Low-Salt Eating

Recently I was diagnosed with Meniere's Disease because of ringing and pressure in my ears. The doctor recommended I reduce my salt and caffeine intake. And over the holidays I thought I was being a bit careful. But when my ears didn't cleared for over two weeks, I decided I should pay more attention and eat very little salt to see if it would have an effect.

I started by looking on the internet at what exactly was meant by a low-sodium diet. Various sites had different recommendations for salt intake, but many agreed that one teaspoon of salt per day was the top limit of what people should have. It contains 2325 mg of sodium. Others recommended a daily intake of 400 - 1000 mg.

I decided to shoot for the lower range and began keeping a daily food diary. Keeping my sodium low was more of a challenge than I imagined it could possibly be. Since I usually eat at least one meal out with a friend each day, I tried to keep my sodium level in my home cooking as low as possible and hoped that the meal I chose out would stay within my limit.

It worked. After 3 days my ears cleared and I felt much better. OK, I can do this I thought. I'll just cook at home as much as possible and not add salt to anything. Right? Well, not entirely. I began reading labels. Even prepared ingredients have sodium in them. Ketchup, mustard, bread, cheese and even frozen peas.

Now, to choose recipes and make some yummy dishes at home. Since I have fresh eggs from my chickens I decided I would make my favorite egg dish. It also calls for jack cheese, cottage cheese and green chilies. No salt needed with the chilies I thought. Wow, was I wrong. For dinner I decided on a homemade chicken pot pie. Simple ingredients. Chicken cooked with no added salt, frozen peas - oops - 200 mg of sodium per serving. I bought low-sodium chicken broth, which only had a whopping 570 mg of sodium. Needless to say, I'm feeling some extra pressure in my ears this evening. The pot pie was scrumptious, but worth it? I'm not sure.

I'm going to make low-sodium home cooking a priority and a project. I'm going to search cookbooks and the internet for recipes. Homemade breads and salad dressings, plus cooking with lots of vegetables seasoned with herbs will be my focus.

Mother's Day

Yesterday I celebrated being a mother all day. There is nothing in the world that could make a woman happier than to be with, talk to and hear from her wonderful children, their significant others and her own mother.

I'm literally bursting with joy that I could have such a wonderful growing family.

I love you all.

Think Young

My Mother told me a story tonight. When my Father was in Forestry School at OSU, she belonged to a group of young wives of the students. The Dean's wife spoke to them at a meeting one day.

"I've always remembered her telling us to 'think young'," she said. Mom will soon be 97 years young. She is strong, able and cheerful.

Happy New Year 2010

This is the time of year for changes, new beginnings and organizing.
In evaluating what brought richness to my life last year, my expanding family comes at the top of the list. My wonderful daughters and the nice young men that have joined their lives, my son, my stellar Mother Stella who outshines us all and my growing list of close friends. Thank you for the love and courage you have given me this year. With everyone's help, I have learned and grown so much.
I still believe love and happiness coming straight from one's own heart, along with a joyful attitude are the most important building blocks in life. All else will follow.

I hope you make this year a celebration with laughter, love and joy!

Accomplishment

Yea! I finally did it. I got the wood squirrel house up in the tree for Jay and Sabine Squirrel. I would be embarrassed to think of how many hours it took me and how many trips to the store to get longer screws, replace the screwdriver I lost, etc. But it's finally up and I hope they move in soon.
I placed 9 pieces of fabric on the fence for nesting material. Just enough to make a nine-patch quilt. Oops, hope I didn't give away too much of my next story.

Decisions

Sometimes decisions are hard for me. I can see and understand both sides of an issue. I don't want to offend or leave out anyone. I want to make everyone happy. There are always so many options.

Today I had to work on a hard decision. First of all, I should have made it a month ago. Second of all, it involves a lot of people. I have to make a decision about where they are going to spend their vacation and how much money it will cost them. How much driving everyone has to do. And thirdly, in the middle of it, my internet connection went down.

But, thank you to my yard and to Sophia, who took my panicked call and told me how to fix the internet, I got through the day. I calmed myself down with digging and planting. I re-structured my back yard a bit around the new chicken fence. I watered. I staked up my growing lilies. And in the end, I had a wonderful conversation with a rental agent who may have the perfect house for us. And to top it all off, she is a fellow quilter.

Tomorrow I will rent a house with the confidence that once again I made a good decision.

The weekend

Home from a nice partial weekend at the coast with wonderful friends. I say partial because I drove back and forth to cover all my Saturday commitments. But it worked out well, because Donna could only be there one night. She was able to ride back to Eugene with me Sat. morn.

I came home to a dry yard, even after all the rain we had last week. I got a lot of work done in my front yard while I was watering. Yeah, I am getting closer to a great looking flower garden.

It's great to be home. The chickens and Cymba the cat were happy to see me as I was them. Sophia will be home soon and all is well