Food, glorious food

A few days into my exciting new adventure in blogging, Michael pointed out, "You have 2 pictures of food on your blog and only 1 picture of 1 child. What does that say about you?"

It could say a lot of things. It could say that I'm not afraid that foodie stalkers will come after me (true). It could say I love food and 1 of my children (not entirely true - I love food and both my children). It could say that it's easier to capture food looking good on camera than it is to capture both boys looking good on camera (perhaps the truest of all): "Ethan, look at me and say cheese. Take the blanket off Scott's face. Now smile, no, take the blanket off his face. PLEASE TAKE THE BLANKET OFF HIS FACE!"

I do love food. A few years into our marriage, Michael and I realized that where his family talks about BYU football, my family talks about food. This was a big aha moment for us. Now I just smile on game day when he calls his dad and brothers 4 or 5 times to say things like, "Go BYU!" "Did you see that pass?" "Are you listening to the halftime report?" "Go BYU!" "Go Cougars!" I understand now that they are speaking their own special language.

Instead of getting bored listening to Michael's end of the conversation, I call my bro in Chicago. After the initial greetings, the conversation almost always turns to food (except lately, when we sometimes discuss blogs). "Guess what we ate last night?" "Guess what Christy made this morning?" "Guess what we're making for lunch?"

Michael's brother lived with my brother Neal for a time and in talking to Michael, Shaun passed along something that he had noticed. Much to my delight, Neal displays our family's classic conversation pattern of focusing on food. Where Shaun would say, "I had a sandwich for lunch", Neal would say, "Oh, I had a sandwich made with honey-cured ham on toasted rye bread covered with spicy brown mustard, a slice of swiss cheese, some lettuce, tomatoes, and a nice, crispy dill pickle on the side. And I made some limeade to go with it. "

We learned this from our parents. When Mom and Dad report on events, vacations, wedding receptions, or other social gatherings, they bring up the food first. Down to the details. Last year, they traveled alone together (haha) to a warm Caribbean island. They came back ranting and raving about their meal at a particular restaurant, how their waiter had been incredibly polite and well-timed, how the flavors and textures of the food were perfectly complimentary, etc etc

I think this ties back to my mom's excellent cooking. Her cooking is healthy, delicious, and abundant. Her kitchen is like a promised land, as Ben proclaims, "She has EVERYTHING there!" Growing up, we always had hot breakfast together before seminary and we always had dinner together. She didn't tell us every day that she loved us, but she showed us by feeding us (and doing a host of other things as well). I associate food with love.

Which explains why I felt so personally rejected when my toddler turned his nose up at things I made for him to eat! Ding ding ding!

Well, it's time for me to show some love and get dinner going for my boys.

Earthquake

Wow. Scary wow. I just experienced my first earthquake. The windows started rattling, as if a HUGE truck was driving slowly by. Michael and I looked at each other, grabbed the kids, and headed to our safeplace - the doorway between the living room and the hall. There's no door there and it's far from glass, furniture, appliances, and outside walls. While we stood there, we heard shouting from our neighbors in the apartment building, "EARTHQUAKE!" It lasted less than 30 seconds. The newssaid it was a 5.3, centered in Yucaipa.

Now that things have settled down, I think that it was a great earthquake drill. For the last few weeks, Michael has been itching to get our 72 hour kits finished. So much so that on Tuesday night, instead of cheering for his favorite basketball team - the San Antonio SPURS - he got out our current 72 hour kits, did a complete inventory on them, and figured out what more we needed to feel ready. We did the shopping yesterday.

It seems like there has been a lot of earthquake activity lately. I feel a lot better having a 72 hour kit and I sure hope we never have to use it.

Scott in his Sunday best

Scott in the swing

Quest for perfection

This morning, our family headed to a not-too-distant stake center to listen to Bronco Mendenhall (BYU head football coach). He shared his vision of BYU football and it was quite relevant to my life, despite the fact that I am not a superfan. (GASP!) Coach Mendenhall's opening slide was "BYU Football - quest for perfection". It made me think. He also mentioned that in a study of high achieving athletes, it was found that one thing they all had in common was that their area of achievement was once something they were not good at and they had to work and work and work at it until it became their strong point. It got me thinking about motivation and my own quest for perfection. Some people seem so motivated. Some don't. I feel more like those that don't, but I want to be among the motivated.

On a related note, I am participating in the beta-testing of web based weight loss program called PEERtrainer. It harnesses the power of positive peer pressure and makes me accountable to someone other than just me. I'm assigned to a group with two other women. Each of us has a goal - mine happens to be to fit back into my pre-pregnancy clothes. Every day, we log our food and our workout. We check in on each other and can leave each other questions and comments. This is only my second day, but I think it's going to be really helpful for me.

The idea behind PEERtrainer is that when you have to report to someone, you follow through on things that you have comitted to do. I think I have been missing out on something big. Prayer could be motivating. Morning prayer could be a goal-setting time for the day; evening prayer could be my report. This makes sense to me!

Where do YOU find your motivation? to workout? to improve yourself? to be "a little kinder", as Pres. Hinckley urges us to be? I love pep talks.