New Swimmer in the Family

If there's one thing better than having an adorable grandbaby, it's having an adorable grandbaby who loves to swim. We're up visiting my step-sons in Spokane and this was the little cutie's first time in the pool. She's so adventurous, the water didn't faze her at all. She loved it.

 In fact, it reminds me of another water baby I once knew, one who is now a swimming, water-polo-playing 13 year old dynamo. Her little tutu-ruffled swimsuit was a sparkly blue, but otherwise she shares a lot of the same personality and daring. As I recall on this vacation, once we introduced her to the pool, every time we walked by it she would fling her little arms out to the water and screech her lungs out. 

Some of us are born to the water, and it only takes once to know that's where we belong.

So I hope you don't mind if I take a pause from talking about triathlon training, clean eating, swim technique, and martial arts, and share a little video of grandbaby's first swim. Check out the smile at the end. 

The Twelve Blog Posts of Post-Christmas

I think I should get used to doing mini blog posts. It seems like I think I have to have some big involved idea in order to post, and then I never have the time to sit down and write something big and involved. It may be that one paragraph bursts are all I can do for awhile. Since it's now been 12 days since I posted, here are twelve things that happened recently that I didn't manage to write about (in no particular order):

1. My son started college. Wow, can't believe I typed that. One of the benefits/drawbacks of homeschooling is that the kids are ready to move on pretty early. He's currently enrolled at our local community college, pursing a certification in IT, preparatory to continuing on to a computer science degree. Since he's 16, and doesn't have a driver's license yet, this week involved getting him used to the bus schedules he'll need to keep track of, learning his way around campus, buying textbooks and other new things, and most importantly making sure he has enough food packed, and that all the food he needs for a day and evening can actually FIT in a backpack - sheesh, 16 year old boys eat a lot. On the first day, he informed me that the lunch I packed (two sandwiches, a container of yogurt, an apple, a banana, three fruit leathers and a protein bar) had all disappeared by lunchtime and he was hungry by the afternoon.

2. The heater broke on our club's pool. By Wednesday, it was at a chilly 75 degrees, and I had the BEST WORKOUT in forever. I forgot how much I love swimming in cold pools. I came out invigorated, and extremely pleased that in descending sets of 100's, I was able to hold 1:15, 1:12, and 1:08 respectively. Woot! My swimming has been getting stronger and stronger lately, but this was definitely the best I've felt in a very long time.

3. My hubby was home for 4 straight weeks. Now that was weird! Normally he's gone just about every other week, it was nice to have him back with us for awhile. We got some good bike rides and runs in together, and the occasional sneak out to Starbucks for a mocha.

4. I get to  go see my sister and brother-in-law in a few weeks in Seattle. I wish we lived closer!

5. This is unprecedented: Our weather report says 10 straight days of sunshine are coming our way. In January. In Oregon. Yeah baby!

6. Chip Kelly is going to keep coaching the Duck football team.

7. I've managed to lose 15 pounds since last March, and kept it off over the holidays. Better for my (recovering) knee.



8.  There's a heart-shaped lake I see all the time on a local bike ride. Love it.

9.  I CAN RUN. Well, I'm up to 9 miles a week. That's very good news.

10. Immediately after her performance run as Veruca Salt in the musical Willy Wonka, Asa has auditioned for the musical Aladdin. Because we can't have a month or two without shuttling to rehearsals now can we?

11. I saw Les Mis. I loved it. Again. Just like I fell in love with it when I first read it (26 years ago, in French Literature class), first saw it on stage (20 years ago), and last saw it on stage (last year's 25th anniversary touring company). Now I have the CD on endless repeat on my car stereo, can't get the songs out of my head. I'm reading it to the kids (in English this time) as our bedtime story.

12.  I re-wrote my resume for the first time since 1988 and submitted it for a job in the computer field. Not saying just what yet, but cross your fingers for me.

Ironmom to IronGrandma??

Yeah, it's true! Not sure I'm ready to get used to be called "grandma" yet, but it will be at least a year before she's talking, so I have time to get used to it.

That's our daughter holding our first grand-daughter (and those of you keeping track, it's my step-son and daughter-in-law's baby, not either of our teens', thank heavens!) The new parents and world's cutest grand-baby are doing wonderfully and hopefully getting some sleep. We get to spend a couple of days adoring her before we have to head back home.

It seems like such a long time since we were at this point with our own babies, yet holding this little sweet thing it also seems like almost yesterday. What an adventure they are in for!

The Proudest Ironmom

When my kids were younger, I was sure that as they turned into teenagers I would have so much time. I would be able to fit in my long workouts easily, my kids would essentially be self-contained little mini-adults. Instead, this weekend I found myself on a forest trail pinning togas on Greek guards, and fitting swords into scabbards. You see, I'm currently employed as the costume designer and props manager for my son's movie shoot. He's filming a live action trailer for a role playing game that he just wrote and published.

His game is based on Greek mythology, and he put a lot of thought into what he didn't like about current role playing games (Dungeons and Dragons, et. al) and decided to fix them by creating his own. Here's a photo of him with his book, Path of the Oracle. If you're interested, it's available in paperback on Amazon.com  and also in Amazon Kindle formats.

I think what impressed me the most is that at the age of 15, he took this project from a thought ("What if role playing games were more like this....") to creating a solution, to building the game, getting play testers to use it, writing it into a game manual in book format, and then now developing a marketing plan that includes his live action trailer (hence the Greek costumes) and setting up meetings with retailers to carry his book (so far he has it in two locations in the first few days in print).

After writing the script for the trailer, he met with a fellow local moviemaker who helped him sign on cast and crew to shoot it. Most of the cast came from Craigslist or were friends of friends. They all stepped up to the plate and did a wonderful job in character. My hubby even makes a cameo appearance as a Greek guard. Without any prior directorial experience, Mackenzie choreographed fight scenes and gave the actors direction to create the scenes he wanted. Don't worry, I'll be linking to the finished product as soon as he finishes filming the scenes with Zeus and it goes through editing and sound production (all things he's also learning how to do on the fly).

As for me, sometimes my workouts just have to wait. Whether I'm helping out by shooting the photo for the book cover, formatting the PDF files for printing, scrounging the local thrift stores for footwear ala 150 B.C., or creating shields by painting our old snow saucers bronze, I've found that this Ironmom is busier than ever. Lucky my Ironman is done for the year!

A Week of Food, for a (mostly) Paleo Family of Four

Feeding a family healthily is not as easy as it sounds. There are time pressures, money pressures, and the constant pressure of being surrounded by infinite volumes of unhealthy non-food stuffs. A trip into the local grocery store is a minefield of sugar and processed grain products, and an evening out at many restaurants is no better.

So what does a primarily paleo family eat? How is it prepared, and how can you feed your family quickly, easily, and healthily? I thought I'd share our week of food here in hopes that it answers some of these questions for people trying to transition their family to better eating habits.

First of all, a disclaimer: You'll notice that we're not completely paleo. My kids do eat rice, including the boxes of crispy rice cereal and one bag of rice pasta a week. If I make a stir fry, or some Mexican or Indian food during the week, they'll often have rice with that as well. Depending on my training load and carbohydrate needs, I might also have some plain white rice with my meals. We don't eat other grains.

When I go to the grocery store for the week, the first aisle I hit is the fruit and vegetable section. My typical load for the week is something like:

2 onions
4 - 8 yams
5 small zucchini
20 medium carrots
3 stalks of celery
4 or 5 cucumbers
2 heads of lettuce
3 bunches of dark greens (kale, spinach, etc.)
3 peppers (red, yellow, green)
2 avocados
2 tomatoes
1 pound of mushrooms
Other snacking vegetables (snap peas, jicama, etc.)

5 pounds of oranges
5 pounds of apples
5 pounds of bananas
2 pounds of blueberries (frozen, from last summer)
1 pound strawberries (frozen, from last summer)
Seasonal fruit (melons, berries, etc.)

All of our milk (not pictured) comes in the form of raw goat's milk from a local farmer in 1/2 gallon glass jars. We pick up 3 gallons once a week and return last week's jars. I buy a pound of raw goat's milk cheese for the kids per week, and two quarts of goat's yogurt.

Our eggs come from our free-range chickens. We go through about 2 dozen a week.

Some of our meat is from the 1/4 cow and 1/3 pig we bought last year. Buying in bulk like that gives us local, pastured meat at about $3.50 per pound (including steaks and roasts). I usually pull out 2 - 3 pounds from the freezer each week. Some meat comes from our local store, where they sell local, grass-pastured beef, I typically buy 2 pounds of hamburger a week, plus 2 pounds of organic free-range chicken. At Trader Joes, I'll buy a pound of fish or shrimp per week.

Canned goods:
1 - 2 jars of organic pasta sauce
Canned tomato paste + sloppy joe mix
Enchilada sauce or curry mix

Nuts, seeds, and snacks: I typically buy:
2 pounds of nuts (we like the almond/macadamia/cranberry snack mix from Trader Joes)
2 bars per person (Lara bars or Kind bars) for out of the house snacking
A big box of natural fruit leather from Costco once a month
A big box of Seaweed snacks from Costco once a month
2 - 3 bags of jerky if we are going to be out of the house and need quick snacks
Fruit-flavored mineral water - one bottle per kid per week
2 bottles of Coconut water - I use for my workouts
Almond meal & coconut flour for making waffles or pancakes
3 bars of dark chocolate
1 -2 cans of full-fat coconut milk

I'll write more about meals later, but typical meals for the week include stir fries with rice, shrimp, and veggies, taco salad night, chicken with curry sauce and veggies, sloppy joes without the buns (the kids like to eat it from the bowl),  pasta (kids eat rice pasta, hubby and I will eat it over a riced cauliflower), pork chops with barbeque sauce, or paleo pizza with an almond-meal crust. Side dishes include yams, fresh veggies and dips like hummus, and sliced fruit.

Can Home Improvement Cause Insanity??

Have you ever heard your voice, elevated beyond all rational levels, arguing with your husband about.... brick colors? If not, congratulations. You've never embarked upon the utter madness known as a Home Improvement Project. They might as well call them Marriage Destruction Projects. And because we didn't have enough craziness in our lives (right???), we decided to tear off our back deck and tear up our entire back yard to redo everything. I'm just praying that the rains don't come early because you can only imagine what our two dogs would look like after romping around in these piles of clay dirt in the RAIN.

Since our entire back yard has a slope approximately equal to the sides of Mt. Everest, creating any flat space at all is A Project. Involving backhoes, bulldozers, and millions of wheelbarrowloads of gravel, rocks, and retaining walls, several million workers, and lots and lots of noise and chaos. Did I mention that I'm the kind of introvert who craves peace. And silence. This has been a trying summer.

The good news is that this particular series of holes and dirt piles on the side of our house will be a water feature and  a pond (yes, that's my kitchen door you see hanging out in space with no deck below it!). I think this will be gorgeous when it's finished. The kids are excited about koi for the pond. I'm worried that my dog will think it's her personal waterpark.

And this giant hole with concrete pillars:

This will be a covered patio that will no longer drip water on our heads when we go outside. And above it all will be a new deck without the scary rickety railings and splintery boards of our old one. So all will be good at some point. I am hoping I'll be home from the loony bin in time to enjoy it.

The Scent of a Memory

I could smell the cable car before I even saw it. What does a cable car smell like, you might ask? Something like a forest fire, but not quite. The famous San Francisco cable cars use pine tar on their cables for lubrication, and when the grip is holding the cable, it melts and then vaporizes. Also, the brake shoes used on the cars are made of Douglas Fir, and have to be changed every few days. The brakes are literally smoking as they stop the cars on those amazing steep hills of The City By the Bay. The smell is unmistakeable. For several years of my young life, I lived in the Bay Area, and this unique aroma was obviously burned into my brain at an early age.

My teenage son looked at me quizzically when I said "I can smell a cable car", and then we heard the characteristic "ding ding" and the car rounded the corner. He was enjoying the newness of the city, but I was reveling in the familiarity of the sights and sounds. We didn't do too much touristy stuff while we were there (although the mandatory stop at Ghiradelli square wasn't missed). He wasn't interested in crowding onto the tourist-clogged cable cars, so we walked all over the place. From Fisherman's wharf to the Cable Car Museum, down through Chinatown, and then the following day through The Presidio and Golden Gate Park, with a long stop at the Legion of Honor (a wonderful art museum that's home to over 40 Rodin bronzes, a good selection of paintings, and ever-changing traveling exhibits).

I think a lot of tourists somehow pass over this museum since it was fairly empty, despite currently hosting The Lod Mosaic, an amazing 50 x 27 foot Roman mosaic from around 300 A.D.  Mackenzie is a big Roman history buff, so this was an exciting thing for him to see. Lucky for me, he likes art museums and suggested we visit the Legion for the Roman mosaic and their traveling exhibit on Dutch and Flemish painters.

Every year, he and I get a little mom-son trip together when my daughter Asa stays at my mom's house for a week of acting with the Missoula Children's Theatre. This year, she ended up as the lead role of Mary in their production of The Secret Garden, which she was, of course, terribly excited about. So we dropped her off with a big fat script to memorize, and a week of excitement with grandma (they got to see The Young Dubliners in concert, for one thing). In years past, we've gone camping but this year he wanted to do something different so it was off to California's central hub on a road trip. I guess I figure if a mom and her teenager can hang out together for a week long roadtrip, then we must be doing something right. Truth be told, he's an easy traveling companion and a fun guy to hang out with. Yep, I'm a lucky mom.

My Smell-O-Vision tour of my childhood followed me back to my hometown of Jacksonville, Oregon, where a nighttime thunderstorm and downpour scented the entire countryside. I took a trail run through the oaky hills near town and was overwhelmed by the heady scents revealed by the rainy evening. Unfortunately, there's one weed that grows there that smells something like funky teenage boy feet (not that I'd have much experience with THAT smell, ha ha). But except in those areas, the air was thick with the smells of oaks and lichens, wild honeysuckle and rabbitbrush. Every moment on the trail took me back to my childhood spent wandering through these hills on Pooh-like adventures with friends.

Then our weekend was capped off by watching Asa in the Secret Garden performance. They did a great job (not that I'm biased or anything), and the role of Mary was pretty well suited to her dramatic personality. Being on stage for her is like being in a lake for me. It's where she lives and breathes and shines, so I love to watch her and just soak it all in.

After all of that, it's good to be home again, although the rain seems to have followed me here. Maybe that's a good thing since I really should be spending the day cleaning and unpacking, something I'd find harder to do if the weather was better. I'm left with the memories of another great trip and of amazement at the people my kids are becoming.

It was hard to say goodbye to the Golden Gate. Driving across it and looking back always seems kind of bittersweet to me since I love San Francisco so much. But in reality, I'm a country mouse, not a city mouse, and it's nice to be away from the traffic and the hustle and bustle of the big city life. It's good to be home.

What's Even Scarier Than A Broken Arm?

Just Sayin'

Sunday Snap: Tunneling Into Memories

Memorial Day, a day to remember. Thankfully, none of our immediate family members have been killed in the service of our country, though many of them have served in the armed forces, representing all branches of the service but the Coast Guard. We have Army (my husband and father-in-law), National Guard (my dad), Navy (my grandpa and brother-in-law), Air Force (uncle) and Marines (another brother-in-law). So it was a weekend to hear stories and memories.

It was also a time for reminiscing of a different sort: my mom had planned a big reunion of our family's theatre. Ah, this goes in the Things You May Not Know About Me Category. I grew up in a theatre family. Not only did they own a theatre, but my grandma, grandpa, mom, dad, sister, and I all acted, sang, and danced in the theatre. This was over a span of about 25 years, so there have been many many people involved with the theatre in that time. My mom had  put in a ton of work: getting together posters, playbills, costumes, props, and photos and renting a community hall where we all gathered. It was nice to see some folks I haven't set eyes on in decades, and reminisce about all the fun we had. We also got to tour the new theatre building that is going to be replacing the one we built (which is slated to be torn down for a new thoroughfare).

We also got to spend a lot of time with my dad, hearing his stories of the time he spent in the FBI and some of  the interesting cases he worked on. The kids definitely got a lot of family history all in one fell swoop. My dad is also a big-time railroad buff, so the photo above is from a little side-trip we made up to an abandoned train town and tunnel.

Since I didn't have much time to work out, I forced myself to do a Tabata sprint run today. Ugh, that always hurts! But it's good for an intense workout in a minimum amount of time.

I hope you all got to have some wonderful memories today, whether of a loved one who has passed or from living relative and friends. Memorial Day has become synonymous with barbecues and parties, but it's nice to take the time to spend it remembering as well.

Sunday Snap: Lost in the Woods

You know how in those old Grimm's fairy tales, the kids that get lost in the woods leave a trail of small stones or crumbs to follow? It doesn't work that way for me. If I lost my son in the woods, forget about the pebbles or the breadcrumbs, I would follow a trail of computer parts and accessories to track him down.

The good news is that the boy is an absolute genius with computer hardware. The bad news is that our upstairs hallway looks like the Island of Misfit Hard Drives. He gets these old computers and scavenges them for any usable pieces, then creates a Frankenstein hybrid computer with bits and pieces from all of them. He just built a computer for his sister last week, which of course totally made her day. Now she's got one in her room that she can use for homework or watch movies on. He even made sure it had all the software she needed installed. Of course, for a day or two he would roll his eyes when she would call out "Product Support, oh Product Support, I need help!" from the top of the stairs. But he would trudge on up and help her troubleshoot. What a guy.

And the really really good news is that he's going to be building me a computer starting this week, something to replace the ancient limping-along-on-its-last-legs Dell I'm using right now. I'm probably the last person on earth using Windows XP. No wait, I know my mom still uses it, so that makes two of us. But I've had this thing for almost 7 years, so it's definitely time to upgrade. And at least I won't lose anymore blog posts to the Blue Screen of Death when he's done.

Of course, he wanted to put my computer in this crazy Gamer computer case. Okay, I admit that the red LED lights are cool, and the fact that it has several fans to keep everything cool is probably a good feature. But c'mon folks, gamers are just a little nutty about stuff like this. A computer case called the "Scout" or the "Sniper"?? Get real! I mean, I don't even name my bikes silly stuff like that (okay, I did have one named "Hi Ho Silver", but my kids named that one when they were small). We settled on a less ostentatious case that still had the cooling fans, you'll be happy to know.

So now I have to get some sleep so I can get us all to karate in the morning, and I have to go peel my teenager away from his beloved hardware treasure trove. Happy weekend to all.

How Do You Know When Too Much Is Too Much?

If you're reading this blog, chances are you may not be completely sane. C'mon, tell the truth. On more than one occasion your friends have told you you're insane for whatever it is you happen to be doing (swimming, biking, and running more than you work, eat, or sleep for instance). And chances are you leap at the opportunity to push yourself beyond your known boundaries. So the question is, when is it too much? And if you're the classic type-A overachieving nutter, how do you know when it's too much?

I've been asking myself this question all week. Lately it just feels like I've added one too many things to my stack, and like an overwhelmed juggler I can't keep everything in the air. So last night I told my kickboxing class I am regrettably going to not be teaching anymore right now. Yep, my career as a kickboxing instructor is over (temporarily at least). I think the canary in the coal mine was when I was teaching last week and I got a call from my daughter. Her Nutcracker dress rehearsal was over, and somehow she had missed getting a ride with the person she was supposed to go with. She was at the Performing Arts Center and they were closing it down for the night. Here I am in the middle of a class, hearing her little voice on the other end of the line. It's usually poor form when you're the teacher to walk out in the middle of class, no? So I felt stuck. Luckily her instructors were still there and she hung out with them until I could get over there, but the situation was far less than ideal, and I had to juggle it with music blaring and people kicking bags in the background.

Meanwhile, three nights a week, my teenage son is either hanging out at the dojo or is home alone. If you know teenagers, you know the absolute worst thing is to leave them alone to get into trouble. Especially at night. Luckily, he's not the trouble type (at least not yet), but it's getting to the point where I don't think that's a good idea any more.

So I looked at the disappointed faces of people in my class, including one gal who just started getting into it and is really having amazing leaps of fitness and I felt SO bad. SO SO BAD. But. But but but but but. At some point, enough is enough and I have to put my family first. Ugh. I'm still coaching swimming, training for my karate black belt, coaching a high school robotics team, homeschooling the kids, writing a screenplay with my son, trying to keep up this blog, and training for some trail runs. It's enough.

How do you know when it's all too much? How do you deal with feeling like you're failing someone by quitting? How do you say No when you want to say Yes to everything and everyone?

April Foolery

Asa called up grandma (my mom) today to check in with her on the Paleo eating thing. They're going to be Paleo buddies. Now you have to know that Asa is the Carbo Queen of the household and breakfast usually means pancakes, cereal, oatmeal, etc. but she was having some scrambled eggs and broccoli. So after she got done chatting with my mom, I asked for the phone.

I told mom in a very serious voice that I had forgotten to tell her that she definitely shouldn't have any coffee while on the Paleo Challenge. She should go out and get some herbal tea right away because it would help her with the caffeine withdrawal side effects. I could hear this stunned silence on the other end of the phone and then a bit of panic creeping in, so I let her know I was April Fooling her fairly quickly. Luckily my mom has a terrific sense of humor (though she will never be able to live without her coffee, she's way down from the 6 - 8 cups a day she used to go through!)

If you're out there reading this mom, you know I love you! I was an April Baby and so in some ways I will always be your little April fool. And for those of you who don't know my mom, you can see I get my love of water from her. Even her little dog Maisy goes in the water.

A Little Detour

It's not very sports related but... my daughter opened as Annie in the musical this last weekend to sold out audiences. Looks like this weekend will be sold out as well. I am so in awe of the things she can do, things she was born to do. I wrote in her baby journal at 6 months old that she didn't babble, she sang. She did these little "baby arias" up and down the scale. Well, now she sings for real, and beautifully too, and acts. She has worked so hard, memorizing lines, songs, dances, stage action, I am very proud for all she, and the rest of the hard-working cast has accomplished! More than a few Ironmom tears shed in the audience on Saturday night.

Here's a little non-profit plug from me. I try to refrain from doing this sort of thing, but I can't right now. The theatre group that has been putting on Annie is a non-profit, dedicated to bringing arts, dance, theatre to all kids. They are in the running for a Pepsi "Refresh Everything" grant of $25,000. This would be a HUGE amount of money for them, allowing them to purchase microphones, curtains, and revamp the theatre to add a new entrance. They are a terrific organization run by some very dedicated people who spend their lives giving to kids and the community. If you have a minute, click on this link and vote for their project on Pepsi's site. The top 10 get funded , and they've gone from #102 to #58 this week alone.

Click HERE to vote, daily if you can!

And yes, if you've seen pics of my daughter before, we did dye her hair red for this one! Also, I just noticed in that photo that she has the trademarked enormous Ironmom feet. No wonder she's already a swimmer, LOL.

Sunday Hikes and Dog Duties

In case you couldn't guess from that last post, we went hiking yesterday. Yes, even though it was raining we still got out there. We've made it a routine now to go for hikes as a family every Sunday, and another family from our neighborhood has been joining us. Even when the weather's not so great, it feels good to get out there in the woods and it's fun to share that with our friends. We're so lucky where we live because we have trails just a couple of miles from our house. This trailhead is only 3.5 miles away but taps into a ridgeline trail system along the hills behind our city and also has a spur that climbs a local butte.

Yesterday we did 4 miles including the climb up the butte. You can see that my tiny little puppy from a few months ago is now almost a full-fledged dog. Isn't she lovely? That's Sophie, aka Adventure Dog. She loves to go hiking and exploring and I think she'll be the best running dog ever. She's already the smartest dog I've ever known. As a sheepherd/cattle dog mix, she definitely needs to have jobs to do. One of her jobs is to go down to the chicken coop every morning and evening while we let the chickens out, and to guard the door to make sure no chickens come out the side door to the coop while we're in there. She takes this very seriously.

Yesterday morning, when Wayne asked Mackenzie to go down and let the chickens out, Mackenzie replied with the 13-year-old refrain "In a minute". But as soon as Sophie heard Wayne's request, she went into Mackenzie's room where he was working on the computer, and pawed at him until he got off and went to do their job. How smart is that? I'm so in love with this pup!

The Women of Karate

A long time ago in a galaxy far far away.... okay, well in my small hometown in Southern Oregon, I embarked on an on-again, off-again love affair with the martial arts. I started off taking Judo when I was in high school, continued in Judo in college, and then stopped for several years. In 1991, I took up Goju-Ryu karate, but was sidelined by a skiing injury that pretty much halted my involvement for 15 years. Through several dojos, several senseis, and several styles of martial arts though, one thing remained a constant: very few women. There was one woman in my first Judo dojo, none in my college classes, and one in my karate class. For the most part, I trained in the company of men. I never had a female sensei, nor saw a female black belt in person.

So when another homeschooling mom recommended the dojo at ESK, I was so surprised to see it was... full of women! The owners are a husband-wife pair of senseis, many of the other senseis are women, and the dojo is full of females, from the littlest tykes to a host of teenagers, to other moms like me. 70% of the black belts are female! Let me repeat that statistic again. 70% of the black belts are female. Coming from never seeing a female black belt to that, well that's inspiring.

Originally, I started taking karate there because I really wanted to encourage my son in the sport. I had an inkling that this non-team-sports kid would really thrive in something individual and mentally focused like karate, but I knew I had to find exactly the right kind of place, one that blended discipline with grace and kindness, hard work with a patient guidance. At the time, I wasn't thinking that much about my daughter, as she tends to already be involved in a ton of activities, many of them very physical. But soon I came to see what our dojo offered to her in terms of not just the practice of karate but the role models she was surrounded with. I really count my blessings on so many levels that our family found this dojo.

So this week, our local newspaper profiled our karate dojo in their special women's supplement, and the article focuses on the girls, teenagers, and women of the dojo.

Crouching Girls, Hidden Warriors

Check it out! Both Asa and I are in the group photo, which believe it or not only represents about half of the 100+ girls in the dojo!

Exciting New Endurance Fuel

So my son Mackenzie has been learning to cook some of my recipes. This is partly in self-preservation because at age 13, he needs to eat about every 23 nanoseconds. The other night he was making cornbread, but I forgot to tell him that you're not supposed to over-mix any non-yeast breads. So there he was merrily stirring and stirring away at the cornbread batter. Of course, when he baked it the batter didn't rise at all, instead turning out cornbread that was about 3/4" thick and incredibly dense.

We called them "Cornbricks".

Then I got to thinking, that might actually be a terrific homemade endurance food. Tired of bars and gels on a long bike ride? Just unwrap a cornbrick! All the flavor of cornbread, on the go. Now if we could just figure out a way to build in the butter and honey flavor into the middle, without all the mess.

The Mom Part of the Ironmom

Probably the biggest benefit of being an athlete mom is the net effect it has on the health of your children. I've never required my kids to play any sports, never signed them up for soccer league, never pushed them in any way, yet they see the healthy vibrant lifestyle of my husband and I (and truth be told I'm sure the genetic desire to move one's body is in there somewhere as well) and over the years they have chosen sports of their own to pursue.

Recently, Mackenzie who has traditionally gravitated to solitary activities like kayaking and archery, as well as devoting time to karate, asked me to take him running. So we've gone down to the local track together and he's done laps while I timed and cheered him on, then I do my Crossfit Endurance workout (often laps or sprints or whatnot) and he cheers me on. On alternating days, he has come and swum laps in the pool with me, employing those "genetically gifted" (read: ultra-large) hands and feet of his to good use as paddles. The only problem is that he continually cracks me up by pulling antics like going into buddha-like meditative poses on the bottom of the pool while I'm swimming, thus causing me to crack up and snort water up my nose!

Meanwhile, Asa has taken up what I knew would be the perfect sport for her: water polo! Between her awesome swimming abilities (there are those hands and feet again, after all, plus the trademarked Ironmom shoulders) and her ruthless killer instinct (a character trait that I don't always appreciate mind you), I knew she would love it. And with only 25,000 water polo players in the whole country, it's a sport where you can actually go somewhere if you have some talent, so who knows.

So it was that this last week saw me on the sidelines for the very first time in my 13 years as a mom, cheering on Asa in her first water polo game. Of course at this age level, they spend more time floating around looking confused and trying to figure out where the ball is and where they should be going, but it's all good fun. We got to watch one of the games with the older kids in the program and all I can say is WOW. The level of play improvement in a couple of years is vast, so I think she'll have a fun time growing in this sport if that's what she chooses to pursue.

Back in the Land of Low Tech

I'm at my mom's, with a dial-up connection after a week in the hinterlands of no-tech, low-tech seems almost fast. Funny how speed is all relative. I didn't do a ton of actual workouts this week. I brought my jumprope and a mat and did some bodyweight exercises when the killer mosquitoes weren't trying to eat me alive. Did you know that when you start sweating, it sends some kind of pheromonal signal to the entire mosquito population of the lake/wetlands you're camped next to and they arrive en masse and take battle formations over your body? I seriously look like I've got a case of the measles. I did get three runs in, and one amazing swim (wait until you see the photos I took of the lake, it seriously is one of the most beautiful places on earth, and I've swum in a lot of beautiful places), and Mackenzie and I took the kayaks out for four days, plus hiking around the Lava Beds National Monument, in caves, around Captain Jack's Sronghold.

All in all, we had enough activity to keep me feeling great, enough downtime to devour three novels (can't remember when the last time I did that was!) Mackenzie worked his way through the first several of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series. We brought my guitar, which Mackenzie is learning to play and we bought a couple of cowboy hats just because that's the kind of corny folks we are. Our camp rule was that you had to be wearing your cowboy hat to play the guitar by the campfire. Plus, it kept my head from burning. I forgot to bring my running hat though and I'm here to tell you that cowboy hats don't work well for running. At all.

Today I get to see Asa in the play she's been rehearsing all week (the Missoula Children's Theatre production of Jack and the Beanstalk) and then we're headed for home.

It's Been Awhile!

We just got back on Tuesday (morning, about 2:30 am, ugh!) from our Italy trip. I've started typing up my daily journals from the trip, and putting the entries (with photos of course, I think I only took about 4,000 of those!) up on my Blue Skies Blog. It was definitely the trip of a lifetime.

I did haul my running shoes all the way over there, with the idea that I'd take an early morning run in Rome, maybe down to the Circus Maximus (jet lag nixed that idea, unfortunately) or somewhere along the way, but realistically we were just too busy! So I hauled those running shoes back home and did go for a jog on Tuesday, and probably will hit the pavement again today.

The second week of our trip was the biking portion, and that all went amazingly well (even if you count in the times we got lost and the times we had to push the bikes and trailers up the steep hills of Tuscany!). We biked 165 miles that week from Asissi to Firenze (Florence) with all of our gear. The kids were real troopers, even on those unexpected side trips and detours. They were very excited to get on the bikes each and every day and see what the day would unveil to us. We cycled through vineyards where the grape harvest was in full swing, and ate lunch under shady olive groves.

Everyone in Italy was extremely friendly and helpful when we were on the bikes. The drivers were amazingly courteous (American drivers, please take note!) Even on narrow windy roads, a truck or car would follow us for miles at our 15 mph until they could safely pass, with nary a honk or unfriendly attitude. Though they drive very fast (compared to here) and seem to take road signs and lane lines with a much more liberal interpretation, the drivers there are very aware of everything around them (scooters zooming around the edges of the lanes, pedestrians stepping out, cyclists on the roads). We got loads of people slowing down and shouting out Bravo! or Complimento! out the window to us. A far cry from many drivers here who will just see how close they can come to you without knocking you off your bike.

One regret I have is that on the last day of our vacation, we were in San Giovanni Valdarno and that morning they were having a bicycle race on the "strada bianca" or white gravel roads of the area. There were six racers staying at the same place we were, loading up on pasta the night before. There were race options from 38k to 200k, and I would've loved to have seen it. Well, truth be told after cycling on all of those roads with the kids on the tandems, I was about burning up with jealousy for those bike racers, I wanted so badly to snap my fingers and have my own trusty bike appear, get on it, and roll out over those beautiful hills and valleys myself! Maybe some year I will go back...

But for now, we had an excellent time. I'll be putting up our detailed experiences on my other blog, and the kids are definitely hooked on bicycle touring, which was one of our goals in this whole thing. We are thinking that next summmer we may tour down the U.S. west coast on the tandems. We could easily haul our camping gear as it wouldn't weigh any less than the luggage we were hauling there (even though we managed to fit all of our clothes for four people for three weeks into two carry-on sized suitcases!)

My Biggest Fear

You know what really scares the bejeezus out of me? What wakes me up in a cold sweat at night? The boogeyman behind my closet door????

It's that my life is too good, too sweet, and something horrible and unendurable must surely be around the corner, because it just can't last this way. Being a parent gives you so much more to fear than any mortal should have to bear. I was thinking of this the other day as I watched my hubby ride his bike to the left of both of the kids on their bikes as we were headed downtown. Why? Because he would rather get hit by a car than let a car hit our kids. That's what being a parent does to your heart - puts something there, much greater than yourself, that you never knew existed. I used to have a "No Fear" t-shirt. No longer.

Today we went for a family bike ride, getting ready for Italy. We rode just over 30 miles with the kids on the tandems (which I can tell you triathlete folks is about equal to 50 miles on my tri bike in terms of effort expended!!). It was fun, we went about 8 miles alongside the river path and stopped at Jamba Juice for smoothies, then another 7 miles to a small town with a shady park. We hung out while the kids played and swung on the swings, ate a picnic lunch, turned around and leisurely came home. Stopped to pick some blackberries along the way, took a bit of a detour to a friend's house, stopped at REI for more travel supplies, and arrived back home about 5 hours after we left. The kids kept us laughing with their antics and jokes, and it was a balmy 79 degrees out, just a perfect day. I am very very blessed and I know it.

So tonight as I go to bed, the only way I know of banishing the boogie man is giving thanks. Consider it done.