these days in my kitchen

All through my adult life I’ve had, on average, two to three go-to mugs in my kitchen cupboard that I always reach for when I’m getting myself a cup of coffee, or a bowl more like. Which exact mugs of my collection happen to be my go-tos at a given time depends on many things, all of which I have yet to figure out. Things like the seasons — or current color preferences, self-perception, and life goals.

Right now I find myself grabbing either this sturdy thrifted mug that’s more like a pint, or a black one I found in the basement of this house that’s a bit of an enigma — is it really an old Arabia sample, or a prank pulled by a prankster ceramicist who was one day upset that Arabia showed no interest in their work? I have no idea what the mugs say about me, nor do I care to think about that. It feels like my brain is scattered all over enough already.

You ever get that? Like you’ve given yourself so much to think about your brain kind of goes on overdrive and you just wish you could reboot it? There’s an idea for the next intelligent design project, a brain reboot button. Also here’s a tip from me to you: if you already have lots of little self-, home- and other misc. improvement projects going on, don’t go down that enneagram rabbit hole. Just don’t. Take my word for it. Though if you’re going to anyway, may I recommend this and this? (I’m probably a 9w1 or a 1w9, though I might also be 5? Surely there’s an enneagram type & a wing for people who just can’t decide who they are?)

Speaking of home improvement and healthy diets, the latter of which I actually didn’t mention before, now that I think of it, anyway, speaking of either, I’m constantly on the journey towards making cooking an even more enjoyable and pleasurable event. Especially this month as I’ve decided to eat extra healthy and plan on cooking through my delicious pin boards. So the thing that has annoyed me most about the tiny cooking space we have, when cooking at least, was how to store the spices in a way that makes them accessible, and I think I got it now.

Sure, it’s not eye-candy for the minimalist in me, but I do actually use all of them and seems kind of silly to invest in pretty spice jars and buy spices in plastic bags to fill said jars when the spices we buy in the shop are already in a glass jar. Albeit ugly. So I might just do it one day anyway. (Have you ever considered the amount of waste we end up producing to have things pretty. I have, but don’t want to think about that either right now.)

When you’re trying to get a fresh start at eating healthy, your first priority should be to rid your kitchen cupboards of unhealthy stuff, is what the Whole30 program says and I will believe what it says even if I could never actually do a round of Whole30 myself.

So it might just happen that in early August your breakfast in my kitchen is this yummy over-night cashew porridge with a side of these chocolate chip cookies, to a soundtrack of random but carefully chosen k-pop songs on YouTube that yours truly pretends to dig for your sake, in a half-hearted effort to be a good Mama. (The wholehearted would, I presume, make you put your phone away at the table and have a conversation. But I completely understand the need to set the tone of your day right with a perfect soundtrack each morning, given that I haven’t been able to do that in years, thus scatterbrain blog posts like this one.)

It might also happen that, cooking through your delicious pin boards you realize half way through the week that these vegetarian recipes by food bloggers who aren’t really authorities in healthy eating in any way contain way too little protein, and in such a circumstance you may count your lucky stars that you’re still in the phase of getting rid of the unhealthy stuff in your kitchen and make a Friday lunch of the frozen salami & minced pork pizza somebody has snuck into your freezer that one time you weren't looking because you would never allow that much red meat in one pizza. If you’re like me, you’ll manage to convince yourself it’s a pretty healthy meal with a side of kale & potato salad. (You may also make a mental note to be careful with the menu plan next week and check that the meals you plan actually do have some plant-based proteins on their ingredients lists. Just a note to self.)

Anyway. When I’m feeling all over, and my brain is scattered, and I don’t know where to begin, I find the best thing to do is sit down on this ugly chair in my kitchen and knit a little. The trick is not to listen or watch anything of substance, but just knit, possibly with a side of Gilmore Girls, or Big Little Lies, or The O.C. If choosing a show light enough proves too much of a hassle, you could just settle on the Twilight movies, because you already know each line and really don’t even need to watch, which can be truly soothing,and a great way to welcome the weekend.

Have a good one, folks!