July 2015
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Archive for July, 2015

Roasted Green Beans

Posted by terrepruitt on July 28, 2015

You know how I love to roast veggies, right? Well this is such a super easy one. I usually don’t roast my green beans because they are not my husband’s favorite vegetable so when I cook them I like to do Green Beans, Onions, and Walnuts because I just love that. Since my hubby is not that fond of green beans, I don’t cook them that often and I save my cooking of them for that recipe. But recently I just wanted something to throw in the oven. Like I normally do. Wash it, season it, throw it in the oven, and walk away. That is one reason why I love to roast veggies. Well, we just happen to have received green beans in our produce box . . . so that is what I ended up roasting.

You know I always love easy, and easy right now is what I need because we are having to spend so much time just sitting in the room with the cats. I mean we don’t HAVE to, but we do. I have found in talking to people who don’t have cats, that it is a common misconception that cats don’t like company. People think cats are super independent. While they might be more independent than dogs, they still like their people’s company. They might not want you to even pay attention to them, but they like you to be in the room with them. Especially when they are locked in a room and they can hear you out in the house, then they really want to be out there with you. Cats like to be WITH you. These girls have been in three different places since June 1 so we want to let them know that they are part of a family now, so my hubby and I spend a lot of time in the room.

Often I try to go into the room to work, because they are quarantined in my office, but usually once I go in they want to play. Anyway . . . with the extra time I am spending in my office, it is nice to have an easy time with dinner. And you know roasting veggies is my “go to!”

This isn’t so much about the recipe (because it is so easy) as the idea of roasting green beans. It could be that someone hasn’t thought about doing it yet.

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Roasted Green Beans

1.5 pounds of green beans
2 tablespoons olive oil
salt
garlic
pepper

Preheat the oven to 450° F

Wash and trim the green beans. Line a cook sheet with parchment paper. Put your beans on the pan. Then drizzle the oil over the beans. Toss the beans so the oil gets on all the beans. Spread the beans out so they are one layer on the sheet. Sprinkle the beans with salt, garlic, and the pepper.

Put the beans in the oven for anywhere from 20 to 45 minutes. How long you cook your veggies is up to you. You can check on them and decide how well done you like them. Sometimes I like them not so done and sometimes I like them well done. When roasting I am ok with them well done. With other methods I like them less done.

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Of course you can season them with whatever you would like. Salt, garlic, and pepper is simple seasoning. And sometimes that is nice.

Do you like green beans? Do you like them roasted? How do you cook green beans?

Posted in "Recipes", Food, Vegetables | Tagged: adopted cats, green beans, olive oil, parchment paper, roasted vegetables | 12 Comments »

We Brought More Than Two Cats Home

Posted by terrepruitt on July 25, 2015

You may have seen my post about us getting cats. We were thinking about it for a bit. I always thought I wanted a kitten, but then I met these two cats. They are about a year and two months. We were very excited bringing them home. The caretaker thought they might be hiding for weeks, and advised us to keep them in one room. We did the first night, but then the next day we opened the door and they came right out. After that they were in the bow window, that was their spot. One of them is a tiny cat. She is soooooo little. She is so little I was confused as to why her feet were so big. So I started to look at them. One, I want them to get used to me touching their feet so I can clip their claws. And two, I was checking out why her feet were so big when she is so little. Turns out one of her toes is a little deformed making her foot look big and there was dried skin around the toe. Plus she had dried stuff on her ears. Her sister was losing all the hair in front of her ears and itching. The internet, God bless it, led me to believe they had ringworm.

Notice I said ringworm and not ringwormS. Ringworm is not worms at all. It is a fungus akin to athlete’s foot. Often times it presents as raised circles on the skin that look like worms so that is where the name came from. I know animals are not perfect, but when there is something that doesn’t look right to me it indicates something is wrong. I think Esmeralda has had this for a long time and that is why she is so skinny and her toe is deformed. She is so skinny when I scratch her from tail to head my fingers catch on her ribs. She is tiny and skinny.

We had them for a week when I internet-diagnosed them. Of course, this realization came on a Saturday and I will tell you that unless you already have an appointment on Saturday, you are not going to get your cat in for one. I would imagine vets would take an emergency, but contrary to what the internet says ringworm is not that common – so I don’t think the vets we called (all five of them) even believed that the cats had ringworm. Our Dr. said he had only seen it once. But the internet says it is very common. Anyway . . . it took two more days for us to get an appointment. All the while I am reading things on the internet that have me convinced that if it is really ringworm we have to burn the house down.

They have a few ways to diagnose ringworm. One is a Wood’s Lamp, they say the fungus will fluoresce. Our vet used the lamp and it didn’t really fluoresce. They can look at a skin sample under a microscope, but it is really hard to tell if it is or isn’t with this method. Another method is a sample of scabby stuff and they culture it, which takes 7-14 days. Then once they diagnose it, the treatment is for thirty days. Then you have to keep treating until you get a negative culture. They can also biopsy skin.

Meantime you have to keep the animals locked up in order to keep the fungus from spreading everywhere in the house. I think the information on the internet that was sounding so dire was for houses with multiple animals, shelters, or catteries. We were fortunate because we had just got the cats. So they hadn’t really made themselves at home and been ALL over. We had even been shutting some rooms off just so they could get used to the house a little bit at a time. They spent most of their time in a window, as I said.

But still, the spores can be airborne so it is recommended you use a diluted bleach solution to clean everything. Whatever can’t tolerate the bleach solution gets disinfected with white vinegar. Everything that can be laundered gets laundered. Everything that can be moved out into the sun to bake for the day gets put outside. Our backyard constantly looks like a yard sale.

The cats have been confined to a room since July 13th. They have endured twice daily topical medication for 9 days. Then we stopped doing it twice a day when we got the oral medication. The oral med only comes in pill form. Thank God that is only once a day. My hubby has given them both two baths. These poor animals probably think they we are big meanies! Sometimes we feel like it. We have to keep telling each other that is it for the best. We just want to let them out so they can be free and happy. We have few days yet. (Twenty-six days!)

They are very sweet cats. My hubby and I spend as much time as we can in the room with them. It is not a big room and it has a lot of furniture in it, but we manage to get those cat wands flying so the girls can chase the feather back and forth. They are little enough that they can run a bit and jump allowing them some exercise.

So, this is a time-consuming situation . . . but we know that this is just a little speck in time and hope that once we are done with this our babies will forget all about it in the years of fun that we have to come. These cats are so sweet and so special that we are doing what we can to get through this. We feel bad for them, but it will all be ok.

This is me sharing and documenting . . . .you know I like to do that.

Have you ever had any experience with ringworm?

Posted in Cats, Teagan and Nessa | Tagged: Cats, deformed toes, itchy, quarantine, ringworm, scaly skin, Wood's Lamp | 8 Comments »

Icy Feet

Posted by terrepruitt on July 21, 2015

It has been really hot here. Now, if you want to comment and tell me how hot it has been in your area, cool. In our area, the older homes don’t have air conditioning. We really don’t need them. Not really. I mean when it is hot here is usually cools down at night. With fans and open windows most people can get the house cooled down. But there are usually a few times a year when the night does not cool down. If the temperatures don’t drop at night then we don’t have our natural air conditioner and then it makes the next day really hot. And sometimes it is very hot, too hot to sleep. Well, I wrote a post a couple of years ago in July on how I was able to cool down enough to sleep. Although that method works GREAT for me, I won’t do it. Right now when we are all trying to take super short showers, I am not going to use that method. It involves taking a quick rinse to let the cool water cool me off, then not drying off. That is more water than I want to use. But, that is not to say I am not using water to cool me off. But the water I am using in my current cooling off method is a lot less. I am using ice. I put a handful of ice in a sandwich sized zip lock and put it at the end of the bed. Ahhhh.

So, I put the bag of ice on a towel at the end of the bed. Often times the bag is actually too cold to rest my feet directly on it so I use a portion of the towel to separate my feet from the bag. It really cools me off. If you have read a few of my posts you will know how precious I think sleep it. I love my sleep. I think it is very important. I don’t like missing out on sleep because it is too hot.

Sometimes you might even be able to FALL asleep, but then wake up because it is too hot. Well, with that bag of ice there you can just wiggle your feet around onto the coolness and go right back to sleep. Even as the ice melts it is usually cooler than the hot air.

Just like hot water bottles, I bet there is something out there being sold that would be like a baggie full of ice. I know they have Chillows, which are ice packs you put on your pillows. In fact, you can even use an ice pack for your feet, right? I don’t want to because I prefer not to put my feet on ice packs I will be using in my coolers. Even though my feet are clean, I don’t want to do that. I could have a designated “foot” ice pack, but, the baggie is easier.

Then after the ice has melted, I use it to water my plants. So that is my current method for keeping cool, how about you? What do you do to keep yourself cool? How do you help yourself stay cool enough to sleep?

Posted in Misc | Tagged: Chillow, cool down to sleep, good sleep, hot weather, ice in a baggie | Leave a Comment »

Practice To Make Yourself Feel Good

Posted by terrepruitt on July 18, 2015

I wrote about compression a few posts back. In the post I used pictures of Mr. Bones to help explain how sometimes an asana might not work for you in trying to do it the way you might see it pictured in Yoga Journal or on a yoga website. It could be that your bones actually will connect before you can get that “perfect” pose. But often what happens is the way you are doing a pose is perfect for you, you don’t have to look like the magazine. Yoga magazines are just like fashion magazines, they pick the models that will look good doing the poses just like they pick the models that will look good wearing the clothes. The people in the pictures are not DOING yoga, they are POSING for a PICTURE of a yoga pose. What they are doing is TOTALLY different from what you are doing. What you are doing is a practice in order for you to feel better. So you want to do your asana in a way that will achieve that.

In other words, the idea is not to “get into a pose” the idea is to move into the pose, then BE in that pose. Sense what your body is like in that pose. Notice your breath in that pose. Notice your emotions in that pose. Notice your mind in that pose. Could be that you notice pain somewhere, then you are to adjust your body so you are more comfortable. If your breath is labored, perhaps you need to ease off? Perhaps not, it depends upon the yoga you are doing . . . but notice your breath. Some postures bring up certain emotions. Take note of that. It is ok to let them happen. If you want and you feel safe let whatever comes up, come up and out. But again, you do what you want to do and you do what you feel comfortable doing. And, notice your mind, your thoughts . . . if you are able to let your mind wander perhaps you need to move deeper into the pose so you are more focused on your breath and body.

A lot depends on the type of yoga you are doing. A lot depends on what the purpose of the pose is. But the idea of asana in most types of yoga is to BE in the pose. Take notice of the pose and all that is happening with you and your body at that moment. Yoga is just like many things . . . unless you are practicing it for many, many, many hours a day you are better off doing it in your own body’s way then trying to achieve things you see in magazines like Yoga Journal and in the books written by yogis that practice for hours at a time and have been practicing for years.

Again it depends on what type of yoga you are practice, but many types, styles, and teachers realize it is more important to protect the body you have and move into a posture as your body will do the pose, than to try to achieve that “perfect” pose. If you do the twists, the back bends, the forward bends, the balance poses, and all the other types to the best of your ability you will feel better. If you do your practice mindfully you will feel better.

What is your most comfortable yoga pose?

Posted in Yoga/PiYo/Pilates | Tagged: asana, compression of bone, fashion magazine models, Yoga Journal, yoga website | Leave a Comment »

Fingers And Toes

Posted by terrepruitt on July 14, 2015

About four months ago I went to a Foot Fitness Workshop as part of a Movement as Medicine Series by Tanya Baldwin N.D.. I wrote a post about it called Foot Fitness Workshop — Ahhhhh! I could have sworn we did an exercise where we put our fingers in between our toes, but I am not seeing that on the list nor in my post, but I know I would not have done it on my own. I know I have seen it other places too, such as in connection with yoga, but I can’t put my finger on those references at the moment. I am not fond of this exercise. For some reason I really don’t like to put my fingers between my toes. Well, I think it is more accurate to say I don’t like things between my toes. But this is a great exercise for the feet. It is also relatively simple.

I had to have done it at that workshop because I wouldn’t do it on my own. But once I did it I realized how great it made my feet feel. It helped open my foot and made it feel as if it had more space. Everyone’s feet are different. Some people have toes that are wide apart and some people have toes that are close together. My big toe on both feet have enough room for another toe to be in between them and the rest of my toes. So I have no problem wearing flip-flops where your big toes and second toes “straddle” something. But I don’t like things in between my other toes.

My other toes are very close together. It is a challenge for me to get my fingers in between my toes. Now the idea is not just to put your fingers in between your toes. The exercise involves putting your fingers in between your toes all the way down to your hand. So your fingers are all the way down to where your toes meet with your feet and your toes are all the way down to where your fingers meet with your hand. For me that is wedging my fingers in between my toes. I don’t really like it. The orientation is the bottom of your foot is in the palm of your hand. You want to put your fingers in your toes from the bottom.

But as I said, I had done it and I loved the way my feet felt afterwards. So . . . I took it to a stretching class I taught. I told them I was doing something I didn’t like to do, but I knew was good for them. I put it in the “routine” just for them. After we did it our feet felt great.

Today I brought this exercise to my Nia class. Since I did it and I like the way it made my feet feel I wanted to bring it to Nia, but it seems like a Floorplay exercise, but after we dance we don’t want to touch our feet. No matter how clean the floor is, after moving around on it for 50 minutes, touching your feet is just not very comfortable. Perhaps touching the top or even a quick touch. But the way you have to wedge your fingers in between your toes, is not so great after almost an hour of barefoot dancing on multi-use type floors.

So today we STARTED class with this exercise. We took a bit of time to do it. We talked about the sensations of the our foot and our hand as we did it. A lot of us didn’t really like it. But we did it. We noticed that one set of toes seemed easier to wedge our fingers in between. All of us agree that our foot felt more open after doing it. With the way we squish our feet into shoes. It is great to allow them to open up with this exercise.

It helps with mobility in the foot because we move our foot around while I fingers are in between our toes. It helps strengthen the toes because they are moved into a different position. It helps bring mobility and flexibility into the toes because we are causing the toes to move and separate. It is good for overall foot health. Try it. You will see how different your feet feel after. You will appreciate the sensation.

Have you done this exercise before? How does it make your feet feel?

Posted in Yoga/PiYo/Pilates | Tagged: flexibility in the foot, Foot Fitness, mobility in the foot, movement as medicine, Nia, Nia class, Yoga | 2 Comments »

The Base Of Many Asana

Posted by terrepruitt on July 11, 2015

As you may know, there are thousands of yoga poses. Some of those may be variations or modifications, but still, there are a lot of yoga poses. I think of them in four categories; standing, sitting, lying down, and kneeling. Some people break them into different categories or types: standing poses, forward bends, back bends, twists, balances, and inversions. Or even standing, twists, sitting/forward bending, supine/prone, inverted, balancing, and back bending. To me you can do a forward bend while standing or sitting. Same with a twist. Balancing can be done standing, sitting, or on knees. Lying down is generally supine or prone. Inversions can be done lying down or standing, and the same with back bends. Within the four categories I named, I think of asana in terms of what are we doing. Are we balancing, are we stretching, are we working on strength or is this a restful pose. So sometimes those are my categories. It just really depends. Sometimes seated poses might look easy, but they might be more involved than you first realize. It might appear to be a restful pose when in fact it is a strengthening pose. One of those poses is Dandasana or Staff pose.

The staff pose is a sitting pose. It might be considered somewhat restful, but you are using your muscles. You are activating quite a few. This pose might not be done often on its own in yoga classes, but it is a base or starting point of many poses.

This asana is simple, yet it might not be easy. The pose requires you to sit up tall with a straight back. You want to sit on your sitz bones. Your weight is evenly distributed over both bones. Your legs are extended straight out in front of you. Your legs are together, thighs, knees, ankles and feet, together. Your thighs are active. You are actively pressing your legs gently into the floor. Your knees are facing the sky. Your feet are flexed with toes pointing up to the sky. Your spine is lengthening. You are reaching with the crown of your head to the sky, lengthening the neck, opening the chest, allow shoulders to relax, shoulder blades sliding down into your back pockets. Your ribs are lifting up, away from your hips. One way to do this pose is to press into the floor with your hands, arms are straight.

Using your hands is a variation or a modification . . . depends. Pressing into the floor would give you tension in your arms allowing them to work. But using your arms might be a modification because your arms might help you keep your spine straight allowing your core muscles to work less.

Another modification would be to sit on a blanket. That might be more comfortable for your sitz bones. Another modification would be to sit up against the wall. This could be a step one might take if they need to build up core strength.

This pose is said to have the following benefits:

–strengthens muscles of chest, shoulders, and back
–tones abdominal organs
–improves digestion
–reduces heartburn and flatulence
–tones the spinal and leg muscles
–lengthens ligaments of the legs
–stretches and activates muscles of legs
–relieves sciatica
–improves posture

As I mentioned this post is the base of many poses. The lengthening of the spine and legs is the start of many asana. Some even keep that energy, the energy of the legs moving away from the hips and/or the energy of the head moving away from the hips, throughout the pose. So this is a great one to master to help with other asana.

Do you practice Dandasana?

Posted in Yoga/PiYo/Pilates | Tagged: asana, sitting pose, Staff pose Dandasana, yoga classes, yoga poses | 2 Comments »

Sisterly Love

Posted by terrepruitt on July 7, 2015

I have not decided to turn this blog into a cat blog. But I have been very much preoccupied with the cats. Not that they need a lot of attention. They are very mellow girls. I just LIKE giving them a lot of attention. Plus I spent a lot of time at The Dancing Cat last week so my brain is still on cats. I want to continue to talk about The Dancing Cat because having a place where you can go meet your potential pet is the greatest thing. I went there to meet a particular cat that had been posted on The Dancing Cat’s Facebook page. The second I walked in I wanted to scoop her up and run. She was so tiny and so cute, just a beautiful girl. But after watching her for a while I realized that our home would probably not be the best place for her. She is a very active cat. She is still young and might mellow out a bit, but she is still more active than we were looking for. Her being active is not a bad thing at all. And me recognizing that her level of activity is more than we want is not bad either. It is EXACTLY what a cat cafe is for. Well, one of the things. It is also there to allow people to visit with cats, but its highest purpose it to match people with pets. I didn’t want two cats. And I still don’t. I want the sister we have. They are still adjusting to their new home. It is a learning process for all of us. But so far, my hubby and I are very happy. We are enamoured with the girls. We feel extremely blessed. We are grateful to The Dancing Cat.

Since I have never had two cats, I am learning how to do it. I never know which one to pet first. And I always feel as if I have to give them equal time. Which is probably not true at all because Smokey seems to like her pets in small doses. But, as I said, we are all learning. One thing that comes with two cats is their interaction. I recorded a bit of their little bath session today. I could have stood there all day, but I only got a couple of minutes because I decided I could leave them alone. Smokey first bathed Esmeralda, then they switched.

I know for many this is not a big deal. Happens all the time. I know I will get accustomed to it, too. But for now, this just amazes me. Sister love.

The black cat is Smokey and the tortie is Esmeralda. On the way home with them in the car my husband and I decided to keep their names. She doesn’t really seem like an Esmeralda to me. I looked up the name Esmeralda and it translates to emerald. The tendency with Esmeralda is to call her Ezzy/Essy. Don’t like. She really doesn’t seem like an Ezzy to me. But as the case is with pets there always seems to be a nickname. Going along with the emerald idea, I have been calling her Emmy! When I said that my husband said, “Like the award?” And I said, “No, like short for the precious gem! An Emerald.”Ahh, we will see.

My Facebook friends have been very kind and understanding about all the pictures I have posted. I hope you understand, too.

Posted in Cats, Teagan and Nessa | Tagged: adopt a cat, cat cafe, Emerald, Esmeralda, new cat parents, sister cats, Smokey, the dancing cat | 4 Comments »

Fourth Of July 2015

Posted by terrepruitt on July 4, 2015

I hope, for those of you that celebrate, you had a very wonderful and safe Fourth of July. I have been a bit preoccupied with family things. So I forgot about Thursday’s post as well as today’s post. But, it is good stuff, additions not subtractions. Saving lives, not losing lives. Remembering those that we were honored and blessed to have as part of our lives. Sharing the love we are bursting with. Sharing what we work hard for and the blessings we have. Just brace yourself because this might turn into a blog about cats.

There were cats, friends, food, fireworks, and lots of love. I give a shout out to my hubby who helped make it all happen and sacrificed his desires because of my needs. The cats came home to a comfortable and clean space which took me a bit to achieve. But they are home.

Thanks for reading. Thanks for understanding.

Posted in Cats, Teagan and Nessa | Tagged: Cats, Esmeralda, Fourth of July, love, Smokey, the dancing cat, The Dancing Cats, The Girls, The kitties | 8 Comments »

Terre Pruitt's Blog

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I teach yoga, Nia, and stretch online!

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