And then we were married for 14 years

And he was a conduit from my grandma saying she approves.

A close call.

Strike week was hard on routines.  It also wreaked havoc with sugar abstinence.  As in hello donuts, bagels and pizza, where have you been all my life.

The exercise train was easy to hop.  It feels too good not to.

The food recovery had some close calls.  It was a hungry Saturday morning. (The start of a scary novel.) I was out and about after having taken cousin shopping.  The options were a subway seafood wrap a super delicious treat from the pizza place or go home and try one of the meal replacement shakes.

I had finally decided to go home ant take my chances, knowing I was too lazy to go back out.  And I found the rice and beans leftovers.  A perfect lunch.

This weekends experiment was a replacement for chicken noodle soup.  Fried tofu and shells to fill it out.

Lessons learned- lesson number one-pick one spice and go with it.  I’m not clever enough to know how spices work in combination.  Lesson number two- don’t use so many noodles. Lesson three-don’t use parsley.  Lesson number four- don’t forget celery.  It was tasty but could have been  better.

The square knitting continues.  I feel like quitting and then I can’t think of what else I want to knit.

Regarding memory loss- kmkat wrote this comment on the previous post.  I thought it was brilliant.

I think of my brain as a wheel. When I can't think of a word or remember a name I just have to wait for the wheel to turn and bring the lost word back to the front. Kind of like when Arlo Guthrie says we have to wait for the song to come back around on the guitar in Alice's Restaurant.

Observations

Weather phenomena- today when I walked out of the building the sun was shining. And the snow was coming down like in a snow globe with almost zero visibility.  Is there such a thing as a "snowbow?"

Food phenomena- roasted cabbage with lots of black pepper almost tastes like egg noodles.  I love it.

Men and women-today greathusbandbob was serving as minority election inspector which means he’s one of the guys that does important things like read ballot numbers when people are voting.  When I walked in and gave them my name, all of them groaned, laughed and then said “you poor poor woman.” Which I totally get. BUT I can tell you that if the tables were turned and I was for whatever reason in a similar situation, he would have a cow and then that cow would have a cow.  Men are dumb.  You heard it here first.

High school kids.  When they are acting jerky it’s much harder not to take it personally. It’s easy peasy with the little ones. Ugh. I will have higher expectations next year and won’t smile until November.  I know they think I’m a pushover because I feed them. And laugh when they are funny.

The dog.  She is not a dog that likes to be petted.  She’s always been that way. She'll snuggle against you but she only just tolerates petting. I took some time last week to read her body language when I was trying to pet her.  It was so obvious once I started looking. Then I think but how will she know I adore her.  And then I watched her some more and realized her favorite thing to do in the world is play chase right when I get home.  She brings her toy with an impish  grin and then runs.  The game involves going from one end of the hallway to the other and occasionally throwing the toy (when I can get it)  I am adapting.

Fear and the introvert.  A new kindergarten aide invited me to join her for a trip to the Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens on Easter.  She already knows I’m not very Jesus-y.  She isn’t either and her husband has to work that day so I said o.k.  Except come to find ever since greathusbandbob was sick I haven’t wanted to wander too far from home- more specifically- him.  I’ve wanted to go there forever, we usually avoid major holidays with an afternoon at the casino (which GHB will likely do with or without me.) and it’s a new and quirky friend and another chance for me to say in my head "she likes me, she really likes me."  There is just a part of me that is struggling to go back to normal.  Now that I see it for what it is (unlike when I didn’t go to New York last month) I think I am better equipped to manage but there was a feeling I wasn’t expecting.

The vice-president.  When I hear him talking about Christianity (some interview this week) I can’t help but imagine that he’s talking about elves and gnomes and hobbits and fairies and leprechauns.  It’s not when any old person talks about it (well maybe a little) but mostly it’s really bad when it’s him.  Mike Pence makes me an atheist (botanical gardens here I come)

And finally as I proofread this post, I realize it’s relatively concise and to the point in the observations.  Except it took more than an hour to write it because I kept forgetting ideas and words.  In fact I wrote this below just to remember this part:

Forgetting words

I’m certain it’s hormonal. I just can’t believe how inarticulate and cloudy minded I’ve felt.  I don’t do the "senior moment" excuse (there’s always someone older than me around anyway). I don’t get mad and try to fight it.  I’m certain that makes it worse,  I try to just watch my brain go by and tell myself that whatever it was will come back in a little bit.  Also this afternoon in my head I heard myself sneering "I will cut you" to adults that were driving me crazy. I will not really do that and I don’t really want to but the ferocity with which these feelings arise is also startling.

At least it didn’t snow... oh wait.

We went back to school on Thursday.  The kids had an Arctic Day(teachers report-kids don’t) on Friday.  I took a day.  I can only spend so much time looking busy.

I like chopping vegetables with a sharp knife.  Who knew?  I like it so much that I didn’t even take a picture of the final product.

The ingredients were this from an amazon prime video cooking recipe.

It was for vegan Shepard's pie.  I doubled the recipe but ran a little short on the potatoes.  I’ll know for next time.  Also on this week's menu is roasted cabbage slices over egg noodles.

There’s been a good bit of cheating going on.  A meal at red lobster (I did order broiled and grilled things but went to town on the biscuits,) this was followed by a trip to the Cracker Barrel candy store with the cousin.  Later that night a DQ banana split at greathusbandbob's request.  He took charge of getting cousin's roof fixed, I could not deny him.

On the up side, I haven’t missed any Zumba- and visited my original Zumba tribe on Thursday.  I love them and I love cracking them up which mostly I do by existing.  I finally have a friend friend from the gym Zumba.  The next goal for me is to start working with weights.  That will happen this summer and she and I will be workout partners.

Tomorrow the 4th and 5th grade girls start the Girls On The Run program.  My counselor friend and I will be joining and hopefully will be able to run in a 5k in May.  We'll just see how that works.

I’m still knitting squares in original Star Trek shirt colors.  I’ve blocked some and learned that acrylic melts.  There’s no real plan but I’ll keep making squares until I run out of yarn and see what happens next.

Still walking

Except two days were spent at the state capitol.  Some photo ops.  The large crowd outside was from a rally on the Capitol steps.

Sunny Monday in Charleston

This picture doesn’t do the crowd justice.

The first grade teacher and I hanging out on the capitol steps yesterday.

(You can always count on your best girl school pal to make sure

you share a good photo.)

Let the kids carry the signs...  

It’s been seven days.  The 20 republicans in the state senate are the ones holding the voting power.  They are tabling the vote to vote every time with various excuses.  The money the governor added to the revenue budget isn’t there is one.  A vindictive senate chair says "well if it’s about insurance and not the raise, we'll lower the % of the raise (5-2%) and put the imaginary money into the insurance fund."  The governor walked into a town hall held at a high school saying "you’re not going to shoot me, are you?"  At the next town hall he referred to all of the striking employees as rednecks.

There have been plenty of great signs.  My red 55United t-shirt feels like it’s become a uniform.  After 2 trips to the capitol in one week I gave myself the day off.  Today I sent an email to our superintendent thanking him for his support.  A nearby county canceling announcement read "wetzel county schools will be closed tomorrow and let’s just say it’s not due to weather."

It feels futile to be shouting in front of the doors to the state government as they are clearly working on their own agenda. The first day felt inspiring.  The second day was discouraging and weird.  Like you don’t want to get too attached to the shouts because it’s likely not going to end well.

It’s one of those times where you don’t know what’s going to happen and checking Facebook every 5 minutes doesn’t tell you any sooner.

Cold wet and eventually floody

We walked the line.  It poured. It was cold. I went home when the flood warnings began.  I was done.  For the record, the redneck version of honk if you support is to rev your big truck engine.  We got at least three of those.  I didn’t have a sign but thought of one while I was there.  "Honk if I was your teacher."

Secretary Sandy carried the winning sign.

This little guy lived next door to the "line" and likely got up early with all of the coal truck horns honking.  He brought out some little Debbie strawberry marshmallow treats to pass out.

It should be warmer tomorrow.  And a little less rain.  And I will remember my camp chair. And bring some lunch.

Dinner tonight roasted rutabaga and sweet potato.  This is a good combination.  Sweet and not so much.  Red pepper and garlic powder as spices are always wins.  I tried a little coriander and ginger.  Maybe too little to notice.  Also we continue to be winning the tens column reduction. 

Items.

Item the one- new favorite food experiment.  Black beans and wild rice.  I didn’t know what a rare commodity wild rice was until I tried to find it. Amazon to the rescue but a word to kmkat saying a special thanks for leading me to it initially.

Item two- drawing? Once again not so much.  I’ll just have to draw when I feel like it and have that be good enough.  I did try the kids dancing around the tree-something I would not have done without the course.

Every school in the state of wv is closed tomorrow and Friday.  An informational picket line- 45 degrees, 100% chance of rain. Walmart muck boots and camping rain coat to the rescue. Those not inclined to picket in the rain can help serve community prepared meals to the kids missing lunch from 10-2. I don’t have a sign because all I could think of was "hell no, we won’t go." And greathusbandbob reminded me that that’s more of an anti war slogan.he also informed me that we need a burn can and an American flag if we want to be legit.

Guilt tripped the high school kids for being lazy.  It worked. They came in eager today to show me the work they did outside of class on the assignment. As a teacher of high school kids I think if you can say "I’m disappointed in the quality of work you did" and your opinion matters, it’s as close to getting them excited about learning as you can hope for. At least for this year. I’m looking forward to getting a do-over with this class next year.  That big feeling of "you don’t know what you don’t know" from August has been replaced with the new plan.

Finally, high school kids taking a stand about gun control. Go kids! Because up until I saw them fight I was wearing a heavy coat of grief for them all.  That’s still here but underneath it is a little armor and pride for those kids that are stepping it up.

You are a butthole.

I found a valentine on my classroom floor yesterday.  It had a unicorn and a princess on it.  The back read, "you are a butthole."  You just can’t make it up.

We are out today for a flood day.  It’s so puzzling.

I fell behind in drawing but forced myself back into the game.  Latest version-

And for brunch today-buckwheat pancakes- and even the big guy liked them.

I feel some hilarious movies in my near future.

Roasted vegetables Week Two

Turns out last week's parsnip was actually a turnip that had been misplaced in a Walmart bin.  I had roasted turnip last week and didn’t hate it.

This week I bought and roasted two heads of cauliflower (because I could seriously eat a whole head in one meal) and a rutabaga.  Come to find I was often confusing rutabaga with rhubarb.  Everything has been made clear.  I love rutabaga.  Rhubarb not so much.

Waiting for roasting later in the week are some sweet potatoes and some actual parsnips (which look more like white carrots).  I’ll likely make a trip to the store with white sweet potatoes as well.  

I’ve been considering a garlicky cashew sauce to put over them but they are so delicious as is.

I stopped at the local pathetic farmers market and came home with "just add water" buckwheat cake mix.  I’d like to think I’ll make some and stash them for breakfast next week but time will tell.

There are also three ripe bananas and some unsweetened applesauce to make zumbabetty's cookies.

Food food food.  I also knit.  Still making squares,

Well spent

We know how much I love to art.  It was one of the failed goals of the summer.  I think maybe arting is best done with extra time at school where desk and supplies are always at hand.  Last month I paid $20 to join Sktchy's 30 faces in 30 days. Art support, tips, occasional live lessons to be viewed again.

The first invitation to portrait was this

  

I ended up with this-

Then I watched an art lesson video and decided to do one with a focus on shapes and value and ended up with this-

And then I had extra time today so I tried to do it the way he did in the lesson and ended up with this-

And finally I decided to jump on the color train and finished with this-

I’m going to say I already got my money’s worth.

In for a penny...

In for a pound of roasting

Ingredients... leftover wild rice and mushrooms, brussel sprouts, cauliflower, turnips, and white sweet potatoes. Dashed with olive oil, some paprika where appropriate.  Holy deliciousness Batman.  White sweet potatoes are my new favorite tubers.

Roasting without the roast.

This felt a little like Sunday dinner- except it was missing some green.

Sweet potatoes and cauliflower roasted with olive oil and crushed red pepper.  Baby Bella mushrooms sautéed in garlic and olive oil mixed with wild rice.  This wild rice is different from yesterday’s.  This was a gift from the friend kmkat when she visited a few months ago.  Cooking yesterdays rice made me feel like I could do this rice justice without disappointment.

Roasting vegetables may be my new favorite thing. Wild rice may be my second new favorite thing.

And while I am never glad when greathusbandbob has a bellyache, there was some karma in place last night when he had indigestion from the best smelling frozen pizza ever while I quietly digested rice.  

Finally some food

First of all.  That damn hat was still too small.

It’s been a week of craptastic food.  While the candies and muffins were delicious, my combine foods and make them taste good intuition was a little off.

On Monday it was oyster mushrooms, spinach, celery, carrots, cherry tomatoes, ginger, quinoa and tamari sauce for the opposite of a win.

On Thursday it was brown rice linguine seasoned with Italian seasoning and olive oil with spinach, cherry tomatoes and cucumbers added.  I used the energy saving cooking method for the linguine (boil for 2 minutes, let sit in pot for 12). The message on the package that it does not get mushy lies.  Also you can not stir fry it the next day in sesame oil.  In case you were thinking that might be a solution. 

Today I finally met with some success.  I happened across a bag of wild rice and an organic can of succotash. With some salt, pepper, and coriander it was a winning, dare I say, comfort food dish.  Of course after a weeks worth of less than palatable sustenance, anything remotely not gross would be comforting.

  

The desire to snack still pervades nearly every waking moment on the weekends.  Today I bought some pistachios and pumpkin seeds with hopes of taming that beast.  I also bought more pumpkin muffin mix but will wait until Sunday night to make them lest I eat all of them in one sitting.

I may try another pony tail hat.  Weather forecasts are saying "heavy snow" for Wednesday into Thursday.  I’d like a new hat to wear while shoveling.

Freebie

The weather really never looked terribly treacherous.  But last night they cancelled all after school activities.  Then they had a 2 hour delay.  Then at 6:30 a.m. they cancelled school.

So this morning it is Murder By Phone (1982 with Richard Chamberlain and John Houseman)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0081203/

Some knitting- (Plant a Seed ponytail hat with doubled fingering yarn on size 7 needles) I've upped the needle size so maybe this one will fit.

And a zumba playlist for later-

And because this day was so unexpected I feel obligated to complete nothing and my brain is pleased.

Food food food and knitting.

Item the one-yesterdays almond butter fudge in the freezer was a win. 1/2 c almond butter, 21/2 tbsp coconut oil.  I put in a splash of maple syrup and a dash of cocoa.

Today’s dinner was quite colorful. Brown rice, mushrooms, fresh carrots, and spinach. Tamari sauce garlic and ginger for flavor.

This is the knitting I’ve been playing with.  You don’t have to think so much.

            

Sunday night sweets

Two adventures for a Sunday night.  Pumpkin mini muffins (one mix makes 48) with half of them frozen.  And almond butter fudge.  The recipe called for almond butter, coconut oil and some maple syrup.  I also added some cocoa.  I haven’t yet mastered the put candy into molds skill.  They are to be kept in the freezer.  The muffins are a win. The fudge tbd. And this post may or may not make it from this app.

Mobile posting not working... grr

First off- you're probably already better but if not, Get Well Soon Lisa Simpson!

The mobile posting app doesn't like my pictures. That makes me crazy and leaves me at one post this week.

On Monday there was a spinach, kiwi, agave sweeter smoothie.  It was not terrible.

Secondly this water bottle is hilarious.  But I am happy with my free Wal-Mart water bottle and instead just added the hour markers.

Next, knit night was amazing because both Amanda and Dr.Justine were there and it's been so very long since the three of us laughed like we do.

Next I've convinced ZumbaBetty that she can have all of her songs on an mp3 player and have loaded them for her.  As a result, I now have all the songs.  Fast Latin dancing songs for days.

In return, (but not really- mostly just because we're friends) ZumbaBetty sent me a recipe for cookies with banana, unsweetened applesauce and a few other handy ingredients with which to make cookies.

I have only one banana and need three so I'll be waiting for the back up bananas to ripen.

And finally, sometimes you just have to cheat.  I only ate half of this pizza but then made up for it last night with a thick crusted 14" cheese pizza that is no longer.  Apparently one must do this every now and then to remind oneself of how hard it is not to crave yummy carbs and gluten once you give in a little bit.

And for dinner tonight, an experiment with mashed cauliflower, potatoes, tahini and coconut milk.

Also today- I had to send a link about menopause and scatterbrainedness to greathusbandbob after he was worried because I put the dog collar in the milk bones box.

Juicy Lucy

Ahh the weekend.  Zumba and grocery store this morning.  Adventures in juicing when I got home.

If a person really wanted to do what Joe does in Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead, it would be a full time job.  When you weren’t exercising you'd be buying, and cutting vegetables and slowly feeding them through the juicer.  I think for now I may be a weekend juicer.  It’s a bit of a production. And yet there are scenes where he’s doing it from the back of his car.

The juicer (Omega for anyone who cares) cracks me the hell up because when it’s breaking down most foods it really just sounds like it’s chewing.  Which is also a litttle gross but I try not to think about it. 

The juice is best drunk immediately but preserves its goodness for 2-3 days.  After that it loses nutrients. Hence the full time job.

I made two full containers of the green.

I

Two full containers of the dark orange and one half container of the bright orange.

Let’s just say I drink these in lieu of breakfast, lunch and snacks this weekend.  By Sunday I will have consumed

An entire bunch of kale, 2 sweet potatoes, 8 stalks of celery, 4 pears, 3 cups of blueberries, w cucumbers, 2 oranges, 3 carrots, 6 apples, a lemon and some ginger root.  All of this is notably better than eating 12 pumpkin muffins all weekend.

The juicer removes the non soluble fiber and keeps the fiber and nutrients.  

The taste- the green one tastes like summertime when I was little.  Which is bright tangy and  just a little grassy.

The dark orange is mostly pear flavored with hints of berries.

The bright orange is hilarious. Carrots, oranges and ginger.  I was a little heavy handed with the ginger.  I'll know better next time. But it does taste like bright sunshine.

I have a friend at work who had the stomach band surgery.  She is struggling mentally with it all.  I feel like we are at good connecting points on our food journeys.   I’m about six months ahead of her in the changing of eating (and also no surgery.). That means I can share how the changes feel and how they’re worth it with her.  Also it gives me a reason to keep going when I really want a break.  We walked in circles in the school gym on Friday (which was great for me because up to this point I haven’t done much on Fridays.)and shared the week's struggles.  Including husbands who overindulge somewhat thoughtlessly (although it’s not fair to expect them to change just because you are) and regularly.

What a path I have chosen.  How surprised I am to be following it.

(Backup) Two day week— five day weekend

Monday was MLK day, Tuesday was a snow day and today was an Arctic Academy day.  Teachers at school kids at home. I spent nearly all of the time planning for the high school class.  Do you have any idea how many different versions of Brahm's Lullaby there are? Yo yo Ma and Nat King Cole were my favorites.

The requested ponytail hat remained on the requestees head all day today.  It kind of cracked me up.  Maybe just because it was so pleasing to me.

Here she looks like a Barbie doll (minus the ridiculous proportions)

I walked a lot today.  Grabbed the first grade teachers for some laps around the gym. Then went to the gym gym and did 3 miles with one mile of intermittent running. I saw a recipe online about healthy comfort food. I didn’t follow it but used some of the ingredient ideas.  I am not disappointed with the result. Quinoa, firm tofu, carrots, spinach, cherry tomatoes, olive oil, tamari sauce, cumin, and a little chili powder.

I've started a hundred knitting projects. None have stuck. This one is called the Mithril Beanie on Ravelry. It uses the honeycomb stitch whic I like but one mistake and it’s time to start a new one because I surely can not read those stitches/rows.

Finally I am reading a beautiful book about and titled Silence: in the age of noise by Erling Kagge. I am constantly in search of silence. And when it’s there I often forget to embrace it. This book will be my friend for a good while.  I can feel it.

Truth or Consequences.

So, the pumpkin muffin plan is a no-go.  I can not prevent myself from eating all 12 muffins within 2 days.  And while they are lower calorie than actual muffins, 2200 calories is 2200 calories. That combined with snow shoveling as the only exercise means the scale did not change this weekend (though I'm starting to realize if I can just ride out the weekend food-wise I'm doing well.)

Last week while watching the news I remembered that Martin Luther King day is ideally seen a day of service in his honor.  My conscience was bothering me about this until I stopped to examine why I will not be doing community service today.  Then I realized that given the support and care of both my aunt and cousin, I do community service weekly.  Today I will be taking cousin to the grocery store.  Conscience relieved.

Procrastination Nation.  Has anyone written this book or made a movie yet?  Clearly not because I would be the star.  I make myself crazy in my clutteriness and my procrastination in attending to it.

Hence the title of this post.  I fear that the only thing that will get me to do the simple tasks at hand is some accountability.  So here is today's list-it's the same every time

bills (and clearing the kitchen table in the process), laundry, reading area near bed, knitting area near chair, yarn room floor, clothes not put away in the dog's room.

I've finished the bills and should finish the kitchen table after this post.  After taking cousin shopping I'll attend to the rooms.  I wish I could keep these maintained rather than having them always on my to do list.  Maybe I'll set a reminder on my watch for a daily check.  I fear once a clutterer, always a clutterer.

Going Green

Smoothie chronicle number two (not counting those two way early forays)

Kale, spinach, pomegranate seeds, three mini oranges, three dates and water. Poured over ice.

The pomegranate seeds in this one didn’t grind to nothingness so it’s a little seedy.p

There is enough orange not to taste too green.  No wonder I don’t like salad.  Greens taste like nothing. And yet looking at it you would think it’s yucky.  It’s not.  There’s just a hint of orange to it.

A second try with the pumpkin muffins used a little less pumpkin.  Just enough to please the dog. Baked at 400* for 18 minutes.  Now they look like this.

An entire box of dry cake mix is 1700 calories plus one can of pumpkin is 350.  Makes them about 170 calories each.  After I eat the first one I will use them as the sleepeating treat- the hardest food to conquer. I also will look into mini muffin pans and baking cups.

Tomorrow looks to be one of those send the kids to school and wIt for the roads to get bad later kind of days.  Those are the worst.