The garden has been busy while I have been racing my tail off all over the country. Troy tended things well while I have been gone.

This just in: Early Girl Tomatoes rock! I have a tomato that is getting RED. Yes RED, like, as in edible RED!

My three tomato plants have oodles of tomatoes on them and have grown in height above their cages, despite the fact that two of them are supposedly 2 foot high patio tomatoes. Out of 14 green been seeds sowed, I have 10 successful plants happily growing up the trellis. My snap peas look too pretty to eat with their ripe pods dangling high from my balcony. The basil is happy, but the cucumber is slow to start despite much coddling. Here are some photos for your salivary pleasure.

My Early Girl

A close up of the ripening tomato

The galvanized pot garden with basil, Early Girl, 10 green bean plants, and 1 cucumber.

My two patio tomatoes, brimming with tomatoes

A close up of the bounty to come

Lastly, a great shot of my snap peas.

Today was kick butt gardening day! Annie and I headed over to my friend Hillary’s house to garden and make up some tomato cages. The kids were so cute playing together and Hil got this great shot of them together in the wagon! How cute and opposite are they??

I was able to plant up my zuccinni plant at her house. It was so nice to have the use of a backyard for gardening, that’s the one thing I really miss about apartment living. Hillary made this great pasta for lunch that I have to get the recipe for, it had fruit in it and was totally tasty. I think her and I have similar tastes!

Patio Zucchini plant

When I got home I tried to get Annie to take a nap since she fell asleep in the car…but no go, I just ended up falling asleep while she piled stuffed animals around me. I finally decided to get up and finish my garden on the patio. The tomatoes now have cages around them, and the zucchini plant has a spot on the balcony. Here is a shot of the two tomatos and the zucchini.

And lastly a shot of my garden in a galvanized tub. There is a tomato plant in the middle, basil around the front, cucumber in the back, and green beans from seed around the back.

Swim like a rock star at Masters in the morning, hitting your 100’s in 1:35 in the meter pool. Mix with a trip to the plant sale at the Denver Botanic Gardens. Top with a loaf of Cinnamon Swirl Whole Wheat Bread gifted from a wonderful Friend. Bake for an afternoon. Funk Gone.

Ahhh, I can feel the release of the the funk. The tight shoulders are relaxing. The smile is coming back. The funk is on an outbound train, headed somewhere else. Today’s events (thus far) really helped the funk exodus.

The morning started off with a solid swim workout. 15X100M all under 1:40, lots around 1:35. Then 500 kick set followed by 10X50 and 8X25 all out.

Then it was off to the annual plant sale at the Denver Botanic Gardens with my friend Hillary. It was members day and we were there at 8:15 waiting in line with the 500 other members that JUST HAD TO BE THERE FIRST. What a hoot. Hil brought the wagon and we both had the kids in backpacks for easy maneuvering. We had so much fun. At first there was a total run on the herb tent and it was a madhouse, then we got word that the veggie tent was selling out, so we ran over there and grabbed what we needed. Ahh Crazy Gardeners, you would think it was a rock concert! After we procured our plants we walked around the gardens, all of which we are totally familiar with now and were amazed at how much has changed in a short couple of weeks. Everything is green and in bloom and it just sucked the funk right out of me.

I ended up purchasing a rosemary plant that I am going to plant in it’s own pot, two new basil plants, a cucumber (the little yellow ball ones), a patio zucchini plant (who knew…so uber excited about this one), and an impulse purchase of ANOTHER tomato plant (a sun gold that they were only allowing people to buy one of…this one’s a gift though because three tomato plants in ENOUGH for one patio).

Upon walking back to the car Miss Hil presented me with the most yummy, tasty looking loaf of bread. I am calling it Funk Be Gone Bread beacuse after I got home and had one slice of it, I felt compelled to write this post. Thank you Hillary. You guys don’t understand, this bread is to die for! Troy is going to flip a lid when he gets home and has some (he’s taking his EXAM today). Here’s a photo for your drooling pleasure.

Buy bye funk. Uh yea, Bye bye.

Spring has sprung: A recent shot of my patio garden.

I can feel myself coming out of my funk, but it’s slow. I had a great 8 mile tempo run today with the even miles hard. I was able to keep the tempo efforts between 6:30 and 7:00 pace, and the easy efforts were just that…easy. I went out to the familiar Highline Canal and enjoyed running in the sun and light breeze. Spring is definitely here. After I got home from my run (which I had awesome weather for) it started raining with big claps of thunder and lots of lightening. I so so so live in Colorado, the official “random weather state”.

So every time I get into a funk (like now) my natural tendencies are to:
One) get myself on a daily routine
Two) deep clean the house.

I don’t know what it is with the routine, I think I crave some consistency and some control when other aspects of my life feel out of my control. Part of that routine has included tracking my food again. I felt like my food intake was getting a little out of control, not in the calorie department as much as the types of food that I have been eating. In a quest to get food on the table quickly I have relied on a lot of Costco lasagna, which is fine once or twice a month, but not every other day. Breakfast has been shoddy at best, it’s always my toughest meal. So I went looking for an online FREE site that I could track my nutrition. I found this awesome site called SparkPeople. You can use it for weight loss, but there are also a lot of people on there that are more fitness based, and tons of people at their goal weight and giving the maintenance routine a go. The tools on there are helpful, and the format of the site is unique. If you are looking for a nutrition and fitness tracker online, check it out. The more I click around, the more I find!

So the deep cleaning house part of my funk has definitely hit hard. Two days ago I went to town on the bathroom. I scrubbed everything and went through every drawer and cabinet and trashed everything that wasn’t heavily used. I even went through our first aid bucket and got rid of expired medication (like advil and stuff). Crazy Sonja. Troy thinks I’m loopy, but he just grins and smiles.

Lastly today: My friend Michelle put together this great little snack that I thought I would pass along. She took plain yogurt and added Fat Free Sugar Free Jell-O Pudding mix to it. You get the yummy benefits of Yogurt (cultures, probiotics) with a little sweet taste, and it thickens up like pudding. Then she added some bran cereal, and this morning I added some cut up strawberries. It’s a totally yummy breakfast, or a tasty post workout snack. Just thought I would share.

Lastly Lastly today: Troy bought a new (to him) road bike off Craigslist last night. He came home very happy from the deal and spent the rest of the night cleaning it up. It needs a tune up, but after that I suspect he will get a lot of great riding out of it (unless he drives it into a garage) (I couldn’t resist, blame it on the funk).

Toodles!

The pook-er-ator has become the great Hodinini two year old. It’s clear that she has some serious climbing genes, after all, mom, dad, grandpa… climbing is in her blood. She escaped her crib for the fist time last week but we caught it on film today. Not like it was a hard thing to catch, she will do it on demand. The nice thing about it is that she sleeps through the night really well now. She has slept completely through for the past 4 nights. Between 6:30 and 7:00am we hear the pitter patter of feet and her sweet little voice saying “Mama…Dada” like 2 inches from our nose as we lie blissfully, hoping for another 1/2 hour. The combination of a solid bedtime routine and her having the ability to leave her crib whenever she wants was apparenly the trick. She has given up daytime napping about 50% of the time, and without a way to really enforce it, I am outta luck!

So…I guess it’s time for a big girl bed? Is that what all the good parents do at this point? Something about a safety hazard, maybe.

In other bad parenting news Annie got ahold of the scissors while Troy was trying to clean the bathroom and she did a number on my herb garden. What did the poor garden ever do to her? Apparently she’s got a beef with it. Actually I think it’s just a case of “Mimic Mom” who is constantly clipping herbs. And who says she is having trouble mimicking?

I was just trying to brush my hair. Can’t a mom brush her hair just once a day? Is it so much to ask? As of yesterday I don’t even have much to brush anymore.

I’m in there brushing away and I hear a loud crash. I come running out to find:

Can you tell what this is? It’s my herb garden lying on the carpet like a busted up murder scene. The culpret…Annabelle. She knocked it over. For the first time EVER in her life I am so insanely mad I have to sit down. I am light headed. I stick her in her crib, give her a little talking to, and the tears start rolling. You all know what my herb garden means to me. It was very upsetting, kinda like she put the cat in the dryer or something.

I collect myself and get started on cleaning up the mess. Annie helps me repot the herbs, who knows how well they will bounce back.

As I am cleaning up the carpet, I happen the glance in the dogs water bowl and there lies my wallet. Yes, that’s right, not only did she manage to destry the herbs, but she ALSO decided my wallet needed a bath.

How is it that a two year old can cause so so so very much damage in such a short amount of time? I am just flabbergasted! We are now headed OUT of the house where the wrath of her energy can be distributed amongst the world. Just my little gift to all of you.

I decided to start growing some alfalfa sprouts. I love sprouts in salads and on sandwiches so I gave it a go. I picked up some sprouting seeds at Vitamin Cottage, along with a jar (any jar would do) that had a lid with a screen. I have seen these screens sold separately before to fit a canning jar (like these ones). The fist day I put my seeds in the jar, rinsed and washed the seeds about 10 times, then I turned the jar on it’s side, set it on the countertop and covered it with a towel (seeds don’t like sun). On days 2-5 I rinsed out the seeds (which became sprouts) two times a day. I just poured water into the jar and dumped it back out. The screen kept everything i n the jar. Make sure your jar is well drained. Drenched seeds keep them from sprouting. Again, I always kept the jar on it’s side and always kept a towel over it. On day five I did one last rinse and dry and then I took the towel off and set them in the windowsill for several hours. They greened right up. I then used a ton and put the rest in the fridge. Don’t put wet sprouts in the fridge, make sure they dry first. That’s it, super easy.

Now, onto my herb garden update. Houston, we have a problem.

This just in: My basil plants have Aphids.

My first round of defense was to spray with watered down dish soap. I use the Mrs. Meyers Lemon Verbena Dish Soap. That didn’t seem to help much. Although I might have been too gentle with my soaping, I didn’t douse them or anything. So my second line of defense has been to add more soap in the squirt bottle and to really give them a soaking. The aphids are hitting the underside of the leaves and are attacking with vigor the standard basil plant and are shying away from the “Windowsill Basil” variety that I have in there as well. My third line of defense has been to put the plants outside today. I hear (from the internet) that Aphids don’t like cold weather and it’s quite chilly today (plus I just gave them a dousing).

The other plants are doing divine. My sage is SUPER happy and I have harvested parsley, rosemary and oregano. All the plants have bounced back from harvest wonderfully. Now if I could just get my basil on board I would be happy. I know why basil is tricky…it’s because it’s so tasty :).

I got a treat in the mail today! A new Nike Triax Speed 100 Watch (in Black/Pink). I have been running without a watch for awhile now ever since mine broke in a snowshoe race at the beginning of the season. A new friend had this one sent to me and I would like to send her many thanks and hugs! You sure made my week! Now I’ll actually know how fast I am running!

Also in the news, Annie is weaned from the bottle! While I was in Utah Troy, Marla and Roger got Annie off the bottle and onto the sippie cup! She no longer drinks milk at all, which I hope we can add a little back, but she drinks watered down juice from her sippie. Annie was quite the bottle addict and we could never go anywhere without it. I thought we would have a tough time but it looks like Troy, Marla, and Roger got her 100% weaned while I was gone. I’m so glad she won’t be taking it to Kindergarden with her! I’m thinking that when we leave in April we should have Roger and Marla potty train her. Ha Ha Ha…just kidding!

Also some good news on the veggie front. We found a CSA to join here in the Denver area. It’s called DeLaney Farm and is part of the Denver Urban Gardens. Yesterday Annabelle and I biked (okay I biked, she rode) out to the DeLaney farm via the Highline Canal Trail to see how far the ride was. It was 15.5 miles each way, so definitely doable on Monday evenings this summer. I figure riding our bikes will save us about $4.50 cents in gas a week or $81 over the growing season, just from riding to pick up our veggies. I’m so excited to be a part of this farm, and to live a bit closer to our food!

Lastly, I had my first herb harvest this week! The herbs were doing well enough to pull some off and use them in my cooking. I used some Rosemary to make a great Spinach Soup with Rosemary Croutons, and then used some basil in the Savory Orange-Roasted Tofu & Asparagus dish I made. It was a little sad cutting things off my plants, but I think I will get used to it. They just feel like such a part of the family now. I guess now that they have been eaten, they are literally part of the family, strange thought!

My friend Hillary and I visited the Denver Botanic Gardens this morning for our 2008 inaugural visit. We had the kiddos in tow and toured for several hours. As nice as I’m sure it will be once everything is in bloom, there was a certain beauty in the resting plants. You could tell that things are starting to happen under the soil, and some of the bulbs are just starting to make their spring time appearance. We will have such an appreciation during the throws of spring and summer since we have seen the gardens in their current state.

I seem to be melding into my environment lately. There is so much going on under the surface, yet a confidence that everything will come in due time. Today the gardens reminded me how nature can miraculously bring you back to the now, the present, and can at the same time teach you to anticipate the future. That’s how I feel right now about life, anticipating, but constantly reminded to enjoy the now, enjoy the process.

How much sweeter does your food taste when you grew it yourself? How much sweeter is a PR when you trained rigorously for an event? Delayed gratification is so sweet. When you watch something, or yourself, or your children, grow and learn it’s the process that is so beautiful, not the outcome. The outcome is sweet, only if the process was memorable. Nature does it effortlessly, part of the cycle of life.

The last several months I have been in the throws of base training. I’ve been having a blast, running long cruiser runs, biking when it’s nice out, and working on my swim stroke. I have been so patient. The last week Steve let me bust it out. My excitement was similar to when I tell Arwen that it’s “Time to go for a walk”. Shakes, wiggles, pure excited anticipation. I learned this last week why you stick to your scheduled workouts and don’t go crazy doing extra work. Weeks like this will come along where you need every ounce of stamina to get through the workouts smiling. Steve still hasn’t started me on any speed work, this week was all about long miles, and long workouts all strung together. It was so fun to be doing two-a-days again, I missed those. It’s weeks like this that I “feel” like I am training like a professional.

I am proud to say that I got through the entire week with a big fat smile on my face. I have been left at the end of this week with sore muscles and the desire to shout “I love triathlon” from the tops of tall mountains. It’s when I test my limits that I really start to feel an inner peace with myself. I suppose it’s weeks like this that really keep my soul in the competition. I feed on this stuff. I am happy to be patient with my training like Steve is always reminding me, and to “Keep on Keeping on”, but weeks like this are the dessert of my training, the dessert of my life, I just love them.

Here are the numbers for the last week:
biking - 150 outdoor miles, including about 21,000 vertical feet of climbing
swimming - 13,384 Meters (that’s 8.32 miles)
running - 27.68 miles

So, from here I get to go back to being patient, and remaining in my Zen training mode.

Ooh, and lastly, here is an updated shot of my herb garden. Most of the plants are doing great. I am a little concerned about one of my basil plants, but my dad says I just need to stop worrying and putting negative energy into it. The rosemary/thyme/sage/oregano side of the box is doing wonderful! The basil side is growing, but a little less happy.

Here they are: