Gone Camping

We are still alive, just on a camping trip for a bit, with very sporadic internet. I have a ton of pics to share from the last month ish.

Between the U.S. Open (watched all of it & therefor didn't get much else done) and getting ready for our adventure, and taking care of daily life, the blog has been neglected to say the least.

No pics for now....the fact they call this wifi in the campground is sort of funny. More like hamsters turning the wheels of the internet. :)

We are having fun, swimming, hiking, drinking fresh hard cider in the orchard, swimming some more and staying as comfy as we can in tipple digit heat. Thank goodness for camping trailers with AC!

I'll post again, with pics, when I'm able.

It's Getting Hot In Here

It's heating up around here, for real, living life in the 80's and up (it's not even officially summer yet!), and with the influx of people and attention the U.S. Open is bringing to my favorite place to run. Which, there won't be any running going on there until after this week. Missing Chambers Bay as an option for sure.

Oh well, I don't mind. Sky and I are hanging out, enjoying that most people are staying home, left town, or are at the tournament so the roads are actually pretty open, not much traffic, and ton's of state patrol. So, you know no speeding, but it means everyone is on point with their driving and that's a nice change.

Upper Right of the pic, the long white stretches are tents put up for the U.S. Open. That's about as close as I'll be getting the action. 

Very happy to enjoy the sun, water, and sand while the golf thing happens down the way.

I'm sort of relishing the lack of schedule, and just enjoying what each day brings. I know that needs to change, there's stuff to do, but I'm putting it off as long as possible. For now we are having fun, getting back to a solid pilates routine, mixing in a bit of running during the week, and that's about it. 

To give myself a little credit I was up at 5am this morning, and got a ton of Jamberry work done, and laundry. So that's something. Now, to enjoy a book in the sun...keeping it low key today after a busy weekend and way too many late  nights for Sky. It's caught up with her and she is not feeling well. Time to recharge and rest before we take on the rest of the week! 

A look at what we've been up to...

We attended the Lakewood Relay For Life event with our friends/team. It's been an important part of my life for a long time, and I have a feeling it will be an important part of Sky's as well. 

19th year of Relay For Life. 

The Tacoma Farmer's Market started in May I think, and we have been counting down the days until school was out so we could start meeting Mark down there for lunch. It tends to be more about food, crafts, and fresh flowers than produce from farms, but it's still fun and gives Sky some Daddy time during the work day.

She wanted to be a leaf fairy. 

Getting an up close look at her face painting.

Sky received her first bow and finally had a chance to shoot it after Mark tracked down arrows for it. She LOVES it! Elk camp...get ready...Sky's practicing! 

 Not strong enough to pull it back by herself yet. She'll get there though. 

 Retrieving arrows from the target.

Every time she hits the target this happens! 

It's funny how things happen sometimes. Sky and I were headed to the spray park, and saw Elya's car on the road. I honked as I went past but she didn't see me. Her kids however saw Sky and started waving and making a ruckus. Sky was so funny, "Mommy, there are people waiving at me, who are they"? 

Thankfully we were able to roll windows down and connect so we could follow her to the spit on Fox Island for time in the sun and sand. Sky had a blast, I had a blast, and Mark and Silas got in on it when they joined us for an impromptu bbq at Elya's sisters house. So much fun! I'm so thankful there are other mom's that are prepared out there. I had the very minimum of what we needed for an hour or so at the spray park, no extra snacks or clothing etc. Elya and Ella were ready though and helped us enjoy a fun afternoon/evening in the sun with good friends. 

 I may have to start keeping the life jacket in the car, she couldn't swim because we didn't have it.

 My spot on the rocky beach. 

Enjoying a little movie time before dinner.

The gang...thank you Elya for sharing this picture! 

Thankful Thursday

Things I'm thankful for today:

-Perfectly grilled steak, fresh herb chimichurri, and good wine!

An abundance of Cilantro = yummy chimichurri!

-Having a garden of sorts, and realizing what food should actually taste like. It's so much better cut fresh and eaten withing minutes of harvesting! The raised container is the herb garden, only planted a little bit of stuff to see how it goes. The other containers have tomatoes, peppers, and several different types of lettuce.

-Mini Frappuccino's at Starbucks! They are the perfect last day of swimming/hello summer fun schedule treat! Red Velvet Cake flavor is a must try!

-Those two...I love how much she loves "helping" him, and he's so patient with her, and good as finding ways she can "help" even if he doesn't really need help.

-Farmer's Market! Now that schools out we can enjoy Tacoma's Farmers Market and meet Daddy for lunch Thursday's!

 When did the baby hands turn into big girl hands?! 

-Little Passports. It has been the perfect birthday gift for Sky. She loves maps and each month we get new adventures to enjoy, and learn new things using the map. We have map time almost every single day.

-Movie time snuggles. The peace and quiet that come with movie time, and the ability to get a few things done, man I look forward to that all day long.

-Having the best little running partner ever. Everyone should have a chance to run with her and listen to her commentary, it's a crack up. 

-All the "I turned 40 and now need a bunch of tests and screenings" doctor appointments are done, and everything came back negative. Nice to know I'm healthy! 

-For the parenting challenges each day brings...true growth comes from looking at how I handle those challenges, and realizing opportunities for improvement. At the same time giving myself some grace...I'll never be the perfect parent, and I'm ok with that...I will be the best parent I possible can though. 

What are you thankful for?

Summer Break

As of today all of Sky's activities are on summer break. The last day of school was last week and her last day of swimming is today. I get a serious Not Mom of the Year award on her last day of school. Rather than an awesome celebration we had her 4 year old appointment and she got 4 shots...yikes. Her little legs hurt for days after, and she had a sad little limp. I timed that appointment about as poorly as possible. :(

That means we are a bit schedule-less for a while, and I love that! I'm sure by the end of summer I'll be ready for school to start, but I'm really looking forward to having our days to ourselves and letting them unfold as they may. The challenge is staying on track enough to get the things done that need to get done...hello To Do List!

I enjoyed her last day of school with my last Sky free grocery shopping day of the summer. I took my time enjoying coffee, and instead of breezing through Costco I stopped and shopped the fun stuff (books, outfits for Sky, wine).

I know summer is officially a few weeks away, but man it sure feels like summer already. We have been to the spray park more the last few weeks than we went all of last summer!

I could do this all day, but would need to find shade first! 

Last field trip of the year with her class to Owens Beach...she loves the beach! 

Something about summer makes me feel so lazy about the whole get ready routine. It's totally messy pony with a baseball cap, slouchy shirts that are too big, and easy skirts with built in shorts, no flashing here people! 

Pretty sure that's the last of the "done" hair you will see this summer. I'm in favor of not doing it and going with the messy sea salt spray look. 

In a quick, easy, comfortable frame of mind of late, for Sky and I both! I'd rather spend our time outside, in the sun, at the spray park, having fun with friends, or just the two of us! 

That's kind of life right now....everything to a screeching halt until after our camping/road trip. Then summer camp #1, swimming & sports lessons start up, several long weekend adventures, and camp #2. Sky doesn't know it, but she has an awesome summer ahead of her! :) 

Let the Summer Fun begin!

Rainier 2 Ruston Ultra and Relay

Over the weekend I checked off another bucket list race! Finally, I was able to participate in Rainier 2 Ruston on a team, and enjoy it from start to finish! I've done run support for Elya (on one leg) before, but never been an actual participant on a team.

We had 6 people on the team and each ran two legs, with an extra mile(s) for some tossed in on the final leg, and had so much fun! I don't know if I've even been that tired after a run. Got up at 3:30 am to get ready and head up to the mountain, started in the 7am wave and finished just before 5 I think. It took us 9 hours, 51 minutes, and some seconds to cross the finish.

I slept for almost 12 hours that night!

The first leg is all pavement, after that the next several legs are all, or mostly all trail. I LOVED my first leg (leg 2) because it was 100% trail, muddy, wet, beautiful, fun trail running. I was so happy, and yet again reminded that I must get back to trail running. It's what makes me happy! I really wish I had run with my phone to get pics, but I didn't want to bite it in a puddle and ruin it, so take my word for it that it was 6.6 miles of beautiful trail running.

(All photo's from Elya's phone and taken by different team members through the day, depending on who was running, driving, recovering). 

Top picture...what the last 2 (ish) miles looked like, nice wide, flat, hardly any mud, faster paced running. It was a nice break because the first several miles were mostly single track and you had to pay attention! You can see from my shoes that I had a good time in the mud!

It's a unique race in that it's not supported like most races. No water stations, or if there are stations it's for Ultra runners only, and not always well marked routes. Roads are not closed, and some of the legs you feel pretty isolated. But, the runners around you have your back. They are friendly, helpful, and cheering for each other from start to finish. Totally unique in that you feel like your are team members with all 800+ participants. 

 Stephanie, Kim, Me, Cori, Elya, Shawna = Training BraWds, see what we did there?! At the start.

Don't you love how it looks like I peed myself?! Pretty sure my hand off to Elya wasn't very friendly...I was irritated with how bad I felt and on the verge of being sick.

Once again I had trouble with the heat. 80+, and it's not even summer here yet! The second leg, while short (3. something) was blazing sun, blacktop, straight along the hwy and boring. I was sick, again. The best part of that run was finding a park potty with a freezing cold, metal toilet. I may or may not have sat on that cool metal for much longer than needed. I ended up walking a lot and feeling frustrated a lot that the heat once again was a factor. I MUST figure this out! The neck chiller thing helped a lot, but it cooled off fast. Next year, spray bottle with ice water. One of the other teams ran with them and it was brilliant. 

BTW - that skirt got tossed after the race, that's an oil (from what I have no idea) stain of some sort that washing didn't get out. I also had to toss two pair of socks, and the shirt from my trail leg. The mud was almost like a slimy oily mud and ended up getting on some of my other running gear when all the dirty stuff was tossed in the same bag. Given everything I had to toss out this was one of the more costly races I've done...but totally worth it! 

Another BTW - I went to investigate replacing my skirt (I have a few others that are old and the seems are starting to rub, so it's time to replace them...going on 4 years for several of them) only to find that Lulu discontinued my go to skirt, and now I'm at a total loss as to what to switch to. Grrr. 

Ring My Bell, Ring My Bell! Each exchange has a bell to run under and ring.

Finish line! 

A few things I learned about running multiple legs of a Relay, don't start snacking on the yummy food until your final leg is done. Pickles wrapped with ham and cream cheese makes an excellent recovery snack, and at some point you will want real, solid food in your tummy. Next time I will have something "real" with me for after the last leg. You can only eat pretzels and chips for so long. 

Seriously so much fun, and I can't wait to do it again! Thank you Elya for being an awesome team captain and organizing everything, and thank you ladies for the fun day! I'm totally hooked on Relay's now! 

Making Dinner Easy!

Meal Planning (or lack of) seems to be a dreaded “thing”. I see comments all the time on social media along the lines of “what’s for dinner”, “I have no idea what we are going to eat tonight”, “Really don’t feel like cooking” etc.

It’s a topic that comes up again and again, and seems to be one of the things people need help with. While I’m no expert by any means, I have found a system that works for us. It worked, when I was working FT outside the home, and it works now as a SAHM. Let’s face it, dinner needs to happen every. single. night. Isn’t it worth finding a system that makes it as easy as possible?

I'm a bit addicted to food magazines!

I already know what some are thinking…you’re home all day...you have more time to cook dinner. Let me just say that I have the same 24 hours a day as everyone else.  I still have “to do” lists every day, a munchkin with a busy schedule, volunteer work that I enjoy, a personal business that keeps me busy, a desire for a little personal time, workouts/running, and life basically. Life is just busy!

Bottom line, my work may be different, but I still have a schedule, and scheduling issues just like everyone else. And, just like everyone else I have evenings that I just don’t feel it, and evenings that are busy and take some juggling to pull off.

The only thing I’ll concede to have an advantage on is: 1. I can grocery shop during the week/work day, which makes it easier. 2. I love cooking and want to be good at it. 3. I’m good at picking out recipes that will be quick and tasty. 4. I’ve been meal planning for so long that it maybe takes an hour to map out 2 weeks of meals and make the grocery list. 

With a little planning and list making evening dinners can be much less daunting to pull off, and make for awesome family time, and healthier meals! So, how to do it?

1.       Make a schedule. Maybe it’s easier to take it week by week, that’s fine. We get paid every two weeks, so I grocery shop and meal plan in two week chunks. (I’ll only list a week though for this post). I write this schedule out on a piece of paper listing the activity for the evening (if there is one), and a meal that will be easy to do given the schedule.

Here’s what a typical week looks like:

Sunday- Smoky Buffalo Chili (or some other stand by, or new, recipe that will give Mark left overs for lunch)

Monday – Taco’s (Mark works from home Tuesday so doesn’t need left overs to take for lunch. Tacos are a hard left over to pack.)

Tuesday –Run Group -  Spaghetti (run group night I need something I can make quick and easy before I skip out to lead the group, and it gives Mark left overs for lunch the next day or two)

Wednesday –New Recipe (I usually go for something new since we are usually home Wednesday evening and I have a little time to spend in the kitchen)

Thursday –Jamberry Party - Caribbean Chicken (usually by Thursday I’m ready for something easy! If there are a lot of left overs we will eat those before I cook anything new, or it’s something super quick like Caribbean Chicken, or Mark will grill. I tend to have Jamberry parties on Thursday’s, so if that’s part of the schedule for the week I’ll make sure that Wednesday’s dinner will give leftovers so Mark and Sky can reheat, or that it’s something I can easily make before leaving for the party)

Friday-New Recipe/leave open (if we don’t have plans this is a night I’ll try something new, or we may grab something like street tacos for a quick easy dinner before heading out to the local park to enjoy the sun. If there are a lot of left overs we eat those to clean out the refrigerator)

Saturday – Grill/leave open (I like at least one, usually more during the summer, grill night. Mark is the grill master so I get a break that way)

2.       Make a shopping list. Look through each recipe and list out all the meat, veggies, spices you need to purchase. I tend to buy staples (stalks, broths, spices, dried herbs, garlic, onions, meat (food save it/freeze it) in bulk, so almost always have the basics on hand at all times).

3.       Go To Meals. Build in at least two meals that never change. For us it’s Tacos and Spaghetti. We have those every week. Because they are easy, and I always have the fixings on hand. Knowing there are two nights a week you don’t have to think about is really nice.

I always have onions on hand, and almost always have some chopped, ready to go.

4.       Food prep! Seriously if you have a food processor (even if you don’t) you can do all the chopping, shredding, dicing etc for the week in 30-60 minutes. While you’re doing that cook all the ground beef for the week and store it in the fridge.  Sunday afternoon/evening is a good time to do this.

5.       Post a calendar. Have a calendar, chalk board, piece of paper, something visible in the kitchen that list the meals for the week(s). Then, each night before bed take anything out of the freezer that you will need for the next day’s meal. And/or make note of anything fresh you need to pick up on the way home the next day for that meal.

This is on the wall next to the refrigerator. In Note's I list the days that would flip/flop well and sometimes which cookbook to turn too for a meal I have planned.

I have found I really only need to plan 4 (ish) dinners a week. I always make more than we can eat in one meal, and life happens/things come up and it’s not unusual to end up unexpectedly missing dinner at home 1 night a week. If we do end up home on an open night with no dinner planned we usually always have left overs, and I keep pork chops, chicken, dogs, salmon burgers frozen/on hand for grilling.

Even Sky can Grill! 

Some think a slow cooker is a life saver, I say it’s the grill! I hardly ever schedule steak into the meal plan, yet we eat it at least 1 time during the two week schedule. Super easy to pop in the store grab steaks and slap em on the grill. To keep it quick and easy open some canned green beans, or grab a bagged salad, for a meal. Or, opt for veggies you can stick on the grill with the steak. My fave - lettuce wedges charred on the grill and dressed with oil & vinegar, or Caesar dressing…so yummy! 

Find a magazine, website, blog, cookbook etc that offers recipes that work for you and the family. I subscribe to more than I need, but the one I use the most is Rachael Ray. Her magazine has a ton of 30 min meals and I’ve yet to make one we don't like. I would venture to say that you only really need 10 (maybe 15 for variety) go-to meals to rotate through on a regular basis. More than that and meal planning gets sort of crazy. Some Faves: Zenbelly Cookbook, Well Fed & Well Fed 2, Bon Appetit, Cook's Illustrated Magazine to list a few.

If a dedicated hour of food prep isn’t going to happen try this instead. Every time a recipe calls for an onion, chop two, and save one for later. If it only calls for half an onion, chop up the whole onion and save it for later. Need garlic…chop up twice as much and save it for later. When I make tacos I always chop up extra onion, that way it’s ready to go later in the week. Cook twice at much taco meat and freeze half for next week!

Know where you can buy stuff pre-chopped. Trader Joes has bagged, chopped onion ready to go, some stores have bagged, julienned or shredded, carrots already done for you. Little things like that are time savers!

Consider buying ground meat in bulk. I go to cash n carry every other month or so and get ground beef and sausage in bulk. I cook 5 lbs of sausage at once, with onion added in, then freeze in 1(ish) pound portions, and that way I have our spaghetti meat ready to go for weeks. Just thaw, add sauce (and whatever else you like to add) and enjoy.

When all else fails, and it needs to come out of a box (it happens to everyone!) go organic! Or, order pizza! :)

It doesn’t have to be fancy, or gourmet, save that for the weekends, if at all…if it’s not your thing, it’s not your thing. But everyone’s thing is food, we need it to live. Winging it doesn’t do the food, or ourselves any justice really.

Any favorite recipes to share?

A go-to fave of ours is Thai Beef with Basil

 

Birthday Camping Is The Best Camping

I'm a bit behind here since Sky's Birthday Camping trip was 2 weeks ago, but better late than never I guess.

Can I just say how awesome I think it is that she wanted to go camping for her birthday...that's just down right fun for everyone! So true to her nature as well. She's happiest outside, running around, finding bugs, riding bikes, working in the yard, running etc. She just loves being outside!

It's funny how the stages and changes never land right on the date the age changes, but I can sure tell a difference in her the last month or so. So much more aware of emotions, tone of voice, knowing there are consequences for actions, and even more sense of humor. She's growing up for sure.

Daily she walks up to me and puts her hands on my cheeks and says, "What happened to my baby Sky? I growed up Mommy, that's what happened". I'm just thankful she still curls up like a baby in my lap for cuddle time.

Lot's of camping pics...none of which are mine. Thank you Mark, Kristen, Alex and Michelle for the pics! I didn't take the time to edit either.

 Kiera, Grace, Sky = Three Amigos.

 Cracking up. 

 Biker Chicks! 

 Gotta put her feet up and rest. 

 Sky caught her first fish this trip! 

Shout out to Grace! After she caught her first fish, and landed her second on her pole she handed it off to Sky, so Sky could bring it in herself and score her very first fish. That is pretty awesome right there! 

 Putting Silas to work! 

Two things Sky asked for over and over for birthday camping...party hats and to bake a birthday cake with Uncle Bob. Well she had a new hat every day, and Bob hooked her up with birthday cake baking. All the below pics are from Michelle...thank you!

Sky, Michelle, Kiera...thank you Alex for the pic! 

So much fun, and Sky is still talking about camping weeks later! Thank you everyone who made it special for her, including my Dad and Johanna who went way out of their way (several hours worth of a detour)  to stop in at camp and deliver birthday gifts!