🌸 A very special Dogwood No. 10 🌸
What makes it special? I actually made it 10 weeks of writing this thing, so we’re going to celebrate with a GIF party. But before we get started with my updates that seem increasingly inconsequential in the face of the daily news, let me just say -
And on that somber note… let’s move to our weekly good stuff.
Watching - I finally gave in to the 🌈 and started watching The Home Edit on Netflix. I was kind of avoiding it because I thought it was all celebrity home makeovers and… I don’t know, it’s just not my thing. But each episode has 1 celebrity and 1 normal person, and I’ve got to admit - all those clear acrylic stacking boxes and rainbow color-coded closets are very soothing and inspiring. Now I can’t stop looking at places in my house and wondering what amazing-ness Clea and Joanna could do with it.
Listening - A couple of great podcast episodes, one in memory of RBG and the other talking about political implications of replacing a justice at this particular moment in time.
Reading - I finished Open Book (a must-read if you enjoy celebrity memoir… Jessica Simpson really spills the tea) and started The Myth of the American Dream by D.L. Mayfield, which is a series of essays that questions who the “American Dream” really benefits and the white evangelical/WASPy notion of “hard work equals success” and if you’re not successful then you’re doing something wrong, and probably immoral too. Kinda deep stuff, but the short essays make it easier to read and digest in these strange times.
Cooking - well, it’s not really cooking but I’ve been on a smoothie-for-breakfast kick lately. I don’t really follow a recipe but here’s my basic smoothie template.
1 scoop of vanilla protein powder
Small handful of cashews
liquid of your choice (water/almond milk/oat milk/cow milk)
half frozen banana (I literally buy a bunch of bananas, break them in half, and chuck the bag in the freezer - also a great way to preserve bananas getting too brown)
a couple handfuls of frozen kale (non-frozen kale/spinach is fine too, but you can just buy a bag of pre-washed spinach or kale and stick it in the freezer - that way it lasts longer)
dash of cinnamon if I’m feeling sassy
Pro tip: Put together all the non-frozen ingredients the night before and stash it in the fridge. The nuts blend up so much better that way!
And just for fun… pumpkin spice smoothie!
1 scoop of vanilla protein powder
Small handful of cashews
liquid of your choice
a dollop of pumpkin puree
half frozen banana (or leftover baked apples if you happen to have them on hand like I did!)
pumpkin pie spice (or cinnamon)
frozen riced cauliflower (you can use kale in this but the color is… extremely unappetizing. It actually tastes fine though.)
Backyard Homesteading (I’m renaming the gardening section so I have free reign to talk about my chickens without further explanation) - We lost another chicken this week… Even though we clipped all the chickens’ wings after the last one flew over the 5 FOOT FENCE (who knew chickens could fly like that?!?!), another chicken managed to fly out of its enclosure and dog mayhem ensued. My kids are surprisingly unsentimental about this… “Ah darn - she was one of the good layers” was all my 10-year-old had to say about the situation.
And then there were three…
Making - I made a baby quilt! I started making these quilt squares in January 2018, I think, and quickly realized I had created a much more time-consuming project that I intended to. The little 2-in strips I cut for the log cabin=style blocks got smaller and smaller as I sewed seams on each side to join them together. After a few productive sewing sessions, I put the project in cold storage for over a year. Something lately has been bugging me to clear out old projects so I pulled it out and assessed the situation. Making a full size quilt out of those time-consuming blocks was going to take forever, and I was thoroughly DONE with the project but I didn’t want to waste the work I had already done. Luckily I remembered one of my cousins is expecting a baby, so a quick baby quilt was a quick and fairly painless solution.
Doing - I started a #plannergram account! 📕📗📘📙 There is a really fun community of people who are SUPER into their planners and it’s great to have it all consolidated into one feed and to get to play along!
It’s almost October. Are you registered to vote? Have a voting plan? I’m planning on voting in-person on Nov. 4 sometime between 6 and 7am… usually I’m the only person there at that hour.