29 Days of Gratititude

I've written about the 29 Gifts giving challenge and book, and what an amazing wonderful experience it is.  Today I'm beginning it again, along with 29 days of gratitude.  This seems like a perfect season for a focus on thankfulness.  So each day I will write about my gift to give and my gift of thanksgiving.


Day 1:  Today I woke up so thankful for my children, for everything they have taught me and the way they love me no matter what happens in our lives.  I told my childbirth class on Monday evening, "Don't let the stereotype scare you - teenagers are WONDERFUL."  They may not be cute and cuddly in the same way that newborns are, but they are such good listeners.  And they can make you laugh and teach you so much about being silly and being in the moment.  I am so grateful to be right where I am right now, a mom of two sleeping-in-late, fingernail polish and boy obsessed, sass-talking girls.

My gift for today - letting these two lovely sleep in on their day-before-Thanksgiving day off and trusting them to make the pies for tomorrow's celebration - chocolate pecan and Elvis, all by themselves.  Yum.

I'm also mailing off, with lots of love, a little baby hat for one of my sweet doula mama's second baby.  I wish I could hug her in person.

Here's what the hat looks like:

Only the color is a soft cream, like French vanilla ice cream.  I hope it keeps little Celeste nice and toasty warm.

May all beings be surrounded by love

From Artist Lori Portka

My wish for you today,

May you always know you are loved.

Living with no regrets

Today I read a post on FB about a mom in my community who lost her little boy, just a toddler.  He never woke from his nap, after spending the day at his first friend's birthday party, seeing horses out his window and giving love and kisses to his family.  It's hard not to feel your heart breaking just knowing this.

His mom encouraged each person reading to live each moment, just like he did.  And to love.  She has no regrets.  When you live each moment, when you truly see the love in each human, there is nothing to regret.  What a kind gift for a grieving mother to pass to each of us.  Thank you.

I will do my part and remember this lesson today.  And tomorrow I will wake up and remember it all over again.  That is all we can ever do.

I've learned so much about the moment from my girls.  Little ones know better than to waste this precious time worrying the future or regretting the past.

The Buddha in our Zen garden,
an offering of a plum from Bella's tree

I have come to drag you out of yourself, and take you in my heart. I have come to bring out the beauty you never knew you had and lift you like a prayer to the sky 

~Rumi

Namaste.  May you know peace today.

Gratitude and gifts

Autumn is my favorite time of year.  I love the colors and the clean air, the clear blue sky and putting on a sweater again.  I love the way fall inspires gratitude in my heart.  It must have something to do w/ canning or garden harvesting, or maybe just the beauty of the world around me.

These a few of my favorite fall images - favorites because they recall a beautiful day spent with those I love.

Autumn in Yellowstone Park

2012 at the Gallatin River, September

2010 October at the Gallatin River

Today I continue my 29 Day Giving cycle and I feel more grateful each day for the insights this practice is bringing.  Some meaningful gifts in the past few days - a gift of friendship and reconnection with several women I admire, a workshop that helped me understand my own reactions better and interact with more empathy with all those in my life, some lovely simmering potpourri on the stove making the whole house smell like cinnamon and oranges and cloves, the chance to eat lunch with my daughters today.  When I start thinking deeply about the gifts in my life, it all begins to feel like a gift.

Whole Wheat Bread

Here's my favorite whole wheat bread recipe (with variations).  Someone requested it yesterday, so here goes.  If you'd like a serious bread baking adventure you can check out my sourdough recipe at SpinningLaughingDancing.

Whole Wheat Bread

Dissolve 2 pkg active dry yeast (4 1/2 tsp) in 1/4 cup lukewarm water.

In a large mixing bowl combine 1/4 cup canola oil (put it in a half cup measure then use same for honey and your honey won't stick), 1/2 cup honey, 2 tsp salt, 2 1/2 cups hot water.  Add 3 cups whole wheat flour and mix on low speed until moistened.  Then on medium for 3 minutes.  Add another 1 1/2 cups whole wheat, then slowly add in 2 3/4 to 3 3/4 cups white flour until dough forms a nice ball that is just slightly sticky to the touch but the sides of bowl are clean.  Start w/ a paddle and change to a dough hook when the dough begins to ball.

Put the dough into a greased glass bowl and let it rise until doubled in size.  I turn my oven on to it's lowest temp and then turn it OFF (that's really important!), and put the bowl in oven to rise, because it's cold where I live.  Cover the bowl w/ a clean dish cloth while it rises.

Now punch it down and turn it out onto a pastry mat.  Divide it in two and roll each into a nice long oblong rectangle, then beginning at the side nearest you, roll it up tightly until you have a loaf. Put each in a greased bread pan and let rise again, until double or nice and high above the bread pan - 30-45 minutes, covering again.

Heat the oven to 375.  Bake for 30 minutes, then turn oven down to 325 and bake another 10 minutes.  Loaves should be brown and sound hollow when tapped on top.  Let cool a few minutes and turn out onto a wire rack to completely cool.  Don't slice until cool.

Variations:  I usually add in a cup of whole oats w/ the liquid in beginning, some sesame seeds (these give a really nice sweet flavor), ground flax (1/2 cup or so) and some ground oat flour (I just use my blender to grind whole oats) for some of the whole wheat flour.  I've made this recipe w/ all whole grains (no white), and it's good, just won't rise as high and it's more dense.  You can also spread the rolled out bread dough w/ butter, then sprinkle w/ brown sugar and cinnamon and roll up really tight to make your loaf, for cinnamon swirl bread.  Really yummy toast on a cold day.  You could also change the water for scalded milk or use whey from cheese making.


There is no change for high altitude.

I will soon share my recipe for Custard Bread Pudding - the very best reason to bake bread IMO!!

Gifts: Days 8, 9 & 10

Day 8:  My gift was a loaf of home-baked bread to my sweet friend Sandra.  This was really a small gesture of gratefulness because each year for the past many, she has let me come pick from her huge garden at the end of the season.  This year I brought home potatoes, chard, spinach, parsley, onions, carrots, beets and broccoli - all organic and delicious.  Just seeing her family's garden is really a gift.  And Sandra is the kindest, most giving of people.  While we picked she told me how she is going to start distributing free cloth diapers to mamas who need them.  I'm so lucky to call her a friend.

The second part of this gift is really cool too.  Because Sandra has such a large garden I am able to take food not only for my family, but for my friend/neighbors too.  So I got the joy of sharing all this bounty.  That feels really good.

Day 9:  Yesterday I brought a hot chocolate to my dh.  He was so happy and grateful.  It felt like a really good gift.  He's now working in suddenly very cold conditions outside, all day long.  The day before it was in the 70s, but yesterday brought snow.  I am happy for the snow, for many reasons - putting out our wildfires, cleaning the smoke from the air, bringing moisture to our dry climate, and because snow is really beautiful.  I celebrated by taking my dogs for a little snow hike - Mr. Ed's first time playing in the snow.  Predictably, he loved it!!  (Mr. Ed is known to be so easy going and fun loving, he can have fun just about anywhere).

Dh with his cocoa treat

Day 10:  Today I sponsored my friend at work for Bowl for Kids Sake.  That was easy!!  I'm also driving pretty far to watch my youngest play volleyball this afternoon - probably the last game I'll get to see.  That feels like a gift for both of us.  And my friend just invited me to walk dogs with her.  That will be a huge gift for me.  Thank you Universe for answering my call - to help me feel better today.

Giving Challenge days 6 & 7

My sweet family

Day 6:  The gift of forgiveness for someone I love, for in forgiving another, you learn that forgiveness for your own mistakes is possible.

Day 7:  I'm doing various chores today for my family - laundry for my dh, cleaning a tub in my girls' bathroom, and planning good things to eat for the week (AND doing the shopping).  Small gifts, but from a place of love.


These were the words on my green tea bag tag this morning, a small blessing I pass to you:

May you have love, 

kindness

and compassion 

for all 

living things.

Day 5 - Pancakes :)

My gift today is one of patience (well, sort of patience, still working on that one) and being a peacemaker in my family.  This is not a job I enjoy and one that I often just refuse to do.  But today, with much love, listening and reframing, I think can see some progress between two very hurt and angry people, who just happen to love each other very much.  Gifts are all about intention, and waking up to yelling today, I promised myself that I would help in whatever way I could, despite wanting to simply grab the dogs and leave for many hours.  The dogs and I will still have our little adventure, but I think a couple of hearts are feeling a tiny bit better because I chose to help.

Here's my gift to you today: 

Pumpkin Oat Pancakes 

(somehow everyone at my house is feeling better after a big plate)

2 cups ground whole oats (it will resemble flour)
1 tsp salt
1 1/4 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon

2 cups buttermilk or whole milk mixed w/ a tsp vinegar and/or part plain or vanilla yogurt (more yogurt results in a thicker batter)
2 eggs
1/4 cup oil
1/2 cup pureed pumpkin or canned

Mix dry ingredients and wet ingredients separately, then stir together.  Cook on a griddle and serve w/ butter and maple syrup.  (The oat flour results in a somewhat fragile pancake - a little trickier to flip than usual.  If you want easy to flip cakes, just sub some white or whole wheat flour for some of the oat flour).

Enjoy!

Day 4 Gifts

It's bound to happen.  Every time I have done the 29 Day Giving Challenge I'm amazed by the gifts that flood into my life (or perhaps I just start seeing more things as gifts?  That is a gift too).

Today I was not feeling great about some lingering pain I have recovering from a small surgery earlier this month.  After days of phone tag with my doctor,  I finally could speak with him and he gave the proverbial head scratch, and a prescription.   I actually like my doctor (both as a physcian and as a kind human being) but I don't love much about Western medicine and I was feeling a little let down about his recommendation.  (I'll report in a couple days if the script is actually helping me!)  Then my dh texted me:  "Meet me for lunch, I'll take work off early."  This almost never happens, and aha, felt very much like a gift.  We had a really lovely lunch together.

His gift found me in a much better mood because of MY gift:  45 minutes of doula time with a good friend from my work who is feeling challenged by her choices right now.  I listened, gave some info, some advice, a lot of support.  I hope it helped.  She knows exactly the best choice for her birth, she's just having trouble making a decision.  I know she'll get there.

I miss being a doula.  I miss the connection with other women and the sense that I can help the most important day of their lives be a little bit better.  Talking with my friend really filled my heart today.  I think I need to stop saying "I USED to be a doula."  While I may not do this work full time anymore, my doula heart is alive and beating.

29 day giving challenge

 I've read Cami Walker's book, "The 29 Gifts" many times now and taken on her challenge - giving a gift every day for 29 days straight - a few times.  Each time I'm amazed at how this simple act can bring so much healing and happiness to my life.  I felt like I was due for a spiritual/happiness tuneup, so I'm beginning again.

I'm on day 3 of this 29 day giving challenge.  Day one I gave the gift of time - a long lunch and chat and many hugs to a dear friend (really a gift to myself too).  It felt so good to connect with her. 

Day two, I bought a blue and brown striped photo album with a big baby blue bow, for a my brother and his wife, to celebrate their new grandson.  We are not close, and usually I am ok with that, but seeing the two of them holding this new little child, I felt my heart bursting with love and happiness for them.  The birth of a baby, the first grandchild, seemed so special to me, and I wanted to share my joy with them and send a gift.

Today (day 3) is a very funny gift.  Our family has a 6 month old puppy, and unfortunately he has to be home alone for a few hours every day while kids are at school and grown-ups are at work.  He has our other 2 dogs to keep him company, but today he went a little crazy and chewed up everything in sight.  I walked in and took a long look, let out a huge sigh, then saw his sweet face, sending me an apology with those big brown eyes.  Instead of disciplining him I gave him some love and attention.  And then I took him out for some needed exercise.  The rest of this afternoon is a gift to myself - I'm recovering from a surgery and haven't been resting enough, so for the next few hours I'm going to chill out.