Pausing the Chatter

After being ill, and struggling last fall, I really didn’t want the fast of Advent upon me. I felt as though I’d already been through an intensified Lent, and wasn’t strong enough for another period of fasting on any level.

Yes somehow I made it through Advent, with joy, certainly with the aid and help of my family, friends and community.

And here I come again to another time of stretching myself, and again, my reaction is to recoil. That is the old habit, the old man inside of me, the man who wants ease, and the kicking up of his heals, the comfortable couch with the chocolates and cheesepuffs at the ready. (I don’t really like cheesepuffs, but they just sound so frivolous, don’t they?!) As much as I like to be comfortable and cozy, I want change, and I want my heart open to receive what God has prepared for me. I was open last November–raw, and hurting, but open.

So, my resolve is two things. To do, and to be. I’m hoping not to chat, and explain, and sermonize much over these next weeks. I’m hoping to just get off the couch and bake, and pray, and sleep, and eat, and give, and garden, and marvel at God and his creation. I’ll be posting, God willing, lots of photos, but I want to stay clear of lectures. I’m too good at them, and they’re not always that good for your heart or mine.

So, in that vein, these last few days have looked a bit like this.

And hopefully the next few weeks will look a whole lot like this!

Blessed Lent, my friends!

Giving and Gratitude

People can tell you all sorts of things about living, about what to read, or say, or do… But being the one who actually does the doing, that’s why this experiment in giving has been a profitable one for both me and my family.

Not profits–as in money. No, there’s very little financial gain in giving away bread, but I believe our souls have benefited from the stretching out of our hands and hearts. And it’s not just our hearts that are being changed.

Often, not always, not even half of the time, but often enough to notice, I will bring bread to someone and they will immediately want to give me something in return.

• When I took a loaf of bread to a new neighbor, little Owen’s mommy, she wouldn’t let me leave until she had loaded me down with peppers and parsley and lettuce from her garden.
• And the time John Ronan chose to give pumpkin bread to our neighbors, Mia and Noe, and we returned home with two fresh eggs.
• Nataliya, who still needs so much as she recovers from her awful illness, but she wouldn’t let us out of her home empty handed…
• And then there’s little Ben. Every time I try to offer him something, he wants to split it in sixes or sevens and take it home to his family.

Giving.

And just last week, when John Ronan was touring the neighborhood giving away Valentines, we received a return visit from Dolores, a neighbor who loves to garden. She surprised my son with a beautiful bird book, hoping to inspire him to study all those birds that make their way into our backyards.

All these movements of sharing, of giving, of love, must help to hold up the universe and keep the sun shining. These small acts of kindness, and even prayer, mean more than we imagine. That’s what I believe.

So her bird book sparked an afternoon outing. Well, it really was midday, and we decided to take our schooling on the road. We headed to Douglas Family Preserve to birdwatch, and we weren’t disappointed.

Gratitude. Thankful for the gift. Thankful for the Giver. One little book spurred all this?

Lovely, what a little giving can do…

Valentine Love

The kids woke up to cards, and went to school armed with goodies to share.

Last year I made a loaf of bread in the shape of a heart for my goddaughter. It was ridiculous, but fun. This year, I mixed up some dough and experimented with the shaping and scoring.

As soon as I had scored the loaves, I knew last years’ idea fitted the theme a wee bit better.

We couldn’t quite figure out what this loaf looked like…

But this one certainly had a wide and somewhat evil grin! My, my. Not really the look I was going for.

So, I doubled up my baking efforts and churned out some chocolate shortbread cookies. One of my favorite recipes, (and destined for the recipe tab at some point,) I knew these would make every Valentine celebrator love me just a little bit more!

And then came the giving. John Ronan is obsessed with the fact that the dentist told him that gummy bears are much better for your teeth than lollipops. (He was a lollipop aficionado, and that landed him in cavity land.) So we loaded up on gummy bears and hit the neighborhood!

Isn’t that the cutest little bag? John Ronan “borrowed” it, since it’s destined for a niece’s birthday. (Ssshhh, don’t tell!)

Almost no one was home. But did that deter us Working-on-Being-Better-Giver Givers?!

We dropped packets in the oddest places and thought it was fun that most of our neighbors wouldn’t even know where the treats had come from. (I really wanted to write from whence the treats had come--isn’t that fun? but a little too Downton Abbeyish for this blog…)

Almost lastly, we took one of the odd-shaped loaves of bread–plus more packets of gummy bears– to the swim instructors to eat in between lessons. (John Ronan is finally water safe!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

And lastly, my parents showed up on the front doorstep with a BOX full of bread from my awesome baker brothers (and chocolate, of course).

Soup on the stove, and five loaves of bread in the kitchen, we held my parents prisoners for the evening to help us eat all the goodies,

and share the love!

Share :: Love.

Hope you had a lovely Valentine’s Day, my friends!

How a Bread Eater Stays Thin :: Knowing YOU

I’ve always been active. I grew up on a block with thirty kids, mostly boys, and spent my afternoons climbing trees, playing kick ball, throwing frisbees and jumping from rooftops. I’ve always been a mover, and I know this gives me a big advantage over some other “types,” like my book-reader son, who can sit in a corner chair for hours, even days, without so much as walking across the house. (We boot him out of the chair from time to time to make sure he stays alive!) I’m sure my natural tendency to move has helped me stay trim over the years.

I think it’s safe to say: Knowing yourself, knowing your body is a great help to staying thin.  (And goodness knows, there are all sorts of thin! Your doctor–not visions of you being a print model– is the one who should point you in the direction of your optimum weight.) Knowing how to balance your life between how active you are, how much food you need to consume, and how much sleep helps you recover and remain healthy is harder than it used to be. Food is so blessedly plentiful in this age, but that means we need more self control than ever. Last year I thought it’d be interesting to actually test myself and quantify that balance. I signed up for an online health application that helped get me started, then over two weeks I catalogued every single thing I ate and recorded the activity of my daily life.

The application asked me all sorts of questions. My age, my weight, my goals, etc… I popped that app onto my phone to make sure I didn’t miss one thing that passed my lips. The app told me that in order to maintain my weight, no gaining or losing, at my activity level, I should be eating just a tad over 1500 calories each day. Wow. Not much.

I also utilized another program that helped calculate calories from my own recipes. This was a great tool that gave me real data, showing the difference between a simple rosemary roll (110 calories per slice), and how many more calories are in that delicious pumpkin bread (256 calories) that I like to make!

I embarked on the two weeks and here’s what I learned.

• I shouldn’t eat chips and salsa for lunch quite so often . The calories in chips add up way too quickly!
• We eat fairly well, thanks to my husband and his lean meat/lots of veggies formula. It’s good that my cupboard is often bare of bread.
• Herbal tea after dinner is the best. No second glasses of wine, no soda, no fruit juices or other drinkable calories when I’ve already eaten a days’ fill.
• Good fat and protein help me eat less in the long run.
• Don’t ever buy potato chips. I will eat them.
• Even a short walk during the day is better than no walk at all.
• I should keep up my five minute strength training that I do every other day. Push ups, knee bends, sit ups. All good!
• Just because I’m thin, and active, doesn’t mean I still don’t have things to change.

At 1500 calories a day over those two weeks I lost weight. I figure the program simply doesn’t know that I run to the mailbox instead of walk–or that I have a John Ronan in the house. Even if I didn’t match up exactly to how they thought I should eat, it allowed me to see, in black and white words, exactly what I put into my body and how I spend my days. It was revealing.

Not only have I always been active, but I also lived in Europe for a string of years when I was young and impressionable. Folks in France, Italy and Switzerland, the three countries I was blessed to be in, truly don’t have a problem with obesity. They love to eat well, but they’ve learned over the centuries how to balance their love of food with the desire to be healthy, vital, and active. French Women Don’t Get Fat, a book written several years ago now, speaks to the cultural differences between French and American eaters. I enjoyed and learned from that book, and if you’ve struggled with weight loss, it might give you a new view of food that could help you turn a corner…

And the Japanese have much to teach us. My husband talks now and again of their 80% full principle. “Eat like a crane,” they say.

But I think the best models of eating come from the church. In the Orthodox Church we fast from meat and dairy almost half of the year. There is a consistent reminder to fill our minds and hearts with prayer, and not stuff our bellies full of food. I love this recent post on fasting from my friend, Katherine. And this article by Rita Madden, a program director for wellness, makes some very practical suggestions on eating and living well. Ms Madden also has a podcast on Ancient Faith Radio titled Food, Faith and Fasting. You can listen and/or download all of her podcasts that touch on various aspects of healthful eating (such as Sacred Eating, Managing Stress, Seasonal Fasting, and The Temptation to Misuse Food). I recommend starting with the first podcast Eating in a Spiritually Minded Manner, and listening to them in order.

So, that’s about ALL I have to say on this subject. From making changes in our home life and living at a slower tempo, to being watchful of how much bread is in our cupboard, to balancing my life between work, food, and activities… I am not an expert at all of this, but I pray some of these thoughts have been helpful.

Sending you all love., and now, back to the bread kneading board!

February First Giving

The Eve of Saint Brigid was all about it being a Tuesday. Phew! How many times have we missed out on corned beef and cabbage because Saint Patrick’s Day lands during Lent? Well, we solved that problem. Our yearly dose of the Irish came on January 31st, and what fun! Irish ale, and eating corned beef and cabbage, weaving crosses, reading and telling stories, and celebrating with Irish (-ish) friends. Very fun. Truly fun. I think my husband even stirred up a batch of Irish coffees while I built a marble track with the munchkins.

But on the actual feast day, on this Wednesday, February 1st, we tossed all the festivities aside and made it a day of giving.

Well, first we had prayers, and a bit of school.

Then, while the little one did some chores, some cleaning, some getting dressed and all, I got to mixing. Look at this be-uuuuu-tiful dough.

And from the risen dough came the shaped loaves

and while the dough slowly rose

I wove two more small crosses. Just little ones, for little hands.

We baked the bread, pulled the five packages of gummy bears from the drawer (we bought them the other day at Vices and Spices), and took to the streets.

Two loaves of bread, five bags of gummy bears and two crosses–all for giving.

Here’s the rundown.

• My husband gave a cross and gummy bears to our goddaughter at church this evening
• Andrew gave a loaf of bread to RJ
• Mad gave gummy bears to Ashley
• I gave gummy bears to Austin on our ride home
• John Ronan and I gave gummy bears and a cross to the Keller boys while in the school parking lot
• And John Ronan gave one loaf of bread to a homeless woman and her baby at the library. That was the hardest. That one.

And that’s probably where Saint Brigid would have stayed. There, at the library, in the corner where the woman and her baby were ensconced. We didn’t stay, we couldn’t–we had gads of kids to pack into our car for the drive home–but I’m hoping that our prayer for her, that the bread with the prayers kneaded in, added something better to her day.

May holy Brigid pray for us.

Blessed feast, Everyone!

 

The Eve

Give–Take–Take–Give

We knocked on the door last time, and rang the bell, and no one answered. That time, we left the bread in a bag on the doorstep and hoped for the best.

This time, the door opened and we were ushered in. Molasses bread in a bag, pear/applesauce in a jar with a red ribbon. I walked through to the back of the room, where Nataliya beckoned me and John Ronan shouted out his greetings like he always does, excited to find new friends.

So thin, so changed from her summer self, Nataliya and I talked about her journey from life and health, to the doorstep of death, and how she’s making her way back again. I didn’t want to stay long. John Ronan is not a soft spoken little fellow, and though he was being good, playing with little Nikolai in the next room, I knew that our presence would be fun only for a little while.

So we stayed for that little while.

John Ronan didn’t want to leave, but I have experience enough in that department. But somehow he had convinced Nikolai that he was hungry and needed a snack. “We’re heading straight home, and we have food there,” I told him. But Nataliya and her mom jumped on this opportunity to give to the givers.

“Please, let us give him a little something.”

“Please, mama, I’m hungry.”

“We’re heading straight home, you really don’t need a snack…” That’s what I said. You know the routine… I wanted to be the giver, not the getter.

(I still have so much to learn!)

Eventually, two tangerines were handed over, and a stack of crackers for my little guy. Several of which fell onto the kitchen floor and broke into a thousand pieces just as we were leaving. Thank goodness for good humor.

Well, we made quite an impression, I’m sure.

And it’s good to remember, to let others give when they have the chance.

It’s not always about us…

How a Bread Eater Stays Thin :: The Cupboard’s Bare

So… You all may think that our bread box is always overflowing with bread–with rosemary rolls, and scones, and loaves of molasses bread. And that that extra bread turns into croutons and bread pudding, and bread crumbs. First of all, we don’t have a bread box.

Just a cutting board…

Here’s the truth.

• We don’t buy bread or bread products at the grocery store. Okay, I take that back. Every now and again we’ll buy a half dozen bagels or a box of crackers, and a few times a year we’ll pick up a baguette to go with a meal because I didn’t have time to bake bread that day. But really, I figure that if we’re going to eat bread, or cookies, or crackers, then I might as well make them. We save money, I have fun, and we skip all the preservatives and calories that come in pre-packaged products.
• …and, I simply don’t bake all that much. Okay, I did say a few posts back that I baked 240 loaves of bread in 2011. But, I gave away 128 of those, which leaves 112 loaves of bread (or batches of cookies or scones or crackers) that we ate in one year. When you divide that out by 52 weeks, that’s just a bit over two loaves of bread a week, for five people. You can see why my kids are often complaining that there’s nothing to build a sandwich on. When I bake a loaf of bread, everyone gets about two pieces, one for dinner, and perhaps one for toast in the morning. During some seasons I bake more, and others (like during the summer) I bake a little less. The point is, our cupboard is often quite bare!

Baking is awfully fun, but don’t overdo it. Giving away half of what you make helps to keep your portions small. And staying away from the bread aisle at the store is another great aid. Lastly, making breads that have only basic ingredients, with few additives (like honey, or milk, or eggs, or oils) keeps the calorie count at a more reasonable level… Rosemary rolls are so delicious, and have only a bit over 100 calories per roll–whereas that delicious pumpkin bread that I like to make now and again? About 250 calories per slice…

So, there you have it.

And Jesus answered him, saying, It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.

I know it’s hard to stay away from hot bread, fresh out of the oven–but living on God’s words–now that’s what I want stored up and spilling out of my cupboard!

Banana Bread for Breakfast

(You have to admit, bananas are a lot more fun to look at–and to hoist onto the shoulders of playmobil soldiers–than banana bread…)

So.

My parents have just moved into a new house, in a new town (our town!), after having grown up in one place, the same place that their parents grew up in.  In the last few weeks they’ve cleaned out closets, scrubbed floors, directed movers, signed papers–so many papers–given away gads and gads of things, explained their thoughts to their friends, been begged not to leave, and left all the same.

So.

Here they are. And they will be in flux for a long while, with their new house already under construction, and most of their things in storage. And my dad–all he really wants–is to rush down to the feed shop and buy some chickens.

So.

We had them over for dinner, because it’s important that they eat in the midst of all this flux. And while dinner was cooking, banana bread was baking, because I knew they needed breakfast the next morning and all they had in their makeshift kitchen was grape juice and pickles.

I am extremely excited to live in the same town as my generous parents. They really are the epitome of giving people and there is much that I can learn from them. Since I was 18 I’ve been on the move, living in Europe, and in the Bay Area, and in Colorado. What a treat to have such beautiful people right down the street!

My dad was a baker by trade, so I’ll let you know what he thinks of my bread, since he’ll have more occasions now to try it now. But the banana bread, whether it was good or not, it was fun to send them home to their new rooms, their new house where the chickens will eventually reside, and know that at least they’d have something for breakfast.

Cheers!

How a Bread Eater Stays Thin :: Being Slow

Face it. The evidence is overwhelming. Too many carbs will make you fat. Our country has gone carb and junk food crazy and it’s showing. Even kids these days are struggling with diabetes and over-eating issues.

But you know all this…

With my father as a baker, we always had bread in the house. Fresh bread, every day, came home from those fabulous old brick ovens at 512 Rose Avenue. I bet I ate a sandwich on sourdough bread every day of my elementary school life! I loved salami and yellow mustard best. (Still do!)

Over three posts I’m going to outline a bit how our family, despite the enticement of fresh bread being pulled regularly from the oven, has managed to stay thin.

Quick Disclaimer! I am not a medical doctor. I don’t pretend to be a nutritionist. My only expertise is a lifetime of trying to be Jane.

Slow.

My husband and I used to own a much bigger home, and spend more money, and drive more miles, and consume many more goods. We were the kind of Americans who helped the people in Washington DC do the Happy Dance. Somewhere along the line we made a few big decisions and moved (from Colorado to Santa Barbara) for a variety of personal reasons. We found ourselves at a time of change, which allowed us to make all sorts of choices about our lives. We set out on a course to live more simply, and slowly, and have been adjusting this past decade, with more changes probably still to come.

I believe that many of these changes have helped us live a happier, healthier life–keeping us fit and thin. Here are a few examples of how choosing slow–over the alternative of fast–has kept us in shape.

Walking Shoes. Well, we wear sandals most of the year, but we chose to buy a home in a neighborhood that is near many services. It is a quarter mile walk to: two food markets; the post office; the hair salon; a bookstore; three coffee shops; dry cleaners, etc… You get the idea. When there’s a choice to walk or drive to pick up those fall pumpkins using the blue wagon, even if it means taking an extra half hour, we walk. And when it’s a bit too far to walk, we (my husband mostly) hops on the bike. Down to the farmer’s market, off to the beach. We’ve even set our big kids free, encouraging them to get places on foot. Three miles to downtown to hang out with their friends. They plan a bit in advance, put on their favorite pair of Vans and off they go.

Muscle Power. In our home we have an assortment of appliances and machines, just like in other homes. A mixer, a vacuum, a waffle maker, a dryer, even a mini food processor. But when it comes to making choices, we typically choose the slow, electricity-free route. We use a push mower on our lawn, we sweep with a broom, we knead our bread by hand, we crush the croutons into bread crumbs using the mortar and pestle, we hang our sheets on the line, we even gave away our microwave. If there’s an opportunity to get fit and do a chore, we choose the muscle-building route. It may take a bit longer, but in the end we’ve saved energy, money, and burned a few calories all in one swoop! Not a bad tradeoff.

Saying No. This is a big one, and something we have to struggle against constantly. We try to live a life that leaves us time to sit and chat with the neighbors. We say no to many extra activities so that we can take a walk after dinner, or go for a hike on a Saturday morning. Sure, my husband is on the parish council at church, and I volunteer at my kids high school often, but we know our limits. Being out every evening at meetings, rushing from place to place changes the way you eat, and live. Suddenly you’re sitting at In n Out, munching down fries and a hamburger. Or drinking too much soda in the afternoon to keep you awake. Or having to drive that quarter mile to the store simply because you don’t have two extra minutes in your schedule.

Eating Together. Though breakfast and lunch are a bit scattered, with most of us on different schedules, we always have dinner together. Every night we set the table, light the candle, prepare a healthy meal and sit around our table, eating, laughing, planning and simply being together. We don’t watch TV and eat. Well, we don’t watch TV at all. We eat our food slowly (most of us, Andrew!), teaching our kids to enjoy a variety of different foods and to enjoy them in company. Dinner is at least an hour long, and later there is herbal tea in the pot.

So, there’s some of what we do to live a life that isn’t flying by at super speed and that helps keep us active and thin, despite fresh enticing loaves of bread. I know many of you live this way too. I’d love to hear your ideas–feel free to add any and all in the comment section below.

Cheers, my friends!