Into Clever Foods

       It's been a struggle to not have a single cocktail or alcoholic beverage in 30 days, especially since it's apart of our social outings meeting up with friends for happy hour during a busy week or BBQing over the weekend....no alcohol for the Whole 30 didn't seem like a big deal at first then suddenly a couple of weeks into it there was all kinds of drinking choices so I am glad for the break but I appreciate the flavor of such drinks now, in this last week I've had 2 beers but it's the tail end of the whole 30 and on one early Saturday morning I had a small breve latte so there was a bit of dairy in my diet after all.....The cleverness in cooking up a different meat every night and adding in a different veggie has been fun, at first it was hard not to pile on sour cream or yogurt or any cheese at all for that matter then wishing to whip up cream for fresh berries was deflating as dessert with cream has such beauty to it!  ALL of this has shown me how we get stuck in a rut on our scheduled meals....Doing the whole 30 has reminded me how to break out of the comfortable mold and create new ideas with no alcohol, no sugar, no dairy, no grains or corn of any kind....yet everything taste so different when I go back to some of these things again....just like when I cut out bread all together from my life having in once in awhile ONLY if it's the best quality isn't as harmful and it never taste quite like I remembered.
Starting the whole 30 I roasted a goose, then made bone broth from the left overs. I've been drinking a hot cup of broth every night just before bed to warm up and calm down. These are the last of the winters days so such comfort as a hot cup of broth helps me not crave sugary foods so late in the night. We have had salmon, shrimp, pork chops, steaks, pot roast, chili verda, hamburgers, buffalo steaks, shredded pork, sausages big and small, and (my favorite) raw oysters in the half shell. This variety every day and along side kale, cabbage, asparagus, roasted tomatoes, beet salad and sweet potato casserole we have been really enjoying eating at home staying away from all the other temptations of dessert or drinks!
At first in the whole 30 I was craving such sweetness so I would slice up citrus and eat them like candy, then I would eat a bowl of berries until slowly I wasn't craving any kind of sugar distraction after dinner any more....I also now make jello from scratch since I am allergic to those fast box mixes with artificial sweeteners. With real fruit juice brought to a boil I also bloom the gelatin separately  then stir into a mold maybe adding vitamin C to it as well and chilling until later for a nice fun healthier dessert choice! Gelatin is sooooooo good for your hair, teeth and nails that I really needed this kind of focus of the Whole 30 to get me back in line with my healthier self! 

Making clever foods allows such joy in understanding what you are eating and how cozy being a homemaker really is! I took 2 hamburger patty off the BBQ the other night and made my husband his favorite kind of hamburger style with no bread buns it was filled with freshly mashed up avocados and salsa! Truly so beautiful that I took this picture of it OF COURSE, 

So remember to EAT RIGHT for the BEST time in your LIFE.

Into Winter nights

To the darkness that starts to roll in so very early, to the wind and snow, to the freezing early mornings where you see your own breath slow, to the uncertainty of the roads or of the huge rainfall I say into winter we go! 
With extra blankets and pillows we make it through the cold along with all our pets to hold! I say to the soon to be spring that I've been missing ya so!
Night time routines change with each season's thing, learning how to adjust, how to calmly take it all on is what I love about each new year and each new day!
Lately I've been putting this list of  
7 steps before bed into practice and it's truly relaxing if only I could teach my often restless playful cats these steps to follow then we would all sleep much deeper!
These 7 steps are such a help and a perfect guideline for getting ready for bed, yet in this list I have noticed my biggest challenge is stretching before bed since my body is so tightly set now through all this winter's cold I am going to really focus on this step above all else yet when done in line with this list I sleep the best ever! Winter is such a "inside season" where every tid bit helps us get through it, where every sunny moment is a treasure for our skin! My favorite part of winter is all the cuddling of my cats and dogs of course especially when they are snuggled down into each other, into my back or my legs I think we all know how to hibernate by now!

Into Old Age

I was 22 years old so I remember it very well, the summer my Grandparents died. My Grandma had sudden brain cancer and my Grandpa had prolonged Parkinson disease. 

When I was 21 years old when I remember my Grandma had called our farm house in such a panic because her husband fell down and she couldn't get him back up. It was then that I first realized she was completely worn out in caring for him 24/7 long nights and his high pain from damaged nerves shaking so visually for the rest of us to see.

When I was 20 years old when my mother sat nursing her newborn baby as Grandma came down the hill from her home in full on tears asking my mom for more help. I was already helping Grandma with cleaning her huge home, but the aging process is such a slow thing that when one really needs help it's hard to suddenly notice. My Mom sat nursing and chewing out her mother for being such an overly dramatic person. Then my Grandma asked to hold my baby brother as my mother snapped at her "Nope, you said getting pregnant again was a stupid thing to do." I walked over to my embarrassed Grandma changing the subject knowing that my mother having more babies with no money in savings is why my Grandma had once said that. Yet now with this beautiful adorable little boy was in our arms all of our fears of the future washed away, making the whole planning ahead wisely irrelevant. 
My Grandma was lost in her own changing aging concerns, new grandchild arriving seemed to comfort her for only a moment. 
and I will always hope my baby brothers had a better childhood then me, that they will find old age to be better then all of our generations combine. 
When I was 22 I would stayed 3 days and 3 nights each week at my Grandparents as they were dying, they were wandering and they were falling down. So I lived in high alert and high fear that if they hurt themselves on my watch I would be skinned alive. So in all reality I never slept during those days, I would of LOVED this heel to floor alert device back in those sad days. Once I had a dream back then so vivid and so real I can still remember it, as I dozed off to sleep on the edge of my grandparents bed I thought my Grandpa who was determined to sneak out of bed whenever no one was watching had fallen down the short set of steps by the bedrooms I woke up shouting out loud "Grandpa!" he then looked at me in alarm, calmly still in his bed he waited for me to stop crying as I chuckle in pure relief to see his wide eyes at my sleeping outburst "I guess I was dreaming, I saw you falling down the stairs, it was SO real and SO scary!"  He nodded and smirked as I got up to make breakfast all shaky....I noticed after that he didn't fight me so much on getting out of bed without my help, maybe he felt bad knowing he gave me a real nightmare. 

In the future with this new technology we can make caring for our elderly a little better. Nowadays I wonder what we can do to help stroke victims sleep better at night, walk better in a paralyzed world. My Mother arrived to old age faster then anyone I have ever known before, for after her huge stroke she shared that she feels like an 80 year old woman now, yet she can never sleep at night. I am always reading up on how to improve one's health and how to help with better recovery for people like her.......I think if we understand how old age works then we can invent things to help us care for each other better! This tedtalk moved me to have hope for the future and to be reflective over how nice it would of been to have such device when I cared for my Grandparents.