Laura Ehlers

I have created many desserts in the name of calorie conscious snacking. There were the 'ice creams' made from frozen skim milk and fruit all blended with fortifying ice cubes. There was trail mix of carefully counted out chocolate chips, almonds and dried cherries. And now, the piece de resistance...the frozen chocolate dipped banana.
I only recently learned that you can, in fact, freeze bananas. I did not know that peeling them would be...interesting. For some reason, I assumed that the frozen peel would just slip off the tasty, frozen flesh. Yeah, not so much. The frozen peel snapped when it should have slid. Rubbing it between the palms of my hands to 'loosen' it resulted in no less than three letters to Hustler True Confessions Magazine. In the end, I made like a mohel at a tropical fruit bris. Paring knife don't fail me now.
The freshly trimmed banana was ready for dipping. I chose two tablespoons of Hershey's extra dark syrup, because, you know what they say...

Overall, I have kept the calories within the 1600-1900 calorie goal for the past two days. I am already tired of getting up a half hour early to log in all the planned foods for the day and I find my self obsessing over what I get to eat next.

Thursday will be a left over dinner day in which I will ponder what to name the meal I eat at 9pm after work. I feel the title should convey a feeling of relaxation, nutrition and pampering. Cosmo, perhaps?

So, I have never written a 'blog'. I maintain a website - which I should be updating any day now and I write short stories and work on novel ideas...But, this is my first official blog.
Until recently, I belonged to an online writers group. We met through circumstances involving the alignment of planets with mind-numbing boredom of everyday jobs. We went on to write, review, form friendships, write novels, publish an online magazine and a couple of books, and eventually meet in 3D where many of these superficial friendships were cemented. Over the weekend, this group - a topic of conversation for nearly 3 1/2 years dissolved. It is sad, but is was time. We came together at a time when we were all in the same place and needed the same degree of assistance. We grew and diversified and the group dynamic changed. Our friendships continued but evolved or dissolved as the case may be. And now we are off in the bigger world of the web.
What does this have to do with my sewing room? A valid question.
I use to sew quite a lot. Then I stopped. The room became a catch all for all the crap that accumulates in a household. Until this weekend. I am now called upon to once again use my sewing skills and with that need in mind I tackled a job that I had been putting aside for way too long. It took an entire afternoon to clean a path to the table, clean the flat surfaces but this was just the beginning. That sewing area holds many memories. As I cleaned out the drawers of the desk, which my dad made for me way back in the 1970's, I found needles pincushions and ric-rac from women long passed from this world. I keep them because they are useful but also because when I hold them I remember that Grandma or Aunt. I cleared off the bulletin board and remembered the time I spent as a teenager, arranging all the things important at that moment on the board Dad made for me. It was my own space in a room shared with my sister.
And then it occurred to me. The sewing area, like the bulletin board and the writing group, were my own tiny spaces in a much bigger place. Here was a place where I felt comfortable and at home. Where I could display the intimate parts of what make me...me. The place is not stagnant. It changes, sometimes daily, sometimes over months or even years. But ultimately, it still brings me back to myself.