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How loving are you all! Your response to my sharing about the dark times within was so truly, well, loving and light bringing! Thank you from the bottom of my pitty-pattering heart. Your insights, openness about your own dark times, and love keep me wanting to write this blog. After further examination as to why it’s so dark in here, I wanted to share a little about why we all do go inside the dark parts of ourselves, and how that relates to this week. In the world of Christianity, this is a big week. It’s called Passion Week. It’s the week leading up to Good Friday (saddest/happiest day of the year), Holy Saturday (hold your breath and wait for it while He’s rocking the Shroud of Tourin in the tomb), and tah-dah Easter Sunday when Christ kicks down the doors of death and flings open the gates of Heaven. My very simple, non-theologian mind has focused on the internal this Lenten season. I’ve tried to air out all my faults, failings, bad habits, bad parenting styles, poor partnering incidentals, negative sibling interactivities, slacking daughterisms, failed friendings. I really wanted to feel like I had done my part on the journey of Lent, that I had strove (striven? strived?) to be a better person. Somehow along this way I let the Devil get me down. Instead of viewing my human failings as ways to improve and be a bigger vessel for God’s love, I turned all that darkness into other…
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SuperBoy is Mr. Church. He loves church. He loves mass, he loves vespers, he loves Stations of the Cross, he loves anything related to being inside God’s house. He loves our church. He loves our priests. He loves it all. But last Sunday, in sharp contrast to the above norm, he was a holy terror. It all started because I took him to the bathroom during the sermon instead of his Dada. That was it. Downhill from there. He refused to go in the Ladies’ Room. “Mama, I want to go in the other bathroom.” “Well that’s for men, and when you’re with me, I can’t go in there, so you have to come in here.” “No! I’m a gentleman!!!” Much negotiating later, including threats, he comes in the bathroom. Won’t go. Suddenly doesn’t have to go. No. Can. Do. We go back up the stairs. He cries because he wants to walk up the stairs from the church basement. It takes him like 30 minutes to do one stair. He cries when we go back down the aisle (why did we sit so far into the church, so far away from the back doors? So far away from the bathroom??). We settle back into the pew. All seems well. Or so I thought. Fast forward to the consecration. For my non-Catholic readers, this is the most important and quiet and reverent part of the whole shebang. And yes, that’s when my son says in a loud stage whisper “MAMA,…
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A girlfriend who recently moved to the East Coast brought me the most amazing bread in the world after we’d had SweetPea. I finally hit her up for her ah-MAZ-ing recipe. She gave me a collection. This is the first in the series. Nummy nummy is all I can say. Look for a comprehensive post on bread baking next week–a lesson from my eldest sister! Peasant Boule Makes 4 1-lb loaves 3 C lukewarm water 1 ½ tbsp granulated yeast (or 2 packets) 1 ½ tbsp kosher salt (or other coarse salt, not table salt) 6 ½ C unsifted, unbleached, all-purpose white flour 1.5 tbsp of wheat bran added by yours truly Equipment: pizza stone, empty broiler tray, pizza peel and cornmeal (or parchment paper) *When preheating, have your pizza stone on the middle rack, and an empty broiler pan on the bottom rack. In a 5 qt plastic bowl or container (with lid that’s not airtight), add the water and then yeast and salt and mix together. Then add all the flour at once and mix together ingredients with a wooden spoon until it is uniformly moist. Do not knead! Cover the container with the lid and allow to rise at room temp for at least 2 hours, until it begins to collapse or flatten on top. You can use the dough at any time or may refrigerate the dough for up to two weeks. Lay out a sheet of parchment paper or dust a pizza peel with cornmeal.…
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I wrote on making judgments without being judgmental a few weeks back {Judgers Judge} and the topic has come up again in my life: how do I deal with friends and family whose parenting styles are different than my own? The bottom line is for me has become: unless it’s a moral issue, parenting styles vary. Get over it. Thus the questions become, what’s a moral issue in parenting and what’s not? When is the variance great enough such that it’s hard for me to view their choices charitably? And what’s the difference between admittedly poor parenting and someone just doing the best they can with what they have? 1) Moral issues. If another parent is allowing or pushing inappropriate sexual activities, yeah, we’re probably not going to be friends. If another parent doesn’t believe in filtering violence in the media/games, yeah, we’re probably not going to have playdates. If another parent is modeling dangerous or harmful behavior, no brainer. These issues can be sticky at times because where you draw the line for what’s age appropriate for your child might not be where someone else does. Having a 2.5 year old who’s home with me all day means I don’t encounter many of these kinds of issues. His is a pretty closed universe, especially with no TV and very limited screen time in general. 2) Most differences aren’t worth getting all worked up about. Medicated labor versus pain med (and hence pain-filled) labor? Bottle feeding in lieu of breastfeeding? Cry-it-out or…
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Yes, some of us have had two children under two years old! Many of my friends’ children are further apart than two years, either intentionally or not. Some lost a baby, some struggle with fertility. SuperBoy and SweetPea are 22 months apart. That means I had a raging toddler when I was pregnant (and throwing up daily, etc). That also means I had two in diapers, two who needed to be carried, and two who loved snuggling. Loved that last two out of three. Here’s a quick list of 12 ways I survived having two kids who were under two years old: 1) Pregnancy is tough. Take all the help you can get. Your friend offers to host a playdate with your toddler and hers so you can lay down? Thank YOU, yes! Your mother brings over dinner? Thank you, yes! Your co-worker takes over the next big assignment so you can not stress too badly during maternity leave? Thank YOOOOOU! But really, despite being super sick throughout both pregnancies, I really do love being pregnant {10 Reasons Why I Love Being Pregnant Again} 2) Figure out childcare early on in your pregnancy. Infant care is harder to come by than toddler. If your toddler is in a daycare situation, ask early to reserve an infant spot. If they have to be split up, try to ensure the infant is in a center close to your work so you have the possibility of coming by during lunch to nurse or…
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What’s that slogan? Kid tested, mother approved? The slogan for this meal would be mother tested, kid approved. I had a big bag of organic farro from Costco (you know, when Dad calls and he’s going up and down the aisles looking for various organicky goodness to bring home and he calls out “how about some farro?” and I think how do i cook farro?). I googled. I came upon 101 Cookbooks. It’s a recipe journal blog. Fabulous food. I’ve made it a number of times since first discovering it. SuperBoy loves it; AA loves it; I love it. Farro and Millet Risotto Recipe, modified from the 101 Cookbooks recipe. The italicized parts are a direct quotation from the recipe. Forgive some of the photos; it was smartphone cameraing. Ingredients: 3/4 cup uncooked millet 4 tbspn extra virgin olive oil rich salt–coarse kosher or sea salt 1/4 cup unsalted butter 2 medium yellow unions, cut in half and then sliced thinly 1 clove of garlic, smashed & chopped 2 cups farro about 7 cups broth–veggie or chicken 2 big handfuls of grated parm or pecorino romano one medium bag of frozen peas, or delicata squash when in season, or whatever veggies you bought at the coop on sale that are living in your fridge or freezer Directions Pull out two saucepans: one for the millet, and a larger one for the farro. Toast millet in a dry saucepan over medium heat, then add 1 3/4 cup water, 1 tbpn oil, and few pinches…
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