Bad Ass Mother Runner (BAMR for short)

I love the BAMR acronym that the almighty Sarah Bowen Shea and Dimity McDowell use over at Another Mother Runner and that I am part of the BAMR tribe.  They are an inspiration, as well as the most enthusiastic supporters of moms who love to run.  You can learn all about the them here, and read this great article from Runners World April 2012 issue on moms making time for running.  I've been lucky enough to attend one of their Run Like a Mother house parties:

AMR Seattle house party this summer, with SO many great running peeps!

And I was also lucky enough to be featured on their blog this summer for their 'Why I Run' feature.  It's another great 'gettin' to know me' post for anyone who's never stopped by here before; which I think is A LOT of folks, since I got a weeks worth of page views today!  Thank you for visiting! 

I think I've said it before that if SBS and Dimity ask me to jump, I'd say "how high?"  Yes, today is no different: I got a lovely email from Heather (Michigan Runner Girl), who writes over at Another Mother Runner, inviting me to be profiled for their recurring 'Follow this Mother' feature.  I love how they pulled it together and so, for the second Thursday in a row, I invite you to click over to (what is sort of) a guest post at another very awesome blog. 

You should ALSO click over to this link at Another Mother Runner to enter their Garmin giveaway.  I pretty much put it out to the universe that I am indeed going to run a marathon next year because of their Twitter contest.  Time to jump, we'll see how high...

This Weeks Eats

Instead of the decadent chocolate cookies I had planned to make yesterday after my long run, I remembered that I had found a Cooking Light cocoa fudge cookie recipe at For the Love of Cooking.  It has a similar vibe to my oatmeal cookies, in that the recipe includes yogurt and very little butter.  I used vanilla Chobani and added some Ghiradelli dark chocolate chips.  These cookies were FANTASTIC.  Highly recommend. 

Source: www.fortheloveofcooking.net

 

• Monday - pizza
• Tuesday - artichoke, tomato and mozzarella chicken
• Wednesday - Greek turkey meatball salad
• Thursday - baked honey dijon chicken fingers (trying this recipe from Pink Parsley)
• Friday - steak fajitas (with carne asada skirt steak and fixins from Trader Joes)
• Saturday - rigatoni with arrabiata sauce
• Sunday - PORTILLOS (we're caving to an order of hot dogs!)

Once again, I'm joining the weekly menu challenge link up hosted by Laura and Jill; click on the links for more menus to peruse, as well as a chance to enter a Popchips giveaway!

Friday Things

After my post earlier this week about the awesome online community of runners, Sue Gelber at Outside the Comfort Zone posted How Twitter Made Me A Better Runner.  I agree one hundred percent.  This is one of the reasons I adore Twitter and spend WAY less time on Facebook.  I still love it for keeping up with family, friends and PICTURES!  But, Twitter is easily customized to my interests and anything slightly offensive or annoying is limited to 140 characters and can be quickly glossed over - unlike all the advertising and paragraph long rants (on all sorts of topics, not just the election) some people feel the need to post on Facebook, as if it's their own personal soapbox instead of a way to connect with others.  Well, I think I've already made my feelings about Facebook clear - moving on...

This week I tried making oatmeal a la Sarah OUaL (her post here) and, lo, I have reached a new breakfast nirvana.  The secret? A frozen banana.  Genius.  Especially good with a dollop of Justin's chocolate hazelnut butter.  NOM.  Speaking of chocolate, I'm starting to get all antsy to bake now that the holidays are almost upon us.  I'm making these double chocolate chip cookies tomorrow night for dessert, so that I can just totally negate my morning long run.  I've even started listening to Christmas music.  I held out until November 9th, not too bad...

I have another virtual run to pass along; Mommy Run Fast has got lots of great prizes for Racing for Relief, to benefit Hurricane Sandy victims.  Easy peasy, if you haven't already donated to the Red Cross - git on it!

Amazing picture and editor's letter from New York Magazine

Song for today courtesy of BPM, my favorite Sirius XM station for finding new running tunes: Don't You Worry Child by Swedish House Mafia.

Happy Weekend!

Friday Playlist
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) 

Running in Mommyhood

Hrm, maybe I should change my blog title to that...?  Maybe 'Running in the Mommy 'Hood'...  Is my current name totally misleading since I live in Seattle..?  Nah?  Thoughts? Ack!

ANYWAY!  I have my first guest post over at Kelly's blog today about being a mommy runner; go check out her fab site: Running Kellometers and the post here!

One Word Wednesday - Forward

 

 

 

No matter how you feel about the outcome, I think we can all agree it'll be nice to move forward and enjoy Top Chef tonight without any political ads - cheers!

The Running Community, and a Meetup

When I started on this social media journey, I could never have predicted the connections I'd make, the people I'd get to know and the general awesome-ness of the running community.  I think many people have seen this post from Run to The Finish regarding the NYC Marathon, but just in case you missed it: here ya go.  It speaks volumes.

I've had the pleasure of getting to know so many people through bloggging, Twitter and the catalyst for it all: Oiselle.  This weekend I was able to attend a local running meetup and was so thankful to have these gals along for the last three miles of my ten for the day!  My first run at Green Lake was a memorable one.  Yes, I've never actually run 'round THE path to run in Seattle - after eight years here I've only really visited the splash park with the kids...

Running! At Green Lake! Picture courtesy of Lindsay

I finally got to meet Lindsay (our intrepid organizer), Nicole (a fellow lover of dystopian YA fiction) and new Oiselle Team member Sarah, all of whom I've been friends with on Twitter for awhile now. 

Photo stolen from Sarah's Instagram!

And I got to meet some new peeps: Becky, Zoe, Meghan and Julie. Last, but certainly not least, it's always great to see familiar faces like teammate Megan, as well as Alma, Rebecca, and Lauren.  I feel so lucky that I've been able to connect with them through this whole crazy online world, and I'm looking forward to seeing more of them in the real one! 

Requisite group shot, also courtesy of Lindsay

This Week's Eats!

Hope everyone had a lovely weekend and that you actually got that extra hour of sleep.  Thankfully, my youngest is trapped in her crib (mwuhahaaaa!) and my oldest waits for his 'alarm' to go off before he leaves his room, so we got a wee bit of extra shuteye before we heard them banging around in their rooms.  I highly recommend clocks that have some sort of light up feature if you have a child transitioning out of a crib.  We got one fashioned like a stoplight for our son because, with his car obsession, he was well aware that red meant 'stop' and green meant 'go.'  He's had the clock light since he was three and has followed the 'rules of the road' ever since.  It's also been a Godsend for when he stopped napping in the afternoons and now plays in his room for 'quiet time' while the red light is on.  Here's something similar, if you're in the market for such a thing.

OK, on to food!  I thought I should report on new recipes from last week: buffalo wing turkey burgers = good, broccoli pesto pasta = baaaad.  Broccoli just didn't translate well to pesto for me.  Blargh.  I still love Smitten Kitchen and I'm for sure going to check out her book, but this one didn't do it for me.   

• Monday - Pizza!
• Tuesday - crockpot chicken and dumplings from How Sweet It Is
• Wednesday - leftover baked ziti and big green salad
• Thursday - satay chicken with peanut sauce and roasted broccoli
• Friday - alpine chicken casserole
• Saturday - got a tenderloin filet with a peppercorn marinade from Safeway, we're gonna give it a whirl on the grill along with sauteed spinach and roasted potatoes
• Sunday - taco bowls with avocado salsa

I'm posting this a little early to jump on the weekly menu link up at Mommy Run Fast.  Click here to check out even more weekly menu goodness!