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Sadie and I picked up this book, 642 Things to Draw
I was just telling Pete the other day how much I miss drawing regularly. But what to draw? What if I don't want to come up with some big concept, or something to sell, you know? Sometimes I just want to draw a rolling pin. Or a bottle of glue. But I stall, forgetting I can draw these simple things for no reason at all. Brilliant!
These are all Sadie's drawings.
This is one of my new favorite salads this summer. I have made it 3 times in the last 6 weeks. I need to stop or I will burn out on it.
It came about from laziness and my inability to go to the store. I had a bag of pre-chopped cabbage slaw, which I usually don't buy, but how wonderful it is! I just dumped it in the bowl and didn't have to deal with the extra cabbage I always have when I buy a whole head. Then I fried some tofu and made my magic sauce. I blogged about magic sauce a bit back, this version I made a bit thicker, with equal portions of peanut butter and salsa, quite a bit of honey, lime juice, crushed garlic, and hot sauce. I made about one cup of sauce for the whole bag of slaw.
After eating tofu for what seems like forever, only recently have I been happy with frying it at home. I got smart and cut it into big slabs, so there is way less turning of tiny pieces. Then I heat up oil, more than I think I need, and let them brown on medium high, which always takes longer than I think. About 7 minutes per side. They crisp up so nice. Then I cut the slabs into smaller pieces. I have been buying this high protein, extra firm, sprouted tofu packed in water. It's organic and non-gmo creepy. And it's cheap. I have bought it at both New Seasons and Trader Joe's.
I fold the sauce, slaw, and cut up tofu together in a bowl and then let it sit overnight to breakdown. It seems like a huge amount when you make it, but it really deflates and makes about 4 generous lunch portions. I like it both cold and room temperature.
Thanks for all the thoughtful birthday wishes! I had a great one. 40 is pretty awesome so far.
This is me, 38 years ago. It was a Winnie the Pooh theme that year. It's not the theme this year, but maybe it should be.
When I turned 30, it was a blur. I know that was a Big Deal birthday too, but we had just bought our first house that year, and I was pregnant with our first child, and I just don't remember thinking much about it—except being very happy we both had a house and a child on the way. That's all I remember. The next 10 years flew by and brought more life, death, pain, happiness, change, growth, and just stuff, than I had ever experienced before. Especially compared to my 20s, which seemed to last forever and were not terribly dramatic.
Now I feel more settled. I finally can attest to what older friends expressed—aging for them meant they stopped comparing.* I thought I did that already in my 30s, but I really didn't. Especially when it came to raising children. I have gotten so much better at trusting my gut instincts and not endlessly questioning my decisions or defending my choices. I am happy to say I feel grown-up, not that I am pretending to be a grown-up, which is how I felt 10 years ago.
So, time to eat some cake for breakfast, 'cause grown-ups get to do that whenever they want to.
*They really said they finally stopped giving an F what people think, but this is my personal spin on it.
The two older girls and I got up early to get to the Beaverton Farmer's Market before it got too crowded. It was already crowded at 8:15! I gave them some spending money and they bought everything they wanted themselves. I am trying to remember to carry cash so they can do this, or remind them to take their own money. The scones were very popular. I didn't get a chance to sample the sauerkraut table, but I need to next time. I did get a huge bag of fava beans, which always makes me laugh because after we shell them and then blanch them, and shell them again, we have, like 10 beans, from a 1lb. bag. I love this salad with fava beans, but I'd love to just heat them in a little butter and salt and pepper and serve them with fish.
It has taken me a full week to feel normal after our trip. I just could not get enough sleep or push the clouds from my brain. I am helping with costumes for the girls' upcoming ballet production, and we have had violin recitals and more upcoming music recitals and dance rehearsals—it's all exciting and fun but it's making May and June seem a bit nutty. And I have a big birthday next week. 40. I have thoughts about this and then I forget them. And then have new ones.
I can't stop looking at Camilla's Drawers. (No, not her underwear.)
There was a ton of amazing homemade food at the wedding in the woods we just got back from and one of the salads was an apple fennel slaw. I think I blogged about a similar slaw last year, but here it is again in a different form. I made this variation with what I had and then added some more to it.
The basic slaw is:
is key)To this I added:
It's delicious.
unrelated:
and I really like it so far. The non-linear form requires a lot of attention and I am laughing at how hard this is for me at times. wait, what? which character is talking? who is she? what year is it? I thought they were dead?
We just got back from a very special wedding in Georgia, and then a roadtrip through South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virgina—ending in Williamsburg and meeting Grammie there. It was amazing. There is so much to tell. And I will soon, especially about sewing the girls' dresses and seeing all the textiles there.
I am going to make a photo book of all this, including a bit of text documenting what we saw (armadillos and fireflies!) and listing all the various minor injuries. The girls have all helped take notes so we wouldn't forget. I would have never thought we'd go through so many band-aids. The kids were just wonderful. They are already 100% back in action. We adults are incredibly tired, but they seem to not notice the jet lag at all. I am spending Mother's Day outside trying not to do laundry all day. I also plan to eat the chocolate I received and read magazines.* I was almost in tears thinking we would come home to rain, but not so. The best weather in May ever! Vitamin D party!
*And I will also ship out all the orders tomorrow, thank you for your patience.
With a lovely green goddess dressing From Little Bird here in Portland where we had a great dinner a few weeks back. Since eating this salad I have been buying more butter lettuce. And I don't feel bad about eating an entire head all myself. The self-titled salad at Grüner is also a favorite of mine.
About once a week or so, I let the two big girls bake by themselves if I can keep the almost five year old preoccupied. I let them make whatever they want to and and decorate it however they want to. This is a very festive cake for no reason. They used this recipe I link to in this old post and mixed it all by hand (no butter, just oil for easy mixing) but only used half the batter to fit an 8" x 8" pan. I try to help, but not help, if you know what I mean. Which is getting easier and is great for them.
These vintage candle holders are so sweet and I love the way they actually didn't put the candles in them.
Unrelated-
We were learning about bridges a bit back (Portland is a mecca for bridges) and made a truss style model, which we covered with paper and turned into a covered bridge. We used the directions from a project in Bridges: Amazing Structures to Design, Build & Test
It's so cool when we drive across a bridge here and the girls know which one it is. I also bought and framed this amazing Portland Bridges poster
Here's a really fun video to watch on making a Popsicle stick bridge and then a pretty thrilling contest at the end. There are quite a few rad videos here at WonderHowTo. (Warning, While very intriguing, not all of these topics are family friendly.)
A covered bridge tour would be fun to do this summer, there are a quite a few of them in Oregon and maybe we could combine some camping.
I've received a few homeschooling e-mails lately, mostly asking what curriculum we use. I answer this very breify in my FAQ, but we don't use a formal curriculum. We use a ton of resources: supplies, books, workbooks, the world, people, all that—but I didn't pay for a formal curriculum to cover grade 3, for example.
Here's a great interview (thanks Carolyn!) that provides a personal example of unschooling. It's wonderfully titled, Meet Kate Fridkis, Who Skipped K-12 and Is Neither Weird nor Homeless. It is so cool to hear about homeschooling from the child's perspective (who is now 28).
