Tag Archives: thoughts

This here is the Perfectly Flawed weekly round-up, so if you missed me on Pinterest & Facebook, this is where I’ll be sharing some of that LOVE on Fridays. Enjoy!

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Natural Egg Dying, Factory Farming & OWL Love!

This week has been totally BLAH in the food department.  I did manage to make butter though, we were out.

We welcomed in Spring this week:-). I wish it felt like spring here, it feels like the first week of summer instead, Boooooo. Preparing for a long, hot one.

Spring - Cornelia, Italy 2010

Collecting kitty & owl love on Pinterest! Check out some new cuties here, here, here & here:-).

Continuing my passion for Natural Living here are two natural ways to dye Easter Eggs this year. ONE, the “I want to go natural but have limited time” way and the “I will devote a Saturday or Sunday to dying naturally” way, lol. Enjoy either way!

I’ll leave you with a couple of thought provoking articles that are near & dear to my heart! This ONE is about legalizing the reuse of jars in our grocery stores for bulk items. It’s not new news that throwing away glass & plastic containers is a HUGE pet peeve of mine, I have many others. But, I see no reason to do this when there are so many ways to put them to use. Please read, some very good information here.

And THIS ONE about how much you should tell your kids about Factory Farming. Would love feed back people:-).

Peace!

I’m chomping at the bit to write about a couple of things today, but Fadra’s prompt is, “How do you feel about where you live?”, and I have opinions about this too, so here we go.

My family moved to Florida when I was four. Aside from a short stint, 18 months, in Las Vegas with my husband, I’ve lived here since then. There are a lot of things to love about Florida, the beautiful beaches, flip flops all year, we don’t have to shovel snow or scrape ice off our car windows. For me though, I’ve never gotten used to the humidity at the levels we have. I soooo dread the summers, this one more than others as we’ve had NO winter this year and we hit 86 today, UGH. When we lived in Vegas, even when it was in the 90′s I could handle it because of the low humidity levels, you could go into the shade to escape, you can’t here. There are some who love the warm, wet blanket that wraps their body as they step outside four to six months out of the year, not me.

A couple of years ago we were set on moving to Colorado, the mountains, we love mountains, mountain lakes, streams, etc. That didn’t work out, still here, we found a wonderful house in East Bradenton on seven acres. We’re surrounded by old Florida, lots of beautiful oak tress dripping with moss, they’re lovely when the sun shines through. It’s so quiet out here and our neighbors are organic dairy farmers/ranchers. Such a great addition to our already natural lifestyle. This is our compromise until it’s the right time to say goodbye to Florida.

Ultimately for me, home is where my husband, two children & our furry babies are, on the road, here, anywhere, as long as we’re together.

Times Up!
This has been my Sunday 5 minute Stream of Consciousness.

Want to try it? Here are the rules…

* Set a timer and write for 5 minutes only.
* Write an intro to the post if you want but don’t edit the post. No proofreading or spellchecking. This is writing in the raw.
* Publish it somewhere. Anywhere. The back door to your blog if you want. But make it accessible.
* Add the Stream of Consciousness Sunday badge to your post.
* Link up your post at all.things.fadra.
* Visit your fellow bloggers and show some love.

This is the first of many a weekly round-up, so if you missed me on Pinterest & Facebook, this is where I’ll be sharing some of that LOVE on Fridays. Enjoy!

Kombucha, GMO’s & Jamie Oliver, OH MY!

I’ve been on kinda an Asian cooking kick lately so find some of those recipes here & here.

This week our reusable straws from Strawsome and my Shampoo bars from Chagrin Valley Soaps arrived. All in the name of eliminating plastic. We’re on our way!

I finally began my windowsill sprouts!  I’m on day two, so no sprouts yet but I’m documenting the growth daily. I’m sure it’ll be a future blog post, ha.

A few things on my to make/learn list are 1) butter, home-made using the cream from my neighbor, The Dam Ranch. 2) this amazing looking coconut/vanilla frozen yogurt and how to brew my own Kombucha Tea, buying this stuff is getting pricey!

I called my local senators and representatives for the first time this week. I asked them to please put their name on a letter that was drafted to the FDA to support the labeling of GMO’s. Don’t know what those are or why you should know? Click here & here.

Have you ever checked out Jamie Oliver’s Recipe Yearbooks?  I guess it’s a recap of recipes from throughout the year. I have the 2011/2012 yearbook and love it! (I found it a local Fresh Market Grocery, but can’t seem to locate the new one on-line, only previous years. Feeling lucky to have it at this point!

To wrap it up a new blog I’ve spent more time on this week are 1) Delicious Obsessions (which led me to make this yummy coconut/avocado smoothie) and 2) Cheeseslave.

Carmello wanted to make an apperance:-), my ham!

Peace!

Murdock and Amelia - The lovebirds:-)

Matilda

Warning…. This is a rant, a rage and will be negative in tone at times as well as endearing!

It may just be the phases of grief, I’m in denial, deeply upset, emotional and have an incredible amount of anger built up over the probable loss of our kitty Matilda. This is where some reading this will stop and say “Oh good grief about a cat again?”  YES it is. See, I’m one of those that has deep feelings towards my pets, and though I’ve always known that not all people share these feelings, living out here in the country I’m surrounded by more people now who see animals as a means to an end, a way of life, as working animals, not as creatures that can give and receive real love. It’s not hard for me to understand how they come to feel this way but I wish some understanding was allowed for the way I feel about them too. Matilda has been gone for six nights now, living out here with the coyotes (of which I haven’t seen or heard yet, but I’m told are here), the bald eagles (which DO on a regular basis swoop in and take whole chickens from our farm neighbors yard), and other predators, the likeliness of her coming home is slim. This compounded with just having put down our Amelia, of 13 years, only five weeks ago, and then our Murdock (16, our first kitten together before we were married and mama’s boy) lost his battle with cancer yesterday, I’m at my limit, to say the least!  This has been an incredibly difficult week for the family. Matilda is three, she was the kids first kitten.   Addy picked her out at Pet Pal Animal Shelter. Then her name was Heather,  she would let Addy carry her around endlessly and would lick Addy’s hands and face.  Her hair like a bunnies, so soft and this dark black chin strap marking that reminded me of the penguin. She was our kitty with Catittude, was really good at giving the”F-you” or “WTF do you want?” glare and then at night she’d curl up in whichever lap was available and fall into a deep sleep, totally content, peaceful.  But she was a free spirit and craved the outdoors, she started missing a meal hear and there to prolong her time outside. We were gifted with a squirrel, a bird and a lizard in just the short time we’ve been living here.  Always so proud of herself.  We fought over what to do with the cats when we moved, knowing the possible consequences of allowing them to go outside, knowing about the dangers that linger just pass the fence line and some within.  We decided it wasn’t right to keep them locked up if they so badly wanted to be free,  that  we’d have to be ok with our choice.  But I can’t scream loudly enough that even though we made that decision it absolutely DOES NOT make this any easier, in fact, with a personality like mine, I just go through the guilt of not doing my job of protecting her. Oh yes I do. I will at times blame myself for this, so I don’t need anyone judging me for letting her explore, though they will, have, and in lack of knowing what to say have judged out loud.  I know they meant no harm, but seriously, I’ll beat myself up enough.  I  stare out the windows see her in the shadows, I hope to see her just walk up suddenly, see her head staring at me to let her in, like she did.  God how I miss her face!! I’m not sleeping, I cry all the time, I’m literally sick about it! The sadness of missing her is hanging over the family like a thick fog.  If she’s not home by Sunday we’ve decided to have a small family service for her by the fire pit just to bring some closure, to begin the healing process.  We can think positive and say maybe another family took her in, I’d like the kids to think so anyway.  I know, like our neighbor said so bluntly “Oh, you’ll never see that cat again”.  Only I’ll keep hoping we will.

I just want those that don’t share mine and so many others deep love and emotion for our beloved pets to know that there are those who do have these feelings and to us losses like this are tremendous, can be debilitating, are not funny or easily dismissed. We take it like a loss of a family member because that’s what they are to us, I know, silly?  Not to people like me. Please, please try to respect our grief as we respect what animals are to you.

I’m just terribly missing my kitties!

Me, Jenner Beach February 2011

My mind is eternally busy, always chatting away, driving my physical self pazzo!  My ego, as Deepok Chopra calls it, is a nuisance, always yapping about something, having this internal conversation that I wish sometimes would just go away.  I really want to, and believe that I need to learn to shut it all off, to just BE!  In the moment! Learn to meditate, be comfortable with myself, etc. I think this is so important, yet I’m always looking ahead, what’s next.  My God, like life isn’t short enough as it is.

Do you have chatter? Lot’s of it?

Things I’m going to do about it?  One, I purchased a workshop called Digging Deep, the course is written by Tara Wagner, a woman who’s blogs I’ve followed for quite some time now & whom I believe in.  I’ve also booked a three-day trip to Big Sur leading up to my big 40th b-day bash in Northern California this February.  I’ve extended my trip to give me three days alone in Big Sur at a wonderful hike-in house in the trees.  It’s called the Rainbow House.  You should take a peek, it’s amazing and I’m hoping it will give me some time for a bit of self-discovery & reflection.

Until then I’ll working on taming my gremlins:-).

Peace!

I know this week is an exception with all the going through closets and organizing to get ready for the Yard Sale we had yesterday, but really, can’t we find an exception any week? Let’s take this week coming up for example. I’ll be working on my orders, playdate Monday, Clearwater Aquarium Tuesday, and other such activities the rest of the week along with needing to begin boxing for our move.

What am I talking about? Meal Planning! The fact that I’m awful at it. I get going good for a few DAYS, not weeks and then it fizzles. UGH. I do have Monday/Tuesday under control for this week, but it’s my typical chicken fall back. Roast one day with veggie sides and use leftover chicken pulled from bone in a chicken/pasta ragu (which is great I might add) the next evening. I so want to get better at this and I’ve tried people, I really have. And I’ll keep trying, that’s really all I can do. Maybe sometime in the future the good DAYS will turn into weeks?

Times Up!

This has been my Sunday 5 minute Stream of Consciousness. Brought to you by all. things. fadra.

Want to try it? Here are the rules…

* Set a timer and write for 5 minutes only.
* Write an intro to the post if you want but don’t edit the post. No proofreading or spellchecking. This is writing in the raw.
* Publish it somewhere. Anywhere. The back door to your blog if you want. But make it accessible.
* Add the Stream of Consciousness Sunday badge to your post.
* Link up your post at all. things. fadra.
* Visit your fellow bloggers and show some love.

So, it’s occured to me that  a week from yesterday is our HUGE garage sale.  The one that’s supposed to rid of us of all our STUFF so we aren’t bringing it into our new home.  I’m freaking out a tiny bit.  Tomorrow we also start home-schooling and I have quite a bit of work to do with my photography clients this week as well.  Holy poo!  So today I’ve begun tearing through cabinets, about to hit the closets.  So scared to go into those, OMGoodness, what a mess of cra*!  LOL.  On the other side of this is total bliss, the relief of knowing that we’ve been cleansed of so much STUFF.  It’ll feel sooooo great to know that we’re making a new start with less, I can’t wait.  We begin moving in Labor Day weekend with the truck coming on the 17th to finish it off, Hooray!!  Only a month & then we’ll be unpacking, organizing, starting a new rural life.

Times Up!

This has been my Sunday 5 minute Stream of Consciousness.  Brought to you by all. things. fadra.

Want to try it? Here are the rules…

* Set a timer and write for 5 minutes only.
* Write an intro to the post if you want but don’t edit the post. No proofreading or spellchecking. This is writing in the raw.
* Publish it somewhere. Anywhere. The back door to your blog if you want. But make it accessible.
* Add the Stream of Consciousness Sunday badge to your post.
* Link up your post at all. things. fadra.
* Visit your fellow bloggers and show some love.

I’m watching my family gather and take the recycling to the curb. I’m so happy that my kids are excited and on-board with my saving the planet fanatics.  We have just begun a small compost bin in the backyard.  I wanted to begin to be ahead of the game once we move into the new house in a month, I’m going to need some nutritious yumminess for the fruit and vegetable garden I have planned to start.  The kids are so eager to throw the egg shells and fruit and veggie peels in the bucket.

I love that part of homeschooling, which begins in a week, will focus on how we can better take care of this beautiful planet and make it better for generations to come.  We will be visiting local farms, hydroponic and dairy too!  There is one only 13 minutes from the new house called Hunsader Farms, the one we used to visit when the kids were younger.  We’d go to their festival in October, it was over 45 min away then.

This was my 5 minute Stream of Consciousness Sunday post. It’s five minutes of your time and a brain dump. Want to try it? Here are the rules…

* Set a timer and write for 5 minutes only.
* Write an intro to the post if you want but don’t edit the post. No proofreading or spellchecking. This is writing in the raw.
* Publish it somewhere. Anywhere. The back door to your blog if you want. But make it accessible.
* Add the Stream of Consciousness Sunday badge to your post.
* Link up your post at all.things.fadra.
* Visit your fellow bloggers and show some love.

P.S. One of my faves is Good Girl Gone Green!