Thinking about Chinese food tonight?

If you are following the Glycemic Index way of eating you have a refrigerator full of vegetables and fruit.  If you are like me you stand in front of the refrigerator with the door open trying to figure out what to do with all this stuff.  Our refrigerator has a big problem with the upper part not being cold and the bottom part (vegetable drawer) freezing so standing with the door open and trying to figure out what the heck to do with all these vegetables is not good for the food, the refrigerator, or me.

Joe came up with an idea for dinner so if this looks like something you will do for dinner then he gets the credit and not me.

Before I go much further, and totally forget this bit altogether, I got my “ears boxed” by a reader of my blog.  For some reason people leave comments in the “About Me” section of this blog and those comments get lumped into SPAM.  I don’t know who is pulling my leg, promoting their own stuff, or actually leaving a comment.  I’ve turned the feature off that allows comments in the About Me section.  Still one got through and I’m pretty sure you may be interested in what their blog has to say about Cholesterol and how to lower yours if it is high.  The blog is Cholesterol Lowering Foods and you can read the most recent article posted.

Okay, on to tonight’s dinner….or last night for me.

Meat?  Use what you have.  Chicken, sirloin, ground beef, ground turkey, even stew meat.  Stew meat will have to simmer for 1-1/2 hours before it is edible because it is so tough but it works in this dish.  How much meat?  Not more than a pound for four people.  It is going to be sliced thin or already ground.  Which ever it is you choose.

Mostly, adjust the meat to your needs.  If you find you have cooked too much just put the extra in a storage container and use it for something else later in the week.

Start with one medium sized onion peeled and cut in half and one clove of garlic chopped up fairly fine after you have “squashed it like a bug” :-).  One half of the onion will be chopped up to cook with the meat and the other half will be chunked to go in with the vegetables.

Halve an onion

One half chopped and the other cut into chunks

I have a post several days back showing how to peel and cut up garlic by mashing the fool out of it with the broad side of a kitchen knife blade.

While your  meat is cooking add the onion and garlic and cook until the onion is no longer translucent.  For those of you beginning to cook this means the onions are no longer white but kind of see through.

Add onion and garlic to cooking meat

This was stew meat I did last week to try this recipe out.  Quite a bit of this meat is now in our freezer waiting for some other experiment 🙂

While the meat is cooking the next part of this is time consuming.  Prepping lots of vegetables!!!

One carrot of a fairly good size.  Cut off the leaf end at the bottom of where they merge, and cut off the root tip a bit.  Clean your carrot under running water to get any stray dirt left behind.  Leave the peel on just get the dirt off.

Make diagonal slices on the carrot to get some good pieces.  Please be careful when doing this because the fool thing likes to roll around.

A green pepper halved and cleaned of seeds.  You can use any color pepper you wish to use.  Red or yellow would work also.  Taste is pretty much the same it is just a color thing.  Slice the pepper into strips from the top to the bottom.

A handful of mushrooms, either pre-sliced from your grocer or slice them yourself.  Doesn’t matter.

Carrots, green pepper, mushrooms

Add chunked onion

Next will be cabbage.  One quarter of the head will be more than enough.  Slice through the cabbage in about 1/2 inch slices.

1/4 head cabbage

Slice up the cabbage

When the meat is finished cooking remove it from the pan onto a plate and put aside for these next few steps.

Water chestnuts and stir fry sauce

I forgot about these guys.  Check the can of Water Chestnuts you pick up at the store.  Get the already sliced Water Chestnuts if you can.  I didn’t so I had to slice through these puppies.

Next step is to get the carrots cooking for the first 3 minutes.  Carrots take longer to cook than the other vegetables do so I put them on first.

Cook carrots first 3 minutes

Now it is time for the mass of chopped vegetables you have slaved over.  Onions, cabbage, green peppers, mushrooms, and the water chestnuts.  We picked up some Sugar Snap Peas at the grocer today so I added a handful of those also.  I love crunchy things in my Chinese food 🙂

Add your chopped vegetables

Let this mess of goodness cook for 3 minutes stirring frequently to keep them from burning.  Watch the cabbage as this is cooking.  When it wilts you are ready to add the meat back to the pan.

Add meat back into pan when cabbage wilts

The Stir Fry sauce I have purchased is 70% lower in sodium.  You will need 1/3 cup of the sauce.

1/3 cup Stir Fry sauce

Pour the Stir Fry sauce over the vegetables and stir around to coat everything in the pan.  You will know when you have accomplished that because everything will have a brown tinge to it.  Cook this for an additional 3 minutes to heat the sauce up and flavor this dish.

You are now ready to eat 🙂  Spoon this mess over rice if you choose.  There was a lengthy discussion in my house about which rice to use.  I offered to cook Joe his white rice while I cooked the wild rice mix I like.  In the end….no rice got cooked because we were both trying to please each other so I just said “Fine! No rice then.”  Temperamental person that I am 🙂

Ooof, too much food

Joe is under strict orders to not bother me this week.  I’m crafting this week since all of my paperwork is finished – WOO HOO!! – and I will get in an hour a day of housework…..maybe.

I have some snack sized baggies I purchased a long time ago at Wal-Mart.

Snack sized bags

One cup of grapes has been put in a baggie.  Yes, I slaved over the sink to get the grapes washed and taken off the stems then measured and put in the baggies.  Don’t you just feel sorry for me and all the work I do?  Ya, ya.  I know.  You feel for me but you just can’t quite reach me 🙂

One cup grapes

Snack ready for this week

Speaking of grapes, here is a photo I took in July while we were in California doing the Wal-Mart trucks from Red Bluff to Las Vegas.  This arbor is full of grapes.

Grape arbor in California

You are eating almonds aren’t you?  We are.  This is what they look like as they grow on the trees.  Once again on our trip from Red Bluff to Las Vegas we took a couple of moments to take photos.

Almonds growing in an orchard

Today I am down to 227 pounds and Joe is down to 319.  My body is changing in more ways than one.  I am not only losing the weight by eating in this healthier way I no longer crave sugar, potato chips, nor chocolate.

I have a bag of Tootsie Roll candies in my room from last year.  I ate one day before yesterday.  Before….I would eat a handful of those little guys with not even a blink of an eye.  I had not finished eating just the one day before yesterday and I was ready to spit it out.  Too sweet for me and I got a headache not long after I ate it.

I was sort of bad yesterday.  Didn’t eat breakfast because we had lots of things to do away from home and were gone most of the day.  I weighed before we left the house and the scale read 226.  I didn’t eat until after 11 a.m. and we went to a buffet type place, called Furr’s, and I had mostly vegetables with a couple chicken wings then the faux Chinese food last night.  I’ve put a pound on because of this…I think.

I felt grumpy and a bit sluggish.  How are you guys doing that are following along with this style of eating?  Do you notice anything going on with your bodies or food cravings?  I’d really love to know.  Actually, I’d like to know that I am not the only one that is having delusions 🙂

Okay, my business is done for today.  I’m off to my craft room and you may  not hear from me for a couple days.  I’m going to roll around in paper, glue, glitter, and all kinds of fun stuff 🙂

Leslie

 

Do you ever get tired of responsibilities?

The “Pity Party” decorations are up at my house and the party is in full swing. We have been home only 17 days today and it feels more like a full month.

I feel like a marathon runner that sees the finish line up ahead and is thinking about quitting the race and not finishing it.  I have, truthfully, about 6 hours of paperwork left to finally get this crap totally finished and all I want to do is go in my craft room and shut the door and stay in there until we have to leave again.

The whine and cheese plates are full to overflowing.

Speaking of cheese…..the food continues to flow in our house.  Not every three hours lately but pretty close to it.  Eating and paperwork have consumed my days.

I daily attempt to catch up on my friend’s blogs before I get my day started.  Sometimes I linger a bit longer than I should have but it was a wonderful break nonetheless.

The blogs I keep track of are:

The Nickel Nook – Nancy has a lot of crafty things going on and I enjoy seeing her work.

Craft Scrapbooking and More – Indira is part of a Design Team and I’m so excited for her.  I enjoy seeing her work also.

ASpot2Stamp – Shelly has many children that keep her busy with their antics.  She has her “Studio” created and is now trying to share it all with us.

GardenPinks – Lynn helped with her daughter’s wedding.  Tons and tons of beautiful handmade creations and flowers from her own garden.  Also before I forget once again.  She has a blog about the house she lives in.  Built in 1840 and had been abandoned, run down, derelict in 1974 when she and her husband purchased it.  They have turned it into an extraordinary vision.  You can see the before and after of it all at her other blog – Mount Cottage.

WhatYouMakeIt – Jann is down with pneumonia!!!!  Has been for several days and I have not been to Facebook or Twitter or I would have known 😦  Stop by her blog and leave a message, please.  It might help her get well faster 🙂

ETC – Maureen is on high speed now days with being a chauffeur for her children.  PLUS, and this is exciting, she teaches craft classes at Michaels in Austin near her home.   I drop by her blog to hear the music selection she has on her blog.  Maybe she will put up one of her past classes to show us what she teaches.  Hint, hint 😉

Tracys Treasures – Tracy has been bitten by the Copic Marker bug and has the cutest cards made.  Plus she has other adventures that are fun to read.

woo’s crafting corner – Sarah is/or will soon be newly married.  She has been making things for her own wedding and it has been fun to see her creations and read about them.

Fabulously Artsy – Tresa truly is the “Stamp Goddess”.  She has some really advanced projects going on her blog right now that are total “eye candy” and leaves this brain a bit fuzzy when I see what she has been up to.

The Pioneer Woman – Ree’s blog is about all kinds of stuff that is interesting.  Being a cattle rancher and seeing the photos of her husband and children in their daily work is quite enlightening.  She also home schools her children.

Crafting Passionz – Shar has a few things on her blog.  A really great tutorial on creating ribbon flowers and other things.  I have to get on YouTube to see what she (and others) have been up to 😦

The Healthy Recipe Finder – I spend more time on this site during the day than even on my blog.  Most recently it was finding a recipe for Stew Meat that is not used for making stew.

Okay, now you know what my days are like.  Blog surfing for about an hour, writing my blog for about an hour.  These I do before 8 a.m. and the paperwork starts.  Time to get started on the paperwork again.  I hope to have this finished later today or tomorrow.  I want a full week of nothing but creating before I have to go back out on the road once again.

Time to take all the Pity Party decorations down and toss out the whine and cheese.

Have a fantastic weekend everyone.

Leslie

 

 

Concocting with what I have.

Last night I had pork chops for dinner.  You’d think all we eat is pork but that is not so.  I wanted to show this rice stuff that I really like.  Joe is not a huge fan of it because it is not the standard white rice, which I abhor, and he loves dearly.

Things I’ve read in the Glycemic Index stuff is to add whole grains to your food intake.  This rice is a mix of wild rice, soft white wheat, rye berries, and wild rice.  It has a nutty flavor and the whole grains pop as you eat them.  Besides it is pleasing to my eye.  All the grains are grown in the USA and it is out of Alvin, Texas.  The product is called Royal Blend Whole Grain by Rice Select.  Texmati brown and wild rice.

Wild rice with soft wheat and rye

If you live outside the US your country may have something similar to this.  The cooking time is longer because of the wheat and rye grains.  It is not sticky and clumpy like white rice is, nor is it as bland tasting.

I have a rice cooker Joe bought me about 12 years ago.  It sits in a cupboard, tucked away out of sight and doesn’t get used.  Same with my George Forman grill.  Now they are both getting used.

Rice cooker

I bet if you go looking for either one of these machines you won’t find them.  They are probably obsolete by now and newer versions are on the shelves.  With this terrible heat we have been experiencing there is no way I want to turn on the oven nor have all the stove burners on.  Anything that helps keep the heat out of the kitchen…..sounds like an old adage is about to pop in here.  I’ll control myself 🙂

For the pork chops I used a bit of Kosher salt (not quite sure what this is even except it is bigger grains than standard table salt) and only on ONE side of the chops.  Coarse ground pepper to be applied to both sides of the meat, and ground Rosemary sprinkled on both sides also.  I love the smell of Rosemary cooking and it goes very well with the pork chops.  You decide how much you want to use.  The Rosemary is not a super strong smelling herb but it is strong.  If you find you have put on too much you can always scrape it off later.

Kosher salt, ground Rosemary, coarse ground pepper

Seasoned chops

I’ve trimmed the excess fat off the chops before seasoning them.  A little olive oil in the skillet to cook them through and brown on both sides.

We like having an apple sauce with our pork chops.  Don’t know what it is about apples and pork but it is good.  In keeping with this Glycemic Index thing I’ve changed up what we do by leaving the skin on the apple and using honey in place of the brown sugar.

Honey, cinnamon, nutmet, and apple

While the chops and rice are cooking nicely I’m working on the apple dish.  Cut away any bad spots on the outside, core the apple and cut in half.  This poor apple is only good for cooking since the insides are a bit long in the tooth.

Core and half the apple

One tablespoon of butter in a skillet to melt.  I use unsalted real butter when I cook.

One tablespoon of butter

Slice up the apple then add to the melted butter in the skillet.  I have the heat about medium under the pan.  When the apples hit the pan they won’t be scorching and burning right away.  Stir them around to coat them with the butter.

Sliced apples in melted butter

The small amount of butter in the pan is not going to protect the apples from burning so I added 1/4 cup of water to the skillet.  Then put the lid on to let them cook for about 5 minutes.

1/4 cup water added to the skillet

Put the lid on

While the apples are simmering in the butter and water mixture it is time to get the spice and honey mixture going.

Do you have one of these crazy little scraper things?  This little guy has been in my utensil drawer forever.  It is so flimsy and short I don’t think it is good for much of anything.  Am I a snob or what?

Small scraper spatula thing

It works in the tablespoon measuring device getting the honey out so I guess I’ll keep the wee little guy 🙂  I’m winging it here so 2 scant tablespoons of honey in a bowl.

2 scant tablespoons of honey

Then 1/2 teaspoon of ground cinnamon is dumped in the honey.

1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon

A scant 1/4 teaspoon of ground nutmeg added into the honey also.  When these ingredients are added to the cooking apples you’ll be reminded of Christmas time with the aroma 🙂 that is wafting around your kitchen.  Even with the Rosemary cooking away also.

Scant 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

Mix these spices around with the honey.  That little spatula scraper thing was not doing so well with the dense honey but it did get the job done.

Mix the honey and spices

Pour this concoction over the apples in the skillet and stir it all round to evenly coat all sides of the apples.  Put the lid back on and let this cook for another 4 to 5 minutes.

Pour the honey and spices over the apples

I’ve chosen frozen peas as the vegetable accompaniment.  Dinner is served and smells so good.

Pork chop with spiced apples, rice, and peas

This dinner was inspired by a recipe from Prevention Magazine’s website.  Pork chops with apples and collard greens.  I don’t have collard greens on hand, nor do I have over half of the other ingredients listed to make the recipe so I went with what I had on hand.  Don’t know if this dish is in the same calorie range BUT it does have whole grains, fruit, vegetable, and a protein so it has to be good.

The scale reading today is I am down one pound and have FINALLY left the 230 pound range at 229.  Woo Hoo and goody for me!!!  Joe is at 321 I’m happy to say.

Also my paperwork is, largely, coming to an end.  I have about another day to work on it and will be finished with it – hopefully – by Sunday.  My work table is showing the difference as is the bin.  That sucker is getting full!!

Paperwork is coming to the end

The bin is getting full

Hope you all enjoy your Friday.  The weekend is right here 🙂

Leslie

Good New or Bad News?

He//!  I’ll give  you the bad news first.  Get it out of the way.

Our scale

Pretty object.  All clean lines and lovely glass.  It holds a dirty secret….and more than just my bad house keeping.

The four round disks on the underside of the scale are the “Pressure Plates”.  Standing on the glass with feet planted along the metal rods is how this thing works.  Move your feet anywhere along the rods gives a different reading each time we step on the scale.  We have found the “sweet” spot that gives a more accurate reading when we get in the same spot.  Sort of like taking the best two out of three to make our choice of the days weight.

Underside of the scale

These “Pressure Plates” are critical in the functioning of this scale.  Each plate has a rubber attached to keep it from scratching the floor surface.

Closer view of the pressure plate

You can see the rubber has slipped just a bit on this plate.  This is from sliding the scale away from the wall to use it.  In so doing we have dislodged the protective rubber.  The one that has caused all this befuddlement on our weight loss was on the bottom left pressure plate.

Pressure plate

As you can see by the dirty glue spot, the rubber had been way off the Pressure Plate.  Thus all the errant weight loss amounts.  I knew it had to have been the scale that was malfunctioning.

The reason I knew that is after a weight loss of over 28 pounds for myself my clothes would be looser, which they are only a tiny bit.  Not as much as would be had the weight loss been true.

So back to reality.  This morning we weighed in.  Joe’s initial reading was 289 pounds and mine was 202 pounds.  We had a lot of errands to run yesterday and didn’t get home until nearly 6 p.m. and I left dinner decision to him.  We ordered out.

Medium pizza and salads

Normally we go for the large pizza with extra cheese, plus a side of cheesy breadsticks.  This time we ordered a medium pizza, no extra cheese, and salads.  Joe was worried this would cause the scale to go reeling back up several pounds.

I still had my doubts about the scale working correctly.  Joe picked it up and had a good look at it.  He found what was wrong.  Why it was giving the inaccurate readings it has been doing.  That one rubber foot worked off the pressure plate is the cause of it all.  Check your scales and make sure they are in good working order before you get yourself discouraged and abandon this Glycemic Index thing.

Before going on this way of eating I had measured my hips, a whopping 54 inches, and my waist, a huge 47 inches.  Today I wrapped the measuring tape around my hips and was delighted to see 52 inches.  Progress is indeed being made.  My waist was down to 44-1/2 inches.  A loss of 2 inches from my hips and 2-1/2 inches from my waist.  I just knew there was something wrong with the scale 😦  Boo hoo and crapazoid.

The Good News –

Our REAL weights today are still heartening.  Joe began this a little over a week ago at 336 pounds.  Today his REAL weight is 325.  He has lost only 11 pounds during this week and this is very, very good.  So much better than 38 pounds in one week.  My weight beginning this Glycemic Index was 236 pounds and today my REAL weight is 230.  Again a real loss of 6 pounds as opposed to 28 is so  much better for the both of us.

For me, a loss of 6 pounds and 2-1/2 inches of belly fat is something to be celebrated.  Not to mention the 2 inches from my hips.  These results are with NO EXERCISE at all.  None, nada, zip.  The only exercise I do is get up from my computer chair or living room chair to march to the bathroom then back.

Poor Joe is so disheartened to see  his weight back up in the 300 pound range BUT I’m able to wrap my arms around his belly and my fingers touch.  There used to be a gap of several inches when I would sneak up behind him and wrap my arms around him.  PLUS he is able to bend over from a standing position and not require a sturdy object to help get him back upright.  He can even bend far enough to touch the floor and stand back erect immediately unaided.

For me, these are the REAL results of this Glycemic Index thing.  These foods and the smaller portion sizes are tearing up the belly fat on the both of us.

If you are undertaking this way of eating and are not having the crazy weight loss results I’ve been posting daily I sincerely apologize to you.  Damn scale.  It bums me out too.

I’m totally at fault here and I own this.

Hanging my head – Leslie

Alfredo Sauce?

Joe had a discouraged look on his face yesterday morning.  When I asked what it was all about he said “We can’t have Alfredo anymore”.  He was so dejected I had to see if there was a recipe in the Glycemic Index for Alfredo.  Ta Da!  I found one and will share it with you.

Loaded Alfredo with Chicken and Vegetables is the recipe in Prevention Magazine‘s website.  One thing I like about the recipes at Prevention Magazine is they have a list of “Tags” on the recipe page (red words to the right of the synopsis of the recipe).  The tags have a wealth of information condensed in a tiny spot.  This recipe is good for someone with Macular Degeneration, Low Sodium for those on a restricted salt diet, and Low GI for us.

As I’ve said before, I’m not a fan of chicken and Joe is more of a “red meat” kind of man.  I altered this recipe just a bit to fit our tastes.  I have used Johnsonville’s Italian Sausage – one Hot and one Sweet.

Italian Sausage

I take the casings off.  I’m totally weird, if you haven’t figured that out yet.  Then I chopped these two up in about 1 inch pieces and cooked them in a skillet with a little olive oil.

Cook till done

Okay, I got a little carried away with the “Done” part.  Hey, a little charcoal is good for your teeth and your digestion 🙂

Set aside until later

After cooking the sausage I put them out to drain off the grease on paper towels and set them aside to add later.

The recipe calls for broccoli, mushrooms, and sun dried tomatoes.  My fresh broccoli went over in my fantastic refrigerator so I’m using frozen broccoli.

Frozen broccoli

I’m adding in the squash I prepared the day before left over from the salad I did, chopped up part of a yellow pepper that has turned orange and beginning to turn green in my wonderful refrigerator, celery from the day before, an onion I had left over from making Tuna Salad (the only fish I will eat), and I had to get more mushrooms since that big thing of sliced mushrooms went bad, and I added in carrots from the day before.

Vegetables for the Alfredo

A little bit of garlic.  I never know how much is good and how much is too much for garlic.  Some people like lots of garlic in their food so go to your taste not mine when you fix this dish.

A little fresh garlic

The noodles I have used are Al Dente Fiesta Fettuccine.  This stuff cooks in THREE minutes.

Fiesta Fettuccine

It is supposed to be the “healthy” type of pasta.

Fettuccine nutrition facts

These noodles are not bad.  They are better than most of the other “Healthy” pasta I’ve tried over the years.  They don’t taste as luscious, comforting, and wonderful as the regular carbohydrate dense pasta does but they are at least not bitter like the others are.

The Alfredo Sauce is not hard to make.  After the vegetables are cooked tender and the frozen broccoli is hot, I added the sausage back into the pan and poured the sauce over the mixture and added the cooked noodles.

Add sauce

Stir this around for a bit to coat everything in the pan and let it simmer for just a bit to heat the meat back up.  The sauce covers up the burned spots on the sausages 🙂

I made this recipe for two (2) and it is a LOT of food.  Of course, I’ve added in the squash, celery, and yellow pepper that were not called for in the recipe and that has added to the bulk in the skillet.

Add a bit of salad if you would like.  If  you are a bread eating type of person you can add a piece of that.

Dinner

We are still losing weight on this diet.  Not having to change our food choice in a major way, and we still get to eat the foods we like.  Altered just a bit but we still get them.

Joe weighs 290 today and I weigh 205.

 

This next bit is not directed at you, my friends.  I’m sure you guys have had years of cooking experience and know how to deal with garlic.  This is information for anyone new to cooking with fresh garlic and the PITB (pain in the butt) it is to peel and dice up.  I learned this about 30 years ago from a cooking show in Arizona on a PBS channel.  The show was “Yan Can Cook” featuring an Asian man who makes Chinese cooking look simple.

Lay the unpeeled garlic on a cutting board of any type you with to use.

Unpeeled fresh garlic

Place the flat of your blade over the top of the garlic clove.  This even works for those humongous cloves.  Make sure to have the cutting side of the knife pointing AWAY from you.  Safety First!!!

Cover garlic clove with knife blade

Using the heal of your hand, or make a fist and use the pinky finger side – your thumb facing upwards – and whack hard on the flat blade.  Just like you would squash a bug.  Whack!  Just once is all you need do.  Don’t be timid about it either.  You may have to steady the knife with your other hand if you have a huge wobbly clove beneath  your blade.

Splat

The garlic peel can be pulled out of the squished mess.  It is easier to run your knife through this squished blob to chop up the larger pieces.

Okay, more of the paperwork mess for today.  I’m working my way through July and the Red Bluff, California mess.  I hope to have it all finished this Friday…maybe Saturday or Sunday.  I really want this O-V-E-R!!!!!  Have a great day everyone.

Leslie

Thank You All for your input

Forgive me since I have not been answering your individual comments.  This Glycemic Index thing has taken on a life of its own and I’m happy for that.

I’m still doing my paperwork, preparing food quite a lot during the day, trying to get in an hour or two of crafting, and the housework.  I have the world’s most awesome husband – well in my world anyway 🙂  I had to vacuum the house yesterday and Joe volunteered to do it for me.  He said “I live in this house, too.”  So I let him take that task on.  He had a little bit of trouble with it and asked for help a time or two but he went from one end to the other.  I’m so thankful for this man of mine.

Of course, I had to get a bit of footage of this happening PLUS you can hear and actually see his reaction to this diet.  Those of you that are taking this on will feel the same way after a while.

I talked with my daughter, Carissa, yesterday.  She has a friend that has been on this Glycemic Index diet for several years.  Carissa was told the rapid weight loss is normal at first.  The body will adjust to the new way of eating, and it is a Lifestyle.  Something that has to be done all the time *groan* but the health benefits outweigh the constant intake of food and the prep of it all.

The reason for the weight loss is “The lower the food is on the Glycemic Index the harder it is for the body to digest it.  Which means the digestion process takes longer to accomplish and the calories burned during this time are more than the caloric intake of the food itself.”

Jann, thank you so much for your information.  96 ounces of water daily is quite a lot but if it will keep Joe from being weak and having erratic blood pressure readings and my being light headed it is something that we can do.  He increased  his water intake yesterday and it already shows with his blood pressure readings.  We had a Brita Water Filtration thing put on our kitchen faucet.  Our tap water is pretty nasty stuff and I choose bottled water over tap water.  Since I don’t leave the house much I haven’t been drinking water as I should.  Now I am.

For dinner last night, poor Joe and his heart wrenching complaint about eating AGAIN.  I took pictures of what we had.  Grilled sirloin steak, sweet potato, corn on the cob, and salad.

Grilled sirloin, sweet potato, salad, and corn on the cob

Joe said this was too much food for him and he chose to forgo the salad.  He did put Splenda brand brown sugar on his sweet potato.

Splenda brand brown sugar

First, I trimmed off the excess fat on the meat.

Trim excess fat

I have put Kosher salt on only one side of the meat and coarse ground pepper on both sides of the meat.

Next I put them in a zip baggie and added 1 tablespoon of Lea and Perrin’s Worcestershire Sauce to the bag.

Add worcestershire sauce

Let the air out of the bag, zip it closed, and mush it all around to get the Worcestershire sauce blended well.

Mush this to spread the Worcestershire sauce

Put this in the refrigerator for 20 minutes up to how ever long you choose.  You get to see my goofy half fix for our refrigeration needs.

Place meat in the refrigerator

I decided to try something I saw on a Food Network show.  Julianne cut vegetables.  If you are a pro at this, skip the whole section.  If you have not tried this then do give it a try.

Carefully slice off one side of a round vegetable. Carefully I say because the object does have a tendency to roll if you don’t have a good grip and your fingers away from the blade.

Cut a small bit of one side off

Now it won’t roll away from you.  Continue cutting bits of the round away until you have some sort of a box shape all around.

Now a flat surface

Now it is a box

Carefully slice down through this box shaped vegetable in about 1/8 to 1/4 sections, which ever is easier and you are confident with getting your fingers near the blade.

Slice through the vegetable

Turn your sliced stack over facing you once more.

Stand the slices up

Now, once more, carefully slice through the stack in 1/8 to 1/4 increments.  Keep your fingers out of the way.  I nearly got myself a couple times.  Shaved off a bit of a fingernail tip.

Slice down through the stack

And just like that  you have fancy restaurant Julianne Strips.  You can take some of these strips in a pile and dice into pretty little cubes, too.

Dice some of the vegetable

I put this extra stuff in our bigger freezer.  Use it later in another dish.

Salad with Julianne strips

Another thing I figured out on my own.  I like Romaine lettuce better than Iceberg lettuce, which Joe prefers.

Romaine lettuce

After washing and drying the leaves you will use in your salad, I have done that with six of them.  Stack them together and begin at one end of the leaves and begin rolling them.

Stack the leaves and begin rolling them

There will be some crunching noises going on but just keep rolling.

Roll them into a log

Slice through the log for an easy way of chopping up this lettuce.

Slice through the log

If you will be having the corn on the cob, get your water boiling while you are doing all this fancy knife work.  The time it take for the meat to cook – I’m using my George Forman grill – you can have your sweet potato in the microwave for 5 minutes on high, the corn cooking in the water, and the meat grilling.

George Forman grill

Sweet potato in the microwave

Steaks on the grill

The vegetable prep takes so much longer than the cooking of the food.  If you don’t have to fix the salad stuff this meal will be completed – from start to finish – in 30 minutes.   One sweet potato for Joe and I, we go halfsys on it.

Really and truly, this diet is about eating all the time.  The best thing is that your favorite foods are not totally eliminated.

Joe took the grapes off the stems and he has prepared one of our snacks for today.  Grapes and cheese.

Grapes and cheese

There will be similar lamenting in your home.  “We have to eat AGAIN?!”  I’m down to 207 pounds today and Joe is up two at 296.

Lynn, it sounds like your daughter can help you with what you and Rod can eat since you are so much like me and being a picky eater.  We are just the opposite.  I love vegetables and fruit but not much in the way of meat.  I don’t consider myself a vegetarian because I do like some meats.  Do, please, let me know what your daughter comes up with for you and Rod.  This could get really interesting.

We could have a recipe swap going on here 🙂  That would be totally cool 🙂

Okay, back to the paperwork for today.

 

 

Sudden weight loss

CAUTION!  CAUTION!

I have to, in all conscience, tell you of our  most recent experiences.  Saturday Joe was weak, couldn’t catch  his breath, and his blood pressure machine was giving erratic results.  125/50 and 94/55.  I felt a bit light headed and thought it was just the 100 degree plus temperatures.  I was a bit light  headed yesterday also when we made a trip to the grocery store.

It could be, solely, because while Joe and I have been home we have been seated with very little movement.  The only exercise we have done during this campaign was getting out of our chairs to go to the bathroom then back again.

Saturday we made an errand run to the office supply store, book store, and home improvement center.  The grocery store was on our route for errands but we both felt like we were going to pass out any second so we went straight home.

So please, be careful in following my lead.  The drastic weight loss Joe and I have experienced has sort of left our bodies in shock….or something.  I’m not sure why we are experiencing this because we have been eating all the time.  Maybe our caloric intake was less than what our bodies need since we are – clinically – obese.

Our daughter, Carissa, has PCOS – polycystic ovarian syndrome.  This does something to her insulin levels and cause her to gain weight and her menstrual cycles are so messed up she might have one in three years and then have two in one year.  Her doctors all tell her to lose weight but she is having a difficult time doing it.  She has been on quite a few diets and is dieted out, and totally frustrated.  She and her husband, Jaime, have been trying for five years to have a baby to no avail and this frustrates her further.

When we stopped by to see her in July she had some books on the Glycemic Index diet and was getting pretty excited about doing it.  Joe and I need to lose some serious weight.  I have to lose about 80 pounds and the thought of that makes me wonder if I will get it done.  Then my most recent crazy weight loss and the subsequent light headedness gives me pause.  We will continue on with this and see if our bodies will finally regulate.  I am concerned with what is happening and I urge all of you to be vigilant with your own body signals if you undertake this.

Now for some of the recipes I’ve told you about.  I took pictures of the cooking only for Carissa to help give her support in doing this, and now I’m passing it on to you.

The Pork Tenderloin and Veggies.

For the two of us I used 1/2 pound of Pork Tenderloin cut into 1/2 inch slices.  A bit of olive oil in a skillet and browned them on each side.

Pork Tenderloin browing

I did not season the meat before cooking it.  No salt, no pepper, nothing but the olive oil it is browning in.

Next are the vegetables to.  Two carrots to be chopped, one medium onion sliced, two cloves of garlic (the little balls at the top right behind the sliced onion), and shredded fresh ginger at the bottom of the sliced onions.  The recipe called for more than what I prepared – even cutting it down to a portion for 2 – the strong smell is what made me back off.  I’ve never cooked with fresh ginger before and was a little afraid of it :-}

Vegetables

Next are the “Fingerling” potatoes.  This is the furthest I’ve ventured into the realm of “gourmet” and had no idea what to expect of these long, skinny potatoes with little purple balls of potatoes rolling around in the bag .

Fingerling potatoes

Then came the liquid to keep all of this stuff from burning to the bottom of the skillet.  One cup of chicken stock I bought at the store, one teaspoon soy sauce, and 1/2 a teaspoon Worcestershire sauce.  All dumped and stirred in the measuring cup.

Liquid mixture

The last vegetable to be cleaned and measured are sliced mushrooms.  All the cooking shows say “NEVER” rinse the mushrooms under running water.  Only use a damp paper towel to clean off the bits of whatever stuff they were grown in.  I’ve tried that and put back just as much “dirt stuff” as I take off so I do run them under water to clean them thoroughly.  Do it your way.  If  you do the damp paper towel method then don’t change just because of my paranoia and spaz thinking.

Sliced mushrooms

I have used a large heavy enamel coated skillet I bought from our grocery store about 10 years ago and it is my “go to” skillet I used a lot.

Everything gets dumped into the skillet on top of the tenderloin slices.  A bit more olive oil is added before dumping and the liquid is added.  A lid put on and left to simmer for 1-1/2 to 2 hours.  Until the potatoes, carrots, and onions are cooked through and fork tender.

Dump it all in to a covered pan or skillet

When it is all done cooking serve it on a dish.  Add a salad if you wish.  This was pretty good.  I don’t like the “gamey” taste of dark meat – pork, chicken, turkey – and was surprised at the nice subtle flavor of the dark meat taste of the pork tenderloin.

I will make this dish again sometime.  The other half of the pound of tenderloin is in a package having been vacuumed and sealed with our FoodSaver and stored in our freezer until the next time.

The results

Please, please, please!!!  If you undertake this botched up Glycemic Index diet of mine take care to listen to your body.

Jann, I’m a bit concerned with Joe and my results.  I DO NOT want to pass on heaps of trouble to your Royce since he is doing so well after his kidney transplant.

As of yesterday my weight loss has stopped its downward plunge.  My lowest weight so far was 208.  Saturday I weighed 208.  Sunday I had gained three pounds but it is holding there and I weigh the same today – 211.  With Joe’s highly erratic blood pressure measurements being in the low range to “are you still breathing?” range I have a lot of concerns with this super fast weight loss.

Joe did say yesterday that he did feel better and was able to move around more easily outside doing his stuff and helping with my “creation”.  Joe told me he was able to climb around on stuff with more ease than he had been.  I’m still keeping an eye on  him in the event that things take a bad turn here.

I can’t stress this enough.  I really care about you guys and I don’t want to be the reason you end up with a bad health episode.  That would crush me to know that I have harmed you.

Have a great week.  I’ve got to start the paperwork again.  My fun crafting weekend has come to an end and it is “back on my head” 🙂

Leslie

Glycemic Index Diet

I have checked several websites and have taken information from all of them.  Maybe my own worst nightmare, but something is going on.

First I went to WebMD and had a look at what they had to say about the Glycemic Index diets.  You can check out their site here – WebMD Glycemic Index Information.

The next place I went to was The South Beach Diet website since it was recommended by our family doctor several years back.  This is basically the Atkins diet but a little less restrictive.  Meaning you eat more than just protein foods.

Then I remembered the television commercials for Nutri-System and Jenny Craig.  They all tout a breakfast, morning snack, lunch, mid afternoon snack, dinner, and a little something just before bed.

I went in search of finding recipes for this new way of eating and any other guidance I could disseminate (totally take out of context) and use it as my own.

I went in search of recipes.  My mind was made up already that the foods would be rice (which I abhor), fish (yuck and double yuck), and tons and tons of chicken (gag me with a spoon).

I first found the Prevention Magazine website for Glycemic Index recipes.  There were recipes for more than just chicken here.  I lingered and read through several of the recipes.  Most of the ingredients I already  had at hand and thought I’d give it a try.

There is also another site for recipes.  Glycemic Gourmet is the website I found.  The first recipe I chose to make was for Pork Tenderloin and Veggies.  This actually is good.  I used Fingerling potatoes in place of the small new potatoes.

Next meal I tried Prevention Magazines Chicken, Sweet Potato, and Apple Skillet.  This one I didn’t have brussel sprouts so I used broccoli instead.  The thyme and cinnamon combination didn’t work for either Joe or myself.  If I do this recipe again I will leave out the thyme.

Next I clicked on the “Nutrition” link at Prevention Magazine to see what they had to say.  I got lost in the videos they have and totally forgot why I had gone to this site.  They do have some good ideas for snacks during the day.

Okay, now here is how I have taken all this good information and created my own mish mash.

Breakfast:

One cup (8 oz) of a Bran or Bran Cluster cold cereal.  Something that is not dry and tasteless, is crunchy and the word BRAN has to be in super large letters on the cereal box.  This is only MY screwed up way of doing things.  Not scientific or anything.  I’m still rebellious here and if this thing is going to work it will work in spite of my nonsense.

One banana, or two good sized strawberries sliced atop the cereal, or 1/4 cup of blueberries, or 1/4 cup of raspberries.  Whatever your berry favorite is.

Milk….for me only enough to make the cereal begin to float.  Joe likes his cereal swimming in milk.  I am not a milk fan.  Don’t care for the cotton mouth, back of the throat mucus strings that happen.  I avoid milk.

One piece of Orowheat Health Nut bread, toasted then approximately one tablespoon of Nutella spread on the bread.  Any kind of whole wheat bread will work.  By the way, Joe has put the kybosh on his toast having Nutella on it.  He sticks with plain old butter.

Mid Morning Snack:

I’ve got heartburn from the bran cereal by now and am not the least bit hungry.  On with it though.  So the snack I prepare for Joe and myself – oh by the way….Joe said “I have to eat again?” when I brought him this snack.  Can you believe it?!  He, the man who is hungry all the time asked “I have to eat again?”

1/2 of a big bunch of grapes.  Joe got the other 1/2.  Each of us had one Mini Baby Bell Lite wheel of cheese to eat with the grapes.  These settled the heartburn I was having from the bran cereal.

Lunch:

Honey cured ham slices (hey, the nutrition places say “Deli Meat” and we got it from the deli of our grocery store) quantity of three thin slices, a big leaf of iceberg lettuce, two thick slices of tomato, and two slices of dark pumpernickel bread with a schmear of mayonnaise on each  slice.

We did purchase multi grain chips.  The recommended amount was 11 chips and I stuck with the recommendation.  They don’t taste bad, a bit dry.  Good crunch to them and no salty taste.

Mid Afternoon Snack:

10 cherries and 10 Dry Roasted Almonds.  Again, I got from the man who is always hungry “Again?  Seriously?!”

Dinner:

The first night was the Pork Tenderloin and Veggies.  The recipe is for 4 people.  I cut it in half for the two of us.  Normally, I would make the full recipe and save the left overs but our cranky refrigerator is untrustworthy.

Bedtime Snack:

Yes, I included a bedtime snack.  For Joe – 2 small scoops of Fat Free Vanilla Ice Cream and for me two small scoops of Rainbow Sherbet.  The scoops are about the size of golf balls.

End of the first day.  I was pleased, except for the heart burn with the bran, and I was not over hungry by afternoon so I did not have to eat everything that was not nailed down.

The next day.

Breakfast:

8 oz of Cherrios.  I know these won’t give me heartburn.  Joe had Shredded Wheat Mini Bites.  1/4 cup of blueberries in each of the cereal bowls along with the individual amounts of milk, a piece of Health Nut bread toasted with Nutella spread – Joe had butter.

Mid Morning Snack:

A strawberry flavored Dannon yogurt for each of us.  Joe’s turned up nose at the yogurt I proffered three “Fit For Life” brand wafer cookies (miniature Pop Tarts) to help him choke down the yogurt.

Lunch:

Another deli sandwich with lettuce and tomato.  Along with the customary 11 chips.

Mid Afternoon Snack:

9 Club Crackers.  Three slices each (being the same size as the Club Cracker – approximately 1″ wide and 2-1/2″ inches long) of Cheddar, Swiss, and PepperJack cheese sliced less than 1/4″ thick.  “I can have these?!  Really, I can have these?” was Joe’s gleefull astonished response to the snack.  “Yes, and no more than what you have on this plate”.  I laid the law down!

Dinner:

The Chicken, Sweet Potato, and Apple Skillet.  I’ve already told you that this was not something high on the “I would make this again” list.  We did manage to eat it.  Even with the recipe cut down to 2 portions it was a lot of food.  Frankly, we didn’t eat it all.  We both were too stuffed to eat it all and the rest went in the trash.  Not good enough to save for later (my opinion only – don’t take my word for it).

Bedtime Snack:

Once again the golf ball sized ice cream.

The next days have been much the same.  Breakfast has been old fashioned oat meal (two servings per the package directions to prepare) 1/4 cut of dried blueberries in the boiling water before the oats are added.  This morning it was dried cranberries.  A tablespoon of real butter (the milk went over in the fridge) the next lower shelf is considerably cooler but the milk jug won’t fit there.  Joe put Splenda Brown Sugar on his oatmeal and I put one teaspoon of regular sugar on mine.  We each had a piece of toast.

The Mid Morning Snacks have alternated between the cherries and almonds and the grapes and Baby Bell cheese.

Lunch has been more of the deli sandwiches and 11 chips.

Dinner….okay.  I had two small sirloin steaks that I coated with fresh ground pepper, a bit of Kosher Salt (not supposed to have salt but….) and a tablespoon of worchestershire sauce.  Put the salted and peppered meat in a gallon size baggie, add the worchestershire sauce.  Rub it all around for a bit and put it in the refrigerator for about an  hour.  Grill the steaks on a George Forman Grill, nuke a fresh sweet potato in the microwave for 5 minutes (of course poke it with a fork before you turn the microwave on) and some “Brocco-Beans” which is a combination of frozen broccoli and green beans.  Didn’t have enough of either one to make a full serving so I combined them.

Then the before bed snack.

I made tacos last night.  97% lean ground beef.  To it I chopped up one medium sized onion, two cloves of garlic, julianne sliced 1/2 of one carrot, chopped one stalk of celery, diced up 1/2 of a green pepper.  When all of this was cooked done I took half of the mixture and put it in a container to later go in the freezer for another meal.  To the pan I added one teaspoon of taco seasoning.  Chopped up some lettuce, diced 1/2 a tomato, grated a bit of cheddar and pepperjack cheese, and used Multi Grain tortillas to make the tacos.  Pretty good if I do say so myself.

Another thing I did was one Johnsonville HOT and one SWEET Italian Sausage.  Removed the casing, chopped into 1 inch slices and cooked thoroughly.  To that I added 1/2 of a chopped green pepper, yellow and zuchinni squash (1/2 of each) julianne sliced, one medium onion chopped, two cloves of garlic smashed and chopped then one can of Italian Stewed Tomatoes.  Put this all in the skillet with the sausage and let simmer until the vegetables were done.  This would be scooped over whole grain fettuccine noodles and a salad on the side.

Portion sizes are considerably smaller than what we would normally eat.  This time I’ve used the USDA recommendations of a piece of meat to be the size of the palm of one’s hand and the remainder of the plate to be filled with cooked and raw vegetables.  The Brocco-Beans and 1/2 a nuked sweet potato and a cold salad.

Okay.  Now you have it.  Please check these websites out for yourself and you make the determination of how you want to do this.  The USDA recommendations are 5 fruits and 5 vegetables a day, or is it just 5 fruits and vegetables a day.  I’m never sure.

Needless to say, the dishwasher goes twice a day  now instead of just the one time.  I’m becoming Mrs. Cleaver in the kitchen with the attitude of Rizzo from Grease.  I don’t like to cook anyway and now it is twice a day.  The food is good, besides I love fresh vegetables and fruits.  Joe is acclimating to this new way of eating and I’ve heard less and less “What’s for supper” or lunch, or breakfast, or anytime during the day.  That is a plus.

Oh, and you CAN pop off to Burger King, Arby’s, McDonalds, or any other fast food joint once in a while.  So this is how I’ve done this.  I don’t actually, physically, see the weight loss but the scale indicates it.  I do feel better, don’t have the headaches after eating and I’m no longer sleepy after eating a meal.  Plus I don’t crave a bag of potato chips, candy, cookies, a bowl of M&M’s, or anything like that any longer.

Please, make sure to do what is right for you and don’t follow what I’ve done as Gospel.  I can lead you down the wrong path.  Maybe not intentionally, but I do have a tendency to do that.

Have a great weekend – Leslie

Crafting this weekend!

Yippee Skippy!!!

I’ve had enough with the paperwork marathon and am ready to get in my craft room for a day or two and be creative.

The QuickBooks paperwork is not quite finished BUT I’ve made it to the beginning of July and all those trucks from Red Bluff, California going to Fontana, California and Las Vegas, Nevada.  I’m going to reward myself for getting May and June finished by being creative.

In our journeys stopping at favorite discount stores along the way, I picked up some really nice 8×10 picture frames.  $2.55 each.  Can you imagine?

Wood picture frame

Unlike the rest of the world who schedules their work and lives around the professionals….doctors, auto mechanics, construction crews, insurance estimator, and the like…..these people have to schedule their work lives around us.  We can, sometimes, seem quite unappreciative in our barging in on them.

I had been getting sparks of ideas during the week.  Needed a part I did not have in my burgeoning stash and made a trip to Hobby Lobby in Norman one afternoon.  While there I went looking for the tan mats Spellbinders has to use with their dies and purchased a set.  Making a trek to the Clearance Aisle I picked up three of the Spellbinder dies for $8.99 each.  Marked seriously way down from the $24.99 original price.  When I got home to show my loot to Joe I realized that I had left the store with more than I had thought.  Two of the Spellbinder dies had squished themselves up close to one on top of it.  I had come home with five and only paid for three.

Making the trip back to Hobby Lobby to pay for the two stowaways, feeling like a thief and uncomfortable about it.  Memories of my one time as a teen stealing from a store and the consequences of that bit of acting out gave me the jitters.  Expecting to receive stink eye and a tongue lashing made the trip unsettling to say the least.  Having the store manager at Hobby Lobby repeatedly say “What?!” when I told  him I came back to pay for some items just about made the sweat pop out on my face.  Then he loudly proclaimed “Everyone else would have just kept them and not come back!”

That had occurred to me – for a split second.  I said to myself “Hey I got a freebie”, and that went away just as soon as it burst in my thoughts.  No freebies here.  How could I really enjoy using my new toys knowing I had stolen them.  Intentional or not, they did not belong to me.

Amid secretive looks out of the corners of people’s eyes, a few had a smile on their face and looked me full on, one person had an astonished look on their face.  I wanted to crawl in a hole.  “Nobody has EVER come back to pay for something” I was told by the manager.  He went on to say “They come in daily for refunds of products they are returning, but never to come back and pay for anything”.   Needless to say, I now have five new Spellbinders to add to my small collection.

Alright.  I have a serious thing to put out there.

Upon coming home this time and being here for the remainder of the month of August, I made a decision that both Joe and I were going to do the Glycemic Index diet thing.  As much as I hate hearing “What’s for breakfast” or “What are we doing for lunch”, and my all time favorite “What’s for supper” I made the conscious decision to follow through with this for 10 days.  I figured that any longer than that the police would be called for spousal abuse.

The results are shocking I tell you.  We have even put a new battery in our scale because neither of us can fathom the weight loss indicated by the scale in one week.  Eating seven times a day as we have been I figured the scale would go UP not DOWN!!

I have a “Body Clutter Investigator” from Flylady.  You can get it at her site by clicking on this link – Body Clutter – and click on the “Body Clutter Investigator” link at the bottom of the page to have it downloaded to your computer as a PDF.  You can print one out each day and keep track of your food intake, water drinking, emotional state, and of course your daily weight.

When we started this my weight was 236 pounds and Joe weighed in at 332 pounds.

On August 17th I downloaded the Body Clutter Investigator and began the daily record of our weight.

August 17th I weighed 233 pounds (loss of 3 pounds) and Joe weighed 314 (loss of 18 pounds).  Heck I know statistically men lose weight faster than women do so I was glad to see we both were losing and not gaining.

Okay, the weird stuff begins now.  I missed the August 18th page, forgot to print the page out.  On August 19th is when the battery got changed on the scale.  I weighed in at 218 pounds (loss of 15 pounds!!!) and Joe weighed in at 300 pounds (loss of 14 pounds!!!!)

Today I figured the scale would be back up and we would know the battery had been bad and had given false readings.  August 20th I weigh 208 pounds while Joe weighs in at 294 pounds.  Can this be REAL?!  A total loss of 28 pounds for me in one week and a total loss of 38 pounds for Joe in one week?!  Just from eating nearly all day long?!

I have heard, and read, that obese people are malnourished because they eat all the wrong stuff.  Joe and I are so bad at that.  My normal first meal of the day is at 3 p.m. and I tend to eat anything and everything that is not nailed down from 3 p.m. to just before going to bed.

The only difference in my body is my belly.  While sitting doing my paperwork it had rested on my lap, extending mid way down my thighs.  Today I can actually see the chair seat as I look down between my thighs.  I’m not sleepy after eating as I had always been before.  I don’t get the headaches after eating some foods as had been happening for several years.  Mostly after consuming a bag of chips and a cookie or two.

I can’t speak to higher energy levels, but I can say that I have a better ability to focus on my paperwork tasks – I still would rather not do it at all – but it is getting done quicker.  And the best part is that I’m not getting flash angry bursts at Joe’s interruptions during the time I am doing the dreaded task.

Joe has a doctor appointment September 1st and he will be weighed in.  That will be the real test of this Glycemic Index diet thing.  If their scales indicate a weight close to what our scale is showing then I will know this is all true and not some fluke.

Okay, I’m off to do some crafting.  Next time you hear from me it will be at my other blog – Message In A Fold.  Everyone enjoy your weekend.  Have fun, stay safe, and recharge your batteries.

Leslie

 

Time for some amazing kids!

Joe has a friend he met on eBay.  The man bought one of Joe’s cameras and their friendship began then.  Ralph is his name.  He sends Joe lots of interesting stuff via email, then Joe sends them off to his group of recipients, which includes me.  Most times I look through the email and don’t send it on.  This time, however, I’m going to let it linger here instead of in my inbox where it runs the hazard of being deleted.

This makes my heart swell up and be grateful for our children.  If you want to keep this for yourself just highlight all the text, then cut and paste it to where you want it.  I did that from the email I received to share with all of you.

Hope your days are going well…..mine are.

Leslie

Priceless! God’s Wife IT WILL KNOCK YOUR SOCKS OFF I especially liked number 5! Author and lecturer Leo Buscaglia once Talked about a contest he was asked to judge. The purpose of the Contest was to find the most caring child. The winner was: 1. A four-year-old child, whose next door neighbor was an elderly gentleman, who had recently lost his wife. Upon seeing the man cry, the little boy went into the old Gentleman’s’ yard, climbed onto his lap, and just sat there. When his mother asked him what he had said to the neighbor, the little boy just said, ‘Nothing, I just Helped him cry.’ ********************************************* 2. Teacher Debbie Moon’s first graders were discussing a picture of a family. One little boy in the picture had a different hair color than the other members. One of her students suggested that he was adopted. A little girl said, ‘I know all about Adoption, I was adopted..’ ‘What does it mean to be adopted?’, asked another child. ‘It means’, said the girl, ‘that you grew in your mommy’s heart instead of her tummy!’ ************************ ********************* 3. On my way home one day, I stopped to watch a Little League base ball game that was being played in a park near my home. As I sat down behind the bench on the first- base line, I asked one of the boys what the score was ‘We’re behind 14 to nothing,’ he answered With a smile. ‘Really,’ I said. ‘I have to say you don’t look very discouraged.’ ‘Discouraged?’, the boy asked with a Puzzled look on his face… ‘Why should we be discouraged? We haven’t Been up to bat yet.’ *********************** ********************** 4. Whenever I’m disappointed with my spot in life, I stop and think about little Jamie Scott. Jamie was trying out for a part in the school play. His mother told me that he’d set his heart on being in it, though she feared he would not be chosen.. On the day the parts were awarded, I went with her to collect him after school. Jamie rushed up to her, eyes shining with pride and excitement.. ‘Guess what, Mom,’ he shouted, and then said those words that will remain a lesson to me….’I’ve been chosen to clap and cheer.’ ********************************************* 5. An eye witness account from New York City , on a cold day in December, some years ago: A little boy, about 10-years-old, was standing before a shoe store on the roadway, barefooted, peering through the window, and shivering With cold. A lady approached the young boy and said, ‘My, but you’re in such deep thought staring in that window!’ ‘I was asking God to give me a pair of shoes,’was the boy’s reply. The lady took him by the hand, went into the store, and asked the clerk to get half a dozen pairs of socks for the boy. She then asked if he could give her a basin of water and a towel. He quickly brought them to her. She took the little fellow to the back part of the store and, removing her gloves, knelt down, washed his little feet, and dried them with the towel. By this time, the clerk had returned with the socks.. Placing a pair upon the boy’s feet, she purchased him a pair of shoes.. She tied up the remaining pairs of socks and gave them to him.. She patted him on the head and said, ‘No doubt, you will be more comfortable now.’ As she turned to go, the astonished kid caught her by the hand, and looking up into her face, with tears in his eyes, asked her. ‘Are you God’s wife?’ ********************************************* SEND TO ALL WHO LOVE AND CARE FOR CHILDREN. Hope this put a smile on your face it Sure did mine!