Sushi Night!

Thanks to my friend Laura, plus two assistants who actually knew what they were doing (unlike self), last Friday the "Sail to Japan" class I teach in our homeschool co-op knocked their own socks off making sushi for lunch. Even the girls who refused to eat a bite -- and the girls whose sushi consisted of nori and just plain rice -- all took a turn to roll up some creative combinations.

Inspired by a) the fun, b) my newfound skill, and c) all my leftover ingredients, I decided we'd try it at home on Saturday night. We used these directions for making the sushi rice. (I bought the Calrose rice at an Oriental Market, mostly to give my kids an educational experience and let them feel like a minority once in a while, but I think you can find it elsewhere.) It's vastly preferable to cook your rice a few hours (or a night) ahead of time so it's at room temp when the magic hour of family enchantment arrives.

For fillings, we offered dishes of cucumber and blanched carrots sliced lengthwise, imitation crabmeat, plain omelet, avocado, and smoked salmon. You can find oodles of other ideas online or by checking out the premade sushi at the market. These toppings offered a good variety for our crew, however.

(As usual, neighbor kids were over, and this one wanted to try her hand at sushi chef-dom.)

We wrapped all our sushi in sheets of nori (seaweed), which is easy to find at virtually any market (in our case, Central Market). The rolling mats are quite cheap -- I think I paid about $2.00 for one.

For specific, step-by-step instructions, check out this site, which walks you through it with cute pictures.

Oh, one more thing. When we did this at co-op, Elsie (remember her, the genius?) brought some sweet soybean wrappers into which the girls could stuff sticky rice. We found that the sushi-shy among them were more likely to eat the plain, sweet pockets they made with the soybean wrappers. Something to think about when you're grabbing things off the shelf in the Asian section at the store.

Now, can someone just tell me how to say "Bon Appétit" in Japanese?


[Steady Mom 30-Minute Blog Challenge]

O Rock, You Enchant Us

We got the total beauty package on Saturday. Not a facial, massage, and pedicure, mind you -- although goodness knows my feet would have appreciated it --- but a complete feast for the senses courtesy of the Creator. 

The drive through the Hill Country to Enchanted Rock is currently a riotous celebration of spring color, with wildflowers of every hue carpeting the borders of the highway. With every mile, you become convinced there can be no prettier place on the planet at this particular moment in time. 

(Then you high-five yourself for bringing along your cell phone instead of a REAL camera.)

Things You'll Need Upon Arriving at The Rock:

1. Drinks, snacks. To nosh, perchance to picnic ...

2. Comfortable walking shoes

3. Sunscreen (The top part of the Rock is completely exposed, though delightfully breezy)

4. Thick skin to deflect whining from the wee-est one. (The middle one, who used to whine with the Big Boys during anything resembling a hike, scrambled to the top like an ibex.)

5. A sense of wonder. Surveying the panoramic view at the top, where the few visible smidges of civilization look so tiny, it's easy to think life is as simple as it will ever be. 

6. A promise of ice cream in nearby Fredericksburg for motivation. See #4.

For inspiration for getting outdoors with your family, see this post at Adventure in Progress. Then look around, note the lack of knee-deep snow in your environs, and get out there! 

An Island; A Book

The children were particularly fractious this morning. To be specific, there were three girl-tantrums at our house, all before breakfast. (I know, this never happens at your house.)

I went here in my mind:

(Photo by Laszlo-Photo)

It was lovely, really. Nothing but the sound of silence. 

Then I returned to our humble kitchen, where the Professor and I swore the following blood oath: From now on, these children will be fed breakfast and have their blood sugar stabilized within thirty minutes of their eyelids opening. 

Now, what to feed them for breakfast is an increasingly complex question. I'd say we're officially stuck in a breakfast rut, but that oversimplifies the issue, as we're stuck in a few different breakfast ruts based on a few different eating preferences. Of course. 

This is why I laugh ruefully and maybe almost want to weep when I read The Seven Silly Eatersto my girls. They want to hear it over and over and over. But I think their reasons have more to do with how the family solves their truly nightmarish food issues with PINK CAKE. 

But don't let me spoil it for you. This book is meant to be savored.

P.S. Readers, I have heard you loud and clear:  I should not wear flip-flops while riding my bike! Got it! (So I shouldn't tell you about riding my bike barefoot around Fire Island as a kid, toting home the groceries for my grandmother?  No?) Duly busted.

And the cell phone was for checking directions on my GPS. I just knew someone would notice that. 

The Von Trapp Family Bikers

When I was a young 'un, my parents would occasionally (a word which here means, "too frequently for the liking of us kids") round all of us up for a family bike ride.

We'd sigh and roll our eyes dramatically as we cruised along, drily christening ourselves the Von Trapp Family Bikers. As in the Sound of Music. Keep in mind that we were only two kids and a few bedroom drapes shy of the full caboodle.

We were convinced that we had the only family in town whose idea of a fun Sunday afternoon involved falling into a line of two-wheelers. Actually, if memory of my hometown serves me correctly, purely anecdotal research supports this theory, as every other family was at home on the couch watching Melrose Place and Beverly Hills, 90210.

So guess who's singing Do-Re-Mi out the other side of her mouth now?

Fact 1: For the past four and a half years, our family has owned one car.

Fact 2: We care about not polluting this here planet of ours more than really necessary.

Fact 3: We are mean parents who demand that our children get exercise and sunshine on a spring weekend.

Fact 4: We are the proud owners of not only a bike trailer ....

... but also a Novara Afterburner.

Just let me coo for a minute about our Novara Afterburner. I can fold it up and stick it in the back of that one car (okay, minivan) we own. Twice a week, I tote it to the kids' taekwondo dojang, where the Professor affixes it to the back of his own bike and uses it to bring our eldest home from his lesson in most kinds of weather. Just seeing him cruise along with a pedaling papoose on the back bring smiles from drivers and especially from fellow bikers. And remember, we live in Lance-ville. There are bikers a'plenty, and a nine year old needs to feel part of the pack sometimes.

I rode it with Lizey on the Funky Chicken  Coop Tour on Saturday. I'm pretty sure we looked kind of adorable.

The Professor pulled Caroline in the trailer. Ian rode his own bike.

Now, if I could just get them to harmonize, as we whiz past, about tea with jam and bread. Or maybe more appropriately, "So -- a large bike pulling an appendage ..."

Doin' The Funky Chicken!

Our very full weekend seemed to have a chicken focus to it. And I'm not talking about the menu.

We warmed up by showing off our own fowl flock.

(Pictured at right is Jachin, whom I've known since we were toddlers, and who was visiting from California with his lovely wife Jessica. We had to break him in to the ways of the Ranch.)

Then we saddled up and took off for the Funky Chicken Coop Tour. It's like a Parade of Homes -- except instead of well-heeled guests ogling antiques and designer rooms, think families in REI footwear wandering through fifteen back yards and admiring an eclectic horde of chicken coops.

We saw a couple coops that looked much like ours ... and some that were like ours in the way that a white house is like The White House.

One coop hosted hens who were EIGHT YEARS OLD. Madelyn, forgive me for deeming you geriatric!

Another yard offered its hens a lovely, shaded bamboo grove in which to wander. They probably wondered why all the poor humans were sweating in the sunshine.

I saw a bunch of people I know, including Jimmy and Sarah, who ghost-write their toddler's hilarious blog. Check it out.

We saw baby chicks.

 Guess what we have our house now, hanging out under the heat lamp?

Meet Twilight and Peeper!

We polished off the weekend by lunching with some friends who live in a particularly affluent (read: not known for urban farming) area of town. Their next door neighbors joined us, and within five minutes, we'd connected over our joint chicken husbandry. It's a weird but instantaneous bond, this chicken owning thing.

One might even call it funky. 

No foolin'. Well, okay. Foolin'.

Did you pull off any April Fool's jokes, my friends? Are you crackling with creative energy in that department or, like me, have you managed to somehow keep your kids in blissful ignorance about their duty to spice things up on this important Day of Days?

My fellow Americans, it turns out, are much more inspired. 

-Our friend Quinn posted the following anecdote on Facebook this afternoon in response to my query: 

"Yep got Melibea [his wife] good. Sent her a text saying I was on my way to get Luke [their five year old] at school, told her he got in a fight and was in the office! LOL she went crazy, and I let her go for about 3-4 min. LOL she started all talking about parenting styles--it was GREAT!"

(I'm guessing Quinn's Fun Cup is excessively large. I hope his sofa is also large because I imagine that's where he'll be sleeping tonight.)

-NPR did their annual spoof, and I just happened to catch it in the Mom Taxi this afternoon. For a good chuckle (remember, they say NOTHING on air about it being a joke), find the written and spoken versions here. 

- My friend Amy texted her husband announcing her pregnancy. Six heart attacks later, he found he'd been April Fooled. 

- A well-respected mom wrought panic, then chuckles, on a classical homeschooling email loop I'm on by sending this out this morning: 

Friends,

I'm sure you were as disturbed as I was this morning to read about the 

statement from the authors of The Well-Trained Mind, Susan Wise Bauer 

and Jessie Wise. The have apparently renounced the classical approach 

outlined in their writings and are, in support of the President's "Race 

to the Top" political agenda, now supporting a moderate/progressive 

public school model for education that advances "21st-century" 

technological tools and ideas in place of the historical and classical 

emphasis of TWTM.

This seems like such a betrayal, I don't know what to say. I for one 

will carry on with the ideals of TWTM, even if others abandon them for 

political favor.

You can read the gory details at http://tinyurl.com/395w9a.

With sadness, but resolve,

S.

You funny, funny people. Note to self: next year, you old stick-in-the-mud, start gathering ideas on March 31st.

The Quality World

An friend asked via email that I share more about the "Creating an Effective Family" course I'm taking. One exercise we've done in class is to brainstorm some components of our "quality world," or, in layman's terms, Things We Like to Have in Our Lives.

Here's mine, in no particular order. (Disclaimer: we did this in two minutes, so if you don't see yourself on here, you are hereby barred from taking offense.)

A clean house
Reading
Laughter
Blogging (and hearing from readers)
My husband
Sunshine
Giving
Scrapbooking
Time with the Lord
Friends
Walks on the beach
My siblings
Yummy, healthy food
Secure relationships
Spring and fall
Extra money
Funny podcasts
Service
LOST
Dark chocolate
Connecting time with the kids
Travel

As I said, no particular order.

The next week, we revisited our lists and decided which of the four needs (other than Safety/Survival) was met by each of these items. Some of them met just one -- but that didn't minimize their importance. Conversely, some met three or even all four but play a minor role in the big picture. For example, time with the Lord met my love and belonging need, albeit in a deep way. Although it may sound silly, LOST actually met all four, although obviously on a more superficial level. Here's how:

Love and Belonging: This is a connection that the Professor and I share. We inhabit separate worlds all day long, but watching and discussing the show once a week (or more often, when we were catching up), is part of our conscious effort to find common ground. Also, I have other people in my life -- my brother Paul, for example -- who share the interest and don't seem to mind texting about it.

Power/Competence: Although much of the time the complexity of the show leaves me baffled, I enjoy the challenge of trying to figure things out and develop theories about how the pieces fit together. It's a bit like solving a doozy of a crossword puzzle or discussing a masterfully crafted novel. When, once in a blue moon, one of my theories proves to be correct -- well, you don't want to be in the same room with me, 'cause there just ain't room for much else but my head.

Freedom: I'm in the parenting realm all day long. LOST happens after the kids are  tucked away in bed. Q.E.D.

Fun: Well. This is probably self-explanatory.

The point is that we need "things" (broadly defined) in our lives that address each of our fundamental needs -- particularly the needs we've decided are most important to us. The other side of the coin, of course, is to consider the people around us and to ask ourselves how we're filling their cups.

Since knowing what makes up their Quality World is a huge part of understanding what makes them tick and why, the next step is to sit down and do this with my kids. I sense a Family Meeting coming on. Better stock up on that frozen dairy substance that's surely on all three of their lists. I think it fills the fun cup, although they might argue it's all about Survival.