trivial things I am thankful for.

We all know the standard list of things to be thankful for on Thanksgiving:  our faith, friends, and families, our kids teachers and coaches,  public servants, modern conveniences like running water & electricity, having our needs met through homes, jobs, and ample availability of groceries.  We all have much to be thankful for.  One of the most eye-rolling repeated phrases my kids know is when I say
"Have an attitude of what?"
"Gratitude" they chime in unison.

So much of our happiness in life is based on what we're grateful for.  Some of the not-so-little things I'm grateful for are:

1)How well my kids get along.  Whether it's making up rules for a board game, or seeing our youngest son use our oldest son as a recliner, moments where my kids are together and enjoying being together are among my favorites.
2) Watching my husband with our kids, especially reading stories at bedtime, or playing games.  (Also watching my husband when he's concentrating...or happy.  Or pretty much anytime. I kinda like him.)
3) That my marriage is peaceful and harmonious.  That we still have fun together, and like each other, and want to be around each other pretty much all the time.
4) That my in-laws are present, involved with our kids, and all around fabulous.
5)  That my own parents are only a couple hours away, and always waiting in the wings when I need them.
6) My amazing network of friends, online and off. I never go a day without a smile or laugh because of them.

With that stated, here are 30 small, maybe silly things I am grateful for.

1) Caribou Coffee in Hy-vee.   Eggnog latte with real eggnog anyone?
2) Sunny days on my deck with a book.
3) When a parking space opens up just where I need it.
4) Music, art, and theater.  Without them my soul would feel incomplete.
5) Free time.
6) Being caught up on any single chore.
7) Magazines, especially in my bed when I'm half brain-dead.
8) Books as well...an affordable vacation to any world I choose.
9) spontaneous silliness, whether it's a chicken puppet or impromptu face contest
10) cooking- a creative outlet, a way to get information out of teenagers, teaching math and chemistry to elementary kids in sneaky ways, collaborative efforts with my husband, my favorite activity.
11) 24 hour grocery stores.
12) the smells of the seasons, from the first candle in autumn to the chlorine of the pool in summer.
13) Crocs.  The most indestructible, comfortable, summer shoe on earth.
14) Dollar Tree.  For the things kids lose faster than they blink, like gloves and sparkly barrettes..and necessities like soap and shampoo.
15)  Stuffed animals and pillows
16) Gardening
17) nice smelling hair and body stuff
18)  Door 2 Door Organics.  I love having produce delivered to my house, and how much easier to get kids interested in it because it's "mail".
19) Boiler heat.  Our current house has radiators.  That means it doesn't dry out in the winter, and feels warmer at a cooler temp on the thermostat.
20) Hardwood floors with fuzzy socks.
22) Ice cream
23) nice pens and notebooks, colored pencils, markers, and crayons
24) sports and games
25) fuzzy blankets, especially on the couch watching tv "sharing" with the kids
26)  small inconveniences that save me big problems later.
27) the kindness of strangers
28) the time and ability to volunteer
29) camping
30) improvisation...whether it's duct tape costumes or how to substitute for ingredients, new ways to old things are always fun.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Today has been a bake-and-clean -a-thon for my darling husband...a last minute shopping and recipe checking event for me, and a whole lot of digital for the youngest three.  Our teenager is around here somewhere too, but he's pretty good at hiding when he smells housework.

After my second store run though, I had had enough.  We turned off the digital and kicked the kids outside.  It worked for a little while.  There were scooters flying down the sidewalk, neighbor kids to exchange yards with, and leaves and sticks to investigate.  Then they got thirsty and came inside, to find dad watching basketball.  This is where kid-watching today got entertaining.

Have you ever watched an eight year old play monopoly with a five and six year old?  It was an absolute riot.  "Mom, what's 500-106?"  Yes, let's break the big bills and get all our "change" in ones.
Let's buy houses....Let's abandon the game to play house!  Or wrestle.  Or play sesame street chess.

"Mom, we need some more games?"  (Yes we do.  It may be our family christmas thing this year.)
"Mom, look, I made a sling."
"Did you hurt your arm?"
"No, I just wanted to see if I remembered how.  Now I'm going to practice using only one hand for the rest of the day...but I put my right hand in the sling because I'm left handed."

With our GF/DF boy at Grandma's we had pizza for dinner.

Then there was the meaningless threats after dinner:

I swear if I hear the "minecraft" version of "dy-no-mite" one more time, that kid is going to be cleaning the baseboards in both the bathrooms.
Who wants to go to bed at seven o clock? (I do!)
Don't even think of touching those pies/rolls tonight or you won't get any tomorrow.
Did you ask to use that?  Hmmmm?
Forget it.  I'm going to hide at the computer and work on Nano for a while.
I emerge from my November novel writing project and it's soooo quiet.
"Where are the mini-minions? Are they all in bed?"
"yeah." the husband grunts from his computer.
They did get their hugs.  Sometimes I'm just too distracted by the urgent to pay attention to the important.  My family is what I'm thankful for....not just my baking/cleaning husband, but all of them.  So tomorrow we're alll just going to relax and enjoy the day.

Happy thanksgiving!

Warning: Theology and politics ahead.

    The current election cycle has come to an end.  At least in my circles, a lot of the controversy has been about social issues like health care and welfare.  Now for the most part my ticket was purple as usual.  I'm not affiliated with either party and vote according to my personal legal ideals, which are not the same as my personal moral ideals.
   However, if there is any one Bible passage I take as a directive on how to live my life, it is this. (I'm using the New King James off Bible Gateway today.)

Luke 10: ²⁶ He said to him, “What is written in the law? What is your reading of it?”

²⁷ So he answered and said, “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,’^[a] and ‘your neighbor as yourself.’”^[b]

²⁸ And He said to him, “You have answered rightly; do this and you will live.

Love God.  Love our neighbor.  The story of the good Samaritan follows...and is summed up by who was the neighbor?  The one who showed mercy.  Jesus replies like Nike.  "Just do it."(Luke 10:37)

Mercy seems to be really important to God.  It's mentioned 275 times in the Bible.

Another of my favorite verses about mercy is a kid's song too.

Micah 6:8  He has shown you, O man, what is good; And what does the LORD require of you But to do justly, To love mercy, And to walk humbly with your God?

Mercy is not to be brushed to the side, so sayeth Jesus.

Matthew 23:23 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone.

Yes it does say justice along with mercy, but justice isn't judgement.  Most NT references to justice regarding how we treat others refers to seeking relief for the oppressed (like the parable of the widow and the judge.)  I feel this passage in James also makes the ordering of our priorities clear.

James 2:13  ¹³ For judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.

A couple other verses that affect my politics, and are in accord with my view that my legal views and moral views don't have to necessarily be one and the same.

I Corinthians 6
¹² For what have I to do with judging those also who are outside? Do you not judge those who are inside? ¹³ But those who are outside God judges.

This verse comes at the end of a long sin laundry list, and how the church should handle others within the church who commit these sins.  But then it explicitly states, "don't hold unbelievers to this standard." (paraphrase.) 

The bible also says to protect the innocent in multiple places, so I'm not totally liberal.  I am kind of rabid where tiny humans are concerned, born or unborn.  

So how should we treat unbelievers?  See Good Samaritan story above.  I feel that the fact that health care and welfare are such huge issues is because the Church has failed.  I have failed.  Thus the government feels the need to step in.  In the end, my duty as a Christian is to make sure people are taken care of.   

"By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”" John 13:35

How did our oldest son's birthday & Halloween slip by?

Eeek!  Don't feel too neglected, blog-land...I've just been directing my writing energies in a different direction, Nanowrimo.  Today, at this exact second, I am caught up so I get to backtrack to much more important things, like my kids.

First and foremost, we have survived our first official teen year, our oldest child turned 14!  He just wanted to have cake and a movie with a couple of friends...so it was an easy birthday year from the parent point of view.  Did I mention he wanted to take his friends with to a movie with his family?  He hasn't disowned us yet.  We must be doing something right.

Once we cleared that hurdle it was on to Halloween.  This had to be my biggest cheater Halloween ever.  Most of our recycled costumes were in sad-sad shape...stained, holey, missing pieces, sizes no one has worn in a while, so we sprung for new ones this year, except for above mentioned 14 year old.  He just recycled his skeleton mask & gloves sitting in our driveway handing out candy...or eating it.  Probably both.  My costume creativity was spent on the girls.  They both wanted to be Hello Kitty.  Thing is, the store costumes looked like sized down teen ones...so instead of cute little girl, they looked more like He-lloooo Kitty.  That just wasn't going to work.  So they each got some new clothes fitting the theme, a set of ears w/ bow I found at Deals!, and a tail.  I bought this infinity scarf-muff thingy at K-mart and was going to butcher it into two tails w/ scissors and duct tape.  Grandma graciously offered her sewing services instead, and the end result was soooo cute!  Or maybe it's just my daughter that's cute, but I'm biased.

Courtesy of K-mart's 1/2 price costumes, our twelve year old was a ninja, our ten year old batman, and our kindie boy spidey.




 Even though Si guy is kid # 6, he was kid number one to get me to do anything for a kindergarten party.  Sugar-hyped cat herding w/ hovering nervous parents is just not my idea of a good time...so I dropped off my monster fingers for healthy snack, and excused myself to go home and get showered and dressed.  Yeah, Halloween was that kind of morning.  At least my PJ pants and sweatshirt matched.
   


I did return to the school in the afternoon for my 4th grade room parent duties.  It was, well, an interesting experience.  These kids have soooo much energy, and I don't.  Maybe it's because there's 16 boys and only 7 girls, or maybe I've been in the 5th & 6th grade rooms a little too long.  Movie titles are just too abstract for 4th grade Pictionary.  They liked making up the story and the glow-in-the-dark eyeball bouncy balls, so all wasn't lost.  One party down, two to go.

We did trick-or-treating differently this year too.  E1 & E2 went w/ a gaggle of older kids, so I just had the youngest three.  With the wonderful weather, it was probably the longest trick-or-treat treck we've ever taken, and I didn't even have to make meaningless threats after the first block or two.  The boys seemed to be having a good time too when we crossed their paths once.  I love that we live in a friendly neighborhood with gaggles of kids.  Another note.  Buy more candy next year.  We ran out before eight.

Since Halloween, we've had our oldest's last football game, and Nutcracker rehearsals for E1, and been selling Girl Scout cookies!  Anyone want some?  Y'all know where to find me.   Signing off to take Ms. P to her troop meeting tonight.

Today I took my kid to the ballet...

    Today I took my twelve-year-old boy to the ballet, and we both had a fabulous time.  It was his second time in the Kauffman Center, and my first.   The headline show was Carmina Burana, but End of Time just about stole it's glory.  This was only the opening weekend!  If you're in KC, it's an opportunity that shouldn't be missed.  The symphony, chorale, and ballet of KC collaboration was a breath-taking experience.  You can get more information and tickets here:  http://ticketing.kcballet.org/single/psDetail.aspx?psn=4331

  After parking on the street and climbing a lot of stairs (come on mom!  I am.  oof.), we admire the view from the top of the hill, go in to retrieve our tickets,  & sit in the "Footnotes" chat to learn more about the show...Then the real fun begins.  First, he inspects the stairs, how wide they are and the shape of them.  Then we look at window wall and ceiling.  We look at the same view we had outside from the various height balconies.  Seeing that spark and interest in his eyes made my day.
  Then we find our seats, and blessed be, we are next to a music teacher.  She chirps about how nice the high seats are, since they allow us to see into the pit.  She's happy to explain what the various instruments in the orchestra are that he's not familiar with before the show.  (He had never seen an oboe before, or the timpani drums.  He was quite impressed by the showing of his instrument, the cello.  They had four of them, right in front of the conductor.)  We were definitely starting on the right foot.
   The first piece began, leaping and lifting, and color everywhere.  The music was Haydn.  A showy piece to bring excitement in from the very beginning....and lots, and lots, of male dancers.  Just what my ballet boy needs to see.  He's not alone.  He's also not the only boy his age in the audience.  That didn't hurt either.
   There is a short break between the first two pieces, where we stay in our seats.  The lights kind of come up.  This is where restless tween syndrome kicks in.
 "Is this intermission?"  No it's just a mini-break.
"Can I play on your phone?"  It won't be that long.
  Just when I feel the energy about to explode the magic begins again.  The curtain parts.  There's glorious starry back-lighting.  A spotlight is on the only two instruments on the stage, a piano, and a cello.  We both are entranced by the piece.  What feels like 30 seconds later, the lights come up and it's intermission.  We stretch our legs, admire the glass shelving built into the wall around the concessions stand, and people watch for a few minutes.  We spread out a little more since there are empty seats next to us, and settle in to watch the "main show."
   E1's reaction to Carmina was at first a "what?"  Then as it progressed into less intense and lighter fare he enjoyed it more.  I did not enjoy explaining the "roasting of the swan" after though.  I fully admit the "nude" scenes made him bury his head in my shoulder, and I was okay with that too.  The show was not over the top, it just was pushing the boundaries of what my very proper pre-adolescent  could handle.  We brought the topics back down to earth in our discussion after the show.  (He kept the latin/english translations of the poems too.  I think the show made an impression.)
  What he was most excited about after the show though, were the elevators.  We climbed up to the top level so after the patrons who needed it cleared out, we could go down it and see the view of our hill through the glass sides.
While waiting he had questions.
"What kind of glass do they use in the ceiling to protect it from hail?"
"How much does the elevator weigh?"
"How does it work?"  (I showed him the pulleys.)
After we took it down, we looked at the lower elevator.
"Look mom!  It works differently."
(I *think* it has a hydraulic lift...but don't quote me on that.)
We look at the angles of the windows.  In some ways, I think he was more excited about inspecting the building than seeing the show.  I think a cellist who majors in "architectural engineering" has a nice ring to it.
But he's only 12.  Who knows what the future really holds.

So, what is NaNoWriMo anyway?

    NaNoWriMo is for National Novel Writing Month.  It's a place for everyone whose ever "wished" they could write a book to do it!  It's a mass literary madness support group.  Since they wish to make the process as masochistic as possible, they choose the month of November for this project.  Anyone who'd like to learn more about NaNoWriMo just follow the link here:  http://www.nanowrimo.org/

   Why yes, I've decided to participate in this event this year.  Thanks for asking.  What do my kids think about this decision?

"Hey, I'm doing NaNo this year.  You want to do the teen version?"

"Nah, I'd never win."
"Sure you could.  It's just like the spiral "book" you were writing with your friend A."

"But it would never get picked."

"Dude, you win by finishing.  It's 50 thousand words in 30 days."

"When would I do this?  I have school, and football, and stuff."

"I have to feed you, drive you, and stuff too.  What's your point?"

"Mom, writing a novel in 30 days is just crazy.  WHAT is that?"

"Those books are my research materials for the novel."

 Hey, Greek Wars?  Gimme that book!"

Gee, thanks for the support kid.  NEXT!

"A fifty thousand page book in a month?  Why would you want to do that?"

"Gives me something to do while waiting for you in rehearsal."

"Oh.  What are we going to eat?"

Good question son.  Good question.

"Mo-om.  Why are you we-search-ing?"

"For my book."

"My teacher must be smarter than you.  She never has to look anything up."

"No computer for a month?!  Mom, you can't do this.  Or at least Dad should buy you a laptop."

Dad?  What does Dad think about this?

"Whatever you want to do is fine with me honey."
"Are you sure you don't mind?  It's not like I'm a great housekeeper to start with."

"We'll be fine."

"I'll still feed you."

"We'll be fine."

"This doesn't seem fair to you.  You already do more than your share."
"Honey, do it.  You want to.  WE. will. be. fine."

There you have it.   They'll be fine.

Salisbury steak: a walk through on recipe conversion

Tonight, this was what I was craving for dinner.  Trying a new recipe in our house is always an adventure, because well...we just don't eat the same way as everyone else.  Ingredients in a typical salisbury steak recipe I can't use include, "cream of whatever" soup, worcestershire sauce, "onion soup mix", bread crumbs,  and flour.
It doesn't help that as soon as I start to plan a recipe, someone walks in and says "Mushrooms?  Do we have to eat that?"  or "brown gravy.  yuck.  Can I have tomato sauce instead?"

Tonight the minions were lucky.  I was feeling benevolent.  I needed two pans to make enough for our crew anyway, so doing one with mushroom sauce and one w/ our typical meatloaf red sauce was no big deal.
That was step one.  Break down the recipe into it's elements.  Salisbury steak has 2 elements really, a browned meatloaf patty for the "steak" and the gravy.
Step two:  What are the primary flavorings.  In Salisbury steak, they are beef, onion, salt, and mustard.

So for the "steak"  I started w/ a basic meatloaf blend, 1 egg per # of meat, a couple of forgotten UDI hamburger buns broken into crumbs by the food processor, an onion and four cloves of garlic chopped in the food processor, and two carrots grated in the food processor.  To make it more salisbury, I added Penzey's toasted onion and Rachel Ray beef stock to the mix, along w/ dry mustard, salt, and pepper.
Then I dredged it in potato starch w/a dash of salt and 1/2 sharp paprika, and browned the oversized hamburger/min-meatloaf on the stove in some oil & put them in a 9x13 pan.  Steak part, done.
Now it was time to make the gravy. :)
1) Drain oil out of browning pan.  Put 2-3 Tb potato flour into pan w/ an equal amount of solid fat of your choice.  (Butter, Palm shortening, lard, etc.)  Once the flour looks "sandy" and brown, start adding about 1/2 box of beef broth and a bottle of sorghum beer, and about 2T of brown sugar, and more dry mustard and paprika.  Throw in the onion/carrot bits that were stuck to the sides of the food processor and a package of sliced mushrooms.  Let it simmer a couple minutes and we're good to go.  (Add more liquid/thickener to whatever floats your gravy boat.)

2) Dump over "steaks."  Throw in 375 degree oven for thirty minutes.
3) Let cool about 10 minutes, then stuff face.