grafted in and on the journey

Hello Grafted In Readers, Today is January 30, 2017 in my corner of blog land. Winter has returned, although in a mild form with at least an inch of snow outdoors and temps seasonal. That's fine with me. I continue reading the memoir of former US First Lady, Laura Bush, wife of former US President George Bush. She has an interesting story and background in both writing and teaching. Their twin girls are named after their respective mothers. The book is titled, Spoken From The Heart by Laura Welch-Bush. I continue to be involved with work on two anthologies. One is on the theme of forgiveness and will tentatively be released in Spring. The second, Waiting for Messiah, tentatively will be released late summer. It will feature about fifteen stories or poems centered around first century citizens of Israel awaiting the arrival of Messiah and what the wait may have been like for them. The authors are doing a very fine job at imagining likely emotions and circumstances in retellin...

Hello Grafted In Readers, Today is Friday January 13, 2017 in my corner of blog land. For the past few days I have had a "common cold" for which there is no cure. The "HouseCall Newsletter" from Mayo Clinic though suggests some remedies to possibly make one feel less agitated during these experiences. The common cold can last for up to two weeks. I did add a remedy of my own today that I used as the title of this post; yes it is a bit high-brow I know for a mellow rock listener but hey. The folks at Mayo Clinic recommend the following remedies to not rid the cold but ease the misery of one. - Rest and hydration with water, juice, clear broth, or warm lemon water with honey. This evidently loosens congestion. Coffee, (oops), caffeinated sodas, and alcoholic drinks can make dehydration worse. - Add moisture to the air. Use a humidifier or a vaporizer. - Take Over-the-counter medications or decongestants as directed! These will differ for children and adults. -...

Hello Grafted In Readers, This is our first post of 2017, January 5, and it is cold outside in my corner of blog land. Somewhere below freezing and slightly above 0 Fahrenheit but probably in the low teens if that. Cold! I'm not as being indoors for two days settles that issue for me! There are a few topics to highlight today. -On the health front, the Mayo Clinic newsletter, Housecall, has an interesting article about sleep and weight loss. It might take a few minutes to fully wake up from sleep, especially deep sleep, because growth hormones, stress hormones, and insulin hormones get released when we are in deep sleep. Everything goes back to some type of normal. If we get fragmented sleep or poor sleep, is there really a difference, then we snack the next day and might eventually gain some weight. The hunger hormone is complaining and being passive aggressive. My interpretation from being a parent. The Mayo experts tell us to consider changing the type of pillow. Look at w...