Laughter is the Best Medicine!

Some days having kids is the best medicine. Today didn't start off too well and I didn't really feel great all day. The kiddos have been watching some holiday movies as I work on gift ideas. The girl child gets up from the couch, looks at me and says - "Do you know who got 2 treats?" She points her thumb to herself and says "This girl, right here." I love it!

It's time for some homebrew

Since May, Kevin and I have been talking about brewing beer. I'm a chemical engineer, we both enjoy beer, it really just makes sense. We've been reading the books we have plus plenty of articles from Beer Advocate Magazine. Last week we finally decided to take the plunge and brew our own beer. 

Step one was to get some improved equipment and the ingredients. We ended up ordering from Northern Brewer a Deluxe Beer Starter Kit with glass carboys, bottling bucket, funnels, tubing, locks, siphons, bottle caps, etc etc. We also decided that for the first batch, it would be wise just to use a recipe kit that included all the ingredients we needed to brew a certain style of beer. Based on the reviews, total time to make, and what we were in the mood for, we chose to brew a British Bitter.

All of our boxes arrived on Saturday, so we hoped to start the brew process on Sunday. The start time would all be determined by the yeast. We ordered a liquid yeast and it could take it anywhere from 3 hours to a few days to fully activate. So we smacked the yeast packet (literally) and let it get to work.

Yeast container is all puffed and ready to go!

 Now we are ready to brew. Basically you boil, cool, add yeast, wait, bottle, wait again, enjoy! Today we did the first three steps and started step 4. First up was to add spring water to a boil kettle with crushed malts.

 

Boil kettle with the crushed malt ready to be added

The malt steeped for 20 minutes and the mixture was brought to a boil. Once at a boil, a malt syrup was added. We now have wort.

Thank you for the flavor and color you will impart in the beer

Once the wort was brought back to a boil, it was time to add the first dose of hops. The hops was added and the timer set. With 15 minutes left, another dose of hops and a dose of a dry malt would be added. Then with 1 minute left, a final dose of hops is added. 

Once the boil time was over, it was into an ice bath to cool the wort as quickly as possible. At the same time we needed to sanitize all the equipment that will be used to transfer and hold the beer as it ferments. We purchased a solution called Idophor, but ended up using a what came with the recipe kit, StarSan. 

Transferring the sanitizing solution to the carboy. This stuff is foamy!

Once everything was sanitized, it was time to add more spring water and the wort to the fermenter. After everything is transferred and the carboy is filled to 5 gallons, the specific gravity of the wort is measured. When the wort is cool enough, the yeast is added. Then it's time to seal it up and let the yeast get to work. In 1-2 weeks, active fermentation will be complete and time to move on to bottling.

Ready to ferment!

Check back in a few weeks when it's time to bottle. Between now and them, stop by and help us get enough bottles ready to use!

My little baker

One of the things that I always looked forward to being able to do as a Mom is to bake cookies with my kids. If you know me, you know that I love to bake. I also love to cook, but baking is my specialty. Maddie and I had made some cookies in the past, with varying success and she didn't do a whole lot except watch. Over the weekend, we made cut out cookies and she was a big help! 

I made the dough ahead of time so it could chill. Then we rolled it out and Mad used all the cookie cutters to make the cookies. We mad stars, frogs, feet (yeah I have a foot cookie cutter), and her favorite butterflies (she is such a girl). 

I think she needs a smaller apron!

With her favorite cookie cutter - the butterfly

As the cookies baked, we made the icing. We made white, purple, and green. Before icing, you always have to taste the cookies to make sure they came out OK!

Tasting her cookies

Finally it was time to ice the cookies. Maddie added the blue, pink, and yellow sprinkles to the cookies. She did a great job and was very exciting to show off her handiwork (and eat it too)!

Look at her concentration...adding sprinkles is a big deal

Years in the making - we can finally use it!!

So I was going to walk through the ENTIRE process we had to take to get the tub clean, but that would be long and boring. So here is the short of it.

1. Fill the tub with water. Discover that there is A LOT of rust in our water. Add enzyme to clean out the lines. Run tub for 1 hour and let sit overnight.

2. Drain tub. Wash down the sides and bottom of the tub. Refill and overfill tub with water. Use an improvised filter (ie old coffee filters attached to hose with zip ties). Add a large amount of Clorox to kill any lingering nasties. Run tub for an hour.

3. Drain tub again. Refill tub with aforementioned improvised filter. I am REALLY not looking forward to seeing our water bill. Balance alkalinity, pH, and hardness. Add starter bromine (if you are going that way) and shock with Chlorine.

4. Let tub get to temperature, make sure everything is at the right levels, Enjoy!!

Valuable lessons we learned - 

1. If you ask a pool supply place about a hose filter or Chlorine neutralizer, they will look at you like you are an alien (at least in this area). You are better off finding it online. Same with a new filter. Although they had at least knew what we needed, they just didn't have it in stock.

2. When you need to add 2 oz  or 4 Tablespoons of Clorox per 100 gallons of water, don't multiply 4 Tablespoons for 16 Tablespoons, then translate that into 16 oz. That's twice as much Clorox as you need to add and it means there is more work to be done.

3. The best way to bring down a tub with WAY too much residual chlorine is to just remove some water and add fresh. OR if it's almost at an acceptable level, have you husband sit in the tub after a run.

4. We should have gotten this thing working a year ago.

Years in the making...

When Andy and Nicole bought there house a few years ago (thinking it's been around 5 or so), the owners left a hot tub. Andy and Nicole didn't want it, so Kevin and I said we would take it. The tub made it's way to my parents house first were it got some needed repair work. There were a few leaks, which doesn't really work for a hot tub. My Dad got it all fixed up and working so that we could take it. So, almost 2 years ago (when we had a u-haul available), we transported the tub from my parents house to our garage. 

Where it sat for a year.

Then last year, when all the SFU guys were visiting for the home XC meet, they moved in to the back patio.

Where it sat for almost a year.

Until finally, last Friday we had the electricians come out and run the shutoff box and line so the hot tub would FINALLY have power. So, since it has been at least 5 years since the thing was used and who knows how the people who had it before cared for it, we had a bit of work ahead of us.

Which, I will detail in additional posts or else this sucker will be WAY too long.

Maddie's Thought of the Day

As I was helping Mad get ready for bed today, I told her she better go sit on the potty before we brushed her teeth. She looked at me matter of factly and said, "Mommy, I went potty yesterday before bed, I am good."

Yeah, thanks for trying, but go anyway.

I'm Gonna Try

I just saw the trailer for the new movie I Don't Know How She Does It starring SJP based on a book by Allison Pearson. Trailer for the Movie, although I liked the one I saw on TV better.

The short synopsis is that it's about Kate Reddy a manager of a hedge fund with two small children and how she juggles life. I really hope it's a worthwhile flick to see. I can completely relate to working full time, but at the same time spending as much time as you can with your kids, having a relationship with your husband, trying to keep your house in some semblance of order, and fitting in a few moments for yourself to exercise or read or do a hobby or just decompress. It is a juggle and there are times when I just want to crawl back under the covers and hide. I don't, of course, and try everyday to be the best mom, wife, engineer, etc that I can.

There was a quote at the end of the trailer that made me think...Kate is talking to her husband Richard (presumably after a difficult time in their marriage) and she says, "Me without that job isn't me, but also me without you and Ben and Emily is nothing." I like what I do (if I didn't like getting to work at 3:45 am some days, I would have found a new job by now) and it's definitely a huge part of who I am. But, at the end of the day (and many times in the beginning too), there is no place I would rather be then at home with Kevin and the kiddos. I think being away from Kevin and the kids all day makes me really appreciate the time we do have together. There is certainly a balance that has to be worked on to have the career and the family too. So far, I think we are doing a pretty good job at it.

The song that they played at the end of the trailer - Sabrina Starke - A Woman's Gonna Try is awesome. I love Sabrina Starke's voice. The song is upbeat and has a wonderful message. I think it's a great sentiment for kids, family, life, and even work. When ever there is love involved, I'll try and do whatever it takes.  I may make mistakes, but I'm still gonna try.

Since the movie doesn't come out until September, I am thinking about picking up the book to read. Let's face it, it's not like I would actually go to the theater. The last movie I saw in a theater was The Departed and that was released in 2006. Plus books are usually better than the movie anyway. The reviews for the book are good, although there were a lot of complaints about the ending...that it was wrapped up too nicely. Isn't that what we want though? After a tough day or week of craziness, it would be nice for things to wrap up nicely with a happy ending. True, it doesn't always happen like that in real life, but books and movies are a way to escape real life, so I'll take it.

I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream!

We are ice cream fanatics and snobs. There is always at least 2 quarts of ice cream in our house. We eat it at least 4 nights a week (another reason we both run so much). If it's box store bought, it's Breyers. If it's not Breyers, it's Vale Wood. If it's cake, it's Dairy Queen (got a peanut butter cup one for my birthday that was awesome!). 

For Father's Day this year, I thought it would be neat to make our own ice cream. I did great a really nice ice cream maker, but the whole making ice cream part isn't really an activity for the whole family. It's not like we are cranking a wooden crank with the ice and rock salt freezing the ice cream. It's an electric mixer that does all the work for you. It's fairly noisy too. But, it does a good job, so I really can't complain. It's pretty much become a toy for me to play with (like I needed another).

I have made quite a few batches now and am finding that there is a certain learning curve. It took me 3 batches to perfect my vanilla recipe. This was a key one to get right since it's by far Kevin's most favorite flavor. I guess I should add that ALL the ice cream flavors we eat start with a vanilla base. Neither of us is a chocolate fan. I believe there is one exception to this rule. I started with a recipe I found online (All Recipes - my favorite website for finding recipes) and tweak my technique and the recipe based on reviews and our personal preference. Now Kevin says it's his prefered vanilla (used to be Breyers Natural Vanilla). 

Making gelato was a new experience.  The first time I had inferior equipment which resulted in making green tea flavored scrambled eggs. Needless to say, that got thrown out! The second attempt was considerably better and resulted in a nice creamy Green Tea Gelato. It was good, but not my favorite. I think a Chai Tea Latte flavor may be really tasty.

Over the weekend, we went up to the cabin. On the property around the cabin are tons of wild blackberry bushes. We picked about 3 cups to bring home. I was thinking of making just a blackberry ice cream, but instead decided to make a blackberry cheesecake ice cream. The cheesecake ice cream was easy...I just took my vanilla base recipe and added in a box of instant cheesecake pudding. That made for a really thick and creamy custard like base all without having to worry about tempering eggs! Then I made a syrupy sauce with the blackberries. I swirled the sauce, graham cracker crust pieces, and the cheesecake ice cream together. I need to work on my swirling technique, but it was still delicious!

Making our own ice cream has been fun to do, even if it's not the family fun time I thought it would be. It's been interesting to experiment with different flavors and techniques. We'll see what fun (or interesting) flavors we come up with next! Family and friends may even be subjected to my ice cream around holidays.

On a side note, it's been a long time coming, but our next experiment in home creations will be beer! We just need to get our butts in gear to figure out what kind to make and get the ingredients for it. Stay tuned!

Oh how I long to be a locavore

A year ago, I had the grand scheme that for 30 days we would be locavores. Essentially, we would eat food and drinks that were produced within a 100 mile radius of where we live. That turned out to be much harder than we thought. 

I can say that we do have an amazing dairy farmer that we get home delivered products from. Vale Wood Farms is just up the road in Loretto, PA and has an abundant offering of dairy products. In addition to milk, we absolutely love their cottage cheese and sour cream. Their sour cream is thick, creamy, and so delicious. It's gotten to the point where we are sour cream snobs. For dairy products, it really doesn't get any better.  

We certainly took for granted the abundance of farmer's markets in and around the Butler/Saxonburg area. For where Kevin and I grew up, you could easily get to multiple markets with numerous offerings of fresh picked vegetables and some fruits that is just delicious. Maybe that set our taste bud standards high, but it doesn't come so easily in Cambria County. In early summer we are lucky enough to get delicious sweet corn from a farm near Indiana, PA. Later in the season, they usualy don't venture out this way and our only daily choice is a farm from northern Cambria county that is sub-par at best. The weekly farmer's market in "downtown" Ebensburg only starts at the end of July and frankly, is a little sad. 

So, for when my parents came out for my birthday last week, what did I ask for but some good Western PA produce. I got zukes, cukes, beans, tomatoes, and corn (Mom also made a yummy peach cobbler). the produce hasn't disappointed us either! I guess we will just do what we can and enjoy the local home-grown produce when we can find it. Just remember how lucky you are Western PA residents!

The Number Fifteen

Fifteen. It's the number after fourteen and before sixteen. In English, it's the smallest natural number with seven letters in it's spelled name (thank you wikipedia). In Irish, fifteen is a cúig déag. Fifteen is a triangular number, a hexagonal number, and a pentatope number. There was apparently a TV show called Fifteen. It's a song by Taylor Swift. Fifteen is the atomic number of phosphorus. There are fifteen total individuals in the mollusk species (bet you didn't know that). It's the age of quinceañera, a important birthday for latin american girls. People get fifteen minutes of fame. Fifteen may be all those things, but to me it's so much more.

You see, many years ago on April 19th at the age of 15 I started to date this boy named Kevin. Little did I know the adventure that would start that day. Fast forward a few (ok, more than a few) years and I married that boy. If you take all the digits from the short date of our anniversary and add them up, what do you get? 1+1+2+6+0+5 = 15. So yeah, I make that one work, but give me some credit for actually realizing that in the greater scheme of things. Move ahead another two years and even though she was due on 12/22, our darling daughter was born on 12/15. Another few years later, our sweet boy decided he didn't want to arrive on his Dad's birthday, but wait another 8 days to be born on 3/15. So three of the most important people in my life are all tied to the number fifteen. In fourteen days (should have posted this yesterday, but the dear husband had to do work), it will be fifteen years since that fateful day in April. So in addition to celebrating my father in law and niece's birthdays, we are hoping for some sort of celebration. Hopefully we can come up with something worthy of the number fifteen!

Round and round she goes...

Last week I completed my first track workout for this training session. It had been a while since I had been on the track. There's this crazy thing we have in Pennsylvania between the months of November and April, maybe May, called winter. So with the early darkness and accumulation of snow, getting to the track was not going to happen. Last week was one where we got that sweet glimpse of spring. So the fam decided to take advantage of the beautiful evening and all go over to the track. I could get in a workout and the kids could get some much needed time outdoors. 

The workout I had on tap was 8 by 400 at 5k pace. So that is 8 laps around the track jogging a 200 in between running each 400 around 1:45. It was easy to tell that I hadn't done a track workout in a while. My first 400 was completed in 1:33...WAY too fast. So I dialed it back and completed all the rest in 1:42 to 1:44. The entire time I had a great cheering section that encouraged me on. It gives such a boost of energy for the last 100 of the 400 to hear the kiddos (well, Maddie) yelling out "Run fast Mommy!"

I love track workouts. Sure one of the main purpose is to work your fast twitch muscles, but there are other benefits too. Going to the track really helps give a change of pace to your everyday runs. Yeah, it is just going around in circles, but if you are lucky enough to have a group of people to run with or a running club, it's a social outing too. If you do most of your runs alone (like me), then it's really nice to have people to meet up with. It's also a way to help you break through those mental barriers. When you don't think you can push yourself harder or do another lap, you do it anyway. There is definitely a great feeling of accomplishment at the end. Maddie knows that Mom and Dad go out running on a daily basis. She usually just sees us leaving or getting back. It's nice for her to see Mom and Dad actually running. One of her favorite things to do is to velcro her running shoes and do laps around our breakfast bar/island and tell us that she is running on the track.

Happy Birthday KRD!

Last year for Kev's birthday, we basically sat around twiddling our thumbs waiting for Miles to decide to make his grand entrance. Well, that didn't actually happen until 8 days later. Amidst it all, we didn't really celebrate Kevin's 30th birthday as we should have. That's a major milestone and it deserved more attention than it got. So I decided that we needed to do it right this year.

What is an appropriate birthday present for 31? Something Kevin has been talking about lately was starting to drink scotch. With the help of our friend Mike, we got him to try scotch to see if he liked it. He did, so I bought him a bottle of Macallan 12 year and a book by Michael Jackson (not the one you are thinking of) all about single malt scotch. The perfect gift from his son, a book about running. From Miles he got the book "The Perfect Mile." It is about the race to run the mile in less than 4 minutes. A gift from the 3 year old...a Nerf gun that shoots suction cup darts...what was I thinking on that one?? He loved all the gifts.

We also decided to completely indulge at our meals for the day! We started off the day with good gourmet coffee and cinnamon rolls. While enjoying that, the breakfast casserole I made cooked in the oven. I tried a new recipe that had potatoes, ham, sour cream, and cheese. It was ooey and gooey and paired well with the citrus fruit salad. A few hours later, I started to prep for dinner. For cocktail hour, we started the evening with hors d'oeuvres of a port wine cheese ball and crackers and sausage stuffed mushrooms. We enjoyed Prime Rib, perfect fingerling potatoes, warm goat cheese salad, and yorkshire pudding. Dessert was Birthday Cake Ice Cream from Vale Wood Farms.

The weekend was nice and relaxing. Unfortunately for the birthday boy he came down with the flu and eventually strep throat on his birthday. So the actual day wasn't as happy,  but I think we did a good  job over the weekend celebrating Kevin's 31st Birthday.

Any closer to my goals?

Just before the new year, I listed the goals that I had for 2011. We are two full months in so how am I doing? Let's see....

Keep Up Running - I must say I am doing very well with this. January and February were tough since I wasn't yet training for anything. Plus the lack of daylight and cold/snowy weather also put up road blocks. I still managed to get in about 60 miles each month. So far in March I am doing really well. I have started my training plan for the Pittsburgh Half Marathon. In fact, in the past week I ran 30 miles. Not too shabby. Plus it means I can enjoy an extra scoop of Cow Tracks from Vale Wood Farms...yummy!

Make sure to spend some alone time with my husband - We have managed to sneak in some Julie and Kevin time. We get Date Night once a month. We went away without the kids in February. Plus have started up darts and cards night to spend quality time (as I talked about in a previous post).

More family time - I think we are doing well with this. We are trying to make sure that we spend a lot of time with the kiddos on the weekends. The kids are so much fun and they really enjoy each other too!

Read more books -  Normally I am happy to read 2-3 books a year. I am already on my third this year and it's only the beginning of March! I finished up the Run Like a Mother book (totally recommend for all you running mothers out there). I read Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and can't wait to read the other too. Currently, I am reading The Help (I know Mom, it's about time).

Clean House - I'm working on it. We just got a new bookcase for all our books. That was my first step in getting the Utility Room cleared out and organized. I'm trying to figure out how to store all the kiddos toys so they don't completely take over the house. The garage is in serious need of help, but that is a warmer weather project. This is definitely a work in progress. 

Enjoy Life - I certainly am! There are so many moments when I feel like I need to pinch myself because life is just amazing.  

I conquered one of the three terrors of the fire swamp

Whoa, two posts in one day? I can barely manage two in a month and here I go with two in a day? But I digress...

For two of the half marathons I have run, I used Hal Higdon's Intermediate training plan. For the Pittsburgh Half in May I decided it was time to move to the Advanced training plan. I am by no means an advanced runner, but I wanted something that would challenge me more and push me to train harder than I have before. Today was one of the first steps in this challenge.

In the past, I have taken a rest day after my long run day. Yesterday was my long run and it was the furthest I have run in over two months. In the past, I would get to relax and rest my weary bones and muscles today. After running 9.6 miles yesterday, I needed to get in 3 miles. I felt pretty good, so I thought how hard could this be. Oh how naive of me. Those first few steps were painful. And that first mile I felt like I was running through lightning sand in the fire swamp (hoping to never encounter the flame spurts or R.O.U.S's...especially on the trail once it's passable again). Anyway, I continued on my way and finished those 3 (well I ended up at 3.2) miles. Even though I wanted to turn back before I was even at the end of my road (we're talking a whole 0.03 miles here), I kept going. No doubt this will make me a stronger runner.

Double Bullseye...Winner!

Early on in our marriage, after we bought our house, but before the kids, one night a week (at least) would be darts night. We would hang out in our utility room, drink some beer, have snacks, listen to music and throw darts. It wasn't so much about the games or the beer (usually), but about the time together. We would talk about our day, ideas for the house, and plans for the future. It wasn't just vegging out on the couch, mindlessly watching TV.

Somewhere along the lines, after the kids, we lost that night. It's not hard to see why. As with most people, our lives are crazy. We spend most of the day at stressful jobs. After we come home, we cram so much into a few hours. We run, make dinner, spend time with the kids, get the kids to bed and it's all done in a 3 hour time frame.

After that's all said and done, we just want to shut down. So inevitably we sit on the couch and watch something from the DVR and just veg. There is something lost when that's all you do. It's really important to have the simple talks and connect every day. Last week we brought back darts night. I didn't win the dart games (ok I won the first game of 301 and kicked Kevin's butt at cards later). But we got to spend time together in a way we haven't done in a while...and that's what matters.

Simple Things

Every day there are so many simple things in life to enjoy and be thankful for. Today was no exception. After school today, Maddie ran up to me asked for a nose (what she calls an Eskimo kiss), gave me a big hug and kiss, and said "I love you Mommy." That's the sort of thing that makes any day a hundred times better. Always treasure those simple little things in life.

Life is not complex. We are complex. Life is simple, and the simple thing is the right thing. ~ Oscar Wilde