winter running playlist

hello friends! this winter's been unseasonably warm here and i've enjoyed more than a few outdoor winter runs.


amazing. i'm feeling like we've cheated mother nature with a beautiful summer, long fall, and now this.

here's my winter playlist. click here for a sample. ;-)


1. Feeling Without Touching - Glass Candy
2. Paradise - Coldplay
3. Do It Again - Holy Ghost!
4. Normandie - Shout Out Louds
5. Verona - Geographer
6. Trojans - Atlas Genius
7. Mixtapes - Plushgun
8. Walk This Way featuring Aerosmith - Run DMC
9. Safer Than Love - Bell X1
10. Called Out In The Dark - Snow Patrol
11. Swing Tree - Discovery
12. Eyes As Candles - Passion Pit
13. All Of This - Naked and Famous
14. Block After Block - Matt & Kim
15. After Midnight - Blink-182
16. Anyway You Choose To Give It - The Black Ghosts
17. Punching In A Dream - Naked and Famous
18. Girl - Beck
19. Beatbox - Sounds
20. Lazy Eye - Silversun Pickups
21. Night Winds - Geographer
22. Hummingbird - The Weepies
23. Derezzed - Daft Punk

Sharing Recipes

this post is solely for my writing partner Meagan, who is absolutely one of my favorite people in the world. good thing too, because it turns out i meet with her every wednesday to sort out plots, character motivations and life problems.

she asked for these recipes, and never one to miss an opportunity to be (lazy) efficient, i thought i'd blog them too. and my apologies but these photos are not my own.

coconut cupcakes

Cupcakes:

3/4 cup butter, room temperature
1 1/4 cup of sugar
3 eggs, room temperature
1 cup of canned coconut milk
1 teaspoon coconut flavoring
2 1/2 cups of flour
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1/2 cup of sweetened desiccated coconut

Frosting:
1/2 cup of butter (1 stick), room temperature
8 oz of Philly cream cheese (1 package), room temperature
3 cups of powdered sugar

2 teaspoons coconut flavoring

1 tablespoon coconut milk
1/4 cup of sweetened desiccated coconut

1. Preheat the oven to 350°. Cream the butter until light and fluffy. Add sugar and cream till light and fluffy again, scraping down the sides halfway through to ensure even mixing.
2. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating for 30 seconds each to ensure mixing. Be sure to scrape down the sides after each egg to ensure even mixing. Add the coconut milk and coconut flavoring and mix well.
3. Combine the flour, salt, and baking powder in a separate bowl. Mix well then combine with butter mixture. Mix until well-incorporated.
4. Fold in the coconut. Scoop into cupcake papers about one half to three-quarters of the way full. Bake for 18-22 minutes (or 13-15 minutes for mini cupcakes). Allow the cupcakes to cool for a minute or two in the pan, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Frosting
1. Combine all ingredients and mix with an electric mixer until creamy.
2. Spread onto cooled cupcakes. Sprinkle on a bit of extra shredded coconut on top and serve.

Makes about 30 regular-sized (217 calories) or 84 mini-sized (78 calories)

cabbage patch soup (adapted from my mother's recipe)

1 pound sausage (i always use jimmy dean's natural sausage, which you can buy in a 3-pound tube at costco)

1 large onion, chopped

1 cup celery, chopped, with leaves

8 large carrots, chopped*

2 cups cabbage, chopped into 1-inch pieces

2 cups water

1 tablespoon beef base

2 tablespoons worcestershire sauce

2 teaspoons chili powder

2 tablespoons ketchup (trust me. it's good)

1 (14.5-oz.) can diced tomatoes with juice

2 (15-oz.) cans kidney beans with juice

brown sausage with onion. add remaining ingredients and simmer, covered for 30 minutes OR cook in crockpot on low for 8-10 hours. makes 10 servings. (about 284 calories per 1 1/2 cups)

notes:

i always double this and freeze the other half for an easy freezer meal. it's a simple, one-pot meal. cooking it in the crockpot allows the meat to become more tender and it's my favorite way to prepare it.

*and, don't use those gross, dried-out, bitter-tasting, stubby baby carrots. buy real grownup adult carrots. your future self will thank you, i promise.

fresh start

if i had to describe last year in one word, i think it would be culmination. a lot of things i've given my blood, sweat and tears for came to fruition. it seems every aspect of my life was so richly blessed. it was kind of a breather year, a chance to regroup, to pause, to reflect and enjoy life. it was a year full of tender mercies. i am so grateful and so thankful.

and now it's 2012. i love when things are new and shiny and fresh and clean. i love making resolutions, recommitting myself to values i believe in, dreaming and envisioning exactly what i want my life to look like and finding out ways to make that happen. last year i only made one goal: DO NOT SHOP AT WALMART.

ta duh! i was a success.

this year, i'm feeling like i can handle a little more. it's time to push a little farther out of my comfort zone. i feel the yearning to be better, to be more, to close some of the gaps between the person i am and the person i want to be. and so, i have been making lists, planning, changing, deleting all my game apps off my phone.

i am ready. i am ready to say: thy will be done. the words to this talk by robert d. hales moved me and inspired me to make this shift, this change.

To wait upon the Lord means planting the seed of faith and nourishing it “with great diligence, and … patience.”

It means praying as the Savior did—to God, our Heavenly Father—saying: “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done.” It is a prayer we offer with our whole souls in the name of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Waiting upon the Lord means pondering in our hearts and “receiv[ing] the Holy Ghost” so that we can know “all things what [we] should do.”

As we follow the promptings of the Spirit, we discover that “tribulation worketh patience” and we learn to “continue in patience until [we] are perfected.”

Waiting upon the Lord means to “stand fast” and “press forward” in faith, “having a perfect brightness of hope.”

It means “relying alone upon the merits of Christ” and “with [His] grace assisting [us, saying]: Thy will be done, O Lord, and not ours.”

As we wait upon the Lord, we are “immovable in keeping the commandments,” knowing that we will “one day rest from all [our] afflictions.”

i don't know what this year will look like, but i envision myself more often on my knees, more often with my scriptures open, more often seeking the answers from my heavenly father. i am ready for him to make more out of me than i have been able to myself.

what are your resolutions this year? do you set the bar low or high? do you pick a theme like i do? inspire me!

not magnificent

listening and reading and praying today.

brook, i hope it's okay for me to share some of your words from your blog. they are beautiful and so are you. just what i'd been thinking:

all i can offer

is all i have.



and it may not seem like much.

especially when compared with others.

but it is mine

to give.

diet

sometimes, i wake up and say "i need to lose weight" or "i've been feeling sick/depressed/yucky lately" and i think it's time to overhaul my diet.

so i make a plan, which is usually something like this: TEN DAY JUICE FAST! i write out a grocery shopping list. it usually looks like this: TEN OF EVERY VEGETABLE IN THE WORLD. i realize it may be a little crazy, so i amend the plan in my mind.

three day juice fast.

now the shopping list looks a little more doable. but i have nothing to make juice in the house yet, so i eat a hard boiled egg, which tastes really good, so i amend my plan again:

three day juice fast plus EGGS. and maybe i'll add cottage cheese because protein is good right?

so i head out to the store, list in my purse. but by now i've grown hungry again and i pull out my list. i'm not sure i can live too long feeling ravenous. what was i thinking? i immediately change the plan to:

i will not buy hot chocolate or treats from starbucks, and i will not eat any sugar or anything after dinner. i will have a raw vegetable with every meal. i will not eat any white rice or flour.

i give myself a mental pat on the back. for lunch i buy raw spring rolls at the store. i think about how great i'm doing with this diet.

i get home and put all the produce in the fridge. i have to rest after doing this, but no sooner do i sit down then the kids are home from school and it's all: emma won't stop singing, and what's for snack, and i have to do this gigantic project by tomorrow and take me to dance and scouts and cello.

so when that's dealt with, it's a half hour past dinner time and i'm just getting started. i cook chili for the kids, but by the time we sit down for dinner, i know i can't muster up the energy to juice all my produce and also clean out the juicer, so i amend my plan again:

just eat what i fix for everyone else, but NO SUGAR. i mean it.

we get homework done and teeth brushed and scriptures read and prayers said. whew. i read in bed for awhile with the thought "cookie dough would really hit the spot" circling my mind like that adelle song plays on the radio. i toss and turn for an hour and a half.

throw off the covers.

make the dang cookie dough, and eat it while i look in the mirror and think "not too bad, not too bad at all."

Information design, federal budget and politics

So, if you're not in the mood for political talk, feel free to skip this blog post. I recently came across this chart showing the percentages of discretionary spending here.

It's a really well-designed graphic. Simple, easy to read. There is power in information design. On this site, they say: the military eats up a lion’s share of the spending, while social priorities fall by the wayside. Looking at this graphic, it is obvious where it'd be easiest to trim from the budget. And indeed, one of the things they hope to accomplish is to have more of the federal budget allocated for social priorities.

But wait. Let's look a little closer. Let's examine the truth.

Funny how MOST of the federal budget spent on welfare, unemployment, health insurance programs, social security, medicaid and medicaid AREN'T EVEN INCLUDED in this graphic. Aren't those considered social priorities? I think they are. But this chart shows only discretionary spending, NOT ALL SPENDING.

Wouldn't it be wonderful if the American population strived to know whole truth, to look at as much of the picture as they can? This reminds me of someone going through a book with a highlighter, marking swear words, and then starting a campaign to ban the book because it has a BAD WORD in it. Never mind that the book is THE BOOK THEIF and perhaps one of the most beautiful books ever written with a message of peace and hope. They just see the bad word and they don't read those words in CONTEXT to the entire written work.

It's possible this image was created in ignorance, but I'm thinking more likely it was done with the intent to deceive and to hide the entire truth.

Rachel to the rescue.

I decided to take 10 minutes and create a complete picture of the entire budget. Here's what President Obama's budget looks like until December 16, 2011. A few more bills need to be voted for by Congress, but this is what the 2012 budget looks like as of now:

Looking at the complete picture, I'd say the lion's share of spending IS being spent on social priorities. How has that been working? Is that helping to create jobs? To foster self-reliance? To bolster American health care? To eliminate poverty?

Things to think about when you vote for your political leaders.

ETA: Please know that I believe ALL political parties and ALL news stations are guilty of putting forth incomplete pictures to prove their points and some time or another. I just happened upon this example today. And I'm not saying I agree or disagree with the way the money is being spent on the federal budget. I'd definitely like to see more spent on education, but If I had to cut a program, it would be really hard to choose where to cut. Just like it's hard to say "no" to a new pair of pants for your child or to a meal out when our family doesn't have the money in our budget to spend on those kind of things. Do you cut veterans' health benefits? Do you cut disability for the sweet lady who had a stroke in her late 40's? I don't know.

I don't know everything about all the issues either. Probably no one does. I just wanted to make a point about how lots of information we're being given is misleading but it doesn't take long to do a little research and find the whole story, or at least MORE of the story.

fantasy christmas wish list

as i prepare for the start of christmas season, these words keep running through my head:

Why do ye adorn yourselves with that which hath no life, and yet suffer the hungry, and the needy, and the naked, and the sick and the afflicted to pass by you, and notice them not?

(Mormon 8:39)

and so, i am trying to keep this christmas as simple as possible, to not ask for too many things, buy too many things, nor do too many things.

but what kind of fun is that? kidding! i'm working on a 12 days of christmas thing that i hope to share here in a few days. that will be fun. but i thought just for fun i'd do a fantasy christmas wish list.

fantasy as in the noun [fan-tuh-see, -zee]

1. imagination, especially when extravagant and unrestrained.
2. the forming of mental images, especially wondrous or strange fancies; imaginative conceptualizing.

so with that definition in mind, here is what i'd like for christmas:

1. brown ankle boots from brown's boots

2. vintage polk-a-dot blouse from amprisloves etsy shop

3. "every knee shall bow" painting by j. kirk richards. only $4900 for 48 x 147.5 on canvas(!)

4. mikado dishtowel from anthropologie

5. vintage industrial wall clock like this one from zinnia cottage. our $5 ikea one is broken, and even when it was working, i was the only one who could tell time on it.

6. hour glass from cb2. wouldn't this be more fun than setting the timer on the microwave?

7. a pair of petrie leather sofas from crate and barrel. this is the most fantastical of all, seeing as how younger son cut a 5-inch slit into our new ottomans the day after i bought them. i can't imagine how i'd feel if he'd done that on a $4,000 sofa.

8. week-long vacation rental in benyac, france. only 850 euros a week.

9. "ex libris" embosser to mark all the books in our family library. i've been wanting one of these for years. why i haven't just broken down and bought it i have no idea.

10. equilibrium necklace from palomarie.

11. clip-in hair extensions. seems weird, unless you know that my hair is falling out and not really growing. despite a healthy diet and lifestyle. wouldn't that be funny to have super short hair one day and then super long the next? have any of you tried this? i can't quite see myself spending the money, which is why i'll probably just keep my hair short and fantasize about having fairy-tale-length hair.