Another Bento Style Lunch

I am having so much fun with these lunches! I went to school last week and had lunch with Samantha and my niece and nephew. All three had requested a bento lunch this week. I included turkey wraps made with while wheat tortillas, spinach leaves and swiss cheese with some extra pepper jack cheese cut into fall shapes, some cut up imitation crab sticks, "salad" made with broccoli, cauliflower, tomatoes, cucumber, mushrooms and sugar peas and a fruit cup of orange slices, raspberries, blackberries and grapes. It looks like a ton of food, and there is a lot of variety but the overall quantity isn't too much. 

I survived Thanksgiving! I wasn't watching what I ate too carefully, but I did notice that I didn't eat as much as I have in years past. Don't get me wrong, I was full and ate more than I eat on a daily basis, but in years past I would have probably eaten until I was almost to the point of misery. I did stop well before that point. I am watching what I eat most of the time but I am still planning to enjoy the holidays. 

I have been doing a little yoga lately. Not the full tape or a workout yet, mainly just some stretches. I have put on a few pounds that I have lost over the past couple of weeks, and I am working on taking that back off. I am not giving up though, I am liking the way I am feeling and I LOVE having more energy.

Grateful for my In-Laws

I have been truly blessed with some of the greatest in-laws in the entire world. I have heard absolute horror stories about mothers in law especially. My in-laws welcomed me into their lives the first time they met me and that has not changed in the five years I have been a part of their family. I do know how fortunate I am and I am grateful for them. It's had coming into a new family, but I have never been made feel awkward or unwelcome in their home. 

Grateful for my job

Today I am thankful for my job, not only that I have one, but that I have one that I enjoy. Of course I would rather sit at home and amuse myself endlessly, but since I do need to work, I can't think of a better place. One thing that makes my job so great is the people that I get to work with every day. Another thing that is especially important to me is the fact that I am in a little office by myself. I can sit when I need to, stand up and walk around when I need to do that, this job cause me very little additional pain. That is a big deal to me. So today I am grateful for my job and my co-workers.

Frugal Laugh

At work today, I was in a meeting with a salesman and a co-worker. He had brought me a bunch of samples of some new packaging material and stuck them in the first thing he found to carry them in which was a five gallon bucket with a lid. He made a joke about the "fancy carrier" he brought them in and I said "oh I love it, it's perfect for making detergent in". Dead silence from both of them. Not only the silence, but they both looked at me like I was more than a little crazy. This is a salesman that I have worked with for a while and we have a similar sense of humor, and that is the first time I have seen him speechless. Finally he said "wow, that's country". I just laughed and said no, it was just cheap! I knew it was a lot cheaper to make than to buy, but I wasn't sure of the exact savings. I figure it costs me around .04 per load to make detergent and between .12 and .35 per load to use detergent that is already made. That extra money? It allows us to take more weekend trips through out the year. If you are interested in the recipe, let me know in the comment section and I will send it to you.

On the weight loss: I am still kind of stuck at about the same point. Not gaining, but not losing either. I had to go and buy an outfit for a wedding we attended this weekend and was able to buy a smaller size pants. That felt good. I am also having to wear a belt with most all of my jeans now. I hate wearing a belt, but am a little happy that I need to. We were out of town all weekend so that means I ate out a lot, but didn't do too terrible.

Grateful

This is a project that I made for Shirley's 2 Girls' Thankful Blog Hop this week. In making this I was specifically thinking of the son of a friend of mine that recently graduated from Marine Boot Camp. Today I am grateful for those men and woman that choose to put on a uniform and to all that ones that have worn our country's colors in times past. Thinking again of my friends son, seeing him so proudly wearing that uniform brought a tear to my eye. I have know this little boy since he was about eight years old. First of all, it's hard to believe that he is even old enough to be wearing a uniform! It made me think of what all he chose to give up. For me, for you and for our country. So today I am grateful for all the young people like Gray that choose to protect our country and all the sacrifices that they make on a daily basis.

Grateful for My Grandmother

My grandmother passed away 10 years ago. On Halloween. She has been on my mind a lot lately. I am grateful that I had the opportunity to have that woman in my life as long as I did. It's funny looking back, but when I think of major life lessons that I have learned, many of those came from her. Not as preachy lessons, but by her example and they way that she lived her life. 

She was the most giving person that I have ever known. One time she had some furniture to sale that she advertised in the paper. A man called inquiring about the bed that was listed and said he wanted to purchase it sight unseen, because he needed a bed for his kids to sleep in. Well after he got there to pay, he explained some of his situation and my grandparents not only ended up giving him the bed, but also gave him some other furniture. Any TV preacher that sent her a letter got sent some money, not a lot, because they didn't have a lot, but they got something. I could recount many, many examples of her giving to others, but I won't right now. I thought she was a little naive and far too trusting. I asked her about it one day after I was an adult. I asked if she worried that she was being taken advantage of, that the people might not always use the money in the right way. She said there were probably times that people lied to get money or help from others. Bu she said that wasn't her problem, that if someone asked her for help and lied to her, they had to answer to God for that. But if she refused to help when she could and chose to be stingy, then she was the one that had to explain that to God. That lesson haunts me sometimes! Especially as I have grown older and a little more jaded. I want to be more giving like she was. And she gave with a open and caring heart, and believed in everyone until they proved themselves not trustworthy.

I just randomly decided to move to Nashville one day. Everyone wanted to know why and kept asking when I was moving back home. She never did. She let me know she missed me, but she never asked me to move back home. What did she ask me? She asked if I was happy and when I said I was she said "that's good".

I have always loved Halloween, as a child and as an adult. So did my Mamaw. She got such a kick out of seeing her grandkids and neighbors dressed up in their costumes. She would talk for weeks about this kid or that one and how cute they looked in their costume. When she died on Halloween day, it hurt so bad. I thought the joy had gone from Halloween forever. The joy was gone for a couple of years and replaced with sadness and missing her. Then I decided to pass out candy one year. The joy was back!! Instead of sadness, I felt a connection with her, every single time I opened the door and saw another kid in a cute costume. 

From my Mamaw, I also got my love of words, of books, pens and papers and of poems and stories. She used to save poems that she found to read to me and I would do the same. Some of my fondest memories of spending time with her was after I was an adult and I worked close to her house. If I had a break, I would call her and ask her to make me cornbread and there would be some frying as I walked through the door. Sometimes I would pick up french fries from her favorite restaurant and take them to her instead. We had some very good visits during those lunches. I still miss her terribly, but I am grateful for the years that she was in my life.

Being Grateful

Wow, it is already November. One thing that I have done each year around this time of year is to really reflect on my life over the previous year and to think of people that have strongly influenced my life that year. I want to make sure to always be grateful for the people that come into my life. I try and let these people know how I am feeling too. I would like to try and live my life in a way that if our paths cross that you can say your life may be a little better, a little brighter. Now, I don't always achieve that goal, but it is one that I set for myself many years ago. Kip and I were talking about that the other day too, how our actions and reactions can influence people around us. We are both making the effort to be kinder people; to each other, to our families and friends and to people that we only have fleeting contact with, servers in restaurants, clerks in stores. 

I know this is a blog about having a healthy lifestyle and being frugal, but I think all health begins with good mental health. One way to get there is to be aware of and grateful for the things that we have. So for the rest of the month and then randomly as I feel like it, I am going to be posting about things I am grateful for.

Today, I am grateful that I have the privilege to vote. We women have only had that privilege for 90 years, since 1920. I personally feel that if I shirk my duty to vote, it is a slap in the face to all the women that came before me that could not do so. A slap to women like Lucy Stone, Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and so many others worked tirelessly for many years to help establish this right for me. I cannot imagine a time where I did not have that right because I would have been too frail, or too limited in my thinking to be able to vote. I hope I never take that right for granted.