Ordinary Time

You know, I am not perfect. Far from it, in fact. I am also not terribly patient despite whatever image you have decided to create about me in your head. Most days I hold it together pretty well, other days, not so much. Sometimes the accumulation of little annoyances which get the better of me. Today was one of those days. One of the things you just don't think about when you are adding to your family and are busy and focused on many young children is the sheer length of time that is ahead of you. I've been actively parenting children for twenty-eight years now and still have six more years before the youngest turn eighteen. There are some days I am just weary. Weary of not being able to assume that something I have set down will still be there when I come back for it. (It rarely is.) Weary of still being in the routinely breaking dishes phase of life. (We lost another corning ware dish today. We now have three lids and one container.) Weary of having things just vanish. (A ne

I am continuing to limp along with my laptop. I had no energy to deal with it after having spent over an hour sorting out why two of our tablets weren't working this afternoon. Technology is against me. Monday, March 29 Sriracha BBQ chicken      It was nice enough out that we could grill, so we did Garlic potatoes Tuesday, March 30 Spaghetti and meatballs      Homemade sauce, store bought meatballs Garlic bread  Salad Wednesday, March 31 (K.'s actual birthday) Calzone      This is one of K.'s favorite dishes and G. agreed to make the dough for it Salad Thursday, April 1 Beef stew of egg noodles      A new recipe for us out of Alice Water's Simple Foods cookbook Salad Friday, April 2 Butter chicken      Because sometimes you just have a craving for Indian food Garlic basmati rice Naan Saturday, April 3 Red beans and rice      As I write this, I'm realizing I forgot to buy the Andouille sausage that goes in it. I guess I'm headin back to the store before Saturday

I was going to do my usual Monday meal planning post, but as I was starting to write my computer died. J. was able to resurrect it, but instead of writing a blog post, I'm transferring important files to an external hard drive. There was a bad moment when I realized what I would lose if we couldn't get the computer on again. So if I vanish for a couple of days, it will be because having sorted out new phones, I will be sorting out a new laptop. I can think of approximately five thousand things I would rather spend my time doing. Oh, and now you should all go and back-up your information. I'm quite sure I'm not the only one who doesn't do that as often as I should. 

Tonight we celebrated K.'s 15th birthday. He won't actually turn 15 until Wednesday, but this is when everyone could be here. Before dinner, W. helped make plaster masks for the younger ones who are studying Greece. In the middle of April, we're going to have a big Greek dinner and they are going to perform a short play about Theseus and the Minotaur. If you are doing a Greek play, you really need masks. L. Y. H. (I missed getting photos of K. and G.) It's a messy process. Here are some of the masks. We needed six masks total, as some people are playing more than one role. The Minotaur is on top and King Aegeus is on the bottom. Theseus on the left and Athena on the right. These need to dry for several days and then they can begin to be painted and then decorated. We have paint stirrers which will be attached to they can be held up to their faces.

One week of spring break down. I'm very glad I planned in two weeks because I am not ready to go back to our school schedule yet. I realized last week that I forgot a very important item. Last month TM ranked up to private second class in the Army National Guard. He says he has a good chance of ranking up to private first class before he ships out to boot camp. I'm extremely proud of how well he is doing. TM also wanted to experiment with my phone camera, so I ended up with quite a few pictures of Aster on it. Here are some new ones of her. And one of Kenzie for good measure. He always looks vaguely worried. J. received his first Covid vaccine yesterday. We're getting closer to having everyone vaccinated who can be. W., MC, and B. are fully vaccinated or almost. A. can start looking, as can D. because he is employed at a library. I'm really hoping that individuals over 16 with underlying health conditions are next because that would take care of H. and R. (as soon as sh

We have a stack of newly checked out picture books from the library that J. picked up the last time he took children there. I have been sitting here, wondering what to write while listening to him read to children. One of the books he read to R. I had completely forgotten about. Not only had I forgotten about it, but I had also forgotten about who much I love it. The book is Goldilocks and the Three Dinosaurs by Mo Willems. Now, this is bad enough, but at one point I loved it so much that I even wrote a blog post about it. It wasn't until J. read the last line that everything fell into place. The last line is the title of this post. It is such a good moral, don't you think? So then I had to spend some time poking around through 3483 posts to find what I had written. (Thank goodness for search engines!) At first I thought it would be from the summer we read as many versions of different fairy tales as I could find. This summer activity came about through a Vivian Gussin Paly bo

On Saturday, I am starting something new. I will be beginning remote coursework to earn a certificate in Equine Facilitated Learning (EFL). I am excited as EFL seems as though it combines many of my somewhat diverse interests... horses, brain science, emotional health, supporting people through change, and did I mention horses? EFL is a little hard to pin down with a definition, but the short version is that horses act as mirrors to people's emotional and physical states, allowing those individuals to see themselves more clearly and thus make positive changes in their lives. Horses can do this because they have more mirror neurons in their brains than any other mammal, so that combined with their highly attuned ability to pick up physical nuances in those around them is what makes them seem as though they have emotional super powers... and maybe they do. I've heard people refer to horses as lie detectors on four legs. I have always wanted to find ways to support parents who are

I rarely find myself at a loss for what to read next, particularly with non-fiction. I read one book I find interesting and inevitably, there will be another book referenced which I add to my list, and so on and so on. This is how I found myself reading Body Learning: An Introduction to the Alexander Technique by Michael J. Gelb. It was mentioned in another book and it sounded as though it would beneficial to read it. I had read a bit about the Feldenkrais method in one of my other brain books, but had not done much research into the Alexander method other than to know that many actors and musicians make use of it.  I am finding it interesting reading. It has also assured me that my work with R. in how she holds her body is not in vain. This bit particularly struck me last night as I was reading. "Perhaps the most interesting aspect of Jones's work [another researcher whose work corroborated Alexander's] is his research into the 'startle pattern', a stereotyped re

Another week, another meal plan... Monday, March 22 Potato Leek Soup      Everyone (even those who don't care for potatoes) love this soup. Leeks can be difficult to find, and I essentially bought every leek the store had today. I hope no one needed any. Sourdough bread      Store bought Tuesday, March 23 Crockpot Eggplant Parmesan with Feta      This is tasty... not as tasty as regular Eggplant Parmesan, but a lot easier. Rotini pasta Salad Wednesday, March 24 Stir-fried Lemongrass Chicken      A favorite Vietnamese dish Jasmine Rice Cucumber Salad      We make both spicy and not spicy versions of this Thursday, March 25 Chicken Tortilla Soup      I love this soup! Guacamole      TM came home with a lot of avocados earlier this week, so what is one to do? Tortilla chips Friday, March 26 Panda Orange Chicken      This is a really good copycat version of the orange chicken at Panda Express. I add onions and sweet peppers to it to stretch the chicken. Fresh Noodles Eggrolls Saturday,

Tonight for dinner we had kimchi-bokkeumbap or kimchi fried rice. It's a Korean dish, which you probably figured by the kimchi in the title. Everyone loved it, even those who don't normally appreciate spicy food. (I did use sweet Korean BBQ sauce instead of hot to help cut the spiciness of the kimchi.) None of the family is Korean, but recently we have been really enjoying making Korean food starting with bibimbap on TM's birthday . We all enjoy trying new recipes and food from different countries. It's all part of the adventure of dinner. I also think it helps children develop a sense of adventurous eating and palates that appreciate different foods.  In our refrigerator and pantry we have sauces and condiments and spices and foods from a wide swath of the world... fish sauce, oyster sauce, dried chilies, mole sauce, tahini paste, falafel mix, curry paste, lemongrass, Chinese five spice, garam masala... to name a few. I realize we are unusual in both the amount of cook

A reader wrote and asked me for a book lists dealing with brain plasticity and play. Since I like nothing better than to make lists of books, I thought I would share it so you all could see it. Plus, while I haven't felt horrible today after my second Covid vaccine, I also haven't felt quite myself. I can't get warm and have much less energy than I normally do. It was kind of nice to fall asleep in the sun this afternoon, though. Anyway, all that to say this is the perfect post for the evening. On to the book lists. Like all my book lists, this is hardly definitive and is much more a reflection on my own idiosyncratic reading style. If you use the bibliographies, you will end up with more than enough reading material. Note that I have linked each title to Amazon through my Amazon Associates account (and thank you to those who do purchase through these links, the small amount of money I make allows me to buy more books). I have also linked to any previous blog posts I have w

Well, it feels as though it's been a week. I'm glad it's Friday. The phone drama took up a good deal of energy. It started out with my old phone needing to be recharged three times a day and when I plugged it in, it took some fiddling to make sure it would slowly charge. Then there was the time to get it set up and functioning. Bless TM for doing that. He told several tech support people that he had more patience than his parents for dealing with it, and it was very true. Now, I have a working phone. It's fast, it holds it charge, and when the phone rings, I can actually answer it. With the old one, about 75% of the time, the answer button wouldn't work. I can go back to happily not spending any time thinking about whether or not my phone will work and I like that. One last phone item. The camera is significantly better. I evidently has some sort of night-picture-thing on it that TM was dying to try out. So he took it out last night and took these two photos. Pretty

Here is the post that I was going to post on Tuesday until technology got in the way of my plans. (That technology is now solved, late last night TM figured out how to make the phones work. He spent nearly 28 hours on this little project.) But, we are now back in business, so blogging can continue. On Monday, I had planned that everyone would construct their lapbooks for Ancient Greece. Last week we had learned about Alexander the Great and the events that happened after his death, so we had pretty reached the end of Ancient Greek history. All along as we had been reading and learning things, I had had people create their own small books about each topic. Since we had been working on this since September, the stack was substantial. It turns out that this is the perfect project for the morning after the weekend of the change to daylight savings. Everyone was still a little tired and wasn't very up for doing anything too taxing, but they could cut and tape. Here is the state of thing

After over 24 hours, including TM spending 7 hours in the Sprint/T-Mobile store this afternoon, I still do not have a working phone. Sure, they say just switch your SIM card and follow the prompts and your shiny new phone will be all ready to go, but the truth is, it doesn't work that way. It is actually faster to shop, test drive, and purchase a car. Having done that fairly recently I can say that without hesitation. I am becoming resigned to the fact that I may never have a phone. Everything is transferred from my old phone, but no matter what anyone does, it cannot connect to the internet, so no texts or phone calls. If you need to get a hold of me, email J. (but don't call since he doesn't have a working phone, either) or text a child. How anyone could possibly call them the best wireless carrier is beyond me. It seems you should actually provide working wireless service in order to earn that title. If you were thinking of switching to T-Mobile , save yourself a whole

For all of you, who like us, had a major blowing snowstorm today, enjoy a little promise of spring that I discovered under the grow lights today. Now that we have reminded ourselves that the snow won't last, we can move on to the business at hand. Monday, March 15 Reuben sandwiches      March always brings corned beef sales, so I stock up. Reuben sandwiches are pretty much all we ever use them for because we love them so much. (Except the time I corned my own brisket... that we ate straight because it was so good.) Cooked carrots Tuesday, March 16 Rustic fish chowder      If this week has a menu theme, it is "flip through the new food magazines that arrived and pick some meals from those." This chowder sounded good and it served 12 people with only one pound of fish. Who doesn't like that? Biscuits Wednesday, March 17 Beef and cabbage turnovers      Cabbage is on sale, too, this month. My family adores these. It uses the biscuits in a can which always make me feel vag

Tonight we celebrated W.'s birthday. As usual, there was lots of laughter, catching up with older children, good food, and just general enjoyment of each other's company. W. chose cherry pie for dessert which seemed appropriate since it was also Pi Day. At dinner, we did need to sort out the calendar a bit to figure out when to celebrate the next birthdays and holidays. It will be a busy month ahead. Happy Birthday, W.!

Finally, after months of living with barely functioning phones, J. and I ordered new ones which will arrive tomorrow. I hate the fact that cell phones are not designed to last more than a few years. We've only had these for just three a half years. It really seems that having something last for at least five years is not too much to ask. My children inform me otherwise. This unwillingness to accept the current disposable phone culture is what caused us to wait so long to replace them. But yesterday, while I was talking with another parent about ways to help connect to her son who was struggling, my phone dies not once but twice. It is infuriating when the battery goes from 40% to 15% to 0% within the span of one minute. I didn't even have time to get it plugged into the charger before it died. (And plugging it in is no guarantee it will actually charge. If the plug isn't positioned in exactly the correct manner, it won't charge.) Did I mention how infuriating this is? I

If there are more typos than usual in this post, it's because Nefertiti has decided to grace me with her presence and is now on my lap, in between my body and the laptop. She alternates between lying on top of one arm and sitting up so that I cannot see the screen. It makes typing difficult. And like all cat owners, no, it has never occurred to me to actually move the cat. With the warmer weather, there are more and more birds. I'm pretty sure I saw a blue heron flying over our yard on its way to the nesting area in the forest preserve behind us. It also means there is a lot more bird song in the mornings, which is a nice way to great the day. While I am doing the barn in the morning, being able to hear the birds singing is also a good indication of whether I am brooding or paying attention to my surroundings. If I focus on listening to the birds it means that my brain is occupied and the worry hamster cannot run on its wheel. Sometimes I feel as though I live in a sitcom. Ther

We had fettuccine Alfredo with spinach for dinner tonight. It is so good. It is sooo rich... complete with three sticks of butter and four cups of cream, not to mention the 8+ ounces of grated Romano. Did I mention how good it was? We add spinach because that seems to help balance out the artery-clogging properties a bit. ... Maybe? Probably not, but it sure tastes good.  At the end of dinner, as L. was finishing a large portion of seconds, she announced, "This dinner makes me feel tired and sluggish." No one disagreed with her. It tastes good, but eat too much and you definitely feel a bit of regret. As she asked to be excused from the table after dinner, 'accused' accidentally came out instead of 'excused'. G. pounced on it immediately and there was some funny word play between them for a moment or two.  All of this brought me immediately back to that study which was purported to prove that younger children of large families would suffer and that this was sh