Sounds strange, I know, but I had 1.5 lbs. of honey that had started to crystallize and needed to do something with it, so I decided to brew some cough syrup. I scooped the honey out into an enamel pot, added one chopped, strong white onion, and two cold care tea bags from my ample tea supply. It’s been cooking over low heat for the past four hours. I’ll check it again before bed to see if enough of the juice from the onions has reduced for it to be strained and ready for bottling. Once it’s cooled, I’ll add some echinacea/goldenseal extract to it. I find the syrup to be handy for coughs and that under-the-weather feeling during cold season. You can make it with just onion and honey or even garlic and honey for a soothing simple syrup, or you can add more herbal ingredients for whatever cold symptoms plague you most. If you cook it down to a very thick syrup, you can either pour it into candy molds or pour it out on a silicone mat, let it cool, score it into pieces after half an hour, and have your own homemade lozenges. I may go down and add some fennel fronds to mine just for flavor here in a bit.

There was a local produce sale at my neighborhood store, so I went over to check it out and came home with some nice hot and sweet peppers, onions, and corn. I made some salsa with the peppers and onions and some tomatoes I had on hand from the CSA delivery. Tomorrow I’m taking some to share with a friend when I go to visit her. I might make and can some fennel onion relish in the morning before I leave. I haven’t done nearly as much canning as I’d have liked this summer and I’m feeling inspired after my parents brought several jars of home-canned salmon to me when they came to pick up my daughter for the week.

I plan to do a lot of cooking and preserving while she’s away. Mostly to keep myself from missing her so much, but also to have a head-start on easy meals for when she goes back to school. I’m going to prepare muffin batter and freeze it in the paper liners so that I can bake them the night before for an easy homemade breakfast when served with sliced fruit and a glass of milk. I also want to stuff potatoes to freeze for quick and easy dinners, as well as freezing plenty of soups, stocks, and pesto. I’ve also had more apples drying so that we have plenty for school snacks. I might do some pears as well for variety.

I’ve spent much of today pondering my attraction to the slow lifestyle. What makes a woman with ready access to all manner of urban conveniences go out of her way to make as much of her own stuff as possible? A large part of it is quality. I can be a quality snob and yet I’m still a pennypincher, so it’s always made the most sense to me to do as many things as I was capable of myself so that I would be pleased with both quality and price. I’m also a perpetual student. I love to learn new things and, since science and history are two of my favorite subjects, learning how to do things the old-fashioned way or knowing why it is that a certain process works is very satisfying. I’m also not someone who has an easy time sitting still, so the handicrafts give me a way to sit a spell and still get something done. Do a granny square a day on the bus and pretty soon you have a blanket. I prefer to use my time doing things that are either very useful or make me very happy, even better when I can combine the two. Last, and one that has become so important to me since becoming a mother, the projects that I do relax me and give me a creative outlet. Sure, it can be a pain to have to come home after a long day to make a loaf of bread for the next day’s lunches, but once I start working the dough and get into that rhythm, it seems like so many of my cares just fall away and, by the time I’m pulling the loaf out of the oven, I’m calm and happy again.

I like this slower pace. Americans spend so much time dashing around that we forget about the small pleasures of life, the little things that make a big impact and bring us happiness and contentment – that’s why so many of us are sick and stressed out. An hour in my little garden or in my kitchen is worth a dozen psychiatrists and personal trainers. And now that I’ve done some research on various DIY topics and put them into practice, I’m more conscious of my impact on the world around me, how the choices I make affect others not only in my immediate neighborhood, but around the world. Sometimes I make it a game to see how I can reduce my impact even more. What else can I make or do differently?

Believe it or not, for all of my ambitious tendencies, I’ve spent much of today relaxing with a crochet project and a selection of documentaries, getting up to stir a pot or move dishes and clothes around, then back to my yarn. I love days like these. I made a big, delicious glass of apple/carrot/beet/spinach juice about midday with some yogurt on the side, then had a delicious dinner of soft polenta with fresh tomatoes, mixed mushrooms, fresh basil, and roasted garlic while I listened to Haydn on the radio. It’s like a vacation without leaving home.

The other day I got an email from Sara Star over at Spirits Craft telling me that I’d been selected as a winner of the Domestic Witch Blog Award. I’m touched to have my writing so honored.

Today has been a difficult one. Last night I tried taking an L-tryptophan capsule to help with my ongoing insomnia and it worked too well, I’ve been exhausted all day and my stomach has also felt very off. So, of course, what do I do but come home and find myself in the middle of a whirlwind of projects before I can rest? But they were necessary, so I gritted my teeth and hurried through as best I could so that I could get to right here and right now, relaxing in bed with my feet elevated and a big bowl of rice dressed with garlic, Bragg’s, and butter (my palliative for every ailment) cooling so that I can eat.

When I picked my daughter up from summer camp today, her face wobbled when she saw me and she got teary. I asked what was wrong and she sobbed that they had been promised popsicles later that afternoon. She can’t take a popsicle on the bus, so I picked her up and carried her inside, thinking, thinking, thinking. Then I said, “I bet we can make a better popsicle at home.” Her tears stopped, then she looked at me, and said, “Really, mama?” Of course, now that I’ve made this suggestion, I must deliver on it if at all possible, so I started thinking of what we might have to make popsicles with at home. She was very specific that she wanted “fancy” popsicles, meaning she wanted something analogous to store-bought pops, not our usual juice or applesauce popsicles. I started digging through her snack cupboard and found a box of strawberry gelatin and a packet of unsweetened grape soft drink mix. I poured half of each packet into a big pyrex measure along with a half-cup of sugar and a cup of boiling water, stirred it until all of the powders dissolved, added a cup of cold water, then poured the liquid through a small funnel into our popsicle mold (it makes eight; if you have two molds, you could easily double this recipe for delighting many, many kids). They’re now chilling in the freezer, so she’ll have popsicles tomorrow and, given how good the solution smelled while I was mixing it up, I’m betting that they’ll be a winner with my daughter.

She also reminded me that we’d used up the last of the bread this morning, so I put the ingredients for a small loaf of honey oatmeal bread into the bread machine. I usually only use the machine for mixing dough while I’m busy with other things but since I’m not feeling 100% today, I decided to sacrifice quality for convenience this time. I’m having a craving for a loaf of jalapeno bread, something with a nice corn and pepper flavor that will make great, savory toast or grilled cheese sandwiches with tomato. I’m going to tinker with a recipe for cubano bread that I really enjoy, and maybe I’ll roast the peppers to bring out their sweetness and spice.

My lower back continues to bother me as well after straining it awhile ago, tonight I’m thinking of making a castor oil pack to break up any adhesions in the muscles. To make a castor oil pack, you wet a flannel cloth with enough castor oil to soak the cloth but not be a drippy mess, then you place it over the affected area, bind it with some plastic wrap or a strip of old sheet, then lay a heating pad or hot water bottle over the wrap and rest awhile. Once you remove the compress, wash the skin that was covered and do some gentle massage to further relax the area. The flannel can be saved in a container in the fridge and reused many times.

I should make some rice packs for myself, too, mine are about at the end of their useful lives. Using cotton or cotton flannel, sew a square, rectangle, or roll and fill it with rice or rice and herbs – lavender is really nice – then you can heat the packs in the microwave for 30-60 seconds and place them on sprains, strains, or aching tummies. Sometimes when it’s very cold out, I’ll warm them up and put them in bed so we can slip between pre-warmed sheets that feel so cozy.

In a few more minutes, my pick-me-up tea should be ready: kombu (a seaweed easily found in Asian groceries), adzuki beans, and a shiitake mushroom steeped together, tightly covered, for 30 minutes; then you drink the broth and, if you like, eat the kombu and the mushroom – the beans can be composted. I discovered the kombu and adzuki tea in a whole foods cookbook awhile back. The mushroom was my own addition and I think it really adds to the overall nutritional value of the brew. I’m not sure exactly why it works, but it always make me feel better when I’m under the weather. A bit of an acquired taste, though, sometimes I toss in a bit of ginger or tamari for flavor.

My daughter is going away for a week to visit her grandparents before school starts. While she’s gone, I’m planning to split my time between work, projects, and relaxation, probably with plenty of spa treatments thrown in. One of my projects will be making a schultute (literally, school horn) for her first day of first grade. It’s a German tradition. You make a big cone out of posterboard and tissue paper, fill it with their school supplies and some treats or small gifts, then, when class starts on their first day, they get to open them, then display them on the classroom wall for the rest of the year. I think it’s a very sweet tradition and one that my daughter is very excited about. She wants me to make her a red schultute with sharks on it, so I need red posterboard, a bunch of shark stickers or gray paper to make cut-out sharks, then some tissue paper. I have all of her school supplies for next year, so I just need to come up with some treats, preferably homemade.

But, for tonight, I’m going to take it easy in the hopes of feeling much better tomorrow.

Since I was already working from home today, I looked at the morning forecast and, after consulting with my daughter, decided that it would be nice if she stayed home from her summer program today, both so I could spend time with her and to have a break from the heat. We got to have a leisurely breakfast of whole-grain toast with peanut butter, fresh fruit, and herbal tea before I started my workday. She watched some educational children’s programming on public broadcasting but after a little over an hour, started clamoring for my attention. I handed her a pile of felt, fabric scraps, and a fabric marker, then told her to design some clothes and accessories for her favorite dolls. She set to work and spent most of the day engrossed in designing purses, backpacks, aprons, guitars, and more. She’s very artistic and I like to encourage not only her particular talent for drawing, but her ability to entertain herself. I think it also helps her not to think as a constant consumer when she actively can create her own playthings (with some help from Mom). Tonight I sewed the backpack she designed and, while I sewed the body together and the straps, she sewed on the small, decorative pocket herself while I coached her. It was only the second time she’s sewn with a running stitch but she did a really good job. I think that basic hand sewing skills are so vital, even if you only ever use them to do minor repairs.

I worked all day with a break for lunch, leftover whole grain pilaf with black beans, roasted peppers, and corn topped with a dollop of yogurt, and a short walk around the cul-de-sac with child and dog. It was too hot to go far, none of us like this kind of intense heat. Once we were back, I juiced some apples with beets and the last carrots for a quick refresher before tackling the take-home work again. I ended up having to work late to finish it all, so we had a quick dinner of quesadillas with fresh, chopped tomatoes and finely diced onion with a plate of cut fresh vegetables on the side. It was good and left us with plenty of time to get out to the garden.

We planted more basil because I really want a basil plant to bring indoors for the winter. They rarely produce enough for pesto but it is so nice to have a few fresh leaves to shred and sprinkle over pasta or soup. We also planted a bowl with red oakleaf lettuce for cut-and-come-again baby greens and a few more chives sprinkled between for companion planting. I planted two of the four broccoli plants that I plan on over-wintering.

The chamomile I was trying to start for an indoor plant seemingly got burned to a crisp today even though I’d been watering it evenly and moved it into the shade of a larger planter this morning. I’ll keep at it for a bit longer to see if anything survived, but I may just have to wait until spring to have a lovely window box full of German chamomile. It’s my daughter’s favorite herbal tea and I definitely want enough of it to harvest for tea and medicinal purposes. Several years ago I was introduced to an herbal syrup made from boiling down organic apple juice and chamomile or mint; it was fantastic diluted with water or sparkling water over ice. I would love to make and bottle my own versions. I bet rosemary or lavender syrup would be excellent as well.

I have more fall and winter seeds on the way. I’ve set aside a large pot for seeding with easter egg radishes and thumbelina carrots. I know that I can do successive seedings of the radishes all the way through to severe winter weather, perhaps a double crop of the carrots as well. I think my daughter will like the carrots, they’re natural small globes, also called French market carrots.

The compost that we’re getting from the worm bin is just of such excellent quality. Black and rich. I need to figure out a way to sift it, though, to remove larger particulates and the worms. Honestly, I’m thinking of just buying a child’s beach toy with a sifter bottom and using that. It seems like my least expensive and time-consuming option. I need another brick of coconut fiber or peat to help retard clumping in the compost because it can be really dense and holds a lot of moisture. I also need to keep my eyes open for more downed branches from the maple trees to use as leaf mulch in my layered containers.

I have a large jar of honey that is starting to crystallize. My plan is to pour off the honey that is still liquid, then scoop out the crystallized honey into a saucepan with some strong chopped onion and garlic to make cough syrup. Too bad I don’t have a source for coltsfoot, which is also good for coughs. Maybe I can find some slippery elm, echinacea, and goldenseal to add to it, though, to make it a more broad-spectrum syrup. I need to restock our supply of elderberry syrup, too, it was so helpful during last winter’s flu season.

Another busy day drawing to an end, but I feel so good about the things we’re doing right now that it gives me energy. The gardening, the projects, the cooking, the healthier mostly whole foods diet. I feel good. I feel positive about the much bigger steps ahead. Those steps back to the land.

The cake turned out fantastic, a little more dense than a cake made with white flour but very tasty, not overly sweet. We did end up making a peanut butter chocolate icing for it by melting a square of bitter chocolate with butter and peanut butter over low heat, then whisking in powdered sugar until it was the proper consistency for spreading.

I tried to come in and finish my day early, I really did. My back is aching from bending and carrying; however, I felt that I had to go out and put together a pot for bush peas since I only have about another week to plant those for a late fall crop. I layered wet newspaper, fine soil, worm castings, a thin layer of dead, crumbled leaves, and more soil, then watered it with a dilute solution of worm tea and water. The pea seeds are soaking overnight in legume inoculant. I’ll plant them in the morning in a zig-zag pattern to get more plants into the long window box I prepared. I like the bush peas because they tend to web together and not need much in the way of extra support and they’re fairly compact. Good, sweet flavor in both the peas and the pods.

Took a shower and decided to give my skin a treat, so I brought a little plastic bowl of sugar into the shower and exfoliated my face, neck, and chest. You just wet your skin and rub the sugar in gently until it turns to syrup, then rinse it away. It leaves your skin feeling so soft and smooth. Got out and gave myself a scalp massage with a few drops of rosemary and lavender essential oils, easing away tension, feeling a bit luxurious. I need to get some more sweet almond oil for my skin and hair, nothing else I’ve found makes it softer.

I still haven’t finished the dresser cloth but I did make progress on it during my breaks today. We have some good food for the week and I’m looking at Lasagna Gardening for Small Spaces,
playing with potential garden plans for next year while I sit here watching a movie. I ordered a bunch of nursery catalogs online tonight so that I can spend happy winter hours cozied up with a stack of them and a cup of hot tea.

I may need to get my dad or someone else handy to come help me build some planter boxes for next year. I mostly need someone to cut the lumber and help me get it out to my deck. I’m pretty sure I could get it put together from there. I have this idea for a two tiered box against the back wall with a trellis attached or a single, wider box with a trellis so that I can grow pole beans, cucumbers, and other vining plants. I’d like to have two half-barrels for columnar apple trees as well as the strawberry barrel I already have, and maybe another half-barrel for another dwarf fruit such as a fig or mulberry. I need to make much better use of my railing, too, installing planter boxes all around for herbs and small or trailing plants. I’m going to make the strawberry jar I already have into a planter for herbs and lettuce. I need to get rid of some of the smaller pots people have gifted to me since they’ve not proven to work well in the microclimate of my deck. Unless I can find compact, useful houseplants to put in them.

Alright, it’s time to sleep. I am one tired girl after my busy Sunday.

While walking home from the bus stop just now, I felt a sharp stinging sensation near my eye and grabbed the spot, effectively smashing the insect that had bitten me into unidentifiable oblivion (not a flea, too small for a mosquito – probably some kind of biting gnat or fly) but I now have a small but very itchy bite about half an inch from the corner of my right eye so I’m laying here with a cotton ball compress of witch hazel and tea tree oil on it. Already it’s helping. I make my tea tree witch hazel by pouring 1/3 – 1/2 of a small bottle of tea tree oil into a large bottle of witch hazel. It’s very handy for all sorts of skin complaints and makes a refreshing toner and cleanser that feels especially nice on warm days or after a hot bath. I have sensitive skin and I’ve not found it to be irritating but I’d definitely patch test it on your arm before putting it somewhere sensitive like your face.

I need to restock my supply of cosmetic clays. Right now I have none and they are incredibly soothing for insect bites, heat rash, and other summertime skin maladies. You just mix them with water, herbal tea, fresh juices, or even milk to make a paste of whatever thickness you like, then slather it on the irritated area and let it dry before washing it off with lukewarm water. You can buy cosmetic clays at health food stores, herb shops, or online – usually it’s sold by weight and I try to buy a one-pound bag at least because it goes a long way, you can mix up many treatments from a single large bag.

Alright, I’m going to take the compress off now and get some dishes done before a friend comes to visit tonight.

Today was my first day learning a fairly essential skill in this modern world – driving.  For reasons of my own, up until now I have not been behind the wheel of a car and I finally felt ready and compelled to learn.  I was nervous, but it was so fun that soon I was enjoying it too much to be scared of it anymore.

Afterward I met up with a new friend to go to the farmer’s market in downtown Portland.  I know that spring is here now, the markets are opening and it was wonderful to peruse the offerings.  I picked up some beeswax for preparing cosmetics and salves, baby turnips with their greens, some deliciously spicy baby greens, and a bag of tart dried cherries.  Yum!  We ate the greens as a salad with a big plate of pasta tossed with unsalted butter, Flagship cheese, and a dusting of cracked black pepper.  Sometimes simple food is the best of all.

I started doing some cleaning but realized shortly into that venture that the problematic parts of my lower back were starting to twinge, so rather than exacerbate it, I mixed up a mustard bath by whisking a few tablespoons of powdered yellow mustard into a half cup of baking soda, then mixing in a dash of eucalyptus, rosemary, and lavender oils.  Half of the batch in a hot bath is incredibly effective relief for back and muscle pain, plus it’s great if you have a cold with no fever because it really opens up your pores and sinuses and leaves you feeling toasty warm for hours afterwards.

Tomorrow I’m supposed to go hiking and picnicking with friends in honor of someone’s birthday, so tonight I’m resting up so that I’ll be fit and hopefully pain-free tomorrow so that I can enjoy myself.  I’ve been putting a great deal of effort into increasing my physical fitness (the unheeded survival skill), so I’m looking forward to getting in a great deal of hiking during the nice weather.

February and March were interesting months.  There was a major life shift that caused me to retreat and regroup; I’m just now getting back to projects that were waylaid by the shift.

Today I planted romaine lettuce, cilantro, and flat-leaf parsley from starts, then started sugar snap peas from seed.  Some green leaf lettuce is coming up in my daughter’s meadow garden, as well as mustard spinach (which the birds are feasting on) and what might be some very young carrots.  I also bought a packet of bush cucumber seeds and I’ll start those in the window in successive crops near the end of the month to give us pickling cukes mid-summer.  I still need to buy some bush bean seeds.  Everything else I’m going to do from started plants.  I’m feeling lazy this year between work, night classes, and parenting.

After planting, I came in and set about the glamorous task of scrubbing my toilets.  They’ve had a build-up of mineral deposits, so I went after them with a pedicure pumice stone from the dollar store.  Got them looking pretty good, but I’m afraid I may still have to use some kind of chemicals to remove the scale deep down in the still-visible portion of the drain.  I should probably dunk my shower heads in something to remove the mineral deposits as well, they’re a bit clogged and not flowing as smoothly.

My list of household repairs and dreams grows daily.  I’d like to install under-cabinet LED lighting over the prep area in my kitchen so that I have extra, focused light as needed.  Also thinking of putting in mug hooks for my four coffee cups near the back of the cabinet to get those mugs out of the cabinet and free up precious cupboard space.  I’d like to find a half-circle pot rack, too, and install it over the tiny prep counter where the toaster lives.  Again freeing up precious cupboard space.  My kitchen is far too small for anyone who cooks more than oatmeal and the occasional can of soup.  I frequently end up doing prep work at the table, then bringing my ingredients back into the kitchen for actual cooking.

My kitchen needs new tile and I’m thinking of pricing out what it would take to install wood or parquet floors instead of carpeting in the living room and my bedroom.  It would save wear and tear on my spine and wear and tear on my sanity because it is so hard to keep carpet looking nice with an active child, a large dog, and Oregon weather.  Not to mention that losing the carpet would help my minor warm weather allergies and be more attractive.

I need to replace the screen door that fell off last fall in an attempt to guillotine my foot so that we have a secure door that still allows for cross-breezes in warm weather.  It has been much colder in my house this winter than in winters past, I’m sure it’s because the extra door isn’t there to help hold out the drafts.

Of course, all of this high-minded planning costs money, which there is precious little of, but a friend of mine who is handy and willing to work for food has his eyes open for parts and materials that meet my various home repair needs.  I find my height (short) very frustrating at times because there are so many jobs I could do by myself if only I was tall enough to reach.  Things like replacing the screen door.  I know how to do it, I’m just not big and strong enough to easily replace it by myself.  It’s safer and easier to call on a friend.

My predominantly vegetarian diet has paid off handsomely healthwise.  I’m now eight pounds away from my pre-pregnancy weight.  I have little pain and lots of energy.  I’ve started training for the walking portion of The Race for the Cure this September in honor of a friend of mine who recently lost her battle with breast cancer.  I already walk nearly every weekday at lunch, so I feel like I’m in a good place for such training (physical fitness is an important and overlooked aspect of survival).  I can do three miles easily in under an hour already, so I just need to keep working on speed and stamina.  It’s nice to have a goal for fitness.  I’d been getting lazy the past few months, bored with my routines, but now I feel a whole new vitality because I have something to strive for.  It’s made it much easier to get out there and exercise.

It seems almost miraculous when I remember how a scant three years ago, I could barely walk because of hip and back pain.  Physical therapy, supplements, and changes in diet have been absolutely crucial to getting my quality of life and my health back.  I look forward to continuing this journey in my strengthening body.

I deeply love freebies. It’s a great way to try new products or stock up a tiny bit on products you love; they almost always send you some coupons along with the samples; and, if you’re a survivalist like I am, they provide you with useful products in convenient packaging to outfit your first aid kit, your home storage, and your bug-out bag. I frequently get free samples of over-the-counter medicines, vitamins, homeopathic remedies, food, gum, beverage mixes, tea bags, and dog food. Sometimes even free t-shirts (I don’t usually care what they say since I reconstruct them or strip them for making rugs).

My favorite freebies sites are Thunderfap, Frugal, Freebies, and Deals, and the freebies section on about.com. Between the three of them you can load yourself down with goodies.

After bemoaning the potential emptiness of my daughter’s Easter basket earlier, I hopped onto Thunderfap and found a bunch of things to put in my daughter’s basket: stickers, temporary tattoos, perfume samples, lotion, a Snoopy bobblehead, bookmarks, snacks, coloring books, and more. And it should all be here before Easter! No postage to pay, all absolutely free. Love that.

Because sweepstakes and freebies increase your online junk mail, you may want to set up a free account that you use just for such things and you’ll probably want to use a form tool like Google’s AutoFill feature to save you time. But I spent an hour today applying for freebies and I’m getting a bunch of brand name products to try in the next few weeks, from fabric trim to energy drinks and free coffee. Plus, I get to look forward to something besides bills in my mail. Sometimes they even give you an option to forward freebies to your friends and family so you can surprise someone with a little treat, too, though I only do that if someone gives me permission first.

But if you have a little free time, it’s an easy way to stock your cache and even provide some pleasant little luxuries.

My daughter has extremely dry, sensitive skin that can break out in itchy patches, especially during cold, dry winter weather. This winter has been exceptionally bad. I’ve been slathering her with a hypoallergenic lotion and hydrocortisone cream on the most affected places morning and night, but the help from them is minimal at best.

I believe that what we take into our bodies is a powerful part of healing our bodies naturally, so I’ve started researching natural remedies for her because the treatments for skin conditions by western medicine can be harsh and/or ineffective from the reading I’ve done. Today I consulted with someone at a health food store about the best homeopathic remedy for her and, after the clerk and I flipped through some references together, comparing notes, she recommended 30c homeopathic sulfur to help with the current flare-up, but said that for long-term relief, I probably needed to increase the Omega-3 oils in my daughter’s diet so that her skin could lubricate and heal from the inside out. Thus was I introduced to the world of flavored fish oil gummies for children. What will they think of next? Tonight is our first night of treatment, should this fail after a week, then we’ll go see a naturopath or physician.

I’m also encouraging her to shower more often than she takes baths except for the occasional colloidal oatmeal bath and then I don’t let her soak for long, much to her dismay. Tonight I need to do some more reading in some of my herbal and nutritional references to see what else might help her skin heal and stay healed.

I spent the morning catching up on necessary paperwork: financial aid application for my daughter’s school; paying taxes; paying bills; and more. By the time I was done, I was feeling mentally drained with the beginnings of a tension headache creeping up my neck – it’s never easy to see my finances written out in black and white like that. I poured a bit of sesame oil into my hand, added a few drops of rosemary oil to it, then rubbed the oil into my neck and temples before doing some gentle neck and upper body stretches. I still have homework, take-home work, and my FAFSA to do but I may hold off on the FAFSA until tomorrow and just focus on the necessary work later this evening and then only after a hot shower and some more stretching.

In order to get everything that I need to do done, I have to remember to take the time to take care of myself. I’ve been neglecting my health again because of stress and that’s poor survival instincts. I have to be physically and mentally well to keep up with this crazy life of mine.

Tonight we’ll have an easy dinner of coconut curried shrimp over rice with some veggies on the side, then an early bedtime for the little miss so that I have time to work and still get to sleep at a reasonable hour because tomorrow is another very busy day.

I did get the mood-boosting news that I’d won yet another giveaway, this time from Boston Mamas: a Noodle & Boo gift pack of baby bath and body products (perfect for my daughter’s sensitive skin) from Sylvie & Bruno. How exciting! It is so much fun to get something in the mail besides bills and junk mail.

All of my winning lately has me thinking that I should get back to putting my hand to contests of merit such as cooking contests and state fair entries. Washington County Fair is coming up after all.