Halloween costumes 2017

  Some Jurassic Park dinosaur hunting action

 I did Esme's makeup and it all came off really nicely afterwards, which was a worry!

Mark didn't carry all his accessories.. but the syringe was a big hit :)

The 'needle' was actually a bamboo skewer painted silver and the fluid was blue glow-sticks.

 A great picture of the group!

bits

We had enough stuff in the plumbing box of odds and ends to fix the shower head today - it fell off (on poor Esme) last night.  She was calm and cool, turned it off, shoved a towel on the worst of the over spray, and came to ask for help.  With some  vice grips and recycling we put together another thing that works pretty well.  We had some clearance 'missing pieces' things we had bought last year on closeout that we robbed pieces from to make an entire working apparatus.

Also made Rice Krispie treats last night (Some to bring for tonight) and worked on our costumes.  I would like her to have something warmer for hers, .. I think she'll freeze half to death tonight.  It's been 37 and 38 every morning and I'm wrapping her in blankets at the bus stop.

making rice krispie treats

costume posts later!  We have to make an emergency cheese and coffee run to town before we get sucked into all of the festivities tonight.  I feel a little bad because they wanted me to work today (someone got really sick) but since we had made all of these plans weeks in advance and have put so much effort into it I just couldn't agree ... and they didn't press really hard.  Hope it's all okay.  (glad also I didn't have to run there to fix the broken shower head)

Migraine, get up and dance

Another one of these.. not sure if it is because I ate so much sugar yesterday and then read for hours and napped in a warm bed  ... but it might just have been due.  I'd been pretty stressed out, and stress headaches happen.  So about 3:30 am I just couldn't sleep any more.  Had a hot bath.  Wish I could sometimes just immerse the top of my head in warm water for hours.. right up to my eyes.. but there are breathing problems with that once you relax.  Heh.  And the water heater runs out if I sit with my head under the faucet, which I do, until it runs out.

Anyway.  I had nausea, too.  Wasn't sure if I wanted to eat or throw up.  I hate that worse...  Cut my hair (have to clean it up later) but it didn't help enough.   My stomach finally decided it was empty, but I didn't want to eat anything.  Made some hot coffee and put on my music - as I can't read when the migraine gets this way, but I can listen.

After Summer and Let it Go by Great Big Sea I turned to Eye to the Telescope - and got up to move.. dance, slide etc.. the coffee might have been working or I just took some of the words to heart and decided to follow my instincts.  I felt so much better after a little while, made some food (biscuits with butter and maple syrup.. lots of carbs) and rocked out.  It's almost time to get Esme up for school now, and I'm feeling a lot better.  The pain is still there, but buried a bit.  My next instinct is to enjoy some sun instead of hot water.. whenever it comes up.  It's cold out there, but I would like to be outside for a while when it warms up. 

If it wasn't for the chance of poison ivy (which is getting much better, only a few blisters left here and there and most of the places I scratched my skin off have healed up to look like dry skin patches instead of a rash) I'd go out into the woods and down by the lake.

I'm enjoying the Magnus Chase book (Rick Riordan author).. it's funny. It kept me sitting in the bed (it's cold) reading it for a few hours yesterday after Esme got home from school.  Then the warmth of the bed sapped me down for an hour and a half.  Napping like that often throws me off.. but maybe I can get through it.  Cleaning up the bad haircut I gave myself is going to be a chore... not as bad as sometimes, but a bit shorter than I should have, too.

near ketogenic bits

I haven't been using the bike or doing yoga for more than a week - and I'm going to have to get back to it... I haven't gained any weight, either - but I haven't lost any more.  And even with cheating (Mark and Esme talked me into onion rings the other night) I've sort of stalled out at just ten pounds lost.  With the poison ivy - I really just wanted it to be over.  And it almost is.  So, I'm going to start back on the path to lose the other five pounds.  Mark says he'll chase down and destroy all poison ivy in the yard for me ;)

But I'm not sure if I want to continue with the near ketogenic diet in earnest - or just up the exercise.  I was already eating 45-50% fat before pushing the carbs down - that was my natural state, even with eating sugar and bread.  Maybe I can take these lessons learned - nuts and butter and avocadoes and such and apply them to a continued low calorie diet with heavily reduced sugar but not avoiding everything that contains starch.

I think if I up the exercise I'm going to need that.
Because its getting cold... and life just isn't slowing down.  We're going to be even busier these next few weeks.  Halloween, birthday party out at the museum... I can try it for a bit and see if I start to gain weight back or lose any.  At this point, I've already gotten more than halfway there and I have to learn the right way to keep it going.

bit

I lost my watch this morning somewhere between my bedside table and Esme's room -- found it later, in the washing machine.  I had stopped there along the way to put a load of towels in before I woke her up.  Luckily, it was waterproof - and it was okay.

Started reading 'Magnus Chase', a spinoff from the Percy Jackson series... seems good so far.

Both of my chickens were sitting on top of the fence when I went out there to feed them after work.  I just left them there - they'll either come down and get in the house or they won't.

Super Fox costume

 This is our cape pattern and the rest of the costume for 'Super Fox'.

I used a cape pattern I found online, out of plain cotton on one side and satin on the other.

 

And this is how the fox goes POUNCE!

A wire and rope hinge gate

 The finished gate - it's functional and it locks.

 We looked for metal hinges and couldn't find any - so we made a hinge out of a piece of wire and a hook, a board and some nylon rope.  I couldn't find this on the Internet anywhere, either - so we documented it.

 A very massive knot of rope through two holes drilled in the board.  Mark said its a nice piece of redneck engineering.

 Spud Dog decided it was all just too exciting for him and Esme got pictures of him vegging out in the leaves.

 The main purpose of the fence was to keep the goat from digging up the plants near the well house when we tie her string out longer in this area.  With it contained we can put some more Spring bulbs in here to add to the daffodils, rose bush and tulips that are already planted here.  I might even make a brick pathway inside here to keep everything easy to access...

 And there is a lot of sharp metal and glass in the area near the wellhouse, and we wanted to contain that as well behind a fence.  We intend to clean it up some more in the Spring and maybe build another set of stairs and a platform for the cats to have a lounging area out here.

Mark pointing out the hook wire mechanism and lock that he is proud of on the gate.

bit

It has been a week and a half, and the poison ivy is finally healing up some... while still (yes, still) showing up new spots in between the old ones.  I am apparently very lucky this way.. well, rare, I wouldn't say lucky.

Anyway.

Drinking coconut milk in coffee with the cream in it is like drinking swiss cheese.  Mark asks if that is a good thing.  Yes, it is.  I'm still losing weight on the near ketogenic diet, even with cheating once in a while there.  I threw in a banana the last few days - sugar and starch - because I wanted the vitamins above and beyond the one a day I'm taking. 

Esme and I finished reading A Wrinkle in Time.  We've started The Sixty Eight Rooms (about the Thorne rooms at the Art Institute in Chicago). 

Not much else to report.  The chickens still have not laid more eggs - but I got a dozen from a coworker's chickens in the meantime.  They have finally stopped eating every shred of food I put out there before I refill it in the morning.  That's a good sign, right?

Still have to look at making the cape for Esme.  I will probably use the pattern I have from her Kangaroo Girl cape from long ago.  Welsh is affecting my spelling.. I want to write everything 'phonetically' and by that I mean phonetically in Welsh.

I also want a t-shirt with a Welsh saying on it, but looks like I'll need to CafePress it. 

exotic pet fair

It was at the Fairgrounds in Jackson, TN, and they had a lot of animals.  It was a dollar each adult to get in.  There were snakes, lizards, sugargliders, birds, mice, rats, a hamster, hedgehogs, salamanders and even alligators (caimans).  We didn't buy anything except a little souvenir pen for Esme.  The other family we went with didn't buy any animals, either, much to the sadness of their little girl.  I was in a down form (little black cloud, someone said) because of the poison ivy and the Benadryl.. but I was there and we looked at everything.  We stopped and had some chicken on the way home.

Off to work today.

the bits and the snags

Oh, this poison ivy is making me irritable... today seemed to take forever to get over at work.  It's getting better for the most part,  but new spots keep showing up at the same time.  GROWL!  I felt so bad I went and ate some sugar last night... and had to tell myself that it will be okay, I won't gain all ten pounds back in one night just because I did that.  Just get back on the program.   I'm trying not to be obsessive.. to roll with the punches.. but the poison ivy is a pretty big punch to go along with a full week of closing shifts.

I have a day off tomorrow, and we're going to an exotic animal fair for a bit.  We will NOT, not I tell you - come back with an Arctic Pocket Giraffe or a sugarglider or a pony. 

Esme went to the birthday party today and they all had fun.  It sounds like she had a really good time with her friend.

She also told me about what she wanted for a Halloween costume, but that I could help her make it after my poison ivy went away - so I wouldn't have to deal with two things at once.  Sweet, actually.

I will be much happier when it is gone... but at the rate its going it is going to be a while....

run by bit

I'm still fighting the poison ivy.  Benadryl makes me tired, and the weather is now cold.  Esme has the birthday party to go to tomorrow.. and we've all been sleeping in the mornings this week off of school - transitioning is going to be hard next week.

I'm stalling too much this morning.  It's 10:45 and I have to leave for work at noon.  My lunch isn't packed yet.  GROWL. 

Did I mention I really hate poison ivy?

sketchy

I've started a new Pinterest  board called 'sketchy', and have a sketchbook with me at work to try to draw some of the wonderful figure and action drawings I've saved... this is a five minute sketch - and I know the head is not on 'right'... but it's a start.

Practice can't hurt, anyway.

It's very very cold outside!  60s today... and 73 tomorrow.  I need to go put on a sweater.
And then I need to go check the chickens, and put on another sweater.

Work again tonight.  It got crazy for a while yesterday - quiet crickets-chirping like and then everyone came at once about 5 o clock.  Probably do that again tonight - I already have one appointment scheduled for faucet repair consultation 'coming after I get off work' today.

Chickens, and laundry, and cooking dinner for tonight.  I was good and did not cheat yesterday.  I wanted to this morning - the frozen biscuits in the freezer were calling to me.  I made chicken and put swiss cheese on it instead.  I realized I had been skimping on the coconut milk in my 'bulletproof' coffee in the mornings and added some more in to load calories on the front-end so I'm not hungry and restless later.  I was so happy yesterday to get to lunch early because I had only 3 tbsp of milk in my coffee instead of the normal 1/3 cup.

Don't skimp on the coconut milk! *heh*

// The Squirrel Pancake Story // other wise known as why Pancakes Electrocute Squirrels
I was thinking of this, and another (less fun) epic story I've heard secondhand yesterday.  I think this one deserves to be memorialized on the Internet for posterity...

My elderly neighbor in Fargo told me this story.  Her name was Kay.  We worked at the Michaels store together. 

Every Sunday she would make a big batch of pancakes.  She would put the leftovers on the back porch on a plate for the squirrels and neighborhood dogs to clean up.  One Sunday she was washing dishes and the power went out.  No storms or anything..seemed strange.  But, she was washing dishes by hand and it was light outside so she just kept washing.

She saw a man in a bright yellow jacket cross through her yard in front of her window and walk towards the back of the house.  This is someone from the electric company... okay.  She kept washing.

Another man follows the first.. and then another.. and then another.. so many people in yellow jackets coming through one after the other that she stops washing her dishes and goes out and stands on her back porch. 

All the guys are standing under the electrical wires in a circle, looking at the ground.
She walks up behind them and peers between them and lo and behold, there is a large pancake on the ground with a tail sticking out from it.  All of the men are between shock and hilarious laughter.

The poor thing had gotten greedy and tried to walk with the pancake across the electrical wires, and somehow fried himself - causing a blackout in the like the power guys had never seen before.

 As she told it, Ms. Kay slowly backs up and walks back to her house quietly taking the empty plate inside.  Apparently there were no more pancake leftovers after that.

poison ivy like plant reaction

I got into something in the chicken yard, and have a poison ivy like plant reaction all the way down one arm and in between the fingers on my other hand... *oh joy*  sometimes this can turn into a nightmare for me... watching it

Made a ketogenic (near) meal to take to work - have to close.

1/2 cup pumpkin with 1 tbsp butter on top
1/3 cup frozen bok choy
1 large egg cooked
1.5 oz of chopped sirloin beef (leftover from the dinner Mark cooked last night)
1 oz of kerrygold cheese (score on clearance, it is really good)
1 tbsp of sunbutter

I'm taking that for lunch.  For breakfast I had 3 tbsp of coconut milk in  coffee and the last serving of salmon with some mozzarella cheese and an 'extra fluffy' (not low-carb, but less carb than usual) tortilla wrapped around it.

This Friday I'll have been trying to adhere to the near-ketogenic diet for three weeks.  I've cheated some days - I admit it.  I've had a piece of pizza with the girls on their sleepover, and made a peanut butter and jelly (1 tbsp and 1 tsp of each) on a single piece of bread in the late evening when things weren't sticking from dinner.  But most days the carbs have been between 40 and 65.  And I like what the Primal Blueprint said about sometimes you have to 'refeed' and deal with the consequences, because this is real life, and even in the 'primal wild' there would be those days when you would find something really good that was outside the norm, eat it, and get on with things.  Just don't make it an every night occurrence or it isn't really an 'extraneous circumstance' anymore.

Bit o sketch and walkies

Sketch of trees and fence (pic from my tablet camera)  Esme and I walked our dogs out on the road and saw two large deer. I am closing at work all this week.

Chickens were happy today, no eggs but they had eaten their food from yesterday and were glad to see more.

Bit with a dose of zen

Had both the girls for a sleepover and they've been up most of the night then crashed in my bed come daylight.  It's noon now and they are back to Mine crafting.

Our chickens both escaped yesterday and we considered letting them go wild for good... but then it rained and they came back.  No eggs in months we think Esme has been skimping and/or forgetting food so I am going to take over.

I cleaned off my plant shelves and made a zen-like garden out of some things I found.  The ceramic thing in the tray is a little frog from the 'Mexican Tonala pottery style'.  What I like best about it is it has a white rabbit painted on its back with bushes and drinking from a pool of water.  I'm sure I found it at a flea market stand somewhere around here.  This morning while the children slept I took ideas from a paint color card and ended up with a strange and alien painting.

Need to sketch more again...
(Pictures taken on my tablet)

A bit of redecorating

 Relaxation and reading area.  I put my fox painting on the wall, and gave her the fox amigurumi I made last year, which it isn't able to be seen, but he is hugging 'A Wrinkle in Time' and protecting it for our next reading session.  I knit the rug on the floor a year or so ago, and it has been through the washing machine numerous times.  It's nice to put your feet on when reading.

Roger the tiger is guarding.
Cookie Rabbit is in the clothes hanger organizer, along with another vibrant pink lion that was a Valentine toy but I don't think ever kept a name.  She has her red ibis (flamingo, it gets called often) that I made up in her bed as a pillow.

A new rug under her desk, star shaped string lights above her bed so she can 'sleep under the stars', and she is actually using the hanger organizer I bought for her closet area - so it was a good investment.  She spent her allowance today on a scented candle and saved allowance on a dragon shaped water fountain.

This is her memory box, which has lots of rocks she has found or gotten from shops or geology kits, and snail shells and shells from the lakes, a suncatcher from Grandma, a tag she wore for Veteran's Day with my father's name on it and a few other things in there. 

We didn't get to go to the park today, it started raining.  We did get the present for the bday party next week and then did all this instead.  Esme begged for kielbasa and peppers, which I made.  We have to wrap the gift and then in a bit our guest is due to arrive for the sleepover!

little bit

We are planning to take a trip to the park tomorrow, and have to buy a birthday present so it probably means our pup cannot  come with :(  After our friends get back from their wedding attendance, we will have a sleepover :)  I found a wonderful rug for Esme's room - it is a little bigger than the one she had under her desk (one I knit), and I think it is gorgeous.  I saw it a week and a half ago but I didn't think it was for sale then.

I'm looking into the bruising factor, which seems to be a common complaint on those who have dropped grains and limited carbs and sugars.  But I can't see where I'm not getting the right minerals and vitamins.  The only thing that seems to be a good explanation is that fish products thin your blood a little which makes you more perceptible to bruising.  That site reccommended to stick to chicken and beef for about a week to see if that helped.  B12 deficiency can sometimes be a factor - but mackerel and salmon both have very high amounts!  I've looked at my daily/nightly vitamin and it has Vitamin C and B12 in it.

On the good notes.  I feel pretty good - not the super excellent bouncey I felt that first week, but still pretty good levels and only tired when rightly so... I think with losing this weight that I look a little younger.  I also like the way I feel when I move much more than I had in the past... the feel of my better toned muscles and flatter stomach is nice!  So, I will continue working on this diet and experimenting at the edges.  Both of the programs gave ways to experiment, merge up and down with carb levels, test out foods to see how well they work in the diet etc... It's not meant to be a three weeks and done thing, but a way of life and a way of learning what your body wants and needs.

So, off to the park tomorrow!  Hope the weather is nice :)  Maybe we'll bring the Frisbee if I can find it.

bit and a painting

I saw a beautiful painting that I liked, but couldn't come close to buying - so I thought I'd try that same flavor and paint one myself as a relaxation exercise yesterday.  It turned out not bad - there is something I really like about the eyes.  Mark says my fox is happier than the one in the painting I was looking at.. which is nice to hear.  It is very expressionistic - the bright colors were in the other painting too, in dabs and dashes, but somehow they are even brighter in mine.

We went out and played ball yesterday, but I opted just for a walk up the road today.  I like what 'The Primal Blueprint' says about spontaneous exercise and play - and just getting up and moving when you're feeling bored etc.  I do have a nasty bruise on my leg from catching it on a car door last week - and I thought I'd just take it easy tonight and rest up, read and pack my lunch for tomorrow.  I also upped myself to two tortillas with my meal tonight (spaced about an hour and a half apart) because I was hungrier and still only at 68 carbs for the whole day.  Primal Blueprint allows 50-100 grams of carbs for the near ketogenic zone although they ask not to do it with any grains.....(he recc to have a sweet potato or 'ancient grain' like quinoa or wild rice)  but also to find your own zone and experiment to see where you feel your best.

 I put sunbutter in one of the tortillas and peanut butter and cream cheese and roast beef in the other one.   Esme and I had the rest of the catfish fillets with mozzarella cheese and oregano and garlic on them.  She was salivating over the plate of fish as I divided it up.  That is a win recipe.

bit o bit of catfish

Painted last night, but didn't take a picture of it yet.  I walked my Sweetie dog after dinner and she wasn't sure about it but she did really well.  Esme and I made catfish fillets tonight with paprika and olive oil - she didn't want any other spices in hers until it was finished, then she said it was bland and needed more.  I'll put some mozzarella cheese on hers and garlic and oregano and she can eat it after her shower.  We used the time around sunset to play outside with the soccer ball.

I'm at work early again tomorrow.  Today was super early and a bit hard because everyone wanted me doing something that wasn't what they called me in super early to do - so I didn't get a lot of the freight job done when someone needed install stuff resolved.

The diet is working really well.  I've reached the point where I've almost lost ten pounds, so I have bought half n' half instead of milk and intend to eat a few more calories now.  I like the amount of energy I have.

I'm averaging between 40 and 60 grams of carbohydrates per day, and less than 20 sugars.  I'm having coconut milk coffee (like bulletproof) every morning and sometimes a slice of cheese or roast beef.  Lunch today was olives, pistachios, chicken, egg and bok choy with garlic and a tablespoon of sunflower butter on the side.

CATFISH (keto style recipe)

Refrigerated catfish fillets from the store
olive oil
paprika
salt and pepper

mix oil and spices together and brush on both sides of fish
wrap in aluminum foil and bake at 450 degrees for 30 minutes
open the tops of the foil, turn on high broil for five minutes
add cheese and other spices after removing from oven, let sit a few minutes
serve

served with carrots and black olives :)  both things Esme really loves.

morning glories

Went out and got some more shots of the morning glories.  I wanted to take a picture of the moonflowers (huge white ones) but will have to wait a few more days as the blossom from yesterday is gone and new ones aren't 'up to bat' yet.

Tried the pistachio crusted fish this morning (instead of last night)  It was wonderful.  I'll definitely have to do that again.

I looked at a recipe, but then pared it down and went with this :
raw pistachios (unroasted), 2 tbsp, run through grinder
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsp Hellman's mayonnaise
1 tsp spicy brown mustard
A frozen fillet of Gorton's wild caught Alaskan Salmon (it has a butter sauce on it already)

Heated toaster oven to 400 degrees, put the fish in aluminum foil for 9 minutes, then removed it and put the mixture (all mixed up, instead of one layer of fat and one of nuts) on top and cooked for another 8 minutes.  Served with spinach sauteed in just a tiny smidge of olive oil and water and chopped garlic.

//
Esme has asked for a sleepover this weekend.  I'd also like to have her walk her dog in the park one of those days, and pick out a present for her friend whose birthday is the week after that.  I have the weekend off, but I work tomorrow and until then

 This is a polygonus family plant, some of which are known as knotweeds, or bistorts.  I called it a 'bitworst' when I was up visiting Miss Irene - because I could only remember the 'shape' of the word.  We played a game once where this was used in alchemy for medicines - and then I started realizing they were on our property here in Tennessee, or at least, some relative of them.  They are very pretty.

And I need to clean up my greenhouse area (I've been meaning to for days), and wash a dog.  Let's see if I can get that done.

bits

We took Lucy into the town to meet some new people at my work and have a walk in the park.  She did really good for a youngster, and now she's all tuckered out.

I've been out in the yard planting a chrysanthemum and some crocus bulbs.  I got the 'mum' mostly because I wanted to see if Esme would notice it on her walk home from school or not.  We also got more bricks, because I'm going to put the crocuses just in front of where I added the peach daffodils last year, and that meant moving the brick line out some.

I'm thinking to try some pistachio crusted salmon tonight.  I saw a recipe for it in the other diet book I was reading - which is about the 'Primal Blueprint', and very similar to the 'Eat Fat Get Thin' philosophy.

thoughts

I'm finding I'm cooking a lot more (from mostly base ingredients), and needing more time to prep meals that I know will fit with the 'macros' I'm trying to reach.  I've been staying up in the mornings and/or getting up several hours earlier to have time to cook.  'Macros' is the term the fitness tracker uses for how much carbohydrate vs. protein vs. fat you have had during the day.  I'm consistently coming in about 60% fat, and 20-25% carb and 15-20% protein.

And I feel like I'm pulling off 'superman' days - which we used to do once a week or every other week - but now I'm doing it every couple of days.   I get lots of things done, my laundry and sweeping as well as the cooking and some exercise... Mark does the dishes.  And of course, still working full-time moving around all the vanities, showers, toilets etc.  I am keeping moving at work much longer each day, too - just keep finding something to do even though it involves climbing ladders and moving the equipment to get things down... I was climbing up and down the ladder with faucets over and over yesterday and knew that it was usually about that time I was exhausted and wishing it to be over -and it was still 'ok'.. just needed to get it done etc.

I do still feel very tired when I go to bed every night - nodding off at my language lesson etc... but I am staying up the entire day too - , very few days where there is an extra nap (partially because of the cooking, partially because I'm just naturally waking up early).  So, I'm tallying that up to more energy, more productivity...

It took until yesterday for my arms to stop telling me I'd killed them the other day.  I guess that means its time to go do the arm exercises again tomorrow.  I have tomorrow and the next day off.

Later:

I had another thought as to why I am impressed with this ketogenic (near ketogenic) diet.  This is one of the few times I have read something about a process my body SHOULD do, and it has actually been right in many of the details.  I have a long history of my body not following the 'norm' - in general yes, but not in the details.  Even when I was pregnant with Esme there were things that just didn't follow the 'normal' patterns - so wonderful to have had the people on the Australian mothering board that let me know everything was 'a kind of normal' they had heard about - just not the mainstream one in all the What to Expect books *heh*. 

What the diet book I read 'Eat Fat, Get Thin' said would happen on this diet is happening - the weight loss, the thirst, the bounceback, the change in cravings, and the energy.  And some of that was happening before I got to that part in the audio book - which was doubly interesting.  I feel like this is a system that works for my body type, which makes me more likely to stick with it.

There were peppers and tomatoes in my garden this morning!  A handful of small green peppers and three grape tomatoes.  For this late in the year (October 1st) it is amazing.  They must have liked the warmer weather after the rainy spell.  I am enjoying the tomatoes in my spinach and olive salad.

The blue morning glories I planted early in the garden season are also blooming in profusion.  The vine has been there all along, but it has chosen now to explode into these intense blue blossoms.  They are beautiful! 

They are even more intense in person. 

They caught me from across the entire yard and I had to go look at them.