TFT - "Mental Health Day"

And so the saga continues. :)

I have made vague references, and some outright comments, regarding family issues (quite serious ones) and I think (know) I've mentioned periodically that I have needed to step back from things, downsize, re-organize, purge, etc etc. I don't think I'm the only one who gets overwhelmed with life, even without the major family issue with my daughter. I believe many of us 'go-go-go' and then finally stop to take a deep breath and assess/inventory things.

Well, that day came for me yesterday.

I took a mental health day and stayed home from work.

It was pre-planned, well, as of end of last week. I knew I was heading for a day at home, even before we had Missy put down. I just had so much piling up and weighing me down. I had intended the day to be used for work on the elementary school spring fair and re-organizing my files and paperwork at home, but I stepped down from chairing the fair and so I had the whole day to organize and purge papers from my overstuffed boxes, bins, and binders.

I threw away an entire kitchen trash can of paper and then another half a can by the time I was completely done. I labelled a dozen or so more file folders and organized all my papers. Its amazing. It went from being an unruly monstrous mountain to a manageable two boxes. Since I can't get to my tall 6 drawer file cabinet, my folders are temporarily standing straight-lined in two xerox paper boxes. (they are the perfect size for file folders.) One box has 'my' papers - house, garden, medical, vacation, etc etc etc and the other box is dedicated to folders for my children - schoolwork, camps, sports, medical, etc.

YAY! ( mean, really YAY!)

I thought since I didn't have the fair work in front of me anymore, that I'd spend half the day at the bench preceding my Tuesday night deal. Wrong. I barely made it down to the bench before I remembered I needed to make dinner, and since I was home we could eat early wihch would mean more bench time for me.......sooooooo, I ran upstairs and began getting something together! Mmmm, and what a dinner I made - if I do say so myself!

I sauteed some sliced green peppers and onions and while they were cooking down I chopped some red potatoes, nuked those and then got them on a tray under the broiler. Next, I added to the peppers and onions: a can of stewed tomatoes, a can of tomato paste, some red wine (actually it was merlot), half a bag of frozen corn, some brown sugar, garlic, cumin, chili powder, and umm, hmm, salt, ohhh, and my secret ingredient (orange juice! just a quarter cup). Let that cook down for a while, added a can of black beans....then, I took that mixture and put it over the potatoes (after transferring the taters to a 9x13 dish). I topped it all with shredded cheddar, mozerella, and provolone (low fat of course!) and I ran the dish under the broiler long enough to melt the cheese.

Oh. My. Word.

So good. Served with a dash of sour cream on top of our servings - we were incredibly satisfied.

I so love to cook. If I had to name two passions for 'hobbies' - it would be cooking and metalsmithing.

I headed back down to the bench and was disappointed that my muse seems to be on vaca. I have a buunch of things in the works that I just couldn't bring myself to touch. Which is probably good because in my mood I probably would have killed them. I decided to just bang on some metal, so I made a bracelet - anticlast - on my delrin stake with my fancyshmancy hammers.

It looks pretty good but I'm having sizing issues. I'm not sure if its the curvature of the bracelet (cuff) or the length of the metal I cut to start with. And I'm not sure if I'm done with it or if I'm going to continue the hammering to bring the edges all the way together. I don't have a photo of mine, but is really similar to my friend Jerry's:

http://www.scavezzegoldsmith.com/bracelets/gold/style43.html

maybe not as clean or shiney, but the shape is the same - a severe 'u' shape as opposed to a loose form. Hmm, guess I should go ask him what he thinks. I'll snap a picture tonight so I can show you (and Jerry) and see what you all think.

I actually DO have some photos, but my camera is at home, so those are going to have to wait. We have a baseball game slated for 5:15 tonight -- we've been getting so much rain, I don't know if we'll get to play, but in any event - I'll update later tonight. I also have pics of my processing my mountains of paper. . . filled my whole kitchen table and a good portion of the floor trying to get it all situated into 'like' piles. Wait til you see...its quite a sight. ;-)
Can't leave you without one more picture - my hunkaburnin'love. :) Isn't he dashing!! ?? lol I haven't been able to tear him away form these books we received from a Scholastic book order. Seriously. I never thought I'd meet the day when I said: "if you don't put those books down!"...not just once, but repeatedly mind you. He is totally engrossed in this series. I have threatened to take them away if he doesn't get his nose out of them long enough to brush his teeth or get dressed. I'm not really complaining though...things could be much worse - there's my daughter, remember? ;-)

Later all!
Janice