Grateful

How grateful I am to live in such a beautiful place, surrounded by friends who love us, and who support all of our efforts in making a change in our lives when we feel it necessary.
That being said however, I just would like to know why the credit card companies can still get away with frying my brain, very nearly convincing all of us that you cannot do business without a credit card account that my customers can use, and charging me $30.00 a month whether or not I made any sales or not. Meanwhile, Bath Thyme does well in town, face to face business practice where I can actually see and hear the person I am doing business with without the incredibly frustrating, expensive method of cerebral function required to digest and regurgitate all the information that was th rown at me during the long process of setting up my website and making all the arrangements for my theoretical customers to be able to pay for their purchases.
Being the woman that I am, I will turn this anger and frustration into a challenge to not support the robbing of America by adhering to the fear tactics utilized by credit card companies. I will create a customer base that is person to person, not machine to machine, and I will make a very nice living in this manner. By the way, I have redesigned the packaging for the Oatmeal Herb bags, and I now have some soaps available. Let me know how I can be of service. Thanks

Writing for a living

Someone said that words are cheap, but we all must know that the spoken word does create, just as God created the world and all that lives in it. How much fun do you suppose He had designing each flower, each fish and mammal that swims in the waters?
We too, must write because there is passion in our words, because we have no choice but to express our deepest feelings and desires, joys and cares through the written word.
How lovely it would be to be able to make a living at it too! But, whether we make money at it or not, don't we owe it to ourselves to write down those words anyway?
So, this is my post for the day, and I must admit that it is so good to write down the words even if they make no sense to anyone but myself.

Gluten-free Thanksgiving

Rose and I have been gluten free for about 10 years now, and I am just amazed at the number of new magazines that seem to multiply every few months about how to eat gluten free. When I first began this food plan, I refuse to call it a diet, because that is a four-letter word, there was almost no information about the food plan, so I had to use all of my strength to eliminate all the foods that were making me so miserable. The biggest part of the sacrifice were all the comfort foods that I had eaten all of my life, and prepared for the kids when we were all together. So, I went home one night after getting off work late and made myself a very s imple meal of protein and two vegetables, getting off to a great start. I was in such misery before that night, but I can't tell you how much better I felt even that night. So, now I have learned to recognize when I have eaten something that does n ot work, and my arthritis pain is all but gone, as well as about 100 pounds! Hallelujah!
Rose found a recipe a couple years ago for turkey breast stuffed with fennel, onions, a bay leaf, sprinkled with lemon juice, and an apple. If I do an entire turkey I will make a stuffing with sausage, celery, onion, apple, and some slivered almonds maybe. No one objects to having sweet potatoes plus white mashed potatoes and gravy, and we can still really enjoy the cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie, peas and pearl onions, and a salad. It all works out, and after just a couple of tries, the new menu tastes just as good, and even better than the traditional.