Why Beans Made Me Cry in My Car Today

So I cried a little when I read that.

Because it’s awesome and terrible at the same time. Awesome because of the people helping out other people, terrible because nobody should be reduced to tears by beans.

Food

I am not a food blogger. I know I’m not, nor do I pretend to know anything at all about the sort of gorgeous food photography that Oh She Glows and Pioneer Woman crank out with such deceptive ease.

That being said, we DO love to cook. And we cook a lot of lentils, beans, and rice. And fresh vegetables, for that matter.

So I am going to do a series of cooking posts with cellphone-quality photography and Tami-Is-Not-A-TV-Chef instructions.

I will show you how to cook dried beans, rice, and lentils. I will give you recipes  and show you how to cut the veggies and whatnot. My hilarious, seat-of-the-pants cooking style will be revealed to all of you.

HOWEVER. If even one person comes away from this feeling less terrified at the thought of having to buy beans and rice to stretch a grocery budget, it will have been worth it.

Abnormal

I know this isn’t my normal blog fare (thus the heads-up) but I think it’s important, so I’m going to do it. I won’t think less of anyone who skips past the cooking posts. *grin* (Not that I’d know if you did it anyway)

I’ve still got other blog posts scheduled for the coming weeks, so you’ll get non-cooking stuff from me as well.

I just don’t want you to worry that I’m turning the blog into a Monument To The Glory of Fiberlicious Foods.

^_^

Related posts:

1. Weekly Menu

Gray

This past month or two, where I fell into what I’d call “the gray place,” I’ve found myself in a creative negative zone.

Writing? Pfah. Even with a fully-outlined short story started, I just couldn’t summon the energy to work on it.

Blogging? What would I talk about? I felt as if I shouldn’t even HAVE a blog, so few ideas did I have for blog posts.

Drawing? I’ve hated everything in my sketchbook since I finished the Twitterpated picture.

Sunshine

Lately, however, I’ve found myself back on my creative upswing. And not just a slow, roundabout turn of the wheel, either. I’ve been flung into the sunlight like a waxed watermelon out of a slingshot. My creative energies are up, up, up and I’m finding myself scrambling to write my ideas down before they flit like sunsparked minnows through my fingers.

I will not always be up. I cannot depend upon always being “up” to maintain the productivity levels that are necessary to achieve my goals. I want to GO somewhere, and that requires effort.

Thusly, particularly with regards to creative excess, I am setting up a series of buckets to catch the dripping from my cup which runneth over.

The squirrel, inundated with nuts in the fall, doesn’t just gorge himself. He gathers and stores, hiding away juicy tidbits to carry through the long, gray areas of winter and the deceptive brightness of early spring.

Blogging

With regards to blogging, I’m storing up blog post ideas. I have over 20 blog post “stubs” sitting in my admin, waiting for me to flesh the ideas out at my leisure. The more posts I prep ahead of time and schedule to run, the less pinched I feel when things aren’t going well.

Writing

I absolutely recommend some kind of Idea Box or Treasure Chest for writers. If you’re anything like me, you’ll fall out of love with your current project within a matter of days, seduced by the allure of a new idea wearing a different shade of lipstick. I never want to LOSE an idea (regardless of whether or not it stands the test of time) but neither do I want to be distracted from my current writing project.

Getting ideas for new writing projects is less exciting than getting new blog post ideas, because the life cycle of a writing project is significantly different.

Still, when the ideas are a-flowing, TRAP THEM! Snag them down with the tip of your pen, scribble them down and file them away in The Place For Unformed Ideas.

That being said, letting them escape is preferred to abandoning your current project — ideas are a dime a dozen, but finished projects are priceless.

Notebooks

This is where my notebooks come in handy. I can spur a flurry of creative sparks using mindmapping or I can quickly jot down a breakthrough on a project I’m not currently working on without really breaking stride.

Squirrels

Anyone else hoard ideas? How do you do it? What do you do it for, what kinds of projects or hobbies?

Anyone WISH they could hoard more?

No related posts.

It’s kind of awesome. It runs through all the links in every post and comment and page of my site and lets me know when links aren’t working any more. From the admin, I can choose whether to unlink, delete, ignore, or update the broken thing.

I love it.

Except when it makes me sad by letting me know when a friend’s blog is no longer available. *sadface*

Somehow, the silent death of a blog seems all the sadder for its lack of fanfare. No goodbye post in my feed reader, no explanation or farewell. Just a tiny blip in my admin letting me know that another light on the internet has quietly gone poof.

It’s silly, but I like to say goodbye as I unlink the broken thing, like lighting a little candle.

No related posts.