On Exercise: Yoga

That, over there, is Mollie...my yoga instructor. Don't be fooled by that pose...it's a lot easier than it looks.

Let me preface my first “real” yoga experience with a little background info. I am a little bit addicted to exercise. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not some crazy hard-bodied, lean, and otherwise intimidating model of perfection who lives at the gym and places exercise second to none. I, on the other hand, am a soft-bodied mom who realized shortly after my first child was born that exercise was the only way for me to have a few minutes to meditate (read: check in with my brain to make sure it was still there). Since that time I have religiously exercised and have LOVED this small time away from my daily slavery as a mom. I’m a total cardio girl and my first love, of course, is swimming. I swim three days a week with a Masters’ (read: old people) swim team. I love how it pushes me, I love that I can socialize with people who don’t know me as Lily/Canyon/Alice/Jane’s mom, and I also love the quiet that being submerged under water forces (it’s very unlike the rest of my day in that regard). On the other days I run. While running is not as therapeutic as swimming (for me), I enjoy how it makes me hurt and the bonus is that I can do it at home if I have to. Anyway…that’s my exercise routine.

Recently (in the last three years) one of my best friends, Lisa, has really gotten into yoga. She has, in fact, loved it so much that she opened her own yoga studio: Cosmic Dog, just so she could do some “GOOD” yoga. She has been trying to sway me over to the dark side for some time. I tried the intro class that was delightful and fulfilling on a purely meditative level. She has since been attempting me to try something a little more advanced. Well, today was the day and being how I know and love the instructor, Mollie, a fellow mom from the charter school, and got full assurance from her that I could handle it and that she would “go easy on me,” I finally decided to take the plunge.

And “plunge” it literally was. I couldn’t of left there more wet if I had just done a masters’ workout in my clothes. Lisa assured me that Mollie always starts out easy and then moves into more difficult. I have to say, I was a bit worried…because there was nothing easy about it. It was fun to push myself in new ways and watch my body shake through these poses that I couldn’t get quite right. Yoga is definitely a strength, stretch, power type of exercise. I was happy, about half-way through the class, to hear some heavy breathing from the other students and to see Lisa and her husband, Tom, as soaking wet as I was. All in all I was satisfied, but aware that I still love my cardio. I think that it’ll be a good complement to my other routines, plus *bonus* they have a daycare for kids. Also, I have to add that I was glad I was there with some serious people because if one unruly person besides myself (…mom, you know who I’m talking about) was there…I would’ve giggled my way through it. My favorite pose/position was the one at the end where you lay on your mat, toes out, arms extended and deep breathe yourself into a nice little nap.

Anyway, I know what Lisa’s doing here, she’s going to get me hooked just when my “best friend” discount runs out. Don’t ever underestimate the power of a good business woman.

Thanks Lisa for a good sweaty day. (I hope I can lift my arms tomorrow)

Summer Projects: Revealed at Last!

So I wasn’t a total slug this summer. I actually accomplished a few things that have been on the table for a LONG time. I finished my quilt. People seem so amazed when they come to my house and I show them progress on my quilt. They seem flabbergasted that a person with four small children could have time to make a new quilt for my bed. I just humbly nod and shrug my shoulders as if I must be the most AMAZING housewife in the world. What I don’t tell them, and would appreciate if you don’t let on, is that I have been working on said quilt for darn near a year. So don’t get all down on yourself because you aren’t making these charming heirlooms…just do it like I do—take a really, really, really long time. And then the key is to act as if you just started it last week and *sigh* the binding, that I did by hand, was painstaking work…I was able to finish it in a few hours—but no pressure. Don’t tell them that you stretched the “handwork” out into days because it gave you an excuse to sit and watch “Stargate” and “Northern Exposure.” I mean watching TV is totally justified if you’re also handcrafting a masterpiece. If anyone needs binding work done…let me know, but make sure to drop off a few DVDs with the quilt.

I also made, as Alice calls them, “Muppets” of each of the kids to play with (of themselves). They’re darn cute, but not as big as a hit with the kids as I would have hoped.


And then the pillows. I made some pillows to go with this great bench that one of Dustin’s clients gave us. I LOVE the effect. The fabric was great…I love expensive fabric…you can’t really go wrong.



As for now, I have two projects that I’m now working on. Isaac and Elise have requested a quilt for Christmas and I’ve happily aquired fabric for it and a GREAT idea. Let’s see if I can pull it off. Also I am happy to quilt and bind (again, the binding) a quilt that Marty’s wife, Bonnie, pieced. She did an amazing job…I hope that I can quilt it to her expectations. Also, I hope that she wasn’t expecting it any time soon. So, now that school’s in…maybe I’ll have time to finish these other projects.

Tell me honestly though, don’t you just LOVE the binding on my quilt?

Aaaaaah, School.

It happens every year. One minute I’m smiling, all misty-eyed, as I watch my kids laughing and running through the sprinklers at sunset. A perfect ending to a perfect summer day. And I think, “I just want it to be like this forever and never want to send them to school.” And then, a few days before school starts, when I’m wrenching my heart out on a daily basis because I’m going to miss them so much… there’s a sudden shift in the universe, or something like that, and I’m screaming at them that I’m so glad that school is starting because I can’t stand another second of the infernal and constant noise level. Then, WHAM, perfect timing…school does start and everyone’s happy, especially me.

Christmas in August, I guess.

I got one of these.

Meat

While there are a lot of things that I’ve needed to address: namely stitches, homemade puppets; circa “What About Bob,” and an ‘almost’ completion of my new king-size quilt—I have neglected to write about them because, well, I’ve been feeling EXTREMELY lazy. But one thing that I’ve been thinking about has pushed me out of this malaise and this is the topic of meat. Yes, meat. Ever since my anemic pregnant days with Lily (8 years ago) I have been a veritable meat eater. I have recently decided that I would like to be a more conscious meat eater, and by that, I mean possible raising and eating my own meat. We have the space to do this…I just have to get the guts. We don’t think twice about buying as much meat as we can from Costco, and yet, at the same time spend more time and effort on animal rights than human rights. And by ‘we’ I mean the collective conscious of the American media. We will be killing some of the chickens in the next couple of weeks, and while I think that this task would be a lot easier if I was STARVING, I’m still willing to give it a try. People are shocked when I tell them this, yet they have no problem going to the grocery store and buying any type of meat. I think that by actually raising and killing your own meat…you tend to respect the process and it’s part of our nature, no matter what some psycho environmental vegan wants to tell you: we are meat eaters…it’s how we’ve survived.

Now it’s one thing to kill an ornery old rooster, yet another to kill an almost sentient cow: a mammal. This morning I was lying in bed and I heard a bang. It sounded like a gun-shot. Most people would be a little freaked out to hear a gun-shot in their backyard, but this time of year, the vineyards are CONSTANTLY shooting off cannons to scare the birds, so I didn’t think too much of it. And then, I heard it again…and it was definitely different than the cannon shots. Dustin came and I said, “Did you hear that shot?” He looked out the window and then remembered, “Oh yeah, Dan (our neighbor) said that he was killing his steers today.” Dan and his kids raise several steers every year and then sell them at the county fair. They had a few left over that they were going to send to the butcher and then sell them as meat. I looked out the window and saw the two huge animals lying on the dirt in their backyard. One of them was still twitching and I stood there and cried. I cried, but at the same time I was conscious of the fact that this is how we eat our meat. And I respected these animals and the men who were deftly skinning and sectioning them. These men worked fast and quietly and, it seemed, from my vantage point with respect. I doubt that the cattle killed in the feed lots get any kind of deferential treatment.

So what am I saying. I don’t know, except that I got real riled up after listening to a ‘perspective’ on NPR talking about how we shouldn’t eat animals at all because we shouldn’t kill animals. I’m sorry, but GET A LIFE. If you want to be a vegetarian, fine, just leave the rest of us out of it and get behind a real cause, like human rights. So, when we finally get our first meat steer, get a big freezer and then get in line for some free range, grass fed, organic beef all from ONE cow.

Little Jane

It’s always a sad day when your kids favorite aunt or uncle starts a family of their own, because, suddenly your kids take second place to their own. So unfair. However, we have a bit of an anomaly in the Prusso family. Uncle Jeremy has always been a great uncle to my kids…as well as a great dad to his own. I guess he can split it both ways. He has a special bond with Jane, though—he can get her to sleep during Sunday School in about three minutes flat and she always has a particularly special, slobbery, wet kiss reserved for him.

He called me the other night and told me he’d written a song for her. He sang it to me over the phone…and I cried like a baby. He sang it for her the next day and she danced. I want him to sing it at her wedding. What do you think? You can find it here and it’s called “Little Jane.”

Whirlwind

Since my last post, we have been in a literal hurricane of events and people. Here are the highlights:


• Bringing Grandad and his chihuahua, “Precious” home with us from our Anniversary trip. He was in Tahoe at a elementary school reunion (there were only a handful of students still living).
My friend Krisanne and her three kids spending a week with us to avoid apartment living.
• Picking up my nieces Parly and Clayre at the airport to spend a WEEK! with us.
• Picking up Aunt Sadie and baby CJ at the airport.
• Nana and Papa driving up through Tahoe to spend a few days.
• Daisy & Shayne bringing my other two nieces.
• A trip to the farmers’ market with a bizillion kids.
• CJ’s dad finally showing up…can’t remember his name.
• Fireworks and a fourth of July extravaganza with volleyball, tri-tip, rootbeer floats, and freezing fog.
• Lots of open water swimming at del valle.
• Lily getting baptized by her dad with all of her favorite p people to share that with her.
• Finally getting rid of everyone, only to begin the process of packing for a week of camping at Tahoe.
• Camping at Livermore’s “Camp Shelly” in Tahoe.
• Swim, swim, swim, canoe, and play in the sand at Tahoe.
• Revel in the fact that there were NO bears this year.
• Eat some amazing food.
• Survive a hailstorm.
• Survive camping with an eighteen-month old, a three-year old, a six-year old, and an eight-year old.
• Come home to mountains of laundry, 43 thirsty chickens, and a ripe crop of tomatoes.
• Pull off an impromptu tea-party for my three-year old Princess Alice.
• Our first week of summer that’s q u i e t. Reveling in quiet time, bed time and…no that’s all.


Pictures: Alice with her birthday cake
Sadie and I with CJ
Grandad, Precious, and Jane
Jane at Tahoe
Canyon, Alice, Jane & Derek