Under Construction...

Don't be scared...or maybe you should be, but if the design looks a little freaky, hopefully it won't next time you visit.

Finding My Lupines

Growing up I had many favorite books, and one of these was Miss Rumphius, a great story about a lady who as a little girl had a dream to make the world more beautiful in some way. She found a very simple way of doing this: she planted lupine flower seeds all over Maine. A very simple story, but I loved it. And until just a couple of days ago, I had never even seen lupines before, except in the pictures in the book. Then a couple days ago, as I was running down in Mission Bay by the water, there they were! I knew right away that they were lupines. So of course I had to stop and take some pictures. I mean, you don't see lupines every day, right? Well, since then I have realized that they are all over San Diego. Who knew!

A Healthy Life

Perhaps it goes hand in hand with being a dietitian (or almost one :), but trying to live healthy is something I think about a lot. I like to think that I am on the right track. I run every day except Sunday and absolutely love how it makes me feel, I try to get my 5 fruits and veggies in every day, and I try to cook healthy meals every day for Eric and I. But there is so much more I want to do!

Some things I have been thinking about:

• Cooking only with whole grains/ high fiber
• This has been a process.  Eric loves his white rice and noodles, but as I have learned more how to cook brown rice so it tastes good (see this recipe), he is slowly coming around.  The other hard part is that the whole grains tend to be a little more expensive.  I have been trying to make them fit into our very tight budget and it is working better
• I have been trying some other grains and legumes.  Some that have recently found their way into our diet are lentils, quinoa, split peas, flax seed, wheat germ.  I just bought some barley today and still have yet to try cooking with couscous. 
• What I want to do: I need to make these a regular part of our diet, something that I automatically think of when planning meals. I still have to search for recipes and tips on how to use some of these things since I definitely did not grow up eating these and don't know really how to use them. But I want to learn and am trying!
• Adding more color- and expanding the variety of fruits and veggies
• I love fruits and veggies, its definitely not a struggle in that respect. However, we sure seem to buy the same ones all the time. A lot of this has to do with budget again, I scour the ads every Monday and find out which will be on sale this week and that is what I get. But there are so many great ones out there! 
• What I want to do: Try a new veggie every week or at least a couple every month. Today I bought a turnip.  Doesn't sound exciting, I know, but I have actually never eaten a turnip. On my list to try: jicama (I have had this, just have never bought it), chayote squash, rutabaga, chard. 
• Grow our own herbs.  
• My visiting teaching companion and one of the girls we visit both do this. Wouldn't that be great to always have fresh herbs on hand and not have to spend a ton at the store on them! I definitely don't cook with fresh herbs much and would like that to change!
• Baking healthy
• I love to bake. Eric can tell you that for me, if I feel stressed or upset I will either want to go on a run or make cookies.  I find baking so relaxing.  I could spend all day in the kitchen and be happy. (I had the day off today and that is just what I did, I made whole wheat flax bread, chocolate flax muffins, bran muffins, and chicken alfredo for dinner- where the sauce was from skim milk and pureed cauliflower- it really works, and over whole wheat pasta, of course). 
• Fresh, fresh, fresh!
• It's interesting to look in some cookbooks or on some recipe sites and the whole recipes is made from stuff you buy in cans.  Condensed soups, veggies, etc. I know that is easy, but it is not nearly as tasty (or healthy) as going fresh. I love opening my fridge and seeing it full of veggies and fruits. It takes more care and planning to make sure nothing goes unused and bad in the fridge but it is so worth it. Les sodium, less sugar, less fat, and more vitamin. Seems all positive to me. 
• Homemade
• I already cook every day, from scratch as much as I can.  But I want to go even further. Things I want to try: homemade yogurt, sour cream, applesauce, graham crackers.  I have started making our own granola and granola bars, and when I have time, bread.  But I know a lot of these other things will have to wait until I have more time. 

I love thinking about all these things and trying to figure out how we can do it (especially with us both so busy) One of favorite past times (besides looking at recipes, going grocery shopping, and cooking) is analyzing my diet.  At mypyramid tracker you can enter in everything you eat in a day and it calculates how much calories, fiber, vitamins, etc you got in that day.  You can keep track over time and see how your trend is.  It figures out your calorie needs and sees how well your diet measures up. You can also put in your physical activity and that gets figured in to everything. Fun, fun, fun!! I find it so much fun to see if I met all the recommendations. 

Well that is probably enough rambling for today.  Eric wants to read a Dr Suess book now. (it is Dr Suess's 107th birthday today, if you haven't heard). So, speaking of food, its time for some green eggs and ham!

I love my husband

Valentines Day was over a week ago, but its always a good day to talk about my amazing husband.

We had such a fun Valentines Day.  I happened, by chance, to have the day off (got lucky with the preceptor I was with that week!), so we were able to have the entire day together.  So what did we do?  We sat at our kitchen table and studied pretty much the entire day.  Couldn't bring ourselves to take that much of a break while we are still in school, I guess...

But once 4 o'clock hit, we closed the lap-tops and put the books away and hit the town.  Well, we actually rode our bikes into town because we are too cheap to pay downtown prices for parking. Thanks to a giftcard (yay for Christmas and parents!) we were able to enjoy our first night eating out in about 5 months.

After riding our bikes back up the long, very steep hill home Eric collapsed on the couch, and could only be revived with the amazing cheesecake that I made. I can count on one hand the number of times I have made a cheesecake and those were all so long ago so I was a bit worried it wouldn't quite work out. Especially when everything I read said to absolutely never use anything but full-fat cream cheese and all I had was the low-fat kind.  But ha! it totally worked and tasted amazing.

As we ate our cheesecake I even got Eric to watch State Fair with me, an old musical that I really like. Perfect valentines day movie.

I love my husband, in spite of the fact that he makes me ride miles on my bike on Valentines Day just to eat dinner. :)  Actually, that was probably the best part of my day (besides the cheesecake). We live in such a pretty city, its a shame we don't make time for more bike rides like that.

I love you Eric, thanks for making every day a wonderful day.

Sunset Cliffs

Yesterday my parents drove up to spend the day with us. And what a perfect day to come! It was a beautiful day in San Diego, with perfect weather.  We took them to one of our favorite spots, Sunset cliffs.

 My mom fell in love with it, as anyone would.  She took tons of pictures and we were even able to convince her to climb down close to the edge a couple of times.  She was still constantly telling us to be careful, but hey, at least she was down there with us too! :)

Hiking the cliffs with my parents, Gary and Florence

Me and my Daddy

We were trying to do a cool pose, didn't quite work...

Absolutely beautiful. 

Here are some pictures of the sunset (the place isn't called Sunset Cliffs for nothing). Eric took all of these, and a few dozen more...

What a fun day! We definitely needed a little break from worrying about studying and other tiny problems like our house falling apart, and our car dying.  But our apartment seems almost back in order after our two bouts with mold in the last month (except for the fact that we think we now have termites...), and our car seems to have miraculously started running again, and school doesn't start again until tomorrow morning. And we have beautiful sunsets like these to enjoy! Life couldn't be better!

Thoughts on the weather and nursery

What a beautiful day! Have I mentioned how much we love San Diego- especially in the winter? Eric came home from church today and changed right away into shorts. I love not feeling frozen every minute of the day, even when we are inside (ie, one year ago in China). I went for a long run yesterday morning along the harbor and it was so beautiful and warm!

We had the windows wide open today during nursery to let that beautiful sun in. I thought it was a wonderful idea- that is, until toys started making their way out the window. Should have seen that coming. :). Nursery was so nice today. We lost half of our kids at the beginning of the year to Primary (that poor Sunbeam teacher!) so it has been a lot quieter due to that. But our church time was also changed to 11:00 and so I think nursery time now is during a lot of those kids' nap time. Today for example, the kids seemed so subdued and quiet, like little zombies almost- I think because they were so tired. At least it hasn't turned into a cranky tired yet. Not yet at least...

Speaking of Nursery, Eric's mom introduced me a while back to an awesome website, Sugardoodle.  It has lesson ideas and help for nursery, primary, and all the way up to Relief Society.  Tons of great ideas- it has been really helpful.  Definitely check it out if you do any sort of teaching at church, or even if you have kids- there are so many activity ideas on there. I have so many ideas now for what I can do to make nursery more than just letting the kids run wild and then feed them snacks, sneaking some for myself while we are at it. Hopefully I will be able to take the time to actually implement some of them!

I am enjoying working with these little kids a lot more than I was expecting. They are all so adorable, except of course when they decide to throw toys at each other.  And I have discovered the secret to all of their tiny hearts- bubbles.  Who know that some simple soap and water could make a little kid's face light up so quickly. If only it was that easy with everyone!

Another year over

"Another year over, and a new one just begun..."
               ~John Lennon, lyrics

Eric and I were talking over the last year together and what a wonderful year it has been for us! So much has happened and so many amazing experiences and opportunities have come to us. Definitely another year of big steps and changes for our little family! Eric and I will always remember our months in China- the excitement, traveling, food, but most of all the time we had to be together.  It was like an extended honeymoon, a great beginning for our marriage!
The time we had over the summer with Eric's family is also a time we will always be grateful for. I loved the time I had to get to know Eric's parents better.  They are such wonderful people- I've got to have the best in-laws out there!
Now in our new home in San Diego, Eric and I have settled in and are very happy. These will also be months to remember and treasure- our tiny apartment, riding our bikes every morning together to school and work, the worry and stress over finances and budget, trips to the beach, and again, time spent together.  Everything that would be so hard, difficult, and stressful has been made so much easier and enjoyable since I can go through it all with Eric.
This year has been one of growth- for each of us individually and as a family. I can't wait to see what this new year will bring.

Happy New Year to all of you!