Some things make me smile....

A week ago I took my teen son to another small town to put him on a ferry to go on a weekend trip. Since I wasn't sure if I'd make it back in time to pick up my 7 year of from school, he got a lucky break from school and got to take an early day too. As a special treat (depending on how you look at it) we went to McDonald's after his brother was well on his way. While my little guy was playing in the playground with a new little friend he met there who was rather loud and telling my son to avoid the "girls", to "stay away from them", and "shoot them if they come in the boys room"...I heard my son say...."Well, actually I came here to try and make some new friends" to the boy. This melted my heart and apparently touched the heart of the mother of the girls as well because she looked my way and gave me a grin. All I could think was "Yes! He gets it!" If that didn't make the trip worth it there, we decided to have an ice-cream cone on the way out. J was shooting his toy around as I had instructed him multiple time NOT to do and as I kept walking I noticed he stopped. When I turned only to see him looking in the direction of some High School teenagers sitting at a table I asked him if he shot it under "THERE????". Once he confirmed my suspicions I realized we had also caught the attention of the teens and I explained why we were staring at their feet. To my shock, one of the teens jumped up and said..."Well, we must help this young man find his toy". two boys and one girl got up and got on all fours looking on the floor for J's toy. One young man crawled over to the trash containers and declared he found it and then he did the unthinkable. He laid completely prone on the floor and reached under the trash can holder and retrieved the toy. I was stunned. It would not have been the end of the world if we had never seen the toy again. My son is not the type who would have pitched a fit or thought the world have come to a halt because he had not done what I had told him to do which was stop shooting. These kids were amazing. I thanked them and then went and got cones for J and I. I couldn't get them out of my head so I decided THEY needed to know, stuff like that just doesn't happen. I asked the cashier for a gift card that would cover some ice-cream, coffee or a couple of soda's for them. On the way out I stopped back by the table and sat it down. I said..."I just wanted to let you know that I really appreciate what you did for "J". It means a lot." They seemed surprised but hey, those were some awesome kids and such a great deed, well they needed to know it was really a GREAT DEED! Their parents should be proud. They are doing a good job.

I made it...the entire week! Giddy!!!! Yay!

My simple little blog is about many different things but I must celebrate the fact that I can say that I have been a vegetarian for 1 week. If I were to sum up my week and how I feel, actually pretty darn good. More energy would be the biggest thing I have noticed and that is what I have been going for. This totally plays in to the creative side of me but requires A LOT of preparation and planning. I have one thing I have wanted to make since I had something similar at a party in December and it's kind of like this. http://www.davidlebovitz.com/2010/01/roasted-root-vegetable-wheat-ber/ Does that make you drool? My plan for now is to continue on, more plants,grains and perhaps just a bit of seafood/chicken here or there but for now...PLANTS...fruits and veg's rule!!!! My Facebook fast continues and there are times I feel out of touch and I think I am really a sad sap. So much more to life than to be ruled by Facebook. I also realize that is also a huge population that DON'T use it and we tend to ignore that fact, so in our information sharing we make assumptions that people SHOULD KNOW...because "It was on Facebook" when truthfully, there are many ways to get information out there. I am grateful to know some humble, gracious and giving people who give their time for no other reason that they want to serve, help and make things better. They are soft spoken undercurrents in the world, wonderful and motive-less. Amazing. I have more contact with them away from Facebook and I love that. Selfless without desire to be seen and recognized, and gain notoriety is a quality that I admire. Some beautiful friends have I...truly beautiful...inside and out.

Everything is shrinking....

With all the tragedy, and urgency in the world going on right now it amazes me that the big news of the day is that a sub roll has shrunk an inch after being cooked, stuffed with meats and veg's, and pressed down to be cut in two. Seriously! Whoop D' Doo! I know those folks must really feel robbed of that hard end-piece of their sub roll but I genuinely don't think this is newsworthy, blog worthy yes, newsworthy NO! People must not bake enough to know what happens when bread is manhandled by minimum wage paid teenagers.

So I have gotten through 16 days of the New Year and have managed to actually survive without logging in to my Facebook. I was strolling through a store the other day and saw a guy's buttcrack and thought "that would be a great snarky Facebook post" or then I ate something somewhere and was like..."oooohhhhh ohhhhhh I should post this to Facebook" but then I thought how truly ridiculous. Why live a life so completely transparent that everyone knows my every move or thought. I do miss the people contact...my friends but then I have to ask what makes them friends....but yet I feel a connection to literally a couple of hundred people that I have never met before. This means I worry about, get angry for, or want to knock up side the head more folks than I can count. When I add myself in to the mix, along with all my bunch...I realize it is truly emotionally exhausting...and yet there is that "bungee cord effect" and I know it is pulling me, calling me. Facebook is whispering to me...come back...we miss you...you know you want to check so and so's page, or know if so and so had a baby... I cannot say that Facebook brings out the best in me or really in other people either. It is the most open venue to completely tear someone to complete shreds and there is really no one to protect another. It can do a lot of great stuff but it can also bring out the voyeor, gossip, cheating, judgemental, and truly cruel side of society. You have those that sit behind the screen and pretend to be amazing/kind and wonderful to all that think that know them and then use the power of the "private message" to bully and harass. Facebook can be a great place but has some wickedness all it's own.

A focus of mine this month has been to feel better. I have wanted to clear my head, clear my heart and get in a good frame of mind. I probably made a wee bit of a mistake by watching too many "Vegetarian" related movies over the holidays BUT they did have a lot of great information and some of it did sink it. I hope it sank in. I decided that for one week I am a "VEGETARIAN". This is probably one of the most hair brained schemes I have ever attempted but there is a method to my madness. I just want a week to "detox" and feel better. After this week then I will decide where to go from here. I know a good, plant based diet is just a great spring board for whatever I decide to do but I need to do something NOW!!!! So I started on a Tuesday, middle of the month...which is how I roll. None of this first of the month crap, first day of the week business. Oh now...if I am going to do it...it is going to be a pig falling out of the sky like a big ol' "wonk, where did that come from sort of thing!". Yesterday went fine except I was hungry though I ate. Today so far was a bit of a challenge and I have only had breakfast. So I am going to have to work on that. I have a ton of great stuff on the fridge, made veg' wraps, left over eggplant parm in the fridge but this morning I was stumped. I know this whole thing is going require a lot of careful planning on my part so that I can figure out what I need to do to stay the course for just a week.

Wow, 2013 and it's January 1st. That means a beginning! As with all beginnings there must be a starting point, a jumping off, a figurativ diving board of sorts. This blog, starting today is mine. Yes, I have done blogs before and I actually enjoy them and each have their personal significance for me. I am NOT a resolution kind of girl. I have never been. For the almost 46 years I have been in this world, since I might have been able to understand the concept of a personal "resolution"...I don't think I have truly been able to keep one. That I would call "honesty". That being said there is one thing I have decided that I'd like to set aside for the first part of my NEW YEAR...and that is Facebook. Facebook has found a place in my life that takes up far too much space. I love having this huge although in someways "imaginary" circle of people whom I feel like I have a relationship with. I can support them, they can support me...we can swap recipes, I can hear every last detail of their day and they can do the same of mine. But...BUT....it's too much. I have become absent in my family...I have become absent in my friendships. I walk with my cellphone in my hand just in case someone "updates" or comments on a post I made. At night when my sweetheart and I go to sleep...often I lay on my side...and check status updates on my newsfeed. This all sounds like a foreign language that in todays age, is NOT so foreign. It is what so many of us do. There is so much in my life that needs more of my attention and so I have not resolved but rather "chosen" to put my energy elsewhere for at least a month. I don't know what this blog will evolve in to...but my life is a simple one and my motto that I am "just a girl" is one that I hold dear to through and through. That which is basic, and pure and homespun is what I love most of all. I want to return to those things and the little moments that I find joy in. So with all of this said...I welcome 2013 and with it all the blessings, and surprises and roller coasters it brings.