OH Nuts!

Up and around and coffee in hand we  headed to Tulsa!   I love Tulsa and love going there on occasion but I would NEVER want to live there again.  It was hectic!  BUT………..  There is the MOST amazing market there and I was like a kid in a toy store ( in my case that would better be phrased as candy store)  

As some of you might know I have gone to a raw food lifestyle thus the raw food links on the left of my blog.  It is the most amazing experience.  I am still learning and much trial and error but for the most part it is very easy and the 20 lbs gone is the reward. I do eat some grilled Salmon or Tilapia on occasion but that is it for any kind of meat. 

Anyway, this market is the HEAVEN for raw food people.  

There are  nuts and seeds and specialty salts and raw honey. There are raw oats and wheat berries for sprouting and raw/natural granola and all of this can be purchased in bulk!    

This isle is the flour and seeds and dried fruit and sea salts and STUFF!!!!   I even found my Falafel mix!   Could not believe it........ I have been wanting to make them........   Now I can! 

 YEAP......  That is a raw food meal!

The veggie section made me look like a kid with my mouth open!    Fennel bulbs!   I have NEVER seen a fennel bulb!   I bought one!  It is the most wonderful tasting veggie and I cannot wait to see what I can do with it.   You can dry the feathery top and grind it up for seasoning in other things!   

Most of their produce is shipped in from California daily and by the looks of the people there grabbing it up it is fresh fresh fresh…   I found Daikon Radishes!   The are the diameter of a baseball bat!   I bought two!!!!!!!!   YUM……  You take that radish and  put it on a mandolin

and slice them VERY thin and then mix up your other veggies and sprouts with mushrooms marinated in Nama Shoyu

some thin slices of avocado some paprika and roll them up like  an egg roll  and eat them with flax seed crackers made in the dehydrator and look out taste buds!    I am making myself hungry! 

See those white radishes?   OMG........  Can't wait! 

Anyway I found my Cocoa powder so I can start to make my cookies and puddings and I found my psyllium powder so I can make my ice-cream and puddings!   What a deal!   

Happy happy joy joy joy!      Happy feet was my name for more than two hours!  

After reluctantly leaving  we headed over to the Red Lobster for dinner. My sweet brother PE and Alpha gave us a gift certificate for the Red Lobster and Chilies.  He said it was because of the wonderful care I give Mom and Dad and although it seems that no one is grateful he is…….  was that sweet or what!  

 

Anyway, we headed to Red Lobster and after reading the menu very carefully we choose the lobster tail with steamed broccoli and asparagus with grilled shrimp.  We each had a house salad with a drizzle of lemon and EVOO drizzled over .  Dennis had steamed wild rice but I passed on that.  I did not want any starch.   I EVEN  left that little cup of butter and oil for dipping the lobster!   That is a heart attack in the making. 

The meal was wonderful we left there satisfied but not too full.  It is amazing how changing ones lifestyle changes ones life..  

We then ran around Tulsa nosing around to see what we could find and stopped at a Best Buy to look for a case for my new phone..( I got a wonderful Smart Phone for mothers day from my wonderful son Chris)   Headed out of town around 6p.m. after stopping at our favorite QT  (QuickTrip) for a cup of coffee for the road.  

Leaving home for a day is so very refreshing and we cannot do it very often.  Leaving means paying someone to come out and give mom and dad their medicine and then paying them again to come out and fix dinner and give them their evening medicine.   BUT  yesterday I got a nurse to come out even though it was Saturday and PE and Alpha were back from their vacation so they did the evening meal thing and the medicine.      Thanks guys…..  

I am up and refreshed today and putting up my stuff from the market!  Going to soak some wheat berries till they sprout and then make some flax seed crackers……….!    I guess I need to start taking pictures of my “food.”   Would you be interested?  I even have Moses eating raw food!  Maybe he will gain some weight……. He is a skinny bird!  

Blessing to you gals this day!  

Score : Auger 1-- Silver Ring and Basket 0.

Do you know what happens when you lose weight?  You lose weight everywhere, or at least I do.  That is why I can lose 20 lbs and it is not very noticeable yet.

It comes off me whole body including my feet and fingers!  Ok……….  So do you know what happens when you wear a ring (that you have worn for years) and feed oranges into your juicer?   

Yeap, it slides off and into the juicer ! 

Now my juicer has an auger……..  It does not spin the fruit, it crushes the fruit.  It is a better way to juice as the ones that spin create heat and that destroys the enzymes.. BUT this is not a lesson in nutrition………. This is lesson is being a dumb a_ _ !  

 As you can see that auger is no less in shape than the day I unpacked it from the box.. 

BUT the basket is in a bit of  a mess .  

and the silver ring…….. Well………

It has GREAT sentimental value as it was a mothers day gift from my son Chris.  It has been on my finger for 15 years or so!  I have a friend that repairs jewelry and I am going to contact him and see if he can melt this down and make anther..  Something simple will be fine just want to have something with the silver…

It took me over an hour to get the basket and ring out from the auger in the juicer. It was jammed in there..  BUT out it came and I was on the phone to the company to seek some parts.   The gentleman on the phone was so nice and the juicer is covered for 10 years but NOT for silver rings and stupidity!   He laughed when I explained the weight loss (some due to the wonderful juicer.)  I told him how impressed I was with the juicer and that the auger is everything they said it was. It did not care that it was a silver ring.. It tried to crush it with no harm to the auger.  Anyway, he laughed and thanked me for my honesty, He said most people would lie about it just to get free replacement.  Oh no not I ..  I am not lying about such a small thing.  The part cost $32.00 and I was happy to offer my credit card.   Favor was smiling on me and he processed my claim and sent me my replacement basket FREE!  For my honesty he rewarded me !  Thank you Lord.  My new basket arrived in two days………  How nice.

So the moral to this story is if you have lost weight and you are using a juicer with an auger TAKE YOUR RINGS OFF BEFORE DROPPING ORANGE SLICES IN TO THE TOP or anything that is “juicy”   

Now, I need to contact my friend and see about a new ring……………

Have a blessed day!

Storms !

I hate these things......... !!!!!!

Son Chris called just around 6:00 and told us to go to shelter... We live about 5 minutes from the University where Dennis works and the building that he works in is partially underground. It is perfect for a storm shelter. I had just fixed Mom and Dad their dinner so we jumped up and headed out. It is so hard on them. Mother especially because she gets so terrible confused when you move her or take her somewhere new..

BUT we can drive right up to the door which is protected by an over hang and they do not get wet or out in the wind. There we sat for over an hour and when we did decide it was over we headed home only to get a call from Chris again saying they were sounding the sirens on the west side of town.. Back we went and stayed another hour. 

We were in constant touch with brother Paul as they were getting much worse weather than us.. They eneded up in their stair well with pillows and prayer........  

We were blessed to have missed the storms tonight, but others did not.  Much damage just 20 miles north of us..  

I fixed them a bowl of cereal when we finally got home again and I think they went to bed at 9pm....... Worn out! 

Mom's congestive heart failure is acting up and she is taking water pills, bless her heart........I am concerned about her. She is struggling.  I have released them to the Lord and I am at peace with whatever decision HE makes regarding their lives.  HE knows so much better than I do.. BUT this one thing that someone said to me the other day caused me to be very humbled. She told me that God knew he could trust me to care for them thus HE asked me...I am honored that HE trusted me .............  Is that something or what........... God trusted me........

I am humbled in that thought........

It is now 5:00 am and I have had no sleep so I guess I better lay down a while...

Hugs

Mom and My Garden

Just wanted to share with you a couple of pictures.  Last weekend I finally got to work in the garden.  The weather was beautiful so I brought mom out to the garden and gave her a comfy chair and it was a wonderful day. 

We sat and talked about Grandmother and the wonderful gardens that the three of us planted.  She might be forgetting a lot of things but she remember how to plant a garden. 

There is tomato plants to the left of the picture.. and pepper plant at the top of the picture.   I have patio tomatoes in barrel to the left along with some sweet basil.   
the barresl to the left have mint and sweet banana peppers growing..  
I need to take a close up of the old plow in the middle sitting in front of a Texas Lilac........  I will do that when the lilac blooms.  

 Remember this?  I said I wanted to plant a Hosta garden.  Well I did along with a few other things...

An old school bench that has had many different homes here in my yard but I think it has found where it needs to be.  I put down some flat rocks and between the rocks planted some ground cover. Of course the duck and her babies had to sit in the shade.

 Where are the hostas you ask, well they are on the back side of the tree and I have many more to plant around the left hand side of the bench next to the fence.  I think it turned out kinda cute..........  don't ya? 

 Mom laughed and talked and wanted to know why I did not plant okra? so this coming Saturday we are headed back out there to plant some okra and some onions.  




Sunday we planted her flower boxes on her porch.  I will take some pictures... 

These days are a beautiful reminder of why I have my mom and dad out here.  Some days I think that it is me doing something for them but then the Father God gentles reminds me that they are doing something for me.  

What a precious gift the Father God has given me…….  I must remember that on the hard days………