Overcoming obstacles

My Mom brought me over this great chair so now it is much easier for me to do dishes, cook, and work at the kitchen counter without needing to take breaks to sit down.  This perfect chair has been sitting in her attic for years.  It is empowering to overcome obstacles and to be able to take care of myself.  Thanks Mom!

Candles

Finally, Aaron felt we had enough beeswax stored up to make a few candles.  We had enough wicks to make six, but it turns out we have enough wax to make 15-20 candles.  This was our pilot run.  And like most of the things we do around our house there was some trouble shooting involved.

First, We collect the wax in our solar wax melter.  We take frames out the hive that aren't needed anymore and place them in the solar wax melter.  The sun melts the wax and it runs down into a pan.

Second, We process the was.  The was in the pan has wax, honey, water, and debris in it.  It is dark brown and gritty and ugly.  We fill a pot with an inch of water and add the contents from the pan.  Once everything is melted we pour the wax through a wire screen and then through three layers of cheese cloth into a fresh pot.  This gets out alot of the debris.

Third, we pour the hot wax (plus honey/water/and fine debris into a Tupperware container and let it sit over night to solidify.  When it does this is stratifies.  The water goes to the bottom, then the debris in the middle, the wax makes a nice solid brick of pretty wax in colors ranging from bright yellow to white depending on the age and properties of the wax.

Fourth,  We take the wax brick and but it in a pot on low heat, melting it slowly and making sure not to burn it until all the wax is melted.

Fifth, Set up the candle jar.  We have been collecting only glasses, especially those tiny ones that people use for alcohol because they are the perfect size and pretty.  This was our first opportunity for trouble shooting, every blog/book says to place the wick in your container and then to keep it centered and standing using a toothpick across the top and clip the wick to it using a paper clip.  Our paper clips were to heavy and kept tipping the wicks to one side.  So we used that blue tape that you use when your painting trim.  I ripped off a piece that could span the top of the container (our little glasses), poked a hole it using a pen and then threaded the wick through.  The metal piece of the wick sits in the bottom of the glass.  We made sure to center our wicks.  You need to leave enough room to pour the wax in so I rolled the sides of the take up, but I could have cut it.

Sixth, Pour the hot wax into the containers and let sit till it cools and solidifies.  Leave some room at the top.  We discovered that as the candles cooled, the tops cracked.  Aaron explained that this is because the wax was cooling to quickly on the outside and not the center.  Our solution was to pour another layer of wax on top after the wax was solid.  They look really pretty because we used two different waxes, meaning they are from different times and as a result are different colors.  Our candles our a pretty yellow with a pale yellow/white on top.

Our Six Candles.

Lack of Independence

Well the diet is not the only thing Im struggling with today.  A lack of independence is really starting to give me some unwanted anxiety and depression.  My body can't seem to do the things that used to be so simple.  My abilities very from day to day even hour to hour but not being able to write or bathe, see or stand, walk, cook, clean, etc is wearing on me.  Saturday night I was very week and in some pain.  Sunday I stayed in bed most of the day b/c I wasn't feeling well and Aaron was very sick.  Today I woke up fine but after an hour of being up my legs weren't working and I was hurting.  It is frustrating to feel so limited.  To have to decide between showering or doing the dishes because I can only stand long enough to do one or the other.   And there is the always looming risk of falling because of weakness and lack of balance.  Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day because today I am super frustrated (not to mention the no carbs no sugar which means no comfort food).

I am grateful for an amazing husband who is being very helpful and supportive as well as my Mom who listens to me vent no matter what time of day it is.  It is hard to feel so crummy and look fine and it is hard being bounced from doctor to doctor.    

Carbs :(

Just the thought of preparing a meal void of carbs (and sugar) makes me want to give up.  Aaron was very sick last night so I wasn't going to start our diet today, but he insisted.  I was born with my fathers taste-buds, meaning every meal I crave white bread with butter.  Today I made a salad for lunch, lettuce/tuna/egg/balsamic dressing.  It was good, but would have been better with Italian bread and butter.  Dinner was scrambled eggs with spinach and fat-free cheddar cheese again, it tasted good, but would have been better with ketchup and buttered toast.  Desert was a sugar free grape Popsicle, oh how I wish it was a brownie, or cookie, or ice cream.  I hate dieting!  Aaron loves it, these are his favorite foods.  Not me.  In an ideal world I would eat the following:

Breakfast - McDonalds Sausage burritos, fried egg sandwiches, corn beef hash, donuts, french toast

Lunch - Burgers, hot dogs, tuna fish sandwiches, chili with bread, any creamy soup with bread, chips

Dinner - Shepherds pie with bread, lasagna with bread, burgers with fries, mashed potatoes

Snacks and Deserts - Ice cream, cake, brownies, cookies, chocolate 

Like I said, my fathers taste-buds.  As a result my cholesterol is way to high and Im supposed to change my diet and take medicine until it is within normal limits.  This diet is supposed to be a lifestyle change.  The first two weeks are hard, but then you add in fruit and healthy carbs (and avoid white sugar and white flour products).  But thinking about it just makes me sad.  I love bad sugar and bad carbs!  The diet allows you to enjoy them occasionally after the first 2 weeks, but occasionally isn't lifting my spirits.  I am not even 12 hours in to the diet and I want to quit, cheat, or modify it to let me eat grilled tuna melts and hot fudge sundaes everyday.  I always lived by the philosophy eat what makes you happy because a short happy life is better than a long miserable life.  My dad and I would enjoy our big macs and laugh at people preaching healthy dieting for the sake of healthy and long living.  But then my father died at age 55 from heart disease and now my perspective is changing.  Moral support is much appreciated!

Getting Back on Track

Well it is time..... We are getting back on track with our South Beach Diet.  We started the diet back in April and fell apart a little more than a week into it, although we did lose some significant weight.  We are starting again this Sunday with Phase I (No Carbs, No Sugar Phase).  In April I started out at 153.3 pounds and got down to 145.7 pounds in 8 days.  We will weigh in on Sunday but Im averaging 148.8 pounds most days lately and most of my clothes that fit are a size 12.  Aaron is doing the diet as well, in fact he is the one pushing to get us back on track but he isn't a fan of telling everyone his weight so I'll only post how much he has lost.  In Phase I you lose mostly water weigh, which I don't have much of post colonoscopy so I may not see much weight loss.  What will we be eating you wonder, well here it is:

Phase I

Meat

Lean Cuts of Beef

Tenderloin

Skinless Chicken

Skinless Turkey

All Seafood

Boiled Ham

Canadian Bacon

Pork Tenderloin

Veal (chop/cutlet)

Low-fat-free Deli Meat

No Baked Ham

No Ribs

No Duck

Low-Fat or Fat-Free Cheese

American

Cheddar

Cottage Cheese

Feta

Mozzarella

Parmesan

Provolone

Ricotta

String

Swiss

Nuts

Natural peanut butter, 1 tsp

Peanuts, 20 small

Pecan halves. 15

Pistachios, 30

Eggs

No limits

Tofu

No limits

Fats

Olive Oil

Canola Oil

Dairy

None (although this is not clear, the book says none but then the Phase I recipes use skim and low-fat milk)

Veggies and Legumes

No Beets

No Carrots

No Corn

No Potatoes

Tomatoes (1 per meal)

No Yams

All green veggies

Turnips

Onion

Bell Peppers

Zucchini

Summer Squash

Spices Etc

No added Sugar spices

Broth

Extracts

Horseradish sauce

I can’t believe its not butter spray

Smart Balance Spread

Pepper (any kind)

Sweets

Limited to 75 cal/day

Sugar Free Hard Candy

Sugar Free Popsicles

Sugar Free Jell-O

Sugar Substitute

Sugar Free Fudgsicles

Fruit

None, except Avocado

Starch and Carbs

None

No Processed Foods

(No ketchup, mayo, jelly, jam or any processed/fatty/sugar/carb food) 

Sunshine Yellow.... Yuck!

This morning my mom came over and helped us paint our living room.  Aaron and I had picked out a pale yellow color from home depot.  After one stroke on the wall I hated it, it looks like the sun blew up in my living room.  Aaron liked it so we kept painting, and finished the room.  Mom said it might look better after it dries and so we accepted it.  After coming home tonight the verdict is in, it is horrible.  After talking to mom, who agrees the color is to bright we decided to re-paint the room.  I went to home depot tonight and bought more paint, this time a neutral sandstone color, something I can live with.  So mom will be making another visit to help repaint the room and hopefully Aaron likes it because he liked the yellow (seriously the room looked like a day care, all it was missing was some children's mural).

Other News:

Health Front:  Still no clear diagnosis.  colonoscopy didn't shed any new light.  But I'm feeling ok lately.

Bees:  Aaron declared that today was bee day, so he left this afternoon with Nate and John to do bee stuff and attempt grafting queens again.

House:  Well the walls are an ugly yellow at the moment, but we're working on that and the floor is going in soon.

Nothing else to do at 3am

Its 3am, and Im awake downing dry toast and ginger-ale in a desperate attempt to calm my stomach.  So to pass the time I'll update the blog.

Gardening Frontier:  The garden is doing well, we have tomatoes.  They are still green, but we're looking forward to eating our veggies soon.  We are having a serious mosquito problem which added with my frequent fatigue is making the weeding a challenge.  I always start with the tomatoes b/c they are my favorite plants right now and then I usually get 3 rows in before having to go inside, which means the last three rows have more weeds than veggie plants.   But we're still loving the garden, and from now on I will force myself to weed the other side of the garden.

Construction:  We are ready to install the new floor, now we just need to buy it so we can get started.  Hopefully it will be in before July.

Bees:  Aaron's first attempt at grafting larvae and rearing queens was a bust.  Originally he thought 8/13 grafts took, but it turns out the bees were just building comb and not developing the queen cells (a cell in the comb that the queen larvae grows in).  He was sad, but knowing Aaron he will master queen rearing very soon.  There is a strong nectar flow in CT right now and the bees are making lots of honey.  

Things will be slow this week since Im going to be out of commission part of tue and all of wed.  Im really looking forward to Thursday, the day I get to refill my belly/colon with yummy foods :)

Casserole Success!

Well I made the casserole yesterday, the recipe made 3-8x8 pan casseroles which I froze.  Today I thawed one and baked it according to the directions.  I added bread crumbs to the top before baking it b/c I thought it would add a nice crunchy texture.  It took the entire 30 mins to cook in our oven.  I did a taste test, alittle scared b/c it smelled yucky when I was making it, but to my surprise it is delicious!  In the future I may add alittle more chicken and alittle more broccoli.

One another note.  About this time last year, right after we seeded our new lawn a turtle decided to dig up the cool dirt and lay her eggs.  I was at school that day but my Dad was at the house doing the usual construction.  He called me at school and took a picture with his phone to show me when I got home.  He was so excited about it and thought it was so funny that the turtle dug up our grass seed.  Seeing the turtle again today was such a blessing, it brought that memory of my father to me, which otherwise I think I would have forgotten.  The poor turtle didn't lay any eggs today, probably because we were taking her picture and aaron kept trying to move her along with a stick. (sorry for the bad picture)

On a sad note, Aaron killed my rhubarb.  A couple weeks ago I noticed all my raspberry bushes were dying.  He had sprayed them with weed killer thinking they were pricker bushes.  Well today I noticed all my rhubarb (minus 1 plant) was also dying.  He wanted to spray the prickers and weed growing on the fence in the back yard, which my rhubarb grows beneath.  So sadly, the rhubarb is now dying.  A few tears were shed, but oh well.  In the future I'm not letting Aaron buy weed killer.  

 Dying plant :(

The only living plant left after hurricane Aaron.

The living room floor is being planed today, which is very loud.  I tried to take a nap in the camp chairs out in the shade of the garage, but aaron was using his saw which isn't any better than the planer.  My body is exhausted, especially my legs and hips and eye lids.  It doesn't help that my stomach has been keeping me awake at night.  I see a very long afternoon nap in the air conditioned bedroom coming very soon.  And Im happy to report I haven't fallen since Friday :)  I just might be getting better.

Photo Update

 Living room construction.  Its coming along very nicely thanks to good/talented friends.  If anyone needs work done we can recommend people.  These pictures are after the gutting, reframing, insulating, plumbing, electrical, hanging the new sheet rock, taping and mudding, new windows, and the floor being tore out.

 This is our new bay window that we got for free!  We love it.

 Another view of the living room.  That space under the stairs is currently open to the basement.  Im hoping to build shelves into the new stairs.

 This is the 100 year old floor.  It has lots of nots so we need to plane the floor before we continue.

 This is the 50 year old floor on the other half of the room which we think was an addition.  The house stayed in one family until we bought it, and they had a bad habit of painting around their rugs.

 The new front door.  It is really pretty, these pics don't show it well.

 outside bay window.

 The view of the field from the front door.  It you look hard you can see the bee hives (small white boxes) way down there in the back.

 Where the 50 yr old and 100 yr old floor meet.

 The missing bathroom wall.  Im standing in the kitchen looking into the bathroom, so sad.

 Here Im in the kitchen looking into the bathroom on the left and the living room on the right (and FYI these pics are taken with my web cam so they are mirror images (aka backward).

 Kitchen ceiling by the bathroom.

 our new plumbing.

 more plumbing

 which required us to put a hole in the kitchen/bathroom floor, so I can see into the basement from kitchen as well.

Front door again.

This is the bruise from my fall on Friday.  There is another small one on my arm which got caught in the railing and a third small one on my knee from my fall on either wed or thursday.  Luckily I am a quick healer.

Aaron mixing up a 50% Formic Acid treatment for the bees to keep them healthy!  He is out in the garage playing scientist, calculating solution and what not.

The solar wax melter.  We have enough wax for 4 candles now, but aaron wants us to wait till we have more before we start making any candles.  Although it looks ugly here the wax is a beautiful bright yellow.

Aaron's tomato plant.  He wanted one of his own to try the worm compost material one.

The Garden.

Tomatoes 

and peppers...

more tomatoes

and cherry tomatoes

and more peppers...

and peas and cucumbers 

more cucumbers

and green beans.

and left overs.  These are a few left over plants still in the egg carton.

Casserole Week

It has finally arrived, the week I learn how to make a casserole.  For my first attempt Im going to try a chicken and broccoli casserole.  I have all of the ingredients and hope to accomplish this after my morning nap if I have the energy.

Chicken and Broccoli Casserole

Ingredients:

1 package of medium-wide egg noodles

2 cans of cream of chicken soup

1 package of frozen chopped broccoli, thawed

1" thick chunk of Velveeta cheese

2 cans of all white chicken (in water) or cooked shredded chicken breasts (4)

1/2" thick slices of Velveeta

1/2 cup of milk

*Salt and pepper to taste (put in soup mixture)

Steps:

1. Cook noodles according to directions - drain.

2. Mix soup, chicken and milk in saucepan - cook until warmed through.

3. Add Velveeta in chunks - cook until cheese is melted.

4. In a large bowl, combine noodles, soup mixture and broccoli.

5. Pour into a lightly, greased 9x13 baking dish - top with sliced cheese.

6. Place plastic wrap and heavy duty foil on top of dish and freeze.

Serving Day:

1. Thaw dish completely.

2. Uncover dish and bake at 375 degrees for 20 - 30 minutes.

On the Bee Front we have sad news.  Our favorite hive that has been with us for 3 seasons swarmed yesterday.  Aaron had noticed signs of swarming in the hive and thought he had removed all of the swarm cells, but he must have missed one.  There are still bee's in the hive but it is sad to see the population 1/2 of what it was.  I'm sure it will still be a great hive.  In the future if we signs of swarming we are going to split the hive right away instead of trying to manage it.  This is a big week for us as beekeepers.  Our queen's should be emerging around the 9th, we need to split some hives, and aaron needs to treat the bee's for mites.  He will be a busy bee-keeper :)  We're hoping to have at least 11 hives at the end of the season.

On the garden front our tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, squash, zucchini, and green beans are all doing great.  I'm still not sure about the peas, they aren't dying but don't seem to be growing.  As for the lettuce it is to soon to tell.  

Humpty Dumpty

Well today I failed to accomplish my to do list.  I woke up with a migraine head ache that kept me in bed till 4pm.  So no crafts, cooking, or sewing.  I then ventured to my parents house to pick up my sewing machine!  I was so excited to go get it and even more excited when I rediscovered all my packed up fabrics and sewing supplies/patterns.  I even found a craft book I bought a few years ago and it is going to be so fun going through it project by project.  The trip was not completed without injury.  I was standing at the top of the garage stairs and fell bruising my rear pretty good and scaring my mother.  Should go nicely with the bruise on my knee from yesterdays fall in the yard.  I need a padded room.

Aaron on the other hand had a very good/productive day.  He woke me up several times to tell me about "aaron stuff".  First he discovered the worlds best smoker fuel (for the bee smoker).  Its corrugated cardboard (which I reminded him a bee keeper told us 2 years ago).  Then there was a series of youtube videos about worm composting.  He is still loving working second shift.

Hormones

Well I had a minor emotional break down at the Doctors office today, I'll blame it on frustration and hormones.  They took me in, 30 mins late, which was upsetting on its own but then I found out that I was in a sleep clinic, not the apt I thought I was going to.  They dont know how the scheduling got messed up and how I ended up there but I just started crying.  So now I have an apt with the correct doctor on July 12, yes I cried more when they told me I had to wait till then.  Im so sick of doctors.  Of course my brain told me a big mac would make me feel better, buy I was good and waited till I got home to make a turkey sandwich.

So what have I been up to?  My garden is coming along nicely!  Which is very exciting.  I also have been working on a sewing project.  Over a year ago Aaron and I thought we would start having a family and I started making the cutest crib bedding.  It is black and yellow themed with florals and geometric shapes.  I made a pillow and started the comforter like blanket but then construction got going, finances got tighter, and my health started playing games and babies became more of a challenge that we'll work on but it may be years from now.  So the project found a home tucked away in a closet.  Well I've taken it out and have been working on it.  The comforter/blanket is almost done.  Im sewing it all by hand which is good b/c other wise I would be done with it all in a day and I need a longer term project.  Who knows, when it is all done maybe I'll pack it up and save it or give it to one of the many pregnant women I know.  The fabrics are so pretty (and gender neutral)! When it is all done I'll take some pictures.

Aaron and I are both loving our new situation.  Im enjoying being home and he is enjoying working 3pm-12 and having a clean house.  This has really increased our amount of quality time 10x.