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Around here, our air conditioner seems like it has been running 24/7 and we’re close to record high temps for the month of July.  As such, it’s too hot to cook inside (and many days it feels to hot to be standing over a grill) so we’ve gotten pretty creative regarding meals that don’t heat the house.  We’ve even gone as far as cooking breakfast on the grill.

Sometimes it seems like we are more prepared to deal with the big issues that come up in life.  Sure, they are difficult and painful, but we know that how well we weather these catastrophes in our life whether they are a family loss, a natural disaster, or the loss of a job demonstrates how well we can recover.

Depending on where you live, your children may be heading back to school as soon as in the next couple of weeks.  Here are some suggestions to make your life and your child’s transition to a new school year a little easier.

This issue is near and dear to my heart because my grandmother has Alzheimer’s. I think it is pretty incredible that in rare, genetic forms of the disease they can now connect changes in the brain that occur 10 to 20 years prior to the onset of the disease to Alzheimer’s itself.

Here are a few photos I took when we were visiting my parents recently.  Talk about being in the right place at the right time, I was hanging out with my mom and daughter on the patio when I turned around and one of the many hummingbirds that grace my mom’s garden had stopped by for a fountain bath.  I wish I had been quick enough to catch him in flight.  My dad came out just as the hummingbird finished and he was green with envy.  They’re not an easy bird to sneak up on!

Worms can consume half of their weight in food every day.  One way to gauge how many worms you need is to keep a tally of how much food waste (less the meat and greasy bits) your family averages.  If you average 1 pound per day, you’ll need 2 pounds of worms.

Anyone who has visited our garden I’m sure has noticed our aviary, containing a variety of birds including a few chickens.  We’ve kept chickens for almost as long as I can remember and have been spoiled with superior tasting eggs for nearly as long.  These days, as people recognize the health benefits of eggs from chickens allowed to roam, scratch, hunt bugs, and eat fresh greens, backyard chicken coops are much more common.

We’ve all heard it before, exercise is good for us.  If you’re like me and you’re not a crazy exercise nut, but are still concerned with staying healthy consider adding regular stretching into your daily routine.  There may be some people who are naturally more flexible than others, but 95 percent of it is practice.  The more you stretch, the more flexible you will become.  We should also incorporate flexibility into other areas of our lives, including emotional and professional.

Even though our pets are a cherished part of our families, we often don’t consider the quality of the food we feed them. Even high quality pet food products still must go through a rendering, heating, and drying process and pet food labeling can be just as confusing, if not more so than labels on people food. Additionally, many dry or canned pet foods can lead to food sensitivities, skin conditions, or even allergies in our pets.

Our garden is on the northern edge of this butterfly’s habitat, so we don’t often see it. Here, it is resting on some eucalyptus but its larvae feeds exclusively on passion flower plants.