Good morning Spartan!

This is the email my sister sent me yesterday morning. It made me laugh so hard that I nearly spit out my morning protein smoothie.

"Good morning Spartan! Are you in full training mode? Only 1 week til race day is it?

How many sit-ups or pull-ups or whatever do you do every day? Do you have to run every day too?"

The funny part here is that I was laughing at the perception she had of me as this fitness person who trains like crazy. I'm not that nuts! Then I look at the smoothie in my hand... then I look at my sticker reward calendar... then I realize I have worked out hard for the last 7 days in a row. Who knew? I have turned into a fitness person! Cool. Yay for me!

Only 4 more sleeps until my first Spartan race. I am so excited!!!! The past 15 weeks have been spent preparing for this weekend. I learned how to run 5km, do more than 5 push-ups and conquered my fear of the dreaded burpee. I was not so secretly hoping to grow a pair of sick pythons and tree-trunk solid thighs and buns of steel, the six pack would have been nice too. I'm not there yet. What I have accomplished in the last few months is still definitely something to be proud of. Because I am extra proud of doing this as a mom of two active boys and one baby girl, I will forgive myself of the current lack of visible buffness. It's what's under the hood that counts on the field anyways.

Thank you to everyone who has supported this goal with kind words and encouragement. I could fill many buckets with the positive energy you have given me. There were probably only a couple of people who looked at me like I was doomed to fail. I don't even remember who they were. Although, there was one lady who looked at me like I was 15 year old glitter-puppy and said "you know what that race is don't you"? I just shot her a big grin and replied with "yup! looks like fun!".

Wish me luck! As a past coach of mine used to say on behalf of any team mate stepping into the ring: "Say a pray, send positive vibes, raise a drink, whatever fits your beliefs".
I will be racing at the Rideau Carleton Raceway at noon on Saturday.

If you don't know what the Spartan Race is  take a peek! http://www.spartanrace.com/ottawa-obstacle-racing-spartan-sprint-2012.html

Clutter Bug.

The weather is lousy and I am trapped in the house with my three angles (by angels I mean stir-crazy wild children). Makes me wonder why it is that I hate being inside so much. There is lots to do. Lots to clean, lots to put away, lots to organize. 

Here is the honest truth. Never said it out loud before and I hope my husband does not read this before I'm ready to take action. *big breath* There is too much shit all over this frigging house!!!! Papers all over the dining room table, kid junk on the fridge, kid junk on book shelves, more kid junk in the basement, gift bags that I save but will never reuse because they are ugly, clothes that I won't toss because there is 'nothing wrong with them' other than the fact that I think they are ugly and will not wear them, books that will never be read again, shoes that are nasty and will never be worn again, a garage and shed just full of junk, cupboards full of dishes that are never used and I haven't seen the top of my dresser in years!!!!!  - whoa. I haven't even ranted on 3 rooms in the basement that I do not enter because they are full of stuff that 'needs to be organized'.

So you see, I, the self-proclaimed Queen of Organized, may possibly be a bit of a fraud. I firmly believe that this junk does not identify me. I am smart enough to know that buying a new basket or shelf thingy will not solve a thing. I must purge these demons and I must do it soon. A little less conversation, a little more action.

When do I do this? How do I go about it. Where do I put the kids so that they don't end up in the give-away box? 

I am now embarrassed by my confession..Time to do something about it. In the next few weeks, expect before and after shots of my purge. Good luck to me and feel free to nag if I renege. Be gentle though. I do have 3 little ones and a large fitness goal that are taking much of my energy. But, no excuses! I've got this! One room at a time. Slow and steady wins the race.

For now, while the boys watch a little tv, I am going to cuddle up with my baby and a magazine that will likely not leave this house for another decade.( the magazine. the baby will be here longer than that, it's the law)

My Dirty Dirty Habit

I developed a little habit a decade or so ago. It has grown to be a bigger and more elaborate habit. I know it can be a problem if I let it get out of control but I don't want to stop or slow down.

I buy a lot of dirt.

Sometimes the dirt comes with stuff growing in it, usually not. I buy containers for the dirt and throw in some seeds of this and that. I grow some flowers to pretty up the front yard but it's edibles that really fuel my fire. I didn't have enough space to start many seeds last year so I bought this little greenhouse. It was on sale, it has four shelves and keeps the seedlings warm and reduces the need to water.


This year I encountered a little problem. Stuff is growing too fast. I want to grow more. I want a bigger greenhouse that I can put outside and won't get blown over by a strong wind! (it happened last year...tragic) I am not bothered by the fact that I have more plants than I have room to put them.

My mind races like that of an addict. I want, I need. I can easily justify my collection. I can plan many ways to get my hands on it. The kids don't need shoes that fit do they? They have a roof over their heads and will have an abundance of vegetables to eat all summer long. I just want to grow things!

Is there anyone out there with a cool head who can help me??? I need more space to grow things and I need more dirt. Don't get me started on compost, mulch, manure. It's sick to want to go buy bags and bags of shit. Who does that? I have a dirty dirty habit...



If there are any enablers out there who would like to pay me to grow anything for them, let me know. Specific edible or flower. No illegals, sorry. If anyone is particularly handy and can design or help build a greenhouse on a tiny budget that will fit in my yard, I will grow you many many wonderful things. 

Eating My Words and Their Health Benefits

For the past couple of years our community streets have seen a rising infestation of runners. These people in their funny little reflective jackets and water bottle-belts. They are EVERYWHERE! I blame The Running Room. That store has been encouraging people to go out and walk/jog/run all over town. The thing that really chaps my ass is that every Wednesday night they take over this one particular street that I drive down when taking my kids to their weekly visit at my dad's house. They run up the hill and down the hill. Sometimes 20+ people. They flank out side by side because it's more social that way. They feel their run is sooo important that they don't have to look both ways or even pause before crossing the street. Cars lose their traffic rights. Stupid Runners!

Next thing you know, I am finding out that most of my new friends run. (thanks nursery school moms!) They show up looking all energized in their little yoga pants and ponytails. I (big and pregnant at the time) just shook my head. They told me how much fun it is. (Whatever.) They get quiet time to themselves when they run. (Hide in the bathroom like normal people.) Look at how their butts are shrinking.(Get a life.)  Stupid Runners.

So along came winter. No more pregnant belly. Tired with 3 beautiful genius children (sort of). Pants that don't fit. Blahs beating me down. Sigh. I did it. I reached out to my friends who run, the ones I mocked openly, and asked for instructions.

Today I am finishing week five of my nine-week running program. I have snazzy new shoes, an arm band to hold my phone, reflective arm bands for running at night and a cute little hand-held water bottle thingy. I like to run alone but will occasionally enjoy the company of my peppy, athletic little sister. For the record, we do not run on Wednesday nights and if we are on 'that street' or, any other street, we slide into single file. Smart Runners!

I love the running. I am amazed that my body is holding up to the challenge. I am getting stronger, faster and my endurance is improving every week. I feel energetic, less stressed and happy. The post-run high beats booze, hands down!  If anyone is interested in starting up, I highly recommend the Run Double app. The C25K program takes couch potatoes from nothing to running 5km in 9 weeks. There is a free two week trial that you can download and then a big investment of $1.60 for the complete program. It is a gentle and gradual progression. You can play music while you run. The nice lady's voice tells me when it is time to speed up to a comfortable jog and when to slow down to a brisk walk. She even tells me how fast and how far I have gone after each interval. The GPS  gives me a colour coded map of my route and I can see my stats at the end. The competitor in me really likes statistics that I can try to beat each time out.


PS: the nice people at the Running Room were very nice and helpful when I picked up my reflective bands and stick of body glide. That glide is good stuff!

Experiment: How to be a human Tiki Torch! (..or ear candling)

I have been sitting on the results of this experiment for at least a month now. Finally writing it up.
Ear candling. What is it? Basically, you stick a special hollow candle in your ear and light the sucker on fire! Why would you want to do that? It is supposed to be beneficial for removing excess ear wax and other impurities from the ear and sinuses. I have read that it is supposed to be good for: drying up water in the ear, vertigo, improving hearing, general ear pluggyness and something about bacteria. Seemed exciting so I had to give it a go.

I was volunteering at the Kanata Wellness Expo and there was a booth there by Naturally You. They were offering a free trial where they would do one ear. I found the process to be very relaxing. Their staff were friendly and very informative.

The controversy.... I did some reading about ear candling and found that there were many claims that it was a hoax. That it did not actually remove any ear wax. Lucky for me right beside Naturally You happened to be an audiologist. She had a camera that viewed into the ear and showed the image on a tv screen. It was gross to see that one of my ears had a blackish wall of wax blocking the view to the back of my ear. EWWWW! Anyways, the proof is in the pudding or the candle tube in this case. After the 15 minute session as a human tiki, I went back to the audiologist's chair and we saw that the black wall of gross was gone. So there you go, it does in fact remove ear wax. There is a bunch of white powder residue left in the candle as well. I was told that it was impurities removed from my sinuses. I have not found any information to prove or disprove that statement.

My husband kept a close eye to make sure I didn't catch fire. Actually, I had to convince him that I would be safe holding the candle long enough for him to take a photo.
( We like to do hot things on our weekly date nights. hahaha! )

Being a curious experimental type of lady, I purchased a pack of candles over the internet so that I could try it out on myself again and on a couple of other people. What I learned: Fire is dangerous! Cover hair with a towel to protect it from rare but possible stray ashes. You also want to do this with someone you trust with your life. Seriously, you are in a vulnerable position as a candle holder.

My conclusion: Relaxing because of the warmth and laying still for a full 15-20 minutes per ear. Cool to see what kind of junk gets sucked out of your ear. I didn't feel much of a difference in my ear as far as feeling plugged up or hearing ability went. Fun because I like experiments and fire. There is so much controversy over this procedure. Safety concerns around fire and things possible dripping back into the ear, effectiveness of the procedure, quality of wax and candle. On the other side, we want to use less drugs/pharmaceuticals and help our bodies heal naturally, as they are designed to do.

I will probably do it again but won't make a habit of it.

I love to get new ideas for fun things to try and learn about. Please feel welcome to send me any suggestions.

These are our candles cut open afterwards to reveal ear wax and the mystery powder.
It was interesting to see how each ear on each person was different. 

 Alternate titles for this post: "Common baby light my fire", "Wanna see my earwax", "An inside look at ear candling" and last but not least, "You want to stick what in my ear?"

Edible beauty secrets of the not rich and not famous (me).

Now that I have managed to organize my time a little better and get into a good fitness routine, I am ready to get back to doing the fun experiments that I love to try and share with you. As requested by my beautiful buddy Marta, here is a hair treatment that I found in the Beauty Cookbook (a constant source of fun for me).

They call it sour cream dream. I call it DELICIOUS! Yes, I ate some of my hair mask. I put a little bit of it into my morning smoothie too. It had me craving some salty chips and a cold beer. I don't even really like beer but, I wanted one. Didn't have one since I did this experiment at 9am. That would have been counter productive to the whole seeking wellness thing..

OK, no further ado.. here is how to make this softening and shine-boosting hair mask/snack.

• Mash up a whole avocado in a bowl. If you are me, reserve 1/4 of the avocado to throw into a banana-mango smoothie. Add 2tbs of sour cream and the juice of half a lemon. I thought my smoothie needed lime instead so I went with that. Blend it all together.
• Warm up a towel in the dryer for a couple of minutes.
• Massage the tasty green goop into your hair. Really work it in there!
• Wrap the towel around your head and go see why the baby is crying.*
• Change and feed the crying baby and check that the 2.5 year old is still where you left him learning ABC's on your laptop.*
• After 20 minutes, hit the shower and use shampoo to get that mess out of your hair. I like to take this time to include a little hand scrub of olive oil, sugar and lemon juice. 
• Tah dah! Dry your hair and marvel at it's softness. 

The authors of the Beauty Cookbook write that avocado is rich in vitamins A, D, E, essential fatty acids and potassium. Apparently this good stuff gets deep into the hair follicles to give a great deep conditioning treatment and will temporarily retain moisture for a lasting shine. There you have it. 

* If you don't have a baby or other kinds of kids running around, you can use the 20 minutes to read a book or do whatever you people with no kids do. I don't remember. 

Just get right in there!

Mash it all up in your hair, then wrap in a warm towel for 20 minutes

Take the towel off after 20 minutes
and mutter something about nacho chips.

Tah Dah! Shiny hair.

Bonus Post - A pep-talk is always a good idea.

I am feeling a little down on myself today after eating all those brownies, not being fun enough to the kids, not being able to instantly heal the little infection on baby-girl's finger and not magically transforming this house into a clean, tidy sanctuary-ish oasis.

This is a little pep-talk dedicated to me, from me. You are welcome to share it if you need a pep talk too. I think everyone deserves a little pep talk. On second thought, I dedicate it to you instead of me. (its still a little bit for me though, ok.)

-You have lots of good things going for you. You just need to open up your mind to the positive things around you.
-Your house is not perfect because it is not a show-home, it is a family home. So what if there is a little pee on the floor in the bathroom, that's what four year old's do.
-So, you didn't fit in breakfast or lunch, you ate some junk instead. You did make a big salad that included all four food groups for a snack. You can make some more good choices for the rest of the day because there is no junk in the house left to eat.
-That little baby that is crying, again, still loves you and doesn't care that your hair is a mess, the house is a mess, your clothes are a mess and that you really would rather be sleeping right now. She just cares that you are there to hold her. You can do that.

....baby crying. yup. She doesn't care about pep talks either. I can go hold her though. I've got this.

Good luck everyone. Positive thoughts, positive life, positive results.
YOU CAN DO IT!