Filed under: Vacation Coma

We just arrived back in town yesterday afternoon after almost a week visiting Northern California and while I am happy to be back, I am now making it my mission to move to Chico, Redding or somewhere nearby...
Chico is a small college town with a big city feel. The downtown area has tons of very cool shops and eateries. One of our must visit places is a coffee shop called The Naked Lounge. Their mochas are made with Ibarra chocolate and it is one of my top coffee shops ever (I have been to many so I'm a good judge of these things). We stopped there to get our fix a few times during our visit but we also found another great coffee shop called Bidwell Perk. I picked up a heavenly chocolate chai there on our way to the actual Bidwell Park with the kids. They have an area called Caper Acres that is just for kids. We've been taking ours there since our first visit with Phoenix in the early 2000's. The park itself is huge and in addition to Caper Acres, there are trails for biking, hiking, jogging, etc... and watering holes to take a dip. I would move to Chico for this park alone. Okay, and maybe for the coffee and chai.

On our last full day of vacation we drove to Redding to visit the Turtle Bay Exploration Park. The museum portion had a cool Lego exhibit and information about early Native Americans who lived in the area, as well as info on the wildlife. We watched an aviary show, which featured a few different animals and many birds of the region. We saw turtles (of course) and tried to hike the botanical gardens but I was stubborn and hot and forgot my hat, so, it didn't happen. We did cross the sundial bridge over the Sacramento River and took in all of the beautiful scenery. I'm now checking out job opportunities for my husband in Redding because it is so close to the forest I am convinced we need to live there! Probably wishful thinking but oh well...

Other highlights of our trip were a tour of the public radio station in Sacramento where my husband's brother works. The kids got to wear headphones and talk into the mic. We hung out in old town Sacramento our first day and I took so many photos! We also visited the zoo in Sacramento and saw some amazing animals up close. One of my favorites was the zebras! I want to share a lot of the photos but I will do so in about 3-4 installments. I took too many to include here. Also, I forgot my Canon and only took pics with my iPhone. Still, from all of the photos I snapped it will be evident that we enjoyed every second of our time away. School (and work) starts back up in three weeks so I'll have to stare at these photos from time to time and try my best to get back into school/work mode. It won't be easy but if it means Fall is around the corner, I'll accept that my break from work is coming to an end.

The Art of Learning to be Patient...

I'm exhausted.

I've had issues with my thyroid since high school. Back then I could not gain weight to save my life. Boy, what a problem to have, right? But with daily meds I started controlling the symptoms. For some reason I was taken off of the meds and didn't think or worry about anything for a while. It wasn't until I had my first child that my thyroid started messing up again. This time it was causing heart palpitations, panic-attacks, weight gain and I was always feeling tired. A new doctor got me on a different prescription and we had to up the dose a few times in the last nine years to regulate my thyroid. It stayed perfect throughout my last two pregnancies. That is just one way the thyroid can cause issues. If levels are off, a woman can have trouble conceiving and even carrying a pregnancy. In fact, as luck would have it, I was fine until we started trying for another baby. In the last few months I have returned to that state of exhaustion and feeling off. After a visit with my GP last month, it seems my thyroid is being a jerk again and I am waiting patiently to see if the higher dose will bring it back to normal levels. I actually suffer from Hashimoto's, which occurs when a person's body creates antibodies to attack the thyroid. In an average person there could be a few antibodies present at any time. When first tested, I had over a thousand. So yeah, I guess the jerk is actually my body and my thyroid is just a helpless victim...

So now I wait...wait to see if the higher dose will regulate my thyroid hormones enough to succeed at getting pregnant. It could take a few weeks (or more) so of course my hopelessly impatient self will be trying to pass the time keeping busy with projects. We have a vacation coming up next week which will be a good distraction. I'm trying hard to stay positive and remember that everything has a perfect time and that the more I worry, the more stress I am inviting into my world. And I don't need any more stress!!!

Just keep me in your thoughts if you will. I'm going to need a lot of good thoughts!

Yin & Yang

I love to be in the kitchen.
Okay, not all the time, but I do enjoy trying recipes out and making up my own along the way.
As a vegetarian, I eat pretty good but I will always and forever possess a sweet tooth. And it shows...

                                 

I had the urge to make a cake a couple days ago. I ended up making a lemon-blueberry cake (with lemon icing). I found a recipe online that was simple and went to work. 

The ingredients were: flour, butter, vanilla extract, baking soda, baking powder, lemon zest, 4 eggs, salt, brown sugar, granulated raw sugar (I used raw, the recipe called for regular white granulated sugar), lemon juice, greek yogurt and powdered sugar and milk for the icing.

I always want an excuse to use my vintage bundt cake pan. 

So here are the actual measurements for the cake ingredients. You could find a hundred thousand gazillion different lemon cake recipes on the internet, but I'll save you trouble and post this one because it turned out moist and flavorful. The fact that it was fairly easy to throw together was also a plus. 

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus 1 teaspoon for blueberries
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 cup of butter, room temperature
1 cup packed light-brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar (I used raw)
4 large eggs
1/4 cup of fresh lemon juice
2-3 tablespoons grated lemon zest
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup no fat Greek Yogurt
1 1/2 – 2 cups of fresh blueberries

Sift your dry ingredients together in a bowl and set aside.

Cream the butter in a mixer until it’s light and fluffy.  Mix in the sugars, beating until it’s once again light and fluffy.

Slowly beat in the eggs and add in the vanilla extract.

Grate an entire lemon and mix in next.

Squeeze out 1/4 cup lemon juice and mix into the yogurt. This will add a lemony taste and thin out the thick Greek yogurt.

Add in 1/3 of the flour mixture and mix in completely. Follow with the yogurt, then flour, then yogurt, then ending with the rest of the flour.

Mix 1 cup of blueberries with flour then fold in gently.

Grease and flour a bundt pan and pour in the batter. Take the remaining 1/2 cup to cup of blueberries and add on to the top, slightly pushing them in. This way your get blueberries throughout the cake instead of only the bottom.

Bake at 350 degrees for 50-60 minutes until completely baked through.

Let it cool then glaze it with a basic lemon glaze. 

I used a cup of powdered sugar, 1/4 cup of lemon juice and enough milk (a little at a time) to get it to the desired consistency. 

Let the glaze set and enjoy!

(recipe courtesy of The Kitchen Magpie)

                                

After baking this delicious cake, I realized having a veggie filled asian-inspired salad for dinner would be a great idea. I like to have balance in my kitchen and in my diet. 

Pismo and Avila

We packed up our crap (kidding, sort of) last Thursday and set out on a drive to the coast with a fun long weekend ahead! We were minus the teenager for this trip though. It was probably for the best considering he would have had a terrible time in the car amidst the camping gear, suitcases, etc...

Pismo Beach is one of many beaches we travel to if we want to get out of the horrific Summer heat. Cloudy beaches and windy sea salt air are the cure for most things. <----write that down.
Camping at the beach is my most favorite type of camping. You have trees, beaches, working toilets and last but not least, showers! If I can squeeze in one shower while I am camping, I am a happy woman! I managed to squeeze in two!

Here is some photographic evidence of the fun we had!

Enjoying some fun and sun at Avila Beach.

He is now the beach's biggest fan. I was worried for a while after an incident when he was a toddler where a mild wave knocked him down. After that, he had always been a bit apprehensive. 

I think the ocean mesmerizes her just like it mesmerizes me.

We seriously couldn't pry him from the beach.

After a lunch break, she picked up where she left off...

They make a great team.

After we ran ourselves ragged at the beach, we paid a visit to the Farmer's market. 

My husband needed a corn fix.

So many goats, so many noises, and the kids were hysterical over the many sounds goats will make if they see food in your hands.

*Leave me to my corn...*

Making friends

Checking us out

This is how we all felt by the end of the day...

I wish I had time to share every photo but these few will have to do. I'm thankful we had a few days away from the heat here at home. Now I am washing hundreds of laundry loads and settling back into Summer break with chores and gardening. We head back out of town later this month to visit family in Northern California. I'm really looking forward to that trip as well!