Today I am 40 ...

and damn it, nothing is different. Today I am 40 and I feel great. I have worked my butt off (literally - 3 inches of it) this summer. I have cleaned up some very unhealthy eating habits (more on that in a later post). I have been out of work for three months and have loved every last second of it. Today I am 40 and in ten days I leave for France. Today I have three children, who are so sweet, they even volunteered to stay home with me today so I wouldn't be lonely on my birthday. Today I have a husband who respects my choices, my ideas and lets me be who I am. Today I am 40 and I baked myself a kick ass cake! Today I am 40 and I am the same person who I was when I went to bed last night (with a stomach ache and terrible gas). Today the highlight of my day was delivering a forgotten library book to my Clara Jane as she walked, bookless, to the library. Today I am 40 and my powder room still needs to be painted or wallpapered. Today I need to clean out my basement and sell a used drier (do you need one?), baby cribs and assorted other oddities. Today I remind myself that all this will still need to be done tomorrow, so I will just keep it on the to-do (someday) list. Today I will enjoy dinner with Dave and kids and watch them eat noodles with chopsticks ... so fun. Yesterday I was 39, today I am 40 and tomorrow I will still be me, with three kids, a bad leg, all the same crazy insecurities and issues I have always had and an insatiable desire to be a better me than I was the day before. Cheers! (photo courtesy of my bike computer after a 40 mile bike ride this morning)

Mom's Birthday Dinner

We hosted a birthday dinner at home last night. It was a dinner for my mom and it was just me, the kids, and her. Dave and my dad (Gramps) were out of town.

The kids and I debated on which restaurant we should take her to for several days, and finally I decided, to cook at home. I love cooking and I especially love special occasions because it gives me an excuse/reason to bake something new.

I have this crazy love of baking. Muffins, scones, I will try every variety of chocolate chip cookie out there, but because I believe we need to eat healthy at home, I often don't bake as much as I wished.

So, this worked out great. Plus, I don't really love restaurant food. I can never find anything tasty enough given what I really like to eat. And my kids always eat crap! Their out-to-eat diet wavers between chicken nuggets, pizza, corn dogs, hot dogs and spaghetti. Yuck.

I am not going to reveal my mom's age (she might kill me) but I will say that I can only hope to look as good as she does.

Here is what we had:



Pork Tenderloin, Bread, Bacon and Sage Leave Kabobs - I got the recipe (and the photo - we were too hungry to wait) from the Williams-Sonoma website. Mine actually looked better than this. I used large pieces of bread and went with a sourdough I picked up at Whole Foods that day - it was perfect. I say if you are serving this to guests, the more random sizes the meat, the more rustic and prettier it looks on the table. Very easy to do - and just perfect.

We also had a really great tossed salad full of great summer veggies, carrots, cucumbers, red onions, apple juice sweetened dried cranberries - Yum!

To top it all off - we (the kids and I) baked a Strawberry Plum Crumble. It was so sweet and buttery. Something you must try and very easy. We served ours with some homemade vanilla ice cream. My mouth is watering just thinking about it.

Strawberry Plum Crumble

1 Pint of strawberries
4 Plums - pitted and sliced

Place them in a pie pan or tart pan - I seriously could have just stopped there.



Combine 1/2 cup of sugar and 1 -2 tablespoons cornstarch - sprinkle on top.



To make the crumble -

1/3 cup cold butter - diced small
3/4 cup wheat flour
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup oats

Combine and the sprinkle on top -



Bake at 350 degrees for a half an hour.



Wow!





Original recipe and photos courtesy of Dinner with Julie.

New Year, New Goals

No, I did not go out and drink too much last night and confuse it for the new year. Today is my birthday (no. 38) and so I decided it was a good time to set some new goals. A friend of mine who writes a blog by the title Dalai Lina wrote a post about goal setting a few weeks ago when school started - also a great time to set/renew some goals and it got me thinking.

If you check our her post she broke up goal setting into seven categories:

Financial
Career
Health/Wellness
Family/Home
Recreational
Relationship
Charity/Volunteer

So, I started thinking in those categories. And because I know that by writing them down (and especially) by putting them out here, it makes me a little more accountable. Generally, I am pretty good at these types of things - we shall see!? What I have done here is just put down the yearly goals - I am going to have to do a little work to break these up into monthly and weekly goals. But this is my start.

Financial - Focus on the necessities - spend money on the things that provide value to our family - time together, adventures, etc. things that help us live a better life - probably means a new dress for a party (when I have several in my closet upstairs that I have worn once) isn't in the cards for me this year!

Career - (Working on this)

Health/Wellness - Without sacrificing the "fitness" I have worked so hard for since my early twenties, I am going to really focus on being pain free by September 6, 2011. Meditate - that is going to be a hard one (anyone with suggestions, please send them my way). Practice more yoga. Continue pilates and continue my focus on healthy foods, smoothies, snacks, etc. Keep writing...here and elsewhere!

Family/Home - Get rid of all the processed food snacks. Promote each of my children's unique qualities (see photo of Clara above). If they want to wear knee pads to school - good for them. Create some kind of recreation room for my kids. A place in the house they can go and just be!

Recreational - Two great family vacations and make time to take a class/workshop once a month, i.e. cooking class, photography class, rock climbing, etc.

Charity/Volunteer - I want to find something the kids and I can do - still working on this - any ideas?

Relationship - This is hard for me. I think generally I just want to be in a better place. More on this some other time - I will definitely have to define some real objectives here.

Well - that is it in a nutshell. I have a lot of crazy details in my journal - but I will spare you. Have a great labor day. Oh and I found this the other day - I am huge fan of the athletic apparel company lululemon! They had a great post the other day about goal setting - I have copied it here.


Why goal set?

There is a way to write your goals so they are powerful and meaningful. Goals set an intention and are not a one-time deal but an exercise for living every day.

Goal setting:

provides focus
creates your life
helps you discover your personal path
teaches you where you are taking personal responsibility
what is a goal?

A goal is a written statement with a deadline (or “by when”, as we call them here at lululemon). A goal inspires you to do the work. Your goals should excite and even scare you.

A goal is not a ‘to do’ list or an idea, what your family/boyfriend/girlfriend/etc. wants for you, or what society states is for you.

Goals are to create what does not already exist.

Goals are based on a long-term plan that has no constraints. Anything is possible. Whatever you need to achieve your long-term goal (skills, funding, experience, etc.) you can gain with time.

Language

Your words create your world and you become what you think about most of the time. Remove the following words from your language and you will reach your goals: try, hopefully, wish, might, maybe.

How to get started

Start from where you are. Reaching goals is hard work, so get ready to dig in and discipline yourself. Accept total responsibility for everything that happens. Ask for feedback along the way.

Questions
Here are some questions to help you start thinking about your ideal life:

• What are you willing to give your life to?
• What are you willing to commit to everyday?
• What causes you to be inspired everyday?
• If a wish could be granted, what would you wish?
• What kind of difference do you want to make in the world?

Your vision
• State your ideal life
• Be descriptive
• Choose a moment in time and explain everything that is going on around you
• Get beyond your life. What is the state of the world?

Writing exercises
- Write your obituary. Imagine your eventual demise. It has an amazing impact on how you live in the moment.
- Write your retirement speech. What would you say? What would your oldest colleague say? What would your mentor say?

Vision board
Collage your ideal life and hang it somewhere you will see it often. Watch it all come into being.