Thankful Sunday--February 10, 2012

I am thankful for clouds.

I love to look at clouds. To be honest, it's not their beauty that I appreciate first. It's the information they can give me about the weather. But, if I take time to notice, there's nothing more beautiful than white billowy clouds against a brilliant blue sky.

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But Wait There's More,
Here is a link to some unbelievable pictures of clouds around the world.
Incredible clouds you've got to see.

Hat Tip: A Place to Reside

Food Waste Friday and True Food Confessions--Feb. 8,2013

It's time for Food Waste Friday, when the Frugalgirl encourages us to post pictures from the previous week of wasted food from our household. This accountability hopefully will help us to be more careful with our food and maybe save some money. Also, I am using this public forum to encourage us to eat out less which includes better meal planning. You can follow how we are doing in this endeavor by reading True Food Confessions.

This Week's Food Waste

 
This week, I had to get rid of some tomatoes that went squishy before we got to them. We did enjoy the rest of the container, though, on our salads.

This Week's True Food Confessions

This week was one of the overall best times for eating at home when we consider all family members and all meals. I think we only ate out once when we met Miss Landers for breakfast. However, we did not suffer. Last weekend, Wally and Theo made two large racks of ribs which we had for the next couple of days. Also, we stocked up on Super Bowl food and feasted on that for a couple of more days. All and all, it was all great tasting, high-fat, high-sodium food, that my body started to protest from after a couple of days. However, the men in the family were very happy. We finished the week up with some simple vegetable rich comfort foods.

Where do I go now? I'm starting to bored with this whole process of tracking our food, so I've been thinking about if I want to change things. I have been doing a Food Waste Friday for about a year and a half. It has definitely made me more aware of of our food waste, and consequently, we have been able to reduce it greatly and save money in the process. There have been a couple of short breaks I have taken from weekly reporting of our food waste and I immediately slid backwards. So I think this weekly confession is good for me, however unexciting it is to write and read about.

I have been doing True Food Confessions for about six months now, and overall we are much improved in the area of eating at home. I have not reached the goal that I had in the beginning of having a weekly meal plan, one trip to the grocery store based on this meal plan, and good food ready every night. However, we are doing pretty well with a couple of ideas for the week and making do with what we have on hand. In fact, that's how I like to do things the best. Create on the spot with only a loose structure guiding me. However, I'd like to expand on this success.

I want to think more now about getting even healthier food on our plates and maybe some better tasting food. I want to spend a little more money for more exotic ingredients and to try more things. I want my food to look like the colorful, varied, vegetable-rich food that Economies of Kale shows us every week. (However, I know that with my family of carnivores, that may not be a realistic goal.)

What am I going to do about all of this? I've decided that I'm going to start slow, and try to cook one new dish every week, that is reasonably healthy, and follow a recipe. That's going to be the hardest part--following the recipe, but I think I can do it.

A Second Look--February 6, 2013

Here's What I Saw This Week During a Second Look

Crow

Hairy Woodpecker--The downy woodpecker, that was on this suet, left when this hairy woodpecker showed up.

This was only half of the group of deer that were grazing in the yard.

Tufted titmouse--tuft up

Tufted titmouse--tuft down

Male cardinal

Today...

Today, I'm going to remember that little things mean a lot.

Recently, Ward and I spent a few nights in a hotel while being with my mother who was sick. The first night while we were checking in, the desk clerk offered us a selection of snacks to take to our room. They were small bags and probably only cost the hotel a dime or so a piece, but that gesture made me happy. For just a minute, I forgot about how tired and stressed that I was, and I thought about what my midnight snack was going to be. Today I an going to try to remember that the unexpected little gestures really do mean a lot.

Sunday Verses

On Marilyn's blog at A Place to Reside, she posts a nice variety of things from recipes to Haiku, and somehow it seems as if every word she writes is perfectly chosen. She had such a post yesterday when she wrote a short verse about her Sunday morning.  Patterning her style, I wrote a verse about my Sunday evening.

Sunday Evening

Super Bowl

is tuned in on the old TV.

Snacks

are eaten with gusto.

Shadows

grow longer in the darkness.

Can you write a short verse about a part of your day?

Note: For those of you around the world who didn't follow the Super Bowl, about half way through the game, the electricity went out over half of the stadium rendering it in darkness.