Month: November 2011 (Page 2 of 3)

Gratitude Sunday * November 13, 2011

November 13, 2011 / Lindsey / 4 Comments

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:

– Purging a drawer of clothes — I was surprised at how much I gave away, and it felt fantastic!! Now I just need to get to the thrift store to get a couple new staples; looking forward to some new things in my wardrobe! I hate clothes shopping and have been wearing the same things for so long… it’ll be fun to see some new stuff.

– Feeling a little more caught up; I hate feeling so sick and yet knowing there are mountains of things waiting to be done. Feeling like I’ve got a better handle on moneymaking work, household stuff, and projects makes me very happy.

– Getting out and about more this week; making it a priority. Being extra attuned to my mood and getting out of the apartment when I begin to feel that sinking, trapped feeling. Even if I don’t feel well physically, and have to ‘pay for it’ later, it’s worth it for my mental health and spirit. And when our spirits are strong, we heal better.

– A better week, physically. Still mega sick, but not that awful, crushing fatigue of last week.

– Doing some wonderfully normal things this week! Like going to a play with my dad and my Hubby (mom was out of town) — that was SO fun, just the three of us! I loved it. And going to a holiday boutique with my mom and meeting Hubby for lunch one day. Doing normal stuff is such a spirit-lifter!

– My mom making a special trip to our apartment to pick me up one afternoon and take me to their house so I could lie outside in the sunshine. I was very very unwell, and sinking fast and feeling trapped; that trip to their house was the perfect thing. I am so lucky to have the support around me that I do; I never realized what a “support system” was, exactly, or how important it is. Actually, how essential it is.

– Lying outside that afternoon, in their yard in the sun, on the earth next to my gardens. Watching the warm wind whipping leaves off the trees and carrying them through the air like confetti.

– Getting my moneymaking work done on Monday so that I had the rest of the week free. I love when I don’t procrastinate!

– Youtube! I’m so grateful for Youtube. To learn a new skill, I no longer need to search out a local class, sign up for it, pay for it, wait a month or two for it to occur, hope it doesn’t get cancelled due to low enrollment, and then after the class forget what exactly it was that the teacher said. I no longer have to go to the library, hoping they have a book to walk me through the process…finding out they don’t, then putting one on hold and waiting for it to arrive, and then try to make sense of the poorly written instructions. With Youtube, I can now learn pretty much any new skill I can think of, at any hour, right in my living room, for free! I can replay the video as many times as I need to…pausing when I need to…in order to learn it fully. And in a couple weeks’ time, when I forget exactly how it went, I can watch the video again! What an incredible invention. I really appreciated it this week; and the internet in general.

– Watching some TED talks one evening with Hubby, then watching a beautiful BBC program about artic wildlife. It was fun to just vege out and be entertained.

– A great bikeride with Hubby yesterday. Such pretty weather, and we rode to our favorite health food store that we haven’t been to in quite a while. It felt good to be out riding together.

– Lots of laughter in our house!

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What blessings have you appreciated throughout your week? Leave a comment and let us know!

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A Peaceful Place

November 10, 2011 / Lindsey / 5 Comments

When Trish over at Soul Soup Sister wrote about her parents’ house and how peaceful it is and how it has an abundance of good energy and is a good place to just sit quietly, I could totally relate! I love my parents’ house for all the same reasons. When I ride my bike across a main thoroughfare into their neighborhood, I notice that I breathe out a big sigh. It’s a quieter, safer, and much less congested neighborhood. A much calmer atmosphere. We have a lovely little apartment of course — it’s a space of love and laughter, it has good energy, and it has lots of character and beautiful stained glass windows and vaulted ceilings. However the neighborhood is congested and noisy, we have people living below us, I feel disconnected from nature and the earth, and even if I did have my own yard, I wouldn’t feel totally safe and at ease sitting in it (the neighborhood being what it is). And when I don’t leave this place for days at a time — held prisoner by this illness — our sweet apartment begins to feel like my cell.

So it feels really good to go to their house…where my cat lives…where my gardens are….where the piano is…a house which is sometimes so quiet that my ears ring…which has a safe & private yard…and just be in peace. I feel extremely lucky to have their house as another option for days when I need to get outta here, or be outside, but don’t feel well enough to be out and about in the world. It feels like a healing respite. There’s lots of quietude and good energy.

I went over there Tuesday — my cat was the only one home. She took a nap in the sunshine on the warm straw in the garden while I puttered around and collected the last of the parsley, calendula, and queen anne’s lace seeds, and then had some tea. Later we took a nap, cuddled up together under a blanket on the couch. My cat is so great. We are so in tune with each other. She’s so good at quietly supporting… just being there. I was taking a nap, and every once in a while I’d open my eyes to see if she was sleeping too, but no… each time I’d open my eyes she’d be staring at me! Eventually, though, she did close her eyes and sleep too.

Here are some pictures from around my parents’ house:

Can you see the kitty rushing by? 🙂

I adore this painting my dad did for me, of an Australian Aboriginal man. My dad is amazing. I wish I had his talent~

My cat Liz, resting on the straw in my garden.

The front porch

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Gratitude Sunday * November 6, 2011

November 6, 2011 / Lindsey / 4 Comments

– Getting through this week intact. It was such a long and battering week… when I look back at last Sunday when we went to the farmer’s market and bought winter squash, that seems like a month ago! I overdid it last week I think, and it took most of this week to recover. And by recover I mean lying in bed all day, unable to muster energy for the monumental task of taking a shower… or having the energy to turn over in bed, or lift an arm, or open my eyes.

I had a very very difficult time this week accepting my current situation.

It’s so not me. I’ve never been one to lie around… I love to be up and about and out and doing things…experiencing life and the world. And I’m used to having all the energy I need in order to do that; to be able to just jump up effortlessly and do whatever I fancy… flitting around the kitchen doing various projects, or taking a brisk walk without even thinking about it, or doing heaps of errands on my bike without a second thought. Or just feeling reliably well and being able to travel, make plans, do projects, live life. And it makes me so sad when I can’t do those things. Always feeling ill with no end in sight and not having the energy to live the life I want is a really fast way to crush a person’s spirit. And then when my stomach isn’t keeping anything down… and I’m hungry but can’t eat, or maybe just little bits of very light things…and I’m feeling so sick… is when I drop to a very very low point. I dropped to some very very low points this week. Being this sick, and the uncertainty of it all, and the fear that comes with that, is requiring everything I have — and then some — to stay mentally sane. Some days I do a better job of that than others. But I had a really nice weekend, with improved energy today and that really lifted me up. A lot.

– Taking a fun, leisurely Halloween night bike ride around the neighborhoods! It was a balmy night, and so fun to see all the action.

– A clean house. I’m always amazed at the difference it makes to have a clean house! When your home feels like a sanctuary instead of a dump… then golly yes it is nice isn’t it!

– Looking forward to tomorrow’s forecast of more snow. I just love cozy, cloudy days with snow falling.

– Being so thankful that although this illness can absolutely flatten me, that I’m really strong, and I bounce back. My body’s strong, my mind’s strong, and I’m otherwise very healthy. And I WILL bounce back when this is all said and done. And I’m so SO thankful that I’m not completely bedridden. I read a book called The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating (thanks for the recommendation Sarah!) and the author is completely immobilized and totally bedridden by a mysterious virus or bacteria that she contracted on a trip to Europe. I’m so thankful I’m not in her situation — it could be so much worse!!!

– Some interesting, entertaining dreams. I love when my dreams are like that!

– Just hanging out with my hubby…talking, laughing, dreaming!

– The coziness of being home on a wintry, cloudy, snowy day. Not needing to go out into it, but enjoying it from the warmth of our little apartment.

– Synchronicities. Lots of them lately. This always brightens my mood because I feel that whatever’s going on, it’s what’s meant to be going on, and I’m right on track… right where I’m meant to be, frustrated as I am sometimes with that!

– Sunshine flooding in the south windows.

– An “Irish moment” that really tickled me. I don’t have a lick of Irish in me (a bit of Welsh, though…close enough?) but I had some Irish music playing one day, and had just fixed myself some delicious soup of pastured chicken bone broth with potatoes, celery, and onions (all from my garden!). I was eating my cozy, comforting, homegrown soup in the living room where the music was, and it just felt so homey and…Irish! Haha!

– Improved energy today.

– A wonderful walk today with my dad at a nature spot we haven’t been to in a while. We spotted hawks, an unusual duck cruising the pond (a Wigeon, we think), a duck skeleton in the grasses (such light, delicate bones!), and a kingfisher. It felt so good to be outside in nature, in the Autumn sunlight and brisk chilly air, one on one with my dad. Then we came back and he made us some really delicious hot chocolate from scratch. Then we had a nice, simple dinner at the kitchen table. After such an awful week, my appreciation of the simplest of life-filled moments like these increases a thousand-fold.

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What blessings have you appreciated throughout your week? Leave a comment and let us know!

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How to Ripen Green Tomatoes

November 4, 2011 / Lindsey / 5 Comments

I got a question the other day about what to do with green tomatoes… well, let me tell you!

Green tomatoes are always part of the Autumn routine for us. Once picked, most of them ripen over the coming weeks, and some years we’re still eating homegrown tomatoes past Christmas!

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Here’s how I handle all the tomatoes that we pick before the first frost hits:

1. Usually I leave the tomatoes hanging out in an uncovered cardboard box for several days or a week. This is usually because I don’t get around to addressing them, but it also allows the close-to-being-ripe ones to ripen more fully.

2. When I’m ready to deal with them, I gather a few cardboard boxes and some newspaper. I go through the tomatoes, separating ones that are showing signs of ripeness (light blushes of color or softening flesh) from the rest that are still very hard and green.

3. Put the ripening ones in their own box or paper bag, and check them every day or two. Or, leave them out on the counter.

4. I put the rest into boxes — only one layer thick — and then lay some sheets of newspaper on top. Over the years I’ve evolved through several methods of green tomato storage, and this is the one I’ve settled on. It’s my favorite because it’s the easiest, with the fewest tomatoes lost to mold.

Methods I’ve used in the past include:

– I used to cut squares of newspaper and wrap each tomato individually — unwrapping, checking, and re-wrapping them each week, and marking with highlighter the ones nearing ripeness. This is not only an insane amount of work, but it’s also totally unnecessary. There are easier ways to get the same result.

– After I evolved away from that, I would use only one box and put multiple layers of tomatoes in the box, separated by sheets of newspaper. This was a little better, but still involved removing layers of tomatoes and newspaper, checking, and re-layering.

Storing green tomatoes, (c) The Herbangardener

Store the tomatoes, only one layer thick, in boxes.

Cover them with newspaper.

5. Ok, so anyway, you’ll have multiple boxes with tomatoes only one layer thick. For this reason I like to use wide, shallow boxes. The boxes can be stacked as long as they’re supported by the sides of the box below and not resting on top of the actual tomatoes.

6. Keep your boxes in the coolest place in your house. Perhaps that’s a coat closet in your foyer, or in your basement. For us, it’s in the stairwell that leads from our apartment to our outdoor side entrance.

Store the boxes in the coolest part of your house. Check your tomatoes at least weekly.

7. Check your tomatoes at least weekly. It’s as easy as peeking under the newspaper. I like to move the nearly-ripe tomatoes to the top of the newspaper so that I can watch them and grab them when they’re ready.

8. Not all the tomatoes will ripen. Some are just too small and green to hold much promise of ripening, so this year I’m going to pickle them exactly the way I pickle cucumbers, using my trusty pickle recipe.

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Do you have a good way of ripening your green tomatoes, or perhaps a good recipe that calls for green tomatoes?

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Snow Days

November 3, 2011 / Lindsey / 3 Comments

More snow came Tuesday night and all day Wednesday. How cozy! I’ve been hanging extremely low, having overdone it way too much recently. I seem to be able to borrow energy and push my body further than it wants to go (thanks to my youth, maybe, and I’m thankful for that…), but eventually it really catches up with me and I feel extra awful. I slept 18 hours, waking up today to sunshine pouring through the windows. It’s beautiful. The air is still cold though, so I’m staying warm here inside…

And what are you up to today?