Holding Still

Non-Cooking is.

I have a wonderful friend who is a wonderful writer.  And she has had a tumultuous relationship with cooking (let me know if that is not totally accurate, E), for many years.  She has a very funny blog called Picky Grouchy Non-Cook.  In addition to a description of what a Non-Cook is (someone who doesn't consider him/herself a cook), she has an ongoing manifesto, resources, history of her non-cook forays, non-cook categories, and a featured Non-Cook of the month.

October's  featured Non-Cook is ME.  And I am no longer ashamed.  Here is the link.  I had a blast doing it, I must say.  I hope you enjoy it.  And in honor of my coming out of the kitchen closet as a PBN-C (Pro Bake Non-Cook), yesterday and today I baked numerous apple pies.  So there.

Below are photo hints from my interview... Read Picky Grouchy Non-Cook and find out why...

 



Enjoy!

I'm ba-ack...

I was sitting at my computer this evening, checking FB friends' posts, etc.  Looking at my lovely African violets and the zinnia bouquet with sage,  Japanese anemones and lavendar.  Very pretty.  I thought to myself, I feel like writing on my blog.  Just like that.  Over a year since my last post.  No real reason why. 

And not too much to say.  I am having a lot of trouble breathing.  Just like last September.  I didn't write about it then, since my last post was in June.  But in late August, early September last year I had a lot of difficulty breathing.  Had to up my prednisone to 15 mg. again.  Quel drag, as Holly Golightly would say.  By March I was down to 3.75mg.  Still there.  Won't be able to taper again, if at all, for a while.  I have had a couple of moments of "oh shit! here it goes again."  Pissed at myself, my illness, what I last called my first baby.  I get really angry at her. 

So that's what's up with my health.  I still do cranial sacral therapy, acupuncture, herbs, homeopathy and of course, the prednisone.  I also have stepped up the yoga, and have started on the path of teacher training.  I have a new job, fulltime, which I absloutely love.  Which is rare, so I know, I am blessed.  My two boys are exceptionally healthy and exceptionally cute and wonderful.  Not without their challenges, of course, but they are human. 

My younger guy lost his first tooth today.  He really lost it, can't find it.  So, following the recommendation of his older, wiser cousin who also lost a tooth in a watermelon-eating episode, he wrote a letter to the tooth fairy.  This is significant.  My younger lad does not feel very comfortable writing or reading.  He has anxiety about it.  But this was important.  He sat at his desk, using a pencil, in case he made a mistake, and wrote the cutest letter of all time to the tooth fairy.  He asked him/her,  his/her name.  He told aforementioned fairy that he lost his tooth somewhere.  Lastly, he asked if he could have a picture of him/her.

His tooth fairy will save this letter forever. 

So you see, life is still miraculous, illness or no illness.

Jesus, catherine and heathcliff

Oh my, once again, it's been a long time. Update: New dog. Yes, we've lost our minds, thank you very much. 

Continuing in this vein, in the car on the way to a bowling party yesterday, Lire told me he wanted to be "like Jesus." "You could do worse," I thought, and we discussed turning the other cheek, being kind and making things out of wood. Habtamu has no interest in this, and would rather crash his remote-control helicopter into walls for fun. Not that Lire wouldn't mind doing that, either. He's just into Jesus these days. Alex and I are being maddened by the extreme winds, much like Catherine and Heathcliff, waking up in the wee hours from scary nightmares about people we've never met. What's with that? Chauncey is the only balanced one in the house. If only we could get him to earn money...

Here is a photo of the new dog that illustrates my mental/emotional state:

Ai yai yai

Oh my.  Another long absence.  My faded tan hands appear flaccid and incompetent upon the keyboard.  It's probably the rain.  Water retention and all that.

The summer.  Seems to be ending, though there are some last blasts once in a while.  This includes the terrifying attacks we endured (still endure? only time will tell), the past two weeks.  It started with Al itching up a storm and the dog infested with what we thought were an inordinate number of eensy-weensy tick babies.  

"Have you ever seen so many ticks?"  

"No, I haven't.  Are you sure they're ticks?"

"What else could they be?"

The debate wore on.  The itchy spots on Alex increased, and then I started to itch.  Always in unmentionable places.  Only to be shown to intimates -- basically, ourselves.  And Chauncey.  Who was banished from the bedroom.  One night, 1am to be precise, Al knelt on the bed, staring down at his stomach --

"They're crawling all over me!"  

I stared in disbelief as a posse of reddish-brown, six-legged extremely tiny bugs raced around Al's midriff.

"Take a shower, please, take a shower!!!"  

I stripped the bed, threw all of the blankets, pillows, and sundries into the laundry.  New sheets, blankets, pjs.  We both showered.  Splashed with witch hazel to ease the itching.  Onto Sr. Google who corroborated my suspicion of CHIGGERS!

A friend and her husband had had an outbreak, so I always had the suspicion in the back of my mind.  We were disgusted, but thankful that they weren't ticks.

Chauncey is still banished from the bedroom.  I think that chiggers can survive outdoors until the ground temperature dips below 60 degrees fahrenheit.  He will have to wait.  The chigger population on Chauncey has dipped, but we still find the odd one or two on his forepaws.  Poor guy.  He's taken to sleeping under the coffee table.  He looks a little guilty and stares longingly at our bedroom door most days.  But he seems to have accepted his fate.

How's that for a longed-for blog post?!  Gripping!

what it is?

Good Goddess!  Where has she been?

In general, I have found that when I don't blog, it's because I am busy, and generally, content.  I tend to write more when I'm depressed, since it helps get things out of my mind.  Of course, when I'm in the depths, I don't write either, so.  Well, I'm back!

LOTS is going on.  On the bummer front is the fact that Lire will not be able to stay at the closer, more diverse public school for kindergarten next school year.  I became political, got a petition signed by more than the required amount, met many neighbors who supported what we decided to call "school choice,"  went to a contentious school board meeting with some even-headed intelligent folks, but some louder, fear-mongering residents as well.  Whose concerns super-ceded ours, I guess.  Enough so that my resolution to allow school choice will NOT be put on the ballot, and so only 20 or so people will show up to vote (that's how small and apathetic our village is) instead of the large numbers my resolution would bring.  

A lot of people are pretty ticked.  Me especially.  Anyway, I'm keeping my hopes up that something might happen.  We could move, for one thing, and we could choose another school district in which to live.  

The boys, meanwhile, are doing really, really well.  They are growing gigantically, are settling into their lives more and more, and impress us when we step back and watch them when they don't know we're watching them.  They are really great guys.  My relationship with H, while not un-bumpy, has improved vastly, I'm happy to say.  I'm not sure what it was, time, probably.  He still has his behavior chart, which he is in charge of, and to which his teacher contributes.  He is learning how to read, can hula-hoop like a Guinness Book champion, and is getting along socially much better than before.  I think he is finally feeling more confident in himself.

Lire is still cracking me up, is still squeezable, and has a new-found love for all of his stuffed animals and his baby Deji (my old AA Cabbage Patch doll).  He wears him around the house and tucks him in each morning and night.  He has become a real artist, having multiple projects going at once, and I guarantee will one day grace the Food Network with his presence.

I am working all over town, enjoying being a math/art/library educator, though I'm a bit schizophrenic -- hard to remember where I'm going on which day.  Alex is rediscovering his inner musician and is mixing up a storm.  Chauncey is still a champ and my favorite dog.  Our lives are still on hold as far as the summer goes.  And we just met an amazing little boy from Ethiopia who is staying a mere mile from our house.  He is an incredible person.  H. said, "D. is the nicest boy I have ever met."  

Spending time with him has been an intense experience, especially for H.  They started playing as if they had known one another their whole lives.  I was brought back to my time in Ethiopia, all the sights and sounds.  I can only imagine how it has triggered things for our boys.  H. told me, "Mommy, I have some bad news.  I want to live in Ethiopia."

I told him it wasn't bad news, except that we would certainly miss him.  Maybe when he was older he could live here and in Ethiopia?  He liked that idea, and said he wanted to build things for people in Ethiopia.  

We're going to play again tomorrow, and have lunch, so that will be fun for us all.

Lost tooth:

I want to lose these suspenders!

down

It's one of those days when I feel a bit overwhelmed by all the things I'm supposed to be doing.  I've prepared for my art class this afternoon, as much as I can, and I'm on top of math for tomorrow.  

Art and math.  No wonder I feel disjointed.  On the annoying bureaucratic front, I am in the midst of creating a ballot initiative so our younger son can go to kindergarten in the more racially diverse public school 2.5 miles from our home rather than the less racially diverse public school 8 miles from our home.  "It's always been this way," is the answer one invariably gets when one asks why kids in our tiny bare-bones village are bussed to the next town over for school, rather than using the school in our own town.  

I won't go into the details, but it's frustrating, to say the least.  I wrote the initiative, now I need to go to the next school board meeting and hope that the board ok's what I wrote and allow it to go to the next stage.  If so, then I need to get enough signatures on a petition by April 20th to allow it on the ballot in May.  If that happens, I need to get people to actually come and vote.  We live in a tiny village, where very few people come out and vote unless it's a well-publicized issue.  

I should have started all this much earlier, I know.  But I had no idea that it would be so bureaucratic.  I thought I could petition the board of ed and that a contract could be signed with the closer, desired school and Lire could continue to attend.  Because he is attending that school this year.  He's in Pre-k, and we're paying the tuition, which for Pre-K is quite reasonable.  Once you hit kindergarten, however, it gets a bit too high for our slim wallets.

Sigh.

The real estate market is quite still these days, as you can imagine.  We may not rent our house out, after all, which means no moving for us.  Which -- good or bad, I don't even know anymore.

All I know is, I wish it were at least 10 degrees warmer.

rotten teeth and preese

Been gone too long.

Habtam had one of his troublesome teeth pulled last week.  It ballooned up again, causing quite a stir at the nurse's office at his school. 

"Um, yes, we did notice the swelling."

"Well, he insisted he wasn't in pain, and we gave him some medicine in case.  He really wants to go to school."

About three days of this, with Habtamu reassuring us that he really, really wanted to go to school, while we waited for the swelling to diminish with the antibiotics.

I don't think the nurse realizes how important school is for Habtamu.  He takes school really seriously right now.  Maybe it's because of the attitude towards school in Ethiopia.  He was exposed to it in  his home village and at the care center, where the older kids were proud of the work they did at their "school,"  a small room with a chalkboard and words posted in Amharic and English.  We had to take him home early from school once last year, when he fell asleep in school.  He had a major meltdown and freaked out in the car on the way home, nearly throwing Lire's car seat at me.

On to religion.

Today in the tub, Lire said to me,

"Mommy, Chauncey is like a preese.  He protect us."

"The police?"

"No, a preese."

"A priest?"

"Yes!  A preest.  He protect us."

"Why, yes he is."

Already moving into the metaphysical, that Lire.

We've got some intense little guys here.  I feel like a lightweight, in comparison.  

And I'll prove it by mentioning how happy I am to finally get a new pair of eyeglasses and a haircut!  I'll post a picture, though it's a bit dark.  

So happy to talk to you again!  I'll try to post more regularly.  I have a book post for Mothertalk due soon, so I'll be on it.

cuteness personified.

Chauncey, our resident preese.

Superficial mom, making her picture smaller to fool you into thinking she is more humble than she really is.

something about weddings

Got this from Maia via Facebook -- I love hearing other people's wedding stories... share yours, or your dream wedding.  Both ladies and gents invited.


IF YOU'RE MARRIED, SHARE YOUR WEDDING DETAILS AND RELIVE YOUR MEMORIES AND IF YOU'RE ENGAGED/PLANNING A WEDDING, LET US KNOW WHAT THE PLANS ARE AND IF YOU'RE NOT WITH ANYONE JUST LET US KNOW WHAT YOUR DREAM WEDDING WILL BE THAT'S IN YOUR MIND....THIS ALSO INCLUDES QUESTIONS ABOUT YOUR OTHER HALF

1. Are you married? 
Yes ma'am!

2. Who did you marry? 
Alexander Rostislav Coulter. 

3. How long did you date? 
This is hard to piece together, since there were gaps in between. Basically, I fell for Alex upon meeting him. Really. We had a few one-nighters in college, but didn't ever date. After college we went on a cross-country adventure for three months, wherein I fell even harder. When we went our separate ways, I couldn't believe I was wrong about us. I was sure my instincts were right on. It took several years for me to find out I HAD been correct. In 1996, six years later, I hopped the Peter Pan to NYC to escape an ill-fated 3 month relationship with a very nice fellow. I called Al and asked if I could come and visit, and I was quite presumptuous and asked if he minded putting up my friend Dennis a day earlier (I can't believe my hutzpah!). We were together from that time on -- about 3 years before we married.

4. What is the age difference? 
I am 4 months older. He likes to say that I am an older woman.

5. When did you meet? 
Freshman year of college. We were both art majors, and our respective roommates were good friends. We had to meet.

6. When did you start dating? 
When we were both committed to the relationship -- April 4, 1996

7. When did you get engaged? 
Big Al asked me to marry him in August of 1998. 

8. How did you get engaged?
We were hiking in Canada -- Jasper, to be exact. The weather had been very uncooperative, drizzly and cold. We got to a camp site called "Surprise Point." We hiked out to the point after ditching our backpacks. There were loads of elk couples hanging out, too, chewing grass and watching us. He took a box out of his pocket, which freaked me out, I had no idea! He said, "Erin Frances O'Connor, will you marry me?" (correct me if I'm wrong, Al). Apparently I didn't say yes, I just screamed with joy, jumped on him and started to cry. I assumed he would interpret this as a yes, but later he insisted I say Yes, just to make sure. It was so very cold that I had trouble keeping the ring on my finger, it kept slipping off since my fingers shrank in the cold. I wouldn't take it off, however. So I wore gloves. We had a very dangerous leave-taking of our special place, since the rain turned into hail and a major storm. We accompanied a frightened solo camper from Montreal back to civilization, crossing a roaring stream over a slippery log that Alex positioned to get us over. He was very brave, as was I. Not so much the Montrealer, though.

9. When did you get married?
May 22, 1999. 

10. What time was the ceremony?
11:00 am

11. Who was your maid of honor?
Loretta Marie McNamee.

12. Who was the best man? 
Al's good buddy Keith Hwang.

13. Who were your other bridesmaids?
No bridesmaids. Just my 11 year old cousin Frances as the flower girl. She looked like Alice in Wonderland.

14. Who were the other groomsmen?
once again, no groomsmen. Our godson Austin was the ringbearer. He was adorable and four years old.

15. Who played the music at your wedding? 
Alex was a choir boy, so fellow choir singers sang at our wedding -- Jen, Dave, George, Matthew and 

16. Did you have a cd or did someone sing at your wedding? 
We had cds, but no one could hear them -- people wouldn't stop toasting, so the music kept having to be turned down. Eventually whoever was in charge of the cds just gave up.

17. What was your song & other songs in the ceremony? 
We didn't have a song! Aren't we lame? However, the best song was performed by our friend Jed Dodds -- he played "Amazing Grace" on the saw!

18. What were your wedding colors? 
I will echo Maia's Hahahaha -- our wedding wasn't like that, either. I told Loretta and Frances to wear whatever they wanted. Which they did.

19. Did you buy your wedding dress or did you have it made?
I bought it at a thrift store in Manhattan. It was beautiful designer number, old-fashiony, and still had the tags on it. A wedding that never happened? Or as the saleswoman said, some people buy TWO or more dresses and decide on the day of the wedding what to wear. What? This was an Upper East Side thrift, um, consignment, store.

20. About the veil? 
No veil. I wore a crown of flowers. Very hippy-like, I know. That's how I swung then.

21. What was your bouquet? 
Two calla lilies. Long and elegant. Unlike me.

22. Who officiated your wedding? 
A very lovely man named Reverend George Easton. He was a Protestant minister my mother found for us. She just walked up to his rectory and asked if he would marry us. Our issue was that I was raised Catholic, but fell off that wagon. Al was raised basically as an atheist, but sang in an Episcopal choir his whole childhood. I wanted to be married outside and the Catholic church does not allow it. I really wanted my uncle Marty the deacon to marry us, but as I wanted to be married outside, and as I disliked what I considered to be the hypocritical nature of the church, we went with a protestant. He did a great job.

23. Did you have a bridal shower? 
Yes. My aunt Maryanne had it at her place. Mostly family and my mom's friends. All of my good friends were participating in a mini-triathalon or something. We should have planned it better so they could have come. It was really uncomfortable for me at the beginning, but then everyone drank their mimosas and bloody marys and all was well. 

24. Where was your wedding?
Outside, at a place called the Inn at Chester. It was in the yard, next to a pond and a little shed in whose windowbox Alex planted a few pale yellow petunias. My mom talked the florist into letting us borrow their geraniums to line our "altar" which was just the grass, really. It was a beautiful day, and everything was lush and green and happy. Like us!

25. Where was your reception?
At the Inn itself. We had hors d'oeuvres out on the patio and then went inside for lunch. It was an odd set-up, because there was one large room (it used to be a barn), and three smaller rooms, one of which was on a loft over us in the large room, and another back room. I think it gave everyone a chance to connect at their respective tables. At least I hope so.

26. Where did you go for your honeymoon?
We delayed our honeymoon for a month, at which point we went to the south of France and Tuscany. Amazing time. I had been taking Italian in college, so I got to try it out.

27. Are you and your spouse still happily married and in love???
We are. I feel as excited and happy about this guy as I did in college. The difference is that I feel more confident in our love, and our relationship is deeper and stronger. But I still get all funny inside after I haven't seen him for a few days and I anticipate seeing him again. He's still got it! 

28. Were there any bloopers on your wedding day??? 
There was a gigantic snake slithering around the pond. Apparently he/she had just eaten a bullfrog or something -- its middle was decidedly larger than its ends. Someone took a picture for us, as we didn't see it in action. My parents' friend Scottie found a rake in the shed, picked it up and tossed it into the pond. Some said it was an ill omen, (the Catholics, no doubt!) while others said it was a fertility symbol. Neither were correct. It was just a sated snake.

29. Did you dance at your wedding?
No dancing! I told you about the music debacle. Lots of chatting and toasting, which was fine with us.

30. Where did you stay on wedding night?
We stayed at the Inn itself. 

I only have a few pictures on file of that day -- it was early in the digital age, so my friend Dennis has them all. Go to his website, btw -- dennisdrenner.com. He still does weddings (he's great) and is located in the DC/Baltimore area.

neither rain, nor sleet, nor gloom of night...

They tried to keep it off.  All the wind demons howling around the cable wires.  They tried to take it away from us.  Panic ensued as the boys informed me that the television was incommunicado:  "Mommy, Word World no on tv -- tv all black!"

Wind whistled and rattled the windows of the room as I frantically unplugged and replugged in the telly.  A picture appeared.  

Telemundo?  Channel 73?  That and the program menu.  Two channels, and one was Telemundo.  We watched as a character crashed a plate over the head of her lover in a jealous rage.  Tv off.  

Hours passed.  Dinner was prepared, a memory game was played, the paper doll Obama family was put together.  

The television was checked again for a heartbeat.  The display was on!  Could it be?  A picture.  And it's not a Spanish language soap opera -- the news!  A network channel.  Was Fox operable?  Yes!

American Idol will not be denied.

It's Hollywood week!!!!!

I know, I'm pathetic, to put it mildly.  I just can't help it.  Anyone else not so crazy about Kara?  I like my wacky, maybe-she's-on-pills and/or - drunk Paula.  I can't help it.  

So sue me!  

The cable is back.  The computer is functioning, the phone has a dial tone, and Idol will be seen at our house.  All is right with the world.

Erin out.

99 meme

Stole this from mimiboo.  I haven't blogged in a bit, so I thought I'd ease my way in.

Things you’ve already done: bold = 49

Things you want to do: italicize = 18
Things you haven’t done and don’t want to — leave in plain font = 33

1. Started your own blog.
2. Slept under the stars.
3. Played in a band. 
4. Visited Hawaii.
5.Watched a meteor shower.
6. Given more than you can afford to charity.
7. Been to Disneyland/world. 
8. Climbed a mountain.
9. Held a praying mantis.
10. Sang a solo.
11. Bungee jumped.
12. Visited Paris 
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea.
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch.
15. Adopted a child.
16. Had food poisoning.
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty.
18. Grown your own vegetables.
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France.
20. Slept on an overnight train.
21. Had a pillow fight.
22. Hitch hiked.
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill.
24. Built a snow fort.
25. Held a lamb.
26. Gone skinny dipping.
27. Run a marathon.
28. Ridden a gondola in Venice.
29. Seen a total eclipse.
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset.
31. Hit a home run.
32. Been on a cruise.
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person.
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors.  (I've been to 1/2)
35. Seen an Amish community.
36. Taught yourself a new language. (not sure if it counts, since i didn't get too far with ASL or Amharic)
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied. (I'm working on this!!!!)
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person.
39. Gone rock climbing.
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David in person.
41. Sung Karaoke.
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt.
43. Bought a stranger a meal in a restaurant.
44. Visited Africa.
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight.
46. Been transported in an ambulance.
47. Had your portrait painted.
48. Gone deep sea fishing.
49. Seen the Sistine chapel in person.
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling.
52. Kissed in the rain.
53. Played in the mud.
54. Gone to a drive-in theater.
55. Been in a movie.
56. Visited the Great Wall of China.
57. Started a business.
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia.
60. Served at a soup kitchen.
61. Sold Girl Scout cookies.
62. Gone whale watching.
63. Gotten flowers for no reason.
64. Donated blood.
65. Gone sky diving.
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp.
67. Bounced a check.
68. Flown in a helicopter.
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy.
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial.
71. Eaten caviar.
72. Pieced a quilt.
73. Stood in Times Square.
74. Toured the Everglades.
75. Been fired from a job. 
76. Seen the Changing of the Guard in London.
77. Broken a bone.
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle. 
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person. 
80. Published a book.
81. Visited the Vatican.
82. Bought a brand new car.
83. Walked in Jerusalem.
84. Had your picture in the newspaper.
85. Read the entire Bible.
86. Visited the White House.
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating.
88. Had chickenpox.
89. Saved someone’s life.
90. Sat on a jury.
91. Met someone famous.
92. Joined a book club.
93. Lost a loved one.
94. Had a baby.
95. Seen the Alamo in person.
96. Swum in the Great Salt Lake.
97. Been involved in a law suit.
98. Owned a cell phone.
99. Been stung by a bee.