Read Run Knit

A year of beginnings and endings

2009-06-09T09:42:00.000-07:00

It has been a year of endings. My husband is finishing one job and gearing up for the next. My year long yoga training is coming to an end and my children are transitioning into new divisions and new schools. We are selling the home we have lived in for seven years. The only home my youngest child remembers. The first animals we ever 0wned ( predating kids and even marriage) grew old and died here. I think of the three of them(two old labs and an ancient kitty) as I cut the indigo hued hydrangeas that mark their final resting places. A silent nod to them as I arrange the blooms in a vase on the counter. It will be hard to leave them behind. A year of endings easing into a year of beginnings. A new state to explore, a new house, new jobs and new schools for everyone. Stay posted as I intend a renewed commitment to this blog. Writing about my new profession(yoga teacher) and the CSA (community supported agriculture) box I plan to photograph and develop meals and blog posts around on a weekly basis.

One more thing

2008-12-11T08:39:00.001-08:00

Just in case any of my knitting friends out there feel lucky, Kristin over at getting stitched on the farm is having a sock yarn giveaway this week. Check it out.

HIATUS

2008-12-08T09:04:00.000-08:00

It has been well over a month since I visited my little blog. I left with promises of pictures of various knitting projects and I return virtually empty handed. I have cranked out a scarf or two for the various teachers of my children but nothing too impressive and the other, more picture worthy projects, are languishing on needles. I have been busy though. Two weekends of yoga training, a half marathon, a trip to South Carolina, a new job for my husband, new roof on the house, new paint on the walls...the list goes on and on and on...really. I plan to post pictures as projects get completed and spill more about the job and the yoga as I process it all. For now, I wish all (all two of you) of my readers a happy holiday season and a joy filled new year.

YUM

2008-10-12T12:52:00.000-07:00

You can get a copy of the cookbook put together by the Whole Wheat Foods Council here. Gail Gand is the celebrity chef featured and it benefits spoons across America. I have a recipe in the book and so does my running partner/cookbook writing partner, Shoshana. Keep your eyes peeled for our own cookbook which should be making its debut sometime this spring.

The Count

2008-10-11T11:12:00.000-07:00

My friend, Lauren, does a tally of political signs on her morning run. Obama almost always wins in her neighborhood. Alas, this is not the case in my own. In fact, my run was downright depressing today. Three miles in and all I had seen were McPain/Failin signs and then I turned the corner, and, BEHOLD, two Obama signs within spitting distance of one another. It was just the sight that I needed to pound out the last couple of miles.

Socktoberfest

2008-10-09T05:08:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted in awhile because I have been up to my eyebrows in knitting projects. I have four things going at once --a mystery stole, a vest, a mystery socktoberfest sock and the Joni hat from through the loops. I'm thinking it is going to be a handmade Christmas around here. I have a wonderful ornament kit coming to me from posie gets cozy and a closet full(ahem a horse trailer full) of yarn that is calling to me. In other news, N and I went to the Virginia State Fair last week and saw a cow give birth. It seemed to me to be a much calmer and tidier affair than the human version.

What's in a name?

2008-09-19T17:21:00.000-07:00

Thanks to a link from my friend Lauren, we can all find out what our names would be had we been born into the Palin family.

Sincerely,

Lead Stoppage Palin

FORE!

2008-09-18T05:37:00.000-07:00

My running partner, Shoshana aka Rosie , and I have entered a new arena of athletic endeavor--Golf. Yes, you read that correctly. I am playing golf. Those of you that know me know that, until recently, I shared Mark Twain's view of golf ( good walk, spoiled). As unbelievable as it may be, we are having a ton of fun. We are taking lessons and once a week we get to go to a lovely course near our houses and whack the hell out of a bucket of balls under the watchful eye of our instructor, Pat. Pat is a loveable curmudgeon from west Texas and because he can't remember or pronounce Shoshana's name, she has become Rosie ( which is what her name means in Hebrew). Yesterday we got to play an actual hole. Quite humbling.

Birthdays

2008-09-16T06:48:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was the birthday of both my husband(JKA) and my lifelong(ok, we met when we were six) friend Diana. I celebrated JKA's day by signing him out of work, taking him to yoga, getting him a massage and taking him out for lunch at our favorite Indian restaurant. Actually, it is our only Indian restaurant but the food is good. Someday I will post about my korma karma but today is about birthdays. He finished the day poolside while I ran around attending to the activities of four children. I think he had a good day, I know I would have. There seem to be an inordinate number of people in my life who were born on the 15th of September. I wonder what this means? Yesterday added another to that list. My friend Holly had her first baby--a girl named Adelaide--and we are ecstatic. The picture on my profile was taken at her wedding in Maine just a year ago. What a difference a year makes.

Southern Cooking

2008-09-13T10:08:00.000-07:00

I love southern food--everything from mama dips fried chicken and biscuits to sweet potato pie. Living where I do in the south, I have access to good grits, heirloom tomatoes, and smoked ham.I am truly spoiled. Something that Scott Peacock said in this documentary film about Edna Lewis really struck a chord with me. Sometimes creativity isn't about adding more but about stripping away. Food can certainly benefit from this treatment and so can life. The simplest ingredients are often all you need to make a happy life or a tasty dish.

Unexpected Passing

2008-09-12T10:52:00.000-07:00

My friends' (Katie, Betsy, Robert) father was buried yesterday and Robert gave the Eulogy. It is beautiful. I too have a wonderful father and I hope when the time comes I will be able to honor him as eloquently. JKA and I knew the Allisons when we lived in Bell Buckle, TN and they are a large part of why we love that area of the country so much. Hank was a fascinating guy and could talk about absolutely anything intelligently and with humor. I know how much his family is going to miss him and I send loving thoughts their direction during this difficult time.

"May lovingkindness manifiest throughout your lives. May you dwell in

peace."

Intentions

2008-09-05T07:49:00.001-07:00

I haven't posted for several days because I have been feeling crummy. I am pretty sure it is just anxiety manifesting physically but it feels like a real sickness to me. Serious stomach pain, heaviness in my chest...blah blah blah. I am just trying to be present with it and encourage it to move on. Can you tell that I am headed into a yoga training weekend? Every class we set our personal and group intention for that hour/hour and a half and this week my intention has been to get through class without throwing up. It came as a relief when one of my yoga teachers taught me that sometimes intentions can be that simple-- just get through the class, quiet the mind, don't throw up etc. I used to set such lofty intentions ( along the lines of world peace) and sometimes ( maybe all the time?) it is better to set the intention closer to home and in the present moment.

Easy?

2008-08-29T13:49:00.000-07:00

I was feeling very pleased with myself for completing the NYTimes crossword puzzle on Wednesday. Seriously, I got every clue and you know the puzzles get progressively harder as the week goes on ...so I was feeling smug. I thought, "oh, go ahead, check out rex parker's blog and see how he rated this one. I'm guessing medium..." HA! His rating--EEEEEEEEEASY. I mean it, there were at least that many es in his easy. Serves me right.

Degrees of Separation

2008-08-28T09:07:00.000-07:00

I love the interconnectedness of life. Just this summer I met a woman who grew up in Midland, Texas. JKA and I spent a very long thirteen months there when our children were little. It never rained, scorpions fell from the light fixtures and tarantulas the size of my hand littered the streets but I digress. It wasn't terribly odd to meet someone from Midland what was strange was that her brother lives in the same tiny east coast town where I grew up. Stranger still, we were having this conversation on a barge in northern Ontario on the way to collect our sons from a small wilderness camp. At this same camp I met an individual who added a new element to the degrees of separation game we play. You know, the game made famous by Kevin Bacon, where you try to see how many degrees of separation there are between you and say, George Bush(none we met him in an air hangar in Midland). Now there is just one degree of separation between me and the likes of Brad Pitt and George Clooney. Heady stuff that. This is the biggest boost this game has had since my friend Tracy moved here from LA. She knows almost everyone.

Uh Oh

2008-08-27T12:04:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was the first day of school for my kids and they came home bubbling over with stories to tell and work to share. Speaking of bubbles, I have gotten sucked into playing this. It could be a very long school year.

A Krogering we go

2008-08-24T10:51:00.000-07:00

JKA and I have a wonderful new Sunday routine. We hop our bikes and head to Kroger feeling very virtuous. Even more so as we pack up our reusable Trader Joe's bags and head home loaded down with back to school snacks and dinner makings for the week. With a morning like that we feel no guilt about sitting poolside and enjoying one of the last few days of summer break.

Next Life

2008-08-23T12:12:00.000-07:00

In my next life I want to work here.

OBX

2008-08-20T13:48:00.000-07:00

Just eighty days left before the Outer Banks Marathon. I Convinced JKA to come out of retirement and run this with me and he is threatening to hold my hand as we cross the finish line. This is highly unlikely as he refers to running with me as PAIN FREE. As in, I am sooo slow that running with me is a breeze. There is no way that I can listen to that for 13.1 miles. In other running news, my real running partner( Shoshana) is running the full with her husband. She is training hard and getting much faster and I think she will finish in under five hours (which is my extremely humble pr). I told you I was slow.

Whiter smile

2008-08-19T13:19:00.000-07:00

I am sitting here with a whitening tray in my mouth grumbling incoherently at my children. They think it's funny. We spent the morning at Target gathering an endless supply of back to school items where I was able to grumble at them more coherently. I noticed other mothers doing the same. Ah, the most wonderful day of the year is almost upon us-- school starts Tuesday. Actually, it has been a pretty good summer. Two of the boys went to a wonderful camp in New Hampshire(camp deerwood) where they spent hours water skiing and shooting guns. Things they definitely wouldn't have been doing at home. Our eldest spent the summer in Ontario at another fabulous camp( Wabun ) paddling 750 miles--all the way to the James Bay. He came home with a gleem in his eye, a spring in his step and a real sense of confidence. Things I am happy to see in any sixteen year old boy. We missed them all but they were certainly exposed to activities for which we would have had neither the time nor inclination. Best of all, S got to be an only child for the first time in her little life. I think she liked it.