In yesterday’s comments Robin awarded me “extra points” which I am totally taking credit for. Extra “dollars” would be better, but I’ll accept anything at this point. Because, when we count up our wins* at the end of every day, what’s spirit important, and what’s body important simply don’t always match up.
*New cool idea! We should do this: right before sleep, count up our “wins” and “points” -like how patient or loving we were in a shitty situation; how we stopped and experienced being in the moment instead of whining about what we don’t have; how we helped someone and followed our intuition; plus tons of other examples that are now zinging around in my smooth brain.
Enjoying our journey (and our day) is one of the things that helps us move forward the most and learn our lessons the easiest. Not how much cash we have in our pockets. Although, we are well aware of what a vast amount of good we could all do if we DID have some of that fictitious ”extra” money. But since we don’t we do the best that we possibly can. And we make ourselves available to receive whatever amount comes our way.
In my card altar room there’s been some changes, but not the type anyone can see when they walk in there. My Heart’s True Desire journaling lines have been morphing away from my previous materialism, almost without my realizing it. Could be that I’m really living that Present Moment Consciousness in a deeper and more profound way. Could be that I truly am leaving my previous weight-body-appearance issues behind (albeit a tiny bit at time). Could be that my soul’s evolution is making more progress than I though it was.
Whatever the answer, I’m happy with it. As I am with our daily draw message, and its bearer. As Corina shared, the planets are very emotional right now, so are we. It was not surprising then, to see this category show up.
“Water Denizens:
Whale, Dolphin, Crab, Ray, Seal, Octopus, Crocodile, and Frog
These creatures make the waters their primary home, drawing strength from this primeval element and flourishing thanks to its bounty……”
“Ray ~
Counter malicious talk by casting its import from your mind.
Supreme predator of the blue planet, spiny teeth protrude from Ray’s muscular body, delivering a potent toxicant. Teeth help form our words, allowing us to poison others with spite, malice, and lies.
If you have been attacked by this fearsome weapon, Ray has come to give you the strength to take heart and cast from your mind the venom that is morphing into ever-more destructive thought. Malice dwelt upon gains strength; ignored, its power diminishes daily.”
This is one side of the same coin I have been focusing on, just from another angle. When we strive to use GOOD words and GOOD thoughts, we keep this type of behaviour at bay, from ourselves. What today’s message is talking about is that same idea, only coming from the outside.
This description of a “fearsome weapon” is so true, as we have all experienced at some point. It can even be unintentional, which is the situation I’m in right now. So, I’ll heed the message, and allow it to fade away, giving it no more thought and no more of my energy, sapping it of power as I aim my focus towards higher and better exchanges.
Today’s Deck:
Animal Messages – Seek Inspiration From Your Animal Guides by Susie Green
Yesterday’s Kitchen Experiment:
produced our delightful vegan dessert, but not without a ton of patience.
Four servings?
Not around here.
Do you know why someone invented instant pudding? Because the cooking kind (from scratch!) takes for FUCKING EVER !!!
No one ever tells you that, because if they did, we’d NEVER make it! Holy crap this shit just goes on and on and on and freaking ON. More than twenty minutes, that’s how long I stood there: stir stir stir.
After five I was over it, so I bothered Dan with annoying texts. Then I grabbed a book and leaned against the stove, haphazardly flinging my stir-er around in the pot.
Here’s what I did. Pretty much. Mostly. (But with additional complaints not listed below.)
Ingredients:
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 3 tbsp cornstarch
- 1/8 tsp salt
- 2 cups soy milk
- 1 tsp vanilla
Preparation:
Remove the pudding from the heat and add the vanilla. Let cool for ten minutes, stirring now and then. Pour the pudding into a large serving dish or individual serving dishes and chill until firm, about 2 to 3 hours. (Definitely wait the full time, or you can do what we did, and not, which means you end up having to sort of drink it. Still good, but not as pudded as it could have been, had I, ya know, had any patience left to spare.)
Enjoy your homemade vegan pudding! Makes four servings.
Today’s Baking:
was a two-fer. First, there was biscuits, which you’ve already seen plenty of pictures of. (Although, this batch was outstandingly wonderful, just sayin’.)
They turned out better than expected.
(But then, we all know that I have very low expectations.)
Once it starts to happen, it can’t be stopped. I have turned into my mother. A. Lot. (No, really.) Not only am I baking constantly, but I also can’t follow a recipe if my life depended on it. (Pudding above? I added butterscotch chips, couldn’t even leave THAT alone.)
The changes I made to these cookies were to add filberts (why wouldn’t you?) and to toss in some chopped up apricots (of course I did) with the cherries. Go HERE for this one.
Also, I don’t use cooking spray, as it calls for, I have a silicone mat which sits on top of a baking stone, and a piece of parchment on another baking stone. (Why do we have two of these and no actual cookie sheets? Long story, they are ancient, and one is broken, I’ll explain it another day.)
Disclaimer From Above:
probably I WILL make that pudding again (or a version of it), but now I’ll be prepared and have my reading materials at the ready.
I do kind of what you talk about in the beginning. At least I’ve started to. I have a zero regrets journal and at the end of the day I ask myself – do I have regrets about a variety of subjects or did I let myself off the hook too easily about anything. Trying to see patterns and make needed changes.
I’m not aware of anyone saying malicious things about me. I did, however, just have someone say something very malicious about my team leader. it rolled off her tongue so easily. The thing is, in other cultures they don’t hide from envy. They recognize it as a very real force and they face it head on – both envy others have for you and envy you might have for others. I don’t think it should be dismissed lightly. It exists. It’s human nature. And left in the dark to fester it can be very destructive.
I know that kind of pudding takes forever but it is worlds better than the instant stuff.
~
“Trying to see patterns and make needed changes.”
Yes, precisely that. Also, I saw on the tweeties that AAO just returned from Manila, and Thailand. One of the things he was doing over there was working with the Special Olympics folks. Very cool guy, just really very cool.
J
2:54 a.m.
2-10-13
Wow, your new cool idea is indeed awesome! It’s like a grateful-for list, except for ourselves, acknowledging how well we’re doing. Great idea! Now I must share my big win of the night: I went out dancing (a win in-and-of-itself, but that’s not the point, here), and accompanied my friend outside when she went out to smoke a cigarette, and stood next to her, smoke drifting into my face, she smoking exactly the brand & kind I used to smoke, and felt absolutely no desire whatsoever to have a cigarette. Seriously, none. That amazed me! I had even had a drink (which, of course, when I was a smoker would’ve had to have been followed by a cigarette). When I decided to become a non-smoker I asked the angels to take away my desire to smoke, and, WOW, did they ever come through!
I love Judyx3′s idea, too! Excellent!
Way to go on your Heart’s True Desires morphing! Go you!
Oh, yes, the draw got a “heh” out of me (you know the half-laugh/half-exhale sound? That’s what I was trying to wordify). Not at all surprised that a water creature showed up, and this one talks about exactly one of the components of emotionality that has got me floundering between sink and swim lately. Argh! I really, really HATE that shit. Dealing with that shit is my life lesson in this incarnation. My win is that I have gotten SOOO much better at diminishing its power over me… and yet I still haven’t gotten to where I can just not give a fuck. I don’t allow it to become “ever more destructive thought,” though. I do know that it is not truly a reflection of me, and is only a reflection of the one who says it… but it irks me, nonetheless.
I’ll stick with instant pudding, thank you very much! LOL! Although I do have an awesome family recipe for rice pudding that might work with soy milk just as well as cows’ milk… the beauty of it is that you cook it in a double-boiler with the lid on, i.e. NO STIRRING (or, technically “stirring occasionally”)… the downside is that I don’t own a double-boiler. Email me if you want it. Oh, another upside: you can eat it right after stirring in the vanilla & sugar… or, once it cools down enough to not burn your mouth (although it’s difficult to wait that long, cause it is so frickin’ good… I always end up using the blow on each spoonful to cool it down method).
~
Standing next to someone who is smoking and having a drink, all the while maintaining your composure and retaining your non-smoker status is ABSOLUTELY a win!!!
Okay fine,
send us the recipe, your pal Dan loves rice pudding.
J
11:01 p.m.
2-10-13
Yep. I kind of did that grateful thing yesterday. I’d come down with some kind of bug that just made me tired, achy, sniffly, a bit nauseated, but didn’t turn into anything big. I stretched out on the couch and spent the entire day reading. Last night, feeling a bit better I gave thanks for the “day off” because I have been pushing myself hard these past few weeks. Today I’m taking another day off. Just because…and to celebrate that I didn’t get the flu. : )
~
Totally a win!!!
J
11:03 p.m.
2-10-13
I need to do an extra points or win section to my gratitude journal, or Judy’s no-regrets thing. Unfortunately, I’ve been still in my mostly frozen state and would have to say I regret not doing much that day. Each day that trickles by means I’m going to have to do more for each remaining day so I can move on time! Yikes!
The pudding does look good, as do the cookies.
~
The pudding was totally worth the bother, and the cookies are STILL excellent.
J
11:04 p.m.
2-10-13
Squee! I lit a spark in Julie’s brain! With you and JJJ talking about AO’s book so much I’m thinking I may have to go looking for that one.
I haven’t had to deal with any malice lately and hopefully this will continue…
And all your baking is giving me a serious case of the munchies. Sheesh. And do you remember, not so long ago, you said you couldn’t cook??? Looks like cooking to me!
~
Go get Apolo’s book, it is inspiring in such a surprising way.
And yeah, I looks to me too like maybe I do now,
sorta-kinda-maybe-in a way,
create some things that are edible.
J
11:07 p.m.
2-10-13
I know exactly what you mean about the pudding. I haven’t done a stove-top one because just reading about them made me tired. but there are also baked ones which are easier– that’s the only one I’ve tried so far. However, since the entire point of me making pudding/custard is to use up eggs, we won’t be using the same recipes, dang it. I use cornstarch in pie fillings sometimes and it is tricky. I’m glad you got it to work.
A baked custard (or a “pudding” in the most original sense, like bread pudding) would use up lots of eggs and be easy (er). There are also custard pies that take like 8 egg yolks then about 10 whites for the meringue. Something like THAT would use a bunch. Ooooo, and speaking of this type of idea, there’s some great meringue cookie recipes out there too. (I think you need an egg cook book.)