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Get Involved

Thank y’all so much for the support for the last post. Welcome to the new subscribers too. 🙂 I used to worry about putting too much of my activism side out here but no more. This is me. If you like it Thank You. 🙂 If you don’t…don’t let the door hit ya. 🙂 This blog has never been about money or likes. It’s simply my place to share and inspire. Whether that’s in the form of recipes or getting people to get involved that’s what this space is about.

Someone reached out and asked what they could do right NOW to help. How to get involved.

The protests and petitions are a great way to get out some of the anger but at some point you have to put all of that anger into meaningful action. Side thought re: the protests. Protest away but get out of the middle of the roads. You’re hurting everybody with traffic backups. If you want to ‘hurt’ the people who put us it this mess…don’t buy tires from Ohio…don’t buy cheese or beer from WI…don’t by cars from MI…don’t support small businesses. That’s something they’ll (eventually) feel. Blocking traffic in Miami is silly and hurting the wrong people (Miami Dade overwhelmingly voted blue).

Ok back to getting involved…

People think that the immediate lead up to election season is when the action happens…and it does but some of the most important work happens in the quiet time in the year(s) leading up to it.

Now is the time to make your plan for how to get involved.

Join your state democratic party. Volunteer. Get in the trenches. The midterms are 2 years away but like I said the ground game will start next year. Get on the roll with your official state organization. Commit to helping in whatever way you can. Volunteer to make calls…to go door to door…if your state allows it and you have a van or suv volunteer to drive voters without transportation to the polls. All of this takes planning, training and coordination which starts way ahead of actual election season. If you’re shy and can’t actually do the face to face stuff volunteer to input data or work in a city / county campaign office. And if you don’t want to get that ‘hands on’ involved…just make an ongoing financial contribution. It doesn’t have to be big at all. Every little bit helps. But let me tell you…getting down in the trenches is so infinitely more rewarding to the soul than just entering your payment info on a web form. 🙂

Also join specific state centric groups:

My favorite group in Texas is Battleground Texas. BT is making crazy gains in Texas. Some food for thought from the website:

Texas is the future.

Texas had record-breaking Democratic turnout in 2016. Battleground Texas is a statewide organization with national implications.

With 38 electoral votes, Texas is the last big state that still votes Republican. Once Republicans lose Texas, they lose their path to the White House.

This is so so important y’all. Once we can flip Texas (and Arizona)…ESPECIALLY given the fact that we are doing the flipping with YOUNGER voters…the game is changed for years and years to come.

The horrible hate based voter block this year pretty much tapped out their base (and didn’t even win the popular vote with their numbers).

The numbers ARE on our side. We just have to get them inspired, motivated and involved.

BT has been a movement years in the making here. Early predictions didn’t see Texas getting into the single digits until 2024. We’re 8 years ahead of schedule.

Get involved and let’s flip this thing completely and for good. 🙂

Those of you already living in hard – core blue states…definitely continue your ground efforts in your states but think about making some of your financial donations to Texas and Arizona. Because the sooner our states flip the better for you too.

Other things we can do…

If you live in places with large immigrant communities where workers, students and women / mothers are reporting acts of racist violence…find organizations that are set up to help them and volunteer in whatever way you feel most safe / comfortable yourself. Please though do this thru an organization. Don’t just go try to help on your own. The hate filled racist garbage attacking them will turn their rage onto you without second thought. That’s just what they are. So help but do it safely and in numbers. 🙂

Donate to planned parenthood. You can donate money or time (at some locations). Volunteer to help walk / protect patients from the vile human garbage protesters. They’ll scream at you and even throw stuff at you but it’s so worth it. Just holler back at them that you’ll pray for them. They love that. 😉 you know since they think they own the market on prayer.

Donate to legal justice groups that help the disenfranchised (people of color / the LGBT community / women’s groups / etc). There are too many organizations to try to list. Pick the one that’s closest to your heart and help. Again with your time or money.

Just find your cause(s) and dig in. That’s the only way this works. You have to commit and do your part.

We can’t win this on twitter or Facebook (leave all that nonsense to all our crazy racist aunts). You have to get out and do something. Anything. It can be scary at first but you will find your place and it is so unbelievably worth it.

Speaking of the collective crazy racist ‘Aunt Bertha’. It’s time to start shaming her. No more of this ‘oh Aunt B doesn’t know any better…she’s from a different time’ bullsh–. It’s 2016. If crazy Aunt B is 90…maybe give her a little pass. Anybody under the age of 90 knows better. They choose to be mean / hateful / horrible / garbage. Let’s take the smoking shame game and apply it to the racism (really to any of the -ist and -ic behaviors). It’s WAY past time.

I hope y’all will get involved. I promise it will fill your soul in ways you never imagined. 🙂

Y’all have a great weekend. 🙂

Post Election Blues

So fair warning…today I’m going to use this space to express myself.  My pain and anger.  Some of you might wanna check back in on another day.

First and foremost on a personal note:

I feel so privileged to have done my part for this campaign. I’ve volunteered for so many campaigns in my life but this one was special. Personal. Hillary you are…to quote Tina Turner…simply the (very) best. You have spent your entire life trying to make things better for ALL women and children. From the first time I heard you speak in person in a tiny South Texas elementary school library you were (and will always be) one of the greatest female inspirations of my life.  I am so proud of you…always…but especially today. From the bottom of this Texas girl’s heart…Thank you. 🙂

Now onto the rantin’.

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Dig in they say. Keep fighting they say. Words that are being echoed by compassionate / strong women everywhere today.

Uhmm no thanks. Not today.

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Congratulations, hate filled white, racist, misogynist human garbage voters.  Your new president elect pandered to your lowest common denominator status and y’all snorted it up like crack…or coke…whichever one you snort.

Bless your cold ugly little hearts when you realize you were played…as the only people who benefit from new economic policies are your bosses and their bosses and their bosses.  You know the republican way…the rich get richer and all that jazz.

So yeah, you let your little racist, misogynistic, hate filled hearts speak loud and clear last nigh. Good luck with that when you can’t afford the rent or to put food on the table.

Unlike you I’m a compassionate woman and my bleeding heart will even feel sorry for the likes of you / and especially your children…but if I’m completely honest a teeny tiny little part of me will take great pleasure knowing the impending financial hit will hit you the hardest.

YOU who masked your racist, misogynistic hate filled vote behind the guise of economic hardship.

I’ll say a little prayer for you tonight. Heaven knows you’re gonna need it.

Young voters: You’re on the rant list today too. You showed so much promise in the primaries. Rallying behind Bernie in numbers we hadn’t seen since Clinton in the early 90’s. You spoke loud and clear last night too. You had a little tittie baby fit and withheld your votes in protest. Good luck to you too when you can’t find a job after graduation.

More than any other group…mothers of daughters…fathers of daughters…granparents of girls: if you voted for this horrible piece of human garbage you are worse than he is. He owes nothing to your daughters yet. You do. You too sent a loud and clear message to your daughters / granddaughters that they don’t matter. You told them loud and clear that your hate filled racist, misogynistic, financial reasons are more important. More important than them being represented by someone who respects them as human beings.  Of course most of you don’t even respect them as human beings yourselves so I’m not sure why I’d expect you to hold anyone else to higher standards. But I digress.

I feel so sorry for the young daughters of our country today.

Strong women, damn y’all we’ve got our work cut out for us.

Rant and cry today and then let’s do what we always do…pull it together and get back to work. 🙂

On one tiny good note:

Texas…we got it within single digits. We’re getting closer and closer to flipping this state (way sooner than expected) and it. is. going. to. be. glorious. Some of us have been working on this for so long and make no mistake y’all…it’s coming. 🙂

Y’all have a good week and I’ll see you soon in a better mood. 🙂

Hey There

Hi, y’all. 🙂

It’s been a while.

I spent the last couple months making some changes and just couldn’t worry about the blog right then.

I’m also running the business and doing volunteer work for the election.

Y’all know I’d been going thru a bunch of health stuff for well over a year.  On top of all of that my pain level was just off the charts. Because of my blood thinner and an allergy I’m limited in what I can take for pain. What I can take wasn’t working. At. All.  It was time to try something different.  It was time to try a little swap…

This grain / dairy / sugar loving girl has gone keto with a little Paleo mixed in for variety.

Yeah.

It was about as rough as you’d expect in the beginning. I honestly just wanted to go ahead and die for about 2 weeks.

But now I’m all in.  I won’t even pretend to profess this is gonna be a forever thing but right now I’m in.

My meals have looked like a lot of this…

Hamburger / guac / hot sauce (this pic has cheese and sour cream but I’ve since removed all dairy too)

and this…

BBQ plate from my fav local place (I didn’t eat all that at one time…and that’s homemade bbq sauce Mama B made me…it’s a de-sugared version of our family sauce so I can’t share the recipe)

and this…

‘Chili bowl’  aka hamburger meat / spices / broth / topped with guac.

And this…

Paleo almond flour pancakes / sausage / egg  / xylitol based syrup (plus a couple of spoons of cooked down blueberries…that’s where the Paleo comes in).

And a lot of chicken wings (don’t have any pics).

For the first month I ate the same thing over and over…hamburger patties / cheese / may0 / guac.

Then I started branching out and getting a little more creative.

Honestly let me tell y’all…after those first two weeks I was doing great…until I removed the dairy (specifically cheese) and then I wanted to kill somebody.  Anybody.  I thought giving up the sugar would be the worst thing ever but I’m finding it harder to stay out of the cheese than the candy right now.

I’m working on a solution to that and if it works out I’ll blog about it.

Let me add here that I’m just doing my own thing and not following a specific plan or book or whatever.  I don’t want a bunch of email telling me something I post isn’t this or that. You do you and don’t worry about me.

I’m using alternative sweeteners (splenda in my tea and stevia / eryth in baked goods).  My only rule is to stay under 20 net carbs.  Most days I’m way way below that but I have to have a little variety a couple of times a week.

I’m on day 61 today.

The black and white dress pic was on day 50

before-and-current-dresses-copy

The red dress was last year. I’d already lost some weight between red dress and starting in Sept but I forgot to take a pic the day I started.

So anyway…that’s what’s going on here.

I’m starting to feel like trying new recipes and ideas (I made some keto brownies today but haven’t tried them yet) and will share the more interesting ones but it’s really all kind of boring.

Ok that’s all for today.

(y’all vote if you haven’t already)

Hope y’all are doing well. See you soon.  🙂

 

 

 

Pink Lemonade Cake

Hey, y’all.

Hope things are great in your world. 🙂

I have been so sick here in my little corner of the world. I don’t know if y’all noticed or not but prior to mid July I was doing a lot better. I went back on Plaquenil in Sept ’15 and if you’re not familiar with that medication it takes a while to build up / start working. Spring of this year it definitely started to kick in and I was feeling better all the time. I started a business and was a lot more active than I’d been in a while.

The business is starting to take up more of it’s allotted space in the house so right after I blogged the last time I started working on clearing out some more space. I was on the floor cleaning and didn’t see a baseboard nail that was sticking up. I ran my cleaning hand over it and shredded my index finger.  It bled for 9 HOURS straight (because my INR had spiked)  AND I got a staph infection.

If you’ve never had a staph infection…yeah don’t get one.  It is horrible.  Had to get a tetanus shot too. The antibiotic was making me sicker than the staph. I ended up with a reaction to the meds and that led to more meds which I’m currently on.

So yeah…it’s been one big party over here.

I guess it could be worse…;)

I did manage to cook a couple things in the middle of all that.

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Banana muffins.

Started watching this new Netflix show The Get Down. It’s set in 1978 and is the story of a bunch of kids in the South Bronx. It’s pretty good and definitely has the potential to keep me interested.

So perfect for this election season.

So this has turned out to be the summer of cakes around here. I was thinking about it and it seems like all I baked all summer was various cakes.

This was another keeper and is perfect for squeezing out these last few weeks of summer.

Once again I took gfJules perfect vanilla cake recipe and tweaked the liquids.

I used her recipe and subbed butter for the oil plus 1/4 cup of milk and 1/4 cup of frozen pink lemonade concentrate for the 1/2 cup of milk. I added some red food coloring to get the more vibrant pink color.

For the icing I just did a basic icing recipe and added a couple tbsp of the pink lemonade concentrate.

This was delish and I’m definitely making it again next summer. 🙂

Ok that’s all for today. Hope y’all have a great week and I’ll see you soon. 🙂

 

I Take That Back aka Vanilla Cakes

Hey, y’all.  🙂

What’s up?

It’s still so so very hot here.  The new business is going great but I had a little health setback last week so I wasn’t really in the mood for blogging.

Since we last met…we had our Christmas in July meal.  🙂

Dinner out. (Longhorn)

 🙂

Had to get a new whisk. 🙁  For years I used my Meme’s whisk ’til it finally wore out and then I switched to my Mema’s. It just made me feel like a little bit of them was still helping me out in the kitchen. I kept trying to piece the last one together but it finally met its last bowl so I got this one.  I have to admit it’s pretty good. 🙂 Still miss my beloved ones though.  🙁

Made some chicken fried chicken with gfjules.

😉

Y’all know I’m a proud Texan Southern girl…how had I never heard of sugar butter? Rolling a chunk of butter in sugar? I feel like someone in my youth failed me.  😉

I know some of y’all only read here for my political stuff but really what’s left to say?  I don’t want to type that horrible piece of garbage’s name on my blog. Watching him go after the parents of a dead SOLDIER makes me want to vomit. The only thing worse is watching / listening to those of you who continue to support him. There’s a very special place in hell…

 

Now how bout some cake to make the good and decent amongst us feel better 🙂

 

So a while back I told y’all about this cake and said it was the only vanilla cake I’d ever need.

Please forgive me for I was wrong.  🙂

This gfjules recipe right here is the only gluten – free vanilla cake recipe I’ll ever need. 🙂

Now y’all know we’re a rum cake family.  Plain, orange, lime, strawberry as long as it’s got rum we’ll give it a try.

I’ve wished so many times that Jules would make a vanilla box mix to go along with her other mixes.

Well a couple of weeks ago I saw she posted that vanilla cake recipe and called it the best ever or something like that. Of course I’d have to be the judge of that myself. 😉  So that night I took her recipe and weighed out all the dry ingredients into a bag and put it in the cabinet. Then this weekend I used it as a dry mix for a traditional rum cake. I used her liquid ratios but subbed some of my own liquids (so rum instead of milk…a mix of butter and oil instead of straight oil) plus a box of vanilla pudding. Just like the traditional Bacardi Rum Cake recipe we all grew up with in the 70’s.

I didn’t even mix it with a mixer.  I just used my Danish dough whisk thing.

This worked perfectly.

Only vanilla cake recipe you’ll ever need.  🙂

Ok that’s all for today.  Hope things are great in y’all’s world and that you’re still staying cool. 🙂

See y’all soon.  🙂

🙂