July 31: Tomorrow is the month of August. The month of family birthdays, end of summers, the cringing at school supplies stocked in every store. It's the last moment to squeeze in our last late-night affairs with outdoor movies and popsicles, all the while dreading what the months of farm chores and play have done to our math skills AND our morning skills.
The Mister and I are on different body clocks, by which I mean that he is a wake-up-and-go guy, and I steal a few hours from the night to increase productivity of my day. That is my preference, and I fight it; but this summer I gave in to it. It's summer! I had a newborn, we had movies in the park, sunsets at 9:30 and middle-of-the-night feedings. But what with my expanding gut not getting smaller even though it's no longer housing offspring, and the impending doom of school schedules and homework, I felt an experiment rising to put me back on track. This August I am implementing a simple plan. Four elements that start with the letter S, to keep it simple and do-able. Think about joining me if you are in the same boat, as any extra support is welcome.
SALAD SCRIPTURES SEVEN SLEEP
Here's the rules:
SALAD-A-DAY* In an effort to avoid the annoyance of calorie counting, and to help curb my sweet-tooth, we're going back to a raw green salad a day. It might be a breakfast spinach smoothie, or steamed cabbage for dinner, or a big fat salad for lunch. But EVERY day we're getting some greens. For extra inspiration in the salad department, click here.
SCRIPTURES* "Bridle your passions, and I'll feel you with love". I completely recognize along with celebrations and parties, food helps avenue my stresses about parenting, motherhood, beauty, etc. For whatever HOLE we have that food often fills, I will be trying to fill instead with some holy word instead.
SEVEN* Try to eat dinner every night while still in the seven o'clocks. 7:30 pm would be ideal. In tandem with this is the hope that I don't eat for at least 3 hours before going to bed. Because I'm nursing, and I don't want my plan to fail, I'm allowing myself ONE PIECE OF FRUIT between dinner and bed-time. But that last meal is taking place before that clock hits 8!
SLEEP* The irony of this rule is that I am now writing this at 10:42 p.m. But it's still July technically, so here goes. GET TO BED EVERY NIGHT BY 10:30. My reasoning behind this is that most avenues to good health should require a sleep plan, and that lots of good intentions to make better health changes are derailed when we lack sleep or are extra tired. Late nights also pose temptations to snarf some sweets.
Also note: one last movie in the park in August so I'm allowing myself a couple of nights to break the rules...but definitely they will need to feel like exceptions and not routines.
That's it! So that is my plan for August. I'm hoping that once I've laid this groundwork, I can add to it with a more consistent exercise routine.
Because we chose to hire a Certified Nurse Midwife with a Birthing Center over 100 miles from my little valley, I have taken lots of little day trips to The Great Salt Lake. One of the bonuses of these trips, and because I rarely leave home otherwise, has been reconnecting with old friends.
Here's Paula with her latest offspring {insert longing female sigh here}. When I called my old high school buddy Paula and said I'd be in the neighborhood, she offered to make me lunch. "Oh, you're doing your salad thing! My husband made some awesome smoked salmon...does that sound good on a salad?"
"YES" I said truthfully. Though excited, I felt a little guilty.
I hate salad right now. Wait, let me rephrase that...
I ate an entire package of Girl Scout Cookies yesterday, and the thought of rinsing, draining, chopping, & layering fresh greens seems like an undue chore most days.
What with my blogg-y pronouncements of keeping up with the greens until the end of this pregnancy; with my holiday sugar buzz leaving me resolute to walk (not even jog, skip, or run) the 3-mile-loop three times a week during my last trimester; my intent to infuse this child with a love of vegetables in the womb and because I was already on a roll...I'm not sure why I have turned into my own worst enemy. Perhaps I'm finding a reliable scapegoat in these hormones. The truth is, I stuck my middle finger to my green leaf resolution and I feel awesome/horrible about it.
And yet, fix me a salad, especially like the delicious one Paula gave me (with a golden fork no less!) and I'm in heaven. It tastes delicious to me, and deep down I know that I still crave it.
What is up?!
Not only did Paula's visit give me a guilt trip about not keeping my word, it gave me clarity that salad is still a huge part of my future. More importantly, the visit gave me some cute, clean, non-stained hand-me-down baby stuff for the little mutt growing in my gutt. Check it.
Paula is super creative. I had no idea she could sew in high school, but she seriously makes the cutest stuff! Check out her craft blog here.
The outfit and bib she embellished with fabrics from the awesome custom car-seat blanket. The reversible car-seat blanket is in place and waiting for my baby son.
As a bonus of going through bins of baby stuff, I found the doll that was crocheted by my Grandma Anderson. I'm pretty sure every granddaughter received one. I remember her invitation to come and pick a doll, where there was an array of color combinations you could choose from. I used to love to wrap this doll up in her never-to-be-lost blanket.
For now, this little doll, a labor of love, is a place-holder inside the soft, clean, and longing to snuggle my son blanket from Paula.
Last year's reckoning was depressing. This year I'm not deep cleaning under my stove as a consolation prize. That is good.
My salad a day for 2010 was a positive arc. I'm feeling good! I got my cheekbones back in June and then promptly got pregnant.
My goal: try to keep my cheekbones until this kid arrives. With holiday goodies and a resurge of sugar cravings distracting me, it could be a task indeed.
So to carry through to better health for the sake of my new crop growing in my womb, I decided to keep going on a salad a day until my green Martian appears on earth (he has to be green after all that roughage right?).
Better documentation is key to staying on track...so here I am scrambling for my greens via spinach smoothie at 11:14 pm.
Good eye Jenna. I did not in fact prove my greens for my Derry Day, but I definitely did eat, and it definitely was amazing. Thanks for noticing, now here's my proof.
I'm funny right? When we got back to Belfast, we followed the "locals recommendation" for fish and chips and this was the honking plate that was placed before me. They didn't ask if I wanted ketchup. They didn't ask if I wanted tartar sauce. There was only 2 condiments on the table: vinegar and salt. I wanted to be an authentic Irish Lass, so I didn't ask for anything else.
We compared the breading on the fish to a flaky but slightly sweet donut breading. And because I'm a fan of salt and vinegar chips, it all worked out quite deliciously.
Later that night we ate at a restaurant called The Barking Dog. It was there I really did eat my salad for the day. It was wonderfully named a "Rocket Salad" and was simple and delicious. Three ingredients: Greens, Parmesan shavings, Balsamic Vinegar.
But seriously, could any salad undo those fish and chips I had earlier in the day? I don't think so.
Wednesday, September 15th marked our only full day in London. Could we tackle it all in one day? Would we feel like we had a handle on the sights, the history, or even the food? So in order to digest it all, we paid for an open-bus-tour. There were several routes throughout the city that we could hop on or off with our ticket, so it was a good way to digest the city in a day.
There's was so much I had heard of London, but without any true frame of reference. Things like Picadilly Circus, The Tower of London, and Big Ben. So I decided to sort it all out on the bus. You'll have to forgive my obvious ignorance. Here's what I learned in a glance.
Some dude built this for Queen Victoria's Castle. She did not like it. She purposely had a carriage built too wide to pass through, so it stands near some park instead. Sheesh!
like I had previously surmised.
Just after we digested the sights, we decided where we wanted to visit. Too bad the city and the busses stop running around 5:30. Hello? So like everything else, St. Paul's just got our drive-by and it's famous whispering hall will have to wait until I return to London as a senior citizen. Same goes for Shakespeare's Globe, Tower of London, and everything else. Boo!
The Rosetta Stone! When we found it in our 30 minutes inside The British Museum, The Mister of the House exclaimed This made our entire trip to London worth it!
I thought The Rosetta Stone was cool too, but the real thing that topped off the day like a maraschino cherry was a little play we got to see together- with real singers and real dancers and real chocolate covered raisins.
On Monday we hit the coast and headed to the Giant's Causeway. On the way, we went across a rope bridge across to a lush, soft, green, coast rock thingie. Looking down from the bridge was....um....exciting.
Mandy the Mom, our hostess with the mostest, tapped the locals to find an eating place fitting for the coast. After winding down a road, we came to this beautiful shack, where I had a wee salad.
Eventually, we made it to the geographic wonder that is the Giant's Causeway. Rock-cooling perfection. You couldn't pay landscaper to attain such perfection.
And of course we are in castle country, this one was impressive. Called Dunluce Castle.
Over the weekend, we took a ferry from Ireland to Scotland and headed to the capital of Edinburgh. Just about the entire weekend we practiced our pronunciation: which is to say {Eh-din-burr-eh} (try to roll those r's just a bit) instead of Edinberrr-g. I have to admit, Edinburgh could be my favorite stop so far. There really is only one word to describe the town, towering with high rise stone buildings, lining the royal mile leading up to the castle, with parliament buildings, churches, and banks so grand each building could easily be a highlight if placed in a regular town. Okay so the one word to describe it before I began my run-on sentence is this: majestic.
When we first came to town square, we were immediately seized upon by a parade of sorts. Armies of Scots in kilts were walking through the streets, playing bagpipes, and hitting drums.
It wasn't until later that we found out that this was a "Protestant March". It seemed the natural extension of our black cab tour and the U.K.'s Protestant vs. Catholic history. Later in the day we learned that the pope is coming to Edinburgh next week, so perhaps fervor was brewing for the visit? Who knows.
If you see in the picture above of the high rise stone buildings, you get a sense of the presence of "The Royal Mile". It's a cobblestone street with buildings that old and that tall lining both sides of the street. It was on The Royal Mile that I tracked down my salad of the day.
A few things I'm starting to figure out about food over here. A) Big Salads are rarely a menu item. Usually it's a side with something else. B) Apparently my U.S. palette is sodium heavy, because I keep ordering all this delicious food but end up cranking the salt shakers all over it.
So I was excited to eat this salad because it had sweet potatoes, but the greens were bitter and the potatoes bland. My yellow split pea soup however, was divine.
We toured the castle, imagined life as royalty, and later in the day did a tour called "The Real Mary King's Close". That was a fascinating look into the everyday lives of people living here centuries ago, particularly the poor. With such huge buildings, the basement levels were generally fallout shelters, just one big dark enclosed room. They explained that usually 2-3 families shared this space, slept on floors, and the only light was from a wick burning the cheapest oil available: fish oil (gag me now). And in the corner was a bucket where everyone went to the bathroom and which could only be thrown into the alleyway twice a day, draining down the roads and into the lake below.
We also took a bagillion flights of stairs up the Sir Walter Scott Monument. Here we are about one-fourth of the way up.
Next we stayed in Glasgow, but didn't really hit the city scene at all. We strolled through a HUGE park with a museum showcasing the private collection of John Burroughs. Lots of Degas, Rodain, and this sculpture, which I disturbingly related to the most:
This park was huge rolling countryside hills. Apparently, Scottish cattle had nearly been lost in farming practices until a recent resurgence to bring back heritage breeds. Very cool. Check out this particular herd at the park. They are owned by the city council, and they have enough pasture to remain clean and eat a healthy grass-fed diet. So cool! My little farmer husband got up close to pet one.
Other things in this park was a community garden, horse riding stalls, the miles and miles of soft green grass and forest. It seemed to me what every park should try to be. So lovely.
At the park we hit some old house where the former "servants kitchen" was turned into a restaurant. It was there I had my salad for September 12th. Perfect with a little quiche on the side.
Today I caught a more gritty perspective of Ireland. The idyllic rolling hills, leprechauns, and pots of gold took a backseat on my black cab tour through Belfast. Evidently, this town in Northern Ireland was not, should we say, "tourist friendly" ten years ago. We are here after a concerted effort at peace and new beginnings. It has worked to the point that we walked a couple miles to the farmer's market, safe as a baby in a carriage, and bought some goods for dinner. So to start, here's my salad for this day, Friday September 10th, 2010.
While tourism is making a comeback to the point there are "black cab tours", I was fascinated by the evidence of a violent and passionate past. Here's a little slideshow of the many murals of Belfast. The murals are: * remembrances for the dead * criticisms of the "other side" (Protestants vs. Catholics) * Hope for the future * and marking of territory We were taken by Billy the Irishmen, to the "Protestant Neighborhoods" and the "Catholic Neighborhoods" where these murals inform the present and form culture. Check out the massive fence to keep folks from throwing bricks or tear-gas into the neighborhoods of the "other side".
Things I didn't know: that after Frederick Douglas escaped from slavery (with the help from some Irish), that he lived in Ireland and spoke about equal rights for all.
To my small perspective, things are changing for the better. No recent bombings or killings, and safety in the streets to the point that I could walk to the market for fresh greens.
It has been a great day of learning, and a day of gratitude for the peaceful existence that was my childhood and my current state of living. Yet, I find that tonight my prayers will have a more earnest petition for peace.
Gift One: Hostess with the Mostest. Beautiful Mandy....in a tree.
But lives in a hip post-modern apartment with a spare bedroom (wahoo!)
Gift two: A raw salad on day two of the trip!
Gift three: We visited a castle, and followed a trail to a cave on the hillside. Wouldn't you know that growing wild and free all along the trail were some blackberries. They were delicious with my cereal this morning.
This is me "posing" for a photograph, when I really wanted to capture this quintessential irishman walking through the woods. Tweed jacket, newsboy cap, and an umbrella that poses as a walking stick. I just knew that should I have passed him on the trail, he would have said "Top o' the morning to ya". Right?
Hey Offspring....love and miss you (thanks Grandma!)
Yesterday, I was "en-route" to my European Vacation for just over 24 hours. Ugh. What time is it? One of my fears on this trip has been: Will I be able to get my salad a day? Well yesterday, during our 7-hour layover in New York, I put these fears to the test. Check out my little mini New York adventure below: Upon emerging from the swarthy subway tunnels, I emerged into the cliched version of New York that is Times Square. Immediately we were dazzled by the lights, the energy, people, shops, and advertisements.
My first thought was this: I wonder if any trees can grow here. It was several blocks before I found this.
Not technically a tree, but living and green. Maybe my miniature adventure should have been to Central Park huh?
So since we went straight for the cliche New York life, my next thought was this: I want a New York Dawg.
I had images of Tina Fey, long lines of weary corporate workers, and downing some meat the farmgirl in me doesn't want to think about with onions, relish, catsup, and mustard.
We succeeded. Here's my man with our New York Dawg. I was disappointed only catsup and mustard were available, but after a 5 hour flight with a small cup of water and some nuts, I was ready to eat a roasted rat.
Not really, that would be gross. My point is, I try not to buy or eat hotdogs, but man was that dog good!
Bonus! Snapped a photo of the Times Square Naked Cowboy's competition. What is she? The Naked Cowgirl? I'm not sure, but I learned The Naked Cowboy recently sued her for...infringement? I shouldn't put things on the blog I don't know anything about, but there you have a fairly naked woman amongst the lights and action of New York.
My last and final thought before we had to jet back onto the subway was this: Where can I get a salad?
Then we found a little deli that sold raw greens, fruits, sushi, and pastas for $7.99 a pound.
The noodles make it look gross, but it was the perfect end to my mini New York adventure. For just five bucks, I snarfed fresh strawberries, kiwi, ginger dressing, and a couple sushi rolls that had no chance in heck of growing within 20 miles of the deli, but which tasted absolutely fresh and delicious.
Well that's it for now. Good night/afternoon/morning...I'm not sure which one.
What do you do when your husband's sister has red hair, lives in Ireland, and has a spare bedroom?
Which is just what we did. After months of stalking, Orbitz finally delivered a good price on our tickets. We leave in less than a month!
What do you do when your brother-in-law is an up and coming Hollywood writer on an HBO series (currently filming in Ireland)?
You decide to peruse the book series penned by George R.R. Martin as a show of support, only to discover a story so mysterious, epic, intriguing, and fascinating that your house goes to the pits while you swallow an 800-page novel. Four times.
The Mister of the House and I are soooo excited to get a peek at the The Game of Thrones series, coming out in 2011. For real, I'm nervous.*
What do you do when the American Dollar is worth 64 cents to the British Pound?
You jump at the chance to do data entry for a deliciously busy marketing company. Which is why the quaint idea of "working from home" meant that for all my kids knew, I had just started another Martin Novel. Yesterday they got ignored for 9 hours and 49 minutes.
What happens when you sit on a hard wood chair for an entire day trying to earn vacation money?
You throw your back out opening the windows in the morning. Sometimes it sucks being a granny in your thirties.
What do you do when you've been eating a raw salad every day in August....okay and then when you stop by the office to pick up some papers, you drop into the public restroom, and go into a stall and lock the door.....and sitting there on top of the toilet paper holder is a perfectly sealed and wrapped chocolate truffle....you are locked inside with a truffle...a commercially sealed truffle, but it's a public restroom ya know....What do you do?
So I will answer this question later in the comments, but I am dying to know what you would have done!
*p.s. I'm not recommending this book to folks that are unmarried, or to my mother. The intrigue is well handled by adults, we'll just say that. If you are judging me right now by that comment, please open the Old Testament and read about Lot's daughters.
My garden life typifies the battle between flesh and spirit. Late winter and early spring I think about how I need to plan out my garden, I marvel when I hear that people planted lettuce and onions in March, and I am certain! to have the beautiful, blossoming, tamed wilderness in my own backyard. Then July hits. I wither in the heat. I crawl into my basement and dream of dewey, windy, blustery and beautiful Oregon Coast.
Now? It's June and unseasonably wet and cold. Everyone's complaining but I'm still in my honeymoon phase of gardening. The excitement began back in April when I found some recycled composite raised garden beds. No deteriorating! No staining! I was sold! The Mister of the House brought home 6 boxes (essentially twelve 3.5X3.5 foot squares), and I was left to configure them on the lawn. I pored over these suggestions of stacking and staggering the boxes.
I officially purchased 12 squares, but I longed to have a stacked look. By redirecting the middle support beam OUT instead of IN on the bottom row, we were able to butterfly 4 boxes out from the main line. Does that even make sense? By pulling out the support centers (with the exception of the row 2) I was able to have 11 squares intact for planting, and still keep the easy to reach and mighty-perty stacked center.
Boxes 3 and 4 we planted perennial crops asparagus and strawberries. Because they are proficient spreaders, we put them in the box that is enclosed on all sides. For asparagus, you dig down 8 inches and then plant. As they shoot through the dirt, you pile more dirt on them. Look how they have already taken off (box 3)! It will be two more years until we start harvesting them. Be excited!
We tilled up the grass, put down weed barrier, and halfway enclosed the garden with 6 cedar posts. The posts are 8 feet apart and in the middle are some newly planted grapevines. These vines will be trained along the wires at 2 and 4 feet, and include table grapes and raisin grapes, all seedless. In the above pic you will see the fake owl that is supposed to scare the birds away from my garden. Not quite sure if it is really working yet.
This butterflied box is on the east side, so in the afternoon it is a little shaded by the middle stack. I planted lettuce there because it prefers colder temps, and I knew it wouldn't mind. It was just yesterday that I had my FIRST salad cut fresh from the garden. Delish!
Here is a picture showing the full configuration. 5 rows long with 4 butterflies, and a regular 2 square at the edge. Filled with compost, peat moss, vermiculite and poop...we're ready to roll!
So I have to admit, I was pushing for the raised beds because A)my buff neighbor Katrina grows a killer garden and has them ....and B) I have been LooooOoving this book "The Backyard Homestead" and it talks about how great raised beds are to have warm dirt in the spring, plant things closer and utilize space, and keep weeds out. The full title of the book is "The Backyard Homestead: Produce all the food you need on just a quarter acre". Here's a snippet.
Another tip I got from this book was a teepee trellis for vining crops. So when I found some 10 foot tree limbs in the canyon, I brought them home and made this makeshift play-place for the kids. Here is our teepee that we planted pole beans and melons around the base.
I am totally a novice gardener. It was just yesterday I found out that if you grow melons and squash next to each other, they become cross-dressing transvestites. By that I mean you will have a disgusting pumpkin flavored watermelon. No thanks! So we just transplanted squash (i.e. pumpkins) away from the melons and we'll see if we get any crop from these heat-loving crops that need 100+ days to mature. Yikes!
The pole beans are already starting to do their work.
In the main old-fashioned garden bed we are planting potatoes and corn. Since we have animals, we used the old hay and straw to keep weeds down and mark pathways in the garden.
So all I have to say is CHICKENS! They have kicked out all my straw searching for bugs. I was excited to have chickens to eat bugs in the garden, but am wondering if they will do more harm than good (i.e. pecking new buds on my baby grapevines and stories of chickens pecking ripe delicious produce). One peck is all it takes for the floodgates to open.
So considering keeping the chickens out of the entire yard. Hmmmm.
Here we are at Old Faithful last week. While we were vacationing, the chickens were busy scattering my straw. Argh.
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