Gratitude Day #24 - 2018 - Good Foods, Waters, and Medicines

Gratitude Day #24

Today I am grateful for good foods, waters, and medicines.

I have been greatly blessed to grow up in an environment where I never had to worry about going to bed hungry. Mom and Dad always made sure good food was in the house...sometimes too much of it.

I grew up with an awful lot of southern cooking. My parents were from Kentucky, and as I've mentioned before, we had a huge garden that provided fresh foods, and plenty to "put up".

We had thirteen apple trees and two pear trees on our property, too. So, hours were spent with Dad as he taught me how to prune them to get the best quality out of them. I helped to pick up the branches, and we waited for the harvest. At least a good third of the canning jars were filled with applesauce, apple pie filling, and apple butter.

Oh, what I wouldn't give for one of my mom's cat head biscuits smeared with apple butter!

Mom made sure the neighbors and even the mailman had their fill of her products -- just bring back the jars. Even the hobos found their way to mom's kitchen. The smell of apple butter cooking with cinnamon and spices wafted to their noses. Mom would pack up biscuits and apple butter for them and send them on their way. She never turned down a hobo.

It's probably because of their cooking that I gained so much weight in my young life, topping out at 328 lbs. I had no control. I'm better, but not by much.

I grew up with the best well water, and our house we live in now has the best well water we've ever tasted. Kerry and I both feel it's such a waste to buy bottled water when we have such good water. We tap into an underground river, and our well is about 150 feet deep, with 110 feet of water in it.

We feel very fortunate that our water is so good.

The medicines we take our astounding. Today, I can solve just about any headache or malady by going to the drugstore. If it's more serious, doctors can prescribe something more. I've never been adversely affected by any medicine I've taken. Instead, I've been greatly blessed. I have ancestors who suffered greatly, or even died because of things so readily available to us today.

Each day in my personal prayer, and in our family prayer together, Kerry and I express our gratitude for the foods, medicines, and waters that we may partake of today. This covers everything we may ingest.

If I prayed every time I eat, I'd be praying all day.

And, we feel it is vastly important when there may be chemicals, or such as with the romaine lettuce problem going on now, or something unseen and unknown to us in our food, these prayers help to cover anything that may harm us.

Some of my parents' recipes have been passed on to my children who have asked for them. Erik particularly loved my mom's fresh apple cake. I went digging through her recipe file until I found it. When he made it one year, I would have to say it was as good as hers...if not better!