Help Our Kitties and Doggies

Several years ago we rescued a kitten who was dumped in our backyard in a cardboard box. It was clear he had been taken from his mother and had not yet eaten solid food. He was skin and bones beneath his very soft fur. I felt so much compassion for him that I ran and got some dog food that belonged to our small breed dog. He was so hungry he ate and ate and ate. Very shortly thereafter, I jumped in the car and went to the store and bought food, a litter box, and some toys for him.

Then, about a year ago, we rescued a long hair calico cat who found her way to our back porch. She was dirty with very matted hair but, my goodness, was she beautiful! We helped clean her up, brush her out, and cut out the matted fur. After looking for her owner for several weeks we finally decided her owner simply wasn’t looking for her.

We paid for shots and to have the kitten neutered. We gave him to a friend on the condition if they ever decided they didn’t want him to return him to us rather than taking him to a shelter. Calico’s are sterile so we didn’t have to worry about spaying her. After determining we’d never find her owner we found a forever home for her too. Even though I’m not a cat lover, it was difficult for me to let her go. She was so sweet. If I had a bigger place I would definitely have kept her.

You don’t have to be a cat or dog lover to help our kitties and doggies when they need somebody to step up and help them whether they are lost or have been dumped by some heartless person. If you find you can’t keep them yourself please help our shelters out by re-homing them. You can advertise by word of mouth, Craigslist, your local newspaper, or putting an ad on your grocery bulletin boards (our Kroger’s has a huge bulletin board for these kinds of things). For the safety of the animal, please indicate you are asking a re-homing fee. There are some very nasty people out there who look for free animals to do unbelievably cruel things to them.

Once you meet the person you can determine if you want to charge them anything. I charged the woman $5 for the calico simply because I gave her $5 worth of food and I could tell she absolutely adored the cat and would give her a great home. We gave the kitten away because they were friends.

As difficult as it is for me to think about how many healthy cats, dogs, and even kittens are euthanized every day at the shelters, I urge you to think twice about taking a dog or cat or a shelter unless you find a no kill shelter. You can search online for a no kill shelter in your area.

Delicious Homemade Unsalted Popcorn

This is a delicious treat for those with high blood pressure who need to watch their salt intake. It’s so good you forget there’s no salt in it.

You’ll need:

A 2 qt Saucepan and Lid
1 T Oil
1/4 cup Popcorn Kernels
3 T Unsalted Butter cut into 3 pieces
1/4 t Garlic Powder (Put as much or as little in as you like.)
A Large Bowl with Lid

Directions:

Pour oil in pan over medium heat. Let it sit a few seconds until oil is hot. Pour in popcorn, put lid on pan, and shake pan back and forth on the burner several times within the first minute until the popcorn begins popping. Move pan back and forth on the burner until the popping slows to 10-15 seconds between pops. Turn off heat.

Pour popcorn into large bowl. Sit pan aside. Put unsalted butter and garlic powder in pan. Hold the pan above the cooling burner swirling the mixture in a circular motion until butter is completely melted.

Pour 1/2 of butter/garlic powder mixture over popcorn, put lid on bowl, and shake vigorously. Pour remainder of butter over popcorn and repeat.

Remove lid. Grab a very large handful of popcorn with both hands and throw in the pan. Shake popcorn around in pan to get as much of the butter and garlic powder out of the pan. Pour popcorn back into bowl. Put lid back on bowl and shake to redistribute butter and garlic power. Repeat this process a second time.

You’d be surprised how much butter and garlic powder get wasted if you omit this process. The garlic powder tends to settle to the bottom of the butter and much of it stays in the pan.

Enjoy your popcorn!

Helpful notes:

We use a copper bottom pan with rounded edges which is ideal for getting all the butter out of the pan.
You can use most any oil you prefer. Even, very healthy, olive oil can be used.
We use yellow kernels because they seem to pop up bigger and have a better taste.
Some say to keep your kernels in the refrigerator to keep them fresh but we’ve found they pop up much smaller than if we keep them in a sealed container in the pantry.

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5 Steps to Managing Your Sinus Problems

If you have sinus headaches you know how miserable they can be with pain deep in your eye sockets and sinus cavities. Ouch!

Most people reach for Pseudoephedrine but that’s scary stuff. It’s a controlled substance for a reason. A few years ago, after 20 years of treating her symptoms with Pseudoephedrine, my mother decided there’s got to be a more effective way of managing her sinus problems without dealing with the side effects of this dangerous drug. She found 5 things which have completely turned our sinus problems around.

1. Invest in a humidifier or vaporizer! These are invaluable. I cannot stress their importance! I’ve had several different brands and I can honestly say they all work about the same. I tend to buy ones that have a large water tank so I don’t have to refill as often. A cool mist humidifier keeps the air in our home moist to compensate for hot, dry, air in the summer. We use a warm mist humidifier once we start running our furnace in the winter. An extra benefit is that we often feel warmer in the winter and can often keep our thermostat turned back a couple of degrees. On very humid days we don’t run the humidifier because nature is giving us the moisture we need.

2. A saline nasal spray or even plain water in a nasal spray bottle. Saline sprays help kill bacteria which reduce sinus infections. They are effective with reducing allergy symptoms as well. They are reasonably priced around $3 at any drug store. If you’re creative you can make your own. There’s no need for fancy, expensive, nasal sprays with chemicals in them. Most of the saline sprays have the same saline concentration as in your body. Why add chemicals? The objective is to keep your sinus cavities moist so it’s a good idea to use them as often as possible throughout the day.

3. Ibuprofen and aspirin. We treat sinus cavity pain with extra sprays of saline or water and low doses of ibuprofen and plain aspirin on the rare occasion we need something more. Make certain you eat something prior to taking the ibuprofen and aspirin to protect your stomach and take them with lots of water.

4. Water, water, water, water. Need I say more? Drink plenty of water to keep your body hydrated. I carry a bottle of water around with me at all times and drink all day throughout the day to keep myself hydrated.

5. Time. The last thing we found is to give your sinus cavities time to slowly heal. My mother’s sinus problems were very severe when she started her journey to find a safer way to manage her sinus problems. Even after running her humidifier continuously for one full year she could not be away from home for more than an hour without getting a blasting sinus headache. She would have to plan her errands so she could be back in the safety of her moist home in under an hour. That’s when she began using the nasal spray in addition to the humidifier. Her sinuses were so damaged it took a couple years for her sinus cavities to fully heal. If your sinuses are severely damaged it may take a long time for them to fully heal so be patient. They’ll never “heal” when you take Pseudoephedrine because it’s only treating the symptoms not the problem. We have to treat the problem to do what’s best for us.