I'm moving!

I'm moving my blogger....

to here: http://www.piratewitch.blogspot.com/

Please follow me over! It was easier...so much easier to make changes. I need easy!

Home made chai tea

I love love love chai tea. I found this following recipe on line and I hope to make it at home! It's a 1 point snack with milk and sugar but so worth the point for the peppery wonder that it is!

2-inch piece fresh ginger, cut into thin rounds
2 cinnamon sticks
2 teaspoons black peppercorns
10 whole cloves
6 cardamom pods
6 cups cold water
6 bags of black tea (preferably Darjeeling)
2 cups whole milk
1/2 cup (packed) golden brown sugar

Combine first 5 ingredients in medium saucepan. Using mallet or back of large spoon, lightly crush or bruise spices. Add 6 cups water; bring to boil over high heat. Reduce heat to medium-low, partially cover pan, and simmer gently 10 minutes. Remove from heat. Add tea bags and steep 5 minutes. Discard tea bags. Add milk and sugar. Bring tea just to simmer over high heat, whisking until sugar dissolves. Strain chai into teapot and serve hot.

Resolution #4

I almost never make new years resolutions, but this year I'm feeling inspired to make some changes, large and small.

1. I will eat healthier. I need changes so that I feel better.

2. I will take time to relax. I've spent the past year in a dead panic about everything that is going on. I still feel that panic, but I'm going to work at taking moments to read. To play. To write. To knit. To take baths. I'm going to work to turn my brain off and try to work off some of the stress I'm feeling.

3. I will TRY to sleep more...reguarly. This goes with my general "Health" kick.

I've already made some positive changes. I've cut my caffiene intake WAY WAY back. I'm trying to eat more reguarly and not this "Grab and go" thing I had been doing at work. I've cut out the stops to fast food places on the way to work, making those only for when my son is along and it's a treat. I have a long ways to go! Perhaps if I make the commitment to blog my progress..it will help. I don't know how many readers I have here, but to those of you who do read, I'd like you to help me with accountability. This year, I hope, will be about re-inventing me.

The truth is, I'm not happy. I haven't been "happy" for a while. I need to fix something and this seems like a place to start. Maybe I should make that resolution #4.

Find Happiness.

Re-inventing Jen

So, I got already to start a diet. Well..okay, not a "diet". I'm going with weightwatchers. It's fairly simple and I like that I CAN have pretty much anything I want....so long as I budget the points and measure the portions. I like that idea, because I don't want to completely give stuff up...but we'll see how that works.

I went to the grocery and bought all the nesecery items to start with, double fiber bread, lots of veggies and fruits...stocks to make soups, whole grain pastas...good stuff!

I started tracking my points although the diet doesn't officialy "Start" yet. It's a bit startling to see! Just eating normal is...wow! I definately need a change, even if it's simple and small to start with. One of my biggest goals is just to pack and eat a regular meal at work. Because I work nights I tend to not pack anything substantial to eat. I usually pack snacky things. I work a regular 8 hour shift so I need to eat a regular meal. And I need to eat regular meals before and after work as well. If I can try to keep to a more "normal" schedule...

That is my plan anyway.

The day before

I work tonight, I work on christmas. I get christmast eve off. Thank goodness.

Work has been wonderfully quiet the past two days. Thank Gods for small favors. I'm sick, I have a bad head/chest cold. I don't feel ambitious enough to work work. I'm glad for a few lazier days.

I miss my girlfriend. She started on a new schedule that is strictly days, where I work strictly nights. It's better for her. A desk job. She hates it. But it keeps her away from sick patients.

I have boxes ready to send to people. They're not sent. Which means they won't be for the holidays. I hate working nights for this reason...the post office is open only when I want to sleep!

I haven't written anything lately. Today, my brain is to fuzzy. Cold medicine makes it so I can't think. I have thoughts but they don't come full circle. Random thoughtlets.

Blah.

Work

Work. Argh.

As a rule, I can't really write or talk about what goes on at work. But somedays I'm sooooo FRUSTRATED. Last night was just one of those nights.

For those of you who don't know, I'm an RN at a psychiatric hospital. I work the adolescent unit which means I get all the "EMO" kids and the very troubled kids. Teenagers on good days are trying but lump in 30 kids with some serious issues into one building...

Some days I want to pull out my hair.

Carry You Home

Watching a loved one die slowly...knowing it's inevitable but there's nothing that can be done to ease their pain...

Today I'll let James say what I can't.


Trouble is her only friend and he's back again
Makes her body older than it really is
And she says it's high time she went away
No ones got much to say in this town
Trouble is the only way is down, down, down

As strong as you were
Tender you go
I'm watching you breathing
For the last time
A song for your heart
But when it is quiet
I know what it means
And I'll carry you home
I'll carry you home

If she had wings she would fly away
And another day god will give her some
Trouble is the only way is down,down,down

As strong as you were
Tender you go
I'm watching you breathing for the last time
A song for your heart
But when it is quiet
I know what it means


I'll carry you home
I'll carry you home

And they're all born pretty
in New York City tonight
and someones little girl
was taken from the world tonight
under the Stars and Stripes

As strong as you were
Tender you go
I'm watching you breathing for the last time
A song for your heart
But when it is quiet
I know what it means
And i'll carry you home

As strong as you were
Tender you go
I'm watching you breathing for the last time
A song for your heart
But when it is quiet
I know what it means
And I'll carry you home

I'll carry you home

Knitting, writing, cooking and photoshop

I'm a creative person by nature, and I get bored if I'm not in the act of creating something....so here's a rundown of current projects, so you can see how truly scatter brained I am!

Knitting:

On the Needles currently is:

1. A scarf in Moda Dea Sassy Stripes for my sister, using a knit two, purl one ribbing.

2. a huge snuggly poncho using Patons Divine in garter stitch

3. An aran sampler quilt, done in Caron yarn, cheap and wonderful.

Sewing:

1. A twenty patch bag in black and white.

2. A nine patch bag in primary colors.

3. a nine patch bag in brown and pink

Writing:

My oh...my.

Okay, I'm working on four different pieces, not to mention all the starts I have tha need attention.

1. This years NaNo/Vampire/Otherworldly thing.

2. My ongoing and never written western/romance.

3. A scottish highlands romance...

4. A spy story..also a romance (Im in a very romantical mood at the moment...)

and there are a multitude of photoshop creations always in the works. I tend to flit about from thing to thing, finding fragments of inspiration and jumping in head first...only to be distracted by the next shiny object! What I need...is staying power and the commitment to finish something!