The last day of Kindergarten ::: ever! (Here is the 1st day of school!)
How to amuse 12 kids while awaiting the Space Shuttle!
There it is!
The Shuttle Explorer
There it goes! On to Space Center Houston, the official visitors' center for the NASA Johnson Space Center.
The last day of Kindergarten ::: ever!
How to amuse 12 kids while awaiting the Space Shuttle!
There it is!
The Shuttle Explorer
There it goes! On the Space Center Houston, the official visitors' center for the NASA Johnson Space Center.
The last day of Kindergarten ::: ever!
How to amuse 12 kids while awaiting the Space Shuttle!
There it is!
The Shuttle Explorer
There it goes! On the Space Center Houston, the official visitors' center for the NASA Johnson Space Center.
The position I'm most comfortable in right now is standing up. Consequently, my activities are largely those of the standing variety. Vacuuming works if I move slowly. Laundry works if I pay good attention to how I lift and bend when moving things from hamper to washer, washer to dryer. Sewing would work if I had any projects in mind. Yoga works if I am super careful and don't lay on my back in Savasana. Cooking works.
I've spent a lot of time in the kitchen today. Potato, leek, carrot, celery, and kale soup. Bread in the bread machine. Cutting boards and wooden utensils oiled. Counters cleaned. Dishes out of dishwasher. Dishes in dishwasher. Dishes out of dishwasher. Dishes hand-washed. Snacks made for play date partners. Floors vacuumed and mopped. The beginnings of holiday crafting.
In and amongst all the standing, it occurred to me to share my favorite kale recipes. Kale is the king of leafy greens. It is super nutritious, but often not an immediate favorite for everyone who tries it. There's no denying it's bitter and the texture can be rubbery if not cooked well. Nevertheless, I've come to love it and I've found a handful of recipes over the past couple of years that I go back to again and again.
These enchiladas, which I've made with yukon gold potatoes, sweet potatoes, and black beans at different times but always wtih kale. And, the kale and potato soup of today, which is a variation on the potato soup with spinach in this excellent book, but with kale instead of spinach.
I've found, however that kale totally shines in dishes that are balanced by something really sweet. My husband can't get enough of a dish introduced to me by Heather over at Beauty that Moves. It has just a few simple ingredients: carmelized red onion, garlic, dried cranberries, apple cider, baked tofu and lots of kale. We eat it just like that, although she recommends it over a grain of your choice.
Before the holidays I happened to be at Houston's Central Market (an HEB store), where I grabbed a small container of a salad I couldn't resist. I kept the container because the label they print contains a list of ingredients. Proportaions aren't included, of course, so I conducted an experiment to see if I could replicate it. I got so close and it may be even better than the original. It was a hit at the holiday luncheon with my yoga class and at our Annual Solstice Tamale Fiesta. I'm going to include this recipe today.
Fruity and Nutty Kale Salad (served at room temperature)
Proportions can all be adjusted to taste and to the size of your group.
Ingredients
SALAD:
2 large bunches kale, stems trimmed and coarsely chopped
1/4-1/2 cup sliced almonds (raw or lightly toasted)
1/4-1/2 cup pepitas (raw or lightly toasted)
1 cup dried cranberries or dried tart cherries
1/4 finely chopped crystalized ginger
I use a pressure cooker to steam my kale, but you can steam it conventionally as well.
In the pressure cooker, place 1/2 cup water and a steamer base. Bring water to boil. Add chopped kale, cover and lock the lid and bring to high pressure. Once it comes to high pressure, immediately remove from heat and use a quick release method to reduce pressure.
If steaming conventionally, steam just until the kale is bright green and beginning to become tender. The dressing will marinate the kale and soften its texture.
Dunk the kale in icy cold water to stop the cooking process then spin in a salad spinner to dry.
Combine kale, with dressing and toss. Add fruit and cystallized ginger and toss again. Refrigerate 3 or more hours until about an hour before serving. Toast the nuts and toss them with the salad right before serving. Add a little more dressing or serve it on the side.
DRESSING (makes lots and is excellent on any salad or as a marinade):
2 TBSP mirin
2 TBSP sesame oil
1/2 cup grapeseed Oil
1/4 cup orange or tangerine juice, freshly squeezed
1 shallot, finely chopped
1 TSP ground ginger
1-2 TBSP Chives
1 TBSP honey (optional)
Chop the shallot and chives. Juice the orange or tangerine. Combine mirin, oils, juice, shallot, ginger and honey (if needed). Whisk or shake to emulsify.
Random musings...
1 ::: Our current reality includes public school. Ahem. I'm not at peace about that decision, yet I can embrace the kindness, good intentions, and positive outlook of the teachers and a few good friends Silas is making.
2 ::: We watched "The Wizard of Oz" in two installments these last two Friday nights (our "movie night"). I hesitated to introduce it to Silas at his young age because I was fairly traumatized by one part of it when I was 5 (Spoiler Alert ::: I was so afraid Dorothy wouldn't get home when the balloon took off, I couldn't watch the rest of the movie). But I also remember looking forward to the annual viewing of this film. We watched it now because he was shown clips in music class at school and he knows the songs from bedtime singing, and, frankly, I didn't want him to see it elsewhere. I wanted it to be a family experience/memory. We had to stop the movie when the witch instructed her minions to go and get Dorothy because Silas got quite scared. I am proud of how we handled it. He made the choice to continue after reassurances that Dorothy's friends were coming to help her. At the end he said, "Mommy, it was all a dream!).
Remember when you couldn't watch anything "on demand"? The anticipation of that annual viewing of "The Wizard of Oz", "The Sound of Music", "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang", etc., was delicous. He has friends who have seen all the Star Wars movies over and over, among other things. We won't let him watch them until he can understand the hero's journey better. Sometimes I feel like such a freak and I worry we might turn him into one.
I wish we had more friends who resisted media saturation (iPod, iTouch, iPad, Wii, movies, tv shows, computer games all included), truly embraced imaginative and outdoor play, and protected their children's innocence more fully. When I watch my boy play with his friends, the scripts they enact come from movies and video games. Silas plays along and is drawn into the power play of guns and missles and aliens and zombies, all second hand. Somehow it seems worse here in the suburbs. Is it? I find little to embrace in 24-7 media/entertainment culture. I find it appalling that this is "normal."
What's to embrace? When you truly want to see something, you can do it at your convenience (I like watching "The Daily Show" when I want to, for example). Also, you can stop "The Wizard of Oz" DVD when your child gets scared, rather than pressing on and leaving an indelible fear-filled memory. Social media can help you reclaim people lost to changing life circumstances, some of which are beyond your control (like being forced to move towns when you are young).
3 ::: We are looking forward to a "mommy date" this week. I am taking Silas out of school early every now and then to enjoy some alternative education/fun experiences and a break from routine.
4 ::: I appreciate the chance to practice and teach yoga with my friends. I benefit so much from the discipline and preparation and I enjoy sharing a little of what I know. I value the increased intimacy and view into each other's lives that happens with the accompanying conversation.
5 ::: Healing is ongoing and I can use all my power to help it along. What amazing beings we are!
6 ::: Order and beauty are so underrated! Even a little clearing out and cleaning up elevates my spirit and makes room for more (ideas, creativity, productivity, ease).
7 ::: I'm embracing the principles and practice of compassionate communication and I'm grateful to my practice group for their willingness to learn together. It's amazing how my view of situations changes when I ask myself what needs I and the other(s) are trying to meet in a given situation. It's such a simple thing, but so important in easing the way.
8 ::: I'm looking for some fun!
Have a great day.
Silas sleeps upstairs and we sleep downstairs (at least he sleeps upstairs until he decides to come downstairs). Lately, that happens in the wee hours and he's requested a flashlight to guide his passage. He also asked for a place to keep his flashlight so he can always find it.
Thus, the gusseted bedside caddy was conceived and formed. After making Silas's to fit his current chapter book and flashlight, I decided I needed one, too. Mine is designed to hold all the important things I like at my bedside--book (and now Kindle), book light, notepad and pen, reading glasses, ear plugs and headphones/Bluetooth (who doesn't need earphones to facilitate those pre-sleep viewings of important things like "The Daily Show" and "Downton Abbey" and, if I'm super tired, "Murder She Wrote"?). [Does everyone else love Jessica Fletcher the way I do?"]
I used cotton upholstery fabric and sturdy interfacing between layers, so they hang nicely without sagging. Silas's has ties on it. Mine employs hair elastics, which I hang from tiny cup hooks screwed into the underside of the moulding on the night stand. Mine doesn't really show because it is attached to my nightstand, facing my bed. I used the fabric to match the pillows I made last summer.
All-in-all, quite functional.
We went skating once before Christmas. I'm in Houston, remember. They super cool the rink to 22 degrees in upwards of 70 degree weather. It's a little embarrassing to think of the energy that is utilized to enable us subtropical people to experience the joy of an outdoor skating rink. You also put oneself at considerable risk by going out on the ice with a crowd comprised on 98% first time skaters. "Skaters" who make every novice mistake possible such as holding hands four across, skating clockwise when the set up is for counter-clockwise, crossing in front of people to get the the perceived safety of the side rail, and such. I'm thrilled people have the chance, but it makes for quite a unique skating adventure.
I grew up in Wisconsin and places north, so a skating rink for us was a plowed area of the lake or a section of river that is frozen all winter long. We skated outdoors and most frequently at night. I always felt this delicious mix of excitement and fear--you never quite knew where you'd find the boundary of safety. If the hockey puck drifts away from the plowed area is it safe to go get it? If you leave the circle of light, does that mean the ice is thinner or no one will see you/hear you if you fall in? How do they know the river is frozen thickly enough? Was that the sound of cracking ice I just heard? We were of course regaled with horror stories of the one time someone fell through, and don't we all remember the image from "It's a Wonderful Life" in which George saves his brother after falling through the ice?
Nonetheless, I have terrific memories of being hot and cold at the same time, of gently falling snow lightly blanketing the surface of the ice, of holding hands through arctic-thick mittens with my eighth-grade boyfriend when we hoped no one was looking, of wondering if my hand-me-down winter coat was too dorky or the wrong color. . . .
So, it's with these memories in mind that I take my son to the rink at least once or twice each season, so he can experience the excitement and novelty of ice, develop some skills that may serve him later in life, and form his own sensory memories of the cold slush that accumulates on the blades, of teetering on ankles that don't quite know what to do, of slipping and falling, and wanting to practice turning and spinning before skating straight is mastered.
We spent part of this past Saturday at the rink. We arrived just a couple of hours after the U.S. Olympic Team Trials for the Marathon, which were held in Hosuton for the first time. We were among the few odd balls who weren't in running gear and sweats, carrying gym duffles and swag bags from the nearby running convention at the George R. Brown Convention Center. We were on the ice with our sweaters and mittens to protect our hands from falls.
This was our second trip this year. The first trip was amazing. It was a cold day and we stayed on the ice from 4 p.m. until after dark. The city's holiday lights were all around us and they were getting ready to show "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation", I think, on the big screen in the park. The ice wasn't crowded, it was cold enough that it stayed smooth, people were in good cheer and we met a friend of Silas's by happenstance. He happily let me do lap after lap forward and backward, while he experimented in the kiddie zone on single-bladed skates for the first time. He joined me every so often to test his skills on the large rink. I felt great, hot and cold at the same time and full of all those sensory memories from my childhood. My legs were strong, I was steady on my feet, and I didn't fall. I remember wishing I had my current "boyfriend" with me so we could hold hands....
This time was a little different. We arrived near mid-day. We were in a bit of hurry because we had somewhere to be at a certain time. Silas only wanted to practice spinning in the kiddie zone. The novices were out in force, turning my relaxed and glorious lap after lap into a series of spontaneous and ever-changing obstacle courses which required constant vigilance to protect myself and others. The sun was out, turning the surface of the ice into a choppy mess and increasing the hazards between Zamboni runs. I fell not once, but THREE times.
The final fall occurred as I was exiting the rink for the final time. I lost my attention for a moment and, smash-ola, I landed squarely on my behind. I hobbled up, did a little body check to be certain emergency treatment was not needed, gathered our stuff and hobbled to the car for the 30-minute drive home. I have been nursing what appears to be a sprained bottom every since. I can't help giggling as I say it. Sprained bottom. Bruised coccyx, strained ligaments, gluteal pain-o maximus. At 49 grand years of age, I wondered, "Should I have skated?" "What if...it doesn't heal...I broke my hip...I'll never be able to do this again...I'm getting too old????"
Mostly I am grateful that I am strong and flexible. I know how to crash. I know how to use yoga to maintain my body when it is well and help heal it when it's hurt. I have strong bones. I have excellent health insurance if I need it. I don't depend on my body to earn a living. I have experience recovering from illness and injury and I have faith in my ability to do both. I have people at home who can be considerate of my temporary disability. And, I have the hope of skating again--maybe even in the snowy north someday. Skiing is also on our winter-spring agenda this year.
In the meantime, I get to appreciate and admire our bravery--Silas's in getting out there to do things he's never done before, and mine for not giving up on things that are exhilarating and fun despite some risk.
Holiday gifties for families we love...Picnic rolls inspired by Amanda Soule's project in Rhythm of the Family. It took me a few tries to get the proportions I wanted and I thrifted silverware, useful utensils and napkins to tuck inside--ready to go to the park, beach, playground, festival hill...
I used cotton upholstery fabric in four different colorways (of course I forgot to take pictures of the others) and this vintage print (above), which I scored at the International Quilt Festival in Houston way back in 2006, when Silas was a mere 6 months old! I tucked a thin layer of cotton batting between for cushiony comfort.
