Hellooooo

I'm back.  It was a lovely, quite fantastic week away.  In the end, I decided not to bring my laptop.  Thus, no blogging for the week.  I checked email/Facebook daily on the iPad and used Instagram and Twitter from my phone.  I remained somewhat connected, but got away from the routines of home.

I didn't take anywhere near the amount of photos that I did when we did this vacation two years ago.

I'm in a different place.

Thanks to the vitamin D supplements and the Chinese "relaxing" herbal pills I've been taking the last few weeks, I have had much more energy, vigor, serenity and strength and I felt a big difference during this trip.  I was, in fact, way too involved and present from one activity to another to give taking photographs much thought.  (One result of this: I have no pics of my sister, brother-in-law or cousin!)

Here are some of my faves (I am waiting for permission to post pics of the cousins' cute mugs)...

 in Moomin.

 Water Country U.S.A.

 Busch Gardens.

 Comic Cubicle.

 golden anniversary gift (beautiful work, Julie!)

 cousin play.

 Five Guys.

 what you see when you hear cicadas.

 night swimming.

 day swimming.

ride home.

There was a ton of water play, gorgeous weather, delicious food and chill time with family.  I also went outlet shopping and picked up a ton of clothes for the boys (Hanna Andersson), a cast iron grill pan (Le Creuset), two bags (Coach) and duds for myself (Ann Taylor and White House | Black Market).

Moomin drove like a dream the 7+ hours in each direction.  Truly, it was an incredible holiday and I am so grateful.

Peace and love.

Push it

Wednesday, despite it being the dreaded day 2 of my period, was a breeze.  I cooked and cleaned all day and we had a lovely and delicious common meal.

Thursday I crashed.  I was super tired (what used to be normal) and couldn't stop eating the leftover chocolate rice crispy treats.

Friday morning I slept in...a sign of recovery.  I was on the outer edge of grumpy.  I was grateful for the chance to gaze at art with my honey.  I was somewhat productive at home.

And now, it's Saturday.  Time to push.  And finish.  I'm a great starter, still figuring out this finishing thing.  I have cooking (short ribs; beef sliders), packing (and more packing) and lots of cleaning (would love for our mouse friends to not be tempted to come and party while we're gone) on deck.

Friday fun

Cap and I were able to get to the Newark Museum to see the Romare Bearden exhibit today.  It's only there till a week from Sunday.  It was a wonderful exhibit full of interesting works.  No photography was allowed in that gallery.  (This non-Bearden metal peacock sculpture caught my eye and I was allowed to snap some pics of that.)

Here are some images pulled off the web of pieces I enjoyed.  The first one was my favorite (it was not as bright as this in real life).

The museum gift shop was amazing.  I found my mom a great belated birthday present and she is extremely hard to shop for.  I also found a wonderful apartment warming gift for a friend who is moving into her own place after 20+ years of marriage.  I even found something I loved, for myself, but couldn't justify the price tag (a pendant made by a local artisan).

Before picking the kids up from their playdate, we swung by the library and picked up some books on cd for the upcoming road trip.  The black one on the end is The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe.

Then we hit the bookshop where they were already sold out of the latest Origami Yoda book, The Secret of the Fortune Wookie.  We picked up the above, instead.

The kids have been making cards, cards and more cards lately.  Two birthdays were celebrated last weekend in MA, tomorrow they celebrate a friend's birthday, and in VA we will be celebrating my mom's bday and my parents' 50th anniversary.

I have been chugging kombucha nearly every day.  When I am not eating "cleanly", it really soothes me.  Yesterday was my first problem day since ending the Whole 30 and reintroducing sugar, dairy and grains in bits and pieces to my food repertoire.  I could not stop eating the chocolate rice crispy treats.  They were like crack.  The high sugar hits were bad, but I think what was worse was that I wasn't hungry in between and therefore didn't eat much of anything else the rest of the day.  I forced myself to stop eating them late in the afternoon and then had a big comforting serving of cold sesame noodles from our local Chinese takeout for dinner.

Then, I slept for ten hours!  (After finishing The Age of Miracles which I did not enjoy very much.)

Laundry, laundry, laundry.  Tonight I will be folding, folding, folding and packing, packing, packing.

Very excited for Sag that Ribbon is finally on.  He loves it so much, it is incredibly visual which is up his alley.  He really wants to learn how to do this.  He made his own ribbon a couple of weeks ago, but wants a longer/bigger one.  He has been so inspired by many events.  He wants to take a gymnastics class this Fall.

Peace and love.

Yum

I have been wanting to make these since the recipe came across my virtual desk a few weeks ago.  Four ingredients, of which three are regular pantry ingredients?  Preparation time of 15 minutes or so (plus time to sit in the fridge to cool)?  Covering something in chocolate?

Yes, please.

I served this up as dessert at common meal last night.  It was a big hit for kids and grown ups alike.  Gem, our GFCF kid, felt there was too much chocolate on his.  I don't think that will ever be something that computes as a problem for me.

Now that my day of cooking and cleaning is behind me, I am glancing at the behemoth that is preparing to go away for a week.

I will be interspersing the making of lists and checking things off one by one the next few days with finishing this and going to this.  And breathing deeply.  And practicing.

Peace and love.

mass fun in Mass

We zipped up to the Motherland for a long weekend.  It was a very fun and full three days.  A great visit.  I didn't take photos for swaths of time so don't have a good cross section of visuals.

Saturday morning we drove straight to Kingston and visited with Olivia, Will and Karen.  The time was incredibly short, unfortunately.  We then dropped the kids off with Amy and hightailed it into JP.  We met friends (including Ebs and Eleanor) for a delicious Indian dinner.  Then it was onto the Pavilion for a Josh Ritter and Brandi Carlile double bill.  Josh Ritter was on my musical bucket list and, boy, he did not disappoint.  The dude had a smile on his face mile-wide all night.  He was *so* happy and into it.  Brandi Carlile was solid.  She's got a lot of charisma and was really cool.  We left her set early because it was getting late and I had a feeling Gem would be waiting up for us.  Oh, and, this was the first concert I've ever been to where I eschewed a decent selection of concert t-shirts for an autographed concert book.

Sunday morning Mummu came over for coffee and a visit.  We dropped her off back home (where I gasped at her gorgeous hydrangeas) and headed out to Fenway for a day game.  The game was the best we've been to yet.  It was plenty hot and fairly muggy, but there was a semi-regular breeze blowing and we were under the upper deck.  The first few innings were a pitcher's duel, but then the Sox started getting hits including a homerun by my current favorite player, Adrian Gonalez.  We were psyched to try the gluten-free Fenway Franks and thrilled to find them delicious!  (Will Cap and I ever get used to the sight of Gem eating something new-to-him-because-there-is-a-gluten-free-version?  Seeing him eat something as iconic and typical as a Fenway Frank made our hearts sing.)  After six innings in terrific seats, we made our way out of the park snapping a few pics.  It was a great afternoon.

After the game we made our way back to base camp where cousins and auntie and Jamie were waiting.  We enjoyed a quintessential summer meal al fresco on the new patio which I kind of can't believe I didn't photograph.  It was amazing.

Monday morning the kids stayed home with their cousins and Jay (who had been toiling at the hospital all weekend) and Cap and I took Mummu out to run errands.  It was productive and fun.  Jay and the kids met us for lunch where there was much oohing and aahing of synchronized swimming as we munched on Chinese and Japanese fare.  Afterward, Cap took the kidlets to the comic book store and Jay and I foraged for dinner (lobster and scallops).  After another dinner on the patio, we packed up and headed home.  The kids discovered the center arm rest with a pillow on top makes for happy resting.

Peace and love.

The age of miracles

This shot looked so perfect on my phone yesterday, I was bummed Sag's hand is cut off there at the top.  You can see the kid has been watching some Olympics :-)

My energy and mood continue to hold up.  I have not had the wherewithal to take the kids to the pool in a few summers, no less the first half of this one.  (And this, despite buying passes year after year.) As I sat watching them, feeling the late afternoon August warm seeping into my skin, I could feel something had shifted.

I was grateful.

Not surprisingly, with more energy comes more getting to things that have been waiting-in-the-wings.  And this means less sitting in my chair reading and writing (or blogging, more accurately).

I did start a new book yesterday (it's a new one and cannot be renewed) and, get this, a few pages in, I felt the urge to practice Qigong.  I felt a bit stiff, put the book down, got up and practiced.  I felt better, sat back down and resumed reading.

These things seem both small and big.

Peace.

Addendum

And, my mosquito bites are SO itchy now.  Systemic inflammation brought on by gluten, no doubt.

Overload

I've been eating very small amounts of gluten here and there since coming off of Whole30 (which a slew of folks started today, including Shannon!) 

After my session with Vinny this afternoon (neck and shoulders very tight again, but he was excited about my sleep change and upbeat mood), I took the kids to the comic book store since Cap is pulling a late-nighter getting the editing done for camp.  This is exactly the kind of thing I haven't had the energy for this summer.  But, today, I was completely up for it.

As we were driving home, I realized we'd be driving right by The Pie Store.  I had dinner set for the kids and Cap wasn't going to be home for dinner.  If I had given my brain a moment to breathe, I would have thought: I have leftover braised cabbage...liverwurst...eggs...a beautiful head of lettuce from the farm.  But, something in my mind started dancing.  I wanted a savory pasty.

I picked up two sweet potato and blue cheese and onion pasties.  One for my upstairs neighbor, who loves them, and one for me.  He was so pleased, his joy was totally worth it.

And for me?  Now I know.  A pasty is way too much of a gluten hit.  My mind feels woozy, my head heavy.  My stomach is so bloated.  Blech.

Now I know.

: :    : :    : :

Earlier today I thought: I could stop watching the Olympics and my world would not end.  The novelty has definitely lost some of its luster.  In no small part because of frakkin' NBC and their heavy-handed grubby coverage.  In this age of internet streaming, something has to shift.

I think the two events Sag is really looking forward to start soon: trampoline and rhythmic gymnastics.  I will check the listings for those and record...but otherwise, I have 3/4 of a mind to watch last week's Burn Notice or start my "new" and therefore non-renewable library book.

: :    : :    : :

Our new-to-us reconditioned Vitamix was either delivered to the wrong porch or lifted off of ours (within the short span of ten to fifteen minutes).  UPS said take it up with Vitamix, but it was too late to call them once I realized the package was AWOL.  I have no idea what will happen.  Will it show up tomorrow or in the next few days?  Will Vitamix send another one?  Will we simply be out a few hundred dollars?  (Yep, they are that expensive.)  Not the way I wanted my long and patient journey to a Vitamix to come to an end.  Fingers crossed.

: :    : :    : :

Peace and love.

O sleep

Each of the last few days has been revelatory in the new pockets of energy experienced.  With the energy has come more smiles, more laughter and more peace.

Last night, though...a sleep setback. 

The post-common meal hungries were particularly strong (the kids and Cap often need a second dinner because they didn't get too distracted playing and not liking the food).  I enjoyed a dinner plate of salad with roasted chicken and feta cheese and a piece of watermelon for dessert, but in this post-ovulation second half of my cycle...I was hungry again a few hours later.

10pm last night I was chatting in the kitchen with Cap while he made me a signature, masterful, grilled cheese sandwich (Udi's white sandwich bread buttered with Kerrygold sprinkled with garlic powder on one side...my cheese last night was smoked gouda).  And then I stayed up till midnight watching the Olympics.

I fell asleep pretty quickly and went into dream sleep again.  Can I digress?  I had noticed...for at least the past few years...that I was no longer remembering my dreams.  It never occurred to me, I don't know why, that I wasn't remembering because I wasn't having them.  Since the weekend, I have been waking up remembering my lengthy and cinematic dreams.  They've had lots of narrative and suspenseful tension.  It has been a homecoming of sorts and I've come to feel that I am sleeping not only longer, but more deeply for a longer stretch of the night, thanks to the herbs.

Sleep deprivation is an insidious and bad thing for well-being.  My eyes have been opened (no pun intended...but I like it) to how significant an obstacle it had become in my own path of healing.  I see Vinny again today.  I'm glad to have some observations to report and wonder what he'll say.

This morning, I was roused from dream-sleep by the clattering clamor of a powerful downpour on the metal box in the bedroom window that has kept me sane this persistently hot and/or humid summer.  A disharmonic convergence.  My eyes couldn't unsee the daylight, my stomach couldn't unfeel the late night sandwich deposit, my mind couldn't unwake the abrupt transition from my olympic dream.

Less than six hours of sleep.  And a rain system pressed down on us for the duration of the day.  I feel tired...but not as tired as I felt when I first got out of bed nearly two hours ago.  I feel happy...I feel the energy of possibility.  And that?  Pretty wonderful.