Race Day

Last year, I ran my first 5K with my two oldest daughters.  At that point, my life was in a totally different place than it is now.  I had been jogging regularly for a while, my feet weren't hurting as much and I had already dropped around 20 pounds.  I had committed to losing weight and was finally succeeding for the first time.  I really felt the best I had ever felt in years.  When I ran last year my goal was to make it in less than 45 minutes and I made it in 42.  I was so excited.  Then in May, Taylor and I ran the Race for the Cure.  I beat my time by one minute.

It was right after this race that my mom fell really ill.  I kept up with my diet and exercise all the way through June, when she passed away, and then I just lost all motivation.  I went back to old eating habits.  My feet were a wreck so I quit doing any exercise.  I very slowly, over the course of a year, put those 20 pounds right back on and despite trying to lose it again from time to time, I just wasn't committed.  By now I was a yo-yo dieter which is one of the worst things to do for weight loss.  My metabolism was all screwed up.

This spring, Taylor told me she wants to do the races again and I got really scared.  I have been going back to the gym, and tweaking my diet to find out what my triggers are. However, when she told me she wanted to run again, I was really scared.  Thankfully I had remedied my foot problem.  For the last several years, I had been wearing Asics and my feet just kept getting worse.  I talked to a person that has the same problem that I do with her feet and she recommended some (very spendy) Nikes to me.  Boy, that has made all the difference in the world.  I have very little foot pain anymore.  I can jog, jump, walk in stores (that used to really trigger foot pain), with no problems at all.  I have not been able to shed a single pound despide my toughest efforts.  I am trying to push through this and keep doing the things I need to do without getting discouraged.  Some days are better than others.

Middleton Fun Run 2013

I am elated that my kids want to be a part of these races and go hiking and just be outside.  So I decided to go ahead and do this local race with my girls.  At this point, my goal was to just finish without dying.  I managed to make it through to the end in 46.5 minutes.  Twelve minutes longer than it took Taylor and 10 longer than Bridget.  BUT, I finished.  And it felt really good!  I remembered how much I loved doing it and have decided to go ahead with the Race for the Cure again this year.  It is the day before Mothers Day.  Almost exactly a year from the last time I had a "normal" conversation with my mom.  This Mother's day will be tough, but I think the best way to celebrate it, is by doing this with my daughters.  I am ever grateful that Taylor dragged me out there this last Saturday morning.

Spring Planting

We had some rain roll in over the weekend so I decided to get some planting done.  Things are getting busy around here so I wanted to get this early planting out of the way.  We are not out of danger of frost yet, but there are some things that can tolerate the early spring cold.  I planted some of the same things last year but am trying a few new things also.

Last year I mentioned I wanted to try growing potatoes, but we never got around to getting the planters built.  Since we have the beds for the rest of the garden ready to go, I put Brent to work on the potato beds.

 Cutting the boards

The idea behind the potato towers, is that you can grow a large amount of potatoes in a small space.  Since a potato is a tuber, it will shoot off potatoes where there is dirt and room to grow.  We found these plans and used them as a base for building them.  Potatoes can be grown just about anywhere.  Some people use tires, others garbage cans or buckets.  They can be grown in the ground and in towers like ours.

Three potato towers

We had enough lumber for three towers so I decided to experiment and plant three varieties and see which grew the best in this environment.  Many websites say that you can grow 100 lbs of potatoes in this type of set-up.  I plan on weighing them at harvest and see what yield we actually get.  I planted Little Reds in the first tower, Idaho Russets in the second, and Yukon Golds in the last one.  It will be interesting to see which variety does the best.

Idaho Russett potatoes

After I placed the 12 pieces of potato with eyes that were sprouting into the tower, I covered them with dirt.  Once they are about 6-12 inches tall, I will fill in dirt until there is 3-6 inches of leaves above ground and we will add another board.  This will be repeated until there are 6 layers.  Some people wait and do a harvest at the end of the season, or you can harvest throughout the season as well by removing the bottom board and harvesting some potatoes and then putting the dirt back in.  I have had little luck storing the big bags of potatoes we get in the fall so I think I will do the harvest as you go method.

Along with the potatoes, I planted some sugar pod peas this year.  I only planted one row because I will probably be the only one eating them, but I wanted to try something different.  I planted a different variety of carrots and radishes than I did last year.  The carrots from last year failed to grow very big.  I think they were a different variety than what was supposed to be in the package.  Then, like last year, I planted lettuce and scallions.  I will have to wait until May to plant anything else.  We still will get frost and there is still snow on Schafer Butte so I cant plant anything that will not tolerate the cold.

I'm excited for this year's growing season.  Everything did so well last year and I am hoping it will do good this year as well.

The girls enjoying the dirt from the grass we dug up

Better Bread

I have been trying for years to make a decent loaf of bread.  It has taken a lot of experimenting and failed attempts, dense rolls, and loaves that didn't rise.  I learned to make a decent pizza crust and had been making that for a long time.  My family eats a lot of rolls and french bread.  I have at least a dozen roll recipes stashed away.. some that were better than others but none that were great.  Many times I would have Brent stop into our local grocery store on his way home and grab a loaf of freshly baked french bread to go with dinner.  It was quick and easy and not too terribly expensive.

The problem with stopping at the store for one thing.. is you usually end up buying at least 3 or 4 things and that can really add up.  I was on Pinterest one day and came across this recipe.  It looked simple enough so I thought I would try it.  After making this french bread half a dozen times, I don't think I will ever buy it again.

Here is how mine turned out.  I usually make it into two large loaves using one the day I make it and saving the other for either kids' lunches, or another nights meal.

 

Shaped into loaves

Slicing and doing an egg wash

Baked to perfection

These got a tad bit darker than I would have liked, but I am still learning the ins and outs of my new double oven.  This french bread turns out so soft and airy.  Spencer (4) gets so excited when I make the "squishy bread"!  It is perfect for eating hot out of the oven, turning it into garlic bread, or as leftovers for sandwiches. It is so incredibly fast to make.  I can make a batch in about 2 hours from start to finish with little babysitting. I wish I had known how easy this was a very long time ago.

I recently got a Wondermill grain mill so I will be making much more bread in the near future.  It really is an art but nothing beats a fresh loaf of bread.