Writing or Art?

When I was a teenager, my sister Nanette gave me a book I can't get out of my head. What has stuck with me most from Me: Stories of My Life by Katharine Hepburn was the advice her father gave her in a letter he sent her for her 21st birthday, "try to do one thing well—utilizing the experience of all preceding life and your own wit."

Since then, I've wondered, just what is my "one thing" and how will I know that's the thing to try to do well? I've done a lot of things, but I still ask myself that question.

My husband recently told me that he thought my real talent was watercolor, not writing. So, I ask...for those of you who have read my blog and seen my art. Which is it?

If you've had similar questions and found the answer, I'd love to hear how you figured things out.

In the meantime, here is something I've written that I'm proud of:

Power beyond words

By Pamela Baumeister

Music was Rachel de Azevedo Coleman’s whole life. Growing up in Utah as number five in a musical family of nine, Rachel was surrounded by it. Her father, Lex de Azevedo, was the music director for acts such as the Jackson Five special, “The Sonny & Cher Show” and “The Dick Van Dyke Show.” He gained fame locally, writing the music for “Saturday’s Warrior.” Rachel, never in the spotlight until after high school, sang and wrote music for her band while expecting her first child, Leah.

“I used to joke that wouldn’t it just be my luck to have a kid that was tone deaf,” Rachel says of her pregnancy. Little did she know that her baby would never hear her mother speak, let alone sing and play the guitar.

Shortly before Rachel and her husband, Aaron, moved to Los Angeles to be close to her sister, Emilie de Azevedo Brown, the couple started noticing something strange about Leah. Women at the grocery store would invariably stop and say “hi” to the adorable tot. At 14 months, Leah would lift her eyebrows, smile and open her mouth. But, no air or sound would come out.

Leah was deaf.

Rachel and Aaron mourned, but they weren’t defeated.

“There was nothing wrong for her. She wasn’t ‘missing out’ — we realized that we needed to learn something new. Maybe we needed to learn to be like her,” Rachel relates.

Signs of progress

The couple learned sign language quickly. So did Leah, who also learned to read at age 2. However, Rachel noticed there were times when Leah was left out.

When Leah was 4 years old and in soccer, Rachel noticed, “The hearing kids in our community were going a different way.” A boy on Leah’s team didn’t want Leah as his partner. She couldn’t “talk or understand” him. Rachel knew things wouldn’t improve.

Taking action, she went to the boy’s preschool and volunteered at story time. She read books and taught the children a few simple signs. At the next soccer practice, the boy signed ‘friend,’ ‘play,’ ‘ball.’ A few signs bridged the gap and, Rachel says, “changed the course of my deaf daughter’s life.”

Through Emilie’s encouragement, the sisters started Two Little Hands Productions, making videos of songs and signs. This was the beginning of “Signing Time,” a show that teaches sign language through music to kids and parents all over the world. The sisters started the venture with next to nothing.

“I was on WIC — we had Social Security — we were scraping by. We couldn’t even pay our rent. I had no idea that we’d be on PBS … I thought if I make these videos, that will change Leah’s world. When Emilie and I did our first video, we didn’t have a loan and now we have a successful, nationally recognized business,” Rachel marvels.

Miraculous sign

Rachel and Aaron decided to have another child. They soon found out that the fetus had water on the brain caused by spina bifida.

“We thought ‘Why us? We don’t even know anything about spina bifida!’” Rachel stopped herself when she realized she felt the same way when they learned Leah was deaf. “Maybe it is the same and there’s nothing wrong — it’s just different than we expected.”

Rachel and her unborn daughter underwent in-utero surgery to repair baby Lucy’s spine. Nine months after a successful birth, Lucy was diagnosed with cerebral palsy.

“They told us that she was retarded. She would lie on her back and stare — she couldn’t use her body in any way,” remembers Rachel.

Rachel wrote a song when Lucy was two called “Show Me A Sign.” It was her prayer for Lucy to prove the doctors wrong. Shortly after that song was written, Lucy signed “more.”

“I was stunned. After another nine months, she learned to speak. And now she speaks and signs and happens to be in a wheelchair. She is an inspiration to other kids. She gets 100 percent on her spelling tests and is in every ‘Signing Time’ show.”

One language

Rachel’s drive to make a difference in the lives of her children is now changing lives worldwide.

Rachel, Aaron, Leah and Curry Jones, the founder of non-profit Signs of Hope International, traveled to Ghana, Africa, to teach sign language to a school for deaf children. Rachel and Curry went again for a national conference.

“There’s a social stigma for deaf children, even among the educators. Having Rachel there was an ‘a-ha’ moment for them. They realized — after she got up, spoke and sang — that maybe the deaf can learn,” says Curry. ‘Signing Time’ videos are now used in the deaf school. Curry says of the people Rachel touched by sharing herself and her vision, “The children and teachers think, ‘If this American movie star can sign, so can we.’” She has created a paradigm shift for that area of Africa and it’s spreading.

Curry goes to Africa four or five times a year with Signs of Hope International.

“They talk about Rachel every time. She made quite an impression.”

“I refuse to let my circumstances have me.”

Rachel’s “honesty and candor and her willingness to share this personal experience with people has been not only a tremendous coping tool (for her), but also a tremendous gift (for others),” shares Emilie.

“As women and mothers, we are in a great position to make a difference. We can easily use our circumstances as an excuse to not do what we’ve got the potential to do. I’m sure I have a get-out-of-jail-free card for being depressed and saying ‘my life is really hard.’ I just have circumstances that I don’t expect — but who doesn’t?” muses Rachel.

Emilie says, “She is just like you and me — a woman trying to hold it all together. All the while, she is absolutely committed to changing the world.” 

Here is something I've painted that I'm proud of:

I have several other paintings and drawings posted to this blog, if you feel that you need more to go on for a judgment. Where do you think my talent lies? I won't be offended with your judgment, I just need more than my husband's opinion to consider. I probably won't stop doing either one, but I'll likely focus my efforts on one.

Thanks for your help!

Tri, Tri Again Triathlon

If you are wondering if you could do a triathlon, I'm here to tell you that you can. If you know how to swim, bike, and run, you can do a triathlon. If you don't know how to do those things, there are ways to learn. In fact, I helped my neighbor learn to swim so she could do her first triathlon, with an open-water swim, with me. She was amazing...but, that's a story for another post.

I've done about seven sprint triathlons in my life and I'm by no means super fit. I love the thrill of pushing my body to new personal records and the energy of race day is addictive.

Right before the very last tri I did in 2010. It was the hardest tri I've ever done and, clearly, I had no idea what I was in for at the point this photo was taken. 

Last year, though, my doctor advised me to take some time off from any sort of physically strenuous activity. He told me I had adrenal fatigue and I ended up taking nearly a year off. If you want to know more about how I got better, read this post.

Now that my health has returned, I'm itchin' and ready to get back into triathlon training. In many ways I feel like a novice. Slowly, over the summer, I have been conditioning to get back into running, swimming, and biking shape. Now I remember why I don't like taking too much time off from working out (especially from running). The pain of getting back in shape has been daunting and I still have a ways to go. But, I love the feeling I get when I accomplish a goal.

My current goal is to complete Triathamom, a sprint triathlon on August 18, 2012 at the Kearns Oquirrh Park Fitness Center. The event is called a sprint triathlon because each event is a short distance, not because you sprint the whole thing. Egads! Can you imagine? Sprint triathlons are completely manageable for the novice. This one has a 300 meter swim, a 12 mile bike, and a 5K (which is 3.1 miles). I'm not worried about my time, I just want to finish knowing I did my best.

Here are some of the things I've learned as I've been training that might be helpful if you're planning on doing a triathlon any time soon. (I'd love to see you on race day if you're doing Triathamom!) If you have any other tips to add to this brief list, I'd love to read them.

1. Balance between training and resting. If you think that the harder you push yourself, the better you'll get, you're wrong. Rest is just as important as training. Make sure you give yourself at least two days off each week from hard workouts. If you're too exhausted to work out hard, take a break. 
2. Practice two events back to back. This is called a brick. I'm guessing that they call it that because your body might feel like a brick when you get off your bike and start to run or get out of the pool and start running. Oof! Take it slow at first. 
3. Eat! When you're burning loads of calories, you need to fuel up with good food. Get a good balance of protein, carbs, and fat. Plus, drink plenty of water. I keep track of the food I'm eating and the exercise I get with apps on my iPhone. My favorites are My Fitness Pal and a calories burned app. The best thing about working out hard is all the food you can eat! 
4. Avoid injury by stretching out. Warmed muscles are ideal for stretching. I find that doing yoga several times a week helps me stay loose, injury free and happy. Stretching your muscles after a hard workout is absolutely necessary if you want to prevent injuries.

I'll post more about my training as the weeks go by...right now, I need to change my inner tube on my bike so I can ride it. 

Good luck and stay healthy!

Best Summer Salad

Salads make me happy. All that freshness! Yum. 

This is  one of my recent favorites. The dressing recipe is from my friend (and my doula!), Melissa Chappell, Raw Melissa. Her cookbook, Faves: Fruits and Veggies, Nature's Energy's Secret is my favorite recipe book. I have made nearly every recipe in it and they are all exceptional — and simple! That girl and her book changed my life. No joke.

Here's my latest fave, inspired from her book. Try it! I can bet you'll have a smile on your face when you're done devouring it (and licking the bowl when you're finished).

Salad:
red leaf lettuce
romaine
red bell pepper
zucchini (or English cucumber)
mango
walnuts 

Dressing:
1 lemon
olive oil
agave

Capturing Childhood

What mother doesn't love her own children's faces? We're drawn to them from the moment they come into the world. I've been drawing my children for 16 years. You'd think I'd be an expert by now, but I still have so much to learn. Capturing expression is an illusive feat.

This year I've been drawing nearly everyday. I think I've made more progress drawing faces this year than I have in the last 16. Here are a few recent sketches...

Here's Jane on a turtle sculpture at the park. 

This is from a photo of me looking at Lucy for the first time.

Jane

How do you capture your kid's childhood? Photos? Memorabilia? Video?

How to Kick Adrenal Fatigue to the Curb

I don't get stressed on family vacations anymore!

It's been nearly a year since my diagnosis of adrenal fatigue. I blogged about it here and have been plugging along through the last ten months trying to get over it.

If you get dizzy when you finish a workout, or when you stand up. If you're tired all the time. If you get really cranky in the evenings. If you can't get up in the morning after eight hours of sleep. If you feel like you're going to have a melt down if one more person asks you for something ("Mom! I neeeed...") If you have no motivation to do anything. If you feel old and beat up. Well, sweetheart, you might have adrenal fatigue. My doctor calls it "Mom Syndrome." Hmm...I wonder why?

Here's what worked for me:

• Patience, and lots of it. Exercising patience with my body and the healing process were difficult when the months dragged on and I could see myself getting more and more out of physical shape... That was hard. I knew, though, that if I pushed myself hard again, I'd relapse and take even longer to get well again.
• High-quality vitamins. The kinds I took were: pharmaceutical grade fish oil, with a balance of EPA and DHA that is 2-to-1; food-based multivitamin; 1000mg of vitamin C; and an adrenal support supplement. These are all available at your local health/natural food store. I buy mine at Whole Foods on Tuesdays for the 10% off. 
• Alternating adrenal support vitamins: The adrenal support supplements I found best were Holy Basil and Licorice Root. My doctor originally recommended Ashwaghanda, but I didn't notice a significant improvement until I started taking the Holy Basil. He also told me that these supplements are adaptogens, which means your body gets used to them and they aren't as effective if you don't alternate. What I did was take Holy Basil for 35 days and Licorice Root for five days. That was what worked the best. I also took PharmaGABA, a natural supplement that produce alpha brain waves (the same ones your brain produces when it's relaxes, yet alert). The PharmaGABA was something I'd take when I knew I was going to be under stress, or when I was starting to feel stressed.
• Rest. Getting to bed as early as possible and sleeping in as late as possible was, and still is, my quest. That has been really difficult, since I live with four lively girls (two of which are teenagers and don't really honor the whole "bedtime" rule very often).
• Meditation and prayer. This helped me stay calm and patient, but most of all it helped me stay the course. I'm always happier when I talk to God and clear my head on a regular basis.
• Extra help. Asking people to help out a bit more was also tough, but it took the stress off. That's what I needed — less stress.
• Saying "no" more. When there are activities, parties, meet-ups, conferences and all sorts of volunteer opportunities, I was always the first to say I'd participate. That had to end. It felt like I was missing out at first, but I soon realized my life was a lot more manageable and simple when I eliminated all the extras. I have been able to focus more on my family, too. 

I can finally say that I've kicked adrenal fatigue and I'm feeling better than ever. I'm even signed up to do a short women's triathlon next month. Getting back in the game is making me crazy excited. This time, I'm listening to my body, though. I'll be focusing more eating right, sleeping more and enjoying my good health. 

The Longest Run Ever

I went for a trail run the other day. Lately I've only run two miles around my neighborhood, but I decided to kick it up a notch and run along the trail and road at City Creek for three miles. I was feeling pretty good about myself doing the first part of the loop on the trail and the second part on the road. Trotting along next to the sound of rushing water, chirping birds and the quiet of the mountains is better than any iTunes playlist. Plus, it's very peaceful in the morning. I was so relaxed, I even paused to take a photo of these lovely flowers.

About 100 yards from my car, I reached down and realized my key wasn't in my pocket!

All sorts of things ran through my head. Why didn't I hear it if it fell out? Did the ten almonds I had in my pocket cause the key to slip out? Could it have fallen out while I took the picture? Was I so oblivious I didn't notice that large key thing no longer attached to my hip? I called Carl. He told me to look by the car. I did. It wasn't there. I started to panic a little. I felt the sinking feeling of being stranded.

Reluctantly, I called the dealership. To replace the specialized Audi key I would need to pay $200. What?! 

I spent the next three hours going back over my path, talking to people, praying like crazy, crying a bit, feeling sorry for myself, texting Carl to get all the girls to pray and searching desperately for my key. I ran and walked that three mile route two more times (9 miles!). I talked to one of the guys who works in the canyon and water shed area, gave him my phone number and told him about the $200 charge he'd save me if he and his guys found the key.

I was feeling floppy and despondent about two miles into my third journey around that loop. My phone only had 10% battery power left. Thirsty, hungry and filled with shame for losing the pricey key, I started to cry.

Then, my phone rang.

The cheery lady on the line was from the water shed. They found my key! Actually, a trail runner found it about a foot off the path and turned it into one of the workers. I nearly sprinted that last mile to get to the gate at the bottom of the canyon where the guy I originally talked to had my key. When I saw him, I practically threw myself at his feet and kissed them. I didn't though. I said a prayer of thanks and took this picture.

Whether you believe in prayer or not, I know that answers come. Maybe not as quickly as we'd like, but they do come. God understands where we are and what we need. I needed to find that key. He helped me; I know He did. He also helped me run and not be weary and walk and not faint. (Isaiah 40:31)

Everyday Artist

Last year on my birthday, I made a goal to draw every day. It's been nearly a year and I have four notebooks full of drawings, and a few watercolor sketches. Sometimes I left the drawing to the last minute when I was so tired I could only put a few scratches on the page.

Leaving a task you care about to the very last minute doesn't work—you never do a very good job with it nor give it your full attention. Hurried work made me feel disappointed and dissatisfied. I started to just skip the drawing if I didn't get it in before I was dragging myself to bed. I also learned that it's more important to do the work rather than do amazing work. The act of doing was the journey and the practice that has helped me improve.

Quick watercolor sketch at Liberty Park

After nearly ten months of drawing I feel more confident about my skills as an artist. I even added artist to my description of myself in the "About Me" section on this blog. I have taken assorted classes in drawing, watercolor, 3D, sculpture and design...but I always felt less than because I lacked formal training.

Now, I know that the formal training is just that: formal. I prefer to be informal about nearly everything, so that kind of learning suits me just fine. I'm okay with not being perfect at this and I'm open to learning from people like Kathy Ross, a self-taught 3D artist who sells her sculptures for a living. I met Kathy last year at the Utah Arts Festival. I asked her if she'd mentor me and teach me a little of how she does what she does. She agreed to and we've been in communication off and on ever since.

I'll would love some feedback, thoughts, and suggestions on my art.