Life is in the Details

science fair project

lisacohen — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 08:22:54 -0500

These photos are from around Thanksgiving but today we are finishing up Jessi's science project (Growing Pesto is the working name... it's more interesting than The Effect of 8, 16, and 24 hours of Light on Basil Seedlings don't you think?). This is the first time that a science project was required (it's mandatory for all 3rd-5th graders). Yesterday was spent with Jessi's working on responses to a whole slew of questions that were provided by her school. She started typing up her answers which formed the body of a typical science project report and then got frustrated because it was taking too long. When I questioned her about it, it turns out that she started out by typing every question they had printed instead of just answering the questions on the paper, thereby doubling her typing efforts. No wonder she was in tears. I lent my speedy fingers to the cause and we finished in no time with her dictating to me her hypothesis, materials and procedure, observation and analysis, and conclusion. Now I have a great supply of basil for the winter! Awesome.

We still have work to do on the display, which is today's business, but that's merely about printing out various parts and sticking them on the display board. I'm of the mind that this is her project and she should be in charge of doing her own projects instead of ME doing them for her. She learns better this way. (Although she does get discouraged when it's time for the showcase of things because it's very obvious how many parents do the project for their kids. It's easily evident which projects - in any arena, be it an animal habitat or log cabin - were done by a 37 year old and which were done by an 8 year old. But we kindly point that out to her and hope that she understands.) If we go to the evening science fair showcase I will encourage Jessi to bring a paper and pencil so that she can make notes of what she'd like to do differently next time around since this first science project was an experiment in and of itself.

Digital Layout: Saying Good-bye to Linky (Y&T Week 4)

lisacohen — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 19:42:02 -0500

Earlier this month was Linky's birthday and we all visited the cemetery where she is buried to tell her that we missed her, loved her, and were thinking of her. I've been meaning to post this layout for a while... it's one that I completed as part of Ali Edward's Yesterday & Today BPS class. The assignment was to document something difficult. Because, admit it, life is not always smiles and celebrations. I chose to write about the loss our dog (my first dog), Linky, this past fall. It's still something that saddens me and I suspect it always will... because there are many reminders of her absence. I also notice that I don't take walks outside as often because there is no little furry one there to drag me out. I guess given the weather these days - how cold and windy it's been - that's not an entirely bad thing. I half-joked/half-wished that she was paper trained during the winter months when she was alive. Still I miss her licking us, making popcorn for her, her strange way of playing catch, her waiting for me when I arrive home, her cleaning the crumbs on our floor. Creating this page and the mini-album that I also made helped me in a small way feel better because it shows that she was an important part of our lives, and that, although painful, is fully worth documenting. I think she would have appreciated the tribute and the love we all feel for her.

The template was provided in class. I enlarged the main photo so that you wouldn't see me doing the ugly cry... we have a bunch of photos of us saying our goodbyes where all of us are doing our own version of the ugly cry at various points. I am choosing, for now, to keep these in digital files, rather than making them a part of our printed albums.

Happy Holidays from our family to yours

lisacohen — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 11:38:40 -0500

Hope you are having a wonderful holiday season.

Happy New Year!

Today: The last Plyo Legs workout is done! Wahoo! A lunch date with friends has been cancelled. That stinks! I've already lost at Yahtzee - again! - to Jessica... and now we're off to the library - yes, we were there yesterday - but Heavenly Cakes just came in and they have it on hold for me. I'm eager to get my hands on it and start baking because I found a really cool silicone mini-bundt pan/mold in my baking cabinet that I completely forgot that I had! I love going shopping among my own things. Discoveries like this make me smile! And I need to check to see if Kiva has any entrepreneurs to give to since when we checked yesterday I was about to give to someone and in between the 2 minutes it took to find the person and click donate they had already reached their funds goal.... and I was refreshing every five minutes to see if there was anything new but there was nothing. That's what always happens at the end of the year.

Digital Layout: Of Safety and Bicycle Fun (Y&T Week 7)

lisacohen — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 09:54:20 -0500

I found a photo of myself on my first bicycle when I was looking through some old photos that I had recently scanned and, with all the pictures I take, I knew I could find some of Jessica on her first bike (though she is further along in the times that were captured here. In the photo of me on the left I am riding a bike with training wheels).... and so it evolved into a page of similarities and contrasts... of the right-of-passage of learning to ride a bicycle, the joys of riding one, and also more than that. It's not just about the bike. It's a reflection of the times in which we grew up/are growing up and the prevalence of more safety rules/laws nowadays - helmets, seatbelts, etc. and how that affects things.

STS: Mesocycle 3, Week 3

lisacohen — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 09:46:08 -0500

Today I start the first workout of my LAST week of my STS 3 1/2 month workout program. Well, technically there's a week of active recovery left but that's easy peasy.

Here's how last week looked...

Monday, December 21, 2009 - indoor cycling 30 min + STS No Equipment abs

Tuesday, December 22, 2009 - STS Disc #31 (Chest & Back)

Wednesday, December 23, 2009 - 60 minutes of dancing with the kids + STS Yoga-inspired abs

Thursday, December 24, 2009 - STS Disc #32 (Plyo Legs)

Friday, December 25, 2009 - indoor cycling 32 minutes + STS Medicine Ball Abs

Saturday, December 26, 2009 - STS Disc #33 (Shoulders, Biceps, & Triceps)

Sunday, December 27, 2009 - rest

Lessons from this week: I may not have been going heavy enough for shoulders and a few triceps exercises. The weights suggested from when I did my 1RM that worked for muscular endurance are not the same that I need for muscular strength (or maybe I'm getting stronger?!). On Saturday I fixed that and increased my weight and felt a nice difference. I haven't had as much DOMS in the upper body as I thought I would have during this mesocycle. I'd be interested to see if I repeated the last mesocycle over again if I would be able to make the same gains (using more as my base weight in Meso 1, Week 1).

In a side note: My stomach has been really killing me because I chose to eat some meat at dinner on Saturday night after not eating any for a bunch of months (maybe over a year, I'm not really keeping track) and am feeling completely sick and wishing I hadn't done that. Ugggh.

Today we need to get some gifts and deliver them and we might go grocery shopping. I need to move some photos and digital scrapbooking supplies to the kid's computer because they have been asking me if they can do some scrapbook pages and I promised I'd set them up on their computer so they don't have to use mine. I would say that I'm going to find us some awesome curtains but I think that might be too ambitious for how I'm feeling right now.

HD space issues and Algerian flatbread

lisacohen — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 12:55:49 -0500

We were surprised yesterday by some of our favorite people (who also happen to be in our family)...the Schumachers called to see if we were home - and then all 4 of them came over to hang out for a little and give the kids presents. Ryan was excited to show them how to play the Wii - though he was just using that as an excuse to USE THE Wii some more (I'm onto you little one)!! We absolutely LOVE spending time with them and seeing what they've been up to.

Today we're taking the kids to see the Alvin & the Chipmunks movie with our friends and then we're all heading to dinner at our favorite Japanese hibachi grill. FUN! And then Jessi has a sleepover (her second one not taking place in our house - she's SO excited - started packing last night and is making finishing touches).

And a big goal this week is to get a new hard drive. Yesterday I had 0 kb free. Actually, as I write this I have this amount free even though I swear I just freed up 160 MB a minute ago. Space is a constant issue (as you know if you've heard me complain about mention it before) and I don't even have all the music I want on my computer and I keep having to move photos to an external drive and delete them from my computer to just OPEN Photoshop which makes iPhoto angry and unable to find photos that I still have in albums that I use as markers for photos I plan to use in future family scrapbook pages. So half-terabyte HD I'm looking at you. Though I'm really hoping to find a full terabyte that will fit in to my MacBook Pro since it's no longer under warranty.

So in an effort to get some stuff off my computer here are the photos of the Armenian flatbread that I made last week. It was interesting... but not something that we wanted to finished so it's not something that I will make again.

Off to find some files to delete then on to our friend's house!

challah & Ryan's banner

lisacohen — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 15:38:09 -0500

Here's a little project that Ryan wanted to do a little while ago.... a banner of his very own. He picked out the papers. He picked out the photos. He picked the extras.

And it now hangs above his bed on the bright blue walls... and he could't be happier!! And that makes me happy.

I just took some fresh challah out of the oven. The smell and warmth of fresh baked bread is something that I've gotten very used to and fond of. It feels so incredibly cozy.

I'm trying a new recipe today: Friday Night Bread Machine Challah (yes, I know it's Thursday). This recipe uses the bread machine to make the dough but not bake it. You put all of the ingredients in the bread machine and let it do the job of mixing and you take it out after the dough has risen. Then you shape it as you want - I chose two loaf pans, putting three balls into each, and bake it off in the oven(see twitter links to the right to see photos of it both before going into the oven and after). This recipe is by the same author of, and from the same book as, my current favorite weekly challah 4+ years running - the Sponge Starter Challah by Marcy Goldman from Jewish Family Baking, which has just been re-released, thankfully! A few times over the past year when I tried to purchase it on Amazon it was selling for over $80 (!!!) because it was out of print. In the recently released version there is a new chapter with recipes for cooking (as opposed to baking) as well as many gorgeous photo additions. (The previous version didn't have any photos.) Ever since I first tasted that Sponge Starter Challah I've been smitten and have had my eye on this book. I'm happy to say that I'm now the proud owner of it - for a very reasonable price, I might add.

I just realized that I've tried a whole LOT of challah recipes this past year. This Sponge Starter Challah (even when I make it more than half whole-wheat flour - still remains FIRMLY on TOP... what keeps me searching is that I'd like to find a recipe that it doesn't take a lot of my time on Friday mornings to make. Though, I admit that if I have the time and am at home Friday mornings it is TOTALLY worth it! I'd love one that I can mix up in the fashion of the Hertzberg/Francois method which includes mixing up a big batch and keeping it on hand for a few days in the fridge and taking it out to use when I'm ready to shape, rise, and bake. I've tried Reinhart's version that you can ix the night before and use the next day or two when I was testing out recipes for his latest cookbook and didn't like the final product as much either. I'm thinking of just writing Marcy Goldman and asking her thoughts.

Last week I made the whole wheat challah with wheat germ from Healthy Breads in Five Minutes a Day and ended up baking two loaves of it but I didn't like it very much, nor did I like the French toast made from it. The kids didn't seem to mind so I guess that's the silver lining. I was planning on making donuts with the rest of the dough but after a whole loaf of the challah made with this dough sat on my counter untouched the rest of the week I thought better of it and dumped the remaining dough down the sink. It was nearing it's 5 day limit anyway, but I still feel horribly wasteful about doing so. At least the baked off loaf can now be shared with the birds.

Off to read some Freakonomics.

Winter Break

lisacohen — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 14:32:22 -0500

Today Jessi took the lead before breakfast and got out the paints and palettes and set herself and her brother up for a morning art session.

After breakfast I strategically put out some new books from the library with the hopes of enticing them to sit, relax, and browse a little. They haven't shown any interest yet today but I'm still hopeful.

We've played Mexican Train Dominoes, read a chapter in Matilda, and played in the snow (it's finally good packing snow for snowballs and building snowmen). I still have to make some pizza dough for tonight's Make Your Own Pizza and make doctor's appointment for myself due to some strange stuff that happened this morning... maybe I'm just getting old, but I'm asking for some blood work just in case.

On Saturday school was called off for Monday and today so we are enjoying two extra days of winter break. I am loving not waking up to an alarm and having leisurely days consisting of playing in the snow, coming in to warm up, and lots of playing and hanging out. Today I'm thankful to NOT be driving around on the roads as we did yesterday. That was just plain stupid. We were off-roading on roads that existed a few days ago but were now covered with layers of packed ice and snow. It was one scary, bumpy ride. My car and Mike's Jeep are safely back in our driveway now and I'm not going out until tomorrow when we head to the Indian restaurant to meet up with some of our friends. Hopefully the roads will be better by then.

I'm going back and forth in my mind about whether or not I will embark on another photo-a-day project in 2010. The one I did in 2008 was an incredible experience but I it's a big commitment so I want to be sure before making up my mind. I've also been giving some thought to what my word will be for next year. The word that I will choose to focus on and center my actions around. I've been thinking about it for about a month or so and I've only really been thinking about this one word that feels so good and fits so well when I've been trying it on for size. (Here are my words for 2007, 2008, 2009.)

I'm eagerly awaiting the UPS truck for my delivery of my STS Shock Cardio series of workout DVDs that I bought because I'm secretly liking the pain of Plyo Legs in STS. But, shhhhh!, don't tell anyone.

I'm thoroughly enjoying reading Stones into Schools and I get charged up to do something to make the world a better place when reading books by Greg Mortensen. He makes me want to be a better person. Are there any books that make you feel that way to? If so, please share! I want to read more books like this next year so that this feeling stays with me until I figure out how I can best do this.

I might not be posting as much as usual over the next two weeks but rest assured that things are going well here and I'll be back with lots of renewed energy for the new year once the kids go back to school.

STS: Mesocycle 3, Week 1 & Week 2

lisacohen — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 12:45:10 -0500

Last week I started Mesocycle 3 of the STS program (the final section of this program that focuses on increasing strength). The previous week - in between mesocycle 2 and 3 - was all about active recovery... for me that meant yoga... and oh how relaxing that was (though I made the mistake of doing some strength-building yoga on one day and then a section of new DVD that was harder than I expected so the week was NOT without soreness!!

Wednesday's workout last week was just as HARD as I fear it would be. Earlier this year when I was doing the STS program for the first time I didn't use the Plyo Legs DVDs, opting, instead, for the heavier squat rack legs DVDs that can be used in its place. But the weight vest that I used made movements really awkward because it was too loose and big for me and since I didn't have a weight rack and the weather was starting to get nice, I just decided to scrap the legs portion of the strength training and started riding my bike outside again for 90+ minutes.

I've learned a thing or two about myself through this last 11 weeks of this program so far and this is it: I things nice and slow. I liked the first mesocycle the least, then comes the second, my favorite is the one I'm doing now (except for LEGS! I prefer Mesocycle 2 for that). Fast endurance type workouts like those in Meso 1 and in Plyo Legs just KILL me. I guess they're supposed to... but man, I feel so weak doing legs! I was huffing and puffing and even had to pause the DVD multiple times to catch my breath and rest so that I would be ready for the next exercise. I'm sure these are going to be great for my leg power. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger right?

*****

Up until this point the thoughts posted here were written at the end of last week (I just forgot to post them). Since that time I've had a chance to complete another week (almost - all the discs are done I just have some cardio to do over the weekend).... and hindsight really is 20/20. I completed the second Plyo Legs workout for this mesocycle (disc #30 about 20 minutes ago) and it wasn't nearly as bad as the first one. I realize now that it SEEMED so hard because I was already infected and about to be slammed with a nasty virus and just didn't know it at the time (when I was doing Plyo Legs #26). Aaaah! So see I had nothing to fear! And I'm writing this down so that next Wednesday comes around and I'm dreading THAT day's plyometric leg workout, I can just come on over here and read my own words and not be such a scared-y cat! And a big high five for me for figuring out a way to move around my workout schedule to GET THE JOB DONE and still kick this virus in the butt (except for Wed, when clearly MY butt was the one getting kicked).

Here's a look at the workouts for the past two weeks:

STS: Mesocycle 3, Week 1

Monday, December 7, 2009 - STS Disc #25 (Chest & Back)

Tuesday, December 8, 2009 - indoor cycling 32 minutes + STS No-Equipment Abs

Wednesday, December 9, 2009 - STS Disc #26 (Plyo Legs)

Thursday, December 10, 2009 -indoor cycling 33 minutes+ STS Stability Ball abs

Friday, December 11, 2009 - STS Disc #27 (Shoulders, Biceps, & Triceps)

Saturday, December 12, 2009 - indoor cycling + abs

Sunday, December 13, 2009 - recovery

STS: Mesocycle 3, Week 2

Monday, December 14, 2009 - STS Disc #28 (Chest & Back)

Tuesday, December 15, 2009 - indoor cycling 33 min + STS Yoga-insired abs

Wednesday, December 16, 2009 - Virus kicked my butt and I napped instead of working out

Thursday, December 17, 2009 - STS Disc #30 (Shoulders, Biceps, & Triceps)

Friday, December 18, 2009 - STS Disc #29 (Plyo Legs)

Saturday, December 19, 2009 - shoveling snow for three hours + running/playing in 18"+ of snow

Sunday, December 20, 2009 - more snow shoveling

And now I brace myself for the winter snow storm that is predicted for our area tonight and tomorrow. I'm already stocked up and in between playing in the snow and drinking hot cocoa we are going to do some serious baking!! Doughnuts (first time for these!), cookies, quick breads, and yeast breads are our future!! We have some gifts to give and some new traditions to start. I'm REALLY looking forward to a snowed-in weekend!! Bring it ON.

flour, naps, books - oh MY!

lisacohen — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 11:05:54 -0500

Chanukah is chugging right along. I can hardly believe it's almost over. And I think Ryan is getting rather sad about that. Jessi is too excited about her field trip into DC today and then a play date at her friend's house to notice. Though I think it will hit her tomorrow.

I've been surrounding myself lately with flour, water, and naps. I'm still trying to get over this awful cold. I skipped my workout yesterday (the dreaded STS PLYO LEGS one - which even in my healthy state this laid me flat out... yesterday it would have killed me) in favor of Tylenol and going back to sleep after my preschool-dropping-off duties were complete. And today I am going to find a way to have this week not have a skipped workout in it and instead just be a moved-around-mixed-up week. That means Friday's workout will likely happen this afternoon. And Saturday will be for Plyo Legs. Because there's always some finagling that can go on.

I've been mixing up lots of dough... started the first week of my bake|give project (still need to make a logo for that and some tags). Whole Wheat Mixed Berry Bread again... baked it all off and made some more honey butter for the first gift/give. More about that another time I think.... once the logo is created. LOL! There's a Spinach Parmigiano dough waiting for me in the fridge which I think I will try and bake some off today.

I wasn't kidding (and I used a flatter storage box and it worked great!). I am trying to adapt the Spinach Feta loaf from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day adding some white whole-wheat flour (about 2 1/2 cups) and substituting, I added a smudge more water since I think Parm-Reg is dryer than feta. We'll see how it goes. And this afternoon I am going to mix up a challah from Healthy Breads in Five Minutes a Day (Ryan requested French toast for breakfast on Saturday... hope no one is too upset that I'm not doing our traditional weekly challah.) And I was going to attempt making donuts (sufganiyot) with it to add to the Chanukah celebration.

My holiday cards came in - this time printed CORRECTLY! And we got them off and out the door in 20 seconds flat (well, close). Whew! Sorry they won't make it in time for those celebrating Chanukah like us (I tried!!! with little cooperation from the printer - those on my twitter feed will remember laughing at the result the first time around) but at least they'll make it before the rest of the winter holidays, right?

I'm off to the library to get some books that are on hold for us (including some cookbooks - yay!). Gotta remember to grab my water bottle since this virus and the cold, dry DC weather is drying me OUT! Is it Friday yet? I'm looking forward to date night with Mike.