inch thick and place it into a non-stick frying pan on medium heat with a splash of soy sauce or tamari or Bragg liquid amino. I saute it about 3 or 4 minutes then flip it over to get the color and flavor into the other side.

Once browned and flavored I sometimes use it hot in a veggie stir fry. At other times I cut it into pieces and toss it into a cold veggie salad. Tasty and filled with good nutrition. What more could you ask for?

Enjoy!

Happiness

I recently listened to an audio book, Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel Gilbert. As the cover asks, "Think you know what makes you happy? This absolutely fantastic book will shatter your most deeply held convictions about how the mind works."

That it did. However, the author, as he admits, doesn't give any definitive answers about how to be happy, but rather explores how inaccurate most people are when they try to predict what will make them happy or how happy they will become if certain things occur in their lives. The arguments and examples are compelling but, as always, I was looking for easy answers. Sorry, Sparky.

The good news is that Gilbert, while conveying a bunch of good information, writes in a laugh-out-loud style that made listening to his work completely enjoyable along with compelling. I think it's worth a second listen.

Author, Daniel Gilbert, is also a speaker on TED.com if you want a taste of his style before you commit to his book.

This Aging Thing

In an attempt to further clear my mind of clutter and superfluous thoughts I decided to clean out my email accounts. It seems that everyday there are more and more companies that add me to their email lists. My "Inbox", therefore, was becoming a swampland of unwanted ads and promotions. Easy enough to take cure.

I took two days to unsubscribe to every email that I didn't absolutely long to read. Now, instead of 20 plus emails twice a day I receive one to three of the little darlings. Every one of them is a welcome guest. I did, however, have to go through a day or two of emails telling me that I had been unsubscribed from various emails. My favorite was a notification that came from the local university. I had taken a workshop there a couple of years ago on dementia and aging and as usual, provided my email address as part of the registration form. When their last email came telling me of another workshop on the elderly I went to the bottom of the page and clicked on the unsubscribe button.

The next day I received one of the most exciting bits of news in my Inbox. The message read, "You have been unsubscribed from 'aging'." I can imagine all of my friends asking - "How does she manage to look so young?" I'll never tell.

Read Any Good Books Lately?

I recently posted that I've begun a mind diet of inspirational books in order to buoy me up and keep myself focused on my goals. But, you may ask, where does a person begin to select what to read with the thousands of books available. Why not start with a book about the books that are out there.

I happily stumbled upon 50 Self-Help Classics by Tom Butler-Bowdon. Although I found a used copy to purchase I did look into the local library system and found that they have five copies of the book. That's the good news. The challenging news is that all of the copies are out and there are 8 holds. However, it will be worth the wait because Mr Butler-Bowdon gives a nice synopsis of each book telling the reader what they can expect to find between the pages.

Most of the books reviewed are from the 20th Century, but there are a few from antiquity, such as, Meditations of Marcus Aurelius. In the case of this book Butler-Bowdon is nice enough to recommend a translation that he found especially accessible. Thank you, Tom.

Some of the recommended books are already on my shelf and waiting for me. Others that sound interesting but iffy are books that I'll probably get from the library and look through before I commit to making them a part of my collection.

I'd love to hear from you if you have any recommendations about books that have impacted your life. Always on the lookout for good books.

Mind Food

A while back I confessed that my New Year's resolution was to never say a bad word about anybody. Whew! What was I thinking. Actually, my mind monitor has been faithfully on the job and I'm enjoying my brighter, more optimistic world. Not a perfect world, but a better world.

I have another confession to make. I discovered a great support system that's shoring me up in so many wonderful ways. I decided to feed my mind lots of positive thoughts (you know how nature abhors a vacuum) and what to my wondering eyes should appear but a website that allows me to purchase used, audio books.

The site is half.com and is a great place to buy and sell books, movies, and audio books. So now, instead of listening to news about "The Economy" or the latest Hollywood/political scandal, I have audio books in my car and kitchen CD players. My collection includes titles such as The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch and Undivided Life by Parker J. Palmer. I've got a bunch more which I'll be sharing with you as I get into them.

Would also love to hear from you about books that have impacted your life in wild and wonderful ways.

"If we always helped one another no one would need luck." Sophocles

Beet Salad

No, this is not one of those recipes where you chop up apples and cooked beets and slather on a container of Cool Whip - don't forget the can of pineapple tidbits. Time to put on your big boy and big girl pants and stop having dessert for every course at a meal. Sugar is nasty stuff and does a body no good! Ask me how I feel.

This is a simple, healthy, and versatile little recipe that's a great topping for a bowl of delicious raw veggies.

Ingredients:

3 large raw beets, washed and peeled
Juice from one lemon
2T olive oil

Grate the beets and toss together with the lemon juice and olive oil. Place in covered container and refrigerate until ready to use.

Time for true confession. I have a Vita-Mix, that super blender with a two horse power motor on it. It grates up those beets for me in about a minute. Also, I really don't measure the amount of lemon juice and olive oil. Sometimes I'm in the mood for a little more tang and put the juice of two lemons into the mix. And, truth be told, I oftentimes pour on an extra splash of oil just before I eat a serving of this salad.

Variations, which I've come to know and love.

This is the salad that I use as a topper for my raw veggie salads, which contain all sorts of good things. Sometimes I press or finely chop 3 or 4 cloves of garlic and mix it in with about a third of a cup of the beet salad. A great way to get raw garlic into your diet.

Another thing I add to the beet salad are sliced olives. Yummy!

Enjoy!

Queen of Announcements

In a past life, which every now and then rears its ugly little head, I was the Queen of Announcements. These were announcements such as, "I had a salad for lunch!" or "Garlic is good for the heart so I put some into this spaghetti sauce!" Every announcement was, naturally, made as an exclamatory statement. They were, in reality, permission slips that I'd give myself.

Whenever I'd announce, for example, that I had a salad for lunch, I was letting everyone know that I now had a right to pig out for dinner, with an apology to pigs for using them in such a derogatory manner. The garlic in the sauce, which was generally one clove, made it OK, in my feeble mind, to consume an extra piece of dessert because my heart was protected by that smidgen of garlic.

Truth is, if eating a salad is an event rather than a daily habit, it's just not enough. And as for the garlic thing, I now consume 6 to 8 cloves of raw garlic every day. And, no, I don't have people backing off whenever I speak. The garlic cloves go through a press and are mixed into all sorts of tasty foods, one of which is my favorite raw beet salad, which shall appear as a recipe on this blog tomorrow.

Bottom line - good eating is best when it's a daily habit and not an event or a permission slip. I hope that I don't have to eat these words!

The Question of Exercise

I recently gave a presentation where I jokingly suggested an exercise regime entitled, "Clean Your House for Fitness." The idea behind this off-the-wall thought rests with the definition of exercise, which has to do with movement. So why not, I asked, set a timer for 20 minutes and deep clean in a room of your choice. Wouldn't that be considered a session of exercise?

And what to my wondering eyes should appear on one of my favorite Internet sites, TED.com, but a presentation by Dan Buettner entitled, How to Live to be 100+. For those of you unfamiliar with TED it's a site that has a boatload of video presentation, each about 20 minutes long, on any number of topics. Great stuff to check out.

At any rate, according to a study conducted by National Geographic and the National Institute on Aging, which sought out populations known for longevity and then looked for common denominators among these populations, exercise was examined. And what did these auspicious institutes find? The envelope, please. None of these populations exercised! Well, at least not in the way that we define exercise. But before you get too crazy and call all of your friends with memberships in health clubs, consider the rest of the story.

All of these people lived lives that constantly nudged them into intentional physical activity that they enjoyed. Those were things like walking and water skiing and chopping wood and gardening. There's a few more things that people can do to insure a longer healthier life. Check out the talk on TED and find out. You'll find Dan Buettner in the list of speakers. That would be a fun start in getting to know the TED site.

Enjoy!