What's Fueling My Fire....

           Its great to share ideas and to inspire each other with both the thoughts and growth we are experiencing but also with the raw idea of BEING inspired. We should be looking around us for stuff that makes us feel astonished and amazed and full of answers and energy. Please, allow me to go first....
Here's a little peek into my resource room at the moment. These are things in my world that are filling my tank, pushing my edge, giving me ideas and handing out delicious mental gymnastics:

• Magic Lessons podcasts by Elizabeth Gilbert. Every episode makes me want to create, NOW. 
• The movie, Seed: The Untold Story. Saw it on the big screen and my jaw was on the floor.
• The Standing Rock Protest
•  Victor Frankl's book, Man's Search For Meaning.
• The biography of the Cheaper By The Dozen parents, Frank and Lillian Gilbreth, Partners For Life. So well written (yay biographer!) and so unknown (yay for Lillian, one of my heroines!)
• Piano lessons with my three oldest kids...I'm working them through their lessons every day which means I am suddenly, accidentally playing the piano
• This astonishing info-graphic. 
• Women Who Run With Wolves, I just got this two nights ago and its knocking me back on my heels. I'm underlining every other page.
• The incredible music of Yonina....their vids can leave me high all day.
• This Avett Brothers song. Repeat, repeat, repeat. Ever more, since the election. I will always be grateful to Alicia from Posie Gets Cozy for introducing me to the bros. 
• The mind boggling, Understanding Your Child As A Spiritual Gift, believe it or not, written by a friend of mine.

The Most Perfect Chicken Breast Of All Time.

Google has shined upon me and the produce of my search bar must be shared. I have found the secret to pan-sauteeing chicken boneless skinless chicken breast into tender, juicy deliciousness. No more rubbery, dry, frustrating cuts....and yes, I know that using thigh meat is a good alternative. Still.  Sometimes, nothing beats the price or the hefty simplicity or light flavor of breast meat. This approach is really brilliant. Nothing is added to it, not even water and no sauce to dress it up or crazy equipment....just perfect, perfect directions. Its never tough, never dry and never pink in the middle.

I have made it four times now with effortless reproductibility. Easy, clear and perfect for so many uses. It makes the best salad topping meat, taco filling, or addition to spaghetti sauce. I can batch cook several this way and then we're good for finger food for picnics or freezer meals for a while.

You must try this.

The kitchen gods will sing arias over your stove too!!!

Faith Durand over at The Kitchn is a brilliant, brilliant genius...and is the mastermind behind these very direct and foolproof directions. There are pictures and numbered steps and its all on one page. I'm not sure how she could make it better.

Check it out. Perfect Chicken Breast.

You Don't Have To Be Normal

Its a list day. Ka-ching! Having one of those real butt-kickers where all kinds of things get done and I feel completely in control of my own existence. (Aren't those the best?)

Time to enumerate my confidence and share things I am doing over at my house to bust out of the mold. Not everything that everyone needs to be copied...sometimes we get stuck in zones of group-think and never consider opting out. Maybe you need a boost today and one of these things could be a new experiment for you.

 10 "Normals" That I am Rejecting. 

1. You have to shower every day. I shower once or twice a week. Whew. Scary to admit socially here in The States where daily showering is and iron rule but there it is. It works really well for me, from what I read its better for my body and it also saves water, time and money on toiletries.
2. Kids love toys! Buy them more! I just kept picking up and packing up more and more and more toys. I did it a little bit at a time. One fitful load on one twitchy day after another. Eventually we got down to one small box of Duplo Legos, one shelf of books, about 5-10 costumes for pretend and a toy kitchen with nothing in it but a set of four wooden bowls and two spoons. That's all I have in our playroom right now. Everything else is in the basement in a giant nest of forbidden boxes. I'm not sure what to do with the stored items but I do love the new uncluttered existence and I love that the playroom is much more accessible and I love the idea of "having" less and getting my children's possessions down to a more manageable collection. Now I just need to figure out how to teach children to keep their smaller batch of goods away. Tips?
3. Nobody knows their neighbors these days. I am resolved to know my neighbors. To have my kids know our neighbors, to not be suspicious of the people who live around me but instead grateful for them. I live in a city neighborhood on purpose and feel so lucky to be surrounded by folks who make neighborhood associations and plant trees together and have community cook-outs. We should all be so lucky. It isn't just for the 1950's. Your community is what you make of it. We can all learn the names and faces that surround us.
4. Youth is the currency of the day. I think we should all embrace aging. Every year you earn, you earn. I walk the line by encouraging myself to be youthful in spirit, embracing of beauty, brave and flexible but I'm no Botoxing, perpetually 29, trying to pretend I'm not getting older, depressed because another birthday is arriving type. Grey hairs are badges, wisdom is hard fought, our elders our inspiring leaders and youth is just a starting point...not a panacea.
5. Wild mushrooms are DANGEROUS! You know how I feel about wild food, right? Someday I'll get to the bottom of the American terror of eating wild mushrooms. I'm not sure why we have a gospel as a culture that fungi will kill you deader than dead but we do. Truth. Wild mushrooms are eminently learnable and delicious. Wild mushrooms can be toxic but no more so than many of the things in your grocery store which doesn't really freak everyone out. Flowers, plants, detergent....its all potentially dangerous. Mushrooms have no superpowers. They just got really bad press somehow. I'll eat your mushrooms anytime.
6. Real women do it all by the sweat of their own brow. Man, I'd like to kill this one dead. I grew up with a wonderfully empowered, can-do kind of culture that taught me how to be happy with little, make things out of nothing and pull myself up by my own boot-straps. That's great and I'm super grateful. Its really made me who I am. The part that I don't dig is the insidious lie that real women, cool women, strong women....need nobody. They clean their own houses, they make their own clothes, they watch their own kids, and grown their own food and their husbands do nothing but earn money! Its crazy!!!! Women need men who pitch in. Women need friends who spot them on bad days. Women need hired help who bring professional muscle to the task. Women need older mothers and aunties to advise them and lend hands when they can't hack it all. Really real women admit that they need help and seek it to make their lives better. End of story.
7. Boys will be boys. Boys will be wild and rambuncious but they will also be overly sensative and cry all the time. They will break stuff and be mean but they will also love gardening and babies and try hard to paint faces accurately. Boys and girls are allover different and the same. Trying to excuse or explain or expect a snips and snails and puppy dog tails when you really get individual children, touched off by all kinds of different stimuli is often more harmful and ignorant than it is galvanizing in my opinion.
8. Embrace your flaws and paint them with glitter. I think its bad to be fat. I think it hurts to have poor people skills. I think that being sloppy is unacceptable. I think there's no real good in pretending that these things are "part of who I am" and boldly proclaiming them our favorite new forms of personal expression. I do think seeing yourself in an open-eyed way is important. Honesty is key. But then self-guilt as step two is no real help either. The way to handle your shortcomings is not through self-abuse and shame but instead through acceptence. I see these flaws. They are. I'm lovely and strong and can do better.  I'm going to try these things to see if they help.
9. Babies sleep in cribs. I've never owned a crib. Freaked out yet? My babies sleep in my bed with me and then in a little basket or cradle on the floor next to me and then on a mattress on the floor. Skipped all the normal American baby sleep stuff. Whoops!
10. Children should never be made to eat anything if they don't want to. I have a one bite rule. A and I disagree about this one. He is much more straight-up American about eating and hates the idea of children being "forced" to put anything in their mouths if they don't want to. I believe strongly in good manners at the table. I think its incredibly rude to the chef to be unwilling to taste the food (barring allergy, of course) and I am insisting that my children learn to politely try anything they are offered. No chicken nugget outs at our house! I'm the mean mommy!!!

 What normal do you opt out of? Anything interesting or unknown?

School Year Brainstorm

Its school planning time at our house! First Day is fast approaching and although we haven't yet starting thinking about fall, pumpkins or leaf-jumping....I am thinking about study topics, ways to make reading fresh, exciting field trips and anything else that might prime the mental pumps for the boys and I.

I'm a Charlotte Mason/Unschooler. I lean heavily on exciting, well-written books to spring board learning and makes topics come alive....we read-aloud until our eyes fall out. Lots of the time when A is gone we linger at the lunch table, nibbling at our food and reading a few extra chapters of whatever book we are reading at the moment.

We try to spend a lot of time outside and I believe in free-flowing, real-time exploration in the natural world. Skinning knees, digging up beetles and popping seed pods are all legitimate learning activities at our house. Lots of the boys time outdoors is just random and unsupervised, self-directed fooling around that results in lots of interesting questions later on. "Mom...what is that little bug that rolls up when you touch it?" or "Mommy, we were ripping leaves up and saw some of them had white juice inside. Why does it get black on your hands?"

I am doing what I can to include warm familiarity with visual art, this last year we started doing artist study work to learn some of the "greats" and their techniques. I am also really happy to get the paints, yarn or glue out and set the kids to work making something beautiful of their own. I am a little bit of a stickler about "real" crafts and work really hard to make sure that the kids are introduced to the process of making beautiful things that aren't just crappy throw-away Styrofoam stickers and random construction paper cut-outs. A little bit of that kind of thing in a playgroup or Sunday School class doesn't poison the waters but I want to be sure that they really understand and expect to create genuine beauty and utility not just throw-away Oriental Trading Company crafty-garbage.

We are starting to work on useful life-skills....money-education, chore instruction, shopping lessons, navigation, memorization, etc. Lots of excitement ahead in that category this year.

Here's what I am trying to work into my curriculum planning and schedule arranging this year....

20 Homeschooling Brainstorms For 2013

1.  Ru has started learning sleight of hand and wants to perform a magic show for outsiders with rehearsal period, costumes and real admission fees!
2. I want the three big boys to take ice-skating lessons this winter...maybe I'll even join them.
3. We will have a much awaited field trip to The Mashantucket Pequot Museum during October, Native Heritage Month. 
4. We have started a new allowance/chore system and I am planning to do some workshops about budgeting, financial goals and exciting ideas for boy-friendly charity.
5. Ru did the summer reading program at the library and I told him as a reward he could get his own library card and a special appointment with one of the children's librarians to talk about all the rights and privileges thereof.
6. The boys have requested that we go to a real, old-fashioned cider mill where they can watch their cider being pressed before we buy a jug.
7. Ru and now Nib (desperately eager!) will be enrolling in Fall Ball, our local Little League's autumn session.
8. I found and am burning this wonderful collection of classic poems, arranged for children and read aloud by Librivox readers.
9. Dee has started learning to read and this year he'll keep working through 100 Easy Lessons and then tackle real books for the first time.
10. I am magpie-ing the idea of unit themes for each month of the school year.
11. We're going to join our friends in the homeschool group for Field Trip Friday adventures.
12. I am introducing Latin to the house. I have ordered two systems (1 and 2) and we'll try them out and see what works for us.
13. Nib will learn to write his name this year and solidify his alphabet.
14. I'm on the look-out for a Spanish playgroup.
15. I am hunting for music lessons and starting a beginning music theory workbook for the three biggest boys. 

Its gonna be an exciting year! I'm geeked for book buying and activity scheduling.

Painless Penny Pinching

Last night A and I made an important career decision together.  It was one of those crystal times when I felt clearly that we were making an important, life-altering choice. Sort of a weighty, fork-in-the-road kind of a sensation. We're taking the left fork and things will be different from this time on. This is not only a your-life-will-never-be-the-same kind of choice but a hard-work-is-ahead, you're-playing-for-all the-marbles kind of choice. On the one hand, I love adventure and am a survivor so I believe in living on the edge so last night I felt pretty excited and motivated, but in the background is the pale and quaking me that hates change, feels secure in the known and believes contentment "the way." This morning I feel kind of wobbly and scared by the enormity and intimidating nature of making a big, scary choice like this.

We're on a new austerity plan now. Time to trim the needless waste in our life, time to live on less financially and make more happen with what we have already. I'm a person who walks this kind of line uneasily. On the one hand I'm not a high-roller, I kind of hate money and status items and I get a great deal of satisfaction from clever, frugal-living. On the other hand, I don't like stifling fun, rationing pleasure or forgoing enjoyment and I'm a bit lazy about doing everything myself to save a buck. Time to figure out not only how to save money objectively but how I will best and most happily save money. What things do I truly not need? What things can I change that will make me happier or just as happy and also thriftier? And what ways can I trim a little off the edge and still leave enough to make life feel pleasant? This whole discussion feel selfish and egotistical and entirely white-collar America. Argh. But you know, this year my theme is acceptance, this is part of it. This is where I honestly am psychologically about saving money and I know that if I plan a bleak, bread and water system for the next four years it will never work, I don't really believe in forced, purposeful, chosen deprivation and I'll never do it if that's what I attempt.

Last night I sat down and made up this list. Here's my current ideas for "Painless Penny Pinching"---the way I roll. Got anything to add? Books to suggest? Tweaks you think would help? Please contribute. We'll need all the help we can get.


•No more Amazon book buying (use up A's closet stash, inter-library loan, and
borrow from friends instead)
•Make our own cards for holidays and trim the list for who gets one
•Make birthday gifts for friends
• Grow our own veggies and freeze what we can for the winter
•Shop at Stop and Shop, Save Rite, Aldi, or Grade A and wave goodbye to Whole Foods or Fairway
•Borrow homeschool supplies or books from my circle of friends
•Limit dates to $20 dollars or less and get more creative
•Buy annuals in Michigan when we go this spring, prices are wayyy cheaper
•Shred newspapers or junk-mail for guinea pig bedding and feed them grass and weeds from our yard and scraps instead of buying bedding and pellets and hay from the pet store.
•Kill Netflix? (EEP!)  and instead watch YouTube stuff, and borrow movies from friends and the library
•Only go to single $ restaurants and limit frequency (once a month?)
•Unsubscribe to anything I am not using or don't need online and make sure that the menu planner I am using is the best deal financially.
•Use coupons and shop sales for food. Stock up on good deals.
•Get a new lid for my travel coffee cup and make myself coffee instead of buying it
•See if we can get better insurance rates
•Turn house temp down a touch, maybe even just at night?
•Only run the dishwasher when completely full.
•Wash clothes in cold water when possible.
•Weatherize the house.
•Keep an active inventory of what is in our freezer and pantry that is used in the coming week's menu plan.
•Menu plan every single meal...not just dinners.
•Get plant divisions from neighbors and dig wild instead of buying any new perennials.
•Buy special paleo foods online where I can get cheap prices.
•Get energy star appliance upgrades ASAP.
•Vacation close to home....maybe even at home
•Shop carefully for gas (even Carleen)
•Stop going to the extra Saturday yoga class and go to my studio more instead if
I want a weekend boost.
•Pack food for vacations and make a pact to stay out of stores while
driving to and fro and set a cap for any shopping we do at our destination.
•Shop ahead for holidays
•Make more easy clothes for the boys (simple knit pants from t-shirts?)
•Envelope budget for groceries for the week.
•Make our own cleaning supplies
•Carpool with friends
•Use the city bus
•Go to free classes at the library for kid-fun.
•Wash, vacuum and wax our own car instead of going to the car wash.
•Regularly freeze any food in the fridge that isn't getting eaten to reduce waste
•Shop clearance sales for kid clothes and also thrift shop when in Michigan when visiting family because prices are much cheaper.
•DIY for home repairs, teach myself what I need to know. I can do it!
•Make tangible financial goals and reward ourselves when we meet them!
•Save our change
•Review our utilities and be sure we are getting the best rates possible from our providers
•Line dry clothes, especially in warm weather
•Refinance our mortgage again.
•Use the local library passes for area activities.

What do you do to save money without feeling sorry for yourself?

January-ing

We're January-ing all over the place lately at our house. Pulling down the Christmas (as it is wont to do) has led to sudden and complete redecorating in certain sections of the house. The bookcases and china cabinets have been re-styled and the mantle invigorated, the art is playing musical chairs and the sunroom is being re-invented as a mommy spa space: all watercolor work, sewing, reading nook, green oasis and guinea pig haven. A and I are set to begin guitar classes together as our weekly date night. My drool-inducing reading list is overflowing, many of them in-hand thanks to Christmas gifts from A and many more on a library list in my phone and even one in audio form for when I'm washing dishes or driving A to and fro on his commute. I am tackling garden plans with a vengeance and am up to my green little ears in all the ideas and advice I am accumulating.

I'm overwhelmed and also very excited. This is what  a new year does to me, I'm full of 25 new projects and genius ideas on overdrive and also a little swept under by the enormity of all the wonderful possibilities. My solution is to stop thinking so much, that's when the stress and enormity of it all creeps in. Less think, more do. The world is so full of a number of things...I am off to turn my world upside-down and make all manner of sparkly bits fall out onto the carpet!

Pom says that sounds just top notch...as long as I always hold him. He got separation anxiety for the New Year and has started giving babysitters fits when we're away and even wailing top volume for me whenever I set him down although he's very cheery and sweet for as long as I can push myself to tote his 5th percentile, and yet somehow impossibly heavy little frame around on my body.

Life Audit

Time for a bit of big picture, self-inventory. Its always good to know where we are exactly. Alison at BrocanteHome, one of my favorite blogs, calls this a Life Audit: part list, part reflective essayettes. Lets have a go, shall we?

One, Two, Three....GO!

Today I am: Hiding from the heat, holing up in the air conditioned public library and any other handy cool location trying to keep the heat rash down on the baby and minimize the whines from the big kids and the mommy.

Feeling:  Hot. Also Pretty happy! I'm losing weight, feeling much more emotionally stable and ready for the next phase!

Reading: Good Calories Bad Calories (brilliant and important book, completely rocking my world apart!!!!) and for fiction fun, Chalice.

Eating:Steak on the grill, local, raw milk, and a few baby red potatoes from our garden doused with fresh parsley and swimming in butter.

Planning: The last details of the playroom's reorganization! An encouraging reveal coming...

Dreaming:Of our trip to Hawaii to visit Miq and Penny, coming up this fall. Reading guidebooks happily and plotting all the possibilities. I am imagining fresh fish, amazing coffee and pineapples to kill for not to mention swimming with sea turtles and sunsets over white beaches. Bring it on!

Wishing:For central air. A spends all day in a giant air conditioned icebox of an office and comes home loosening his collar and soaking up the heat and I am sweaty and grouchy and dehydrated and incredibly unwilling to hear in my presence his bitter words about the modern wonder that is zoned cooling. Boo! So much for my desire to live an authentic, salt of the earth, old fashioned existence.

Doing:A lot of plant watering. This killer heat has been making things grow like crazy but also makes keeping up on the fluid end a big, big job. Tomatoes require a lot of drinks, y'all!

Working: On getting back into the swing of normal life. Potty training, my daily chore list, teaching reading, using my menu planner...etc.

Celebrating: The loss of Ru's first tooth! Hooray for this super cute milestone. So heartwarming to see how incredibly excited he was about that first real wiggle after so much waiting and waiting and waiting for it to finally happen to him.

Grateful For: Babygates. I never really thought I'd be saying that but there it is. Nib has morphed into the kid who never listens, doesn't  come when he's called and is always speedily getting into something...albeit with a glowing smile on. I sure loves me a little control sometimes.

Tomorrow I will be: Having a home day, catching up on laundry and sweeping the second floor clean...and please, God, please...enjoying some cooler weather? 

This Month I need/want to...

• Finish painting the kid bath.

• Find the book we lost from the library.

• Get the kid clothes sorted out and stored properly.

• Eat more corn on the cob.

• Attend the local music festival!

• Store or give away the potato crop we harvested.

• Take Ru out alone for an outing.

• Start my yoga class again! (yay for six weeks postpartum!)

  There you have it. My life at the moment in a little nutshell. Wanna show me yours?

Summer Aspirations

Making a list today. Summer is finally here for sure...there's barbeque on every neighborhood breeze and I'm checking my tan in the mirror. So its time to start earlier than I did last year and begin to scribble a list of all the summer stuff I want to do before we smell the first crisp wafts of fall. This is how we actualize folks! Its also how I get all the stuff out of my head that is in it. :)

Things To Do Before Summer Is Over

Pick peaches and can them.

Make apricot jam

Eat a BLT.

Swim more.

Go to a county fair. 

Eat a s'more.

Sit around a campfire.

Go fishing.

Lay on the grass and watch the stars.

Ride in a pick-up.

Eat a popsicle on the porch.

Make a key lime pie.

Feel cute in shorts.

Sit and read in the sun.

Go on a picnic.

Go skinny dipping.

Walk to a store with a friend.

Shoot someone with a squirt gun.

Have astounding sweet corn.

Climb a tree.

Go for a long, wandery beach walk.

Make a daisy chain.

Draw with sidewalk chalk.

Stroll along a pier or dock.

 

 But there are a few things I can already check off. Its worth mentioning to myself again what I have already done!

Things I've Already Done

Eat a lobster.

Pick strawberries.

Go to an outdoor Shakespeare performance.

Grill some good BBQ.

 Sing loudly to the radio with the windows open.

Make a killer salad.

Buy flip-flops.

Run through the sprinkler.

Eat fresh watermelon.

Watch the kids do sparklers.

Find a good book.

Go beach combing with the boys.

 

 

 

Creativity Stew

Been thinking about ways to get creative, getting a jump on Christmas presents and the idea of making things again together with the boys as a part of our school time this fall. All that to say...I have a bunch of fabulosity to unload out of my brain tonight before I go to sleep.

Image by The Library of Congress via Flickr

Drink it in, Friends..."The world is so full of a number of things..."

These might be a good way to deal with our burgeoning feather collection, and my own insatiable desire to pick up and haul home any pretty feathers we find. Feathers as useful gift. Genius. And how much fun would the boys have, color dipping them?
Oodles.

Image via Wikipedia

Fresh Ricotta. I think it has my number. I have been listening to a lot of The Splendid Table. I hear all the past shows as podcasts while I drive Aaron to work and he does math with Ru in the backseat and the little boys listen or look at books. So inspiring! Seriously, I wish all of you could start every day with a huge infusion of culinary brilliance like that. I drive back to the house salivating and full of ideas, fresh ricotta is my latest yen. I especially like the list on the right hand side of that link with ideas for how to use ricotta. I feel like lasagna and cannoli is it for my own personal exposure to the cheese. And then, when I have made my own fresh ricotta...I will make this with it. *slobber slobber slobber*

Image by Rooey202 via Flickr

Maybe I had too much Tasha Tudor in my life but I always kind of fancy the romance of animal versions of our human holidays. (Tasha always talks about The Animals Christmas for example) I have this fluttery fantasy of making these little ornaments on a Valentine's Day afternoon with the boys to hang outside our windows for the birds, so that they feel their own little bit of love. I had no idea Knox gelatin was the key to those bird seed cluster thingies, by the way.

Am looking around this old house at the dated bits and wondering what hardware I could update in an hour like these clever diy bloggers did. Oil rubbed bronze spray paint, here I come!

Image by alsokaizen via Flickr

I was recently given a little wooden, windowseat style storage bench (Yay!!!) which I put in the boys room but turns out they don't use it...I thought they'd plop there with story books  but no such luck. They want cozy seating for storytime...so they head to the office loveseat or even their beds and leave the bench all bare. I have new plans to paint the bench a grown-up color (its all bright primary colors right now) and move it downstairs to the entryway (Convenient shoe donning spot and secret mitten storage location all-in-one? Yes please!) but moving the bench means I again have no home for the out of season or back-up blankets, quilts and flannel sheets. I have been plotting some rolling underbed storage beneath the boys bunks, imagining high glamour in the form of plastic Rubbermaid products but check this out, Holmes! Is that not hot? Am now keeping my eyes peeled for loner dresser drawers.

Image by adwriter via Flickr

And finally, in closing. I can't think of a single, blessed reason why it would be useful or appropriate or helpful for me to make these cookies. Oh, but I want to! Aren't they beautiful? Indian dinner party anyone?

Related articles

• rich homemade ricotta | smitten kitchen (lanaahaske.wordpress.com)
• How-To: Refresh Tired Drawers and Dressers (casasugar.com)
• Things Laura, Mary, Ma and Pa Ingalls Said - Quotes from Little House on the Prairie (brighthub.com)
• Rustic Homemade Pizza (cowtalesbyacowgirlcook.wordpress.com)

Lessons From The Royal Wedding

Image by Defence Images via Flickr

I haven't got a television. This meant that I "missed" the royal wedding. I realize that for some, the allure of getting up at 4 am to watch a state event from a different country seems a bit thin at best, perhaps even verging on insane. I never claimed to be normal. My friends are just as kooky as I am which makes me feel that this breed of insanity is quite within the realm. They were: creating authentic high tea for granddaughters, setting alarm clocks for early hours and hauling their children out of bed to watch the wedding, TiVo-ing the entire thing and then watching and re-watching it with family over the next week or more, discussing all the details of the day endlessly together, wearing union jacks for the day and even getting out their own wedding dresses to celebrate. I hav
e cool friends. Cool, kooky friends.

Image by Defence Images via Flickr

All that to say, I felt not at all beyond the pale when I finally got around to YouTubing my way through the ceremony in great detail myself...(replaying the key moments perhaps) and spending the rest of the day thinking about it I have some thoughts. I know that monarchy is out-dated historically, but I really feel like there is something lovely about it anyhow. Something morale boosting, something culturally lifting, and as an onlooker, it feels a little otherworldly as well. (in a good way)

After musing on the whole concept of the royal wedding all day here are my take-aways:

• Practice makes perfect...there's no shame in practicing to remove the hiccups from jobs done in public that present an image by which you will be judged. I was impressed to hear Catherine recite so smoothly the litany of Williams many names and then later read that Diana stumbled over Charles' when it was her own turn. Not to knock Diana or the concept of human error or relaxation....I firmly believe in grace and forgiveness at these times. It is admirable to hear that Catherine and William worked so tirelessly to iron out the wrinkles. I would like to take more time to prepare when I have sticky words to pronounce publicly or an important visual I am going to present. Note to self: practice smiling gracefully. I always grin far to wide for pictures and find that I end up with photos of me with no lips, bared teeth, squinting eyes and a giant blue vein popping up on my forehead. It's the little things and a bit of conscious practice that make people appear polished and elegant. Be done with the idea that some are just naturally elegant and that you and I cannot be among that number.
• Being old fashioned is not "out." I thought the classical vows that the couple took and the timeless wedding attire were so lovely. Catherine used the "quaint" Victorian language of flowers to select a symbolic bouquet, bridal decorations and the sugar blossoms for the wedding cake. She wore a tiara that was a royal family heirloom. She continued the tradition of carrying a sprig of Queen Victoria's myrtle in her bouquet. They chose a carriage as their transport, cathedral to palace. They came across as elegant and ageless, not in the least bit twee or matronly. We needn't update every little thing to be fashionable and modern....sometimes the old ways are best.
• A little warmth and respect buys you goodwill now and freewill later. I find this one so helpful that I might even tack it up on the wall. I am generally warm and respectful but I forget that part of why you do so is so that eventually you will be in a position to be able to exert freewill and do so without offense. The Queen is a bit of a controlling woman...it is sort of her job. I'm sure she can be quite intimidating. Instead of either bowing completely to her wishes or flagrantly defying her left and right, Catherine wisely came to her for crash courses in "princessing," communicated often and regular with her new family, worked symbols of the royal family into the wedding ceremony and even had lunch with Camilla--notepad in hand, taking down the ideas and suggestions she had to offer. Once she had done all of this then when the queen sent specific orders for how she wanted the wedding to go Catherine had created enough goodwill to not raise a fuss when she sent word that she'd rather wear her hair down thank you, and that the royal couple had chosen to travel leave the cathedral in a carriage instead of a car. I need that kind of grace + fortitude. I am all warmth and then no resolve in relation to other people. She inspires me.
• Humility and regal dignity are sweet companions. I thought it was wonderful that Catherine chose to line the sides of the cathedral aisle with live maple trees in pots specifically because they symbolize humility. I also thought the direct but not performing acknowledgement the newlyweds gave to onlookers was lovely and impressive. They were elegant and regal without being showy or sneeringly proud. So often if feels like people who work on humility don't know how to be graceful and give themselves dignity and then again, those who have great dignity or personal pride don't know how to be warm and humble in relating to others. 
• Less is more. Such a cliche, green, modern idea in some ways but all too true. Catherine didn't need a tumbling orchid laden arrangement, her admittedly small bouquet and simple dress and veil were elegant and also showed that she and William had nothing to prove by appearing ostentatious. How do you "dress up" Westminster Abbey anyhow? Just as they did...with subtle, elegant touches....nothing over the top and nothing too wild. And really, some of the wedding guests with those outrageous hats? I'm sure they meant to look edgy and impressive but they just came off as over the top and very, very silly looking.
•  Don't fight technology. I am impressed by how very technologically embracing the royal family has been concerning the wedding. They have tweeted, posted Flikr photos, started a website, streamed live footage and accepted email comments and well-wishes. They have been thoroughly modern in every way and yet never cheapened themselves or the solemnity of the occasion. This bought them a lot of goodwill with regular people, gave them a lot more publicity and visibility and it also gave William the tool his mother never had....an element of control over the press. By running his own, pointed PR campaign he is avoiding reinventing the wheel. Poise + technological sophistication is a great recipe.

Image by k-ideas via Flickr

And I'm sure there are more lovely nuggets to glean from this important historical thumbtack in the timeline of our lifetimes....and maybe later I'll think of them. But for tonight, that's all I've got.

Related articles

• The Royal Wedding Snob (lapiskamay.wordpress.com)
• Royal bouquet draws abbey crowds (bbc.co.uk)
• Royal Wedding 2011: Top 8 Moments of William and Catherine's Big Day (abcnews.go.com)

Poetry Friday: A Color Poem

Happy Poetry Friday! Am feeling a little poetically dry today so I made use of this poetry form to write a little fill-in-the-blank poem about color. Looking through my photos suggested the color I should work on should be orange so I gave it a go.

The form basically works you through how the color you select comes through all five senses. How would it sound? How would it taste? Etc. Kind of a fun exercise. I was the most stumped by how orange sounded.

I have historically had very little to do with this color as I can't wear it super easily but it does suddenly seem relevant and somehow lighthearted.

I'm going to paint our bedroom a soft glowy orange and the kid bath on our second floor will eventually be a bright corally shade. It is the age of citrus. My inner 1970's inhabitant is jubilant, I'm sure; goldenrod the herald of the era returns.

Shades Of Citrus Season

Orange
A snapping bonfire
Curving sickle slices of canteloupe
The pricked ears of a fox
The lyric gush of cider from the jug
The caramel thrum of a cello
The sizzing sputter a sparkler makes
Nose tweaking ginger, grated fresh
A latte heavily sprinkled with cinnamon
Braised meat falling richly off the bone
The electric zap of midwinter static
The shush of cross country skiis
Th rattle of dried beans, poured through the fingers
Orange can swirl richly or zip, by turns.

Check out the Poetry Friday roundup over at Madigan Reads.

Related articles

• "The Color Orange" (itsinfoworld.wordpress.com)
• Color In Design: Orange (blogs.sitepoint.com)

A List of Delicious, Good For Me Snacks

I need healthy snacks.
But, I have to say they need to be delicious and healthy. All too often I fall into the trap of shoving some convenient and less than terribly nutritious, maybe not even that enjoyable something-or-other in my mouth on the go. I do it when I'm stressed out (emo-eater extraordinaire here) and when I'm tired and when I have whiney kids to feed and when we're dashing in and then back out again and I don't have time to even think, let alone cook dinner. 

Image via Wikipedia

I decided that its time to end all the empty, crappy snack insanity. I know better. I know how to eat well. I enjoy eating well. We buy good food. I live with a supportive food partner who believes in making good food choices...I'm just lazy. I'm not even talking physical laziness...its just the mental brain-fog-lazy that I need to kick. You know, this whole bit: "Uh....what could we eat???" *long and empty stare into the fridge*

Image via Wikipedia

And that was how the idea of The Vibrant Snack List was born. 
I can do the thinking now, ahead of time, when my brain still works...and then later when I'm starving and my cerebellum freezes up on me, all I have to do is scan the list (which I am posting on the side of the fridge) and then have an automatic moment of gastronomic genius with whatever ingredients we are currently stocking. 

Image by intuitive cat via Flickr

This list is full of things that I consider to be healthful, happy, easy (or at least moderately so) and super enjoyable. You might not think everything on here sounds tasty to you, pick what you like and feel free to cut anything that sounds nasty to your palate and be sure to add your own brilliant stand-bys...(hint hint! Adding them in the comments below means we all get to enjoy your brilliance.) Also worth noting is the fact that my personal version of healthful isn't everyone's definition. I like all the food groups, generally eschew sugar am an omnivore and firmly believe that fats are good. You won't find any low-fat versions of things, or substitutionary style food copycats here either. I'm all for real food, all the time.


Vibrant Snacks

Image by Flavio@Flickr via Flickr
• avocado, squeeze of lime, sprinkle of sea salt (eat out of shell with a spoon!)
• string cheese
• a small pool of good olive oil, a dash of rosemary and a good hunk of fresh bread
• honey drizzled cottage cheese
• an apple (preferably a fresh, autumn apple) eaten out-of-hand with periodic smears of natural peanut butter
• a handful of good jerky 
• dried cherries
• a glass of fresh juice (take your pick!) just pressed out of my juicer
• a sandwich w/ soft goat cheese, basil, olive oil and thick slices of ripe tomato
• a fresh, garlicky hummus with raw carrots or red pepper slices
• a poached egg, cut open to dribble over a bed of sauteed mushrooms and fresh salad greens
• half of a melon and a spoon (leave the melon to ripen on the countertop for three or four days after purchase in the grocery store...it will get melty ripe and juicy)
• a ramekin of quality granola and fresh, raw milk
• ripe strawberries, or apricots sliced into cream...sprinkled with sugar or drizzled with honey
• fluffy scrambled egg with a tiny spoonful of caviar on top, some snippings of fresh dill and a bit of sour cream
• two halves of a fresh prickly pear fruit
• shrimp cocktail
  Image by ~dgies via Flickr
• jicama spears with a squeeze of lime
• a crisp dill pickle
• a handful of blueberries
• Vietnamese summer rolls with a small dish of nuoc mam for dipping
• 1/3 of a bar of dark chocolate
• thin slices of cold leftover chicken spread with a little honey mustard
• rosemary Triscuits, wedges of apple and paper thin slices of sharp, sharp cheddar
• a spoonful of glowing honeycomb
• a handful of Sungold tomatoes
• a small dish of salted edemame
• freshly popped corn w/ butter and salt 
• celery w/ a dollop of Alouette herb cheese on top
• dark chocolate covered strawberries
• raw spinach, raw walnuts, a hunk of crumbled goat cheese, chopped strawberries and a handful of blueberries topped with Brianna's delicious poppyseed dressing
• a shot of wheatgrass!
• goat cheese, ripe figs and proscuitto
  Image via Wikipedia
• half a grapefruit, drizzled with honey, eaten with a spoon
• fruit leather (you know, the kind made with real fruit)
• a head of garlic, dribbled with olive oil, salted and then roasted until the skin is gold...eaten with the fingers 

Okay...now I'm slobbering. Awesome. Gotta get this baby printed off and then...I think I need a snack!