Personal Responsibility

More About Ma: Caroline Ingalls and Her History

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Caroline and Charles Ingalls sepia cropped.jpg
Caroline Quiner Ingalls with her husband Charles Phillip Ingalls, image source Wikipedia

I said in an earlier post that I wanted to explore further the life of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s mother, Caroline, called “Ma” in the books. The more I’ve read about her the more fascinating she’s become. As I’ve re-read some of the Little House books, especially the first one, Little House in the Big Woods, I’ve been more and more impressed with how much sheer practical knowledge about survival both she and Pa had. I had thought originally that Ma had come from a pampered city life because of a passage that shows up in this first book about Ma’s best dress, her “delaine.” Pa has just come home from visiting his father to help with making maple syrup and says that there’s going to be a “sugaring off” party with a dance included.

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Homemade Salad Dressings and Croutons–plus Costco Thoughts

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This image is copyrighted, but hey! I’m pushing people to go there!

Jim and I made our way to Costco yesterday morning, the first big shopping trip since everything started shutting down. It was my first venture out for maybe two weeks. I had made the prediction that either the parking lot would be empty or that there would be a line out the door waiting for this magnificent place to open at 10:00, and, as usual, neither of my predictions was accurate. Instead, the whole experience was perfectly normal, with the exception of limits on certain items, the fact that a smiling woman was handing out packs of toilet paper, and that other items were missing entirely, notably chicken parts and regular pasta. (I was tickled to see quite a bit of gluten-free pasta on the shelves. Since this snarky comment is in parentheses, please feel free to ignore it.) The lines were no longer than usual; everyone was friendly and efficient, and we were in and out in under an hour. They had even opened early. I came home encouraged that the great engine of American capitalism is probably not going to grind to a halt any time soon, even as many are suffering from its slowing. We’re going to get through this, folks!

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How to Handle Slumps

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Here’s my problem: I need to be BOTH people in this image.
Image by mohamed Hassan from Pixabay

As I’ve said lo these many times on this blog (both before and after re-naming it to reflect my major new emphasis on food), I’m a personality type called an Obliger, part of a four-part personality framework that Gretchen Rubin created. (Take the quiz here to find out your type.) It’s a framework that’s very helpful—I think, anyway—because it doesn’t try to explain everything about a person. Instead, it focuses on one narrow part of personality: how you respond to expectations, either inner or outer. Obligers, who make up the largest group (about 40%, according to a study that Gretchen commissioned), respond very readily to outer expectations—that is, what others expect of them—but don’t do well with the expectations they have for themselves. In other words, they don’t tend to be great self-starters. I had always recognized this lack in myself but thought of it as a character flaw. I was lazy. I was unmotivated. I was a procrastinator. Then I realized that this was simply the way I am, and that I needed to deal with my personality type in a productive and positive way. There was no sense in berating myself, but neither was there any sense in just excusing myself. ‘Oh well, that’s just me,’ wasn’t going to cut it.

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Some random health and fitness thoughts

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Image by Wokandapix from Pixabay

Last week I needed to get keep a doctor’s appointment in order to refill an expired prescription, so even though it was pretty snowy I got myself out the door and to the office. (My husband did yeoman duty shoveling the driveway multiple times over the course of the storm.) Since it had been over six months since my last A1C test at their office I had them do that, too, and it was:

6.0

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How Do You Evaluate Health Claims?

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Image by Manfred Steger from Pixabay

I thought that I had covered the major fad diets out there but realized that there are a few more to aim at. Before I plunge into more of these scams, I figured it would be a good idea to write more generally about how to make informed decisions about your health or anything else. Ridiculous new ideas are coming down the pike every day. Here are some guidelines you can use:

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The Vegan Lifestyle and Its Complications

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Image by silviarita from Pixabay

So far I’ve discussed the keto, paleo, Whole30, food sensitivity, and Tom Brady diets, and there are many more out there. I’m going next to veganism as a lifestyle. As I’ve said before, there are two principles to keep in mind in looking at these various eating plans:

1) People are free to choose how they eat, and

2) Personal convictions/conscience should not be violated.

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A Lesson Learned from Lessened Activity Levels

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Image by Mabel Amber, still incognito… from Pixabay

I mentioned in a previous post that I was facing foot surgery, which took place on March 11. So it’s been about 2 ½ weeks since then, and I didn’t feel that I could stand on the scale without my surgical boot or shoe until the 2-week mark. Guess what? I was four pounds up. FOUR POUNDS.

Why did this happen? Well, my activity levels had gone way, way down. I went nowhere at all for about the first week except for my doctor’s appointment, and I spent a lot of time lying on the couch with my foot up on pillows. I

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Change Your Eating by Changing Your Mind

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As we head further into the holiday season I think it’s a good time to launch my series on respecting food roles. Indeed, sometime over the next few weeks you’ll see this entire site transform before your very eyes! The banner will change from its leafy tendrils to a food-related theme and the name will change from “Intentional Living” to “Respect Food Roles.” And what are those roles? Glad you asked. As I’ve thought about that question I’ve come up with only two legitimate ones:

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Twists and Turns of a Bald-Faced Liar

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Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by John Carreyrou, Knopf, 2018.

Well! Recently on the Happier podcast Liz mentioned that she had just read a fascinating book and she was buttonholing everyone she knows and insisting that they read it too. It sounded so good that I figured maybe I should take a look, especially since Liz is in the midst of producing a new TV series and barely has time to breathe. If she read it, well, it must be worth a look, I thought. My new month’s Audible credit was in place, so I decided to go ahead and use that. Wow. I was absolutely entranced and stayed so to the very end. The audiobook is voiced by a great reader, by the way.

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A Blast of Impassioned Pleading for Our Endangered Democracy.

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Suicide of the West: How the Rebirth of Tribalism, Populism, Nationalism, and Identity Politics Is Destroying American Democracy by Jonah Goldberg, available in Kindle, hardback, and audiobook formats through Amazon.com and other outlets. (Link is to Amazon.) The audiobook is highly recommended; if you are not currently a member of Audible.com you can get the book for free if you sign up for an Audible.com membership; access that page here. Visit the author’s website at jonahgoldberg.com.

I have a very simple goal in writing this post, linking to it on Facebook and Twitter, and perhaps sending out a separate e-mail blast: I want to do my small part to make Jonah Goldberg’s new book #1 on the NYT best-seller list. Right now he’s #4 on the combined print/e-book list and #5 on the hardcover-only list. (James Comey’s compendium is #1 on both of those lists; I somehow think I won’t bother with that one.) In order for this much-desired result to occur, people have to buy the book. I re-activated my Audible.com account in order to get the audiobook, all 16 hours and 2 minutes of it. It was well worth my time.

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