31st

Witch Jokes

1. Q: Why don't angry witches ride their brooms?
   A: They're afraid of flying off the handle.
2. Q: What do witches put on their hair?
   A: Scare-spray.
3. Q: What did the witch do when her broomstick broke?
   A: Witch-hiked.
4. Q: Why do witches wear name tags?
   A: So they know which witch is which.
5. Q: What do you call a witch who lives at the beach?
   A: A sand-witch.
6. Q: What do you call a witch's garage?
   A: A broom closet.
7. Q: Why did the witch put her broom in the wash?
   A: She wanted a clean sweep.
8. Q: What has six legs and flies?
   A: A witch giving her cat a ride.
9. Q: What did the doctor say to the witch in hospital?
   A: "You'll soon be well enough to get up for a spell."
10. Q: What makes more noise than an angry witch?
    A: Two angry witches.
11. Q: What do you get if you cross a flea and a witch?
    A: Very worried dogs.
12. Q: How do you stop infection from witch bites?
    A: Don't bite any witches.
13. Q: What do you call a witch's cat that drinks vinegar?
    A: A sour puss.
14. Q: What do you call a witch with one leg?
    A: Eileen.
15. What do witches sing at Christmas?
    A: "Deck the halls with poison ivy...."
16. Q: Why did the witch wear yellow stockings?
    A: Because her gray ones are at the cleaners.
17. Q: What do you get if you cross an owl with a witch?
    A: A bird that doesn't give a hoot.
18. Q: Why won't a witch wear a flat hat?
    A: Because there's no point in it.
19. Q: How do you make a witch itch?
    A: Take away the "w".
20. Q: What do you call a nervous witch?
    A: A twitch.
21. Q: What do you get if you cross a witch with a millionaire?
    A: A very witch person.
22. Q: How do witches on broomsticks drink their tea?
    A: From flying saucers.
23. Q: Why didn't the witch sing at the concert?
    A: Because she had a frog in her throat.
24. Q: What happened to the naughty little witch at school?
    A: Ex-spelled.
25. Q: What's the difference between a broomstick and a pumpkin?
    A: (Ever tried broomstick pie?)
26. Q: When is it unlucky to see a black cat?
    A: When you're a mouse!
27. Q: What did the black cat say to the fish?
    A: "I've got a bone to pick with you."
28. Q: Why are black cats such good singers?
    A: They're very mewwwwsical.
29. Q: What do you get if you cross a witch's cat and a canary?
    A: A cat with a full tummy.
30. Q: Why do witches only ride their brooms after dark?
    A: That's the time to go to sweep. (Goodnight everybody... sweep tight!)

Happy Halloween!

A few things

Here's a few things I don't um apologize for.

1.   Laughing right out loud.
2.   Hugging people, kissing them on the cheek. (Mwah!)
3.  Adding garbanzo beans to my fruit smoothies.
4.  Looking at the moon and sighing.
5.  Wearing Birkenstocks. Only. Ever.
6.  Running the AC in my car in winter.
7.  Singing "Happy Birthday to You" over the telephone!
8.  Praying (hard) God will hold me up on ice/snow, a rocky hike, or in the shower.
9.  Seeing the alphabet in color in my mind.
10. Going on and on... and on... oh well.
11. Singing loud in church.
12. Being horrid when I'm hot and nice when I'm not.
13. Raging against, argghhh!, drivers on my tail.
14. Making my bed every morning. Waterpik-ing every night. Like, really.
15. Eating a pea or peanut M&M that's rolled off the counter onto the floor. (3-second rule.)



Have a great day today, 'kay?

The Power to Change

PRESIDENT JAMES E. FAUST (1920–2007)

Second Counselor in the First Presidency

(President Faust prepared this article in the months before his passing on August 10, 2007.)

Some addictions can control us to the point where they take away our God-given agency. One of Satan’s great tools is to find ways to control us. Consequently, we should abstain from anything that would keep us from fulfilling the Lord’s purposes for us, whereby the blessings of eternity may hang in jeopardy. We are in this life for the spirit to gain control over the body rather than the other way around.

Any kind of addiction inflicts a terrible price in pain and suffering, and it can even affect us spiritually. However, there is hope because most addictions can over time be overcome. We can change, but it will be difficult.

We begin by making a decision to change. It takes courage and humility to admit that we need help, but few, if any of us, can do it on our own. The Church has an addiction recovery program that has been adapted from the original Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous into a framework of the doctrines and beliefs of the Church. These 12 steps are found in A Guide to Addiction Recovery and Healing, which is available to priesthood leaders and other members.

Each new day that dawns can be a new day for us to begin to change. We can change our environment. We can change our lives by substituting new habits for old. We can mold our character and future by purer thoughts and nobler actions. As someone once put it, “The possibility of change is always there, with its hidden promise of peace, happiness, and a better way of life.”

The Lord has promised us, My grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them (Ether 12:27).

Let us remember that the power to change is very real, and it is a great spiritual gift from God.



I testify that through repentance and subsequent righteousness and by the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, the ultimate change can come to our bodies so that they may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself (Philippians 3:21).

Well said

"Crabbit Old Woman"

In Scottish, Crabbit means “bad-tempered” or “grumpy”. Originally titled "Look Closer," according to credible reports, Phyllis Mabel McCormack might have penned it in early 1960s when she was a nurse at Sunnyside Hospital in Montrose, a coastal resort town in Angus, Scotland. She wrote it for publication in the Sunnyside Chronicle, a magazine produced by the staff of Sunnyside Royal Hospital, Montrose, for circulation within the hospital.

What do you see, nurses, what do you see?
What are you thinking when you are looking at me?
A crabbit old woman, not very wise.
Uncertain of habit, with faraway eyes.
Who dribbles her food and makes no reply
When you say in a loud voice, ‘I do wish you’d try.’
Who seems not to notice the things that you do,
And forever is losing a stocking or shoe.
Who, unresisting or not, lets you do as you will
With bathing and feeding, the long day to fill.
Is that what you are thinking, is that what you see?
Then open your eyes, you’re not looking at me.

I’ll tell you who I am as I sit here so still,
As I rise at your bidding, as I eat at your will.
I am a small child of ten with a father and mother,
Brothers and sisters who love one another;
A young girl of 16, with wings on her feet
Dreaming that soon now a lover she’ll meet;
A bride at 20, my heart gives a leap,
Remembering the vows that I promised to keep.
At 25 now, I have young of my own
Who need me to build a secure, happy home;
A women of 30, my young now grow fast,
Bound to each other with ties that should last,
At 40, my young sons have grown and are gone;
But my man is beside me to see I don’t mourn;
At 50, once more babies play 'round my knee.
Again we know children, my loved one and me.

Dark days are upon me, my husband is dead,
I look at the future, I shudder with dread,
For my young are all rearing young of their own,
And I think of the years and the love that I've known.

I’m an old woman now and nature is cruel,
’Tis her jest to make old age look like a fool.
The body it crumbles, grace and vigor depart,
There is now a stone where once was a heart.
But inside this old carcass a young girl still dwells,
And now and again my battered heart swells...
I remember the joys, I remember the pain,
And I’m loving and living life over again!
I think of the years all too few – gone too fast,
And accept the stark fact that nothing can last.
So open your eyes, nurses, open and see
Not a crabbit old woman.
Look closer —
See me.

-----

I found this poem last night browsing for pictures for future blog posts. It's haunting. Last Sunday exactly a week ago I visited Silverado Senior Living care center — perhaps a future place for mom?  — and did a walking tour among the residents, spoke to an administrator, and met the mother, recently admitted, of one of my dear friends. Her mother is farther along with dementia than mine and we keep close to support each other.

Reading this and remembering that, I'm pretty stunned. Who do we see when we look at the bodies and into the faces of the very elderly or disabled among us? My friend charitably sees her mother from the past in her mind's eye, healthy and vital, as she leans in to kiss the frail body hello. She has to tell her who she is... I fail more at that with my mom from day to day here, fail at seeing her, though Laura tells me she doesn't: though it makes Laura very emotional to be around mom, far and away she sees in mom her best and familiar friend.

And will I be, ever, (yes...) such as this? All the more reason to take care of myself now, I do declare; ah, but who knows what will be my lot.

"The body it crumbles, grace and vigor depart."

Jut let there never "now be a stone where there once was a heart." Let me never be a crabbit old woman. Pray God.

Through thick and thin

Happy...

Here's something you definitely would say if we asked you how it feels to be 80:

Birthdays are good for you. Statistics show that the people who have the most live the longest!

Dad, I went through the picture file and had a good time picking out pics to put here for today. They're in no particular order... nor do these half show your service or passions... this's just a smattering of adventures you've had so far.

Isn't the person sitting next to you Elder Howard W. Hunter? Central America?


You and mom in Paris on assignment or passing through to somewhere important!


In your own home, Thanksgiving 2005 after a rough year of pain and surgery and recovery.


On the Yucatan with our lovely mom!

Fishing in Alaska I think about 2002... wow.



Speaking in General Conference in the SL Tabernacle.


On the Gulf of Mexico in the boat.


Same Alaska trip? Big one, you can hardly hold it!


McAllen LDS church groundbreaking, second phase, you're center holding Sarah, Mark beside you.


On your first mission in Japan.


Sometime in the seventies in South Texas. How I remember you best.


At home at the computer, 2005.


Fish from Strawberry Reservoir I'm thinking...?


Business in the early days.


Listening to your four daughters sing "Hushed Was the Evening Hymn" at your 50th Wedding Anniversary celebration, 2005.


Just a few months ago.


Dad, queuing up these pictures did it to me: made me cry. Hope it won't make you cry, nope. Be happy! It's your birthday today! You're one of those folks who've had a lot of 'em, so, well, it'll be good for you. (Anyway we're out to eat crab at Red Lobster!)

Love you so much!

Life is a balance...

...between what we can control and what we cannot. 

I'm learning to live between effort and surrender.

Lesson of the daily run

Part of a post from the blog "The Logic of Long Distance: connecting running and philosophy," October 5, 2013

With the daily walking I do, I relate. If you're a runner (Sarah, with your biking...) you'll likely really relate! Read down through this whole thing if you can find time, there's points to be made. Hugs!
-----

Runners are generally creatures of habit. We have our standard loop, our daily schedule, and we stick to it more or less. Though they always sounds nice in theory, runners know that exploratory runs in new directions or in different cities are fundamentally disruptive to the training schedule. We prefer to know every inch of our path; it makes getting around it easier mentally. Our hardest workouts are done on the most uniform surface possible -- a 400m oval, which in its simplicity and uniform nature is a striking metaphor for the habitual nature of the runner's activity. The deeper the runner gets into heavy training, the more essential habit becomes. When the body begins to resist the miles, when the legs feel heavy, or the brain fogs from fatigue, the easiest thing to do is what one did yesterday -- hit the standard loop. We have run it so many times that it almost literally runs itself. We are responsible for a minute or two of effort, but once out the door and on the loop, the loop itself seems to carry us around.

In the same way, the rhythm of running imposes a sort of order of habit on daily life. We put our runs into place, then the rest of life falls in around that order... repetitive behaviors are not obsessive; and routine or habit is not always dull. Indeed, some form of daily rhythm is essential to the health of every living organism. A life without routine of some sort is simply a disorganized life.

The older I get, the more I realize that freedom is about the establishment of routine. The very nature of meaningful and free action is bound up in repetition. To live a life with purpose is to make choices that lead us to develop and grow along certain channels. If we find the right channels, they deepen and grow more complex and variegated each time we return to them.

Control, order, and organization are necessary to life, but in their most rigid forms they are the worst thing that can happen to life. As we face the challenge of becoming free and productive adults we seek to impose some degree of control over our lives, but then chafe constantly at the way in which this control, once established, seems so quickly to turn against us -- to begin to control us.

Let's be careful not to call every routine a compulsion, characterize every rhythm as a type of monotony. These things come together for us in the same way that the wooden legs and resistant mind of the early miles of the daily run almost magically transform themselves into free and full movement and refreshed consciousness. Just so, dull routine becomes deep experience, reminding us that beauty lies just beneath the gray tones of ordinary life, waiting always to erupt.

This is the lesson of the daily run.

Still

I went to Kohl's yesterday morning to buy new Sunday clothes. Two pretty blouses and a jacket. Oh there was the rush of buying on sale with an additional 20% off coupon plus a nice woman at the check out to make everything seamless! And, besides, the rush of buying a few new things a size smaller than I've been wearing for years!

Yahooeee!

I'm carefully cautiously quietly still



Thank goodness. Thank heavens. Literally.

A thousand times I've failed, still His mercy remains

The following is from this blog post (link) which I read with interest this morning:

THE 12 STEPS

Step 1

Admit that you, of yourself, are powerless to overcome your addictions and that your life has become unmanageable.

Step 2

Come to believe that the power of God can restore you to complete spiritual health.

Step 3

Decide to turn your will and your life over to the care of God the Eternal Father and His Son, Jesus Christ.

Step 4

Make a searching and fearless written moral inventory of yourself.

Step 5

Admit to yourself, to your Heavenly Father in the name of Jesus Christ, to proper priesthood authority, and to another person the exact nature of your wrongs.

Step 6

Become entirely ready to have God remove all your character weaknesses.

Step 7

Humbly ask Heavenly Father to remove your shortcomings.

Step 8

Make a written list of all persons you have harmed and become willing to make restitution to them.

Step 9

Wherever possible, make direct restitution to all persons you have harmed.

Step 10

Continue to take personal inventory, and when you are wrong promptly admit it.

Step 11

Seek through prayer and meditation to know the Lord’s will and to have the power to carry it out.

Step 12

Having had a spiritual awakening as a result of the Atonement of Jesus Christ, share this message with others and practice these principles in all you do.

-----

These are the 12 steps found in the current LDS Addiction Recovery Manual or ARM. I find them interesting for how they differ from both the original 12 steps associated with AA and from Heart t’ Heart’s 12 steps associated with the Book of Mormon. In particular, I find the distinctions between the latter two fascinating.

It seems as if there is more of a concern in the LDS ARM 12 steps with repentance within the context of the church. Notice that in step 5 you are to confess both to proper priesthood authority and to another person (in addition to God and yourself). Not all of the things that we inventory necessitate speaking to the bishop. For that matter, if you are solely a food addict or a codependent, you may not have to speak with priesthood authority at all (although, sometimes talking things out with the bishop helps). Additionally, for some offenses, disclosure to a counselor, sponsor, friend, or spouse are insufficient. Some addictions must be confessed before priesthood authority (I’ll let you and your bishop work out what they are). By integrating both into the steps, some confusion is avoided.

Of course, the LDS ARM version is less flowery than Heart t’ Heart’s version (especially the longer version which incorporates more scriptural language). More than that, I think that its clarity makes it a little more compelling. In the Heart t’ Heart version, a greater power will restore us to ‘sanity.’ Here, God will restore us to ‘complete spiritual health.’ In other words, he will not only correct and change our addictive behaviors; he will also make us spiritual whole and spiritually his.

Often the language of God differs between the two. Heart t’ Heart deliberately mimics the language of the original AA 12 steps in its shorter version, using ‘God’ or ‘a Higher Power’ frequently. The LDS ARM adopts the named gods of Heart t’ Heart’s longer version, while keeping the language relatively simply. So, God often becomes ‘Our Heavenly Father’ and we do things ‘in the name of Jesus Christ.’

Both versions (perhaps I should say all three versions) are wonderful. They have different emphases and use slightly different vocabularies. All three give clear instructions on what to do, how to do it, how to feel about it, why you should feel that way about it, and why you can. These are the kinds of instructions that the repentant need.

I am grateful to have been introduced to the 12 steps.

I've recently been introduced to the LDS ARP (Addiction Recovery Program) and've bought the Addiction Recovery Manual which I'm now working from. Just beginning... I keep the manual by my bedside and a yellow highlighter, and am reading through it and marking as I go. The 12 Steps are guiding my thinking lately about my indulgences - and tendencies to indulge, addictions - and injuries, or perceived injuries, in my life. Reminding me every day and night about the power in repentance and the Atonement. In one class I attended recently (you'll laugh!) one person sharing held up his manual and we could all see he'd written on the front of it (over the title) "The Atonement for Dummies!" I've bought the manual and I buy into this idea of how it will help me!

Like the blogger above, I'm grateful to have been introduced to the 12 Steps. A premise of the whole program is that we humans are filled with character defects and that we may bring them out "onto the table" or "into the light" and use our agency and life experiences to decide to give them up. Give them to the Savior who suffered (in our place) to take these very unique and individual inadequacies upon Himself, divesting us of them through mortality and beyond as we might turn to Him and offer them. How he loves us!

First we must see our character traits and find out which of them are not → working for us. Are we clever... and possibly controlling or closed-minded? Brave, but perhaps a perfectionist or prejudiced? Respectful, but a gossip on the side? A little impatient, or a lot impatient? The list of character imperfections can be long and added to over time as we confront ourselves: anger, dishonesty, fear, judgment, depression, jealousy, rationalization, laziness, self-pity and resentment are some of these.

So I'm looking hard this week at the term "character defects" as I study. I have no conclusions yet, either for what the program advocates exactly (other than admiring the 12 steps and realizing it is Christ-centered, and longing to know more) or what my exact defects are, what I should be working on. And give away! I have lots of ideas, but I suspect the truth'll be revealed as I attend meetings, pray to know, highlight important guides in the manual, share here and with others in conversation, and continue to love the Lord and beg for His help. I do know that a thousand times I've failed in life... still His mercy remains.

Abundance of life

To Autumn

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run;
To bend with apples the moss'd cottage-trees,
And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;
To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells
With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,
And still more, later flowers for the bees,
Until they think warm days will never cease,
For Summer has o’er-brimm’d their clammy cells.
(excerpt from To Autumn by John Keats)

Keats is describing a typical Autumn day with its colors and images. But you read into it more than this:  the cycle of life with acceptance that death is part of life. This first stanza paints Autumn as a “season of mist and mellow fruitfulness.” The “maturing sun” ripens the harvest of the fruits, these being ripened to the core, the gourds swelled, the hazel nuts plumped, and trees bent from the weight of the apples.

Fullness and abundance of life!

Autumn is the time for harvesting, gathering, and preparing for the Winter. The end of the second stanza describes the last apples being pressed for cider, but as importantly describes last breaths of life being squeezed from Autumn. The third stanza... “where are the Songs of Spring? Ay, where are they?” Bleakest of the three stanzas, here is death. "Soft-dying day,” “mourn,” “The light wind lives or dies”... these connote the dying year.

Autumn is not my favorite time of year. Simply, spring is. Awakening! But I'm awed with the transformation from summer to fall - that mature sun, the yang of the year, giving way at last. Laura knows I love to point out even as early as late August that leaves about us are yellowing. She with me has oohed and aahed for two autumns as we've walked beneath these and by early September seen the green mellow and turn. At that date I say to her (and she nods) "these'll soon be at our feet and we'll be crunching them on our walks!" Jenny's birthday September 27th is a reminder to drive into the mountains if I already haven't, or hike there, to fully appreciate the color. Only in October (now) are the trees low down in our neighborhood and lower in the valley at last flaming out. The mountains now are almost leafless.

Ah, Spring - when these very leaves came on, and didn't I hold my breath as each budded and flowered out! - is months past.
-----

Laura and I passed the other morning a dozen pears ripened to the core laying lusciously in green grass beneath a yellowing tree. Laura picked one up and looked at me, then put it back; we wanted to.... ah, there for the taking but not ours to take.

On top of the world

From my journal October 18th:

Hiked with Scott today. Did the usual morning walk with Laura, had breakfast on for us all after, then Scott got here about 9:30. We drove out and got on Mueller Park Trail at ten minutes to ten and hiked hard. I took a few pictures but we mainly hoofed it uphill.



Wonderful! The trees and shrubs are almost without leaves – these were under our feet – and I mourned a bit that we are late to get on this mountain trail this fall... then, lo and behold! Up over the rise at the pipeline - color!



Masses of trees in yellows. Not so much other colors, just shades of yellow.

Here we halted and held our breaths at these colors and the vista, the panorama, of the canyon extending away from us. Above us quite a distance still was Elephant Rock. It would take an hour more to get there or perhaps 45 minutes and we’d already come over that by my watch, not quite an hour to this point. Instead of going on we hiked straight up the pipeline where there's an obvious trail. I remember being here two years ago and it just having been seeded after the long summer months of laborious burying of gas pipe. Now this swath is grassy, fully reclaimed, though it will take years to cease being "the pipeline."

The trail up it was far and steep so I had to catch my breath as I climbed at last to the knoll I thought was the top. No. Of course the climb, the hike here, would extend to take me over several mountain ranges in the direction of my own house if I were to keep on it, so I sat here and breathed and viewed scenery. My eye traveled back the way we’d come, toward the valley through the switchbacks, houses in the hillsides as far as I could see; and swiveling, before me, the canyon extending and the breathtaking colors as we’d seen them suddenly as we emerged way below here on the trail. Scott used this time to rest too and took panoramic pictures on his smart phone. I own no such phone – my camera hangs from its strap at my neck.

After a long while we descended to the trail, Scott going before me and holding my hand the entire way off the pipeline, sidestepping in the dirt and rocks. Stabilizing me.

Straight down! See the trail below?


It was good. It took another 40 minutes to hike to the car when we got on the trail – we never made it you can tell to Elephant Rock. Um, I had lunch to get for mom and dad and we’d taken time to rest on top of the world, so, no.
-----
The Kern River pipeline is a natural gas pipeline that received special permission to cut through the foothills above Bountiful and run along the south end of North Salt Lake to save 20 miles on its way to California, in so doing crossing the Wasatch Fault line six times and coming within 50 yards of residences in North Salt Lake. The pipeline right-of-way is easily visible as a long straight scar across the mountains and foothills of Bountiful and North Salt Lake going south, and then turning west and running past the site of the defunct gravel pit currently being developed commercially. Looking at Google maps, it appears that houses may be even closer now with recent construction.

The view below shows how close to my own neighborhood the pipeline runs. See where I would have ended up (right in my own back yard almost) if I'd hiked much of the day back along the pipeline scar from that "top" knoll we achieved above Mueller Park trail!

Drawing Closer to God

October 2013 General Conference talk given by ELDER TERENCE M. VINSON of the Seventy

That’s exactly how I feel about the Savior. He is always near, especially in sacred places and in times of need; and sometimes, when I least expect, I feel almost like He taps me on the shoulder to let me know He loves me. I can return that love in my own imperfect way by giving Him my heart.

Just a few months ago I sat with Elder Jeffrey R. Holland as he assigned missionaries to their missions. As we left he waited for me, and as we walked he draped his arm around my shoulder. I commented to him on his doing the same thing once before in Australia. He said, “That’s because I love you!” And I knew that was true.

I believe that if we could have the privilege of walking physically with the Savior, that we would feel His arm draped over our shoulder just like that.


Like the disciples heading toward Emmaus, our hearts would “burn within us” (Luke 24:32).” 



This is His message: “Come and see” (John 1:39). It is personal, inviting, and embracing in its invitation to walk with His arm around our shoulders.

Two quotes by Corrie ten Boom, author of "The Hiding Place"

~Do you know what hurts so very much? It's love. Love is the strongest force in the world, and when it is blocked that means pain. There are two things we can do when this happens. We can kill that love so that it stops hurting. But then of course part of us dies, too. Or we can ask God to open up another route for that love to travel.

~Even as the angry vengeful thoughts boiled through me, I saw the sin of them. Jesus Christ had died for this man; was I going to ask for more? Lord Jesus, I prayed, forgive me and help me to forgive him... Jesus, I cannot forgive him. Give me your forgiveness... And so I discovered that it is not on our forgiveness any more than on our goodness that the world's healing hinges, but on His. When He tells us to love our enemies He gives, along with the command, the love itself.

Trip out

10 Reasons Why Green Smoothies are Great

1. You get one to three servings of fruit.

2. You get one to two servings of vegetables. YES!

3. They give you a boost of energy with no crashing. (Do, DO include protein with fruit smoothies. And don't forget fiber.)

4. The raw produce gives you plenty of nutrients.

5. The flavor combinations are endless!

6. They can be enjoyed year round.

7. They're great for losing or maintaining weight.

8. They keep your regular; you know what I mean.

9. They’re quick to make - all you need is a blender.

10. Green foods make a gorgeous color smoothie!

Here's a couple for you if you like... I made the first one just yesterday morning which prompted me to post this. It makes four 8-oz. servings and I always drink two - 16 whole ounces - in a tall frosty glass for breakfast!

My Fitness Pal loves the low-calorie breakfasts I'm recording daily. I love the way my stomach feels for three and a half hours between then and lunch: SATISFIED.

Mm, it's getting to be so the season for cranberries. :)

Cranberry Spice Green Smoothie

by Lisa of The Healthy Diaries and adapted some by me :)

1 cup almond milk
½ banana, frozen
½ cup pineapple chunks or spears
¼ cup cranberries, frozen or fresh (I use dried, a full quarter-cup of Craisins)
1/3 tsp. cinnamon or more to taste
2 pinches nutmeg (I grate mine fresh)
1 cup kale
1 cup broccoli rabe, or spinach - they're interchangeable
1 Tbsp. soy protein (I buy mine bulk at Smith's [Kroger], Nature's choice), or any type protein you like
1 Tbsp. whole flax seed, ground; or hemp or chia seeds if you're into them
1 tsp. local honey
¼ packet Cherry-Pomegranate lite drink mix powder (optional)

Place all ingredients in blender and process until smooth. About 1-2 minutes.

Cranberry-Pear Green Smoothie

by Becky of Project Domestication

1 cup vanilla almond milk
1 Tbsp. chia seeds (remember, you can substitute flax or hemp too)
5-8 drops of vanilla creme Stevia drops (hm, where do you get vanilla creme Stevia?)
2-3 c. spinach
1 Bartlett pear, chopped (I keep mine frozen)
1 cup frozen cranberries (use Craisins if you don't have fresh)

Place ingredients in blender in order listed. If using a Blendtec, blend on "smoothie" setting.

Becky's note: You may also use two to four large kale leaves in place of spinach. The kale is much more potent.

My note: Pineapple would sweeten this up, or add local honey, or both. (In place of the Stevia, right? But not if you're counting calories.) And a frozen banana always makes a smoothie ice-creamy, so go for it!

Who knows?

There is a Chinese story of an old farmer who had an old horse for tilling his fields. One day the horse escaped into the hills and when all the farmer's neighbors sympathized with the old man over his bad luck the farmer replied,

"Bad luck? Good luck? Who knows?"

A week later the horse returned with a herd of wild horses from the hills and this time the neighbors congratulated the farmer on his good luck. His reply was,

"Good luck? Bad luck? Who knows?"

Then, when the farmer's son was attempting to tame one of the wild horses, he fell off its back and broke his leg. Everyone thought this very bad luck. Not the farmer, whose only reaction was,

"Bad luck? Good luck? Who knows?"

Some weeks later the army marched into the village and conscripted every able-bodied youth they found there. When they saw the farmer's son with his broken leg they let him off.

Now was that good luck? Bad luck? Who knows?

-----

Does this story maybe mean don't judge - wait for the outcome? Maybe simply everything that happens to us is a mixture of good and bad. Take things as they are.

I'm getting from this to keep as even a temperament as possible and take things in stride – whether they appear ‘good’ or ‘bad.’ Accept what we’re given. (I do struggle with this one. I write about it here but it's hard in practice.) Make the best of our life circumstances.

Rather than pass judgement on things, declaring them good or bad, mightn't we watch and say, “‘Twill be interesting to see what happens.”

Now in October

The trees at Red Butte Garden –

mm, not the shrubs or flowers or grasses, not the blue sky with clouds nor the mountain air and breezes, not the light –

stole the show.

Yesterday when I went to the gardens alone.

These stole my heart.



"There is no season when such pleasant and sunny spots may be lighted on, and produce so pleasant an effect on the feelings, as now in October."

~Nathaniel Hawthorne

Treetops are dotted with yellow, red, green
dropping leaves of brown, orange and gold
to cover the grounds, now made softer...
With those fallen leaves of autumn
winds would later hastily blow cold

~Sally Bryan

In the leafy treetops!


"The sweet calm sunshine of October, now
    Warms the low spot; upon its grassy mold
The purple oak-leaf falls; the birchen bough
    drops its bright spoil like arrow-heads of gold."
~William Cullen Bryant



"Even if something is left undone, everyone must take time to sit still and watch the leaves turn."

~Elizabeth Lawrence