Just. Breathe.

Hello, strangers on the interweb! I'm still alive! I still have my Blogger account. Now you can all breathe a little easier.  There are probably a dozen topics I need to write about, including how the child decided she was adult enough to move out of my house to college, of all things, but I can't do that one yet. Maybe in a couple of years.... BUT, apparently, I decided to cope with that change by cooking all the food...and eating all the food...and taking pictures of all.the.food! Here's what's been cooking at the hacienda.   I'd love to tell you that I just made all these up myself. Then I could start a new career, but this was way easier than that. I clicked a random link one day -- gatheredtable.com is my new life-saving menu planner site! You really should check it out. I've not made anything yet that we haven't liked. You can import your own recipes or ones from anywhere on the web and they'll work into the rotation. Cha...

Someone probably needs to call the guys in the white coats, because this has been happening this week: That's right -- running FOUR DAYS out of five! Consider this your warning that the zombie apocalypse is upon us, because I'm planning to outrun you.  Obviously, I set no land speed records; there's still time for you to train so you outlive me.  But let's look a bit closer, shall we? In case you missed it... Why would you do that, you ask? It's simple -- heat. Texas in July, even in a weird year like this one, is not friendly to even walking outside after 8am. Pile on that RDub leaves for work at 6:30 AND he is psychologically unmotivated to do this by himself, and it's a perfect storm. The dogs need a walk, and they would die in the afternoon heat (or act like they will [Theo]).  So it's a great plan, right? If we could just get our butts in bed by 10pm, we might not think we're all going to die of exhaustion.  And that's been o...

Okay, just five of the things going on for the last however many months anyway! [ETA before publish: I've been writing on this post since April. Ridiculous.] It's time for the annual semi-annual semi-monthly way-too-irregularly-to-be-taken-seriously-as-a-blogger post about where I've been and what I've been doing since my last post...in February (other than the cruise, that is). It's sad. It really is.  Here's what's been happening.  1. Back in April, when I started this list (don't judge), this was the big thing: Taken March 27...when I should have been planting flowers Then, in May, the other weather-related news took over: 1. The main street by our house; 2. Six Flags river; 3. Trinity River in Dallas Photo credit: Google This has honestly been the strangest weather year I can remember. In early June, we finally were able to get in our pool, we aren't on water-rationing, and my yard looks amazing! We can't see the neighbor...

We broke tradition this year and went on vacation at the beginning of the summer season instead of the end! Rebels, we are. Back in February or so, I had a friend who started a travel agency and a daughter who was stressing about her 2nd semester in college, and a vacation just sounded like something we needed. I immediately thought of a cruise, and the family took about 3.4 seconds to get on board with that wild hair.  And finally it happened! We left early (EARLY!) Saturday morning--5am to be exact--in order to get to the ship as early as we could and beat some of the lines. Fact: 7-day cruises start on the day of departure, even when departure isn't until 4pm. So get there, get a deck chair and some food and drink, and start vacation! The deck would never be that empty again! We stopped by the room to drop off our bags, but the steward, Libert, was still working. We didn't understand until later why he was a little upset that we were there -- he was decorating our r...

[Not even lying that I started this almost two weeks ago and am finally going to finish and post...] I'll skip to the end first: Whole30 ended at about Whole21. It wasn't a failure though. I was reminded of quite a few things during the three weeks.  It's called Whole30, not Whole365 for a reason -- it is just next to impossible to maintain that level of strictness every single day. Getting sick was just the first part -- when nothing tastes good or sits well, you eat what you can. Next, an anniversary deserves to be a celebration! I was not going to feel "deprived" by not having a glass of wine or a breadstick.... These things came up during the month I'd had planned, and that's just how life works.  But I was reminded of how I feel when I choose certain foods over others. I can't eat cheese and feel good. Period. I can't eat much bread/flour and lose weight. Just can't. It's also a trigger food for me -- once I'd broken that af...

This week didn't turn out exactly as planned.  Monday's bootcamp was ridiculous: 50 mountain climbers 20 squats 20 push ups 50 lunges 100 high knees 20 sumo squats 30 moving push ups 40 step ups (20 per leg) 50 run lunges FOUR TIMES THROUGH We made it through three times -- and my hatred for push ups stands. Ridiculously sore on Tuesday and Wednesday, which made what happened Wednesday even more difficult to figure out.  Monday's dinner was the lovely chicken and lime soup I wrote about here , and on Tuesday we took chicken and beef fajitas to Bug. She's house- and animal-sitting this week for friends -- and by animals, I mean 11 dogs, 14 horses, some number of rabbits, chickens, pigs, alpacas, and goats. It's been cold this week, so she's having fun feeding animals at 6am when it's 26 degrees. We fed her, then went and visited the animals. That adorable baby pig was fast! He didn't want to be held, obviously. Around 2pm Wednesday...

I totally intended to post this on Tuesday, and then stuff got all in the way. So here's a new Tasty Tuesday-ish.  I stole this recipe, I'll admit. Actually, I steal most of my recipes. But I try to give credit! This was on Pinterest as Chicken & Lime soup from budgetbytes.com. It was Paleo without even trying. But I made some adjustments, and it really reminds me so much of a chicken tortilla soup (without the tortillas) and is one of my new favorites. I didn't know it was going to be, so I didn't take step-by-step photos...Go to this link  if you need to see that kind of detail. It's really easy. As with most of my recipes, the amounts here can be scaled up or down depending on how much you want. I love leftovers, so I keep that in mind when I'm making soups.  Okay, what you need: chicken breasts - I used about a pound, and they were frozen when I put them in 2-3 stalks of celery, diced onion, diced, about a cup 2 cloves garlic, minced 1 ja...

The last time I started a Whole30, I quit after four days. I'm at the end of Day 7. Here's how it's going. I'm back to drinking my water - yay! I make this up every day in the big pitcher, and refill my glass every time I get up. Lemons, cucumbers, and oranges go in mine most of the time.  I have gotten in a very bad snacking habit, especially when I'm stressed. This week has definitely tested my determination, with a lot of work and long hours, and just that craving to grab something crunchy or chocolate. Instead, I'm making do with this: These raspberries are some of the best I've ever tasted. Those are walnuts on top.  The meals have gone according to plan this week. Chicken salad for lunch on Monday and shrimp/chicken stir fry on Monday night. Tuesday was grilled pork chops... ...with butternut squash and kale saute, with pecans. Why yes, that IS a "K" branded on top of my pork chop. RDub was playing with his Christmas present....