Things have been slowly changing over the past however many years and i have been enjoying reading about nutrition and realizing more fully that food is meant to be delicious and nutritious. It doest seem too too long ago that my favorite breakfast was a diet coke, doritos and a cigarette… just typing that made me salivate a little. Yum! and GROSS!

Now I try to buy meat and produce from CA, I don’t buy a lot a of processed foods but certainly crackers and cookies sometimes. I like fancy cheese. I occasionally buy juice for Jack although I tend to only drink juice when I am sick. I buy a LOT of milk and cream, usually Strauss Farms but sometimes just whatever.

Sometimes I have my shit together and I make a weekly meal plan but really, that is not too often

I dashed across the street to the grocery store this morning and bought: cream, eggs (our chickens aren’t really laying right now), genoa salami, kalamata olives, an apple, my favorite Alvarado Street California protein bread, italian provolone, parmesan, sharp cheddar and.. that’s it, I think.

Sometimes I buy stuff in cans but mostly I try to make soups from scratch and buy dry beans instead of canned. Last week I made a crockpot chicken soup recipe that called for canned beans and I didn’t have any. So I soaked some dry beans over night and then added them to the crockpot… but I hadn’t COOKED them. So they came out crunchy. It was horrible. Resetting the crockpot to cook another 6 hours worked totally fine somehow and didn’t dry out the chicken or make it seem over cooked. major save! and that fed Vim and me for a whole week.

I make broth and soups and freeze them now that i have a crockpot. One of those tiny deep freezes would be super handy. I saw them at the store when we bought our fridge. They are cheap and when we have a basement someday I will get one. Then we can do that thing where you buy half a cow or whatever.

I also order food from Three Stone Hearth every week. This week I ordered Pastured Pork and White Beans with Greens, Beef Stew Osso Bucco Style and the Gremolata that goes with it plus more walnuts and their coconut date bars that are so damn good.

I grow some stuff. Just greens are growing now, I have kale, lettuces, bok choy and mustard greens ready to go. When I need some I just go out and pick it. All good for stir fry and soups.

What I ate today:
two egg omelet with olives, cheddar and walnuts.
two fish tacos from Rubio’s
curry lentil soup with yogurt cream
and like 3 cups of coffee
water
large spoonful of almond butter

That menu has a distinct lack of veggies in it, i guess the fish tacos had some…

What Jack ate today:
3 scrambled eggs with olives
cereal (some wheat flake kind) w/ milk
water
spanish rice and 1/2 a cheese quesedilla and a gross churro
some milk
2 strawberry mochi ice creams
2 bowls of beef stew with green beans and potatoes
1 small box of NERDS from his halloween stash

That’s more sweet stuff than he usually eats… oops. It was a holiday!

Here’s my fridge plus notes added with the app Skitch which is pretty awesome. Oh and if you like looking at people’s fridges, like I do, there is a whole flicker group for you to peruse here.

Today I embark on a pantry cabinet reorg inspired by Stitch and Boots, you can read her post on cleaning and organizing your shelves here. okay, wish me luck. I will blog about it hopefully today too.

oh and i wrote this on Friday but published it on saturday.

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I guess I’ve been thrown into some sort of hair identity crisis since growing out my natural color that is filled with gray. I don’t look like me and my nose got bigger. I don’t know what that has to do with anything but I am headed towards a nose job in my 40′s.

No shampoo! I actually have 2 large half full bottles of fancy shampoo and conditioner in my bathroom. I was going to use them up and then start the experiment but then decided that I couldn’t wait and should maybe keep those around for guests who don’t care to become smell hippies or something.

I looked on etsy for a shampoo bar, there are a lot all with different sorts of ingredients. I chose one that had the fewest ingredients. It was great. it smelled nice, had a great lather and now I know what squeaky clean means since my hair was actually squeaky AND clean. It was also soft, wavy and looked nice. So I used that like every 4 days and all was right with the world. Until it occurred to me that spending 6+ dollars to have someone from all the way across the country send me a shampoo bar was also pretty stupid.

My hair is still mostly wet and unbrushed in this picture but my cat is sooo cuuuuute (and huge)!

I may have to make my own. I could probably do it in a day and make a years worth of shampoo bars. Vim has made his own soap and says it was pretty easy and possibly even has some non food grade coconut oil left over somewhere.

This morning I finally tried out using a baking soda rinse in the shower. I have NOT tried apple sider vinegar (I don’t want to smell like apples, cider or vinegar, in any way.) nor have I tried egg yolks. As soon as we get more chickens I will though.

There are tons of sites out there that talk about why commercial shampoos are bad especially if you have dandruff or curly hair. Commercial shampoos are detergents that strip the hair of natural oils causing your scalp to then be too dry and then to speed up sebum production making your hair more oily. Basically.

Speaking of being manipulated by the beauty industry… I still might have to dye my hair again. I know it’s dumb. I can’t seem to help it. I can’t get used to my real hair. I wish it would just go tREALLY REALLY grey.

So, so far I like the results of no longer using commercial shampoo. Has anyone else out there tried this?

upcoming posts: new chicken coop! and Jack’s Halloween Crocigator costume! also, How Our Transition to Total Hippiedom Was Completed

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Why why do I lag and mope around about all the little boring things that have to happen to make life go smoothly? it’s so easy to just DO THEM on auto pilot and then they are done and one can get on with life instead of being pissed all the time that there is shit on the kitchen counter again and I JUST CLEANED IT and WHY IS THERE LITTLE BOY UNDERPANTS ALL OVER THE EFFING PLACE again and omg I am just going to pretend I am blind and that the kitchen table chairs are not inverted on top of the table for the third day running.

When Moomin was little Liz told me her trick to get him to do shit was to pretend he was a robot and she would talk to him in a robot voice and it totally worked. It works for Jack too and so maybe it will work for me as well. I’ll try it when I get home. ROBOT. MINNIE. WILL. NOW. CLEAN. KITCHEN. START PROGRAM.

+++++++

I am so diseased right now. I have a horrible lingering sinus infection. I thought two days ago was the apex but no. It is seriously impacting my alcohol consumption. I need mai tais people!

Also, I have a weird rash around my eye. It has been there for like a month now. my dermatologist gave me some totally impossible instructions on how to deal with it. some ointment and do not EVER touch it ever with anything at all. in fact, beam that part of your body into a vacuum for two weeks exactly and then call me in the morning.

AND. Now I have a weird allergic reaction to sunscreen on my arm exactly the same as on my honeymoon here. I am gross.

++++++++++

I am back on with pintrest and am obsessing about wall paper and decorating my house. We bought our house exactly one year ago and I haven’t done a single bit of decorating. There are barely pictures on the wall. I got a card from our realtor about this house buying anniversary and he mentioned coming by to ‘see what we’ve done with the place’. um. That would be nothing on my end. Except making the garden kick ass, that counts right? I need wallpaper.

Here is my bathroom pintrest.

my wallpaper pintrest.

my kitchen pintrest.

The problem with decorating is that you have to make decisions. and once you make a decision you have to buy the stuff and DO IT. and that means that you have to live with your decision FOREVER. and what if you don’t like it? or realize right after that you like something else? I mean, I have shit tattooed on my body for fucks sake. you’d think that picking out some wallpaper for the upstairs bathroom would be LESS of a big deal than something on my body for realz forever.

I think the problem is that it’s pretty clear to me that my body is MINE to do with what I please and thank you very much. But this house is it’s own thing. I’m nervous about doing the wrong thing for it. I need to mentally take possession of this house. It loves me and trusts my judgement in wallpaper. It wants me to make it beautiful. I can totally do this.

+++++++

gratuitous hawaii pic:

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So I signed up for that fitness class with Jack in a gymnastics class at the same time. Last week it did not work out and Jack cried when I tried to go to my class. But this week! It worked!! I was so proud of him.

He didn’t even notice me leave to join my class. He dove right in and participated in all of the activities. A very silly warm up of chasing the teacher and then some stretches. I could hear him laughing and talking. I kept wanting to peer around the curtain to see what he was doing but I restrained myself.

They played ‘Stay on Top’ which I have witnessed before and it is totally hilarious. There is a giant foam block and the kid is on top of it and the teacher turns to over and over and the kid has to scramble to stay on top of it. Oh the tragedy of it all. Then they played some game where two mats were set up to be a whales mouth and they had to not let the whale close its mouth on them. That created some serious laughter and shrieking. When I came over after my class I saw Jack standing on top of a tall block jumping across like 2 feet of space to another tall block. He kept landing on his stomach with legs dangling.

He’s out there doing stuff without me! It’s so great. I love picking him up from daycare and asking him what he did that day. He’ll say, “D’s house. Cair throw ball me. Park! Where’d my Daddy go? Work. Home soon?” ahahahaha. So cute.

My class was good too. This time the routine was better suited to my fitness level. The last time some of the stations were so hard that I couldn’t even begin to have good enough form for them to work the right muscles. Today I am sore all over. However, I don’t think I will ever be much of a handstandy sort of person. My wrists hurt too much. Next time I am going to ask to try stilts!

In this picture we see Jack hopping the lily pads at the Oakland Zoo for the very first time. *sniff* He’s so brave!

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About 20 minutes after my Chiropractor appointment my kid jumped onto my back as I was lying on the bed. OW! He was legitimately pretending that I was car and my feet were the steering wheel but this particular bounce caught me off guard.

I also find that physical therapists, chiropractors and massage therapists cause me to feel shamey and guilty when their magical hippy touch does not instantly make me better.

I do have to say that this massage therapist was AWESOME. She was SO NICE and she massaged my tendons in my arm until I was almost in tears from pleasure at how much it hurt. I’m going to have to make her a present!

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guess I have to bring him in a stroller lest I end up having to hold a squirming baby on my lap while getting my teeth cleaned. hahaha. Just letting him run wild all over the office kind of has it’s appeal though…

I made another cute-ass pair of spats. These and the ruffley ones and the green ones are for sale in my etsy shop. Finally! I am like the last person on earth to have an etsy shop.

Go check it out! minniekins.etsy.com

I think that having a good inner lining is essential. I mean, on the outisde you’re all cute and hearty but on the inside you are fucking ON FIRE. Anywho!

I want to see some people wearing spats out there darn it! Oh, I’ll be adding some baby loveys to the shop in a bit, I just haven’t gotten around to getting some good photos of them yet.

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The sandy crotch problem is better in adulthood than it was as a kid. I remember my bathing suits had like a special sand collecting pouch in the crotch for some reason. Do kids bathing suits still have that? or did someone up there realize how annoying it is? None of my adult suits have that. I swear as a kid I could carry a cup full of wet sand around in my crotch all day, sometimes seaweed too. Now I am all out there in the clear blue tropical waters trying to empty out my sandy crotch while all the snorkelers watch. Fun!

Several people have posted lately about bathing suits and feeling fat or judged or not perfect or whatever. I hear you sisters! Our first day here I looked around and realized that I was the fattest woman on the beach not fully clothed. Everyone more than 5 pounds “over weight” was fully clothed in black.

I am still carrying quite a few pounds of not muscle and I am self conscious about it. But NO WAY and I going to let that interfere with my enjoyment of the beach and fully clothed is no way to enjoy the beach unless it is nighttime and cold out. So fuck that noise. SO WHAT if I’m a bit plumper than I used to be?! Who in the hell is looking?!

A. no one who looks at me cares.

B. probably no one is looking at me anyway.

C. I don’t give a shit if people look at me or not.

D. I don’t care what crosses their mind if they do happen to look at me.

E. I look at people all the time and yet am not making a judgment about whether they look good or not. Or maybe I am. WHO CARES?!

I have to say that I love all the cute bikinis that women are wearing these days. They’re so fun! all polka dotty or rainbow colorful. Sometimes the bottoms get a bit too too small for my tastes tho. Men I don’t much look at as they tend to be boring. Vim just got an outrageously cute suit with birds all over it and his other two suits were bought sometime in the mid 80′s and don’t bear talking about. I have several suit combinations with me and will take a few pics to join in with the truthiness in bathing suit project of Suzanne’s over at Blogher.

Here are the pieces I have:

black bikini bottom with tie sides, black bottoms with skirt, board shorts in camo and hot pink, cute as fuck 3/4 sleeve back roxy board shirt, black and rainbow polka dot bikini top, black and silver dot top, plain black top, black top with paul frank skulls, and my bathing dress.

Okay and that’s just what I have with me… I have like 80 million other suit parts at home. I do like  cute suit even if I have to stuff myself into it.

I’m a big fan of the swimsuit dress and the board shorts.

Check out these cute shorts, they are good because they have a bathing suit bottom built in. My current board shorts do not so I tend to wear bottoms under them. Trunkettes.

There are a ton of cute swim dresses out there too. Check out this one!  and in pink! I got mine three years ago at Macy’s/ It was a total fluke and for two years I didn’t see swim dresses around at all. This year they are everywhere.There is some catalog that is full of them but I cant remember which… I thought it was Athleta but maybe not. Oooh, not a dress but still outrageously cute!

Everyday Goddess talks about vlogging in her bathing suit.

Here is Suzanne’s Blogher post about the Swimsuit Brigade for Honest Photos

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It is pronounced trick-o-till-o-mania and is  the inability to resist the impulse to pull out your hair.

I’ve always been a fidgeter and the hair thing started when I was a teenager.  I obsessively plucked my hair out and became unable to control constant hair fiddling. I braid my hair constantly now. To the point of hardly being able to move my hands they hurt hurt so much from doing it. Sometimes, while I am driving I find both my hands migrating from the wheel to my head. To get around this I now use one hand while driving to tie a chunk of hair into a knot. It works out pretty well but I often arrive at my destination with a bunch of little knots all over my hair.

There are certain spots where it feels like I HAVE to pull on the hair. behind the ears… right above my temples…  Mostly I braid it and pull it. I don’t pull it out (well sometimes).

I have shaved my head several times. If there is any hair there at all I will yank on it or fiddle with it.

What pisses me off most about this is that the fidgeter is always made out to be the villain. Like, if you’re nervously fidgeting then you have something to hide or are guilty. So screw you literature and stereotypes! Srsly… I swear I am not guilty… no really.

So, do I need to make myself stop doing this? I don’t have anyone to impress at this moment, not having a job and all. And not like I ever have ambitions of climbing the corporate ladder either, ever.

I do think I will cut my hair short in the next year or so. I’ve been trying to grow it out seemingly forever. You remember the movie “high fidelity” with john cusack (too cute)? His girfriend in that movie had my perfect hair – blonde, smooth, long and with with impossibly short fringe. That’s what I’ve been attempting to achieve.

I will never achieve it. The constant hair fidgeting problem mean that  have constant “pony tail hair”. That’s when you pull your hair back in a pony tail and the ront hair breaks off at the place where the pony tail holder ties. So the back of my ahir will get long but the front lock willalways be shorter and broken off.

Also, my hair is never smooth as it is a bit wavy.

SUMABITCH! What’s a girl to do?

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I am PMSing so the hot plus the hormones is making my skin hella oily and gross. I’ve been washing my face every few hours and I this is a serious benefit to working at home. Still I am breaking out and my skin is terrifying me. Not only are my pores huge but I noticed a few wrinkles around my eyes.

I use a crappy product line called “acne free” or something that I get from the drug store and it is supposed to be equivalent to Proactive and it is just a 2% benzoil peroxide wash and cream. I also use massive amounts of some other 2% benzoil peroxide cream and now I’ve added a salicylic acid wash a few times a day too. I feel like my 16 year old self trying to convince myself that this too shall pass. But it won’t as I am about to be 34 and my acne is actually worse than it was when I was a teenager.

One thing to remember for oily skin is that DRY dos not equal NOT OILY. So moisturizer that isn’t shitty is essential. I use clinique dramatically different lotion on my face although I am thinking about switching to a shiseido lotion when this bottle runs out.

I got a pedicure and manicure today and boy howdy did I need that. In fact, the tough skin on my heels bested the stylist. Let this be a lesson to me – Lotion Thine Feet Daily.

Is it just me or does everyone have this problem: I can’t stand any kind of pressure on my finger or toe nails. Any kind of pressing on the nail bed or pushing the nail in any way makes me writhe around in uncomfortableness.

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I debated taking the class again but ultimately decided that I might was well go it alone for a bit to see what happened.

So I resurrected my love affair with stumptuous.com. I found this womans site like 3 years ago and loved it but then forgot about it. So when I was thinking about making up a new workout routine for myself I went straight there.

Weight lifting is really the only sort of organized exercising I can get behind. I first tried it in about 1999 right when I moved into my own apartment in SM after a crappy breakup. My only goals were to drink as much wine as possible and go to the gym and maybe occasionally go to class. I started with 24 hour fitness “body pump” classes which I loved and have since disappeared to be replaced with shittier versions. Anyway, weightlifting… It isn’t boring endless cardio and you see results quickly if you increase your weights right. I’ve been doing a full body routine between 1-3 times a week interspersed with interval training. I should be doing it 3 times a week without fail. but.. well.. you know.. stuff happens.

It has been about 5 weeks and can see how my muscles are changing. Mostly in the legs and I’ve gone down a pants size. so… actually that mean I am now out of my pregnancy pants. which is great and all but now i have like 2 pairs of pants that fit me. all my other clothes are still too small.

I think Vim is secretly wanting to get in on the “EHN!” action because he wenbt on craigslist and bought a weight bench. We now have a weight bench in our bedroom. Which is a whole otehr post coming soon…

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Usually I want to go to the new whole fuds near my house. The grocery list is carefully crafted to that stores layout in the hopes that nothing will be forgotten. Vim always wants to go to Berkeley Bowl and I’m often not up for the chaos and parking pain in the ass that that involves. However, today I decided to go to BB right after I dropped the kiddo off at around 9:30. I figured the hippie scrum couldn’t possibly have already begun that early (Wrong!).

I had a list. The list was created while hungry a few days ago and whilst sitting in front of a cookbook. I had plans. Vim had plans. But what in the hell were they?! I have no idea which recipes we were talking about but I bought a leek and some pumpkin seeds that are supposed to go into something or other…

I’ve always wondered why avocados are always billed as “haas” avocados because I have never seen an avocado billed as anything else so I wondered if there were some other kind. And is Haas a type? a brand name? what’s the deal? The other day Vim brought home and avocado that looked quite different as it had a smooth lighter green skin, it was weird and stringy inside and Jack did not like it.

Here is an excellent link with information about types of avocados. The one Vim got must have been a Bacon variety. Needless to say, this avocado was not as delicious as bacon. Oh hey! There is a variety called  the “Zutano” like the kids clothes! This must be where they got the name for that brand. They have some darn cute baby clothes thats for sure. I just got Jack a few cute pieces at the baby resale shop. I’m surprised they don’t have a baby jumper with avocados all over it (okay, not really).

Now that the mysteries of the mysterious and wily avocado have been cleared up for me I think that I can go ahead and relax for the rest of today.

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I feel guilty for not loving you right now because I know the changes in you are a natural function of having had a child. Sometimes it’s like there’s a war going on between me, my mind and my body, a weird fucked up 3 way war. I really hope that we learn to work together and love each other again soon. The diplomats and jiggly bikini girls should help break the ice so that we can loosen up and find a middle ground.

I hope you don’t mind my current obsession with lifting weights. I am making you work hard, but it’s kind of fun isn’t it? You seem happier when you’re strong and I know I am. All the work we have been doing is totally paying off since you have been feeling so much stronger lately.

I do want you to know that I appreciate all those practical tasks you let me perform and physical pleasures you bring me, my favorite right now is exfoliating you and then getting in bed under the cool sheets.

Kisses,
Minnie

P.S. Sorry I didn’t get you that yummy gingerbread lotion they have during christmas time around here. Next year, I promise!

P.P.S. Should I cut our hair? Dye it all blue? What do you think? It so needs a change. Love again, Minnie

P.P.P.S. On that note, what should our next tattoo be? More birds?

P.P.P.P.S.  I think I’ll take you to the beach today to soak up some warm sun, get sandy and relax to the sound of waves and a baby screaming because it’s eating sand. Again with the kisses, Minnie

For blogher A Letter to My Body.

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ANYHOO

Me and two other women are sharing a personal trainer for six weeks, 4 days a week for out of doors ass kicking working out.
Yesterday was week 2, day 1 -mostly cardio and abs (for me). I got singled out yesterday for some extra ab work. Warm up of quick stretches as opposed to long deep relaxing stretches. I can’t remember all the ones we did. Ran 1/3 of a mile, then I did 3 sets of planks for 1 minute each, ran a 1/3 mile, 3 sets of cruel cruel reverse crunches for 1 minute each, ran 1/3 of a mile, did 3 sets of side planks for 30 seconds (I’m a wimp!) each. Then stretching.

——

Today week 2, day 2 – calisthenics circuit training. 3 sets of jumping jacks, squat thrusts, and mountain climbers at 1 minute each. First of all, the second he said calisthenics all I could think about were those movies of men in short shorts (WANT) in teh 40′s doing jumping jacks. heh.

2nd curcuit – 3 sets for 1 minute each of swimmers, squats with a 15 pound medicine ball, and push ups on a bench. Okay, I CAN NOT do a push up on that damn bench. it’s freezing cold, wet marble and freaking kills my wrists. ah well.

3rd circuit – 3 sets, one minute each – shouler rows with 2 er, stretchy band thingies, lunges (DO NOT WANT), and shoulder presses with 15 pound ball.

Then stretching and straight to the coffee shoppee for this girl.

Week 4

day 1 – in moleskine

day 2 – in moleskne

Day 3 – warm up: each done walking 0 feet – opposite hand grabs foot from behind, leg up toe hits opposite hand in front, inch worms: hands and feet on grounf walk hands out to push up posish and walk legs up to hands, glute stretch-pull leg up in front and acccross body

run 1/3 mile – I did extra calf stretchs before running as my shins have been hurting, repeat 3 times: 1 minute plank, 30 seconds side planks each side, 1 minute crunches, run 1/3 mile, Repeat 3 times: 1 minute reverse crunches, 1 minute reverse bridge things- on back knees up and butt up, supermans-arms only, run 1/3 mile, stretching. i cant remember what we did.

day 4 – skipped

Week 5

day 1 – running day. warm up and timed 1/3 miles with planks and bridges repeat 3 times.

my time for 1/3 5:30

day 2 -  2 minutes of jump rope, 3 sets of 1 minute of jumping up to  a step squats, 3 sets of 1 minutes pushups and one minute lunge walk around the fountain. one holding a 15 pound ball, 3 sets of one minutes of sitting squats and 1 minute of row with easy band, 3 sets of 1 minute skiers and 1 minute of squat thrusts. cool down stretches. THIS WAS HARD!!!!

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