Well, I guess I do – we all were sick with this ragged winter cold that I never thought could track us down in sunny Arizona, and then just as we were getting better, I took the kids back to Michigan for a week to visit my parents and now I have a fresh, new sinus infection.  Ugh.  In the meantime, I’m frantically preparing for 50+ people to descend upon us on Sunday for a Star Wars LEGO party for my about-to-be 5 year olds’ birthday (speaking of where did the time go – is he really 5???)

But that is enough with the excuse making.  Now for a resolution check-in – I would give myself a B grade over the past month.  I’ve been working out but not quite as much as I would like due to the sinus infection, I have been cooking fairly clean and healthy (and then the Girl Scout cookies arrived….)

Tonight I made something really yummy that I wanted to share – the recipe is straight from Whole Living and can be found here but I’ll copy and paste it to make it easier.  Used both organic kale and organic delicata squash (which I had never had before and is delicious – and you can eat the skin – how easy and quick is that?!?!?!) from the fruit and veggie delivery that I’m still getting (and loving) every two weeks.  Enjoy!!

Isn't it so pretty and colorful?

Delicata Squash Salad with Kale and Cranberry Beans

from Whole Living

Martha Stewart Living, October 2009

Yield Serves 4

Ingredients

Bed #1: broccoli, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, and lettuce

After two years in Arizona, it is still hilarious to me that I can walk out in my backyard to get some broccoli from the garden in January.  Blows my mind.  The summers may be scorchingly hot, but this place is really awesome. However, my garden hasn’t always been so…

Fall of 2011 was my second attempt at a fall/winter garden.

Flash back to last October (2010), Rob made me two awesome semi-raised garden beds – each four feet by ten feet.  Since our yard is one huge long expanse of rocks, we knew that we were going to need to do some work on the soil, but I thought adding a few bags of dirt from Home Depot would do the trick.  I then spent an entire weekend painstakingly sowing seeds using a pre-marked wood “measuring” stick to ensure appropriate spacing (I never said I wasn’t a little anal).  Well, all of my seeds sprouted, but nothing grew bigger than a couple of inches.  It was a big disappointment, especially given the time and effort spent.

I knew my soil was probably the source of the problem.  The seeds had sprouted, but then obviously weren’t getting enough nutrients from the soil to make any progress.  I was given a tip that Singh Farms had great compost (they also sell fish emulsion and have an awesome farmers market on the weekends), so we bought 4 bags ($12 each) to give our soil a better start before I planted again in the spring.  I have been amending the soil with organic fertilizer and the horrible smelling fish emulsion (it’s nasty, but it seems to work) and we have even started our own compost pile (a post for another day).  Our spring 2011 garden was a lot more successful.

Okay, flash forward to this year.  I was a little gun shy about doing all seeds again after my experience last fall, so I decided to plant a mixture of seeds and seedlings – right around Halloween (maybe a week or so before).  I sowed buttercrunch and romaine lettuce and spinach seeds, as well as some green onions.  I then planted seedlings for the broccoli, cauliflower, and brussels sprouts.  Everything took off growing quickly, and the “greens” on the plants looked amazing.  But, the heads on the broccoli and cauliflower just were not forming, no matter how much I watered and fertilized.  I really had started to give up on my garden again when, low and behold, in mid-late December everything started to grow!  Who knew – it just wasn’t cold enough here until then!  Silly Arizona, always keeping me on my toes.

Broccoli crown!

Here’s a little tip: When I harvested my first head of broccoli, I was totally dismayed to find small green caterpillars curled up amongst the florets.  I had noticed small holes in some of the leaves, and was worried that the plants might be infested with something harmful.  A little internet sleuthing found that these are simply something called cabbage loopers – and they are just a sign that my produce is wonderfully pesticide-free!

All you need to do is soak your broccoli (or cauliflower) florets in some salt water for 15-20 minutes before doing cooking/eating it – that helps get the little caterpillars to “let go” of the florets so you can rinse them away.

All in all, this fall/winter garden was a decent success.  I haven’t purchased lettuce from the grocery store since probably October, and we are now swimming in broccoli.  I learned that even though the temperatures cool down the ground stays warm for a bit longer, so I just need to be patient.

Oh, and the bird netting that I finally broke down and bought was a great investment.  I was able to stop running out back every five minutes to scare the birds away from my seeds.

It’s the little things.

This morning we got our first delivery of produce from www.naturesgardendelivered.com! A friend shared a link to the website, and I was so excited by what I found – a local company that provides organic fruits and veggies delivered straight to your door.  Immediately I decided to try it out, and by what I see in this first box of produce, I’m pretty impressed.

Over the past year I have dramatically changed the types of foods that I am feeding to my family.  As I have become more educated about the pesticides that are present in traditionally grown fruit and vegetables (if you don’t know already and are interested in learning more, take a look at the Environmental Working Group’s guide to Pesticides in Produce here).  My husband has played along like a good sport, all the while joking about how we went from just organic milk to now buying things like organic cinnamon.  Come on – organic cinnamon was $0.50 more than the regular stuff - I don’t know about you but I waste $0.50 enough other places that it seems worth spending it on something that goes inside the bodies of my children.

However, it isn’t always easy to buy organic – overall it is definitely more expensive, and sometimes it is just so convenient to buy that pack of six, beautiful, multi-colored bell peppers at Costco (Costco – are you listening??? Please can’t you starting selling organic bell peppers?!?!?).   I had heard of CSAs (Community Supported Agriculture – here‘s a definition from Local Harvest) but didn’t know where to start.  Also, if I’m being honest, most of the things I had found here in the Phoenix area required you to be at a certain pick-up place downtown from like 7-8am or something, which just doesn’t fit into my schedule right now). 

Long story short, I’m very excited about this little box of jewels.  Lots of apples, oranges, tangelos (!) and kiwi.  Beautiful round yukon gold potatoes (by the way, potatoes are on that list of the most heavily sprayed items – definitely worth buying organic here), beets, and multi-colored Swiss chard.

Now I’m going to have to put my money where my mouth is and cook for the next week so all of this bounty doesn’t go to waste…. guess I’m off to find a recipe for Kabocha squash that will appeal to a picky 40-something and two finicky preschoolers.  Wish me luck!

Okay, self pity party aside, I do feel like I am sticking to most of my resolutions, even if I am not documenting it all here daily.  And it’s the stick-to-it-iveness that counts, right?  I’m feeding everyone more veggies and I’m still writing down my three top thank-you-fors every night (I am really excited about this one – it’s an easy way to journal the events of the day in a really short, non-time intensive way).  While most of my past few days have been spent lying on the couch with a sad little two year old, I did find one way to make her smile…

who can resist sparkly toes?

]]> http://planthappiness.com/2012/01/19/checking-in-from-sick-ville-ground-zero/feed/ 0 planthappiness who can resist sparkly toes? http://planthappiness.com/2012/01/10/saturday-1-gratitude-thank-you-fors/ http://planthappiness.com/2012/01/10/saturday-1-gratitude-thank-you-fors/#comments Mon, 09 Jan 2012 20:17:22 +0000 planthappiness http://planthappiness.com/?p=256 ]]> From a very early age, we started both our kids out saying their prayers at night.  Neither of us are extremely religious, but religion was a part of our upbringing and we are still figuring out how exactly we want to incorporate it in our kids lives.  The idea of taking time at the end of the day to thank the Lord for our blessings is, to me, a no-brainer.  No question about it – our family has a lot to be thankful for.

Our son (now almost 5) has turned prayers into a running list of all of the amazing things that have happened in his short little life.  No “top 3 things of the day” for him – each good thing / person that happens to him gets tacked onto the end of an increasingly long list.  We always start with “Thank you for a nice day.”  No matter how crazy it was, something in that day was nice, right? Then G start out “Thank you for going to the Yo Gabba Gabba show (that was in 2009), the Elmo show (2010), the three rodeos (used to be two, after this summer had to up the number by one more), Mom and Dad, sister, etc. etc.  Every night it warms my heart to hear how many things he has enjoyed so much that he has added them to his list.

My 2.5 year old has started even earlier, given that she’s had the older brother to listen to.  She is the one who coined the phrase “Thank You Fors.”  When we cuddle up in bed to read books at bedtime she says “Don’t forget – have to say my thank you fors!”  I love it.

One of my 2012 resolutions as a part of this happiness experiment was to start writing down at least three things that I am thankful for at the end of the day.  I am 9 days in and I can already tell you – I LOVE it.  It feels great to end the day on a positive note.  It feels great to spend a quick moment to reflect on the activities of the day (there must be something that happened in between “I want the pink cup! No I want the pink cup!” to be thankful for!)

Gretchen Rubin said in The Happiness Project that “the days are long, but the years are short.”  Isn’t that the truth.  Some days I barely think I will survive the monotony and “Groundhog’s Day”-ness of the stay at home mom life, and I feel so guilty for it.  It is refreshing and sobering to end the day remembering all I have to be grateful for.

It doesn’t matter if the kitchen floor needs to be vacuumed, if there are three loads of laundry waiting to be folded, and if I didn’t have a chance to shower today.

I have a wonderful husband and two healthy kids.

I have a lot of “Thank You Fors.”

Now that H goes to school two mornings a week, I just feel like I no longer really have the excuse that I don’t have any time in which to get household chores done.  Sure, I mean, I could (and have) easily fill those short mornings by heading to the gym, getting my nails done, getting my roots colored, etc. etc. but I’m starting to feel  a little guilty.  I mean, I’m sure Rob could think of better ways to spend his Tuesday mornings than by sitting in meetings at work, but does he get to choose?

Something that we have bandied about a lot around our house is the idea of creating a big household chore list and divvying up and assigning each and every single task.  While attractive (in theory) to try to make sure that I’m not doing 51 dirty hh chores in comparison to his 49 (god forbid!), I can’t help but think that I first should try to better tackle these things on my own.  Secretly, I think I’m kind of afraid that he will power through his half of the list with no issues and put me to shame…

So, I’ve instead decided to do something ELSE that I’ve long thought of doing – create a schedule of what to do and when.  For example, my mom has always been very clear that bed sheets get changed on Friday – that was always how it was as long as I can remember it.  And that kind of rigidity definitely helps when you can’t remember exactly when you last changed the sheets (of course I know when – it was on Friday!! J) I have never been that great at putting that kind of structure to my own household tasks, and as a result it is pretty hard to keep myself honest.

This is a stab at it – going to test it out for a few weeks and see how it works out.  Wish me luck. J

Cleaning Schedule

Monday – Clean kitchen (this makes sense because we do our biggest cooking on the weekends, so the stove is always a wreck by Monday am)

Tuesday – Bathrooms

Wednesday – Vacuum entire house

Thursday – Laundry – wash and fold clothes

Friday – Laundry – wash and change sheets (it’s got to be on Friday! J)

Every Day – vacuum kitchen floor

I loved to run – I get that runner’s high rush of adrenaline which always made the pain seem worth it.  But somewhere along the long way between high school and today, I fell out of the habit.  Little by little over the past six months I have started running again – mostly on the treadmill at the gym.  I’m starting to get my mojo back a bit – feeling stronger and remembering what it was that I loved about it.

I have said for years that I would love to run in a marathon.  Now that I’m older and wiser more realistic, I know that the training (and associated risk of injury / strain on my joints) isn’t what I need right now while I am chasing around after two little kids.  However, I think a half-marathon is within my grasp.

My issues with distance running most things are more mental than physical.   I psych myself out about not being able to do something before I even attempt it.  Not anymore.  Not this year.

So, the first step on the path to a half marathon is a 5K.  I just signed up.  February 12th at 8:00am – a flat course road race near my house which is the perfect re-introduction to my professional running career (insert snorting and laughter here).

Hey, it’s a start. 

First up on my list of things to improve in the Nourishment department – broadening my family’s horizons with regards to eating vegetables.  I love the current campaign around Meatless Mondays - while I don’t particularly care if we do this exactly on Monday, and I don’t see us becoming full time vegetarians, the concept of taking one day a week “off” from eating meat makes so much sense to me – from a health perspective, from a environmental sustainability perspective, and from a wallet perspective.

So, as I often find myself at 4pm, yesterday about that time I was standing in front of our refrigerator trying to decide what to make for dinner.  Then I glanced in the pantry and saw three sad sweet potatoes that had been sitting there for awhile in need of use.  The wheels in my head started to turn, and I headed straight to the two shelves full of cookbooks right in my kitchen Google, where I typed “Sweet Potato Spinach Curry.”  Don’t know why exactly, but I had the sweet potatoes, I just bought spinach at the store, and I LOVE curry.  This is what I found.

This recipe was fast and easy – my two main requirements.  I only made two substitutions – cannellini beans instead of chickpeas (that’s what I had) and lite coconut milk instead of water (my husband loves coconut milk, and I thought there was a slim chance this might improve his vision of a vegetarian dinner – I knew he’d be a skeptic).  Also loved that the recipe is a new way to add green vegetables into my kids’ diets without just hiding them in smoothies (my current strategy).

All in all, reaction to the recipe was mixed.

• I loved it.  In fact, just ate it again for lunch as I’m typing this.
• My husband tolerated it.  He’s not a huge sweet potato fan, so I knew it would be a tough sell.  His direct quote was “This looks great and if you were a person who liked these ingredients (i.e. sweet potato and spinach) I’m sure you’d love it.”  Um, thanks. I think?
• My 4.5 year old son was a tough sell at first, but ended up eating about five big bites.  I consider that a win.
• My 2.5 year old daughter…. Let’s just say that she really enjoyed the accompanying jasmine rice. 

The whole veggie thing is hard with little ones (and with a picky husband too).  I’m not going to give up – I’ll turn them into rabbits yet.

Here it is, my first “sewing” project with my brand-spanking new sewing machine.  My mom bought me a Singer Curvy machine for Christmas, and although I have no idea what I’m doing, I am excited to learn to sew.  I don’t think I will ever be making complicated smocked dresses for H any time soon, but my Pinterest boards are filled with little sewing projects that I would love to learn to make on my own.

So when I stumbled across this beautiful website filled with inexpensive, extremely easy to follow sewing patterns, I knew I had my first project.

The “sewing” in this project simply required a dozen or so inch-long straight stitches, so it was perfect for my experience level.  The rest was a scissor and glue gun exercise, at which I am a pro.   An hour or so later, and I have my first, tangible creation of 2012!

I’m fairly certain that making progress in any one of the following tasks would plant some happiness in my life:

Monday: Create and Explore

• Make something every day.  Something tangible.  Take a picture of it.
• Capture and document family memories. I.e. finish the freaking first year scrapbooks.  I mean, come on, they are 2 and 4 already.
• Create a travel bucket list and then make plans for us to cross something off the list this year.

Tuesday: Nourishment

• Learn how to cook for real.  As in, figure out how make three meals that my family (all 3 of them!) will eat without complaint, which take under 30 minutes to make, are not overly complicated, and use ingredients that are fairly readily on hand. Sadly, no small feat.
• Go vegan one day a week.
• Keep working on the garden.

Wednesday: Health

• Run in a timed race.  Preferably 10K or longer.
• Address my anxiety issues.  This could probably be a whole separate blog, but I think (*know*) this is a big key to my own personal happiness and therefore needs to be tackled eventually.
• Floss every night.
• Drink more water and less Diet Coke.

Thursday: Home

• Get rid of the stuff we don’t need.
• Organize whatever is left.
• Change the sheets every Thursday.
• Stop procrastinating about household tasks.  This one alone would vastly improve my husband’s happiness, I know for sure.

Friday: Family & Friends

• Remember that actions speak louder than words.  Show my family how much I love them. Don’t just assume that they know.  (Gretchen Rubin talks a lot about this in her book, The Happiness Project and  it really hit close to home.)
• Make more time to do non-kid related things with friends.

Saturday: Gratitude

• Write down my “thank you fors” every night.  Finally videotape the kids saying theirs.
• Find a way to say thank you to someone every day, for something specific.
• Practice random acts of kindness.
• Get the kids involved by finding a way to volunteer as a family once a month.

Sunday: Spirituality

• Go to church more often.  It really does made me feel good when I am there.
• Start a meditation practice.