Bedroom Scrapbook: Entry #2

This mirrored nightstand (at JCPenney for under $300) and chandelier (by Castlewood) would be so romantic.

Bedroom Scrapbook: Entry #1

Here are the things I've found so far that I really love. This bed by Paula Dean is just dreamy. Just so happens that our current wall color is very similar to that shown in the photo of the bed...makes it easy to picture the whole scene! The bed would also go well with creamy colored drapes; love the Moorish tile pattern of this fabric called "Riad" by Windsor Smith Home. Also love the idea of bringing the ocean inside by accenting the walls with a painting of the ocean with whites, blues and grays.

Bedroom Redecoration

We've lived in the new house for almost three years and have done a lot of decoration of the great room, living room, kitchen and the boys' rooms. The two spare bedrooms have each gotten a coat of paint, but are otherwise undecorated; as is the Master bedroom. The walls are a golden taupe color and there is beautiful white molding around the windows. I either want to stick with the wall color or find a medium gray tone. We have a large dark-wood bed, but no other furniture. All of our clothes are either hanging in the closet, or folded on the closet shelves that are meant for shoes. We definitely need a dresser and maybe an armoire. A new bed might be needed and a side table or two. Frankly, I'm not sure where to start but the blog may help me to catalog some ideas and develop a plan to make this room livable.

Beautiful Contradiction #2: The Plastic Vortex

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5yiPZNsW8fI
This video describes the efforts of graduate students at UC San Diego's Scripps Institution in defining the problem of the accumulation plastics in the North Pacific Ocean Gire. It begins, "A thousand miles from land, the Pacific Ocean is striking in its beauty; rich, deep blue waters, calm seas and serene stillness." The beauty of the ocean has been meaningful to me from the time I can remember. Growing up in a small town on the Northern Coast of California the ocean offered many benefits: a gorgeous view to the west, a moderate climate, an opportunity to play in the toe-numbing surf, a financial resource for my stepfather and others who made their living as fisherman, and a place many of us went to catch our evening meal of crab, salmon or abalone. That beauty is now being challenged by a throw-away mentality that has led to the accumulation of plastics and other rubbish in our landfills and now in the oceans. We need to make better choices as consumers, or risk the health of our oceans' ecosystems. Even from a very selfish perspective, we need to look out for ourselves. As higher-order consumers, we will be the ones at greatest risk of accumulating all of these chemicals into our bodies. What choice will we make? There seems to be only one good one.
Beautiful Contradiction #2; the Plastic Vortex (painting above) was inspired by this tragedy. Thank you to those from Scripps for doing the work to accurately define the problem! Now that we know better, maybe we'll do better.

Beautiful Contradictions

Very excited to be done with a series of paintings that I started a few months ago. The theme of the paintings is "contradictions." There is so much tension when two opposing forces collide. And with that collision comes a spark. An energy that can inspire action if the observer so chooses. The series is called Beautiful Contradictions.

Beautiful Contradiction #1; When the Levee Burst: The first of the series was inspired by the breach of the levees in New Orleans when Hurricane Katrina hit. The storm itself was a natural occurrence. We think of weather as unavoidable, in the natural plan, divinely ordered, although it is becoming harder to argue that human interference with weather patterns is not a factor. Issues of global warming aside, the true tragedy, in this case, occurred in that New Orleans was unprepared to weather the storm. The breach of the levees was inarguably avoidable. Did so many people need to have endured pain and even death? One can't help but think how much suffering could have been avoided had a different series of decisions been made regarding resource allocation for the levee system. I refer specifically to the fortification of the levee system surrounding the 9th Ward. Nothing captures that tension more than the moment that the levee burst. Inspired by that moment, will our policy makers make different decisions in the future? And even in the face of such tragedy, there are countless stories of the people of Louisiana and surrounding areas helping those in need. Herein lies the beauty; that even in the face of human failure, many people acted in love toward their fellow human beings.

Beautiful Contradiction #1; When the Levee Burst is my imagination of what that moment entailed.

Yummy Bayou Pasta

The focus of this entry is food, AGAIN! Although my brilliant plan to split the meal-cooking responsibilities has been less than embraced by the rest of the family, there are occasions when the responsibility is shared and both the process and product are extremely enjoyable. Tonight I made Emeril Lagasse's Bayou Chicken Pasta, and I fully intended to do so alone.
It is a fantastic recipe that I've made before. I go straight by the book, except I replace the cream with 1/2 and 1/2 and use both chicken and shrimp. A few crawfish tossed in would be great too. I'll try that next time!
This time, as I began browning the butter and chopping the onions and garlic, the pasta pot boiling away, both of my boys smelled the aroma, walked into the kitchen and uttered these words, "We want to cook with you, Momma." Music to my ears. Simply made me smile. So, Zackary's contribution was the parsley and Ky's was the green onion. Derrick provided some guidance regarding avoiding the sharp, serrated edge of the steak knives they used to do their dicing. Gever Tulley, author of 50 Dangerous Things You Should Let Your Children Do, would have been awfully proud.

Pause for a moment while I admire the capability of my children...and my husband. Wow! Very appreciative.

What a fun, collaborative process. And the product wasn't too shabby either. Yum! Now...what's for dessert?

New Energy Policy Needed

Over the last several weeks I've been thinking about making some changes to my much-to-busy life. Minor speed bumps on the road of life have kept me away from the blog (among them a toe surgery, car wreck and thousands of dollars in unexpected medical bills). Just the disasters I needed to drive some change. These disasters are nowhere near what others have experienced lately.

As the earthquake and tsunami in Japan threatened nuclear reactors and caused us to reexamine energy policy on a broad scale, I am wondering about my own use of “energy.” Beyond the crafty mantra to, “Reduce, reuse, recycle!” that my family consistently tries to implement better than we already do, I’m now trying to take a more deeply analytical approach to my own energy use. One sign that I’m not using energy efficiently is that I come home from work every day completely exhausted. Another is that I have so much to do that I completely neglect some obligations and the things I remember to do are not done as well as they should be. Like many of my friends, I am a woman who wears too many hats. I am spread too thin, trying to do too much. I use my energy very inefficiently. I find that I don’t do any of these things justice; they are deprived of the energy they deserve, despite my best intentions. And I am left feeling guilty about it.
For someone committed to wearing my hats well, this is an extremely uncomfortable position in which to find myself. The solution: to give up some of my hats. Take them off so that someone better suited might pick them up to wear them wonderfully herself. Ironically, there is a sense of guilt in making this choice. If I give up a commitment (or two or three), does it mean that I don’t care? Someone looking in from the outside will certainly think that’s true and judge me accordingly. Before I give something up do I need to have someone else in mind to assume responsibility for the hat I’m taking off? Or if I let go, will God take care of those things that I am not able to? And if I let go of something that I’m not meant to let go of will I cause myself or others to suffer? All of these what-ifs are leading me to believe that I need to should approach this decision carefully and prayerfully. Things need to be let go of…it’s just a matter of what and when. When I let go, I need to trust that things will be taken care of by a power much greater than me. If I choose those things that use my energy most efficiently, I trust that in the grand scheme of things, I will be leaving things open for others to use their energy the way they were meant to as well.
How did I get myself in this overextended mess in the first place? I might be trying to make up for those I saw fail to live up to commitment that I thought they should have upheld. But that is really not my judgment to make, is it? But I can make some decisions to use my energy wisely today. Right now. So I will.

A Saucy Week

Last week we were hit by a few unplanned events: there was an ice storm on Monday,

the dog ate Zackary's winter coat, and we found out that the surgery I need on my toe is going to cost us $500 out-of-pocket. Although the ice storm was a nice opportunity to stay home with the family, the torn up coat and the extra medical expenses hit my spirit and the family budget pretty hard. Needless to say, the grocery budget for the week was basically zero. Our meal plan for the week needed to be planned around food we already had available in the house. I came up with the idea to use "sauces" enhance things that we had on hand. Monday night we had Thai food: chicken satay with peanut sauce (chicken breast was in the freezer and peanut butter was in the pantry). I made a purple cabbage and carrot slaw as a side dish. Both were from a cooks.com recipe. They turned out delicious.


On Tuesday we ate homemade mac and cheese (with a bechamel sauce from the Joy of Cooking) with leftover slaw, on Wednesday I opened a bottle of barbecue sauce and poured it over some frozen meatballs. I mashed up some potatoes as a side dish and my meat-and-potatoes man was very happy. His dish this week was chicken nuggets and baked french fries. I contributed the honey-mustard sauce.

This week I had surgery on my toe, so our meal plan was non-existent. We're blessed to have eaten anything at all. Because our budget is shot, we did stick to home-cooked food again, and got very creative with the contents of our fridge and pantry. This week I also had a little time to reflect on my thoughts and attitudes about the previous week's saucy menu. The idea for saucy week came from a need. We didn't have the luxury to go out a buy to satisfy our meal plan. Our plan had to fit with what we had already been provided; made me reflect on what my high-school Italian teacher once said about Italian cuisine. She said that Italian food didn't contain many sauces and spices because there was never any historical need to cover up poor-quality ingredients. Although this viewpoint is a testimony to status of Italian food and reflective of the status of Italian society (both of which I adore), my guess is that it is an overgeneralization (albeit a positive one) that overlooks some important nuances. Not all Italians were wealthy enough to eat good food and not all non-Italians ate food that was low quality.
There were wealthy people who had more access to resources and poor people who had access to fewer resources. It would likely have been the wealthy that had access to herbs and spices imported from Asia. I mean, entire continents were "discovered" in the pursuit of a quicker path to the spices of India. Furthermore, even those with less access to varieties of food and spice would have wanted to make the best of it. They would have wanted to add sauce and spice to their lives. Inspired by the idea that we did not have as much as usual, we did our best with what we had. We weren't trying to cover up poor quality. Instead we were "doing our best with that God gave us."

I'll Call It a Success

FOOD: I'll call this week's meal plan a success. All of the menus were cooked, one way or another. Two turned out excellent while one was at least edible. We cooked the beef tips on Wednesday, lasagna on Thursday and tuna noodles on Friday.

The beef tips were just okay. Nowhere near as soft and moist as Derrick's mom's. I used eye of round roast and took a shortcut and used the crock pot to cook them. Maybe it dried them out? I don't know. Next time I might try a different cut of meat.





The lasagna was really true to my mom's recipe. Besides the noodles and sauce the only other ingredients we added were mozzarella, tomato sauce, mushrooms, frozen spinach and cottage cheese. Ky had fun cutting and cooking the mushrooms, laying the layers of noodle in the pan and sprinkling cheese. It's been very fun for me to continue to pay attention to each of my sons' cooking "zone of proximal development." I continue to give them as much responsibility as they can handle and as much as they are willing to assume, while attempting to stay safe around all the sharp and hot things in the kitchen. A challenge but we're really loving it. And the products have been enjoyable too!




And finally, the tuna noodles. I have to admit. Tuna noodle night when I was growing up was not one of my favorites. A little fishy, a little gushy. Definitely something I remember as a go-to, momma-cooked dish, but not the most appealing thing to a kid. So I tried to jazz it up a little. I got the pan nice and hot and browned the mushrooms to make them really caramelized and sweet. Then I added some flour and half and half to make a really creamy sauce. Then in went the tuna; two kinds: chunk light and albacore. Toward the end I added a pinch of cayenne pepper and sliced up two green onions and added them at the last minute. The cayenne added a little kick of heat and the green onions brightened up the flavor. The overall flavor profile was creamy and sweet with a hint of spice. Broccoli with a little lemon balanced the sweetness of the noodles. Very good! Better than I remember as a kid.




Added bonus: Derrick loved the tuna noodles and even ate the "green stuff" on the side!

Very nervous about how our lovely plan will carry over into the weeks ahead. Very busy at work. Hope the plan continues to work for us as our lives get busier.

Momma-Cooked Meals!

FOOD: This week we have a plan that everybody in the family is really excited about. Our new theme for this week is "Momma-Cooked meals!" NOT that I will cook all the meals. Inspired by thoughts of our moms, Derrick and I picked some meals that each of us remembers loving OUR mothers to cook for us. We came upon this idea inspired by a couple of occurrences over the past week: 1. the holidays always remind me of my mom. This year we ate dinner at Derrick's mom's house so we all got to enjoy an actual momma-cooked meal! But for me, the holidays are always bittersweet in that enjoy them so much and always miss my mom a lot too. Food is one way that her memory can be kept alive. Not just during the holidays. 2. I got a really, really bad chest cold. Somehow, after the boys recovered from their quick bout with the flu (or some such?) I got a week-long chest cold that had me feeling miserable. You know the NyQuil commercial...nighttime sniffling, sneezing, coughing...all that...I had it. And I'll admit, I'm a terrible sick person. When I'm sick, the only thing that could possibly make me feel better is my mommy. And since she's been gone for twelve years, I'm just out of luck. But a Momma-Cooked meal...that just might make everybody feel good. Including me.
Okay, so I jumped the gun and helped Zack to cook the first meal of the week on Sunday. And it was so good. Clam chowder. Reminded me a lot of my mom's recipe but with a bit of a Cap'n Flint's attitude. (For those of you who don't know, "Flint's" is the absolute best seafood dive on the planet. On North Harbor Drive in Fort Bragg, California. They serve fresh, mostly deep-fried seafood dishes with excellent tartar sauce for dipping and sides of french fries and coleslaw. Besides my mom's food, nothing makes me homesick like the thought of Flint's prawn's 'n' chips! Yum!)
For our chowder, we basically followed the Joy of Cooking recipe with a few minor changes: We used a very light brown roux to begin the dish to thicken the broth, boiled the potatoes in clam juice and mashed a few of them after they were cooked to thicken the broth a little more, and added a couple cups of frozen corn for color and texture and a bit of sweetness.
I was disappointed that I forgot to buy oyster crackers to sprinkle on top :( but we had bread and butter instead and it was a tasty alternative.

So the rest of the week's menus are: my mom's vegetarian lasagna and tuna casserole and Derrick's mom's beef tips. Ky wants to cook the lasagna tomorrow. Can't wait. I WON'T forget to bring home a loaf of sourdough tomorrow for garlic bread!

Louisiana Week Peters Out

Goodbye Louisiana Week! I know it's only been two days. I enjoyed you while you lasted. We ended up eating leftovers on Wednesday: gumbo, shrimp and grits or the leftovers that Derrick's mom sent home from Christmas dinner. Then, last night we went to our favorite Mexican place in town, El Jarrito, and got take out. This will be our one "gimme" for the week. I feel a little guilty for going out to eat, but as long as we do it only once a week, and we're frugal when we do so, we are at least staying on budget. Must mention one pet peeve: why must my boys order burgers from a Mexican restaurant? Completely culturally inappropriate, but least they're certain of their preferences.

Shrimp and Grits

FOOD: As of Tuesday night the meal plan continued to roll along. I thought the shrimp and grits was an excellent meal, although one child only ate the grits and the other only ate the shrimp. Both ate their broccoli. It was just boiled broccoli, not overcooked, with an orange, ginger soy sauce on top. All recipes were compliments of John Folse. Two downsides to the meal: without the broccoli it was really heavy on starch and meat and the biggie, the flavor was very similar to the gumbo we'd had the night before. So, we're already getting burned out on Cajun spices, and it's only day two. When planning these themed meals we need to be careful not to pick things that have such similar flavor profiles. Bored palates will not do. We'll try again with the weekly meal plans next week. It'll be a real test because next week the kids go back to school, and I go back to work. We'll see if this plan can really work with our lives.

Gumbo on a Freezing Louisiana Night

FOOD: Yesterday was the first night of our "Cajun Week" meal plan. Even though it wasn't my night to cook, no one seemed to mind that I took over the cooking duties for the night. There's something about cold weather that just begs for soup. So I decided to make gumbo. I chose the seafood gumbo recipe from John Folse's Cajun and Creole Encyclopedia. The only changes I made to the recipe were: I couldn't find fish stock so I used chicken stock instead, I didn't have crab and oysters so I used shrimp and codfish, and I served the whole thing with a 50/50 mix of white and brown rice. Oh, and I added one can of diced tomatoes with chiles. Our local supermarket actually carries andouille sausage, so we picked some up to add to the gumbo. It has such great flavor: really salty and spicy. I warned the boys that the sausage was hot, and even so, they tried a piece or two each and really liked it. If you want to avoid the spice of andouille, anything milder, like polish sausage, can work too. This is the option I usually use when cooking for the entire family.

So, night number one of Cajun Week is one for the record books. It was piping hot and just spicy enough AND the Saints won the football game! A wonderful Louisiana evening. The rest of the week's meals are planned: Red Beans and Rice, Jambalaya and Shrimp and Grits. The boys will certainly be getting some help from Mr. Zatarain!

Some good news: Derrick ate a whole bowl of the gumbo. So excited. Can't wait to see how his night as chef goes. So far, so good!

Zackary's First Meal as Chef

For Zackary's first meal he chose, "Chicken and fruit salad." As his "prep cook" I encouraged him to find a sauce to put on his chicken. We found a recipe on line for Bobby Flay's green-chile cilantro sauce (TwoGuysOneKitchen.com; it's their photo not ours). It was delicious. BTW, pineapple and mango with mint is not too shabby as a fruit salad.

Here's the recipe for the sauce.

Green Chile-Cilantro Sauce:

(Blend all ingredients together adding olive oil last to emulsify)

* 2 grilled poblano chiles
* 1/4 cup red onion
* 2 cloves garlic
* 3 tbsp lime juice
* 2 tbsp water
* 2 tsp lime zest
* 2 tsp honey
* 1/2 tsp kosher salt
* 1/4 tsp pepper
* 1/2 cup olive oil
* 1/4 cup fresh cilantro

A New Plan for Meal Prep!

As I write my first REAL entry, it's my hope that as I muse about my own life, that others might take inspiration and/or share their own insights. Although the ultimate goal is balance, I am fully aware that many aspects of my life are still completely out of whack. If you have insight, please share!

FOOD: This entry is about how severely out of balance my family's meal preparation practices had become and outlines a plan that might actually work!

The Old System:
There was really no typical week's meal prep scenario for our family. It was all hit and miss. Grocery shopping occurred approximately once every two weeks to amass the stockpiles of items that we, using no particular system, noticed had gone missing. And when it came time for meal prep the chef was chosen based on who was the least exhausted or could come up with the most palatable idea given their exhaustion. At least twice a week, the better option, at the moment, sounded like fast food, or otherwise eating out. This system contradicted my motherly instincts in that I was simultaneously neglecting my responsibilities to protect: my children's health and my family's finances. We'd reached a breaking point. Enter: the new system.

The New System:
Inspired by a conversation with my PhD mentor (thank you, Dr. Stockman) regarding how she managed to live the life of a professor and raise two children, I was inspired to implement the following plan with my family.

Saturday: Eat leftovers. Come up with a "theme" for the following week. Some examples we've come up with over the past few weeks are: Mexican, Italian, and Chinese.

Sunday: Eat leftovers. Plan menu for the week. Each person chooses a dish that fits the theme and is responsible for his/her dish one night during the following week. Make shopping list. Shop.

Monday: Youngest son is the chef. My husband, Derrick or I am "prep cook."

Tuesday: I am the chef. Both sons are prep cooks to the extent they feel like it.

Wednesday: Oldest son is the chef. Derrick or I am "prep cook."

Thursday: Derrick is chef.

Friday: Family night. Our one freebie night. We're allowed to order out or cook something quick and easy at home. The focus of family night is to spend quality time doing something together.

The Pros: So far the plan has been successful in a lot of ways. We are eating out far less than we used to. Fewer french fries in the mouths of my children is a good thing! Hooray! The boys are also continuing to develop their love of cooking, and there seems to be a sense of meal-related responsibility developing too. They are very aware of which night belongs to them. And they want that responsibility. The nice thing (for me) is that the responsibility rolls around only once a week! For each of us. Lazy? Yes. And I'm teaching my son's (and husband?) how to cook. I might feel one ounce of guilt about not being the sole cook in the house. But only an ounce.

The Cons: The biggest con is that Derrick is not completely on board with the plan, although he seems to be more invested when he is involved in meal planning. But at this point his choices of menu items are rather simple and pre-prepared. For example, during Mexican food week, he chose pre-prepared, frozen burritos as his menu item. And because he's not fully on board, he is rarely a prep cook for the boys. So, in essence, my meal + the boys two meals equals three meals a week that I am at least partially responsible for.

Maybe we just need to entice him with a weekly theme that he really loves. We could try a Louisiana themed night. I know, a little boring for a family living in Louisiana, but it might just be crazy enough to work!

The Beginning of a New Blog

Here it is. My new blog, dedicated to musing about the balance (and lack thereof) that exists between all the different aspects of my life. Mothering, marriage, cooking, painting, exercising and gardening are the things that give me greatest joy. Oh, yah, then there's work. Teaching and research also bring joy on those days that I allow them to. Although I know that I love these things, I find it difficult to commit to do any of them well...or at least as well as I know I can. My hypothesis is that if I let go of the wheel and let God have His way, I can have my heart's desire in all of these areas. My prayer is that I have the confidence to wear whatever hat it is I'm wearing at the moment and to do so with joy and conviction. And in doing so, I hope to do the work that God will have me to do. I WILL work that hat, girl! Amen!

You might expect to see upcoming posts about:
1. Food
2. Exercise
3. Art
4. Gardening
5. Child rearing
6. Marriage
7. Spiritual Growth
8. Teaching and Research

What will be to come?!