Get Healthy De Soto

…having a long-lasting positive impact on the health and safety of the De Soto community by encouraging healthy lifestyle choices, through programs promoting physical activity, healthy nutrition, weight control and disease and injury prevention.

For COVID-19 updates pertaining to the DeSoto Farmers' Market, please click here.

Does gratitude make you healthier?

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Toilet Talk for November is all about gratitude and being thankful for the people, opportunities, and things that you have. If you missed it or don’t work in a place that posts Toilet Talk, you can see November right here.

But does showing gratitude make you healthier?

Short answer: maybe?

Research shows that grateful people sleep better, experience less common maladies, and generally have healthier hearts. Whether that translates into better physical health is still a gray area for science. You can see why it makes sense though. If you’re sleeping better, you’re probably better able to cope with stressful situations and have more energy; energy that can be used to be more active and keep you mentally sharp.

Although science hasn’t directly linked gratitude and physical health, the mental health benefits certainly exist. The problem with science is that it takes times, so although there’s a link, they’re just not sure why! No matter. We’re happy to enjoy the benefits while they sort out the science. You can learn more about the research related to this here.

Even if good physical health leads to greater gratitude or visa versa, gratitude has other benefits. Gratitude is good for your relationships and good for your community. It is no surprise that receiving thanks makes people happier, but so does expressing gratitude. An experiment that asked participants to write and deliver thank-you notes found large increases in reported levels of happiness, a benefit that lasted for an entire month. That translates to a month of less bickering with your spouse or less use of expletives or…you get the idea.

So in November, let’s try to show some gratitude on days other than that fourth Thursday, which makes everyone incredibly stressed anyway! Here’s a good starting point:

Start a gratitude journal. Each day, write down (or use your smart device and drop a note in Google Keep) something you appreciated or found value in that day. And NO! you can’t be grateful for the $10 in your pocket (unless it was the $10 you placed in your coat pocket last spring in anticipation of finding and celebrating when the days started getting cold again). It can be as details as you like, but being specific is beneficial. On days when a person is what you’ve appreciated or found value in, think about whether he or she knows that they’ve impacted your day. If not, send them a “thank you” note, text, email, etc.

Until next week, thank you for reading the newsletter articles!

Halloween Safety Tips

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It’s time to review some safety tips for Saturday’s big day! Below are some tips and tricks to get you on the right track, regardless of how you plan to modify traditions.

First up: have fun while staying safe!

​​There are still ways to have fun and enjoy the day. Keep these things in mind to ensure safety:

  • Avoid large gatherings
  • Keep a distance of six feet from others
  • Wear cloth face coverings
  • Wash hands often

If you’re looking for alternatives to the traditional trick-or-treating, you might check out some of the ideas from the American Academy of Pediatrics. One of their suggestions is to do a virtual costume party or costume parade using video chat. This would work well and could include more distant relatives and elderly family that are staying home more.

Costume safety!

Even if you’re not going out trick-or-treating, costumes are just fun!

  • All costumes, wigs and accessories should be fire-resistant
  • If children are allowed out after dark, use reflective tape to make them more visible or give the kids glow sticks
  • When buying Halloween makeup, make sure it is nontoxic and always test it in a small area first
  • Remove all makeup before children go to bed to prevent skin and eye irritation (The “old-lady” face cream, aka: Pond’s Cold Cream, takes off face paint in a snap! Believe me, my daughter was a green witch one year.)

Safety while out and about

  • A responsible adult should accompany young children (You know your kids best. Just keep in mind that a child that walks up to the neighbor’s door alone on a bright, sunny day to deliver a piece of errant mail, might not be as comfortable doing so after dark with hobgoblins roaming nearby.)
  • If your older children are going alone, plan and review a route acceptable to you and agree on the time when children should return home
  • Teach your children never to enter a stranger’s home or car and to use well-lit areas and stick together
  • Regardless of trick-or-treating activities, put electronic devices down and enjoy the day

Covered Slab Preview!

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October 24, 2020

9 AM – 1 PM

Under the farmers’ market pavilion at 520 N. Main Street. We’ll see you there!
Just a small preview!

If you need directions about where to park and enter the pavilion, you’ll find that information in this short video.

Here’s a list of vendors too:

  • Linda Hunter
  • Charla Wilson
  • Joyful Creations
  • MaddiMack
  • Guyla & Jim’s Busy Bee Apiary
  • amBowsia Boutique
  • Frogshair Baskets
  • Stacey McKeon
  • Frank & Kerri Skinner
  • Sew-It All Creations
  • Caleb’s Candle Creations
  • Tracy’s $10 Trinkets
  • Stephanie Woodard
  • Katydid Creations

Interested in being a vendor? Click here.

Your Christmas Home Tour

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Order books and register for the virtual event
Learn more about local watch parties

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus…

And just like Virginia’s belief in Santa Claus was confirmed through the action of the newspaper editor Francis Church, DeSoto can be assured of a holiday filled with cheer through the continuation of the annual Christmas Home Tour. We will have a tour, and this year will be better than ever because it will highlight our perseverance and determination in the face of a pandemic. It will showcase our history, but more than where we’ve been; it will showcase the belief we have in our future. In fact, this year’s tour is open to everyone and the homes are as varied as our citizens.

This year, we have old, historic homes, a few that aren’t as aged, and some fairly new construction that is stunning. The best part: you can enjoy them in the comfort of your own home, surrounded by your family during the evening of Saturday, November 28, 2020 at 7 PM. We will stream the tour online, and it will include videos and photos from inside the homes along with interviews from the home owners.

We know what you might be thinking. We’ve kicked around some of those same objections and ideas, but the reality is that keeping people safe is a priority right now. No, the tour won’t be the same. For example, we will certainly miss the groups of mothers/daughters/granddaughters; the high school classmates that make the tour an annual reunion; the husbands who get drug along only to have things added to their honey-do lists. We love that you’ve made the tour part of your Thanksgiving traditions, and we are truly honored by this. In fact, we are honoring you by continuing the tradition but adjusting as the times dictate.

One great result of this adjustment is that we have homes on the tour that wouldn’t be on the tour if the format hadn’t been changed: homes with inconvenient driveways, home owners with annual scheduling conflicts, and a home that has been skipped for insurance reasons. Giving the tour a new format has allowed us to include some pretty wonderful properties.

As in years past, we are creating a book to go along with the tour. Because the book isn’t required to participate in the tour, we’re changing it as well. This year’s book is more commemorative, and we’ll only be selling 300 of them. The cost is reduced to $10, and there are two benefits of purchasing one:

  1. The book helps support Get Healthy DeSoto by making the Christmas Home Tour the fabulous fundraiser that it continues to be. Money raised through the tour covers, in large part, insurance for the organization, which is very expensive since the programming we do is health-related.
  2. Everyone who purchases a book will have their name in lights. Okay, maybe not lights because we don’t have that capacity. However, your name will be placed in the video credits! We want to recognize you as being a supporter of the tour and give you the credit you deserve.

Books aren’t quite ready yet, but they’ll go on sale soon and be sold through November 22, 2020. Of course, you can purchase a commemorative book after that, but the timeframe for the production won’t allow us to add your name after the Sunday deadline.

There are a lot of moving parts and contributers to this new format, but we’re going to make it work. We owe it to you and the community that you’ve helped create. We owe it to the property owners, guests, and volunteers that have allowed this fundraiser to build its own tribe and grow it over the past eleven years. And we owe it to the community to prove that the holiday will be bright despite the dark cloud that hangs over us. We have accepted the challenge of proving that our community is strong just like Francis Church proved to Virginia that Santa Claus exists and all is right in the world.

The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that’s no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world…No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives, and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.

Walking in the Woods with a Nut

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I am a founding member of the Winter Haters’ Club. Since autumn really just signals the final stages of summer and our slide into winter, it runs a close second in my consideration of the worst season. A recent weekend trip to Arkansas (where it is warmer!) reminded me of the one saving grace of fall: hunting. While visiting with my dad one evening, he shared an article with me in the August edition of Petersen’s Hunting that endorsed squirrel as one of the main drivers for survival on this continent. Basically, the author indicated that colonists might have starved without the bounty of squirrels. He goes on to say that we might all speak with an English accent if the colonists hadn’t been such excellent marksmen and woodsmen; qualities that are essential if you’re relying on squirrel for dinner or trying to defeat a much larger British army.

I find the idea that we are a country whose early existence relied upon “tree rats” to be intriguing. The gray squirrels and, to a lesser extent, fox squirrels that I have harvested from woods have turned into good table fare, and this time of year always reminds me that it is time to start taking slow walks through the woods with my .22 and squirrel vest.

There is something oddly exhilarating about bringing home dinner using this method, and the solitude and self-reliance of being in the woods has always been good for my soul. Finding landowners who will allow you access to squirrel hunt is much easier than trying to get permission to hunt turkey or deer too. And as the author of the article in the magazine mentioned, squirrel hunting takes some accuracy and stealth. If you want to be a better deer or turkey hunter, learn to effectively harvest squirrels.

Of course, being in the woods has also allowed me to laugh at myself. There’s nothing quite as funny (or disturbing) as a squirrel coming back to life in your squirrel vest. I have often told my husband that small and large game alike gather their survivors at the end of hunting season and swap stories about all the follies humans have in the woods. That one would have made the highlight reel along with the time I was showing my sister how to skin squirrels!

Being in the woods can be an adventure, and since squirrels are obviously the lifeblood of our nation, perhaps you should try stalking them in the woods. If nothing else, you’ll get a little exercise, get a break from politics [insert Amen here], come away with some good memories, and maybe earn good table fare too.

To learn more about hunting squirrels in Missouri, visit the Department of Conservation website. A permit is required to legally harvest squirrels and daily limits apply.

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Contact

[email protected]
314-471-3681

Mailing Address

1002 Rock Rd.
DeSoto, MO 63020