Long busy summer!

 I really suck at this blogging thing. I think of all kinds of cool things I could write about, rants about world issues, that kind of stuff, oh look, a squirrel! Having two small businesses, a child in his senior year, and the rest of life seems to take away any time I might have to write. With the new year fast approaching, I'll try to be better about it. (Hey, at least I remembered my password this time!)

 I do have to admit that Facebook takes up WAY too much of my time, like a lot of people. Why actually sit down and work out long and involved thoughts, when you can whip something off in short 2-3 line comments. (I don't use Twitter, but I hear the same thing about it.) As an Aspie, I love being able to interact with other people, yet still have the ability to keep my distance if things get too involved. That is one of my major faults, I get way too involved with others, to the point it affects my own life. It is a very difficult skill, to be able to be 'friends', yet not let someone else's life overwhelm your own. Add on top of that the Aspie thing, and there is a situation for disaster in the making if there ever was one.

 With discovering Etsy, I finally found a place to sell the various artsy stuff that I like to do in my non-existent free time. I'm restructuring my week to do the bakery half the week, and artsy stuff half the week. It has put a serious crimp in what little social life I have, which feeds back into the Facebook issue. I wish one or the other would take off, and I could concentrate on one, but so far things are not turning out that way. I'm considering returning to personal chef work to bring in some extra income.

 Another new thing that is totally wiping out my time is the CSA box we started getting 2 weeks ago. After shopping at the farmer's market for a while, we decided due to several factors that a dietary shift was in order. We had been succumbing to eating out as grocery costs climbed, and I got busier. With the drought and the demise of the flock, we had pretty much given up our daydream of growing enough food to feed us, plus some to sell. Enter the CSA.

 I had wanted to join a CSA from the first time I heard about them. Moving from a rural community with fresh food available year round to the big city was a huge shock. The quality of our food dropped off big time, and we fell into the eating out trap. When I cooked, I missed those flavors of truly fresh food. When the economy crashed and factory farm food became nearly expensive as organic locally grown, I started really checking out the local CSAs. Shelling out $300+ at one time was a bit scary though, so when  I saw that Johnson's Backyard Garden had a short term CSA box, I was willing to give it a try. I figured if it sucked, I was out $150, and 4 weeks worth of time. If the box worked out, then we would have no excuse and every reason for eating better.

 The first box came, and it had a ton of great veggies. However, the problem with this ton of fresh veggies is getting them dealt with before they go bad. Cooking from total scratch takes up a good half of my day, like it used to back in the homesteading days. I do have to say that the food is great, and we are all going to feel much better. We've already started losing weight, which had crept up during the eating out times. And combined with the organic meats we are getting, the meals are better than anything I've had eating out, and I've eaten out in some pretty swank places.

 All those things combined have pretty much sucked away any time I had to write down the random thoughts flitting around inside my head, and I've been missing it, so I will squeeze in some time to dash off things as I think of them. (I hope!) I foresee lots more coffee in my future!