I got to the point
where I stopped mourning
what I would have lost
in near miss situations.
why borrow trouble
why brush the shadow
of a gift horse
to a soft sheen?
but then I was sitting here
recalling a poem I once wrote
about my son
nursing in cowboy pajamas
and I got it
the lightning down my spine
pelting me with cold, unwelcome tears.
he slipped away from preschool
and was found by the side of a busy road
throwing bottles against concrete
their forms shattering
like my world, almost.
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Yesterday, Peter called me to tell me that Nathaniel (4) and his friend Charlie (3) snuck away from their teachers and class during the daily arroyo walk, and were found on the sidewalk of a busy street, next to a recycling bin, throwing empties.
Hi.
That is so crazy!
And I’m having the classic Walsh reaction to tragedy/tragedy narrowly averted: every time I think about it, I giggle. Nervous laughter, I guess. Or complete and total joy that THEY’RE STILL ALIVE.
Nathaniel, Nathaniel, Nathaniel. I did one of those things where I hugged him tightly, then admonished him sternly, repeat. I saw Charlie’s mom last night at a parent meeting for Honoree’s class and we just looked at each other. Like, Oh. My. God. She, too, alternated expressions of dismay and hilarity. “They pulled a Tom and Huck,” I said.
And in case any of you are wondering, Nathaniel is still having a lot of fun at school with the phrase “butt crack.” And that is now relegated to the category of a “smallie.”
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I had a mad craving and ran over to the Chocolatesmith, the Mothering office’s nearest and dearest den of vice: www.chocolatesmith.com. Yes, them. They are our Second Street Studios neighbors. I totally gobbled up a dark chocolate-covered peanut butter mini bar
…which reminds me of last year, when I bought a bag of Reese’s Peanut Butter cups as Halloween giveaway candy…because I didn’t like them and wouldn’t eat any. Well, guess what? I put them in the freezer to keep them fresh-ish, and one PMSy night I ate one. Well, I realized I liked frozen peanut butter cups…and so here I am, celebrating that anniversary of sorts.
Yesterday I bought a bag of mini Snickers, because they totally gag me. I mean, no doubt. And I am not even going to try them. Just in case.
Hey, if you are wondering about my other favorite organic chocolate source, it’s Sjaaks. I love their wee chocolate-covered peanut butter bites…and so did the entire Mothering office! The ones who aren’t into the PB thing dug the orange-flavored dark chocolate.
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They are striped. You can see if you look on the bridge of my nose…otherwise, the stripes are more subtle. Which is probably a good thing! Hurray for glasses with lenses that aren’t scratched to kingdom come. I can see at last. Now if only that Surya henna in Chocolate would arrive…I’d be set.
What else is new? Nathaniel’s teacher let me know that he was bandying about the word, excuse me, term, “butt crack.” He didn’t get it from me. It must be all this talk about plumbers…so this morning, I had to remind him to please not use that term at school.
Potty humor never fails to make most of us laugh. I try to strike a balance between not reacting overmuch to the words when they come up, so as to minimize my child repeating them incessantly. But when it starts to get him in trouble with third parties…I wouldn’t want him to get mad at me for never correcting him. “It totally blew my college interview when I casually dropped the term ‘butt crack.’ Why on earth did you never tell me that was off limits?”
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The Cosmetic Market is offering Mothering a special deal-io.
First of all, they offer FREE SHIPPING up to $75.
And, they have a special green beauty section called Ekoh.
Even better: they want to give us Mothering gals a discount of 20% from today through November 10. Here’s the code: MOTHERING.
And here’s the link to their offerings: www.thecosmeticmarket.com/home.php?pageid=19
A great way to make holiday shopping a little less painful this year, what with the economy being so fruity.
I’m tempted by their CARGO Plant Love lipsticks. The “plastic” tube is made of corn, and the cardboard package is embedded with flower seeds.
Just need to stock up on basics? They have Crystal Rock Deodorant, Shady Day sunblock products, and more.
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Everyone’s been loving it. I’m not exactly a big salad person, but I eat this one as if it’s a big bowl of ziti. Incidentally, it tastes great with ziti. Or Shirl’s lasagna (which is made with artichoke pasta, divine).
Spinach, Roasted Red Pepper, Goat Cheese and Pinon Nut Salad (with optional chicken)
Big bag o’ spinach
jar of roasted red peppers, drained and sliced
(a nice extra: a caramelized roasted onion)
2 T. crumbled goat cheese
handful of pinon nuts (preferably toasted)
just-cooked chicken tenderloins (about 1/4 lb)
1 T. each of balsamic vinegar and olive oil
squirt of honey or agave nectar
Make the dressing: put both the olive oil and balsamic in a small bowl, add the honey or nectar, and briskly whisk with a fork.
Add it to the spinach and toss. Add the cheese, nuts, chicken, and peppers, and give it all a good stir. It can work as a meal or a side, depending on the portion.
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where x = (I was overcome and found myself on a)
then y = seventy-some bucks deducted from my checking account, and z=satisfaction that comes from eating the foods that make my kapha-pitta body sing.
I have been so bad over the last few months. I am old enough to know that if I eat certain foods, my body purrs like a performance machine. If I eat certain other ones, I am a bloated, backfiring
jalopy. Wheat is not my friend. My body loves iron, but if I have more than a little beef, I get all backed up. Cheese? Definitely not the kind that melts in burritos. One spoon of sour cream or ice cream can shut me down instantaneously. But it’s not lactose intolerance across the board. I’m actually more okay with say, a shmear of Brillat- Savarin or St. André than shredded bag cheddar. I could go on and on. Anyway, I’m doing a bit of a “I give up, you’re right, I want to come home to you, black beans, red lentils, chard, kale, acorn squash, eggs and millet toast…” because I want to feel awesome again. Not logy and puffy!
I’m refocusing on ayurvedic guidelines for my kapha-pitta constitution, but also kind of checking out the eating by blood type thing…very loosely…as soon as I feel like something is too restrictive and limiting, I’m so turned off. But, happily, most of the foods on my ayurvedic list are the ones I like best, and the no-nos are the ones I can do without, but once told myself I should like, because my parents did, or because, like olives, they seemed sophisticated (and I do like olives, after I got over the initial ick–especially Nicoise olives. But I digress).
So, long story short, I ate millet and red lentils (with shallots and broccoli) last night, and some steamed acorn squash. I have chard in the fridge, as well as a new jar of Udo’s Blend Healthy Fast Food. According to my blood type guideline, I’d be best off as a vegetarian, and to be honest, I am not feeling much need for meat, chicken, fish at the moment…it’ll be there. For breakfast, I had an egg poached in Imagine Bistro black bean bisque, with millet bread toast, and spicy roasted pumpkin seeds sprinkled on top.
The paradigm shift: Laura and I were at Annapurna Wednesday night, and I ordered the special, half a roasted acorn squash loaded up with kitchari, with vegan gravy on the side. Total earthy autumn yum.
The kids are doing extemporaneous yoga in the hallway. Honorée needs to work on her yoga teacher affect…she’s being a bit of a terror. Must intervene.
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Energy is funny. Just when I think I don’t have any, some comes rushing in and I accomplish things I’d given up on doing on my own.
Yesterday, H. had her first field trip…the class went hiking, collected falling leaves, sketched them. It was an impromptu field trip, which meant that I had to run around wrangling a bunch of different things in under 24 hours. Lace-up shoes (not the sturdy mary janes we had on hand). A small, unlined notebook. A light jacket. A sun hat. A small day pack. Sunblock.
I did have the weirder stuff–the notebook, as H. got 2 recently at her birthday party. A small day pack: we grabbed the mini lunch backpack, which had enough pockets to hold the notebook, pencil, and sunblock, as well as her lunch. I asked her dad if he had her sneakers, but he couldn’t find them, and so we all went out to Target at 9pm (good times!) after watching the debate at Elizabeth’s super-charming, new old house. Nathaniel fell asleep in the car. That boy has gotten heavy since the days that I tucked him in a sling of any kind. I carried him to the shoe section, then put him down on the carpeted floor, my purse as a pillow, so I could help Honorée try on sneakers. I spied a cart, wheeled it over, placed him in that, with the purse as pillow once more, and then Honorée, a few minutes later, dropped her box of sneakers on his face. Luckily, he just made a slightly disgruntled noise and fell back asleep. She, though, cried, because she felt so bad. I don’t know; this type of scenario would usually have me on my broom, but I felt sanguine all the way through (until Nathaniel strained against me as tried to put him in his car seat…then I got a little snappish). Maybe it was because I found some really cute rugby stripe knee socks in navy and heather gray or black and heather gray, I’m not sure which, I’m colorblind in that particular area.
In the morning, Peter told me he found her sneakers (”way under the bed”) but I’d already been to big T and also, I think the ones he found were a tad small on her, which would have made the hike less comfortable. She loves her new sneaks…I do too. They are white and creamy sky blue, and remind me of the Asics I had when I ran track in high school.
I did, however, ask Peter to come over with the light jacket and sun hat, but he didn’t have time, so I told him to put them in a bag at the end of the driveway, (because I would be that unable to waste an extra second kibitzing or even walking up to the front porch) and drove by there on my way to school.
And I almost forgot to send Nathaniel to school with snack, but I remembered at the last minute. It was a very clown car morning.
Redemptively, it was Friday, which meant there was a coffee table out by the parking lot, with a small group of parents gathered around chatting. Nathaniel loves coming up and cadging a piece of coffee cake, and I love the free joe, and catching up with friends. But, given that I can be a total Shy Boots, I sometimes feel awkward when I don’t know anyone. Plus, I have a bad memory when it comes to remembering if I’ve met someone. So this super-nice couple said hi to me and I made myself initiate a conversation–”So you have a kid in the kindergarten?” “Yes, Jason, he was in the preschool last year,” “Right, with Nathaniel,” (of course, I’ve probably met you already) “So, how does he like it?” Next thing you know we were having a real conversation, and it came up that they, too, have a “Heather has Two Houses” situation, where the certain things–hats, jackets, shoes…always seem to be at the other parent’s house when you need them. We found some common ground…it is usually always there if I get over myself and just put myself out there a bit. And it was comforting common ground; I think I had one mother of a single-mom 12 hour stretch, and it was really nice to chat with people in the same situation.
Well, I went way off track, because I was planning on telling you how we came home last night from work and school pickups, and we whipped this house into (better) shape–I’ve been working on the Holiday Toy Special, which will be in the Nov/Dec issue (woot woot!) and have fallen behind on la casa, big time. The kids cleaned their room (with the expected share of grandstanding and ballyhooing), I shelved books, vacuumed, wiped, put things in their places, took out the trash, broke down boxes, brought out recycling, and watered the plants, inside and out. *snap* For weeks I’ve been unable to get a real entry point into making this place more orderly.
The other thing I wanted to mention: Honorée and I went out to lunch at the Chocolate Maven, and sat right against the glass wall that shows their industrial bakery goings-on. We were just agog. We sat right beside the pain-au-chocolatier, and watching all those sticks of Callebaut chocolate go into the super-long rows of pastry dough was very absorbing. Honorée almost fell over when she saw the guy chuck an inch or two of raw pain-o-chocolat into the trash bin. She would have preferred to gobble it down herself! Then she got to have a cupcake with a pink rose on top, which reminds me of my favorite children’s book, 
Molly’s Moe by Kay Chorao…she gets someone’s unclaimed birthday cake, festooned with frosting roses, at the end. Waldorf has a policy of closing early on Fridays, and it’s been a lovely way for the two of us to have Mommy-Daughter time, because I pick her up, we have lunch or get a manicure, and then go back to work. She is really well-behaved at work these days, so it isn’t stressful–it’s really pleasant.
Mr. Boy wants breakfast…I must sign off. Happy weekend!
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The lovely Petra at Mixed Emotions is offering Mothering readers a 10% discount on the deck.
The code is MOTHERING.
The link is http://www.mixed-emotions.com.
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