1.31.2013

Books I Read in January

The Luxe (Luxe, #1)

The Luxe by Anna Godbersen

I DEVOURED this book! Such a fun read. It's like Titanic meets Downton Abbey with a little Sense and Sensibility thrown in for good measure. 

The Perks of Being a Wallflower

The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

I wanted to see what all the fuss was about and I think I need to be done with coming of age novels for awhile, as they're all kind of maudlin. This one is no exception. It was well written (I do have a soft spot in my heart for epistolary novels) and it's evocative of many of the feelings I had as a teenager. I just thought the relationships rang a little false and that it's doubtful all these different social circles overlapped/that a bunch of seniors would befriend a dorky freshman. But, what do I know, being 20 years out of high school ...

In the Woods (Dublin Murder Squad, #1)

In the Woods by Tana French

I don't often read crime novels, but this one was really cool with an air of mystery and true to life/complex characters. There were some interesting parallels to Gone Girl; so if the characters in that book frustrated you (if you wanted to reach through the book and slap both of them) this book was like an antidote featuring main characters I empathized with and wanted to reach through the book and hug. So, from what I gather, I now need to read The Likeness because it's even better...

1.30.2013

Wordy Wednesday (aka Kindergartner Wrangling)

I thought it would be entertaining/distracting for me to make a note of every time I had an argument with my five year old today.  Kind of like when he was a screechy 14 month old and would walk around the house crying for no reason (didn't want food, to be picked up, etc. - probably teething) and all I could think to do was videotape it so that I could laugh about it one day.  Yes this makes me laugh now:


Hopefully this little rundown of the crap parts of our day will make me chuckle in the future...

7:20am: won't get dressed, withhold breakfast until he's dressed
7:58am: yelling at sister for repeating after him, yellin' at me when I try to mitigate situation
8:02am: won't brush teeth/go bathroom/wash hands, 'guess we'll miss the bus!' <- daily ritual, but it still seems to work...
8:20am: fight with sister over wanting his stuffed animal parrot
OFF TO SCHOOL
11:23am: picking up from bus stop (early release day) - 'I'm thirsty, why didn't you bring my water bottle? WHY? FOR THE LOVE OF GOD WHY??' (okay, I added that last part)
12:00pm: at Rite Aid, getting some last minute decorations for his Valentines Day box and makes a big to-do about wanting to buy a toy (um, no)
12:20pm: not sharing Valentine's stickers with sister, epic screaming on both sides
12:40pm: parroting all of my discipline to his sister, have argument over who's the boss of baby girl (because, she's not just sitting around being a perfect angel all day - close, but not quite)
1:15pm: aaaaand so begins the daily refusal to start doing homework - our most stressful time of day.  I give him five extra minutes to play and set the kitchen timer.
1:20pm: time for homework! 'Nuh uh. I don't want to.' Sits down after I write a note to his teacher about how long it's taking him to do his homework. <-almost daily ritual
1:25-1:50pm: have several spats over pictures (I can't draw a violin!) correcting his work (I can't make that 'e' any smaller!) etc.  I raise my voice for the first time today and am about to lose it.
PLAYS IN SUPER CUTE FASHION WITH BABY SISTER FOR ABOUT A HALF AN HOUR, FORGET ABOUT LOSING IT    
2:15PM: tell him it's time for baby girl's nap, both argue, want to play longer - set timer for five minutes

Coffee Break 2:20-4:00pm sit down with Mozart for relaxation, coffee, book and computer to fortify myself for post 'quiet time' toy fights, dinner chaos (eat over your plate!) and bedtime (no, there are no more Shaun the Sheeps).

Twelve or so altercations within about seven hours isn't too bad; less than two fights an hour.  At least there's no more stern reminders to wash hands before meals, hang up coats, put away shoes, please and thank yous - lots of good in there, too!  I just needed laugh for the future.


Good thing we had a great conference with his teacher and he's a pretty smart kid.  He's so proud of his school.

1.28.2013

Marathon Training - Week 5 and Psyching Myself Out

First things first, week 5 workouts:

  • Monday - planned: 3 miles, tempo-ish (completed! kept about a 9:15 pace, which is a decent tempo for my goal of a 10 min race pace)
  • Tuesday - planned: rest  (completed! I WIN at resting!)
  • Wednesday - planned: 3 miles, 800s (NOT feelin' 800s, did 3.75 miles with 1 minute at 8:30-45 every 4 minutes of 9:30 min miles.  And it looks like I was supposed to do 5 miles - whoops!)
  • Thursday - planned: bootcamp (completed! was a great class)
  • Friday - planned: rest/maybe some elliptical (no elliptical, since I was busy visiting a preschool with baby girl)
  • Saturday - planned: 10 miles (completed! begrudgingly! in the POURING, COLD, RAIN. I allowed myself a couple of walk breaks and slowed it down, averaging 11 minute miles)
  • Sunday - planned: yoga and extra stretching (I did do my daily stretching with some extra yoga moves, and arm/core work)


  • I must say, I'm so glad that my buddy who works at the Brooks outlet clued me into their line of Gore Tex shoes - they have saved my feet, for sure, on all these rainy and puddle filled runs.

    Adrenaline ASR GTX
    Some folks aren't into the black shoe, but I could care less what they look like, my feet are HAPPY
    source


    Since making the decision to train for a marathon, I've noticed that I'm in my head a lot more when running.  To be more precise, I'm totally psyching myself out lately.  I used to really enjoy the easy solitude of the long run, but now I can't get through one without drowning in doubt at least half the time I'm out there.  I'm mostly freaking out about injury.  Every little twinge or tic in my legs is major cause for alarm - specifically, my left hamstring/IT band that's been a source of consternation since September.  Yes, I foam roll, do PT exercises and stretch religiously every night.  Really, the only time it actively bothers me is when I've neared the end of a long run, I've been sitting for too long or when I first get up in the morning.  Basically, when my tired old lady muscles would hurt anyway.  Even before starting on this running journey, I'd still shuffle out of bed in the mornings, waiting for my creaking body to wake up.  So, every morning I wake with feelings of doubt and worry.  Gah.  And it doesn't help that most of us run first thing in the morning for the longer miles.  My task for this week is to not listen to any of my inner dialogue before 9 AM.  I'm so thankful that I have the most spectacular husband who's planning outings for the kids every Saturday so that I can run, and also still sleep in!  On Saturday, despite having to brave the craptastic weather for my first double digit run since November, at least I was well rested and didn't even head out the door until 9:30.  Ahhh.  Unfortunately, he has a lot of work to do this weekend - luckily the plan has a step back week...

    Week 6 Plan:
    • Monday - 3 miles
    • Tuesday - Rest
    • Wednesday - 5 miles
    • Thursday - Bootcamp/maybe an extra mile or two to equal 3 for the day
    • Friday - 7 miles
    • Saturday - Rest/maybe elliptical
    • Sunday - Rest or yoga

     

    1.27.2013

    This Weeks Eats 1/27/13

    OK, you guys?  You HAVE to make the seven flavor beef from Wild Ginger.  We could not get enough of it and were contemplating eating it again this week, and that's something we never do - outside of pizza, of course.  I couldn't find fresh bean sprouts, so I used a ton of baby bok choy, one of my favorite vegetables: so, so, so good.  We'll refrain this week and probably make it next week...  As for the other recipes from last week, I must say that I did enjoy the crockpot cream cheese chicken chili (quite the alliteration).  We added red and green peppers, onion and garlic, because I can't imagine chili without those ingredients.  I think I'll add only 1/2 the cream cheese called for to make it a little less thick next time.  Also, I love, love, loved the Pioneer Woman's spinach and artichoke pasta.  I used Beecher's flagship cheese (a must try if you are ever in Seattle) instead of jack/mozzarella and a can of diced tomatoes (drained) and it was almost too pretty to eat; I even took a picture!



    The only caveat, my husband didn't like it!  "I'm just not a huge fan of cheese sauces."  To me, this is like saying, "I don't like chocolate."  Whaaa??  Ah well, I'll make it on the sly as often as I can.  We each have our dishes that the other one doesn't like.  He's loves chicken paprikash and jumbalaya which makes me go, "meh."  In my opinion, if you're going to pair chicken with tomatoes, there has to be cheese involved, like chicken parmesan, artichoke chicken or enchiladas.  Can you tell I love cheese?


    1.25.2013

    Friday Things

    Ahhh, I think I'm in a much better place than I was last Friday.  Kids have been on a more even keel and no one (including myself) is sick.  Hooray!  But, to touch on last week's Facebook commentary.  This post from Mashable about Facebook fossils is a fun look down memory lane and reminded me of how long I've been on there - since 2008.  Does anyone else remember putting 'pins' on your 'bulletin board'??

    Today was a pretty busy day, checking out preschools for baby girl.  Eegads.  So I'm just gonna share my song selection for the week and wish y'all a happy Friday!

    Ahhh, goin' all cheesy pop boy band today with 'Give Me Your Hand' by The Ready Set.  But I've gotta admit, I do love this song...


    2013 Playlist
    Language by Porter Robinson
    Cry for You by September
    You Are My Diamond by Tiesto - featuring Kianna
    Arguru - Deadmau5
    We Are by Jus Jack & Oza, featuring Aeone



    1.24.2013

    Bootcamp, Lately

    It's been awhile since I dished on the latest in bootcamp class.  I thought today was a good example of a butt kicking workout and why I think it's a fine substitution for a 3 mile run in my marathon plan and some cross training.

    We stared class with a mile run (well, I did - got there about five minutes early and did about 10 easy minutes total).

    First cardio: run 4 lengths of the gym doing the following 5 exercises (so 20 lengths of the gym total):

    • skipping
    • skip backwards (this is really rather tricky)
    • side shuffle
    • high knee power skip
    • 'Frankenstein' skip: with arms out in front of you like Frankenstein and alternate trying to touch your left and right foot to your hands - while skipping (this was really funny for all the runners in the group, as our hamstrings hardly allowed our feet to reach our outstretched hands)
    frankenstein-skip-a-ex.jpg
    Yeeah, my feet weren't nearly that high! (source)


    Second cardio: do them all again but *only* two lengths of the gym for a total of 10 laps.

    Third cardio: to achieve 100 squats and 50 push ups we did the following sequence 5 times through:
    • 20 squats
    • 10 seconds of 'fast-feet' running in place
    • 10 mountain climbers
    • 10 push ups
    • sprint the length of the gym and back (with a few extra laps at jogging speed at the end to cool down)
    I was sweating buckets and I'm pretty sure I got my heart and legs pumping just as much or more than I would have doing 3 miles.  Just to be a nerd, I calculated how far we went doing the length of the gym: a basketball court is 40m and we ran it 40 times (20 first cardio, 10 second cardio, and 10 times in the third cardio) 40x40=1600!  Love that it's EXACTLY a mile.  And that's not even the end of class - just the first 30 minutes!  The second half of class usually includes 8 stations of two minutes each, which I count towards my cross training for the week.  I can barely remember the stations while I'm in class (wait, what are we doing with these resistance bands??) but here's a few examples of the 8 stations:
    • squatting on a Bosu, with your partner standing in front of you, hold them back with resistance bands while they jog in place - switch after 1 minute
    • run up and down one flight of stairs for 2 minutes
    • with hands on a raised step platform, jump from side to side for 12 reps and then do 12 triceps dips on the bench, repeat for 2 minutes
    1. 20 straddles + 20 alternating stepping lunges
    Like this (source)
     

    • Do 12 walking lunges carrying two weighted bars (about 8 lbs each) and jog with high knees back to your starting point, holding the bars over your head, repeat for 2 minutes
    • V sits on a Bosu while doing a leg press with your partner (can I just tell you how many great people I've met because of all the partner work in bootcamp?  I digress...)
    Partner V-Sit
    (source)

    • with hands on weighted balls, resting on towels, run forwards and back to starting point (much harder than it looks!)
    (sorry for the blurry pic - I'm just so fast!)
     

    Oh, and between each 2 minute circuit, we did 12 reps of different plank exercises: twists, shoulder touches, tapping feet side to side, etc.

    There you have it - this is what's up in bootcamp lately.  I think the best thing about the class is that I do so many things I wouldn't normally do on my own and I'm always learning a new strength move here and there to add to my normal post run abs or arm routine.    But the first part of the class could be done pretty easily while out on a run, if you don't mind looking a little hard core while outside running to drop and do mountain climbers, pushups, etc...

    1.21.2013

    Marathon Training and a Yoga Outing

    Yes, I'm writing my first training recap/preview post starting with week two (er, four?) since I was a wee bit ill last weekend and didn't feel like writing, or eating for that matter!  So, to explain the confusion over what week of training I'm on...

    I think it was pretty clear from my research that the Run Less, Run Faster plans really spoke to me, being centered around the idea of the three quality runs a week.  I decided on doing a Run Less, Run Faster (henceforth to be named RLRF) plan that I found on the internet.  Since it's a 16 week program, I thought I'd prepare myself by following the first two weeks of the 18 week Higdon Novice 1 program with the first two long runs being 6 and then 7 miles, respectively.  This dovetailed nicely with my slow and steady December and the runs felt great.  So when it was time to start the RLRF plan, I realized the first week started with a 10 mile long run.  Hmmmm...  That's kind of a jump up from 7 miles, and the midweek runs are a bit longer, too.  In chatting with a fellow Eugene trainee on Twitter about our weekend long runs, she mentioned she was only doing five.  I had to ask, wait, what plan is this??  Wouldn't ya know, it was the Higdon program that I had been following, and the next week was a step back week; I just hadn't really looked past those first two weeks.  I would veer uncomfortably out of the 10% weekly increase territory if I switched over to RLRF.  And, as I looked further on the RLRF long run schedule, it seems to accelerate pretty quickly and included two 20 milers.  I'm thinking that's not necessary for a first marathon; one 20 miler is just fine by me.  Technically, I'm not trying to 'run faster' - just FINISH.  It's pretty obvious where this is going, right?  Hal Higdon it is!  Exactly, but with a catch: I decided to get the RLRF book from the library and the novice program in there is nothing like the one I found from the Runner's World article linked above.  In fact, the long runs pretty much mirror the Higdon program, including just one 20 miler.   

    So, my hybrid approach:

    • follow the Higdon mileage three days a week while trying to incorporate some of the speedwork and paces suggested in RLRF novice program
    • instead of a fourth run, substitute the shortest run day (usually a 3 miler) with 1 hour of bootcamp as cross training to avoid burnout and combine the 30 or so minutes of cardio I would have done running, along with 30 minutes of strength
    • do some yoga on Sundays

    This last bit should be a bit easier now that I've been introduced to Jasyoga.  I had a wonderful opportunity to get in a session with the owner Erin Taylor at Oiselle HQ over the weekend and it was awesome.  When I think of yoga, I shudder at the idea of trying to hold my shaking, protesting body in some crazy position while attempting to zen out.  Ha!  I'm looking at YOU warrior three...  Not fun.  But Jasyoga specializes in yoga for athletes, and any muscles shaking I experienced felt good.  I learned all kinds of cool stretches and poses that made my legs and hips feel so refreshed, not taxed.  I've already started incorporating some moves into my nightly stretching routine: legs up the wall (which you can check out here) is the popular favorite.

    Embedded image permalink
    I mean, just LOOK at how happy my legs were afterwards!  Well, that can also be attributed to the coziest pants in the whole world.
    I'm going to declare this week five of marathon training, as the first four of Higdon have gone well, with the exception of last week because I was sick; I did manage one 3 mile run and 7 out of the 9 miles called for on the long run.  Here's how I'm breaking down this week:

    • Monday - 3 miles (tempo-ish)
    • Tuesday - Rest (starting baby girl back in Toddler Group, so Tuesday is the new rest day)
    • Wednesday - 3 miles (4x800)
    • Thursday - bootcamp (in lieu of another 3 mile run)
    • Friday - rest/maybe some elliptical
    • Saturday - 10 miles
    • Sunday - yoga and extra stretching
    Hopefully I'll have a good report next Monday...






    1.20.2013

    This Week's Eats 1/20/13

    I think I have pulled muscle in my hand from all the cleaning we've done this weekend.  We seem to do our 'spring cleaning' in the week or two after Christmas.  Something about taking the tree and decorations down, I suppose.  Oh, and also, when the kids do something like this to your file cabinet when you leave them alone for five minutes...



    Movin' on, here are our recipes this week with at least one pushed back from last week due to my illness.  I also had to miss a girls night out, but luckily have another one on tap for this week - yay!


    Check out the menu love over at Mommy Run Fast and Jill Conyers; as always, click on the links for more weekly eats!



    1.18.2013

    Friday Things, and How to Hide Friends From Your Facebook Feed

    Man, this week... this day...  I think I'm in a bit of a funk at the moment, because looking back on last Friday, I wasn't in the best mood either.  This week, the main culprit was sickness.  I woke feeling horrible Sunday morning and didn't eat anything all day.  I was running a fever of about 101 through Tuesday and maybe had some waffles and saltines the first two days of the week.  Since I was feeling better by Wednesday, I tried a short run yesterday and even an 11 minute mile felt like an uphill climb.  Blaming it on the soul-sucking treadmill, I decided to get as many miles of the 9 my plan called for done today.  I managed just over 7 in almost an hour and twenty minutes (suuuuuck) and I felt like my muscles were falling apart.  I know that my body is probably still healing from whatever bug I had, so I suppose this is a lesson to be learned: even if you're feeling better, don't have high expectations.

    Also this week, holy crap, can we all get a break from polarizing news subjects??  It was bad enough when I hid a chunk of friends and family members from my Facebook feed during the election, then Newtown happened and there went another, albeit small, handful of people that just made me want to punch walls on a daily basis.  Now, Lance?!?  There are seriously people who think he's still some sort of role model??  I suppose if you're a sociopath, he's definitely someone to look up to.  (side note, this is a great read, from a great perspective)  The last couple of months have really been testing my resolve to let sh*t go.  Sometimes I'd like to give up Facebook altogether; but, it's the only place where I can see pictures of my nieces/nephews, my best friends back home and their babies, stay in touch with so many nice and normal people...  So here's a tip on hiding, but not un-friending people on Facebook.  Hopefully it's not something you'll find yourself needing to do frequently:

    1) hover over the picture of that person in your newsfeed, it should magnify the pic and show two options - friends/message
    2) hover over the box with the checkmark next to the word friends - but don't click on it
    3) a dropdown menu should appear where you can click on 'show in news feed' to un-check them, and Bob's your uncle

    OK, on to my song o'the week.  While I'm ranting today (sorry! I'll be back to normal soon!) I must admit I'm a bit disappointed with Mr. Timberlake's new song.  I was excitedly anticipating it's release, as I think he's awesome - and still do.  But, to me, this 'Suit and Tie' bizness sounds like the Bee Gees, and not in a good way.  Bummer.  Well, here's a song I'm loving lately:

    Language by Porter Robinson


    Happy Friday!

    2013 Playlist
    Cry for You by September
    You Are My Diamond by Tiesto - featuring Kianna
    Arguru - Deadmau5
    We Are by Jus Jack & Oza, featuring Aeone

    1.16.2013

    One Word Wednesday - Siiiiiiick

    
    

    1.14.2013

    This Weeks Eats

    Hopefully I'll get around to eating all the things on our menu this week as I was stricken down with some awful bug yesterday and only managed to eat a sleeve of saltines with ginger ale.  GAH!  I managed an oatmeal cookie and coffee this morning...  So yeah, short and sweet this week:


    • Monday - Pizza
    • Tuesday - girls night out!
    • Wednesday - fajitas with Frontera Grill sauce and fixins
    • Thursday - spinach and artichoke pasta (trying a new one from Pioneer Woman)
    • Friday - Thai ground beef with stir fry veggies and brown rice
    • Saturday - chicken Parmesan
    • Sunday - white chicken chili (another Pioneer Woman recipe! I use chicken breasts and just cook them in the soup and shred before serving)

    1.11.2013

    Friday Things

    Ahhhh, I'm having a hard time writing/thinking straight today.  It's been one of 'those' days with the kids...  If you were anywhere within a two mile radius of the Woodinville Top Foods around 1pm, I'm sorry about all the yelling you heard.  Defiant five year olds, man - they can reduce you to tears.  Well, after the yelling part.  Have you seen this Louis CK bit before?  I'm was that 'poor woman' today:



    Moving on, I am now in love with Jax Teller and have been sucked into Sons of Anarchy. 

    4
    mmm hmmm. from FX
    

    Netflix shows are always a fun topic on Facebook and Twitter, and this one has come up a lot lately.  What are my Netflix recs, you ask?  Well, I'll tell you!  Battlestar Galactica (the reboot) is one of the best tv shows of all time, as is Breaking Bad and The League.  I also watch Portlandia every now and again and this is a perfect example of what happens when you watch Battlestar:


    I heard an oldie but goodie on Pandora today, Cry for You by September.  Gotta love the lyric, "Forever and ever, life is now or never - forever never comes around.."


    Happy Friday! 

    2013 Playlist
    You Are My Diamond by Tiesto - featuring Kianna
    Arguru - Deadmau5
    We Are by Jus Jack & Oza, featuring Aeone

    1.10.2013

    2013 To Do List

    Since I'm a type-A list maker, every January I think about what I'd like to get accomplished by the end of the year.  So, rather than making resolutions, writing a to-do list is something I can really get behind.  I've also added this list as a tab on the blog header with the intention of crossing items off as they get done.  And, like any to-do list, if some of them aren't completed it's no biggie.  I'll switch up goals as necessary or maybe I'll add them to next year's list.

    I rather enjoyed this one from the Thought Catalog on 29 Ways to Make 2013 better.  Especially #26:

    26. Don’t judge your success or your failure over the course of the year by your waistline.
    

    Yep, none of that here.  Without further ado:

    1. Get caught up on pictures taken at the end of the year and upload them to share with family (I always get behind on this and have lots of requests for pictures.  It's hard living so far away from family and it's one way we stay connected.)

    2. Take one picture a day for an monthly online album and then a hard copy book at the end of the year (I love the photo a day concept and will do my best on this one with Instagram.)

    3. Frame and hang more pictures of the kids (Last picture goal - we have so many of our kids and hardly any hanging in our home!  There's a photo collage frame we've had since we moved into our house, about two years before our first was born, and we've never switched out the pictures.  I think I should probably rectify this...)

    4. Read 50 books (Goodreads has a handy tool to track my books and this might be a lofty goal, since I 'only' read 37 in 2012.  But I do love a challenge, especially one involving books.)

    5. Run a marathon - the Eugene Marathon (No surprise here; I'll probably do a weekly training update for those following along.)

    6. Do a trail run (maybe lure Chanthana out to WA for one this summer..)

    7. Run 1000 miles total for the year (I started using Dailymile in mid March and since then I've run 677 miles.  I'm pretty confident that I ran about 825 total for 2012 and the extra 175 I need this year to reach my goal will mostly be covered by marathon training.  I hope.)

    8. Run an overnight relay - Ragnar Northwest Passage (with Oiselle teammates!)

    9. Volunteer for at least one race (Since I ran 11 races last year, I felt like I was already taking a bit of time away from the family and didn't want to ditch them more to go and volunteer.  This year is going to be about the same amount of mileage but in less races, so I will make the time.)

    10. PR in something (I'm not going to get hung up on the sub 2 hour half this year, but it'd be nice to PR in something - I think I could handily get a new 5K or 10K one.)

    11. Do more yoga (I have a Groupon that I let go by the wayside for hot yoga and I want to make this more of a priority.)

    12. Go on another family overnight trip (This is somewhat aspirational; I just want to be able to sleeeeeep - so we'll see how well baby girl is doing with transitioning out of a crib, etc. before deciding on this venture.  Speaking of which...)

    13. Potty train a soon to be three year old and transition her out of a crib (aieeeeeeee.  These are, in my opinion, the worst parenting tasks.)
     
    14. Find a new eye doc, get new glasses (bo-ring, but if I don't write it down...)

    15. Finally roll over that one lingering 401K into my existing IRA (again, bo-ring)

    16. Make a will - even a free online one for the time being (maudlin! necessary evil!)

    17. Make at least one new meal every two weeks (I was thinking about making one every week, but don't want to set myself up for failure - every two seems doable.)

    18. Try something from Pinterest, other than food, once a month (hahaha, I'm not hopeful about this one - but I want to try.)

    19. Make a loaf of bread (The only bread I've made from scratch are quickbreads or cinnamon rolls.  With all the talk of GMOs in our food, and the alarming rate at which my kids devour bread, this might be a new 'thing' around here.  We'll see - yeast scares me!)

    20. Do a no shopping month (Well, everything but groceries.  I'd better find out from Sally when Oiselle will be in between seasons.  Because, right now, I'm freaking out from a bad case of 'BUY ALL THE THINGS' and almost to the point of hiding purchases from my husband!)




    1.06.2013

    This Weeks Eats and Favorite Recipe Finds from 2012

    Another great thing about getting back into our regular routine after the holidays is regular menu planning!


    I've had a lot of fun sharing recipes that I've found throughout the year; here are a few of my favorites that have made it into heavy rotation:

    Spicy Avocado Chicken Enchiladas
    From The Novice Chef

    Greek Turkey Meatball Salad

    Greek-red-pepper-and-feta-turkey-meatball-salad
    From The Perfect Pantry
    Tequila Lime Turkey Chili

    From Pink Parsley
    Cocoa Fudge Cookies (A Cooking Light recipe via For the Love of Cooking - we added Ghirardelli chips)

    From For the Love of Cooking
    Quinoa Salad

    From The Diva Dish

    1.04.2013

    Friday Things & My Top Three Sweat-tastic Songs of 2012

    I'm sad my favorite time of year is over, but also glad to get back into our little routine.  The first couple of days back to school and the daily grind haven't been too bad; I thought it would horrible trying to get the kids up in time to get my oldest off to school.  Alas, they're primarily waking me up.  Um, yay?  Also, FYI, if you have a half day Kindergartner and he misses two days of school before break because of high fever, vomiting and being catatonic, he will spend about FOUR days missing recess to make up his class work.  Don't even get me started on how much homework he has for a five year old...  Anyhooooo, I'm rather glad that the holidays were mid-week, giving us a little time to ease back into things.

    We resurrected an old date tradition for the first time in five years and hit up the Seattle Symphony the Saturday before New Years for Beethoven's Ninth.  So, if you weren't at the symphony, here's another great way to partake in Ode to Joy:


    Man, we love starting the year off this way!  How can you NOT feel invigorated and ready to start a new year after listening to that?  I'm cooking up a nice little type-A 'to do' list for 2013 that I'll hopefully have done by next week.  In the meantime, here's another HELLA AWESOME OMGAAAAAWWWD video!

     
    SO pumped that we can call Lauren Fleshman our teammate, to be part of this amazing story that is unfolding for Oiselle and to know Sally and all of these amazing women.  Here's the official press release, but I think Lauren's blog post is just the bees knees - as is all of the new apparel flooding the website.  Argh!  I need a money tree, STAT. 
     
    Speaking of another perfect pairing...  I LOVED this Buzzfeed article: "Kate and Leo Should be Together in Read Life."
     
    Okay, music... I'm slowly working my way into longer runs in preparation for marathon training (yep, training for training that starts next week), but haven't been on the lookout for a lot of the cheese ball dance pop to add to my tunes lately.  So here are my top three running songs from 2012 that I'll carry over for sure into the 2013 playlist:
     
    1. You Are My Diamond by Tiesto - featuring Kianna
     
     
    2. Arguru - Deadmau5
     
     
    3. We Are by Jus Jack & Oza, featuring Aeone
     
     
    Happy Friday!
     
    Friday Playlist 2012:
    Wild by Royal Teeth (12/22/12)

    Years by Alesso featuring Matthew Koma (12/7/12)
    Walls by Sultan and Shepard (11/30/12)
    Don't Wake Me Up by Chris Brown (11/23/12)
    In My Mind by Ivan Gough and Feenixpawl (11/16/12)
    Don't You Worry Child by Swedish House Mafia (11/9/12)
    Castles in the Sky by Ian Van Dahl (11/2/12)
    Sanctuary by Gareth Emery, featuring Lucy Saunders (10/26/12)
    You Are My Diamond by Tiesto - featuring Kianna (10/19/12)
    Numb by Usher (10/12/12)
    We Are by Jus Jack & Oza, featuring Aeone (10/5/12)
    Chorus by Erasure (9/28/12)
    Cinema by Benny Benassi (9/21/12)
    Take a Walk - Passion Pit (9/14/12)
    Starry Eyed Surprise - Paul Oakenfold (9/7/12)
    Space Invaders - Mark Norman (8/31/12)
    Beautiful People - Chris Brown feat. Benny Benassi (8/23/12)
    Ass Back Home - Gym Class Heroes (8/23/12)
    The Veldt - Cover Pop tribute to Deadmau5 & Chris James (8/23/12)
    Without You - David Guetta feat. Usher (8/23/12)
    Good Time - Owl City feat. Carly Rae Jepsen (8/17/12)
    Addiction - Medina (8/3/12)
    We Run the Night - Havana Brown feat. Pitbull (7/27/12)
    The Night Out - Martin Solveig (7/20/12)
    Tell 'Em - Sleigh Bells (7/13/12)
    Sun is Up - Two Times (7/06/12)
    Steam Machine - Daft Punk (6/29/12)
    Arguru - Deadmau5 (6/22/12)
    Now or Never - Outasight (6/15/12)
    Major Tom - Shiny Toy Guns Remix (6/08/12)
    Young Blood - The Naked and Famous remixed by Tiesto (5/18/12)
    Call me Maybe - Carly Rae Jepsen (4/6/12)