Gettin' the job done

Their spirit and motivation, particularly First's, is what got the tree up yesterday morning. They worked hard and it was really nice to see many of the ornaments and bathe in the memories.

Mmm rice and beans

This is courtesy of Anna who feared they were not kickass, but they totally are. I wish I had a picture. They were so good!

Rice
Basmati in the rice cooker. In the water add two garlic cloves and one cup of
chicken broth, one cup of water (for one cup o' rice). Remove cloves before
serving in order to not freak out kids. If you want to do it the Brazilian way,
you can saute the rice in a saucepan with the garlic and a bit of oil for a
couple of minutes. Then pop it in the rice cooker.

Beans
One large can of black beans. Before you put them in an iron skillet to cook,
saute 1-3 garlic cloves in a little oil. Drain the bean water and keep it. Put
the beans in the skillet. I like to mush some of them, not all. Add about one
teaspoon of cumin. Simmer until you need them, adding bean water as needed.

I did the Brazilian way and then used the same pan to cook the beans in.

I used more garlic and kept all cloves in because I knew my kids were not going try this (at least not this time...they will likely try it after seeing me eat it 20 times).

I also added some salt to the beans while they were simmering. I considered topping with cheese and am glad I didn't. It doesn't need it at all.

I did sprinkle some torn up fresh cilantro on top just before sitting down to feast.

Yum.

So easy and simple and delicious! Abrigado Anna!

Rainy home coming

Yesterday afternoon the kids and I ran a bunch of errands and then I dropped them off at Danielle's and did some more on my own. She and I shared some chocolate cheesecake when I got back over there and my soul soaked up the roasted chicken goodness of the dinner she was making.

The kids reluctantly left with me around 5:30, headed for yet another dinner of salmon rolls for First and Amy's frozen pizza for Kinder (they don't mind our equivalent of fast food---it's me that sometimes feels guilty).

As we got out of the car, Kinder stood still, looking up into the light that had flicked on due to our motion, mesmerized by the falling rain. "Äiti, Äiti, do you have your camera?" he asked.

I grabbed the camera upstairs and was only able to get this one shot before the battery out symbol started flashing (the batteries are barely keeping a charge---is two to three years about how long these batteries last?) I don't know that this captures the wonder he felt.

But, it will serve as a reminder of my wonder.

2007 cd

Completed it today in order to get one in the mail for Holly with the ornaments. Couldn't print the notes for her because we're out of ink in the printer. Here's the songlist and the accompanying notes.

Jump Around (Original Mix)/House Of Pain
Beautiful Enemy/Dar Williams
From Debris/matt pond PA
The Picture/Son Volt
Crazy/Gnarls Barkley
Phantom Limb/The Shins
Asleep On A Sunbeam/Belle and Sebastian
Building A Mystery/Sarah McLachlan
Honestly/matt pond PA
Shine On/Rani Arbo & daisy mayhem
Box of Rain/Grateful Dead
Rhode Island Is Famous for You/Erin McKeown
Locate The Pieces/matt pond PA
C'mon C'mon/The Von Bondies
Hard to Explain/The Strokes
Emblems/matt pond PA
Superior/Girlyman
The Boy Who Never Cried/Steve Earle
One Little Song/Gillian Welch
You're Nobody 'Til Somebody Loves You/Dean Martin
Joyful Sign/Girlyman

Jump Around...this song was featured in a hilarious and unforgettable bit on an episode of My Name Is Earl involving Cap’s new gf, Catalina.

Beautiful Enemy...Dar Williams is the only act left on my must-see-live list at the moment. Bopping to lyrics including the word hegemony brings a smile to my face every time.

From Debris...mpPA has dominated my music scene this fall. Cap and I saw them live at Maxwell’s and I was baptized. Within weeks their new cd was in constant rotation and t(he)y were completely under my skin. (I love the cello.) As I was making this cd I finally realized who the beginning of this song reminded me of: Big Country!

The Picture...Cap and I saw Jay Farrar at Maxwell’s this year, too. He performed a stripped down version of this song (it was a solo set) and when I heard this version with the horns, I flipped.

Crazy...this is a song that Cap turned me on to. I love it.

Phantom Limb...The Shins didn’t do anything for me vis-a-vis Garden State, but seeing them on SNL earlier this year, did. I love that these guys are as old as I am.

Asleep On A Moonbeam...this song was on Ben’s 2006 cd. I’d always wanted to hear Belle and Sebastian and was not disappointed. Sunny, seaside driving tune.

Building A Mystery...a throwback. Not my favorite Sarah McLachlan song, but I had a blast singing karaoke to this at Julie’s house this summer during Mike’s 40th b-day party.

Honestly...my favorite song on mpPA’s new cd. It reminds me of The Queen And The Soldier by Suzanne Vega. One of the things I love about mpPA’s songs are that they are set in and reference the natural world.

Shine On...I briefly met the singer and drummer (singer's husband and fellow Wes alum) at Di and Seth’s wedding last summer. The band popped up on an e-mail from Joe’s Pub (I saw Stew’s show at The Public, their sister theater, this summer with Anna based on Barbra’s highest recommendation, which put me on the Joe's Pub e-list automatically) and I took a listen to one of the embedded songs. This one I liked the best.

Box Of Rain...this song was used in an episode of Freaks and Geeks. It gave me my first appreciation of The Dead. Jay gave me the complete series dvd of this show years ago. I plowed through them obsessively, laughing and crying, earlier this year. This year was the year of Apatow if ever there was one.

Rhode Island Is Famous For You...Jay is to thank for this one, too. She mentioned this song during the height of the kids’ interest in the states and state quarters this year. One listen will have you hooked!

Locate The Pieces...my other favorite song from Last Light, mpPA’s new cd.

C’mon C’mon...the perfect opening song to Denis Leary’s great tv show, Rescue Me.

Hard To Explain...another song that Cap turned me on to that I can’t get enough of when I’m listening to it.

Emblems...la la la da da da da la la la da da da...

Superior...this song didn’t move me until Cap and I saw them live last December for our anniversary. The show was actually underwhelming, but their performance of this song stood out. Simple and poignant storytelling with an unassuming glow.

The Boy Who Never Cried...every now and again I’ll go to the cds to pull out stuff I don’t usually listen to for a marathon cooking or cleaning session. Steve Earle is someone who inevitably ends up getting picked. I appreciate his courage and art.

One Little Song...now, Gillian Welch is not someone who inevitably gets picked. But, on one fateful afternoon this year I did pick her and discovered this song anew.

You’re Nobody Till Somebody Loves You...oh my god. Freaks and Geeks. James Franco. An episode that will break your heart.

Joyful Sign...I downloaded this song when their new cd came out this year. The song was a highlight when we saw them live. This Little Light Of Mine is a song that Kinder loved and I used to sing it to him every night.


And here's the cover art.

Ornaments

The kids and I made some ornaments for Lucia, Holly and Nick today. They have been making their own during their Parisian holiday season and we're doing an exchange with them.

Kinder pulled out Yoko's Paper Cranes by Rosemary Wells and tried his hand at folding a crane. He soon enlisted my help and I had to pull out an origami book because the instructions in Yoko had my eyes spinning. It took awhile, but I finally staggered to the finish.

First's muse was Ben 10 and he made an Omnitrix ornament and a Diamondhead ornament. He wanted to keep them both, but with some gentle suggestion decided to send off the Diamondhead to Lucia.

I've been thinking and visualizing various ornaments and ended up going very simple. I wanted to do wreath-shapes, to represent the cycle of life, and remembered I had some sheets of origami in traditional Japanese patterns. And voila.

Tomorrow, a trip to the post office.

(After we were finished, Kinder pulled me aside and stated that he will only decorate the tree with "beautiful" things. So he's not going to make any Ben 10 ornaments, but lots of cranes. Yummy enough to eat, these creatures...)

GI bug

First it was First. Remarkably, he slept for 3-4 hours yesterday afternoon and when we awoke he stated his stomach didn't hurt anymore and has basically been fine ever since.

Cap has been hit much harder. He was up all night losing it from both ends. He just canceled his class today, the last regular meeting of that class. He is sick.

First has been craving apple sauce. I just offered to make him some, but he says he likes the store bought better :-)

Kinder sleeps and sleeps this morning. Makes sense. It is grey and wet, again.

I guess I'm off to the store for some apple sauce.

A picture worth all the words

I wish I had one.

Karen, Brent and the kids came down for the weekend. Karen came to see Vinny with me on Friday, after a pot of tea at the wonderful fair trade tea salon. Kinder just blows me away in drumming class. We had cake and ice cream for Brent's birthday and reveled in the kids' peals of laughter during AFV. On Saturday, we all drove into town and Karen and Will went to see Alvin Ailey. Then we merged into the mass of humanity surrounding the tree in Rockefeller Center. We couldn't even bear getting close enough to watch the skaters. We perused the soon-to-be defunct original Kinokuniya store drawn in by the 1/2 price books. By the time we came out, the tree was differently luminous because dark had fallen. My mom treated us to Thai food from downstairs and it was yummy. This morning, an unexpectedly early departure as First is sick with a GI bug.

Went to a counselor this weekend and though the feeling of absolute...traction....had begun to subside beforehand, it was still quite helpful to dislodge some stuff. Relief and clarity feel good.

The sun is unbelievably low. I am much more aware of it this year. Last year there was excitement about being back in the northeast for the holidays which may have buoyed me.

This year there is a starkness to the red numbers that look back at me when I close my eyelids. I'd decided no holiday cards this year, but am feeling guilty about it now.

...

I'm here, but quiet, quiet, quiet.

The kids and I have had a couple of "screen-free" days here which have added depth to the slowing down and enjoying of our selves and togetherness more.

I've started a new knitting project. We played the Ben 10 board game last night.

Anna and Lukas came over yesterday and the four of them were like peas in a pod. Hide and seek, Playmobil, and trains followed by soccer and chive harvesting out back.

Dentist appts for First (with a new pediatric dentist) and Cap this morning.

First then came food shopping with me. Buying for co-op meal with some thoughts to Will and co. who will be with us this weekend, there were a lot of groceries. First got some learning in: how to navigate a big, heavy cart and how much food costs!

It's been very windy the last 24 hours. I love it. Some light flurries today.

Latkes and dead batteries

We woke up past 7:00 and had a quiet day. The kids helped me make latkes for lunch and then they each ate five! Lukas came over around 3:00 (Silke and Anna are off to a workshop this weekend) and then we discovered that the car wouldn't start when it was time for drumming class.

Danielle saved the day. We walked to her house, dropped First off to play and then I drove Lukas and Kinder to class. We picked up sushi and pizza and then dropped the car off and picked up First. It felt great to be out in the cold, fresh air in the dark.

There's something very Ezra Jack Keats in the way the kids' bodies move in and out of light and dark while they play and run outside at night. I'm into it.

I've decreed tomorrow a screen-free day. Kinder thinks he's going to be bored to death. It's been good to slow down this week, but I want to slow it down even more. With the screens on, we tend to spend chunks of time staring at a screen instead of doing things with each other.

Danielle will come by in the morn with her jumper cables and we'll see if we can get the car running.

All I want

Here.

He was 19 when they recorded this song?!

The sun in fall in new england

On our drive up to MA last weekend, I noticed something for the first time. During this time as Winter Solstice creeps upon us here in the norhteast, the sun arcs over us lower in the sky.

It was a true, "what the...?" moment. But, it explains something. Why wouldn't it make us feel "less alive", as Holly put it to me the other day, if the sun itself can't make it completely overhead?

Carolina Chocolate Drops

Hmm. Couldn't figure out how to post their video from YouTube even though I've done it before. Check it out here and let me know what you think. They're like a dab of yellow on a palette of grey. Thanks Brent!

She did good

Heather was eliminated from America's Next Top Model tonight. She has Asperger's Syndrome and was truly a delight to watch and root for the past few months.

World's fastest craft project

Anna and the kids sent Kinder a make-your-own-stuffed-animal kit for his birthday. It arrived today as the kids were finishing their sandwiches. They opened the package after lunch and wanted to get going right away.

And they did.

Rice and beans

My first goal for this winter: solidify into my repertoire an excellent version of rice and beans. If you have any tried and true recipes, please send them my way!

(My favorite rice and beans thus far are the Haitian dishes that Cap used to bring home from HAPHI parties when we lived in MA. Yum.)

Dr. Vinny

Yesterday afternoon the kids and I made our way to Vinny who squeezed us in fairly last minute.

Vinny is a chiropractor who practices traditional Chinese medicine. One of the things I like about him is that he is the antithesis of "new agey". He grew up locally and is very down-to-earth.

Something else I like about him is that he is very clear, compassionate and direct. He listens really well and therefore remembers.

And, he is able to accept our health insurance so visits to him cost no more than our co-pay.

When I go with the kids it's usually a bit hairy. The space is small and I feel badly that others may be bothered by the kids' noisy energy. The work I get done is superficial because I can't completely turn my head off when the kids are underfoot. But, I was desperate and I wanted the kids to get treated, too.

Neither child was able to completely relax into the treatment (First was able to more than Kinder, but stopped short at the "seeds") and during my treatment, both kids were up on the table with me at one point or another.

Kinder has been exploring his olfactory sense lately (to which I can completely relate being highly olfactory myself) and at one point he was lying on top of my lower half and stuck his nose right into my backside. That did little to disrupt my attempts at breathing with the work, to hook up to the proverbial IV of good stuff that flows within and without us, it was when he started talking about needing to wash his nose to get the stink off that I could not suppress my laughter.

Despite all this, when I swung myself off the table, First looked up at me and said, "you look different". I told him I felt happier and better and he said my face looked thinner.

As soon as I started walking I could feel that there was so much more stuff still hanging in and on me. I'm going back next week...alone :-)

What he said about children being most open when they are sleeping really struck me. I ended up going to bed late again last night. I remembered what Vinny said about practicing chigon in the room with them while they were in bed and so tried it. I was jazzed and wanted to calm myself down before getting under the covers with them.

I felt remarkably calm afterwards and can't recall the last time I got into bed and it felt so comfortable...my body felt almost weightless yet the act of getting horizontal felt great. I could really feel the contours of my pillow, the snuggliness of the flannel bedding, it was amazing.

And I thought I might fall right asleep and I didn't, but my pre-sleep reverie was pleasant and self-consciousness left me quickly.

Apron

I dusted off my Waldorf blogs bookmark and did some reading today. I read a piece by Donna Simmons, a Waldorf homeschooler guru of sorts, here, about using clothing as props to facilitate moving into and out of particular roles as a homeschooling parent.

Inspired, I plucked my beautiful apron from the pantry and put it on. My aunt Makiko (Momoko's mom) gave this to me a few years ago. I've kept it handy, but have never worn it.

I like this kind of mindfulness when I think of it :-p

* to get to the post, scroll down to Sept. 28 once you open the link

Smoothies

At Karen and Brent's this weekend Will made us smoothies. A process delectable in its love, promise and delivery.




It inspired some smoothie making of our own yesterday. Kinder went through three batches chasing the elusive je ne sais quois...mixed berry, straight strawberry, straight blueberry. In the end, it seemed it was the quantity of the rice milk which made all the difference.

Wind

Ever since I can remember, I've loved the way the wind feels and sounds. Blustery cliffside wind with the crash of ocean waves accompanying, the soft rustle of leaves backed by the creak of swaying trees, the whistling and whipping kind, all of it.

Here in our treehouse home, the wind wakes me up at night. I can, and do, sleep through lights being switched on, ever growing children tossing and turning about me, and people coming and going in the night. But, if the wind picks up outside during the night, consciousness rips right through dream state and my eyes open.

Last night I enjoyed a late night phone call to a friend out west. Then communed with the wind during the night. Then was awake for good around five. I'm going to do some chigon now. That will help.

The first day of the rest of the year

Cap was our stalwart driver as the kids and I rode home yesterday afternoon and night in various stages of repose. It was a trip with some traffic and many bathroom stops. Kinder had his first sack of BK french fries which made me cringe a bit.

Today, laundry, food shopping, reading Ironman Power Pack, a more rhythmic day of meals and screen time, unpacking, meeting the new dog upstairs, a two hour plus nap for Kinder who has needed the opportunity for some recuperative sleep, uploading the hundred plus pictures from the weekend into the computer, putting out all the recyclables, and this:



Lukas and Owen are over (Danielle has class tonight and her usual sitter called in sick), it'll be pizza and sushi momentarily.

Cap leaves for Sandy and Mike's tonight and then Austin tomorrow morning.