Birthday Weekend!

How cool is this?  

Unfortunately, I couldn't make "screen capture" work, so I took a picture with my phone. 

Technologically challenged? Yup. 

Yesterday was my birthday - 48!  It was a great day. I went to Ann Arbor, MI (just an hour from here) for pedicures and lunch with good friends. I don't get a pedicure often, and I'm not sure why. It was lovely. We sipped hot tea, relaxed in comfy reclining chairs, and let them massage and pamper our tired toes. After pedicures, we went to Zingerman's Roadhouse for lunch. So delicious! Warm spinach and mushroom salad...artisan cheese with bagel crisps and roasted balsamic grapes...I even had an ice cold beer.  Now I'm not usually much of a beer drinker. I prefer wine - and nothing sweet. But this was wonderful. 

I was home in time to make dinner...and decided to make Mushroom Stroganoff. Sorry, no pictures, but it was delicious.  The tradition here is for my husband to bake my cake. It is always the same - Angel Food, from scratch, with fluffy, seven minute frosting. The fun part is he usually makes a mistake and we get to laugh at the various disasters. Yup, I'm serious.  One year, he mistook tsp for tbsp, and let's just say I've never had such a salty cake in my life!  With years of practice under his belt, I think he has finally mastered the art.  Here's what's left of the cake today.  The picture doesn't do it justice - so light and airy.  Nice work!

Tricks to the perfect Angel Food cake: don't use your freshest eggs. I get better results when they are at least two weeks old. Bring them to room temperature before starting.  If you are lucky enough to have one, using a standing mixer. The egg whites need to whip a long time to get stiff.  We actually bought a standing mixer because we love Angel Food cake so much.  I don't regret it at all.  Folding in the ingredients is not the same as mixing. Folding allows you to gently combine the wet meringue with the flour/powdered sugar, without losing the air that's been whipped into the batter.  That air is what makes the cake so light and fluffy. Take your time - practice. If your first one isn't perfect, try it again.  It's so worth the effort. 

Of course, if you bake an Angel Food cake, you have a dozen egg yolks staring at you. I can't bare to throw  them out or feed them to the dogs - my hens worked hard laying those eggs! What else could I do but whip up some lemon curd? I followed Martha Stewart's recipe, which was quick and easy. The curd came out just perfect. But now I suppose I need something to put it on.  

Just for fun - here's a picture of eggs from our hens.  The palest ones are not white, but a soft greenish blue.  So pretty! No need to color eggs for Easter around here. 

And finally, my husband thinks he is really funny. Here is one of my gifts this year:

If you always wondered, "who buys this crap" when seeing such "lovely" items in the stores, well, now you know.  

Hands off ladies - he's all mine! HA HA HA HA HA!

2013 Resolutions

Interestingly, I've never made New Year's Resolutions before. I don't know why. Perhaps it has to do with setting myself up for failure.  Many people set goals, and then feel very badly when they fail. Of course, often those goals were unrealistic to begin with, so failure was a high probability.  I don't know about you, but I don't like failure.  As an adult with ADHD, I know far too much about failure to follow through (look - a bunny!) I often take on more than I can handle - get frustrated, and quit rather than completing the task below the stated goal.  It ends up becoming an all or nothing proposition. Either I achieve the goal - winning on every count - or quit, because I can't stand to put in the effort and come up short. (If I fail to meet the goal because I didn't make the effort, it's a different story.)

My intention is to try and make realistic goals, so I can actually achieve them without feeling defeated before I begin.  If I find these goals to be too much I will revise them, but for now, this is what I'm taking on for 2013:

1. Walk 30 minutes every day. 
2. Budget $100 per week for food/groceries - and stick to it. This includes eating out. It does not include dog food or chicken food. It does not include cleaning supplies.
3. Create a more structured daily schedule - and follow it.  Too often, I float through the day, not accomplishing the things I set out to do, because I'm not following a schedule. I'm hoping more structure will make me feel more productive, efficient, and effective. 
4. Crochet - 1 square a week, plus other projects. (Finish the mixed stripe blanket, etc.) 
5. Blog - once a week minimum. More is good. 
6. Read again. I miss reading for fun. I used to do it all the time. Goal - at least one hour of "extra-curricular" reading each week. Reading tied to specific work projects doesn't count.
7. De-clutter my house and my life. Remove 1 big bag of stuff each week.  It can be donated, recycled, or trashed, but it has to go. I have a terrible habit of accumulating stuff that "might be useful."  My husband and Thing One are bad about this, too.  Maybe I can get Thing Two to help..... she's ruthless about tossing things out. 
8. Garden more efficiently and effectively this summer. We didn't produce much in the way of veggies last year, and this needs to change - especially with my food budget goal in place. (I will not count the cost of gardening in my food budget.) 
9. Less television. Less Facebook and Pinterest. Not sure what goals I want to establish around this yet, but I know I want less of them in 2013.  Perhaps the parameters need to be built around accomplishing the other goals first? 
10. When I fail, don't give up. I'm sure there are days I will not walk, and weeks I will not crochet a square, throw out a bag of stuff, or stick to the food budget. It's okay; I have permission to fail - but not to give up. There is always time to start again. 

What are your goals this year?

Ready for 2013!

How did we celebrate the new year? Well, the husband went to bed before 11 p.m.  Thing One dropped Thing Two off at an overnight party around 10:30, then joined me on the couch for crochet and Star Wars. We noticed it was 2013 at 12:09 and gave our obligatory new year's greetings.  Very exciting, indeed.  I was more interested in planning my New Year's day dinner - a traditional Hoppin' John recipe - vegetarian style. This one got rave reviews from The Fam, and so I'm making a slightly altered version today using navy beans, and multi-colored peppers.

After dinner, we played cards, drank tea, and ate homemade lemon meringue pie. The pie tasted good - but wasn't one of my best, so I'm not including it here. I think I used too much lemon juice, as it just didn't set up quite right.  

Our game over the holidays has been 500.  I live with sharks. Card sharks.  In 500, you get a partner for each hand, based on whatever trump is and the card the "leader" calls.  Around here, people are willing to throw themselves into negative numbers to stop other people from winning. It made for quite an interesting game.

Here is the original, basic recipe Hoppin' John.  Use the dry beans (super cheap!) soak them overnight. Discard the soaking water and rinse. They say this reduces flatulence associated with eating beans, so I always do it. Gotta say, since we've been vegetarians, I haven't noticed much trouble with this. 

1 pound black eyed peas, pre-soaked

1 chopped onion

1 chopped bell pepper. I used yellow because that's what I had. Traditional Hoppin' John calls for green.

1 15 oz can chopped tomato with the juice. If you have fresh tomatoes, by all means use them. 

2 cups water

Spices: 2 bay leaves, 1 tsp thyme, 2 chopped garlic clove, 1 tsp chili powder, salt & pepper to taste

Dump it in the crock pot and cook all day on low, or use a covered stockpot and simmer gently for a good 4 - 6 hours. If in doubt, cook longer. This recipe benefits from a low, slow simmer. Check it periodically and add more water if needed - especially if cooking on the stove. You don't want so much water that it becomes a soup (although it would be a delicious soup). Think "stew" with enough liquid to create a gravy or sauce, rather than a broth. 

It's done when the beans are soft and tender, and you can gently mash some of them to thicken the sauce. Serve over rice. 

Feel free to adjust the spice levels to your taste. If you like a little heat - go ahead and add it. Beans are bland and rely on good seasoning for flavor.  

The Paradoxical Commandments

People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centered.

Love them anyway.

If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives.

Do good anyway.

If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies.

Succeed anyway.

The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow.

Do good anyway.

Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable.

Be honest and frank anyway.

The biggest men and women with the biggest ideas can be shot down by 

the smallest men and women with the smallest minds.

Think big anyway.

People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs.

Fight for a few underdogs anyway.

What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.

Build anyway.

People really need help but may attack you if you do help them.

Help people anyway.

Give the world the best you have and you'll get kicked in the teeth.

Give the world the best you have anyway.

© Copyright Dr. Kent M. Keith 1968, renewed 2001

Blog Envy

This weekend, I figured out how to customize the appearance of my blog a bit.  Yes, it was boring. Now, I'm quite sure it's too busy.  Before long, I'll be tired of it and change it again. Change is good. Color and chaos - GOOD! (Nine hours after publishing, and I've already changed it. Shocking!)

I spend a bit of time looking around at other blogs - following pinterest links to instructions on how to do this or that - usually driven by food or crochet projects. And yes, I'll admit it. I have Blog Envy.

Why do so many blogs out there look so darn perfect? It's like these people live in a Better Homes & Garden magazine, not in reality. The colors are balanced and beautiful, photography looks professionally done.  The projects are lovely and displayed to make them even more lovely, and the entries are well-written, amusing, entertaining, yadda yadda.  They are not the ramblings of a woman who's life is filled with organized chaos and stress.

Confession - my home, my blog, my life - will never be so beautifully organized and perfect. My photos are taken with the camera on my phone - because I don't know where the "good" camera is right now.  I have to clear away a spot on the table, the couch, or the chair to lay out my crochet and get a picture. (I work hard to get a photo that doesn't show the clutter nearby.)

We aren't hoarders, not by any stretch. I'm constantly tossing things out, donating, putting things away. But I always seem to be in the middle of a project (bulk mailing appeal letters for work, crocheting a giant blanket, handmaking holiday cards) and these projects make things look messy! The house is clean.  But the house is 85 years old, small, and lacks sufficient storage space.

And dangit - we LIVE here. There is STUFF around. There are dogs and there are kids. (Okay - the kids aren't little anymore - but anyone with college students in their life knows they are just as - or perhaps messier - than toddlers.)

The dogs: Ellie Mae, Fat Gertie, and Isabelle the Varmint, track in dirt and debris. They shed and shake that dirt everywhere. My husband spends about 2 hours a day sweeping it up. Not even kidding.

The girls come home from university and drop their things in the entrance hall.  Bags of laundry, heavily laden backpacks, shopping bags - whatever they have on hand - placed everywhere except where they belong.  It generally only lasts a few days, and then they return to school, but those days are ridiculous.

When I look at these blogs of perfection, I used to feel inadequate. But no more.

It's a snowy day - time to write!

Lately, I've been "bitten" by the Pinterest bug.  I thought StumbleUpon was the devil - until I discovered Pinterest. Holy Cow!  LOVE IT.

I've filled boards with gorgeous, colorful pictures of things I like - food, crochet projects, artsy-craftsy things I will never have time for but wish I did.  It's a dream and a nightmare all in one. (But more of a dream, for sure.)

What are the odds?

So, I'm out of town for work.  Last night, I had an informal dinner with a client before an evening business meeting.  We were chatting about work related things when her phone rang.  She looked a little embarrassed, but excused herself and took the call.  I heard something about checking temperatures, making sure "they" were comfortable.  She got off the phone and apologetically said, "That was my husband.  I just got chickens."

I almost fell over!  Needless to say, we were completely distracted from our discussion of nonprofit boards, fundraising, etc.  It was all about our chickens and comparing notes.  We both spent several years researching, chose breeds known for friendly temperaments, good egg-laying, and cold-hardiness.  We also wanted a good mixture of colorful birds and a colorful egg basket.  Not surprisingly, three out of six of  our birds were the same breeds:  two Easter Eggers and a Silverlaced Wyandotte.  

I was relieved to hear I am not the only crazy one.  Marcia admitted to sleeping with the baby monitor since her chickens moved out into the coop a few days ago.  (Her babies are four weeks old.)  My chickens are now six weeks old, but I was out in the yard at midnight, with a flashlight, checking on the girls every night during their first week in the coop.   

After sharing pictures of our babies and their coops, and having a good laugh, we got back to work. But somehow, our chickens kept sneaking back into the conversation!

Which Came First? The Chicken or the Chaos?

There are certain people in this world who wake up every day with the preformed thought, fully articulated before their eyes are halfway open (possibly carried over from some blissful and manic dream) that, "My life is pretty good, but there's way too little chaos and confusion in it; I wonder how I could change that." Still others go through the day thinking, "Wow, my life is really chaotic and disorganized.  What I'd really like to do is test the limits of my ability to cope with chaos and disorganization; I wonder how I could do that."  Whatever the time of day, this is invariably followed by, "I've gotta have three cups of coffee first; this is gonna take a lot of energy!"

At the extreme end of this hypothetical chaophilic scale (people like this often make up their own words -- like this one which is a fancy and scary word meaning 'chaos loving' -- probably because the English language, like all man made institutions, is too precise and rational) are those who think, "one farm animal in the backyard of my suburban home would be just plain boring; I need at least half a dozen."  When they were single, you can bet dollars to donuts they followed a  natural and orderly progression from there to "I need a partner who won't mess up my chaos with his own chaos [yes, these people are usually women; sorry, but it's true].  If only I could find someone who scores high on both the 'buttoned down' and 'tolerant' indices."

Happily for them, there is a yin to their yang, the maniacs who marry the type of person who wakes up every day thinking, "what kind of crazy, chaotic activities (editor's note: plural intended) can I add to my buttoned down beloved's life today?"

As you may have suspected by now, I... am just such a yin.  And Elizabeth is, well, she's the crazy chicken lady.  Yes, go ahead, it's safe.  Go ahead and call her Crazy Chicken Lady.  It's her own term of endearment.  She likes it!  How crazy is that?

Let's be honest: I, myself, would probably never have gone out of my way to ensure that every morning, when I look out my back door, I see chickens.  I never wanted four hamsters, either.  In fact, I never wanted one hamster.  Or three bunnies.  A turtle with a broken shell.  A used guinea pig.  Four frogs.  Or their crickets.  Or the tadpoles who would have become even more frogs had not one of the frogs I didn't ask for but got anyway - Scratchy (and proud of it) - hadn't been so darn vicious.  What's that, you say?  "I'll bet you had them anyway hahaha!"  Darn right I did.  I had ALL of them.  (I never asked for the three bats that found their way into my house over the years, either, but that's probably nobody's fault.  Probably.  At least they didn't stay long.)  What's next?  Bees?

So, entropy being what it is - that is pretty much its definition, "it is what it is" - and overruling such things as "conservation of energy" in the conservative, orderly hierarchy of laws in my ideally conservative, well ordered universe... I have chickens.  Not just one chicken.  Half a dozen chickens.

At least they are out of my house now.  At least they're out in the yard , where they provide an endless incentive for my three dogs to bark.  A possible side benefit is that they may scare the poor little things into a heart attack, thereby giving me an excuse to say, "Quick!  Call the pediatric bird cardiologist."  'Cause I like saying that (don't ask me why; I don't know).  That's a triumph for a "store bought eggs" kind of guy.  If you say, "dozen," I say "eggs."  If my wife overhears you (and she will, because she's always looking for new "ideas"), she will say, "chickens."  You say "chaos," I say "theory" ... and she says, "Yay!"

In fact, she overheard the title of my post and immediately blurted out - you guessed it - "CHAOS :D"