Happy Friday! This week’s post is going up pretty late in the day, but better late than never, right? I had the headache of doom yesterday, so I spent today just struggling to catch up. I have a crazy weekend full of work ahead now, but such is life when you’re self employed. Sure, take all the sick days you need! And then enjoy your 32 hour work weekend!

Anyway here’s what I’m loving this week!

1. It looks like the crazy rain might finally be (mostly) over! It’s sunny and almost 70 today, and I can’t wait to get outside to soak it up. I finally looked up the actual rainfall, and it looks like we got over 15 inches in the past month. Our usual annual rainfall is 45 inches so that’s a LOT!

I’m mostly excited that I should be able to resume my walks by the lake soon! I tried to go check out how flooded it was a few days ago and actually got kicked out because the marina was bringing in heavy construction equipment to get the dock ramps out from under the water. (They did at least kick me out nicely, with suggestions that I head over to the campground to take pics instead.)

The photo above was taken from a parking spot along the road that’s part o my usual walk. So yeah, the entire two lane road s underwater, plus the parking, plus whats usually a pretty good sized chunk of land between the water and the road. I’ve often said that my afternoon/evening walks by the lake are the only thing that keep me sane, so as you can imagine I’m dying to get back to normal after an entire week away!

(Note- I wrote the above on Friday morning and stopped by the lake around 7pm Friday evening, and everything was closed off with security blocking the entrances. Still no lake for me! But hopefully soon!)

2. Making my own corn cakes makes me feel badass.

I’m a pretty decent cook, but I pretty much never do it because I live alone and I’ve never understood spending an hour making a meal that I’ll eat in like 15 minutes. I wanted to try out some recipes from One Part Plant before I write about it for the book review link-up next week, and decided to try the one pictured above first. I didn’t have corn on hand, so I decided to experiment mixing other stuff with the masa harina (a kind of corn-based flour… I’d never heard of it, either.)  and then became obsessed with mixing ALL THE THINGS with it to make different kinds of corn cakes. My current favorite is to mix it with the black bean and red quinoa flavor of Well Yes soup.

I still haven’t gotten around to actually making the recipe the way it’s intended to be made. I keep putting black beans in to soak and then forgetting about them.

So yeah masa harina gets my 2nd favorite spot this week. I bought a one pound bag and have made at least a dozen different experiment recipes, and I’ve only used maybe 1/4 of the bag. You can get it from Amazon for way cheaper than I found it in any grocery store here.

3. I’m planning to write up a whole post about it, but I just became an ambassador for Maven and if you use the code CRYSTALWVIP, you can get $25 off your first video medical appointment! Consultations with nutritionists and physical therapists are $25, so you could get either of those totally free, and I’ve seen some such as consulting with a midwife for as little as $18. You don’t even have to enter payment info unless you’re booking a more expensive appointment. (Most general doctors and nurse practitioners are $35, and mental health specialists are generally $70. Some other specialists include career and pediatric sleep coaches, which are $50 each for a half hour appointment.)

I’ll be sharing more info in the full post soon, but so far I LOVE that Maven provides access to great practitioners that can otherwise be hard to access if you live in a rural area or work hours that make it tough to make an appointment during regular office hours. And sometimes you just plain want to talk to a doctor without having to like, put on pants and leave the house, you know?

4. A little PSA about befriending the clerks at whatever store you visit most often. (This probably won’t work in major cities, but definitely in small towns!)

I stopped by the Dollar General by my house today because I knew their clearance stuff was an extra 50% off and I wanted really cheap Easter candy. One of the ladies that works there informed me that although the sign said half off, the clearance clothes were ringing up as 13 cents. I was able to get a cute floral top for my mom, and a plaid tunic (above – it’s supposed to be a short dress, but I’m tall) and charcoal grey hoodie for me, all for a total of 39 cents including tax. Whaaaa?

5. This is a thing that recently happened to me: (I know, I know, I shouldn’t give him food. But he does the little washing motion thing with his paws before he eats each one! And I really need to get out more!)

This is how we party at Casa Crystal at 4 am. I’ve really been in Missouri too long.

A post shared by Crystal Ward (@crystalward11) on May 2, 2017 at 2:37am PDT

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