Gazelles On Crack Rotating Header Image

Adventures of a Domestic Goddess

Weekend update – and recipes!

Jan 30th, 2012
by gazelle.
3 comments

 

I can’t believe the weekend is over already! So many things! Friday, I went back to my Hatha 2 yoga class, and lo! it was good. I’m definitely slower than I used to be an getting into poses, and I just watched everyone else do the arm balances, but overall, it was great – challenging but not TOO challenging.

After yoga, I caught up on my yogathon duties since I’d missed my meeting the night before – I’m on the planning committee again this year, and will be talking more about that once I know more. :)

The rest of Friday was spent writing – I am thisclose to being done with my capstone. All that’s left at this point is about 2/3 of the conclusion and some formatting! YAY!

About 8 pm Friday night, I realized I hadn’t gotten up from my desk in almost 7 hours AND that I hadn’t eaten in about 8 hours. I also realized that we were nearly out of food. I ate the last of the eggs and then waited for the architect to get home from his guys’ poker night. I would’ve loved to go to sleep, but I can’t fall asleep when he’s not home because the power of my awakeness keeps him safe when he’s driving. This probably does not bode well for having a teenage son who might want to stay out past 10 pm.

Saturday, I was back to yoga – this time the prenatal class. It seemed WAAAY harder than the Hatha 2 class. After I got home, the architect & I took loads of stuff to Goodwill. I feel so much lighter! Then, we met with a new doula candidate – and I think she’s the one! (The one now equals the one much less likely to QUIT on me.) Then – a walk. It was such a pretty day! I’m not sure when I turned into an elderly invalid, but that 1.5 mile walk was too much; I could barely move the rest of the day. I guess it’s swimming & yoga for me from here on out.

Sunday was groceries, writing, and a little project. I love coffee (this is well-documented, I believe), and I love flavored coffee creamers. However, I do hate the creepy ingredients in most flavored creamers. I usually deal with this by ignoring the ingredients lists. But no more! Yesterday I made my own coffee creamers – vanilla & hazelnut.

I looked at a lot of different recipes, and then ended up going with a mixture.

French Vanilla Creamer

1 cup half-and-half

1 cup heavy cream

2 TB maple syrup

1 vanilla bean

Scrape the seeds and whisk with the rest of the ingredients. Heat up to a gentle simmer. Turn off heat & allow to steep for 30 minutes. Strain & chill. (I skipped the straining.) Cool.

Hazelnut Creamer

1 cup half-and-half

1 cup heavy cream

4 TB hazelnut syrup

Whisk together. Heat to gentle simmer. Turn off heat & allow to steep for 30 minutes. Cool.

They smelled awesome, but as of this writing, I hadn’t tried them yet. I’ll add a note to let you know how they turned out.

 

Not the most ambitious of DIY projects, but the most ambitious I’ve been for awhile!

 

Have a good week, everyone!

Weekend in Review – Boring!

Jan 23rd, 2012
by gazelle.
2 comments

Friday – I worked from 8 am – 6 pm. Then the architect & I went out for dinner. Then, I went to bed. We are party animals!

Saturday – I went to yoga (yay!) and then to Babies R Us. We are now the proud owners of a carseat for Alvie Bean. The architect is convinced that Alive will be early, and wants to be prepared.

Saturday afternoon, I did a bit of yard work – a lot of pruning & prep work for the spring – and tried to decompress a bit. I got really sick Saturday night – nauseated and dizzy and cold sweats and blergh. I slept on the sofa (with a bucket near by!) and it was the best sleep I’ve had in a while. Apparently sleeping on my back propped up into a semi-reclined position with a cat on my ankles is the most comfortable ever!

Sunday – pancakes and coffee in the AM. School in the PM.  Today will be work from 7 – 7, I think. This damn project I’m working on needs to be done by mid-day Tuesday, and oh, it will be. Oh, yes.

I am tired, and still a bit pukey feeling. I’m pretty sure it’s mostly exhaustion & stress.

I will try to stay abreast of the posting this week, but no promises!

The Twelve Days of Gazelle-mas: Day 8 (2011 In review)

Dec 30th, 2011
by gazelle.
1 comment

First of all, I need to mention that I fell asleep about 11:30 pm last night and then: I slept until almost 7 AM! I woke once & briefly about 5, but did not need to get up. I’m sure those of you who aren’t/have never been pregnant (or closely associated with a pregnant person) are not sure why that’s news-worthy, so let me enlighten you.  This is probably the 3rd or 4th time since late July that I haven’t had to get up to pee at least once. I don’t know if you remember me bitching about remodeling our bathroom in August – the month of no running water in our upstairs (read: bedroom adjacent) bathroom. I know you didn’t know I was pregnant, but I was, and holy balls, that sucked the big one.

ANYWAYS – looking back! Such an interesting year. A lot of surprises – mostly  good ones.  How did I do with my 2011 goals, you (probably don’t) ask?

Well – let’s just look at that, shall we?

 

  1. Run a half marathon by the end of June. – FAIL! In fact, I didn’t run a half marathon all year. I only had one run over 13 miles, even. Boo!  However, it took a LOT longer to recover from my foot surgery, and just as I was getting into the swing of things, I got myself all knocked up.
  2. Read 52 non-paranormal romance books, including at least 12 from my Nobel Prize list. – FAIL! I only read about 50 books (not counting textbooks) total in 2011, and only 2 were from my Nobel prize list. There’s no way a majority were not brain candy.
  3. SIRASANA! With no wall support. – SUCCESS! Albeit, briefly. I did hit this pose a couple of times, for short periods of time. This is something I will never stop working on.
  4. Take fencing classes. – FAIL!  Due to school/work/pregnancy, this, too, was put off.
  5. Achieve contentment with my body (which may be a combination of weight loss and muscle gain) – EH??? I don’t know. Pregnancy has really thrown this off.
  6. Take a few risks that may lead to happiness. – SUCCESS! Job risks, Toast risks, getting knocked up risks….
  7. Secret Goal that I don’t want to talk about – FAIL! Job changes really got in the way of this (btw, it involved a career switch, and I did interview for a new job in January/February 2011, and was a finalist, but it was not to be….)
  8. Finalize my capstone paper topic and get ready to finish grad school! – SUCCESS! I have only 7 weeks left until I’m done with grad school! YAY!
  9. 5K PR – FAIL!  Again with the recovery from foot surgery + getting knocked up. 2013 is my new year of the runner!
  10. Successful cheddar cheese! – SUCCESS! I love cheese.
  11. Eliminate all non-mortgage & non-student loan debt. – EH….I am in much better shape now than at the beginning of the year. Of course, I’m sure that having a baby will make all my financial dreams come true, right?

 

Overall – even though it looks like I had an approximate 50% fail rate for goals, I am okay with the ones that are fails. I failed for good reasons (i.e. not pushing too hard during surgery recovery, getting pregnant, getting a new job that changed a few of those goals), and I am pretty happy with my 2011 overall.

I have some of the best friends a girl could ask for – both here in PDX, back in South D, and in the internets, as well as the best architect in the land. I’m having a great(ish) pregnancy, I’m almost done with school, I got a promotion at work (and no longer feel one step away from failure at work), and life is pretty damn good.  There are still changes I want to make with my life and my job and all sorts of things, but overall, I’m generally pretty content.

***First the song, and then I will reward (punish?) you with a photo recap of the year!***

On the eighth day of gazellemas, Amy gave to me:

Eight hours a-sleeping

Seven miles a-cycling

Six yogis posing

FIVE PAIRS OF SHOES!

four pancakes,

three lazy cats,

two empty boxes, and

A Pooh Bear outfit, adorable and twee!

 

January 2011:

February 2011:

March 2011:

April 2011:

 

May 2011:

 

June 2011:

 

July 2011:

 

August 2011:

September 2011:

 

October 2011:

 

November 2011:

 

December 2011:

 

 

I am pretty excited to see what 2012 will bring. It certainly won’t be boring!

 

 

Three (3!) Things Thursday

Dec 22nd, 2011
by gazelle.
4 comments

1. Today is my last day of work before an 11 day break. A break that will likely include some working at home next week, some fairly intense school work, and lots and lots of sleeping. (Also, hopefully pancakes.) I cannot wait. And – the sooner I finish #1 priority project today, the sooner I can leave work and start breaking.

2. I am making a ham for Christmas. Surprisingly, I have never made a ham. I don’t know what I am going to do with the ham, other than cook it and eat it, but it will be delicious. (There will also be potatoes, brussels sprouts, cranberries, and carrots. Lots of carrots.The ham will likely be all me, as the architect is not a big ham fan.

3. I am doing a traditional-ish Southern dinner at New Year’s and have everything planned but dessert. There will be black-eyed peas (for luck!) as well as assorted other awesomeness, but my Southern Cooking source says that I should make peach upside down cake. I would love to, but peaches are so not in season right now. Wait….just had an inspiration. It involves rum. There will be post New Year’s pics, but I want it to be a surprise for those people who will be forced blessed with the opportunity to eat it.

 

No pictures today – but happy Thursday, happy 3rd night of Hannukah, happy day after solstice (welcome back, sun!), Merry Christmas Sunday, Happy Boxing Day, and Happy holidays, all!

 

 

Three (3!) Things Thursday

Dec 15th, 2011
by gazelle.
5 comments

1. Today is the last day of my 8-week Leadership Foundations course I’ve been doing through work. It has been a pretty fantastic experience, actually, and I’m pleased that I had the opportunity to attend these all-day Thursday courses. I am a little sad that starting next week, I’ll have to get up at the normal time on Thursdays again instead of sleeping an extra 30 minutes! Boo!  (I am excited, though, that I’ll be able to get actual work done on Thursdays and will no longer have to check in on Fridays to see what I’ve missed.)  Since it’s the last day, our entire cohort has been broken into groups & we each have to give a presentation to all of our managers this afternoon. In honor of that, I thought maybe I would dress a little more nicely today. (Also, I am wearing awesome shoes. Yay!)

 

2. I handed in the final assignment (really just a capstone checkpoint, as I won’t actually finish until mid-February) last night. That means nothing new due until next year! I plan on spending the next couple of days lolling about indolently (and exercising, and hanging out with friends) before spending the rest of my break deep reading and finding at least 10  more valid references. LEISURE TIME! (Relatively speaking, of course.)

3. Tonight, I am having Brussels sprouts for dinner. I am very excited about this. My question, however, is what do I serve with said Brussels sprouts. When planning this week’s menus, I was having a vegetable craving, so my menu looks like: (a) roasted carrots, (b) salad, (c) something with butternut squash, (d) Brussels sprouts…..and no main dishes. So far, we’ve been able to come up with stuff fairly well: (a) quinoa with carmelized onions & roasted tomatoes, (b) pizza, (c) pasta with sage & brown butter sauce….but I’m stuck on tonight.  Ideas?

 

Pictures 2 & 3 were located in a Flickr Search and have a Creative Commons license.

← Earlier Posts