What I've been up to. A list.

Knitting.  One would think this is an obvious thing, but the store is super busy, and so is my potty-training toddler, so knitting has been on the back burner for a couple weeks.  I finished the Sassy Stripes socks that I started in February and didn't finish because I got distracted with Fingerpaints.  But now they are complete and I think that this will be a perfect pair to wear with denim once the weather cools off again in the fall.  I'm almost finished with my Herbs n Spices socks as well.

Garden planning.  Joe does most of the planting and maintaining, and I do most of the cooking and canning/freezing.  We had great success last year with most of the crops we planted, including peppers, squash, beans, onions, tomatoes, peas and other things. That's the picture shown below.  And this year we are going to plant another fruit tree (maybe peach?) dozen or so blueberry bushes along the back of the barn.  I chose blueberries over other berries because we really do eat a lot of them, and even when I buy them on sale and freeze them I likely spend over a hundred bucks a year on blueberries.  And if I had a lot I could use them for smoothies, pies and jams instead of just pancakes and muffins.  I really do love blueberries.  Anyone have blueberries and have any tips or favorite varieties?  The more info the better.

Healthy eating class.  A friend and I are taking a class about weight loss and healthy eating.  I consider my family to be very healthy eaters and we have been for years.  Partially because I really, really like to cook and eat, and also because I like to be in control of food (and life in general).  I assumed I knew everything that I needed to know about additives, hormones, and such (the movie Food, Inc. was no surprise to me) but I have been learning things that I had no clue about.  One of the most surprising things I've learned is that conventional citrus fruit is sprayed with dye to make it look nice in the store.  Did you know this?  I guess I never gave it much thought.  And I considered myself a thrifty person by grating the rind of my citrus and adding it to baked gods for extra flavor and vitamins.  Turns out the lemon/blueberry pancakes I've been making for myself and James aren't as good as I thought- I've basically been grating up food coloring and feeding it to my toddler.  Now I've started buying organic citrus fruit because I just can't take the idea of eating food coloring on my lemons, limes and oranges.  BTW, if you don't like eating bug excrement in your Skittles, don't read this. 

Watching the new Pampers Cruisers commercial over and over.... and over.  It's the one with the toddler uses a hand puppet to talk to his parents.  James loves it and say "Do again, Mama?"  And I give in and rewind it for the 14th time because it's just so cute to see him giggle.

Taking evening walks.  Since we moved to a more rural area 2 years ago, I've really missed taking my evening walks.  I don't take them in my own area because there are farm dogs that aren't nice, and since I walk with ear buds, I wouldn't hear them coming to eat my legs off.  And there are coyotes. And most farmers use manure on the fields several times a year, and there's nothing like the smell of aged liquid manure to make you go back inside. So I've recently started taking an hour in the evenings to drive to nearby neighborhoods and walk.  It's hard to make the time to do this, but once I start walking, all my stress falls away and I feel great. It used to be so easy to just lace up my shoes and walk around my old neighborhood, and I really have to force myself to drive back in town to do this.

What have you been up to?

Comments

[Diane]

The Skittles thing is gross - but guess it's in other things too. We won't eat GMills cereals because they list Trisodium Phosphate (TSP) as an ingredient - the only other place I can buy TSP is in the home center or paint store - it's an industrial strength degreaser(will irritate your skin badly - I know from experience if you don't wear protective gloves). I have used it to prep walls before painting and it got down my rubber gloves and gave me a burn. Love how your socks turned out!

[Leah]

We use a veggie wash we bought at the health food store on our apples, lemons, grapefruit, etc. Although it doesn't help with dyes, it will help with any pesticides or other chemicals along that line.

I read the SSY group on Ravelry and read your blog Allison. When I get to a point where I am more comfy with making socks on my own, I plan to buy yarn from your shop. :-)

[babyface]

I'm glad to see that you are trying to eat
healthier Allison. Also you have to be
careful when you buy grapes. Most of them
come from a foreign country where there is
no one to tell them what kind of sprays
or insectisides they can use on them. They
can make you very sick. I love that you
are growing your own blueberries. Also
my father had a grocery store when I was a
little girl. When he brought home a chicken
it had to be cooked right away. Now you
can keep a chicken for a week before you have to cook it. Something wrong with that.
Oh, I really like you sassy stripes socks.

[Debra]

Ok, now that I just got back from the grocery store with lemons, oranges and grapes, I want to take them all back! I have really been trying to watch the sodium intake and am so surprised when I see the amount of sodium in different foods. I always buy wholewheat wraps to put scrambled eggs, hummus, etc. in and never paid attention to the sodium. Today, I looked and there was over 380 mg. in EACH wrap! I put the wraps back! Eating healthy shouldn't be such hard work!

[mwknitter]

I have just come back from Palo Alto - my daughter's birthday was Tuesday so we took the grands to the mall (L'Occitane mostly) over the weekend to buy her presents & bought a little yummy lemon birthday cake from the cupcake bakery. As is usually the case, the grands were most generous with their bugs & we came home with bad colds. I don't know if you eat jam. If you do, buy some pectin & make the blueberry freezer jam (any variety is good but I always made the blueberry & raspberry because they were our favorites) - it's basically mashed fruit with a lot of sugar (one of my girls as actually shocked at the amount of sugar involved) & pectin - poured into canning jars & frozen. It is so much better than the cooked version - the taste is so much closer to fresh fruit. We are a family of berry lovers in general & blueberries in particular. Before I retired, I used to keep milk from a local dairy (no hormones or pesticides) & raspberries in the refrigerator at work & organic Blue Corn Flakes in my desk & would have a red, white & blue breakfast every workday morning all summer.