Catching up, in technicolor

The pace of my posting fell off a bit over the past week or two. It's been a busy time at home, and at work. By the time the evening rolls around, I'm generally dead tired. So, I thought I'd take the time to catch you up with some goings-on at our house. Most of these area scenes of peace, of family, of exercise, of produce. The things that bring me peace.

Last weekend, the family and some good friends had a nice hike in the local canyon, and did a little geocaching. The first cache we found was challenging one. As in, twelve feet up in the air. Here's our eldest daughter, out on a limb. That little dark green box in front of her is the cache.


The hike was wonderful. We saw some wildlife, including a hare and several squirrels, and many of the local wildflowers were popping.








The garden in our backyard is popping too. The first of our purple greens are ready to harvest, and made it into the dinner salad this evening. Our blueberry bushes have a few juicy morsels showing up now too. Not more than a nibble's worth yet, but there's buds on them thar bushes!




Faithful readers will have heard a lot about our composting project. A few weeks ago we rented a pickup, filled the bed a couple of times with compost from our local landfill, and shoveled it into our driveway. Over the past couple of weekends, we've been filling wheelbarrows and spreading it out in our gardens beds. A couple of layers of newspaper, four to six inches of compost on top, and the rampant weeds now growing in our garden beds will be toast. We hope.


It's a dirty job, but the kids love digging in the big piles of compost.




Finally, a peaceful note. This morning, I came out of our bedroom to find that my little son had, at some point, come out of his own room and crashed on the couch in the living room. So sweet :-)


The kittens had found their own cozy spot. These two are nearly inseparable. When apart for more than a few minutes, one or the other will start crying out, bringing the other running. So sweet :-)


I had a great workout this morning. I cranked up the intensity during my warmup, increasing the incline on the treadmill, then did two sets, each with squats, crunches and a lot of chest work with dumbbells. I followed all that up with a nice long set of stretches. All of this with Radiohead's "OK Computer" on the iPod. Jammin.

On a scale of one to ten, today's workout was about a six. My Anusara "restorative yoga" class would be a 1. My morning walks are about a 4. Two weeks ago, when I increased to three sets and upped the weight on all exercises, then went to my Ashtanga class...that was a ten...maybe an eleven. Much pain and fatigue followed. I'm shooting for an eight, by slowly adjusting things. This morning felt like a step in the right direction.

I've also added a little extra workout on the mornings when my wife goes for her walk. I do two sets of pushups, crunches and squats. I don't know if it's helping, really, but it can't be a bad thing.

On another note, I've been discovering all kinds of music I like through Pandora. I created a station based around Wah!, and am really enjoying Krishna Das, Larisa Stow, Deva Premal, Laureena McKennitt and many others. If you haven't tried Pandora, give it a shot. I love it. And it's free. Coolness.

Food log:

Breakfast: granola and fruit again...it's fast and easy, but I'll tire of it quickly without mixing it up a bit. Need to buy more fruit.

Lunch: sauteed veggies...the last of my current batch...need to make some hummus soon, grapes, some small slices of sausage and cheese on crackers.

Snacks: a granola bar

Dinner: leftover Macaroni and Cheese, a BIG mixed salad, and a glass of milk. Here's a picture of most of the veggies that went into the salad. Organic veggies, in a rainbow of colors, are just plain beautiful.


At the back left, you'll find our purple green beans. They have a deep lustrous purple skin, and are bright green on the inside. I'm told (but haven't tried it yet) that they turn green when cooked too. We'll see.