The Median Sib

Recently for my birthday I received an audio CD of Joel Osteen’s book Your Best Life Now. It consists of five CDs. On the trip to Georgia on Friday, I started listening to the first CD when I reached the far side of Monteagle and could no longer pick up Nashville radio stations. When I got to my mother’s, the second CD had just started. So it will take a L-O-N-G time to listen to all of them. The CDs are good, and I enjoyed listening to them although Joel’s voice is very quiet and controlled - too calming, and it was difficult at times to keep my attention on the CD. My mind kept going off on tangents. One tangent: He pronounces the word similar “sim-U-lar” - and it is uncanny how often that word is in the book! My tangent continued. . . maybe since Osteen’s church is in Texas — and George W. Bush is from Texas and has gotten a lot of flack for pronouncing nuclear “nu-cu-lar” — that maybe that kind of pronunciation is a part of being a Texan. I told Mother about the CD set, and asked if she knew of Joel Osteen, and of course she knew a lot about him and liked him. She mentioned that he preaches a type of “prosperity” gospel. As I listened to the CD on the way home, I thought about what she had said. He’s nothing like some of the preachers on TV who seem to flaunt their wealth with extravagant clothes and jewelry and flashy sets for their TV shows. THEIR prosperity gospels have mostly to do with their own prosperity. Osteen, however, seems down to earth, and his message is Biblically-based. I’ll write more about his book as I listen to more of it. The part that made an impression me during my drive home today was the power of words - the words we say to others and also the words we say to ourselves. He talked about how important it is for parents to speak supportive and loving words to their children. Equally important, though, is speaking supportive and loving words to ourselves. We ARE usually our own worst critics, and that’s what I thought about as I sped along I-24 towards Nashville.

I wrote earlier about reading the book French Women Don’t Get Fat. One of the suggestions that the author writes about is making your own yogurt. I’m probably too open to suggestion, but since I like yogurt and also the idea of making my own yogurt, I bought a yogurt maker. I’ve made two batches now. The first one was really good. The second batch I left in the maker too long, and the consistency wasn’t as good as I’d hoped. Each time I made it with skim milk, and added some nonfat milk powder to it so it would be smoother. After it was finished, I added about a tablespoon of sugarfree preserves (usually peach or apricot) to each cup, and it’s just as good, in my opinion, as store-bought. It stays well in the refrigerator for about two weeks. I take a cup to school each day for an end-of-school snack - which helps me not crave something to eat as soon as I get home. So I think it’s helping me stick to more sensible eating.

I drove home from my mother’s today, and I passed a large Winnebago pulling a trailer. On the back of the Winnebago was a banner with these words: “We may not have it all together, but together, we have it all.” That’s the kind of relationship I want. Don’t you just love that attitude?