Ummmmm, yea.
So last night was Friday night. Our best friends were in Cooperstown, NY last week for ten days and we watched their dog. To thank us they invited us over for dinner and a fire pit last night. I hadn't had an opportunity to tell them about my "new leaf" yet. They drink beer and wine and usually don't have vodka or other liquor at their house. Of course to be extra nice they went out and got a bottle of our favorite brand and mixer. You can see where this is going can't you?
I decided that one wouldn't hurt anything and the second one would just be polite. I did stop there and finished the night early at 10:30 with a diet Coke. But I still feel like shit on a stick this morning and had a hell of a time sleeping last night. I woke up bloated with "human urgency" and with a headache behind my right eye that shoots down into my right nasal cavity.
Circle that wagon back around Hoss, I'm ready to hop back on.
Friday, July 31, 2009
Honorable Mention
Just checking online stuff before heading out for the weekend and found a nice convo in my Etsy inbox. It informed me that I was "top fived" by AllegrasCloset in a street team interview. Pretty cool.
The answer is: Things you take camping with you
Yesterday Sarah and I discovered a new guilty pleasure.
The Game Show network.
The gateway drug was clapping and jumping up and down yelling "good answer! good answer!" to old Family Feuds. Then today I turned it on to find a classic Match Game. Now it has been determined that we need to go see if Target sells the Password Game before we leave for camping tomorrow. I just want to see if I can get my brother to give a clue like, "Foooooo Fooooooo...." to the word "bunny." Seriously, have you met my brother? That would totally make my year, maybe my entire life worth living.
Because I won't be bringing a 55 gallon drum of Stoli this year I had to come up with another contribution.
Cookies! Allow me a bit of bragging right here right now. I make quite possibly the best damn chocolate chip cookie on earth. Screw DoubleTree and those cookies made from the stolen recipe that everyone emails around all the time. I will even share my trade secrets because my name isn't Mrs. Fields.
#1. The Basic recipe from the "red plaid cookbook" better know as the Better Homes & Gardens New Cookbook. (Not sure how "new" it can be considering my Mom's is probably close to 50 years old by now.)
My Mom had this cookbook and it was the first thing I asked for when I got married. I have lots and lots of other fancier, specialized cookbooks and this is the one I go back to again and again for good old fashioned basic food. (My pie crust recipe is in here too.)#2. Butter flavored Crisco. The only change I make to the recipe is instead of the recommended part butter - part shortening is a cup of this instead. I like my cookies to stay plump and butter makes them spread out flat and get too crispy. The butter flavored Crisco gives them the flavor they miss if you just use plain shortening.
#3. Heath Chips. I just add a half a package of these and it is like I added crack AND meth. Trust me, just try it you'll never go back to chopped walnuts again.
#4. AirBake pans and a convection oven. These pans really do keep them from burning on the bottom and with the convection fan setting on my wall oven I get perfectly browned cookies that are crispy on the outside and still chewy on the inside even when I bake two pans at the same time.
The other dirty little secret I have is that I always leave just enough in the bowl to eat raw. I know, I know! SALMONELLA! E. COLI! TAPEWORM! (I could really use a tapeworm right now actually.) I've been eating raw cookie dough for 40 years and have never had more than a sore tummy from eating too much and a need to drink a glass of milk and brush my teeth.
The girls and I (plus Sarah's best friend) leave tomorrow for camping in Michigan with my siblings and their kids. It started out as "Sister Camping" then we added one of our adult nieces and before we knew it our brother and sister-in-law and adult nephew were coming too. Unfortunately Mom & Dad will be on the other side of the state this weekend and won't be joining us in their luxury land yacht (they bought a new-to-them class-A motor home this spring.) I'm really looking forward to it because I love camping but hate cooking. All of my family are veteran campers so there will be plenty of people to do the cooking and other camp stuff. I get to be the entertainment as usual.
Have a great weekend!
Goodness Gracious
I've been trying to make some positive changes in my life this summer. Last year was kind of a lost summer with the store and all and I'm trying to make up for lost time. One thing I've been doing is focusing more on my health.
I've never been a dieter. I don't do the fad diets or restrict what I eat in order to lose weight. This may explain why I've been hovering around the 200# mark off and on for the past 10 years or so. Funny how that happens. But I've always found that the thing that works for me (when I take the time to make it work) is just little changes and more exercise.
About 10 years ago Steve and I joined a gym affiliated with our local hospital. They had a great child care facility and I could leave the girls and get a good workout. I got down to about 155# and felt fabulous. I was homeschooling Sarah at the time and Emma was a toddler so that little bit of time to myself was crucial. But things happened as they tend to do and we stopped going regularly and eventually decided that the cost of membership was too high. A few years ago another new gym opened in the area and this time we added Sarah to our plan so she could get in shape too. We tried going as a family (but Emma hated the childcare there) and coordinating our schedule was next to impossible. Again it just didn't work for us and we didn't go. We also have a really nice Precor treadmill and an Schwinn Airdyne bike in the corner of my workroom that never gets used. We thought we'd use the money we'd spend on gym memberships on home equipment and we'd be able to use it when it was convenient for us. Didn't happen!
This summer Sarah and I decided enough was enough (like the size of our jeans) and joined the new LA Fitness together. We've been going 2-3x/ week since June. She likes the aqua-fit classes and we both like the yoga classes (there was a time about 10 years ago I toyed with the idea of becoming a yoga instructor but then I got old and fat) and I use one of the personal trainers a couple times a week if I have time. Steve also added himself to our membership last month because he is traveling to Anaheim almost every week and there is a LA Fitness across the street from his office there.
I'm trying to make other changes in my lifestyle too. About a month ago I had what I think in AA they call a "moment of clarity" and decided I needed to seriously change my drinking habits. I'm still not ready to go as far and say I am an alcoholic but it was a problem on some level. I have tried to quit drinking completely or changed my beverage of choice in the past with little or no success. Often it was a result of a particularly bad hangover or embarrassing incident and I guilted myself into it. This time it was just a realization that I am 42 years old, a mother of two teenagers, and it just didn't feel good anymore. Why continue doing something that just makes you feel like shit? I don't really want to get into the details and quantity of liquor that was being consumed in this household but suffice it to say we drank more in one month than my mother has ever drank in her entire life. It was a rare day when Steve and I were both home together that we didn't have at least one or two cocktails before dinner.
Since July 15th I haven't had any vodka and have only had 3 beers. I really don't like beer so it is easy to stop after one. A lot of the health issues that had been bothering me for a while have gone away. My skin looks brighter and clearer. I've lost a little weight. I sleep SO MUCH BETTER! I love sleep, I need a lot of it to feel good and I had no idea how much just a little alcohol can disrupt it. I now fall asleep, stay asleep and wake up at 6:30- 7:00 feeling rested. I don't feel the need to sleep in until 9 or 10 once a week to catch up. That alone is worth the price of admission.
One of the hardest things about stopping an old bad habit is finding things to replace it. One thing I found that I love is Bolthouse Farms Green Goodness. [caption id="attachment_690" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="Shrek Juice"]
[/caption]Sarah calls it "Shrek Juice" because it is just about the same color as the Disney Ogre and the consistency is similar to swamp slime. But it is yummy let me tell you. It is really hard for me to get all the daily recommended servings of fruits and vegetables and a glass or two of this really helps. It has all that good stuff like blue-green algae, wheat grass, spinach, broccoli and green tea and it really does taste good. (It also has yummy stuff like mangos, kiwi, dragonfruit (no idea what that is but I bet it tastes fab!) and bananas.)
So here I am at the beginning of August in the middle of a minor lifestyle tweak. I'll keep you posted how things are going. You can also bet there will be set-backs and I'll try to be honest about those too. For instance, this weekend I'm camping with my siblings and next weekend we are going to a mini-reunion with Steve's siblings and cousins, I'm sure the temptations will be strong. (And the feelings of wanting to escape will be as well. It is family after all.) But I'm planning to be strong.
**Don't know why the formatting around that picture is so wonky. Someday soon I hope to have the time and money to tweak my blog template. C'est la vie.
I've never been a dieter. I don't do the fad diets or restrict what I eat in order to lose weight. This may explain why I've been hovering around the 200# mark off and on for the past 10 years or so. Funny how that happens. But I've always found that the thing that works for me (when I take the time to make it work) is just little changes and more exercise.
About 10 years ago Steve and I joined a gym affiliated with our local hospital. They had a great child care facility and I could leave the girls and get a good workout. I got down to about 155# and felt fabulous. I was homeschooling Sarah at the time and Emma was a toddler so that little bit of time to myself was crucial. But things happened as they tend to do and we stopped going regularly and eventually decided that the cost of membership was too high. A few years ago another new gym opened in the area and this time we added Sarah to our plan so she could get in shape too. We tried going as a family (but Emma hated the childcare there) and coordinating our schedule was next to impossible. Again it just didn't work for us and we didn't go. We also have a really nice Precor treadmill and an Schwinn Airdyne bike in the corner of my workroom that never gets used. We thought we'd use the money we'd spend on gym memberships on home equipment and we'd be able to use it when it was convenient for us. Didn't happen!
This summer Sarah and I decided enough was enough (like the size of our jeans) and joined the new LA Fitness together. We've been going 2-3x/ week since June. She likes the aqua-fit classes and we both like the yoga classes (there was a time about 10 years ago I toyed with the idea of becoming a yoga instructor but then I got old and fat) and I use one of the personal trainers a couple times a week if I have time. Steve also added himself to our membership last month because he is traveling to Anaheim almost every week and there is a LA Fitness across the street from his office there.
I'm trying to make other changes in my lifestyle too. About a month ago I had what I think in AA they call a "moment of clarity" and decided I needed to seriously change my drinking habits. I'm still not ready to go as far and say I am an alcoholic but it was a problem on some level. I have tried to quit drinking completely or changed my beverage of choice in the past with little or no success. Often it was a result of a particularly bad hangover or embarrassing incident and I guilted myself into it. This time it was just a realization that I am 42 years old, a mother of two teenagers, and it just didn't feel good anymore. Why continue doing something that just makes you feel like shit? I don't really want to get into the details and quantity of liquor that was being consumed in this household but suffice it to say we drank more in one month than my mother has ever drank in her entire life. It was a rare day when Steve and I were both home together that we didn't have at least one or two cocktails before dinner.
Since July 15th I haven't had any vodka and have only had 3 beers. I really don't like beer so it is easy to stop after one. A lot of the health issues that had been bothering me for a while have gone away. My skin looks brighter and clearer. I've lost a little weight. I sleep SO MUCH BETTER! I love sleep, I need a lot of it to feel good and I had no idea how much just a little alcohol can disrupt it. I now fall asleep, stay asleep and wake up at 6:30- 7:00 feeling rested. I don't feel the need to sleep in until 9 or 10 once a week to catch up. That alone is worth the price of admission.
One of the hardest things about stopping an old bad habit is finding things to replace it. One thing I found that I love is Bolthouse Farms Green Goodness. [caption id="attachment_690" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="Shrek Juice"]
[/caption]Sarah calls it "Shrek Juice" because it is just about the same color as the Disney Ogre and the consistency is similar to swamp slime. But it is yummy let me tell you. It is really hard for me to get all the daily recommended servings of fruits and vegetables and a glass or two of this really helps. It has all that good stuff like blue-green algae, wheat grass, spinach, broccoli and green tea and it really does taste good. (It also has yummy stuff like mangos, kiwi, dragonfruit (no idea what that is but I bet it tastes fab!) and bananas.)So here I am at the beginning of August in the middle of a minor lifestyle tweak. I'll keep you posted how things are going. You can also bet there will be set-backs and I'll try to be honest about those too. For instance, this weekend I'm camping with my siblings and next weekend we are going to a mini-reunion with Steve's siblings and cousins, I'm sure the temptations will be strong. (And the feelings of wanting to escape will be as well. It is family after all.) But I'm planning to be strong.
**Don't know why the formatting around that picture is so wonky. Someday soon I hope to have the time and money to tweak my blog template. C'est la vie.
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Hello...Hello....is this thing on?
Is there anybody still out there reading this?
I've had a hard time writing blog posts lately because quite frankly my blog and I seem to be having an identity crisis. I've been blogging in one place or another since about 2000. I had a Tripod site before that with family pictures and current craft projects and stuff even before that. My earlier blogs were all just personal blogs. This one even started out pretty much as a personal blog with a lot of knitting content. But then I decided to try my hand at running a small business and named it after my blog. Then this became a business blog with a strong focus on crafting. I felt the need to curb a lot of the personal stuff and to stop with the cursing!
But now that I've closed the store and just sell fabric on my etsy store there just isn't much to say in that regard. I haven't done any sewing since I packed up my machines at the store in April. They are still in boxes in the work room. I started knitting a cardigan sometime in May I think but it just sits in a bag now because I haven't been back to Friday knitting at Wool & Co. since I started it. (Knitting with a new puppy in the house is next to impossible! She grabs the needles and yarn and my hands....you get the picture.) I've all but lost all my crafting mojo.
I read a lot of blogs of all kinds. I still subscribe to a bunch of knitting and crafting blogs but many of them go unread. About a month ago I came to the shocking realization that I may be becoming one of "those" middle age women. You know the ones. The ones that say things like, "I used to do all kind of crafts." or "I sewed all my own maternity clothes and made so many dresses for my girls when they were little. But now I just don't do it anymore." etc. etc. It's not even like I don't have the time, I'm just not interested right now. I read craft blogs written by women in their 20s and 30s and see myself at that age. (It wasn't THAT long ago!) They all have such a fresh and dynamic energy about what they are doing that I seemed to have lost along the way.
I also often have a feeling of "been there, done that" when I'm reading craft blogs. My mom was a very creative woman (still is) and my sisters and I grew up doing every craft under the sun. We were also a big 4H family and every year made all kinds of projects for the county fair. Some years I would have entries in sewing, knitting, cooking, macrame, painting, basket weaving and needlework in addition to showing our horses all week. Like fashion, crafts popularity come around in cycles. So I've now been around long enough that everything old is new again. This is why sometimes I have a hard time teaching what I know because it seems like I've just always known it. I've forgotten what it was like to learn it for the first time and I have a hard time relating to my student in that way. So many of the craft blogs are written by people relatively new to their chosen art form and that is refreshing and exciting. I don't feel new and excited anymore.
So this will probably go back to being just a personal blog. I've been thinking about it and I do realize that I may have a perspective and life that might be a little unique to many of the blogs I've been reading. "Mommy blogs" are very popular and I wish that they had been around when my girls were young because I could've used the support and the outlet when I was home alone trying to keep it all together. But I did survive it and now I'm a Mom to two wonderful young women. They hate when I blog about them but no one says I can't blog about my side of things.
So in short, I can't guarantee a lot of regular craft content and if you subscribed just for that I'm probably talking to thin air anyway because I haven't offered much in the way of craft stuff in months anyway. Creativity is just part of my DNA so I'm sure I'll come back to it in some way, shape or form eventually. If you are interested in eavesdropping in on my weird, eclectic, and crazy life, stay tuned. There will probably be a lot more of that coming up. But be warned, I do swear a lot and even though I know my mother reads this on occasion, it is just who I am and I'm bound to drop a shitdamnf*ck when the mood strikes.
I've had a hard time writing blog posts lately because quite frankly my blog and I seem to be having an identity crisis. I've been blogging in one place or another since about 2000. I had a Tripod site before that with family pictures and current craft projects and stuff even before that. My earlier blogs were all just personal blogs. This one even started out pretty much as a personal blog with a lot of knitting content. But then I decided to try my hand at running a small business and named it after my blog. Then this became a business blog with a strong focus on crafting. I felt the need to curb a lot of the personal stuff and to stop with the cursing!
But now that I've closed the store and just sell fabric on my etsy store there just isn't much to say in that regard. I haven't done any sewing since I packed up my machines at the store in April. They are still in boxes in the work room. I started knitting a cardigan sometime in May I think but it just sits in a bag now because I haven't been back to Friday knitting at Wool & Co. since I started it. (Knitting with a new puppy in the house is next to impossible! She grabs the needles and yarn and my hands....you get the picture.) I've all but lost all my crafting mojo.
I read a lot of blogs of all kinds. I still subscribe to a bunch of knitting and crafting blogs but many of them go unread. About a month ago I came to the shocking realization that I may be becoming one of "those" middle age women. You know the ones. The ones that say things like, "I used to do all kind of crafts." or "I sewed all my own maternity clothes and made so many dresses for my girls when they were little. But now I just don't do it anymore." etc. etc. It's not even like I don't have the time, I'm just not interested right now. I read craft blogs written by women in their 20s and 30s and see myself at that age. (It wasn't THAT long ago!) They all have such a fresh and dynamic energy about what they are doing that I seemed to have lost along the way.
I also often have a feeling of "been there, done that" when I'm reading craft blogs. My mom was a very creative woman (still is) and my sisters and I grew up doing every craft under the sun. We were also a big 4H family and every year made all kinds of projects for the county fair. Some years I would have entries in sewing, knitting, cooking, macrame, painting, basket weaving and needlework in addition to showing our horses all week. Like fashion, crafts popularity come around in cycles. So I've now been around long enough that everything old is new again. This is why sometimes I have a hard time teaching what I know because it seems like I've just always known it. I've forgotten what it was like to learn it for the first time and I have a hard time relating to my student in that way. So many of the craft blogs are written by people relatively new to their chosen art form and that is refreshing and exciting. I don't feel new and excited anymore.
So this will probably go back to being just a personal blog. I've been thinking about it and I do realize that I may have a perspective and life that might be a little unique to many of the blogs I've been reading. "Mommy blogs" are very popular and I wish that they had been around when my girls were young because I could've used the support and the outlet when I was home alone trying to keep it all together. But I did survive it and now I'm a Mom to two wonderful young women. They hate when I blog about them but no one says I can't blog about my side of things.
So in short, I can't guarantee a lot of regular craft content and if you subscribed just for that I'm probably talking to thin air anyway because I haven't offered much in the way of craft stuff in months anyway. Creativity is just part of my DNA so I'm sure I'll come back to it in some way, shape or form eventually. If you are interested in eavesdropping in on my weird, eclectic, and crazy life, stay tuned. There will probably be a lot more of that coming up. But be warned, I do swear a lot and even though I know my mother reads this on occasion, it is just who I am and I'm bound to drop a shitdamnf*ck when the mood strikes.
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