Category Archives: Uncategorized

Midweek Musings

Posted in Blood test, simple foods, simplicity, Uncategorized by

I still haven’t gotten my lab results so I’ll e-message my doctor today. My CBC and CMP should have been there yesterday and the light chains today. I can’t remember if this is when he was on vacation. But I’ll check in later.

It’s a cloudy sort of morning but no rain. It is supposed to rain on Friday but I guess we’ll see.  Our gardens would like the drink of water.

I’m just staying home today and doing some house chores and tidying. Yesterday I did more meal prep and made polenta to fry up and a black bean and corn salad. Both are our favorites. I’m cleaning out the freezer so there will be some interesting meals. Last night though we had chicken enchiladas I froze a few weeks ago.  I have a lot of bread that I’ll either give to the geese or do something with.  A fellow park walker gives us free loaves of Truckee Sourdough. So we end up with quite a bit frozen.

My daughter has always an extremely talented artist. From sculptor to watercolors to this cool rock art that everyone is wanting to buy from her.

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Well, off to start my morning routine.

 

 

 

Blogs that come and go…

Posted in minimalism, Myeloma, Uncategorized by

I used to read a lot of different blogs. Some about simplicity, some about minimalism, some about organizing, and lots just about life and peoples different experiences. Some were about Myeloma and others about nothing in particular and some about frugal living.

I use to read Andrea Dekker and liked her organizational skills. But she had a lot of blind spots in her life such as not seeing her 2nd child, a boy, had some developmental issues. I think later ,after he still had spoken when he was 2, I think they saw some kind of specialist. But she monetized her blog and it began to lose something for me. Also, as soon as she talked about the Jesus card, I was out of there.  Just not my thing.

Others included ‘A blue door ‘something I cant remember. I liked her attempts at meal prep and some other things.  But again, God and Jesus seemed to be helping her live a simple life so I let that one go.

They both still have a very large reader base so there’s an appeal somewhere. But clearly for me, when religion comes into it or somehow Jesus is saving them, then it just goes too far for me.

As an atheist, I  believe in the order of the universe as in things like gravity, evolution, science etc. all without the help of some man-made idea of a supreme being. I’m pretty sure that 5,000 years ago or even more when man looked up to the sky and saw strange things or there were famines, blights etc, man needed to create an external way to make sense of it all.  Enter, a supreme being.

Now it seems every other blog is monetizing and doing the ‘7 things to declutter’ or how I organized my kitchen cabinet.  Clearly, there’s something going on with this theme. A new blog I started following was Farmhouse on Boone and wow, it is clearly all about a certain audience and a certain message for that audience. First, she talks all about simplicity and yet is only in her early thirties(maybe) and just had her 5th kid. Believe me, I’m not sure having 5 kids fits into the genre of simplicity or minimalism.

Yes, I know this is very judgemental and I accept that fully. Everyone has the right to believe what they believe and to actually include it and write about it. It’s just not for me and it just seems somewhat ironic. Oh, yeah, Jesus helps in that one too. Maybe it’s about procreating. Seriously, in my 20’s it was all about zero population growth. Only have 2 children to replace yourself. Not 9 kids as another blogger has or 5.

So, my own biases, as everyones does, plays out here.

There are some great other bloggers I do so enjoy, Reading my Tea Leaves is a truly beautiful blog. Yes, it is monetized but it’s not intrusive or blatant.

‘Minimally’ is another I so enjoy. Trish is the blogger who did the year of zero waste on another site. She is a funny and talented writer with a solid minimalist approach.

‘Spo’  is one of my favorite bloggers and writes wonderful and interesting blogs about his life.

So, for now, so blogs come, some blogs go….

And you know, there’s something for everyone out there!!

 

Simple Sunday

Posted in Blood test, cooking, Flylady, plants, Uncategorized by

It looks to be a lovely day in Northern California.

Our yard looks amazing with roses and flowers all around. This is one of the prettiest springs I can remember. Of course, we’re only a month away from the start of summer.

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Today is a gym day and then just doing whatever. I really enjoyed my meal prep yesterday and our dinner was delicious. We heated up the lentil salad which was an excellent recipe from David Lebowitz’s ‘My Paris Kitchen’, and then had some of the wild salmon.

I go get my labs this coming week. I think this is the longest I’ve gone, almost 8 weeks, so I’m a little anxious but, heck, it’ll be whatever it’ll be with worry or not.

I’m in the bedroom zone this upcoming week. Pretty easy since we don’t have much stuff in there. What’s in your bedroom??? Try and kept it simple; a bed, dresser, maybe a plant or two. I do have a nightstand that I have to have to hold my pills I take at night and a glass of water.

Dinner will be the chickpea curry with rice.

a few more pictures I took…

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Just a few thoughts…

Posted in books, cooking, husband, just keep walking project, Uncategorized by

The Just Keep Walking project is winding down. May 31 st will mark the 5 year anniversary of WALKING EVERY SINGLE DAY!!!  That’s 1825 days. So, of course, I will keep walking with my husband B, but I may not mention it much. It seems 5 years is a good point to wrap it up. I still need to walk every day as I have been rarely sick and I think moving first thing in the morning ( ok, after 1 cup of coffee) has been so healthy for me.

My daughters birthday is May 29 and we got her Audible for a year. She loves listening to books and such while working in the garden. So a perfect idea, actually, it was her idea:)

B and Zephyr should be home late from Las Vegas. I guess the Elton John concert was great and then I saw he was at the Royal Wedding today. He must have jet lag:)

No new projects yet. I’ve looked around the house and there’s not much that needs doing by me. There are a few maintenance things that need to be done but that’s B’s job as I cant do them. ( like putting up another rail in the bathroom). So I guess that’s all good, although I do like a project.

This morning I meal prepped a number of meals for the week.

  • garbanzo curry with peas, this will go over brown rice
  • baked tofu to add to meals
  • French lentil salad with carrots and herbs
  • pasta salad with sundried tomatoes,herbs,kalamata olives and goat cheese.

I might make some salmon too but not right now.

I’m going to go to the gym and then straight home to finish washing the dog beds. and I might do a quick vacuum.

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so true, so true….

My life is quiet, simple, and intentional.

 

A rainy May day.

Posted in bread, simple foods, Uncategorized by

Unusual to have a rain in May like this but it’s quite nice as it’s watering the lawn and all the plants.

I’ve just stayed inside working on starting another leaven for a few loaves of Tartine bread and tidying up.

I tried making Peter Reinhart’s bread the other day, and it was a flop. It had a quite good taste but was too hard and didn’t brown up nicely. The main difference between the two is the dutch oven. With Tartine, you make the starter(leaven) and then lots of other steps, but the final dough is baked in the dutch oven not, just straight on the steel.

So I’m back to Tartines recipe which always looks beautiful.

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I’m caught up on laundry and mopped the kitchen floor.

My son finished his final for the semester and he and B are headed down to Las Vegas to see Elton John’s last performance on that piano.  This is his birthday present. The tickets were not cheap:(

But they should have a fun time of it as there are lots of museums to visit and LV has nice weather usually.

Tomorrow, I’ll hit the gym and then I have a number of errands to run like getting bird seed, a few groceries, Home Depot for some garden soil and who knows what else.

Dinner is double stuffed potatoes from the freezer and some breaded cod fillets. Maybe a salad if I’m inspired.

Happy Mothers Day

Posted in Uncategorized by

To Mothers everywhere, here in physical form and all those who are gone from us, we remember your love and sacrifice.

None of us would be here without our mothers.

This is me and Sachi. 1986. I’m 34 yo. We waited quite a while to have our first child.Scan 6

 

 

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Then this is me and Zephyr in 1995. I’m 43. Whoa… where does the time go????

I’m going to the gym finally today. I feel good enough to go.

 

 

 

Five on Friday

Posted in books, cooking, Uncategorized by

Friday stuff….

  • Still sniffling and coughing but somewhat better though. Still, no gym though as I don’t want to be THAT person hacking away in the corner.
  • Got 2 books from the library I’m really excited about. Sue Grafton’s last book Y. And Cait Flanders ” the year of Less” which I heard wasn’t that great, but I still want to read it.
  • Made lots of extra pinto beans with garlic cloves so they are ready to go in the freezer to be used in other meals.
  • Haven’t been to the store much this week except just this morning. So I’ve saved a few dollars just by not going.
  • We received a $60 check from a life insurance we cashed in a few years ago and this amount must have been missed??

I’m not doing too much today. I have one load of laundry going and no other big chores.

Usually, it’s Friday night pizza and I did make the dough but with B still sick too I’m just going to make a big pot of organic brown rice and veggies.