Organic Wine

So what is the scoop with organic wines? This article tells a bit about it and also recommends some wines. The main thing I think worth noting (other than the obvious point of not using chemical pesticides when growing the grapes) is that the true organic makers can't add chemicals to adjust taste and acidity and can't add sulfites to preserve the wine (although there is some naturally occurring sulfites in wine from the fermentation process).

What does this mean for us? Well, some people think that the sulfites are what cause some of the problems people may experience when drinking wine (headache, hangover etc...). So it is possible that you may feel better if you drink an organic wine.

But watch out because"Organic" and "made from Organic ingredients" don't mean the same thing! As I discovered when I decided a taste test was in order, it is fairly easy to find wines that are "made with organic grapes" but a little more challenging to find true organic wines that are not only made from organically grown grapes but also created in a truly organic manner. You need to look for the ones that say "no sulfites added" or "no detectable sulfites".

We tested one at my birthday party a few weeks ago. It was a 2005 Pinot Noir from Amity Vineyards in California. Here were the responses from my limited tasting survey:

"Very Grape-y."

"Goes down way too easy." (I think that was a compliment.)

"Very silly for $26." (That was from my husband.)

If you are looking to try others, I also recently sampled a Bonterra Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon ($15) that was pretty good and made with organic grapes (not fully organic). I also learned that Benziger Family Winery has just received an organic certification and they have a 2005 Cabernet that is also about $15 per bottle.

Bottom line? I still haven't found an organic that I prefer to some of my other favorities but I am willing to keep trying in the name of good health!

Here is a link to another article that explains the benefits of organic wine.

Turning 40...Happy Birthday to Me!

No one could have been more surprised by this surprise party than me. When told by my husband that there would not be any kind of diversionary tactics that would have led to my being appropriately dressed for the occasion, my cousin is reported to have responded "She is going to divorce you."

But his devotion to the element of surprise was not to be dissuaded. So...here I am unshowered and completely shocked when friends began arriving at my door. As you can see from the picture, many bottles of wine arrived with the guests and I suppose this quickly softened the shock of being discovered disheveled and completely unprepared. I loved it.

I also love these birthdays that end in zero. There is something about marking a new decade of life that seems to call for a look back at what the past ten years have meant and a look forward towards what the next ten could hold. That kind of reflection generally causes me to turn my focus inward and I had intended for the celebration of my 40th birthday to be a fairly private event with time for some journal writing and quiet moments alone and a little snuggle on the couch with my husband and kids. Alas, life (and my husband!) had other plans and the surprise party was just one of several occasions over the course of more than a week that were filled with friends, family, food and, yes, wine!

I took this turn of events to signal a sort of opening up of my heart and my life to mark the beginning of this new decade as a time that will include bigger events and broader horizons than I had originally imagined. And being thrown into a party looking like I just woke up...well...I had always hoped that by the time I was 40 I really wouldn't care too much about that kind of thing anymore and...well, I cared. But not nearly as much as I would have at 30 which I feel pretty darn great about actually. Happy Birthday to me!

Halloween

Have you started wishing they'd invent a candy-free Halloween or are you already sneaking into the stash you've got on hand for trick or treaters?

Fortunately for me, we take our kids trick or treating in my brothers neighborhood so I can avoid buying the candy since we won't be home to hand it out. (This, I think, is kind of preferable to being the weird lady who hands out raisins or stickers- something I admit I've considered doing). But just because I am not buying the candy myself doesn't mean it isn't getting into my kids hands...

So what is Halloween like when your mom is a health counselor? Actually it is not as scary as you might think!

I have a Halloween strategy that we all can live with. Basically, I let the kids eat a bunch of stuff from their trick or treat baskets. They come home, we sit together and spread it out on the kitchen floor and they have at it. Interestingly, there is only so much candy you can eat in a half hour or so. Usually it is just enough to start to feel sick. And that, is kind of the point.

I look at it this way- this is a teaching moment. Seriously. Sure I would love it if my kids turned up their noses at most of the scary stuff that arrives home in those pumpkins but, to them it mostly seems like great fun. So they try it (and honestly a lot of it they don't like) and then they usually feel gross and we talk about why.

And then? We throw it all out. No arguments. That is just the rule. They have their fun and then it is over and we declare the following day a "vegetable day" (kind of kidding... but not really).

Of course, I can't seem too okay with this. The kids know I think it is a bad idea to eat this much candy and I throw in a few comments as we're rummaging through the goods like, "Oh, yuck, Mommy doesn't like this one, it has fake colors. That's like eating a magic marker."

In the end, Halloween fun is had by all and it's over before the witches go home. Next day- vegetables all day!

The Coffee Thing and Other Experiments

I promised several weeks ago that I would post soon about my no-coffee experiment. It has been interesting. As you may know, I am a coffee lover. I love the smell of it, I love the taste of it, I love a good coffee shop. I just love it.

Recently, however, I wasn't sure it was loving me back. I have had a really busy year and in January I was really starting to feel the stress accumulate in my body in an intense kind of way. I tried to tune in and really understand what I might need to change and I got the message that coffee might not be working for me.

My coffee consumption was about 1 cup a day of 1/2 regular coffee, 1/2 decaf. So I stopped it and switched to tea for about six weeks. It was interesting. I felt better, I lost a few pounds I had been hanging on to for a few months. I believe the weight loss was partly due to just the overall stress reduction. But there are also some folks who see a connection between coffee and blood sugar levels that could affect weight. You can check out an interesting article here.

So I was going along quite merrily without my coffee for several weeks and actually not missing it and feeling quite good. Then I decided to experiment with tweaking my diet a bit by doing an elimination of wheat and dairy for a week. The idea was not to eliminate these things from my diet permanently but just to see how I felt when I removed them and then reintroduced them.

Well guess what? I did that for about six days and then I wanted coffee again.

Am I telling you all this to confuse you? NO, hopefully the opposite. What I hope to share with you is that these past two months have been a really good reminder to me that the best changes happen slowly over time. I tried to do too much too close together and I really saw the tendency within myself to overdo the experimentation.

I think a lot of us do this. We make a change, we see some success, we want more success, we make more changes. But sometimes, if we really haven't given our bodies and our minds the opportunity to fully adjust to the last change, introducing another change may not only not succeed but it may undo some of the positive changes we have already made.

My advice (from personal experience)- go easy on yourself! Make changes slowly over time and they will be far more likely to last.

Oh, and in case you are wondering about the results of my experiment:

1. I started drinking coffee again but not daily and now mostly decaf.

2. I didn't notice any significant impact of reintroducing wheat and dairy but I am sure both of them only work well for me in real moderation.

3. I am not doing any more experimenting for a while. Well, only with my hair. I just got most of it chopped off for the first time in more than 10 years and that felt great!

Reinventing Date Night

Check out this article on Reinventing Date Night:

New York Times Article

I am not suggesting you crawl across the floor with your hands and feet tied (don't freak out, you have to read the article to know what I mean) but maybe a new hobby with the love of your life could be good for your relationship?

I'll let you know if Rod and I decide to take up country line dancing or play racquetball or fly to Italy sometime soon.

Happy Valentine's Day

What are you doing for Valentine's Day?

At our house it is a family event and we've decided to skip the chocolates and the store bought cards and go for something more personal.

We're cutting paper hearts and making a kid and adult friendly I Love You Dinner. Aside from Nick insisting on using glue with no help from Mom, so far the planning is going well.

So what is an I Love You Dinner? Well, for the moment, it means that everyone gets to pick one part of the dinner. We're saying "I love you" by cooking our favorite foods. So far (you won't even believe it) the kids have chosen Chicken and Broccoli. I don't know when Alexa is going to remember that cake exists but I am expecting it to come up when we start talking about dessert. Rod and I haven't decided on our choices yet but I am leaning towards Miso Soup.

I'll let you know how it goes.

Happy Heart Day to you and everyone you love. Oh, and don't forget, Dark Chocolate (70% and above) is actually good for you in small quantities. One of my favorites is Green and Black's 70% Dark. Green and Black's is committed to ethical trading and organic products. Check them out here.

Heart Apple

Could there really be a heart on this apple?

This heart apple appeared in a bunch of organic Fuji apples (my favorites!) that I bought recently.

Apple Picking

There are not too many things more fun than this. Why do kids love apple picking? Why do adults? There is something so much more delicious about the apples when you pick them yourselves.







We paid what seemed like a small fortune for a giant bag of Honeycrisps. I thought we'd never eat them all.

They were gone by the end of the week.

But we're still talking about apple picking.