Get Natured: Goals

Summer manifesto

Wow, it has been awhile since I have written a blog post! There isn't an unusual reason for my disappearance. I've simply been swallowed up in the routine of my life at the moment. I have very little time alone to focus on anything creative (or to do any one of about 500 items on a list of things that require any amount of concentration or aloneness...including writing this post, which took three days...)

Days blend together. I drive the same roads. I follow the same schedule. Don't get me wrong, there is plenty of comfort to be found in this rhythm. Predictable is manageable and repeatable. On the other hand, though, not venturing out into new things tends to make everything stale. I have no new surfaces off of which to bounce ideas. No new inspiration. Nothing new to reflect on or mull in my mind with the wide-eyed excitement that comes with novel thoughts. Summer is here just in time to mix things up and to send me out to play and explore.

I had an amazing dream the other night. I was in a desert with my husband and our kids and the light was a perfect pinky-gold. It looked like we were walking around inside of an Instagram filter! Each of us had a huge bunch of colorful balloons and we were running over the dry and cracked ground with our bundles and laughing. As we let the balloons go and watched them rise slowly into the sky, I felt more carefree and happy than I have in a long time. The only thing on my mind was that moment- the laughing and the sweet light and the balloons. Nothing was inching its way into the "what is next on my list" slot in my brain. Simplicity.

The dream created a strong craving in my soul to have more moments like that. To spend more of my time playing instead of to-do-ing.

So, what am I doing now? I am planning ahead for summer. Fun stuff, projects, camping trips. I also have what some might call a "summer bucket list" but I don't really care for that name as it implies that I will be "kicking the bucket" at the end of the summer. No, I like to think of this more of a manifesto of sorts. Or, at the very least, just a list of things that I want to do this summer.

My summer manifesto:

Summer reading:

I loved this book: Mile Markers: The 26.2 Most Important Reasons Why Women Run by Kristin Armstrong

This quote from the book captures a little piece of what spoke so loudly to me from its pages. I love the shift in my thoughts about running that this simple paragraph gave me:

"There is a restless place inside me, and if I don't intentionally access and relieve it, it groans at me, distracting me. There are too many thoughts in my head, too many feelings in my heart, too many things I want to do and say- and if I'm not careful, I can get overwhelmed with myself. Running restores my equilibrium, quiets the noise within, reprioritizes my list, repairs my state of gratitude, and returns me to myself, but a better version, nice and roomy in my own skin."

I will be swimming, biking, and running this summer too. So far I have one 5k run and one sprint distance triathlon on my race calendar and there are a couple more races that I'm considering. This is how I access and relieve my restlessness too!

A little bit of my summer reading list:

The Rose Garden by Susanna Kearsley
Imagine: How Creativity Works by Jonah Lehrer
Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed
Charlotte Au Chocolat: Memories of a Restaurant Girlhood by Charlotte Silver

I use a private Amazon wish list to keep track of what I want to read in the summer. I do tend to lean heavily into fiction this time of year- it feels so fitting for afternoons at the beach or on the patio.

Do you keep a summer reading list? What are you planning to read this year?

Summer Vacation

While I'm in summertime mode, while I'm reading fiction and dipping my toes in the ocean, I will likely be blogging less. I will share highlights and memorable moments here and there but I'll be taking the pressure off of myself to write for the sake of frequency. I will check in on Twitter and Facebook a little more often and goodness knows that I'll be pinning things on Pinterest!

This is a summer vacation of sorts for me and this kind of unplugging is something that I don't do well or often. I need to focus on my kids and their summer without the sound of my voice saying, "just a minute. Hold on a second. Give me five minutes, please." I need to thin the chatter in my brain that constantly urges me to have good ideas. I need to exist, moment to moment, in my world in this season of downtime. I need time to read and daydream and garden; time to watch honeybees at work with my boys; time to sip cold water with strawberries and mint; time to draw crazy pictures with brightly colored markers that make my kids giggle; and time to gather with friends and talk about good juicy things until it is way too late to still be awake.

Happy summer!

"Live in the sunshine, swim in the sea, drink the wild air."

~Ralph Waldo Emerson

1 comments

, by Allison

Goals

It's spring- go outside and play!

February was a bit of a rough month at our house. My kids were both sick with a cold and a cough and then I came down with bronchitis, a sinus infection, and an ear infection. I didn't even know that grown-ups could get ear infections! Just when I thought we were all getting back to normal, our family started falling on-by-one to the stomach flu. Somehow I escaped that part. It could have been all of the disinfecting that I was doing or maybe just luck. Either way I think we are all back to normal now, PHEW!

Even though March has been quite rainy here, I feel like I'm coming out of hibernation! The sunny days, when we have them, are warm. The birds are all over the place and tweeting like crazy, even on the cloudy days. The other day, after an all-day rain had stopped, I went out in our front yard. The sky was still cloudy but the air felt electric and warm. The grass, plants, and trees were glowing a bright spectrum of green and spring flowers, bright pinks and purples, were all around. Birds were flying and chirping all over the place and it felt heavenly. So middle-of-nowhere. Encompassing. I felt ensconced in my connection to it all and blessed that this was all happening right outside our front door.

Lately when I daydream, which happens a lot, I am thinking about summer vacation and homemade berry jam. Spring is definitely here!

Have you seen the Keen campaign, "Recess is back"?

I love this concept as I am a firm believer that we all benefit from play time. Vacations provide an excellent opportunity to fortify our lives with connection and new experiences. How, though, do we implement "recess" in the context of our daily grind? Daily life is where we pass our time. So how do we bring more fun and playfulness into our ready-set-go schedules? I am passionate about this subject. I even have a Bachelor's Degree in Recreation and Leisure studies!

Since both of my kids will be out of school and home for the summer, I am planning ahead to make sure that we keep ourselves busy. Not so busy that we can't daydream and sip lemonade; but busy enough that we end our days with the tired smiles that come from all-day exploring, sprinkler dodging, tent pitching, and other summer goodness. I'll share more of my plans and our adventures here in the coming months.

For now, I challenge you to find a little "recess" time in your schedule! What is your favorite way to play outside?

1 comments

, by Allison

Goals

Word for 2012: Explore

In the crazy sneaky way that it does, the new year has arrived. The holiday rush is over and we are getting reorganized and settling back into a routine that requires alarm clocks and rushed breakfasts. I am optimistic about 2012, though. I can't resist the feeling of a fresh start and the temptation to plan. I used to wonder if there was a point to all of my planning but now I know that I get a lot more out of it than it would seem. All of the dreaming and scheming puts me into a helpful frame of mind. A place from which to launch expeditions fueled by the momentum of a new beginning.

Lately I have been pondering the direction of this blog. It started as a venture in healthy living. It has evolved much more in the direction of a food blog than I originally imagined. I love food, obviously, and I love sharing my ideas and recipes too. I don't really see myself as someone who writes cookbooks, though. I am more interested in exercising my creative (and writing) muscles in other ways.

I do have some thoughts on subject matter that I would like to share over the course of this year. The introduction of new topics, expanding on subjects that I've touched on already, and inspired food ideas. Mostly I want to EXPLORE, here and in my life. To have as many new experiences and adventures as possible. To learn continually, especially about things for which my interest takes me by surprise. I want to continue my pursuit of building a life of too-good-to-be-trues. I want to do what I love often. I want to follow my heart into new and exciting things and to live a good story. I want to share beauty, creativity, adventure, inspiration, and connection.

I was crazy-inspired to "live a better story" after reading Donald Miller's A Million Miles in a Thousand Years. This is a fantastic read!

These two books (The Rhythm of Family and The Creative Family both by Amanda Blake Soule) are on my nightstand now and I'm loving them both. The idea of home being a place of creativity is so great and I love the ideas that I'm finding here.

Like this "sun catcher" that the boys and I made out of ice using "interesting things" that we gathered on a neighborhood walk. Love.

What is your word for 2012?

2 comments

, by Allison

Dinner

Summer bucket-listing and a grilled veggie meal

This morning I dropped my kids off at preschool and slowly made my way into my morning. I made the trek across town to my favorite hole-in-the-wall coffee shop. A place where people gather and lounge. Where the music is just a little bit cooler than me and where the coffee is French-pressed and the tea is loose-leaf and served in cast iron pots (love!). There are grapes growing on lattice and people chatting on a patio that is covered but already too hot on this June day.

What am I doing here? Catching up on blogging, I tell myself. Really? I am daydreaming about all things summery and the concept that I have seen floating around online over the past few weeks- the "summer bucket list". It is a bit of a misnomer as, I'm sure, none of these list-makers plan to "kick the bucket" at the end of summer. Whatever, though, I love this idea!

Being the obsessive list-maker that I am, I have collected ideas at the end of summer in the past for what I would like to do the following year. I do this for the holiday season as well. I do pretty well at following up on those lists and planning ahead for the next year too. At least at the beginning of the season. When summer is still just a feeling in the air and has not yet landed with its full weight. The intensity of my fervor tends to dissipate as the weather turns to 100+ degree days of unrelenting heat and the bright spring green of the leaves on the trees begins to fade and give way under the blaze. The late days of spring, when summer still feels carefree and romantic, is the time to do my daydreaming.

I shared a few items from the top of my mind here. But I'm still brainstorming my full list. Right now it is a notebook page full of scribbled idea beginnings.

Keeping my house cool by cooking outside and eating cold foods is on the top of my mind, though, and I'd also like to experiment with grilling all kinds of veggies this summer (like fava beans). With that in mind, I created a yummy meal last night that was centered around grilled veggies that came in my CSA box. Unfortunately I don't have any photos of the food (I was starving and didn't want to pause for photos!) but it was a great summer feast!

The menu:

Grilled veggies (turnips, zucchini, carrots, gypsy peppers, carrots, portobello mushrooms)
Simple homemade hummus
Whole grain flatbread
Indian spiced lentils (from the farmers' market) over brown rice

Grilled veggies
Mix together:

Olive oil (maybe 1/4 cup or so)
2-3 cloves of garlic, pressed or minced
1/2 tsp Italian seasoning (or minced fresh herbs like rosemary, oregano, thyme)
1/2 - 1 tsp lemon zest
Salt and pepper to taste

Slice veggies to about 1/4 inch thick and generously brush the olive oil mixture over them before grilling.

Simple Hummus
1 can garbanzo beans, rinsed well
1 clove of garlic
1 tbsp tahini (sesame seed butter)
2-4 tbsp olive oil
1-2 tbsp lemon juice
1/4 -1/2 tsp cayenne pepper (optional)
Salt and pepper to taste
Water (optional, use if needed to thin hummus)

Add all ingredients to a blender or food processor and process until smooth. Serve drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with paprika, pine nuts, or minced fresh herbs, if desired.

What are you planning to make your summer special?

2 comments

, by Allison

Goals