Busy Days for Me.

Busy, busy, busy.

For those who are interested, I haven't blogged for awhile in how things are going for me. 

Medications were switched last year and are working well. The stress from last year was overwhelming me and had put me into a depression but not as severe as the last one. 

Since last summer things have been a lot better and I have been working very hard at getting myself back into a mental state of being able to return to work. YAH.

There are a few options, but many are quite expensive as it would cost more in fuel than I would make...but the Dodsland Arena which is not even five minutes away is looking for a caretaker next season...starting in October...and that would give me a bit of time to 1. make darn sure I am mentally up for it and 2. I would be able to get my gardening done and dealt with for the season. Which is all to the good.

Keagan keeping me busy with the driving to the school for track and field now and badminton before that has helped boost my get up and go spirit as well. Finding her a Cello teacher who lives 20 minutes away is also a bonus. 

It is a 20 minute drive there and back to the school three times a week and a 40 minute drive to Cello once a week. There is no funding for fuel cost to get Keagan to these programs, all out of pocket so the cost of fuel is going to skyrocket for me but it is worth seeing her busy and happy. 

Gardening is getting started the flower beds are getting cleaned out and flowers are starting to sprout all over. Some bulbs my Aunt gave me last Easter are coming up this year so it will be nice to see what they look like. :) 

I have moved our specialty gardening boxes out of the gardening area so we will have more area to plant peas, carrots and beans. While still having the space to plant our lettuce, radishes, zucchini, cucumbers, etc. 

original site

new site

Keagan will be helping me this weekend by loading the trailer and pulling it with the tractor to fill the boxes with dirt from the garden area after I put the landscaping fabric down under them. 

I am going to leave a few boxes empty this year only because if the landscape fabric does not keep the grass from growing through I will dig out the sod by hand this fall and fill it in properly, but why do all that if the fabric works right?

The dirt I am hauling for the boxes is from on the other side of the lilac bushes you can see in the distance in the second picture. I have been doing it with the wheelbarrow, and my legs can tell you that...but it will go much faster with Keagans help...I hate driving the tractor and I know she loves to...;)

She does well with a standard tractor and her first driving lesson with the car went well. She is becoming a very smart,independent, young lady. She will need a doctors note to say she will be able to drive as she is missing her left hand and legally she will have to drive with her prosthetic...I cannot wait until the 3D printing prosthetics are available worldwide for all...but how many of us actually drive with two hands?

We all have our stresses, I am trying not to take on other peoples stresses only trying to advise where I can and not getting upset if my advice isn't taken...

I smile and nod when they screw up because they didn't take my advice, instead of screaming like I used to. 

While Brandon lives with his father 3 hours away, we do talk and spend time together. I feel close to him and he has been told numerous times that he can come to me about anything, which he has. We have even discussed his moving out to the farm...something that would make his mother immensely happy but now that he is an adult it is completely up to him. 

Brandon tells me that living on the farm has mellowed me out and it is good for me. I don't yell anymore. Like I said, I allow others to make their own mistakes without yelling at them or tell them "I told you so"...well, that one slips out once in a while yet, 

But on the whole I am trying to communicate better with others, which is difficult for me because I hate asking others for help or asking for things. 

Anyways, while it might seem like I am down because of the topics I discuss things are going well for me. I discuss these topics because I think they are important, not because I am depressed. 

Thank you for reading and have a great day. 

Eating Healthy Big Issue for Poor

Governments, health authorities, doctors and scientists say our population, children especially, are becoming obese at very young age. 

They say we are not exercising enough and families spend too much time in front of the television, computers and game systems. In some cases this may be true.

In many more cases however, it is because of our diet.

I am a limited-income single mother. I am in the not-so-unique position of being able to say I can buy a three pack of hotdogs from SuperStore-enough for 3 meals-for a quarter of the cost of a nice healthy roast for one meal.

It is cheaper to buy generic cheese slices than to buy a block of real cheese. That thick juicy steak is $20 to $30 more than regular ground beef.

You would think that the more the food is processed the more it would cost. So why isn't it?

Could part of the problem be that the cost of farming has skyrocketed as well? Farming is an industry and has become very expensive from what I have seen.

But, why does a head of lettuce cost $2.00 while a bag of chips costs less? Ground beef costs more than buying the convenient pre-packaged beef patties and when you pay 97 cents for a 2 liter bottle of pop but almost $2 for 1L of real fruit juice, eating healthy is very difficult, if not impossible, to do on a limited budget.
Another issue that comes up is when those in need use the local food banks. Much of the stuff donated to the food banks is processed foods. So again, mostly stuff like mac and cheese, packaged noodles or rice. 
Some farmers, greenhouses and local grocery stores do donate their older stock of vegetables and fruit but much of that goes fast or isn't very good by the time people can use it.
The healthy canned goods are gone fast from food banks, baby supplies, female supplies, kids lunch supplies like sandwich meats and juice boxes and other things that we take for granted everyday, cleaning supplies for instance, are not donated.

Exercise is a part of the solution but exercise is not the whole solution. You can be thin, you can exercise as much as you want, but eating healthy is the biggest issue the poor have when it comes to weight gain. 

Before blaming technology for the weight issues of children and adults, professionals should look at changing the cost of feeding families with healthy meals instead of making it cheaper to eat unhealthy and fast foods.

It is not technology or laziness that is making us fat, it is the ever increasing amount of money it takes to eat healthy.