my talk on service

I don't remember ever having such a hard time writing a talk. I never got to the "flow" part and it was just a struggle--usually after I pick a topic and get some basic quotes down. I rearrange things and write and it usually reaches a point where the writing seems to flow and everything comes together. Not this time.

After spending hours on one talk, I basically scrapped it and spent hours writing a whole new talk that just slightly overlapped the first one. I didn't like that one either. I hunted for a different topic. I vacillated back and forth with trying to work on the 2nd talk I'd written and coming up with a 3rd talk. Finally, I had to give in. It was 10 pm. So in the morning I did make just a few notes in the margins, but since I also had Sharing Time today, I pretty much left it as it was.

So, here was my written talk, which of course isn't exactly like my spoken one, but close enough. Oh, I italicize quotes and scriptures. It helps me keep my thoughts separate from the quotes and is easier to see than just quote marks. Now let's see if studying all this will make a difference in my life.

*****

What a great blessing it is to live in this day and age when we have a living prophet and where God speaks to man and that we can so easily access His words. General Conference is one of the most wonderful gifts that Heavenly Father has given to us.

If we wonder what the Lord wants us to know, we can see what His Apostles talked about at the last Conference  just by looking in the topic index of the General Conference issue of the Ensign to see what the hot topics are. I discovered that in this past conference, 9 talks were given on the topic of service…and 6 were given on that same topic in April’s Conference--for a whopping total of 15 in one year, which is way more than any other topic.

When I saw that the topic was service, I was a bit hesitant to tackle it as I am not always the best example of service (as anyone who has been visit taught by me can attest). Service is something I struggle with at times. Glen‘s family has been a great example to me in this area. And that is one of the reasons why I love my calling in the primary. It is such a blessing for me to be able to attend ward council meetings and hear of the wonderful Christlike service performed by the members of that council and others.

I. SCRIPTURES AND EXAMPLES

The scriptures are full of entreaties for us to serve as well as full of examples of service, especially in the Savior‘s life. His life is all about service. Even His death was a service to us. Looking at the lives of our modern-day apostles and prophets, we find plenty of examples of what it means to serve.

In Matthew 22 The Savior taught that the first and great commandment is:

“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. …

“And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

“On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets” (Matthew 22:37, 39–40).

We show that love by serving.

***

Matthew 25
“Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world,” the Savior teaches. And then He tells us how:

“For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:

“Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.

“Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink?

“When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee?
“Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?

“And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.”

***

In Sister Linda K Burton’s talk, she stated,
One of the greatest evidences we have that our beloved prophet, President Thomas S. Monson, is the Lord’s chosen servant is that he has learned to follow the Savior’s example—serving individually, one by one. Those of us who have entered the waters of baptism have covenanted to do the same. We have covenanted to “always remember [the Savior] and keep his commandments,” and He has said, “This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.”

So, we have our injunctions to serve and examples to follow. Now we need to see our opportunities and take advantage of them.

II. OPPORTUNITIES

In the hymn Have I Done Any Good in the World Today (hymn 223), we are reminded that “there are chances for work all around just now, opportunities right in our way.” There are 2 kinds of opportunities--those that are already sort of “pre-scheduled” in our lives and those that we can seek out by being anxiously engaged in a good cause and doing things of our own free will and choice and

Elder Hales  gives some areas where we built-in chances to serve.

He relates the story of when Jesus asked Peter three times, “Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me?” When Peter expressed his love, the Savior implored him, “Feed my lambs. … Feed my sheep.”

This is the call of Christ to every Christian today: “Feed my lambs. … Feed my sheep”—share my gospel with young and old, lifting, blessing, comforting, encouraging, and building them, especially those who think and believe differently than we do. We feed His lambs in our homes by how we live the gospel: keeping the commandments, praying, studying the scriptures, and emulating His love. We feed His sheep in the Church as we serve in priesthood quorums and auxiliary organizations. And we feed His sheep throughout the world by being good Christian neighbors, practicing the pure religion of visiting and serving the widows, the fatherless, the poor, and all who are in need.  

Family life and the whole church is set up in a way that it gives us ample opportunities to step outside of ourselves. The Priesthood is a service organization and a power…no man uses his priesthood to bless himself, but to bless others around him, with Home Teaching being one of the ways to accomplish that. The Relief Society is for organizing the relief of others as well as for the teaching of the sisters to strengthen them and their families.  The RS has its inspired Visiting Teaching program.

The Young Men’s organization and scouting program involves chances for service, especially in the Eagle Scout projects. The Young Women’s personal progress projects often involve serving. We even touch on it in the Primary. Just last week the Sharing Time lesson was on service.

BYU’s motto is “Enter to learn, go forth to serve.”  Our tithing slips are all about service--tithing goes to serve and help further the work, fast offering helps the poor, the missionary fund, the Perpetual Education Fund and the Temple Assistance Patron Fund are all ways to help others.

Besides being assigned to visit and home teach, we are often given callings in the church. As we fulfill our duties, we are serving. We have chances to give talks, to pray, and to participate in lessons and music. These are all service.

Every time we hold Family Home Evening or have family scripture study or prayer, we are serving our children.

Every time we do family history research and enter the temple and perform work there, we are serving our kindred dead.

I would like to talk a minute about music, as well as other talents we might have. Elder Eyring’s talk in the Priesthood session of conference dealt with helping our children to achieve their full potential in God’s kingdom by helping them realize their talents. He said,

God knows our gifts. My challenge to you and to me is to pray to know the gifts we have been given, to know how to develop them, and to recognize the opportunities to serve others that God provides us. But most of all, I pray that you will be inspired to help others discover their special gifts from God to serve.

We are given talents and gifts so that they can be used to bless the lives of others.

Elder Ballard talks about how to find opportunities to serve:

That simple practice is: In your morning prayer each new day, ask Heavenly Father to guide you to recognize an opportunity to serve one of His precious children. Then go throughout the day with your heart full of faith and love, looking for someone to help. Stay focused, just like the honeybees focus on the flowers from which to gather nectar and pollen. If you do this, your spiritual sensitivities will be enlarged and you will discover opportunities to serve that you never before realized were possible.

I wish this were my own story to relate, but I have not really tried to follow this counsel yet. But, a few years ago, my sister tried to do this. She told me that she was afraid that she would be overwhelmed by all the Spirit would tell her that needed doing, but in her “experiment upon the word” she discovered that the Spirit directed her to help others, but it was always within her capacity and she was not given more than she could deal with.

Elder Ballard continues:

President Thomas S. Monson has taught that in many instances Heavenly Father answers another person’s prayers through us—through you and me—through our kind words and deeds, through our simple acts of service and love.

And President Spencer W. Kimball said: “God does notice us, and he watches over us. But it is usually through another person that he meets our needs. Therefore, it is vital that we serve each other” (Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Spencer W. Kimball [2006], 82).

I know that if you do this—at home, at school, at work, and at church—the Spirit will guide you, and you will be able to discern those in need of a particular service that only you may be able to give. You will be prompted by the Spirit ….

It is my humble prayer, brothers and sisters, that we will ask in our daily prayers for the inspiration to find someone for whom we can provide some meaningful service, including the service of sharing the gospel truths and our testimonies.

The Spirit will guide us and therefore our service will be with wisdom and in order.

Sister Linda K Burton teaches us that we may need to practice serving and teaches us a way to do that:

For some, serving or ministering one by one, following the Savior’s example, doesn’t come easily. But with practice, each of us can become more like the Savior as we serve God’s children. To help us better love one another, I would like to suggest four words to remember: “First observe, then serve.”

So, if we pray to be able to recognize opportunities, and then look around and observe those around us, we will be able to appropriately serve.

We look in our own homes to our families, we look to the temple where we can serve our kindred dead, we look to serve in our church callings and as home and visiting teachers, and in our communities. In other words, we serve all, and we don’t need to look far. Mother Teresa said, "Never worry about numbers. Help one person at a time, and always start with the person nearest you."


President Thomas S Monson (p 110) God Be with You Till We Meet Again

May we ever watch over one another, assisting in times of need. Let us not be critical and judgmental but let us be tolerant, ever emulating the Savior’s example of loving-kindness. In that vein, may we willingly serve one another. May we pray for the inspiration to know of the needs of those around us, and then may we go forward and provide assistance.

Let us be of good cheer as we go about our lives. Although we live in increasingly perilous times, the Lord loves us and is mindful of us. He is always on our side as we do what is right. He will help us in time of need.

election experiment

I know the tide turns...and sometimes it goes back and forth several times before we know the winner. I thought it might be interesting to watch how it goes. I will update occasionally.

At 4:04 pacific time (according to FOX):
Obama   72,538   with   3 electorial votes
Romney  124,190           0

ack in the 2 minutes since I've typed this one site now gives 3 for Obama and 19 for Romney (FOX) and another gives 3 for Obama and 8 for Romney (according to Politico) ...things change fast.

maybe that would be fun to do, too...track the different news agencies and see how they differ in awarding states electorial votes to the candidates...but I don't have time for that.

*****

4:11
Obama 330,821   with 3
Romney 362,05 with 19

*****

4:30
Obama  1,053,638 with 3
Romney 1,170,552 with 19

******

4:55
Obama    2,802,517  with  3
Romney  2,902,150    with  49

*****

5:15
Obama    4,559,200   with  79
Romney      5,001,012   with  71

*****

5:38
Obama   8,370, 986 with 78
Romney  9,236,077 with 88

*****

6:13
Obama   13,458,856 with  123 (109 by Politico)
Romney   14,185,025 with   154 (141 by Politico)

*****

6:32
Obama 17,401,466 with 153 (123 by Politico)
Romney 18,064,711 with 154 (153 by Politico)

 *****

went to class and missed everything else

9:30
Obama 49,204,276 with 290
Romney 49,227,135 with 203
(that was over so quickly...remember the days of not knowing until the middle of the night or the next day who had won?)
*****

Can't say I'm surprised, but I am sad. I would have liked to have seen Montana.

But, you know, when Clinton was elected for a second term, I felt as if the world was ending...and it didn't. And when Bush won a second term, I had some friends who felt as if the world was ending...and it didn't. So, although I think this is a worse situation than previously known, I think we will survive. Here's to relying on the Lord and seeking His Spirit to help us and guide us.

my sister's talk "Words that Inspire"

My sister, Denise, was asked to speak at a Relief Society Retreat. This is what she presented. It is awesome. She is awesome.

This talk was given at the RS Retreat on Mt. Charleston in September 2012

by Denise Stoehr, Lynbrook Ward

Words that Inspire

I was lucky enough to have been able to attend education week last year and I went to many amazing classes but one in particular has stayed with me for over a year now, and it has changed my life in so many positive ways. I don’t think a day goes by that I don’t think about the things I learned in this series of classes. Much of what I am going to share with you today comes from those talks given by a BYU professor named Dr. Sherrie Johnson, Ph. D.

This morning we are going to talk about a very simple thing….WORDS.  If you have you ever been deeply wounded by words, or inspired by them; if words have ever motivated you, if words have ever healed your wounded spirit, or your physical body, then you understand the power of words. 

I learned of a researcher named Dr. Emoto. He wanted to investigate the power of words. He conducted an experiment, where he would freeze water and he would photograph the microscopic crystals that would form in the frozen water. He discovered something very interesting. He exposed some of the water to what we view as positive words, words like joy, hope, happiness, peace, love, etc. and he found that the ice crystals that formed in this water were beautiful, perfectly formed crystals, like snowflakes, in beautiful patterns of whites and blues. He also exposed some of the water to negative words, such “I hate you, you’re ugly” etc. He was amazed to see that these crystals were deformed. There were pieces missing; they were asymmetrical, and were ugly and misshapen.  He was convinced that words in and of themselves have power; either power for good or ill.

Now, there are a lot of scriptures that back this up. This concept really shouldn’t surprise us.     

                        -Think of what we read in John 1:1, “In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the Word was God.” Words are so significant to Heavenly Father. that His Son is called the Word. That is one of the titles he has chosen to give his son.

-How about Genesis:  “God said let there be light and there was light.”

-Think of the ordinances in the church: Baptisms, blessing of the sacrament, temple sealings. These all have exact words that must be said in a certain order, in a certain way.

Words matter. Words are important.

Words have the power to actually influence our physical, emotional and spiritual state.

Read page 9 of You Can’t Afford the Luxury of a Negative Thought (it speaks of picturing yourself biting into a lemon, and noticing your physical reaction. Also, speaks of thinking of nails on a blackboard, and even worse…imagining taking an emery board, putting it in your mouth and then pulling it through your teeth). Awful!!! These THOUGHTS (which are just WORDS in our head) cause us to have an actual physical reaction, as though it was really happening.

So, with these examples, I think we can all agree that thoughts and words have power to influence us.

It is not new to any of us that we should use kind words to others. That’s not what I’m going to talk about today.  I want to talk about the words we say to ourselves.  If words have power, then we need to be aware of the words we are telling ourselves, about ourselves. We have to be careful. Words have a powerful effect your body, your health, your mind, your spirit. Words have the power to create your moods and your attitude and your reality.  

There is a story of two Zen monks, one older and one younger: In their travels one day, they came across a beautiful woman. It had rained and there were deep puddles everywhere. The older monk graciously picked up the young woman and carried her across the puddle. This greatly disturbed the younger monk. He was upset the rest of the day. Finally at the end of the day, the older monk asked what was wrong. He said, “You have been so quiet and seem to be upset. You have not been enjoying this beautiful day and this beautiful scenery that is all around us. Why?”  The younger one said, “You carried that woman. We took a vow never to even touch a woman and you picked her up.”   “Ahh, that’s true,” said the older Zen monk, “but I put her down at the edge of the puddle. YOU have carried her all day.”  

Sisters, what do we carry around all day that we don’t have to? What unnecessary burdens do we carry because of our thoughts? Do we carry negative thoughts about ourselves? For some of us that is a constant habit. Please, think deeply about this: If it is not OK for you to constantly barrage your children, your neighbors, your co-workers, your husband, your friends, with complaints and name-calling and put-downs, then why in the world do we think it is Ok to do this to ourselves? Do we really think that our Father in Heaven is perfectly fine with this? It is just as wrong for us to do this to ourselves as it would be for us to do this to someone else.  YOU ARE A CHILD OF GOD AND YOU SHOULD BE TREATED THAT WAY, EVEN BY YOURSELF!!

 Do you ever feel that you are wearing a mask, because if you let the real you show, others won’t like you, love you, appreciate you??  Do we tell ourselves that we are not good enough? That we will never be good enough? Are we exhausted trying to hold this mask up? It takes a lot of energy to hold this mask up all day long, every day.  Do we compare ourselves to others and never measure up? Do we live out our days in angst and vexation? These are such a great words, angst and vexation. So many of us live life like this.  Are we anxious and fearful? Are we “careful and troubled about many things," as Martha is the New Testament?  Sister Hinckley once said, “We woman have a lot to learn about simplifying our lives. We have to decide what is important and then move along at a pace that is comfortable for us. We have to develop the maturity to stop trying to prove something. We have to be content with what we are.”  Wow! This is powerful. If we could learn to do this, we could at last put down our mask! 

If we are living our lives in angst and vexation, then we have to take a careful look at the words we are telling ourselves…it starts there. We have to look at the words that we are using to create our reality.  

As mortals, we do feel pain. There really is no way to avoid pain altogether on this earth. Some of it is necessary pain (our bodies can become sick, or injured; we live with the effects of the fall every day. We live in an imperfect world and things can go wrong that cause psychological pain, spiritual pain, social pain, etc.).  But, a lot of the pain we experience is UNNECCESARY pain. This is the kind of pain we feel that comes from words that we tell ourselves. This kind of pain comes from focusing on the “should” in our lives (which we’ll talk about in more detail in a moment).

We’ve all heard that thoughts (words in our mind) lead to actions, and actions lead to habits, and habits lead to character. The words in our minds and the words that we say out loud about ourselves influence who we are becoming. We cannot afford the luxury of a negative thought. If we really knew the effect that negative words were having on us, we would stop.  If you watch your words, your actions will take care of themselves.

Alma 32 compares the word to a seed.  Alma 32: 31: says that “every seed bringeth forth unto its own likeness.”  If we replace the word seed with “word,” it states that, “every WORD bringeth forth unto its own likeness.”  What goes around, comes around! Self-fulfilling prophecy!  I am a big believer in Karma, but was a little nervous about whether or not Karma is an LDS doctrine.  I was recently doing a deep study of Alma and found this in Alma 41:15: “…for that which ye do send out, shall return unto you again…” What a perfect description of Karma! So the words that we are producing about ourselves will come back…either to hurt us or to bless and uplift us.  Your words/thoughts create your reality. What kind of reality do you want to create for yourself? An environment of warmth, forgiveness, charity, mercy? Or angst and vexation fear and worry? It's really all up to us. And think about which environment the Lord would want for you? That’s an easy answer…which environment would you like for your loved ones?

In D&C 93:24 it states that, “Truth is knowledge of things as they are, as they were and as they are to come. “Notice it does not say that truth is knowledge of things as we really, really wish they were or as we think they SHOULD BE. We have a lot of SHOULDS in our lives and I think we torture ourselves with our SHOULDS. 

Let me clarify something right now, before I go on, so no one will misunderstand. When I am talking about SHOULDS for the next few minutes, I am talking about the things that we do NOT have control over, but there are SHOULDS in our lives that we DO have control over. For example, we should attend church, we should pay our tithing, and we should have home evening. These are good “shoulds” as they guide us to happy living. If you get a prompting that says “You should go to the temple this weekend” that’s probably the Holy Ghost trying to help you and influence you to do something that will only bring you happiness. THOSE “shoulds” we must listen to and try to get better at heeding. The kinds of “shoulds” that I am talking about now are the kinds of “shoulds” we have no control over. 

We cause ourselves a lot of UNNECESSARY pain and vexation, and anxiety, and fear, sadness, and worry when we focus on what we think SHOULD be that maybe isn’t. Think of all the “shoulds”   in our lives. Some of them are mere annoyances, not too serious, such as “Why does there have to be a traffic jam today of all days? This should not be happening. This lady in line should not be taking so long. The waiter should not have gotten my order wrong.   My friend should not have hurt my feelings; my boss should appreciate me more."

Some are more serious in nature: “My son should have gone on a mission, my daughter should have gotten married in the temple, my husband should not have lost his job. I should not have gotten sick.” “Should” is a dangerous word …WHY? Because the spirit resides in truth (and remember, truth is things are they ARE, not as we think they SHOULD be).  If we want to be where the spirit is, we must remain in truth.  D&C 84:45 says, “For the word of the Lord is truth, and whatsoever is truth is light and whatsoever is light is spirit…”  So, if a=b, and b=c, then a=c:  TRUTH IS SPIRIT AND SPIRIT IS TRUTH…so the spirit resides in things as they ARE. When we insist on focusing on the way we WISH things were, the “shoulds and the “should nots,” we are outside of the realm of the spirit. How often have you felt the spirit when you are in fear, when you are worrying, fretting, murmuring, when you are anxious and complaining? We don’t. We don’t feel the spirit then because the spirit resides in truth. 

D&C 93: 25 says:  “Whatsoever is more or less than this is the spirit of the wicked one which was a liar from the beginning.” Wow..so truth is things as they are and anything more or less than this comes from the adversary!

When we stop fretting about things we have no control over, we are free to live in truth and then the Holy Ghost is free to influence us, guide us, and to help us decide what to do if anything about a situation.

So, again, I don’t want you to misunderstand me, I am not saying that we stop caring. I’m not saying, “We don’t have control over that person or that situation, so I’ll pretend I don’t care.” We should not live in denial.   What I am saying is when something unpleasant is happening, we can use words to say to ourselves, “This is happening, I have everything I need in this moment to be guided by the Lord,” and then open yourself up to the spirit for inspiration. Use prayer.  Sometimes there is something that we can do, sometimes there may not be anything we can do at that moment, but you will be calm enough to hear the whisperings of the Holy Ghost, either way. 

So, when we are aware that we are giving ourselves unnecessary pain, we need to look at the words we are telling ourselves. Here is some last advice about how to do this:

1)      Follow Elder Wirthlin’s advice…”Come what may and love it,” he said. Realize through self-talk that life is a miracle. Even on a “terrible, horrible, no good very bad day,” life is amazing! Learn to embrace all of our experiences for the miracle it is just to be here. Learn to appreciate all of the learning we are doing here. Develop your faith in God’s plan!

2)      Anchor yourself. This means to be aware of the present moment. When you recognize that you are slipping into negativity and vexing yourself by the SHOULDS, use your five senses to ground yourself in the moment, to ground yourself to the now, to truth. Soak in the sounds you may be hearing, the sights, the colors around you, be aware of the fabric of your shirt. This puts you in “neutral” and helps you to remain calm and helps you to see the big picture.  Everything you need in that moment will be given to you. I know this sounds kind of hokey..but I promise it really works.!! I remember one night, I was in the kitchen preparing dinner and one of my sons came in to talk to me. What he was telling me was not making me very happy, and I was starting to get very uptight and vexed about it. As I listened, I grounded myself in the moment by letting myself become aware of the beautiful colors of the peppers I was cutting up at the time. The bright yellow and red colors against the pure, white cutting board became so brilliant and beautiful to me. In the second or two that that took, I was reminded of the big picture of how beautiful life is and how great it is just to be alive. That allowed me to settle my nerves, listen more calmly to my son, and allowed me to hear the inspiration of the spirit that helped me with the rest of that conversation. If I had let myself continue to grow in anxiety and stress, I know I would not have responded in the best way, because it would have been harder for me to feel the spirit.

3)      Re-write the story. This means, when you find yourself getting upset and all worked up about something; make up a reasonable explanation as to why that upsetting thing happened. For example, if someone doesn’t say hi to you in the hall…instead, of thinking, “Boy, why is she mad at me?  What did I do to offend her?” etc., you can say, “Maybe she just got some bad news. I hope she’s OK.”  If someone cuts you off on the freeway, you can allow yourself to waste precious time and energy by getting upset and vexed or you can rewrite the story, “Maybe his wife is in labor and they are trying to get to the hospital.” This is one of the most powerful techniques (and my personal favorite) because as soon as you come up with a more charitable reason for something happening, it instantly changes your feelings about a situation.

4)      Affirmative self-talk.  Instead of saying to yourself things like, “I can’t believe I did that or said that. What is wrong with me?  I am such an idiot,” we can say, “I made a mistake. I should not have done that. I have learned from this. Next time, I will____.” No longer allow yourself to beat yourself up. When you find yourself doing it..STOP IT!!

5)      Gospel principals-Don’t forget about true gospel principals that we learn about every week! Live your life in gratitude! Strive to develop faith, learn to forgive (yourself and others both), repent, come to the sacrament table with a broken heart and a contrite spirit to renew your covenants, pray, feast on the scriptures, etc. These are tools given to us by the Lord to help us stay in truth. To stay where the spirit is!

Sisters, we must be aware of the words we are telling ourselves. We cannot afford the luxury of a negative thought because it is too costly! We will catch ourselves many times falling out of the realm of truth into the illusion of the “shoulds” but we can learn to use the tools that will help us break this habit and to stay in truth, where the spirit is. I know we can, because the Lord loves us and will help us to do so! I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Intuitive Eating

I first heard about the book Intuitive Eating: A Revolutionary Program that Works by Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch at BYU's Ed Week a year or two ago (or 3?). The idea sounded interesting, but my local library didn't have it. I finally ordered it through interlibrary loan a few weeks ago and have been reading it. I like it so much I ordered a book (used) from abebooks.com ($1 for the book $2.95 s&h). They have a brand new edition that just came out earlier this month, but I didn't go for that one...I went cheap.

The authors of Intuitive Eating have a website. Here is the page that gives an explanation to their 10 basic principles :
http://www.intuitiveeating.org/content/10-principles 

The principles that I think I most need are honoring your hunger, respect your fullness, discover the satisfaction factor, and honoring your feelings without using food. I eat even when  I'm full sometimes just because my mouth wants something. I eat when I'm not hungry but am bored.

Of course, I haven't had a real chance to try out what they teach and I'm still reading the book, but it rings true to me. I guess we all gravitate to things that sound logical to us. I believe God created this world and that He wants us to spend our time on better things than exercising excessively and obsessing on food. I figure there has to be an easier way to take care of my body.

So that way is to eat when you are hungry and stop when you are full enough (they also advocate exercise and good nutrition, but I don't think I have a problem in those areas). God made our bodies to take care of themselves--hunger and feeling full is how our body communicates with us as to when and what and how much to eat. Wow. Can't wait to try it.

Though I have never been a dieter like a lot have, I have struggled with my weight since I was about 13 or 14. I have never been thin and have only been a normal weight a few times.

I knew yo-yo dieting was very bad for you. I tried to eat healthily and get a little exercise, but being overweight made me very self-conscious to play sports or exercise in public. I was 150s-160s all through high school and college. While in college I tried the Cambridge Diet, which was a liquid drink that gave, I think, about 300-500 calories a day. I went into weight counseling on campus and the dietician let me know that was not good for my body. I sort of knew that, but needed her to tell me.

Back then, I was taught that a calorie was a calorie and it didn't matter if you ate a Big Mac once a day or spread out your calories with good food all day long. We now know that is incorrect. I didn't lose any weight there.

I finally lost weight in my mid-twenties when I was out on my own, couldn't afford snacks, and was too busy to be home to eat anyway.

I was about 142 lbs when I married at age 27--it was my lowest weight since I was on my way up 14 years earlier. After giving birth to my first child, I got back to that weight by using Weight Watchers. Then I got pregnant with my second child and I've been overweight or obese ever since. My body mass index (BMI) is currently 30.0, which is the last obese spot before I hit 29.9 and am considered just overweight--when I lose just 1/2 a pound, that will bring me down to 29.9! (though BMI isn't necessarily the best way to do things, it's better than nothing). BMI calculations: http://www.nhlbisupport.com/bmi/

But the Intuitive Eating program doesn't like us using scales.

But I will still watch and see when I get down to 177.0.

Anyway,  no foods are tabu since outlawing something leads to craving it which leads to binging. If you've been dieting a lot, then you might gain weight before your body stabilizes and then lets you lose weight. I'm thinking I have a lot of the bad habits they talk about...I simply overeat...so maybe I will not gain weight first. I'd like to hope for that anyway.

So, I will continue to read and I will give it a try.

refinishing cabinets, recaulking the shower, and an updated projects list

I've been pretty busy. This afternoon I hit a point where I felt like I was done with projects for the summer...I was tired and frustrated (and then I noticed a few projects I want to work on...making cheese and sewing something with our old jeans, so I guess I'm not done, though I might take a break for a day or two).

I had refinished our wooden cabinet doors in the kitchen and in the bathrooms, but waited till that was done before I tried the stain and polyurethane in one Minwax product on the non-wood cabinet base. I did a sample section the other day and it worked beautifully, so this morning I had Glen remove all the cabinet doors and we prepared the cabinets and then I used the Minwax on them...and 6 hours later they weren't dry and ready for the 2nd coat like they were supposed to be. I was running scared, but now, 11 hours later, they are almost dry enough for the 2nd coat. Perhaps it was more humid today than on my experimental day. But I was really wondering what I was going to do with all those sticky cabinets.

While I was waiting for my cabinets to dry, I painstakingly took the caulking out of my shower. I tried various tools and the regular razor blade plus a tool used in ceramics that resembles what the dental hygienist uses to scrap tartar off your teeth was what wound up working best.

One and a half hours of a slowly progressing project in the heat and I was worn out. I have never caulked in my life, so Glen came to assist me. I had seen on pinterest where you use painters tape, taping 1/4" from the corner you are caulking. We taped. We caulked. Too much caulk as it turned out and we almost made a huge mess smoothing it out. Then we took off the painters tape...

...and it looked beautiful until we took off the last piece. It hadn't removed enough caulk from it and it left a few gobs. Trying to clean up the gobs started messing up our pretty caulking job. In the end, I salvaged it a little, but it didn't go back to it's original nice edge. I know not to use so much caulk next time. I bought the "guaranteed not to mildew for 5 years" kind in hopes of not having to repeat the process in the near future. We'll probably replace the shower before I'd have to caulk again.

So, what have we accomplished so far this summer? These are the things crossed off the list:

1-sand and seal the bench on the porch (finished 6-26 with the help of the kids)

3-regrout the shower (finished 7-20)

before...pretty gross

after...not perfect, but better

7-scrapbooking ("finished" 6-16...but scrapbooking is never done)
8-sort files in filing cabinets (finished 6-19)
9-weed out books on book shelves (finished 6-6)
10-update my MP3 player  (finished 6-12)
11-fix speaker wires in family room (Glen finished 7-16)
12-make the "towns and miles" signs to go on the pole (finished 6-27)

14-refinish dining room table (finished 6-23)
15-refinish kitchen and bathroom cabinets (finished 7-20)

kids' bathroom before

after...this was the biggest improvement of all the cabinets

18-fenced area for the dogs (Glen sort of finished this one...they still escape occasionally)
19-get water filter changed (finished 7-18 by Glen)
24-put new light fixtures in front hallway and the office (a Glen job-finished 6-20)
25-put in new bathroom sinks (a Glen job-finished 6-22)

before

after

What have I been working on but will still take a while to finish?

4-make new 72-hour kits (food portion done 7-13)
5-organize recipes
6-continue to work on my family history book...and publish it on scribd.com

What do I still plan on getting to?

2-clean out the flower beds around the house
4-make new 72-hour emergency kits (food portion done 7-13, now I need to finish the non-food portion)
21-make window treatments for family room (though this will be in the fall and not summer, probably)
29-make cheese (I checked out a library book and liked it so much, I've ordered one for myself)
30-use old jeans to make something (another apron, place mats, quilts...whatever...)

and I can't forget that I need to:
31-get a boy ready to send off to college


What have I given up on?

13-touch-up paint back bathroom (I couldn't find the rest of the paint I thought I had, so now I will have to get new paint and repaint the whole bathroom as the color I used was something I blended when I didn't like what I had bought)
16-paint shed
17-paint house
20-make fish pond
22-make new curtains for the dining room (since I already have some, they are good enough for another year)
23-refinish cedar chest (I'm tired of refinishing things)
26-build greenhouse (I guess there's a chance Glen will get to it still, but I doubt it )
27-new floor for kitchen/dining room and bathroom (I decided I didn't have enough $ for this...maybe next year)
28-new carpet for my room (same as above)

food for 72 hour kit update

Here is the revised food list. Some meals still seem a bit strange, but overall I'm glad I got the calories for each day balanced out a bit. I want to put some jerky and hard candy for snacking in the packs too. I still need to find a replacement for the tuna and chicken for my vegetarian. The laughing cow cheese said it needed refrigeration (though I had read online that they didn't...and maybe they don't, but I'm not going to do that at this point) and the jerky/cheese stick combos I saw at the store all expired within 5 months, so if I rotated that every 6 months, I could do it. I haven't decided yet.

As for cost, I'm sure I could have gotten some things cheaper, but I didn't want to spend too much energy on that...I wilt quickly when it comes to shopping.

The "problem" with the Progresso soup is that it weighs a lot, so I have moved it to lunch on the first day so it doesn't need to be carted around. Since my aim was to only have to heat something once a day, that means that the oatmeal originally scheduled for the first day has been moved to the second day.

The food pack now weighs in at 6 lbs. Calories average to 1600-1645 a day. The total cost (minus the jerky and hard candy) is $13.85 for 3 days worth of food. That doesn't seem too bad, considering ... x 7... so about $100 for 3 days. Wow. My monthly food budget would have to double if we ate like this all the time.

Day 1
(1475 to 1615 cal--$5.17)

Breakfast on the Go (180 cal--$.54)
cup of applesauce (100 cal--$.25)
3 mini fruit roll ups (120 cal--$.33)

Progresso soup (160-300 cal*--$1.58)
crackers (170 cal-- ~$.14 cost) ~ means about
fruit smiles (100 cal--$.14)

Power bar (250 cal--$1.38)
pudding cup (120 cal--$.25)
dried fruit (~275 cal-- ~$.56/lb) this varies

*the calories vary by flavor (80-150) and a can is 2 servings, so the calories would be 160-300

Day 2
(1,670 cal --$4.11)

2 oatmeal packets (320 cal-$.34)
fruit cup (peaches or pears) (70 cal--$.53)
hot chocolate (90 cal--$.13)

peanut butter (250 cal--$.34)
crackers (170 cal-- ~$.14)
granola bar (100 cal--$.17)
pudding cup (120 cal--$.25)

Bumble Bee chicken salad  (140 cal--$1.28)
granola bar (100 cal--$.17)
fruit smiles (100 cal--$.14)
fruitables fruit drink (40 cal--$.37)
cookie package (170 cal-- ~$.25)


Day 3
(1,650 cal--$4.57)

2 oatmeal packets (320 cal-$.34)
fruit cup (mandarin oranges) (70 cal--$.53)
hot chocolate (90 cal--$.13)

Candwich (270 cal--$1.25)
trail mix bar (140 cal--$.42)
fruit smiles (100 cal--$.14)

tuna (70 cal--$.75 w/ coupon)
crackers (170 cal-- ~$.14)
trail mix (300 cal--$.62)
pudding cup (120 cal--$.25)

Still have to figure out the non-food items.

My cabinets are coming along, but I'm not ready to post about that yet.

72 hour kits--what's a candwich?

My project list is getting shorter. It really is great crossing things off my summer list.

This week I'm working on 2 major projects. I started refinishing the cabinets in the back bathroom--the goal is to do the kitchen cabinets, but the back bathroom is the perfect place to practice, so that's where I started. I will tackle the kitchen on Thursday while my husband and 2 of the kids are out of town and then post about it.

The second  project is getting the food together for our 72 hour emergency kits. Now it's recommended to have 96 or even 120 hour kits as the various disasters in the US have shown that 72 hours isn't usually enough, but I figure 72 is a starting place. I've made a few kits over the years, but usually as a church activity--and it's been many years since we've have one of those. I guess it's time to take care of it on my own...which I kind of prefer anyway as we get to choose the foods we want instead of just having what was offered at church.

There are several decisons that need to be made when trying to come up with a menu. I'm battling the "having enough to eat without having it be too heavy" problem. If we just go to a shelter for an emergency, I guess it doesn't matter. But, if we ever had to hike out of anywhere, then weight really matters--carrying enough water would be a big challenge. How much do we balance just not being hungry with really eating nutriously? Do we use foods that have to be heated or go with all "cold" foods? And what about keeping the cost down? If I try too hard to keep the cost down, the task becomes overwhelming to me and it wouldn't get done.

I've decided to not worry too much about weight, try to eat as nutriously as we can, not worry too much about the cost, and only have to "cook" once a day--on 2 of the days that only means heating water. Two of the breakfasts will consist of instant oatmeal and hot chocolate. One dinner will be to heat up soup/stew/pasta or the like.

I noticed that trail mix type foods seem to be an easy and convenient. Nuts, of course, are packed with protein and calories, so are good in an emergency. But will we get sick of it after 3 days?

My plan is to rotate the foods every July--have a mock emergency and live off our 72 hour kits. That way we can see if it works OK and maybe see what changes we need to make in the menu.

Many foods now come in convenient little packages...too expensive for regular use, but worth it when it comes to emergency prep. You can get "Jiff to go" which is a little cup with peanut butter in it. Perfect.

One food that I discovered yesterday at Walmart and had to buy one for us to try is called a "Candwich." Yes, it's a sandwich in a can with a shelf life of about 1 year. Perfect for what I'm doing. We ate a honey bbq chicken one today and taste-wise it was a thumbs up all around. I wonder about preservatives in it that allow for the bread in the sandwich to last a year--but as with the high cost problem of convenience foods, I'm letting this one slide as it is only one sandwich a year we'd be eating.

I went for 1 pudding cup a day for the calium--but note that the lemon flavored pudding does not have any calcium in it. Weird, huh? The chocolate, vanilla, butterscotch, and tapioca all have as much calcium as an 8 oz glass of milk, but the lemon has 0%. It pays to read labels. Yahoo chocolate drink might have lots of calcium, but I decided to go the pudding route because I think it's lighter in weight.

So, I've bought most of the items, but not all yet. This is what it's looking like (though I haven't figured out substitutes of the meat for my vegetarian yet) with calories and cost per item:

Day 1 (1300 to 1350 cal--$3.46 plus cost of the bar)
2 oatmeal packets (320 cal-$.34)
cup of fruit (pears or peaches) (70 cal--$.45)
hot chocolate (90 cal--$.13)

Bumble Bee chicken salad and crackers (140 cal--$1.28)
granola bar (100 cal--$.17)
fruit smiles (100 cal--$.14)
fruitables fruit drink (40 cal--$.37)

lara or cliff bar (about 200-250 cal--haven't bought yet)
3 mini fruit roll ups (120 cal)--$.33)
pudding cup (120 cal--$.25)

Day 2 (1,258 cal + crackers, cheese, soup, fruit--cost?)
Breakfast on the Go (special trail mix packet) (180 cal--$.54)
cup of applesauce (100 cal--$.25)
pudding cup (120 cal--$.25)

crackers and laughing cow cheese (I hear it doesn't need refrigeration) (haven't bought yet)
granola bar (100 cal--$.17)
fruit smiles (100 cal--$.14)
cookie package (170 cal--receipt messed up don't know cost)

soup/stew/pasta can (haven't bought yet)
crackers (238 cal--receipt messed up don't know cost)
peanut butter (250 cal--$.34)
dried fruit (haven't bought yet)

Day 3 (1,580 cal--$4.72)
2 oatmeal packets (320 cal-$.34)
fruit cup (mandarin oranges) (70 cal--$.53)
hot chocolate (90 cal--$.13)

Candwich (270 cal--$1.29)
trail mix bar (140 cal--$.42)
fruit smiles (100 cal--$.14)

tuna (70 cal--$.75 w/ coupon)
trail mix (300 cal--$.62)
applesauce (100 cal--$.25)
pudding cup (120 cal--$.25)

and hard candy and gum for all 3 days

current weight of food: 3.8 lbs
current cost: $9.56 and I still need a cliff bar, crackers and laughing cow cheese, a can of soup/stew/pasta, and dried fruit (and the price of the cookies and crackers already bought)

I also am looking at rearranging the meals as some of them seem to be really weird combinations.

I have backpacks that I've bought 2nd hand to use to hold this.

Maybe next week I'll start assembling the non-food items like the buddy burner for heating up the meals.

Summertime Plans

I have been lightly organizing to get ready for summer. I have never had my house so in order--ever--probably and certainly not at the end of the school year and the start of the summer. It feels so good...and it only took me until my youngest was 11.

I have everything organized (functional but not necessarily perfect) except the back closet (which won't take much) and the big pantry (7' x 20') which will take A LOT. My back has been iffy, so I may not be ready to do the major rearranging, but I should at least get some done.

I made up my list of summer projects. There are several lists. One category, at least, is dependent on money. I have been saving most of the money from my subbing jobs this semester, so I have my budget--but I haven't priced anything and don't have a realistic idea of what things will cost. So, depending on the cost, of course, will depend on what will get done...and if my dear hubby agrees with me on what needs to be done.

SMALLER PROJECTS (projects that don't take too much time or that can be done in increments and squozen in here and there--the dictionary doesn't like the word "squozen" but I do, so I'm leaving it in):

1-sand and seal the bench on the porch (finished 6-26 with the help of the kids)
2-clean out the flower beds around the house (I don't do well bending over, so this is an increments project)
3-regrout the shower (finished 7-20)
4-make new 72-hour kits (food portion done 7-13)
5-organize recipes (this is an on-going project and I'm making progress)
6-continue to work on my family history book...and publish it on scribd.com
7-scrapbooking ("finished" 6-16...but scrapbooking is never done)
8-sort files in filing cabinets (finished 6-19)
9-weed out books on book shelves (finished 6-6)
10-update my MP3 player  (finished 6-12)
11-fix speaker wires in family room (Glen finished 7-16)
12-make the "towns and miles" signs to go on the post (finished 6-27)
13-touch-up paint (or repaint) back bathroom

BIGGER PROJECTS (a little more sweat and/or money involved)
14-refinish dining room table (finished 6-23)
15-resurface kitchen and bathroom cabinets (finished 7-20)
16-paint shed
17-paint house (though I really doubt that will happen this year)
18-fenced area for the dogs (Glen sort of finished this one...they still escape occasionally)
19-get water filter changed (finished 7-18 by Glen)
20-make fish pond (we already own the pump)
21-make window treatments for family room
22-make new curtains for the dining room
23-refinish cedar chest
24-put new light fixtures in front hallway and the office (a Glen job-finished 6-20)
25-put in new bathroom sinks (a Glen job-finished 6-22)

GONNA-COST-SOME-MONEY PROJECTS  (and maybe some hired help)
26-build greenhouse (we already own the panels, though)
27-new floor for kitchen/dining room and bathroom
28-new carpet for my room (and the rest of the house, but that isn't going to happen this year)

EXTRA PROJECTS
29-make cheese
30-use old jeans to make something (another apron, placemats, quilts...whatever)

Can't wait to see what gets done...anything big involving my husband may not happen as he's working on the farm this summer.

OH YEAH, ONE LAST PROJECT
31-get a boy ready to send off to college

AP classes--where have all the boys gone?

AP classes boys vs girls...or where have all the boys gone.

I proctored 6 AP tests over the past 1 1/2 weeks. The 2 tests I didn't proctor were physics and stats because my children were taking them. Everyone who took an AP class was required to take the AP exam.

I found the numbers to be lopsided.

subject                #boys      #girls

chemistry               3             11   

calculus                 6              5

English lit              2              20
and comp

US History           3              22

biology                 4              14

US Gov't             15             32
and Politics

I need to ask my kids what the ratio is in their classes. (update: AP physics had 8 boys and 4 girls; AP stats 8 boys and about 8 girls maybe)

Of the tests I gave only 1 had more males than females (calculus). The next closest ratio was in Gov't where there were twice as many girls as guys. Notice there were 10 times more girls than boys in English.

Why aren't more guys taking AP classes? Does it really mean anything that they aren't?

gardening notes

Several months ago my husband and I were asked to teach a class on gardening to the Relief Society sisters. I was surprised as I wondered if they'd ever seen our weedy (salt grass is taking over), haphazard garden. There are so many others in the ward that have better gardens than we do. Somehow, though, that RS lesson was sort of hijacked and turned into a ward activity instead--a ward dinner/barn dance/gardening display (which was great fun, by the way).

In the end, I was really glad because it got me hunting for ideas and got me enthused about gardening again--maybe this year I'll get a little more involved.

Since I figured most everyone already knows how to garden, my tactic became more what keeps us from gardening or gardening the way we'd like. We had a little raised bed gardening demo and a display with the following hand out:

OVERCOMING SOME OF OUR CHALLENGES IN GARDENING

There was a study done on people’s nutrition knowledge where the results were that most people knew how to eat properly—they just didn’t do it. I think it’s usually the same thing with gardening. We know we have been asked by our church leaders to raise a garden if we can, and we may even know how to garden, but somehow, it may not get done. This informational packet is intended to help us bridge the gap between our knowledge and our actions, at least a little bit.

Since entire books are written on almost every topic here, I, of course, cannot fully cover these topics. Hopefully, though, you will see something that will pique your interest and help you to do a little bit better in your gardening plans this year.

One of the nice things about gardening is, you can keep it simple or you can get as complicated as you want. The decision is yours as to how much time, money, and energy you will put it.

Stop and think what prevents you from gardening or if you do garden, what are some of the difficulties involved? There are many challenges that keep us from gardening as we would like. Some of these may include: poor soil and limited time, energy, desire, mobility, space, sunlight, money, and knowledge. Which obstacle is yours? And you probably have more than one.

Here are some ideas to help overcome these gardening challenges: start small, lasagna gardening,  water and weed efficiently, composting, start your own seeds, container gardening, square foot gardening, and raised-bed gardening.

DON’T EXPECT PERFECTION: Thinking your garden should look like something that could be put in a magazine will cause you to spend too much time, energy, and money to make it look just right--which can be overwhelming and cause you not to start in the first place. “The Prophet said to plant a garden” but he did not say it had to win awards for beauty.

We will see the day when we will live on what we produce. –President Marion G. Romney

FALL HARVEST CHALLENGE:

In the fall, our ward will be having another harvest dinner. Once again, there will be a display table for you to bring your best or worst, biggest or smallest, most beautiful or funniest looking home-grown vegetables. So keep that in mind this summer as you work on your growing skills!

WE LEARN BY DOING. Pick a gardening goal and “Just do it.” J

REMEMBER-When picking a spot for your garden or containers you will want 6 hours or more of sunlight for that spot-- then make sure to water your spot consistently.

START SMALL: If you start small, your garden won’t take much of your time and will allow you not to feel overwhelmed. Sometimes we don’t want to garden because it seems too difficult or the tasks involved seem overwhelming.

Try sticking your toe in the pool before you jump in. Things like container gardening or using square foot gardening (and just making one square) are projects that are small enough to handle, but will still produce results.

Vegetables that are considered easier to grow in general:

Broccoli, carrots, cucumbers, green beans*, lettuce*, onions, peas, peppers, potatoes, radishes, spinach, summer squash* (zucchini), tomatillos, tomatoes*, and herbs like basil, chives, cilantro, parsley, and rosemary. (* vegetables considered very easy to grow)

Easy to grow in containers:

Carrots, beets, peppers, zucchini, basil, chives, cilantro, garlic, rosemary, and strawberries.

“LASAGNA” GARDENING (aka layer gardening or no dig gardening): This will help you with poor soil and save you energy and time; however, if you start now, it will prepare a garden spot for next year and not this year.

This has nothing to do with Italians or growing tomatoes and herbs, but with making layers so that you can turn a poor spot into a gardening spot for the next season.

At your chosen spot, you layer various goodies on top of the current vegetation without digging or preparing the ground, and then you let it sit all year. Next year you turn it over and plant. The goodie layers are: 1^st-newspaper or cardboard; 2^nd-organic “browns” like leaves, peat, pine needles, shredded newspaper; 3^rd-organic “greens” like vegetable scraps and grass clippings; 4^th-more “browns;” 5^th-more “greens” (repeat until garden is 2 feet deep); and the final layer-compost or manure.

For more info see: Lasagna Gardening: A New Layering System for Bountiful Gardens: No Digging, No Tilling, No Weeding, No Kidding! by Patricia Lanza. (635.04 LAN at our local library)

Or go to: http://philadelphiacountymastergardeners.blogspot.com/2012/03/second-saturday-lasagna-gardening.html

WATERING EFFICIENTLY: This will save you time, energy and perhaps some money.

If  you can set up some kind of watering system, your garden can practically run itself the first few months with just a little early weeding from you.

Idea #1-If you have a drip hose, put out the hose and turn on the water. Wherever a puddle forms, plant a plant. It’s as simple as that. And it gets even simpler if your hose is set up to an automatic timer so your garden gets watered regularly, even if you aren’t home--no need to hire someone to come and watch your garden while you are away.

Idea #2-Plant your garden in rows with ditches for irrigating. With PVC pipe, make a series of Ts on one side that are spaced as far apart as your rows are with an attachment for a hose. That way, you turn on the water and leave it for a set time, then turn it off. No running the hose back and forth between the rows.

WEEDING EFFICIENTLY: This will save you time and energy.

The idea here is that weeding often and early on in the season is almost effortless and it will get things under control and lessen the weeding for later. Carefully weeding with a hoe when you first plant will save you endless hours and backaches. As soon as the weeds start popping up, take a hoe and skim the surface of the soil, or take a shovel and cut the plant off at ground level. If you do that when they are little, they are uprooted or cut off at the stem with very little effort. After a few weeks, there won’t be hardly any weeds sprouting. You just have to occasionally check on them and handle any late comers. A little weeding now saves a lot of weeding later.

And, of course, if you mulch, you keep many weeds from popping up in the first place. Besides plastic or hay, layers of newspapers are said to be very effective for this.

COMPOSTING: This is great for saving money and improving your poor soil.

This reminds me of making yogurt: milk + a bit of yogurt = more yogurt. Here organic plant “trash” + dirt = more dirt! Of course it’s just a little trickier than that, but not by much.

The basic idea is a pile is made of organic plant trash (grass clippings, leaves, vegetable peelings from the kitchen, ashes from your fireplace, etc) and some dirt, keep it moist, keep it warm, stir it occasionally and it will decompose into wonderful, rich dirt. Adding worms can help, but isn’t necessary. You can get fancy with special bins or just make a pile on the ground. Compost is perfect for improving the soil in your garden whether it has too much clay or sand.

For more details, go to http://www.thegardenofoz.org/composting101.asp

START YOUR OWN SEEDS: This can save you money for sure—plus it’s thrilling to see.

There are many ways to start your seeds. You can buy little peat pots or you can go super cheap and put compost or store-bought soil into empty toilet paper tubes and start your plants there.

You don’t have to buy new seeds every season either. To check to see if your old seeds are still viable, put about 5 on a paper towel and keep it damp. After a few days, if any have sprouted, they are good to use. You might have to use a few more seeds per pot to make sure at least one of them sprouts, though.

If more than one seed sprouts in one pot, simply snip the smaller ones at the bottom of the stem—don’t pull them out as you don’t want to disturb the delicate roots of the seedling you want to grow.

To help keep your seeds good from one season to the next, store them in an airtight container. If you have one, a vacuum sealer works great for this.

As your seedlings are growing, make sure they get plenty of sunlight or they will get spindly.

CONTAINER GARDENING:  If you have limited space or sunlight, containers are great. You can move the pots around to take advantage of moving sunlight, if needed.

There are all sorts of containers that you can use—buy new containers or recycle things from around the house. A large plastic garbage can can be used to grow potatoes. Drill holes in the bottom for drainage. Add about 10” of dirt and plant your potato eyes. As the plants grow, add compost or hay. At the end of the growing season, your harvest is super easy. And you don’t actually need a can, you can do this in a heavy-duty trash bag.

A reminder: carrots, beets, peppers, zucchini, basil, chives, cilantro, garlic, rosemary, and strawberries are easy to grow in containers. Just about everything can be grown in a container, however, so don’t let that list limit you. It’s just to get you started.

One of the tricks to successful container gardening is to be careful that you don’t let you plants get too dried out. They will probably need to be watered more often than a traditional garden.

A FUN IDEA:

You don’t even need to prepare a true spot. Buy a bag of soil, lay it on the ground in a sunny spot, cut small areas into the bag, and plant your plants right into the bagged soil.

SQUARE FOOT GARDENING: Will save you space and some time.

The idea is to pack more into a smaller area and still reap plenty of vegetables.

To get started, you make a 4’ x 4’ gardening area and divide it into 16 equal squares (either mentally or run strings across the area). A trellis can be placed on one side for vertical plants (tomatoes, cucumbers, pole beans). You then plant your seeds more closely than normal.

Each one foot by one foot square can be planted with:

16-radishes, carrots, or onions

9-spinach or beets
8-pole beans (vertical)
4-swiss chard or lettuce
2-cucumbers (vertical)
1-tomato (vertical), broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, corn, eggplant, or pepper

One of the nice things about gardening this way is you can make a greenhouse-type cover using PVC pipes and plastic to help keep things warm in the spring or you can put netting or chicken wire over the PVC frame to help keep pests out.

For complete details see:

Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew (635 BAR at our local library)
Or see his website at  http://www.squarefootgardening.org

RAISED_BED GARDENING: This is especially good if you have limited mobility and can’t get down (or back up) to garden in the traditional way.

The basic idea is you build a tall box and fill it with dirt to use for your planting--that way you don’t have to bend over to tend to your plants.

You can combine this with the square foot gardening and it is then called cubic foot gardening.

A last word--FERTILIZERS:

You can use compost by putting some in each hole that you dig to plant your seedlings. If your soil needs a little help, you can fertilize according to the directions on the package. Do not over-fertilize or you wind up with a bunch of leaves and not vegetables. Fertilize are before planting. Tomatoes, eggplants, and peppers (called long-season vegetables) will need a second application of fertilizer mid-way through the season. Fertilizers for vegetables should have 3 identical numbers like 10-10-10.

If you want to use manure, make sure it is aged manure or you will “burn” burn your plants.

Unofficial Vegetable Gardening Guide

Using the planting dates in Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew, these are to be taken as general guidelines:

Last frost date for our area: May 15^th

Feb 20             start broccoli and cabbage seeds indoors

Mar 17             direct seed peas outside

Mar 27             start eggplant, lettuce, and pepper seeds indoors
                        Direct seed Swiss chard outside

Apr 3               start tomato seeds indoors

Apr 10             plant broccoli and cabbage plants outside

                        Direct seed spinach outside

Apr 17             plant onion sets and lettuce plants
                        or direct seed lettuce outside
    
Apr 24             direct seed beets, carrots, and Swiss chard outside

May 1              start summer squash seeds indoors

May 8              start cucumber seeds indoors

May 15            start cantaloupe seeds indoors
                        Plant tomato plants and summer squash outside
                        Direct seed summer squash, corn, and beans outside

May 29            plant pepper, eggplant, cucumbers, and cantaloupe plants outside

                        Direct seed cantaloupe and winter squash outside

Vegetable	Seed inside	Seed outside	Seedlings out
Broccoli & Cabbage	February 20		April 10
Peas		March 15
Lettuce	Mar 27 (Apr 10 then 24…)	April 17 (May 1, then 15…)	April 17 (May 1, then 15…)
Peppers	March 27		May 29
Eggplant	March 27		May 29
Swiss chard	March 27	April 24	April 24
Tomatoes	April 3		May 15
Spinach		April 10 (April 24…)
Onion sets		April 17
Beets		April 24
Carrots		April 24
Summer squash	May 1	May 15	May 15
Cucumbers	May 8		May 29
Corn		May 15
Beans		May 15
Cantaloupe	May 15	May 29	May 29
Winter squash		May 29