When I was first starting on my knitting journey (fall of 2006!), I found a few podcasts. I was already pretty much of a big geek, and this seemed like a fun way to enjoy my new-found hobby by listening to others talk about it! I had just gotten my first iPod at the time, and learning how to use these audio files was great fun.

cartoon kristine: mascot of the Yarnings podcast!

Fast forward to a few years later, and podcasts were such a joy to me when I was mostly bed-bound from my illnesses. I started to interact with some of the podcasters on twitter and ravelry groups, and I got brave enough to meet a few of them at OFFF, and they encouraged me to start my own podcast (the currently inactive Yarnings Podcast, which I still think may come back some day). These lovely ladies and others I've met through podcasts are some of my dearest friends now, through the wonder of the internets to keep us connected.

Last year, I got an iPad, and was able to really explore videocasts in a bigger way. Between that and the boom of knitting friends on instagram, I was able to keep up with friends in a visual way, and I love that!

note the pink earbuds!

If I'm not listening to music at home, I'm listening to podcasts. If I'm out and about on my own, my pink earbuds are with me and I've got on something encouraging or entertaining. If I'm sitting in bed knitting, it's a regular feature in my instagram feed that you'll see what I'm knitting with my iPad featured with what I'm watching. So it's a pretty constant thing for me!

So without further ado, here are podcasts that I love and listen to/watch (links go to the podcast websites, where links can be found to download in a podcast app or listen directly from the site):

It's the start of a new week, and so I'll start by reflecting on last week. It was a week of some exciting food experiments, and several meals out to balance with the healthy small meals I cooked in. My husband E had a particularly busy week at work, and so his company bought them lunch, so the leftovers earmarked for him turned into leftovers for me!

Here's how the week looked:

• Sunday, 8/11: cooking together day! brunch IN. Copied an idea from Slappycakes for a Sweet Potato sausage casserole with vegeburger, chia coconut milk, dave's killer bread ground into crumbs, and kale. served with scrambled egg whites and a salad. dinner IN: chicken patty, cauliflower, and cheddar cheese.
• Monday, 8/12: Asian meal - miso baked tofu with ginger and garlic, egg foo young casserole with brown gravy, steamed broccoli, jicama, and edamame.
• Tuesday, 8/13: 13th Anniversary! met for dinner at a local pizza parlor (Vancouver Pizza). I had honey wheat pizza with peppers and pineapple and a giant salad with walnuts, chicken, broccoli, and raisins.
• Wednesday, 8/14: Mexican buffalo salad. Inspired by Sandy's Cream Buffalo Chicken Bake and Buffalo Chicken in the Slow Cooker, I did a version that I started in the slow cooker and then finished in the oven. Serves over cabbage and onions with some corn tortillas to eat the messiness with!
• Thursday, 8/15: Italian: stuffed peppers and spaghetti. Intended to do zucchini boats, but peppers were on sale! vegeburger and cauliflower and cottage cheese with seasonings inside, some smoked mozzarella and puréed spaghetti sauce on top and baked. (this recipe may get posted in the near future!)
• Friday, 8/16: leftover Italian, leftover Asian.
• Saturday, 8/17: breakfast OUT: greasy egg white italian sausage omelet. lunch OUT: Chipotle chicken salad with pico de gallo and corn salsa. dinner IN: cauliflower with chicken sausage, baked apple with granola and ice cream.

In addition, I took a few bonus pics of my breakfast/lunch foods this week. I posted my recipe for Blueberry Fluffcakes to theredkitchen after more experimenting. I want to participate in parfait Tuesday on instagram, so I took a picture of that even though it wasn't pretty!

Slightly sassy quote from my Facebook this week:

"is that ALL you are eating?" vs. "are you eating ALL of that?" both interesting (read: crazy-making) comments to receive. eyes on your own plate, people everybody is different! :)

Coming up this next week is an interesting combo of easy things and ways to use what was is my fridge. Not rocket science or anything! I'm getting ready for my anniversary trip, so that planning (or striving to plan less and experience more while still having food and clothes ready for any situation...) will take up a little of my creative energy I bet.

Did you cook anything that you absolutely loved this last week? :)

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For non-knitting friends, the acronyms WIP, FO, and KAL might sound silly - they stand for "Work in Process", "Finished Project", and "Knit A Long" :) I've been knitting more the last few months, and it is making me super happy, and considering all these things. Ravelry is open in more browser tabs than I will admit most of the time! I've also been missing reporting on these things on my fairly defunct podcast, which may make a return someday.

FO: my On Caspertine, In Love socks is another attempt at a sock pattern I really loved and wore them out. I did a bit of math to make things work a little better this time around. And I used some yarn that reminds me of a movie which reminds me of love: Stardust, the airship's is Caspertine, and that's the colorway. Great movie, E and I watched it on our anniversary one year and so it will be forever linked with LOVE in my head. So the yarn colorway inspired the socks, which inspired picking a pattern with hearts that I loved, and it reminded me of love throughout! Yarn is from Toil and Trouble, with "bookishly inspired" colorways.

WIP: my Enchanting Temptress is the Tempting cardigan from Knitty in Knit Picks Imagination. It is a striped cardi that has been in my queue for years, and when this yarn was on sale, I picked these two, hoping they would go together for a steal. They most definitely do. current status: knit in one piece to the armholes, cast on for sleeves in the round, two at a time. need to buy buttons!

WIP: my lichen tide cowl is a long cowl using the lace pattern from the Low Tide cardigan I made earlier this summer. I cast on with JMCO and left those stitches live for easy grafting at the end. My friend Jennifer even knit a few repeats at coffee the other morning for me :) current status: I'm just knitting it until I run out of yarn! 17g of yarn left.

WIP: a re-knit of a pattern I designed several years back and haven't released yet. woot, I LOVE it, with Yarn Vs. Zombie yarn.

• Sunday, 8/4: OUT Sweet Tomatoes breakfast
• Monday, 8/5: Picnicy meal - quinoa tabbouleh (inspired by this about.com recipe with less quinoa), corn on the cob, griller prime on Dave killer's bread, apple cole slaw (inspired by this greenlitebites recipe). some interesting discussion about my quinoa tabbouleh was on my Instagram pic.)
• Tuesday, 8/6: French - Caramelized lemon caper chicken with veggie cake (French Women Don't Get Fat cookbook, page 104)
• Wednesday, 8/7: Mexican salad with poached chicken, corn salsa (corn, red onion, jalapeño, lime juice, red onion), avocado, and feta
• Thursday, 8/8: Breakfast-for-dinner: veggie egg white scramble with homemade turkey sausage (lean ground turkey, veggies, bread, egg, mozzarella)
• Friday, 8/9: Freezer meal - Trader Joe vegetarian meatballs over cauliflower, mozzarella, and cottage cheese
• Saturday, 8/10: OUT Red Robin - Chicken Teriyaki burger on lettuce bun, with a salad; IN Turkey celery salad with cranberries, bread, and corn on the cob

Foreshadowing: This coming week features our 13th wedding anniversary, and I'm going to allow myself a special meal to celebrate (the word "treat" seems to make more sense to me than "spurge" or :cringe: "cheat", but really, I think it's about balancing and planning for something special and consciously eating even more carefully for the meals around it). I've got a few new inventions in the works for the week as well.

Did you cook anything that you absolutely loved this last week? :)

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• Breakfast - eat a meal everyday within 30 minutes of waking, usually a smoothie/shake with lots of ice to sip while reading morning feeds.
• Exercise - regularly moving more, and turning those movements into a routine.
• Support - reaching upward to mentors and cheering on peers. I'm inspired by other people taking steps to turn their health around, including my #watchmedothis friends on instagram, several private Facebook groups, and and everyone around me who is living healthy and takes the time to cheer me on!
• Low fat meals, 6 times a day - I am eating high protein and making careful choices on types of carbs. And keeping my blood sugar more constant by eating every 3 hours.
• Individual plan - every weight loss story is a little different, what works for me won't work for everyone! My ratio of protein:carbs:fat is still a trial and error thing! learning where to skimp and where to stay the course is taking extra tracking until I understand my body well enough to do it intuitively.
• Monitoring - watch how clothes fit regularly, take weight/measurments periodically, and documenting my feelings. This also means keeping a well-stocked pantry and fridge to know that I have sufficient healthy foods on hand.

A great thing about this acronym is that I can see how I am setting dreams and/or goals to go with each letter! Exercise is probably the one has come less easy for me. With fibromyalgia and CFIDS, I've always gotten more easily tired. I find that when I can do a little bit at a time, I am more easily able to work my way up. It will continue to be something to strive towards more, working more reps or time and challenging myself to different activities besides just walking!

So what do you think? Do you like acronyms or just find them cheesy? Does this BESLIM idea resonate with you?

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letting you in on some of my hopes and dreams and queuing it up in bite size chunks! If I had a podcast, these would be some of the things I shared ;)

next up, to watch: I just finished a complete re-watch of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I still have one season of Angel to go. Before next season, I'd like to get caught back up on the end of last season's Bones. And the next big thing I want to dig into with Eric is Supernatural. I still need to own Avengers so I can watch the specials!

next up, to read: We are slowly making our way through the Discworld series by Terry Pratchett (now on Soul Music, #16). I'm reading a wide variety of Health and Cookbooks from the library. And my next personal fiction listen will be Divergent by Veronica Roth. my goodreads profile

next up, podcasts: While the last few months have been super full, I've let the list of podcasts I was listening/watching get neglected. I'm working through back episodes of several of my favorites finally - I think I made it through 4 different shows this week that I really wanted to see the whole while-I-was-gone collection! There are others I'm going to have to declare podcast bankruptcy and mark as read and start from now!

next up, to knit: I've been collecting yarn and patterns to knit once I got closer to my goal weight. There are 6 contenders for the next sweater/top to cast on. All of these are in my stash, it's just time to figure out which is going to be the best one to have to wear next. And beyond that, there are the socks on the needles, a skein that needs to be turned into socks or a shawl for my anniversary trip. I also have several designs that need knitting/reknitting/test knitting, and a few things I set aside for a little while. my ravelry queue

pattern+yarn contenders 1

patterns+yarn contenders 2

next up, in the house: I'm doing a lot of deep cleaning. There are several closets that need a complete overhaul and several trips to goodwill. I need to determine what to do with the handknits that are too large for me. And I need to put a bunch of my stash up on ravelry as available to destash. I hope to "renovate" a drawer area to utilize for spices to free up another area of my countertop for useful tasks.

next up, in life: my anniversary is coming up soon :) Further out, I need to determine what the holiday season will look like and begin planning. My business will flourish, in the future. And I will keep working on my health very closely.

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