busy and bee like

A Unicorn in metal

I've found if you are trying to ignore or get through some emotional sadness (like my dad's passing), it helps to keep busy. You'll be pleasantly exhausted and sleep well. Today, I finally did some exercising...Wii dance. I remembered some of the moves, happily, and did 3 songs. It was good to move around even if I was a bit stiff.

I've been trying to be more active since everything and it's made me want to focus on my own health. I still feel really sad and it's not easy (for many reasons). My biggest sadness of all, I would say, is that my dad didn't have fun. He was so bent on his "work", he didn't relax, play with the kids (or grandkids) or just relax with my mom. That is the hardest part.

Today I heard a poem on Garrison Keillor's show...it's funny, because just the other day I was thinking the same exact thing about my father...he was visiting all the places he wanted to see, traveling, visiting all the loved ones who have passed on. This gave me great comfort:

Autumnal

by Stanley Plumly

Not long before she died my mother told me
that her one regret was never to have traveled
and that since she had just read about it
or somewhere that reminded her from sometime
Venice was the place she would have gone to
and might still in her haunting of the afterlife.
She had already questioned God in heaven
and the heavy Bible verses she was taught
and now saw death as her last chance to live,
her last chance to spend the green-gold leaf
pressed into books each October on her birthday.
She wept, she understood the innocence of dying.
And here she was propped up against her pillow
the way she finally would be in her coffin
with her eyeglasses held between the light
and open page. She wanted me to hear the article
that said that Venice would be filled like all
Italy that season and that Venice in particular
was vulnerable and small, weighted with the souls
of travelers, and that in the Grand Canal
rivers of dark waters moved.—Would
there be space?—It said, salotto citta,
that Venice was a city the size of drawing rooms,
lit with the flowers of funerals and weddings.
"Autumnal" by Stanley Plumly, from Old Heart: Poems. © W. W. Norton & Company, 2007. Reprinted with permission.
I did some baking, playing with my 3 yr old, messed up the kitchen (again), made a silly scarecrow for the front of the house and just enjoyed the day. Of course, there was laundry, dishes, cleaning and tending to do. Plus, some fun on facebook and looking up recipes. Here's a good one for crackers:

 Maria’s Crackers
Ingredients:
2 cups whole wheat pastry flour (organic from the Rodale Institute!) (I used regular flour...)
1 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup warm water
1/3 cup olive oil (plus more for the pan)
Directions:

1. Heat the oven to 375 degrees (because that’s where mine automatically goes to when you turn it on).
2. Put the flour, salt, warm water, and olive oil in a bowl, and stir until all the flour is absorbed (less than a minute). It kind of feels more like dough than batter.
3. Take a baking tray (I used a heavy one with edges, rather than a light one with no edges), and slather it with more olive oil.
4. Put the dough on the tray and smooth it out to cover the whole bottom. I used a rolling pin doused with oil. And my hands, too. No need to be fussy here! In fact, the thin rustic-edged ones tasted the best, I thought.
5. Take a knife and cut the dough into squares, rectangles…whatever!
6. Sprinkle the top with a bit more salt
7. Bake for about 15 minutes, or until golden. The crackers will harden up more after they cool.
The potential variations for this recipe are endless: cheese, herbs, nuts and seeds, spices. I can see a lot of cracker experimentation in my future. And what I loved about them was that they were so easy and quick, and required no plastic packaging to bring into the house or to throw out afterwards. I stored them in a glass container, but as I said, they didn’t last long!


I just made a batch of cinnamon sugar crackers...really good! The taco flavored are excellent as well. Try it, very easy. Also, I used a pizza cutter to cut out the squares...easy peasy. Enjoy!