A Cautionary Tale That Could Save Your Life (or the Life of Someone You Love)

I feel compelled to share some information with all my readers. First let me provide a bit of background. March 3rd was my mother's birthday. She would have been 67 years old. She was a vibrant, active, Christian woman who went to be with the Lord last year less than a month after her 66th birthday. She got up one morning and was getting dressed to come pick me up to do our weekly shopping. She told her husband that she was really tired and didn't feel good and was having trouble breathing. She said she was going to lay down for a few minutes while he showered. By the time he got out of the shower, she was gone. I cannot overstate the shock and devastation this caused for our family.

It was determined that she had a heart attack. She didn't have heart disease or high blood pressure or anything like that. She was, like many of us, overweight and under stress. Like most women, she had no idea that the symptoms she was experiencing were classic symptoms of a heart attack, for a woman. Symptoms like fatigue, shortness of breath, indigestion and back pain are so easy to overlook or dismiss and this is the very reason so many women don't survive a heart attack. Everyone knows that severe chest pressure and pains down the arm are warning signs, but most people don't know that that women frequently don't experience either of those.

There are many locations online with information about how to prevent or detect heart attacks in women. One popular site is http://www.goredforwomen.org/. Please take a moment to check into this further. Being informed could save your life or the life of someone you love.

When Life Happens

I thought I had it all planned out. I was putting together my new housecleaning/organizing plan. I was making menus with new recipes. I was making plans for reading and plans for projects. All of it was supposed to start March 1. Then life happened. I spent the entire weekend dealing with a feverish and very clingy baby. She was still feverish this morning, so the housekeeping plan was put on hold. The menu is being simplified. I am now doing new recipes for supper every night with some new breakfast, lunch, snack, treat, and side dishes thrown in. However, all non-supper recipes will not necessarily be new ones. It was just too much to do all new recipes. I will still try to fit in as many as I can. I think I may have do pick a different meal to focus new recipes on each month or something. Anyway, this is supposed to be fun, not maddening. Right? Sigh.

A Pocket Full of Fun

Most of my pockets so far have been either primarily functional or primarily aesthetic. My latest pocket, however, is all about fun. First, we had this empty corner in the den where we moved out a piece of furniture to make room for our Christmas tree. When the Christmas tree was gone, we decided we didn't want the piece of furniture moved back, so it's been sitting like this:

 

Pretty boring, huh? I sit caddy-corner from this area and every day I look at it and think there must be some better use for it than collecting dust bunnies. Then one night it hit me. After hearing someone tell my youngest children to sit or duck down because they were building things on the coffee table and blocking the viewers sight of the Olympics on the television, I got an idea.

I took a rug that was still folded up in its package, a laundry basket from my workroom, a little plastic basket from the same place and the bead and wire toy we never have a good place to put and created a kids' corner.

This is the 'after ' picture with Sweetpea enjoying the new kids' corner. This has been a huge hit with her as well as Ribbit and Ladybug. They a loving having all the Duplos available and having a place to play with them that they don't have to move out of someone's way. It's a win-win proposition.

A Taste for Something New

I had a crazy year last year. In the course of the craziness, I fell into certain routines. When I got to this year, I realized I was tired of wearing the same old clothes, doing the same old things, and eating the same old food.

As you can see from the rest of my blog, I am challenging myself to reach beyond to new things. I'm reading new books and doing new things with my house. I even started a new exercise plan and have the sore muscles to prove it. With all of that new stuff happening, I'm still eating the same old thrown together meals that I lived on last year out of necessity.

I began looking at my own cookbook shelf and the recipe files on my computer. I have a lot of great sounding recipes on there. I have a few websites bookmarked that have a plethora of wonderful sounding stuff, like The Pioneer Woman and A Year of Slowcooking. I have seen menu plans where a day a week or a day a month is dedicated to trying new recipes, but at that rate I would need to live until I'm 1000 to try them all if I quit collecting now. What to do?

My life is filled with crazy challenges of my own making, so why not add another? I'm currently making a menu plan with all new recipes on it. Breakfast, lunch, and supper are all recipes I've never tried before. Now I'm not saying there won't be any cold cereal mornings or pizza ordered, but as much as possible, I want to cook new things.

I'm having a lot of fun picking and choosing which ones to try. I'm reading reviews and whittling down my choices. I'm trying to find things that are reasonably family friendly, but some things might stretch some of them a bit. I've already warned my family that I expect them to try everything. Peanut butter will be available for those who don't like what's being prepared. This should be fun and hopefully will add some new recipes to my usual lineup.

What are you doing to shake up your routine?

I'm giving a special shout-out to all the Home Sanctuary Company Girls visiting today! Leave a comment and say "Hi".

Food for Thought

Joy is not in things; it is in us.
--Richard Wagner