Come to find it was a hella hard year

I went back a year in blog posts to see what my brain was like this time last year.  I travelled through the year on the blog and can only say it's been a hella hard year.  If we're talking fiscal calendar July-July, there has been six months of aunt illness with hip replacement and rehab, kidney cancer, bed bugs, and knee surgery for the dog.

While all that was happening I was also undergoing some intense and unpredictable negative menopause side effects and trying to sell aunt's house long distance.

And really, if you want to just gander back at the year before that you'll notice not very many blog posts at all because it was the aunt and cousin transition from there to here precipitated by me driving to there every weekend (or after every ambulance call)  culminating installing her in June, buying and renovating a house for cousin in July and moving her in October.

What. The. Hell.  I'm sure glad I don't have to go through this stuff alone.

In food news-

I steamed eggs to hard boil them and shorted them about 3 minutes and ended up with soft boiled eggs.  Ugh.  I cooked them some more but I don't know what the hot cold hot cold process is going to do to them.  Note to self.  If you're steaming eggs allow 3 minutes for the water to boil and 12 minutes for the actual cooking.

While there was some eating out this weekend, there was only a little bit of cheating and no sweets.  

We ate at the mexican restaurant on Saturday and the only cheat was the con queso dip on the shrimp.  Otherswise shrimp, rice, veggies and tortillas.

Saturday's steak salad had some delicious fries on it- usually in my head I wish there were more fries.  Saturday I was just glad there were fries.   

Here is the lunch plan for the week. ZumbaVickie says she had lettuce that lasted for two weeks when she sealed it in mason jars in the fridge.  I told her that I hope it works otherwise I have two lunches and 3 rabbit specials.

I found out that they sell carrots individually at my store.  Big carrots.  While convenient, those baby carrots mostly seem stupid to me.  They don't have a ton of taste, they aren't as good for you as real carrots and they would need a mason jar of their own (as long as they weren't already tired when you got them out of the bag.)

Additions to this include hard boiled eggs, cottage cheese, grapes, some granny smith apples (I am still tempted to bake one of those)

I may defrost a soup or some black beans and rice to accompany it later in the week.

Dinner plans- tonight it will be fried eggs.  Tomorrow I will make mushroom stroganoff again.  That was so delicious.  I may have it with brown rice which is this weeks "try something new" food.

The first batch of granola bars were filling- maybe had a little too much flour.  The only calories in them came from 1/3 c coconut oil and 2/3 c honey. The rest of the ingredients were wheat flour, oatmeal and plain rice krispies.

The second batch looks to be more decadent.  Oats, honey, butter, brown sugar, almonds and cashews.  This one is refrigerated instead of baked. (though you do toast the oats and nuts prior to assembly- not sure why.)

It has some delicious potential but I'll be wary not to eat them as freely as the others as the calorie content is much higher.

It also comes as a "basic recipe" with suggestions for various add-ons.

Tomorrow is the long meeting day.  Dear Future Self, right now I feel a little anxious about the schedule, duties and high school class.  I am glad my life isn't as crazy as it has been in the past.  I am glad to be teaching only on my end of town and not having to drive to "the city."

And if you're able to read this next year (hopefully we will not all be blown away by nuclear fallout) I hope that the world outside yours is less volatile than it is right now.  I hope the haters in our country find a way to stop hating.