From the kitchen

Trying to remember to breathe.  Deeply.  (Haven't been too successful so far...)

The quinoa-sweet potato salad is lovely.  Today I made it with rice vinegar and the olive oil my mom brought back from Sicily this summer.  Also, didn't mention this in the earlier post which included the recipe, but I have been using roasted red peppers from a jar.  I'm trying to keep away from raw foods as much as possible...

I also made some spinach with chickpeas.  I tasted it and have already downgraded the amount of cayenne for next time from 1/4 tsp to 1/8 tsp.  Erin, the blogger, likes her food hot :-)  I was going to serve this as part of dinner, but I think it will be too hot for the kids and I discovered that I do not have the main ingredient for what I had planned to make for lunch for myself, so I'll be having some of this for lunch :-)

Gearing up for a hella busy afternoon.  Picking up 50+ pounds of root veggies and crop leftovers, a visit with Vinny, Pokemon card gaming at the comic book store, picking up the eggs.  I'm going to try to squeeze in making something for tomorrow night's common meal before we leave the house again (we dropped Cap off at the airport this morning).

Hope you're eating something yummy and nutritious today.  This making more food from scratch and decreasing processed foods is time consuming.  Fun in its own way and rewarding, but time consuming...

Lovely

Ahhh...  What a wonderful way to start the day.  With a pause for a delicious drink for the mind and soul.

http://www.themorningnews.org/archives/personal_essays/i_reader.php

Dusky walk

The monday after

Today is one of those days that while fully cognizant that I am living the life I want to be, I find it tough.  I slept like crap last night, set my alarm to go food shopping, endured the kids' difficult re-entry to non-holiday routine, did not finish a project in the time allotted (needs to get done by tomorrow, it's gonna be tight), made a turkey vegetable soup, made tamari almonds for the first time in forever, will make corn bread in a bit, vacuumed three rooms, am cleaning out and reorganizing the fridge and pantry as I go...guided the kids through their 'school' work, made them meals, listened to their Pokemon tales, gave them hugs and kisses...I'm hoping to squeeze in a walk with them before it gets dark and after dinner will fold laundry.

Reading?  Writing?  Knitting?  Talking to a friend or two?  Nononono.

Light and love to you on this Monday.

More cozy

My father-in-law and my step-mother-in-law showered us with gifts from their recent trip to Finland.  I love my lambswool mittens...they have quite the Nordic flair, yes?  Kiitos!

Cozy

The new comforter is here!  So, so cozy.  It is much more blue than it looked in the catalogue photo (where it had green tones which turn out to be non-existent...)  Pussy willows are an unsung favorite of mine.  I always forget how much I love them.  And birds are sweet.

Good-bye apples...

Central park

It was nippy and dusk is coming earlier and earlier...  A wonderful way to cap off the holiday rounds of extended family time.  (Today was the annual taking of my folks' holiday pic :-)

Family-izing

Dudes, we made it out at 7:20 am Wednesday morning!  I felt quite accomplished.  We had a lovely holiday, the Cape is so quiet this time of year.  We slept well and late both mornings.  Posting a few pics before I fall into bed.  I am bushed.  Tomorrow we head into the city to see my side of the family for the annual taking of the holiday photo.  All this family time is nice.  I am feeling very grateful.

shooting himself swinging.

ocean love.

cool as a New England born Capricorn Finn.

Jamie love.

Mummu's table.

late lunch with Evie and Pops.

Day before

image pulled from web.

Leaving for the Commonwealth in the morning.  Our goal is a 7am departure.  (Insert snorts here.)  We can always try!

I've food shopped and begun packing.  The kids and I chose some games to bring (Labyrinth and Othello.)  I've organized birthday gifts and cards.

Oh, and I've looked into our visit here.  (Insert sighs here.)  We're going to Japan in February and this place is very high on our things we want to do.  (I'm not off track here...I may pick up the tickets at JTB when we head into the city Saturday :-)

We leave for Vinny in an hour (did I mention that last week's visit didn't happen?)  Then home for a snack before I drop the kids off for their last 2D Animation class (they loved it and are planning on signing up for the winter session) and run up to Donna's for the last CSA pick-up.

Then dinner and prepping the road trip food.

There's other stuff on my mind, but I can only do what I can do.  Life will still be here when we return, awaiting my attention.

Oh, but the library books, CDs and DVDs need to go back today.  Mustn't forget those...

Birthday songs

Something for every one :-) Off to birthday dinner!

Sag is 9

A mess of our photos are presently inaccessible.  They're in the old computer and Cap's in the process of transferring them to an external hard drive.

Here's what I do have:

2001

2003

2004

2009

today.

Happy birthday to our Scorpio/Sagittarius.  Our intense, friendly, creative, honest, artistic, kind, expressive, sensitive, freedom-loving soul.  Unlike his brother, there was no waiting involved with this one.  He was officially announced to us on a snowy day in March, the last exhale of Winter that year, and has been utterly and distinctively present ever since.  Being the youngest in a family of oldests can't be easy.  He holds his own, though, and I have a feeling he always will.  He lives and breathes his Truth strongly, a quality most spend a lifetime cultivating.  He's already got it and I hope his flame continues to burn bright in the years to come.

And the weekend comes to a close

Pokemon cake.

Sag's "friends" party was mellow and we spent part of our time together outside which was a welcome bonus (you never know when celebrating a late November baby).

He has been building Lego sets since our guests departed.  Lego came through by having someone available after 5pm on a Sunday to let us know that they will send a replacement bag #3 for the Hagrid's Hut set which had been mispacked with a duplicate bag #2.  (It's gonna be awhile as the replacement bricks will be coming from Denmark...which is kind of cool :-)

I had a tiny little pity party wishing that we had the same options as non-allergenic families so that I could order a pizza for dinner.  But, my kids have never known the pleasures of a weekend-ending pie and were happy to 'order' from the fridge/pantry selections I outlined, so I've gotten over it.

Cap's watching the Pats, Gem's finishing the party bowl of potato chips, Amazing Race and Next Iron Chef later, and once I have the tv all to myself, The Walking Dead :-)

I hope your weekend is ending peacefully.  Love and light to you.

Morningtime

listening to the 9th birthday playlist.

Morning tummies have been fed (there was Fenway cake involved).  The kitchen is just about back to baseline and the dishwasher is humming along.  Gem is darting in and out of rooms scavenging to a hunt of Sag's design.  Cap is doing environmental and electronic cleaning and reorganizing, poised to shower the kids, and will be creating cake #2 for this afternoon's festivities.

I will attempt to sneak out to do some last minute (the most popular kind when one is ADDish) natal-celebratory shopping.

Have a lovely day-before-Sag's-birthday ♥

Let us eat cake

I love the cake Cap made for Sag's family birthday party today.  It's Fenway Park!

Cap is snoozing on the couch, I am exhausted.  The kids are hanging out in bed chatting Pokemon.

It was a buzzy sort of day getting ready for company and celebration.  Tomorrow is the "friends" party and will be fairly low-key.  Two hours of potato chips, a Pokeball cake and about ten kids.

I leave you with one of the songs Sag put on his 9th birthday playlist.

Greek coffee

I like to think you never know.  And live in the moment.  And when the moment simply feels right, like it was made for this, I do things like drink my first little cup of Greek coffee, ever.  Even if it's past 8pm.

image borrowed from Bespoke by Brouhaha.

The blogger from who I borrowed the above photo describes Greek coffee as: espresso with mud with a lot of sugar (her ratio is 1:1) that then has the hell boiled out of it.  I found it very close to hot chocolate...without the dairy.  And I thought it was yummy.

But, as I had quietly expected, I did have trouble falling asleep (and no, I didn't get the bathroom cleaned, I watched The Office and Community instead).  I was dog tired, but my eyes were doing this intense weird thing where they were drooping but I couldn't close them.  It was like each lid contained the same force...both positive? both negative?...and were doing the opposite of magnetic thing.

What I hadn't expected was waking up about five hours after falling asleep, seconds before the alarm, as I was bawling in a dream just having seen the horrorific sight of someone who had hung himself.  When I say horrorific, I mean as in the genre of horror movies.  Or in this case, tv.  I've been watching The Walking Dead and this corpse looked like a zombie.

Off to make meatballs.  (Have I mentioned Sag requested a "meat party" for tonight's family gathering?)  And today I really do have to clean the bathroom.

Keeping it simple

One thing at a time.  Go with the flow.  Etcetera.

Besides the usual (feeding the kids and keeping them on some sort of track with their learning activities), I basically got one task done today.  (Cleaning up the computer/my desk.) 

There was a frenzy around 4pm.  I made Carrot-Tofu Scramble for Gem to bring to Donna's, I took a shower (ahhh), Cap and I made a food shopping list for the two celebrations happening here this weekend, and I scootched the kids to get ready to leave the house.

Donna took the kids for a few hours.  Cap and I headed out to run errands which took over two hours.  'Tis the season. 

It starts with Sag's birthday which is immediately followed by Thanksgiving (which means time split between Massachusetts and New York kin...and the celebration of two grandparent birthdays.)  Then comes NRC (National Reading Conference) which pulls Cap away for a week.  Then comes our anniversary, right during finals.  Then Christmas, again with splitting time amongst the kinfolk, which coincides with getting grades in.  By the time New Year's Eve arrives we are noodles.

So, yeah, driving around making stops here and there for over two hours on a Friday evening...marks the start of this crazy season.

There was some lovely.  (And you know how much I dig the lovely.)  Despite the cooking and cleaning tasks between then and tomorrow's family celebration, Cap and I hit pause and had some connecting time.  And though the slow service at Greek Delights was kind of excruciating in moments (picking the kids up at 8:30 became picking them up at 9:15), I was able to relax.  And I really appreciated that we took some time out for ourselves.

Because it is starting, the annual seasonal cyclone.

 image pulled from web.

P.S.  Enjoyed some Greek coffee with dinner and it has powered me through vacuuming.  I am now off to clean the bathroom.  At 11pm!

Open season

Listening to Lucy Wainwright-Roche's eponymously titled first full-length CD.  Which I bought because I didn't want to lose any of the tones of her lovely voice to audio compression.  If she sold LPs I probably would have seriously considered buying those.

The words of this song, Open Season, caught my ear. 

(Setting this old-feeling shell of a body to "thrust" as I clean and clean and cook and clean and prepare for Sag's birthday celebrations this weekend.  He seems to be on the other side of the virus this morning.  Phew :-)

 image from Life.

open season

open season on a broken heart
this is the year they take the summer apart
there is a magic to the carnival arts and i can hear the sound


is it the wind through the wonder wheel
is it the science of the way we feel
is it the silence of that old appeal will you be mine again?


my love, my love, are you on a winter beach tonight
waiting on a last chance rocket ride over the boardwalk
follow the noise no one but me and the neighborhood boys
will remember where we were when this went down

the ocean calls us like we've never been
one hundred games that we will never win
close your eyes and hear the teacups spin as it begins to snow


and if you're careful that's not all you'll hear
the mermaids watch us steal a souvenir
and whisper moral warnings in our ears as we are heading home


my love, my love, are you on a winter beach tonight
waiting on a last chance rocket ride over the boardwalk
follow the noise no one but me and the neighborhood boys
will remember where we were when this went down

so take a deeper breath let's hear you sing
and reach your hand out for an iron ring
you'll get another chance oh that's the thing we will be back again


cause summer comes around on any clock
a wash with bathing suits and polka dots
we'll ride the subways to their final stops to see the sea again

Thankful

My poor second born was having a terrible coughing fit.  He's been sick since Saturday.  A cold with a fever.  It's been more of a drag than anything intense, but the tail end of this virus has had a certain bite.  He coughed quite a bit last night (with a hopefully final fever spike of 102+º) and a lot this morning.  Then nothing until about half an hour ago when the coughing came back with a vengeance.

As I half-carried and dragged him to the bathroom because I thought he might throw up from the force of his coughs, my mind was grabbing for a solution.  Partly because I'm his mom, but also partly because I am so sensitive to this kind of dramatic disturbance (he was crying and yelling), fight or flight kicks in and I just want it to be over.

If Cap and the car had been here, I would have no doubt sent him to CVS for some cough syrup.

But, he and it were not home.  As I calmed Sag down, I calmed down.  I gave him some honey.  I spritzed some Rescue Remedy on his tongue (Gem helped by calmly calling from another room that it tasted kind of sour but wasn't too bad).

Then I remembered the essential oils and dug them out.  I bought these maybe six months ago and have had them stashed away.  Waiting for a time when I could watch the dvd that came with the order, ahem.  I chose the bottle that said "Peace and Calming".  Poured some drops of olive oil onto my palm, a couple of drops of the P&C and rubbed my palms together warming the potion right up.

I held my palms close to his face and Sag breathed and breathed.  Gem remarked that it smelled really good so I gave him some sniffs too.  ('That stuff's powerful close up!' he said.)  Sag asked for some more.  Finally, I rubbed what was left onto his chest and belly.  Sag said it smelled like tangerines.

Sag has a good olfactory palate.  The ingredients were: tangerine (Citrus nobilis), orange (Citrus aurantium), ylang ylang (Cananga odorata), patchouli (Pogostemon cablin) and blue tansy (Tanacetum annuum).  I wasn't getting the tangerine at all until he mentioned it.  I was overwhelmed by the ylang ylang and patchouli...neither of which I like. 

I am a big fan of aromatherapy.  I have a sensitive nose and my mood can shift dramatically via my sense of smell.  I am so thankful that my kids appreciate aromatherapy and are reaping its benefits from a young age.  Sag's cough has dissipated.  He's worn out, but...peaceful and calm.

Good night.

In a bowl

The need for liver has passed.

Digging around the CSA bag last night before making dinner I came upon a bunch of baby bok choy.

My mental note was still at the top of the pile this morning so when I had the shallot (from the farm) and onion (from the farm) sautéeing and was deliberating about what else the package of gourmet mushrooms needed, I remembered the bok choy.

A flash of inspiration had me tossing in a handful of walnuts as the veggies cooked down in the vessel of iron (that mental note was close enough to the top of the pile to be remembered, as well.)

I almost put the carton of eggs away, but at the last minute, decided to fry an egg to complete the bowl.

Everything went atop a bit of white rice leftover from last night.  (There is often hot rice at the ready thanks to the trusty rice cooker.)

Seasoning?  Salt and pepper.  Oil?  Safflower.  Morning rice bowl?  Yum.

Down by the water

They sound like The Jayhawks in the very best way.  Really digging this one lately.

What's new in books

Reading right now:

There's a cotton candy-like quality to reading this: delicate airy strands whipped into a cloud full of sweet promise...once it hits your tongue, the taste is so its own and it lingers even as it melts in an instant.  She is so smart and has an incredibly light touch with words which delivers layered meaning so clearly.

But...there is truly a vein of tragedy which runs through the stories being told here.  As much as I feel I could zip through this book, I have been glad for the natural breaks which have occurred during the course of my reading because...the relief which comes with putting the book down is palpable.

What I read last week:

This was a super quick read.  I'm not sure what I was expecting, but this book was 'lighter' than I thought it was going to be.  I enjoyed the firsthand perspective the author had on the state of medical practice in the U.S. and how it has changed, for the worse, in the last few decades.

Mid-week mumble

image pulled from web.

When I woke yesterday from what felt like the force of anxiety, the first thing I thought was that I still hadn't gotten us to the post office to have our passport applications processed.  We are traveling to Japan in February and the kids' and my passports have all expired.

For anyone who needs passport photos, if you are a member of AAA they will take photos for you for free or some minimal fee.  Someone at the post office told me that.  My satisfaction that we'd bettered the post office photo fee of $15.99 per with the CVS rate of $9.99 per was short-lived.

The good news is that it's all done.

I spent the afternoon in the kitchen.  

I made vegetable soup.  I sautéed onion and garlic from the farm with some ginger.  Mmm.  So aromatic.  I added carrots and salad turnips and spinach from the farm.  Poured in a carton of No Chicken Broth and crumbled in a tab of veggie bouillon.  Gem remarked that it smelled good, out in the front room...a soft implosion of warm joy infused my insides :-)

I noticed the bananas were very ripe and decided to make a banana bread.  It had been awhile.  Banana bread also smells so good when it's baking!  The kids declined the walnuts and none of us was feeling the call of chocolate chips.  A plain banana bread it is.

The wind blows and blows outside, it's dark at 5:15pm...  Betty Carter croons and swings on my iTunes.  Sag's virus is holding on, I have teetered into maybe having a cold.

Love and light to you.

All your worth

I started reading another book I've had in the library basket for awhile.  All Your Worth by Elizabeth Warren and her daughter Amelia Warren Tyagi.  Elizabeth Warren made a strong and positive impression on me when I saw her on Real Time with Bill Maher about a year ago.  This book came to my attention, I believe, through the blog Get Rich Slowly.

It's a very hands-on book.  I appreciate the opportunity to approach these numbers and figures that plague me from a different angle.  After about an hour of reading and filling out worksheets and doing some calculating:

• the target amount (monthly) to cut from 'Must-Haves' spending: $1,523

• need to shop around for renters, life and disability insurance

• need to ascertain when we can get out of our cell phone contract and switch to pre-pay

• need to see if we can get a discount on our last remaining student loan bill

• need to look into FSA/HSA

• need to lop off a total of $1,500 per month...wow.  this enters putting the kids in school and my getting a job territory...

Old-time comics

timeless.

I've had this collection of Doug Wright's comics beside the library basket for a couple of weeks now (it's too big to fit in the basket).  I made some time to begin reading it today and the kids were drawn to it like moths to a flame.  Good stuff.

Embrace your differences and transform your life

I took some time and read some of Sari Solden's Women With Attention Deficit Disorder (subtitle used to title this post).  It's both comforting and scary how strongly some of the stuff resonates (comforting) and how clearly I see my own reflection in what I am reading (scary).

I took a self-assessment.  Of 84 items, I checked off 57.  There were three areas of assessment (out of 9) where I clearly had little to no issues: Staying Alert/Energy Levels/Activity Level, Ideas/Synthesizing, and History (only 8 items out of 25 checked off in these sections).

Which means that in the other 9 sections, there were 59 items and I checked off 49 of them.

I have an appointment with my family doctor at the start of the new year.  I think I have something to add to the list of things to talk to her about.

image courtesy of Pablo Picasso, pulled off the web.

Gray

 image pulled from web.

I woke up feeling anxious and overwhelmed.  It wasn't an all-out panic attack, but there was a distinct physiological 'fluttering' around my heart.  (This has been awhile coming.)

I've been having a hard time with focus and attention and energy and peacefulness.

I can hear wet leaves and pavement...the weather's not going to be much help today...

Fall, we have a month to turn you around somehow, let's add water and mold us into something with more balance, flow and structural integrity.

Glow

The big old maple tree out front has burst into YELLOW.  It's a cloudy matte sort of day and the kids and I have been bathed in a golden glow.

All four of us are in various stages of sick.  I like to think I am still in "fighting it" mode, but the others have had fevers, aches and pains.

I did notice yesterday evening that I appeared green in the bathroom mirror.  My quest for chopped liver this morning was successful.  I tossed a 1/4 lb. of liverwurst into my shopping bag for good measure.  Wendy mentioned cooking in cast iron, which I will give a go, too.

We have two birthday celebrations for Sag coming up this weekend.  I need to gather my strength.

I am seeing Vinny tomorrow for the first time in three months.  I'm not saying another word.  Don't want to jinx anything.

Here's the song I always think of when I think of "glow".  Peace and love.

Sweet potato pie

When I flipped through the Fall section of Clean Food last week, a few recipes caught my immediate eye.  One was for sweet potato pie and can be found here.

I decided to make some to bring to the woods yesterday.  I didn't consider color when I made the pie with the varieties of sweet potato I had on hand from the farm.  The color of the finished pie was...unfortunate.

looked greener in real life.

But, I can pass along this recipe with utter conviction.  The pie was delicious.  I loved the pecan-maple crust.  This pie was milk-free, egg-free, white sugar-free, soy-free and 100% scrumptious.

I couldn't find agar powder so did some research and subbed in some gelatin 1:1 (if you were to use agar it would make the recipe vegan, as intended).  I also subbed corn starch for the arrowroot because I didn't have any arrowroot on hand.

Woodsy reverie