you can tell where this is going, can’t you?

my favorite jeans don’t fit favorably any more.

so…we’ve sworn off restaurant-rich foods for a while. all last week, i put a hot, fully home-cooked meal on the table. this week, i got back into a regular exercise schedule again (even if it’s only on my elliptical), and i thought i’d share a few of our favorite new recipes. and hopefully, i’ll be sitting comfortably in my favorite jeans in no time.

Smothered Porkchops. normally when I see this recipe or read it on a menu, i hold my nose and refuse to go anywhere near it. pork chops smothered in canned cream of mushroom soup sounds disgusting and grey. i hate mushrooms, and i am very snobby about how much i hate canned cream-of-fill-in-the-blank soup (especially when it’s so easy to make on your own!). but this recipe came from Wellness Mama, so i actually gave it a chance!  certainly anyone who calls her blog “wellness mama” would have the same feelings for cream-of-mystery soup from a can as i do, so she couldn’t possibly use it in one of her recipes? i was right!  this recipe was a quick meal (40 minutes for me), i had everything on hand (except for the heavy cream – i just used the coconut cream at the top of my can of coconut milk) and oh-so-delicious!  i have a 9-year-old who loves cooked onions, so i added more for his side dish.  i served this with roasted green beans and barley cooked in chicken broth.

Detox Smoothie.  i’m not a liquid-dieter. if i did any form of a liquid diet, i would be in a constant bitchy mood because i’d be starving. liquid doesn’t fill me up, and we’re not meant to live on liquids…even if we’re trying to shed weight. i made this after my workout this morning and it was so delicious, so fresh, and so filling!  if you haven’t mixed up some good leafy greens into a fruit-based smoothie yet, you’ll be surprised at how good it is. because i don’t want to get used to just a smoothie for breakfast, i had an earlier than usual morning snack (almonds) that i normally wouldn’t have if i chose eggs or oatmeal (my go-to breakfasts). the best part of this smoothie is that it didn’t have that fake “protein powder” aftertaste that i’m not fond of, because it’s all real food ingredients!  so try one after your next workout!  or for an afternoon boost.

Bone Broth Soup.  the link for this recipe again comes from Wellness Mama again because it’s a really good, basic recipe. for the record, i’ve never added the chicken feet, but the more i read, the more i know that the knuckles are packed with good, healthy gelatin. so i’ll look for a local resource to get chicken feet (we might even have our own chicken feet this spring if we butcher again) for our future bone broths.  but this makes a great soup base for a good-for-you and delicious soup. add any vegetable you want, some shredded meat (i made ground turkey meatballs to go in our turkey broth this week). and get really big props from the family if you add a loaf of homemade bread to go with it!

i’d love to hear of your healthy, delicious recipes, meal-plans, and whole-food favorites!  share away!

i never thought to measure. i’m not a measuring type sewer. i know that sounds like blasphemy to all the sewers out there, but when it comes to sewing, i wing it. a lot. and i hate patterns. that flimsy tear-easy paper that comes with patterns? those lines all over that flimsy paper? yeah – enough to want me to quit sewing forever. that’s why i love books like Bend the Rules Sewing by Amy Karol. i used that book to make a quilt once. she helps any novice sewer realize they can do it!

so, back to my favorite material. my “office” isn’t really an office – it’s a hallway that connects the kitchen to the laundry room (on one side) and to the back porch (on the other side). so, there are three total doors (not much privacy!) in the small 8×7 foot room. the room was the home’s original “kitchen porch” and it was enclosed and divided to form our 1st floor bathroom/laundry room and the “office.”  when we bought the house, these two rooms were dark – faux wood paneling on the walls with dirty beige carpet. last year, we re-did the laundry room. this summer, we brightened the office up by covering the faux paneling with white bead board from floor to ceiling, pulled up the carpet to reveal the original porch floor, and painted the built-ins white. the only problem is – the room is too bright to photograph!  here are some before photos:

and now to the exact same photos, with the redesign (which look dark because my camera was blown away by how bright the room has become!)

a few extras – we painted the dark brown door bright blue, and you can see the freshly painted porch floor here (we STILL don’t have outlet and switch-plate covers in this room…nor is the trim finished, but we all know we can live without trim!):

instead of a small computer desk, we custom-built a high desk with natural-wood kitchen cabinets (cheap at lowes!) that we painted white, and covered with a natural wood table top that we stained. i LOVE how the stain turned out, and how it looks in the white room.

which brings me to the curtain. it’s way too short. like 8 inches too short:

i suppose i could find some contrasting fabric to make an wide bottom edge, but i didn’t want it to look any busier than the material already is. so…it’s back to the salvation army fabric fair, if i can make it, for some more vintage fabrics for a steal.

we’ve been living and breathing theater since september when kenny started working on another production, and moreso when we announced auditions for our production of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol through a newly formed theater group we started, hobnob theatre co.

production week at the theater was so intense, so tiring, so exhilarating, i wanted to post my thoughts and photos of it all before i forget. we loaded in the set, props, and costumes on monday of production week, had techinical rehearsals monday through thursday nights, opened the show on friday, and closed on saturday. it was certainly a whirlwind week. we didn’t have a full cast throughout  the technical rehearsals since we were out several cast members from illness each night until opening night. i knew the actors were ready, so i didn’t worry about that. tech week is for learning and polishing the technical aspects of the show. and fortunately, that was accomplished.

(click on each picture for a closer view)

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here are some photos of the set pieces. Christopher, our scenic designer and artist (pictured in one of the photos) put some finishing touches on Scrooge’s bed and our indoor flats (pictured below is the Cratchit flat) that just made each set piece turn from “just a set piece” to a realistic bed or wall. it was such a joy seeing him bring such beauty to our set! kenny designed and constructed the fezziwig rafters – i think that was one of my favorite drops because of it’s simplistic elegance. and it was the backdrop to a really fun party scene in the play.   the bottom picture is our “London street” scene – with four buildings that are wheeled out for all the street scenes in the show (the beginning and the end of the production). the two middle buildings are named with our production sponsors.

i loved walking through the backstage area where the actors were preparing before each dress rehearsal or performance; applying make-up, wigs, putting their characters’ clothes on and walking onto the stage a completely different persona.

we had two props tables. our amazing stage crew (pictured below) kept these props in order, changed the set like a well-rehearsed dance each night, and kept the behind-the-stage area so organized.

and our amazing cast of actors. after spending a lot of time together for several weeks as a cast, you begin to get to know each other, enjoy each others’ company, and get used to each other. then, after a show closes, those people aren’t in your life any more. this is true for every single show i’ve ever been involved with. this show was a bit different because i felt more responsible for the quality of these cast members’ lives. i knew they had outside lives that were more important than their cast life, but i felt they were vitally important to the cast as well. it’s a hard balance and you tip it in the direction of theatre company that last week of production, certainly. i definitely miss my HUGE cast of actors and look forward to working with them again!

we had a cast party after Friday’s performance (the first big snowy night of the season!). it was so much fun to celebrate a fantastic opening night (full house, too!) with our cast and crew members!

We were also blessed with a very good photographer who did head shots of each actor and displayed them in our lobby:

the cast really gifted Kenny and I with so much during the show and then went and gifted us with a huge bag of gifts the night before we opened. Below is a “Scrooge and Marley” light up house that I put next to our advent wreath that sits next to our tree. it will be there until easter!

the whole experience was amazing. each step in the way, from the auditions to the rehearsals, to the technical meetings to the performances, we learned and were blessed by the people who were involved with us. it was exhausting, but in a way, it was also easy. there was much sacrifice, but in the end, we had a huge group of helpful and supportive people in all aspects of the show. it was one of the best times we’ve spent as a family unit. i was encouraged once  to follow our dreams while our boys were still young. it would be a good example to them. i admit, there were moments when they were sick and tired of the theater, and i was wishing for it all to be over to get them back to normalcy again. but they’ve been resilient. they’ve bounced back to our normal schedule very easily.

i loved having the opportunity to study and research and fall in love with Dickens and his victorian backdrop. our wheels are already turning for future dickens shows (in addition to performing A Christmas Carol each year!)

our next project with our theatre company is much more low-key, but still very exciting. kenny and i are helping to coach some students for the Shakespeare Monologue and Scene contest held at the Pittsburgh Public Theatre. and we’re already planning future shows for the remainder of 2013.

please follow along with us by subscribing to our email list, or liking our facebook page!

last sunday, we had about a half inch of snow fall in the morning, and by afternoon, it was sunny and slightly warmed (to the upper 30s!). perfect weather for christmas tree cutting!  we headed out to our local christmas tree farm and within 10 minutes of walking around, found our perfect tree.

our first year in this house, we went BIG with our tree. after all, we have 9-foot ceilings, why not go with a big tree? big trees swallow our living room and leave it feeling cluttered. ever since, we’ve gone small and simple. and it’s always been elegant.

happy Advent 1 to you all!

1. now that the presidential election is almost 2 weeks behind us, i can finally say…we are okay with the results. i mean, we’re not happy with the results, but what can you do?  wednesday morning, november 7th had a rough start. kenny and i woke at 4:00, saw the results, couldn’t go back to sleep, so we decided to finally start Season 3 of The Walking Dead so we didn’t have to watch the news, or read web sites about the difficult loss our country experienced the previous night (i realize that is a matter of opinion).

here’s the thing: i think the thing that is most upsetting is not that we lost a tough election…but the realization that your own values, and what you believe is really better for the country – poor, middle class and the rich – is very different than a slight majority of the rest of the country. i’m not opposed to change – i don’t fight change. it’s just hard to witness values held dear to so many being thrown away by so many more.

2. this week is tech week and opening night was last night for Peter Pan…the community musical that kenny is playing piano for and all 3 of our boys are in (along with about 50 other lost boys/girls in the Butler area). the show opened to rave reviews, rowan and sawyer have LINES in this production (and even get to talk to Captain Hook AND Peter Pan!) and adam just follows his friends around on stage and looks adorable in his little lost boy costume.  here’s proof:

3. I haven’t been able to be as available for tech week shows because of the rehearsals i’m holding for our very own show, A Christmas Carol. kenny and i started our own theatre company and have been advertising, holding auditions, and now rehearsing for our very first show at the same time as all this Peter Pan production.  it’s been a little nutty.  we’ve been able to keep it together for the most part and are enjoying the amazing experience we’re having with the start of this new theatre company.  our supporters and cast have been amazing.  more on this in a later post…

4. remember when we mummified a chicken back in september?  we finally dug it out of the layers of salt, dusted it off a bit, wrapped it in cloth and “buried” it in its own decorative sarcophagus.  again, here is photo-proof…

here is mummified chicken wrapped in one of the 3 coffins:

here is one of the drawings on the sarcophagus, so the gods will recognize the chicken in the afterlife:

the boys really wanted to bury it, but i snuck it in the garbage.  it was a fun experience to do…the boys learned more about mummies and decaying flesh than i could have taught them!

5. we’re coming up on my favorite part of the liturgical year: advent, christmas, and epiphany.  i know that our crazy schedule will only get more hectic as we enter the last month of rehearsals for our show, so i’m starting to prepare our family advent now. ironically, i think our schedule won’t allow us to truly celebrate and be a part of christmas until Christmas Eve (as we’ll be busy rehearsing and finishing the set and costumes and props and staging and…and…) just as our calendar helps us to do. the 12 days of christmas, beginning on christmas day, will really be cherished in our home, surrounded by family (two of my brothers and their families are coming in for closing night of our performance, so they’ll be there when our family crashes and puts our feet up for the first time since september)!  it will be a fabulous way to unwind from a stressful season.

6. kenny and i are running a 5k together on thanksgiving morning. i ran it alone last year, loved it and decided to drag my husband to it this year.  i haven’t been able to train as much this year, so i’m not going to go all out and try to beat my time from last year. i hope to just have fun, run along with kenny, and then drive home in time to put the turkey in the oven!

7.  i’m saving the best for last:  since moving to the country, i’ve been on a mission to find and see with my own eyes an owl in the wild. we hear them at night constantly – the great horned in the winter, the screech owls in the summer and fall.  last night, november 15th at 10:44 pm, i saw my first wild screech owl…as it FLEW INTO OUR WINDSHIELD a mile away from our house. we didn’t “know what hit us” – literally – but knew that it couldn’t have been anything but a nocturnal bird, and it was a bigger “thud” than a bat could make. we turned the van around, and sure enough, a tiny little owl sat…alive…on the side of the road, looking up at our car with the saddest, most human-like eyes, its head, tilted to the side. i was heart-broken. we could do nothing. our outdoor cat would have killed it if we brought it home (it was about 6-7 inches tall).  i’m trying to get over this…but it’s hard when the image of his sweet little face, and the boys’ reaction of “AWWWWWW! he’s so cute!” ringing in my ears.  what would YOU have done?

My Grampy (the boys’ “Great Grampy”) has come to visit a few times since the beginning of summer. The boys love it because he comes for school and they LOVE showing him everything they’re learning. He especially loves to sit in on math class…he says that was his favorite class, but he has been enjoying our history lessons as well.

One of our history lessons had us interview family relatives, so this photo is of him telling the boys a favorite memory he has of when he was a boy. I think this particular story is about fishing.

I post this picture today, so he can see it (he is a regular smithical reader, and lets me know when there has been too much time between posts!).

Happy Veterans’ Day, Great Grampy – thank you for all you did and sacrificed for your family and this country!

we are all from dust, and we will return to dust no matter what happens in our lifetime. according to the westminster catechism, the chief end (the “main point”) of humans is to “glorify God and enjoy Him forever.”  it’s not about glorifying our preferred candidate, it is about glorifying Him.

i hope we can all keep this in mind before we “spike the football” or demean the other side. i know it feels like a big deal, but we can keep in mind that we are all americans. but we are children of God first.

He is bigger than any election in any country, and He loves all of us. ALL of us.

when i joined the episcopal tradition, i noticed families taking communion together at the rail and i understood this to be a family decision. of course, the church would like your children to understand the “whats” and “whys” of the Eucharist, but i loved that the family was a bigger part of this sacrament in worship.  i always envisioned our family, kneeling at the rail together when each of our boys would partake for the first time, and not just receive the blessing on their heads, but be an active part of the Remembrance.

this morning, one of our boys had communion, in church, for the first time. for a myriad of reasons, we were not with him when he did it. i’m coming to terms with this, and i’m okay with it…here are my thoughts:

first of all, we’ve talked about this as a family. the older two have been asking about communion over the past six months and we’ve discussed in full what it means, why we do it, and the different ways in which churches offer it. communion is distributed on trays to the sunday school classes that are happening at the same time the “grown ups” are in corporate worship. we decided that for their first communion, they would take it with us in the worship service, and then following their first communion, they could take it in their sunday school classes from now on.

this morning, kenny was playing music for the worship service and i was asked to serve communion. so, i told both of the older two boys that they were welcome to just take communion in their sunday school class today if they still wanted to. one did, and one didn’t.  i was proud of both of their decisions.

i love it when we are asked to distribute the elements. i love watching the people pour forth from their seats and take the symbols of the highest sacrifice. i love telling them “This is Christ’s Body for YOU.” and i love it when they look back in my eyes and accept this gift for the 1st? 50th? 1000th? time.  no matter how often i take part in the great mystery, it is worship so amazing, so divine, i am in awe again and again.  St. Maximilian Kolbe once said, “If angels could be jealous of men, they would be so for one reason: Holy Communion.”

so when i asked my son how his first communion was, i was expecting him to tell me that angels sang from above, that the earth moved below him, and he answered….”um, the bread was kinda yummy.”

he’ll get there.

he was also baptised as an infant (as were his brothers) and we have no way of knowing if they experienced what an adult experiences at their first baptism. so as a child takes his first communion, sometimes it’s not the same experience as an adult partaking for the first or for the 100th time. the mysteries of the sacraments aren’t explainable. at any age.

secondly, our children’s first communions aren’t about what we, as parents, want to experience with them. of course, we raise them in our faith and hope they understand and believe as us, but these milestones are about them meeting God and understanding Christ’s love for them. they aren’t about how i always envisioned it happening. my ideal church is so far from where we currently worship, but God has us there for His reasons, not my own. i have to let go of my ideal (infant baptism, children’s choir robes, ancient hymns, and weekly Eucharist), and really live out my belief that God works through and is truly worshiped in any worship setting.

there was no pomp and circumstance in our child’s first communion today…but neither was there in the lowly birth of our Saviour 2000 years ago.  humble experiences are just as Holy as those with pipe organs and angels singing from the heavens.

now, i’m no spring chicken, and i do love to run, but i will never, ever, EVER be an ultrarunner. and i can very comfortably say that and know that the “never say never” phrase does not apply here. i am saying never because it’s totally NOT going to happen. an ultrarunner does races that are 50, 100 or even 150 miles long.  that’s just plain NUTS.

but back to these books written by ultrarunners. they are surprisingly inspiring and encouraging, and after reading a chapter or two in the evenings, i’m ready to get out in the morning and just run.  but on my level…on the level of a beginning runner. i feel as though i’m always going to be a beginning runner. in 10 years, i’ll be turning 50 and i’ll be still running my 5Ks, but my legs will be runners legs, and my lungs and heart will be strong. and i’ll have dessert more than once in a while and drink my favorite chardonnays in the summer, red zins in the winter and not feel guilty.  i don’t have to wake up and 10-15 miles a day, 25-30 miles on the weekend. i just run to feel better about the daily grind.

Christopher McDougall and Scott Jarek are the authors of the two books that I have been reading over the past few weeks. Born to Run and Eat and Run sounded like such innocent books about how to embrace your new love of running. And although I do find inspiration and encouragement after reading them, I also feel a bit like a…slacker after I end my morning runs at 2 miles long. The first author traveled to Mexico to find the secret of the Mexican Tarahumara Indians who run miles and miles each week and do not suffer running injuries that those of us in the West do – in our joints, muscles, feet. He discovered that the secret to injury-free running is learning to run long distance virtually barefoot, or with thin strappy sandals. His premise is that our expensive, supportive running shoes (he wasn’t shy in mentioning Nike as the biggest culprit) are harming us way more than supporting us. They are allowing us to run improperly, therefore causing more injuries. Running barefoot allows our foot to fall where it needs to in order to properly support our bodies in running.  I thought he made a great point. And after the book, I was ready to go buy Vibram five-fingers running shoes..

I’m nearing the end of Eat and Run and Scott Jarek is convincing me that I need to change my diet from animal-based to plant-based only. He has found that his running ultramarathons (like the Western States 100), have improved exponentially as he has gone from a typical western diet (lots of animal protein) to a plant-only based diet. He dabbled in raw-eating but found that too difficult to maintain his caloric intake as he ran great distances on a weekly basis.

I’m glad I’m not an ultrarunner, otherwise I’d be a barefoot-running vegan starting tomorrow.

And I don’t think I could keep up that gig for long.

I’ll keep to my enjoyable runs as the seasons change around me…taking a half hour to an hour every other day and just running for fun.  These guys have to spend hours each day just to keep up their ultrarunning ability.

And while they are completely admirable and totally the best of the best athletes out there…that’s just NUTS!

I had originally signed up for the 10K but after doing the Run Around the Square earlier this summer, I knew I didn’t have a 10K in me yet. Of course, I probably could have done it – but it wouldn’t have been much running on my part, and I would have had an awful finish time. Besides, I wanted the chance to beat my first 5K time…and I did!  In fact, I have a new PR!

Since I knew the course already, I really looked forward to this race. It’s a very easy, downhill and flat race and this year, I ran it HARD. I started off fast, I ran down the hills, and even continued to run on the slight uphill on the Blvd. of the Allies. The only hard part for me this time around was the finish. I couldn’t push it out hard enough at the end…I just ran that last leg because I just wanted to be done running! And turning the corner near the end and seeing the boys and Kenny near the finish line kept me from not crawling at the end…I love seeing them at the end of all that hard work!

I walked twice for one minute each.

I crossed the finish line at the clock time of 31:44, but my chip time was 30:51 – my new personal record! (Clock time starts at the starting gun, my chip time starts when I cross over the starting line, so my real race time was 30:51).

I shaved a whole 5 minutes off my RATS 5K time, and 2:28 off my last year Great Race 5K time. 

We ended up eating at The Bagel Factory in Shadyside. They were the official bagel supplier of the race, but really all I need after a race is water and a banana (it’s the only time I crave a banana!). After I downed the banana and ice cold water, we headed over to Shadyside and had warmed bagels with eggs (Kenny and me) and french toast for the boys. And a big ol’ cup of joe!

I am not sore at all today. Last year, I was sore for a few days post-race, but this year, so far, I’ve felt great the days after the races. Progress!