SoCS: Handsome is Just Icing on the Cake

Today’s SoCS post is “icing on the cake,” because HAPPY BIRTHDAY to LINDA, our SoCS, #JusJoJan host! Linda asks that we write about the first thing that comes to mind when we think about the phrase, icing on the cake.

My husband David is icing on the cake. Not that we eat a lot of sweets, but he’s an extra blessing. Before he came back into my life, I was willing to stay single and starting to accept that, if me staying single was what God wanted. I focused on the things single women have accomplished and the advantages of being single – the freedom, no snoring, doing yoga while watching TV with no make-up on (which I do anyway.) It’s totally okay to be single. And I’d always have dogs for company.

Having a compatible partner is icing on the cake – extra. He’s not perfect of course. He snores and he doesn’t like to watch TV, so I watch whatever I want while doing yoga with no make-up. And he doesn’t like coconut. It’s a texture thing. Like I don’t like sauerkraut. It’s a texture and a smell thing. Yuck. But David is intelligent, handsome, spiritual, and he loves dogs. Handsome is icing on the cake. It’s also a strange word, hand some. As in, hand some cake over.

Getting back to coconut, my favorite icing on a cake would be the coconut pecan icing that normally comes on German chocolate cake. I would put that icing on dark chocolate cake with chocolate chips in the cake and more nuts, because I’m nuts about nuts. It would all be vegan, preferably, which is entirely possible, and while I’m at it, no calories, which is very unlikely, unless I’m imagining the whole thing which is probably for the best. But I could have some nuts and dark chocolate which I do have on hand. Some.

Now “some” looks weird. Somewhere over the rainbow way up high. Okay, enough already.

For rules and other details about Stream of Consciousness Saturday and Just Jot it January

visit Linda Hill’s post by clicking HERE.

#JusJoJan: Chocolate is a Vegetable

Don’t know where this came from. Thanks to whomever.

Dark chocolate is my favorite. 70% at least. I don’t even bother with regular milk chocolate. Not worth the calories or the sugar if I can barely taste the chocolate. Plus I don’t want to waste my 5% off being 95% vegan for regular old milk chocolate. Vegan chocolate is available sometimes. But there is some wiggle room in that 5%. Am I a chocolate snob? Maybe. To each her own. They say dark chocolate is good for you which makes sense since it’s a vegetable.

Hot chocolate in the mountains.
I miss the snow.

Thanks to Ritu for today’s prompt and to our host, Linda Hill for keeping us going with Just Jot it January!

Click here for more information on #JusJoJan!

How Not to Waste Food: Eat Leftovers, Compost, Share with Dogs

Today’s Stream of Consciousness prompt was: “food”

If I hadn’t written about my efforts to be a vegetarian just a few days ago, I would have written about that…..

Do you know how much food is wasted in the US? A lot!

My mother used to say, “We don’t throw away food.” She grew up in the depression and didn’t throw away much. But sometime, when it has mold on it, you do need to throw it away, unless of course you can compost it. We keep our compost in the freezer until it piles up enough to carry it out to the composter.

Having dogs also helps us not to waste food. And we eat a lot of leftovers. Sometime we can make a whole meal of leftovers, two meals even. A thin friend of mine told me that she felt like when she ate too much, it was wasting food, so it’s the same as throwing it away. I don’t know. But it got me thinking about how maybe I don’t need to eat something just to keep it from going to waste when I’ve already had enough. But I still don’t like to throw it away if it’s usable, meaning eatable.

My husband’s dogs, who are now my dogs, my step dogs, will eat just about anything, including kale, broccoli, carrots, apples and bananas. My little mutt has started to eat some of those things, too, since her step sisters seem to enjoy their raw veggies so much. But when we toss her the kale, or a piece of raw carrot, she mouths it and then looks at us like, what is this? This is not food.

Yet, for humans, it is food, unlike things like potato chips and candy – food like products, right? Except that last night, I had some potato chips for the first time in a very long time, and they were good, sort of, not wholesome, yeah, they didn’t taste like food. Okay, so I won’t do that again for a very long time. I hope. Because it’s true what they say about weight gain and getting older. It’s not mandatory to gain weight as we age, but it does seem to be a trend. And then there are those people who get thinner as they get older.

But back to food. I’d really like to eat mostly what God made, through nature, for us to eat to be healthy. We are blessed and lucky to have so many choices in the modern world. But I do like dark chocolate, and that is not made by God/nature. Cocoa beans are though. I don’t recall ever having a cocoa bean. I think it’s about time. Because beans are good for you. And I want to eat food that’s good for me. I want to eat to live, not live to eat.

If you’d like to join in the banquet of Saturday’s Stream of Consciousness, visit:

http://lindaghill.com/2016/02/26/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-feb-2716/

Here are the rules:

1. Your post must be stream of consciousness writing, meaning no editing, (typos can be fixed) and minimal planning on what you’re going to write.

2. Your post can be as long or as short as you want it to be. One sentence – one thousand words. Fact, fiction, poetry – it doesn’t matter. Just let the words carry you along until you’re ready to stop.

3. There will be a prompt every week. I will post the prompt here on my blog on Friday, along with a reminder for you to join in. The prompt will be one random thing, but it will not be a subject. For instance, I will not say “Write about dogs”; the prompt will be more like, “Make your first sentence a question,” “Begin with the word ‘The’,” or simply a single word to get your started.

4. Ping back! It’s important, so that I and other people can come and read your post! For example, in your post you can write “This post is part of SoCS:” and then copy and paste the URL found in your address bar at the top of this post into yours.  Your link will show up in my comments for everyone to see. The most recent pingbacks will be found at the top.

5. Read at least one other person’s blog who has linked back their post. Even better, read everyone’s! If you’re the first person to link back, you can check back later, or go to the previous week, by following my category, “Stream of Consciousness Saturday,” which you’ll find right below the “Like” button on my post.

6. Copy and paste the rules (if you’d like to) in your post. The more people who join in, the more new bloggers you’ll meet and the bigger your community will get!

7. As a suggestion, tag your post “SoCS” and/or “#SoCS” for more exposure and more views.

8. Have fun!

How long can you work “tirelessly” ?

I get really annoyed when someone says/commends me or someone else by saying he, or she has worked “tirelessly” when we were damn tired.

There I said it.

If someone really worked tirelessly, they would be on a lot of caffeine, or manic, or maybe just passionate about the work, but eventually, we get tired. All of us.

So what would be a better commendation?

She worked really hard. He worked from sun up to sun down. You did a good job! Are you sick and tired of being sick and tired?  I’m sounding a little negative here, which I don’t usually do on this blog. But hey, I’m human and this is a little pet peeve of mine.

It is possible to work tirelessly – but not forever. Okay enough of that.

There are some things I would never tire of. Things I’ve not had the chance to get tired of anyway, like a massage. Can you imagine a massage that goes on as long as you want it to? Maybe a tag team of three massage therapists. Could a person overdose on a massage that went on and on into blissitude? Could your muscles actually get tired from a massage? I’d like to find out.

Other things I don’t think I’d get tired of are: stained glass windows, soft and gentle music if it’s varied enough, the oatmeal I have every morning with fruit and walnuts, (though I wouldn’t mind pancakes for dinner once in a while). I don’t think I’d get tired of Star Trek, which I rarely watch anymore. I doubt I’d ever get tired of the color blue, though of course anything is possible. It would take a long time for me to get tired of dark chocolate.

And I truly don’t think I would get tired of God’s love. Agape. The unconditional love that never ends.

What do you never get tired of?

Today’s Stream of Consciousness prompt was: “tire.” So far, I’ve not gotten tired of the Saturday Stream of Consciousness prompt and post. In fact, I look forward to it. Thanks to Linda Hill.

If you’d like to join in the fun, visit :

http://lindaghill.com/2016/02/12/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-feb-1316/

Here are the rules:

1. Your post must be stream of consciousness writing, meaning no editing, (typos can be fixed) and minimal planning on what you’re going to write.

2. Your post can be as long or as short as you want it to be. One sentence – one thousand words. Fact, fiction, poetry – it doesn’t matter. Just let the words carry you along until you’re ready to stop.

3. There will be a prompt every week. I will post the prompt here on my blog on Friday, along with a reminder for you to join in. The prompt will be one random thing, but it will not be a subject. For instance, I will not say “Write about dogs”; the prompt will be more like, “Make your first sentence a question,” “Begin with the word ‘The’,” or simply a single word to get your started.

4. Ping back! It’s important, so that I and other people can come and read your post! For example, in your post you can write “This post is part of SoCS:” and then copy and paste the URL found in your address bar at the top of this post into yours.  Your link will show up in my comments for everyone to see. The most recent pingbacks will be found at the top.

5. Read at least one other person’s blog who has linked back their post. Even better, read everyone’s! If you’re the first person to link back, you can check back later, or go to the previous week, by following my category, “Stream of Consciousness Saturday,” which you’ll find right below the “Like” button on my post.

6. Copy and paste the rules (if you’d like to) in your post. The more people who join in, the more new bloggers you’ll meet and the bigger your community will get!

7. As a suggestion, tag your post “SoCS” and/or “#SoCS” for more exposure and more views.

8. Have fun!

Lent: Is it Okay to Cheat on Sundays?

It’s about halfway through the 40 days of lent. As in years past, I’ve been cleaning up my vegetarian plate for lent. I’m not vegan, though I do have vegan days. I thought I was having one  last week until I remembered there was butter and parmesan cheese on that garlic bread. No body’s perfect.

I stopped eating meat in the late 70’s. Here’s how it happened. Since then, it’s been easy for me to abstain from eating mammals. It’s been harder to give up eating fish and chicken, except during the season of lent.  During lent, I’m a strict true vegetarian.

A couple weeks ago, one of the regularly visiting priests ministering to my little Episcopal church told me that Sundays don’t count in lent.

What?

He said there were more than 40 days between Ash Wednesday and Easter and that’s how Sundays get to be free days, though I think he said, “feast days.”

I counted the days on the calendar, and sure enough, there are 46 days from Ash Wednesday to Easter!

Why did I not know this? Or did I hear it and just not pay attention?

Going 40 days in a row, (now 46) straight through to Easter as a true vegetarian works for me. It brings me closer to my goal to not contribute to the horrors of factory farming, because after lent, I eat way less chicken. It’s just possible that I’m done with chicken for good.

(Fish is another matter. I’m not going there yet.)

What I’ve learned about myself, and I think this applies to most people with addictive personalities, is that it’s easier for me to abstain all together, than to indulge occasionally. I learned this the hard way with cigarettes. And even though I’m not an alcoholic, it’s easier for me to abstain than to drink alcohol occasionally. I can’t say I’ll never drink again. Maybe I’ll have a glass of wine on my 80th birthday. For now, I’m comfortable staying sober. But for some people, once it too many and a thousand’s never enough. For some people, like alcoholics, it’s not worth the risk.

I quit drinking twenty something years ago, when I got serious about recovery from compulsive overeating and stopped consuming empty calories. I stopped eating refined sugar for about a year. At that time, total abstinence from sweets was easier than moderation. Now I indulge in sweets occasionally, especially dark chocolate, but I know it’s a slippery slope, and I need to be mindful.

For lent, I’m sticking to my tradition of being a true vegetarian, including Sundays, all the way ’til Easter.  I hope this will help me really be done with eating chicken. And I’m not going fishing for seafood. There are plenty of other options lower on the food chain.

Like dark chocolate.

We all have our own values and goals. Some are easier than others. Some we struggle with. What helps you be consistent? Or are you fine with the occasional indulgence?