Curried Dinner

Living Well encourages you to Eat Well!  But that does not mean it has to cost a lot!

CURRIED DINNER

2 teaspoons olive oil

½ a bulb of fresh garlic, each piece peeled and roughly chopped

1-1/2 large onions, diced

2 diced tomatoes (or 1 can of diced tomato)

3 tablespoons curie powder

Salt, pepper or garlic powder to taste

2cups chunked raw chicken, or pork (you can use fish too I guess.  Beef is NOT traditional at all in India, but I suppose one could break with tradition and try it!!)

Add veggies as desired, or available, or as you like them!!! (my chosen this evening were cauliflower, red bell pepper, tomato, potato, and frozen green peas!)

2 carrots cut in little chunks

2 stalks celery, cut in 3rd long way, then cut in 1/2" chunks

1-2 cups cauliflower in bite size pieces

6-8 asparagus stems cut in 1/2" chunks

1-2 cups potato in bite sized cubes

1.            Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onion and garlic and sauté until soft and golden brown. Slowly stir in curry powder. Once ingredients are blended together, add meat, tomato, and cook 15 minutes.  Add remaining veggies. Cover skillet and simmer over medium low heat for about 30 minutes or until meat is cooked through and no longer pink inside.

2.            Remove cover from skillet and cook for an additional 15 minutes, until sauce reduces. (Note: Make sure that you stir and that dish does not burn, as curry powder burns very easily!)

3.            Serve over cooked brown Jasmine Rice with plain yogurt.

Eat well, 

Live Well

Love SuziQue

Follow Rural Girl SuziQue as she shares crochet designs and tutorials, healthy food, exercise, fun adventures, wise budgeting experience, living with congenital hip dysplasia, and so much more that will challenge, inspire and encourage you to truly live your life as fully and wonderfully as possible!

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Holding Hopes and Dreams: Why I LOVE REAL Books

Real paper and ink books are so munch more than a story, or words to take into my brain.  They are an experience, a relationship, a connection that cannot be replaced with technology, for me.  There is an old saying, it is often attributed as a Chinese Proverb ... To read a book for the first time is to make an acquaintance with a new friend; to read it for a second time is to meet an old one.

I recently started re-reading my 1850, possibly first edition, copy of Currer Bell's (aka Charlotte Bronte) "Shirley".  I came to have this treasure quite by accident I'm sure. I do not even recall exactly where I found it, but I know I was in a used book store, or possibly a second hand store.  As is typical for me when acquiring new volumes, I could FEEL the life energy vibrating off of this book directly at me.  Sometimes, I think that the books choose me, I don't choose them.  I am pretty sure that I paid no more than $2 for this book, to later discover it's true identity, and value.  This really is how I have come to have most of the prized books in my collection, though most are not as materially valuable as this one.  I read them. All of them.  Sometimes many many times, and sometimes skimming through them.  I have several wonderful books.  A few of them are recent, meaning within the last 20 years, but most are well over a hundred years old.  They are like friends.  They bring me comfort. They bring me wisdom.  They make me laugh and cry.  They bring me a connection to the past as no other antique pieces I have ever known.  Every word becomes a part of me, and helps to shape me.  My collection tends to be focused around antique textbooks, medical texts, and classic literature and poetry.

Their monetary value means nothing to me, what I value is the history, the connection that I feel with every previous owner that has read and treasured every word.  Each person has left a piece of their DNA on this book, and in my way of understanding, it can never be removed; and my own is now added to the life history of these tomes!

I love the way old books smell, when they are not dirty and musty that is!  I love the hand written notes in the margins, that give me a little glimpse into the psyche of a previous reader.  I rarely add my own notes, as I often feel that they simply do not live up to the depth of the aged ones.  I love when old pictures are used as page markers, and left, or when flowers are pressed in them.  I once found a small hand written dinner invitation, that while it does not have a year in the date, but by the day and month and style of hand writing, I would place it circa 1910!

When I hold any of my treasured books in my hands, when I read each word, when I let my fingers caress the ancient old pages, I feel that I have the honor and privilege of touching history.  Like I am holding hands with every hand that has caressed this treatise, and am contributing my own energy to the energy that it holds.  You cannot get these FEELINGS and connections from a kindle, or e-book! Or any other electronic form of literature!  I recognize the fun of technology, and the convenience and ease for travel purposes, and I even possess a few electronic forms of personal development and educational readings.  Still, in my heart and mind, nothing will ever replace a real live, paper page book for my literature!

One day, these beloved volumes will belong to another, most likely my daughter, as she as a similar love of my classic treasures!

Pick up a real book, and love it for the paper and link that made it for, "Many people, other than the authors, contribute to the making of a book, from the first person who had the bright idea of alphabetic writing through the inventor of movable type to the lumberjacks who felled the trees that were pulped for its printing.  It is not customary to acknowledge the trees themselves, though their commitment is total.  ~Forsyth and Rada, Machine Learning"

How My Husband LOVES ME!

I look across the room & see this man who loves me, just as I am.

He knows parts of my hurtful past, but does not often ask for details, because the woman that I am today is whom he loves.

He sees my weaknesses, but does not feel the need to point them out to me.

He encourages me to keep moving & growing myself forward & limit the looking back.

He does kind things for me without my asking, because it makes me happy & making me happy makes him happy.

He works very hard when it’s time to work & plays just as hard when it’s time to play.

He does not criticize me when the things I try don’t turn out the way that I want, but he will ask me what I learned so that we can make it better next time.

He takes serious things serious & he knows when to laugh at himself & me, in a loving way!

Love this unconditional is the very finest way of
Living Well,
Love,
Your Rural Girl,
SuziQue

Memories of My Past Alive Today

Back in August, there was a casual gathering of former schoolmates, at a tavern in my old hometown.  A couple of dozen people, some of whom I have known since first grade attended, and it really was a nice event.  There were little groups of 4-6 people talking and laughing, some trying to remember each other, telling stories and over-sharing memories, and events that shaped our lives.  We talked about common memories, like the school lunches, field day, the 6^th grade Cinderella play, and how economically divided our high school was.  We talked about things that have happened in our lives since we last saw each other at graduation; college, traveling, the divorces, the serious health issues, the career changes, the kids.  And here we are now in our grown-up lives, on even ground, peers, friends, where we were more acquaintances 30 years ago.  Comrades, now, in our quest to make sense of our youth, and how it fits into our lives today.

At home, as I drifted off to sleep that night, I was flooded with memories of being a misfit, of being different, teased, and ignored.  There were many memories of laughing and learning and having fun.  I fell asleep and had a dream of being the me of today, a mom, on my daughter’s wedding day, and trying to make everyone happy, and get things set up, but I was still a high school student, and trying to take care of my school responsibilities as well, and consequently doing none of those things well.  In waking, I realized that all of those fun and sometimes painful events of my past combine to make me the Woman that I am today.  A woman that I love, and a woman who is learning and growing, and nurturing.  I am now a woman who can look back at those times with a reasonably well-adjusted, perspective.

As a parent, I tried to use my painful memories as building blocks for my children; I tried to teach them to be compassionate toward those that were being picked on, and to defend them.  I taught them to respectfully stand up for themselves if they were being picked on.  I taught them the verbal skills and scripts necessary to put a bully in check.  All of this despite my own low self-esteem, inferiority complex, and mild social anxiety disorder, because I refused to let my kids grow up learning to be afraid, from me (at least as best as I could manage!)!  Of course, they will have their own issues, as we all do, from our childhoods, and parents!  However, as I see it, my brother and I grew up relatively ok, despite the best efforts of our parents, and my kids have grown up relatively ok, despite my best efforts, and my future grand children will follow suit as well!

So, what did I come away with after this little, unofficial, school reunion?  While I have an anguished kind of love for the girl that I once was, and have deep compassion for the hurtful things she experienced, I deeply love the Woman that I have become because of what she dealt with!  Moreover, I love the Woman who I am continuing to become even more!  How appropriate that the encouraging text message of the day said, “Free yourself by freeing your own emotions.  Express your feelings”.

Now, if I can better learn how to free and express my feelings, then I will enter a new level of the freedom that I already have!  A freedom that I use little of to be honest! Baby steps... baby steps!

Love you to as you continue your own path to

Living Well

Love Suzi~Q

Control -vs- In-Charge

I'm Suzi, and I'm co-dependent.

I have been going to 12-step meetings for a little more than a year now.  It took me almost 10 months before I bought a book to work through the 12 steps.  It has taken me another 4 to get to the point that I am willing to start working through the questions in it!  Here I am, looking straight into the eyes of 2011, and wanting to dive a little deeper into me, so I opened my work book, and decided that (most) every Sunday I would write about one question in the workbook, in order, from beginning to end, and without skipping any of them!

Step 1: We admit that we are powerless over others - that our lives had become unmanageable.

Question 1: Am I controlling? How?

I am far less controlling than I was when my children were young! Back then I had to make sure things were under control, otherwise I did not feel like we were safe. Controlling what the kids were doing, and how they were doing it kept us safe, in my mind. I could control what their dad was doing to some degree, and that kept us safe.  So many things were out of control, and so unmanageable! I felt so powerless, but if I knew what to expect from the pattern of behavior, then I could know what to do to keep everyone safe.

I just got off the phone with my daughter.  I told her I was writing on this question today. She said that yes, I am controlling, but that I want to control those things and situations that directly impact me, and my household. She told me that even when she was little, I did not try to control other people, except my kids, and that was my job. That she saw that I was not trying to control what her dad was doing, that that I was trying to control the situation that was out of control, that I was trying to bring order to the chaos.

I HATE chaos! I must have calm, and peace and order in my world.  If I cannot have it in general, I would have it in what ever corner was mine to control. Sometimes that was simply my desk/office space at home, or my laundry room, or my dresser.  When my life and finances and family was falling apart around me, I sought solace in cleaning and organizing my closets.

I do not have to be in control of things, but things but be under control!  My body reacts with tension in my neck and shoulders when chaos reigns.  I need for there to be a plan. A rhyme, a reason, a rhythm. There is a scripture in the bible that says to do all things decently, and in order, and that has been so true for me.

When my home is tidy, I can rest.  When I understand how things work, I can roll with change.  When I pack all the different outfits, I can be spontaneous with my boyfriend! But gee, what if he wants to take me out dancing, and I only have my dirty work jeans, and hiking boots!  So I pack snuggle clothes, and going out clothes, and working in the yard clothes, and wandering around town clothes, and visiting the family and friends clothes ... now I can say YES! to anything he suggests we do! That is control, for me.

So, as I look at this question ... Am I controlling?  It really is a question that requires a yes, or no, answer ... I feel like I can say, No, I am not CONTROLLING.  I am in control, I am in charge.

I am in charge of my life. I am in charge of my household. I am in charge of my responsibilities.  I don't expect anyone else to make my decisions, and I don't try to make decisions for people that I am not responsible for, and as my children grow and launch from my household, I don't try to decide for them.  I offer suggestions, and counsel, and not always when they ask, and sometimes when they don't, but I offer my input, and can walk away knowing full well that they are intelligent young adults that I have trained well, and they can make their own decisions. And they can carry the responsibility for them.

I have control by knowing the ground rules, and functioning inside them. I have enough to do to keep myself safe and happy and warm and well, without trying to manipulate other people. If they do not see the wisdom that I offer, that is their own choosing, and I can rest well knowing that!

Peace and love to you all as we walk together in this quest to
Live Well!
Love SuziQ