Waste Not, Want Not

This report just out by the Natural Resources Defense Council: "Wasted: How America Is Losing Up to 40 Percent of It's Food from Farm to Fork to Landfill."  As one radio announcer described it- we drop 1 out of 3 grocery bags and don't bother to pick it up.  And Americans are wasting 50% more food than they did in the 1970s.  The cost of this food waste is $165 billion per year.  All this in a country where 1 in 6 Americans do not have enough to eat (U.S. Department of Agriculture).   I am guilty of throwing away old fruits and vegetables that I had the best intention of using.  I recently found
canned foods out of date- the list goes on and on.  When I have the least waste is when I am planning my weekly menus and one big benefit of cooking co-op is the cost savings of buying in bulk but having very little wasted.  By planning meals Monday through Thursday, that gives me Friday through Sunday to use my left overs.  One of my favorite organizations here in Richmond, VA is the Good Samaritan Inn.  Their motto is "Offering a hand up, not a hand out."  What a better use of resources to give to these type of organizations rather than throwing the wasted food money out with the trash.  In these times when money is tight, less food dollars wasted means more dollars targeted to good causes!

Color Me Beautiful Foods

I went to a consultant a number of years ago to learn which colors looked best on me and why.  If you have not done this, watch the YouTube presentation.  I can now go into a clothing store and quickly gravitate to my colors.  Color me beautiful also helps you clean out your closet and give away those clothes you never wear- probably because it is not your color.  So I listened this morning to a few minutes of Color Me Beautiful on YouTube and heard these words: "... makes you look great and feel wonderful...comes from nature...season's colors...the secret to the natural, beautiful you...helps you find a more beautiful you."  So at our church,  we have lunch afterwards.   Those who can stay bring food and we all share.  Yesterday "color me beautiful" foods were in abundance.  Our lunch was visibly beautiful to look at and delicious to the taste.  We had a large salad with Hanover tomatoes, red peppers, Napa cabbage, celery, cucumbers, cauliflower.  We had a vegetable salad of green beans, bakes sweet potatos, and white shoe peg corn with a 3-2-1 dressing (3 parts balsamic vinegar, 2 parts mustard and 1 part maple syrup).  We had a big tray of cut up watermelon.  Then bowls of cantelope, strawberries and blueberries.  A slow-cooker dish of green beans, potatos, and sausage and a platter of chicken.  For desert, a home-made diabetic chocolate pie and a non-diabetic butter pecan cake.  These seasonal fruits and vegetables make you look and feel great.  Eating this way (filling 3/4ths of your plate with color me beautiful foods) is the secret to a natural and more beautiful you.  Go to your local produce stand today and enjoy these last days of summer!

How Dinnertime Could Reinvent the Modern World 2

There is much competition for jobs today.  And the deciding factor in being hired can be education and social skills.  There is much discussion about education but little talk about how to acquire social skills.
In the 1700's, a Scottish intellectual, Lord Shaftesbury, raised "politeness" to the top of the list of human virtues.  He described "politeness" as "... a polishing and refining of the self through friendly social interaction with others...All politeness is owing to Liberty.  We polish one another, and rub off our Corners and rough Sides by a sort of amicable Collision.  To restrain this, is inevitably to bring a Rust upon Men's understanding.  'Tis a destroying of Civility, Good Breeding, and even Charity itself..."  Dinnertime is the perfect setting to sharpen our minds by listening, interacting and talking about the events of the day and thus teach and learn needed social skills.  No social skills can be picked up watching the TV or playing video games during the meal.  Dinnertime teaches us about obligations to others- planning, shopping, cooking, coming up with new healthy creations, and cleaning up.  Lord Shaftesbury believed we served others, not because we had to, but because we felt a "sense of well-being and pleasure" by helping and serving others.  "Man was born to be with others, and born to make their lives more pleasant."  What better place to be with others than at dinnertime and what a way to make our lives more pleasant, polite, and polished- 3 P's.  So dinnertime could reinvent the modern world by raising up employees with the 3 P's.  What employer could resist such a worker?

How Dinnertime Could Reinvent the Modern World

O.K., so I am reading "How the Scots Invented the Modern World " by Arthur Herman.  Listen to this- pg. 72:"As human beings living in society,we have certain rights that we bring to the TABLE with us from our natural state, such as the right to our own life and our property.  But there are certain obligations we have to observe.  One of the most obvious of these is obeying the laws established through common consent.  But the other is the moral law governing our private conduct towards others.  Without a moral law, no community is possible.  Without community,  there is no protection for ourselves and the things we need to survive, i.e., our property.  When we realize...that our self-interest dictates that we treat others as ourselves, we are ready to live among our fellow men."  This came from the Scottish intellectuals in the early 1700's setting the stage for our Declaration of Independence.  They talked of rights that come with obligations.  They talked of a moral law directing our "private"(everyday) actions toward and for others.  They talked of the need for community for our very survival.  So dinnertime, regularly sitting at your own table, with the TV off perhaps is one of those obligations and actions you can take for your family,even if it is just 2, that cements the family as a small unified community discussing the joys and trials of the day, checking everybody's schedules, making plans for future events, bringing new words to the table( Katie Couric's parents did that), discussing articles, finding out where your teenager has been driving etc.  "When we realize...that our self-interest dictates that we treat others as ourselves,  we are ready to LIVE..."  and reinvent and reenergize the modern world!

"... For the Happy Heart, Life is a Continual Feast."

Yesterday was Father's Day and the restaurants were jammed with families celebrating with food a special day.  I have been quiet as a blogger as I regroup from my daughter's wedding 3 weeks ago.  I never teared up once because the whole week-end, I felt pure happiness.  The same happiness I felt at my wedding 32 years ago.  It was a time to escape the problems of the world, a time to talk with and enjoy the presence of family and friends, a time to enjoy a beautiful setting enjoying the views of gently rolling mountains and beautiful arrangements of flowers, and a time to sit around various tables at breakfast, lunch and dinner to savor carefully planned and prepared food.  The wedding dinner was especially memorable and just a taste of what the banquet in heaven must be like.  That taste of happiness which we enjoy at weddings and Father's Day is described above in Proverbs 15:15.  To have a happier heart, perhaps our lives need to sup on continual feasts which can be enjoyed by planning and cooking your family dinners.  Make it creative and fun.  Don't worry, instead be happy!

Up and Atom

That was the title of the women's leadership fundraising initiative in which 400 women came together at the Science Museum of Virginia for breakfast this week.  I had the opportunity to hear Naomi Vickers, a 7th grade student from St. Catherine's School speak on "Why I love the Science Musuem?"  I had a tear in my eye as her curiousity, intelligence and humor were on display.  She described how the visual exhibitions of science stimulated her ability to learn and understand and made it fun.  So to test out one of my theories, I went up to her mother afterwards, congratulated her on her daughter's talk and asked if they ate dinner together as a family. Her immediate response was "Yes- all the time and it started with my mother who is over there."  So I go and speak with Naomi's grandmother.  She told me she had been a career woman but she wanted to hear from her children the exciting events of the day.  And she could "catch it all at the dinner table."  She added there was no TV on and that she always regulated TV time.  She added that "some things need to be constant."  Let me add that Naomi, her mother and grandmother are beautiful, fit and trim- a picture of a lovely family wise in knowing what's most important on any schedule for the day.  Let the family dinner hour be a constant in your home and see what blossoms

What's Right With This Picture? - A Table of 8

I recently had the priviledge to visit a very special family in Lexington, KY for a very special occasion.  The night before the special occasion, 8 of us sat around a kitchen table for 2 hours laughing, telling tales, discussing world events - enjoying a memorable evening.  Sandra had planned a wonderful meal- baked cranberry chicken, baked rice, asparagus, and salad finished off with daughter Laura's apple, blueberry dump cake a la mode.  As I watched David, crying with laughter at the banter of his 2 daughters, Laura and Becca, I took a vivid mental picture of this Norman Rockwell experience.  How would our country be different if this picture of a family around the kitchen table was the norm?   The next day, Becca was one of 4 given the Distinguished Alumni Engineering Award by the University of KY.  She also received a plaque from the governor who bestowed her with the title "Kentucky Colonel."  What's right with this picture?