(no subject)

 unfortunately I'm not putting in the orchard I'd planned to do this year. I just don't have the money to afford the trees plus netting and I don't know if I'll even have the time to put them in or care for them

bleh

there's always next year. 

and maybe I'll spend less money on seeds

(no subject)

I think my plan for today is to go ice skating this afternoon and eat a mid afternoon lunch kind of thing before hand. I don't know if I'll really feel like making a complicated dinner after so I think I'll leave that until tomorrow night when I know I'll have time. 

So I'm pretty much free to goof around until skate. I'm waiting to vacuum until Jade wakes up/gets up and then I might clean in my room or maybe plan video games. 

I've also got homemade fig newtons in the oven, which I'll post the recipe in a bit. The only bad thing is that they need to steam and "age" for like six hours before eating and that makes me sad. 

GF Fig Newtons

Fig Newtons, oh so delicious. I love them. I know a lot of people don't. But I super duper love fig newtons. I used to eat them every time I could convince my mom to buy them which was frequently. I can't eat the commercial ones anymore but I adapted Stella Parks' recipe from Bravetart and they are SO GOOD. I used mandarin oranges today because that's what I had on hand but the recipes calls for regular oranges. I haven't eaten this batch yet because it's maturing but I can't wait! This is a food processor needed recipe for turning the figs to paste.

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(no subject)

 tonight's skating was lots of fun!

at first I was concerned because I pulled into the school and the entire parkinng lot and half of the next was filled (big parking lots). There was some event at the building, still havent' figured out what because I didn't see anyone bringing equipment in but something was happening. It wasn't bad except for some parents brought their other kids and so there was a pack of 8-10 year old children engaging in shenanigans in the rink. going the wrong way, falling on purpose, randomly skating, stopping to take photos in the way, etc. they calmed down eventually. And also the parents with kids who could barely skate just took over the center of the rink which was a much better place than the rest of the rink where they were in the way of the faster skaters. 

there was just more people than normal so I worked on 1. balance which led to 2. right crossovers and 3. c cuts and shifting weight. 

I started by pushing off and then holding that skate up off the ice as long as I could, back and forth, whether fast or slow. Eventually I started leaving my left foot up near the front of my right skate, which I then started working into crossovers. 

I can now do a left crossover, skate two steps, do a right crossover, skate two steps and repeat all the long side of the rink which I'm pretty pleased with. I'm still having a little difficulty doing the right crossover on the turn but I think it's just because at the end I was trying to work too sharp of a circle. Traffic was still going left and there were a few people still skating so I was on a much smaller circle so they didn't get worried. It would be nice to use a faceoff circle but there's too much risk of collision. 

the c cuts and weight shifts came because I thought it was a good idea. It took a bit to get into the rhythm but I started with a half rink, doing c cuts and not lifting either skate to push myself forward, only adding speed through c cuts. then I started working the turns and I ended up doing three or four laps of the rink in a row just doing the c cuts and not lifting my skates. that really worked my hips. 

towards the end, I also started working on balance on turns by doing the push off and hold but on either foot.

I worked up such a sweat that I took my hat off for about ten minutes towards the end to cool down. I also worked both my hips evenly today but doing all the above things. I've got my left crossovers 90% of the time smoothly and it's really neat. 

I also just skated around a while at the end and that was great. 

lessons start wednesday!