Category Archives: Food Talk 4 You!

One of the most important elements to good health is how you fuel your body. Let’s talk about how you can make sure the fuel you are using is the best it can be!

Anti-Inflammatory Foods, Blogging for good health!, This -n- That

Beyond The Sunshine

1 Comment

Our friend, Mr. Groundhog, was reluctantly pulled from his comfy den and was held up high in the air by a top hat festooned, bearded fellow. Others in similar garb declared the winter would hang around for another six weeks.

Sigh. Whatever.

Just give me some sunshine and I’ll be happy!

Wherever you are on the globe, it is probably being recommended that you supplement with Vitamin D in the winter, as the sun will be too low on the horizon to be effective in triggering the processes, starting in your exposed skin, to do any good. Plus, there’s hardly any exposed skin in the winter months.

I am citing the National Institutes of Health, NIH, today in daily normal and higher limits of vitamin D, and where to find this important vitamin in food sources.

Vitamin D – Health Professional Fact Sheet (nih.gov)

Vitamin D – Consumer (nih.gov)

The NIH offers the following recommendations:

The amount of Vitamin D you need each day depends on your age. Average daily recommended amounts are listed below in micrograms (mcg) and International Units (IU):

The daily upper limits for Vitamin D are listed below in micrograms (mcg) and international units (IU):

Please work with your health care provider to determine what your levels of Vitamin D are and how to proceed with supplementation.

In the meantime, we can get some of our Vitamin D from foods:

If you are like me and are a non-milk drinker and non-cereal eater, we’re left with cod liver oil, (in capsules, please!), and either rainbow trout or sockeye salmon with a raw mushroom salad for a substantial hit of Vitamin D.

Anyone with leanings toward vegetarianism/veganism should take note, and work with their doctors about this vital nutrient.

Vitamin D is a fat-soluble vitamin, which means it needs to be consumed along with a healthy fat to be absorbed by the body. Fortunately, salmon has such a fat in it, but use some healthy fats (olive oil) in the cooking or presentation of your food. Fat Free and highly processed dressings only contribute to not absorbing vital nutrients and expose you to highly-manipulated, food-like substances.

So, show extra love to your body in this season of love by dishing up some Vitamin D rich foods. A candlelight dinner featuring sockeye salmon or rainbow trout sounds mighty fine!

Love to all our readers who support the efforts of foodtalk4you by sharing our articles on Facebook, Twitter, and email. Couldn’t do this without you!

May you be a sunbeam to someone today.

In health-

Deidre

Please sign up for the FoodTalk4You newsletter. Just fill out the quick form on the left of this page!

Blogging for good health!, Recipes, This -n- That

Make Your valentine Happy – with Cookies!

Leave a comment

We have reinvented all the holidays and festive days now – except Valentine’s Day.

I consider St. Patrick’s Day to be the start of my COVID pandemic experience. Whew!

Hopefully, people converted their Super Bowl experiences this past Sunday into something that included whoever-is-in-your-bubble-game-watching. The world does not need another surge of hospital admissions.

I hosted my first ever Super Bowl Party last year – even created a tablecloth gridiron with helmet place cards. Was looking forward to a repeat. Darn. Just me and a mini gluten-free homemade pizza this time.

So, what can be done to spread the love at Valentine’s this year? How about a batch of 5-ingredient cookies to share?

I made these at Christmas and had such a blast making and sharing, I thought I’d do the same for Valentine’s. Not sure if they will survive the mailing journey to my kids or not. I may have to send them before pictures!

All credit goes to Southern Living magazine for the original. They included a recipe card for these cookies in a mailing last year, and I converted them to gluten-free, changed the vanilla extract to almond, and added a pinch of salt. Guess they are 5.5 ingredients now.

Here’s the recipe that is easy to fix and fun to decorate – solid therapy for getting into a great frame of mind. Here’s the recipe as I converted it:

Easy Gluten Free Sugar Cookies

Ingredients for cookies

½ cup/125 ml butter, softened

1 cup/250 ml powdered sugar

1 large egg

1 ½ tsp/7.5 ml vanilla or almond extract

1 ½ cups/375 ml gluten free flour – with extra for rolling out dough – I use Bob’s Red Mill brand

Pinch of salt, if desired

Method for cookies

Beat butter and powdered sugar at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy.

Add egg and vanilla or almond extract and beat 30 seconds.

Add flour, beating at low speed until combined.

Place dough onto floured parchment paper and roll to ¼ inch/6.35 mm thick. I had to dust the dough with additional flour to keep from sticking to the rolling pin.

Transfer the parchment with flattened dough to a cookie sheet and chill in refrigerator for 15 minutes.

Preheat oven to 375 F/190.6 C.

Cut dough with lightly floured cookie cutters, place ½ inch/ 1.27 cm apart on parchment paper-lined baking sheets. Reroll scraps, and repeat process.

Bake in batches for 8-10 minutes or until golden brown around edges. Cool completely on wire rack.

Decorating Icing

2 cups/500 ml powdered sugar

1 ½ Tablespoons/22 ml meringue powder – I use Wilton Meringue Powder

A few drops of vanilla or almond extract, if desired

3-4 Tablespoons/45-60 ml water

Food coloring gels

Mix powdered sugar, meringue powder, and the least amount of water until smooth. If you want to pipe decorations, a thicker version will be desired. If you want to cover a large surface, a thinner icing would be preferred.

Divide icing into small bowls if using food color. Use a toothpick to dip into the colored gel and then stir into icing until color is evenly distributed. A little dab of coloring goes a long way!

Spread or pipe the icing onto cookies as desired. A toothpick is your good friend if floating a smooth surface. Check out Karla’s Cookies HERE: Karla’s Cookies (teachable.com) for a free tutorial on Royal Icing.

My Valentine’s cookies are humble, but clearly filled with love. It was an excellent afternoon’s worth of creative therapy and has given me a little something to share.

Enjoy! It would be wonderful to give each of you a cookie in thanks for being such loyal supporters of foodtalk4you, but you’ll have to make your own!

Please pass along this fun recipe post on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or email and make sure to subscribe so you won’t miss the next issue.

Happy Remodeled Valentine’s Day-

Deidre

PS: Please sign up for the FoodTalk4You newsletter. Just fill out the quick form on the left of this page!

Blogging for good health!, Exercise, Habit Building, This -n- That

And I Repeat – Happy Groundhog Day!

2 Comments

I feel a bit like Punxsutawney Phil today. He’s being hauled out of his snug spot to test the sunshine factor for prognostications about the duration of winter.

That’s me. Being drug out of my totally relaxed state of snugness to start the day. My gratitude each time for its opportunities, is invariably followed by the overwhelming urge to hit the snooze alarm.

I’ve told Alexa to nudge me awake with meditation music, which beats the effects of an alarm clock. Starting the day with a startle, a jolt, and an elevated heart rate seems counterproductive to greeting the day with a smile.

With nowhere to safely go, or any deadlines to meet, getting up can be problematic for me. There are still cool things to be accomplished at home, so I rely on my biggest motivator: Sunshine.

Sun streaming in my windows is my happy place. Curtains back, shades up – here comes the sun! If I dally in bed too long, the angle of the sun misses my home office, and inspiration is harder to find.

This is all said as a Segway to the fact – we need sunshine.

Remember learning about the “Sunshine Vitamin”? That vitamin we get through the sunshine that’s good for our bones? Well, it is vital for a lot more than that. Take a look:

As you can see from the chart above, this is an important part of staying healthy. Rays of sunlight trigger our skin and body to produce Vitamin D through a cascade of processes.

If strong bones and sound mind aren’t foremost on your mind, then something that is on everyone’s radar right now is the COVID-19 pandemic. I have read that 80% of those with COVID are/were deficient in Vitamin D.

Check it out HERE: New Study Found 80% of COVID-19 Patients Were Vitamin D Deficient (healthline.com) AND HERE: Low Vitamin D Levels Tied to Odds for Severe COVID (webmd.com).

The Mayo Clinic talks about this same correlation, but suggests the need for further testing –  Can vitamin D protect against the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)? – Mayo Clinic.

The more I read about Vitamin D, the more I think we need to know our blood levels of this vital nutrient better than our astrological sign. Request that Vitamin D levels be checked at your next doctor’s appointment. Normal values are 30-74 ng/ml. An increasing portion of the population is very deficient. Why?

We are creating the perfect storm to become deficient: Young and old, people are not getting outdoors enough. Much exercise, if done at all, is accomplished in an indoor gym. We need some skin exposure to effective sun to start the chemical processes that create this vitamin in our bodies.

But how much sun? This depends on your latitude, your skin color (darker skin needs MORE exposure), time of day, and season.

Check here for details: How Much Time in the Sun Do You Need for Vitamin D? | US News.

Overall, 5-20 minutes twice a week, when your shadow is no longer than you are tall (between 10:00 am -3:00 pm). The early morning jog does not count toward making Vitamin D. Sorry. Roll up your sleeves and take a noon-day stroll.

Of course, skin cancer is on our minds as well. Experts agree that relying on facial exposure to the sun’s beams should be avoided. Wear a hat and/or use sunscreen on your face and ears.

Use of sunscreen is another part of the perfect storm. Give your arms and legs a few minutes in the sun before slathering up.

Finally, the trifecta involving obesity, Type II Diabetes Mellites, and Vitamin D deficiency creates the capstone to this storm.

A summary of research HERE: Vitamin D Deficiency, Obesity and Diabetes – PubMed (nih.gov) says:

Vitamin D deficiency reduces insulin secretion capacity of the islet beta cells in pancreas. Moreover, epidemiological studies have demonstrated that vitamin D deficiency is closely related to obesity and increased risk of T2DM. 

Just this one humble vitamin demonstrates the inner-connectedness of our wonderful bodies. Disrupting the delicate balance of proper body weight, alone, put so many other aspects dangerously out of kilter.

There are dietary risk factors I’ll touch on next week, along with where we can access Vitamin D through diet so, stay tuned.

Deidre Edwards

In the meantime, protecting face and ears, show a little skin to Mr. Sun for a few minutes each week as temperatures allow. My bundled up walk here in the Northern Hemisphere didn’t do much for my Vitamin D levels, but did wonders for my spirit and served as excellent exercise on a cold winter’s day.

In health,

Deidre

If you benefitted from this post, please share: email, Twitter, Facebook, and click on the subscribe button so you won’t miss any posts.

Blogging for good health!, This -n- That

Hangin’ Out in Limbo Land

Leave a comment

Limbo Land. It’s a hard place to live.

Sometimes we don’t know when the end of whatever state we’re in will ever end. We may long for the end. Read COVID-19. Or we may dread the end. Read something good comes to an end.

Or we may be in limbo even knowing what we are hoping for.

Recalling the times of physical confinement related to being the sole caregiver to my sweet husband, I remember bristling at no longer being able to hop in the car to spontaneously dash somewhere. Take away the angst of seeing a loved one slowly deteriorate and losing a loved one – and I’m left with much the same feelings today.

Waiting to be free to travel.

Waiting to see family and friends face-to-face whenever we want.

Waiting to be unencumbered by wearing a mask.

Waiting for smiles. Waiting for hugs.

Waiting to meet new people.

Waiting.

Waiting in limbo land.

It takes a toll.

We’re wrestling with being in limbo. We’ve probably all been there and done that. What makes fighting an uncontrollable state of being in limbo winnable?

Accept that you are not going to win.

As citizens of the world, we are being asked to dig deep for that last push before enough people are protected by one of the vaccines. In the meantime, we keep on by following the love.

Love yourself and others by limiting public contact, staying socially distant, wearing a mask over our nose and mouth, and by washing our hands frequently.

Do we know when the end of this high-alert COVID-19 situation will end? No. But that does not give us reason to throw caution to the wind because we are so done with this!

More than ever, it’s time to show the love even more.

Show love to those weary, masked faces in the hospitals trying to save lives. Many lying in those COVID ICU wards didn’t really believe it would happen to them.

Now they are believers.

That’s not enough.

We must be believers NOW.

As we see the lines of ambulances searching for hours to find a place to leave their patients – remember –  and show the love.

As we see stretchers lining hallways for lack of rooms to house COVID patients – remember – and show the love.

As we see family photos with faces of many who will never make another portrait – remember – and show the love.

As we approach the month that remembers LOVE, be the agent of LOVE.

Bolster your sagging spirit by calling a friend. Send them an unexpected card that just says, “Thank you for being my friend.”

Facetime distant family members – it’s restorative!

And make time to do something that helps to purge those negative, pent-up emotions through exercise. Every time my exercise habits lag, so does my spirit. So does my body.

Show the LOVE to yourself by going for a brisk walk and in doing some strength training at home, using a video to guide you along. Whether using YouTube, an app, or your gym’s video link, shake a leg today to work out the stress of being in limbo land!

Control the things you can control. See a simple project through from start to finish. Get some accomplishments under your belt.

And show the love. We can do this!

In health-

Deidre

If this was of value to you, please share this post on Facebook – and subscribe so you’ll be with us every week in 2021.

Blogging for good health!, This -n- That

What You Say?

1 Comment

Don’t you love it when an adage or truth is scientifically proven? Not that laboratory proof is needed when we know something works, but it’s just nice to be validated by science occasionally.

Talking things through has long been a cornerstone of cognitive and behavioral therapy. We just know talking about our feelings and reactions helps to put things into perspective. We’ve all experienced that release when, finally, we just “say it.”

Put it out there.

Label it.

A subset of just talking about things is referred to as journaling. Putting our thoughts and emotions into words on paper can be transformative when going through tough times.

These are things I share when talking about Caregiver Emotional Survival – but are applicable to virtually every aspect of life.

What got me down this delightful scientific rabbit hole this week was an online course offering through MasterClass. Why I started a course on “The Art of Negotiation,” by Chris Voss, I’m not sure.

Maybe it was reading about his mirroring techniques. All fascinating stuff. Good for hostage negotiators, frustrated parents of teenagers, or those looking for excellent techniques to negotiate a business deal, or asking the boss for a raise.

It was Chris Voss’s technique and description of labeling that got me Googling on the internet.

It turns out that, yes, when a person is experiencing negative emotions, getting them to label or identify that emotion will blunt the negative spiral they are experiencing. What happens is, they enlist contemplative evaluation processes in another part of the brain to find the label.

Scientifically, the part of the brain processing emotions, the amygdala, becomes less active after the subject puts a label on the negative emotion being experienced. Matthew Lieberman at UCLA, used Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging, fMRI, to discover these things while monitoring people’s brains – when they viewed pictures that would elicit a negative emotion vs. when they verbally labeled their emotions.

In another article, Mitch Abblett explains that naming an emotion helps to tame that emotion. If you are experiencing one of those head-in-your-hands moments of emotional turmoil, putting a label on what you are feeling helps draw your hands away from your head (check out amygdala) so you can look at and evaluate what’s going on at a perspective-giving distance.

From this relative distance, we can respond to emotions and emotional situations with less of a knee-jerk reaction, and rely on a more thoughtful approach.

If you are looking to get a handle on how you are feeling, putting your emotions into words is a great first step. Using speech to do that is the preferred method, but writing is effective as well. I have had success with both methods.

Just using journaling, however, keeps your emotional cards close to your chest. At some point, putting your emotions into words that are there in the air to be heard, is the ultimate de-escalator for that amygdala buzz of feelings going on in your head.

Who we share those now-labeled emotions with is important. Maybe you want to sort out your feelings with a neutral third party before considering sharing them with others.

In any case, talking about emotions does tamp down the negative storm in the amygdala. It’s science!

So, how are you feeling?

There has been so much frustration, disappointment, and grief this year that our cumulative amygdala must be spiraling out of control. We need to be there for each other – there’s much to describe and label.

I hope this spurs Foodtalk4you readers into calling a friend or family member on a more regular basis to just check in with feelings – and be honest with yours as you pause to describe how you are really doing.

Here’s to taming negative emotions and ramping up the good ones.

In health-

Deidre

If this was of value to you, please share this post on Facebook – and subscribe so you’ll be with us every week in 2021.

Tame Reactive Emotions by Naming Them – Mindful

untitled (ucla.edu) – PDF of full study by Matthew Lieberman

Putting feelings into words: affect labeling disrupts amygdala activity in response to affective stimuli – PubMed (nih.gov)

Blogging for good health!, Stress Reduction, This -n- That

Hope and Blessings

4 Comments

While some are gladly shredding any reminders of 2020, others are starting their new year with an uplifting time of remembrance.

What?

Who are these nut cases?

Well, I am!

In the first post of 2020 (HERE), I shared an idea that had come through my Facebook feed about starting a Blessings Jar. The habit of jotting down a few words about a blessing was well-established when COVID-19 became a driving force in our lives by mid-March.

Just having this unassuming jar sitting on my counter everyday provided a reminder there are blessings to be found in all circumstances.  I was already having so much fun viewing my little town’s Bear Drop Ceremony at 6:00 pm EST to be concerned with the Blessing Jar reveal on New Year’s Eve.

Masked, solo, and under an umbrella, I joined a small, socially-distanced group to bid an early and rainy goodbye to 2020. Because of COVID restrictions, there’s a 10:00 curfew, but – lucky for us – our sister city of Bern, Switzerland, was celebrating at midnight, when we were doing our Bear Drop earlier in the evening in New Bern, North Carolina. So, in terms of dropping the ball, ‘er Bear, we were all legit.

It was yet another blessing entry for my 2020 jar. The big revealing of a year’s blessings was delayed for me until January 5th.

So, last evening, out poured all the noted blessings of 2020. Reading each one created wave upon wave of gratitude, smiles, and happiness. How truly rich I am! Some papers simply had the name of a friend. My heart lifted them in prayers of gratitude along with the sincere hope that I was a blessing to them as well. Would my name appear in their jar?

The experience of reviewing each entry was far more powerful than I had imagined it would be. Strength giving. Transformative. Humbling. Heart-swelling with love.

And creative. I want to create blessings for others. Oh, how I wanted to be the force of blessing to others.

With each blessing comes a realization that there’s HOPE.

HOPE that we can endure anything if we have blessings. The blessings are there. We need to take our spirits out of the sludge of the daily news to see the blessings that are right before our eyes.

Since 2018, I have suggested to readers to use a Word of the Year to guide and color their intent – their approach – for the new year. (HERE: 2018 1 – 2019 1 – 2020 1)

There had been no great personal revelation for my Word this year until I put a couple things together while reviewing the contents of my blessings jar.

The first, was an ornament our church had given to each of us this year. One word in ceramic to remind each of us that there is hope.

The second, was that earnest desire springing forth to be more of a blessing to others by being that hope.

2021 is going to be my year of reflecting HOPE – doing and saying things that give HOPE – and being that HOPE for someone.

As my blessings jar starts to fill up in 2021, I am reminded of that HOPE and my role in being someone else’s blessing.

Be the HOPE-

Deidre

Don’t miss even one FoodTalk4You.com newsletter! Look for the sign up to the left of this page.

Blogging for good health!, Stress Reduction, This -n- That

A Clean Slate For The New Year!

Leave a comment

When you think about it, the first of January is merely the day after December the 31st. While what we do is written on a new calendar, there isn’t a big tumultuous change. It’s just the next day.

Yet, we do feel like it’s a new start. Time to wipe the slate clean and start over.

That’s a good thing. So, let’s do it.

If we desire success in projects where there once was frustration and failure, let’s see what we can do to check off more victories.

As you ponder a few goals for the New Year, is there a voice in the background saying, “But it’s sooo hard! It’s going to take sooo much will power every day!”

No matter your goal, there will be daily dedication, discipline, and commitment – but things can be done to assure success.

I’m all about making jobs easier. The less you have to fight doing things the hard way, the better the chance you will succeed.  

The less effort needed to sort through lost or misplaced tools or equipment for your task, the more energy you will have to accomplish it.

Fewer distractions in your immediate environment mean you can more easily focus on the task at hand.

A favorite author of mine, James Clear, recently put it this way:

The more disciplined your environment is,

the less disciplined you need to be.

Don’t swim upstream.

If your goal for the new year is to eat better and maybe lose weight, then why challenge your self-control at every turn when your kitchen and refrigerator are filled with sugary, starchy junk food? Why put yourself through that?

When looking for an evening snack, why make yourself have to pass up on the kettle corn, the double fudge sandwich cookies, or snack-sized pizza bites before you grab an apple? Those items shouldn’t even be in your house if you are serious about improving your diet.

Save using your limited will power energy by removing the tempting distractions.

Be your own best friend by controlling your environment.

You want to write a best seller? Make a dedicated area, free of distractions, and commit to a small chunk of time every day.

You want to craft more or take up artwork? Create an area where needed supplies are always at hand and design your masterpiece.

Make 2021 the year you achieve your goals easier by controlling your environment.

In making health easier-

Deidre

If you liked what you read here, please share with your friends on Facebook HERE and sign up to receive all posts automatically by filling out the subscribe button at the top.

Blogging for good health!, Stress Reduction, This -n- That

And To All A Good Night

2 Comments

Santa is getting ready to sail across the night sky. People are figuring out how to gather in safe numbers and in masks to celebrate their faith. Champagne is chilling as we anticipate a new year.But many are looking at an empty chair. Many are enduring mind-numbing isolation. Many are wondering how the rent will be paid.

Holidays have always been a challenge to mental, emotional, spiritual, and physical health.

This year? Well, you get the point.

My dear grandmother, long departed, used to share a story from her youth from the late 1800s. After enduring and surviving a house fire, her family of nine faced a Christmas with few possessions and no money for gifts. On Christmas morning, however, her father produced several packages to everyone’s wonder.

As her mother carefully unwrapped the first present, it was discovered that he had wrapped up the surviving pieces of silverware taken from the ashes of the fire.

Hard times. Desperate times. Times of survival and gratitude. Times of making do.

We are in such times. Times that require digging into the ashes to discover a blessing and to find gratitude.

May you find special moments with what’s left.

A walk or drive around town to see the holiday lights can bring back feelings of effervescent, child-like joy. Dropping off what you can spare to the local food bank can warm your heart like nothing else. Calling an old friend to check in, grows love and appreciation in everyone’s heart. Decorating a batch of holiday cookies to share can get creative ideas flowing again.

We at foodtalk4you.com encourage each and every one to check in with themselves.

How are you doing? Really? Is what you are facing this holiday season pressing in on you? Do you feel like you are in a deep hole of darkness with no apparent way out?

If you are having such troubles, please know 1) you are not alone, and 2) there IS a way out.

If you are on a precipice, please call 1-800-273-8255 right now. That’s the National Suicide Prevention Hotline. These folks are there for you 24/7 to give you an ear and will assist you in finding resources for getting on a steady path out of the darkness.

If you know that what you are feeling is stronger than your current ability to deal with it, your doctor is a phone call away from helping you, either medically or through a referral to counseling, where you can discover coping techniques.

May you discover the beauty, joy, and hope that is still there for each of us.

We look forward to offering our readers an improved format for recipes next year, and I will be releasing my free class about Caregiver Emotions online.

There’s much to anticipate in the coming year!

Merry Christmas, Happy Hannukah, and a Happy New Year to all! Be safe in all you do.

Click the subscribe button to make sure you don’t miss a single post in 2021.

Somebody you know needs the help provided in my Toolkit for Caregivers HERE. This is a gift they will read and reread!

In health –

Deidre and Sheree

Blogging for good health!, Stress Reduction

Traditions In The Time of Covid

2 Comments

So much has changed this year, and yet – I have more time than ever to slow down to do the small things that have slipped past my attention in recent years. Such as writing and sending Christmas cards and decorating holiday cookies.

Recent years have seen me sending out New Year’s cards. No time for Christmas cards. Too many rehearsals for three choirs, Advent preparations at church, community musical events, and parties to squeeze in.

Not this year.

The hustle and bustle are almost non-existent. Family traveling hundreds or thousands of miles for holiday activities will probably not happen – and rightly so, because we want to be alive to do it next year.

What to do, now?

Aside from watching the Hallmark channels 24/7 to replace the joy of gathering and preparing for family festivities, we can rekindle some traditional activities that have gone by the wayside.

Set up a card-sending station on a TV table in the living room.  Pen a brief note on a Christmas card during the commercials of the latest movie about saving the parade/store/wedding/tree lighting ceremony/family farm.

It’s been ten or more years since I’ve decorated cookies. Enough of living vicariously through the actors on TV! Today, I devoted several hours to baking a basic sugar cookie – converted to gluten free – and in painstakingly piped on eight different colors of icing! All made from scratch.

I had a blast dancing around the kitchen all day listening to non-stop holiday music and taking all the time I needed to create my sweet cookies – all 48 of them.

No rush at all. Take my time. Enjoy the moment.

It won’t be hard to find a home for my humble little creations, and I’ll save just a few to add a festive touch to my meals.

With depression on the rise from the effects of the COVID-19-related isolation on top of the holidays, we have a recipe for an unhealthy, sad time smack dab in the season of hope, peace, joy, and love.

What tradition can you reinstate?

Instead of casually stuffing a present into a gift bag, take the time to thoughtfully wrap it up. Make the bow yourself. Craft a gift card to attach with the recipient’s name.

If there are several people living in your home, how about bundling up to tour around the neighborhood to sing carols? How cool would it be to ring a neighbor’s doorbell and gift them with a song? You can serenade them through your masks while still being socially distant!

Spread the cheer – even if it’s to yourself. Flying solo has its problems, but we do not have to sink into a funk of despair if we can create and enjoy festive moments.

We can do this!

In health-

Deidre

Don’t miss even one FoodTalk4You.com newsletter! Look for the sign up to the left of this page above.

Blogging for good health!, Stress Reduction, This -n- That

Rotate Me Out!

3 Comments

Until you have been involved in moving or downsizing for yourself or a loved one, the cycle of stuff may not be at the top of your radar.

This is about my ninth time since 2000.

Mom out of – my teenage and college – home. Mom out of assisted living.

In-laws out of house. In-laws out of senior living apartment.

House-wide carpeting fiasco times three.

Basement flood from Hurricane Florence involving my stuff, our former video business’s stuff, mom’s stuff, and my in-laws’ stuff.

Lots of stuff.

And now, joyfully, an evisceration of the guest room and office to provide a more welcoming atmosphere for both adult children and spouse/significant others to visit.

No one sleeps on the floor!

Repaint. New window treatments. Install two queen-sized Murphy beds so I can enjoy the space when there is no company. Blessing my daughter all the way in thanks for getting this started for me!

Build it and they will come!

All good. Can’t wait until we can have our little family reunion – once travel and getting together is once again safe.

In the meantime, there’s STUFF all over my house. Stuff waiting to be put back IF it survives the purging process. Stuff hoping for a new niche so it can easily be found and utilized – especially in my soon-to-be christened craft room/sometimes guest room.

This is not a post about the wonders of Marie Kondo, a Japanese organizing consultant, and letting go of stuff. We all need to do that, for sure.

But what is becoming so abundantly clear to me is that I’ve spent a significant portion of my life chasing or pushing STUFF around. Not being a great or better person. Not doing good deeds to bring joy, laughter, and hope to a troubled soul. Not inspiring others to greatness.

No. I’ve been pushing around a mountain of STUFF. Gives new meaning to the image of Sisyphus and the Rock.

My hourglass of life is not as full as it used to be. How many more grains of my limited and unknown quantity of precious sand do I want to devote to STUFF?

Clearly, not much.

So, this is going to be a purge that will, hopefully, become a blessing to my kids so they won’t have to push my stuff around too much after I’m gone. There’s that loving preparedness and consideration again.

If you are in the throes of getting or wanting more STUFF – better STUFF – because the old STUFF wasn’t good enough… Think twice. If you get new STUFF, make sure to throw out/give away/sell the old STUFF before the new STUFF even darkens the door.

In terms of clothing, I try to give away two for every new one I bring in. We have all over-bought in the past or have overkept while waiting for the size to come back. Move on. Someone could really use that item of clothing right now. Give it a happy home that fits.

Here’s a cycle of stuff that may sound familiar:

Young children want stuff. When they get older, they want stuff for older kids, but the little kid stuff is still there. Then they get cool stuff when they are teens. Moving out to college, they take only the best recent stuff, leaving the old stuff with Mom and Dad.

Twenty-somethings get jobs and can afford entry-level adult stuff. Thirty-somethings can afford to get better stuff which is layered on top of the old stuff their young children get to use.

As the forty-somethings age, their children get stuff. When the kids move out, the parents get better stuff that will last.

Fifty-somethings tweak the stuff their college kids get and help start them on their path of independence with the better stuff they once had. Parents need the ultimate stuff – now.

In the meantime, the parents are gathering stuff their own parents had that joins the childhood stuff their kids grew up with.

In their sixties and seventies, parents are trying to downsize their stuff, but none of the kids want the china, silver, or furniture. What to do with all those framed pictures of young children? How about the baseball trophies?

In our eighties and nineties, we may lose our stuff or not recognize our stuff at all. Too soon, our kids get our stuff.

And so, it goes. The rotation of stuff.

I’m going to try to sort through my stuff as quickly as possible, recognizing that needing something “someday” does not mean I should keep it.

Create a craft/guest room functional for my needs and quickly converts to a restful space for company. Create an office/second guest room that will inspire my writing and speaking engagements designed to uplift and support others, and will easily convert to a restful and uncluttered space for company.

Life is about the experience, the journey, the LOVE … not the stuff.

In health,

Deidre

Don’t miss even one FoodTalk4You.com newsletter! Look for the sign up to the left of this page above.