Ups, downs, salads, and a book.

So, hello again. It's been quite a week so far....and it's only Wednesday.

Monday brought a low as I found out that I've been assigned a "friendship downgrade" by someone I thought I was going to be good friends with forever. Unfortunately, this blog won't be the place I get to share about that. Let it suffice to say that it was a very low low.

Tuesday brought two good things to prove to me that God hasn't stopped caring about me: One, I got a free jogging stroller, which I had been praying for. Two, something else but I can't remember it right now. Shoot....what was that?

Today marks day 5 of me eating 100% all raw food. Although I do not really care to be this extreme, I felt like extreme measures were needed since I had put on weight from my previous part-time raw thing. When I thought through what I had been eating that wasn't raw at that time, I saw several possible choices that could account for an overall gain. I had gotten to the point where my clothes were uncomfortable, and by crackie I am not buying bigger clothes! So, desperate times call for desperate measures. Salads, veggie juice, morning smoothies, and healthy treats only sparingly are my food life now. Hopefully I will see some serious weight loss for my efforts this time around. (HOPEFULLY! If this doesn't work I am going to be very extremely upset...)

My garden is giving me lots of nice green spinach leaves now so it is right on time for salad mania....

Today I finished reading Crunchy Cons: How Birkenstocked Burkeans, Gun-Loving Organic Gardeners, Evangelical Free-Range Farmers, Hip Homeschooling Mamas, Right-Wing Nature Lovers, and Their Diverse Tribe of Countercultural Conservatives Plan to Save America (by Rod Dreher). When I first read about this book the title is what really interested me. I was brought up in a family of Republicans, but now don't feel any attachment to a political party, per se. I have found that many of my choices in life are ones that mainstream people don't "get," but often some of the most liberal people do get.

For instance....homebirth! Or health food! Or, caring about the environment! Or homeschooling. For the most part, people that do these things are either very conservative or very liberal. It's as if the continuum from conservative to liberal is actually a circle instead of a straight line, and that two extremes meet on many lifestyle choices.

Crunchy Cons is both a pleasant read and an irritating one. The pleasant parts include the way the author weaves in stories of people that have decided to live their lives in a sacramental way, putting their values of family, home, resourcefulness, and so forth into action. People that have decided not to run the rat race life of working a lot so they can buy a lot of stuff which they never have time to enjoy because they are never home.

The irritating parts are where Rod overdoes it with his own thrilling takes of eating fancy-shmancy foods and wine, and goes overboard with his far-above-average vocabulary. I have a better-than-average command of the English language, and this book still managed to make me feel like a dunce more than once. There was a lot of "What on earth is this guy talking about?" moments. So, maybe a personal weakness. If so, I can live with that.

I think that the author got a little carried away with his grandiose title. I saw little in this book to make me think that "crunchy cons" are going to save America or the Republican party. I think it's a book that will confirm for many earthy types like myself that their life choices are basically conservative, and that this is a good, noble, and productive path. For others it may encourage them to think more about the way they are living, and see if the values they actually choose are ones that will do them any good in the long run.

So that's the news til now. See you next time.