We've been doing yard work and one task is to install edging along a fenceline of beds. The Renegade Gardener has the best tutorial I've found on installing the black, plastic edging. Seriously. Installed properly, the cheap edging is actually an option.
http://www.renegadegardener.com/content/94plasticedging.htm
I wish we'd found this before we bought the more expensive steel edging to replace the black stuff. User error, indeed.
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
How, Where & What We Eat - and Still Feel Good About It
Our family lives in a Purgatory-like state of healthy living. Despite our desire for good health and our very good intentions, we never have made it to the Promised Land of all homemade food and the absences of refined oils, sugars, carbs, artificial flavors or just plain crappy food.
So, Where Do We Eat?
Our priority is to 1) avoid refined carbs and sugars, 2) avoid processed anything (veggies, meats, fruits, etc.), and 3) avoid artificial ingredients. Your own research and conclusions about health may lead you to have different priorities.
We tend to eat at:
Supplements We Take to Counteract Fake Food:
Despite how frequently we eat out now, we still manage to be pretty healthy, and without (too many) regrets about our choices.
We're in the in-between, and in this life we anticipate always being there to some degree.
A friend of ours described it to me this way. There are three factors at play:
Sometimes you have more time (like when you're a single, college student), but you don't have much money, and you need it be convenient since all you own is a microwave.
At a later stage in life, you have more money (like after you've married and have a salary position), but you have no time (two toddlers!), and convenience is moderately important (since you've become narcoleptic from a lack of sleep the past two years).
Other times (like once your children have left the house, you're retired, or you have older children), you might find yourself with an abundance of all those things.
Either way, your life circumstances will play a role in how healthy you will live right now - and even if you have a lot of all of these resources, you will always be making compromises because this just isn't a perfect world.
If you commit to doing as much as you can, but know that you just can't do it all, you'll be doing well. And even if you are the most passionate, driven, committed health nut out there, don't be surprised if you wake up one day to find yourself eating Sonic, or heating up a frozen pizza, or buying that gallon of ice cream. Life happens.
With that said, know that once you walk out your door, you are giving up anything close to the ideal. The ideal only happens in your own kitchen.
So, Where Do We Eat?
Our priority is to 1) avoid refined carbs and sugars, 2) avoid processed anything (veggies, meats, fruits, etc.), and 3) avoid artificial ingredients. Your own research and conclusions about health may lead you to have different priorities.
We tend to eat at:
Wendy's - I get the chili and a caesar salad
Chick-Fil-A - I get the nuggets (no sauce), a salad, maybe a few fries
Taco Cabana - I get the fajitas or taco salad
Local Restaurants - Local mediterranean, mexican and asian restaurants are great!
Taco Bueno - Another trademark of the South
Chili's - Yummy MSG-flavored foods we know and love
Supplements We Take to Counteract Fake Food:
Cod Liver Oil - Gross but builds a Super Hero immune system.
Coconut Milk - Supplies good fats and is anti-bacterial/viral.
Homemade or Store Bought Fermented Foods - like sauerkraut, pickles (for store-bought, try Bubbie's brand), yogurt (try Brown Cow brand).
Raw Milk - I know, I know, but we haven't died or become ill yet and pasteurization kills every good thing about milk. Become informed.
Apple Cider Vinegar - Puts good bacteria in our stomach which modern foods (like my treasured Chicken Express) destroy.
Despite how frequently we eat out now, we still manage to be pretty healthy, and without (too many) regrets about our choices.
Friday, April 16, 2010
Growltiger's Last Stand
I used to have cat problems in the garden at my previous house. At first, I would go outside to the front porch in the morning and smell something awful. It took several days to register that it smelled like a giant litter box mixed with dirt. Ick.
I searched and asked around and finally came up the idea to collect those gumball seeds from sweetgum trees.
I searched and asked around and finally came up the idea to collect those gumball seeds from sweetgum trees.
Photo by Jacqueline
I spread them around every flower bed I had and my problem disappeared! If you happen to have access to them, they were lifesavers!
I've also heard you could use toothpicks (I tried that, and it's not fun to insert hundreds of toothpicks in your garden! And they're not kid-friendly - ask me how I know). Another option is to use cayenne pepper or other strong pepper, but I was nervous about it hurting my plants, or getting in my eyes when I worked in the garden.
Here are more ideas if nothing else seems to work!
P.S. If you're not familiar with T.S. Eliot, he's great.
Thursday, April 08, 2010
Direct Mail is Your Small Business' Friend
If you've been scratching your head, thinking, man, I need to send about 50 (or 5000) letters/postcards/booklets, but really don't want to do use my printer or go to Kinko's, or do all that addressing, stuffing and licking myself, then here's a great solution:
Click2Mail
Click2Mail is an online mailing service. You can design and send - or upload your own and send - letters, postcards and booklets using their service. You can also upload your own mailing list (similar to a mail merge data source), or you can purchase mailing lists. Their prices are reasonable (I sent 86 postcards for $36), they work fast (2 days from upload to shipment) and are pretty easy to use. And it's all-inclusive: I gave them the document (and edited it myself), the mailing list, and wham! It's sent. Especially with letters (no stuffing or licking!), it's oh-so-convenient.
My one beef with them so far is that they don't have samples of their paper colors. So "Green #65" didn't mean anything to me, and I was afraid it'd be too dark. Of course, it was just the right type of bright green for a mailing, but still, I would have liked to have seen a sample rather than have to contact customer service. (If I completely missed this on their website somehow, let me know. I'm always looking for another way I have mortified myself.)
From the website, you get the feeling that anyone from an individual (like myself) to larger firms use Click2Mail for their marketing. Some people have complained of slow shipment from Click2Mail, and bad quality if you're using graphics. If you don't like Click2Mail, some alternatives out there are:
Vistaprint
Postcardmania
GotPrint
OvernightPrints
Now, if you're sitting there scratching your head wondering, why in the world would I NEED to send 50 (or 5000!) postcards, letters or booklets, here's the answer:
Cheap Marketing!
As annoying and tacky as it may be sometimes, you get results with direct mail. Typically, you can expect anywhere from a 3-6% response rate, meaning that 3-6% of the people who receive your mailing will respond to it. That may sound low. It is. Compared to the tried and true, old-fashioned marketing my Grandpa used, it is low.
My Grandpa used two main methods of advertising: 1) newspaper ads and 2) word of mouth referrals. In fact, his business grew into a business because of word of mouth, and it became somewhat of a staple in the area because of word of mouth as well.
Unless you have mass-appeal products (in my Grandpa's case, carpeting and, later, salons), the "shotgun" method of marketing that is newspaper ads might not be cost-effective or bring in as many quality leads (calls). I would like to hear marketing gurus talk about how effective word of mouth still is. But with niche products (which so many new, small businesses have), you might want to consider marketing to a niche audience.
Targeted marketing with direct mail is a great way to find potential customers for your unique product. The trick, obviously, is to find the list of these niche customers. You can buy mailing lists (as on Click2Mail or from any number of marketing companies). You can also find them yourself. Create a list of people you know who might be interested in your product, send them a letter and offer a small cash referral for another customer they bring to you. This direct mail/word of mouth hybrid might work out well.
I am NOT a marketing expert (I have other friends who are!). But I watched my Grandpa start and run two small businesses in his life. I'm hoping that by taking notes - even with my different goals - it might just give me a good place to start...
Monday, April 05, 2010
Being a Good Christian vs. Trusting Christ
I wonder if the Christian life isn't so much about giving up what we want as about learning to recognize what it is we really want.
I've felt most of my life it was wrong to want anything that I couldn't have or shouldn't have. What I mean is, I thought it was sin to WANT something, if I didn't have it. I thought that I was sinning when I wanted the kind of relationship someone else had, or felt angry that someone mistreated me, or that I don't want to take care of my kids at the moment.Except that, despite this conviction, and the many times I've tried to repent of this, it has never helped me deal with the fact that I WANT those things. What do I do with those wants?
The best example I can think of was the teaching I heard in high school that God wouldn't send you your spouse until you wanted Jesus more than you wanted to be married. That sounds right, except that well, it doesn't work. All that happened was that I ended up trying to want Jesus so that I could get married. I understood the biblical concept of loving God more than anything else, but that didn't change my heart and desires.
What if the Christian life isn't about trying to beat your heart into submission or putting all your energy into convincing yourself to be and think and do just what the Bible says? But about seeing what you want, and looking for that until you really find it?
In the marriage example, I wanted desperately to be married. I waited, longed, dreamt, begged, cried, schemed and prayed for a husband. And isn't that natural? To want to never be lonely, to be loved, to be comforted, to have a faithful friend, to have the security of a promise? It seems to me to be a good thing. A great thing! It's how we're designed, and is there in our hearts from the moment we're conceived.
So what do you do with that? Most people do what I did and do. They look for a way to get it. And that makes sense. The simplest solution is a spouse, but you can also try to meet that need in your dad, your best friend, your adoring fans, or your sweet children.
Then the hard part comes: they're not giving you what you want. They're not loving like you want, they're needing too much from you, they're hurting you, angering you, disappointing you. It makes you angry, because you NEED them to be a certain way and they're not.
This is the crisis we all find ourselves in, and a Christian must decide what he will do about it. He has the option to deny the truth (by telling himself that he is being selfish and wrong and must ignore these feelings, while his anger might become bitterness and then resentment) or he faces his fears and stares at the sad/frightening/hopeless facts. He looks at himself. He looks at his spouse or father or friend or child. And he sees. Really sees. They can't make him happy. He thinks about other things that might help, too. But travelling to this place, having this job, or being friends with those people won't help either when he realizes what it is that he truly wants.
He wants Jesus. He wants everlasting love, infinite patience, perfect grace, delighted affection, and an easy burden. The Christian sees this sad and wonderful truth. Sad because you are full of longing for it now, and yet you know you can't have it now. And you know these people and things can't give it to you. Sometimes the fear takes over because you know that you are left without options if you want happiness right now. It's hopeless at times, because in our weakness, our faith waivers and we wonder if we will ever be happy at all.
But it's wonderful too. Because now you see how you can stop running; you see a future hope that overshadows the anger you feel sometimes, that answers and makes sense of your sadness in having broken friendships and imperfect parents, and shows you where you can go with all these intense feelings. You have a promise that you will one day have all this figured out and will get what you want. You have a promise that you will have God Himself; and life has proven that He's what you really want after all.
This is Good News to me. I actually got what I thought I wanted - a wonderful husband, two beautiful children, a home, a garden - and it was devastating to find myself angry, sad and hopeless. I was thankful for all that God had given me (they're wonderful things!), but I couldn't ignore my heart. And my heart said I still want more.
Praise God that I can want more. I need more. I'm not sinning by wanting more. I am coming closer to Jesus by wanting more. And praise God that my wanting more has led me to Him, and not further from Him. This hope also lends me freedom from other feelings that I hated. I no longer have to be at angry at those who are not meeting my needs, because I know that they couldn't anyway. When I remember my hope, I can serve others sincerely because I am confident my own needs will be met too (but not by them).
I am also free to want the things this world has to offer. Having a loving husband, sweet children, a nice home, a beautiful garden, extra money and time for leisure do two things for me. First, they give me a taste of heaven and of how great it will be when my desires are fulfilled. They are only a taste, but they are so nice!
Second, they constantly remind me that I can't have the real deal, the full experience now. As much as I love my husband and treasure his love for me, being married is a constant reminder that no matter how deep his love runs, it's an imperfect love and just not enough. Although painful, it's good to see that these earthly pleasures will never completely satisfy me, and I must keep seeking Jesus. I can accept loss or suffering or inconvenience or not getting what I want in an honest way (it makes me angry! it makes me sad! it feels unfair!), but with a hope that has an answer for me.
I may or may not be right. But if the Gospel is the Good News that Jesus made a way for you to be with God, doesn't that beg the question: what's so great about being with God? And if you discover, through the disappointments in your life, that He is offering what you long for most, then you have a lot more to think about than how much you're sinning.
I've felt most of my life it was wrong to want anything that I couldn't have or shouldn't have. What I mean is, I thought it was sin to WANT something, if I didn't have it. I thought that I was sinning when I wanted the kind of relationship someone else had, or felt angry that someone mistreated me, or that I don't want to take care of my kids at the moment.Except that, despite this conviction, and the many times I've tried to repent of this, it has never helped me deal with the fact that I WANT those things. What do I do with those wants?
The best example I can think of was the teaching I heard in high school that God wouldn't send you your spouse until you wanted Jesus more than you wanted to be married. That sounds right, except that well, it doesn't work. All that happened was that I ended up trying to want Jesus so that I could get married. I understood the biblical concept of loving God more than anything else, but that didn't change my heart and desires.
What if the Christian life isn't about trying to beat your heart into submission or putting all your energy into convincing yourself to be and think and do just what the Bible says? But about seeing what you want, and looking for that until you really find it?
In the marriage example, I wanted desperately to be married. I waited, longed, dreamt, begged, cried, schemed and prayed for a husband. And isn't that natural? To want to never be lonely, to be loved, to be comforted, to have a faithful friend, to have the security of a promise? It seems to me to be a good thing. A great thing! It's how we're designed, and is there in our hearts from the moment we're conceived.
So what do you do with that? Most people do what I did and do. They look for a way to get it. And that makes sense. The simplest solution is a spouse, but you can also try to meet that need in your dad, your best friend, your adoring fans, or your sweet children.
Then the hard part comes: they're not giving you what you want. They're not loving like you want, they're needing too much from you, they're hurting you, angering you, disappointing you. It makes you angry, because you NEED them to be a certain way and they're not.
This is the crisis we all find ourselves in, and a Christian must decide what he will do about it. He has the option to deny the truth (by telling himself that he is being selfish and wrong and must ignore these feelings, while his anger might become bitterness and then resentment) or he faces his fears and stares at the sad/frightening/hopeless facts. He looks at himself. He looks at his spouse or father or friend or child. And he sees. Really sees. They can't make him happy. He thinks about other things that might help, too. But travelling to this place, having this job, or being friends with those people won't help either when he realizes what it is that he truly wants.
He wants Jesus. He wants everlasting love, infinite patience, perfect grace, delighted affection, and an easy burden. The Christian sees this sad and wonderful truth. Sad because you are full of longing for it now, and yet you know you can't have it now. And you know these people and things can't give it to you. Sometimes the fear takes over because you know that you are left without options if you want happiness right now. It's hopeless at times, because in our weakness, our faith waivers and we wonder if we will ever be happy at all.
But it's wonderful too. Because now you see how you can stop running; you see a future hope that overshadows the anger you feel sometimes, that answers and makes sense of your sadness in having broken friendships and imperfect parents, and shows you where you can go with all these intense feelings. You have a promise that you will one day have all this figured out and will get what you want. You have a promise that you will have God Himself; and life has proven that He's what you really want after all.
This is Good News to me. I actually got what I thought I wanted - a wonderful husband, two beautiful children, a home, a garden - and it was devastating to find myself angry, sad and hopeless. I was thankful for all that God had given me (they're wonderful things!), but I couldn't ignore my heart. And my heart said I still want more.
Praise God that I can want more. I need more. I'm not sinning by wanting more. I am coming closer to Jesus by wanting more. And praise God that my wanting more has led me to Him, and not further from Him. This hope also lends me freedom from other feelings that I hated. I no longer have to be at angry at those who are not meeting my needs, because I know that they couldn't anyway. When I remember my hope, I can serve others sincerely because I am confident my own needs will be met too (but not by them).
I am also free to want the things this world has to offer. Having a loving husband, sweet children, a nice home, a beautiful garden, extra money and time for leisure do two things for me. First, they give me a taste of heaven and of how great it will be when my desires are fulfilled. They are only a taste, but they are so nice!
Second, they constantly remind me that I can't have the real deal, the full experience now. As much as I love my husband and treasure his love for me, being married is a constant reminder that no matter how deep his love runs, it's an imperfect love and just not enough. Although painful, it's good to see that these earthly pleasures will never completely satisfy me, and I must keep seeking Jesus. I can accept loss or suffering or inconvenience or not getting what I want in an honest way (it makes me angry! it makes me sad! it feels unfair!), but with a hope that has an answer for me.
I may or may not be right. But if the Gospel is the Good News that Jesus made a way for you to be with God, doesn't that beg the question: what's so great about being with God? And if you discover, through the disappointments in your life, that He is offering what you long for most, then you have a lot more to think about than how much you're sinning.
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