I STILL have not got back to running.  My official plan of the moment is to start again next week.  I miss running, I just haven’t gotten back into that particular groove.  It’s definitely about time though!

I am still doing Tae Kwon Do three nights a week, and guess what?  As of this week it is four nights a week because I have finally gotten up the guts to go on the night that they spar.  As in get all dolled up in a big thick vest thing, arm and shin guards, and a padded helmet thing and fight.  I can’t even convey to you how attractive this get up is.  Really. The best part?  Both of my sons are there.  Can you say IT’S ON?

Sparring is actually hella-fun.  I’m not exactly an intimidating opponent though, for more than one reason.

Mostly, I have been in very few situations where I did not find a reason to laugh.  Lots and lots of times I am the only one laughing but that hardly helps. But seriously, the first person I was against was like 2 feet shorter than my 5’2″ and maybe 10?  That does not for a second mean that he did not have more experience and knowledge about this than I.  We switched down the line so after each minute of sparring we fought a different person.

Which means I sparred with both of my sons.  There aren’t many moments in life when kicking your child is a sign of being a good parent, and as a matter of fact this may be the ONLY one.  We all agreed we are so going every Wednesday from now on!  🙂

Not to go all squirrel on you but while we’re talking about crazy fun things to do with your kids, check out this post about taking your kids to try flying trapeze school!  I am so jealous.

The second reason I was less than intimidating is this is the first time I’ve been in class when we weren’t told what kick or block or whatever to do, you’re just supposed to go for it.  Mind you I don’t even like doing yoga without a video to guide me most of the time. It was an eye opener to actually have to think of what I should do next instead of being told.

My third reason was just plain weird.  No matter what side someone kicked me on I blocked it with my left arm.  I’m not even left handed so I don’t know where that came from.  But I do know that I will be going into my nice business attire  office job tomorrow with two bruised knuckles and a big bruise on my wrist from blocking right kicks with my left arm (hand). I fear my left hand is going to look like I got in a real fight by morning. Guess what I’ll be concentrating on for the next several classes?

Have you ever taken a class with your kids or do you share a hobby with them?  This is the first time I’ve had two of my three interested in the same thing for more than a week, so I’m pretty thrilled.  Now if I could just figure a way to bribe my daughter to try it. There is nothing like trying to convince a 15 year old girl to try something that wasn’t her idea!   Any ideas?

I haven’t done every day’s assignments but I am still following along with the Writing 101 class.  Here’s today’s writing challenge /  assignment:

Write a post based on the contrast between two things — whether people, objects, emotions, places, or something else.

Today’s twist: write your post in the form of a dialogue.

This is another kind of writing I haven’t done since I was a kid, but it lends itself perfectly to me expanding on my last post about trying to feed my kids healthy food, or get them to do anything else healthy…

“So, Mad, you want to help me make dinner?” I asked my daughter through her closed door.  I had to ask loudly as she was blasting screamo (we used to call it punk and I like it but won’t admit that to her) AND watching Supernatural on her tablet)

“I’m good”

“I didn’t ask if you were good or not, I asked if you were going to help me make dinner” I helpfully reminded her.

“What are you making?”

“I’m trying out this new vegan recipe I found” I told her.

“Ewww, I’m good.”

OK, seriously?  I opened her door. “I was just pretending to give you a choice, come out and chop a tomato.”

Much eye rolling, dragging of feet, and asking if everyone could make their own dinners tonight ensues.

Finally we were both in the kitchen and she watched me pull the ingredients out of the fridge. Cue predictable teen enthusiasm.

“I hate mushrooms.”

“I hate dill”

“I don’t like soy sauce”

“What is that even?”
I told her “rice noodles, it’s something different.”

“I don’t like rice.”

In a voice I was pretty sure (but not totally sure) the neighbors couldn’t hear “It’s NOT RICE, it’s rice noodles.  You can’t hate it, you’ve never even tried it!”

“I hate rice.”

Seriously?

Me, “Oh good god I’ll make it myself. I should have just made a frozen pizza.”

The worst part of all?  None of us liked it.  It was a cool recipe but we all found out we only like dill when it’s part of a pickle.  Even worst?  I made myself eat everything on my plate to prove a point.

Even knowing that I don’t care too much for dill I think it looked dang good halfway through making the sauce.

On the plus side I think with some modifications (no dill, maybe some hot peppers) this could be pretty good.

Do you have your kids help cook?  If so do they enjoy it or not so much?  My kids can actually all 3 cook better than I did at their ages, but they prefer to cook when it isn’t considered helping.  Especially if I foolishly say the V word!

Today’s Writing 101 writing assignment:

We’re all drawn to certain places. If you had the power to get somewhere — anywhere — where would you go right now? For your twist, focus on building a setting description.

Two of my favorite places are the start and the finish of a run.  These two places can be very, very close to each other in space but they are really very, very far apart in every way that matters.

The starting line of my first mud run (which was also my first race of any kind) was a pretty terrifying and exhilarating place.  There was a group of perfect, could have been model girls off to the right all in matching running outfits all doing pushups and lunges and other warm up type stuff in unison that seemed pretty official and intimidating to someone who had never even run a 5K before.  Was I supposed to be warming up or something?

There were big, muscly guys also warming up and yelling encouragement to each other.  Um, I’m barely over 5 foot and way too little and un-muscled to be doing this.  What was I thinking?

The starting line was like a holding pen, lots of people standing close together, all of them kind of bouncing and moving in place somehow while waiting for the cannon to signal them to start running.  Looking past the starting line all I could see was dirt and mud.  No obstacles in sight, how far was I going to have to run before I could stop and climb something?

There was a couple standing next to me in t-shirts and work out pants like me.  I asked them how many of these they had done, none.   Yay, I wasn’t the only one!

Just like anywhere else I found that the more I talked to people the more people talked to me and come to find out there were a lot of first timers there.  I think you could literally feel the nervousness in the air.  But as we talked we started to feel like old friends pretty quick and to relax.

And the people who had done a mud run before all had the same thing to say.  You’re going to love it!  Just wait, you’ll want to sign up for another one as soon as you’re done, don’t worry people will help you if you need it, on and on not a negative word from anyone.

You could smell dirt, sweat, and tension in the air.  Don’t ask me what that smells like, but you’ll know it when you smell it.

Then the count down began.

10

Why did I sign up for this?

9

What was I thinking?

8

Didn’t they say there would be barb wire and electricity?

7

How cold is water with ice in it anyways?

6

I better move up to the front so I at least don’t start off last

5

Should I have worn shorts?

4

Should I have worn longer pants?

3

I can actually feel the excitement in the air like the electricity after a lightning strike

2

This is going to be awesome

1

Run!!

I don’t seem to be able to get back into running OR writing ever since I stopped when I was sick.  It’s not because I don’t have time or anything logical like that, I just got out of the habit and haven’t got back in yet.  To help me get back in the habit of writing (since I do, after all, enjoy it!) I joined a Writing 101 class.  It’s not exactly a class, but that’s a close enough description for me.

The first assignment?  Just to write freely for 20 minutes.   And then post it. I am taking the fact that it is an assignment as an excuse to simply write for 20 minutes without worrying about wrapping up the subject, giving an  answer to the problem, or looking for a picture to go with it. One neat thing about this assignment is that when I was done I had all kinds of other things that I wanted to write about.  I do believe this class may work to get me back into writing!

So here is assignment 1, free writing.  It’s kind of funny because writing the first paragraph I wasn’t even planning to write about food.  🙂

Am I the only one who sometimes looks around and feels overwhelmed by everything there is to do and everything there is to accomplish? I want to do so many things, but I just don’t. I’d like to say there isn’t enough time, and there really isn’t sometimes but most of the time I simply don’t know how to get started or after I have started I don’t know what to do next.

One of my big challenges right now is eating right, and making certain that my kids start eating better. One big challenge is that the boys and I have tae kwon do classes three or four nights a week and that doesn’t leave a lot of time for cooking dinner, especially since we don’t want to eat right before we leave for class. Running around with a just filled stomach is not the most fun thing ever.

I know that prepping food on the weekends, planning easy things like sandwiches, and using the crockpot all would help. Knowing this and doing it are two very different things! Of course it doesn’t help that my kids see any food that’s not what they usually eat as something to run from. Frozen pizza, burritos, or chicken nuggets are their idea of the perfect dinner. It should be as easy as not buying the things I don’t want them to eat and I do that often enough, but then there’s the little part where I have to supply healthy food as an alternative. Curses!

One thing I never learned at home was how to cook. My mom always did a meat, a veggy and a starch and we always sat at the table together and ate. But us kids had nothing to do with the actual cooking. I think the most I ever did in the kitchen was make kool aid. Of course it didn’t help that I became a vegetarian and moved out when I was 17, I didn’t even know what vegetarians where supposed to eat let alone how to cook whatever it was.

I bought the book Lauren’s Kitchen and started making my own breads, sprouting, and all the interesting things that were in the book. Not bad for someone who was known for burning water. But then I had kids, and baking bread and sprouting was replaced with walking around and around the house or neighborhood with a colicky baby, reading stores, taking day trips to the library for story time, all the things that moms of little ones find consuming all of their time. Food was the last thing on my mind, I ate at work or grabbed a cheese sandwich, whatever was quick and easy.

All of that seemed fine and good and I really didn’t worry about what I was feeding myself or my family much. But with the advent of social media a person really can’t ignore or say they didn’t know about just how bad some of the food is that we eat every day. Chemicals in the food, hormones in the dairy and meat, and now GMOs to worry about. How is a person not to be overwhelmed?

I received two VIP tickets to The Tampa Bay Rum Festival through a partnership with Tampa Bay Bloggers in exchange for writing a review. As always, my opinions are all mine.

I seem to have lost any ability to write in a semi-consistent matter, a lot of things have been happening lately concerning work and my personal life that have kept me a bit off centered.  Not all bad but not all good either.  At least I think my u.c. is in remission, they say there is always a bright side.

Anyways, that was my lead in (excuse) to why it took me two weeks to  let you know how the Tampa Summer of Rum Festival went. It was amazing.  I’ve been to other events put on by Big City Events but this was by far my favorite.  And I really liked the others. Follow them on Facebook to see what all they have coming up!

The festival was held at the The Cuban Club, which I’d never been to before.  The building was amazing in and of itself.  Because of the location there were the (really, really good) bands outside, lots of food buses and rum shacks, and also a whole big air conditioned inside to be in.  Inside there was a DJ, dance floor, and additional live entertainment.  I was in heaven; there were different types of music, food and rum everywhere.

On top of that as an add on to the VP ticket the rum tasting was included.  More music and a huge variety of rums to try.  Some where given in shots and others as mixed drinks.  My favorite was the Amber ‘Ti Punch with Clement Select Barrel rum.  The recipe is at the bottom of their page.  I would not have guessed the recipe, but that’s what the lady said I was drinking.  Who am I to argue? I haven’t tried making it myself yet but I without a doubt will.

Did you make it out to the Summer of Rum festival?  If you aren’t in Tampa are there festivals like this in your area?

Have you run a Spartan Race yet?  If not are you trying to decide whether you’d like to?  Well, here’s your chance to see exactly what the races are like – from your own living room.  Kind of feels like cheating, but in this case it’ll work.

They’re televising races about once a month, leading up to the Spartan World Championship airing November 16th, which is being run is being run in Killington, VT. September 20th. That sounds like an excuse to have some friends over to get psyched up for running your own Spartan! (I don’t know if televising is really a word, but if turducken is in the dictionary then in my opinion anything goes)

Here’s the schedule of televised events:

Reebok Spartan Race Television Schedule: (All times ET)
DATE                            RACE LOCATION     NETWORK     TIME

Tues., August 19           Palmerton, Pa.            NBCSN         9 p.m.
Sat., September 13       Washougal, Wash.     NBCSN         2 p.m.
Tues., September 23     Amesbury, Mass.       NBCSN        10 p.m.
Sat., October 25            Wintergreen, Va.        NBCSN         12:30 p.m.
Sun., November 16        Killington, Vt.              NBC              3 p.m.

I’m not much of a TV person, I don’t even have cable, but I’d love to watch these races!

I have to say, there is a whole lot going on in the Spartan world right about now.  On top of televising races and the Spartan World Championship in Vermont they are putting together a Spartan Race Cruise in March.  Yes, I said cruise.  You go out and race on Saturday, and then Sunday they provide you with entertainment, food, drink and celebration. Talk about an after race party!

They’ve put together a giveaway for 2 for the Spartan Cruise including airfare and the cruise out of Miami (US residents only). Enter for a chance to win here, I did!

Has all of that got you ready to run a race yourself?  Well as luck has it I was given an entry to give to a reader for any open heat (non-confirmed start time) in any 2014 Spartan Race in the continental US., all you have to do to win is enter here: a Rafflecopter giveaway.  The contest goes through Thursday morning, I’ll email the winner the code Friday, the 29th.

If you don’t win or if you need a ticket for a friend, use the code SPARTANBLOGGER for 10% off any race.

Disclosure: I have received a free race entry in exchange for posting a giveaway.

So here’s an interesting question for any experienced OCR fans out there. How do you prepare for things like climbing a rope or scaling a wall if you don’t have a rope hanging around anywhere or a wall to practice climbing? Somehow I don’t think burpees will prepare a person for such things…

Almost a month ago my older son talked me into trying a Tae Kwon Do class with him. I was reluctant because I hadn’t yet done much of anything besides laying around feeling sick for a couple of months and  because in spite of the evidence to the contrary I am not all that fond of making a fool out of myself in public. He called around anyways and found a place close to the house, and as an added benefit the first two weeks were free. So I figured what the heck, I could go to one class.  How bad could it be?

Well.  First of all I find group classes to be way too intimidating. Second of all three quarters of the class was kids.  So everyone was sitting around waiting for class to begin, then all of the kids (and me) headed to the mat.  I felt like I should give the other parents some sort of explanation, but I’ve learned over the years that me talking only makes things worst so I didn’t bother.

Did I mention that most of the kids have at least a blue belt and I was wearing yoga pants and a running shirt?  Ya.

But a funny thing happened on the way to the end of the week’s classes.  I realized that there actually were a couple of other adults there.   I realized that even if there weren’t tae kwon do is hella fun. I also realized that any excuse to hang out with my 21 year old when he isn’t trying to talk his way out of it is probably a good thing.

After the second week I got a uniform which kind of makes me feel official and kind of makes me feel like a little kid playing dress up.  I just finished my third week, and I am absolutely hooked.

Have you ever tried a martial arts class?   Would you consider taking a class were you were one of the few adults among kids?

Did you know there is a national Rum Day?  Well there is and it’s this coming Saturday, August the 16th.  Guess where I’m celebrating it?  At the Summer of Rum Festival!  If you’re anywhere near Tampa you should too.  Why you ask?  Because there’s going to be Rum Zones, Rum Shacks (small run zones) food trucks and also rum.  Good enough reasons for you??  Check the festival out here.

Even better is the fact that it’s going to be held at the Cuban Club which means it’s partly outside and partly inside (inside = air conditioning!). Also, the bands sound pretty awesome, there will be both ska and reggae!   Sounds pretty much perfect to me.

Check these guys out.

So, if you want to go you can get general admission tickets for $25, VIP for $95, or win a pair of GA tickets from me.  I have 2 pairs to give away, I’ll contact the winners on Friday morning. You do have to be 21 or older to get in, no kids and no pets allowed.

Enter to win here!  a Rafflecopter giveaway

I received two VIP tickets to The Tampa Bay Rum Festival in exchange for writing a review and this giveaway. As always, my opinions are all mine.

Don’t forget to follow them on Facebook for updates on the festival.

I’ve finally started feeling better (yay!) and ready to get back to running.  Only a mile at a time, but tonight will make it three times a week so I’m pretty happy with that.  I switched back to running outside which is HOT but also fun. I’m really surprised that after running on the treadmill for a couple of months and then not running at all for over a month running barefoot is just as comfortable as it was before.  I don’t know why but I thought my feet would get un-used to it.

Before I started running again I started doing yoga again.  It’s amazing how hard everything is the first time after doing very little but sitting or laying around for too long. But I found two yoga practices that are perfect for when you don’t have the energy to go all out but you want to do SOMETHING.  And the cool thing is after you do something you naturally want to do something else.  A body in motion and all.

This yoga practice is from Yoga Journal.  It’s nice and mellow but still leaves you feeling great when you’re done.

Here’s one for digestion.  It’s also gentle and relaxing.

My colitis isn’t completely back in remission but it’s close enough that I feel confident that if I keep up the meds and the aloe juice and keep down the stress and the bad attitude it’ll be gone in no time.   All in all it’s been a great week.

What do you do to keep your energy up when you aren’t feeling it or to ease back into working out when you’ve been off the wagon for a while?  If you know of any other great, mellow yoga practices I’d love to hear about them!

Earlier this month I wrote that my ulcerative colitis had flared up leaving me doing a whole lot of not much.  I’ve been feeling a LOT better and I kind of thought I was in remission the last day or two. Today wasn’t the best but colitis is always a roller coaster, never a straight line. I’m OK with that, I still see the light at the end of the tunnel.

I haven’t been eating totally vegan, that lasted a full week.  I have not strayed much though.  One thing about colitis is when I have a flare up I get obsessed with what I can and cannot eat, just because I know I can’t eat whatever I want. As soon as I start to feel better I want to eat everything I wasn’t able to before.  Happily salads and fruit are the biggest draws. Unhappily a bowl or two of ice cream was slipped in too. Is what it is.

Two things I can eat unless I’m really sick are rice and bananas.  That’s just great but after a while it does get a wee bit boring.  Maybe it’s because of all that obsessing over food and rice but last week I started to really crave rice pudding. Like, CRAVE.

So I looked up the recipe, but all of them I could find had a full cup of sugar in them.  Sugar is not on my short list of foods I can tolerate, so after much thought I came up with the (now) obvious – substituting the sugar with bananas.  I wasn’t sure how it would work but it is awesome!  Nothing in it is off limits and it tastes good enough to have everyday for breakfast (and maybe lunch) without having to force myself to eat.  Win and win.

So long story short, you don’t have to be sick to make this and love it – and you don’t have to feel a bit guilty about eating it because it’s pretty much health food.  Yay.  🙂

Rice Pudding:

• 3/4 cup brown rice
• 1 box coconut milk (1 quart)
• 1 1/2 over ripe banana, smashed with a fork
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp ginger
• 1 tsp cinnamon

Throw it all in a crock pot on high for 4-5 hours.  And done.  How easy is that?  I like it cold with cinnamon sprinkled on top.

The first time I made this I used a full cup of rice and cooked it the full 5 hours, it was good but I wanted to try and make it not as thick. So the next time I used 3/4 cups rice and only cooked it 4 hours.  Looks perfect!

I’d love to have you try this and let me know what you think.  Do you have any suggestions for healthy, real food sugar substitutes?