I have many hobbies. Writing has been one for a long time, as has reading. I love to golf and swim, and volunteer with my son’s school and Boy Scout troop. About eight years ago or so I added cooking and baking to that list. I started out with some basic recipes I found online, along with ones my mom gave me for dishes I devoured during childhood.
From this I’ve expanded. I make my own pizza and breadstick dough, as well as pasta dough. I have a number of recipes to prepare all different types of meat. I have a variety of desserts I can whip up whenever my guys want something sweet. I make my own chocolate now, although the recipe still needs perfecting.
My latest kitchen adventure, however, was for a basic ingredient that many chefs and bakers, whether amateur home creators or those in five-star restaurants, rely on. Butter. I posted the results of this adventure on my personal Facebook page. One friend commented that she didn’t realize butter was something that could be made at home. Honestly, I never thought of it as an at-home project either, but now that I’ve tasted the result, it’s going to be very difficult to want to reach for the package of stick butter at the store.
The very basic recipe isn’t really a recipe at all. Just put heavy whipping cream in a cold bowl and whip until you see the cream separate and the butter form. It took about 20 minutes. It’s even easy to add salt and other flavoring, as well as make it spreadable.
My next attempt will be yogurt in my pressure cooker. It will be a simple as dumping whole milk into the pressure cooker and hitting a button. We’ll see. It’s a little odd and very freeing to know I can make basic cooking and baking needs right at home, without fancy ingredients or tools outside of what I already have in my kitchen.
What is something you now make at home that you used to buy at the store? Let’s talk on Facebook!
I love to write. I have worlds upon worlds and dozens of characters and situations flowing through my creative mind. Sometimes it’s too much to write everything down and flesh each one out into a full story. The elite few that do make it to the status of WIP and eventually full story, need more than just writing. They need editing, too. From making sure “to” doesn’t become “too” or “two” or a wandering sentence doesn’t become a giant run-on paragraph, to making sure the main character’s name and hair and eye color stay the same throughout the story, there are a myriad of things to keep in check. These checks are all maintained through editing.
I love writing the story, imagining characters and places and all the rest. When it comes to the tedium of editing though, I’d much rather not. I’m a professional editor myself, and have edited non-fiction books, news articles, and more. These are all factual documents, where all I’m looking for is the difference between two and too and weather or not the name of the politician being interviewed is spelled correctly.
After months of work, and even a month of just letting it sit, I’m combing through one last time before I put my baby in the hands of someone who can truly make sure everything is as it should be. I am simultaneously jumping for joy and cowering in fear. Joyous that I have reached this step after so long, yet fearful of the potential judgment an editor will have of my work. No one has read this manuscript in its entirety since I finally decided to call it finished. It’s overwhelming to know that it will be seen, in full, by someone else’s eyes for the first time. Will they take one look at it and say ‘I can’t work with this, you’ll need to start from scratch’ or will they rave over it being the best thing they’ve read in the genre in years?
It’s a big step, but one I think I’m ready for.
Tell me about a time you took a big step toward something you weren’t certain about. Let’s talk on Facebook!
One of the things I decided to do this year (no, not a New Year’s Resolution), was to devote more time to my fiction writing. I’ve done that so far, and have been closer to the next steps of publishing than ever before. Now, I have time to kick it up even more. After weeks of contract and payment negotiations, I have parted ways with the company I was contracting with. Throughout the process my husband and I prepared our family finances for the hole losing this income will cause in the short term.
Thankfully, his business is beginning to boom, and while I continue to work toward my first book being published, I’ll be joining his business. He absolutely do not like writing. Also, he knows the value of my skills. As he organizes toward some next steps, I’ll be focusing on making sure the message he wants to send gets sent properly. I’ll be working on website content, documents, and other documents and files to make sure that too is too and not two, and that the sometimes rambling and stream-of-consciousness writing he produces is tight and ready to present to potential investors and clients.
While quitting my contract job may seem like a sad end to over three years with this company, I see it as a bright new horizon, full of opportunities and experiences that will strengthen my writing and editing muscles. The still flexible schedule working in my husband’s business provides will mean plenty of time for writing, so I can deliver what I hope will be your next favorite book.
It seems like you turn a certain age and you start to fall apart. Someone I know recently went to a regular physical, only to be alerted to several specific problems that needed attention. They were sent for tests, scans, work ups, whatever you want to call them. Another person I know had routine blood work done only to find a condition they didn’t know about.
For me, various things have been happening since I hit the big 4-0. Not long before, I was diagnosed with ‘frozen shoulder’ in my right shoulder. It was horrible. I couldn’t lift my arm above shoulder height, and couldn’t move it in any normal direction. Sleeping was uncomfortable, and working my semi-physical kitchen job at my son’s school was out of the question. I could no longer reach above my head to the upper shelves, or carry large trays of prepared side dishes to assemble lunches.
After a couple of steroid injections, the doctor recommended physical therapy. I went for about six weeks, with very little improvement. The next step was a procedure called ‘manipulation under anesthesia’ where I went under anesthesia at a hospital and he took my arm and moved/manipulated it until the adhesions finally broke away and the arm moved more normally. After the procedure, it was back to physical therapy. Shortly after the last session, and just before the follow up with the doctor, I heard a resounding crack in my right shoulder, followed by instant relief. When I saw the doctor, he said ‘congratulations, you’ve healed yourself!’
He elaborated again (as he had after the procedure) that I could get frozen shoulder again. Apparently once you have it, you will likely get it again, and usually in the other arm. I had sort of fallen out of the habit of all the physical therapy exercises, until I felt my left shoulder starting to tense in the same way the right had. So far, things have seemed to be going okay.
Fast forward a couple years and I get diagnosed with carpal tunnel. I’m faced with a surgery that, according to the doctor as well as several other people I’ve spoken with, may need to be repeated OR I wear braces on my arms while I sleep. The Velcro to open the braces rips very loudly, but that and a combination of basic stretches keeps the pain in check.
This round of physical therapy I’ve started addresses my lower limbs. Again, I’m putting it down to age since I’ve never had this before. I started to feel a pain in my left knee. It seems to be painful/tender around the knee cap, but there’s no bruising or other injury. After a visit to the doctor and a round of x-rays, he told me my knee cap is out of place, not dislocated, just out of place. Since there was pain, I compensated and started to walk differently, pushing my knee cap in a way it shouldn’t go. This round of physical therapy is to re-train the knee cap into the proper place.
Physical therapy is going well. I’ve been doing various exercises and stretches to help, but I still have a long way to go. It may sound like I’m complaining, but it’s a part of my life that influences my writing. This blog is about my life and my writing.
When is a time you’ve been injured? Did it result in the need for physical therapy or other drastic measures? What sort of influence did it have on your life?
