Mission. Slowly Forming.

I'm sensing a new mission in life slowly forming. I'm no gourmet cook, but I have friends who are amazed that I cook at all, because they don't. I feel like I could teach them some basic skills to feed themselves and their families better. And I'm reading more and learning more all the time about Traditional Food, and wanting to spread that "gospel". So I'm thinking about how to do those things.

The very first thing I *must* do is find a class, or someone to teach me, basic knife skills. My knife skills stink. I know Sur La Table has them, but that's a day trip, and not too cheap. And they seem to be always full/waitlisted. But perhaps I could get a local chef friend, or my aunt the chef, or even my brother to come over and teach a class for me & some friends.

At a Celtic Spirituality workshop this summer, I created the attached "Cook's Prayer". It sort of sums up my approach to food these days:

-----
Cook's Prayer
Bless me in the preparation of food for myself and my family.
Thank you for your bounty. Thank you for the knife that prepares it.
Let the preparation and eating of your bounty reflect the way you nurture our souls.
Bless the healing of our bodies through the bounty of your earth.
-----
 
Food isn't merely sustenance, or pleasure, or comfort, although it is definitely those things as well, but it is primarily health-giving, life-giving, and healing. When processed non-foods are eaten, they are not merely filling or neutral, they are actively harming the body. It never, ever, boils down to simple calories. What you put in your mouth is either giving you health and healing, or it is harming you. Period.

As time goes on, I'll be cogitating about what I need to do and how to go about doing it. I'm sure you'll "hear" about it here!

Happy New Year 2010!

Yesterday was Epiphany, which means that Christmas is officially over. That makes today my New Year's Day! Today we will take down the Christmas decorations, and start back on The McCombs Plan. Actually, it may take us a couple more days to fully rejoin the plan, as we have a lot of dairy in the fridge to use up yet. I am so looking forward to feeling great again! I had so much energy when we were on the plan before, and while I'm not as draggy as I was before it, after all the holiday food, I'm definitely not where I want to be.

Last night at the Epiphany service, Father John had a table with a nativity scene and candles in front of the altar. He told us that he would serve communion off to the side, so that each of us could stop by the Nativity on our way to take communion. He suggested that we study the baby Jesus, and think about what we have to offer him in this new year. I got to thinking about that, and realized that I don't know what I have to offer this year, to church, personally, or professionally. So my prayer as I reached the altar/nativity was to figure out what I will do with 2010.

I'm not really teaching Pilates anymore, although I have had a few requests to teach a class, perhaps at the church. I'm doing my voiceover work, but that's 30 minutes a day, every three weeks. I've thought about getting a job of any sort, but that would hinder our ability to up & travel, which we like to do fairly often.

I really enjoyed what I did through the holidays: I made lists and did a lot of cooking, taking photographs and writing about each recipe as I made it. Everybody seemed so amazed that I made everything myself. Sad, really! And they were only standard recipes, like bread made with yeast & all purpose flour, not even soaked or sprouted or anything.

I'm getting more and more into trying to eat a more "traditional" diet, experiencing and reading about all the health benefits of doing so. I don't feel like I'm advanced enough in that to really start a blog about it yet, though, a la Nourishing Gourmet or Cheeseslave. I will probably blog about it here anyway, as it helps me clarify my thinking to write about it. And maybe someone will find my own babysteps in that direction instructive.

Cooking and photographing and blogging may be fun for me, but I will also need something that gets me out of the house and with people on a regular basis. Husband travels for a living, and is gone for anywhere from 3 to 10 days at a time. I'm WAY too extraverted to just be at home with the dogs for days on end.

In that vein: as I do seem to be something of a hausfrau these days, one of my resolutions is to be a better one. When Husband is home, we like to just enjoy each other's company, so I try to do the cleaning and organizing while he's gone. I'm going to work on being better at doing the FlyLady system. It really helps me to stay on top of things. Interestingly, it's quite similar to a system I worked out on my own a couple of different times in my life when I was very organized!

Also on the personal improvement side of things, I want to get back into going to yoga and ballet classes to work on my balance and flexibility. There are adult yoga & ballet classes very close to my house, almost walking distance, so it's completely ridiculous that I haven't been going. I also got my bicycle fixed up about a year ago, then never got on it. After my knee surgery, I begged and begged to be allowed to ride it, and still haven't. *Sigh*. So that's another thing I could work on. Heck, I could ride the bike to the yoga classes...

As far as professionally, I could work on getting together a voice resume to try to do more voiceover work, which I quite enjoy.

I love to sing. I was working on getting together a cabaret act, but my accompanist is in Chicago, which makes that pretty hard to do! I would like to get back into voice lessons to improve my singing; breath control in particular. For that matter I would like to take some acting lessons. I don't think I've ever had an actual acting lesson in my life, and I do love doing community theatre. There are a couple of shows coming up later this spring that I'll audition for, so that will be fun.

Husband just reminded me that I've always wanted to take sign language lessons, so that is something else to look into. I've always felt that sign language combines two of my biggest interests: language, and movement.

My friend Cynthia did some aptitude testing last year - I might consider going to the Johnson-O'Connor Research Foundation and do that, too. It was quite interesting to hear her talk about it. What brought it up was I was playing a word game that I'm insanely good at, and I thought, okay, what real world job would use this skill?" I mentioned it to her, and she told me of this testing she did that shows that sort of thing. It's very different from the interest and personality inventories I did years ago in "career counseling". This tests your actual native skills and suggests what career would use those skills.

Ack. Toxic Option Overload. This is the problem! So many things to choose from. Just have to figure out which things are priority, sort the logistics, and get on with it!

Happy New Year 2010!

Checking in

oh my gosh, so much to talk about!

i got my new mini netbook and i looooove her! her name is isadora. i've been waiting for this, now that i can type literally anywhere, the two of you who read this will be hearing from me a lot more now! yay!!!

i drove to houston today to meet my friend susan at the ballet. it was a mixed rep performance by the houston ballet and we just loved it. it sparked some thoughts & desires about dance & movement.

i had to wear three hats (metaphorically) at church today, it was funny and a little frantic. one of the jobs was to serve as lector, and one of the readings had something that made me think, "wait a minute, i always hear that the opposite way around! funny how it's been distorted..."

if you haven't heard/seen, we have a new "baby"! a basset named Lily. she's not really a baby, she's the same age as Suki, 2ish. I'll get a photo of her on the main page of this blog asap.

oh and i've had a post brewing about a wasted life...

and of course i should report in from week seven of the mc combs plan!

okay so teasers for you and reminders for me. talk to you again soon!

PS In case you've ever wondered - Everything really *is* beautiful at the ballet!

**update** i forgot to mention the post that's REALLY burning a hole in my brain, which is about REAL food and restaurant food and etc.

so now that's noted and will be written about later.

Turtle, The Best Cat Ever!

Oh, my precious Turtle, where do I begin?

I have always loved animals of all sorts, but we didn't have cats when I was growing up, and the few experiences I had with them were midly negative.

When I was married to H1, we moved to a duplex with a yard. I wanted to get a dog, but he said, "No. No dogs. Dogs are like toddlers that never grow up. If you want a pet, we'll get a cat. Cats are lower maintenance." Which is all true, of course, and probably a good call on his part.

A friend of ours was trying to get rid of one of her cats because her other cats were beating it up. So, the day after we moved to the duplex, she brought the cat over to us. The first time we let it out, it ran away, never to be seen again.

Later, some other people we knew were moving, and we took in their two adult cats. A week or so later, they ran away also. We later heard that one of them made it back to their old house, and the new owners agreed to keep him, so that was good.

By then, we had all this cat stuff, boxes, food, litter, etc. so we thought, okay, let's get *kittens* this time, and then as they grow up they will know that this is home. Another acquaintance had three kittens, so we went over, put the carrier down, and took the first two that climbed into it. We went home with 2 female tabby kittens, one grey stripey with white socks, which we named Bobby (for her socks!), and one with brownish swirls and an orange triangle on her forehead. We named this one Turtle, because her coat looked like caramel turtle fudge ice cream, LOL.

Over the years, we decided that Turtle was really a dog in a cat suit. She was always bold and friendly. When anyone would come into my house, she would immediately go to them and check them out. Her favorite toys were a tennis ball and a pig's ear (dog chew).

Turtle was always curious, and LOVED to go through doors of any kind. This may have indirectly lead to her demise. Once when she was about 2 years old, she went missing for 21 days. I had just about given up on her, when a friend was visiting, went for a walk, and found her wandering in the creek in front of our house. He picked her up, and someone said, "Is that your cat? She was under my sink when I moved into my apartment!" So we think she got shut into an empty apartment. Poor girl! She lost 1/3 of her body weight, and she didn't have it to lose. We took her to the vet, of course, who explained to watch out for fatty liver syndrome, and sent her home. She recovered quite nicely, and I had another 5 years with her.

But when she was about 7, she suddenly stopped eating. She would run to the food bowl, but she'd sniff it, and walk away. I now know that this is typical of liver problems. She was hungry, but the smell of food made her queasy. I'd had another cat lose weight one summer, but the vet told me she was fine & just losing weight for the heat. So when Turtle started losing weight, it was also late spring or early summer and getting hot, so I didn't worry too much about it. But eventually I realized that she was actually sick, and took her to the vet. She now had developed fatty liver (hepatic lipidosis). We treated her for several months, but to no avail, and that November I had to make the decision to put her down. I was holding her in my arms and looking into her eyes when the vet put the shot into her IV. It was a very sad day for me, but in some ways a relief after about seven months of tube feeding and worrying about this precious cat.

The vet was a little bit stymied by Turtle's symptoms, so did an autopsy on her. She found that her liver and pancreas were *riddled* with cancer. She seemed to think that it had started in her pancreas and spread to her liver, and she is the vet, and clearly knows more than I do! But I always felt that it was the liver damage from when she was 2 that probably was the source of the cancer.

One aside: The one treatment that had the most benefit during her 7 month ordeal, was the vet I took her to in Houston, who did acupuncture on her. Every time we'd tube feed her, she would foam and drool, which is what cats do when they are very queasy. After her first acupuncture treatment, she never had that reaction again. It made her feel so much better, and it got her out of the hospital for the day - she'd been in about 2 weeks, and was used to running free! If I've ever heard a cat communicate anything, it was without a doubt that day. I had put her in the carrier and was in the car headed for the Houston vet (Dr. Mouser; can you imagine?!) I stopped at a light, and looked over at her. She was looking at me, and I felt this enormous wave of gratitude wash over me. It was very touching.

Lots to say, not much time!

I frequently have thoughts that I think, hey, this would make a great blog entry, so I could flesh out what I'm thinking about this. But I rarely sit down and actually do it.

I had one yesterday - something happened with regard to my Mom and it got me thinking about "neediness" versus actual NEED.

Then today a friend wrote and asked me about the story of my precious cat named Turtle that died a few years back. So rather than just write the story to her, I thought I'd make an entry for that, too.

About a year ago, I had one that I actually wrote down on paper (I know, right?!?) on my thoughts on modern art, and I've always meant to turn it into a blog entry, too.

So, there are three teasers for anyone who actually happens to read this, to encourage me to actually sit down and write these things in the next few days.

Happy Thursday!