Stepping Out

Today, I did something that was nerve racking for me. I organized an event to mobilize people politically in the area. Just a casual meet up of like-minded people. It was very last minute. I will be planning another one in the future so people have time to plan for it if they want. This post is about what I did today though. So, I put up posts in various places and I went to the spot that I had designated at the time that I said I would be there. My husband came with me to support me and I can not say how grateful I am that he was there. I was SO nervous. I’m still newish to the town that I live in. I don’t know many people here.

When I walked into the place I realized that Brandi Harless was there talking to Allan Rhodes. Brandi was just elected as our new mayor. I voted for her even though we hadn’t formally met. Allan has been on the City Commission and was re-elected. I also voted for him. I knew I had to introduce myself. This is part of the whole reason I was here. To foster ties in the community. To become active here. Brandi and Allan were talking and when they parted I steeled myself and I approached her. I wonder if I seemed as nervous as I felt. I introduced myself and talked to her for a short time. She seemed very pleasant and eager for January to roll around. I think I presented myself decently. When we parted ways I went to my husband and said, “I talked to her. I am so nervous, but I talked to her.”. I took a deep breath and then said, “I’m going to introduce myself to Allan now.”.

I took long, deep breaths on my short walk to where he was. I popped my head in the open doorway and struck up a conversation with him, much the way I had with Brandi. Again, we talked briefly, but I also mentioned that I am interested in heading up a project to collect food for a food pantry that is extremely low on supplies. He listened to what I had to say and gave me a short list of places that I could talk to so I could be as effective as possible. I appreciated the short time and attention that he gave to me.

After I parted ways with Allan, I once again went back to my husband and sat down. Now, it was time to wait for others that might arrive. My stomach was roiling with anxiety over what I had just done. Some people may not understand how nerve racking it can be to just walk up and introduce yourself to people you don’t know, others will sympathize. It took a little while for me to calm back down. No one showed up for the meeting I had posted about. I did meet a very nice woman and my daughter played with her kids. We talked for pretty much the duration of the time that we were there and I am happy that I now know her.
Despite the fact that no one showed up, I was still victorious. I put myself out there in the town I live in, in a way I never have before. I know there are many people interested in my idea of meeting and seeing what we can do to help our community to move forward. I may be just as nervous the next time this happens, but in the end, I think it’s better to push myself out of my comfort zone. I want to change this world for the better and the best place to do it is by starting in your own small communities. I encourage everyone that reads this to do the same. Put yourself out there and be the change you want to see. Good luck everyone!

This really bugs me….

I read an article in Jezabel today that reallllly bugged me.  Not only the article but a lot of the comments too. http://jezebel.com/we-need-to-talk-about-women-who-regret-motherhood-1635470629/all

I thought I would share my thoughts with you on this matter.

I’m going to get flack for my opinion, but I’m gonna share it because I think my opinion is valid. First off… the only thing I agree with in Tracy’s article is that parenting isn’t a cake walk.  Any one that ells you that it’s the best thing ever all the time is lying.  Of course there are moments, hours, days… where it’s not fun.  It’s hard, it is a sacrifice.  I am not a perfect parent and I never will be.  That being said I have very strong feelings about this and it’s very simple to me.  You will have period… particularly in the first few months where you feel alien to this child. I felt it more with my second then my first. There can be a slight disconnect.  However to say that this is an ongoing issue and you seriously regret it,  by say the time they are a year old… do yourself a favor and that child a favor and give it up for adoption. Let someone that will adore that child be the one to raise it.  If you can not feel why this precious being is more important than things like your social life or career… or whatever, just don’t raise that child. I am adopted.  I know the rollercoaster of emotion I went through as a child knowing I was adopted, and while I did have some issues with why my bio-mom “left” I also knew that I was a conscious decision on the part of my parents.  They actively wanted me.  A child will know if you are going through the motions.  They will see the smile not rise to your eyes.

If you know you don’t like kids… don’t have them.  If they annoy you… don’t have them.  Even if your spouse pressures you… don’t have them. And on a related but slightly different aspect of this I want to touch on the subject of talking to your children.  I get so sad when I read comments about how parents just don’t care what there kids talk about or how they talk so much.  Some of my greatest memories of being a kid were conversations I had with my dad.  He would talk to me about everything.  Nothing was taboo really.  I could theorize about aliens or god or talk about music and he would tell me the merits of the Rolling Stones and I’d espouse about why Metallica is like modern day classical music.  My opinion mattered, he encouraged me to think critically and supported me speaking my mind even if I disagreed with him.  This is so critical… it doesn’t matter the topics.  It matters that you talk to your kids and that you love them (truly and not just superficially).  That love is so much more important than vacations and partying… and I would even say careers to a point.  I’m not rich.  I chose to stay home with my son and my daughter for the first year of their lives. Now I have a part time job because to me… that family time is way more important.  I know I’m sounding preachy.  This is just my opinion.  I’m ok with people not having kids. I’m just very confused when people actively dislike being a parent. Even more confused when they know they hate it and raise a child… even multiple children after knowing this.  One is sad enough, don’t bring another child into that equation.  I feel for the kids, not the parents on this one.  Sorry.

 

Mistyanne’s Skillet Tilapia

Happy St. Patrick’s Day to you all!  I hope everyone had a great weekend out there.  I feel like this last week has really been so crazy.  Lots of stuff is changing and going on, despite that though we all have to eat and so I bring my newest recipe to you!  This is a healthier recipe than my last post, but it’s a very quick meal to make. So without further adieu I present you with:

Mistyanne’s Skillet Tilapia

Servings: 6 Prep Time: 5 minutes Cook time: 15 Minutes Total Time: 20 Minutes

Mistyanne’s Hamburger Medley

Hi everyone!  Today is Meal Monday and I hope you enjoy this recipe.  This post would not be possible without a few very special people encouraging me and really going out of their way to help me.  Currently, I live in a place that does not have a normal kitchen.  I have a microwave and I have a refrigerator, we work with what we have, right. That being said, I would like to thank Candace and Derek for loaning me their lovely kitchen.  I also want to thank my husband for helping to make this experience run smoothly and for taking all the pictures for you viewing pleasure.

Who likes Hamburger Helper type meals out there?  I like a good variety of what I’ve tried, however I know it’s not the healthiest thing to eat.  I decided to make my own from scratch (Well, except for the pasta.  I didn’t actually make that from scratch.) and it really doesn’t take much time at all.  I hope you enjoy this weeks recipes and I hope that you are encouraged to try them for yourself!

Mistyanne’s Hamburger Medley

Top 500 Movies Of All Time

Recently I found a list published by The New York Times of the best 1000 movies of all time that was published in 2004. I always find lists like this interesting and I like to see what I like versus what is listed. Looking over the list they compiled I decided that it was a really awful list, or at least I thought so. As I finished my first look over the list I was really pretty disappointed in the lack of movies depicting strong women. Most of the movies that they listed were very old movies. I don’t have a problem with old movies… but this is the top 1000 according to these reviewers. More than half of the films they listed were made before 1965. This inspired me to make my own list and I decided to cap my list at 500. I realized while I was making my list that I really could have gone much higher in number of movies and that it was a little challenging getting in the movies that were most important to me. However, I succeeded in making my list which shared only about 125 of the same films from the article in The New York Times.

I think the selection of movies in my list is pretty varied in terms of when it was made, genre, and can be appreciated by most women and men. A good number of the films I listed are also very kid friendly. Looking at my list I see a few things that strike me most are that I need to watch more classic Hollywood movies and I also would like to see some more culturally different films. I only put movies I have seen, not just movies that I heard rave reviews about. Just because a movie is critically acclaimed or liked by many does not necessarily mean it will really be good. So I hope you like my selection of movies. Let me know what you think. Do you agree with my selection? Maybe this will inspire you to watch a movie that you’ve never seen or an old favorite.

~m~

Short, but sweet!

Hiya everyone!  I just wanted to let you all know that I still intend to write here.  This week has been awful with my husband being sick, then I was sick, luckily my baby didn’t catch what we had which is great.  She’s teething though and it’s been hurting her pretty bad.  I’ve heard all kinds of tips for helping them, but she does not like to bite down on hard things when they are really sore and so it’s hard to numb that pain.  She’s a little trooper though.  We also got slammed with some really nasty weather so I wasn’t able to get on-line.  I will have lots of things to write about when I am able to post a full blog again.  Hopefully that will be tomorrow.  Peace be with you all, Good night!

Knowing Without Words

Original Photography by Mistyanne Yates

Fruit Basket

I plan on posting a new recipe every Monday starting today.  This first entry is something I did for a party during the summer.  I had seen different variations on the same idea throughout the summer, but this is just what I decided to do with mine because I didn’t have a lot of time to prep.  My husband also did all the bulk cutting of the watermelon for me and helped to chop all the fruit up.  It’s fun to work with others to create special things like this.  This is also a very kid friendly idea, since they can have fun designing their own basket.  I’ve included a picture of the finished product and illustrations to explain the process, along with links for creating the fruit flowers.  Enjoy my artwork, feel free to laugh it up I know I’m not so good at the digital artwork, but I hope it helps. 😉

What I used (however you can use whatever fruit you wish):

1 large watermelon

1 pineapple

1 bunch of green seedless grapes

1 container of champagne grapes

1 large container of strawberries

1 large container of raspberries

1 large container of blueberries

6 kiwi

Directions:

Wash all of your fruit before getting involved in this.  It will make everything a lot simpler for you.

After washing all of your fruit, you will want to make a basket out of your watermelon.  To do this I suggest lightly drawing the design of the basket onto the watermelon.  You want to make sure that your handle is wide enough that when you cut out the excess side pieces it will stay firm.  I would suggest a width of no less than 2 inches, we did ours at 3 inches.  You need to decide how deep you want your basket as well, because this determines how much fruit it will hold once you hollow it out.  For mine I just made it about half the height of the watermelon.  This gave my basket nice clean lines and symmetry, in my opinion.  Once you have traced out your cutting pattern you want to cut out your pattern.  I carved out out the two sides to my handle first.  Then I very carefully traced the rind on the handle and then across the midsection.  Once you gently remove the meat of the watermelon you will have an open space. Now you can hollow out the bottom section of the watermelon.  You want to leave about an inch to two inches around the perimeter of the bottom for stability reasons.  That way it will hold the fruit you put back in and you can stick things into the rind (making sure not to puncture through) if you choose to make fruit flowers.  There are a few methods you can use for  hollowing the bottom out; you can take a sharp knife and simply cut squares out at a time or you can use a melon baller to make pretty round balls.

Next you will want to cut up all the fruit and mix it together in a large bowl.  Think really big bowl because all this fruit you’re chopping up needs to be mixed in it.  You will want to do a light dusting of sugar over all the ingredients, and then mix it together very well.  Next I think it is easiest to fill your basket with the mixed fruit and then place the skewers in if you plan to use them.  If you have extra fruit left over, I would just keep it in the bowl to bring with you to refill the basket as people eat from it.

*If you are wanting to make fruit flowers here are additional directions.

The only thing you need to cut out in a specific way initially is the pineapple, because you want to be able to make pineapple rounds from it.  When you are cutting up your fruits you will want to set aside 2 to 3 kiwi, 4 of the green seedless grapes, 4 pineapple circles, about 40 blueberries and raspberries, and about 4 to 6 strawberries. Also hold out the champagne grapes to garnish on the top.

The first and easiest to make is the berry stalks.  You just take wooden skewers and you place one berry on after the other until you have as many as you want.  You want to leave about 4 inches at the bottom of the skewer so that you can get  it nicely imbedded into the basket.

To make the pineapple flowers I literally cut out the flower shape on a pineapple round with a sharp knife, you can also use a cookie cutter to do this, but I didn’t have one at the time.  I punctured a skewer through the pineapple flower and then topped it with a green seedless grape.  This is where I got the inspiration for these, I just used grapes instead of melon balls.

For the kiwi flowers I cut the kiwi in half and then I notched out v shapes along the perimeter.  Once you make the notches you carefully run your knife just under the skin of the kiwi so that you can pull the skin away from the kiwi meat.  You then carefully run a skewer through this or you can gently lay it on top of your fruit salad once you fill your bowl.  You can find a video for this here.

The last fruit flower I made was the strawberry flowers.  You cut a strawberry into quarters almost.  You want your blade to stop short of going all the way through at the stem of the strawberry.  This is very similar to this video, however I didn’t do the delicate carving she shows and I added blueberries to add more color.  Once you cut the strawberry like this you gently pull it open, push a skewer through the stem and then top it with a blueberry.

I hope this was helpful for you and that you enjoy making this and sharing it with others.  It’s a fun, creative thing to do. It requires no cooking, is vegan, can easily be all organic, and extremely party friendly!  It does take a little bit of time to make though so be sure to plan accordingly.  I’d be sure to plan for this to take anywhere from an hour to a couple hours depending on how intricate you want to make things. Best of luck!

~m~

Academy Awards

So, what did you think of the Academy Awards?  I thought it was okay.  I got a bit distracted with other things so I didn’t really see everything. I loved Anne Hathaway, Pink, Jennifer Garner, and Idena Menzel’s dresses.

I was super stoked to see Jared Leto win for Best Supporting Actor and Matthew McConaughey for Best Actor in Dallas Buyers Club. I think both of them gave really nice acceptance speeches. I really think Jared Leto is so talented.  He fell onto my radar as Jordan Catalano in My So Called Life, but his career has grown exponentially from Fight Club to Requiem For A Dream to Alexander and now his fantastic performance in Dallas Buyers Club. I love the band he is in, 30 Seconds to Mars.  They sing one of my favorite songs of all time, The Kill. I also have really liked Matthew McConaughey ever since I saw him in Contact.

Seeing Lupita Nyong’o win Best Supporting Actress for Twelve Years of Slavery was great… however seeing Cate Blanchet win for Best Actress in Blue Jasmine not so much.  I think she is a great actress, but I love Sandra Bullock and thought she should have gotten that award. I was glad to see Steve Martin, George Lucas and Angelina Jolie recognized.

The live performances were alright over all.  I thought Pharrel Williams performance was cute and fun. Pink, Bette Middler, and Idina Menzel were all fantastic. U2’s performance was easily forgettable, and the other I don’t even remember the name or song.. .so not great, ha!

Let me know your thoughts.

~m~

*Pictures were found on the site http://www.justjared.com/.

March 2014 By Mistyanne’s Hand Book Club Pick:

“Richard Mayhew is a plain man with a good heart — and an ordinary life that is changed forever on a day he stops to help a girl he finds bleeding on a London sidewalk. From that moment forward he is propelled into a world he never dreamed existed — a dark subculture flourish in abandoned subway stations and sewer tunnels below the city — a world far stranger and more dangerous than the only one he has ever known…”

Picture and summary from the HarperTorch 2001 paperback edition.