July 2011

Addicted to Coffee And a Coffee Giveaway (2 Winners) – GIVEAWAY CLOSED

by MomGrind

addicted to coffeeEvery morning I wake up thoroughly excited about breakfast. But the truth is, it’s not so much excitement over what I’m going to eat, as it is about the fact that I am going to get my daily dose of caffeine. I know I’m addicted, because when I sleep in on the weekend, I wake up with a bad headache, that can be promptly fixed with said dose of caffeine.

I drink one cup of very strong coffee each morning, and one cup of decaf tea at night after dinner. So I’m not doing too bad actually. According to the Mayo Clinic, for most healthy adults, moderate doses of caffeine — 200 to 300 milligrams or about two to four cups of brewed coffee a day, are fine. In fact, recent research has shown that coffee can actually be good for you, as long as you consume it in moderation and avoid the typical high-calorie concoctions that you can get at Starbucks and such.

Of course, being a foodie means that I don’t just drink any coffee. My coffee needs to be good. I usually use French press to make my coffee, and I make it fairly strong – I use 2 heaping tablespoons of ground coffee for each 8-oz mug. For years I insisted on drinking Illy coffee, but recently I became annoyed with the price, and have discovered a blend of Starbucks that I really like – Africa Kitamu (I buy it on Amazon). To all the coffee snobs out there I say, Starbucks coffee can be very good – the main issue is that when you order cappuccino or latte at the store, you get just one shot of coffee in a 12-ounce drink- that’s way too diluted. But at home I have more control over how strong I make my coffee.

gevalia heritage blendWhen Gevalia Coffee got in touch with me and offered to send me their 1853 Heritage blend for review, I was of course excited. It’s always great to be able to try a gourmet coffee blend that I’ve never tried before! The 1853 Heritage Blend is a 100% Arabica blend. It’s a medium roast coffee with notes of caramel. It is roasted and blended in Sweden and is available for purchase online.

The Review

I made the coffee using my regular method – French press. I measured, as usual, 2 heaping coffee measuring spoons (marked as 7 grams each) of ground coffee per each 8-ounce cup. I took the coffee with 1 teaspoon sugar and about 1/4 cup hot milk, as I always do.

My verdict: The Heritage Blend provides a clean, ultra smooth coffee drinking experience. I couldn’t detect any dominant flavors (including the caramel that’s supposed to be there) or any acidity. It’s a very light blend, and while I wouldn’t go as far as to call it “bland,” it is definitely better suited for individuals who prefer light coffee blends. If you like bold, full-bodied coffees with a pronounced finish, I would suggest making this blend stronger by adding 1 extra tablespoon per cup.

The Giveaway

Gevalia is generously offering to ship the following package to two US-based, 18+ readers:
1 box 1853 Heritage Blend coffee
1 very pretty coffee tin (says it’s decorative, so you can’t store the coffee in there!)
1 pack Gevalia coffee filters
Each package is valued at about $15

If you’re interested, please email vered at momgrind.com. I’ll use random.org to pick 2 random winners later today.

Update: The two winners have been chosen and notified via email. Thanks everyone for entering!

Weekend in Austin

by MomGrind

I can’t believe how hot it was in Austin! I suspect one’s body gets used to the temperatures where one lives, because the locals didn’t seem nearly as bothered as we were by the triple digit temperatures (102-104 degrees F, 38-40 C, throughout our stay). In fact, more than once we heard them asking restaurant hostesses for a table outside. OUTSIDE? We shook our heads in disbelief. But then my husband reminded me that when we had first arrived at the San Francisco Bay Area, we thought it was way too cold. Summers were especially disappointing – with temperatures in the 70s and 80s, you don’t really FEEL summer, I used to complain.

Well, I got used to it, and now can’t really tolerate hot weather.

But I loved Austin.

If you can visit Austin in the spring, that would be awesome. But if you can’t choose the date of your visit, Austin summer is doable. If I survived it, anyone can. :)

Keep Austin Weird

Austin is the capital of Texas, home to the University of Texas at Austin and to a growing high tech industry. Austin is also the “Live Music Capital of the World” and a haven for individualism. The marketing campaign “Keep Austin Weird,” created to support local businesses, has received a meaning that goes far beyond the original intent – it has become a message of support for people and groups that are not mainstream.

Austin also seems to be in love with all things skeletal/occult:

Austin Restaurants

We tried typical local diners and restaurants, such as Magnolia Cafe, where we had huge pancakes for breakfast:
austin magnolia

And Oasis Restaurant, with its gorgeous views of Lake Travis:
oasis austin

There were water sprays everywhere, ruining perfectly good blowouts but giving people some hope of cooling off:

Beer helps too:

Unlike many locals, we opted to dine indoors, missing the beautiful views but keeping our core body temperature at non-life-threatening levels.

We wondered if we could find gourmet food in Austin, and indeed we did- at Uchi, where you have to wait for a table at least an hour if you don’t have a reservation (many thanks to our wonderful concierge for getting us a table!) We went with the three-hour, ten-course tasting menu. It was one of the best meals we’ve ever had:
Austin Uchi

Of course, if you’re in a hurry, food trucks are always an option:
austin cupcake food truck

Austin Shopping

The “Keep Austin Weird” campaign has been successful, to judge by the many local businesses we found along South Congress Avenue.

We walked along the avenue for as long as we could stand the heat (which wasn’t very long), trying on costumes at Lucy in Disguise with Diamonds:
austin lucy in disguise with diamonds

And admiring the large selection of cowboy boots at Allen’s Boots:
austin allens boots

Of course we ended up buying a pair of pink cowgirl boots for our daughter!
pink cowgirl boots

We shopped ’till we dropped – here I am forcing a smile for the camera, but pretty close to declaring it’s time to find an air conditioned space:

Austin Men

See this jeans ad from Allen’s Boots?

You would think it’s just Jason Aldean, the country singer, looking like this, but most of the locals – at least the young men – look exactly like him. Very cute! The young women are blond and very tall. My own foreignness was definitely reinforced in Texas, where I look nothing like the locals. At least here in the Bay Area I blend in visually. :)

Austin’s 6th street

6th Street between Congress and IH 35 is Austin’s entertainment center and the heart of Austin’s live entertainment scene. It is also lined with many historical houses and commercial buildings dating from the late 1800′s and early 1900′s. These buildings now house mostly bars, live entertainment venues, tattoo parlors, art galleries, and casual cafes. We strolled along the street on our last night in Austin. While it’s not exactly my cup of tea, it’s definitely an interesting place that draws an eclectic crowd. It reminded me of Bourbon Street in New Orleans, sans the “It’s OK to drink on the street” signs. Here’s a little collage of what we saw, plus the gorgeous view of Lady Bird Lake from our hotel room:

austin 6th street

I enjoyed my weekend in Austin. But my next visit will be in the spring.:-)

I Miss You

by MomGrind

To my daughters,

You left a couple of days ago to spend a month with your grandparents. I’m happy for you that you get to have this experience, and I’m excited about spending the month with your dad, doing things that we’ve been doing less of since becoming parents, such as traveling, going to the movies and going out to eat.

But I am so sad!

It’s like in the song by Sinead O’Connor, “Nothing Compares To You.”
Since you’ve gone I can do whatever I want,
I can eat my dinner in a fancy restaurant
but nothing can take away these blues,
’cause nothing compares to you.

It’s strange, you know, because now that you’re not here, I can see how much of my life revolves around you, even when you’re not around. And I can also see how much guilt I’ve been carrying ever since I started this blogging business, which I am so very proud of, but we’ve paid a price over the past three years, haven’t we? I’ve been consumed with building this business, and even though I worked from home and was always here for you, emotionally I’ve been invested in the business in a way that made me less available to you than before.

I’ve been cutting back lately, focusing on my existing clients and being very careful about accepting new clients. I realize that I have so little time left to spend with you, now that you’re almost 10 and almost 12. Soon you’ll be drifting away, detaching yourselves from me emotionally and attaching yourselves to your friends, and that’s OK – it’s a normal process, even if a painful one.

But for now you’re still mine, and you had such a hard time saying goodbye on Sunday morning, coming back for another hug and then another, that I had tears in my eyes, tears of sadness and tears of gratefulness and tears of relief. You love me. And I love you, so much.

Sitting at my computer this morning, typing away, I realize that I am typing without guilt, without that familiar sense of urgency – how do I arrange my morning efficiently, so that when you’re back from school, I can spend some time with you? Over the past year or so I have learned to work around your schedules, waking up early to accomplish some writing while you’re still asleep, working feverishly so that afternoons can be spent together, making an effort to log off at 5pm, go make dinner and forget about work until the next day.

But it didn’t always work out this way, and as I was building my business, there were countless days when I spent 12 hours each day at my computer, writing blog posts, tweeting, posting on Facebook, and responding to clients’ emails.

“Silly mommy guilt,” says my husband, and adds that a dad – even the most devoted dad – would never feel this way unless he was truly never home and always traveling, which is obviously not the case here. But I’m a mom, and I do feel guilt. Actually, it’s not so much the guilt as being afraid of missing precious moments with you.

Now, don’t get me wrong – I love my work. I think it’s amazing that I was able to build my own business, completely on my own, and get to a place where I make a good living from it. I also believe it’s incredibly important for women (just as it is for men) to be financially self-sufficient and to realize their talents and abilities outside of home keeping and motherhood. I’m setting a great example for you. Plus, honestly? I couldn’t be a stay at home mom for longer than the five years I did it. It was great while you were very young, but by the time you had entered kindergarten, I’d had enough. I was getting bored!

So I am mostly at peace with my choices. But whatever choices we make in life, there’s always a price to pay. Sometimes I feel torn – almost physically torn, pulled in several different directions – between your needs, and your dad’s needs, and my own needs, and my work.

So here’s the plan. I will keep working, building this wonderful business that I am so proud of, doing work that I love. But I will continue to be *very* particular when it comes to accepting new clients, focusing on my existing clients, and keeping my workload at a level that enables me to work fewer hours each day, so that I can not only spend more time with you, but also be more available to you emotionally.

After all, money is nice, but you are the most important thing in my life.

My smart, funny, beautiful daughters. I love you.

See you in August.

Being a Mom. Why I Love It.

by MomGrind

mom with kidsBecoming a mother is one of the best things that has ever happened to me. It’s a wild ride, for sure, with lots of unexpected twists and turns, but despite the challenges of being a mom, I wouldn’t change a thing. These are just a few of the things I love about it:

1. Watching them grow. Watching your kids probably sounds pretty boring to non-parents, and yes, the way we ooh and aah over every little thing they do must be annoying, but we can’t help it. The simple act of watching our kids grow and learn and just go about their daily lives fills us with so much pleasure and pride. Any parent will relate to the intense pleasure that can be derived from simply watching two siblings play, without them realizing they’re being watched.

2. Experiencing childhood all over again. This actually has a negative side too, because as you watch your child experience life, you will get to experience things you’ve stopped noticing a long time ago (pretty flowers, clouds in the sky) – but you will also experience again the pain, rejection and hard life lessons that are an inevitable part of growing. I still cherish the opportunity to re-experience things that would have otherwise been buried in my distant past.

3. Love as you never knew it before. When I’m in a cynical mood, I say that our selfless love to our kids is really quite selfish – after all, they are the ones who carry our genes, they are our future, so loving them and protecting them is like guarding an important investment – like loving ourselves. Still, I often revel in how deep my love to my children is. The way I have absolutely no doubt in my mind that I will protect their safety and their life at any cost – including the cost of my own life. The way I’d much rather feel pain myself than having them experience pain. It’s an incredible love – the deepest I have ever experienced. And in many ways, it IS selfless.

4. Laughing and being silly. It’s not that grownups don’t laugh – of course we do – but we laugh far less than kids do. Being a mom gives me an opportunity to be silly in ways I don’t think I would feel comfortable with if I wasn’t a parent.

5. Thinking and rethinking. Kids ask question, and those questions are often surprisingly deep (surprisingly, because – after all – their brains are still not fully developed). Questions such as, “Do you believe in god?” or “Do we have a moral obligation to help the homeless” (In their words, “Should we give this homeless person some money?” Which opens up the discussion on what our obligation is, and what is the best way to help him). I love the way my kids make me think, and often re-think my positions.

Even though part of me worries and frets about the kids growing and detaching, a different part knows that every stage of their life is going to be a unique, intense experience. As I said, being a mother is a wild ride.