Month: August 2011 (Page 2 of 3)

Philosophy Friday: Rest.

August 19, 2011 / Lindsey / 1 Comment

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Sometimes the most urgent & vital thing you can possibly do is take a complete rest.

-Ashleigh Brilliant

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Gratitude Sunday * August 14, 2011

August 14, 2011 / Lindsey / 1 Comment

Sunday’s a good day to remember what we’ve been grateful for over the past week, don’t you think? I’m joining Taryn over at Wooly Moss Roots in her Gratitude Sunday tradition, and here’s my list:

– A Monday morning bath… oh heaven, heaven.

– Laughter and how it’s like an instant happy pill.

– How much my Hubby makes me laugh — and just melts my heart in general — on a daily basis!!

– Reading a funny book. The books I love to read are all nonfiction that I can learn something from, and I recently borrowed a library book called The Wild Life: A Year of Living on Wild Food by John Lewis-Stempel. It was nonfiction and very interesting, and also happened to be really funny. I’d forgotten what a treat it is to read a funny book — I think the last one was back in 2004 when I read Round Ireland With a Fridge by Tony Hawks during lunches in the dining hall of my dorm — it was hilarious, and almost the only enjoyable part of that one-semester University experience!

– Interlibrary loan!

– Finding a local source for pastured chicken (for Colorado folks, it’s Cottonwood Creek Farms).

– Going to the farmer’s market again and getting 6 fragrant & delicious organic French melons and two 5-lb pastured chickens for $15 apiece. $3/lb is incredible for local pastured chicken, compared to Whole Foods who robs you at the rate of $6.99/lb for non-organic, non-free-range, non-local, non-pastured chicken parts! I’m so glad we’ve found the Cottonwood Creek folks!

Hubby's lunch today -- organic French melon filled with grassfed cottage cheese!

– Garden work done, errands done, getting lots of loose ends taken care of around the house.

– Eating our garden produce! Especially those cucumbers…

– Raspberries. I could live on raspberries alone.

– The evening sun streaming into our apartment through the west windows. It’s my favorite time of day in this place…so warm and inviting.

– Having so much less stress in my life! Priceless.

– Not having the energy for cooking to be my creative outlet yesterday, so instead, making this:

– Getting a dreaded doctor appointment over with. My primary doctor referred me to a neurologist, so I went there on Thursday. I hate doctor appointments, especially with someone new I’ve never met because I don’t know what to expect. I don’t particularly enjoy discussing the details of my health with a total stranger — who may or may not even be listening — and feeling like I’m on stage, trying to say my lines as fast as I can before the light goes red. And I usually walk out only to realize I’ve forgotten to tell them something important! And because of a previous awful experience with a doctor who treated me incredibly badly, this appointment had really been hanging over me. I took lots of flower remedies, grounded myself, asked for ‘help’ in getting through it, wrote my symptoms on a 3×5 card so I wouldn’t forget anything, and made sure to put my energy very much on guard just in case. And as it turned out, I didn’t even need to do all of that — the nurses couldn’t have been any nicer, and the doctor was very good and listened with his full attention to what I was saying, and asked if he could keep the 3×5 card. I was so relieved when I left, that I’d been heard and respected, and very glad to have gotten that dang appointment over with. The doctor ordered MRI scans of my brain and spinal cord, and I’ll get those Thursday. I hope I get to peek at them; to think…what magic we have now, to be able to see the innards of your own brain on a computer screen!

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What blessings have you appreciated throughout your week? Leave a comment!

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Farmer’s Market Finds

August 13, 2011 / Lindsey / 0 Comments

I went to the farmer’s market earlier this week and got some nice stuff! I’ve long ago written off the farmer’s market because a.) despite the name, there are hardly any actual farmers there — mostly it’s prepared food and other things I don’t need, b.) it’s usually a mob scene and I really have to be in the right mood to go, otherwise I get grouchy dodging enormous strollers and having people reach over me as I pick my produce, c.) the prices are often even more expensive than getting my organic produce at the grocery store, and the grocery store is so much calmer, and d.) I get flustered paying the vendors because it’s usually a variation of the same scene, where they wait impatiently while I balance my wallet on a mound of peaches and dig for one dollar bills while having my change spill into the crevices between the fruit.

So it’s unusual that I went in the first place, but I was trying to hunt down some really small cucumbers to make my Hubby a new batch of Bubbies pickles. And I found them! Organic, for $2 a pound. I also got some nice spray-free Colorado Palisade peaches, organic parsley, organic raspberries & blueberries, freshly roasted still-warm Hatch chiles (oh yessss it’s chile season!!!), and my most exciting purchase of all…pastured chicken feet for making stock!!! I’ve been wanting to find a local source for pastured chicken; we get pastured eggs from a lady at my former employer (I still go there for eggs & contract work…in that order), but pastured chicken I had yet to find until this week. I was really excited! And pastured chicken feet! I realize how non-normal it sounds that chicken feet were the highlight of my day. But if you own a copy of the Nourishing Traditions cookbook, turn to page 124 and read through the Chicken Stock recipe, where it says “By all means, use chicken feet if you can find them — they are full of gelatin. (Jewish folklore considers the addition of chicken feet the secret to successful broth.).”

And the stock turned out great! I’ll write more about it soon! (Edit: Click here to read more.)

In the mean time, have a wonderful evening and see you tomorrow for Gratitude Sunday~

In My Garden This Week

August 10, 2011 / Lindsey / 6 Comments

I spent a really lovely, though exhausting, day working hard in my garden yesterday. 93 degrees and burning sun! I really shouldn’t work out in the midday heat on days like that, and it reminded me what an indoor season the Summertime can be, unfortunately… which is probably why I prefer Autumn! But it’s summer and it’s supposed to be hot, and that was OK. I was really glad just to be outside in my beloved garden!

I harvested potatoes, jalapeños, a couple tomatoes, some herbs, cucumbers, lots of kale, some garlic, and all the onions. Almost 90 yellow onions from an area 3’x4′! Then I weeded some, added more mulch, and fertilized everything. Shew! I was so tired! I stayed for dinner (my mom made it — delicious!), and well into the evening…visiting with my parents and basking in the very balmy summer night…then rode my bike home. I love those peaceful night rides (and don’t worry, I have a really good strobe headlight…and three blinking tail lights…and a reflective triangle on my backpack….and reflective tape on each and every wheel spoke…and…yeeeaahhh…).