Dispatches from Dufferin Street

Just look at these teeny-tiny little turkey burgers! So adorable, and so, so tasty. Destined – in Max’s words – to become a family favourite.

Ground covered today: 3K

Playlist pick-of-the-day: Fight the Power – Public Enemy

Could it be? Both kids at school on their assigned day?! The mind boggles.

I have not had a full day at home without kids since well before Christmas, and while before Leo started JK, this was the norm, I’ve gotten pretty used to my days at home on my own to get some things crossed off the eternal, infernal to do list. So, I’ve been feeling a little (OK, a lot) behind, over the past couple of months.

Today’s agenda could be jam-packed, but I think I will take advantage of the quiet and the sunbeam that hits my bed right ater lunch and have a little siesta. I started off well, did my run in the sun (very nice), then came home and got a few things done in the kitchen. Shortly after that, we lost power for an hour due to some work down the street. While initially annoying - because I had planned my whole day around puttering around in my kitchen with Jian Ghomeshi, and also because I had granola cooking - I rallied. Found my old walkman, which has a radio, plugged in my headphones, and bingo! Used the time to plan supper (mini turkey burgers!), then turned the radio off and read  for a while. I rarely  (if ever) read for myself in the daylight since kids, so this was a real treat.

Power is now restored – the flu-ridden sheets and covers are in the dryer, and I think I’m going to snuggle into them as soon as the bed is re-made. In the meantime, I’m going to sift some soil into a container that will soon, maybe, bring us fresh cilantro, basil and salad greens. We will see.  I have a realllllly sunny front window, and am hoping I can convince my little seeds that it is, in fact, early spring. Wish me luck on this one – I feel like if it was in fact this simple, everyone would already be doing this.

I just consulted my running schedule, and I was, in fact, only scheduled to do 7K last Saturday – oops! That would have been a heck of a lot easier, given my fragile condition that morning. Oh, well. The job is done, and it wasn’t as torturous as it could have been.

We are very excited because this week we found some frozen Canadian peaches at Tara – hallelujah for a break from the blueberries!

And I am extra pleased to be making our bread at home right now, because we are going through it at a ridiculous rate. For example, this morning, Max had SIX pieces of toast. What on earth!? I was talking to him about how he must be about to go through a growth spurt or some kind of big developmental change, and also congratulating him on how smooth it has been getting out of the house to go to school in the mornings (I was thinking this may all be part and parcel of a new, more mature stage in his life).

“Well?” he said, “It must be because all my needs are being met in the food department.”

Um, yeah. If I’d only known all this time that if I just fed him more, he’d complain less about getting out the door…

What else can I report? Not much, really. Matt has fallen victim to the evil flu bug, and I am trying to live my life as though I’m not going to be struck down at any moment. But I’m scared. I just had the stomach flu (for the first time in many, many years) in December, and that was enough, thankyouverymuch. I have not yet decided if I’ll move back into the flu-y bed tonight – I had quite a luxuriously spacious and germ-free sleep on the fold-out couch last night!

Ground covered today: 9K (my longest run ever!)

Playlist pick-of-the-day: My Heart Like a Kick Drum – The Avett Brothers

It was COLD out there, but I knew that if I didn’t fit in my long run today, it wasn’t going to happen this weekend. The sun was gorgeous, and so I piled on the layers and hit the road. Last night’s Coronas and nacho chips were not any help to me, that’s for sure, but I did it. The first half was really an effort, but I slogged on and managed to find my groove. And felt so good for having done it. That’s almost 10K, which equals almost half of what I need to pull off, come May. I think I might actually be able to do this race.

Ground covered today: 4.5K

Playlist pick-of-the-day: Devil’s Haircut – Beck

My sprouts are ready to eat today! Very exciting. I find it easy to focus a lot on the garbage-reduction part of our little No Impact project, but we’re also working hard at localizing the food. Not a simple chore in mid-winter in Ontario with two kids who have decided to become fussy eaters. We’re not being crazy hard-core, but I am aiming for Canadian food, and Ontario wherever possible. So, there are some things I miss (avocado…. sniff, sniff) because they come from far, far away all the time, and there are some things I miss because they’re out of season, meaning there is hope I will eat them again, but not for months and months and months. (Next year – we are SO preserving and freezing every damn bit of produce we can.)

One such thing is lettuce. I think I’ve bought it once since our initial No Impact Week back in… October? So, the fact of growing a crunchy sandwich topper right here at home without any plastic wrap or packaging or what-have-you? Ridiculously exciting. Both kids, while mildly interested in the seeds growing tails over the past few days, declared them pretty much horrid; probably should have made sure their first experience was on a sandwich or in a salad, but as they grabbed a handful out of the jar… not impressed. Matt and I, however, are thrilled.

My next mission is to see if I can coax some herbs or even baby salad greens into growing in my windowsill. I miss cilantro like crazy. I caved in and bought some for a yummy recipe this week, and while it was organic, it was both wrapped in plastic and shipped from the U.S. Boo. Which reminds me, having bought it, I’d better use up the rest of it before it liquefies in my crisper – I’m not used to having it on hand anymore, so I keep forgetting it’s there. In fact, my crisper drawers are pretty forlorn these days, patiently waiting for spring to bring us some asparagus and baby greens.

I’ve done my due diligence and retired my debit card in an effort to reduce my receipts (aka paper waste), a move I’m convinced will also have a positive effect on our bank balance. Today? Didn’t spend a dime (of course, I was home with a sick kid all day, but still… I did resist the very strong urge to order takeout for supper).

Next up? I’m on an internet mission to find a source for bulk gum. We like gum in our house. I know the gum eventually ends up in the trash, but some people in this family (who shall remain nameless) really need it to keep their breath in an “I-can-bear-to-have-a-conversation-with-you” state. So. At least I’d like to find gum we like without all the foil, plastic, cardboard crap all around it.

Seriously, though, next up is getting the stomach flu the bleep out of our house. Both kids have had two rounds within three weeks – it sucks, it sucks, it sucks. I went around with decidedly un-crunchy-granola cleaner today and wiped the $#%! out of every doorknob, lightswitch, railing, etc. Please. No more.

We are not a one-hit wonder

Originally uploaded by karchibald1

We did it again! This is the sum total of our household garbage this week – very exciting. Of course, we did compost and recycle, and are still working on reducing there, too, but I’m pretty darn excited at the amount we’re (not) sending to the dump. And I think we can do better. I think we could send this amount out every two weeks, no problem. My plan is working… it’s really working!

Ground covered today: 3K

Playlist pick-of-the-day: Hey Ladies – Beastie Boys (thank you, cow-bell)

So, it’s about the receipts. They are insidious. I can’t believe the amount of garbage I create through store receipts. And my overall consumption, really, is pretty low. But I’ve been collecting them since October, and it’s out of control. I had a burst of creativity at one point and decided to try to make an art project out of them, but that fizzled quickly. Perhaps one day, but so far… they’re just hanging out, reminding me to deal with this problem. 

After quite a lot of thought, I’ve decided to tackle this challenge in a kind of half-assed way for now. I’m going to switch to cash-only shopping, which should cut my receipts in half, pretty much. I do most of my shopping using my debit card, which then creates two receipts – the itemized cash slip, and the bank receipt. I could go the whole way, yes, and ask people to turn off their printers when I buy things, but there are a few reasons I’m just not there yet.

Number one, I don’t really like to cause a hassle – it embarrasses me, and surprise, I don’t like to be embarrassed. I think this simple request would cause a hassle. I can picture the cashier looking at me like I was insane, then trying to figure it out, then calling in the manager, the people behind me in line shifting their weight from foot to foot, trying to balance all their purchases on their hip, desperately attempting to entertain their kids for just. one. more. minute while PAs are used, people higher and higher up in the business being called down…. The original cashier either flustered and embarrassed herself, or snarling at me for all the trouble I’ve caused… Call me crazy, but I don’t like this picture.

Number two, having worked retail at a few points in my life, in fact as recently as today, I know that the carbon copy of that cash receipt is something that many businesses use or at least need to keep for financial purposes. If I could get it not to print a receipt for me, but leave the store with their copy… no problem. But I don’t think that’s feasible.

Anyway, Rome wasn’t built in a day, so for now? Cash only. This has got to be good for budgeting as well as paper waste, so… awesome. Done.

I also just realized I can likely (duh) get all my bills online – I mean, I pay everything online, I surely don’t need to be getting envelopes filled with paper invoices and return envelopes once a month, do I? Checking into this tomorrow.

And, I think that about does it for today – happy to have a new challenge for the week, and looking forward to tackling it tomorrow.

Ground covered today: 7K

Playlist pick-of-the-day: Mama – Ridley Bent

I have had two surprisingly pleasant runs in two days – neither of which I wanted to embark on, both of which I’m glad I did. Yesterday, we were in Ottawa, enjoying the second annual Silburn/Archibald-Cross/Thompson/Conboy family weekend getaway. A wonderful time, spent seeing some sights, eating some great food, letting the kids run back and forth between hotel rooms, and lounging around. Yesterday was a cold day. Really cold. Like -22 degrees cold. We’d arrived back at the hotel from the Aviation Museum, and the menfolk were enjoying a cold one with some popcorn. Tempting. Reallllllly tempting. 4:30 in the afternoon, the sun was starting to set…. But we did it. The intrepid Bonnie and I set out and had what turned out to be a really nice scenic 3K run around the Supreme Court and Parliament Buildings. Gorgeous views all around, and the sunset was beautiful, too. Trotted our way right back up to our rooms, into our lounging best, and REALLY enjoyed that beer and those chips, not to mention the DELICIOUS burgers we got to enjoy, sans kids, later that evening. Yum.

Fast-forward to this evening, home from Ottawa, semi-unpacked, knowing it’s my long run day: 7K, and wanting nothing more than to sit on the couch. But I am kind of obsessive about living up to my commitments, even to myself, and today’s date on the calendar had a big purple 7 on it. So, off I went. Ran into a few worrisome spots with shoddy lighting that made me nervous (yet glad I had my cell phone and always leave Matt with my route and predicted run-time), but it turned into a really nice run. It’s all about the music for me, and that got me through. Note to self to try to time more runs in the daylight hours, because night runs are not that conducive to the blaring ipod – I feel like I need to be much more alert to my surroundings when it’s dark outside. Anyway, glad to have done it, and will savour my day of rest tomorrow before embarking on week three of the training regime.

The kids are off school tomorrow, and our mission is to stock the fridge and pantry and tinker with our cracker recipe. Max loves Vinta brand crackers, and our goal is to try to recreate them, or something close. So, a trip to Tara is in order to pick up some seeds and grains and we’ll see what happens. Oh, and we need to re-start our sourdough starter – the olive rosemary loaf was a dismal failure. I mean, it’s edible and it does taste good, but it is so very flat and dense. Luckily we have a freezer full of our successful loaves, so we have time to experiment.

Looking forward to the week ahead with a little more downtime than I’ve had lately and one day with no school drop-off/pick-up shuffle.

Oh, and speaking of music - please drop me suggestions for my running playlist - I always need new material!

This could change everything.

Originally uploaded by karchibald1

Not being one to be satisfied with one new challenge, I also started my first sourdough last week.

Sourdough inevitably reminds me of a chapter in one of Anthony Bourdain’s books where he talks about the care and cultivation of his sourdough starter. The feeding of the starter was an essential part of every day in his kitchen, and one day (or night, as the case may be), in the middle of a drunken bender, he realized that he hadn’t fed the starter and started making creepy phone calls to the underlings in his kitchen. “Feed the bitch. Feeeeeeed the bitch. FEED THE BITCH!!!!” A little coarse, yes, but the story makes me laugh every time I think of it, which this week has been every single day.

Anyway, after a week of carefully feeding the starter, it was ready to make into bread today. So… there it sits, my first olive-rosemary sourdough loaf. Probably my favourite bread on the planet, made here, with no store-bought yeast… it all happened courtesy of flour and water. Crazy. It will be ready to bake tomorrow – I’ll let you know.

And now I have tons of starter, so I can keep this party going indefinitely!

Disappears fast…

Originally uploaded by karchibald1

After weeks of plowing through the delicious crusty white bread, I decided I was comfortable enough with the basics to give another kind of bread a whirl. The whole wheat starter I made ended up yielding eight delicious loaves, and the family seems to love it as much as the white, so… yay, whole wheat!