Green Lake Open Water Swim-Because I can't just go on vacation....

It may have something to do with my upbringing. I could blame my parents. They did call week long bike rides "family vacation" after all. Maybe it's just in my genes.
So as you know I went to Seattle and while there I planned to swim a one mile open water swim at Green Lake. The event is hosted every year by Seattle Parks and Rec. and cleverly called G.L.O.W.S
Have you figured out what it stands for yet?
There were about 100 people swimming the mile and as you can see from the picture many were wearing wetsuits. It was cold, so very cold. I brought my tri suit to swim in, but even that extra thin layer of fabric didn't help much. In the beginning of the swim I had a really hard time getting my breath under control. People were literally on top of me, got pushed under and swam over. Scary stuff. The water was so murky though that you really couldn't see the person next to you until you were right on top of them so I swam breaststroke. It took me about a quarter of a mile until my breathing became regular and I felt like I wasn't just breathing in my chest but actually deep in my lunges. I've been training for the Iron Girl Triathlon so I felt pretty confident starting this swim. When I'm out in the middle of this murky lake the battle of good and bad begins in my head. The internal monolgue...good:"you are doing great!"...bad:"seriously? breaststroke? Swim freestyle for God's sake!"
I started to really beat myself up mentally for swimming breaststroke. I'm a strong swimmer. While training in the pool I swim freestyle but once I put my head in and start freestyle in the lake I can't get my sense of direction together and I always end up swimming way off course and then getting totally frustrated with myself. I reached the half mile mark, rounding the corner I thought to myself...WTF who the hell cares if I DO swim breaststroke the entire time! It's not against the rules. I'm a really, really good breaststroker. So with that positive feeling within my soul... I took a deep breath, pulled that murky water away from my body and passed 5 people. Swimming strong. Reminding myself that I'm doing this..I'm finishing this strong.
So often we beat ourselves up over not reaching some far off expectation that we put upon ourselves when in reality we should be rejoicing in the feats that we have accomplished.
Drop kick that bad attitude and get back on course the best way you know how. The way that works for YOU!

Banana Bread with Peanut Butter & Chocolate Chips

It doesn't get any yummier than this. Seriously add chocolate chips to anything and my kids will eat it. It's not listed in the ingredients but I also add brown rice protein to the recipe, I like to hide as much protein as I can in pastries and breads for the 5 year old vegetarian in our house.

Ingredients:
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
3/4 cup light brown sugar
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
2 medium bananas, mashed
1/3 cup creamy peanut butter
2/4 cup cottage cheese
1 large egg
2 Tbs. canola oil
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350F.
Coat loaf pan with oil or cooking spray, whichever you prefer. Combine dry ingredients and mix well. In a separate bowl combine wet ingredients, once completely mixed add wet mixture to the dry mixture and stir until combined. Scrape batter into loaf pan.
Bake 40-50 minutes or until knife inserted into the center comes out clean.
Cool completely and then slice and serve.

The Jitterbugs Reunite!

There are few people in this world that I can look at in the eye and know I'll forever have them in my life. These 3 women, The Jitterbugs, are my constant. If you follow me on twitter you know I've been in Seattle for a long weekend. Wendi is about to have a baby and move from Seattle to Michigan. She's got a lot on her plate right now; selling the house, finding a new one, moving and oh yeah have a baby and take care of the 2 kids she already has. What better way to surprise her then to just show up...unexpectedly on her doorstep. We had a wonderful visit, lots of laughs and memories made that I'll cherish for always. I feel so refreshed and renewed just being around the Jitterbugs. Thank you ladies for an awesome weekend. I love you all!!!

A glimpse of our days...

The start of our unschooling summer looks a lot like this.
Laughter.
Learning opportunities simply landing on our shoulders and lots of discovering.

Uniform Project

It's an interesting idea, this woman has decided to wear the same dress everyday for a year as an exercise in sustainable fashion. Before you utter the words..eeeewwww like my 5 year old would...she has 7 identical dresses. Each day she will post a picture of how she jazzed it up with donated accessories and cheap finds. She is just beginning the Uniform Project, it will be exciting to see where she is at in 6 months. The best part is she's raising money for the Akanksha's School Project. Anytime someone decides to do something and give back to a community or charity has my full support. You go girl!!

Free Sale

This past Saturday a few friends and I had a free sale. Kinda like a yard sale but everything was free.
Why?
Why not?
Two friends are in the precess of selling their house and moving and are just at the point where they just want it gone. I suggested the idea of a free sale, I've gone to a few and held my own in Seattle before we moved cross country. I'm a girl who loves to purge, any excuse to clear out some stuff (especially toys) before my kids' summer birthdays. We posted the sale with a short list of some of the items on every message board we each belonged to. Freecycle, Moms groups, community news based groups etc. We posted a few signs around the neighborhood as well. In the emails we clearly mentioned we would not hold items for anyone and that we would not tolerate early birds. My friend and I both share a love of organizing so we made sure to organize all the items into clusters of stuff. Electronics, kitchen items, books, games, outdoor/sports, and toys. This was a huge help in making items easy for people to find and take it out of the house. The sale began at 9am and we had a line waiting at the front door when we opened it. Quickly the house was filled with folks. I was pleasantly surprised how kind and appreciative people were. Everyone thanked us profusely and there were even moments when people were trading items or giving up something to give to someone else who had a stronger desire for it. I kinda had a vision in my head of those parents fighting over Cabbage Patch Dolls in the aisles of toys stores back in the 80's. Do ya'll remember that? Check out this video for a fashback.
Within 2 hours the house was wiped out. It was a lot of fun and we met some cool folks. So if you don't have the energy to do a yard sale, price items, set it up, tear it down etc... Or if you think you don't have items that people would pay for...Instead hold a "Free Sale"! You'd be surprised what people will take when it's free. Hot pink ankle weights anyone?!?!
A free sale is a lot less work and honestly at the end of the day you feel really good about doing it.

Daddy Day Gift

Jon and I are not gift people, typically we decide to not give each other gifts and instead buy a large item for the house. Not the most romantic, I know, but practical. I decided to make a little something special for him this year with the kid's help of course. A cute little picture cube for his desk at work. I picked up the cube and poster board at Target for less than 6 bucks! This would also make a great birthday gift for grandparents. Freehand I cut out the letters to spell "LOVE". I've seen another blog that spelled out DADDY, I can't find it to plug but that's where the idea was sparked in my mind. I took each child alone outside under a tree to take the pictures and used the time to teach them how to spell love, we talked about why we were making this, why daddy is so special, what their favorite things about him are. I took shots of both kids with each letter and later figured out the order based on the best pictures. On the top and bottom of the cube I added a single shot of each child. I cropped the pictures and adhered to textured scrapbook paper and inserted into the cube. Yes it's that easy!