A letter for Caitlin from Miss Cindee

For my children's Tae Kwon Do school, they need to earn "attitude" stripes by receiving a letter from parent or teachers for exceptional behavior. Caitlin really needs one to graduate this month. I told her I would write her a letter if she just remembered to do her basic chores without being asked. Unfortunately, she has been especially scattered and hasn't remembered once this week. She was in serious danger of not getting her stripe. However, I asked her ballet teacher if she would write a brief letter since Caitlin helps out with the three year old class. Her teacher wrote the most glowing letter for Caitlin and I just know that Caitlin is going to bust her buttons when she hears this letter read aloud tomorrow night in class.

This was Miss Cindee's letter:

Dear Tae Kwon Do Instructors,

I would like to recommend Caitlin Kubina for an attitude stripe because of her exceptional drive for getting it right. Caitlin has been a Ballet student at my dance  school for about five years.  She is a delight to teach on many accounts. Caitlin loves to dance. She listens well, takes correction to heart and applies it with commitment. She is respectful, pleasant, talented and a supportive team member. Recently she volunteered on her own account to help out with a class of three year old dance students. Not only has she been a big help to me, the younger students look up to her and their parents have complimented her on her contribution to the class. This is exceptional behavior for an 8 year old child!

Please feel free to contact me if you would like to discuss this further.

Best Regards,

Cindee Velle
Ballet with Cindee Velle

Celtic knot snowflake

I finally finished the small wall-hanging quilt for the holiday craft exchange.  I am rather pleased with how it turned out.  The knot was my own design, I made it with graph paper and a compass.  It is a smidge inaccurate, but I think it still resembles a snowflake.

Advent Wreath from Wool Roving

Finally, I've come up with a solution to my Advent Wreath dilemma. Using real evergreens for the wreath usually ends up being messy and the branches become dry as tinder before Christmas. But, using fake evergreens is just nasty, not to mention full of toxic materials. Celebrate baby Jesus with PVC? I don't think so. This year, I found this lovely green wool roving at the Sheep and Wool festival and I made this soft, puffy, natural and flame-resistant reusable wreath. I think I want to adjust the wraps a little bit, but otherwise I am pretty happy. I think this will work!

Best Bath Night Ever

Tonight, while Caitlin was taking her bath, I brought in my harp and played for her while she washed.  I started playing Pachelbel's Canon in D and she started vocalizing along.  No words, just following the melody with her voice.  And that girl can really sing with gusto.  We totally rocked the powder room.

The sweet things they say

Caitlin requested yellow yarn for a project she wanted to do.  I found the loveliest shade of pastel sunshiny yellow and gave it to her.  She told Gwen all about her knitting project and Gwen said that it was sure to brighten up anyone's day.

A good heart

Today at Trader Joe's I saw chocolate filled Advent Calendars for 99 cents. I asked Gwen if she wanted me to buy one for her and Cait and she answered, "No thanks, Mom. It is only 99 cents for all that chocolate. That means someone got ripped off." 
I guess I just need to teach her to cook and drive and my work here is done.

Breakfast in bed

Today, for no reason what so ever, I got breakfast in bed.  It was Caitlin's idea and Jeff, master omelet-maker that he is, went with it.  I had a glass of apple juice, a mug of coffee, a bowl of raspberries with a square of milk chocolate, a toasted and buttered bagel and an amazing mushroom omelet.  And, to top it all off, Caitlin climbed in bed with me and read to me (between bites of my bagel).  She read me the story we are reading together before bedtime, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.  It was such a treat to listen to her reading to me.  I adore my family!

The Plan

Caitlin proposed the following plan for today:

• Play hooky
• Send mom out for doughnuts
• Eat doughnuts while watching "Tangled" on a loop

I countered with the following proposal:

• Get ready for school
• Go to school
• Come home
• Go to piano lessons
• Do homework
• Eat a healthy dinner
• Go to bed

Here is what I would really LIKE to do:

• Both of us play hooky
• Go to an outdoor cafe and eat croissants beneath a colorful umbrella
• Take a walk in the sunshine
• Play music and sing
• Work on crafts or art projects
• Eat a gourmet meal prepared and served by someone other than myself
• Stay up late reading Nancy Drew books all snuggled together

When the cup is definitely empty

We had a lovely little girl spend the night with Caitlin last night.  She is a few years younger and it was her first slumber party.  As I was helping her brush her teeth, she asked for a glass of water.  I keep a rinsing cup for each of my girls by their toothbrush, but I hadn't brought one up for our guest.  I ran downstairs and discovered that I didn't have any clean small cups, so I grabbed an adult sized coffee cup hoping it would be alright.  When I handed her the cup she looked at it quite suspiciously.  So, thinking she's disappointed there are no flowers or fairies on the cup, I ask if anything is wrong.  She sticks her hand in the cup, just to make sure then she looks at me and says, "Yes, there is no water in this cup."  What kind of person gives a kid an empty cup when they ask for a glass of water!  Clearly I am not qualified to be a mom.  Well, we filled the cup at the sink, but I am pretty sure this little girl thinks I am a bit of a dim bulb.
Other than that, she had a wonderful sleep over.

Best Ginger Snap Cookies EVER

These cookies were so amazing!  The recipe came from the June-July 2011 issue of MaryJane's Farm.

1/2 cup butter softened
1/2 cup sugar, plus extra for rolling the cookies in
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/3 cup molasses
1 egg
2 cups flour
2 1/2 tsp groung ginger
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp allspice
1 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 350F with rack in middle.

In a large bowl, cream butter and sugars.  Add molasses and egg and beat until smooth.

In a medium bowl, mix flour and spices, baking soda and salt.  Add to the butter mixture and stir until dough is thoroughly mixed.

With a medium scoop of dough, roll a ball about 1.25 inches in diameter.  Roll in sugar and place on a cookie sheet.  Flatten slightly with your fingers.

Bake on the middle rack, one cookie sheet at a time for about 13 to 15 minutes.  Cookies should look slightly cracked.

Cool on cookie sheet for about 5 minutes and then transfer to wire cooling rack.

Makes approxiately two dozen.

Post-Recital run down

Caitlin had her dance recital today and it was a huge success.  I was blown away by all the dancers, especially the advanced dancers.  They were amazing.  Caitlin's performances went really well, in spite of the fact that she was a nervous wreck.   Originally, I was planning to watch the dances from the theatre and a friend was going to help Caitlin with her costume change but Caitlin wasn't ready for that.  She insisted that I stay in the dressing rooms with her.

Her first dance was for Ballet III, done to "What I did for love".  It was really beautiful.  There were four girls in her class and the costume was this frothy, glittery, pink confection of a dress, complete with laced and beribboned choker and a tiara.  Chin high, toes pointed, Caitlin nailed that dance.

It was the second dance that had Caitlin worried.  For one, she only had three songs in between to do her costume change.  Secondly, there was only one other girl in the class and the stage seems REALLY big when you are one of two people on it.  Thirdly, on their first run through at the technical rehearsal, both girls sort of blanked on part of the dance and just stood there for a bit.  This was remedied with a second run through and it was fine for the dress rehearsal but the seed of panic was planted.

So, Caitlin and her friend take the stage to dance to "Part of your World" for their Lyrical I/II class.  And it is flawless.  The girls are composed, fluid and graceful, moving effortlessly through their choreography, right up to the final pose.   The other girl was to initiate their exit and she waited one moment longer than Caitlin was interested in staying on that stage.  So Caitlin roughly jabs her with her elbow.  She may have thought it was subtle but no one missed it.  Everyone in the wings just cracked up.

And finally exiting the stage, she runs to her teacher and says, "It was great.  I didn't have a heart attack."

So, she danced in the recital and lived to tell the tale.  Actually, afterward, she was on a major high.  She and her friend sang and flitted and danced all over the classroom where they were to wait while the other acts were on.   It was such a joy to watch that part, too.  I hope this positive experience helps prevent her from getting stage fright later on in her life.

Photos from the backyard

Clothes drying on the line and blowing in the breeze.  I just love how summery it feels to look at this.

Our blueberries - and the inspiration for this blog.

We've got to wait a bit before they ripen.

Raspberries.

Garlic

Sunshine in a flower.

More questions before 8 am than most people ask all day

It is 8:01 and already we have:

• learned to ball a cantaloupe
• discussed Michael Pollen and what constitutes "Real Food"
• read a riddle and created our own variation
• asked and answered "what is irony"
• defined "garcon" and in what context it is used
• performed a scientific experiment - yes a cantaloupe rind will hold water without leaking

I would like to conclude by wishing their teachers good luck today.

Hike at Patapsco State Park

Since the girls had the day off of school, I decided to take them hiking to Patapsco State Park.  We went to the Avalon/Orange Grove Area and it was just beautiful.  There was a great playground and we did a hike along the Cascade Trail.  There was a beautiful stream with lots of cascades and big rocks to climb.  Plus, I packed brownies as a snack.  Toward the end of the hike, Gwen started getting tired and she got a little cranky. Something had to be done.  So, when the girls were a short distance ahead of me, I slipped behind a tree along the trail and waited.  A few minutes later, Gwen starts screaming "MOM!"  "MOM!"  The girls head back along the trail.  As they got close to where I was, I jumped out and scared them.  They both had a good scream and then just started giggling.  They just couldn't believe that I would play such a trick.  They were laughing so hard they could barely breathe.  Afterward, it was all they could talk about.  We made it back to the car with no more fussing.  And the girls have wonderful, fun memories of our hike.

Caitlin as Laura Ingalls Wilder

Caitlin had to read a biography as her book report for the month of May.  She chose to read about Laura Ingalls Wilder.  As part of the book report, all the children participated in dressing up as their selected person.  Don't you think she makes a great "Laura"?

Favorite character in "Tangled"

Tonight a friend asked Caitlin who her favorite character in "Tangled" is.  I expected the obvious answer, the princess of course!  What little girl doesn't like the heroine of the story, especially such a smart and beautiful heroine?  Caitlin answered "Mother Gothel".  Say what?  The villain?    Caitlin followed up with her reason, her voice.  Mother Gothel has the most amazing, powerful voice and Caitlin knows the words to all the songs in the movie.  Music-wise, Mother Gothel is definitely the star.  I am so impressed that Caitlin was looking for something a little deeper than beauty in who she chooses as her favorite.  Once again, I'm proud of my girl.

Quote from Khalil Gibran

"And forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare fee and the winds long to play with your hair."
--Khalil Gibran

Crafty girls

I like to put a few nice non-edible treats in the girls Easter baskets.  This year, I put in a little summer outfit of a pretty t-shirt and matching skort.  Gwen usually doesn't like to wear new clothes, preferring the old stained and threadbare clothes she has already fully broken in.  However, I know her achilles' heel.  She likes to match with her sister who WILL wear the new clothes.  So, now I at least have a 50/50 chance of ever seeing her in this new outfit.
And I added a pair of tiny embroidery scissors, the fancy ones with a tiny leather sheath.  Gwen was beside herself with joy.  It was just what she wanted!  Gwen can spend all day sewing, weaving, or knitting, so, yes, she will get a lot of use out of them.  But, Caitlin doesn't sew yet, so the scissors were her motivation to try.  I cut out nine squares of bright cloth and I showed her how to hand stitch.  We are assembling the pieces into a nine-square quilt patch.  She is already done making the three strips and can't wait to do more.  I am so happy to see her excited about this project.  Usually it is somewhat frustrating for her to do crafts because her sister is so much more experienced.  But, she is so happy.  She wants to finish the patch today to show it to her teacher at school tomorrow.  I'll post a picture when it is done.

Lesson from a metronome

I brought out my metronome to figure out where I was going wrong on a piece of music.  I kept getting off rhythm and I needed to find out exactly where I was playing too slow.  Well, after a few attempts I found out that I was getting off tempo because I was playing too fast and needed not to rush the phrase.  And I think this lesson applies elsewhere in my life.

Stress free birthday

I once heard that stress is created when your values are in conflict with your actions.  I feel that very keenly around birthday time.  I want very much to give the girls wonderful birthdays.  I also value protecting the environment and creating as little waste as possible.  I also worry about all the plastic we use and dispose of every day.  I usually find birthdays very stressful because there is inevitably the huge amount of plastic packaging and waste at this time.   I worry that by making my children happy now, I am only creating a debt they or their children will have to pay later on.

However, I think I might be able to have a stress-free birthday for you-know-who today.  (As she is concerned about internet safety, she does not wish to be mentioned.)  She got to open one present this morning and it was the Plan Toys Dollhouse Garden Accessories set.  It was not shipped with any plastic, AND, to my great delight, there was NO plastic inside the box.  The beautiful wooden pieces were wrapped in brown paper.  Every bit is recyclable and the toys will last for generations.

That is a gift I can be proud to give my daughter.

I think I am really going to enjoy this birthday.

PS  Her other gift from Mom and Dad is a new bike.  This actually falls into the category of necessity.  She totally out-grew her old one.  Her legs are so long now, she looks like a baby giraffe.  The bike is a Electra Townie, just like mine and should last her, well frankly, the rest of her life.  We are going to have such fun this summer!

Girls in Bonnets

Since the girls love Little House on the Prairie so much, I made them little pioneer bonnets.  Aren't they cuties!

Anachronism alert: Colonial period dress with pioneer period bonnet.   

Its not Spring yet, apparently

The spring equinox is today so I greeted the girls with a "Happy First Day of Spring!".  Gwen informed me quite solemnly that I was incorrect.  As the spring equinox is actually at 7:21pm local time tonight, it is not yet the first morning of spring.  She then proceeded to tell me what time the equinox would occur in each time zone in the continental US.  Alrighty, then.

  

The girls and I hopped on our bikes to go to Starbucks and have coffee and scones to greet the morning BEFORE the first day of spring.  As I pay for my coffee, I wish the cashier a happy spring.  And, I am not making this up, he says, "That's not till 7:21 tonight."  

Ok already.  I'll stop pretending that it's the first day of spring until after 7:21pm tonight.  Sheesh.

The Joy of a Fuzzy Sweater

Today, I wore my angora sweater.  It is so soft and fuzzy and I love wearing it.  My favorite feature is that Caitlin can't stop rubbing the sweater.  She will stop what she's doing and come over and snuggle and stroke the soft fuzziness.  I promised I'd let her wear the sweater when she's a little bigger.

Yes Gwen, I am afraid you are stuck

Over our pancakes at breakfast, Jeff starts telling Gwen about the astronomy program he recently watched. This discussion should never have gotten started.  She's only 10 years old.

Gwen: I don't want to watch it.
Jeff: Why not?
Gwen: It shows the world ending.
Me: But, that's on an astronomical scale.  That's billions of years from now.  Besides, the universe had a beginning, right?
Gwen:  Is it going to end?
Me:  Well, that depends on the mass of the universe.  We can estimate the mass of things we can observe, like stars, but not things like dust or rocky planets.  That's called dark matter.
Gwen:  Where does the universe end?
Jeff:  Well, we think it doesn't have a beginning or end, like the surface of a ball.
Gwen: What's outside the ball?
Jeff: We think there are parallel universes.
Gwen: You mean other universes outside our universe?
Jeff: Yes.
Gwen:  Well how do you get there?
Jeff:  You can't really leave our universe.
Gwen: You mean we're STUCK?  Like in North Korea?
Jeff & Me: Well, yes.

I'd like to apologize right now to anyone who has Gwen in a philosophy class.  I think we've already messed that up for you.

Chocolate Wars

The following represents an actual conversation I had with Gwen last night.

Me:  I'm making a surprise for dinner tonight!
Gwen: What is it?
Me:  A new dessert: Death By Chocolate.  It will be delicious!
Gwen:  Is it dark chocolate?
Me: Well, yes.
Gwen:  I don't like dark chocolate.  I won't eat it.
Me:  Will you try a bite?
Gwen: No.
Me:   Just one little bite.  I think you'll like it if you just give it a try.
Gwen:  You know I hate dark chocolate.  Why would you even think I'd like that!  I won't try it.  I won't.  I don't like dark chocolate.  (etc, etc)
Me:  Ok, fine.  I just make three of them.  And, if you change you mind, you can have a little bite of mine.

Later, after dinner, Gwen gets a separate dessert while we wait for our chocolates to come out of the oven.
The timer dings and I pull out the dessert, each looking so deliciously chocolately in their own tidy little ramekin.  I place the dessert in front of Jeff, Caitlin, and myself and we dig in.  Gwen watches.  We are not gagging or choking.  Clearly this is edible if not actually tasty.  (Her suspicions are not entirely unwarranted, I have made dishes that have not come out as advertised.)

Gwen:  Can I have a bite?
Me:  Sure.
Gwen:  (Takes a bite.)  This isn't bad.
Gwen:  It is actually pretty good for dark chocolate.
Gwen:  Dad, can I have some of yours?
Gwen: (Has quite a few bites from mine and Jeff's.)

This sort of thing happens quite often.  Dinner time is not the relaxing event it should be.  More like the planning and execution of the invasion of Normandy.

Bond, Jeff Bond

Jeff's work is already so casual that having casual Friday would be deeply redundant.  So, instead, they have dress-up days.  Yesterday was Bow-Tie Thursday.  Doesn't my sweetie looks so dapper.  Next, a top hat!

Visit to Tom & Kathe's

The girls had two days off from school so, we took the long weekend to go visit Tom and Kathe.  We had such a great time.  It was awesome to see Lake Erie frozen.  We all cooked up a storm.  Jeff got to go see the building where Tom and Kathe's new restaurant is going to be.  I think they are incredibly brave to undertake such a big venture.  But, like the house they are in now, they have a vision and can see the potential.  I have no doubt they'll make a huge success of it.  And the environmentalist in me is so glad to hear that they are going to emphasis seasonal and local foods.

Tom and Kathe

Gwen walking on Lake Erie

One of the best parts of our trip was getting to play with the dogs.  Pic is getting old and slow and that just endears him to Gwen.  She is quite fond of dogs that don't jump and are calm and peaceful.  She trusts Pic.  Caitlin immediately bonded with Petey.  Petey is huge and full of puppy energy.  But he really is gentle and so loving.  He is a very intelligent dog.  I think he understood that Gwen was a little frightened of him.  He had totally won her over by the end of the trip.  Gwen even tried to initiate play with Petey, trying to play the chasing game and throwing his chew toy.  I'll admit, that I even played his chasing game.  It was fun and good exercise too!

Petey giving Caitlin kisses.

Caitlin playing Petey's favorite indoor chase game.  Petey is the size of a small pony, but he was absolutely as gentle as a lamb with my girls.

The girls doing Just Dance 2.  What fun!

Gwen checking out the lake.

Lots of good food was made, but there was lots of cleaning up to do.  Gwen was so sweet about lending a hand.

Gwen and gummy animal rights

Gwen and Caitlin were eating gummy bunny snacks and Gwen says to Caitlin "bite the heads off first, it is more humane."

Caitlin's Creative Solution

This morning, Caitlin helped me make the family pancakes.  We love to bake mini chocolate chips and pecans into the pancakes.  Sometimes I will use the mini chocolate chips to make smiley faces.  Well, for one batch, I was putting in pecans AND chocolate chips.  Caitlin had put pecans on one pancake, but I didn't realize she had made a smiley face design with the pecans and I messed it up by dropping a chocolate chip on top.  At first she was sad and she wanted me to remove the offending chocolate chip.  But almost immediately, she perked up and said she had an idea.  She added a few more mini chips and gave the smiley face a mustache!

Braces off!

Gwen had her braces taken off this week.  Her orthodontic work isn't done, it is just moving onto the next stage.  The next stage is a completely removable retainer.  No brackets, no wires, no food limitations.  Needless to say, Gwen is a very happy camper.  Check out this grin.

Louder than words

It appears that my little "year of no extra purchases" had more impact on Gwen than any book or lecture could ever have.  Since that year of seeing me window shop for items that I used to love (like shoes) and passing them by saying, "I really don't need that", she has shown a lot more awareness of the difference between want and need than the average 10 year old.  And she really has a good sense of our consumerism affects people.  She understands the concepts of buy-local, fair-trade, and low-impact more than most adults.  She is not oblivious to her responsibility to her fellow human beings like so many pre-teens are.  I am so proud of this young lady that I am raising.  

This is a photo of Gwen opening one of her Christmas presents.  It is a skein of organic and fair-trade yarn from a local (not chain) craft store.  She loved it.  She loved it because it is beautiful, because she loves to craft, and because something that is fair trade and local adds love to the world.

Caitlin as a ball.

When Caitlin doesn't want to get out of bed in the morning, she curls up into the exact same little ball as when she was a little baby, feet tucked under and crossed. I just love that. I almost wish I didn't have to get her up for school.

Caitlin at the barre

I had to take this photo of Caitlin warming up for her Lyrical Dance class.  She takes to dancing like a duck to water.  I just love that it makes her so happy, especially the lyrical style dance class.

Finally, a snow day

We finally had a snow day today.  The girls have been dying for one.  When they heard the news they spent all morning just giggling and horsing around.

And I had a list of things I wanted to do on our first snow day.  Here it is:

Sleep in - check
Do the wind generator science kit with Gwen - check
Play in the snow - check (sort of, it wasn't snow but ice which turned our driveway into the most awesome sledding ramp ever)
Try a new recipe for 100% whole wheat bread - check
Make homemade yougurt - check
Teach Gwen and Cait a new math skills game - check
Watch Ramona & Beezus with the girls - check
Knit - check (got a good bit done on a sleeve for the sweater I'm making)
Laundry - check
Prepare a nice gift bag and cards for Caitlin's friend's birthday party - check

Bonus: found some of the bathroom accessories we need for the bathroom remodel - check

And, now I can sleep.  Because, I'm tired. Check.

Fun today

Today, Gwen and I finally broke out the game of jacks that she'd gotten for Christmas.  I was surprised how quickly she picked it up.  She really can do it well.  This new game happily gives me a little break from getting creamed in Uno.  How is it that she always wins?  It is kind of uncanny, not to mention improbable.

Caitlin, however, had quite a rough day.   She had a meltdown when she couldn't play a piano piece the way she wanted to.  There was absolutely zero pressure on her from either myself or the teacher.  She was just frustrated.  Then she had a meltdown when she lost a teeny-tiny sticker of a shoe for princess Jasmine.  I pretended that another princess offered to share her shoes, but she was having none of it.  She totally broke down.  Later, we all watched the end of "Anne of Green Gables" together.  Matthew dies near the end and Caitlin totally went to pieces.  Tears, wailing, the works. Fortunately, handsome Gilbert Blythe had a few scenes after that and she likes that sort of thing, so that perked her back up.  Before bedtime, we played the "Guess what song I'm humming" game which put her to sleep on a high note.  I hope tomorrow is a better day for Cait.

Awaking to a snowy world

This is what the world looked like this morning.  It was so gorgeous.  This was the prettiest snow I've ever seen, very glimmery and sparkly.  It looked like it was straight out of a Disney movie.  Gwen and I headed out first thing to shovel the driveway together.  

Shoveling the snow was easy and fun.  However, I did need a chisel to get the ice off my car.  It was encased in a sturdy 1/4 inch of solid ice.  When I was finally done, I got to go inside for hot coffee and homemade waffles.  (Thank you Jeff!)  I kind of wish every morning went like this.  If only we had gotten a real snow day from school instead a just a two hour delay.  

Hot Chocolate for Homework

Caitlin's writing assignment for the day is to tell why she likes or doesn't like hot chocolate. In order to really do a good job, we had to make some.  

Do you think she liked it?

Considering it.....

We have a winner!

Playing with Matches

Tonight, I helped Gwen play with matches.  Poor Gwen has a pathological fear of matches.  She doesn't like the "fwoosh" of fire when they first light.  She doesn't have the hand strength to get the "child-proof" candle lighters to work either.  This is now a serious problem because she has to prepare, light and tend a campfire in order to earn her FireTender badge in scouts.  So, we have been playing with matches.  Over a sink of water, Gwen and I together have lit match after match to help familiarize her with the whole match lighting process.  She has even transferred the flame to a nearby candle and calmly blown out the match.  We are making real progress and I think she'll be ready to demonstrate her fire-tending skills at the next scout meeting.

Caitlin has absolutely no fear of matches or fire and I think I'd like her to get some, actually.

So sick

I have a nasty cold.  Jeff bought me a chocolate mousse for dessert on my return home from Kentucky.   And I don't want to eat it.  That is how sick I am.