Surging vs. Dwelling

I've been hiding. Hiding from holding myself accountable. To new goals. To endless lists. To my own health counselor. To my health counselor buddies who find me anyways.

Being a self-admitted over-achiever, this hiding out has been a welcome break from my usual approach of throwing my hand up and volunteering to be held accountable for whatever I am planning to be my next big giant goal.


In his blog post "What Consumers Do in a Downtown", Grant McCracken, an anthropologist affiliated with MIT, describes two modalities of consumer behavior. In a surging mentality, the world "teems with new features, new things, new opportunities, new excitement." In a dwelling mentality the consumer is focused not on the future but on the present, we "stop anticipating and start savoring."

So maybe I haven't been hiding so much as dwelling. But it has nothing to do with the economy.

Reality Check

Somewhere around May I got a wake up call that sent me running into my hide-out (aka my home) for a much needed breather and a long session of introspection that has focused largely on my role as a mom.

On Mother's Day week, my children's preschool held a tea for the Moms. My daughter's teacher created a project for the kids to list three things that their mom liked to do. The lists were decorated and posted on a wall and all of us Moms had to "find ourselves" on the wall.

I knew right away that I wasn't the mom who liked to: Eat Cheeseburgers and Swim Underwater. But when I started reading about the moms who liked to "read with me", "pick flowers with me", and "watch me ride my bike", I started getting a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach.

And then I saw it. A beautiful pink sheet covered in silk flowers that I recognized immediately:

My Mom Likes to:

Work

Drink Tea

Eat Granola

And there I was. I wanted to cry. No where on my four year old daughter's list was any mention of what I liked to do that involved her.

But she was amazingly accurate. Our lives had changed last year as I went to school and created a new career. And just when I was starting to feel that the transition was becoming too much for all of us, she felt it too.

In one swift moment, I knew our lives would need to change again. This was not the mom I intended to be. This was not the life I had meant for us to have.

So I have been hiding. At home. With my family. Hiding from all my lists of life goals and personal ambitions while I regroup as a woman and a mom.

It has been beautiful and painful all at once. And I am beginning to see how I am now ready to emerge into the next stage of my life with a new perspective on accountablity and self-care.

And a new vision for what my "unpredictable future" can be.

More soon on what that all means...

Halloween

Have you started wishing they'd invent a candy-free Halloween or are you already sneaking into the stash you've got on hand for trick or treaters?

Fortunately for me, we take our kids trick or treating in my brothers neighborhood so I can avoid buying the candy since we won't be home to hand it out. (This, I think, is kind of preferable to being the weird lady who hands out raisins or stickers- something I admit I've considered doing). But just because I am not buying the candy myself doesn't mean it isn't getting into my kids hands...

So what is Halloween like when your mom is a health counselor? Actually it is not as scary as you might think!

I have a Halloween strategy that we all can live with. Basically, I let the kids eat a bunch of stuff from their trick or treat baskets. They come home, we sit together and spread it out on the kitchen floor and they have at it. Interestingly, there is only so much candy you can eat in a half hour or so. Usually it is just enough to start to feel sick. And that, is kind of the point.

I look at it this way- this is a teaching moment. Seriously. Sure I would love it if my kids turned up their noses at most of the scary stuff that arrives home in those pumpkins but, to them it mostly seems like great fun. So they try it (and honestly a lot of it they don't like) and then they usually feel gross and we talk about why.

And then? We throw it all out. No arguments. That is just the rule. They have their fun and then it is over and we declare the following day a "vegetable day" (kind of kidding... but not really).

Of course, I can't seem too okay with this. The kids know I think it is a bad idea to eat this much candy and I throw in a few comments as we're rummaging through the goods like, "Oh, yuck, Mommy doesn't like this one, it has fake colors. That's like eating a magic marker."

In the end, Halloween fun is had by all and it's over before the witches go home. Next day- vegetables all day!

Happy Valentine's Day

What are you doing for Valentine's Day?

At our house it is a family event and we've decided to skip the chocolates and the store bought cards and go for something more personal.

We're cutting paper hearts and making a kid and adult friendly I Love You Dinner. Aside from Nick insisting on using glue with no help from Mom, so far the planning is going well.

So what is an I Love You Dinner? Well, for the moment, it means that everyone gets to pick one part of the dinner. We're saying "I love you" by cooking our favorite foods. So far (you won't even believe it) the kids have chosen Chicken and Broccoli. I don't know when Alexa is going to remember that cake exists but I am expecting it to come up when we start talking about dessert. Rod and I haven't decided on our choices yet but I am leaning towards Miso Soup.

I'll let you know how it goes.

Happy Heart Day to you and everyone you love. Oh, and don't forget, Dark Chocolate (70% and above) is actually good for you in small quantities. One of my favorites is Green and Black's 70% Dark. Green and Black's is committed to ethical trading and organic products. Check them out here.

Preschool Cooking Class- Hummus

Alexa and Caroline at the Small Scholars Cooking Class.

Miss Cathy's class of four and five year olds had a great time talking about whole foods and making hummus.

My kids love this as a dip for carrots or cucumbers or as a spread on whole wheat pita. We tend to double or triple the recipe and it keeps well in the fridge for up to two weeks. You can always add a bit of olive oil if it starts to get a little too thick.

Everybody Loves it Hummus

1 can organic garbanzo beans – rinsed and peeled
1 clove garlic
2 tbp fresh lemon juice (about ½ lemon)
3 tbsp tahini
½ tsp sea salt
Aprox ¼ cup water (add a little at a time to get the right consistency)
Aprox 2 tbsp really good tasting olive oil

· Throw this all in a food processor and mix until smooth or put it all in a bowl and mix it up with an immersion blender (just a little more effort but it works great).
· Adjust the amount of oil and water for texture and taste
· Optional add-ins: pepper, cumin, paprika (the kids tend to like it better without these)
· You can easily double or triple this recipe
· An easy way to peel the beans is to rinse them in a colander then put them in a bowl of water while you peel them. The skins tend to float to the top. You can just skip the annoying task of peeling the beans if you want to do this super fast but the texture is a lot smoother when they are peeled. Don’t worry about getting every single one if it is driving you crazy.

Extra bonus- making hummus at home saves money! Especially if you want to make it organic.

Let them dip!

Do you ever feel like you need to be a purist to really be healthy? This is a trait I'm working on eliminating from my personality because....it just never works out. Not for any length of time. It just isn't sustainable.


So I am trying to impart some of that newly gained wisdom to my kids at an early age. And vegetables come up a lot.

Most moms know that kids love to dip. So, if it takes a dip to make those veggies more enticing (for the kids or the adults)...go for it!

Lately we're dipping carrots, cucumbers and red peppers in Annie's Cowgirl Ranch Dressing. You can get product and nutrition info at http://www.anniesnaturals.com/

We're also enjoying Amy's Organic Salsa. http://www.amys.com/


Just be sure to look for the most natural ingredients you can and avoid things like high fructose corn syrup, partially hydrogenated oils, msg, and mystery ingredients you can't pronounce or don't understand.

A great way to make shopping for these kinds of things easier is to seek out brands (like Annie's and Amy's) which generally produce healthy, organic products (but still read those labels- just in case!).

Apple Picking

There are not too many things more fun than this. Why do kids love apple picking? Why do adults? There is something so much more delicious about the apples when you pick them yourselves.







We paid what seemed like a small fortune for a giant bag of Honeycrisps. I thought we'd never eat them all.

They were gone by the end of the week.

But we're still talking about apple picking.