With a father who was instrumental in much of the cutting edge computer technology, GIGO was a term that I grew up with, thinking that it was commonplace. I remember the first time I used it in context – in a setting where people other than family were about. It was at school. I saw someone throw up a school lunch. It was a rather ungracious response on my part – but they HAD served macaroni & cheese. (Did anyone else suffer through the school movie that was so popular back in the 70’s with the African tribe that killed the giraffe and skinned it and ate the giraffe meat? Anyone else have a teacher that showed it right before lunch on the day the school was serving macaroni & cheese?!!! OKAY THEN, you understand WHY the kid threw up.)
GIGO, for the uninitiated (although I can’t imagine any of us are any more) is a term that I think may have originated at IBM, at the time my Dad was working there, which stands for “garbage in, garbage out”. I don’t believe it had anything to do with lunches served in the corporate dining hall, however.
Today, during my morning walk, I was going over, in my head, the list of things we needed to purchase for holiday baking. I was trying to decide how many bags of chocolate Kisses we were going to need for our Peanut Butter Blossoms. I was trying to decide how many bags of Starlight mints we’d need for our Double Fudgamintalicious Cookies. (Healthy things to do while walking, don’t you think?)
While I was walking, I passed the library – and gave thanks that it was open this week. You see, last week, for the first time in the history of the library, they had to shut the doors for a day, because ALL the librarians were sick. Now, I know that this is a HUGE issue, having worked there. I know that one winter, we opened the doors with only one librarian working – and that was a big deal – but NO librarians?? Unthinkable.
Suddenly it hit me, I was living in a town where people are already wrestling with winter-like viruses and I was planning on filling my family’s bodies with multiple batches of cookies and other…(dare I say this??!!) garbage.
I decided right then and there, that I would blog about this – that I would remind you that what we eat this month will determine the health of our cells in – for all practical purposes – 2 months. That means the really lousy food we eat this month and next will be what will nourish our cells for January and February. Did I really want that to be garbage, in the thick of winter flu?! (When we’ve already had a go’round with a nasty virus this past weekend?!!)
So, I’ve been pondering what that means for the month of December, so that we could be as healthy as possible in the thick of winter. For us, it means making certain that every meal includes something “real” – something raw. It means making certain that the whole crew is drinking lemon water. It means that I only make one batch of each of our holiday goodies. It means that we will all be taking an after dinner walk – whether it’s nice out or not. It means that we will all putting Thieves on our feet at bedtime. It means we will be drinking our kefir before bed, to keep our tummys rich in flora. It means that I will make sure that we have our ginger root in the freezer, ready for a refreshing “Get Unsick Quick” drink. 
(Lemons, apples, parsley, celery and ginger root through the juicer. Just so you know, I got my juicer from ebay for $20, including shipping. If this is something you feel you need for your household, by all means, take it to Father in prayer. At worst, He’ll say no. At best, He may bless you with a new juicer, like He did for me.)
So, since misery loves company I care so much about you, I want to remind you that while eating special goodies this season is part of the fun, we must be mindful to keep our bodies well nourished despite that, so when February comes around, we have the strength and health to….MAKE DOUBLE FUDGAMINTALICIOUS COOKIES FOR VALENTINES DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 
Edit: As I’m reading through this, I’m certain some of you are thinking “Uh, you’re talking about expensive stuff here, Lady!” Please keep in mind that we’re new entrepreneurs who just recently were rescued by the Most High God from having their home foreclosed upon. If you feel that this is something that the Lord is laying on your heart for your family – take it to your prayer closet. We have miraculously seen the Lord provide many things to allow us to make the food choices that we’re making. It may not necessarily be the choices we’d prefer (ie: organic, rather than some from Aldis), but they are still decent choices.
Furthermore, when I first started my study of natural health – oh, let’s see my daughter used to sleep in her swing during our classes and she just turned 13 this summer, so it’s been a few years – the first thing that my Natural Health Mom taught me was about the value of prayer over our food. (Not that I didn’t know it…I just didn’t know it from THIS perspective)
She had a study (I’ll look it up, if anyone else wants to see it – it was REALLY cool) of a school that, hired a pastor or Jewish rabbi as I recall, to pray over the food they were studying. They used thermal imaging pictures to show the amount of energy that the food was giving off both before and after the prayers – in every trial, the food that had been prayed for had more energy coming from it. THAT ought to be a good challenge to us, huh? So rather than fuss, if the Lord doesn’t make a way for you to get the food you think you need, pray over it. It surely wouldn’t qualify as garbage going in then!
