Sick…

As I am writing this, it is 5:02 am from my bath tub. You may ask yourself why this is in any way significant, well, I will tell you. I am sick. Not just some sniffles and a little cough sick, but the deep ache in your joints, can’t sleep because you are too hot then too cold sick. This is the third day of this for me. My son started with it last Monday night. Then two days later my daughter started followed by me. Apparently, my husband is the only one in the house with an actual immune system.

I am miserable with a capital M. I am also tired and all I want to do is sleep. I took some sudafed last night because the pressure in my head was going to make it explode! Now, there is no pressure but no sleep either. My husband came home from work by 2pm yesterday so I could rest. You know as soon as I got sick the kids started feeling better.

That is how my life works. I survived until he got home and then I fell asleep. I woke up and at some soup and fell back to sleep. Now I can’t sleep because my icky, achy body somehow feels it has had enough sleep for now. Which is how I am writing this sitting in my bathtub praying to all that is holy to let my body know it is okay to sleep some more.

My son is Autistic with a side of ADHD. So you might be wondering how I know when he is sick. He slows down to normal kid speed. I feel bad for the kid, I mean I can only imagine what his world is like trying to do so many things at once and if his speed talking is anything to go by, his brain is just racing along about a million miles a minute. So, when he is sick, he slows way down. Plus, when the kids are sick they don’t feel well enough to fight. I know they are feeling better when they are starting to annoy each other again. Normally, I would take that in stride, but now I am sick and I just wanna die in peace.

I am doing my best to not wake the whole house. I am trying to soothe my achy joints with a hot bath and get all this out of my head while sitting here. In Hope’s of when I am finished I can and will go back to sleep. Thanks for listening to me complain and the ravings of a really sick woman.

– love & light

Meal Planning At My House

It is super easy for me to just say, let’s grab a burger or pizza, huh? Then no one has to cook and more importantly no one has to come up with a plan for dinner. In my house, that is the hardest of all. That dreaded question that everyone asks “what’s for dinner?” In my house we can go round and round until finally, I say how about Taco Bell or insert your favorite fast food joint here. By now, it is late and there are bed time routines to get into and other things to do. Not to mention that I get horrific migraines if I go too long without eating something.

This above scenario is why one of my goals for 2020 is to meal plan more. Heck, I even scheduled eat out nights on it too. It just makes dinner discussions go so much faster! At the end of the month, I will sit down and plan for the next month. I use a web site called Plan to Eat. Honestly, when I was just starting to even think about meal planning a few years ago, I stumbled on them and I fell in love.

Plan to eat offers a free 30 day trial. When I say FREE I mean totally free, like you don’t even have to give any credit card information at all free. I love that. You also get access to the WHOLE site and all the functionality it provides too. I hate when you are trying something out and you can only use some of the functionalities, because how can you get a real feel for it if you can’t use it all?

Once you get some recipes into your recipe area, you can drag them onto the planner. When you do that, it automatically populates a shopping list for you based on your recipes that you have planned! You can go and delete items you already have one hand or add more. You can also set it to your favorite store as well. There is also an app for your phone and I have used both the website and phone app. If you go the way of the web site there is a recipe clipper you can use to copy recipes you want to try or the ones that you love from your favorite food bloggers. (it is totally handy, trust me!)

Once you fall in love ( I know you will) you can purchase an annual subscription ( I always do this one because then I don’t have to worry about it for a whole year!) or you can do monthly subscriptions. They are very affordable, I think it is $39 for the year. I just looked and it is $4.95 per month, so seriously, give it a try! So far, it has saved my 2020 and I plan on using it for the rest of the year!

Well, I gotta run, the link to plan to eat is: https://www.plantoeat.com/ref/b9bc5f1fee just to be honest, this is my referral link. I make a small amount if you sign up. I would not be talking about this if I did not love it. Once you sign up, let me know and I will send you my user name and we can be friends and you can see all my recipes on there! Oh, I forgot! They do challenges through out the year where you can pick up amazing recipes from food bloggers or other people too! They also have a Facebook group you can join!

-Love & Light

Holidays Are Hard On Me

I have been away for a while and that is because I am trying to exercise more mental health care for myself. It is an ongoing battle. The holidays are particularly hard on me. I was cooking up a storm in the kitchen the week before Christmas. I was playing with my new Instant Pot and Air Fryer. I do have to say that Air Fryer steaks are my newest obsession! They are so good. In fact, I want one tonight.

I no longer set resolutions for myself in the new year. I set goals that I want to achieve, that way if I mess up (newsflash, I ALWAYS mess up), I do not feel horrible for not keeping a resolution. I am trying to give myself some grace this year. Be gentler with myself, I am my own worst critic and I am hardest on myself when I mess up. I know I will mess up, but apparently, I feel that I should not or know better. It is something I am going to be working with my therapist on this year as well.

I made twice baked potatoes from scratch this Christmas. For a while, they were a tradition but I got out of the habit of making them and I had not made them since I got to California, which is almost three years now. So, I bit the bullet and made them for Christmas. I now remember why I made them every year before, they are so good and I tend to enjoy them a lot! I usually make bacon, cheese, and garlic but I have been known to adjust them for others. I have made plain and just cheese before. I have even left out the garlic. They are one of those recipes that can be made so many different ways! I love recipes like that.

I have so far made two four goals this year for myself. 1. meal plan more this year. 2. drink more water. 3. track my spending. 4. give myself some grace. I think those are enough. In fact, I now have so many, I need to make a list and post it someplace on the wall so I can see it. For the first goal, I have a website I use to help with that. http://www.plantoeat.com is what I use because it is really simple and they give you a full 30 days to try it out without having to give your credit card information. I fell in love and I am thinking you might too!

I am still using my Circul bottle I got. I do love it and all of the flavors of sips is so amazing. They even have coffee ones for those of you who can’t give it up. My goal is to drink three bottles a day, a bottle being 22 ounces approximately. You can customize the flavors you get and when they are sent to you. I have found that I do not need a shipment every single month, but some of you might.

Tracking my spending has been a goal that I have not actually accomplished yet. This year, I am using a good old fashioned ledger book to track my spending. I have used digital things, apps, and budget binders in the past and none have worked for me. I am all excited and I usually will be good about it for the first month or so, then I fall away from it. This is slightly different, because I have to keep all the receipts until I log my spending. I am hoping that having all these pieces of paper floating around will annoy me so much that I log things once I get home so I can put the receipt away. I will let you know how I do with this one.

Giving myself grace. It’s hard for me. I guess I am a perfectionist in some ways. I did a temperament assessment recently and my dominate temperament is perfectionist and order, with calm and harmony a close second. I am trying to learn all I can about this, so I can use it to my advantage instead of letting it rule me. Again, something to discuss with my therapist on Wednesday. I have not seen my therapist since before Christmas, so a lot to discuss and work out action plans for. She is really amazing in helping me develop tools to deal with issues that come up sometimes. Life is hard and I needed help. One of the best things I have done for myself in a really long time.

Well, I need to run, I have a list of things to do and one is sage all my crystals. It is really nice out today and I want to get this done outside. For once it is not raining!

-Love & Light

An Introduction of A Sort

I am a lover of food. Always have been. Knowing this about me, you would think I was on top of the latest trends in new kitchen gadgets. Truth be told, you would be wrong. My birthday is in two days and I just received an Instant Pot and an Air Fryer. I have used both exactly once. Don’t get me wrong, I love them! Both are amazing and I know they both will help me be a better kitchen witch. It’s just that they both have a learning curve to them and I am watching videos on each one and picking out some easy recipes to try first.

I have not always considered myself a kitchen witch, in fact, I have only embraced this idea recently. I adore cooking. I am at my best in the kitchen because I think that the kitchen is the heart of the house. It is where everyone unconsciously gravitates to when you are in a home. For me, being a kitchen witch is a honor something I do not take lightly. I love to feed people, weather it be their bodies or souls. I always try to leave people better than when I found them. It is not always possible, but I try my best.

Life is not always kind to us, especially us who are different from others. It is okay because I understand that people fear what they do not understand. It is human nature. I have always been different and I have learned to be okay with that. I tried to fit in and boy it made me miserable! I believe we were made for standing out and not for fitting in, so I am right on target there.

I was cooking long before I could drive a car. I have always been drawn to it because it is creative but in some cases structured too. I however, have no desire to do it for a job because I am afraid I would lose my love for it. Cooking is a fickle mistress sometimes. There are times that I can not wait to get into the kitchen and create. Other times, I avoid it like the plague. I sometimes feel blocked, kind of like writer’s block where nothing looks good or sounds good to me. I hate those times because it is frustrating that nothing really sparks any kind of joy in me. When I get like this, I work with my crystals to help my creativity and unblock myself. I love crystals almost as much as cooking, so my collection will make appearances here too.

I am so happy to have this space to call my own and I am happy to share it with all of you too!

-Blessings