Sad that summer is over

Autumn Olive

I'm sad that summer is over!!

I learned so much!  I love to learn!  I especially love to learn about nature!

I learned so many plants.  I learned names and uses.  I'm pretty confident that I will be able to recognize most of them next year. Here are just a few.

DayLilly

 

 

Greenbrier

 

Spicebush

I'm starting to realize that what I really want to do is be outside! I want to work outside with nature! I need to make a living though. To get started I've decided to sell wood slices with inspirational words and phrases on them.  I have a lot of wood! 

I also have a lot of beautiful pieces of wood that I'm going to sell to artists or to people that want a beautiful piece of wood for their yard or pet enclosure ( lizards etc.)

I'm pretty sure that where I eventually hope to be is selling wild crafted herbs. I believe that is where God is leading me. We'll see though!

 

First Cup of Dandelion Tea

Humm, interesting. Not horrible but not really yummy either. It tastes familiar though, like something I've tasted before. But I cannot put my thumb on it. Humm, I'll have to think on it.

I started this post in April, but never got back to it.  It's such a shame that I didn't finish it.  It's a shame because now we will never know what I thought about my first cup of dandelion tea.  I'm sure that I thought more then what I wrote.  I probably got distracted and went on to something else, probably tasted another wild edible or started trying to identify another plant.

Now we will never know.

Trees a poem

So tall
So beautiful
So colorful
So bare
So alive

Preparing for diet melt down

Last night I had a diet melt down. Friday's are pizza night. I do pretty well diet wise because the crust is gluten free, I don't use any fake meat, fake cheese, or added oil. I only use sauce which unfortunately has oil in it ( I'm going to change it eventually ) and veggies. I love it! I really enjoyed it. Then as soon as I was finished I went crazy! I wanted peanut butter! Usually I would go for bananas but we only had a couple and I wanted to make sure there was enough for other people in the morning so I went for the graham crackers!

Now graham crackers have wheat in them. I've noticed that every time I eat anything with wheat in it that I have a horrible time with numbness in my arms and hands. Today I am having a terrible time with numbness in my right arm and hand. It sucks!

Why do I do it? I don't know. Why can't I control myself? I don't know that either, but I do know that beating myself up about it every time is a waste of time.

This morning though, while I was in the shower, I thought "Well I can't control myself but maybe, if I plan better for meltdowns then at least I won't eat something that will make me sick or numb."

My first thought was buying gluten free bread again; I stopped buying it because it's expensive and because I really feel that eating grains makes me more hungry! I swear every time I eat grains like rice or oats I am super hungry the rest of the day. I definitely don't want that!

I could always make sure that I have plenty of bananas. I try but that is not always possible.

I think I'm going to make some quinoa flat bread and maybe keep it in the freezer or just in the cupboard for just these emergencies.

The other problem with my diet melt down was the peanut butter. Peanut butter is full of fat and sugar. I don't need the fat or the sugar. I have a serious problem controlling myself with peanut butter. I need to come up with a solution.

I'm thinking that I will make quinoa flat bread with peanut butter in quantity controlled packages. I will still have to have some control but hopefully getting some peanut butter will help the craving and will help me control myself.

Oprah talks about this in her book What I Know For Sure. She basically says eat what you crave but only eat a small portion. Tell your self that you don't have to eat the whole thing, there will be more tomorrow. 

 I'm going to try it!!

We will see if it helps.