6 AUG 2015 :: Reading, Reading, Reading...

When I get up in the wee hours, there isn't much else to do except read.  I have piles to choose from, but today I have been reading my food and diet materials.  I was going through my collection and trying to make sense of the differences between USDA, vegetarian, vegan, and trying to decide how to create menus I want to eat.  :-) 

My favorite foods are not always good for me, but I don't have much time left so I think I can eat them without doing too much damage.  :-)  I would like to find a way to eat healthy and still enjoy my life.  One method I heard about on a food show I watched a few times (Southern Fried Fitness) was called the 80:20 rule. I know the 80% was eating healthy foods, but I'm not sure what she called the 20%... something about desserts.  (I found the web link... it's 20% indulgent.  :-) For me, it would be eating 80% healthy and 20% with personal joy and abandon,  :-)  including my double portion of popcorn with butter and flavorings!



I found the Canadian PDF that I was referring to in an earlier blog... it was by a dietician's group.  They had lots of suggestions for healthy meal choices.  Unfortunately, it didn't have the web address on it, so I have to look for it in all my files...  So far, I haven't been able to locate it.  I hope I saved a copy and didn't just print it.  (As I go around the internet finding information, I am learning some useful lessons on creating websites and printable materials.)  When (if) I find the link to this material, I will try to share it with you and make more comments about it.  As I begin to move my food issues to my Food to Live blog, most of my food-related information will be placed there.

Why is food such an important issue with me?  Because it isn't fun to starve. 

I have always hoped that I could create Christian communities on farm properties to provide food, jobs, and housing for as many as possible.  As we become more persecuted and displaced, we will need these resources. 

It may not seem like it, but I am always looking for the best way to grow as much of the foods we will need as possible.  (I think the government should also do this at its prisons... if there is a food crisis, we don't want the consequences that will happen in prisons because they have no other alternatives established.)  I may not be able to make this happen in my lifetime, but this is one of the goals GOD has put in my heart to do.



With the rise of the BOOMER generation, recipes for one or two people may become a big market.  I received an email from America's Test Kitchen that offered a cookbook with recipes for two.  I replied with my perspective on the new senior market and told them how much I liked two of the examples mentioned in their email ::  Lasagna in a bread loaf pan, and a chocolate chip cookie recipe that only makes 12 cookies, which is just the right amount for ONE baking sheet!  A great idea!

While I remember it, I should tell you about the creative chocolate treat I saw in one of the 21day Fix videos yesterday... the handy hint she provided was to put chocolate chips INSIDE a raspberry!  I love that idea, too!

I can see I am a foodie when I get this excited over things like recipes and chocolate treats!   :-)


Well... I will meet you here again on Monday, GOD willing, if I don't add an extra post about the Republican debate.    Enjoy your weekend, eat your meals at a table together so you can face each other and have a real conversation, and try to have mercy on those you may not understand or agree with.


5 AUG 2015 :: I guess I better watch the Republican debate

I haven't been able to keep up with the news, having left my radio and TV off the past many days so I can focus on other things, and wishing for more silence, and wanting to find a new schedule.  I've been seeing bits and pieces here and there as a I post, through the little bits of news I see, and online sources.  I think this next election is a real sign of America's difficult state of being.  There's no way to know what the next President will face, but the entire world is struggling to deal with debt issues and bankruptcy.  America's reputation is on fumes because of our own debt issues.  If the economy falls next term, it will be blamed on someone, probably the Republicans because the media is primarily owned by liberal entities.

How many names are we considering?  The news tonight said there are 17 Republicans.  I think the last number I heard for the Democrats was 4, and maybe Joe Biden.  Mr. Trump may go to an independent party before the election gets here.  We have some repeaters and some new efforts.

I keep saying that only GOD knows who will win, and what the future holds, and why that person will be picked.  Part of the equation is the fulfillment of prophecies that are due in our time.  I haven't picked anyone special myself.  Another comment I made about the campaign is that the process is just as important as the election.  It allows conversations that we don't permit to happen at other times in our national history.  I hope it becomes a very meaningful process, that it causes us to look hard at our country and the problems we are facing.



In other parts of my life, I am still working on my diet and nutrition focus for losing weight.  I spent most of the day trying to figure out a way to plan the 21day Fix menus before I go shopping. I wound up modifying that into a mix of USDA materials and my own desires for eating.  I think I will need to find out the calorie amounts on some of my food choices.  It is a long process, but I hope to make permanent changes.

I started making some real menus today and discovered (remembered) how hard of an activity that is.  I use to make monthly menus for the government program that was part of my childcare efforts years ago.  I think it was a USDA reimbursement program, but I am not sure... it has been 20 or more years since I did that.  :-)  Maybe it was 30 years...yes, I think is was 30 or more years ago!

Now that I am older, and doing this for nutrition purposes, the choices are very different.  It will be interesting to see what I come up with.

If I can figure out how to upload something to this blog, I will try to share something with you.  Until tomorrow, may GOD watch over all of us, especially those who love Him.

4 AUG 2015 :: Busy day for blogging

I just added blog post to two other topics I am trying to develop :: 

I wonder what I should add to that here!  :-)

I have been trying to catch up with all my reading - the articles I printed off while looking for new information on food and business.  Reading gets to be a big challenge.  To improve my marketing efforts for Working Together and for my personal income needs, I need to find out how other people have solved these problems.  I especially need low-cost (no-cost) methods to survive and thrive.  :-)



Earlier today I was doing my "Today I am thankful for..." post and I noticed a Rush Limbaugh item about the young businessman that tried to pay everyone in his company the same wage.  I decided to make a comment and this is what I ended up with.  (copied and pasted here)

I think the statement he was trying to make to the world is worth more efforts... the amount may have been too much, the structure of the company may have had problems, and the rest of the business world may have been afraid of what he was trying to do at a personal level. --- It is my view that we are all equal in the eyes of GOD and that such disparity in wages is not always a good thing. It is my hope to build a Christian company that acts as both a ministry and a for-profit business, and that makes a statement that each person contributes equally to the success or failure of the company by making wages equal, at a liveable wage, and with benefits tied to survival needs. An hourly wage that covers the living needs of employees at the bottom of the economic ladder is a BASIC NEED, not a threat to the survival of the company. If there is a labor budget, we need to start with the pay scales at the bottom and then work up to the executive offices. My reason for wanting everyone to have a decent lifestyle with Working Together is that the needs of the End Times are going to be harsh and desperate and threatening... and there will be many, many, many people in need...not only Christians, but others who will be caught up in poverty and persecution. What would happen to the budgets of all our ministries if this focus was the norm (that everyone was paid at the same rate)? It would change a lot.
Here is the link I got at Facebook, but it goes to the article and not to the post about it.  I didn't read the article...I was upset about the perspective I saw about the man.  I felt my comment was important and decided to share it as a post on my timeline, and then decided to see if I could reach the man at his company, gravitypayments.com -- which became a contact form submission. 

I wish I could do more for his company because I think there are parts of this concept that are critical.  Becoming a co-op company is not the same as socialism.  One is controlled by the government, with the possibility of military and police-state enforcement.  The other is a large partnership.  I didn't read a lot about this company, I just heard the news about his effort.  I think he was trying to create a more equal management atmosphere, not socialized business practices.  (But, I don't really know his motives or goals.)


So many of our businesses are having to change because of the effects of technology... there really isn't going to be a choice pretty soon.  My hope has always been to create some kind of safety net for these economic changes, mostly for Christians, and mostly for the membership base I am trying to create.  Working Together is meant to be a kind of co-op, a kind of non-profit, a kind of bank, and a kind of church.  To protect it I felt it needed to be a privately-owned for-profit business, and I own all the stock until GOD brings me the person He wants to take control of it after me. 

There is no guarantee any company will flourish under any specific kind of business structure, but this seemed to be the best option for the goals of Working Together.  I am sure that the man in charge of Gravity Payments felt he was doing the best thing for his company, too.  I am concerned for all the Christian companies that will disappear if we don't find a way to help each other... instead of attacking each other.



3 AUG 2015 :: Weekends are always full

So many things happen over the weekends and I want to share their significance in this life, but I forget it all by Monday... I think they call it "information overload!"   :-)  

I was following links to food information sites, to news items, to spiritual issues, to personal activities... and then I designed a new form for tracking my food intake and losing weight and discovered a JPEG function for saving my page... which I tried to upload to Etsy, and it worked!!  I hope this is a good thing... it will help me to get my designs up to the listing process for Etsy... at least the digital ones.  I suppose I will find out all the terrible issues associated with using this function in the days ahead.  :-)

I tried to upload/deposit some money for my son in prison over the weekend.  What a disaster.  While trying to make a  $15 first-time try-it-out deposit, I wound up with four charges and a drained account.  :-(   I was not a happy camper.  I tried to call both businesses about canceling the erroneous charges, but there turned out to be nothing that could be done.  What a lesson in online problems.

Now I have to wait (and PRAY) that my money eventually is returned to my account, but it has destroyed my fragile (poverty) budget.  I am considering all the alternatives as I wait... and trying to prepare for any of them.  I wanted to get the details worked out for a video visit by Christmas.  I don't know what I will do now, but I will try to deal with their system for now.  Their info says they are the third largest in their field... maybe I will check on 1 and 2 as well.


I happened upon a site with meal information focused on vegetarian diets, and some vegan pages.  The infographics were good.  I think I saved and/or printed about ten of them.  I loved the one about nuts in the diet.  I have been trying to figure out how many are in a serving for a long time... and which ones are the best for us.  They have a lot of information on how to survive without meat as your protein, and even how to live without eggs. Some of the ideas are worth knowing whether you eat meat or not!

I am looking for the best foods to focus on for my health and diet needs, the right portion sizes, and ideas for exercise in my situation.  I eat a LOT of popcorn so I searched for some place to find out how many calories it is costing me.  I found a website titled popcorn.org and more info than I really needed, and lots I am glad I read.

I think I have almost depleted my printer's ink supply because of all the copies I made to read and then share.  ( Another budget issue. )  I am a fiend for a lot of different types of information.  Some of it is really worthwhile, the rest you don't know about until you actually read it.

My weekend was filled with more than these things, but they offer a highlight. 

I have to change my routines next week.  I am needing more exercise on the weekends.  I tend to vegetate and get sit-down things done.  It causes my lost pounds from the week to return on Mondays.  We need to do something to prevent that... somehow.  Getting out the door is a problem for me, but I am working on a plan!  :-)


I am waiting on my house-flipping response this week, too. It is easier to look over materials at home, to check further online, to explore more at home.  I hope they send me the materials I was suppose to receive at the class/seminar/product introduction.

Don't forget to check on my new listing at Etsy and see how the form I made became a photo upload, and how it displays.  I am really excited about how it displays.  I will be able to create and attempt to sell a lot more of my planned digital products as I get them formatted.  I am already planning a strategy for getting them listed ASAP (as soon as possible).

Enjoy your evening... I will talk at you tomorrow, GOD willing.