time

Machu Picchu - April 2013

"Time (as is well known) sometimes flies like a bird, sometimes crawls like a worm. But a man feels particularly happy when he doesn't even notice whether it's passing quickly or quietly".   

This quote from Fathers and Sons by Ivan Turgenev stood out to me. It's true. Time flies and it crawls. I remember time flying when I was in Peru earlier this year. The trip went by so fast. But I also remember time crawling during our 5k hike straight up during our trek to Machu Picchu. When I'm playing with children inside, time crawls. But when I take them outside and play on the playground, it flies.

I always wear a watch. So time is a big part of my life. I like to schedule and be on time to things. But I know that when I don't have to wear a watch and I don't have to be anywhere or go anywhere, that is when it doesn't matter whether time is passing quickly or quietly.

Brickle Drop Cookies

When I was making these I saw a recipe on the back of the Heath bar bag for brickle drop cookies. I like heath bars so I thought I would try the recipe. This was my first recipe I have ever made that used cream of tartar.

They were quite easy to make and the recipe made a bunch. 

I think next time I would put more Heath bits into it. You couldn't really taste the heath as much. Some type of heath or chocolate frosting would also be good on this. I was too lazy to make the frosting so I found this sugar, chocolate, and coffee bean topping to put on.

These cookies were good. They weren't spectacular. 

Creation #10 = partial success

Oreo Milkshake Heaven

A while back my Mom decided to buy some knock-off Oreo brand thinking we would enjoy them. They were not at all like true Oreos. Okay, maybe I am being a selfish American right now. Needless to say, they weren't getting eaten and were going stale. The best thing to do with them instead of throwing them out was to make a milkshake. And that is what we did.

They were simple and I would say comparable to Chick-fil-a's Cookies 'n' Cream shake.

Creation #9 = definite success!

breakfast cookie time

My mom came up with a great breakfast cookie recipe and I got to help make them. Catherine likes to eat them for breakfast but they are great anytime.

go bananas! go! go! bananas!

We made banana bread the other day. At the bottom of the recipe it suggested serving the bread with honey on it. I told the expert chef (my mother) and she thought it would be even yummier with cream cheese frosting on it. She was right.

The first step was to squeeze all of our overripe, frozen bananas into a bowl. I would recommend taking your bananas out of the freezer to that out a good bit before making this. Ours were still very cold and by the time I had squeezed them all into the bowl, my fingers were frozen.

We put nuts in our bread and in order to enhance the flavor, we roasted them first. 

We mixed all our ingredients together in our trusty KitchenAid.

We put the batter in bread containers and sprinkled some cinnamon on top. It was all ready to go in the oven.

It came out looking and smelling wonderful. Our next task was the cream cheese frosting.

We added some red and yellow food coloring to try and get an orange fall color.....it sort of worked.....

The bread came out looking and tasting wonderful! Now I'm spoiled and banana bread without cream cheese frosting just won't taste as good.

Creation #8 = success!

trifles

This is the trifle cake mom and I made a while ago. We made it for a couple different events.

I didn't really love it. I'm not a big pudding or cake person. This trifle is layered with pudding and cake. If you like pudding, cake, and heath bars, this is the treat for you!

Creation #7 = fail (according to my taste buds)

Writing about this reminds me of the play I read in Dr. Gordon's class - Trifles by Susan Glaspell. I remember reading it in class and each of us voicing different characters. It's a short and interesting play.

My first FALL

I had my first fall the other day. I also went horseback riding for the first time in forever. Maybe I was a little over zealous in wanting to canter? Maybe I didn't have the girth on tight enough? Maybe I am not used to riding english? Whatever the reason, I fell off my 16.2 hands high Arabian steed. His name is Vincent.

Abigail and Catherine take lessons every Friday and I decided to join them last week. Between the ages of 7-12 I took horseback riding. I learned Western though so this saddle felt a lot smaller. It was good to ride again. 

Besides it being my first fall off a horse, this fall is my first fall without school. It has been different and enjoyable. 

smiling at the park

One day last week I spent the afternoon with these kiddos. We went to the park and played this cool game for a while. 

I was realizing the other day how much time I spend around little children. All of my jobs except my newest are centered around children. That must be why my new job is so different. 

I have learned a lot about children in the last 4 or so months. 

-I am not as stressed and worried for their protection + safety as I used to be (not sure if this is good or bad....). 

-After spending a certain amount of time with them I get a little crazy.

-They make me laugh

-They ask the best questions

-Their attention span is very short and being crazy can come in handy.

Those are just some recent things I have learned from being around children so much.

TRI # 1

Well, I did it. I completed my first triathlon. I've been wanting to do one for a while. After swimming year-round for 5 years I knew after high-school I wanted to do something different. In triathlons I can still swim without it being 5 or so hours devoted solely to swimming, like swim meets.

After getting back from camp at the end of August I started looking for triathlons close by. I saw there was going to be one on September 22 in Huntersville (just 20 minutes from me). It was The Ramblin' Rose - an all female mini beginners triathlon. It was 250 yards of swimming, 9 miles of cycling, and a 2 mile run.

I was pretty confident I could be ready to do such a small triathlon in 3 weeks. I knew I could do each of those components on their own. The challenge would be doing them back to back and going as hard as I could at each one.

During the three weeks before the race I somewhat failed at training. Because it was such a mini triathlon I kind of shrugged off training. I swam for about an hour three days a week and I went biking a few times. I did a 9 mile bike and 2 mile run back to back twice before the actual race. I drove the bike course once as well. But that was about it.

I'm such a newbie at triathlons though. I wasn't even sure what to wear. Thanks to a friend that has done an Iron Man, I decided on wearing tri shorts and a tri top. It was perfect. That way I didn't have to put on or take anything off throughout the race.

I showed up early on race day and set up my transition area. Everyone had to rate their swim ability on a scale of 1-10. 10 was the fastest. I was in the 10 group and was able to be one of the very first people to start the triathlon. Having a good swim time definitely helped. That way I started out ahead of most people and didn't really get stuck behind anyone.

Even though I was one of the first people to start the swim, I still got stuck behind 2 or 3 women. I ended up passing them but it definitely slowed me down a little. The ten lap swim went by very fast and then I ran to my transition area to get ready for the bike. I put my sneakers on as fast as I could and started the next leg. The bike course was mostly flat so that definitely helped. I am not the best at cycling though. I don't do it often enough. I just bought a very nice bike for my birthday a week before the race. The race was my 5th time ever riding the bike. It was super nice though. Right after I finished the bike course I grabbed a sip of gatorade and started on the run. By this time I was tired. It was kind of difficult to run. I don't understand how people do an Iron Man.

My goal for the race was to do it under 1 hour. I really didn't know how long it was going to take me. I did it in 51 minutes so I was very happy! I ended up being 22nd out of 673 and 1st in my age group! Definitely will do another.