Painting with bubbles!

W loves to blow bubbles in her drinks, so when I found an art project where she would get to do just that I knew she would love it.

Recipe

• 2 TBS of paint
• Small squirt of dish soap
• Fill cup up with water
• Stir and put a straw in it.

I made four cups - pink, purple, yellow and green. Put them together on a tray in the yard and told her to blow bubbles. When she had lots of bubbles I gave a piece of paper and told her to press it into the bubbles. Then we found a place for the paper to dry. She did this 6 times then ran out of paper and she chose to blow bubbles one more time just for fun.

This was a great project and now I am going to use her paintings to make her thank you cards for her birthday.

Amanda's Shrimp Dinner

This is one of the first meals we fell in love with when we began to eat healthy. Now we make it once a week, and never seem to get tired of it.

Amanda's Shrimp Dinner
Serves 4

1 Bulb of Fennel cut into inch chunks
2 cans of whole artichoke hearts
1 container of grape tomatoes
2TBLS of minced garlic
3 TBLS of Olive Oil

Combine above ingredients in a roasting pan and cook at 400 degrees for 40 mins or until the tomatoes get wrinkly.

Then in a bowl combine:
1 - 1.5 .lbs of shrimp (I used cooked and frozen which has been thawed and I remove the tails)
2TBLS of Lemon Juice
1/2 cup of chopped fresh parsley (optional)
Old Bay Seasoning - enough to cover all the shrimp (we like a lot of it)

Toss all of it together.
When the veggies are done add the contents of the bowl to the roasting pan and roast for 6 to 8 minutes.
Serve with brown rice for a yummy meal!
We eat this for dinner then take the rest for lunch the next day.

Enjoy and let me know how you like it.

My first blog post

Wow! I did it and without Brent setting this up for me. Sometimes I think I have become too dependent on Brent to "handle" anything computer related. OK, I have become way too dependent, but this was a great first move on my part to step more into the cyber-world. Actually, my first move was to join a social networking site for knitters. For months I really didn't get the value or the interest in social networking sites, but http://www.ralvery.com/ changed that for me. I have not met anyone or joined any groups but I love the ability to get and share information. I have found knitting patterns that I love and gotten great info about yarns. I also like the ability to organize my projects and share with friends what I am working on.

So how did I get to the point where I created a blog? Well, it all began with me beginning to take care of myself in a new way. I suffered a difficult loss and decided that I was tired of feeling like crap all of the time. So, I began with taking more of my free time to do things I wanted to do instead of what I felt I needed or should do. I felt like it was the only thing I could do to manage my grief and honestly I didn't have the patience or interest to do anything except what I had to do and what I wanted to do.

So I began with knitting and stamping hand-made cards. Spending my time in creative ways really began to help me feel better. From here I made a big decision. To change the way I eat.

My relationship with food is the one aspect of my life that I have never been able to handle. I have been on every diet know to woman, and I always failed and so some time ago I truly gave up. I progressively have gotten heavier and sicker for years.

Thanks to our friends J&C who were a great inspiration, Brent and I made a commitment to follow a plan called The Life Force Plan. This plan stripped away all processed food along with all of my confused "rules" from the years of mixed diets. In up coming posts I will explain more of our process with the LFP. For now I will simple say it has changed my body, my health, my relationship with food, my energy, and where I put my energy.

All of this is the long way to explain the origins of this blog... Following My Bliss. I am realizing that following my bliss is what I have been doing and now I want to document for myself what this journey has been all about. I also want use this space as a place to share with my friends and family my experiences, recipes, and creative projects - whatever I am doing to follow my bliss.

Maybe it will inspire you to follow yours.