"When the Wall Street Journal reaches all corners of the world, only then can economic recovery begin."
Location: A burn pile in a secluded village in the Sequoia National Forest.
Check.
Technorati Tags: economy, Wall Street Journal
In my quest to appreciate, we spent last week taking pictures of Alastair in his sleepers. He can't wear them with his brace. The sleeper in the picture has angel wings. (Awww, shouldn't they all?)
A key tool in my "appreciating" quest has been the camera. I take it on walks and drives and try to record anything interesting. It makes me look for interesting things with more intent. If I am looking for interesting things I tend not to worry as much about other things. It is re-training my brain.
Technorati Tags: appreciating, photo
My favorite sunflower from last summer was planted by a bird.
It turns out she was prolific. A dozen of her seedlings are growing strong this year.
Some will be overtaken by our summer garden, but regardless, there is no "zero population growth" here. We could end up with a hillside full of sunflowers in a few years.
In my quest to "appreciate," I carry the camera with me and have caught some incredible moments.
Technorati Tags: photo
This is my view from the hammock. Last summer my view included a growing belly, this summer those blue eyes. (Yes, he's nursing in the picture. Please children, avert your eyes.)
I do not relax nearly enough even with this great view. Relaxation reduces inflammation in your body. Inflammation may contribute to depression. There are, of course, food avenues to reduce inflammation: B vitamins and Omega 3 fatty acids are the two most notable. Rest and relaxation may be even better.
Technorati Tags: B vitamins, depression, foods that fight depression, hammock, Omega 3, photo, postpartum depression, pregnancy
This hen lays nearly an egg a day. When she's able to get out and scratch for bugs and seeds, she makes eggs high in Omega 3 fatty acids. She is even a babysitter on occasion, as she is in this picture.
My camera is one of my favorite tools to help me appreciate my surroundings. "Appreciating" was one of the strategies I used in April to get through a rough patch; I took pictures of anything that was quirky or beautiful, including this picture of "sheets on the clothesline." My hunch is that this picture would not mean a whole lot to everyone, but I love seeing sheets on the clothesline. I think of the smell of fresh bed linens, the freshness that only comes from a clothesline and sunshine. When I am hanging sheets or diapers on the line, I have the added benefit of that great mountain view. The view doesn't get much better than that.
Technorati Tags: photo
We haven't had a craft phase in this house in well over a year, but Frederick is making up for lost time. In his last big phase, he made the "Pollan Paintings." While I was in Seattle, he crafted this paper mache cow. My favorite part is the water balloon udder (pictured below).
Technorati Tags: cow, Michael Pollan, photo, craft
Frederick's first choice of birthday cakes is those half-sheet cakes from Costco with huge frosting balloons on them. Knowing his preference ordering, we didn't actually ask him what we wanted this year. I said, "Frederick, how about I make a Kentucky Butter Cake, my favorite cake from when I was a girl, and we have it with whipped cream and strawberries." "Mmmm. That sounds good, Mama."
Check.
As we prepared to bake two of these cakes, I said to my mother, "I'll get out the grinder. Let's use half whole spelt and half white flour."
"Do you want him to ask for the Costco cake next year?" mom responded. (I once made this cake that was not at all a hit...)
In the picture is a 100% refined white flour cake with no frosting. As children were arriving I realized that no frosting means no decoration. You can't have a plain cake! I found a white milk glass vase and filled it with flowers left from a bouquet. It all felt like a little mix of Martha Stewart and Ma Ingalls.
After writing that last post, I sure do need to laugh. I figure we should work it in this blog one way or another. With the new month coming up, I thought I would change up the supplement giveaway and find more opportunities to laugh.
There may be nothing that helps our brain health quite as much as laughter. For the next couple of weeks you can enter to win by making us laugh out loud or by simply amusing us. Leave a comment on this post with a funny story, a link to your own funny story, or a link to something really funny on the Internet. Alternatively, tell us about something you did that made you laugh.
It really should be family-friendly, though I would sure hate to exclude innuendo. :) If you have a blog and have a funny story there, feel free to link to that. Write a funny story if you have not already done so.
You can leave multiple funnies in multiple comments. I will select a winner at random from the comments on this post late next week (around August 7).
In the coming week we will have two winners, both of whom will receive the fizzy magnesium and a copy of the book.
I'll start by leaving some silly pictures we took this week. I use a Mac and have software called "Photo Booth" which can provide hours of entertainment, as you can see. I actually have a few here that can make children cry. Alastair really did cry after seeing one of them. I'll post the family friendly pictures. :)
Giveaway results
I'm headed to the Sacramento/Davis area tomorrow and so I am going to announce two winners now, the weekly allotment. Both will get the jumbo pack of Omega 3 fatty acids, magnesium, and B vitamins. They simply must contact me within the next ten days with a U.S. mailing address to claim them.
It's just as well I'm re-working the contest rules because Twitter has truly gotten out of control. I wondered if an Internet marketer or diet pill salesman would win the contest after following me on Twitter. But, in fact, no. We do have a winner from Twitter but she is a dyed-in-the-wool real food Tweeter who everyone should follow just to stay up on the news. Our second winner comes from posting a comment on this blog. The lucky winners:
SeasLife on Twitter (who had massive amounts of tickets in the colander)
Carrie who commented with the now-hilarious: "If you're too down and exhausted to read all through this properly, will you still be eligible for the drawing? I'd like to be in the drawing please." Supplementation on the way Carrie!
Congratulations ladies!
Technorati Tags: giveaway, laughter, magnesium, photo, Rebuild from Depression
I'm on the road and remembering some of the pictures from home. This is a wild rose, grown from the root stock of a hybrid rose that long since froze back. Some of the newer varieties don't hold up well, but the roots they are grafted on to may produce surprises of their own. In part of my effort to appreciate things in my daily life, I take pictures of things that strike me, like this wild rose on our property.
Technorati Tags: appreciating, rose
Seven-year-old Frederick goes through craft phases on occasion. His most well-known may be the Pollan Painting phase. That particular phase lasted for about three days and then he lost all interest in crafts until this summer. Recently, Frederick made the paper mache cow with water balloon udders and this mobile. The mobile features baby Alastair's favorite foods--banana, carrot, and apple. Should I find the proper nail and the five minutes of time, the mobile will hang in our diaper changing area.
I may start carrying a pistol around here though for yesterday's purpose, a rifle may be a better bet. How do these guys shoot the head of a snake with a pistol? I have no idea, but I was impressed. I was two feet from the snake when I discovered him. We rounded up some mountain men and the snake soon had a hole in its head. I bloody well may have saved a life yesterday (my own?) or perhaps just saved someone a couple of days in the hospital by discovering this snake and aiding in his demise.
When the snake was dead and the head was removed, I asked to get one of those trophy pictures that guys take when they have actually killed the animal. The men handed me the headless snake, still throbbing, and dripping in blood. The campers took pictures.
We had live rattle snake excitement last week, we had a guy who parked on top of a rock, and Sunday we evacuated because of a fire. To be accurate, the boys evacuated and I stayed to take pictures. By the time we had the car packed with children and computers, and I managed one little tweet as I was shutting down my computer ("Packing. Forest fire one mile."), I could tell that the fire would not be big. I sent Sander and his asthmatic lungs with the children, put the keys on the front seat of the other car, and ran around taking pictures. You will find a picture diary below the jump.
The fire never did turn into a "forest fire," but forest fires are at the top of our minds this time of year. Smoke means "forest fire" until you prove otherwise. As it turns out, some gray matter-challenged driver was pulling a van with his own van. The disabled van was riding on its rims and making sparks. I expect he was dealt with rather severely.
A couple of weeks ago Park Seed had a "My Bell Pepper Looks Like Elvis! Photo Contest" seeking entries for strange-looking produce. With one day before the deadline, Frederick and I headed out to the garden to harvest. He found peppers that look like snakes (one "sleeping" and one "moving, pictured below) and one that looks like a hummingbird. We entered the hummingbird.
After a business trip this summer, we returned home to a basket of this Frederick-grown produce. Many of the produce items are heirlooms -- like the "Cherrybelle radish" in the front right. Heirlooms tend to have higher nutrient content than hybridized vegetables (as I wrote previously).
Frederick is excited about his creation and announced that he wrote the names neatly on each item so that he could teach his baby brother about garden produce. Good idea!
For the craft oriented, these are just thin pieces of cardboard, glued together in two layers, painted, cut to shape, and otherwise decorated. Some have pipe cleaner stems inserted and glued between the layers.
Technorati Tags: heirloom vegetables, vegetables
The summer garden has been slowly growing the final tastes of summer. We harvested the last of the peppers, summer squash, cucumbers, and tomatoes. The tomatoes are lined up in a sunny window ripening. I miss summer already as we dig in the autumn weeds and get ready to set the next crop.
This stove is powered up and cooking our food -- an antique Wedgewood. The burners put out an impressive amount of heat. Who needs a $5K Wolf stove? (Who has $5K or even a nickel these days?) We have had this mid-40s stove for a couple of years, just waiting for a few adjustments and to be hooked up. If you think I'm slow with email, now you know that more than email moves at a snail's pace around here.
We cooked sourdough pancakes on this bad boy last weekend. They were great except that I put the starter on the stove the evening before, on the pilot. The starter probably rose in an hour and was totally pooped by breakfast. The pancakes were still tasty, just not as fluffy as usual. The pancakes were part of our Halloween fun exploring "the lost road" and taking "scary lone hiker" portraits. We had a great time. (Follow the "lost road" excitement, which could end up being an excellent weight loss strategy -- the hike is a tough one.)
If you are interested in the Rebuild kitchen, check out some old posts on my long-neglected house blog. We planned a kitchen remodel a few years ago but we never did get to it. The pictures there aren't far off, but perhaps I'll take some new ones soon.
Sometime last week, all hell was breaking loose in my house, I was recovering from a root canal remodel that ended up infected, so for survival sake, I grabbed baby Alastair and the camera and headed to one of my favorite places -- the Trail of 100 Giants, a Giant Sequoia redwood grove just 25 minutes from my house.
The leaves on the quaking aspen had turned yellow, most had fallen off, but the oak trees still had quite a show for us.
I find that if I take the camera and try to get pictures of interesting or beautiful things, just the process of looking for pictures helps readjust my brain in a positive direction. About two years ago I described a similar strategy when I was expecting a hard day. We set off to some stressful meetings and to offset the stress, I set a goal of taking a "picture of something spectacular." I got one. :)
If you like this picture, take a look at the photo albums I set up with photos from around our house. Now that we have more blogs than we can keep track of in our household, I have compiled them all in one place, along with the photo albums: Gill on the Hill.
@ Amazon.
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