All this dog wants to do is get that bird. That’s is all. And she whines in the most pitiful way.
Must.Shake.Bird.
Archive for 2012|Yearly archive page
Button
In Big time stuff, The little roomies, They're... family? on May 18, 2012 at 5:28 pm
There’s a new addition to the family today! My girl CC went and got herself a parrotlet and named it Button.
Right now she is settling into her new surroundings, but I see her being a great pet. When we tried to put her in her cage, she flew right back out to be with CC (even though her wings were clipped just this afternoon…??). It’s a good sign, and of course the girl isn’t complaining, considering we were supposed to let the bird settle in for a few days before trying to handle it.
Should be a wild ride!
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I went to the library again
In Punishment for what?, Self-deprecating humor, Serious Fun on May 16, 2012 at 3:40 pm
Today I picked up the book A Million Miles in a Thousand Years by Donald Miller. I knew nothing about it but saw a recommendation somewhere a while back, and put a hold on it with the library. Afterwards, I promptly forgot about it. When they called to let me know it was ready for pickup, it was sort of like a little unexpected surprise present came in the mail.
While I waited for my daughter to get out of school, I spread out my blanket (which I always keep in the back of my car for this exact reason), grabbed my water bottle and laid down to read under the huge old oak tree. I got about three chapters in, and I have nothing but praise for the book so far.
It was at this point that giant black ants started jumping kanakazi style out of that big old oak tree I am so fond of. They landed on my book, on my blanket, on.my.person.
There was flailing. And I’m pretty sure also lots of judgment from the smart moms who read their books in the safe confine of the inside of their car with the air conditioning ON!
Decidedly not book smart, but obviously very punny. Yea, I went there.
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Success
In Healthy shmealthy, Stick a fork in it! on May 10, 2012 at 1:31 pm
Today my lunch (so far) consists of a cup of bone broth and a crusty heel with pasture butter.
I am surprised at how mildly flavored the broth is, and I have to admit its going to take some getting used to if I plan to drink it regularly. I have this thing; I don’t like drinks that taste watered down. I added a pinch of salt to try to up the flavor punch just a tad, but it didn’t really put it into the “hey this is pretty great!” arena. I didn’t want to add as much salt as it would have required to get it there. I’ve heard that you have to try something seven times before you acquire a taste for it, so hopefully it’ll go from ‘meh’ to ‘yay!’ eventually. I remember feeling the same ambivalence about kombucha at the beginning, and here I am craving it and brewing my own now. A girl can have hope.
For cooking purposes I think this stock will be fantastic. I was actually considering making an ox tail recipe again, just to taste the difference using this stock as opposed to the vegan broth I used the last time.
The butter bell was a home run, as expected. It’s already been filled, used, and refilled. Everyone in the family loves having room temperature butter at the ready. Such a minor convenience, but I’ll take one mini success at a time if I have to.
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The real deal
In Healthy shmealthy, Stick a fork in it! on May 7, 2012 at 2:53 pm
Meet my new baby. If it were open I’m sure you would recognize that this is a butter bell. I have been considering/meaning to buy/pining over/searching the internet for just the right butter bell for longer than I care to admit, really. It is one small step in my master plan.
*insert maniacal laugh*
We actually quit buying margarine and butter substitutes a couple of months ago. It has been more difficult picking out a butter bell than it was making the switch to real butter!
The bell is currently filled with a grass fed cow but commercially produced butter. Once I get my raw milk provider situation figured out, I will make butter of my own.
Stay tuned!
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I finally start
In Healthy shmealthy, Nothing to it but to do it, Stick a fork in it! on May 6, 2012 at 9:28 pmYesterday I was FINALLY ready to go to the butcher and get the ingredients I needed to make my first batch of bone broth. Seriously, it has taken me forever to get to this point, because I needed to read and re-read and understand why I would suddenly start to embrace all of these foods and practices that my whole life my nose had been trained to scrunch up at in disgust.
Unfortunately, I discovered that the butcher I was going to had changed their practices in the time I had spent mulling it all over. Now they no longer advertise a grass fed beef program, they switched to a NatureSource Natural Angus program. Admittedly it is probably a world better than what I would get at any chain grocery store, just in the fact that it’s beef guaranteed to be vegetarian fed, but all of the beef now has a minimum 120 day finishing on corn. I literally shed tears of frustration.
Just as an aside, is it not disgusting that non-human-consumable animal parts are incorporated back into the feed of animals grown for slaughter?
Still, I called the butcher to see if they had the parts I needed for this broth. They had only one of the four parts I was looking for.
Let’s just get this out of the way, these were the suggested parts: marrow bones, knuckle bones, neck bones or rib bones, calf foot.
At this point I needed to decide if it would still be beneficial to make the broth if I had to use standard issue grain fed cow parts purchased at the grocery stores available to me. I still don’t know the answer to that question, truly. I decided to go ahead with the project anyhow, and I spent my Saturday on a goose chase trying to find the best quality available to me. I checked a really large Asian market, because I had seen that bone broth was a huge part of Korean cooking. I thought that there was a chance they might carry some of the things I was looking for that seemed less common and/or harder to find. I couldn’t read much of the packaging, and left empty handed. Whole foods was next. Their meat counter has a rating system on the meats, so it was an easy choice. Unfortunately they didn’t have everything either, and the items they did have weren’t rated because they were in the freezer rather than the fresh meat counter. I took a chance that they were still better than the everyday average products found at the big chain stores. Finally I went to a local grocery store that I had noticed sold “different” products in the past. BINGO!! I got my last couple of items. Not grain fed, not organic; available was my only criteria at this point. I never in my life would have imagined that a calf foot was easier to find than knuckle bones.
The best part of all of this went down at the last store. I had to ask for the neck bones at the counter because I didn’t see them. The man came out and grabbed a couple off of the shelf to show me. I stood there looking at them in a stupor, and he said to me “I don’t know which one you want…. they’re for your dog, right?” to which of course I answered ‘uhhhhhh, yea. my dog. yep.’ I’m such a dope sometimes.
The stock simmering in my oven gives new meaning to the expression “put a foot in it.”
Anyone who can answer whether using standard-issue non pasture raised beef parts in my stock is going to be detrimental rather than beneficial, please comment. I’d love it if you could either put my mind at ease, or let me know not to waste my time on this again unless I can find pasture raised parts.
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All is well
In Big time stuff, Healthy shmealthy, Serious Fun, The dog on April 29, 2012 at 6:14 pmAt the end of last week I realized that my Dr. had told me to expect a call in “about a week” with my follow-up test results and I hadn’t heard anything. I tried not to think about it too much because really I didn’t want to call them and appear to be a total freak who doesn’t understand the concept of “don’t call us, we’ll call YOU.” I also didn’t want to risk ruining what I expected to be a pretty good weekend in Madison. I pushed it out of my mind, because test results or not, I could just as easily ruin the trip with worry as I could with the wrong answer from the doctor.
The tournament was fun to watch. Ultimate frisbee is fast and furious if nothing else. The weather was miserable to experience, low temperatures and rain. My shaky, shivery dog will attest to that – the shaky, shivery dog who barks incessantly when left alone in a dry and heated hotel room, that is. This weekend was really my first experience bonding with other sports parents. Miserable conditions will bring people together, apparently. Beer at dinner may play a part in that as well. My husband is my favorite accessory in social situations, because he is outgoing and funny, and he breaks the ice while I observe and consider and wonder about everything going on around me. It’s kind of cool the way we’re balanced.
I took tons of pictures which are still trapped in my camera. I don’t want to try to upload them until the current photos on the computer are backed up to our external hard drive (most already are, only the more recent uploads aren’t backed up yet), just in case. I am stop-loss paranoid, and therefore assume that the computer will crash at any moment (even though it’s a Mac, some habits die hard). I am also worried about the backup drive crapping out, and plan to get a 2nd backup for the backup. Does that make sense? Our external is NOT an Apple product and I (and the hubby) just don’t have much confidence in anything else anymore, really. Maybe I’m brand brainwashed.
When we got home Sunday and brought in the Saturday mail, there was a letter from my Dr.’s office. My test results were NEGATIVE (!!!), and although I have to go back in 6 months for another re-test, it was quite a relief. I don’t like hearing a doctor say the C word multiple times prior to a re-test for anything, honestly, and it made the waiting extra nerve-wracking. This coming from a Nervous Nelly as it is. So once again a scare, followed by an all-OK. This is turning into a pattern that I don’t really enjoy so much. My one complaint, even in the glow of a good test result, is that the Dr. could have called me in a week as promised (which would have been on Thursday) and saved me four days of fretting. I’m so over this.
Along that line, I have a new book in the pocket of my car door (which is the equivalent to the night-stand for normal people). Creative Visualization by Shakti Gawain. Already 110 pages in, I really like it. I think it will be helpful in making my path. Give it a go, if you’re so inclined. You have to commit to keeping an open mind, but what use is a closed mind to you anyhow?
Road trip
In Big time stuff, Serious Fun on April 27, 2012 at 9:43 pm
It’s on. FYI, my driver isn’t even watching where he’s going.
Heavy backpack, baby
In Nothing to it but to do it, The then and the now on April 25, 2012 at 6:41 amLast night my daughter didn’t want to go to bed *AGAIN* because she is reading The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. Maybe you’ve heard of it? Sorry… just a little box office smash hit movie humor. We haven’t seen it, but she got the book as a birthday present, and she’s pretty into it. She is also reading Redwall by Brian Jacques and Gary Chalk, which she classifies as “excellent.” She couldn’t wait to get home and read today after school. I told her that I used to be just like her when I was a girl, only worse. She couldn’t imagine it, so I spun a tale of a childhood in the same house on the same street without any decent kids to play with anywhere around (aside from my siblings, of course). All I did was read. She has soccer and flute and all sorts of friends and interests aside from reading. I read inside, and when I was sent outside, I read outside too. My daughter did get a little miffed when I admitted that I did have one other thing that I loved – horseback riding, which she loves too. I don’t know how my parents could afford the lessons, but unfortunately we just can’t. It’s something I feel pretty badly about. Girlfriend can read about horses all she wants.
There was a LOOOOOOOONG stretch after my son (and then my daughter) was born that I didn’t read. Fatigue, time constraints, higher priorities all played a role, but I also developed some physical problems that were working against me as well. My eyes started to dart all over the page when I would read, and it became very difficult (if not impossible) for me to concentrate and read an entire line, let alone an entire page of text. I think maybe it was one of the first problems I started to have in my mile long list of changes which turned me from happy, healthy B to who I am now. I joked that I had developed adult onset ADD (which I realize isn’t a joke, or even remotely funny to a lot of people), but in reality that was the best description of the problems I was having. There were also some pesky sparkles, and the fact that my eyesight was already less than perfect and I still suffered from some degree of lazy eye even after my childhood surgery to correct the problem.
Do not give me a hard time and tell me to see an eye doctor, I swear…. I realize what a mess I sound like.
Anyhow, it was a lot of trouble to read in those days, and no trouble at all to close my eyes and sleep. Of course it was an easy decision. Who has time for hobbies of leisure, anyhow, when there are littles to raise up? I told myself that it wasn’t a big deal. I didn’t tell my husband of my symptoms for years.
Since I’ve been on my vitamin regimen, eating differently, and getting more sleep… I’ve also found that I have been able to actually read again, too. My crazy darting eyes have been greatly improved, and the sparkling (although kinda nifty in a fireworks everyday *yay!* type way if you’re in denial) has been greatly decreased. The wandering eye… well, that will forever be something you can look for when I’ve stayed up too long or had way too much to drink. We’ll call it a party trick. My poor vision? I have no answer for that one, I realize I need glasses. Glass have full here, people! Avert your eyes from the bad stuff, K?
So long story short, I’ve been reading again. Squinty eyed reading with the book way too close to my face, probably, but reading. And it’s glorious.
Today I finished bloom by Kelle Hampton. It was really sad but also eye opening and inspiring, even. I am STILL reading the introduction in my Nourishing Traditions cookbook by Sally Fallon, but that’s just because I am trying to retain all of the information. Also, I just got word today that my hold on The Autoimmune Epidemic by Donna Jackson Nakazawa has finally paid off at the library and it’s waiting for my pickup. The Help is waiting patiently on my bedside. I have a stack of books on my piano that I purchased at Goodwill just in case I have some free time.
Minus the horses, I’m worse. Much, much worse. And I’m glad my girl got it, too.
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Monday again?
In Badass Ideas, Punishment for what?, The little roomies on April 23, 2012 at 7:40 pmAs grandma said, don’t wish your life away. Boy, it sure is hard sometimes, when the weekend flies on by and Monday lasts forever. The weeks seem to just crawl lately.
Most recent f-up: I thought we were supposed to go to Madison this past weekend for an Ultimate Frisbee tournament that my son’s high school team is participating in. It wasn’t until Wednesday that it finally clicked in my head that the date of the tournament and the date of the weekend WE planned to go weren’t the same. I immediately called my husband in a panic to have the hotel reservations changed (which was met with some “raised voice” response which ordinary people refer to as YELLING, and a moderate amount of swearing, and in my modest opinion, a rather accusatory line of questioning about how this happened). I understand that reservations made through Priceline are non refundable and non negotiable. Bummer. Two minutes later I got a callback (with no yelling at all) to tell me that the reservations were actually made for the correct weekend, which would have been the incorrect weekend if anyone had been listening to me in the first place. It was absent an apology. Somehow everything righted itself in a completely wack comedy of errors. Needless to say, we’re going to Madison this coming weekend and we will have a place to stay.
My husband has reserved two lenses for my big-girl camera for the weekend, as well! Really, he made a reservation for last weekend, but they have gracefully allowed for a date change, since he didn’t reserve them through Priceline. I haven’t seen them, but I believe he got me a zoom lens (70-200mm) and also a fish eye lens (8-15mm). I’m told the fish eye can take a 180 degree shot at 8mm. We plan on having fun playing with that one, for sure.
First though, we have to get through this week. The little one is hoping to have a new cast for the weekend, maybe below the elbow if she’s truly lucky. The boy has some ACT prep testing, a free day anticipated to be filled with golf (sounds rough, right?), and some tough Ultimate games in Naperville on Thursday . The hubby and I have to work like jerks, as usual. Plus packing. Mini dog is joining us, not like she’d be any help watching over the house anyhow.
I have to hire out for EVERYTHING!
