Garden Tea

Since we had nearly two weeks of unseasonably HOT weather back in March, I have had a beautiful stand of mint for several weeks now. Long enough to have everyone in the house accustomed to having iced garden tea in the refrigerator at all times. You know, I grew up just calling this mint tea, but no one else seems to call it that around here. I say mint tea and they think I'm talking about a hot beverage. Most others I know who make it call it Garden Tea. I don't know why.

I start by picking tender, fresh leaves of my crop. It's easy now, but later in the summer, the lower leaves seem to get chewed on by some unseen insect, so I stick to the freshest top leaves of each stalk. I wash them and put them in a pot with a quart or so of water and let it simmer. Oh, I also throw in one teabag of decaffienated tea, just so the finished product has some color and doesn't look like I'm serving my guests urine.

When my tea looks as stout as I like for the concentrate, I remove it from heat and let it cool to room temperature, during which it seems to deepen in color and flavor, which is good. I pour it into my pitcher, which is a two-quart contatiner. I fill it the rest of the way with water and add some sugar to taste. I sweeten the whole pitcher, since that is the way my family likes it, but I don't find that it takes much sweetening, what with the coolness and refreshment that the mint already offers. About 1/4-1/3 of a cup is all that it needs. Chill.

Serve over ice. Garnish with more of that fresh mint. Don't worry. You'll have enough. It spreads like weeds.

A Week in the Life

(Say, I adjusted how the photos are printed on the blog and I hate the result. It's not recognizing me hitting the enter bar for an extra space between paragraphs. I'll fix it in later posts. Too busy now) Excuse my absence. The spring is a busy time for us. This week I'm trying to get ready for a garage sale, so I'm organizing. Purging. Decluttering. But that is this week. As for last week..... Here is a glimpse:

Sophia had a softball game. She's been working on her pitching and her coach (also her Daddy) put her in for an inning. She did well and I was happy for her.

Brooks had an orchestra concert. He's plays the French Horn in the Symphonic Orchestra. The string intruments meet during the school day and they have a full rehearsal with the wind instruments and percussion on Monday evenings. The final concert means he's done with the evening rehearsals now.

Brooks had a golf match. Golf is a new sport in this household. It is a whole new culture....

Mahalia had a check-up.... clean bill of health. She really is like a new dog since her surgery. Chasing her tail and running laps around the house now....

Ava turned nine and we had the family over for a birthday brunch. (She blew candles out from atop her Birthday panCAKE.)

I planted a few flowers.

Ava had a softball game. I was previewing the above and wondering if maybe it sounded unintentionally pleased or prideful. That's not really what I intend, though weeks like this and the surrounding couple on the calendar are part of what makes me feel like motherhood makes me tough and resilient. And we are enjoying the activities, though we are worn out without much downtime between. And rather than feel pleased with "keeping the kids busy" - on the contrary, I feel a bit embarrassed that I might look like the kind of mother who runs her kids at a dizzying pace trying to turn them into WINNERS! In truth, I let my kids choose a few activities throughout the year, and it so happens that several of them overlap in the spring. And the spring is already busy with end of school year activities, yard work, Mother's Day and birthdays. Remember me reporting how pleased I was when Brooks infiltrated every part of the music department at the high school? Still color me pleased, but now with a hint of lethargy as the band, choir and orchestra each have their own spring concert in the week and a half before finals. And high school brings a new breed of spring concert, since awards need to be given and seniors need to be honored. They go on and on and on. Seven days of school left. May the force be with us.

And This One....

...has been a part of our family for over ten years. Longer than Ava. This is Mahalia Jackson, our Shih Tzu. We're not over-the-top pet owners. Well, I mean no offense to anyone who considers their pets their Furry Babies, I just mean we've always known that our pets enhance our family, but are not PART of our family, in that PETA kind of way.

That's why we decided, a year and a half ago, that we were not going to intervene when growths started appearing along her mammaries. We were reassured that she was in no pain, but we've been waiting for that shoe to drop ever since - about 18 months.

Over Easter weekend, we saw some alarming symptoms which made us think the time had come. We were sad all Easter day and dreading the trip I'd make with the pup to the vet first thing Monday morning. Before the kids went to school on Monday, I encouraged them to give her extra loving, since I anticipated that it would be goodbye. Brooks petted and sighed heavily. Sophia refused to pet or even look at the dog, until right before she walked out the door, sobbing. Ava was nonstop tears, interspersed with flinging herself down to Mahalia's bed where she could hug her.

I cried for my kids.

Lo and behold the vet told us that her symptoms were unrelated to the presumed Doggie Breast Cancer. It was the result of an infected uterus, which led to alarming blood work and significant blood loss. Somehow we ultimately decided that surgery was a good investment for our family. They removed the infected uterus and did a lumpectomy to do a biopsy.

All is going well. I even got a call from the vet yesterday to say that the results of the biopsy came back and the lumps are benign! It makes us feel better about the investment in her health. We're not waiting for the cancer shoe to drop anymore. She's not a pup anymore, but she likely has many more years of good health ahead of her.

"First you take my uterus, then you take my dignity." - Mahalia the Dog

This One...

...has migraine headaches. Has had since she was two years old. When they started and she was tiny, they often came in the early morning hours. She would wake up crying and would spend an hour or so writhing in misery, crying, until she either fell asleep or threw up. Both of these actions served as a bit of a solution. She would finish either job feeling significantly better.

We had the big tests done and had the scary stuff ruled out. But the headaches persisted. Eventually, the severeness of them subsided, but as she entered adolesence, the frequency increased. For the first half of the school year, she needed to take ibuprofin every morning at breakfast.

I was sad and concerned. And I was sad and concerned out loud. People suggested things. Some of the suggestions we heeded. She hasn't had caffiene in a year. We are careful to give her adequate rest. These things help some.

Recently a friend told me that the only thing that solved their family member's migraine problem was getting off gluten. I had to try.

Reader Jenny asked for an update on the gluten-free experiment, so here are my observations to this point.

1. Cooperativeness of subject - much better than expected. It shouldn't have surprised me. Sophie is an adventurous eater so she doesn't mind trying new things. She is a middle child so she thinks it's special that many foods are being chosen specially for her. She doesn't feel well and wants to feel better. This all adds up to a relatively pain-free experiment.

2. Ease in providing the food - not without difficulty, but again, a bit better than I expected. Gluten-free girl MaryBeth told me that lunches are the most inconvenient and that's the case all right. Sophia doesn't mind taking a packed lunch and I don't mind packing it. We find gluten-free bread at our health food co-op and she might take a ham, or a PB, or a Nutella sandwich. Sometimes she will take a ham roll-up, with a bit of cream cheese inside. Other times a salad. Other go-withs: fresh fruits and vegetables, string cheeses or mini goudas, yogurt, these awesome gluten-free rice and nut crackers we found (if there are any left after I get to them). On days when I feel rushed, she might pack her own, but if we both feel rushed, there is always the salad bar at her school.

Here I have to brag on my local co-op a bit. Soon after starting the new diet, I had an opportunity to travel to The Big City, which has both a Trader Joes and a Whole Foods. I was excited to see what I imagined would be abundant and varied offerings in the specialty diet area. Really, I found very little that I hadn't already found at home.

3. Hidden gluten - This is one that worries me a bit. I'm not really sure what I'm looking for on labels. Mostly I avoid breads, pastas, cereals and their ilk unless I find one labeled gluten-free. I also rely on similarly eating (and more experienced) folks around me. Celiac Spouse Stacy made me so happy when she said corn tortillas are ok for taco night. We heart Taco Night.

What worries me is the stuff it never occurred to me to wonder about. MaryBeth tells me that there is gluten-free soy sauce available because most SOY sauce lists wheat as the first ingredient! Huhn. And as we searched for gluten-free cake recipes, we found one that called for baking soda and one that called for gluten-free baking soda. So is it safe or not?

4. Cost - more expensive, for sure. One caveat being that scooping my own measurements of rice flour out of the bulk bins at the co-op is a lot cheaper than buying the pre-packaged stuff at the supermarket.

5. Eating other people's meals - tricky. But so far, not insurmountable. A week into the diet, we were invited to a small group church carry-in where the host provided macaroni and cheese as the main dish. We found a rice pasta version and brought a pot of that for us. We figured she would be able to find some other things to eat there also. Some things were safe for her but of course there was no dessert she could eat and that made her sad. Solution: carry a gluten-free breakfast bar in my purse or hers so that she can have a sweet that is portable and handy.

6. Tastiness of the special foods - so far so good. A couple of things have even tasted better to Sophia than the original versions.

7. Effectiveness in treating Sophia's migraines - still hoping for better. Look, there is no denying that there is improvement. She has taken very little medicine for her pain since we started 2.5 months ago and she really, truly had been taking it every single day before that. But I'm always asking her to score her pain. "What's your head right now on a scale of 0-10?". And she has never, EVER said zero. Perhaps it takes time to completely purge her system?

We'll keep trying. And if there's anything to report, we'll keep posting.

NYC

Brooks and I recently returned from New York City, a first trip for the both of us. It was a school trip, with several ensembles in the music department competing in a music festival at the famous Riverside Church. I've been aching to go so I pimped myself out as chaperone. It was a demanding trip (I'd be surprised if anyone got more than 20 hours of sleep over the course of four nights) but I'm sure I'll always remember it favorably.

One reason I wanted to go was to have some interesting culinary experiences. Sadly, several of our meals needed to be at places that could house our whole party of 250, so not all meals were noteworthy. We did manage to stop at the Magnolia Bakery right away after they dumped us at Rockefeller Center for some of their delicious cupcakes - chocolate with buttercream frosting for him and pistachio for me.

We stopped at St. Paul's chapel, where 911 rescue workers once sought rest and comfort. It serves as a memorial today and these origami peace cranes sent by Japanese school children and other groups are among the artifacts still displayed.

We made the usual stops - Liberty and Ellis Islands, Times Square, and here, the top of the Empire State Building.

I feel lucky that my kids have such a great music department to go through in our public school. The directors are tireless workers with high taste in the arts. I was reminded of what a special community we have for music students when our ensembles won every category in which they were entered at the music festival.

The festival provided all the participating schools a cruise around the Hudson with dinner and dancing. It provided the close of the trip (and the close of this blog post) with this beautiful view of the island of Manhattan.

Deluded Little Sprouts

Torn I am between feeling delighted at the strangely summer-like weather we've been having for the last week.... and fretting over it's implications. Mostly it's hard not to be delighted when it means we can enjoy time outdoors as a family before Little League makes us too busy to do so.

I gotta say, it was nice to do some clean up work in the yard before things got hectic. Raking out the flower beds, however, revealed some deluded little sprouts that may be in jeopardy later. Really, I don't need highs in the 80's from here on out, but if we have a freeze after all this warmth, it will have serious ramifications beyond backyard gardening. The apple trees in the orchard down the road are budding and we are all wringing our hands over their recklessness.

Over the weekend Michael, Ava and I rode our bikes into town to the Schwinn store for some new bike swag. It was a long ride for the first one of the season. Mike told me later he was exhausted when we were still a half mile from home. Ava was conking out, too, and with her on small wheels, she really had to pedal almost the whole way, while Michael and I did a fair amount of coasting while we kept pace with her.

On the bike ride we saw crocus and daffodils.... even a magnolia tree or two almost ready to burst. It was hard to feel worried amidst all the beauty. I tell ya, I have never had a St. Patrick's Day like that before.

Kiss me, I'm sunburned.

Pincurl Tutorial

I started doing Sophia's hair in pincurls about three years ago, after I fell swinging from a rope swing like Tarzan and ended up with a bunch of broken fingers.

Sophia's hair has a texture that can be time-consuming to make attractive. We have to WORK to make it curly and we have to WORK to make it straight. I have suspected for years that her hair will get properly curly as she goes through puberty and I believe I see it happening before my eyes.

Pincurls were my strategy for organizing her hair during that time because my splinted, clumsy fingers made me slow and ineffective and our mornings were frenzied and chaotic while getting ready for school. With this method, I could take my time winding her hair after she bathed at night and she could simply take the pins out herself in the mornings and be mostly ready to go. Also, the pincurls made her hair look nice for a couple of days between settings.

After she washes her hair, we brush it free of tangles and part it where she likes it.

Sophia's hair is quite fine and of average thickness, so we take a section of perhaps a square inch. It seems like a comfortable amount of hair to pin.

I wrap the piece of hair around my finger to make the curl... I put one index finger close to her scalp and use the other hand to wrap the length of it around that finger. I've seen some online tutorials which "rolls" the hair from the ends to the roots - like one might roll up a length of ribbon. I find it needlessly time consuming, but it does make a differnt kind of curl. I would suggest experimenting a bit to get the kind of curl you like.

Next, I move on to the next square of hair, next to the first and still under the part. I work in rows as best I can. Heads are neither square nor flat, so I don't sweat about adding a bit more to a curl or fudging the rows as I need to.

This night, I surrounded the part with pincurls and worked my way down...

...until the whole head was covered.

This morning she got out the door for the bus before I could get a picture of the fresh ringlets. I'll look for an older picture to show you what the first morning looks like and update later.

This picture was taken after a day of school, a game of raquetball and being brushed out. It's basically what it looks like on Day 2, which I think I prefer.

Tips:

1. I've got my pinning technique pretty well perfected. Now that I've figured out where to insert the pin and which direction to point it (but which I find I can't articulate in words), I generally only need one pin per curl, but if you don't trust just one, put a second one in so that it criss-crosses with the first, which will lock them both in place. (The pins need to grab both the curl and the hair underneath.)

2. Pinning wet hair and leaving it until it dries makes the tightest curls. Pinning hair that is already dry will make looser waves. (I even read one tutorial in which the woman said she only did pincurls a day after she shampooed because setting "dirty" hair gave her the kind of style she liked.

3. Likewise, pinning small amounts of hair makes tighter curls than thicker strands.