Summer Time Transition

Well, it's finally June, the month I look forward to all year long.  But the transition from frenzied May with graduation, field trips, longer days, the relishing of spring, etc. to a slower, calmer month, is HARD.  It takes a good 2 weeks to really get in the groove of summer around here. 

So far, we have completed many tasks.  I planted two vegetable gardens, one at my folks, and one here at our new place.  This has been great, although it has rained so much in the past few weeks, we will see if all of our plants don't just drown. 

We have also begun landscaping in front of our house to try and neaten this area up.  This summer is much more calm than last summer, when we were building a house, but for some reason, it's hard to get into the slowed down mode, where walking around barefoot in the yard aimlessly seems natural. 

So, my goal is to slow down this week.  Relax.  All of the tasks will be there when I am good and ready. 

Summer Time and The Livin' Is Easy

Finally!  Summer is here!  After a very difficult year of teaching I am feeling especially grateful for a break.  I need to rejuvenate myself this summer so that I can be productive in the fall again.  I want to reconnect with myself by doing fun things.

First, I want to READ more books.  My daughters and nieces and nephews are going to start making a list of the books we finish, and then we are going to visit Barnes and Noble at the end of the summer for a treat!  On my list right now is A Lesson Before Dying, by Ernest Gaines.  It is set in the south and is about a man awaiting execution.  So far, so good. Next up:  The Grapes of Wrath?!

Next, I want to pay attention to my HEALTH.  I am visiting my naturopath tomorrow and have a physical next week.  I have been walking and gardening.  I will add yoga and running soon.

Finally, I want to hang out with my FAMILY and FRIENDS!  I have two new nephews coming this summer and I can't wait!  We are trying to start a weekly picnic and play at Kalevala park movement and are going to try and hit the river for some swimming and water time too.  (We got there today and it was very relaxing...) Amanda and her girls and I and my girls are doing a beach day Friday.

So, even though Al's in school, we are selling our house, might start building a house, and need to install a septic system this summer, I am going to remain calm and relax.  Savor the season.

Still Not Slowing Down

So, I made my Facebook exit.  Check.  I have put in my volleyball resignation.  Check.  (I have to wait to see if they will accept it yet.)  I have been meal planning.  Check.

But.  I still feel weighed down.  I think now it's about hunkering down.  Not flitting about to every event and gathering.  AND.  Exercising.  Today is Saturday, and I have no commitments to be anywhere, so I am going to walk.  Then clean.  Then maybe ski or snowshoe?   I need to remember to nurture my body, soul, and mind.

My mantra has always been balance, but it's been escaping me lately.  I need to get back in the balanced groove.  Yoga was helping, but I haven't been for a few weeks now.  Walking was helping, but it's been cold again.  And so it goes.  I need a balanced life, but I keep giving in to the drama and yuckiness all around.  I need to clean up my act and stand my ground.

If I am going to sit and watch Downton Abbey, or let's be real here, American Idol, for an hour or two a night, my body better have earned it.  If I have raced around all day, I need to remember to slow down and read, write, relax.  To be the best me I can be.

Objective today:  Exercise and get some fresh air:)  Next up:  Get back in that sauna to detox.

Facebook Freedom!

So, I officially have stuck to my first resolution for 2015!  I deleted my Facebook account and am not looking back.  It feels great; Audrey was right.

I feel less consumed by my phone and checking people's statuses, as well as thinking about the events in my life as "status-worthy".  It's been great.

Otherwise, my simplifying has been going okay.  I need to remember to take it easy on myself when I am implementing new ideas.

My next item up is:  make a volleyball decision:  to coach or not to coach, that is the question...  I am going to set February 1st as the date that I want to have that decision finalized by.

A Simpler 2015

So, it's early December and I am already thinking about my resolutions for next year.  I am a sucker for self-improvement.

My theme is one that I have used before in my life, but I am having a hard time sticking to it.  My theme this year is once again to simplify my life.  With two lovely little girls and a dear husband, my goal is to spend as much quality time with them as possible (and also with my extended family, which really just feels more like my immediate family.)

I also am exploring food and health again.  I find this is my most passionate topic as of late.  I want to grow, buy, and cook good food.

So, here's my list of ideas for my resolutions in 2015 with the overarching goal being simplicity.

1.  Delete my Facebook account- I will talk to Audrey about this more.

2.  Resign from coaching Varsity volleyball.  It takes too much time away from my family and teaching.

3.  Spend more time planning and preserving my garden this year- I need to CAN my fruits and veggies- I will talk to Joann and the Barbs in my life about this.

4.  Possibly downgrade my smartphone to a "dumbphone."  Save money and time.

5.  Increase my monthly payment on my last undergraduate student loan.  Perhaps pay off this year?

6.  Read more books from the library to myself and my girls.

7.  Cook more meals at home.  Meal planning system- Jill gave a good idea for this.

8.  Regular saunas.  I feel my SISU return in the sauna.


I need to choose all of these things, but will decide on which ones to focus before January 1st.  I think some of the big time suckers could really help me in the other areas.  It's all about the time.  My most precious commodity.

I might do some 30 day challenges with my resolutions to see if I can get many of them to stick?

Practicing Mindfulness: My Resolution

It's a frigid New Year's day, and I am home sitting in my fluffy blue bathrobe drinking strong coffee.  I just read part of my book, after savoring my yummy rice pudding for breakfast.  My family is sleeping in the bedroom, and my dog is sleeping below my chair.  This feels good.

My New Year's resolution for this year reflects my current mindset of simplification.  I have always been a proponent of simplifying in life, but sometimes I lose sight of this.  Like Emerson and Thoreau, I would like my commitments to be limited to a few, and ones that I've chosen, not ones that have been chosen for me.  Our lives are truly frittered away by detail. 

So this year, I have one resolution:  to be more mindful.  I want to consistently be aware of myself and make smart decisions about my time and actions.  If I sit back to think and feel more deeply, I inevitably come to the same ideas about what I want and need to do for my happiness. 

So I want to be mindful.  Pay attention to myself.  Be gentle with myself.  Be happy. 

Happy New Year! 

Life Without Wheat: So Far...

So, I have eliminated wheat from my diet over the last few weeks.  I normally struggle with an upset stomach, and think that wheat may be partially to blame.  Also, when I consume wheat products, I feel very much out of control in my eating, and like I can't stop. 

I have been eating no bread and rice-based pastas and cereals.  What I've noticed is that I feel much better.  I no longer have bloating or an upset stomach feeling.  I made some gluten-free, rice-flour chocolate chip cookies tonight though, and you know what?  I still wanted to eat more than one. 

My conclusion is that I still need to limit the amount of carbs I am consuming.  I feel like the wheat is a great start, because it is everywhere in food.  It also explains why I am in love with licorice.  Wheat is very addictive, and when I start eating licorice, I can't stop.  (I wonder if there's a wheat-free licorice?) 

I will continue to not eat wheat, and will also think about eating much fewer carbs all together.  Biggest Loser weight loss to date:  3.5 pounds!  I think the elimination of wheat has helped this, too.

Becoming a Bomber

I accepted a position to teach English at Barnum High School, which has been a goal of mine for a few years.  This is where my kids go to school, it's where I live, it's a great school.  I am so excited to teach there this year! 

I am also feeling very sad about leaving my last place of employment, Willow River High School.  I began teaching there in the fall of 2004, 9 years ago, just out of college.  I became a better teacher there because of all of the support I received from many people.  It's a tight community in that building, and everyone is looking out for one another.

What I will miss most of all are the people there.  The great kids.  The great parents.  The great staff. 

But change is good.  Even if it's hard.

Reflections

So, I've been home for 2 days now from school with the flu  (so much for the flu shot protecting me...) and I'll be gone again tomorrow for dentist appointments.  After the horrific school shooting in Connecticut, I've been thinking.  A lot. 

Mainly, I've been thinking that life is short, which I always try to embrace as a theme in my life, however cliche it is.  But really, it is.  And what I've decided is that I want to be more aware of the way that I spend my time.  I don't want to do things for other people if they aren't fulfilling to me as a person.  That sounds selfish, but really it's not.  I don't want to spend my time doing things that I "think" I should be doing if they aren't nurturing my soul or self in some way. 

So, onto how I want to embrace this.  Here are a few things I've been tossing around in my head for New Year's Resolutions for 2013.  This list will likely be pared down to 3 items next week.

1.  Read more.
2.  Snuggle and play with my kiddos more.
3.  Eat more whole foods and less (much less) sugar and refined, processed crap.
4.  Do more yoga.  I feel the best about myself when I'm regularly practicing yoga.
5.  Get outside more.  Snowshoe.  Ski.  Walk.  Run.  Be. 
6.  Be more intimate with my husband.  Talk to him more.  Listen to him more. 
7.  Sauna once a week at least.  I believe that my recent illnesses are partly due to the fact that my sauna taking schedule has been reduced.  This is not okay.  The benefits of sauna are many. 

So, these are my thoughts right now.  I'm off to eat a grapefruit and then head outside for some fresh air.  Gotta start somewhere. 

Easy Tomato Sauce- (Come on, It's Labor Day...)

We have had an awesome crop of tomatoes this year.  I am seriously overwhelmed by it, though.  We had a Labor day picnic today and my sweet sister helped me pick a bunch of tomatoes, so the whole time in the back of my head I was thinking, "When am I going to get those tomatoes in the freezer in some form so they don't go to waste?" 

I have frozen tomatoes whole before, but I don't love the texture when you go to use them in a soup or sauce later.  They seem too mushy for me.

I've also made a homemade spaghetti sauce and frozen it before, but it required taking the skins off of the tomatoes and then boiling them down.  Too many steps for me this weekend. 

So, I Googled easy tomato sauces, and found one!  I am so excited that Al and I were able to get about 2 dozen tomatoes into a basic tomato sauce form and into the freezer.  I forced him (nicely) to help me and it was so much quicker. 

Here's to a few weeks worth of tomato sauce! 

Link to the recipe:
 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/maria-rodale/new-and-improved-tomato-s_b_704740.html

Tomatoes, Tomatoes, Tomatoes!

I have to say my favorite crop this year has been our Italian Heirloom tomatoes.  They are so delicious:  juicy, meaty, and versatile.  They're good on sandwiches, in tacos, even for salsa!  I think they'll make great sauce too because of their heartiness. 

I've been eating them like crazy- it's awesome!  One morning I suffered from heartburn and was wondering what it was from, and then it clicked- the 5 tomatoes I'd eaten the night before... But, I think they're worth it:)

We've been fortunate enough to harvest tomatoes earlier this year than others, and they're not all ready at one time so I don't go into panic mode thinking about how to preserve them.  It seems like preservation time always comes when we go back to school-  not this year!  I hope to make spaghetti sauce at least, and maybe freeze some tomatoes whole for soups, etc., later. 

We brought tomatoes to the Carlton County Fair, and wouldn't ya know, that was our only blue ribbon bounty-  I could have guessed that.  I love everything our garden provides us, but for some reason this year, those drippy, seedy, yummy tomatoes have won my heart (and stomach.) 

Off to check the tomatoes!

Cilantro Sweetheart

So, I left this morning for my last week down in the Twin Cities at the Minnesota Writing Project.  I have felt torn this month because I am loving the professional growth opportunities that the MWP has been affording me, but I am missing my family and garden something fierce.

I grew Genovese Basil and Cilantro this summer for the first time.  I LOVE these two herbs.  We can't buy affordable (or good) herbs at the store in Moose Lake, so to leave these two favorites in their prime was a bit saddening to me.  I had hoped to dry some basil in the oven this weekend and throw some cilantro into the freezer, but to no avail. 

Thus, the email message from my husband this lunch hour was absolutely perfect.  The subject line was "Cilantro Preservation," so I thought he also was researching ways we could save this perfectly yummy herb for longer than its few week lifespan. 

 Even better, though,  was his message:  "It's a start,"  followed by this picture:

This message was all I need to make it through another week down in the hustle and bustle at the University.  I can now surely enjoy some more cilantro in a soup or stew at a later date.  So, even if it goes to seed while I am down here finishing up this awesome experience, my sweet hubby preserved some summer for me to savor.  Love that guy. 

Freezer Jam

It was so nice to get home this weekend after a long week in the Twin Cities.  It was hard to be away from Al, the girls, even the garden.

I had planned to do some strawberry picking at Finke's berry farm this summer, and then make freezer jam like Al's mom always does-  it's so yummy.  Unfortunately, Finke's season wasn't very (berry?) productive.  I called there numerous times and either they were picked out, or berries weren't ripening.  Bummer.

Anyway, I had purchased 4 packages of Sure-Jell and wanted to use them.  So I stopped by the grocery store in Sandstone (they had a sale on strawberries!) and bought some berries.  This was an experience in itself. First of all, I was disappointed to be buying strawberries from California, and secondly, many of them were moldy, so I had to hunt around for berries that were even worth the $1.38 sale price.  I finally found some to bring home for our jam.

The girls and I made our jam on Saturday morning- it was a fun little activity to work on together.  We ended up making 6 2-cup portions and froze them for future use.  I was surprised at the sugar to berry ratio while making the jam:  4 cups of sugar to 2 cups of berries- oh boy!  Next time I will buy the lower-sugar pectin. 

My next batch of jam will hopefully come from blueberries, blackberries, or raspberries that have been picked from Minnesota, not California berries that are moldy because they've been shipped hundreds of miles.

But I know our sugary jam will still taste good on some good, thick toast this winter.  And,  it's always good to be at home in our little kitchen making something new-together. 

Laundry Soap Lesson

Before I left last Sunday evening to participate in the Minnesota Writing Project, I had to do a few things around the house.  My husband is very good at sharing most house chores, (although he never cleans the toilet...) but I always do one thing:  I make our laundry soap.

We started making our own soap about a year ago, and I think we'll continue to do so for a while.  Initially, we started doing this as a way to save money; it only costs us about 10 bucks a year for laundry soap, or maybe even less.  I think we used to spend almost that much on one jug of Tide.  Yikes. 

Now, though, it has become something fun to do with the girls.  It makes the house smell good, we get two fresh buckets of cheap, but good, soap, and it's better than detergents from the stores because there are fewer phosphates and chemicals in it.  So it's better for your skin and  for the environment.  It's also something I can do and feel good about getting done in a half an hour.  I have to get it done and there is an end result, so this pleases my OCD startsomethingnow and getitfinishednow trait.  It is rewarding and practical. 

So, here's my recipe:
Ingredients: 
Fels Naptha bar soap, washing soda (not baking soda!), and Borax.
(All of these items can be found in the laundry section at Target or Walmart or the like.) 
*You might choose to add an essential oil; I like the smell of the Fels Naptha.

You will also need:  5 gallon bucket, 2 ice cream pails (or whatever containers you prefer), a cheese grater, a spoon, a large saucepain, and a 1/2 cup measuring cup. I have also marked some lines on an old pitcher that I use to pour my various amounts of water so I know how much I'm pouring.

Directions: 
Grate 1/3 of the bar into a metal saucepan on the stove.  Add 6 cups water and heat until melted.  Add 1/2 cup washing soda and 1/2 cup Borax and stir until dissolved. 


Fels Naptha



Remove from heat.

Add 4 cups hot water into your 5 gallon bucket.  Then, add soap mixture and stir.  Finally, add 1 gallon and 6 cups more water and stir. 

Pour into your containers and let sit for 24 hours.  The soap will be gel-like and/or might have almost an egg drop soup consistency.  (It's not beautiful soap, but it works!)

Use 1/2 cup soap per load of laundry. 

Finished Product

**The Fels Naptha also works as a great pre-treater for stains, and the Borax is an awesome multipurpose cleaner.  I've used it on stains on my carpet and love it, and again, it's natural-Borax is mined from the Earth!