Eat Play Love

We all seem to know the feeling of dread the next morning when half the night was spent awake with tossing and turning. For me, I was up from 1:30-4 am and thought for sure I should just throw in the towel and get up for the day. I did finally fall back to sleep for 2 more hours. I felt so discombobulated in the morning, that I instantly prepared myself for my coworkers and family to tell me how exhausted I looked. I took a hot shower, I had two cups of tea. I made sure to not skip a step hydrating my face, I went for eyeliner and mascara instead of my quick mascara touch up, I even put on lipstick before heading out to work.

What happened when I walked into the office was the exact opposite of what I anticipated. Not one, but two coworkers instantly complimented me on my skin and how radiant/glowing I looked. I told them, it must be the lipstick. They instantly quipped, no it's your skin! They inquired as to what I was  doing to my skin? I laughed. Not even a week ago I started u…

Every year Thanksgiving rolls around and in our home the only option is to serve a turkey, but does where you source your turkey from make a difference? Did you know there are a variety of non-conventional turkey options? We have always purchased our turkeys from Whole Foods Market, but this year in particular I looked into the type of turkeys they carry. Whole Foods Market carries Diestel turkeys in three varieties organic, heirloom, and pasture raised.


Organic: These turkeys were fed a diet of certified organic feed, and are also Non-GMO project verified. No antibiotics, growth stimulants, or hormones were used.Heirloom: These birds are a mixture of Auburn, Black, and American bronze Turkeys. The meat is rich and flavorful, and they were fed certified organic grains. Heirloom turkeys also have more dark meat.Pasture Raised: Raised on irrigated, green pastures, these birds are rotated in the fields with chickens, goats, sheep, and hogs using polyculture methods. Slow-grown, these bird…

I'm not quite sure what came over me, maybe it was the weather or the slow approaching sun easing towards the mountains in the west. I asked my girl if she wanted to join me for a trail run. Of course she said yes, so we laced up and set out. 

I requested she not sprint the entire way, I gave her an out on the return to sprint from the wooden bridge back to the Cottonwood trees at the trailhead. She agreed and stayed pretty close to me as I made my way down the trail, occasionally she'd turn her head back to make sure I was still plodding along. I don't know if this will be a regular thing, but I do know it's a special place to share with my girl.

We are knee deep in the post Halloween sugar laden dilemma, what in the world do we do with all the candy? A listserv of local moms I belong to started the Halloween season with a list of candy companies that source their chocolate from child slave labor. Of course, I fixed up a batch of fresh popcorn to see what kind of ideas would roll of out from the group with what to do with all the demonic processed sugar our children spent hours gathering from strangers. There are local dentists that pay per pound and ship the candy off to the troops and the food bank isn't interested, so gasp it's almost like we are left to make decision completely on our own. OH MY, what to do with the candy? I pride myself on being non-traditional, but we allow our daughters to eat their Halloween candy. Yes, I said it, they consume their favorites by week 1 and then we combine both piles and slowly it just fades into the background. As it turns out, the candy doesn't turn into some big power str…

Negative self talk, are you familiar? I have the ability to say things to myself that I wouldn't fathom ever saying aloud, which is definitely a special kind of negative self talk. One of the best ways for me to overcome negative self talk is to confuse it. A friend asked me to join a group on an urban night run and I said, YES. Now mind you, I didn't just say yes sign me up. I said you're organizing a night run and you thought of me, why? My reaction seemed quite normal because the negative self talk doesn't hesitate, it likes to be ready in a moment's notice. I would easily be the first to admit I'm not a runner in about 50 different ways sitting on the tip of my tongue, but I still said yes. The premise behind saying yes to this run was to shake up my patterns to self defeat, to self deflate.  If I raise the bar on the limitations I set on myself, how does that carry over into my everyday life?

The view from opening my door and stepping out of my comfort zon…

On Tuesdays, I've found myself in a canyon where I would hike daily years ago, like pre-kids years ago, like goofy black lab joining me on hikes years ago. Memories and roots were established in the dirt of these mountains. Rolling hills, sweeping vistas, craggy rocks, climb, descend, wind back around, my feet just follow the path. For a moment, I stopped to take in the clouds covering the sun with whispers of rays poking through. How spectacular is this I thought, like I've never been here hundreds of times before. What's old is new, the timeless adage rings true. The mountains hold me in a way I need, my breath fills me, and my heart knows I will be okay...