Daisies

Daisies

Sunday, January 30, 2011

A little bit of Spring in the midst of Winter

Today we had absolutely wonderful and very unexpected weather for wintertime, high of 63. This day could not be wasted indoors, so we set out to Azalea park, which happens to also have a dog park.




I had to get as much UV rays as possible, and Molly ran herself ragged.



The kids got to enjoy some much needed outside playtime, while daddy kept an eye. Mommy decided to walk with tired dog to see what wonders awaited.

 
We came upon a path that led us down to the Swannanoa River. Crystal clear with some great photo opportunities. After the parks this morning, we went and had some Indian lunch in downtown. We also decided to let the kids run free at the "Health Adventure" and had some more sun time at Pack Square. We treated the kids with some ice cream and nice walking around downtown.
We came upon an impromptu Capoeira session and some great music accompanying the capo. We sat for awhile and enjoyed the performance before heading on home. We finished off the day with  some coconut infused tempeh fried rice and relaxation on our couch. This day has been just what we needed after what this harsh winter has brought us so far. Now I am pretty exhausted and the cleaning of the house, laundry, and everything else will just have to wait for another day.
Hope you had a beautiful day as well.
Peace, Yasmin

Monday, January 24, 2011

Family Time

So today, the school system decided to cancel school for some reason. There was no ice or snow on the roads, in fact it was a beautiful sunny day. We had 40+ degree weather today. Ashleigh decided she wanted to spend a couple of hours at her gymnastics aftercare and Rian decided he wanted to stay home with mama. So after a little excursion to the craft store and some lunch with my little man, I set out to clean the house a bit and play some Wii with the boy. Oh how he loves the Wii. He really is quite fun to watch with all the jumping up and down and all the "Oh Yeah" and not too much actually happening on the screen. As for the cleaning of the house, my craft table is now free and clear for my craftiness whenever it strikes. I also went through many papers, receipts, junk mail not needed anymore. How wonderful it is to simplify life in anyway. After hubby went and got Ashleigh from the aftercare, I heated up some stew I had made yesterday, Adzuki Bean Miso Potato Stew, and I also made some croutons and vegan ceasar dressing for a nice salad and soup dinner. Being able to sit down to dinner with the whole family is truly one of my life's joys. Dinner is such a special time for us to share our day's stories and to just enjoy eachother's company. To finish off the serene feeling of the day, we decided to play a game of monopoly in front of the fireplace. So far, Rian is winning, but the game is put aside for now, to  be continued tomorrow.
Hope you had a lovely day as well.
Peace, Yasmin

Saturday, January 22, 2011

This Moment

Joining in a day late with "This Moment", inspired by Soulemama. This moment is a moment from this week that I wish to capture and cherish. My girl getting crafty like mama. Love it!

Hope you all have a moment that you cherish from your week.
Peace, Yasmin

Friday, January 21, 2011

Getting Healthy

So I know I had said I would be better at this blogging thing, but to tell you the truth life has been seriously busy. Work, taking care of the kids, being a wife, crafting, gym, basketball. So this year is my year to get back to healthy, that means losing a surprising amount of weight, getting strong, doing a triathlon. Yes people I plan to do another triathlon this year, but hopefully an international distance one. I will probably throw in a sprint tri to get my feet wet, so to speak. I also joined our company basketball team, which is pretty intimidating after ten or more years off the court and throw in co-ed and it is just downright scary. I played my first game with the team last Tuesday and had a blast. I had one chance to make a shot and unfortunately I missed it, but with some practice, I should improve. So why this year you ask, well unfortunately, my husband has made it clear that there are no more babies in the future for us. Sometimes I think about this and it makes me sad, but the reality is that financially it would be very difficult for us to have more kids and the thought of being 45 and both kids being 18 or older is quite exciting as well. I have two amazing wonderful kids, but I was meant to be a mother and the number 4 has always been in my mind. Wishful thinking, but I just need to remind myself about being young when I get to enjoy time with just my husband. Only 13 more years...craziness.  So about getting healthy, so far it is going very well. I am sticking to getting to the gym and I do have a personal trainer that makes it worth every penny I pay for him. Now time for me to get some beauty sleep.

Peace, Yasmin

Friday, January 14, 2011

This Moment

Joining in with Soulemama in "this moment" to show a moment from this week that I cherish. As some of you know, one of my many resolutions is to cherish "the moments" in life, so how fitting is this weekly post. My gorgeous little guy, being goofy as always.


I know some may have noticed the absence of my blogging this week...oh how could this be for an enthusiastic newbie to blogging. Well folks life has been quite crazy this week, with school cancellations, crazy weather, banquets, meetings, and cooking frenzy. So as a way to stress less, which is another of my resolutions, I decided not to stress about the blogging and to just concentrate on the day at hand. I swear I will try to be better.
Peace, Yasmin

Saturday, January 8, 2011

It's all for the Girl

So tomorrow is Ashleigh's 8th birthday. Woohoo! 8 glorious years that she has fulfilled my life with. As much as I love work and to work, my family and especially my kids are what I live for. It is a bit unbelievable that this girl of mine that was born, what seems or I remember like it was yesterday, is about to be 8...truly unbelievable. Where do those years go?
That's my big girl in her trendy boots and her skinny jeans. It seems nowadays she is very much interested in shopping for clothes and not so into barbie, because "Mommy that's for babies". So we figured this big girl finally deserved her own room.

 





Lovely areas of the room for a very lovely girl. She loves loves loves her room and "Rian is not allowed in unless she says it's ok!" The last one is the view from her room.

 

















The boy is quite enjoying his sudden room of his own as well. Ok time to get some crafting in while they watch a movie. Have a lovely night.
Peace, Yasmin

Friday, January 7, 2011

THIS MOMENT

I'm joining in this Friday in this moment, inspired by Soulemama to capture a moment that I cherish from the week.
Getting crafty with it for the girl. Photo taken by lovely hubby.

Hope you have a lovely weekend.
Peace, Yasmin

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Glorious Bread!

So today I decided I had to make bread. Focaccia in particular. After that raw/liquid day, all I wanted was some bread, bread, and more bread. This is the beautiful Focaccia before baking. Half with olives for the olive loving mama and half just plain. This was probably my first go at focaccia since culinary school over 10 years ago, yikes.

Here is the gorgeous finished foccacia and my plate with olive sundried tomato tapenade. I had quite a bit of yellow sundried tomatoes that I had dried in the dehydrator awhile back, and I couldn't have thought of a better accompaniment for the bread, other than maybe soup. So flipping delicious and just what I needed to satisfy my appetite. Yummers. Such a simple recipe, just a bit of rising time, but so worth the wait.
Focaccia Recipe:
4 C unbleached AP flour
1 Tbsp Salt
1/2 C Olive Oil
2 packages Active dry yeast
1 1/4 C Water

Flour, salt, half the olive oil, yeast and warm water in a bowl and mix with hand until all flour has been picked up. Take out and knead on floured surface for about 6 minutes. Put back in bowl and cover with damp towel and let rise in warm place for about 2 hours. After dough has risen, turn out onto a greased sheetpan. Flatten dough ball into about an inch thick circle. Make indentations in dough and drizzle some olive oil and sprinkle some sea salt on top. You are welcome to add any seasonings, olives, caramelized onions, etc. to it. Let the dough rise on pan for another hour and then it goes into an oven at 450F for about 25 minutes. Pull out and put on cooling rack, or if you are really craving bread like I was, you might as well go ahead and slice that bread hot and enjoy. Really so worth the time.

Ashleigh & Rian enjoying some of momma's homemade bread. I really can't harp enough about what a wonderful experience baking something from scratch and truly enjoying it is. I hope to inspire more people to make more food from scratch. Unfortunately other than the bread, my day was quite unproductive and not exactly what I was hoping for, but I did get to spend some quality time with the hubby and isn't that what life should be about anyways? Hope everyone is enjoying a lovely homemade evening.
Peace, Yasmin

Monday, January 3, 2011

Monday...Raw, Liquid Day???

So as part of my no animal products resolution, I had decided that Mondays would be different. Mondays I would be raw, no maybe all liquid, ummm who knows. So with my indecisiveness, I thought maybe I will do a mix of liquid/raw, with liquid meaning soup as well, but liquidy soup not something like chili. So here I am not exactly sure what my Mondays are and my hubby asks "Why are you doing this again?". I mumbled something about confusing my metabolism/digestive system and about it being healthy...I think he bought it. So this is what I am going to try for a month and let's see how it goes or progresses, wouldn't it be wonderful if I were able to do a completely raw day out of the week, maybe eventually.
 So this is what I ate today:
Pineapple, Banana, Soy Milk, Agave Smoothie for breakfast.
Kombucha from the tap for snack.
Spicy Lentil Broccoli soup for lunch.
Odwalla Mango Tango Juice and Raw Chocolate Superfood cookies for snack.
Raw Nori Veggie Rolls with Namashoyu and "Flying Frog" Dahl soup for dinner.
2 Mini Raw Chocolate Superfood Cookies for dessert.
I'm finding that eating a whole bunch of veggies and liquids is not quite satisying my appetite and I am very very much looking forward to baking some bread, eating some rice, etc. It's going to be a very yummy day tomorrow. The kids went back to school today, hoorah. Other than the fact that mommy has to wake at 6am to take lovely daughter to bus stop, she insists, it is quite wonderful to realize that tomorrow both kids will be at school and I will be at home with hubby in front of the fireplace so to speak. Actually I am hoping for a very productive and crafty sort of day. I also wanted to take a moment to thank my first follower for subscribing to my blog. Thanks Leah!
Here is to hoping for a not too lazy sort of day tomorrow.
Peace, Yasmin

Sunday, January 2, 2011

New Year New Resolutions

So I decided today that I would like to start a blog...why not, I have somewhat become addicted to the blogging of certain crafty mamas out there and I think I may have plenty to share as well. So that, I decided is one of my resolutions. My other resolutions as of now are to be crafty atleast once a week, omit all animal products from my diet, to participate in my second triathlon, and to cherish all the moments in life. Ofcourse the normal resolution of losing weight is on the list as well, but I try not to dwell on that as a resolution, because it truly is an ongoing battle. Now on to yummy stuff, today we had spicy veggie sausage and potato burritos and a fruit smoothie for breakfast, "Flying Frog" Coconut Pumpkin Soup and carolina slaw for lunch, Sauteed garlic pinenut Kale for a snack, and Nori Veggie Rolls for dinner. Yumm yumm yummers. I also started a cleanse yesterday, eek! This is a one week rapid cleanse and my colon is definitely reacting to the cleanse today, but I will spare all the gross details. This will be the year of healthiness and happiness and lots of love. I hope all of you out there have lovely dreams for 2011 as well.
Peace, Yasmin