Something's cookin'

When Peleke and I got married, I told him that I don't cook. Not only don't I cook, but I also don't like to and don't want to learn how. My "I can cook anything that fits in the microwave" magnet came as no surprise.

Well, life in the Redneck Riviera made my non-cooking agenda difficult. I mean, there are places to eat out and clog up your arteries in five days flat, but we certainly don't have any Trader Joe's, Whole Foods, or the like. There is a health food store about forty minutes away, but it's overpriced and, well, forty minutes away. As you can imagine, our diet has been less than ideal.

Then along came Pinterest. I resisted as long as I could, which was surprisingly easy given that everybody seemed to mention Pinterest in relation to cooking. However, one day I discovered that there's a lot more than food on there. Holy moly, there's a lot more.

My name is Wenikio, and I'm a Pinterest addict.

I feel that I should mention here, however, that we've overall benefitted quite nicely from it. Not only have a discovered this woman, but I've been able to do quite a bit of stuff around the house that we bought. Those are all things for other posts, but suffice it to say, I like Pinterest.

Then over the past year, I've sloooowwwwwllly started cooking. And by cooking I mean not ordering out or making things out of boxes. The culmination of which (because no, I don't plan on advancing through the ranks of kitchen goddess thankyouverymuch) has been the freezer crock pot meals. Best. Cooking. Idea. Ever! One day of cutting, chopping, slicing, dicing, etc and dinner is made for the month! With leftover lunches to spare! Side benefits are that I know exactly what went into things- no canned "cream of whatehaveyou," organic veggies only from the dirty dozen list (better on the pocketbook), and the overall cost of dinner has plummeted.

All this is to say that dinner, chicken tortilla soup, is smelling up the house quite nicely today!

Five Minute Friday - Again

Again.

It's a familiar word. I use it a lot. I'm trying something again. I'm moving again. It's happening again. Sometimes it's active, sometimes it's passive. Repetition can be boring ("try spelling it again"), but it can also be exciting ("we're moving again... I just don't know exactly when. Or where.").

Seems like lots of "agains" lately. Another miscarriage, another divorce, another cancer recurrence, another friend moving away. But there are some good ones too- another chance at a relationship, another exciting move for us, another attempt at athleticism, another attempt at a project. Some mundane good ones, too- another day with Peleke and the beasts. Another beautiful day in the Redneck Riviera.

"Again" carries responsibility. You've done it before, and you'll do it again. Easy or hard, here it comes.

Five Minute Friday is here.

Distractions

So, I kind of got distracted by shiny things. Shiny things in the shape of hardware in my legs. You can read all about that here, but hopefully that part of my life is mostly done now. I think roller derby sounds like a ton of fun, but I'm not sure I want to risk my awesome new legs for it. The shiny silver, gold, green, and blue bits are currently in a tupperware container in the office, waiting to be strung up as a wind chime. It's ok to be a little jealous.

And now... well, now seems as good a time as any to begin blogging again. No purpose other than to stretch the lump of muscle bouncing around in my skull. I think I can safely blog without the fear of accidentally spilling any state secrets, too, as Peleke has learned that it's better to just not share those things with me in the first place. Well, that and life married into the Armed Services isn't as overwhelmingly confusing as it was at the start. I've found a bit of a niche here in the Redneck Riviera what with friends, wood working, learning to play the fiddle, Pinterest, cooking a tiny bit, and, of course, the beasts. Just in time to move this summer!

Yep. Here we are.