Grand Plan!

Today and tomorrow my Grand Plan is to clean my house!  Do some yard work...some odds and ends work...on my perpetual list of things that need done...and wash my car!

Unfortunately...my dryer is DYING.

Another new appliance this year.....


UGGGGG

I look forward to heaven...where STUFF won't wear out!  : )

Spring

This is what spring does to me:

Something inside me wants to burst forth. Completely open up and spill out everything inside of me. 

I want to quit work. I want to tend an herb garden. I want to walk barefoot on cool soft grass wearing a large floppy hat. 

Spring makes me feel earthy and clean and reborn. 

Alive. 

I JUST RAN!

I ran 3.5 miles this morning.  A slower pace than usual and not as far but I RAN it...there WAS some pain in my right foot.....so....I know that I can't do distance or pacing right now but I am ok with that.  It was nice to get out and run...just cause I wanted to!  : )

Litter!

Growing up in beautiful south-central Kentucky, Casey County, a farming community in the 1980's was a pretty neat thing.  I am so blessed to have grown up there.  I am so blessed to still call it HOME!  But like any community, or county or state...litter became a huge problem.

In the 1980's there was a huge campaign against litter.  Keep America Beautiful.  Have Pride, Don't Litter.  Littering is a Crime.  We all remember the Native American with the tear rolling down his eye looking at all the trash.

So, what happened?  I don't know if it is like this in Kentucky or not but when I run the back roads of South Carolina and it fills me with sadness to see all the trash.  Mainly, beer cans and fast food bags/cups.  (Now, you won't see TOO many beer cans in Casey County because it's a dry county.)  And I think, so if people are throwing out these empty beer cans- then they are drinking and driving- as a person whose mother was killed by a drunk driver, well...that's a whole different blog there...

Anyway...back to LITTER...when did we start littering again?  When did we become LESS proud of our beautiful country?  Do we expect it to disappear or someone else to pick it up?  Is it still a crime?

I don't know the answer to any of these questions.  All I know is that it really makes me sad and a little angry that people are so thoughtless and careless and lazy to just throw trash out when they could carry it in the house when they get home!

America is still beautiful!  Let's keep it that way! Take Pride, Don't Litter!  

Dandelions!

One of my very very favorite HERBS (aka, a weed to some people) is the DANDELION! Here is SC they are starting to pop out of the ground. The WHOLE plant is good for you...leaves, flower and root. I eat the dandelion is some form (usually the root) every day! I am thrilled they are coming out so I can have some fresh, young leaves to eat. 

Dandelion leaves act as a diuretic, increasing the amount of urine 

your body

 makes. The leaves are used to stimulate the appetite and help 

digestion.

 

Dandelion flower has antioxidant properties. Dandelion may also help

improve the immune system.

 

Herbalists use dandelion root to detoxify the liver and gallbladder, 

and

dandelion leaves to help kidney function.

 

Medicinal Uses and Indications

Most scientific studies of dandelion have been in animals, not people.

Traditionally, dandelion has been used a diuretic, to increase the 

amount of

urine in order to get rid of too much fluid.

It has been used for many conditions where a diuretic might help, 

such as liver

 problems and high blood pressure. However, there is no good 

research on

using dandelion as a diuretic in people.

 

Fresh or dried dandelion herb is also used as a mild appetite 

stimulant and to

improve upset stomach. The root of the dandelion plant may act like a 

mild

laxative and has been used to improve digestion. Some very 

preliminary

research suggests dandelion may help improve liver and gallbladder 

function,

but the study was not well designed.

 

Some preliminary animal studies also suggest that dandelion may 

help

normalize blood sugar levels and lower total cholesterol and 

triglycerides

while raising HDL, "good," cholesterol in diabetic mice. But not all the 

animal

studies have found a positive effect on blood sugar, and researchers 

need to

see if dandelion would work in people.

 

A few animal studies also suggest that dandelion might help fight

inflammation.

 

http://www.umm.edu/altmed/articles/dandelion-000236.htm

 

Beautiful and 52 degrees!

Wow, it's a great day in SC!  A bright and sunny 52 degrees.  So...I thought I would go for a run!  My first REAL run since the marathon.

Yesterday Nick and I went to the trails and we "ran" a mile and a half.  I really don't consider it my first run.  But...I didn't have any pain in my foot!

Today...I did.  It would hurt, not hurt.  I ended up running slow but slow and steady kept my foot from too much pain.  I really don't know what to do.  Should I run?  Should I go get xrays (I do not want to spend the money!)?  Steve, my doc, told me yesterday at church to give it a good 6 week break IF it is a stress fracture.

WHAT?????????

I think I am going to play this by ear.  Ice.  Rest.  Wrap.  Slow and Easy.  WIRES.  LOL  Wrap, Ice, Rest, Easy, Slow.  Oh dear...my own acronym.

Well, amen.

Walk in Him!

Colossians 2:6 As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, walk in Him.

"If truth can set anyone free for five minutes, then it can set him free for a lifetime.  Truth is absolute and therefore cannot go off and on like a light switch.....Truth is something to be walked in as faith works alongside to bring about experience.  Faith allows us to receive the truth and walk in it.  Those who tell me that focusing on Christ does not work are never focusing on Christ while they are making that statement.  To know the power of truth, one must walk in it, and I have never had anyone that was abiding in Christ tell me that it did not work." -My Weakness for His Strength, Michael Wells