Crazy Sexy Coincidence?

Okay, here’s this weird thing that happens to me every once in a while. The greater-powers-at-be try to tell me something; like it’s time now for me to exercise. So they put an ad at the grocery store for free exercise classes, which I read and promptly forget about, and then they put a guy in the grocery line-up in front of me who happens to be fantastic trainer,  but we talk about avocados instead. And then the powers-at-be start to argue about taking radical action, but failing consensus, leave me with a headache that turns into a neck pain that morphs into an excruciating back pain.

So my latest experience of this “phenomenon” started with a video a cousin posted on Facebook featuring among many other health experts, Kris Carr, actress, filmmaker, and best selling author of “The Crazy Sexy Diet”. For some reason she stood out to me. Not two days later, I was over at my mothers’ house for dinner and on her counter, she had her copy of “The Crazy Sexy Diet”. Weird. Coincidence? Maybe. But not worth ignoring given the neck pain I’ve had lately.

Okay, so don’t roll your eyes and say: Diet? No thanks! Believe you me, I’ve never been and will never be on a diet. Instead enjoy the read. Kris writes like your best “tell-you-like-it-is” girlfriend, half the time reading your mind as you’re thinking: no cheese, are you f&*%&ing crazy? And it’s probably because of this that you can finish the book and instantly find yourself on board with her message; “Eat your veggies, ignite your spark, and live like you mean it.” So to give a little taster and encourage you to get your own copy, here’s what I’ve taken away from her book.

-       The 80/20 ratio: A plate divided like a pie should include 80% fresh, organic alkaline foods found in a “garden”.

-       Suga’ and his posse friends like corn syrup, dextrose, and fruit juice concentrate are crack. Those guys loiter around waiting for a moment when you feel a wee-bit-tired to tempt you with raunchy displays of firm muffins with huge tops bursting with juicy fruit bits.

-       Green juice is the “New venti double shot, non-fat, soy latte” pick-me-up, and trust me, I drank one this morning, and I had the biggest buzz.

-       Once your body has a taste of what it’s like to be “crazy= bold, out-of –the-box, forward thinking and status quo challenging, and sexy=confident, in touch, whole, passionate and conscious”, it’s becomes a non-issue to let go of caffeine, sugar, milk, dairy products, meat, preservatives, and alcohol.

As I’ve been greening myself more and more, and I can’t say that I will completely give up coffee, cheese and wine, I’m enjoying some cool benefits:

Without the cream and sugar, I can actually taste the coffee I’m drinking and I’m noticing the flavor differences as I would wine.

I’ve replaced cheese for sun salutations, and afternoon muffin breaks with meditation. Good bye, neck pain!

I’ve switched taking showers before bed to during nap times to give myself time to dry-brush my lizardness off, and give myself coconut oil-eucalyptus-lavender massages. Ummm...sexy!

Most of all, I feel significantly lighter and less bogged down. Oh, ya, baby! Sexy Crazy! Bring it on! Listen to your powers-at-be, you’ve just read this post, after all!

Simplicity Parenting-Rhythm

I've been reading and writing about Simplicity Parenting and some of the interesting information I've found. Here are tidbits about chapter two: Rhythm. The author stresses that the busier we are, the more important predictability and rhythm is to our kids. It becomes the most powerful way to simplify their life. What does rhythm and predictability mean? It should feel like this: "This is what we do on a school day morning....", " Before we leave the house we...", "When I get home, I...", "When mom and dad start dinner, I...", "Before bed, we....", "The thing I love about Saturday mornings is..."," On Sundays we...", "When one of us is sick, we always...", "A special thing we do for someone's birthday is...."

Other suggestions for creating rhythm and predictability:

2. Previewing the next day with your child allows them to look for predictable markers in their day and to know what to expect. (Especially if the day is different than the usual routine.) I'm not sure I agree on this point; I recently made the mistake of telling my son at 8 in the morning, as we were heading out on a vacation, that we would be going on a boat. For the next 6 hours all we heard is the kid demanding from his seat in the car: " I wanna go on the boat!" over and over and over and over... Imagine if I had told him the day before....

3. One of the simplest form of predictability in daily life is politeness. This was surprising to me; that politeness can serve as mini-predictability posts throughout the day. Kids come to expect thank you's and you're welcomes and often point it out if you forget!  Oops!

4. Using simple songs with toddlers when doing daily activities such as teeth brushing or hand-washing help ritualize the activity, thus increasing predictability. "Cleam-up (sic) Cleam-up, it's time to Cleam-up," sings my kid happily likes it's just as much fun to cleam up that do mess up. There's a reminder mom, when you want to throw all the toys on the floor out the window!)

5. Food should be simplified just like toys and books; it is meant to nourish, not entertain or excite. (It's hard not to get excited about ice cream, though... )

6. Three or four quiet moments scheduled moments in your day allows kids to release stress and to sleep better at night. Naps, reading, a moment of silence at dinner,  deep play, lighting a candle, and cuddling are all good ways to chill-out and release pressure. (Boy, do I need to remind myself that this is vital to the parents too...I'm super guilty of using nap time to "catch up" on chores.

Once I heard this on a TED talk which I think illustrates this chapter really well.

Imagine you are exploring Paris for the first time. You're seeing a ton of new things, you're eating new foods, hearing new languages, walking a lot, getting lost and finding your way. Everything is exciting and you can't seem to soak it all in as much as you would like. As you arrive at your hotel room, you fall into bed in total exhaustion only to find that you can't fall asleep, re-living all the wonderful things you did that day. Now, do it again the next day, but first drink 3 cups of expresso. THAT's what toddlers live everyday.


Even when we travel, we create routines, some predictability and moments to be calm. We might make a point to always get back to the hotel for lunch, or carry a map, to bring snacks from home or have coffee at the same coffee shop every morning. So it only makes sense that we should create this rhythm for our kids too, so that they can enjoy all the excitement of the day, knowing some of the things that comes next and that there will be times to rest.

I think we've done well in establishing rhythm and predictability in our daily family life, especially when after dinner the kid says: "It's almost dodo (sleep) time, but first, a little bit play time! Ah, ah, ah!

mandatory goofy time

Measure First, Cut Second

The natural, easy and flowing lines of the clothing on the cover of Shapeshape caught my attention so I bought this book as a souvenir of my trip down to Lummi Island. The first project I attempted is the "vest" on the cover of the book. Okay.

Mistake#1: Notice the author is Japanese, and probably the model too. Notice how the vest on the model is gently flowing over the bosom. Yup, you guessed it. Once finished my vest looked more like tight scarf wrapped around my armpits and forget about flow. I undid the seam at the neck and added a good 6 inches of fabric to lengthen the whole thing.



Mistake #1- Do not try to get around not bothering with buttons and button holes. No shortcuts here. My fantastic machine actually made super buttonholes in 3 seconds flat, so I was very pleased!
 

Hanging it doesn't really show it off...

Trying to model this darn vest.

requires a zillion shots to get a decent one