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When I read French Women Don’t Get Fat I learned that it is good for children to eat twenty different kinds of foods each day. I figure that if twenty foods a day are good for kids, it is probably a good idea for adults, too. Sometimes when I make a salad, I try to find lots of different foods to put in it, so we can have a twenty-food meal. It’s a bit of a challenge, but not as hard as you might think.

I figure just the salad dressing has maybe five–oil, vinegar, honey or maple syrup, salt, an herb–yep, that’s five! A mixture of spring greens has at least four different plants. We are up to nine.

I got tired of searching through the refrigerator for lots of little containers, so I put a plastic sweater box in my refrigerator to keep all the jars of nuts, seeds, and dried fruits together. When it is well-stocked, I can pull it out and add pumpkin seeds, walnuts, pecans, dried cranberries, raisins, dried apricots, and flax seeds to my salad. I’m up to sixteen.

Well, let’s see. If I grate some carrots and chop an apple or an orange, I’m up to eighteen. OK, I’ll butter a rye cracker and now I have twenty.

Even better than a salad menagerie (the diverse collection of people or things kind; not the collection of exotic animals kind) is a day like yesterday when Ray and I enjoyed a “menagerie” of some of the people most special to us: a couple we have known since college days (he was in our wedding; Ray was in theirs), their daughter, their granddaughters; our daughter, our son-in-law, our granddaughter; our nephew (who was also in our wedding–as our ringbearer!), his wife, and our great-nephews!

We began the day in East Tennessee at the home of our college friends, having spent the night with them the night before. We had driven up to their house on Tuesday afternoon for two reasons. We love to be with them, and our Wednesday drive to the Virginia homeschool convention in Richmond would be shorter.

During most of the day, we enjoyed traveling through beautiful Virginia, stopping along the way at our favorite Virginia bakery, the WildFlour.

WildFlour Bakery cropped

When we got to Richmond, our nephew and his family, who live nearby, met us for supper. We laughed. We took pictures. We told stories. We even shared comments people say about Notgrass–funny how it doesn’t matter where you live, people still make up the same Notgrass jokes. Though I must say when our great-nephew said that people call him “Fertilizer,” I didn’t remember hearing that one!

Each food in a twenty-food meal provides unique qualities to meet the needs of our bodies. Each person does the same for our hearts, souls, and minds.

Yesterday we hugged. We smiled. We laughed. We told stories. We connected.

Look inside your old address book. Remember lonely relatives. Think about long-lost friends. Is there someone you need in your life again? Is there someone who needs you? Who can you bring into the hearts, souls, and minds of your children?

After some days Paul said to Barnabas,
“Let us return and visit the brethren
in every city in which we proclaimed the word of the Lord,
and see how they are.”
Acts 15:36, NASB

 

 

 

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2 Comments

  1. I enjoyed your description of the twenty-ingredient salad! I’m a huge salad lover too – can eat an entire Serving Bowl all by myself! I’ll have to try some of those yummy add-ins you described from your plastic refrigerator box. 🙂

  2. How timely for me! I’m trying to eat more raw foods. Your twenty ingredient tip hit home and made me laugh! Love the sweater box idea! Hope you have a great time at the HEAV convention!

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