Okay, so I never really said I would blog regularly, did I? Let me check...no, I don't think I did. I did compare this blog to my compost pile, though. And that is actually an analogy I can take pretty far. You see, my real life compost pile, the one I can see out of the corner of my eye and am beginning to be able to smell, is a little overrun and way past ready to be taken out. Actually, I think the smell is probably worse than I realize, I'm just getting used to it. Some people have sweet little compost containers next to their sinks that look something like this

or this

or this one, which is my personal favorite.

Actually, most people that I know just use the garbage disposal or the trash. Sometimes I wish I could do that. But years of training by my father-in-law have me conditioned to throw everything into the bucket. Which brings me to the compost container I have. It starts with whatever empty container happens to be sitting by the sink and then, when that starts to overflow, rather than take it out and dump it in the designated area, I get one of my kids to bring a larger container from outside and I start to fill that. I don't have a problem with the collecting of compost. Apparently, I have a problem with the taking out of the compost. It's a dirty job. And it involves me putting on shoes. That just doesn't happen on a daily basis.

And that is why I do not blog every day. I let thoughts collect in my head and overflow from one container to another until, when I can't stand the sight or smell of them, I dump them. Here. This is the compost pile for my thoughts. You know, Composting my Thoughts. We have a title!

I wasn't even going to blog about this today. I was going to blog about something totally different. Which I have completely forgotten.

I will leave you with something I saw this morning that I really enjoyed. It's a video from a show that used to be my favorite. Don't judge me. Before you watch it, I'll give you a little background as to why it means so much to me. I used to live in the metroplex. As in Dallas/Fort Worth. The city. I drove for 45 minutes every day to get to work. I was not a nice driver. I had a little bit of a road rage problem. Now I live in a one stoplight town and I like to think I'm cured. However, much like a dieter who might enjoy watching someone else eat a piece of cake, I, a reformed angry driver, enjoyed living vicariously through Lois, my alter ego. Oh, and the background music is perfect. Enjoy.

Sweet!

I have been on a low-carb, low sugar thing for about 6 weeks now and I have to say, I didn't think it was possible to live without bread, but I'm finding it is. I've been doing lots of research and thank goodness for the internet, there's a ton of stuff out there for me to try. I've been buying stuff like coconut flour and flax meal and using sweeteners like agave nectar and coconut sap. I've never really paid much attention to all that stuff in the store so I didn't even know some of it existed.

I made dinner tonight for a visiting friend of ours and wanted to make a dessert. I haven't even really had dessert in 6 weeks, so I didn't want to go crazy, just have a little sump'n sump'n to finish off the meal. One of the web sites I've been using for grainless recipes is www.joyfulabode.com. She does a lot of experimenting and the stuff that works, she shares. It's great. I looked for a dessert in her grainless section and found this cake. She calls it Grain-Free Gluten-Free Chocolate Cake. I call it pretty darn good. (I have to say, it does have unadulterated cocoa powder and dark chocolate chips and agave nectar, but I was trying to stay away from flour on this one. I just had a small sliver.)

Another note: I assume that the lemon juice that's called for is to react to the baking soda to make the cake a little fluffy. I'm not sure. But I didn't have lemon juice so I used apple cider vinegar. It turned out just fine.

You can find her recipe here.

And here's my picture so you know it turned out exactly like hers:

If you're interested in grainless or gluten free cooking or even vegetarian, check out this blog. I was really impressed with how many and how varied her recipes are. You can tell her Pam sent you ;)

Last night our family had it's first ever movie night. Not that we've never sat down together and watched a movie. Last night was an 'official movie night'. I'm getting all nostalgic with the changing of the seasons and the holidays fast approaching so this is my attempt to start a new tradition. I think it's about time actually. My mother-in-law, who from here on out will be referred to as 'Nunie', made a big pot of stew and invited us over to eat some of it. Okay, you know me better than that. We invited ourselves over and I picked up some Subway to go with it. I brought along some pumpkin seeds for roasting, my new/old popcorn popper I got for a steal at Goodwill and Toy Story 3 (Thanks, Nana!)

After the meal, I started the pumpkin seeds and got the popcorn popper ready. My kids could not figure out what that contraption was that I was pouring popcorn into. I'm sure they were all wondering just when the microwave was going to do its part.

Popcorn, ready. Roasted pumpkin seeds, check. Snack for mommy, who is dieting, check. Then, an amazing thing happened. We all sat down together and watched a 2 hour movie. All of us. And no one left to do other things. At one point, I looked around the room and took a mental roll call of everyone present:

• Autie, who sat without moving the entire time. She really loves movies.
• Anna, who bit her tongue for most of the movie trying to keep from saying, "Oh this part's funny! Watch this!" She had already seen it.
• John, who was the only one to come and go. He had a project going on the front porch. Something about a rifle, a tree branch and duct tape. He did watch a good part of it, though.
• April, who stayed on the verge of tears for the duration. She is our child who, at 2, understood completely the plight of Rudolph and his exclusion from the reindeer games and cried, inconsolably for a half hour after seeing the movie.
• Elliott laughed at all the hidden adult jokes and had a look of disgust on his face when, halfway through the movie, he realized that he released his song Blue Dog a little too late.
• My father-in-law, Papa, who actually watched the whole thing and appeared to enjoy it. Even though it went a little past his 9:00 bedtime.
• Nunie, who really enjoyed it, but declared that she hated the ending. She thought all the toys should have gone to the attic. Someday I'll show you her attic and you'll understand.

And that leaves me. I happen to love a cleverly-written-by-adults-movie-for-kids. And I really enjoyed all the nostalgic toy references. But mostly, I enjoyed the view around me of all my family spending time together. In the same room. It doesn't happen that often and even if we were all watching a movie, we were together. Actually, it's all part of my master plan to get everyone to stick around when there's youth and baseball and soccer and theater and choir and this and that and the other. I've got lots of tricks up my sleeve for that.

'After'

Here it is. The new blog. Well, actually, it's the 'after' blog. Sorry I don't have any 'before' shots. It's taken every ounce of strength I have to not start over completely. You don't know how many old journals I've found and thrown away. Or pages I've ripped out because they made me sound dorky. I know, I know, that's against the rules. You should keep every thought you ever put to paper. Well, don't worry, I didn't break any rules. It's all there in the archives in all of it's dorky glory. There's actually some funny stuff in there that I'm not really embarrassed about. I guess you'll just have to take the good with the bad. And that's me assuming you are actually going to go sifting through my archives looking for something to read. Ha. How about I just try to keep things current here, and you can go exploring wherever you want. Deal?

As I've said in my description paragraph, I don't really have a specific plan for this. No set subject matter. I'm not an avid photographer, though I do enjoy looking at and taking pictures of beautiful things. I'm not a 5 star chef, but I do love making and eating good food. I'm not the craftiest person on the planet, but if I see something I think I can make myself, I like to give it a try. I'm not the most organized or scheduled person, but when I have one of those days, it sure goes a lot smoother. I'm a bit of treasure hunter. I like to look for things and find things and put things together for people. Oh, and I guess I should mention, I have four kids who keep me honest and a husband who keeps me asking, "why?".