Menu Plan Monday - June 30 to July 6, 2013

It's hot. I know it sounds like I'm always complaining about the weather - that is because I am. It's too cold here in the winter (and oh, the snow) and the summers are hot and mosquito laden. Hot means bbqing and staying still or splashing in TroubleMaker's pool! I was the person who bought the last two fans at Wal-Mart, TYVM!

Canada Day 2012

Today, I hit bottom with pain and arthritis (really, is it necessary for all my hands, feet, elbows, wrists and even knees, to swell when it's hot and humid? Come on!) so we ended up picking up supper (I could hardly hold a glass in my hand). A few ibuprofen later, and I'm a little more limber and in less pain. I'm not supposed to take anti-inflammatory medications (because of the fusion - it can prohibit the bones from fusing together) but damn it, I needed something today.

Tomorrow will be better - or I'm spending the day in the ice cold pool. (Edit: today was not better. I spent most of the day in the ice cold pool with TroubleMaker - we ended up having baked beans and corn on the cob with the steak. No one ate much steak. It was too hot)

Sunday: pick up dinner
Monday: BBQ steak, Creamy Tortellini Primavera, corn on the cob
Tuesday: Hot dogs
Wednesday: Grilled chicken and pasta salad
Thursday: BBQ Meat loaf with bbq'd vegetables
Friday: Tacos
Saturday: Egg wraps

Linking up with the Org Junkie! Thanks for stopping by and Happy Canada Day (and Happy Independence Day)!

Today's Stress: haircuts

Most people who know me have come to learn I have a very serious dislike of getting my hair done. I hate the idea of spending hours making chit-chat with someone I have nothing in common with, I hate the idea of having to take time to do it and I hate the fact it never, ever comes out as I expect.

In the past (almost) 10 years, I've burned through half a dozen salons. I go through phases where I don't care about the grey in my hair, the split ends or the fact I wear it up ALL THE TIME. Since last summer, it's excruciatingly painful to flat iron my very curly, very unruly hair so I don't, unless it's a very special occasion.

But it's too long again and it needs a cut. And a style. And a colour. I really like the idea of the finished product, it's getting there that's the problem. I'm introverted and I find it painful to go in and say "I want x, y, z done, please." I know it sounds stupid but it's my phobia and I own it. It is also the primary reason I've spent the majority of my life (since I was 13 years old) cutting my own hair.

But I can't cut it now so I have to go elsewhere. The length is annoying because I have to put it up at night (braid) but that means pain. My husband offered to learn to braid it for me, but that just seems cruel and another task on his already unending list of 'things to do'.

*sigh*

Total first world problems and I own that too. I just hate the stress and anxiety I feel over doing it. It's dumb, I know, and I will at the very least get it cut today (at one of the 'walk-in' places) but I'd really like to feel 'pretty' when I walk out and I got the idea in my head I should colour my hair. I have a 'year before a big' birthday in a couple weeks and although the idea of turning 40 doesn't really bother me, the idea that I'm OLD does.

I'm really a very complicated person. Or perhaps, more accurately, I'm just a person who makes simple things complex.

Edited to add I just booked in at an Ultracuts after the first four salons couldn't accommodate me. I certainly hope I don't live to regret this...

Procrastination: Let me count the ways...

screen shot of the main floor

A week or two ago, I printed most of the manuscript I've written. I commenced editing it (I find it easier to edit it 'on paper' instead of electronically - guess that makes me "old school"). With all the edits done, I started the outline and character biographies (Stall No. 1). When that got tough, I started making the changes in the electronic document (Goal No. 1).

Then that got boring/tough/confusing so I decided, for continuity, I best make sure the house I'd described made sense. So I started designing the house (good thing my back ground is interior design and architecture). I even went so far as to draft it in AutoCAD. Seriously, who does that (me)? (Enter Stall No. 2...)

I printed said floor plan, laid out the studio and kitchen (two of the three main areas of the house spoken of often in the story - Stall No. 3)... Then, as the story moves up to the master suite, I decided I better get that on paper too, so I sketched out the second floor (Stall No. 4). I still have the third floor and back yard to figure out (Stall No. 5) because why should I stop there?

I decided that I will wait for the upper floors and the yard because I need to work out (Stall No. 6). Writing this story came as naturally and as easily as walking, eating and talking however editing this story is murderous!

I think part of the reason (I'm procrastinating) is because I am being asked by family and friends what the story is about and when they can read it. This is where I run into trouble! It's a very personal story as I interject much of myself and my life into the characters I write and this leaves me feeling extremely vulnerable. It's so much more than a story for me; it's a daydream, a wish, a secret longing. Sharing that with the first logical audience (family/friends) gives them a glimpse of who I am on the inside and that terrifies me!

No one wants to feel judged, let alone by the people you love most...


P.S. I decided to get rid of the 'formal dining' as it wasn't working for me.

Menu Plan Monday - June 23 to 29, 2013

What a week... It's been a stressful, emotional week - and we're not even impacted by the terrible flooding occurring three  hours south of us! My father was nearly stranded in Okotoks and managed to flee just two hours before the camp he was in was overrun with water. Our dearest friend had also gone MIA during the floods in Calgary - we finally heard from him yesterday. He's en route to here as after he was evacuated, he decided to take a 'holiday' to southern Alberta and south western Saskatchewan - which has now being flooded!

Saw the surgeon - it wasn't what I was hoping to hear :( - and late last night, TroubleMaker came down with a stomach bug and we've spent the past 24 hours tending to a very sick little boy.

There are three tell tale signs when TroubleMaker is seriously sick.

1. He doesn't eat.
2. He sleeps.
3. He doesn't play.

So between unexpected, but very welcome, company and a sick child, meals could be kind of hit or miss. I made a batch of homemade chicken soup this afternoon so there will be leftovers for when my little boy feels like eating something and can keep something in his tummy!

Sunday: Chicken Noodle Soup and chicken salad sandwiches (for my honey, who doesn't care for soup)
Monday: Pizza (order in)
Tuesday: Pancakes and bacon
Wednesday: Hamburgers and chips
Thursday: Grilled chicken and pasta salad
Friday: Mom's ham and scalloped potatoes
Saturday: BBQ Steak and Potato Salad

Linking up with the Organizing Junkie's Menu Plan Monday! Thanks for stopping in and hope your week goes well!

Menu Plan Monday - June 16 to 22, 2013

I'm a Menu Planning Ninja this week! Being the queen of organization (yeah, right) that I am, I was sitting down in my studio with my laptop, the Org Junkie's Menu Plan Monday page open, my binder of recipes (which I've actually expanded to a 3" binder since I first did it), a pencil and some paper all before 9am!

Sunday: Pizza (order in for Father's Day
Monday: Chicken Caesar Wraps (freezer)
Tuesday: Slow Cooker Hamburger Supper
Wednesday: Weeknight Pasta Bake
Thursday: Pancakes and bacon
Friday: Pepperoni Pizza Mac and Cheese
Saturday: BBQ steak and Gramma's Potato Salad (if I'm feeling up to making it)

I see the surgeon for my six week post op check up this week. I have zero idea what to expect - I think I should be much further along in my healing process and I'm disappointed I don't feel a whole lot different than I did before surgery. I expressed to a friend the other day that if I didn't have the scar on my neck, I would think I was still waiting for surgery.

Linking up with the Org Junkie this week and I hope to check out some yummy new summer meal ideas! It's been nothing but rAiN here so I'm ready for some sunshine! Have a great week and thanks for stopping by!

The Militant Baker - Body Love Conference

Lately, I've been reading a bunch of different blogs and one of my favourites is The Militant Baker. She is seriously a whole new kind of awesome and I'm so glad I found her blog. She's starting a campaign - a real campaign - for body love. Teaching women and the world to love the person they are, regardless of the wrapping paper. She took on A&F (spit!) - check that amazing and beautiful campaign here. 

Jes is the change, I don't know if she knows that, but for me, her movement has started to change the way I look in the mirror. She's done more for me in a few short months than Dove's Campaign for "real beauty" has done over the years with their multi-million dollar advertising budget.


I like me and I don't mind my wrapping paper and I would seriously love to be able to make it to Tuscon for the conference in April 2014 (and I might) but we need to get this thing off the ground. This is where I think places like "Kickstarter" could be used in an amazing way.

A good friend of mine pointed out after I shared a Zach Braff Kickstarter campaign, that he has money and resources to fund making his movie - people like Jes and the proletariat - don't (necessarily) have the resources to pull together important work like this.

This is where we come in! She has less than 23 days to get another $6300 in funding together to ensure the conference can go ahead. And it needs to.

Check out the video she's shared and then please, give a little to help out! Our daughters need this, our mothers need this, we need this. Our sons need this.

The Body Love Conference

I'm excited and will be sharing this lots - because it's too important to not support! Want to jump right in and support this amazing conference? CLICK HERE PLEASE!

My Deaf Dog

Max, my 13.5 year old standard schnauzer is deaf. Like deaf, deaf - not "I'm ignoring you." deaf.

As a pup, he wasn't particularly thrilled with thunder storms but as he aged, his once carefree demeanor transformed to raging beast during a storm. Wandering from window to window barking his head off - telling that thunder who was boss. The thunder, nor the schnauzer, ever really learned the lesson being taught by the other.

Last summer, right around Canada Day, we noticed his hearing wasn't quite as sharp as it used to be. It became clearer as the summer progressed as the nightly fireworks display put on by our major summer event didn't phase him (he also barked feverishly at fireworks noises). He did however, still keep my husband up at night growling and carrying on at the thunder.

It is currently booming and clapping thunder outside (we are under a tornado and severe thunderstorm warning) and he is completely, 100 per cent oblivious.

As much as I'm bothered by Max's advanced years, I'm pleased that we may all sleep better this summer. Although I think I will make him a sleep mask or let his eyebrows grow longer because I know he'll still see the lightening.