BaNNeR RooTS

Green Smoothie, Brown Lawn

I do my best to eat a smoothie everyday. For a good three months (not straight, but almost), I had a mixture of blueberries, spinach, oj and banana. Then I ran out of blueberries (big, sad face). 

Instead of blueberries, I now throw in frozen mango that doens't quite have the affect blueberries do (kind of sad face). The concoction used to be a pretty fuchsia color. Now it's this. Good thing blueberry picking season is almost here! 

 

Sunrise

We finally got a good break in weather yesterday and celebrated by having a picnic on our favorite sandbar on the Nome River. Sid played in the river current, while Joe and I tended the fire. After rain and more rain, the warmth was quite the delight!

And this morning, I couldn't help but stop and appreciate the sunrise.

If it holds (we've learned never to take weather for granted), it's another picnic. 

Water is Wet

It's been raining. I know days of rain can seem like the biggest downer. Wet shoes, wet hair, wet face, cold fingers, and gray, gray, gray skies. Well get ready for some Pollyanna-ish perspective because I've got it. At least right now I do. Who knows if I'll still hold such positive thoughts if this keeps up for weeks.

Here we go. It's rain. It's wet. It doesn't mean life has to be gloomy. We have x-tra tuffs. There's Gore-tex. And here's something. We're in AK. Where weather is CRAZY! We can't expect months and months of sunshine. We have to expect some rain. Especially with weatheriness being so entirely unpredictable these days.

And if you're someone who opts to stay inside, I say do it fully. Bake up a storm. Dirty that kitchen and take extra fingerscrapes of cookie dough while you're at it. Clean like crazy. Clean so much and so good that you have to take a shower afterward. You know what I'm talking about. And then. AND THEN! Relax. I think wet weather gives people the permission to get three movies from Hanson's and maybe finish them in one day. Maybe.

What am I doing this rainy week? Painting my stairs blue. And who knows. I might paint them again if the color sucks bad. 'Cause you never know.

Hahahahahahahaha

I learned many things from my mother. And one of my favorites is simple. Laugh. Laugh fully. Laugh as often as you can. It's fun. It's healthy. It somehow strengthens your spirit AND your body. 

This morning Sid and I lazed in bed and talked, didn't talk, read, didn't read. And we laughed. And we did something Ma would've gotten a big kick out of. We tried laughing the way we write laughing. HA HA HA HA HA. And doing that only made us laugh more...and more...and more. 'Til our eyes were closed. Our favorite. It's really ridiculous. You should try it. 

Laugh the written....laugh?

An important note is that you have to begin laughing to laugh the written laugh. So it's really quite spontaneous. So just pocket it in your mind that you're going to do this the next time you...laugh.

• laugh
• while you're laughing, open your mouth to make the "ha" sound

A fun thing we found was that in the middle of laughing the written laugh, your laugh switches to your natural laugh. And then you laugh more. It's so freakin' fun.

Chicken.

I know. It's been a while. Honestly, it's taken a long time because I've been thinking my return should be something momentous. Not earth shattering, but you know...really, really cool.

Instead, let's talk about chicken. Not chickens...the meat. You barbeque it or put it in stir fry. Or soup. I don't like it. It's a new-ish development for my palate. And it's kind of weird. I really like food.

Let's explore. The past three years, I haven't really purchased any chicken or beef for the house. At restaurants, sure. But for cooking? Nope. It definitely has something to do with the Michael Pollan books and Food, Inc. That and in the mornings, I grab a chunk of moose or caribou or a filet of salmon to thaw for dinner. You know...like Alaskans do. Or I'd cut up a block of muktuk or sit down and eat dryfish and seal oil. You know...like a native.

So it went that at restaurants, I noticed at the end of my meal the chicken was pushed to the side. Then I'd try to eat it because protein's important. But it wasn't happening. And this realization became so concretely true and definite that I once I said it out loud. Not just in my brain. And it surprised me. "I don't like chicken!" And now I can write it. "I don't like chicken."

Definitely not earth shattering. Not even that cool. But what I'm thinking now is .243? And I have to change this crazy, snowy banner.