Hiking boots, sunny weather, and back on the wagon

Well, I had a rough week and had trouble sticking to my points... sometimes WW just goes out the window for a week and I just try to make good choices and don't really count points at all... which is what happened this week... and I am still down a half pound, so that's not too bad.

The more exciting news is that I begged for money for new hiking boots and a new pair of comfortable walking/easy hiking type shoes for my birthday and last friday they came in the mail... I have big feet, so I ordered them online cause EMS, our local outdoor-wear retailer, didn't have the boots I wanted. So, now I don't have to wear my old shredded hiking boots from high school (that were starting to give me blisters from being so torn up inside after about 13 years of use) or old sneakers that had actually worn through the sole in one spot.



You really take shoes for granted when you have good ones, but when they are gone to hell and total crap and you can't really afford a new pair of 140 dollar shoes, never mind two pairs... well, when you get them, it's a beautiful thing. I love my new hikers... they are waterproof, unlike my old pair, which is really nice in this rainy Spring weather we have had lately. I haven't really hiked much in years, for various reasons, but the most recent reason was the lack of a decent pair of boots... so now I am super happy and have been hiking twice in the past few days.

Sunday we hiked for 2 hours in a local woodland, and got slightly lost on a side trail, which was fun actually because I saw a part of the wood I had never seen before. We had to slog through the edge of a pond because the Spring rain had made the water level rise, and my feet stayed perfectly dry... YAY! El, my 6 year old daughter, did great and hiked right along with the adults (we had house guests this weekend with their one year old), and the babies rode in carriers on our backs for the most part. Lu road in our Calyx buckle carrier, and it was very comfy.. she fell asleep after about a half hour and slept for the rest of the hike.



Yesterday I went hiking in another local woodland that I haven't hiked in since I was a kid. It's easy going, but fun because there are 4 connected small ponds and there are rivers and tiny waterfalls between them. Lu rode on my back again for most of it in the Calyx, and slept for about a half hour of our hour long hike. I would have gone longer, but it started threatening rain and spitting a bit, and I headed back just in time to not get soaked in a downpour.

Overall, I am super happy to have the new boots and shoes. I haven't had any ankle or knee pain with them, even after a couple hours hiking, which is great, because I have a fallen arch that can been really unpleasant in the wrong shoes. I also have a tendency to roll my ankles and hurt them (which is why I have a fallen arch and a chronically sore knee to begin with!), and these shoes seem to stabilize my feet really well while still being comfortable and looking damn cool into the bargain, which I am glad of.

Now I just have to decide where to hike today :)

PMS, tagine, and chocolate

Well, I think I have PMS... I am dying for chocolate in large helpings, I have a cramp in my lower back, I am totally exhausted, and I shouted at the kids today before I even realized I was shouting... oops... So, what to do? Well, instead of eating all the chocolate in the house I cooked all morning... I baked chicken to use in the next couple of days in lunches, I made ratatouille for my lunches for the next couple days (I love ratatouille with grated parmesan for lunch... yummm), I made a huge beef and chickpea tagine for dinner tonight... this is what I do when I am trying not to eat... I cook... so I cooked and chopped and spent the morning in a fog of tomato and cinnamon and garlic. I did eat chocolate with my lunch, but only a half ounce, not the entire bar. I had ratatouille with three ounces of chicken and a grating of parm over the top and felt pretty smug for stocking up the fridge with yummy things for the next day or two...

problem is... I should really have been cleaning the house, not cooking...

The agony of the artist, part three

I met the deadline, I didn't overeat too badly and I even managed to not gain weight though it's been a super stressful week! Yay!

So, I painted all weekend except for a few hours when we had a family birthday bash for my daughter (she turned 2 on monday) and me (I turned 29 on March 19th). I was rushed and it was not the best experience I have ever had painting, but it was fun and I got it done by the Monday morning deadline. I turned it in and it has been scanned and had poster graphics done and is being printed as the auction poster. Someone on the auction committee said it's the best publicity poster the auction has ever had. Yay!

I am very proud of myself for not totally overdoing it at my birthday bash too. I didn't lose any weight this week, but I didn't gain either through all the stress... I feel like the girl in the painting... light on my feet and dancing in the Spring sunrise.

new stuff over at the recipe blog

there is a new post over at my recipe blog at goodasafeast.blogspot.com

If you like tuna salad, but hate how many calories it racks up when you use mayo to make it, go check out the post! As usual, I am trying to find a way to make things healthier while keeping them tasty and not using fake foods like light mayonnaise, in this case... the list of freaky ingredients in light mayo is gross, or it has tons of vinegar which I just don't like the taste of (it doesn't taste like mayo, it tastes like vinegar!)... anyway... check it out, it's yummy :)

the agony of the artist, Part two

So, a few hours after posting about the whole painting debacle yesterday I got another phone call from the administrator at school (I know it's my daughter's school now, but I always just think of it as school... I went there, my daughter goes there, and my mom teaches there... I feel like I practically live there sometimes!). Anyway, he apologized for his call on Monday and for not making it perfectly clear that the painting is being put to a higher, more important use. He is intending it to be the art used for the publication of the 25th anniversary of the school... which apparently means that it will be used for invitations to events, posters to publicize events, and will be made into cards and possibly a 25th anniversary t-shirt. So, fine... that's great.. he said all the right things and stroked my ego quite nicely and I feel much better about the whole business.

Then, about 20 minutes after he called I got a call from someone else on the auction committee. She is the one who is doing the layout for the poster and taking the pictures of the art and all that sort of thing. She is a textile artist and I have total respect for her and her art and her ability to make a good presentation with the auction poster. Anyway... she also gushed and thanked and told me how much she appreciates me putting 12 hours into a painting for the school and she is so sorry that there was a communication breakdown about the original painting and what it will be used for. She thanked profusely me for offering to do a second painting and asked if I thought it would be possible to have it done by next Monday. I said that was tight, but doable and we brainstormed a little about what the subject matter could be. In the end felt good about that conversation too and spent the rest of the morning doing a few sketches for possible designs to show to the auction committee. I showed them the designs yesterday and we agreed that this one

is the best of the designs (it's the one I wanted to do, the others were all pretty half hearted and boring).

So, I get to do another painting. I have 5 days to do it in and it will probably take 10 to 12 hours to finish it. Meanwhile I have no help to take care of the kids so I can work on it, and except for the hour each afternoon that the girls spend with their grandparents and the evenings after they are in bed and an hour or so when my youngest is taking a nap in the morning while El is at school. I think I can do it, it's just going to be a little nuts.

I did overeat yesterday, but not by eating a whole extra meal... more to the tune of a few more crackers and cheese than I probably needed in the afternoon. So far this week I haven't gained weight, but I haven't lost any either. So, I will cope. I just need to get through one task at a time and try not to spend too much time thinking about the pesto and fresh mozzarella in the fridge and the crackers in the cupboard and how yummy they are when you put them together with a cherry tomato... I will save that thought for my afternoon snack and will only eat two... at least, that's the plan.

The agony of the artist

A few weeks ago, while Alan was still away and while we were between illnesses, I managed to do the painting I was asked to do for the poster for the auction that my daughter's school has every spring. I spent 12 hours of my incredibly hectic life doing a spectacular (if I do say so myself) watercolor painting of two children. In past years the painting which is on the poster has sold at the auction for a pretty fair chunk of change and I wanted to do a painting that reminded people that this auction supports the wonderful Waldorf education that they have chosen for their child or children. Because this school was started by mother and her friends and because I went there for the first 10 years of the school many years ago, this painting had a special significance for me too. I really put my heart and soul into it.

That's the back story...

So, yesterday I am rushing around to get El, my older daughter, ready for ballet and Lu, my 2 year old is running around yelling and begging for strawberries and I get a phone call. It's from the school's new administrator (who has just put himself on the auction committee as well). He tells me there has been a meeting of the auction committee and they have decided not to use my painting because it doesn't portray the spirit of the auction evening. He asks would I mind if they used my painting somehow in conjunction with the school's 25th anniversary next year. When I ask what it would be used for he can't really tell me... he just says that it seems too sweet and simple for the auction poster. I try to tell him that the auction poster has traditionally had nothing to do with advertising the entertainment of the event in the artwork, but he insists that he wants some 15 minute wet-on-wet non-representational painting for the background of the poster. This is a man who knows nothing of this school's auction, who has worked there for all of 5 minutes, and clearly does not understand that the painting which is used for the poster is always a high priced item which at the auction. Anyway, he doesn't even ask if I will do another painting, and when I say, "Well, would you like me to do something different?" he answers that they didn't want to ask me after I have put time into the other painting.

Anyway, after the conversation is done and I have dropped off El at ballet, I am sitting thinking about the whole thing and it just starts to bug me... the whole thing was not done diplomatically. I don't mind the idea of my painting being used for something else if it is a more important and prestigious something it is being used for, I don't mind doing another painting, though it is a bit late for that. What I mind is that I was never in thanked for my 12 hours of work in the whole conversation. What I mind is that I was not offered the opportunity to do a second painting. What I mind is that this man clearly does not understand the school that I have been part of for the last 25 years. And what I mind is that he and his committee did not talk to the person who originally asked me to do the painting before tossing it aside and deciding that they want to do something else. It is the lack of respect for my work, for the traditions of the school, and for the importance of auction's poster art that bothers me.

So, what has this got to do with my diet? Well, I was was such a mess about the whole thing last night that I sat right down and ate a turkey sandwich... I washed it down with ginger ale and orange juice.. and I topped it off with a handful of chocolate chips and cashews and dried cherries. I ate an entire extra meal over this. And it was only an hour and a half before dinner. I feel bad about the whole thing and I feel bad about letting myself try to drown it all out or work through it by eating. I don't usually do that and I am embarrassed by my actions when I do. But somehow yesterday, the late afternoon munchies combined with my annoyance and pissed-offness to make me very hungry... and today I have to deal with the fact that I overate and with the next step in figuring out what the f*ck is going on with this painting.

I am meeting with someone from school about this later today... I just hope I feel better about things after that.

happy birthday to me

Well, I am 29 years old today... it's pretty much a day like any other, nothing special. My husband took me out for dinner last night and we totally blew the diet out the window.... oh well... that's what birthdays are for. So, this week I am not really expecting to lose any weight... oh well.

I am trying not to feel old and fat and pitiful today, but it's not really working. I'm tired and somehow I don't think I am going to get much of a rest today.

Anyway... just thought I would say something to let the world know it's my birthday...