A Good Harvest

Grig was pretty amazing over the last couple of months. Kevin and I were out of town from half-way through July until the 2nd week of September. While we were gone, he kept up with the garden and tried to keep the house clean.

Our garden has done quite well this year. While I was gone, Grig blanched and froze quite a few green beans. By the time I got back, our garden, and especially our tomatoes had exploded.

The second day after I got home, Kevin and I went outside and harvested quite a few things from our garden. My little guy is a great helper!

Here he is with the fruits of our labors.

 This is only the beginning of our tomatoes, though it is about the end of the beans. There is one onion in there too. We made a half batch of salsa with these tomatoes, and it turned out super well! I made two and a half quarts of salsa. The half quart we just ate right away, and the brother in laws really liked it too.

In the corner of the previous picture, you can also see some tiny plums. Early this year, we found a wild plum tree (with three inch thorns) on our property. The plums were tiny, like cherries, and recently they've ripened to orange. We tried a couple, and they were pretty tart. However, on one random branch, we found some purple ones that were very sweet. It was kind of strange, but we're not complaining too much. We might try to turn them into jam.

 Our garden isn't very big yet (though we have great plans for expanding next year), so we only had five stalks of corn, but we got some pretty good ears off of them. They tasted amazing. I love corn on the cob, and I was excited that the corn waited until I got home before we picked it.

Nothing, however, compared to our carrots.

 They were huge! I'm still working on cutting them up, blanching them, and freezing them. We definitely don't want these bad boys to go to waste! The biggest ones were nearly the size of my wrist. They were pretty huge! I don't think I've ever seen carrots this big.

Then, on Monday, my sister called and asked me if I wanted to go and pick tomatoes with her. Even though we have quite a few tomatoes in our garden, most of them are green, and we really like salsa, so I told her I did, and I was able to get a bushel of (orange) Roma tomatoes for $20. We picked them ourselves. We also got a whole lot of bell peppers. I'm probably going to be making salsa today because quite a few of them are ripe now. We love salsa.

I'm super grateful that we've had such a good harvest this year. Our apple tree is doing really well too, but the apples aren't ripe yet. Once they are, we're going to be making a lot of apple sauce, dehydrated apples, and apple juice. Every year, we also make fresh pressed cider. The place where my aunt is living has a cider press, and all the family in the area goes over and helps press tons of apples into cider. It always tastes amazing, and I'm really grateful that they invite us.

Hopefully it doesn't freeze too soon. I'm excited for all of our tomatoes to ripen as well. I'm really hoping they do so before it gets too cold.

You Usually Get What You're Expecting....Unless You're Expecting Perfection

I had this set of images come into my head last night.

Two men were sitting in the brush in some foreign country.  They were watching some natives go about their business.  Both men were aware that the natives knew they were there, and they were trying to analyze what the natives were going to do next.

The first man said to the person with him, "They're going to attack!" He quickly pulled out the revolver and prepared himself.

The other man said, "They're friendly.  They won't hurt us." He then sat down by a tree and waited.

At that moment, the natives came through the bushes and attacked the man who had his revolver out.  He ended up being overwhelmed by numbers and killed.

The other man was slowly approached, and he and the natives quickly became friends.

In my mind, the natives had seen the man pull out his gun and deemed him a threat.  He caused his own expectations by preparing for them to be aggressive.

The other man had seen the good in the tribe.  He waited, and the people of the country decided he was not a threat.  His expectations were also fulfilled by his actions.

Why was I thinking about this?

When you meet someone new, a lot of times we decide they are going to be a certain way.  If a friend is introducing you to a new friend and they've told you all sorts of wonderful things about the person, you probably are going to have good expectations for this new friend.  If we are looking for the best in others, we are going to find good things about them.  It is easy to find a quality that you admire or love in another person if that is what you are expecting out of them. 

On the other hand, if the whole office has been gossiping negatively about the new kid, you are likely to have poor expectations when you meet them, and because none of us are perfect, it is also equally easy to find terrible qualities in every person we meet.

When Christ was on the earth, he knew that every person he met was a sinner, but he loved them all anyway.  He was able to past the sin and love the sinner.

This policy of looking for the best in others nearly always works, unless you are looking for perfection.

While I was on my mission for the LDS church, I had a companion who was dealing with some issues when she came to live with me.  She had kind of met me before, and had heard of me, and for some reason she thought that by living with me, all of her problems would be solved.  Things went great for about a week, until she realized that her problems weren't going away and I wasn't perfect.

Therefore, she decided that it must be my fault and she didn't like me anymore.

I loved her though, and that really bothered her.  She could be very hurtful and angry at times, and I couldn't understand why.  It took me a while, but finally I realized that the reason it upset her that I loved her was because she didn't like herself very much.  When you don't like yourself, it's hard to realize that others can love you.  It's also very hard to like others.

Since then, she has dealt wonderfully with the things that were bothering her and has matured into a beautiful, wonderful woman.  She was always wonderful, but I think she has really started to see that now.

Expect the best in others, but don't expect them to solve your problems or to be perfect.  I often find that when others annoy me, it's because they reflect a quality of myself that I don't like very much.  Once I figure that out, it's easy for me to put those petty annoyances aside and enjoy the person in front of me.  The golden rule still lives.  Treat others as you want to be treated.  If you want other to nitpick everything that's wrong with you, by all means, do it to everyone you meet.

However, if you want them to love you as God would, do the same for them.  I have felt a bit of his love that he feels for His children, and I can tell you that the feeling is overwhelming.

The Lord loves each of us more than we can possibly understand.  Life can be rough and bad things can happen, but everything that occurs if for our benefit.  As we grow and learn from each trial, we mature into the beautiful creature that God always intended for us to be.  I wrote a blog a while ago about why bad things happen to good people, if you want to read it, the link is right here.

One of my favorite sayings goes, "The Lord loves you just the way you are, but He loves you too much to let you stay that way."

The Lord can see the potential in each of us.  I pray that we can also see the potential in each other.  

Kevin fell asleep on Grig's shoulder.  Cute picture!

Try to feel the love that the Lord has for those around you, and I can promise that you will be astonished.  This world is full of wonderful people, including you!

ObamaCare: The Facts

I admit I've been a failing citizen.  I've listened to a lot of people's opinions on ObamaCare and made decisions without actually researching the subject myself.  So, I decided to rectify that.  After some research here's what I think about ObamaCare.

All in all, I think Obama was trying to do a good thing for our country.  I was reading a site called ObamaCare Explained, and I feel like I understand Obama a little better.  Here's what ObamaCare is supposed to do:

1- ObamaCare (OC) is supposed to provide competition for health insurance companies.  In a capitalist society, competition is our lifeblood.  As OC provides an alternative method of obtaining healthcare from the Health Insurance Marketplace, other companies are forced to lower their premiums in order to stay competitive.  The Health Insurance Marketplace is supposed to provide an alternative means for individuals to purchase affordable heath care.

 -Good Side:  Insurance companies who are raking in profits will be forced to lower their costs to stay competitive.  Premiums all over the country will have to decrease.

 - Bad Side:  Where is the money for the Health Insurance Marketplace going to come from?  Taxes.  Even if you already have insurance, you will have to pay in order to finance other people getting insurance.  Your own premiums will probably be lower, but your taxes will be higher.

2- OC allows children to stay on the parent's insurance until they are 26. 

 - Good Side: More young people will have health insurance until they are successful enough to get their own.
 - Bad Side: This insurance is usually limited.  It sometimes only covers medical emergencies.  It doesn't cover maternity, dental, or eye care. (I know, I was under 26 when I had my baby, but my parents' insurance didn't cover it.  Some expenses were written off, but that was it.)

3 - If you don't have health insurance, you have to pay a penalty until you get health insurance.  In order to understand this section, you need to understand a different section.  This fee is applied because ObamaCare is forcing Insurance Companies to accept everyone, regardless of preexisting health conditions or gender.  It also eliminates life time limits and makes it so insurance companies can't drop you when you get sick.  Due to this fact, the government wanted to keep people from simply not having insurance until they get sick.  The fee for those who don't have insurance is to help keep insurance affordable for the rest of us.

-Good Side:  Those who need insurance the most will be able to obtain it.  Those who have preexisting health conditions and terminal illnesses will be able to have assistance paying their bills.  People will not be able to take advantage of the system because they will have to pay a fee (currently $95 per adult, $47.50 per child, or 1% of your income, whichever is higher.  The family max is $285.)

-Bad Side:  People are forced to have Health Care, whether they want it or not.  This is probably one of the points that bother people the most.  In our country, people like to have choices, and yes, the government is giving them a choice: get health insurance or pay for everyone else's health insurance.  This also leads to another complaint that I've heard a lot about. You don't have a say on what your taxes go to.

There was a petition signed a little while ago by some major religious groups who were protesting because many of the things that they would be forced to pay for are against their religion.  Birth control was listed as the example.  Some religions don't believe in any kind of birth control, but due to the regulations, their money would go toward helping another person have birth control.  This is a moral dilemma for many people.  Personally, I would have a strong problem myself if my money was going toward something that I was morally objected to, such as abortions.  Many people are struggling with the fact that they have to pay for what they see as other people's bad decisions. 

4- If you have over 50 full-time employees, you must have health care for them.  If you are a small business, there is some tax credit you can receive for assistance.  If you can get health insurance from your work, you are not eligible for the Health Insurance Marketplace, unless they don't cover 60% of your health costs.  The less money you make, the less health insurance will cost you.  There are many other tax credits that you could be eligible if you are poor.

 -Good Side:  For most people, ObamaCare won't really affect their insurance.  They already have insurance through their work, and the competition may make premiums go down.  For those who weren't offered health care before, it will now be available for them.  If they can't afford it, the government will make allowances. 

 -Bad Side:  There are a whole lot of tax credits promised in this bill.  For everyone who has to pay less, those who can afford it will be required to pay more.  This signifies either an increase of taxes, or an increase of debt.  That frightens me a bit.  It's great that everyone would be able to afford health care, but not if it takes all my money away.  (We're not making that much.)

5- More people will qualify for Medicaid.  If you have it already, than you get to keep it.  If you are poor, you get federal subsidies or tax credits.  Meanwhile, they are cutting excess, "wasteful" spending from Medicaid, "taking the hole out of the doughnut," and putting the money back into Medicaid.

 -Good Side:  Again, those who can't afford care will be able to receive it.
 -Bad Side:  Not sure how removing funding and putting it back in is going to solve any problems.  Mostly, that part just left me confused.  Anyone care to explain it?

So, after looking at the good and bad sides of the ObamaCare mandates, I went to the oppositions website 50 Dangers from ObamaCare.

Here are some points that do worry me:

1- Less freedom, more government control.  A large number of the 50 complaints were about the government mandating our lives.  If you were qualified for Medicaid, you had to be on it.  All private health insurance companies must conform to the new regulations under ObamaCare.  The government could look at your income status whenever they want, and have access to your bank to withdraw the fees.  Again, it talks about being forced to have health insurance whether you want it or not.  I think that this is why so many of us are worried about this bill.  We don't like the government to have this much control in our lives.

Really, I wish they'd worry more about regulating gas prices than insurance.

2- Doctor's fees would be set and health care would be rationed.  I worry about this a bit as well.  Obama was modeling his healthcare after the one in Canada.  In some parts of Canada the healthcare system is working great (my friends from there love it).  However, in other parts of Canada, it isn't going so well.  You can be on a waiting list for months before you receive the healthcare you need.  Also, the fact that all doctors will receive the same pay regardless of specialty could be quite troublesome for our country.  Unless the government also limits the cost of college tuition, we are going to have some very poor and indebted doctors in our country.  This will most likely vastly reduce the number of specialists in our country, which will be both good and bad.

3- Higher Taxes - this one is concerning to many people, but especially those of the middle class.  The more you make, the more you pay.  Even though “The tax imposed under this section shall not be treated as tax.” Whatever that means.

Okay, so in conclusion.  ObamaCare does have some excellent ideas, but it is going about it in the wrong way.  The only way to have a true capitalist society (that's been working out pretty well for us, thank you) is to have competition.  However, competition only works if everyone is on an even playing field.  If the government (the competion) can regulate what its competitors can do, that isn't even ground.  If every other company can go under because they only have the money people give them while the government stays on top because they can keep raising taxes, that's not equal ground either.  Personally, I believe in small to little government influence in our country.  I don't really think that ObamaCare is going to solve all the problems.  I think, in fact, it might end up causing some major ones.