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.