ok, 2022, let's start this off right

it's been a lovely start to the new year. i slept in, then husband brought me a cup of tea and then we went for a long walk in the cool, still, foggy first day of the new year. we went down to give plantage, only encountered a few other people who all said "godt nytår" and then walked back home via the gravel road. it was 10km in total, precisely. then, i made us fresh juices (carrots, oranges, beets, apples, ginger and turmeric) and we had some lunch. 

our mutual resolution is to keep to the 350 grams of meat per person per week that's currently advised by people who care about the climate, but yet are not prepared to go vegan. i want to further resolve to only buy the products the grocery store discounts because they're close to expiration or from the too good to go app. we will buy essentials like milk, olive oil, butter and cheese, whether they're "mad spild" or not. 

i signed up for some challenges through the conquerer app. i'll admit that i'm a sucker for an instagram ad. but, i find the notion motivating - you virtually walk routes like route 66 or yellowstone or mount everest and you earn medals. the 10k we walked today put me closer to macchu picchu, since i chose the inca trail as my first challenge.  i won't have time to walk 10k every day, but even 2-3 will make a difference and i feel like this app and the challenges will motivate me and make me get out there and move, even when the darkness or rain makes it difficult. 

there was even time for a bit of rest and bonding with the kittens before dinner, which was an easy carpaccio (110 grams of that alotted 350). i got a bunch of lemons in a box this week, so i preserved them with chili and salt (inspired by this recipe). and i made a massive stuffed bread with all the leftover cheese i had in the fridge and the excess of eggs coming from the hens (we're getting 4-5 a day, despite the darkness), plus some bacon and leftover spinach. it's still in the oven and will be for a surprise outdoor picnic tomorrow in copenhagen for the corona-stricken birthday girl.  

in all, it's been a good start to the new year. i even managed to start fresh on our novel and write 438 words! yay for 2022!

i resolve not to resolve

with the dawning of a new year, i always ponder whether or not to make resolutions. i'm not so good at them, you see. and so i was thinking that this year i'd make some that i can keep...like drink more wine, watch more netflix, eat more and exercise less, never dust, buy more stuff. those would be pretty easy. but is that what i really want? i could throw in a harder one, like "start smoking," which would be a bit of a challenge for me, since i really have no desire to do that. but i wonder if those are actually resolutions at all.

but still, the blank slate of the new year beckons new thinking.

we could spend the summer as vikings, dressing the part, going from one of those viking festivals to the next, cooking over open fires and learning to dye wool with nothing but pee and wildflowers. husband wasn't that keen on this idea, since he's got a new saw of which he's rather enamored and was thinking he'd need an awfully big trailer and a pretty long extension cord to haul it around to the viking festivals.

we could volunteer to help with the ebola epidemic in africa. but alas, we have no medical training and who would feed the horses and provide the service level the cats have come to expect while we're away?

i think about going on a writer's retreat and getting serious about that book. sadly, i fear it's already been done (tho' i wouldn't have made up some crap about "disney sex" if i'd written it).

maybe i just need one of those silent getaways where you don't speak for a week.

or perhaps i just need to reread my own manifesto and leave it at that.

writing is the new praying: non-resolutions for 2010

i'm not super big on new year's resolutions, at least not the traditional kind--you know, exercise more, get more rest, eat healthy, lose weight, run a marathon, stop drinking wine - all that stuff. but during 2009, one of my resolutions was to carry a camera with me at all times and if i can count my iPhone, i did, in fact, achieve that. i also vowed to create at least 100 things and i have also achieved that (photographic evidence of the last few coming soon). in my private, written journal, i declared that i wanted to be a blogger blog of note and that happened in 2009 as well.  so in the interest of writing as the new praying, there are a few things i'm going to do during 2010.

1.) the main thing i intend to do involves these gorgeous moleskine calendar notebooks i scored last month at norli bookstore in oslo. inspired by these beautiful journals by cathy cullis that i saw on flickr, i decided that i want to do mini art journaling in these calendar journals. i also love these. and these beauties by geninne. i know that mine will land somewhere in between and somewhere more me, but it's something i feel motivated to stick with. the small size of these and the fact that there's a different color for each month makes me think i can stay interested. the only drawback is that they have faint lines, but i'm hoping that i can deal with that, tho' normally i feel constricted by lines.

2.) i'm going to embark on a 365 photo project. i haven't selected a flickr group and i'm not sure i'm going to (unless some of you are interested in starting one with me? - do let me know and i'll create it). i very nearly did this in 2009 as it was, but i'm thinking it would be good for me to push through my current lack of photo mojo if i gave it a whirl.

3.) the simplicity project - as you know, we are planning on being very selective about what we buy during 2010 here at our house.  thanks to a great suggestion by glenn, i'm going to keep myself posted/accountable/focused on this quest by sharing a weekly "what i didn't buy" blog with all of you.

4.) a book contract. i want a book contract in 2010.



so there you have them, my three main resolutions that i'm hesitant to call resolutions for 2010. what about you?

09-09-09

the view on my morning run

09-09-09 that feels like an auspicious date. one where one should declare big new dreams, hopes and aspirations. so i've done that. but for now, they're just for me. i'm not ready to say them out loud yet, but as stacey (of discounderworld fame) recently said to me in an email, writing is the new praying, so on this day, why not write something really special? who knows, it just might manifest in the world around you. it's certainly worth a try.

p.s. lest you all think i've gone stark raving mad, running with the D300, it was our little pink sony P&S!!

let austerity april begin

i know that if you know me, which you no doubt feel you do if you come here regularly, you think i'm pulling a little april fool's joke. it cannot be that our little julochka is embarking on any kind of project that has the word "austerity" in it. but this is no joke. inspired by my friend B, for the month of april (and hopefully beyond), there will be no shoes, no crocheted stones, no fabulous fabric (sorry heather i'll have to wait 'til may), no pretty paper, no items of crap from the spotvarer at the grocery store, no books (i have enough to get me through the next month), no pretty notebooks or binders from bookbinders design, no new clothes (not that i'm that bad about clothes (thankfully i live far from a Gap), it's really only when i've let that moron pack my suitcase), no new perfume.

just groceries and train tickets and plane tickets and the organic box. oh, and the cleaning girl. i refuse to give her up.

amazing the things we consider the necessities of life.

i wonder if i can hide under some of the rocks i found last weekend for an entire month...

the spirit is willing, but the flesh...

..oh, the flesh. it's weak. and soooo delicious.

last night's dinner:

burger with bacon, avocado, pesto gouda and a drizzle of miso-sesame dressing

every sunday evening, i resolve that THIS week will be the week we eat less meat. we don't want to become full-blown vegetarians and definitely not vegan, but we would like to eat meals without meat several times a week--to be both healthier and more economical. and yet, we never really get around to doing it.

maybe being raised in the midwest in the heart of beef and pork country is part of it. you grow up feeling that a meal isn't a meal, especially at dinner (which we call supper where i grew up), without meat. and because you know someone who is butchering a cow or a hog or even hunting deer, there's always meat around. of course, i no longer know anyone with cows or pigs, so i get the meat in the grocery store these days (tho' someone did recently give me some some deer meat), so i don't really have that excuse anymore. but the notion is just so engrained.

this week, i felt more resolved than usual, but then the reality of the big-ass packages of leftover hamburger from the birthday party intervened. we had two unopened packages left. one went into a huge pot of bolognese sauce for spaghetti, which we ate on monday (and which i've had for lunch the past two days) and which i froze two dinner-sized portions of so we'd have a quick dinner another day. then, last evening, we had to use up the other package before its expiration date, so we made burgers. if you're going to eat a burger, it might as well be a good one. a bit posh even, so a bit of bacon, avocado and miso-sesame dressing did the trick. and piling on salad makes it seem healthier, right?

so, here we are, it's thursday and we haven't eaten a vegetarian meal all week. i have one of those big ugly knobs of celery root that came in our organic veggie box last friday just languishing in the drawer. and yesterday, i bought some portobellos as we stood in the grocery store and i had a fit of resistance to the hamburger that was home in the fridge. but then, back home, as i stood there before the burgers, my resolve faded and i didn't do the portobellos. so, perhaps today, we'll have a vegetarian dinner. if not, there's always tomorrow.

and through a haze of smoke from her burning hair...

i've been reading a lot of new year's posts in recent days, as you might imagine, it being new year's and all...as we saw in my facetious new year's resolutions post, i'm not really one for making real resolutions, mostly because i never keep them anyway and like christmas cards, it's just something else to feel guilty about. (aside: i don't send christmas cards and every one that i receive is like a little dagger of guilt, tho' luckily not sending any has tapered off the amount i receive over the years so it's not very much guilt these days.)

there are, however, a couple of posts that have me thinking. beth on doors are everywhere has chosen a single word that will be her mantra for the year. last year it was "see" and she became very engaged in photography. this year, her word is "focus." a single word can be powerful. the other thoughts on new year's resolutions are sunmamma's posts on her new year's intentions. i like that notion very much, to have intentions towards the new year. because the new year does seem to be a time to begin anew, the clean calendar pages stretching before you, quivering in all of their delicious potential.

when i think back to 2008, although i didn't have a specific word in mind, i think that healing and creativity were two of the big words for me. inspiration was a factor as well. at the beginning of the year, i was definitely looking to find balance again. but now, what do i want this year to be about?

ARRGH!!! I WANT 2009 TO BE ABOUT NOT SETTING MY HAIR ON FIRE!! can you believe that i just did it AGAIN! much worse this time...like long-term, absolutely ridiculous-looking damage right in the front!! i look forward to not having to heat this room with CANDLES!!! and now i have to let all of the heat out while i air out the horrible BURNED HAIR SMELL!!!  HOW CAN A PERSON WRITE A SERIOUS, THOUGHTFUL BLOG POST UNDER THESE CONDITIONS?!?!

perhaps after all of the traveling of the past couple of years, my word for this year should be home. or perhaps simplicity in light of my desire to live a less materially-obsessed life.  but frankly, what with the stench of burned hair and all, i've kinda lost the thread on this post. if any of you thinks of a word that seems like it should be my mantra for 2009, do let me know...i'm open to any helpful suggestions at this point...maybe i should just pick one of those verification words. how about gredlome or dhoolo or ungistun...hmmm, i might be onto something there...

hello 2009

hello 2009. you've treated me pretty well so far. we slept in 'til almost noon, got up, made a leisurely cup of tea and watched a whole lot of television, some of it good (dalziel and pascoe on the channel formerly known as BBC prime) and some of it bad (a completely crappy movie called sky high on channel 5). we went for a walk.  my headache seems to have subsided at last, tho' the cough is hanging on. since 2009 seems to be going ok so far, although i am not much for resolutions, i hereby resolve the following:

1. not to leave pans on the stove until what was in them becomes unrecognizable, no one remembers what it was and they begin to incubate a life form that threatens to take over our kitchen.
2. make sure husband is the one to deal with said pan when i break #1.
3. get rid of this stupid cough.
4. learn chinese so i can find out what's in the medicine my friend marianne gave me yesterday. whatever it is, it tastes really good and there are no disturbing pictures of tigers on the package, so i'm thinking it's ok for me to take another spoonful every couple of hours to try to fulfill #3.
5. let the tea steep long enough. life is too short to drink weak tea.

in sleeping in this morning, i had one of those really vivid dreams. unlike most of my dreams, it did not take place in a mall. i dreamed that i undecorated the christmas tree and put away all of the ornaments. it was such a real dream that i was actually quite shocked to find the tree still standing there in all its decorated glory when i got up. 

it does seem a shame not to leave it up a few more days, but it's clearly weighing heavily on me, or i wouldn't have had the dream. i do love that nordic sun symbol husband made for the top of it. we'll have to save that one for next year too. it's been an excellent tree.

here's wishing you all a lazy, leisurely new year's day.