Goal: Headstands

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My new goal: hold a supported headstand for 3 minutes.

So far, I've crashed & burned a lot. I'm to the point where I can hold one for 30 seconds with the occasional foot to the wall for balance.

Maybe once I can do that, I'll be able to do a full handstand! I have a lot of yoga poses that I'd like to master, so I have a Pinterest board to inspire me.

Some of them are inspirational, but seem insane, such as:

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and this:

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Maybe someday? It would be so empowering to know I can hold myself up & balance like that. Yoga is really helping me with flexibility & balance, as well as causing me to be more aware of my body. I love the feeling of strength it gives me.

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I look more like the kitten, but I feel like the woman! :-)

Kitchen Flops

[Laddsburg Wine - pairs well with dessert!]

Something about this week of gorgeous weather followed by chilly rain makes me want to curl up with a big blanket. Anyone else?

Usually I have no trouble deciding what to make for dinner. I think about what we have, look at the many recipes I have marked to try, and choose from the list or decide to create something new. No such luck this week. Hence the lack of posts. Sorry!

 I have failed at a lot of recipes this week. Just so you don't think that everything I make comes out right, I thought I'd share some flops with you. This week was full of them!

Maybe the oven knows that I'm just not quite with it. Or else it needs a drink, too.

[sampler tray from Troegs]

I tried to bake this Easy Little Bread Recipe from 101Cookbooks.com. It rose beautifully and then sunk in the middle when I baked it. Still tasty, but really ugly. And when I packed a slice 3 days later to bring to work, it molded in the baggie even though the rest of the loaf was fine.

I tried to bake Pumpkin Protein Donuts from peasandthankyou.com. They looked done, sprang back when I touched them, and pulled away from the sides of the pan, but when we ate them, they were still gummy in the middle. Ick.

I made myself a Pumpkin Spiced Latte and it was so bad I had to pour it down the drain. I didn't want to bother with the blender, so it was chunky and the spices all sank to the bottom. I hate wasting food!

Last night I decided to be safe and made big salads and roasted broccoli. All was fine until I found a piece of apple core in my salad that should have gone into the compost bucket. Who knows, I probably put the actual apple chunk in the compost. I didn't want to fish it out, so I didn't check.

I'm beginning to question my kitchen skills.

I didn't try to make these Blueberry Lime Margaritas. Maybe I should have.

Let's hope that the Chocolate and Coconut Cake from The Little Red House I'm making tomorrow for my grandma's birthday turns out better!

Happy Birthday!!

October is a big birthday month, so here's to all of you!

McKensie

Grandma K.

Andy

Mommom

Alex

Bryttani

Dad K.

And everyone else out there with October birthdays!

Poppity Popcorn for Rainy Weather

For those of you who don't live around me, or haven't heard, Central PA got hit hard with the rains yesterday. I work about 15 minutes from my house and they had us leave at 2pm because there were so many warnings.

I knew I was in trouble when we opened the door to exit and there was 2 inches of water covering the parking lot. I took off my shoes to walk to my car, but then a co-worker offered to drive me over. The road out of the parking lot was like a river. My car was parked about 4 cars up from a mini-pond of water. I don't know how the people parked there got their vehicles out.

It took me 2.5 hours to get 1/3 of the way home. Traffic was at a standstill everywhere and there were tons of emergency vehicles on the road. That car ride was one of the most stressful drives that I've ever made. There were no traffic directors because everyone was needed for emergencies. No blockades were really up because the water hit so hard and so fast.

I saw fields flooded with water, cars submerged up to their windows and a man on his bike trying to ride through water up to his mid-calf. At one point, I drove through a puddle that was so deep I thought I'd lose my brakes, but there was no other place to go. A tractor trailer turning down a side road that I was on came within inches of my front bumper while I gripped the steering wheel and prayed he wouldn't hit me.

Finally, when I called my parents to let them know I still wasn't home, I found out that all roads that led home were flooded. They had friends trying to get home that came to their house because they couldn't get any further. Thankfully, those friends have a sister & bro-in-law who were kind enough to let me come in for dinner rather than me sitting in traffic. The Bup got home from work safely and walked to my parents' for dinner since I wasn't home.

Around 9:45pm, almost 8 hours after I left work, I was able to get through and get home safely. I didn't take any pictures...I was too busy gripping the steering wheel!

Today, I spent part of the morning using the Shop Vac to remove water from the basement (it wasn't too bad, but we got about 15 gallons) and the other part calling the members of the choir and cancelling practice for tonight. 

Then I made popcorn. Because nothing makes a more perfect snack on a rainy day than some warm, freshly popped popcorn.

I made it on the stove top, which is the very best way. I may never eat microwave popcorn again, at least not when I'm making it! My favorite topper is nutritional yeast, which is what I used, because it makes it taste cheesy, like that white cheddar popcorn that comes pre-popped in the bags.

Poppity Popcorn

Adapted from summerharms.blogspot.com

Yields about 15 cups

3 T coconut oil

3/4 c popcorn kernels

~1 tsp sea salt

Optional toppings: pepper, nutritional yeast, cinnamon sugar, Old Bay seasoning, garlic powder, cocoa powder, Italian seasoning

8 quart pot with lid

Add coconut oil to the pot and melt over medium-high head. Once melted, throw in 3 popcorn kernels. The kernels will pop when the oil is ready. Add the rest of the kernels and cover with lid. Using pot holders, begin to move pot back and forth to keep the kernels moving on the bottom of the pan.  Kernels will start to pop, keep shaking the pan until the popping slows down. When there is about 2 seconds per pop, turn off heat, but keep moving pan until popping ends. Season with salt (or other toppings) to taste and enjoy!

A Really Big Woodpile

We went and found some wood to chop over the weekend.

I feel like that picture would make a challenging jigsaw puzzle, with all those logs, grass & trees. Mom loves green, so it might be a great gift for her!

The tree at the end of the driveway at the cabin fell over during Hurricane Irene. We have an old driveway down the yard a ways, so when Mom & Dad got there they went in that way. By the time we arrived 2 days later, they'd already gotten it cleared well enough that we could pull in. There was still a lot of work to do, though!

Dad manned the chain saw.

He's super handy with that thing. I used to love wearing his big hat with its ear protectors as a kid because it was so huge. I love the smell of the freshly cut wood!

The Bup wielded the axe.

For three hours, he split log after log after log. We thought he'd be crazy sore the next day but he only had a few blisters. That's my man! :-)

Mom made sure our woodpile wouldn't fall over later.

I helped stack the woodpile after the logs were split. Mom showed me how to pile the ends up so that it is sturdy and won't fall over. See how they form a pattern back and forth, like pillars?

The butterflies drank nectar from Mom's flowers. All this work was making them hungry, I guess!

All the wood from this tree should be enough for about 2-3 winters at the cabin. Dad already had enough for this winter, so it will have time to dry out before we need it.

Good work for one morning!

We spent the rest of the weekend hiking, eating, sleeping, sitting around the campfire, and reading.

A perfect vacation.

Yoga Girl Challenge: Complete! + Yummy Links

I made it!!! 21 days that all involved some form, however large or small, of yoga.

{Because hotel floors are kinda gross.}

I'm not going to bore you with the details of the second half, but it was very similar to the first half. My favorite days were the ones when I used the audio downloads from Yogadownload.com. I love the unexpected challenges and the soothing background music during the sessions. It was great to break out of the video rut I'd been in. You can only watch the same exercise videos for so long before memorizing their next words!

Although I may not do yoga every single day from now on, I will definitely be doing it a lot more. It's a great way to unwind after a busy day and really helps to get the kinks out of my back. Last night I did Lunar Flow and while it was super slow and flowing, when I stood up after it was over, my hips were shaky and loose. It felt so good to wobble a little and realign myself.

For those of you skeptics who don't love yoga...I think you should try it. Just a simple class or video. Let me know how you like it!

And now for some yummy links in the blog world. I'm overwhelmed by the amount of recipes I want to try! Here's a short list:

Chocolate Chunk Toffee Bars from OhSheGlows.com  - For the church picnic, I think.

Grilled Corn Summer Breakfast Hash from HowSweetEats.com  - Dinner soon, perhaps?

Easy Oat Wheat Bread from 101Cookbooks.com - Easy, delicious, quick.

Cookie Dough Dip from ChocolateCoveredKatie.com - It's a healthier version!

I think we could make a meal out of that. Happy Thursday everyone!

Question: Has anyone tried Hot Yoga?

Yoga Girl Challenge: Halfway Point

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Ten days into my Yoga Challenge and I'm loving it and feeling great. It's been hard some days to fit it in (especially Friday!) but it's worth it. Even just a quick session helps me ease out some of the tension from the day.

1-Tuesday:

• Body by Bethenny - 15 min. - This ended up being more weight training than yoga, but it still left me feeling stretched out. 

2-Wednesday:

• Denise Austing Fat Blasting Yoga - 15 min. - One of my go-to quick yoga sessions, this was the first DVD I owned that introduced me to yoga. Denise got me hooked, and I come back to her every once in awhile.

3-Thursday:

• Biggest Loser: Weight Loss Yoga - 5 min. warmup, 10 min. level 3, 20 min. level 1, 5 min. cooldown - The Bup joined me for this one. We love Bob & have done this one so often that we can quote him while he's telling us what to do. At one point he actually says, "Oh Bob... "

4-Friday:

• Annnnd my 3 day streak ended here. I had great plans to do a short session after we dug the potatoes to stretch out my back, but then the yellow jackets attacked and there was no doing anything unless it involved an ice pack.

5-Saturday:

• YogaDownload.com - 20 min. Qi Yoga & 25 min. Shoulder Opener #1 - I stepped out of my dvd comfort zone and decided to try these free online downloads. They always intimidated me because they're audio only. Turns out my 3 years of video yoga served me well because I had no trouble following the instructions. I think a complete beginner would struggle a little, but they really explain what to do in detail.

6-Sunday:

• YogaDownload.com - 25 min. Power Yoga #4 & 20 min. Solar Flow #1 - I liked the audio so much I tried it again. It's great to have variety instead of the same rotation of videos. This site has so much to offer! It's making me love yoga more, and challenging me to try new poses.

7-Monday:

• Denise Austin Yoga Body Burn - 10 min. Yoga Legs - I didn't have much time but still wanted to squeeze in some yoga! This is a quickie workout that still feels complete, despite the short length.

8-Tuesday:

• MyYogaOnline.com - 6 min. Let's Fly video - We had company for dinner & a campfire, so my day was packed. I took the time right before bed to stretch out with this super short online video. I think it would have continued if I paid or downloaded it, but as it was it stopped abruptly. I did a little downdog and child's pose to finish it off.

9-Wednesday:

• YogaDownload.com - 20 min. Power Yoga #5 - This one was just okay. It did help me release my tension from the day, but wasn't a fave. 

10-Thursday:

• YogaDownload.com - 20 min. 9 min. Power Vinyasa Flow & 25 min. Yoga for Weight Loss #1 - I did not like the Power Vinyasa Flow at all. I stopped after 9 min. and went to the next one. The Yoga for Weight Loss was a long series of sun saluations, which was great for a morning workout. I don't do the weight loss yoga sessions for the purpose of losing weight, I just find that they are more up-tempo than some yoga, which I prefer.

Has anyone else been doing yoga with me? Any suggestions on some videos or audios that I should try?

Yoga Girl Challenge

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I'm feeling inspired!

Maybe a little ambitious, too. Must be the sunshine giving me all this energy!

I'm going to join Jenna in her 21 Days of yoga. I always feel so alive after doing yoga and I try to fit so much into my days that I don't always get everything down. With this goal, I hope to slow myself down and take at least 10 minutes every day to re-align myself and take some deep breaths.

I'll keep you updated on what I do as the days go on. By the end, I'm hoping for some toned muscles and a greater peace of mind.

Anyone want to join in the fun?