It is hard to believe that another year is nearly gone. The days seem to just fly by and the months turn into a year very rapidly. We are experiencing a very mild winter overall. We did have a stretch of very cold temperatures with these much milder temperatures on both sides. Right now it is 31 degrees under mostly cloudy skies.

We had a 1 minute 10 second increase in daylight today. We are now up to 5 hours 45 minutes and 40 seconds of daylight. Sunrise was a 10:13 this morning and sunset was at 3:59 this afternoon. Sunset was quite beautiful with all the golden and pink shades. The state temperature extremes were at -18 at Fort Yukon and 50 at Annette for a 68 degree difference. The aurora forecast is for an active night. Unfortunately, with the clouds it is very unlikely anybody will get to see them in this area.

Christmas Eve was spent at our son’s and daughter-in-law’s home with all our relatives who live on the peninsula. They prepared most of a lovely dinner with each family bringing in a food dish to share. I'm glad I they decided against ham as the main entree. They bought a turkey instead. Yeah! Everybody had a nice time and spent Christmas day with their own families.

I think I may have eaten way too much wheat or maybe I just caught a cold, but I’ve been sneezing and using abundant Kleenex to blow my nose since Monday. My granddaughters made a canister of delicious cookies for me as a Christmas gift. They tasted great. Npw,I feel yukky even though it is just sinus. There don’t seem to be any other symptoms. Much more with the nose and I’ll be in competition with Rudolph.

Yesterday I had acupuncture for the first time. With all the ailments that are causing me problems right now, I figured I’d give it a try. Sure wish I could say I notice a difference, but I really don’t. I’ll go back another few times just to see whether or not it will help.

Although my blood pressure had improved to the point of my being off all medications, it shot way back up again a few months ago. When I get stressed out it is really noticeable especially when there are several reasons for becoming stressed. Such was the case and although most of the reasons have abated, my BP remains very high. For the most part I’m able to keep my breathing at 6-8 breaths per minute and my pulse rate isn’t too bad (69-74 bpm), but higher than it was earlier. I’m not able to relax internally even when I relax outwardly. I don’t want to have to go back on prescription drugs, but having my BP this high (up to 210/95) is not good either. The systolic number is all over the place. The diastolic number is usually in the 80’s. I’m following the BTD about 90% compliant, using herbs, tinctures, minerals, etc. that my ND has prescribed, but they aren’t doing much, yet. It is getting frustrating.

I did a web search yesterday and found that tofu or soy protein has the same sulfur-based proteins as cottage cheese. So, I’ll use that to make my flaxseed oil base for smoothies. I would like to find that rice milk would work too, but haven’t been able to find any good info on that. Soy milk isn’t to be used daily if you are an O. Making farmer’s cheese is another option, but then again it is still dairy. Finding a good sulfur-based protein that is okay for an O diet and able to be consumed everyday in a smoothie is difficult. Maybe something will show up, yet.

Till next time.