So...about a week ago I decided to get my life back on track. I am constantly worrying about money and my job that I had forgot to worry about my health. It has slowly gotten out of control and now I am the heaviest I have ever been.
Last Sunday I decided to change my life. I decided that my health comes before anything. Now a week after my decision I have joined a gym, joined weight watchers, and am now onto a healthier lifestyle.
I have set high goals that I am determined to accomplish. 42lbs by April 1st. This will put me in the heathly range of my height and that is all I am looking to do....become healthier.
I hope you will join me on my journey and help me praise myself for my accomplishments and hold me accountable for my mishaps.
Saturday, October 29, 2011
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
This I believe.
As I type this I am inspired by the NPR podcast, This I Believe. Throughout my entire life I have been exposed to many different beliefs. In fact, everyday of my life is a battle of certain beliefs that I have about many different things.
I believe in my faith. (Or is it I have faith in my faith? Anywho) Growing up I attended a Catholic elementary school, so from the beginning I was taught the beliefs of the Catholic faith, not only in school but at home as well. My mother made sure that we attended church every Sunday and then as we grew older we would attend LifeTeen or Edge which is where we continued to learn about our Catholic faith. I have extreme pride in my mother for her devout faith (and to tell you the truth, I am kinda jealous). She prays the rosary everyday and when we go to Mass you can tell that she is completely in prayer and has given her whole heart every Mass. Especially on this Ash Wednesday I have such a need and want to become more like her or becomes more like him every Sunday.
As I entered high school, I learned about another belief. The belief of agriculture. With those simple words scripted everywhere around the agriculture department in my high school. During my freshman year I memorized the words of E.M. Tiffany with gusto and have tried to live by those words ever since. Agriculture has taken me so far in this great life and I want to always be a part of it. I want my children to be exposed to the great things that I was and am still involved in
I believe in family, uncensored, sometimes hateful family. I believe the best families are the largest ones where even when people might not show up you are guaranteed to have at least 50 people at a family function. I am blessed to be a member of 4 different families, 2 of which are LARGE. On my dad's side my grandma had 8 brothers and sisters and my grandpa was one of 12. So, now that our family has grown so big, we have to have family functions in a churches gymnasium because we couldn't possibly fit in anyone's home. On my step-dad's side he is one of 7. So, combined with all of the children and grandchildren there is around 50 of us. This year we had our Christmas celebration at my Aunt MaryAnn's and decided that we are going to outgrow homes soon as well.
Some other things I believe that don't need a whole lot of explanation. :-)
I believe in a 3 phase life. 0-30 is Me time, 30-60 is We time, and 60-dead is depending on if my husband dies either him and I time or we just go back to Me time.
I believe in a providing a solid faith foundation to my family whether that be my husband and children (when I get to that phase) or my brothers and sisters who are still growing and becoming great individuals.
I believe that the key to great jam is to make it in small batches and not try to can more than you can handle at one time.
I believe that in order to be the best you can be you must first know who you are and that could take years....trust me, most of the time I still don't think I know who I am.
And finally (for this post anyway) I believe in love. Not the crazy, I am going to be psycho, if you can't be with me I don't want you to be with anyone else. I believe in the unconditional love, the kind that wants people to be happy no matter who they end up with even if it means to sacrifice my feelings.
If only the world could live in I believe statements.
I believe in my faith. (Or is it I have faith in my faith? Anywho) Growing up I attended a Catholic elementary school, so from the beginning I was taught the beliefs of the Catholic faith, not only in school but at home as well. My mother made sure that we attended church every Sunday and then as we grew older we would attend LifeTeen or Edge which is where we continued to learn about our Catholic faith. I have extreme pride in my mother for her devout faith (and to tell you the truth, I am kinda jealous). She prays the rosary everyday and when we go to Mass you can tell that she is completely in prayer and has given her whole heart every Mass. Especially on this Ash Wednesday I have such a need and want to become more like her or becomes more like him every Sunday.
As I entered high school, I learned about another belief. The belief of agriculture. With those simple words scripted everywhere around the agriculture department in my high school. During my freshman year I memorized the words of E.M. Tiffany with gusto and have tried to live by those words ever since. Agriculture has taken me so far in this great life and I want to always be a part of it. I want my children to be exposed to the great things that I was and am still involved in
I believe in family, uncensored, sometimes hateful family. I believe the best families are the largest ones where even when people might not show up you are guaranteed to have at least 50 people at a family function. I am blessed to be a member of 4 different families, 2 of which are LARGE. On my dad's side my grandma had 8 brothers and sisters and my grandpa was one of 12. So, now that our family has grown so big, we have to have family functions in a churches gymnasium because we couldn't possibly fit in anyone's home. On my step-dad's side he is one of 7. So, combined with all of the children and grandchildren there is around 50 of us. This year we had our Christmas celebration at my Aunt MaryAnn's and decided that we are going to outgrow homes soon as well.
Some other things I believe that don't need a whole lot of explanation. :-)
I believe in a 3 phase life. 0-30 is Me time, 30-60 is We time, and 60-dead is depending on if my husband dies either him and I time or we just go back to Me time.
I believe in a providing a solid faith foundation to my family whether that be my husband and children (when I get to that phase) or my brothers and sisters who are still growing and becoming great individuals.
I believe that the key to great jam is to make it in small batches and not try to can more than you can handle at one time.
I believe that in order to be the best you can be you must first know who you are and that could take years....trust me, most of the time I still don't think I know who I am.
And finally (for this post anyway) I believe in love. Not the crazy, I am going to be psycho, if you can't be with me I don't want you to be with anyone else. I believe in the unconditional love, the kind that wants people to be happy no matter who they end up with even if it means to sacrifice my feelings.
If only the world could live in I believe statements.
Thursday, February 3, 2011
For the LOVE of cooking.
Sometimes I think I should have been born in the 1800's-early 1900's. I love to be a homemaker, do they even use that word anymore. I was introduced to this word when I moved to Fancy Farm when I was 3. They are the women in the community who know everything. They know the cure for every ail and know how to put the best meal on the table. When I was little I didn't exactly aspire to be them, I wanted to work in corporate America or DC and be someone "important". Now that I have grown a little older, I would give anything to be one of the homemakers. I never realized how much these women are the backbone of our community and communities around the country. They are such amazing women and have so much knowledge to share. Every time I go home I find myself finding one of these women in the community and asking them how to make something. Like, how do they get the meringue on those amazing pies so high, and how in the world do you make that amazing fried chicken that ends up on the table every Sunday?
Another one of my biggest influences has to be my Grandpa. He was a cook in the Army during the Korean War and when he came home he worked for a company that produced commercial cooking equipment. His dream was to always open his own candy store (the evidence is in the basement here..haha). He had all the equipment, recipes, and tasting staff he could ask for. What I always wondered was why he never did it? What was it about the dream that scared him away from actually opening the store? Every Christmas he would always spend hours upon hours in the basement making his goodies and giving them to all of us grandchildren and to our family. He had 11 brothers and sisters and my grandma had 7 brothers and sisters so he had a ton of goodies to make. It always gave me a sense of pride when I would head home to Western Kentucky and all of the family there wanted the springles and peanut brittle.
I started this blog, well to be honest I really don't know why I started the blog. But since I have started it I have taken all my loves and combined them in this one place, the only problem is that my loves are all over the board. I love crafts, sewing, baking, cooking, photography,photo editing, interior designing, graphic design, and probably the most important to me is agriculture. I would not be where I am today without cows, dirt, tobacco, corn, soybeans, horses, and my step-dad. All these things embedded a sense of simplicity to my life that I never thought I would have.
All of these influences of my life have gotten me to cook and bake more and to share it with people. This past week I cooked some of The Machine Shed's Giant Cinnamon Rolls, to say they were a success would be an understatement since they were gone in a few hours (I live by myself so I had to take them places). Here are a few of the pictures that I had and hope you enjoy. :-)
This was while they were cooking, I couldn't wait to get them out and actually took them out too early, I had to put them back in for a little while. :-(
These were so delicious and I can't wait to have someone, besides myself, to make them for! I have a feeling my brother will want some next weekend since he called me asking for them last night.
Another one of my biggest influences has to be my Grandpa. He was a cook in the Army during the Korean War and when he came home he worked for a company that produced commercial cooking equipment. His dream was to always open his own candy store (the evidence is in the basement here..haha). He had all the equipment, recipes, and tasting staff he could ask for. What I always wondered was why he never did it? What was it about the dream that scared him away from actually opening the store? Every Christmas he would always spend hours upon hours in the basement making his goodies and giving them to all of us grandchildren and to our family. He had 11 brothers and sisters and my grandma had 7 brothers and sisters so he had a ton of goodies to make. It always gave me a sense of pride when I would head home to Western Kentucky and all of the family there wanted the springles and peanut brittle.
I started this blog, well to be honest I really don't know why I started the blog. But since I have started it I have taken all my loves and combined them in this one place, the only problem is that my loves are all over the board. I love crafts, sewing, baking, cooking, photography,photo editing, interior designing, graphic design, and probably the most important to me is agriculture. I would not be where I am today without cows, dirt, tobacco, corn, soybeans, horses, and my step-dad. All these things embedded a sense of simplicity to my life that I never thought I would have.
All of these influences of my life have gotten me to cook and bake more and to share it with people. This past week I cooked some of The Machine Shed's Giant Cinnamon Rolls, to say they were a success would be an understatement since they were gone in a few hours (I live by myself so I had to take them places). Here are a few of the pictures that I had and hope you enjoy. :-)
This was while they were cooking, I couldn't wait to get them out and actually took them out too early, I had to put them back in for a little while. :-(
These were so delicious and I can't wait to have someone, besides myself, to make them for! I have a feeling my brother will want some next weekend since he called me asking for them last night.
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Agvocating never takes a vacation
The past few months have been a whirlwind to say the least. I have worked in the most powerful city in the country, DC, I have graduated college with 2 degrees, and I have ended some of my favorite chapters in my life. While on vacation and visiting with family I took some time out for a friend of mine to go out and eat. My friend, who is from an agriculture background, brought a friend with her whom has lived in the city all her life. Now, I will preface this by saying that I am an advocate for all of agriculture, I think that we are already the underdog without beating each other up. So, for me the argument of organic vs. conventional is of interest of me because I want people to think about the decision and make the decision based on facts. Then if they know the facts and make an educated decision I am happy they know something about their food. The night started out with her talking about her grocery shopping habits and how she preferred an organic product to a conventional one. Well, since I am the type of person who wants to understand people's decision-making when it comes to organic vs. conventional, I asked her why should bought organic and what opinion did she have on conventional. She didn't have a straight answer, except that all animals that are used in conventional are abused and live in unhealthy conditions. She said that organic was more natural and healthier for her body. This is where I saw a need for advocating and decided a little more education can help this girl. Over dinner we talked about facts pertaining to conventional and organic agriculture. I agree that conventional agriculture has a lot of development when it comes to animal welfare, environmental issues, and sustainability issues. However, I also know the organic industry has some issues that need to be address, for example, if a cow has mastitis in an organic dairy they can not treat her. This is due to the law that says no antibiotics may be used.
Mastitis is an infection of the udder, this bacterial infection causes uncomfort, can cause death of mammary cells, and eventually can, if left untreated, cause death to a cow.
After I had simulated her interest in learning more about her food, I started asking her questions about what she new. From what I gathered not a whole lot. So, since we were on cows, I figured we could start with dairy. You would be amazed how many people do not know that a cow must have a calf to produce milk. They just assume that since they are a dairy animal then they automatically produce milk. So we started there and ended with humane slaughter. I feel that to truly understand slaughter that you need to know the whole truth, so I took her through the whole process. First, I asked her if it was ok because we were eating beef. She said that it was fine to talk about it, she had a tough stomach.
After going through the entire process, she started to understand the process and then started to understand our industry just a bit. And if that is the only thing I did that day, I feel like I was productive. Informing a consumer, it always makes me feel better.
Mastitis is an infection of the udder, this bacterial infection causes uncomfort, can cause death of mammary cells, and eventually can, if left untreated, cause death to a cow.
After I had simulated her interest in learning more about her food, I started asking her questions about what she new. From what I gathered not a whole lot. So, since we were on cows, I figured we could start with dairy. You would be amazed how many people do not know that a cow must have a calf to produce milk. They just assume that since they are a dairy animal then they automatically produce milk. So we started there and ended with humane slaughter. I feel that to truly understand slaughter that you need to know the whole truth, so I took her through the whole process. First, I asked her if it was ok because we were eating beef. She said that it was fine to talk about it, she had a tough stomach.
After going through the entire process, she started to understand the process and then started to understand our industry just a bit. And if that is the only thing I did that day, I feel like I was productive. Informing a consumer, it always makes me feel better.
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