Today we woke up to a lovely snow day. I’ve been waiting for this all year! We’ve had so many little flurries that never stuck, just enough for Titus to beg for a snowman. And now it’s here, although we are a bit too sniffly to feel up to a trip to hilly Wright Park for breaking in Titus’ new sled.
We had my sister, Glory and her family over for dinner the other night and I finally had a chance to put my new pot to the test with that decadent recipe for Smokey Beef Stew on the cover of this month’s Sunset.
These days I find immense pleasure in spending a few consecutive moments in the kitchen: alone with a recipe and my pantry. This one was one of those all-day, leave-it-alone, slow cooking kind of things, so I started with the chopping, sorting, and braising around ten that morning and wrapped things up around 5:30 or so for our meal. What fun, although, with two bottle of nice wine as broth, this is going to remain a special occasion meal.
Today I’m preparing a little tasty feast for strangers. A woman and her two little daughters in our community lost their house and much of their belongings in a terrible house fire a few weeks back. Many of us who know of them or are learning about the tragedy have been sort of rallying around to try and help. With meals, prayers, well wishes, cash, stuff like that. Stuff that reminds people that there is still hope and love, even in the midst of loss, even on a cold, snowy Tacoma day.
I love the power of a hot meal. It speaks volumes when there are not words to speak.
If any of you out there want to help this family along with us with prayer or in any other way, send me a comment and I’ll give you the details. Peace.
Bleh. Last night was super fun, and I’ll tell you all about it later. First I have to tell you how irritated I am about something I found out last night. Nope, it’s not political, it’s not personal, it’s not even important to anyone (probably) but me. Remember that fantastic toy idea I told you I had? The one that was so unique and funky that no one else could have ever thought of it before?
I have been mulling this special, fabulous idea over in my head for about a month. I was pretty sure it was genius. And then my friend Stacey showed me this:
What is it? It’s a red blood cell, silly. And it’s also a stuffed toy. Totally my idea. And that’s not all. This store sells pretty much every other microscopic toy idea I had: brain cells, white blood cells, the flu virus, bed bugs, heck, they even make AIDS.
Mine were going to be cooler, made of recycled sweaters and organic stuffing, but still, I just don’t think I can do it now. I’m feeling like someone peeked inside my brain.
Aaron Stevens and I will be playing a little free acoustic set along with several other singer/song writers tomorrow night at the Northern Pacific Coffee Company.
Aaron Scott, Luke Stevens, and (I’m pretty sure) Andrew McNeely of Oh Voices will all be playing with us as well, among others, so come, enjoy some tasty coffee, beer, and food, and listen to some great music from some of our town’s many amazing musicians! Friday, starting around 6 or so.
Filed under: Cooking
I used my Christmas money this year for a splurge: my first Le Creuse Dutch oven. It’s a fancy French cast iron/enamel pot that I’ve admired for a long time, and now I can actually start cooking in it. Supposedly these pots last for decades. I hope so.
I just got the latest issue of Sunset Magazine and they’re doing a feature this month on Dutch oven recipes. How perfect is that? I’m off to browse some cook books now…
I know, I know, the phrase “Big Time” probably belongs to Tom Waits, but today I finally went “into the studio”.
I’ve been singing on and off (mostly off) with my brother in law, Aaron, for what feels like a really long time. I guess maybe for 9 or 10 years? Anyway, he’s a fantastic song writer and since our big Tacoma move we’ve been able to work together quite a bit more. We try and set aside at least one chunk of time a week to get together and work on writing and practicing–which isn’t nearly enough–but it’s been really good for me to start exercising my music muscle again.
He is finally putting together a record and today was spent working on adding my vocals. Even though I’ve done some demo-quality stuff here and there, it’s been at least 4 years since I’ve done “real” recording. Despite feeling a little shaky and still sporting my early morning, non cool sounding voice, I pretty much got one song done.
There’s a lot of work ahead of us to get this thing finished! I’m feeling good, though. I think in the past I’ve always had a hard time with my ego and my unyielding stage fright. These days I feel so much more unflappable. Maybe it’s another side effect of having had kids? Maybe it’s part of me finally growing up and gaining confidence, or maybe I have come to care less about what other people think of me. Whatever it is, it’s nice to not have sweaty palms.
I also learned an exciting fact today: Amy Grant (a link to a hilarious web site) used to eat a big handful of ruffled potato chips before she recorded herself so she could sound all rocked out and scratchy. I, on the other hand, just felt hungry after my first handful, and didn’t get a rocked out voice. I also did not look “sleek and sinful” (seriously, click on the link).
We’re going to be playing a little acoustic show this next Friday–our first in over a year–over at the Northern Pacific Coffee Company, but I’ll post later once I know more of the details.
Today I feel like I wish I had all those hours back from my teenage years when I was “soooo bored” and “didn’t have anything to do”. If I could go back in time and kick my own butt, I would. Laziness is the death of creativity.
Lately I’ve been feeling like I’ve been bitten by the creativity bug, and there just aren’t enough hours in the day anymore. I love having my days full of sweet family goodness, reading stories, giving kisses and diaper changes, and I actually really like housework, but then there’s all that other stuff I want to give myself room to do:
- I have some interesting ideas for some unique baby blankets/works of art rattling around in my head.
- There are a few lines of poetry that need to be given some serious time to chew on.
- Aaron and I keep having just enough time in our weekly music practice/write sessions to get warmed up before we have to go our separate ways. I honestly need to start writing my own songs again, too.
- I have the coolest idea ever for some more recycled sweater toys. Seriously, these toys will blow your mind. But I need to put a few intense hours into making my prototype…
- I keep reading recipes that I want to try.
- I miss the feeling of my bamboo and birch knitting needles and warm, soft yarn running through my fingers.
- There are just so many amazing books out there that I want to dive into, books on theology, books on green living, novels, biographies…
- I want to put some more time into thinking about different construction options for our soon to be co-housing future, and I want to keep re-thinking what my housing values are. The pictures in this post are of a home made using 12 recycled shipping containers. Wow.
- I want to have about 40 different people over for dinner one of these nights, and put more time into the relationships in my life.
I’m beginning to realize that I need to keep my priorities straight or I won’t get anything accomplished in my life that I truly care about. I need to narrow down and focus, and I also need to give art more breathing room in my life: my creative process doesn’t happen in a hurry, but it’s still worth working on. Even now, Theo has woken up from his nap and Titus needs help, so this is where my blogging ends today, but I will be back. I’m going to keep chipping away at what I can, and at the same time, I’m going to keep embracing just where my life is at right now: heavy on hind site and lacking in spare time. That’s ok, at least I’m learning to make the most of my time when I have it now I that I’m so busy. I now think that “praying without ceasing” is humanly possible.
Sometimes I think if I hadn’t had kids, I’d still be that whiny teenager with nothing to do. I’m grateful to be given a second shot in my life to seize opportunities.
Along with, I’m sure, a host of other people, (all guilt-ridden but me, there’ll be a whole other post one day about my guilt resolution), I’m starting out my January with a health bang.
There was a time in my life–before my children came into being, and after I’d finally let Pat’s obsessive working out rub off on me–that I felt like I was on top of the world. I was in such good shape that any challenge I came across actually sounded fun. “Hike two big snowy trails in one day, and create my own trail through the underbrush? Sure!” “Run a half marathon with barely 8 weeks of training? Sure!” “Why walk up this mountain when we could be running?” “Let’s hike as fast as we can, then tomorrow we’ll come back and try and beat our record!”
It was a big, big deal for me to get my formerly lazy and lethargic person to that point, and I think it empowered me in others areas of my life that I’m just beginning to recognize.
So, once again, Pat has become an inspiration to me with his tirelessly faithful working out. He walks when he could drive, he rides his bike, too. He rock climbs, lifts weights, and runs, year in and year out since I’ve known him (that’s 7 years, at least) and all with an upbeat attitude that I usually am sorely lacking. The other week it was late at night and I peeked out the back door, only to see him doing shirtless sit-ups in the muddy grass, surrounded only by pouring rain and darkness. That’s one tough dude.
His latest obsession, since this past summer, has been CrossFit.
I call it his workout cult, but that’s just because I’m a little (lot) jealous of him and also because I’m slightly terrified of how shaky and sweaty he is after doing one of their little 20 minute workouts. It’s actually really cool, and different than so many other things out there.
So, in honor of Pat, and in honor of my formerly uber fit and empowered self, I’ve committed to doing Crossfit just about every day, decided to be more mindful of my eating, set a realistic goal for weight loss…and stepped on the scale. I even went running in the near dark the other evening. Not quite sit-ups in the rain, but still…
It’s not so bad, really. But, that’s because I’m tough, too. That’s me on the left, in case you can’t tell.
After spending the vast majority of Theo’s life at home and the entirety of it in this one town, we made the big decision to take a four day weekend and headed down to Portland to visit some of Pat’s family. First we decided on the brilliant idea of taking the train there, as we’d be able to avoid being stuck in the car with little screamers (if you’ve never had this experience, you have no idea how crappy this can be) and with the train we’d be sure to arrive on time without worrying about traffic delays and such.
Mua-haha. (That’s an evil laugh)
Our plans were well laid, but it didn’t seem to matter: riding the train just wasn’t going to be in the cards for us. Basically, we finally got to the train station after one broken down motorcycle, one missed bus, one tearful meltdown (I’m sorry to say it was me, not the kids), one Link ride, and one long walk lugging both kids and all our stuff. The train was, at first, only delayed for 45 minutes, then the station agents ‘fessed up to the fact that the train still hadn’t left Seattle and they really had no idea when it would. We got refunds on our tickets, made the reverse trip home, grabbed a quick lunch, loaded up the car, and headed South. Luckily, even though we’d been talking up our train trip to Titus for nearly a week, he was satisfied with the light rail and had no idea what he was missing.
7 hours after initially leaving the house, we made it! I took no pictures because I really had no interest in remembering all the gory details, so, according to Flickr, our vacation begins with us finally relaxing at Pat’s Dad and Step-mom’s condo. The kids were relieved to be out of their car seats, and Pat and I were glad to be in one of our favorite towns spending time with some of our favorite people.
I mostly stayed in the condo to hang out with Theo in the brief interludes between his naps, but it was so nice and relaxing anyway. I love their place. It’s tiny and well designed, decorated and appointed in ways that seem to make home life just work easier, even with two little ones in a small space. Honestly, if our next place could be similar, I’d totally love it.
We visited a lot of relatives, and introduced Theo to the extended family in Portland: Great Grandma, Great Aunts and Uncles, Cousins, and Second Cousins, too. And Pat went to the Hanna Andersson outlet store there and picked up two Organic Cotton jammies for Titus for nearly half off. I’m a sucker for organic clothes for the kids, and their designs are beautiful.
The trip home was even noisier: I think I’ve grown some gray hair from it.
I love being home, I guess, but I’m beginning to look ahead to this next year and feeling inspired to finally be putting our roots down in a permanent place again. I feel like I’m beginning to understand for the first time just what a huge impact our dwelling places have on our ability to live our lives the way we choose to. I see the ways in which my daily life right now is being squeezed into a home that sometimes feels too small, but I think is probably too big and spread out. My good friend, Natalie, and her husband (architects) have helped Pat and I value the role that design (in objects and in home) plays in either helping us live our lives freely, or making us navigate around the choices of others.
I’m excited to start living our lives on purpose.
Here’s a parting shot of Titus and I a few hours after we got home. He hasn’t fallen asleep on me like that since he was a baby, and I can see why: I can’t get anything done at all. But is is terribly sweet, and worth having happen once in a while.
So, I have a twin sister, which most of you probably know already. She and I are life long friends, and maybe a little bit of nemeses as well.
The fact is that we are opposites in many ways. Plus, once you add in the usual sibling rivalry, and then realize that we’ve spent nearly our entire adult lives literally in different hemispheres, it makes sense that–while I might think that I know her perfectly–really, we are kind of strangers.
She lives in the Western Hemisphere now, same as me. We set aside an evening to be together (no kids, no husbands, no one else at all) last night. I totally can’t remember when we’ve last done that. We went down to the Monsoon Room. It’s my favorite little bar right now: tiny, intimate, tasty. It was fantastic. And, I pretty much realized how much I love my sister.
We took groovy, blurry pictures of each other and ate wasabi peas and pumpkins seeds. We talked for a couple hours. I had my usual limey drink. She had an interesting spicy chai rum martini thing.
Thanks, Glory.
It seems that life is going by too quickly for me to write as often as I want to. Every day I think of something I want to remember, a day I need to write down before I forget, and then, before I know it, bedtime is upon us and I’m so ready for sleep that I just don’t bother coming here to post.
I’m going to keep trying, though!
Two days after Christmas Pat’s mom and step dad came and stayed with us for four days. We celebrated a “post Christmas” Christmas as well as his mom’s birthday together and it was truly wonderful to spend some time together now that Theo has joined our family.
I have to say, I love the family that I’ve married into.
Pat’s brother came in to town for the weekend with his girlfriend as well, so it was kind of a mini-family vacation (held at our house) for everyone. We toured around town on the bus, saw the Washington State History Museum’s model train exhibit, the Museum of Glass, ate at hello, cupcake, Primo Grill, and Varsity grill, had tea again at the Mad Hat Tea Company, and generally had a great time exploring an showing off our new home town. I love this town.
I heard the other day that an old friend had heard that I’d moved back to Tacoma and was wondering how I was handling it. There really was a time that I shook the dust of this place off of my boots and swore never to return. Things have changed here, but I have changed too. I can’t think of anywhere I’d rather be.
