We’re In!

I heard about CSAs a few years ago from a co-worker.  You can read more about them here, but basically CSAs (Community Supported Agriculture) are a way for farmers and people local to them to work together.  The benefits for the farmer include receiving money up front and sharing some of the risk.  The benefits for the consumer include weekly (sometimes bi-weekly) fresh, local, seasonal produce, and knowing exactly where the food is coming from.  It seems like a largely win-win arrangement.

We have wanted to join a CSA since I first heard about it from my co-worker.  We liked the idea of buying local food and knowing where it comes from.  We also think (hope) that having already paid for and receiving a weekly box of fresh produce will encourage us to eat more fresh fruits and vegetables.  We also found this wonderful cookbook, The New Southern Garden Cookbook, by Sheri Castle, which got me even more interested in joining a CSA.  The cookbook is organized by ingredient and focuses on using what you have an abundance of, usually what’s in season.  The recipes are amazing; they seem to be an excellent mix of somewhat traditional preparations and different ways of using the same old produce.  All of the sections begin with some information on traditional use, growing methods, etc for that particular food, which makes for interesting reading.  Having this cookbook removed that last little bit of doubt about what we would end up doing with produce that we weren’t as familiar with. 

But it just didn’t work out for us to join a CSA for a few years.  It seemed that we couldn’t find a place with a convenient pick-up location, that offered half shares (a full share just seems like way too much for only two people), that was within our budget, that wasn’t already full.

This year, though, I put joining a CSA on the calendar for January because we didn’t want to be too late and miss out.  We finally found one that offers half-shares and a pick-up location about 15 minutes from both of our office buildings with hours that will easily allow one of us to pick up our box every week.  This CSA offers a payment plan of one third down and the rest paid over the next two months, which definitely makes it easier on the budget.  It also seems like this farm will be a good fit for us as their shares focus more on fruits and vegetables and less on herbs (which we plan to grow ourselves again this year) and fresh flowers (which are lovely, but not safe with our quirky quartet of cats).

We sent our application and down payment in at the beginning of the month and yesterday we received our confirmation email.  We’re officially in!  The pick-ups should start sometime in late May and they will be in touch with us closer to that time.  Now we just have to pay the remaining balance and wait, and of course decide which recipes we want to try.

Here’s Hoping

My sister, Gabrielle, recently won an award at work.  Apparently this particular award is a big deal; the company is fairly large (located in multiple states) and only three to four people receive this award per year.  This year Gabrielle is one of them. 

It's creative recycling, right?

Based on the number of Friday nights and Saturday afternoons I’ve called her only to learn that she’s at work, I think she really deserves it.  Needless to say, I’m very proud of my little sister.  So I was all set to send her flowers at work to congratulate her on her award, but then I found pajamas I know she really wants. 

I gave her a pair of these pajamas a couple of years ago and she loves them, so much so that they’re looking a little rough from having been worn so much.  She’s a hard to find size, and the store that carries them isn’t local to her.  I’ve been instructed to keep a lookout for them and buy them when I find them. 

I found two pairs, in her size, in patterns I think she will like, the day she received the award, so I decided on congratulatory pajamas instead of flowers.  (Pajamas sort of make sense; she’s worked hard, now it’s time to sit back, relax, and enjoy the award, right?)

I called and told Gabrielle about the pajamas.  We live three hours away from each other, so I was planning to just give them to her whenever we see each other next. Because we’re such patient people in my family, she couldn’t stand the idea of waiting.  So she decided I could send them Fed-Ex because apparently she gets a discount through work. 

Unfortunately, there isn’t a Fed-Ex store near me.  This didn’t deter my sister; she sent me a shipping label to print out, and arranged a pickup from my office.  She assures me that it won’t matter that I don’t have a Fed-Ex box, and that all that matters is that no writing or other company names are visible on the package. 

The pitiful looking box in the picture is what I managed to finagle out of an Amazon box, some paper grocery bags, and a whole lot of tape (she just thought I used a lot of tape on Christmas presents!).  It’s definitely not going to win any awards for being an ascetically pleasing package.  Here’s hoping the Fed-Ex driver will take it tomorrow! 

A to Z 2013

I did it, I’ve signed up for the 2013 A to Z Blogging Challenge.  You can read more about what the A to Z Challenge, and sign up to participate yourself, here  if you’re interested.  Basically it involves blogging every day except Sunday during the month of April and going through the alphabet. 

I’ve signed up much earlier this year (I’m currently number 455) than I did last year (when I was number 11-something).  I really, really enjoyed participating in last year’s challenge, and I’ve been happy to read that many of my blog friends from last year are participating again this year.

Like last year, I am not sticking to a theme for the A to Z Challenge.  I don’t do especially well with themes.  My first attempt at blogging was with a themed blog, and that just didn’t happen.  I like variety. 

Unlike last year, I am planning to try to write at least a few of my posts (bloglets, as one blogger calls them) in advance.  I have no doubt that I will still find myself googling “words that begin with” late at least one night, but I’m hoping to minimize that.

I’m excited about the challenge.  It was a lot of fun last year, and it’s how I met most of the people that I regularly interact with here in the blogging world.

So what about you?  Have you signed up for the 2013 A to Z Challenge yet?  What number are you on the list?  Do you plan to sign up this year? 

Happy Ending

I love happy endings, don’t you?  I hope so, because I have one for you.  India was adopted yesterday! Yes, that adorable, sweet girl is now in her true forever home. 

A lot of people shared her story and really networked, and it paid off for India.  Her new family took her home yesterday.  She appears to be settling in beautifully and is being showered with the love and attention she needs.

I just love it when a shelter pet gets their happy ending.  

India

India is a foster dog staying with us temporarily until an adopter or more permanent foster home can be arranged.  She’s an eleven year old golden retriever who was taken to the shelter by her former owners because they got a new puppy and India ate the puppy’s food.  She was very stressed in the shelter, so my friend/co-worker Beth asked if she could spend a few days with us. 

I cannot think of many worse “reasons” for giving up a lifelong pet.  I know I shouldn’t judge, but I have them pegged as the villains (at least in my book) who view pets as possessions; India is registered and has papers, and they’ve had her since she was a puppy.  It sounds a lot like trading her in for a new model to me.

I just can’t begin to comprehend abandoning your dog after a decade of their companionship.  I’ve had Emma for over nine years, and I think about all of the life changes she has been though with me.  I couldn’t abandon her. 

India is proving to be a mostly agreeable houseguest; she’s house trained, doesn’t get on the furniture (even though we’ve invited her to) and is beyond patient with the quirky quartet of cats, even though Milo seems determined to find her breaking point.  Fortunately, she just walks away from him when he does things that would make more than a few dogs turn him into a snack!  Emma and India have a somewhat uneasy truce; they are both older dogs, set in their ways.  Their ways just happen to be different, but for the most part they seem to have agreed to live and let live. 

We have yet to make the leap into becoming full fledged foster parents.  We toss the idea around semi-regularly, though we just don’t seem to quite be there yet.  We have done some temporary fostering that has worked out well.  We are comfortable with that, and like to think it helps in some small way.  So India has been with us since Tuesday evening and will remain with us through the weekend. 

I have shared her story with nearly all of my rescue friends, many of whom have shared with their rescue friends, so we are very hopeful that the right person will hear about her soon.  I am truly amazed by the devotion and energy that some of these people have for helping pets (I keep saying I want to be like some of them when I grow up), so I am sure that her story will have a happy ending.  

A Very, Very Belated Happy New Year

This is why I don’t make New Year’s Resolutions anymore; they seem to lead me to failure and disappointment.  For example, if I did still make New Year’s Resolutions, one of them would have been to get back to regular blogging, which clearly hasn’t happened yet.  In my defense, I did manage to contract some sort of Plague (not really, The Plague, but after being sick and tired for almost three weeks I feel better calling it The Plague) right around the holidays.  I fought it and took lots of cold medicine and we managed to have a nice Christmas, and Nick’s birthday party was wonderful. 

By the Sunday before New Year’s Eve, though, there was no more fighting it and no amount of cold medicine to make it through the day.  I worked a grand total of one full day that week and spent the rest of it in bed feeling miserable.  I did go to the doctor and get various medications, including a cream for the cough syrup-induced rash.  (Cough syrups are apparently full of dyes, which I am allergic to.)  I’m now almost rash free, and down to an amount of coughing that isn’t leading to gagging and headaches, so I have decided that I’ve officially rejoined the land of the living, and it’s time to catch up on everything.

How many of you make New Year’s Resolutions?   I used to every year, but I pretty much never stuck to them, so I don’t so much anymore.  Every year I tell myself that I will get organized, keep the house and yard neater, be a nicer person, focus more on my writing, exercise more, and volunteer more.  Every year, I tell myself this will be my year.  There’s just something so hopeful about the beginning of a new year.

I think each year does seem to get a little better; last year I started my blog, we short term fostered one cat and one dog, I did some rescue transports, my purse was cleaned out and organized for almost a month, I did the Memory Walk with my mom, we planted an herb garden, we went to some water aerobics classes for a few months, and the guest room was habitable for my sister to spend the weekend after Christmas with us.  I don’t think more than two, maybe three, of those things went on at the same time, though. 

So of course, this year I plan to get organized, keep the house and yard neater, be a nicer person, focus more on my writing, exercise more, and volunteer more.  We’ll see what happens with all of that. 

On the getting organized and keeping the house neater front, the house sort of looks likes a set from a disaster movie right now.  It’s awful.  That’s what happens when you’re sick for a few weeks I guess.  I intend to start tackling that (probably starting with the mountain of laundry, because that’s what is driving me the most insane) this week.  Assuming that I can stay awake long enough in the evenings, that is.  The coughing seems to be much worse at night, and the cough syrup knocks me out.  I feel better sleeping 9 – 11 hours a night, but it doesn’t lead to getting much done! 

On the volunteering front I am sorry to say that absolutely nothing has happened so far.  I blame The Plague.  It’s hard to volunteer for much when you can barely get out of bed.  I am hoping that will change over the next few weeks.

Ditto with the exercising.  The idea of getting into a cold pool right now just makes me cringe.  Once again, hopefully this will change in the next couple of weeks. 

Being a nicer person is a little more intangible and harder to quantify, I think.  I equate that a lot with volunteering.  I think helping some organization, working toward some greater good, something bigger than yourself makes you a nicer person.  But there are other things too, I know that.  Now I just have to work on finding them and practicing them. 

On the writing front, during my feverish haze during The Plague, I decided that I would write and self-publish a cookbook this year.  It still sounded like a good idea after the fever was over, so I’m going with it, even though typing it here is making my stomach do some crazy flip flopping around.  I’ve talked about it for years, so I’ve decided it’s time to stop talking and starting doing.

I told my husband about this plan, and he has been incredibly supportive.  He’s helping me round up all of the scraps of paper I’ve jotted recipes down on, and has agreed to let me experiment on him.

I normally don’t tell anyone about my plans to do something big like that, and then I don’t usually accomplish it, because no one knows I failed.  But I’ve realized that there’s some accountability to be found in telling people what you’re trying to accomplish, so I’m putting it out there this time.  I haven’t set a more firm deadline for myself than this year, but I’m thinking before the holidays, so I don’t have that hanging over me during the holidays.

So how about all of you?  Did you make resolutions?  Are you sticking to them?  How is 2013 shaping up for you? 

Whirlwind Weeks & Holiday Planning

I can’t believe it has been almost two weeks since I posted anything.  As usual, the time has flown by, and I’m not quite sure where it all went. 

Did you all have a good Thanksgiving?  As I posted earlier, we had ours much earlier this month, due to Nick’s work schedule, so we didn’t have any kind of Thanksgiving at home on the actual holiday.  I think, if he’s working on Thanksgiving next year and we have the early celebration, I will still make us a small Thanksgiving-type meal on the actual day.  It’s a little weird not having the traditional meal that day. 

I did get to get together with two friends, Crystal and Alex, the night before Thanksgiving.  Crystal works in retail and had to go in at 11:00 pm Thanksgiving night, so was trying to stay up all night Wednesday.  Alex’s plans to go out of town to visit family changed at the last minute, so we had a girl’s night in at my house.  Nick doesn’t eat any seafood, so since he was at work that was a perfect opportunity was us to feast on shrimp pasta.  It’s delicious; shrimp sautéed in copious amounts of butter and garlic, with pepper, basil, parsley and diced tomatoes, served over angel hair pasta.  Yum!

We went to my parents the Saturday after Thanksgiving.  Their 38^th anniversary was the week before, and since anniversaries are the only thing they celebrate we usually make a big deal out of it.  We grilled steaks, and made mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, green beans, and a berry crunch for dessert.  We somehow managed to pick out really good steaks and concocted a fabulous marinade.  It was garlic infused olive oil, lots of fresh minced garlic, balsamic vinegar, pepper, fresh cilantro, and a little bit of melted butter.  Unfortunately, we didn’t measure anything, so I really hope we’ll be able to duplicate it.  Nick and my dad grilled the steaks for a long time over very low heat.  They were delicious and so tender! 

My parents really liked their gifts, Emma was happy to run around in their back yard, and we had a good time visiting and playing board games.  We didn’t get home until almost 1:00 Sunday morning.

Somehow, in the midst of everything else, we didn’t get the Christmas tree put up.  We’re hoping to find time to put it up this weekend.  We usually put it up the weekend of Thanksgiving, so it’s a little odd not having it up right now.  We have plans to see The Nutcracker on Saturday afternoon, but hopefully we can get the tree put up Saturday night.  I am so excited about The Nutcracker.  I’ve never seen it, and now that it’s so close, it feels like Saturday will never come. 

I’m also in the midst of planning Nick’s 30^th birthday party.  He’s a Christmas Eve baby, so his birthday is easily overlooked.  I usually have a chili lunch (and a non-Christmas themed birthday cake) at our house that day and family and close friends come over.  Since this is his 30^th, and we’ve agreed to no more birthday parties for either of us except for milestone birthdays, we’ve decided to do something a little bigger.  We’re having it the following Saturday at a local pizza restaurant.  I have found a cake (not at all Christmas themed) that I love, and that has been approved by my friend Crystal.  She has great taste, and is honest enough to tell me when my great ideas aren’t so great.  Nick reads my blog, so I can’t go into much detail, but it’s going to be good. 

How many of you are the people who are already finished with your Christmas shopping?  I wish I could say I am, but I’m not.  I’m in awe of my friend Lorie who was finished by September.  I can only dream of being that organized!  We don’t have very many people to shop for, so it’s not a terribly daunting task.  The only downside is that most of the people I shop for are very, very difficult to shop for.  I really appreciate Amazon and eBay this time of year. 

It’s also about time for my annual bake-a-thon.  We like to take Christmas goodies (usually cakes, because I don’t make very good cookies) to people we see a lot through out the year like all of the different departments at work, our chiropractor, my acupuncturist, etc.  We also exchange baked goods with our neighbors.  It’s a lot of fun, and every year I vow that I will do little bits at a time, but so far it hasn’t happened.  Usually a few days before Christmas I’m up until 2:00 in the morning baking lots of cakes, and then we have a carload of cakes to deliver the next day.  I keep telling myself that this year I will do better.  We’ll see.  The past few weeks have felt like an endless session of running around trying to catch everything up and still falling further behind with everything.  Any suggestions about how to organize your holiday baking?

So how about all of you?  How was your Thanksgiving?  And how are your Christmas, or other holiday, plans coming along?  Feel free to share any organization tips you have with the rest of us!