Friday Quote Day

It takes as much energy to wish

as it does to plan.

~ Eleanor Roosevelt

Of course once you make the plan it takes more energy to carry it out.

You can wish to run a marathon, put it on your bucket list, add it to your goals, blah, blah, blah, but creating a training schedule moves the marathon from a wish to a project. Once the plan is down on paper (or smartphone or spreadsheet, but I like paper), then you have to do something with it. No more wishin' and hopin' – it's time for doin'!

Same with knitting, but you don't burn as many calories. My dream project is still in the wish stage. I haven't even pulled a stitch dictionary off the shelf yet. Soon, though, I'll be casting on, making notes and creating something beautiful and interesting and even, maybe, useful. I've decided I really am a one-project-at-a-time kinda gal, so the bag will be finished before I even pull out the yarn for the dream project.

I'm not quite there with the marathon or, obviously, the knitting, but I've seen, enjoyed, tasted the fruits – er, vegetables  – of my garden plan. Exhibit A, last night's dinner:

Dinner from the Back Yard: A Study in Vegetables

 The parmesan on the squash with tomato sauce came from the grocery. The milk for the cottage cheese came from my friend's cow, as did the butter for the corn on the cob. Everything else came from the back yard: beets and greens; squash, tomatoes, basil and garlic; all the ingredients for cole slaw (except the ingredients in the homemade mayo), and that quintessential summer staple, corn on the cob.

Even our dinnerware came from the potter who lives at the end of our road.

I'm not growing enough food to feed my husband and me for a year – that wasn't the plan. But just about the only things I've bought at the grocery this summer have been vinegar, sugar, flour and pretzels. (My name is Debbi and I'm a pretzel addict. Have a pickle. Heh.)

You'll notice there's no meat on the table. We were satisfied at the end of the meal, but hungry a couple hours later. Lack of protein will do that to you. A bowl of popcorn was a nice treat and a good way to end a day of hard work – moving the box springs and mattress, making 14 pints of bread-and-butter pickles, and cooking all that wonderful food! My kitchen was a wreck at the end of it all, but a satisfying wreck it was.

I hope you all can wreck your kitchens this weekend as pleasantly and abundantly as I did yesterday. Have a good one!