Awesome Canning Website

Sorry to have been missing for so long, but I just wanted to stop by and tell you about this neat website that I found:

Canning Information Warehouse

I wanted to be sure to have this website bookmarked somewhere. I am planning on having a garden and preserving my own food once Richie and I get married and have our own little place with a nice little spot for me to grow my own tomatoes, green beans, peppers, onions, garlic, cabbage, lettuce, corn, well you get the idea LOL.

I can't wait to be canning my own salsa and tomato sauce. Yumm, maybe I can even make some spaghetti sauce to can.

So some of you may think that I am crazy for wanting to take all of this on, however, I am very optimistic that this will help my health and will help my future children have an appreciation for food and a knowledge of how foods can affect your body. Too many foods (even health foods) in the supermarkets are laden with chemicals, preservatives, and other non-natural things that have been proven to cause cancer, obesity, addiction, and other health problems.

So here's to the urban movement of urban homesteading and to the canvolution. I want to be a part of this major shift in food awareness!!!

Troubled Mind

Lately I've been wishing I could talk to someone. A counselor perhaps. Things have just been crazy and I'm feeling crazier by the millisecond. At the moment so many things are uncertain. I wish that I wasn't in a position where what I'm doing and where I live wasn't at the whim of other people.

I worry about trying to move in the middle of a school semester if things get that bad. I worry about money issues and how to save for Richie and I's future. With my car falling apart every time I turn around and the amount of gas it takes to get to school and back 3 times a week, I can't afford the minimal things, let alone am able to save money.

And I'm so very worried about someone in my family. She is in a bad place, but won't leave it, no matter how many options she has, she would rather stay in a position where her life revolves around someone who is obviously an abuser of sorts, not sure if there is any physical abusing (fairly certain, but no concrete proof) but there is definitely mental abuse going on. I cried myself nearly sick over it last night. And today, I can hardly focus my mind is so intent on being worried over her.

But like everyone says, until she is willing to admit that there is a problem and ask for help, what can I really do?

Woman Blessed. Woman Empowered.

This is me. This is who I am. No man can change the core of me. Regardless of my weight or my age, my passions lie where they belong, my heart beats on through trials and through triumphs, my soul sings my song and no other.

Some may say what I've been through is trivial and others believe I've been to hell and back. Regardless, my life has finally led me to a place where I feel that I have the potential to finally be comfortable in my own skin. I'm not completely there yet, but I am close. Finally I am on the path to being me, not who others want me to be.

My life has changed so much. I am facing new challenges. Good ones this time. I am going to complete college, I am volunteering with my community. I am going to join a committee within the Carroll County Chamber of Commerce, and I am working at a job that I really love. The man I am with is real man, someone who genuinely values me as I am. He is willing to work hard so we can accomplish our dreams of a home, marriage, and a family of our own. He is also willing to let me help him work towards our goals.


Richie has helped me in so many ways, if not for him I am not sure that I would have went back to college; which itself has led to so many rewarding things already.


Because of an interview for one of my classes, I was offered a job to start working at Red Hill General Store again, which led me to start getting my hair cut just down the road, where I met Haley and I am now helping her with the Women's Business Expo. Red Hill has also gotten me involved with the Chamber of Commerce. College has led me to be a member of Phi Theta Kappa, where the volunteer requirements led me to Chestnut Creek School of Arts, which is an awesome place in and of itself.


All of this resulting from the encouragement of one man who believed in me.


My family has also been an enormous blessing n giving me the continual encouragement to stay on this path when I have days that I feel I am unable to accomplish these big tasks in my life. They have more love and respect from me than they could ever know.


I know that from time to time I can get down on myself. But I feel that to a certain point that this is only natural. But when I take a moment and truly think about my life, I am floored at how blessed I really am. I only wish everyone could experience this feeling of accomplishment and life potential.


I am a woman blessed. Blessed by my family, my fiance, and the discovery of my own inner strength.