"50 First Weeks:" Gratitude, Daylight, and a Whole New Year

Another Monday, and as I predicted, it's definitely a day to retarget some good intentions. Like getting out for a hike (which we did again) and giving of myself to my husband rather than being buried in work all the time--and, best of all, writing and reading poetry! I did! I feel a lot more like myself already.

We're getting some incredible sunsets--this is right outside our cabin at bluff's edge. It's a frightful pic of me (was super-windy--check out those whitecaps--and I had no hat on), but I'm including it because of the incredible lightplay.

 Aside from the fact that I was going off track so much with too much work and too little writing (and too little anything else) last week, tomorrow is my birthday. I'm sure I've mentioned here before that in some ways, I think a person's birthday is more important than New Year's day as an opportunity to evaluate, set intentions, and generally take stock. I'll be doing more of that tomorrow, but on my "50 first weeks" Monday, I'm feeling such a sense of gratitude and validation. Writer friends have contacted me with good wishes, poems, and spot-on writerly advice. Another friend nudged me for the recipe for something I made in a crazed between-grading dash that really is worth sharing--here too. And I feel flattered that Phil wants my company, too.

Since Phil was out for breakfast with a friend this morning, instead of fixing breakfast I did some pre-prep for "tomorrow" goodies. This little hand-crank wheatgrass juicer is all the juicer I have, which might explain why this is the first time I've used it in over two years.

Now, I eat a lot a lot of carrots, but the amount of carrots it took to produce that scant cup of carrot juice is about as many as I eat in three or four days--and they're a significant part of my intake. Scary. Also, not the most efficient juicer.

Last time I pulled the juicer out, two years ago, was for the carrot pulp, to make these:

I loved them so much, I thought I should never make them again. This time, I cut them really small! This time, I also need the juice for another creation I'm planning. More on both in my next post! Some nostalgia for Hawaii, too--I got the juicer from a dear friend in HI whom I miss, and I used it regularly to make coconut cream. Of course, I always made goodies (including carrot cake sometimes!) with the pulp from the coconut cream making. At that stage of my life, there was always coconut cream and ginger juice in the fridge, courtesy of that little juicer.

A few minutes after the picture at the top of the post... Thanks, everyone!