stricken with paisley travels north

driving today from 9:30 a.m. until 8:00 p.m.
long drive.
we didn't drive quite straightthrough, and the small stops were definitely a relief to my legs.  the sky was incredible the entire day, filled with multiple rainbows, spectacular lightning, beautiful storm clouds, patches of brilliant blue sky shining on southern idaho's patchwork quilt landscape.  breath-taking, through the entire day.  my sisters and i had a grand time belting musicals, guessing artists, and sleeping in the backseat.  not to mention snacking on brazil nuts (have i mentioned how much i am in love with brazil nuts?).

i can't wait to snuggle up in bed with my book for a few minutes, or as long as my eyes will stay open.  tomorrow's filled with family and festivities, which requires a good night's sleep and an early run.
but first things first: a little hotel-room modified yoga to get my muscles moving and breathing again after the long drive.

so.

greetings from a more northern corner of my world.
i hope the sky was as beautiful today for everyone!
goodnight!

monday, monday

i have a new favorite listening pleasure this week: the soundtrack to the beautiful movie 500 days of summer.  it's emotional.  frustrating.  exhausting.  and so so real.  during the movie (watched with clear-play editing for my own conscience), i noticed the music was moving, but i didn't understand quite how much i would fall in love with the soundtrack until i gave it a full listenthrough.  my ears say YUM.

sidenote: this week is supposed to be full of tremendous thunderstorms here in southern utah.  tonight, in a theater with my family, we heard the first huge bursts.  it was pretty sunny going into the movie.  coming out, everything was thoroughly drenched, but still over one-hundred degrees.  the rain here is magical.  the desert comes alive with pungent sagebrush filling your nose and the thunder echoes through the canyons.

the moody weather has me in a strange state of being, at the moment.  i'm a little antsy, slightly agitated.  i'd like to read my book for a while (i'm almost finished), but i don't know if i have the attention span tonight.  maybe the thunder just has me a little anxious.  i'm craving new things, again.  this weekend's road trip will definitely be a satisfying one.  just to drive through some beautiful country and see some beautiful people.  normally, i'm not a live for the weekend kind of person.  i like to live for the weekdays, enjoy my everyday.  but every once in a while, it's okay to take a deep breath and simply say, "here's to the weekend. i'll make it there with a smile on my face!"

so.  tonight, i'm saying that.  "here's to the weekend!"  tomorrow, is another matter.  tomorrow, i'm going to wake up, run my heart out, do a little yoga, eat some overnight oats with banana soft serve (and maybe a green smoothie, too), workworkwork, sew a little, read my book, and most of all, smile-breath-be.

happy monday!

red curry garbanzo beans

another original creation!  i was craving garbanzo beans the other day, and my mom had an unopened jar of red curry paste in the pantry.  i love curry more than just about anything, and this one was absolutely satisfying!

if you know me, you know that when i cook, i don't measure....at all.  which has proven tricky trying to convey the idea of a new recipe to someone else.  so. i did my best to approximate measurements with this one, but if you're going to try it, play around.  food is no fun unless it comes with freedom.

red curry garbanzo beans

1/2 large white onion

4 medium carrots

3/4 cup cauliflower

1 cup frozen peas

2 handfuls fresh spinach

2 medium tomatoes

2 cans garbanzo beans

2-3 heaping teaspoons red curry paste

1/3 cup bragg's amino acid (or soy sauce)

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

3/4 teaspoon ground cumin

salt and pepper to taste

sauté the onion until see through, then add the thinly sliced carrots and chopped cauliflower.  after they start to lose a tiny bit of their crunch, add the garbanzo beans, diced tomatoes, and frozen peas.  let the tomatoes cook down for a minute or so, then add everything from the curry paste to the bottom!  today, i let mine simmer for a few minutes to get a little more saucy (throwing in the spinach at the very end so it just barely wilts), and it was fantastic!  i didn't have any on hand, but it would have been great served over brown rice as well.

i have a little love affair with chili garlic sauce (an obsessive one).  usually, anything i make remotely indian, thai, chinese, etc. is sorta smothered with the stuff.  my roommates have told me i might lose my tastebuds someday, but it doesn't stop me.  here's the shocker: i tried one bite with chili garlic and put it back on its proper shelf in the fridge.  this curry was even better without it.  crazy, i know.  but it's true.

bon appetit!

grateful

as a moment of gratitude, i'm going to talk about running, again.  i know i've been going on about how much i love running quite a bit lately, but indulge me at least once more!  i started running about two years ago.  before that, i couldn't run.  as i've mention briefly before, i was diagnosed with fibromyalgia when i was fourteen after more than four years of searching to the answer to my fragile health.  currently, i consider myself free of all diagnoses.  overcoming the mental crutch is half the battle, and in my opinion i've been healed (which is of course a long journey that never really ends), but i digress.

i can run now.  maybe not quite with the ease that i'd like, but i can do it.  i've been running for an hour a day for the last month (my goal is still going, i've only missed one day so far!).  i don't run the whole time, probably about 40 minutes of the 60 i'm out.  but simply for the fact that i actually can run now, i love it.  every morning when i when i start to sweat, my heart pounds, and my breathing speeds up considerably, the thought foremost in my  mind is, "thank you.  thank you, Father for letting me experience this joy.  thank you for allowing me to run and helping me be healthy enough to run every single day."

i am so grateful for my body that can run.  i'm thankful for my health, and the knowledge that the journey i've taken to gain it has given to me.

positively one of the most random pen splotches i've had yet.

i absolutely can't believe there's less than a week left of july.  it's been such a frisbee of a month!  since coming home after my hectic spring semester, i've been completely caught up in work, projects, summer reading, cooking and baking, running running running, and catching up on some much-needed sleep.  but about four days ago, i remembered the feeling of the first week of a semester in provo (giddiness, new faces, old friends, my leopard-print backpack, etc.), and i was more than a tincy bit excited.  nervous, yes.  dreading the end of the glorious southern utah sun, of course.  but also energized.  i feel grounded, finally.  ready to take on a few new challenges (as i already know i'll be creating for myself this coming fall).

still, my emotions are pretty mixed (in a not quite typical way).  since superman left the states, i've never wanted to skip a summer more quickly, and i'm still counting the weeks until we're both back in provo again (five weeks, only five!).  but the last three consecutive semesters left me so physically and emotionally drained, i'm still apprehensive.  i keep telling myself, one year, just two semesters left and i'll have the bachelor's degree i set out to gain in three years.  i'm two-thirds of the way finished, and i can taste the end.  however.  this conflicts with my excitement for a new semester.  all i know right now is that the sun in my triple-digit home gives me so much energy!  running in these mountains gives me even more joy than i remembered.  i think i'm learning to live in the moment, which at the beginning of spring was one of the largest goals for this summer.

speaking of the moment (since i really don't want to think about all the reasons i do and don't want august to be here yet), i'm watching glenn beck right now.  a new-found summer love.  his passion is incredible, isn't it?

today, i finally started one of those sewing projects that have been below my bed for a month!  it should be finished tomorrow, pictures to come!  while i was laboriously measuring to make sure i really had enough room to cut out each piece on the bias, my sister natalie was reading out loud to me the Top Ten List of Militant Animals, and oh my goodness gracious did we have such a laugh.  dolphins, bats, and a pigeon in the smithsonian museum for being a war hero!  really, as much of a waste of time some things are like this, it's worth reading - just for the laugh.  unconsciously me (her blog) has a link to the hysterical essay.  after reading, it just gives me one more reason to go to d.c. this august.  i was already on board for a quick trip to rally at the feet of lincoln, but after knowing about the pigeon, buy me a ticket!

for the record, it's been an absolutely beautiful sunny day.  positive affirmations work.  the grandeur of the red mountains is surpassed by nothing.  i love blog friends.  these next five weeks are going to fly by just as quickly as this month has, and i'm going to enjoy every single moment of it.

with lots of yoga.

self-sewn skirts and dresses.

a few more spectacular books.

a couple more weddings.

a trip to the lake.

lots of naps with my kitties.

tea parties with my niece.

basketball with my nephews.

the slobber of my sister's pit bulls.

long laughs with my mother.

and so much more.

to close, i love summer.  but i can't wait for fall.  i love.  that's all i guess.  i love ivins, but i have quite enough love for provo, too!  i love these grounding summer days, but i have quite enough love for autumn and yes even winter (even provo winter).  i have enough love.  enough for myself.  enough for all the places in world i'll ever go and all the people in the world i'll ever meet.

that's my moment tonight, lots of moments of love.

see?

i told you so.

"have courage for the great trials of life, and patience for the small ones.  when you have laboriously accomplished your daily task, go to sleep in peace.  God is awake."

- victor hugo, again.

this is one to live by, isn't it?  superman found it for me a while back, during my great lapse of both courage and patience for life.  it's one of those sticky-note quotes, that if it were on my fridge forever i would probably never tire of reading it.  it's true, i really love victor hugo.

oh, chivalry...

"my duty is to keep close to her steps, to surround her existence with mine, to serve her as a barrier against all dangers; to offer my head as a steppingstone, to place myself unceasingly between her and all sorrows... if she but consent to lean upon me at times amidst the difficulties of life."
     - victor hugo

beautiful, isn't it?  i can't get enough of victor hugo, lately.

the LOVE game:

1. i love anne of green gables and gilbert blithe.

2. i love saturday sleep-ins, especially when i wake up to my dad blasting his country music.

3. i love that point during my morning run when i break into a hard sweat. ahh, the feeling!

4. i love letting my hair dry in the summer sun after swimming in the heat.

5. i love apricots picked from the trees in my backyard.

6. i love puzzles.

7. i love half-priced clothing.

8. i love driving home from town the long way, through the giant santa clara trees.

9. i love teaching my five-year-old primary class.

10. i love high-waisted skirts and colorful fabric.

what do you love today?

homemade bread

a little while ago, i had a little bread adventure.  believe it or not, as much as i love to cook and bake, bread-land was unmapped territory.  natalie, my more-experienced-in-bread-making sister, helped me out, and oh gracious did it turn out wonderfully!  there's simply nothing like homemade bread to soothe the soul and warm the heart.

my mother's fantastic wheat grinder above, and our color aprons below.

in the process....

right before the oven...

and wawlah! some of the most delicious wheat bread i've ever tasted.

the only problem is that i have one more thing to buy before moving back up to provo.... bread pans!

this morning's unintentional journey

the last week or so time has completely gotten away from me.  i feel as though i'd been snatched up, held still above life below me.  but while i was enjoying the view the tornado hit, spinning people and places around, scrambling things like a spatula.  when my feet touched down again, i wasn't quite sure that this was where i'd left off.  changes happen quickly, sometimes i guess.  rambling: there i go, again.

really, what's being muddled in the typing process is that i've been absent, again.  not absent minded, more absent for the sake of sanity.  when all those people and places start to spin faster than i can keep track of and the changes rapid-fire, when i feel like i can't quite keep up with all that spinning, i'm afraid i close off a little.  unintentionally.  but, as i said, people and places have indeed been spinning, changes aiming, and i went absent.  i gave myself a little time to process, to deal, to center myself and realign some positive energy.

i'm back - back to myself and back to this beautiful world below.

my younger sister went on my morning run with me today, and it was exhilarating.  running with new people always lends a different perspective.  i use my runs to appreciate life, as a calm before the stormingly busy days.  hailey was a hysterical running partner, and i loved every minute!  it was cooler, this morning, and i love that.  her lively energy, continual positive talk, encouragement, and just downright good energy was exactly what i needed this morning on my run (not to mention her impersonations, try laughing while running up a killer incline!).

i love life - shouldn't we all?  that's what i remembered this morning.  so, i'm back.  and i'll admit, this was more of an exercise to simply get myself writing again after two breaks.  but i think i arrived somewhere, which is exciting for having no expectations when i began.  even if it doesn't quite make sense with the words i used, it was an accomplishment.  i started at nowhere, and ended up at appreciation.  that's a  big step, isn't it?

appreciate life this week, it truly is a precious gift.