First Lines

I know I should just write and come back to the first line later, but I usually sit there with my coffee or tea whispering various combinations of words until something feels good on my tongue. I need the momentum to begin. After all, first lines are of utmost importance. Can you identify these?

Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins.

"Where's papa going with that ax?," said Fern to her mother as they were setting the table for breakfast.

Happy families are all unlike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.

When Mary Lennox was sent to Misselthwaite Manor to live with her uncle everybody said she was the most disagreeable-looking child ever seen. It was true, too.

Mother died today. Or yesterday, I don't know.

It was a pleasure to burn.

There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it.

And of course ...
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.

the Pill

My current assignment for the children's writing program is to write a nonfiction article, so I've been paying more attention to those kind of pieces lately. This one sparked some interest. The first medicine to be regularly given to people who weren't sick? I didn't know that. I wonder how many more we've created since then.

Menu Plan Monday

A fun, crazy weekend led to an abandoning of the menu, ergo the seeming repeats. But it did lead to a lovely new discovery, this mushroom casserole. We very much enjoyed it, though next time I would use less rice and more veggies. Will let you know how the next time goes.

Monday
B: granola, yogurt, coffee
L: leftover mushroom casserole
D: quiche, toast
Prep: bake bread, start quinoa sprouts, make quiche crust

Tuesday
B: leftover quiche, toast, coffee
L: leftover mushroom casserole
D: black bean & zucchini quesadillas with lime/cilantro sauce, chips

Wednesday
B: granola, yogurt, coffee
L: leftover quiche
D: roast chicken, beet salad
Prep: make chicken/quinoa salad, start defrosting steaks, make apple & carrot shortbread for bible study tomorrow

Thursday
B: granola, yogurt, coffee
L: chicken/quinoa salad
D: date night
Prep: start defrosting roast

Friday
B: scramble, toast, coffee
L: chicken/quinoa salad
D: steak, salad, bread, wine?
Prep: make granola

Saturday
B: scramble, toast, coffee
L: tuna melts
D: mushroom & barley patties w/cucumber raita, flatbread
Prep: soak oats for baked oatmeal, make apple sauce

Sunday
B: baked oatmeal w/yogurt & apple sauce
L: leftover mushroom patties
D: roast, potatoes, sauteed chard
Prep: make beef/broccoli/quinoa salad w/leftovers

Check out other menus at Menu Plan Monday hosted by orgjunkie.com!

Lady Madonna

Check out this Time article. Nothing new, but it's an interesting compilation of facts and stories.
I wonder what the connection is between the ideas in this article and the fact that women seem to have an easier time listening to their baby cry (during sleep training, for example) than their husbands do. Ideas?

Menu Plan Monday

There's too much to do this week to anticipate much time in the kitchen. A garden to start. A study that looks like a tornado tore through. Continued potty training (which really means training me ... but she's peed 3 times in her potty so I'm optimistic!). A husband with spring conferences (ergo less shared cooking and cleaning). And sun ... maybe sun for more walks? So, I'm trying to go basic this week, which I'm hoping will also help us save money. That's why the word "leftover" occurs 9 times in my meal plan. Yeah for toaster ovens!

Monday
B: eggs, toast
L: leftovers
D: orzo salad but with quinoa instead ... and a few other changes bc golly asparagus is spendy!
Prep: feed the mother (yup, she's back Jay!), make granola, dehydrate wheat berry sprouts

Tuesday
B: granola, yogurt
L: leftover orzo salad
D: Coconut Red Lentil Soup (didn't happen last week)
Prep: feed the mother, start quinoa sprouts

Wednesday
B: granola, yogurt
L: leftover lentil soup
D: roast chicken, baba ganouj, salad
Prep: feed the mother, start defrosting steaks, make quinoa salad w/leftover chicken, make baba ganouj, start sprouting black beans

Thursday
B: granola, yogurt
L: leftover lentil soup or quinoa salad
D: quiche
Prep: feed the mother, start white bean sprouts

Friday
B: leftover quiche
L: leftover quinoa salad
D: bbq steaks, salad
Prep: feed the mother, bake bread

Saturday
B: leftover quiche
L: leftover quinoa salad
D: black bean & zucchini quesadillas

Sunday
B: Turkish Poached Eggs
L: Indian takeout w/leftovers for lunch tomorrow
D: leftovers or tuna melts

Check out other menus at Menu Plan Monday at Orgjunkie.com!

Mother Nature

After one of the most mother naturely mothers I know send me this article because my babe's sick right now, I got to thinking about the term Mother Nature and how we mothers really ought to be more in turn with how our bodies and our babies bodies naturally work.

Too often we think of nature as something separate from our bodies. Nature is the trees, grass, and beautiful flowers (which sometimes, contrary to logic, make us sick with allergies). But we are part of nature too and, along with the honey bee and the rose, we have been made with incredible, natural defense mechanisms that our body uses to protect itself. I'm just beginning to understand how often pharmaceutical medicines undermine these natural defense mechanisms. Fevers are good, even protective? What? I shouldn't just give her tylenol when she gets and over 101 degree fever like my pediatrician says? Hmmm. (Check out the article.)

We mothers, who have birthed bodies from our own, have quite a responsibility to care for those little bodies in ways that keep them whole. In The Unsettling of America, Wendell Berry notes that the world health belong to a family of words including heal, whole, wholesome, hale, hallow, and holy. I think that's pretty important to remember. I want to help her little body work in the most natural way possible, the way God made it to work. I want to better listen to Mother Nature, but oh there's so many other voices to filter out.

Menu Plan Monday

Monday
B: leftover baked oatmeal w/yogurt
L: tuna melt, carrots
D: quiche, toast
Prep: make quiche crust, start quinoa sprouts (3 meals worth), bake bread

Tuesday
B: leftover baked oatmeal w/yogurt
L: leftover quiche
D: pizza, salad

Wednesday
B: leftover quiche
L: leftover pizza, salad
D: roast chicken, quinoa w/zucchini
Prep: make granola, make quinoa chicken salad, start soaking the roast

Thursday
B: granola, yogurt
L: quinoa chicken salad
D: dinner at friends
Prep: make bread & dessert for tonight, start lentil sprouts & white bean sprouts

Friday
B: granola, yogurt
L: quinoa chicken salad
D: coconut curry soup, naan

Saturday
B: scramble, toast
L: tuna melt
D: roast w/potatoes, sauteed kale

Sunday
B: scramble, toast
L: leftover buffet
D: sausage/white bean/kale soup

Lasagna Gardening

We're tearing out the rhodies along our back fence this weekend to make way for a lasagna garden. No, not a garden that grows lasagna (though the tomatoes may end up in some!). So I'm sitting here with Territorial's seed magazine reading about vegetables I never new existed. Here are some of my favorites so far:

Red Noodes (beans)

Tigger Melons

Salad Blue Potatoes

And I think I'm going to try tomatoes in a basket this year. Harvesting would be much easier, I think. Anyone else tried this?

Menu Plan Monday

We got a side of beef from Knee Deep last week, so we're celebrating with some Friday night steaks. Ergo the logo.

Monday
B: yogurt, granola, coffee
L: Moroccan Carrot soup leftovers
D: quiche, bread
Prep: make crust, granola, bread, start sprouting lentils

Tuesday
B: quiche leftovers
L: Moroccan Carrot soup leftovers
D: Coconut Chicken Soup, green apple salad

Wednesday
B: yogurt, granola, coffee
L: quiche leftovers
D: date night
Prep: start sprouting garbanzos, make honey cake for bible study, make rice

Thursday
B: yogurt, granola, coffee
L: soup leftovers
D: Curried Lentils w/sausage & sauteed kale, cucumber raita
Prep: make apple sauce for book group

Friday
B: yogurt, granola, coffee
L: lentil leftovers
D: steak, potatoes, salad, bread, wine?
Prep: make hummus, start sprouting quinoa, soak oats for baked oatmeal

Saturday
B: baked oatmeal, apple sauce, coffee
L: lentil leftovers
D: family potluck (don't know what we're bringing yet)

Sunday
B: scramble, toast, coffee
L: tuna melt, carrots w/hummus
D: roast chicken, quinoa w/sauteed zucchini
Prep: make curry chicken salad w/leftover chicken

Check out more menus at Menu Plan Monday hosted by Orgjunkie.com

Capturing Creative Moments

"In one creative thought a thousand forgotten nights of love come to life again and fill it with majesty and exaltation." Rainer Maria Rilke

Creativity doesn't come easy when I'm tired, but it's oh so important to boost my happiness. It doesn't matter what or where ... cooking in the kitchen, writing in the study, gardening out back ... just as long as I'm doing something with my hands to make something that wasn't there before, and if it turns out yummy or poetic or beautiful, even better.

I need some ideas for short moments of creativity. Anyone?