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Bucket List #2

Growing up we never went to church. However, every Sunday my parents went to yoga and sometimes I went with them. It was the closest thing to a Sunday morning routine that I could figure. I distinctly remember my father snoring during sivasana. I continued to do yoga here and there while growing up, and it was second nature when I finally moved out on my own to take up a yoga practice. Over the years I have dabbled in and out of yoga and intend to get back into it again, possibly with a 30 day challenge. I know that when I do yoga my body is happier, my mind is calmer and it helps keep everything in perspective.

A few years ago my brother and I decided that we would go and spend a month at an ashram in India. The next thing you know I was pregnant with Porter and an ashram was the very last thing on my mind. Since then, obviously, Porter has been born and my brother has lived in both France and Los Angeles and now lives back in Santa Cruz. Needless to say, the ashram has yet to happen. And so, my friends, that is number two on my bucket list.

Bucket List

~Travel to 6 of the 7 continents. Let’s be honest, Antarctica is a long shot. So far I’ve been to North America (Canada, Mexico, Costa Rica) and Europe (France).

~Spend time practicing yoga at an ashram in India, with my brother.

I’m pretty sure this is the antithesis of what yoga in an ashram is like, but it sure is fun to watch.

Click to watch sweet yoga video here!

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2012 Challenges: June – Bucket List

May has come and gone and ’tis June 1st at last. I’ve been waiting for this day since January 1st. With it’s warm sunny evenings and lots of time and reasons to be outside enjoying nature, spring is fantastic. Last month’s Affirmation Challenge was a lovely way to get my mind focused and back on track. Those 4 affirmations played a large part in my motivation to continue the Couch to 5K training regimen, eating right, losing 10 more pounds (despite wonderful family visits, replete with parties, margaritas and many ‘smores), and all of that with a bountiful appreciation for life and love.

Each night I affirmed:

I make healthy choices in everything that I do.
I treat myself and others with loving kindness, especially Luke and Porter.
I follow through with everything that I begin.
I surrender to my best and highest self.

June’s challenge is something I’ve never done before, but feel is essential to living a full and rewarding life. This month I’ll be creating my bucket list of goals to accomplish, before I kick the bucket. A few bucket list items that I’ve already completed in this lifetime are:

  • Completed the Spudman Olympic Distance Triathlon
  • Lived/studied internationally
  • Own my own house and property
  • Birthed my child naturally, out of hospital
  • Became a teacher
  • Went to college
  • Have a deep and meaningful relationship
  • River rafting
  • Tried surfing
  • Won: half way to Hawaii contest, woot! 
  • Lost: came in dead last in said triathlon, not a total loss though really.

My criteria for adding items to the list are simple.

  1. Each item must be something that can be solidly accomplished and documented, no touchy-feely goals for this list. 
  2. A new item must be added every single day and posted on this blog. 
  3. Ideas can be crazy and far fetched, but must have the potential to be accomplished in this lifetime.
Bucket List
~Travel to 6 of the 7 continents. Let’s be honest, Antarctica is a long shot. So far I’ve been to North America (Canada, Mexico, Costa Rica) and Europe (France).
Stay tuned for more tomorrow!!

I love this outfit, he’s like a real boy!

Definitely the king of his castle.

I don’t know about other mamas, but I kiss my kid all the time.

Goslings in the park, out for a field trip. I got so close and into taking this picture that when I looked up mama goose was dangerously close and giving me the stink eye.

Today’s walk put him right to sleep, my tender baby.
My favorite part is when he comes in at the end humming and puckering up for a kiss.

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Busy Busy Bumble Bee

A few years ago, Porter’s Grandma Teri and Aunt Anna became bee keepers. Before that, his Granddad Craig and Grandma Teri were (and still are) avid gardeners. As we all know, bees and plants have a symbiotic relationship, without which our world would cease to exist. And the beautiful gardens we know and love would suck. Now, because of a stuffed bee, Porter also has a thing for stripey honey makers.

Bees are good and necessary.  We like bees, despite their kamikaze tendencies. So, as you can imagine, the whole Colony Collapse Disorder was understood and taken seriously by our families. It’s bad, real bad. Just a few weeks ago I came upon this article in “The Week” magazine, explaining where Colony Collapse probably stems from. Low and behold, it’s caused by current pesticide practices. An entirely human caused conundrum. Here’s what the article says,

“Why Honeybees Are Disappearing

The mystery of the massive die-off of honeybees may have been solved. Three new studies point to a widely used class of pesticides called neonicotinoids as the main reason for “colony collapse disorder,” in which millions of honeybees and bumblebees have died off in the U.S. and Europe in the past decade. Developed in the 1990s, neonicotinoids disrupt the nervous systems of insects that destroy crops. The pesticides are commonly used in agriculture and backyard gardening products, and have made their way into the corn syrup that many beekeepers feed their hives after harvesting honey. Around the time colonies started collapsing, farmers began heavily treating corn crops—used to make the syrup—with neonicotinoids. Studies indicate that the pesticide can be found in many honeybees, which pollinate more than a third of U.S. crops. “It apparently doesn’t take much of the pesticide to affect the bees,” Harvard University biologist Chensheng Lu tells Scientific American. He found that even trace amounts killed off hives within six months. In other studies, honey-bees fed neonicotinoids got lost while foraging, and bumblebees produced radically fewer queens. Says Pennsylvania beekeeper Dave Hackenberg, “We’ve got a toxic mess.”

I’ll leave you with that to ponder while I show you how bees have been playing a role in our everyday lives. Porter received a stuffed bee for Christmas and has been sleeping with it for the last few months. Luke and I jokingly called it Busy Bee, in reference to the movie Best In Show. It stuck and now Porter calls it “Bei Bee”. Busy Bee makes going to sleep a little easier when travelling and sometimes makes it to the living room after waking up in the morning. Mostly he lives in Porter’s bed and sleeps, a lot. It is the least busy bee I’ve ever known. But it is soft and cuddly.

The bee that started it all, in it’s habitat, bed.

Bees like flowers, and we happen to have a small field of them blooming in our Thyme lawn. If you listen closely to the buzzing, they’re all shouting, “Hurray!!” and singing their busy bees working tune.

As of today I dubbed Porter the bee whisperer. He’s fascinated with the insects, and having hundreds of them working in our front yard is naturally intriguing for him. He got the memo about not touching them, but not so much about walking through them. I looked up and found him standing in the middle of the bee zone with 10’s of bees flying all about him, head to toe. I knew I had to keep calm so the bees wouldn’t sense my freak out-ed-ness and then freak out on my baby in turn. He just stood there, smiling happily watching the bees zoom around him. Not knowing that bees sting he was delighted to be in the midst of their thrumming and buzzing. I asked him to walk to me on the driveway, and after a few LONG seconds, he did. Totally unscathed and unaware of any danger. It was a good thing!

Post bee whispering

Demanding to be given the camera.

Me and my bee loving baby.

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Not So Baby, Baby Food

As an homage to the many food blogs out in there, I have decided to do a post about all the food Porter eats in a day.
Breakfast
Organic Bunapi Mushrooms- Porter loves mushrooms, and after reading from Dr.Weil that button and crimini mushrooms can be carcinogenic, I’ve been looking for alternative shrooms. These are perfect.

Alien planet?

No, just cute little mushrooms.

Onions, bell pepper and mushrooms sauteed in coconut oil.

The already finished banana. This is actually the first food item that he eats each day. If I time it just right, demands for “nanna!” will carry through the cooking of the meal.

I LOVE the Camelbak water bottles for kids. They are the only ones I’ve found that don’t leak, at least when being used properly. Porter sips on water all day long.

We share the sauteed veggies and scrambled eggs for breakfast. P doesn’t get cheese on his eggs since the calcium in cheese will brutally rebuff the iron in the eggs. I however, enjoy the cheesy eggs.

Biting the cap off a little mushroom.

Until very recently, Porter only drank water and mother’s milk. I’ve started introducing him to kombucha, just a little at a time. He seems to like it, even though it makes his mouth feel a little sparkly.

Ingredients: organic raw kombucha, blackberry juice, passion fruit juice, and 100% pure love.

He cleaned his tray, as always.
 Snack

He doesn’t drink milk, but loves yogurt. I take whole milk yogurt and homemade applesauce  and shake them in a bottle with a straw. Sometimes he’ll have kefir instead.

Suck on that Dannon drinkables!

And berries. His all time favorite food, ever.

He also helped me finish off the cucumber in my salad. The lettuce was appealing, but hard to chew without molars.
 Lunch

It’s true. I feed my child fruit and veggie packs. He loves them and they’re easy for him to eat himself. Happytot is all organic and only contains the actual fruits and veggies. In this case he’s having green bean, pear and pea with chia seeds.

Grilled cheese with Tillamook (home of the Baby Loaf) Colby cheese on Alverado St. sprouted grain bread with a slathering of butter.

Snack

He likes crackers a lot. “Cah cah” was his first intelligible word. I’m not a fan of the Plum Super Puffs, but we were trying something new.

Preparing him for Lucky Charms perhaps? Plus, if you accidentally step on one it immediately crumbles into a fine powder that is impossible to clean without getting the vacuum out. I won’t be purchasing these again.

Dinner

Friday nights we get take out for dinner, so this isn’t what he usually eats. Typically it’s a pile of veggies and beans and whatever he’ll eat that Luke and I have. Tonight however, Porter and I shared Thai Green Curry with chicken and rice. He doesn’t like meat a whole lot, so this is really the only time he eats it since I slap chop it and mix it with the rice. He seriously loves it. Probably because I ate it so often when I was pregnant. I seriously love it too.

He’s getting better at keeping the food off the floor, but with rice it’s tricky. He ‘s also desperate to feed himself with a spoon, which is difficult with this meal. I will tell you that there has been improvement in this arena lately, which means I spend less time on my hands and knees cleaning the floor after meal time.

Not included in today’s photo essay is the nursing that happens periodically through the day. I’m no Time Magazine cover model or anything, soapbox up but yeah to answer their question, I’m mom enough. And so are all of my mommy friends out there doing their best to raise happy healthy babies. Soapbox down.

So there it is. A baby foodie’s tour of a day in the life.

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Porter Takes Capitola

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Every time I go back home to Capitola I envy my friends who never left. I miss the beautiful scenery, all year round, the temperate climate, the foggy summer mornings and the family that still lives there. It also helps that my parents have a home a hundred feet from a cliff overlooking the Monterey Bay. It’s a pretty sweet set up and I took it for granted when I lived there through high school and college. Maybe we’ll move back one day?

Then I get back home to Boise and am nostalgic for a couple days, but I eventually get into the frame of mind which I’m in today. That is, I’m really happy here in Idaho. I have a handful of friends and family who have also left California’s greener pastures in search of lifestyles that suit their own families needs. They’ve landed in places throughout middle America, just like us. (Technically Idaho is part of the Northwest, but it’s no coastal state.) I suppose what it comes down to is where our priorities lay, and for my family it is quality of life. California offers beautiful scenery and a great state of mind, but it’s hard to enjoy it if you’re constantly keeping your nose to the grind day-in and day-out in order to afford it’s high costs. In those cases, you’d better hope that you love your job. Luke and I love the work we do here in Idaho, with the added bonus of living in a truly great small city.

The high desert climate sucks, comparatively, but in the Spring and Autumn I love the dry sunny days. The Winter isn’t so bad, at least in the beginning. Then the days start getting longer and that gives me hope. Summer has the potential to be REALLY hot, but as I recall, last summer wasn’t so bad. Plus I get my fair share of vitamin D with all the extra long sunny days. Add to that my amazing friends, an affordable cost of living, home ownership in an increasingly friendly neighborhood, 3 kitties to cause me just the right amount of angst, and the ability to spend lots of quality time with Luke and Porter doing things we really love. It’s a great life we’ve created for ourselves here and I won’t mind staying as long as we have to, or until the next adventure arises.

Something else that makes life grand, is that we get to visit Porter’s grandparents, who live in two of the most beautiful places in California. The central coast and Sierra Nevada foothills. Last week Porter and I got to take a trip to Capitola to visit Porter’s uncles Steve and Kumar. It was a fantastic visit, and more of a vacation than I’ve had since Porter was born, because of their attentiveness to his need for running, climbing and exploring. Paired with the crazy amount of travelling to places around the country, and maybe internationally (stay tuned for that!), and any issues I may have are merely first world problems. Life is good!

Enjoying a bagel on the deck.

Ball.

Taking a moment to smell the roses.

That ball is trapped in a prison of thorny beauty. Luckily he was able to save it.

With Uncle Steve.

Looking into the atrium, and the bathtub which was big enough for the both of us to take a bath every night. It was glorious.

Porter really truly loves Steve.

I think Steve feels the same way.

Smell it!

The handle. So close, yet so far away. Story of this kids life.

Bet you didn’t know that P plays the jazz flute too.

Reading with Uncle Kumar.

This piggy book warranted some serious discussion.

Yes, the stairs. Lots and lots of stairs.

Capitola Wharf

Soquel Creek and the Venetians.

Capitola Beach

Bending Steve’s ear about some very important world matters.

Breakfast at the Wharf House.

He’s blowing to make the wheel turn, like a “whee” (fan).

BIG BALLS! Do the happy dance! Do the happy dance!

The sea gull kept walking away from them. It’s like he knew Porter’s affinity for  grabbing at animal feet.

Porter strikes his best casual male model pose.

He was deliriously happy to be walking on the wharf.

One of my favorite gardens of all time.

And, it’s on the beach!

Looking off the bridge into the creek. 
Waiting for coffee at Mr.Toots.

I felt this was necessary to document since Porter’s first natural disaster was indeed a tsunami, in Maui.

This is what it’s like to visit Uncles Steve and Kumar. SO MUCH FUN!!!
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Garden: Mulch & Cinco de Mayo

What a weekend! Spring is the time to get stuff done and to celebrate the change in weather! We took advantage of the sunny days by mulching, 12 cubic yards of the stuff, in our backyard and celebrating Cinco de Mayo with our good friends the Titus’. The weekend couldn’t have been complete without them.
Tree Top Recycling has the best and cheapest mulch in Boise.

This is what 12 yards of ceder mulch looks like when it’s fully packed into a crate.

This picture doesn’t do it justice. You can see it’s taller than Porter, and it went on for about 20 feet.
He was bound and determined to sweep it into the yard.

Chelsea and I saved these Russian Sages from near death by weeding, laying weed cloth and mulching.
So much better then before.

Ohhhhhh….

Ahhhhh….

We have a little extra mulch to spread over the compost area, once the compost bins are removed.

This section of the backyard is just about done. We have to remove the compost and put rock down by the big gate and lay river rock in the small canal for flood irrigation. It’s so close I can taste it.

We also re-mulched the front yard.

So clean and ready to bloom.

Volunteer tulips. I don’t think these have ever bloomed before.

I usually pull them before they bloom because they come up right where I planted a grass .
This year I let them go, and I’m glad I did.

The thyme lawn is starting to bloom with it’s purple flowers.

Cinco de Mayo

Last year Luke and Shaun celebrated this day (or should I say night) with a bottle of tequila and playing some loud music, while Chelsea had a cold and I had a newborn at home. This year we all got celebrate together at their new home. A big thanks to their Aunt Marcy and Uncle Dick for providing a lovely setting and a killer margarita recipe.

The backyard is a wonderland. Complete with swing set, playhouse, grills, fireplace and lots of space to play.

Like I said, KILLER margaritas. 

The beautiful Chelsea mixing the magic brew, along with preparing fajitas and tamales.
She finally has a kitchen that suits her!

Mmmm. If I had been drinking my own margarita, rather than sipping off Luke’s, this pitcher would have been gone at the end of the night and we would have had to crash in their guest room.

Carb counting be damned this weekend. There’s no shame in loving a good ‘rita.

Azul, the birdy or “teet teet” as Porter calls her, was ever the entertainer.

The party moved from the backyard to the front where there is more yard and a basketball hoop. Porter was thrilled with the variety of balls being played with: a basketball, a football and a volleyball. He was giddy.

He’s also giddy for Kefir.

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2012 Challenges: May – Affirmations

There’s nothing like a long week in the tropics to kill motivation for all challenges and diets. I guess I have yet to achieve super human status. I don’t feel too bad about not finishing April’s challenge since May has now begun and it’s onto the next challenge: positive affirmations.

Let me tell you a story. In the 5th grade I had a teacher that I hated, HATED. This was a strong emotion for me. Keep in mind that from 2nd grade onward I wanted to be a teacher, because I thought they were the most wonderful, kind women I’d ever known. Why did I hate Mrs. Hunter? Probably because my 4th grade teacher failed to hold me accountable, didn’t mention it to my parents, and when I got to 5th grade I didn’t have the chops to make it. Academically my parents helped me get it together and today I’m a college graduate. But that Mrs.Hunter, she’s the one who had to call me out on my poor study habits and lack of educational drive. For that, she was a good teacher. Bah hum bug.

After a few months into a hard year of school my mom decided that I needed an attitude adjustment. Luckily, she was kind in her lesson and suggested that I try saying positive affirmations about my feelings for Mrs.Hunter. We wrote down some affirmations on the prettiest heart shaped papers. The affirmations stated the way I wanted to feel about my teacher, and I said them everyday. After a few weeks, maybe months, I found that my feelings towards Mrs.Hunter had warmed, and I think she even warmed to me. It was all in my attitude towards her and I really believe that the affirmations helped.

Throughout my life I’ve also done hypnosis. A big part of hypnosis is hearing, in repetition, what you want to change about yourself. This includes positive affirmations. Especially in Hypnobabies, which I used when I was pregnant. I found the affirmations about having a strong, capable and healthy body incredibly helpful.

A few rules that I follow when doing affirmations are: the use of “I”, saying them in present tense (even if they aren’t necessarily true yet), and keep it to 3 affirmations so my subconscious doesn’t become overwhelmed. Bottom line, positive affirmations work for me. Since I’ve gotten off track lately, May’s challenge is to say these 3 affirmations at least once a day, or more.

  • I make healthy choices in everything I do.
  • I treat myself and others with loving kindness, especially Luke and Porter.
  • I follow through with everything that I begin.
As the human in this relationship Porter will hopefully learn that Olive’s reaction, to his tormenting of her paws while napping, will always be the same. It will always end with claws and cat scratches. Learn it kid!

It’s a love/hate relationship.

Puttin’ the hurt on Honu. Luckily he’s a very obliging stuffed turtle.
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A Little Help From My Friends

Today was one of those days that absolutely could not have happened without amazing family, friends and neighbors. We’re continuing our work on the backyard and I had big plans for today, which included buying mulch and applying it the lower back yard around the lawn, mowing the lawn (after our lawn mower hasn’t been cutting it, pun intended) and being outside as much as possible in the amazing spring weather. 
My sister Anna lent us her truck so we could pick up pea gravel and bark mulch, and then volunteered to watch Porter while we took care of the yard. Porter had a fantastic time at the park with Anna, Micah and Quila and her truck worked perfectly for the 2 (yet not nearly enough) loads of mulch. 
Upon returning home with our mulch we found our wheelbarrow had a flat inner tube. Thankfully our wonderful neighbors were home and more then happy to lend us their wheelbarrow. I don’t have a picture, but it’s been in their family for generations, is green and weighs a ton. It’s quality and will probably be passed on to their grand kids. 
In the midst of all the mulching I  also had to mow our new lawn. It grows fast and dense in the spring. If I don’t cut it weekly then it will break anything less than a goat. Our electric mower has been on the outs lately, which is disappointing because I was thrilled about having it. Luckily, Chelsea and Shaun also have an electric mower (cordless), which is bigger and much more efficient than the one I have. We got to borrow theirs and take it for a test mow. I do believe that I’ll be purchasing one of Earthwise mowers later this week. Oh happy day, I get to keep using an electric mower and it will actually cut my lawn. Hurray. 
So, to summarize why I have the most amazing people in my life:
  • Borrowed truck for large loads
  • Free child care with lots of love included
  • Borrowed/test drove electric lawn mower at a moments notice
  • Borrowed heirloom wheelbarrow

These were all amazing acts of generosity, and the results were: a mowed lawn, happy baby, started mulch project, and the most tender part- I got to spend quality time with my husband too. It’s something we’ve neglected for too long and I hope it will become a more regular occurrence. Surly it will since Porter has so many people who love him that live near by, and I’m starting to ease up on the mother henning. A little.

I love when flowers that I planted actually grow!

Quality time with the hubby. His words, no joke.
Adding (wet) pea gravel to the dining area.

The mulch didn’t go as far as I though. We’re going to need more, lots more.
The dining area, covered in pea gravel, is complete.

Bark mulch and gravel.

Freshly mowed. We’re mulching all the areas around the lawn. Weed fabric is already laid.
Who knew that would be the easy part?

See all the green spots in the mulch? Those are actual plants that are going to grow into my Aroma Garden. I don’t know if I’m more excited because the mulch is actually working or that the plants are actually growing.

The parsley that won’t say die.

I planted this parsley years ago and it just keeps coming back.

After a long morning playing at the park with Aunt Anna, Micah and Quila.

Another generosity from the Titus family. A jungle gym worthy of my little climber, replete with latter, steering wheel, slide and under deck hiding area.

To all of our friends and family
THANK YOU!