Big news – new blog – come see!

Recently, we passed the astrological marker known as the Aries New Moon.  I’m not any kind of astrologer, but I’m very interested in this time of year with all of the Spring cleaning, intention-setting, and other things we do to celebrate new life and new ideas.  Even in my part of the world, our days begin to lengthen, the sun shines more, and my children take to climbing trees and running around outside for hours on end in the longer after-school daylight.

Over the past few years, I’ve spent time creating an Aries New Moon Treasure Map.  There are several excellent explanations of this process available to the eager g00gler, so I’ll leave it to interested parties to search out the details.  The main concept is that the Aries New Moon is a great time to dream the next year into being.  Many people create collages that inspire them in their lives over the coming year.  I’ve done that in the past; I’ve also used a song as my Treasure Map, and last year I decided that rather than create a Treasure Map that was a collage, my life would be the Treasure Map.  I’m not especially traditional with the implementation of the concept, but I really like the idea of clearing clutter, cleaning up, and then dreaming the new year into being.  So I mark the Aries New Moon with some kind of treasure.

This year, I decided that my Treasure Map will take the form of a blog.  I’m so excited about this that I can hardly wait to get started posting on it!  Obviously, it’s a new blog, since I’m writing about it here on this blog.  I started this blog nearly four years ago as I was beginning to come out.  This blog has seen me through the last four years of coming out, change, growth, difficulties, fears, challenges, and more inner turmoil than I’ve ever written about in my life.  This blog has introduced me to friends I may never meet but who hold a very special place in my life and in my heart.  And this blog has been my safe haven when the world felt like just too much.

And now it’s time to shift.  I have started a new blog: http://sopranoout.wordpress.com/  I’ve just created the structure of the blog so far, but posts will be forthcoming!  I’m so happy that I’ve had this blog on my journey out.  I’m so glad I made space in my life for myself and for my future.  And now, I’m so glad that I get to live, out, free, and with lots of high notes, for the rest of my life.  The new blog acknowledges the shift from coming out to living out, and it feels so powerful that I’m smiling as I type this.  Soprano Out: A Lesbian With High Notes is my 2013 Aries New Moon Treasure Map.  I invite you go to over, take a look, follow the blog, and stay tuned for what comes next.  It’s been great here.  It’s been a life-saver, and a life-changer.  And now, just as my real life has changed, so my blogging world changes.  I hope you’ll join me in my new blog – won’t you be my neighbor?

Soprano Out: A Lesbian With High Notes

Dakine Weekly Cookup – Plus Photo a Day

When I first started blogging, I joined a twice-monthly Sunday cooking roundup at The Karmic Kitchen (see sidebar for link).  The idea was not to prepare literal dim sum, but to take the concept of it – a little of this, a little of that – and expand it into the blogosphere.  A food theme would be announced one weekend, and by the next weekend blogging participants would post their prepared rendition of the theme.  My favorite theme was always Peeps.  Hehe

As is the way of things, Dim Sum Sunday has faded into a pleasant (sugar-rushed?) memory; but the habit of thinking about what to cook on Sundays has stayed with me.

Enter Whole30!  Several months ago, thanks to a friend who tried it, I started eating according to the Whole30 eating plan (click here for the Whole9 website and further information).  It is based on the more famous Paleo eating plan, and it has worked great for me as a way of eating for health and enjoyment.  I’ve also learned that the world of Whole30 involves a great deal of food preparation and cooking.  In fact, Sundays are often devoted to what’s called the Sunday Cookup in the Whole30verse.

Well, I’ve taken to this idea and I love cooking and preparing food for the week, knowing that I have lots and lots of good food waiting for me all week.  So I’ve decided to start my own series.  I like the idea of Dim Sum Sunday, but I don’t want to borrow a name that has its own history (and, in the case of the Peeps, legend).  And I like the idea of the Sunday Cookup, but I think that some weeks I might do a cookup on another day.  So I thought of my own name: Dakine Weekly Cookup.  Dakine is one of those Hawaii words that you can use just about anywhere, to mean anything.  It’s the word you use when you can’t think of the word, ya know?  So here it is, the first Dakine Weekly Cookup!  I think I cooked all the food in town today.  Ready?

First off, I put some boneless ribs (both beef and pork – I live large) in the crock pot with onions, garlic, and spices, and cooked it until it came apart.  This will make all sorts of things this week, like this hacked but delicious version of ropa vieja or carne mechada, depending on where you come from.

Next up I put a chicken in the pot – the crock pot is my new best friend.  I should name her, I think.  I’ll make several things with chicken and as soon as I debone it tonight, the bones will go back in the crock pot and I’ll make stock.  (You will thank me for not posting the pic I snapped of the chicken immediately after insertion into said pot.  You’re welcome.)

Now it was time for brunch.  The Sweeties are not eating Whole30, so I made them some pancakes:

And bacon.  I picked a brand I could also eat – no sugar added!  Of course they dipped their bacon in maple syrup so they got some added sugar that way.

Then it was time to prep and roast veggies.  I got some really big sweet potatoes (forgot to do something to show scale, you’ll have to believe me)

some broccoli and kale

and some carrots, here showing that I like my veggies roasted to within an inch of their lives:

After all of that prep, if I go hungry this week it’s my own fault, as my dad would say.

Today’s photo prompt is the word confusion.  I think it fits.  I’m going to be confused about what to eat first!!!!

Dakine Weekly Cookup: it’s what’s for dinner (and breakfast and lunch).

 

 

 

 

 

Discovery

Thanks to all who read and wrote regarding my last post.  I can’t possibly thank you enough.  I got messages here, Facebook, email – I feel very cared for, and I really really appreciate it.

After writing the last post and then reading/responding to comments, I felt something had shifted in me in a major way.  It felt as big as the weight that came off of my shoulders when I very first realized that I’m gay.  And it gave me the same quality of relief and release.  And it gave me the same sensation of re-living my memories with a different perspective – one that leaves me freer, even in memory.

I remember that those first months after realizing I’m gay were really world-shaking; and so, knowing that I feel like this shift is that big, I’m prepared for some major internal and possibly external changes as well.

Fortunately, I’ve been through a major shift before.

Today’s photo prompt word is chaos – and I think it fits beautifully with how I feel.  It’s not the kind of chaos that suggests destruction, though.  It’s more like pulling everything out of the attic and spreading it all over the house and looking at everything and deciding what to keep and what to toss.  It’s that kind of chaos.  The chaos of decluttering, the chaos of (wait for it) making space.

And running down hills in the sunset…