Dyeing Eggs

I am so excited! When we lived in Tampa, we hosted an exchange student from Japan. This weekend, she is coming to visit, along with her mother, and her two young sons, one aged 4 years and the other aged 9 months. We haven’t seen her for about 6 years, and are really looking forward to her visit.

One of the things she wants to do is color Easter eggs. She lived with us in the spring, this is something we did with her, and she wants to share it with her mother and children. It might be just a little early to find the official supplies in the stores (when I checked on Monday – there were a few chocolate bunnies out there – but nothing to color eggs) so I decided to do it the old-fashioned way – some food coloring and a little vinegar in a cup of water. This morning, I was checking to make sure I had the supplies. I pulled out one box of food coloring – and there was a red bottle, a blue bottle, and a yellow bottle, all one-third to one-half full. Hmmm, I’d better look again. I found another box, this one with full bottles of blue, red, and yellow. The absence of green food coloring isn’t a surprise. I use a lot of green when I do my Christmas baking. Further investigation found the larger, nearly full bottle of green food coloring. I think I’m set. One more look in the cabinet, and I found ANOTHER box of food coloring – and these were neon – bright pink, bright orange, bright greenish-yellow, and turquoise. Who needs three boxes of food coloring?? And I have no idea where the neon colors came from – I seldom do anything outside of my Christmas baking that requires any color at all, and I have absolutely no recollection of purchasing those neon colors. But we should have plenty of choices when we dye eggs this weekend.

I watched a show last night that showed super coupon shoppers / hoarders. While I did find it impressive that these people were able to purchase several hundred or even thousands of dollars of merchandise for literally, just a couple of dollars, I was amazed to see that, in most cases, they have several rooms and/or garages dedicated to storing all of the stuff they buy. For many of them, cutting out and organizing coupons is a full-time job. The news group airing the show calculated that one man had enough deodorant to last 150 years. That’s a little scary to me.

What does all of this have to do with my weight loss journey? I think that one of my issues with food has always been that I want to eat plenty right now – just in case there isn’t enough food at some point in my future. I have no basis to fear being hungry – I have never been truly hungry. At most, I have missed a meal here or there, but not often, and never to the point where I had more than a little rumbling in my tummy. I don’t know why I felt the need to eat so much, any more than I know why I have so much food coloring. I do know that now – one year after surgery – I no longer fear being hungry. It takes so little to fill me up, that a “normal” serving of food will last me for two or three meals. Those rare occasions when I do go to a restaurant, I always take food home. Maybe I’m getting past the hoarding issues, both in my food, and my food coloring. :)

“Do not join those who drink too much wine or gorge themselves on meat, for drunkards and gluttons become poor, and drowsiness clothes them in rags.” (Proverbs 23:20-22, NIV)