Candace Walsh Read New Posts
a la mama
cupcakes!
September 25th, 2008Here’s my daughter and her birthday cupcakes. She’s the one in pink.
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random top 3
September 22nd, 20081. J-41 Eco Design Shoe Line, the Madrid…
J-41 Madrid
Recycled elastic and rubber outsoles, plus satin insets, make this vegan shoe a bit more eco than your average criss-cross Mary Jane. I’ve already gone dancing in them, and worn them to work, and I love their girliness/sturdiness combo.
2. Mixed Emotions Card Deck
This deck, which features a card for most any emotion you could ever have, helps to identify how you feel, and gives you opportunities to shift your mood, open up a conversation, and get more deeply fluent in emotional intelligence. I am also looking forward to introducing it to my kids. Right now Nathaniel feels extremely distressed if I give him any kind of correction, and maybe working with these cards will open that up to more nuanced responses on both ends. I especially like the illustrations; an idea like this could be so great, but if the illustrations were corny, it would fall flat.
3. Laura Egley Taylor’s iced oatmeal raisin cookies.
She brought them into the office after her husband and son decided they weren’t fans. Well, I am! Two cookies worth of fandom right here. Now if I could only find a little nook to crawl into and take a nap…
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represent!
September 21st, 2008
PBS is running a poll that asks: Is Sarah Palin qualified? You don’t have to give your name or email address in order to vote.
It’s very simple.
Here’s the link:
http://www.pbs.org/now/polls/poll-435.html
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and the night time is the right time…
September 18th, 2008to catch up?
I got some dishes done, and put the kids to bed after reading them The Day Leo Said I Hate You by Robie Harris and Molly Bang (which is so hilarious). Leo is being a complete booger, right down to squirting toothpaste onto the toilet seat…and then he tells his mom “I hate you!” It’s really a great way to deal with the inevitable moment when your kid starts lobbing those three other little words out there…Nathaniel has moved on from that to the other worst thing he can think of to say, which is, when he is super-duper mad at me, “Poo Poo MOMMY!” It is really hard not to laugh my a** off when he says that, smoke coming out of his nostrils and all. Laura and I now use that for all sorts of annoying situations. “Poo. Poo. Driver!” “Poo. Poo. DJ!”
I made this really great easy yet impressive dinner last night: pounded chicken breasts, sauteed, and then topped with a sauce made of sliced mushrooms, marinated artichoke hearts, roasted red pepper slices, simmered in wine and a little butter. Plus, I made mashed Yukon Gold potatoes, with my special mixture swirled in: sauteed leeks and garlic simmered in chicken broth…
I am in love with the new Pedipeds boots. Favorite boy ones: The Dylans
Fave girl ones: excuse me, POLKA-DOTTED boots! They aren’t available yet, but look like this in boot form: http://www.pediped.com/Product/ProductInfo.aspx?id=149&cid=51
They are designed to fit for a really long time (or, relatively longer than most shoes) because of the use of a special insert that you can remove to give the kids more toe room. Seriously, though–I need a pair of these boots for my very grownup size 10 tootsies.
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getting over myself in the kitchen
September 15th, 2008I was a big girl yesterday; I went ahead and baked cupcakes for my daughter’s birthday party. No big deal, right? Well, I have been frozen in trauma ever since I tried to bake up here at 7,000+ feet and noticed that the stuff I turned out was flat and dense, in a bad way. So then, I baked a few more times, in denial that I was up here in the high desert (and feeling attached to baking at sea level, which is what I lavishly did up to age 29)…and stuff was flat and dense. And then…I actually looked up the adjustments for how to bake up here, and implemented them, and it really helped! More liquid, less baking powder, higher oven temp. I used a recipe called White Velvet cake from The Cake Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum. It’s my favorite vanilla cake–it has elements of pound cake, angel food cake, and sponge cake, all folded into one. It shows off the vanilla flavor really well. I also added almond extract because I was low on vanilla, which was a nice make-do that elevated it above its original flavor capabilities.
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The Women
September 15th, 2008Well! I had me a busy weekend. I don’t know where to start.
First off, Laura and I saw The Women and here’s my most salient response: I hate plastic surgery. I feel cheated that I am not allowed to see the actresses I grew up with AGE. Because that’s a beautiful thing.
The movie was fluffy and fun, a classic chick flick, and I don’t think I’ll ever be able to think about as stick of butter the same way again (Meg Ryan blithely eats a stick of butter dipped in cocoa and milk at one point). The movie definitely nailed the sort of fly-on-the-wall experience of a harrowing divorce sitch. But the film also begged a lot of questions, that grievously weren’t answered. Why did the ‘rexic fashion industry thing get introduced if it didn’t get resolved? Lip service (and I’m not talking about a certain cast member’s collagen injections) is not enough–especially given that Meg Ryan’s character’s crowning moment consisted of sending a bunch of rail-thin women down the runway in extremely unforgiving (yet beautiful, I grant) clothing. Another thing the movie paid lip service to was the idea of the token Sapphic friend; don’t get me wrong, I don’t ever mind seeing Jada Pinkett Smith in a film, but the character itself seemed pretty one-dimensional. Good things: Cloris Leachman definitely stole the show. And, now I want to see the original (right after I cancelled Netflix because I had the same two films in my house for four months straight).
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It’s the meatloaf that eats like a soup.
September 13th, 2008Last night I made meatloaf in a bowl. I was supposed to go to the store and get some kind of super-comfort-foody assortment–my seasonal yen meter was wanting roasted chicken, squash, potatoes and chard–but just when I was about to make the last mile there, my daughter’s bladder became fit to burst and I also noticed that I suddenly had this painful stomach bloat problem, and in my non-stretchy jeans to boot. We peeled off and went home. I was going to change my pants and eat something. She was going to pee. We were going to get back in the car…but no…home felt better. So, I sauteed some ground beef, thawed a bag of frozen broccoli, and added it together with a huge potbellied can of lentil soup from TJ’s. It was really good! I would have loved to bake it with a big shmear of mashed potatoes on top but alas, not to be this time. I did not mind that it cost me no (new) cents.
Young Living has come out with a roll-on aromatherapy vial called Tranquility. It contains lavender, cedarwood and Roman chamomile…it’s soothing, and pretty, and petite, and portable. I’m all about it.
Honoree’s front right tooth is about to fall out, and it’s totally skewed to the side. Poor moo. She was asking me if she could stick a small wad of white chewing gum in the space so that it wouldn’t look so funny. Um…let’s keep brainstorming. Tomorrow is her birthday pool party at the local indoor “natatorium.” I am excited because I am looking forward to going down the 2-story high twirly slide. I also need to figure out a cake plan. Buy? Make? Cupcakes? No se. Baking at high altitude just intimidates me. I used to be so intrepid at sea level. I even made a friend’s 2-tier wedding cake…I will maybe do some research today on how to offset the altitude thing.
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vibin’ eyes and more
September 9th, 2008Note to self: ingestion of large cup of coffee plus half of mascarpone super-rich brownie makes your eyes vibrate in their sockets. Who sold you on that plan?
Today a friend told me that she had heard that my kids now lived with their dad full-time. That threw me.
We share the kids 50/50, in a very modern arrangement which gives their dad time more than “Disneyland Dad” lip service (and praise be that he is such a committed dad that he would want nothing less). I certainly feel torn about it sometimes, but in many ways, I feel like I am a better mom because I get a little time to recharge my batteries. In an ideal world, we would all share a perfectly designed two-family house and the kids could flow back and forth while the sets of adults had their privacy from each other. But, we don’t…and I bet it would have its own set of issues, like, “I’d rather eat dinner at dad’s/mom’s house because your food is yucky,” or whatnot…lest I lose my (vibratory) train of thought, we don’t all live together slash apart, and we do privilege each parent’s role…and I guess sometimes that reads as a little confusing.
I asked the friend who heard that,”Who said it and how did they come to that conclusion?” She said that the person visited the kid’s dad and his partner at their house, and the kids happened to be there that day. She assumed that meant that the kids lived with them full-time. So it’s not some wild and crazy rumor, just a misunderstanding. Well, phew. And, it pointed out to me how tender I feel about it, in some hard-to-reach part of my mama heart. Not what we had intended…but, what is. Here’s where I want to come up with something really sage and surrendered to say in closing, but all I do have is a lot of gratitude that I love and respect every member of our unconventional, yet uber-operational family.
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oh, hi!
September 8th, 2008Yes, the back to school thing did kick my butt. Can you tell? Sheesh. I think things are mellowing out now.
My daughter loves first grade, although her front-row desk spot got inexplicably switched with another kid’s, and now she’s in the second row, which irks her to no end. “I can’t see because of all of the heads, mom!” she griped. I emailed Teach…maybe she can get back into that front row. I know I always liked it…I guess we share that dexter gene. Her first day of school outfit was so darn cute–she dressed herself and chose very bling-y sequin-encrusted mary janes, argyle knee-socks, and a dress. Can’t remember the dress right now…it’s been all of a week…but I just popped three thousand mgs of Nordic Naturals Omega-3 supplements so it might actually pop back into my head, maybe tomorrow. And, I can ask her.
Nathaniel is loving being one of the bigger kids at Waldorf preschool. His nemesis has moved on, so they won’t have to duke it out in the “who’s the alpha blond curly top” game.
Right afterwards, we drove over to Tara’s Organic Ice Cream shop, and H. enjoyed a blueberry mint ice cream cone. I shared the hibiscus agave sorbet with Laura, and Nathaniel royally lost out, as he fell asleep on the ride over. Sorry, little man! He’s lactose intolerant, anyway…one less bowel blow-out to “come see!”
What else…hmm…am I loving anything lately? I love Froose juice boxes. It’s juice sweetened with rice syrup and containing organic rice flour, so that fiber and complex carbs are folded into the mix. Cherry is my fave. The kids like ‘em all. We enjoy them around the house, as we are into the waste-free lunch thing. So hey, Froosers, serve it up in big recyclable glass bottles, so that we can enjoy it guilt-free!
I bought bulbs for the first time…some white and peach Narcissus Bell Songs, peach-colored tulips, and crocuses with dark purple and white pin-striped petals and bright yellow pistils. Can’t wait to get those babies into the front yard! We also planted a butterfly bush and have some Russian Sages and a hyacinth plant to install…I may have a ton to do these days, but if I plant one thing, I feel like I’ve accomplished something.
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