musings of a mommy

and we're back

2012-01-03T19:16:00.001-08:00

at school.

I put up a countdown to summer.

It feels like we have a long long way to go.

Christmas Break: Day 9

2011-12-29T08:55:00.000-08:00

I've got one kid sick (the girl) and the other working on a school project. Today is a day for grading papers and getting myself organized.

PS - Have you looked at the random ads at the top? Today I found this one: Pet Euthanasia at Home . I guess that's what I get for writing about my old dog!

Christmas Break: Day 8

2011-12-28T10:50:00.000-08:00

We are in the middle of break, in the middle of holidays. Christmas is over, and the gifts and decorations are still floating around the house. New Year's Eve approaches. We've baked lots of cookies, I've made the kids favorite foods, we've shopped and played and slept in. In short, we've made the most of the break and are probably going to be ready to return to the routines of school and work.

I did not send out Christmas cards this year, a late decision made to save my enjoyment of family and holiday. Thank you to all who sent us cards - we love getting them and reading them.

We had a really great Christmas, spending time with my parents and enjoying being together. The kids got a trampoline from Santa, and we spent the better part of Christmas afternoon putting the thing together. They also got some video games and other electronics, providing hours (days? weeks? months?) of entertainment. I am thrilled with my iphone - a gift from my husband. It is amazing the way technology has changed in the last decade.

I'm off. I'm almost finished with a knitted blanket and with reading a book - two things that I have less time for now that I'm working full-time, but I made a point to make time for them this week.

Christmas Break: Day 1

2011-12-19T15:24:00.000-08:00

It's been a great day so far, and I'm so thankful for this break from school. Being at home all day with my kids feels like such a luxury! We did some Christmas shopping (I think we are thankfully DONE) and I have dinner in the crockpot so the whole house smells yummy. (Mexican Chicken Soup - a new recipe - I'll let you know how it turns out.) I've been wrapping presents and watching movies and then (brace yourselves) cleaning. I know. The mind reels. But ignoring housework for three months has consequences.

our old dog

2011-11-12T07:43:00.001-08:00

Our dog is very old. In January, he will be 15 years old. That's really old in dog years. I'm going to look up how old that is . . . . (the internet is a wealth of information, but not all of it is great.) A 15-year old dog is equivalent to 75-105 in human years. Our dog is acting like a 99-year old dog lately. He can't hear very well. I don't think he can see as well as he used to. He has had trouble going up and down our one step in the house, and he has had some accidents in the house in the last month. He's eating ok, but he's losing weight. He sleeps almost all day. Poor old dog.

I've been thinking about him a lot lately, as I've had to deal with his accidents (translate: clean up his accidents, or make the kids clean up his mess and suffer the emotional consequences (which is worth it for the lesson they are learning, but painful nonetheless)). I think that my response toward my old dog, who has been a faithful family pet for 14-almost-15 years, is very revealing about who I really am. I am not a nice person. I get so mad at this poor old dog, who can't help it that he's losing control of himself. I even found myself taking it personally, especially last Sunday when we let him stay in the house while we went to church. We tied him up in the room next to the kitchen - it has a vinyl-type floor that is easy to clean. He had water and a nice soft bed to sleep in, and he should have been grateful to be inside because it was raining that day. It was a cold, windy rain too. When we got home, he had peed and pooped on the floor, and turned over the kitchen trash and rummaged through it. It took Stuart and Sam and me a while to get everything cleaned up, and we were all grumpy about it the entire time. Who wants to come home from church and clean up a mess like that? But see, the real question is: why were we so angry at our old dog? He was just doing exactly what old dogs do.

So, I've been thinking about this (more than I knew) and I have decided to let the dog teach me to be a better person. I want my response to my old, half-deaf, partially blind, incontinent dog to reveal that I am a kind and gracious person (stop laughing!). I want to not get mad at the dog, but to be thankful that we have had him for so long, and to be thankful that he has had a good long life as our family pet. I'm going to give him water in our blue bowls, because he loves having water inside the house in the blue bowls, even though half the time he spills it. I'm going to let him sleep in the hall, the way he always has slept, even if that means the first thing I do in the morning is clean up dog pee. And I'm going to hope that one day when I wake up, I will find out that our dear old dog has died in his sleep, because I don't want to have to decide that his health has gotten to the point that he needs to be put down. I don't want to make that decision. (This reveals that I'm a coward, I know. I'm ok with that.)

technology

2011-11-05T17:11:00.000-07:00

Today I took Sally to a tennis lesson and waited in the car for her. I took my cell phone, my ipad, and a stack of papers to grade. And a book. And a knitting project.
And for eighty minutes straight, I did stuff on the ipad and didn't touch the other things.

I was putting together a slideshow on Digital Footprints for my senior students. It was super fun. I'm going to encourage them to find themselves - and each other - on the internet, and see what potential employers will find out about them. It should be an interesting day.

Now I'm making homemade pizzas with the kids. The dough is ready. Thinking of you, Uncle Jon!

finding a new normal

2011-10-29T10:07:00.000-07:00

I've been back at work for eight weeks now. It has been a big adjustment for everyone here. The first few weeks, I was just tired all the time. I had a few nights where I'd wake up and my brain would start buzzing away with ideas and worries about being a teacher. Then I'd sleep soundly for two or three nights, trying to catch the sleep that I had lost. I was super tired! But I feel like I'm adjusted to the physicalness of teaching again. It's a different kind of activity than being a stay-at-home mom (and part-time tutor, volunteer, etc etc).

My mom asked me this week if I was glad that I went back to work. I have had moments where I thought to myself, "What have you done? You had it so easy being a stay-at-home mom!" It was time for me to get back to a teaching job, though. I realized this when I was walking out the door last week and shouted to my family, "Bye! I love you! I'm going to work!" and then I left. It hit me that I get to leave and go somewhere else to work, instead of working where I live with three other people. At that moment, I realized that I had really missed having a job seperate from my family. It's validating in a way that motherhood is not. But I'm so thankful for the years that I stayed home with my kids!

I'm happy to report that I am still finding time to read. The knitting has suffered, but that will come back too, in time. Sam is in gymnastics three days a week, and the public library is a few blocks from his gym. Sally and I will go hang out at the library - she'll do homework, and I'll collect a stack of books to bring home. Sometimes we go to Starbucks (pumpkin latte for me, chocolate chip frapp for her) and make use of the free wi-fi. Sometimes we just go to Rite Aid and hang out together.

Monday is Halloween. I know after that it will be a blur of activity until Christmas. I can't tell you how much I'm looking forward to the Daylight Savings time change this year! Getting up early, while it's still dark, is Not Fun.

That's all for now. It's Saturday, which means I have some laundry to fold, some groceries to buy, and some family time to enjoy. And some tests to grade. But they can wait for tomorrow.

saturday

2011-10-08T20:04:00.000-07:00

Today, I should have written a physics test.

I should have gone to Home Depot for supplies for the next phase of the living room project.

I should have done some laundry.

At the very least, I should have emptied the dishwasher. (Hey, at least it's clean!)

Instead, I turned this:

into this:

(I really enjoy winding yarn from a skein into a ball. I almost never have them do it for me at the yarn store.) And then I wrote a new pattern for a scarf.

I also did some reading and went out to dinner with friends and had a great time. It's been a really good day.

baby hat

2011-08-22T08:42:00.000-07:00

I made this hat a few weeks ago for my cousin's baby boy. It's called a Helix Striped Hat and I've made four or five hats with this pattern because it's so clever. You knit with three or four colors on every round, and the stripes spiral up the hat, but you really can't see the color change (except at the bottom when I started the blue, but really, nowhere else). This is made with a cotton blend yarn, which I like to use for babies (soft + machine washable). Welcome to the world, Baby A!

summer

2011-08-22T08:37:00.000-07:00

some of the tomatoes from the garden

oranges from the tree

security changes coming soon

2011-08-13T22:08:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone who still stops by the blog! If you are friends with me in real life or on facebook, you probably know that I got a job teaching at a local high school for this school year. I'm probably going to turn up the security on this blog in a couple of weeks, and you'll need a password to stop by and read the ramblings. Leave me a comment if you are a regular and I'll make sure you are on the email list with password information. Thanks for understanding!

(overdue)

2011-07-29T10:06:00.000-07:00

This picture was taken on the 4th of July at Veteran's Park.

It's now "our thing" to go there for the fireworks show.

The sky was beautiful.

The fireworks were fantastic this year.

garden pics

2011-07-29T10:04:00.000-07:00

2011-07-29T10:01:00.000-07:00

before Extreme Gardening 2011:

after:

my helper with the defeated shrubs:

Next step is to pick new flowers for this area.

I'm leaning toward red or yellow roses.

The kids have other ideas . . . . .

something to think about

2011-07-28T10:04:00.000-07:00

If you know me at all, you know that I love to read, and that Life of Pi is one of my all-time favorite books. Tell me you've read it, and just try to stop me from talking to you about it, because you won't be able to stop me. It's one of those books that just stays with me. For this reason, I put off reading Yann Martel's next book. I was afraid that it wouldn't measure up, and that I'd be disappointed. A few months ago, I finally sat down and read it. It did not become one of my favorites, but I talked about it with my friend, and realized that I didn't hate it. It's strange and understated and totally brilliant.

After I finished the book, I wandered around the internet reading interviews with Martel. I came across this one from The Guardian and I love this part:

For the last three years Martel has been sending fortnightly letters and books to the Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper – an attempt to educate him in the ways of great literature. Martel was prompted to act as a literary godfather when Harper cited The Guinness Book of Records as his favourite book, and by his failure to recognise the importance of the arts generally. "I'm doing it to point out that literature's not just entertainment," he explains. "It is an essential tool to look at the human condition. I don't care if fellow citizens read or not; it's not up to me to say how people should live their lives. But I believe people who lead should read."

He says that, in Harper, he sensed "a man who was a narrow ideologue, in part because he hasn't read. He lacks empathy because he hasn't read literature. If literature does one thing, it makes you more empathetic by making you live other lives and feel the pain of others. Ideologues don't feel the pain of others because they haven't imaginatively got under their skins."

This idea of literature as a tool to shape a person has stayed with me. Not just literature, but all of the arts. I've been thinking about this for the past few weeks, especially since I heard that Borders is closing all of it's stores. It seems to me like another symptom of this unknown disease that is creeping up on us: the bankruptcy of a major bookstore, the use of texting abbreviations in conversations, the constant stream of apps that are designed to make life easier but seem to just eat up time, the increasing divide between "online" and "in real life" - or maybe it's the diminishing divide between the two. I'm not sure where I'm going with this, and I'll have to come back to it because I'm out of time now.

My Scones

2011-07-06T08:31:00.000-07:00

I like to make scones for my kids on a morning where we don't have a lot going on. I have two recipes for scones, but neither one was working for me. I like to make my scones in a glass pie plate and serve them cut into triangle wedges. I like a wetter dough. I like butter, but not too much. I like adding in dried fruit, but my kids like adding in chocolate chips. I made this recipe to be quick, to fit into a glass pie plate, and to be flexible to be plain or have add-ins. Enjoy!

My Scones

Recipe by Sheila at musings of a mommy.blogspot.com

2 cups flour
1/4 to 1/3 cup sugar (I put less in the mix, and sprinkle sugar on the top)
1 Tbsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup (one stick) butter
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
add-ins, optional (dried cranberries, raisins, chocolate chips, nuts, etc.)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Mix egg and milk in a small bowl and set aside. Mix flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl. Cut in cold butter and mix with a fork or fingers until crumbly. Add egg/milk all at once and mix. Add add-ins. Put into greased glass pie plate and bake for 12-15 minutes, or until edges start to turn brown.

knitting

2011-06-22T12:49:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, I made this baby blanket for my friend, M, who welcomed a baby boy to the world. It's made with Cotton-Ease yarn and I'm happy to say that the middle square is 42 stitches wide. 42. Maybe this baby boy will grow up and know why that is funny. (If you don't, you haven't read enough.)

almost summer

2011-06-14T11:59:00.000-07:00

It's almost summer. We are in the last week of

school and Sally's last week of elementary

school. I'm ready. And I'm not.

These pictures are from when we went on

the tour of the Winchester Mystery House

a few weekends ago.

You can't take any pictures inside,

so the front gardens will have to do.

It's a beautiful place.

And not at all creepy like I thought it would be.

We did lots of fun things that weekend,

like go to the Monterey Bay Aquarium

and walk around Monterey

and have dinner on the wharf

and go to the movies

and have sushi together

and go to our cousin's wedding.

Of course, I forgot to take my camera

to all of those fun places.

Now it's time for garden pictures!

I bought tomato plants on sale on Earth Day

at Lowe's and what a deal!

Check it out:

That's two tomato plants. Two!

On the right is a roma plant, and on

the left is a Better Boy. He's a big guy.

Check out some of the lovelies growing:

And Sam planted corn.

He's very excited about it.

It shows promise.

That's all for now. I have a final exam

to grade, an awards assembly to attend,

and dinner to make. And then two more

days of school. And then summer!

Concerts in the Park

2011-05-10T11:57:00.000-07:00

Get out the picnic basket and beach blanket!
Here's the info on Orange County Concerts in the Park for summer, 2011!

2011-04-13T07:56:00.000-07:00

I put up the countdown to summer vacation because I am so ready for summer vacation. Of all the jobs that I do as a mom, Homework Enforcer is getting really tiresome.

update time

2011-03-28T08:40:00.000-07:00

It's been crazy around here because of all this rain. We have a busy schedule due to soccer - both kids are playing this season - and we've had a series of cancellations over the last two weeks. You'd think that this frees up time, and it sorta does. I'm team mom, though, so that means I get to make sure everyone knows that things are cancelled. Thankfully, technology makes it easier than it used to be, so I send out a text and an email and wait to make sure everyone replies. Then I make a few phone calls. By then, it's usually too late to plan a new activity, so we end up staying home. I love staying home. I'm turning into a hermit. The kids and Stuart get a little stir-crazy. They are ready for clear skies and activities.

I've been knitting alot. I made my mom a hat, but I didn't take any pictures of it before I gave it to her. I am making progress on the sweater that I am knitting out of lace yarn. Everytime I work on it, I think that I am insane for making it. It better fit me, because if it doesn't, I'm going to be really mad. I'll have to give it to someone and tell them not to mention it to me ever again! I decided to make a blanket just to take the edge off of the lace yarn thing. Then, in a starting-new-projects binge, I dug through the frilly fun-fur and ribbon yarn and put together three pink/red yarns and three purple/lavender yarns to make scarves for the gift stash. I just can't face taking this lace yarn thing out of the house, and I certainly can't knit it at the soccer field because it's just too fiddly.

Sally and I went shopping yesterday. We are in the phase where "we went shopping" means that Sally shops for clothes and I pay for them. I walk past the sections with clothes for me, and if I find something fast, I might have time to grab it on the way to the fittting room, but usually I'm not that fast. Usually I just sit there and tell Sally she looks great. A small part of me is sad that I don't get more time shopping for me, but a bigger part of me is grateful that she still wants me to go with her. (And yes, there is a part that realizes that I was the same way with my mother, and this is shopping karma.)

Nine days after my family left my uncle in New Mexico, he died. It seems surreal to think that he had only nine days left in his life here. He was a kind and generous man who knew how to laugh at life and I have lots of fond memories of him. My mom has pictures of me and him coloring Easter eggs together, and I just know that when I sit down to color eggs with my kids in a few weeks, it will really hit me that my uncle is gone and I'm sure I'll have a big cry. We mourn, but we do not mourn without hope* - I'm sure I'll see my uncle again when it's my turn to go to heaven.

That's the news. I'm off to check the weather, because it's overcast and we are supposed to have soccer practice tonight. I'm also going to go shopping because there is a big yarn sale this week, and the kids are at school.

* "Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope. For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him." I Thessalonians 4:13-14

Albuquerque, New Mexico

2011-03-21T10:54:00.000-07:00

Last week my sister and I took the train to Albuquerque. We decided quickly to go visit our uncle, who was recently diagnosed with late-stage cancer. We hadn't seen him in years - five years, I think, at my cousin's wedding - and both of us felt so strongly that it was the right thing to do. We went and had a nice visit with him and our aunt and two of our cousins (and spouses and a baby!). My parents went with us too. It will probably be the last time we see our uncle, so our visit was bittersweet, but it was sweet. We laughed and remembered old times and told him how much he meant to us and what things will always make us think of him. He was in pain much of the time, but I hope we lifted his spirits by being there.

The train ride to Albuquerque was super fun. Joy and I got a sleeper car so we could be rested and ready to go, and we both recommend it! Here's what the bottom bunk looks like:

(We took alot more pictures, but I'm not allowed to post them!) I woke up early on Friday morning (on the way there) and watched the New Mexico landscape fly by and it was so peaceful and relaxing.

On the way back, we met a nice college couple who were on their way to LA for spring break. We had dinner and breakfast with them, and it was fun to meet someone so young and bright and shiny and full of promise. (Hope you two had fun at Disneyland!) Even though our train was really late on the way home, I am still glad that we took the train, and glad that we went to see our uncle. Also, I finally learned how to spell Albuquerque.

another cute baby hat

2011-03-19T19:54:00.000-07:00

One of Stuart's co-workers welcomed

a baby boy into the world this week.

"Honey, could you knit them a baby hat?"

Um, YES!!!

I thought you'd never ask!

This one is called a Munchkin Hat.

I changed the stripe pattern because I like the uneven stripes,

and then I put a tassle on the end. I think it works,

which is good because I'm totally crappy at pom-poms.

I knit it up with blue and green cotton-ease yarn

that I had left from some blankets that I made

last year. (It is handy to have a yarn stash.)

Welcome to the world, baby boy!

2011-03-18T21:03:00.000-07:00

I finally got a picture of Sam in his new glasses.

Now we look alike, right? :)

beyond cute

2011-02-26T14:33:00.000-08:00

A beautiful baby girl was born last week, and I searched

for warm soft purple yarn to knit this for her:

it's a berry hat!

it's so cute!

I carried it around the house and made everyone look at it

seriously.

cute.

For the knitters:

Pattern: Berry Baby Hat by Michele Sabatier

Yarn: Crystal Palace Bunny Hop yarn in "royal lilac" and "misty green"

blog confessions

2011-02-10T17:01:00.000-08:00

I had a stack of pens and pencils in my room that I have been meaning to put away for a few weeks. I went to put them away in the pencil/pen cup, and there was a 4.5mm bamboo double-pointed knitting needle mixed in with the pens and pencils.

This crosses some kind of line, and I'm pretty sure there is no going back.

Random

2011-02-04T10:48:00.000-08:00

Sam lost a tooth last week.

It's the first one he's lost on the top.

I feel obligated to report that I could not handle

the part where the tooth was still attached, but

turned all the way around and bleeding.

Sally had to help him.

I helped Sally make a chicken for her friend.

I knit the white part, and she knit and sewed

on the rest. It's way cute.

Sally is cute too.

Of course, three more of her friends want one.

Sam and I made a big cookie cake.

Yummy.

At this point, Sally took my camera and went

on a little self-portrait craze. They are great

pictures, but she knows how to use the computer

now and she'll be upset if I post them here.

(Wasn't the blog more fun when they couldn't read?)

Sally and I filled the bird feeder and hung it in the tree by the front door.

(I'll say no more about filling the bird feeder, except to tell

you that I hate the design of bird feeders, and when they are

a little rusty, it's near impossible to get that thing

back together. It was Not Pretty.)

The birds love us.

They have been hanging out all day.

If you look closely, on the right is the blue birdhouse.

I'm hoping that the increased bird traffic will increase our chances

of a little bird family making a nest in there this spring.

morning

2011-01-13T06:54:00.000-08:00

"The heavens declare the glory of God;

the skies proclaim the work of his hands."

Psalm 19:1

and now, lots of knitting

2011-01-12T09:30:00.000-08:00

I haven't posted much knitting content lately because I've been knitting gifts.

I tried to give things to people that I've never knit for before.

I gave a fun fuzzy scarf to Sam's teacher:

I gave hats to Sally's teachers:

(They are at science camp this week, in the mountains,

with snow on the ground. With lots of

sixth graders. I thought a new hat would be fun.)

I made hats for my in-laws:

Same color, different pattern.

They have a ranch and have to feed the horses twice a day.

And it gets really cold there.

Finally, I knit a hat for my nephews and my brother-in-law:

These were fun. It's the same yarn (& color) that I

used to make my sister a birthday sweater last year.

The picture doesn't really show it, but I knit

my nephew's initials into their hats.

Geeky knitting, to be sure, but I got a kick out of it.

My mom and I knit up a bunch of hats for

Caps for Good/Warm Up America.

My hats:

Her hats:

They're so cute!

I finally finished a wool tea cozy:

This took me over a year because I kept NOT knitting it.

The yarns got tangled easily and it was hard on my hands.

But I love how it looks.

Sally and I have been having tea in the afternoons.

She read that green tea was really "healhty" and

she's all into it now. (I love that.)

I also knocked out a fuzzy scarf/shrug for Sally last week,

but didn't get a chance to take a picture before she

took it to camp this week. It's fuzzy and purple.

She picked out the yarn and asked me to make it for her.

Now I'm working on some gloves (a gift), a few

scarves (one gift, the others test knits to see if

I like the yarn - I'm itching to make a cabled cardigan),

and a light sweater that is taking forever to knit.

Thin yarn + small needles = not my favorite project

But I love this picture of it in the morning sun:

I'll be so glad when it's finished.

Inspiration

2011-01-11T16:13:00.000-08:00

The Gentle Art of Domesticity by Jane Brocket

This was one of my favorite Christmas gifts this year. It is such a beautiful book and it inspires me to try new things. Today, Sam and I are making homemade marshmallows. I found the recipe here, but I'm making half. That was some research and math, converting grams to cups and so on. Hopefully they turn out ok. (We did not do the beetroot, but Sam chose blue food coloring. Fun.)

P.S. - They turned out great!

My Vegetarian Year

2011-01-06T09:03:00.000-08:00

2010 was a good year for me. This was the year that I decided to drastically change my diet and become a vegetarian. (I was even vegan for a few weeks, but couldn't commit to it because I really like cheese.) Back when I started thinking about making the change, it was mostly because of my eyes. When my corneas started peeling off in 2007, I freaked out a little bit. OK, a lot. My corneas peeled off! Can you blame me? It's taken me this long to realize that the corneal erosions really messed with my head. Part of that was the pain, but most of it was the helpless feeling of having no control of the randomness of the erosions. I think vegetarianism appealed to me because it was something I could control. I read about the effects diet could have on dry eyes, and I wanted to do something positive and proactive.

The other reason I gave up meat? I was tired of feeling like crap all the time. My body responded differently to food ever since my gall bladder was removed several years ago. I was having lots of digestive issues, and stomach pains, and I was having trouble sleeping. I would have bad dreams. I know that I can't blame all that on eating meat, but I thought that maybe changing my diet would help. I even went so far to think that if I thought it would help, maybe it actually would help. That's a little new-age-y psycho-babble-nonsense for me, but I actually did think that. True confession time.

Now, a year later, I can say I am so glad that I made the change. I am sleeping better. I am not having digestive problems. My eyes feel great, and my doctor says my corneas are healthy. Giving up eating meat was really not as difficult as I thought it would be, but I think I was really ready to do it. Linking "eating meat" to "feeling terrible" helped me not miss it so much. Eating out was the trickiest part, but planning really helped. Also, I read a great book called Living Among Meat Eaters that was great about putting me in the right mindset.

I did have some chicken and turkey the week of Thanksgiving, but I only ate a little bit to taste a new recipe that Stu had made for the family. It was good, and I did not notice any negative changes in my body. I've been thinking about adding chicken back into my diet for a few weeks, because frankly it's just really hard to avoid it. Even the "healhty" choices at several restaurants are salads with chicken on top, and they don't give you a discount if you order it without the meat. It was starting to get to me. So, I've decided that this year, I'm mostly a vegetarian. I'll sometimes eat fish, and sometimes eat poultry. No pork. No beef. (someone said "nothing with four legs" - yep, that's it!) I still prefer a vegetarian meal, though.

Advice time - if you are thinking about trying on the vegetarian life, my advice is to go for it. It's easier if you decide to do it for a limited time - a month to start, or Monday-Friday. Like any diet change, it's hardest at first, and it's hardest when you are hungry. If I know we are going to be traveling or out of the house for the day, I bring food with me that I can eat. Pre-planning for restaurants is key - look at the menu before you go and decide what you will order. Fast food is the worst, but of all the choices, Taco Bell is my new favorite. You can order anything with "no meat" or substitute beans for the meat, and their beans are always vegetarian. (Del Taco's claim to be, but my body tells me that they sometimes use lard.) Salads or soups are good, but lots of soups are made with beef stock or chicken stock, so be careful. Panera and Chipotle are great (vegetarian choices clearly marked). Bring food to share if you are eating with other people, and if you are having company for dinner, please don't make scary vegan food. Spaghetti or a taco bar is "normal", and everyone likes pizza. My other piece of advice is to go to the library and get a handful of vegetarian cookbooks and put them around the house. You'll be inspired to try some new stuff. The last thing I would encourage you to do is to be prepaired for the questions and the teasing from the die-hard steak lovers. They will think you have lost your mind and will worry that you (a) don't eat enough protein and (b) will get cancer from eating too much soy. Just remember that they care about you and email me if you need a pep talk.

Books about vegetarianism I recommend:

Living among Meat Eaters : The Vegetarians' Survival Handbook by Carol J. Adams

Eat to Live : The Amazing Nutrient-Rich Program for Fast and Sustained Weight Loss by Joel Fuhrman

Blogs & Websites:

FatFreeVeganKitchen - great recipes
VeganDad - guy food
PostPunkKitchen - the authors of Veganomicon
Skwigg - "Eat food, not too much, mostly plants." She's fun too.
CheapHealthyGood - great ideas and regularly updated
VeganYumYum - fun pictures
VeganLunchBox - again, like the pictures
Vegetarian Times - great resource

Christmas Day

2010-12-26T10:31:00.000-08:00

We had a nice Christmas Day together.

Got up at 6:45 and tore open presents.

Then we had some breakfast and played.

Here's the favorite picture of the day:

I think he liked his gifts.

scenes of the season

2010-12-19T20:35:00.000-08:00

As I was making ginger cookies last week, I took this picture. This is my mom's recipe. When I got married, she gave me a recipe box filled with our family recipes, written in her hand. It's one of the best gifts ever.

Here's a couple of close-ups of the tree - new this year

is the red ribbon, picked out by Sam.

Also new are the wee red mittens that I knit up.

Yes, I'm charmed by them.

My camera is always blurry with no flash, but I like

the way the lights look. I'll make the picture smaller,

and maybe you won't notice that it's out of focus.

Merry Christmas!

six days until christmas

2010-12-19T15:07:00.000-08:00

Yes, Christmas is just six short days away, and it's crunch time. Am I shopping? Wrapping presents? Finishing my Christmas cards? Nope. I'm sitting on the couch by the fire, lurking around facebook and flipping through a fashion magazine, sipping some peppermint tea, thinking about knitting, and that's about it. I've been dealing with a head cold for the past two days, and now Stuart has it. I made him soup and panini sandwiches for lunch, then sent him to bed for a nap. It's raining and windy and there is no way I'm leaving the house for anything today. We ventured out to the store for supplies, and that's it. Well, no, I do have to take the dog for walks because he won't pee or poo when it's raining unless you walk him. He's gotten so spoiled over the past few months - it's been so rainy, and he's been inside frequently. He's got us trained pretty well. I won't let him in certain rooms, and he won't go potty in the rain without a walk. I know this because I tried the shortcuts of putting him the the back (he holds it) or putting him on the leash and standing in the doorway (he still holds it) and then just when I give up and let him back inside, he goes on the floor. I mutter that he's a stupid dog, and Stuart comments quietly that he's probably the smartest dog he's ever seen because he's figured out how to train humans. Whatever.

I did some crazy last-minute deadline knitting, but I finished! I have a few things packaged up and ready to mail tomorrow. I'm expecting the post office to be a crazy madhouse, but I'm still going first thing Monday morning.

It's so cozy by the fire with the sounds of the wind and rain right outside the window. I think I'll sign off the internet, finish my tea, and take a nap. After all, I'm sick. I need the rest. Six days until Christmas. This is peace.

Straight No Chaser - 12 Days of Christmas

2010-12-16T08:52:00.000-08:00

most wonderful time of the year

2010-12-16T08:51:00.000-08:00

I'm having a great time, but I'm on the edge. I am finding space to enjoy the holiday season, but just barely. My to-do list is verging on ridiculous, my cards might get in the mail this weekend, and the gifts are mostly bought but nothing is wrapped. On the plus side, we've made three batches of spritz cookies, two of fudge, one of ginger cookies, and a huge batch of pumpkin muffins. All of this baked goodness has been shared with loved friends and family, and it is all gone. Today I am baking some more for the next round, and I am going to finish knitting a hat - a crazy last-minute gift decision that has a deadline of (ahem) tomorrow. That's ok - I started Monday, finished one on Tuesday, started the other one Wednesday, and am over half way done. It will get done. I thought I was doing great, then went to pick up the kids from school yesterday and remembered that I forgot to take Sally's flute to school for her and almost burst into tears. Thankfully, she was in the best mood I've seen in 2010 and forgave me instantly and couldn't figure out why I was so upset. So Christmas miracles still abound, if you only stop to see them. Slow down enough to enjoy the season! It's possible!

Great Day

2010-12-06T19:06:00.000-08:00

I had a great day today. I had a little alone time, I spent an hour with a dear friend, and I got the kids from school.

First, we made spritz cookies.

I love them.

Each kid made their own batch.

Pink flowers for Sally.

Green trees for Sam.

Then, I finished making my first Sparkleball.

These pictures do not express the lovely delight of the Sparkleball.

I'm making another one tomorrow.

teenage dream

2010-12-03T19:22:00.000-08:00

I was driving home the other day when the junior high was letting kids out of school. I watched a group walking home, talking and laughing. I saw a couple, holding hands, with that lost-in-love look, and I wished that I could go back and be young again.

Then I saw a boy in a van with his mom. He looked miserable. I remembered that I was mostly a geek in junior high, and that I didn't have a boyfriend until I was a senior in high school, and that junior high pretty much sucked.

Katy Perry can be young forever. I like being a grown up.

this & that

2010-11-23T15:48:00.000-08:00

what I did yesterday:

finished knitting a little sweater

it's an ornament for the christmas tree

what I'm doing today:

making moster cookies

yummy

(recipe here)

is she for real?

2010-11-16T12:30:00.000-08:00

I came across this little gem today while doing a little web surfing. Watch the first video. It's . . . . uh, let's just say when she started to play "this little piggie" with the possum, I was beside myself. (Now you have to watch, right?)

Happy Halloween!

2010-10-30T22:58:00.000-07:00

endings & beginnings

2010-10-25T20:58:00.000-07:00

finished The Good Earth (finally)

started knitting a blue hat (am smitten with it)

that's all for now

this, that, whatever

2010-10-18T22:17:00.000-07:00

I am reading The Good Earth. It is quite depressing. I'm not sure why I got it into my head to read it, but now I'm too far invested to NOT finish it. I'm in the last 100 pages. It's brutal. I keep falling asleep.

I got it into my head that I need to knit myself a new hat to match my Harry Potter scarf for the new movie coming out next month. I keep trolling around the internet looking for patterns. I think I may have it narrowed down to two or three. Soon, the obsessing over yarn will begin. I like this part of a project just as much as I like the knitting part. Maybe more.

I love the cold weather this week. I've been making lots of soup. My kids' current favorite is tomato. I almost always boil over the tomato soup. I have no idea why that is, and it makes me mad every time.

I am still thinking about the three Hunger Games books that I read this month. They were so good. I wish I could find some more books that were great like those were great. Maybe I'll read them again.

I'm still not eating most meat, but I'm now trying to add back in fish. It's slow going. I keep forgetting to eat it.

I am reading Where the Red Fern Grows out loud to the kids. I have a special fondness for this book. My fifth grade teacher read it to my class, and I can still hear her voice when I read it. My kids are loving it. I really wish I could find my fifth grade teacher and tell her how this book has stayed with me, how it is being passed on to my kids. To all teachers out there who read to your classes - they will remember your voice and that book for years to come. Thank you for reading to your students!

I wish I didn't need to sleep so many hours every night.

I tried the blueberry coffee from 7-11 today. (I hardly ever get coffee from 7-11.) It was surprisingly good. It smelled like blueberries, tasted like coffee, and somehow the two worked.

My garage is pretty clean right now. It won't last.

I hope it rains again tonight. I sleep really great when it rains.

If I could get to the place where I had Romans 8 in my heart and mind all the time, well, wow. I can't even imagine what life would be like. I think Romans is the book of the Bible that speaks the loudest to me. I'm also quite fond of John. And Proverbs.

There are only 74 days left in 2010.

read these books

2010-10-18T21:27:00.000-07:00

2010-10-05T09:21:00.000-07:00

Fall is finally here. I'm able to wear long pants with warm socks and a sweater. We're in the middle of a rainstorm, and I always sleep so good when it rains. Our dog has been in the house. I'm keeping him in the rooms that don't have carpet - just in case - and Sally keeps making him little beds with her blankets. Today he has a purple pillow and a blanket with pink hearts on it. Part of me should be mad at her, that she's using her "good" blankets for the dog. The other part of me is so in love with her, that she's using the "good" blankets to make a bed for our old dog. It's so sweet, so tender. I hope this dog appreciates how good he has it, that Sally loves him.

I've been reading alot. I've made myself a new goal for this year. I was looking at my book lists (yes, I keep track of what I read. see below. i'm starting to forget things if i don't write them down) and I realized that last year I read 42 books. (42 - hear that, Douglas Adams fans?) I had never read more than 40 books in a year before last year. (My actual best before last year was 34 books.) 42 books. That's a lot of books. But this year, I want to read more than 45. I'm pretty sure I can do it, too. I'm on book #40 already.

I need to download pictures and post some. I need to write down my recipe for Chicken & Dumplings for a friend on facebook. And I need to go to the grocery because we are almost out of bread. I also have a whole mess of knitting stuff to blog about. That's going to have to wait for next week, because I have a book to read.

Happy fall! Don't forget to make a batch of pumpkin muffins or grab a pumpkin spiced latte. And wear a scarf!

Side Effects of Too Many Birthdays

2010-09-23T08:56:00.000-07:00

Well kids, it's finally happened. I went to the library and got a few books last week. I read The Hunger Games in two days - great book! - and then started another one of the books last night. I read two pages when I realized that I knew what was going to happen. I flipped ahead a page, and sure enough - I have read this book before and totally forgot about it. I stil can't remember when I read it, or how it ends, but I've read it before. And I forgot it.

Laugh lines and grey hairs I was expecting. Forgetting whole books? Never saw that one coming.

Back to School!

2010-09-15T09:07:00.000-07:00

The kids are back in school, and they are slowly getting used to the schedule. I'm even slower this year - the schedule is not a bad one, and I have our activities spread out so that we have free time days (very necessary for us). Still, I'm finding myself making tons of lists and feeling like I'm getting nothing done. Isn't that such the Mom Thing? To undervalue the millions of little things we do every day that are not on the list, that go unnoticed, that are necessary to make our families survive? The food, the laundry, the grocery shopping (we hardly ever run out of stuff!), the balancing of the checkbook (ok, thanks to our pc that doesn't take me long, but still), the picking up of dirty socks and the reminding of doing homework, the enforcement of shower time and bed time. Wow, that was quite a rant. It's been awhile since I've written a proper post!

We closed out our summer with a camping trip, which was great fun! There are lots of pictures over on facebook, but I'm putting my favorite one here. This is Sally and Sam at the lake (in the back is one of the jet skis our group rented to play with that day.) We went to Shaver Lake with some soccer friends and it was a really relaxing time.

During the last week of summer, I took the kids to the beach, and another day I took them to the Natural History Museum with their Auntie Jen. My parents were here for Labor Day weekend. We swam and played cards and the girls went shopping.

I've got my hands full with a few things this year. I'm still working with students through the Home Hospital program, but so far have not been assigned anyone. All my kids from last year are back in school this year - very proud of the bunch. I'm volunteering at school and at soccer, so that's new this year. I get to work with the teachers and students on the Reading Program at school, which was my New Year's Resolution - to be involved in something that inspires me. I think I'll try and teach some more people to knit this year too. I took a small project (baby hat!) to school yesterday and knit while I waited to pick up the kids. Before I knew it, I had a few moms watching me and asking questions. Then a little girl came up to me and said, "Hey, you do yarn! My mom used to do yarn! Bye!" Love that girl!

I'll close for now. I put the Glee songs on the top of the playlist because that's what I'm looking forward to next week - Glee (Tuesday) and The Big Bang Theory (Thursday). And I can't wait to see what they decide to do on The Office. I have to say it - if Michael and Holly don't end up together, I'm going to be seriously bummed.

hand knit baby hats

2010-08-28T12:17:00.000-07:00

It's time to make baby hats! Once again, Warm Up America and Save The Children are collecting newborn and preemie sized hats for third world countries. This time the program is called "Caps for Good". It is very easy to make a little hat for a baby, and it's a great project for new knitters and crocheters. I've sent in about a dozen hats in the past few years, and knowing that my craftiness is out there in the world, helping someone that I'll never meet, is a very cool feeling.

The Caps for Good program will conclude on February 28, 2011. You can visit GoodGoes.org/caps and WarmUpAmerica.org for patterns and information on how to send in your hat. They even have little cards you can print out and fill in.

Go buy some yarn and make a few hats!

works in progress

2010-08-19T09:21:00.000-07:00

I have Startitus. Every time I sit down to knit on the Whisper Cardigan, which is taking forever to knit, I think about knitting other things. Not actually knitting, just casting on and STARTING other things. It's crazy. I started a new project yesterday - a sweater using really big needles instead of the tiny ones I'm using for the Neverending Whisper Cardigan - thinking that the instant gratification will help. It's not. I'm already thinking about starting some socks. The only good thing about that is I've already got the yarn, the pattern, and the needles in a bag ready to go. I'm starting another hat today too - I've been knitting hats to give as Christmas gifts this year, so if you get a knitted hat from me, act surprised.

Maybe if I make a list of all the projects I have going and post it on the internet, that will help.
1 - Whisper Cardigan - I've knit one arm and the back and am on the second arm. It's laceweight yarn and is taking forever. My mom thinks I'm crazy. My only defense is that 1738 other people have knit one on Ravelry, so I'm not alone.
2 - Beach Glass Cardi - the one I started yesterday. I'm making up the pattern. The yarn color is "beach glass".
3 - Hat - finished one on Tuesday and will start another one today
4 - Tea Cozy - ok, this is one I've been at for awhile now. I shoved it in my car as Just In Case knitting. Hmm, maybe I'll work on that tomorrow at the beach . . . .
5 - Socks. Bought the yarn for my birthday a few months ago and haven't started them yet.

So five things isn't so bad. I can go start that hat because that's a gift. And the socks because I already have the yarn. And maybe one more thing, if I use yarn that I already have.

Yep, that should cure me. For now.

road trip

2010-08-10T17:24:00.000-07:00

The kids and I just got home from a week long road trip. We had lots of fun, but I am very tired of driving and very happy to be back home.

Sally got to spend a week with her grandparents, learning to ride. Here she is brushing the pony she rode all week, Hershey Cocoa.

She also did lots of chores around the ranch, and she had lots of new experiences. While she did have fun, she told me that horses are "not her thing". Whew! We can't really afford to have them be "her thing", so that's not all bad :)

Sam and I drove up to my sister's house for a week. Sam is a great traveler:

My sister has two boys, and they are around the same age as Sam, so they all had a blast. They jumped on the trampoline, worked on their tree house, picked blackberries, played games, did crafts, and other fun boy stuff. Aren't they so cute?

Joy and I talked and played cards and prepared food and tried (in vain) to keep the boys somewhat clean.

It was a fun week.

I also took random pictures of stuff I like:

and did a little reading and knitting:

This is a hard trip because of the long drive, but it's even harder because there are so many people that we know in the area to visit, and we can never seem to fit everyone in to our plans. If we didn't get to see you this time, please know that we miss you (you know who you are!) and hope to see you next time.

chickpea cutlets

2010-07-24T13:16:00.000-07:00

a.k.a. "what are you eating???"

For my birthday, my wonderful husband got me the Veganomicon cookbook. I am really enjoying it. I'm not vegan - I still eat cheese and sometimes eggs and other dairy stuff - but I enjoy the challenge of making things that are vegan and that taste good. So, when I saw this recipe, my first thought was "Ew". As in, no thank you. But I read some reviews and everyone loves them so I thought, "Why not?" Believe me, no one was more shocked that I liked them than me. My meat-loving husband even liked them - he had seconds.

The first time I made them I cooked them in a cast-iron skillet. Pretty fast, and very good. The second time I put them in foil and cooked them on the bbq. It took a little bit longer, but was much easier and also very good. (Also less olive oil and no pan to clean, so that's the way I'll be cooking them from now on). You can also cook them in the oven.

This recipe is all over the internet. Here's a link. Try it. We like ours with honey-mustard sauce. It's also good on a bun with some lettuce. Someone wrote a blog post about making them into nuggets - that sounds pretty good too.

Mango Cucumber Spring Rolls

2010-07-14T13:07:00.000-07:00

I adapted this recipe from the Vegan with a Vengeance cookbook. I took out a few things (peanuts) and added a few things (carrots). The key is the sauce. The sauce makes them really good. Again, I changed up the sauce by adding some mango to it. I like it this way. Amounts are approximate - have fun. (The photo doesn't have carrots - the carrots was a suggestion by my friend Rob and I'm planning on adding them the next time I make these.)

SPRING ROLLS:

Frozen cubed mango (about 8-10 oz - use the rest of the bag in your fruit smoothies)

Cucumber, peeled and cut into matchsticks

1/2 cup cilantro leaves

1/2 cup shredded raw carrot

4 oz thin rice noodles (I used bean threads and had a lot leftover)

Package of spring roll wrappers

SAUCE:

1/4 cup thawed mango chunks

1/4 cup rice vinegar

1/4 cup water

1 tsp Asian chile oil (I used sesame chile oil)

1 garlic clove, minced

1 tsp sugar

Follow package directions to soften rice noodles/bean threads. This usually involves covering them with boiling water and letting them sit for 10 minutes. Drain and rinse with cold water.

While the noodles are cooking, make the sauce by putting all ingredients into your blender and mix. Chill until your spring rolls are ready.

Cut the cucumber and mango and cilantro. Have a pie plate or shallow pan filled with a few inches of warm water to soften the wrappers. I use a cutting board for assembly. Put a wrapper into the water until it's soft and flexible (there are usually directions on the package for this too). Lay the wrapper on your board and put a few tablespoons (or half a handful) of noodles, some cucumber, some mango, some carrots, and lots of cilantro in the middle of the wrapper. Fold the top and bottom and roll up the rest. Store in a sealed container in the refrigerator. I put a moist paper towel in the bottom of a plastic container and put the spring rolls on it and they stayed fresh all day. (They may stay fresh longer, but my friends and I ate them all.)

Serve with lots of sauce, because the sauce is the best.

Make these with your kids - they love to help with the assembly, and watching the wrappers soften up into something you can eat is a little bit of kitchen magic.

from the California Science Center

2010-07-12T13:07:00.000-07:00

flowers are the poetry of the earth

as stars are the poetry of heaven

garden photos

2010-07-12T13:01:00.000-07:00

Sam and I planted late this year, but the garden is doing well.

The sugar-snap peas are growing like crazy.

(I love the curlicues)

This one is two rows of cucumbers and one of peppers.

Here's some cilantro

This is basil (and some weeds - they are relentless this year)

The tomatoes (three plants) are growing slow, but I'm confident

that we'll have lots of fruit in August and September.

And probably October, because this is a crazy late summer.

Passion

2010-07-08T07:26:00.000-07:00

"My new year's resolutions for 2010 is to find a cause. I want to find something that I care about and believe in and I want to invest myself in. I don't know if it will be a medical cause, like breast cancer or leukemia or brain tumors or children's hospitals, and I'll walk a 5K (or try and run with Sally and not kill myself). Maybe it will be political and I'll find a local campaign and get involved. I don't know. Maybe it will be something smaller, something in our community. But I want a cause. I want a thing. And I'm going to take the whole first part of the year to look and listen and pray and wait." ~ January, 2010

I've looked and I've listened and I've prayed. Several things passed by me that could have been my thing, but none of them really lit a fire in me. But then, about six weeks ago, I checked out a book called "Raising bookworms : getting kids reading for pleasure and empowerment" by Emma Walton Hamilton. I started reading it, and it really spoke to me. I started thinking about my kids and reading, then I started thinking about other kids reading and me being a part of that somehow. I decided that I would try and give books as a gift as often as I could. I bought some books for people. I bought some giftcards for bookstores. It felt good. Then, I got a newsletter from the kid's school about some open PTA positions. One was for the reading program. And I sat down the very same day and volunteered.

That's when I realized that I found my thing: it's reading. (Well duh, you might think. Yes, I thought that too.) It's getting kids to love reading, it's supporting my local library in ways beyond checking out books, it's improving the reading program at our school so that more kids are motivated to read, it's being more intentional about reading with my kids. That's my thing.

(Admit it - you thought it was going to have something to do with knittng.)

Fourth of July

2010-07-07T07:45:00.000-07:00

A few pics from the Fourth of July.

We were at a local park with some friends.

Their italian ices are red, white, and blue!!!

Grey Sweater

2010-07-07T07:24:00.000-07:00

I finally finished the grey sweater that I have been knitting for myself. I've been waiting a long time to make this sweater for me - I've made two other sweaters with this pattern, and it's practically the perfect sweater pattern to knit. Top down - so you can try it on as you go - very little finishing work - some cables at the bottom to add some shaping and interest so you don't get bored at the end.

It reminds me of a sweater I used to wear. It was my grandfather's cardigan, and my grandma or my mom gave it to me after he died. I loved that cardigan. I wore it so much that it got holes in it and I had to throw it out. Anyway, this sweater reminds me of that one. Of course, now it's summer. But, when fall rolls around, I'll have a nice new sweater to wear.

(I made this for my sister, and hers and mine are different colors, but we have the same button. Matching buttons!)

My friend took some pics for me with her phone:

For the knitters:
Pattern: Mr Greenjeans by Amy Swenson from Knitty.com
Yarn: Lion Wool Ease in Oxford Grey
Needles: US 8 and US 7

Sally's hamsters

2010-06-28T13:39:00.000-07:00

You know how they say that what the parent does in moderation, the child will do to extremes? Well.

I have no one to blame but myself

that Sally has been knitting little amigurumi hamsters.

The pink one was knit with crochet thread and toothpicks.

She's magic.

I found it :)

2010-06-15T18:06:00.000-07:00

Remember this post from New Year's Day?

Well, I found my cause this week. More to come - after school finishes and I turn in my paperwork and come up for air. (oh yeah, and after I turn 40, plan a birthday party for a boy who turns 7, and finish 25,432 other little things between now and next week)

Conversations with Sam

2010-06-11T22:14:00.000-07:00

(in the car on the way home from school)

Sam: "Guess what I had to do in PE today? It was super hard. Guess."

Sally: "I don't know. What?"

Sam: "I had to pick anything I liked to do and do it. I hula-hooped. It was such hard work. I'm so tired."

Me: (confused) "Am I missing something? That doesn't seem like hard work."

Sam: "I was using STARCASM, Mom."

What's For Dinner

2010-06-10T17:01:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, Stuart bought us a new wok, so I had to try it out with a little vegetarian stir fry.

It was Sally's idea to add some edamame, which I thought was brilliant (and pretty, hence the pics). Here's the all-veg version, made with brown rice:

And the kiddos wanted chicken in theirs, and luckily I had some from the previous night's bbq:

(part of our new food deal is that they must eat veggies, but they get to pick which ones (I push the green ones) - this time they picked shredded carrots and edamame, with brown rice)

They liked it.

PS: Sam's quote of the night was:

"Do you have to walk when you cook with a wok?"

(sigh)

New Reads

2010-06-10T16:37:00.000-07:00

Some new blogs I've been reading:

Cheap Healthy Good

Vegan Dad

The Post Punk Kitchen

Have fun :)

Recipe for Enchiladas

2010-06-10T16:34:00.000-07:00

I made up this recipe after eating Amy's frozen vegan black bean enchiladas, which are very yummy and I still keep in the freezer in case I don't have any of my own left. Since I started making these, I've made them every other week by request - they are seriously good. (And easy.) I tried using leftover cooked zuchini, and it was not as good. Raw veggies are better. You can use cooked meat if you eat meat, or skip the fake meat altogether. I buy extra sauce, because we like a lot of sauce around here. They are also good with a side of mexican rice and cheese on top. (Or fake cheese, if you avoid the dairy.)

Sheila's Enchiladas

one can black beans, rinsed
one can pinto beans, rinsed
one package soy "meat" (taco or mexican flavor)
1-2 cups frozen corn
1-2 cups cooked brown rice
2 zuchini, chopped into small pieces
1 red bell pepper, chopped into small pieces
2-3 cans enchilada sauce
12-15 corn tortillas

In a large bowl, place beans, "meat", corn, rice, and chopped raw veggies. Mix. Add some enchilada sauce and mix. Pour some sauce in the bottom of your baking dish (I use square glass pans, and usually fill two or three of them). Coat both sides of a tortilla with sauce, fill with 1/4 to 1/3 cup mixture, and roll. Continue until all the mixture is gone. Pour remaining sauce over enchiladas until they are covered. Cover pans with foil. Bake at 350 for an hour. (These are actually better the next day, but we can never wait that long.)

LOST: The End

2010-06-09T08:22:00.000-07:00

spoiler alert - don't read this post if you haven't watched the last episode and care about that kind of stuff

I think Jack's father summed it up: "To remember. And to let go." That was the whole last episode for me. To remember the last six years, and to let go of this story that will probably stay with us for a long time. I've been thinking about the last episode for a few days now, and I have to say that I loved it. When I was first watching it, I loved it up to the end. Like many fans, the last thirty minutes were iffy with me. When I started to realize that the sideways world wasn't "real" in some way, and that they were going to "leave", I started to get nervous. But, a few days later, I re-watched a few scenes, and I cried all over again, and grew to love what the writers and actors had done. They brought all of us to a place to remember and to let go.

OK, details. LOVED the James/Juliet scene by the candy machine. Hands down the best part of the whole series. Jin/Sun remembering is tied for me with Kate/Claire/Charlie. They were both great and made me cry. I'm glad that Kate ended up with Jack, but it didn't make me cry the way I cried when Juliet said, "Kiss me James" and he called her Blondie. I'm so so glad they ended up together.

But then again, Sayid? With Shannon? Are you kidding me? Why didn't he get to be with his true love Nadia? I never really liked Shannon anyway, so maybe it's just me. Another thing: purgatory? the place between? I don't believe in that, but it worked. While I was watching it, I got it. (I still don't believe there is such a place, but if I'm wrong, that's ok too.)

Hurley being the Protector of the Island = genius. Pure genius and I never saw it coming, but it was a great move. I was so sad that Ben sat outside the church, but that was true to his character - he was always on the outside of the survivor group. I'm glad that Locke forgave him. Even though the whole series was Jack's story, it turns out that Locke was right about everything and, in a way, he was a hero too (it's not his fault he was the smoke monster for awhile, right?).

Some things I never got until the end:

Jack's father's name: Doctor Christian Shephard - hello Christ figure. How did I miss that???

The Numbers: 4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42 - 42 is the answer to Life The Universe And Everything. Missed that. (One of my students would be thrilled that 23 is one of The Numbers. I guess there is a whole movie about The Number 23.)

Questions I Wish They Would Answer:

Who is Penelope's mother?
How did Charles Widmore and Eloise Hawking get involved with the island?
Widmore, Hawking, Faraday - why all the different last names?

All in all, I'm happy with the ending. I'm going to go back and watch the last season, now that I know some of the answers. I'm sad to see it over, but it was time.

garage projects

2010-06-04T08:53:00.000-07:00

We've been working on the garage since we moved into this house - almost seven years ago. It seems to be never-ending - we get a few things done, then get distracted, and everything goes to chaos out there. We are making some real progress, thanks to a friend who found some cabinets for us. Those are up on one wall, and now we're working to finish the wall by the washer/dryer. We had the large cabinet on the left put together:

and this weekend, as a birthday surprise for Stuart, Sam and I built this cabinet next to it:

Here's some pics of Sam helping me:

Now, to do something about that wall behind the cabinet . . . . another item for the never-ending garage project . . . .

(ps - i love assembling pre-fab furniture. it is so satisfying. this cabinet and the tall one next to it were both purchased at Home Depot)

Conversations with Sam

2010-05-27T08:41:00.001-07:00

Me: "Hey Sam, do you want some chicken nuggets?"
Sam: "Ummm . . . . "
Me: "They are fake chicken chicken nuggets."
Sam: "Then YES. Those are good!"

Conversations with the Kids

2010-05-24T20:59:00.000-07:00

(while discussing how many days of school are left)
Sam: "Too bad the last day of school isn't my birthday. My birthday is the week next."
Me: "Yes. The last day of school is actually MY birthday."
Sally: "Yeah, and you'll be FORTY!" (my age delights her)
Sam: (pausing for effect, and totally serious) "Really? I thought you were going to be twenty-nine again."
Me: "Sam. I love you."
Sally: (rolling her eyes) "You know he doesn't mean that!"
Me: "Doesn't matter. I love compliments of any kind. Compliments and chocolates."
Sam: (pretending to be confused) "What?"

(The really funny part about all of this is that I have never joked about being twenty-nine again or celebrating the anniversary of my twenty-ninth birthday. I don't know where he gets this stuff.)

What's For Dinner

2010-05-21T08:33:00.000-07:00

I have been a vegetarian for five months now. In that time, I've eaten fish twice (both in Solvang - how's that for funny?) and I had one piece of Orange Chicken (it smelled so good and I wanted to see if it would have an adverse reaction to it (I didn't)). After the initial shock, it's been great. I think that my attitude has changed, and at first I thought it was a big deal, so when I told people, they thought it was a big deal too. Now it's not such a big thing to me, so I must down-play because the reactions I've been getting have been all positive.

I had lots of comments on that first post - both on the blog and via email. Several people told me that they have wanted to try a vegetarian diet, or that their spouse is interested, or that they want to but can't see giving up the meat. I get that. It's a big change. I say, try it out. Don't tell yourself that you can never eat a cheeseburger again. Say, for example, I'll eat vegetarian two nights a week. Or, when I eat at home, it will be vegetarian. Or whatever works for you. If you are interested, just try. And when you do, notice how you feel. The first thing I felt was more hungry faster. You have to change your mind to see that "hungry" does not equal "need to eat". Also, I've noticed that I sleep better when I go to bed with an empty stomach. I sleep longer, deeper, and without bad dreams.

So, what do I feed my family? I'm not an ethical vegetarian, so I don't have an issue with buying or prepairing meat. I'm not out to make my family vegetarian either. My meal planning has been falling into three categories:

Meat is still the Main Dish: This is what I did when I first started out - I made traditional meals, but with extra side dishes and vegetarian soup and salad. It works fine, but I have to choose sides that add up to complete proteins for me. I like to serve a raw veggie appetizer with this kind of meal - that helps me not want to eat too much during dinner.

Meat on the Side: This works well with stir fry, bbq, and pasta meals. I make the meat optional, and the main part of the meal is without meat. This works well with Mexican food too. My new favorite is grilled veggies with rice. I'll grill some chicken or steak for the meat-eaters, then four of five kinds of veggies. The kids have to pick one of the veggies, and they have been good about trying new things. They still don't like tomatoes or mushrooms, but that's ok.

Meat-Free: I told the kids early on that I would still make them meat, but sometimes I would like them to try new things that may be without meat. (I closed the deal by telling them I would not make them switch to soymilk. They agreed.) I now make lasanga with the fake meat, because if you mix it with the tomato sauce, you really can't tell that it's not ground beef. Same thing with enchilladas. I have been making these enchilladas that Stuart loves, and I'm going to be posting the recipe soon. I'm pretty happy with it because I made it up myself, and it makes a huge batch that lasts for a few days. (Yes, they are so good that we eat them two or three days in a row. The kids even eat them.) One thing about the meat-free: I told the kids that I would never trick them into eating "weird" food. Sally is particularly picky about that, so I always tell her what is in the meal. Sam is more of a guy - if it smells good and tastes good, he doesn't care what's in it. He even ate some fake chicken nuggets of mine because they smelled so good. (That was after he made a big deal of me making him real chicken chicken nuggets - he ate the real ones then the fake ones and decided that the fake ones tasted better - lol!)

updates & changes

2010-05-20T08:32:00.000-07:00

First off, I apologize for the lack of recent posting. It's always crazy around here in May/June, and this year is especially crazy because (a) I'm working this year and getting my students (three now - two went back to school) caught up in their classes, (b) Sam is in first grade and he is near the end of his natural abilities and is needing to actually work at school (especially spelling - the words are getting harder now), and (c) well, I don't have a (c) but I like lists in threes, and I'm sure there must be other factors because, looking back, the first two don't seem significant enough to cause a huge disruption. Oh wait - I just got it - (c) it's season finale week. I've been staying up way too late watching too much tv. American Idol - loving it! I actually don't care who wins - I like Crystal and Lee and would love to see either one finish first. LOST - have the season finale time on the calendar - that's sad, I know, but I feel so invested and the end feels like the release of the last Harry Potter book. (see the comments section of this post for questions I want answered in the finale) The Glee episode was the best ever this week - "Piano Man" is one of my favorite songs, and Les Miserables was one of the first musicals Stuart and I saw together (and it's his favorite). Tonight is the season finale of Grey's Anatomy - I know, I know, I can't believe I still watch it either, but I do. I like the intense craziness of it. I don't like the morality, so I keep thinking I'll stop watching it one day.

I've been reading some fun things for my students - The Taming of the Shrew, Antigone, Red Badge of Courage, Fahrenheit 451, Huck Finn, and The Odyssey. I think that is one of the best things about my job - flexibility in my schedule is near the top too - but I get to read all these great books and I'm paid to do it. One day, I just might go back to school and get a degree in Literature so I can teach that too. Grading essays would be painful, but talking about books all day long would be fantastic.

I've been thinking about this blog and why the posting has been scarce lately. I think me working so much is the main factor, but I also think that Sam learning to read has stopped me from writing about him too much. There's just not soo many funny Sam Stories that are fit for the blog anymore, and I know he'll start reading this soon. Don't worry - I'll still write updates about the kids and put up some pics now and again, but I've been thinking about adding some new elements. We watched "Julie & Julia" (great movie) and the idea of picking a cookbook and making everything in it is very interesting to me. But it's been done. I recently read another book called "Sweater Quest" about a woman who knit a complicated sweater in a year. This idea of picking something to do - something challenging - and write about the process - is very appealing to me. I just need to pick something. Ideas are welcome. Until I decide what my challenge is, I'll be writing more about the vegetarian thing, since I've had lots of interest about how I'm doing and what I'm feeding everyone.

I'm off to work - today is editing an essay and factoring trinomials, along science, history, and Antigone. This afternoon, after homework, is soccer and open house. Hmmm, and dinner . . . . . need to figure out what's for dinner . . . .

grey sweater

2010-05-13T08:57:00.000-07:00

I've been knitting myself a new sweater. I've knitted this pattern - Mr. Greenjeans - twice before - once for Sally, and then for my sister earlier this year. I love it. It's easy enough to go fast, but with some cables to keep me interested. It's seamless - a huge plus for me, because I really don't like the seaming. It's flattering to almost any body type. And it only has one button. (Like sewing seams, sewing on buttons is not something I really enjoy.)

A great thing happened a few days ago while I was working on the sweater. I started to bind off the bottom edge (always a great thing - binding off) and I got about half way done and realized that (a) I was binding off the wrong row, and (b) it matters. I did not like the way it was looking. In denial, I kept binding off a few more stitches, sighed, and started pulling them out and putting everything back on the needles. When I got them all back on, some of them were backward, and when I started knitting again, I knit some of them through the front loop and some through the back loop to twist them back to the proper place. Here's the great part: I didn't even have to think about it. I just looked at it and knew what to do. It took me about half the row to realize that I was fixing the stitches without thinking about it.

I'm knitting the first sleeve now. I'll hopefully finish in a week or two, which means that we will have a heat wave in a week or two. It's always hot here on the day I finish a sweater.

on freedoms

2010-05-07T09:15:00.000-07:00

By now, you have probably heard of the five high school students who were asked to remove clothing (well, turn it inside out) picturing the American flag on May 5. (If you haven't, here's an aritcle or two.) A friend first told me about the incident, and she didn't know where the high school was located. Only in California, I sadly thought to myself. And sure enough - California.

I don't get too involved with political topics on the blog. Only a few times in all the years I've written has my musings wandered into political arenas. I don't think I've ever discussed political parties or candidates (except to support our govenor during a crisis, which I've seriously had to re-think my support when I see what's going on in our public schools. But I digress. . . . ).

This outrages me. I am a very patriotic person. I cry during the national anthem. My dad is a marine and in our house, the flag was respected. I cannot remember a day when the flag was not flying at our house, and it never - NEVER - touched the ground. (So much so that my dad is still a little uncomfortable that our welcome mat in front of our front door is red, white, and blue.) So when some kids are asked to turn their t-shirts inside out because the picture of the American flag could be considered disrespectful, that makes me furious. The American flag is the reason that people of any heritage have the freedom to celebrate the things that are important to their family. Cinco de Mayo, Chinese New Year, St. Patrick's Day, Kwanza - I'm sure there are a multitude of holidays, and I'm sure that celebrations honoring them are all protected under the freedoms of our country - represented by the American flag!!!

And, as many people on the Support-the-Live-Oak-Five facebook page have pointed out, if Americans were in any other country on July 4 and had a hissy fit about someone wearing a t-shirt with that country's flag on it - well, that would not be well recieved at all. Not at all.

Intolerance is a two-way street. When you restrict one person's freedoms, it hurts all of us. I may not want to wear American flag shorts, but I will stand up and say that any American is free to do so. I may not agree with your politics or religion, but I will stand with you in your right to your opinions and your right to express them.

When I found the support page on facebook, I sent it to every person in my friends. Every one. I didn't even stop to think of their background - it didn't even occur to me that if they were part Mexican or came from Mexico or (like me) are related to someone from Mexico - I am confident that all of my friends love America and that they would be as outraged as me that students in our country would be treated this way.

Our country as a Flag Code - did you know that? Here's some quotes from the rules concerning our flag:

"No disrespect should be shown to the flag of the United States of America."

"The flag represents a living country and is itself considered a living thing."

Sure, the t-shirts the students were wearing are pictures of the American flag, and not an actual flag, but still. No disrespect should be shown. Especially when you are living in America, and enjoying the freedoms that the flag represents.

I've been studying the Civil War with one student, WWII with another student, and the Revolutionary War with my daughter. I think of all the brave men and women who gave their very lives for our country and for our freedoms. When I honor our flag, I honor their sacrifice. When our flag is disrespected, it dishonors the lives that were given for our freedoms.

good frozen food

2010-05-01T22:41:00.000-07:00

I've been trying some vegan convience foods to see what's good, and I ate Kashi Black Bean Mango for lunch this week. I loved it! It's sweet and the mango is really good and their rice mixture is excellent. I'll buy it again.

a knitting analogy

2010-04-30T22:36:00.000-07:00

Today I got to teach a friend to knit. It's a great experience to teach someone to knit. It reminds of me when my mother taught me, and I can look back and see how far I've come. I can appreciate my hands even more - they know what to do now, and it is not always easy to explain how to cast on, how to begin a row, how to wrap the yarn.

I said something today that has stuck in my head. I told my knitting friends that they will make mistakes, and then I made a couple of mistakes in my work so that they could see what would happen to the fabric. I told them that new knitters will make mistakes and that's ok, but eventually you learn how to fix your mistakes. Sometimes you can fix the problem easily, and sometimes you have to rip back several rows and start again. Often times, when I am helping someone fix a mistake, they do not want to rip back their work, and instead we re-write the pattern to work around the mistake in the next few rows.

I keep thinking that life's mistakes are like that. You can't rip back the fabric of your life and fix your mistakes. You just have to keep moving forward, making adjustments to compensate for your mistakes, and hope that they aren't the kind of mistakes that leave big gaping holes in your life's work.

All evening I've been thinking about the mistakes that I'd like to go back and fix in my life. There are some things that I think I would change if I had the chance. There are holes I would mend and dropped stitches I would pick up and weave back in. But then I realized this - what if I mended a hole that was supposed to be there? What if it was a buttonhole - useful for holding something close to you? What if it was a hole that was part of a lace pattern - beautiful when you step back and see the completed work? What if what I see as a mistake is actually part of a greater design?

No, I wouldn't change it after all. I'll just knit on, with hope.

spring fever

2010-04-20T22:03:00.000-07:00

The more things change, the more they stay the same. I always think of this saying in the spring, when the flowers are blooming and the world is warming up and the weather changes all day every day. And every spring, I go into a reading frenzy and a start-new-knitting-projects mode. I am almost powerless to stop it. Last week, I started a sweater for me and a sweater to give away. Then I went to the library and got a big stack of books to read.

I do this every spring. My spring fever symptoms are frequent trips to the library and bags of knitting projects all around the house.

book list:
Saturday by Ian McEwan
Treasure Forest by Cat Bordhi
The Story of Doctor Dolittle by Hugh Lofting
Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin
March by Geraldine Brooks
I Am Rembrandt's Daughter by Lynn Cullen
Jane Austen in Scarsdale by Paula Marantz Cohen
Homer Price by Robert McCloskey
The Vegetarian Family Cookbook
Vegetarian Times
(yikes - that's a lot of books!)

orange juice

2010-04-12T10:40:00.000-07:00

Sam and I trimmed the orange tree and harvested lots of oranges.

The rain this year has made the oranges really sweet.

We juiced a whole bunch of them.

There's still plenty left on the tree for next time.

Anyone want some oranges?

Green Scene

2010-04-12T07:36:00.000-07:00

Hey locals! This weekend - April 17 & 18 - is the big plant sale at the Fullerton Arboretum. Green Scene is open from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm on Saturday and Sunday. Entrance is $6. More info is here.

ready for spring

2010-04-05T13:42:00.000-07:00

This week my kids and I are off for spring break. I need to get the backyard ready for summer - I need to prep the garden area for planting, and I need to throw the old umbrella with the holes away, and there is a whole list of things that need to be done. But today, it's raining. So I organized my knitting stuff instead. :)

Here's a new background (spring garden) to remind me to get going on the back yard.

Fun Stuff

2010-04-03T22:48:00.000-07:00

While watching the Peanuts Easter Special with the kids this week, my friend Beth and I decided to match up the cast of The Office with the Peanuts gang. While it's not perfect, we feel we came up with some good matches here. Enjoy!

Charlie Brown = Toby (duh! except I like Charlie Brown, and I hate Toby)
Lucy = Michael Scott (wants to be the center of attention)
Snoopy = Jim (he's cool, he's goofy, he pranks people)
Sally = Kelly
Linus = Ryan (the Sally/Linus and Kelly/Ryan dynamics are shockingly similar) (also, Michael would love that he is Ryan's brother)
Schroeder = Andy (the music lovers)
The Red-Haired Girl = Pam
Peppermint Patty = Dwight (this one makes me laugh)
Marcie = Angela (doesn't work except Angela and Dwight go together)

Well, it was fun and we had several laughs in the process. Tomorrow's Easter. Big day in our house. My dad set the Easter Bunny bar pretty high - he was always a great egg hider and actually, the way he hides eggs is an art form. A few years ago, when Sally was still a believer, she woke up one Easter morning, scanned the living room, and looked at me in wonder. "Where is he?" she asked me. "Who honey?" I said. "Grandpa! Where did he go?" She thought my dad drove all the way here in the night to hide eggs for her. Later that day, we called my parents and she thanked him over and over for the basket and for coming all this way to hide eggs for her and her brother. I'll never forget getting on the phone to the laughter of my mom and dad, thanking me for doing all the work so they could get the credit. It's a good memory.

Hope your Easter Sunday is filled with laughter and people who love you and wonder and amazement and joy and hope and faith. (and some of those cadbury eggs - I love those)

buzz buzz buzz

2010-03-29T16:44:00.000-07:00

Busy as a bee over here - I was assigned two new students, so I'm trying to figure out their classes and fit their schedule with mine - so far it's working out. Sam and I went to LegoLand yesterday with his friend and another friend and his friend's mom - we had fun, but it was hot yesterday! We went on the pirate ride and got all wet, then Sam and his buddies went in the splash play zone and got soaked. Super fun. Very tiring though. We are all scrambling to fit things in this week because next week is Spring Break!!! (that reminds me - note to self: buy easter candy before saturday night)

If you haven't heard, I've switched to a gmail account - sheilaMchew (at) gmail (dot) com. The M doesn't need to be capitalized, but I put it that way so you don't miss it.

That's all. More when I have a chance to breathe.

decorating for Easter

2010-03-26T10:16:00.000-07:00

It's almost Easter! I decided to play around with the look of the blog - this won't stay, but it's fun for the next few weeks :)

freaking out over here

2010-03-15T17:01:00.000-07:00

After school today, the kids and I were in my bathroom. Sam had a smalll cut on his finger, and I was putting on a bandaid. Since I was already cleaning him, I cleaned out his ears. Then I checked out Sally's ears. (I forget to do this in the morning, and they aren't very good at doing it themselves yet. Well, Sally is pretty good. . . ) Anyway, (are you catching on to the build-up of the story yet?) I had been in the Q-tip jar several times before I noticed something odd.

Something was not right in my bathroom.

There was an uninvited guest.

BEHIND THE Q-TIPS!!!!

After much screaming and shuddering and general freaking out by me and both kids, Sally and I hatched a plan. I carefully removed the items on the counter, took some pictures, and then trapped the lizard with an empty garbage can. Sadly, the lizard's tail got cut off in the process.

Sally starts yelling at me that I hurt him, that he's bleeding all over the counter, and I'm still mid-freak about trapping him and I'm yelling at her to hold the box - HOLD THE BOX!!!! - and we get him into the box and then close the lid and then I'm running through the house yelling to open the door - OPEN THE FRONT DOOR! - and I put the box down by the bushes and backed up and then turned and ran into the house.

I left Sally alone to release him. Then I called Stuart so I could hear his voice and calm down a bit, but when Sally and I went back to the bathroom -eeew this is so sick - the tail was still moving. THE TAIL WAS STILL TWITCHING! It's so wrong.

Sally gets the Good Daughter Award. She picked up the twitchy tail with some toilet paper and flushed it down the toilet. I was too busy freaking out some more.

Deep breaths. Knitting. A Scooby-Doo cartoon.

We're better now.

Sweater and a checklist

2010-03-14T15:38:00.000-07:00

The green sweater I knit for my sister's birthday is finished and mailed. For those of you who wondered why I would blog about a gift, she knew about it. I asked her if she would like a knit sweater, and then I asked her what colors she would like. Then when I saw her in February, I had her try on what I had so far so I could judge length and button band width. I'm really hoping it fits her and that she doesn't think it's too itchy. I used this yarn for a scarf and wore it next to my neck for several days and it didn't itch, and my itch factor is on the high side. Anyways, enough obsessing. Here it is:Pattern: Mr. Greenjeans from knitty.com. I made this for Sally in a different yarn two years ago. I'm making one for me next with the same yarn as my sisters, but blue. Indigo blue, if I can find it.

Yarn: Lion Wool-Ease in Forest Green Heather

Now for the checklist:

(1) a scarf - finished, sent (& much loved)

(2) a baby blanket - finished, sent

(3) a sweater - finished, sent

(4) a blue glove - also finished! This one was great - I finished it while wearing the first one, out on the cold soccer field at 7:00 pm, and I had about three inches of yarn left at the end. That's close, my friend.

(5) a hat - this is Sam's star wars hat - I've made progress and I'm in the middle of knitting the R2D2's. I'm proctoring an exam tomorrow, so I'm taking this to work on while my student is taking her test.

(6) purple & green gloves - I'm taking them tomorrow too :)

(7) a pair of socks - no chance of finishing them by the end of the month

(8) a tea cozy - ditto

And, because I can't do #5-7 while watching a soccer game, and because the tea cozy uses three balls of yarn at the same time and is a little bulky to carry out to the soccer field along with my purse, the team flag, a blanket (for Sam) and a bag of snacks (Stu was carrying two chairs and a cooler!), I was totally justified in starting a hat. The hat fits in my purse. Totally logical.

:D

2010-03-04T08:15:00.000-08:00

i finished the sweater!!!
i just have some ends to weave in and then wash & block it.
more pics to come

Quote of the Day

2010-03-03T08:33:00.000-08:00

"Once he saw her shaking a walnut tree, once he saw her sitting on the lawn knitting a blue sweater, three or four times he found a bouquet of late flowers on his porch, or a handful of chestnuts in a little sack, or some autumn leaves neatly pinned to a sheet of white paper and thumbtacked to his door."
Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451

kid pics

2010-03-03T08:12:00.000-08:00

I just put up a whole bunch of pictures of the kids on my facebook page. I'll be posting most of the pictures of them over there now, unless there is a good story that goes with it, and then the pics will be up here on the blog.

Overtime

2010-03-02T08:30:00.000-08:00

Well, the Olympics is over and I can say this for sure: I didn't miss it this year. I watched a little bit almost every day, and some days I watched a whole lot. I watched almost all of the men's skating, all of the women's skating, and a whole lot of speed skating. I saw skiing and jumping and snowboarding and curling and hockey. Oh, the last hockey game! What a great ending to a great olympics, eh? Congratulations to Canada - it was such a close game, and it really could have gone either way.

My olympics knitting project has gone into overtime as well. Here's me during closing ceremonies:

finishing the second sleeve. (I would have finished if not for a great and long book that I had to read on Saturday. It was so good that I couldn't put it down.) I almost got the sleeve done - I had about six rounds to finish on the day after, and then I started picking up stitches for the button band. I started picking them up, and then stopped for dinner and homework and a little facebook time, then kept going. I went up one side, around the neck, and down the other side. I had to get a multiple of 4 plus 2 for the ribbing to be even, and I finished and counted - and TOTALLY NAILED IT! 254 stitches! I had a 25% chance to get it right, and I got it! Anyways, now I'm knitting the button band and I'm almost half way done with that, and then I'll have a few ends to weave in and I'm finished.

I had the chance to work on the blue glove for an hour last week, so it's close to being finished too.

Hockey has sudden death overtime. I'm giving myself March overtime. (my game = my rules :) ) I know I'll finish the sweater and the glove and the hat, and then I may have to break down and start a new project, because the start-something-new-itis is starting to itch.

Star Wars Hat

2010-02-22T09:35:00.001-08:00

Here's the Star Wars hat that was supposed to be for Sam, but turned out to be for Stu instead :) I found the charts on Ravelry, and once I got started and over the fear of working with all those colors, it wasn't too hard to knit up.

Olympic Knitting

2010-02-21T14:28:00.000-08:00

I've been knitting while watching the olympics this week, and it's been great. Watching winter sports while knitting a warm wool something is very cathartic for me. I've decided to make February the month to finish projects - kind of an olympic challenge. Lots of on-line knitters do olympic knitting projects - there are team events on Ravelry, and followers of the Yarn Harlot pick a challenging project to start and finish in the two weeks of the olympics. I thought about doing that, but then remembered that I had eight projects in the works. Eight is a lot for even me, so I'm going to see how many I can finish before the end of the month.

So, here's my list:
(1) a scarf
(2) a baby blanket
(3) a sweater
(4) a blue glove
(5) a hat
(6) purple & green gloves
(7) a pair of socks
(8) a tea cozy

I am happy to report I'm doing very well. I finished the scarf

which is for my bff's mom, and I finished the baby blanket on our road trip last weekend.

I have to wash the blanket and send it off, but it turned out exactly the way I pictured it in my head, and I love the colors.

I'm almost finished with one sleeve on the sweater,

which leaves me with one more sleeve, the button bands, and weaving in the ends. I'll be thrilled if I can weave in the ends during the closing ceremonies next Saturday. (Last night I started the second sleeve, and the first one is still on hold because I'm obsessing about sleeve length, but I think I've got it figured out so by the time the second one is done I should have a final decision on how many more rounds of cables to do.) This sweater is a birthday gift for my sister, who lives where it sometimes snows and can always use another sweater.

The blue glove has a story.

I knit the pair and tried something new which did not work, so I ripped the whole thing out and started over. I'm almost halfway through the second time.

The hat has a story too. I made a Star Wars hat for Sam for Christmas, but alas, my gauge was very off and the hat is for Stuart. I'm making a much smaller one for Sam - the brim is done and I'm in the colorwork section. I would be very surprised if I get to any of the last three projects this month. I'm half way done with the first of the purple & green gloves, and they require concentration and attention to the pattern, which is why I am putting them off. The socks have been sitting in the bottom of my knitting pile for almost a year, and the tea cozy is delightful and fun, but I'm fine with it taking a long time to finish.

So there's my olympic knitting projects. I'm so excited that it's almost time for ladies figure skating!

quick things

2010-02-17T10:33:00.000-08:00

busy day today, but wanted to share a few things:
~thanks for all the encouragement - i was really overwhelmed by all the positive comments on being a vegetarian. to all the people out there who are toying with the idea, today is the first day of lent. try giving up red meat (or all meat) for lent and see how it goes. you'll be surprised.
~ knitting updates are in the works. pics too!
~ had a great weekend trip (happy chinese new year all!) and a few pics to share of the kids with their cousins. typical of me, i only took a few pics because i was distracted.
~the dog is doing just great and doesn't seem to miss his tail at all. he slept with the kids last night - never did that before. i think he missed them (we were gone for four days)
~my job is picking up and i really really love it. i can't believe how much i have missed algebra 2 (yeah yeah - you all knew i was a math geek) i have four students now and work a few hours every school day.
~i'm really really enjoying the olympics this year. last night, men's figure skating short program. i love the figure skating!
~i'm off to volunteer in Sam's class, then i have a whole smack of things to do. at least i'm almost done with trip laundry (cripes, the kids generate a lot of laundry!)

an unlikely vegetarian

2010-02-03T20:06:00.000-08:00

If you told me last year that I would be giving vegetarianism a shot, I would not have believed you. Yet here I am. This is a long story that I have been reluctant to write about because of the backlash. (Do you get enough protein? Aren't you worried about the dangers of too much soy? How much weight have you lost? (Why haven't you lost more weight?)) But in the end, fear is a crappy excuse. So, I'll write.

It's been a long time coming, that's for sure. I actually bought a book last year - in February, 2009 - about yoga and weight loss. I bought it more for the yoga, but the connection of yoga and body and food was interesting to me and I read the entire book. Then I did some yoga and put it down and that was that.

It was a few months later that I decided that I had enough of feeling yucky. After I had my gall bladder removed when Sam was a baby, my body had trouble digesting certain foods. The trouble was that I really liked eating all of those foods. So I ate them in moderation and put up with feeling bad. After one memorable meal - bbq pork ribs and onion rings - I thought I got food poisoning or the flu. But my friend, who shared the meal with me, was fine, and nobody in my family was sick. I faced the truth of my situation: continue eating this way and feel bad, or change my eating and feel better. I decided I wanted to feel better. I cut out all pork and all fried foods. That was a little difficult, but I told myself that feeling healthy was a better choice, and I took it one day at a time. The first time I made bacon and didn't eat it was hard for me. Then I bought turkey bacon, and Sally begged me to never make her eat it again. So I bought her "real" bacon, and the next time it wasn't very hard to not eat it. Now, I can make it, serve it, and the smell doesn't even make me want to eat it. I've lost the taste for it.

Then, towards the end of summer, one of my friends wanted to try going thirty days without red meat. I said I would do this with her. (At the same time, Sally wanted to go thirty days without soda, and I did that with her. I think the soda may have been harder for me!) Eating no red meat was not bad at all, except hamburgers. I love hamburgers. No, scratch that. I used to love hamburgers. Now, I love feeling healthy and feeling good and I've found a veggie burger that I like to eat. But that was the worst. Everything else wasn't so bad.

After the thirty days, I didn't eat very much red meat. I had some, just not very much. Then I fell off the wagon hard. I had a western bacon cheeseburger. It was yummy, but it gave me such a tummy ache. That's when I knew I was ready to make the commitment. No pork. No beef.

The holidays came and went, and with New Year's Day came new resolutions for the new year. I thought more and more about my diet and my health, and I read some more books. A few days into January, I decided that I would give the No Meat Plan a real shot. I was going to eat vegetarian. All the time. And so I did. The hardest part isn't finding things to eat. I have plenty of things to eat. Fruits, vegetables, soups, salads, cereals, and almost any baked good or dessert. Preparing meat isn't difficult for me either because I live with three people who eat meat. I'm usually in charge of the food. Therefore, I cook meat. Since my reasons for eating vegetarian are not ethical, it's not really an issue for me.

No, the hardest thing by far is other people's response. So much so that I haven't told many people. I told my family, of course. Sally was the most upset - which is funny because she's the only one who had a short stint as a vegetarian. "Mommy! You won't be able to have Thanksgiving with us!" Yes, I told her, I can. I can share the meal and be thankful and pass on the turkey. Everything else we like for Thanksgiving dinner is not made with meat. There will be lots to be thankful for. Sam is only concerned with what I "make" him eat (which is unfounded because I usually always give them a choice when it comes to food). I bought some "chicken" nuggets that are all veggies and soy to try, and when I made Sam some lunch the other day, he asked for chicken nuggets but "only if they have real chicken in them and not just vegetables and stuff." That made me laugh. I told him he can try mine if he wants, but I had the "regular" chicken nuggets for him too.

But mostly, I don't tell people. I just load up on the salad and pass up the meat and nobody notices. I read a book that was really helpful to me called "Living Among Meat Eaters". The part that stuck with me is to be happy that my food choices make me feel healthy and to not be discontent that there are foods that I "can't" eat. Also, to pack snacks and food. Last week, I made lasagna. I made a whole pan of meat lasagna, then a whole pan of veggie lasagna. I even roasted eggplant - a vegetable that I haven't had much success with in the past - and put that in and it was so good. (And I made Kristy's homemade rolls and they were so so good - thanks Kristy!) I packed several containers with the leftovers and put them in the freezer for a quick meal. I've also done a baked potato bar (thanks Steph for the idea) with everything on the side - bacon, cheese, broccoli, veggie chili, sour cream, and some other things. Me and my friends and our kids loved it and everyone ate what they liked. It's taking more planning to eat this way, but everyone gets to choose what to eat and I think that is worth it. I'm even getting my kids to try what I'm eating, and they are surprised that it tastes so good. (duh! I'm still me!)

So, for now, I'm not eating meat. I'm happy with my decision, and I feel really good. I'm getting plenty of protein (beans, nuts, soy milk, and sometimes fake meat) and I take a multivitamin. I also take flax seed oil for the omega-3s. That's my story. Maybe in a few months I'll be able to say that I am a vegetarian. Maybe next year I'll try eating vegan. Maybe I'll add meat back to the table. Who knows? For now, I'm just not eating meat. And taking it one day at a time.

------------------------------------------------------------------
Books that helped me (thanks to Carol for recommending these):
Eat To Live by Joel Fuhrman
Skinny Bitch by Rory Freedman and Kim Barouin
Healthy Kitchen by Andrew Weil and Rosie Daley
Living Among Meat Eaters by Carol J. Adams

distracted

2010-02-03T09:30:00.000-08:00

I've been trying to think of something to write about, but all I have are random thoughts today. So, here you go.

~Last night was the final season premire of LOST. Loved it! I'm a bit upset that more questions were raised (still!), but several key questions were answered, so that made up for it. I was really happy to finally see what was in the guitar case that Hurley was lugging around. It was good to see some of the people that had died earlier (I won't list the names in case you haven't seen it yet).

~I am currently listening to a book on cd in the car, listening to another book on playaway in the house, and reading To Kill A Mockingbird to discuss with a student.

~I have seven knitting projects that I am working on. That's alot even for me. Most of them are gifts.

~I have to take the cans to the recycle center. This is one of my least favorite chores.

~I am almost ready to start writing about not eating meat anymore.

~I am wearing the green sweater that I made today. It's comfy.

~There is a slideshow application that is flashing at the top right corner of my computer screen. It is going through pictures from when Sam was one and two years old. It makes me miss those days so acutely that it hurts. Sally still had all her teeth. Now, she has lost all of her baby teeth. It goes by so fast.

~Yesterday, it was not going by fast at all. Yesterday motherhood felt like a huge smothering pillow weighing down on me. Yesterday I fought feelings of anger and frustration.

~What has changed from yesterday to today? I can't put my finger on it.

~I'm out of ideas. Time to recycle those cans.

now the rain is (hopefully) gone

2010-01-27T10:06:00.000-08:00

We had a crazy week of rain. It hasn't rained that much in a long time. I learned that although I do like the rain, I do not like driving in the rain. I don't like walking the dog in the rain either, but I had to do that several times a day because he wouldn't go unless someone walked him. It took a few days for me to realize that my kids were totally capable of walking the dog - by themselves. I'm almost ashamed to write about the pure joy I felt when I handed them a plastic bag and reminded them that they had to pick up his poop. I felt very light and free.

We had thunder and lightening. That was really fun and reminded me of my childhood - I grew up in the midwest and thunderstorms were frequent. We had a tornado warning - I laughed at that, but I guess a car was turned over by the twister, so I shouldn't laugh. We had hail - the kids loved that. The hail churned up the pool and it looked like it was boiling. It was fun to watch. (Of course, we were safely home in our warm house watching the hail. If it had hailed during pick-up-the-kids-from-school time, it wouldn't have been much fun at all.) We never lost power, although that didn't stop me from lighting up a few candles every night just in case. I love candles at night when it's raining outside. It feels so comfy and safe.

The dog hated the rain. He had to stay inside, but since I didn't trust him to wander around the house, I kept him on his leash. The kids felt sorry for him and they made him a little bed. He couldn't scratch his face or ears because of the cone, so the kids would take turns scratching his face for him. It was cute, but it didn't change the fact that I was continually mad at the dog for peeing in my room, puking in my room, and knocking over the trash cans. Also, I put him in the garage when I left, and he punished me by peeing and pooping in there. So, when I came home, first I'd get the dog, walk him (so he wouldn't pee in the house), tie him up in the office area, go in the garage and clean up any messes, and then clean up the door area where all the wet dog prints and muddy shoes left a mess. (Note to self: if we ever move to a rainy climate, don't have a dog) So his tail is healing well - he got the bandages off yesterday, and will get the stitches out next week. Yep, one more week with The Cone of Shame. I put a small pic of his tail up - it's not too ugly, but I know not everyone is interested in seeing this kind of thing.

Well, that's about all for now. I think the rain is gone. The sky is a brilliant shade of blue today and the air is crisp and cool. I'm off to run some errands, see a student, and pick up the kids. These are busy days, but there is always something to be thankful for, and moments where I see the hard work of parenting starting to pay off. There is the daily work of keeping a family and household running, but there is also time to play and time to rest. We are so blessed. It's nice to write and reflect on that, to underline it in my mind. Hope your day is well -take some time to be thankful.

Mr. Nubbs

2010-01-15T08:02:00.000-08:00

Our dog came home from the vet yesterday - he was tired, but he did great. Sadly, he must wear The Cone of Shame for about ten days, until the tail heals and they can take the stitches out.

He hates The Cone.

I took it off so he could eat and drink. Yesterday, Sally hand fed him, and I helped him drink water. That cone is pretty big on him. He keeps running into stuff and scraping up against the walls. It's funny and sad at the same time. He won't fit in his kennel, where he usually sleeps at night. So, for the next ten days, he's going to sleep with us. I tried to get him to sleep on the floor - I put his blanket out and hoped the pain pills would make him groggy enough to trick him to sleep there, but nothing doing. Even The Cone wouldn't prevent him from jumping up on our bed and sleeping on my feet. I felt so bad for the poor guy that I let him.

Here's the tail. It's not so bad, right?

We still love him. He may drive me crazy at times, but he's a good dog.

Happy Birthday Dog!

2010-01-14T07:04:00.000-08:00

It's our dog's birthday today. He's 13 years old. Sadly, he'll be "celebrating" his birthday with a little trip to the vet, to have his tail removed. Yes, this is a very sad thing, but he has several "lunps" (I'll spare you all the details) removed from his tail over the years, and it's not something that can be taken care of a little bit at a time anymore. The tail must go, or the "lumps" could spread to his body. Poor dog. He'll have to spend the next few weeks wearing the Cone of Shame, which he hates, and I'll have to smear peanut butter on painkillers for a few days to keep him drugged up. I am NOT looking forward to this, but it needs to be done.

If you're having a bad day today, this should cheer you right up. It could be worse. You could be me, nursing an old, tail-less dog. Cheer up!

New Year

2010-01-06T08:31:00.000-08:00

It's a new year. 2009 was a pretty good year for me. I was mostly happy, mostly content, and mostly healthy. There were a few changes here and there, but for the most part it was same song, next verse. Stu started a new job, and Sam started first grade. I started the job hunt, which was not as successful as I had hoped, but still. I'm working part-time and I'm able to pick up the kids from school, which I count as a huge blessing. I was thinking yesterday what a privilege it is to have room in my life for my kids to be able to take me for granted. They take it for granted that I will be there after school. They take it for granted that I will make them lunch if they don't want to buy. They take it for granted that there will be money on their account if they buy lunch. This is a real luxury, as a parent, to be able to provide this for them. I don't take it for granted at all.

So, new year. I'm not a big fan of New Year as a holiday - I don't do any of the typical new year things like clean the house the day before or leave money out as a symbol of good luck or eat anything special to mark the day. I did stay up late with friends, which is something. Also, I've been thinking about resolutions. I started making a few (get my hair cut, go to the dentist) and they seemed more like a to-do list, which I think misses the point. But yesterday I thought of a really good one.

My new year's resolutions for 2010 is to find a cause. I want to find something that I care about and believe in and I want to invest myself in. I don't know if it will be a medical cause, like breast cancer or leukemia or brain tumors or children's hospitals, and I'll walk a 5K (or try and run with Sally and not kill myself). Maybe it will be political and I'll find a local campaign and get involved. I don't know. Maybe it will be something smaller, something in our community. But I want a cause. I want a thing. And I'm going to take the whole first part of the year to look and listen and pray and wait.

So happy new year everyone! Hope your celebrations were safe and you are off to a wonderful 2010. Be sure to mark your calendars for the math geeky fun days of the year - 6-8-10, 8-9-10, and 10-10-10. (Next year, we'll get 1-1-11 and 11-11-11!)

Clue

2009-12-31T13:29:00.001-08:00

My parents were able to come for a visit at Christmas, and as always, we had fun and I forgot to take lots of pictures. (Sadly, Stuart remembered to take lots of pics on Christmas morning, which are up on his facebook page. Enjoy.) I did remember to take some on the first day, when they were playing Clue with the kids.If you get the chance to play Clue with kids, you should. At least once. It's a riot - almost impossible to NOT cheat since they are not that savvy with the clue sheets.Oh, and here is our new work space. Sam's Christmas gift from us was his own computer to use. We got Sally hers when she learned to read, and so Sam has been holding us to the same deal for him. We decided that there is no way we would let him have it in his room, though, so this was a great solution. Cabinets from Lowes, countertop from Ikea, and everybody is happy.

Sam's First Lost Tooth

2009-12-31T13:28:00.001-08:00

Sam finally lost his first tooth. It's been loose for several weeks, so we are all happy that it finally fell out. Actually, it didn't fall out. He wiggled it and then pulled it himself. He was relieved that it was over. Can you tell?

the green sweater

2009-12-31T13:24:00.000-08:00

Here's how I knit a sweater. It starts for me with the pattern. Sometimes it starts with the yarn, but usually it's a pattern. This time, my mom was making a red sweater and I was helping her read the pattern and figure out what to do. The pattern, Sitcom Chic, is interesting because it's knit from the bottom up and it's almost seamless. So I decided to make it myself. That's when the yarn quest begins. Usually I spend a few months obsessing over yarn type and color, but I found this new yarn from Michaels, and it was green and on sale so I went for it. I got bored in the middle and it sat for a few weeks, but still, I finished in three months.

That's not entirely true. I wasn't only bored. Before I start a project like a sweater, I measure myself, then I measure a sweater that fits me, then I do a swatch, then I do another swatch with different needles, then I do some math, then some more math, then I go on Ravelry and look at what other people have knit, then I start. I am fairly confident when I start that I will make a sweater that will fit me. Then in the middle, I get a rush of doubt and am sure I am making a sweater that will either look like a tent or fit my daughter. So I stop for awhile. But, I picked it up again and ignored the doubts.

Anyways, yesterday I knit the button bands over breakfast:
Yep, that's my new netbook next to it. (Thanks again, Stu!) I was listening to a podcast while I worked. It was great. The button is made from recycled plastic, but it looks like wood. I like that.

And guess what? Despite my obsessive doubting, math has prevailed. It fits!

Pattern: Sitcom Chic

Yarn: Loops & Threads Impeccable in Forest (4 skeins)

Day After Christmas

2009-12-26T22:43:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was Christmas. We had a nice day, celebrating by opening presents with my parents, having a big breakfast, and then playing and lounging around the rest of the day. We went to our church's program, Imagine Christmas. Really an amazing show - if you live in the area, you should come next year. It's very cool. My parents took the kids to the movies on Christmas Eve, then out to look at Christmas lights. Fun stuff.

I have a few knitted things to post, but I can't right now because I'm posting this from my new netbook, and all the pictures are on the home computer. Eventually I'll have access to them from this machine, but I don't know how to hook it up yet. I do have the printer working, which delights me to no end. Thanks, Stu, for such a cool gift :)

Speaking of Stu, he cooked a huge Christmas dinner - prime rib with "the sauce" that Sam loves, sweet potatoes, aspearagus, and green beans. Yummy.

I'm almost finished knitting a green sweater, and trolling around for yarn to knit the next sweater. The cool green & purple gloves are stalled for now. I'm also doing some consignment knitting, which is super fun and makes me feel like my hobby could become my career someday.

That's about all. The dog is being a brat, so I'm signing off. Enjoy the music.

imagine

2009-12-14T09:24:00.000-08:00

This is our church's Christmas program. Location and times are here. It's really amazing.