I'm Still Here!

Sorry I've been so bad about posting lately.  I had to actually get out my planner to see what the heck I've been so busy doing for the last month.  It's honestly quite a blur.

Turns out that mostly I just worked, nothing too exciting.  Since I work at a small college the beginning of a new school year was pretty busy at work!  I did go to Greenville at the end of August to visit my family and see my 1 niece and 5 nephews.  That was fun!  In the past month I've also run/walked a 5K, attended a really fun girls' night party, helped with a fairly elaborate birthday celebration for a co-worker, and hosted our small group from church.  Also, I've started taking an education class -- it's actually only 1 night a week, but it's been fairly time-consuming with the homework, papers, group work, required online forum posting, etc.  It's also the first class that I've ever had that required a full weekend "retreat!"  That's a first!!  Oh, I guess the other things we've had going on were John's first P3 exam block, hanging out with friends a good bit, and finally having our kitchen ceiling replaced after it fell in.  I can't remember if I ever posted pictures, but if not I will soon.

Okay, tonight I seem to be into exclamation points, so that's probably a sign that I'm tired and need to stop posting...

Jam & Bread

I've loved reading my friend Liz blog about her canning and pickling adventures this summer, so I thought I'd share my first canning experience. 

I tried strawberry freezer jam this summer and it worked!  I got the recipe from a co-worker.  She's a true TN grandma so I figured her jam was probably fantastic -- and it was!  Here is her simple recipe:

Buy a package of ‘Sur Jel’ not sure of spelling, it would be in the section of ‘canning’ jars I think.
Or possibly in area of jello but more likely in the canning area.
As best I remember, you put certain amount of water with pkg. of sur jel & bring to boil to dissolve.
You mash the strawberries in layers, I think about 2 -3 cups.
Then add LOTS of sugar (maybe 3 or 4 cups) - yes, it’s mostly sugar.
You stir & stir; stir & stir; let set a few minutes,
then add the sur gel mixture & stir; stir & stir; stir some more.
Pour in jars & seal; let sit out over night, then put in freezer.
Just take jar from freezer, spread on biscuits with butter - yummy.
Put remainder back in freezer. It’s ok to have frozen & then re-freeze.

When I picked up the Sure Jell at the store, I opted for the low-sugar variety so I wouldn't have to add the full 3-4 cups of sugar in our jam.  Bev's recipe made it sound so laid back and easy, but the instructions in the package were extreme!  I felt like they were written by evil grandmothers.  Basically, you had to follow them exactly -- no lowering the quantity or sugar content from what was posted, etc.  DO NOT CHANGE ANYTHING IN THIS RECIPE OR YOUR JAM WILL BE TERRIBLE.  I'm not a big recipe follower, so it was torture.  I was hoping to add in some mint, fresh herbs, or orange zest but I caved to the printed instructions of the evil grandmothers and just used fresh strawberries and sugar.

In the end, I was shocked that I actually created jam/jelly.  Of course, freezer jam is totally taking the "easy" way and I didn't have to boil the jars and lids and do canning the "real" way......but it was still a new adventure for me!

Next up: trying my sister-in-law's "easy" recipe for bread!

And the challenge is on..

Okay, I haven't wanted to post this on my blog, but I figure that maybe if I do I will hold myself more accountable knowing that it's out in cyberspace for all my "readers" to see (all 3 of you -- thank you!)...

I am trying to lose some weight. 

High blood pressure runs in my family and I didn't realize my BP had been slowly climbing until a recent doctor's appointment.  It was fairly high, but the doc thought it might be a fluke, so I had to go in 1 month later for a follow-up.  A month later it was better, but still high.  So I have to get my weight down to get my BP under control -- because I want it to actually improve, not just be artifically controlled by medicines.  I do NOT want to be put on blood pressure medicine. 

The funny thing is that I've felt perfectly fine and had no idea it was bad.  My doctor kept asking me, "are you tired all the time?  do you have frequent headaches? really, are you sure you don't have headaches?"  Well, no, no, and yes.  I feel great. 

We talked about the foods I eat, and overall I actually generally eat fairly high-quality, nutritious foods.  I just struggle with correct portion sizes and eat too MUCH of these foods.  I've written down everything I've eaten in the past 2 weeks so that I will be more mindful of what I'm putting in my body.  I was doing fairly well until last weekend's trip home to SC -- we had big servings of low country boil (frogmore stew) two nights, and plenty of junk while on the road.  The sad thing is, I do know what I should be eating, I just don't stick with it.  In the past, I even wanted to become a dietician!  Furman didn't offer that degree, so I changed plans, but I took a couple pre-req's, shadowed local dieticians with the hospital system, had a few nutrition appointments myself, etc. 

I've also tried to add more physical activity into each week.  I hate to work out, but I've found some co-workers who will work out with me a few days a week and also another local friend who wants to join me in getting into shape. 

I've enjoyed reading some blogs that talk about healthy food a lot and hopefully I'll work in more of those tips into my own life: sweettater (awesome blog!! and I actually know her a little bit in real life), katheats, healthyteacher, etc. 

So, wish me luck!  I'll try to post how things are going.  My next appointment is at the end of September. 

Thankful Thursdays

I want to copy Becca and start posting weekly "Thankful Thursdays" - just listing a few things I'm thankful for every Thursday.  I've enjoyed reading these lists on her blog and others, and it always reminds me to live my life in constant gratitude.

Also, we've been working through Colossians lately at church and Col. 3: 15-17 jumped out at me.  I'm posting it here from The Message.  I'm not usually a huge Message fan, but lately I've enjoyed reading it as a variation.  It's nice to hear Bible passages that you hear often -- that become almost rote -- in different words.  Makes it sink in differently.

"Let the peace of Christ keep you in tune with each other, in step with each other. None of this going off and doing your own thing. And cultivate thankfulness. Let the Word of Christ—the Message—have the run of the house. Give it plenty of room in your lives. Instruct and direct one another using good common sense. And sing, sing your hearts out to God! Let every detail in your lives—words, actions, whatever—be done in the name of the Master, Jesus, thanking God the Father every step of the way."

I'm thankful for:
1. My wonderful husband, who made me a peanut butter and honey sandwich foldover this morning as I was running late and trying to get out the door.
2.  The laugh that I had when I realized (in the work parking lot) that somehow I had gotten sticky honey on the arm of my sunglasses and, hence, down the side of my face!  Don't really know how that happened unless I was holding my sunglasses and my foldover in the same hand as I left the house...
3. A job.  I'd be thankful for any work in this economy, but I'm especially thankful to be working with encouraging co-workers.
4. The start of the summer.  I'm so thankful that John's P2 year is finished.  Of course, now he's working 32-40 hour weeks at Walgreens, but that's nothing compared to the hours he put into his spring term.  At least when he leaves the WAG he doesn't have to come home and do tons of studying!  By the way - he would never brag for himself so I'll brag for him -- he made all A's this past semester- the hardest semester he's ever had (20 semester hours of grad classes) and he made all A's!!
5. My family.  I'm going to get to see at least my mom and dad over this Memorial Day weekend and hopefully more relatives.  I have the best family in the world.
6.  A car that works.  My Honda has 224,519 miles on it -- I'm not exaggerating, that is the true and accurate odometer reading -- and ole' Betsy is still going strong *knock on wood*!  Although I do need an oil change so we won't be taking my car to SC this time.
7.  A great local public library!

Even when the rain falls...Even when the flood starts rising....

This is what a flood can do to a home.

I'm sure y'all have all heard of the recent devastating floods in Nashville.  Our county and all of the surrounding counties have been declared federal disaster areas.  I didn't mention anything about the floods in my last post...simply because I didn't know what to say.  Even though I saw the images on TV and donated items to a Red Cross shelter that was set up across the street from us, it still seemed surreal.

John and I were out of town weekend before last, so we didn't experience the 48 hours straight of driving rain -- 15" I believe.  We saw some reports in our hotel in NC that Nashville was getting hit hard and experiencing some flooding, but we had no idea what we would be coming home to.  Our friends were amazing at calling and texting updates of what was going on as we were on the road -- 1 friend lives on our street and we were checking with him to make sure our road would be open.  His response:  "Belmont's ok.  Everywhere else is horrible.  All you can hear is thunder and sirens."  After driving through some INTENSE rains Sunday evening as the storm system moved east out of Nashville, we finally made it home to our apartment -- dry, undamaged, and with power.  If I had not seen the TV footage, I would've thought we were just getting a hard spring thunderstorm.

Despite the Governor and Mayor's pleas for folks to stay home and off the roads on Monday, my job required all staff to come in because it was finals week/graduation week for the students [they gave the students the day off and re-arranged their exams!].  My trek to work was a little scary, but nothing like the images on TV.  At work, I discovered that several co-workers had experienced water damage in their finished basements or some lower rooms in split level homes, but one co-worker, Darla, had lost everything.  Everyone in Nashville probably knows at least 1 person who lost it all or sustained great damage.  

On Tuesday of last week, we went to help a co-worker, Candis, whose lower family room had been ruined.  They had already ripped out the flooring and lower drywall, so we mainly helped by pulling debris out of her yard. 

On Friday of last week, some co-workers and I finally got to go help Darla.  The picture at the top of the page is of her living room.  She and her husband had to evacuate their home Sunday morning, and grabbed only the bare essentials as the water was rising.  Her high school daughter, Abby, was spending the night on a youth group so she had an overnight bag with her.  Darla saved Abby's prom dress and her scrapbook, and then grabbed their family Bibles, some Bible study materials that she has worked through over the past year, and her knitting.  Her husband (a studio musician) was able to save some of his instruments, but had to abandon his keyboard.  Darla, being the sweet soul that she is, immediately went to help her neighbors get out as well.

The theme I've heard from many survivors is: the water came SO FAST.  Her street was rapidly filled with water and her house flooded all the way to it's roofline, and they were not able to get back on their street by car to acess the damage until that Thursday.  Her husband and the headmaster of a nearby school were able to travel in by boat and take the video below.  Darla's house was red brick with a black roof (2nd shot of the video).  So the water moved through or sat in their house for almost 5 days.  The whole home was ruined.   

Amazing, eerie video of their house under water: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75zADehgc4Q

These shots show us working on Darla's house.  My main job was to cart items to the street as they were removed from the house.  The local government arranged a trash pick-up for flood items, but it had to be divided into 4 piles and placed on the street (debris, appliances, household items, etc.).  It was so sobering to see all the things, all the 'security' that this family had worked for dragged out to the street and put in 4 muddy piles.  Really gives you some perspective on the "stuff" in our lives.  It's humbling to hear these flood survivors say, "it's only stuff."  Would I be like that or am I too tied to my things?

Darla came in to work yesterday and we all went to lunch to hear her relay her experiences.  It has been amazing to hear the stories of people just pouring love over this family and other flood survivors.  I have been so impressed with middle Tennessee overall.  When we were at her house last Friday, volunteers, city employees, policemen, firemen, youth leaders, church members, her high school friends, her former students -- pretty much everyone in Hendersonville-- stopped by to help or drop off food and supplies.  And it sounds like that kind of community involvement is happening everywhere.  People are just coming out of the woodwork to help.

One thing I've been thinking about a lot since this happened is: 

what would I grab if I had 1 minute to get out of my house?  

Lyrics courtesy of Needtobreathe, Photos from Candis Thornton, Starr (perryplayground.blogspot.com), and Jenn (togocup.wordpress.com).