Monthly To Do

1. Clean. As in, nooks and crannies and all the tight spaces. Clean clean clean. It's spring! It's appropriate!
2. Start up kettle bells again. I was going really well with this for a couple of weeks, and then I completely lost my drive when my husband when to Africa for 11 days.
3. Continue to walk home from work during my lunch break. This is an extra 30 minutes outside everday, it cuts my work day in half, and i tend to have 30 minutes to work on the apartment/laundry/sit with joel, etc.
4. Paint something for me. I have two pieces that I've done for myself since January and I love them. I haven't done art for just ME in a really long time. I'm pruning off what i've learned in art school and trying to gain some new growth. Find me again in my talents.
5. Take pictures of all the art i've done so far included tiny sketches, doodles, and cookin'....

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My Birthday.

-I got a nice bounty :)
-Joel and I went to Kowloon with our friends and families and had an epic feast of dumplings, roasted duck, sweat and sour pork, shrimp lo mein, chrisanthemum tea with rock sugar, beef and broccoli, shrimp spring rolls, and the list goes on. You can image that eating dinner served family style with about 30 people can get to be quite epic.
-I got some cute white tennis shoes from Talbots when Joel took me to Southlake square to go shopping for my birthday.
-We also bought The America's Test Kitchen Family Baking Book which is just as awesome as the family cook book, but its completely dedicated to desserts and baking. YUM.

-Then with my birthday money, I bought a 12" AllClad skillet and a large Calphalon stainless stock pot.

-In addition to these things, I got a Barnes&Noble giftcard which I bought myself 2 awesome books.

1. I read through Michael Pollan's book Food Rules in about 3 hours during my lunch breaks. I definitely would reccommend this to anyone who is trying to diet and exercise in the most healthy way possible. (eating healthy, and exercising often) Then I went back through and read it with a highlighter and pen in my hand to make notes and write on the pages to help it fit my lifestyle a bit better. I don't subscribe to everything in his book, but it is just good common sense for the rest of it. I'm a huge fan of common sense.

2. The Urban Homestead is the 2nd book that I took on and I haven't even gotten halfway through it yet because it is chock full of helpful tips and tricks to growing your own food in your own space. I think the next section is how to raise livestock in your backyard. As strange as this may seem to us in the modern era of the United States. This used to be quite common all the way up until the 50's when something changed. (post war i guess? who knows?) Again, this book is just wonderful with it's common sense anecdotes on how to get plants to grow without fancy equipment and tons of land (or money!) Kelly Coyne and Eric Knutzen are really good authors. They also have a blog here.

That's all I've got to say for now about my birthday and these books.