March 15 Declutter

Yesterday, I tackled our swimming bin. We keep the swimming back pack, suits, skins, goggles, masks, pool toys and such in this bin. I was able to get rid of several things.

I did declutter over the weekend, but didn't snap any pictures. Anthony and I went through the book shelves together.

I'm amazed at how much I've got around to get rid of. I'd expected to mostly be straightening things up, but I'm finding lots that we don't want or need anymore, even though I'd felt like I'd been pretty much on top of that aspect of clutter.

Morning Eats

Davan filled her own tray this morning:


The fresh fruits are: mandarins, an apple and a pear
The cereal row consists of: rolled oats, Ezekiel, and millet cereal
The frozen fruits are: blackberries, blueberries and (her favorite) raspberries
The miscellaneous row contains: a grapefruit cookie, a vitamin stick and a leftover pancake sandwich with homemade raw almond butter and homemade raw cherry spread

Reaching into the freezer for the fruit had Davan dreaming of fresh berries in the summer:


As for myself, well, my mom left town this weekend on business and left in my possession, two ripe avocados. As I did chores, I was mulling over what to do with this bounty. I have plans for what I'm making for lunch and decided I didn't want to change them. I thought of spreading mashed avocado on toast, but I'm not doing a lot of bread these days. I thought of just throwing one in my smoothie for extra creaminess, but that didn't sound all that appealing. I really wanted to use it for guacamole, so I did. Here's my breakfast this morning:


And it's oh so good!

By-the-by, Davan, Anthony and I each did this quiz over the weekend. For each of us, one of our top five breed matches was Anatolian Shepherd. That's what Shelly was. Sigh.

Davan's Disappointment

Davan is sad this evening after we went back to the animal shelter to find that a family had just met Shelly and was filling out the adoption paperwork. We met another puppy just to see, but there wasn't the doggy love.

I have to admit that I'm sad, too, even though Shelly was bigger than we'd been planning on. Anthony seems relieved, but he didn't met her. She was something special.

We have a couple of trips coming up and we've decided to suspend looking until after my aunt's wedding next month.

Davan is having a hard time believing she's going to fall in love with another dog. Poor kid.

Lunch

After getting home from the animal shelter, I was ready to eat. First, though, I threw a tray together for Davan as she had a friend coming. I didn't quite get it ready for her before her friend showed up, but oh well. Luckily this is one easy going friend and Davan doesn't mind sharing a bit if it's wanted.

Then it was time for my lunch. I surveyed what was on hand and decided on a salad of sprouts, cucumber and bell pepper. I made a quick dressing of water, Braggs, wasabe and dulse flakes:

I'd had sushi on the mind and it hit the spot.

Next I wanted soup leftovers. I'd made a soup on Wednesday evening (in the crockpot so it would be ready after our visit to the animal shelter) of chickpeas, sweet potatoes, onions and kale with curry and tomato paste. It was yummy, but I felt it could use more kale. I lightly steamed some kale and dumped the warmed soup on top:

Again, it hit the spot, warm and full of greens. I finished up with two of the pre-breakfast cookies from this morning.

Davan is Smitten

We've been thinking about getting a dog. If we can't provide a sibling companion for Davan, we figure a canine sibling is the next best thing. The cats are great and all, but they are, ya know, cats. A dog that goes places with us - camping, hiking, the park - and that is more interactive with Davan would be great...and work and money.

So, yes, we're seriously thinking about it, but trying not to jump into anything. We have, though, meet some dogs at the animal shelter. Most have left us feeling a bit eh, so it hasn't been difficult to say no.

That all came to a halt this morning when Davan and I met Shelly


(whom she'd like to call Sonya and, as Shelly is an animal shelter assigned name, changing her name would be a-okay). Shelly came into the room and more or less climbed on Davan's lap. She is soft, silky and very, very sweet.

She's also three months old and 33 pounds. She's likely to be over 100 pounds as an adult. These are issues - both age and size. My mom, our back up care taker, isn't thrilled about a huge dog at her house. We'd sort of hoped for an adult.

But, I'm having a very hard time saying no to Davan's alternatingly sad, pleading, hopeful, love struck face:
So...we're leaving it up to chance to see if she gets adopted today. Then, if she's still there this evening, we'll go see her with Anthony. We'll take it from there. It's not a yes, but it's not a no.

Our main problem to consider: dog sitting when we can't take her with us. We hope to take her often, as she can go camping/backpacking/to visit my best friend if we drive. However, we can't always take her. My mom is willing to do some dog sitting at her place if the dog isn't too big. Sonya is big, though. Anthony's mom isn't up for dog sitting, she tells us. We don't want to do boarding due to cost and most dogs not liking it. What that leaves us with is asking friends, which is hard for me to do. My mom may still take Sonya, if she comes to love her, but there will also be times that we're both gone (once next month already, for example, for a few days for my aunt's wedding) and we need to figure that out.

But, really, how hard is it to say no to puppy love?

Morning Routine Adjustment

We've adjusted our morning routine here a bit. I'm experimenting with a pre-breakfast, as the way the routine was before, I'd get up at 7:00, but not eat breakfast until 10:00. Davan only had a two hour gap.

We usually have an oatmeal cookie of some sort and a little fruit. Here is Davan's this morning:


We each had two grapefruit oatmeal cookies with some goji berries and cacao nibs thrown into the mix plus two strawberries.

I like eating then, but I don't always like to take the time to whip something up. It's easy if we have some cookies already made, but these oatmeal ones often don't last the day. Or, if I make apple oatmeal cookies, I only really make enough for the pre-breakfast and maybe an extra for Davan's breakfast tray.

We took a break from a tray for Davan and a smoothie for me to have pear oatmeal once this week, but most of this week, breakfast prep has looked like this:


Davan does most of the work of filling her tray while I make my smoothie and toss things in here and there. Notice the blender full of spinach behind Davan, as she cuts up her apple.

The other change is that Davan is waking up around 7:30 instead of 8:00 these days. We're each (separately mostly because I like to do things like bike and she likes to do things like trapeze) working out until about 8:30, then doing chores. All of this means we're done with our morning routine and eating breakfast by 9:30, which moves our day up a bit. I like it. If I want to do more of a workout - like a longer bike ride - I've been fitting it in later in the day.

March 11 Declutter - Plus a Bonus Day

These two areas were best done at the same time, so I did and spent 20 minutes on it. If I have a really busy day that where I just don't get to decluttering this month, I'll have this one in the bank.

March 10 Declutter

It's a little hard to tell from the pictures, but these drawers are in a lot better shape now!

March 9 Declutter

Obviously this area will need more attention. Sigh.

Breakfast - Again!

The youngn' does seem to want to eat regularly. Go figure.


By the time I snapped the picture, one spot was already empty:

Davan was, as usual, happy about her tray, but the sight of two cookies and grapefruit had her giving me a grateful hug.

Left to right, top to bottom, she's enjoying:

cutie (missing in action), a kiwi, 1/2 a grapefruit
grapefruit oatmeal cookie with goji berries and cacao nibs, chocolate cherry cookie, vita stix
frozen raspberries, frozen blueberries, frozen blackberries
leftover pancake sandwich with almond butter and fruit spread, Uncle Sam cereal, millet rice cereal

As for me, I had a green drink with about a cup of collards, 4 packed cups romain lettuce, 5 stalks celery, 1 1/2 grapefruits, a frozen banana a spoonful of maca, and a spoonful of flax meal. And I might have had a couple of grapefruit cookies, myself. Yum.

March 8 Declutter

Tumalo State Park Yurting

We had a really nice weekend of yurting. The weather, again, was as good as could possibly be expected for the time of year and we got out of there just in time, with snow having been forecast for last night.

We didn't leave until a little after noon because of several factors, including a morning bike ride, sushi making and my mom, who joined us, needing to work until noon.

I packed us a lunch to eat on the way - a container of veggies and fruit for each and a pita pocket sandwich with hummus and other veggies/sprouts for each, as well. The drive was good, with us all listening to Blink by Malcolm Gladwell, which we all really enjoyed.

Tumalo State Park seemed a little cramped to us, but it was fine, if right next to the bathrooms.


We got unloaded, then went to explore a bit. We found a playground:



And walked along the river a bit:



Then we returned to the yurt for games, dinner, reading, more games and bed. Davan and I were the die hard game players, retreating to her bunk for more when the others were done:
In the morning, we had Saturday morning pancakes and plenty of fruit:


A shot of one of my servings of pancakes with blueberry compote (sweetened with a little blended date) and cinnamon cashew cream sauce (just cashews, dates, cinnamon and water):



Oh man, it was so good!

I packed up some food for lunch and we went to explore the area a little (in the van). We floundered around a bit, but then found the lava fields and did a couple of guided walks:


Or, you know, tumbling alongs:


Bunny, of course, was along:


Looking around there, we saw people walking along a road on a nearby hill and wondered how to get there. Looking at a map at the closed visitor's center helped us to find the red road that wound up it:


We took our lunch and up we went. There was a fire lookout and great views on the top:


We at lunch on a picnic table up there:


We had hummus, Peace Bomb, apples, cuties, carrots, sugar snap peas, and cinnamon raisin cookies.

Then we headed back down and went back to the yurt for an extended afternoon reading session. After a while, though, Davan and I went back to the playground for some challenges before going back to the yurt to play a few games before dinner.

In the morning, we had Sunday morning pancakes and more fruit:

We were out of blueberry compote, so I had just cashew cream sauce. Davan is having hers sandwich style with almond butter and fruit spread.

Then we said goodbye to the yurt, packed up and headed into Bend for a little urban hiking. We walked mostly along the waterfront, which was very nice.



The weather was warm and sunny, but did become cloudy and cool by the time we headed out of town for good around 3:00.

First, though, we ate a picnic lunch next to a play ground, which meant that Davan did most of her eating later, and did a little more hiking on an unpaved path along the river:
It was a lovely weekend and we were glad to have my mom join in!

Camping Food

We're out of here again this weekend. This time we'll be going yurting not far from where we stayed in the cabin a couple weeks ago. This is for Davan's March Christmas activity. She just opened her envelope on Monday:

and tomorrow we're off to yurt. We'll be going to another new to us campground but it's in the same neck of the woods (or high desert, as the case may be) as our last excursion.

Today, though, Davan has a friend over that she doesn't get to see too much. This friend is a young man who loves Do Jump as much as she does. He loves it so much, in fact, that his mom comes to Portland from Newport (3 hours away!!!) and stays with him (at various family members houses) in the summer so he can take Do Jump camps. This last summer, every single camp Davan did, he did, too. They had a great time together and did some really nice work together for the end of camp shows.

We were lucky enough to go right by his house when we were on our bike trip this summer and Davan got to visit his house then. This week, his family is in town and his mom called me up to ask if there was a time he and Davan could get together. Well, of course, we can make time for friends. Not to mention that Davan would kill me if she knew there'd been a chance to see this friend and I didn't make it happen.

Thus, Davan and her fellow Do Jumper are running around, playing hard today:

They've been up the tree, on the trampoline on the swing set, on the trapeze, on the handballancing stand, and back on the trampoline yet again and again.

Meanwhile, Anthony and I have been working on preparing food for this weekend. My mom is joining us this time, which is great, but last time we felt just a little shy on food at a meal or two and, thus, supplemented with food meant for later over the weekend, resulting in a stop at Safeway on the way home for snacks. This time, in compensation for that and having an extra mouth to feed, I'm planning and packing enough food to feed about twice our number for a week.

We're having three lunches of homemade hummus on Dave's Killer Bread, along with veggies for both sandwiches and dipping, kale chips, and fruit. Dinner one night will be our usual weekend fare of sushi, made ahead, and edemame. The other night dinner will be baked tortilla chips and veggies dipped in a refried bean dip (fat free refried beans, olives and salsa). Breakfast will be pancakes:

the usual Saturday and Sunday morning ones along with fruit, almond butter, cinnamon cashew cream sauce and blueberry compote. In addition, I've made four different types of cookies:

From left to right, we have: chocolate orange, oatmeal grapefruit, chocolate cherry and cinnamon raisin.

And just to make sure, we're taking our popcorn air popper. Oh, and the electric kettle for tea as desired.

Okay, so it's a lot for four people for three days. We certainly won't feel like there's not enough, though, and things can always come back home with us.