How do you deal with situations that get the best of you? I’d love to hear your advice and input.

So far I’ve held it together toward the individual that’s causing my brain to turn inside out.  But tomorrow morning I’m going to have to go above this person’s head to try to get an issue resolved. An issue we’ve been trying to get remedied for six and a half months.  Yes, seriously.

This has absolutely nothing to do with off grid living, gardening, preps, simple living (although, maybe it does), or anything else even remotely related to this blog. Unfortunately it has everything to do with my day-to-day life at the 9 to 5. Part of me would love to explain the entire situation, but I’m so tired of dealing with it that I just can’t bring myself to tell the tale. All I can say is that, in all reality, it began as the simplest request, and has turned into a virtual Armageddon.

I guess, in a way, this does have to do with the simple living aspect of my life. And it also has much to do with self-realization and recognizing when life has strayed too far from what you wanted to begin with.  Each time a trying and difficult situation manifests itself through my job, it actually does help me consider more and more what I want to accomplish in my life.

Frustration is the great equalizer. And it goes a long way to helping a body determine what’s important in life.

I’m going home in a couple of weeks. Three and a half weeks, to be exact.

I’m going home…

I’m

  Going

Home

And I can’t tell you how good that’s going to feel!

It’s been about 10 years since I’ve been through Eagle River, Wisconsin. My family left the northwoods in 1985 when my DSS and I were teenagers. I think we were both heart broken when we realized that the suburbs of Chicago would really never feel like “home”. I know it was that way for me… I still never feel like anyplace is “home”… no matter how long I live there.

I think the term “home” is used a little too loosely. For me, home is where your earliest memories live. Home is where you can hear the sounds and smell the smells of growing up. Some people spend their youth moving around, following parents in the military, or those who take jobs all over the country or world. Moving every year or two. Never putting down roots. I’ve always felt sorry for them because they can’t think back to one place and equate it with those feelings… of Home.

Eagle River is my Home. All of my memories of youth live there. Climbing trees. Playing in the snow. Watching deer. Walking across the field in the fog. Riding bikes into town in the summer. Friday Fish Fry at the Charlou Supper Club. Fishing in the river. Our cousins Kenny, Kelly and Wayne watching DSS and me while our parents went out to dinner. Going to St. Peter the Fisherman School. Girl Scouts. Camp. Forts. Swimming at Eagle Lake and Silver Lake Beaches. Gardens. Stacking wood for the heat every fall. Watching my Mom can the veggies from the garden. Duke, our old German shepherd, chasing squirrels through the woods. Bond Falls. Picking apples in the upper peninsula. The snowmobile derby. Men in church every Sunday in the fall wearing their camo, with their hunting license numbers displayed on their backs…

After too many years gone, I’m going home.

My Dad moved back to Eagle River this past fall. Believe it or not, he said he got sick of the perfect sunny weather and walking on the beach every day in Florida. So he decided to head home, too. I think given the chance, DSS and I would go back if we could.

DSS and my nephew just got back last night from visiting him. We talked for nearly an hour at lunch today. She was telling me about all the changes, yet how so many things seem exactly the same. I wish we could have been up there at the same time, but my calendar didn’t work out that way. So I’m heading over there in late April for a week. I promise to share pictures and memories from the trip here on the blog. I’m almost afraid to go because I know my heart is going to break when it’s time to leave again. I wish I could make a living there, because I would move back in a heartbeat.

I’m not saying western Montana is a bad place to live.  Trust me, I love waking up and looking out the window to some variation of this every morning:

But Montana’s not Home.

It never will be.

But it’s where I lay my head at night. And since my Dad moved back in November, my nightly dreams are filled with memories of growing up in the place I call Home…

Good old Eagle River, Wisconsin.

]]> http://ditchthegrid.org/2012/03/27/going-home/feed/ 8 Sneaux Welcome to Eagle River Springtime in the Rockies http://ditchthegrid.org/2012/03/15/juice-feast-days-20-21/ http://ditchthegrid.org/2012/03/15/juice-feast-days-20-21/#comments Thu, 15 Mar 2012 22:44:28 +0000 Sneaux https://ditchthegrid.wordpress.com/?p=970 ]]> Howdy folks… Apparently I forgot to post yesterday’s juices. Oops. I guess I’m just forgetful right now.

Let’s start with yesterday, then I’ll explain what’s going on…

Breakfast was the super dark jar. Celery, cucumber, kale, pear, lemon and ginger.

Lunch was my veggie juice that I’ve been drinking lately: celery, cuke, parsley, cilantro, tomato, jalapeno.

Dinner was carrot, orange, fennel, ginger.

Today, so far, I’ve only had one juice:

Lunch: celery, cuke, pear, apple, romaine, lemon and ginger.

So I have a problem. I have a business dinner this coming Tuesday, and I can’t get out of it. Which means that I have to eat. I told my DSS about it, and with her blessing I need to wean myself off the juice and back onto food for a few days.

My plan is to eat only raw food until the dinner, in addition to juice, and seek out one of my favorite restaurants in town for a good dinner salad. Luckily I get to pick the venue because my dinner companion is from out of town. When Wednesday morning rolls around I’ll be back on the juice, adding four additional days to the tail end so I’ll still get 30 days in… Just with a minor break late in the game.

I’m actually pretty bummed out about this because I was doing so well. But, as John Lennon once sang: “Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans.”

So last night I ate a chopped up tomato to start getting some solid food in my system. Today, on top of the lunch juice, I had an orange and an avocado. I think my stomach had shrunk because I feel like I ate a side of beef! I ate those earlier this afternoon, and I’m still stuffed. Although, I did drink some water with psyllium husks to help boost my digestive process and move things along… Psyllium sort of fills ya up.

I’ve really enjoyed this entire process, and I anticipate periodic fasts in the future. Also incorporating juice in my daily life. Probably for breakfast. The positive affects on my health have been outstanding, and I don’t plan to look back!

This evening’s a “hungry” evening for me… But I’ll get over it, I suppose. After nearly three weeks, why am I hungry now? I even made a pretty heavy juice for dinner, but I’m still hungry. I think I’m going to make a big mug of peppermint tea. Warm fluids always calm the tummy…

But in the meantime, here’s what I chugged today:

Breakfast and lunch were “fridge clean-out juices” made with kale, celery, cucumber, lemon and ginger. One batch had orange, the other was apple.

Dinner: carrot, beet, apple.

Next up: tea, a book and maybe an early night. 

Onward to day 20!

So this is what today looked like:

Odwalla strawberry C monster juice and peppermint tea. Yes, I realize its pasturized, dead juice… But hey, any port in a storm… Better than a cheeseburger, right?

The invisible lunch consisted of apple-carrot-ginger juice.

Dinner: freshly made cucumber, celery, parsley, lemon from my local health food supermarket. So at least that one is up to par with my normal juice… I just didn’t get to make it myself. But I watched it being made… Does that count?

Tomorrow’s another day.  I’ll make sure to make all my own juice AND take pictures of it… 

I actually didn’t have a breakfast juice this morning. I wasn’t hungry, so I decided to see what would happen if I skipped it and just drank water until lunch time.  Wanna know something? I neither starved, nor died! Woot! We’ll see how I feel in the morning. Might do it again! We have our bi-weekly staff meeting in the morning at a local coffee shop, so I’ll just get some peppermint tea there and go till lunch again… That is, unless I’m starving out of my mind by 7 am.

For dinner I pulled out a combo of cucumber, celery, apple, kale and ginger. Like heaven in a glass!

Every day that goes by, I’m more and more astonished. Completely amazed at myself and my DSS for hanging strong for this long.

Oh, and the good nightly sleep continues as well! Sometimes I wake up, but instead of lying awake for hours on end, I’m back asleep before I know it… And all that without the cortisol manager! I’m so grateful. I hope it continues post feast when I take on the raw food diet.

Life is a never ending experiment.

Here’s what I’m drinking today:

Breakfast was celery, cuke and pear…

Lunch: beet, carrot, pear.

Dinner: celery, cuke, parsley, cilantro, tomato and the super spicy jalapeno. I really like this juice. Savory and spicy.

Onward to week three!

Breakfast: pear, cucumber and celery.

Lunch: carrot, fennel, apple and lime.

Dinner: tomato, jalapeno, parsley, cilantro, celery and cucumber.

It’s been an adventure… Let’s see what the next 15 days bring, shall we?

So I thought I would share the influence of Affluenza with you this morning: