Recipes and Yoga, Yoga and Recipes

If you moved into your new house the second week in December, and were hosting your family for Christmas, and were pretty close to a complete breakdown because the family who lived in your home before you apparently didn’t clean anything for thirty years, and also you are on call through the holiday so if a hospital is taken hostage YOU are in charge of communication, what would you do? Well, if you lived in our little household, you would expand by one, adopting a dog from a shelter.

Yes, we are crazy, but the dog we adopted, a collie/hound dog mix named Skylar, is amazing. I would post pictures but as is the manner of things during the holidays my digital camera is kaput and so I will write the introductory blog post at a later date, when I have some pictures to share as well, but for now just note that Skylar (not named by us) is the dog.

As you were.

Oh, but first! Animal Friends! If you live in the greater Pittsburgh area and want to adopt, we cannot recommend this organization highly enough. Skylar came to the shelter with flea, mange and unspecified behavioral issues and four months later, we adopted a dog in perfect health who knows “sit” and “stay” and “down” and “treat” and “paw.” Also, they will trim your animal’s nails for free for the rest of his natural existence. Thinkingoutsidethecage.org – check them out!

Okay, seriously. I have a LOT I wanted to blog about before January 1st – I actually do have a plan in my head. The blogging plan, as I see it, may very well end up bleeding into early January and I am working to convince myself that it is okay, in fact, I could even abandon the plan come January 1st, say, if I just wanted to start blogging off the cuff.

It’s crazy times around everythinginbetween. Crazy times.

I think we can all agree, however, that in terms of 2008’s resolutions to explore more recipes and properly integrate my yoga practice into a near-daily habit, I failed miserably. MISERABLY. But ’tis the Christmas season and I have decided to forgive myself for both because instead I *got a new job and *moved to Pittsburgh and *S. graduated from law school and *S. studied for the bar and *S. passed the bar and we *bought a house and that is enough for one year.  The yoga resolution will be made again in 2009, and I do think I will continue to keep track of new recipes on the blog as well although this year it won’t be because of a resolution but because on the whole I imagine this blog to have a more homemaker’s bent than in the past. Which is only natural. Since I am now a homemaker.

For a quick review, this year the recipes I shared included Dump Cake, which is the post I get the most hits on because we are nothing if not a cake-motivated society,  Butterscotch Banana Muffins, which I ate for like three months straight, Spring Greens with Chicken (make this come spring! Seriously! Do!), Sweet Blueberry soup with Yogurt (will probably never make again although it was delicious), Basic Pesto, Buttermilk Chicken Drumsticks, and Cheddar, Steak and Ale Pie.

As for yoga, even with my piddly practice I had a couple breakthroughs – I can finally do tree which I know sounds ridiculous but I have always struggled with that pose, even when I could move easily into Warrior Three and Dancer, Tree eluded me.  And I’ve recently had a couple outstanding practices. So, you know. Yay, Tree!