In the time of chimpanzees, I was a monkey.

(Butane in my veins, etc, etc)

I have decided we are skipping August this year. I think this is fair and reasonable. And if y’all are on board with this decision we can mote it be. Everyone nod along, lets make this happen.

Do we really need an August? It has been an oddly mild Summer for central/southish Texas. Temperatures in the mid 80s to mid 90s and not a ton of rain but enough to make me more hopeful about life. Other than the mold count. And the current spike in covid cases. The past two summers had unrelenting days over 100 degrees, and I’ve found that I do fine with heat as long as it doesn’t surpass my internal core body temperature. So the difference between even 95 and 99 is huge for me.

I’ve been doing a lot of baking in order to use up stuff that needed to be used up. And I have actually been able to bake since I’m not compete with temperatures that mimic the surface of the sun. I started with an applesauce bread recipe and converted it into an apple cake that was a big win yesterday. So I’m sharing that recipe with you.

Apple Snack Cake

1 cup of applesauce

1 cup of brown sugar

1/2 vegetable oil

2 large eggs or substitute

2 tablespoons milk or plant mylk

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/2 tsp allspice

2 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup chopped or halved pecans or walnuts

1 firm apple, chopped (de-stem and de-seed but you don’t have to peel it unless that’s your kink)

Preheat oven to 350 and grease an 8x8 baking pan.

Combine the applesauce, sugar, oil, eggs, and milk in a large bowl, beating well. Combine the dry ingredients and stir until batter is smooth. Mix in the nuts and chopped apple until just blended. Plop it all into your prepared pan and bake for about 45 minutes.

I also topped the batter with some of the Cinnamon Toast Crunch Cinnadust because I had some in the kitchen and I’m a show off.

What else? I am currently organizing all of my important papers and assets so if I am unalived my family doesn’t have a shit show to untangle. I don’t have any expectation of being unalived in the immediacy. But I am both klutzy and smart mouthed so it’s a good idea to be prepared.

I am doing a bunch of research into options cuz….frankly…rich people get this education and the rest of us don’t. I’m putting together a pdf guide for my Etsy store so other people don’t have to do the same research deep dives and continuously bug their patient lawyer bestie for advice. Tho if you are in Texas and need a patient family lawyer, you should contact aforementioned lawyer bestie. He’s lovely.

Since it isn’t ready yet, I did add another digital guide as much requested by the people who have known it exists. It is my relational-cultural theory based coaching manual. I wrote it last year to start putting together a coaching certification based on RCT.

RCT is based on the idea that you can’t separate people from larger culture and the impacts of aforementioned culture as well as the idea that we heal in relationships. Building the actual course is time consuming when you have several other jobs, many rescue animals, and cakes to bake and the manual has just been sitting on my hard drive, flirting with Clippy, and generally needing something to do. So I finally got it up. All of the forms created for coaching can be used in your personal clinical or coaching practice with the purchase of the manual. So if you do that kind of work, you may find it very helpful.

Another thing I just did was create a link for the CBD store that I use. Someone gave me a bottle a few years ago, and I found it to be a way more consistently made product (and great customer service) than a lot of what I found sold locally. I’ve had alot of clients turning to CBD products for pain and sleep and asked what I recommended. And it’s this one. I’ve written about the brands of whole food supplements and herbs that I prefer before, but not my fave CBD brand. So yaaay, now I have. I also added links to both to my Linktree if you ever need to find it again.

(Insert all caveats here, of course. Legality of products vary state by state because all states have their own Controlled Substance Acts. Because everything can interact with everything, consult with your doctor before adding something new. And keep in mind that many of these products can create a false positive for THC if you are drug tested for work, school, legal requirements, etc.)

I hope you have as lovely a weekend as possible. I am invoking loveliness by going to the bookstore today and go see Deadpool tomorrow. But I am old and boring and that is peak excitement for me.

This week I’ve been listening to Rebel Girl, by Kathleen Hanna on Spotify (it’s included with premium!) instead of music…so no music recommendation for you. Listen to Kathleen! Her documentary about having to quit touring due to an illness that was misdiagnosed and mistreated for many years is also really good and is available on Amazon streaming. Either will keep you company while you bake an apple cake!

Take care of you,

Faith