Posted in Believe it or not!

Weekly Photo Challenge – Numbers

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123

Dear Friends,

Today is the last day I will blog for a while.

I am rethinking the necessity of blogging.

Especially compared to the necessity of sanity.

To the sweet ones who visited me daily or almost daily, I thank you so much. Many times you made me smile and your comments made my blog better than it might have been. I wish we could meet. Please understand, I am not dropping off the edge of the world, but only off the blog-wagon.

I plan to return, Lord willing, after Fathers’ Day, to announce my final decision.

Fondly,

Katharine

Posted in Homemaking, Inspiring, Recipes, Wives

The A-Okay Breakfast – Stir Fried Eggs!

Some friends took my husband and me out for dinner not long ago, to a Japanese restaurant where everyone sits around the grill and watches the chef entertain with cooking.

These chefs are wonders! They throw eggs, build train engines from onion rings, and juggle spatulas. And they can cook really fast.

I paid attention. I never plan to build a choo-choo from onion rings, or throw rice at people, but the SPEED! After tasting the food, I knew I had discovered one more way to make a breakfast I could eat.

And to make it fast.

Stir Fried Eggs

2 eggs
1/2 T. butter

You can tell from the ingredients, this will be fast, can’t you?

High Heat - Watch Carefully
High Heat – Watch carefully

Put butter in pan and turn on high.

Aren't TheseBeauties?
Aren’t These Eggs Beauties?

Have spatula ready. You need one with a flat front edge.

Once butter is all melted, break two eggs into pan, still on high heat.

REady to Go!
Pan and Eggs Ready to Go!
Start Chopping
Start Chopping Eggs Immediately

Quickly pick up your flat-edged spatula or spoon and begin chopping eggs very quickly, in all directions. Scoop or scrape particles together and chop more, until all is chopped, about pea-sized or even rice-sized, and quite done.

If pan seem too hot, control temperature by lifting or tilting pan, not by regulating the temperature of the burner. You need it hot. Prevent burning by quick and thorough stir-chopping.

Finished product
Stir Fried Eggs

Serve hot, with salt, pepper, soy sauce (opt.) and juice and/or coffee. Get good at this method and try it mixed with mayonnaise and fresh onion, for an egg salad sandwich. Mmm!

Posted in Believe it or not!, Inspiring, Scripture, Wisdom

Sunday Scriptures: Numbers

In honor of the 400th anniversary of the translation of the Bible into English, commissioned by King James of England in 1611, and originally published by Robert Barker, printer to the King, I will use this version for the rest of this year in these posts. Editing sure has changed since then! Hope we can enjoy the quaint differences we find here and appreciate all that went into it.

Feare them not therefore: for there is nothing couered, that shall not be reueiled; and hidde, that shall not be knowen.
What I tell you in darkenesse, that speake yee in light: and what yee heare in the eare, that preach yee upon the house tops.
And feare not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soule: but rather feare him which is able to destroy both soule and body in hell.
Are not two Sparrowes solde for a farthing? And one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father.
But the very haires of your head are all numbred.

Matthew 10:26-30

Posted in Blessings of Habit, Health, Home School, Homemaking, Pre-schoolers, Who's the mom here?, Wisdom, Womanhood

How to Take Care of Your Eyes – Rest!

Close your eyes and it will go away!This is my favorite treatment for every problem–just close your eyes! Maybe it will go away!

In the case of eye health, this is definitely true.

But no one tells us.

Study this set of posts. Link to them. Copy-paste them for your fridge. Someone you know needs this information!

Resting

When we do not get enough sleep, eye health breaks down. Do not let this happen to you.

1.  The only time your eyes get a rest or a chance to self-heal at all is when you close them. Open your eyes and they are on the job. Just as never resting would weaken a  soldier, so never sleeping could weaken the two guards you call your eyes. A good nightly amount is eight hours. If you cannot get that for some reason (sick children, etc.) then pay more attention to daily resting.

2.  You may need a timer for this one, at first. Every time you work for 50 minutes, rest your eyes for ten. This includes computer work, yes, but any reading or crafting is work for your eyes, no matter how fun it is. Give them a break.

3.  You know how tired eyes feel to you, When your eyes feel overly tired, try this: lie down and cover your eyelids with cool cucumber slices. Chamomile tea bags, boiled, cooled, and squeezed out, work too. Let the soothing compresses take you away!

So now you have it: Four ways to make for better eye health: nutrition, exercise, detoxify, and rest. Let’s all get going on taking care!

Okay, now comes the part we have to say in this lawsuit-happy world: This post is meant to inform and to satisfy curiosity, only, and is not a substitute for medical advice. Consult your doctor for information concerning your conditions. Much effort has been made to assure this information is accurate, however, medical research is always changing the facts, and new findings may supersede currently accepted data. I am NOT a doctor, only quoting several of them.

Posted in Blessings of Habit, Health, Home School, Inspiring, Pre-schoolers, Who's the mom here?, Wisdom, Womanhood

How to Take Care of Your Eyes – Eliminate the Toxic!

Fluorescent lighting is poison to your eyes.I knew it! I just knew it! We have more eye troubles these days because more facets of our environment are bothering our eyes. I just knew it.

And, oh boy! It is politically incorrect to admit this.

Is that why this is not on billboards, nationwide?

Study this set of posts. Link to them. Copy-paste them for your fridge. Someone you know needs this information!

Poison to Your Eyes

The eyes are physical parts of our physical bodies. Since they are so sensitive that they can communicate thoughts and emotions, we might think of them as ephemeral. But they are physical, influenced by light, something Einstein would be first to tell us we do NOT fully understand. And they have a few things to communicate to us about their preferences, too.

If you are in charge of children, you hold the keys to their continued eye health. You are duty-bound to make good eye health happen for them. Teach this to them and make it a permanent part of their overall health.

Lighting. Lighting is toxic? Yes, some lighting is toxic to several parts of the body, but we will concentrate on the effects to the eye. Flourescent, computer, and TV light is totally stressing to the eye and can even lead to glaucoma. We take for granted the accuracy of our eyes, but the truth is, they have to re-focus and re-compute every time a flourescent blinks, every time the stripe goes past on a screen, even if they are not looking directly at the screen or lightbulb. For this reason, many people, and most children, do poorer work when in the presence of these types of light. Eliminate them.

The best light for working is reflected or filtered sunlight. Halogen is next, if carefully filtered. Then comes incandescent, also very workable. The rest are bad. Period.

However, never look AT the sun, and always have sunglasses ready, should you be outdoors very long, especially on overcast days, when more sunlight can beam directly into the eye. A little reflected sunlight actually can do good, adding vitamin D, but don’t overdo.

Allergens. Although you may not have a classic allergic reaction to them, the fumes from new carpet, new paint, overheated cars, etc., harm more than your lungs. If you must install these things in your home, open the windows and use a fan to draw in real air. Ditto for tobacco smoke. If your favorite shopping place installs them there, shop elsewhere, or AT LEAST leave the children behind for a while until the fumes subside.

Also, when you turn on the tap, first thing in the morning, does it smell to the skies of chlorine? It quite likely is chlorine gas. Time for the fan and the open window, again. Let the water run and leave the room until it smells like–water.

Swimming pools and spas. Usually these either have chlorine, bromine, or bacteria in them. Wearing goggles is a good solution for those who have to swim in chemicals and bacteria, although removing them and doing yesterday’s massages every half hour is a good idea.

Heating and air conditioning. Dry air is not really a toxin, but harms the eyes as if it were. Use a humidifier and saline drops made for the eye when you are in these environments. Spend more time outdoors: you were made for it.

Dim lighting. Doing visual work without proper lighting is like moving bricks without gloves, or hiking barefoot. Body parts wear out, and unlike a cut hand or foot, the eye does not self-repair well. Always use a good light when you work. When you are reading or writing, the light should fall over your less dominant shoulder. (Left for righties; right for lefties.) Require this of your children, too.

Rubbing the eyes. A little goes a long way with this habit. Unlike the eye massage from yesterday’s post, rubbing the eye squashes the eyeball. Not so good. It also can introduce bacteria. Not so good. And, horrors!, if you have a foreign object in the eye, rubbing can worsen your plight. Just don’t go there and don’t allow the children to, either.

Use a warm wash cloth to remove crust or mattering, not a fingernail. Use a folded corner of tissue and/or sterile eye drops to remove foreign objects from the eye. Or go to a doctor, WITHOUT RUBBING, PLEASE.

Coming tomorrow, Lord willing: Resting–Resting–1,2,3, Resting!

Okay, now comes the part we have to say in this lawsuit-happy world: This post is meant to inform and to satisfy curiosity, only, and is not a substitute for medical advice. Consult your doctor for information concerning your conditions. Much effort has been made to assure this information is accurate, however, medical research is always changing the facts, and new findings may supersede currently accepted data. I am NOT a doctor, only quoting several of them.

Posted in Believe it or not!, Blessings of Habit, Health, Wisdom

How to Take Care of Your Eyes – Exercise

I have always wished I could exercise my eyes. I always thought it would be just as good for them as for the rest of me. Often I wondered if using them was the exercise, as with all other muscles. But not so, I have learned. Eyes become tired when used for only one task, over and over, just as the wrist does for typing. And exercise helps this.

Why isn’t this on billboards, nationwide?

Study the next few posts. Link to them. Copy-paste them for your fridge. Someone you know needs this information!

Exercise for Your Eyes

When it's good to roll your eyes!This is like jiggling your wrists to prevent carpal tunnel syndrome, or taking a walk to relieve varicose veins, but it is for the eyes. Everyone needs to know these tricks to keep the eyes from wearing out. I am so happy to have learned them! They even reduce “floaters”! I love these exercises first thing when I wake up, and any time my eyes are tired. Since I found exercises, I have so much more incentive to rest my eyes!

If you are in charge of children, though, you hold in your hands the keys to their continued excellent eye health. You are duty-bound to make good eye health happen. Teach this to them and make it a fun diversion in their day.

Begin with warm eyes. A warm wash cloth  held over the eyes, or even rubbing your hands together to make warmth and then holding them over the eyes, will get the old circulation up and running. I prefer the wash cloth.

Roll ’em. This exercise involves using the full range of motion for your eye muscles. Basically, just look from the north position, to every compass point, in order, round and round, about 20 times, and then repeat in the opposite direction. So easy, but feels so good.

The focusing muscles. There are 2 good ways to do this one. You can hold your finger up at arm’s length and move it toward your nose, keeping it in focus at all times, then back out to arm’s length again about 10 or 12 times. Or you can stand at arm’s length from an object like a light switch and move your entire body toward it and away from it. This is more work, but coordinates the sense of balance with the sense of sight, something I need.

Massage.  Mmm! This one I love. This is the one that can tear me away from my work! Using the pads of a couple of fingers, lightly rub circles over your crow’s feet wrinkles (or if you’re too young for those, just rub the temples.) Make about 20 circles on both sides, and then circle the opposite direction the same amount. Then make circles between your eyebrows and under your eyes about where the tear ducts are. Oh, it feels so good!

Close your eyes. Just for three to five minutes, give them a break. I find this is such a great help to my vision when I am working on the computer. And it relaxes the rest of me, too, like slipping into a dark, quiet room for a tiny vacation. When I return, I am like new!

Coming tomorrow, Lord willing: Getting Rid of Eye Poisons! Shocking!

Okay, now comes the part we have to say in this lawsuit-happy world: This post is meant to inform and to satisfy curiosity, only, and is not a substitute for medical advice. Consult your doctor for information concerning your conditions. Much effort has been made to assure this information is accurate, however, medical research is always changing the facts, and new findings may supersede currently accepted data. I am NOT a doctor, only quoting several of them.

Posted in Believe it or not!, Blessings of Habit, Health, Home School, Homemaking, Inspiring, Who's the mom here?, Wisdom

How to Take Care of Your Eyes – Nutrition

Blueberries for eye nutrtion.Since I’ve been seeing things, all SORTS of things besides what is really there to see, I have studied a bit about eye health and visited quite a few doctors. So much knowledge floats around in space, these days, and so many preventive and curative measures exist for boosting eye health, waiting for someone to take advantage of them.

Why isn’t this on billboards, nationwide?

Study the next few posts. Link to them. Copy-paste them for your fridge. Someone you know needs this information!

Nutrition for Your Eyes

We know our bodies have various nutritional needs and we know all the old wives tales about carrots, but listen to this: The eyes desperately need the right nutrients to work, and to last a long time.

If you are in charge of several children, though, you hold in your hands the keys to their continued excellent eye health. You are duty-bound to make good eye nutrition happen.

Vitamins: The eyes must have adequate A, C, and E. They simply must have them. Eat foods like carrots (yes!), strawberries, and wheat germ. Look up these vitamins and build your menus around foods that provide good eye health.

Minerals: Copper and zinc are good for eyes. Add beans and red meat.

Antioxidants: Try whole eggs, spinach, pumpkin, and . . . guess what . . . CARROTS! Your grandmother was SO RIGHT–they help prevent macular degeneration.

Sulfur, cysteine, and lecithin: These come from the onion and garlic family. They put the brakes on cataracts, among other health problems throughout the body.

Anthocyanins: Blueberries and grapes contain these and help night vision, according to WWII pilots, and much further research.

DHA: Sorry, all you catfish lovers, this one is found in cold-water fish like salmon and sardines. You’ll have to try grilled salmon, though–it is marvelous!

Water: While not exactly a nutrient, pure water is totally necessary for the eyes. And, yes, it is 8 glasses a day, and it should be filtered if you use it from the tap. Anything created as wet as an eye would obviously need water, right? Think of the eye as an under-water camera that doesn’t work without the water.

Coming tomorrow, Lord willing: Eye Exercises! Who’d have thought!

Okay, now comes the part we have to say in this lawsuit-happy world: This post is meant to inform and to satisfy curiosity, only, and is not a substitute for medical advice. Consult your doctor for information concerning your conditions. Much effort has been made to assure this information is accurate, however, medical research is always changing the facts, and new findings may supersede currently accepted data. I am NOT a doctor, only quoting several of them.