beauty that moves

yummy, kid friendly dinner in no time at all

For the sake of my eleven year old girl, I try to keep a balance at dinner time of things that appeal to each of us. It's not sweet potato curry or kale and brown rice every night around here... as much as I would like that. I cook a few nights a week with just Emily in mind. Maybe it won't be a meal I would prepare for myself alone, but we're all in this together, you know? It's important to me that she doesn't see dinnertime as a dreaded point in her day where mom's going to place a pile a roasted roots topped with a handful of toasted walnuts in front of her, or who knows what other kind of hippy concoction. It's all about balance, right?

There are many things in the world I don't understand. Little pre-made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches you can buy in the freezer section is one, chicken nuggets from a box is another. Our (big) grocery store stocks organic chicken and we pick up the tenders (many packs at a time) and make our own. You can freeze them breaded (but not cooked) which makes them super convenient for for quick meals.

My method is simple: Soak them in milk for a minute, coat them with bread crumbs (seasoned or plain, you choice - there is a gluten free kind that we love and I can't think of the brand right now...), take a minute to really press the crumbs onto the chicken. Do this with one hand so your other hand that goes into the milk bowl is the only 'wet' hand. Place them on a cookie sheet. Bake at 400 degrees for 16-17 minutes (a few minutes longer if they came from the freezer). My oven is a convection oven which they say cooks a little bit faster. Just don't overcook them! Cooked just until done you will have the most tender, juiciest chicken tenders around.

Emily likes to dip them in homemade applesauce, I also put out homemade cranberry sauce mixed with wholegrain mustard for dipping. Let's see, also on the table were some reheated roasted potatoes from two nights ago (reheated on the stove-top), roasted asparagus that was tossed with olive oil, sea salt and pepper, and placed in the oven with the chicken for the last 10 minutes. Oh! And cut up raw carrots. I always try to have something raw on the table, sometimes fruit, sometimes veggie, but there is almost always a plate of cut up raw goodness to munch on. Easy weeknight meal, I made up the tenders while the oven pre-heated and the whole meal was on the table in 30 minutes. 

How much do we all love taking food photos since daylight savings? Hmn... you know what we say to daylight savings around here?

Ha! Take that daylight savings! We will get out the ladder and string flood lights way up in the magnolia tree and play soccer regardless of there being no sunlight. We are resourceful people...

Happy weekending friends.

i took a walk yesterday

I feel so unbelievably aware of each passing moment these days. Maybe it's the change of season, maybe it's the desire to squeeze every last drop out of a chapter closing. Regardless, I am savoring the feeling of immense presence.

Yesterday, I spent some time walking around the property of Emily's school. The sky was grey, the ground damp, and between the two a gentle rain was released. I will miss this school. For all the second guessing we can so easily do as parents, this I know I got right. It's a peaceful feeling.

i've been away...

... and now I am back. Before I left we had a big tag sale and a whole bunch of our things flew the coop and now live with other people, which feels amazing and has cleared a lot of space in our home. Both visually and mentally. But you know what? My neighbor had a tag sale the very same day...

I bet you know the end of this story...

I am so predictable. Funny thing, we already have some of these titles! But can one ever have too many copies of Walden? Exactly.

In other news, I hired an employee!

She is eleven years old and has mad sewing skills. I'm very grateful for my meticulous little strap sewer, and she is pretty excited to be saving up (rather quickly I must say!) for a second guinea pig. She says it is time for Alice to have a friend. So sweet.

I'm off to finish up the details of a very exciting project that will be shared here (and elsewhere!) next week, throw some laundry in, and plan a day of fun for tomorrow with a certain employee that has been greatly missed while I was away... a benefit to working for your mom is that you get a lot of days off. And those off-days usually involve ice cream. Not too bad.

a picture perfect weekend

So perfect.

My camera wasn't by my side the whole time, but enough to capture some very pretty highlights.

:: The weekend felt long and full with the right amounts of up-time and down-time. There was swimming and picnics... ice cream and beeswax candles... early morning eggs benedict and sunset blueberry picking... attic cleaning and porch lounging...

:: My goal is to have the house on the market by mid-September at the latest, but before then... there is a major house clean-out going on. Want some stuff???? Why do we store so many things? If we aren't using it - it's gone! I love a good purge!

:: How fantastic that so many of us are on the same page with the Cash Budget Pouches, thank you for your orders over the weekend! I am a stamping machine right now and hope to have everything in the mail by tomorrow - some of the later orders may go out on Thursday. Thanks again, I want to say your support means more than you know... but I think you do know so I won't say that. But my goodness it does mean a great deal more than I could ever express, thank you. ;)

:: The week ahead looks full - a tag sale planned for Saturday... Farmers Market on Sunday... I'll be out of state for the early part of next week for another Montessori Assistant Teacher Workshop... but I will still stop by here and say hello as I can.

:: I'll leave you with a link to a video I found after reading an online news article last night "Couples Unusual Wedding Entrance, Cute or Corny?" I can't believe it's even debatable, it's very CUTE! I say good for them... people take life way too seriously. I love how there is still an undeniably tender moment at the end where the groom goes down the aisle to meet his bride. Even this wedding video makes me teary...  

Hope your week is rolling along just fine!

ps ~ this is my 500th post!!

what we've been up to the last five days...

 

:: sewing like crazy :: made fourteen bags, one dozen dog collars, forty (40!) zipper pouches :: got up before the birds three times (still can't believe how much I accomplish during these early hours) ::

:: finished soccer camp, which turned out to be very intense :: rescued, nursed back to health, and released a baby mouse :: retired one eight year old iron (it died in the middle of a sewing marathon which was as inconvenient as you might imagine), said hello to a new one :: had an entirely local, simple weeknight meal - pictured above -  (beer, olive oil and balsamic aside), and didn't even realize it until the very end... made me happy that local was just how dinner was made without any thought to it being a planned local meal :: had sushi which was entirely non-local :: saw the new Harry Potter movie, which has prompted another re-read of book six ::

:: traveled to New York for a Montessori Assistant Teachers workshop :: on the way home while stuck in traffic on Rt 95 in Greenwich, thought about how there are never as many cars on the road in Vermont... ever... which made me smile and breathe easy through the intensity of the moment :: declared the summer sandwich of 2009 to be sliced avocado, sliced ripe tomato, thinly shaved fresh parmesan, horseradish mustard, sea salt, cracked black pepper, a little sprinkled dried oregano, all piled onto toasted homemade bread (make this!) :: listened to the guy I love happily talk about his work :: laughed as David Sedaris talked about being a 33 year old elf working at Macy's :: watched my girl's art take on another dimension after the purchase of a few "real" drawing pens :: managed to get rid of (hopefully) every slug in our garden ::

:: realized that for the life of me I cannot make an omelet in a cast-iron pan... still, tomato, feta, fresh chives and garlic with eggs and a touch of cream do make for a perfectly tasty (if not pretty) simple summer meal :: had a busy and fantastic time at the Farmers Market :: welcomed home friends :: picked two quarts of raspberries from our own bushes with more to come still :: felt grateful for downward dog, child's pose and forward folds as they have been a lifesaver for this overworked crafter's body :: finding it funny that I can't find the perfect "pose" to release the tension in my hands from excessive rotary cutting, needle threading, and scissor using, hmmm :: did i mention all the sewing? lots and lots of sewing...

It's been a full five days, I'm sure the list could go on and on... but I'm going to sign off now. I just got an email from a local farm notifying us that the blueberries are ready and super-plump due to all the rain during strawberry season. So for today, I just want to pick blueberries, put my feet up, finish my book, and see if I can get a little art lesson from a certain girl with some fancy new pens.

Be back in a day or so with that grocery follow-up post I promised! Can you believe the comments for that are still rolling in? I have learned so much from all of you - and am comforted by the common ground we all share.

yesterday... it felt like summer!

 

 

 

 

Who am I to miss an opportunity?

so much more than a sandwich and an apple

 

Lately I have felt drawn to near mundane practicality with the things I am designing and making, it is quite a good thing. With the Farmers Market starting in just a few short weeks, I've been busy planning new designs and getting very busy with the making end of things.

This season I've been encouraging my creativity to look at the everyday items we use. To work those items into my offerings and make them as beautiful and special as a hand-embroidered tote or a mantra quilt, both are wonderful to have but can feel like such an indulgence. I am trying to go into these next few months showing awareness and compassion with regards to where people are at with their spending.

One of the things we've been trying to express to our girl here in our home is that difficult economic times are not necessarily about people being out of money (because even if you are, that is too scary for kids to think about), it also has to do with how people choose to spend the money they do have (ah, empowering!). What is really worth parting with your hard (and sometimes too few) earned dollars?

So my focus this year is to become extremely practical in my designs and therefore my offerings. I am especially interested in items that could better protect the health of our natural world... trees, animals and children alike. There are several ideas in the works... many fresh, new, and simple things will be shared here over the next few weeks!

The time I spend making lunch for my family each morning is quite special to me. As I type this I'm thinking that I'm not really sure if they know this or not... hmm. Preparing the food that will be sent off with my family into the world each day is not something I try to rush through just to check it off the busy mama list and move on to the next item. I try to have a variety of fresh and homemade things on hand, and my hope is to make lunch a little different and equally interesting each day. I usually do this on the early side of the morning, before Emily is even awake, I'm happiest when I give myself about a 1/2 - 3/4 of an hour of time to make it all happen. It's not always perfectly graceful (please don't get the impression that it is) and there are certainly mornings where Adam pitches in and takes over when I have other things to take care of. But mostly, it is a very sweet and sacred part of my day.

Recently I watched the movie How to Cook Your Life. There was a point in the movie where a woman (I believe she was a nurse) said that cooking/preparing food for others is the most holy thing we can do each day. I can't even begin to express how perfectly that makes sense to me.

So, a lunchbag is one of the designs I've been brewing. The lunchbag that we send our children and partners off with each day carries so much more than a sandwich and an apple...

I'm not ready to call this my final draft, I still have some function and design elements to tweak a bit. But part of the fun of being in a family where crafty things are made for 'work', is that you get to keep and enjoy the cast-offs!  Emily was pretty happy to tote her new bag to school today. ;)

And not to feel left out...

Mama got herself a little cast-off too!

a dream realized

on the outside::

 

 

 

 

on the inside::

 

 

 

 

I will always treasure the intention and love that went into planning this special day for me. He wanted to drive into the country, not the city. He wanted to offer our family a locally grown, roasted, traded, harvested or hunted meal. He wanted it to be memorable. It was all of those things.

If you are near northeastern Connecticut, you might visit Still River Cafe. Two former (husband and wife) trial lawyers traded it all to follow their dream of opening a little place out in the country where they could feed others food they grew, cooked, and trusted. It is quite beautiful to bare witness to a dream realized. Very inspiring.

a year of planning and exploring

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Normally when we head to Vermont, we head straight to the woods and sleep on a dirt floor. This weekend was different. It marked the beginning of our year long journey to explore the various communities of Vermont, to find the one that is a match for us. We ate at local places, combed potential grocery stores, looked at schools, searched for real estate. And through what sounds like a busy weekend, we all felt incredibly quiet and still. We breathed easily. 

We are looking forward to many more trips like this throughout the year.

Our plan has always been to return to Vermont when Emily completed sixth grade. We fully recognize that given the current climate, we will need to be more creative than ever to make our dream a reality.

We will either have our home sold or rented (whichever comes first) and be headed north, one year (and 2-3 months) from now... to live.

In Vermont.

Permanently.

Let's hope life has the same plan for us...

a performance to remember

Good morning! Emily has been home with a fever (this is day two), which means the working mom is home too... hence my ability to post two days in a row, just like the old days. ;)

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Before I get to the main point of this post, I'd like to direct you to a wonderful interview Rhonda Jean of Down to Earth and the creator of the Simple Green Frugal Co-op (of which I am so honored to write for twice a month) was invited to do with Radio National  in Australia (seems like our NPR here in the states). You can listen to the entire program online  (Thursday, April 2 - Not cheap, just frugal!), or to hear Rhonda's segment only, fast forward to the 8 minute 33 second mark. Rhonda is so sweet to listen to (that beautiful accent!), but I was most impressed with how natural and comfortable she sounds. It doesn't surprise me, I know how warm and genuine Rhonda is from our behind the scenes Co-op group emails (which I think she once referred to as the bat cave - ha!), where we brainstorm and support one another... Rhonda is a very wise lady and sets the tone for us, making sure that everyone is encouraged, valued and happy. I'm so proud of her and wish her all the best on this book writing journey.

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Now, for all you parents out there, or anyone who just needs a little comic relief... please come on a little tour with me of Emily's Geography Fair at school two nights ago.

This post isn't about her highly unusual request for a special dress and magnetic clip earrings... or that awesome, goofy smile.

It's not about whether or not she wanted an up-doo or a down-doo or an up-doo or a down-doo (repeat that 12 times...).

It's not even about the fantastic job she did on her presentation of Venezuela, or the delicious platter of Arepas Con Queso that she offered as people stopped by her booth. Those were actually really good by the way... we used 1/2 the sugar suggested, pepper jack cheese instead of mozzarella, and left the corn kernels whole. We also mixed the batter a day in advance and it made them even fluffier and more pancake like. Trying to be frugal and efficient... when Emily and I sat down to choose her recipe, I suggested we make something that we already had all the ingredients for... and so we did!

This isn't even about the fact that my girl actually loves playing the recorder and how cute I think that is - because when I was in 5th grade, pretty much nobody in my class found this to be fun.

No, this post is about none of that. This post is about those moments in our lives as parents that will remain etched in our memories forever. You see, after her class played a few South American numbers on these traditional instruments, it was time to perform a number using their homemade instruments that they had made in art class. These instruments have been in the creative stage for some time... I'm just saying there was probably time to change one's direction if they were so inclined, but they were not. They were perfectly content and quite amused (as was the rest of the class) with their bamboo flute type thing with the trumpet mouth piece insert... yeah.

It was quite a sound, check it out...

Am I a terrible mother for laughing out loud while video taping this performance and practically dropping the camera in my husband's lap? It was made even funnier by the fact that she just saw the humor in it and wasn't too shy or mortified to get up there and play her flute in front the crowd and her peers... even if they all do lovingly refer to it as The Fart Flute. I think that may be the one and only time you will see that word typed on this blog. ;)

Oh well, all in good fun. Her music teacher (who is my good friend and neighbor) was just so proud of her for being able to "get a sound out of such a very difficult instrument, flutes are so hard to play!" This cracked me up because she meant it in all seriousness and kindness.

Have a good one friends, Emily will be resting up today hoping to kick this fever. She needs to get back to her musical pursuits... afterall, there is talk of a summer tour to prepare for.