Of This and That

Of Ice Cream and Kids' Books
Yesterday, we had the delightful opportunity to go to a presentation by children's authors Tui Sutherland (Wings of Fire series, Menagerie series, etc.) and Christine Taylor-Butler (numerous non-fiction and Lost Tribes series.)  The kids knew the former author very well from several of their favorite books--earlier, they'd both agreed that they liked her dragon stories more than Harry Potter!  We hadn't knowingly read any of the latter author's works (though we saw copies of a book on Pluto that I know we had) but were interested in her new series that involves lots of codes.

Sutherland intrigued the kids with stories on how she became an author (via publishing), how she works (late at night), and how she fleshes out an idea (sometimes with a character first, sometimes with the idea of a world, like Wings of Fire--draw a map, she advised!)  She showed lots of cover art, including book 8 in the dragon series, and generally encouraged the children's creativity.

Taylor-Butler, who is an MIT-trained engineer, also always wanted to be a writer but hadn't thought it was a paying "real" job until she was an adult.  She wrote close to 75 non-fiction books, often on contract with Scholastic, looking for what interested her in such subjects as American History, meteorology, etc.  Only later did someone ask her to turn a short children's book about a boy who thought his mother was an alien from Venus into a novel.  And now she's written a novel about codes, Lost Tribes.  She talked about existing codes--and kid's pages on the FBI, NSA, and CIA websties--and did a few scientific experiments (magnets and money, paper clips on water.)  She says she always bases science fiction on real science.  Our kids were fascinated.  Mama and I liked her, too, as she repeatedly said what a nerd she was . . . and proudly!!


We stood in short lines to meet both authors and take pictures, buying copies of Lost Tribes for the kids.  I teased Mama that she might need her own copy!

 Afterwards, we went to our favorite farm ice cream stand--we hadn't been in such a long time!  And it was as good as we remembered.  I couldn't decide and so got strawberry AND peaches & cream, sharing it all around.  Mama got Jersey cow (coffee ice cream with chocolate and caramel chunks); Bud, purple cow (raspberry ice cream and chocolate chunks); Sis, caramel swirl.  Delicious!!  They're planning all the flavors we can make this summer.

Of Slushies and Straight Swords
Bud had a local kung fu competition today, this time a mixed martial arts contest between teams at one of the local amusement parks.  Most of the other groups were karate--Bud said that there was a lot of breaking boards!--and some very young kids doing simple forms.  He did both his fist and straight sword forms as part of the large team performance.  And they came in second!  They were all very pleased.  Plus, there were slushies and fried dough and ice cream! And a rollercoaster that almost did Mama in.  A fun day out.  With a team trophy for langiappe.

Of Cake and Crochet
At home, Sis and I had our own fun today.  We started off with a trip to the craft store for supplies--my first drive out to the mall since my surgery (my longest drive yet!!)--and then picked up pasta at Sis's favorite Italian place (chicken fettucine alfredo for her, "pink" pasta with prosciutto for me.)  We watched a lot of "Doctor Who" and petted the cats.  Midday, we made Tex-Mex Chocolate sheet cake, which we shared with our neighbor who had been so kind to give us brisket yesterday (he's into smoking brisket these days--and we are the happy recipients of his experiments.  His sauce was better yesterday!)  Sis took some to his family and also to our friend Miss K, the teacher.   We watched more tv, with me finishing two un-edged crocheted afghans and Sis completing a thread art project.  Later, Sis told Mama that we had an awesome day!  Yay!


Of Pie and Puzzles
Well, not really pie but close . . . . Last week, we had a Cobbler-Off.  We made two kinds of cobbler:  pie-crust-topped mixed berry, based on my aunt's Dewberry Cobbler recipe, and a skillet peach cobbler from the Homesick Texan cookbook, with its more cake-like top.  Why?  One each for Bud and Sis!  And I was trying out the different types of crust.  I wasn't completely pleased with the peach, not fluffy or cakey enough.  I think I might still like the topping of Swedish Apple Pie best for cobbler.  Something worth playing with this summer.

Meanwhile, we started a new puzzle.  Mama is on a puzzle kick because she's been doing them with her team at work.  And so we've done a few here, including this multi-colored cupcake one which was challenging.  Mama and I like to do the border; Bud and Sis like to do the section they like the best, with or without the frame--this time they'd choose a color.  But some of the colors didn't vary enough to make it easy to put together.  But we like a challenging puzzle, made more so by the cats that kept sitting on them.  We finished it tonight, after a slow try-each-piece-in-each-spot approach for the last, most difficult cupcake.  I wonder what we'll do next?



Of NYCats and Connecticats

There has been some progress on the cat front.  The basement boys, Mojo and Mr. P, are definitely more comfortable, in fact even prefer, being on the first floor with us.  P sits in the cat tree near the front window, next to where I am on the couch (hence all the photos of him--that and he's easier to photograph than a black cat.  He sits there so much that the cover is beginning to fray--it's an old cat tree--Sis and I bought new furry fabric today); Mojo likes being on the couch, also wandering around (he's even been climbing the refrigerator and kitchen cabinets.)  And even when Hermione approaches, they either hiss or just ignore her.  It's rare that they race straight downstairs.  In fact, at least once, we put our "old" cats in the basement while we let the "new" cats have the top two floors.  Mr. P even slept with us!  But Mama says that in the morning, Albus and Hermione were crying, "You accidentally locked the wrong cats in the basement!"  They'd even pulled part of the frame of the small cat door off.  They were all so exhausted afterwards, that the four cats went to their usual places and slept all day.  Last night, we didn't even separate anyone.   They all lived.  And came together again today without much hissing.  It's nice.  Or at least as nice as it has been so far.  (We're still aiming for no hissing.)

Puzzling

All four cats found their way onto the puzzle, separately, this weekend.  Could it be the cool surface?  Despite this "help," we did finish.

Mojito takes his turn on the puzzle.

Gumbo Yay-Yay!

That green thing is a giant bay leaf.

Oh, yeah, this is gonna be good.  I just tasted my very first attempt at gumbo in the slow cooker and it's good.  I am not sure, yet, if it's better than my stovetop version, but it's at least a tie.  And so much easier to make.  I got the idea because I've seen numerous recipes for slow-cooker gumbo--it does need to be cooked low and slow--I often rush mine.  And it's so much easier than sauteeing everything separately and then combine in a roux-based sauce.  I still made the roux and then dumped everything together.  The chopping is the longest and hardest part now (this time, I let the roux cook the whole time I was chopping--right next to the stove so I could watch it, though--got it nice and brown.)  

Now experts will probably deride the slow cooker.  And also notice that Mama bought the wrong color bell pepper.  And question the authenticity because I don't add tomatoes or file or okra or whatever.  It's my version and we all love it.  And now I've found another, easier, and maybe even better way to make it.

(My original stove top gumbo recipe and my other New Orleans recipes are here.)

My Slow Cooker Chicken and Sausage Gumbo

4-5 chicken breasts

1-2 lbs. sausage, sliced into coins
1 large onions chopped
3-5 ribs celery, chopped
1 green bell pepper, chopped
5 cloves garlic, minced
1 bay leaves
2 teaspoons Tony’s (approximately--I use just 1 teaspoon for my kids)

1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup oil

6-8 cups chicken stock

cooked rice, for serving

Place chicken, sausage, onion, celery, bell pepper, garlic, bay leaf, and Tony's in crockpot.

Make roux by slowly heating flour and oil in a saucepan on the stove until the color of peanut butter.  Do NOT burn.  Add chicken broth and stir.  Pour this broth mixture over ingredients in crockpot.

Cook on LOW for 6-8 hours.  Serve over rice.

Mommy Hungry

Girl Talk

When I was a kid, "the talk" came in 5th grade.  The girls were gathered on the industrially-carpeted floor in the communal space between the four classrooms to watch a filmstrip while all the boys got extra outdoor recess; moms weren't invited, but they did have to give permission to participate.  The whole talk was very abstract, as I recall it, with flowers and how it feels to be a girl, and we got a booklet and a coupon for a product starter kit.  I don't remember much else, probably because I knew about menstruation before the talk (I started after my fifth-grade year, when I was 11.)  I did like the booklet, with its pastel colors, and its chatty informational style.  Amazingly, you can see the whole thing here.  I was very excited, though, about the starter kit that came in the mail after I sent in my coupon, filled with different kinds of pads in a big pastel box.  I kept it under the bed for a long time.

Things are different now.

First, the talk comes in 4th grade and it's after school, very optional.  In fact, our neighbor girl told me that she and her mother are totally against the school providing such information, that parents should teach this when the time comes.  Sigh.  I told her families have different beliefs and that we believe in science and education and this was about biology.  But then, as you know, my kids have had the UU OWL class, about sexuality health already and know a lot about biology and its spiritual dimensions.

The talk was given by a school nurse, very direct, entertaining, informational, and practical.  She put the girls AND moms at ease as she discussed:

• the biology of puberty (the physical changes), from widening hips, growing breasts, appearance of sweat glands, increase in hormones, growth of pubic hair, and then advent of MEN-STROO-ATION! (I can still hear it as talked about in Are You There God, It's Me, Margaret?) and the actual process of ovulation, etc etc etc.  She kept saying that their bodies were practicing for being pregnant . . .and then she said they should wait a long time, after college, to have babies;
• and the emotions of adolescence (the experience of puberty), like moodiness and lack of concentration and tiredness;
• practical hygiene issues--changing pads and underwear, keeping clean with morning showers, and the one that surprised all the moms--changing pillowcases every night to reduce blemishes from the bacteria and oil gathered on the pillow.  Who knew?
• and practical issues for handling it at school--how to have a little pouch with pads, extra underwear, maybe some wipes; how to get to the nurse if you have an accident or cramps--just say, "I'm going to throw up!" the nurse said; also that it's a private issue and no one will know that you are having your period unless you tell them.
• Cramps--exercise to move the muscles and release the endorphins, heating pads, tylenol and ibuprofen if needed;
• she even passed out pads that they opened and unwrapped--of course, one girl stuck it on her forehead (not MY girl.)  The pad was so small that I said it must belong to an American Girl Doll!  When did they start coming in small sizes?  It is so much more appropriate for young girls.
• Sleep, eat right, keep clean, listen to your body for rest, and exercise--girls are strong, the nurse said, and we're the only ones who can make babies and we can handle periods.  

It was all very straightforward and even empowering.  And a huge milestone in a young girl's life (the talk, I mean, not even the period.) The first of many coming up.  

I hope I can meet them all with such calm directness.

Blessing the Hands

"Clearing" by Martha Postlewait
Do not try to save
the whole world
or do anything grandiose.
Instead, create a clearing
in the dense forest of your life
and wait there
patiently,
until the song
that is your life
falls into your own cupped hands
and you recognize and greet it.
Only then will you know
how to give yourself
to this world
so worthy of rescue.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Today was our annual hospice volunteer luncheon, which is always a fun and touching event.   And I was so excited to go--I made it the whole time!! This is huge because I haven't eaten in a restaurant--in uncomfortable chairs!--since my surgery.  And you know how I love eating in different restaurants.  I also haven't seen my hospice friends since March either, so it was good to see them.  It gets lonely at home by myself.

It was a lovely event, with a special blessing of the hands that the chaplain performed. "May your hands be blessed as you offer compassionate care to those that you touch," she said.  Actually, we perform it on each other, saying a blessing or a wish for the person next to us as he or she dips fingers in the basin.   "In this work, may you be a comfort to others and, when you are in need, may you be comforted," I said to the person next to me.  The person on my other side wished me healing and a full life.  

And we ate great food!  It's so much nicer not to be a vegetarian at these events--pasta is usually the phoned-in dish.  But the rest of it was delicious.  (I do feel the pull of vegetarianism strongly, but it will probably just be a larger percentage, not total.)  There were also cake pops, as there always are at our gatherings; someone in the office makes them--and I get sent home with extras for the kids!

All the volunteers received nice swag--both volunteer appreciation bags with candy and pens and such, and things with our company logo on it (an insulated lunchbox--last year was a picnic blanket--we are part of a multi-state corporation that provides hospice; they are required by federal law to have a volunteer corps--it's a nice change from non-profits sometimes!  We eat better.)--and were recognized for our work.  The daughter of a former patient gave a moving speech about how our hospice team helped with her mother's dying.  It was a nice addition to hear from a family member, especially since we have no contact with the family after the death (that's the bereavement team.)

I love this work and I really like my team.  Today was extra-special because of these last few months.  It's nice to be a volunteer again, and not a patient!!!

(Though, thankfully, not anywhere near a hospice patient in March.)

-=-=-=-=-=-

Blessed be the hands that have touched life.
Blessed be the hands that have nurtured creativity.
Blessed be the hands that have held pain.
Blessed be the hands that have embraced with passion.
Blessed be the hands that have closed in anger.
Blessed be the hands that have planted new seeds.
Blessed be the hands that have harvested ripe fields.
Blessed be the hands that have cleaned, washed, and scrubbed.
Blessed be the hands that have become wrinkled with years.
Blessed be the hands that are scarred from doing justice.
Blessed be the hands that have reached out and been received.
Blessed be the hands that feed those who are hungry.
Blessed be the hands that comfort the dying and touch the dead.
Blessed be the hands that greet strangers.
Blessed be the hands that guide the young.

Blessed be these hands.

TGIF

Last full Friday of the school year, with only a week of mostly half-days left to go!

It finally feels like summer here in CT, perhaps too much--I am just not ready for 86F, even with air conditioning.  Makes me want to never leave the house, until maybe October.  Oh well, other people don't like to leave the house between December and April, so I guess it balances.

I'm trying an old recipe in a new way today:  gumbo in the crockpot!  My usual slow cooker recipe requires sauteeing onions, celery, and bell pepper apart from the sausage and apart from the chicken AND making a roux before combining everything.  And I find just the chopping can be enough standing-at-the-counter time for me these days.  So, I pretty much dumped all of the ingredients in the slow cooker, made a roux, and added it.  It'll simmer all day, hopefully really pulling the flavors out of the veggies and sausage.  I'll let you know.

Otherwise, we've got the usual extracurriculars and all of the end-of-year stuff, and even a birthday party in the next week or two.  Whew.  I think they're will be more meals in the slow cooker . . . because yesterday, having taken Sis to the "Girl Talk," I totally forgot that I had to make dinner!  I have a feeling that could happen again in the next week or so.

Renewed Books

I got a Kindle while I was recovering from surgery--it was easier to hold than a book and I could also read it at night without a light, while Mama slept.

And I'm loving reading historical mysteries, which was my preferred genre before the kiddos.  A friend in grad school turned me on to them more than twenty years ago--she was a huge Anne Perry fan and so I started to read her Victorian mysteries, too (first the Thomas Pitt series, then Detective Monk.)  Slowly I branched out--medieval mysteries, Elizabethan mysteries, eighteenth century, Victorian.  I never really took to the ancient Roman ones, despite my background in classical studies.  At the height of my reading, I was probably reading 20+ different series.

See, I'm not a great reader of "literature"--I tended to read non-fiction for school and then these "twinkies" after school.  I've never been one to fret over the great American novel or the hot trade paperback.  And then, with young children, I barely read much for myself; I'd read to them.  But now that they're finally reading books like Harry Potter, etc., that interest me, they want to read on their own!

And I've rediscovered reading my mysteries.  It started when I began reading the books on which "Miss Fisher's Mysteries" were based--I just love Phryne Fisher and her early 20th-century Australia!  And reading was made easier by the Kindle--they are cheap and easy to get.  I'm reading through many of the favorite series I was reading a decade ago, picking up where I left off.  And I'm enjoying it immensely, going through a few a week.

Just wait til I catch up with all the new historical mystery series started in the last decade!

I don't even have to make room on my bookshelves.

-=-=-=-=-=-
Medieval
Margaret Frazer, Dame Frevisse series (15th-century England)
Caroline Roe, Isaac the Healer series (medieval Spain)

Elizabethan
Fiona Buckley, Ursula Blanchard series
Karen Harper, Queen Elizabeth 1 as detective!
Kathy Lynn Emerson, "Face Down" series with Susanna Appleton

Victorian
Barbara Hambly, Benjamin January (early 19th-century New Orleans)
Victoria Thompson, Gaslight series (early 20th-century NYC, with a midwife and a detective)
Anne Perry, both Thomas Pitt and Detective Monk series (London)

Other
Laura Joh Rowland, Sano Ichiro (17th-century Japan)
Peter Tremayne, Sister Fidelma (7th-century Ireland)
Bruce Alexander, Sir John Fielding (18th-century London)

Feeling Better

No pain pills yesterday.

And feeling good today.

(except for some side effects of drinking all that damned contrast drink)

Grateful.

So Proud

Sis was awarded the student-of-the-month "Character Counts" for her class.

We are very proud.

And surprised.

She hadn't told us--I read it in the monthly class newsletter this morning.  So Mama and I are thinking up ways to celebrate.

Cat Love

Loving my fur buddies, who are my constant companions (usually one or two at a time.)

He was purring AND snoring!

Albus says, "This is my house."

I like to sit on my brother (see his ear?)

My brother makes a nice pillow.

Brothers

Hermione refused to pose for the paparazzi this time around.

Happy Tea Day!

I saw a funny joke on my FB feed recently, from Twitter, I think.

Brit:  Put the kettle on.

American:  Americans don't have kettles.

Brit:  Then how do you make tea?

American:  We throw it in the harbor.

Actually, most of the tea we drink is iced, something like 80%.  Like shrubs, iced tea began as an ingredient in a boozy colonial punch, until Temperance, Prohibition, and the 1904 World's Fair combined to popularize iced tea by mid-century (for more information, see this NPR piece.)  

I love iced tea and in the fifteen or so years that I've been up north, I've noticed that iced tea--and actual good iced tea--has become widely available.  And most of it is fresh brewed!  You can even get sweet tea at a few places, though nothing like Texas sweet tea.

The stuff I make at home--and I'm making a pitcher right now--isn't quite as sweet.  I used to like sun tea or cold steeped in the fridge, but I've read too much about it not being safe because the tea is not heated; fine--my way is quicker.  (And you know how much I like a cup of hot tea and an afternoon tea party), but that's not what we're celebrating today.)  Anyway you like it though, it's wonderful . . . and perhaps even more American than baseball and apple pie.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Mommy Hungry's Iced Tea

2-3 tea bags (right now I'm using two Lipton decaf and one Celestial Seasonings Tangerine Dream; lemon and mint are good, too.)

2 sugar cubes, to taste

2 cups boiling water

4 cups ice

Steep tea bags and sugar cubes in boiling water (I used it straight out of my Keurig) for approximately 2-3 minutes.  Remove tea bags and stir until all sugar is dissolved.  Pour into heat-proof pitcher filled halfway with ice cubes.  Drink.

Summer 2015

School hasn't even ended and we are checking things off our Summer Fun activities list!!

The * are for weekend activities with Mama.

1. Party/activity in honor of Aunt Sis
2. Go swimming at Y with friends
3. Meet friends at ice rink
4. *Attend town festival in June/volunteer at historic house
5. *Beach trip in city
6. *Putt-putt golf
7. *Baseball game
8. Family book club (we're reading Menagerie and also Redwall)
9. Eat Dole Whip
10. Make ice cream
11. Go to outdoor concert
12. Have a barbecue (after bricking fire pit)
13. Raise butterflies
14. Have a lemonade stand (cookies for cancer?)
15. Picnic
16. Mario kart-athon
17. Movie night
18. Old tv show marathon (ours or theirs)
19. Watch some movie musicals 
20. Play in sprinkler
21. *Go to culture festival (Scottish, Irish, Greek, etc.)
22. *Go to Renaissance festival
23. *Go to zoo
24. Stargazing at observatory
25. *Biking
26. Celebrate 4th of July
27. Celebrate Solstice
28. Celebrate Mama's birthday
29. Birthday party for kids
30. *Go to nature center
31. *Go to aquarium
32. *Go to bird festvial
33. Try a new craft/art project
34. Decorate chalkboard for summer
35. Learn to cook weekly dinners
36. Make ice cube candles
37. Make soap
38. Activity kit day
39. Host a sleepover with friends.  
40. Learn how to clean bathrooms.
41. Learn how to work washer/dryer
42. Make popsicles.
43. Hang pictures.
44. Learn an ASL sign a day (or more)
45. Learn some computer coding using Scratch
46. Make shrub for 4th of July
47. Make friendship bread starter and share
48. Photos with public art around town ("benching," Bud called it)
49. Make homemade virgin pina coladas
50. Make blankets for cat shelter


Learn a new game
Learn a new magic/card trick
*Go letterboxing or geocaching locally
Attend friends' Friday Night Dance Party
Start afternoon tea party tradition
Practice making lemon curd and clotted cream
Research places to go in England, etc
Purge and donate toys and books
Pajamas day
No electricity day
Do a 1000 piece puzzle
Kite flying
Wash car
Buy new couches?
Community service project (volunteer with cats?)
Do nothing special

Diagnosis

Well, the CT scan showed not only diverticulosis (a small pouch pushed in my colon, but not infected) but also a burst ovarian cyst and extra fluid in my abdomen.  No wonder this week sucked.  (And Lambeth, before you say it, neither had anything to do with my over-reaching my abilities!)

The irony is that diverticulosis is caused by a low-fiber diet, something I had mainly because of the surgery--I was told a bland diet, which is defined as having no whole grains, very cooked vegetables, etc., --not my usual beans and broccoli and cabbage!

Oh, well.

Time to go back to my mostly vegetarian routine.  I'll consult a GI specialist and my GYN just to be sure we're doing everything we can.

But my surgery incision, etc., looks good.  And that is no small thing to be grateful for.

Corner to Corner

This is what I'm doing in my copious spare time:

Corner to Corner Crocheted Afghan

Lion Brand Thick and Quick, 4 skeins

M hook

Ch 6

Rnd 1:  In 4th chain from hook, dc.  Dc in next two chains.  Turn.  (1 block made)

Rnd 2:  Ch 6.  In 4th chain from hook, dc.  Dc in next two chains.  (sl st, ch 3, 3 dc) all in ch-3 sp of previous row.  Turn.  (2 blocks made)

Rnd 3:  Ch 6.  In 4th chain from hook, dc.  Dc in next two chains.  *sl st, ch 3, 3 dc all in ch-3 sp of previous row*, repeat.  Turn.  (3 blocks made)

Rnd 4:  Ch 6.  In 4th chain from hook, dc.  Dc in next two chains.  *sl st, ch 3, 3 dc all in ch-3 sp of previous row*, repeat in all blocks.  Turn.  (4 blocks made)

Rnd 5 etc:  Continue Rnd 4 until you reach the length and width you desire (the straight sides of your triangle.  I think the above afghan had maybe 20-22 blocks at its widest.)

Now to decrease:  sl st across first 3 dc *sl st, ch 3, 3 dc all in ch-3 sp* repeat to last ch-3 space; sl st in last sp.  Turn.  Do not make a block in the last space.

Decrease until you complete round with 1 block, fasten off.

Edge as desired (mine is a picot edge, on top of a round of sc;  *(sc, ch 3, sc) in same stitch, 3 sc* repeat, adjusting for corners.)

Somewhat Better

Well, the pain subsided to discomfort by Sunday evening, at which point Mama and I were both in the throes of a stomach bug.  Or something. 

But no ER.

The painful spot still aches and throbs, so I head to my CT scan in a bit just to check on everything.

More on cobbler, afghans, puzzles, etc. this afternoon.

Our 5th Girl Scout Year

It's been another banner Girl Scout year, our fifth year--their first year as Juniors--if you can believe it.

We'll have a wrap-up party in a couple of weeks, passing out the last of this year's badges and celebrating round the campfire as we look forward to next year--we want to help the girls earn their Bronze award.

The girls have:

• completed their aMuse journey, which included lots of drama play, discussion of discrimination, designing of superheroes, making costumes, a photo shoot;
• completed their Playing the Past badge, with our overnight trip to Old Sturbridge Village, which was a huge deal for our whole group and lots of fun;
• completed their Social Butterfly badge, with discussion of table settings, thank-you notes and etiquette;
• completed their Simple Meals badge, with a breakfast-for-dinner event, with pancakes, yogurt parfaits, and an Egg and Hashbrown Casserole they all loved;
• hosted a very successful Cookie Booth;
• participated in an Aqua Zumba class;
• baked cookies for Christmas with the seniors at the local assisted living center;
• collected items for Stockings for Soldiers at a local VA hospital;
• enjoyed a wonderful and exciting evening in the trees at the rope course, with s'mores afterwards;
• and our regular meetings with arts and crafts, games, and lots of singing.

(Our other years:  Daisy1, Daisy 2, Brownie 1, Brownie 2)

-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Egg/Hash brown Breakfast Bake

12 eggs

1 block of cream cheese (softened)

10 frozen hash brown patties (thawed)

2-3 scallions (chopped)

1/3 lb. sliced deli ham (diced)

2 cups shredded Monterey/Cheddar cheese

Salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Spray bottom of 9x13 cookie sheet with sides or stone bar pan; crumble hash browns; press into bottom of pan. Sprinkle about ½ cup of shredded cheese onto hash browns. Bake for 13-15 minutes or until light brown. While hash browns are cooking, whisk eggs and softened cream cheese in bowl; add diced ham and scallions, salt and pepper. Once hash browns are done; reduce oven to 375 degrees, pour egg mixture onto hash browns. Bake for another 8-10 minutes or until center is cooked. Remove from oven, sprinkle remaining cheese. Let cheese melt. Cut into squares. Enjoy!

Today Sucked

Well today just sucked.

I had abdominal cramps all day, having started the day before.  Who knows why.  Ovulation, muscle pull, mild stomach bug...there were no other symptoms, just cramps on my left side; I hadn't even overdone it. And my Tramadol didn't help.

I finally called the surgeon and she saw me this afternoon.  And said there was no emergency but ordered a CT scan on Monday just in case.  And if it gets worse, I'm supposed to go to the ER.

Blah.

Now to stay calm, rest, and feel better.

But a HUGE thank you to Mrs. S for meeting the kids after school.  Thank you so much!

Let the Shrub Ferment!

The recipe I started last night will be ready on the 4th of July!

No, it's not friendship bread or friendship cake.  (Though, now that I type that, it would be a fun summer project!)

It's shrub!

It's that vinegar-and-fruit-based drink that was so popular in colonial America (which got it from the rum- or brandy-based fruit drinks popular in England, which apparently grew out of older medicinal drinks.  And preserving berries or other fruits in vinegar was common esp in the colonies.)  And this recipe for raspberry shrub, from Saveur, is fermented.

Okay, I imagine you're thinking, "you're going to drink vinegar?"  Think of it like the lemon juice or citric acid in a drink, giving it tang (and not like the Romans giving Jesus vinegar to drink on the cross, which, by the way, is mistranslated--the original Greek is something akin to cheap wine, my prof said.)   'Cos there's enough sugar in the drink to balance it out.  Once the syrup ferments on the counter for a month, we'll strain it and add it to seltzer.  Yum!  I've had shrub in a few places, the best being City Tavern in Philadelphia--they make a raspberry shrub, too, based on a recipe of Martha Washington's.  (You can also buy it bottled to add to seltzer yourself.)

Maybe it can be a new tradition for 4th of July--making a batch of this very American drink!


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Fermented Raspberry Shrub

4 cups raspberries
4 cups sugar
4 cups champagne vinegar
4 cups water

Mix all ingredients in a sterilized jar and cover.  Ferment in cool place for a month.

Saveur 

New Stitch

I'm crochet crazy these days.  Besides those 10 or so afghans I've made and the study of my grandmothers' own afghans, I'm taking not one but two crochet classes online at Craftsy.  One course is improving my crochet techniques with Edie Eckman, while the other is woodland amigurumi, with Stacey Trock.  I'm taking the latter with Mama, who has always wanted to make amigurumi but doesn't crochet. The class teaches both basic crochet and how to make small stuffed critters out of yarn.  

And so, I'm getting better and expanding my interests.  I experimented with that mitered Granny Square that came out not quite square but still lovely.  And now I'm practicing Corner to Corner crochet, seen above, which also works out of one corner instead of the middle, using what I know as the crazy stitch.  In fact, I'd worked a whole little blanket with the crazy stitch and had given it to Mojito, but it was straight lines, not diagonal from the corner.  I finished the above today--yes, in Hogwarts colors, and, yes, probably also for Mojito--and will try one in my super chunky soft Lion Brand soon.  Just a change from my usual Granny Square.  There's also a "reverse" Granny Square that uses what I think is a cluster stitch--the directions are in Spanish so I'm having to learn how to read crochet diagrams, which transcend language barriers with their use of symbols (I can't locate the original post, just the image of the pattern.)   And another linear pattern that's more like a labyrinth or squared spiral that I'd like to try (and that pattern is in Chinese!  But again has a diagram--thankfully, my techniques class will cover reading diagrams!)

Before we go to ComicCon in the fall, I want to make a chunky cowl--because I'm going dressed as a Scot from "Outlander!"  I don't plan on cosplaying a specific character--trying to be Claire with her fantastic clothes would be too hard--but just the idea, with my green skirt, a brown bodice, something tartan-y, and a cowl.  

Lastly, if I get really ambitious, I want to make the crocheted "mandala" called Sophie's Garden.  It's small stitches, various stitches, and lots of color changes.  Beautiful and hard.

And if Mama and I don't crash early, we might start our amigurumi tonight! 

Making stuffed animals will open up a whole new realm . . . . because I'd want to make a penguin for Bud, a bunny for Sis, a sheep for Mama, or maybe an owl, and a hedgehog for me . . . or a panda, or a cat . . . . . 

Kidbits

Bud was in a bit of trouble with me the other day and felt quite put upon, taking refuge in his room.  I was seated on the couch downstairs when I heard his iPod, which he'd repositioned in the stairwell so I could hear it.

"No good deed goes unpunished," sang out the lyrics from Wicked.

Ah, clever boy.  I couldn't help but smile.

Later, Mama asked what the good deeds might have been.  Bud would have said it was his honest mistake that got him in hot water.

Later that night, after hashing it out with Mama, he played from his iPod loudly, "Close every door to me, hide all the world from me . . . " the song from Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat when he mourns his imprisonment.

Well, I'll say this, the boy has his Mama's sense of lyrics!

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Sis was complaining yesterday that she didn't have anything to read.  We have hundreds of books, but she goes through them so quickly.  She'd started and finished my last recommendation, Island of the Blue Dolphins, in less than a day.  So I suggested Little Women, one of my favorites.

Later, she came downstairs.  "Mom, I'm not reading that.  It's boring.  They just sit around knitting and not doing anything!!"

Sigh.

Weather Report

What a funny June it's been.  The highs for yesterday and today are barely out of the 50Fs!  And we've gotten 3" of much-needed rain.  There's been lightning and tons of thunder and not a drop of sun.  I love it.  But I did have to dig a pair of pants and a jacket out of the winter clothes closet.  And I'm wearing a turtleneck!  On June 2.  Well, at least we're not paying for air conditioning yet.  Actually, I like this weather a lot.

A Sign

We watched "Signing Times" the other day, mainly because the kids couldn't remember much about it.  And there it was, "Signing time with Alex and Leah . . . it's singing time, it's laughing time . . . " all in the big treehouse.

See, after months of Sis taking sign language, Bud has become more interested and we've decided to add "learn a sign a day" to our summer activities.  Only we started early!  That's why we were watching "Signing Times."  And I showed Bud a few useful signs--know, don't know, understand, need, help, right, wrong.  He picked them all up pretty quickly, so we'll keep going with probably more than one a day.

Awhile back, I catalogued a list of words that I found most useful.  It's a good list of words, though I've already forgotten a few of them myself (like "impossible.")  I've also got some flash cards, 500 of them, so that we can all learn some new words.

Should be lots of fun.

"Fun"--I'll make sure that's on the list!

(For more words, see Life Print's 100 first signs.)
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I've added a few at the bottom.

• hungry, eat, dinner, breakfast, lunch
• restroom
• yes, no, maybe
• help
• later, now
• change
• take, give
• ready
• hurry
• keep
• careful
• stupid
• weird
• funny, fun
• easy
• want
• need, should
• again
• like, don't like
• forget, remember
• more
• make
• fine
• finished
• stop
• always, never
• same, too, different
• understand
• think, know
• talk, say
• happy, sad, mad/grumpy
• hot, cold
• tired
• please
• sorry
• go, come
• start, begin
• cancel
• interested
• who, what, when, where, why, how, how much
• what happened?
• sick, pain
• better
• good, bad
• wrong
• love
• impossible
• bring
• watch, look, see
• worry
• embarrass
• wonderful
• sure, real
• miss
• all, nothing
• here

• favorite
• show (v.)
• progress
• game
• can't
• disagree
• clothes
• buy, spend, money
• excuse
• better
• fix
• more than, less than

Book Report

Okay, apparently this went around aeons ago, but I did it just the same.  It's a (weird) list of 100 books--that the BBC doesn't think people have read more than a handful of (could I make that sentence more awkward?)  I've read 44, which is more than I would have expected since I don't count myself a great reader.  Interestingly I read most of them either a) in school or b). with the kids!

And what I'm reading these days--historical mysteries and Outlander and hospice/death and dying books--aren't on the list!

Mine are marked with an X; Mama's with an asterisk.  We've overlapped in several places, which is perhaps not too surprising with our similar liberal arts educations (she has a liberal arts degree in computer science, not a BS.)

It's an odd list--the whole Bible and all of Shakespeare vs. Bryson's Notes on a Small Island?  Bridget Jones's Diary and Middlemarch?  Extra points for certain writers such as the Narnia series AND The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, plus all of Shakespeare and also Hamlet.  And lots of Dickens and Austen.  But no Homer or Virgil or Dante?  It's not just English lit (Les Mis, 100 Years of Solitude) or 20th century.  So why not Fielding?  or Henry James?  Or Twain?  Or . . . or . . . or? And Dracula over Frankenstein?

100 Books

100 Books Share

The BBC believes most people will have only read 6 of the 100 books here. How do your reading habits stack up?

Instructions:
Copy into a new note Put an X next to the ones you've read. Include the number you have read in the headline and tag your friends!



*X1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
*2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
*X3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
*X4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
X5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee 
6 The Bible (all)
*X7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte 
*X8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell 
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
*10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
*X11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott 
*12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
X13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller 
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
*X16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien 
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk
X18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger 
19 The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
X20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
X21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
*X22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald 
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
*25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
X26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh 
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
*X28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
*X29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll 
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
*X34 Emma - Jane Austen
X35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
*X36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37 Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
*X40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
*X41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
X42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
X43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez 
44 A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving
X45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins 
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
*X48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
*X49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding 
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
*X51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel 
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
X54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
*X57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
*X58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley 
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
*65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
*70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
*71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
X72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
*X73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett 
X74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
*76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
X80 Possession - AS Byatt
*X81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens 
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
*X83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
X84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
X85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert 
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
*X87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White
X88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
*X89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle 
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
*X92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery 
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
*94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
*95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Toole
*97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
*X98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
*X99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl 
*100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

Happy Birthday!!!

A very happy birthday to Gommie!!!  We love you.....so we didn't call at 6 am your time!!  We'll call after school or after your man jongh game.  Have a great day!!!