Crossfit and Gardening

Just the other day I spied a large, dead and unattractive shrub growing on the side of my house. I'd actually been noticing it for some weeks now, but I don't garden unless it's at least sixty degrees outside, so there it stood to the wince of my neighbors, I'm sure. So with sun out and warm temperatures, I approached the sorry shrub with shovel in hand. Little did I know my Crossfit training would come in handy for such a time as this.

As it turns out, the shrub in question was a Mock-orange with an intense citrus scent, which now sprawled out in a gnarly heap with a scent the antithesis of sweet. I wasn't sure how to approach it, since it was my height and right next to the house. I couldn't get enough leverage with the shovel, so I made a few demarcations at the base and stood back to evaluate.

I re-approached, and this time used Crossfit to handle the situation. Crossfit is a series of exercises that combine, "constantly varied, high-intensity, functional movement," according to www.crossfit.com. I've been trained for three short months and now found myself applying it to this odd situation. So there I was assuming the "dead-lift" position, and grabbing the weak stems, I yanked that Mock-orange out of the ground and hauled it to the compost pile.

In previous gardening seasons, I would've spent a fair amount of time hacking my way at the base, and eventually getting my very capable husband to finish the job. Unfortunately, he actually saw me hauling the large encumbrance to the designated compost area. After he said, "Good job," I knew I would be left to my own strength for all future gardening situations.

Next, I was off to a certain part of the garden that needs to be re-edged every year. I've dreaded this task in the past because I had no leg strength to speak of. After my Mock-orange success, I tried my hand at edging the grass with a pointed shovel. It proved to be a surprisingly easy task, and I now know for certain that all the dead-lifts, pull-ups and squats have increased my strength and ability.

Many of the Crossfit heavyweights may laugh at this simple Crossfit mom's outlook, but it really is working for me and the lifestyle I lead. I'm no longer intimidated by the linebackers, firefighters, law enforcement officers or models who do Crossfit, it has wide ranging appeal for all fitness levels, even mine.

If you're up for a change from the stair stepper or elliptical machines, and if you want to see muscles consistently percolate to the top, seek out a Crossfit facility. You may find yourself easily wrestling with heavy equipment or carrying a child up the hiking trail. As for me, I'm looking forward to my next gardening task and leaving most of the tools behind.

If you are already into Crossfit, let me know. If not and you have questions, send me a comment!

Happiness and Love

I'm currently writing an article about whether or not we can buy happiness and love. At first glance, the concept seems a little strange. Can I really go to the nearest mall, slap down a few greenbacks, and walk out with happiness in my pocket and love in my handbag?

When I was a little girl growing up in sunny California, there was this one tree with leggy branches, and peeling bark. The leaves on this tree were the exact split combination of silver and forest green. My parents told me that it was called a Money Tree, and I thought we were rich! Who said, "Money doesn't grow on trees?"

Now that I'm a little older (ok, a lot older!), I'm convinced that money buys choices, not happiness or love. I can choose to buy those really funky bejeweled sandals, or the practical non-bejeweled walking shoes. I can choose the trendy, everybody-has-to-have-it $350 Coach handbag (no, I don't have one. Yes, I want one. No, I won't get one), or I can choose to buy a non-label purse and settle for function.

The interesting thing here, is that happiness and love are the two most sought-after emotions, and we typically do go hunting for them with money. I think we've seen a bit of this regarding our current economic woes. We reason that we'll be "happy" if we can just have that thing. We think "love" will knock on our door if we've covered ourselves in the latest trends, and topped it off with properly coiffed hair.

Our brains are wired to solve these economic problems. If I find something I want (which is often!), my brain will try to figure out how to get it. I can charge it, sell something else to get it and so on. Once my brain and I have come to a solution, I have my "want" in hand and feel like I've just conquered a problem-solving dilemma. I also have a little happiness and love in my heart, which lasts temporarily until the credit card bill comes. And so it goes.

What if we convinced ourselves that we already had the money to buy the "thing?" The actual, tangible desire of our hearts at the moment. If I "knew" I could afford to buy that new car, my brain wouldn't go into problem-solving mode, it would go into reasoning mode. I would now start asking, "Should I buy this new car?" or "Does it make sense to buy this car?" I would no longer accept a ridiculous price tag just to have it, and ask, "Is this a good price?"

I have yet to adopt this line of thinking, and hope I can trick my brain into playing along. As for happiness and love, I will tuck them in my heart and not go looking for them at the local mall. Although I do have a 30% off coupon at Guess! Oh, dear.

Reflections on Starbucks

I happen to live in the Seattle area, where corner coffee stands are abundant, but for some reason Starbucks is the place I end up. When I stop to reflect on why, a few solid reasons confirm my subconscious' ability to automatically point my car in the direction of the nearest one.

For many people, holding a steaming cup of Starbucks Coffee is a status symbol. Someone told me that there is actually a person he works with, who refills his paper Starbucks cup with lunchroom coffee, and walks around with the lid on pretending it's the real thing. I don't think you'll find this coffee phenomenon here in Seattle, we are all used to seeing a plethora of paper coffee cups bearing all kinds of logos. This particular event happened in a different state, where perhaps a paper cup of Starbucks Coffee actually improves your status. Hmmm...a four-buck status improvement, interesting.

Other people find that their loyalties lie at the Starbucks counter. They can have their coffee drink made exactly the way they want it, and have it served by the same person who served it yesterday, in many cases. Coffee aficionados can tell you why Starbucks Coffee appeals to their taste buds. They can tell you about grower alliances, the harvesting of coffee beans, how roasting them affects their taste, and so on.

These are not among my reasons for why I find myself at Starbucks most mornings, (a fact my husband says I need to change). I could care less if I'm holding a Starbucks paper cup, or one that I got at the coffee stand down the street. The actual cups are probably made in another country, and the logos add to the price of my latte. As for loyalty, I couldn't tell you anything about how Starbucks makes their coffee, and I sure don't have a clue about their alliances in Africa or Guatemala.

For me, having a drive-thru is a major factor for me, in whether or not I will frequent a Starbucks. I'm certainly not going to get out of the car when I'm running late with three children in the back. For a few years, there was only a walk-in Starbucks and I hardly ever went inside. I found a few good coffee stands on my many routes, and was fine with them. Recently, however, two more Starbucks stores opened exactly seven minutes from my house in either direction (it's so sad that I know this), and these are the ones I frequent. So long independent coffee stand representatives, unless I happen to be on a different route.

When I do have time, Starbucks is open late, and I often meet friends there to chat over our steaming cups of java. The atmosphere is strangely relaxing amid the caffeine, and if I need to buy a gift for someone, all I have to do is peruse their many available treasures. Who doesn't like coffee?

Although I've been told to reduce my Starbucks expenditures to respect our budget, perhaps I can share these reasons with my husband, and becoming enlightened, he will allow me to go to Starbucks carte blanche. I won't hold my breath, how will I suck down the Grande-Vanilla- 2-Pump-Extra-Hot-Latte, I'll be enjoying in about seven minutes?

The Perpetual Organizer

Spring is generally a time of renewal, refreshment and reducing. People all over the world are spring cleaning, clearing and cl-dumping (I couldn't find a third "cl" word). My, shall I say problem, is that I do these things in Summer, Fall and Winter! I seem to be on a perpetual organizing trip, one that never ends, stops or ceases.


According to a family member, a person can actually come into my home and get me organized. Arrange folders with all pertinent information inside, color-coordinate closet clothes and tidy knick knacks. This, I'm told, costs a fortune but is well worth it.


Now, I will say there have been times when I've gone about organizing. One day last spring I was inspired to organize my kitchen cabinets...or the things inside my kitchen cabinets I should say. I went out and purchased plastic containers for cereal, put dry goods in labeled mason jars and used CD bins to house potatoes, onions and garlic. A year later, the mason jars are still labeled but empty, and the plastic containers sit on the shelves, get this, right next to the boxes of cereal. What went wrong? Maybe I was better off with my disorganized, disheveled kitchen.


Because of the current state of things, I've been inquiring about "organization" to find out if my situation can be changed. The answer is "yes," but it will be a lot of work for me, uggghhh!


I wanted to see if there was another suitable name for "organization," so I did a search on a thesaurus website. When I typed in "organize," it asked me if I meant "agonize!" Ha! The answer to that one is "yes!" Once I figured out the right search term, a few words came up that I thought were interesting. Here are a few: adapt, codify, classify, lick into shape (no joke), run and standardize. Some words were oxymorons having the opposite meaning: dispose and establish, set up and settle. This research didn't help me very much. Do I dispose of something, or establish it? How do I classify mis-matched socks?


It just so happens that I was talking to someone today, and she mentioned that in the back of her car she has a bin that holds a change of clothes for every member of her family. This is a foreign idea to me since I can barely get clothes washed, dried, folded and put away in everyone's dresser. How will I remember to change out the bin in the car? So I inquired about her organization skills. Highly organized. Another woman joined in the conversation, and she said that when her son was little, she cut out pictures of toys and put them on bins so her son could tell where each toy went. Another highly organized person. Two in the space of 10 minutes...interesting.

The picture-on-the-bin idea is not foreign to me, though I've never personally used it. My grandma takes Polaroid pictures of her shoes and tapes them to the shoe box before they do time on her closet shelves. I completely see the wisdom of this, but if I tried it, I just know Polaroids would come slipping off in my mad dash to get out of the house, and I'd come home to boxes, stray pictures of shoes and shoes that didn't make the cut on my closet floor.

So, why do my efforts result in more work than before? It turns out we are supposed to start with organizing one thing. If you can do this for a period of time, then start another "one" thing. Also, really think about whether or not your ideas will work for your particular family. Will your children take off their shoes and carry them to the bedroom? Will you reload the plastic bins with cereal every other Sunday? Before you go out and spend money on all the fancy organizing tools (and there are a lot), write it down, think about it and try one thing.

I'm currently adopting the "one thing" idea. My laundry room has been clean for two days now. No piles of shoes or dirty laundry adorn the floor right now. I'm hoping to keep it that way, but wondering when I will really have it down. Do I follow the 21 day rule? I guess time will tell.

The hardest part for me will be maintaining what I've organized. In talking with people, it seems that the organizing is the easy part, but the maintenance is where people get tripped up. This is definitely my problem, and will be the hard work I mentioned before. I am a junk-drawer-thrower-inner, a land-as-they-may-shoe-taker-offer and a dirty-clothes-on-laundry room-floor throwin' mama. In my haste, I don't create waste, unless we're speaking about time, but in my haste I create another -aste word that doubles for disorganized. Maybe...haste makes disorgan-aste?

If you are organized, or have any ideas that have helped you, inquiring minds are desperate to know. Maybe you have one of those fancy organizing tools that really works, a system that keeps certain things in order or maybe you have maintained that one area you struggled with previously. Help us to get organized, stop buying bins and create systems of maintenance. What will life be like in a tranquil, peaceful and organized home? I hope to find out! Thanks for your ideas!

Ecce Homo ~ "Behold the Man"

Ahhhh, Easter! What a wonderful time of year. It has a dual meaning for me...a parallelism of sorts. Signs of new life begin to appear, from the budding branches to the moistening of the earth. Last week I saw a man mowing his yard, not that unusual, except that I eagerly look for this particular sign to indicate spring has arrived. You can say "weird" out loud, it's ok! Do you know of anybody else who looks with such anticipation at where and when they will see the first mow of the season?

I'm also reminded of the new life I have. I'm encouraged that with all my abrasive thorns, gnarly limbs and frosty appendages, I am being renewed day by day!

So, on this Good Friday I ran across a beautiful painting from the hands of an artist by the name of Antonio Ciseri (you can google his name and click 'images' to see more of his work.) The title of this particular piece is Ecce Homo (pronounced ĕk'sē hō'mō ) and is Latin for "Behold the Man." It portrays the scene in the book of John where Pilate presents a thorn-crowned, purple-robed Jesus to the angry masses and declares, "Behold the Man!"

Did you know before this scene took place, Jesus was in the garden praying so intensely that his sweat was in the form of blood? Have you ever felt so intensely about something, so in anguish that you sweat so profusely? You and I will never see droplets of blood exude from our skin, it was a physiological phenomenon. Maybe that's why the only Gospel that mentions it is Luke, the physician, one who studied the human form.

This weekend as I put smiles on the faces of my kids through an overdose of sugar, and as I visit with family I love so much, I will also "Behold the Man" and remember all that He did for me...and you.

Happy Easter Weekend (Look for part 2, Sunday)

Moonstruck

Found something interesting to share. At least I thought it was interesting...you may as well.

The intro blog stated that topics will be wide-ranging, and so we move from "gumstretch" to "moonstruck"...oh life inside the chrysalis!

In the ancient world, many believed that not only could one get heat stroke travelling by foot, but that you could also be struck by the moon! The other day, my daughter was looking at our calendar and noted when the next full moon would occur, so when I came upon this notion today I found it curious and can't wait to tell her when she wakes up.

Anyway, they believed that if someone had seizures it was caused by intense moon exposure. The word "moonstruck" is a literal translation of the Greek word for "seizures." This is the part that I thought was the most interesting...the word "lunatic" comes from the word "lunar" or moon. So all those childhood myths about the crazy things that happen during a full moon, have come full circle. Can you imagine actually being struck by the moon? It isn't something I ever really thought about...I know Cher has a movie by that name. And lunatic...well I'm not gonna go there so early in the morning!

Blessings!

Gumstretch

Yep, first part of the title is gum...I'm sure you are familiar with it. I've tried carefully to avoid it as a mother of three, but it caught up with me just yesterday.

As a rule we are not a gum-chewing family. My husband thinks it's rude (when certain people do it), I get frustrated because the taste runs out and after three hours I'm still wondering why it's in my mouth. The kids of course love it, so we made up gumball Saturdays (going on three years now) and the rule is that if you take it out, you throw it out. It is a big deal for them because they don't get gum at any other time (I know we are so mean!). And, if ever we are not home on a Saturday they are quick to remember that as soon as we do get home, they get a gumball.

So yesterday I had one of my very best friends over for a playdate. We have seven children between us and it was just a fun day...definitely one for the books. The subject of gumballs came up, probably because we have a large gumball dispensing machine (which doesn't work because I bought the wrong size gumballs and we now have to use a gumball basket), that attracts the eye of every child who comes over. So they inevitably asked their mom if they could have one. I can't say the 'N' word to other children, so we moms agreed to let them have this little delight, which is every child's rite of passage (they will say when their all grown). Which means my children get to have not only a Saturday gumball, but one on playdate day as well.

Four hours later, maybe it was three, we are rushing to get somewhere as is usually the case. I'm sure you can relate. Anyway, I'm just filled with happiness, driving down I-5 on a beautiful day and my daughter (I won't mention names, but those of you who know us will catch on quick), says, "Mom, I still have my gumball!!" I just said, "uh-uh" and didn't think much of it until I look back a few minutes later to see that she had taken it out to save it for later so she could eat her gogurt. Unfortunately, she stuck it on her bare thigh, and with her window rolled down, wind in her hair, berry gogurt quenching a long hot day, she crossed her legs! That's right she crossed them and when she took them apart it was a spider-web of gumstretch. She, not being skilled at how to get gum off of anything because of our gum rules, kept stretching it piece by piece. Those of us who are more seasoned at these things can imagine me calling out instructions, "don't stretch, pull low, pull low!" and "don't get it on the car or your clothes!"

All ended well as I threw back a wipe (those things are amazing) and we got to where we were going, she got the gum off of herself, and car and clothes were spared.

I sometimes feel like I can't get free from things. It could be an obligation, a chore, a season of waiting (like now) or a phase of some kind. The gumstretch reminded me of that feeling. Send me a comment on how you got free from something, or if you are currently stuck in the middle of a gumstretch season, maybe we can help each other!

Inside the Chrysalis

Welcome to Inside the Chrysalis...a blog about growth. Just as a butterfly is transformed into a beautiful new creation, we hope to transform into amazing, radiant and fresh creations with dazzling patterns and reflective color. Topics will vary depending on our daily experiences and will include subjects like gardening, cooking, studying, crossfitting, mommying, help-meeting, reading and anything else that comes up inside the Chrysalis! Thank you for joining us!