We made another change that tastes good. Yogurt. Hubby loves yogurt with his lunches. I enjoy it on occasion. More so in the warmer weather. My yogurt of choice is (well now, was) Yoplait. The whips in particular. I like the fact they are a smaller serving size. Hubby likes whatever I get him. He likes a bigger serving size. So typically for him I bought the Fred Meyer brand. 8 ounces & usually on sale. Well, both have stuff I don’t feel comfortable eating anymore or giving to my man to eat.
So I decided to look at the big containers of plain yogurt. Very short ingredient list & no crap. Yay!! Mountain High was the only brand I found that was regular. The other brands were either “light” or “fat free” or they were flavored. Well, we also have plenty of frozen fruit at home right now. I thawed some & mixed it with the yogurt for the hubby. Had him taste it. He added less than half a teaspoon of sugar & was good to go. Not bad. I licked the plain yogurt off the spoon one night while doling out his serving for the next day’s lunch. Hmmm… not bad. I think I can do this too.
This way, I can make the servings the size I want. The cost is a little more. But, I’m willing to pay that little bit extra to have something that much better for us. With the free fruit we have it comes out to less than 10 cents more a serving. That’s only 50 cents more a week. I think that’s reasonable.
For me, going natural is more than removing chemicals from cleaning products & toiletries. It is about removing the crap from the food I eat too. It is amazing how much added stuff is in food these days. I’ve been reading ingredient labels lately. I know, bad thing, cuz you’ll never want to eat anything again once you know what that stuff really is. Well, not completely so. It is happening more tho. Making small decisions & changes to work towards a better me. A better us. I look at labels between brands. Less ingredients is better. And if I cannot pronounce them, I don’t buy it. If high fructose corn syrup is on one label but not another, I buy the one without it. Simple things like that.
But doing this comes with a new mindset too. You have to want it. Really. Kind of like walking the walk when you talk the talk. Like over the weekend the hubby & I went to Costco. I had a couple things I wanted to get. Well, one main one got left there. I made a discovery by comparing labels. I had wanted to get some Kraft Miracle Whip from there since I figured it was cheaper to buy the big container vs. the smaller ones in the stores. That part was fine. I put it in the cart. Hubby picked it up & looked at the label. High Fructose Corn Syrup. In MY Mayo!! No way! It couldn’t be. So I walked over to look at the 2 other mayos on the shelves. One was a local brand & one was regular Kraft mayo. No HFCS in either one. Dammit. That ingredient is what kept me buying their product. And oftentimes paying more. I was addicted to the taste.
It took a bit of talking to myself but I put it back. I could make a change. I know I can’t just give up mayo right now. I like it. hubby likes it. I use it for pasta salads, for tuna, & on sandwiches. But I could make a switch to something without the HFCS. It’s no huge thing. It’s a baby step. This journey is full of baby steps. I feel so good tho, each time I take a step.
Well, I used the Dr. Bronner’s Sal Suds to do the dishes. It works. I have no problem not buying separate dish washing liquid anymore. I also like the real pine smell of it. Not a Pine Sol pine, but real pine, like you smell out in nature.
I also found that my spray bottle of vinegar & water worked great on my cook top. Whenever I would wipe it off with my sponge while doing dishes, I get a cloudy film left behind when it dries. It didn’t matter if I used fresh soapy water, or waited until the end. Usually I end up wiping & wiping & wiping with a clean dry dishcloth to try to get the streaks & film gone. So I tried the vinegar & water bottle. A couple squirts & paper towel left the cook top clean, streak free & with no film. I like it. Nice green alternative for sure! Not to mention super inexpensive. Oh, & for paper towels we buy the select a size ones so it's one small sheet not a whole big one. I'll be switching to a microfiber towel here shortly for that task.
Be mindful of where you put your attention. The shape of your life will follow.
When you view your health as nonnegotiable, your priorities naturally shift.
Positive change starts with truth, & no one knows it better than you.
I was posting these thoughts pretty regular before, then got sidetracked with life. In going thru my saved documents, I found it again. Guess I should work on getting these out there again huh? They came from the back page of the Body & Soul magazines I was getting. Right now, the subscription has to expire since I can't afford to pay for another year right now. But, I have quite a few saved up to pull these thoughts from in the mean time. Enjoy.
The kitchen sink. Well, I did not let go of as much under there as in the bathroom. Not yet. I did let go of several things that were half gone, or old & rarely used. And we have already replaced bathroom cleaners with vinegar & baking soda months ago. So I have no foaming spray stuff for my toilet or shower. No nasty smelling fumes to get the room clean.
In the kitchen I still have my dishwasher Electrosol tabs, multi surface & glass cleaners & Febreeze. I’m working on it. I’m looking into alternatives. Soon as I know I have something that works, the chemicals will go. No matter how much is left. I used to have the mindset that well, I can just use these up, then do better. How is that good? The sooner we stop putting these chemicals into our waters, the sooner the filtration places can stop working so hard.
When I go to wash dishes later, one test will be underway. I used up the last of my dishwashing soap. Now I’ll be using Dr. Bronner’s. I’ll talk about that product in a separate post tho. And you’ll be amazed how good vinegar & baking soda work on many things!!!
So as the description says, I’m here to work on getting chemicals out of my life as much as possible. I’m working on moving away from chemicals & replacing things with their natural counterparts. In many ways, it has been easy. Thanks in a big part to my friend Amy.
I started with my bathroom. It was a wonderful feeling to let go of a boxful of toiletries. Yes, a boxful. I pulled out everything from under the bathroom sink & in the cabinet. I only put back less than a quarter of what I started with. I should have taken a picture.
So what’s gone? Lotions, makeup, facial cleansers, scrubs & astringents, colognes, tanning stuff, & other misc chemical crap. All gone. Even my deodorant. I kept my shower gels & shampoo since I had no replacement for them right away.
I’m not a big makeup person to begin with so letting go of that stuff was pretty easy. I kept a few eyeliners & 2 natural mineral makeup type things. The rest, gone. The lotions were a bit harder to let go of, but when you think about the fact you are lathering on the chemicals to be absorbed into your body, it gets a little easier then. There are lotions out there without the bad crap in them. For my deodorant I have found a substitute that has no aluminum. And it seems to actually work! For the facial stuff, there are easy replacements too.
I just cannot tell you how good it felt to know I will no longer be putting that stuff into or onto my body. I took control. And to think I wont have to spend all that money on that stuff anymore! Sorry manufacturers. No I’m not!
So for anyone who follows me, this is my beginning. My next step was under the kitchen sink.
Nicole, it is easy. Just once a day, imagine the life you dream of. Believe that it can be yours in this world of magic and miracles. Choose to live as if you know of its inevitable manifestation. Don't compromise. Don't worry. Don't look for results. And as surely as spirit crafts one moment after another, so too will it fuse together the life you now lead with the life of your dreams as if they were two pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, destined to become one. This alone determines what's "meant to be."
Tallyho, The Universe
And then, Nicole, people are going to start talking... I mean, even more.
*My family & a friend's family are trying to find the right house to share so we can all save on expenses. This is what I will spend my time imagining. Us, in the perfect house big enough for all of us.
Today… our nation watched a new president take his oath to finish the legalities of getting into the white house for the next 4 years. Those who know me know that I am not a fan. We’ll see what happens.
Today… I spent some time going thru bills to pay, filing papers away & tossing out stuff that has outlived its purpose. Well, by tossing out I actually mean tossing into the recycle pile. 95% of what I went thru went there. Now I have a few neat piles that need attention on the side part of my desk. A sales tax form for Nicole’s Visions, the sales records to go thru & add up, a jury duty form the hubby has to finish filling out & a growing pile of coupons. It looks much better than it did this morning.
Today… I did another load of laundry. It seems never ending anymore. One of the things on the list of going natural is to find out what works to gets clothes clean. And soft too. I’m looking forward to getting into a house so we can see about having a clothes line. I’d like that. I miss the smell of line dried clothes. Especially from spring to fall.
Today… I feel better in my mind. I’ve had days where I feel like I have no purpose. Like it doesn’t matter if I do anything. Today was a bit better. Maybe it was the sunshine the other day. Maybe it’s the fact I get to see Amy Wednesday & Cindy on Thursday. Maybe it’s because after doing the bill stuff it doesn’t look as bad as we thought. Maybe it’s because I’m slowly moving forward in several directions. Maybe it’s because after cleaning up my desk I feel more in control of my life. Or… Maybe it’s just because I know I have such a loving & devoted hubby who always knows just when I need to hear I Love You.
Well, I was doing good about keeping track of my days. Here it is now almost a week since I wrote last. Oh well right? It just seems some days I don’t have anything of interest to write about. Or, I just forget to stop to jot things down.
Even now, I’ll be interrupted. The daughter has asked for a ride to work tonight. So, I’m here for a few, then I’ll take her, then back here. Once she’s at work, I’ll sit here while listening to 2 of today’s soaps. Yes, I laugh too. I can’t believe I still find myself caught up in the drama of their lives. I love it. It’s an old habit that I most likely won’t break for a long time.
Ok, back home for the evening. I think the daughter is tiring of the trek to & from work. She needs to get her bike tire fixed. But even then, with her hand right now, she can’t ride it. She has said that she enjoys the job, just not the hours & the getting there & home part. I certainly don’t mind taking her, but picking her up is another story. Sorry. I’m not up at 6am. I tried going to bed earlier & getting up earlier, but it’s not working.
So on Saturday morning the hubby tried to help me get the place a little picked up, by vacuuming for me. Right. The dang vacuum we have likes to clog. A lot. That morning was no different. Not only did he have to fight with it a couple times, but he stubbed his thumb real good & busted a blood vessel. Lovely. The living room & part of the hall got vacuumed. That’s it. I think the vacuum is on it’s way out as soon as we can afford to replace it.
Saturday afternoon we tried to have a get together of the group from the mall. Only 2 ladies were able to make it. Plus me & the daughter. It was nice, but we were all kind of disappointed. Both ladies brought one of their girls so that made it seem like more, kind of. It was short, since it started later than planned. But, we made the effort. So that was cool.
Sunday afternoon the daughter & I went in search of some sunshine. Sound silly? I imagine it does. Living in a valley, it’s not impossible tho. We’ve had this inversion hanging around here well over a week now. It’s a system with stagnant air. No movement so the clouds hang around. Well, we figured we’d try going higher to see if we could get above the clouds. We headed up to Mission Ridge, the local ski resort. It’s just across the river & 12 miles up into the canyon. The base area up there is at about 4200 feet or so. The top of the mountain is 4500. I think that’s how it goes.
OMG it was beautiful!! The sun was shining & it felt like heaven. Warm heaven. Blue skies as far as the mountains let us see. There were so many people & families up there too. Wow. I could see why tho, it was a bright place above a dreary valley. We stopped up at the lodge wandered around & took a few pictures while enjoying the big beautiful sun in the sky. We then stopped at the first place that had a pull off to take some more view shots. It’s a spot we’ve stopped at many times in the past. I could have stood there for a long time. Just taking it all in. It was just so gorgeous. So perfect. Even in those brief moments we were there, I felt so connected to the Earth.
And back down we drove. In the place between the warm sun & dreary bottom was an equally breath taking place. The place where frost formed. On every living thing. Not snow, but just frost. I had wanted to get some pictures, but with the cold, my battery was dying fast. I love how pine trees especially, look when they are heavy with snow. It’s beautiful. But this coat of frost. Wow . . . it was breath taking to me. To see that Mother Nature had every detail of her creations outlined in frost took my breath away. The hubby is at a higher elevation where he works so he has gotten to see some of it every day as well. This is another side of the inversion. It keeps the cold air here. And the cold is below freezing so the frost stays. I’ll have to get some pix of it before it’s gone.
Our short trip up into the canyon, above the clouds was just what I needed. I felt so light & joyful the rest of the day. It was exactly what was missing from my life over the past week or more. I think I’ll make another trip up in the next day or so. Perhaps with a fresh & full battery in my camera. Perhaps with just my eyes. I haven’t decided yet.
So here I am again. It’s after 10 & everyone is in bed but me. My soaps are on & I’m listening. The dog is set for the night. Kitchen is clean, hubby’s lunch is made, & coffee is ready for in the morning. I have a mug of hot spiced cider to enjoy. So what should I ramble on about this evening?
How about I start with the wonderful phone call I got about an hour & a half ago. My younger daughter who is still in Florida is engaged. Yup. And yes, mom is super happy. This is just too cool. They called me right after he asked her & she finally said yes. So, I was officially the very first to know. That was cool. I hope there is a way for me to go back down there if they decide to have any sort of actual wedding. Knowing Jen, it wont be anything lavish, which is cool my me. Yup . . . one happy momma here.
I’ve planned a get together for everyone from the mall for this Saturday afternoon. Granted, we all know there is no perfect time to get everyone together at the same time. I guess I’m just a little disappointed in the turnout so far. Of the 7 I have heard from so far, 2 can make it. Someone pointed out something. Everything happens for a reason. Perhaps there is a reason just the 3 of us are meant to get together. Guess I should look at it that way.
Saturday evening hubby & I went over to hang out with friends Randy & Carey. It was really nice too. Going to their place is the only time we end up staying out late. Before it had been like 1am before we got home. This time? It was 3am!! What the heck? It was really weird. None of us were tired & we all just chatted & talked like it was only early evening or something. We talked about so many different things too. It’s fun to talk with them as we have different views on many things but we can all talk without getting crazy or angry or something stupid.
Anyways, Carey & I got to talking about exercise & making changes in your life. She said something to me that I do believe I will try to implement. Make no more than 3 changes at a time. Your mind can’t grasp more than that at once apparently. And do each for 3 weeks. I knew that part . . . the 21 days to make something a habit. I really like this idea. So say I want to start going to the gym. And work on a price book. And work on figuring out what it will take to get a store opened. And work on getting more organized at home. And totally organize my photography stuff. And. . . And . . . the list goes on. What I need to do is pick no more than 3 of those things to start with. Ideally I should start with one thing for a week. Then I could add another. Then after the second week, I can add another. This makes sense to me. And makes things more attainable I think. Of course I have to learn a bit of patience too since I wont be able to do everything at once. That will probably be the hard part. Or, deciding what order to put these things in. At any rate I think I’ll make a list & give this a shot.
I’m tired now & losing focus on what I was gonna write. Guess that means it’s time to stop.
I see I missed a few days. Not much tho. Not much exciting happened either. Last night tho, we went to Joy’s for the group meeting. It was nice. We caught up a bit then got into talking about 2012. The topic provided for much conversation as there are many views on what may happen when the time comes. I put out feelers for the group I want to get going & some seemed interested so that’s cool. I think it’ll be a lot of fun to learn in a group environment.
So hubby got his paycheck that covered his time off. Yuck! I have no idea exactly how we’ll make it until the next check, but somehow we always do.
I mentioned my daughter getting us a gym membership for Christmas. Well, it was purchased before she went on nights. Since then we’ve tried to figure out how we can go together. It’s just not working out. We talked about her seeing if she could get her money back & we’d put it towards home gym stuff instead. She is not one to confront people, so that went nowhere too. She knows that I would love to go to a gym, but hey, I’ll be flexible & do whatever. So the latest mention was for me to see if one of a couple friends would wanna go with me. I had 2 people to choose from. Amy & Cindy. I approached Cindy first because she deals with depression & my thought was maybe something positive like this would help her. And she wants to lose some weight too. She has said yes, so we’ll see if it works out. If something falls thru, I’ll be asking Amy. I was really torn in who to choose. I want to spend more time with Amy. I am really enjoying our friendship. But, I also want to spend more time with Cindy. I miss our friendship as we don’t see each other as much. So, I guess choosing Cindy was the right choice. Especially if we get to move forward with the combining of our households with Amy.
*insert break for breakfast, then some out & about time with the hubby.
Hubby is now over at Joe’s for a bit. I’m just kinda here. Sitting around with one of those ‘eh’ moods. I hate those. I should be doing several things, but don’t feel like doing any of them. I think part of it is the gloomy day outside today. And it could also be the fact I’ve been off my pills for some time now.
Our herb order came the other day, but I have not sat & made more pills yet. I think that is because it seems to be such a daunting task since I’m all out. I’ll have to just make some every 2 weeks or maybe even every week so it’s not so big of a task.
I changed our sheets. Oh yay. I stood looking at the bedroom for a bit. It’s messy because things get piled in there. And I was looking at moving things around again too. Mainly to get the bed off the shared wall with the daughter’s room. That way, if the bed . . . ‘ahem’ . . . moves, it wont be hitting her wall. I opted to just leave things alone for the moment tho, since several things don’t belong in there & I should get those moved to a better place before tackling moving everything.
Well, guess I can see what I can find to occupy my time in front of this thing for a while.
Wow, I’m maybe getting the hang of writing again on a regular basis. I’m still getting used to being home & having time. It’s odd. Nice, but odd. I spent a fair amount of time today sorting thru coupons to share. Kinda feels nice knowing that the coupons I send to folks are ones they will actually use, since they are both from wish lists & weekly requests. This afternoon my friend Amy came over. She picked up her check from what she sold at the mall store. We also got a chance to just visit & catch up. I always love talking with her. She is the wealth of information I wish I was. One of the things I brought up to her was my thoughts on forming a local group to share info with & learn with. I’m loving all I’m learning about food, chemicals, organics, natural things, recycling, etc. I want to share it with the world! Well, ok, at least people I know. I thought it would be neat to have a group of like-minded folks get together once every 2 weeks or so to share info & learn. Amy thought it was a good idea too. So this is something I’ll work on putting together. This Friday evening the hubby, daughter & I will be heading over to another friend’s house to talk about 2012. Joy has worked to keep the group going that started back when we had our Pagan shop with Leah. I’ve not had a lot of opportunity to go in the past, but it looks like maybe this year will be better. I was either going to bed early to be at the Farmer’s Market or I was running the store at the mall. Well, the mall is over & I will not be at that market this year. It already looks better! It looked so weird outside today. And it felt almost like spring. That is just wrong for January! I really miss the snow. Especially since we had just gotten such a nice bunch of it. The weather patterns are really strange around here. Not totally surprising, just weird. I can just hope it gets cold & snows some more soon. Right now, it’s raining. I think that’s enough for now. It’s 10 & I wanna try getting to bed earlier. I’m not quite ready, but by the time I get this posted & turn off lights & wash up, I’ll be ready. That is, if I can get the thoughts to turn off in my head.
What an interesting day, weather wise. We’ve gotten quite a bit of snow as of late. And had some cold-ass temps for much longer than usual. Now, we’ve got a storm system moving thru that has our overnight lows, above freezing. And comes with 30-35 mph winds with gusts into the 40+ mph. Oh, and rain. I’ve watched our beautiful snow blanket shrink right before my eyes. How sad. I took the daughter to work tonight & the parking lot was a sheet of ice with puddles of water. Yuck. This weather stuff is gonna bring some crap to various areas too. With rapid melt like this, & mountains & rivers, it’s not a good mix. I already heard one of the mountain passes was closed tonight due to an avalanche.
And to think I was sooo enjoying the beautiful big flakes of snow this morning as I ran a couple errands. Sigh . . . I know it sounds silly, but I want my winter back. This wind crap can stop anytime.
Oh, & we lost power this evening too. Just long enough to get everything situated. Hubby went & turned things off & grabbed the monster flashlight. I grabbed the 2 oil lamps & lit them, along with a couple well placed jar type candles. Then I went & grabbed the phone with a cord (!) in case the power stayed out or any cell towers got knocked out too. Hubby grabbed the wind up alarm clock in case he needed it in the morning. Yup, we know what to do, where it’s stashed & all that. After all, we lived in FL long enough. Ya get the hang of t after an outage or two. The daughter & I were talking to one of the ladies in the deli at Safeway when we stopped by there to grab the recycle stuff. She was amazed at the thought of a corded phone & wind up clock, with a “oh, I didn’t think of that” kind of comment. When you are without technology, you have to go back. Some forget how to go back. My family doesn’t.
Of course, it all came back on just as we had everything together & got ready to settle in for the evening. Figures.
I spent some time today organizing little things. In the big picture here, it doesn’t look like I did much, yet I was busy all day. You can’t exactly tell by walking thru the door that I worked on organizing pictures on the hard drive, or began to clean out my email. You can see that my desk is looking a lot less cluttered. You can see that I picked up here & there. The place is nowhere near where it should be, but give me another week or so & it’ll be MUCH better.
The hubby started his what sounds like pointless coughing again tonight. The bronchitis. Not again. So I told him to go use the dang inhaler. And he took some of the codeine laced cough syrup before bed too. I don’t hear him coughing. That’s a good thing. Neither of us needs him being sick again.
Christmas Day the hubby, the daughter & I went out tromping in the snow a bit & explored along a river. Of course the camera came along. I had her take a couple pix of me & the man so we could get a holiday card done finally. Well, they are ok but I don’t like them. And what sucks more, is I don’t see a timer option on my Canon 40D. Yes, my costly new upgraded camera. WTF? Totally pissed me off. I’ve “kinda” looked in the past. Never really looked hard for it. I figured it should not be hard to find. But no. I totally don’t see one. So, we had to have someone else take the pictures if we both want to be in them. I think we’ll have to do it again maybe over this weekend if the weather cooperates. Dangit!
So, whenever we get a photo I am happy with of the two of us, I’ll get some Winter / New Year cards out. And with that, I really should get to bed. I could sit here for another hour or more, but I’m trying to slowly shift my sleeping schedule so maybe I can go to bed with & get up with, my hubby.
So the hum-drum of daily life is back. Hubby went back to work. Daughter spent most of the day sleeping since she works nights now. I spent most of my day … in front of this thing. I wrote out the final checks for everyone from the mall. I also wrote out nice little thank you notes to go with them. They’ll all get mailed Tuesday. Exciting huh?
We got dumped on big time with snow last night. Probably the biggest one time snowfall so far. No idea how much we technically got. It was about as deep as my hand if not a bit more. With all the snow, I figured the roads & people would be a mess. So, I stayed home. I should have gone to the store & post office. Guess they’ll both wait till morning.
I began going thru some of my digital picture files today too. I know there are tons I can just delete because they are almost identical. So I started. Felt good to clean out more of my life. Really good. Clearing out the various areas of my life of clutter & unneeded things is going slow, but well. I love the feeling of being able to let go of more & more material things. It’s one small step in the bigger quest to simplify my life.
One of my things has been to remove chemicals from my life. Chemicals are bad. Yet we put them into & onto our body’s everyday in so many forms. My big step? I went thru most of my toiletries. Lotions. Makeup. Facial cleansers. They are full of stuff that seeps into our pores, into our skin & blood stream. Well, not so much into mine anymore. I gathered up quite the pile of stuff & posted it on Freecycle last week. Even tho it was money, it felt so good to know I was taking a step towards something that means a lot to me. I didn’t let go of everything, but about 80% or more. I’ll have to find suitable replacements for things like body wash/shower gel. And shampoo. I kept the pencil eyeliners, but let go of the lipsticks. I let go of all the lotions except for 2. I want to make changes in my feminine stuff, but that’s expensive so it’ll have to be in baby steps as things get used.
Can you tell I’m trying to go more natural? Not just in food, but all areas of my life. And as long as you read, you’ll be along for the journey.
For the first time in months I popped back into the natural living community on LJ. Found a post about facial cleansing & using oil to clean your face. Sounds odd, but I’ll be looking into it. I will be enjoying getting into all the fun stuff of going organic & natural. Besides, it’ll give me something to blog about besides boring everyday life.
1/1/2009 Thursday 6pm Wow, here we are already in January. I am amazed at how fast the last year went by. I guess many of us say that every year tho huh? I know I’ve said it in the past, but 2008 certainly went by faster than years past. I grew so much, learned so much & have eyes & a mind that are more wide open than ever before. I love it. I made new friends, whom I cherish & hope will be in my life for a long time to come. I reconnected with someone that means a lot to me. I met & left behind relations that were only there to serve a purpose. I gained personal confidence. On a personal level, I feel more love for & closer to my hubby. My business focus changed. I successfully put together a co-op of women who opened a holiday mall store. I again managed to keep us fed & the bills paid on basically one income. Of course that was made possible with the help of our daughter, who became gainfully employed this year too. And that was the end of my writing for the day. It’s now Saturday evening. See, time just flies by! 1/3/2009 Saturday 745pm I never thought it could be so tough to give things away for free. I specify in my post that contact is via email, & basically tell them up front that if they really don’t want it, don’t bother. Geez. Some people, no problem. Other people, geez. Is it so hard to make a commitment to go get something someone else is willing to let you have, for nothing? Apparently so. Maybe one of the lessons I am supposed to learn this lifetime is patience. I may have to repeat the lesson in another life. So anyways, maybe come Monday life will go back to some sort of normal, or routine. Monday the hubby goes back to work. Finally. The next paycheck is gonna suck tho. *insert pause to check & see what I’ve written about* So, I have not mentioned the whole lay off thing. First we find out that Xmas Eve day they are only working a half day. This of course means only getting paid for a half day. Then they get told . . . the whole shop is being shut down until January 5th. Unpaid of course except for Xmas Day & NY Day. Which means it’s just long enough to not be able to try collecting unemployment to help cover the gap. At least all the guys who get laid off can collect. We can’t. Neither can any of the other guys who were left. Lovely. So the most important guys get screwed. 1/4/2009 Sunday 6pm Again time gets away from me; I get distracted with life so now its Sunday evening already. I hope this is not a sign of how the year will be. All scattered & not being able to finish things. I’ve had my share of those times. It’s time for me to be able to focus on things, get them done & all that. I know this writing will be disjointed too. I’m cooking dinner while I type. The hubby is talking to his dad & the dog is sniffing for anything I may have dropped while cutting stuff in the kitchen. The child is still sleeping. Dinner was pretty good. We’ve made the effort to go back to eating at our table as often as possible. Now that the holidays are over & the mall store is closed, all my crap is off the table. It can once again be used as a dining table! Gasp, imagine that. We even turn off the TV. It’s been rather enjoyable. Funny how such a simple thing can make a difference. That short time of having the TV off & being focused on the task at hand is nice. My next effort will be to not snack while sitting here as much. If I want something, I need to get up & go get it, then eat it either at the table, or at least away from here. So far it makes me think twice about eating since it means I’m supposed to get up from here. Like last night, I had some sherbet which I enjoyed in the living room with hubby & watched some TV. So life over the past 6 weeks or so has been all over the place. I have no idea what else to write about so I think I’ll start with a clean slate for the year. If something doesn’t make sense, I can add facts or stories as needed. Sounds good to me.
So I decided to look at the big containers of plain yogurt. Very short ingredient list & no crap. Yay!! Mountain High was the only brand I found that was regular. The other brands were either “light” or “fat free” or they were flavored. Well, we also have plenty of frozen fruit at home right now. I thawed some & mixed it with the yogurt for the hubby. Had him taste it. He added less than half a teaspoon of sugar & was good to go. Not bad. I licked the plain yogurt off the spoon one night while doling out his serving for the next day’s lunch. Hmmm… not bad. I think I can do this too.
