It's been too long.
Husband and little boy both had the flu and then followed it up with pneumonia and then topped it off with a cold. Five weeks later I escaped with a few days of coughing and runny nose. I think we're all on the mend now.
Eliot is adorable as always and wants to snuggle every morning the same as he's wanted to for years. I find myself relishing in it even more now as he approaches 5 and a half years old! He loves video games on wii, ds and playing on the computer with his daddy. He still plays play-doh, moon sand, tinkertoys, legos, board games, puzzles, builds forts, puts on puppet shows and on and on. It was so scary to see both husband and son so sick for so long that I feel ever so very extra grateful as we approach Thanksgiving this week.
So I wanted to do a quick post and a link to my talented brother's site and particularly to his new festive Thanksgiving song. (If you scroll down there's also a song inspired by Eliot that we love!) http://mchatton.com/2009/11/the-happy-vegan-thanksgiving-s/index.html Enjoy!
Much love, wellness and warm cozy houses for all this season.
xoxo
Ami
Where I work, we're engaged with guiding low-income families through the nation's blighted education system. As you might expect, we often toe the line between cooperation and condescension. And this morning I caught myself in a quietly awkward situation. In quoting a parent we work with, I considered writing "[sic]" three times — in just three sentences. No one was around to witness it, but my shame was thick and immediate.
Don't get me wrong, I know I'm luckier than most. I pass homeless men and women wherever I go in this city, and I've faced no adversity worse than my parents' divorce. But I don't like to see myself as above or better than anyone else. When I volunteer at a local SRO in the Tenderloin, I see the occupants as just people without enough family or education to work through their broken psychology. I'd probably be right there with them, if not for my sisters and a high school diploma. My inclination to skirt the blame of grammatical errors, though, was different. I truly felt uncomfortable publishing a double negative without calling attention to it as not my mistake. And once I realized what I was thinking, it was like suddenly noticing just how far away the ground is from the saddle of this horse.
Perhaps there is no such thing as equality. We strive for it, we fight wars for it, but even a bleeding heart like me can't achieve it.
1. did not go grocery shopping last night so I have empty cupboards and fridge, it will be a scavenger hunt for lunch
2. so many piles of laundry to wash
3. kittys have fleas
4. tummy not feeling awesome
5. not a lot of sleep last night
YAY!!!
1. I listened to raindrops hit my windows and roof all night long
2. squirrels leaping across my fence
3. coffee
4. rain
5. big soft ugly sweatshirts
6. ideas for a rainy photoshoot
7. Mr. L laughing at my goofiness
8. weekend plans
9. thursday I do a maternity photoshoot, and I have lights now
10. fire in the fireplace
My To Do List for today:
1. dishes
2. two loads of laundry
3. make laundry soap (have to do that today, I dont have much left!)
4. have fun in the rain
5. research maternity sho
I enjoyed this more than I thought I would...and I really enjoyed the last third as all of the seemingly disconnected bits came together. I haven't read a book this strongly about "identity" since the Auster binge I went on about 15 years ago. (Speaking of which, his new book is next up in the queue...)
Thank God for Dr.Oz and so many others that are showing a vegan diet can be healthy and are encouraging people to give it a try!
Specifically, a few family members of mine are taking Dr.Oz's 28 day vegan challenge and I'm so happy for them! And so of course I want then to enjoy the food so very much that they don't miss what they thought they might. I have about a zillion ideas so let's see...
*While I don't own this book I have heard good things. And I like to keep meals easy so this book could be a good choice: The 30 Minute Vegan
*Books I know and love: Eat to Live and Skinny Bitch
*Website: Post Punk Kitchen - Loads of free recipes!
*One of my personal favorite dishes from a local PDX vegan restaurant called Blossoming Lotus is called the Green Gaia which is steamed kale, mixed greens,
sprouts & avocado tossed in garlic olive oil, topped with sesame
seeds with a choice of rice or quinoa. Actually all of Blossoming Lotus's bowls are fantastic and you could make them at home. I highly recommend quinoa as a great rice substitute. Find it in the bulk bins at the grocery store and cook it up like this:
1 cup quinoa
2 cups filtered water
Rinse quinoa well and drain.
Add water and quinoa to sauce pan and bring to a boil. Cover, reduce
heat to simmer and cook on low heat until all liquid is absorbed,
approximately 15 minutes. Fluff with a fork and enjoy. Makes about 2 generous servings.
*Doing a bit of research online is very helpful. Exploring a food shopping site like Food Fight will give you lots of ideas of things you might want to try to find and/or ask your grocer to carry.
*Field Roast and Gardein are amazing. My meat-eating husband likes them. Seriously. So Good! I would suggest Gardein's Santa Fe Good Stuff with a big spinach salad. (Husband even diced it up and put it in a whole wheat tortilla with salsa, guacamole and greens once). Yum! Or the Smoked Apple Sage sausage from Field Roast sliced onto mixed greens, chopped celery and use fresh salsa as dressing. Delish.
*And last but most importantly increasing fresh low sugar fruits, eating more greens then you ever imagined possible, eating colorful veggies, orange peppers, broccoli, red peppers, carrots, zucchini, cucumbers... explore the produce section like you never have before. When I first started eating more raw foods I was not shy about asking the produce man questions, and most of them were basic, like how do I cut this open? And again going on line really helps just omit the dairy and meat from whatever recipes you find and use the yummy Earth Balance butter and eat more greens and eat more greens and eat more greens. Can't say it enough.
*My personal dessert of choice is Endangered Species 88% dark chocolate. One square satisfies my sweet tooth. And another sweet craving curbing food for me is Kombucha. I adore Kombucha. Here's a link to my fav: http://www.synergydrinks.com/
Coming up I hope to share breakfast ideas, more greens recipes, and smoothies. Tell me what you need and I will do my best. I hope I can help. Much love and yummy food to you all. Love you!
I've been looking for (and been wanting to make) a raw vegan ice cream recipe without coconut meat for awhile. I found this one on goneraw.com and changed it up a bit to suit my taste and what I had on hand. Here's my revision:
Cacao-Mesquite-Banana Ice Cream
*1c cashews soaked for 5 hours
*little less then 1/3c vanilla agave
*few drops vanilla stevia
*3c almond milk (I made a quick nut milk with almond butter, water and vanilla agave)
*2 1/2T cacao
*1 1/2T mesquite
*1t lemon juice
*Pinch pink salt
*2 ripe bananas
*1t lethicin
I blended all the ingredients in my BlendTec and came up with about 30 ounces to pour into containers for the freezer. I had to try it first of course, and it was heavenly! Yum! If I would have blended it just a bit longer I think it would have warmed up and turned into the smoothest hot chocolate in my high-speed blender. Maybe next time cause tonight was to make ice cream!
I stirred it twice before going to bed and this morning, more stirring! Had a little bowl after dinner Sunday night and it was lovely!
And one more recipe that I love!
Sunday morning smoothie:
one orange
small head of parsley
2 frozen bananas
1T cacao
pinch of cinnamon
few small drops vanilla stevia
1c water
Blend
Made 24 oz
And this post just keeps on going. I need to mention three blogs I am Loving right now. In no particular order:
1.http://www.loveveggiesandyoga.com/
Averie writes this fantastic blog from Arizona with such love, creative recipes and a yoga pose for each day!
2.http://discoveringraw.com/
Erica loves Pure Food & Wine and One Lucky Duck I think as much as I do! I love that! And her pictures of their food makes me feel like I'm there! Seriously, I would buy them so I could frame them as inspiration in my kitchen.
3.http://www.choosingraw.com/
Gena is honest, lovely and creative and her blog is delicious and informative.
Have a beautiful Monday!
xoxo
Today I will:
walk around town
take pictures
get dishes cleaned
wash some laundry
make a grocery list
breathe
I bought some studio type lights today. I should get them next week. They are not the best out there, but they were the best I could afford. I have some portraits coming up:
1. engagement portraits for sisters sister in law
2. maternity shoot
3. Mr. L's cousins Family (actually 5 families in one)
4. my own family
5. wedding in april
I need the practice. I am excited to possibly start making a few bucks with this hobby. It will take a while before a profit is made since I am still investing in equipment and still not real good at the portraits yet.
My cousin is opening her own salon and wants some of my photos as display (and to sell). I am slowly putting myself out there. That is tough for me. I hate promoting myself, I feel like it makes me sound cocky. Need to get over that.
Today's grateful things:
1. I did something silly today and it made Mr. L laugh and smile all the way to the car when he left for work. That made me feel giddy.
2. the sunshine, it is supposed to be 64 today! Nice!
3. It does not feel like such a strain to smile today, the last few weeks my cheeks felt like they were weights and it makes it so hard to smile.
4. the colors of autumn
5. miss Luna who woke me with her little dance on my shoulder and sweet little mews
I looked down one side of the sidewalk, then down the other, and went where there were leaves to be crunched under my feet. This was how I made all my direction choices all through town. My head was swirling with what I should have said, if it would have even be heard, thinking of hurtful things said and done. I was not in an awesome place, but I was working it out in my head like I try to do. Talking about it out loud seems to inflame it more, to write about it and ponder it feels safer. I feel like it does not give it the power it needs, it stays quiet and manageable.
Crunching tiny yellow japanese maple eaves under my shoes I noticed someone already had thanksgiving decorations up on the house. One large sign read "Count Your Blessings!" with a very goofy turkey staring me in the eye. I thought "okay Turkey, I will try and switch my train of thought, because I DO have plenty of blessings to count". As I walked another festive home had a thanksgiving flag that read "Be Thankful". By this time my thoughts had grown dark again. I was feeling lonely and wanted to only take pictures of solitude and I was finding none. I Began to think of things I was thankful for, instead of the things I was not grateful for. The sky started turning dark, it was going to rain soon. I started back home.
While I walked I thought how I have lost a little bit of my appetite for photography, lost a little bit of my inspiration. Then when I was almost home, my cell rang, it was designer and he was checking on what color scarf and gloves I wanted. I was happy to hear they would be coming soon. Then when I entered my house I sat at the computer with a cup of hot apple cider and read my emails. My cousin is opening a salon and she wants to sell some of my photos there, and also wants them on her walls. ;-) Love when the universe gives me the nudge to keep going. After chatting with cousin on the phone, I decided to just take a gander at a few blogs that make me smile, like ICHC or Cuteoverload and This one, and what should I find but a photo of a tiny book that you are to list your grateful things in. ;-)
I am grateful for:
*sunshine in the fall
*fresh hot apple cider
*soft bath robe
*hot showers
*homemade leftover split pea soup
*Mr. L
*the kittehs and turtle girl
*silence
*reality (when confronted with one who lives in a world that is not true, reality is good)
*laughter
*art
*tuesdays
*colors
*naps
*people who are willing to listen without analyzing
*goats (yes goats)
*apple fritters
*today
I'd heard about Women for Women International a few times while watching Oprah and had felt drawn to the organization. Then last month when Lisa Shannon was a guest on Oprah, again talking about WfWI I decided that that was it, I was going to become a sponsor. That night I got online, signed up for my commitment to send money each month to my new sister (that I asked to be randomly assigned to) and agreed to start writing letters too.
Shannon lives in Portland and writes, speaks and raises money for women in the Congo through WfWI and as luck would have it the fabulous Food Fight (our local vegan grocery store here in PDX) and their Let Live series had invited her to speak. Not so lucky was my household coming down with swine flu (don't even get me started about the irony and unfairness of my 2 out of 3 veg home having pig flu!) so I didn't get to attend, but Food Fight recorded it and put it up on their site! Worth the time to watch here is the link to last Sunday's talk:
http://foodfightgrocery.com/index.php/2009/10/27/change-one-mile-at-a-time-lisa-shannon-and-the-run-for-congo-women/
In the video Shannon explains where my $27 monthly donation goes:
*$10 to spend
*$5 to save
*$12 for training on nutrition, family planning, literacy and much more
What motivated me to be a part of this? I really care about our world and I have the means to share. I feel so blessed and lucky to do so. I spend almost $27 a month on my gym membership and now I will be matching that to give to a person in need, how awesome is that? And there's more! I really believe that for myself working on kindness and connection with the people I see everywhere I go, looking people in the eyes, speaking to people and treating people the way I want to be treated is what changes the world; brings out the best in all. The basics of love. Being love. And spreading love.
Thank you to Women for Women International!
As Peter Schrag recounts in California: America's High Stakes Experiment, the California dream has always had its dark side — from the discrimination against the Chinese in the late nineteenth century to the "battering" the Okies took during the Depression to the "push-pull-love-hate relationship with Mexicans." What is distinctive about the present situation, however, is that the dark side of the California dream encompasses population groups that will soon make up the majority of its citizens.
Sharp ethnic and racial divides of this kind don't necessarily undermine an economy. On the contrary, California's success in agriculture was based on cheap immigrant labor. But it's a recipe for social and political unrest — and even riot and rebellion. And it's a betrayal of the American, as well as the California, dream. That's something California's government will need to address, but there's the question of whether it is capable of doing so.
If you haven't read this op-ed in The New Republic, I highly suggest you drop everything to do so right now.
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