Sept. 6, 2013

My uncle Doug passed away this morning unexpectedly.  I'm not going to be able to get home for the funeral and the distance between Maryland and Texas is really hitting me today.  :/

Doug was a wonderful member of our family.  He always made me (and anyone else with a sense of humor) laugh and I never saw him upset, angry, or even in a bad mood!  He made my aunt very happy.  He was my dad's partner in crime growing up.

I will miss seeing him at holidays...I'll miss trying out his homemade wine...and I will be sad that someone special is missing from Mountaindale (one of the places I carry always in my heart).

I know he is in a better place now but I will miss him.  He was such an earthy person.  I know I will think of him every time I get the chance to get lost in those gorgeous Frederick county mountains.

32 is the new 22

Hey everyone - I feel like it has been awhile since I've said hi!

Hi!!  :)

I hope you are all doing well.  Life is going along here at a sweet pace.  It's a little strange to be honest.  It's like things are moving along like a happy, bubbly, little brook and I can't help but feel like a leaf floating downstream on my way to a larger body of water.  Is that weird?  It's the only way I can think to explain how I am feeling these days.  The feeling is good - it's refreshing and fun to feel you are being swept along in a cleansing element - the feeling is one I only last remember feeling in my early twenties.  It's like life is an open road and the possibilities are limitless.

So I'm saying things are good and exciting.  :)  And I can't shake the feeling that I am on my way to something bigger and better than I have ever dreamed.  It is a lovely feeling!  Maybe it's the juicing...maybe it's my age...I dunno.  I'm just relaxed and happy and content :)  Good stuff.

Here's a quick little update of what I've been up to and what's keeping me moving these days:

austin, tx - home sweeeeet home

Hey everyone,
I hope you are all well!  I have been on "stay-cation" this week and I spent my time off getting my new apartment allllll put together :)  This week was also my 32nd birthday!  Normally, I spend my birthday week engaging in a lot of fanfare and bar-hopping.  This year was a lot more quiet and subdued...and I liked it ;)

Please come on in and take a little tour of what makes this apartment "home" to me!

When you first walk in you have the option of going to the dining/kitchen area on the right or the living area on the left.  This space pictured above is supposed to be the dining room but I've turned it into my study/sewing/hoop making/reading/record player area.

Banking

Evening pardddners :)

How are you all doing?  I just wanted to touch base and share with you guys a little bit about a Women's Gathering I went to this past week at the Austin Stone church here in Austin.  It was so good :)

So, it was this past Tuesday - which just so happened to be a very rough day for me at work.  There was some coworker drama going on, I hadn't gotten enough sleep, and I was feeling super overwhelmed about the tasks that make up my job.  I came home feeling frustrated and about a million miles from good.  I made dinner for myself and ate it while trying to decide whether or not to go to the Women's Gathering after such a crappy day.  My sister had decided not to go with me so being on my own wasn't making things easier.  But finally, I made up my mind to go...and on the way I prayed a little prayer asking God to give me some comfort at this event because I sure hadn't gotten any comfort during the day :/

You guys recall that I am a banker, right? Well, I get myself up to the event, grab a seat, and the speaker reveals the topic of the message.  It was on the topic of...

BANKING.

Yeahhhhh...this banker who'd spent the previous 8 hrs being extremely frustrated at her banking job perked her pretty little ears right up.  ;)  

A Simple Kinda Life

Hi everybody :)  How's it going?  I'm blogging to you live from the sun-bright city of Austin, Texas with my good pal Callie by my side.  She's writing an entry on HER blog - http://www.seizuretheday.org/ - please feel free to check her out :)

It has been a lovely couple of weeks here in God's country!  The juicing is going great, my job is getting more interesting everyday, mom and dad were in town for the 4th of July, and I get my new apartment in FOUR days!!!!!!!!!!!!  Yay!

Life truly feels simple and sweet. That sweet simplicity is something I've been thinking a lot about these days :) It is hard for someone like me (my mind is always in 10 places at once and my energy levels are HIGH to say the least) to slow down and apply a simplified perspective - but I've been more and more able to achieve this here in Austin.  Check out this devotional I read the other day:

Juicing 101

Juicing is SO easy!  I've been juicing breakfast and lunch for almost a month now and I am down 20 lbs!  Below is a quick start guide including tips, techniques, and recipes:

How do I make juice?

I've tried juicing using a blender, a Vitamixer, and a Breville juicer.  The Breville juicer was definitely the best product I've tried so far...but I don't own one myself.  I use the blender passed down to me from my mom because it's FREE!  :)   A couple tips:

- Juicers (like the Breville):  These are great.  They deconstruct fruits and veggies so that you are only drinking the actual "juice" from each food item.  You CAN drink the pulp left over from juicing but I have found it will slow your actual weight loss.  

- Vitamixer:  Vitamixers are powerful!  But there really isn't a way to remove the pulp from your juices so you end up drinking it all.  Again, that's perfectly fine, but you won't see a dramatic weight loss.

- Blenders:  I love this old school method :)  Cut up fruits and veggies (make sure to add a little water to the blender!) and blend until liquefied.  Use a small holed strainer and a bowl to remove the pulp from your mixture.  You can always put the strained pulp aside and reblend just the pulp in order to get even more juice out of it.  Don't forget to restrain if you choose to do that.

Storage

I store all of my juices in small mason jars that I picked up on the cheap at Target.  Using glass jars makes clean up easier, and it's just better than plastic in terms of keeping your juice fresh.  

Juicing Frequency

As I said above, I juice for breakfast and lunch.  I eat an early, healthy dinner (something like sauteed salmon and fresh salad, for example) each day.  You may want to mix it up and have a food lunch and a juice dinner, or something like that :)  It's just easier for me in terms of my schedule to juice during the day so that's why I do it that way.

Tips

- Try to juice fruits in the AM and veggies in the afternoon.

- Don't juice any fruit skins/rinds you wouldn't normally eat.  

- Drink water throughout the day.

- At first you may experience a slight headache.  That means your detox is working!  Calm the headache with a cup of green tea and honey.  

- NO alcohol - especially beer.  Don't be mad at me if you juice diligently but drink 3 beers at the game on Saturday and end up gaining weight!  :/  I learned this lesson the hard way...lol

Recipes: 

Lord Featherbottom's Nectar1 pear
1/4 of a head of broccoli
4-5 leaves of kale
4-5 leaves of swiss chard
1/2 a lemon

Green Moonshine1 pear
1 apple
1/2 cucumber
1 handful of spinach

Mean Green 1 handful spinach
3 leaves of kale
1 apple
handful of parsley leaves
1/3 of a lemon
3 inches of cucumber
optional - 1 inch ginger

Carrot Quencher
3 carrots
1 apple
1 big handful of spinach

Vegetable Potion 
1/2 cucumber
3 carrots
1 big handful of spinach
1 apple
1 inch ginger

Chill to the Beet (Anti-anxiety drink)
1/2 beet
1/2 cucumber
1 inch ginger
1/2 lemon
add coconut water if you can

Sunshine Elixer
1 orange
1 big handful of spinach
3 carrots
3 big leaves of kale

Mighty Marrow Calcium Drink
a cup of chopped broccoli
3 carrots
1 apple
handful of parsley leaves
1/2 lemon

Liquid Kleenex (Anti-allergy drink)1 apple
4 carrots
1 inch ginger

Skiddly-Boop-Boop-Skat-Skat!2 handfuls spinach

4 carrots
1 green apples

Kathy's Not-So-Green Tonic
3 leaves of kale
1 apple
1 big handful of spinach 
3 carrots
1 inch ginger
1/2 lemon

There are many more recipes available online!  Also, feel free to make up your own juices!  You can't really go wrong :)

Good luck!!!

it's all i got...it's my claim to fame

Letting Patty Griffin do the talking today :)

Also - I am now officially down TWENTY pounds from March.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!