Post Holiday

This is my official post holiday post.  I did nothing exciting or interesting during the holidays really, except I visited one brother for a few hours. I had lunch with him and his wife and adult daughter.  They are extremely healthy eaters, so it was some kind of pasta with some kind of vegetarian sauce, maybe out of nuts, cannot remember.

Then a kale salad with her home made dressing that was primarily cider vinegar, applesauce, also homemade I believe, and cinnamon.

They sent me back home with a box full of fruit, tangerines, a couple of apples and a couple of bananas, also some dried grain soup, from a local grain mill that also packages grain mixes, but mostly they grind various types of flour and sell it in small packages for high prices.

Of course I felt guilt over not eating as healthy, once back home, and promptly bought a bunch of kale.   It was a cheap bunch and not organic but at least it was kale, was my thinking.

It's not like I eat unhealthily, I got to thinking later.  My cholesterol and triglycerides and blood sugar are all very normal in blood work.  I eat a banana for breakfast, then usually a bigger lunch and by supper, a burrito or something with salad.  Nothing fancy here.  I do eat a lot of soup that I make myself.  In fact, that is my usual for lunch and for supper.  The soup.    Now kale, instead of lettuce salad.  I even quickly made applesauce of the two apples they sent home with me, for a version of their dressing, on the kale salad, with rice vinegar not apple cider, because that's what I had.  I was very self satisfied eating that.  Ha ha.

Some days, if the frig is empty I barely eat a thing.  Which isn't good I assume, because then I get all worn out and draggy and ravenous.  I guess that's when you are more likely to eat bad things.  Mostly its because I hate shopping, even grocery shopping.  And because I don't like driving clear to Salem to get the better deals at Winco.  Soon though, we will have a Winco store in Albany and affordable food here!  I can't wait.  It's really good to be inspired by my older brother and his wife, and their healthy habits.

If my life sounds boring, it is.   I'll be taking a couple trips with cats to the coast soon, for vet care, and that thrills the living daylights out of me. The thought of getting out of town for even a day, oh my gosh, I get happy!  Dancing in my brain to think of it!

I got a gift I just adore for Christmas.  Actually I got sent some Christmas money and was able to find this on sale at Home Depot for $49, so I could buy it with the money sent me.  I LOVE it and have used it every night since I got it, that it wasn't raining.

I"m a woods person, and I like sitting out under the stars by a campfire.  I haven't been able to go camping for a long time now but this is the next best thing.  Been burning limbs from the cherry and maple, I'd saved to season, for camping.  Some are not fully dry yet, but do the job.  Soon I'll have to scrounge wood elsewhere.

I also got a visit the Sunday before Christmas from a friend, who has long since moved to Washington state.    She brought me gifts too, like peppermint bars and peppermint coffee and from her sister, peppermint hot chocolate and candy.  Um, if you know me, one of my favorite things in the world is peppermint, in any form.  So, I hit the jackpot, you might say.  I also enjoyed seeing my friend, who adopted a cat from me long ago.  Her sister did too.

My Nebraska friends also sent me Christmas and I wish sometimes I lived in Nebraska.  I feel like they are my family, both of them.  I got to meet one of them this fall, when they visited Oregon.

Anyhow, I feel very very fortunate.  One of the most poignant events of the holiday happened a couple days ago, when I got a visit.  The parrot lady arrived at my door.  She'd brought me a card that contained a gift and breakfast and said she'd been driving all over trying to find my house.  She told me she just wanted to tell me that getting all the cats fixed in her neighborhood created peace and that maybe I didn't know how much that meant to everybody.  This brought me to tears and I sobbed unable to stop.   It meant so much to me to hear that and that she took all that trouble to find me.  Her parrot was out waiting in the car, so she couldn't stay too long.  It was cold.  But my heart wasn't, after that visit.


It's freezing here in Oregon now, but I don't think it rained today and might not rain for a few days and that?  That is wonderful!!!  In fact, I may break out my sunglasses, just out of sheer joy to see the sun again.