Living It

Callings and Callings

2011-08-18T23:36:00.001-07:00

Right now at church my calling (unpaid, part-time job) is on the Stake Activities Committee (wards are the local congregations, a stake is a group of wards). I’m the “Music Specialist”, serving under the “Cultural Arts Director”.

I pretty much got this calling because I started pushing for a big music production I wanted to have performed. It almost happened about a year and a half ago, but it’s finally coming to fruition this November.

Whenever we have a music-oriented activity comes up I’m really excited about it and try to get things going, but I always feel side-lined. I detest the hierarchy that is set up (as it is not clearly defined) and the fella that is the “chair” (as assigned by stake pres.) runs things completely contrary to how I am used to having things done and how I would like to see them done. It seems disorganized, with the loudest voices getting listened to the most (literally).

Now that this production I’ve been working my tail off for is finally underway I feel totally side-lined. We have someone leading the choir and (odd, I know, but it works) someone else leading the orchestra. They are both very capable. I’ve tried to maintain a sense of “running things” by trying to hold on to being the contact point/producer, but honestly I feel like a pet. It’s ridiculous.

I keep getting a little anxiety whenever I think about the calling and/or the production now. I’m thinking about bailing and just being a player in the orchestra. I don’t really want to do that, though. I want to follow through and see this done well. I’ve just got to figure out how to re-focus the production when it’s so far underway. I was late to one of the key meetings and I think that our newest recruit for this gig got the idea that I was an extra limb – somewhat useful, but more of a novelty.

Gag, I hate undefined positions. I’m really a task-oriented person. This must be one of those “learning and growing” things that God gives us. ha.

Sounds like I’ve got some planning to do. Thanks for the listening ear, internets.

Post-Partum Depression and other fun

2011-04-08T11:09:00.001-07:00

What exactly is post-partum depression like? I’ve never been sad or lethargic or felt like I would harm my baby, but I have had other difficulties. I’m quick to anger, impatient, I yell, and my memory is pretty much unreliable for at least six months. For that entire first six months it seems like I can’t do much beyond the basics. (Forget about the first couple of months. Just managing to get some sleep in between wakings/feedings is all I can handle.)

Is this PPD? Is it just sleep-deprivation? Perhaps Seasonal Affective Disorder? (I am in Seattle, after all.) Some people are just blessed with good sleepers and seem to be right back into the swing of things after 6 or 8 weeks. After three kids, I’m not sure if the babies are to blame or my own biology.

I am starting to really come out of my funk, finally, but it’s also coinciding with the arrival of more sunshine here in the Evergreen State. I know that last year around this time I also seemed to “wake up” when there was a bright, sunny day. I keep planning to try full-spectrum lights, but I’ve only just now started looking into them.

Whether or not I get PPD or SAD or both, we might be done having babies. I kind of want one more, but this has been rough. Scott has a few dietary restrictions and is exclusively breastfed, the sleep has been rough because he has a sensitive gut, and my immune system has been abused since early/mid-December. I finally had a two-week break but I’m sick again. It’s not debilitating, but anything is too much when you’re already getting up multiple times during the night.

I’m convinced that having babies is better done when you’re in your 20’s. Perhaps I would have been just as crazy, but maybe it wouldn’t have lasted so long. At any rate, I’m 32 now and will probably be close to 34 when and if we’re ready to have another. 35 is my cut-off. Spending ten years pregnant, nursing, and recovering is enough for me.

Baby Scott–September 6, 2010

2011-01-02T22:25:00.001-08:00

At 12:50am a strong contraction woke me up with pressure on my bladder. This was a fairly regular occurrence of the past couple of weeks, so I took care of business and then went to check on Jane. She’d been having a lot of accidents at night lately, so I asked her if she wanted to go potty. When I squatted down next to her bunk I felt a little trickle. She flopped out to stand, only to refuse and crawl back into bed. I’m glad that she refused, because I was pretty certain that I had not wet myself. So after Jane declined I went back to the bathroom and checked on things. Sure enough, I was having an intermittent trickle of amniotic fluid. My water had broken and the baby was on his way.

I had been heavily preparing for the baby for the past month, but of course the night he chooses is the one where our laziness prevailed on a quiet Sunday evening. The house was a mess.

I walked over to Travis and rubbed his feet to wake him. Thankfully, we had been going to bed at a decent hour more recently, so we had a few hours under us at this point. “Trav, my water broke. I’m going to go clean the kitchen.”

He turned and smiled, “Congratulations, Honey.”

He got up and helped me load the dishwasher, clean the table and counters and sweep the floors. We remembered to hold off on starting the dishwasher & cleaning the large items – we would need that hot water for the birthing tub.

I didn’t want to call my birthing team without details, so Travis and I tracked my contractions for about half an hour while we cleaned. They were mild, but 3-4 minutes apart. At about 2am I called the on-call pager and Beth returned my call and verified that everyone needed to come right away. I had tested positive for Strep B this time, so I had to have a shot of antibiotics right away. She said that she would call Lynn, as she and I wanted her to attend my birth.

Travis told me to also call the doula and the tub rental. (I hadn’t wanted to rush things, but it’s a good thing he was there to push me along – labor progressed much faster than I thought it would and those things take a long time to fill!) During all this cleaning I also had to use the toilet about four times. This was a very good thing as I was planning a water birth and did not want any of that gross-ness factor floating around with me.

It was about 1:30am and I needed a snack, so I took a few bites of banana and drank a little water. I had felt hungrier than that, but that seemed to do it.

I called and woke my parents. They live two hours away. I told them I would call back in a bit to update them. I called the midwife pager, called my doula, and called for the birthing tub. Within one hour everyone but my parents was there. The midwife team checked my vitals and administered the antibiotics while I sat at the kitchen table. Then the contractions were starting to get heavier.

Travis supported me from behind for a few, I held onto the pull-up bar for another, but mostly I had to walk them out. Then I had to speed walk them out, then high-step them out and then Laura – my doula – would press on my hips while I swayed, bracing myself on a bed or couch. She followed me around, keeping her distance while I “hmmmm’d” and “oooooo’d” through contractions, until I called for her. In between contractions I went to the bedroom and put my swim top on in preparation for the tub.

Soon I was back in the front room, kneeling in front of the couch and supporting myself through a contraction. I called for a bowl. I could hear the women behind me, but I knew they wouldn’t make it in time, so I moved quickly to avoid throwing up on the couch or the rug and barely made it to the hard floor. Someone – I think my doula – threw a towel down on top of it and put the bowl in front of me. Good thing I chose half a banana for a snack – everything came out.

I think that it was at this time my midwife – Lynn – asked to check me. I lay down on the front room floor (for what seemed like the longest time), “6 centimeters, -1 station.” She was still checking the baby’s position when a hard contraction came on, “Lynn!!” I yelled. Her checking me had brought on a bigger contraction and she quickly moved away so that I could get up.

The pacing increased and the contractions became harder to cope with, but I focused my breathing, sound, and mind to relax through them.

Finally I was in my bedroom and I remember the whole team being nearby, so I must have been sounding like it was time. I knelt on all fours for a couple of contractions while Lynn stepped up and compressed my hips between her legs, and then with her hands. Then my body was pushing.

“My body is pushing!” I scrambled out of my underwear.

There was a murmured “That’s okay, that’s okay.” from several voices.

“Can I get in the tub?”

I think there were a couple of chuckles at my request, but someone helped me get in the tub. The water came up just past my waist and felt great. The achiness in my back dissipated, and I relaxed. I am told that I was in the tub for over an hour altogether, but time took a back seat to existence at this point. I closed my eyes, and focused on the strong sensations that encompassed my womb. Between contractions I would try to relax my body into a focused state to allow the next contraction to roll through. Sometimes they rolled, sometimes they tumbled. The tumbling sent me squirming and heavy as if a bowling ball were being created from my abdomen. The rolling was intriguing; showing me just a glimpse of what it really means to conquer our natural selves. There were brief periods of transcendence when I would Ooooooo… or Aaaaahhhhh… my way through a contraction and I felt that my mind and my body were open and connected in a new way. It felt like a great and quiet power was passing through my body.

Much of the time, though, I tumbled with that power and I struggled to harness my body.

Travis continued to be behind me at the side of the tub. He and the doula would put a cool washcloth on my forehead between contractions. He held my hand sometimes, I squeezed his in return. I was checked once or twice and Lynn told me that the baby needed to come down a lot more. That was my new focus.

Breathe, see the baby’s head descend further into the birth canal. Open. Descend. Open. Descend.

Miss Beverly woke up around 4:30am. We had watched many videos of home births on Youtube to help prepare the girls for what would happen. She loved watching them and finding out about the birthing process, but she told me that she was “…not interested in hearing you make those sounds.” Travis asked her if she’d like to go in and see me. True to her word, she declined. Travis set her up in the front room with Go Diego, Go.

My parents arrived, I remember my mother sitting nearby. She had brought her own stool so that she would have a good seat. I heard my dad’s voice in the background, but Mother told me that he couldn’t bear to stay and hear me, so he took care of Mom’s things and went back home.

Then it was time to push. Lynn told me to let it go slowly, to let things stretch. I remember being impatient to get the pain to stop. I moved around in the tub, but I was conscious of staying low enough so that I could keep the baby entirely under the water.

At one point I turned around, with my face now toward where I had been sitting. I was on my knees, and I remembered Deborah’s character from Birth. I knew that she had drawn her character from experience, and so I drew from that a guide on how to birth my baby. As the baby descended, I reached down and felt his squishy head. I could feel the hair covering his head. I knew that he was bigger than my girls because the pressure of the stretching was so intense that I thought that I might tear. I was afraid of that, but I knew I couldn’t do anything about it. I wanted to control the baby’s descent, so instead of letting his head go back in a bit after a contraction, I pushed harder and held him there. (In hind sight, I really wish I had allowed the contractions to push him out instead of using force. My bum didn’t take kindly to that.) Finally his head popped out. Lynn and Marion checked the baby quickly and then gave me the go ahead to push him out the rest of the way.

I pushed. I felt his little shoulders come through, I picked up his little body and lifted him to me, with Lynn aiding me.

Moving over to the side of the tub I held his smooshy body and rubbed his back while Marion wiped him with a receiving blanket and covered him for warmth. He let out a small cry of protest and fell asleep. Lynn and I rubbed him to try and get him to cry more, but he would not. She listened to his lungs, but he was alright. He was just a mild little guy. Eldon Scott Leithead.

Several towels and blankets later, someone took him from me so that I could get out of the tub. I’m sure that a couple of people assisted me. I was amazingly exhausted – empty in many ways. I needed to deliver the placenta. Someone handed me a bowl and asked if I would like the birthing stool. They had to retrieve it from the front room, so I opted to squat since that took less energy than standing. The stool arrived and it was a lot better than squatting over the bowl. I was surprised at my inability to push at this point. Marion had me cough a few times and finally we were done.

After being helped into my bed, Lynn helped me get my swim top off, I was covered with a cozy sheet and the rest happened in a blur of exhaustion. I remember the girls coming in to greet me. They had already met Baby Scott. I had some time to hold him skin to skin in my warm bed, snuggling his sweet little body. I nursed him.

The girls watched everything very interestedly. Jane took to Baby Scott immediately, but Beverly needed some time to process all of the commotion in her home.

By the time Marion was ready to do all of Scott’s measurements, the girls were right up in everything. They were fascinated and it was lovely to watch.

I nursed my little baby while he lied skin to skin with me. I loved it. I was so happy with my three little people and my darling husband.

Here’s looking forward to the next addition.

The magic number three…

2010-11-16T17:10:00.001-08:00

I don’t mean three kids. Yes, they are more difficult than two, but I’m talking about the age three. That, combined with a newborn who doesn’t like a couple things I’ve been eating (gassy) means I don’t sleep enough. Today I am sick too. My brain isn’t functioning correctly, and I had a Grinch’s sleigh to paint for my friend for the ward party. Bleh.

Today I started an elimination diet to figure out what – besides dairy—my baby cannot process well. Quinoa, olive oil & homemade chicken broth. That’s what’s on the menu all day. I was going to skip the broth, but I feel broken from this sickness.

That’s my tiny rant. It would be longer, but I can’t think very well.

Oh, and I have the best husband ever. He has frequently stayed up until the wee hours of the morning with a gassy baby so that I can sleep between necessary feedings.

Best Maternity Shoot evaahhhh!

2010-08-23T23:02:00.001-07:00

I have done a maternity shoot for each of my three babies now.

Beverly:

Jane:

And this past Saturday, we had our maternity shoot for our little man. I don’t have possession of the shots yet, but you can view them at Julia’s website here.

Boxes

2010-08-20T15:48:00.001-07:00

I’m glad that I had a mad rush of nesting yesterday. My kitchen looks fantastic and is maintainable right now.

Of course, now I’m sitting in a mess of boxes and stuff here in the guest room and having contractions about every 20 minutes. I only just started writing down the times at 3pm because I was busy running errands today and was a little worried that my water would break while I was in the store. ha!

My bet? They’ll wear off. Hopefully I’m progressing, though.

No-sew Custom Bed Skirt

2010-08-17T23:39:00.001-07:00

So, our bed frame is made of various lumber pieces and sits taller than most. It’s been an awesome spot for extra storage. However, it’s also impossible to find a bed skirt to cover up said storage of awesomeness.

I dug around at Joann for some cheap upholstery fabric. They have some that is red-tagged at only $6/yard, which is even better when you have a 50% off coupon. I needed something white and heavy for a crisp, tailored look. I finally found it (with help from Miss Beverly) in the drapery liner section. Score, it was only $6.99/yard. I bought 3.5 yards and a spool of 1/4 inch heat and bond.

I cut my pieces …

Then I ironed their hems…

Once I got the three hems done, I super-steamed and ironed them so that they would bond really well.

Then I took everything into my room and attached it to my bed with a staple gun. If my hems weren’t perfectly even it didn’t matter because I could adjust their height when stapling. :D How sweet is that?

Next project, a padded headboard.

My growing belly

2010-03-22T14:50:00.001-07:00

I don’t remember being this uncomfortable so early. I think I have a super-stretch baby or something. I occasionally feel little kicks, but it’s the stretching that’s getting me. I didn’t want to give into muumuus so quickly. Come on! I’m not at 17 weeks yet. It’s not that I’m too fat for my clothes, but that the baby seems to protest anything restrictive in the slightest. bleh.

I need some serious skirt & dress shopping. Ban the pants.

Write it down

2010-01-15T15:49:00.001-08:00

I was cleaning out some notebooks that I’ve stopped using and came across my initial “exercise log” from two years ago. I found out that I have actually lost 10 pounds. It just took so long that I forgot that 160 used to be my goal weight. I’ve since moved on, but it’s good to know I have been steadily making progress.

Organic on a Budget

2009-11-15T21:21:00.001-08:00

I have a new blog. I’ve made a lot of changes, as of late, with what my family eats. I want to incorporate more organics, but I still want to stay within a cheap budget. This new blog is for planning and tracking of these changes.

Check it out! Let me know what you think.

journal entry

2009-09-01T09:37:00.000-07:00

I had a miscarriage on the 21st of last month. I was just shy of 8 weeks. It wasn't as awful as I had thought it would be. My friend Heather brought a pot of yummy (!) chicken soup by after I told her I didn't need dinner brought to me. In fact, she called me about an hour after we initially spoke that day and said, "I'm bringing some chicken soup over in spite of you. It will be there in about an hour." Thank goodness for good women who ignore the naive assertations of others. By dinner time I was hurting. And that soup was good.

Travis and I were definitely disappointed. We were looking forward to our perfectly planned April baby. *sigh* We'll see when the next one comes.

So last week was all sleeping and napping and trying to get one thing done each day other than a shower. Sometimes that one thing was a nap. Other times I was slightly more productive.

I've been looking for a great voice teacher for a while and I finally found one. Mary Beth Felker has a studio in the Georgetown neighborhood of Seattle. She is helping me with my exact problems and I've already made great progress. (According to my ears. Trav says he can't hear what I'm talking about.) We had our first "performance night" since I started there. It was fun to get up on stage and sing my two songs. I did "If I Ain't Got You", by Alicia Keys, and "I Told You So" a la Carrie Underwood. It was fun, and my confidence has increased greatly.

Last Friday we finally went on a real date. It was planned for the previous Friday but things, er, interrupted those plans. We went with two other couples to the Kingfish Cafe in Capitol Hill. It was really, really good. Except the monstrous piece of cake that we all shared for dessert. I'm picky about cake, and really, it was overbaked. Dry, hard. HOWEVER!!! the caramel whip cream that they had on top was GLORIOUS! I will certainly be doing that in the future. Yum! The food really was pretty good, with huge servings. I had an entire huge dish of gumbo to take home with me. I was looking forward to it for lunch the next day. After that, we went to the Space Needle where we finally all picked up the super annual passes that each couple had bought this past February. (Great deal: One adult +1 guest pass for $30 annual pass. FYI, for two one-time passes for adults costs $32. Yeah.) The views were lovely, but had to be cut short a bit as two of us had babysitters to get home.

It was a great night.

The next day I tossed my gumbo in the trash. My guts hurt so bad! They hurt for two and a half days. ugh! I was really worried that something other than food poisoning was at fault because it was just pain for so long. And then I *ahem* found out that it was just food poisoning.

In better news, the Zauggs came for a visit last Thursday and my parents came over the weekend. It was great to have family come and visit. I taught a successful Gospel Doctrine lesson (success defined by people telling me that the lesson was very useful for them) and was able to enjoy time with my folks.

What I’ve been busy with

2009-08-18T21:15:00.001-07:00

Well, I’m quite a bit progressed on Bev’s quilt. It’s a twin size, with plenty of drape. We just bought the girls a bunk bed, so it’s going to just be smooshed up there, I guess. Oh well. It’ll still be lovely.

Here is a close-up of the horses. I have outlined 6 of the 10 now, and I’m doing it in dark brown. They look terrific, and Beverly is very excited whenever I pull it out.

A large interruption occurred last month. We went on our first real “road trip” as a family. We’ve done long drives before, but this was our first multi-destination vacation. It was a learning experience, and overall quite positive. I’m looking forward to doing it again (in a bigger vehicle). Click the picture to see a full album. We stopped in Missoula, MT, Salt Lake City, UT, McCammon, ID, Emigrant Springs, OR, Astoria, OR, and Ft. Steven’s State Park. Fun, fun, fun. Whew!

View Full Album

Albertson’s and Catalinas

2009-07-17T14:43:00.001-07:00

One of my favorite deal blogs, Utah Deal Diva, alerted me to another great deal at Albertsons. Here’s what I bought:

4 pints Breyer’s icecream (on sale for $1), using these or these coupons, plus the doublers from the paper (which I’m told you can get at customer service, too). FREE, plus a catalina for $4 off of 5 klondike items (Breyer’s pints, too!).

On the next purchase I bought:

9 bottles of Kraft bbq sauce (because I use it a lot)
1 tub of Kraft mayo (because I’m out)
5 pints of Breyer’s icecream

Paid: $7.40 and got another $4off5 for icecream and 4 single $1 catalinas. MORE than I paid. Oh, and I had a coupon for one thing of mayo.

Today I had time to go again before the sale is over. I stocked up on the same things because the bbq sauce and mayo are great to have in my pantry.

5 pints icecream
8 bottles bbq sauce
2 tubs mayo

Paid $7.90, got the same catalinas ($4off5icecream, 4 x $1)

Because I’m going to be out of town until the $1 catalinas expire, I went ahead and used them.

5 pints icecream
1 box Wheat Thins (for our road trip)
4 Top Ramens (for our camping trip)

Paid: $.99 (essentially, the Ramens). I also received another $4off 5 catalina that is good until October.

All told?

19 pints icecream
17 bottles of bbq sauce
3 tubs mayo
1 box of crackers
4 Top Ramen

Paid: $16.29

Saved: $81.67

Debabblings: Organizational Planner Giveaway!

2009-07-08T14:11:00.000-07:00

Debabblings: Organizational Planner Giveaway!

My friend Debra is giving away a neat-o planner on her blog and has a code for 10% off at the store where the planner is from.
Check it out!

Projecting

2009-06-23T15:41:00.001-07:00

My house is a bit turned upside-down right now. Travis finished the crown molding (at long last!) in the master bedroom, and it’s my job to fill the nail holes and seams and then paint it. Of course, I also need to do that in the sewing room, and a bit of touch up in the girls’ bedroom.

During this time of upheaval I decided to completely reorganize our home. The project first started with the idea that our condo would be at the beginning of the construction schedule (long story) and therefore ready for sale at the end of the summer. Things changed and we’re back at the tail end. So, I’m repacking the closets with the freshly packed boxes and trying to fit in us all in the condo in such a way as to make the eventual moving easier.

In my search for a New Level of Organization I headed to Goodwill to seek treasures to help me home-ify my condo. We’ve been here for three years with the expectation of moving, that I haven’t really settled here. I’m finally printing pictures from our trip to Portugal last year and putting up a collage in the sewing room. I came home with a new project to do today, and another for some other day.

This bit of lovely fabric was $0.99 and the nearly new corkboard was $5.

I used an office stapler (because I haven’t organized my stuff enough yet to justify buying a staple gun!). Felt pads keep the staples from scraping the wall.

I may embellish it with the whole ribbons-criss-crossy thing and center tacks, but I’m not sure. Right now I just love the splash of color on my wall.

What do you think?

Do you Kroger?

2009-06-03T20:28:00.001-07:00

If you shop at a Kroger affiliate (in my case, QFC), then you should check out Cellfire.com. Fill out the info, click the coupons you want to use, and they get saved to your club card! No printing or fussing. They get done automatically when you swipe the card.

Most of the offers for my store are processed foods, but there were a few that I picked. (Who doesn’t like brownies?)

Gardasil and your daughters

2009-05-19T10:12:00.001-07:00

Urgent information that you and your sisters, friends, and neighbors should know.

I Fly SWA!

2009-05-12T22:20:00.001-07:00

Why do I fly SWA?

Cheap fares, friendly staff, cheap fares, no bag fees, decent snacks, cheap fares...

Here is yet another reason why you should too.

Hot Pink Smoothies

2009-04-30T13:58:00.001-07:00

So, my green smoothies have been getting a bit yuck, lately (because of my random experimenting). I’ve still been chugging them down, though, because I want the veggies and I don’t want to waste them. However, I’m not going to get my family to drink them if they’re on the “yuck” side.

I finally got around to watching some of Green Smoothie Girl’s videos on YouTube and came across Hot Pink Smoothies. I decided to give it a try. Using what I have at my house, I came up with the following delicious recipe:

1 1/2 Cups almond milk
1/4 beet, peeled
1 large carrot
1 banana
5-6 frozen strawberries
1/4 Cup dates
ice, as needed

Blend it all up for a delightful shake that includes some great vegetables too! This made a large glass for myself, and two small ones for my daughters (who *loved* it).

Almond Milk

2009-04-30T13:50:00.001-07:00

For those of you who are interested in trying this, it’s a very easy process.

Soak 1 cup of raw almonds in 2 cups of water overnight (or for several hours until very fat). After soaking, drain and rinse the almonds. Dump almonds in your blender and add 3 cups of cold water. Puree until smooth. Strain mixture in fine sieve to separate the milk from the pulp. I then strain it through a potato-sack cloth (or other thin, lint-free cloth) to get all of the milk out. Reserve the almond pulp for other recipes.

Almond Milk can replace dairy milk in your recipes. You can also add vanilla and some agave nectar or raw sugar for a sweet, tasty milk. I use mine in my smoothies.

How much can you really save with coupons?

2009-04-28T12:43:00.000-07:00

Yes, this is an extreme example, but the point is that you can save a LOT of money with smart shopping and coupon clipping.

In the words of a wonderful man, "Be wise."

Cash&Carry

2009-04-14T14:44:00.003-07:00

For those of you unfamiliar with Cash&Carry, it’s a restaurant supply store. They have many locations in Washington, Oregon, California and a few in Idaho. Check for one near you.

I stopped by to purchase some vegetables for my green smoothies today and ended up going home with a bit more than I had planned. Here are some great deals at the Bellevue, WA Cash&Carry right now:

Bananas – $.39/pound
Tillamook Med. Cheddar Cheese 5 pound- $11.97
Normandy Frozen Veg. Mix 4 pounds - $4.25
Frozen Pease 5 pounds - $4.22
HUGE bag of fresh spinach 2.5 pounds - $4.38

And a bonus if you want to make a bunch of banana bread to freeze, they have past-due bananas for $.10/pound! I bought 9 bananas for 35cents! They do have some organic produce, but I’m still a bit on the cheap here, so I haven’t made that leap quite yet.

Happy Shopping!

Green Smoothies

2009-04-14T14:44:00.001-07:00

I’m not a fan of salads, so it’s been difficult to get enough vegetables into my diet (fruit is a bit easier). I eat salads when they are prepared for me, but for some reason I have lost all appetite for fixing one myself.

So I have a friend who has talked about green smoothies, I ran into them again on a blog that I read regularly (friend’s friend, actually), and I found another blog/site all about them. So, I gave it a try.

I like them. A lot. I do thin them down with water so that I can drink it through a straw, but I certainly get more vegetables into me now than I have been. Here is my basic recipe, which makes enough for two tall glasses (I usually share with the kids during the day, and sometimes I have these as our “vegetable” at dinner):

3 Cups packed spinach
2 peeled carrots
1/2 avocado
1/4 Cup whole fat yogurt
1 T flax seed
1/2 apple
1 banana (cause my 4yo won’t eat it unless it has a banana in it)
~1/2 Cup frozen chunked pineapple (I buy fresh and chop them up)
16 ounces cold water

I pack it all into the blender in the order listed, and pulse it to get the hard stuff broken down, then I puree it all.

You can’t have a wimpy blender for this, unless you like to chew on random chunks of carrot…it may break a lesser blender. Be warned. I have a KitchenAid blender that runs about $100, and if I kill it (like I’ve killed my mixer!) I may have to step it up to one of those pricey ones.

So, why go to so much trouble for smoothies? Because I feel so much better! It helped some to abate my sugar cravings, and I’ve decided to cut refined sugar out of my family’s diet as soon as I can. So for now, that means fewer treats (although they are nearly always homemade) and me making a hot breakfast every morning. Last night Travis commented that I was “a regular person” during the evening, as opposed to the fatigued slug that I have been once 8pm hits. I can only blame the lack of sugar and the increase in healthy, raw foods.

Try it! I made these at Enrichment night for the women at church, and it was so popular that a few mothers have their children drinking them now.

Create!

2009-04-13T21:33:00.001-07:00

This is a beautiful and motivating excerpt from a recent talk by Pres. Uchtdorf to the women of my church. It’s a fantastic message to all women and I hope that you enjoy it as much as I did.

THRIVE foods, from Shelf Reliance

2009-03-25T22:08:00.001-07:00

So, I got this nifty box of products in the mail the other week. The folks at Shelf Reliance asked me to review some of their products for them. I was surprised that with five items for me to review, they chose to send me all-purpose flour and sugar as two of the items. Hmm. I have nothing to say about those, other than that they appear just fine. However, I think that I can get those for a lot cheaper at the church cannery.

Miss Bev and I decided to make one of the recipes on the back of the freeze-dried raspberries. Following the instructions, we poured out our needed raspberries, soaked them for 15 minutes in water, and then carefully drained them. They were much more solid than I had expected.

They are definitely better than frozen berries, which turn to mush. You can actually handle these to sprinkle them about on whatever you’re cooking, although they are still a bit smooshy.

I don’t know if the little “don’t eat me” packets are in the cans or not, but don’t just dump the contents willy-nilly into whatever you’re cooking. The packet probably wouldn’t be tasty in the middle of a cookie…

Next, came the butter. This is where my biggest problem is. Nowhere on the packaging did it say anything about reconstituting it with water before using it in your recipe. (Which I did find later on their site for the #10 cans.) So, I just dumped it in for the bars, and then used real butter for my crumb topping. I did later try once to use the 1 to 1 ratio of water to butter powder, but it was really runny. I still have some left, so I will give it another shot. I won’t try it on my toast, though. I smells like “food storage”. You know, that oooold powdered milk stink? Yeah. Not on my toast.

The eggs were reconstituted with water and came out looking alright. I would not be interested in trying Scrambled Reconstituted Powdered Eggs. They stink too, but not so much.

So, the Bev and I mixed it all up, spread it in the pan, sprinkled the berries, dumped on the crumb topping and baked it up. Aside from needing to reconstitute my eggs, it was a typical baking experience.

The results were tasty! I still could smell and taste that “food storage” taste (and I later determined that the butter was the stinkiest, because the powdered eggs didn’t seem to negatively affect my waffles) but everyone who ate them, loved them.

Enjoy! Many thanks to Shelf Reliance to letting me try out their THRIVE products.

How to Use a Whole Chicken

2009-03-25T21:27:00.001-07:00

Fred Meyer has a great sale on whole chicken right now: $.79/pound. They come out to a little over $4 each. You can do a lot with a 5 pound bird, but if you’re like me, using it all up outside of roasting it whole can be difficult.

I’ve been cooking a lot less meat for my family lately. Partially because it is expensive, but also because I really do believe that you should eat meat sparingly. Fruits, vegetables, legumes and grains make up the larger portion of our diet by far. Often when cooking chicken I will use a recipe with a simple (or spectacular) marinade and shred the chicken into rice and throw the cooked marinade on top. Simple roasted chicken can also later be used for other recipes with small portions of chicken in them. I can probably stretch one chicken over 5 full meals.

One of my newest favorite blogs is Gluten Free Girl. In actuality, it’s a fabulous cooking blog by two great cooks. It provides a great read with very useful tips and delicious looking food … and it happens to be gluten-free cooking. (Bonus that they’re also in the Seattle area.)

In the following video, Chef shows us how to break down a chicken. No more crunching bones with my kitchen shears!

After you’ve cut off all the usable portions of meat, you can boil the remainder to make homemade chicken stock.

Untitled from Daniel Ahern on Vimeo.

Voila. You’ve just prepped $4 of chicken into several meals worth of meat and stock.

Come and Listen to a Prophet’s Voice

2009-03-03T20:37:00.001-08:00

Here we are again. Only four weeks left until General Conference. What will you choose to listen to? What counsel will you choose to heed? Do you think I’m being too harsh? I don’t. I figure you’re the same as me: flawed, weak, prone to laziness and self-indulgence.

One blog that I love reading every day is Blog Segullah. Here is a recent article on listening to and heeding counsel from our leaders. I was struck by the timeline the author shows us.

I need to find something to occupy my kids during Conference. I’ve decided to listen to the counsel this time…and heed it.

Recipes

2009-02-27T21:30:00.000-08:00

I've loaded a side-bar of recipes, fyi. There are some that our family loves that aren't particularly "food storage" friendly, but good when you've got fresh stuff (and I will be adding to that), and then Food Storage Recipes: Tried & Approved and Food Storage Recipes: Yet to Try.

If you have any questions on the recipes that I have done, please let me know. I have altered some here and there.

By the way, I have found my current reigning champion of Whole Wheat Bread recipes this week. Seriously, it's just that good, and it's posted to the right.

158.4

2009-02-18T08:38:00.001-08:00

I know. Sweet. I finally broke that 160 pound barrier.

I did the elliptical machine for two weeks, 5 days/week and didn’t feel any difference. Once my weight training book arrived, I decided to focus on that. After my first two weeks, my weight and measurements still hadn’t changed and I had a couple days of mild depression.

This week I started the increased sessions (6 days a week of weights + daily cardio) and swapped the elliptical for the treadmill. The elliptical does not touch what the treadmill can do for a body! It’s so much more work on the treadmill. I felt incredible after my run last Saturday, and kept it up this week. (Although today I skipped it because my shins started hurting.)

Now I’m ready for the inches to fall off. I measure next Saturday. Here’s hoping!

(Fitness model pictured. Not me. haha. Although, she is one of my inspirations.)

Is your 72-hour kit ready?

2009-02-14T08:51:00.001-08:00

That horrible plane crash in NY had me thinking this morning: How many of those families who were evacuated from their homes had kits? Several homes surrounding the crash site were evacuated immediately after the crash. Perhaps if they’d had a kit prepared their stay in a motel would have been more comfortable.

One more reason why you should have that kit finished and ready to grab as you head out the door. You never know what emergency will prompt it’s use.

The Happy Housewife.

2009-02-14T08:44:00.001-08:00

Oh. my. goodness. Are you following THIS???!?!?!?! I’m kind of annoyed that she’s dragging it out over so. many. posts. Only because it’s a really good story, though. Follow, follow!

Otherwise on her blog, lots of interesting info. I’ve been following since before the awesome and compelling story.

Hey, hey it’s your birthday…

2009-02-04T20:30:00.001-08:00

Well, mine, actually. Yeah…I’m 30. I didn’t think that it bothered me, but I’ve been really grumpy this past week. I don’t think that it’s because I’m thirty, but rather because it was yet another lame birthday celebration. I planned ahead and cleaned up the house, ordered dinner and the girls and I went and picked out lovely desserts at a local French cafe.

My day, of course, was just like any other. I cleaned messes, wiped noses and patiently (or somewhat) waited for naptime. We picked up our goodies (the cafe owner even gave me a cookie for the girls. We all shared.) and got home in time to eat it by ourselves and then get the girls in the bath and to bed.

Travis had a meeting that ran late. *le sigh*

No, I didn’t really feel up to leading the girls in a rendition of “Happy Birthday to Me”, so we tasted each of the cake pieces we’d bought and got ready for bed.

Travis did spend most of the month finding me a nice collection of gifts. My new Yamaha keyboard, piano stand, finale PrintMusic, and Ulead VideoStudio. And my mother-in-law called at lunchtime (during the girls nap, so I actually had time to talk). My parents called too.

Another Trip to Albertsons on 1/22

2009-01-28T22:12:00.001-08:00

I love coupon shopping…especially when I can combine those with in-store sales. Albertsons had some cereals that were 4 @ $1.75 each, and then another sale that included some cereal and many other products which was spend $20 and get $5 off at the register.

The tomato sauce was 8 for $1 with a coupon. Sweet.

10 boxes of cold cereal (that I approve/allow my family to eat)
2 boxes blueberry muffin mix
1 box instant oatmeal
4 cans “pasta” sauce
8 cans tomato sauce

Spent: $19.56 (Sorry, I lost the detailed receipt, so I don’t have full savings. I’ll leave that up to your imagination for “full prices”.)

Disaster Checklist

2009-01-27T16:23:00.001-08:00

You can link to the list here. This reminded me that, yes, I still have several items to get into my 72-hour kit, as well as some other preparations for emergencies.

For my Seattle friends…

2009-01-21T14:37:00.001-08:00

Southwest Airlines is having a sale (yesterday) today and tomorrow on Seattle flights: 50% off their normal fares. We bought tickets to go to Utah in March. They cost about $50 each, one-way.

You can find it here.

Again about the food storage plans…

2009-01-17T19:50:00.001-08:00

So, I’ve decided that I really do need to break down all of my recipes by ingredient and make a big chart of what I need for each meal. Also, I want to have a 90–day food plan. That may not be 90 different dinners, but at least I can see what we really will need. (We repeat. A lot.) Besides, I can plan stuff ahead and hopefully it’ll make my life that much easier. Right?…right?

Anyhow, I wish I could work on this right now, but I have a lesson to prepare for tomorrow. At any rate, that list on the side will eventually change to whatever it is I come up with for my meals. Also, I plan to link a food-storage-friendly recipe for each.

Keep your fingers crossed!

Something for All Moms (and those to be)

2009-01-13T19:21:00.001-08:00

This is a great article. She totally captures how I feel sometimes. (uh,…when I’m not going crazy from lack of sleep from two sick kids who don’t get enough sleep because they’re sick and therefore cranky and exhausted.)

Enjoy this link.

Things I’ve done

2009-01-11T16:48:00.001-08:00

(Stolen from a couple of friends.) Who came up with this thing? It’s kinda random.

Things I have done during my lifetime are in bold.
1. Started your own blog.
2. Slept under the stars.
3. Played in a band.
4. Visited Hawaii.
5. Watched a meteor shower.
6. Given more than you can afford to charity.
7. Been to Disneyland.
8. Climbed a mountain. (a very small one)
9. Held a praying mantis.
10. Sang a solo.
11. Bungee jumped.
12. Visited Paris.
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea. (watched it roll in!)
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch.
15. Adopted a child.
16. Had food poisoning.
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty.
18. Grown your own vegetables.
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France.
20. Slept on an overnight train.
21. Had a pillow fight.
22. Hitchhiked.
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill.
24. Built a snow fort.
25. Held an alligator. (I’m counting that I’ve pet one.)
26. Gone skinny dipping.
27. Run a marathon.
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice.
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset.
31. Hit a home run.
32. Been on a cruise. (Ferry from Haines, AK to Bellingham, WA)
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person.
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors. (Yeah. Winslow, AZ. ;) )
35. Seen an Amish community.
36. Taught yourself a new language.
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied.
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person.
39. Gone rock climbing.
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David.
41. Sung karaoke.
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt.
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant.
44. Visited Africa.
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight.
46. Been transported in an ambulance.
47. Had your portrait painted.
48. Gone deep sea fishing.
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person.
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris.
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling.
52. Kissed in the rain.
53. Played in the mud.
54. Gone to a drive-in theater.
55. Been in a movie.
56. Visited the Great Wall of China.
57. Started a business.
58. Taken a martial arts class.
59. Visited Russia.
60. Served at a soup kitchen.
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies.
62. Gone whale watching.
63. Got flowers for no reason.
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma.
65. Gone sky diving.
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp.
67. Bounced a check. I’m not taking credit for that…
68. Flown in a helicopter.
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy.
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial.
71. Eaten caviar.
72. Been to Canada.
73. Stood in Times Square.
74. Toured the Everglades.
75. Been fired from a job.
76. Seen the changing of the guards in London.
77. Broken a bone.
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle.
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person.
80. Published a book.
81. Visited the Vatican.
82. Bought a brand new car.
83. Seen Bon Jovi in concert.
84. Had your picture in the newspaper.
85. Read Gone With The Wind.
86. Visited the White House.
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating.
88. Had chickenpox.
89. Saved someone’s life.
90. Sat on a jury.
91. Met someone famous. (Yeah…Gallagher.)
92. Joined a book club.
93. Lost a loved one.
94. Had a baby.
95. Seen the Alamo in person.
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake.
97. Been involved in a lawsuit.
98. Owned a cell phone.
99. Been stung by a bee.
100. Totally copied a post from someone else's blog to your own.

Baking Substitutions

2009-01-10T19:45:00.001-08:00

Here’s a blog post that I totally ripped from here. I haven’t read through all of it in detail, and I certainly haven’t *tried* all of these things, but I thought that it was interesting enough to put in your cookbooks or whatnot.

Cooking Substitutions:

Baking Powder (1 t.)
1) 1 t. baking soda plus 1/2 t. cream of tartar.
2) 1/4 t. baking soda plus 1/2 t. cream of tartar.
3) 1/4 t. baking soda plus 1/2 c. buttermilk (to replace 1/2 c. liquid in recipe).

Butter or Margarine (1 cup)
1) 1 1/2 c. margarine or butter powder.
2) 2/3 c. vegetable oil.
3) 1 c. shortening plus 1/2 t. salt
4) 2 sticks softened margarine plus 1/3 c. vegetable oil & 1/2 c. buttermilk. Beat until liquid is absorbed. Refrigerate.

Buttermilk
1) 1 T. vinegar (or 1 t. lemon juice or 1 3/4 t. cream of tartar) mixed in 1 c. milk.
2) 1 c. water, 1/3 c. powdered milk, 1 T. vinegar or lemon juice.
3) 1 3/4 c. dry milk in 3 c. slightly warm water (shake or beat until blended). Cover an allow to stand at room temperature until clabbered (6 - 12 hours). Refrigerate.
4) 1 c. water, 1/3 c. powdered milk, 1 T. vinegar or lemon juice. Let mixture stand in a warm place until thickened (18 hours). Stir until smooth. Refrigerate.
5) A buttermilk freeze dried culture can be purchased at a grocery or health food store, and kept indefinitely.

Chocolate (one square)
1) 3 or 4 T. cocoa plus 1/2 T. fat (butter, margarine or shortening).
2) 3 T. cocoa plus 1 T. butter.

Corn Starch (1 T.)
2 T. flour.

Cream (1 cup)
1/3 c. butter plus 2/3 c. milk.

Egg
1) Combine 1 t. unflavored gelatin with 3 T. cold water and 2 T. plus 1 t. boiling water.
2) Dissolve 1 tablespoon unflavored gelatin in 1 tablespoon cold water, then add 2 tablespoons boiling water. Beat vigorously until frothy
3) 2 egg yolks plus 1 T. water.
4) 2 T. dehydrated eggs plus 2 1/2 T. water.

Evaporated Milk
1 c. water, 2/3 c. powdered milk

Fats/Oils
Applesauce (subtract some sugar), or Beans (cooked and mashed).

Flour, White (1 cup)
1) 3/4 c. whole wheat flour.
2) 7/8 c. rice flour.
3) 1 c. corn flour.
4) 1 c. corn meal.
5) 3/4 c. buckwheat.
6) 1/2 c. barley flour.
7) 3/4 c. rye flour.

Green Pepper (1 medium)
1/4 c. dehydrated green pepper.

Half and Half (1 cup)
1) 7/8 c. milk plus 1 T. butter.
2) 1/2 c. coffee creamer and 1/2 c. milk.

Honey (1 c.)
3/4 c. sugar plus 1/4 c. liquid.

Jello (3 oz.)
1 T. plain gelatin plus 2 c. fruit juice.

Ketchup (1/2 c.)
1/2 c. tomato sauce, 2 T. sugar, 1 T. vinegar, 1/8 t. ground cloves.

Milk, Whole (1 cup)
1) 1/2 c. evaporated milk plus 1/2 c. water.
2) 1 c. reconstituted milk plus 2 T. butter.
3) 1 c. water, 1/3 c. powdered milk

Onion (1 medium)
1/4 c. dehydrated onion

Sour Cream (1 cup)
1) 1 c. milk plus 1 1/2 T. vinegar. Let stand until mixture thickens and clabbers.
2) 1 c. plain yogurt.

Sugar (1 cup)
1) 3/4 c. honey (reduce liquid by 1/4 c. or add 1/4 c. flour).
2) 1 c. molasses.
3) 1 1/2 c. carob syrup.
4) 1 1/4 c. malt syrup.
5) Corn syrup (reduce liquid). 6) Brown sugar.

Sugar, Brown
Sugar & Molasses.

Sugar, Powdered (1 cup)
1 c. sugar and 1/2 t. cornstarch. Blend in blender until powdered.

Sweetened Condensed Milk
1) 1 1/2 c. powdered milk, 3/4 c. sugar, 1/2 c. hot tap water. Place hot water in blender. With blender going, add sugar and dry milk, blend until smooth.
2) 1 c. hot water, 4 c. powdered milk, 2 c. sugar, 1/4 c. butter. Blend in blender. Can be refrigerated or frozen.
3) 1/2 c. hot water, 1 c. powdered milk, 1 c. sugar. Blend in blender. Can be refrigerated or frozen.

Tapioca (2 t.)
1 T. flour.

Tomatoes, Canned (1 cup)
1 1/3 cups cut up fresh tomatoes, simmered 10 minutes.

Tomato Juice (1 c.)
1/2 c. tomato sauce, 1/2 c. water

Whipped Topping
1) 6 T. powdered milk, 1 c. boiling water, 2 t. unflavored gelatin, 2 T. cold water, 2-4 T. sugar, 1 t. vanilla. Dissolve the milk in the cup of water and scald (boil until milk forms a skin on top). Soak the gelatin in cold water. Combine the scalded milk, dissolved gelatin and sugar. Stir and chill in the refrigerator until it jells. Then beat the mixture until it acquires the consistency of whipped cream. Add the vanilla and whip again.
2) 1 c. water, 2/3 c. powdered milk. Chill. Add 1/2 t. lemon juice. Whip. Fold in 1 T. sugar to taste.

Wine
1) Use apple or grape juice minus some sugar.

2) Use broth and lessen the salt.

3)1/2 and 1/2 red/white wine vinegar and an appropriate juice (like apple, cranberry…something to compliment the dish)

Yeast (1 package)
1 T. yeast

Fledgling Food Storage

2009-01-09T13:39:00.001-08:00

Here’s what we’ve got so far:

Whew! That looks puny in a little picture! I am waiting for another sale on canned vegetables. We’re short on green beans, and peas, and could just use more of everything in general. We really like Beef Vegetable soup, and throwing green beans into casseroles so we run out of those quick. I wish that there were case-lot sales around here. I’ve considered Costo again, but they’re really not that great of a deal.

Now I need to put in an order to the cannery and get wheat, rice, powdered milk and some other stuff. I now mix up a gallon of powdered milk at a time and use it in nearly all of my cooking. I haven’t noticed any difference. I even have that as the primary milk for cold cereal. It certainly saves a *lot* of money.

We also have our 72-hour kits, although they need to be organized:

And some non-food year supply stuffs:

and some stuff in the freezer, although I’ve decided to do less freezing. Losing power for an extended time period is a real possibility here and I hate losing all that food. I will be canning beef & chicken & salmon and I hope to do some pre-made dishes bottled too, like pasta sauce, pie fillings, taco meat, soups, homemade marinades, etc.

Shopping Albertson's $30/$15 sale

2009-01-09T10:12:00.001-08:00

This is what I bought at Albertson's this morning.

Here's my list:
2 dozen large eggs $.99 each
3 cans of Salmon $1.99 each (Walgreens coupon)
4 cans Progresso soup $1.25 each (Walgreens coupon)
2 boxes of instant oatmeal $1.99 each
2 boxes Alb. butter $2.00 each
Adams PB $3.09
8 boxes of cereal (Total, Golden Grahams & Fiber One) $2.00 each
19 cans Progresso Soup $2.00 each

scanned coupons: -$15.40
store's coupon rewards: -$15
grocery deals: -$12.36

I crammed as many coupons as I could and spent $48.93. I saved $93.61. All of these things were on sale to begin with, or I bought them at a special coupon price. Still not as good as other people, but I'm learning. :)

Ramblings about a disappointing day.

2009-01-07T20:25:00.001-08:00

This was one of those kind of crappy days. I did get off to a decent start, but nothing worked out for me timing-wise. I got to the gym, but late. All I can do right now is my cardio. I have core work two days in a row and I need a day of rest. I can’t do anything else without aggravating my elbow and I feel like a complete gimp just running for 30 minutes. How am I going to be “un-fat” just running? I want the lean, toned torso. No motherly pudges. Not being able to do a full workout leaves me feeling unfulfilled. It’s like being really hungry and just drinking a glass of water. Your stomach may be full, but the hunger is still there.

We made it to the birthday party for a friend’s little girl. We have daughters close in age for both girls. It was at the mall play area. Very fun and relaxed, but we got there an hour late because of my backlogged morning. The girls ran and played and yelled and climbed and jumped.

Naptime took forever, between settling down Beverly and tending to Jane’s cranky guts that took an hour and a half of complaining to get a diaper to change. I was planning on folding laundry this afternoon, but that was left sitting on my bed.

And this internet connection is killing me. Travis and I determined that it’s the hardware that we bought. Cheap. Time to get something better. The DSL is fine, and his laptop picks up the connection just fine, but I am constantly having issue with connectivity. I think that an hour of my day got sucked away in downtime.

My 6-qt professional KitchenAid cannot handle mixing 8 Cups (maximum wheat flour capacity) of whole wheat flour for more than 30 seconds. My mother gave me a work-around of mixing about 3/4 of my flour long enough to develop the gluten and then throwing in the rest just until it’s mixed in. It’s not ideal, but it’s heckalot better than kneading two loaves of whole wheat bread by hand. (I did that a week or so ago. My grip was greatly diminished for an hour or so afterward.)

Sometimes I feel like I have so much potential but that it is left untapped daily. I don’t know why I am so self-conscious and lacking in confidence. Most people would not describe me that way, but they’ve never seen what I see when I try to get started on the things that I want to do. It’s as if I am denying myself passion. Who am I to say what I really mean or go after what I really want? I have so much more than most and why should I desire to have or do any more than what is in my life right now? I’m hiding behind a facade of contentment. Only I am not content.

I want to write. I want to sing. I want to perform. I want to run. I want to dance. I want to fight. I want to run into the dawn and sing and run and leap and shout at the joy of running.

All of that contained passion, but I won’t even tell you what I really want to do. I’ve encountered so many jerks in my life that I’ve let them dampen my passion to the point where it’s nearly completely hidden. Have my wings been clipped or have I only forgotten how to extend?

162.8

2009-01-07T15:15:00.001-08:00

Since I fell on the ice last week I’ve had to keep off of the weight training. My left elbow still hurts. I have continued to do a half hour of cardio daily (weekdays) followed by stretching and core work. I’m looking forward to adding strength training in next week (hopefully).

Great Source for Food Storage guidance

2009-01-04T21:12:00.001-08:00

E-zine article “What Can You Do With Your Food Storage?”

This article tells you the sort of things you can make based on what you currently have in your food storage. Some things that I definitely hadn’t thought of.

Little Adjustments

2009-01-04T18:18:00.001-08:00

So, I changed my goal from 90 meals to 60 meals, because we have a lot of favorite meals that we like to repeat. I think that we can handle having the same meal 6 times a year.

I need to find a good supplier for inexpensive, but good, meat when bought in bulk. Ground Beef, Chicken, Sausage, Pork. Does anyone know of a way to long-term preserve bacon, like preserving homemade bacon bits? Has anyone ever used salt pork that hangs in your pantry?

No New Goals

2009-01-03T21:55:00.001-08:00

I don’t buy into the whole “New Year’s Resolutions” thing. It feels too forced to me. I do set goals on my own, as well as establish “works in progress”. But for the sake of being cool and fitting in, here are things that I’ve been working on:

1. One Year Supply Food Storage

I didn’t think that I would be able to make much progress on this while in our condo, but as I’ve been searching and observing through other blogs I’ve realized that I can cram a lot of food storage into my home. I’ve also realized that food storage is not just having the “staples” in #10 cans hidden in unused portions of your house. It should ideally be a functional pantry that is regularly used and rotated.

My first mini-goal with Food Storage is to come up with 60 different dinners that I can make from pantry items exclusively. To achieve this I have decided that I need to start bottling my extra meat instead of putting it in the freezer. When we had an enormous storm two winters ago we lost power for 5 days and I ended up throwing out a *lot* of meat. Bottled ground beef and chicken is very easy and very tasty. I’m going to have to buy a canning bath and start using it. If you’re interested in my meal list (and if you’d like to contribute) it will be posted on the side-bar of my blog.

My second mini-goal is to create an inventory list of what I will need to prepare those 90 meals. Once the inventory is created I will know what my pantry lacks and then can prepare accordingly. Currently I am buy as much of something that I can (either by the store’s limitations or my budget’s) whenever it goes on a good sale price. Canned goods like corn, beans, broth I buy when I can get them for less than $.50/can. The best I’ve seen is getting my vegetables for 3/$1.00.

2. Weight Loss/Toning/Overall Health

I’ve had a variety of illnesses and injuries keeping me from being consistent with exercise, and now that it’s cold I’ve joined back up at the YMCA. I have realized that I do not get as good of a workout if I am doing it on the road and at home. I need to be completely tuned in and distraction free. Of course, before I headed out to the Y on Friday morning I slipped on our surprise ice that coated out parking lot here at the condo and came down hard on my knee and elbow. I did not want to have yet another interruption kill my drive to exercise, so we continued to the gym after I recovered. Happily, Travis had worked the day before (New Years) and was taking his holiday a day late. So he was there to help me, and I did not have to hobble around with the kids myself.

I will be getting back into my regular routine of gym attendance 3-4 days per week. I want my baby tummy to be gone. Overall I want to lose about 15 pounds, but it’s mostly about inches. I am looking to gain a couple pound of muscle and be in really good shape by the time we decide to try and expand our family.

I already eat pretty well. I don’t consume much garbage food as the average person, but that’s because I use the approach of give it away or throw it away. I don’t buy many processed food items, when I make big deserts (like b-day cakes) they go to work with Travis. If I can’t send it with Travis (like a couple of containers of ganache samples I made recently) I throw them in the trash. I do love cookies, but I just don’t make them very often, or I make small batches. I make whole wheat bread for our regular bread. Thanks to Laura, I now have a spectacular bread recipe. (Thank you for passing it on!) We eat whole wheat tortillas and pasta, and I will be trying to do those from scratch now that I have a Grain Mill attachment for my KitchenAid. (Christmas gift. -- Thank you, Darling.) I just have to get some wheat ordered from the cannery.

I have been trying to get more fruits and vegetables into our family diet and it mostly fits in at dinnertime. I do realize, though, that apples, bananas, and applesauce get eaten regularly by my kids during the day. I just need to cram more green stuff into edible forms for them. Perhaps I can come up with a tasty, but healthy, spinach loaf or something.

So there you have it. This is what I’m working on right now. Of course, my house is still a WIP all on it’s own. We’re going to get the closets done and then I think I may find organizational sanity.

Whatever you’re working on, I wish you all the best. Remember why it’s important to you and remind yourself why you’re worth achieving the goals you set.

A New Year’s Wedding

2009-01-02T23:16:00.001-08:00

Here’s what I spent my day and evening on. Happily (and thankfully) Travis was able to join me. At first we were really excited about getting a nice date at a reception with dancing, but then I fell hard on the ice this morning and gimped my elbow and knee pretty bad. So it ended up that having Travis there was a real life-saver. It was a bit of a trek from the car to the reception, and he hauled the cakes so that I only had to make the trip once.

The cake is dark chocolate with lemon curd and chocolate mousse fillings and ganache for a frosting. Cocoa powder and a satin ribbon were the simple decor, and the florist finished everything off. It was rich, moist and lovely. I also received a couple of referrals from the evening. Nice bonus.

Weight Loss Time!

2008-12-07T21:34:00.000-08:00

So, Heffner turned me down. Wah! Not really, as I've been reeeally annoyed about this extra 10 pounds around my middle. Time to kick it into gear. I'll probably run again, and do some cardio tapes or something. And starve myself. Okay, okay. I don't mean starve. I mean that I will cut calories. I can't *actually* starve myself. I'm not weight obsessed. I just don't like having smooshies touch my hands when they're resting on my waistband.

I do need to send my stuff into the commercial agency I'm interested in, though. We'll see what happens from there. I'm also going to test the waters with Bev because she's SO good on camera. If she enjoys it, then perhaps we can get her a few jobs that will start a nice 529 or something. No stress. (and NOOOO kiddie classes or expensive shoots or pre-paid comp cards or blah, blah, blah.)

The girls and I did a test shoot with a local stock photo company and we got the cutest pictures out of it! I love them! These are the ones that are going up in the hallway next to the kitchen:

8Things

2008-11-22T09:23:00.000-08:00

(Tagged by Jenn)

8 TV shows I enjoy watching-
-I don't watch regular TV, but I do occasionally watch shows online...
-Heroes
-Sliders
-30 Rock (but I'm over that now)
-CSI:NY (when I go to my parents')
-Huh...I made it to 4...You guys should check out Hulu.com. It's a collaboration between Fox and NBC. Sweet.

8 things that happened yesterday
-Made another chocolate cake
-Made two batches of ganache
-Made a batch of lemon curd
-Made a pot of creamy potatoe soup (although, it was only similar, as I am limited on ingrediants.)
-Watched Travis hang his guitar above the fireplace. It looks great. Soon my violin will be up there.
-Changed at least 3 diapers
-Walked with the girls to pick up Travis from work.
-Watched "Mrs. Doubtfire" with Travis while suggling in bed.

8 things I look forward to
-Thanksgiving Week with Travis with us all week at my parents' house
-Finishing the girls' Christmas gifts
-Getting some paying gigs.
-Escaping our condo and buying a house with land
-Tilling the soil at my new house next fall (fingers crossed!)
-My mom recovering fully from surgery
-Anniversary celebration for Travis and I (long weekend alone)
-Family vacation to Utah

8 things on my wish list
-Great shoes
-um...clothes that look great and wear well (machine wash, tumble dry, need no ironing and look great still)
-perfect vision
-great voice instructor
-keyboard and composition software
-A house that we can pay off in 10 years
-A house that we don't have to expand right away
-A minivan or large vehical, less than 10 years old.

8 things Travis did yesterday
-Ate Crispix and Nutty Nuggets for breakfast
-Wrote a blog post
-Went to "tech Friday" (although a bit controversial)
-Hung guitar on the wall
-Walked home with the family
-Watched "Mrs. Doubtfire" for the first time
-Bathed and dressed the girls for bed
-Ate nothing cool for lunch.

8 People I tag
-you
-you
-you
-you
-you
-you
-you
-and you.

"Birth" cake

2008-11-19T19:56:00.000-08:00

I made this for our cast party. Random. I know. I wanted to make a cake so that I could try a new recipe for white cake. (Turns out this is okay, but not good enough to beat out my current favorite.)

2008-11-18T13:23:00.000-08:00

I'm determined to stay in shape, but I don't want to lose any weight right now. I'm kind of caught in between two big wants:

1. To be a slimmer, healthier me. I would like to lose 10 pounds.
2. To do fashion modeling. I have to stay "fit", but can't lose any weight because I just barely qualify as a Plus Model.

Now, I do still need to do healthy eating, and strength training, but I have a hard time with not having a trimmer waist as a result. Grr. I know. Selfish me, what a dilemma.

The agency will make my decision for me. I had a great shoot this past weekend and they'll be deciding if I'm going to be on their Plus Board (currently I'm on the Testing Board) or not. If not, then I'll just work at losing the weight alongside the strength training.

Another obstacle is that I can't just go out and run all out. I get shin splints every time now. I may have to actual take advice (!) and gradually run at intervals and see if that will work for me. Other advice I'm taking is to try Turbo Jam. I just got two videos from the library. I'll check 'em out in the morning.

An August Wedding

2008-10-28T20:17:00.000-07:00

It took a while, but here are some shots of the cake that I did in August. Yup. I learned some stuff. Can you tell that I am silently panicking in the corner there? The end result was alright, though.

Bang! Bang!

2008-10-02T20:31:00.000-07:00

One of the things that I was told to do when I visited the agency was to change my hair. They suggested a side-swept bang, lots of layering to frame the face. I took in a comp card as an example to my stylist, but my hair doesn't want to style that way right now. But I LOVE LOVE LOVE my bangs! I haven't had bangs since the 5th grade! It has really changed my attitude and confidence. I really LOVE having bangs. Have I told you that? Sometimes I feel like I'm wearing a wig because it's SO different. But I still love it.

A Visit to Downtown

2008-09-24T20:17:00.001-07:00

So, I finally made it in to Heffner today. No, not the old guy with the blondes... Heffner Model Management. They like me! I took in a couple of snapshots, they took a few, liked what they saw and want me to bring in some test shots. I'm really excited. I have three shoots booked over the next couple of weeks. One more is floating.

Hopefully I will have some great stuff to show them and I can get started. Here are my snapshots, sans makeup in the first.

I just keep on truckin'!

2008-09-15T20:17:00.000-07:00

I'm doin' it! The last three weeks I've run 5 days the first and 4 days the other 2. This week, sadly, I'll only be able to run twice since my Darling will be out of town. So it's jumping rope while the girls eat breakfast! At least I'll have more variety of music on the computer and I can really crank it up.

Last week I got to run with my friend Vanessa. Thanks Vanessa! (She's a blog-stalker.) It definitely makes me keep going to have someone else there. And I feel less crazy when I want to talk and someone is there to respond. That's nice too. Let's do it again next week if I'm not too slow for you!

I've been having shin splints. I think that I've figured out why they're so bad: I run a lot of hills. I think that the anterior tibialis (muscle behind "shins") is getting more cramped and that I should lay off so much hill running. The run I was doing initially (well, off and on...) was 50% hills at a very steep grade. This, of course, causes my Ant. Tibialis to contract more than in a usual, level run. That's my theory, anyhow. When I came home from my run this morning I had Travis help me work those muscles and it felt good to do that. Less shin splints. I'll test my theory next week.

BIRTH

2008-09-05T09:22:00.000-07:00

This is the play that I am understudy for. Come see it if you can!

BOLD in Seattle BE BOLD in 2008
Source: www.boldinseattle.com
BE BOLD this weekend! Birth opens tonight (9/5) at the Broadway Performance Hall on Capitol Hill in Seattle. Join us at 7:30 pm Friday or Saturday night or at 2:30 pm on Sunday for a matinee. Friday night's performance includes ASL interpretation. Click here for tickets!

I DID IT!

2008-09-04T08:49:00.000-07:00

Well, I may be slow, but I didn't get winded! I kept my pace and decided to go for distance today. I ran 3.9 miles -- the long run that I thought I would have to build up to. Down 140th, across Old Redmond and back up 148th! I DID IT! Woo-hoo! It took 45 minutes, but I only had to stop two times because I needed to stretch. Otherwise, I wasn't winded and I mostly enjoyed it.

Now to second breakfast! :) (Here's my route, for your enjoyment.)

A really tired post

2008-09-03T22:48:00.000-07:00

I'm beyond tired, but I need to write some things down. Perhaps no one actually reads this, but at least I'm recording things.
*********
Last week I had my first paid gig as a model. It was small and took all day, but it was great experience for my resume and for networking. We had two locations: a coffee shop in north Seattle and then the Seattle City Hall. (That's a beautiful building.) There ended up only being four of us. It was really late notice, so some people who were cast could not make the call time.
*********
Today I had my first rollercoaster in modeling. After auditioning last week, I went to the go-see last night. It was quick and fun. The photographer had you dance around a little bit to loosen up and then he snapped a picture of you. Then, a couple of poses for the small crowd of people from the client that were there deciding. They like me.

When I got home from rehearsal I had an email that said it was between me and one other woman. Woo-hoo! I had a couple of emails from the casting director and finally the one came through that I had wanted: They wanted to go ahead with casting me! Yes! An hour later the Stylist called me with questions about my sizes and I lined up a sitter for the girls.

Five minutes before I am to leave for rehearsal, the casting director calls to tell me that they've cut some scenes from their story board and they no longer need my part. "If it's any consolation", she told me, "they really, really liked you." Needless to say, that didn't really do much for me.
*********
On a brighter note, I have been running three mornings in a row. Happily, I have made it to the top of both hills without stopping or slowing my pace. Of course, this means that I have a really slow pace, but I'm NOT WALKING. So I've done a mile and a quarter, half of it at a very steep grade, and it takes about 20 minutes. Seriously. I know that sounds lame. Tomorrow I'll post pictures of the hills.

Additionally, I have made changes in my kitchen. I try to incorporate as much whole wheat as I can in recipes and cut as much sugar and fat as I can while still making things "yummy". Everyone loves the bread since I've started making it again, and I love having a variety of good things available for myself and my girls as snacks: low-fat string cheese, cantaloupe, baby carrots, hard-boiled eggs, turkey slices, almonds, whole-wheat bread, etc.

The best part of this (well, aside from my waist getting trimmer and feeling stronger) is when Beverly will say, "Hold on, Mom. I need to do my ekersizes." She'll then proceed to kick her legs in the air like a bug or lay on her tummy and do "pushups". It's wonderful to know that I'm setting a good example for my kids.

The Good and the Bad and the Ugly!

2008-08-04T21:49:00.000-07:00

The Good:

I auditioned for a show a few weeks ago. I didn't get a part, but I am doing understudy. I really am excited about being a part of this show, Birth.

The Bad:

I sprained my ankle running this morning and I can't run for another week! Waaaa!

The Ugly:

I'm making the cake for an upcoming wedding. I decided to start early on the sheet cakes (as I'm providing cake for about 450 people) and made the first layer today. I broke it in half!!!!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAHHH! It was an extremely stressful, near tears moment.

Don't worry. I'm just cutting it down so it will be slightly smaller than the rest. It's the "extra" sheetcake now.

Progress

2008-08-01T11:29:00.000-07:00

I'm under 160 pounds! I weighed in at 157 the other day. I'd like to trim a couple of inches off my waist and be totally rid of my love handles. They're not huge, but why keep them? I mean, really....

It might be that I'm the laziest, most easily bored exerciser. I have found a couple of things that work for me: changing my "run" every couple of times through (adding skipping, lunges, side-steps), and a new challenge: 100 Pushups a Day! How 'bout them apples?!

Out of shape

2008-05-14T08:40:00.000-07:00

You know all that bragging I did a while back about exercising regularly and feelin' so good? Turns out I haven't been exercising the past few weeks. I used a coupon to a local Bikram Yoga to do 20 days for $20. Super deal. I went four days the first week, but only 1 the second week. I was going to go today, but our car is still at the mechanic's. The workout is good, and obviously you sweat a lot (105* and 50% humidity) but I was just not getting the strength training that my body so desperately needs.

So, yesterday Beverly and I made a batch of sugar cookies and after dinner I told Travis, "I feel like I need to eat a bunch of cookies." He replied, "Go for a walk!" He was actually rather insistent. I yielded and took my goodnight leave of Beverly (it was 7:30) and got my running clothes on. That's not what Travis had in mind, but if I'm going to exercise, I'm going to exercise.

I cranked up my music and headed for a loop through the neighborhood next to me. It's a secret route that says "not a through street" at either end. Rich people. ha. What's great is that it is slightly windy so that I never saw a straight road in front of me. There were a lot of hills and the side streets were really steep, so I used them for lunges and side winding. By the time I got down to the other end of the street to head back around to home my hips were burnin'. Well, it had been raining all day yesterday and I found that it's really hard to stretch your glutes when you don't want to sit down. I managed some meager stretches at a fence and headed up the steep incline to home. I even went all out during "Let's Get Loud" for about 100 feet. That's saying a lot on this hill. Be proud of me.

When I arrived home I mapped it out and it was just over 2 miles, but it felt a lot longer. Probably those hills. I was poo-ooped! I took a minute for a set of pushups (I was burnin' after 3! What a wimp I've become!) But I'm back to real exercise. Hallelujah.

Just Shoot Me!

2008-05-11T13:53:00.000-07:00

So it turns out that the vain fantasy of becoming a model isn't so fantastical after all. At 5'10" and a size 12, I'm a plus size model. Don't you love the bazaar standards of the fashion world?

I've done shoots from time to time over the past 8 years or so, but I'm finally at a time when I could really do something with it. The best part is that my Darling hubby is fully supportive (who doesn't want their wife to get all vamped up for pictures?).

Last weekend I did a beauty shoot and this past Friday night I had a test-shoot with a clothing company. They both came out really well and I'm very excited about where this may be leading. I've made some excellent connections and have a good start on a portfolio now. If the test-shoot doesn't pan out into the regular work that it has been discussed at being, then I may get signed with a local agency. I'll be going to two open calls this week. Wish me luck!

Back In The Game...

2008-04-24T13:02:00.000-07:00

The girls are finally over their Cold & Flu Season. After two and a half months of back to back to back colds (and the occasional puke!) the snot-wells have dried up! Hoorah!

I'm trying to pack my schedule as neatly as possible, but I've had to cut two hours of dance class in exchange for three hours of acting, and I've added voice lessons. So weekly, I am dancing 2 hours, acting class 3 hours, voice lessons 1 hour, and the gym 4-5 hours. After the acting class is done I'll add back the two hours of dance there. Hopefully a lot of things will change soon because I'll get a gig. :)

Oh, I took Monkey and Toad to JCPenney for pictures today. They were so adorable. I'll have them up eventually.

Have I Told You...

2008-04-04T09:30:00.001-07:00

that my waist is only 33" right now? I know. I'm a PUNK.

I'm Back!

2008-03-31T14:08:00.000-07:00

Again! The girls had back to back to back illnesses for over two weeks. They both had a fever at one point and Toad kept one going for over a week. Through it all, though, they were happy and energetic. It was just a bunch of yucky bugs invading the house. There is still the occasional nose to wipe, but that may just be allergies. Monkey seems sensative to so many things that I would be suprised if she doesn't also have seasonal allergies.

I started going back to the gym again, as well as dance class. It feels great to be moving again. I know that I have about 20 pounds (like 6 inches around my waist. Unbelievable, eh?) to lose to get where I really want to be. I hate, hate, hate reducing how much I eat. I'd rather work out more.

I'm working on memorizing a couple of songs for auditions. I still haven't been satisfied with the teacher search. It took too long for me to realize that my first teacher wasn't getting me anywhere. He sure upped my confidence while I was there! However, that doesn't make me sing better. I had one lesson with a great lady in Seattle, but it takes half an hour to get to her home...in good traffic. I'm trying to find a good teacher on the Eastside.

Last Thursday in Jazz I recorded the routine we're learning and I've been practicing at home. I almost have it memorized. I need to work on the end and then polish it at full speed. Next month (er,...week) I will add Tap to my dance classes. That seems like kind of an essential for musicals...I'm no "dancer", but I do like to dance, I can learn with a lot of work, and I don't look akward after I've worked hard enough.

Now to the kitchen...

Some random thoughts...

2008-03-05T12:50:00.000-08:00

Darling is gone on a trip for work right now. He is down in sunny Las Vegas until Friday. I was contemplating running off with him and dropping the girls with my mother, but I decided against it. We're saving money for our trip to Portugal in the fall. Last night he emailed me a picture of his rental car and his room at the Venitian. Holy Smokes! I told him that he wouldn't want to come back to our cruddy little home after luxuriating in his 800 square feet of clean coziness. He also spent and extra $10 and upgraded his Mustang to a convertable. Poor guy. It's only in the 70's there all week! Oh, well. At least we're having sunshine here again. Sometimes we even make it to the park in the early afternoon while it's warm enough.

I recently moved the furniture in our bedroom and it really opened the room up. It looks so good. I feel like the room is twice as big now. It also helps that I finally got a duvet for that comfortor I bought. It's a beautiful golden cream color brocade. We found it at Target and it looks great against the ivory bed that we have. The orange tone to it sets off the blue walls and pillows.

I'm trying to get caught up on housework. I made a batch of Chicken & Apple Empanadas for Darling to grab for his lunches, and I have a couple batches to make yet with some leftover steaks. The Chicken ones are divine, and I am really looking forward to the steak. That recipe calls for raisens and green olives, among other things. Yum.

Every week I find a new pile of "stuff" to get rid of. I just need to find a great twin bed and trundle for Monkey and then I can pass along her toddler bed. Once Darling finishes the other bedroom I will move both of the girls in there, but I also want room for guests. A twin and a trundle would be great, then I can have the girls sleep in the "office" while we have company.

Double Vision

2008-02-26T12:56:00.000-08:00

Monkey is good at getting sidetracked. It's normal for her age. But when she drifts off while we're talking to her, "Hey! Look at this little piggy! Oink, oink, oink! It's the piggy!", we refer to her as Distraction Central.

I was talking to Monkey this morning -- and telling her how great swimming lessons were going to be -- while putting in my contacts. I put one in and then the other. My right eye felt bad! Usually if one feels weird, it's my left eye. I use "daily disposables" so I know that they were clean. I just could not get my vision to clear!

Suddenly I realized that it wasn't my swimming lesson today, but Monkey's. I ran to check the schedule on the computer and called the YMCA to verify. Yup! Time to get Monkey into her swimsuit. First I checked my left eye. I wasn't seeing well out of that one. It was gone! I looked all over the countertop and the floor. Argh!

We wrestled verbally over swimming class (which she suddenly didn't want to do because she wasn't mentally prepared for it at this point) while I headed to my room for another contact. I tore open the package and quickly got the contact into my left eye. There! Now I can see.

I whisked the kids into their proper attire and headed to the car. While driving to the Y my right eye was still blurry and uncomfortable. "Could I have...No. That would be ridiculous."

I dropped Toad into childcare and Monkey and I ran through the locker room and stripped her down. I stopped at the mirror and took out the contact in my right eye. Whoa... make that contacts. Yup. Distraction Central.

I'm making strides.

2008-02-13T22:44:00.000-08:00

Toad is a charmer. I mean...Who can resist those dimples? Actually, everywhere we go people stop and chat with her. She has Daddy's beautiful lashes with the cutest blue, smiling eyes. One lady even commented yesterday, "She's not even smiling, but her eyes still are!" She is a sweet, sweet baby.

Today I missed the best shot. I wish I hadn't left my phone at home. I had Monkey and Toad belted into one of those car-grocery carts. It was the kind where they sit up top and the cart is in front of them. Point being: Everyone could see them really well. It was adorable to see this itty-bitty baby next to her big sister. I think they brightened the afternoon for a few people. The very best part, though, was when Toad started to get tired. She had been patting on and cooing at Monkey for a while, then she started sucking her thumb and just snuggle up on Monkey. It was darling! Of course Monkey complained at first, but when I told her that Toad was just lovin' on her, she put her arms around her and snuggled back. Precious.

Monkey goes back and forth on the potty training. We have to do pullups at naptime because she sometimes has a problem when waking up. I've realized that Monkey is a child who needs a very regular schedule to rely on. So now the "rules" are that when she wakes up in the morning, she goes potty first, and then gets dressed and gets her hair done. This gets her into panties (and out of yucky pullups) and keeps her hair out of her face at breakfasttime. (Also, she's ready when I'm ready to take off for the gym!)

Speaking of the gym, I am there 5 days a week now! Yeah! Since I started sleeping better it's been a thousand times different. I have energy! A memory! Motivation! Not only do I go to the gym regularly, but I've also started dance classes. Jazz, and tomorrow I'm doing a ballet class for newbies. These are "beginning" classes for adults, so the ability spread is wide, but I'm pretty much the bottom of the barrel. The last Jazz class I took was Beginning Jazz 9 years ago in college. I actually took that class twice -- because I loved it so much. Two different teachers, and two completely different experiences. Both great. This teacher is phenomenal. She is incredibly encouraging and just makes me feel like a star the way she shouts, "Yes! Yes! That's it! Yes! You've got it!", over the music while I do my lame little leaps across the floor. It's great. It is genuine too, most importantly. When your form is on, she lets you know that you've done it right. If you're off, she shows you again.

Next thing to tackle, swimming. I got a great book today. I'm going to read it all and then start a once a week swim class. (I don't really know the whole "breathing" thing.)

Monkey has loved going to the gym. She really looks forward to that one hour of play time with other little kids. It's so fun to watch her bound around the kid's gym. It's been a guilt reliever for me since we're in a condo. No yard, no neighbor kids...

That Project Linus quilt? I finished it finally and my friend turned it in for me. I'm working on another now.

Life in the Slow Lane

2008-01-30T22:51:00.000-08:00

So far it hasn't been difficult having two kids instead of just one. The fact that Toad sleeps all through the night is a HUGE assist, but the girls really get along well. I think that if I were trying to do much (like have a job, do regular lessons, or classes) then, yes, it would be difficult. I have to squeeze appointments in between naptimes. Sometimes I manage it, sometimes not. I got to the gym mid-day today and finally attended a Nia class for the second time. The daycare lady came down and got me when there were 5 minutes left in the class. Apparantly Toad had been hollering for quite a while. She was just tired and needed to take a nap. (I wish that there was a Nia class in the early morning. That would totally get me out of bed.)

Monkey is nearly potty-trained. She's pretty good about going whenever I ask her, and she stays dry through her naps. We're working on staying dry at night now. I told her that if she keeps her Princess Panties (pullups) dry tonight, then she can wear her Big Girl Panties (regular panties) to bed tomorrow.

Change Is In The Air

2007-12-04T13:31:00.000-08:00

I've decided that It Is Time. I have too many loose ends lying about my house. I have a million things going on and I never manage to finish any one of them. So, I'm plowing through projects and getting them off my list. I've changed up my Goals list a bit. I haven't gotten anywhere yet on the whole weight loss thing, but I'm nearly mentally worked up to an eating disorder. I need to get active. I'd like to take the girls out in the stroller and thereby get some exercise in more regularly, but it's been raining and raining and raining the last few days. I know -- I live in a raining kind of town. This is different.

This is the kind of rain that displaces people and ruins homes and businesses. If I wanted to visit my parents, instead of the 2 1/2 hour journey it would take more like 6 hours. Twenty miles of I-5 is closed because of flooding. There are sections where the water is eight feet deep. EIGHT FEET! We have two more days of rain expected still.

Anyhow, the rain will let up. I just need to order a rain cover for our stroller. And me too, I guess...

Our home is in a great spot. We're at the top of a hill and this whole section of town seems pretty alright. I don't drive in any flooded areas with my errand running. I'll try to keep it that way.

I'm striking the massage business for now. Outcall hasn't appealed to me that much, as it's very up in the air as to what kind of environment I would have to work in. When I tell someone "I need a spacious room -- at least a clear 6x8 area." They might think, "Hey, I can lay down and fit on this spot between the foot of my bed and the closet. I'm sure her massage table will fit." And "uninterrupted time" they might interpret as "it's okay to answer my cell phone and for my kids to come ask me questions." Why should I -- the one getting paid anyhow -- care? Because massage takes a lot of concentration and focus. You also want your client focused ... on relaxing. Not on pestering things. Whatever. I'll check it all out later.

I have decided to focus my time on something that I am passionate about: singing. I love, love, love singing and want to get better. I want have a repertoire and land a role in a local musical. My darling husband is all for this and is also all for my desires to do some home recording and arranging. Our date this week: trying out electric pianos.

Last night was my first meeting with my new voice teacher, Mike. Great guy, lots of experience in the music realm, and has really opened my eyes to the possibilities. I think that we're a great fit and I'm stoked for our first "lesson" later this week.

Constant Organizing

2007-10-15T22:33:00.000-07:00

Today I invited the playgroup over here. I don't think that we'll be going to the park much anymore this year. The weather seems to be into full drizzle mode. We do get some stretches of a few days with no rain. Perhaps I can fulfill Monkey's request of "go to the park!" sometime soon. I know that she just needs to get outside and run around in the fresh air. Nearly every day I think about what a drag it is to live in a condo. I am really looking forward to when we put this place on the market next year. I just hope that we can find a good house to buy in this area.

Monkey and the other three girls made a huge mess in her room, but it's not very big. I'm completely at a loss as to what to do next in there. I think that I just need to get some pictures up and call it quits. Right now it just seems like a big green box. I want my girls to have a pretty room, and I have a few projects (and materials for them!) in the plans, but there's always something else to do.

These are my current sewing projects:
-baby quilt for Project Linus (see earlier post)
-crib bumper and skirt for Toad's bed
-slipcover for ottoman
-Quiet Book

I'm still trying to get my house in order. There are constantly piles of "stuff" in the office and laundry room. I think I have the bedrooms and living spaces cleaned up. I just don't have enough closet space in this house. I'm frequently looking for things to pare down. I don't like having a bunch of excess laying around, but at the same time I like to have things for when I want to do a new project. I don't know. I think that I need to go through all of my boxes again and see what sentimental things I really want to keep and what I can categorize as "junk". I've done that so many times already, though.

I would like to get one of those old steamer trunks to put my memorabilia into for safekeeping. I have a pine chest that I got from Dad, but it's limited in it's storage space.

I keep coming back to the girl's room. There isn't a closet in there, but with two beds, a rocking chair and toys, it doesn't have room for a dresser. It's frustrating to me that it can't be more visually quiet in there. As a result, I'm never satisfied about how things are arranged. I haven't brought it up to Darling because he helped me come up with a floor plan for the room and subsequently put shelves up on the walls already. I just have to bear with it until we move. My solution calls for built-in cabinets, and that is not an expense we're going to put out for with only a year left of living here. I would, however, like a different storage system for the toys. I hate that little bin organizer from IKEA. It's ridiculous.

Aching and Sleepless

2007-10-11T14:02:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday I went to the YMCA for the Cardio-Kickboxing class. Our instructor had injured her foot, and so is out until next week. In substitute we had a "Boot Camp" class. On Thursdays I usually attend Boot Camp with another instructor. Her class is well balanced, hitting all different areas of the body. This class, however, mostly did the legs. After 4 or 5 stations I couldn't do it anymore: jump rope, lunges, halle barry jumps, pike rolls on a ball, stair stepping...agh! So I did crunches one time, pushups another.

Wednesday I was very aching on the lower half of my body. There is a new class called Nia. I was told it was a mix of dance, martial arts and the healing arts. It's very new-age. "World" music (whatever that means) was our background, and our instructor was very encouraging. I really liked it. It reminded me a lot of modern dance --which I love. It's a great work-out. You get out of it however much you put into it. I was never winded or pained, but all of a sudden I was sweating buckets. The fluid, reaching movements were such a nice change to the usual blocky exercise routines. I felt moulded and kneeded afterward.

Today, my back is really sore as a consequence of Nia. Not hurt, ouch, pain. Sore muscles that don't usually get used so much. I don't think that I would be so achy if Toad had slept normally.

The poor little baby must've had gas last night. She didn't do much of a big diaper all day, but she went to bed sweetly (and big sister Monkey soon after too!) around 7pm. I finally forced myself to go to bed (why am I always finding something else to waste time with?) around 10:45. Toad woke at 1:30am, 3:00am, 6:20am (at which point I brought her into bed with me), 7:45am (probably from noisy sister) and finally at 9:00am.

Darling is an absolute angel. He gets up every morning with Monkey so that I can get another hour or two of sleep. She loves it. They have breakfast together, play games, take a shower, and put together puzzles. She's always sad that he has to go to work.

On Sundays I try to get up with Monkey so that he can have one nice long sleeping in day. Of course, our church schedule will change in January and none of us will get to sleep in then. However, we will be able to put the girls down for Sunday naps again.

Bonding with Toad

2007-10-04T16:51:00.000-07:00

I really enjoy nursing this time. I love being able to snuggle in with that sweet little body who loves me and needs me more than anything else. Perhaps it is because her sister is so big and active now (three years old in December!) and I know that she soon will be too. I love enjoying these tiny fingers, tiny nose and soft, fluffy cheeks. She's all mine. It's a thrill and a joy.

Nursing Monkey wasn't much of a pleasant experience. I felt more like I was completing a duty. There was none of that "bonding" that people talk about with nursing. Toad, however, is completely different. She's flirty, interactive -- she smiles, coos and giggles when I look at her and talk to her while we nurse. That too: It's a "we" thing. I love her smiling eyes, how they watch and study my face. Of course, now that she's over 3 months old she is starting to become more curious about whatever is going on around her. She looks and twists to see what Bev is doing, what that bright light is, where Darling Daddy is...but she's so sweet. Perhaps I'm getting so much more sleep this time that I'm able to appreciate and love my baby so much more than I was able to the first time.

my latest quilt

2007-10-03T15:09:00.000-07:00

Today I continued work on another blanket for Project Linus. I love this one. The fabrics are all some that I have loved for a long time. It's red and purple, in just the right amounts.

Now that I'm nearly finished I find myself thinking, "Oh, my girls would love to have this blanket." or, "Maybe I should keep this as a gift, instead of giving it to some stranger." But those thoughts are fleeting. I have friends who have lost children to accidents, illness, and premature birth. This is the kind of blanket that I would want to wrap around one of their beautiful little babies. That is what I think about when I create a new blanket for Project Linus. These may be leftover scraps that I have come across here and there, but in the end I want it to be something beautiful that I would be proud and humbled to personally wrap around a child in pain.