Mom’s Musings

This has been an extra busy week in my real world, AND I have been trying to do the responsible thing and get more sleep. These are my excuses for posting a bit less than usual. If you are interested in my unsubstantiated opinions, I forthwith present you with this week’s THURSDAY THIRTEEN,

Thirteen ways to foster creativity in your children:

• First of all, make sure that your children’s basic needs for body and soul are consistently well-met. This lays a foundation of security and health. This will require a lot of love, self-discipline and self-sacrifice on your part.
  
• Expose your children to real life people, places and things. Go to the park, to the zoo, to the concerts, to church, to stores, to the library, and to as many other places as you can think of. Prepare your children ahead of time for what they will see and what behavior will be expected of them.
  
• Involve your children in the real work of the home, so that they may learn real skills and discover what valuable, competent people they are. Children (at an appropriate age, with instruction) can do animal chores, bake bread, clean bathrooms, mow lawns, wash vehicles, paint rooms, organize seasonal clothing, etc. DON’T DO FOR YOUR CHILDREN WHAT THEY CAN DO FOR THEMSELVES! Do you want them to learn that they are helpless and needy, or that they are strong and competent?
  
• READ, READ, READ to your children! And, let them see you enjoying reading, too. Read a variety of literary genres to them, and non-fiction, too. Other times and places will come alive to them. Wise and good men and women from ages past (and the present) can become your children’s friends through good books.
  
• Pay attention to your children, and particularly try to notice their aptitudes, talents and special interests. Nurture these talents, with appropriate lessons, supplies, field trips, mentors, etc. In schooling language, this is called Interest Based Education. This is the type of homeschooling that I tried to do. What’s good for one child’s development may not be the right fit for another child, as you most likely realize.
  
• Provide a rich learning environment in your home. This would include: books, art supplies, Legos or similar 3-D building toys, clothing for dress-up, a safe outdoor play area with sand box, a dirt heap, trees to climb, places to bike and skate, room to run and dance.
  
• Make sure your children have unstructured time every day to play and dream. How can they be creative if you are deciding what they will do every minute of every day?
  
• Provide opportunities for your children to interact lovingly with people of as many ages and ethnicities as possible. Emphasize the duty we have to love and serve others. Let them know that they are no better and no worse than anyone else because of being black, white, brown, or any other shade or nationality. Let them think of ways to love and serve.
  
• Limit TV viewing time. I would like to say, do without TV altogether, but there are valuable programs you can enjoy together, I know. I have read that the type of stimulation provided by TV does not foster neurological development in young children, nor does it develop their creativity. You can research this yourself, if you so desire. Jane M. Healy, Ph.D. has quite a bit to say on this subject in her book Your Child’s Growing Mind. This would include computer time as well.
  
• Just because you are a busy momma, don’t stop altogether doing the creative things for which you have a passion. Please, continue dancing, playing musical instruments, writing, and painting, or working to further a cause for which you are passionate.
  
• Make sure your children have strong basic skills in reading and math. Can a child be creative with math when he doesn’t know the language or rules of mathematics? Can a child appreciate the worlds hidden within books when he cannot read with ease?
  
• Converse with your children about everyday events, newspaper articles, and books you are reading, and truly try to listen to them when they converse with you.
  
• Play games with your children. Following the rules, planning one’s strategy, interacting with one another during the game, and keeping score foster emotional and mental growth and creativity.
  

There you have my list, compiled by an opinionated momma who homeschooled for many years. I am very pleased with my kind, creative, competent children. I didn’t say PERFECT, mind you. But, I enjoyed all the time spent with my children. Those were some of the best years of my life, and I am passionate about helping children to develop their particular talents.

1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup chopped celery
1/2 cup chopped green pepper
3 Tablespoons butter
3 Tablespoons flour
1 cup diced potatoes
1 cup diced carrots
2 cups chicken broth
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon thyme
1/2 cup frozen peas
1 17-oz. can cream corn
1 12-oz. can evaporated milk
(Optional: canned salmon or canned chicken)

• Cook the potatoes and carrots in the chicken broth, salt, pepper, and thyme for about 20 minutes.
• Add the peas and cook 5 minutes longer.
• In a skillet, melt the butter and saute the garlic, onion, celery and green pepper. When the veggies are tender, scoop them into the soup. To the remaining butter, stir in the flour, and gradually add the canned milk to make a white sauce.
• Turn off the heat under the soup. Add the white sauce, the cream corn, and the canned meat (if used).

Serves 4 to 6.

(This recipe is from volume 4 of My Favorite Recipe Cookbook, put out by the Lynden Tribune.)

This is the prompt provided by Yano for this week’s Ten on Tuesday. I haven’t thought this through, so you will receive these in the order in which they occur to me.

• It takes me a while to feel comfortable with a new machine. This is why I REALLY do not like driving someone else’s car, especially in the dark. When we first moved to our home here many years ago, my husband asked me to drive his big, clunky, manual transmission work truck. The child who rode with me could sense my nervousness and asked me if we were going to be OK.
  
• Dental work makes me so nervous that I either need to clutch a soft pillow to keep my hands still, or better yet, ask the dentist for nitrous oxide in order to relax and be a good patient.
  
• I like things in my home to be clean and orderly, but also to stay in the same place. My husband likes to rearrange things. So, rearranging happens when I am out, and I gradually get used to the new layout.
  
• I would rather stay in our general locale for a special outing than travel far away. Once we are on the road for our annual vacation to see Dad and Mom Taron, I am game for fun, but other than that I am most comfortable at home.
  
• The biggest celebrations for us as a family are birthdays. Often, especially when the children were younger, the birthday would even have a theme, such as Winnie the Pooh, Pirates of the Caribbean, or Pokemon.
  
• I prefer that other family members take the pictures. I have taken some of the pictures for my blog, but not many.
  
• I enjoy skimming through the dictionary to learn new words, and subscribe to My Word a Day online. As a family we will take turns trying to stump one another with new words, or competing to see who knows how to pronounce an unusual word.
  
• If I see half a cookie, I am almost irresistibly drawn to finish it. Please! Eat the whole cookie and leave me in peace!
  
• The best gift my husband can give me is doing work around the house, especially outside. One year I requested (and received) a dump truck load of gravel for the driveway for my birthday present.
  
• It is dangerous to let me begin a sewing project (which is probably why I haven’t done one in a few years) because all else (including eating and doing any other work) must fall by the wayside until it’s done. I enjoy the process, and I like to see the finished product. What can I say? Maybe a little obsessive compulsive?
  

2 pounds lean ground beef, browned

2 red bell peppers, diced, and sautéed with the ground beef

2 7-ounce cans of diced mild green chilies

2 1-ounce envelopes of onion soup mix

2 14.5 ounce cans stewed Italian Recipe tomatoes (Cut tomatoes smaller, if you desire.)

1 15 ounce can tomato sauce

2 40-ounce cans unseasoned pinto beans (Drain off bean liquid.)

2 Tablespoons dried chopped onion

2 Tablespoons mild chili powder

1 teaspoon ground cumin

½ to 1 teaspoon granulated garlic

Combine all the ingredients in a large (7 quart) crock pot. Cook on Low or High for the desired amount of time.

We serve our chili with shredded cheddar cheese, saltine crackers, sour cream, and pickled jalapeno peppers.

Today, after our morning worship service, we enjoyed a fellowship meal together. Most of us ladies bring something in a crockpot to serve, since oven space is so limited. This chili was my main dish contribution today. I concocted this particular recipe this morning, because I wanted to make just the right amount to fill my crockpot, and wanted it to be of moderate spiciness, since I knew a number of folks would enjoy that. Everyone’s contributions were delicious, and the time of visiting with one another was a treat as well.

A HAPPY FAMILY by Giovanni Battista Torriglia

As I was looking at other blogs this morning, I came across this lovely image posted on someone else’s blog. I found it again at Painting Place, where one may purchase artwork.

Some things in the picture that speak forth happiness, I think, are:

1. The mother is smiling at the children, and the children are smiling at one another.
2. The mother is enjoying her children even while she is busy.
3. The mother is busy for the benefit of her family vs. self-centered or self-indulgent. Those varients see children as interruptions and burdens, an attitude not conducive to family happiness.
4. The house looks clean (See the shining floor?) but not insanely neat (which drives one insane to maintain). As the saying goes, it’s clean enough to be healthy, and messy enough to be comfortable.
5. The children are cheerfully helping Mommy by watching and entertaining the baby.
6. The son has just arrived home from school (See his school bag on the floor by his chair?). His first focus is not on himself, but on greeting and enjoying his family. Wow!
7. Subconsciously, the late afternoon lighting contributes to the feeling of coziness.
8. I always wanted the cottage look, with those deep-set windows in the thick walls. Is that a hidden desire of lots of folks, which is nurtured by this homey scene?

Question of the day:

What to plant in the garden?

It’s time to decide.

Everyone enjoys

Green beans, broccoli, carrots,

Pumpkins, maybe leeks.

I’ll need cucumbers;

Want to try brining pickles

The old-fashioned way.

That brings to mind beets;

Also delicious pickled;

We need to plant some.

Something not veggie,

Want to see them everywhere:

Smiling sunflowers.

Don’t do much canning,

But we do love fresh produce

Grown in our backyard.

For more Haiku, visit Jennifer over at Playgroups are No Place for Children and Christina at A Mommy Story.

This is the prompt given by Yano this week for the Ten on Tuesday meme. We just recently had the house reroofed, so really, I am quite satisfied that our domicile is not in imminent danger of tumbling down around our ears. However, Yano indicates that we are to think BIG, as in no monetary or time limitations. So, here is my list:

1. I would like to sew or have made new tab-top curtains throughout the house. My neighbor sells some fabric which is supposed to be dust and mildew resistant. If the fabric is also attractive, that would be ideal.
   
2. A few of the double-paned windows, and the lovely stained glass in the front door need to be replaced. Think: lawnmower hits rocks, rocks shoot out, windows are now damaged. I’m just so thankful none of us got hit.
   
3. My husband is in the middle of a project to tear up all carpet in the house and replace it with laminate. He has 3 bedrooms yet to do, plus redo two runs of stairs. He has accomplished so much already, but this much of the project remains.
   
4. We live on a gravelly hill. Each winter the heaving of the soil brings large rocks to the surface which must be dug out, and the lawn becomes more undulating. It would be nice to go over all the lawn area with one of those tractor attachments that sifts out the large rocks, and start the lawn out fresh again once it’s all level. It’s been 18 or 19 years since we did something like that.
   
5. Similarly, our gravel driveway becomes rutted and ugly. I would like this leveled. I don’t really want it to be blacktopped, but that would be OK if it happened. I kind of like to hear vehicles crunching up the driveway.
   
6. I would like my husband to have a nice woodworking shop. He loves making furniture, but presently doesn’t have a shop.
   
7. My husband enjoys swimming (and I suppose I could be talked into it), so I would like him to have a lap pool.
   
8. We enjoy outdoor entertaining, so a fancy-schmancy area for that would be nice (not at all needed really, though, as we manage to have plenty of fun outside as it is).
   
9. It would be interesting to have a professional landscaper redo the yard, but I would still primarily want only native plants. I’m OK with showier plants near the house for a splash of color.
   
10. I would like to do a thorough cleaning of the house from top to bottom. We do keep it neat and clean, but sometimes you just like to really dig in and clean some more. I would enjoy that.
    

I’m taking a little break from domestic duties doing – What else? – a little of this and that on the Internet. First I check my email, then check if my friends on Facebook (you know who YOU are) have made their moves in Scrabulous. Then I open my blog and see what the reader traffic has been like. Thank you so much, my loyal readers! I appreciate you checking in on my little, domestic corner of the universe! So here you have a wee blog post.

Speaking of domestic, that is totally what my day has been. Tomorrow we eat breakfast together at church prior to the worship service. I have desired to make homemade cinnamon rolls for the friends for a while now, so I finally did it. I’m just about done baking all the batches now, and will frost them tomorrow morning. My recipe makes approximately 100 sweet rolls (Ninety-six to be precise, my dear Watson.)

I still need to bake some bread, since we’re totally out. That is a DISASTER around here! Nothing is quite the same as homemade bread, toasted and buttered, for breakfast. Hmm. Guess that will have to come after baking some chicken for dinner, since it’s getting to be THAT time.

Before I do any more baking however, I’m taking old doggie for a walk. That will give me an extra burst of energy that the cup of coffee I just drank didn’t seem to give me.

Throughout the day I’ve been doing load after load of laundry. The girls will do all the folding in a little bit. Two of the girls still need to clean their assigned bathrooms. Rick vacuumed the house this morning prior to some clients arriving at 9a.m., and also used the Swiffer Wet Jet in necessary places. (The dog comes in the house muddy; what can I say?)

Maybe this evening the children and I can play a few games. I’m about out of oomph. It will be nice to relax.

THURSDAY THIRTEEN

Biryani

If you count all of the ¼ teaspoon spices as one ingredient, and don’t count the topping of cashews, raisins and hard-cooked eggs, this recipe has 13 ingredients. I hope that’s O.K.

This is a wonderful dish, often requested as a birthday meal in our home.

(This recipe is from Everybody Cooks Rice by Norah Dooley and Peter Thornton, a children’s picture book published in 1991 by Carolrhoda Books, ISBN: 0876144121)

2 medium onions, peeled and chopped

2 Tablespoons butter

Spices:

2 cloves garlic, peeled and finely chopped

2 teaspoons grated fresh ginger

1 teaspoon ground coriander

¼ teaspoon each crushed black pepper, cayenne pepper, ground cloves, ground cinnamon, and ground cardamom

1 teaspoon cumin

Vegetables:

½ cup carrots, peeled and thinly sliced

2 fresh tomatoes, peeled, quartered, and diced

1 cup cauliflower florets

1 cup green beans

1 cup green peas

3 cups half-cooked rice (rice that has cooked for 7 to 10 minutes)

2 Tablespoons water

½ cup cashews

½ cup raisins

2 hard-cooked eggs, peeled

1. In a large frying pan over medium heat, sauté onions in 1 Tablespoon butter until golden.
   
2. Add all spices.
   
3. Add all the vegetables and sauté for 2 or 3 minutes.
   
4. Butter a large casserole dish and add all the ingredients, mixing or layering rice and vegetables.
   
5. Bake at 300 degrees F for 30 to 35 minutes.
   
6. Sauté cashews and raisins in 1 Tablespoon butter.
   
7. Crumble hard-cooked eggs.
   
8. When biryani is baked, sprinkle with cashews, raisins, and crumbled hard-cooked eggs.
   

I was catching up on some blog reading this morning and came across a fascinating post at Radical Womanhood. The author, Carolyn McCulley, gives a brief synopsis of the devastation to families caused by the philosophy of Social Darwinism. If your curiosity is piqued, you can read her post, The Economic Base of the Family, here.