Productive Day

Not an ounce of study today and I only got half of yesterday's 'to-do' list done, but I still feel like I've been very productive and achieved quite a bit.

I finally bottled my kombucha and also made up a new batch to brew.

I riced up my 6 cauliflower and broccoli, bagged them and labelled them for freezing.

I invented a delicious tomato, vegetable and chilli sauce.

I cut up and boiled the pumpkin ready to make the dog food, which I'll do tomorrow morning.

I didn't get the sauerkraut started at all. Perhaps I'll get to that tomorrow too.

Nite all

PS I forgot to hit 'send' yesterday, so this was sent 12 hours later than usual!

Scientifically Challenged

Just when you think you're starting to get the hang of things, they throw in a word like 'stoichiometry'.

It is "the relationship between the relative quantities of substances taking part in a reaction, or forming a compound, typically a ratio of whole integers".

I KNOW that you didn't read that whole sentence!

Some wonderful youtube users made some videos called "Stoichiometry For Dummies".

I KNOW those videos were made just for me and OMG what life savers they are!

Also today, I've learnt about balancing chemical equations.

I read the lesson pages, I watched the lesson slideshow, I downloaded the lecture, I checked the text book and I investigated the discussion forums to get some tips ... and still I had no idea, and just couldn't 'get' it.

Then I found youtube.

The first video explained it perfectly and it felt like I found that last piece of jigsaw that made all the rest of it make sense.

Thank goodness!

THEN I had to figure out how to convert grams to moles, grams to molecules, molar mass, atomic mass, molecular weight, formula mass or weight ... yeah I know ... more blah blah blah.

I'm still in the middle of that and by 4pm today, my brain was almost mush. My wild orange oil was all burnt away, so the brain decided it was time to shut down.

By the time I packed away all the fruit and veg from the two big FROG boxes that arrived today and cleared some space in the fridge by giving what didn't get used last week, to the chookies, I just didn't have it in me to do anything else.

I have 3 big cauliflowers and broccoli, so that I can make a big batch of cauli/broc rice and package them into meal sizes to freeze for the next week or two.

I have some fresh organic cabbage and beetroot, ready to make a big batch of sauerkraut or some kind of fermented food .. maybe kimchi?

I have the makings of another 2 week batch of dog food.

I have a batch of kombucha that has finished brewing and is ready for bottling.

I have the makings of a new batch of sriracha tomato sauce.

All of these things need to be done in the next few days while I also study for two exams and my heart has just skipped a beat as I typed this!

Adoring Husband has lovingly offered to take me out for lunch next week, but I don't think I'm going to have the time to spare for that. Every minute between now and next Friday is precious and accounted for.

I think this is most appropriate for my current situation ...

Nite all.

Focused

I'm focused without my focus essential oil!

I've powered through a lot of lessons today and passed all the practise tests, so it's been a very productive and satisfying day at my desk.

The wild orange oil has been burning and opening my mind to all that Chemistry nomenclature and the Periodic Table memorisation. Ok, you got me, I don't have to memorise the periodic table, but I had you going there for a second didn't I?

I didn't cook anything exciting today. Last night's leftovers for lunch and then a combination of the last two night's leftovers for dinner, served with crispy skinned salmon.

So, as you can see, I have nothing to report today and nothing to share.

Ok I found something to share ...

Nite all.

Happy Study

Yessssss!

Finally, I sat at my desk and studied.

I've been studying on my laptop, on the couch, intermittently and when Adoring Husband was watching TV, it was quite distracting .. however, it was my choice to do it that way, so I only have myself to blame.

I have been avoiding my desk and my desktop iMac because that computer was running so slow that it frustrated the hell out of me!

For some unknown reason, something has happened in the last 3 months since I stopped using the iMac, and today, when I turned it on, it was running perfectly!

What a pleasure it was to study today!

As an added bonus, I used my oil burner to burn some 'wild orange' essential oil at the desk. Wild orange helps uplift mood and energy levels, so I stayed quite motivated for about six hours.

I'm waiting on a special blend of essential oils to come in the mail, which will help me focus. I have high hopes for that one! It should arrive some time in the next week. Hopefully before my exams!

I haven't used essential oils before.

I have used scented oils, which really just make the room smell pretty ... or toxic ... whichever way you want to look at it.

So I'm dipping my toes and testing the waters .. just another tier to the natural way of improving or maintaining good health. I haven't delved too far into it yet because I'm now cramming for two exams due in less than two weeks, but what I've looked at so far, is very interesting and I'm keen to learn more!

Anyway, I was just on my way to bed when I remembered I hadn't posted here yet, so now I'm off! It's midnight!

Nite all.

Unstructured

That's what my days are .. unstructured .. and I need to take a leaf out of Vegan Chickie's book and become more structured with my days. She DID give me a daily planner, so that I could organise my days in a more productive way .. but I am incapable of even organising my organiser!!

Today, I spent an hour at the Seat of Knowledge and planned on studying as soon as I arrived home, but I realised that Adoring Husband had to attend a meeting tonight and wouldn't be here for dinner, so instead of studying, I searched for recipes to cook for lunch as a main meal.

Then, I spent an hour cooking a leg of lamb with roasted vegetables and creamy garlic chard with a rich wine gravy.

I procrastinated for the afternoon and achieved absolutely nothing.

Adoring Husband found this little visitor in the back garden today and I wasted some time with the camera ... although, really, time with the camera is never wasted is it!?

The lovely Grannymus shared a beautiful slideshow of reflective photography, and I have tried to upload it, to no avail, so unfortunately I can't share it with you.

... and I really liked these quotes in Facebook today...

Let's hope that I can find some motivation tomorrow to get cracking with the final two weeks of study!

Nite all.

Good Day Out

I spent the day with Mardi and Woman of Many Talents, listening to one of my favourite speakers, Jessie Reimers, telling us about essential oils and recipes for natural cleaning and personal products.

I could listen to her talk for hours, because her passion for health, nutrition and natural remedies matches mine, however, she is able to express herself more eloquently and her young mind stores her facts and figures in a much more organised and efficient manner, so that she can find and share more details than my poor old brain can muster at any given time.

The fact that she is high functioning Aspergers probably helps :)

I've ordered a kit of essential oils and can't wait to receive them in the mail and begin creating concoctions, bringing forth my 'inner witch'!! So much research to do and more books to find and recipes to discover! Yet another step towards our goal of overall positive health .. physical, mental and emotional.

I'm excited that Woman of Many Talents is now coming to the Paleo Way event in Bundaberg with us at the end of this month! We now have a full car with Ms Apple coming along too. Adoring Husband won't know what to do with himself being surrounded by so many smart, witty, beautiful women!!

Tonight, I made a turkey mince meatloaf coated with sriracha sauce and for the last 15 minutes in the oven I tossed pine nuts over the top to roast. I did some more chilli veggie cakes and served dinner with a salad of lettuce, baby spinach, cucumber, tomato, avocado and pear all drizzled with balsamic vinegar.

Incredibly delicious, especially with a nice addition of chilli powder in the meatloaf and veggie cakes.

We've watched a brilliant one day cricket match between Australia and Sri Lanka in the World Cup today, switching every so often between that and various NRL football matches. The cricket match isn't finished yet and it's going to be very close.

This month's flickr challenge is 'light'. The photo has to be taken 'in' or 'of' any light except sunlight. So that means no sunrises or sunsets. It can be moonlight (even though moonlight is actually the sunlight reflecting on the moon lol), artificial light, streetlights, candle light, starlight, flash light etc.

It will be interesting to see the different ideas that everybody comes up with.

Adoring Husband arrived home safe n sound from his SES training weekend, tired and satisfied.

All is right with our world and it's back to study tomorrow.

Nite all.