Thursday, December 02, 2010
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
time to put up the advent stockings
I just finished my christmas shopping. Now I just need to keep going with my handmade gifts. There is a christmas tree up in the children's room, and Ella and I are going to the Nutcracker tomorrow night.
Monday, November 29, 2010
32 pound bird
How can I post about Thanksgiving without a picture? I still haven't found my camera. I took some at my brother's house with their camera, but I haven't gotten them yet. All in all, we had a nice time. My brother completely stressed out about the gigantic bird and did some last minute indoor/ outdoor cooking. It was perfect and delicious. Ruby put her face down in her plate several times to lick up some glazed tomatoes and then the caramel apple pie.
We spent the night with Grandmarie and then headed north for a weekend with Granny and Grampy and the big Keller Williams show. We drank good coffee and ate pho. The traffic was treacherous and I am very thankful to be home.
We spent the night with Grandmarie and then headed north for a weekend with Granny and Grampy and the big Keller Williams show. We drank good coffee and ate pho. The traffic was treacherous and I am very thankful to be home.
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
thanksgiving 2007
I can't find my camera at the moment so I'll just post this one. The mushroom gravy is made, the tofu is marinating and will go on the grill tomorrow, and the dressing just came out of the oven. We are going over the river and through the woods in the morning.
Sunday, November 21, 2010
'Tis a gift to be simple
John's class sang and signed the Shaker hymn "Tis the Gift to be Simple" at the school's Thanksgiving celebration. Ella's class wrote a poem called Happiness. She wrote, "happiness is the love of my family".
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
poem
Old Smoothing Iron
Often I watched her lift it
from where its compact wedge
rode the back of the stove
like a tug at anchor
To test its heat she'd stare
and spit in its iron face
or hold it up next her cheek
to divine the stored danger.
Soft thumps on the ironing board
Her dimpled angled elbow
and intent stoop
as she aimed the smoothing iron
like a plane into linen,
like the resentment of women.
To work, her dumb lunge says,
is to move a certain mass
through a certain distance,
is to pull your weight and feel
exact and equal to it.
Feel dragged upon. And buoyant.
Seamus Heaney
Often I watched her lift it
from where its compact wedge
rode the back of the stove
like a tug at anchor
To test its heat she'd stare
and spit in its iron face
or hold it up next her cheek
to divine the stored danger.
Soft thumps on the ironing board
Her dimpled angled elbow
and intent stoop
as she aimed the smoothing iron
like a plane into linen,
like the resentment of women.
To work, her dumb lunge says,
is to move a certain mass
through a certain distance,
is to pull your weight and feel
exact and equal to it.
Feel dragged upon. And buoyant.
Seamus Heaney
Saturday, November 13, 2010
yarn
I love yarn much more than I know what to do with it, so I finally took a class at a local yarnshop. I've always wanted to take a knitting class. I saw this scarf and took a one hour class in how to make it. It is very simple, but I learned a lot, and I think it is very pretty. It takes one hank of Malbrigo merino worsted wool or Malbrigo Aquarella.
I can knit. I can purl. I just need to learn to follow directions. Ah, life.
Thursday, November 11, 2010
ella and our lanterns
St. Martin's Day, also known as Martinmas, the Feast of St Martin of Tours or Martin le Misércordieux, is a time for feasting celebrations, and traditionally food is served that can be cut in half. The feast day, is November 11, the feast day of St. Martin of Tours, who started out as a Roman soldier. He was baptized as an adult and became a monk. It is understood that he was a kind man who led a quiet and simple life. The most famous legend of his life is that he once cut his cloak in half to share with a beggar during a snowstorm, to save the beggar from dying of the cold. That night he dreamed that Jesus was wearing the half-cloak Martin had given away. Martin heard Jesus say to the angels: "Here is Martin, the Roman soldier who is not baptised; he has clothed me."
John and Ruby fell asleep in the car tonight, so after they were tucked in their beds, Ella and I made paper lanterns with paper that we had painted. We walked around in our front yard with our candlelit lanterns. Martinmas is often a day for giving, so she took a child's coat in to the donation box at our school.
Sunday, November 07, 2010
wizard
I did my holiday shopping tonight. I have many little projects to make, but I made my lists and checked them twice. A rock tumbler is headed our way as well as a magical kingdom with knights and dragons and princesses.
Ruby is getting the little red wooden banjo that I forgot last year, and I'm making her a Princess and the Pea playset with a waldorf style doll and a stack of colorful patterned mattresses and a twig ladder. John wants loop de loop cars, and I've just learned that those are called Hot Wheels; I'm going to go get my sweet baby some Hot Wheels.A dear friend got us tickets for the Moscow ballet on December first, the day that we put up our advent stockings. After Christmas last year I got the kids all of the Jan Brett Holiday books, and I'm going to give them one a day for the first week of December. I'm looking forward to the Advent Garden Celebration with the Unitarian Congregation on December 4th. We'll spend some time at the Christmas tree farm making wreaths for our school and pick out our tree. What do I really want for the season? Peace. Quiet. Candles. Bonfires. The smell of evergreens. I want to watch Fanny and Alexander and make Italian seafood stew. I want to knit. Bake. Be.
The wizard is for Ella's stocking.
Thursday, November 04, 2010
Sunday, October 31, 2010
Thursday, October 28, 2010
john takes pictures
John joined the school newspaper planning on becoming a cartoonist, but his first assignment was to take some pictures. He made his first deadline with this one.
Saturday, October 23, 2010
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
cable scarf
This was my maiden voyage into knitting cables, and maybe I'll be proficient in another few years.
CSA tuesday
In summer's past I had time to blog about my weekly CSA, waxing poetic about beets and little pear tomatoes. This hefty bag of perfect fall vegetables called out for a picture. There's a pie pumpkin, a kabucha pumpkin,
peppers of all colors, broccoli, bok choy, lettuce, kale, and the whole bottom of the plate is covered in potatoes.
I've been making a special vegetable dish every night. It started with broccoli raab sauteed in butter with sundried tomatoes and topped with roasted hazelnuts. We moved on to quartered brussel sprouts pan roasted with shiitake mushrooms, and then I made farm fresh turnips braised in a miso broth and topped with toasted nori.
I'm thinking about making pumpkin cinnamon rolls this weekend, and I want to try a pumpkin curry with red kidney beans.
What is inspiring your fall cooking?
Sunday, October 17, 2010
the perfect pumpkin
Saturday we had a family day at yet another pumpkin patch, this time with an old school bus full of corn kernels to play in, kettle corn, big slides, and a pumpkin canon. We bought some apples, apple cider, and apple butter.
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Thursday, October 14, 2010
ruby's ride
We took a few rides down by the river last weekend. After talking about getting everyone on wheels for a very long time, we have finally arrived. Young John can ride the tagalong or his own bike with training wheels, Ella speeds along, and Ruby is tucked right behind Mama with her hands in the air shouting, "Faster, faster."
It feels good to have my own bicycle.
nine
I like nine. Nine is reading about four books at the same time, which she leaves bookmarked in various rooms of the house so that she can walk into a room and immerse herself in seconds. She never hears us calling her.
She can't seem to schedule herself to play her violin and get her homework done, so now she is making little to do lists the minute she gets up, and she reminds me so much of her daddy. They can both work a list.
She read her first Nancy Drew mystery yesterday.
Monday, October 11, 2010
Sunday, October 03, 2010
sunday
We went back to the Unitarian church today, and Ruby wanted to go to "my own classroom". I took her to the nursery for the hour while the other children went to their religious education classes on their own. It is quite a process to get all of them comfortable enough for me to actually sit with the grownups.
Daddy is home from Scotland, jet lagged and anxious for the mountain of laundry to be ready for the week. I'm just feeling lucky to have survived a week of fevers and chills, Annie's Mac and Cheese, and too many episodes of The Magic School Bus.
Ella's birthday is saturday. Nine. She is very nine, too. For Christmas all she wants is a rock tumbler. I've rented a shelter in the park, and she is worried that the leaves haven't turned enough for her party. Even nature has to work hard to make everything perfect for her day. We ordered a bushel of apples for games, and I'm getting applesauce cake cupcakes with maple frosting.
I just ordered a lot of dollmaking supplies from Joy's Dolls and Crafts. So far I'm making five dolls for the holidays, and I'm excited about being another step closer to my D90 dreams. Or my D5000 dreams.
Thursday, September 30, 2010
the sky is rainbowing
Have I mentioned that this little person is absolutely loving every minute of kindergarten? Here he is showing me his Holographic Diffraction Grating Glasses.
I am loving being a red room mama for the second time. I can sit back and feel the magic. He is in the perfect place for him and is so in the moment. After school today he really only wanted to draw, write, and practice the ASL alphabet.
Saturday, September 25, 2010
past the equinox
On the first day of fall we heard geese migrating at night by the light of the full moon.
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
genuine beehive
Ruby, Papa, and I went to the Bristol Rhythm and 'Roots Reunion this past weekend, spending three days walking the main street in downtown Bristol listening to lots of great music. Bristol is always great for people watching. Just one hundred and ten miles from our own little sleepy town, the festival crowd is just a little more twangy. There are cowboy hats, cowboy boots, western shirts, tattoos, and long sideburns. Older gentlemen sport a hairstyle I've always called "the swoop", and I saw one genuine beehive.
My first show of the festival was on the "folklife" stage in an old vacant department store. I walked through the heavy glass double doors and Del McCoury starts to sing "1952 Vincent Black Lightening. The first song of the festival was my absolute favorite Richard Thompson song.
I liked the Grit Pixies, Phil Wiggins, Missy Raines and the New Hip, MSG Acoustic Blues Trio, and the Carolina Chocolate Drops. Ruby enjoyed riding around in a red wagon, peanut ice cream and the Green Light's spicy tempeh peanut wrap.
So, we went for the bluegrass and stayed for the Piedmont blues, a side order of funk, and Yarn. I'm looking forward to putting on my boots next year.
Monday, September 20, 2010
Monday, September 13, 2010
curried quinoa salad
curried quinoa salad
4 onions
2 leeks
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 cups quinoa
1/2 cup golden raisins
1 cup toasted unsweetened coconut
cilantro
salt
1 tablespoon sweet curry powder
1 teaspoon whole cumin
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
Begin by simmering your quinoa until it opens.
Slice and saute onions slowly until they are golden. Thinly slice the leek and cook until softened. Add salt, cumin, and curry powder and cook about another minute. Add balsamic vinegar and stir in cooked guinoa. Add raisins. At this point I refrigerated overnight, but you could also continue and serve this warm or at room temperature. I think the flavors really develop overnight though. To serve I topped the salad with toasted coconut and chopped cilantro leaves. Shriracha hot sauce on the side. This could be my new favorite breakfast.
4 onions
2 leeks
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 cups quinoa
1/2 cup golden raisins
1 cup toasted unsweetened coconut
cilantro
salt
1 tablespoon sweet curry powder
1 teaspoon whole cumin
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
Begin by simmering your quinoa until it opens.
Slice and saute onions slowly until they are golden. Thinly slice the leek and cook until softened. Add salt, cumin, and curry powder and cook about another minute. Add balsamic vinegar and stir in cooked guinoa. Add raisins. At this point I refrigerated overnight, but you could also continue and serve this warm or at room temperature. I think the flavors really develop overnight though. To serve I topped the salad with toasted coconut and chopped cilantro leaves. Shriracha hot sauce on the side. This could be my new favorite breakfast.
Sunday, September 12, 2010
sunday
Instead of sitting stunned on the couch watching Gofrette this morning, we all got dressed and went to the Unitarian church. The kids are all signed up for a bit of religious education. Ella jumped right into her class, surrounded by friends and taught by a cool papa from our school. John ordered me to "not leave the room", but he quietly participated and made a paper candle for the chalice that they filled with friendly thoughts. They learned an affirmation, had a one minute silent meditation, read a story and chopped fruit for the after-church potluck. If we can convince Ruby to stay in the lovely nursery sunday mornings will have something to offer every member of the family.
Afterwards we went to Shadowlake for a potluck lunch and cello recital. John had a spill riding on a "turtle" and now has a purple lip and cheekbone. It fits right in with the scabbed knob he got at the pond on friday night. My sweet boy says he looks very rough.
Afterwards we went to Shadowlake for a potluck lunch and cello recital. John had a spill riding on a "turtle" and now has a purple lip and cheekbone. It fits right in with the scabbed knob he got at the pond on friday night. My sweet boy says he looks very rough.
Wednesday, September 08, 2010
heart sutra
I recently reread Awakening The Buddha Within By Lama Surya Das, and tonight I found this audio from the chant room at the Dzogchen center.
Monday, September 06, 2010
yoga
We went to the lake for the last afternoon of the summer yesterday. Apart from the raucous cicadas and the slanty afternoon light, it still hasn't felt very autumnal around here. I'm destined to wear white and linen again as the temperatures are climbing into the high eighties again this week.
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