1 Mother 2 Another

About six weeks ago I placed a big order with Mountain Rose Herbs, gathering a fair amount of dried herbs for various lotions and salves I was making for the family. One of the herbs I needed was dried lavender buds, so I ordered a bag. And since the medium-sized bag is always, like, a quarter more than the small-sized bag, I upsized it. A week later, I realized just how big a medium bag of lavender buds really is.

I’ve been casting around trying to find some uses for the dried lavender buds before they completely lose their smell and potency; I know I have around six months, but still, I want to make them count and get my quarter’s worth. I’m that cheap.

At the same time, I was wrestling with Cora having trouble getting to sleep at night – she kept complaining of growing pains. And as I searched for ways to help her out that didn’t automatically involve a shot glass of ibuprofen, someone mentioned to me the idea of hot packs for the little legs.

And I figured out how to kill two birds with one stone’s weight of lavender buds. I made sock buddies.

Last night Cora held up her smallest
stuffed panda, about two inches tall and said:


“Mom, you know my tiny tiny panda, ‘Tiny Tiny
Panda’? Well, do you know why Tiny Tiny Panda’s name is
‘Tiny Tiny Panda’? It’s because he’s VERY
tiny and is a panda. And VERY is worth two
‘tinys’.”


Thanks for clearing that up.

Every “staycation” Brian and I
try to come up with new things for the girls to try: a day-trip
somewhere new, seeing a sport live for the first time, that sort of
thing. And the girls have been asking about camping out for a while
now – one of Maddie’s best friends is a regular camper,
heading out on weekends in either a pull-along camper or a tent. So
we figured that this spring break was an ideal time for us to try
camping out – in the back yard.


And when I say “us”, I mean everyone but me.


Listen, I love me some nature. I could sit outside and watch the
crickets hop all day. I’ll go on nature walks for hours,
looking up animals in my bird books or counting the petals on a
flower to figure out its classification.


But at the end of the day, it’s time to go inside and lie
down on a nice, comfy mattress.

Yesterday we had some much-needed rain in
our area; thunderstorms all night and morning, giving the plants
the water they need but keeping me and Cora inside on one of our
precious few Cora and Mommy days.


But when the day is rainy outside, that just means it’s the
perfect day for stirring something up inside.


We did plenty of baking yesterday: we made a double batch of the
girls’ favorite (and very healthy) breakfast cookies; a batch
of raspberry granola bars; and a batch of dark chocolate, low-sugar
granola bars (those are mine, so keep your mitts off). We also
tested an extremely cool href="http://www.keeperofthehome.org/2012/03/the-battle-for-a-no-fail-nourishing-popover.html"
target="_blank">wheat-free popover recipe that we both
loved.


But by far the best recipe of the day was the recipe for Goo.

Stick with me today, because I’ve
got something to say.


Yesterday I had a less-than-fun morning cajoling my troops back
into our usual school routine. I privately grumped to myself while
I woke them up, packed their lunch boxes and backpacks, dragged
them to school, and sent them off on another day.


I had only half my brain focused on the individual tasks all
morning – the other half was busy having a pity party, table
for one. So I shouldn’t have been surprised when, at
Cora’s school, we discovered I’d given her
Maddie’s lunch box, and vice versa.


Did I leave it alone, and say, “Tough it out and eat your
sister’s lunch”? No, I did not.

Oh, heck. There’s no
“but” to that statement.


I always enjoy our times off school, and then turn into the Queen
of Cranky when it’s over. I think I actually enjoy the time
off more than they do – the time off making nutritious and
interesting lunches; packing a variety of healthful snacks;
checking homework; emptying rock collections and handfuls of acorns
out of backpacks; trying desperately to find a pair of socks thirty
SECONDS before we need to leave for school; waking up the crabbies
in the morning; the list is endless.


I told a few people this week – if it weren’t for my
pesky job and that stupid schooling thing, I’d be an awesome
mom who is on top of EVERYTHING and has a GREAT time with her kids
all day. But instead, I’m frazzled and racing and split in
half and distracted and don’t give my kids the focus they
deserve.

Recently one of my favorite sites in the
whole world, href="http://www.crunchybetty.com">Crunchy Betty asked me to do
a guest blog for her. I ecstatically threw out a few ideas and she
latched on to a make-your-own-yogurt tutorial. She published it
yesterday, so head on over there and check out href="http://www.crunchybetty.com/the-holy-grail-of-crunchy-making-your-own-yogurt">
my article.


It’s chock-full of photos and easy steps and now you REALLY
have no reason not to do it. And while you’re there, surf
around her excellent site and see how easy it is to make your own
household and personal beauty items. It’s where I get tons of
my recipes, for everything from make-your-own href="http://www.crunchybetty.com/easy-homemade-hand-sanitizer-that-works-on-three-levels">
hand sanitizer to yummy href="http://www.crunchybetty.com/in-honor-the-trio-of-homemade-fruity-beauty-recipes-with-fruit">
facial masks to href="http://www.crunchybetty.com/how-to-make-lotion-bars">lotion
bars to . . . the list is endless.


Wade on in to the crunchy pool. The water’s fine.

It’s a tradition in our family that
once during every stay-at-home vacation – spring break,
Thanksgiving break, what have you – we declare a Pajama Day
in the house. We have a fantastic time being housebound, and the
girls now look forward to it as one of the highlights of each
Staycation. So far, we’ve done it probably three times, and
each time the anticipation mounts the night before; for girls who
love to get out so much, Cora and Maddie certainly do adore their
stay-at-home days.


And this one? Totally rocked it.

With our unseasonably warm weather
we’ve been deluged by mayflies, insects that look like
extremely large mosquitoes. They’re everywhere. All this to
preface the following conversation from a couple days ago:


Cora, the four-year-old: “Mommy, can I please have a
snack-sized plastic container?”


Me: “What for?”


Cora: “We’re catching mayflies and are saving them up
to give to the cat in a few days as a present.”

As of 3:05 p.m. today, spring break is
officially here!


No, we’re not going anywhere – we’re once again
setting up our “staycation” poster and livin’
large right here in our pad. I’ve got a staycation
posterboard with something fun written on each day: Half Price
Books Day, Pajama Day, Zoo Day, that sort of thing. Then I’ve
got a cutout star I laminated (I know, it’s a disease) that
has Velcro on the back, and the girls take turns moving the star
from day to day. I’ll put the poster up on the wall before
Maddie comes home from school tomorrow and STAYCATION 2012 will
officially begin!


Don’t be quick to dismiss this – the girls have been
speculating what will be on the poster for over a week, debating
and wishing their little hearts out. My favorite day I’ve got
planned is Pajama Day: I make a big pallet of pillows in the living
room for a movie marathon, and I have plans to set up the
girls’ Thomas train set – currently packed away –
in the library, while turning the kitchen area into an art room. It
will be spectacular, I tell you.


As much as the kids are looking forward to this, though, I am
chomping at the bit even more. Can’t wait to have my babies
around for an entire week of FUN!


Do not get in my way at 2:55 this afternoon. It’s jail break
time.

A few weeks ago some friends had my family
over for dinner. As the girls played together I chatted with my
friend in the kitchen, just hanging out and catching up. Her
daughter came running in and said, “Mom, what’s for
dinner?” Her mom said, “Hot dog chicken.” Without
missing a beat the daughter said, “Great! I can’t
wait!”


Yeah, I needed an explanation on that one.


Grown-ups would call the meal balsamic-glazed pork tenderloin, but
apparently to a four-year-old it looks like hot-dog-shaped chicken.
Hence the name. For the record, my kids gobbled it up. So of
course, I grabbed the recipe.


Last night I served the hot dog chicken for dinner and both of my
girls went back for additional helpings – FOUR TIMES. They
absolutely adore this recipe.


So href="http://crockingirls.com/recipes/main-dish/pork/brown-sugar-and-balsamic-glazed-pork-loin.html">
here is my gift from me to you – it’s
crockpot, so it’s incredibly easy. And as we know, the kids
love it.


What else do you need to know about it?

Cora absolutely loves to sing – and
not necessarily for an audience; she’s like me in that
she’ll walk around happily humming to herself while she plays
dolls or tries to dress up the cat. Music simply makes her happy.


Many nights when she’s wide awake at bedtime, Cora will sing
herself to sleep, and Brian and I will listen in on the baby
monitor (or should I say ‘preschooler monitor’) as Cora
runs through all Twelve Days of Christmas, or sings every verse of
The Farmer in the Dell. She happily belts it out in the dark as a
way to entertain herself while she passes the time trying to fall
asleep. I love these nights.

My nephew plays baseball, and over the
weekend we took our girls to see him play; we’ve been to a
few minor league baseball games and the girls both loved it, so we
figured seeing a cousin on a high school team would be a real
treat.


As you probably know, we don’t play a lot of sports around
here. I have nothing against them in theory; I simply don’t
have a lot of experience with them. And since the girls have grown
up (thus far) watching me teach acting or dance, that’s
understandably where they’re the most comfortable. Having
said that, though, the girls love watching football with Daddy and
playing football with friends; both enjoyed their first hockey game
recently, and both enjoy being outside and active in general. I
figured they’d fit right in with the Saturday morning sports
crowd.


Not so much.

Maddie’s a Daisy this year –
the level below Brownies in the Girl Scout hierarchy – and
we’ve been introduced to Girl Scout cookies from the selling
side of the desk for the first time. I have dim memories of my own
years selling Girl Scout cookies, which consisted primarily of
handing my order form to my daddy and having him take it to work
and come back with a couple hundred orders. Good times.


I, apparently, am not as nice as my old man, so Maddie’s
cookie sales were considerably less grandiose in scale. As in, she
sold to her relatives, a few church friends, and the people on our
block. Maddie has been surprisingly un-driven about wanting to get
out there and sell! Sell! Sell! She was content to put on her
uniform, hit our cul-de-sac, make a few phone calls, and call it a
day.


This has been incredibly fine with me.

A few months ago, I was chatting with the
mom of one of the girls in Maddie’s ballet class about how
busy our lives had become recently; Maddie had ballet class once a
week and then rehearsal every Saturday for the Nutcracker, and I
was resenting having to be at the studio twice a week.


“I know what you mean,” the other mom lamented.
“My girls’ schedule feels so busy we don’t have
time to turn around! She’s got ballet on Thursdays with
rehearsals Saturday afternoon, gymnastics on Wednesdays, soccer on
Tuesdays and Saturday mornings, and of course karate on Mondays.
Plus her piano lessons at home Friday afternoons!”


Her daughter was six.


And suddenly my twice-a-week commitment didn’t look so
bad.

Brian’s work recently gave out
tickets to a local hockey game and he snagged enough for the whole
family to go, plus the girls’ gal pal Elise. It was a rare
matinee game (I know that’s not what you call it, but you get
what I mean) so I said yes, with hesitations.


Maddie is, shall we say, an introvert who doesn’t know
she’s an introvert. So she loves to hang out with friends and
do stuff in a crowd – in theory. But surrounded by a ton of
sound and stimulation she’ll often hit a wall and a meltdown
is usually inevitable – after we leave and are heading home.
I wasn’t sure if we’d even be able to stay for the
whole game. But free is free and we gave it a try.


I should not have worried. The girls had a fantastic time, and for
two main reasons:

Yesterday I felt a tap upon my shoulder
and turned around to see my daughter Cora standing there, hands
clasped solemnly together.


“What’s up, Li’l Bit?” I asked her.


Cora looked at my gravely. “Mommy, my groove thing is
itchy.”


I’m sorry, what?


I stared at her a moment, then said, “And what exactly is
your groove thing?” Because I? Really wanted to hear the
answer to that question; to my knowledge, we hadn’t been
walking around with episodes of Disco Fever playing in the
background.


Cora huffed impatiently, then leaned in and whispered,
“Mommy, your groove thing is your hiney. I was just trying to
use a more polite term for it.”


And apparently “groove thing” is more acceptable in
mixed company than “hiney”. Who knew?

I try – most of the time – to
feed my family relatively healthy meals. At the same time, I teach
two nights a week – meaning I have to have the food ready or
almost-ready when I leave the house at 3:30. Add in after-school
activities like ballet class that runs right up to dinner time, and
a hot, nutritious, home-cooked meal gets a little more complicated.


I know how easy it can be to drive through somewhere – grab
some fast food to go. And there are days when everything’s
exploded all around you and good enough – in the shape of a
big mac and a happy meal – is good enough. I do not judge
those instances, because I have them myself. But I try to keep
those for truly Code Red days and with a little planning –
and a new definition of the phrase “fast food” –
I by and large succeed.


Wanna know how?

Yesterday was a school holiday and with
both girls at home, I needed a game plan. Looking for something
that would get us moving and be cheap, I told the girls we were
heading to the park for the morning.


Sure, it was a bit windy and overcast part of the time. But once
there we quickly got in the swing of things and had a fantastic
time for almost two hours. The first part of our time there was
spent on the playground equipment, but the lion’s share of
our outdoor time was taken up with my girls’ favorite
activity – Doing Stuff With Nature.

For my birthday last fall, my friends put
href="http://www.1mother2another.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1541&Itemid=46"
target="_blank">a life-size plexi-glass cow in my front
yard. Since then, it’s made the rounds to a couple other
houses for birthdays, and now it’s such a tradition that we
couldn’t stop that rolling stone if we tried. So Friday night
we all made plans to “cow” another friend’s house
–w e had the “costume” all ready, the birthday
sign, and a bag full of emergency supplies like tape and a
flashlight. We were organized, we had a plan – easy in, easy
out, right?


I am solemnly swearing to you that everything you are about to read
is true. As I often say in this blog, I couldn’t make this
stuff up if I tried.


My friend’s house was only a block away so at 9 p.m., our
designated meet time, I swung my backpack on my shoulder and headed
out through my back alley. As I walked along the sidewalk I saw the
psychedelic cow pass me by in a pick-up truck, tailgate down to
accommodate her udders. I gave a friendly wave and checked off our
first to-do: get the cow to the scene. I crossed over my
friend’s lawn just after the cow had been dropped off by a
weary husband , and I greeted two sisters-in-crime who’d
already arrived and patted Heidi (the cow’s) flank fondly,
thinking of the fun we were going to have.


Then the police showed up.