A long absence

It's been far too long so let me share with you what's been happening. We now have 2 cats and still have Alfred. Alfred is still the iguana majesty of the house. He has finally realized that cat food tastes good and tries to sneak some in every time he goes to the bathroom. We've been trying to keep an eye on that and stop him, which generally makes him very upset.

I just did a partial remodel of the bathroom. It needs a few finishing touches and I will share it with you guys!

So the big reason for posting today is to tell you that it's day 29 of DDP Yoga! I am working tomorrow night so I can't do an actual day 30 update. I am really enjoying the workouts, and also enjoying discovering food again. I have almost caved and bought pizza a time or two but Jonathan has started the program with me and helps keep me in line. I've lost 7 pounds this month and can really tell a difference in the way I move. Each week I have a different set of tight spots but some stretching usually helps me wake up and get moving. We still have a few unapproved foods but only thing we eat on a regular basis that is not approved is honey. I use it when fixing something with vinegar to cut the taste a little. Almond milk, goat's milk yogurt and cheeses, and nutritional yeast flakes have been a lifesaver. Without them I wouldn't of been able to transition so well. We're also using corn tortillas to make pinwheels and wraps. I still need more practice on keeping them from crumbling, even after warming. I also need to work on figuring out easy or convenience foods.

Zorro one day decided to help with my workout and jumped on my leg while I was trying to hold it up. I almost fell over. Right now sometimes I can manage to do a pushup from my knees, but not consistently yet. I remember when I used to be able to do them better. Most days I feel very weak and know I have poor muscle tone. I can do planks now without lowering to my knee, and can maintain a lung for a little while. So minor improvements, I hope they will continue.

Relaxing

So I still can't motivate myself to make that second sock. I've decided to bag and shelf it so I can move on with my life! I looked at a sock loom at JoAnn's the other day that I'm thinking about getting but now I'm afraid. I have made an owl hat for a friend's baby to be and also a star trek themed hat for another friend's child. Picked up some new yarn and may actually make my first sweater! I looked for the Caron light but they didn't have any when I was at the store, really going to keep my eyes out for it though. Trying Red Heart Soft for the first time and like it pretty well. I actually cannot tell a difference between it and Simply Soft. Maybe next post I can show some pictures of the difference and my projects.

In other news the cat has acted especially spoiled! If she wasn't spayed I would wonder if she was going into heat she meows so much. She is enjoying our new deck though, she likes to poke her head out and will tiptoe out eventually. The other day she saw another cat in the bushes and flew off the side of the deck to try to make friends. When the other cat bolted she couldn't figure out how to get back up, at least it was only about 5 feet on that side and she's didn't get hurt. She was one frightened Kitty and ran around to the front door to be let back in.

Alfred was gravid for awhile and has reabsorbed the eggs. Alfred messes are the only things I regularly clean with commercial cleaners, it is SO hard to get cleaned up otherwise. I ran through two bottles of soft scrub, I would clean up and then right before dark Alfred would get out and make another mess. The nesting box was only played in 1 day and I'm thinking of permanently re-purposing the tote we used.

The group CSA is still going well. It's almost like Christmas every week, I love the surprise of what I am getting. Sometimes I have difficulty getting the veggies prepped and they will be on their last leg of life when I use them. It's purely a lack of energy I've been suffering from, which is also why I've not been taking pictures every week. I've enjoyed grilling lots of it out on the deck and enjoying the weather.

I hope you've been enjoying yourselves as well! 

Second Sock Syndrome

Second sock syndrome, have you heard of it? I always thought to myself, "oh that won't be a problem for me, I never have problems when it's gloves." Recently I made my first ever sock! I started it after the holidays an it's been finished for a few weeks now; I just need to make the second one. What makes it especially hard is that although I tried it on while working on the ankle, at some point after the ankle my calf gets too big making the sock fit weird. Not only am I having fit problems,  I also can't find where I wrote down the pattern modifications for the toe. Having never made a sock the pattern didn't give me enough direction and when I followed what I thought the instructions stated I got a spiral toe. I didn't realize the heel was spiraled as well until I had it sewn closed. Maybe I can find some motivation within myself to finish the other sock in a month or two.

My first CSA shipment went pretty well. Part of the share was blue cheese which I don't really care for, the only cheese I don't really care for. I was ready to explore and experiment anyways. Then I got blue cheese for the second share, um, yeah, that's a lot of blue cheese. There were problems with my third share so this week I only got meat and I'm supposed to get a double share of produce next week. Let's hope there's not much blue cheese.


Week 1

Ground beef, bacon, boneless skinless chicken breasts, acorn squash, sweet potatoes, napa cabbage, lettuce, almond butter, blue cheese, whole wheat egg noodles, and of course a dozen eggs!

  



Week 2

Ground turkey, porchetta ham, beef sausages, whole wheat egg noodles, blue cheese, sweet potatoes, peanut butter, a dozen eggs, acorn squash and napa cabbage.

 

No photos were taken from the meats from week 3 before I used part of them. I received boneless pork chops, ground turkey, and some more beef sausages.

What happened?

I took a photo for my profile but I'm having trouble uploading it. Not like anyone will see it anyways! This week I've been trying to make rye bread. I know sometime in the past I've made bread on my own but I have not had much luck. The first loaf I pinched into roll sized pieces but the edges were harder than I'd like; after some investigation I found the same recipe reworded to make the rolls instead of a loaf and one of the reviews stated it was too hard as well. Tried a different recipe the next day and couldn't get it to really form a ball. I had to knead in a fair amount of flour though. I want to continue trying, for some reason I feel that this is really something I need to do. It's strange I know.


This week I've been in a bit of a funk and got almost nothing done. I feel like a slob and today I also had eating problems and went way over my calories. I didn't even add it all up. I don't know what made me so sad like this but sleeping in Friday and Saturday just made it worse. I was so exhausted though, didn't get to bed until 10 or 1030 Thursday and Friday morning both. Also I just finished watching Harry and Tonto and I'm balling my eyes out. It's such a good movie with such a sad ending. I don't know what I'll do when my kids get old.

 Next week I hope to have a picture of my CSA to share with you, still pretty excited/nervous about it!

Happy Food!

So after wanting to try one for at least a year today I purchased a share in a CSA! It's through West Wind Farms and is a group CSA which means I will get meat, veggies, dairy, and eggs. The good thing about this CSA also is that there is only a 1 month commitment so if it doesn't work for us I don't have a long commitment. It makes me nervous because I really want it to work and it's something new. My host house is about 2 1/2 miles away and pick up is Wednesday evenings so even when I work I should be able to run by and get my food stuffs! I really enjoy cooking sometimes when I'm getting to try new things with good ingredients. I'm worried that my share will be too much food or too little food. I guess the only way to know is try!

Tonight Kitty is curled up next to me and it's past Alfred's lights out time. I wonder if the CSA will include foods Alfred will enjoy. I plan on trying to grow him some food again this year but don't know if I'll try to grow much for the table. So far I haven't done to well with this but then every spring the bug hits and i want to try. Right now I have some arugula, upland cress, and spaghetti squash seeds waiting for time to be planted. I constantly debate with myself whether to use seeds or seedlings. I seem to do ok with seeds for greens and some squash but some others I do better with seedlings. Last year I tried to start some seedlings inside but it didn't work well. I think part of my seeds were from the year before so does that make a deference?

Work is scheduled for the next three days but hopefully after that I will upload some graphics for you, at least a profile photo.

Hello everyone!

Well I guess I'm going to try blogging. Right now I'm still working on my layout and design and I'm sure that will be a constantly changing process. I plan to just post ramblings about my life and any projects I'm working on. Since I'm not a designer then I mostly make projects from patterns or rely heavily on inspiration. I don't want to take credit for anyone's work, just want to show what I've done following or being inspired by their ideas. When possible I will link to my inspiration or pattern.

Hopefully we will get to know each other and that we all enjoy my blog.