Pseudo-Vacation

In light of the fact that I can't actually go anywhere, I'm going to be taking a break from writing this blog for the forseeable future.  I love my readers. Sometimes I vent too much if I've had a particularly hard day, or week,  but for the most part, I think they are understanding and compassionate about it.  If I have readers who aren't...well, that says more about them than it does about me, doesn't it?

I'm going to spend the rest of the summer gathering material and planning for our support group.  I've had a lot of people ask me about it, and I think that in the coming school year we can make it bigger and better, and offer support to people in the county who may not even realize we exist.  I'm also going to be diving into the second draft of the novel I finished at the end of last summer.  It has waited long enough.

I would also like to thank everyone who reads this blog.  Writing has always been my first love.  But I couldn't do it without my readers.  Until September, my friends.

Quote of the Day

Just because the world clamors for my attention, and shouts for me to adopt a certain belief or principle, doesn't mean I'll listen.  I'm my own person, and I choose God.

Quote of the Day

Resfeber

Today I learned a new word.  Resfeber.  Someone had a sign for sale on etsy.com and this word was on that sign.  According to the definition, it means, "the restless race of a traveler's heart before the journey begins, when anxiety and anticipation are tangled together; wanderlust".  (https://www.etsy.com/au/listing/175837801/resfeber-restless-traveler-dictionary?ref=market)

I feel like I have lived my life in this state for years.

I used to be a travel agent, and sometimes, I miss it.  That chapter in my life is closed right now, but I loved it when I was in the midst of it.  The picture above is Dubrovnik, Croatia. It's on the bucket list.  I think this is partly why I'm in real estate now.  It's mobile.  It's changing.  I get to meet people.  Instead of planning their vacations I'm helping them to move ahead in their futures, either by opening the door to their brand new home or sticking a For Sale sign on the one they're ready to leave behind.  

Life is like a Baskin Robbins.  There are too many flavors and not enough time to enjoy them all.  I don't believe in reincarnation; I think that this is our best and only shot at this life...and because of that, I've always felt a little panicked.  Some people are perfectly content to pick something and be really, really good at that something.  Someone may dedicate their lives to learning about 18th century England, and that's their thing.  Or they might love numbers, and so they work in a bank, and that fulfills them, the end.  I've never been wired that way.  I have a hard time understanding people who are.  That doesn't mean I don't appreciate those people and admire what they do, it means that I look at them and wonder, how do you do that?  Because I can't.  The closest I can come to experiencing everything is by writing, because you can live an infinite number of lives through the words you put on paper. 

I try to remind myself that this is just the way life is.  When I first became a real estate agent, my broker at the time, who is still a dear, sweet lady that everyone in town knows, sat me down and started personally training me in the fine art of salesmanship.  I never got to tell her how much I enjoyed that time, sitting in her cozy office and learning from someone who had been in the business for decades.  She had a different way of doing things that stuck with her for all of that time, and I admired it.  She asked me once what I wanted to learn.  "I want to know everything", I said.  She smiled and looked at me and shook her head.  "You can't ever know everything."

Perhaps not, just the way you can't eat everything at a buffet.  But you can get a nibble, and go back for seconds, and thirds.  As long as you save room for dessert.  That's the best part.  

Harvard Beets

(image from allrecipes.com)

Tonight, as an addition to a vegetable plate that I made, I made Harvard beets for the first time ever.  In fact, it was the first time I ever cooked a beet or made any kind of beet dish.

The thing is, I live at the tail end of North Central Texas, and we have more bubbas here than Billy Bob's on a Saturday night.  Meaning we are a meat and potato population.  More than half the people here own at least one or two cows, and then there are the people that are serious breeders.  Say the word "angus" and people are firing up their grill.  And these were the adjectives I grew up with in the kitchen:  deep fried, buttery, flaky. creamed, breaded, medium rare, and sugar.  Lots of sugar.

In continuing my voyage of food discovery, I picked up a beet in the produce section.  It's ridiculous to say I felt daring, but I did, because I can't ever recall, in my entire life, a grandmother, or in-law, or my mother, cooking this vegetable.  So in a spirit of rebellion, I put it in my cart.  I felt better at the check-out when the girl said, "Ma'am, what is this called again?"  And I tried to squelch that superior feeling that rose up in me when I said, "Oh, that's a beet."

I found a recipe for Harvard Beets on allrecipes.com and it seemed simple enough.  I chose that recipe because it's a very old recipe for this vegetable; no one is even sure of its origins.  It really doesn't matter. The point is, I made it, it turned out well, and now I feel like I was missing out.  Bonus:  Logan ate all the beets I put on his plate.  I love it when he eats fresh vegetables, because then I know he's not getting any strange red dye that actually does make him go berserk.  He's in his best mood when his food is the healthiest.  I think that can be said for other people, as well.

This experience made me think of all the other neglected vegetables out there that I've not so much batted an eye at.  How do you cook a rutabaga?  What about potato-leek soup?  I heard that was good.  And what are those cacti for?  Hispanic people buy them a lot...what do they do with it?

So, because these are questions I don't have an answer to, I've decided to treat the grocery store..especially the produce section...a lot like I treat books.  Try everything.  If it's bad or boring, don't finish it. Throw it out and don't waste time on it.  Keep the good stuff.

And then there's also that feeling you get when show up at check out and your cart is laden when fruits and veggies.  You want to say, Look At ME.  I am BEING HEALTHY.  What they don't see is the chocolate and cookies hidden underneath the Romaine.  Hey, lettuce has to be good for something.  ;)

Quote of the Day

"For love changes everything, and forces us into lives we never imagined we might lead." - Alice Hoffman, The Museum of Extraordinary Things

"The past cannot tie me in knots, nor can it reach for me and cause me to drown." - Alice Hoffman, The Museum of Extraordinary Things

Get Some Help

I didn't post a picture with this entry, because any picture I could find would probably be too graphic.

For the second time this month, I saw a news article about a dog (in this case it was a two month old puppy) that had a rubber band wrapped around its muzzle and had to be rushed to a hospital for emergency care.  The picture was horrifying.  It wasn't something that I went looking for.  It popped up on my news feed on Facebook, and I found myself getting really angry.  This came a couple of weeks after the story on the female pit bull puppy who was found with duct tape around her muzzle.  She also needed specialized care and is now, finally, eating and recovering.

I'm not a crazy animal rights activist.  I'm not extreme.  But I have zero tolerance or patience for people who abuse animals, children, those with disabilities, or anyone else who is in some way helpless to stop what is being done to them.  There seems to be some sort of disconnect with people who engage in these types of acts.  They think it's funny, or they're on some kind of power trip.

Listen, it's not funny.  It's not attractive, and it doesn't make you more of a man (or woman).  If you do this, you are sick.  Period.  You need help.

Father's Day

It's Father's Day and I miss my dad.

My dad always encouraged me to write.  He was always interested in what I was writing at the time and he was always bringing home Writer's magazines.  In a lot of ways he really fueled that passion for me.  He also came to almost every band concert, stood up and cheered for me regardless of my embarrassment, and always called me his "Little Doll".

When I was pregnant with my first child, he decided that I must need some clothes (I did) and he took me shopping.  He bought me a red dress.  Just like he did before I was born.  I think I never really grew up in his eyes.

He loved the Three Stooges and was adept at doing the "curly shuffle".  He loved the Dallas Cowboys, vanilla ice cream mixed with an ungodly amount of chocolate syrup, and dogs.  He didn't like the beach but he loved the mountains and almost every summer, he took us all for a trip into the Colorado Rockies.  I think that was where my love of geology was born.  Almost every place we camped and every gift shop we went into had some kind of gem or mineral laying around.  He instilled in me a love of the outdoors and of travel because of those summertime forays into the mountains.

He liked fishing and would sit in his armchair on the weekends with a paper in his hands while a fishing show was on.  I never understood the appeal of watching fishing on tv, but now that I have a fourteen year old son and River Monsters comes on, I get it.

He taught me how to bowl.  I still like to go bowling even though I don't have the opportunity to do it often.

Probably the most important thing my dad did for me was teach me, through his example, that it's never too late to learn.  He worked as a lineman for TXU and decided he wanted more, so he went to school at night and got a Bachelor's Degree in Engineering.  He continued working towards his master's and became an electrical engineer at TXU.  He loved his job.  Designing sub-stations and working on the nuclear power plant were a couple of projects that he talked about often.  He was wicked smart and lived up to his potential in that regard.  Because of him and because of that example, I know I can live up to mine, too.

Happy Father's Day, Daddy.  I love you and I miss you.

Quote of the Day

Dear Pessimist and Optimist,

While you were standing there arguing about whether the glass was half-empty or half-full, I drank it.

Sincerely,

The Opportunist

The End is Near

I'm not a "doomsday prepper".  I don't own 1,000 cans of pork and beans and I haven't dug an underground bunker in my back yard.  BUT.  Something happened the other day that made me think that perhaps a little more preparation might be a good idea.  I never like taking things to extremes and I hate assuming the worst...but sometimes, people who assume the worst are the ones that don't get burned in the long run.

In the course of my job I had an opportunity to talk to someone who was in Northern California.  We got on the subject of weather, and she talked about how the drought there was affecting them.  She went on to say that her father owned a cattle ranch, and that because of the drought, they were having to slaughter six months early, which meant they were losing thousands and thousands of dollars.  "Your food, " she said, "Is about to get very, very expensive, because they are going to have to make up for what they're losing right now."  

Not many people actually stop and think about where food comes from.  It sounds stupid, but we've gotten so accustomed to drive-throughs, carry-outs, and grocery stores that we don't stop and think about what it takes to get the food to where it is.  Someone had to grow it.  Someone had to make it. Someone had to load it onto a truck.  Someone had to drive the truck to get it to a distribution center.  Someone else had to go to the distribution center to pick it up and bring it to a store.  (I used to work in a grocery distribution center; I know.)

What happens if at any time, there is some sort of catastrophe along the way?  Think of food production as a giant spider web, and you're the spider at the center. Think of farmers, cattlemen, truck drivers, grocery stores...they're all the strings that hold the web in place.  Have you ever seen what happens to a spider web if you wipe out one of its supporting anchors?  It becomes unstable.  Eventually, it collapses.  The spider has to rebuild or go somewhere else and start over.

The point of food storage and preparation is not, necessarily, to survive the apocalypse, although many people are preparing for that.  It's to survive the personal catastrophes that sometimes rear their ugly heads in our lives.  If, for example, you live along the coast, and a Hurricane decides to blow through town, then that is a personal catastrophe.  It won't affect the entire United States, but it might interrupt the flow of goods and services to YOU.  So you need to be ready for that.  If you lose your job, and it takes longer to find employment than you thought...again, preparation can get you through that.  I know of one man who was unemployed for a year and his family survived off of their food storage.  If a cattle raiser in California has to slaughter his animals due to lack of water, thus losing tons of money and then having to charge more to make up the difference...then food will still be available.  It just might cost more than you want to pay...or more than some people CAN pay.

If what my colleague in California says is true (and I have no reason to believe she would make it up), then now might be a good time to get ready.

Quote of the Day

It's the Little Things

The "check engine" light has come on in my van and the power steering is whining.  Because of this, we took it to the shop yesterday and left it there.

Want to know how I felt?

Secretly relieved.

Having the van in the shop during the summer means that I have this excuse:  "Can't.  Van's in the shop."

It's like having permission to goof off.

It means we are housebound, for a day or two, which means movie time, swimming hole time, play outside time, don't go anywhere or stress about anything time.  For a mom, it's almost the same as turning off your phone.

Did I mention my phone's in the shop too?

I'm kidding.  Sort of.

Happy Summer, y'all.

Almost Vegetarian

Recently I went through this phase where I just stopped caring what I ate.  So, I started drinking chocolate shakes and diet Cokes again, and eating burgers and all kinds of junk.  And the pounds started to pile back on and I felt miserable.

I knew I was doing it because I was depressed, and because I had lost my focus.  I've never been a skinny girl, but I've tried, more often than not, to take care of myself, because I have four responsibilities.  And, of course, when you have a special needs child, you have to live forever...but that's a different blog.

So, anyhow, the other day I got this cookbook offer through Bookbub. It was for a book called "Feast" and it was a vegetarian cookbook by Sarah Copeland.  It promised meals that would actually leave you feeling full...unlike many vegetarian recipes that leave you feeling dissatisfied and still a little empty (Where's the beef???)

I decided to give it a try, and the first thing I did was buy a blender and make a kale shake.  Sounds gross, right?  I won't share the recipe because that wouldn't be fair to Ms. Copeland...but suffice it to say that it was good.  Surprisingly so.  I had it for breakfast.

Soon after that I was trying different oatmeal recipes, vegetable pot pies, eggplant parmesan, and paella, to name a few.  And I started to feel better.  

It wasn't a miracle cure for weight loss, but that wasn't what I was looking for.  What it did do was give me a greater awareness of food.  It made me stop and ask myself, what's actually in this thing that I'm putting in my mouth?  After about a week or two of doing this, I had a chili cheese dog.  It was disgusting.  I also had something else...I can't remember what it was, except that it was some kind of dessert...and it was horribly sweet.  Not delightfully sweet, but sweet in a way that I could taste the synthetic stuff that was in it.  

Now, lest you think I've turned into some kind of health nut, I want to make it clear that I love to eat and I enjoy really good food.  The point of this is not to tout a vegetarian point of view or to say that hamburgers are evil.  It's to say that developing a greater appreciation for the foods that are in season, and the foods that Heavenly Father actually created for us to consume, can really pay off in the way we feel physically, emotionally, and mentally.  I challenge anyone to try this, within the limits of what they can physically handle...give up the diet drinks and sodas, give up sugar. drink lots of water, add more vegetables than meat to what you're eating...and be surprised.

Quote of the Day

"I am not who I once was...We become who we must to overcome pain and make things right again."

-Sir Gorrann, Queen of Hearts:  The Wonder by Colleen Oakes