Life certainly gets busy sometimes. I am working full-time again and sometimes it seems impossible to find time to cook and especially to write in my blog. Unfortunately, cooking at home is still the healthiest way to eat. So I try to plan a week's meals, and go to the grocery store with a list so I have the ingredients I need.

I am also getting a box of fresh local produce delivered to my door once a week by The Farm Table. They even have recipes for all the interesting veggies they put in my box. It forces me to cook good vegetables almost every day. And they are sending many greens that are either not readily available in the grocery store, cost too much, or look too wilted.

So I have been doing some research on the greens and learning which ones are good raw in salads. Kale is my new favorite lettuce. This article comparing greens is amazing! Have you ever tried greens in your smoothie? Also amazing!

Aging gracefully

Here's to growing older! A friend in his eighties says, "Growing old is not for the faint-hearted." I just read a piece in the New Yorker by Roger Angell, now in his eighties. Since growing older is inevitable, let's embrace it.

Everything can change in an instant

A recent column in our newspaper gave me some food for thought. It talks about a man who was on a flight which was forced to land on the Hudson River. It is a good example of how things can change in an instant, and the thoughts that go through our heads during those seconds that seem like hours. Some things become so much clearer under that microscope of impending death. Our priorities in life jump to the top of the pile of thoughts.

Ten years ago, my car skidded on a curvy road, and all of a sudden, it turned in a complete circle and  then flipped over completely. While this was happening, my thoughts were racing. My brain was yelling, "I am not ready to die! I still have some important work to do! It is not time yet!" Fortunately, a nice bank of dirt stopped my car, I was wearing my seat belt, and I was able to climb out of my car without help. That brush with death re-focused my efforts to get that work done, but it also made me decide what was important.

We have all heard the phrase, "Carpe diem", or "Seize the day." To me, this means living every day to the fullest extent possible. It means making time to nurture myself, and balancing all the demands on my time, like work, family, exercise, and housework, with some time to relax and read a good book. As a "boomer" getting older, I know that I might have twenty to thirty more years to live, or maybe not. So I am developing my own "bucket list" that includes some travel. Since I am seizing the day, I will not wait until I retire to make that happen. I will travel a little bit every year.And I will stop to watch the birds a few minutes every day. Carpe diem.