Soap

I love soap. I love using it. I love smelling it. I love looking at it. I even love making it. Really. It absolutely amazes me that you can take sodium hydroxide and fat and end up with soap. Awesome. I should say chemistry!!!! But it's a tedious process. You have to stir it almost constantly and keep an eye on it so that it doesn't burn or boil over or whatever. Also, it has to reach a very specific state or consistency and if you're not good at it you won't know when you get there or you will stop too early. It's very tedious work. So what can you do? Well, if you really want homemade soap you can buy blocks of soap base pre-made. There are lots of private label soap manufacturers out there. It comes in all kinds, kinds that are very hard to make at home: hemp, castille, honey, oatmeal, olive oil, etc. You can then melt the base and add all the stuff you want - colors, smells, whatever. You can make yourself some really nice soap. This opens up a whole new world in soap making. Take the hard part out - making the base - and you can focus on the creative part. I like that idea. I've actually done it both ways and I much prefer to just melt and go. Homemade soap is so much nicer than store bought. And it's not that expensive to make. Really it's not. And if you are looking to make a little money, selling soap is a great way to do it. I know someone who makes soap once in a while and every time she does she makes extra to sell and always sells out in a weekend. People have come to love her soap. I think I may order some for over summer break. It will give me something to do.

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Rotten Neighbors

I would totally do this to my neighbor if my fence wasn't so high. I'm thinking of shaping something that looks like a finger and putting it in my window. But quite frankly I am done with them. Completely and totally done.

We got into it today and quite honestly it was totally my fault. But I don't really care, it was coming. It was bound to blow and today I forced it to go. And it went. Big. Like 3 cops big. In a bizarre way I'm kind of glad it did. I had been walking around for the last few days feeling like I was waiting for the other shoe to drop. Well, it fell with a bang today. We are supposed to have a mediation meeting on Monday and I'm over it. I don't give a rats ass whether it happens or not. I did talk to the other neighbor because she is involved just because we live so damn close together. She thinks now more then ever we need to have this meeting. And quite honestly, up until today I was really hoping that on Monday night we could settle this. I had some areas where I was going to try and make things better, like with the birds. Now I'll be damned if I'll tell them what I'm doing about the birds. I promised the other neighbor that I would go to the meeting and agree to listen, at this point I have absolutely nothing to say to the idiot neighbors.

The day started so nicely too. I had an unexpected day off due to a traffic accident causing a major power outage at school. That was really nice and unexpected. We went out to lunch and had a great time. When we came home from lunch is when all hell broke loose. I think I'm more angry because he caused me to lose it so badly. I should have rode above it and I didn't. Well, I will now. Monday I'll be riding way above it and probably be completely disengaged.

I'm wondering what the right way to go is. Should I stick it out or should we really consider moving?

Oh god, the cops just pulled down again. The neighbors called the cops again. I'm dying to know why since not a damn thing has happened since the cops left earlier. I can't wait to hear this. But I guess I won't hear about it. The cop spent about 30 minutes over there and then he just left. I guess if we had done something wrong he would have come and talk to us but he didn't. They probably wanted to make a report on some nonsense or the other. The cop has to take it but that doesn't mean he has to act on it. Frankly I just don't care anymore. I don't care if they file a million police reports. I don't care if they complain about everything we do. I just don't care. We have to get that deck built and that way we will be able to ignore them completely.

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It's a new day

Beginnings, beginnings, beginnings. I have espoused before my love of new beginnings. Well, what I'm learning, finally, is that new beginnings sometimes happen when you least expect it. Getting rid of my car was an ending for me. For the first time in about 15 years I was without my own wheels. My husband has a truck so it's not like I don't have wheels but I didn't have my own. No more getting an idea in my head and jumping in the car. Now it takes planning and coordination. Which, I'm finding, is really good in many ways.

Most of my life I've been a pretty spontaneous person. Although I like to know what will be happening, I've never been one for schedules and routines. This has caused some problems with things I've wanted to do in my life. The most recent and looming example is my thesis. I have not been able to get going on it but I know if I had a schedule and a routine I could easily get it done. Anyway, not having a car has forced me to become more organized and a planner. I like that. I still have my spontaneity but I'm also starting to consider things and make decisions a little more carefully. And I'm totally becoming an organizer. Riding a bike and busing to work I have to carefully pick and chose what I carry in my backpack. This is making me much more careful about what need to do and when. Awesome. Something I've wanted for 50 years is finally coming to fruit.

We are also starting to plan our upgrades for the house. We have a good sized yard and I'm really looking at pergolas for one area. I love those and we could drape the lilikoi over it and create a beautiful arbor area. I could put some wrought iron benches under there and it would be beautiful.

Okay, well I do have things on my to-do list today so I need to get moving. Hello!! That's not like me. Before I would put it off to the last minute, now I do it early so it's done. New beginnings I tell you.

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Loong Weekend

This weekend is greatly needed. I have been riding my bike to work and after 5 days of that I need a break. This week I definitely can use the 3 days. Of course, 1 day is gone already but that's okay. It was a good day. I rode to WW. Went to lunch with Hubby. Went to Zumba with friends. Definitely a good day. Tomorrow is looking to be much quieter. I am supposed to go to a beach clean up in the morning but that's it. And Monday is absolutely empty at this point. Yes!!!

I've been losing weight for 2 weeks now and I really want to track to jump start my weight lose. I'm going to focus on tracking this week. I'm going to try and make it simpler by setting up my typical breakfasts and lunches. That should make it easier to track. I also bought a new scale that should make it easier to weigh and calculate the points on. I'm excited.

I may do our taxes this weekend. I used to go to professionals to have them done but that gets expensive. It costs so much, you would think I went to a cpa raleigh nc....Crazy..... Anyway, those are the plans, flimsy as they are, and I'm okay with that. I plan on napping and resting a lot....

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Pain is fear leaving the body

I am really coming around to believe that saying is true. Two weeks ago I started riding my bike to work and pain has been my constant friend. It began with the feet, they hurt a lot. And I couldn't figure it out since I was riding. But they hurt. Also my butt. You can not believe how much my butt hurt the first week. Yikes. Every time I sat on the seat pain shot through my butt bones. It felt like electric currents were running through my butt. Like it was hooked up to pennsylvania electricity company. Thankfully that passed. Then we moved on to the knees. My bad knee hurt and gave out a couple times, it was pretty miserable. Then we moved into the back. Yikes!! Now we are on the shoulder. It hurts a lot. I even considered going to the docs until I thought about the pain I've gone through in the past 2 weeks. Each one hurt so bad I really did think something serious was wrong. But a day or so later I had forgotten about it. So I'm giving the shoulder a day or so. Yesterday was the first day it hurt, and today is better so I'll wait until Friday. If it still hurts on Friday I will call the doc. But truthfully, the mental anguish I've been struggling through is probably a large part of the problem. Every time a pain gets bad I think maybe I can't ride my bike. Ummm hmmmmm, yes, definitely fear leaving the body.

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Up and at 'em......

Since the first of the year it's been a struggle. I've had a lot of things going on at home and at school. I've felt like I've had zero time and my eating and workouts have suffered because of it. But what is that Chinese proverb, fall down 7 times get up 8, so that's what I'm doing.

Last Tuesday I got rid of my car. Since then I have been riding my bike and the bus. This has caused me to get a lot more activity then I normally do. This is good. It's a self-fulfilling prophecy type of thing. One thing starts going well and then it bleeds over into another area...and another area...and so on and so on. That's what's beginning to happen. I started getting more activity because I had no choice. Now I'm becoming pickier and pickier about what I eat. Now I want to journal to make sure I'm eating well. So things are looking up.

Last week at WW I was up like 6 lbs. I knew that wasn't real and had a lot to do with the fact that I started riding my bike. Whenever I start working out seriously, my weight goes up. It's like my body starts building muscle without letting go of the fat. My appetite also grows. I knew that I did not eat 21,000 extra calories last week so I was not concerned with the number on the scale. I knew it would balance out eventually. This week it was down 3 lbs so it's already starting to happen. But now I need to track my food to make sure I'm not overeating with the increase in activity and my appetite.

The best part of this forced activity is that I'm starting to feel really good. My energy is increasing. I'm sleeping better. My attitude is better. Everything is better. At this rate I'm going to need a dashboard scorecard to keep up with all the positive side effects.

I will tell you though, this weekend I've been tired. I watched TV and snoozed a whole lot of yesterday and today isn't looking a whole lot better.... I guess I will have to really rest on the weekends. That's what they are for...

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Skin Care and aging

I know I've talked about skin and age before, but these are the kinds of things on my mind now. Now that I'm aging.... My skin used to be so oily that I could wash it 4 or 5 times a day and it would still be slick. I used to use alcohol straight on it to try and dry it up a little. Didn't work. However as I'm aging my skin is changing. Not only am I getting more wrinkles, but the skin is getting more papery and I dislike that look intensely. I apply moisturizer extremely frequently and it doesn't help a whole lot. There is not much I can do about that, but I can do something about wrinkles. I've done some reading about anti-aging light treatment that seems promising. I just may have to check into that. I am going to have to do something because it's not getting better.

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Treasure Hunting

Written by my friend Betty Walls

I have been a homemaker for more than six years now and with that honor, come sacrifices. I haven’t had the luxury of designer clothes or a decorated home but I have been very hands on with the raising of my children. While watching TVByDirect one afternoon, I had a great idea come to me. After seeing the incredible transformations of consignment finds some folks were making, I decided to scour my own local spots and see what inspired me. To my amazement, there are treasures of all kinds to be had. It is amazing what some people will throw out! I have seen high end items with tags still on them for 90% less than department stores. I have gathered an eclectic collection of art and frames for pennies compared to retail prices. I have found unusual one of a kind pieces like chairs to also add into my existing décor. All these little details really make a house feel like a home and I am eager to continue my search for fabulous finds.

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Time for a new hobby

So things have been a little busy around here lately but I'm doing more of the things I want to do - so that's good. One of the things that happens when I get real busy is that I do more. A lot more. So in my busy state I wrote a post in passing about learning to play the guitar. It's something I've wanted to do for a long, long time and I still do. I wrote the post because something I saw on TV reminded me of the guitar. Well, since that post I've been fairly obsessed about the guitar. I really want to get back into it. I have a smaller guitar but I would really love to get a regular sized one. I don't need anything fancy like a Fender, though I sure wouldn't mind one, but I think I'll start a little smaller :)

I have done a little research and the community college right around the corner from me offers guitar classes at night. Hmm...They are extremely reasonable because they are at a community college. The next class won't be starting until summer but that's just fine. I should have some free time around then.

I think part of my problem with moving past things and getting things accomplished is that I don't have a lot of "hobby" type things in my life. There is usually something I do that, while it's in my schedule, it's just for fun. Right now I don't have much of that - too much on my plate. Definitely time for some fun stuff.....

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Falling off the wagon

Off the food and water wagon that is. My food has not been that bad but I have not tracked in a long time. The water though is a problem. I have not been drinking much at all and I need to get back into the habit of drinking lots more. Especially if I'm riding my bike I need to make sure I'm hydrated. So tomorrow it's another new start. I packed myself a nice healthy lunch and am going to have a good breakfast. So it back on the wagon. No more avoidance....

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Things to do.....

One of the things on my bucket list is to learn to play the guitar. I have wanted to do this for years and I'm thinking I may pursue it again. I really, really love music and really, really want to play an instrument. I have a guitar but it's not normal sized, it's slightly smaller. When I was looking for guitar cases for it I really had to shop around and be careful because it is smaller than normal. Anyway, I think I may take this up again. I am definitely going to check into it.

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Tap, tap, tap.....

Is this thing on??? So where I have I been for the last week or so?? Well, things have been crazy around here.

It all started on Christmas Eve, believe it or not. We were with some friends and the Super Bowl came up. One friend was going to have it at their house when we informed them that we have 2 giant TVs and I mean giant - 65" and 52". They said we should have it at our house since we have the big TVs. So we said okay. Well that started a chain reaction that was only finished on Friday. We thought we'd fix the place up a little since we would be having everyone here. Initially we thought we'd do the bathroom. Then we figured we'd do the kitchen and things just got crazy. We ended up doing the kitchen counters and floor and the bathroom floor. Writing it doesn't sound like a lot but the kitchen floor took one whole day. The kitchen counter took a day but then we had to let it cure and grout it, each of which was a 24 hour process. The bathroom floor took an entire week between cutting Hardiboard and tile, mudding and grouting, then trimming and cleaning....Ugh!!! The bathroom was completed on Friday and yesterday was spent cleaning the house from all the work that's been going on. And today?? It's Super Bowl.

Also this week I got rid of my car. Between the payments, gas and insurance, that thing was costing me about $800 a month. It sucked gas like you wouldn't believe. 17mpg was my average!!! Yikes. So I'm carless for now. I'll be busing it and riding my bike. I actually like riding my bike and riding the bus provides me with 45 minutes to an hour where I have nothing to do. Awesome. I'm also getting a whole lot more exercise because I'm riding my bike to the bus stops. In the morning the stop is only about 4 blocks from my house and I get off less then 1/2 a mile from school. But in the evenings I'm riding my bike about 5-6 miles to get a bus. That takes about 20-30 minutes, so everyday I'm getting in ride. Awesome. I figure I'll go without a car for 3-4 months then pick up a little beater - something with no payments!!!!

So between all of the above I just have not had the time to sit down and blog. It's not like I've been doing anything fun like hitting up the cigar auctions or anything. Just working, working, working. Either on the house or on my actual job. Now that the Super Bowl is here things should quiet down some and I can get back to a more normal routine. At least I hope so....

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