The View from Here

Hair

I’m pretty pleased with my hair these days. It isn’t stylish, but neither am I. It suits my lifestyle. My natural curls are oblivious to spring winds and rain, summer humidity, and winter snow. They bounce right back after time spent inside a hoodie. They don’t care if I forget to wash them for a day. My natural color suits me too. Even while approaching sixty I have very few gray hairs. I’m not sure it would bother me if I did, but I just don’t. Bigg Mama’s hair- that’s what I have. I looked at her curly brown hair when she was in her seventies and asked her repeatedly if she colored it. The answer was always no.

I have not always been so happy with my hair, and I have certainly not been kind to it. I have ironed it, rolled it on spiky curlers, teased it, sprayed it, colored it, cut it, and even permed it in an attempt to bend it to my will. That last step seems absurd until you realize that for many years I lived in California (no humidity) with long straight hair. The constant pulling and ironing, plus the length and sheer weight of it kept it straight. So of course I occasionally wanted it to curl a little.

I’ve had nearly every color of hair you can have, from the darkest of dark to the lightest of light. I don’t know why women love to change the color of their hair, but we do. I guess it makes us different for a while, and we all have times when we want to be different.

Hair “style” has always been my downfall. I spent many tearful hours trying to look like some star or model in a magazine. I never could quite adapt my hair to the picture of a hairstyle that I thought I had to have. When long hair was the rage I had short. When short hair was fashionable I had long. And I never had good luck with salons. Once I asked a stylist to trim one inch off my hair. She ended up taking off about three and I looked like a boy. I cried for hours.

I participated in a hair styling show once. Not as glamorous as it sounds, but lots of fun. There was an ad in the paper for women with “14-inch untreated hair”. Luckily I qualified that year. My hair was easily 14 inches long and hadn’t been permed or colored in over a year. I met one of the stylists at the hotel where the show was to take place. She explained that the show was going to demonstrate new perms and hairstyles for the coming spring. So I agreed to let them first perm my hair that day, and later cut my hair on stage.  I loved the perm, but wasn’t crazy about the geometric hair cut that took months to grow out evenly.

I probably haven’t been too much help to my girls over the years. One has curly hair and the other has wavy hair. I have to confess to being at least partially responsible for some less-than-wonderful haircuts and styles for both of them. But they soon took the brush away from me and did their own thing. And I think they were more successful than I ever was with my hair. Both have at times wanted their hair to do “something else”, but have had to find their own way to hair that suits their lifestyle.  

My students say I have “crazy hair”. Some asked about it at the beginning of the year. One girl made the comment, “my mom curled her hair like that once, but she didn’t like it”. Another asked me why it looked like D’s (an African American child). I always give them the same answer. This is the hair God gave me, and I like it!

Addition

 

I told you that my Monday blogs would not be just about taking things out of our diet. I want to spend as much time and effort adding foods, better foods, to mine. I know that if I’m hungry and whiny I’m not going to stay on any new diet plan. And I get hungry and whiny when it’s all about don’t, don’t , don’t.

So this week we are going to try to add some new items to our daily, or at least our weekly, food consumption. These foods are tasty and nutritious. Each one can easily be added to your meals and snacks. Each one contains a key element that is essential for good health.

1.    Nuts- About an ounce per day is reported to increase monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFAs) in the blood. This lowers LDL and raises HDL. Also good for joint pain and prevention of retina damage. Best choices are macadamia nuts, walnuts, and almonds. Choose unsalted and try adding chopped nuts to cereal, oatmeal, salads, or yogurt.

2.    Olive oil- Studies have shown that 2 tsp. of olive oil per day improves the stiffness and joint pain associated with arthritis. I seldom use any other oil. You can use it for sautéing and in salad dressings.  I love the flavor!

3.    Dark Chocolate- An ounce of high-flavonoid dark chocolate is good for your skin, brain, and nerves. Besides, chocolate tastes and feels like a well-deserved treat! Force yourself to eat some each day!

4.    Sweet potatoes- These contain beta-carotene, which helps your body metabolize estrogen. They can be mashed, fried, or baked and taste wonderful. Don’t save them for holidays!

5.    Blueberries- These tasty berries are good for your brain and your digestion. They can easily be added to cereal, yogurt, cottage cheese, muffins, or pancakes. I prefer the frozen ones. I don’t even thaw them before adding to cereal or yogurt.

I would also encourage you to add just one more fruit or vegetable to your usual daily consumption. None of us eat enough vegetables.

I’ve lost six pounds now and that feels a little like progress. Today I’m posting photos of me when I was thin, because I want you to know that I have never lived a day without thinking I was fat. It’s fascinating and sad that most women live in that same world- where good is never enough and satisfaction is never attainable.

Be kind to yourself today!

FHA

I woke up feeling fantastic after a peaceful night’s sleep. So of course the internet wasn’t working! One cannot have everything! This will be posted whenever the clouds part and the satellite finds its signal again.

Today’s photos are from a very special time in my life. My membership in the Future Homemakers of America taught me some valuable skills and helped me create life-long friendships. Our teacher became a true friend and mentor. The other girls in the group and in our homemaking classes showed me what it was like to belong. And for the most part they were the group that taught me how to be a girl. You have to remember that I was raised in the country with four brothers, miles and miles away from all but a handful of my classmates. We moved so much that I seldom became attached to anyone in particular, let alone a group. It wasn’t until we moved to Caddo, in the middle of the ninth grade, that I really encountered groups or cliques. (My high school class in California had 1,200 students; our groups consisted of those of us who went to eighth grade together and were trying to survive!)

At first I wasn’t accepted by any group at Caddo High School. I talked funny. I dressed differently. I had no clue what a Beatle was or what they did. I was too smart. I didn’t play sports. But I could cook and sew and write and sing. Those things eventually got me into several groups where I belonged. It was a great feeling.

Our task in FHA was to train for our future lives as women and homemakers. We learned to cook correctly. Having grown up with a couple of old-fashioned country cooks I had learned the “pinch of this-handful of that”, method of cooking. Home Ec. class taught me to read recipes and measure ingredients. (Not that my current cooking skills attest to any great achievements in that area.) We tested our skills by cooking for other groups, our parents, teachers, the school board and any other guinea pigs we could coerce.

My sewing skills were very basic until Mrs. Adkisson imposed her OCD charms on them. I think I must have worn out at least two seam rippers in her class! I made a tailored jacket that I swear I took apart more often that I put it together. But when it was finally approved by her demanding eye it was a thing of beauty that I was proud to wear. This rare photo of my high school bedroom was taken to show my new curtains, made as a Home Ec. assignment. (My photographic skills apparently didn’t develop until much later!)

We also learned about room design, money management, personal hygiene, child care, housecleaning, and a host of other things our mothers may or may not have mentioned. Mrs. Adkisson was very tactful about contradicting any skills or concepts we might have gained at home, but she always presented the best way to do things. She was also very discreet but factual when discussing dating and relationships with boys. She counseled each and every one of us to avoid early marriage, yet six of us ignored her and were married by graduation.

Our experiences in FHA also included field trips and public speaking opportunities. Many girls made their first trip to Oklahoma City because of FHA. We met girls from other regions. We dressed up in our finest outfits and spoke with passion about our projects.

Good times. I know that FHA has been renamed Family, Career and Community Leaders of America, but I hope they still teach the same values and skills that I learned.

 

Better

I managed to get up and go out by 1pm. Went to Walgreen's and picked up my latest refill without any hassles, and I had them change my address. My trips to the pharmacy may become so routine that they aren't worth writing about. I can only hope.

Did my weekly shopping at WalMart. Thank goodness I wasn't too sick to go. I would have missed the guy with only half of his head shaved! (The other half was adorned by chin-length locks that hadn't been washed in at least a week.)

I picked up a copy of Consumer Reports special issue on Food & Fitness. Really enjoying it!

Tomorrow is going to be a great day!

Sick

Still a bit "off" after spending most of the night with food poisoning. Just goes to show that food is not always our friend.

Also would encourage you to read whatever you can Google about Aspartame and MS. There are some comments going around Facebook and in my opinion anything against Aspartame is worth reading and considering. It triggers migraines for me and even a single piece of sugarless gum gives me a strange "buzz".

More later when I feel better. Take care.

Days of Our Lives

My mother would be in mourning this week over the death of Frances Reid. If you don’t know who she was then you obviously have never been a soaps fan. Frances Reid , otherwise known as Grandma Horton, was a longtime star on Days of Our Lives, and also appeared on As the World Turns and The Edge of Night. Mother watched all three.

My mother loved soap operas! She watched them while she ironed or dusted or folded clothes. She watched them when she was tired and just needed to sit for a few minutes.  She laughed, cried, and argued over the characters and their dilemmas. She and some of her friends discussed the characters as though they were real people.

My brothers and I teased mom and made fun of the shows. We called them “As the Stomach Churns”, “Days of Slow Death”, and “The Edge of Insanity”. We were terrible children. J

I still don’t understand the appeal of soap operas. The stilted dialogue, odd plots twists, and melodramatic relationships just seem silly. And I don’t understand the audience for them. With so many women working, and with so many choices available on television, who still watches soaps??

However, out of respect for my mom, I have taken these few moments to honor Mrs. Reid. Of all the daytime characters, Mom loved her best.

Cousins

The other day one of my students came to my desk and very seriously asked, “Mrs. Maurer did you know Cody and me is cousins?” “No.” “Yep! She was born at 3:20 and I was born at 3:20. That makes us cousins!” “Wow!”

I’m not sure how families function in other parts of the country, but in the South, and here in the near-South, cousins and their relationships are very important. I was at the genealogy library the other day and one of the volunteers was explaining “double cousins” to someone. The concept of “removed” is also frequently explained in great detail. We have charts and graphs to make everything understandable. It’s an important genealogy topic, especially when money or land or Native American heritage is involved.

Perhaps the importance of cousins stems from the early days when families were often isolated from other settlers and needed to be very clear about who could marry whom. In our own family history there was a group of twenty-five families that made at least two cross country trips together to settle in the wilderness. As far as I can determine there were several marriages among third or fourth cousins. I’m not sure where they “drew the line”.

My grandmother’s lineage shows the multiple joining of some families where brothers from one group married sisters from another. That must have made it even more difficult to keep track of who was a “third cousin twice removed”.  One of my brothers married the daughter of our aunt’s brother. No blood kinship, but a lot of complicated relationships! One of my classmates was also my first cousin once removed- my great-grandmother was her aunt. I also have step-cousins, something not found on most relationship charts.

I think one of the reasons why cousins are so important here is because we all live in such small communities. You can’t talk about anyone or be rude to anyone, even at WalMart, without it getting back to their mama and yours because it turns out they are someone’s cousin who reported it to their cousin who called your mama. And you sure can’t marry someone or elect someone to public office without knowing all of their kindred connections. It’s just not done! And if someone wins the lottery? Look out! Cousins by the dozens!! LOL

My cousins have always been very important to me. We lived most of my childhood in California away from other family members. My uncle in CA had two step-children, my aunt had no children. Grandmother had a brother in Nevada with children, but we seldom saw them. Our annual trips to Oklahoma were a joy because of mother’s siblings and their numerous children. They made me feel like a member of an exclusive club!

So this morning I’m posting some photos of me with my first cousins. We still see each other from time to time and I’m still happy to be part of their club!

I'm a genius!

Yesterday proved to me that life is all a matter of perspective. Our art project for yesterday was a little butterfly made from hearts. And yes, I should have taken a photo. Will do that today for my kindergarten blog. Anyway…I was giving the directions to my students and putting the pieces together as I talked. (I do that so I can explain each and every step.) I put the second pair of wings on the little body and one of my boys squealed with delight, “Mrs. Maurer! You’re a genius!” I know it doesn’t take much to impress my little ones, but I guess creating a butterfly from hearts was over the top!! LOL

 We forget sometimes that the world is a magical place for children. In their minds anything is possible as they strive to make sense of it all. Yesterday we read a couple of books about the groundhog and talked about weather prediction. Several of my children asked the inevitable questions that I can never fully answer.  “How does he know it’s time to wake up?” “Do all the groundhogs see their shadows?” “Can a bunny see its shadow?”  “Why will it be winter longer?” Why indeed? And one boy summed it up, “My mom just watches the weather on TV.”

I have hundreds of books in my room and during “free choice” time my students “read” whatever they want. One of my boys was looking at a book about the desert that was written by a class in Arizona. It’s even illustrated by the class and has their photo on the back. He brought the book to my desk and showed me the class photo. “Do you remember this?” he asked. “No.” “It’s your first class, when you lived in Oregon!” “Oh…I forgot.” J

And just in case you think all is rosy and cute in kindergarten, yesterday we had BBQ sandwiches, pickles, beans and cake for lunch. One of my boys carefully picked up his beans one by one and poked them onto the tines of his fork. Then he pulled them off with his teeth, and then started the whole process over again. Needless to say he had bean juice all down his arms. One of my girls dropped her pickles on the floor and stomped on them. Another girl got bean juice in her hair. No, I can’t explain how. We had BBQ sauce everywhere, two milk spills, and cake crumbs in abundance. A professor in college once told us to treat the custodian well- cards, gifts, chocolate! I totally understand that now. Have to stay on that woman’s good side!

Today we are making valentine heart puzzles, reviewing the “long e” sound, counting pennies, discussing friendship, reading about respect, and singing “Special Me”. I can’t find a song about being a genius!

Just an ordinary day...

at least for me. I don’t have any big plans. But I know one little five-year-old girl who is going to be dancing, singing, and eating birthday cake today!! Happy Birthday Jocelyn!

One of my students will be six tomorrow. He has a very serious approach to the whole thing. He doesn’t seem to care much one way or the other. Boys are different. And perhaps six is not a milestone for him. Maybe he’s waiting for eight or ten to get all excited  about it. LOL

The big excitement for my class lately is lost teeth. We had a major event last week that I forgot to report. One of my girls hopped up from her spaghetti lunch and hurried over to tell me “Mrs. Maurer! My tooth is gone and I can’t find it!” Well, let me just tell you that finding a tiny tooth in a pile of spaghetti is truly akin to the proverbial “needle in a haystack”. I could not find it! Thankfully one of my colleagues has younger eyes and managed to spot it. We took it to the office, got a little plastic treasure chest for it, put it inside, and then put the box inside a zip-lock bag and into her backpack. These teeth are valuable! Some of the tooth fairies in our area are giving out $5 for these tiny trophies.  

At least five other students have lost teeth in the last month. We could have a competition going soon.

I got my fifteen minutes of fame last week when my picture was in the paper with a nice article about my book. It isn’t the type of book most people will be excited about, but it will be appreciated by genealogists who have long missed a lot of facts and stories about Caddo that are buried in the old newspapers. And local residents will learn some new stories to share at the Dairy Queen. My next book is already in the works.

Lots of concern in our community this week about folks who are sick and dying. It seems that we usually have at least ten people who are battling a major disease. Please pray for my cousin Pat and her family.

I’m off to school today with a better attitude than yesterday’s. I was suffering from lack of sleep, pain, and sinus problems yesterday. Not my best day.

Today will be a better day for me!! Lots of energy this morning and no pain! Hope it is a great day for you. There really are no “ordinary” days you know. Each one is a gift. Unwrap yours carefully.

 

 
 

Sugar

Sugar is bad.

We need only a few teaspoons each day. Ten would be plenty. We actually consume five to fifty times that.

Excessive sugar consumption has been linked to diabetes, obesity, cancer, aging, and a variety of other health concerns.

We’re going to eat it anyway.

We like it. We crave it. Some say we are addicted to it.

So what do we do about it?

Eat less.

Sounds simple, but it is almost impossible to actually do. Just as they have with salt, food producers have added more and more sugar to more and more foods. Our only defense is to carefully read labels. However, even that can be difficult because there are so many types of sugars. You have to learn a whole new vocabulary to find all of them. Food labels list glucose, dextrose, fructose, invert syrup, corn syrup, glucose syrup, lactose, and maltose. Foods containing more than 15g sugars per 100g are high in sugar; low is 5g sugars or less per 100g.

We should be consuming about 50g or less per day. In reality most of us are eating 200g per day. I don’t know about you, but when I start talking about and reading about grams, and adding up numbers, my eyes glaze over and my mind shuts down. The only effective way for me to read labels is to compare two to four similar products and choose the one with the lowest number. The two salad dressings I have in the refrigerator right now vary by 7 grams. I’m going to use the lower one because it also contains less sodium.

And that’s the other problem. If your food choice is high in sodium, but low in sugar or vice versa, you have to think carefully about its overall nutritional value and its place at your table. Balancing your consumption of both can drive you crazy!

One of the things that has helped me lower my sugar intake is to stop drinking sugar. I have given up sodas even though I was only drinking one per day. I read that one can of soda per day can add up to 50-65 pounds of sugar per year to your diet. Yes, read that again. 65 pounds! And most of the women I know who are truly addicted to Dr. Pepper or Mt. Dew actually drink at least 32 oz. per day. I know some of you avoid this by drinking diet drinks, but I don’t have that option. Aspartame gives me a migraine and I’m fearful of trying other types of artificial sweeteners. Many studies have shown that diet drinks really aren’t effective for weight control and simply create other problems for your body.

 Americans guzzle an average of 50 gallons of sweet drinks per year, and most of those are sodas. Drinking our sugar is quick, easy, and doesn’t really “register” with our brains the way eating a dozen doughnuts might. That’s what makes the habit so dangerous.

Be careful too, of juices. They contain a lot of sugar and should be consumed in small quantities. Switch to the actual fruit if you can. If juice is your preference, then be sure to drink 100% juice, not blends with added sugar.

If you add sugar to anything- cereal, tea, fruit-STOP. Okay, cut down by 1/3. Then in a month cut by another third. Even if you never quit, you will have improved.

Each of us has a “sweet habit” and I’m sure you are aware of yours. Improving your habit or eliminating it is your choice, and your project for the week.

Have a great day! And Happy Birthday to Marilyn! As my students would say, “That’s a big number!” LOL Congratulations!