Putting Life Into Perspective

With the terrible events of today in Japan, and the other natural disasters recently that seem to occur with more frequency, I think many people are taking the time to stop and reflect on their own lives.  While other peoples tragedies don't nullify our own trials and tribulations, it does give us an opportunity to be grateful for the things that we do have.  I won't lie, I've struggled this last year.  Raising a family of 7 on an income of less than $30,000 is HARD.  I've struggled personally with my own sense of failure as a mother, provider and friend.  I get so consumed with the daily grind that I lose sight of the things I'm thankful for.  So today I say thank you for healthy children, safe family members, a gloriously loving and supporting 'husband', a home not washed away, a refrigerator full of food and people who love me.  Those are actually the biggies.  There are so many smaller things that I am blessed with.  I will make a better effort not to lose sight of these things and not sweat the small stuff.  Please take a moment to take stock of your own life and be grateful for what you have and send your love and support to the people in Japan, Haiti, New Zealand and all the other people in the world whose world is dominated by disaster not to mention starvation and war.  My heart aches for you today!

Achieving My Exercise Goals

This weekend has been pretty exciting for me achieving some goals I'd set for myself in the running department.  Due to my continued and increasing pain in my elbow, I made the executive decision to stop lifting for the week to give my elbow a break.  Thus, the determination to run 2 miles set in.  My original goal was to run 2 miles by the end of the February.  That didn't happen but we must focus on our successes and not our failures.  Thus, this Friday past, I did 6.5 miles on the treadmill in two separate blocks.  Mostly I would run a quarter mile and walk a quarter mile.  Between the two blocks I did a little circuit I saw on kellyrennie.com.  Kelly Rennie is a figure model from the UK and what I like most about this circuit is it is something you can do anywhere, with little space and no equipment.  You do each exercise for 45 seconds with 15 seconds of rest in between.
1.  Squats
2.  Push-ups
3.  Lunges
4.  High Knees
5.  Plank
6.  Burpees

Now, mind you, you are supposed to do 4 complete sets of the circuit.  I made it through one and then went and jumped back on the treadmill.  I'll work my way up.

Today was my big breakthrough day.  I finished 5 miles on the treadmill in under an hour.  Of that 5, I ran three without stopping and another one on intervals.  I hit the two mile mark and said to myself, "Don't stop just because your goal is two miles, keep going if you can!"  I did it!  Woo-Hoo!  I made it past the one mile and now I'm just truckin' along.  You were right Tom!  Thank you for all the encouragement!

Swimming Into Baseball

Swimming season is over and it's now onto baseball season.  Drew has had baseball tryouts all week and thus far hasn't been cut so we are all very excited for him to participate in his first season of high school baseball.  Wednesday night was his awards ceremony for swimming for a photo op :)

Austin plays his last basketball game on Saturday morning.  He is sad that it's the end is here as he has really enjoyed the sport.  Tomorrow evening he is participating in the school's annual states fair.  Each student makes a display about one of the 50 states of which Austin chose Washington state.  He is working right now on a game to have at his station for the kids to play.  He's decided on a matching game between the faces of five Seattle Seahawks players and their names.  Here's the almost finished product :)

Trevin's big event this week.... Drivers Permit.  Trevin displayed his usual overwhelming excitement (Not really), but I'm sure he's happy about it.  Now we will have two teenagers pestering us to drive. Yeah.

Zane and Ainsley are looking forward to tomorrow for it is Grandparents Day at their school.  Grandma Rita will be spending some time with each of them in their classes and then to lunch with them.  I'm happy she is able to make it down to do this with them; they love it!

Tom has started his own blog about his own exercise and weight loss journey.  If you haven't had the chance yet check it out at optimisticchanges.weebly.com

Brandie comes into town tomorrow to work on wedding plans.  We are meeting with Jason, the caterer, on Saturday to hammer out some menu options.  I am very excited just to see her and spend some time with her.  It's always too short when she is here, but at least I get to see her a bit!

Have a great weekend to all and to all a good night!

What's For Dinner, Mom?

Being the mother of five beautiful children, the multiple chiming of, "Mom, what's for dinner?" sometimes comes close to driving me right over the edge.  We all lead hectic lives and often finding the time to figure out what to make for dinner is hindered by what you have in the cupboard or time constraints.  Well here is a tool to help you on your way.  I've always had lofty aspirations to figure out on a weekly basis what I am cooking then shopping for all the ingredients to take all the day-to-day planning out of it.  Unfortunately these aspirations have always stayed just that, aspirations.  I'm not sure if it's the dedication of such a large block of time on Sunday to sit down and figure it all out or my own tendencies to over-think everything and get easily distracted by all the yummy possibilities out there.  If only there was something out there that did most of the work for me.  Insert sigh.  Wait a tic...there is!  Tom discovered this website and shared it with me today. I think I will be using this a lot in the future.  Meals for You gives you options to search for meal menus by Ingredient, International Collections, healthy options and many more.  Each meal menu breaks down nutritional information as well as how long it takes to prepare.  Then once you've decided on which menus you want to prepare you can add it to your shopping list which breaks items down by department; print it, and off you go to the store to prepare your meals for the week with limited effort on your part!  In addition you can search individual recipes and if you like any of the recipes you've tried, you can create your own cookbook to save them!  As if all that isn't enough, there is also a tab with tips and guides with some pretty useful information.  Check this site out, hopefully you will find it as helpful as we did and happy cooking!

mealsforyou.com

StairMaster Challenge

It lurks in the corner....waiting to take you down.  It scoffs in your face as you pass by on your way to the locker cubbies to stow your sweatshirt before you work out.  "Hah, I knew you wouldn't have the guts to face me today.  I own you and your puny legs.  You can't take me on for you will surely collapse to the ground panting for breath and I, Stairmaster will loom over you extolling my victory."

I hate you Stairmaster.  There is no sugar-coating it.  I hate you with every fiber of my being with a fierceness that I reserve only for inanimate objects.  I hate you for the sweat-inducing, breath-taking, exhaustion bringing challenge that you represent.

Therefore, today I will conquer you.  I will climb your endless steps to nothingness.  I will face the destination that doesn't exist and I will accept your gauntlet.  We will see who has the last laugh today!  Okay, maybe it will be you, but at least I have the consolation that you'll still be there tomorrow and we can play our game of cat and mouse again.....

Chicken Liver Pate = Yum?

Tonight I was in the mood for what I call "Mediterranean".  For all the food purists out there, please accept my apologies if what I ate tonight wasn't exactly Mediterranean, but I like to take the Italian example of eating simple foods as a meal.  We had our usual salami, prosciutto, asparagus, hard-boiled eggs, cheese, bread and pears but after hours spent pouring over the beautiful cookbook of Tuscany I decided to try my hand at liver pate. (By the way, the book is literally called TUSCANY, The Beautiful Cookbook)  I'm sure I've lost several of you already to the word liver with things like, "yuck" and "gross" floating through your minds, but don't be so hasty.  The art of cooking is all about exploration and expanding your horizons and us Americans sometimes are limited on willingness to be adventurous when it comes to food.  You may associate something you've eaten with the one time you tried it 15 years ago or how your mom used to cook it both of which left you with memories you'd rather forget.  However, please try to open your mind to the fact that there is more than one way to prepare food, case in point, that other dish your mother makes that no one else can quite replicate.  Have you ever had two people's spaghettis that tasted just alike?  I know I haven't.  Heck, I often have trouble duplicating the same thing twice.  It's all about the mystic essence that is the heart of cooking that brings it all together in a culmination of love, effort and beautiful ingredients.  This is what I truly love about food and cooking, not to mention the way it brings friends and family together to simply enjoy each others company and relish in the joie de vivre!  So I dare you to try this liver pate; who knows, you might just find you like it!

As taken from TUSCANY, The Beautiful Cookbook

CROSTINI DI FEGATINI, Chicken Liver Toasts from Firenze
These are the most traditional Tuscan crostini.  The pate is often served on toasted country bread slightly moistened with stock.  In the local trattorias, crostini are a must with the antipasti, which nearly always include a slice of sopressata (a cured meat made of pig's head) and a slice of finocciona (a salami laced with fennel seed).


13 oz chicken livers
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 garlic cloves
6 bay leaves
salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup dry white wine
1 cup light chicken stock
1 tablespoon capers in salt
4 canned flat anchovy fillets in olive oil, drained
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
12 slices coarse country bread or French baguette

*Remove and discard any fat and connective tissue from the chicken livers.  Slice the livers into fairly large pieces.
*In a skillet over high heat, warm the olive oil.  Add the garlic, bay leaves and chicken liver pieces.  Season very lightly with salt and pepper.  Stirring frequently, cook over high heat until the mixture starts sticking to the skillet, about 5 minutes.
*Add the wine, scrape the browned bits from the bottom of the skillet and cook over high heat until the wine evaporates, about 2 minutes.  Add 1/4 cup of the stock, lower the heat to medium and cook for 5 minutes.  Remove from the heat.
*Remove and discard the bay leaves.  Put the liver mixture through the fine disc of a food mill, collecting the mixture in a small pan.  Alternately, pulse in food processor until smooth.
*Rinse the capers in cold water to remove the salt.  Place the capers and anchovies on a cutting board and chop together finely.  Add the caper-anchovy mixture to the liver mixture along with the butter.
*Place the pan over low heat and cook, stirring constantly, until the ingredients are well blended and smooth, just a few minutes.  Do not allow the mixture to boil.  Transfer the mixture to a bowl and let cool, stirring occasionally.
*Meanwhile, preheat an oven to 350 degrees.  toast the bread slices in the oven until golden.  Remove the bread and while they are still hot, dip each slice quickly in the remaining 3/4 stock.  Spread the toasts with the liver mixture and serve.

SERVES 6

Shannon's Notes:

*I didn't have any white wine so I had to substitute red wine instead to deglaze the pan with.
*The capers I used were just the regular packed in juice you get at the store but I still rinsed them.
*I didn't have any anchovies on hand either but I did have a tube of anchovy paste that I use for caesar dressing.  I just squirted about a tablespoon on top of the capers before I chopped them up.

I surprised myself by how much I enjoyed this.  The changes I had to make seemed to work out okay.  Even Zane and Ainsley ate it up.  So for those of you that have the guts, give it a try and let me know how you liked it.  I love to hear about your culinary adventures!  Cheers!

Trevin's Birthday Pics

Thought I'd share some of Trevin's Birthday pictures.  We aren't actually doing his party until next weekend (his choice).  He decided he wanted to go with some friends paint balling at Camp Dakota which is where we spent last father's day.  They have a pretty incredible outdoor field; he said it was the best field he's ever played.  Therefore for his actual birthday Monday night, I made good dinner and his favorite of all birthday cakes, Lemon Supreme.  All the kids weren't here so I had made his all time favorite dinner on Sunday.  I don't often make it because it has about a gazillion grams of fat in it and I try to eat at least somewhat healthy.  So here are the pics of him enjoying his cake.  I'll post paint ball pics after the big event next weekend.