Recipe for a Winter Workout

Ingredients:

1 24 lb toddler
24 lb toddler's winter gear (size may vary)
itty bitty sled

Recommended, but not necessary:

6 + inches of snow

backyard with a ridiculous hill

Directions:

Snugly wrap, zip, velcro, or otherwise shove maneuver toddler into winter gear. You'll know you've done it right if said toddler cannot move her arms, hands, or neck. It is a good idea to do the same for yourself. Doing so sets a good example.

Go outside. Buckle toddler securely into sled. After a few test pulls through the snow just to get used to things, bend at the knees and hoist the toddler-filled sled part way up the hill. Carefully turn the sled around, and pull down the hill. For extra fun, let go for the last few feet. Giggle, dust off your snowy bum (you probably fell down at some point along the path), and repeat the process.

Marks of success:

You can "feel" your legs, knees, back, and arms in a whole new way.

Your toddler is ridiculously happy and has internalized the word sled.

Her face might look something like this:

Note:

This workout is best followed by a lunch of warm soup and a long nap.

On Winter

As you may have guessed, I'm not one to wax poetic about winter. (that's an awfully strange phrase, by the way, isn't it? wax poetic?) Anyhow, I feel like I owe you at least a little snippet of my winter. It's not my favorite season, but I do tend to be pretty productive in order to combat the cold weather blues. Here are a few of the highlights...


I was fortunate to attend many Penn State football games this season (the team was 11-1!), but this game was probably the most special...and the COLDEST! It was the last game of the regular season, November 22nd, against Michigan State. The stadium was like a snow globe...

And it was the first game my Mimi had ever been to. We didn't sit in the same section, but we did tailgate a teeeeeny bit before the game. My mom and I sat huddled together and stayed for the entire game! It was a good one!

Mom and Mimi

Shortly thereafter, B and I boarded a plane for Atlanta, GA, now home to B's parents. It was our first time to their new home, as well as our first visit to Atlanta. It was truly special to be able to spend a long weekend together with his side of the family after a long period of being apart. It's also always a treat to be able to go somewhere warm when it's "supposed to be" cold outside...This is one of my favorite pictures from Atlanta, because it shows the clear blue sky of the warm day it was, the Autumn colors on the trees, and the Christmas wreaths decorating Olympic Park. Ya just don't see this in Pennsylvania :)

Christmas always comes quickly, riding the coattails of Thanksgiving. And I'm always grateful for this as it lifts the spirits at just the right time of year! As in the past, this year there was much production in my kitchen. I always try to learn a "new" recipe from my Grandma's old recipe files. Last year I tried springerles. They were yummy, but I didn't quite get the technique down. I've also continued the annual tradition of making an applesauce spice fruitcake - a treat I cannot go without!

This year's new addition was Lebkuchen. They are spicy molasses cookies with a lovely lemon glaze. They're the kind of cookie that just get better with age. For that matter, so are the springerles and the fruit cake. I have a thing for baked goods that can stick around for awhile :)

Lebkuchen

The most special accomplishment this Christmas, by far, was the fact that the gifts B and I gave were almost entirely homemade. And if they weren't homemade, they were bought from local artists and businesses. It was the great fulfillment of our garden's and kitchen's bounty. I don't think I can go back to store bought presents again...(remind me of that in a few years if/when I've got a kid or two...)

The New Year always brings with it a new batch of library conferences to go to. They seem to come in quickfire succession. The Midwinter conference of the American Library Association took me to Denver this year. I really wasn't a fan. The picture of the stallion might give you a clue as to why. There was, however, fabulous food to be found, for which I was grateful!

Stallion in the Snow Glorious Japanese Food

Finally, to sort of nail the lid on the coffin of Winter, and kick off into Spring, I joined a group of friends (the same group who gathered to learn the ways of bread, cheese, and yogurt--now affectionately known as the "cheese choir") to learn from a local expert baker how to make springerles - the right way. This was such a meaningful workshop for me, because I knew that in learning, I was carrying on a family tradition. I firmly believe that I channel my grandparents' spirits in the act of baking the food they lovingly made when I was a child and that I can still taste to this day.

Before taking this class, I never thought of baking springerles as anything but a Christmas activity, but the variety of molds available and their different applications (making paper, topping cupcakes, etc.) inspired me to give them a try in other times of the year. Here now, for you, a Springtime springerle.

Liminality

Liminality - "the condition of being on a threshold or at the beginning of a process" (Webster's New Millennium Dictionary of English); Also, where (how?) I've been for the last 2 months...

Anyone who knows Central Pennsylvania knows that just about the time you're ready for winter to be over, it starts to snow. It's been that kind of Spring, both in the natural world and in the personal one. For the last two months, I'm pretty sure B and I have come to understand a little bit better how that poor caterpillar feels all stuck up in his cocoon. At the same time plants and buds and caterpillars have been wrestling to burst forth and escape the clutches of Winter, we've been struggling to acknowledge, accept, and in some cases embrace, a great deal of change in our lives.

March 1, after a sudden onset of illness (though it had been a long time coming), B's Nana died. We were blessed to be with her as she faced death, blessed that she didn't suffer for a long time, blessed to gather together with family...but the void left by Nan's absence is SO great. Just writing about it now causes nearly every emotion in the pot to bubble up inside me...joy, sadness, comfort, pain, laughter, smiles, tears and memories.

The other big change of the season is that after a lifetime of living in Pennsylvania, and 15 years in their current household, B's parents are relocating....to Georgia! A great opportunity for his dad that couldn't be left on the table. They're excited, we're excited for them, and yet it's going to be SO different not to be able to drive an hour and a half down the road on a moment's notice to visit with them. The last several weeks have been filled with moving furniture from Nana's and his parents, cleaning basements, sorting through memories, and making new ones.

Things are starting to become clearer now...and more realistic, as B's dad is now working in GA and their PA house is on the market...his mom will shortly follow. There is such excitement at the promise of new adventures...but we will miss them and their proximity. Hooray for free nationwide long distance cell phone plans, blogs like this one, email, and frequent flyer miles (as long as the damn airlines don't all disappear!).

A side note is that during all of this time we've been computerless, which I think might have been by some grand design of One who knows us better than we know ourselves--and knows what's good for us! It's been refreshing to go home and be completely engaged in the personal rather than the virtual. Even now that our computer is back and functional, I hope to use it less than before.

I started this post with the word liminality. I've come to realize that it is an extremely important state of being - though not one that I'd wish on anyone forever! When life becomes turbulent and I lose my sense of grasp on things (are we ever REALLY in control??) I find myself feeling like an outsider looking in at the "normal" that is everyone else's lives; I feel like that cocooned caterpillar - all squished up and DYING to be able to burst forth and fly.

Our cocoon started to burst the first weekend of April, when we traveled to San Diego to celebrate the marriage of a life-long friend to his absolutely awesome fiancee. Weddings always elicit emotion, and when it's a marriage that is truly meant to be and brings friends and family together from past, present, near, and far, they are even more special. It as a wonderful weekend...we were so happy for our friends, and were able to reunite with some whom we've lost touch with in the past few years. Another of our childhood friends is expecting his first child this summer! With all of the joy and fun of that weekend...and the refreshing abrupt change in geography, our butterfly wings started to emerge.

Last Saturday, we left the liminality behind. It was truly amazing how I physically felt our departure from it. Suddenly, Spring won out over winter...Friday it rained, and Saturday the buds were bursting forth and the daylillies were reaching out of the ground with their first leaves, and the grass was GREEN! That day, we went into our yard, and broke ground for our first garden. This garden is a huge step for us. It's a mode of self provision, a living symbol of our work, a connection with our past - both our human heritage and our family traditions - and it will be something that we learn from. Perhaps most importantly, it is something that will connect us directly to the miracles and cycles of germination, growth, bounty, harvest, and yes, winter.

WELCOME SPRING!!!!!!!!!

Saturday, April 12, 2008

Dear Retail Giant

Dear Retail Giant,

Not sure if you noticed, but the calendar still says February. Here in Central Pennsylvania, and the rest of the U.S. for that matter, there is really very little need for bathing suits right now. Today the sun's out, which has brought the thermometer reading all the way up to 10 degrees. I'd consider purchasing one of your brand new patio sets, the better to enjoy the sun, but the wind chill just might kill me, especially if I really am sporting one of those teeny weeny bikinis you've got on your racks. And then there's the fact that I just got started on my annual weight loss resolution (see previous post), and I'm just not quite ready to bear it all.

With our latest round of snow and ice (remember, it does snow in February!), we found that we could really use a new shovel, and we ran out of ice melt, so that was on our shopping list too. So we saddled up the hybrid SUV and went to the nearest, handiest, has all you could ever need retail giant, only to find that we'd be better off planting shrubs than in removing ice from our driveway. Not one single snow shovel or bucket of ice melt was to be found. This situation might be acceptable in mid-March, but on the 8th of February???

And that brings me back again to my resolution. I'm doing great! So well that I might need to buy a new pair of pants or two. What's that? Pants season is over? You'll have to wait until July (as that's when winter clothes come in) to find another pair of cords or slacks or.....?? A*$!@!

So, giant retailer, as I sit in my house watching the snow blow by the window, pile up in my driveway with the next storm rolling in tomorrow, you will be the very last one I think of should a need arise!

The local hardware store might have to charge more because they can't afford to buy/store the massive quantities of stock that you do, but they know that you still need shovels and snow pants in February.

The down-town apparel shop is surely more expensive, but they can tell you where their clothing was made, and they keep their sweaters through at least March knowing that we do indeed need them.

Mr. Giant Retail Store, bigger is most certainly not always better!

January 23

January 23
Originally uploaded by annielivre

I love the view from my office window. ('scuse the dying leaves on my Peace Lilly.) From my perch I can see right over to the main campus mall. Today it's nice and sunny, though the snow on the grass is the dead giveaway that it's freeeeeeezing out there! People walking are all business today, probablly because they're so darn cold. Accuweather's headline says it all. At the moment it's 25, with a "real feel" of 16. I'm thankful for the sun!