A Quiet Sunday Afternoon At Home With A Patient On The Mend

March 29, 2015April 1, 2015 / Ally Bean / 20 Comments

“Ms. Bean, what the heck are you doing this weekend? I see you messing around with frozen peas. Now if it was peanuts I’d understand, but peas? Please explain, I’m all ears.”

• Looking out the window today I see, beyond an inquisitive squirrel staring in at me, a spring day filled with pale blue sky above leafless gray trees. A couple of daffodils have made their appearance in the yard, but the forsythia bushes are showing no sign of joining the daffs.

Outside the temperature is in the upper 30s/lower 40s, which is more wintry than springy. However, I’m not going anywhere today so the weather can do that which it wants to do without me whining about it.

As if I have any control over it to begin with.

• I’m at home today looking after Zen-Den who had surgery [to correct ptosis] on his eyes on Friday. His recuperation is going well. He’s walking around the inside of the house without any trouble, able to see well enough to play Farm Heroes on his iPhone.

And beginning to get bored with the 20 minutes on/20 minutes off post-surgery eye icing schedule. No longer do the little plastic bags of frozen peas, used to ice his eyes, charm him with their whimsical healing properties.

No, he’s leaning toward grumpy now– and I fear that he’d rather eat the peas than wear them. But I persevere and follow him around with the little green ice packs, forcing him to use them for at least 10 minutes on/30 minutes off.

This schedule will have to do.

• And with that I’m off to bake some banana bread. The surgeon’s office did not specifically mention it as necessary for a proper recuperation, but I figure it can’t hurt. Zen-Den loves it– and it might just be the thing to coerce him into cooperating with me and those damned little plastic bags of frozen peas.

“If you sit still with your pea packs on for 20 minutes, then you can have a big slice of banana bread afterwards. Now wouldn’t that be nice?”

Later, kids. Much to do.

Here’s A Thought: Healthy Meals, Happy Life

March 5, 2015January 28, 2021 / Ally Bean / 36 Comments

• I found an interesting infographic, from Cooks Smart, that talks about meal planning and the ways in which it can help a family live a better life.

It struck a chord with me because I’ve cooked more this winter than in the past three years combined. For reasons related to good health, boredom and a husband who’ll eat [without complaint] whatever I dream up, I’ve gone back into the kitchen.

And I’m loving it.

I grew up around parents and aunts who enjoyed making meals. Healthy meals. Fancy meals. Fast meals. Exotic meals. But meals created by using real ingredients and following recipes, written or oral, passed down through the family.

There was a sense of history associated with those shared recipes. Back then we connected through food.

• • •

• However today I hesitate to even mention that I like to cook, here or in real life. Many women who I know see it as passé or pointless.

Most of the women really.

Better to eat a Lean Cuisine “like a normal person” one of them told me. Why waste time cooking?

Another told me she cooks on holidays only. That way she can use her fancy plates and silverware and glassware. Everyday [thankless] cooking is not for her, she said.

But I like the stress free everyday sort of cooking that I do. I follow some recipes [more or less]. Or I wing it to see what happens when I throw some ingredients together.

Either way, I believe, that with the right attitude cooking is creative fun that leads to healthy meals– and, maybe even, a happier life.

[Image sources here and here.]

Of Writing Prompts & Morning Walks

March 2, 2015January 28, 2021 / Ally Bean / 14 Comments

Here’s a fact about me: I read my horoscope once in a while, but not for the reasons that you might imagine.

No, I read my horoscope to get writing prompts.

On the days when I read my daily horoscope, I save the ones that I think will challenge me to think about my life in a new way. Then on a future day when I cannot think of what to say, I peruse my horoscopes and use one as a way to start writing.

• • •

To wit, here’s a horoscope from who knows when that got me thinking over the weekend.

Use your energy wisely to work with the natural currents instead of trying to control them. It’s not your job to eliminate the clouds; the sky will clear on its own.

• • •

What did I get thinking? I decided that even though I’ve almost always been a morning blogger, I’m going to change my posting schedule to the afternoon for the month of March.

You see, I’d like to use my energy in a different way. I want to go for a walk outside each day, and mornings around here have the least amount of vehicle traffic. [No sidewalks here.]

• • •

So instead of plopping down in front of my computer, typing my morning away– I’m going to be propelling myself out the front door, trudging my morning away.

Which means that you, my gentle readers, will just have to wait until I’m done being healthy each morning, and [hopefully] regain enough energy thereafter to sit down and ~~pursue my passion for flapdoodle and twaddle~~ write my blog posts.

Guess we’ll see how this all works out together, won’t we?

Reviewing The News, Reaching For The Wine

October 24, 2014October 24, 2014 / Ally Bean / 30 Comments

“I am satisfied. Give me a bowl of wine:

I have not that alacrity of spirit,

Nor cheer of mind, that I was wont to have–

So, set it down.– Is ink and paper ready?”

~ William Shakespeare, King Richard III

• • •

USUALLY I’M GOOD AT knowing what I’m thinking and feeling about things. Clarity of thought. Sense of purpose. Focus on what matters now.

Me. Most of the time.

But the news of these last few weeks has worn me down. Made me wonder about humanity. Made me want to stay in my jammies all day, hiding in the back of the closet, playing Candy Crush.

• • •

First we talked about:

Ebola, and the CDC + Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas‘s half-assed handling of said at a time when everyone in the USA needed them to do things properly.

Then we were inundated with:

Mitch McConnell [or Old Turkey Neck as he’s known in this house], and his daily TV political attack ads against his opponent, a woman with a gun who seems to scare the bejesus out of him.

Followed by:

Gamergate, and the blatant misogynistic attacks on woman associated with it under the guise of fair journalistic practices.

Then all of this took center stage:

Renee Zellweger, and the incessant opining about the reasons why she did what she did + about the results of what she did.

Culminating in:

The Parliament of Canada, and the unforeseen attack on it leading to the world’s newest isn’t-he-amazing hero who saved lives by calmly doing what needed to be done.

• • •

SO MY POINT HERE? After hearing and reading about all the above, I’m tired, emotionally. I’m tired, physically.

I’m just plain tired.

I have to wonder if keeping up with the news is what I need to be doing with my time. While the well-educated rational side of me says “stay informed,” the sensitive empathetic side of me says “ignore.” The cognitive dissonance is beginning to get to me.

Leading me to contemplate how I can do both when the agenda-setting function of the media gives me bad news everywhere that I turn. Except in my closet, of course. Where you may just find me, with my bowl of wine.

Waiting for my alacrity of spirit to return.