Home Cooking

I grew up in Texas.  I don't live there any more.  Aside from very close friends and family, the thing I miss the most about it is the food.  The saucy sizzle that permeates nearly all "Texas" dishes is just something that I have not found anywhere else.  Other places that I have lived like San Francisco and New York City and North Carolina sport some yummy food (and I am certain that someone from any one of these places--or from anywhere else for that matter--could write this post about the food coming out of their home), but my taste buds are still loyal to the Lone Star State.

I have learned not to try to get Mexican on the east coast.  I leave the establishment so sad and homesick and totally unsatisfied.  There is one chain restaurant, On the Border, which I frequent in desperation but even its food is vastly inferior to its On the Border cousins in Texas.

Over the years I have started making more of the food out of my home state.  Typically I am a recipe user, but the funny thing about making this food for me is that recipes were totally irrelevant.  I added and subtracted and remembered and enhanced to turn our meals into something that said home to me and from me to my kids.  

On the table this week:

: fajitas with sauteed Cubano and red peppers and onions

: black beans

: jalapeno poppers

: guacamole

: slow-cooked pork ribs

What foods remind you of home?

Children and Work Around the House

In her Easter basket, my daughter got a book I have always wanted to read, The Country Bunny and the Little Gold Shoes.  If you haven't read it, it tells the tale of an aspiring Easter Bunny mama bunny and her 21 baby bunnies.  This mama bunny, with a whole house full of babies, has each one of her children dutifully running the house. 

I do realize that this is fiction (although I have decided that I want my life to be exactly like mama bunny), but it did make me think about what I could expect from my own children if I simply asked (or told, rather).  They are expected to clean up after themselves, and I do my best to make sure one  activity is closed out before we move onto the next (which is not easy for I myself have a hard time with focus).   They have to put away clean laundry, deposit all of their dirty clothes into a laundry basket (this has been a struggle, even for Daddy), and bring all of their dishes to the sink after eating.  But there is little beyond this.  

There is a host of things that I think they could do: take out the compost, feed and water the chickens, make their beds, wipe he counters, etc..., but I suppose I do not know where to begin.  I am not sure I want to offer an allowance for doing what I consider to be simply what is expected in our home.  The problem is, right now, I don't expect it and therefor I do it all.

All of this makes me wonder what those of you with children expect from your own kids in and around your home?  Clearly the expectations change with age.  If you have any special words of advice or practical solutions, please share.

Corner of My Home: Entryway

I have been meaning to post a Corner of My Home, and this post last week inspired me to finally do it.  

We moved into our current home in March of last year, having already done some (badly needed) work on the house and with a lot more to go.  While it will always be a work in progress over here, the bulk of it (removing the pool, redoing the kitchen, the floors) has been done.  Once the dust settled from the renovations, we were left with an only somewhat finished house and a lot (for us) of space to fill up.  

We had neither the budget nor the will to purchase furniture, hang up pictures, put down rugs, or do any of the other things that make a house feel like a home.  Slowly but surely over the course of the year, pictures are going up, rugs are going down, and vitality is seeping into our space.

The entryway, like most entryways, is a loading and unloading station.  We put on, we take off in this rectangular space.  The puzzle (for me) with the space was/ is that there is room for a little more, but not much.  My husband, who is better able to "see" a space, immediately envisioned a mini-work station for us: a place to store mail, keep our laptop, etc...: a pretty and practical place.

For many (many) months, the little bit was just in transition.  Our phone rested on the floor, along with our coats, our computer and lots of dust while I searched for the perfect bench for the spot.  Then, I gave in and boy am I glad that I did.  I do not spend much time actually sitting at the desk, but when I do, I love it.  

A Barbara Garrison print, my Nikki McClure calendar, my favorite photo from our wedding, my knitting needles, and other little bits and pieces make this a happy and harmonious little nook within our little house.

Coats and Mittens and Hats and Stuff

There is a lot to like about winter~the pristine beauty of the icy world, brightly colored birds that pepper that white world with their streaks of color, warm (or at least kinda warm, and by that we mean a few (and only a few) degrees warmer than outside) days and nights spent indoors playing games and reading (and siblings raging at each other), and the fast fast fast sledding over bumps and down hills hollering~oh my gosh, yes, there is a lot to love.  But there is one thing that I for surely do NOT love and that is the winter gear and the location (or locations) of it in our house.  Despite our designated basket and somewhat ample closet space, I find straggler mittens and discarded coats either dropping out of an overflowing basket or nowhere near that basket at all.

Then I read this post and realized that I had some say in this matter.  So I began by painting a child's block that I had long ago confiscated from the kids (as its length made it the perfect weapon in sibling battles) and painted it the color of our trim.  Then I cut up some images from wallpaper that we sampled but never used, found some old hooks in a closet upstairs, and with a little drilling help from my husband, we made the thing.  When I tell you that our quality of life has improved since it was hung, I would not be exaggerating. A place for everything, and {almost} everything in its place.

A Place for Everything.

and everything in its place (or as much so as this not-so-organized organizer can ever expect).  

I have been on an sorting/ sifting  roll lately.  For so many years, our family has been in a state of transition.  There was the year and a half leading up to our planned move to Portland, Oregon, there was the very sad, very long 10 months (only) that we spent in Portland, there was the move back to the Northeast, there was the new baby, there was the third move out of a rental and into our own house, there was the house renovation, and now there is the c a l m.

Except there must be something with me and this c a l m , as I not spending it so calmly.  There has been so much forgotten, neglected, put aside, thrown down, and ignored that I am quite honestly relishing the chance to tend to this "stuff" again.  With the help of my new label maker and a very organized lady, I am slowly but surely restoring a sense of order to our stuff and to our lives.

So far, I have 

~found a home (here or with the local Vietnam Veterans of America) for mounds and mounds of cords and other miscellaneous electronic equipment~

~burned my entire collection of cds to my hard drive, resulting in a couple cds being transplanted to my kids' bedrooms (currently our 5 year old is enjoying Creedence Clearwater Revival's Chronicle and the 4 year old has latched on to REM's Dead Letter Office. Hysterical, Awesone and Disturbing all at once)~

~sorted through countless pictures, letters, saved momentos (with countless more to go)~

~begun the process of consolidating my retirement funds from my various teaching positions~

~developed a budget and stuck to it~

I still want/need/have to

~work on (or start ACK!) those baby books~

~refinish our library card catalog and move it to the living room for all to admire~

~read all of those manuals for the appliances that I actually do use, including my washing machine and my camera~

All of this upending and repackaging, though, while chaotic, is all at once so settling for this rolling stone that has stopped rolling for the moment.  

Coming Untangled

I began the process of sorting through my yarn collection, of untangling strings that have been bound together for some years now, of separating, of thinning out, of grouping yarns of the same weight or manufacturer together.  I tell you, this endeavor felt like such a metaphor for our lives.  With three moves within a year and a half (two of those across the country) and a whole lot of emotional and physical unrest, we are just now (a few months shy of a year since our last move) starting to feel grounded in our house and in our skin.

There are so many, many things I have been wanting to tend to since all the moving/shifting/unsettling began but most days I felt as though we were just getting by, just putting another day behind us.   But things have began to settle for us and some of those forgotten projects are now getting some attention.

The sense of accomplishment I am getting from little things like untangling my stash of yarn and categorizing it on Ravelry is almost comical.  I have even gotten a label-maker (and boy oh boy do I love my labels?!). How horrified my twenty-five year-old self would be at this thirty-six year-old me. Oh, but it feels good to be in my own skin, better than it has felt in a long time.  Now for those baby books...

Done: Our Kitchen

Fall 2010, how did you come so fast? Summer just seems so much shorter than the three other seasons, doesn't it? Maybe it is because I love it so much...

So much has been going on in our little world--days seem to sweep by at a breathtaking pace, but there is some slowness approaching. I can feel it. I laid down in the grass yesterday and let our youngest son climb and nuzzle and roll all over me while a warm yet cool perfect September sun beat down on us.

I am looking forward to some quieter days right now and looking back on all that was accomplished over the summer. For the next few days I am going to post projects that we finished over the summer starting with Our Kitchen.

It was long. Brutal. Horrendously slow. But I think it is all worth it.



In the end, I think it is all in the details. Perhaps one of my favorite parts of our new kitchen are these mason jars which store all of our grains. I saw a picture similar to this one on Kyrie's blog months ago and was inspired to order my own.



The end product of our many many months of living with a slop sink and (on the days that we were lucky) an old stove is nothing fancy or especially original. But it is totally and completely ours.

Remember to Breathe

I am not exactly sure how to reenter this space. It has been so SO long. I don't think I have ever been gone for such an extended period of time. How I have missed this little corner of the world--the safety of it here, the real coziness, the support, and the quirkiness of it all. Normalcy is {somewhat} returning to our lives. We have survived our third move within a year and a half and a kitchen renovation and are no worse for the wear {so far}. I am looking forward to posting again regularly with kitchen and garden updates from this topsy-turvy life. Happy Summer to all of you! xo

Wednesday Reviews: Making a Family Home

For those of you who don't know, I have a problem. This bookshelf of mine is continuing to grow at break-neck speeds. I can't stop. Amazon is just so good at making recommendations and the choice are nearly limitless. What about the library, you say? Yes, I know but it just isn't nearly as much fun. I am at least reading them now. Throughout our year in Portland, I simply acquired them but never had the stamina to even make it through one.

Making a Family Home by Shannon Honeybloom is the latest to move on and off my nightstand. I could not wait for this one to arrive and immediately picked up up after finishing Simple Home. I really wanted to love it. I am always looking for ideas on how to make my home feel a little cozier than it is and or ways to put it together more cohesively. I have grand ideas but have no idea how to make them work in a space. I was hoping that this book would be the answer to all of my Waldorfy decorating woes and it just was not. The book contains some stunning photography of Honeybloom's home and family and for a reader who is not familiar with Waldorf notions about play spaces, toys, natural materials, etc... this would definitely be a worthwhile read. Unfortunately for me, very little of the material was new. I do appreciate what the author has to offer--gentle advise on why to turn the t.v. off, the importance of eating together as a family, etc... It is pretty easy to come off the wrong way and, for me, she does a great job of not being preachy, of being a human with ideas on how she wants to raise her family. I like than and I think I would like her; I just didn't love the book.

January 27: Wednesday Reviews

This week I have been dabbling in a few books, one on child development, another on home design, and I end each night reading about a famous chef's kitchen in Great Kitchens.

In our renovation, my husband and I are trying to keep it really simple-- we don't want a lot of cabinetry, we don't need or want a subzero refrigerator or a Viking range; we want a warm place for our children, our family, and our friends to gather. Lots of wood, hanging pots, utensils stored around the stove, some movable furniture, etc... There are some fantastic ideas in this book though. One of the chefs spotlighted is Alice Waters. She has a wood burning stove that would be incredible to have. Not sure what one does with a wood burning stove (and clearly I am not a candidate for one given my inability to cook oatmeal in a slow cooker) but wow does it look cozy. There are kitchens that are, in my opinion, over done and kitchens that are so rustic they might have existed hundreds of years ago in this book. I am enjoying my nightly reading about kitchens more than I ever thought I would.

January 25: At Night

My husband travels about 8-10 nights out of the month. That means that 2-3 days each week I spend alone. I mean, well, alone in the a four year old, a three year old, and a six month old with one mama kind of way. During those days, I try to take in the small moments and many times throughout a day I can. There are also many times that I am just biding my time until they fall asleep and I can sit and sit and sit. I especially enjoy the quietness of the evenings when B is here, when we can just be together in our quietness or in our conversation. Much of the time we have a Netflix documentary playing, hopefully one compelling enough to bring me out of my nighttime stupor. We just watched this one and I am half way through this one at the moment. Then there are nights when B is on the road and here I am. There is something almost sacred to me about the nights I spent alone in this house with my three sleeping babies. Tonight especially. The stillness, the breathing, my tea and the darkness.

***

On another note, my slow cooked oatmeal for the Monday Cooking Challenge was a Tuesday morning disaster. It was a thick brown soup resembling oatmeal only in smell. I am going to try this one again, just have to research what went wrong

January 21: Homemade Bath

A few days ago Heather at Shivaya Naturals posted about a spa day that she and some of her friends put together. It was a timely post for me because our whole family (now including me) has been sick for over a week. We have high fevers, deep coughs, lots of mucus, and other not so pleasant symptoms. Because I am trying to stay away from Tylenol these days but still want to ease the discomfort of a fever, I have been looking for alternatives.

While N and H were coloring their shrinky dinks (do you remember these?) this afternoon, I mixed some epsom salts, dried lavender, and Eucalyptus oil together and then put my aching daughter in the bath. I don't know of it was the salt, the warm water, a change of scenery, or all of the above, but she looked and felt much better.
Normally when we are being invaded by illness in this house, I do not take the time to actually think, rather I just put my head down and do. Today I tried to breathe through the crying children and, instead of running to put out the next fire, I took moments here and there to zoom out, make changes. I would zoom back in almost immediately, get lost in the dizziness, run from the refrigerator, to the clorox wipes, to the bathroom, to the bedroom, and then back again, but those moments with me and my breath-they were my anchor.

January 19

Meet Bwack Bwack and Chickadee

These two were crocheted by my Aunt Donna for N's fourth birthday. She opened the present and, as if she had known them her whole life, said, "Oh, it's Bwack Bwack and Chickadee." And so these are the two latest in our cast of characters...

***

We just closed on a new (very old) house on Friday so we are officially homeowners again after renting (and moving twice) for a year and a half. There are so many things that I am looking forward to about owning a home; I want to garden, I want compost, I want to have chickens, and mostly I just want to make the house ours in ways that I have not since we have been renters. Not that I couldn't have done it in our rentals, I just didn't. I packed, I unpacked, I broke down, I built up again, I had a baby, and I didn't hang up pictures.

Because the house we bought needs work, we have a real chance to make it ours. Over the course of the next two months, we are going to be working on all parts of the house--the kitchen, the floors, the walls, the yard. It all needs work, so why is it that I can only think of plans for my craft room?!

I am looking forward to a house full (or largely empty, rather) of sweet handmades like Bwack Bwack and Chickadee.

Bedtime

Kyrie's post on her family's nightly rhythm has inspired me to write about our own. Because we are visiting our family right now and have been for a couple of weeks, we are taking a bit of a departure from our usual nighttime rituals. Times like this are good for me--they allow me to zoom out on our lives, they offer a perspective that I don't have when I am at home and this then enables me to zoom in on what needs to be changed and to notice what is lovely just they way it is.

We have nearly always had an early bedtime. As a child myself, my mother fed, bathed, and put me and my brother to bed close to 7:30 in the evening so the concept of a structured bedtime ritual and early bedtime was not something new to me. Additionally, my sister-in-law who had her first child a year before me had her newborn in his crib by 6:30. Our first child was prone to fits in the later evening hours and, as very new parents, we were confused. In passing, someone said to me that she put her children to bed earlier to get some alone time with her husband. I tried a 6:30 bedtime that very same night and have never turned back since!
Like Kyrie, we eat our dinner around five o'clock. Much of the time, our two older children help me with dinner while the baby is either on his final nap of the day (usually just before 4 pm) or sitting close by in a bouncy seat. Unlike Kyrie, however, I am terrible about remembering to put everything on the table so I am constantly popping up and down during the first few minutes of dinner tending to everyone's needs. *Must remember to breathe here, think slowly, and anticipate* For a few months, we started off dinner with each one of us stating what we are grateful for. It was a really beautiful way to start a meal and one that I think we should reinstate.
After dinner and at around 5:30, the two older kids head upstairs for a bath (we have recently switched back to a bath every night rather than every other night) with their Daddy (if he is home) while I nurse the baby and put him to bed. Then I bring out their pajamas and lay out their clothes for the following day (if I remember). After the bath, each child picks one book (or one is chosen by me). Following reading, we darken the room and light the bedtime candle. Each of us then recounts the events of our days. H always begins his part by saying, "I like to see dinosaurs." We haven't figured this out yet but it is always a part of the evening that makes me smile. We blow out the candle and say good night (and then of course we honor requests for new water, a dropped passy, a dollie, etc... for another fifteen minutes but then... that is the unrhythmic part of our rhythm!).

Getting OUT

With the winter months coming up, we are beginning to hunker down. Darkness is coming earlier these days and much of our activity is centered in and around the home. I have to constantly remind myself (unless of course I am reminded by the kids--their tantrums or their general grumpiness) how important it is to get outside each and every day if even for just a few minutes. It is harder now on this other side of the country where nature walks are just a bit further away and not as breathtaking. But there is beauty still. The seasons on the east coast are a real wonder to behold. I am looking forward to exploring the woods around us in the winter. Kyrie's post was just the inspiration that I needed to take the kids out over the next few days while we are here in the warmth of Texas.

Reorganizing Our Play Space

I have been doing some thinking lately about how to best organize the play area for the kids. We have so many toys that get forgotten--lost at the bottom of a basket or hidden in a corner. Our sunroom which serves as a playroom is a long narrow space where toys seem to spread out uncontrollably. In Sharifa Oppenheimer's book Heaven on Earth, she describes a number of essential elements for indoor play spaces, including having "homes" for all play things--baskets for doll clothes, for example. Children then know where to go when they want to dress their dolls, rather than sifting through an enormous basket filled with miscellaneous junk.
I decided to break up the room by dividing it with our long, low shelf. We now have two play spaces--one focused on "homey" play with a kitchen, table, doll bedroom, potty, etc.. and one focused more on "school" play with our books, games, an easel, a train set and other toys. I was worried that this might be too directive and limiting, but so far we have really enjoyed it. Not only have we seen a renaissance of the train set and the dollhouse, but we also have two "rooms"--one for each child when there is strife. A little more playing and a little less yelling--this makes for one happy mama.