Way, way past bedtime

We had a really full weekend - saw lots of friends and family, ate lots of yummy food, sampled some delicious wines, and generally just said 'yes' to summer. Mirelle stayed up way past her bedtime Friday, Saturday and Sunday just to make it all happen. And we forgoed Sunday's nap too. We celebrated Sophia's second birthday Friday night, and welcomed Jay and Mimi to Boulder. We clinked wine glasses and bidded for silent auction items Saturday night in Denver at my cousin Eric's gala for his non-profit organization, while Mirelle ran around in the grass with Olivia, the 4-year-old of the hosts. Sunday we visited new second cousin Brayden (9 days old) and Great Grandma (almost 89 years old) in Colorado Springs, then had dinner with friends visiting from Albuquerque. Mirelle romped, frolicked, got dirty, sifted rocks, slipped in the grass, got grass stains on her PJs, ate drive-by dinners (ie put a forkful of food in her mouth as she motors by), and mimicked the wanderings of McKenna, our friends' little girl exactly 1 year older than Mirelle to the day.

Ross sent me this link to this great little article about discipline/permission and letting kids be kids. I particularly like this part:

So breathe deeply and pray for gentleness, patience and the ability to forgo perfect control or perfect behavior at every turn. Guide, and then let them run and tumble, and go by themselves, and sometimes fail. Let the little ones get wet and get dirty, let the teens borrow the car and go without you. They grow anyway, hindered or unhindered by us.

What are some other ways to let our little ones be a little more unhindered? What about ourselves? (This is definitely a challenge for me - I usually like to keep things pretty orderly and on schedule, both for Mirelle and for me.) Time to say yes to spontaneity and things not always looking tidy!

green girls' night + sangria

Last night I hosted one of my sister's first emagineGreen workshops - we had sangria (really good recipe here), chatted about all things eco, from local CSAs (community supported agriculture), to composting, to our eco addictions (which ranged from Chlorox wipes to paper towels to boiling too much water in our teapots for just one cup of tea). It was a fun evening, and thanks to all my ecoPals for coming!

This weekend I'm aiming to support the little Louisville Farmer's Market again, hopefully hit some garage sales (looking for a little backyard playhouse for Mirelle), do a long run, and chill. We're also heading to a wine tasting/silent auction tomorrow night to support my cousin's nonprofit, revision international.

I also wanted to post a photo of the finished Adirondack dumpster-diving chair, now completely refabed and coated in a orange stain.



And one more crafty-related project. Ross bought this really ugly citronella candle, so I covered it with some iota paper yesterday before the Workshop. That's about as crafty as I have time for these days. Better, no?

JPG for Mimi!

Mimi, this is for you to download - just click on the image (it will open in a new screen), and drag that larger image to your desktop.

(A rather roundabout way to get a file that keeps becoming corrupt via email ...)

Off for a long weekend

We're headed to Glenwood this weekend - it's the annual Strawberry Days festival, so we'll take Mirelle to her first parade, eat strawberries and ice cream in the park, and spend some QT with the fam. Have a great weekend - see you next week!

see how the garden grows...

Mid-June, and the garden is growing! I think it's past that tender 'will it make it?' stage, but now we have to hope the little flying beetle bug dudes don't chomp all of the greenery. Last summer they had a hey day with the kale and chard. Seems like they're taking a liking to the baby bok choy that is looking so tender and sweet at the moment. I'm wondering if I should just harvest it (early) before the bugs get to it. And soap spray helps, too.

Tonight's my sister's first emagineGreen workshop, and I'm going to show up in this tee I designed (also sold by emagineGreen, via my sister). Next Thursday, the workshop's at my house, so if you're in Denver, c'mon over!


I'm also going to talk up the lobotoME pads that emagineGreen sells at both of these workshops - I love using the FeedME pad for meal planning. Meals around here of late have involved a)some sort of bean, b) a grain or pasta and c)a veggie of some sort. I'm really into bean/grain salads - vinegar, olive oil, herbs, maybe some feta cheese. The key to beans is this: eat a small quantity of beans at any given time, but eat beans more often. (At least I think.)

Last week...

I was a negligent blogger. I was maxed preparing for the Aspen Writers' Foundation's Aspen Summer Words coming up June 22-26. Working on numerous things, one being this Get Lit ad campaign for a concert with PremaSoul and DJRekha(part of the Literary Festival). I'll be up there for some of the Festival, and am planning on checking this out.

Premasoul comes on first, which I think I can swing, at 8 pm. (They fuse Indian melodies and mantras with jazz, blues, and R & B.) DJ Rehka, who I'd really like to see (profiled by NPR, here), is on at 10 pm, and well, my mommy self might not be able to swing that. We shall see!

Sneaky sneaky

Some ideas for sneaking veggies into your tot's food (from Delcious Living) If they're not down with it as is...

avocado: puree 1/2 avocado with 2 cups smoothie
cauliflower: cook 1 cup florets, drain. Puree with a bit of water or milk 'til smooth. Mash in equal parts with potatoes; whisk 1/2 cup into 2 eggs before scrambling, or whisk 1/2 cup into 1 cup cheese sauce
pumpkin: blend 1/4 cup canned pumpkin puree with 1 cup pasta sauce; or whisk 1/4 cup into 1 cup warm cheese sauce
spinach: puree 1/4 cup frozen, thawed, chopped spinach with 2 cups chocolate shake or 1 cup pasta sauce before cooking; or mix 1/2 cup into brownie or muffin batter before baking

Wheeeee ! !

It's summer! We're charting out our plans for the summer - hoping to relish each gorgeous day and drink it all in! Ross rigged up the kiddie swing for Mirelle - not only with the existing rope provided by the manufacturer - but with the addition of about 5 additional feet of climbing rope. That thing catches some air.

A few ways we're celebrating summer:
:: we've now officially made our back patio our dining room for the next four months.
:: regular saturday visits to the farmer's market.
:: meadow music at chautauqua mtn park (kiddie music, dining al fresco)
:: 4-pass loop backpacking trip in the plans for early July
:: a week off in August (to Jackson WY area, perhaps?)

Yipee! Je t'aime l'été!

Everything you need to know

about the democratic race in 8 minutes...

click here to watch. It's a good summary!

Happy birthday today to Mary and Katherine! I'm still working on catching up from being away last week, so will post more later this week.

One more quick post...

Just found Mighty Girl's blog, and while glancing at it ever-so-briefly, I happened upon this post about having a postpartum body. I thought it was good, and just a little reality check about life after having a baby. I think it was around 9-12 months before I really felt like my old self. But I have to admit, after having a child, I was pretty tuned in to the fact that my body rocks, and a few little extra rolls here and there are tiddly winks compared to all of the amazing stuff it can do.

That just reminded me of a great body song I heard a few years back by Lisa Hunter. Here's an Oprah link on that same subject.

Headed out

I'll be logging off for a couple of days - I'm headed to Scottsdale for meetings and conference with emagineGreen. Just wrapped up the first version of their website, amongst other things. My sister will be joining me on Friday as a start to her training as a greenCoach for emagineGreen, and I'm looking forward to hosting a workshop for her! If you live in the Denver area, I'll invite you. It's lots of fun.


I've also been working away on projects for the Aspen Writers' Foundation's Summer Words Festival. Planning on checking out some of the speakers later in June.

So, sayonara, until next week!

Tender Shoots

The garden is starting to look more like a garden. Little teeny plants are sprouting up, and, well, I didn't mark the rows, so I have no idea what's growing where. I'm a bit of a disheveled gardener. I planted some flowers, too - sunflowers, zinnias and cosmos, and some sweet peas thrown in for good measure - and they're all scattered together so we'll see what springs up.


I'm also growing a climbing plant from seed that I can't think of the name of - oh, wisteria. The garden center has an 8-year-old wisteria plant growing over the trellis that covers the outdoor plants - it's an amazing thing. Purple flowers, windy branches and root ... we'll see what this little guy does. I planted three seeds in this pot, and they're all coming up. Not sure at what point I should plant it in the garden, or where ... We'll need to build a trellis!


The other thing growing around here is Mirelle's hair. And she's looking more like a little girl than ever.

So I'm outside watering the garden tonight at 9pm, thinking about how much work and water it takes to nourish these little seedlings into beautiful plants by the end of the summer. The summer provides that kind of opportunity: to nurture tender shoots into something great. Seeds become vegetables that I'll cook up into some yummy meal, and colorful flowers that will make their way to vases on the breakfast table and my desk. But that warm summer evening air brings with it optimism of the adventures to be had: plans to keep adding mileage to work up to a half marathon or marathon this fall, mornings to get out on the bike to work up to a hilly ride, and days to explore new places and fun things happening in the evenings. Oh, and some camping, too. Time to trade our little backpacking tent in for something a bit more spacious!


Oh, and one more thing. I've been googling for 'specialty/gourmet dried beans' for ever and ever, and never came up with anything. Angry Chicken's blog posted this morning about a source for these types of beans ... yahoo! I'm looking forward to trying some of these crazy varieties over at Rancho Gordo. And I would agree with her - the packaging is way cool. photo from angry chicken.