Living Room Change-Up

Here is our new "lighter" wall color and new couch covers.  There's white base trim but "we" haven't completed the door trim yet.  The crown molding is stained wood and I think we should leave it that way.  I really like the combination of stained wood with painted white woodwork - it's just trying to find the right balance that says, "it just kinda fell into place" vs. "we're still working on it".
We used to have framed photos over the couch that I got tired of.  So, I've been working on these canvases - trying for a cleaner, sparser look.  The canvases, themselves (photos from at the river), are beautiful.

But a little too sparse.  So, today, I took them down and put the Molokai, Hawaii Photos back up and I love them again - they look right.

I used the rest of the thrift store denim to make a few couch pillows.  I sewed the seams wrong-side out so that, after a couple washings, they'll fray.  I'm happy with the way they turned out.

Vegemite and Meal Planning

So many things to say...where to start?  Okay, well, I have been planning, for years, to start a meal planning habit, with week long charts filled in with what we're going to eat (and make) each day, with grocery lists an recipes and...just has never happened.  It feels so overwhelming and, I know, I know, it really isn't.  And, in the end, it will be so much easier, so less stressful, so less expensive, so much more healthy.  But still.  Never happened. 

And so, everyday about 4:00, I stand in front of the fridge and/or the pantry and wait for an idea (an easy idea) to reach out and punch me in the nose.  Also...never happens.

And now I started back to work, outside our home, fulltime, and...I NEED a plan!  I've reached out to a few friends and have started collecting their weekly menus.  And I've started listing what we have every night.  I'm going to try to pull together all this valuable information and see if I can't come up with a system that works, for me, at least.  And I will share.  Soon.

But yesterday, as I should have been grocery shopping, I was hunting down a jar of Vegemite.  We have a Mom's Book Club meeting this coming week.  We read What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty, which is a story taking place in Australia.  We always have dinner at our meetings and the dinners have started to tend towards some type of theme - the last couple were in relation to a location in the book.  So, this week, we're trying Australian dishes.  Remember that Men at Work song, Down Under?

Buying bread from a man in Brussels
He was six-foot-four and full of muscles
I said, "Do you speak-a my language?"
He just smiled and gave me a vegemite sandwich

I'm bringing, to the book meeting, Vegemite sandwiches.  They sound quite disgusting but I'm so curious to try one!  Here's the description on the Vegemite site (I can't paraphrase better than this):

Vegemite is considered as much a part of Australia's heritage as kangaroos and the Holden cars. It is actually an Australian obsession that has become a unique and loved symbol of the Australian nation.  A Vegemite sandwich to an Australian kid is the equivalent of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich to an American kid - but the taste is QUITE different!

Vegemite is one of several yeast extract spreads sold in Australia. It is made from leftover brewers' yeast extract (a by-product of beer manufacture) and various vegetable and spice additives. It is very dark reddish-brown, almost black, in color, and one of the richest sources known of Vitamin B. It's thick like peanut butter, it's very salty, and it tastes like - well let's just say that it is an acquired taste!
Australian children are brought up on Vegemite from the time they're babies. It is said that Australians are known to travel all over the world with at least one small jar of Vegemite in their luggage, for fear that they will not be able to find it.

Yum, huh?!  I saw the Chocoshrooms in the next aisle and had to grab them also -had to even snap the photo when I got in the car 'cause I opened the box right away to eat them - truly nummy!  So much for grocery shopping.  Maybe tomorrow.

Baseball and a Loss

Have I mentioned how much I love going to a baseball game?  When I know there's a game, I look forward to it all day.  I don't watch baseball on TV.  I've nothing against it and I might like it...I just don't.  Most of what I watch is Little League, mostly, of course, John's team.  While waiting for John's practice to wrap up the other night, however, I found myself drawn into some other team's game, cheering them on.  It's such a great game!  John plays a good second base, or shortstop.  He's a good pitcher.  But he really likes playing outfield.  He is always moving, running in to back up bases, dancing right and left to cover the gaps in that expansion grassy outfield.  He stops the ball and gets it into the infield. 
I remember always preferring outfield when I played softball, very briefly, in my childhood.  But I liked it for very different reasons than John does; reasons that remain true today.  I like to see everything coming at me.  I like to be distanced enough to see it coming.  I need time to react, even if it's only a fraction of a second longer.  I'm a planner and I like to be able to see the whole picture.  Having only the baseline on either side of me gets me a little jumpy.  Being in the center of the diamond would freak me out.  And being behind the home plate, fenced in by the towering ump and knowing that everything is coming at you fast with every single pitch - I can't even imagine.
Here's John flying to first base. 
Oh, I love watching this game!

Changing gears...Mark texted me this morning with some sad news of a MN loss.  Vince Flynn, a Minnesota writer died today, of prostate cancer, at age 47.  My youngest brother introduced the Vince Flynn collection to Mark just this past winter and Mark has totally enjoyed the titles he's read. 

Serialized Story

Certain things just feel romantic - not in the love way but in the old-fashioned, quaint way.  Like serialized stories; bits of a story being told in increments each ay or week or month.  In a world of excess and allowance, there's something very intential and rationed about a serialized story.  You get what you get and you must wait for the next one.  Well, actually you can usually go online and buy the e-book if you can't handle the discipline but...try.  You'll be so much more happy.
So, serialized stories/books can be found online, immediate an in abundance but finding them in the daily newspaper is the ultimate.  Last Sunday was  the first installment of a serialized ghost/love story by Minnesota author Mary Logue and was featured in our Star Tribune newspaper.  Today is the fifth day of the series which will run every day for seven weeks.  I set my alarm a little earlier today, eagerly anticipating a walk to the paperbox, a cup of coffee and an intentional read with my breakfast.
If you on't have access to the daily Star Tribune, here's a link to the story"  Giving Up the Ghost

No More Dewey Decimal

We just returned from a trip to our public library.  John was looking for books about WWI aircraft and Kate was trying to find a particularr book about fairies.  She looked the book up on the computer catalog, wrote down the number and then searched the shelves.  I tried helping her but the shelves were all in this crazy order that made no sense to me.  Every time I thought I'd deciphered it's madness, I lost my path.  So...I asked for directions.  Apparently our library system is no longer using the Dewey Decimal Classification system.  I know!  Look at these biographies - not "921"!!  And poetry is no longer in the "830"s.  Everything is now shelved according to the Library of Congress Classification system.  I don't know if this system will be taught in schools now or if it will be like the American use of the metric system and we'll spend more time trying to translate back to Dewey than we would trying to just learn the new one.  Here's a little cheat sheet of how this all makes sense:

Finally...Chicago

Last October, my mom, Kate and I had a trip to Chicago planned and this past weekend we finally made that trip.  In all my previous trips to the windy city, I've always stayed on the north side of the river.  But the hotel we always stayed at has been turned exclusively into residential apartments.  So we stayed south of the river and saw so many things I've never visited before.  Like the Art Institute and the Bean and the highest building in the western hemisphere - the Skydeck at the Sears Tower (I know, I know...it's called the Willis Tower now but, for me, it's always the Sears Tower):

We took the El from the airport to within a block of our hotel and, as we zipped along, I caught glimpses of this building with big green wings.  As soon as I would tell Kate or mom to look, however, it was too late - we'd passed the corner and they couldn't see it.  Then,...on our third day, as we walked from Millennium Park, I glanced both ways while preparing to cross a street and...there it was, the building with the green wings.  I don't know what the building is (our feet were too tired to walk the extra two block and find out!).

I have a wonderful college friend in Chicago who picked me up from the hotel on Sunday morning so we could go to church together followed by a long brunch and catch-up.  Way back when, cities were divided up into parishes.  A parish was your community and the church was where you were if you weren't at home or at work.  After mass, we had a cup of coffee in a basement area of the church which used to be the pub/bar/restaurant.  The church is very old and in constant reparation but the craftsmanship of every detail is amazing.

After we had our chance to chat, she and her husband had all of us out to their house the next day for a beautiful afternoon meal before our flight.  With a bottle of Chianti we were served cantaloupe wrapped in thinly sliced prosciutto, thick slices of buffalo mozzarella on tomatoes with olive oil and sea salt followed by a delicious pasta dish (sorry, L, can't remember the name!) with onions, pancetta, and red sauce.  And then...Nutella brownies (to die for!) served with hand whipped cream and fresh organic strawberries with hot coffee in delicate white cups.  Perfect.  Such a wonderful trip.

The Kindness of Writers

For the past several years, I have taken Kate and a few of her friends to the annual Young Author's Conference.  It is organized and put on by Success Beyond the Classroom and held on a local college campus.  As an adult, I've been to writer's conferences and am always amazed by the kindness and generosity of other writers.  I don't know why.  Maybe I expect everyone to be secretive or protective about their own ideas.  But that's not the case.  Overwhelmingly, there is an overflowing of sharing and helping and just plain friendliness.  At the YAC last week, as I sat in a central "chaperone" location, I overheard some 4th graders trying to locate their next session.  These 10 year-olds seemed so much littler than the 13 year-old (going on 28!) girls that I had with me.  The campus is sprawling and the sessions can be very spread out.  So, these girls were carrying their maps in front of their faces, glancing up at these color-coded zone signs (a session might be labeled "Basics of Editorial Writing and Cartooning - Sky Blue 337).  These two students, strangers to each other, noticed each other and here's the conversation I overheard:

Is this way Magenta?

Are you Magenta too?

Yeah.  Hi, I'm Amy.

Nice to meet you.  I'm Chloe.

I love your shirt.

Oh, thanks.

And off they went together, to learn new tips and share ideas, in their "Magenta" poetry session.  The level of maturity these kids exhibit when put into a situation where they are treated like adults and really have to fend for themselves (in a very organized and safe environment) is incredible.  They network, they rely on each other, and they grow!  So cool.

This is a scene from a book I recently bought, with beautiful sepia-toned illustrations punctuated by a red fish.  the little red fish by taeeun yoo begins with the line:

JeJe's grandfather was a librarian at an old library in the middle of the forest.

What a wonderful beginning!

The Morels are in Town!

Mark just sent me this photo.  He spotted this morel mushroom on a walk today.  Morels are a gourmet mushroom that appear elusively for a very short time in spring.  Those who hunt morels keep the location of their hunting grounds top secret, so...mum's the word here.  The mushrooms are delicious cooked fresh but can also be dried to use later.  Guess what we'll be doing this weekend?!!

Katie went on her first morel hunt when she was five - John was napping.  When you pick a mushroom, you drop it into a mesh bag (like the ones potatoes come in) so that they shake gently as you walk, releasing the spores back onto the forest floor to grow more next year.  Sometimes they're easy to find, standing right out in the middle of a clearing (bottom-ish center of photo):

But more often, they are hiding behind downed/rotten pieces of tree (right in the middle of photo):

One year, my mother-in-law gave me a bag of dried morels for my birthday and I've been very stingy with them as I was unsure when we would find more.  I guess it's time to bring out the birthday bag and re-constitute the 'shrooms!

Rain, Caffeine, Books, ahhhh....

It's sunny today but for many, many days past, it has been raining. (This is a typical Minnesota conversation opener - a comment on the weather - there's always something to talk about when you start with the weather!)  On Tuesday morning, I filled my coffee mug, pulled on my rain boots, switched on the windshield wipers and hit some local used bookstores, as well as, the book aisle at a thrift shop and oh, what a haul!  I bought books for everyone in the family plus a few gifts for friends.  I found copies of our next couple book club selections and...AND...see those books right in the middle back?  See the two on the top with mainly yellow spines?  They are Geronimo Stilton books.  Kate had nearly the whole collection when she was younger.  She loved them.  They formed the person she has become (in a good way).  And at some point, on a day I was actually cleaning house,...I got rid of them.  I can't believe I did it.  I don't know what I was thinking.  And I so regret it.  The books are so funny and clever and FULL of personality.  So, I will buy them when I see them.  I will get her collection back (even if it ends up being a graduation gift...from college!)

Jar of Sunshine

Last week was cold and windy - we had long underwear, hats and gloves on to watch baseball.  While grocery shopping, I saw these lemon drops in the bulk bin aisle and scooped out a bag to fill this jar.  When John came home from school and saw the jar, he said "Wow, what a pretty jar."  And it is.  Or, it is when it's filled with lemon drops.  This picture, of course, is in the sunshine but last week, the jar was on the kitchen counter, looking sunny, cheerful, & sweet.
When I was in elementary school and the weather was "inside recess weather", my teacher allowed me to go to the media center and help Mrs. Hewlitt, our school librarian, re shelf books and dust the surfaces.  I loved this job.  I sometimes convinced my teacher to let me go even when the weather was fair.  Mrs. Hewlitt and I talked about the books I was reading, the books I loved, and the books she thought I would love.  Many of her suggestions, I did love.  She always wanted me to read Harriet the Spy, though, and I never did.  I just did not think it was my cup of tea.  Having seen the movie as an adult (I know, not the same as the book but...), I realize that she was spot on - I would have loved that book.  Why did I resist?  Mrs. Hewlitt had a jar of lemon drops in her little coat locker behind her desk and, when I came to help, she allowed me one drop to suck on while I did my chores.

Many years later, when I worked in the children's literature department of a bookstore, I found this book, The Lemon Drop Jar by Christine Widman, and had to buy it.  The small girl visits her aunt who hands her a paper bag of lemon drops upon her arrival.  They fill a jar with the drops and set the jar on the window ledge where the sun twinkles off the cuts in the crystal.  After a walk in the fall leaves, they return home to make lemon tea, sweetened by a lemon drop. 

Happy Mother's Day

Homemade Bread

I've had this book, Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day, checked out from the library and sitting on the passenger seat of my car.  My intention was to read it while waiting in the school car queue for Kate and John, then pop home and, in five minutes, whip up a freshly baked, piping hot, loaf of crusty artisan bread.  Then I started receiving notices from the library that my borrowing due date was approaching.  So, afraid I would lose my chance, I started reading it.

"Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read.  One does not love breathing."

- Scout in To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

The book is written by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois.  I started at the beginning and I didn't skip around.  Yes, I was reading, page by page, a cookbook.  This isn't usually how I approach a cookbook but there was something about making bread that made me want to be sure I really really understood it.  We got home and the kids actually mixed up a batch of dough (literally less less five minutes).  Once you form the dough, you must let it rest and then bake it - so those parts take more than five minutes.  But the batch lasts a full week, just keep in fridge and cut off pieces of dough when you're ready to bake another loaf.  It is delicious.  (Don't request it at my local library though 'cause I'm not finished reading about the variations that can be made from the original recipe!)

We've had it toasted in the morning with cream cheese and honey or jam.  Yesterday with salad and salmon.  And tonight with homemade chicken dumpling soup.  Yummmmm.  It smells warm and toasty in the house but this was the view outside my desk window this morning.  Pretty, yes...but it is April - enough already!!

Early Walk in the Woods

“All truly great thoughts are conceived while walking.” ― Friedrich Nietzsche

I walked this morning and it felt so good.  I'm not sure that I conceived any "great thoughts" though.  The robins are crazy out there - so many.  I read an article discussing Blue Zones (areas in the world where people live longer) and the common lifestyle characteristics of these zones.  One of the identified zones, Sardonia, Italy boasts the importance of walking.  There are many shepherds there, all who walk an average of five miles a day.  I walked three today; not quite a shepherd but...pretty good, I think.

"Walking is man's best medicine."
- Hippocrates

Another article cites the mental health significance of walking in nature.  A Japanese research study even proposes that a walk in the woods exposes one to "wood essential oils" which help immune systems and  lower stress and blood pressure levels.

 “My grandmother started walking five miles a day when she was sixty. She's ninety-seven now, and we don't know where the heck she is.” ― Ellen DeGeneres

(I've heard humor helps also!)

I found these peeking out of the snow on a south-facing hill!  I think I'll walk again tomorrow.

  "It is no use walking anywhere to preach unless our walking is our preaching."
- St. Francis of Assisi



Game of Thrones/Winter is Coming?

Last month, for our "Mom's Book Club", we read the first book in the Game of Thrones series by George R.R. Martin and had our meeting this past weekend.  In the book, the Stark family reigns the northern realm and the saying of their family is "winter is coming".  We drank plenty of wine at the meeting but I swear we didn't do any kind of snow dance.  But look at what is happening outside now!  And it's still snowing.
Anyway, the meeting was great.  In this group, we have pretty loose/open discussion but the hostess usually has some printed questions to keep us on track.  I don't have a copy of the questions but will try to remember them.

-- Each family lives in a different climate of the realm - discuss how the place in which they live affects their strengths/habits/personalities/lifestyles.  (here we compared the Starks to Minnesotans - (little did we know what was coming this week!)
-- Each chapter is told from a perspective of a different main character.  Robb Stark is a fairly main character, why doesn't he have any chapters?  What might this foreshadow going forward?  Eddard Stark has chapters but, by the end of this book, we might wonder why (no spoilers!) - again, what might this foreshadow?
-- Were you surprised by the way the book ended?  Did you see any of this coming?  If so, which parts.  If not, why not?  This is definitely the ending of a series book - discuss.
-- If you didn't know anything about the author, would you assume the author were male or female?  Why or why not?
-- Did you like the addition of supernatural/fantasy in the book?  Did you feel differently about the dragons vs the direwolves vs the white walkers?  Why?  Why do you think the author added these elements to the book?  Could the book/story stand without them?
-- Discuss the author's competence in description: could you clearly picture/imagine the settings, the clothing, the food, the weather?  Obviously this is important in making it into a TV series - if you've seen the HBO series, how accurate to what you had in your head was the TV series?  Discuss, in general, the relationship between book and movie/TV.

We always have a potluck dinner at our meetings but we don't always theme it to the book.  This time we did - all centered around a delicious brisket smoked on the grill.  One of the Stark daughters, Sansa, is always stealing lemon cakes from the kitchen in the book so I brought these lemon bars for dessert.  I'd never made them before but this recipe turned out great:

What I Like About You

We still had snow for Easter.  Then it rained.  Then it snowed a little.  Got real muddy.  And now, last night, it really snowed.  It's melting already but everything is covered in a thick blanket of white.  As we discussed this wonderful state we live in on the way to school, I explained how resilient it makes us, how tough are we Minnesotans.  I mean, it's just snow.  It's not when we want snow but it isn't a hurricane or a Tsunami or anything destructive (other than mental health).  So, we discussed why we like Minnesota.  And then The Romantics came on the radio singing What I Like About You.  Perfect.  That'll be my theme song for today. 
My super tall grass died while we were on spring break, so I cleaned out the jars and decided that April will be a month of fresh flowers.  I'm going to keep fresh flowers on my table all of this month.  It does't melt the snow but...it helps.  See, we learn to deal with it.  We find tools to get through.
I think I've mentioned this before, but during my late high school years and all through college, I worked at a media distribution center, typing library catalog cards for elementary school library books.  Could get kinda boring sometimes.  But the people were fun and one of the tools we invented to break up our day was reading the funniest/craziest/stupidest books aloud to each other during lunch break.  (I know, major nerdy but, hey...)   I remember one favorite series of ours, one that we would read everytime it came across our desks, was The Cut-Ups by James Marshall.

I checked one out from the library (looking for some comedy relief) and read it.  Hmmm.  It really isn't that funny.  And yet we used to read them, snort laughing.  Maybe being a college student, bored out of your mind, using funny voices to read a picture book to similar fellow college students during the middle of your summer break makes it more funny.  Probably.

Anyway, the table runner under the vase (above) is my most recent project - denim cut-up from a pairs of old jeans and stitched back together.  Here's another picture of it: