It’s been a while since I posted here. My wandering slowed considerably in the later part of last year and into this year. Now that we are days away from the Spring Equinox I can feel myself coming back to life, just like the plant life outside.

When I am blind to my emotions, or just plain not willing to look at them, music is the vehicle to get things moving.

We were in the Cincinnati area recently for one of our daughter’s crew races and despite staying in an area that could have been anywhere USA, we did find some delicious food and some fun shopping. This was my third birthday in a row in a random town somewhere in the US to watch rowing and we always celebrate with dinner wherever we happen to be. This year it was at the Asian Mexican fusion restaurant Lalo Chino Latino, which might like a strange combination, but it was absolutely delicious. We both chose an assortment of tacos and our favorites were the fish tempura, carnitas, and Asian fried chicken. We brought our daughter the Mexican Pad Thai (she couldn’t go because of her racing schedule) and she raved about it.

On a very early Saturday morning in April we began our journey to South Portland, ME to get our absolute favorite bagels from Scratch Bakery. The bakery is about an hour and half from our house, that’s how good the bagels are. We left early because they often sell out of the bagels and thankfully our early morning wake up call got us there in plenty of time to buy a dozen bagels as well as two cookies, an almond bear claw, and a chocolate cake piled with 5 layers and topped with a thick chocolate ganache. Yes, we do have a problem, I know. But if you’re going to drive an hour and a half for bakery, you have to get all the things. The apple spice cookies are also my husband’s favorite. I asked him to get a chocolate chip cookie before I wandered ahead to look at the home made ding dongs, but alas he didn’t hear me…sigh. Still, I couldn’t complain given all the other goodies.

Spring is a serious shift in energy. From the dark and calm of winter to the rush of life beginning in spring. It can feel buzzy and overwhelming to shift from a season that promotes hibernation to one of racing forward. We might see little green shoots pushing up through the earth, a little more light and a slightly warmer sun, although in my opinion, the wind this time of year in New England has a way of negating any help the sun gives us. For my friends in Midwest, it seems winter is still firmly hanging on and continuing to drop snow. I find myself impatient this time of year, or more so than normal anyway. I’m ready for full on warmth, 70 degrees and flowers everywhere. But spring is slow to arrive in the Northeast. Still, there is an air of rebirth in our midst. I might not be able to see what’s starting to grow yet, but I know it’s happening. And it has me thinking about what I might want to plant this spring. Maybe a flower garden, something I’ve wanted to do for a long time.

I love New England and I love having all the seasons but having just had our third snow storm of the month after a winter essentially without snow, winter is hanging on just a little too long in my opinion. This has never really been my favorite time of year. I’m anxious for spring while knowing it’s still going to be a few months until it really feels warm here. And for various reasons March is a crazy month at our house so something quick, easy and soothing is often the answer to the chilly days and the buzzing house. My mom is visiting as she has done in March the last few years and one of her go to’s is Sally’s Baking Addiction Apple Cinnamon Crumb Muffins. Mom is the master muffin maker in the family and these never disappoint. The cinnamon is warming and the moist muffin is perfectly complimented by the crunchy crumb topping.

The last five years have been an exercise in noticing my patterns and deciphering which ones I want to keep and which ones need to go. I find it interesting I chose weaving and drumming as creative exercises through this pursuit as both of them have pattern at their core. I believe there is something healing in both drumming and weaving because you use your brain and all of your extremities to create and vary pattern. This use of so many parts of the body essentially rewires the brain to find new pathways.

When was the last time you really heard what was around you? Was there a lot of noise or was it quiet? Did the sounds create energy or soothe you?

In my case, it is hard for me to calm my nerves.  My brain likes to keep whirring like a computer that’s run out of storage space. Even on my daily dog walks in the woods my brain is usually so busy I don’t even hear what’s around me. When I was younger, my favorite sound was wind through trees but in recent years it takes a lot of intention for me to slow down enough to even hear it. Thankfully, this week it has snowed twice. I suppose that’s a funny sentence to most, but snow to me, makes everything quieter. There are fewer cars, fewer people, and in the woods it’s much easier to hear the sweet bird song symphony over my whirring mind. The hush makes the sound of wind through the trees feel big and spacious and oh so calming, especially when the sun comes after the snow and I am all too happy to be out breathing in the clean crisp cold while the sun warms me and makes the snow shimmer. In these moments I’m reminded of the Japanese concept of Forest Bathing.  A practice that promotes the healing power of nature through slow walks in the forest.

Our first outing of the year was to the Beauport Hotel in Gloucester, MA. This pristine 94 room hotel sits directly on the Atlantic coast. When I posted a picture out the window of our room someone asked if I was on a boat it’s that close to the water. Even in the winter the view is stunning. My entire system calms at the sight of the water. The room was exceptionally clean and well decorated with bright pops of red peppering the soothing blue tones. We at dinner at the hotel’s 1606 Restaurant. A wise choice given the whipping winter wind and light snow. The restaurant sits at the back of the hotel looking out over the water. A trip back in warmer months is on the agenda already. I got adventurous and tried the Orecchiette with duck confit. I’m not really a duck person generally so I’m not sure why I went this route. I enjoyed the warmth and comfort of the dish, great for a chilly winter night, but I left with confirmation that I am still not a duck person. They also have a Sunday brunch which we’ll have to try another time.

I just returned to my hometown of De Pere, WI and it’s always a little disorienting to come back to the East coast after a trip home. It’s like I go through some sort of time warp and have to shape shift back into a different version of myself. What’s funny to me is that I always wanted to leave my home. I had big dreams and I thought living in a city was the best way to achieve them. But, now as a person in mid-life, city life has much less appeal to me. And De Pere has changed a lot in the last 20+ years. I like to think we’ve sort of met in the middle. So I will give you some highlights in case you ever feel the urge to visit.

It’s been a few weeks since my last post. In all honesty, I was dealing with some rather significant anxiety, self-induced, as most anxiety is. The rational and irrational parts of my brain fought a drag down fight to the death and tore my body down with it. At the center of the fight was the responsibility I feel if I happen to choose wrong, especially when it comes to health of my children. I catastrophize, even the simplest things. What if I make a mistake and some tragedy should descend? I know this is not healthy and my body really can’t take it much longer.

Our adventure started at Salem, MA. A town we’ve been to many times, although never for Halloween. What can I say, it’s just not my holiday. Our first destination was the A & J King Artisan Bakery, which I mentioned in the November 30th post. We sampled their goods at the Green Briar Inn before Thanksgiving and we wanted to try their full menu.  Their egg sandwich, which I added avocado to, included light fluffy eggs and bacon done just right.  I felt full without feeling heavy or greasy. They also make a very nice Chai latte. A bit of spice, and not too much sugar. From there we wandered around the coastline into the Salem Willows. Although the temps were uncharacteristically warm, in the 50’s, this summer hotspot complete with arcade and waterfront vistas was more winter hibernation than screaming heat of summer.

Today is the winter solstice and for me winter means soup season, although honestly, I’ll eat soup in any season. Soups warm the soul, brings comfort when getting through a cold, and offers a great way to get in lots of veggies at once.

Whether it’s in a book title or hidden deeply in the meandering sentences of the books stacked on my bedside table, the word forgiveness keeps popping up. When I first started going to astrologers and energy people a few years ago they too said forgiveness was part of my journey, but it was far too early in my process to really be able to grasp how to forgive, or more specifically release. I’m a Cancer, I like to hold tightly to things with my strong pincers.

Amesbury is one of my favorite towns north of Boston. There’s a quaint downtown, with fun shopping and yummy restaurants. It leans more to the funky end and that’s just what I like. One of my favorite things to do there is go to the free Friday chocolate tastings at m cacao. Their chocolates are pictured above. I’m a total chocoholic and the fact that they let you eat as much as you want in the tastings is a chocoholic’s dream. Their chocolate is complex, with flavors like basil lime and earl grey with lemon. They also got new packaging that allows you to upload a video of your choosing which you can play when you open the box. As I may have mentioned before, I love astrology and this combo is totally Uranus in Taurus if you ask me.

Two days before Thanksgiving my husband and I pressed pause on normal life and snuck away to the Green Briar Inn in Rowley. This isn’t far from our house, and that was kind of the point. I have been incredibly stressed, for what reason I’m not exactly sure. I blame it on a variety of astrological phenomena, Mars Retrograde in Gemini for an extended time, and a recent eclipse season that felt exceptionally challenging. Maybe it was those things, maybe it’s just midlife. Either way, I haven’t slept well in weeks and my nerves were fried. I didn’t want to travel far, all I really wanted to do was lay in bed and watch TV for 10 hours. And so, we took ourselves only a short distance from home and did just that.

I called this blog Nourish because as I’m learning in my Health Coaching program at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition, nourishment is more than just the food we eat.  It also includes all the ways in which energy is given and consumed in our lives, i.e., our jobs, our relationships, our hobbies, our emotions and thoughts, and the ways we move our bodies.

As we approach the Thanksgiving holiday, I can’t help but think of celebrations past and the energy of all the bodies crammed in my grandma’s little Cape house. No table long enough, or room big enough to hold her 8 kids, their spouses, and all their children, people filled every room with plates on knees and on card tables.

I’ve been thinking a lot about play lately. Mostly because my friend and empowerment guru Jennessa Durani has been talking a lot about it on her podcast and in her community A Daily Practice. Play and I have had a complicated relationship. My childhood memories mostly feature hanging out with adults and feeling wildly out of place with other kids.

That is except when I was dancing. I discovered my love of dance in the De Pere Middle School cafeteria at the 7th grade dance, where I worked up such a sweat my shirt was soaked through and others thought someone had thrown water on me. Not exactly becoming for a 7th grade girl, but I didn’t care. I needed to move. On the dance floor I could let loose, let my body do what it wanted to do.

I called my website MFCreates because I’m always making something. Whether that’s weaving, writing or cooking, I’m creating. I’ve spent most of my life trying to whittle myself down to a one word career but nothing ever stuck. I like too many things. As of late, I’ve called myself an artist, which if you are also a creator, you can probably sympathize with how that can feel strange. Artist is what we call Vincent VanGogh. How could I possibly consider myself in any way in the same category? I’m learning to let go of such a lofty definition and remind myself that an artist is simply someone who creates something that didn’t exist before.

And so, to add to my list of creations I am starting this blog. As I said, I like a lot of things, so this blog will be a bit of a meander through the things I love, the things that nourish me - food (although I’m not a foodie, I just like simple good food); fun boutiques; fiber art, or really art in general; travel; and any books/resources/podcasts, etc. that I find interesting. I was a librarian before I had kids and that instinct to share resources runs deep.