My nearly 80 year old mother has forty grandchildren, mainly thanks to me, and 15 great-grandchildren so far. She is tough and strong, still gardening and keeping up her large yard area. She and Grandpa live in an attached house here on our land.

She has always taken good care of herself, not through manicures and pedicures, but through good eating, vitamins, exercise and staying very busy. She’s where I get my energy from, she can go from dawn until dusk and she regularly does so, plays Bridge several times a week, and keeps her three story house clean.

She lost a daughter to breast cancer and all five of her siblings have passed away by now. She’s run businesses and has helped me here with my large family and put all four of her kids through college.

She personally knows about stress, loss and grief. Heck, she was born at the beginning of The Great Depression.

Stress is my biggest risk factor, I’m extremely healthy, wear my seat belt, don’t drink nor smoke and I’m always active. The stress issue of raising all these traumatized children has taken it toll on me, lines etching across my face and my nervous system is just about shot, but really when one considers the load I’m under every single day, it’s amazing I’m in as good of shape as I am.

Julie wrote about this issue today, Nancy shared her irritation at always having to defend herself, and it made me sit and think for awhile. I share their feelings.

What keeps me going? I don’t have a regular exercise program, I wish I did but I’m very active for about 16 hours each day. Sometimes I truly just don’t eat, either I’m too stressed out or there’s no time, but I’ve read that under-eating leads to longevity. I take mega-vitamins; about 25 capsules a day of various vitamins and minerals, I’ve started on an ounce a day of Noni Juice and I never drink anything but unsweetened tea, black coffee and quarts of water each day. I’m a long-time vegetarian and I think I eat very, very well.

My mom just offered to take me to lunch today since all the kids are in school but I demurred, I’d rather pick my lunch from the garden, stay home and get stuff done. I listen to motivational, scriptural or informational podcasts that teach and preach to me; always inspiring me and building me up.

Stress isn’t going to win over me, at times it knocks me down, but I always get back up swinging and trying to figure out what I can do to eliminate it from my life or at least its effects on my health.