When I say "good," I don't just mean yummy. Yummy is very important, but "good" to me means yummy, healthy, and good for the environment. I love this video from Chipotle. It's a great introduction to start thinking about where our food comes from and what is put into it before we put it in our mouths.
I like change. I always have. After about three years of doing the same thing, I start feeling it. Then during the fourth year I start preparing or panicing or looking for ways to change it. Last year was my fourth year at my school-it was an awesome year, but by the end, I was glad the year was done and was planning out opportunities in my head. Up until Saturday, I was thinking that my big four year change wasn't going to happen this time. I would have to make some kind of change happen at home or in my routine. I was settling into that.
Little did I know that on Saturday I would be getting a call from my principal. I saw that he called and thought: #1 I have to give up my classroom or #2 something really important has come up. Turns out, both were right. I was offered a new position that is going to be an awesome challenge. A Big, big change!!! I had been curious, ooking for new possibilities, but it's very strange how this all came together. This new gig, is going to be a good fit to what I want to do. I do know it is going to be very hard work and it is going to test me in new ways. I am so thankful for the opportunity and excited to see how this adventure unfolds. And after a day and a half on the new job, I still have A LOT to learn and A LOT to do!!
I suppose though, once you "get it," the challenge is really over. I know these "Big changes" won't happen all the time- if they do, I'll be exhasted! So as long as we are still striving to learn more and be more, the changes can be little but the ideas can go far. As for now, this "big change" is going to keep this wondering mind quite busy:)
Big yummy sigh.....ahhhhh. That is how today has felt. It was my first real day off. No out of town trips or celebrations, just me at home with a little agenda- yoga and a haircut. Thursday was the last day of summer school and Sunday was my last day as a land guide. What a summer- In a little more than a week I will be back in my classroom getting ready for the year waiting for the next big exhale. For now though, I'm sneeking in a little down time and a little catch up time as well.
It's funny on "the last days," not much can bring you down. I easily go with the flow and everything just seems to be brighter. Whether it be the last day at a job, the last day of school, or the last day of vacation.....it's then we finally soak it all in. We accept the bad and we take the good, taking it all for what it is. Thursday, the kids seemed sweeter and on Sunday the customers seemed thankful....but they were like that the whole time. I was just wrapped in who knows what, to appreciate it.
I guess that's why they say to "live every day like it's your last." Get that hug and kiss in, smell the roses, and just linger. What I've learned from this.....If it's the first day or the last day, or a day in between, take a second to appreciate what it is.
When life gives you lemons, you make lemonade. This summer our garden has given us tomatoes- lots and lots of tomatoes. Daily, the hubster was bringing in four to five tomatoes from our crop. We could not eat them as fast as they were coming. Something had to be done.
Lucky for me, we have awesome neighbors that had brought us two types of toppings for our brown rice pasta that she had just canned. I had watched a couple canning videos on youtube but she answered a few questions that were still lingering. I bought my jars and was ready. This was my first time canning and I did not use any of the special canning tools. Really, I am crossing my fingers that they came out okay. I will be making a purchase for them the next time. I can see why they would be worth it.
Salsa was the answer for our tomatoes. We had jalepeno and bell peppers growing that I utilized as well. My cilantro took a turn about a week ago from the intense heat, so I bought from the store.
From peeling the tomatoes, to chopping onions and peppers(I love my food processor), to simmering, to all the mess with the jars....I did it.
This was a long process. If they turn out right, I think it's worth all the trouble. My food sayings for the last year have been, eat/buy local, eat with the seasons, and eat real food. Canning would be the perfect addition. I am envisioning my entire backyard becoming one giant garden that I will can throughout the year. I am feeling inspired. If I can't get the whole yard, I am going to at least double what I have now. As you can see from the pictures, the garden is overflowing.
Juice! Wonderful juice! Juicing has become a part of our morning ritual. I'm even looking up juice bars close to our hotel this weekend. I'm addicted to juice! It all started because of my new clean life I'm after now that I'm 30. I was reading "Crazy, Sexy, Diet," & feel in love with Kris Carr. She is inspiring and has made me want to make some serious adjustments to my health- this is the only body I have and I want to fill it with beneficial, nutritious stuff so it works as it was intended. So, for one big change, I bought myself a juicer, some serious veggies and fruit and have been juicing away. Yum yum yummy!!!
Luckily for me, my husband is always supportive of my new adventures and jumps on board drinking it up every morning. I'm trying out different combinations and have even made some muffins out of the pulp. The muffins need some serious tweaking, but we'll get there. For now, the pulp is making my compost happy. As of today, four weeks in, my top five juicing ingredients are: 1. Blueberries, 2. Cucumbers, 3. Chard, 4. Apples, 5. Celery. Imagine getting all that good stuff in for breakfast!!
Juice rocks and has made my mornings even brighter! After watching a documentay, "Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead," where two men go juice fasts that changed their health and lives forever, it made this jucing thing seem so smart and I didn't feel so crazy anymore. I proudly juice. In the film, the main guy tries to convince people to try a 10 day juice fast- he says you have to go at least seven days to feel all the benefits. This may be my next step. The hubster will probably put up a fight on this, but we'll see if my sales talk will work. All I need is seven days off in a row so I can make juice all day long......seven days in a row........
I have a problem. Not only do I want to do everything, I try to do everything. These days I'm working 7 days a week, trying my new thirty look on life, and still trying to have a clean house and wear clean clothes!
Now, this was my own doing and I do like what I'm doing, so I'm not complaining. I like the summer school, except for about an hour of it each day. I like being outside for my land guide gig and I like this new time consuming health kick I'm on. I just want to be cautious, as I have now signed up for something else to do that requires me to look very smart.
Luckily, I am a strong believer in taking care of yourself - because of that, I am including lots of yoga in my schedule and I am now trying to meditate everyday. Once is with my yoga practice and the other is in the evening, usually before bed. I need a clear head with all this stuff going on- if not, it would all be jumbled together and I would never get anything done. Now, I'm not up to thirty minutes or anything, but little by little, I am adding some time. I'm not meaning to cheat, but it takes time getting used to sitting in silence. I have read some great techniques that help me concentrate and forget about the time. One has to do with all the people that are close to me now, in the past, or are just in our lives for reasons unknown to us now. I want to do all these things, I am trying to be a better person, I want to experience new things- When all thatcomes in my head, to the meditation station we go....
Well after spending a week in my thirties, I must say, thirty is great! I probably had one of the best birthdays ever thanks to my hub knowing me so well. Nice quiet celebration with the family at mis padres; camping for the weekend with my sisters, a couple friends, and our dogs; & a delicious dinner out, just the two of us to ring it in! Not to mention his gifts were amazing and showed how much he pays attention to me:) They are so good, each one deserves a blog entry of its own. The celebrations were a wonderful way to start off this new year in the direction to help me be all the things I want to be.
Speaking of.....before entering into the thirty world I started reading a few blogs and books about one of my very favorite subjects.....FOOD... and the super powers it has against diseases, and the out of the ordinary but extraordinary way of getting all those vitamins and minerals! So I am celebrating thirty by celebrating my body! So look forward to dozens more entries on how I am trying to be the healthiest I can be. After all, the thirties are are going to be huge for this little husband, wife, and puppy dog family. I want to enjoy life with every inch of me so I can celebrate many more birthdays that have a zero in it, maybe even two:)
Today is the last day I can say I'm in my twenties. Ten years have gone by in a flash and luckily they were full of many once in a lifetime experiences that I will cherish forever. I graduated college, got my first job, ran a marathon, met and married my husband, watched friends and family get hitched, adopted my first puppy dog, completed graduate school, became an aunt, started hobbies that I love, became a vegetarian and made many new friends.
How busy has this ten years been? I would love to sit and have a conversation with that 20 year old me. If she could see where we are now, she would be proud that she could still recognize herself even with that ten years of new found wisdom. Those roots that were being grounded have began to grow and I am trying to be a person that I would have wanted to be at 20 or even 10.
I can't wait to see what the next ten years will have in store for me. Tonight I will go to sleep 29 and tomorrow I'll wake up 30!
This non schedule life is driving me crazy!! I'm a teacher- I'm used to knowing what is going on from 8:00 to 8:15 and every other minute of the day. In my "normal" life I even know what time I'm going to use the bathroom! I have designated days devoted to cleaning, laundry, and going to the grocery. The summer job thing is all crazy and it's making me feel crazy! I know it's all summer vacation time, but is it really that difficult to give me specific dates and times and locations of where I'm supposed to be?
I was all worried about not having enough to do and now I am jam packed. It took forever to get real information from people which made me feel like I was type A, OCD, loone (kinda like my husband, haha). Once they gave me dates & actual details, everything was overlapping and making me stressssed!! But I've got it figured out now and I will be busy until the day school gets back in. Seriously! There goes my "helpful down time." My calendar is getting filled up and my schedule is back to the way I like it, good crazy busy. Yay for due dates and lunch hours!!
With summer vacation apon us, although I am working, I do have some down time on random days- Such as today, Thursday. With my jam packed schedule of laundry, a little yoga, and a possible trip to the dmv, I have plenty of time to help someone out. That lucky person today is my hubs. For him today, I will ease his weekend masterpiece that he works on so perfectly........ I have cut the grass. And as you can see by the picture, I didn't do too bad either- there are pretty lines and everything! Hopefully he will spend the time I've saved him on something he enjoys doing and not doing work!!
So on this down time this summer (which probably isn't going to last much longer when all this part time stuff kicks in) instead of watching television or wandering around stores, I will try to find a way to help someone out. Yesterday was the pup, today the hubs, tomorrow....we'll see!
Most people would think that when June comes around, all teachers think, "Yay! No summer work!" For me though, if I didn't work, I would drive myself and everyone I know crazy following them around trying to entertain myself.
In my beginning years I waited tables and tutored then I moved on to summer school and nannying and then last year I worked in an office. Office life was hard for me and by the end of the summer I had enough cubicle life to last me a life time. So this year I decided to find something fun to do. Last weekend I had training for a fun outside job with zip lines and canopy tours- I've found a job to hang in nature with people who love it like I do. Awesome!!
I love morning! It's quiet and peaceful and there are so many possibilities for the day. I have had the perfect mornings this weekend. First of all, it was beautiful out and so that puts me in a good mood automatically. Yesterday morning, all before 10:30, I took the pup for walk , went to yoga, and picked up my gocery box from the local farms. Great, great, and great! Today was a run, a walk with the pup again, and a yummy breakfast! And now I even have time to relax a bit before the rest of the day begins.
I need to start finding this appreciation of the beauty if morning even on work days. Starting my day off this way not only gets me prepared for the day, but those few hours brings a calming to my day which will hopefully follow through the next 12 hours as well.
I'm pretty sure this title won't end up on anybody's google search.
I am a school teacher- I live & love the alphabet- write it, read it, sing it. But that letter "s." Oh how it gives me trouble when I'm on crafts. (my sister says crafts are like my drug- which I will be making a shirt that says exactly that- I'm on crafts, haha!)
Lately, thanks to some friends of friends and co-workers, Hermanas has been busy with orders. Yay! Lots of sewn letters I've been a-making and they keep getting better. Until..."s" shows up. I spend triple time trying to figure it out. I am going for a whimsical look, but it just does not work out. So after the first yuck, I tried another approach. Just me, the fabric and the machine. A few turns here and there and we got it. The 2nd picture shows what I ended up with, much better than the first. So I guess I found somewhat of a solution until I get an order for a Jessica or Melissa. With that new approach I have embraced the "s."
My man deserves props. He works hard (sometimes too hard), plays hard (sometimes too hard, haha) and most of all gives me support like no one else. He will see something I've made and take time to tell me how much he likes it or he'll tell me that he is proud of me. He supports all 25 of my new hobbies and even encourages them too. He goes with my new vegetable of the week, and gives me my six second hug and lets the hug last longer too.
There is nothing like a compliment. It can turn your day around, and lucky for me, he loves to give them out! So cheers to my awesome hubby who makes me feel awesome too! I can feel the love in the small moments we share and I hope this makes him feel some of that today!
Re-new. Make new. Take something, or yourself, through a transformation where what you end with still has the structure of the original, but looks unrecognizable. Here is my try at renewing some worn out furniture. As we worked in the backyard this weekend we took a long look at these chairs. What do we do with them? They were looking like trash but we didn't want them to be trash. Something had to be done.
So, wa-la! After sanding, staining, tightening, and polying, oh and sewing new pillows....here the chairs are renewed and refreshed. They are now ready for cook outs and hang outs all summer long!
Holy moly! Check out these vegetables! Looks like I know what we're having for dinner this week! A local business is now the local pick up for local farm goods. You put our order in on Thursday and it's there waiting for you Saturday morning. There is not a year long commitment and you can buy just week to week- it is awesome! This lettuce is bigger than my head and puts the lettuce we grew in the backyard to shame!! I am in love with this beautiful produce and so excited about how easy they have made it for us. Everyone wins! Yay farms, yay vegetables! I'm not sure I've ever been this excited about salads!
Check out the garden and the new scarecrow I added. Haha, We'll see if it scares the birds away from my basil. Now we wait for the veggies to arrive. With all the rain we've had, the plants are happy, now all they need is some sun.
