Ideas for Spring

Brainstorming some ideas for the change in season.

• memorize the ingredients for a new recipe
• plan a weekend trip somewhere we’ve never been
• give away a bag of clothes
• sign up for a race
• buy new stationary and write a letter
• put up some new pictures around the house
• buy fresh tulips
• go on a long walk with just my camera
• buy a new dress
• clean out the refrigerator
• make lots of pizza dough and freeze it
• re-do one corner of one room of the house/apartment
• buy tickets for an outdoor concert this summer
• make a summer reading list
• plant something
• start reading through the Psalms
• tune up bikes

Not sure how many of these I will accomplish, but it is fun to daydream and think ahead to the warm weather. What else?!

Week 8

I am pretty much at the halfway mark for my training (for this) and I have gotten in to a nice rhythm of life with working, biking, swimming, and eating! I thought I would share my training schedule as I have taken a couple plans I found online and married them along with the fact that I am only training for 2 sports as opposed to 3. It is simple and simplicity is good for me (this next part is probably pretty boring for most, feel free to skip down a couple paragraphs when I reference some delicious recipes) –

I do 3 swims and 3 rides a week. One day I do a brick workout meaning I do both a bike and swim workout (if you do the math, this means I get two whole days off a week!). Out of the 3 workouts for each discipline I try to do a short, medium, and long workout each week (the brick is usually a mixture of short and mediums).

Building — for 3 weeks in a row I add 10% (more or less) to each workout. On the 4th week I get a ‘rest’ week where I drop my workouts 40%. Then I start back from my week 2 and build 10% again for 3 weeks. The 2 days off are best if they fall after the long bike ride or the brick work out as those tend to be the most exhausting and my body is ready to rest.

Here is an example from my week 5:

Sunday – 30 min endurance swim (med)

Monday  – 40 min bike (short)

Tuesday – 38 min 1 mile swim (long)

Wednesday – 1 hour bike (long)

Thursday – OFF

Friday – 25 min speed swim (short)

Saturday – OFF

As many numbers as I have just typed I am actually not much of a numbers person. I have a sweet new polar heart rate monitor (FT4) that I bought used for $20 that has saved me on my bike rides and stores all my workouts to refer back to from week to week (time, avg heart rate, calories burned, etc). And, don’t get me wrong, I have slacked and missed a workout from time to time, but it does help me to record my workouts in my journal and then write out my 6 workouts on the fridge every week and cross them off as I do them.

One beautiful thing about burning so many calories is guilt free calorie consumption!  Thanks to my love for new recipes found on pinterest, I have tried two new ones this week that I will pass along.

I (almost) single handedly took down a loaf of THIS deliciousness… and you should only need to pick up 2 lemons, a bag of frozen blueberries, and a cup of whole milk yogurt or the fatty greek yogurt.

I made THIS recipe last night and highly recommend it. Sweet potatoes and black beans? Yummo. I had some leftover yogurt from the previous recipe and it was perfect on top!

AND one final thing. Music is always an inspiration for me as I workout so I will leave you with my favorite motivating work out songs of the week. I am always looking for new ones so let me know if you have any suggestions!

Rihanna – “We Found Love” (not a lot of words to have to memorize and sing along)

Flo Rida – “Good Feelin”

Adele – “Rumour has it” (even though we all hear Adele 5 x’s a day, it’s still motivates me)

Glee Cast – “We are Young” (ok, the original is pretty great too)

Eminem and Nate Dogg – ‘Til I Collapse” (always, always include Eminem in a workout playlist)

NEEDTOBREATHE – “Drive All Night”

Cool DOWN –

Peter Bradley Adams — “Somthing Bout You Lately”

The Band Perry – “If I Die Young”

the year ahead

I bought the big warm down coat and I have two pairs of tall, waterproof boots (one even has fur!). I have been hyped up about the ominous Chicago winter ever since we decided to move here almost two years ago, and here it has been one of the mildest winters in recent history. Yes, God doesn’t answer all of our prayers but he answers some! I do love the coziness of winter though and the fact that I haven’t taken down some Christmas lights and our heat is free makes it even more cozy in our little place.

I know that it’s a bit late for New Year’s resolutions, but I have been thinking more and more about what my desires are for this year. Perhaps it is because I start my 30′s this year or perhaps it is because I look at my day planner way too often (yes, I still use one of those paper versions), but whatever the reason I am going to be a goal setter this year! Here we go –

• Do my first Olympic distance race (see last post)
• Be better at planning meals and buy healthier snacks for when I come home starving and have those late night snack cravings (marshmallows are my standard as of today)
• make a photo book of all of our Chicago guests
• Be in the best shape of my life (a bit subjective, i know)
• Get out of the city more and explore the Midwest; drive more country roads; head up the Michigan coast
• Do some long distance bike rides (perhaps Chicago – Milwaukee – Chicago in two days)
• Give my time away – serve at church, watch friends kids, and have time to volunteer
• Expand my creative horizons and work on personal gifts for friends and family with photography, cross stitch, and knitting.
• Continually working on — growing in my knowledge and understanding of the kingdom of God; loving those around me with intentionality; supporting Timothy in his endeavors
• Learn something new/ take a risk toward work that I love (i know, general, but i have some ideas)
• Spend time with our amazing families in Charleston and Los Angeles (Ok, that ones gonna be easy)

So we shall see… In the meantime, I will leave you with another picture of our cozy winter evenings that is almost guaranteed to make you yawn. Hope you are all enjoying some cozy nights and warm food!

i am not a runner

I actually haven’t been for approximately 4 1/2 years. The short story is that I did a poor job training for a half marathon, decided to run it anyway, and ended the race with a pop in the knee, tears, and shattered pride. It is that same pride that didn’t really let me talk about my inability to run and when people assumed I was still a runner I didn’t correct them.

There is an upside to this story. In the meantime, my inability to run has thrown me more in to the worlds of cycling and swimming than I would have been otherwise. I have “competed” in (or completed I should say) some triathlons  either walking the run portion or doing a relay with friends or husband… until last summer when I discovered it. It being the AQUABIKE!  The name sounds like something sold on an info-mmercial promising to make my thighs smaller for 10 easy payments of $29.95. But no, the aquabike race is just the swim and run portions of the triathlon and while it feels somewhat like a cop out not to run it was such a great feeling to actually finish a race!

All of that to say I have set my goals high (at least relative to myself) for this summer. This summer will be my summer of the Aquabike.  My first race will be the weekend of my 30th birthday in Knoxville, TN (hello new and more difficult age bracket!) — check out the race here.

As usual, the biggest hurdle for me right now is getting my butt back in the pool and keeping it there with some consistancy. Something about getting in water (even indoor average temperature h2o) when it’s snowing outside is difficult. I am excited and nervous about the challenge ahead and I’m just praying that I can be healthy and strong even if I finish last!

The city that never sleeps, a weekend in NYC

Ah, New York City at Christmas time. I have always wanted to experience it and last weekend we packed a bag, caught the ‘El’ to the airport in the snow at 2 am, and flew to the Big Apple to spend the weekend with friends. Here are a few highlights:

• Watching our beloved Huskies take on Duke at Madison Square Garden. The men in purple and gold fell short but did give a valiant comeback in the last few minutes that got the blood pumping and made us proud.
• Walking through Central Park. The contrast between the huge, undeveloped green space and the rest of the city is so cool.
• Of course, the week-old REI Manhattan.
• Seeing small gangs of progressively more intoxicated Santas all over the city for Santa Con. According to their website, Santa Con is a “non-denominational, non-commercial, non-political and non-sensical Santa Claus convention that occurs once a year for absolutely no reason.” Anyway, it was entertaining.
• Sharing a two bedroom apartment above the Manhattan Sikh Center with 5 other good friends, laughing, catching up, sharing bathrooms.
• Bagels.
• Rockefeller Center and the Christmas tree (imported from Pennsyvania, but we have no idea how they get it there in one piece?) was good to see, but wow, was it crowded. There were times when we couldn’t even walk down the sidewalk.  Between the basketball game and the tree we saw two proposals in the span on two hours!
• Two very different but epic dinners: one huge family-style Italian feast where we celebrated Lisa’s 29th birthday, and one Japanese bonanza with our waiter leading Sake-bomb chants.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art. So many Picassos and Van Goughs and Monets. You could spend a week in there and not see half of the amazing art. After seeing many of these artists’ works here in Chicago, we felt so cultured when we recognized their style from across the room in a different museum.

Flying back in to Chicago on Sunday night our city felt strangely small. We had so much fun in New York and are excited to see where the Huskies will take us next year…

all of the lights

December is upon us and all of the hustle, bustle, and beauty that comes with Christmas time.  Currently, Tim is doing a 3 month stint at a clinic out in Aurora… Aurora is the furthest you can get away from Chicago and still be considered a suburb. He drives about an hour and half each way!! REI continues to get busier by the day even though we have had a mild Midwest winter so far (thank you Jesus). My challenge has been figuring out how to gear up properly for my bike commute to work. I have set a goal to ride through December and I have already taken the train a couple times when I see the number 2 starting the temperature.

Chicago itself is beginning to look a lot like Christmas–

Macy’s windows are full of shiny dresses and large wrapped gifts, the ice skating rinks are up in Millennium Park and Wrigleyville, Daley plaza hosts the city’s huge Christmas tree and booths full of German ornaments, and our neighbors have properly placed their adorned trees in their bay windows for the city to see.

ornament shopping

our Chicago wildlife keeping warm

We got a little tree that we carried through our neighborhood “When Harry Met Sally” style and modestly decorated with the handful of ornaments we have here.  We managed to fit it (or I should say Tim engineered it) up in the window between our kitchen and dining room. We had to get creative with our lack of floor space.

our little tree

one of our few ornaments

nativity

 

We are excited to have the next few days off as we are headed to New York City. We are meeting up with friends from Seattle to watch the Huskies play Duke in Madison Square Garden (go Dawgs) as well as explore the Big Apple all lit up (you know, like in Serendipity, Home Alone 2, Elf, etc, etc.).   More to come on that adventure…

Literary Glance

Just in case you are at a crossroads wondering what your next read might be, I thought I would write up some brief summaries of books we have read lately. And if you want to borrow our copy, let me know!

  First, The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson.  I must confess that while a handful of people had recommended the book to us, it wasn’t until I opened to the first page that I realized this is a non-fiction novel!  As I continued reading it blew me away that I didn’t know anything about the historical events that this book portrays.  TDITWC (come on, it’s shorter) is about two men and their lives surrounding the 1893 World’s Colombian Exposition. The first, Daniel H. Burnham, was the architect behind the fair construction in South Chicago. The second, H.H. Holmes (or so was his alias), a serial killer masquerading as a charming doctor.  Larson switches between the two lives and left me wanting to be a part of this fascinating time in history — far away from the “castle” of H.H. Holmes.  Where the book is a bit dry at times it makes up for it by tying together fascinating historical events such as Olmsted’s creation of the Biltmore in Asheville, NC and the sinking of the Titanic. Wonder how these all come together? You’ll have to read the book!  (PS – there is talk of a movie on this one involving Leonardo DiCaprio)

I know that The Secret Life of Bees is older as popular novels go, but I have been on a kick reading books that have recently become movies.  This book was a pretty quick and easy read in which Sue Monk Kidd takes you into the life of a 14 year old girl in a backcountry town in 1960′s South Carolina.  What I liked most about this novel was the sense of childhood magic and wonder that came through the eyes of the main character Lily.  The novel tells the story of a bright pink house where 3 sisters have made a living selling honey from their bees and what happens when Lily and her caregiver have no where to go but there. It is a story of faith, unusual women, coming of age, and honey. It made me reminisce about what went on in my head and heart at the age of 14.

Here is yet another non-fiction about two men. Same Kind of Different As Me has an entirely different story to tell and definitely one worth reading. I will say up front that this book made me cry – I’m talking about the kind of cry that shakes your shoulders. So be ready for that. The two men are Denver Moore, a man raised as a modern-day slave in Louisiana who spent the majority of his life homeless on the streets of Texas, and Ron Hall, a wealthy and well-educated art dealer who took some wrong paths. The book spans the story of their lives from a young age to recent history including how they became friends and how this unlikely friendship changed both of their lives. SKODAM is a book about faith, love, hope, and the ups and downs of our life here on earth. I was challenged and inspired and I think I will read this book again soon.

One more. I read A Homemade Life last summer, but I am throwing it in because it is quit different from my other recent reads.  Molly Wizenberg is the creative genius behind the food blog Orangette. This is her first book and it brings tastes and smells to the stories of her life.  Each chapter has a recipe and a story that goes along with it.  One reason I like this book so much is that I relate to her a lot — she is around my age and I can easily imagine myself drinking a glass of wine in her kitchen while we bake something from scratch without a recipe just to see how it will taste.  Molly is also a francophile and will inspire even the most home-body of you to fly to France and eat chocolate and bread for breakfast.  Molly and her husband opened a delicious New York inspired pizza restaurant on a quiet street in the Ballard neighborhood of Seattle. We have only been to Delancey once but will hands down recommend you go.

OK, that is all the books for today. I have to confess that I am currently half way through the Hunger Games trilogy and can’t put it down. I hope that doesn’t negate your thoughts on my taste in books.

Happy November Y’all.