Tides, Easels, and GOOP

ART:  Did you hear it yesterday afternoon?   Around 4? The giddy jumping up and down and "WOOO HOOO" reaching to all corners of the Earth?  The National Football Championship game wasn't on yet.  It was ME!
I set my easel up!!!! With instructions in Italian even and I didn't have any left over pieces. HA!  It felt like Christmas when the girls were tiny, except they could watch and I actually did it correctly without having to hand it off to Jim.   I am so PROUD of myself.  It is set up in my office with a brand spankin' new canvas and all this gorgeous natural light.  Once I get off of here, I am sketching the background.

A mere 3 hours from now I also have my textiles meeting.  She seems charming and my brilliant friend will be with us, so let's see what path this opens up. Shall we?

BODY:  I know I mentioned earlier that I am drinking more water.  I am truly surprised that I could even  go to the bathroom because I was so PARCHED.  I'm loving mixing up the cucumber, clementines, lemons, whatever.  And I'm drinking much more and       have lost some weight because of it.

I also have noticed that I'm just not as hungry right now. I'm eating 2 meals a day on average. Good ones. And my proportions are smaller.  I'm also drinking more tea.   Green tea,  cranberry zinger, ginger tea, peppermint, you name it.  It's very yummy for the body and soul.  And no, I am not spiking it.     Yet....

Both daughters love tea, but Julia gets the expert label. She loves it probably more than I do.

All of this is grand but I got a great email from Ashley (think Gone with the wind and say it like a Suthernor  "Ashluh" except, she's a woman) about GOOP.  Looks like snot and comes in several different colors.  The blog is about 'cleansing' but shows you how to make the famous GOOP.  I know 'cleansing' has been done for centuries and goes in and out of fashion with the health people, but I'm sincerely considering doing it for 4-5 days.  Not necessarily all of the GOOP, but some version of it.  Throw some thoughts my way.  And castor oil will NOT be considered.  

I like the idea of cleansing.  We have cleansing breaths when we do yoga, cleansing breaths when we pray, we have spring cleaning, we have the phrase 'cleaning house' which could mean a plethora of things.  So, I like the idea of cleansing. Maybe that's what all this is (blog). Cleansing my little brain of it's random thoughts, throwing them out there and kapoof! It's all clean again.  I'm sorry. What did you say?  Who are you?

SOUL-
This section is rather the train driver, I've decided.  Found out some news yesterday that one of my oldest friends (who's known me since something like 6th grade) might have esophageal cancer.  She has a teenage boy, I bow down to her, and she is a single mother.  She is one of the hardest 'working' people I've ever known.  She works on relationships, works on herself, works on her house, works her fingers to the bone at her jobs.  She has always been like this.  Puts us all to shame, really.  She even ran track!

So now, she needs her friends and family to WORK for HER.  She is not in the same city I live in and I haven't seen her hysterical self in a little over a year (it was about 10 before that) but every time we pick up the phone, not a day has gone by.  I can say that about a handful of great friends that I've had a very long time and all of them live in different states from me.  I am truly blessed with them in my life.  She is one of them.  If I had a problem and asked her to come, she would be here.  Just like that.  Which makes my heart break that this 'thing' is even a blip on her screen.  By that I mean, going to the hospital, having surgery and taking care of her house , son and dog, shouldn't be a concern.  All of her friends right there in her home town should be stepping up.  I think part of the issue is asking for help.

She doesn't ask for help often, if ever.  What I said to her yesterday is something my Dad told me a LOOOOONG time ago.  When you ask for help, you are giving someone the opportunity to give something to you.  It's a gift for them as much as it is for you.  Amen.  That was a tough one for me to learn as well, but it finally sank in.  I am trying to help coordinate things from here to help her and may end up taking a quick 3 hour road trip for a few days if things aren't as smooth as they should be.

The point of this long drawn out blather is the gift of giving and receiving.  Not of 'stuff' but time, compassion, food, sleep, a stocked grocery when you're too sick to go, a walk of the dog.  It's all a gift.

FOOD:  Made another batch of the POO2U2 cookies, this time paying attention.  They turned out rather well.  Still  ugly, but yummy.  And then I made my OWN recipe of oats, honey, ginger and cranberry cookies and they rock!  And they don't even look like poop. Now, that's a success.

On a final note, Roll Tide!  National Football Champions of the World!!!!  hahah Great game last night.  I was connected to in the following ways; grew up in Birmingham, so I can't count how many of my high school friends went to University of Alabama, two of my dearest friends did their undergrad at UofA but SHE grew up in Texas and finally, my "Christina from California" lives in South Pasadena.  It's the ONLY time in my life, after Bear Bryant died, that I cheered for Alabama.  Same goes for my husband.  Who fell asleep during the last 10 minutes (the most exciting part of the game).