Three Things Thursday

1. Hill work: Tuesday, ran random hill program on the treadmill. I don't have any hills in the vicinity that would work for this, particularly in the dark. Bummer. 4 miles random hill program at level 7, @ 10:41 pace; 1 mile cool down. It was hard. HARD. But I didn't die, so I guess it was okay.

2. Gabby washed her hair last night. It's been over NINE MONTHS since she's needed her hair washed. I mean, her head gets cleaned, but hard to shampoo if there's no hair. But, last night. SHAMPOO!!!!!!

3. To expand on #2, Gabby washed her hair last night, on her own, and in doing so, shampooed my bathroom. It was bubbly. It was also super hard to discipline her. "My hair is getting long, I needed to wash it." How do you argue with that?

Three Things Thursday

1. Race pictures that don't suck? Who knew it was even possible!?

2. I've had hair issues since Running Day 1 - I have a LOT of hair, it's thick, it's frizzy, it's LONG, it's dumb. On top of that, I'm a pretty irritable runner, and cannot STAND to have my hair touching me. I've tried braids, pony tails, a bun... nothing REALLY satisfied me... until I stole Mom vs Marathon's double buns! Magic. Thanks, MvM, for the inspiration!

3. I haven't run since Sunday. My knee is bugging. I think I'm perhaps too old for this nonsense.


.....and, because I like you, here's a bonus.

4. A hug is like a strangle you haven't finished yet.

Three Things Thursday

1. Running update: I'm currently stalking the Disney Princess Half, and warily eyeballing this declaration of being 65% full. I can't commit until I successfully finish the 10K in December, so I'm really hoping this number doesn't go bonkers in the next 5 weeks! Additionally, I've got my eyes on this baby:

Coast to Coast Challenge! I need that medal.

Additionally, 1a., tonight is a 2 miler, per my training plan, and I actually said, this morning, "Two miles... that's it?" I never would have imagined those words coming out of my mouth.

2. I was really hyped this morning about this great Bento that I packed for Baby. She's decided she doesn't like sandwiches anymore, and has been incessantly asking for Lunchables. Gross. So, I made her a Lunchable:

And drove her all the way to her school, which is by my office (30 miles from home). Except, today is Veteran's Day. School is closed. Oops?

3. I'm still CO washing, and I think it's getting better? Hard saying, honestly, 'cause I've been braiding it and setting it loose in the morning, so it's tough to tell where the unruly ends and the creepy begins.

Two thing Friday?

1. The Hair is a lump of atrocious. It's greasy looking, and scuzzy, and overall freakish. CO wash = not a success.

2.This Dude is giving away a Garmin405. Which I badly, badly want.


Happy Friday!

Three Things Thursday

1. I'm super, super psyched to be working with TMB Endurance Training on a training plan to get me to my goal 10K time in December. After which, you'll recall, The H says I can register for the Disney Princess Half.

2. I tried running outside again, and I still hate it. I have no sense of pace, at all, and start out stupidly fast, and then I'm miserable and end up practically crawling home the last half mile. Literally. I mean, I SAW a light changing 50 feet ahead, and I couldn't even jog over to push the cross walk button. It was ugly.

3. Today was Conditioner Only wash, take 2. So far, it's not too scary, but I'm afraid to speak too soon. Fingers crossed!

“If you can find a path with no obstacles, it probably doesn't lead anywhere.”

My goal of visiting one park in October was successful, but only kind of. I may have cheated, a little, and visited a weird park right by my house because they were having a Farmers Market, which was weird and sucky. Just like the park! Suck less, Orange County Great Park! There is not much Great about you. But it IS a park, so I'll take it!

The Hair is being a little shady lately. About 2 weeks ago, randomly, I woke up, wandered into the shower, and started washing my hair. Like, with shampoo. Just like it was the most normal thing in the world. I'm not sure how that happened. And my hair hasn't been the same since.

In fairness to The Hair, I also, randomly, decided I would play with Conditioner Only washing after that. I'm not sure why I thought that would be a good idea, after what I'd just done to it, and The Hair did not really seem to care for it. So, back to baking soda and honey next time.

Oh. Also. I hacked off a bunch, too. Like, 3-4 inches. Like, by myself. On a whim.

My poor hair. Someday, I'm guessing, it will revolt and just fall out.

October Running recap:
I logged 34 hours of running in October.
I went from running 90 sec intervals/walking 90 sec, for 2 miles, to running straight through 2.5 miles.
I went from a pace of 13:11 to 11:06.
I averaged 8.25 miles a week.

I'm 3 weeks out from the Turkey Trot.

That running skirt is practically mine.

"Nothing great in the world has been accomplished without passion"

Happy 4 month No 'Poo-versary!

In full disclosure, I have used shampoo twice - once after each camping trip. It just seemed necessary.

But aside from those two digressions, I've stuck to my honey/baking soda mix, and it's been good to me. I've had none of the hair weirdness that Snork seemed to have, which is good because I don't know how strong my resolve would have been in the face of waxiness. I've also stuck to my home brewed rosemary rinse (again, local and from the farmers market, $1 steeps me enough for a bit over a month!), and it is full of sunshine and rainbows.

Originally, the plan was to put the kidlets on No 'Poo as well. I'm less enthused about this, now, because now it seems like it might be more work for me, and I am not an advocate of creating work for myself. I'm a little torn on this, I gotta say. I'd love to say I'm all types of crunchy and don't want chemicals on my kids' head, but... truthfully, I'm equally lazy. It's a tough path to balance, I suppose.

What I've noticed, is my previously tricky, shady, good-for-nothing-frizzy hair, has turned into easily manipulated, wavy hair. I approve. I'm *thinking*, that since #1's hair is more like mine, it will also do well with no 'poo? And since she's older, she'll be easiest to break in? Hard saying. I have a few more weeks left in summer to consider this...

"Happiness is not a possession to be prized, it is a quality of thought, a state of mind"

Prepare, this is gonna be long.

I've been slacking on this particular post, but I'd like to present....

Poo free hair, one month!

I have switched up my normal routine of a vinegar rinse, and moved to a rosemary rinse. And it's magical. And, the rosemary, is locally grown and brewed into tea at home. Win!

I tried adding grapeseed oil to my baking soda/honey mess, but it was creepy, and didn't make a difference in the hair. I DO use grapeseed oil for frizz control sometimes, and it is pretty great.

Secondly..

I've completed week two of no meat. Aside from a tiny sample of a chicken tamale at the Farmers Market the second weekend, no meat has been touched. Well, that's a lie, I cooked chicken last night, but didn't eat it. Veggie and brown rice stir-fry for me, thanks!

I tried a lentil sloppy joe recipe for the first time last week. I've never cooked with lentils before, so it was an experiment for me. First lesson, holy hell does 1 cup of lentils make a LOT of food. I made everyone stay out of the kitchen while I cooked, and waited until we were starving, thinking that would at least incent them to try it.

The devious plan worked for #2... She started chowing down immediately.

#1, however, poked it, and declined. Punk. I liked 'em, but I'm old and stuff.

A few days earlier, the kids requested tacos... so I made myself a separate batch of lentil... stuff. Lentils, onions, red peppers, purple potatoes, cumin, oregano, etc. Not bad, really. Everybody else looked at it all crazy like, but... their loss, right?

And, finally, succes part 3....

#2's birthday was last week, and I took advantage of that time to practice my baking. I'm going to digress a second, but when we moved, I was really worried about how they'd cope being... away from everyone. I mean, our entire family, both sides, live in Florida, so it's kind of like we're here, all alone, y'know? My cousins (the P's) came over, as did the Snorks, and we had a fun dinner, and opened her present, and played video games, and it was marvelous, and not the sad, lonely affair I was concerned about. I am so, so sappy happy. Anyway. /Digression. She requested a chocolate cake, with chocolate chunks, and chocolate frosting. Dear god, diabetes what!?

But I made it, and it was pretty rad. Mr. Snork babbled something about flour and eggs making good stuff and who knew, so I'm going to call it a success!

Which makes a great segway to... the Corona del Mar 5K that is quickly approaching. Snork and I have been running our route the last few weeks, and have improved our time each attempt, which I am super pleased with. I've gotten some new Brooks Adrenaline's from Runners High in Irvine, which are heavenly on my shin splints. I personally didn't need to be fitted, because I've been loyal to the same shoe/brand for ages, but I watched them fit some other people, and... these folks know their business.

Perhaps equally as exciting as our being rockstars and kicking a 5K's ass, is Mr. Giraffy and Mr. Snork have been practicing "together"... by which I mean that they run separately from us, and hang out at the finish line bonding until we are done. Admittedly, our time might be better if we stopped petting flowers and trying to take pictures of humming birds, but... then it wouldn't be as much fun, right?

I made my regular run to the Farmers Market Saturday, with just Baby - 1 & 2 have decided it's no longer fun. I just adore this market - there's something comforting about know exactly where your food is coming from, and when it was picked, and how it got there, and talking to to the dude who knows that this batch of tangerines is a little rough, and he might only have one week left on them.

Baby goes to help me pick flowers.

I'm super excited that my friend Squirrel is coming to visit next week (NEXT WEEK!) for Weekend of Awesome... I intend to try to get her to stay in OC this trip... it might work this time. She's also raising money for AHEPA to run in the 2010 Athens Marathon. She's remarkable, and, I've said it before, but when I grow up, I want to be her. Donations accepted by clicking this link, if you're so inclined.

"The most radical political act there is, is to believe that if I change, other people will follow suit."

I'm working steadily on inching my way towards an all-natural lifestyle. It's slow going, beacuse... frankly, it's not just me, it's me plus an H and 3 kids. The 3 kids are easy, but the H? He keeps looking at me all side-eyed. Like I'm gonna attack him with a baking soda hair situation sometime in his sleep.

There are a few reasons for this change... it's one part frugality, one part a personal challenge, one part a sense of responsibility. I'd like to think we can be self-sufficient in the (unlikely, and yet still real) event of some catastrophy. I mean, obviously these are teeny, tiny, microscopic baby steps towards that, but... I'm just saying. It's part of a giant, umbrealla-like, overall life change.

I'm on "No 'Poo" day... 20? I think? And so far, it's all going swimmingly. My routine so far is to rinse with just water most days. I "wash" with a honey/baking soda paste every 5-6 days... those days, I also rinse with an apple cider vinegar rinse as well.

My magic recipe... 2 Tbs baking soda, 1/2 tsp water, and just dump in some honey.

Until it looks like this.

Then, I massage it into my roots for a minute. Rinse out. Done!

Snork was skeptical of my honey/baking soda funk, but... I think she's just jealous. So far, my hair has not revolted like I've heard some other peoples' did... In fact, my ONLY complaint is that yesterday, and today, it might feel a little dry.
Overall, I am pleased. I was fully prepared to quit at the first signs of some Hair Revolt, but it's cooperating well. I've read that it's easier for wavy/curly hair to adapt, so... finally! Something good has come from this mess on my head! Sweet!

I'm going to be rolling this out to kidlets as soon as their shampoo and conditioner have run dry. So far, they're on board... I think anything that will get them out of the tub faster will be a win in their books.

I've also planned a "cleansing" week next week. The Plan is to go vegetarian for one week, starting Sunday. We'll hit the Awesome Irvine Farmer's Market Saturday morning, and stock up on all types of local, fresh goodies, and eat all local, all veg, all week.

Okay, so that might be exaggerated. I will eat all veg. I only imposed the vegetarian rule on the rest of the family for dinner time. They were skeptical at first, until I told 1 & 2 they could help pick recipes, plan the meals, and prep/cook.

We had a practice run on Sunday night - I let them scour my cookbooks for something they could agree on, and they came up with Martha Stewart's chicken stir-fry lettuce wraps.

#2 chopped the peppers and grated the ginger (I did the onions for her), and washed the lettuce.

#1 did the cooking.

It was all so super cute, and successful - everybody enjoyed it, and even leftovers were eaten - win!

I'm not sure why the chopsticks were necessary... #1 is obsessed with them, she tries to eat cereal with them.

Anyway.... todays food consumption!

1. Half of a blueberry bagel, 1 Tbs cream cheese


2. I made a killer lunch in my bento box today... leftover chicken wraps, sauteed greenbeans and peppers (with rice wine vinegar/soy sauce vinaigrette), cucumbers, and blackberries
   


3. 1 tiny bag of M&M's


4. 10 animal crackers

Dinner... I'm unsure about. I'll update tomorrow.

"Slums may well be breeding-grounds of crime, but middle-class suburbs are incubators of apathy and delirium."

I was pretty psyched to blog about my "homemade" and super simple Sloppy Joes.

I perfected my recipe, tested it out, and finally, finally documented the production of them last weekend.

In the meantime, I've also been becoming more conscious of what I'm feeding my kids, and the funk that has been invading our foods. I mean, I generally cook from fresh - meaning, no boxed meals in my home. Not generally, always, actually... I thought that was pretty impressive. I mean, working mom of 3, coming home and cooking meals from scratch nightly, and inexpensively. It doesn't have to be rough, y'know? A limited grocery budget DOES NOT have to mean you eat junk out of a brightly colored box every night.

In short, I was feeling pretty accomplished, and not a little self-righteous, particularly when watching Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution.

Imagine my annoyance (at myself) when I looked at the labels while I was photog'ing this Sloppy Joe magicalness, and the first component listed on one of my ingredients was HFCS.

Sigh.

So, the search for a replacement ketchup recipe is underway. If you've got one, pass it on.

Also, I'm not blogging my recipe. It seems wrong somehow now.

What HAS been successful for me lately: home-made laundry soap, and No 'Poo.

Someone on the internet made some laundry-soap, and said it was awesome (famous last words....). I had to wait until I ran out of mine, which I FINALLY did last weekend. So, I rushed off to Target to get some glycerine soap. I won't go into this, but... it was an adventure. Note to anyone who is interested: Just buy the giant pack at Target, it's the best deal you're gonna get, I promise. In fact, if you're close by, I've got a boatload that I can GIVE you.

Because, my friends, for this recipe, you only need a half of a bar.

So, the recipe is this:
1 bar glycerine soap (I used Dial White Tea), grated
2 c baking soda
2 gallons of water

It's recipe 8 from this link.

I don't want to blantantly rip off their rad recipe, so you can view the directions there. I actually halved the recipe, for storage reasons, and it was easy peasy. Done in less than 5 minutes!

We've been using it all week, and so far so good. It has virtually no scent at all, but that's fine with me - we already used free and clear stuff, so we're used to it.

My friend Snork has chronicled her No 'Poo experiments for a few months now, and... I dunno how all that is going for her. I know the second my hair started revolting the way hers had, I might be tempted to quit. I don't know if I'm hard enough to take waxy hair all the time.

I'm on day 9, and so far, so good. It's pretty pleasing, so far. I did a baking soda rinse one day, and it was okay. I was looking a bit greasy a day later....

So I read a lot (on the internet!) and concocted some paste out of baking soda and honey, followed by an apple cider vinegar rinse. To be quite honest, I have no idea where I came up with it, where I found that, or why I thought it would be a good idea. It seemed risky, as I was staring at this clumpy mess I was about to massage into my head....

....But it was fab. I massaged it into my scalp, for a minute or so, in a circluar motion, and rinsed it out. Dumped the ACV rinse on, let it sit for a bit (while I shaved - multitasking!), and rinsed that.

This was the result. Soft, non-frizzy, full of body hair. It is pretty quickly stripping my hair of color, I think, but over all....

WIN!

On the "suck-less" front, I seem to have acquired shin splints. Which happens when you lecture other folks about the necessity of making sure you have good running shoes and failing to acquire some for yourself. Sooooo.... we've been ellipticalling. Snork and I started jalking together last spring, which morphed into "ellipti" nights followed by hot tub frollicking while kidlets played in the pool all summer. We were pretty psyched when we did this....


Last night, I did this...


Followed by this, on the same machine, but it was stupid and cut me off at 35 minutes....

That'd be a total of 5 miles.

Because, we rock.

This weekend, I plan on attempting a container garden, inspired by one of my favorite bloggers, The Happy (Athiest) Homemaker. I have high hopes for this. If it works out, it'll be one step closer to a completely clean diet, plus, you know, prep for TEOTWAWKI.

Kidding. (not really).

“Jealousy is all the fun you think they had.”

I have a very love/hate thing going on with my hair. It started when I was a baby. I had a pretty rockin' she-mullet going on. Later, around the time I started kindergarten, my Venezuelan aunt gave me an equally awesome bowl-cut. That matched her son's cut perfectly. Thanks, Aunt Rosemarie. Thanks.

Back about 3+ years ago, I used to self-color. It was fun. Easy.

Until one day, when I self colored, and my hair turned some gross greenish-blueish-grey color. It was disturbing. I tried calling my sister, since she self-colored all the time... and she suggested throwing a new color on top of that mess.

That's when I remembered she once turned her hair pink.

I called a salon by my then-office, and described the nonsense on my head to them, and they (magically) had an opening available with their best colorist. My description apparently piqued some interest, because when I got there, and gave them my name, I got a, "Oh! With the color situation! Can I see!?" True story.

My "color correction" turned into a 4 hour process to fix the mess I made. This visit turned into a love-affair with my stylist... who faithfully, every 6 weeks, spent 3 hours coloring, high-lighting, low-lighting, and trimming my pretty hair into perfection. And, thanks to her, I discovered that... ta da! I have CURLS!

Sounds stupid, I know. I had no idea. I thought my hair was just frizzy for no reason. But... lo and behold... there are CURLS on this head.

Now that I'm in Cali instead of Florida (land of mugginess and swamp funk), my hair is gloriously almost always frizz-free. It's spectacular.

My sister has always had this insane, thick, shiny bunch of hair, and... being that she's far, far girlier than I am, has always been able to do... stuff with it. That used to piss me off to no end.

A few months ago, I was seriously, SERIOUSLY in need of a cut. I found a stylist here in OC, but... I couldn't afford it. What I want done runs me a couple hundered each visit. So, I talked The Russian into cutting my hair for me. It turned out she's pretty great at it, and my hair was magical. THEN! I even dyed it myself, to amazing results... a lovely chestnut brownish color.

Thanks to my Florida stylist, I now vaguely know how to style my hair, and make curl cooperate... sometimes, it even looks good. Like so:
And so....

I mean, there are still PLENTY of days where it doesn't....

But, fortunately for all of society, those days are not nearly as frequent as they used to be.