Sweet Grace

I haven’t had a sugar filled or diet soda in more years than I remember.  Last night I did enjoy a full glass of organic, mango, lemonade.  Yep, full of real cane sugar.  It was a treat and I enjoyed every single icy cold sip.  Loved the crushed ice.  I loved the taste.  I loved how I could feel the coolness slipping down my throat.  Before I get tons of people to tell me how horrible that is for me, let me say, it was a treat.  Just that.  Once in a while maybe a couple of times a month, I like the tart/sweet of lemonade.  Homemade or store-bought, plain or mixed with other fruits or berries, I really, really love lemonade.  Yes, I know the sugar is horrid for me.  No, I do not have more than one glass.

Enter New York Mayor Bloomberg………………………..he had an idea, while I think it was originally intended to help the 53% of over weight folks in his fine state.  Diabetes has affected 1 out of 3 people in his neck of the woods, he as well as others are scrambling to try to help, fix, come up with any solutions that may work, I for one am not in favor of his plan.  The plan is simple, stop selling sugared sodas over 16 ounces in movie theaters, quickie marts, stores, ball parks etc.  The thought is people will drink less thus be more healthy.

If you listen to the Coke Cola company spokesperson, you will hear that sales of sugar filled sodas have gone down 12% over the last 10 years.  ummmmm, I think folks, sugar isn’t the only problem here.  Artificial sweeteners, factory produced foods, poor diet selections…………………we could go on and on.

If sugar is the problem, why on earth are you not targeting the toothpaste industry?  What?  Sounds crazy?  Okay, I will wait……(que the Jeopardy music)….oh hi you are back.  Yep, the ingredients in your toothpaste most likely contain sugar and fluoride (a whole other discussion for another rant on another blog posting).  Start painting your signs folks!!  No More Sugar in toothpaste!!!!  Pass the paint and throw me a brush.  Let’s start a movement!  Where are those band wagons?

We choose to use Jason toothpaste.  No fluoride, no sugar, no chemicals. Not judging here, just letting you know, what we choose.  Yep, we have tried Tom’s of Maine.  Sorry, Tom, tastes weird.  I wish I could say differently.  Here, here for no sugar, fluoride and no chemicals………….just ick.  Sorry.  You have a ton of choices, love that.  Just don’t care for it.

People, people, let’s try to be kind with each other.  Share a healthy food tip or two.  Be concerned for your neighbor and fellow-man.  It is tough to make those grocery dollars stretch for all of us.  Maybe we can share knowledge along side of kindness with each other?  Maybe we can share what we have learned and pass it on.  Maybe just maybe we can give ourselves as well as our neighbors a little Grace?

Shaking our finger at others is not very becoming.  It is pretty darn harsh.  It is already tough enough some days, we don’t need to add more guilt and frustration by allowing the government to tell us how much we should and should not drink.  We already know.  Just once in a while a nice cold glass of lemonade sweetened with a little sugar makes all the difference.

I am grateful that I am allowed to drink what I want and how much I want.  I love choices.

7. toothpaste

8. clean car

9. my immersion blender

10. sewing barefoot

Grateful for garbage and Grace

Last night, we  played the old “switch a roo” on our Golden Retriever.  Sometimes, when people have an empty nest they “may” direct some extra attention, in the form of dog toys, towards one happy brown-eyed girl.  Just being honest.  So sometimes the two designated baskets of dog toys, shall we say, overflow with abundance?  I have a box in the storage room (okay, honesty today…………….we call it the crap room.  It started out being called the “craft” room, then well somehow, life took over.) As I was saying, the box in the storage room has old dog toys that I couldn’t part with.  I took one basket out and switched it with “brand new toys” and brought it back in.  Sweet Liberty was very interested and so happy to have “found” so many wonderful new toys.  She was just tail wagging happy.  Okay, in the interest of de-crapifying this summer………………..I weeded out and threw out many, many old dog toys.

This was/is a really simple lesson for me.  I have enough.  We have more than enough.  I just need to remember and remind myself all that I am grateful for and already have in my life.

Great news, today is garbage day and that dark hunter green garbage can is coming back from the curb empty ready to be filled to the brim by next Friday!!!!!  woohoo, that makes me feel great.  Almost as great as sending it out there crammed full.  We are serious.  We are making two trips a month to Goodwill for the next three months.  We are filling that garbage can weekly.  We are on a mission.

Happy June 1st.  The first day of summer in this household.  I love the idea.  I love that my summer started this morning.  A gentle rain, everything so lush and green, green, green.  I hope it is an omen for the next 92 days.  That means 276 things to be grateful for!  Three a day for 92 days……………..oh, just think of how much goodness I will be aware of in 92 days?

Gratitude Attitude, summer adjustment, day one.

‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.” 2 Corinthians 12:9   I like that……………My grace is sufficient for you……………………………I do indeed feel as though I live a life bathed in Grace.  I need to remind myself of that daily and be grateful for what I have been given.

1.  Pacific Northwest rain

2.  my Golden Retriever who sits with me while I sew, type, read or wash dishes

3.  Love (so much I want to marry it) my dyson vacuum

4. garbage day, both the full can set out and the glorious empty can coming back

5. envelopes

6. morning oatmeal

How am I going to fit in so much?  I only have 91 days left.  Okay, maybe, I will say, I want to write down three things a day.  However, if I want to write more on any given day, that would be great too.  No harm in being extra grateful?  Can you qualify the word grateful?  Can you be “extra” grateful?  Today, I am choosing extra grateful.

In addition to cleaning out and clearing out junk, I/we will be doing a bit more organizing at the same time.  Honesty here:  I stole this idea from son number two.  While visiting California recently, I needed a cord to hook my phone to the computer to gather some pictures to share.  He went to their “cord” box.  Clear under the bed box, each cord wrapped up and secure.    Just so you are well informed, our old system was  cell phone cords stored in zip loc bags, tied with rubber bands.  One Kindle cord in the bottom drawer in the bedroom.  We have one under the night stand table in the bedroom.  One camera cord in the camera case.  We have some cords we don’t know what the heck they belong to.  So here is our solution.  Each cord is now stored in one clear, under the bed box.  Each is secured with a rubber band and has a written tag announcing to the world what it is for.  Cords can only go in the box if we know for sure what they go to and they are labeled.  woohoo!  Love this.Happy beginning of summer.  Just think of all the goodness that will Grace our lives as the summer months unfold?

dwell in possibilities ~   The possibility of being bathed in Grace every single day.

ps. now that I am done typing for a while, I am getting up, putting on my wonderful yellow rubber gloves and getting some jobs done.   Saddle up cowboys and girls, daylight is burning!