My best friend gets to stay home with her son these days. It is good because we live here. And he looks like this.

There is something unbelievably therapeutic in the idea of family stay-at-home time.

Haley and I are starting out on an adventure. One in which we spend these last couple of months living together and making things. Our first project is butter.
We are excited about this. I have found a spectacular butter website. Called Butter through the ages. We are going to attempt butter and then ghee and possible some yogurts and cheeses. I think we can do this. We are clever, reasonably capable women, who enjoy each other and don't really mind making messes. We do, however, both like being successful in our small endeavors. Hopefully we can manage.

It was brought to my attention recently by my acupuncturist that I should not be eating soy. At. All. With my thyroid problems. Soy is high in estrogen and, as far as balancing your hormonal system goes, that is not helpful. Also not terribly helpful is the fact that every store bought baked good is made with soybean oil (or Canola oil which is to be avoided on principal). This has made my life a little bit more . . . whats the right word? Difficult, certainly. Interesting, probably. Quite by the grace of God, I live with at least one man (and more often four men) who bake. They are marvels, really. They bake. John is a phenom in the cookie department. Kris experiments with pies of all sorts, cream ones lately. TJ has been known to make hamburger buns, calzones, pizza dough, and breads. And Daniel. Well, Daniel makes bread. Daniel is some kind of bread genius. He makes artisan loaves for dinner. He is a giver of grace.

My acupuncturist has, in her waiting room, a copy of the Natural Healing Wisdom and Know-How book. Many of my friends and roommates and former roommates have had the Country Wisdom and Know-How book, which is a wonderful resource for all things homesteady and earthen. This wonderful gem is a complete guide to wellness as I see it. Wellness as I long for it. A not-very-expensive book on amazon that I am contemplating purchasing.

I am interested in the slow move to raw food in my life, in yoga as do-it-yourself massage, in acupuncture instead of surgery, and in herbs as food and medicine.

My acupuncturist also mentioned the connection between my adrenal gland and my thyroid. As I understand it, your thyroid regulates any number of hormones in your body. Some of these hormones work with your adrenal glad. Your adrenal glad is your bodies stress coping gland, enabling you to absorb and adjust to stress. When your adrenal gland is not working correctly your body stops dealing with stress correctly. This can lead to what I like to call my "Sylvia Plath moments", breakdowns in which your life and its problems seem slightly too overwhelming to be dealt with. I have had several of these in the last couple of weeks and am comforted to know that they are physical rather than purely emotional or mental (ah, Sylvia). However, the surest way to relax an over worked adrenal gland is to actually relax, and de-stress your life. This process of scaling down my life, of learning to ask for help when I need it, prioritizing my time, and saying "no" when I have to, is a large part of what seems so overwhelming in the first place. I'd rather simply duck out.

Also, I got a catalogue in the mail from fieldforest.net. It's a beautiful catalogue an it brings me joy. It reminded me that I own golden oyster mushroom spores, that I purchased nearly two years ago and that if I had been diligent and planted them I would currently be the proud cultivator and harvester of these beauties. Aren't they lovely? I have no earthly idea what they taste like, living in Waco as I do and not frequenting any sort of specialty stores or farmers markets, but I am enamoured with their beauty. That, and the fact that they are supposed to be incredibly easy to cultivate. A good beginners mushroom, they are.

I need beauty and idealism.

Haley and I have been making time to watch Masterpiece Theater's new Emma miniseries. It's a wonderful version and we agreed that if all the BBC and Masterpiece Theater want to do is remake Jane Austin miniseries over and over, we are thrilled.