and my 20's come to a close....

better things to do today than sit on the computer, so i am "phoning this one in." blake and i dug up this song a few weeks ago, neither of us knew the other one loved it. seemed appropriate for a birthday blog post. i noticed that it came out three years before i was born.

enjoy....and don't you DARE make fun of their hair!!


(PS: MOM, make sure dad sees this!)

KANSAS - Dust In The Wind
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29 by 29 update

i did it. workout #29 complete, and tomorrow is my 29th birthday. too wiped out to be excited. lost one pound after complaining about gaining 7. wish i had done more on the calorie-intake front while i did this. all regrets and bitterness i am sure will be swept away in the shower--i'll give myself that long to be disappointed. then i will step out renewed, toned, glowing with accomplishment, and grateful for my health. because that's how i roll.

:-)

on the menu: 11-18-09

i just figured out a new regular feature i can do when inspiration (or time) is lacking--tell you what i'm eating for dinner! thrilling for some, mind-numbing for others.

tonight i will be out knitting so i need to have something warm and ready when blake gets home to feed three kids solo. sounds like a split pea soup situation with some tasty kids-will-love-it protein on the side.


simple split pea soup:

(there are never any leftover of this in our house, the kids go nuts for it)

Ingredients

• 5 1/2 cups water
• 4 cups organic chicken broth
  
• 2 cups green split peas
• 3/4 cup finely chopped yellow onion
• 6 ounces diced ham, or cooked bacon, crumbled
  
• 1 cup finely chopped carrot
• 1 cup thinly sliced celery
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

Preparation

Combine first 5 ingredients in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat; bring to a simmer. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 1 hour, stirring occasionally.

Stir in carrot, celery, pepper, and salt. Simmer, uncovered, 45 minutes or until peas are tender and soup thickens, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat; stir in juice. Serve immediately.

maple and pepper pork chops (or in my case chicken thighs):

(this is swiped from the blog Eggs on Sunday and more detail including step-by-step pictures can be found here-- the best part other than how delicious it tastes is that the ingredients are pretty on-hand)

Ingredients
4 pork chops, bone-in or boneless (I like ones that are about 1 inch thick, and as always, if you can find a local purveyor of humanely-raised meat, please do choose that.)
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 1/2 teaspoon whole black peppercorns, crushed in a mortar and pestle or a spice grinder
2 teaspoons coarse kosher salt
1 large shallot, minced
2 tablespoons chopped fresh thyme leaves
1/3 cup cider vinegar
1/2 cup pure maple syrup (I prefer Grade B or Dark Amber)

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

2. Pat the pork chops dry and season them well with the 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt. Rub the salt into the surface of the meat.

3. Preheat an ovenproof skillet over medium-high heat. When it’s hot, add the 2 tablespoons of oil (it should shimmer.

4. Place the chops into the pan, presentation side down. Leave them to brown on this side for a few minutes. You can tell they’re ready to flip when the meat releases from the bottom of the pan when you gently lift up an edge.

5. Flip the chops over, insert a meat thermometer into the thickest part of one of the chops, and put the whole pan into the oven to finish cooking.

6. When the chops reach 145 degrees F, take the pan out of the oven and place the chops on a plate. Cover with foil and set aside.

7. Return the pan to the stove. You should have about 1-2 tablespoon of fat remaining in the pan; if there’s a lot more, pour it off before putting it back on the stove. Add the shallot, thyme, and another 1/2 teaspoon of kosher salt. Cook over medium-high heat until the shallot is softening and beginning to brown, about 2 minutes.

8. Add the vinegar and stir with a wooden spoon to loosen the bits of fond on the bottom of the pan. Simmer for another 1-2 minutes, then add the maple syrup and ground peppercorns.

9. Simmer the sauce for about 8-10 minutes, until it’s been reduced by about half, to a syrupy/glaze consistency. Taste and adjust seasoning as needed.

10. Spoon over the pork to serve.

welcome back, nomad 2

we've been making do with one car for a few months now--and while doable, its annoying. come on, now: three kids, a business that is open 6 days a week, and no easily accessible public transportation near our home. not to mention our one car (the beloved suburban) is a giant white beast and diesel hog (although not as bad as you think) that is not fun to park downtown. its really best suited for towing boats, road trips, home depot outings, or adventures with all five of us on board. we missed our sturdy, diesel, daily driver to cover all those other times. blake had purchased this cutie off of craigslist in june and we got two months out of it before the tranny went kaput. thanks to the fine folks at MBI motors inc, our little beauty is back in action as of today!

welcome back, Noamd 2!

29 by 29

me with my broth containers--thanks to MG for taking my picture!

so you facebookers may know that i challenged myself to do 29 workouts before i turned 29--at the time, this gave me about 11 weeks which seemed like plenty of time, especially since i was basically going from 0 exercise, to about three times a week. i began the first few weeks with uphill walks around the neighborhood, and then started doing my favorite denise austin video, fat-burning yoga--one good hour of strength training and stretching (plus a killer ab workout), but not a lot of cardio. then i finally popped in the Shred Level 2 workout that Breana gave me, and boy am i glad i didn't just watch it first because it might have scared me off for good. i survived the intense 20 minute workout but decided that i would rather push myself extremely hard for half the time, than go back to my not-as-demanding but full hour routine. a mother's time is precious! the shred workout is crazy because you are working multiple areas at once in three circuits: stength, cardio, and abs. almost enough to make you want to die but just enough so you can survive the 20 minutes. its hilarious, too, because i don't have real weights so i scan the pantry before each workout for something to hold, usually some 2 pound broth containers!

so where am i at now? well, i've done 26 workouts and my birthday is on friday. that means i have to now bump it up to everyday this week, from my usual tues-thurs-sat routine, and i will reach my goal (and i won't have to workout ON my birthday, i hope!!) the results have been totally unexpected--i'll be honest and say i thought i would have dropped at LEAST ten pounds, i was hoping for 15. but nooooooo. i've GAINED 7!! i know its muscle, that is obvious since i feel way stronger and have a new definition to my arms and legs that was not there before. but its disappointing. i wanted to be down a size and into clothes that i wore pre-george. i also thought the working out would "kick-in" some natural weight loss, now that baby Geo is 18 months and barely nurses. oh well. it is what it is. maybe i'll keep it up through the holidays....

mama's little fashionista

for as long as i can remember i've had a passion for fashion. the highlight of my childhood was pouring over department store catalogs. i'd spend countless hours creating lists of "dream wardrobes"--each list at different price points, like the if-we-won-the-lottery list, the $250 list, and the bare minimum i-couldn't-live-without list. i was the youngest of four children and our income was modest at best so this must have driven my parents crazy. once a week, my mom had her nails done at the JC Penney salon and i would get to spend the whole time browsing the childrens clothing section by myself, marveling at the coordinated sets, and fingering the fabrics, and if i had time try on different outfits. this must have driven the sales people crazy. this love for clothing has alwasy been my favorite pasttime--anytime we go on vacation i want to see the boutiques and vintage stores, every birthday its how i want to spend my day, any extra money that comes our way, i immediately dream up an afternoon at anthropologie. if we are going to go somewhere special like a concert, i will spend the weeks leading up to said event looking for the perfect thing to wear. this, of course, can drive blake a little crazy, too.


when i think back to my childhood, the things that stand out the most are not birthday parties or sports or school...its wandering thorugh malls and admist clothing racks. once, when i was about nine, my sister gave me $100 and i asked my mom to take me to the emporium where i proceeded to choose an assortment of cotton pieces with the most mix-and-match potential to maximize my dollars. i especially remember a pair of paisley print leggings with grey, turquoise, and purple tones that i wore until the knees faded.

and its weird how something is just "turned on" in your brain. my parents were not particulary fashionable people, and i can't think of anything or anyone who influenced me in that direction. and although clothing is material, its wasn't a desire for material possessions or or the status of designer ware. nor was it vanity--i wasn't so much whether i looked beautiful or fancy. the pleasure came from putting something together that was aethetically pleasing. like seeing amazing architecture or being in a room designed in fung shui, fashion is taking color and texture and cultural context and making a wearable expression from it, and i couldn't turn off that awareness if i tried.

it must have been about a year ago that i noticed something. blake and mayan have always had this deep connection--they share all the same interests, you can pretty much bet that if blake is into it mayan will become a fan as well. as she gets older their love of mutual things gets more intense, and its like this "aside" from the normal parent-child relationship, a thread of a common connection that looks more like friendship. its sweet and in the past i have been somewhat envious of their bond. so this thing i saw a year ago surprised me a little bit. it sprung up and suddenly it came to me that i might get to have this connection with another child: isadore. the two of us have always had an easy time getting along, but now a new development in our realtionship emerged: the girl loves fashion.


it took me a while to see this because it started as a love of dress up. not unusual for kids to love to dress up, but she took to dressing up all day, everyday. i began to expand our dress up box...or boxes, with thrift store finds. she would watch a movie and then immediately go to the box and create a look similar to the main character. it never had to be JUST like the character either--she happily worked with what she had, so if the character wore a puffy white shirt and vest, any old white shirt and an indian print vest turned inside out would do.

i will never forget the moment though that i knew isadore had my affection for fashion, the same mindfulness about clothing that i possessed. we were at the dinner table and mayan brought up egypt, and how she would love to go there for a family trip one day. we all agreed and then isadore sucked in her breath and proclaimed "i know exactly what i would wear when we got to egypt!" i just about died. i tried not to have a huge reaction but i looked right to blake with tears welling in my eyes, and his smiling look back told me "she's definitely your daughter!!" i just had to pull her into me then and laugh through my tears. ah, someone who understands!

on her 5th birthday, totally stoked on her new look

since then its been a pleasure watching the passion grow in her and her own style develop. everytime isaodre comes downstairs dressed she looks totally put together. she sees something in an article of clothing that i would miss--there is one pair of jeans in particular that she has loved to shreads, and no jeans has been able to replace them, something about the exact fit that captures her (she calls them her "sarah" jeans inspired by the character from the movie Labrynth.) not long ago, i bought her a pair of basic old navy boot cut jeans and she took them and thanked me politely. later she sighed to me how when she's older she will design a jeans that fit close to the legs, and she used her hands to show me how they would hug her legs. "sweetie," i said "they do make those. they are called skinny jeans." "They do?!" she replied ecstatically and the hunt began for the perfect pair of skinny jeans.

this is one of her first creations--using a diaper and a yoga strap, its a corset-style top...and of course with her beloved "sarah" jeans. where did she learn to work the camera like that??

our good friend Halle, who is a designer, came to visit this summer and she let Issy (who lived in her swimsuit pretty much the entire month of august) try on her "warrior" jewelry

its gotten to the point that i actually am inspired by HER. she is just so fresh and her look is aethetically clean, which i love. its not a bunch of randomness, she dresses with purpose. i have been teaching her different names for clothing, like the different types of jackets. she loves this character called carmen san diego who wears a red trench coat, so she's alwasy on the lookout for a red trench. she'll point something out and say "that's kind of like a carmen coat" and i say "thats called a pea coat" and we'll talk about the differences. while a small part of me has always critizied myself for what can seem like frivolous time spent talking about, looking at, shopping for clothing--i mean couldn't my energy be better spend on something more constructive?--but what i know, especially by watching it in isadore, is that you can't turn off a passion, you could stop shopping altogether (i practically have) and stick to jeans and a t-shirt everyday...but you would never stop observing and having a reaction to fashion. i know its like that for anyone's passion: you can ever really turn it off. so i am teaching isadore how to have balance. we don't need oodles of clothes, and we don't have to spend a lot of money on them either; we can't hold up the family looking for the perfect outfit, sometime we just have to be comfortable and move on. and when we do find that great look, we can give one good look in the mirror and pat ourselves on the back, but then lets go out in the world and be good people. not vain, not shallow--those things are not synonamous with fashion.

the latest look: vintage cat-eye glasses, a flowy feminine shirt, the ragged yet beloved "sarah" jeans, and sneakers

i've been looking for something special to do with isadore lately, since mayan, who loves music tens to get to go to the concerts (she can sit still a lot longer...) and i know isaodre can feel lieft out. imagaine my glee, when i saw in the paper that a fashion show called junk to funk was going to be all ages at the crystal ballroom. this event is a contest for designer to use trash, or materials that could be reused, to create fabulous couture and is sponsored by SCRAP. i knew my friend halle, who is a fashion designer, would be here in portland (she relocated from bend on novemebr 1st!) so we made a date, and isadore was SO excited--her first fashion show, AND it would be for a good cause, and to promote environmental consciousness.

the night of junk to funk: ready to rock it

last night was a blast--we got decked out and stayed up late, and being under those lights and right up against the runway was something neither of us will forget. each creation was inspiring and amazing...and the materials used were incredible! construction cones, tampon wrappers, tyvek mailers, inflatable matresses, coffee filters.....it ended being a great way for isadore to enjoy one of the reasons we moved here: culture, and also for us to bond over our love of all things fashionable. oh, my little fashionista, it was the first night of many, i hope!

left to right: andrea (halle's friend and favorite model), halle my-friend-who-loves-all-thing-fashion, me, and isadore (trying so hard to squeeze in she's making a face)

the outfit i voted for, made from construction site materials including a cone and barrier fencing. that is her real hair wrapped around wires!

me and my girl kickin' it on the runway, discussing the last set

six hands are louder than two

i've got a big post brewing for tomorrow about fashion and isadore. so here's just a little something to fill todays slot.....