live from sublurbia

But wanted to pass this on:

http://www.coasttocoastam.com/timages/page/pumpkin_sim.html

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I remember air conditioning in the car growing up. 4/35. Four windows down, 35 miles per hour. There were four of us, so we didn’t always get a window.

And to get the window down, crank, crank, crank.

My kids? Get hocus pocus. They love the hocus pocus game. Laughing, clicking the lever (or making the driver hit it), howling hocus pocus at the top of their lungs.

Of course it’s been raining, but that’s no deterrent. Hocus pocus and rain is even more fun, and a great transition to and from our days on the job, learning and working, and the home routine.

Have you hocus pocused anything lately?

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_{WFMW: The Kitchen Organization Edition can be found here!}

The other half - guessing. Makes meals interesting, and sometimes fun. :)

Watching the new Alton Brown series, he featured one chef who had learned cooking from his grandmother. She’d never said a word about cooking, he learned by watching.

A lot of my cooking I learned by watching, experimenting, and guessing. Measuring is … optional. Unless you’re making Kraft Dinner - too much milk there makes for a thin, flavorless sauce.

So I’ve streamlined my kitchen and cooking in several ways:

1. Dumping the slotted knife block. My knives are … eclectic. I bought a block that is filled with little plastic fibers instead; I can slip a knife in at any old angle.

2. Rotating up and out. Things that haven’t been used in three months go up a shelf. Six, the top of the cabinet. Nine months, the garage. The one exception is my tamale steamer; I store my canning supplies in it instead.

3. Dried fruits and veggies. Add to meals during crunch times, have around for hurricane season, have them ready for any time.

4. Losing the measuring cups. I have them, sometimes use them. Usually I’ll just grab a kid’s plastic bowl from IKEA - they measure about a cup.

So when asked for my crockpot pinto bean recipe the other day, I slowed down and ‘measured’ it out with my cereal bowls:

1 cup dry beans
1/2 cup chopped onions
1/4 dried, roasted garlic or 1 chopped fresh clove garlic

Soak beans in a large bowl overnight (fridge) in water, rinse, throw in crockpot on low all day with at least 6 cups water. Salt when refried or served.

And about 4 minutes ago, I half measured out pancakes for breakfast.

1 box Jiffy Banana Nut Muffin Mix
1 cup wheat pancake mix
1/4 cup chopped, dried fruit (I did strawberries)
1 cup milk plus a couple of splashes
2 eggs

Mix dry ingredients, dispersing strawberries. You can do fresh, but it’s a bit harder.

Add wet ingredients, mix. As the mix sits, it will thicken - thin with more milk. Also, the more dried fruit you add, the more milk you’ll need to add; the fruit soaks it up as it reconstitutes. Cook as usual.

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_{for the whole thirty seconds it took me to think it up …}

Ah, Florida. When Laser Beam and I traded floors for lawns, I figured I knew what I was getting into. Run a mower over the lawn every few weeks, edge once a quarter or so, cut down weed palm branches and hope they fell in their entirety during hurricanes. And I wouldn’t have to worry about sweeping under the table and vacuuming under the beds.

Moving to Cabbage Mere changed that notion. Edging to keep the grass out of the sidewalk and give it the finely expensive waxed look that is … requested by the city and Home Ogres association takes a bit more frequent manicuring than once a quarter. And the sweeping! I’d have done less sweeping if I’d kept the inside and let Laser Beam do the outside. Continue Reading »

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When I was a wee one, I became fascinated with patterns and the lovely shapes they made. It started with those last throes of the 70’s home-art craze - black velvet cloth dotted with tacking pins, thread strung among the pins in the shape of a flower. Or an elephant. Or Inky, Blinky, and Clyde.

I liked the patterns, but couldn’t really handle the math. Luckily, computers became smaller and I found others who like all fractal kinds of math and art.

As we start to indoctrinate our kids into the pretty and fun parts of math, I’m finding more and more to share with them. They’re a little young for XKCD raw but we can use it to give them more little peeks every day.

In the meantime, I give you the formulas for hearts and butterflies. Now to find one for volcanoes!

These are just the sites that have found me - have any found you?

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I know my kid thinks that I’m a super hero but where are the ladies?

When I did the planning for this year’s birthday parties, last minute as Wolfie kept changing his mind (and Helvi’s too young to object as strenuously to my wild ideas), I could find almost no female super hero gear in local stores. No Wonder Woman. No Power Puff girls (one cake at Publix). The closest I got was Dora the Explorer, and Ariel (because mermaids are heroes, too, says Wolfie).

But it’s not just super heroes. Laser Beam (aka the hub) and I were talking about movies a recently and we came across the same phenomenon. Most of the top 100 American (and probably world wide) movies around (gross profits) have male leads. We debated about the star of Titanic, but I had to get down into the fifties of some lists to even get a female lead (My Big Fat Greek Wedding).

Why?

Do we not find them compelling? Or are their everyday actions heroic? Or is it a habit of old?

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The white stuff
The white stuff
(Verse) The first spoon was a great spoon
The second spoon was a spat
The third time I got hot holders
Now I hope they last
I can see it looks like chalk
But it don’t seem t’come off
Can see it in every piece from you
Even on my pots
(Chorus) You got the white stuff baby
I don’t know how you got it on
You got the white stuff baby
That’s the reason why I sing this song
All that I needed was you
But now, you’re dusty white
And all that I wanted was spoons
Spats that don’t scrape and tongs too
Oh Oh Oh Oh, Oh Oh Oh Oh.
Oh Oh Oh Oh, Oh Oh Oh Oh.

But seriously folks, I have white stuff ALL OVER my stinking silicone cookware. I started with a spoon, and then a spatula, then flat pot holders, even a silicone tagine (still unused because I fear the white stuff). I’m not sure what is causing it. I loved them and then, well, neglected them a bit and now we have the white stuff.

Is it the soaking occasionally when I’m lazy? You know, in a greasy dishpan with Dawn detergent. Running pieces through the dishwasher (hard to find good, environmentally friendly dish soap for there - I use Publix Lemon)?

What would fix this issue, anyone? Scrubbing with Dawn has not really done much. Would vinegar help? Or hurt the silicone? What about Charlie’s Soap (I use it in my washing machine, might try it in the dishwasher)? Baking soda paste? Borax? I’ve done internet searches, and had been preparing to simply experiment when the lovely reverse WFMW came up …

Feed me your ideas and experience!

For this and other bad puns, mangling of boy-band lyrics, and problems that you might be the only person able to solve, see all the Works For You Wednesday posts this week at rocksinmydryer.net!

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And I think we’ve got a routine nailed down. Now if only these hurricanes would buzz off … although I do like the rains and what they do for our sadly dry water tables.

I’m brewing up a review of currently available lunch bag options (the styles change every year) but for littler kids the winner can be found at Office Depot and adults most Wal-Marts (I know, I know, still looking for another outlet).

Kit lunch containers (inside the bag) are big at Winn Dixie right now - the Lock N Lock brand I drool over at the various bento sites I read. That works for kids or adults, though I have mostly plain containers for adult lunches that I can purchase just about anywhere.

But as I gather up what I put in my lunches that sail out our door every morning, I wonder, what do you put in yours? Breakfast? Lunch? Snacks? Drinks? Treats? Chopsticks? Napkins? Titanium Sporks?

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Between vacation, school starting (two different schools this year, oh boy), job changes, life changes, tropical storms, swimming lessons, belly dancing class, and trying to find one lunch bag that actually works for Wolfie and the varied shapes his lunch takes, I’ve been BUSY.

However, while my kids are all now back in school, some of my friends are in that last week or two of trying to keep everyone happy, entertained, and for a reasonable cost. And some of them found it. Post-it-notes and Sharpies!

I blame Big Sis, who combined numbers one and two, below, one inside-day when there were Chores To Be Done. All the beta moms, actually … my peer group who started on the kid train a little earlier than I, helped me come ip with these ideas while talking about amusing their broods. Mostly class of 2020, some class of 2021, but boy this social networking stuff really lets us brainstorm up good ideas. So most of the credit for this one goes out to all you Beta Moms.

Idea 1: Make a treasure or scavenger hunt with sticky notes. Write each clue pointing to the next and hide them throughout the house.

Idea 2: Make a chore list with the sticky notes. As each kid finishes each chore, they count towards points for a prize or treat.

Idea 3: Cover a poster (one with lots of something the child likes, such as dinosaurs, turtles, superheroes) with sticky notes. As the child does each task or meets each mini goal (I used this one for potty training), the child gets to remove a note and uncover a dinosaur or butterfly.

Idea 4: Write numbers or letters on the notes, have the kid(s) find them all and put them in order.

Idea 5: Write out common letters and have the kid(s) spell out words they know.

One of the great things about this is that a prepared mom, dad, or assorted kid- herder has the sticky notes for Evil Potties anyway; five can be a portable busy game, too.

See this and other kid-straction ideas on Rocks in My Dryer: glow sticks for the win!!!!

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I wish I could recall the rest of the joke instead of just the punch line. It was uproariously funny at the time; a long intra-family discussion of the Pointy Haired Bosses executing the Peter Principle in our general direction.

But yes, the F (Fay) and the G (Gustav) are giving me heartburn.

We’ve been through a few storms before and adapted our plan as our family has grown. Shutters instead of plywood (with successive storm names painted on the sheets). Instead of a shelf of water, beef jerky, and a few other things to load for a ride to sit the storm with relatives, the kids are used to my hurricane closet of snacky treats and flashlights. We rotate board games, books, and have “camp outs” downstairs away from the worst of the weather.

Wolfie’s gotten more literal in his understanding, from painting the wind as the storm singing to us and making music to putting together the more abstract storm tracking tools - radar. He’s not quite got it yet, through no fault of his own. But it did take me a couple of days to understand what he really was looking for - actual purple colored rain out the window instead of only on the computer or television screen. Whoops. Helvi’s just in it for the cookies and the party atmosphere of “camp hur’cane!”

Oh, Fay. Rain on my rooftop, rain in my house. Gah. I hope Gustav stays far enough away from us that I can get that (hopefully minor!) leak fixed. It’s at an odd angle so I’m not even certain I could really tarp it up.

Thinking of you guys in the path, over and above my own self-centered concerns. Time to dust off some of my old hurricane/camping survival techniques.

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