Cheers to the New Year

I can't believe the New Year is already here.  It seems like 2011 just started. Heck, until last month I was still writting 2010 by mistake.

None the less, I am excited for 2012.  Here are a few of the highlights I have to look forward:

• Dann turns 40!
• My sister will have her first baby, my first niece, in March
• Declan turns 2 in April
• My baby brother moves out of California for Grad School. Bitter sweet!
• We will take our first family vacation, out of the continental US, at some point. Most likely next fall.

I also have a lot of resolutions this year.  I haven't given myself one for the last two years. I figured having a baby and staring my carrere as Declans mom was enough to worry about.  But this year is different. I wouldn't say that I am setting resolutions, but I am much more setting life goals for myself.  In no paticular order:

• No more meat.  Only fish.  Back to the veggie head diet.
• Eat better all around. I live in Sonoma County, CA.  I have the freshets local and best organic food at my fingertips.
• More Juicing! I received a great book with tons of ideas. I love it, and it makes me feel good. 
• Join the gym next to my office and work out at lunch. I sit at my desk for 8 hours, and spend 1.5 to 2 hours in the car each day.  Enough said.
• Keep a tidder house. There is no reason I should ever have dishes in the sink or huge piles of clothes. I have a dishwasher and a washer and dryer.  
• Keep Declans Toys organized and sorted.  I would like to sort through his toys every few months, toss and donate what he no longer plays with and keep them all organized in nice baskets (living room) and ottoman/toy box (his room)
• Take a family trip to Portland.  
• Dress better for work.  Put an effort into my outfit. Try not to wear jeans every day. Just because I work in a causal office, doesn't mean I need to dress casual every day.  Dress to impress.
• Get back to blogging.  Like at least 4 times a week if not more. I miss it, and want to get back into the blogging community.
• Volunteer. Somewhere - Anywhere - and Regularly. 

So that's a start.

Do you have any resolutions?

The Year of the Cookbook

I started collecting cookbooks the moment I moved out of my parents home.  My mom isn't the type of gal that "cooks". Growing up, her specialty included cheese grilled ( I know - I call it grilled cheese too), chicken noddle soup and black bean soup.  Did you ever see the movie Mermaids with Cher?  That was us, every meal was set up like a cocktail party.  I wouldn't change it for anything.

I went though the evolution of cooking. Starting with Rachel Rays 30 Minute Meals and 100 Things to do Potatoes. By my mid-twenties I had graduated to the Joy of Cooking and the Barefoot Contessa books.  This is where I peaked.  I not only stoped exploring new and different books, but I stoped wanting to try new things.  I woudl try a new recipe here and tehre, but over the past few years I've kept to the standards.I blame the slow food movement. Yes, I believe we should eat good, clean, as local as you can get it, and unprocessed foods. But I'm a working woman and cant spend all day cooking.  I need my food fast.

Until now!

My auntie P bought me the Bi-Rite Market's Eat Good Food cookbook for Christmas.  And just like that the spell was broken.  I sat and read the first few sections right away and had to make myself put it down. 

This amazing book not only has great recipes, but it tells you what to buy, how to buy it, and how to store it. If you are a local, you may already know that  Bi-Rite is a great grocery store in the Mission (San Francisco).  You can find their site here.  Couldn't you just live in that store?

Wrek Yourself

I have a new love. Not that I needed one.  But I have to share the new joy in my life or I may just burst.

WREK JARS!!!!

My friend Monica introduced me to these beauties a few weeks ago.  We were doing a cleanse together, and she brought her morning smooting in one.  I thought it was so cool and asked her where she got that jar.  I assumed that it would be from some hip and overpriced place here in Marin...but it wasn't.  Well, overpriced but it was from Marin. 

She told me that she had found them at Heath Ceramics, a super cool shop in Sausalito.  So, off I went in search of my very own Wrek jars.  There are so many cool styles to choose from.  I bought a few that I knew I would use (in hopes that Dann wouldn't notice the new "items" in our kitchen cabinets). 

So far I have used them to store leftovers like pasta and yougurt. I've used one of these to put our OJ in.  I feel much classier with Declans juice in this carafe than the boring old paper carton.

So, if you are ever in the North Bay or near the Ferry Building in San Francisco, check out all of the awesomness that is Heath Ceramics and get yourself a few Wrek Jars. 



Life With a White Sofa

At the end of last summer, I bought a white sofa for $200 at a sample sale. At the time, I envisioned romantical lounge sessions with Dann and Declan on a lazy weekend afternoon.  I thought it would add some "edge" to my more traditional livingroom.

What was I thinking?!?! A white sofa with a baby/toddler? I really was crazy-out-of-my-mind.  Two months in, when Declan started to reach and grab at everything, he pulled a cup of coffee off the side table. It spilled down the side of the chaise. While I quickly took action to clean it...there is a lovely Navajo White ring left.  It was at that point that I gave up. I didn't care what was done to that sofa. It was $200.

I not only gave up on having a beautiful white sofa and well kept home, I gave up on caring about anything. I know now that I had a big (and very well ignored) case of postpartum. I just tried to get through every day without crying. My goal was to just see Declan and make sure that I didn't cause any damage, physically or emotionally.  I was plagued by a fear of causing so much trauma that he would have issues as he got older. At work I was internalizing too much. Every bit of advice or story from co-workers became my reality.

A few months ago, there seemed to be a break in the storm. I am now enjoying my home life. Maybe time was all I needed, maybe Declan's first birthday was the boiling point. I don't know and I am not going to try to figure out what triggered me to start feeling better. I'm just going to go with it. I have had a lot of clarity about the new direction my life is taking, and I have some new game plans. This makes me excited.

When the fear of staying the same outweighs the fear of the unknown, it is time to make a change.

Change, here I come with a happy and full heart.

Elizabeth

Wow, it has happened. Elizabeth Taylor has passed away. I wanted to say that she was "gone." But she never will be. Not to me. I have hours and hours of film, words and words of articles to keep her alive in my world.

I love this photo of her. It was taken while filming Giant, one of my favorite movies. I love everything about this photo. The lasso, the bikini top, the high wasted slacks and boots.

There will never be anyone like her.

Hipstercrite: My Mom Blog

Hipstercrite: My Mom Blog: "Mom blogs seem to be all the trend. I'm not sure why. Don't people relate better to self-involved twenty-something blogs? I mean reading lon..."

40 n' 40

This morning I read a FB post from a friend who is getting rid of 40 bags of stuff in her home, in the next 40 days. She is doing this for Lent...but I think I'm going to do in honor of Spring! So, by today I need to get rid of 5 bags of stuff to toss or donate. Easy.

Here are my rules:

• A "bag" can be any size bag. Brown grocery bag, plastic grocery bag, garbage bag. The point is to just clear unnecessary stuff out of the house by April 24th.
• Donate as much as possible. With Declan hitting a year soon, this will be easy as he is outgrowing clothes and "baby" toys at an accelerated pace.
• Toss out the crap!!!!! Keep what you truly need. 6 wooden spoons the same size? Half used bottles of lotions that I haven't used in a year? Toss it!

Not too hard, plenty of room for interpretation but enough to keep me on track. Wish me luck!