i love the smell of: the amazing peonies in a vase right next to me
i love the sound of: the ocean waves I can actually here from my desk at work
i love the taste of: fresh peaches from the Farmer's Market
i love the sight of: blue skies with white puffy clouds
i love the feel of: my sore muscles from my 6 mile bike ride this morning
jen
Yesterday was my daughter's 8th grade promotion ceremony. I have to be honest with you that there were certain times this past school year when we weren't sure she was going to make it to this day. Like... when she came home with an F on her report card in Algebra for example. But she pulled through and yesterday was the big day. I'd pictured this moment for many years...at least since her 6th grade promotion...but it didn't play out as I had imagined. I was calm and not weepy. (I cried like a baby at her preschool graduation). I really just found that I was relieved it was all over.
Middle School sucks.
There's no sugar coating it. The drama alone is enough to drive an adult crazy. I always thought my mom just didn't understand me and now I realize I was just a dramatic bitchy teenager. These are the years we start to get a feel for who we really are. We try on new friends. We try on new personalities. We try on new attitudes. It's a time of such change that it's hard for anyone to keep up.
It seemed like Alex had a new best friend every other month. Liked a different boy every week. I know that high school brings a whole new pile of worries but in some ways I know that it starts to stabilize. A little. I'm looking for a little stability. She made the cheerleading team last week and I hope that this also keeps her in check with her grades. And introduces some new friends because some of these girls she's been friends with are really just awful to each other. They have such tempers and emotions at this age. The smallest things really set off a chain of events within her group. I'm not a dramatic person (now...) so it was a little too much for me to take sometimes.
I was so proud of her yesterday though. She's become quite a young woman. I like that she still has a unique sense of style. Her spunky personality. She couldn't stop smiling after the ceremony...really smiling. With teeth showing and all...that's the part I enjoyed the most yesterday...seeing her reaction to this milestone. I'll have to actually post one of her big smile...these were taken before the ceremony...when she was still nervous about the whole affair.
adapted from this recipe
Recently I've become obsessed with chickpeas. Chickpea salads to be exact. I've spent hours scouring the internet for chickpea recipes to add to my ever growing recipe index. This one by Heidi Swanson caught my eye months and months(possibly even more than a year) ago but I didn't get around to making it until just last week. The addition of 1 cup of coconut milk instead of the 1/2 cup Heidi suggests was purely accidental but both Nate and I will continue to make it this way because we liked the additional creaminess it brought to the dish. We also like things a little spicier so we added an additional 1/2 teaspoon curry paste to the milk while cutting back on the red onion by just a little bit. We also went with roasted sweet potatoes instead of the squash she uses. Like she suggests I think any winter squash or potato would go nicely in this dish. I may try it with Butternut Squash the next time.
adapted Maranui Surf Club Salad Recipe from 101Cookbooks
3/4 of a small red onion, peeled and chopped
Juice from two limes
1 cup coconut milk
1.5 teaspoon red curry paste
3 cups sweet potato, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch chunks
splash of extra-virgin olive oil
2 cans garbanzo beans (or equivalent)
1/2 cup cilantro, chopped
fine grain sea salt
Preheat oven to 375.
In a small bowl combine the chopped red onion, lime juice and a generous pinch of salt. Stir and set aside.
In another small bowl whisk the coconut milk and curry paste together. Season with a pinch of salt and set aside.
Toss the sweet potato with a splash of olive oil, sprinkle with salt and arrange on a baking sheet. Separately, in a casserole dish, toss the garbanzo beans with the coconut-curry milk. Place both the potato and beans in the oven for about 15-20 minutes. Toss the sweet potatoes once after about ten minutes to get browning on multiple sides.
Remove the beans and sweet potatoes from the oven. Add about half of the reserved red onions and most of the cilantro to the beans and toss. Taste and add a bit more salt if needed. Add the sweet potatoes and toss very gently. Serve in bowls or on a platter garnished with the remaining red onions and cilantro.
Serves 4.
I have a confession. I've lived in Monterey for 16 years and have never stepped foot in the Point Lobos State Reserve until today. And I live 15 minutes from this amazing place. I think this is really sad. I guess because when you drive by it it's so unassuming looking. Small, dark with trees. And so I didn't realize I was missing anything --boy was I wrong.
We picked this as our May hike (from the list--#37 go on one hike a month) because I casually mentioned to Nate that I had never been to Point Lobos. Something you think would have come up on our many jaunts down to Big Sur. It hadn't! We decided to just do one side of the park for this trip. The South side because of the work being done on the North side to some of the trails. I'd rather come back at some other point to experience all the North side has to offer:)
I was blown away by the views. The hike was not too strenuous but enough to get me slightly out of breath (we move pretty fast). I just can't believe that I've missed all this scenery for 16 years. And that I haven't gone here with other people like friends or family. Nate joked with me that it's the same coast line that I see every time I go to Big Sur but ...it's different to me. It was amazing. A place I can't wait to explore more of...
If you find yourself in this area you HAVE to go. It's totally worth your time:)
jen
Asparagus, Fingerling Potato & Goat Cheese Pizza
from Bon Appetit
It never bodes well for the year when the 39 before 40 list is only 3 weeks old and I've already failed a few of the items. Like blogging, and picture taking and emailing people. I need like 4-5 more hours a day get all the stuff I need done in one day.
Ever feel like that??
So even though this first month is not going well, I'm going to be trying to keep at it and maybe this will be the only failure month...
Hope everyone is having a great Memorial Day Weekend!
jen
This year's list. Lots of travel on this one...we'll see if the gas prices hold out;)
1. take Alex to a musical in SF
2. take a photo everyday
3. learn to make my own tortillas
4. eat at Kabuto Sushi in SF
5. ride a cable car in SF
6. have a midnight picnic under the stars
7. throw an 80's party
8. hike Land's End trail in SF
9. watch a roller derby game
10. camp at least 2 times this year
11. make it to Arizona for my Marching Band reunion in August
12. take a cruise
13. hike Half Dome in Yosemite
14. purchase at least 3 more letters (for wall)
15. take a surfing lesson
16. officially change my name (it's only been four years since our wedding...)
17. learn how to bake (I can cook but baking
has always been hard for me...too exact of measurements I think)
18. grow vegetables in back yard
19. go back to college
20. continue weight loss
21. email someone each week
22. blog at least 2-3 times a week
23. go wine tasting on River Road
24. have a chocolate malt at Mel's in SF
25. attend Margarita & Avocado Festival in Morro Bay
26. attend the SF Pillow Fight 2010
27. organize all my photos (I have piles and piles of them)
28. go on a date with Nate like I would have in high school --complete with necking in the car;)
29. read 75 books--at least 20 of them from the list
30. rewatch all my favorite Cary Grant films
31. take Alex up to SF Pride 2009 (at her request)
32. go on a road trip with no pre-determined destination
33. clean and purge my house of the un-needed
34. find the fun and joy in scrapbooking again
35. make a menu each week and stick to it
36. open a savings account for my daughter
37. Go on one hike each month
38. eat breakfast at Carmel Belle in Carmel-by-the-sea
39. finish the unfinished
Looks to be a fun year;)
jen
Friday (May 1st) was my birthday and as a couple of you know I made a list of 38 thingsI wanted to do in the year before I turned 39. Sadly I finished only about half of the list. For the most part it was economical or timing issues that kept me from finishing them all. With the economy increasing the price of everything and some huge car repairs that Nate and I weren't expecting and just crazy gas prices... I just didn't have the means to get a few items done. So let's see how I did:
1. save and buy a new lens for my camera--I did not get around to this. I went back and forth between a new lens and a new camera body and I have almost enough for one of them but it didn't get purchased within my year time limit. I still haven't made up my mind yet anyway...
2. take a photoshop class--sadly not done yet. Never found the time. Lousy excuse huh! I also have completely stopped scrapbooking, which was the reason for the class so I am still up in the air about what I'll be doing about this one too
3. plan and throw an Oktoberfest party--wow...not looking so good for these first few items. I didn't have one because we didn't have a free weekend to have one during September or October., I am still hoping to have one this year
4. go to Ruby Sky with Nate-- not yet:(
5. have a scrapbooking party with Alex and her friends
6. have camp-out sleepover that Alex and I have been talking about for the past year--in my defense with these two--I wasn't expecting my daughter to suddenly grow up within a month of writing these two down. She won't even go to the movies with me anymore. Shopping is about all she'll let me be involved with (I have the money of course). So any sort of sleepover was out of the question and will be from this point on.
7. expand my music collection by one new artist a month--woohoo! One I actually did:) The list: Tilly & the Wall, Kings of Leon, The Bird & the Bee, Bon Iver, Coconut Records, The Submarines, Lights, The Raveonettes,Built to Spill, Peter Yorn, Frightened Rabbit, Imogen Heap, Vampire Weekend just to name a few!
8. take sewing class --um yeah...not yet. Although my daughter has deemed this a class we can take together
9. walk across the Golden Gate Bridge--I did this one!! Very cool. We saw dolphins and sea lions frolicking.I would recommend ear plugs though. It gets loud with all the cars...
10. work on my relationship with my sister --I'm gonna say I did this one. I did spend more time on the phone with her this year and when I was in Arizona we got good time together. It's hard to work on things so far from each other. But I'm keeping at it.
11. make curtains for office and kitchen--see number 8 for reason this one is not done. Hopefully soon. Or at least I hope to get curtains for them.
12. take one romantic overnight trip with Nate-- Big Sur for our anniversary:)
13. read 40 books-- 63 were actually read. My friends on goodreads can count if they really want to:)
14. take yoga classes-- I took two classes with mixed thoughts about yoga.I'm going to take a few more before I decide if I like it or not.
15. visit Berkeley Bowl Marketplace--never made it. A few of my trips were put off when the gas prices went though the roof last summer. I barely made the Big Sur parts of this list because of the fire. Last year was a rough one...
16. go on a drive-in date with Nate-- had this planned for last month and then found out the drive- in was closed and have not had a free weekend to find another drive in and plan the trip.This year for sure
17. see the Dahlia's in Golden Gate park--was one of the trips that were put off when the gas prices reached almost $5.00 a gallon here last summer. Hoping they will stay low this year so I can finally get there.
18. allow more pictures to be taken of myself--I did allow more pictures of myself. I think I took more this year than the past couple of years. See photo above:)
19. volunteer at a local animal rescue-- put in application but haven't started yet.
20. take a girl's only road trip with Alex--I can list off many factors about why this didn't happen. Gas prices. Teen not wanting to spend this much time with mom.
21. brew a batch of beer with Nate-- first task I finished. And it was a favorite among many of our beer drinking friends.
22. workout more (my goal is 2-3 times a week)--I exceed this by working out 5 times a week and losing 34 pounds in the process. Keeping this my same goal this year
23. hike to McWay Falls in Big Sur (the trail was closed when we tried to go last week)-- DONE! see photo
24. have a bonfire on the beach--just didn't work out even though it was planned a few times
25. learn to knit (better)--nope. Didn't even pick up the needles
26. get all the different prints I've bought up in frames and on the wall-- the frames are bought and they are ready to be done but just didn't get it done in time for this list
27. visit Portland, Oregon--not even close...
28. go thrifting in San Fransisco--took Alex for her birthday and then went one day with Nate:)
29. start family movie night -- I did this one for a while but it gets back to the teen that doesn't want to spend her nights hanging with her parents. But we tried to get together at least once a week so I'm going to count this one. It just wasn't on a set night.
30. cook one new thing every week ( I have SO many recipes)--definitely--but i don't think anyone doubted this one:)
31. go to a fondue restaurant--YES! It was fun:) but expensive. Alex would like to go next time;)
32. re-establish date night--not done.
33. camp with Nate at Kirk Creek-- definitely done and it was a blast. I would recommend anyone to this campground. just beautiful!
34. ride my bike to work as much as I can--hahahaha. Not done even once which is really sad since I work less than 2 miles from work.
35. take a bellydancing class--I did take a class. I didn't keep going only because I already spend $50 a month for the gym and this would be almost another $50.00 a month for 4 classes. it was fun though and much harder than it looks...
36. re-learn French-- I have a CD I listen to in the car. It hasn't helped much but I have done it and am working on it slowly.
37. create more artwork each week-- hahahah. I almost completely stopped scrapbooking so...this one was definitely not accomplished.
38. visit Timeless Treasures in San Fransisco--accomplished and have 8 different size letter towards my monogram wall I want to have:)
So as you can see I did very poorly on the list. I haven't even finished my 39 things list for this year too. I am a slacker. Seriously. But I hope to have the new list up this week. One of my goals on the new list is to blog 3 times a week . Here is the first for this week:) I will also have a post about the unexpected things I did last year that were not on the list! that's on tap for my next post :)
jen
I was emailing with a friend last week and I mentioned that I had over 90 books stacked next to my bed to read. So I took a picture.
Before you think that I own some stock in Borders or Amazon.com I should explain that I belong to a site called paperbackswap.com that I get most of these books through. By posting books I've already read and shipping them off to others I get credit towards other books that I can keep or read and re-post. In fact, a couple of these have already made their way on to others but I also just got 7 more books in the mail. Just when I think I've chipped away at the pile I get an influx of books from my wishlist...which is great...I'm just starting to worry that I will never get through this pile. This is one of the main reason's I've stopped watching television except for a few shows. The fear that I will die before I get all my books read...
so when I wasn't around the past two months you can now see where I was....buried under a huge stack of books:)
jen
1. Spring morning, 2. 76/365: Happy Saint Patrick's Day!, 3. One Headlight, 4. Untitled, 5. if you weren't real I would make you up ..., 6. spring is there if you just look hard enough., 7. lanterns in my neighborhood, 8. Lilac Buds, 9. Shadows and tall trees, 10. Untitled, 11. more pink tree flowers, 12. Spring Like, 13. Summer fun!, 14. spring art, 15. i love yellow flowers., 16. one.dress.finished
(how do I consistently pick the one photo that won't post in these mosaics...grrr)
I don't have any excuse for being gone this long other than life got in the way. As did the cold winter weather. I dislike January and February the most of any of the months. How dark it is so early in the evenings. How cold it is even on days it looks like it should be warm. We did have a small heat wave a few weeks ago but even then I was trying to enjoy those brief few days and didn't think about my blog. Contrary to the impression I may give I do like having a blog. If only for me to remember what went on in my life over the month.
Like now.
I sit here wanting to catch you up on my life for the past few months and I can't remember anything of any interest. Suffice to say i am still working out like a mad woman, still cooking most nights, still suffering the drama that is a teenage daughter, still facebooking everyday. My husband and I took up geo caching again. We went through the loss of my daughter's first grandparent (on her dad's side). I've been working on invitation samples for my sister in law (wedding in August) but not really scrapbooking anymore. I've almost given up TV completely for reading instead.
So this is me... dipping my toe back into the blogosphere. Hopefully this time I can keep it up...
jen
