Oh yeah ...I forgot to tell you

John has agreed to have a garden this year. We were going to do it last year, but we had alot going on and really weren't ready for it. To start things off...Jordan (the girl) is going to grow tomatoes. She wants to start them indoors, so I may find her one of those topsy turvy things to transplant it in later.

As for me...I am going to start with growing my own herbs indoors. I really dislike "canned" spices and seasonings. Unfortunately, they add unnecessary preservatives to everything! Another thing that I found out is that many canned spices have added "salt" for consistancy. Salt is an absolute NO-NO in our house. First of all, because there are 5 black men that live and eat there. To all of my non African-American friends and family members...The elderly and African Americans males are highly more susceptible to high blood pressure due to excess salt than others. Sodium is important for our body to function, but when you get too much, the kidneys work harder to protect you by passing it into the urine. Then when that gets to be too much it passes into your blood...which causes the rise in pressure. And most importantly, my brother in law is a cardiologist specializing in hypertension. So, if his brother and nephews OD'd on salt, it would be bad for his business :-).

So anyway...I said that to say that as busy parents I know that many of us don't feel we have time to slow down enough to care about what we feed out families, as long as they eat. But that isn't true. YOU have to care. You have to watch. You have to monitor. You have to observe. YOU have to make the choices that they don't pay attention to. They think fast food 6 days a week, a slosh of butter here...a 1/2 cup of sugar here....douse this with salt here...and it makes no never mind. That is not true and its a sutble way that the enemy uses to get us sickly, slow, overweight and spending resources at the doctor's office instead of in the kingdom.

Am I telling you to grow all your food..and never ever use salt again?...ummm no. I am saying PLAN, PLAN, PLAN. Plan your meals. Plan what you CAN do to ensure fresher food for your family. Grow a vegetable or two. Quit buying everything in a can or a bag. Go to a farmers market to get fresh fruits and veggies. Stop adding everything the recipe book says to your food. If its says butter, find a substitute. If it says salt, don't. If its says sugar, try a natural sweetner, like honey instead. If you need to use basil, parsley, etc...try growing your own...dry it out and you can't imagine the taste difference in your soups, stews, chili's etc..also the satisfaction you get for knowing that you cared for and nutured these things for your family with your own hands.

I am so excited that we are starting this garden this year. I 'm looking to plant tomatoes, broccoli, greens, carrots, onions, watermelon and herbs. I am not sure what John wants to plant yet, probably weird stuff like squash :-). I just hope and pray that we can enjoy the food before the deer, racoons, chipmunks and squirrels get to it :-). I'll post pictures and let you know how its coming.