This week I decided to play with kale. I’ve never had kale but it looks so good and green at the store. I knew my kids wouldn’t eat it in the raw, but my friend had mentioned I could make them into “chips.” So below is my process for “Kale Chips” (I attempted this with no proper guidance from a recipe). I discuss the results of this experiment at the end of this post.

Start by washing some fresh and pretty kale.

Coarsely chop or tear the kale into pieces.

Mix the kale with sea salt, pepper, and olive oil.

Put the coated kale on a pan.

Put in the oven at 400 degrees until edges are crispy (10-15 min).

Crispy kale chips!

I didn’t look up any recipe for kale chips because I thought, how hard could this be?. The chips were crispy alright, but I think maybe I burned them a little (400 degrees was probably 25 degrees too hot). I mean they were still green–for the most part–I don’t know. We didn’t like them. I can’t figure out if the reason is because they were burned to a certain degree OR if we don’t like the flavor of kale. We’ve never had kale, so I don’t totally know what it’s supposed to taste like. There was definitely a distinct “green” flavor.

Because my experiment with kale is inconclusive, I can’t rule it as a  possible addition or non-addition to our menu. With that said, if you know any kid-friendly kale recipes, I’d love to hear them.

Sean’s reaction to the kale chips: “These are disgusting. You should have made cookies.” I can’t say I disagree with the kid!

“Where did you get those sunglasses?” I inquired to Sean as I admired the snazzy black shades with silver hearts on the sides.

“I found them here. They came from the store,”  Sean responded sheepishly. I was confused. I never  bought sunglasses nor did I remember Sean asking for sunglasses.

Me: “Which store?”

Sean: “The one with the star on it.”

I still couldn’t figure out what he was talking about. Where did these sunglasses come from?  After asking a multitude of questions, my husband and I finally ended with, “Sean did you take these sunglasses from the store?”  I mean, after the whole conversation the only thing that made the most sense was that Sean must have shoplifted them. We didn’t buy them, he said they came from the store, and that he found them.

So we were faced with our first parenting (and hopefully only!) experience in shoplifting. I took Sean back to the store I figured shades came from. The manager and I walked to the sunglasses display… without prompting Sean pointed to an empty hook and said,  ”I found them right here.”

From there ensued one of my proudest parenting moments for Sean. He stood tall in front of me and looked that manager square in the eye. Clearly nervous and feeling terrible he said to her, “I am so sorry. I am so sorry I took the sunglasses from your store. I won’t ever do it  again.” The manager forgave him and asked if he learned his lesson. He nodded yes.

On the way home I told Sean I was proud of him for doing the right thing and reassured him that he was not going to jail. He was really worried about going to jail. I told him, however, if he ever stole again that I would take him to the jail to show him where shoplifters spend their time.

When the sun came up the next day I got a message from my friend asking if she had left her sunglasses at my house.

Dear reader, the only phrase that came to my mind in that moment was “oh shit.” All the confusion from the day before,  the vision of my little Peanut bravely confessing and apologizing to the store manager, the wave of proud parenting I was riding, came crashing down around me. I felt sick. I felt lower than I did when I thought my son shoplifted merchandise.

After describing what her sunglasses looked like, there was nothing left to do but admit I had made a terrible mistake and smother my son with hugs and apologies. Somehow I had made my son confess to something he didn’t do. My  husband said we bullied him, though I promise we never yelled at or threatened Sean in our information gathering stage. Sean’s demeanor and confusion all made sense to me… of course he found them–in our house. In his mind and experience the things in our house come from the store. Ugh.

Do you know what Sean said to me when I apologized to him for the 50,000th time? He held me by the shoulders and looked at me in the eye and said, “Mom. It’s okay. It’s really okay.”  I learned some very important things about Sean that day. He’s a people-pleaser. He knew his dad and I were upset and looking for something specific from him so he gave in. He followed through until we were happy. He’ll go to the extreme to make sure we are happy with him… our approval of him matters. He’s intuitive and forgiving. Sean is the best little boy a mom could have as a son. I am bursting with pride for him, and I’m all verklempt trying to even explain it to you.

I righted my wrong with Sean and I also made right my mistake with the store. I went back, on my own, to get my friend’s sunglasses back. The manager was glad I did because she couldn’t find any information about them!  Of course not, they weren’t from her store!

My father in law had heart surgery this morning. It wasn’t supposed to be until Wednesday, but his chest pains were getting more frequent and intense. Turns out he wouldn’t have made to Wednesday. He had two blocked arteries. One was 90% clogged and the other 99%. He now has two titanium stints living in his heart.

When you look at Bill, you’d never suspect he had heart disease or was even at risk for it. He is the healthiest 67 year old man I know. Bill does everything right… eats a healthy diet, exercises regularly, gets plenty of sleep, and leads a low-stress life. None of those things made him immune to heart disease, though. Genetics and childhood habits got the best of his heart.

This situation was a big wake-up call for my family over the last week. We lead a relatively healthy lifestyle, but there is definitely room for improvement. We are incredibly active and work out regularly, but if I am totally honest, we’ve become lackadaisical in some of our food choices. With two young kids in the house, it is so easy to take short-cuts for the sake of convenience, price, and happy little tummies. But what good is that doing our bodies in the long run? Not to mention, with genetics working against us on both my side of the family and my husband’s, we really shouldn’t be messing around. Andrew and I need to teach our kids healthy eating habits, adjust their palettes to healthy flavors, and help them develop a consistently healthy lifestyle so they can appreciate and live these healthy behaviors for themselves as they grow older.

As the domestic diva of our household, I’m transitioning our house into “clean eating.” This is a term I learned recently from my friend Shannon Miller who recently presented at my MOPS group. Clean eating is basically just eating that which comes naturally from the earth: fruits, veggies, whole grains, and lean meats. I won’t overhaul our entire diet. That’s too overwhelming. Instead, I’m making small changes to incorporate more fresh fruits and veggies, whole grains, and healthy fats. I’m taking our everyday diet and making it better. For example, we already eat whole wheat bread and whole wheat pasta, but we tend to eat jasmine rice (which is a white rice) and regular tortillas. We’ll just switch to brown jasmine rice and whole wheat tortillas.

We are pretty good fruit eaters in our house, but our veggie repertoire rotates between frozen peas, frozen green beans, and frozen broccoli. There is nothing wrong with steaming up some frozen greens, but I think more fresh, leafy greens and fresh colors like red and yellow bell peppers and carrots should add to the mix.

As far as healthy fats go, I am switching our fat free milk, yogurt, creamer, sour cream, etc. to regular and modifying the portions. Fat free options contain chemicals our bodies don’t recognize and store them as fat anyway, so I’d rather eat dairy with the natural fat our bodies can process. For butter, I’m not sure what I am going to do, but definitely more olive oil (a healthy, natural fat).

These are small changes I can easily make without hardly any effort. I just have to switch options, which means reaching a little further over on the shelf and a little deeper into the grocery budget. The changes are worth the extra expense, though, because they might prevent my kids from having a stint put in their heart in their 60′s. I know I can’t control what happens later in their lives, but why not control what I can? We won’t be perfect, and that’s okay, but we will be better.

Kudos to the writer who titled this article: Snookie’s Cleavage Dilemma.

1. I said Merry Christmas instead of happy holidays or have a good one or something else generic. I put away my fears of being politically incorrect and went straight for the big guns. Highlight: People replied Merry Christmas back to me and seemed genuinely happy when they said it .

2. On Christmas day I got to spend most of the day with my brother, Carl, and his family. We all live in the same town but never see each other. Weird. We should probably try to be better about that in 2012. Highlights: The time spent together, the laughter, and this picture of us together. 

3. Sean, my  five-year old son, got a pair of light-up Cars shoes from his Uncle Carl and Auntie Amber.  Sean had been working hard for nearly a month to save up for these shoes on his own. About three days before Christmas, he decided to give all his money (which had gotten down to about $8 because he decided to buy a yo-yo) to Africa instead “because they needed food”.  Highlights: Sean’s unprompted willingness to give his money, sacrifice what he wanted, and the look on his face when he opened up these:

4. A couple days after Christmas the UPS man came to my door at about 6pm with a box for my husband and me. It came from New York. We don’t know anyone in or from New York. There was no note inside the box, but there was another strange-shaped box. The second I opened it, I gasped in glee! It was a bottle of South African wine called Herding Cats. My grandfather (a guy I am not super close with but love dearly because he’s my grandpa) had talked about this wine with me at our family reunion back in Summer. He told me the story about this wine, we laughed about it and I was generally intrigued by this mysterious wine called “Herding Cats”. My grandpa had taken that 10 minute conversation to heart and searched for a couple of months to find this wine for me. Highlight: I felt (and still feel) very special that he remembered our conversation, took intentional effort to find the wine and send it to me.

5. My daughter, Haley (3 years old), took on a love for baking. We did a lot of baking together. Highlight: Spending time in the kitchen with my daughter and teaching her how to bake. I enjoyed her enthusiasm with each “dumping” of ingredients  into the bowls. She even learned how to use the hand-mixer.

6. Family time. There was a lot of family time spent together. I feel very lucky to have a wonderful family close enough to create memories:

This one is from Andrew’s childhood. I don’t know what it’s called and he doesn’t remember either. We do know it’s Swedish (Andrew’s heritage is Swedish and Welsh). The fun thing about “this thing” is  once you light the candles, the windmill at the top spins around . You can control the speed by adjusting the blades at the top “just so”. Of course if the mill blades aren’t at a particular angle it won’t spin at all!  The other peculiar thing about it is the only candles that fit are the emergency candles. Taper candles are too skinny and tall. About every other year or so I hunt for emergency candles. 

You can see why the kids love it.  When I unpack it, Sean and Haley take all the pieces over to Andrew because they know HE is the one who can show them how to set it up and make it work.  It’s “daddy’s” decoration. There is something very cool about that !

This one is from my childhood. It’s a hand-painted ceramic village. Over the course of several years my mom picked out the buildings and painted them, adding little bits of glitter snow on the roof tops and tree branches. Once the village was complete, the fun was in setting up the village every year with the snow and lights underneath. It takes a little thought because there are just enough bulbs for each building to have one light underneath it (and the tree you see in the back right corner).  There are eight bulbs on three different cords. Once you decide where you want each building to stand you have to make sure you’ve got the string of lights in the right spots. Needless to say, the town looks different each year!

The kids love unpacking each little building, talking about each one (post office, City Hall, bakery, etc.). Then they help decide where to place the buildings… they help build the town. Once we click on the lights to see what it looks like, they are gleefully happy about their work!

There is just something about seeing the joy on my kidlets’ faces when they see and interact with these heirlooms each Christmas that warms me to the core. I suppose it’s because I know they are enjoying them the same exact way we did as kids, and feeling the same wonderful excitement we did so long ago.  My love for these special decorations is renewed each year and I value the sentimentality of these quaint little heirlooms. I really hope to pass these on to my kiddos someday just as they were passed on to us. In the meantime, I honor the chance to experience “tradition” every Christmas with my kidlets when we unpack these special pieces. 

She stands in tired dismay surveying the dry, dusty land that once flourished with rich and lush crops… her family’s livelihood. The scorching sun heating the back of her neck serves as the burning reason why her family is starving. There’s nothing left here for her family except famine and death. She feels a gentle tug on her hand. Looking down, she stares into the dark eyes of her little boy, his tummy swollen from malnutrition. This is the moment she decides to join 500,000 others in fleeing this desolate and desperate situation…

There is a major crisis in the Horn of Africa—Somalia, Kenya, Ethiopia, and Uganda—  where over 13 million people are fighting for their lives, battling starvation, and desperately seeking help from overcrowded refugee camps. This area of the world is suffering from severe drought, and in simple math, no rain equals no crops, no livestock—no income, no food.

When we run out of food, many of us just make a list, grab our money and head the nearest grocery store. In these lands, that is simply not how it works. The logistics of getting food to starving families in these parts of the world is complicated. The people in this region of the world need high-nutrient foods packed with vitamins and protein to help restore and maintain health. Not only do they need immediate nutritional help, but they require long-term assistance in becoming self-sufficient again. They’ve lost everything; they are struggling to survive and need hope. Even as they reach refugee camps, they still face the horrors of life-threatening disease, illness and food shortages.

The International Disaster Response Network (IDRN) is launching a worldwide campaign on December 11, 2011to raise awareness and funds to support the Horn of Africa. The Africa Response campaign is a team of organizations from around the world including, the middle-East, Central and South America, and Southeast Asia, uniting together to provide food in the affected areas of Kenya, Somalia, and Ethiopia.[1] This team has already made a difference by creating an on-the-ground distribution network of volunteers who have delivered over 800,000 meals in these areas. IDRN volunteer teams purchase food supplies from local vendors to help support the area commerce and spark confidence in using local resources.[2]  In addition, teams of physicians have dispatched to refugee camps to treat disease and teach proper nutrition.

With a land so far away and the number of suffering people so overwhelming, what could you or I ever do to help—to make a difference? We can work together. There’s power in numbers.  We donate funds and spread the word for a call to action. I know it’s easier said than done, especially for a campaign that’s barely begun for an organization you may not know about. I get it. I challenge you to do your research. Pledge to gather the information. Here’s what I suggest. Start with the following steps:

1) Research IDRN:  Check out their website www.IDRN.info, read about what they are doing, what they have done, and their future goals and hopes for this region.

2) View this video from the campaign’s executive director, Mike McCausland. http://ow.ly/7GHNQ

3) Navigate the IDRN Facebook page: Log onto www.facebook.com/africaresponse and read the information, check the updates, and read the press release.  If you feel good about what you see, “LIKE” the page so you can stay updated.

4) Eavesdrop and join in the conversation on Twitter.  A lot of people are talking about #hornofafrica and talking to @AfricaResponse.  It’s a transparent campaign dedicated to helping the Horn of Africa. They value conversation and passionate action.

Start with these steps and subscribe to my blog. I will post updates and information here about the latest efforts. I truly believe we can make a difference together. We can help restore the lives of the people in the Horn of Africa.

This is the first post in my Horn of Africa Response blog series. It’s my honest and real effort to spread the word about a desperate crisis, encourage action, and inform/update you about a worldwide campaign from the International Disaster Response Network’s African Response. I support this organization 100% and its efforts to respond the distressed situation in Eastern Africa. I’m honored to do what I can for this active and compassionate network of countries who are coming together to help fellow nations.

Nothing. The drawer was empty. No socks. No underwear.

Why the dramatics?  Rewind to 10 minutes earlier where I encountered this scene (I’ll spare you the photograph): I found my husband in the laundry room wrapped in nothing but a towel, frantically opening the washer and dryer. “What are you looking for, Babe?” I asked him, trying to hide both my confusion and laughter.  ”Clean boxers.” Aw crap.

“Well, do you still have that backup pair in your sock drawer?” He did. And he begrudgingly wore them to work today with a hopeful promise from me that he would have a clean “good” pair to switch into when he came home for lunch.  Poor guy. (I’m sure he’ll be thrilled I’ve told the world about it too.) No one likes to wear the backup underwear. There’s a reason the backup lives in the deep, dark recesses of the sock drawer. It’s not even good enough to be among the good underwear in the underwear drawer.

Yes, two empty underwear drawers in 10 minutes. (For the record I put on my own last pair of clean socks this morning). Clearly I am waaaay behind on laundry which has never happened before. I usually keep a good healthy cycle of clean laundry available. Even if it’s not in drawers, people can usually depend on the washer, dryer, or the random laundry basket sitting in the hallway for clean threads.

Things around here are a little out of whack since I started my new business several weeks ago. With today’s underwear debacle I really feel bad that I might be failing miserably at balancing everything. Am I really failing? No. I just feel like I am. There’s pressure I’ve placed on myself to make sure everything is 100% balanced so I’m justified in taking on my business. It’s like I said to myself “Okay you can start a business as long as nothing in your household duties is affected.”  So two empty underwear drawers is a big deal to me. Not to mention the disaster in the living room from “Hurricane Kiddos” two days ago that I’ve neither cleaned nor required the kids to clean. We just carefully step around the mess.  I’m trying to keep things in perspective. Everyone is fed, everyone is relatively happy (Andrew’s bad underwear mood doesn’t count), everyone is where they are supposed to be. I’m even volunteering in my son’s class today (which is a big deal and for another post in the near future). So there. If empty underwear drawers and a messy living room are all I’m dealing with, then I’m probably doing okay.

Are you a trying to balance things in your life right now?  What do you do when you feel like things are out of whack? How do you keep perspective?  

Today, five and half years later, I am the proud owner and operator of Pen to Paper Communications!  Woo hoo!  Feels good!  It’ll feel even better once I have clients and start earning a living!  In the meantime, I’ve been experiencing a new branch of stay-at-home motherhood… work-at-home-motherhood! I’m learning how to balance the needs of my family/household with the needs of my  business. Since my business is just beginning, I have to invest a lot time in marketing, writing my website content, and researching to make sure I remain an expert in my field. Not to mention I need to network in order to get new clients! On the other hand, I still have to dedicate time to meal planning, grocery shopping, cooking, cleaning, laundering , chauffeuring as well as playing with my kids, organizing their extra curricular activities, and taking time for myself (notice how this one came at the end of the list!). Oh yeah. I have a husband too!  I can’t forget about nurturing my marriage!

Sharing mommy's desk!

So far I’ve been handling it well. It helps that Andrew, my husband, is 100% supportive of my new endeavor and has picked up some of the slack in the household chores. Second, my kids have shared in the excitement of mommy’s new adventure and seem to understand when mommy needs to work.  When they do need my attention, or just my presence, they happily join me in my office, which is now scattered with stickers, markers, and other random toys! At first I was a little miffed that my shiny new space was being invaded by “kid stuff”, but it didn’t take me long to realize that any kind of kiddo invasion is part of being a work-at-home mom.

It’s new territory for all of us and it will take some time to navigate what works and what doesn’t. I’ve really embraced the “flexible hours” of working from home. I find myself working in the early morning hours before my kids wake up and then again in the evening after the kids go to bed. Sometimes I find I can be really productive in the middle of the afternoon if  the kids are entertaining themselves (although I do a lot of “refereeing”  during this part of the day!). Sunday’s are definitely a “no work” day. In fact, Sunday’s are specifically dedicated to just the four of us!

It has only been a week since I officially launched Pen to Paper Communications, and it’s been a wonderful whirlwind. I know I’ll face new challenges as I take on clients and their projects, but I am confident that I’ll figure out the balance as I go!

As I was switching laundry, vacuuming under the couch cushions, and cleaning out the toy cupboards (an extra step in searching for my daughter’s lost toy) I kept hearing my son say, “Mom. I need paper plates. Like 100. For my animals,” and “My animals need food for when they wake up”  all while he was scampering back and forth to the pantry and up and down the stairs. In my state of half concentration I figured since he wasn’t asking for glue, tape, markers, scissors, knives, anything battery-operated, or anything electronic, I thought whatever project he had going on was probably benign. I mean not a whole lot of damage can happen with paper plates. Come on.  So I responded, “Okay. Just don’t open up all those granola bars and almonds. Pretend only.”  At least I set a boundary here even if I wasn’t in totally engaged.

I later moved my domestic business upstairs and was pleasantly surprised  to find…nothing. No animals, no plates, no unopened granola bars. That is until I walked into his room to put away his clean laundry. Here’s what I found:

Paper plates...

and

Food stash...hey look a fruit cup in the bottom right.

Not sure why these critters didn't get to go on the bed with their pals.

On the bright side, there is no damage.