Ding, Ding, Ding, Jackpot! Jackpot!

See this stack of toilet paper on the bathroom counter?  Do YOU think this is where we keep our supply of toilet paper?  It's not.  While putting the new paper away, last Thursday, I was interrupted and had to leave the rest here on the counter for a bit.  Then I wondered how long it would take before someone would notice it and put it away.  My slogan around the house this summer has been, "If you notice it needs to be done, just do it."  We all live here.  We all can help out.  So, this toilet paper on the counter became an experiment.  More in a moment...
A few years ago, Kate and I read All-of-a-Kind-Family for our book club.  In chapter two, the mother puts a dozen buttons under objects around the sitting room.  The five little sisters take turns dusting and have to find the 12 buttons before they can call it done - which means they have to dust under things that might not have a button under them also.

So I decided that putting the toilet paper away was going to be worth $5 the first day (a big amount for impact on my experiment) and that I'd deduct $1 every day it went undone.  So today we're down to $1, the toilet paper is still there (one of the kiddos even moved it, stacked it on the toilet, and then moved it back onto the counter!), and I had a neighbor stopping by.  I didn't want this toilet paper sitting out.  So, on the way home from swimming this morning, I explained the experiment, without saying what the task was that had gone undone.  I said that it was still worth $1 if anyone noticed and took care of it before lunch.
"How will we know what it is?" they asked.
"I guess you'll just have to go around the house taking care of everything until you see me start running in circles with my hands flapping in the air yelling, "ding, ding, ding, jackpot, jackpot!"
Kate said, "If you're going to do that, I'm definitely out."
When we got home, I grabbed my camera to take a photo of the toilet paper (to show you all).  But Kate was in the bathroom so I waited casually downstairs until I heard her go back to her room.  When I went up to take the photo...the paper was put away.  I ran down the hall yelling at the top of my lungs, "ding, ding, ding, jackpot, jackpot!" 
Kate came out of her room and said, "I thought you said you'd run in circles flapping your hands in air."
And so I did.
And then I stacked the toilet paper back on the counter, took a picture and put it away again.

Taking Inventory and Looking for White Spaces

After years of incessantly covering all our white walls with any (and every) other color of paint, I find myself looking for a blank canvas...to paint...white.  Just white.  I'm not sure what, if anything, that might say about my life right now - I'm guessing probably something like slow down, lose the crazy, SIMPLIFY.  For now, I'm just letting it linger.  I'll wait till fall and if I'm stilll looking for white, I'll open the windows, move the furniture, and start painting.
This little quilt I made for Kate just before she was born.  I came across it, in the closet, the other day and decided to record it here.  This is a good place to inventory the things I've made in the past.  I remember these little cross-stitch patterns of animals.  The patterns did not instruct to fill in the backgrounds with stitches but...I just couldn't leave the white spaces - I had to fill them in.  And I like how it turned out but find it funny now to notice the absence of white space.  The khaki borders around each square are cut from Mark's old work pants and the back (which you can't see here) is a fabric that I really don't care for - a paper-bag brown with green and pink flowers - very drab.  Maybe I'll switch it out one day.  Or maybe I'll like it one day.  We'll wait and see.

Not Mr. McGregor's Lettuce Cups

I cut this recipe from the newspaper last month and finally got around to making it - DELICIOUS!  I had children fighting over the last of it.  I doubled the recipe and put half in the freezer - I'll let you know how it freezes.  But it was so easy!  I followed the recipe straight through except I used half beef and half turkey (really like this combined flavor).  I used regular soy sauce but it seems a little salty for my taste - I would try lower sodium soy sauce (do they make such a thing?) next time.  Warning: when you add the fish sauce, it smells AWFUL and you'll think that you've ruined the whole thing but, amazingly, when you add the next ingredients, it blends and mellows and becomes just wonderful.

Having eaten so much of it (it was THAT good), I remembered the Beatrix Potter story, The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies, where the bunnies overindulge on Mr. McGregor's lettuces.   I just love the little Beatrix Potter books.  I love their size; I love their lessons; I love the voice that tells the story.

And where else can you get such an awesome vocabulary lesson without even realizing it?  Although I think "soporific" sounds too exciting to mean sleepy but...I'm not in charge of these things.

Required Summer Reading

There was an email in my inbox last week from Kate's principal listing the required summer reading assignments for language arts.  I know it's weird but I was excited - a new reading list!  Kate's class has to read a short story by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.  The upper grade classes have Animal Farm by George Orwell and The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton.

I know we're supposed to have awful memories of middle school/junior high but honestly...I...kinda...liked it....actually.

I had English first hour in seventh grade, our first year of junior high.  My teacher had cats (don't know how many, just know it was plural) and wore long wool skirts to school.  Every morning she used a roll of school tape turned sticky side out to brush the cat hair from her skirt.

My eighth grade English teacher raised horses at home and loved the one named Serendipity most.

I had Political Science in eighth grade also - which I thought I would hate.  I'm not political, never have been, and science isn't really my strong area either.  But to my pleasant surprise, I loved Political Science.  Our teacher treated us like adults and we had the most intellectual conversations I had experienced thus far. 

My seventh grade social studies teacher was also extremely politically intelligent but she loved literature also so we read many historical novels.  I remember reading The Turn of the Screw by Henry James in her class but can't imagine why.

In seventh grade science (remember not my best area), our teacher had one real eye and one glass eye which he threatened to pop in and out if we wanted to see.  He had lost his eye in a fishing accident when his fishing buddy cast his line but caught an eyeball.  Ewww.  But I liked this teacher.  He gave only one A+ per quarter and I got it three out of four quarters.  That fourth quarter was when we dissected frogs.  So,...I'm not bragging, I'm just saying, junior high was good to me.

And my poor math teacher who asked to speak to me after class about my reading during his lectures.  He said I shouldn't.  He was very sweet about it though.  But then he got brain cancer and died.  It was a shock for us at that age to realize that teachers were human - mortal.

And then the Frau who introduced me to German - she was my favorite!

I hope that Kate and John can have even a bit of the positive vibes I found during this struggle between childhood and young adult.

Beer for Father's Day!

It's so obvious - the perfect Father's Day gift - why haven't we thought of this before?!  Well, maybe not from my children to my husband but from my brothers and I to our Dad.  We're giving Dad  a Minnesota Beer of the Month Club subscription.  Taking turns, we'll deliver a package of MN brew during the first week of each month along with some fun facts, history, tour schedule, and product information about that month's featured MN brewery.  We might even include a "field trip" now and then.

The Grain Belt sign has been a long standing fixture of the Minneapolis skyline.  I remember seeing it as a child from the backseat of my parent's caramel brown Chevrolet Impala.  It stands along side the bridge that crosses the Mississippi going out of the city.  Seeing it meant that we were leaving "downtown", reentering the neighborhoods that would guide us back to suburbia.

There is another landmark that made a strong impression on my childhood visits into the city.  I stared from the car window as we'd pass the Minneapolis Brewing Company Castle where Grain Belt was originally brewed (it's now brewed by the Schell's Brewery in New Ulm, MN).

I, as eldest, am taking the first turn in the Beer of the Month Club deliveries and have decided that Grain Belt is the place to start.  It is not a beer for the connoisseur.  We can only add craft onto it in the selections of the following months.  A six pack of Grain Belt Premium, a six pack of Nordeast, and some great history found here and glued into a "beer journal" is so much better than a new tie, don'tcha think?

The kids are giving these homemade chocolate chip cookies to their Grandfather and Godfathers.

Shake and Bake

Remember Shake n' Bake?  My mom never bought it but my brothers and I would walk around shaking anything in a bag, pretending we were on the commercial.

At our house now, nobody likes to eat the crusts of our bread loaves.  So, I tear them into pieces, put them on a cookie sheet and let them dry out.  A lady in our neighborhood used to do this when we were kids.  I don't know what she did with them afterwards but there was always a tray of shredded bread on her stove top.  Anyway, once they're crumbly dry (sometimes I heat the oven to 200 degrees, turn it off and put the bread in to dry faster and crisper), I crush them into bread crumbs.  I used to just use them for meatballs but recently I found a homemade shake and bake recipe and tried it - big hit for chicken tenders!

We had some with mac and cheese last night.  I had some on a salad for lunch and am having a few with a slice of cheese, red grapes and a glass of wine as I write this.  Nummmmm.

Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:

4 cups dry bread crumbs

1 Tbsp salt

1 Tbsp paprika

1 tsp ground black pepper

1 tsp onion powder

2 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp dried basil leaves

1/2 tsp dried parsley

1 Tbsp Italian spice blend

1/3 cup olive oil

(add when ready to use: 1/2 cup grated parmesan)

Directions:

Combine all dry ingredients in large resealable bag.  Seal and shake to combine.  Add oil and shake or knead the sealed bag to mix thoroughly.  Add parmesan just before adding chicken bits.

I used half this batch for 8 chicken breasts (cut into bite-size pieces).  Discard batter that has been combined with meat. 

Without the cheese, the unused batter will keep in an airtight container for months in the cupboard.

An Outside Day in the Forest Garden

This little guy was tapping on our window this morning, beckoning us to come outside.  Well, he was tapping on the window anyway.  So we spent the day cleaning up the forest garden (a.k.a. the play garden or the fairy garden).

John worked hard on spreading gravel:

Kate fixed up the neighborhood:

And we cleared the path to visit the "Shrine to the Gnome Reader."

Battle of Wills, Feed the Birds, Karma, and Coincidental References

Remember my Mary Poppins purse?  Well, it was with me at the baseball fields last night along with my almost-teen daughter.  It is the last week of school and emotions are running the gamut and her and I were having a battle of wills in the stands.  Because I didn't want her spitting from the bleachers, I took the sunflower seeds away, folded the bag carefully and tucked it into my purse.  And then forgot they were there.  Today, in the car with said daughter, I pulled my wallet from my purse and dumped the whole bag of seeds.  Kate started laughing and singing, "Feed the Birds" from Mary Poppins.  Honestly, this purse has provided more entertainment for my family!

Taking the dog out last week, I noticed that our mulberry tree was loaded with berries, still quite green but loaded.  This morning when John took the dog out, he came in and told me the mulberries need to be picked, "they are way ripe, falling off the tree way ripe."  Have you ever read And to Think That I Saw it on Mulberry Street by Dr. Seuss?  In this story, the little boy Marco creates a story, embellishing everything he sees on his way home from school.  John has embellished once or twice and I really didn't think mulberries could get from green to "way ripe" in one week.  But...

He was right - they are ready to be picked.  So we got out a ladder before school and picked a small bowlful.  The rest we will leave...to feed the birds!

Do you ever have a day of weirdly related coincidences seemingly smacking you in the face but have no idea what it's all supposed to mean?  Today was one for me.  I am currently reading Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury.  It's amazing and I find myself thinking about it constantly. 

Then, while waiting in the car queue at school, I noticed a friend of mine had posted a quote on Facebook:
"You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture.  Just get people to stop reading them." and it is from Fahrenheit! 

Then, at home tonight, Kate was on her favorite writing website and shouted out the quote of the day:
"'Do you read any of the books you burn?' 'No, that's against the law' 'Oh, of course.'" .....from Fahrenheit!  I've tried connecting them, tried figuring out how these could show up in two different places on the same day and while I'm reading this book that was written over 60 years ago.  I've had the book for awhile and am reading it for a different project I'm working on. 
And the second quote (even the first one for that matter), although significant to the book, isn't much of a quote of the day.
Just weird.
(Later---after checking local headlines---I found out that Ray Bradbury died yesterday!  This is so sad.  I had no idea. Talk about feeling smacked in the face - I'm spinning with this news.  The NewYork Times ran this fantastic story regarding Fahrenheit 451.)

Forecasting a Grimm Summer

Kate and I went to see Snow White and the Huntsman the other night to start off our Grimm summer.  Tomorrow is the last day of school and, although the kids want to just relax, I know we will need some thread of structure to keep our brains from melting and, honestly, keep from driving each other nuts.  We began the Sisters Grimm book series a few summers ago and loved it.  And now there are so many more!  When I saw the Table of Contents in the new Sisters Grimm; A Very Grimm Guide, I knew I'd found our structure. 

The guide explains characters from the series which include:

Puck, (Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream)
Washington Irving (author of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Rip Van Winkle)
Mr. Seven (the seventh of the seven dwarves from Snow White)
Caspar Sheepshank (aka: Rumplestiltskin)
The Wizard of Oz
The Queen of Hearts
Lewis Carroll (author of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland)
Sheriff Nottingham (from Robin Hood)
The Jabberwocky (a creature from Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass)
The Little Match Girl's matches
Merlin's Wand and Excalibur (from the stories of King Arthur)
Pinnochio
Aladdin's Flying Carpet

Talk about a list rich with possibilities!  Now, we may just read the Sisters Grimm.  But we also may read
the original books/stories these characters come from.  We may see movies (there are always many adaptations) or write new stories or make new movies, paintings, games...
I can't wait!

Birthday Lights

The lamp on the left used to belong to my Auntie Jeanne, a long time ago.  My Mom bought it from her at a garage sale, a long time ago.  It now resides in the guest room of my parents lake cabin.  It's hard to see in this scratchy photo but the globe is gold plastic (lucite, officially) with green and orange geometric shapes melted into it - very funky.  Mark has always admired it and said, "If you ever run across a light like that, buy it for me."  Never gonna happen, right?

W-hell...looky what I found at a consignment store - photo on the right - a few months ago and have been hiding in the back of my closet for his birthday!  Still searching on Ebay for that awesome lucite globe, though. 

Ever watch That 70's Show?  The lamp on the right belong's in Eric's house but the lamp on the left would've been in Donna's house - way more hip.  Although the light on the right provides much better reading light.  Yeah, like I said - nerd on the right, cool on the left.

Chaperone, Chauffeur, and Pilfered Writing Tips

Wearing my chauffeur/chaperone hat today, I took Kate and a couple friends to a young writers conference held at a local college.  I had my book with and some work to finish up while waiting outside their sessions.  But as I sat with them during the keynote speaker this morning, I thought, what the heck?  I'm at a writers' conference - I should sit in the sessions with them.  Writing exercises are writing exercises; doesn't matter what age.

Our second session was led by J. Michael Blumer, author of the young adult fantasy series, The Secret Books of Gabendoor.  Using the nursery rhyme, Jack and Jill, Mr. Blumer worked through a list of tricks to make the story less "flat" and more "3-D". 

He asked the kids to think outside the cute little boy and girl and yell out some more interesting descriptions for the characters of Jack and Jill. 

The kids' Jill:

--dragon

--fire hair

--green dotted

--eats cheese

--hairy legs

My Jill:

--middle aged lady

--bad hair day

--blemishes

--simple chronic halitosis

--hairy legs (as long as I'm pilfering - it's a good one!)

Then Mr. Blumer explained how it's more exciting when we add obstacles to make it more difficult for Jack and Jill to fetch that pail of water.

The kids' obstacles to fetching a pail of water:

--volcanoes

--monsters

--witches spells

My obstacles to fetching that water:

--finding historical significance to the pail

--forming a relationship with the guy who owns the well

--leaving the kids home alone while I go to get that water



I really enjoyed the sessions but I'm pretty sure the girls got more out of the day than I did!