Hello Friday

Now that I have a place to be early in the morning most days of the week, I'm thinking Fridays are going to fast become my favorite. Fridays we are on our own, nowhere to be by this time or that. I love that. Here's some fun that has happened this Friday:

6:30am pilates class that I hate getting up for, but always LOVE once I get there.

Very cool guitar lesson with my very cool teacher, who plays with this super cool band.

Finally lined up a babysitter to see Date Night tomorrow.

As of this morning I am the owner of a silver iPod Nano. I'm finding that working again (even just a little) gives me an excuse to buy things... like iPods... and clothes.

Did you know I won a Design Mom giveaway? My cleaning products are being shipped!

I've hit 400 posts! I'm going to have the longest blurb book known to man. Gotta start on that.

I have been a vegetarian for two weeks and feel great! Made this tomato sauce the other night. Delicious. I'm becoming a huge fan of her site.

Made an appointment for my wonderful cleaning lady (who I love) to come next week. This is my Mother's Day present.

Discovered my new favorite grab-and-throw-in-the-bag snack. Peanut Butter & Jelly Lara Bar. Mmmmm. I got mine at Whole Foods. I've found they have the best selection of Lara Bars. Another favorite find this week is Luna's Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough protein bar. A very yummy treat.

I get to hang out with these guys, and what could be better than that:

Oooooooo.... that freshly squeezed grapefruit juice is a little sour.

Happy Weekend.

Spotted at the Checkout

One of my favorite magazine issues is on stands. Wahoo! In Style's 150 Best Beauty Buys is fantastic. Includes both high-end and low-cost products, which I appreciate. Here are some that have caught my eye already:

Maybelline Dream Mousse Concealer

Revlon ColorStay Mineral Finishing Powder - Brighten.

Dior DiorShow Mascara (I've heard nothing but good things about this stuff. Sometime this year I'll try it - when I feel like splurging).

Who doesn't need a good pair of tweezers? And supposedly you can get these at Target.

Nivea Touch of Happiness Body Wash in Orange Blossom.

L'oreal Vive Pro Hi-Gloss Shampoo and Conditioner for color treated hair.

And oh how I'd love to splurge on some Fresh Sugar Face Polish, or a new Clinique Night Cream. Maybe when I'm in need of a little pick-me-up...

Now I'm gonna go grab a Diet Coke and settle in to my copy.

Remedy

I've had quite the stressful past few days. Some personal crappy things going on, plus taking Tyler to his first dentist appointment (traumatic to say the least), followed by a big ol' Tyler tantrum when it was time to put on his karate uniform (called a Gi, I have learned). I've also started working two days a week...training to teach music class with Ladybug Music (which by the way, I think is going to be awesome - but more on that later). Anyway, your body does this funny thing, right, when things are a little crazy and stressful, and you're the mom taking care of everyone and everything else (except yourself). Well, it breaks down and makes you STOP. So I'm sitting here on the couch watching American Idol, with the aches and chills and a very sore throat. I've popped about every pill, vitamin, and glass of OJ possible. Now I'm sipping on this sore throat home remedy:

1 cup very hot water

Juice of one whole lemon

2 Tbsp. honey

2-3 tsp. apple cider vinegar

Pinch of cayenne

Oooooooo. Tangy. Let's hope there's truth to this miracle cure because nothing is worse than a sick mama (since we all know the world doesn't stop for her). Have your own home remedy you swear by? Please pass along because I'll try anything to avoid a doctor's office. Now back to the couch, Idol, Glee, and a little take-care-of-ME time.

Tyler + Julia

We had a wonderful time in San Diego with Ellen, Julia, and baby Jake. Tyler and Julia hit it off right away. The San Diego Zoo was beautiful (easy to see why it's world famous). Weather was perfect. And it was really nice to be just me & Tyler. He got pretty spoiled with lunch at the Elephant Odyssey, souvenirs, and ice-cream... but it's nice to do that every once in a while. (Don't feel too bad for Audrey, though. Daddy took her to Toys R Us and Pinkberry). Here's a little of our zoo day. Sadly I don't have photos of me, Ellen, or Jake. But that's only because we were having so much fun, and when I'm having fun I'm a horrible photographer.

Tyler figuring out where to go next. He was really into the map and figuring out exactly where we were.

Checkin' out the sleeping cheetah.

Pretty Julia.

Handsome boy studying the koalas.

Seeing the pandas (and polar bears) was a real treat since we don't have any at our zoo.

Helicopter pilot. This was a highlight - he would've stayed here for hours if there wasn't line of kids waiting to get on next.

The Skyfari was a HUGE hit! So fun. (I loved it, too)

End of the day ice-cream cones.

Thanks for hosting us Ellen! Can't wait to come back again soon for the next adventure. Next time Legoland??

Can you find my oldest child?

No Audrey is not holding him hostage. I came in the room this morning and found Tyler willingly playing in this extra large storage bin. His new favorite spot. Maybe there's some Cirque Du Soleil in his future?

Old Friends

Today after preschool I'm taking Tyler to San Diego to spend a couple days with my best friend from high school, Ellen. She moved to the San Diego area with her family two years ago, and we're just now finally getting together (I blame the babies we've both had during these two years). It'll be nice to catch up, and let Tyler play with her three year-old, Julia. I'm excited to have a little Tyler time, too. We're probably heading to the San Diego Zoo, or Wild Animal Park - he'll have a blast. Here is a picture of me and Ellen from back in the day... somewhere around 1994 or '95. Juniors in high school maybe? Aren't my sunglasses awesome! Hopefully we'll get a better shot today.

What We're Eating Over Here

Adam and I are both really enjoying our vegetarian diet. I think I have a list of a dozen or more recipes I want to try. Vegetarian Sloppy Joe's made with black beans. Sweet Potato Peanut Soup. Homemade tomato sauce. Here's a little of what we've eaten so far:

Chipotle. The vegetarian burrito bowl and a diet coke. Mmmmmm.

Cooking Light's Chipotle Bean Burritos

Sweet Potato and Lentil Stew served over couscous or quinoa. Side of garlicky collard greens. This stew recipe makes a ton. It fed us for about three days.

Spinach Enchiladas Verdes. I added sauteed mushrooms inside, and sprinkled chopped red onion, olives, chopped tomatoes, and fresh cilantro on top (because I had them on hand). Use Trader Joe's Salsa Verde if you can. Delish!

Homemade Pesto

For a sweet tooth:

Lemon Sorbet with fresh basil (or mint). Whiz store bought lemon sorbet in the blender until just soft, then add a little basil or mint (not too much). Really yummy and refreshing.

Strawberries with crunchy almond topping. Just sub almond extract for the amaretto if you want. And I like greek yogurt on top.

Lots of yummy smoothies.

And I have to give a shout out to Alicia Silverstone's, The Kind Diet. I can't say enough about this book. I find it very inspiring. Sure some of the ingredients are strange, and honestly I haven't made any of the "weird" recipes yet. But I've made about six or seven of her recipes and they have all been delicious. Not to mention how much it teaches you about the food you're eating and how it serves your body. Next up are Fruity French Lentils, Summertime Succotash, and definitely her Peanut Butter Cups as a treat. I will for sure be cooking my way through this book.

Doing good on budgeting, using what we buy, and finding ways to cook leftover fresh veggies. Trying not to waste, or let things go bad in the fridge. Cravings are minimal, which for me is a miracle! One week down, and we're no where near stopping. Feelin' good.

Earth Week

Earth Day is Thursday. I'm trying focus a little more on Planet Earth all week long. Getting outside as much as possible (which isn't hard since the weather is gorgeous). Today we walked to the park and talked about Earth Day as we strolled, pointing out flowers and smelling them along the way. The air on the walk to the park really smells delicious - we have some great neighborhood gardeners. This afternoon we planted some wild flower seeds we'd been given, in a tiny pot on our balcony. We're also watching a lot of Life. (Have you seen it? If not it's a must-see. So far the reptiles episode is my favorite). Now I'm not the most environmentally conscious person you'll find, but Earth Day always feels like a good time to make a few resolutions. Like:

BRING MY REUSABLE BAGS - EVERYWHERE!!!!

Eat less meat, and organic as much as possible. (This goes right along with our diet right now, and I'm finding that when you eat less meat, you have more money to spend on better quality produce.)

Frequent my farmers markets more often.

Keep cleaning green.

Talk to Audrey and Tyler more about loving planet Earth.

Hike Fryman with the kids.

Reuse whenever possible, rather than buying something new or tossing it out.

What will you do to celebrate Earth Day? What will you do to honor this planet that is ours to use, nurture, and love?

Finish Line

We did it! $1,770 total raised. Thanks for all the support and love. We are so grateful. It was truly a wonderful and inspiring experience, and a lot of fun to share it as a family. Hoping to make it back in 2011.

This Is It!

Last chance to donate for the Parkinson's Beach Brigade! Walk is tomorrow. Many thanks to all who have supported us. We are beyond grateful, and feeling quite humbled. Haven't done so yet? Donate today and support Team Tait. $1655 raised so far. And I'm only $10 away from my own personal fundraising goal of $1000. If you have a spare dollar or two, please help me hit it! 1 day 'til we walk!

One Date a Week

Adam is officially on hiatus! Wahoo! Yay for husband being around. Boo for big ol' pay cut. We have a long list of things we wanna get done while he's off work. One of them is One Date a Week. Trying to be a little more creative, meaning only the occasional dinner & a movie. Today's date is foot massages at Happy Feet. A co-worker of Adam's recommended it. Here are some other ideas:

Partner stretch class at my pilates studio and Hugos (I call this our hippie date. Can you tell it's my idea?).

Driving Range

Santa Monica Pier - We've never done the ferris wheel.

Occasional movies - I do really want to see Date Night, and summer movies are just around the corner.

Hiking Fryman, or a new trail.

Some sort of cooking class, or cooking dates in general.

Concerts - We had so much fun at Bon Jovi and it was worth every penny.

Theatre. Seeing shows all the time is one thing I really miss about New York City living. Finally got tickets to In the Heights this summer.

Dodgers game

The Getty

What are some of your favorite dates? LA area ideas are great. Or cheap-o date nights, since our funds will be slowly dwindling these next six weeks. I'd love to hear your favorites.

Soccer Mom

Today I am officially a soccer mom. First practice this afternoon. Hope it goes well - this little man is one heck of an athlete already, so outlook is good.

Wanna Be a Vegetarian?

Hey, wanna be a vegetarian with us for a week or two? Long story short, Adam is about to go on hiatus and his set has been notoriously un-healthy. He asked me if I wanted to do a homemade, clean eating diet. Of course I said yes. So we start Thursday (cheating Saturday night because I'll be eating bacon) and go until... well, not sure yet. At least one week, but maybe more. It's not a "diet" per se, just eating super healthy and clean. No crazy hunger allowed. Here's a sampling of what we'll be eating (work in progress):

Breakfast: Grain cereal (like oatmeal) w fruit/nuts, and plain yogurt. Maybe breakfast quinoa. Egg whites with veggies and a little cheese.

Lunch: Quinoa salad, Trader Joe's easy rice and beans, baked sweet potato, soup, Asian Spinach Salad (without the chicken), lentil salad, greek salad.

Snacks: Hummus and snap peas, cheese, greek yogurt w/fruit, nuts, or wheat germ, trail mix, baby carrots, smoothies, coconut water, kale chips, avocado, peanut butter/almond butter on apples or slice of whole grain bread, Lara bars, Kind bars, homemade salsa.

Dinner: More soups, black bean mango salad on tortillas, whole grain pasta w/ veggies, polenta and roasted veggies, guacamole salad, this delicious quinoa recipe, healthy Mexican food, very clean dinners like brown rice with roasted pine nuts and veggies.

Dessert: the darkest chocolate, frozen grapes or bananas, tea (caffeine-free chai sweetened w/ honey & milk), baked apple. I will need to do some research here because we both have a sweet tooth.

Sources for help:
The Kind Diet
Clean

The Perricone Promise
The Whole Living website has a lot of great ideas and recipes.
This blog.
A smoothie cookbook I have.

Add drinking plenty of water, and taking our vitamins. We're also trying to make it as affordable as possible. It might mean extra trips to the grocery store to eat fresh (and organic when possible), but that's okay. I'm sure I'll hit a farmers market to get some inspiration, too. Join us if you'd like! And please, pass along your favorite vegetarian recipes, snacks or otherwise!

Sassy

We call this her Peggy Bundy look.

Tulips

These are the tulips that have been making me happy this week. So pretty.

Happy Bridal Shower Weekend to my wonderful friend, Anne. Can't wait to celebrate!

Friday Morning

We love Travel Town. For many reasons. It's free (minus the train ride). It's a 10 minute drive away. It's a glorified playground full of old trains to climb on, picnic tables, plenty of running room, museum and toy shops. We often spend mornings there with a bunch of friends and bring lunch, enjoying the beautiful LA weather. That's what we did this morning. A good kick-off to the weekend.

Until next time.

Happy

These are things that made me happy today:

Listening to Audrey sing the lyrics to a Bon Jovi song from the back seat. "Learn to Love".

White tulips from Trader Joe's sitting on my kitchen table. (And Trader Joe's in general).

Buying Tyler his first pair of soccer cleats.

Adam getting some great compliments from his boss.

Walking from The Americana to the Soccer Store, and feeling for a moment like I was in Queens.

Watching Tyler practice his karate moves at The Americana, totally unprompted. Like karate just took over his body for a second.

Sunshine and 70 degree temps - it has me daydreaming of beach days.

The free samples drugstore.com put in my most recent package.

Listening to the Spring Awakening cast soundtrack in the car and when a song was over Audrey would yell, "One more time!". Look out Broadway.

A Wetzel's Pretzels Pepperoni Jalapeno Pretzel for dinner, and a diet coke. (Okay - this one made me feel more guilty than happy, but oh well).

I can now play three chords on the guitar that sound halfway decent!

Technically this happened late last night but, talking to Jen on the phone for a long time. I love that girl. One of my oldest and dearest friends.

Making friends with a new preschool mommy at the park, and really talking - not just surface, talking-about-your-kids, getting-to-know-you talking.

A new episode of Vampire Diaries.

I haven't killed my kids after about 48+ hours with just me and them. Another 24 to go and we will have Adam around.

GLEE on Oprah, finally watched it today. Sooooo good. I love Mr. Schuester. The dance-off was awesome!

The $1,385.00 we've raised for Parkinson's Disease. Go Team Tait!

I'd love to hear... What made you happy today?

Latest Update

I've increased my personal fundraising goal to $1,000! Not sure if I will hit it, but I sure hope so. I'm puttin' it out there. We are beyond thrilled with all we've raised so far, thanks to YOU. There are a few of you out there who have asked me for the link. So here it is. Donate today! Thanks so much for all the support. We are definitely feelin' the love. 11 days 'til we walk!

Oh, and here's another link for you. If you've been watching and loving Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution, sign his petition here. He's taking it to the White House after the series airs. Definitely worth my signature.

Happy Easter Weekend

Egg hunt anyone?

Friday's Revolution

I recorded Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution by mistake one night. Now I'm in love. Something to look forward to watching Friday nights. Pretty inspiring stuff, and I really believe in what he's trying to do. Kinda makes me feel guilty for making chicken nuggets inspired to cook more for my kids, especially on the nights it's just me and them. He grows on you, too. Must be the accent... and the drive. I think I have a new crush. Watch him tonight!