"pickles are cucumbers soaked in genius."
Mac, age 12

such a hippie...

Two things I have been hearing and reading about everywhere are watercress and kombucha.

It turns out that watercress is the best of the best super foods for you and has everything good in it and you don't have to eat bowls and bowls of it to see the benefits, only a handful here and there. (Plus I love it in salad). Check the link and make sure you click on the comparison chart where it tells you how much better it is than just about anything on the planet. And its easy to grow!
watercress, the superfood

And Kombucha! I just heard an NPR thing about it from this hilarious British guy who's doing a BBC series called "Grow Your Own Drugs". He's a scientist who was very skeptical about all the hippy-dippy stuff so he decided to test it all, grow it all and now he makes tinctures of this and that and herbal salves etc right along with his antibiotics and aspirin.
And he raved about kombucha, while reminding all of us that the process of making it at home is very similar to making beer and therefore it is necessary to take uber precautions sterilizing everything.
But I like the store kind. The one with ginger is incredible. It tastes a little like fermented cider and might not be good if you don't like a boozy taste. But it has very little actual acohol!
Check it out! kombucha, fricken delicious to me and good for you

the boys keep on growing!!

a very funny Michael Moore letter to President Obama

check it out here

mac babysits brilliantly

to my girlfriends out there...

...you must go out and buy this book and read it in about a day and a half. It is completely compelling and well written. About a marriage and a divorce and kids and family history.
It takes place in Ohio and NYC and Maine but really it takes place in the heart and mind of a woman our age doing many of the things we do everyday. It is familiar and insightful.
Check it out!
It is called Happens Everyday by Isabel Gillies.

fantasy island

I am loving watching the first seasons episodes of LOST (netflix) with Mac (and sometimes Emmett, when it's not too scary and we are all snuggled in bed.)
It is perfect cliff hanger material and really great for Macs age. Completely appropriate without seeming like it!

Kinda like Love Boat and Fantasy Island was for my generation. Without the cheese...and with lots of suspense and trippy music.

I am a Jack fan all around, so far anyway, and Mac likes Sawyers face but Charlie's personality.
And we both think Hurley is just the best.
Funny conversations abound.
Love it.

too delicious

sweet potato pine nuts arugula sesame seeds blue cheese


My new favorite salad ingredients. Of course all the usual salad stuff works in there too but there is just nothing like this list of tasty yummy proteiny perfection. Says me.

Emmett says, "It's cool to be Clad in Plaid"

Love the early morning fashion.

From the Washing Machine to the Garden, Oh Yeah, Baby!

This is exciting...(to me and probably only me!)...and I love projects like this. Especially ones
where most of the work is done by someone else...(not usually the case!)
The rain has been wonderful with lots of sunshine in between and I can't wait for Spring!!!

I am liking...

...two new CD's


Dawes "North Hills" and Grizzly Bear "Veckatimest"
check 'em out
both beautiful and different and kinda cast a spell...

what twelve looks like...

A Classic

(Nana's) New Elephant Baby at the Wild Animal Park

peaceful moment

(I turn my back and he's naked. Again.)
We had a really great day today. Mellow, outside, healthy, thankful!!

again we turn to Garrison Keillor...

Short, sweet and funny.
Read it HERE!

Valentine's Day Apricot Tree 2010

I am trying to turn it around: Bright-Side.

I am officially getting old(er) and since this year is starting out as a bit of a challenge AND, with future surgeries on the horizon for Matt(feet) and Silas (ear tubes), 2010 will be the year of health issues/fixes.
These are just the facts.
Kinda like renovating the house except without the sawdust. (And NO... plastic surgery is NOT involved. hahaha.)
Maybe I will also extend this to-do list to include wisdom teeth, orthodontia and hernia repair...and we can't forget the metaphorical surgeries and extractions (as in, extract mom from the job she hates, bye-bye)
The hope is that all of this will have positive consequences : My migraines may go away due to an immediate shunning of the progesterone birth control pill that also increases chances of ectopic pregnancy (yup, the culprit) and also no pill means less chance of stroke which has always been my worst fear/nightmare. (We always knew these things about birth control but after last week it all seems so very possible for the"side effects" to actually occur....)
Perhaps this year will rid Matt of all the pain he's endured for years with his feet. And Silas will be able to hear and there won't be so sososososo so much shouting in our house as we repeat and repeat at ever increasing volume.
And since we are going solar and working on installing a grey water system too maybe this overall improvement will make 2011 just ridiculously healthy and mellow with lots of time and room for fun. Yes, that's what is happening. This is not the year of disaster but the year for deeply important change and care (and surely some damn miserable days...but I digress...)
So, in an effort to regain a possibly false but definitely necessary sense of control, I have decided to be proactive in every way. That's how I roll. ha.
I will start today, NOW, in the eye/vision department. I haven't been able to see well for a really, really long time. Every time we get a movie with subtitles Matt and I have the same circular argument. So finally...
Matt, YOU WIN. I will get glasses.
So, it's time to vote friends and family that I love. Which do you prefer? The sort of invisible rimmed variety or the black frame-y ones...











......pair #1 or pair #2....... these are just cheapy drugstore glasses but I will be wearing them and then I will be getting the real deal. Sigh.


And one last thing.
After this week that was quite possibly the worst ever for me, I experienced some of the best things. I now know that for the rest of my life when I hear of a friend that is having a hard time I will bring FOOD. Just about everyone I know brought a delicious vegetarian meal with bread and desert and herbs in baggies to sprinkle on top. Served in their best casserole dishes, often hot out of the oven. This food for us was love love love.
Happy Valentines Day all you wonderful lovers (you know what I mean) and thank you, caring friends, for the meals and the flowers and the calls and the support. With Silas and Emmett and Matt also getting sick, we really really needed it!!!!!

Annie is Okay!

We had quite a day on Monday. Annie finally couldn't take it anymore, she had the stomach flu for a week, so she went to the emergency room with Nana. Well, it wasn't the stomach flu....Annie had to have emergency surgery! Carlie watched the kids at home once I arrived and Megan came to the hospital to stay with me (bringing me late night snacks cop style, coffee, Gatorade and trail mix). I was all weepy when I got there because I felt bad I wasn't nicer to Annie during the week she was sick. But seriously folks, who besides Annie gets sick and repaints the bathroom? Then when they started to put her under I got all verklempt again, sheesh. Annie did really well in the surgery and was out in an hour and half, a couple of hours in recovery and we were on our way home. This chick is tough, she once had a baby, walked out of the hospital three hours later and painted a tree on a door.

I am now home with Annie and Silas. Mac and Emmett are at school. Annie is mostly resting, she is taking little walks around and talking on the phone some. She just told me that she feels she is going to get better. Silas has a cough and a fever, so he is laying down next to Mama and they are telling each other stories.
I want to send out some special thanks to Nana/Carlie and Megan for their help and love and all things that they have always given. Thank you to Chris Mackes, my friend who brought us veggie burritos last night. Thanks to all who have included Annie in their thoughts.

Now, for this Mr. Mom thing....Who in their right mind can figure out this car pool schedule? I would rather reread the Immigration and Nationality Act's 2300 pages than look at this again. You need to be half lawyer/half Egyptoligist. Also, whoever thought of waking up surly kids at the crack of dawn and asking them what to eat, convincing them brushing their teeth is a good idea, finding their accoutrements for school etc , is a crazy bastard and needs to be dealt with severely. I have had an easier time managing 92 federal agents in a critical incident/officer involved shooting than I did this morning. I'd also rather hunt armed fugitives through dark alleys before I look for a pair of matching socks in my children's bedroom. I'm actually secretly enjoying this, but don't post it on my blog or Facebook as someone I know might see it. The boys at work are hot on the trail of some bad guys and giving me secret text message updates so I don't miss out on the chase.

All in all this is part of life/marriage and adulthood I guess and I'm glad that we all got to do it together. I wouldn't have it any other way (except without the pain, fear, regrets, anxiety, rude Kaiser receptionists, lack of sleep). No, even with it all put together I think it was quite a day, certainly one we will not forget anytime soon. In sickness and in health and in love.
Matt

Nana, just in case you need this insult tomorrow at work......

...just walk right in there and begin...
"you're nothing but the yellow-bellied offspring of a canker-ridden bunter. You are a bastard, you are, an unlicked cub. A dung-splattered tallow-faced rock-gnasher. A puking villian. A noxious toad. A runting mewling spawn of a greasy sow. I wouldn't give you my last crust if you were starving or a drop of water if you were burning or a beggars grave if you were dead. You have pus for marrow and fungus for brains. You are a scug-backed cheek-biter."

page 90 of BRISINGR by Christopher Paolini

I like this.

Birth Day Boy!

9 years old. NINE! That really sounds big to me.
We Love YOU so very much Emmett. I hope this year is the best yet!







His first guitar!
(but don't worry, he doesn't want to quit piano!)

The look on his face when he realized he was actually getting a guitar was priceless.







xoxoxoxoxoxoxox to our heart bomb!

goings on, for the record

Granpops and Bebe are visiting, taking kids swimming and on little adventures (we've gotta get more pictures before they go!!!); colds and stomach flus have been floating around, sabotaging Emmett's much anticipated sleepover; lots of house projects are moving along, rainbarrels,and gutters, painting, clothes line, looking into solar panels etc; nana is on "baby watch" every minute of every weekend waiting for a new elephant to be born at the Wild Animal Park and loving it; Matt has been to the doctor for his feet and is readying himself for FOOT SURGERY, sometime in the next 3 months while also committing himself to Bikram Yoga, yes, sweaty yoga (he's there right now!) and on top of it all, he works 70 hours a week, always connected to that life-sucker, the Blackberry; Mac is rehearsing for Pippi, full force; carpooling and school stuff keeps me busy and guessing everyday, "what, where and who???"; We have all been completely stumped by the two Rubik's Cubes that seem to show up all over the house. No one here can solve it. (We're not so smart afterall!); It hailed during that huge storm and Silas just loved it. Couldn't convince him it wasn't snow; Silas has been jumping on the trampoline and playing FARM with his friends, thank god for that backyard; Emmett and I have been playing Mancala and we are finally reading BRISIGR out loud with Mac too; Discovered recently that a small bowl of ground coffee is the only thing that gets rid of the smell of rotten milk in the car or chicken poo in the closet or barf etc...it is the miracle air freshener; I had to put bird netting around the chicken pen so the hawks that are circling don't get lucky; I have a refrigerator full of good food but for some reason the thought of cooking AGAIN makes me wanna .... fast.

Gotta pay attention around here, things are moving pretty fast and it's easy to just feel busy and
forget to 'smell the flowers'....so I think I'll go get a cup of tea and feed the chickens. Doing my best.

I am too exhausted to blog much, but...

I have been newly inspired by Obama's 'state of the union'...but we all know the man can speak...
Even more than that speech...WAY MORE SO is his 'question and answer time' with all the Republicans in the house, that HE asked to be televised. It is very telling and I think everyone should watch it.
These are the teabaggers and moderate republicans alike asking all their most pointed questions (very respectfully, I will add) and Obama's answers.

Maybe, just maybe, things will turn around?? (oh yeah, I forgot for a second...USA is owned by corporations so that's highly unlikely....but still....)

Check out the video here, I think in it's entirety. If not, find it because it's worth it.

Washington DC

I was sent to Washington DC for a meeting. I was there to provide "ground truth" to a bunch of bureaucrats making a training manual on Unified Commands. If that wasn't surreal enough, I stayed at the Willard International, a very famous hotel, where the term lobbyist came from. I'm serious, look it up. Anyway, I walked around a little. I only went to one museum, the Holocaust Museum. What else would I do. What else could I do. Some photos from Rome....
Matt