Morning rituals

I've always been a morning person.  I really love the cool quiet of a summer morning, or the dark, warm, cozy quiet of a winter morning with a nice hot decaf mocha.  I'd like to cut way back on coffee, especially because that's a LOT of milk, but I can't think of a substitute that I would really like.  I'm unfortunately not a huge fan of tea.  I make some espresso in my stovetop espresso maker, heat up some milk, and add some sugar and cocoa powder, and it is really the best thing ever.  I also love the ritual of making it, and then sitting down in and enjoying it (when my kids let me).  Unfortunately, it's a lot of calories and sometimes upsets my stomach, so I really need to find an alternative. 

My typical breakfasts are yogurt with cereal, or toast with almond butter.  I've recently started making organic whole milk yogurt in my Instant Pot.  I have to admit, it takes a little bit of planning ahead, since it take 8-10 hours to incubate, and then I have to be around to strain it.  I like it somewhere between regular yogurt and greek yogurt, which I find too thick.  I love being able to make something from scratch, though, and it is really the best yogurt I have ever tasted.  Since you need to use some yogurt as a starter, I get the French Village Cream Line Whole Milk yogurt from Trader Joe's, which makes a great batch of yogurt.  It's delicious plain, which is how I prefer it, but it's also heavenly with some jam mixed in.

 Another thing I like about early mornings is getting up and working out before everyone else is up.  Recently I started Masters swimming again.  I have a long history with Master's swimming, mostly involving early morning swim times.  I started at Boston University Masters Swimming (BUMS), then moved back home with my mom to Granite Bay and swam with the Rocklin Aquatic Masters (RAM) team.  After that, I moved to Davis and swam with Davis Aquatic Masters (DAM) for several years, until I had my kids.  When the twins were born, I swam with Davis Athletic Club (DAC) Masters for a few years, this time at noon when they were in school (which got me a nice tan!).  I also got used to having my own lane or splitting, which wasn't all that great for keeping me swimming at a faster speed, so I also got kinda lazy. 

When my youngest was born 3 years ago, that put a real wrench in the works.  I've swam much more intermittently since then - occasionally going to DAC Masters, but mostly swimming on my own, which makes it hard to swim a good one-hour workout because, honestly, it gets boring and lonely.  I tried to squeeze extra yards into a half-hour workout, which worked nicely for a while, but I also need the accountability of swimming with others, and a regular schedule to work into my schedule.  So as of about 5 weeks ago, I've gone back to DAM.  The only time that really works with my kids' school schedules is 6am - the main drawback being that I can't go when Loris is traveling.  Luckily, I can usually go at least Mondays and Fridays, since he mostly travels mid-week, and while I started with the hope of going 1-2 times per week, I'm now regularly swimming 2-3 times per week, which is great.

So, I swam 2500 yards this morning, came home and made a hot mocha and some yogurt with weetabix, and now I should start cleaning up the perpetual mess that we have in this house =)  Before the little monsters get up, which I'm expecting any minute now ...

First post

I used to be a budding "homesteader".  I mean, not really a homesteader, but, you know.  I had a garden.  Canned vegetables and fruits and tomato sauce.  I cooked from scratch, baked my own bread, sewed my own crafts, and had a bunch of stuff I wanted to do and learn.  And then I had kids. 

First I had twins.  And it was SOOOOOOO hard at first, but then it got better.  I still managed to have a garden, and can some stuff, and bake pretty often.  My husband is from Italy, and going there every summer definitely puts a crimp in the summer garden plans, but I mostly made it work.

Then I had another kid, and now I just don't seem to have time.  The twins are 8 now and the little guy is 3, and I'm slowly trying to get back to where I want to be. 

I started my bread-baking journey probably back when I was in high school, and I still make a recipe or two from those days.  My staples now are some sourdough baguettes that I make a few times a month, in large batches so I can freeze the extra, and focaccia, which is yummy and probably not healthy, but everyone loves it.  I have a sourdough starter now, which I couldn't have imagined way back when, and aside from it being just one more daily chore I have to do, I think it's great.

I sometimes make my own yogurt, thanks to my Instant Pot.  My yogurt is delicious, although I tend to over-strain it and end up with greek style yogurt, which isn't necessarily what I want, but it's good!

We still mostly cook from scratch.  Luckily, my Italian husband and I both grew up with families that sat down and ate dinner together, and with parents who cooked at home, so that has not been a hard habit to develop.  Before having kids, we would cook a lot of vegetables and gourmet-style food, and really enjoy our meals.  Now we're both busy and our kids are pickier than we are, so things are simpler, but we love having friends over to share some fancier stuff.  I'll post pics of recipes we make here, sometimes.

I'm trying to get back to sports and get back and shape.  This has been an up-and-down journey for me, as my life has gone through so many changes in the past few years.  I'm back on an upswing and hoping I can keep it that way.

Anyway - off to get stuff done.  I'm busy, what can I say.