The Lost Hawaiian: Lately

The other day I remembered I'd made goals earlier this summer. So I revisited them and realized that for the most part, I've tapped out on what I can do...

One of my goals...more nutrient rich, vegetarian meals!
(The pasta will always be there. My gut likes gluten just fine.)

1. Start cooking 'cleaner' meals. I'm still slowly plugging away at this. The other day I made a vegan pineapple/veggie fried rice for dinner with friends. And in the last few days, I've made buckwheat soba noodles with tofu/veggies in a Thai-inspired peanut sauce, as well as a pasta salad with carrots (purple, yellow and orange), broccoli, zucchini olives, feta and fresh mozzarella. I hope to make some veggie yakisoba this week as well. I'm figuring out I'm lost on preparing vegetarian meals without refined carbs...so I still need to work on that! Baby steps. I'll be honest though, I haven't been very consistent with cooking. It comes in waves. It is always an ongoing goal to increase our fruits/veggies and decrease our processed carbs (we eat these daily) and meat (which we still have about 1-2 times a week).

2. Grow our garden. Oh boy. I'm trying...I really am. But 2 out of my 3 lilikoi became a salad for pests, my tomato plants succumbed to a fungus, my second cucumber vine withered after producing a single, gorgeous cucumber, my kale is being attacked by powdery mildew and my teeny, tiny bell pepper plants always look near death (I think it's too warm here). I did replant some green onions from the supermarket yesterday, however, as well as some green beans I'd planted a week or two ago. Though it's very clear I'm pretty bad at gardening, I'm still planting, watering, weeding and composting regularly. I should definitely seek out a gardening class (this one is unlikely) or a mentor (ideal).

3. Start my aquaponics garden. Another win-lose, but a worthy experiment. My plants appeareed to wither because they need water pumped through the clay stones all day (I think, because of the heat here). So instead, I am using the 'green' water to manually fertilize nearby plants. I'm assuming they love the nitrogen-rich, green water, but really, they haven't said much. So I'll maintain my guppy poop-producing colony for the time being, so long as they have a 'green' purpose.

4. Clean out our water barrels. We bought a pressure washer a few weeks back that will help with this, but I've reassigned this chore to my Chief Technological Officer (Rich). Machinery, chemical handling and having to rig the barrels to our gutters is definitely a chore I need to delegate.

5. Paint the house. Postponed until school starts! Too busy with my little man everyday.

6. Increase my runs. I'm running about 3 days a week right now, but my mileage is low (Achilles). V and I have postponed our plans for an ultra until we have more time and my Achilles is better.

Lately... I've had a nice balance in life...I'm reading quite a bit. I plowed through a dozen books over the last 3-4 weeks, but only found one 'winner.'). The rest of my time has been the usual 'taking care of business.' Endless baskets of stinky laundry, updating rental agreement contracts, drafting a transportation policy for work, getting estimates for tenting our home, meeting with an attorney to get our trust updated (it's very important to establish who inherits all of our debt and my six pairs of old, sweaty running shoes so there aren't any cat fights later on), interviewing certified financial planners (not for us, silly), shuttling Ryan around, etc. It's tedious stuff, but I still feel gratitude everyday that I have these chores/opportunities.

I thought about drafting new goals for summer, but there are only a few more weeks and thought it may be more realistic to have a 'dream list' of things I'd like to accomplish so there's less pressure:

Help Ry with multiplication (without further traumatizing him). This is much, much easier said than done. He's probably doing 'okay' and perhaps I just have unreasonable expectations. This has definitely been a challenge for us so far. We're trying to get ahead for 3rd grade, but as soon as he learns a set, he seems to forget it when he learns the next set. *weeps softly*
Plan a day trip to Hilo (see the new tigers at the zoo, visit Lucy Liu) and a beach day before summer's over. I'm really good at scheduling play dates for Ryan at our house or with friend's at their houses. It's rare that I step outside my preferred bubble and actually go elsewhere, but I'm sure Ry would love it. A Pokemon hunting day might be a good idea too!
Join a gym. It's been eight years since I've had a gym membership (I had two when we lived in CA). I think when we moved here, I tried to save money and use on the beautiful outdoors as my gym...but lately I've been feeling like I need new motivation to get out of my slump.

Otherwise, I think we're going to try and slow down and enjoy the last few weeks of summer. Swim lessons and art class have ended, and soon, karate goes on a week long hiatus. So it's just homeschooling, soccer and play dates for the next few weeks.

I think this has been the best summer of Ryan's life, though not because of anything I've done. It's entirely because of our new neighbors (sadly, only here for six months), whose three kids Ryan adores. Also, I'm pretty sure he would say that Slitherio and Roblox have also given his life great purpose and happiness this summer.

A few pics of summer.