Passings

Next door, my neighbor is dying, and might be dead, since there are no longer many cars out front, though I haven't seen a hearse.  His family vigiled all weekend, with the aid of a visiting priest and, I believe, hospice.  His son-in-law said it had been a rough few months and I had seen the ambulance come at least once.    He's in his nineties, I think,and has lived in that house more than half that time, since the late 1940s-early 1950s.  We have only spoken once or twice, as he was hard of hearing, but he often tootled around his garden and did minor house repairs, such as annually painting the porch.

At the same time, the house of his next door neighbor, with whom we had been friends, has finally gone up for sale, after being in the family since around 1930.  It's where she grew up and then raised her own kids, telling us about the peach orchards and fox holes, foundry and "new developments."  She had suffered much poor health recently and moved to be with her son several months ago, though she swore she would never leave.  It would probably please her that she lived longer than her neighbor, even if she moved and he didn't--she said that they hated each other and sometimes even called the cops on each other, though they had mellowed some more recently.

End of an era . . . .may the families be comforted.

My Mujadara

I like mujadara, a Middle Eastern (versions can be found from Turkey to Egypt, with the first published recipe in Iraq in the 13th century and most often associated with Lebanon) lentil and rice dish raised to new heights with caramelized onions.  And today I faked my own version because I had cooked lentils I wanted to use up.  Surfing for a recipe, I made up my own in my rice cooker.  The hardest, meaning longest (as Mama says, "Is it hard or is it just work?"), part was the onions, which had to be stirred and watched (and I still gave up before they were dark brown).  But they really give the dish its character.  It made a delicious lunch, with enough leftovers for a few days.

-=-=-=-=-=-

Mommy Hungry's Rice-Cooker Mujdara


2 cups white rice
2 cups cooked lentils (brown or whatever)
1/4 teaspoons cumin
1 cinnamon stick
1-3 cloves garlic, minced
2 teaspoons salt, divided
pepper
2-4 onions
1-2 tablespoon oil (grapeseed, olive, whatever)

Place rice, lentils, cumin, cinnamon stick, garlic, pepper, and 1/2 to 1 teaspoon salt in rice cooker.  Add water according to machine temperament (my takes about 2 cups for this; Ar-Ma Hungry's hint is to add enough water to cover the rice plus the thickness of one finger horizontal on top of the rice--it works!).  Set to cook white rice.

Meanwhile, heat oil in skillet.  Add onions, sprinkling 1 teaspoon of salt on top, and cook on medium-low to medium heat.  Watch onions and only stir occasionally in order to let them brown.  If they get to dry, add water.  Cook til brown and sweet, about 45-60 minutes.

When lentil-rice and onions are done, stir together and season to taste.

Mommy Hungry

Lords of the Dance

Marginally Celtic in ancestry, with traces of Welsh and Scottish if my aunt is to be believed (and I like to think so), we celebrate St. Patrick's Day mainly so we can bake soda bread, each corned beef and cabbage, and listen to bagpipe music.  All of which we happily did on Saturday. Sis helped with the soda bread, divided into three loaves based on caraway seed/raisin add-ins (Mama takes all, Sis none.  Bud and I eat raisins and shared a loaf).  We accidentally tripled the sugar for--chalk it up to a glare on the iPad; it was tasty-sweet!   The favorite activity, however, was actually singing "Lord of the Dance."  Which is not really Irish at all--with lyrics written in 1967 by English songwriter Sydney Carter to accompany the American Shaker tune "Simple Gifts," the song is a first-person account by Jesus, from birth to resurrection.  Still, if it's good enough for Michael Flatley, it's good enough for us.  We sang the chorus over and over again with Bud eventually showing us the Irish step-dancing he learned at a school assembly.

"Lord of the Dance"
I danced in the morning when the world was begun
I danced in the Moon & the Stars & the Sun
I came down from Heaven & I danced on Earth
At Bethlehem I had my birth:

Dance then, wherever you may be
I am the Lord of the Dance, said He!
And I'll lead you all, wherever you may be
And I'll lead you all in the Dance, said He!
(...lead you all in the Dance, said He!)

I danced for the scribe & the pharisee
But they would not dance & they wouldn't follow me
I danced for fishermen, for James & John
They came with me & the Dance went on:

Dance then, wherever you may be
I am the Lord of the Dance, said He!
And I'll lead you all, wherever you may be
And I'll lead you all in the Dance, said He!
(...lead you all in the Dance, said He!) 
[ Lyrics from: http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/s/sydney_carter/lord_of_the_dance.html ]
I danced on the Sabbath & I cured the lame
The holy people said it was a shame!
They whipped & they stripped & they hung me high
And they left me there on a cross to die!

Dance then, wherever you may be
I am the Lord of the Dance, said He!
And I'll lead you all, wherever you may be
And I'll lead you all in the Dance, said He!
(...lead you all in the Dance, said He!) 

I danced on a Friday when the sky turned black
It's hard to dance with the devil on your back
They buried my body & they thought I'd gone
But I am the Dance & I still go on!

Dance then, wherever you may be
I am the Lord of the Dance, said He!
And I'll lead you all, wherever you may be
And I'll lead you all in the Dance, said He!
(...lead you all in the Dance, said He!)

They cut me down and I leapt up high
I am the Life that'll never, never die!
I'll live in you if you'll live in Me -
I am the Lord of the Dance, said He!

Dance then, wherever you may be
I am the Lord of the Dance, said He!
And I'll lead you all, wherever you may be
And I'll lead you all in the Dance, said He! 

What Do You Think?

Another poem . . . .

Handwriting On The Wall

A weary mother returned from the store,
Lugging groceries through the kitchen door.
Awaiting her arrival was her 8 year old son,
Anxious to relate what his younger brother had done.

While I was out playing and Dad was on a call,
T.J. took his crayons and wrote on the wall
It's on the new paper you just hung in the den.
I told him you'd be mad at having to do it again.

She let out a moan and furrowed her brow,
Where is your little brother right now?
She emptied her arms and with a purposeful stride,
She marched to his closet where he had gone to hide.

She called his full name as she entered his room.
He trembled with fear--he knew that meant doom
For the next ten minutes, she ranted and raved
About the expensive wallpaper and how she had saved.

Lamenting all the work it would take to repair,
She condemned his actions and total lack of care.
The more she scolded, the madder she got,
Then stomped from his room, totally distraught

She headed for the den to confirm her fears.
When she saw the wall, her eyes flooded with tears.
The message she read pierced her soul with a dart.
It said, I love Mommy, surrounded by a heart.

Well, the wallpaper remained, just as she found it,
With an empty picture frame hung to surround it.
A reminder to her, and indeed to all,
Take time to read the handwriting on the wall.

--Anonymous (but quoted here)

A friend sent me the above yesterday because she loved the message.

It made me cringe.  I know I'm supposed to be touched that the mom regretted the yelling and framed the art as a reminder, but it's just too--real?  reminiscent?  sappy or maudlin?   Perhaps I like my reminders couched positively, you know, if the mom looked before she yelled and put it in the frame, missing her mistake just in time.

What do you think?

Spring

Looking for poems for our Daisies to recite during a field trip to the local senior center (where they'll distribute these crafts), I came across several gems.  Not as thought-provoking as Toni Bernhard's spring quotations, they cheerfully evoke the season, which has been bumping us around from chill to rain to warmth and back again:


by Anonymous

I'm glad the sky is painted blue,

and the earth is painted green,

with such a lot of nice fresh air,

all sandwiched in between.

Mud by Polly Chase Boyden

Mud is very nice to feel

All squishy-squash between the toes!

I'd rather wade in wiggly mud

Than smell a yellow rose.

Nobody else but the rosebush knows

How nice mud feels

Between the toes.

Rain Clouds by Elizabeth-Ellen Long

Along a road

Not built by man

There winds a silent

Caravan

Of camel-clouds

Whose humped gray backs

Are weighted down

With heavy packs

Of long-awaited,

Precious rain

To make the old earth

Young again,

And dress her shabby

Fields and hills

In green grass silk

With wild-flower frills.

Good-by My Winter Suit by N.M. Bodecker

Good-by my winter suit,

good-by my hat and boot,

good-by my ear-protecting muffs

and storms that hail and hoot.

Farewell to snow and sleet,

farewell to Cream of Wheat,

farewell to ice-removing salt

and slush around my feet

Right on! to daffodils,

right on! to whippoorwills, 

right on! to chirp-producing eggs

and baby birds and quills.

The day is on the wing,

the kite is on the string,

the sun is where the sun should be--

it's spring all right! It's spring!

Spring by Karla Kuskin

I'm shouting

I'm singing

I'm swinging through trees

I'm winging sky-high

With the buzzing black bees.

I'm the sun

I'm the moon

I'm the dew on the rose.

I'm a rabbit

Whose habit

Is twitching his nose.

I'm lively

I'm lovely

I'm kicking my heels

I'm crying "Come dance"

to the freshwater eels

I'm racing through meadows

Without any coat

I'm a gamboling lamb

I'm a light leaping goat

I'm a bud

I'm a bloom

I'm a dove on the wing.

I'm running on rooftops

And welcoming spring!

A Forkful

I don't enjoy cautionary documentaries like An Inconvenient Truth or Food, Inc., usually avoiding them like the plague even if I agree with and support their findings.

But tonight I'm making an exception and am watching Forks over Knives about Drs. T. Colin Campbell and Caldwell B. Esselstyn, The China Study, plant-based diets, medicine, and cancer and heart disease rates.  It's a rather dull exploration of the science with patient case studies and interviews with the doctors.  But it is absolutely fascinating.  And persuasive!  I highly recommend it . . . and I understand a cookbook will be coming out soon!

Vegetarian Milestone

In the 1970s, as I understand it, veggie loaves were one of the staples of a vegetarian diets, right up there with salads and beans, and, anecdotally, one of the major (squishy, flavorless) turn-offs of a vegetarian lifestyle.  They've fallen in popularity, though--few vegetarian cookbooks even include recipes for this ostracized food anymore.  I've never made one and have only eaten the quick, frozen Amy's version.   And I liked it, just like I used to like meatloaf--and the gravy and mashed potatoes that usually accompany it.  Veggie burgers are a hipper, crispier option, but I wanted to try a loaf.  And I knew just where to go.

Vegan Lunchbox blogger Jennifer McCann updated, promoted, and popularized the veggie loaf with the Magical Loaf Studio, inspired by Seventh-Day Adventist dinner or entree loaves.  Yep, the church.  Because they are committed to the veggie loaf the way Latter-Day Saints eat Jell-o.  And this wonderful site allows you to input your choices for ingredients and then pops out your own personalized recipe.

Here's mine:

My First Veggie Loaf



1/2 cup walnuts
2 TB olive oil
One onion, diced
One large garlic clove, minced
One large carrot, peeled and grated
Two celery ribs, diced
One cup mushrooms, cleaned and chopped
2 cups cooked lentils
1 cup cooked brown rice
1/4 to 1/2 cup vegetable broth, as needed
1/2 cup cooked oatmeal
1 tsp. Italian seasoning
2 TB ketchup
Several dashes vegetarian Worcestershire Sauce
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1 tsp. salt


Preheat the oven to 350º. Spray a loaf pan or 8x8 square baking pan with nonstick spray and set aside (an 8x8 pan makes a crisper loaf).
Grind the walnuts into a coarse meal using a food processor or spice/coffee grinder. Place in a large mixing bowl and set aside.
Sauté any vegetables you've chosen in the olive oil until soft. Add to the large mixing bowl along with all the remaining ingredients. Mix and mash together well, adding only as much liquid as needed to create a soft, moist loaf that holds together and is not runny (you may not need to add any liquid if the grains and protein are very moist). Add more binder/carbohydrate as needed if the loaf seems too wet.
Press mixture into the prepared pan and bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour, or until cooked through.
Let the loaf cool in the pan for 10 to 15 minutes, then turn out onto a plate or platter and slice. Serve with potatoes, vegetables, and vegetarian gravy, if desired.
Cold leftover slices of make a great sandwich filling.


--Magical Loaf Studio and Mommy Hungry


And it was pretty good, though I would add more ketchup and Worcestershire Sauce and saute the vegetables longer (I was in a hurry).  But it has good crunch and texture.

I just wish I'd made mashed potatoes and gravy!

Home on the Free-Range

Spring has brought more than warmer weather and longer days:  the kids are playing further afield than our backyard.  They are spending more time shooting hoops (and making baskets!) at Neighbor Boy's house; they are heading a few houses around the corner to play with a friendly pack of other neighborhood boys (it's all boys; all the girls in the area are either much younger or much older.)  In fact, they're having so much fun that they put their backpacks down right off the bus and don't return until dinner two hours later.  We've gone over the rules--always ask if they want to leave our yard or move from one house to another; listen to the adults wherever they are; follow the Golden Rule when playing; come home when I call; follow our health and safety rules and don't do anything that gives them a funny feeling.  It's a little bit of freedom in a small range.  And I can always here or see them out my open doors and windows.

Still, it's rather bittersweet for me (and downright unsettling for Mama).  Sure, I want independent, social, confident children; I just didn't know I'd be so clearly left behind so soon.  It's almost as if winter break was this dividing line between old play-with-mom/in-the-backyard and new free-range-around-the-neighborhood-with-other-kids.   My first irrational thought was "wait!  I have all these books and articles about fun things we can do and make!" and I thought we weren't ever going to do any of them again.  Yes, overly dramatic and overreacting.   And, yes, Lambeth, empty nest.  I haven't really been worried about safety . . . .

But I put my foot down today when Sis asked if they could go to a kid's house whose name they didn't know.  The boy was outside and I didn't recognize him at all, though Neighbor Boy swore he knew him.  He was older and lived up and around the corner, said he played with the pack of boys all the time.  I told Sis and Bud no, they couldn't go to his house along with Neighbor Boy because I had dinner on the stove and couldn't walk with them to see where he lived and meet his adults and get a phone number.  Their faces fell, but I was adamant.  The boy understood and said they'd come play on our end of the block; Neighbor Boy kept urging me to change my mind (he does that a lot these days, after putting Sis or Bud up to asking me for things that he wants, like playing inside!).  Everyone went back to playing ball.  And I promptly went to order a copy of Lenore "I Let My 9-Year-Old Ride the NYC Subway Alone" Skenazy's Free-Range Kids: How to Raise Safe, Self-Reliant Kids (Without Going Nuts with Worry).

I know I made the right call--I can't send them somewhere I don't know with someone I don't know.  But I was honest when I said I would walk over sometime and see where he lived and meet his adults.  Right after I check with the other neighbors!  Sis and Bud admitted at dinner that they had never seen him before and seemed confused but not bothered by my refusal to let them go.  I explained health and safety.  And realized this was only one of the first of many times I'll vet their friends and say "no" to plans . . . at least until they stop asking or listening.

Can't we go back to fairy houses and sidewalk chalk alone together?

More Ugh

Sleeping pills.

Statins.

Meat.

All these have been in the news recently.  The news being that they will probably contribute to your failing health and early death.

Studies have shown that sleeping pills like Ambien, Lunesta, and Sonata, even 20 pills a year, can significantly raise the chance that you'll develop cancer and/or die.

Another study shows that statins, drugs like Lipitor, Crestor, and Zocor that help lower cholesterol, raise your risk for Type 2 diabetes and will probably result in 100,000 new statin-induced diabetics.

And meat.  Eating meat raises your chances of heart disease, cancer, and death.  When it's bacon or processed meats, the risk rises up to 20%.

Wow.

Are we doing anything right food and medicine-wise?  It's all relatively dire.

Things That Make Me Go Ugh

Lots of items in the news have made me groan (or worse) outloud recently.

• Rush Limbaugh:  I don't think I need to do more than quote him to get my point across here:  "What does it say about the college coed Susan Fluke who goes before a congressional committee and essentially says that she must be paid to have sex, what does that make her? It makes her a slut, right? It makes her a prostitute. She wants to be paid to have sex.  She’s having so much sex she can’t afford the contraception. She wants you and me and the taxpayers to pay her to have sex. What does that make us? We’re the pimps. The johns. . . .  So Miss Fluke, and the rest of you Feminazis, here’s the deal. If we are going to pay for your contraceptives, and thus pay for you to have sex. We want something for it. We want you post the videos online so we can all watch." (source here)  I've decided that the GOP obsession with contraception is actually not a distraction from their lack of workable economic policy but is their economic policy (well, besides protecting the boardroom; see here for great post on private vs. public morality):  if more women are pregnant and have children and leave the work force (because of lack of national healthcare, maternity leave, and/or childcare, which is why these aren't on the GOP platform), more unemployed white men can have jobs, thereby improving the economy.  
• Catholic Church:  Dictating politics to the nation, the Pope has stressed that clergy should increase their opposition to same-sex marriage.  Similarly, the bishops, one of whom has recently be arrested for pedophilia, in this country aren't going to "be altar boys" anymore and are attacking SNAP, the organization supporting survivors of clerical childhood sexual abuse, in a last-ditch effort to avoid legal consequences.  Finally, as you know, bishops have made great waves against contraception and supported the Blunt amendment to resist supporting women's control over their own bodies.  Aren't these celibate priests just a little too obsessed with sex, marriage, and women's bodies?  
• GOP Primaries:  I don't even know where to start here.  Santorum wanting to vomit over the idea of the separation of church and state?  Romney's tepid response to Limbaugh's slut rant?  Support of the personhood movement and the Blunt amendment?  See Dowd or Collins for hilarious takes on these and more . . . particularly Seamus the dog.

I think the only saving grace of these frightening insanities is that I truly believe these are the last gasps of a dying power:  middle-aged, white Christian men of a conservative ilk, and the women who draw their identities, status, and power from them, who realize that they are no longer in control--with a black president in the White House, a female Secretary of State, liberal female Supreme Court Justices, decreasing church membership,and the increased acceptance of same-sex marriage in several states and political polls, not to mention the increasing racial, religious, sexual/gender-identity, and ethnic diversity of the nation.  (I should in the interest of balance, point out that this is not all men, whites, Christians, or conservatives.)  Why else would they contort themselves into such paroxysms of hate and oppression (see here and here for more lucid discussions of this idea)?  They're like preschoolers who don't get their way, who aren't in charge, and throw themselves on the ground kicking and screeching their ridiculous demands.  Except what they aren't fully in charge of any more is women's bodies, civil rights, the definition of morality, the country.  That's a lot to lose.

Of course, with hysterical preschoolers, it's best to ignore the tantrum until they calm down.  But we can't just let these men scream and control everything until they figure out they are no longer in charge (because they won't).  It's our responsibility to put them in time out and contain their damage . . . because trying to reason with them just doesn't work.

Whew, needed to rant incoherently myself just then before the incredulity and anger became overwhelming (so, in that way, I guess I actually understand the far right!).

Broccoli Llama

I can't get enough of Bud's new hand song (you know, nonsense rhymes with hand movements) about llamas.  This one starts with "happy llama, sad llama" and a hand sign like "hook'em horns" but the "ears" go down on "sad."  And it keeps going . . . . He's only done it for me once, being to shy afterwards when I wanted to see it again.  Luckily, I got it on video the first time (but have promised to never show anyone ever.  Right.)!  It just makes me smile.  Teasing him about it, by doing the llama sign, makes me smile too, especially as he objects, "You are SO annoying!" he squeals, loving the attention (because if there is anything that boy loves, it's an audience.)  Sis doesn't know the rhyme as well and doesn't get as worked up when I mention it; and she just smiles when he gets embarrassed.  It's hilarious.

Even more funny, there is a line in the rhyme that I thought mentioned "broccoli llama," which doesn't make any kind of sense.  Well, little of it makes sense.  But Urban Dictionary clears up that confusion:  it's Barack "Ollama!"  Must be a new one (the llama subject reminds me of those recent kids' books by Anna Dewdney like Llama, Llama Red Pajama, and Llama, Llama Mad at Mama, etc.).  Bud's version is different than the one in Urban Dictionary because it omits the Dalai "Llama" (meditation fingers!) part and ends with a whole "moose-alpaca-moose-moose-alpaca-goat" section.  

Perhaps you have to see it to appreciate it.

-=-=-=-=-=-
Llama Song, Bud's version


(make a llama head with your pointer finger and pinkie, like "Hook'em Horns")

happy llama (regular llama, see above)

sad llama (droop "ear" fingers)

totally rad llama (make a llama and wave it like a lasso by your head)

super llama (hand signs are unclear here)

drama llama 

big fat mama llama (put hands beside each other and put up the outer finger on each hand)

baby llama (llama kissing your cheeks)

crazy llama (circular motions with both llamas each side of your head)

don't forget barack ollama (unclear hand signs here)

fish, fish (put both hands out in front, palms down)

more (roll hands over eachother)

fish (hand out in front again)

turtle (make turtle, one hand on top of the other)

UH (bring turtle towards your chest)

unicorn (bring both hands up to your forehead)

peacock (fan arms out to either side, kinda like a peacock tail)


moose (spread-finger hands beside head)


alpaca (hang-ten hands beside head)


moose, moose, alpaca (repeat above_


goat (use two hands to make beard at chin)


moose, alpaca, moose, moose, alpaca, goat! (repeat signs)

Bloomers

A Gorgeous Day

Happy 100th Birthday, Girl Scouts!

It's the Girl Scout Jubilee, the anniversary of the founding of the now-largest organization for girls by Juliette Gordon Low!

Interestingly, I vividly remember getting in trouble during a third-grade math lesson for reading a biography of Juliette Gordon Low that I'd just gotten during library time!  (Honestly, I think it was the only time I got called out by name in class in school ever.  It was a great series of biographies, particularly of childhood, of Americans, in the early 1970s, with the long lists of people in both front and back flyleafs; I read all the ones on women--Dorothea Dix, Juliette Gordon Low, Julia Ward Howe, Mary Todd Lincoln, Louisa May Alcott, even Sacagawea, albeit a Native American, etc etc.  Possibly Childhood of Famous Americans series (here and here).).

As you know, I was a Girl Scout for years, from Brownie through Senior, plus camp counseling at Girl Scout camp Mira Sol for children with special needs outside of San Antonio, and am so grateful for my experiences.  I loved earning badges, going to swap meets and other programs, and selling cookies (back when they were 75 cents a box . . . and I still only ever sold about 75, compared to Sis's 300+), only stopping when my troop dissolved (not knowing anything about Gold Star or other programs).  But camp had to be, by far, my favorite Girl Scout activity.  I started at day camp and then moved to my first, two-night, sleepover camp at Camp Robinwood outside of Houston.  Singing, s'mores, crafts, swimming.  I loved it. Later, I went to week-long camps at Camp Agnes Arnold and Camp Casa Mare, where we did outdoor experiments, canoeing, theater arts, and all manner of wonderful things.  I loved packing for camp, then setting up my cot with mosquito netting and sleeping bag (usually my blue, Holly Hobbie-esque Joan Walsh Anglund one), getting mail from Gommie (who always packed one and left one with the counselors so I always had mail), going to the camp store for t-shirts and pillowcases, making friends with my bunkmates, having crushes on the counselors (most memorably, Jo, at Casa Mare.  I should have known.  And now I can read about other lesbian scout experiences in On My Honor: Lesbians Reflect on Their Scouting Experience by Nancy Manahan).  That doesn't begin to touch on the arts (tie-dye, wax candles, telephone wire jewlery), the songs (oh, my favorite part was signing around the campfire and I remember them all!), the food (campfire cooking, plus I even liked the cafeteria food!).  Being a counselor, for three or four summers at Mira Sol (I was also a counselor at a Boy Scout camp and also at a YMCA day camp, both for special needs), was just wonderful, really an extension of my own camping, because we mentored in pairs or small groups and did all the activities with our campers (who were only a few years younger than I was in early adolescence), and then got to socialize with other counselors during afternoon rest and at night.  Even when we were flooded and had to evacuate as the Guadalupe River rose, it was great and thrilling.   I wish I could go back to camp now.

And so I am now a leader for Sis's Daisy troop (they didn't have Daisies way back when), just like Gommie was for me for a few years (for my thoughts on Boy Scouts, see here and here.  Briefly, homophobic, theocratic Boy Scouts stink.)  We've done arts and crafts, singing, field trips, community service, and explorations of different activities, like yoga and (soon) letterboxing and horseback riding, plus, of course, cookie sales.  Sis has even gone to day camp and will go again this summer.  I can't wait to continue Scouting with her and hope she stays in it for years, as long as it is a rewarding and interesting experience for her (and not just because I love it, though it will be bittersweet if she wants to stop before I do!).

So, happy birthday, Girl Scouts and thanks for the memories in the past and the ones Sis and I are making now!

-=-=-=-=-=-
(Support your local Girl Scouts by buying cookies--send a message to Rep. Bob Morris of Indiana, and other hardcore Republicans, who have an untrue, even creepy view that Girl Scouts promote the sexualization and lesbianism of girls and are a gateway to Planned Parenthood. Seriously?  What is it with Republicans and their obsession with sex?  Like Rush Limbaugh wanting to watch??  Ugh.  But more on that another time.)

Another One

And now Bud is heading home from school, by way of the pediatrician, with a stomachache, which he's had off and on for a few days.

When it rains, it pours.

The Accidental Alien-Astronaut Tourist

I've found the perfect tv show to watch while I'm curled up in bed with this cold/sinus infection (for which I just got antibiotics this morning):  "Ancient Aliens."

Yep, you read that correctly:  "Ancient Aliens."

It's a show on H2 (History Channel 2) that explores the ideas of "Alien Astronaut Theorists."  Like Chariots of the Gods author Erich von Daniken.  They believe that extra-terrestrials have visited Earth in the remote past as well as in the more recent past (and present) and have had notable impact on such things as architecture (particularly tools and techniques, as well as types--you know, for landing strips!), weather (earthquakes, floods, hurricanes were caused by aliens), religion (West African Dogons, Australian aborigines), and genetics (in that they have interbred, evidenced by long-skulled skeletons.  Oh, before humans, they interbred with reptiles and created Reptilians).  Evidence--in the realm of unexplainable architecture, ancient art, and ancient texts--abounds for them, especially because they take everything so literally:  a sculpture of a fantastic lizard means that lizard was real, probably the result of reptile-alien breeding; pictographs of large-eyed figures must mean large-eyed figures, i.e. Gray aliens, lived on earth; rows of boulders visible from the air, such as at Carnac in Brittany, must have been made to be visible from the air, for spaceships; descriptions in the Bible and Vedic texts are all real and not metaphorical, including Ezekial's spaceship-wheel, the "manna machine" from aliens in the desert for 40 years, and the flying Vimanas with mercury.  Of course, you've never heard so many maybe-probably-potentially qualifiers and "if-then" subjunctives used in one sentence!  And those by investigative journalists and author/publishers of various books and magazines like Legendary Times and The Ancient Alien Question , who believe traditional archaeologists, the government, NASA, Freemasons, and schools don't comprehend or cover up the truth.

How could that not be fun?

These shows have come a long way from the books and shows I was obsessed with in the early 1980s, which were all ESP, Freemasons, Bigfoot, Roswell, Machu Picchu, Nazca lines, Stonehenge, and the pyramids.  I followed those with glee and interest, appreciating the non-traditional theories and idea that "the truth is out there." Now there are more remote and less familiar sites--Gobekli Tepe in Turkey and Puma Punku in Bolivia and Carahunge in Armenia, to name a few--and a more coherent theory encompassing it all, namely "alien astronauts."  Of course, as much as I enjoy the theories and armchair sightseeing, I don't really believe these ideas.  Are there aliens somewhere?  Probably.  Have they been here?  I doubt it--I tend to think if they'd been here, they'd have taken over (and the theorists never convincingly explain "why," even if they have "what" down pat.)  Are art and texts proof?  I tend to read art and texts much more metaphorically and imaginatively and would be very cautious about reading them as "real" or "true" (a la Da Vinci Code author Dan Brown claiming all descriptions of art in his book are "true."  It might be his true reading but belief in something, however strongly held, doesn't make it true or real.)  How did they make those buildings?  I think we often underestimate the accomplishments of our ancestors, having lost their skills and believing so whole-heartedly in our own superiority to all previous times, and don't need aliens to explain their achievements. That said, I know there are things in history and science that we can't explain, might never understand. I just don't think we need to say aliens are the answer.

So, why?  Why "alien astronauts"? Is this an outgrowth of fifty years of Star Trek, Star Wars, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, E.T., "The X-Files," and the like?   Is this an attempt for otherwise secular people to have something to believe in that is bigger than themselves?  Or to have an explanation, any explanation, for Mystery?  Is it coincidence that the experts are all middle-aged white men?  Is this just the folklore of our era, instead of wicked stepmothers or rogue cowboys?  An expression of distrust of government and institutions?

It's great brain candy for a sick day, regardless.

My Turn

Yep, I picked up Sis's infection, or something, and am sick with a virulent head cold.  :(

Dinner Pot Pie

Recipe here.

SuperBetter is Live!

The new SuperBetter website is public now, after months of beta!   As I think I've mentioned before (like here and here), I think the site is wonderful at helping me direct my energies towards what I can do and what I want to be able to do, without focusing too much on what I can't do.  If you have anything you want to achieve--and it doesn't have to be health-related--go sign up and the site will guide you to doing it.  Good luck!

Shadow Dancers

Anyone watching Bud and I yesterday morning would have thought we were odd as we stood in the yard flapping our arms, shaking our  heads, even standing on our heads (of course, him and not me).  But we had noticed what strong sunlight was lighting up our yard and decided to make a human shadow puppet.  We did a three-headed creature, with my elbow as the third bobbing head; an octopus with eight arms; a multi-armed dancing Hindu god or goddess (there are several, but I'm thinking of Shiva from this sculpture in Chicago); and other wacky indescribables.  Mama even joined us for a last, fabulous multi-headed, multi-armed figure before the bus stopped in front of the house.

We were looking at the daffodil and only managed one figure this morning in the watery light . . . .

Bloomin' Bet

Yesterday, when all of us wandered outside for a bit of spring air, we came across this brave daffodil bud growing in our rock wall.  We wondered when it would bloom and so hazarded some guesses:  Bud said March 10, Sis said April, and I guessed March 14.  Now we'll check every morning to watch its progress, not really caring who's right; the buttery-yellow blossom will be our reward.

Joke of the Day

Humor was our theme for today (actually, for several days now)--knock-knocks, riddles, silly jokes--I told several to Sis every time she took a sip as an incentive.  It especially worked when I found a page of bunny jokes!  There were also dinosaur jokes and food jokes and lots of knock-knock jokes.  So Bud was in on the joke, too, I put one in his lunch and folded it so he didn't accidentally read the punchline first.  He loved it!  It certainly does help to inject some humor into difficult days--I'll need it again tomorrow, too, as Sis isn't well enough to go to school yet (the medicine for her sinus infection, leftover from her cold three weeks ago, is making her nauseous and might need to be switched) and bud misses her in their class.

So, please send your favorite joke (one that I can share with the kids!) . . .

Us, Too

My friend Shelley has had sick children off and on for the last month.  Now it's our turn:  Sis has a fever and will be home today and, at least, tomorrow.

My Next Epic Win

I haven't posted about Super Better much recently, both because my usage of it waned a bit after Christmas and because they are revamping the site and will introduce a new one soon.  Until then, I want to do a little Super Better bit here, because I have a new "Epic Win":  in a month or so, I'm going to a formal meditation class!  I'm very excited but also a bit nervous.  That's where Super Better comes in.

Epic Win:  Meditation class (1/2 day)

Allies:  Mama Hungry; family and friends; my faithful blog readers; my physical therapist; my minister; Toni Bernhard (author of How to Be Sick); the staff and teacher at the class

Bad Guys:  anxiety; fatigue; ruminating; discomfort;  isolation; unfamiliarity

Quests (in preparation for the Epic Win):

• walk on the treadmill 45 minutes everyday
• do my PT stretches and exercises everyday
• meditate everyday
• work on getting up and down off the floor with PT, if she says ok (I can't do this at all right now)

Power-Ups (pick-me-ups):

• "Born this Way" and other songs on my hits list
• socializing with friends
• blogging
• reading
• eating dinner with the family
• sitting up
• going to church
• walking on my treadmill

Power Boosts (smaller accomplishments to look forward to before then):  

• Spring!
• our now-weekly Whole Foods trips
• finishing the cookbook and docent training

Hero Status:  Super Mommy Hungry!

Another Great List

If you liked my personal list of resources for meditation, check out Mindful.org's list of mindfulness books.  I'm putting Wild Chickens and Petty Tyrants: 108 Metaphors for Mindfulness and One-Minute Mindfulness at the top of my list.

E'rewa Ilingualba

I aveha lwaysa antedwa ota peaksa notheraa anguagela.  Nda owna I etga yma ancecha!  Heta idska aveha earnedla ota peaksa "Igpa Atinla," hatta imelessta ongueta.  Heyta venea alkedta ota Ommiega ndaa Oppa!  Tia asha eenba a ongla imeta ndaa I aswa everna luentfa, osa I illwa eepka hista ortsha.  Utba heta idska reaa avingha lastba!

Finishing Up

Though I have been mostly done with both the cookbook and the historic house curriculum, tomorrow is the big day!  The second proof of the cookbook is due and the last docent training on the curriculum is in the morning.  What will I do with myself?!

"Cornbread and Butter Beans"

We went to our friend Miss M's "roots music" concert yesterday and had a wonderful time tapping our feet, snapping our fingers (the kids have been practicing this!), and even cutting up the rug while listening to their lyrical voices, mandolin, banjo, guitars, and harmonica with old friends from church (hi again, Miss D!).  We had heard Miss M and her husband Mr. C perform at church any number of times but never two full sets.  We bought the CD so we can bring them home with us.  And of course, I loved the "Cornbread and Butter Beans" song (by the wonderfully named Carolina Chocolate Drops):

"Cornbread and butter beans and you across the table
making love and eating beans as long as I am able!"

Inspired, I've got some butter beans on the stove right now . . . .

They're Here!

My New Book Club

I couldn't read The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society without wanting to be a member of that group!  I know I am coming to the party about four years late, but I just picked up the epistolary novel and couldn't put it down.  While it was strongly reminiscent of 64 Charing Cross Road--WWII, books, a story in letters, England--it had a more active narrative, diverse and endearing characters, and a much happier ending.  

I realize that I rarely blog about books I really like, mentioning those that are entertaining or informative instead.  But I never really posted about Azar Nafisi's Reading Lolita in Tehran, Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, and others I can't remember at this point.  Perhaps I find it difficult to put their effect on me into words; being touched by a book is often an intimate, private experience.  I mean, I've said I like Mary Anne Shaffer and Annie Barrows's book, but not much more.  So, I'll leave it at read it yourself, though you probably already have, and let me know what you thought . . . if you can.

Recent Travels in TV Land

I've seen more tv recently than usual, an odd amalgam of popular shows and PBS (but popular PBS!).

• "Glee":  One of my perennial favorites, I didn't want there to be a suicide, but I saw the Karofsky attempt coming.  I'm just glad he didn't die--it might be more "real," but it would be too depressing in a tv show.  I hope Karofsky makes many more appearances . . . even if I can't believe the next new episode isn't for almost 7 weeks!
• "SMASH":  Well, while I wait for "Glee" to come back on, I'm reveling in this new musical/Broadway show for adults.  The songs (both original and popular), the stories, the immensely talented actors, the behind-the-scenes view, I'm loving it.  I can watch it over and over again, like "Glee," almost as my own MTV.
• "Downton Abbey":  Ah, an English costume drama a la Gosford Park!  And with Dame Maggie Smith.  Really, what could be better?  I liked the end of the second season better than the first half--some of the WWI plots were unbelievable, even if based in fact (miraculous paralysis healings and disfigured long lost cousins or impostors a la that Jody Foster/Richard Gere movie based on the French book, both of which escape me and I'm too lazy to look up).  I'm really looking forward to another season, and beyond.  
• "Old Curiosity Shop":  I like Dickens miniseries like the next person, but when I peaked at the plot summary midway through, I was bummed about the ending and quit watching, even with the entrancing period settings and costumes and dear Derek Jacobi.
• Grammys:  I hadn't watched the music awards since I listened devotedly to popular music 25 years ago! Thankfully, because of "Glee," I recognized some of the songs and artists and enjoyed the performances by Adele, Bruno Mars, Taylor Swift, The Civil Wars, and especially Jennifer Hudson's musical tribute to Whitney Houston.  It was a great show.  Well, except for all the aging white male performers who shouldn't have, especially the Beach Boys.
• Oscars:  Another example of old white guys who shouldn't have.  If the Oscars don't want to seem old, they shouldn't have hired 9-time host Billy Crystal with his lame and offensive jokes about the lack of black women in Hollywood, among many, many others.  The whole show felt old and musty.  Except Meryl Streep and a few others--she seems very funny.  Of course, I don't keep up with film much and I'm not their target geographic, being both female and over 25.  Telling that I should find more of interest in the Grammys.

Which means there are a lot of shows that people keep recommending to me (everyone asks if I watch "Modern Family") that I'm not really watching.  This is more than I've watched since I first hurt my back (when there weren't as many good shows on, I should say, and I watched cooking tv and movies).

Kidbits

Reverberations of our Boston trip are frequently felt:  Bud recreated the midnight ride of Paul Revere in Legos. And then Sis constructed her own colonial "chocolate" mud making system complete with metate, or stones to grind it.  Then they spent all of dinner retelling the Aquarium's IMAX movie to me.  So, of course, we're thinking of going back!

-=-=-=-=-=-

We have a system for quelling some disagreements, particularly about tooth-brushing:  Sis gets to go first on the even dates and Bud gets to go first on the odd dates.  This works well, except when a month ends on an odd date and of course the next one starts on an odd date (like, well, today).  Last night, upset by the fact that there were two odd days in a row, Sis declared, "I want to be odd!"  And hearing this statement, we all burst out laughing and they both began dancing around the dinner table, trying to be as odd as possible!

-=-=-=-=-=-

We had a dance party last night, each of us choosing a song (plus one for Mama, who worked late).  Sis chose  Justin Bieber's "Baby," Bud chose "Bad Romance."  We picked "Dynamite" for Mama.  and I like "Born this Way."  All the "Glee" versions.

-=-=-=-=-=-

We are reading The Borrowers now, one of my favorite childhood books, in advance of eventually seeing the new Studio Ghibli film.  But Sis, having seen the movie commercials, keeps calling the book by the movie title, The Secret World of Arietty.  Either way, we're really enjoying the story, them for the first time, and me 30+ years later.

A Treat from Istanbul

Tonight we squeezed in an unplanned date night after physical therapy, heading to Bloodroot for a Turkish dinner in honor of the owners' return from their vacation abroad.  It sounds like they had a marvelous time and loved the hospitable people, enjoying the sites including the usual Grand Bazaar, Blue Mosque, and Hagia Sofia, as well as a mosque designed by a woman (a first; link has some pretty photos.  I've actually been to Turkey, once, for a day, in the middle of a Greek Island cruise with Gommie--we saw the Roman ruins at Ephesus, but I don't recall eating there at all).  And what wonderful food!  Tonight, they served a dinner inspired by their trip, especially the foods at the spice markets (and Selma's numerous collections of Turkish cookbooks):

• Borek - a filled savory fillo pastry 
• Muhummara - a delicious spread made from roasted peppers, aleppo peppers, and pomegranate molasses
• Cemen - a spiced tomato walnut dip
• Apricot Pistachio Pilaf, with lots of great flavor and texture
• Lokum - Turkish delight (in this case, a not so sweet candy)

It reminded me of our favorite exhibition on the Silk Road.  I hope Bloodroot keeps some of these dishes on the menu.  It's a nice change from all the standard Italian around here.

Namaste, Daisies

Today, Sis and her Daisy troop explored yoga with one of my co-leaders, sixteen girls stretching and moving with their young, flexible, strong bodies.  They did a meditation Starbright: Meditations for Children by Maureen Garth, heard the story The Happiest Tree by Uma Krishnaswarmi, danced with scarves and practiced various poses to the music of Kira Willey, played a cooperative yoga game called Yoga Garden, and followed the leader in these poses:
 
*Sun Salutaion
*Mountain Pose
*Ragdoll
*Plank Pose
*Cobra/Snake
*Dog Pose
*Butterfly
*Peacock
*Pretzel Spinal Twist
*Chair Pose
*Flamingo 
*Child's Pose
*Tree Pose
*Bridge Pose
*Cat Pose (angry and happy!)


It was a wonderful hour of union of mind, body, and spirit.


(Gommie, I'll get the Yoga Garden Game for you to play the next time you're here--you'll be the only adult who can!)