Labor Day Weekend - Writing Challenge, Day 17

I have a three day weekend coming up, and I absolutely cannot wait. 

High school football game Friday night, possibly going to the fair and maybe the Jackson’s Mill Jubilee on Saturday, and Jubilee on Sunday if we don’t go Saturday...or heck maybe we’ll go both days. Oh, and a WVU game to watch Saturday as well. Monday’s plans remain to be seen, but I’m excited for the long weekend regardless. 

We’ve been trying to get our plans in order all week, and there are just so many things going on that we want to do, all happening on one weekend, that it’s been a pain trying to fit everything in. I don’t think we’ll be able to do some of the other things we thought about - a concert in town Friday night, a trip to visit family for the game on Saturday (not out of the plans for sure yet), and a visit out to the barn (that I might just do on Monday since we don’t have any plans for then yet!). 

Is anyone else having the too many plans problem that we are?  What exciting things do you have going on for Labor Day weekend?

Milo - Writing Challenge, Day 16

Milo hasn’t been officially introduced on the blog yet!

Here’s his story.

Darryl and I went to his mom’s on June 10th and went to his uncle’s next door.  While outside, I saw this tiny little black and white kitten who looked completely terrified and lost. He was in the corner between the porch and trailer and was literally trying to climb through a wall to get under the porch. 

I went over and picked him up. He immediately snuggled against me. Anytime anyone tried to come near me or reach for him, he huddled into me and tried to hide from them.  

When it was time to head back down to Darryl’s mom’s, we started looking around for the kitten’s litter to put him back with. Pretty quickly, we figured out that he didn’t belong with any of the litters there. None of the them were the same size or age, and Darryl’s mom was familiar with the litters there and knew he didn’t belong. We looked all over to see if there were any new kittens, but there weren’t. The couple of other female cats who lived around there that had been pregnant hadn’t had their kittens yet. So, we deduced that he must have been abandoned - either by a person dropping him off or by his real mom, wherever she was.  I didn’t know what to do. I asked Darryl if maybe I should just put him back where I’d found him, just in case.

Darryl said, “You do realize, if you put him back, he’s going to die, right? He’s too young to survive on his own. He won’t be here the next time we come over.”

I replied with, “Well, what do I do?? We can’t take him home. We already basically have a zoo. We don’t need a new kitten right now.”

Darryl said, “Just think about it.” And he walked away, back to his mom’s.

I stood there undecided...for about 15 seconds. I couldn’t figure out if I should put him back or hold onto him and follow Darryl. I ended up taking him down to the house and held him on my lap in the living room. Darryl and his mom kept talking about how the kitten had imprinted on me. He acted like he thought I was his mom and clung to me, and he was scared to death of everyone else.

Eventually I started looking up orphaned kitten care on my phone and deduced that he was going to need formula to start with. Followed pretty soon by that mixed with canned kitten food, and eventually would graduate to regular kitten food. There were also some pretty gross things about helping them go to the bathroom. Thankfully that only lasted a day or two before he started going on his own!

So, it was decided. We were taking him home. We had to stop at Walmart so I could run in and get the stuff he needed while Darryl waited with him in the truck. On the way home, I decided to name him Milo.

Ever seen the movie Milo and Otis? I grew up watching that as a kid. Bo looks exactly like that Milo, and that’s what I wanted to name him when we rescued him. But he was meant to be Darryl’s cat, and Darryl liked the name Bojangles. So, Bo is Bojangles Beauregard (since he’s called BoBo half the time). I still wanted a cat named Milo. So that’s who the kitten became.

And y’all...

If you’ve seen the movie, you know how much of a troublemaker the cinematic Milo is. My Milo totally lives up to the reputation associated with the name.  He was 4 weeks old when we found him.  He didn't really get introduced to the other cats for a couple weeks, not until he'd had his first vaccines.  But as soon as he got over his fear of the other animals...

He terrorizes the other cats. He’s best friends with the dog (just like Bo).  He gets into everything. He’s always places he shouldn’t be. I came home yesterday at lunch and found everything from the coffee table on the floor...the other cats know better. Milo, however, has had the time of his life jumping from furniture to furniture and taking flying leaps off of things lately, skidding off things as he goes by.

He’s a mighty fly/gnat hunter.  He naps with the dog. He has no fear. 

No one messes with Bo’s tail...but Milo does... No fear. 

Chase two cats three times his size across the house as they hiss and spit and yowl at him? No problem. 

Shove a full grown cat out of their food bowl so he can eat it instead? Why not?

When you correct him, he gleefully bounces back into doing what he was already doing and makes you correct him ten thousand more times.  Raising your voice doesn't typically phase him at all.  And lord help you if he's super focused on something.  Like stalking one of his brothers.  He will be so intensely focused that your voice will not exist to him.

He’s definitely showing signs of being an alpha cat. And so is Bo, which should be pretty interesting...

If you follow me on social media, you've already seen about a hundred photos (and that might not be a full exaggeration), so I kept it limited on here, but check out my Instagram for lots more!

Gardening - Writing Challenge, Day 15

Ugh, missed a day!

I had this one all drafted up in my mind but didn't get a chance to write it yesterday....long day at work + handing out water at the Barbour County Fair parade + coming home to find a giant hole in the upstairs of my house (Darryl was replacing a window I thought wasn't being replaced until next week) + having company over to help with said window = zero time to sit down and write!

So, anyway, I spent the weekend mostly reading and working in my yard.  It was a gorgeous weekend.  I planted some flowers that I'm hoping we might be able to enjoy for the last half of the summer.  We'll see how they do this late, but from what I've been told, a lot of people's gardens have come out late this year, so it might be okay.

My sunflower last night

The view when I got home this evening - notice the new window upstairs!

It's open!  The others are still growing, but as fast as they're moving, they won't be far behind.

I put Miracle Gro on my plants for the first time.  I think it actually might have already stimulated some of the smaller ones to grow...probably the bigger plants too, but the smaller ones are much more obvious.  I had some pepper plants that for whatever reason just stopped growing for a while.

I created a new flower bed in the backyard and have plans to make 3 1/2 more.  Some of them may not have much of anything planted in them this year, but I want to have more room for more vegetables next year.  I squished a lot into the existing beds and still didn't have room for everything I wanted!

These were given to us by one of Darryl's coworkers.  They were each in one of the containers you see to the right.  Now they're this big!

We have a very small back yard and not much of a front yard at all, so I have to work with what I have.  Darryl hates having to be careful about accidentally mowing things he's not supposed to over, so that's why I want to make so many more beds.  They'll be easier for me to maintain, and he will have a clearer idea of what can or can't be cut.  He thinks of basically everything as a weed unless he's told otherwise. lol  Once things grow bigger, it's more obvious, but if he comes across something while it's still small, it's a goner unless he already knows what it is.

Anyone have any idea what this flower is?  I'm thinking heather, but I'm not sure.  It was given to me, and it's going to be planted in it's own little flower bed this week (once I create the flower bed).  It's supposed to multiply like crazy.

Orion - Writing Challenge, Day 14

Yesterday morning I put my foot down.  I've had plenty of plans to go out where I board Orion in past couple weeks, and none of them have panned out for one reason or another.  So, Saturday morning, I woke up and decided that since there were potential plans for the day that were undecided and wouldn't happen for a bit if they did indeed happen, I jumped up, took care of the furballs, and headed out for a visit.

I didn't have any plans of doing any real work.  It's been a while since I've really spent any substantial time with Orion, whether for work or play.  I wanted to just hang out with him for a little bit and reconnect.

 It couldn't have gone any better than it did.  We had the barn to ourselves.  He was in the section he likes to go into, and there are places to tie to in there, so I just haltered him and tied him where he was and set to work grooming him and talking to him as I did.  He likes hearing the sound of someone's voice when they're working with him.

His legs were in good shape - no heat or swelling.  There rarely is anymore, but I check every time I'm there just to make sure he doesn't need any bute or poultice/wraps.  He's literally gone over a year in the past without an obvious DSLD flare up, but since it's not something that will ever go away, I usually check just to be safe.  Nothing out of the ordinary yesterday.

Massages are sooo relaxing...even for horses.

I took my time grooming him and did a little massage on his front legs since they're usually his trouble spot.  I figured it couldn't hurt anything and that he'd probably like it....which he did.  I got lots of nuzzles and sniffing while I knelt next to him to do the massage.  He was super sweet and lovey the whole time.  Sometimes he's a stubborn snot, but that wasn't the case yesterday, thank goodness. Haha.

I spent about an hour and a half hanging out with him, and even when I took the halter and rope off, he was content just to hang out with me there in the barn.  He stood at his gate and watched me walk away when I left.  I'm going to have to try to find time to go back out this week and have another visit like that.

Re-establishing that ground relationship will be important once we eventually do start trying to do anything under saddle again.  That's probably still a long, long way off, but I'll update here as things progress!

Self Care - Writing Challenge, Day 13

I was reading a Thought Catalog article about self care this morning that really resonated with me.  Basically, the gist of the article was about how you should build your life so that you don't constantly need to take "breaks" from it in the form of self care that our society seems to push these days - all the gimmicks that there are for getting away or spending money on something trendy to take a break from it all.

I don't know about you, but I don't have the money to spend on all that junk anyway.  I'm not about to waste my hard-earned money on something like that, so I've already had to deal with this issue head on.  I used to feel so over-worked during college and in the first couple years after that I did feel like I needed breaks from it all.  I didn't necessarily get the time or have the funds to have said breaks, but I felt overwhelmed and sometimes like I was at my breaking point.  I was always stressed.  I didn't take care of myself like I should have.  Sleeping 3-4 hours a night is not a sustainable way to live.  Eating junk food when you're not at your food service job to be able to get the built-in meal isn't a healthy way to eat.  We all go out for fast food every once in a while, but I was pretty much living off of Sheetz and microwave food and chips.

Between the junked-up diet, the screwed up sleep schedule, and taking zero time to just relax for a few minutes and collect my thoughts, I was a pretty anxiety-ridden, crappy-feeling individual for a large part of my later college years and the first few years after.  I don't know how obvious that was to the outside world, but it was there.  Losing my grandma and going through a couple bad breakups during that time definitely didn't help.

The thing was, I didn't take a lot of time to really slow down and evaluate it all and figure out a better way.  A couple of times I started trying to eat healthier and exercise more, and I felt way better.  But my sleep schedule was still way off because, between a 17-20 credit schedule every semester that usually included classes and 1-3 labs (depending on which semester we're talking about), plus my work study and my part-time job at the cafeteria, and the studying/homework that went along with all of that, there just weren't enough hours in the day.

I wish I had taken the time to figure out a better way to deal with all of it.  I know I wasn't the only one with that kind of workload, so I know there had to have been a better way.

When I was waitressing after moving back to Elkins, I had a lot of the same issues.  My work hours varied a lot, so I never had a set schedule.  A lot of time I worked closing shift, so I didn't get home until close to 1 AM, then had to turn around and go in to open the next morning.  I ate like crap because even though I worked in food service, I didn't get a free meal or time to eat it like I had at Sodexo for certain shifts.  I had other family-related obligations and was on the road a lot when I wasn't working, and things were just crazy for a while.

It's not been until the past few years that I've actually gotten it together and concentrated on trying to get better sleep, trying to have better meals, and usually trying to get at least some exercise through the week, even if I don't hit my full exercise goal.  Those 2-3 things have made a huge difference in my life.  It seems so simple, but it's something I took completely for granted growing up and didn't realize just how important it really was until I got a normal routine back and could feel the difference in comparison to how I had been living.

So, to me, self care isn't about taking a break from it all.  The part from the article that resonated with me was about building your life so that you don't need a break from it.  I didn't do things in a way back then that made me feel like I didn't need a break.  Now, I've been able to acquire a job with a set schedule.  I plan meals (you've seen the blog posts!).  I try to work out when I can.  And I try to take time to do things I enjoy.  That's something I've had to work at.  For so long, I didn't give myself time to just do things that I enjoyed because I was so busy trying to be perfect in everything else I was already trying to do.  It was not a sustainable way to live, and I probably set the bar way to high for myself.  All I did was completely burn myself out.

Sleep.  Food.  Routine.  Fun.  Friends.  In my opinion, at least from my experience, those are some of the main things I need to focus on to be happy.  And those are the main things I ended up neglecting throughout college and immediately beyond.  Self-care is about finding your balance and being able to maintain your happiness.  Things don't need to be perfect.  You should always have some goals in mind to be reaching for, but perfection is not required.  We as humans are not perfect, so why do we expect ourselves to be?

Be happy, friends.  Finding your balance starts with you, so find it, and fight like hell to keep it.

TGIF - Writing Challenge, Day 12

I've been doing a lot of late night writing lately.  It's not a habit I particularly want to be in, but here we are.  I am so tired, but I'm determined to do this whole thirty days thing, so...it might be a short one tonight.  A short post is better than no post at all though, right?

This week felt exhaustingly long, but sort of flew by at the same time...as little sense as that makes.  We laid my great uncle's wife to rest yesterday.  It was an emotional time for all.

I had planned on following that up later in the day with some happiness in going to see Orion, but I ended up with a close second to the worst migraine I've had in quite a while, so that didn't happen.  I'm gunning to hopefully do that this weekend instead.

I worked in Philippi today and hurried to get home so we could go to the rodeo at the Randolph County Fair tonight.  It apparently wasn't Darryl's cup of tea, but I had fun!  I got to see a friend barrel race, and the calf scramble and branding were hilarious.  It probably wasn't the cowboys' night tonight, but it was still entertaining, at least to me.  I drooled over the horse in the arena the whole time.  I probably will never have Orion trained to that standard, but I could easily picture him doing something like that.........if he wasn't terrified of cows...hahaha...

Instant Pot - Writing Challenge, Day 11

I adore my Instant Pot.  It's my favorite kitchen appliance, followed closely by my Crock-Pot.  With the Instant Pot, it's so easy to whip something up, turn it on, and then...wait.  Go do something else around the house.  Wash the dishes you might have just dirtied (if you had to dirty any...when I make chili, the Instant Pot is literally the only "dish" I have to use).  Do some chores.  Water the garden.  Read a book.  Watch TV.  As long as you're near enough to keep an eye/ear out for any issues (of which I've had none so far), you can do literally anything.  It's just like the Crock-Pot in that regard, except the cooking goes faster.

The Instant Pot also has the slow cooker setting, so you can use it like a Crock-Pot if you choose.

I'll post more recipes I've used as time goes on.  It's been a busy couple of days, so I didn't have time to get any together for this post, but I'll do a few and eventually do a compilation linking to them, I think.  You can check out this chili recipe that I posted when I first got the Instant Pot.  It was the first thing I made, and I adapted it from my mom's chili recipe.  For now, I'll just give a few general tips I've come across.

When I first got the Instant Pot, I did read my instructions and did the water test (something explained in the getting started guide that comes with it and that I definitely recommend you do if you haven't used one before.  It basically makes sure it works the way it should and gives you a way to do a test run to make sure you know what you're doing.).

Certain models, however, have different buttons/pre-sets than others.  So sometimes if you're reading a recipe, you  might come across a button you don't have.  I used this guide a few times to familiarize myself with what they meant.  Each pre-set button on mine is set for a certain amount of time.  So you can get the same result by setting it to "Manual" instead of one of the pre-sets and just punch in the time you want.  I do that most often.  This particular guide I linked to has the user manuals for a bunch of different models, as well as what each pre-set means and what time it cooks for, so you can take that and apply it to your model if a recipe mentions a pre-set you don't have.

I will dedicate a post to recipes I have tried myself, but since I don't have that ready yet, I'll leave you with this list of recipes I want to try:

Amy + Jacky's Pressure Cooker Chicken Noodle Soup

Chicken noodle soup is a traditional favorite of mine.  I love having it on cooler days or when I'm sick, and it's one of the things I miss most from my childhood.  My grandma made the best chicken noodle soup.  Unfortunately, I don't have the recipe for it.  This definitely has different stuff in it than hers did, but it sounds pretty good to me.  I'm always on the lookout for other versions to try to see if I can find something similar to hers though.  If I ever find it, I'll share!

Amy + Jacky's Pressure Cooker Mac and Cheese

I mean, come on.  It's mac and cheese.  It's a staple in our house, though what we normally make usually comes out of a box.  I've made homemade mac and cheese on the stovetop, and it came out amazing.  I definitely want to try this one in my Instant Pot.

Instant Pot Baked Potato Soup

Potato soup is another winter favorite, so I'm planning to try this one when it gets cooler.  Darryl doesn't like soup (other than my chili), so I'll have it all to myself!  That's like a week of lunches and snacks!  Haha.

I constantly find new things, but I'm slower about trying them.  I'll let you know how these and some others go as I experiment with them!