Holiday Challenge

I love a challenge. I was ready and waiting when  Concept2 launched its annual Holiday Challenge. Every year Concept 2, the makers of the rowing machines we all walk past on our way to the treadmill, challenges anyone to row 100,000 meters between Thanksgiving and Christmas. It is free and you log  your meters online at your own pace. When you complete it, you get a dopey certificate or a print out to iron on your own t-shirt. The challenge is more to get you moving in the season of feasting. I have done it a couple of times and have really liked it. It forces me to get up early and get in my basement before the rest of the house has a chance to derail my workout plans.

This year they added a bonus. After you row 100,ooo, they donate money to one of four charities. I sighed up for my donations to go towards Slow Food. Talk about a win-win. I continue to keep off a bit of holiday pudge, while Concept2 sends money to starving people.

What about you? Are you taking part in a holiday challenge? Or are you going large in 2010?

July

Woosh goes July

onthebikes offthebikes onthebikes over to the easel to paint run to sandbox

laugh shout squeal drawdrawdraw

Scruff, scruff, scruff goes mama and the baby jogger

Coo goes baby then kickickicks

Hollyhocks stretch to the the sun

Vroom to Papa’s farm for the weekend

Whoosh goes the red racing motorboats

we rest for a moment and read Sendak, while wild things run amok in the garden

Art Fair on the Square

Madison’s MMoCA | Art Fair on the Square is not to be missed. The show is huge, so if you like looking at art and not people watching, go early. Mr. Brown and I plan on dropping the girls off at Grandma’s house and catching up with the work of Amy Arnold and Nick Wroblewski, two of my favorite, and somewhat affordable Midwest artists. I hope to find a beautiful woodcut from Nick for our living room above the fireplace. I had hoped to collage or paint something myself, but that just isn’t going to happen. Plus, I think I would critique my own work every time I looked at it. That’s no fun.

Many thanks to Kara at Mama Sweat for the cards and fun comments. Next week I have my postpartum doctors appointment where I expect to get the green light to start working out again. And I just entered The North Face® Endurance Challenge for October.  I was hovering between entering the 10k or half marathon, but then I remembered that finding time to workout is proving much harder than the actual workout, so I chose the 10k. I have started some easy core/base training, mostly because I don’t want to cram my big-ol’ breastfeeding boobs into a sports bra quite yet.

Today I took the rebels to the quilt store. They picked out fabric for their bubble dress . Being 2 1/2, they picked out a very bright cupcake print. One in yellow, one in pink.They are very excited to have a dress made out of cupcakes. Who wouldn’t be?

Yours Truly,

Brownbuilt

holding off until sweater is done

Hello Loves,

I’ve missed all of you but I’ve stayed away until I could photograph myself in my finished sweater I’ve been knitting for about 9 months. I was almost done on Saturday, and then I realized that I did half of the collar incorrectly and I humbly tore it out.Plus I want to add an I-Pod pocket on the arm for upcoming nursing fests.

The Rebels, Ladybird and Coco, are perfecting their tantrum skills on me. Sometimes I have the fortitude to rise above it and stay calm. Other times I yell, scaring even myself with the magnitude of my outburst, and we all end up in a pile crying and hugging, with apologies flying. The second happens more often than I’d like to admit.

On the workout front, I’ve officially hung up the too small sportsbra and committed to yoga and swimming and walking. I’ve also started reading The Thrive Diet and I love it. It is an accumulation of all the Vegan lit. that has interested me for the past year+, and the author , Brendan Brazier, is a pro Ironman. Vegans can kick butt– without cooking and eating it, first.

This is the week where I need to be somewhere warm next year. I am done with winter, even though it isn’t done with me.

Off to finish the sweater, then walk the dog before picking up the Rebels from daycare. Today is my day alone. Daisy Dog is sunning herself in the living room. Time for reflection and a big salad that little hands won’t eat. Joy.

“For those about to rock, we solute you.” -AC/DC

2009 Resolution; Less  Soccer [Mom], more Rocker [Mom].

1. Get rid of this God-awful-helmet-hair and get something with some style. I currently look like a news anchor cum Republican Senator’s Wife. Time to bust out some layers and add highlights and low-lights. I need to find a hairstylist who is worth his or her weight in overpriced hair product.
2. Early to bed, early to rise. The resolution to wake up, and actually get up, dovetails into Chris’ desire to start attending morning yoga classes. I will be expanding my Mothering Hours from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m.  I will get to bed by 9 p.m. to make up the lost morning hour.
3. Learn to play guitar. This resolution came to me in a dream.  I woke up at 2 a.m. thinking “I should really learn to play guitar.” Go with it.
4. Figure out my fancy new camera and this darn WordPress. I love and fear my new camera. Repeat after me, “Knowledge is power. Knowledge is power…..”
5. Make a felted camera case for fancy new camera. And a camera strap. I will post instructions on Brownbuilt, or better yet, make them and sell them on Etsy. Maybe this will offset the cost of the fancy new camera. Yeah, right.
6. Birth Brown #3 sometime in late May, early June. Have a “Welcome Baby Summer Solstice” party instead of a baby shower where everyone brings a  frozen dish instead of  baby gifts.
7. Burn old journals and datebooks that just sit in my studio and bum me out. Do this after Baby is born so I can toast, and drink, to my mistakes and remember that mistakes brought me to the beautiful place that is my life.
8. Prenatal yoga once a week. And then postnatal once a week until I can start running. How do I stack a running jogger for 3 kids? I must look into this.
9. Continue to go the the gym 3 times a week to  workout and visit with Laura. I resolve to be supportive, not envious, of her half Ironman training.
10. E-bay and/or Craigslist all the fancy, useless stuff that is packed away in my basement and cluttering up my drawers. Put the money towards a new sewing machine and  baby hammock.
11. Paint the kitchen lavender. For about a year everything I do, sew, paint, and knit is a shade of purple. Again, go with it.
12. Knit myself a pretty nursing shawl. It will probably be purple. Maybe navy with light lavender edging for contrast. First I must finish eggplant colored shawl-neck sweater I started in 2008.
13. Redesign and make another Mei Tai sling for Baby. This will be prototype #3 for baby #3. I will post the design on Brownbuilt.
14. Graft dying apple tree to new dwarf trees. Cut down  mammoth dying apple tree and use the trunk + 12′ to make an awesome fairy-fort for the girls. Determine what constitutes a “Fairy-fort”.
15. Make chicken tractor and acquire 4 chickens.

Upon reviewing my list, it doesn’t look very “rocker” at all. Except for #3. The point is to not let my artistic spirit get lost in the undertow of raising children, working out, making dinner and keeping this tiny house from exploding at the seams.

I still need to wash the dishes, but I can throw on an i-pod and listen to the Yeah,Yeah,Yeah’s while I scrub.

When Are You Due?

Last year we didn’t get a tree. We knew the girls would tear it down and destroy it like leapards tear into an impala.  And I couldn’t muster up enough energy to rifle through all the Christmas boxes in the basement. I don’t think I even took a photo of the girls…

So this year we are making up for it. The tree is up and decorated, the wreath is on the door and the outside lights are lit. The girls are documented in their fairy costumes from Nana.

It is still sparse compared to many in the midwest, but we are all for understated. Plus, it is less to take down in January, when the luster of Christmas has worn off and the decorations look so tired. This weekend we is Gingerbread House making extravaganza. Note to other mothers-to-be; gumdrops and all that candy that makes a gingerbread house festive is loaded with red dye #40 and all the dye numbers you might want to stay away from. I checked the packaging after I ate about 5 gumdrop orange slices. Sorry, baby.

When are you due? A hansome man at the gym asked me this as I was lifting wieghts at the gym this morning. My heart fluttered and I blushed. It wasn’t because a cute boy was talking to me, it was that I had crossed over from the “she’s let herself go” flubby first trimester, into the obvious “I’m not fat, I’m pregnant” phase. This is the equivilent of fitting into your “skinny jeans” for this pregnant mamma. This more-of-a comment-than-a-compliment surpassed the daily “honey, you look good” compliments from Chris. Women are a funny sort.

Yoga weekend. Thanksgiving Canceled. She’ll be comin’ Round the Mountain….

I am posting pictures of our ladies yoga weekend on Flickr. It was such fun to knit and chat and eat great food and do lots of yoga. If I was in a sorority, I would want it to be like this was. We arrived on Friday night, itching to go for a walk. Then we discovered that it was the opening of deer hunting season, and unless we packed our florescent orange jackets and yoga pants, we were best to stay around Artha. So off to the yoga studio, then back to the house for huge bowls for guacamole and burrito fixings. Saturday we greeted the day with more yoga, breakfast prepared by the owner’s of Artha and then some goal building. Then lululemon’s Natalia directed us in some goal building excercises. I built an inspiring  collage and listed S.M.A.R.T. goals for the next 1/3/5/and 10 years.  And S.M.A.R.T. is an acronym for  Specific,  Measurable, Ambitious, Realistic, and Timely goals. Of course I wrote them in pencil, so the goals can shift. It is so important to take time to realize your dreams and write them down, especially when surrounded by earth loving, beautiful mothers, who have such great goals of their own.

Other news, we all got the flu on Wednesday night, so we canceled Thanksgiving and rescheduled it for Sunday at Grandma L and M’s house. It was just the 6 of us, but the grandma’s pulled out all the stops and we had a traditional feast, complete with a pumpkin pie that Chris prepared.

[They'll] be coming round the Mountain… my sister-in-law, her boyfriend, and their terrier are moving into our spare bedroom. I have been in a frenzy of sorting and uncluterring, trying to eak out more space in our 1200 sq. foot ranch. They live small in Japan and I refuse to give into the American McMansion… although sometimes I do wish for my own bathroom and closet. But then again, who doesn’t wish for such things. As mother always said” If wishes were horses, beggers would ride.”

Accenture Tri Recap

First wave starts as the sun comes up

The night before: feeling like it’s the first day of school… or am I about to get schooled?

3:30 a.m. Madison and Milwaukee TNT head down to rack our bikes

glorious sunrise over the harbor and thousands of nervous triathletes.

6 a.m. two-and-a-half more hours until I race.

6 a.m. Bad lighting due to the fact that the sun hasn’t risen yet.

gearcheck for the racers and another wave enters the water

8:30 Only 15 minutes until I get into the water. Yay!

View looking South in the harbor

Sporting our numbers

I feel as tired as I look. Go Team!

bib #6748

swim 29.23 T-1 3:54 Bike 1:16:48 (19.3 mph) T-2 2:20 Run 59.11 (9.32 min mile)

overall time 2:51:39. 28 out of 193 in my age group. 1477 out of 4089 overall.

So I did it. I have pictures to prove it. The 2008 Accenture Chicago Triathlon was a success. I surpassed my fund raising minimum for Team in Training and came in with a very respectable time. Oh, and I had fun.

To review, I swam .9 miles, biked 24 miles, and ran 6.2 miles. The swim started in the Chicago harbor, headed south, then turned around and headed north. The first transition (T-1) included a 1/4 mile run from the water, wearing my wetsuit, to my bike. I peeled off my wetsuit, put on my helmet, sunglasses, and clipped in my shoes and headed north on the Randolph ramp on Lake Shore Drive. We did the loop twice, then headed back to transition 2 (T-2) where I racked my bike, replaced my road shoes with running shoes and headed south to run past the Shedd Aquarrium and the McCormick Center. With a belly full of Gu and water, I finished strong and happy.

The race was great, but it was huge. With 8,000 participants, the area to rack your bike is acres of bikes. I ran right past mine in T-1. Waves of 150 people left the swim start every 4 minutes for hours. Like all festivals, there were lines everywhere, especially to the port-a-potty, where everyone was hoping to release a bit of pre-race ballast. By the end, I was happy to be leaving the big city for my little college town.

Much thanks to Laura. She was an awesome roomy and pal. Quite a girls weekend, but next time, let’s just go for a jog and enjoy our fluffy beds a bit more.

Goals for next tri, and yes there will be more: improve my run. Or just like running more. Get some Tri Bars for my bike, and race without socks.