Vegan Flower

A Strange Train & Delicious Food

2012-03-01T20:23:00.000-06:00

It was a long day for me yesterday. After work, I had both a physical therapy session and doctor appointment. Thankfully I had an hour to run home for lunch because otherwise I would have been away from home for a horrendous 12 hours! I got the news I was dreading- 6 more weeks of physical therapy because the doctor believed that my rotator cuff is torn. He also wasn't very happy with the progress I've made with my elbow. I thought I was doing well. Him, not so much. *sigh* All I can do is keep at it, right? If the therapy doesn't help my shoulder, then I'll be getting a MRI sometime in April to see if I do indeed have a tear. At least this is all something that will get better, though. I just hope it doesn't impact my scooter riding or dog walking time when the weather gets warm enough!

When I was headed home last night, I was about a mile away from our house when I got stopped for quite some time at a railroad crossing. It was a huge coal train that didn't seem to have an end in sight and then, it slowed down and stopped. Ack! A minute later, it started going the other way and finally, quite a while later, the road was clear. I took the opportunity to take a few pictures. I loved how it looked with the rain, lights and train. Peaceful and relaxing, in a way.

I came home to a delicious smell, which was quite nice! Mike had made tahini ginger seitan with veggies and udon noodles, a recipe from Eat, Drink & Be Vegan. It was sooooo good!

I got the "About Me" section up today and will be working on redoing the "My Pack" section. Please let me know what you think! I've tried to write the About Me post so many times, so this is quite a relief to finally have it done.

Tomorrow brings yet another physical therapy session but this weekend will be bringing several very nice things, which I'm very excited about. Stay tuned!

Short, Sweet & Random

2012-02-28T18:46:00.002-06:00

My mind is kind of all over today, thus this post. First of all, Rowan is in the February/March issue of Fido Friendly magazine! They picked her picture out of hundreds to be featured in the Show Us Your Tongues section. Some of you may remember my post about Emma being in that same feature, so I'm just tickled pink that my Rowan got in it, too. Her picture is the bottom right hand corner one-

Mike has made several really great meals lately, but my photo skills seem to have gone wayward. I've either forgotten to take pictures or they have turned out looking like blobs of gluck. Although I don't know what, exactly, gluck is, rest assured that it doesn't look appetizing. I did manage to get a few pictures, including these Vegetable Inari rolls with sweet chili sauce that we bought from the co-op. They were really good!

The one meal Mike made that had a blog-worthy photo was this stir fry. It's seitan with red pepper, broccoli, yellow summer squash, onions and seasoning- lots of ginger, tamari, red pepper flakes and veggie broth.

I see the doctor to get my elbow checked out tomorrow, which I feel confident is now progressing quite well. Over the last week I've been able to bend it 20 degrees more (as of yesterday, it was at 131 degrees)! Straightening it is going a little slower, though, but I guess that's normal. My therapist said that typically people will be able to straighten it all but about 10 to 15 degrees. I'm currently at 25 degrees, so I have to work on that yet. I'm starting to be able to put my hand behind my head a little bit (I can once again strike that sexy pose!), so hopefully in another few weeks I'll finally be able to put my hair in a ponytail again. My therapist hasn't mentioned the static splint since I've been making considerable progress, much to my relief. I'm determined to avoid that contraption if at all possible.

What's still getting worse, unfortunately, is my shoulder. It's starting to affect a lot of what I do and I can no longer lift up my arm that high without being in considerable pain. I have a feeling I'll be getting a MRI done on it to see if I have a tear. Hopefully it's just really strained!

I'm going to be making an "About" section soon. If anyone has any suggestions of what I should put in it or would like to know something specific, please let me know!

Only three more weeks until Spring officially starts. Is anyone else as excited as I am about this?

Vegan, Eco-Friendly Mattresses

2012-02-27T19:18:00.001-06:00

Having to deal with a broken elbow taught me several life lessons, which was certainly a silver lining to the whole ordeal. One, though, I could have done without and that is the sad fact that our bed is quite uncomfortable. To be perfectly honest with myself, I've known this for a while. We've only had it for a little over three years and for at least the last two of those years, we've been waking up sore and have had lots of uncomfortable nights. It's a memory foam mattress, too, which makes us sleep hot. I often wake up covered in sweat even though we keep our furnace turned down quite a bit at night (after doing many hours of researching on mattresses, I found that is a very typical problem with memory foam mattresses).

The real eye opener, though, was when I had to sleep on the couch for a little over a month since I couldn't lay flat without being in pain or risking that I'd roll over onto my arm. Mike couldn't sleep in the bed without me and ended up putting two of the dog beds together so that he could sleep by my on the living room floor. He got some of the best nights of sleep he's had for the last few years on those dog beds! He woke up refreshed and not sore at all. While we're happy to know that our girls have comfy beds (the Harry Barker hemp beds, if you're wondering), we're not that happy to realize just how bad our mattress is.

So, that got me researching mattresses. We don't want to buy another traditional one since they're full of nasty things like toxic foams, glues and chemically treated fabrics. Besides being made of natural materials, we also want it to be vegan and eco-friendly. I thought there would be several choices out there for us, but..... I was very wrong. While there are plenty of mattresses out there that claim to be eco-friendly and/or natural, the sad fact is that many of those either still use some chemical-laden materials or they use wool.

Basically, we have three choices-

Choice #1- There are several companies out there that will replace the wool with a vegan alternative if you get a doctors prescription. They're required by law to use wool as a fire retardant in lieu of the chemical retardants that are used in most mattresses.

Choice #2- An Essentia mattress. All of their mattresses are vegan (they even say so at the bottom of this page!) and are made of latex and the world's only natural memory foam. Unlike traditional mattresses, they deter dust mites and are hypoallergenic. They also make their mattresses in an environmentally healthy manner and use organic fabrics.

Choice #3- Cozy Pure mattresses. This company makes two latex organic mattresses that allow you to choose a vegan option without getting a doctors prescription- the Cozy Haven and Cozy Embrace. Their prices are pretty reasonable and their company uses renewable energy (wind, solar and geothermal) to run their factory.

While we save up to eventually get a new mattress (our sights are set on the Dormeuse by Essentia), we've found a happy compromise for now. Or, at least, what we hope is a compromise. However, that's another post for a later time!

Know of any other vegan, eco-friendly mattress options out there? Please let me know about them!

The Palomino Bar

2012-02-25T18:15:00.000-06:00

My youngest stepson is turning 14 on Monday and for part of his weekend celebration, we went to The Palomino Bar in Milwaukee to eat an early dinner. It's been at least a few years since we've been there and their menu has changed quite a bit. Basically, it's vegan bar food and as bar food goes, it's not really that healthy, but it was definitely a delight for a teenager. I love their decor and sign outside-

The lighting inside was typical bar lighting, which made taking pictures a bit difficult, especially since I only had my older (i.e. not that great) camera with me. Still, you can get the gist of it.

This was my favorite and sadly, it didn't turn out well. I'll have to get a better capture next time.

I love how rope is used for the frame.

Mike pointed this horse head lamp out to me and I found myself somewhat obsessed with it.......

Mike and my stepsons shared an appetizer of fried pickle spears with vegan ranch for dipping. I passed on them because I'm not a fan of pickles (other than spicy ones) and didn't want to overdose on fried foods.

Mike had the Palomino Gardenburger with vegan bacon & vegan cheese. On the side he got hush puppies and fries. I've never had a hush puppy before, vegan or otherwise, so he let me have one. It wasn't too bad!

I got the Vegan Tot-Chos, which is a mound of vegan tator tots topped with vegan cheese, chili, pico de gallo, lettuce, vegan sour cream and salsa. It's supposed to be an appetizer, but even with Mike helping me eat some of it I could only eat about half of it. It had a nice level of spice.

The pictures I took of my stepsons' meals didn't turn out at all, unfortunately. My oldest stepson had the BBQ Seitan Sandwich with sweet potato tots and regular tots on the side. My youngest had the Vegan Super Sloppy Joe with haystack onion rings and tator tots on the side. Everyone loved the food all around! Next time we go, I want to try the Vegan Elvis with jalapeno coleslaw on the side.

I hope that everyone is having a great weekend!

Happy 10th Birthday / Gotcha Day, Sophie!!

2012-02-23T18:19:00.001-06:00

This post is a day late because I've been quite under the weather for the last two days. Yesterday was Sophie's birthday, or at least, the day that we adopted her 4 years ago (her Gotcha day!). The rescue and vet both estimated that she was 6 years old then, so she's now 10 years old! Her birthday wasn't exciting, but Mike and I both took the day off (me because I was sick and Mike because he wanted to take care of me), so we got to spend the day with her, at least. She got lots of snuggles and cat nip.

While she has that "angry kitty" face a lot, she's not angry at all. She's such a sweet, snuggly girl who is almost always purring.

I love how soft and fluffy she is. Her tootsies alone are irresistible!

She often sits on the top of the desk, looking down at me while I'm on the computer. Eventually, she always ends up on my lap, giving me lots of love and head buts.

I love petting her when she's sleeping because she makes the cutest noises.

She's always willing to help keep Emma warm.

Happy birthday my sweet Sophie Loafie!

An Outdoor Adventure In Art & Nature

2012-02-20T20:35:00.000-06:00

It was a pretty tolerable day out yesterday, so we decided to spend a little bit of it outside to explore a few things that are just a few miles from our house. They're things we have biked by often enough, but have never stopped to check out for one reason or another (usually because it was summer and they're in the woods, so we would have gotten eaten alive).

First, we went to the James Tellen Woodland Sculpture Garden, a collection of concrete art that was created by Mr. Tellen in the 1940's & 50's. They're still in pretty good shape, considering their age and exposure to the elements. Thanks to the local art center, they're now being preserved and are available for public viewing. When you pull up, you immediately see the fallen log fence with a few Native Americans and bears. I've biked past this so often and have always admired it. The logs look so real!

There's a trail that winds through the property, displaying the collection. If you'd like to see more, visit my Flickr.

Just down the road, there's a park with this really cool carved owl in it.

Also in the same area is the Sheboygan Indian Burial Mound Park. While the mounds were excavated and the remains relocated decades ago, the mounds have been preserved.

There's a nature trail in the park that winds through the woods. We saw a hornet nest, without hornets, of course.

A pretty common sight in the woods around the area-

Woodpecker "art" on a tree-

It was really nice to be out in nature for a while and pretty rare to be able to do so somewhat comfortably this time of year!

Fuel Cafe and Outside Art

2012-02-19T10:10:00.001-06:00

Yesterday we tried out a restaurant in Milwaukee we've never been to before, Fuel Cafe. The first thing we noticed when we pulled up was their tagline- killer coffee, lousy service. The lousy service sign you see in the window was blinking like it was about to die. Such a great touch!

The inside of the cafe was pretty cool. They had a huge mural of motorcycles on the wall by where we were sitting, the benches looked like they were made out of old billboards (or some kind of large signs) and they were playing oldies style music, like Johnny Cash. I tried to get a close-up of the Soup Today sign, but they all turned out blurry or with people's heads in the way. That will be a goal for our next visit, which we're definitely planning on. The sign says something about veggie chili being available on the weekends, which they've won awards for and since Mike is a chili lover, he wants to try it out sometime. The cafe had a Route 66 type of feel to it, which is our kind of style (and despite what their tagline says, their service was very good).

We were just a little disappointed in their menu because they had a lot more vegan options online than on their actual menu. I'm guessing that they changed things but have yet to update their online menu. We both got the Super Burrito, which was an enormous burrito filled with refried beans, guacamole, mashed potatoes, vegan awesome sauce (some kind of spicy sauce that was, indeed, awesome), tomatoes, onions and lettuce. They should rename it the Super Delicious Burrito!

When we left the cafe, we saw this graffiti on the next building over. While I don't support vandalism, I am drawn to graffiti of all styles. There's just something about it.

Across the street was this mural on the side of another building. I have my own interpretation of it, but would love to hear what yours is! Like any of my pictures, you can click on it to see a larger version.

Then we drove to a house that had something I've been wanting to take pictures of for a while. These remind me of the Cadillac Ranch on Route 66- also something I've wanted to visit for many years now (and will, someday!).

I love that they have a flag with dogs all over it. Some guy that was biking by at the time told me to check out their back yard, but when we went through the alley I found that I'd have to pretty much go around their garage into their yard to see it. That was outside my comfort level, so we made do with admiring their front yard displays.

They also had Brew City Bully Club signs in their yard. We've been seeing more & more of these around Milwaukee. They're starting to be as visible as Recall Walker signs, which I support just as much as ending dog fighting.

In other news, between my physical therapy sessions on Thursday and Friday, my elbow improved by 6 degrees!! I've been hell bent on getting it to bend (har har) and was determined to get it to the 2 degree difference each session that my therapist would like to see, so 6 degrees was quite the accomplishment. I can actually touch my face now with all of my finger tips and massage in shampoo just a little bit with my left hand. Needless to say, I'm feeling much better about things than I was and I credit a lot of it to all of the encouragement I got from you, my dear readers. It really meant a lot! My shoulder is still giving me a lot of problems, but for now I'm going to focus on getting my elbow all better and try to worry about that when the time comes.

Another cool thing I've got to share is that last night, we thought we heard a female cat yowling outside, so Mike went out to investigate. The sounds were actually two groups of coyotes yipping & howling at each other from the field in front of our house and the woods behind it. The stars and Mars were really visible, too, so we star gazed for a few minutes until it got too chilly. I really miss spending a lot of time outdoors, so it was nice to be able to enjoy that even if only for a little while before the cold sent me scurrying indoors.

I hope that everyone is having a lovely weekend!

Sun, Camera, Action!

2012-02-17T22:50:00.000-06:00

The mild weather combined with sun and no snow made for a perfect day to get out in the yard and play with the pups yesterday.

This was my favorite capture, with Rowan leaping onto the deck to catch the ball coming off of the roof.

Playing makes Rowan a very happy girl! Can you spot Mike's shadow with his arm outstretched, holding the ball for her?

While this isn't the best capture, it makes me laugh because to me, it looks like Rowan is starting to float away like a balloon.

You can tell she hangs out with kitties, because they seem to have taught her the perfect pounce.

If you look at the top of this one, you can see the ball bouncing on the roof. Emma often balances on her back legs for quite a while when waiting for the ball, which I was hoping to capture. While I didn't get her doing that, I love her form in this shot. She's such an athlete!

This is the instant that she caught it. Chomp! Notice how Rowan waits so patiently for her turn? She used to try to bully Emma to get every single ball, which resulted in a few arguments between them with minor injuries. We've worked a lot with her and now she lets Emma have her turn, much to our relief.

Between the adorable, happy look on Emma's face and Rowan going after her ball, I instantly fell in love with this capture.

While I still prefer temps above 60 with lots of sun and little precipitation, I can definitely deal with a mild winter like this. It's making such a wonderful difference!

More Co-Op Food and Random Schtuff

2012-02-16T18:59:00.000-06:00

I promise I do have several posts planned that are more involved, but I just don't have it in me to write them yet. Being back at work these last few weeks while still recovering is taking a lot out of me. To bring me down even more, my physical therapist told me today that he was concerned about the lack of progress I'm making and that there's a good chance that I have a tear in my shoulder (we're hoping it's just really strained, though, but it's been getting worse.....). I'll probably have to start wearing a static splint (a cumbersome thing that looks like a torture device because really, that's what it is!) to help speed up my progress. Talk about a sexy accessory to add to my wardrobe. All of this has me a bit overwhelmed and feeling like doing this for a good 24 hours each day-

To make this post somewhat worthy of being read, I'll share a few of the things I've eaten lately. The Outpost Co-Op in Milwaukee has a great bakery and deli with several vegan choices. One thing they have from time to time is the Tempeh Delight Salad. I love to get it to put on sandwiches at home. All of the tofu and tempeh they use is from a local company, Simple Soyman.

They also make these very chewy, gooey Sheba bars. We limit these to a very occasional treat, for obvious reasons. They're so decadent!

We tried a new recipe from the Happy Herbivore cookbook- Fettuccine Alfredo, with broccoli added. Another keeper!

So, on the bright side, I've been eating quite well and tomorrow is Friday. Plus, almost all of the snow has melted again and spring is getting near. Even more, I have Mike and my girls in my life and that alone will beat my blues any day.

The Riverwest Co-Op Cafe & Ice Sculptures

2012-02-13T20:32:00.001-06:00

On Saturday, Mike and I went to a place that we ate at once before, several years ago, and now we're baffled as to why we haven't eaten there again before now. It's the cafe in the Riverwest Co-Op, which is one of the few completely vegetarian restaurants in Milwaukee (and Wisconsin, actually). Absolutely everything on the menu can be made vegan, a large percentage of their food is local and 98% of it is organic. It was also hands down the best meal we've had in a restaurant for a very, very long time. We'll be going back there again soon, and often.

Although we intended on eating lunch there, we found out that they only serve breakfast until 2:00 on weekends, but it turned out quite fine indeed. I got one of the specials for the day, tofu fritatta that was baked on top of potatoes with kale, red peppers and carmelized onions. It came with warm locally made whole grain bread and fruit. So delicious!

Mike had biscuits, sausage and gravy. I'm not a sausage fan, but the biscuits and gravy were very tasty. Mike's taste buds was quite happy with him.

While we were ordering, I spotted them. Vegan cinnamon buns. I've heard tale of them and have wanted one for a few years now. Well, they were definitely worth the wait! They warmed them up for us on the plates and served them to us all ooey and gooey. We were completely stuffed after this meal and didn't regret one bite of it.

After doing our weekly food shopping at the co-op we're members of, we stopped at one of the towns on the way home for some minty mochas at an Alterra coffee shop. I was delighted to see that there were ice carvings around the little plaza that the shop was in (which also happens to be the area where the Art Bark fundraiser dogs were a few years ago). It was a bitterly cold day out, which was perfect for both hot minty mochas and ice sculptures. We enjoyed both tremendously.

I couldn't capture them that well, but did my best. Here's Bambi-

A fairy-

A gnome-

Dopy & Doc of The Seven Dwarves. This was my favorite and the pictures doesn't do it any justice at all.

The Mad Hatter.

In other news, I'm getting a bit frustrated with my arm but am trying to stay positive. It'll be 6 weeks this Thursday since I broke my elbow and ordinarily, that's when you would be all healed. While my bone will be healed (it was actually broken twice, in a "V"- for 'vegan', perhaps??), I still have a pretty long road of recovery ahead of me and progress has been slow. The doctor has had me moving my arm since the second week but I can still barely bend it. My strength just isn't there, either. The physical therapist tested my hand strength and while my right hand got a score of 65, my left only got an 8 despite me squeezing until I was shaking from the effort. I also might have to get my shoulder checked out soon because although it's been sore since my fall, I'm just now realizing how sore it really is. So sore, actually, that it hurts more than my elbow now and has been limiting my movement. Hopefully I just pulled something, but it seems to be getting worse........

I can't lift things to my mouth with my left hand to eat or drink. I can only touch the top of my head with the tip of my thumb (with quite a bit of effort). Worst of all, though, is that I can't pick my girls up to hold them, I can't walk them and I need to rely on others to do things for me that I could easily do before. It's certainly been a challenge for me and I can't say that I haven't had my moments where I've broken down, but it's also made me appreciate so many things that I take for granted.

Okay, enough venting. To leave this post on a positive note, I'm going to boast about the progress I've made. I can almost cut my fingernails again without assistance. I can (almost always) buckle my seatbelt using my left hand again. I can push up with my left hand a bit when getting up without being in pain. I can button my pants! I have made progress and even though chances are that my arm will never be how it was before, at least I still have it.

Snapshot Saturday

2012-02-11T15:49:00.001-06:00

Taking good pictures with one hand can be a challenge, but I managed to get some captures over the last month that weren't too shabby.

My dad has been getting his hair cut at The Barber Pole for the last 20 years. They made the silo into a barber shop pole, which I believe is the largest in the world (although not the tallest). We love odd roadside attractions like this.

On that same visit to my parents, I was excited to see an Airstream parked in someone's yard. Naturally, I had Mike stop the car so I could squeeze off a few shots of it. This one wasn't very well cared for. Such a shame!

The winter has been a very mild one, much to our delight. We've had snow a few times, but mostly the ground has been bare. Rowan enjoys it either way and loves to lay in the snow to chew on her ball. Doesn't she look like a little bear?

Emma has done something quite a bit that she's never done in January & February- sunbathed. While it's currently in the teens with a nasty wind chill, we've mostly had upper 30's to upper 40's temps, which is extremely rare for this time of year. The sun has also been out a lot and it hasn't been that windy. Again, extremely rare for this time of year. We are quite pleased!

Periods of no snow and milder temps make it much easier to play with the girls outside, which also makes the winter much easier to get through. I love how this action shot of Emma turned out. Such lovely toofers she has!

One day at work the woman who orders for the floral department (I work in a distribution warehouse for grocery stores) brought some extra orange roses to my department. We got to split them up and bring them home, much to my delight. It was nice to have them around the house for a while. I miss having flowers around.

Every night, Rowan gets out at least three different bones to chew on, one by one. She likes variety!

The kitties prefer to drink out of the water dish for the pups instead of their own, for some reason. Emma & Rowan are so good about sharing. By the way, Crystal turned 19 1/2 years old yesterday!

Emma strikes so many irresistible poses. I think she does it on purpose, knowing I'll tell her how pretty and adorable she is. She's such a diva and basks in my fawning over her.

I hope that everyone is having a lovely weekend!

Recent Eats & Honeypie Cafe

2012-02-09T19:15:00.000-06:00

Mike loves to cook, and is very good at it, which makes me a lucky woman. He took such great care of me over this last month, including making lots of delicious food for us to eat.

Taco pizza, which is something we have about once a month. Whole grain crust topped with refried beans and baked, then topped with whatever we want- salsa, avocado, jalapeno slices, olives, chips.

Cheesy Bean and Cheese Enchiladas, which we changed up quite a bit. Instead of going by the recipe, we used the enchilada sauce and queso sauce from the Happy Herbivore cookbook. Doing that lowered the fat significantly and they were so good. We're definitely making them again.

Mock Chicken Noodle Soup from the Vegan Soups and Stews for All Seasons cookbook. We've had this soup several times and love it.

Michelle posted about a quinoa stuffed peppers recipe which we veganized. They turned out terrific!

Chuckwagon Stew (scroll down for the recipe) from the Vegan Vittles cookbook. We had this once before using tempeh, but decided to try it with seitan this time. While it was delicious, next time we'll be using black eyed peas. I think they'll taste the best out of the three in this hearty stew.

Minestrone from the 500 Vegan Recipes cookbook. A bit of a kick to it, which is always a good thing.

Mike sauteed some portobello mushrooms in balsamic vinegar, garlic and a few other delicious seasonings. Then, we put them in a wrap with roasted red peppers and spinach. Yum!

Tonight was Salsa, Orzo and Black Bean Salad. I can't remember what cookbook this came from, but it's basically the above three ingredients with corn, red pepper, scallions and cumin.

We tried out a restaurant in Milwaukee that we've never been to before, Honeypie Cafe. The food was great, but the dead animals on the walls, not so much. I doubt we'll be going back because of that, or maybe we'll just order sandwiches to go next time. What would you do?

Mike had the Klug Sandwich- smoked tomato field roast, brandy pickled jalapeno, tomato, onion, vegenaise and lettuce on ciabatta. I didn't think much of this sandwich when I read the description of it, but after taking a bite of it I wish I would have ordered it. Deliciousness!

I really can't complain about what I had, though. The vegan Pork Slaw sandwich was bbq'd seitan topped with apple celery root slaw. I was a little hesitant about the slaw because I've never had celery root and don't like celery, but I'm glad I tried it. It was a great combo with the seitan. Doesn't the slaw look like cheese?

The cafe also has a little bakery in it where they have several vegan options of pies and giant cupcakes (which Comet Cafe also sells). We brought home two slices of apple berry pie with a streusel topping. Our mouths were quite happy with us for that choice.

And some say that vegan food is boring. *insert eye roll here*

We're A Bunch Of Lazy Daisies, Plus An Elbow Update

2012-02-06T20:36:00.000-06:00

I'll be posting something with a bit more wordage in it soon, but wanted to share some recent photos for now of my girls and I lounging around the house. I have gotten quite a bit done, despite my broken elbow, but there was also a lot of resting & sleeping. I've been out of the splint for two weeks, out of the sling for a week and have gotten some of my range of motion back. I can finally type with both hands again! Today was my first physical therapy session and while I still have many sessions, lots of pain and a long road of recovery ahead of me, I'm confident that I'll get most, if not all, of my range of motion back. Both my doctor and physical therapist were very impressed with how fast and well I'm healing. Vegan power, baby!

Anyway, onto the pictures. I have to keep a pillow on my lap a lot to rest my arm on, which Sophie took full advantage of several times. She may look angry in this capture, but is very happy and purring up a storm.

Since I took off of work a lot, the fireplace was on more, which meant that Emma & Sophie were very happy girls. Notice how Sophie maximizes the warmth by snuggling up to Emma.

Having to keep her mama company wore Emma out, which meant lots of naps on top of the couch cushions.

When Emma slept on top of the couch cushions, that meant that Sophie could have the fireplace bed all to herself. She gets so mushy and snuggly.

Almost every time I would get up from the couch, Emma would steal my spot. Rowan preferred to stay snuggled up by my feet when she wasn't on her bed, chewing on her toys.

While she isn't pictured, Crystal kitty also stayed quite warm and snuggly on her bed. Watching her sleep is something I could never get tired of. Although the reason I was home so much wasn't great, it was really nice to be able to spend so much time with my sweeties.

Taking A Break

2012-01-15T11:12:00.000-06:00

(source)

I'm going to be taking a long break for a while- several weeks or maybe even longer. There are quite a few things I want and need to turn my focus on. Also, it's something I've been meaning to do for a while, so only having the use of one arm has made me realize that it's a good time for this. I won't be posting at all and will barely be commenting, but I will be keeping up on reading others blogs. There is a lot that I have in store for when I start posting again that I'm quite excited about!

In the meantime, if you want to see what we're up to, come on over for a picture story on my Flickr. It's one thing I want to turn my attention to more and get more involved with. If you have an account, I'd love to be your contact!

TTFN!

Nature Has Some Mighty Mood Swings

2012-01-13T14:51:00.000-06:00

I'm not only feeling up to doing a post, but also up to using proper capitalization!

We've been very lucky with it being a very mellow winter so far. I'm in no condition for our walks yet, but Mike has taken the pups out and played with them in the yard quite a bit. Emma often likes to chew on her toys with her butt sticking up in the air. She's such an adorable dork.

It went from almost 50 degrees with no snow around at all......

to 20 degrees with a nasty wind chill and our first snow storm of the season. It didn't drop a ton of snow, but there was enough for the wind to make some taller drifts. It also looks like we're going to get actual winter weather for a while now, which for us means below freezing temps combined with a nasty wind and barely any sun. The mostly mellow weather we've had so far will make the winter feel much shorter, at least, and for that I'm very grateful.

I haven't gotten a good capture of Crystal in a while, but got lucky today. She'll be 19 1/2 years old in a little less than a month! Her heart condition and overactive thyroid have been in check which is another thing I'm extremely grateful for.

It's back to work for me on Monday and I'll also (hopefully) be finding out more about the extent of damage in my arm & elbow then. I haven't been able to go for much longer than 6 hours without taking a pain pill, so I'm getting a bit worried about making it through an entire work day without being very uncomfortable. The pain has gotten less intense, though, so I'm hopeful. While I could take the next 5 weeks or so off until this heals, my workplace makes us use up all of our vacation and sick days before taking unpaid days (or getting short term disability). I'm not willing to go the majority of the year with no time off, so I'll just have to deal with the situation. It could always be worse, though, and at least I have a good job, right?

broken arm = all lower case (plus some food)

2012-01-10T14:32:00.001-06:00

not blogging is starting to make me a little sad, so i'm finger typing with one hand this short, and hopefully sweet, post. no caps, no frills i hope nobody minds!

last wednesday while mike was at his basketball game, i made dinner (this was pre-arm break)- african sweet potato and peanut stew.

we had tofu satay with broccoli and quinoa one night, a recipe we've made many times and i can't for the life of me remember where it's from. (mike's been doing all of the cooking since i broke)

also, mexiquinoa from 500 vegan recipes- i topped mine with avocado. it's so good!

i was going to try to make it to work this week but am in too much pain without my pain pills, so i took the week off. been getting to spend lots of time reading, sleeping and resting with the girls. i can't really complain!

on monday they'll hopefully be able to take more xrays to see how bad things are. i might not get a cast at all- only the splint, and he didn't think i'd need surgery. i'm going to try to comment more on everyone's blogs, but can only sit up for short periods of time. my arm swells up something fierce if i don't keep it elevated and iced! i'm still reading everything, though.

i hope you're all having a great week!

I'm Broken!

2012-01-05T22:28:00.000-06:00

so.... i fell in our driveway while walking the pups today and broke my left arm near the elbow. i only have the use of my right hand/arm now, so i'll be quiet for awhile. i'll still be reading everyone's blog posts, though, just won't be commenting or posting because finger typing with one hand takes forever! tomorrow i see an ortho dr. to see if i can get by with a cast or need surgery. i hope to be back in action soon!

Sophie, Snow, Soup & Spiciness

2012-01-03T18:09:00.000-06:00

The little bit of snow we got in December melted, only to be replaced by a little bit more on Sunday It's been bitterly cold lately with a nasty wind, but things are going to get mild again (or mild for this time of year, I should say). Hopefully the snow melts again because we're really enjoying not having it around! Although she doesn't go outside, Sophie was still bewildered about the weather.

We don't have a crockpot but wanted to make the lentil soup that my brother in-law made for Thanksgiving, so Mike cooked it on the stove top. He just put all of the ingredients in a big soup pan and an hour later, it was done! It turned out great and after a day in the fridge, the leftovers were even better. Perfect food for the weather we've been having.

With our simplifying, I've cleared off some space on my nightstand. Emma & Rowan each get their own small blanket at night to keep warm and help their beds stay clean longer, but during the day we fold them up and put them aside. My nightstand is now the perfect place for them while they're not in use because Sophie loves to sit at that window. I adore stuff that can have multiple uses! It's going to be perfect when we can open the window again because we planted a tree outside of it last year. She loves to bird watch!

Poor Sophie, she really puts up with a lot sometimes. Emma will try to hump her from time to time (what's up with that???) and she's often woken up when the girls go on "high alert". I don't know what they saw, but as you can see they're very interested in something out of the dining room window.

Tonight we had Black Bean, Rice & Kale casserole from the Glad Cow Cookbook. It's such a simple, delicious casserole. Mike added black olives while I added avocado. We both added hot sauce to make it spicy!

I hope that everyone is having a great week so far!

Simplifying Our Life- Progress & Resources

2012-01-01T12:45:00.005-06:00

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We've made an amazing amount of progress so far! In a bit less than two weeks, the only areas of the house that we have left to go through are the kitchen, basement and garage. Turns out that although we did have a lot to cull, we really didn't have a lot of clutter. I've always applied minimalism to my life in quite a few ways, so how we've already been living has made a huge difference in making this an easy process.

The criteria for what we're keeping in our lives can be summed up by this quote.

"Have nothing in your homes that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful." ~William Morris

This is how we're determining whether to keep (as well as purchase) things. It needs to serve a purpose, whether that's a functional purpose or as something beautiful for us to look at, like a piece of art. Really, though, it goes further than this a bit. Our aim is to keep even those things to a minimum to make what we have mean more.

So far, we've hauled three car loads of stuff to the thrift store, sold many CD's to a local music consignment shop (and donated the rest) and I've listed a half dozen pairs of shoes along with several workout dvd's on ebay. We already have more open space in our house and that feels so wonderful! With that open space comes less stuff to clean & maintain and more peace of mind. The more we declutter and cull, the more decluttered and at peace my mind is.

I'll be posting more specifics in the future along with a lot of tips. For now, I'd like to leave you with a list of resources that I've found extremely helpful and inspirational.

Books

The Joy Of Less by Francine Jay is a book that I can't recommend enough. If I had to pick out only one resource to recommend, this would definitely be it.

The Minimalist Woman's Guide To Having It All by Meg Wolfe is a short e-book that provides you with the basics.

Blogs

Miss Minimalist (Francine Jay's blog)

The Minimalists

Zen Habits

Living Simply and Green

On The Green Road- I especially enjoy this one because it's about 2 women living full-time in a restored, eco-friendly Airstream that they pull with a bio-diesel truck.

Weaselmouth- Another blog of full-time Airstreamers who really simplified their life to live their dreams.

Minimalist Packrat- She even has a list of minimalist blogs on her site if you want to find even more!

If one of your goals for 2012 is to simplify your life, any of these books and blogs are a great place to start.

Our Dreams & Goals

2011-12-30T20:40:00.011-06:00

This list might seem small to some. After all, there's a big push lately about making large bucket lists with what seems to me a daunting amount of things on it. We like to keep things simple by weeding out what's truly important to us without putting high expectations (stress or pressure) on ourselves. There are other things we'd possibly like to do, but we left them off this list because they're things that won't fill us with regret if we never get around to doing them.

To accomplish great things, we must dream as well as act. ~Anatole France

Downsize our possessions and simplify. We've done a lot of this over the last few years and want to keep doing it. The practical minimalist lifestyle really appeals to us.

Keep living a lifestyle that helps us stay healthy both physically and mentally. A goal for life, of course!

Be debt free. This and the above two goals are the things we're focusing the most on right now, which will help us achieve the rest of the stuff on this list.

Travel to every state together, exploring as much as we can. State parks, national parks, landmarks, odd roadside attractions and more. We want to see it all! I did consider listing the places in particular we'd like to visit, but that would be an endless list. (visit the bottom of my blog to see the states we've been in so far)

Take a hot air balloon ride. Or two. Or hundreds......

Get more tattoos.

See Cirque du Soleil at least once (we have tickets for it on March 17!!!).

Retire before we turn 60 (at least from full time work, unless if we happen to be loving what we're doing at that time in our lives).

Move to a warmer climate & downsize to a small house (or live in an Airstream full time!). This will most likely go hand in hand with our retirement.

Own an Airstream travel trailer and have a biodiesel vehicle (or other alternative fuel) to pull it with. This will also most likely go hand in hand with our retirement when we can travel for long periods of time at once.

Simplifying Our Life- Media & Online

2011-12-28T20:27:00.004-06:00

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In this post I'd like to focus on what we've done to simplify the media in our life and general computer stuff. While what we're doing may not appeal to everyone, we're really loving how things are going and I hope that this inspires or helps someone out there. Basically, we've gone digital with just about everything, or are working our way towards going completely digital.

MEDIA

Books- As I said in my last post, we decided to take the plunge and buy Kindles. It's something that I've been thinking about ever since they came out, but up until a few months ago, I didn't think that a Kindle could possibly be as good as an actual book. Turns out that it's not as good as a book. It's much better! My only regret now is that I wish we would have gotten them much sooner. We will not be buying actual paper books anymore, only e-books. This has many benefits-

1. It saves on resources. Besides the actual paper, energy and materials used to make a book, there's also the energy used to haul books to stores or to have them sent to you if you purchase them online. Then there's the gas and time you use to drive to the store or library to get books (if you don't have them delivered, that is).

2. It's cheaper. E-books cost quite a bit less than purchasing new books and Amazon offers all of the classics, as well as many others, for free. You can also log into your local library and check out their e-books.

3. It saves on space. We can store up to 1400 books on our Kindles and an unlimited amount of them in our cloud. That's a ton of space and leaves us with a lot less to dust! The cloud also serves as a back up source for our books, which gives us peace of mind.

4. We can sync to our computers and iPhones (when we get them in a few months, that is), so that we can read our books anywhere, whether we have our Kindles with us or not.

5. It's much easier to carry & hold. At 6.5" x 4.5" and weighing a mere 6 ounces, it's a breeze to carry in my purse and hold while reading. One of the books I'm currently reading is over 1000 pages and I definitely prefer holding my Kindle to read it! They'll also be nice to take on our road trips, which will save on space and having to lug several guide books in & out of the places we stay.

Cookbooks- Over the last few years, we've gone from having somewhere around 50 to 60 of them to 5. Even with those five, our plan is to go through them and eventually get rid of them. Right now, I have every recipe that we kept out of every cookbook printed out and kept in a folder, but I'll be making documents for each one and putting them on our Kindles. Depending on how that works, we may still be keeping the printed versions of them in the folder, so we'll see.

Magazines- I recently switched from the print version of the three subscriptions I had to the digital version or cancelled them all together. You can also get magazines on Kindles or other devices like iPhones, but not every magazine has that option yet.

CD's- We have several hundred cd's that we'll be bringing to a shop that purchases used ones. Whatever they don't buy will be donated. From now on, all of our music will be purchased through iTunes and to back it all up, we use the iTunes Match, which puts everything in our cloud. It's a great thing because we can sync to any computer and Apple device. Plus, if something happens to our computer, we have it all backed up in our cloud.

Movies & Video Games- We've never purchased movies, but until our local Blockbuster shut down, we always drove to the store to rent them. Now we go through Blockbuster online for both movies and video games (I don't play them but Mike loves his PS3).   We may be switching to something like On Demand in the future, depending on costs and availability.

Photos- There are about seven photo albums of non-digital photos that we have which we never look at. Our Flickr albums, though, we look at a lot, so I'm going to be either scanning all of our non-digital photos or going through a scanning service to have them made into digital versions. Flickr also serves as a back up source for our photos, just in case we lose them on our computer. I like that you can organize them so much more than a physical album, too, by putting them in sets, collections and adding tags to them.

MISCELLANEOUS STUFF

Backing Up Files- As I said above, backing up our media is important and we have things in place for that. I don't have many documents, but the ones I do have I back up with Dropbox. It's easy and if you don't have a ton to back up, it's also free.

Social Sites- I've cut down on the sites that I frequent and am just sticking to the few that I can really get into. I'm mostly active with blogging (of course!) and Flickr, but I also use Goodreads to keep track of the books I read and have a Facebook page (but I don't use my personal profile anymore, ever). Besides those, I put our videos on my Facebook page (as well as Flickr, if I can get them to upload there). Everything else, I no longer spend time on because I just don't find them worth my time.

Finances- We've gone paperless with all of our bills and bank statements. That's really cut down tremendously on paper, checks, stamps and time. It's also great to see up to date information on our accounts rather than waiting for a paper statement.

Does anyone have any tips to add? I'd love to hear them!

Catching Up

2011-12-27T19:13:00.000-06:00

I hope that everyone had a lovely holiday! Since we celebrated with our family the weekend before last, we had a very quiet, relaxing weekend.

Mike made Popeye Pasta from Eat, Drink & Be Vegan one night, omitting the olive oil but adding some pine nuts to it. The colors certainly went with the season!

We also went out for lunch on Saturday at Beans & Barley in Milwaukee. I had the TLT (tempeh, lettuce & tomato), which was supposed to be on whole wheat but ended up on rye. I can't stand rye bread, but I still tried to eat it and ended up not being able to stomach it. So, I basically took everything out of the bread and made a sort of salad with it. Not too bad! My sandwich also came with some sort of salad, but I didn't care for it. I guess I can be a Miss Picky Pants at times.......

Mike had the tofu burrito, which is a really good tofu scramble. It came with chips, guac, spanish rice, hot green salsa and fresh fruit. He got my pickle so I got some of his chips, guac, rice and salsa. I believe I got the better end of that deal!

Tonight Mike made the Clamless Chowder from Vegan Soups & Stews for All Seasons, omitting the oil, as usual. It's a soup we've had several times before and love.

We don't exchange gifts anymore and don't really celebrate holidays that much, but we did decide to get something that's been on our wish list for a while now- Kindles! We got the basic, cheapest, smallest ones and absolutely adore them. I've already ransacked the free classics that Amazon offers as well as our local library's e-books. Since I'll be carrying mine around in my purse when I go to work, I also treated myself to this gorgeous sleeve to protect it. The bookworm in me is very happy indeed!

Besides that, we really didn't get many gifts, which is fine by me since we're trying to reduce our possessions. My in-laws got us a cooler that plugs in to our car's outlet, which will be super nice for road trips. It has an adapter for wall outlets so that we can keep it cool in hotel rooms. No more plastic bags of ice and messy, soaked food! Plus, no more ice equals more room in the cooler for food.

Another three day weekend coming up. I hope everyone is having a great week!

Hotels & Lodgings With Fenced In Areas For Dogs

2011-12-23T10:56:00.003-06:00

We've stayed at several places that had fenced in dog runs, which is such a nice thing to have when you're traveling with dogs. I've also made several other guides for traveling and lodgings for dogs. All of the below lodgings have a fenced in area for dogs to run off leash.

In addition to these places, I have a rather large list of campgrounds & RV resorts that have fenced in areas for dogs, listed by state.

La Quinta Inn in Moab, Utah

La Quinta Inn in Albuquerque, New Mexico (Midtown location)

La Quinta Inn in North Platte, Nebraska

Greer Lodge Resort cabins in Greer, Arizona

Sliding Rock Cabins in Northern Georgia

Russian River Getaways Cabins in Northern California (only some have fenced in areas for dogs)

Big Bear Getaway Cabins & Vacations Homes in Big Bear City, California (only some have fenced in areas for dogs)

San Ysidro Ranch in Santa Barbara, California (the Warner cabin has a fenced in yard)

Project Vegan's Welcome To Paradise Guest Home in Tucson, Arizona

Ten Thousand Waves Resort in Santa Fe, New Mexico (several of their rooms have enclose courtyards)

Black Dog Inn in Estes Park, Colorado (the Mt. Olympus cabin only)

Cliffside Cottages In Estes Park, Colorado

Upper Skyline Cabin in Estes Park, Colorado

Acadia Acres in Bar Harbor, Maine (the Jordan Point house has a fenced in dog run)

Hicksville Trailer Palace in Joshua Tree, California

I'll be adding to this list as I find more. If you have any you'd like me to add, please let me know!

From Sunset To Snow

2011-12-22T16:43:00.000-06:00

The sun is setting at 4:15 lately, which allows us to see the sunset while we take our walk with the girls after work. Last night was especially pretty.

Much to our dismay, our snow-free streak ended when we woke up this morning. Although, I must admit that it was very pretty while it lasted. It was the sticky kind of snow that clung to everything, making our world into that so-called "winter wonderland" for a few hours.

While Mike was taking pictures, the girls snuck out of the patio door and ran around in the snow naked. Emma didn't think it was as fun as sunbathing naked, which she has also been known to do.

I have a three day weekend starting tomorrow and since we already had our family gatherings we get to spend all three days with our girls. It'll be quite relaxing!

Simplifying Our Life- The Plan

2011-12-20T20:17:00.004-06:00

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Like many, I grew up in a decade and a family that valued consumerism, being told and believing that I should always want more, better or bigger things. A more expensive car, a larger house, a huge wardrobe, fancy household stuff. Accumulating all of this stuff was just expected, and sadly, still is.

While it's taken me a long time, I'm finally at the point where I don't want so many things and am yearning for a simple material life. In another four to five years, my stepsons will finish school and move out. There's already empty space in this house that we have no desire to fill with stuff. We easily have twice the amount of square footage in this house than we did in our last one, yet we have less stuff than we did when we moved in here 2 1/2 years ago. We're really looking forward to the day when we can downsize and live in a smaller home.

We've been slowly downsizing our possessions over the last few years, but now we're getting more serious about it. It's not just material things we want to downsize, either, but anything that takes away from what's important to us.

In future posts, I'll be keeping things pretty simple and making a lot of lists of specific things we're doing. To start, I'd like to share why we're doing this- to maximize what's important to us-

Reaching & fulfilling our dreams and goals
Spending quality time with each other and our loved ones
The Earth and all her inhabitants
Spending time doing things we love

Our main goal isn't to simplify and minimize everything & anything. If we love something and find it fulfilling, then spending time, money or effort on it is well worth it.

To start, we'll be going through our house, section by section, deep cleaning & getting rid of a bunch of stuff.

There are several things we'll be doing with the things we decide that we don't want. We're not too fond of just throwing something in the trash, so we'll be making every attempt at giving things a new home-

A lot of our furniture and household items will be stored in the basement for my stepsons to help them get started with their own place.
We've already donated many things to a local thrift shop and will continue to do so. We've also donated certain things like blankets, beds and collars to the local shelter.
For things of significant value, we'll sell it- on ebay, Craigslist, a consignment shop or at my parent's yearly garage sale.
We've given certain things to family, friends and co-workers if we no longer need it and they would like to have it, which is something we'll keep doing.
For things that we can't do any of the above with, if they can be recycled, we'll take them to the local recycling center.
If all else fails, we've found that putting something at the end of our driveway with a "free" sign usually makes it disappear within a few hours.

Of course, we'll still be purchasing things from time to time. There's certain criteria we'll be using to determine if we really should purchase it, though-

If it's not a necessity, we'll put it on our "wish" list and let it sit there for a while to ponder whether or not we should get it. Many things will be taken into consideration, such as how much use we'll get out of it, if it'll enrich our lives and what kind of environmental impact it'll have.
If we decide to get it, we have to pay cash for it and will seek out the most eco-friendly option that we can afford.

So there you have it. That's our basic plan! Feel free to share anything you've done to simplify your life. I'd love to hear them !