Old hands, new hobby

Starting new traditions

I love the idea of having family traditions, things that Thomas will recall from his childhood and hopefully pass on to his own family someday. I was talking with my mom about traditions she recalled from her childhood. She said every Sunday her mom would make coffee cake for breakfast followed by a mid after noon family dinner. So using the exact same recipe my grandmother used I made coffee cake for my family Sunday morning.

I have always hated that our beautiful china sits in the pantry zipped away in cases all year round. Why even bother owning something so nice if you only get to see it (maybe) once a year. So now every Sunday I will carefully bring down our china and iron our nice table cloth and napkins. This will be a great way to welcome a new week.

This meal turned out super delicious. I tried something new: coca cola! I added a can of cola to the crock pot roast and it was the moistest roast I have ever turned out.

Thomas loves carrots and potatoes from the crock pot. He also loved drinking from the tall glasses. This meal and new tradition was a big hit!

For dessert I made Amish bread pudding. If I only ever pass on one recipe, this should be the one! I have never had such heavenly sweetness in my whole life...bless the Amish!!!

Here is the link if you would like to try it: http://www.momswhothink.com/easy-recipes/bread-pudding-recipe.html I used half and half for the pudding and the sauce. I omitted the raisins. Enjoy and happy traditions to you and your family!!!

Paella

This was my first attempt at making Paella. Look at the steam coming off the food...

Unfortunately I could not find Spanish rice anywhere in this big city! Since I was to impatient to buy some mail order, I used arborio rice instead. It was a bit mushy for my taste.

I served it with warm sourdough bread...my favorite!

The clams and mussels did not survive thawing out...not sure what I did wrong there...

But chicken, chorizo, and shrimp were enough meat for us.

Over all it was a TON of work and I don't even want to add up the cost of all my ingredients. To top it all off it was really lacking in flavor. Pat said he really liked it, I only liked the way it looked. Since I have a wonderful Spanish paella pan I am sure I will attempt this again, but just not in the near future...

A gift for myself

When it comes to spending money on myself, it rarely happens. Don't get me wrong I spend money. Some how every week I am able to find too many ways to spend our budget. Usually it has something to do with food, Thomas or the house. You may be looking at my picture and scratching your head. Yes, technically a broom is for the house, but not this broom. This broom is all mine! I have been contemplating buying a new one for quite some time now. I wanted to buy one that was American made and a corn cob broom as well.

When I saw this one for under seven (yes, I said seven) dollars at Cost Co I almost walked right passed it. Surely nothing under that giant roof was American made, except for a large portion of the people walking around. But then my love of the broom took over and I picked it up... Only to see it was made right here in the good ole USA! Thomas of course pretended to be a witch riding on the broom all the way through the store and out to our car.

Now all that is left is a bitter sweet good bye to my old worn out broom. Who, I cant seem to find now... ahh the mysteries of a good old broom!

What I posted on my NEW Waldorf groups site.

I just joined what looks to be a great online site for Waldorf families...and those of us wanting to know more. This was my first post chalked full of questions, hope I didn't come across like a complete moron!


I am pretty new to the Waldorf world. I have known (to some degree) about Waldorf for a year or two but have just really started delving into it. I have a son who has just turned three years old. When my son turned about a year maybe a year and a half all the mamas that I knew from an AP play group who's boys were the same age were starting to potty train. So I ran out and bought a little potty and followed suit. Then my sister in law who has slightly older kids gave me some advice that had been given to her. Which was to wait until my son turned three before truly trying to potty train him. We felt 100 percent like that was the right thing to do and our son peacefully trained himself to use the real toilette well before any of my friends kids who had been pushed and pushed by frustrated parents to train early.

Ok whats my point...well several months ago all the mamas I know started yammering on and on about schooling and what methods they were trying to implement in their homes. Gasp! My son was still two and I was already so far behind with his education! I started reading Montessori books and buying little things here and there to try out on him. But frankly it didn't feel natural. I loved that they used nice wooden things to teach children with and it seemed pretty gentle but...my son was only two!

So I kept thinking about a couple great mamas I know (mostly via on line) and knew of their interests in Waldorf. I knew they liked natural and wooden "stuff'' as well so thats when I slowly started wanting to learn more. I could never really tell someone the difference between the two...Montessori and Waldorf. So thats were my journey began, trying to figure out what separates the two. Now I am pretty sure the difference is that they are total opposites.

I am currently reading my first Waldorf book which is "you are your child's first teacher." Which I am simply loving. Plus I check out Waldorf blogs when I have a chance. I am thrilled to see the author of my favorite belongs to this very group! I feel like I am surrounded by super stars!

Part of me feels very behind but no longer about schooling, thank goodness. So here are my questions...

How do I get rid of the television??? My husband agreed to cancel it but when the time came some how he returned to me with the fact that he UPGRADED our service! So now instead of 100 yucky channels we have 250!

I would love to start celebrating the different festivals and holidays that are part of the Waldorf community (in some form.) But I don't know where to start with that either, in an age appropriate way...any ideas?

Big mess up on our part is that our son has tons of cars and trucks and other not so desirable toys, how do I peacefully make the transition for him. Or am I just too late. We also have musical instruments, which now I am reading on here is not good for him.

Uggg... how does one un-mess the mess that they have made???

New activities

Thomas just turned three and suddenly I felt this heavy urge to put him in some organized classes. I had/have no desire to place him in the "mommy and me" type classes. You know the kind were mommy is 100 percent involved and your little one gets to stay safely by your side. Not that I am against the safely by your side aspect but I just really feel that Thomas is ready to learn that there are other people in this world that he needs to learn from.

With so much energy to expel I really focused on finding classes that involved constant movement. Thomas LOVED his first day at gymnastics!!! This is a real class taught by a professional gymnast. All the parents watch from out side the room behind a glass window. Yeah! Thomas tumbled, jumped, twisted, climbed and so much more. If you ask him what his favorite part was be prepared to sit and listen for a while.

He talks about climbing up the rope, swinging on it and jumping from it into a pile of foam blocks. Then he will go on and on about the trampoline. So much fun!!!

The following day started swim lessons. Don't even get me started on this one! I hated it...for him! In his class it was just him and one little girl. This little girl was the same age and had already been in eight other swim sessions. She was swimming with her face under the water and everything. His swim teacher (if you can call her that) was a young...very young (high school age) girl.

I think she had no idea that this was Thomas' first time in a pool with out a life vest. She placed the kids on a movable platform in the middle of the pool. A deep pool by the way. And then she proceeded to have the kids jump into her arms. Only when they would jump she would back away from them. Can you see the fear in my eyes yet? When she finally scooped Thomas up (I was on my feet and about to jump in, by the way) I could see the shock all over his sweet little face. Dirty trick if you ask me!

Soon Thomas got the idea and decided he had had enough of her tricks and managed to get out of the pool when they were working near the ledge. He put his hands on his hips and shook his head "no." It took me quite a while to convince him to get back in the water and I was fearing that this was not going to be pretty. The teacher was able to teach him to float on his back a couple times but then the session was over.

She ended their time by saying a special "good bye" to each child... First up was the little girl. The teacher opened her arms and the girl jumped in and with that the teacher swung her into the air and flew her around a couple times. Thomas was absolutely horrified with the way this was playing out! Next up was Thomas and when she opened up her arms for him to jump into them Thomas screamed in total fear! He HATES to be swung like that! Some how she got him down and gently cradled him in her arms as she swirled around.

Thomas and I have no desire to return to this class. But Pat thinks he needs to go back, that he needs to learn to swim and that he needs to go back to things that are hard and scary. Luckily I only paid for two classes. I am making Pat take him to the next class so he can see what I am talking about. Maybe the calm presence of his father will help the next swim class go better.

I also thought a dance class would be fun for Thomas. But that was disastrous as well. Needless to say after just a few minutes we were out the door and Thomas was asking where his soccer and football teams were. How he got that into his mind I am not sure, but I guess I am off to find him a soccer or foot ball team to join...

Mimi in art: part 2

She agreed!!! I got an email back saying she would love to do this painting for me!!! Now I just need to gather all my favorite pictures of Mimi girl and send them off to her. In case you cant tell, I am very (VERY) excited about this. I will update more as it comes...