Things you Find by the Side of the Road

I was driving to work in the morning. I saw this in the distance.

Keep in mind, I travel a rural backroad to get to work. There was a bush lot on one side of the road and a field on the other. I got closer.

Yup, it's a chair. At the side of the road.

It doesn't even look that bad. I wonder what the story is behind this?

The chair remained for about three more days. Then it was gone.

Incredibly Sad

Yesterday I learned that the daughter of friends of ours died in her sleep. I remember when she was born. We saw her in the hospital in her little blanket all bundled up. Her parents are wonderful people with whom we had many fun times and who also helped us out when we needed extra hands. She was twenty years old, if memory is correct. She just died in her sleep. She had her whole adult life ahead of her. She was healthy and smart and vibrant. I don't know how you carry on after something like that.

My heart is breaking for her, for her parents, for her brother, and her friends.

I came home from work and hugged my son. I contacted my daughter. My daughter, who is close in age and away from home as well, who I don't say goodnight to every night now, who I don't see when she wakes up in the morning, but who I just assume will be fine each day.

We must go to the funeral, but I am also dreading the funeral. The pain will be palpable.

I want to put my own two children (can I even call them children anymore?) in a bubble and make sure no harm ever comes to them. I know that isn't possible.

It's just so tragic.                   I don't even know if I should post this. I feel selfish in my own grief.

Weight Mindgames

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That really is me. I finally got the willpower to get away from sugar (I could easily say I was addicted). I had frozen all the rest of the Christmas chocolates and treats, but even that didn't stop me. I still chewed on frozen chocolate. I eventually had to bag it all up and give it to my son to take to a party he was going to. I figured a bunch of teenagers could lay waste to it in no time flat.

With this kind of addictive personality it's a good thing I never got into smoking, or doing drugs! We won't mention wine.

This is not about a new year's resolution, it just happens to fall at this time of year - post Christmas excess and a goal of going on a vacation to the south in March. It also falls on the heels of basically eating what I've wanted and being inactive for the last two (?) years. It doesn't help that the fifty year old female body likes to redeposit and add to fat stores in places that were never your "trouble zone". What the hell happened to my waist??? I used to have one. Really.

Anyhoo.... the thing that has always worked for me is writing down my food. I do love to write things down. So I dug out my little spiral bound notebook that I had been keeping track of my eating in a while ago, opened it up again and started. I was very successful several years ago with clean eating. I'm sure I don't need to explain the whole thing, but it involved about 5 small meals a day with protein and complex carbs in every meal and just good non-factory-processed food. I also was successful 15 years ago with weight watchers.

This time around I applied a combo-pack of the above strategies and got to work. I also started increasing my activity. THEN I FOUND MYFITNESSPAL!! I am likely the last person on earth to discover this app, but it is so cool! I'm not a phone person. I really only text my children on it, for the most part and I don't sit about looking up things on the internet because I live in fear of going over my data minutes and paying $5000.00 on my next bill.

The groovy little feature on myfitnesspal that I quite enjoy is the barcode reader. You just point your phone at the barcode of the food you are eating, it scans it, and determines the calories per serving. You can adjust it if you are having a half a serving, or two servings for example. Yes, there are bar codes on things like blueberries or slivered almonds.

Along with the whole keeping track of food and moving more, I also weigh myself. I know you aren't supposed to weigh yourself every day, but I do. And here is how I do it. I am going to bet that this strategy is not unknown to some of you out there. I only ever weigh myself first thing in the morning, naked, after going to the bathroom. Not a sock or an earring need be part of the read-out on the scale! I have even anguished while watching weight loss shows where people get weighed with clothes and shoes on. Come on, people! Get rid of those running shoes! They must be at least a pound!!

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O.K., spill the beans people. How many of you do the old "I didn't eat after supper, so I should be a pound lighter tomorrow" thing? "I went to the gym, so I should be able to see my biceps now." Let us all share in our weight loss lunacy.

Comfort Food on a Thursday Night

It's still dull and it's still January, so you might as well have some comfort food. This is one of my favourite home made soups. It ends up being wonderfully creamy and flavourful, but it is full of wonderful vegetables and absolutely no heavy cream. It is time for potato leek soup!

Here is everything you need to make this soup: potatoes, leeks, onion, celery, carrot, a little butter, chicken stock, a little milk, salt and pepper (also some parsley if you have it).

Melt your butter and start chopping. All the vegetables go in to be stirred around with the butter, then over low heat, let the veggies cook a bit in a covered pot.

Add a whole container of chicken broth.

Pour in a little milk, not even half a cup. I always use 1% milk for everything.

After the veggies are nice and soft, season with salt, pepper and parsley. It is time to make this creamy. But first, we need to have a moment of silence. I lost an old friend today:

My good old Braun hand blender has been with me longer than one of my own children. It has blended many pots of soup over the years. In fact, I took this picture and was then going to take a picture of me blending the soup right in the pot, but the poor old thing just gave a dull buzz and ceased to whir. So, I was forced to use my blender to puree the soup, a few ladles at a time. It worked fine, but being able to use the hand blender in the pot is so convenient. You don't have a blender, or a food processor to wash up afterwards.

All nicely blended but still a few little chunks so you don't feel like you're on a liquid diet.

Here's the final result with a nice warm slice of cheesy garlic bread. There are lots of leftovers for later in the week. Good comfort food at this "lovely" time of year!

Devoid of Colour

Fresh snow is pure and sparkly, and for some, lovely to play in. January snow is dingy, dirty, tainted. I was driving to work and realized that the world is rather monotone right now. I drive through the countryside and the fields and snow and trees are all varying shades of brown and grey. It is like living in a sepia tone photograph. Except it's real.

my parking lot

my drive home

my drive home with fog to further obliterate any possible colour

I have no doubt that the patches of earth that are showing through the snow will be covered with more snow and that this mid January melt is just a blip. It is a very dull world out there right now, however.

The blanket that snow provides, the whitewash of the world around us, the softening of sharp edges is what makes spring so magical. It truly is a rebirth for those of us who experience a snowy winter. The contrast between the non-colour of winter and the bright spring greens, pinks, yellows awakens our senses, makes us feel hopeful and alive, and gives us a real sense of having survived yet another season.

Alas, I can't let these dreary, lifeless surroundings get me down. We have two more months ahead of us of more of the same. But at the moment, I'm feeling a bit like Eeyore.

"It's snowing still," said Eeyore gloomily.

"So it is."

"And freezing."

"Is it?"

"Yes," said Eeyore. "However," he said, brightening up a little, "we haven't had an earthquake lately."

Well, We Can Cross that One Off the List

So, on my quest to lose some weight and be a healthier, trimmer me, I looked at the produce aisle with new eyes this past weekend. I find myself in a bit of a rut sometimes, making the same suppers, or at least the same side dishes. I thought I should check out vegetables that I normally wouldn't pay attention to.

I came home with this.

It looks healthy, doesn't it? All that dark, leafy goodness..

This is what it's called. It is not actually a member of the broccoli family, but is more like a member of the turnip family, more closely related to "greens". It is called broccoli rabe because of the little heads that look like broccoli.

I didn't know how to properly prepare this lovely bunch of vitamins and minerals, so I googled it and found out that you should first blanch it in salty water to eliminate any bitterness. Then you saute it in olive oil with some garlic. Well that sounded good, so that is what I did.  It was to be my side to some garlic sausage and mashed potatoes.

We got our plates ready and sat down at the table. I was ready to embrace this glistening dark green vegetable. I already felt a little bit healthier just for having it in my house! I took my first bite... and it was horrible. I don't mean "fussy kid, I hate broccoli" horrible. No, it was bitter, "I tried to take a pill but it dissolved in my mouth before I could swallow it" horrible.

I told my husband and son not to bother to eat it, it was that bad. My husband did actually eat it and said he didn't mind it. My son took my advice and didn't even try.

I don't know why I bothered to put the unused portion of broccoli rabe / rapini back in the fridge. I won't be doing anything with the rest of it, apart from taking the pictures for my blog. I might as well just put it in the compost bin now.

listening to a storm

I'm  propped up in bed, laptop on my lap, and I'm listening to the wind outside. I can hear the tree branches hitting the side of the house and the rain sounds like waves breaking. We are having a high wind alert right now. We can have gusts of wind up to 90 km per hour (which is about 56 miles per hour).

I should really have the light out and be asleep by now. I love the sound around me. Is that weird? I find the whole thing so cozy, to be piled with blankets and hear the low roar and swish and know that I don't have to go anywhere and everyone is home, safe.

My father loved a good storm. In the summer months, he would sit out on the porch sometimes and watch the lightning. He taught us, I suppose, to not be afraid of thunder storms, as so many people are. Our own children slept through most thunder storms.

Weather that makes me nervous is when it seems like tornado weather. Then I get antsy and watch the sky carefully. I also do not enjoy white out conditions while driving. But hunkered down in this wind storm, it's nice. It will lull me to sleep. I suppose it's a bit like what I've been reading on many blogs lately, this notion of "hygge". If I had some beef barely stew right now to eat while listening to the wind, it would be perfect!