Love

I have a conundrum that I have been trying to figure out for years.....people say that they just fall out of love, but here is the thing I have been thinking....when we fall in love with someone, what we really fall in love with is all of the good things about them....the best them, and the best of ourselves, but no one is ever their best all the time. So when we say we fell out of love, what we really mean, is that we lost our faith.  Maybe the best them got so hidden behind their faults or caught up in our own faults, or bad times, or bad fights that you couldn't see it anymore, and one day you just stopped believing that the best existed. 

When do you say that?  When do you say, I have lost my faith, and just walk away?

Founding Fathers

Is the spirit of the people an infallible, a permanent reliance? Is it government? Is this the kind of protection we receive in return for the rights we give up? Besides, the spirit of the times may alter, will alter. Our rulers will become corrupt, our people careless. A single zealot may commence prosecutor, and better men be his victims. It can never be too often repeated, that the time for fixing every essential right on a legal basis is while our rulers are honest, and ourselves united. From the conclusion of this war we shall be going down hill. It will not then be necessary to resort every moment to the people for support. They will be forgotten, therefore, and their rights disregarded. They will forget themselves, but in the sole faculty of making money, and will never think of uniting to effect a due respect for their rights. The shackles, therefore, which will not be knocked off at the conclusion of this war, will remain on us long, will be made heavier and heavier, till our rights shall revive or expire in a convulsion.

- Thomas Jefferson

Was he prescient, or just very wise?  I get so sick of hearing about the founders of our country...what they believed, thought....used as an excuse for all sorts of atrocities and ignorance.  They were prolific writers, you just have to read it.

Daily Lunch Box

Sharp Cheddar with mustard on whole wheat bread
Veggie Bootie
Cherry Tomatoes
Pickle from The Pickle Guys

Okay, not my best effort.  We had a long weekend over here at Casa Brooklyn: great, fun, but long.  My sister and I threw a huge KY Derby Party on Saturday (we are from Louisville, home of Churchill Downs, and have the party every year)  I spent a lot of last week cleaning house and finishing up some projects around the place (pics of the house in coming days....) I was so inspired by the cleaning up that I decided to have a stoop sale on Sunday....perhaps over estimating my energy, but I made $17 (totally worth the like 20 trips up and down our 3 flights of stairs!) and got rid of some stuff.  Anyway, long story short (don't really know why I say that, it's a long story longer, LOL) both B and I overslept a bit this morning and were just rushing (or I was rushing, and trying to get my 3 year old to rush, an iffey endeavor at best) to get out the door.  Got down the stairs and realized I had not only forgotten to bring his lunch, I had actually forgotten to make it! So this was a throw together, mostly leftovers from the party.  He didn't eat the tomatoes.

More wierd things I have seen

What is that you say? Under the bushes, outside of the McDonald's?

Ahh, its a sculpey fry. Oh and they glued it to the ground. Awesome.

Daily Lunch Box

Some sort of mushroom focaccia from the farmer's market, I added some marinara sauce
String Cheese
Grapes
Peas

The night before we ate some of this bread to see if B would like it, of course he gobbled it up, but the next day his lunch came back, all the sauce licked off but the bread intact. Sigh.

Spring is here!

Spring has sprung! Everything is full of color, and life seems good. BB can hardly hold still, the only time he seems to stop is when he is asleep. I love this time of year, even the rain feels good.

Daily Lunch Box

Hummus--this is Sabra brand
7 grain wheat crackers from Kashi
Sliced Cucumber
Baby Carrots

This came back with what appears to be about 1 bite of the hummus, 1 carrot, and most of the crackers gone....I don't always understand what he eats out of his lunch. Most days I try to send things that I know he loves, like he loves this hummus, but it doesn't seem to matter...hmmmmmmmm.....how can I get him to actually eat these things. Admittedly I am sending him with more than he usually eats, and extra choices...maybe I should send him with just the right amount?

Daily Lunch Box

Cheddar Cheese on whole grain bread with mustard
Veggie Booty (Baby Boy's version of Cheetos, I swear these are like crack to him, he can gobble a whole bag)
Strawberries
Carrots

Obviously the strawberries are not in season in the US, however B begged for them at the grocery. The baby carrots are just from the grocer as well. I should say, though I buy a lot of our produce at the local green market, I keep on hand frozen peas, baby carrots, and broccoli at all times. They are go-to veggies when B won't eat anything else.

Faux-bois scrap paper

I like how this present came out. I keep scraps of paper with interesting patterns, this one was from a flower boquet and the red ribbon is a re-use from a gift I received.

Peeling the Onion

I love it when I see all of the layers that have been applied to buildings being peeled back to reveal their original selves. I especially like it when I find 100 year old buildings in this neighborhood being freed of their vinyl siding.

Daily Lunch Box

I really enjoy making my son's lunch. I feel like feeding him is literally one of the most important things I provide him. I pay attention to what he eats, where the food comes from, and what's in it. I am not above using boxed food (cous-cous and Annie's mac and cheese are faves in our house) and I'm definitely not perfect, but I try to keep it seasonal and local when it comes to produce, I try to give him balanced choices, full of whole-grains and veggies. Sometimes I have to be a little sneaky about it, like adding arugula to pasta sauce, and sometimes I discover things he loves (asparagus) that I wouldn't have expected him to like. He is a picky eater and I don't ever force him to eat anything he doesn't like, but I make him try everything before he decides he doesn't like it. By preparing his food from mostly fresh ingredients I can control what sustains him rather than a big conglomerate teaching him to like high-fructose corn syrup and re-configured chicken nuggets. I hope that he grow up to be strong and healthy, but also to appreciate food, the farmers who grow it and raise it and most importantly that it does matter what he puts into his body. I've started recording his daily lunches, hell, I'm proud of them, and I thought I would post them here.
Pearled cous-cous with basil. I added peas, dried cranberries, and Parmesan cheese.
Cucumber slices
Baby Carrots
Fruit leather

I feel like this is a little lacking in protein, at home when I make the cous-cous I add almonds, but his school is nut-free.

Spiderman at a Princess Party

This was the scene at the birthday party we went to this weekend. For a long while B was the only boy there. It was a Prince and Princess party, but B wanted to be Spiderman. He says that Spiderman rescues the Princes and Princesses. Who am to argue with such logic.

There was a dance class involved, and he joined briefly, but then when all the little girls started running in a circle with floaty arms, he just stopped and looked around, the expression on his face bewildered. I snuck over to him to ask what was up and he wanted out, so he came and sat with me and we had pizza while the little girls all floated.

What to do over a rainy weekend

Clean off your fridge. Obsessively line up every single word from your word magnets, categorized by word length. Create a magnetic movable alphabet, which your son quickly tires of.

Bauhaus - ha ha ha!

So I am obsessed with the new blog Unhappy Hipsters, which takes photos, mostly from Dwell, and attaches some hilarious copy. Last week this picture appeared:

with the following caption, "Daddy was making them watch yet another documentary on the impact of Bauhaus on American architecture."
This made me laugh aloud for many reasons beyond that it was just funny, not the least of which my Dad was a big documentary/NOVA/politics watcher and forced us to sit through many things, like the presidential debates between Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan in 1980 (I was 6) or cooler things like the time he woke us up in 1981
a few minutes before MTV debuted at midnight with Video Killed the Radio Star. I recently actually dragged my 3 year old son to the MOMA with me to see the Bauhaus retrospective.
Anyway,why this made me laugh is not really the point. What is my point, well humor. My BB has lately been trying to figure out humor, and so when I laughed aloud he stopped what he was doing and ran over and demanded to see what had made me laugh. I showed him the picture and read him the caption, and he laughed hysterically and said "Bauhaus" followed by more hysterical laughter. So now all I have to do is say the word "Bauhaus" and he cracks up.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Last week I went to B's school to decorate valentine's "mailboxes" with the kids. It was a lot of fun...I forgot how much fun stickers can be! It was the first time in a while I had so much fun with Valentine's Day that I forgot to cynically comment on this "Hallmark" Holiday. Really what are we celebrating? What about vicious massacre says "I love you"? Well there, I guess I couldn't let it pass completely without comment...

What we had for lunch - adding some green

B pretty much refuses to eat anything green other than broccoli or peas. I have been forced to become a little sneaky and do things like this. Sautee a little arugula, add jarred marinara sauce (Newman's Own Marinara, in this case) heat and puree. Served on a snowy afternoon with pasta, peas, and some grated cheddar.

Baby Boy says something cute

Baby Boy watched an X-men cartoon yesterday with his Dad (we were snowed in along with the rest of the North East!) which has led to a new game. Jumping around on the couch and setting things on pretend fire by shooting pretend fireballs out of his hands. He says "SHHHHHHHHOOOOOO! Your Fired!"

Vintage How-To - Playhouse

This project is from a Better Homes and Garden Book from 1977, Outdoor Projects You Can Build. I actually have a huge collection of vintage design books and how to books that I often reference for work. I thought this would also make a great bunk bed project, sort of like the Kid's Room from Studiomama that made the blog rounds last year.



On another note, more of my tech illiteracy, I need to figure out how to increase the quality of my scans.

Cool Idea

I love this idea via the kitchn! I also have one of those oven handles that sits very close to the oven door, so little room to slip my towel behind it. This is a project simple enough that even I can finish it in one go.

What we had for dinner last night

Pizza Toast. This is another left-over/quickie dinner that B really likes, definitely not a new idea (god knows I remember eating this quite a bit when I was a kid!) I started with the photo of the final product, but here is what I had to start with:

A yellow pepper(that I meant to use for a tex-mex take on red beans and cornbread, but haven't gotten around to making this week)
Some baby spinach (from my own salad making ingredients that I never seem to make it through)
3 different kinds of cheese, Romano, sharp cheddar, and jack, with just a tiny bit left of each.
Health Nut Bread from Arnold (My dad always got this for us as kids and both my sister and I love it and crave it. It is yummy and nutty, and full of whole grains, though it does have some sugar in it.)
Newman's Own Organic Pasta Sauce, Tomato and Basil
Frozen Peas (I only buy the Cascadian Farm Organic ones. I thought it was my imagination that they tasted better than the regular ones, but B refuses to eat the regular kind. These really are rounder, brighter, and they hold their "crispness" and "vegginess" when they are prepared.)


Assembling the ingredients is the hardest part of this dinner. I popped the peas and the sauce into a pot and let them heat up for a few minutes over a low flame, just to warm up the sauce and defrost the veggies. While I was doing that I pre-toasted the bread. This is important because if you don't do this it will come out of the toaster oven soggy. I also chopped up about 1 quarter of the pepper and washed the spinach. After the bread was toasted I set my toaster oven to broil, and B and I assembled our pizzas. The real question here, at least in my mind, is whether to put the veggies over or under the cheese...matter of personal preference I guess. For the record I put the veggies on top, except for the peas which were mixed in with the sauce.
I decided to throw some sunflower seeds on the top at the last minute because they were sitting out on the counter and looked good, but they were really too much with the health nut bread. They probably would be good with just a plain whole wheat (or almonds...)
Popped it in the toaster oven, and let it stay in until the cheese started to melt and brown....about 3 or 4 minutes I think.

Simple dinner and easy way to get my B to eat some veggies. Quick too. In fact I think writing this post took me longer than cooking this dinner!