Tuesday, July 8, 2008

On the lowcarb front:
My stats for today:
Type: walk/jog
Route: Deadend/back/far edge of the woods/back
Time: 30 minutes
Average heart rate: 126
Maximum heart rate: 139
Calories burned: 239
Yesterday's Carb count: 44
I’m up .6 pounds from last Tuesday

Got out on the road at 9:45. As I was passing one field, I smelled something I couldn’t quite place. Then I realized it was the same as the Hunter’s Green soap that I made for the guys for hunting season. A little further up the road, I got the oppressive odors of Courter’s feed lot. I could smell that rotten silage in the house all night last night. I don’t know how those people can stand to live right next to it. Anyway, the walk/jog was a good one. I can’t believe that I used to run that whole way. I have really let things slide. I get really out of breath.

On the home/business front:
Yesterday was pretty productive. I got most of the things done that were on my list. Filled an order for stockings which I will get ready to ship today. I have a little laundry to finish up. I made Country Roads soap. This time I swirled the 2 colors in the pot at thin trace. The soap turned out really pretty. Today I will be making candles, stockings, and working on an Anniversary gift, filling an online order, working in my zone, and doing general straightening . I have sent in most of the booth fees for our craft shows and as soon as I get confirmation I will list them on the site. Tonight Anna and Melisa are coming to learn how to sew up our Christmas stockings. I am going to need help if we get as many orders as I am hoping. Nina wants to help sew up stockings too, so I will show her the next time she comes up. Maybe she and Anna can find a mutual place to meet and swap them out. We'll need a family meeting on that one. Or I can send an extra large batch with Nina and she can just bring them when she visits.

Word of the day:
Matthew 9:35-38
Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and curing every disease and every sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, "The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest."

Reflections from the cornfield:
When Jesus spoke to the people, he used images from their lives to illustrate his teachings. Being part of the farming community, this passage has special meaning to me. Every year at spring planting, or fall harvest, or winter maple syrup time, the guys are looking for help. They are the farmers - the ones with the agricultural knowledge. The rest of us just do what we're told. We may not know the reason we are doing what we do, but we trust that the guys know what they are doing.

One of the things in life that I don't understand is snobbery. I do not know how anyone can look at nature and think that one job is more important than another. Take a look at how we panic when even the tiniest element of nature is threatened. And yet there are people who think that working with their brains is superior to working with their hands. Yes, we need our thinkers, but we also need our doers and we can't do without either one. We need our doctors, but we also need our trash collectors. We need the combines and the tractors, but we also need the family members who help pull velvet leaf weeds out of the soybean field.

My point in all of this is that there is work for everyone in the vineyard. No job is too small. And no one should think that he is better or lesser than anyone else because of his station in life - because the only thing you take with you when you leave this world is the love you shared along the way - and we can all do that.





God bless the troops!