My March

April 5th, 2011 - filed under: Furthermore

March saw many a walk in the park.



A whole month without blogging! I think some catch-up is in order, don’t you? Here’s what I’ve been up to for the last 30+ days :

The month began with my baby’s first birthday, on March 3rd. Squee! How did this happen??! He’s such a kid now – see?

Waits fast asleep on the morning of his first birthday.


His actual b-day was super mellow family time. Him and I spent the whole day playing – playing in the park, playing in the mud, playing with toys. Fun fun fun. Then Dad came home and we played some more. It was pretty much awesome.

Waits at the park on his birthday



The next weekend, Damian’s parents came to visit – and for more celebrating!

Grandma gives Waits one of his prezzies. Lucky boy! (he had SO much fun playing with the bag, haha)



Early on in the month we took a long weekend trip to the Oregon coast, where Damian was competing in a pool tournament. Betchya didn’t know I married a degenerate pool player, huh? (just kidding of course, he’s insanely talented and if only pool were golf then we’d be millionaires, sad but totally true)



It was a great little vacation, except . . .

This is what 2 night owls look like when they’ve been rudely awakened before dawn – awakened by the town’s AIR SIREN, which just so happens to be located about 40 feet from their motel room door . . . awakened because they’re being EVACUATED DUE TO TSUNAMI. Seriously, that was an exciting morning (no, there was never any tsunami where we were)


Meanwhile, back in P-town, I’ve been diligently attending the year-round farmer’s market each week (taters greens & mushies, taters greens & mushies).



And then, finally, my dearest Saturday FarMar re-opened for the season. YAY!

Waits riding piggy-back in his brand new ‘big boy’ birthday organic Ergo carrier – thanks Papa-San! – at the first FarMar of 2011



That same weekend we finally had a real birthday party – a triple header for the not one, not two, but THREE VEGAN BABIES born last March. It was so full of cute it was out of control.

The birthday crew, about to eat their “cake” – see them eat it here.


The “cakes” were my own hippie creation (of course!). Waits has never had any sugar of any kind, nor has he had wheat. And I wasn’t about to start now! So I whipped up these adorable pink confections made of coconut cream and raspberries, and dusted with coconut shavings. They look remarkably like those Hostess Snowballs you get at the gas station, but they’re totally wholesome and totally nutritious. Delicious too!


March was officially my month of Sip obsession. I love this little food cart, which serves fresh pressed juices and wheatgrass, as well as vegan blended desserts. The owner is an AR activist and their slogan is “Milkshakes For Eco-Terrorists” – HA!

Wheatgrass makes me feel a-mazing. New discovery, totally life changing.


Waits is also a wheatgrass fan. Green mustache > milk mustache.


Wheatgrass complete, and moving onto my matcha latte. That, my friend, is heaven in a steaming cup.


And this is why I love love love Sip – taking donations for a farm sanctuary.



This month we got some sad news, too. Our Harley was diagnosed with a sarcoma tumor, which is unfortunately non-removable (they tried). Luckily for now it’s not spreading. Think good thoughts for Harley please!

Harley looks pretty punk rock with his “reverse mohawk” surgery patches. He’s a tough dude. (full disclosure: Harley has roughly as much ferocity as a tulip)



In some fun news, I met a neighbor and gave her my potato tires (new project coming soon!). She returned the favor by dropping off these amazingly delicious super spicy homemade pickles on my door step. Yay for awesome neighbors!

Canned with love for extra flavor – delicious!



The month ended not-so-fun, with my very first bout of food poisoning, from my very favorite restaurant (the ultimate tragedy). This is what I look like after tossing my cookies all night. Simple smoothie – the only thing I could tolerate and not even green – was saving my ass.




And that was that! What about you, my dears? What did you do this March? Catch me up!

  • http://windycityvegan.wordpress.com Monika {windycityvegan}

    It was *not* good! And no, not because of the MMM. No internet was the least of my concerns. Long story short, over-worked/stressed/whelmed, but it just gave me more motivation to get my ass into law school.

  • http://katehateseverything.blogspot.com Kate in SB

    Great post, so curious what you were up to. I had food poisoning too this year. It’s the worst!

    Waits continues to be adorable. Big hugs to Harley.

  • Richard

    Baby cuteness :D Good to have you back I’ve missed checking up on here!
    This month I found a Vegan couple letting out their house to Vegans only away from my home town, so I’m moving out and going to live there! Look after their rescued animals, take their dog for walk in the countryside (oh its on the edge of a country village but close to a city) grown things in their garden get invloved with local Vegan groups and maybe do some little Vegan projects with my housemates.

  • http://windycityvegan.wordpress.com Monika {windycityvegan}

    Meant to add that your little Waits is getting so big! I can’t believe it’s been a year already – I think that’s about the time I discovered Bonzai.

    Also, hurray for co-sleeping! And for hippie creations! And green mustaches!

  • Julie

    You sure about the food poisoning? We’ve had a really wicked and sudden gastric flu go through our area (Southwest BC) twice this winter. (Many thought they were food poisoned.) Never mind you’ll know for sure if someone else gets it in the next few day. The good news would be it wasn’t the restaurant ;-))

  • http://Gingeristhenewpink.blogspot.com Lauren

    Great update! We are growing our own wheatgrass, good stuff. Happy birthday to your little guy! Those “cakes” sound perfect for my little ones first bday! I’ve got 8 months! ;)

  • Kat

    This month I visited your fair city and even went to the Saturday market! (I live up in Seattle and drove down to spend a weekend with friends.) I had a blast eating so many delicious foods and drinking a lot of delicious local beer…

  • MorganInJapan

    Happy to hear there was no tsunami where you were! Evacuations are no fun. I was evacuated from Japan about two weeks ago and I’m going crazy. Luckily, I have an amazing family totally willing to take me and my two long-hair cats in until this is resolved somehow. *sigh*

  • http://victoriaoconnell.blogspot.com/ Vicki-Lou

    Those “hippie creations” look delish! Is it just raspberries and coconut creme pureed? Or is there more to it? I would LOVE to try it out on our little ‘Peanut’ come June for her birthday!

  • http://goldfinchanchor.blogspot.com Kaitlin

    I watched Earthlings and finally took the plunge into veganism. I’m done with eating anything to do with animals, and I honestly can’t even bring myself to go back. I’m 7.5 months pregnant and I feel like I can forge ahead confidently with this life change and know that I can with a little effort nourish myself and my baby girl in the best way possible – thanks in part to you and your blog.

    So, thanks :)

  • http://lovestitches.wordpress.com Steph

    Please share with us how to make those little cakes of raspberry heaven! They look GOOD! I’m not ready to go vegan but I’d love to take a few steps towards it.
    Good thoughts for poor Harley!

  • Angela

    Thinking good thoughts for your dear Harley <3 I know it's so awful to hear bad news about our furry family members. I hope he recovers!
    After reading your posts I really wonder why I don't live in Portland already!
    I totally enjoyed catching up on your month away.

  • Minna

    Aw, such sad news about Harley! But he seems like a tough dog and with positive thoughts, good care and owners like you, I’m sure he’s going to get much-much better and magically recover! :) I’ll pray for him.

    Ahh, the baby pictures… so cute! I *love* that one with you and Waits laughing in his new carrier. And I was amazed to see that the other babies didn’t want their mouthwatering birthday cakes! God, I would’ve happily eaten all three of them!

    My March has been looong, daaark and cooold. But luckily Spring finally made it to Estonia and now we even get some occasional sunshine and nice Spring weather! Woo!

  • http://creativespiderbite.blogspot.com/ Pat

    Big hug and gooooood thoughts for pour harley!
    We had a similar experience….just is was a norovirus infection brought home by our favourite little boy (not a restaurant ;-) ) that made all of us sick. He picked it up in one of his play groups…
    I just realised I have a whole month of no internet and no phone coming up as we will be travelling all of may…but I dont think it will be tough at all in our case…or a life time lesson… waaahoooo Australia we are finally coming!

  • http://sweetness-light.tumblr.com Natasja

    Happy birthday Mr Waits! Nnnawww :P
    & lots of love to Harley, good health!

    I second Steph, please share the recipe for those awesome treats…
    Sorry, I didn’t do the MMM, mainly cos I’m a slacker but also cos of my really unexpected ‘news’ I had a bucketload of researching & emailing my Mum to do!

    && yum! Spicy pickles/gherkins!

  • Sandra

    Waits is such a cute little one! You look like you had a pretty fun month, aside from the all night cookie tossing fest : )
    (sending good thoughts and vibes Harley’s way)

  • Christina

    I’ve spent the last month catching up on your blog. I just found you at the beginning of march. Soooo I’ve made alot of stuff from here. I even henna-ed my hair!
    Glad you had a pretty good month. Your little Waits is adorable! He make me want another baby. I hope everything is ok with Harley.
    I’m looking forward to all the new postings!

  • Beens

    March was an interesting month. I focused a lot on thinking about my values and in doing so, had to be honest with a person I cared about but couldn’t continue our dynamic the way it was. I have also reconnected with so many friends; Murphy’s Law that this is all happening just as I’m planning to relocate to a different part of the country!

    It was also the month I discovered one of the best cookie recipes evar [vegan friendly]: http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/carrot-oatmeal-cookies-recipe.html

  • http://twitter.com/erosan erosan

    Love the ‘hippie creations’ (which by now I think it stuck as the official name for that dessert). I too would like a recipe, even if raspberries are incredibly difficult to come by here in merida, I think I could improvise and sub them somehow.

    This kind of creation is what I was referring to when I said that I think vegan cuisine should find its own voice, instead of trying to emulate omnivore’s dishes. I think this treat looks awesome and unique, and I bet they were TASTY.

  • Kathryn

    I did not participate in your MMM because I didn’t stumble upon your website until the end of the month. But I have to say that I LOVE your site. I look forward to trying all of your wonderful recipes, both food and cleaning recipes…Now I’m off to try your liquid dishwashing detergent!

  • http://www.raggamuslims.wordpress.com eternitysojourner

    well, since you asked… ;)
    my plan for march was to take an herbalism class online. it’s great! super-empowering! i feel way more equipped and less fearful about caring for my sweet pea in the event of dis-ease/illness.
    i also volunteered to teach an ESL course for some of the lovely ladies (mostly moms) in my community and that was great too!
    in keeping with the mmm, i continued keeping my internet use down to a minimum and my days have been way more productive and introspective. hmmm…if i wasn’t living abroad and miles away from family, i wonder if i could get down to using the internet once a week. ?

  • http://bonzaiaphrodite.com Sayward

    Thanks everyone for all the Waits love and the Harley well-wishes.

    I *love* hearing about what everybody’s been up to (quite a diverse group we’ve got here) this past month!

    As for the dessert recipe, I’m sorry but I’m saving that one for a special something (*cough*cookbook*cough*), but I can tell you that it only has the two ingredients (the coconut cream plus fruit) and then the optional shaved coconut for dusting. It needs to set up in the freezer pre-dusting. I’m sure you guys can figure it out! And you could totally use any fruit in there. I think mango would be divine!

  • http://mutualmenu.blogspot.com Joselle

    Happy Belated 1st to Waits!

    I’m so sorry to hear about Harley. My golden retriever mix, Luckie, was diagnosed with thyroid cancer in his 14th year. Along with crippling arthritis, it was a hard time. But what’s so great about dogs is, they don’t know they have cancer. I tried my best to stay positive with him so that I wouldn’t upset him. It was such a special, quiet time. Fortunately, it looks like Harley is still spry and if it’s not spreading, I wish him a long, healthy, fun time. xo

  • Meghan

    See my response to the gardening post for what I’ve been doing in March.

    I saw that video from the birthday party in late march… I was watching videos of cute babies on youtube, so I decided to do a search for you to see if there were videos of YOUR cute baby that I hadn’t seen. I was like *gasp!* Internet! In March! ;-)

  • http://duhautdemoncannelier.blogspot.com/ Sabbio

    The one in which your baby is sleeping is just hearlt-melting!

  • http://miraz38.livejournal.com Mandie

    Glad to see Waits had such a great birthday! I remembered it because he shares it with another awesome dude, my 88 year old grandpa! My March consisted of: mucho learning in my new position at work, paying off a credit card (yay!!), my own birthday, and my own bout of food poisoning/stomach bug? You looked much better than I after a night of cookie tossing! I also spent MANY nights at the local skating rink watching local league hockey. Our search for a house continues, but no luck :(

  • http://miraz38.livejournal.com Mandie

    And omigosh, so glad you weren’t affected by the tsunami! I thought of you and hoped you would break your internet rule to let us know you were ok!

  • Kelly H.

    I have been away for a month and am just now playing catch-up to your blog…and looking for inspiration.

    I am in love with that pic of Waits sprawled out on the bed. Such bliss and utter comfort! I also love that he loves the smoothies and utter goodness of whole foods. Amazing!

    ALSO…Your lil’ pink confections look divine!

Subscribe to my RSS feed Follow me on twitter Find me on Facebook Find me on Pinterest