Babywearing will keep your little carnivore close while on the Great Migration.
Scott and I found this herd while we were making breakfast this morning. Norah rigged up her headbands as slings so that the daddy and mama could carry their baby dinosaurs. Real Sharptooths wear babies!
ETA Aug 31: We found this back-carrying dino this morning. She used a ponytail.
I wanted to properly introduce my friend Abby to SC. She’s from Vermont. Nothing captures the layers of our unique culture better than the Pickens Flea Market. Where else can you find old cobalt blue apothecary bottles and gorgeous stained glass windows on the same table with beanie babies, guns, and saran-wrapped meat?
Today I bought some honey sticks, The Healing Foods Cookbook, Healing with Whole Foods, not-ripe-enough muscadines, yellowroot sticks, Yogi Bedtime tea (1.00/box!), and garam masala. The trick is…you must look past the haze of cigarette smoke and fried pork skin fumes to see the promising treasures.
Things we did not buy: baby turtles, exotic chickens, boiled peanuts, plastic toys, eucalyptus plant, socks, squirrel feeder, or a frightening mole trap (I did get a mole trap demonstration though).
Love was in the air last night. My parents and my sister/brother-in-law both celebrated wedding anniversaries. For Noelle and Zach, this night marked their one year anniversary. Aww. They pulled the top of their wedding cake out of the freezer and ever-so-sweetly smashed each other’s faces with it.
I prepared a feast for the happy couples. For once, Chef Willy’s famous alfredo recipe was overshadowed by a new appearance. I made Bulgur Salad with cherries as shared by my friend, Lauren. It was so beautiful. And tasty. So dust off that bag of bulgur and get cooking.
I went to the GLA annual book sale yesterday. Even dragging my tired tot along, I found some great books!
For the gentle parenting lending library, I picked up Positive Discipline, Positive Discipline A-Z, and Punished by Rewards. I squealed triumphantly when I found the Alfie Kohn book. I startled the pregnant mom beside me.
For the UCEDS library, I grabbed The Premature Baby Book, A Child is Born, Mamatoto: A Celebration of Birth, and The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding.
For my husband, I snagged A Naturalist’s Guide to the Southern Blue Ridge Front, South Pole 900 Miles on Foot, Alaska Wilderness: Exploring the Central Brooks Range, and Still Waters, White Waters. He asked me if I was intentially trying to drive him away.
For Carey: Footprints by Denise Levertov. I finally found a bosom friend, kindred spirit who quotes poetry to me by email; not nearly as romantic as hand-written perfumed letters but who keeps stamps these days?
For Norah: only a tiny goblin book she sneaked into our bag. I’m a children’s book snob and the pickings were slim.
For me, I didn’t have much time. I mentioned the tired tot, right? I tangled with a football-playeresque guy over The Unicorn & Other Poems. Go figure. And, walking to the check-out, I reached back and grabbed Midwives.
Final bill: 25.00 Not bad. Until they announced that the “fill-a-bag-for-10.00” sale was starting in 15 minutes as I’m handed my receipt.
I found out this week that I’m a lawbreaker. If you’re still my friend after I confessed to eating oxalis, you may want to reconsider. Don’t let me near your children; I could be a bad influence. What is my offense?
I water my garden. Yes, our town has deemed watering the garden a $200 offense. Now I am all for water conservation. Fine the people watering their grass or pressure washing their house. Turn off the decorative fountain, drive unwashed cars, take quick showers. Give out rainbarrels and educate about how to build a graywater system. But really? Fining people for growing food? I live in a rural area and I know that many of my neighbors depend on their gardens. The food in my freezer may not make or break us, but it certainly helps.
As my neighbor, Mr. Police Officer, was picking tomatoes, basil, oregano, and a green pepper from my garden for his dinner pizza, he affirmed he wouldn’t enforce this rule for gardens. So there, city council.
Because I was tagged:
5 Things You Probably Don’t Know About Me
1) I have a talent for finding things of little importance. Things like four-leaf clovers and shark’s teeth.
2) I am an excellent mudpie maker. I’m talking about real mudpies made from earth. And as a child, I loved to eat them along with assorted plants and sketchy berries. Sometimes I still want to. I can remember the taste and grit.
3) I am not an excellent business person. While I can make mudpies, I have no talent for making money.
4) I love to eat sour things. Tiny green apples, lemons, limes, okra pickles, and oxalis from my yard. When I was pregnant, I once ate somewhere around 12 limes in one sitting. They were small limes; not quite keylimes but smaller than average. I was in Cambodia and well, I don’t really have any excuses except my sister probably ate almost that many and she wasn’t pregnant.
5) I despise Rod Stewart. His voice makes my skin crawl. My husband, who does a great RS impression, sometimes tortures me by holding me down and singing, “Have I told you lately…” I’ve been known to leave stores if his voice begins to screech from the speakers.
Does anyone still want to be my friend?
If you’ve been around my blog much, you know I try to practice positive discipline. It has been difficult finding mommy mentors. I began with online friends and now I’m steadily building my real life community of families who practice pd.
Then I discovered Kelly! Turns out Kelly has been doing this positive discipline thing for years (her kiddos are teens now) and she even teaches pd…in Upstate SC! So I roped her into meeting me one day. I had planned our meeting on a morning I wouldn’t have Norah with me; I didn’t want to, um, mess up. And of course…that backfired and I found myself with Norah in tow. I remember Norah was carrying some star stickers and one of the first things I blurted to Kelly: “The stars are not for a reward chart.” But I needn’t have worried! Kelly was so inviting, complimentary, and well, positive!
Go check out her blog and her website. Take one of her classes. The ones I saw posted were only 10.00/person! For those of you waiting for the rumored Positive Discipline group to form, Kelly has promised to be available to hold our hands.
I’m not the best meal planner. I’m more of a oh-shoot-it-is-4:30-what-will-we-eat-for-dinner kinda gal. So, this flatbread recipe suits me nicely. As you’ll see, the recipe makes two focaccia loaves; one of which you can dress for dessert. Perfect.
In a typical evening (yes, tonight), at 6:15, I start to wonder about dinner. I decide on pesto spaghetti and tossed salad. My trusty flatbread recipe complements my procrastination perfectly.
Throw 2 1/2 cups of flour in the mixer bowl (I have a dough hook attachment with my mixer; you can go the hard route and mix and knead by hand)
Add 1 packet of rapid rise yeast, 1 tbsp sugar, and 3/4 tsp of salt.
Mix 1 cup hot water with 2 tbsp EVOO. Gradually pour into the dry ingredients while mixing. Add up to 1/2 cup more flour until dough seems soft and elastic. I mix about 5 minutes. Then cover with a towel for 12 minutes.
Preheat oven to 425. Divide dough in half and place side-by-side on greased baking sheet. Press into 8″ circles, cover sheet for 15 minutes. Press fingertips into dough to make some indentions. Brush one with EVOO. Brush the other with butter, maple syrup, agave nectar, honey, whatever sweet is your fancy.
Add toppings and bake 15-17 minutes. Tonight I used fresh garlic, basil, greek oregano, rosemary, and chives (thanks Helen!). Then sprinkled some parm cheese. I consider focaccia a dipping bread so I serve it with a saucer of oil and ground peppercorn.
On the sweet bread, you could top with sliced grapes, sugar, cinnamon, or whatever you’re craving.
Inexplicable Ways 