Seven Quick Takes - 7/24/09

I have to learn how to put the doohickey on for the 7 quick takes that Jennifer at Et tu? has. But I'm plunging ahead with this post without doing that first! I haven't blogged all week. It has been busy!


1) After reading Real Food I was inspired to try to actually cook for my family this week! I also got the Nourishing Traditions cook book which was interesting but intimidating to read. What the heck is piima cream? I've never heard of it! Anyway, this week I made spaghetti, baked chicken, vichychoisse(!!!!) and today poached salmon. I even used fresh herbs that Rick brought home from a co-worker who was dealing with surplus from her garden. I also tried to make homemade oatmeal (instead of McCann's instant.) I thought it was wonderful because I guess I undercooked it and it was chewy. I've always liked the taste of oatmeal but I've never liked the texture which makes me gag. Too slimy and mushy. But no one else in the family likes their oatmeal chewy like I do. I'll cook it longer next time. I also tried to prepare and eat more veggies. The green beans I bought at the farmers market were bland, starchy and really stringy. But the tomatoes were to die for and the corn and the plums were out of this world! That's another thing that was different, instead of going to Harris Teeter this week, I went to the local Farmer's Market and Trader Joe's. I got a huge thing of blueberries and instead of letting them go bad in the fridge, I remembered to get them out and serve them with many meals, breakfast, in salads, as snack, so we actually went through two pounds of blueberries this week. We also used homemade butter from the farmer's market and fresh eggs too. So it was a pretty good week for cooking. Alas, because Sean and Becky are in music camp, I stocked up on bagged pretzels, goldfish and chips ahoy to stick in their lunches and everybody has been filling up on those things. Ick. I really want to get rid of white sugar and white flour from our diet.


2.)Sean has been having a rough time at music camp. He loved it the past two summers but he seems to be in with a bad bunch of kids his age. They won't eat lunch with him. He is going through a very self-conscious stage and he is not handling this well. He also really doesn't like the cello. I think this is the first instrument that didn't come easily to him. He says he doesn't like his teacher either. So Thursday I let him stay home. I told him he didn't have to go back. He'd stuck it out for 1/2 the camp period (1.5 weeks; the total camp is 3 weeks) but he decided on his own he'd take Thursday off and then go back. He didn't seem happy about the kids but he did, for the first time enjoy cello! He even showed me what he'd learned when he got home!


3) Becky has been having a great week at music camp. She is Miss social butterfly and can get along with a wall! You don't have to talk back to her, she'll supply the conversation! She's also gone over to her friend, Esther's 3 times this week. Josh is going over too. He wanted to learn woodworking and Esther's Mom is an artist who was just getting ready to custom build a bench for her new screen porch, but she'd hurt her shoulder so she said she'd teach Josh if he would be her helper. Deal! A bonus is that she also is a potter and is teaching Josh how to work the pottery wheel, which, it turns out, he loves! So they've both had fun this week.


4) Hannah was very sad that she didn't get a letter from her boyfriend, who is at Marine boot camp in San Diego. She's been getting one every Thursday. She hasn't written him either in a week and half, three months gets to be a long time two months into it! She's going with his parents out to San Diego to see him graduate 8/21 (I think that's the date). I've been reading a diary of a Marine Corp recruit and I feel I've been a bit immersed in it. It certainly is grueling and brutal. But I do admire the discipline. I think I even dreamed about it last night. And I can't get all the foul language in the book out of my head. I haven't read that much nasty language in maybe 25 years. I usually just don't read books that use language like that. Ick.


5) Will seemed a bit lost this week. Staying up extremely late (into the wee hours of the morning) then sleeping late, then kind of wandering around aimlessly. He isn't even practicing music like he used to, though he is still doing some. And he seems blue. I feel terrible because I'm impatient with him and keep nagging him about his Driver's ed study.


6) In an attempt to light a fire under my teens, in terms of learning, I got the Teaching Co. lecture series "How to be a Superstar Student." I thought they were going to revolt when I told them I was going to insist they at least watch some of it with me. I have to say I heard some grumbles at first. But Hannah at least seemed to warm to it for the second lecture. I think because the teacher was talking about preparing for study at the college level.


7) Rick and I went to see Carmina Burana at Wolftrap last night. It was incredible! I had only heard bits and pieces of it and Rick didn't know what it was but we were both amazed by it. During the performance there was a terrific thunderstorm. I felt terrible for the people on the lawn and very glad that Rick bought tickets for inside the actual pavillion! We came home and looked Carmina Burana up on google, only to find it was big with the Nazis and the Carl Orff the composer was probably a Nazi sympathizer. Hmmm, sometimes ignorance is bliss. I wish I didn't know that now. I feel guilty enjoying the work so much!

(Note: I wrote this on Friday, but I have developed a habit of writing up blog posts and then forgetting to publish them. It's like I really only need to write out my thoughts but don't need to actually publish them!)