New Meal Plan Strategy July 1, 2009

The two and a half hours stuck in traffic on our way home from the Aquarium of the Pacific did render up something other than carsickness.  A new meal plan strategy.

We basically eat only a few meals: sandwiches, pasta, and burritos during the summer.  Soup and such in the winter.  We’ve been talking about making Saturday night our official family pizza night (we make a pretty darn good pizza).  And with so many desserts over the last weeks of “special times”, I’m especially anxious to cut it down to one spanking good dessert a week (on Sabbath!) instead of rationing (a practice that is unpleasant for all parties involved).

I usually do a good job of planning meals around what was in season when I shopped.  But rather than at every meal saying blankly, “What should we eat?”, I can just look at the category and pick one of the many variations according to what ingredients I have.  Meal planning has not worked for me in the past because I get to the meal and decide that I don’t feel like whatever the paper says I’m supposed to cook.  Luckily there are so many variations per category, I am sure to find something that will at least suffice.

Happily for me, almost all of our favorite foods are also very easy and quick to make.

Sunday – PASTA – mac & cheese, broccoli and garlic, garlic parmesan, fresh tomato, plain, hamburger helper, garbanzos & noodles, summer squash, thai noodles

Monday – BURRITOS – black bean with cabbage, basic pinto, beans rice and cheese, cheese quesadillas, black bean quesadillas, etc.

Tuesday – SANDWICHES – 11:29, broiled tomato cheese, BLT, lentil patty, hummus, fried egg, egg salad, bagel, chik, chik patty, griller, PBJ, hummus

Wednesday – NEW RECIPE or LEFTOVERS

Thursday – SALAD – taco, haystacks, corn, rice, bulgur, pasta, apple, greek, oriental cabbage, Connie’s cabbage

Friday – SOUP and DESSERT – tomato & basil, tomato, pea, minestrone

Saturday – PIZZA

That means that tomorrow we are having haystacks and Friday we will have pea soup.  Now to think about that dessert….

Cheese June 30, 2009

Out of all the things I could (and the things I should) blog about, I’m just going to share my most exciting discovery of the week.  I haven’t been able to regain my equilibrium yet, it’s so exciting.

I’m having a great time with Animal, Vegetable, Miracle…reading in three paragraph sections.  Made it to chapter 9 and discovered cheesemaking.

Now, somewhere in my earlier life I remember someone somewhere disdaining cheesemaking…and I believed them.  And Laura Ingalls Wilder didn’t make it look much more appealing with the calf stomach bit, either.  And being that I seem to view cheese as an unfavorable addiction, I’ve never added it to my list of things I might want to do someday.

But, thanks to Barbara Kingsolver, I’m now super excited to order my 30 Minute Mozzarella and Ricotta Kit.  Heat your milk, stir in the enzymes, leave it over night, and the next morning – voila! – cheese!

Or something like that.

Can you imagine?  I’m so excited.

Barbara Kingsolver June 24, 2009

My mom got me some books while she was here…probably to counteract all the whining she hears about me not having anything new to read.  I chose, after some deliberation, a book I had read before – because nothing is more disappointing than buying a book only to find it isn’t any good.

I chose Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver, which I had listened to on tape during those long hours of nightly loneliness in the first few months of our marriage when Devo was at meetings or classes.  I remember enough to know that I loved it, and not enough to spoil the fun when Devo and I start reading it together one of these days.

I also chose another of Kingsolver’s books which I had not read before.   Small Wonder is a book of essays.  She writes, among many things, about her reasons for staying and living in monolithic, wasteful America (vs. living in a commune or some such).  She writes that she has chosen to live in America, “poking at its belly from the inside with my one little life and the small, pointed sword of my pen.”

This appeals to me.

She also has a letter to her 13 year old daughter, and a letter to her mother that I find to be very illuminating for my path as mother and daughter.

All of her books that I’ve read seem to paint the biological picture as both amazing and bleak.

And then yesterday at Costco, what should I see but her newest book, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle.  It chronicles a year of food life…a ‘food sabbatical’ her family took to see if they could, for one year, feed themselves from locally grown food.  It’s part story, part social commentary, part biological commentary.  An excerpt for your enjoyment, the last paragraph I read today (on page 27), where she’s talking about their asparagus patch:

Older, healthier asparagus plants produce chunkier, more multiple shootss.  Underneath lies an octopus-shaped affair of chubby roots (called a crown) that stores enough starch through the winter to arrange the phallic send-up when winter starts to break.  The effect is rather sexy, if you’re the type to see things that way.  Europeans of the Renaissance swore by it as an aphrodisiac, and the church banned it from nunneries.

Barbara Kingsolver writes about many of the themes I keep coming back to in my own life.  How to live responsibly in an irresponsible world.  Responsibly, and with joy and enjoyment.  I find her to be an unparalleled writer…I often stop just to admire her craft of turning sentences.  I always seem to come away from reading one of her books inspired.  And disturbed.

Morning Lessons and Resolutions June 23, 2009

I left my purse in the car last night.  Usually an acceptable practice as we have only one car, so if I’m going shopping (which is the only time I use my purse) the purse is all ready to go.  Well.  I forgot that we currently have TWO cars (thanks Janeen)…so my purse went off to staff meeting this morning with Devo.  Which made it impossible to complete Levi’s birth certificate appointment as I, of course, only realized my situation as I was going out the door (two minutes late)…too late to stop by the church and pick it up.

They weren’t appreciative of my passport and checkbook.

Lesson/Resolution #1.

This experience got me to thinking that maybe it’s finally time that I attempt to place more importance on keeping track of my purse.  <sigh>  And its contents.  <sigh> Particularly the phone.  <sigh>

Which is a good time to make that resolution as my trusty purse that I bought when Lia was a bitty baby has died (the strap broke).  But I’m still carrying it’s remains around and find a strapless purse to be highly inconvenient.

So I need a new purse.  Something hands-free, room for a wallet and a diaper, an outside pocket for a phone, and something that will not swing down and bonk my children on their heads when I lean over…and I’d like it to be pretty.  In other words, a Mommy Purse (plus pretty).  Any ideas/suggestions?

Lesson/Resolution #2.

I noticed something disturbing as I quickly, apologetically explained my purse dilemma to the Birth Certificate Person–I very very often speak quickly and apologetically…as though either what I have to say doesn’t matter and/or I don’t expect the person I’m talking to to find it worthwhile to listen to.

This bugs me.  Big Time.

So, I’m making a new resolution to talk confidently.  I think that what I think and what I have to say Matters.

And I’m going to extend confidence in general humanity and develop an expectation that people will find what I have to say worthwhile to listen to.

So there.

Devo’s Parents Arrive June 22, 2009

Devo’s parents arrived yesterday from South Africa.  Levi celebrated by sleeping 9 hours.  The girls celebrated by eating Jelly Tots (South African gum drops).  Devo celebrated by eating Aero (another South African candy).  I celebrated by going to bed on time for the first time in almost a month.

Devo’s Mom has a bag like Mary Poppins.  Things keep coming out of it.  The most darling outfits for the kids.  The girls have already worn a number of the outfits–apparently there is no limit to how many times you can get dressed and undressed in a day.  Cute t-shirts (matching FIFA World Cup 2010 – in South Africa – shirts for Devo and Levi).  Books galore, including a huge stack of Afrikaans Kindergarten equivalent books.  Apparently I’m a kindergartener in Afrikaans, because the reading level is right up my alley.

Our hands down favorite gifts (so far, that is), however, are the two pull-along toy dachshund dogs she brought.  See, she has two dachschunds, Tami and Peanuts, and Lia really wanted them to bring the dogs along.  So she did.  They are the most absurdly cute little things, and the girls think that these dogs are their new best friends.

She’s been bringing out the loot a little at a time.  I don’t know how much is left, but the girls have already discovered another set of wrapped gifts tucked in a corner. Ohhh the suspense!

They will be here almost a month and we intend to take it leisurely.  Janeen has lent us her Beast (their suburban) and we are eternally grateful to be able to ride together during their visit.  It has already proven to be a leisurely visit, from my point of view at least.  I got to spend a little time in the garden this afternoon.  I commandeered Devo’s Father’s Day gift and weed whacked the grass in the back yard.  I now have a deeper appreciation for the skills of weed whackers.

Because we won’t be dashing hither and yon at breakneck speed (like while my family was visiting), I anticipate continuing to blog as the weeks pass.

I did apparently jinx Levi’s sleeping by mentioning it here.  Friday night he was restless and up every two hours or less.  Of course, that may have been due to the almost-half of a cabbage I ate the day before.  But there’s no proof of that.

Spiritual Music for Children June 20, 2009

I’ve been thinking alot about church music, again.  But tonight, while putting my babies to bed, I was fishing around for some new repertoire to my nightly super-slow-lull-them-to-sleep-singing, and my thoughts turned to my children’s spiritual musical heritage.

My friend Janeen once told me that she wants her kids to have a song for every situation they might find themselves in.  A song that has a message they can turn to.

I, myself, learned most of my memory verses through songs, thanks to a musical Bible teacher in high school.

Stroke patients with aphasia can often sing, even though they are unable to speak.

So I thought that maybe it would be useful to give a little intentional thought into what songs we are forming their childhood with.

Off the top of my head, here are a few of the songs I consider necessary for my children, as we shape their God-consciousness:

He is Good (Steve Green)

How Great is Our God (Chris Tomlin)

Amazing Grace

I’m thinking that as I expand this list, I’d like to include songs from the ages…ageless hymns, 40s campmeeting songs, 70s campfire songs, (let’s skip the 90s ‘feel good’ songs, ewwww), and some of the current music that will take its rightful place in history.

I’m also wishing that, as Shane Claiborne and Chris Haw talk about in their awesome book Jesus for President, that I could find songs that talk about “some of God’s most creative and exciting ideas”–debt cancellation, land reforms, food redistribution, slave amnesty.  But, as they point out (and made me snort), maybe it’s “just hard to come up with words that rhyme with ‘debt cancellation’”.  (p. 58, if you’re interested)  I haven’t found any of those songs yet, have you?

What songs would you put on your list?  Your own personal list and/or the list you’d like for your children?

Bragging is Allowed June 19, 2009

Today was better, by the way. And to finish off the much-better-than-yesterday-day, the sleeping stars aligned tonight and both girls were asleep by 7:30 on the dot, and Levi is still awake.  Glory.

Levi is now two months old.  As for the terms of endearment dilemma, he remains my ‘little fat burrito’ with the occasional addition of ‘buggy-boo’ and ‘my little son’.  Or there is my mom’s favorite, ‘be-bop’.

Two months old and growing, may I just take some time for bragging? He’s a very good grower. 

You know how when you express milk, sometimes it’s kind of whitish, like it’s watered down?  What does La Leche call it?  Hind milk? Fore milk? Well, with this baby, there is no inferior milk.  It’s all cream.  All the time.

He had a very large and sudden growth spurt last Sunday night.  He woke up so big he didn’t know what to do with himself.  He had been standing on his legs quite strongly, but after that growth spurt, he would try to stand and then his little legs would immediately buckle under the weight.  He was so bewildered.  It was so cute.

Went from 0-3 month clothes to fitting 3-6 comfortably…also over night, which meant that he looked like a stuffed sausage in the 0-3s on Monday while I washed the 3-6’s.  And the diaper problem, oh boy.  I keep buying boxes of diapers and having him outgrow them before we even get a fourth of the way through the box.  At $35-$40 a box, this is breaking the bank.  I do now have a nice collection for our next baby, though, presumably at better prices than I’ll be able to buy them in 2 years.  Lose a little, win a little.

So this week I bypassed the size 4s (which is really what he should be wearing) and went straight for the size 5s…Amelie’s size.

Yes, I have a two month old and a two year old in the same size diapers.

But that’s how it was with Amelie, too.  She basically went straight to 20 pounds and then her growth tapered off.  She was wearing larger diapers at 6 months than Lia wore when she potty trained at almost two and a half.

The best benefit of such big diapers is that it’s almost impossible for poopy to escape up the back.  Woohoo!  This alone makes it worth it to swaddle that fat little tummy almost up to his chest. 

Two months and social.  He learned the fine art of chatting while my family was here.   Grandma Patti, especially, could elicit the best baby chats. He loves to look deep into someone’s eyes and talk and talk and talk.  He also loves to talk to his fists as he chews on them.  I personally believe that he’s cooing words of love to his fingers.

He started laughing at 4 and a half weeks.  I kid you not.

Two months and wiggly.  I just love the wiggle wiggle wiggle stage.  When Lia was this old Devo would call her a “pikkewyn” (pronounced kind of like ‘pukavein’) – which is “penguin” in English – because of those funny straight arm movements.

But most remarkable, is that last Sunday night Levi started sleeping.  Some serious sleeping.  He’s been sleeping EIGHT HOURS AT A TIME all week.

I announce this with a completely deadpan face.  Or deadpan fingers, as the case may be.

I am underplaying my ecstatic excitement.  Don’t want to knock one of those sleeping stars out of alignment.  But this is a very very big deal.  The girls never slept more than two hours.  Ever.  Until we made them cry it out around 15 months.  (Yes, crying it out was the ONLY option at that point).  So, already, I have had more continuous sleep in the last half a week than I did the first year with the first two.  This is remarkable.

And greatly appreciated.

The only hitch is that he’s been going to sleep at 7 and sleeping until about 3am.  Then waking up about every hour to nurse.  But I’VE been going to bed around 11 or 11:30.  So I’m not taking full advantage of these wondrous hours.  Hence the excitement that it’s almost 8pm and he’s still awake.  Maybe I’ll get five hours of uninterrupted sleep tonight.  Ooooh.  (Can I say “ooooh” with a deadpan face?  Is it possible?)

I decided I wanted to get him one of these bouncy chairs…you know, the kind the baby lays on at a slight angle and when they kick, it bounces.  So I went to Community Services on Wednesday, and the very first thing I saw (literally, the very first thing…it was out in the parking lot) was a bouncy chair.  For two (or was it three?) dollars.  Not only does it sport a most nostalgic 90s swirly design, it doesn’t play music.  This is very important.  Whoever designs these things to play music obviously never had more than one child.

He loves his little chair.  He spent a very happy 45 minutes in the garden yesterday while I did my first weeding in 8 weeks.

I love my little baby.  I am so enjoying having a baby in the house.  And he’s such a lucky baby.  The first baby may have all of the parent’s attention, but subsequent babies get more people to love them.  With his increasing social and eye contact skills, the girls have been learning how to refrain from clutching his head in sisterly love and instead stepping back to talk to him.  It’s very darling.

<happy sigh> It’s so good to feel normal again.

Chin Up, Chin Down, Turn Around, Sit Down. June 18, 2009

I was all chin-up girl when my family was getting ready to leave.  After all, it’s only four months until we see them again.  What’s a measly four months, compared with a year or more that usually is in between visits?

But I think it’s hit.  I miss you guys!  Come ba-a-ack!  (Hear the sleepy Prince Valium from SpaceBalls?)

I told Devo today that I need to go back to the store and see if I can exchange me for … another me.  Or do you think the receipt has expired?

Haha, tomorrow’s GOT to be better.  It’s just gotta.

Spoonerism June 18, 2009

Lia : Who’s parked in the candy-hap?  (Handicap)

Perspective June 17, 2009

Musings on the first day after the Baby Holders and Child Entertainers and Dishwashers leave.

First, Leilani the Articulate…

Scattered.  Spazzed.  Overwhelmed.  Panicked.

That’s what I feel like when the baby is crying, the girl are needing, the house is disintegrating, and I am…unprepared.

Lack of perspective, I diagnose myself.  The inability to see, in that moment, with clarity.  The inability to see the both glorious and terrifyingly fleeing nature of time–how these endless moments are, oh, so short in the scope of a childhood.  That the bleating resonance of a crying baby is infinitely preferred to resounding silence.  That the fact that someone needs me saves me from the curse of futility, disconnect, loneliness.

But when it all happens at once all these blessings are blocked from my view.  Because, after all, perspective takes…space.

I cling to the moments when I can step back, physically and mentally, take a breath, and see clearly, focusing the lens.  Then I can examine each part of the now-still kaleidoscope and separate the sounds of cacophony.

From this vantage point I can draw insight into my children’s personalities and characters, evaluate my failures and successes dispassionately, examine the personal and philosophical motives for why I parent the way I do.

This space allows me to find the joy that I failed to notice, to mine meaning from the mundane.  These things, once found, give me courage to step back into the fray.

Psalm 18:19.  He brought me out into a spacious place.

And now for the less articulate afterthought…

But what I’d really like to do, though, is keep perspective even in the middle of everything.  For, goodness knows, there’s not a lot of space at this place in the game.

What I really struggle with and would like to master is keeping this perspective, keeping this cool, even in the midst of everything.

I feel:  Easily overwhelmed, on the verge of insanity, disappointed in myself, claustrophobic…on top of scattered, spazzed, and panicked.

I want to be: cool, composed, engaged, in control (of myself, if not the situation), released, competent, unphased, capable, solid (like a rock, haha), calm, active (not reactive), conquering, busy, like a tree (not a balloon).

I want to admire myself not just for having the courage to choose this life, but also for conquering it.

Miscarriage – The Club I Never Wanted To Join June 17, 2009

We just got news from our close friends Greg and Allison that they lost their baby at 10 weeks along. She is scheduled for surgery tomorrow at 3pm.

I hope that no one will tell them that it’s “God’s Will” that the baby died.

I hope that no one will tell them that it’s “better off this way”.

I hope no one will be quick to urge them to “try again”.

I do hope that they will find, as I did, that there is a hidden host of people who have shared their experience.

And I hope that they can share their pain with these people who still have their own lost babies tucked deep inside their hearts.

Two Glorious Weeks June 16, 2009

I would upload so many more pictures if it was a case of click and drag. 

So my family is gone.  Left this morning after a wild two week extravaganza.  Hence my long silence.

They visited people, people visited them, ate good food, went to church, doctor’s appointments, ate good food, stayed up ridiculously late, played hilarious games of Clue, worked on a puzzle, did dishes, bought (and consumed) See’s chocolate, went clothes shopping for me and came back with a new wardrobe for Grandma Ruby, sent Liana off on social visits to her friends, took well over 500 pictures, took naps, went on a date, did more dishes…and basically just had a great time.

And now it’s over.

I lived out my fantasy daydream from the last few months.  You know, the fantasy that I walk out the door free as a bird to go do something (like yoga, or shopping, or out with Devo) and leave my children WITH MY MOTHER.  Ahhhhh, it was glorious.  They had quite a babysitting team, what with my mom and Grandma and Liana.  That’s one per child.

The two weeks were too short <sigh> but I’m buoyed by the thought of three months together later this year.  (Finally got tickets a few weeks ago!  Sabbatical dates are November 4-January 18).

Here is a sampling of the 500 pictures:

If wishes were horses June 6, 2009

Some days, more so recently, I wish I was a lyrical blogger.  I think I started out as a funny bloggger.  And somewhere along the way I turned into a this-is-what-I-did-today-and-I’m-going-to-jot-it-down-before-I-forget-because-I-think-it-is important-and-I-might-want-to-actually-remember-it-one-day.

But maybe new motherhood has softened me, made me want to express some of the beauty of life….to be someone who takes the AAAAAGGGGHHHHH of life and turns it into quiet, beautiful thoughts and lessons.

But that takes extra brain cells.  And I’m afraid all of mine have been used up.

Making Memories June 3, 2009

Lia: <sniff, sniff, sniff> Grandma, you smell good.  You smell just like you did in Guam.  <sniff, sniff, sniff>

Dear Pixar, From All The Girls With Band-Aids On Their Knees June 1, 2009

I got this from my husband in my inbox this evening.  As this blog has often mentioned princesses, I’m most delighted to pass it on.  We’re considering taking the girls to see Pixar’s newest movie Up for their first in-theater viewing–especially as it promises to be as entertaining for us as for them.

Here is an interesting post on NPR about Pixar’s newest film, or really all their films, whose main characters are boys/men. Very interesting read, and as a father of two girls who are overly into princesses, I read this with the same concern of the author.