See no Evil, Hear no Evil, Speak no Evil

We have some pumpkins aeound the house but mostly it's skeletons.  All Hallows Eve, All Saints Day, All Souls Day - they are all days to remember the dead (Dia de los Muertos) and so skeletons seem much more fitting than pumpkins.  These are days to remember those who have died before us, to dress in costumes to confuse evil spirits...(and to eat candy, of course)! 
Our kitchen, this morning, looked like a crime scene after we opened and seeded a pomegranate (that juice can really spray!).  My brother's birthday was a few days ago and mine is coming up.  When we were younger, our Aunt Sharon would always include a pomegranate with our birthday gifts as they were in season at this time.  My mouth waters just looking at this picture!

Mark and I used to have annual halloween parties.  Last weekend we found some pictures from one of them - scary!  Why are people afraid of clowns?  Hmmm.

I Know it's Probably Wrong, but...

A lot of people I know hide these "Elf on a Shelf" characters.  Then everyone in their family can delight in trying to find the little elf.  So, I know it is probably really demented, but we hide the disembodied bloody foot.  Someone found it here during the middle of the night potty break.  The thrill of the scare/surprise seems to spur creativity in the next hiding place and you find yourself (or at least we weirdos do) giggling in anticipation for someone to find it.

Here it was, waiting for Kate to come home from school.  Or hanging out in the kitchen with the fruit:

Kate even hid the foot in the fridge - scaring the bejeezers out of Mark in the morning.  Rocco was especially disturbed by it hiding behind the curtains:

In the laundry:

And, of course, hiding under the couch:

Still Wired and October Beer

I thought my telephone wire distraction had passed.  The other day, however, when I passed John's bedroom and noticed his bed was made (!), I also noticed how the duvet cover I'd made him reminded me of this telephone wire pic.  When I first made the duvet, I had train tracks in mind as John is nuts about trains - and I still think the fabric combo calls to mind creosote soden ties, blackened iron tracks and blue, blue sky.  But telephone wires, hanging against a blue, blue sky, create similar imagery.

Our October Minnesota-Beer-of-the-Month is Sweet Child of Vine India Pale Ale from Fulton Beer in Minneapolis.  Grateful to have been helped in their entrepreneurial pursuit, the guys at Fulton Beer will put 10% of their profits into a fund (Ful10) which, when grown large enough, will be loaned to other entrepeneurs who are unable to borrow funds traditionally.  Cool.

And my kitchen tree in her fall glory:



First Love

Do you remember the first book you fell in love with; not just the story but the actual, physical, hold-it-in-your-hands book?
I suppose I was about six when I found mine.  It was in the jumble of odd toys my Grandma kept in a box in the back bedroom at her house.  It was a small book, probably 4x5 inches, bound in a medium green cloth cover (pea-green, I guess).  Inside was Edward Lear's story of The Owl and the Pussy-cat and I absolutely adored that little book.  The story was just so weird and crazy and exotic and delicious and filled with imagination and longing.  And I loved saying the words over and over; loving what they told, loving how they sounded, how they swayed on my tongue.
It felt amazing and private - that this whole world, this whole adventure was captured in this book, hidden between these tiny covers, available for me to experience at anytime.  Or to carry in my pocket or just hold in my hand.  It was my back of the wardrobe, my Oz-bound twister, my rabbit hole, my second star to the right and straight on 'til morning.
I don't know what happened to the book.  It isn't around anymore.  I've looked on eBay, thinking I would find it (not the same one but maybe same edition).  I found a small green edition, published in the 70's but not the elegant green cloth edition of my memory.  Maybe my memory is wrong.  I've collected other versions, good versions, but too big.  For Kate's first birthday, Mark finished a small wooden tea table and chairs for her and I painted a verse from The Owl and the Pussy-cat around the table's rim - the part about the runcible spoon.  Runcible is a word that Lear made up.  He loved it and used it in other pieces of his work; always as an adjective but with varying elusions of definition.  If you look it up now, you'll find a variety of weird definitions - some of them fit sometimes but never all the time.  Here's the story:

The Owl and the Pussy-cat

by Edward Lear

The Owl and the Pussy-cat went to sea

In a beautiful pea-green boat:

They took some honey, and plenty of money

Wrapped up in a five-pound note.

The Owl looked up to the stars above,

And sang to a small guitar,

"O lovely Pussy, O Pussy, my love,

What a wonderful Pussy you are,

You are,

You are,

What a wonderful Pussy you are!"

Pussy said to the Owl, "You elegant fowl,

How charmingly sweet you sing!

Oh! let us be married; too long we have tarried:

But what shall we do for a ring?"

They sailed away, for a year and a day,

To the land where the bong-tree grows;

And there in a wood a Piggy-wig stood,

With a ring at the end of his nose,

His nose,

His nose,

With a ring at the end of his nose.

"Dear Pig, are you willing to sell for one shilling

Your ring?"  Said the Piggy, "I will."

So they took it away, and were married next day

By the turkey who lived on the hill.

They dined on mince and slices of quince,

Which they ate with a runcible spoon;

And hand in hand, on the edge of the sand,

They danced by the light of the moon,

The moon,

The moon,

They danced by the light of the moon.

Need...To...Organize...(and simplify)

This is one little corner in my sewing room - so many projects waiting to be finished.  Unfortuantely, there are similar piles all over the house.  It's feeling rather overwhelming.  It's all simple stuff, some of it even fun, enjoyable, but there's just so much.  Plus all the other silly stuff I have to do like cooking and driving and, ugh, cleaning.  So, I am on a desperate mission to get organized, stop procrastinating, take things one little step at a time.  Oh yeah, and throw everything in the garbage simplify.
I had a few white hooks left over from Kate's room redo so, yesterday, I attached them inside my closet and pulled all the purses out from the bottom of my closet and look how organized it looks (those jeans aren't dirty - they're my painting jeans):

Today is receipt day.  I have this easy system of highlighting the date on all our receipts, then filing them into these month/year tabbed boxes.  Except when I've neglected to do those simple steps in...um...about 11 months.  So, now I have this overflowing shoebox of receipts that looks like it would take me the next three days to highlight and file.  I do not have three days to dedicate to this project.  But I also can't just throw them away (too much of a control freak).  So, I'm just plugging away at it.  It will get done.  It kinda feels good to focus on just this one thing.  And if I get it done today...I'm gonna feel good.  

Ambitious Weekend Plans

I was shopping for a birthday present at an overstock store and found these Chocolate Band-Aids.  How perfect.  Maybe not for a birthday present but...And then, halfway down the next aisle, I found the Chocolate Peppermintini mix - perfect for the birthday gift.  Hmmm.  Unless it isn't very good.  Better try it first myself and come back for more if it's good enough to gift.

I've also been putting away summer clothes and pulling out the warm sweaters; uncovering all kinds of fun stuff at the back of my closet - a pair of boots and a purse (both with broken zippers - took to shoe repair shop), Christmas presents I'd forgotten I'd already bought (that is sometimes the trouble with thinking ahead), and this super cool vintage hair dryer in its own little case:

So, my ambitious plans this weekend?  Visit my Grandma.  Wash my hair, sit with a "chocolate" book under the white noise of my hair dryer and taste test the Band-Aids and Chocolate Peppermintinis.

Bohemian Prayer and Kolaches

This is my Grandma in 1918.  Following a recent stroke, she moved, today, from hospital to hospice. 

We'd planned on spending the coming weekend in Chicago, but I made calls this morning cancelling airline and hotel reservations - wanting to spend these last few days with her and close to home. 

I called Ticketmaster to see about cancelling our nonrefundable/non-exchangable tickets for the broadway musical I Love Lucy, and was helped by a representative from somewhere in South Carolina.  When he heard our reason for missing the show, he said how very sorry he was to hear such sad news and went on to say what a remarkable life my Grandma must have had in 94 years. 
Think about it, he said, she has seen a world war, the invention of television, the first man on the moon, and so much more...so many things in one lifetime.
And he arranged for our tickets to be exchanged for a later date.  Such kind words and gestures from a stranger.

I asked my Grandma, a few years ago, if her parents spoke English at home when she was a child.  Yes, she said, except for our prayers.  Oh, I said, did you say your prayers in German?  (I forgot it was my Grandpa who was German, not my Grandma) NO!, she retorted, offended.  Only Bohemian.  I knew, of course, that she was Bohemian but hadn't thought ever of the language.  This is what The Lord's Prayer looks like in Bohemian:

Otcze nass

Otcze nass, genž sy w nebesyech, Oswiet se gmeno twe, Przid Kraloestwie twe, Bud wuole twa iako wnebi y wzemi, Chleb nass wezdeiss day nam dnes, A otpust nam nasse win y iako my odpusstieme nassym wynnickuom. A ne uwod nas vpo Kussenie, Ale zbav nas od Zleho.

Amen.

When my brothers and I were children, my Grandma made Bohemian Kolaches (very much like a danish pastry).  Although she made a variety of fillings, my favorite were the apple ones with popsika (a butter/sugar crumble) on top.  By the time I was old enough to realize the importance of having her teach me how to make kolaches, she wasn't able to pass along the knowledge.  Thanks to a variety of online recipes (and a few memories of how Grandma did it differently), Kate and I were able to replicate the pastries last weekend.  They don't look as pretty as Grandma's did, but they taste remarkably similar.

A Kid Helps a Kid

"Back to school" seems to have become simultaneous with fundraising activities.  The kids have sold magazines, candy, coffee, wrapping paper... But my favorite is the one right now; the one where we not only raise funds, but we also raise fundraisers - our Impact Lives event.
Through the Impact Lives organization, our children raise money to buy food that they pack themselves before sending it into starving communities.  The more money they raise, the more food they can pack, the fewer people are left hungry.

Although we parents are highly encouraged to hand over currency for candy bars, coffee and magazines during our regular school-benefiting fundraisers, the Impact Lives monies are given by our children.  The students in our elementary school spend their spring, summer, and fall doing extra chores, helping neighbors, working lemonade and cookie stands, selling their toys at garage sales, even making/selling handmade jewelry, candles and baked goods to raise as much money as they can.

In mid-Novemeber, the Impact Lives team shows up, takes over our gym with long tables of food packaging machines and supplies.  Each grade lines up for their shift, donning funny-looking hair nets and gloves to form an assembly line, measuring rice, dried vegetables and broth, layering them into bags, sending the bags through a hot seal machine, and finally packing them in boxes.  What an awesome education!

John's book club, the Book Sharks, started fundraising collectively the same year they formed their club by participating in their own Read-a-Thon.  The collect pledges (per page, per day, or maximum pledge) and read as much as they can for 10 days.

It is so powerful and amazing and just plain wonderful to see how much these kids get it - I mean, really get it.  I was talking to one little girl yesterday who said she was given some money for her birthday and she wanted to go to Barnes and Noble and get this book she really wanted.  But the, she said, I remembered that we have libraries where we can borrow books for free and there's other kids who don't have any food plus they don't even have libraries.  So, she donated her book money.

Here's a link to a video that the kindergarten class made to help spread the word and raise funds - very cute!  Kindergarten Video

After School Snacks

When Kate and I took our little photography road trip, we ended up at The Apple House.  Walking into this building has got to be what Heaven smells like.  Ummmmmmm.  Since then, we've been enjoying these apples (and, of course, the dipping cups!) everyday.  John likes green apples with caramel dip.  Kate likes red apples with dark chocolate dip.  I like a dip out of each but the rest just plain.

We have two other favorite afternoon snacks lately.  The first is a Triscuit with a square of sharp white cheddar and a slice of peeled cucumber - just the right combo of creamy, crunchy and crispy.  The second is a brushetta-like salsa that my friend, Paule, introduced us to.  It is so simple - diced-up tomatoes, cubed/crumbled fresh mozarella, a little olive oil and some Greek-blend seasoning, mix it all together and eat with tortilla chips or crackers - so good!

After repeated introductions to C.S. Lewis' Narnia chronicles, the kids have never been hooked.  They love the movies but never got into the books.  Then, the other day, Kate came home with The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe checked out from the school library - yay!  The next day, at an overstock store, I ran across a box of Turkish Delight candy (a big treat in the book/movie) - the kids were...well, delighted when they got home from school and saw the plateful of powdered candy!  It is rose flavored - sounds strange, I know, but is very tasty.

Such a Short Weekend

We spent a very quick weekend on the river.  Wet heavy snow fell on our drive Friday night, making it hard to navigate even with the windshield wipers slapping furiously.  But by mid-morning on Saturday, the snow had melted and the sun was shining on my kitchen trees at the river.  I recognize that I say "my" trees very proprietarily - I do not mean it that way. 
Twenty-some years ago, I read a letter written by Chief Seattle of the Suquamish and Dwamish Indians, copied it into my notebook, and have reread it many times.  Unfortunately, it is almost certainly not authentic.  Chief Seattle supposedly made a speech and wrote a letter (circa 1854), both of which have been replicated to the point of myth but there exists no proof of the real thing.  Of the two best known versions, I now know that I have held onto the one which was reproduced by a Hollywood screenwriter.  But they are beautiful words and I will continue to hang onto the chance that it may have been, at least, Chief Seattle's sentiments.

This we know: the earth does not belong to man;

man belongs to the earth.

All things are connected like the blood which

unites one family.

Whatever befalls the earth, befalls the sons of the earth.

Man did not weave the web of life,

he is merely a strand in it.

Whatever he does to the web,

he does to himself.



Too Shy to Leave

The air has put on a chill and the wind is blowing.  All the trees in our neighborhood, relishing the feel of a crisp breeze on their bare limbs, are casting off their leaves, tossing them on the ground.  But my kitchen tree, modest as can be, is merely swaying tentatively and blushing at her friends, speedily baring all.  But I know her.  She'll evertually get comfortable enough to drop hers also.

Living on Leftover Starch

I'd like to say I'm so organized that, last week, I efficiently planned this week's dinner menus.  But, in actuality, I just made too much last week and so provided myself with leftovers to work from this week.  We had white rice with stir fried vegetables, last week, except I made a disproportionate amount of rice.  Years ago, I travelled with Mark to Asia on a business trip and we had a layover in Narita, Japan.  Mark travelled alot at that time and so we had access to the full service travel lounge in the airport.  The Sapporo beer was good but my favorite was rice porridge, a simple staple in Asian homes.  At the airport it was called congee, which is the Chinese name.  In Korea is is called juk, and in Japan (except at the airport) it is called kayu.  There are many ways to make it and garnish it but, basically, it is leftover rice simmered in chicken broth until it becomes gruel-like.  I like it with finely chopped chives and a little dash of soy sauce.  And I do eat it for breakfast - especially now that the weather is turning chilly.

We also had chicken and mashed potatoes last week.  As with the rice, I made way too many potatoes.  Truth be told, I did have salmon cakes on my mind at the time.  And that is what I did last night - salmon cakes.  It's one of those menu items that has surprised me in that everyone in our house loves them, comments on how good they smell, and asks for more.  Salmon.  (Bare Naked Ladies have a song "I Don't Like" - click here to listen to the salmon part.)  I use two different recipes and sort of combine them but I'll attempt, here, to replicate the recipe.  I don't measure - I'm guessing, educated guessing, but still, you may adjust as you like.  Also, unless I have left over salmon fillets, I use Chicken of the Sea salmon pouches (by the tuna in the canned meat aisle).

Salmon Cakes
15 oz. flaked salmon
2 cups mashed potatoes
1/4 cup sour cream
1/2 cup seasoned dry bread crumbs
1/4 cup diced green pepper
1/4 cup diced red pepper
1/4 tsp seasoned salt
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  In a bowl combine all ingredients.  Form mixture into 2-3 inch cakes and place on baking sheet.  Bake for 30 minutes.

Teen Room Redo - Complete!

Victory!  We successfully and harmoniously (gasp in disbelief) transformed Kate's little girl room to a teenage mecca that we both love.   (If you'd like to read her personal rave about the room, check out Kate's blog.)  I got my way with white walls and dressers.  She got her way with a wall of posters and magnetic white boards:

After hours (maybe even weeks days) spent pinning on Pinterest, I finally used one of the great ideas to make this photo collage heart - defintely our favorite project in the redo:

And those cheapy bookshelves that I settled for?  So happy I did 'cause it made me feel not a bit bad to stick cork board and little plastic hooks to the sides of them for further organization.  My favorite use of the little hooks is this solution for all the loose Cds laying around the bedside stereo: