Can I be happy in the middle of the road?

I sure hope so, because that is where I think I am going to settle.

The fast went really well (at least the second day...the first day sucked.) I wasn't hungry at all on Sunday. I holed up in my house all weekend and had no interaction with anyone, so I don't know if I got bitchy or moody.

Monday I started out with vegan meals:

Breakfast - scrambled mix with mushrooms, onions, and spinach
fruit

Lunch - black bean spread, avocado, and pumpkin seeds on a tortilla
fruit

Dinner - garlic potatoes mashed with onions and kale
(I have found a new love...yummy!)

The rest of the week has been a variation of the same. Mainly veggies, fruit, beans, seeds, nuts, and very little grain (in the form of two whole wheat tortillas.)

No soda, only water. I did splurge and have an iced coffee on Tuesday.

I feel fine, but kind of blah. It might just be because I don't have the boys around, but I think I am just bored.

I guess I am just going to have to accept that I enjoy food. I enjoy going to restaurants and trying new meals. I enjoy experimenting and cooking new things at home.

As much as I would love to be a 100% raw vegan, it just isn't going to happen. I would be miserable and, in turn, make those around me miserable.

Don't get me wrong...I love eating fruits and veggies, too. Occasionally, though, I am going to eat a steak or chicken wings or a hamburger. And I'm going to try and not feel (too) badly about. I still have to reconcile my feelings with animal conditions and slaughterhouses...this still bothers me.

There should be a nastier word than cleanse.

Cleanse just sounds so healthy and freeing and light and, well, clean. Guess what? It's not. It's freaking hell for the first few days.

J and the boys are in Key West visiting family for a couple of weeks. J's grandpa isn't doing well.

While they are gone, I figured I would try and get my eating cleaned up again. I did so well until we moved here. Now I am eating nothing but junk and I've gained a ton of weight.

My plan is to do a liquid fast today and tomorrow and then transition to an alkaline-cleansing diet for ten days. I might throw some 100% raw days in there, but I wanted to try something new, too.

So, today I have had nothing but water. Right now, I am drinking my green lemonade "dinner." It tastes really good, but my stomach wants to know where the food is. Tomorrow will be mostly the same, plus a little coconut water.

Sigh. I'm hungry.

Procrastination...Thy Name is Crystal!

I don't know what it is in my genetic make-up that makes me put things off until the absolute last minute. Even things that I enjoy doing! I've always been a night-before kind of gal...drove my mom nuts.

I spent several hours yesterday doing almost all my schoolwork from the last six weeks. One of the true joys of online classes is that as long as the stuff is turned in before the class ends, you're good. Yesterday I took four quizzes, did three packs of busy work, answered about twenty discussion questions, discussed three topics with classmates, and finished my last case study.

Now all I have left is three papers, an individual dietary analysis, and two final exams. I probably should have done some of that today, but I wanted to finish two books I've been reading. I still have until midnight tomorrow until they are due!

It irritates the hell out of my hubby, but I just seem to work better under pressure. If I had started these papers four or five weeks ago, I would still be working on them today. And they would have changed several times and the final draft would be horrible. If I wait until tomorrow to do them (all at once), I can sit down and bang out A-B papers. I don't understand how it works, but this method got me from elementary through high school and it's still going strong.

Why try to fix what's not broken?

Never Long Enough...

Last week, for the first time in eight years, I went on vacation without my husband or boys. I was a little leary of going alone (I've never been away from the boys for more than a night), but I am glad I went...it was definitely worth it.

I got to spend a whole week at my parent's house in North Carolina. The best part was my brother was there every day and my sister came home from law school for two days. I hadn't seen my sister since summer 2008 and my brother since summer 2007. I miss them both so much!

It was great spending time with my parents, too. My mama and I got to catch up on plenty of reading and talking. My dad even took a few days off to hang out with us.

We spent plenty of time wandering around old cemeteries. Most of my cemetery pictures were destroyed during the flood in 2005. So, it was nothing new, but I got to replace what I had lost.

Mystery #28...Why is Eliza Wells (my great-great grandmother) buried beside her second husband, yet have the name of her first husband on her tombstone?

I got to visit my grandparent's (maternal) old garden. It just looks like a grassy field today, but it used to be rows and rows of yummy vegetables. I spent many days helping and playing here...it seemed so much bigger when I was younger! This old water pump still works. It was how we got all our water when we were out there working.

Here is my great-grandfather's old tobacco barn. It's not going to be around much longer.

The second best part of my trip was eating good North Carolina seafood!! You would be suprised at the lack of decent seafood here in California. Thank goodness I can go home and get some! Aaah! Oysters and crabs...I should have taken a picture.

.

My dad finally got hold of my grandmother's old photo album. My poor brother has spent weeks peeling the pictures out of the old album, scanning them, cropping and touching them up, and putting them in a new album. They are guessing there are over a thousand pictures! I can't wait until I get a copy! Here are my grandparents (yep, my grandfather was in the Coast Guard!)




Here's my daddy around his first birthday...Look at those curls!!

My cousin David was a North Carolina State Trooper. He was killed while on duty ten years ago this month. This bridge is located on Hwy 40 and is named in his honor.

I really missed having my boys underfoot and would unthinkingly break out with a Wiggles song every so often. Yes, I missed J, too! But it was so nice to be home for a little while. I think this is the worst part of the military life. We have at least six years (most likely it will be eleven) before J retires and we can move home for good. Until then, we only get to see our family a couple of times a year.

Visits are never long enough!

Earth Hour

I meant to post this a few days ago, but better late than never.

Tonight at 8:30pm, we will turn out all our lights for one hour ~ Earth Hour.

All around the world people will be able to use their lights to vote: off for earth or on for global warming. You can sign up at the website below. They are trying to reach a goal of 1 billion votes. How will you vote? The results will be presented to world leaders at the Global Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen 2009.

http://www.earthhour.org/home/

How neat is this? You plug in words or a link to a blog and it makes a little picture with various words you used. Apparently, the bigger words are ones you use most often. You get to play around with the font, color, and layout. Here is what I came up with for this blog...



Here is what came out using Edgar Allan Poe's poem "The Raven."



And here's one all about me...

This is for you, Buddy!!

My brother has been drawing comics for as long as I can remember and I thought it was time to put some on here. I grew up reading these and I turned out...okay. In other words, WARNING: May contain vulgar and/or offensive content!

Check out some more here..... http://www.webcomicsnation.com/blooptoon/