Gardening Galore...

It's been awhile since I've posted something and I've been storing up a lot of stuff to share. So fasten your seatbelts and enjoy the ride!...

After all the research, reading and such I have decided to try my hand at gardening again; this time with my lovely friend, Lindsay's help! Already people have heard we are putting in a garden and are volunteering to help take produce off our hands when we have too much of it - which I'm sure we will!

We are using the squarefoot gardening method - http://www.squarefootgardening.com/ It's going to look so pretty with manicured boxes, gravel aisles, flowers, herbs and lots of veggies. Nick has decided to put in a trench to help with our horrible drainage issue. I'm moving bricks around and hopefully the rain will hold out so we can start rototilling. Lindsay and I are going to put together our little start containers the second week in February and our exercise room will become a greenhouse. By the last week of April, first part of May we will be ready to plant! We are planting: corn, tomatoes, beans, edamame, chickpeas, broccoli, potatoes, carrots, lots of lettuce greans, herbs, bell peppers, jalapeno peppers, onions and lots of flowers too.

This last weekend, Tim & Lindsay were the bomb and helped us out with digging Nick's trench and then filling it back in. The trench was about 12 feet long and two feet wide, we put a corrugated/perforated tube in the bottom, covered it with rocks, gravel and sand, then filled the trench back in. Unfortunately I didn't take pictures, but good fun was had by all. Rototilling was finished and the huge chunks of grass were raked up. Lindsay and I picked out two beautiful new rosebushes - Tropicana, which is a rose that my great-grandmother had


and Enchanted Evening.


Here's some photographic progress to show how we're coming along:

Stay tuned for the final product photos!

It's in the food...

After much reading, researching and discussion Nick and I are on the road to being healthier in 2010. I have become a number one fan of Michael Pollan and have read several of his books and watched a couple of his documentaries. It's scary stuff, but vital knowledge to have! Food Inc., Botany of Desire, Omnivore's Dilemma, In Defense of Food and Food Rules have all become a part of our plan to eat healthier. It felt so good to walk out of Central Market on Sunday knowing that what we had in our reusable grocery bags was organic, whole food and mainly local.

I went out and turned over my compost on Sunday and it looks wonderful! We are so excited to start a garden this spring and use the square foot gardening method. Lindsay and I are in the throws of picking out what we want to plant, materials needed, layout, etc. If you have limited space or have a large space and want to spend less work on your garden check out www.squarefootgardening.com. It's pretty amazing!

We're also planning on returning to the Redmond Farmer's Market the minute it starts on May 2nd. This summer I want to can my own tomato sauce and applesauce; freeze corn, carrots, squash; and dry numerous herbs, fruit and veggies.

Nick and I enjoyed the fruits of our labors (not really labor considering it was just a matter of picking things off the shelves and out of bins, but a bit more labor then usual!) with a dinner consisting of: mixed greens salad, homemade salad dressing, and spinach fettucini with a fantastic aged parmesean cheese sauce. I don't know if it was just the company or the fact that the food was local and organic, but I swear the food tasted better. *If you're interested in recipes, just drop me an e-mail*

Nick and I are pretty excited about this journey we've started and it feels good to be giving back to the environment, to know where our food is coming from, how it was grown and there's more appreciation for our food with the effort we're putting into it. We'll keep you posted on how it's going and pictures will be coming as we start putting things together!

New Year...

A new year, new commitments, new ideas, new possibilities, new opportunites, new challenges...

Nick and I finished off the year with much laughter, a bit of craziness and lots of fun. Now, it is 4 days into the new year, the petrified tree has been removed, the lights put away, leftovers thrown out and with my new HUGE (thanks Mama!) calendar hanging on the wall already filling up I decided to sit down and do a bit of blogging to update things for the new year. Ahhh, nothing like a new set of resolutions, projects and such to start the year off right! I decided that the 365 project was a bit out of my league - for this year at least; however, I thought I could stick with the "one word". Thought I'd share a few of our 2010 commitments...

• I've picked my "one word" for the year: Luxuriate - to enjoy oneself without stint; revel; to grow fully or abundantly; thrive.
  
• Nick's "one word" is: Driven - to strive vigorously toward a goal or objective; to work, play, or try wholeheartedly and with determination.
  
• I'm going to continue to stick with my calorie counting and working out.
  
• Still trying to decide if I'll commit to marathoning (at least halves) this year.
  
• We're both sticking with cycling and comprising on backpacking (i.e. backpack trip followed with something a little less rustic).
  
• Nick has commited to reading one book a month for the year and I'm going to try and keep up with him on that.
  
• I'm commited to putting my three scrapbooks together; well at least moving them from their 3 piles into actual books.

Here's to the new year and sticking with the things we've set for ourselves! What commitments have you made for yourself?

Christmas weekending

Nick and I decided that we would have Christmas at our house this year and we were delighted that my family joined us! I was determined that this year I would not spend all day on Christmas cooking dinner so Nick and I pre-made our casseroles on Wednesday and the pies Thursday afternoon, therefore making the rest of the time as relaxing as possible. Christmas Eve we had our traditional Garlic Soup dinner which was absolutely divine and Christmas evening a traditional dinner (complete with squash casserole thanks to Sandy's wonderful recipe!!). The weekend was interspersed with fun events such as: the exchanging of gifts and un-stuffing of stockings, board games (completely sucking at Trivial Pursuit), eating way too much including lots of left-overs, Garden D'Lights at Bellevue's Botanical Gardens, walks in the cold sunshine, building Legos and other good fun.
After my family left yesterday Nick and I cleaned the house and then went for a fantastic 16 mile bike ride in the cold sunshine and finished off the day with going to see the most epic movie of all time - AVATAR, in 3D of course!!! So fantastically amazing - if you haven't seen it yet, GO! GO NOW!!!
Hope all of your Christmas celebrations were as wonderful as ours!

Santa Claus is coming to the Tomczek's!

Last weekend we went to a Santa Claus parade in our little town center. It was small, but cute and fun to walk around looking at everything sipping on hot coffee from our favorite local coffee shop, Spotted Cow.

The Christmas spirit finally hit me Tuesday evening this week, after attending my work Christmas party, and I started to drag out the Christmas bins, set-up the Nativity set, the Christmas books and my card holder while listening to Christmas music. Our work group went to The Ram in Seattle (a local restaurant and brewery) and had a grand time eating and having a gift exchange. I ended up with a plush, white throw and it's so warm and cozy!


My contribution to the work Christmas party (movie night "in" basket)

Thursday we finally went and picked up our Christmas tree, put up our lights and finished decorating. Our Christmas ornament this year is 3 links of chain - it represents strength; breaking free from debt, fears; and that a strand of three is stronger then a strand of two.


We had a wonderful time Saturday night going to Bellevue and visiting Snowflake Lane. There were hundreds, upon thousands of people, but the music was wonderful and it even *snowed*. We did some light shopping afterwards and then headed home.

Sunday morning started bright and early at 8:30 a.m. and we were on the road by 9:30 a.m. for a day filled with shopping. We started off with coffees from Spotted Cow and arrived at Costco right as they opened. After a couple more shopping stops we finished right at 2:50 p.m. (I promised Nick we'd be done before 3 p.m.!). The evening was finished up with wrapping, unpacking and laundry. We are ready for Christmas to arrive!!

Weekending in Walla Walla

We traveled to Walla Walla the weekend of December 10th for my mom's tonsillectomy surgery. We had a wonderful, relaxing weekend and my mom's surgery went beautifully and we're just waiting for her biopsy results.


We spent the weekend taking care of Mama, the animals, playing games, building Lego's, cooking and eating lots of Potato soup, and watching the snow fall.

A few inches of snow

Nick's trebuchet

How to freeze otter pops in Walla Walla

My adorable burglar sister!

Despite the reason for the trip to Walla Walla we had a good time and it was nice to visit with family and friends. It never ceases to amaze me at how blessed we are to have such wonderful friends and family in our lives to make life so much more rich and full. Thank you to everyone for all your prayers, well wishes and support for my mom and our family! We are so blessed...

Tennessee Thanksgiving

The holiday season is upon us and so Nick and I made our biennial journey to join our Tennessee family for Thanksgiving. We were reminiscing of how we came to be included in the Simmons' family festivities and realized that we've been traveling to TN for Thanksgiving for about 5 years now. It all started when Tim found out that Nick and I couldn't make it home for Thanksgiving in 2000 and invited us to join his family for the festivities. We fell in love with their family and have made it a tradition to return pretty much every other year since then. We've also gone down for spring break and a wedding. I love traveling to TN as it is where Nick and I lived for about 3-1/2 years.

We arrived in Nashville, TN, on Wednesday, November 25th and immediately started filling our pieholes with Sandy's wonderful cooking. Thursday a couple of us girls went for a 2.5 mile walk to burn off some calories and make room for our huge dinner. T-Day was spent watching the Macy's Day parade, football, playing games (new game - Bananagrams - a must buy!) and more stuffing of our bellies. I've never seen as many casseroles - besides at potluck - then when we go to the Simmons'! Green bean, asparagus, squash, sweet potato and more... Yummy!!
Several brave souls did rise at some obscene hour to purchase specific items on Friday morning; those of us less crazy, slept in and then us girls treated ourselves to a spa day and shopping later in the morning. We met the guys for lunch and then went and saw Old Dogs. A silly, but cute and funny family movie.
Saturday we were spoiled by one of Sandy's fantastically huge breakfasts before Nick and I headed for Chattanooga to visit Tim and Emily. Tim picked us up in the afternoon and Emily greeted us with another Thanksgiving feast for dinner! We went for a walk and then built a bonfire that night and sat around telling stories and talking with Tim, Emily and Emily's parents. When we couldn't keep warm any longer, we adjourned to the house and played some more games. Sunday we went for another walk along the Collegedale Greenway Trail. It was fabulous weather while we were there and I so wish the trail would have been there when I was going to SAU. After our walk we went and saw The Blind Side; I would have to say that this is one of the best feel good movies I've seen in a long time. Take your family and go see it!!
Monday we returned to Nashville, ate lunch and then headed to the airport. We arrived to freezing Seattle at 11:30 p.m. on Monday night, enjoyed Tuesday off and then noses back to the grindstone on Wednesday.

Hope y'll had wonderful Thanksgivings wherever you were and whomever you were with!! Thanks Simmons Family for adopting us and letting us come spend Thanksgiving with everyone; we are so blessed to have you in our lives!! Looking forward to the next time...