Thirty-One Days Remain

There are many people around the world, in third-world countries and in first world countries (whatever happened to second-world?) who suffer great difficulties. Some people face famine, poverty, wildfires, war, cancer, terrorism, death, abuse, insufficient housing or complete lack of housing, and lack of support from family and friends if they have them to begin with.

When people in first-world countries look around the world to places like Africa and parts of Asia, there is a momentary bit of pity, then a simple statement of "there's nothing I can do about it," and then they start to worry about problems less severe but they begin to talk about as if it's the worst thing in the world: broken-down car, lack of internet, being unable to afford a vacation, unfulfilled dreams, difficult children, too much laundry, out of work, difficulty sleeping, and feeling like we're "too fat."

We all do this. That's not to say people in first-world countries aren't suffering with poverty and abuse, there are. As a matter of fact, I find it appalling that some people would rather help people in Africa rather than help people in their own country.

Now there's nothing wrong with wanting to help people in other nations around the globe. However, one should make the effort to volunteer at a homeless shelter, food pantry, or other non-profit agency in their own town, neighborhood, or country before thinking about their own problems or traveling to Africa to help. In a way, the more you're able to learn about where you come from, the more you learn about yourself.

Why am I mentioning all of this? Remember how in my last blog post the ST (Squishables Trio) mentioned me having a bad week? This past week was worse. Probably number one on my list of worst weeks ever. But! There is a silver lining.

I got paid, so this means I can start doing my "list of lasts" that I have. I also plan on giving gifts to the children so I have to get to work on those. Today I'm taking it easy, it's the last day of June and I plan to start getting up to speed with everything come this Monday because tomorrow is Sunday. I have two new recipes planned that should get me through the month, I have some last things to buy, bags to pack, planes to catch, children to play with... all within the course of 31 days. I can do it!

This also means my blog posts will likely come at a bit more frequent pace so that they aren't so jam-packed with information. I hope everything goes well!

Since I don't want to talk about my week, and since nothing really worth mentioning happened anyway, I'm going to let pictures do the talking. A picture's worth a thousand words right? There aren't many pictures, but there is a recipe to be had!

Think positively everyone!

Something neat that I did over the last week or two was go to Maria Einsiedel Naturbad. What it is is small runoff that was made from the Isar River here in Munich and filtered using ONLY natural resources. This leaves a naturally clean, non-chlorinated swimming water. You can either swim in the runoff shown above or...

... you can swim in one of the designated pools! I chose this one to swim in for two reasons:

1) It was the least crowded and
2) I only wanted to do some laps. It was perfect!

I took this picture with my cell phone. It seems like every time I see these little guys I don't have my camera with me. What they are are slugs. Some are fat like this guy, some are thinner. They come out by the boatload when it rains. They also have snails the way we get worms in America. I saw worms in the spring, but I haven't seen any since. Only snails and slugs.

I thought this was hilarious. What you're looking at is a newspaper box. What they do here in Munich is if you want a paper, put the money in the slot, then just take it. However, the money isn't a release for the door, meaning you could open the door and pick up a newspaper without paying, however people here are generally honest. That being said there must still be some people who abuse this because the newspaper people put this picture of Uncle Sam on the box with a message. Roughly translated it says: "Expect at anytime a controlled number." I'm assuming what they're trying to say is that they know when the money doesn't match the number of taken newspapers. Pretty funny though in my book.

I haven't posted a picture of my plants in a while. This is one of my harvested bean pods. I have four beans so far, with what looks like three more pods on the way.

My sad collection of plants. Unfortunately with the exception of the bean and apple trees, I will be composting them soon.

I kept walking passed these flowers on the way to church and I thought I'd like a picture to remember them by because they're so pretty.

 Holly's Potato Salad!

I know what you're thinking: potato salad is supposed to be white, not yellow. I ask you: WHY DOES IT HAVE TO BE?

First off, I want to mention that I can only take credit for a portion of this recipe. I actually got the idea from my June copy of Natürlich Magazin. I altered it a lot, but I feel like I should give them credit for the idea because I did use dill, potatoes (duh), and a cucumber, all three ingredients were in the original recipe.

Ingredients:

Potatoes, boiled until just cooked through (about 15-20 minutes) then peeled and cubed

Cucumber, chopped into bite-sized pieces

Dill

Mixed Salad Nuts (the recipe asks for hemp seeds, this works too)

Mustard

Mayonaisse

Apple Cider Vinegar or Lemon Juice, optional

Onions, optional

Salt and Pepper, to taste

Directions:

Take ingredients and mix at will! Why no specifics? Because everyone likes their potato salad in a different way. I used mostly mustard with a but of mayo to even it out, but you use all mayo or all mustard for that matter. I liked my potato salad without the onions but do like it with the occasional spritz of vinegar. I used quite a lot of dill because I like dill and mixed salad nuts for variety. These nuts included pine, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, soy, and I think another one which I can't think of offhand. The recipes actually only called for the use of oil and no mustard or mayo whatsoever. I can't eat potato salad that way. If you like it that way, go right ahead. I believe that potato salad should be fun and flexible and the way you like it!

Eat healthy!