'Tis the Season

This fall seems to be careening faster than any I have experienced.  My daughter is in her junior year of high school.  Along with all the school work stands varsity volleyball games, volleyball tournaments, powder puff football, fundraisers, football games and homecoming.  My son is a freshman in high school. New school, new tasks, new schedule, new people, new teachers, and marching band.  Marching band.  He loves it.  I would never have guessed that would happen.  I am very pleased he is enjoying it.  Plus, the band is outstanding.  With all this, there is little time for much of anything else.  Family dinners?  We are lucky we have dinner together at least three times a week.  At least we are all awake for breakfast, before everyone is out of the house by 6:50 a.m.  No wonder my brain feels like it is still in May of this year.  Summer?  I have yet to feel we had one and we are waiting for it to begin.  What is that?  You say it is September 23rd not May 23rd?  Well, in seven more days we will be in October and then I can feel like I am at last in the month of June.  Come on summer.  We are ready for you.

Restructuring and Renovating

I have had these comfortable, shrunk in the wash yoga pants kicking around my craft center for well over two years.  I have moved them from shelf to box and back again.  They have been sat on in hopes I could hatch some sort of  stylish, wearable, and eye popping transformation for them to go through.  An ugly duckling into a swan saga, if you will.  I finally was given an idea through a wonderful site I follow.  It is called http://www.themotherhuddle.com  This site is composed and created by a wonderfully talented, motivated, creative, inventive woman.  She shares ideas and links to projects and information she actually finds time not only to do while being a wife and mother, but writes about them and thus shares.  I transformed my pants from this treasured link http://www.themotherhuddle.com/tutorial-ruffle-cuff-pant-legs.  I am in constant awe and have much gratitude for this and many other creative, inventive sites I have been so fortunate to stumble upon.  I have stumbled upon many to date and I trust I will continue to find many more.

Salsa

Yum. Tomatoes, jalapenos, cilantro, onions, salt, pepper, lime juice. Chop, blend, refrigerate. Eat and enjoy. Preferably with homemade baked tortilla chips with a hint of sea salt and lime. Boy, do I say yum.

Living in Retro

In the past 12 months I have had the tremendous pleasure of scanning old negatives and photos. I received a photo quality scanner as an anniversary gift from Arvo. He thought I was wasting my time and money wanting to attempt the task of uploading many, many old Brownie camera negatives. My mom accumulated and saved hundreds of these from photos that were taken long before I was born. They were photos capturing moments when my parents were much younger. They were photos of vacations and outings I was not involved in. They were photos where my grandparents were now the same age that I am living today. They were photos capturing my sister and brother younger than I ever knew them to be. They were part of a family I would not join for many months and years. I was mesmerized by this family. I was on a treasure hunt to uncover the next gold nuggets that were not my past. I was obsessed. I was sad when there were no more. Now what was I going to learn? I began to upload photos and crop, blow up and enhance the original image. From this vantage point I was able to discern minute details that were not visible before due to the lack of photo processing technology. Now I began to live in retro.

Snowshoeing.

Wow. There is nothing like having pristine, white, fluffy show to step and trod through with snowshoes. They allow one to go anywhere deep, inviting snow exists. I had the opportunity to spend a few hours traipsing along the ridge along our local Paint Creek Trail in Rochester. The Trail is an old railroad bed that now is used by countless people, dogs, bikes, cross country skis, and snowshoes everyday of the 365 and 366 day year. This post is a tribute to a glorious sunny day in February of 2011 with a few of my yoga friends. They, and many more that were not with us on that day, a group of intelligent, active, compassionate women of which I possess a great deal of gratitude for the opportunity to be in their company.

Green Smoothie-YUM!

So, I talk about these green smoothies I like to make and drink. They are really tasty and good for you. Plus, they are easy to make when you have the right, simple ingredients. You need a blender or a Bullet machine. The Bullet is perfect for making a single serving of this great smoothie. Next you need some sort of green. It can be kale, mint, chard, dandelion, cilantro, spinach or any other favorite. I like to mix the greens too to give it a unique taste. Then you need a banana to cut down on the bitterness of the green and ANY other fruit. I have use apple, pineapple, black berries, raspberries, strawberries, peaches, cherries, pears, ANY fruit by itself of a combination of ANY fruits. Mixing and matching of greens to fruit makes it different every time. The only constant in the banana and enough filtered water to blend the greens. YUM. Plus they make you feel really good.

It is a cookie day again.

Cookies. My family loves them. I love to make them. This is a good thing since we have peanut and nut allergies in the household. The only problem with making them is deciding exactly which ones to make. Dilemmas abound, oh my. So, sometimes to make the dilemma go away, I make two kinds. Today was one of those kind of cookie days. The result was oatmeal, chocolate chip AND double chocolate chip mint. Yum. My family likes them and they pack well for lunches. I just have to hide them in containers in certain places or they get eaten way too fast. Then again, I can always make more. Then the dilemma begins again.

Chips from Kale

Kale. It is the frilly, dark green, leafy, course lettuce like vegetable that most people see used as a garnish or barrier at the bottom of a tray that holds dips, fruits, and other more well known vegetables. You know, the green stuff adorning the tray to make it look pretty as if it were wearing a ruffled bottom garment.

Well, it may look sort of ugly and nasty tasting. Let me tell you, until you try it, do not judge a book by its cover. It is filled with just about every major vitamin on the daily required chart. Plus it has fiber and can be cooked, chopped, sauteed, baked and pulverized into perfection. Sort of, kind of like Liza Doolittle in "My Fair Lady". Well maybe not the best metaphor, but close enough.

Here is a quick and easy recipe to first become friends with this often over looked, little green vegetable that came become very good friends with you.

1 bunch Kale, drizzle with olive oil, mix with hands, place on baking sheet, sprinkle with sea salt, bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes, take out to stir and turn, bake for another 5 minutes. WATCH them carefully. They burn fast if left in to long. They are good that way too though.... Keep in air tight container and try not to eat them all at once. Save some for later. It is difficult to do because they are, after all, chips. Bet you can't eat just one.