Derailed

 
That's the best way to describe the way I've been eating the last couple weeks.  I've been derailed from my healthy eating plans, gorging on sweet and salty things, too much of them, culminating in take-out lasagna from Olive Garden last night.  We split an order so it actually wasn't the worst derailment but my compulsive snacking is out of hand so I decided that today, just today, I'd stick to the plan.  And I did, for the most part, I had a couple malted milk balls after supper but I was pretty careful about what I ate and worked hard not to eat between meals (my biggest failing).  In the spirit of eating more healthily I cut up a fresh pineapple and three honey mangoes I got at ALDI the other day so I've got a big bowl of fruit for stirring my yogurt into at breakfast and nibbling on when I need something sweet.  Then I de-stemmed a bag of red grapes so that they're available to grab a handful of when I need a snack.  I will renew my pledge to stick to healthy eating tomorrow only.  One day at a time until I've broken the snacking habit--again.

This was today's lunch, a fully on-the-rails meal--lentil soup, baby carrots, wheat crackers, and a bowl of pineapple and mango.  Man, it tasted good and looked good too.  Why I eat fatty or sweet things when food like this makes me feel so good I will never understand.

 

Last week OJ was very frustrated trying to flip the huge (6" square) & floppy play food waffle with his toy spatula.  I gave him my biggest plastic spatula which worked but looked huge in his little hand so I found a different waffle dishcloth pattern, figured out how to make it smaller, and made one today.  This one's about three and a half inches on a side and should be perfect.  I also crocheted a couple "black & white" cookies to go with the pair of chocolate sandwich cookies and the two "chocolate chip" cookies.  He gets so much fun out of the yarn play food that I want to keep making things for the kitchen.

I have physical proof that it's still winter in Green Bay, WI--aside from the 2' of new snow on the ground.  This is a junco, one of those birds that migrates to Green Bay for the winter from their breeding grounds in the Arctic.  I figure that as long as there's a junco here, it's still winter.



Mr. & Mrs. Cardinal have been courting lately.  I saw them in the apple tree this afternoon and they were both on the platform feeder after supper, just at dusk.  The hawk flew across the parking lot behind the fence a few minutes later but by then all the little birdies had gone to roost for the night.  Whew.

April 18--Egyptian, New Kingdom, Scarab Beetle.  

Ancient Egyptians believed
that a scarab beetle
rolled the sun across the sky.
They watched dung beetles
roll balls of... well, poo
and drew their own comparison.
I wore a carved amber scarab to work
hoping it would make the days go faster.
Sometimes it seemed to help,
it never hurt.
~~~~~

This huge icicle formed today on the edge of the porch roof.  I watched it fall and thought, oh I hope it didn't impale the mailman or anyone but it just shattered on the step and flopped into the snow.  I spent the whole weekend battling the snowstorm but still can't get used to seeing all that snow in the middle of April.  What a crazy world this is.
--Barbara