It rained much of today here in Wisconsin. The air has been thick with fog for the last several days because the snow is melting and the moisture is hovering close to the ground. Our street would have been a great setting for a werewolf film the other night… We even have owls for local ambiance.

The rain is cleaning all the salt and wintry muck off our cars, and suddenly, vehicles are pretty again. The automobiles are pretty, but I’ve got to say that the sodden, ground isn’t that pretty. Except that, as Andrew keeps reminding me, “there are signs of spring!” Each new patch in the snow pack is a sign for my little boy. A delightful sign of spring.

As the clouds are washing the cars clean and removing the snow, I have decided to wash my computer clean. I heard that Ivory wasn’t good for motherboards, so I did a format of the hard drive instead.
My computer (which has served me well for four years) has recently taken to shutting down several times a day with a “blue screen of death.” It was also running slow enough to kinda kill me.

So on Monday I did back-ups. And Tuesday I gathered my courage and did the reformat. And Wednesday and today, I’ve been re-installing programs. And learning that I didn’t actually save my Firefox bookmarks (sniff) or my Firefox passwords file (oh dear).

But all in all (so far…knock on wood, toss salt over shoulder, cross eyes and chant) it looks like this reformatting endeavor was successful. I’ve got almost everything back up and running, and so far I have yet to see a blue screen.

Fresh start for spring…and for the upcoming photo season!

I find that my life functions much more smoothly and happily when I do weekly menu planning.  Yet, because it takes a couple hours to plan and shop, sometimes I find myself in a non-planning rut.  Like February.  RUT.

I tend to be a person who requires a recipe in order to create a meal.  In the past, when I didn’t have a plan and was therefore required to *poof* create a dinner out of whatever we happened to have on hand, I would get really stressed out and more often than not we’d end up eating cereal.  These days, I don’t tend to experience that same stress.  Perhaps its experience and wisdom setting in:)

Another funny thing about my meal planning is that I have a weird thing about not liking to repeat meals.  I spent about a year making a different meal every night.  Well, almost.  We have spaghetti with tofu a lot.  And a few yummy family casseroles make regular appearances.

Thanks to my dear Jessica, I’ve been getting the Everyday Foods magazine every month for a couple years, and I love it.  I just went through all my past issues and pulled my favorite 50-80 recipes.  They’re so good and generally zippy fast.  I’ve made so many recipes from this magazine, and I’ve found that if I like the ingredients (not for example, capers or fennel), it’ll be a yummy dish.

In 2008, in an effort to take charge of my meal planning, I purchased a Plan-It Organizer, which is pretty much a souped-up notebook for organizing weekly meal ideas.  Like a gym membership, paying money motivates me to take action.  If I paid $18 for a notebook, I better get some use out of it!  So I used it faithfully until last fall.  At that point…the same point that I got my iPhone…I decided to try electronic menu planning.  I use Google Calendar for tracking all our activities, so I made a new calendar for our meal plans.  It’s nice because you can easily move around dishes to different days as schedules change.  And now I can check it when I’m away from home.

Since most of my recipes are from Everyday Foods or from cooking blogs, I can link from my calendar to the appropriate recipe…and I often use my iPhone or laptop as a cookbook on the counter while I cook.

I got off the meal-planning band wagon in January and February, but I’m back on now.  Here’s my normal (ideal) procedure:

• Saturday: (this takes 30-40 minutes)
  • consult my calendar to see what activities we have going on the next week so I know how many meals we’ll need
  • flip through magazines or blogs to find recipes and make a list of the recipes I want to eat in the next week
  • make a list of the recipes we want.  Even on weeks we have no evening plans, I usually assign 5-6 meals because one night we have left overs and another night we often end up making other arrangements or life gets crazy and I just boil a package of fresh ravioli with Parmesan for our meal.
  • make a shopping list of the ingredients needed for the meals (this is my least favorite part!)
• Sunday:
  • add to my list all the pantry staples and non-meal-specific items that we need
  • go grocery shopping at Woodman’s

Often I wait to do meal planning until just before I’m going to leave for the grocery store.  I really prefer to do it as a separate activity, though.

In the past, I used a Word document that I had laid out to match Woodman’s as my shopping list. However, since December, I’ve been using an application on my iPhone for grocery shopping.  I’ve got to say that I feel like a complete dork walking around the grocery store, consulting my iPhone instead of a piece of paper like a normal person.  It feels like I’m bragging or being very high-falutin about my technology.  But I do it because I’m avoiding using paper and because it remembers my list from week to week and because I can (and do) add to my grocery list whenever/wherever I happen to remember that I need an item.  I’ve been using the Shopper application, and I like how it allows me to organize the list according to the layout of the store.

Last week, I just found out about a new new service that is going to really streamline my grocery shopping.  Everyday Foods has a new app where you can pick your recipes and it adds all the ingredients to a shopping list.  The shopping list is handled by a website called ZipList, and it’s soooo cool (to me!).  It’s set up to pull recipes from blogs.  So if you’re reading a blog and like the recipe, you click on your little ZipList button in the toolbar, and it copies the recipe to ZipList.  Click another button, and it adds the ingredients to my shopping list.  Ahh, it’s a geek’s life.

The next couple months, I’m looking forward to going against my normal grain and repeating tried and true favorite recipes.  I’ll be posting them on my Google Calendar, so if you’d like any menu inspiration, please take a peek!

Also, if you have favorite dishes or food blogs/sources, let me know!  I always like to try something new:)

PS.  March must be a time I re-commit to meal planning.  Check out this post I did in 2009!

Greetings!  I have a few moments here while Sylvia is napping, and I should really be washing my windows.  Or cleaning the bathroom.  Or the litter boxes.  Or the kitchen.  And I definitely should be sweeping and mopping.  But you know, I just don’t feel like it.  I’m recently back from our weekend at Jack’s, and I now find myself in a bit of a funk.  My children are being decidedly disobedient and often rather unpleasant (who taught them how to whine, anyway?).  So after scanning job listings for a bit (adult co-workers don’t hit or throw things, do they?), I decided to just do a little writing.

Writing is cathartic for me, and I think that’s one of the main reasons that I’ve been as faithful to this little blog as I have.  I write to help clear my mind.  Sometimes, I write so I will remember what my babies were like.  Sometimes I write to help myself unwind a knotty thought or state of mind.  Sometimes I write because it makes me feel like an individual, a person (an adult!) all my own.

One of my new favorite blogs is by one of my favorite writers, Katrina Kenison.  She wrote a post last month that I’ve been wanting to share.  In her post, she starts out by talking about how she has been pretty skeptical about computers and the internet.  She just recently, and a bit reluctantly, started her blog.  She goes on…

…I found that the discipline of writing a blog, even one or two short pieces a week, has kept me in closer touch not just with my readers, but with myself.  Like prayer, or yoga, or meditation, writing, too, is a practice.  I sit down, turn on the computer, and say hello to the watching, reflecting part of me.  And then I listen, and write down what that quiet inner voice has to say.

…

I think that, when it comes right down to it, most of us do write for ourselves, not for an audience.  We write to remind ourselves of what’s important in our lives, to move beyond our petty cares and concerns and to get in touch with our true essence, our souls, the people we are in the process of becoming.  And then, in gestures of faith and solidarity, we offer our gift, the gift of ourselves, to the world.

What a lovely way to think about writing.  For those of my friends who don’t blog regularly, when I do see a post, I feel like it’s a gift.  And I so enjoy having a few moments to listen to myself and to pour that out (in fits and starts!) to share with friends and family near and far.  Thanks for reading!

**Written Feb. 25, but something funny happened***

I try to do weekly meal planning.  Over the last year, I’ve sat down over the weekend and written up a meal plan for the week.  This February, however, I’ve fallen off the meal-planning band wagon.  We’ve been eating scraps.  Cereal.  Odds and ends.  And beans and rice.

I recently added the ingredients of this dish into our pantry staples, so I’ve pulled it out a few times in the last several weeks.  Sometimes we have some chicken sausage on the side.  It’s been a good meal for us.  Sylvia loves it.  I love it.  The boys think it’s alright.

So without further ado, here’s how you make it:

two cans (three cups) red kidney beans
one can coconut milk
one can water
one and a half cups of rice

Drain the beans and put them in a pot that will hold twice the bulk of the beans.  Warm them gently over medium low heat.  Meanwhile, warm the water and coconut milk in the microwave.  Add the coconut milk, water, and rice to the beans.  Cover and cook over low heat for 20 minutes (actually on my stove, I cook it on low-med).  If there’s too much liquid left after 20 minutes, uncover and raise the heat slightly.

Easy cheesy!  Plus as I tell my kids, think of all the amino acid combinations they are getting:)

***

As a note, while we were eating this meal tonight, Sylvia somehow fell off her chair.  First she smashed her face into the table and then she plummeted to the ground, again, hitting her head or her face on the floor.  It was a terrible looking fall.  And she was so very sad.  So we aborted supper.  Then I held her until she stopped crying and through her hiccups asked to watch “whales show” from Fantasia 2000.

We’re all back home after a lovely weekend at Jack’s house.  Jack is a family friend-like-family who has a house on the Wisconsin River in southwestern Wisconsin, quite near Prairie du Chien.  My family has been enjoying trips out to Jack’s house since before I was born, each time we’re there, I feel my soul fill up.

Attendees this trip included Jack, Terry, Tom, me, Bryan, the kids, Michael, Lisa, Maretta, Kyle, and my dad for a visit on Saturday afternoon.  During our summer weekend, we put on life preservers and float down the Wisconsin River, eat waaay too much, play Trivia Pursuit and other games, look at the stars, hike on Jack’s prairie, eat too much, and generally enjoy being snug together in a place we all love.

Our winter trip is similar…minus the float down the Wisconsin River, which would kill us all in March.  We supplement our Saturday with a bonfire…burning piles of brush from Jack’s on-going prairie restoration efforts.  The stars were so crisp and clear our first night, and Kyle gave us a sky-tour of all the major stars and planets and constellations.  He set up Jack’s telescope, where he was able to see Saturn’s rings.  Just so you know, a weak telescope does not show Saturn to look like this.  It might look more like this.

It was great to see Maretta and Kyle again since I’ve missed seeing them since Michael & Lisa’s wedding in October.  I do so love my sister:)  Joe wasn’t able to join us this year, but he comes home in a few days for spring break, so we’re happily anticipating that time!

I didn’t take many photos of our trip this year.  I’ll put some up when I download them.  In the meantime, I’m having some minor/major laptop problems that has made me decide to format and reinstall everything, so that should be pretty crazy!

Sylvia was driving me nuts this morning with continuous whining and complaining.  After getting into my makeup and giving herself a lipstick makeover, her mood seems to have improved dramatically.  Remarkably, mine took a turn for the worse:)

Back home amidst the melting snow and foggy air!

Winter is a long season here in Wisconsin.  A long, cold season.  And if I’m in the right frame of mind, I love it.  I love snuggling with cats and drinking warm beverages.  I love playing in the snow and seeing the crispness of a starry winter sky.  I love watching the pure white snow sparkle under a bright winter sun with the sky blue as blue can be.   I like crawling into my warm bed (we got a heated mattress pad a couple years ago…such a good purchase!) and my soft flannel sheets.  I like how life slows down a bit in winter.  There are no gardens to tend, no late night walks to take.  Sitting and drinking hot chocolate and reading is just perfect.

One thing that I don’t like so much about winter is that I often am cold.  We keep our thermostat kind of low, and I sometimes have found that I don’t feel really warm from October to May.  I was mentioning this to my friend Janelle last winter, and she asked if I wore long underwear and knee-high wool socks.  I told her I didn’t, and she suggested that I adopt those behaviors as soon as possible.

Do you know about Smart Wool?  When I was in graduate school, my friend Jennifer introduced me to Smart Wool socks.  They’re wool, and, she informed me, they keep her cold feet warm all winter and they keep her feet cool in the summer.  Plus (and this is a big plus for clammy-footed me), the wool has magic powers that keep her feet dry and odor-free.

Since then, I’ve acquired several pairs of Smart Wool socks.  In the past, I’ve mostly used them as hiking socks or wear-around-the-house socks.  But after talking to Janelle, I decided to add some knee-high Smart Wool into my wardrobe.  And over the last couple years, I also acquired two Smart Wool long-sleeved shirts.  They’re expensive, but I can personally attest that the cost is worth it.  Since I’ve been wearing my knee-high wool socks and my wool shirts, I’ve been warm!  On the rare day that I’m not wearing wool, I usually find myself wondering why I’m so darn cold.  Oh, and a scarf around my neck helps too!

So this is my winter tip to you.  Get thyself some wool.  If you’re at all wool sensitive (I am!) I recommend Smart Wool.  Oh, and getting an electric mattress pad to heat up your bed before you climb in is such a luxury.  You’ll be glad you did.

Happy March 1 everyone!  March…the month of St. Patrick’s Day…the month that welcomes the official first day of spring…the month where we average eight inches of snow.  March is, I must remember, certainly not spring.  Yet it is the end of winter.  I recall the phrase “In like a lion, out like a lamb.”  Well, this year March didn’t come in like a lion.  The sun is shining, the temperature has soared to the high-thirties, and it’s in general a delightful winter day.

In fact, I went to the grocery store yesterday WITHOUT A WINTER COAT.  I can’t believe it either.  The very idea of not needing to wear a coat seems ludicrous.  I just wore my fleece jacket, and I was fine.  Yeee haaawww.

Now with March upon us, I’m looking around my home and wondering how I should mix up my decorations for the month.  Did you know, by the way, that I change my home decorations every month?  Or at least every season.  Who does that, really?  Me, I guess:)  September through April I change my home decor every month, and then spring and summer I keep things pretty constant.  Except my American Girl, Kirsten, who I change each month.  This seasonal decorating is something that I started doing around age 12, and I haven’t been able to stop.  I’ve toned it down a little from my teen years when I changed all my wall hangings as well.  Now I only change some of my wall hangings.  Something tells me that if Bryan lived alone, his home would not have seasonally changing decor…

My January decorations feature snowmen and polar bears and other wintery items.  In February I add in some red items.  And March I switch out the red with green.  And I’m thinking that maybe the polar bears should depart.  Maybe some rainbows should take their place.

I’ve been curious what my yard and the neighborhood will look like at the end of March, and thanks to my Flickr archives, I can easily see photos from the last five years.  For instance, when I look at March 2007, I get see a calendar with a thumbnail from each day I took photos.

March 4 looks really snowy…like the world outside my window today.

Then on March 19, it looks like my siblings and I all took a walk to our neighborhood park in some balmy weather.

And look…on March 27, 2008, crocuses were popping from the earth in Jessica’s yard:

Maybe I’ll even be bringing home some pansies this month as I was on March 29, 2008!

What a cutie that little two-year-old Andrew was!

We have some fun plans this March.  This weekend we’re doing our semi-annual weekend at Jack’s house.  Maretta and Kyle are driving down from St. Paul, which should be so great.  I haven’t seen them since Michael and Lisa’s wedding in October!  Then on March 12, Joe comes home from college for spring break.  He’ll be in Madison for over two weeks, so I’m hoping to soak up some good Joe time.  My little bro will be graduating in May, and I’m so excited to see what adventures come his way.  Then there are the Oscars (March 8…always a good fashion time), Michael’s 29th birthday on March 19, and Joe’s 22nd birthday on March 25th.

Welcome to you, March!  Hoping your month finds you healthy, active, and full of good cheer.

I love the Olympics.  Really, really love them.  In general, I’m pretty luke-warm about sports.  Actually, usually I’m just plain uninterested in sports.  But there’s something about the Olympics that gets me so excited and hopeful and happy and obsessed.

Since the opening ceremony on February 12, we’ve been watching the evening broadcast each night.  That first weekend, we watched it during the day too.  Then on day four, Tuesday last week, I needed a break.  So I wrote the Olympics a note:

Dear 2010 Winter Olympics,

These last four days have been great.  Really, really great.  I’ve laughed, I’ve yelled, I’ve even gotten misty-eyed.  So thank you.
But, my dear Olympics, I think I need a break.  Just a night…a little time off.   It’s me not you.  Things have just been moving so fast…
So I’m making a choice to skip the men’s figure skating short program and women’s super G and some speed skating.  I may regret it, but I think it’s the best choice for me tonight.
See you again on Wednesday!

Love,
Althea

Since that one night away from Olympics, I’ve been back 100%, and it’s been great.  I love the variety of events.  The skiing is great.  And short track speed skating really makes me excited.  I love figure skating too, although I’m not nearly as devoted a fan as I was in the ’90s.

I wish I had a photo to post of myself at the 1988 Olympics in Calgary.  Terry and I went together just before little Joe was born; I was 10 years old.  My favorite parts were collecting pins, walking around the Olympic village, meeting the mascots Hidy and Howdy, watching a lady use her fur coat as a sled to slide down a hill, and drinking hot chocolate at the cross-country event while listening to the Swiss folks ring their enormous cow bells.  My least favorite parts were losing my hat on a bus on the way to a skiing event and then discovering that my pink moon boots weren’t waterproof and getting so wet and cold that I cried.

It’s too bad that the 1016 summer Olympics won’t be in Chicago…it would have been a lot of fun to take the kids!  My brother Joe is an Olympics-lover as well, and he hopes to go to London in 1012.  I hope he does so I can live vicariously!

What’s your favorite part of the Olympics?  Do you prefer summer or winter?  How do you feel about Bob Costas?  What are you going to do when they’re over?

Love,

Althea