I had a very interesting opportunity to try acupuncture yesterday.

Great Soul Wellness Studio here in Baltimore has community acupuncture during the same time slot that the cowboy takes his yoga class. My stress level has been riding at a pretty high tide for awhile now and ANYTHING that I can do, even as passively as sit and have tiny needles stuck in my ears, would be better than stewing in my stress.

The Acupuncturist, Wendy, is really nice and kind. (I guess it would not work if your acupuncturist is a type A personality?) She explained the process and the philosophy and I got 5 needles in each ear and two in my feet.

I honestly felt instant relief. No joke. Felt.Better.Right.AWAY.

I don’t quite know why…. but even after the needles were out… I felt that they were working. I was just a little more mellow than before.

Let’s just say… I’m stuck. (LOL) I will be getting more. I am also thinking that yoga in combination with acupuncture would be a really good idea. The coolest things are… the wellness studio and the yoga studio that I go to have community or donation based programs where you can pay what you can afford. They are committed to bringing affordable alternative therapies to folks based on what their individual budgets allow. Awesome.

If you live in Baltimore, or the surrounding area, and are interested in either acupuncture or yoga.. I highly recommend both facilities.

I am also thinking that wellness incorporates nutrition. Again… the thing that I have a lot of issues with. I am hoping the slow nature of the summer may help the family eat better. It all starts with mom, right?

I joined an organic CSA (pick ups start Tuesday!) and we planted our garden. I am thinking that I am going to drastically cut my meat intake this summer. Not full vegetarian… but opting for more protein sources that are not meat based.

All good thoughts, right? Anyone have any other good tips on this? What is your key to managing the stress and staying well?

Our House in Felt 2007

This is our home. We live in a 12 foot wide row home with a 5 foot slab of concrete for a back yard.

There are bonuses to having a concrete slab backyard (no watering or mowing) and major disadvantages (no yard for a child or dog to play).

There is a rise (at least in my observation in my neighborhood) of families that are choosing to stay put in our neighborhood. We have a great public school in the area that is really doing an amazing job and is excited about education. The school and the fact we can walk all over our neighborhood is a major factor in our decision to stick with city life.

I have really, really missed having a garden though. We had a very successful container garden set up on the rooftop deck,the same deck that the cowboy has no knowledge of. We have always been afraid of his climbing and energy to utilize our rooftop yard fully.

So, the garden left us when I was pregnant.

This year we have procured a 20′x30′ plot of land in a community garden. I am so freaking excited! Our family is feverishly discussing what vegetables we like and what to plant. D gets 10′x15′ of the garden to plant his tomatoes. The man LOVES heirloom variety tomatoes.

The cowboy has requested carrots, cucumbers, and peppers. I am all for pumpkins, watermelon, zucchini and squash. Herbs will go in our front window box at home ( I hear that they may inhibit some plants growth).
I know that we have to limit our possibilities at some point… but I have this vision of acres of farmland and us as Ma and Pa and Cowboy Kettle. Maybe “Baltimore Gothic” is more like it. The conversation is carrying us through our gray, snowless winter. I am so excited that the cowboy is interested in the process.

I was so interested in the 100 Foot Challenge … this is the way that we can participate in (almost) eliminating fossil fuel use in the transportation and production of our vegetables. My car gets 32 mpg… and the drive to the garden is about 3 miles. Not bad for city life.
Anyone have good gardening tips/resources to share? Book that are a must read? Canning recipes?

Spring is in the air….. yea!

ETA:

What was that I said about a snowless winter?

We got blindsided by a winer storm today… not much accumulation but it came down quick with sleet.

I think the cowboy will be off tomorrow!

Does anyone else feel that January is this crisp, cold month fraught with possibility and reflection?

I have taken some time to slow down and am working through my commitments, both personal and professional. I am eating well and exercising.

This year I am also taking the time to investigate a new approach to my New Year’s resolutions.

I made a list of all of the things I want. I did not separate personal wants vs family vs professional. I listed them all. Next, I made a list of the things that I need and I made a separate list of the things that make me happy.

I looked at all three lists together and found three things that hit all three lists. See below.

I have decided that these are my three goals for 2008. I have crashed and burned in all of these categories over the past year or two.

My top priority for 2008 is my family. Hands down, they win. I am not proud to say that I have not always done this. My husband is an unendingly patient man and my son is so flexible… it makes it really easy for me to overload my life and find my energy and focus somewhere else related to work. I am working towards striking a balance where we find our family always on top.

I have found great joy in creating again. The dye studio has been such a joy since I decided to change my focus and slow down. Saturday mornings with the dye pots and Justin Timberlake can be pure bliss. (Please don’t ask about JT… I am broken when it comes to him) Yes I dance. Yes I almost burn myself… ok not really. But there was this one incident… It is kind of funny because I listen to him on my iPod and sing. YES… I am that girl.

Organization has been a challenge for me all the way around. I think that living in my head and running crazy all the time has taken a toll on my organizational skills. I think me and the FLYLADY are going to become acquainted again. Hopefully BFF’s. I am in the process of organizing my C*EYE*BER Fiber schedule for the year right now. I will be doing more shows and fairs. I, sadly, applied to MD Sheep and Wool and was waitlisted. In it’s place I have decided to have a PRE Maryland Sheep and Wool Open House at my studio in Baltimore on Friday May 2nd . Wine, cheese and hand-dyed, handmade stuff. That should be a fun excuse to throw a welcome party for Michelle… yup… she is coming to Baltimore to be my Sheep and Wool partner in crime.

So.. there it is folks. I am hoping to do a monthly goal check in post. Here is to a 2008 that is filled with everything I want, need, and what makes me happy!

ETA:

Check this out!! Thing-A-Day Challenge. Looks like a lot of folks are thinking the same thing!

Obsessed Committed? Yes!

So in my obsessive persevering ways I found a local farm.

This is Richardson’s Farm on Ebeneezer RD in White Marsh, MD. My new favorite grocery store!

I bought:

1 qt tomatoes

1 qt nectarines

4 ears of corn

2 red peppers

2 purple peppers (a la Peter Piper)
1 dozen large farm eggs

1 cantaloupe
1 seedless watermelon

1 4 lb roasting chicken

2- 3.5 oz fillet mignon (grass fed, no antibiotics, no hormones) from Roseda Beef in Monkon MD

1 - 1.5 lb Pot Roast from Roseda

2 - 1 qt each of hormone free/antibiotic free ice cream (strawberry and chocolate peanut butter) from Keyes Dairy in Havre de Grace, MD
1- 4oz block of colby cheese from Keyes

I spent :

68.00

I can not believe it. I would have paid as much at Safeway and MORE at Whole Foods.

Ummm… we are making a weekly trip. They are also at our public market and farmers markets that are much closer (more like a 3 mile trip!). I just had to get up and go today!

The food is all from less than a 100 mile radius from my home in Baltimore City!

I drove 13.12 miles. My car gets 33-35 mpg highway. The trip was 19 minutes to get there.

Less than a gallon was used to drive there and we supported our local foodshed.

ROCK ON!

So obsessive committed… yup! D is really interested in going to the farm too. Yea us!

Sidebar….

(for all of my fibery friends that look in on the Ol’Adventures blog for some decent yarn pron… I promise I will post yarny and knitting stuff too!)

Anyone interested in separate eat whole/eat local blog? One where you can post your own adventures in eating whole and eating local?

Just a thought!

I will leave you with a peek at dinner:

fresh broccoli, Maryland white corn, and White Balsamic, dijon mustard, rosemary marinated pork tenderloin. YUM!

Ice cream for dessert!

Lots of great suggestions coming my way about my recent thoughts about health and nutrition… even my bro chimed in. Thanks!

It is comforting to know that others struggle with this. I don’t feel like the only idiot who has difficulty thinking clearly about nutrition. My thoughts to this point are still forming, but I have a few ideas of which direction to head in.

I was SHOCKED to read in “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle” that part of the energy crisis we are headed for is caused by food. I never thought about that before. Meaning… if your food is not local, well, it has to get to you somehow. I guess I didn’t think about the big refrigerated trucks that our grocery stores run, the planes that the food fly on, etc. I mean.. I am pretty smart if I pay attention… and the last time I checked I did not live in Chile where my sea bass comes from. The book points out that the use of fossil fuels for food transport would be dramatically decreased if we ate ONE MEAL per week from all local sources.
More than that, Barbara Kingslover talks about the generational gap between the elders that know about farming and agricultural rituals and the folks of this generation that don’t know summer breaks from school were designed for children to be able to help with the harvest. She also makes the point it is a much bigger disconnect that contributes to us not knowing about our food sources and the mass production of multiple syllable “icky ingredients” (my words, not hers) that have infiltrated the American diet.

That was chapter 1.

So, after much thought… I am trying to make this information make sense to me.

I have decided a few things….

1. I will eat “whole foods” whenever I can. Meaning, bye bye fast food. So long King, Ron, the cow that begs us to eat chicken. Adios to the 5 Amigos of Burger fame.. (just saying farewells….*sigh*)
2. I will drink water. And iced-tea (green when possible)
3. I will cook more. (PLEEEASE send good whole food recipes!) One meal every week will come from a local source

That is where I am now. I have my friend CAM… who eerily came to the same health conclusions at the same time that I did… is joining in the effort to eat better and exercise more. Who else is in?

Edited to add:

If anyone *knows* me.. I can tend to be slightly obsessive when I find something that I am interested in.

I have been sent some great resources and have found some through the powers of the internets…

The Eat Local challenge:

http://eatlocalchallenge.com/

Thanks Bev!

FoodRoutes.org

http://www.foodroutes.org/

This is a killer resource that lists CSA’s, farms, and markets in YOUR area!

So.. I got a call from a concerned friend regarding my most recent bout with the germs.

She mentioned that I have been sick a lot this year… I hadn’t even thought about that.

So… I started thinking why I could be getting constant bouts of colds and annoying bugs.

1. I have a preschooler. ‘Nuff said.
2. I sleep very little… keep weird hours. Work a ton..
3. I have not looked at what I have eaten in OVER A YEAR.

I am a little floored by number 3.

So… I need to make some changes. I am thinking that looking at eating non-processed foods is a good way to start. Anyone have any suggestions/resources/great websites to share? I need a manageable jumping off point.
I am not so concerned about weight loss at the moment (although that would be an added benefit!) I am more concerned about feeling better.

I will curb my sleep schedule to a more normal one… and try to get in some walks (in the less humid days to come)… But fast food be damned!!!

I have also decided that I need away from work time. I am going to read for 30 minutes every day. Noting work or fiber related (because that tends to become work)… Maybe a book. I can not remember the last thing I read for pleasure. Any suggestions? I may start with the Harry Potter book 1 ( I am the last human on the planet to pick up a book by JK Rowling)

I am interested to hear what you guys have to say….

Edit:

I stopped at Borders and picked this up…

30 minutes here I come!