Letter to a Role Model: Mike Feaga the 33 Year Old (or) Happy Birthday,Husband! (or) 10 Reasons Why I Love You

Tomorrow is Mike's 33th birthday! My love, my soul mate, my ginger. To celebrate, I will honor him on social media, the only true way to express love to your spouse.

Dear Michael,

Happy birthday! I am so grateful for you in my life. You constantly challenge me to be a better, cooler, more productive and giving human being. This challenge stems mainly from trying to keep up with how great, cool, productive, and giving YOU are. Since you love lists so much (This shirt is NOOOT black) here are ten reasons, in no order of importance, why you should have a happy birthday.

1. You're an amazing daddy. Yesterday when I was fixing dinner and was telling the kids to "stop bickering and just be nice to each other" (super effective.) you swooped in and took them outside to plant seeds and distract them from fighting. You always know how to switch gears when the tension is high and I can't get myself in the right state of mind.

2. Sexiest. Redhead. Alive.

3. You somehow manage to avoid the grips of social media with your iron will and headstrong opposition to it, and encourage me to do the same. Maybe someday you'll succeed.

4. You are the cutest farmer in all the land. This is just the latest example of your desire for lifelong learning, and it is such a pleasure to watch you work the soil and discover new things with child-like wonder and amazement.

5. You always read non-fiction. Somehow 10 hours a day at an engineering job isn't enough exercise for your smart, smart brain. Because "I like to break a mental sweat, too." This past year you read ONE fiction book. My challenge to you in your 33rd year is to read TWO fiction books. Can you do it??

6. You know how to make me feel beautiful even when I am a huge pregnant whale. MAJOR HUSBAND WIN!

7. You have single-handedly taught me how to budget, how to love a budget, and even how to make budgeting fun.

8. Our joint desire for "the simple life" -  your awareness and help in protecting our precious time from too many activities, social commitments, and too much travel.

9. You are able to set the tone for our whole household with your strong, quiet, hardworking nature. Weekends spent working in the garage and in the garden are relaxing yet productive, challenging yet fun, simple yet complex. You show us (your whole family) by your example what it is to truly live this life humbly and beautifully.

10. I love dreaming with you. The current dream of owning a winery/brewery is such an exciting and cool prospect! I love how you are dreamy but practical at the same time. You're simply the best.

Happiest Jesus birthday to the love of my life. God grant you many more years!

xoxo Philo

No-label Nutrition

No-label Nutrition

or

Why I Will Never Declare Myself A Vegan

"All things in moderation" -Proverb

Labels: Vegan. Gluten-free. Dairy-free. Paleo. Bacon. Low-carb. No-carb. No-sugar.

photo cred: Dina Marie

I have no formal training in nutrition (except the time when I paid $500 for a mail-correspondence Nutritional Certification course and did all the work and studying but never mailed in the test due to fear of failure). I almost constantly think about food, how it tastes, and how my body will process it for better or for worse. I love to read books and articles about the biology of how our bodies process food and the benefits of different nutrients in the body.  Please do what feels right for you, follow your doctor's guidelines about any food allergies you have, do some research about where your food comes from.

Now that that's done,

Here's what I do for eating. I'm not vegan, but I eat about 80-90% plant-based (vegan). Eating many many plants - colorful fruits & vegetables, whole grains like Bulgar wheat and rice, seeds, beans, and nuts - makes me feel super amazing. Chronic problems like eczema and afternoon lulls in energy go away (and return when I have a more animal-centric few days). Also, dairy-related gastrointestinal discomfort (aka farts) is kept at a minimum.

I know that colorful foods are the most nutrient-dense and have been proven to be anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer, and pro-health. I also enjoy cooking them (or just chopping them up) and eating them because they are delicious and did I mention plants make me feel super amazing?

Typical Lunch

You know what else makes me feel super amazing? Bacon. Not so much in my stomach or GI tract but in my happiness/heart-of-hearts/soul. Also, decadent desserts makes me feel super amazing. With refined sugar and butter and refined flour topped with whipped buttercream frosting. It kind of makes my tummy hurt. But I luuuhve it so I have it on occasion, enjoy the moment without guilt, and move on.

Most of the time, I don't eat animal products, and I do my best to limit refined sugar and flour. But I will never say never when it comes to these things. Food is of course, fuel for our bodies but it is ALSO fuel for our souls. Kinda cheesy (literally?) but it really is. I think it's important to do what makes us feel good in all components of our self.

So I eat lots of plants I love. I fill in the gaps with other foods I love, from every category.

Eat well, be happy, and don't stress about labels too much. (I mean labels like vegan. If you want to read labels on food packages in the grocery store to make sure things don't have high fructose corn syrup listed as the first ingredient, please do.)

xoxo Phae

A Little Obsessed.

This sewing hobby of mine is getting out of control. Not that I'm going to do anything to cut back, but I have just been in the zone so much that other things are falling down on the priority list. Things like "paying attention to my children" and "home cleanliness"... those aren't THAT important, right?

I love browsing blog tutorials, and I just keep adding to my list of sewing projects. Here's what I have so far. And hopefully when I type it out it will make me STOP LOOKING AT MORE TUTORIALS OF SUPER CUTE THINGS TO MAKE.

1. Finish my 2nd shift dress, which I'm making out of a super-themey harvest-colored flower print. I'm making it out of a thicker stretch knit and added longer sleeves so I can wear it for Thanksgiving. I need to move the pockets (I measured where to place them but somehow they ended up weirdly low so I need to move them up, grr), finish the neckline and hem it. It's so interesting working with the same pattern/tutorial but with different fabrics. It feels so different than the same dress I made with the batik woven. Bonus: The knit version is stretchy enough not to need a zipper! Have I mentioned that I love learning a new skill??

 

2. Matching PJ pants for the boys. Daddy was so jealous of Max's that he wants a pair. He picked some gray flannel with a fishing design.

Check out the tight spiral on my imaginary football, yo

 








3. A slouchy bag for my aunt - I'm going to use this tutorial. I haven't picked out all the fabrics yet but I DID pick out this super awesome button with a coffee mug on it (shh, don't tell!)
4. Infinity scarves for Christmas gifts following this tutorial from my current blog crush Merrick. She is tots amazing. And so is her and Leanne's online sewing course that everyone should do. I made a scarf already with some knit and it was very easy:

Plus its easy to add my "xoxo Phae" tags to them which are so awesome

5. A baby dress for a close friend - I've already bought the most adorable corduroy!
6. A baby blanket for another close friend - haven't chosen the fabric here. They are a unique couple and so I want to find some unique fabric to match their personality!
7. I would love to make a copycat of my Pascha dress, but in a thicker black fabric with some texture. Ideally I want to wear it for Christmas Liturgy but if I'm being realistic, that is not going to happen with the aformentioned other projects!!!!

Christ is Risen!

SELF: stop looking at tutorials. Just stop.

(But you know you're not going to.)

xoxo Phae

Working on Wellness: Planning, Anticipation, and Accountability

Plan for the next nine months of my life.

Ok, some of you may think I'm nuts for doing this. But, here I am: 8 months pregnant figuring out how to get back in shape after baby, and maybe even thinking about my next half marathon.

I love creating long term workout plans!  Here's why - it helps my mental bowling ball stay in balance between the following two proverbial bumpers:

• It helps me to get motivated! GO GO GO! Get that body back!  Feel energetic again!  Be healthy!  Run the half again!
• It helps me to be realistic.  If I use the above calendar as an example, I won't be able to run 10 miles in September of this year.  That's OK - I'll be within the process.  It takes (a lot of) time reach lofty fitness goals especially when you are essentially starting from zero (I can barely walk around the block without getting winded right now.)

Now, as much fun as it is to sit down with highlighters and multi-colored pens to create the workout plan... I have a little bit more trouble sticking with it.  This go-round, I'm planning to have two pieces of ammunition in my arsenal:

1. Now my workout plan calendar is out on The Interwebs for the world (or at least my facebook friends) to see.  I think that means I'm going to have to check in with ya'll on my progress, too.
2. I'm going to keep a log of my daily workout activities.  When I was training for the Houston marathon hoping to qualify for Boston, I had the most successful marathon training of my life (out of the 7 fulls I have run.)  That's because I actually had the log next to my bed, and wrote down every day what I had done.  Nobody else looked at it, but just knowing that I was going to write it down made me more accountable.  I'm going to use that tactic again, since in retrospect I see how successful it was (I did qualify for Boston that year.)

My running crown jewel



Obviously, I'm not going to count my chickens before they hatch.  If any complications arise with the birth and healing process, or if things are going better or worse than I'm assuming right now, then by all means I will adjust my calendar along with my expectations.  I'm just looking forward to the process of figuring out the balance between my own wellness, the baby's wellness, the family's wellness...and anticipating the fun we'll have as a family of four (HOLY CRAP.)

What planning and/or motivational tools work for you?
xoxo Phae

P.S. I just noticed that I didn't mention weight anywhere in this post.  Sweet!  That means my own philosophies are quite ingrained in my mind.  I don't think "losing weight" should ever be the goal - I think that living a healthful, active, disease-free lifestyle should be the goal such that you can enjoy this life as much as possible while you have it.  Sure, losing weight is often a side effect of eating healthfully and being active - but the focus should primarily be on balance & happiness.