Love Yourself

Most of us can admit to loving things about ourselves, but do we love our selves? The parts that make us, us? “A woman’s happiness is in throwing everything away to live for love,” says Ai Yazawa. But this living for love does not mean throwing away our dreams and desires. No, it means fully entering oneself, while ridding of any pre-conceived notions about beauty and value and worth. It means embracing our crooked noses, snorting laughter, the stretch marks, saggy boobs, tea-bag eyes and warty feet. It means accepting our humanness, but more than that. It means approaching ourselves like author Anne Lamott does: with kindness and laughter. “Age has given me what I was looking for my entire life,” she writes. “It has given me me. It has provided time and experience and failures and triumphs and time-tested friends who have helped me step into the shape that was waiting for me. I fit into me now.”We each have a shape. It may not be perfect, but it’s ours. A unique space in history to fill.

Quote of the day

"Being tender and open is beautiful.  As a woman, I feel continually shh'ed - too sensitive, too mushy, too wishy-washy.  Blah blah!  Don't let someone steal your tenderness.  Don't allow the coldness and fear of others tarnish your perfectly vulnerable beating heart.  Nothing is more powerful than allowing yourself to truly be affected by things.  Whether it's a song, a stranger, a mountain, a rain drop, a tea kettle, an article, a sentence, a footstep, feel it all.  Look around you.  All of this is for you.  Take it and have gratitude.  Give it and feel love." - Zooey Deschanel

My Childhood Love of Books Began Here...

Want to Know Me?

Refashion - - - in a New Way

This weekend is the Ward Campout.  I'm super excite for two reasons: 1) I absolutely positively can't get enough of camping and 2) it's at the Lake House.  Growing up, we did LOADS of camping, but this is going to be really the first time I've done the prepping alone.

These basic steps I know I can handle:
1 - Tin foil dinner
2 - Make bedroll
3 - Gather equipment
4 - Load car
5 - Pitch tent
6 - Start decent fire (including prepping the coals)

THIS, is the newest and most foreign step in the process - Seasoning a Dutch Oven.  I've always known and had experience with Dutch Ovens as they were an integral part in our family camping, but what I didn't realize was the amount of work it takes to get it ready.  Another something to encounter - the Dutch Oven is MY Dutch Oven.  When talking with my grandma about how I excited I was for the campout, she asked if we were doing anything with Dutch Ovens.  When I said we were, she told me there was probably one or two old Dutch Ovens out in the garage (glorified machine shop junk yard, more like).  Off I went to scour and discover.  The oven is a smaller sized one and completely coated in rust.  What normally should be black was a bright coppery-orange.  When I brought it inside, my grandma immediately set me to work on cleaning as much of the rust off as possible.  It was a brand-new, never been cooked in Dutch Oven that had been set aside and forgotten, before it could even draw the first smoky breath of fire.

2hrs of steel-wool scrubbing and the light silver color was showing up.  Next, the "Seasoning" of the oven.  Over time, Dutch Ovens build up their own protective coating from the oils released by the foods.  Because this little guy had been set aside instead of prepped for use, I got to do this step from the very beginning.

Reader's Digest version of the process
*more scrubbing, this time with a milder scrubber to remove any residue - 20min
*bake on the self-cleaning setting of the oven - 4hrs + the time it took for the oven to let me in
*allow to cool enough to handle the Dutch Oven - 1 1/2hrs
*thoroughly rub-down/coat with shortening - 5min
*bake - 50min
*allow to cool - 15min
(at this point it was super late so the rest of the steps are the next day.
*rub-down #2 - 10min
*bake - 20min
*allow to cool - 20min
*wipe off excess oil - 5min

I like to say, this little guy went from day to night.  These kinds of projects/hobbies/transformations are my favorite because I like to see the progress along the way; not wait till it's all over.

Pic #1 After the 2hr steel-wool exfoliation (you can still see loads of rust...picture that, but all over)
Pic #2 - READY TO COOK

What Makes Baseball Appealing...to ME

Well, all I can tell you is why I like to watch them.  Of course, they are way better when you are actually in the stadium.  For me, it is a slow game that with one swing of the bat everything changes.  You instantly have action.  The batter trying to get to first as fast as he can, and the fielders trying to catch the ball to get him out or catch it and throw him out at first.  Watching the pitcher interact with the catcher to try and fool the batter on what he is about to pitch, whether it be a fastball, curve, slider, change-up, etc.  Then, seeing if the batter can guess right and make contact.  Then, ever so often the batter makes solid contact and anything can happen.  It can be a home run or a fielder that can make a fantastic play and get the batter out.  Or occasionally, the fielder makes an error and the batter is safe.  A game can be turned around by one single play on the field.  Hard to explain why this game is so much fun to watch.  You really have to be there to understand.