Through these eyes

Posted on June 11, 2013 by Diana

Some of my readers have small kids, so conversations like these happen every day. But for my readers who haven’t been around 3-yr-olds on a daily basis for a while, I thought I’d share some things Hannah has said that make me think about things.
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In one of our Texas books, there is a picture of bull riding at a rodeo. Hannah was confused about this, so I did what any great parent does to explain things: I found a YouTube video.
When the rider was bucked to the ground, Hannah exclaimed, “Oh good! He got off!” I tried to explain that the rider actually wanted to stay on. She wasn’t buying it, “He really wants to get off.” It made sense. In her eyes, why would anyone want to stay on a violently jumping cow? Good point.
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We have a laundry basket with rubber handles on three sides, so it can be carried with two hands or one hand and a hip. Hannah was studying it intently and asked, “Why does it have three handles? We only have two hands.”

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Hannah is quite perceptive and thinks deeply about things. We were discussing actions and consequences and explaining that even adults got consequences for bad choices. She asked for examples, so we mentioned paying money, having stuff taken away or going to jail. After thinking a while, she asked, “Who takes care of the babies and kids while the grown-ups are in jail?”
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The number of questions is staggering. Some lately have been tricky to answer or just amusing:
What is a cousin?
What does it mean to be dead?
Why do I have to wear pants outside?
Why can’t Violet walk? I put shoes on her.
Is five minutes a long time or a short time?
What is a seizure?
Why do you drink Coke if it’s not healthy?
Do monkeys have daddies?
When you eat ice cream does it make Violet’s milk cold?
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Here’s a fun picture she drew for Aunt Kristen.

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Life to a 3-year-old is full of new ideas and experiences, and it’s fun to be along with her for the adventure.

Snapshot: It’s June

Posted on June 9, 2013 by Diana

Last year, we jointly bought the largest plastic pool we could find with some friends. They have a great space on a shaded porch, and the kiddos spent many happy afternoons last summer splashing away. It’s officially summer because the pool is back out, and we had our first swim date this year.
Violet was just an observer. Eight months old! Looks like she’ll be a strawberry blonde, blue-eyed cutie. No crawling, no standing, no sleeping through the night, no sign of teeth. She loves bananas, avocados, applesauce, pretty much everything.

Some days

Posted on June 7, 2013 by Diana

Some days I feel like that. Except I would have the covers pulled over my head.
Parenting is hard in itself. And I’ve discovered some personality things that make it harder, especially as a stay-at-home mom. Kelly, a contributor at Keeper of the Home described it well:
Wanna know something funny? I am an extreme introvert. Do you know what that means? It means I get my energy from quiet, alone time. Lots of it. It means after being around noise and people for a few hours, I feel like I’m going to completely have a melt down… Do you think I was “cut out” for this? Patient? Ha! No, but to keep from losing it all together, I have to die daily. I have to crucify my flesh every day. It’s painful. But it’s what we’re called to do. It’s just that most of us would rather run away from the means by which He wants to use in our lives for that daily dying.
I wish I could develop more of her perspective of appreciating character development. I feel like I’m still in survival mode a lot of the time. Though it makes sense that I shouldn’t just spend my time trying to develop character in my kids, I should be intentional in growing in character myself. And I need coping strategies that don’t involve crying and hiding. ;)
I’m just thankful for each new day where I can try to do better. And though children are quick to cause frustration, they are also quick to extend grace and forgiveness. When it seems like everything is going wrong, I can look back and see I really do have a few more things figured out than I did a year ago. So there’s big-picture growth.
In the day-to-day, I have to figure out a baby who won’t sleep without nursing and a little girl who is in mental, physical and verbal perpetual motion. Like any new muscle, this introvert is stretching, sore and fragile. The strength is building, but some days the covers go over my head to hide for just a few minutes since it turns out Hannah is not very quick at hide and go seek. ;)

Food co-op 101

Posted on May 19, 2013 by Diana

Guest writer Joyce Jordan

In early 1983, I received an invitation to be part of a counter-culture and unapologetically Christian group of women who had been veering off of the food mainstream for several years. The food pendulum was swinging back to basics. I was thrilled to accept, and to join the ranks of the Target Food Co-Op.

The idea of shooting at a target is to aim for the center, and the co-op’s goal was to aim for foods that were as healthy and economical as possible. This was an ambitious task for a group of Midwestern women in their 20s and 30s, raised on traditional Midwestern foods cooked in traditional Midwestern ways. We were banding together to head into the unknown. No radical changes – just a step by step process toward feeding our families in a way we thought would be better. Every family was different than the others, and this uniqueness of preferences, goals and budget was always respected.

As in any co-op, the basic premise is to share in the effort so that we can share in the result. We each had jobs related to bulk food purchase and preparation, and we took turns presenting a lesson at the monthly meeting. We purchased things like 50# bags of oatmeal, 25# blocks of cheddar cheese (you cut it with a guitar string), 25# bags of shredded cheese, cases of frozen veggies, large containers of pepperoni, etc. Each of these was divided into the portions that a Target member had ordered. We contracted with a local health food store, with a local dairy, with a wholesale food supplier, with people who raised beef, etc. Buy in bulk and share the savings.

I was the treasurer for many years, which was a much more ambitious job in the pre-computer era! We had a small monthly service charge that covered postage, plastic bags, and paying a babysitter to watch our children.

Through the years we studied and cooked our way through many cookbooks, we intensely studied principles of nutrition, we launched ourselves into whole grains and complementary proteins, we investigated food fads, and we read books on simpler living. We discussed budgeting, food storage, dealing with food allergies, feeding children, new cooking gadgets, showing hospitality, entertaining on a shoestring, and making holidays fun AND nutritious.

I attended my first meeting of Target with a very tiny Diana in a carseat, and left when I had three children in elementary school. We were moving into a new family phase, and I needed to make some adjustments to manage my time differently. The women of the Target Co-Op had become dear friends through the years, and we supported one another through life events far beyond the scope of the kitchen.

I’m still picturing that image of the target. Learning to cook as empty nesters has brought changes, but I continue to be enthusiastic about eating healthy, being thrifty and aiming for the center in all aspects of life!

Dinner tonight: Dairy-free nachos

Posted on May 14, 2013 by Diana

I miss cheese. Really so much. Several of my vegan friends have posted recipes for vegan “nacho cheese,” and I decided to give it a shot. Nachos are just fun food, so I was excited to put them on the menu.
I had Brett guess the ingredients of the nacho sauce, and he was pretty stumped. I followed the recipe from New Nostalgia, but all the recipes floating around have the same basic ingredients of cashews, nutritional yeast, sun-dried tomatoes and non-dairy milk. Pretty weird, huh? I’m not sure how she got it such a creamy texture; I food-processored the heck out of it and couldn’t get it to look like hers. I even soaked the cashews, oh well.
The verdict? Tasty! If you make this, don’t expect it to taste like cheese. It doesn’t (and it doesn’t taste like nuts, either). But it is a flavorful, creamy-ish nacho topping. Great with blue corn tortilla chips, homemade guacamole, refried black beans and jalapeños. That’s a vegan/plant-based meal I think anyone would like.

Mother’s Day

Posted on May 12, 2013 by Diana

First, Happy Mother’s Day to my mom! I’m so thankful for you. I wish there had been blogs in the 80’s because I would want to read yours.

This year I’m so blessed to celebrate Mother’s Day with my two beautiful and funny girls.

Hannah came home from preschool with several sweet crafts for me and an enlightening interview.

If Mother’s Day is hard

Posted on May 11, 2013 by Diana

I’ve had a couple rough Mother’s Days. My first one was when we were waiting for an adoption placement. It was hard wanting to be a mother so badly, but having no idea about the timing. Another rough Mother’s Day was just a few weeks after our miscarriage.
I can think of a lot of reasons this holiday can be hard. Some women going through infertility, some grieving a loss of a mother or child, some with bad relationships with a mother or child. I also think of birthmothers who chose adoption; they gave someone else the gift of motherhood and their own role may not be acknowledged or even known by others.
So if Mother’s Day stinks for you, I’m sorry. I’ve had a couple rough holidays, but I know for others it is many more. Virtual hugs to you; you are not forgotten!
I’ll be calling my mom, hugging my girls, thanking Hannah’s birthmother and thinking of my baby in Heaven. This is not a holiday I take for granted.

First night out (post-baby)

Posted on May 10, 2013 by Diana

Alternate title: my friends are way cooler than me
I haven’t had a “girls’ night out” in a really long time. So despite my introvert self, when I received an invitation to a local brand launch party and fashion show, I replied YES. It’s so rare that I do something like this that I felt it deserved a blog post.
It’s Austin Fashion Week (I didn’t even know we had a fashion week until I received this invitation, that’s how unfashionable I am). Some local boutiques partnered to host a fashion show of a new brand, Tshirt & Jeans Girl, with proceeds benefitting the nonprofit Dress for Success. This organization provides resumé consulting and a professional outfit to low-income women for interviews. Then after they have been hired, they continue with job coaching and more donations of appropriate wardrobe items for their working environment. Really neat!
For my night out, I donned a tshirt and jeans, of course, and left Brett to put the kiddos to bed (which went smoothly, yay!). I thought I’d try a selfie in the car since I was trying to be cool. Do cool people even say cool?

I enjoyed drinks and appetizers with some of my friends from Bible study. Yeah, Bible study; there’s me dropping my coolness again. ;)

Then a couple of my other friends were in the fashion show. Great ideas for rockin’ a tshirt. I think I need some boots.

This stylish girl sent me the invite. We met while working with the youth at church several years ago.

This is my friend Amanda of Vagabond Photography, and she does the photography and design for belts carried by the Tshirt & Jeans Girl brand. The sunflower one is my favorite; I’ve still got some Kansas in me. ;)
I did a little shopping after the fashion show, and my wardrobe is now a little more stylish with a knit maxi skirt and a Texas tee. I’m sure you’ll see me wearing both a lot.
The night wrapped with more good food and good friends under a stunning live oak tree, too dark to get pictures. A fantastic evening – tshirts, jeans, wine, bacon, goat cheese – with conversation mourning our sleep and raving about roasted brussels sprouts.

Best popcorn ever

Posted on May 9, 2013 by Diana

Popcorn
Butter
Frank’s

The End

Crawfish boil

Posted on April 27, 2013 by Diana

Our first crawfish boil! We went to Waterloo Ice House, a local chain with good drink specials for adults and a fun playscape for the kiddos. They had a plastic pool filled with live crawfish just for the kids to play with.

Hannah thought this was pretty fun. She spent 15 minutes catching them before moving on to the playscape. Lunch was a bit of an adventure. We got a pile of crawfish and a chicken strip plate to share. This was a lot for the little table. The guy who brought the food put a steaming bowl of gravy right in front of Violet (dude, grrrr) which of course she immediately stuck her hand into. At the exact moment she started crying, Hannah started shrieking that the (cooked) crawfish she was holding pinched her. The guy did have some serious claws.

So everyone was looking at the crazy table with the crying gravy-hand baby and the preschooler suffering from some sort of crawfish amputation. We finally got everyone calmed down, and after a couple bites of the crawfish, Hannah decided she just wanted to play outside. Brett and I attacked the rest of the crustaceans while keeping Violet occupied with carrots.

The aftermath.

Hannah was happy playing the whole time but of course announced she was hungry as soon as we got into the car. Gotta wait til snack time, honey. The whole adventure took two hours; Brett and I decided it was a fun thing to try, but crawfish are sure a lot of work for half a bite. We were thankful for the playscape to keep Hannah occupied. I think it’ll be a few more years before we try another family crawfish boil outing.