It does go in cycles, doesn't it, Jo Ann. And in between cycles, we often forget.

Maybe we'll remember this time.

Frugality, not wasting anything, being careful with what we have, you're right; it is an art.
Thanks, it's great to hear from you.

Sharon, Loved the article. I believe that one reason our 5 grown children (all over 50 now) have lived healthy lives is the fact that they got a good start growing up by eating healthy meals cooked from scratch, and eating fresh vegetables and fruit. None of them has been overweight as they got outside and exercised.

It is appaling that there is so much autism found in children these days, and I attribute it in part to pre-packaged foods.

Hi Jean,

It's great to hear about your children. You might be right about autism, and the more I learn the more I wonder if those types of prepackaged foods and what we consider junk foods might not be the cause of a lot of other problems our children face today.

There's an old saying: 'We are what we eat'.
I think it says a lot.

Thanks for reading the article, It's so good to hear from you.

Another excellent article, Sharon, and one that keeps me thinking. I am much, much better than I used to be, I now cook just about everything from scratch, I cannot bring myself to buy processed and pre-cooked foods anymore. We are re-working the veggie garden that wasn't last year, so I am looking forward to that. Bottled water boggles my mind these days... there was a time when I was in on that but when you think about how much plastic gets thrown away from all those bottles, AND that there is less quality control on those waters than what comes out of our taps... I kind of find it hard to believe that there is still so much consumption of bottled water. BTW, the water that came out of our hose when I was a kid was just fine for drinking, LOL!

I have also tried to avoid chemicals in the gardens as much as possible. It took me several years in my AZ gardens to create a habitat that nurtured the good bugs which eliminated most of the bad bugs... use any kind of spray and you're killing the good bugs as well. My greatest challenge here is ants in the garden... we have TOO MANY! I am open for suggestions on controlling them naturally.

Anyway, good job, Sharon!

Seems like we all woke up at about the same time about a lot of things, didn't we, Brenda. It's nice to know that there are so many of us. Yes about the bottled water and YES about the ants. They drive me crazy and now they've taken up residence in my mailbox. I am so guilty of having some kind of can full of ant spray that I take with me down the driveway to the mailbox every single day. I swear that's the only chemical in my house.

Obviously I'm looking for an ANT answer as well.

Thanks for reading the article; again, so many of us!
And luck with your veggie garden! I just planted lettuce and basil yesterday, today it will be little green onions!
Tomatoes next week, maybe.

Ants can not digest cornmeal. They take it to their nest, everybody eats some, and I think it just plugs them up and they die. Really. It isn't instant, might take a few applications and several days, but it does work and a bag of cornmeal doesn't cost much. I've also heard that salt sprinkled around on your counters will repel them, but then they probably just go somewhere else.

Cornmeal in my mailbox.
Better than ant spray which is not working for very long.
Maybe salt and cornmeal.

My mail carrier is going to love me.

I will try it!!

Sharon, maybe your mail carrier would prefer a bit of salt and cornmeal with his ants. The nest is probably at the base of the mailbox post, so put the cornmeal down there.

I'll probably do that, Mary. The base is a flowerbed filled with daylilies, surely they won't mind.

Wondering about your mailbox ants, Sharon.

No ants in my brand new mailbox, Mary. None at all. Either they can't get in or they don't like the green plastic stuff!!
Yayyyy for green plastic stuff.

Problem solved! No more ant mail.