Dear Yoga: A Love Letter

Dear Yoga,

We've spent a lot of time together over the last five years. From that college class I crashed when I first moved to Nacogdoches to my beloved Morning Glory Yoga Studios, you've helped me grow and change and even, on occasion, stand on my head. It was through you that I met some of my dearest friends in this town. It was through you that I developed my love for red wine. It was through you that I began to accept my body's limitations, even while pushing myself to break through new barriers.

 

You see, Yoga, the lessons I learn on the mat don't stop at the studio. The deeper I develop my practice, the more I'm able to apply you to every aspect of my life. Yoga, as you know, is a process. One does not enter the studio with all the ability, all the talent, that one will ever possess. This seems like an obvious statement, but it's not. You see I'm the kind of person who likes to be good at things the first time around. If I don't have an immediate talent for something, I give up and move on to something that holds more promise. This is why I never bothered to learn an instrument, why I chose to be a writer instead of a dancer. We all have our strengths, I told myself, and sticking with those things is safer, easier, logical.

 

Then along came you. I was not good at you at first. My legs were tight. I could not touch my toes. My balance was shaky, at best. My body was not lithe like my instructors or the women who stood at the front of the room. I have curves. I am soft. My muscles hide under layers of skin. But I had friends in class. I liked slowing down and focusing on the task at hand. I enjoyed the music and the meditation and the stretching helped my back loosen and bend in ways that it never had before. I kept coming back to you, yoga. Even though it wasn't love at first sight, even though our connection wasn't instantaneous, I kept on trying.

Eventually, I found my groove. I discovered that a yoga practice has layers. Today, I am good at balance poses. I love standing on my head. I have excellent stamina and can do sun salutations all day long. The other day, I got into side crow without a second thought and didn't even flinch when I lost my balance and my head clunked against the floor. Today, I put my mat down proudly at the front of the room. I may not look like a yogi, but that's exactly what I am.

Yoga, you gave me courage to try new things. Would I have had the confidence to join a roller derby league, to train for and run a marathon, to uproot my life and start an MFA program if it wasn't for all those warriors, those triangles, those pigeons, those twists? I can't say for sure, but my guess is probably not. There was a time when I could not touch my toes, but every week I came to class and reached for them anyway. Each week my fingers stretched the slightest bit farther. And then, one day, I made contact. I wrapped my fingers around my toes and held on for dear life, and in that moment I understood that anything is possible.

For all the lessons you have taught me and all the wisdom I have yet to learn: thank you, Yoga. Namaste.

Unemployed Guacamole

I've been quiet on the blog the last few days, and it's mostly because after the stress of moving our whole apartment into Amy and David's house I needed a few days to sit and do... nothing. Okay, not nothing. This week, I have cooked fancy dinners every night for my kindhearted hosts,  gone to many yoga classes (including a two in one day!), set up the utilities in the new place so it won't be dark when we move in, and made one batch of super delicious guacamole.

I love guacamole - it's a perfect summer food, as it requires no cooking and goes with almost anything. I had been buying a lot of Wholly Guacamole to feed my craving, but now that I'm unemployed and budgeting big time the price tag on pre-made guac was just too high.  On the bright side, not having anything to do all day means I have more than enough time to whip up some homemade guacamole for lunch. Which is exactly what happened today.

I didn't have a recipe on hand but I took mental notes while I assembled the guacamole. Which is lucky for you, because the Wholly company has got some competition - the guacamole was perfect. I'm drooling just thinking about it.

Unemployed Guacamole

You will need:
2 avocados, quartered, pitted and peeled
1 plum tomato, diced
2 clovers of garlic, minced
1/4 cup of cilantro, minced
juice of one lime
salt, to taste

Directions:
Place the avocado in a large bowl and mash until mostly smooth. (I like my guacamole a little chunky.)

Add the tomato, garlic, cilantro, and lime juice. Mix until well combined. Salt to taste. Enjoy on tortilla chips or by the spoonful.

Here's the rest of my lunch: sweet potato fries and a Southwest Sunshine burger smothered in delicious guacamole. Very filling. Very satisfying. Very good.

Dear leftover guacamole: devouring you is officially my full time job.

Moving Out, Moving On!

I am writing this blog post from my friend Amy's house, where I will be living until this Sunday, when Nathan and I will be waking up bright and early and moving to North Carolina. But first: we had to move out of our apartment.

One last look at our apartment on Pearl Street.

A lot has happened on the home front, and it seems I've forgotten to blog about much of it. I think I mentioned that we sold our apartment ridiculously fast, and for a tidy little profit. This was the first big obstacle to moving to Wilmington and getting it taken care of was a huge relief.

We quit our jobs on July 15 and since then, we have spent every spare moment packing, cleaning, packing, fixing things and packing some more. Throw in a few teary goodbyes to friends we won't see again for who knows how long and it's been an emotional roller coaster. Today, we finally finished moving out and handed the keys over to the new owners. I hope they enjoy the place as much as we did.

But, you are asking, if you're all moved out of your apartment, why are you still in Texas? Because, dear Reader, we actually found a suitable-looking place in North Carolina, signed a twelve month lease having never seen the place in person, and are moving in next Tuesday, August 2. Since we had a week between moving out and moving in, we brought our boxes, furniture and dogs to Amy and David's, piled them in a spare room, and will be living here for a few days until it's time to leave for good. Twice the moving, twice the fun? Sure. Why not?

Now, about the new place. The original plan was to drive up to North Carolina today and find a home upon arrival. I didn't love this plan because, well, it wasn't much of a plan. The odds of finding a house for rent, that accepted two 100 pound dogs and fulfilled most of our wants and needs weren't very good. I'd spent the last four months combing Craigslist for houses and finding decent ones, only to see them snatched up by other people again and again. And so, when I came across a house last week that seemed perfect on paper, I immediately asked for an application and sent it in. The woman who owned the house was kind enough to take a chance on us and just like that - we had a house!


I have a few photos that the landlady sent me but they aren't the best quality. Still, I can't help but share them. I'm excited to see this place in person and I hope it's as great as it seems in photos.

The house was built in the 1950's and has a large, fenced in yard with a driveway that comes up the back and leads to a carport. We'll keep the motorcycle and scooter in the carport, since they're most susceptible to the elements. The front of the house is also really cute but I'm torn about posting it for safety reasons. I might get over that later on, but for now I'm playing it safe.

There's a living room and a den and hardwood floors throughout the house. There's also a kitchen, a laundry room and two bedrooms, none of which I've seen photos of. Fingers crossed that they aren't terrible. If they are, well, I'll just spent most of my time in the backyard.

 

This is a screened-in porch off the side of the house. The carport is located behind it. I am pretty excited about this part of the house, because it seems like a lovely place to drink wine, listen to the rain and read books. It also looks like a good spot for a food photography station - great lighting!

We'll only have one bathroom, which is a downside, but at least it's a cute one! Seriously - some of the bathrooms I saw on Craigslist made outhouses look really, really fancy. This one seems downright swanky in comparison.

The backyard. This is the part of the house that hooked me. It looks pretty big on Google Maps - about half an acre - and is also includes a storage shed with electricity, which shall be Nathan's workshop. No tools in the closet? Yessssss. We want to have a sitting area and some garden beds, and of course there will be plenty of room for the dogs to run and play. This house is also a mile walk from the dog park, so I'm pretty sure my pups will think they've died and gone to heaven.

Now that you've seen the photos, you know as much as I do. I've never rented a place without seeing it so I'm a little nervous, but not nearly as agitated as when I thought we were going to be homeless in Wilmington for who knows how long while we searched for a place to live. I have a good feeling about this place and I'm pretty sure it will work out just fine, because I'm an optimist and I'm generally lucky. And if we arrive and it's terrible, well, it's only for a year.

When was the last time you moved? Do you like moving or do you dread it with every fiber of your being? I like having a new space to set up and I love getting rid of stuff, but this is the first time we've moved in six years and it was definitely a lot of work. I'm glad we get a break before Moving: Part Two. We've earned it.

Seven Links

Happy Friday, y'all! It is Friday, right? The days sort of bleed together when all you do is pack and drink mimosas.

Instead of regaling you with more photos of brown boxes, I thought I would steal an idea I saw Caitlin from Healthy Tipping Point post earlier this week. It originally comes from the Trip Base Blog and it's a pretty neat way to share some posts that might be lost in the archives. And considering I've been posting here since 2005, that's a lot of archives! To take part in the meme, one must identify a post for each of the following categories. And so, without further ado:

My most beautiful post is hard to choose. Not because I have so many beautiful posts, but because my blog is more about the beauty of every day things. Still, a post that was important to me, and that taught me a great lesson about life, was In Which I Fail - For Now. After six weeks of training for a century bike ride, I decided to give up the goal and forgo the race. Giving up is never easy, especially for someone as ambitious as myself, but it was definitely the right choice.

My most popular post is my race report for last year's Warrior Dash. It contains a bunch of photos of me covered in mud and people jumping over fire, which is pretty exciting. But my most commented on post is The Big Reveal, wherein I finally tell you all about my MFA acceptance and move to North Carolina! (Here is a secret: sometimes I reread those comments when I'm feeling down, and they never fail to lift me up. Blogs FTW!)

My most controversial post is probably the one in which I didn't take part in a local race due to the "charity" that the race supported. Despite being a radical feminist and super liberal to boot, politics don't take up a lot of space on my blog. I aim to live my life as an example instead of on a soap box. Sometimes, however, you have to climb up on that box and make your voice heard.


My most helpful post is, in my humble opinion, Submitting to Literary Journals: A Beginner's Guide. I had a few emails asking me for advice on this topic and spent a lot of time crafting this post with all the knowledge that I've gathered over the years from magazines, articles, professors and the Internet. Even though this post only has one comment, it gets a lot of hits. I hope it's helping the people who are reading it!

A post whose success surprised me was my Kitchen Makeover and Tour post. I'm no Young House Love and our updates were the culmination of six years of improvements, but I have to say - our kitchen looked pretty slamming by the time we were done. This post is especially bittersweet since we're about to leave our current apartment. Sniff...

A post I feel didn’t get the attention it deserved is The Problem With Eggs, in which I tried to hash out my moral line in the sand as far as veganism goes. I have many veg-minded and foodie-leaning readers and I was honestly surprised that this post didn't kick off a bigger discussion. (I've since started eating local eggs from small farms, in case you were wondering.)

The post that I'm most proud of is all of them! Cop-out? Maybe. The truth is that it's hard to pick one post from six years of stories. My blog has changed so much over the years and I love the record that it has kept. It's fun to look back at myself at 22, 24, 26, and read what I was thinking, feeling and doing. Sometimes it's embarrassing, sometimes I wonder what I was so worked up about, sometimes I wish I hadn't posted quite so much personal information. But I never regret any of it. This blog is my story and I am honored and proud to share it with anyone who cares to read - especially you. :)

You're supposed to tag five bloggers to write their own seven link list. I'm cheating, since I wasn't tagged in the first place, but I'm going to tag some of my favorites anyway.

1. Effing the Ineffable (Kate is smart, funny and eerily similar to myself)
2. Life, Love and Food (Rose-Anne's photos are almost as beautiful as her writing)
3. Never Niche (Claire refuses to be put in a blogging box and so do I)
4. Eating Appalachia (Jes is a fellow MFA-er and has a great food philosophy)
5. Kohler Created (Jessica puts my recipes to shame and has a great sense of humor on Twitter)

If you write a seven links post, leave a link here so I can read it. Have a great weekend!

Packing, Progress and Mimosas

Preparing to move has been our full time job for the last three days and it finally feels like we're making some progress. Yesterday's cleaning and packing spree was fueled by mimosas, which helped greatly.

Yesterday we focused on the office. We cleared it of our belongings (which was a ton of stuff - everything that didn't fit anywhere else ended up in the office), cleaned the carpet and then spackled the millions of tiny holes in the walls. I swear I am never using another thumbtack again for as long as I live.

The office, before.

Today we have to do the same in the living room and the kitchen. The bedroom has a bunch of odds and ends - we never kept much in there anyway. Bedrooms are for sleeping. Everywhere else is for clutter.

We have our work cut out for us.

The bedroom. Or, what's left of it.

After the paint was touched up and the carpet dry, we moved most of our boxes of belongings into the office. We needed to free up the rest of the apartment so we could clean the other rooms, and also Nathan wanted to arrange the boxes and furniture as if they were in a moving truck, so he could judge how big a U-Haul we'll need. The photo below shows most of our stuff, with the exception of a few boxes, our mattress, one scooter and a motorcycle. Basically, we're going to need a big truck.

I'll be honest. Right now, we're drinking coffee and watching Escape From the Planet of the Apes. We recently bought all the original films and this one is by far the best. Once it's over we're going to start packing and cleaning again in earnest. Until then, I must get off the computer and see what those crazy apes are going to do next.

Simple Black Bean and Corn Salad

 

For our Tex-Mex themed housecooling party this past weekend, I made a triple batch of Black Bean and Corn salad. It's a ridiculously easy, super pretty and downright delicious dish that takes minimal effort and is the perfect party food. Quick to assemble, no cooking required and vegan and gluten-free by default. Everyone can enjoy this dish, and everyone usually does!

I like to eat it with tortilla chips, as a dip, but it's also wonderful as a fajita topper, mixed in with your morning eggs for some Southwestern flair,  or warmed up and served as a side dish. Or you could eat it straight out of the bowl with a spoon, which, if we're being honest, is my preferred method.

 

Simple Black Bean and Corn Salad

You will need: 

1 15oz can corn, drained

1 15oz can black beans, drained and rinsed

2 whole plum tomatoes, seeded and chopped

1/2 medium red onion, chopped

1/4 cup minced fresh cilantro

1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and chopped

1/4 cup fresh lime juice

1/4 tsp salt

Directions:

Mix all ingredients together in a large bowl. Cover and chill until ready to serve.

Speaking of recipes and cooking, this is the current state of my pantry. I have just about one week to use up as much of this food as possible. I have a plan for about half of it - the other half should yield some interesting meals. Fingers crossed, y'all!

On today's agenda: finish packing up and deep cleaning the office (which was the room with the most stuff in it) and box up our books. Lots to do and I should probably get to it, but first I must share with you one of the best going-away presents ever. My dear friend Ruby is a tattoo artist, a cancer survivor, a professional whistler and one of the best ex-roller derby girls you'll ever meet. At the party on Saturday, she gave me a zine she had illustrated and bound herself earlier that day. It was awesome and I will treasure it always. Here are a few of my favorite pages.

I told you I had the best friends in the world. I wasn't kidding.

Now: back to work!

Housecooling Party

Friday was my and Nathan’s last days at work, but today is the first time that has felt real. I woke up today (slightly hungover – see the rest of this post), took the dogs for a leisurely walk, ate breakfast and made coffee and then retired to my home office (currently in half-packed shambles) and started writing this post. As my blog is currently my sole, if meager, source of income, it only seemed right.

We still have a week and change left in lovely Nacogdoches, and our plan is to spent the next ten days packing, cleaning and saying long, drawn out goodbyes. We started this process last night, at the housecooling party that my dear friends Mary and Chay organized and hosted on our behalf. Have you ever been to a housecooling party? Last night was my first, and the basic idea is that it’s a going away party to which each guest brings an empty box. And as a person currently fitting her life into various boxes, let me just state for the record that this is a brilliant idea! Outside of the boxes, the party was the usual affair – tons of good food, great friends and a delicious keg of beer, which we actually floated. I don’t think we’ve managed to float a keg since we were undergrads!

Scott and Chay's backyard made a great party location. An air-conditioned art studio, tons of seating, a plastic swimming pool for the kids, and most of my favorite people. You can't get much better than that.

We had a Tex-Mex themed spread. In addition to being incredibly attractive, highly intelligent and perfectly compassionate, my friends are also fantastic cooks. I contributed a black bean and corn salad - I'll post the recipe tomorrow.

Baby Andrew filled up on mud pies, as he was too young to partake in the keg. He seemed to enjoy the mud thoroughly, so I think it worked out.

As good as Andrew made the mud look, I opted for beer and veggie fajitas smothered in guacamole. I could eat this all day, every day, for the rest of my life.

We partied until the sun went down which, in the summer, is actually pretty late. Such a wonderful night!

This party only further proved to me just how special my friends in Texas are. No, really. You will not find better, kinder, more thoughtful and giving people, no matter where you look. I have one regret as far as this move to North Carolina goes, and it is that I cannot bring all of these wonderful people with me. It’s a shame, I tell you. A damn shame.

Today, Nathan and I begin the work of packing, cleaning and getting ready for the move. I have laundry to catch up on, a pantry of food to eat, a couch to get rid of, and two dogs who are beginning to suspect that something is up. It’s going to be an interesting week. I hope you’ll all come along for the ride.

The Case of the Missing Testicle: SOLVED!

Yes, this is a post entirely about my dog's balls. A fitting subject for a Friday, don't you think?

As you may or may not recall, a few months ago Calvin went in to be neutered but the vet was only able to locate one of his testicles during the surgery. You can read the back story here. Basically, we had to wait until he was a year old and then test his blood for the presence of testosterone, which would let us know if a second ball was hiding somewhere inside him. Since Calvin is a year and change, and since we're moving in just two weeks (!), we decided it was high time to get this missing testicle found.

By now, I have come to expect that nothing is easy when Calvin is concerned. Three weeks ago I took him in for the initial test and we waited five to seven days for the results. And what did we discover? Nothing - the results were inconclusive. All animals, regardless of sex, have some testosterone in their blood, and Calvin's levels were too borderline to be sure. We would have to try a second test.

This time, the vet took a sample of Calvin's blood and then injected him with some hormones. If there was a testicle in there, the hormones would cause it to produce extra testosterone. (I am sure it was more scientific than this, but alas - I an not a vet, just the concerned companion of two dogs.) After the injection we headed home and ninety minutes later I brought him back, where the vet took a second sample of blood. By this point, Calvin had had enough of the needles and the poking and all the treats in the world couldn't earn back his trust. Such a shame, because he used to love going to the vet.

Another five to seven days went by and this time, the results came back positive - Calvin was definitely hiding something from us. Once a month, a specialist from A&M comes to Nacogdoches and performs all kinds of tricky surgeries for our vet office and it just so happened that he would be in town the day after we got Calvin's results back. They were able to make Calvin an appointment with this Super Vet yesterday, and so I dropped my boy off in the morning and crossed my fingers that the surgery would be quick and painless.

I don't know about painless, having never been neutered myself, but I do know it was quick! Just two hours after giving him a goodbye cuddle my vet called - Calvin was out of surgery. Super Vet had been able to find the missing testicle and easily removed it! When I picked Calvin up, my vet showed me some diagrams and explained where the ball had been hiding, and it turns out that it was not in Calvin's brain as Nathan had hoped suspected. You see, testicles start out near the kidneys and descend down a chute to the scrotum. Calvin's second ball had basically gotten stuck in the chute. (Again, not a doctor. This is merely my interpretation of what occurred.) While Super Vet had to do some digging around in Calvin's insides, it was not nearly as intensive as we had expected. Which means that while Calvin will be in some pain, it won't be nearly as bad as his first surgery.

We were able to bring him home last night and while it's sad to see my pup in pain, he's also kind of adorable. He steps gingerly on to the couch instead of barreling into the cushions and he whines quietly while he's sleeping. Calvin is pretty vocal and whines a lot anyway, but now he actually has a reason to cry. Luckily, we have some pain meds and have been giving them to him twice a day, with his food. He should be fully recovered and back to his crazy self in less than two weeks. I can't wait to have my kooky puppy back.

That concludes the case of the missing testicle. I promise not to post about Calvin's balls ever again. Happy Friday! 

The Age of Distraction

My name is Chrissy, I have an Internet Problem.

The problem is that I like the Internet too much and that I post things to the Internet incessantly. I tell my life story on my blog, catalog my books on Goodreads, log my workouts on Dailymile, use Twitter as my own personal water cooler, keep in touch with friends via Facebook, save pretty pictures on Pinterest, forget about my Tumblr, have over 100 subscriptions in Google Reader, am figuring out Google+ as we speak, load my photos to Flickr, and, well, I'm probably forgetting something because seriously - have you seen the Internet? It's huge!

Up until this point in my life, my Internet Problem has not been an actual problem. In fact, it has saved me from many a boring day at my desk. I've made great friends through the Internet, learned new things, been inspired to try new things - marathons! minimalism! MFAs! mushroom burgers! - and altered my view of the world in important and profound ways. I am who I am, in part, because of the Internet, and I wouldn't change that for anything.

And yet, it is possible to have too much of a good thing. I've been thinking about this a lot lately, but I was prompted to write about it today after reading Ashley's post about living in the Age of Distraction. Over the last few weeks, I've been trying to reign in the time I spent on the Internet. Don't worry - my blog isn't going anywhere. I honestly don't think I could survive without my weekly ramblings on The New Me. Instead I'm looking at the other sites I use and seeing where I can cut the fat, so to speak. Some of these communities are awesome, but they aren't adding anything positive to my life. They're taking up space in my brain that I should be using for other things - like writing, reading and being engaged with the present moment. Next month (!) I start my MFA program and my schedule will be flexible, fluid. It will be easy to fall back into old habits and idle away hours by refreshing Twitter and subscribing to anything that looks halfway interesting in Google Reader. Thus, in preparation for the Next Big Stage Of My Life, I have done the following:

• I am quitting Dailymile. This website is awesome and the community there has been nothing but supportive. I probably wouldn't have run my first - not to mention second! - marathon without the advice and cheerleading that I found there. These days, I have a lot more confidence as a runner and I enjoy the solitary aspect of working out. I've been tracking my workouts using Running Ahead, keeping my account private so it's purely for my own records. It's a lot less time consuming and a lot more data, which is perfect for me, for now.
• Goodbye, Tumblr! You were a fun little experiment but I never got that into you and anyway, it's easier to share things in one place, which might as well be Google Reader. (By the way, if you know how to delete a Tumblr account, let me know. I can't figure it out.)  
• Oh Flickr, my flickr! I haven't uploaded photos in a while and I probably won't renew my Pro account next year. I post my best photos on my blog anyway and I need to just start organizing the ones of my laptop better.
• Reigning in Reader. Y'all. On my own personal Internet, Blogs are the golden eggs and Google Reader is the basket which lovingly cradles them. Google Reader is also a great source of frustration - having unread items sitting there, unread, makes me angsty and I can't focus until I see that nice and tidy zero once more. (Yes, I am aware that this is a major white whine/first world problem. I apologize to those who have real problems.) I've been slowly combing through my subscriptions and deleting many of them. I don't need to subscribe to every blog or website that had a good post that one time.
• Hiding people on Facebook. I like to check up on people every now and then, but I don't necessarily want every detail of their daily commute clogging up my newsfeed. Hiding people that aren't my nearest and dearest and/or interesting at least 80% of the time is my new best friend. 

These are small changes, but I'm hoping they yield big results.  If I can make my offline life half as prolific as my online life, then I'll be in business.

Do you have an Internet Problem? Any tips on keeping your online life in check? Let me know in the comments or email me at thenewchrissy (at) gmail (dot) com.

Blueberry Jam for Hipsters

As I mentioned yesterday, this past weekend I visited a local pick-your-own blueberry place and came away with nine delicious pounds. After we picked them we headed to Amy's and made jam using a really simple recipe I came across in a recent issue of Real Simple magazine. Coincidence? Probably not.

I've only made jam once before, when my friend Chay gave me a lesson in canning. Canning is awesome and a valuable skill to have, but it's also very involved and more than a little nerve-racking - bacteria and bothulism are no joke! Freezer jam, I've discovered, is more forgiving. Another plus? It uses a lot less sugar. For example, this recipe calls for five cups of blueberries, 1/2 a cup of sugar, one tablespoon of lemon juice, and half a teaspoon of salt. Nothing more, nothing less. In other words: my kind of recipe!

"But, Chrissy," you're saying. "What makes this jam specific to hipsters? Is it because they like glorifying local foods, reclaiming homemaking practices, and drinking Shiner Bock while making jam?" And I will tell you: yes and no. While all of the above may be true, the main reason this recipe is called Blueberry Jam for Hipsters is because I took all the photos using my beloved Instagram app on my iPhone and if that isn't a hipster's dream, then I don't know what is.

As for the recipe: it's quick and easy and fun to make, especially with a group of friends or as an activity to share with some of the kids in your life. We tripled the recipe (15 cups of blueberries!) and ended up cooking it for almost twice as long as the recipe instructed because it didn't seem to be thickening up, even though it was clearly reducing. We finally decided to pour it into jars and, once it cooled, refrigerate it. Only then did it actually gel, though it's still a little on the liquid side. That's okay, though. It doesn't affect the flavor (which is delicious) and it makes it really easy to spread on toast, slather on muffins, or mix into a cup of yogurt. And really, what more could you ask of a jam?

Really Simple Blueberry Jam for Hipsters
from Real Simple magazine

You will need: 

5 cups blueberries
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

Directions:  

In a medium saucepan, combine the blueberries, sugar, lemon juice, and salt. Mash with a potato masher or wooden spoon until the berries have released their juices.

Cook over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until the mixture has thickened, 18 to 25 minutes. Transfer to containers and refrigerate for up to 1 month or freeze for up to 1 year.

A Weekend in Bullets

Another weekend spent accomplishing my July goals, which was to not have too many goals. Hello, sweet success! Instead of writing, reading, packing, cleaning or making headway on the small fixes our apartment needs before the sale is final, I spent the weekend:

• Attending my favorite 90 minute yoga class at the studio, stretching and bending while sweat poured down my face and on to my mat. 
• Going blueberry picking with friends at a place just outside the loop. I picked four pounds, Nathan snagged five. Which means I have nine pounds of blueberries that I have to use up before we move. Expect a bunch of blueberry recipes this week! 
• Making blueberry jam at Amy's house while drinking beers and feasting on blue corn chips, guacamole and hummus.
• Playing two games of Settlers of Catan with two of our nerdiest couple-friends. (And I mean nerdy in the nicest way! Nerds unite!) 
• Running five super sweaty and humid miles. Kept a 10:00 minute pace and nearly passed out when I was done. 
• Taking the dogs to the lake for three hours. Calvin swam further and longer than ever before and Seamus made his usual circles around us pretty much the whole time. It was a blast. 
• Watching three episodes of True Blood and trying to stay awake at least until the sun went down at 9pm. Barely made it.

All in all, it was a pretty great weekend. I apologize (again) for the abundance of iPhone photos, but it's so much easier than carrying around my bulky camera and this is, after all, my Summer of Fun. I'm too busy enjoying myself to meticulously document every moment and that's okay. In fact, it's necessary.

Come back tomorrow for an iPhone-laden and Instagramed-up recipe for blueberry jam, which will kick off my week of Blueberry Recipes. Until then!