Self care and other ideas

Taking care of your own health is a great resistance move, and cooking from scratch is part of it. It's also a pleasure, and that's important too.

So, now that I have the coconut milk and ginger in the house, I finally did the curried chickpea recipe from Yeung Man Cooking.

 

Most of the spices you see here, with their containers ranged around them to explain, go into the dish at once, so I measured them onto this small plate. Then they all got tipped in together, with the tomatoes, left from a tomato cheese egg bake, chickpeas and eventually spinach.

In the fifteen minutes simmering, I did the cleanup, mainly putting away spices.

I had this as is, but you can use rice or orzo as a base, or use naan to make sure of all the liquid.  I might do that with the other two meals I'll get from this recipe.

I soon have to make more red chili oil, since I've almost used my supply.

And, if you need encouragement, who doesn't, here's a lovely source 

I get her regular emails. They're for everyone, you don't have to be Jewish!  And they're calming and centering. 

Today I messaged both my senators and House member, to ask for pressure against the current seizing of funding sources affecting everything the Treasury pays out, and the attempted closing of USAID. 

I also messaged a couple of members of the appropriate Senate Committee, Finance, see if yours is there

Anyone can do this,  though most members of Congress can only respond to constituents, but messaging and calls are noted.

And now I'm knitting and reading and breathing.

I'm planning on a walk today, as far as I can manage.  I wonder if any spring shoots are showing yet. I must check. 

Back from the walk, and look at these worlds of lichen and mosses, around the tree that's been here since way back when this was farmland.

I found a few branches to force in water and see what happens. I couldn't reach any dogwood though, trimmed pretty high. So we'll see what I have, maybe cherry.

Here I'm hammering the ends to allow for capillary action when they're in water

And now we can admire the shapes and wait to see what happens.

Happy day, everyone, it's okay to laugh even in scary times.  And to remember where we sit in the scheme of things.

This can work an alternative to the inclusive Pride flag. In case you wondered.