Overanalyzing my soup

Oh, happy weekend. What a restorative, wonderful thing a weekend is. Not that I had such a hard week at work. Half of it was at home due to the lengthy Christmas holiday break. Wednesday was a teacher work day, so we didn't even have kids. It was a quiet day working and preparing. Thursday and Friday the kids came back and we resumed our regular schedule, but not totally. We won't have reading groups until Monday and I wasn't doing any interventions my first hour. So, again, a slower day.

Even so, the resumption of work in an elementary school after a two week time off always hits me like a ton of bricks. Regular readers know that I value quiet time (look at the title of my blog, after all). I get easily overwhelmed and overstimulated with all the hubbub at school, so I restrict my sensory input while I'm at home in order to try and maintain a balance and to recover so I'm fit for public the next day.

This morning I arose at 5 am, because I'd gotten 7 hours of sleep and that is when my body wakes me up. I love the regularity with which my body stays on schedule. 7 hours on the dot. So I got up and started the coffee and did a little cooking and then took out the trash. By then the sun was just poking up over the horizon, and the sky was azure laced with pink.

The half moon was blazing brightly and starkly down upon a still earth. No traffic. No people. Peaceful. Just the ever present rooster crowing next door, the whisper of a light breeze stirring in the magnolia tree, and a few sleepy birds chirping hopefully.

Just the way I like it.

I made a black bean chili with onion, corn, and roasted red peppers. I added some rice I'd had left over. It will be topped at serving with sour cream and avocado slices, as the chili will thicken through the week.

I also popped some potatoes in my crockpot, and as mentioned I had cooked roasted red peppers, and roasted carrots, baked tilapia and salmon, and roasted carrots. Those are my meals for the week. I also have yogurt and fruit in the fridge for desserts and snacks.

It ended up being a huge pot of chili, but that's OK, I'll eat it for lunch every day. My style of cooking doesn't suit unless you don't mind eating the same thing every day. I like that. I know what I'll be having and I don't have to put any mental energy into deciding, preparing, or buying something.

Samantha Craft has an autistic son and is an autistic person herself - as she discovered later in her life. She wrote a book called Everyday Aspie, and it's getting good reviews. I read her blog (now retired since she wrote her book) and this checklist for Females with Aspergers is phenomenal. It helped me understand some things. Many, many things on this checklist are true for me. Not all, but many. This one especially resonated:

1. Analyzes existence, the meaning of life, and everything, continually

I do analyze everything continually. I analyze the most efficient way to organize a schedule of tasks, and then whether to perform them clockwise or counterclockwise in the room. Say, making the bed, putting away the clothes, and so on. I analyze the most efficient way to make the meals for the week, which to do first, next, last, in what order and how big to cut things and so on. I do all this in my mind in two to three minutes. I do the same in the grocery store. If I forget an item I won't backtrack. I leave it. If it's a critical item for cooking I adjust my menu. I analyze where to put things in the car depending on how I plan to park it when I get home. Sometimes I edit a sentence three ways before saying it as I'm saying it. Whatever I do I analyze first. I expend significant amounts of mental energy analyzing, assessing, and deciding everything at every moment. It's not unconscious, but nearly so. My brain whirrs at high speed, all day. If I can suspend one decision by cooking something and sticking with it all week for lunch and not have to decide, all the better.

The 1981 movie The Four Seasons starred Alan Alda and Carol Burnett. I liked it back then. One of my favorite scenes is when the three couples are relaxing on a yacht, psychiatrist Alda breaks the peaceful mood by analyzing something aloud. They all throw shells at him and tell him to shut up, that he overanalyzes everything. Peace is restored, but only momentarily. Alda breaks the silence again, saying "But do you know why I analyze?" That's me.

I'm enjoying the book Run with the Horsemen by Ferrol Sams. The book blurb says Ferrol Sams was a physician, humorist, storyteller, and the bestselling author of eight novels rooted in the oral tradition of southern humor and folklore. He lived in Fayetteville GA. He is a good writer who brings the between-the-wars time period of red clay Georgia to life. One reviewer said Sams was like a modern day Mark Twain. I agree.

Also I'm liking a Philip Graham Ryken book called Art for God's Sake: A Call to Recover the Arts. Book blurb:

The creation sings to us with the visual beauty of God’s handiwork. But what of man-made art? Much of it is devoid of sacred beauty and is often rejected by Christians. Christian artists struggle to find acceptance within the church.

It's only 64 pages so I expect to finish it today after church. After that I have no idea which book I'll select next. There are so many I have to choose from!

I hope you all have a wonderful week. It is supposed to warm up finally later in the week. No more tens for overnight temps and highs in the mid to upper 60's Georgia comes through for my climate enjoyment again!

Here are a few photos to leave you with-

Winter in the back yard

Hot tea in Aynsley Louis XV bone china tea cup

Murray enjoying the fire