Merry Christmas!

From our house to yours,

a very merry Christmas

and all the best in 2013!



More Snow!

A big snowstorm was predicted to hit us in the middle of the night.  So the boys and I took our precautions - I made sure the car was filled up and my oldest set his alarm 40 minutes earlier.  But when we looked out the window at 6:15 this morning, there was nothing to be seen.  Slight disappointment but I was mainly relieved, and crawled back into my warm bed.  Fifteen minutes later, however, it started!  Big flakes coming down in a flurry! 

Amazing how efficient we all are in mini crisis mode - we managed to leave the house at 7:15 and the boys were at school well on time.  The traffic coming back wasn't even too terrible, since I was so early.  Phew!  And in the meantime the snow has slowed down quite a bit - I'll be able to get out and shovel my sidewalk, just as soon as I've finished my coffee (priorities, right?)

Snow!

This is what it's doing this morning.  The boys noticed it as they got ready to leave for school.  You tell them to be careful, because the roads will be slippery, and then you hope they make it to school okay as they clatter out of the house.  And then it's so quiet and peaceful as the snow falls down, and you sip your coffee, watching out your back window. 

The first one of the season is always the best.

Nice!

This reminds me of one of my all time favorites, "Where in the World is Matt"...check it out - and take a vacation from your life for just a minute:

MOVE from Rick Mereki on Vimeo.

Heaven

 

Enough said, right?

Have a warm and cozy Sunday.

Discovering Fatoumata

Linda and I had tickets to see the very talented Fatoumata Diawara last night: Fatou and her band actually got the entire audience in the Leuven Schouwburg to get up and dance, and that is no small feat! Fatoumata is Ivorian, grew up in Mali, and is currently based out of Paris. Her music is based on the Wassoulou tradition, West African popular music that was an important influence to American blues. She has a lovely, grainy voice, and a warm presence on stage. It was a treat to discover her, and fun to be able to get up out of our seats and clap, sing along and move. What a great evening!

Per request...

 

Fran, this is for you!



Enjoying Indian Summer

 

We spent the weekend in Lanaken, in the Limburg area of Belgium.   The weather has been just gorgeous and we signed up for an "Indian Summer Hike" at the only national park in Belgium, the Hoge Kempen.  It turned out to be a very enjoyable afternoon and the highlight for me were all the different wild mushrooms our guide pointed out for us, especially the "vliegenzwam" or "Fly amanita", pictured above and below.  I had never seen one of these in real life, and suddenly we were passing dozens of them!  They actually start out white, but as they mature, the white peels off to reveal the bright red underneath.  Very cool!

 

The part of the forest we walked through was filled with tall trees, and lots of falling leaves:

 

 

 The next day we visited Oud Rekem, which was voted the most charming village in Flanders.  It was definitely a very cute little town filled with lots of history (and for a short time, three silly teenagers):

 

It was a fun weekend in a special place!

Improvements

Yesterday I had the best workout at the gym I've had in a long time.  I started with a really vigorous hill walk on the treadmill, then upper body weights, an interval workout on the elliptical, and then finished with a few of Martha Peterson's somatic exercises and stretches.  It felt good physically and I enjoyed it.  I am finally starting to feel like things are turning around and moving in a positive direction, and I'm not feeling completely debilitated by pain on a daily basis anymore.  I am so grateful for this, I can't even tell you how happy I am about it. 

One thing that really helped me enormously was Kelly McGonigal's book "Yoga for Pain Relief"  Kelly is my idol: not only is she a professor at Stanford, vegan, does yoga, and wrote an incredible book about willpower as well; the information in her book about pain was just what I needed to hear to enable myself to turn the corner on what was going on with me, instead of letting it drag me down so much.  My "aha" moment came when I read her explanation of chronic pain vs. acute pain and how chronic pain does not necessarily mean there is something majorly wrong with your body, physically.  Chronic pain has its origins in acute pain, where the body learns to react to injuries and stress in a certain way, and then applies this learning too enthusiastically to future situations that may have nothing to do with an acute physical injury.

Do I still have pain? Yes.  But the biggest change by far is how I am managing the way I think about it in my mind.  I have managed to stop catastrophizing and letting the pain overshadow everything else in my life.  I'm even starting to think about running again.  Thanks, Kelly.

Election Fever

Here in Belgium yesterday we had local and provincial elections, which fall every 6 years.  

We walked over to our voting bureau around 11, and discovered huge lines.  It was very chaotic - nobody knew where they had to line up.  After waiting for about 10 minutes we finally decided to walk home again and come back after lunch.

We heard on the news that there were problems with the computers used to vote electronically, so when we walked back at 2, we were prepared to wait some more.  But the problems seemed to have been more or less sorted out and we got in and out fairly quickly.  Phew!

The nice thing, I find, about election Sundays, is that you end up seeing people from your community that you don't often bump into on other days.  While we were waiting in line, we talked to an elderly couple that live up our street, whose first great-grandchild was recently born.  Then when we came home, four of our neighbors were out chatting and we hung out with them for a while.  It's nice to feel part of a community and election day certainly contributes to that!

The other nice thing about elections here is that it is much less polarized than in the US.  I suppose it has to do with the wider choice in different political parties, and the fact that pretty much all parties have to work together in coalition governments, but there is much less of a feeling of all or nothing, black or white, either you're on my side or you're the worst person in the world.  People are much more tolerant of differences of opinion and differences in voting choices, and that is a wonderful thing. 


An interesting Sunday...and a small world encounter

Yesterday afternoon my middle son Gillis and I biked over to the the university's mechanical engineering department for an open house they were having for "Open Bedrijvendag" which is an annual event where companies open their doors to the public. (And yes, the castle above is part of the campus!)

We were especially interested in this badminton robot that was recently developed by one of the spin off companies of the department. It was pretty cool to see it in action (check out the video below) but Gillis was a bit too shy to try it out for himself (and there were a ton of little kids waiting in line).


We saw a lot of other interesting high tech machines. Seeing a 3-D printer in action and really understanding how it works was awesome. I had heard about this on the radio last year and I just couldn't wrap my mind around how it worked. I think Gillis enjoyed the chance he got to direct a human sized robot they are developing to help people who are handicapped or immobile. I would have taken pictures but I didn't want to embarrass him!

Finally, one of the doctoral students was explaining one of the other machines to us. He was from India so we were speaking English with him. He said we didn't sound like we were from Belgium, so I told him I was originally from the US. He said he had lived in the US as well, so of course I asked where. "Urbana-Champaign" he replied! I had to laugh and tell him I also went to the University of Illinois, ages and ages ago. It sure is a small world, isn't it? We both agreed the U of I was a great place to go to school...but Leuven is pretty awesome too! And that hit home as we biked back through the really pretty part of the engineering campus and I realized how lucky I am to live here.

"Walk for Biodiversity" in Heverlee

Yesterday was just one of those absolutely gorgeous, perfect fall days. The perfect day for the local nature organization to hold their annual "Walk for biodiversity". The fun thing was, it was right in our city, and part of it included our boys' school and the environment around it! So we biked over to the school (it wasn't easy to convince them to go to school on a Sunday) and signed up for the walk...

 

The major attraction on the walk was the Park Abbey of Heverlee, below:

 

 

This was a Norbertine abbey established in the 12th century and includes fish ponds and a classic medieval herb garden placed on the south facing wall of this building, which creates a warm micro climate perfect for growing medicinal herbs:

 

 

 Most of the buildings are 17th to 18th century in style and none have been added since 1730, but there is a lot of renovation going on at the moment.  I loved this little garden house along the banks of the fish ponds:

 

At the Park Abbey, there is a very active beekeeper - this is one of the cool places the bees can build their hives, right in one of the old abbey doorways:

 

The back gate of the Abbey:

 

 

After leaving the abbey we were back in the fields heading towards the school.

 

We also walked through some traditional "holle wegen" - roughly translated: sunken lanes.  These are old roads that have been worn hollow through hundreds of years of use:

 Saw some sheep along the way:

 

Also passed by a pair of lovely horses:

 

 

And finally ended up back at the boys' school (which used to be a monastery) where they had set up tables on the playground and were selling juice, coffee, beer and wine for the walkers!  Hey, that's my kind of biodiversity ;-)  and it was a nice treat to drink a cold beer on such a lovely day.

Hip pain, anyone?

I think I mentioned awhile back that I was trying some Hannah Somatics type exercises to deal with my hip and low back pain.  I only experimented with what I could find on the web (which was actually quite a lot) from Martha Peterson of Essential Somatics (if you search for Essential Somatics on YouTube you will get videos of the exercises I have been trying).  They've been helping and I've even used the exercises as part of my cool down since I've gotten back to the gym (nothing heavy, just treadmill walking, upper body weights and the elliptical!). 

Anyhow, she just posted this very enlightening explanation about how chronic pain, including hip pain, is connected to computer use: http://essentialsomatics.wordpress.com/2012/09/29/computer-work-is-it-causing-your-hip-pain/, so I thought I would share.  Just in case there is anyone out there who (like me) sometimes spends a bit too much time with my hand on my computer mouse and sitting in the same position behind my laptop...  I have been very consciously trying to reduce that, and I notice it makes a big difference.

So...it's time to get off the computer!  I am making Indian food for lunch and then we are off to a nature walk being held at an abbey and our kids' school today - and it's going to be a gorgeous fall day, so I can't wait!

Hope you have a very happy Sunday!

My new toy!

I have always wanted a food processor, and last week when my Kitchen Aid pooped out on me and I saw this Bosch on promotion in a folder from a local store, I decided it was a sign that it was time for me to finally get one.

So I brought it home with me this morning and I am in love!  Just the ability to grate veggies so easily is going to be wonderful, not to mention making all kinds of things I just couldn't manage with my immersion blender (like Larabar type nut and dried fruit treats - can't wait to make those!)

So after my son tried making fresh orange juice with the citrus press, I decided to make a chopped red beet and carrot salad inspired by my Mark Bittman vegetarian cookbook - it was so simple, and wonderfully delicious.  And it took all of about two minutes to pull together.  Sure beets all that grating by hand I've been doing all these years...(har har)  If you have a food processor, I highly recommend it!

Chopped Red Beet and Carrot Salad with Ginger

In a medium serving bowl, whisk together 1 T olive oil, 2 T lemon or lime juice, and a dash of salt and pepper.  Set aside.  Then get your hands on:

1 med red beet, peeled and cut into chunks
2 med carrots, peeled and cut into chunks
1 T peeled and chopped ginger

With the metal blade attachment, pulse the beets, carrots and ginger together in the food processor until they are coarsely chopped (the largest pieces left should be about the size of raisins).  Tip the chopped veggies into the bowl with the dressing and stir well. 

Yum!...and with winter round the corner we can all do with all the antioxidants, vitamins and minerals in this salad, not to mention the germ-fighting and immune-enhancing qualities of the ginger.

And what's for dinner tonight?  Linguine with a vegan spinach-basil-walnut pesto...made in the food processor of course - LOL!

Can you tell I am having fun with my new toy? ;-)



Where I went this week...

Seems I've been lucky enough to have one really nice outing each week since school started, which is a big treat for a work-at-home mom whose running and exercising has been curtailed temporarily (although I did start back up at the gym, gently, and it feels so good).

This week my friend Kristel and I headed to Limburg for "Fleur Amour" at Alden Biesen Castle: a beautiful location for beautiful creations with flowers:

The castle grounds where there were stands and outdoor flower arrangements - we were lucky it wasn't raining:

 

Even the moat was decorated with flowers:

 

 The interior of the castle where each room had been taken over by a different flower designer (these two were my favorites but there were probably at least 20 different rooms we walked through):

I thought this one was original in the way they used bulbs that were just sprouting to make the base of the arrangement:

And finally the castle's chapel, decorated with hanging flower arrangements:

 

It was a good day!

 

 

Red Ball Day 3

 Florian and I had some shopping to do so how convenient that Red Ball was in one of the major shopping streets in our town on Saturday!

Florian did his best to move it out of the way but to no avail...

We didn't go see Red Ball yesterday because we had some visitors over...

...and I am gone all day today (more on that later) so I won't see it today.

But hopefully Tuesday and Wednesday, the last two days!

Red Ball Day 2

My friend Kristel and I walked together to the train station to see Red Ball in its second location in our town.  Lo and behold, the Mayor was also there inspecting this new artwork in his town (the man in the brown jacket)!  I didn't even realize he was in my picture - I was trying to do something fancy with the three red signs on the left...

Red Ball @ Leuven

Yesterday was the first day of Red Ball Project in Levuen, so I walked downtown with my camera to see what it was all about...

The Ball will be in a different location in town every day for the next week.  It started out at the main square in the center of town and when I got there, they were just getting ready for the official opening, so I got to hear the artist, Kurt Perschke, speak about the project.  He is an American artist who has taken his Red Ball all over the world (most recently in London during the Olympics).

He said that the main idea behind Red Ball is bringing people together, as "a catalyst for new encounters in the everyday".  I definitely saw more smiling (than is usual here in Belgium) going on between strangers as several of us took pictures of the school children who were being patiently lined up by their teachers in front of the ball. 

I have the list of locations where the ball is going to be this week and I am going to do my best to get to as many of them as possible, by foot or by bike.  So I guess you could say my exercise this week will be Red Ball Workouts!  Hmmm...it does kind of look like a giant Swiss ball, doesn't it?

Rendez-Vous @ Paris

On Tuesday morning I got up bright and early to catch the fast train to Paris - to spend the day with my godson and his parents.  It was a gorgeous fall day, and we didn't have hardly any wait for the Eiffel Tower, which was where he absolutely wanted to go.  I was so glad I got to do it with him!  We went all the way to the top (of course) and picknicked on the 2nd level.  What a treat!

Then we spent a long time taking pictures, took a little break at a playground in the neighborhood, and visited Napoleon's tomb and the Army Museum, until it was time to catch the train back to Brussels.  It was a perfect day.

 

Now it's back to real life again and off to the gym...

 

At the Orchid Show

My friend Catherine and I went to the annual International Orchid Show at our city's botanical garden today - in honor of her birthday - but also because we both really love orchids!  It was difficult to get good pictures with the lighting (and my bad camera) but here are some impressions:

 I didn't realize you could hang certain kinds of orchids up on the wall without any dirt or pot to speak of!  Some of them were absolutely gorgeous...




I also learned the key to getting them to bloom is warmth during the day, but much chillier at night.  Which is probably why they do pretty well in my kitchen, as it does get chilly in there at night with the high ceiling...

Also important is NOT to water them too much, their roots hate being wet.  I only water mine once a month and that seems to keep them happy.  The one thing I do think I need to do is repot them, but that is one of those tasks that I just keep putting off.


After a hot bowl of soup for lunch at Catherine's favorite place (de Zonnekompas, a very friendly and cozy "book cafe", just my kind of place!) we headed home on our bikes.  It was pretty chilly and windy out today - it really felt like fall!

Something I'd like to share with you

A lovely video that proves it's not impossible to grow old with grace. Do you have 4 minutes to brighten your day?

My friend Maia from julia warr on Vimeo.

I don't know about you, but I am inspired...

TGIF

The first week of school is finally coming to an end, I've got my pizza dough rising in the kitchen, and the weather has been gorgeous, way too good to go to the gym (but that should change sometime next week). 

I was advised by my osteopath not to run for a while, no heavy weights, and not to do yoga.  The chronic issues I've been having with my hip (and now shoulder, and it's all connected, how nice) are just not improving, so I have to dial things back a lot.  Which is kind of a bummer, to say the least.

I can walk, though, and that's what I've been doing, every day.  I think I would go crazy if I couldn't do something. So I am thankful for that and for the good weather that makes it very enjoyable right now; although it does feel like starting from scratch. 

I did find these exercises for muscle pain that look promising; anyone ever try Hanna Somatics?  There are some moves here that look very interesting for runners.

Global BMI comparisons

I just stumbled on a link to this fascinating BBC global BMI tool.  You plug in your age, gender, weight and height and where you live, and the tool calculates your BMI (Body Mass Index) and compares it to the average BMI in your country, as well as globally.  It also tells you, for your age and gender, what nationality you are most similar to (based on your BMI). 

It's kind of cool.  I mean, I do know what my BMI is (and I would love for it to be a bit lower) but I never thought about how one's BMI stacks up against the average in the place you live and how this might affect how you perceive yourself (or are perceived by others).  And this definitely explains why I felt oddly skinny during the four weeks I was in the United States this summer, while here at home in Belgium I generally feel overweight compared to most people.  For the record, according to the calculator, I am most like someone from Canada for my age and gender, which is well below the United States, Australia, New Zealand and the UK for average BMI (but still well above Belgium and most other Western European countries).  So there is definitely room for improvement, right?  ;-)

If you try it out, let me know in the comments what nationality it says you are most like!  It will be fun to see where we all are "from"!

Back to school...

First day of school - too bad there wasn't any sunshine this morning for the traditional pictures!  Oh well, at least it wasn't raining, that's something, right?

 

 

I always enjoy the news on the first day of school - the reporters interviewing parents and teachers and excited (and always at least one or two crying) kids.  The funny thing about living in a small country is that you often see people you know on the news - and today, what a surprise, the location was the grade school where my kids went, I could see a few of their former teachers in the background, and the Minister of Education was being interviewed by a reporter who went to high school with my husband! LOL!

Here's the link in case you'd like to see the news report. (The guy with the mustache who keeps walking back and forth in the background is not one of the minister's henchmen but actually was one of my kids' fourth grade teacher - ha ha!)

Sunday spectating...

The very last day of summer vacation here and the boys decided to go play squash one last time.  So Stefaan and I headed for a walk downtown to enjoy the good weather and take a look at the big cycling race going right through our city: the Grote Prijs Jef Scherens.  Tom Boonen, the current Belgian road racing champion, was also racing, and easy to spot in his jersey in the Belgian colors:

We watched about four rounds, but couldn't stay for the finish - we had to get home to feed our hungry squash players!  And oh yes, not to forget - my husband had to get his annual treat of a Brussels waffle with whipped cream:

 

Naughty, naughty...  ;-)

 

Now all that's left is making sure everyone is ready for the first day of school tomorrow morning!

Have a great Sunday!

Out for a spin, final installment

Yesterday I went back to the gym.  I hadn't been since before our trip, which has really been bugging me (I hate paying for a gym membership and not use it) but when we got back the weather was actually really good, too good for exercising indoors.  And then it got hot (too hot for exercising outdoors but also too hot for exercising at my gym since they don't have airconditioning). 

So yesterday it was raining.  Hooray!  A great reason to go to the gym.  I felt a bit sheepish going in, thinking everyone must be looking at me and thinking, Gosh, haven't seen her in AGES...  But of course, no one is ever thinking about you as much as you'd like to think they are, so I knew I was being ridiculous. 

The neat thing is that I wore my new Nike Frees to the gym for the first time and they were perfect!  I did one of my old favorite workouts: 30 minute hill walk on the treadmill, some upper body weights, 20 minutes on the elliptical, and then abs and stretching.  The shoes were great, they felt like a comfy slipper and had plenty of grip on the machines.  And of course, they look cute, too.

I think they'll be okay for short HIIT runs on the treadmill, but I won't use them if I do longer.  And I think I'm going to excuse them permanently from outdoor runs.  If I run from home, too much of my running is on pavement and for me, I've discovered, it's better to cushion the pounding with my old faithful Asics.

So that's it for my adventures in minimalist shoes.  The funny thing is, when I tried them on at the store, my sister said they would be perfect for the gym.  And so they are.

Out for a spin, part 2

After I wrote my last post, I was looking to see if there were other reviews on the Nike Frees out there, just to have an idea of what other bloggers thought about them.  I came across this review which reminded me of one important fact I had kind of forgotten: you have to build up slowly and give yourself time to get used to running in minimal shoes.  You will be using muscles you are not used to using, and they will be sore!

So I decided to give my shoes another shot at a short run.  And I paid more attention to how I was running, how my feet were landing and how it felt.  It actually felt better than the first time, but OMG!  My legs (especially my calves) and both my hips were very sore all day afterwards (and yes, I did remember to stretch!)

So...I'm going to give them a few more tries before I decide not to use them for running...

The saga continues...

Out for a spin

We did not do a ton of shopping while we were in the States last month (except for a wild two hours at Urban Outfitters in Salt Lake City) but I did treat myself to a new pair of running shoes, a snazzy looking pair of Nike Free Run 2 in this gorgeous teal blue and gray. 

I've never thought minimalist shoes were anything for me but my sister convinced me to try them on.  OMG - they were so comfortable!  And very light - almost like wearing a well fitted slipper.  I had to get them. 

I wore them a ton during our trip.  They were comfortable in the car, for short walks, driving, and on the elliptical in the hotel gym they were perfect.  I was so in love with my new shoes that during a rain storm in Jackson Hole I took them off and walked across a busy downtown street barefoot rather than get them wet! 

But...I hadn't run with them yet.  I was kind of intimidated.  They feel so light and, well...free!  I am used to big clunky running shoes that protect you from all the shocks and bumps of running, and give you a little bounce in your step.  With these, the bounce was going to have to come from me or not at all.

So yesterday all I wanted to do was a short run and I decided it was time to try them out.  I convinced my youngest son to come along with me, so it ended up being an interval run (intervals like this: "Okay, Felix, we'll run to the next intersection.  Stop and wait for me when you get there, and then we'll walk for a few minutes together before we run again (and you get ahead of me again)!")

I put my darling shoes on and off we went.  We only did 4 kilometers but already I could feel that my Frees were never going to replace my classic Asics on longer jaunts - I really do need the support, I could feel it.  But I still love my new Frees and they will be awesome for in the gym...and everywhere else!

Eventful weekend

On Saturday my friend Ingrid and I had plans to do one of our long hikes together.  It was a gorgeous day, sunny and warm and we decided to go on the walking paths around Huldenberg.  We didn't realize there was a local bike race being held in the town, though - when we got there a lot of the center of the village was blocked off and there were food and drink tents set up and a few carnival stands.  Not quite the atmosphere we were expecting but we figured it would at least guarantee a nice cold beer after our walk so we found a parking spot in a little side street and decided to set off.

While we were standing on the corner of a this little side street with another side street, consulting our map and deciding which way to go, an empty Mercedes with a horse trailer hitched to it suddenly rolled across the intersection and right into the house on the other side of the street!  We were stunned.  There was no one else around, so we finally decided to go notify one of the policemen who were standing around in the center of the town for the bike race.  When we had done that and came back, there were some neighbors out and they seemed to know who the car belonged to.  It seems the brakes on the car must have given out, and it simply rolled away...later we realized how lucky we were - engrossed in our map I don't think we would have seen or heard it in time if it would have been aimed at us, and we probably would have been hit.

Anyhow, we walked for a good two hours, through fields, little wooded areas, paths that weaved us through little rural neighborhoods.  Along the way we stopped for galloping horses and racing cyclists hurtling down a 17% grade hill at 90 km an hour - quite impressive!  We were hot and thirsty and so glad when we got back to the town center and could sit in the shade and drink a well-deserved Hoegaarden!  Boy, did that taste good!

Yesterday morning Linda and I headed out bright and early for a free guided tour of our city's Botanical Garden (picture right).  It's a lovely place - we have always gone here to take the photographs for all of my kids' first communions and confirmations - but I never visited it as a tourist before!  It was interesting and I learned a lot - and enjoyed the morning sunshine and chance to catch up with my friend.  Thankfully there weren't any runaway cars, galloping horses, or flying cyclists - I don't think I could handle so much excitement two days in a row!

A few impressions...

Four weeks on the road together, depending on each other and supporting each other with suprisingly little irritation (in our daily life we don't spend nearly as much time together as we did on this trip) - after nearly 20 years of marriage we really do make a good team!

One thing that will always stick with me - the incredible natural beauty to be found in South Dakota and Wyoming - just feeling the immensity of the wide open spaces makes me humble.

Three awesome teenagers who gracefully put up with four weeks of close quarters with their parents and little privacy from their brothers, not to mention long days in the car - what a lucky mom I am to be blessed with these kids! 

Thanks to the friends and family who welcomed us so warmly...it was a pleasure to spend time with you and I am grateful to have you in our lives.

Now it's back to "regular" life but the memories will last forever...