Succulent Probz

My simplicity is starting to get to me in the succulent department. I never thought I'd say it, but I kind of want less of them. It is an addiction though. I actually found myself getting the slightest bit anxious yesterday when I went to Home Depot, and the succulent selection wasn't very good. That's sad! But then in the next breath I want less. I'd probably be happy with all the ones I have, but they're just not doing good! No amount of light to water ratio is working for them yet. I'm guessing it has to do with the fact that most of them were indoors for an extended period of time. I was reading something the other day about them having to adjust again when you bring them back outside. That would explain why they got sunburned after leaving them outside for only two days. One of my plants literally died the day after I bought it. I bought it, put it in the sun the next day, and the day after that it was so burned that it's basically dead now. That one pissed me off. I didn't even get to enjoy it. That's actually what I was looking for yesterday when I went to Home Depot was the same species to replace the one that died.

But anyway, they're becoming more trouble than they're worth. With them not being able to be watered often to the intermittent frost, it's getting to be a lot to handle. Every time it rains, I have to worry if it will kill them or not. And when it frosts, I have to bring every plant (roughly 15 if I had to guess) inside. I'm just going to have to wait until we move into a house with an environment they can thrive in. This house is not that. It's way too dark. The only place that's good for them is in Daniel's room, but he doesn't like them in there.

What I'm thinking of doing to alleviate some of the stress is getting a pretty big pot and adding 4 possibly 5 plants to one pot. That way I won't have to move as many around. Now I'm getting all excited, but it's 10:19 on a Tuesday night, so I don't think I'll be hitting up any hope improvement stores tonight. But tomorrow...possibly.

Garden

I finally planted a vegetable garden! I'll have to get a good picture, but I couldn't be happier. It's the perfect sized, wooden, raised garden. I've planted onions, tomatoes, cucumbers, yellow bell peppers, "big Bertha" bell peppers, zucchini, squash, and two types of jalapeños. I didn't realize how much room the onions would take up though! It's about 50% of the 3x5 space. But, we do use a lot of onions. It's crazy to see how fast everything is growing! I can already see new types of leaves forming from the plants I planted on Friday, as well as the ones I planted yesterday. The first batch of cucumber plants didn't make it though. It looked bad to begin with, but it was the best one of the bunch. 

I'm going to start composting soon. I have to get a container and worms, but I'm pretty excited. I've wanted to compost forever! I'd like to get a metal trash can. However, you can use a plastic tub, but I prefer the look of the metal. But we'll see. I looked at target today, since we were in the area, but they didn't have what I was looking for. 

I'm in love with this weather. I've been outside for at least a few hours everyday since the weather has been nice. I just love nature. I feel so happy when I'm outside among green things. 

I really need to go to goodwill. It's just kind of far away now and I never remember to go when I'm available to. I need to go soon though.

Subtract

I really want to get back into being more minimal. I mostly need to go through some clothes. And take what I've already gone through to first try and sell, and then donate whatever doesn't sell. I have a few beauty products, perfume, and make up that I don't really want. But I don't hate the product so I guess I may as well use it. I've been a bit stressed out though because Daniel has been bringing a bunch of tools and stuff from his moms that we REALLY don't have room for. I've been dreading this from the moment I saw there was a workshop in Daniel's basement. Because I knew eventually his mom was going to move out, not need all the tools and end up giving them to us. I know tools are useful, they're just not the prettiest things and we just don't have to storage for them right now. I guess if I can at least keep the inside minimal, then we'll be ok.

Man the thing I hate about going through clothes is that I don't want to get rid of something that I wear, but only every once in a while. Cause sometimes you do have to change it up.

Cabins and North Carolina

Lately, I've been obsessed with everything cabiny. I'm longing to be in a cabin. Or maybe just the mountains. I love being in the mountains so much. I've often wondered if I could live in the mountains though. I mean I love it, but usually there aren't many places to work besides touristy places. Also, I hate to admit it, but I like being close to malls and Target lol.

I'm ready for warm weather. My plants don't like it inside.

Daniel fried up some sausage in a pan for dinner tonight and he used the oil that we bought from the fancy oil and vinegar store in Blue Ridge. It was a good smell. The oil brought me right back to the cabin we stayed at for our one year anniversary. It took me to the funny story of how we tried to make pancakes with that oil because the pans there were terrible and we forgot to buy butter. The single pancake that did turn out tasted like it would be served as an appetizer at an Italian restaurant.

My days lately have consisted of laying on the floor with many blankets and pillows browsing on the computer or reading. Tonight I'm doing that while drinking a beer that I brewed. It's a brown ale. I'm thinking of taking a bath soon with some of my lovely Lush bath products. I used to absolutely hate baths until I discovered Lush products.

Last night was absolute Hell

So my stomach decided it wanted to do one of it's upset for 6+ hours thing again. I'm not entirely sure what caused it this time, but I have a pretty good idea. So I bought these Lara Bars in the flavor cherry cobbler on manager's special. I decided to take a bite of one of them and my tongue literally started burning. Not in a spicy way, but an itchy, burning sensation. Then my gum felt like it started throbbing. I also felt what seemed to be numbness trickling down my throat. It was a very scary feeling. I was worried my airway may collapse, but luckily it didn't go past mild numbness. I checked the ingredients and there wasn't anything out of the ordinary. It actually had very minimal ingredients. The only two ingredients that I wasn't sure about were brown rice syrup and dates. I'm not sure if I've ever had dates before, but I know I've had brown rice before. I'm not sure what else would go into the syrup though.  But pretty much as that sensation was starting to go away, my stomach started feeling TERRIBLE. This lasted from like 11pm-3am then it came back when Daniel left for work around 6:30. I ended up having to make myself throw up a few times, because the pain would just not end. I seemed to feel mostly better after the second time, but like I said it ended up coming back. Oh I should also add that I couldn't fall asleep because I was in so much pain. I think I finally fell asleep around 3:30. It was just all around a really bad night and I feel like death today, because of it.

Succulents

So some of you may or may not know this about me, but I love succulents and cacti. I think I finally figured out why: they relax me. I love watching them grow and seeing the new things they do. I actually get feelings for them, as weird as that sounds. Like I was genuinely sad when a few of them died (due to lack of sunlight). But I'm slowly learning which ones work and which ones don't for my house (it's been a painful process).

But anyway, I just bought 3 new ones today. I'm a bit sad though, because once I got home and did some research about one of them (3rd pictured), I discovered it was severly etiolated. Etiolated means that it stretches and becomes thin, due to lack of sufficient sunlight. Basically, once the branches and leaves begin to do that, there's no turning back for that branch. So I'm basically going to have to wait for it all to grow back in again, because 98% of the plant is like that. Also, the other plant I bought was like that about 40% (1st pictured), but I believe that one will grow back quickly. I knew it was etiolated when I bought it, but tried to pick the one with the least amount. I really wanted that particular one.

This is what the plant is supposed to look like:

It doesn't even look like the same plant. I actually thought they labeled it wrong on the tag, but its just that stretched out. So I'm hoping that one will grow back fast now that it's getting better sunlight. I actually just went ahead and put them outside since they're all more hardy than I thought.

Monomeal Detox

I'm thinking of possibly doing a "monomeal detox". Monomeals are basically where you eat one type of fruit or vegetable for a meal, until you are full. A lot of people do mostly fruit. I'd like to do maybe 50/50 if possible, because I know it's not good to eat lots of sugar. But anyway, I'm not sure when I'll start this yet. I'd like to do it anywhere from 3-7 days depending on how well it goes. Lately,  I've just felt so sluggish, tired, and just generally bad. I've been eating horrible. I just need something easy to cleanse my body. This monomeal idea is simple. There's really no thinking involved. Just pick a fruit or vegetable and eat. No juicing recipes, no salads, no ingredient substitutions: just simplicity.

However, the reason I'm not starting this ASAP is because Daniel's mom bought me a giant Reece's peanut butter heart for Valentine's Day. I'm really not a sweets person, and I don't have the heart to tell her to not buy me candy. I could give it to Daniel, but I feel bad doing that for some reason. Maybe I'll give him half who knows. I just think it would be fun to do the cleanse together, but he probably wouldn't even want to do it.

I  just know I'm tired of feeling like garbage and I need something to kick me back into healthy gear. Summer isn't too far away after all.