Life Lyn Style

A Non-Traditional Pampered Chef Party

Mar 182012

Today, Nick and I went to a Pampered Chef Party. I’m familiar with the products, but had never been to a party. This wasn’t a normal party. It was hosted by Trevor, who owns Fresh Fork Market CSA.

When we arrived, Nick was whisked away to the attic, where Trevor was excited to show him a train. Nick has a couple of small Lego type trains, but never had seen a real model train up close and personal. Needless to say, Nick was quite occupied with the train most of our visit.

Clark Pope is a Pampered Chef consultant, has a catering business and is a Fresh Fork Market CSA customer. He had an open house style party. He was cooking pizza in the kitchen and many Pampered Chef products were on display. It was a very low pressure sales event with the emphasis on food and fun. I had the pleasure of meeting Diane. She’s known to many as “the pie lady”. She runs the Humble Pie Baking Company. I had her apple pie at Thanksgiving and it was superb! I really enjoyed chatting with her about local ingredients and preserving.

Later, Trevor was busy cooking turkey burgers for us to sample. He’s working on some new products and wanted some input. I had a sweet Italian turkey sausage burger. It was extremely flavorful, but a bit spicy for my taste. A bit later, Nick and I had a bite of a sundried tomato turkey burger. Nick really liked it a lot. I thought it was good, but maybe a bit too salty. In all my weeks of picking up our CSA, I never took a photo of “Mr. Robert”. He was enjoying his time at the gathering.

I had a great time and even ordered a few items. Nick is already looking forward to his next visit. He made train sounds all the way home.

Mythic Creatures Exhibit at The Cleveland Museum of Natural History

Adventures with Nick and Sally No Responses »

Mar 172012

On March 3rd, the Mythic Creatures exhibit opened. Last night, the Cleveland Museum of Natural History hosted a member-only evening to enjoy the exhibit, crafts, live animals and refreshments. We arrived about 40 minutes early and enjoyed a picnic near the outside dinosaur.

Once the event opened, our first stop was for Nick and Sally to make dragon wing hats. They loved wearing them around.

They really enjoyed moving the different creature parts around on the felt board to create new creatures. We had already been to the exhibit last week, but no photos are allowed. There is also a new art exhibit that goes along with the mythic creature theme.

After enjoying refreshments and making a dragon craft, we headed outside. It has been so beautiful out.

Per usual, Nick and Sally were jumping for joy!

It’s so fun that they enjoy the museum so much!

Killer Workout

Exercise No Responses »

Mar 162012

My Thursday workouts with my partner in crime, under the direction of our trainer, Jen continued yesterday. I am very stiff and rather sore today. I even treated myself to a 15 minute chair massage and my back is still bothering me. I think it was the 150 kettlebell swings.

I’m really starting to enjoy the workouts. They are challenging and Jen does a great job of mixing everything up. Yesterday’s workout included several exercises that were new to me.

I still feel like an hour is a long time. But, I’m so glad to be getting good strength training workouts. I can really tell the difference.

Here’s the workout:

3 sets of the following:

Sled Leg Press 5 positions x 12each
Kettlebell Swings 15lb x 50
Shoulder Goal Posts 8lb x 20
Shoulder Overhead Press 8lb x 15
Standing Sidebends 25lb x 20ea side

2 sets of the following:

Single Leg Deadlift 10lb x 15ea leg
Tbar Row 3 postions x 12each
Step-Step-Kick band x 1-2minutes
Scull Crushers + Chest Press 15lb bar x 12 each
Cable Torso Rotation 30lb x 20ea side

I can’t wait to see what’s in store next week!

Fresh Fork Winter CSA–week 11

CSA No Responses »

Mar 152012

It’s hard to believe that it’s week 11 already. It’s also the middle of March. It won’t be long until we are picking strawberries! We arrived at Beachwood High School to find Trevor manning the truck this week. Also, due to baseball practice, the truck was in a different part of the parking lot. I had that strange feeling that I was there on the wrong day for just a second. Once we circled around the lot, Nick noticed the green bags and all was well.

Here’s what we were expecting to receive this week:

1 pack pork loin chops
1 bag corn crackers
2 lb. black turtle beans
1 pint salsa
1 bag mixed salad greens
1 pint sorghum syrup
1 dozen eggs
1 lb. assorted sausage
1 lb. sweet corn
1 lb. kale, bunched

Here’s a group shot:

We’ll use the beans in a combination of a Mexican casserole and also black bean burgers. The ground pork will also go in our casserole.

The pork chops are the best. We’ll probably just season them and bake them in the oven. The corn was frozen last summer and it’s been delicious. We’ll add it to our Mexican dish or use it as a side.

The sorghum syrup was a head scratcher last year. We ended up using it in a bbq glaze type of sauce that we put over ham loaf. It was delicious. I have no idea how we made the sauce, so we’ll be experimenting once again. I’m thinking of using it as the main sweetener in some homemade sauce. So far, tomato sauce, vinegar, spices, onion, peppers and syrup come to mind. I’m not a huge fan of this type of greens, but we do our best to eat it in salads.

I’ll be putting the kale and salsa in our casserole as well.

Everyone in our house loves these chips. If they don’t get eaten first, they’d be a nice addition to our Mexican meal. Eggs are so easy for us to use. I just saw a recipe for some muffin casserole bites that are egg based. I think I’ll try it this week.

We picked up a few extras as well. Krispie treat granola ($5) and 2 yogurts ($5 each).

I’m excited for this week because I can do just a little cooking and have several meals. Sometimes I like being a lazy cook.

Sink or Float

Exercise No Responses »

Mar 142012

Today, I had another lesson with Tabitha. After Sunday’s lifeguarding class, my main concern was being able to do the head splint with a submerged victim skill properly.

My biggest problem with this skill is that I float. In many applications, it’s good to float. When I need to tread water, I can do so with very little effort. I don’t have any trouble staying afloat for long periods of time.

So, when I try to go down under water for any period of time, I literally have to fight the water to stay down. Even with some of my best dives, I have a short amount of time for the rescue. Feet first dives don’t seem to work for me. I can sort of do them and I can get both feet to the bottom. But, it seems that successful rescues will involve a head first dive.

Tabitha and I spent most of the lesson working on dives and rescues. I was able to rescue her several times. The test will be if I can rescue the instructor. He sinks.

So far, I am glad that we don’t have a really deep pool. I’d probably be struggling if we had to rescue victims in nine feet water.

After a few successful rescues, we went back to working on the breaststroke. My kick has improved and my feet stay in the water more. But, I still need lots of practice.

Maybe next week we’ll tackle the butterfly.

Cleveland Food Bank and Lenten Pretzels

Blog Information 3 Responses »

Mar 132012

Last night was the monthly meet up for the Ohio Blogging Association. We took a couple hours out of our busy schedules and volunteered at the Cleveland Food Bank.

Once we arrived, we watched a short video and Alan showed us a bit of the warehouse. Since I used to run a packing and assembly warehouse, it was fascinating to see the facility.

There were several groups volunteering last evening. Our OBA group worked on the BackPack for Kids Program. This program is a discreet way to send children home with a back pack full of food for 6 meals. The issue is that many children in need only eat at school. When Friday comes, they don’t have food for the weekend. The kids get a backpack and a can opener at the beginning of the year and each week they bring back their empty backpack and it gets refilled. The webpage mentioned an average of 2,300 kids served a week, but I am pretty sure 3,700 is a more current number. The thought of that many kids needing food for the weekend makes me sad.

George, who works for the food bank, got us started. I volunteered to help keep the assembly line stocked. I was in charge of Vienna sausage, pasta O’s, and corn. Since each bag got two cans of pasta and corn, I was super busy. I was also supposed to break down the cardboard and keep the area clean. In actuality, I summoned help as needed for that part. Within minutes, I was definitely sweating and getting a good workout.

The bags contained other things including milk, cereal, applesauce, etc. The bags were nutritionally balanced and included items that most kids would eat. In addition to the line, we had people working on boxes and filling the skid. By the end of our time, we had filled over 500 bags.

I posed with the new skid of corn. We ran out for just a minute while the staff replenished our line with a new skid.

We had 11 bloggers in total participate.

In addition to myself, we had:

Alicia from Poise in Parma
Aja from CLE Creativity +
Crystal from Eat Drink Cleveland
Jen from Why CLE?
John from Songs and Stories
Julie from ROJ Running
Kimberly from SMITTEN…in cleveland
Lane from Lane Baldwin Photography
Reanna from Big Shot Dot The I
Sarah from Cooker Girl

It was nice to see some familiar faces and also meet some new bloggers. At the end of our volunteering time, we took a few minutes to introduce our blogs and make announcements.

While I was gone, Nick was asking Stephen where I was. He explained to Nick that I was working at the food bank. He further explained that a food bank organizes food so it can be given out to people who need it. Nick made the connection to the Lenten Pretzels at church. Each year, the kids make pretzels and sell them to congregation members. The proceeds are used for a variety of projects to help other kids in need. Nick made the connection that the pretzel money helped kids that need food, too. It was super nice to hear that he was able to make the connection.

I was taking my lifeguarding class, but Stephen was able to snap a few photos.

Here’s a tray of finished pretzels and a couple of Nick applying the cinnamon sugar.

The food bank utilizes over 11,000 unique volunteers a year. Kids 6 and older can volunteer on special family nights. I’ll be keeping that in mind for when Nick and Sally are a little older. It’s easy to take things we have for granted. Volunteering last night really made me appreciate things a bit more today.

Turtle Pond at North Chagrin Reservation

Adventures with Nick and Sally No Responses »

Mar 122012

Yesterday was the first beautiful, warm, weekend day that we have been able to enjoy outside. After I got home from my lifeguarding class, we decided to head to the Duck Pond at the North Chagrin Reservation. Near the Nature Center there are 2 ponds. I’m not sure if either have a formal name, but we usually just say we’re going to the Duck Pond. To Nick and Sally, that encompasses the entire area of 2 ponds, education building, nature center, etc.

We arrived to find a very full parking lot. Lots of families were out enjoying the beautiful day. Nick and Sally were happy to be in light jackets and hats.

We arrived at the first pond to find tons of turtles enjoying the sun. I can’t ever remember seeing turtles before. And they were everywhere!

Most of the turtles we saw were on logs in the pond. The last one on the grass actually lives in the nature center. Mindy brought him out so he could stretch his legs and get some fresh air. She spent time talking to Nick and Sally about his favorite foods like worms and slugs.

We enjoyed a walk around the big pond. Nick and Sally stopped to look for fish. Sally also posted for a photo with mommy.

Sally is very intrigued by her shadow. She was giggling and having a great time.

After several hours in class and the indoor pool, it was so nice to be outside with the family for a while. We ended the day with dinner with friends.

Lifeguarding Class Number 2–including backboards

Exercise No Responses »

Mar 112012

Today, I attended my second lifeguarding class. We started out in the classroom with a few videos reviewing surveillance from last week. We also watched videos about escapes, in-line stabilization, and recues with backboarding. After about an hour, we took a short break and meet up in the pool. We added a person this week, so our class now has 7 students.

At the pool we practiced skills including things like:

submerged victims in deep water
manual in-line stabilizations
backboarding – shallow and deep rescues
escapes (how to get away when a save doesn’t go as planned)

I’m a floater. It’s good to be a floater when you are swimming. However, I don’t make a great victim. It’s hard for me to play a submersed victim. I also have a hard time going under long and deep enough to rescue a submerged victim. On Wednesday, we’ll be practicing during my swim lesson.

I thought the backboarding skills were particularly interesting. It’s really amazing how much you have to work together as a team for different types of rescues. It was also good to be a victim and get a feel for laying on the board, getting strapped in and lifted out. Some pools in the area hardly ever have a backboard rescue. But, at least one local pool does about 3 a week during the summer. All of the skills are taken quite seriously. I have a totally new appreciation for lif guards after just two of my classes.

We concluded our class by swimming 300 yards. All in all, we were in and out of the pool for over 3.5 hours. It was a busy and tiring day.

Next week we are off and then on the 25th, we’ll be covering victim care. I haven’t been current in First Aid and CPR for a few years, so it will be good to review all of the skills.

Lake Farmpark: Maple Syrup and Quilts

Adventures with Nick and Sally, Family 2 Responses »

Mar 102012

Today, we invited my parents up for a visit to Lake Farmpark. It was a chilly and beautiful day. My parents had never been to Lake Farmpark, so we had fun showing them around.

The first stop was the solar panel station just outside the main entrance. Nick was happy to show grandma how it worked. Nick and Sally both enjoyed the wagon ride. No trip to Farmpark would be complete without a ride.

One of my favorite parts of visiting this time of year is all of the baby animals. It seems that every time you visit, there are some newborns that are just a few days old.

After the barn visit we headed up to the Plant Science Building. In honor of maple sugaring, there were a couple of crafts for the kids.

The staff is always so friendly and these volunteers were no exceptions. Lori helped Nick and Sally with rubbings of plants and spider webs. Joe was happy to answer all of Nick’s questions about the aquaponics system. He even brought out some fish food so we could try to see the Koi. I’ve been to Farmpark many times and I never knew there were fish! Thanks to Lori and Joe for being so great with the kids.

Last year, we went up to the the sugar house too soon. The park opens at 9AM, but we learned from experience that you don’t want to go until you see smoke! After spending time with the above activities, we headed to the evaporator. I was excited to try the maple stirs since we missed out on them last year. Basically, they give you a serving of hot syrup and you mix air into it with your stirrer. Once it’s cooled a bit and creamy, you enjoy it. They were delicious. For $1, it’s a unique treat. Next time, I’ll remember to get them one or two at a time. It was hard to stir ours and help the kids at the same time. After we finished our treats, I purchased a gallon of maple syrup. It was $48 minus our 10% discount. That’s a good price for fresh, local, syrup.

After we looked around at the displays for a bit, Stephen took Nick on a quick side trip to see some of the tree sap.

In addition to the formal maple sugaring weekend, the quilts were still on display. Quilts are amazing pieces of work. We found ourselves wishing the creators listed how many hours they took. I’m not sure how many quilts were on display, but it was well over 100. They were spread out in several areas of the main building.

The kids were both exhausted by the time we finished lunch and both took great naps. It was a great family day.

Swim Practice

Adventures with Nick and Sally, Exercise No Responses »

Mar 092012

Nick is still taking swim lessons. He usually goes once a week on Thursday. I’m so glad that he loves the water! I think he is the class clown. He always seems to be goofing around. I talked to one of the instructors today. She said he just likes the water. I’m glad it doesn’t seem to bother her. From my vantage point, he is always bobbing up and down and not paying attention. I’ll keep letting him take lessons as long as he wants to swim. It think it’s an important skill.

He’s getting much more comfortable in the water. He also still loves his hooded towel when he gets out.

My workout today included lots of swim practice. I spent an hour in the pool and even had my own lane for a part of my workout. I am mostly interested in building up my endurance at this point. I used to need a nap after a great strength training workout or spin class. Now, I need a nap after a long pool workout. I’d love to have the stamina for 2-3 hours of a vigorous workout and not need a nap. That’s a great goal for this year.

My practice today included:

quite a few laps of the crawl
a few lengths of the backstroke
a couple of lengths of the breaststroke kick with a kick board
a couple of lengths of just kicking on my back to simulate the dive brick test
4 or 5 dives in the deep end to practice my hang time at the bottom for brick / victim retrieval
a length or two of breaststroke
ended with getting out of the pool without the ladder – it still isn’t pretty, but it was doable after the hour in the pool

I was having some trouble with my goggles. I think it’s time for a new pair. Maybe I’ll get a chance to shop this weekend.

My arms are a bit sore tonight. I’m not sure if it’s from the swimming today or the strength workout yesterday. It’s probably a combo.

I’m hoping for a nice day at Lake Farmpark with lots of walking tomorrow. The second lifeguarding class is Sunday and we’ll be in the pool for a couple of hours again.

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