Mystery of the missing chunk or bread.

I made some bread today and after the girls had a few slices, I went to put it away. I notice a chunk missing from the rest of the loaf, like a really big air bubble. Gwen is sitting over on the couch where I can just see her head, she's looking right at me. So, I hold up the bread and ask "Did this have a big bubble in it or did someone here help it along?" And Gwen's eyes get wide and guilty looking and she just slides right out of sight.

The Green Report:

For my birthday I asked my family to give me an unusual gift. I asked them to try to do something extra to be kind to the earth and note it on my facebook page. My awesome sisterSarah Weinel has already started.

However, one of the lessons that I really took home from my Tae Kwon Do training was to always lead by example. So, before I ask anyone else to go that extra mile to be eco-friendly, I have to do it myself. I'm going to hold myself accountable and give me own green report on my facebook page, too.

Here's my Green report for today:
I packed a breakfast to take to work in reusable plastic-free containers, nothing disposable here.

I weeded my garden and reseeded my beets, spinach, cilantro and swiss chard.
For lunch I ate an omelette of organic/cage-free/local eggs with tomatoes and swiss chard from the garden.

I started drying some basil from the garden to use over the winter.

I soaked the black beans for tomorrow night's dinner. The beans are organic and from the bulk bins at MOMs market. Instead of plastic bags, I brought mason jars from home and filled them at the store. So, I have plastic-free, BPA-lined-can-free black beans.

Is it a musical?

The original plan was for me to take Gwen to Tae Kwon Do tonight and for Jeff to take Caitlin to see a live theatre performance of Mulan at her school.  Just before dinner, Jeff seemed to pause in mid-step and reconsider the plan.  "Is this going to be a musical?" he asks suspiciously.  I don't know too much about this performance, but given that I love all the songs in the Disney movie version, I answered "probably."  So, here's the new plan: I take Caitlin to go see Mulan and Jeff takes Gwen to Tae Kwon Do.

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