Fowl Dinners

Last week I stumbled across this program by Jamie Oliver via Nienie's blog. It's about the food industry, particularly the egg and poultry industry.



Eye-opening, to say the least.

It got me thinking and:
- I decided to renew my adopt-a-chicken contribution, not just for a year like a few years ago (which I was too lazy to renew...) but open-ended this time so I won't forget to renew it next year.
- when grocery shopping this week, I paid extra attention to buying organic products. It's a work in progress (and I know I won't be able to part with some of my favourite items which aren't organic), but every little bit helps, right? In the past, I already made a point of always buying free range eggs, but from now on I'll also make an increased effort to buy more organic foods.
- This week I made the concious decision to get some vegetarian meat-alternatives for dinner. (some were a bigger success than others...)
Going totally vegetarian isn't an option for me - to be honest, I simply like eating meat too much, and biologically we are omnivores after all (in my opinion, we need some animal-derived products in our diet to stay healthy. To all nay-sayers: I respect your opinion, but I think I know at least a little bit of what I'm talking about since I've been battling chronic vitamin deficiency for some years now)
All in all, I consider being a part-time vegetarian to be a happy medium.
- Cheap meat = animal cruelty. I need to make an effort to buy organic meat. The animals are still killed, but at least they've had a good life and they are killed somewhat humanely.
- Since 2 of my cavies died last November, I've thought of getting 2 new cavies to complete the pack. Instead of buying 2 babies at the pet store, I drove to Utrecht yesterday to adopt 2 rescue cavies. Tommie and Annika have meanwhile bonded and are getting used to their new surroundings. In a few weeks, I'll introduce them to the rest of the pack.

They say "a better world starts with yourself". It's a humble start, but I'm trying to do my part.

One trip each quarter

At the beginning of 2011, after a few years of infrequent travelling, I set myself the (luxury) goal to take at least one trip each quarter during the upcoming year. I did allow myself a pretty broad definition of "trip": it could be anything from a long weekend away in NL to a few weeks abroad and everything in between.

I'm pretty fortunate that I managed to pull it off last year, even if it was with some outside help (my trip to Egypt was postponed from October 2010 to January 2011, for instance).

Let's review, shall we??

Q1: 10-day trip to Egypt in January.
Q2: 4-day trip to Istanbul at the end of March (OK, so technically this was still Q1, but it was literally the last 4 days of March so I'd say it counts ;-) )
Q3: 1-week trip to Texel in August.
Q4: 17-day trip to China in October.

I really liked having something to look forward to each quarter, and I especially liked the idea of taking a trip to a sunny destination in Q1, to battle my Winter Blues (which seems to be getting worse each year).

For this year I want to attempt the same. I've already booked 2 trips, one to Israel next month (vitamin D-boost!) and one to the USA in Fall, so I'm already halfway there! I'm also thinking about a city trip to London in Spring, and one in December to Vienna, but we'll have to see how that pans out.

In any case: happy travelling!

Goodbye 2011 | Hello 2012

Wow, it's Dec. 31st, the last day of 2011 and it feels as if the year has flown by. Didn't we just celebrate New Years last month??

Last January, I picked 'Peace' as my One Little Word for 2011, because I felt 2010 had been very hectic. Didn't fulfill its promise too well, now did it?

2011 was dominated by my grandfather's illness and the deaths of both my grandparents in April. I had some health problems and took a break in August and September to prevent a complete burn-out. There was another 'restructuring' at work in October (turns out last year's reorganization didn't work out as well as was hoped) and I lost 2 of my pets in November.

But there were fun things too!

I finally got to travel to Egypt, Istanbul and China - 3 destinations and 2 more world wonders crossed off my Life List! My parents celebrated their 40th (!) wedding anniversary this month. I got a brand-spanking new car in June. I treated myself to a drool-worthy KitchenAid mixer. I managed to lose 8kg (approx. 17,5lbs) this year through Weight Watchers. I finished not just one but two LOAD's, in May and September *pat on back*.


Anyway, I've given it some thought and my OLW for 2012 is 'Change'.

I'm not happy about my health (and having a serious talk with my GP next week).
I'm not happy about my career.
I'm not happy about my personal life (how long will this man-of-my-dreams stay in hiding???)

So, in short, I've decided that 'A Change Is Gonna Come' in 2012 {thank you Sam Cooke}

How?

- I want a new referral from my GP to visit a specialist regarding my vitamin deficiency (my vitamin D levels fluctuated from 13 in April to 27 in July to 86 in September (thanks to a new supplement) and back to 35 in December. For the record, below 50 is generally considered to be bad...)
- I want to re-evaluate certain relationships. I feel that I'm investing a lot of energy in some, while it's completely one-sided.
- I want to explore different career options. That might mean I'll have to take a step back financially, so I also want to learn how to live on a tighter budget (never a bad idea!).


In addition, there are also some smaller resolutions for the new year:
- I want to take up swimming and/or boxing again.
- I want to lose 12kg in 2012 - one for each month. (That seems realistic and doable, right?)
- I want do get back to regular Bento-ing.
- I want do to at least one LOAD this year (there are 3 each year, generally in February, May and October)
- I want to continue Project Life on a monthly basis.
- I want to keep being creative in general - that's why I started Everyday Creative after all!
- I want to make at least 1 scrapbooking page each week - enter PLOAW, Project LayOut A Week.
- I want to cross of some more items off of my Life List - our trip to the USA has already been booked, Grand Canyon here we come!
... and I'm sure there are other things that I just can't remember at the moment ;-)

All in all I've got my work cut out for me in 2012!

One little word

Ali Edwards is a well-known scrapbooker, and for a few years now she's started the year by letting one little word be the theme for the upcoming year. It's not something that I've thought about much before, until I had somewhat of an aha-moment earlier this week.

After a very hectic 2010, I'm desperately craving some peace and quiet. At the beginning of this week, I was totally stressing out: sick grandfather, sick pet, not feeling well myself, about to go on holiday this Friday, too much to do... So I decided that one of my New Year Resolutions is that I want to look into yoga when I get back from my holiday. And then it came to me: my One Little Word for 2011 could be Peace.

Peace of mind. Peace and quiet. Inner Peace. World Peace ;-) (little 'Miss Congeniality'-joke there, haha)

I think it's a good word. Deep down I'm a glass-half-empty-girl and I need to remind myself often that I should be more light-hearted, take each day as it comes, don't worry too much etc.

Peace. I think it's a lofty goal.