speculoos

I finally made them! recipe doriegreenspan.com/2010/08/well-according-to-amazon-aroun... i love gingersnaps and most recipes call for molasses.....I loved this recipe for the straight from the pantry items! spend some time to roll it smoother than i did.....I was rushed by the munchkin, you then chill it 3+hours before cutting and baking I wanted to make them in fish shapes but that cutter has a small tail and they kept breaking......same with the leaf cookie cutter....so I followed Dorie's suggestion and just used a 1 1/4" scalloped cutter I have one with a spring in it to make linzer cookies and that made the transfer to the sheet pan even easier! not sweet, perfect with tea and kid friendly check out this recipe that I am buying potato flakes to make soon too! doriegreenspan.com/2010/09/post-9.html yum too loving these nibbles from dorie greenspan!

apple cake

French Fridays with Dorie Marie Helene's apple cake perfectly fall like and yummy for breakfast with tea! i altered the flour and used graham flour and used 4 different apples, one huge honeycrisp, one medium pippin, two small yellow transparents and two small gravensteins.....superb! another easy to follow recipe with standard pantry ingredients

I love fall

Somehow the sunsets linger longer and the glow casts a purple hue over even the blanded of felled trees.........it is brighter blue skies during the day and longer dark nights and crisp leaves falling and squirrels chasing every last pine cone to harvest the nuts.......I do not enjoy winter but somehow wish fall would last until february, maybe this year? just maybe?

American ingenuity why walk when you can ride? love all the trailers in this tractor train! seen on the 4th of July at the Tahoe Keys Marina

sum sum summertime

We enjoyed a fabulous first day of summer! Have to enjoy it, since winter seems to last 10 months around here!!!!

motivation

a loaded word

I need to improve my health for the benefit of seeing my son grow up, longevity....i am an old mom.......but in reality it is not to gain apathy, more to be "RIGHT" I feel the urge to begin yoga, meditation, before the physical aerobic sweat and feel the burn "FUN" sometimes I think I need to be right too often, so i share thoughts, experiences and intimacies to make a point

just realizing my motivations may not be perfect, but it is important to think before we act or speak sometimes.

friends have names

sooo, I have been neglecting any posts, to be honest I upload photos daily to flickr and tend to get lots of verbiage in there but this is supposed to be my blog about the big noticings.

One such big noticing was that we had our first teacher conference for our 4 year old and it went great, he is bright and cheerful and seems to excel at socializing, what surprised me most was that he is one of the kids that greets all the other kids with "hi" every morning followed by their name, I had no clue he was using their names, since at home he always says he does not know the names of his friends......well this past tuesday morning I had some PROOF....in the parking lot as we walked towards the preschool he asked me if one of his friends would be there today and he said her name, and just as he said her name the window of an suv rolled down and a shout was heard "HI Emerson" to which he replied "HI" followed by her name...he was all smiles, we literally walked 3 steps and another large SUV window rolled down as the vehicle was moving and we heard "HI emerson" from a boy....to which emerson replied "HI" and the boy's name

On this cold tuesday morning, I had witnessed the evolution of our social butterfly, he now has his friendly nature coupled with the permanence of names and friends at school, he had always used the teacher's names correctly, but this was the first I had seen on his naming his friends.....of course he had told his grandparents that he had a girlfriend and her name.....but I just thought that was random luck that he remembered a name!

I want to quilt and sew!

I keep being drawn to fabric and quilts and patterns and have the itch to make something creative with fabric and thread one such inspiration is here

another bragging mom

Can I brag a minute? or 8 or 35999 hours?

I rarely am not proud of our son, but today we had a great behavior day, it started at the library with story time for preschoolers, where he answered the first question asked today with "it is something that you pretend to do and play" when the teacher asked if anyone knew what the word imagination was.....granted he did not raise his hand but he followed this up with raising his hand for every question and when called on to explain what the man was doing in the picture with the dumb bells he replied "exercise is good for your whole body and mind" like some fitness trainer! he offered to help find some lost items and then was so involved with raising his hand, other moms actually asked me how old he was......he seemed like some little scholar......

then we were off to the birthday party and he ATE HIS LUNCH, sandwiches, vegetables and fruit, of course he ate the icing off of the cupcake, but i never gave him the chips or m & ms and he handed me the cake part of the cupcake.....which i ate, YUM! I kept his party favors out of sight until he ate and tried to keep them hidden until we got home......lots of swag and he is blowing bubbles as i type! he just said he wanted to blow a big enough bubble for us to float away in.....now hubby got home and he said the bubble he blew between us meant we loved each other....so sweet

something is cooking

It seems this house has had it, with the weather briefly warm, we opened the windows and aired it out.....but now i notice how when we cook something, anything, toast, grilled sandwich, garlic bread, onions, even cucumber juice I can smell exactly what we cooked in the laundry room....far from the kitchen and also in the craft closet upstairs.....directly above the stove.....so tonight, putting away some craft supplies I smelled the ham and cheese we grilled at lunch........i find it annoying......and now want to figure out how to vent the house in winter!

the moon, mars and lyrics

We have the tradition of chasing the full moon with a camera and trying to capture her in all her glory, this end of January full moon is the brightest and closest to earth all year and coupled with a sighting of mars seems extra special to me.

We got some good shots, hubby took the best ones, this one is mine taken above the frozen, snow covered sawmill pond, with the the tree tops illuminated

My favorite memory of last nights moon chase was the munchkin singing in the backseat, he makes up songs quite often, and was whining to go home and see the dog, so his song was "Home, Home, Homey, Home, Home....I want to go home....we love our house, it is made of wood, we love wood, it comes from trees" all sung to the home on the range melody in a toddler sort of way.....singing away, loudly in the carseat while lobbying for his desire to go home in melody and song!

munchkin making up songs that rhyme

Our munchkin has always liked music and playing instruments, whether pretend or made up instruments....I was pleasantly surprised when he sang me a song on my birthday of his own creation and when there were 3 rhymes in it of his own word smithing i was proud!

his song went like this "Happy Birthday Mom, Happy Birthday Mom, this is your birthday song, it is short, not too long, Happy Birthday to you may you get something new, Let's have some cake that I didn't bake"

Then last night we were trying to go to bed and he pulled the scrabble game out from under the bed and started putting the tiles on the board telling me it was his favorite game and how he needed to make words....then he asked me if I liked "crabble" as he calls it......so much my son!

the things you see

I left the house to head for work today in carson city, nevada....it was breaking clouds, not sunny yet but working on it and when I got to the nevada state line the snow on the road was growing and the clouds were looming rather than dissipating....so when i began to climb through glenbrook and saw nevada plows working the roads, I was literally jaw dropping shocked to encounter a man on a motorcycle riding up the grade....I followed him all the way to carson city, some 16 miles through falling, blowing snow, fog, freezing air and large SUV's creating waves of muck for him to drive through.....he wobbled often but never dropped the bike or stopped.....he had to be freezing.....so surprised me, I think this is the only motorcycle rider i have seen on the road in snow or cold temperatures, seeing them in summer, no surprise.....fall, spring all normal....but January winter? a first

let me eat tea and cake

I think a cup of tea, with a bit of sugar and some cream accompanied by a pastry or cupcake are the perfect combination. From my earliest remembrances I can see my gramma brewing pots of tea, usually to be iced on the back porch while I played in the yard, but the smell of freshly brewed tea is warm and makes my mouth salivate to smell......like fresh bread, freshly brewed tea is aroma and mouth feel perfectly matched I think today I need to make bread, cake, cupcakes and scones....Happy Birthday to me, I am old!

eth-no-sin-trick

Bill Moyers is right! so much of what he says makes me nod my head in agreement and as he says it is never "too late" we have so much to learn from our past...so let's begin with this word......the word that seems to keep us with blinders on, seeing only our past glories, let us see the world for all she can teach us, the health care systems of holland, france, germany, the IMSS of Mexico! or as it is really spelled "ethnocentric", it has become what I hear in my head when many of the political talkers catch my ear....i hear this low hum....hum hum hum "eth-no-sin-trick" like a low lull trying to remind me where they are coming from, and it scares me how many people en masse seem to clap step behind the patriotic visions of flags waving and picket fenced homes, we often have the media off but lately with weather and world tragedy we have been watching a bit more, I honestly have fear for our country, fear that the current young generations are being promised higher education, or rather any education, and it seems to be non-existent and more expensive by the day.....pricing of public universities out of the budgets of working class families will lead to more death of the middle class, we seem destined for the wealthy to be elected to govern the serfs, with home ownership diminishing and foreclosures mounting, it seems the rich get richer. In light of the power of large corporations to rule, health care, pharmaceuticals, crop diversity, natural resource diversity, this ruling sent chills up my spine ...the supreme court overturned the ban on corporations purchasing advertising for political candidates......so does that not lead to more politicians being beholden to the giant purse strings that be, or in reality is that not how it is now, and why the ruling was overturned, the corporations can now use the media to tell voters how to think, paint the american flag on King George and I bet in today's environment we would VOTE to re join the British Empire.....we seem herded, like sheep, and the pasture is not greener http://www.sacbee.com/static/weblogs/capitolalertlatest/2010/01/supreme-court-d.html I fear the word has become part of the American mantra....we know better....it seems at least we should, having been founded by our forefathers, common, farmers, who considered political office a public service, not a career. ethnocentrism definition

eth·no·cen·trism (et̸h′nō sen′triz′əm, -nə-)

noun

the belief that one's own ethnic group, nation, or culture is superior

Etymology: ethno- + centr(o)- + -ism from yourdictionary online

from wiki "coined by William G. Sumner, upon observing the tendency for people to differentiate between the ingroup and others. He described it as often leading to pride, vanity, beliefs of one's own group's superiority, and contempt of outsiders.^[2]"

odd dreams

u know it is hot when?, originally uploaded by glitzypursegirl.

I have been having horrid sleep lately, up every 40 minutes coughing or having knife like pains for the past couple nights, i sleep better before 11pm and then after 11pm I am literally up and down until i give up and just get out of bed permanently

Last night in my last stretch of sleep between 5:29 am and 6am I had a vivid dream that I was assisting in some kind of high school setting , and had prepared at home some steamed vegetables and my job was to get 4 or 5 kids, specific kids, to come and eat a cup of steamed vegetables before or after their lunch......it was a failure of a task, I only ever got one kid to even take a cup of the healthy food....so as I was packing up to leave this school, a school I had never been to before, I ventured into the cafeteria, which was more like a series of concession stands selling items grouped by type of food, there was a fruit stand, a cracker stand and a beverage stand that i remember vividly, having a sore throat I wanted a slurpee, they had cherry or coke flavors and they cost $ 1.05 each for a very large container......the attendant refused to sell it to me, saying it was a waste of calories, and she showed me the cup and right on the cup was printed in large font, 7,000 calories.........I was indignant, i had a sore throat and i wanted it regardless.....she refused still to do it, but said if I put my money on the counter I could dispense it myself....which i did and left, vowing to never go there again.......

my big lesson in waking was, hey if we really want to educate people about food choices, why not put the calories, food content, nutritional value right there on the container in bigger font size than the logo......and the answer as to why we do not, it does not help sell more product, an uneducated consumer is a better customer and money maker to the manufacturer than a fully aware consumer......and the truth is, if I wanted a slurpee, i would still get one even knowing it was 7000 calories, not every day granted, but there are some times that the icy crystals are the only thing that cools off a hot or sore throat.......why do i have such dreams?

the gift of sight

We are by nature observers, and thereby learners.

That is our permanent state-Ralph Waldo Emerson

Much like William Blake's famed passage from the Marriage of Heaven and Hell

"to see the world in a grain of sand, heaven in a wildflower, hold infinity in the palm of your hand and eternity in an hour"

I saw many things in the ice crystals, prisms of color, reflections of the emerging sun and magic in the delicate nature of the fine bits of water preserved for mere moments in their lacy pattern, lucky me to have seen it before it was absorbed into the mass of snow as i shoveled the driveway

New Year Realizations

this shot was taken by the munchkin with his new digital camera the grandparents gave him for christmas....I cannot tell if it is him or me, I think it is me but then it looks alot like him today he woke up and was doing math without flashcards or paper or finger counting, he was negotiating his show watching with me and I said 2 shows, he said 5....then he said well it is only 3 more than you want, so I did every variation of 5, what is 5 minus 4, if you have 3 and add two how many do you have, he went back and forth with the correct answers and partials of 5 until he realized it was eating away at his show time before we went to the play group and off he went, later today i revisited the whole subtraction and addition and he was not even looking at me and said the right answer while rolling a truck on the floor......so he may not be 4 but he seems to understand the concept of addition and subtraction in some natural organic state with the correlation to numbers.