I have no idea what I'm doing!

Or at least that’s how I feel most of the time.

Actually I have a better idea of what I’m doing than when I posted last. I've actually achieved some of my goals to an extent and that makes me rather excited to continue.

So here is what I have achieved thus far:

I have pared down my fanfiction list considerably from what it was. I cut the ones that were crack-tualarly stupid (LOTR OC falling in love with one of the sons of Elrond anyone?) for a grand total of six stories and only one is destined to be a fan comic. The others will be written stories, which is particularly good for the choose-your-own fanfic that I decided to keep because it was just so stinking hilarious I couldn’t bear to drop it.

I have restarted my sprout jar and will be harvesting my first batch today. Though I have a big jar, I’ve found its better for me do sprout small amounts of mung beans as the volume quadruples as the sprouts grow. That was January’s project from the Homesteading list.

I have also started my sourdough starter. I think I may have misunderstood what people have been writing about them because I had the crazy idea that they took a while to get started. When mine was living on the back of the stove, it took off running in two days. Not only that but it also out-grew its jar with stunning results not unlike a science fair volcano. It now resides on the kitchen counter in a large glass vase and still threatens to take over the kitchen for a while after every feeding. I’d better get a move on with various sourdough products. Last week I had a Pancake Day. Maybe tomorrow I’ll have the guts to start some actual bread.

As for other food-related goals, I’m still struggling to kick some of the processed food habit. I have a severe weakness for pizza which is fantastically bad from a Real Food standpoint. Mishandled grains, dead cheese and who-knows-what’s-in-there sauce…and yet I keep coming back to it! I guess I’ll be adding sourdough pizza crust to my list of things to do with my Blob That Ate New York starter.

As for my other biggy, weight loss, well, I’m not sure what’s going on. Apparently while eating a reasonable amount of calories and exercising every day, my body doesn’t like getting rid of the padding. I’m pretty sure some of it is those stupid birth control pills. The rest is me, pure and simple. I’m thinking, and hang with my on this one, that I’m not actually eating enough.

A lot of people, including those who are supposed to be experts on nutrition and weight loss would say this is counter-intuitive but I’m pretty sure it’s one of my problems. I found out that at the very least I need 1500+ calories just for basic functions that keep me alive plus about 150 more for digestion. This doesn’t even account for things like moving, or exercise. So, with the knowledge that I already have and this “new” information, I shall move forward.

Whodda’ thunk my problem was not eating enough?

Found this in my files. I create terrible things sometimes.
 I didn't know what I was doing with this one.

Way Too Many Goals

Hello Internet Peeps!

As I said in the previous post, I've been working on my goals for 2013. The list went from sane to impossible before I knew what hit me. I'll be doing a lot of trimming but I figure I'll share it anyway with some comments/snide remarks about how some of the goals have been progressing.

Spiritual Goals:

 - Read the Bible in a year ( This one has been off to a rocky start. My mother has been sick so she has been sleeping in the living room, where I usually do my quiet time. It's really hard for quiet time to be quiet when my mom feels talkative).

- Memorize two verse a month (gotta be honest, I forgot about this one until just now, as I type this!)

- Pray the Spiritual Discipline Prayer as often as possible (once a day)

- Pray for my LIFE group, one couple/person per day

- Pray for my husband and a selected family member every day

Homesteading Goals:

- Start a small project each month (in no particular order)

       ~ Continue Sprouting

       ~ Begin a Sourdough Starter

       ~ Lactofermenation (probably cabbage)

       ~ Crockpot yogurt making

       ~ Grain/nut/legume soaking

       ~ Indoor herb/microgreen growing

       ~ Sock knitting

       ~ Composting (find a bin regardless of garden status)

       ~ Sewing functional clothing (only made cosplay costumes thus far)

       ~ Tincture brewing (for lack of a better term)

       ~ Kombucha brewing

       ~ Kefir making (both milk and water)

       Bonus: Make a 5 gallon or bigger bucket washing machine

- Fully Research these subjects:

      ~ Raising Chickens (layers and meat birds)

      ~ Raising Goats (Read the Storey Guide so far. It was a little intimidating)

      ~ Raising Sheep, Llama or Alpacas

      ~ Raising Dairy Cows ( I REALLY want a mini Jersey!)

      ~ Gray water safety and how to used a backyard wetland to filter it for garden use

Real Food Goals:

- Cut White/Brown Sugar, High Fructose Corn Syrup, and artificial sweetners from at least my diet, preferably everyone's diet, by June.

- Source a hand-crank grain mill

- Source grass-fed beef, pastured chicken and pastured eggs and price them by January 31st

- Try out a few farmers markets and road side stands in season

- Determine if the local year-around market is worth the drive into down town

- Avoid soy products that have not been properly handled (so pretty much all of it that's in a store, including in packaged food, some of the worst offenders)

- Work meal plans so weekend meals are covered by March

- Make bone broth at least once a month (source the best chicken possible at this time)

- Try liver by June (Just me for now, though my husband eating it too would be nice)

Health Goals:

- Stop taking that darn birth control pill by March, for the sake of my continuing health ( it has not treated me well, and research indicates they are rather terrible for fertility and the chance of getting certain cancers)

- Try to lose a much weight as possible January through March. If nothing seems to be happening, speak with my practitioner about this issue.

- Get back into some basic hygiene habits (college reeked havoc on my teeth-brushing habit!)

- Start using herbal tinctures as supplements by June

- Pay off the remaining medical debts so the check ups are possible.

- Eliminate soda for life by June-July

- Keep a weight loss journal through March

Creative Goals:

- Drawing

   ~ Draw every day

   ~ Set up a monthly schedule with one male drawing and one perspective drawing per week 

- Comics

   ~ Finish Planning stages of Lark Song by May

   ~ Start Script for Lark Song May- December

   ~ Work out layouts along side script

   ~ Set up Kickstarter by December

- Cosplay

   ~ Revamp Fluttershy by March 15th

   ~ Make a concrete plan for future cosplay by March 30th

   ~ Improve prop construction for JAFAX 2013

   ~ Along side the cosplay plan, make a "parts of costume and materials" list

   ~ Learn shoe covering

- Fanfiction

  ~ Pare down list of stories to ones I actually care about

  ~ Finish Eva outline by June

  ~ Finish Eva writing by December

- Sewing and knitting

  ~ Sew two projects a month

  ~ Finish the baby blanket by December

Decluttering Goals:

- Reduce my person possessions by half by June

- Assess my "save for kids" items and save only what I really want for them

- Read through book collection and give away the ones I don't want to keep.

- Make paper crane chains and branch so the bin can be used for storage

- Separate clothes into Keep, Donate, Repair/ Repurpose, and Rag Bag categories

Weight Loss Goal:

-  Lose 1-2 pounds a week to get as close to 170 pounds by December, unless pregnancy occurs.

So yeah, that's clearly a crap ton of goals. I'm sure many will not be attainable this year, but I will do the best I can and roll over the good ones that I don't finish for 2014. What kind of goals do you have?

On a less list-heavy note, here's a part of the first full piece I've done with my new Wacom Bamboo Create tablet.

   

Best picture of Lithium I've done yet!

Bai Bai Buu!

D and D, My Flab, and All I Wish to Grow

Hello again Internet People. I seem to have very little to post about lately that isn't complaining and what have you. So I'm going to try and limit that in this post. I'll do my very best but I'm not so good at it. So please bear with me while I work on this.

One of my more recent undertaking has been a Dungeons and Dragons campaign that my hubby has been DMing until level ten. We are currently around level four so we have a way to go. But that's not the point of this. I'm planning on turning our campaign into a comic soon. I know I know, it's not like I don't have a million other projects in this brain of mine. But I really can't help it because what's happened thus far is pure gold. Seriously. I have two words, which I will explain at a later time. Undulating Skin. Yes. Let that settle in your mind for a moment. Gross, isn't it?

Now here's my one complaint. Thus far, I've been working very hard to lose weight so I can be far healthier than I ever have been. Yet I seem to be getting no where fast. Of course, my husband buying a bunch of soda didn't help much because I have a HUGE weakness to it. Even as I type this, the Mt Dew is flowing...~sigh~ I'm really bad at this. It's why I hate buying these things. I can't resist and there goes any of my progress. I need to be better at this. I can do all things because Jesus gives me the strength, I just need to ask! Please pray that I finally have some success at this. I means a lot but I've never lost weight before so this is very new to me.

I've mentioned before that I'm an ambitious person. I have a great deal I would like to do for my family. My husband and mother are diabetic and I may not be far behind on that one so healthy food is a huge thing for me. As such, I have a passion for starting a garden, culturing things like yogurt and sourdough, and cleaning with less harmful solutions. This has grown into a desire to homestead. I want our household to be able to take care of itself and not rely on conventional produce and mass-produced crap.

I've discovered this sort of desire often breeds new interests. Now I've found myself wanting chickens. Chickens led to goats, ducks, pigs and cows. Honestly I'd love to have a small farm, just a little one that could provide my family with food and a tiny part of the income. I'm not sure if its feasible though. It drives me crazy though, because it seems the best way to take care of those I love.

I have thought of alternative ways that make it a little better without becoming a full-fledged farmer. There are plenty of places I can find better quality meat around here. Fish is a bit of challenge (may have to raise my own). Vegetables and fruit are available through CSAs and farmer's markets until I can start growing things myself. I'm not sure about grains. I may need to do some research for quality grains in bulk.

It always seems like I'm fighting for this and yet I can't do a tenth of what I want to do. Blargh. There I went again, complaining...

Today's Picture:

I don't own this. It's just sheer hilarity.
Thank you to the guy who made basketball better and to the person who snapped this picture.

GAHHH!

Okay I just need to fess up. I have a serious case of lazy and deflection lazy. There's so much I need to get done and I either ignore it or act busy by doing ultimately useless things. I've recently started reading up on things that are important to me again, like making things at home for cheaper and/or better than I can buy at the store, or urban/suburban homesteading in general. I feel a bit better at that because it's not me spending hours on Pinterest pinning random fun things or feeling guilty because of all those annoying motivational pins about weight loss >_<

When it comes down to the nitty-gritty (which is a weird word...), I am lazy and it just cannot go on like this. I want to be a wife and mother who cooks, sews, gardens, preserves food, raises chickens/quail/rabbits/a pygmy goat who shall be named Geraldine, home schools the kids, still goes to anime conventions with the kids in cosplay of course, and draws comics that are just plain epic. Kinda' ambitious isn't it? It is especially when I'm a wife who has 36 pounds to lose by August yet can't seem to get off her duff and exercise, can't remember where her husbands socks ran off to, has to fight the clutter to even find her sewing machine let alone sew anything more than a straight-ish line, can't remember to do her own self-taught drawing lessons, will be doing pretty much all of her JAFAX cosplay last minute and killed the cord on her graphic tablet.

When I look at that list, I'm so very glad that I'm not alone in trying to make this happen. Seriously, if I didn't have Jesus, I'd go absolutely insane. I know that all things are possible because He gives me the strength to start and keep going, despite myself.

And now, Pygmy Goats, curtesy of Crosswynd Farms of Shelton, WA.

I love the long-suffering expression on who I presume is the momma goat.