My wife sometimes tells me I sound a bit extreme. I guess compared to talking football, the weather or the next holiday, I am. But when you look at the actual data I do, you’d be forgiven for thinking that most people are whistling past the graveyard and will die from ignorance for lack of confronting the truth of our plagued society. For instance, I often lambast drug companies and call them crooks and felons and maybe some people look askance at my stance. Well, for context, look at this list of 83 Merck violations with penalties just since 2000 of $10,582,360,581. Yes. That over Ten BILLION Dollars in penalties for doing the wrong thing 83 proven times. Let alone how many other times they weren’t caught or there was not enough evidence to convict them. Honestly, how would you trust ANYTHING they said or trust any product they produced with that criminal a record?
A Tale of Two Apples
“Today in one of our classes I introduced the children to two apples (the children didn’t know this, but before the class I had repeatedly dropped one of the apples on the floor, you couldn’t tell, both apples looked perfect). We talked about the apples and the children described how both apples looked the same; both were red, were of similar size and looked juicy enough to eat.
I picked up the apple I’d dropped on the floor and started to tell the children how I disliked this apple, that I thought it was disgusting, it was a horrible colour and the stem was just too short. I told them that because I didn’t like it, I didn’t want them to like it either, so they should call it names too.
Some children looked at me like I was insane, but we passed the apple around the circle calling it names, ‘you’re a smelly apple’, ‘I don’t even know why you exist’, ‘you’ve probably got worms inside you’ etc.
We really pulled this poor apple apart. I actually started to feel sorry for the little guy.
We then passed another apple around and started to say kind words to it, ‘You’re a lovely apple’, ‘Your skin is beautiful’, ‘What a beautiful colour you are’ etc.
I then held up both apples, and again, we talked about the similarities and differences, there was no change, both apples still looked the same. I then cut the apples open. The apple we’d been kind to was clear, fresh and juicy inside. The apple we’d said unkind words to was bruised and all mushy inside.
I think there was a light bulb moment for the children immediately. They really got it, what we saw inside that apple, the bruises, the mush and the broken bits is what is happening inside every one of us when someone mistreats us with their words or actions.
When people are bullied, especially children, they feel horrible inside and sometimes don’t show or tell others how they are feeling. If we hadn’t have cut that apple open, we would never have known how much pain we had caused it.
I shared my own experience of suffering someone’s unkind words last week. On the outside I looked OK, I was still smiling. But, on the inside someone had caused me a lot of pain with their words and I was hurting.
Unlike an apple, we have the ability to stop this from happening. We can teach children that it’s not ok to say unkind things to each other and discuss how it makes others feel. We can teach our children to stand up for each other and to stop any form of bullying, just as one little girl did today when she refused to say unkind words to the apple.
More and more hurt and damage happens inside if nobody does anything to stop the bullying. Let’s create a generation of kind, caring children.
The tongue has no bones, but is strong enough to break a heart. So be careful with your words.”
Words by: Mum in the Moment
How to make perfect Cornish pasties
Cornish pasties started life as a hearty, eat-in-the-hand lunch for British coalminers, with a warm peppery filling of beef, potato, swede and onion inside rich, buttery pastry.
We’re in the middle of the biggest crime in history
Your ‘To Do’ List For Today
So you’ve made a ‘To Do’ list for today. Well done! That is a major step to staying focused and getting done what is important to you.
Now, let’s look at how to improve it. Look it over and ask yourself these questions:
What is on my to do list that will…
Increase my lung capacity (the single best determinant of longevity).
Lift my spirits (the best defense against ill health is a healthy attitude).
Super nourish my body (the second best defense against ill health is a well nourished body).
Build lean muscle mass (increases strength now and prevents osteoporosis in later years).
Satisfy my urge to create (most important).
Help another.
Improve my skills.
Put order into my environment.
And if the urge come up to put off these as ‘not urgent to do today’, remind yourself that the urgent things are rarely important and the important things are rarely urgent.
Have a great day!
Choke Breaker
Useful technique – Hope you never need it!
At Risk Myth vs Fact
How To Oven-Dry Strawberries
Oven-dried strawberries make a delicious, portable and healthy snack. Although they’re often dried in a dehydrator, you can get an equally great result with your oven.
You can make shelf-stable, oven-dried strawberries much like the freeze-dried strawberries NASA has sent to the moon with astronauts.
Obviously, the more flavorful the strawberries you start out with, the more delicious the dehydrated version will be.
Choose locally grown and dry a bunch of them while they are in peak season.
Drying food only minimally affects its nutritional value. Most research has been on foods that were commercially dried.
When you dry foods at home under gentle conditions (correct temperature and a reasonable drying period) you produce a high-quality nutrient-rich food.
Directions
Wash the strawberries. Cut the green leafy part off and cut each berry in half. Lay the halves cut side up on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Make sure to space your berries out so there’s lots of room for air to flow through.
Note: Strawberries are the #1 most pesticide-contaminated food on the EWG’s 2019 Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides in Produce, so buy organic.
Dry Time
Place the sheets of strawberries in the oven and dry them at 200°F for 3 hours (or experiment with 170° – if your oven goes that low – for a longer period). You may want to flip them over halfway through especially if you have hot spots in your oven. It’s best to make oven-dried strawberries during a day you will be home all day, like on a weekend.
Lest I forget to mention, a side benefit of dehydrating strawberries is the wonderful aroma that fills the house. Mouth watering…
Cool the dried fruit
You won’t know if the strawberry pieces are completely dehydrated until they’ve cooled (you know how cookies crisp up after you take them out of the oven? Same way with dried fruit). Remove the baking sheets from the oven. Let the strawberries cool at room temperature for 20 minutes.
After the cooling off period, break one of the pieces of fruit in half. There should be no visible moisture on the inside. The pieces should be somewhere between chewy and crisp like dried cranberries, figs, or raisins.
‘Condition’ the oven-dried strawberries
Even after the strawberries are correctly dehydrated there may still be some remaining moisture in the fruit you can’t feel.
That little bit of moisture shouldn’t keep the fruit from being safely preserved and mold-free, but you will have a better tasting and keeping product if you do what is known as ‘conditioning’.
Put the dried, cooled strawberry pieces into glass jars filled only about 2/3 full. Seal the jars. Shake the jars a couple of times a day for 4-5 days. If any
condensation shows up on the sides of the jars, your fruit still isn’t dried well enough and it needs to go back into the oven at 200F for another 30 to 60 minutes.
Once your dried strawberries are once again cool, store them in airtight containers away from direct light or heat. I prefer to use glass food-storage containers or canning jars instead of plastic. Go ahead and fill the jars to the top this time.
Childhood Illnesses Myth vs Fact
Why are rates of this disease soaring?
If you are an adult in the US, chances are good that you may have a quiet, sneaky disease lurking inside of you and you have no clue that there’s a problem.
This disease often doesn’t cause symptoms. But lo and behold, when it does, there will be no doubt in your mind that something is seriously wrong.
I’m talking about diverticular disease.
Diverticular disease is the umbrella term used to describe the conditions diverticulosis and diverticulitis.
Here’s the scoop on both of those, and how you can help prevent your number from coming up in the diverticular disease lottery.