making all things new

the lion problem

2012-02-21T10:32:00.001-08:00

The truth is, playing princess is not Rosie's first choice, and never has been.

Right now her favorite game is this: she pretends to be a lion cub, and I pretend to be a scientist studying lions in the wild. I give her a bowl of water and some pita bread, and she lives with me, explaining, "My mother and father and baby brother are dead from the gunners, so do you think I could live with you and be your pet?"

Then, trouble arises in the form of hunters (or "gunners") who come to shoot lions. I am supposed to tell them, "No hunting allowed," and then, if they won't leave, I am supposed to fight them.

This is where the game gets tricky. I keep trying to use diplomacy to deal with the hunters, but diplomacy (or even "calling the police") is just not as dramatic as fighting, and therefore not acceptable to my kid. I refuse to play pretend games where any people kill other people; but how can i model diplomacy rather than violence in her pretend worlds and still make the story dramatic and interesting?

Help.

Maybe my best bet is just to make the story outlandish. Win the gunners over with a spontaneous dance party or jello jigglers. Maybe I should bring magic in, and turn them into mice.

(Incidentally, I can't totally explain where this game came from, except that she has an abiding love for The Lion King, and she recently enjoyed a library story book about Jane Goodall living with the monkeys. I don't know how the hunters got in.)

a princess problem, part one

2012-02-20T11:22:00.001-08:00

This morning I was a scientist studying lions and a magic doctor healing giraffes. I was a three year old girl holding a baby jaguar; I was a "halt-man" (which is exactly what it sounds like); and I was a pony running through a candy forest. I was friends with a lion, a little girl, another pony, and finally, a princess.

She put on an ancient nightgown. "I think this twirls," she said, experimenting. "I must be a princess!"

Time to engage in some research. "What do princesses do?" I asked.

"I don't know," she said. "They organize things."

Then,

"Sometimes," she continued, "people think I'm a princess."

"Why do they think that?" I asked.

"Because they think I'm pretty," she said nonchalantly, and then with passion, "Chase me!" And we're back to tag, running in circles around the house, the all-time favorite activity.

I have nothing against twirly skirts, telling our daughters that they are beautiful, or fairy tales with happy endings. I like love stories, including my own, which, incidentally, began a long time ago in a faraway land and involves a strong man with kind eyes.

I have nothing against princesses, when they are done right. And I think even Disney does them right, sometimes.

But I get all up in arms when the role model suggested - by Christians - for my three year old daughter is a beautiful, silent, passive, nameless, objectified teenage princess who only needs a man chosen for her to marry in order to have a happy ending.

Oh, this book gets my heart rate up. I've tried to ignore it for a year now, but it keeps showing up. And I looked at reviews online and they're all positive! So I am compelled. I'll tell you more about this book (and its counterpoint for boys), and why I - not to mince words - hate it, in a few days, when I calm down. Or even if I don't.

fear of rust

2012-02-12T17:38:00.001-08:00

In case you missed it, my better half has embarked on a year long music-listening project which he will be chronicling on his tumblr. If you enjoy music and dry humor, you will enjoy his take on the albums of 1979.

three

2012-01-26T11:01:00.001-08:00

Rosemary turned three yesterday. This morning when we were getting Owen up from his nap, she made up a song for him. "You need to learn to stand, you need to learn to walk, you need to love God with all your heart, soul, and mind...you need to obey mom, and don't be naughty, and you need to love God."

Jack and I constantly say to each other, "what a girl." precocious and hilarious and deeply loved.

tobogganing

2012-01-22T14:52:00.001-08:00

When this snow fell, it was just too cold to go out.

Single digit cold.

Almost no degrees outside.

And both my kiddos have spent the week coughing and dripping and rashing and night-waking.

But today warmed up a bit. We said we'd go sledding.

Rosie said, "But let's call it tobogganing."

Tobogganing.

the oil cleansing method

2012-01-21T13:47:00.001-08:00

One of my new year's resolutions is to continue switching over to more natural and homemade health and beauty and cleaning products. I thought I'd share with you (my two readers - Hi mom! Hi sis!) the things I've already started trying.

The first switch I made was to the oil cleansing method for skin, which I read about on Simple Mom.

I combined equal parts of castor oil and olive oil in an old glass spice jar. To clean my face, I rub a dime-sized portion into my skin, then hold a steaming washcloth over my face for a minute. I rinse the washcloth in hot water, then gently rub the oil off. I do this four to five times a week, and on the other days, to be honest, I just don't wash my face (sorry to gross you out, Kate).

Basically, the good oils bond to the dirt and bad oils, removing them from the skin without removing the good natural oils from the skin. I've been doing this for over two months now, and my skin isn't much different than it was before, when I was using cetaphil, except that it's a bit softer. I find the steamy process to be relaxing and kind of luxurious.

When I refill my little jar next, I'm going to try adding a drop or two of tea tree oil, to help control the occasional breakout.

And that's it! I recommend it.

Meatless Monday: new recipes

2012-01-20T11:33:00.001-08:00

This week we've tried three new vegetarian entrees, each of them satisfying and hearty and delicious.

Using special Minnesota black rice, we made Wild Rice and Mushroom soup. I think next time I would cook the rice a little bit longer, and maybe use even more mushrooms. I used baby bellas along with a few shittake and oyster mushrooms, and I think next time I will keep it simpler, with all bellas or button mushrooms. (Click the images to view the recipe.)

This Tortilla and Black Bean Pie was very nice. With chips and guacamole, it's an awesome dinner. I did add spices: I upped the cumin to 1 tsp and added 1/4 tsp each of chili powder and cayenne. In all, I think I added 3/4 tsp salt ( one of my pet peeves is recipes that say "salt and pepper to taste"). I also used cooked dried beans rather than canned, and a sharp white cheddar for the cheese.

My favorite - and this could just be because of how hungry I was when I ate it - was Crispy Pan Fried Beans with Wilted Greens. We used cumin and cayenne rather than the spices listed in the recipe, though I'm not sure about the amounts, because Jack cooked this dish. It was so yummy.

our second Christmas

2012-01-19T13:27:00.001-08:00

We escaped grey, icy Upland for a few days this month and celebrated Christmas again, this time with our family in Georgia.

We also got to meet new baby Rocco Paul, who was just 12 days old when we arrived.

Before we left, we had an early birthday party for Rosie (she will be three! Next week!). Trick candles had been purchased by accident, but Rosie adored them. We had several minutes of hilarious fun with them.

December in Little Rock

2012-01-04T11:32:00.001-08:00

With weather into the sixties, we took every chance to enjoy the parks in Little Rock this December, playing at Pinnacle, Alsopp Park, the Rivermarket, & Two Rivers. The natural beauty of the Ozarks had us certainly thinking twice about the place we've chosen to call "home" for now.

We had three things to celebrate this December. First was Jimmy's engagement to EA, whom we all love. With her family we visited the Garvan Gardens Christmas lights.

Second was Jesus' birthday, which we celebrated with songs, fellowship, food &wine, gifts for each other, and gifts for people around the world via Compassion and World Vision. The gift for the whole family that was a hit was the board game Dominion. Rosie's favorites were binoculars and a magnifying glass (she is pictured here wearing every article from her entire dress-up box).

Third, of course, we celebrated Katie's 27th birthday with dinner at home one night and at YaYa's the next night.

It was a lovely trip, and as Rosie says, "I already miss my uncles - Uncle GDaddy, Uncle Mimi, John, David, and...John?" (Sorry, Jim, we're working on it.)

Directions In Which To Lean in 2012

2012-01-04T07:11:00.001-08:00

(My blog posting dropped off at the end of 2011 for several reasons - the external hard drive on which I had stored everything, photos included, started malfunctioning; I began teaching again very suddenly and unexpectedly; and I hosted my first family holiday, Thanksgiving. I'm still having trouble with my photos, but am going to blog anyway.)

These are my resolutions, of a sort, though none of them are the kind that require me to do something every day, like read the bible or exercise or drink more water. I always fail at those. These are more like directions I have already started traveling in, and want to continue in for 2012.

1. Eat meatless one day a week, probably two, and when eating meat, try to eat more organically, locally, happily raised animals and animal products.

2. Start composting, and somehow or another, do more vegetable gardening this year.

3. Continue gradually to replace personal health and beauty products, and household cleaning products, with more natural alternatives (eliminate SLS, dyes, fragrances, chemicals, etc). (My pinterest inspiration board is here, and I'm always looking for suggestions!)

4. Use Common Prayer daily & read large portions of the Bible (Message translation for freshness).

5. Help Rosie develop better habits regarding toothbrushing, tv watching, bible reading &memorization. Maybe try a visual schedule with her?

6. Re-work budget and be more organized in spending (in January!).

7. Continue to have 2-3 evenings a week tv-free.

8. Continue to go on a date twice a month.

Would also like to (but don't hold your breath)...
-Revive the practice of morning pages (I haven't done them since 2005!)
-Go for a walk outside every day

PS- With both my laptop and external hard drive on the fritz, I'm blogging through an iPad app which seems to cut off my pictures on some (though not all) browsers. Still working on a fix :-(

And a happy new year

2011-12-31T19:58:00.001-08:00

I didn't make time to create a Christmas letter like i have in years past...but for the sake of our little family record, here is a rough sketch of our 2011 in sum. Merry Christmas!

Highlights of 2011
January - Rosie's 2nd birthday
February - Papa and MaeMae visit and bring O's cradle
March - Mimi's visit/ Jack's TESOL conference in New Orleans
April - Owen's birth; O's first Easter and R's first Easter egg hunt
May - Katie and Elliott visiting for Memorial Day
June - Amy turning 30; visiting North Georgia and Macon
July - visiting Little Rock; Mollie and Anna visiting Upland
August - Peterson family reunion in the Smoky Mountains
September - Rosie is potty trained!
October- Amy resumes teaching at Taylor
November- Rosie & Owen are baptized at Gethsemane; Lepines come to Upland for Thanksgiving; James proposes to EA
December- We host the dept. Christmas party, and welcome the Brainers to Upland; we spend Christmas in LR; Rocco Accocella is born

Top Albums in 2011(Amy)
Gillian Welch - The Harrow and the Harvest
Bon Iver - Bon Iver
Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues
Adele - 21

Only live music... My Brightest Diamond

Top TV shows
Downton Abbey
Parks and Recreation
Friday Night Lights
Doc Martin
Sherlock
Top Chef
How I Met Your Mother

Top Movies
Money ball
50/50
Bridesmaids
Tree of Life
Super 8
Midnight in Paris
Harry Potter: Deathly Hallows

Top Books (Amy)
Finally Feminist -Stackhouse
Claire Fergusson mysteries
State of Wonder -ann patchett
Cookbook Collector - Allegra Goodman
Blood, Bones, and Butter - Gabrielle Hamilton
A Visit from the Goon Squad -Egan
Simplicity Parenting

baptism

2011-11-06T11:05:00.000-08:00

Last year, at one of our very last times of worship with the good folks at Greenlake Presbyterian (hi! we miss you.), Mike Kelly preached about infant baptism. His logical presentation, interpretation of Scripture, and especially his pastoral and fatherly heart in the sermon completely convinced Jack and me that we wanted our babies to be baptized. With only two or three weeks left in Seattle, we weren't able to do it there.

In Indiana, it took us a good six to nine months to settle into a church home. But we did, finally, and this morning at Gethsemane Episcopal Church in Marion, Rosemary and Owen were baptized. We are grateful.

meatless monday: tuesday edition

2011-11-01T17:46:00.001-07:00

Cauliflower gratin (from an old Bon Appetit mag, and just so-so); onion roasted sweet potatoes; french onion soup.

French onion soup always takes me back to Au Pied de Cochon, which is, I think, where we ate dinner one very late night on my first trip to Paris (do you remember, Laura? do I remember it right?), so late that the restaurant was closing, there was only us and a table of business men in suits, who were eyeing us wryly, a group of giggly American girls (and mothers)in long skirts, sipping our French onion soup. It was delicious.

some halloweens past

2011-10-30T07:46:00.001-07:00

Going to a "harvest festival" church event in San Antonia as a childBonnie and Clyde - before we were married
F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald

Charlotte's Web, Fern, and Wilbur

halloween

2011-10-30T07:14:00.000-07:00

Upland is a strange place. It just is. The town of Upland decreed that we should all celebrate Halloween on October 29, and that trick-or--treating was permissible from 6-8 pm. So for us, Halloween is now over.

I didn't grow up celebrating Halloween, but I have grown to think it can be a fun day for celebrating imagination as well as a rare chance to interact with my neighbors and community. In that spirit, we headed to the party put on by the medic response team and the chamber of commerce at the fire station (which is about a mile from our house).

And I tried to be neighborly, I really did, but the party was just depressing. Everyone looked bedraggled, we were crowded into a windowless garage, some families had come from surrounding towns (just to get more candy?), and a few kids wore scary masks that Rosie did not want to see. So we emerged back out into the crisply cold autumn day and walked home. We played in the leaves, and we answered our door for trick-or-treaters.

After the kids went to bed, Jack and I went to Taylor to see Shara Worden of My Brightest Diamond perform. After sitting through the most depressing opening performance I have ever seen, I was so relieved to see Shara come out with balloons. It was a wonderful show. Shara is a talented musician, playing as many instruments and machines as Andrew Bird, dramatic like Sufjan Stevens, and with a touch of humor, and a powerfulvoice from a tinybody, like Rosie Thomas. You should check her out.

alphabet rocks

2011-10-16T17:32:00.000-07:00

I've had this idea tucked in my mind for over a year now, waiting until Rosemary became just old enough to 1)play with rocks safely and 2)be interested in the alphabet.

Well, she's definitely interested.

Rosemary has three leapfrog dvds, and I can't really believe it, but she has learned the alphabet, and I think she mostly learned it from them. She can name all the letters, and tell at least one sound that each letter makes. When she started sounding out words on her own a couple weeks ago, I was floored. I'm not saying she can read; and I'm not trying to teach her, or pressuring her to do it. She seems to just be naturally absorbing the information and practicing the skills on her own.

Lately one of her favorite games has been to organize her alphabet blocks - putting matching letters together, putting "baby" letters with "mommy and daddy" letters (her words), separating them by color, etc. But our wooden alphabet blocks (Jack's childhood toys) are an incomplete set. And I remembered the rocks.

I got the rocks at the dollar store ($1 for a bag of about 30 rocks - I got two bags), white letter stickers at the dollar store ($1), and the pink basket at the dollar store (50 cents). I also did paint letters with acrylics on some of the rocks, with capitals on one side and lower case on the opposite side. She likes it.

refashion fun

2011-10-16T17:26:00.000-07:00

This jumper was Mimi's. Honestly, I still kind of wish I had just kept it and worn it, in all it's mom-ish glory. It had awesome pockets.

But I didn't. I cut it up and made a little tunic (with pockets, though you can't really see them -- she likes to carry around rocks that she finds) for Rosie.
We took pictures of each other.

half birthday!

2011-10-12T11:16:00.001-07:00

happy six months, owen howard of the cornfields

O is in the 92nd percentile for height. He has his two bottom teeth, and I think the top two will appear before the week is over. He already LOVES food, especially banana mashed with coconut cream. He can just about sit up, and is just barely starting to inch himself forward with his toes when laying on his tummy. He laughs when Rosie kisses his tummy. He loves his yellow ducky blanket, and he loves touch. Just last week he laughed at a stranger at the park, displaying his very own sense of humor. We call his baby Owen, O, little O, baby O, Owen Howard, buddy, and little bud. Needless to say, we are all in love with him.

victory acres

2011-10-08T17:11:00.000-07:00

For two summers now, we've had a CSA share at our local farm, Victory Acres. Operated by the same family for the past six generations (since the 1800s!), the farm is 100% organic, producing vegetables, fruits and berries, and raising chickens, cows, pigs, sheep, and goats. For six years, the farm has also been working in cooperation with Victory Inner-city Ministries, providing a place for folks from the south side of Indy to come learn new job skills and help produce good food.

The farm is heaven on earth to Rosie. I can hardly bear to take her there because she cries so hard when we have to leave. But tonight we got to stay for several hours, enjoying a hayride and potluck dinner to celebrate the end of the growing season.

While Rosie played, I took spy camera pictures of my handsome husband.

And then I decided we should take advantage of the light for a family picture.

Oh, and Mimi. Did I mention Mimi has been here this weekend? It's been wonderful.

october

2011-10-04T18:04:00.001-07:00

Sixty-two degrees, fire, stars, friends, marshmallows, graham crackers, chocolate.

2011-10-02T18:31:00.000-07:00

The Gas City Mini Zoo is in a park about ten minutes from our house. Jack and Rosie have visited several times, but on Sunday afternoon all four of us went together for the first time.

(Apparently some of these animals are in possession of things, and others are merely present in plural. Hmm.)

Food pellets are sold in little bags out of an ancient vending machine, 25 cents each. However, it seems that many people are tempted to feed gum to the animals.

Perhaps the mini zoo should hire an editor.

In any case, Rosie loved feeding the animals.

I loved taking pictures of Owen's smiles and of what the wind was doing to Owen's hair.

When the animals had eaten our three bags full of pellets, we walked by the manmade lake and flew our Dr. Seuss kite. This was the very first kite-flying experience, not just for Rosie and Owen, but also for Jack! And it was just a perfectly gorgeous, knock-you-to-your-knees kind of autumn day.

Chúc mừng sinh nhật

2011-09-23T07:48:00.000-07:00

Last night we celebrated Jack's 32nd birthday with an Asian dinner. (Asia Mart on the north side of Indy had an excellent selection of international groceries. Asia Mart, Trader Joe's, Cookie Cutters, and Chickfila are all on the same street within just a few miles of each other. It's awesome.)

We had Thai Whole Fish with Coriander. Whole fish was one of Jack's favorite dishes to order in Vietnam and Thailand, and he gutted and fried the fish for me. Now that should be in the Art of Manliness!

Vietnamese Fried Spring Rolls - this recipe from epicurious really is very similar to the way my Vietnamese students taught me, but we used the traditional rice paper wrappers instead of wheat wrappers. And Spicy-Sweet Green Beans. And rice, of course.
For dessert a simple and completely un-asian peanut butter pie.
The ever=photogenic Kinsley joined us, and entertained our babies while we were frying things.

It all turned out well, and Jack was sincerely excited about his kindle and his vinyl.

photographer

2011-09-18T12:34:00.000-07:00

Last week Rosie took photos with my phone for about an hour. Here is the world through her eyes, unedited:

Then my girl requested a photo shoot.

tutu

2011-09-13T10:10:00.001-07:00

Rosie likes to dance. In fact, on Sunday she walked into a room full of older kids and a few adults, and said, "Hey guys, do you know this song?" They ALL stopped what they were doing and watched as she sang and danced to "Row, row, row your boat".

So last week I found tulle in the clearance section of the fabric store. Fifty cents a yard. I bought three. Yesterday I made a tutu during naptime and left it sitting outside Rosie's door to surprise her when she woke up.

My daughter is gorgeous.

meatless monday: hello, fall

2011-09-12T18:02:00.001-07:00

Minestrone soup. Carrots, green beans, and swiss chard from our CSA.

the Matthews Covered Bridge Festival

2011-09-10T17:36:00.000-07:00

Today we drove about ten minutes south to the small town of Matthews to take part in their annual Covered Bridge Festival. I couldn't find my camera before we left, but I took some instagram shots of the festivities.

We heard the local high school marching band play, but we were too early for the tractor pull. Rosie got to jump in one of the inflatable bounce houses, and Jack found a Neil Young record at one of the booths. While Rosie was jumping, I asked the attendant, a teenage Miley Cyrus look-alike, if she knew what an "elephant ear" was. "Yeah," she said, smiling as if she found it a little charming that I didn't. "Well," she corrected, "I don't actually know what it is. It's like, breaded, with cinnamon."

We sampled one later - it's a long thin piece of fried bread topped with cinnamon sugar. We didn't have any breaded pork tenderloins, which looked like the biggest selling item at the fair.

We bought a butterfly net, too -- something Rosie has been talking about for weeks now. Then we did a lot of running around.

And finally Rosie got to have a horseback ride. She wasn't scared a bit.

The Upland Labor Day Parade

2011-09-05T15:37:00.000-07:00

Back when I was childless and living in Seattle, I had a bit of a girl crush on Liz Lemon. 30 Rock made me laugh.

But over the last year or two, I've grown tired of 30 Rock's snarky humor. And I have moved to Indiana. While Liz Lemon will always have a place in my heart, now I watch Parks and Recreation (which, incidentally, is set in Pawnee, Indiana), a show that has a kind of sweetness and sincerity to its humor. I am becoming a real fan of Leslie Knope.

In the Parks and Rec spirit, this year I want to embrace small town living and even, if I can, Indiana winters.

Labor Day weekend, in Upland, is the perfect time to embrace small town life.

Every year, the whole town turns into a big rummage sale for labor day. We spent several hours Saturday looking for treasures in our neighbors' front yards. Today we attended the town parade.

Let me tell you about this parade. Everyone is in it.

There are kids on bikes

and men slouching on all kinds of motorized vehicles.

Even lawn mowers.

There are politicians, and their fans.

This one was blasting "proud to be an American".

This one was walking along behind his van.

Then there is the popcorn queen.

And these men. What are they, you ask? I do not know.

But there is something awesome about them.

Our farmer was there, too, with a posterboard sign asking "Who grows your food?".

Rosie loved the parade. She loved catching the candy thrown from floats, and she loved going into Shiloh's backyard when everything was over and jumping on the trampoline. Owen loved snuggling in the chilly morning weather. And so did I.

crayon roll

2011-08-28T12:12:00.000-07:00

This week, with crayons on the back-to-school sale for forty cents, I bought a 24 pack and made a crayon roll for Rosie (tutorial here). I used fabric from Grams's attic as well as some leftovers from Owen's quilt.

Rosie s just developing the kind of fine motor skills required for putting crayons in their individual spots. But while she was excited to untie the ribbon on her "present," she would still rather play with dirt and water than with crayons. One of these days...

surprised by carrots

2011-08-28T11:55:00.000-07:00

This week we picked some carrots in our backyard.

Back in March or April, I planted carrot and pea seeds next to our storage shed. A couple days later, the rabbit family came nosing around, eating flowers off the snapdragon stems in my pots. With a newborn in my arms, I decided to give up the idea of a garden for this summer. I didn't want to fight the rabbits. And I let the weeds grow over my little cleared patch of dirt.

But last week we picked these carrots in my forgotten plot. Their existence reminds me of God's grace, and how he keeps working even when I don't. That he can bless even my short-lived, half-forgotten impulses is a gift. I'm thankful.

owen, four months

2011-08-28T10:56:00.000-07:00

Owen's first two teeth appeared about a week ago. Growing up can be painful.

His sister entertains him, though, and he lights up for her.

Most of the time.

Generally, he has become a very happy and handsome baby.

(He still looks a lot like Rosie at this age.)

folding fitted sheets

2011-08-25T19:10:00.001-07:00

I saw this on pinterest last week, and I chuckled. Who doesn't hate folding fitted sheets? It's a hassle. They never seem to come out perfectly.

If you are reading my blog, you probably know me well enough to know that I am not a fastidious housekeeper. When I was growing up, my younger sister eventually had to take on more chore duties than I did, precisely because I was not as good as she was at getting things clean and tidy (sorry, Kate!). Now that I'm older, I hope my home is clean enough so that no one is uncomfortable in it or endangered by it, but that's about as far as I go.

However, for some reason I just keep thinking about this sentiment. I think about my distinct memory of my mom, instructing me on how to fold a fitted sheet. I think about the care it takes. I think about god, who is not a god of disorder; who is a god of beauty. I think about the earth without form and void, about god calling light out of darkness, and about Adam giving names to all the animals. About monks returning to their same tasks and their same liturgies day after day. About the one sitting on the throne and making all things new.

And I think life is long enough to fold fitted sheets, if it brings some order and beauty to my corner of the world, if it shows care and respect for those things with which I've been entrusted.

In fact, I think I have decided that folding fitted sheets is exactly what life is for.

(incidentally, I just realized that this image is the cover of a book. This post is not about the book, which I know nothing about -it's just about the cover sentiment.)

Meatless Monday: squash and lettuce and tomato

2011-08-22T19:08:00.001-07:00

Tonight we had a southern squash casserole, Caesar salad, sliced toms, and focaccia bread.

And then we had cheesecake with eighteen or twenty episcopalians, which was great fun.

a reading update

2011-08-22T14:28:00.000-07:00

If you pay attention to that sort of thing, you may have noticed that at the beginning of 2011 I made two public resolutions: one, to have "meatless monday" meals in 2011 (why?); and two, to read twelve hefty books in the twelve months of this year.

I've had fun with meatless mondays, clearly.

But 12 in 12 has not worked out so well. Maybe it wasn't the best resolution for a mother of an infant and a toddler. Or maybe it just wasn't the best idea to read the 760 page Autobiography of Mark Twain for book number 3.

Although I haven't kept to the hefty book plan, I have been reading. At two-thirds of the way through 2011, here's what I've read, with my faves in bold.

In Whole:
Surprised by Hope - N.T. Wright - excellent
Freedom - Jonathon Franzen - good; a bit depressing
The Clare Fergusson mysteries by Julia Spencer Fleming
The coffeehouse mysteries by Cleo Coyle (these two mystery series's sustained me through the last months of pregnancy and first months of Owen's life, when I had little brain energy; that said, I really enjoyed both)
The Cookbook Collector by Allegra Goodman - similar to Franzen's Freedom in subject, but better
Intuition by Allegra Goodman
How I Changed My Mind about Women in Leadership - Ed. Alan Johnson
Finally Feminist - John Stackhouse - compelling, but compelling enough? deliberating.
State of Wonder - Ann Patchett - excellent
Life Among the Savages - Shirley Jackson
The Imperfectionists - Tom Rachman
Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad

In the Middle of:
The Autobiography of Mark Twain
A Brief History of the Episcopal Church - David Holmes
The Blue Parakeet - Scot McKnight
Invitation to the Jesus Life - Jan Johnson
One Thousand Gifts - Ann Voskamp - so far, so good
Bloom's Notes on Heart of Darkness - Harold Bloom

geek out:
Jack and I both read Ann Patchett's latest (I just love her), State of Wonder; and on hearing it called a feminist retelling of Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, I read (and Jack re-read) that, too. I wanted to know in what sense it was a feminist re-telling. Surely using the same basic plot but replacing the main characters (all male, in Conrad's novella) with women was not enough to make it "feminist". I'm still pondering that. And just to round out our little unit of study, we're working our way through Apocalypse Now Redux, the film from the seventies inspired by Heart of Darkness.

So, for our next unit, what should we do?

Option A:
King Lear - Shakespeare
A Thousand Acres - Jane Smiley
Ran (Japanese film)

Option B:
Odyssey - Homer
The Penelopiad - Margaret Atwood
O Brother Where Art Thou

Option C:
make a suggestion!

meatless monday: more pizza

2011-08-16T16:22:00.000-07:00

I make pizza from scratch fairly regularly, and though a while back I felt I had absolutely nailed pizza dough, lately my crusts just haven't been doing it for me.

So tonight we got serious, and broke out the Peter Reinhart (in this book, which Jack gave me for our anniversary a couple of years ago; or, in an abbreviated version, here).

Clearly, we need to practice tossing our crusts, but even in funny shapes, this was a delicious dough. We topped it with a drizzle of olive oil, fresh sliced tomato, bufalo mozzerella, parmesan, and goat cheese. With spinach salad and zinfandel, this was the best pizza we've had in quite a while.

the great smokies

2011-08-10T14:09:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we returned home after a long weekend at the Peterson family reunion in the Smoky Mountains. Roughly thirty Petersons shared a big cabin, lots of delicious meals, a moving time of Sunday morning worship, evenings in the hot tubs on the back porch, and intense competition (Jack came in second in the billiards bracket, and first in the air hockey bracket).

Wearing our matching tees, we hiked in the Smoky Mountain National Park (and I saw a bear cub!). By the way, if you need a new challenge in your hiking life, try it carrying a thirty pound toddler on the way up and a 15 pound infant on the way down.

We walked the strip in Gatlinburg and had an old-days photograph made (oh my).

Rosie loved her cousin time.

Meatless Monday: Caprese Salad

2011-08-01T14:56:00.001-07:00

Yum.

life among the savages

2011-07-29T19:26:00.000-07:00

I recently read "Life Among the Savages," a memoir about mothering by Shirley Jackson, who is most famous for the short story "The Lottery". While I found her prose style to be a little long winded at times, she succeeded in making me laugh out loud more than once. I think the first paragraph of the book was my favorite:

"Our house is old, and noisy, and full. When we moved into it we had two children and about five thousand books; I expect that when we finally overflow and move out again we will have perhaps twenty children and easily half a million books; we also own assorted beds and tables and chairs and rocking horses and lamps and doll dresses and ship models and paint brushes and literally thousands of socks. This is the way my husband and I have fallen into, inadvertently, as though we have fallen into a well and decided that since there was no way out we might as well stay there and set up a chair and a desk and a light of some kind; even though this is our way of life, and the only one we know, it is occasionally bewildering, and perhaps even inexplicable to the sort of person who does not have that swift, accurate conviction that he is going to step on a broken celluloid doll in the dark. I cannot think of a preferable way of life, except one without children and without books, going on soundlessly in an apartment hotel where they do the cleaning for you and send up your meals and all you have to do is lie on a couch and - as I say, I cannot think of a preferable way of life, but then I have had to make a good many compromises, all told."

laughter

2011-07-29T19:17:00.000-07:00

Owen is just starting to giggle a little.

Yes, that's Downton Abbey paused on the laptop in the background. We finished it tonight. What a fun show! And gorgeous clothing.

hula weekend '11

2011-07-25T10:25:00.001-07:00

Mollie and Anna flew in from Denver for the weekend. To meet Owen, they said, while I said it was to celebrate our thirtieth birthdays.

After picking them up Friday night, we went to the Ball and Biscuit. Saturday we spent at home playing with the kiddies, in the paddling pool, eating the best cheesecake I've ever made, and playing apples to apples.

Sunday we had scones and then hit the outlet mall before the airport. It was a lovely weekend.

the wooden anniversary

2011-07-19T18:04:00.001-07:00

Songs we loved in our fifth year of marriage. Coming soon to a discman (what, you prefer a boombox?) near you.

1. John the Rabbit - Rosemary Peterson
2. Walking Far From Home - Iron and Wine
3. Too Much - Sufjan Stevens
4. Lovesong - Adele
5. Helplessness Blues - Fleet Foxes
6. Runaway - The National
7. If the Sun Stops Shining - Damien Jurado and Richard Swift
8. Oh Yeah By the Way - Over the Rhine
9. I Want the World to Stop - Belle and Sebastian
10. God is Love - The Innocence Mission
11. Swimming - Breathe Owl Breathe
12. Love is All - The Tallest Man on Earth
13. While I Shovel the Snow - The Walkmen
14. The Way It Goes - Gillian Welch
15. Poor in Love - Destroyer
16. Beacon Hill - Damien Jurado
17. Hosanna in the Forest - Danielson

Meatless Monday, CSA veg edition

2011-07-18T15:52:00.001-07:00

No, we haven't forgotten meatless Mondays, either. Just recycling recipes, mostly. Tonight we had southern squash casserole, fresh sliced tomato (turns out I like it salted and peppered), fried okra, and cornbread muffins. It was a very satisfying (if very yellow) plate.

Owen, three months

2011-07-16T12:55:00.001-07:00

My mason jar

2011-07-13T11:42:00.001-07:00

This rarely fails to lift my spirits.

1/2 oz vanilla syrup
6oz cold-brewed coffee
1oz whole milk
Ice

(how to cold-brew coffee? Mix 1cup freshly ground beans with 4.5 cups water. Cover and let sit on the counter overnight. Strain, and keep the liquid in the fridge. It will stay good all week.)

Owen at the pool

2011-07-11T08:15:00.001-07:00

The end of the trip

2011-07-11T08:13:00.001-07:00

John had to go back to camp, but we enjoyed spending as much time with the rest of the family as possible. I think these pictures make it clear how much Rosie adores her uncles.

Other things we enjoyed while in LR included checking out Jim's new house, the fried goat cheese salad at 1620, making homemade "wheat thins," and reading Ann Patchett's latest, which Katie had sent to Little Rock for me (it is nearly my favorite of hers).

great grandma criss

2011-07-05T20:03:00.001-07:00

Swimming

2011-07-04T18:17:00.001-07:00

My parents' neighborhood has two swimming pools. The one we visited today has a kiddie pool with a mushroom waterfall.

The purple penguin

2011-07-04T10:26:00.001-07:00

Little Rock is a great town for the snow cone, a summer delicacy of which I am most fond.

David works at the purple penguin, so he served up Rosie's first snow cone last night. The other uncles played football in the parking lot with Rosie while we waited.

macon

2011-06-30T18:26:00.001-07:00

Lots of playing outside, splashing, berry picking. Rosie adores her cousins. And her grandparents. Ok, aunts and uncles too. And Owen has gotten very attached to his duckie blanket.

North Georgia

2011-06-30T18:20:00.001-07:00

Aunt KK, Grandma and Grandpa Howard, fishing off Mary Alice's dock. Can you find the fish in the picture?

zoo

2011-06-16T11:23:00.001-07:00

We went to the Fort Wayne zoo on my birthday. Rosie's favorite animals were the peacock, the giraffe, and the goat... not coincidentally, these were the three animals she could get up close and personal with.

Meatless Monday: CSA frittata

2011-06-13T17:59:00.001-07:00

meatless mondays: cold dinners, and etc.

2011-06-07T10:54:00.001-07:00

Now that summer is here, and Jack only has to go in to school a few hours a week, I'm having a hard time remembering what day it is.

It's a lovely thing to be able to forget.

I've also been opting for the simplest of foods, mostly served cold.

I like to make a pasta salad along these lines, with orzo, cherry tomatoes, spinach, feta, and pine nuts.

Tonight we're having arugula, potato, and green bean salad, which is surprisingly delicious.

And last night we rolled sushi, with avocado and smoked salmon.

We bought a grill on Memorial Day weekend, just a simple round Weber, and grilled bulgogi on it last week. Yum. Tomorrow we'll grill some surf and turf deliciousness.

Despite the fact that the latest Bon Appetit had Gwyneth Paltrow on the cover, I've been using a lot of its recipes: crispy roast chicken thighs, watermelon granita (use less sugar than they recommend!) and strawberry/blueberry striped popsicles. And then sitting by the (inflatable kids') pool.

memorial day

2011-05-31T11:51:00.000-07:00

Last year about this time, we went to New York to visit Katie and Elliott, and it was the best trip we've taken since Rosie was born. New York was amazing and they were amazing hosts.

This year they came to us, to meet Owen. I'm afraid Upland wasn't quite as amazing, but we did our best. They were gracious guests. We loved having them - and Desmond - here.

hot dog!

2011-05-31T08:29:00.000-07:00

Rosie's first hot dog had quite a pedigree, coming from Brooklyn's Meat Hook (delicious). Despite that, she still spent most of her memorial day meal gnawing on her corn on the cob. An Indiana girl, after all?

(More pictures from Katie and Elliott's visit coming soon.)

grandparents

2011-05-26T05:40:00.000-07:00

favorites

2011-05-25T11:39:00.000-07:00

One of Jack's colleagues is starting a photography business. She took a few pictures of Owen for us when he was just over two weeks old. Here are a few of my favorites. Thanks for these beautiful shots, Erica!

is she really my daughter?

2011-05-25T07:41:00.000-07:00

on approaching thirty

2011-05-23T05:52:00.001-07:00

Before graduating from highschool, I had to write a paper outlining my plans for the next decade. Here's what I had in mind at seventeen:

"After I receive my {college} diploma, I will buy an old VW bus, fix it up and put stained glass windows on the sides, and drive across America for one year...

I will fly across the ocean and backpack across Europe for a year, staying in youth hostels. Since I'll be on that side of the ocean, I'll spend a year or two doing graduate work at Oxford. Then I'll return to my homeland and meet up with my compatriots Anna and Mollie in Chicago, where we'll share an apartment and I'll finish my graduate work at the University of Chicago. If I marry, I'll do it in Chicago. After a few years there, I'll settle in New England and open a bookstore/teashop modeled on Shakespeare and Co. in Paris. The shop will become the new haven for young writers, and while there I will write my Pulitzer Prize winning novel. Because of my fame, the local college will ask me to teach one honors writing class, which I will gladly do. Some of the students in that class (some may be my own children) will graduate and take over my shop when, around the age of forty-eight, I will sell all of my worldly possessions and move to Africa or South or Central America and spend the rest of my days a barefoot missionary."

Let's just pause for a minute to consider my hubris. Alright. Moving on.

The rest of the paper went on to admit that I couldn't possibly know what my future would hold, but that I expected in whatever it held, I would be called to "walk in a manner worthy of the Lord" (Col. 1:10).

Although I admitted that God controlled the future, not me, I still knew what I wanted. Adventure, exploration, freedom, and grand success in academic and literary and business endeavors. Marriage and motherhood were, at most, peripheral to my plan.

I'm sure that if you had told me at seventeen that thirty would find me a stay at home mom of two small kids in a painfully small midwestern town, I would have grimaced.

Here's how it happened. I took college to be a time for ideas and learning and personal growth, not a time for preparing for a career. Whoops. After college, I spent two years teaching English in Southeast Asia and earning an MA from Wheaton. (Teaching was a career, incidentally, that I had ruled out at the age of eleven, when I decided that getting attached to a class of kids every year and then saying goodbye to them every year would be too emotionally draining. It turns out that it is sad, but the truth is there are a fair amount of students you are happy to say goodbye to at the end of a year, too.) And then a year hanging out with the love of my life in southern California (and teaching some English). We married, and spend a year in Arkansas (still teaching English), and three years in Seattle, living in community with international students (and, yes, teaching English). We had a baby, and moved to Indiana, and had another baby, and now here I am. Five years under my belt in a career I never intended to have, and two babies underfoot, living in a town that covers less than four square miles of land.

A few years ago I read the memoir "Leaving Church," by Barbara Brown Taylor. I copied down these sentences:

"You only need to lose track of who you are, or who you thought you were supposed to be, so that you end up lying flat on the dirt floor basement of your heart. Do this, Jesus says, and you will live."

This was, as I recall, part of her commentary on Matthew 16:25, and it rang true to me.

It rang true because in 2004, after being sure that I was supposed to be in Vietnam, I was placed in Cambodia, and spent much of the year lying flat on the dirt floor basement of my heart.

It rang true because when we moved to Seattle, I worked in a coffee shop for a while, and to get there every day I walked past the majestic University of Washington, thinking about how for a while I thought I was supposed to be Dr. Lepine, university professor.

It rings true now, because although I love my specific and concrete life here, with my two kids and my husband, in the abstract it's not a life I would have chosen; it's not who I ever "thought I was supposed to be". And because when I am alone in the house with two kids both crying their heads off, or when I am up for the fourth time in the pitch black early morning hours, in the longest shortest time, in those moments I am lying flat on the dirt floor basement of my heart.

But I'm here to learn a lot of things. Maybe I'm learning some humility, how to lose my life and find it, and how to "make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands." Maybe I'm learning how to recognize God in the quotidian mysteries, in the Benedictine rhythms of motherhood
. Maybe I'm joining in the creative nature of God by creating babies and veggie stir-fry and quilts, by telling stories and painting with watercolors and making up silly songs and dances. Maybe I am making all things new by doing loads of laundry and getting dirty dishes to sparkle again. In each of these tasks, I'm - hopefully - participating in God's plan to bring restoration to a broken world.

As Barbara Brown Taylor wrote in her most recent book, "To lie flat on the ground with the breath knocked out of you is to find a solid resting place" and "While none of these displacements was pleasant at first, I would not give a single one of them back. I have found things while I was lost that I might never have discovered if I had stayed on the path."

When I was seventeen I knew what I wanted, but I admitted that I couldn't know what the future held for me. What I really meant by that was, "I don't know what will happen in the future, but I am pretty sure that I will be awesome in it."

I ended up somewhere entirely different than I anticipated, but, most of the time, I love it here.

Now, when I picture myself in the future, I don't even really know what I want. Now, When I confess that the future is uncertain, I think what I mean is that some of the time, maybe most of the time, I am able to trust God with the future, and able to believe that he will transform me in it.

But I still can't believe that I'm almost thirty.

owen, six weeks

2011-05-22T18:21:00.001-07:00

Of course, he's the second born, and we haven't taken as many pictures of him. This is partly because we are so much busier now than we were two years ago. And it is partly because Owen most of the time looks like this:

He's not the happiest baby. Rosie, at seven weeks, was smiling like this:

Owen, at two days short of six weeks, has smiled, but it's rare. He's a handsome lad, though, and cuddly. Here he is in the same chair Rosie's pictures were taken in

Rosie decided to hop in the picture to "teach" Owen how to "say cheese":

meatless monday: corn chowder

2011-05-17T07:08:00.000-07:00

No pictures, but last night we had vegan corn chowder (with rice milk, not soy), cold asparagus salad, and shortcake with strawberries. I've made this corn chowder a few times now, and what I like most about it is that the broth is very peppery and garlicky. As for the salad, last summer I had a delicious asparagus salad: this one from Rachel Ray was NOT it. But I can't find the recipe. Any suggestions?

With corn, asparagus, and strawberries, it was like a spring celebration... except that it was cloudy and in the forties.

fancy nancy

2011-05-15T12:01:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I made Rosie a nightgown.

She'd been asking for a nightgown, and when we saw this Fancy Nancy fabric a few weeks ago, I went ahead got it for her. I guess I was so happy that the "character" she wanted on her pajamas was a book character rather than a tv character that I splurged a little. Anyway, I used (and slightly altered) this pattern, and it worked great.

Rosie loves being read to. So far, her favorite book serieses (what is the plural of series?) are
Fancy Nancy (and especially Fancy Nancy and the Posh Puppy, and Fancy Nancy-Bonjour Butterfly)
Henry and Mudge

Ella the Elegant Elephant

Harry the Dirty Dog

going meatless

2011-05-10T09:21:00.000-07:00

Last night for Meatless Mondays we had this Chickpea Tomato soup that Katie made last week, along with a caesar salad and some focaccia bread. When I made the soup, I accidentally used one can of diced tomatoes with green chiles, and something about pureeing those green chiles made the soup really spicy. So, I didn't eat too much of it, because I didn't want the spice to give Owen a tummy ache. Jack liked it fine, though. I liked the chickpeas in it, and so did Rosie.

But what I want to say is that we've been going meatless at dinner once or twice a week for over five months now, and I've really noticed a change in the way I like to eat.

I do not enjoy eating large pieces of meat anymore!

I still like meat. I like a slice or two of bacon with my eggs. I like shredded chicken in my soup. I love turkey and gravy over biscuits. But last week I made some chicken wrapped in prosciutto with a sour cream sauce, and I could not finish even one chicken breast. Three fourths of the way through, I felt kind of sick. I used to be able to eat two slices of pork loin; now, one is almost too much meat. This week when I planned the meals, I planned three meatless nights and one fish night. I have almost entirely abandoned meals that have a hunk of meat as the main dish.

I hope this isn't the first step towards becoming a crazy vegetarian. Like my mother.

meatless monday: mac&cheese

2011-05-02T15:42:00.001-07:00

Martha's macaroni and cheese, and a lovely salad.

first smile for the camera

2011-05-02T13:46:00.000-07:00

easter sunday

2011-04-24T16:58:00.000-07:00

This is Rosie's third Easter (here's last year), but we haven't really talked much about what Easter means. (It's not easy to explain!) Yesterday Jack asked her, "Do you know why we are so happy on Easter Sunday?"

"Yes," she said, "because we get married!" No idea where she came up with that. I actually didn't even know that she knew the word married.

At church today Rosie experienced her first Easter egg hunt. The eggs weren't all filled with candy...her favorite prizes were nail polish and temporary tattoos (she's now wearing three).

Sleepy parents.

mimi

2011-04-19T17:17:00.000-07:00

Mimi is going home tomorrow. I am sad.

baby jack

2011-04-18T17:21:00.001-07:00

meatless monday: postpartum edition

2011-04-18T16:56:00.001-07:00

Well, my computer just ate the pictures that I was going to post tonight.

I had some great shots of Rosie and Mimi using the kid's gardening tools that Rosie got in the mail today from Aunt Birdie. They planted some snapdragons and nasturtiums.

And I had a picture of our dinner. Thoughtful friend Whitney brought us spinach quiche, cheese grits, fruit salad and pumpkin scones. It was delicious. And, though I hadn't even thought of it all day, it was monday and it was meatless!

eyes

2011-04-16T13:30:00.001-07:00

2011-04-15T16:50:00.000-07:00

second day

2011-04-14T17:35:00.000-07:00

This was yesterday.

It's harder to obsessively take photos of your second born.
It's a good thing my mom is here. I'm exhausted. But Rosie's not.

owen's first day

2011-04-13T11:09:00.000-07:00

Introducing Owen Howard Peterson, who entered the world at 9:55 am on April 12, 2011, 21 inches long and weighing 8 lbs 15 oz: our dearly loved son!

I actually went into labor Monday night, just like we prayed. More pics and details after I nap.

fifty pounds

2011-04-10T13:00:00.000-07:00

After I gave birth to Rosie, it took more than a year for me to lose the baby weight. But by the time she was 18 months, it was gone. Frankly, I was skinny. Skinnier than I'd been since I lived in Vietnam.

That's me ten months ago. Now, at 41 weeks pregnant, I have officially gained fifty pounds. Here is a picture (taken today) which artfully disguises the pounds that have have gone to my thighs and hips while displaying the extreme roundness of my belly.

I've had contractions every day (or, more often, every night) for the last week. My newest "ideal" time to go into labor is tomorrow night, so please pray that way, and forgive my narcissistic blogging tendencies. Amen.

the due date

2011-04-04T15:52:00.000-07:00

Last time I went into labor on my due date. Sure, Rosie wasn't born for three more days, but in my memory it's more like one neverending day, so I don't feel like she was late.

Did you know that only 5% of babies are born on their due dates? But 80% are born within two weeks of their due dates.

Today is Owen's due date. I've had so many more aches and pains with the third trimester of this pregnancy than I did with Rosie (with Rosie, there was really nothing but swollen hands and feet) that I thought for sure Owen would be earlier than she was.

But, here I am, waiting, nothing but a few Braxton Hicks contractions going on for the past week.

Jack's mom got here on Thursday. It's so nice having someone else to help entertain Rosie, pick her up and down, and help me keep the house somewhat clean.

Thunderstorms all day today. I made deep dish brownies and went walking in the mall. I've been walking every day.

Meatless Monday was a repeat for us: spicy soba noodles. Tasty. Maybe the little bit of Korean chili paste that was in it will kick things into gear. I hope so.

(And, PS, I'm a little behind on 12 in 12. My third book is Mark Twain's Autobiography, and while it's interesting and amusing, it's not exactly compelling. Plus, it's an enormous hardback, and it's too much to curl up with comfortably.)

meatless monday: RAMPS edition

2011-03-28T15:56:00.000-07:00

At the Winter Farmer's Market in Indy, we bought ramps, one of the the first spring vegetables to appear. Elliott pointed us to a few good recipes that I'd love to try, but tonight we kept it simple - Scrambled Eggs with Ramps, Mushrooms, and Asparagus. The scramble had a nice mild garlicky flavor from the ramps. I served it with slices of grilled homemade crusty bread, and I meant to serve it with fried potatoes too, but somehow I completely forget about them. For dessert we had (frozen) blueberries and some raw milk gouda, which we also bought at the winter market. It was a delicious meal.

milkmaid

2011-03-28T10:51:00.000-07:00

My little milkmaid

somewhat melancholy

but not for long.

I have two of these outfits, one about a size 2t, and the other a size 5 or 6, and if Mom knows how to use the scanner, maybe she'll scan in the (almost 25 year old) picture of Katie and me wearing them after Grandma Criss made them for us. The elastic in the 2t was shot, so yesterday I ripped it out and replaced it so my girl could wear it. Rosie likes it pretty well. She says (funnily enough) that it reminds her of Corduroy bear).

i hesitate to call this spring break

2011-03-26T14:37:00.000-07:00

We didn't go anywhere -- you can't, when your due date looms -- and there is a fifty percent chance of snow tonight. It doesn't feel like spring. (Actually, as Jack said yesterday, spring break here felt like Christmas break in the south.)

But it was a break, and that was nice.

At the beginning of the week we had some sunny and fifty degree days, and I (probably prematurely) planted lettuces and peas and carrots. I can always plant again in a week or two if they die in a frost tonight.

For meatless monday, since Jack had missed them, I reprised last week's spinach pancakes, this time with some delicious Indian rice on the side.

We went to the Indiana Museum of Art for the first time, and we ate cajun food at Yats.

We took a few longs walks, one to the park and one around the indoor track at Taylor, hoping to get Owen moving.

I saw the doctor, and she said, "Oh, by the way, I'll be on vacation with my family from April 1-8." Doesn't it seem that, since my due date is April 4, she might have mentioned that a little earlier? Especially since I chose her and her hospital because they do water births, and the doctors who will cover for her that week are NOT comfortable with water birth? Que sera sera.

I finished sewing a summer skirt for Rosie. I started it last week while Mimi was here, so that I could have hands on help with my first attempt at gathering, and it was from a tutorial that I probably bookmarked a year ago. Maybe I'll give it to Rosie when we come home from the hospital. She'll need some special attention, I'm sure.

And we must have done more than that, but I honestly can't remember. Today we went with some friends to the winter farmer's market in Indy, and then to some shops on Mass Ave and lunch at Bazbeaux. We have needed to be introduced to places like these!

Last night I think I had dreams that I was having contractions. But I wasn't, when I woke up. Jack's mom will be here on Thursday, so we might as well wait until then. Owen's due date shows up in the 10 day weather forecast now. If he waits until April, it will warm up a little for him.

matching and mardis gras

2011-03-19T15:56:00.003-07:00

Mimi and Rosie happened to be matching this morning.

Jack brought beads back from New Orleans.

meatless...

2011-03-16T17:31:00.000-07:00

Jack left today for New Orleans and the TESOL conference, but Mimi is here to keep us company. She's vegetarian, so I decided that this week we'd try vegetarian dinners Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday instead of just Monday.

Tonight we tried these spinach pancakes that a friend pointed me to, and they were amazing. Don't let the name "spinach pancakes" detract you. These exceed expectations. I could have eaten twice as many as I cooked.

Tomorrow night we'll have a winter standby (for the last time - spring is in the air!) -- Curried Squash and Red Lentil Soup with flat bread -- and Friday we'll make mushroom pizza.

Owen

2011-03-14T06:33:00.001-07:00

Last night at dinner, Jack said that he's ready to commit to the name.

We've been holding out because nothing felt as right to us for this boy as Rosemary did for our baby girl, and in fact I told Jack that I really didn't have a preference among our top three names, and he could choose.

Boy names are hard.

We've chosen Owen Howard for our baby.

Of uncertain origin, Owen is most likely Celtic or Welsh, meaning "young warrior". Some positive associations we have with the name are John Owen, a Puritan writer; Owen Meany (title character of a John Irving novel); and, for me at least, Owen Wister (author of "The Virginian" and the father of western fiction). It was the 51st most popular baby boy's name in America last year.

Howard is Jack's mother's maiden name (Rosemary's middle name is Cross, my grandmother's maiden name). Howard is of Old English (or Norse, or German, or French) origin and means "noble watchman," "guardian," or "shepherd".

I finished Owen's quilt a while back, but we've been working on a few other things for his room. Using up fabric scraps, I've made a soft ball and a fleece-backed playmat. ONe of the fabric scraps had a pocket, so I made a few little toys to reside in the pocket.

Using cardstock, I made a mobile inspired by ideas here and here.

But best of all, Jack made one of his record mosaics. Using old records and record sleeves, he created this airplane on an old piece of plywood.

noodles to slurp

2011-03-10T10:41:00.000-08:00

There is no movie that makes me want to eat more than Wong Kar Wai's "In the Mood for Love," (2000) which is a beautiful movie and features beautiful people slurping up wonton noodle soup from street stalls in Hong Kong in the 1960s.

Just thinking about this movie always makes us want noodles. And yes, we gave up tv for Lent and haven't watched the film in years, since we were dating, but we have been thinking about it. And so we gave wonton noodle soup a try, and here's what we came up with. It was pretty satisfying, and Rosie-approved.

In the Mood for Wonton Soup (4 servings)

For the wontons:
1/2 pound ground pork
1/2 pound shrimp, deveined, tails off, and finely chopped
1/2 Tbs oyster sauce
1 tablespoons soy sauce
1 teaspoons rice vinegar
1 teaspoons cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
sprinkling of salt and pepper
40 wonton wrappers, at room temperature
1 tablespoon cornstarch + 1/4 cup cool water

In a large bowl, combine all the ingredients up to the wonton wrappers.
Mix well.
Put a teaspoon of filling in the middle of a wonton wrapper, and brush the cornstarch/water mixture on all edges.
Fold over to form a triangle, press to secure edges, encasing the filling.
Bring two corners together and press to secure.
Place on a dry plate in one layer and cover loosely with plastic wrap to prevent drying.
Store in fridge if not using immediately.

For the broth:
2 quarts chicken broth
1-2 Tbs fish sauce
3 carrots, sliced on the bias
2 cups washed and roughly chopped bok choy
8 oz fresh chinese style noodles (check the fresh produce section where you find mushrooms and tofu...)

Bring the chicken stock and fish sauce to a boil. Add the carrots and wontons. Cook for 3-4 minutes, or until wontons float to the surface. Add the noodles and cook for two minutes. Add the bok choy and cook for one minute more.

Spoon into bowls and slurp!

meatless monday: lentil shepherd's pie

2011-03-08T14:36:00.000-08:00

I had such high hopes for this lentil shepherd's pie, and it was fine, but it wasn't anything to write home about. In flavor it was very one-note, and I couldn't figure out what it was missing - something spicy or acidic or tangy, paprika or just more salt...

But I did like the cauliflower mashed potatoes (and I didn't mash them with veg. broth, as I wasn't trying to be vegan...I used butter and milk).

meatless monday: spicy soba noodles

2011-02-28T14:53:00.000-08:00

It's not much to look at in this iphone picture, but it tasted delicious and like we were still living with Japanese and Korean housemates.

Smitten Kitchen's Spicy Soba Noodles with Shiitakes and Cabbage. I used Bok Choy instead of napa cabbage, because that's what I had, and I added a shredded carrot to the veggie mix. The flavors were nearly perfect - I think I'd do a little less ginger next time, but otherwise I'd definitely make it again.

ten days 'till Lent

2011-02-27T12:30:00.001-08:00

We're attending an Episcopal church now, and one of the things I love about this church is our observance of the church calendar. This year, Lent begins on Wednesday, March 9, and Jack and I have just about decided that we want to give up watching tv.

But if I'm thinking about what to "give up" for Lent, I'm also thinking about what to "take up" for Easter. It was Surprised by Hope that nudged my thoughts in this direction. Here are some of NT Wright's suggestions on how to transform our celebration of Easter:

Easter is about the wild delight of God’s creative power – not very Anglican, perhaps, but at least we ought to shout Alleluias instead of murmuring them; we should light every candle in the building instead of only some; we should give every man, woman, child, cat, dog, and mouse in the place a candle to hold; we should have a real bonfire; and we should splash water about as we renew our baptismal vows. Every step back from that is a step toward an ethereal or esoteric Easter experience, and the thing about Easter is that it is neither ethereal nor esoteric. It’s about the real Jesus coming out of the real tomb and getting God’s real new creation under way.

But my biggest problem starts on Easter Monday. I regard it as absurd and unjustifiable that we should spend forty days keeping Lent, pondering what it means, preaching about self-denial, being at least a little gloomy, and then bringing it all to a peak with Holy Week, which in turn climaxes in Maundy Thursday and Good Friday … and then, after a rather odd Holy Saturday, we have a single day of celebration.

All right, the Sundays after Easter still lie within the Easter season. We still have Easter readings and hymns during them. But Easter week itself ought not to be the time when all the clergy sigh with relief and go on holiday. It ought to be an eight-day festival, with champagne served after morning prayer or even before, with lots of alleluias and extra hymns and spectacular anthems. Is it any wonder people find it hard to believe in the resurrection if we don’t throw our hats in the air? Is it any wonder we find it hard to live the resurrection if we don’t do it exuberantly in our liturgies? Is it any wonder the world doesn’t take much notice if Easter is celebrated as simply the one-day happy ending tacked on to forty days of fasting and gloom? It’s long overdue that we took a hard look at how we keep Easter in church, at home, in our personal lives, right through the system. And if it means rethinking some cherished habits, well, maybe it’s time to wake up...

In particular, if Lent is a time to give things up, Easter ought to be a time to take things up. Champagne for breakfast again—well, of course. Christian holiness was never meant to be merely negative. Of course you have to weed the garden from time to time; sometimes the ground ivy may need serious digging before you can get it out. That’s Lent for you. But you don’t want simply to turn the garden back into a neat bed of blank earth. Easter is the time to sow new seeds and to plant out a few cuttings. If Calvary means putting to death things in your life that need killing off if you are to flourish as a Christian and as a truly human being, then Easter should mean planting, watering, and training up things in your life (personal and corporate) that ought to be blossoming , filling the garden with color and perfume, and in due course bearing fruit. The forty days of the Easter season, until the ascension, ought to be a time to balance out Lent by taking something up , some new task or venture, something wholesome and fruitful and outgoing and self-giving. You may be able to do it only for six weeks, just as you may be able to go without beer or tobacco only for the six weeks of Lent. But if you really make a start on it, it might give you a sniff of new possibilities, new hopes, new ventures you never dreamed of. It might bring something of Easter into your innermost life. It might help you wake up in a whole new way. And that’s what Easter is all about.

meatless monday: broccoli with cashews

2011-02-21T16:03:00.000-08:00

This year, broccoli with cashews has been one of our favorite side dishes. Tonight we decided to make it the main event by adding some lightly fried tofu and serving it over steamed rice. It was totally satisfying. (If you make it, I suggest toasting the cashews for 8-10 minutes at 375 before adding them to the sauce.)

Jack has just gotten over a sinus infection, and I have just come down with one. Rose slept for three and a half hours this afternoon, and I suspect she may be fighting off a little something herself. The snow and ice are back. And I miss NyQuil.

2 of 12

2011-02-16T06:31:00.001-08:00

Jack: The Divine Conspiracy by Dallas Willard

Amy: Freedom by Jonathan Franzen

I read Jonathan Franzen's The Corrections (2001), winner of the National Book Award, while I was in college. It was an absorbing, expansive novel about a depressive midwestern family. I thought it was kind of brilliant.

Freedom, published last August, is another absorbing, expansive novel about a depressive midwestern family. It's a 562 page social-realist novel about "the way we live now," in the style of Tolstoy (as Franzen himself indicates with numerous allusions throughout Freedom) or Dickens. Once again, I fell into the world Franzen created and read obsessively until the story ended.

Franzen is a great writer, and he's received plenty of acclaim. The New York Times called Freedom "a masterpiece of American fiction," and New York Magazine gushed "total genius"; Time Magazine put Franzen on their August cover; President Obama reportedly read an advance copy of the novel on his summer holiday in Martha's Vineyard.

All this good press also brought Freedom some bad press. Several best-selling female authors complained that literary critics choose their favorites and shower praise on a few "white male literary darlings" without giving fair notice to equally brilliant novels by women. Jenifer Weiner (chick lit alert!):

"It's just interesting to sort of stack them up against a Lorrie Moore or against a Mona Simpson — who write books about families that are seen as excellent books about families," Weiner says. "And then to look at a Jonathan Franzen who writes a book about a family but we are told this is a book about America."

{Franzen, for the record, agrees with their critique: "The categories by which we value fiction are skewed male, and this creates a very destructive disconnect between the critical establishment and the predominantly female readership of novels," he says. "That's inarguable."}

Despite how absorbing and brilliant I did find this novel, especially some parts of it, I also found it to be a little heartless. While I cared about what happened to the characters, I didn't actually like any of the characters, and I found it hard to believe that Franzen did either. He seems to disdain just about every person he creates. And, frankly, I felt he was a little crass and heavy-handed in bringing home his theme of "freedom".

As the Berglunds - Walter, the self-made man, the liberal environmentalist, the nice guy; Patty, the former basketball star, the repressed stay at home wife; Jessica, the good daughter; Joey, the overindulged brilliant son who at 16 moves out to live with the neighbors (and sleep with their daughter) - once the envied family of the neighborhood, begin to fall apart, Franzen repeatedly shows how personal freedom is not the key to happiness. Questioning our cardinal American value (both in personal life and in the capitalist market), Franzen none-too-subtly declares that freedom can leave us empty while commitment can bring us meaning.

As Patty writes in her third-person "autobiography," "By almost any standard, she led a luxurious life. She had all day every day to figure out some decent and satisfying way to live, and yet all she ever seemed to get for all her choices and all her freedom was more miserable."

Later Walter describes himself as "not being made for a life of freedom and outlaw heroics; of needing a more dully and enduringly discontented situation to struggle against and fashion an existence within." Just a few pages later, he describes his homeless, jobless brother, who lives in a tent at a campground that looks "like an auto junkyard" as a "free man," and it's quite clear to the reader that there is nothing good about his freedom.

Here is absolutely the best critique of the novel that I've read, comparing it to a very similar novel (by a women) that also came out last year. This review convinced me that with my extra reading time this month, I should read The Cookbook Collector by Allegra Goodman. And maybe you should too.

{12 in 12 challenge found here.}

cradle

2011-02-15T05:42:00.000-08:00

Here is the beautiful cradle Papa made for us, along with a few shots of how the guest room is becoming the nursery/guest room.

The bed and nightstand were Grandma Criss's, and were in my room when I was growing up. That mattress must be 60 years old. The blue down comforter was what I took to college.

I can't wait until Jack finishes his project - something to hang above the bed - so I can show it to you. It's awesome.

Speaking of awesome, we decided to postpone meatless monday to another day this week (when we'll probably just have a simple veggie quiche with crackers). Valentines Day is for carnivores. Jack made osso buco and a light vegetable pasta. For dessert he made carmelized pears over haagen daaz vanilla bean ice cream, with a 70% dark chocolate sauce. Yum.

visit

2011-02-13T04:24:00.000-08:00

Jack's parents came to visit this weekend. They drove 11 hours each way just to spend one full day with us, and to bring us the wooden cradle that Papa handmade for our baby. I'll put a picture of that up after we get a mattress in it. Meanwhile...

baby quilts

2011-02-08T11:23:00.001-08:00

I finished baby brother's quilt. It's made of new white flannel, and repurposed white corduroy, colored mens' shirts (from the Goodwill), and mens' pants (mostly Jack's). I wasn't super excited about it when I began, but now I totally love it.

It's a little bigger than Rosie's quilt. Neither of them are standard sizes, just sizes that fit my designs.

I really can't believe I have to live with this cumbersome body for two more months before he makes his appearance!

meatless monday: falafel pitas

2011-02-08T11:20:00.001-08:00

One of my favorites so far. And chickpeas are an excellent source of iron for this slightly anemic pregnant lady. The falafel was homemade, but all the rest was easy - pitas, hummus, yogurt dressing, and some lettuce and tomato.

jeggings

2011-02-08T11:17:00.000-08:00

Playing with friends at the gym on a snow day.

1 of 12

2011-02-02T05:53:00.000-08:00

This year, along with Mom, Jack and I are doing the 12 in 12 challenge: read twelve hefty books in the twelve months of 2011. (John is doing 4 in 4 -- four books of more than a thousand pages in the four seasons of 2011. I don't know if Katie and Elliott, the instigators of last year's 52 in 52, have taken on a book challenge this year, with Desmond and grad school keeping them so busy.)

1 of 12 (Jack) - A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving

1 of 12 (Amy) - Surprised by Hope by N.T. Wright
What a paradigm-shifting book! It moved a little slowly for me in Part I, as Wright sketched today's popular views (in western culture generally as well as within the church) on heaven and the afterlife, and the confusion that accompanies those views. Part III, the practical application of a rethinking of heaven and resurrection, was also a bit slow, but while I was reading Part II, the substantive portion of Wright's argument, I couldn't put it down.

Here's how Wright, in an interview, summarizes it:

"Most Western Christians have grown up with the idea that the name of game is simply to go to heaven when you die. What I routinely say to people is that heaven is important, but it’s not the end of the world.
Wherever we are when we die, the really important thing is where we are after that. There’s a phase two in Christian teachings. Any 1st-Century Christian would have been surprised that you didn’t understand that resurrection isn’t life after death. Resurrection is actually what I’m describing as life after life after death...
After death, people do rest in paradise, if you will. But Phase 2 is really God bringing about new heavens and new earth. It’s right there in the Bible. The payoff in realizing that this is part of the process is that it gives important value to the present space, time and matter in our world. Our faith is all about reaffirming the goodness of God’s Creation. Our faith isn't about fleeing life. God is bringing a new heavens and a new earth.
Let me put this another way. If you say, “This world is not my home. I’m just a-passin’ through,” then what you’re saying is, “What’s the fuss of trying to do anything about this world?” And you’re saying, “There’s no point in trying to make it a better place.” And that’s not what Christianity teaches.
Our faith in resurrection is a reaffirmation of this present world."

This book is definitely worth reading. Practically speaking, it motivated me to build for the kingdom of God, to pray "thy kingdom come on earth," to believe that "in the Lord your labor is not in vain, "(1 Cor 15:58). It also helped me understand the concept of "reward" in resurrection. "It isn't a matter of calculation, of doing a difficult job in order to be paid a wage. It is much more like working at a friendship or a marriage in order to enjoy the other person's company more fully. It is more like practicing golf in order that we can go out on the course and hit the ball in the right direction. It is more like learning German or Greek so that we can read some of the great poets and philosophers who wrote in those languages. The "reward" is organically connected to the activity, not some kind of arbitrary pat on the back, otherwise unrelated to the work that was done."
(If you're interested, here is the Discerning Reader's review of the book.)

postscript: I feel I've been remiss in not also admitting that this month (actually, this week) I have also read the first four books in this cheesy coffehouse mystery series. Here's the first. Go waste some time on them.

meatless monday: chard and white bean soup

2011-01-31T18:18:00.001-08:00

A fairly simple, hearty meal. We ate it as Deb suggested, with toast and a poached egg.

It seemed like the right thing to do as the ice and snow headed our way. Here's hoping we still have power when we wake up tomorrow!

who loves you?

2011-01-31T08:20:00.000-08:00

Rosie, do you know who loves you?

Yes.

Who?

God.

That's right. God loves you. Do you know who else loves you?

Yes. Mimi.

Yep. Anybody else?

Aunt Hannah.

Anybody else?

Uncle Luke. And Mommy.

{All I can think is that this ranking has to do with who was present at her birth...a story we've been telling lately. But still, where's Daddy?}

mushroom pizza

2011-01-24T15:07:00.001-08:00

Today it snowed all morning and I didn't feel like going to the store. So we made dinner with what was around the house: some bread dough that was in the fridge, tomato sauce made with a can of diced tomatoes and based on this recipe, and a few lonely mushrooms. Oh, and Mary Ann Lepine style, we had apples slices and carrot sticks on the side.

three birthdays

2011-01-23T13:05:00.001-08:00

celebrating Rosie's 2nd birthday

2011-01-23T12:23:00.000-08:00

We decided to celebrate a few days early so that we could spend a whole Saturday on it.

Featherlight Muffins kicked things off, and when I told Rosie that they were birthday muffins, she asked if we could wear party hats while we ate.

After breakfast we got to skype with Uncle John in Scotland! Then Rosie put on her birthday skirt and opened one present - a new dvd! - that she could watch in the car on the way to the Children's Museum in Indianapolis.

The Children's Museum is a great place.

Leaving the museum, we got some chickfila and went home for a nice long nap. When Rosie woke up, she saw three pink helium ballons, which were probably her favorite part of the birthday. We had a pink lady cake and strawberry ice cream.

Then it was present time!

Aunt Katie called, and asked, "How old are you?" to which Rosie girl replied, "I'm two old." And then G-Daddy skyped us from Mexico! Rosie ran in circles around me saying, "It's my birthday, G-daddy! It's my birthday!"

It was a special day for our special girl. These days are even sweeter knowing that we only have about ten weeks left as a family of three. We are so thankful for two years with Rosie, for her charm and wit and kisses, and for her good health. What a blessing.

a quilt square

2011-01-19T19:14:00.000-08:00

I have made my first actual quilt square, like one from a pattern, not just something I made up. It will be the center of baby brother's quilt, and the rest will be blocks of various greys and white.

For this quilt, I'm using almost all repurposed materials - some old clothes of Jack's, and a few other things I picked up at the Goodwill.

I guess there are going to be a lot of primary colors in this boy's life. Tonight I made a bib with some scraps of my quilting fabrics. I used a bib that Grandma Criss made for Rosie as my template.

Baby brother's bib reminds me of nothing more than the comforters that used to be on my brothers' beds - they were navy on one side, red on the other. Nothing wrong with being like the Lepine brothers, is there?

The problem with sewing in the evenings is that it always wakes me up instead of calming me down. Now I've stayed up past my (ten o'clock!) bedtime again.

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day

2011-01-17T15:37:00.000-08:00

I don't know why the tradition is to clean out your house in the spring. In the spring, when the weather is ideal, nobody should be indoors cleaning. But in the dead of winter, when days are dark and cold and short, the atmosphere is perfect for brewing a pot of coffee and sorting through your closets and cabinets, which is what I did today while Jack played with Rosie.

It's given me a great sense of accomplishment and contentedness.

For meatless Monday, tonight we made the same curried lentil soup that Katie and Elliott made last Monday. It was nice, hearty and warm, and we scooped it up with fresh, hot flatbreads (from the River Cottage Family Cookbook).

As for potty training, we still have miles to go, but today Rosie had only two accidents and five successes. Happy day.