everyone's afraid of something...or several things

For some reason, I had the idea last night, as I was floating through subconsciousness towards sleep, that I should write about the things I'm afraid of. Both serious things and seemingly goofy things make my list.

• I'm a little terrified of deep, dark water.  Unidentifiable beings pulling me underwater. Getting disoriented while underwater, and not being able to find the surface. Large creatures underwater. Sometimes, movies and photos of deep seas, especially the ones that look up towards the surface, make me dizzy and I can't look at them.
• Mirrors have always freaked me out. When I was little, sometimes kids would go into the church bathrooms, turn out the lights, and say a little chant (usually having something to do with "bloody Mary" or "Sandman"...freaky, I know), turn around three times...and supposedly a face would appear in the darkened mirror. I'd never go in with them, or if I did, I'd always run out before the face was supposed to appear.  Also, I remember a movie where the mirror was actually another world, and sometimes things moved in the mirror but not in "real life."  I'm constantly imagining that maybe one day, there will be something in the mirror that isn't in "real life." Or the other way around. Either way, it would be really scary, and I consider this possibility quite frequently.  Mostly late at night. :)

"Indian Stew"

You're probably thinking, "There's no such thing as Indian Stew. You just made that up."  You are correct. But, this is easy and delicious, and deserving of its own title.

Stews weren't meant to be made with precise recipes. (That's how I feel about most food.) For the sake of my readers' sanity, though, I've listed the ingredients so you can reproduce this fragrant and delicious meal. My Indian Stew is a variation of Potato Pea Masala, but I made it into a soup you eat with a spoon and pita bread, rather than the original chunkier dish you eat with a fork. As in much Indian food, the spices are key, because the main ingredients are so simple.  So don't think you'll make it on a meek little dash of chili powder. Embrace the spices! That's what this food is about.

eating healthy + saving money

I'm new to being a wife, and almost as new to cooking. I think myself rather lucky that I get to start these two things together, at once, because they're both a large part of my life.  I get to learn cooking, as a part of homemaking, as a part of stewardship, as a part of a new marriage, as a part of worship. It's pretty dramatic to think about it that way!  It's basically up to me to make food that will benefit our bodies and our souls, and to make sure our food money is spent in a way that will please God, and get along well with our newlywed budget.  To this end, I really believe that cooking healthy, filling food is just as important, if not more important, than cooking on the cheap.  There is a balance I try to achieve, and it's not always easy, but in the process of being terrified of turkeys and finding things to cook other than stir-fry, I've come up with a bunch of ways to keep us and our budget healthy.

chemicals on your skin=chemicals in your body.

Okay. We all know by now that many common beauty products, like shampoo, conditioner and facial cleanser, don't really help us in the beauty department...in fact, they may be the source of our beauty frustrations in the first place.  For most people, that's plenty of reason to find other options, like going no-'poo or using oil to clean your face.  But some are very routine-oriented or product-loyal, and may need more convincing.  So I'm going to outline some of the reasons we need to be cautious. And while I'm assuming the people interested will mostly be women (and women are generally at greater risk), all of this applies to men, too...who also use personal care products like shampoo, body wash, hair gel, aftershave, cologne and deodorant. At least we can only hope.

Just a disclaimer: I'm not an scientist or an alarmist, and I'm not saying we're all going to die tomorrow. Some people have a lot of doubts about this stuff.  But hopefully, as you click on my links throughout, you'll see that I'm not making this stuff up. I didn't link you to places like the Mossy Hippy Meadow of Earth Mother Beauty.  I've done my homework.

You might be thinking (and people have actually said this to me), "If we believed everything they say, we'd think there's poison everywhere, and we're not all dead, right? So how could there be a problem?"  Of course I'm not advocating running in terror from everything in the world.  We all need to be careful and do our research about which "scares" are valid.  But, it's obviously not true that that the more risks there are, the less likely ANY of them are to be valid.  I'd also point out that many harmful chemicals have been around for only a few years, so there's no way long-term effects can be studied. But there are plenty of concerning health trends, most with no apparent cause: more kids with autism, decreased sperm count/quality, more heart disease and diabetes, deformed male genitals, earlier onset of puberty, more breast cancer, more lymphoma, more birth defects, etc.  Of course there are many causes for these conditions, including our less-than-responsible food system. So yeah, we're not all dead. But maybe we're not all fine, either.  Read the studies and articles I've linked to below. The only thing anyone can ask is that each of us makes an informed, rational decision, and not be ignorant on purpose.