Monthly Archives: April 2012

In the ground… well, a pot(s)
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In the ground… well, a pot(s)

I worked from home today, and instead of taking a lunch break I took a potty potting break… =)

My weekend was just nuts and I didn’t get to finish tilling the ground for the actual garden plot, and I knew I had to get these out of the solo cups or else the roots wouldn’t have anywhere to go. I’m looking forward to this weekend… I think I will actually have the time to work on my garden. Until then… I am heeding the advice of To Be Frank and letting my little baby plants ease into the outside world. Though she cautioned me about letting them get too much sun too quickly, I was just thinking that it’s a little chilly out, so I just took them in from the deck. It’s about 55º F now… too cold for little un’s, me thinks.

So… yeah… goodnight.

getting started

cukes and parsley

Finished. I hope they don't die.

cukes

I hope I didn't hurt the parsley by transplanting...it looks so...wee

tomatoes

a wee tom

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Life. Home. Garden. Gym. Cheesecake.
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Life. Home. Garden. Gym. Cheesecake.

Life has been busy with work and home responsibilities. I had taken off April 5th to do some major cleaning/purging around the house, but that didn’t happen, because I wound up having to work. I had a huge project I had to finish up… and because I didn’t finish on the 5th I also had to work on the 6th, which was an official “my-office-is-closed-and-I-should-not-be-working” day.

So… instead of having a 4-day weekend two weeks ago… I am having one this weekend. But my husband is working Saturday and Sunday… so I am on full time Mommy duty all weekend.

I’ll get some things done, but that fire in my belly that I felt on the 4th and 5th for everything I had to do around the house? So Gone.

Things I will do:

1. Continue on getting my garden together. This is taking a lot longer than I’d thought. I remember seeing this post by To Be Frank and thinking, ok, we’re talking an afternoon. A few hours. Let me tell you… um, it’s taking a bit longer than that. This past Sunday, I started. I spent time going to the local hardware/garden store and getting a few supplies and tools… and then I had to take a hacksaw and cut two 6-foot long wooden garden stakes in half. So that was some additional “unbudgeted” time… oh, and also? I didn’t consider that taking a pitchforky thing and digging up a strip of grassy earth that is 10 foot by about 1 foot would be so 1. fricken HARD or 2. take so effin LONG. (Note: the actual garden will be about 3 x 10 but only about 1 x 10 is grassy… the rest is a former, uh “wild” flower bed.)

These bitches are so going in the ground this weekend (or at least a flower pot outside if I can't get the dern garden done)

2. Exercise. But that takes me to my next, ahem, random fact: today was the first day in about 2 weeks I was able to get to the gym. And it sucked because it’s been about 2 weeks since I’ve been to the gym. I haven’t been able to get there because of my work or my husband’s, plain and simple… but because I am off, and because my trainer guilted me into it, I committed to go and work out with said trainer tomorrow and Friday. So I won’t be able to walk at all this weekend! (Me: OH shut up and stop whining. Me: OK *hangs head*).

I had seen this post by Fork & Beans back on the 6th of April… so I guess now is as good a time as any to say that I am going to take the official Fork and Beans “Take a Hike Challenge!” I’m committing to some form of physical activity, whether it be gardening, gym exercise, cleaning, running in the park with Chloe…”30 minutes every day for the next 30 days”. Let’s see how this pans out…

3. Food. Hmm. Hasn’t been so good. Nothing to be super proud of and writing home about. Have I been eating processed food? Some. Have I been eating sugar? Yes. Have I eaten meat since Lent ended on Easter? Yes. Did you see the title of this post? Yes…

In other news:

1. Inspiring in so many ways: I just found this blog. Read her story. Totally wow.

2. I have committed to doing the EIF Revlon Run/Walk on May 5 in NYC. My cousin was recently diagnosed with stage 2 breast cancer and I am walking for her. She is 44, a mother of 3 and just had a double mastectomy… and while she will need chemo she just found out her cancer was contained in the one lymph node and she will not need radiation treatments — which is wonderful news =)

3. There is probably more news to share, but not now. I have to go to bed so that I may wake up refreshed to start my 2 days of SO MANY THINGS.

Good night.

Seedling Update
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Seedling Update

The official tally, as of this evening:

Tomatoes: 12 planted… 12 have sprouted!

Cucumbers: 15 planted… 10 have sprouted!

Parsley: 15 planted… 4 have sprouted!

Bad on left, good on the right

I dumped the ones that showed no signs of life tonight. Even if there was even the slightest bit of something coming up I’m counting it as sprouted… for now! I’m hoping to get some time to plant them into pots this weekend. I also GOTTA get that garden ready!

I’m growing things.
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I’m growing things.

After seeing some inspiring gardening posts, especially this one from To Be Frank and this one from Barnyard Dave, I decided to not only plant a garden this year but to actually start to grow things from actual SEEDS.

I know. Crazy, right?

What’s crazier is that it’s working!

Lots of cups

a baby cucumber

tomato beginnings

I started tomatoes, parsley and cucumbers indoors in cups. I’ll plant the carrots and peppers directly into the garden once it’s ready. Not all of my seedlings have taken, but it’s so nice to see the ones that are coming up as green little beings.

Happy gardening!

PS: Another blog that helped inspire me: Garden to Wok.

I’m afraid of green smoothies.
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I’m afraid of green smoothies.

Ok, there, I said it. Even though I have been SUPER impressed (seriously) with the 7-day juice fast my blogger buddy I used to be fat(ter) just did, I think I would certainly more “readily” try a green juice over a green smoothie. At this moment in time, there is just something about the words “green” and “smoothie” that don’t seem to go together to me.

Maybe it’s because the smoothies I have been drinking are almond-milk based and look something like this:

  • 16-24 oz unsweetened almond milk
  • 1 frozen banana
  • 1 scoop protein powder (whey-based), either chocolate or vanilla
  • 1/3 to a 1/2 cup of other fresh or frozen fruit (cherries, berries, etc.)
  • 1 teaspoon chia seeds

I even purchased a single serving packet of Vibrant Health’s Green Vibrance after reading Awkward Eldon’s morning smoothie recipe. Actually, I was seriously intrigued enough to buy all these ingredients (except the Goji Berries … the package said women who are pregnant or trying to become pregnant should avoid them… and hubby and I are trying for kid #2). I also did not buy the Raw Manuka Honey because I had sticker shock when I went to Whole Foods to get it. $30 for honey??? Yeah, yeah, it’s supposed to be magic or something, I get it. I will have to bug my super healthy friend Paula for a book report on the pros and cons of this wonderous nectar! (Hear that Paula???)

It’s funny, because a Facebook post from Paula actually prompted me to write this. She posted this link about green smoothies.

I guess there’s also a zillion ways to make a smoothie… I just did a Google image search on green smoothie and came up with a few OK-looking ones, like this:

I think this looks more appetizing to me because it’s got some fruit in it… but it seems there’s yogurt in this one. I don’t like yogurt in my smoothies…but those without at least a non-dairy milk look like green juice. And almond milk + spinach doesn’t sound so good to me.

Now that I look at the website where I found this recipe, called “Nutrient Packed Green Smoothie”…it appears on the website of Chef Marcus Samuelsson… it seems to be a recipe by someone named Madeleine Ignon. Regardless… I think I have some more homework to do where green smoothies are concerned. I’m sure I can come up with a few that I will at least want to TRY.

In other news… I haven’t been able to go to the gym for the last couple of weeks, either due to my job or my husband’s. We don’t like using the child care in the gym; since my daughter is in daycare all day M-F, I don’t want to leave her in the care of someone else on the weekends, too, even if it’s only for an hour. Since it’s getting warmer I’m looking for other ways to be active with her outside, so it’s not like I’ve been a total slug. And this Thursday I took off from work so I could do some spring cleaning. I am super psyched to be setting aside some major time blocks to do some things around the house. I have a list for what needs to be done in each room in the house, so I’m hoping that between Thursday and Friday (which is Good Friday) I can get 1/2 or at least a 1/3 done of what is on the list.

And because Easter is right around the corner, that means my dabble with vegetarianism is… or can be… coming to a close. I really have no desire to eat meat; I have been eating seafood over Lent, but I don’t think I’ll feel like eating any chicken or beef next week. My problem is the carbs: my dinners have either been veggies with carbs or veg/seafood protein/carbs. When I first started working out with my trainer she’d told me no carbs after 5pm… I stuck to that rule for a while and definitely had results. Since Lent started… yeah, not so much. Gotta get back on track with that too…such is my life!