Making stock and invincible summer

I made  lemon chicken soup for dinner tonight...well, actually I started making it last weekend when I made the stock, which involved roasting a lot of chicken bits and pieces, frying vegies and hours of simmering, and took most of a day to make. The soup was nice and it's gratifying knowing I made the whole thing from scratch, but I'm not in a rush to make the stock again. Thankfully I have enough in the freezer for one or two more lots of soup. (I used rice in the soup, rather than orzo  pasta, to make it gluten free.)

I also made bread to go with the soup...or what the recipe calls bread, but it's really more like damper. You couldn't make sandwiches out of it, but it went well with the soup, and it was quick and easy to make. It's FODMAP- friendly bread because I'm doing the FODMAP diet again to work out the triggers for my food intolerance symptoms. The FODMAP diet is pretty easy, but eventually - probably in a few weeks - I'll have to make YET ANOTHER attempt at completing that confounded full elimination diet. At least I'll be able to use the bread recipe above when the time comes.

I blogged this quote I found on Pinterest a while ago:

Once in the midst of a seemingly endless winter, I found within myself an invincible spring.

I like the quote, but I've recently discovered it's probably a tweaking of this quote from Albert Camus:

In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer.

This is from Camus' The Stranger. The full quote is:

In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer. And that makes me happy. For it says that no matter how hard the world pushes against me, within me, there’s something stronger – something better, pushing right back.

I like this a lot more.

It is all secret, mystery and marvel

I'm still going to the gym. That must be about two months now. Going on past experience, I'm hesitant to declare that I've (re)created a habit, but I'm pleased with my stickability so far. 

My new weights program is hard, which is good, but by the time I get to my cardio workout my energy is rather depleted. But I persist and do what I can. I remind myself of this quote I found via Pinterest: 

No matter how slow you go, you are still lapping everyone on the couch. 

I also think of this quote from Voltaire: 

The perfect is the enemy of the good.

I think of this quote quite often - it's a good mantra for life, I reckon.  Sometimes good is enough. Ease up on yourself. 

While I'm reciting quotes, one of my Twitter friends tweeted this quote by Santiago Ramon y Cajal last week. I think it's apt for this blog.  

It is strange to see how the populace, which nourishes its imagination with tales of witches or saints*, mysterious events and extraordinary occurrences, disdains the world around it as commonplace, monotonous and prosaic, without suspecting that at bottom it is all secret, mystery and marvel.

 *This was written in 1937. Today it would  say "vampires and celebrities". 

Another Pinterest find: check out these spectacular photos of rare and fantastical clouds. Mother Nature is amazing.

I forgot to mention I bought a slow cooker on Saturday. I'm just about to go and load it up with a lamb shoulder and vegies in preparation for dinner tomorrow night. I'm looking forward to coming home to the aroma of lamb. 

A Gleeful special edition: 39 Secrets of Adulthood and Stuff

Taking inspiration (as I often do) from Gretchen Rubin of The Happiness Project and her Secrets of Adulthood, here's some stuff I've learned about life, love and happiness during my 39 years. They won't necessarily resonate with you, but they work for me. Feel free to share your own in the comments or blog it and link me.

1. It's easier to be happy if you can find pleasure in simple, relatively mundane things. They are everywhere, every day, if you look for them. LOOK FOR THEM! Life's major happy-making events are comparatively few and far between.

2. Look up. You never know what you will see.

3. Life is short, but there's no need to rush. There is a need to take your time  - to explore, savour, seek, question, think, take notice, be grateful, love.

4. Looking at your world through the lense of a camera is a great way to notice the little details. It makes you really see things. Living behind the lens of your camera....not so much. Sometimes you should just put the bloody thing away and be in the moment.

5. Walking a lot is a great way to increase your connection with your world. You notice things you'd never see in a car or on a train and you can take the time to stop.

6. Being able to enjoy your own company is priceless. Being able to rely on yourself is ace. Having people you can rely on is the best.

7. Cynicism is easy and boring. Letting your inner child out to play is way more fun. It's cool. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

Your inner child (not baby!)

8. Perfection is also boring. Flaws add character. Imperfection is perfection.

9.  There is beauty in ugliness.

10. Related: ambiguity is everywhere. Learn to embrace it.

11. If it won't matter in six months, six weeks or six days, then it doesn't matter now. Let it go.

12. Give without any expectation of return.

13. Kindness rocks.

14. Sometimes things that are worth having in your life do come easily. That doesn't mean you will treasure them any less.

15. Do what makes you happy. Coolness is overrated. Cool schmool.

16. You're probably stronger, braver and more resilient than you think - you never really know until you're tested.

17. Sometimes things that suck can still be kind of awesome.

18. Sometimes you can't even lead a horse to water, let alone make it drink. Accept it.  

19. Always have a creative project and a book on the go.

20. A quote: "Every man makes his own summer" - Robertson Davies. And every (wo)man makes their own winter too.

21. Almost never say never.

23. Connect. Connect. Connect. And connect.

24. From my Mum - you catch more flies with honey.

25. From my Dad - half a piece of toast is better than none at all.

26. From Fleetwood Mac: You can go your own way.

27. Be an adventurer.

28. Be a tourist in your own town. There is always something new to discover.

29. There doesn't always have to be a point. No, wait - fun is as good a point as any.

30.  Punctuation matters. Well, it does if being understood matters to you.

31. Less actually is more. Simplicity is the real spice of life.

32. Decluttering your living space removes psychic clutter.

33. No, you don't really need that thing (unless it's oxygen, food, a cuddle or a toy robot). 

34. Women who say they could never be with a man who has a hairy back (or whatever) don't understand love. Love is big. Love eats hairy backs for breakfast. Raaaaar!

35. A gym is the best place to appreciate all the weird and wonderful shapes we humans come in. You're less weird and more wonderful than you think.

36. You will be happier if you stop reading women's magazines.

37.  Go to the library (one for my real librarian friends). Libraries are ace. Find something to replace your women's magazine.

38.  Play. Be silly. From C.S.Lewis: "When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up".

39. Finally, even though you've probably seen it on my sidebar, I'm finishing with my favourite quote, from George Bernard Shaw. This helped inspire Gleeful and has become my mantra. If you take away only one thing from this post, take this:

"Life is not meant to be easy, my child; but take courage: it can also be delightful."

 Life can be so f**king delightful it makes you cry (and use rude words).