NEDAW11

Today is the last day of National Eating Disorder Awareness Week and I really did want to say something about this. MY problem with this is that this is a week that I am struggling this week and I want to write something positive and uplifting. So instead of writing too much of anything I am going to forward you to some of the people who inspire and strengthen me daily and weekly with their commitments to their recoveries and the recovery of others. Check them out! These are some uplifting ladies!

Voice in recovery - Kendra is an amazing activist who fights for recovery on a daily basis

Actively Arielle - Arielle VLOGS about once a week with words and a passion that jumps off your screen

Medicinal Marzipan - is a wealth of healthy information and positivity

Beautiful struggle - Missy writes so beautifully and honestly about her struggle and recovery - she opens herself up in a way that makes you root for her and fight alongside her!

So really go check them out and if you need more information about eating disorders or recovery please check out NEDA

*recovery is possible

The reason I am not a food blogger

SO! For some reason I decided I needed to join in on this week's BSI - the ingredient is cumin (what is cumin?). I think the reason I chose to join in this week rather than a week I knew what I would be making something with is because I wanted to celebrate with Biz that her wonderful husband Tony is home from the hospital!

So I googled what pairs with cumin I got a LOT of lemon recommendations...

Then again I googled lemon cumin recipes

I got a LOT of soup recipes and some chicken recipes BUT I didn't have any chicken in the house. I recently had seen on some page a recipe for pretzels so I googled lemon cumin pretzels and came up blank...

SO I found this recipe on grouprecipes.com and thought I coupld take out some of the water and replace it with fresh squeezed lemon juice and add in some cumin too...



SO I gathered my ingredients (look at me all fancy here)


and put them in my bread machine and set it for dough (I don't knead dough I hate stuff under my nails)

at the end of it's cycle I had liquid dough so I did some quick thinking and decided to just let the bread machine do it's thing and make it into bread - well it didn't rise so well so it ended up a really small loaf of lemon cumin bread that the hubster says isn't too bad but it is really sour like lemonade that doesn't have enough sugar and you can't taste the cumin at all



So the moral of this story! Welcome home Tony, Biz don't make him this!

ABC of me...

So I am jumping on the bandwagon - I saw this on abbynormally's site (www.abbynormally.com) and think it looks like fun

Time to jump on the Band Wagon.

Here’s everything you DIDN’T want to know about your’s truly!!

A. Age: 36

B. Bed size: Full

C. Chore you dislike: Laundry

D. Dogs: Dobby aboobacus

E. Essential start to your day: Pupster kisses

F. Favorite color: Depends on the day, pink, purple blue

G. Gold or silver: Silver

H. Height: 5’4″

I. Instruments you play(ed): Old English handbells

J. Job title: Wife/doggy momma

K. Kids: Dogs!

L. Live: Massachusetts

M. Mom’s name: Joan

N. Nicknames: JL

O. Overnight hospital stays: way. Too. Many!

P. Pet peeves: Passive aggressiveness.

Q. Quote from a movie: “Ohana means family, family means nobody gets left behind or forgotten"

R. Righty or lefty: Righty.

S. Siblings: Really 3, I claim to 2

T. Time you wake up: Between 1:30 and 4:00

U. Underwear: Sometimes

V. Vegetables you dont’ like: Olives. Are they veggies?

W. What makes you run late: Jim

X. X-rays you’ve had: Lots: back, arms, legs, jaw, mouth, pelvis, shoulders... You break a lot when you have horses and are clumsy!

Y. Yummy food you make: Soup

Z. Zoo animal favorites: Giraffe

Validation

So I have a (very small) shop in etsy www.etsy.com and I post things there every now and then. It makes me feel as though I am making my jewelry and yarn crafts (which I enjoy doing) for a purpose (because really how many holidays in a row can I give someone a homemade gift?). As I said it's a very small shop. A couple of weeks ago I sold a necklace I had made (not the one above that's one a friend asked me to make for her mother) it was copper chain maille it probably took me 10-12 hours and I sold it for... $9! But in reality the money wasn't even part of it, sure it was nice that my hobby paid for itself that time, but the validation that it gave me was amazing! I watched it go from: wow they bought it, to wow they liked it, to wow they liked something *I* made.

All of a sudden it was as if I had been invited to the "cool" table at school. While I carefully wrapped my special necklace and blissfully brought it to the post I noticed a spring in my step. I was someone who mattered. This is silly, isn't it? I am certain that the hubster and pupster (and a few great friends) would tell you I mattered no matter if I ever sold a single thing but for me? I needed this validation to feel as though I mattered!

***when was the last time you felt validated in something, anything? Come in, give yourself a shout out here!***

What is pleasure?

Joy put the question out for bloggers to answer. What is pleasure?
See her entire question list here http://www.joytanksley.com/blog/2011/02/february-word/

And this got me thinking about what is pleasure really, is it a feeling that you have to look for? Is it something you stumble upon? Is it even something you recognize when it happens?

My guess is that pleasure can't be found if you're looking for it. In my Experience when you are looking for or expecting pleasure you don't usually get it. Isn't the planning and looking forward to a vacation almost always better than the vacation? And the lead up to a movie almost always better than the movie?

In the same way isn't a day you had no hope for often surprisingly PLEASURABLE?

Yesterday I had one of those stumble upon great days! My phone had been acting up, my car tire popped. I needed to go to the mall! Sears could replace my tire while the genius bar worked their magic on my phone.

Well my friend Louisa was free earlier in the day than normal and met me at the mall. We spent a good 3-4 hours (lugging the world's heaviest laptop) window shopping (with shockingly little actual shopping), tea drinking (still think my new favorite blueberry lemonade was amazing), and manicure (gotta love bargain wednesday manicures) getting!

It was a day set up to be boring and tedious and ended up being one of the best I have had in a while!

So what is pleasure?
-good friends
-good attitudes
-good tea
And pupster at my feet has asked that I add:
-good poodles!

So, again, what is pleasure?
-easily attainable (when you're not looking for it)

Where have you unexpectedly found pleasure recently?