Fiddle Mama

I've moved!

2011-02-01T14:07:00.001-08:00

Come visit me in my new digs.

Gift

2011-01-25T19:08:00.000-08:00

January is galloping to a close so I suppose I'd better get these old photos up before I forget about them altogether.

This blogs serves two main purposes for me: 1) to keep in touch with friends (mainly just you, dear Oregonian birthday girl) and family and 2) because I have absolutely no long term memory capacity and I would forget all this life stuff without the visual reminders.

So! December. We took an adorable Christmas photo of the kids for the first time ever.

I especially like the outtakes

We celebrated St. Nicholas Day

and Christmas, most notably with a nativity play at church

and the elaborate construction of a gingerbread house

We also made some special treats for dear ones

including our new goddaughter and her family

(the banana is a rattle and the pear is crinkly)

We also started our Winter Wonderland semester and made crystals during our study of snowflakes

making a super saturated solution

Liam had a very happy birthday

and a few days later his new birthday bear Teddy was blissfully wedded to Curious George, with the whole stuffed herd in attendance

Liam presided, of course

We played in a whole lot of snow

And suddenly, here we are in 2011! Here's to another full, imperfect, wild, and joyous year!

Wonder

2011-01-20T15:32:00.000-08:00

Okay, I have to be honest. As much as I love seasons, winter is starting to be a drag. Don't get me wrong, I love the sparkly snow. I love the multiple hot beverages per day. I even love the way that snow days force you to stay home and turn down the volume on your life.

That's all fine and good.

I am so over the stuffing of the little limbs into coats, the hats gaily flung off while the boots are being put on, the truly incredible amount of time that must be added to every arrival and departure. You know what's even more fun than two preschoolers and all their winter gear? When one of them is ever so slightly not exactly potty trained.

Please don't even get me started on the driving. I learned to drive in Minnesota but no amount of experience prepares me for the anxiety of making a slippery turn with two profoundly expressive backseat helpers.

Luckily, those very same preschoolers are the reason that I am finding more than the average helping of joy and wonder in this season. We just finished our study of animals in winter and this week moved onto shadows and Groundhog's Day. I am once again amazed that in my thirty two years of life and multiple viewings of the classic Bill Murphy vehicle by the same name, I never really understood nor bothered to learn more about Groundhog's Day or the related Catholic holiday of Candlemas, which celebrates on February 2 an event described in the Gospel of Luke.

From the mighty Wikipedia:

According to the gospel, Mary and Joseph took the baby Jesus to the Temple in Jerusalem forty days after his birth to complete Mary's ritual purification after childbirth, and to perform the redemption of the firstborn, in obedience to the Law of Moses (Leviticus 12, Exodus 13:12-15, etc.). Luke explicitly says that Joseph and Mary take the option provided for poor people (those who could not afford a lamb) in Leviticus 12:8, sacrificing "a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons."
Upon bringing Jesus into the temple, they encountered Simeon the Righteous. The Gospel records that Simeon had been promised that "he should not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ" (Luke 2:26). Simeon prayed the prayer that would become known as the Nunc Dimittis, or Canticle of Simeon, which prophesied the redemption of the world by Jesus:
Now you are releasing your servant, Master, according to your word, in peace; for my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared before the face of all peoples; a light for revelation to the nations, and the glory of your people Israel (Luke 2:29-32).
Simeon then prophesied to Mary: "Behold, this child is set for the falling and the rising of many in Israel, and for a sign which is spoken against. Yes, a sword will pierce through your own soul, that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed" (Luke 2:34-35).
The elderly prophetess Anna was also in the Temple, and offered prayers and praise to God for Jesus, and spoke to everyone there about Jesus and his role in the redemption of Israel (Luke 2:36-38).

I am very sure that I never encountered Candlemas or those originating verses in Luke in all my years of CCD. The things you learn when they bounce off your child onto you!

I've been poking around these notions of premonition and prophesy and remembering how I used to really wish that someone would just tell me the answer to some of the big questions that I had about my life. In the early days of dating Joe, especially when he was living in Scotland, I spent a lot of time wondering and wishing I knew what our lives together or apart would hold. When I was grieving my miscarriages, I wanted someone to just tell me if I would be able to have a healthy, full term baby of my own. I felt like, even if the answer was no, I would be able to move forward in coping if only I knew how the story would end.

Somewhere in the last five years or so, in the crazy swirl of parenting little children, I released my need to know the ending. I can't say if this is progress or not because it also feels related somehow to the way I can't watch some kinds of movies or read certain sorts of books because I worry that the heartbreak within might be too great to bear.

Winter is such a dark time. I am so thankful for all the small glowing treasures that light the way to Spring.

But that's a post for another day.

New

2011-01-11T07:46:00.001-08:00

Happy New Year!

What's new for me in 2011:

1. A brand new, very dear goddaughter

2. Guitar lessons

3. 2 international trips (one to Ireland with my mother, another to Italy and Ireland with my husband, children, and in-laws)

4. Delving more deeply into reading and writing with my boys. They are so fascinated by all they know already so I am trying to strike while the iron is hot.

5. Lots of performances

6. Baby steps toward a new yoga home practice

7. Early to bed, early to rise (so help me God)

8. Making friends with my sewing machine

9. Organizing the upstairs bedroom

10. A new dedication to family night

I'm releasing:

1. FFFF posts for now. I'm a nervous winter driver and tend to stay home as much as possible in these snowy months. I may revive these in the spring. They were starting to feel like a chore.

2. Lots of clothes, toys, and household items that still have good use left in them to Goodwill and the Crowded Closet.

3. The notion that I can be healthy without exercising regularly. I need to develop and maintain better habits.

Joe and I are trying really hard to dedicate ourselves to an evening routine and a morning routine as a way of getting all the household chores done. When we stick with it, it works beautifully. The simpler it is, the stickier. Unfortunately, the simpler it is, the less effective it is but maybe we can trick ourselves into building it up. This is obviously a work in progress. What isn't?

I was having such difficulty getting the momentum going to post something, anything at all. I'll be back soon again with a homeschooling update. We started the Winter Wonderland curriculum and love it just as much as Harvest Time.

More soon!

FFFF

2010-12-10T18:25:00.000-08:00

On Fridays, I like to post some fun and frugal Eastern Iowa family adventure ideas for the upcoming weekend.

What a Load of Craft! on Saturday, December 11 from 11 am to 7 pm at the Johnson County Fairgrounds (4261 Oak Crest Hill Road SE in Iowa City directly off Riverside Dr. aka Old Hwy 218).

What a Load of Craft! is a DIY arts, crafts, and music event in Iowa City, Iowa. What A Load of Craft! consists of a DIY (do-it-yourself) craft fair with local crafsters and artists selling their handmade goods, live music performances by local and regional musicians, and a Craft Death Match.

Alternative Gift Market at Trinity Episcopal Church in Iowa City on Saturday, December 11 from 10 am to 4 pm and Sunday, December 12 from 9 am to 1 pm.

Join us for some meaningful Christmas shopping. Make gift donations in honor of family and friends or buy gifts from our fair-trade vendors. Sales and donations benefit local, national, and international causes.

30th Annual Aisle of Lights Weekend in Coralville. Full details of all the weekends activities can be viewed here. Special note: The Iowa Children's Museum will have free admission on Sunday and will feature Festivals of Lights celebrations from around the world with storytelling and traditional crafts from other countries.

Coralville's 30th annual Aisle of Lights weekend includes free events throughout Coralville on December 11 and 12, and miles luminarias available for viewing beginning at 5:00 pm on Sunday evening, December 12.

Have a wonderful weekend!

FFFF

2010-12-03T20:51:00.000-08:00

On Fridays, I like to post some fun and frugal Eastern Iowa family adventure ideas for the upcoming weekend.

The Snow Queen at the Old Creamery Theatre in the Amana Colonies on Saturday, December 4 at 11 am.

The beautiful but evil snow Queen has cast a spell on Kai and taken him to her frozen castle, far away. His young friend Gerda begins the dangerous search for Kai and meets many interesting characters along the way. Will Gerda ever find the icy palace and will she be able to break the powerful spell to save her friend? Come celebrate the power of love and friendship in this Old Creamery Theatre for Young Audiences production.

Fire and Ice Festival in downtown Cedar Rapids on Saturday, December 4 from 2:30 to 9 pm. 2:30p.m. Activities Begin at Towne Square Plaza (210 3rd Ave. SE)

Free carriage rides through downtown, entertainment from fire juggler Doug Sayers, holiday décor including wrapped LED trees, vintage holiday banners and planters can be enjoyed throughout downtown along with holiday window displays provided by participating downtown businesses. Chili Challenge with Quality Chef Foods, Holiday DeLight Parade, Santa and Friends Meet-and-Greet where families are welcome to visit with Santa, Mrs. Claus, elves and live reindeer while enjoying free holiday snacks.

Alternative Gift Market at Trinity Episcopal Church in Iowa City on Sunday, December 5 from 9 am to 1 pm.

Join us for some meaningful Christmas shopping. Make gift donations in honor of family and friends or buy gifts from our fair-trade vendors. Sales and donations benefit local, national, and international causes.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Seamster

2010-12-02T19:01:00.000-08:00

Here are some of the pictures that I promised.

Liam's first sewing project, blankets for Froggie and Toadie.

R2-D2 "helping"

Proud little seamster

Every artist needs an audience.

Tucking in the the twins all snug in their new blankets.

From the mouths of babes: "I like to make stuff. But buying stuff is really good too."

Sew

2010-11-27T08:00:00.001-08:00

Here I was, all set to catch up on blogging during our long weekend, and no camera cable in sight. Pictures to follow in a few days.

In the meantime, you're welcome to sit in on my brain dump here. It will be a sparkling cacophony of random things I've been meaning to write about for the last couple of weeks.

1. Liam's First Sewing Project

A short story made very, very long. Bear with me, I am overly caffeinated.

When Liam was born, I had a full time job that I didn't love but I didn't think I could afford to leave so he was in day care from 3 months until 8 months. It wasn't an ideal situation for many reasons, mainly because my health and Liam's health suffered a lot, but we were fortunate to have wonderful caregivers.

When I was finally able to leave my position, his caregivers gave him a stuffed frog named Toadie. Liam and Toadie have been inseparable ever since. Recently, we have also acquired Toadie's identical twin brother Froggie who was procured to be Toadie Version 3.0 if we should ever need to call on him for such deception. Alas, Liam discovered him immediately and so Froggie joined the fray rather than take up residence in storage.

Liam stumbled across my stash of fleece left over from the mittens (see #3) and independently decided that he wanted to make blankets for Toadie and Froggie. Being an extremely lazy seamstress, I am all about any project involving oh-so-forgiving fleece so I readily agreed. Since we had two different kinds of fleece, we decided to do a heart patch of contrasting fleece on each blanket.

Liam was quite good at the sewing which is especially impressive given that he insisted on clutching his Lego R2-D2 in his sewing hand. The blankets turned out so cute and the Amphibian Brothers loved them. Pictures just as soon as a I find the implements necessary for the computer to slurp them off the camera.

2. A Rant

What is the deal with crafting/imaginary play being marketed as a 'girl thing'? Save for the token pirate costume and how to draw a superhero (or a robot. Or a dinosaur) book, mainstream craft kits and imaginary play supplies are overwhelmingly marketed directly and unashamedly at girls.

It's not that I want to buy blue vehicle-emblazoned crafting materials or that I have an inherent problem with pink journals festooned with princesses. A giant box of miscellaneous art supplies along with Halloween costumes purchased off-season carry a lot more bang for the buck than sanitized fill-in-the-blank journals and pop bead kits.

I do have a problem with the message that kids get from this kind of marketing. Boys can be creative but only with plastic Lego blocks (not knocking Legos!. We are fanatics, in case you haven't been paying attention). Boys can draw, as long as the subject matter is superheroes, dinosaurs, and robots. Strangely, horses are girls' domain. Is it because their tails are braidable?

3. More Sewing

The boys and I have loved the Harvest Time curriculum that we have been doing this fall and we are really looking forward to the Winter Wonderland curriculum that is coming up. One unusually chilly day about a month ago, I was wrestling the kids into their winter snow mittens and I realized that, while it's really not cold enough to justify the Gortex, Velcro-fastened mittens, it's also not warm enough to jaunt to and from the car with bare hands. At least, not without a lot of whining.

It was then that I remembered a project that is in the upcoming curriculum, making simple hand-sewed fleece mittens. My kids weren't ready for the sewing in this project but they did enjoy tracing their hands and helping with cutting. I added a knitted i-cord so that these mittens could stay in their sleeves when they inevitably wanted to take them off. And put them on. And take them off. And put them on. Eleventy million times on every grocery trip. I am no seamstress but these were a piece of cake. It turns out that I am really successful if I assign myself sewing projects designed for dextrous five year olds. Someday I will conquer my sewing machine(s. I hang my head in shame.) but today is not that day.

4. Advent

I love the season of Advent. The love has deepened this year as I have been very blessed to teach Godly Play to the 3 and 4 year olds at our church. Just as 5 year old sewing projects seem to be my vernacular, so are bible stories designed for preschoolers.

For the next four weeks, we travel the road to Bethlehem with the Holy Family, waiting for the mystery to unfold.

On a rather more grownup level, I can't travel this particular road without remembering a poem by one of the best Irish poets, William Butler Yeats. It's not a happy poem but neither is this altogether a happy season. It's a season of waiting, of the unknown. For better or worse, it's a season of change.

The Second Coming

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in the sands of the desert.

A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

FFFF

2010-11-18T21:37:00.000-08:00

I can't seem to get back on track with my usual posting right now but I do have my FFFF post this week.

On Fridays, I like to post some fun and frugal family adventure ideas for the upcoming weekend.

Twas the Night Before Christmas Library Event at the Westdale Mall branch of the Cedar Rapids library on Saturday, November 20 at 10:30 am.

Join us for a fun morning at the CRPL West Side . Meet the characters from the Children's Theatre play,'Twas the Night Before Christmas, eat some treats and enjoy fun activities!

Memory Makers: Country School at the Carl and Mary Koehler History Center on Saturday, November 20 at 10:30 am.

Kids will learn about Country Schools, sit at old-fashioned student desks, play a historic game, and complete a craft project. Recommended for kids ages 4 to 9, accompanied by an adult.

Iowa City READ Dogs at the Coralville library on Sunday, November 21 at 1 pm.

Children kindergarten age or older can spend 15 minutes reading to a licensed therapy dog in our Storytime Room. Sign up is required on the day of event. (First come, first served)

FFFF

2010-11-11T14:11:00.002-08:00

On Fridays, I like to post some fun and frugal family adventure ideas for the upcoming weekend.

It's a quieter weekend here in terms of family adventures but snuggly storytimes sound good to me in this increasingly chilly weather.

Family Storytime at the Coralville Public Library on Saturday, November 13 at 10:30 am.

Happy Birthday to the ICM! at the Iowa Children's Museum on Sunday, November 14 from 10 am to 3 pm.

Join your friends at the ICM as we celebrate our 11th Birthday at the Coral Ridge Mall! Birthday party games... and we bet some fun hats!

Family Storytime at the Iowa City Public Library on Sunday, November 14 at 2 pm.

Costume

2010-11-06T04:21:00.000-07:00

I'm still playing catch up both here on the blog and in life so I now present the very last leg of our vacation adventure, coming home just in time for Halloween.

Liam was a fruit bat (properly accessorized with knit pear and knit banana with removable knit peel! The pear was actually created for his fellow fruit bat buddy).

Atticus was a spider and we were lucky enough to borrow a costume that my friend made for her son last year. The very same child who was a fruit bat partner this year, as a matter of fact. He had a very cute spider hat too but we accidentally left it at our first stop of the night.

I was a butterfly with a costume thrown together at the last minute from a TJ Maxx scarf and pipe cleaner antennae.

Joe sewed the sweetest daddy fruit bat costume the afternoon of Halloween and I somehow never managed to get any pictures of it. Boo! He took the leftover fleece from Liam's cape and made wings that he basted to one of his favorite black pullover sweaters. Liam loved it because he just looked the way Daddy usually looks in jeans and a sweater until he lifted his arms and then ta-da!...Daddy Fruit Bat!

FFFF

2010-11-04T13:54:00.000-07:00

On Fridays, I like to post some fun and frugal family adventure ideas. Bonus points for supporting local music and culture!

Fossil Guy "When Tyrannosaurus Roamed Montana" at the University of Iowa Museum of Natural History on Saturday, November 6 at 1 pm.

Each program consists of a 20-minute talk by Johnson, a local avocational paleontologist, followed by a close-up, hands-on, question-and-answer session using his collection of fossils and artifacts. Presentations are geared toward elementary-age school children.

A number of different kinds of tyrannosaurs including Albertosaurus, Daspletosaurus, and T. Rex roamed Montana during the Late Cretaceous Period. Were the tyrannosaurs scavengers, predators, or both? Were they smart or stupid? What do the fossils tell us about the tyrannosaurs, and what is merely speculation? What was their correct posture, and how did they balance on two legs? For what did they use their tiny arms? What made their teeth special? Get straight answers to these questions and more during this educational program.

Those in attendance will see a replica of the “Peck’s Rex” T. Rex jaw, touch real T. Rex fossils including a T. rex tooth and claw, and learn about the tremendous teenage growth spurt of T. rex. Don will share his experiences hunting for tyrannosaur fossils in the badlands of South Dakota and Montana.

Irish Ceili with live music by The Beggarmen at the Senior Center on Saturday, November 6 from 7 to 10 pm.

Come to the Center and enjoy the fall Ceili dance featuring live music by the Iowa City based Irish band The Beggarmen and dancing by the Ghrá na Gaeilge Irish Dancers. Caller Gerry Bade of the Quad Cities Ceili Club will lead dancers through the steps of the various ceili dances.

‘Ceili’ is an Irish Gaelic word used to describe a social gathering featuring music and dancing as well as story telling, poetry reading, and other activities. All experience levels from newcomers to experienced dancers and all ages are welcome and encouraged to attend.

Piano Sundays at the Old Capitol Museum Senate Chamber on Sunday, November 7 at 1:30 pm.

Featuring Seong-Sil Kim and Ryan McNamara playing works of Chopin and Liszt, Piano Sundays present the finest of students in addition to the noted School of Music Piano Area faculty. Supported by West Music, Piano Sundays celebrates its fifth year with this 2010-2011 series.

Adventure

2010-10-30T10:22:00.000-07:00

It's been quiet here in blogland because we've been adventuring!

Atticus had his first airplane trip. Liam had his third.

(thank you, Leapfrog Tag Reader and Magic Tree House on the iPod!)

Liam and Atticus ran a race on the beach with Auntie and Grammi.

We got to see Grammi and Grampi play at their Irish session.

Lots of other fun to be had at Balboa Park.

Del Mar was having Trick or Treating on the day that we visited the beach. We didn't have our costumes but it was fun walking the route.

Liam wanted to take some pictures on the beach for his beloved yoga teacher.

The Ugg-wearing natives thought we were nutso but we loved splashing in the (admittedly COLD) water.

We had a very relaxing day at the Wild Animal Park with Grammi and Grampi.

We saw a baby rhino nursing.

We experienced the southern California version of a pumpkin patch (take a parking lot, throw down some hay, erect some bounce houses, and you're ready for business).

There was also some pool time with Daddy and Grampi.

Not to mention, LEGOLAND!!!

Atticus' favorite was the fairy tale kingdom.

We made some Lego creations of our own.

By the time we flew home, we had a couple of travel experts on our hands.

Next up, Halloween with our fruit bat and spider and then it's back to the simple life (or the old grind, depending on how you look at it...)

FFFF

2010-10-21T12:58:00.000-07:00

On Fridays, I like to post some fun and frugal family adventure ideas.

Bonus points for supporting local music and culture!

Barn Dance at the Center on Saturday, October 23 from 7:30 to 10 pm.

Everyone is welcome to the Barn Dance! Even if you do not wish to dance, the old time country music, provided by the best local bands in the area, is worth the price of admission. No experience is necessary; all dances are taught and called by an expert caller. There’s no fancyfootwork involved; simply walk through a series of movements that you’ll soon master with help from the caller and veteran dancers. Fun for all ages and abilities, the Barn Dance is open to all: singles, couples, and the entire family. Come, check it out. You won’t be disappointed.

Safe Halloween for Kids at Ushers Ferry on Sunday, October 24 from 1 to 4 pm.

This beloved family event is coming home again to Ushers Ferry! Bring out the kids for an old-fashioned Halloween filled with trick-or-treating, games and costume contests. Those with an artistic flair will want to bring their carved or decorated pumpkins for the Jack o' Lantern judging contest.

Monthly Irish Session at the Center. 24 South Linn Street in Iowa City on Sunday, October 24 from 2 to 4 pm.

The fourth Sunday of every month, my Cavan Fiddle Studio fiddlers and many of our local musician friends join together for an informal Irish session. We are sometimes lucky enough to be joined by the Ghrá na Gaeilge Irish dancers. A session isn't a performance exactly, just a jam session of sorts, but onlookers (otherwise known as future dancers and musicians) are most certainly welcome. The Dutchers will not be in attendance this coming Sunday but we will look forward to seeing you at the next session!

Have a great weekend!

Walk

2010-10-16T06:50:00.000-07:00

We're studying leaves this week so last night, we took a leaf walk.

We crunched through oak leaves and slipped acorns into our pockets.

Sam is hypervigilant on these walks. He's not at all sure that we are keeping our puppies safe and doesn't like it one bit when Liam runs down the trail in front of us. He prefers that the pack stay together.

To be honest, it's hard for me too. It's hard to let my children go out of my reach. It's hard but I have to do it. They need to learn how to feel safe being free.

If Spring is about new beginnings, then Fall is about letting go. It's one of my top four favorite seasons.

Basket

2010-10-15T17:35:00.000-07:00

I love to knit but I am otherwise not inherently crafty so when I find something that looks both possible and also functional, I jump right on it. Bonus points for using up toilet paper rolls!

Thanks again to the amazing team at Wee Folk Art for the great idea (click for instructions).

I am forever buying craft supplies and writing supplies and we are forever losing them. The boys each have a Spiderman pencil box that they use for all manner of play except for the actual storing of pencils. When Liam wants to write his letters and it takes me ten minutes to locate an appropriate writing utensil, his enthusiasm has waned considerably by the time we finally get started.

Enter the craft basket! I've added notes to the photo if you click all the way through to Flickr.

Needless to say, it was a hit! There was pre-breakfast art exploring going on round these parts.

Pre-breakfast Atticus is not usually this happy to be awake. The power of art!

Update

2010-10-15T05:55:00.000-07:00

Remember when Liam and I went to the yarn shop together and bought the yarn for his winter hat?

I finished it just as we were pulling off the highway on our exit for home last weekend after our wonderful, relaxing weekend.

Despite Liam's pained I'd-rather-be-playing smile, he professes to love his hat and even insisted on wearing it to bed the night I finished it.

The yarn is Plymouth Encore Tweed, a worsted acrylic blend, and the (free!) pattern is called the Carrick Bend Cap.

FFFF

2010-10-12T12:38:00.000-07:00

On Fridays, I like to post about some fun and frugal family adventures that are taking place in the Iowa City area over the weekend.

Kidows! in downtown Iowa City on Saturday, October 16 from 10 am to 2 pm.

A free downtown event for families. Check in at Fired Up! (112 South Linn) and you'll be directed to a downtown business where you'll find paint and brushes and lots of fun! Paint for a minute or an hour- it's your downtown!

2nd Annual Czech Fall Festival on Saturday, October 16 from 7 am to 9 pm on 16th Avenue SW in Cedar Rapids.

The Czech Village/New Bohemia Main Street District will be hosting the 2nd Annual Czech Village Fall Festival, October 16th, 7am-9pm on 16th Avenue SW. The festival features a Czech Pancake Breakfast 7-11am, traditional Czech and Slovak music, artisan vendors, holiday crafts, hay rack rides, children’s games and puzzles (9am-6pm) and an evening street dance (5-9pm). Visit the Czech Slovak National Museum and Library to see the “Rising Above” Exhibit. View our newly installed district welcome mural. Stop by the Red Frog, the Blue Toad, the Red Baron, and Maria’s Tea Room for some great food, music and fun! Don’t forget to stop at Sykora’s for a dozen kolaches! All the merchants of Czech Village welcome you to shop and enjoy our special fall celebration. Vítejte na české vesnici! For more information go to Main Street Cedar Rapids.

Once on this Island put on by the City Circle Acting Company at the Iowa Children's Museum on Sunday, October 17 at 2 pm.

October’s production of Once on This Island, co-directed by Rachel Howell and Chris Okiishi, is a beat-happy, tropical retelling of “The Little Mermaid” that features fast-paced choreography and innovative story-telling. Toes will tap and hearts will skip a beat as this exciting story unfolds. This lively and moving musical by the creators of "Seussical" and "Ragtime" tells the story of a poor young island girl and her quest to become part of the rich society from the other side of the Island. Her journey, where she encounters helpful and mischievous gods, fierce storms, true love and even death itself will spark the imagination and capture your heart.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Grain

2010-10-11T05:06:00.000-07:00

We weren't able to find the books we were looking for at our library this week so, with the help of our amazing librarians, we adapted our curriculum and did Cook-a-Doodle-Doo! instead of Little Red Hen and Make Me a Peanut Butter Sandwich and a Glass of Milk instead of Grains to Bread. We are so lucky to have really wonderful children's librarians here. They are so generous with their time and obviously so in love with both children's literature as well as children.

As we all know, the Little Red Hen of yore makes bread from scratch. In Cook-a-Doodle-Doo!, the Little Red Hen's great-great-grandrooster makes a strawberry shortcake with his various friends. Our Red Hen-inspired baking adventure was a pound cake which was my first time using a bundt pan. I borrowed the pan from a friend but now I really want one. The cake was so pretty!

We will be talking about leaves this week which is perfect timing because we just had a lovely cabin adventure with friends this last weekend with a leaf hike that was the apex of the weekend.

The blog has been really helpful for me with staying on track with our curriculum. We're halfway through our fall semester already!

FFFF

2010-10-08T05:26:00.000-07:00

On Fridays, I like to post about some fun and frugal family adventures that are taking place in the Iowa City area over the weekend.

Lions and Tigers and Dragons...Oh My! at the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art. Saturday, October 9 from 11 am to 3 pm.

Join us for our next Family Fun Day! Lions and Tigers and Dragons...Oh My! A fun-filled day for the entire family with Chinese make-and-take craft projects, performances, and more! And don't forget to check out the newest exhibition at the CRMA-China: Insights. New Documentary Photography from the People's Republic. One of the special performances taking place today will be by the Guang Hwa Lion Dance Troupe from Iowa State University. Check them out on YouTube!

The Forgetful Pirate at the Cedar Rapids Westside Branch Public Library on Saturday, October 9 at 10:30 am.

Join us for a fun morning at the Cedar Rapids Westside Branch Public Library. Meet the characters from the Children's Theatre play, THE FORGETFUL PIRATE, eat some treats and enjoy fun activities!

Coralville Fire Department Annual Open House on Sunday, October 10 from 10 am to 2 pm.

This event will provide an opportunity to view equipment, talk with local volunteer firefighters and staff, learn about fire prevention, and enjoy refreshments. At 1:00 pm, firefighters will perform an automobile rescue demonstration, which will include cutting a vehicle apart with rescue tools. The open house will also feature a display of auto, confined space, ice, and river rescue equipment; firefighter protective equipment; saws, fire trucks, and hoses; and thermal imaging equipment. The smoke trailer will be available for practicing fire safety. The annual event is held in honor of National Fire Prevention Week, October 3 through 9. This year's focus is "Smoke Alarms: A Sound You Can Live With". For more information, call 319.248.1835.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Farm

2010-10-02T20:13:00.000-07:00

I took the day off today and spent most of it knitting while Joe and the boys had a farm adventure.

The main goal was seeing some tractors in action to tie in with our theme for the week.

They returned home pumpkinless. I am still puzzled by this.

There is nothing that pains my knitterly heart more than seeing my kids in their ill fitting drugstore hats. Good thing I made a lot of progress on Liam's hat today!

If this isn't a classic Iowa Childhood moment, I don't know what is.

Making a new friend

A wee ghosty bids you adieu!

FFFF

2010-09-30T19:49:00.000-07:00

On Fridays, I like to post about some fun and frugal family adventures that are taking place in the Iowa City area over the weekend.

Go Buggy! at the Indian Creek Nature Center in Cedar Rapids on Saturday, October 2 from 10 am to 12 pm. Especially from children ages 18 to 36 months.

Join your toddler on a fun adventure to discover the sights, sounds and feel of bugs. Follow the lifecycle of a butterfly, listen to a story and go on an insect safari. Activities will be repeated so come and go as it works best for you and your toddler! For children 18-36 months old accompanied by an adult. Call 362-0664 to register.

Family Storytime at the Coralville Library on Saturday, October 2 at 10:30 am will feature special guest Jennifer Newman from the Preucil School.

Farmers Day! at the Iowa Children's Museum on Saturday, October 2 from 10 am to 2 pm.

Let's honor those true Iowa heroes: Farmers! We'll produce some produce-themed crafts, and learn some fun farm facts together.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Tracks

2010-09-30T19:17:00.000-07:00

We're talking about farm machines this week. To be completely honest, I found myself resisting the urge to phone this one in or have Joe take it over entirely. I'm just not very interested in machines.

There's something contagious about preschooler enthusiasm, though, and Liam's elaborate pantomimes for Atticus of the seed drill and the hay baler have been more enough to keep me in the game. I also really love the books for this week, The Rusty, Trusty Tractor and Tractor: Machines at Work. Literature saves the day yet again!

We have been doing track painting this week. This project was a major hit for my wheel crazy boys.

We have settled into quite a restful rhythm to our week. Tuesdays are one of my favorite days of the week. We begin the day by snuggling in to read our theme books for the week for the first time. We usually have plenty of time on Tuesdays for a long and lazy library day at our neighborhood library.

This week, Liam surprised me by proudly revealing his own handwritten name tag at story time.

A milestone this week for Atticus too: he is slowly overcoming his rather unpleasant habit of screeching loudly if anyone dares to read over his shoulder when he's in the middle of singsonging a rhyme.

Here's my favorite thing about where we are in our lives right now. Although I dearly miss my snuggly napping infants, I am so grateful for my sweet, inquisitive library companions who let me drink a whole pot of tea while they page through their week's haul of literary treasures.

Now if only our favorite Oregonians were here to join us in this cozy spot, we would be entirely complete.

Weekend

2010-09-26T19:50:00.000-07:00

We had a really nice weekend.

We went to the piano storytime at the library on Saturday morning that I mentioned in my FFFF post. Liam and Atticus and their friends were especially fascinated by a little 6 year old boy who masterfully played a Haydn piano sonata. They also got to climb around under the grand piano and hear what the music sounded like from below.

And that experience was topped only by the fact that Grandma and Grandpa met us at the library!

Also on Saturday, Liam and I took the field trip for our yarn week. We stopped at the coffee shop to read our yarn themed books one more time and drink some hot chocolate.

We were both overwhelmed by colors and textures at the yarn shop. Being surrounded by all that beautiful color was very inspiring.

Liam chose some yarn for me to make him his winter hat.

Then we jumped in some puddles and headed for home.

Astray

2010-09-24T05:11:00.001-07:00

Our learning got a little held up last week. First, I had bronchitis and experienced a Z-pak for the first time. It was astoundingly efficient at making me feel better right away! The shadow side is that I forgot that I was sick and didn't do any of my usual self-care things like going to bed early and drinking my various garlicky gingery concoctions. As a result, I crashed and burned pretty hard last weekend.

Just as I was coming off of that, we were very lucky to have some lovely house guests for three days so we were going with the flow of that visit and enjoying our friends. It was definitely worth it!

Now we're working on getting back to our rhythm. After I teach this morning, we are going to our friends' house for some crafting time. Hopefully I will be able to wrap my brain around finger knitting so that I can teach it to Liam. I don't think he's ready for the needles just yet as they are currently more likely to be misappropriated into swords or lasers.

The books that we are reading this week are Pelle's New Suit, a classic from 1930 by Elsa Maartman Beskow, and From Sheep to Sweater by Robin Nelson. I am hoping to have a chance to take a little solo trip with Liam to my favorite yarn shop sometime this weekend. Our week's theme runs from Tuesday to Monday so we still have a few more days to sneak it all in before we're on to Tractors!

FFFF

2010-09-23T11:02:00.000-07:00

I just started doing a weekly e-mail for my Kindermusik families to give a little heads up about fun frugal family events in the Iowa City area. Immediately after, my e-mail got hacked and I thought to myself...hmm...perhaps there is a more secure way for me to disseminate this information. From now on (or until I lose interest!), look for a FFFF post here each Friday.

(FFFF post = Fun Frugal Family Friday post)

I won't necessarily be attending each of these events, I'm just letting you know about them if you're looking for an adventure with your family. These will probably be skewed toward being preschool friendly since we have two little preschoolers at our house.

Coming up this weekend in the Iowa City area:

Special Family Storytime with West Music at the Coralville Public Library. Saturday, September 25 at 10:30 am. Copying and pasting from the library website:

West Music is coming to the Coralville Public Library! September is National Piano Month and West will help us celebrate. There will be a piano recital on a Steinway & Sons Concert Grand Piano by young students, kids will learn how pianos work and are built, and the Coralville Library Staff will have a collection of piano books for browsing and check-out.

All Things Scottish Celtic Fest at Ushers Ferry. Saturday, September 25 from 11 am to 6 pm. We played at this event a few years ago and it was delightful. I really love the Ushers Ferry Historic Village. It's a bit of a drive to Cedar Rapids but well worth the effort. Follow the link for address and directions.

Monthly Irish Session at the Iowa City Senior Center. 24 South Linn Street in Iowa City. Sunday, September 26 from 2 to 4 pm. The fourth Sunday of every month, my Cavan Fiddle Studio fiddlers and many of our local musician friends join together for an informal Irish session. We are sometimes lucky enough to be joined by the Ghrá na Gaeilge Irish dancers. A session isn't a performance exactly, just a jam session of sorts, but onlookers (otherwise known as future dancers and musicians) are most certainly welcome. Our kids are usually in attendance, pretending to be superheroes and occasionally dancing.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Extra

2010-09-17T20:28:00.000-07:00

We had a little bit of fresh homemade butter left over from our second batch so we decided to make "crispy bears" today. This is a treat that we normally get at the Amish grocery near the cheese factory but they didn't have any when we were there today. We've never made them before but we figured how hard can it be?

Answer: probably much easier with a bear mold of some kind so that you don't have to painstakingly mold each individual bear while your children are stealthily eating all of the eyes (mini chocolate chips).

Liam shows off the last little scoop of homemade butter while our little sous-chef tries to make off with the marshmallows.

Action shot of the marshmallows leaping to their fiery death.

Mix, mix, mix...stir, stir, stir...

What, you don't employ cheerful ninjas to guard your desserts with their katanas at your house?

And what might you be doing?

What?!? No more tiny chocolate eyes?

Our merry band of bears.

They're not perfect, but they're sweet. Like us.

Cheese

2010-09-17T14:38:00.000-07:00

In our continued quest to fully explore all things dairy, we took a little trip to the cheese factory in Kalona today.

You can take a little photo tour of the factory here.

If you look closely, you can see Atticus lurking in the shadows, ready to spring at any unsuspecting cheese that might roll by.

Liam was very interested in the shiny silos where the milk is stored on its way to being cheese.

And here's what happens when I say "Smile, Liam!"

We didn't tour the factory but we did peek in at the curds being seperated from the whey.

After seeing the workers in their white suits, Liam declared that he might like to be a cheese maker super hero when he grows up.

There's a nice little shop at the factory where you can sample cheese and buy other little delicacies (like Barry's Irish tea!)

Liam and Atticus had an impromptu jelly bean tasting on the little bench outside the shop.

We have a few more things to do this weekend to tie up our week with milk and the letter M, mainly a journal page and some writing. Next week we will be reviewing letters B, F, and M and also learning about yarn (best week EVER!)

Butter

2010-09-16T21:10:00.000-07:00

Today we made bread and butter to celebrate milk week.

I have mixed feelings about milk, to be honest. I can't actually digest it very well myself and my kids' eczema used to react pretty badly to milk. They seem to have grown out of it but I maintain that milk and dairy products are not something that humans need in as large of quantities as we're used to consuming.

In moderation and ethically obtained though? Milk is pretty neat.

We made parmesan herb bread today in the bread machine. First we poured in the milk.

I couldn't resist this picture. Those eyelashes!

Don't forget the shredded Parmesan.

I have to include this photo due to the expression on the face of the dinosaur on Liam's t-shirt.

That's an afternoon of entertainment right there.

We were very pleased with the resulting bread.

Oh, and did I mention that we made butter too? We poured fresh cream into a jar and did a little dance.

(shake, shake, shake)

Both bread and butter passed the taste test. Oh, who am I kidding? This one will eat anything.

The boys were very excited to serve their homemade bread and fresh butter at our band practice tonight. They went rather well with our $2 Chuck (technically $2.99 Chuck now...)

I was impressed that the butter was stiff enough to hold the knife up.

Next up, a little visit to the cheese factory!

M

2010-09-16T14:47:00.000-07:00

We have been enjoying our week of talking about milk and also becoming one with the letter M. Today we made parmesan herb bread and fresh homemade butter and tomorrow we are taking a field trip to a cheese factory. Many more pictures to follow of all of that, of course.

In the meantime, I have a cute little M project to share, thanks to No Time for Flashcards.

I mainly use these activities as a way of solidifying our letter recognition and correllating letters and sounds but, in this case, we were able to strengthen our writing skills too.

We used paintbrushes to 'trace' this letter M with mod podge then had some very satisfying sensory fun by squishing the mini marshmallows into the mod podge.

"Atticus, what does the M say?"
"MMMmmm...!"

M is for marshmallow! (also Mess!)

Back soon with pictures of bread making, butter shaking, and cheese factory peeking and tasting.

Journal

2010-09-13T20:00:00.000-07:00

Here's Liam's journal page from the Apples week. He did the page with Joe this week while I was teaching a fiddle lesson. Double click to enlarge.

We will be beginning our preschool week on Tuesdays now because I teach on Monday mornings and we really like to begin our new unit with a big extended snuggle in bed reading the new books for the week. Tomorrow we are reading the milk books: Beatrice's Goat by Page McBrier and Milk: From Cow to Carton by Aliki.

Also on the agenda this week, making parmesan bread and 'churning' our own butter. No actual churn involved, just a Mason jar and a lot of elbow grease.

And the letter of the week is M! For monster and marshmallow and, yes, milk!

Hootenanny

2010-09-11T22:35:00.000-07:00

Once a year, we have a hootenanny potluck where all my students, friends, and fellow musicians come together to play music, dance, share food, watch the kids scramble around on the rocks near the pond, and generally have a great time.

Several of my students attended and played in a traditional session. I was really proud of all of them.

I didn't get a picture of the food this year, nor did I get to eat very much of it due to all my flitting about. This is a real pity because these folks can cook.

The kids had a great time running around together and playing.

I think even the ducks enjoyed the music, don't you? Isn't the one on the left there tapping his little webbed foot?

I took a terribly shaky and low quality video of some excellent and high quality music and dancing. It's a lot of work putting the hootenanny together but these twenty four seconds will show you what made it all worthwhile.

Orchard

2010-09-10T14:16:00.000-07:00

We tried a new apple orchard that we've never visited before and one of the kids' favorite things about it was the giant haystack for climbing.

I wish this picture accurately showed how high up they were. The whole stack of hay bales was at least seven feet high.

Liam had a variety of ideas for the apple picker but we stuck to its intended usage.

This is a relatively young orchard and a lot of the trees were low enough for the kids to easily pick apples without using the picker.

This particular apple was declared "THE BIGGEST APPLE IN THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD!!!" (may not be statistically accurate)

My favorite thing about this orchard was the working beehives and the way they were displayed so that we could easily see the honeybees.

And a blast from the past...

We had lots of fun today but we really miss our other orchard pals too. Sending lots of love out west!

Bread

2010-09-09T16:26:00.000-07:00

We made apple bread today from the recipe in our preschool curriculum.

I am learning that, to retain sanity when baking with a 3 and a 4 year old, get all the ingredients in little bowls a la Food Network to focus our efforts on dumping and stirring. We do more measuring and leveling when it's just me and the 4 year old.

Given his rather exuberant nature, this is the closest that Atticus is getting to a power tool for a long, long time.

Pouring in the orange juice.

Stirring it up.

Sprinkling on the cinnamon sugar.

Bread!

Yes, we're very sure, Liam. It's bread.

I tend to have an issue with hacking into baked goods while they're still cooling and creating a big old jaggedy mess out of our freshly baked delight. We discovered the solution today: pull loaf out of oven (preferably then turn off oven, hopefully I remember this step next time), leave immediately for the park, then come home and slice bread.

Even better with cream cheese on top!

We'll be going to orchard tomorrow for a fresh supply of table apples and baking apples. The field trip placement worked out well this week because we were able to use our last few bruised and bumped up aging apples for painting and bread making.

Stamp

2010-09-08T13:37:00.000-07:00

Fun times with apple stamping!

Piano

2010-09-07T12:56:00.000-07:00

I forgot to mention one more new thing about this fall semester! Liam now has his own official piano lesson time slot during my studio hours. We've been playing at learning the piano for about a year now and he's very interested and excited but I think it will help us to have a regular lesson time carved out. The piano lesson is the first thing to end up on the cutting room floor when we have a busy morning.

It will easier for us to be more scheduled about doing our piano practice now that the lesson has its own official time.

We picked up some special keyboard shoelaces in honor of our "official" beginning to piano lessons.

Redux

2010-09-07T11:39:00.000-07:00

We've moved along to apples and the letter F this week (more on that soon) but we did make it to the Evanston Farmer's Market this weekend when we were visiting Grandma and Grandpa. So just a bit more on vegetables!

I love visiting different Farmers' Markets. Even the small one by my house that only has four tables and three of them are filled with different kinds of banana bread. Open air markets make me feel alive.

Daddy came too.

Liam chose to buy and prepare "teeny zucchini" (his name) for our dinner that evening. They really were teeny: see the quarter for scale.

First we prep the pan...

I am now totally coveting Grandma's awesome dishwasher safe silicone pastry brush!

Our other favorite place to visit when we're in Evanston is the park across the street from Grandma and Grandpa's house. They had a new boat there this weekend that I have not heard the end of.

Last thing to mention before we're on to apples and the letter F, a really cute craft that we did last week to celebrate the letter B, hat tip to No Time for Flashcards.

Oh, and we also watched The Bee Movie just for fun. When we were reading How Do Apples Grow? this morning, I was surprised at how much Liam remembered about pollen and how important bees are from watching the movie last week. Hey, thanks for doing my job for me, Dreamworks!

Vegetables

2010-09-03T09:04:00.000-07:00

If you double click on the image, you should be able to read Liam's (dictated) journal page for this week. He asked that I label the vegetables and also Filbert who was depicted in the crayon drawing.

We've had a good week of learning all about vegetables and also getting down and dirty with the letter B. We have to scramble the schedule around a little next week because our apples here are ripe and ready for picking so we're moving up the apple week and milk will wait for the following week.

Next week, Apples and the letter F!

Awry

2010-09-02T11:39:00.001-07:00

I forgot to check the end time for the Farmers' Market and we got there just as it was closing. A very sad Liam had his heart set on a merry little bunch of carrots but settled for an impromptu dinner and ice cream date. Also in attendance was Filbert, who list of attributes has grown to include: microscopic, immortal, crime fighting, superhero pet rat. Liam is very offended when I add imaginary to that list, insisting that Filbert is merely microscopic.

I had several really good planning hours this week. I took the week off from fiddle lessons and my regular babysitter was still able to come and hang out with my fellas. I am feeling really ready and excited about this coming semester. In addition to family and homeschool responsibilities, I have twenty six excellent fiddle and violin students, a hootenanny potluck to kick off the semester, 3 weekly toddler music classes, 1 weekly baby music class, lots of band gigs to look forward to, and I have the privilege of teaching Liam's Godly Play (Montessori based Sunday School) class too. I really can't take anything else on right now though. I really need to remember that if I'm really going to enjoy this semester and not just be steamrolled by it. Note to self: No. It's a good word. Learn to say it.

I've been knitting a little on my sweater again too. It pains me that fall is here and this sweater is not ready to wear. I started it months ago. It was that pesky abandoning-it-for-the-whole-summer problem. I have about four more inches to do on the back. And then it's just, you know, both front pieces and the sleeves and sewing it all together. Yep, that's all.

My book is calling my name and we have our Java Blend gig tomorrow so I should lay my head down before it gets too late.

Dough

2010-09-01T12:35:00.000-07:00

We are really enjoying our first week of Harvest Time! Tonight we will be heading to the Farmers' Market but I have pictures from today and yesterday when we made our salt dough veggies.

Let's see...there was a pea pod, some celery, eggplant, pumpkin, broccoli, a potato, a pepper. Oh, and a key lime pie. Don't ask.

We dried them out really well in the oven and then today, we painted!

Not too shabby!

Here Liam is feeding the vegetables to his microscopic (and imaginary, for what it's worth) pet rat Filbert. Take it from me that it's not easy to restore peace when a little brother steals an older brother's imaginary microscopic rodent.

Tomorrow we need to spend some quality time with the letter B.

Yesterday I went to the library (all by myself!) and had an extremely decadent soy iced mocha with a shot of coconut and found a book to read, the new one from Audrey Niffenegger. I loved The Time Traveler's Wife (never did see the movie, should I?) and this new one is called Her Fearful Symmetry. I started it late last night (on account of the late afternoon caffeine jolt) and read for a while up in our cozy bedroom with the rain beating down on the roof. Of course, I'm exhausted today but it was worth it. I'm still not very far in, there goes the notion of early bed for me!

Dig

2010-08-31T15:35:00.000-07:00

Our learning theme this week is vegetables and how they grow. We lucked into a bonus field trip when our friends called this morning and asked us over to help dig potatoes.

We're learning about the eight different categorizations of edible vegetables (bulbs, flower buds, fruits, leaves, roots, seeds, stems/stalks, and tubers) so it was great to see the whole plant as it came up.

Is there a word that is more fun to say than tuber? You have to say it in the voice of the Yip Yip aliens.

Atticus was not at all convinced that he wanted to engage with all that dirt in order to grab a potato.

But he got over it.

Liam, on the other hand...

was altogether more enthusiastic!

I have serious garden envy when we visit these friends. The mother, who has been a good friend of mine for years, grew up on an Iowa farm and has a deep understanding and respect of all things green and growing. She has a vegetable garden as well as a flower garden and a butterfly garden, not to mention a beautifully landscaped yard.

A far cry from our little volunteer lazy compost situation...

but everyone has to start somewhere, right?

Tomorrow for our official field trip, Liam and I are heading to the Farmers' Market to take our sweet time perusing all of the wares and talking to the farmers and artisans. Perhaps a cider doughnut and kettle corn taste test would be educational too...

Live

2010-08-29T18:44:00.000-07:00

300 miles on the station wagon, three performances, live radio air time, three restaurant meals, three lattes, and twenty hours paid to the babysitter... where did my weekend go?!?

Oh, that's right... ♪ ♫ ♪ ♫ ♪ ♫ ♪ ♫ ♪ ♫ ♪

How was yours?

Dear

2010-08-25T19:36:00.000-07:00

Summer was good. Summer is gone. Fall is bursting with both possibility and responsibility. I am alternately panic stricken and enthusiastic.

We have a lot going on between my fiddle studio, the band, teaching Kindermusik, church responsibilities including teaching Sunday school, new enrichment classes for the kids, and most of all, making a more official start on homeschooling.

My attention is splintered right now and I don't feel as though I'm accomplishing any one thing in my quest to tackle everything. Hey, look over there! Why, it's my life passing before my eyes!

Today I had three lessons in a row who canceled so I sneaked away to the library to sit near the neatly ordered stacks and rows and try to become organized by osmosis. It didn't take so I wrote a letter instead.

I bought the "In Touch Clutch" a few months ago from my favorite Farmer's Market vendor. How cute are those hedgehogs, I ask you?

Writing to a friend is not as good as being with a friend but it is better than nothing.

My cheery mailbox never fails to make me smile.

It's the little things, you know?

Idea

2010-08-23T12:12:00.001-07:00

I have this constant push and pull with the blog. I love reading blogs and I love looking back on my past blog entries but I am lazy and complacent when it comes to updating my own blog. Part of this is that I have no accountability. If a blog falls in the interwebs and there's nobody around to read it...you see where I'm going with this.

My one loyal blog reader, who I adore and miss, just moved 1,915 miles away (yes, I mapquested it). I could always count on catching up with her in person even if I didn't update my blog regularly but now I have no such excuse. I think, when I'm having trouble getting started with a blog post, I'll just imagine that I'm talking to you, my friend. We never seem to run out of things to talk about, right? In that same spirit, I hereby announce my new goal of updating the blog three times a week.

I'm not backing out of our snail mail idea! I am definitely excited about having a pen pal. I just think this would be a nice additional way to stay in touch.

This morning, I had my friends' daughter B visiting us which necessitates one car seat too many for our station wagon so the three kids and I took a trip on the city bus to the mall. We had a great time playing except that everybody's feelings were getting hurt right and left today, lots of drama in the play area. When we went into the bookstore to escape the madness and play with the trains, Liam developed an obsession with the Slink toy from the Toy Story movie and pulled out all the stops of embarrassing public tantrum behavior. Thankfully, when we caught the bus home, we chatted with a really lovely woman who has a 3 year old granddaughter and she had a very calming influence on all of us. Thank you, Dorothy! You don't know what you did for our spirits today.

I maintain that a frequently overlooked benefit of public transportation is that it forces you to interact, for better or for worse, with perfect strangers who you might not otherwise have any reason to speak to, particularly if you are shy like me. Sometimes these interactions are of the less than savory variety, of course. That's life. Those moments don't take away from the fact that almost every time I ride the bus with my children, we meet people who treat us as though we are brightening their day with our funny questions and quirky observations ("Mama, why doesn't the bus stop in our driveway?").

I got home and was pretty overheated so I made a smoothie out of a peach, orange juice, and a lot of frozen watermelon. It was delicious but made me so cold that I had to have a cup of tea which made me laugh out loud at myself.

We miss you and we can't wait to hear about your adventures. I think I'll take the coin purse embroidery project to Pub Knit tonight so you'll be there with us. Maybe you'll be stitching away on yours as well as the sun sets somewhere over Idaho.

Buck

2010-08-09T15:18:00.000-07:00

We started Liam on an allowance a few weeks ago and rapidly realized, thanks to a barrage of questions from our Socratic four year old, that he is not the only one in need of education and structure in the money department. We have decided to take a radical new direction in regards to our finances. The time has come to buck (ha!) our tradition of being controlled by our money.

We're working with a wonderful financial planner who isn't afraid of the big, bad dollar and she is teaching us not to be afraid either.

We're facing down the big beasts, like re-financing, long term investing, and retirement planning, but we're also looking at our daily habits and have concurred that we've been behaving like spoiled children for our entire married life.

The debt load isn't horrific, but our general attitude toward money just isn't healthy. We check our bank balance with our fingers crossed and, when the money is there, we make rash and regrettable decisions. I sail through the grocery store (or worse, Target), flinging things into my cart with nary a thought to what the total will be at the register because I'm just putting it on my debit card anyway and the money was there the last time I checked.

Luckily, we already have a desire toward mindfulness on our side, not to mention a general urgency on the topic of avoiding rampant consumerism. Next stop, budgeting!

I'm delighted to have found a lot of bloggy inspiration on the topic of living mindfully on less money as a family. I'm also interested to note some of the natural similarities that I see between losing weight and budgeting. (*ahem*, officially down 15 pounds since May, thankyouverymuch!) and I'm bolstered by some of the success I've found in the former as I attack the latter head on.

This week's victories:

*Saving 30-40% of my grocery budget by doing most of my shopping at Aldi's and using a few coupons at my regular stores

*Using cash for all of my purchases

*Packing food for Joe's lunches for four out of five work days (one can't completely separate a man from his burrito on such short notice)

*Finding $4 Ann Taylor Loft jeans at my favorite thrift store

Here's hoping that the budgeting and frugality looks this appealing in a few weeks once the bloom is off the rose.

Content

2010-07-11T05:49:00.000-07:00

During my most contented moments is when my blog is most lacking in content. It doesn't make sense. You'd think that I would have plenty to talk about during the times when I find myself with a belly full of peace and happiness.

Despite the good times, I've been feeling low energy this weekend. I had to have four moles removed recently and for one of them, they had to carve out more than anticipated so I ended up with three stitches. No big deal in comparison to, oh I don't know, surgical removal of a human being! (TWICE!) But still rather painful. Especially because my wound site is on my stomach and my stomach is routinely the landing pad for running leaps and dancing paws.

We were invited to a party that I was sorry to miss but I really needed to have a quiet evening and get to bed early. We took the kids to a new splash pad in town and we all had exactly the evening we needed, at least once Liam got over the disappointment that the splash pad was not a pool. Other complaints included: "This water is too wet!" and "That girl splashed me!" You know we're at a splash pad, right kiddo? Some days it is very hard to be four.

We've also been very lucky to spend time with far flung friends this summer. Our friends from Boston came through for just one day and each family was able to introduce our youngest children to each other for the first time. Our friends from Milwaukee were here and we threw a party for them to welcome their youngest and celebrate their oldest's fourth birthday.

I've been teaching extra Kindermusik classes this summer which has definitely added to my general quality of life as well as helping to make up for the unpredictability of income that results from my fiddle students' summer vacations. If I wasn't already sold on the Kindermusik curriculum from my music therapy background, my kids' reactions to their own Kindermusik classes would definitely seal the deal for me. It has has been a wonderful addition to all of our lives.

In other news, I'm been playing the two steps forward, one step back game in my weight loss but I'm happy to report that I'm down a total of 12.6 pounds in 12 weeks so I'm averaging a little over a pound lost every week.

This is such a bittersweet time of the year. The delights of the summer are in full swing but the shadow of colder days ahead looms large on the horizon. We will soon say 'until then!' (not goodbye) to our dear friends who are moving to Oregon. Joe starts classes again in the fall (in addition to full time work) which means less time with Daddy. One small boy will soon be three. One slightly larger boy will soon be five. Who knows who we will be and how we will have changed when we thaw out next spring?

Magic

2010-06-05T07:10:00.000-07:00

Liam has been really into the Magic Tree House series of books lately. His godparents gave him a set of the first four books for Christmas but I put them aside at the time because I didn't think he had the attention span for chapter books. Maybe it's the six months that have passed between then and now or maybe I misjudged him because there's nothing he would rather do than sit next to us and listen to these books, forever begging to read just one more chapter. There's still not much interest on his part in actually recognizing the words I point out, but he is entranced by the story. Apparently there are forty four books already in print and more to come so we'll be busy for a while. Each of the books is set in a different historical time period and there are also nonfiction guides that correlate to many (each?) of the fiction books. There are also study guides available for each of the books, some of which will be adaptable to his age and interest.

There was also a Magic Tree House musical that came out in 2008 which I'm sorry to have missed for a number of reasons, not the least of which that apparently there was a troupe of Irish step dancers in the play!

I 'liked' the Magic Tree House series on Facebook and one of my friends, whose youngest child is sixteen, offered up a bunch of their old copies for free. Based on his reaction seeing a shelf of them at the library, I can't imagine how excited Liam will be to see a box full of these books.

Naturally, their pretend play is starting to reflect the plotlines of the Magic Tree House books with Liam cast as 8 year old Jack and Atticus (oh, the plight of the younger brother!) as 7 year old Annie. They've been trying to encourage our 45 lb dog Sam to play the part of Peanut the mouse but Sam won't be fitting into anyone's pocket anytime soon and is predictably unenthusiastic about his potential role.

WW update:

I missed a meeting last week because we were traveling but I lost 4.6 lb over those two weeks for a total of 6.2 lbs lost so far. New weight: 159.6!

Release

2010-05-26T15:12:00.000-07:00

It's time to let go.

Since early in 2004, my body hasn't been my own. I had two pregnancies and subsequent losses in 2004. During much of 2005, I was pregnant with Liam. At the very beginning of 2007, while Liam was still nursing, we found out that Atticus was coming in late summer and Atticus, determined as he is to tower over his peers, kept on nursing until November of 2009.

I gained a lot of weight during my pregnancies. I don't actually have any regret or guilt about that at all. I think every person's body handles pregnancy differently and I blessedly had healthy babies, extra pounds be damned. Both times I lost most of the weight pretty quickly, probably due to nursing, but each time I hung on to more than before.

Two years ago I got into the green smoothies and dropped some weight. Last year I got into the hot yoga and dropped some more. That's all fine and good. I choose healthy foods. I found an exercise that I enjoy. I'm not in a dire health situation. It wasn't until Atticus finally stopped nursing in November and I subsequently put on at least fifteen pounds in the blink of an eye that I realized that I have fundamentally lost touch with what it means to eat for one person only.

I don't like being in pain. My joints have enough stress as it is. I don't need to be carrying around more than necessary. So, my big news...I joined Weight Watchers.

In the interest of accountability, I present... my critical info:

(I'm 5'7, for what it's worth)

May 15, 2010. Starting weight: 165.8. BMI: 26 (category: overweight)

May 22, 2010. 1st weigh-in: 164.2. Loss of 1.6 lbs

My tentative goal is 140 which would put my BMI squarely in the middle of the "normal weight" category. I have a medium frame and I don't think I'm built to weigh anywhere near the lower end of "normal".

The first couple of days, I was really really hungry. I normally eat a WHOLE LOT more food than what I should be eating. Easily twice as much, I think. I was also surprised to notice how much better my food was tasting since I was experiencing actual hunger between meals and not just gnawing boredom.

I was also very surprised to find out how much I like the meeting format. I really like these women and the enthusiasm they have about health in general. There's even a really lovely retired woman in my meeting who regularly scopes out the various grocery stores in the area and sends out e-mails on the best values for produce and other healthy foods. It's her own personal mission and I think she's an angel for taking the time to collect and distribute those tips.

Like so many other privileged (and by that I mean, one who has never had to wonder if there will be a next meal) women, I had an eating disorder as a teenager. As a result, keeping track of my nutrition makes me a little twitchy. It can be a slippery slope. I haven't yet found this system to trigger any sort of obsessive response in me, partially because the internet makes it so easy to pop in your food choices and the calculations are all done for you rather than the sad calorie equations that I remember scratching into the back of my geometry notebook.

Time to release what I no longer need and make room for whatever is waiting to drift into that space in my life.

Spring

2010-04-24T09:58:00.000-07:00

We were doing pretty well with the yoga for a couple of weeks and then Joe's schedule was starting to grind away at our resolve. It's hard to wake up before the kids when you get home from work so late. Thankfully his schedule is changing in May and we will give it another go. It was really helpful while we were in a rhythm with it.

It's funny, I studiously avoid blogs when I am going through a lazy phase because I know they will motivate me to get back on track and sometimes I just don't wanna. Hence, no blog posts since February.

February in Iowa is a different world than April in Iowa. Flowers bursting forth, people smiling at each other as they scurry past, zipping out to the backyard footloose and fancy free instead of encasing each child in layers of downy protection. It makes for a better attitude all around.

I had a birthday and it was a lovely one. I'm 32 now which, while not a round number, still seems like a milestone. An even larger milestone is that I left my kids and husband at home for the first time and traveled to a really exciting music event in St. Louis. Possibly one of the loveliest thing about my birthday was the platter of chocolate dipped apricots, strawberries, and dates from my sweet friend. I would have taken a picture but we fell on it like starved animals and it was gone almost immediately.

Spring is here and I can feel myself starting to thaw from the outside all the way in.

Partner

2010-02-23T18:42:00.000-08:00

Joe and I are trying something new starting tomorrow. Since we are both externally motivated (read: lazy) people, exercise is rarely at the top of our list. We were both in a pretty good groove there for a while with him attending kung fu three times a week and me zipping off to hot yoga equally as often.

Sadly, we haven't found that to be a sustainable routine. That's six separate times each week to try to incorporate into the family schedule. Joe's work hours change so often that he's rarely able to attend his practices anymore. They don't teach any morning classes there, only lunch and evening classes. The yoga studio I attend offers lots of classes but I only have a couple of teachers whose classes I really dig. Those classes require that I wake up at 5 in the morning to get there on time. 5 am! A year ago I was attending those early classes regularly and beaming about it all day long. I don't know what happened to that girl. I am planning to still make it to hot yoga once or twice a week but that's really about all the 5 am I can manage these days.

Our kids almost always wake up about a half hour after sunrise so our goal is to get up thirty to forty minutes before that on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and get a little yoga in together.

Despite my best hot yoga efforts, neither Joe nor I have an actual daily yoga practice. We think it's high time we strive in that direction. Back when we were first dating, we used to take a classical yoga class together. We really loved that class. More often than not, we then went directly to an Indian restaurant to stuff ourselves with samosas and mulligatawny soup. When we moved into our first apartment, we even had a yoga room. It had a tapestry on the wall and a little table with a tiny rock garden on it. There was a wide expanse of carpet on which nary a footprint could ever be found. It was a sanctified and fully abandoned space. Eventually it filled up with boxes of wedding presents.

Here we are again, twelve years later. Pudgier, arthritic, overscheduled.

Agustin would like to show you what we'll be working toward:

Ha! I kid.

First up, getting out of bed:

Start

2010-02-04T06:21:00.000-08:00

I am a woman with great intentions. Every morning is alive with possibilities. Today is the day I will practice my music. Today is the day I will make it to yoga class. Today is the day I will eat good food all day long. Today is the day I will mail that package. You get the idea.

The thing about intentions is that when you stuff too many of them into one day, you're bound to fail or forget or just fall down exhausted on the couch and slurp noodle soup while watching episodes of The Book Group on hulu after the kids are finally asleep.

While I can't (or just don't) always follow through, I am a staunch advocate of the good beginning. And at our house, the good beginning consists of green smoothies and homemade granola.

The green smoothie thing started because it really pulled me out of a rut of poor health a couple of years ago and I just feel better when I start the day with green.

Our standard green smoothie is

1) Fill the blender with baby spinach and add just a little water in the bottom. Liquify.

2) Peel and add one or two oranges and blend.

3) Add two frozen bananas and blend.

We usually end up with enough for a cup for each of us or two large servings for me and Joe if the kids aren't feeling the smoothies that day. They drink smoothies more often in warm weather, I've noticed. After I have my smoothie, I'm really not hungry until late morning but the kids usually dig into their granola much earlier.

The granola started because we were trying to replace Joe's raisin bran addiction once we found out that wheat was what was causing his migraines, sinus problems, and digestive upset.

The best thing about granola is that it is the perfect recipes for preschoolers to help make. All that dumping and stirring, what could be more fun?

1) Preheat oven to 350 F and heat 1/4 to 1/2 cup of vegetable oil (we use olive or coconut) and 1/2 to 3/4 cup honey with two teaspoons of vanilla on low to medium heat until very warm and thinned out.

2) While liquid is heating, dump the following in a large bowl and stir well:

*3 to 4 cups of oats

*1 cup of nuts of your choice (we like sliced almonds)

*1 cup of seeds of your choice (we like sunflower)

*1 cup of coconut (shredded or flaked, flaked is deliciously better if your friend happens to be so awesome that she gives you a bag of it)

*generous sprinkling of cinnamon and whatever spices you like

* flaxseed meal, when I remember which isn't often

3) Pour liquid into the bowl and stir really well until everything is well moistened. Dump contents of bowl into a large roasting pan (this works better for us than a cookie sheet). Bake for 25 minutes or until browned. Return hot granola to the pan and mix in a cup of dried fruit (we usually use raisins). Let cool completely before storing in a container with a tight fitting lid.

One of these days, my good intentions are going to power me through an entire blissful, well organized, productive day. For now, I will settle for a good start.

Consecration

2010-01-31T20:33:00.000-08:00

You owe it to us all to get on with what you're good at.

W.H. Auden

I have had a handful of deeply moving spiritual experiences in my life and the only thing that they have in common is the way they sneak up on you. Religion is my own personal wool sweater: scratchy, warm, awkward, comforting. One tug by a sharp critic and the whole thing might just unravel in my hands.

This afternoon I squirmed and wriggled my way through a two hour service, mentally debating the benefits versus the consequences of keeping my hands busy with my knitting. Ultimately my mother's remonstrance, traveling through time and across thousands of miles, kept my hands in my lap instead.

I played violin at several different points in the service for which I was grateful because there was just so much to wade through in this ceremony, so many declarations and responses in robotic unison, so much spiritual red tape to address.

Somewhere in the midst of a hymn, I saw my friend across the room, standing there in the front row with her ten year old, my godson, next to her. He was wiggling more perceptibly even than me and she reached across his small chest to slip one hand into his in such a way that his body relaxed and slumped against hers. She wore an alb of white but hadn't yet received her crimson vestments. I gazed at my friend's peaceful face and saw my Creator there in her eyes. God as mother, priest and friend smiled at me from across the room and winked.

God was there with us in that room today as my friend was ordained a priest in the Episcopal Church. I still have the roar of the vows in my ears, the din of the congregation chanting in return. I tucked the violin under my chin and raised the bow to answer Him in the only way I know how.

Season

2009-12-12T08:34:00.001-08:00

I've been absent from reading or writing blogs for months now. For a work at home mama, the internet can sometimes be the only adult interaction that I have for much of the day. I have been finding myself taking my little breaks on Facebook and a message board or two rather than spending my time blogging or reading blogs because there is more frequent interaction on those forums. The quality of the interactions, however, frequently leaves something to be desired. Numerous shallow interactions don't really add up to one thought provoking one. I've talked about this over and over here as I stumble toward making a sustainable change to my internet time budget. I'll continue to stumble, I'm sure, as stumbling seems to be my primary mode of transportation.

I love Advent. Anticipation. My beautiful friend Nichole has been blogging the days of advent and I love reading about the gentle, meaningful rhythms that they are finding in this season. This has not been our smoothest Advent season as a family to date. Joe had some minor surgery and is still recovering. I paced myself badly as I so often do and managed to get sick and I am still recovering. However, we have had some sweet seasonal moments and many more to come.

This is the first year that my kids have been actively engaged in the idea that Christmas is a season and not a day and they've been delighted with the Advent calendars. I would really love to work toward either making or finding a reusable Advent calendar that holds the pieces of the Nativity scene with a little baby Jesus being in the last box and donkeys, drummer boys, wise men, etc filling the others. Obviously, this dream landed in my heart a little late to pull it off this year but there's always next year... In the meantime, there's Playmobil.

So here we are in Advent, waiting. Waiting for light and warmth to return to our days. Waiting for celebration. Every day of cold and dark challenges us to bear up and see the glow there beyond the horizon. I found this in my morning prayers this week and it's haunting me:

I also know that you are enduring patiently and bearing up for the sake of my name, and that you have not grown weary. But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. Revelation 2: 3-4

We all need reminders. What are holidays really if not reminders of the good in the world?

FiddleBabies

2009-11-12T20:54:00.000-08:00

Dipping my toe in...I'm getting ready to return to you, Blogland.

Tradition

2009-09-09T19:07:00.000-07:00

We've been eating 'this way'* for long enough now that I hardly notice the ways in which we are different than the norm but I do have a couple of boo hoo hang up moments and one of them is pizza.

Pizza has always meant family night to me. When I was little, my dad would pick up two pizzas from Little Caesar's and rent a video and we would eat together on the couch. For a family that always, always did sit down dinners, pizza night was a rare and cherished treat.

We've been loving our pizza stone for when we have our friends over for a pizza lunch but poor Joe has not been reaping its benefits until I discovered Bob's Red Mill gluten-free pizza crust mix. For $3.63, I can buy enough to make two pizza crusts on our afore-mentioned super awesome pizza stone. The cheese is more of an investment, but we are loving the Mt. Sterling goat milk mozzarella. It's almost $8, but I grate it up and use it on two pizzas. Beyond that, it's a spoonful or two of marinara and then we just throw on whatever veggies look good. The last one was finely chopped summer squash and basil because that's what we had on hand. So, we're talking a minimum of $8 per pizza which is probably the most expensive homemade pizza solution out there, but add a salad and maybe a nice vegetable dish and it's a pretty cheap dinner. It's not like we can call up Pizza Hut and order a pizza that we can eat anyway so the cost is relative.

Looks pretty good, doesn't it?

Tastes even better, I assure you. And now family pizza night is a reality for us too! There is nothing that my two little lads enjoy more than squishing dough, sprinkling cheese, and eating all the olives before they can even dream of a life as a pizza topping.

*For those new to the program, 'this way' means gluten free for Joe, dairy free for me except for a little goat cheese and occasional yogurt, and not much animal protein. I don't like the kids to have bovine dairy because their eczema flares up really badly when they do so we stick to goat milk/goat cheese/coconut milk ice cream at home and they just eat whatever they like when we're out in the world.

Scarce

2009-08-26T18:49:00.000-07:00

A blast of summer before we hunker down with the woolens and the soup spoons.

Images from the second annual hootenanny for my fiddle studio.

Followed closely behind by one of our favorite events...Irish Fest!

And then SOMEBODY turned 2!!!

A little knitting too, of course. One of my dear friends from high school had her little baby girl a couple of months ago. My friend has always been a Hello Kitty fan and this is her first daughter so I couldn't resist.

Another friend from high school just had a new baby boy. He and his wife are outdoorsy so I was going for wee hiking boots here.

And I made a little wind shield for our guitarist's microphone.

Perhaps I will soon have two words to string together instead of a dozen pictures, but a picture's worth a thousand words, right?

Isabeara

2009-08-06T05:31:00.000-07:00

I made this for my friend's baby Isabella Ann Rosario Lastname. She was born in May *blush* but I'm just now getting it done and in the mail. Hopefully the cuteness makes up for the lateness.

I'm calling her Isabeara.

Next up, a Hello Kitty baby hat and Saartje's booties. Both are free patterns that I found on the magnificent Ravelry website. Come find me on Ravelry if you are a member.

Homer

2009-08-01T21:30:00.000-07:00

Meet Homer

Between the schnoz and the thin face, he (unintentionally) looks a little like Beaker from the Muppet Show

Can you see his belly button?

His wee feet (they're not actually different lengths, he was wiggling)

The jam-faced recipient (still sleeping, hasn't met his new friend yet)

Thanks for peeking!

Make

2009-07-25T05:45:00.000-07:00

We've been busy making stuff.

Like salad (marinated kale with tomatoes and avocados)

Ribbit.

Homer (in progress)

Isabeara (still needs a face)

Patterns for the last two toys are from Zoë Mellor's Knitted Toys. I found a sweet blog when I googled for that book link.

Still working on a shawl for my brother-in-law's girlfriend.

And plenty of other free form art!

Emerge

2009-07-15T03:42:00.000-07:00

I've been spending the last few days trying to scrabble my way out of this dark pit of somnolence and sluggishness. A lovely morning with our dear friends yesterday seems to have been just the ticket and I find myself coming alive again.

Yesterday was a day of experiments and I didn't manage to take any pictures of them but definitely had some great successes to recreate!

First up, pizza dough in the bread machine. Nothing could have been easier. Add to that a $9 pizza stone and we had a delicious birthday lunch with our favorite 5 year old. I have dreams of finding a gluten free pizza dough solution for the whole family. Any suggestions?

For dessert, we made chocolate coconut milk ice cream in my friend's Hamilton Beach ice cream maker. It was beyond delicious and so easy. By the way, my friend, I finally read through this recipe and the comments connected to it (after the fact, of course) and it looks like for this recipe the texture is like soft serve right as it comes out of the machine but you can freeze it for an hour to get a texture closer to the Purely Decadent version. Who can wait an hour though?!? It was heavenly just out of the machine.

There will be many more experiments to come because my friend gifted me with a treasure of a book called Make Your Place; Affordable, Sustainable Nesting Skills by Raleigh Briggs. It is a gem, all hand lettered and illustrated in a style similar to Mollie Katzen's original Moosewood Cookbook and it is filled with recipes and concoctions for everything from salves and ointments to face oil and deodorants to everything there is to know about getting a garden started. I love this book! I also want to give props to the publishing company Microcosm Publishing. Definitely check these folks out.

I think I'm going to need to be more conscious of getting my iron and B vitamins because I think that was what really tipped me over last week. I assume at some point my cycle will become more regular as the breastfeeding wanes and I can't afford to be totally knocked out for a week out of every month.

A work in progress, that's me!

Empty

2009-07-08T19:23:00.001-07:00

I feel like I'm running on empty today. I did a presentation on music at the local library that was so much fun and as I was walking home, I felt like I wanted to just lie down on the sidewalk and have a nap with my head on my fiddle case.

I'm having a flare-up which is frustrating me to no end. Having an illness that can be kept largely at bay by good health practices has the unfortunate shadow side of causing an incredible amount of guilt when I'm struggling because I know I could have done more to fend it off.

Grumble, grumble...not much else to see here folks.

Hormones

2009-07-07T06:48:00.001-07:00

I had to laugh at that last entry from two days ago (hello dark and broody, haven't seen you in a while) especially in light of my period arriving yesterday.

If only there were some rhythm to that area of my life. It would be nice to be able to see these things coming in the distance and prepare for them a little.

Hormones are so powerful. I'm unraveling over the tiniest things right now. I miss my sister who was here over the weekend. We've had a lot of accidents the last couple of days as this potty thing has not become intuitive yet. Pimples. Such are my tales of woe.

Heavy

2009-07-05T21:02:00.000-07:00

Water bubbling through the ceiling. The familiar becoming strange. Tearful partings. Anger quickly followed by regret. Bittersweet memories.

July is always an explosion of one kind or another, it seems.

Independence

2009-07-04T12:31:00.001-07:00

Big weekend for this little fellow

Goodbye to daytime diapers

Goodbye to his very last pacifier

Ran his very fun run

Made his mama very proud.

Failure

2009-07-03T04:18:00.001-07:00

My yoga class starts in ten minutes and I'm not going to make it. I fell back into bed after the alarm clock went off this morning and didn't get back up in time to be ready for yoga. This sleep thing is hard. I daresay, harder than changing food habits. Not to mention inextricably linked. By the time I get the kids to bed, I stubbornly cling to my habit of falling onto the couch and doing nothing for a while. Doing nothing is so appealing that I keep doing it until it's past my bedtime.

I really want to learn more about biorhythms (speaking of rhythm! gotta sneak that theme in!) because I find it fascinating that the same four dishes that it takes me 30 seconds to cheerfully wash at 7 in the morning feel like an immovable yoke around my neck at 9:30 at night. Most nights, I don't even want to walk across the room and get my knitting. The same knitting that you can find me merrily knitting away at during every spare moment of the day. Are the "idon'twanna"s curable?

We have a big weekend ahead of us. The pacifier fairy is coming during naptime to collect all of the things we have in our home that babies might need, including every last diaper and pacifier. It should be an interesting weekend, to say the least. I have been reminding the kids about this upcoming event and Liam became very concerned yesterday that she would not be able to carry everything on her own, possibly hoping to lighten her load by a pacifier or two. I told him, "Oh no, she's very strong and she has big helpers". The pacifier fairy has taken on a whole new mental image. I think she used to be loosely based on one of his favorite books The Dreamtime Fairies. I suspect he is now picturing something closer to a gaggle of pteranodons wearing tutus.

Wish us luck.

Junk

2009-07-02T07:56:00.000-07:00

I listened to a fascinating conversation on NPR this morning. The program was On Point and they were speaking with former FDA chief Dr. David Kessler about his new book The End of Overeating; Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite.

Dr. Kessler was responsible during his tenure at the FDA of taking on Big Tobacco and also for requiring that nutritional information be placed on all food products sold in mass distribution in this country. He had a lot of interesting things to say about the role of big business in our country's current culture of poor eating.

His main point was that somewhere along the line, food corporations figured out that our brains are hugely stimulated by fat, sugar, and salt and so they began craftily layering these substances in such a way as to procure an addictive response from consumers.

From his wikipedia page:

His 2009 book "The End of Overeating" (a New York Times best seller) highlights for the consumer the amount of fat, salt and sugar in their food intake. He asserts that this trio of elements in restaurant and processed foods conditions us to eat more in a manner that changes our brain circuitry and that children may develop a pattern of overeating and obesity that they might retain for life. He stresses that this outcome of lifelong obesity is not genetic but environmental and avoidable.

I think what I appreciated most from his interview is that Dr. Kessler seems to have compassion for the consumer in a way that you don't often hear from an allopathic physician. He acknowledged the responsibility of personal choice but he also continued to underline the reality that we are fighting an uphill battle in regards to food because we are being manipulated at every turn.

While listening to the interview, we were eating strawberry ice cream for breakfast. That's not strictly true. We were actually eating stRAWberry ice cream made from frozen berries, frozen banana and fresh cashew milk. I think this breakfast crystallizes the appeal of the raw food movement for me. It isn't just that the novelty that you can raw-ify any food so that it resembles its junky inspiration. It isn't even just that the ingredients are raw. The beauty is taking a food that was previously indigestible, packaged and preserved, loaded with sugar and saturated fat, and relatively low in nutrition and converting it into a nutrient dense and delicious choice. I don't have plans to be 100% raw because I lack the pedantic attachment to detail. I am, however, so inspired by the idea of all of our food has the potential of being so rich in nutrition. The whole idea of 'junk food' is so bizarre when you really consider what it is. Here's a substance that isn't exactly food because it doesn't nourish you in any way, but it's not exactly toxic either (at least not immediately) so have at it! Go ahead and swallow it. It won't kill you. Today.

To be clear, I've never been the sort of parent who requires two bites of this and three bites of that and they you can have xyz. As a person who overcame an eating disorder, I don't want to criminalize any foods for my children causing an unhealthy attachment or detachment to develop. The reality is, though, that there are lots and lots of foods that shouldn't even be allowed to be considered food. Aisles upon aisles of it in the grocery store. Bereft of nutrition but filling our shopping carts and our arteries. What's the answer?

I don't know. Truly, I have no idea. I think the answer is different for every person, for every family. My approach today is that I try to create the most nutritious and appealing food that I can in my own home and when we are out in the world, they can make whatever choices they wish. I can see how this approach will most likely break down severely when 'out in the world' is a more frequent occurrence than it is currently with little ones. I guess we will cross that bridge when we come to it.

Today's breakfast, composed of strawberries, banana, cashews, and a little honey because I don't keep agave nectar on hand.

It was delicious.

37

2009-07-01T10:18:00.000-07:00

A friend just gave me a book this morning called Life is a Verb; 37 Days to Wake Up, Be Mindful, and Live Intentionally by Patti Digh.

I hadn't run across Patti Digh yet in the blogosphere but apparently she has a long running and very popular blog on the topic of intentional living. I am thrilled to run across the book on the very first day of my July daily blogging.

I'm just now paging through it for the first time but I am immediately struck by how visually appealing it is. In just the first few pages, I stumble across this quote by Marjorie Williams, a journalist who died of liver cancer just days after turning 43, and I find myself laughing and crying: "Having found myself faced with that old bull-session question (What would you do if you found out you had a year to live?), I learned that the woman with children has the privilege or duty of bypassing the existential. What you do, if you have little kids, is lead as normal a life as possible, only with more pancakes."

Off to read. Back soon.

Rhythm

2009-06-29T12:16:00.000-07:00

I just finished telling you that I was going to blog on the subject of rhythm for July and then, lo and behold, I discovered that the NaBloPoMo folks have established a July blog-along on the topic of routine. Serendipity! Naturally, I had to sign right up.

The first rhythm I want to explore is food. It's so elemental and such a perfect place to start. We have gotten way off budget with our food buying and subsequently our food eating and we really need to reel it back in. Summer is a little more lean than usual for us because my students are on vacation intermittently and my income is harder to anticipate.

At the same time, the beautiful summer weather is singing to me and I am longing for fresh and delicious food. For one reason (lazy) or another (still lazy), I have not been able to manage meal planning for months now. All of the resources that I've found don't really relate to our eating lifestyle so as soon as I bump up against an obstacle, I stop trying. I've been rereading the highly awesome e-book "Frugal Raw!" and Mattye talks about how she would take $10 to the market and buy food for the next 3 days with that $10 and just make it work within those parameters no matter what. Hmm...the wheels began turning.

At the same time, I ran across an interview with Paul Nison, a raw food educator, and he recently wrote a book called The Daylight Diet. I haven't read the book yet but, from what I gather from the interview, it sounds like he speaks a lot on the importance of sleep (sleep schedule he recommends and tries to live by: sleeping from 9 pm to 5 am) and also the importance of not overeating or eating too late in the day. In other words, if the sun has gone to bed, then your stomach should just be working on digesting what you ate during the day and not taking in more food.

Our tentative new meal plan is that I will go food shopping after yoga on Mondays and Thursdays. Since I will have a very specific list and the market and the yoga studio are in the neighborhood, I should still be able to get home by 8:30 am.

Our Loosey Goosey Meal Rhythm

Upon waking: water with lemon

First hunger (around 8:30): green smoothies

Elevenses: homemade granola with yogurt (Yossie and kids) or almond milk (me)

Next hunger (around 1): big juicy salad

Teatime (around 4, a little earlier for me on teaching days): the moreish main meal (heretoafter called MMM) of the day:

Evening: as little as possible for us so that we can digest the day's food. Maybe a small berry banana smoothie or a little raw dessert treat if we're really hungry. The kids always have a bedtime snack, usually plain yogurt with honey on top or WHO bread with butter and jam.

I went grocery shopping today for Monday-Wednesday and spent $40 on...
3/4 lb organic tomatoes**
some mustard seed for our salad dressing**
a dozen cage free eggs
4 1/2 lb organic fair trade bananas*
almost a pound of mushrooms***
2 cups of raw cashew pieces***
a packet of organic frozen corn***
2 organic lemons
6 organic Valencia oranges*
2 lb organic baby spinach*/**

That will be enough food for 3 days of green smoothies* (spinach, orange, banana), salads** (baby spinach with marinated onions and mustard seed dressing), mushroom ragout with polenta*** (raw meal from Ani Phyo) for Monday's teatime, Freakcakes for Tuesday's teatime, and on Wednesday we are attending a potluck to which I am bringing my tofu fried rice and some egg salad. Obviously I already had some food on hand. I still need to stop at the larger grocery store tomorrow morning for goat milk and soy milk. I also have ingredients on hand to make a gluten free apple crisp. I used this recipe last week to make a rhubarb crisp that was highly popular with Yossie although summarily rejected by the boys.

The meal plan in general is really more for me and Joe and not necessarily the boys. They like green smoothies but don't choose them every day. They often eat parts of our salads or main dishes but mostly they do other snacking that is healthy enough for me and easy to keep on hand: sunbutter and jam sandwiches on WHO bread, organic cheddar cheese cubes, little bowls of black beans or chickpeas, plain yogurt with honey, celery strips and carrot sticks, toasted tofu cubes, air popped popcorn with olive oil and sea salt, blue corn tortilla chips with salsa, and the ever present fig cookie. I'm sure I could easily come up with a fig cookie replacement that I make myself but I'm just not that ambitious or dogmatic about the avoidance of packaged food. I figure if the occasional organic corn tortilla chip or fig cookie is the main packaged food my kids are eating then they're doing pretty well. We're not insistent that they eat what we're eating because they listen to their little bodies better than we do and make excellent choices in regards to moderation and diversity of selection and they are sweet, uncomplaining dinner companions. Also they are growing like gangbusters, both of them off the charts with height and weight.

I've had many a food plan over the last couple of years and I am always curious to see where they will lead me.

Summer

2009-06-25T14:02:00.001-07:00

The easy, breezy, lemon-squeezy days of summer are here at last. We have been back from our trip for a month and I am just now feeling like I'm getting back in the swing of the rhythm of our days. I have not been as regular with my yoga practice and I am most certainly feeling it. Pain in my joints, weight creeping on, Irish temper on FLARE mode. I will be getting back to going 3 or 4 times this week like I was before the trip.

Other summer delights:

~Purely Decadent coconut milk ice cream, inspiring me to lust after an ice cream maker to try out this recipe.

~Skirts and dresses! Especially my new wraparound vintage sari skirt, a gift from my elegant and generous mother-in-law. Apparently there are 100 different ways in which you can wear this skirt. I have figured out exactly two that I can manage on my own. This is the most comfortable piece of clothing I have ever worn, particularly in 90 degree weather. Here's a video showing all of the possibilities. I don't know what brand my skirt is. There seem to be a huge range of suppliers online. The one I have came from a little shop in my in-law's neighborhood.

~pulling out my beloved raw food books and becoming re-inspired by the bounty of produce now available. My favorite raw author, Ani Phyo, apparently has a new book out now that I am very excited to get my paws on called Ani's Raw Food Desserts: 85 Delectable Sweets and Treats.

~summer haircut! Pictures to follow.

~we try to honor people year round in prayer and remembrance for the contributions made to the betterment of our country and so, instead of the usual festivities this year, we will be celebrating independence this 4th of July by saying goodbye to diapers (with the exception of cloth training pants for bedtime). Both kiddos, not just big brother. They've been having fun with naked time and using the potty very casually for a couple of months now and they are ready.

~Other 4th excitement: Liam will also be running his first 'race' (1/4 mile fun run) with his auntie that weekend. Auntie is traveling from California to visit us and do this race. She's also doing the 8K. Running is a big deal for my parents and my sister (albeit not for me or Yossie) and Liam and his auntie are both very excited to enjoy the race together.

~I have been limiting my internet time lately and going to bed before 10 every night this week and I have already seen a huge leap in my quality of life so I plan to keep this up. The blog will not be going by the wayside. On the contrary, I will probably be blogging more because this is an activity that really nourishes and organizes me. It's the message boards and the mindless wikipedia meandering that are on the chopping block.

Come find me here in July. I'll be blogging every day on the very broad topic of rhythm. Every day, I say! Hold me accountable, I dare you.

Wabi-Sabi

2009-06-08T13:19:00.000-07:00

Wabi-sabi.

"if an object or expression can bring about, within us, a sense of serene melancholy and a spiritual longing, then that object could be said to be wabi-sabi." Richard R. Powell summarizes by saying "It (wabi-sabi) nurtures all that is authentic by acknowledging three simple realities: nothing lasts, nothing is finished, and nothing is perfect."

Bikram 30

2009-06-03T06:36:00.000-07:00

I went to my 30th hot yoga class today. It's still rocking my world. It's tough getting back into the swing of things since our vacation but I keep showing up. Then, since I'm there, I figure I might as well do a little yoga.

I went to a really nice yoga studio called Jiva Yoga Center while I was on vacation. I highly recommend it if you find yourself on Hilton Head Island. I missed the Hot Flow class which I understand to be in the Baron Baptiste style of power yoga flow, but the two classes I got to were just the ticket after two days in the car.

Bread

2009-06-03T03:50:00.000-07:00

Giving us today our daily bread is a Freecycled old school bread machine, the wisdom of Soule Mama and About.com, and a beat-up metal bread pan.

I got this dinosaur of a bread machine off Freecycle a few years ago right around the time that Yossie discovered that he can't eat wheat anymore. I thought for sure I'd just be able to whip up some gluten-free bread in the ol' bread machine and all our problems would be solved.

It turned out a little more complicated than that. At the time, there were very few instructions online for gluten-free bread at all, then adding the bread machine specification to that request left me only with dead ends.

Since then, I've located a number of gluten-free bread machine recipes but at the time, that was enough to dampen my enthusiasm and toss the bread machine up on top of the refrigerator where it's been mostly collecting dust ever since.

Somehow the fact that I was buying 2 loaves of regular wheat bread at the co-op for the other three wheat-friendly members of the family escaped my bread machine desires until I ran across this recipe from Amanda Blake Soule a while back. I got out my bread machine again and enjoyed several delicious loaves before getting frustrated and annoyed with the shape of the bread that emerges from the machine. It's less like a loaf and more like a giant muffin. It doesn't slice well and inevitably I lose several slices due to the baked-in blade gouging holes in the loaf.

A couple of days ago, I was consulting my colleague Ms. Google, and I found these instructions for oven baking dough that you prepare in your bread machine. Well, the heavens parted and the angels sang, let me tell you. My bread problems have been solved.

I have yet to try one of the multitude of gluten-free bread recipes that are now available online but I'm moving in tiny baby steps in that direction, my hesitation being all the different types of flour I have to keep around in order to do so. In the meantime, the remaining wheat-eating three of us are enjoying fresh bread.

WHO* bread by Amanda Blake Soule
(makes 1.5 lb loaf, set to 'basic' with medium crust)

1 1/4 cup water
2 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons butter @ room temperature
1 tsp salt
3 cups of flour (we do 2 cups unbleached white, 1 cup whole wheat pastry)
1/2 cup rolled oats
1 tablespoons brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast (or, one package)

*wheat, honey, and oats = WHO

What comes next seems like a lot of steps but it takes only a few minutes total.

Oven Baking Instructions from About.com (pictures for each step when you follow the link)

1. First, follow the bread-machine recipe for making a two pound loaf (for two 9- by 6-inch loaves) or a 1 1/2 pound loaf (for two 8- by 5-inch loaves). Set the bread machine to the "dough only" setting. The machine will combine the ingredients, knead the dough and give it its first rise, then beep to indicate that the dough is ready to shape. If your machine doesn't have a "dough only" setting, you'll have to watch it carefully to see when the first rise is over and the dough gets punched down.

2. Remove the dough from the machine and transfer it to a flour-dusted surface. Using a knife or a bench scraper, divide the dough in half. You can use a kitchen scale to ensure that the two pieces of dough are exactly even,

3. Pat the dough into a rectangle, about 1/2 to 3/4 inch thick, in which the narrow sides of the rectangle are parallel the edge of your counter.

4. Starting with the "top" of the rectangle, the edge that's furthest from you, fold one-third of the dough over.

5. Now, fold the bottom third of the dough up over the other folded piece, as if you were folding a letter.

6. Turn the piece of dough 90 degrees, then repeat the folds, folding the top third of the dough down over the middle.

7. Fold the bottom third of the dough over the center. You should now have a thick, square-ish piece of dough.

8. Turn the dough over so that the seam is on the bottom, and tuck the layered sides underneath so the entire exposed surface of dough is smooth. Place the dough in a pan that's been sprayed with cooking spray or coated with oil, and use your hands to flatten the dough a little towards the edges of the pan. The dough does not need to fill the entire bottom of the pan, because it will expand to fill the pan as it rises.

9. Repeat the shaping process with the other piece of dough. Then, cover both pans of dough with a dishtowel or a piece of plastic wrap that's been sprayed with cooking spray, and allow to rise in a warm space.

10. Dough should rise for 45 minutes to an hour and a half, or until it is doubled in size. A good indication that it has risen enough is if the dough has risen a little past the top of the pan. Preheat your oven about 20 minutes before the bread will finish its rise.

11. With a very sharp paring knife or a razor (or a lame, a special bread baking tool), quickly slash the dough lengthwise down the middle of the loaf, about 1/4 inch thick. This will help the bread expand as it bakes, and will also give your bread a professional look.

12. Place loaves in the preheated oven. The temperature depends on the types of bread; consult a bread cookbook to find the most similar type of bread to your recipe. Typically, doughs that are made with whole grains or large amounts of rich ingredients like butter or eggs will bake at 350 or 375, while leaner doughs will bake at a higher temperature, 400 to 425.

13. The bread will probably take 30 to 45 minutes to bake; check it for doneness after 30 minutes. Bread will be done when its crust is firm and browned, and the underside of the loaf is also firm and makes a hollow sound when tapped. Remove the bread from the pan immediately and cool on a rack.

Try it and tell me what you think!

Forgot

2009-04-27T12:45:00.001-07:00

I forgot that I had a blog. Weird that it happened now, because there have definitely longer periods between posts in the past. I was actually perusing another blog that I like a lot and haven't visited in a while called Raw Model and Anthony's entries inspired me to make some new strides in regards to permaculture and living foods so I thought to myself, "I should make a blog about my ideas and progress on that" when I remembered "oh, that's right! I have a blog." *blush*

Atticus had a really bad fall last week (6 feet to the ground and landed on his belly) and, while I'm still haunted by it, I feel so grateful that he is well and healthy and that we have such good care. We did have to do some x-rays which went far for our peace of mind but the real turnaround was when he also had a chiropractic adjustment this morning that resulted in a much happier and more relaxed little boy than I've seen in days.

I think I've gushed about chiropractic care here before (yep, sure enough) and I am endlessly grateful with how this modality has helped me personally but to see such a transformation in your child...there are no words for that blessing. To see pain disappear and your child returned to an enormously relieved version of his formerly happy-go-lucky self is more than my heart can hold. I've been crying a lot lately. I'm just so grateful.

Pancakes

2009-04-15T11:11:00.000-07:00

Just in case there's someone out there in the world who has the same specific needs as we do in regards to pancakes: no wheat, no dairy, cheap, easy whole grains preferred, eggs are fine, must be tasty, must only have staple foods in the recipe (i.e. none of this tapioca flour nonsense).

1 1/2 c ground oats (oat flour, in other words. I just grind our regular oats with this little beauty.)

1/2 c rice flour

1/2 c rolled oats

2 T turbinado sugar

1 1/4 t baking powder

3/4 t baking soda

1 t sea salt

2 eggs

2 c soy milk with 2 1/2 t vinegar added

1/4 c olive oil or whatever oil you prefer

Oil for the pan, whatever you like to use

You know what to do. Blend the wet, blend the dry, blend together. Oil down a medium-hot pan. Make cakes your desired size. You know when to flip when little bubbles come to the surface of the cake.

Frustration

2009-04-03T15:42:00.000-07:00

When Liam is frustrated, which is often these days, he screams a bloodcurdling "NO!" and bursts into tears. I do the same thing only it's inside my head. Something tells me that Liam's method is more healthy overall.

Bikram 7

2009-03-20T10:43:00.001-07:00

Uh oh. I waited a few too many days to update and now I can't remember the 7th class. Uh...

Oh yeah! My friend who has been encouraging me to try Bikram came to this class and it was really beautiful seeing her move so smoothly in and out of the poses. Definitely something to aspire to.

After the 7th class, I had to take a class off due to a trifecta of late night at the ER*, late St. Paddy's day playing at a session, and having a really heavy period, only my third since Atticus was born.

*We were at the ER because Atticus somehow sprained his ankle while sleeping. He got it stuck somewhere and was flailing around in his sleep as he so often does and really twisted it. It got very swollen and he couldn't stop screaming in pain so we had to take him in to make sure that it wasn't broken.

It's been a long week.

I had the 8th class today and it felt awesome, especially after missing a class and really feeling it in my joints. It was much harder today which I am attributing to having my period but it still felt great and very cleansing.

So, I won't be doing regular Bikram updates for a while but I will be going to the early morning class on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays so I'm sure it will still come up here again. Let me know if you have any questions for a beginning yogi, particularly if you're interested in the hot yoga.

Between the early morning yoga, the new sparkly toenails, and the egg sandwich and soy caramel latte, I'm off to a great start today. So many treats!

Happy first day of Spring!

Bikram 6

2009-03-14T05:46:00.000-07:00

I had a new teacher for a grand total of four different teachers over the last six classes. I can't really compare them because their style's are so different but I've really enjoyed all of them.

Our studio is an official Bikram studio but some of the teachers are actually students of Baron Baptiste power yoga instead. Baptiste yogis speak right to my heart. Also Baptiste is the author of My Daddy is a Pretzel, the wonderful book I mentioned a while back for a giveaway.

The sixth class was really good. I feel like the teacher challenged me to go deeper and hold things longer and I really benefitted from her gentle encouragement. "Remember, uncomfortable isn't bad. It's just...uncomfortable."

I'm taking the weekend off except for some warm-up stretching and pranayama practice on my own, then back to the heat at 6:30 am on Monday morning.

Bikram 5

2009-03-13T03:26:00.000-07:00

I think I will do 7 Bikram updates (my favorite number) and then give it a rest for a while. Not the Bikram, just the updates.

I wanted to mention something suggested to me by my marathon-running sister that has helped me a lot in adjusting to this new exercise routine. I have been in the habit of keeping Emergen-C on hand for the past several years and we mostly just use it when we feel like we're coming down with something.

The first Bikram class I took, I had a beautiful huge container of coconut water that I drank before, during, and after class. I think coconut water is the number one way to go for hydration and balancing electrolytes but it does get a bit expensive. My sister recommended that I take Emergen-C on my yoga days to replenish electrolytes. I tried it and it does work really well. Then I discovered that it is frequently recommended by Bikram yogis.

Yet another humbling example of how my big sister is generally always right.

Day 5 was a really good one for me. It was my second class with a teacher whose style I really like. She explains everything really clearly and keeps a sharp eye on technique. I felt strong and the heat was an embrace, not oppressive at all.

I've seen first time tips for people taking a Bikram class in various spots on the web but I want to put mine all in one spot also. This seems as good a place to do that as any.

My Beginning Bikram Tips (keeping in mind that I am neither a yoga instructor or a medical professional...just an internet busybody)

1. At least 48 hours before your first class, get in the habit of drinking a lot more water than you're used to. I'd say at least 96 oz a day.

2. Wear as little clothing as you possible can within your modesty comfort zone, paying special attention to cotton and wicking fabrics. There are a variety of body types in my class and nobody bats an eye at what anyone else wears. All the men go shirtless. Many of the women wear sports bras and shorts. At minimum, I would say to be sure to be sleeveless and the shorter you can go with your pants, the better. Bring a change of clothes, even if you're going right home and your home is just a minute away. After class, strip off everything that was right next to your body and put on something else. Especially women. Yeast loves warmth and moisture and the Bikram class is definitely both of those things. Many studios have showers. Ours does, but I prefer to change clothes and zip on home.

3. Plan to get your hair away from your face. A sweatband or headband is a necessity in addition to a ponytail or a braid or, better yet, two. A lot of people wear bandanas. My hair, as short as it is now (did I mention that I chopped off my hair?), still requires a headband and pigtails. I like pigtails because you can still lay your head flat on the floor during savasana instead of having to yank out your ponytail or braid and fuss with it.

4. Bring a yoga mat, a towel for on top of the yoga mat (either a bath towel or a Yogitoes if you can manage it- they're pricy but effective), a hand towel, and a container of coconut water or water with Emergen-C dissolved into it. Use a cup that has a lid but that you can sip from easily without having to fumble around with unscrewing the top.

5. About 90 minutes before class, drink a large glass (24 oz or so) of either coconut water or water with Emergen-C dissolved into it. You want to allow plenty of time so that you can go to the bathroom before class. My class starts at 6:30 am and is literally right down the street from my house. I still get up at 5 so that I can get some water through my system and hopefully eliminate before class.

6. My personal tips for not getting too nauseated or overcome during class: sip your water, don't guzzle it. I take 4 or 5 sips over the course of the class. Use your hand towel to blot sweat if it's running into your eyes or if you need to make a body part less slippery for a balancing pose or something like that. The first few classes I would wipe my body off liberally and I discovered I was basically counteracting my body's natural cooling processes. The less I wipe, the more comfortable I am.

7. Have an open mind. Be mindful of negative thoughts like : "When will this be over?" and instead try to focus on the present moment. Watch a video or two on pranayama breathing before class so that you have the breath as your advocate and your guide. Embrace the opportunity to see what your body can do.

8. Arrive early to class and take ten minutes or so to lie down on your mat and acclimate to the warmth.

I'll add to this as other things occur to me...but I need to stop or I'll be late to class!

Bikram 4

2009-03-09T12:54:00.000-07:00

I was so proud of myself this morning just for getting myself to class at 6:30. Between daylight savings time and a late night due to a big concert, I wasn't sure I'd even be able to do that.

When the alarm went off this morning, my body was sore from the boots I wore last night and all the playing so I was actually looking forward to untangling some of the knots that I tied up in my muscles last night.

I met a new teacher today. I've had three different teachers at the studio now and I really liked all of them. They all had unique styles which is really motivating for me. I'm not sure if the heat was set lower today or what, but it didn't bother me at all. I was still sweating plenty, but I never got lightheaded or felt overcome.

I am so glad that I went to class. I think I would be in a lot of pain right now if I hadn't. As much as I love playing the fiddle, it is not a natural movement for the body and really causes a lot of physical stress. That combined with my health situation makes yoga an absolute necessity.

My goal is to go to the 6:30 class on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday until I reach the end of this 30-class punch card, then I will reassess and see if I want to add a weekend class or something. I'll be finishing with those ten weeks of regular yoga classes right before we leave for our vacation in May.

Bikram 3

2009-03-06T06:25:00.001-08:00

The third class was harder than the second for some reason but still wonderful. I don't think I ate a proper dinner last night, I did a lot of grazing off of toddlers' leftovers and it didn't add up to a very balanced meal.

A side effect of this class is the necessity of being mindful of my water and apparently food intake during the day or two in preparation for the class. I've been drinking a lot more water this week and I've been experiencing the expected benefits of being more hydrated.

I chopped my hair off on Wednesday. Naturally the next order of business was to begin knitting a headband for yoga class to keep the short hair and the sweat out of my eyes. I'm using this swatch pattern and adapting it a little, making it shorter and adding i-cord on either end. Also I'm using a cotton yarn to make it more washable. I really love the pattern. It's so much fun to knit. Here's how it looks so far. I apologize for the blurry picture, my documentarian is already off to work.

Bikram 2

2009-03-04T11:25:00.000-08:00

Today I had the double challenge of going back to Bikram yoga and waking up at the crack of dawn to do so. I went to the 6:30 am class. Luckily, it's very close to my house. I could walk there in 10 minutes. Except I didn't. But I will!

Today's class was a delight. I never once felt like I was going to melt into a puddle on the floor and evaporate. I loved it. I'm so amazed that I am embracing heat because I've never been a person who really loves heat. I've always been more of a bundle up and sip tea kind of girl. The heat is such a blessing and a pleasure. It really enables you to move your body the way it wants to be moved.

I was stunned when the time came for the class to be over because I still felt so good. I think it really helped knowing what to expect. I just needed to know that I would still be alive at the end of class. That was the lesson of the first class. Today was more in the moment. I strutted out of there feeling like the bee's knees and when I got out of class I realized that it had in fact been a 60 minute class, a full 30 minutes less than the previous class. Oh! I had to laugh at myself for thinking I had made that much improvement in one class.

I am also very surprised to find myself seriously considering the 6:30 class as my ideal class time on MWF. It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be to wake up. We'll see how I feel later. It was really nice to be done and in the shower by 8 am. The day really opened itself up to me.

Bikram 1

2009-03-04T03:29:00.000-08:00

I took my first ever Bikram yoga class on Monday morning. Here's the understatement of the year: it was intense. Bikram is the style with the heated room (105 F) and it's also unique in that you run the same 26 poses twice during the 90 minute class.

The studio is really nice. It has a really positive feeling to it and all the people, staff and students, are kind and supportive. The class itself was really hard. It's the most significant workout that I've had in a long time. Possibly forever. The teacher was very awe inspiring in what he could do with his body and this man is in his late fifties although you'd never guess it to look at him. He wasn't the most touchy-feely person but that worked for me under the circumstances.

My two goals for the first class were to stay in the room the whole time and to stay alive. I'm happy to report that I was successful. I'm going back today for the really early class (6:30 am!) so I wanted to get some thoughts down so I could remember the whole arc of the experience.

After class, I noticed some things. I felt very calm, deeply calm, the whole day. I also felt very clean and my energy level was high. My joints felt much more comfortable than they normally do. I usually exist with a low level of pain in my joints and I notice that pain had left me. That might be reason enough to continue. I've read a lot of online testimonials about the benefits Bikram for people living with rheumatoid arthritis. My elimination was also the best that it's been in a while and I pay attention to such things because my health seems to hinge on it. I do have two new pimples too but I assume it's from bringing toxins to the surface.

I'm interested to see if this is something that I continue doing.

Color

2009-02-28T09:04:00.000-08:00

I love color.

Mud

2009-02-27T21:46:00.001-08:00

Show

2009-02-26T13:10:00.000-08:00

In case that comes through too hard to read, here's the press release:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Free Concert of Irish Music and Dance to Benefit Crisis Center Scheduled at the Englert Theatre

Iowa City, IA—February 11, 2009—The Beggarmen, an Iowa City based Celtic band, will bring their eclectic approach to traditional Irish music to the Englert Theatre stage on Sunday, March 8th, 2009. The event will benefit the Johnson County Crisis Center. Joining The Beggarmen will be three lively Irish step dancers, all University of Iowa students, who honed their skills at dance competitions while growing up in Chicago. The event is part of the Englert’s Community Spotlight Series, presented by the Iowa City Press-Citizen and the Community Foundation of Johnson County. The concert will begin at 8:00 p.m. The event is FREE but donations to the Iowa City Crisis center are encouraged.

Described by the Iowa City Press-Citizen as a "passionate, crowd pleasing whirlwind" and in the Cedar Rapids Gazette as "one of the best bands in the area," The Beggarmen find their roots in the traditional music of Ireland and other Celtic regions, supplementing the rich variety of traditional tunes with original compositions. Known for fine instrumental work on fiddle, guitar, tin whistles, mandolin, uilleann pipes and bodhran (the Irish frame drum), The Beggarmen also lend their voices to the mix for a varied, entertaining show. The Beggarmen are Brad Pouleson, Tara Dutcher, Joe Dutcher and Keith Reins. Their website is www.beggarmen.com.

The Beggarmen perform in the Midwest and have produced two CD’s. Their most recent album, Newry Town, released in 2007, was described by Celtic Heartland radio program as “Fantastic music! A perfect driving CD!” Celtic MP3’s Music Magazine opined, “[The Beggarmen] are experts with their craft and wield their instruments with the confidence that comes only with ability.” CD’s will be available for purchase at the event.

Performing with The Beggarmen will be University of Iowa students Amy Le Mieux, who studied at the McNulty School of Irish Dance and the World Academy of Irish Dancing; Shannon Evoy, who studied dance at the Lavin Cassidy School and competed at regional and national Levels in America and Ireland; and Meg Konzelman, who studied at the Keigher Academy.  The Community Spotlight Series is intended to bring attention to outstanding local performing artists. As with all performances in the series, admission is FREE, but The Beggarmen encourage audience members to each bring an item for donation to the Iowa City Crisis Center. The items most in need include diapers, hearty canned soups/stews, canned meat, canned fruit, peanut butter, jelly/jam, rice, pasta, and toilet paper.

Contact Information: Visit The Beggarmen at www.beggarmen.com.
The Beggarmen
Tara Dutcher
tara@cavanfiddle.com

Please come and spread the word!

Bake

2009-02-26T08:08:00.001-08:00

I recently found my baking rhythm and I feel like I'm meeting me again for the first time. I have this great cookbook that has really simplified vegan cooking and baking for me and now I'm starting to put my toe into the quagmire that is wheat-free baking.

Joe has cheerfully (for the most part) gone off baked things completely with his wheat intolerance but I always feel a little guilty when the three of us are munching on something homebaked and he's throwing down raisins to satisfy his sweet tooth.

I'd like to rely on oat flour because we always have TONS of oats around that I can easily grind but I made an applesauce bread a couple of days ago that was just too moist and I think I'm going to have to start experimenting with rice flour too. I'm trying to keep it as simple and streamlined as I can. I've made some really yummy gluten free baked goods in the past but what with the 1/8 cup tapioca flour, 1/4 cup potato flour, spin three times and stand on your hand, add flax seeds... I've found that approach to not be sustainable for this impatient and frugal mama.

I'm not really interested in making sandwich bread, it's more a matter of the muffins, quick breads, cookies, etc. that I'm trying to recreate.

Is there a magical combination of oat flour and rice flour that I can keep in one container to just treat as my all-purpose flour?

No really, is there? Comments welcome!

Ashes

2009-02-24T12:22:00.001-08:00

Memento homo, quia pulvis es, et in pulverem reverteris.

Remember, O man, that you are dust, and unto dust you shall return.

—Genesis 3:19

Tomorrow begins the season of Lent. Mindfulness will be engaged.

One of my Facebook friends replied to this quote yesterday (someone else left it in his status update) with "I know, dude. I don't need dirt on my head to remind me".

Made me giggle.

Home

2009-02-17T06:11:00.001-08:00

I get some crazy ideas in the shower. I was thinking about some combination of our nation's economic troubles and the recent discussion among some of our friends about their desire to move out of their 'starter home' into a larger house.

Stay with me. It's kind of a long story before I get back to the shower part.

We're used to people commenting on our 'cute starter home' and when we had our second child, we began to get the questions about when we were going to upgrade. Our house was built in 1950. I think its technical name is a chalet bungalow or dormer bungalow. I can't exactly remember what the square footage is. I think it's 1100 square feet but I don't know if that includes the upstairs. The main floor has a living room, kitchen, bathroom, master bedroom and the kids' room. We have a large usable basement that is mostly storage right now. There's also a loft space upstairs where I currently have my fiddle studio and which also serves as our guest room. We are especially lucky in that the loft space has its own tiny bathroom and the basement also has its own, albeit disgusting, bathroom. You could call it three bathrooms in a pinch although our basement needs some overhaul to be seriously considered.

We have a cute little fenced in yard with a huge maple tree and two more huge maple trees in the front yard. One of the things I like most about our house is its walkability. Easily within walking distance is two large grocery stores (one of which is a natural foods store), at least eight restaurants, six coffee shops, eight parks, the public library, the bank, and the post office. The mall and its accompanying movie theatres are a very fast bus ride away. As our kids get bigger, I can see how the house will seem smaller as they grow, but I don't think the house necessarily has to grow with them. They happily share a room now and if that should ever become a less than happy arrangement, we can shift things around. We're interested in renovating the basement to make a beautiful studio space down there that has its own separate entrance to our home and at that point, Joe and I could move upstairs and the kids could have their own rooms. Or we could turn the master bedroom into a large playroom/schoolroom. If the yard is too small for romping, they can hop on their bikes and ride to the park.

Back to the shower...I'm washing my hair and thinking to myself that I'm glad that Joe and I are in agreement that our house is just fine for our family for the forseeable future and another idea drifted into my head. We're still in brainstorming phase on this one so there are a lot of details to puzzle out.

What if, when the kids are grown (18-20 ish is what I'm thinking), instead of them moving out of our house, Joe and I move and leave the house to them? By that time, barring any unforeseen circumstances, our mortgage will be paid off so they would be living rent free while they pursue their undergraduate education. We also live in an area with a lot of technical college opportunities so if academics aren't their thing, they can be apprenticing for a trade or something along those lines. There will be room in the house at that point where they could take on two roommates and accrue income from their renters. Since they won't need to pay rent themselves, the money they make from their part time jobs will go a lot farther and they may not have to take out student loans.

It wouldn't tie them to the house indefinitely, it would just provide an opportunity to live rent free and accrue income for a few years while having the freedom of being unsupervised young adults at a time when they're ready to try out that kind of responsibility. If they wanted to go somewhere vastly different for undergrad or to pursue some other kind of opportunity, they would just have to weigh that against their current advantages and consider waiting a few years until they have their basic education squared away.

This could be the ultimate homeschooling lesson. I wish I had learned as an adolescent what went into to being a homeowner. They could grow into that knowledge as a regular extension of gradually taking over the responsibility of running the home they've lived in all their lives.

What about us, the poor homeless parents? At that point Joe and I will be in our late forties/early fifties so we'll still likely have another ten to fifteen years of full time work in us. The freedom of renting holds a lot of appeal at that time of life and our retirement plans should be secure if we're still as careful then as we are now. We'd be living simply which is something we are constantly striving towards. We would be able to move and live for a couple of years in places that we have always wanted to explore. If one of the kids needs us temporarily (starting a family, starting a business, healing in some way), we could move to be near them for a little while and move away again when they're ready for more space. The biggest change for us financially would be that we would have to pay rent at a time when we might ordinarily be living rent free in our fully paid off home.

At some point, the actual legal ownership of the home would pass to the kids and they would have to decide amongst themselves what to do. One of them could sell their share to the other or they could sell it and split the profits or continue renting it out and accruing income that way as a business partnership. Perhaps its naive of me but I am hoping that some combination of raising them responsibly and them knowing that the house is the legacy that we are leaving to them will cause them to be careful and take good care of their home.

Joe has had a couple of days to mull this idea over and he hasn't poked any major logical holes in it yet which is encouraging. We've had some great conversations about our mutual feelings of what we would like our sunset years to be like: close to family, traveling, footloose and fancy free, living simply, and being in service. This idea does hinge on our retirement plans staying stable and there are some understandable seeds of doubt there as a result of the larger economic picture but if we point our family in this direction, it will be interesting to see where we end up.

Speaking of family journeying...

The family trail walks have resumed. Sam immediately got to work snuffling through the leaves to see if any of his doggie friends had left messages for him. Liam found a good poky stick and checked every icy patch for running water underneath. Atticus unintentionally did his best Ralphie from The Christmas Story impression by frequently flopping onto his back and flailing wildly in his overly bundled state.

It's good for me to remember that there is wonder and possibility in every season of life.

List

2009-02-02T13:00:00.000-08:00

Have you heard of David Freeman? In 1999, he wrote a book with his college friend Neil Teplica entitled 100 Things to Do Before You Die. Freeman was a huge travel buff and so the main focus of the book as I understand it was telling people about unique and unusual adventures to experience before they die, things like (c&p'd from Amazon) "the Iditarod Sled Dog Race in Alaska; the Pageant of the Masters in Southern California; Mardi Gras in New Orleans; the World Cow Chip Throwing Championship in Beaver, Oklahoma; Carnival in Brazil; Bastille Day and the Cannes Film Festival in France; Oktoberfest in Germany; the Running of the Bulls in Spain; Yom Kippur at Israel's Western Wall; the Pushkar Camel Fair in India; the Sapporo Snow Festival in Japan; and Australia's Nude Night Surfing Contest".

I haven't read the book, and probably won't, because it seems to take a different approach than what really fascinates me about this subject which is the personal lists of goals that people have for themselves over their lives.

The sad addendum to the David Freeman story is that he died very young, only 47 years old, after a bad fall in his home. The main message of the handful of articles that I've read about him seems to be: 1) isn't life bittersweet? and 2) we must all embark on our lists with wild abandon.

While I certainly honor the life and adventures of Mr. Freeman as well as the message that he brought to the world, I am actually more fascinated by other facets of this Life List idea. I love the idea of travel and some of my goals are indeed travel related but with two small children and a very tight budget, the travel goals are relatively far down the list for me. I find my list populated more by personal disciplines I'd like to adopt, family routines I want to establish, and experiences that are more along the lines of community building right here and now.

There's a website that I stumbled upon several years ago called 43 Things. I was drawn to it at the time because it's a social networking site with a Life List focus. You choose your 43 (or any number) things, you can update your progress, and you can click and see other people's lists. I just revisited 43 Things today and discovered how much it has expanded since I first stumbled across it. I haven't updated my profile literally in years but today I did take a 'personality quiz' because who can resist the lure of answering questions about themselves?!? Not me, that's who!

I took the 43 Things Personality Quiz and found out I'm a

Romantic Tree Hugging Self-Knower

I think I basically knew that about myself since it's kinda sorta the whole basis of this blog but it's always fun to take a quiz.

When I signed up over at 43 Things three years ago, I put three things on my list: learn to speak Irish (I would still dearly love to make this a priority), walk my dog more (if you asked the dog, he would probably say that there's room for improvement), and learn to scrapbook. That last one I honestly have no interest in anymore. I don't have the patience or the cash flow. I would like to get my kids' baby books done though. I should probably put that on the list right now.

I like this idea of trying a goal on for size to see how it fits. I used to think I wanted to run. It turned out that I just wanted to fit into my marathon-obsessed family. I actually hate running and I know that now enough to not put the old warhorse "run a marathon" on my list. Neither will you see the ever-popular "skydive" on my list. I'm afraid of heights and I accept about myself.

What's on your life list? And, just as telling, what isn't?

Invocation

2009-01-20T11:21:00.000-08:00

A Prayer for the Nation and our President, Barack Obama

by Bishop Gene Robinson

Unfortunately this beautiful invocation was cut by HBO but it is certainly worth watching.

My favorite line is "Hold him in the palm of your hand- that he might do the work we have called him to do, that he might find joy in this impossible calling, and that in the end, he might lead us as a nation to a place of integrity, prosperity, and peace."

Amen.

Intention

2009-01-01T15:50:00.000-08:00

I set an intention last New Year's to slow down more. I really believe that this is the best idea that I've ever had. I didn't follow the letter of the law, which was to be in bed by 11 pm every night and take naps during the day, partially because I seem to have forgotten to include Atticus in that memo. I did my best to lean into that intention this year and now that I am reviewing the year, I see how that really blessed my life.

I slowed down enough to notice that my children grow so quickly, in the blink of an eye, and I can't take for granted any moment that we have together. I rediscovered how much I value my marriage, my family, and my friendships and I have found opportunities to regularly celebrate those relationships.

I've had almost a year now of moving slowly enough that I have time to really look at my health and notice that I feel my best when I'm on a plant-based whole foods diet, when I'm moving my body gently, and when I'm creating.

If last year was about slowing down, I really want this year to be about rhythm. I want to embrace the rhythm of each day, the rhythm of the week and the month, and of the season. I want to teach my children to relax into these rhythms, to be comforted by them, and to continue to seek them out as they move through their lives. I want to find similar rhythms in my teaching and performance life to find the deepest health and satisfaction there.

I've talked a little about rhythm in these 'pages' before and I really need to get my hands on another copy of Heaven on Earth because I love what I learned from that book and I think it will be a good teacher to me this year.

I haven't worked out all the details yet but there are some things that absolutely need to always be present in my daily rhythm: green smoothies, sun salutations, putting away the dishes and starting a load of laundry before firing up the laptop for the day are three big ones. I will be interested to see how the rest of the rhythms unfold.

I have a couple of internet-ish intentions as well. I've discovered that there are some things about the internet that really feed me, like having my little blog neighborhood to visit as well as my own little blog cottage to maintain, checking in at Facebook and Ravelry, and keeping current with my e-mail. I don't plan to be on other message boards much from now on because it is a real time suck for me and I don't feel as connected in those settings. I will put those aside for a while to see how that feels.

Do you have a theme or intention for 2009? I'd be honored if you left me a little note to tell me your thoughts.

I am wishing all the blessings of the universe on my readers. Happy New Year!

Make

2008-12-19T14:50:00.000-08:00

I'm in a little bit of a knitting rut right at the moment. I've been using this organic cotton yarn to make a hat for my friend's baby and it is so uncooperative and slippery. I have restarted four times and I'm starting to hate the hat even though the pattern is beautiful and I think it will be so cute. It's just this yarn! I also have to finish a scarf for Joe's Christmas present and a couple of tea cozies (any tea cozy pattern recommendations out there in the world?)

I've found some really adorable knitted farm playscapes that I think Liam would really love for his birthday but he is all too conscious of the crocodile (alligator?) that I am supposed to be knitting for him so I thought maybe something like this would be fun as a break from the knitting.

I will post updates should any progress actually occur. Not to be defeatist!

Early

2008-12-17T05:06:00.000-08:00

I am somewhat dismayed to report that my theory has been officially confirmed. The earlier in the day that I wake up, the better the rest of the day goes.

Damn it.

Read

2008-12-10T13:02:00.000-08:00

A Reading Meme just in time for the coldest days of winter!

1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicize those you intend to read.
3) Underline the books you LOVE. (Blogspot won't let me underline so I'm greening these titles and I purpled my most favorite book of all time)
4) Reprint this list in your own blog

NOTE: This list is a bit weird. For example, it has the Chronicles of Narnia listed separately from The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Also it's circling the web under the guise as being from the NEA's Big Read program but it's actually a 2007 list from the UK's World Book Day. Still, it's a fun little exercise and maybe it will inspire some of us to get back into regular reading.

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 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
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 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
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 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
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte's Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

Warm

2008-12-09T07:56:00.000-08:00

We had a wonderful trip to Chicago this weekend, aside from some angst in the car. Liam on the way there, Atticus on the way back. Nice how they take turns!

We got in late Friday and Joe and I slept until 9 the next morning which is unheard of for both of us unless there are grandparents on the premises which, luckily for us, there were. I woke up in the morning knowing that I had good consignment store mojo and my mother in law and I set out in search of flashy boots for me to wear with a short black skirt onstage. Sure enough, at the Crowded Closet in Evanston I found a sweet pair of midcalf Nine West boot that lace completely up the front and a chunky heel in my size. I wore them onstage that night and they were exactly what I was looking for. I LOVE consignment stores! I also found a birthday present for my friend who is turning 32 today.

At the gig, I accidentally had a shot of Irish whiskey which got things off to an interesting start. It definitely warmed me up! They do these toasts at this pub before each performance and in the past I've asked them to substitute out the whiskey because I've either been pregnant or nursing exclusively but I forgot this time because Atticus has tapered down so much lately and I've gotten less careful about what I eat and drink in that regard. The whiskey was the same that my mom used to keep a little tub of in the refrigerator and she would rub it on our gums when we were teething. Not being a regular whiskey drinker otherwise, I had such a strong sense memory from the shot. I do wonder why it is that I so clearly remember the whole whiskey on the gums thing. Surely I wasn't old enough to have memories when I was teething...? Possibly it just made a strong impression.

Before the gig, we went to one of my favorite restaurants, The Blind Faith Cafe, and I had this delicious lemon seitan with jasmine rice. It was so yummy. I wish I knew how to cook like that. The kids gleefully munched on baguettes, steamed broccoli, and french fries and were such charming dinner companions. Is it possible that we've turned the corner on restaurant toddler frustration?

The gig was packed and we really rocked the place if I do say so myself. I suspect it was a combination of the boots and the whiskey. Before we left, we had a really lovely meal at home made by Grandma: seasoned shrimp, mushroom risotto, and wilted spinach topped with pine nuts. I made a weird coffee drink before we got back in the car in an effort to avoid spending the dough at Starbucks in DeKalb on the way. It was 3/4 plain coffee (half caf), 1/4 goat milk (the only animal milk I can digest), heaping spoonful of creamed honey (no cream involved, just clover honey), dash of cinnamon, and tiny glug of vanilla. It was really good, if a bit goat-y.

It's always a procedure to take the kids on a road trip, but it was well worth the effort and we were fortunate to have good driving conditions. A lovely weekend.

Give

2008-12-06T10:02:00.000-08:00

I've had a couple of questions about gift ideas for my fiddle students and it just so happens that I have some ideas!

There is Cavan Fiddle paraphernalia (t-shirts, bags, mugs, etc) available on the web in a couple of places. Skreened is one option and Cafe Press is another.

Another option is Beggarmen CDs! I have several copies of our newer CD "Newry Town" (released in 2007) at the studio. I can also stock the old CD "I Shall" (released in 2005) if anyone is interested but I need a couple of days notice to get those at my studio. The CDs are $15 each or $25 total if you buy 2. The CDs are also available on CDBaby and at iTunes. If you do a search at iTunes, note that we are "The Beggarmen" and not "The Jolly Beggarmen" which is also an option that will come up with that search.

There are a couple of great books on the market that I can recommend highly as well. The Fiddler's Fake Book is a comprehensive collection of tunes from a variety of genres. Matt Cranitch's Irish Fiddle Book is a great one too but more for an older child or adult learner because he goes into a detailed description of Irish music. Another book about Irish music along those same lines that I find to be an excellent resource is Grey Larson's Essential Guide to Irish Flute and Tin Whistle. No, it's not about fiddle but it's one of the most comprehensive modern books available about ornamentation in Irish music.

Another gift that I really love, especially for a younger fiddler, is the Fiddle Friend shoulder rest. Some awesome CD ideas by local musicians are the Gilded Bats (a little bit of colorful language to be aware of if this is a gift for a child but a wonderful CD with great fiddling), Stones in the Field, and Acoustic Mayhem.

You also might think ahead to giving the gift of a Tionol workshop, the Irish music weekend in St. Louis in April. Two amazing fiddle teachers this coming year- John McEvoy and Patrick Ourceau- not to mention our very own Keith Reins is teaching a workshop on accompanying Irish music on the guitar.

Another experiential gift is the Iowa City Rec center will be offering Irish step dance classes again this semester. One of my students took the class this semester and really enjoyed it. I got to watch their end-of-term performance and it was wonderful! It brought back happy memories of my step dancing days once upon a time. I don't think the new schedule is available online yet but the teacher did say that she would be teaching again this semester.

Happy holidays from the Cavan Fiddle Studio!!!

Jolly

2008-12-05T14:30:00.000-08:00

I was at the mall today and I have to tell you, despite the muzak and the decorations, I didn't see much Christmas cheer. My kids wanted to go to the Children's Museum which is located in the mall (clever!) and I had a few things to pick up at Target. Since I'm not at the mall very often, it didn't occur to me that a Friday during the 'Christmas season' might be a bad day to be there.

The first problem is Target. Our list of things that we frequently buy at Target has narrowed considerably but we still find ourselves there at least once a month. Our kids used to use a combination of cloth and disposable diapers but we are currently enduring major washing machine woes and have been relying pretty heavily on the sposies. I will be winning no green mama awards for this post so I might as well tell you that we go through a lot of sposie wipes here too. Cloth towels, cloth napkins, mama cloth, minimal personal care products (yay us!)...but disposable diapers. Ugh. We can't use gDiapers either because our pipes are too old. Other Target purchases include vitamins for the kids (surely I can find these for cheap online, right?), dog biscuits, and blades for Joe's Mach 3 razor. That goatee doesn't just maintain itself, you know. Agh, green guilt. I am smothered in it.

Here's what we no longer buy at Target: clothes of any kind, toys of any kind, paper towels, paper napkins, lead-infested landfill-cloggers made by impoverished children available for JUST ONE DOLLAR!!!...greeting cards (we make 'em with our nifty color printer that we probably bought at Target *bangs head against nearest brick wall*), kitchen supplies, art supplies...

It's not enough.

I think I'm done with Target. It leads me down the road to ruin. I dropped $25 there on stuff that can easily be bought elsewhere for cheaper, stood admiring the adult sized footed sleepers with a cloud print because I am a pajama queen and then, almost without noticing, I found myself at Dillard's pondering whether I can justify spending $130 on calf length black boots. Oo0o0o0oh- 40% off! Walk away! I did. But just barely. Probably more because Atticus started fussing than because I was sticking to my ideals. Target is my gateway drug.

Do you hear what I hear? No, not a song high above the trees. I'm pretty sure that's the sound of some resolutions starting to take shape.

Food

2008-12-04T13:35:00.000-08:00

I haven't posted smoothie pictures in a while so today seemed as good a day as any. Here we are drinking a hot pink smoothie with a beet base. The recipe is from Robyn at Green Smoothie Girl so I can't post it but I think she has a book coming out soon!

self-portrait (disclaimer: first thing in the morning)

And here's Atticus eating his very first Thanksgiving dinner. He wasn't too sure about it at first but he warmed up to the idea after a few bites.

Ah, food.

Drift

2008-12-03T08:48:00.001-08:00

The snow is keeping us inside today which foils some of my plans but it's so beautiful too, how can I complain?

Rhythm

2008-12-02T08:04:00.000-08:00

Let's be honest. I am not the most ambitious woman on this planet. I love being a mama, making a home, being in connection to my family and friends, and making and teaching music. Most of all, I really like just being fully present here in my relatively small life. There may be a time in my future when I beam outwards in a larger way than blogging but this is not that time.

A natural offshoot of my personality type is my embrace of all things 'vacation' and 'holiday'. I am so completely in love in not having to do anything, having huge stretches of time when I don't 'have' to be anywhere or do anything. For Thanksgiving, I had a week of time where I was off my schedule. As much as that was wonderful in some ways, I find that when I slip out of the natural rhythm of my day, things fall apart. What astounds me is how quickly that can happen! I don't even fully recognize that some of the things I do regularly are actually an integral part of my rhythm until I stop doing them and realize whoops! That was a keystone apparently. Watch it all tumble down!

This includes everything from slipping out of the laundry routine to missing our library day to missing a dog walk. Consequences abound. I am curious about finding a way to identify the various parts of my personal rhythm. I may delve into that more here soon.

In other news, I got a mini-job working for 2 hours at my gym on Saturday mornings and in exchange, my membership and nursery care at the gym is free! It was my one big budget luxury and I was only able to justify the cost because we got a special corporate rate through Yossie's work. Now that it's free, you know what that means, don't you? More money for yarn!