Thursday, November 14, 2013

Reconstructing My Life

My little house on the prairie is coming right along
at a snail's pace. Which may be the case for the rest of my life.
Change takes time.
Change takes money.
Change takes willingness to accept change.

Humans, for the most part, fight change.
I know I do.



As I plan the steps and the order of what to "do" next is constantly changing,
the revelation of how it is the same as my life came to mind.

When I first came over to the Sand Box, I had a number of years in mind (5) and a monetary amount affixed to my thinking of when this adventure would end.

Last week… after getting a restoration bid (way more money than I will pay for a restored kitchen, but I will have a professional do the bathroom)  for my little house on the prairie, the re-evaluation of my original thinking began.

I work half as much as I did in Texas. I work just as hard, or harder, but half as much time is spent at my work.
My pay is more than any job I had in Texas, and my housing is paid for.
THAT IS ALMOST TWICE WHAT I MADE IN TEXAS.
So that is twice as much compensation for half as much time.

Why am I counting the years or the monetary amount? Silliness.

This adventure will end when it is time for it to end.
Hopefully I will have a beautifully restored home and a fat bank account when it does, but just as everyone's ideas of "what is in store for me next" changes,
so does life, and here, in the shifting sands, it can happen before you know what hit you.

In the mean time, it is time to reconstruct me. Letting my hair grow out in it's natural color for the first time is nearly 30 years (started going gray in my early 20's). Finding my new hobbies which can be followed in any country in the world, and revising my musical enjoyment that has gone to the wayside and is not healthy for me.
It isn't that I don't want to return to my home country, state, or town, I just want to make the most of this adventure called life and see where it goes without the previous preconceived notions of what it has to be, or what it can't be… It can be whatever we make of it.

I will ride these sand dunes as long as they will let me…

What will you do?






Saturday, October 19, 2013

That Looks Better... and it SHOULD

Before Pictures


The front of the house was neat enough, but the shrubbery and ivy around the front door were a liability if anyone was thinking about breaking in. Although, I have to say, there isn't anything inside, so no need to break in.

Welcome to the garden area that will not be a garden. 

A sundry of odds and ends (mostly trash)

Wood, windows, bad fencing

A cedar tree hiding a tree with a bad trim job and an ugly alley. 


The AFTER Pictures... after 1 K worth of work by someone else. 


Brush and Cedar tree removed, along with all ivy off the house. 
The two junk piles cleaned up. The fencing has also been removed even though in this pic it is still there. 

The view from the back door now. 

Where the salvageable wood lives now. (BTW, that is the well house... yes, water well) 











Friday, October 18, 2013

Foodie Friday

Stress relief in cooking. Others often tell me it makes them more stressful, but for me it just takes my thoughts to something simple... food. This morning I saw this great idea for breakfast.


So I started with knowing I didn't have any spinach, but I did have bacon, smoked salmon, English muffins, and enough eggs to make poached eggs and hollandaise sauce. 

Here are the pictures in progression and the final product. Not quite as beautiful as the one above, but still very tasty. 

The eggs here are that much orange-er than eggs in the states, and much tastier too. 
 Fresh lemon juice for the hollandaise

Melting the Ghee
Plate garnish and a bit of flavor to add to the dish. 
Not as much as salmon as in the inspirational picture but still just as tasty. 
Mixing in the ghee



Toasted the muffins with cheese and smoked salmon to prepare them for the eggs and sauce. 
It has been a long time since I poached eggs but I thought they turned out pretty well. 


They were enjoyed by all brunch guests...
The hollandaise would have been better if I had not used ghee and had used unsalted butter, but I didn't have any.

Saturday, October 12, 2013

Home Sweet Home

I bought a house.
I bought a house a year ago.
I have yet to live in the house.
I probably won't live in it until it is paid for (5 year note), but shhhh don't tell anyone that it is not occupied at the moment.

In the mean time, I am updating, remodeling, refurbishing it.

It is a small house.
It is a small cozy house, just the right size with plenty of land for crazy ideas.

Here is my house when I bought it.


It has a red roof now. One day it will have newly painted trim. I haven't decided on a color yet. I did choose the red roof because it felt like that should be the color of an original stucco farm house. When the previous owner gave me a set of pictures of the house, low and behold, the roof was red when she bought it. 

So among my many ramblings, there will be stories of my house and the trip we are making together to become my oasis, when I leave the Sahara for another one. 

See, just looking at this picture I get excited about all the possibilities, without taking away from the original style and grace of a handmade home by a local man who married one of the girls of the town's namesake family. 
Welcome to my home. 


Tuesday, August 27, 2013

What You Don't Know Can Hurt You

Fried Chicken cooked in Crisco with gravy made with Gold Medal Flour, Sweet tea make with Pure Cane Sugar and fresh potatoes mashed with Plains Dairy Milk and Country Crock spread. One of my favorite meals my mother would cook. As I grew up and became my own cook, I did the same. From an early age, I learned the brands she preferred and I bought them too. Never a thought crossed my mind that the companies I was doing business with had anything other than my best interests at heart. A huge mistake that many people have made as well.

As I wandered the aisles of a grocery store in the UAE and found some of my favorite brands, a sadness like I have never known came over me.
In the US so many of my favorite brands have gone to the dark side. Guided or prodded by the lure of money, the corruption of government by giant companies that are changing our world right under our noses while we were not paying attention to it or reading the labels on our food products. Now we let them stuff us full of corn syrup grown from the worst grade of corn in the world. We are choked with corn syrup sugars in most of the products we ingest, and many of the ones you would least expect.

After some friends told me about how all of the sugar beets in the US are now genetically modified and they only buy organic sugar now, I decided to check out the local sugar packaging. Sure enough, all of it is organic, made from sugar cane and not from anywhere near the USA. A local woman asked me why I wasn't buying the sugar but I was reading the bag, she was scared to buy it because I didn't. I explained I didn't need sugar, I just wanted to know what was in it and where it was from. She looked at me like I was crazy as she plopped the bag of sugar in her basket.

The green signs above all the produce announced their country of origin... Tunisia, North Africa, Australia, and India, to name a few. My thoughts flit from one scenario to another as I look for basics to get back in the groove after my month long holiday. Everyone asked me how long I would stay overseas when I was in the US and I couldn't honestly answer. I am almost scared to return to the US, and I am very comfortable where I am. Yet I continue to plan on making a home in my hometown upon my return.

I prefer this cleaner world, that is not so clean. The fruits and vegetables don't look perfect or stay fresh for weeks, but they taste so good. They contain only what Mother Nature intended and they haven't been "changed" by a corporation who just wanted to make money off the hard working farmers who grew the produce.

Money is the root of all evil, and it will be the end of us as a Nation in the US of A. Fight, fight for your lives, for what is right, for a better world and not the one we have let a select few choose for us. Don't wait, don't sit and let someone else do it. Even if it is small, do something.

Thursday, May 23, 2013

Thought for the Day

Eat, Pray, Love. Well two out three isn't bad.
However, if thinking of eating is the same as eating, then I am guilty as charged.
Today is the first time I am attempting to fast for 24 hours in order to improve my health and lose weight.

Here is how it all started... before you say anything, hear me out.
Every time I see a doctor, my lab results, my blood pressure, my oxygen saturation levels, everything, I mean EVERYTHING, comes back in "NORMAL" range, what ever that is...
until...

TODAY

Last week whilst seeing a doctor for my depraved mind  trying to get someone to tell me why I can't seem to get well and whether or not I have walking pneumonia (I am and I don't). The doctor wanted a fasting blood sugar level and a cholesterol level test done.
Hmmm do I think I have diabetes or high cholesterol? Uh... NO and probably...
So the lab calls this morning.
"Miss Cindy?" (a woman of asian or Philippino descent, you do the accent, it makes it worth it)
"Yes"
"Miss Cindy?"
"Yes, I am Miss Cindy"
"Miss Cindy, this is blah blah blah from Dr. Dah dah dah's office"
long pause
"Yes?"
"Yes..."
"Ok, are you calling about an appt?"
"Miss Cindy, you had lab work done?"
"Oh yes, I did"
"Miss Cindy, your lab work has come back and Dr. Dah Dah Dah would like you to make an appt. to see her and she can give you your lab results."

Ok, right about here I am thinking... I have never had a call like this before.. Shit, I am getting old and am going to have to start taking better care of this shell I am hauling around with me... CRAP! I HAVE DREADED THIS DAY ALL MY LIFE AND NOW IT IS HERE... EXPLETIVE EXPLETIVE!

"um, can't you just give the results to me over the phone? I don't live close to Abu Dhabi and it will be a few weeks before I come back to the city... "

* stall... talk her into the info... act like it is impossible... stall...

"Miss Cindy, I do not have your results in front of me..."

*crap, it was worth a try

"It is not an emergency, but the doctor would like to see you..."

*whew, it is the cholesterol probably

"would you like to make an appt Miss Cindy?"

"No, I will just call when I get to Abu Dhabi in a few weeks...."

*don't make an appt., get off the phone, be polite
*hurriedly
"Thank you for calling, I will make the appt. blah blah blah, bubye"

CLICK

SEVERAL EXPLETIVES

Then I forgot about it...

Until I got home from work

Hey, a friend of mine sent me a link to a video about a man who wanted to start watching his health as he was getting old oldER and he found that fasting was beneficial. People all over the world do it, so I can too. Heck when I had to fast before going to the doctor, it was a piece of cake. (Bad, I know)

http://www.disclose.tv/action/viewvideo/110651/BBC_Horizon_2012_Eat_Fast_and_Live_Longer/

So... when did I last eat something and what was it?
A breakfast bar and a little peach cobbler I made last night, and about 10 am.
Hmmm, I can wait til tomorrow morning to eat again, piece of cake right? NO, glass of water.

Now usually, I can sit and read and surf and watch and talk and I don't think I eat or drink while I do those for an entire evening or not much...
PIECE OF CAKE FIND THAT WILL POWER!

I have now figured out, at 8 pm in the evening, my thoughts turn to food about every 10 minutes if I think I can't have any... however, in the video it is stated that if you wait 15 minutes, the hunger thoughts will end.
Hmmm,  I am not a mathematician, even though I play one with 5 year olds, but even I can figure out THAT DOESN'T ADD UP.

So, let's do some Pinning (yes I am addicted)
hmmm, how many food pins did I "Pin It"? I don't know, a few more than I have in a very long time. I don't usually pin food unless it really moves me or is a soup, as I can always use a good soup idea.

Ok, that wasn't a good idea. Let's watch a movie... oh look, they are picking apples, and crabs.. yeah, it is all about the food for me.

Now it is late, and I am sleepy, so after my revelation of how much food does rule my life and the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

I am going to make it. Of course, I still have my head in the sand about the lab results. Please don't take my bacon away, or my peach cobbler.

My momma, bless her soul, had a hunger for good food right up to the end, of course, it was the tumors in her head making her think she was hungry. Or was that just what she told me so I wouldn't give up the good food fight.

My body is a temple and it is high time I started treating it that way.
Now if my will can overcome temptation.

Saturday, May 18, 2013

Teach Me

Kumquats are something I have had never tried. While traipsing around Abu Dhabi in search of beets and fennel for her salads, my friend picked these up at the local Lulu's. As we were leaving she grabs the package out of the bag in shopping cart, tears open the plastic and plucks one out. 
"Here, try this." she states in a calm demeanor. 
In no way preparing me for the explosion of flavor and confusion about to overcome my taste buds. 
The contorted look of exponential sour-ness on my face tells her some explanation is in order. 

Yep, tried my first kumquat, like the nickname "squats" another friend taught me, and liken them to natures own sour gummy, and better for you. 

Margaritas you say? why yes, that is a great idea for them as well. 
A tree I can have in my garden? even better. 

Going "All In"

Why make a simple decision difficult?
Because it is what I do best, and unintentionally.

As I rose out of an incredible slumber this morning, a brave decision was made. My little Shasta will come home with me in July/ August, and roost in it's new home until our next great adventure.
What should we see on our way down Route 66 from Chicago? or while we are Niagara Falls? or when we traipse through the southern part of Canada on our way to Chicago, just so we can say we were in Canada?
Let me know and cheer us on... it might be a one woman show... unless you want to tag along.

It will be an adventure for sure... and after all, shouldn't life be about the journey, not the destination?

Friday, February 1, 2013

February Fools Day

Rough week. REALLY ROUGH week.
So after almost three months of no posts, here is one.
So, what do you think?
Are all those cute little sayings,

 like:
What doesn't kill you makes you stronger

really true
or are they just there to make you not feel like such a failure?

Sometimes, I think things truly happen for a reason, like a greater power showing me a sign.
This morning it was a movie I would have never chosen to watch. I don't think I had ever seen it before either, because I thought the storyline was completely different.
But, when it came on, I didn't change the channel.
As I watched, I saw undercurrents of people acting for their own agendas,
leading others astray of their true intentions.
Using someone for their own self-promotion, as the main character simply worked to do what they had always wanted to do for the good of others around them.

There were too many parallels for me to mention them all, but it certainly showed me that even
when I am the underdog,
when I am doing my best for the situation I am in
when I make mistakes and try to pick myself up and correct them

that others that I think are on my side may or may not be.

There are things about my life where I am that are not easy, right now they are down right difficult. However, just like the main character in the movie, I will persevere and take the hurdles, setbacks and consequences as they come.


The movie? G.I. Jane