Cara's Musings, 11/23/2012

Whew, Thanksgiving is over!

Puppy knows my feels today.

Source: dailyfrenchie.tumblr.com via Celeste on Pinterest

I love getting together with friends and family, but boy oh boy does it drain me. After socializing, I feel all kinds of introverted and want to recharge my batteries. This is something I've learned about myself, which I attribute to being born on the astrological cusp between firey, outgoing, extroverted Leo, and the complete opposite - emotional, introverted, homebody Cancer. The ideal would be a balance between the two, but that only works on the internet. I get to socialize while staying at home!

Perhaps that is why I like this place so much.

Less Contacts, More Friends

Source: toddlerapproved.com via Cara on Pinterest

The internet tells us simply adding another's profile to our list of connections is what makes a friend. But how many of those contacts would you feel comfortable calling on in a time of need? How many deep conversations do you have with these people on a regular basis? Challenge yourself today to have less contacts and more friends by turning these acquaintances into meaningful relationships. But start small - if you try to go deep with 100 people at once when you've barely said hi to one all week, you may end up spread too thin and entirely drained. The point is quality, not quantity.

As the awesome Gabrielle Bernstein says, when she is feeling down, she asks someone how she can help them. This could be a good start to developing a better connection with someone. You could also ask them to tell you about something good in their life, something that makes them smile or has them excited. Lift each other up by sharing the positive so that you can also lift each other up through the negative because that is the practice you've developed.

See the good in everyone. Trust as if they are already a true friend. Forgive and delete if they prove not to be. Give your time to the ones that lift you up, not continually bring you down. Pay no mind to haters. Don't feed the trolls. And in adding a friend, ask yourself if they may truly be a friend, or just another contact on the list.

May your day be filled with love, and the courage and ability to create and share it!
~ Cara

Cara's Morning Musings, Nov. 15th 2012

The cats and I were startled by a noise this morning that I soon determined, by a visual out the window, to be squirrels running around like crazy on our roof.

Source: Uploaded by user via Carol on Pinterest

If tiny little squirrel feet make that much noise, how in the world do people not wake up to Santa's reindeer tromping over their heads? ;)

I'm officially declaring it the cold season of the year. After adding another blanket to the bed, our dogwood tree having just a few red leaves hanging on the bare branches, and cold coffee losing it's appeal... yup, it's time to settle in and hibernate. Or in my case, put on a zillion layers and be so happy I'm not gonna get skin cancer just from walking outside in the 100+ degree weather! Yippie!

Source: sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net via Golly on Pinterest

I think, the older I get, the more I'm enjoying fall and winter and the natural slowing down of things. Well, as long as I ignore the holiday sales ads trying to blare consumerism into my head, of course. Even that, the feeling of needing to buy something, has been dying down inside me. I just have no desire to buy things anymore. I debate probably too much before making purchases, and lately everything I want is either food-oriented or towards fixing up the house anyway. If only I could win the Battle of the Tension with my sewing machine, new clothes wouldn't even hold much desire for me, either. I can't help but wonder if reading Almost Amish (checked out from my local library's eBook selection) has been bringing out that aspect of my genes, of the PA Dutch mentalities I grew up with.

Source: contentinacottage.blogspot.com via Mindi on Pinterest

May your day be filled with blessings!
~ Cara

Cara's Musings of November 7, 2012

I woke up coughing and meandered downstairs with an empty bowl and glass from a previous meal in my hand, jangling from my sleepy state of balance. I found the food I had purchased yesterday and chowed down - a few sliced of La Brea honey sunflower seed bread topped with strawberry jam, some pistachios, and a glass of cold chocolate almond milk. That drink is dangerous - I could seriously drink cartons of it a day if I didn't stop myself! I came back upstairs and laid in bed as the sun came up, listening to podcasts and ambient music on Spotify radio while reading The Internets via RSS feeds, thanks to my trusty Google Reader. First Butters snuggled up with me, curling up in the crook of my arm and purring away. After I shifted too much for his liking, he went to the empty spot of the bed below my feet and eventually Kitty claimed a spot on my lap.

~

I feel a great sense of peace today, and ambition. It feels like everything is okay in the world and we can get back to business as usual instead of being in the state of pre-election limbo we've endured this past year or however long it's been. Truly, election cycles begin long, long before the current one is even voted. I can only wonder who is planning right now to have their name in the pot on election day 2016. But, it's not ME, so I can easily let that go and focus on the fact that our 44th president is still Barack Obama, a man who's inspired me with his leadership, enthusiasm, confidence, decency, and love towards humanity. I wonder if the weight of the world's problems on his shoulders for another four years will leave his hair completely grey, or if his younger-than-the-average-president age will let him keep some of the pigment a little while longer than most. Yesterday I told the cats, "if Obama wins tonight, you get a can of tuna!" - I think it worked. ;)

~

An observation: it seems that despite some states allowing early voting, lines were still long in many places. I can't help but wonder if, in the future, the political process will actually become increasingly popular, and require a new standard of voting to make certain that everyone's vote is counted without, say, an eight hour wait.

~

"Today is another precious day on earth. We shall live it with joy. No matter how I have felt about myself in the past, today is a new day. The door opens to love, my love for myself. This is the pathway for healing. I make this the sort of day I want to remember tomorrow." ~ Louise Hay


From http://www.mindbodygreen.com/0-6742/Today-Is-A-Precious-Day.html

~

Blizzard says the Cinder Kitten WoW pet will basically be a $10 Red Cross donation when it comes out. I can't wait! I'd buy it today if I could. Look how freaking CUTE it is!

~

☮ Cara ☮

Habits.

Apparently I have gotten into the habit of napping. But instead of taking, say, a 20min nap and waking up rested, my body says, "you're exhausted!" and I lay in my comfy bed and crash for hours, entirely messing up my sleep schedule, which causes me to "nap" even more the next few days.

My problem, right now, is that I finally seem to have gotten back on a "normal" (wow, I'm using a lot of quotes today) sleep schedule and am getting that urge to crawl back in bed and sleep. But, I don't want to ruin this awesomeness of being able to wake naturally rested around sunrise. SO, what should I do? What could help me power through this feeling of heavy eyelids?

Considering I've only ingested coffee today, maybe eating something would help. Or exercising. Or taking a shower. I KNOW these things can generally perk me up when I do them on the regular. But there's the opposite that can also occur - they could male me just want to nap even more!

Alas. Building routines can be a struggle, but sooo worth it. What makes this entire situation worse is that I know I am stressed out about upcoming tests this week that I have been sorely procrastinating studying for. Could the desire to nap be an avoidance behaviour? I mean, if I am asleep, I don't have to think about studying and the huge weight of UGH that feels like on my back right now.

So ends my rambles for the moment. I think some food sounds like a good start to trying to AVOID the bed! haha. Taking care of yourself as an adult can be hard. Why is it so much easier to take care of others, but not ourselves?

My rambly thoughts about bullying, plastic surgery, and kids.

I just watched this video about a girl who was bullied from a young age for her looks, then received plastic surgery through a charity designed for young people to receive plastic surgery. I'm really torn on what I think about this. The girl wanted the bullying to stop and felt there was no way to get it to stop besides changing her looks. She was 14, so potentially old enough to decide this for herself, especially with the consent and support of her parents. But, her body is still growing and changing. She looks better in the post-operation photos and her interview towards the end of the video, for sure. But is that simply because society has skewed our learned views to think of a symmetric face as beautiful? Or is that an inherent thing in our DNA? I remember the days of puberty, having to go to school looking pretty much awful, as your body didn't quite match it's growing proportions, coupled with new glasses and - oh joy! - braces. But as an adult looking back on it, I can see that I grew out of it. My body grew into adulthood. The braces came off, and I got glasses that fit my face shape better. I learned how to do my hair and makeup and how to dress to my body instead of dressing to fit into any clique in school.

But, now that I'm getting older (edging towards 30!), I still see myself in that young adult body. I still shop in the juniors section and probably wear clothes that are a bit too young, or sloppy, for my age. Or at least, what society's standards say. So comparatively, I am going through the same shift, once more, but with less hormonal angst. Having to re-learn how my body is changing. But, I'm lucky to not have bullies picking on my starting-to-wrinkle skin or my veiny arms or anything else, really. I do that all to myself in my head, thank you very much. But is it bad enough that I would undergo a surgical procedure to change? Was it ever?

I will never forget the time, in tech ed class in middle school, a boy said to me, "Cara, you could never be a chicken." "What?" I asked. "Chickens have breasts!" he proclaimed as he and his friends laughed at me, then completely flat-chested. That comment stung so bad that I still remember it, and when I feel self-conscious about my chest, I'm transported right back to that time of my life, when I was hyper-focused on my flaws and just knew that everyone around me was, too. (Oh, the life of a teenager...) But, even back then, I had no desire to have breast implants. I still don't. I like being able to sleep on my tummy without it hurting, thanks! But, that was one comment - the most I ever really experienced in bullying. Would my views be different if it were many comments on a daily basis? Would it have eaten away at my confidence and beaten me into my shell?

As I read and hear more and more about bullying being so bad these days, I can't help but feel like an old person and think, sheesh, kids these days, everyone was bullied! I just can't understand how someone could take their own life from being bullied. Or, go under the knife as a consequence of being bullied about their looks. I just can't fathom what it's like. Is the bullying really that horrible nowadays? Or are kids not having the support they need to safely get through puberty, into adulthood, where they can more easily tell a bully to fuck off?

I wish I understood. I don't want my baby sister to face any person or any situation that would make her feel like she's flawed, or not enough. In a few years, when she is in school and I am over 30, I suppose I will get to experience it through her eyes. Although, I think she's absolutely beautiful and she's only a behbeh. Could my love for her be enough, combined with the rest of the family, to keep her happy through her innocent years, even when kids can be cruel to each other?

So, yes, the girl in the video's looks have improved, because they are more standardized. But will having taken away her looks that made her unique end up hindering her as an adult? Or will this help? They say they will take her to counseling for the bullying, but will they teach her that she doesn't have to hyper-focus on her looks for the rest of her life? And who will teach the bullies that it's not okay, when she reinforced their bullying by changing what she looks like? If they are truly bullies, they will find another reason to pick on her. Just like an abusive relationship, if you fix what they harp on, they will find another thing to beat you down for.

*sigh*

And on top of it all, there's actually a charity to give kids plastic surgery. I can understand having it for physical health reasons, like the deviated septum, but how far should mental health play into changing one's body surgically?

Oh so Pinteresting..!

I have recently become utterly addicted to Pinterest. I feared that would happen, which is why I avoided joining the site for so long. But now that I'm there, it's a haven for inspiration!!!

This caught my eye on Pinterest and with a bag of pre-made Trader Joe's pizza dough in the fridge, I knew we had to give it a whirl. Or a twist. (Get it? They're twisted breadsticks! harharhar)

With Ian's help, and a bit of trial-and-error, we made it work well enough to have some tasty breadsticks. They look normal from this angle, but...

...we needed to use less dough per skewer, because they sagged as they baked and the saggy parts were still a bit doughy once they came out of the oven. Ah well! Note the saggy baggy elephant lumps from this angle. Ah, gravity.

The Purple Chocolat Home recipe was a guide, since we were using pre-made pizza dough anyway. Towards the end of cooking, we spooned over some melted butter with spices in it and put them back in the oven to brown. Then we dipped them in some warmed up leftover marinara pasta sauce and it made a great, quick, easy meal... snack... thing. YEAH.

 

So... I'll call it a half-success, because they were edible and tasted good. But next time we'll definitely make them skinnier since we're using skewers and not big dowels like in the inspiration. I prefer the dough to be crunchy and flaky moreso than doughy so using less dough per skewer should help them firm up, too.

It's a good alternative to making homemade pizza if you are low on toppings, or out of cheese, or just feel like something a little different. Or, if you're nerdy like us, something easier to eat at the computer. ;)

Your turn! Tell me: What was the first thing you tried off of Pinterest? Did it work? Or are you one of my readers who is still wondering "WTH is this Pinterest thing?!" ;D

☮ ♥☺

~ Cara

Big Brother 14 is upon us!

BIG BROTHER BIG BROTHER BIG BROTHER. *screams and flails excitedly!*

The show is named after one of my favorite books, George Orwell's 1984. So, of course I love the concept. It's entertaining but waaay less creepy than the book, haha. The show is edited to be entertaining no matter what happens, so I don't really care that it's "reality" TV because I know all TV shows should be taken with a grain of salt anyhow (*ahem* History Channel, Ancient Aliens, anyone?). I've been watching this show on and off for years and saw this ONTD post and was SO EXCITED because I totally forgot about it's existence as being my favorite summertime thing to watch. I'm so glad they show the episodes on the CBS page the day after they air on TV!

I felt the need to post about it today because: there is someone in the cast named Kara. Yeah, spelled different, but everyone will be saying "Cara" and that will amuse me. But that's not all, folks! There's also an Ian!!! Hahahaha!!! So in a sense, me and my hunny can live in the Big Brother house through these people who share our names. *snicker*

I'm also intrigued by the chef guy, Russell-the-Survivor-villain's brother, and the ex-Kittie bassist. It'll be interesting to see how these personalities play off each other... especially once they bring back previous cast members.

*squee* I CAN'T WAIT!!! Ahhhh!

It begins July 12th. *eyeballs calendar* OMG ONE MORE WEEK. O_O *twitcH*

☮ ♥☺

~ Cara

Hittin' up the bar... the GRANOLA bar! (harharhar)

Lately I've been having a back-and-forth in my mind between eating "real" food and eating easy processed foods. I'm so thankful that more and more, there is a mix of the two and I'm able to find real foods for sale that are also convenience foods. I mentioned recently that I bought a bunch of granola bars and energy bars and such because they were on sale. Yeah, it was one of those "on a whim" purchases, but I'm glad I did!

This Harvest PowerBar in Toffee Chocolate Chip flavor was actually fairly tasty! I wasn't sure what to expect but it was edible AND enjoyable. Good combo.

 

 

I also tried the Triple Threat Energy bar in Chocolate Caramel Fusion flavor, which, by the time I pulled it out of my purse after driving around in the car, was covered in melty gooey chocolate and pretty darn delicious. The ingredients in these don't alarm me, so I feel okay buying them occasionally if I feel the need for a candy bar, haha, because they taste like candy bars but without all the processed crap. However, while the sugar content IS lower than a candy bar, they still have quite a bit of sugar in 'em.

Now, I'd like to talk about this little baby.

 

The Pecan Pie Larabar is my new favorite dessert. Okay, maybe not - the dark chocolate I bought the other day is almost gone! But oh. my. gosh. THIS THING IS SO GOOD. And when I read the ingredients: dates, pecans, and almonds? THAT'S IT?! I was astonished. Ian, the guy who is all about some pecan pie, also approved. While it's 220 calories for a TEENY TINY little thing, we split it and it was rich enough in flavor and texture that I probably wouldn't want to eat the whole thing anyway. One of my favorite bloggers, The Fitnessista, mentions eating Larabars quite often, so I don't know why it took me this long to try 'em. We tried the chocolate chip cookie dough flavor as well, but I wasn't as impressed with it as I was of the pecan pie flavor. I can't wait to try the other varieties now! 

Honestly, I'd rather have the Larabars than the PowerBars, but they are different monsters. The Larabars remind me of my beloved Chocolate Brownie Pure bars, since both have dates as a main ingredient. These kind of bars are more chewy than the PowerBars, which remind me more of the Nature Valley chewy protein bars I bought (also on sale!). 

It's great to have these kind of products to grab when you're on the go. They are easy to eat, tasty, and fulfilling - at least to my little tummy, haha! But part of me still says, "you can do better." I made it past the Snickers, to the tiny little Quaker Dipps granola bars, to the Nature Valley roasted almond granola bars, to the Pure and Larabars of simple simple simple ingredients. So, it's progress. But, I've seen recipes for homemade granola bars, so I know it can be done. I suppose that's the next step on the trail of convenience foods. With how much I enjoy the convenience of this type of food, I don't see myself forgoing them any time soon, but a homemade variety would be interesting to try. 

Your turn! Tell me: Have you ever made homemade granola bars? Do you have a recipe I HAVE to try? Or recommend another healthy-ish granola bar I should be on the lookout for?

☮ ♥☺

~ Cara

Full Moon

Source: s217.photobucket.com via La on Pinterest

☮ ♥☺

~ Cara

Eat iiiiiiit, eat iiiiiiiit

Have you ever been in this predicament?

Having no idea what to make for dinner, despite a huge database of saved recipes in Evernote? Then looking in the fridge to see half your groceries have gone bad (mmm, mold and sludge!)? Going grocery shopping, only to get bits and pieces of potential recipes and start the process all over?

Welp, that's where I've been.

I loooooooooove to eat. I love flavor. I enjoy cooking, for the most part, but I'm not very good at it - which is fine, because boyfriend is a professional cook. He's got skilllllllzzzz :D  But, a girl's gotta cook so she doesn't starve while her boyfriend's at work. Now, I could take the easy way out and get a bunch of premade food and processed junk to shovel into my face - and I have taken that easy way out before - but it's not fulfilling. The alternative is to eat well by cutting out junk food and processed food from my diet (and I don't say diet as in losing weight, just general eating habits), and to do that in this area, where healthy convenience foods are NOT the norm, takes a bit of effort.


So, one of my goals is to, well, stop being lazy. Especially when it comes to food. I buy food to cook, but then I'm lazy and don't feel like cooking, and the food goes bad and gets tossed. Wasting food makes me feel so guilt. That's just money down the drain. Not only are there are tons of hungry people in the world, but good food takes time to grow (watching a plant grow in a garden day in and day out makes you appreciate that!). And if meat is wasted? Some animal died just so I could have flavor and nutrients and I just threw it away? Talk about guilt, that's the worst. That said, I don't buy a lot of meat to cook and usually end up eating it when we go out to eat instead. I ate a vegetarian diet for awhile and while I allow myself to eat meat whenever I want it, I still don't really want it all that much. Most of the time when I end up eating it, it's for the convenience factor more than anything. When it comes to eating well, we all would be vegans if it were the easiest, tastiest way to eat! Alas, our society is still in a transition period where the most healthy, sustainable ways to fuel our bodies takes education, time, and effort.

One way I've been learning about food and nutrition is by using the MyFitnessPal app on my iPod, which is also usable via the internet if you don't have a mobile device. Basically, you put in your height, weight, activity level, and if you want to lose weight - and it figures out what your calorie intake should be to help you eat well. It shows the other nutrition information besides calories, so for anyone asking the age old "OMG ARE YOU GETTING ENOUGH PROTEIN EATING VEGETARIAN?!" question, you can easily track that with this service. Or, if you're trying to cut down on sugar intake, you can see that on here as well. Pretty darn cool! What amazed me about this app was the insane way I was able to learn just how bad I was eating. I'd input food that I thought was healthy, and seeing that, in fact, the nutritional values of said food was not nearly as nutritional as I had assumed it was! Oy. Eating out was the worst culprit. Having two slices of Sbarro pizza be half my day's calories, or one meal from Arby's be almost all my day's calories? Goodness gracious! No wonder eating at home is better for you; not only can you portion size a bit better, but you can control how that food is getting prepared.


Anyhow, I'd like to share what I snagged with my most recent grocery venture. Most of it is what I consider healthy or at least "real" food, but there is still quite a bit of processed and junky foods in there, too. However, if I'd compare this to a grocery haul from a year or five years ago, the difference is insane. I've already made a ton of progress, but there's still more to be made.


Trader Joe's:
- two packs of premade pizza dough
- 2 chunks double cotswold gloucester cheese (omg so good!)
- one lemon
- a pack of frozen salmon filets
- two dark chocolate caramel sea salt bars (dark chocolate is healthy, right?!)
- a three-pack of dark chocolate bars
- gallon of whole milk
- dozen XL brown eggs
- 3 Pure brownie bars (so tasty!) 
- maple syrup


Harris Teeter:
- bunch of bananas
- 2.5lbs peaches
- 32oz strawberries
- 1 carton of blueberries
- a bag of potatoes for A DOLLA from the this-stuff-is-going-bad bin
- 6 sweet potatoes (which was apparently 4.15lbs! Buildin' muscles carrying groceries!)
- a loaf of sliced wheat bread (La Brea is the reason I go to Harris Teeter, seriously!)
- a loaf of french bread
- a box of frozen waffles (some kind of funky chia amaranth gluten free things that were on sale)
- two containers of plain greek yogurt
- quite a few random energy bars to try that were on sale or cheap
- large flour tortillas
- Honey Nut Cheerios
- mini semi-sweet chocolate chips
- regular chocolate chips
- crangrape juice
- 4 boxes of granola bars on sale 

This is in addition to everything already in the fridge, freezer, and cupboards, that I have at my fingertips to cook and eat. I expect this to last at least a week or so before needing to go back out for fresh food, maybe even longer. That's the only thing that makes the $125ish price tag palatable (ooh, see what I did there?). But, I'd like to lower my food budget. It's the easiest thing in a budget to control spending when you're trying to save money... and the easiest thing for me to go all-out if I'm not careful!

I could definitely do better for getting whole recipe ingredients and less stuff on a whim. But, I am determined to NOT let food keep going to waste just because I'm too lazy to prepare and cook it in a timely manner.  I could certainly do without the Cheerios, but they're better than the Froot Loops I was eyeballing. I could do without the granola and energy bars, but they're so easy for on-the-go eats, and they don't need to be consumed right away. And of course, the chocolate... oh, the chocolate. My weakness! The salmon was $10, so cutting out meat definitely saves money. The maple syrup was $17 - the real stuff is expensive, but so worth it! Hopefully it will last quite awhile, if I can resist the urge to douse my pancakes in a maple syrup bath.

The least expensive purchases were the fresh fruits and veggies, ...go figure. I have to wonder why people think it's so expensive to eat "real" food. I guess it's the American mindset of eating a lot of something cheap just to fill you up, vs. how I've come to learn is a much better way to go about it - eating a small portion of something nutritionally good for you. I feel better when I've eaten moderate portion and still feel hungry afterwards, than when I gorge myself and feel absolutely stuffed and useless and lay around for hours after eating. It's better to choose foods to FUEL your body instead of just filling that empty hole in your gut. And sadly, I think there is a lack of education about that.

I honestly can't remember learning about nutrition in school, so either it was taught and didn't make a big impression, or it wasn't taught, or societal messages and advertising overwrote anything I learned in school. Jamie Oliver may use shock tactics to try to get schools to serve more nutritious lunches, but I think it's a step in the right direction to feed the nation's children well. I totally admire our First Lady for taking on education for healthful eating and exercise. I can only hope that the trend in healthy eating and healthful living continues to grow - preventing health problems is such a better option than dealing with them after you've treated your body like crap (especially for those who don't know any better).


So if I'm "with it," I'd like to include what I've been cooking and/or eating as part of this blog, as motivation to keep growing into a more healthy lifestyle. While I don't expect to be perfect (who is?! hah!), it'd be nice to try sometimes. ;)

☮ ♥☺
~ Cara

Rest Sometimes.

Been having a couple "off" days, which is frustrating me more than I can convey. So instead, here's an awesome picture of my cats actually being near each other *gasp* at sunrise. :)

Hopefully. Maybe. Since this is my first post using the Blogger app, we'll see how it attaches the pic..! Wee, learning even when I feel like butt. :)

☮ ♥☺
~ Cara

Smoke on the Water

Ah, yesterday was certainly interesting! I actually got some things done yesterday. Imagine that! 


First step was weeding my "garden" for a wee bit. Of course, I had the idea that I would go outside in the early morning, before it got too hot, to do this task. Easy enough. But, I ALWAYS wear bug spray when working outside, because we live pretty much in the woods, and ticks scare the crap out of me. Little did I know when I started this adventure that the bug spray SOUNDED like it had a bit left in the container, but when I went to spray it, it was pretty well empty. Sheesh. I risked it, and opted to leave my weed-bucket full to empty another day instead of going in the woods to dump it and risk ticks galore up my legs. I ended up getting two mosquito-y bites in 15 minutes, though, so there's my sign.

Anyway, here's the before and after!

Doesn't look like much, does it? Oy, I have a lot of work to do. But, I ripped the grass out of the un-flower-y section so that's a start. Of course, later in the day, a storm of storms ripped through the area and made my progress pretty much null and void, whipping my pots everywhere, throwing leaves and limbs all up in my business. Sheesh, Mama Nature, work with me here!


:)


Aaaanywho. Once I managed to rouse the boyfriend out of slumber, we ventured to Walmart to get new tires on my car, which is due for inspection by the end of the month. Last year the mechanic told me the big ol' gash in the side wall (I think is what it's called) of one of the back tires wouldn't pass next year, so instead of taking it back and having it fail and having to go get new tires anyway, we just got new tires before taking it to get inspected. Also on the to-do list was changing the oil, which was well overdue - "it was low on oil," we were told at payment. O RLY? You don't say?! :X  I am such a slacker at taking care of my car.


BUT. New tires on the back, complete with little nubbies! *squee*

Yippie!


While we were there, a fella' from Craigslist met us so Ian could check out the truck this guy posted for sale. Time will tell if that sale works out, but it helped pass a bit of the hour+ waiting around at Walmart. I ended up returning some glasses I had bought there ...last week? because one of them had a wobbly base, which is like asking for me to dump liquid everywhere. We saw a handful of people we know, too - this town is so small! - and got our walking in for the day by meandering the aisles. 

After a bit, we walked across the parking lot to Burger King for a snacky meal. They seem to have changed up their decor and atmosphere to try to make it seem more... I don't know how else to explain it, except, more like Panera, but with fast food. Very odd. I ordered chicken strips, which was also odd because I'm not a huge fan of chicken. And of course, a vanilla milkshake that gave me a brain freeze and sat in my gut... when will I learn? Nevarrr!

Ian has this uncanny ability to tell when the weather is changing, and noticed that we should hustle back to Walmart before the storm started. This is what it looked like after we got my car and headed out:

 

Grey skies of doom! Ahhh! We hurried home as fast as the monsoon would let us (as in, not fast at all). On the way, we got the OMFG excitement of seeing a power line pop from lightning. I guess it was a generator? I don't know these technical things. *waves hands* It was only slightly terrifying, though! At least one tree was down and there was plenty of debris flying about, but once we got to the road we live off of, I guess we had made it through the storm because it brightened up a lot and the rain calmed down. Alas, no rainbows to be seen, though. When we arrived home, there was a large branch across the driveway that thankfully, was easy for Ian to move, but there was HAIL in the yard. Not just a couple blobs, but big ol' piles!!!

I have never seen anything like this before! :O Big ol' ice balls all up in my garden space. We ventured out back to the lake - okay, Ian did - I stayed on the deck. Some pagan I am, don't even want to walk through nature. *whine* The ground was squishyyy! ;) But it looked so freaking cool, since it was steaming from the storm and humidity! Smooooooooooke on the waaaaaaater!

...and that was the adventure of the day!

I'll leave you with some pics of the pretty hydrangea bush that needs trimmed like crazy. The blooms are so heavy that it's droopy (you might be able to tell from the first pictures in this post). It's amazing, some of the flowers are blue, some are pink, and some are purple. It's like a tie-dye plant! :D

☮ ♥☺
~ Cara

The Cara Strikes Back

Well hellooo!

I am so glad to have you here, dear reader, as I embark on a new journey of blogging.

Throughout my life, I can recall writing in many different diaries and journals, both paper and electronically. Lately I have felt the need to not only record my life's goings-on again, but to do so in a way that will make me accountable for ...well, not being a slacker.

I've called this new venture "Try Sometimes," after a week of brainstorming The Perfect Blog Name For Me. Welp, here goes. As the legendary Jedi master Yoda says, "Do or do not. There is no try." 

As true as that logic is, you can't exactly DO if you don't first TRY. So, to counter that, the Rolling Stones song popped in my head: "You can't always get what you want, but if you TRY SOMETIMES, you might find you get what you need." 

That motto seems to be more of what I need in my life these days. Love ya, Yoda, but I seem to have learned too well that "there is no try" by, y'know, not trying. Woops.

I hope to continue to live in my usual "go with the flow" attitude, but to add in some good ol' hard work in there... SOMETIMES. ;) Hopefully, writing in this personal blog will help motivate me to try new things (sometimes), which will help me grow as a person and improve my life in the ways that I often dream of, but never get around to making happen for one reason or another.

Life has an uncanny way of giving me exactly what I need when I put myself out there. So... here goes! :D

Enjoy the journey.


☮ ♥☺
~ Cara