Mimmsical Creations

Wow. It has been a lot longer than I thought since I posted here! I took an unexpected/unplanned break!


I've decided to jump back into blogging, but I'm going to do so at a new blog home! I hope you all will come visit me again over at my new place!


Off Center Studio - http://offcenterstudio.blogspot.com/.


I hope to hear from some of you who used to stop by here!! I've missed you! :)


Hugs,

Tammy

Today's Wishcasting Wednesday prompt is: Where do you wish to go?

I wish to go:

• to Oregon - permanently!
  
• to Italy - wine country
  
• forward
  
• to Hawaii
  
• back to NYC again!
  
• into a place of authentic creativity and self.

Wishcasting Wednesday prompt:

"What do you wish to become?"

Short, sweet and to the point. I wish to become the "real me". I'm working on that!

During Circe's Circle last week, Jamie led us on a guided visualization. (I have had some amazing things happen during guided visualizations in the past - I had a conversation with Merlin, the wizard, once!)

In this one, she took us to 10 years in the future to converse with ... well, ME. I saw the real me - the Phaedra side of me - living on the coast in Oregon - being the person I know I am and the real me.

I want to get to that point before 10 years from now!

You may have noticed - I haven't been posting nearly as much lately as I used to.

Part of the reason for this is that I haven't been feeling well for several months now. I have been dealing with migraines for many years now. I've had many doctors tell me "there's nothing wrong with you"... But then why does my head feel like it's going to explode?! On a bad week, I have 4-5 migraines. On a good week, maybe 2.

Since about October, I have been taking a daily medicine to try and prevent the migraines from ever starting. The medicine is an anti-convulsant that is now being used for migraines. It is EXPENSIVE (even with insurance) and I am realizing - the side effects are worse than any benefit I'm getting from it! I've given it a good long try, but yesterday, I went to see my doctor and I am stopping it!

I feel like I have the flu about 90% of the time on it. I am achy, and exhausted all the time. I have had a couple of "episodes" where I couldn't form complete thoughts and sentences because I was so completely exhausted. It was a bit scary. It felt like I had mono again truthfully. Many mornings, I wake up more tired than when I went to bed. It is hard to function when you feel like that all the time.

So - my energy level has dictated my blog posting. I haven't wanted to really post about how I feel all the time, but I guess I wanted to share now! :) I am tapering off of the old medicine over the next few days, and I'm starting a new medicine that apparently is being used to try and prevent migraines now... It's an anti-depressant. (Migraines ARE depressing!) So, I'm hopeful that I'll start feeling better over the next couple weeks! (Mike is too!) Maybe I'll have more things to share if I start having actual energy to do anything outside of the house!!

I normally don't like Rachel Ray. She annoys me for some reason... however, she does have good recipes on her show now and then. On this particular day, she was featuring eggplant, so I kept it on to hear the recipe! Boy, am I glad I did. This recipe was YUMMY! It was supposed to be a 30-minute meal, but it definitely took me longer than that. It was still a pretty easy meal overall though - and really tasty! And it was pretty healthy too! :) (The recipe features a side of orzo too - I only made the eggplant though.)

First you slice up two smallish eggplants into about 8 slices (length-wise). This is a bit tricky in my opinion! Brush each slice with olive oil and grill both sides for about 4 minutes each. (Grill pan - I don't have an actual grill!) While the eggplant is grilling - sauté some garlic, diced roasted red pepper (from a jar), and thawed frozen spinach. (you're also supposed to put in diced olives - I forgot them!)

Once your eggplant is done and your veggies are sauteed, lay out the slices of eggplant on a baking sheet - put a few spoonfuls of the veggie mixture on each slice of eggplant. I put a few crumbles of feta on each slice at this point too (though the recipe didn't call for it!)

Then spread a couple big spoonfuls of hummus on each slice and top with breadcrumbs! Bake the whole tray for about 10 minutes at 400 degrees. Enjoy - it's really good! :)

Inauguration Day. I have never been so aware before of a day like this in our history. I am aware today. I can't turn off the TV!

My high school alma mater marching band is in Washington DC today. They were chosen to march in the parade there! How cool is that?! I marched all four years of my high school career (except when I had knee surgery!) I was on the color guard and played either French Horn or Bass Clarinet in concert band.

I went to Windsor (about 15 miles from where I live now) last Wednesday afternoon to watch the band in a mini-parade for the community in preparation for their trip. They looked awesome! I hope they rock today in Washington and enjoy the amazing experience they are having! I also have a short video of them playing. You can see it here. I can't get it to embed correctly on my blog this morning!

I wanted to share our holidays with you, even though they are well past! Mike's birthday falls right before Christmas. We had quite the crazy couple of weeks filled with celebrating and presents! Mike was very good to me for Christmas! Not only did he buy me a couple things that I had put on my "list" - he surprised me with other unexpected things too! Project Runway - Season 4 DVDs were on my list! Yay! Amazing, superb jewelry was a surprise!!

The gift wrap was also entertaining! Mike does not do gift wrap. I'm lucky if anything is even sort of wrapped. He sort of outdid himself with one of my gifts! It was wrapped in a brown paper bag (from a local restaurant) and "taped" with tape from a lint roller that he tore into strips. So lovely! And then right next to it was the lovely present that the jewelry store wrapped for him - what a contrast! We had a good laugh about that!

We enjoyed our low-key holidays. We spent a lot of time enjoying our new TV and blu-ray/playstation as well! I did a lot of cooking of recipes that I got from spending way too much time watching the Food Network - my new addiction!

Baked Garlic Cheese Grits - a little bit of southern heaven in a pan from Paula Deen. Yummy!!

And Brussel Sprout cooked with Pancetta - WOW! I can't remember which show these were on! But, man, were they ever good! I also made these hash browns from Tyler Florence. Of course, they weren't as easy as he made them look - but they were tasty!

And just because I have some really adorable photos of our cats, and I haven't shared any in a while - here are some great shots! :)