Thanks, Mom… I get it now

I’ve always known my Mom loves me, never had a doubt about it. How much my Mom loves me, however, I don’t think I could truly grasp until having children of my own.  Nor did I fully appreciate all her efforts, enthusiasm, and exhaustion over the years until having kids myself (and I’m sure this appreciation will deepen even further once our kids are teens).

Tomorrow is my dear Mother’s birthday and it’s hard to know where to start when expressing my love, gratitude, and admiration of her. As a grandmother, she is generous, playful, involved, positive, affectionate and supportive. As a mother, she was (and still is) downright incredible.

Yes, that is a dove on her head... on vacation in California, my brother decided to put birdseed on her head.  Naturally, Mom thought this was hilarious and loved that the moment was captured on film.

My parents raised me and my brother in remote Glacier Bay, Alaska, until we were 7 and 10 respectively. When I say remote Alaska, I’m talking inside-the-boundaries-of-an-isolated-National-Park-remote and so many of the parenting “tricks” I use now to get a little break here and there simply weren’t available to her. She couldn’t swap play dates with friends (no other kids in the area), she couldn’t let us watch PBS Kids or pop in a DVD to keep us busy while she made dinner (no television), she couldn’t ask a family member or neighbor to watch us for a bit (family was on the east coast and we had no neighbors), it wasn’t easy to send us out to play on our own (black bears roamed through our back yard pretty regularly, not to mention the weather which was rainy or snowing about 10 months of the year) and she couldn’t even take us to the local library or a store for a change of scenery (no library and absolutely no stores—she actually had to order our groceries by boat—can you imagine?!) As I list these things, I realize I’m making the lack of so many things sound like a problem but it was quite the opposite. Living there and growing up there was absolutely ideal, it just took an extremely creative Mother to make it that way.

Smoked salmon, pine needles, cedar bark, sticky alder, and homemade bread are the smells of my childhood. Black bears, endless forest, snow-capped mountaintops, eagles, massive glaciers, enormous blue ice bergs carrying baby seals, and pods of Orca whales are the images I recall. Walking in beach grass taller than me, picking beach strawberries, salmon berries and wild blueberries, hearing the unmistakable sound of humpback whales’ exhalations, and witnessing the incredible sight and sound of a calving glacier are among my memories. Lucky:  that’s what I consider myself, very lucky and immensely grateful.

My “luck” continues to this day. I know I will never have to worry if my Mother is bored or lonely or somehow not thriving. She is enthusiastic and full of life like no other. She is an avid painter and potter successful in local galleries on the Olympic Peninsula (visit http://claythingsplus.blogspot.com  to see what she is currently working on—yes, my 76 year old mother is also a tech-savvy blogger!) and her work is remarkable. I could go on and on… and another day, I probably will.

Happy Birthday, Mom. I love you so much. Thank you for everything.

Mom and me on a recent trip to the beach. No birdseed in the hair but plenty of sand.

New Smoothie?

“Let’s use these peas to make a smoothie, Mama!”  Ten snap peas, twelve strawberries, and one piece of sorrel later, his smoothie was too thick so he decided to add orange juice… then it wasn’t green enough (bless him!) so he wanted another piece of sorrel and a mound of kale and “oh yeah, one of those turnips too!”  How could I say no?

They didn’t drink it all but thanks to William’s salesmanship and delight with his creation, he and Sara gulped down a few healthy swigs before realizing it was not as tasty as predicted. Still, it was a lovely start to our Saturday…

This Moment

A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. Hosted by SouleMama.

Greens Galore

Guilt overwhelmeth me when we don’t use everything from our CSA bounty each week. OK, I don’t feel very bad about not using all the radishes this week (we are all radished-out around here) but to let beautiful fronds of kale and chard go bad is simply unacceptable. Enter, Moosewood Restaurant Simple Suppers: Fresh Ideas for the Weeknight Table and their recipe for Wilted Spinach Salad with Pecans and Asiago (with several substitutions). Mmmmm, green goodness.

Wilted Spinach Salad with Pecans and Asiago
10 oz Spinach (approx 10 cups loosely packed—I used a mix of Chard & Kale
1 TBSP Olive Oil
2 Garlic Cloves
¼ C Raisins or Currants (I used Raisins)
1 C Toasted Pecans (I used Pine Nuts—Walnuts would also be good)
½ C Finely Grated Asiago or Parmesan Cheese (a generous sprinkle of nutritional yeast makes this vegan)
Salt & Pepper (Red Pepper Flakes also taste great if you like spice)
Lemon Wedges

Rinse and drain the greens. Heat the oil in a skillet or saucepan and cook the garlic for a few seconds, until sizzling. Add as many greens as the pan will hold and cook, stirring often. As it wilts, keep adding more greens until they are all in the pan. Cook until just wilted but still bright green.

Place greens in a serving bowl or on individual plates and top with raisins, pecans, and grated cheese or nutritional yeast. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Serve with lemon wedges

Oh the Places We Will Go

“Tell me, what is it you plan to do
With your one wild and precious life?”
~Mary Oliver, The Summer Day

A warm sunny morning play date scheduled at a woodsy park detours into a wonderful windswept beach excursion…  sandy beach trip leads to delicious ice cream cones, ice cream near toy store reminds us to pick up gifts for four upcoming birthdays. Toy store next to consignment shop results in fabulous new (used) coffee table for our family room.

On a different chilly, rainy morning we meet friends at a farm park but quickly decide it is too stormy so we swing over to a nearby art fair, so-called fair is a flop but lunch out with friends is delightful… sun breaks through the clouds and we end up spending a sunny afternoon with friends at another park.

Ah, summertime. Letting our days unfold, going with the flow, playing it by ear, and generally enjoying our lack of rigid scheduling. Our moods guide us, the weather encourages one direction or another and we end up wherever we end up...

Teachable Travel

All travel promotes learning one way or another but we make a real effort to choose destinations that offer experiences aligned with our values.  We just returned from our second annual 4^th of July Family Getaway Weekend at the North Cascades Institute and it was absolutely wonderful. It’s hard to believe that such a remarkable all-inclusive destination exists at the edge of rugged mountain wilderness, on the shores of glistening green Lake Diablo with dramatic snowcapped mountains all around. Lucky for us, it does exist and not only is it kid-friendly, for several weekends a year they offer programs designed specifically for families!

The fun started on Friday morning at 10am. Yes, it was a little tricky to get packed up and ready to hit the road so early (it takes about two and a half hours to drive there from our house—we wanted to be out the door by 7am but it ended up being closer to 8…oh well) but well worth the effort to have the whole day to spend on vacation in a forested wonderland. Plus, it makes the trip an even better value with lunch included on that first day.  We played a few “ice-breaker” games to get to know the other families and were thrilled to see that there were a lot of kids around the same age as ours. After a hearty, healthy, veg-friendly lunch sign-up sheets were posted for families to choose their desired activities. We picked something called “Ecosystem Exploration” and also signed up for the Ranger-led Junior Ranger Exploration to earn yet another badge (apparently they let kids earn as many as they want from each park and let me tell you, William wears those badges with pride and wants as many as he can get)! Additional activities (various group hikes, free play in the art room, games, and story time to name a few) were offered that didn’t require signing up but plenty of time is also left open for family time, walks, relaxation, or whatever you choose.

Accommodations are Spartan with only two sets of bunk beds, a couple chairs and a small desk in each room but they are clean and well maintained. Pillows and a fitted sheet are provided but other than that, you bring your own bedding. The plain rooms aren’t a problem for us since we didn’t spend much time in the room but the thin walls with no sound-proofing were wearisome.  The family staying in the room next to ours arrived after 10pm and had two kids to get settled down…noisy…and I’m sure we were too noisy for them the following morning. Oh well, I guess it goes with the territory if you sign up for a family weekend…  and all the activities had our kids so worn out that they weren’t easily woken during the night.  Bathrooms are down the hall but that worked out well so I could shower and get dressed without waking the kids up in the morning.

It didn’t even take 24 hours for William to start insisting on hanging out with his new friends, totally in his element. Sara tends to be more reserved but she loved the beach and participated in a lot of the cooperative games (balls and hula hoops are left out in a common area for kids to play with).

The first night we took a walk down to Diablo Dam then on the second night the next we enjoyed a campfire complete with fun songs, Native stories, a silly skit, and smores (Sara’s turn to totally be in her element).  It was especially hard for William to say goodbye to his new BFFs but after the Ranger Exploration, Badge presentation, and a lovely slideshow of moments from the weekend, we took one last walk to the dining hall then headed out. We will be back!

This Moment

A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment to pause, savor and remember.  Hosted by SouleMama.

Photo by Daddy