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We ate Valentine cookies while taking down our tree

Today we finally, yes gasp – finally – took down our Christmas tree. We’ve been on a big clean-out-the-house-binge and the tree just didn’t strike us as important, until today.

As I took down the Christmas decorations, I felt the need to replace the fun with something else. While putting away the groceries I needed something to do with the left-over peanut butter to make room on the shelf for the new container. And when cleaning out the Christmas candy, it just didn’t seem right for all those red m&ms to go to waste. Then I found a half eaten bag of Ghirardelli milk chocolate chips.

So friends, that is how the peanut butter, chocolate chip, red m&m heart shaped cookies were created – while the Christmas tree was STILL up!

They made the perfect snack as we took down Christmas, rearranged the house, put it all back together and began looking forward to more wintery fun.

I used this recipe from Very Best Baking. It was perfect because it was suitable for a pan cookie variation which worked well for us, because I put the batter into heart shaped silicon muffin holders.  Usually I don’t cook with silicon (because I fear plastic is melting into our food).  Actually, I bought the molds to make heart shaped soap. But they were just sitting there, looking so fun.

What we ended up with was fun, and darn tasty too!

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Nature ice danglers help kids gage temperatures

Earlier in the week it was frigid here in East Tennessee. We even hit a rare 18 degrees, where my cats came inside to sleep on the heat registers. But even then, kids still need to get outside.

And what a better way for them to experience freezing temperatures than by creating ice danglers outside your door? We did this and my girls watched them melt, knowing just when it wasn’t freezing anymore.

When they were completely gone, they assumed they no longer needed a coat. Kids and coats right? Mine never want to wear them. But when they actually SEE that it’s 18 degrees outside, it’s a different matter.

We’ve made these before using food coloring and muffin tins. But this time I was inspired by The Artful Parent to use bits of nature instead.  This project is featured in The Artful Parent calendar, which we have hanging in our kitchen, providing us with a years worth of creative inspiration.

While there was still a dusting of snow on the ground, we went outside with baskets to gather some supplies to decorate our ice danglers. We picked up berries, pinecones, flowers from our winter bushes, leaves and cut sprigs from the neighbor’s discarded Christmas tree. The last one sounds strange. But hey, we make the best out of our in-town living!

Back inside we gathered up some cake pans and play pots, from their play kitchen, for them to layer their nature designs. Then I added water and a jute string for hanging. Then, either put it outside and watch it freeze or just stick it in your freezer (which we did).

After they were frozen we hung ours outside, after dark, to see what the morning would hold.

When they looked outside in the morning and saw them still frozen, they were convinced they needed a coat! As the day warmed up they saw them melting. It was a lesson in temperature that happened right before their eyes. And it was fun!

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Simmons’ souper fabulous butternut squash

Before I share with you the recipe for an awesome Butternut Squash Soup I created last night, I want to let you in on some secrets about me.

I’m terrible at meal planing. So bad that usually when 6:00 rolls around I still don’t know what I’m going to make for dinner. Somehow, it usually works out.

As you read this blog, through time, you’ll learn I’m a throw in, taste, mix, throw in some more, and perfect until it’s yummy kind of cook. Sometimes I use recipes for a starter ideas and inspiration. And sometimes I just open the fridge and start cooking.

Last night it was the latter scenario. The butternut squash on my counter from Farmer Megan had been sitting there for a couple weeks. At about 5:30, after I squeezed in writing this post for Family Friendly Knoxville, all us Simmons girls went to work in the kitchen. It was an evening when everyone wanted to help!

For my Souper Fabulous Butternut Squash Creation, here’s what we threw in the pot (my new swanky Le Creuset pot I got for Christmas from this gift guide).

*We started with one sautéd onion, chopped and cooked in olive oil in our stock pot.

*Then I chopped up 2 butternut squashes and 2 small sized sweet potatoes. Both little girls wanted to help so we had an assembly line of me chopping, handing the pieces to my two-year-old and then she handed them to my five-year-old who put them in the hot pot. Their little feet shared one stool, which I always find delightful.

*As the squash and sweet potatoes were getting added to the pot I poured in 2 cups of vegetable broth, letting it all cook on medium heat.

*Then I added 1/2 cup of milk and two tablespoons of butter.

*That was followed by a few generous shakes of cumin, turmeric, curry, garlic powder, salt and pepper.

*Next either put your soup in a blender to puree, or use an immersion blender. I could, and do, rave on and on about my Bamix immersion blender. It makes soup making SO much easier!

*Continue to simmer until ready to eat.

Served alongside our soups were grill cheese sandwiches and corn. We are a huge grill cheese eating family – mainly because my kids love them.

On this night my seven-year-old wanted to take on the job of making the sandwiches. We use a panini maker to make hot sandwiches, veggie burgers and even sometimes to grill veggies. I couldn’t imagine our kitchen without it! To make the butter spreading easier, I melted the butter and gave it to my daughter to brush on the bread, add the cheese and handed the spatula over to her. She could not have been more thrilled with having been given this big kid task involving the sizzling hot panini maker!

I have to say cooking with kids isn’t alway easy. I mean, it can really slow things down when the squash has to pass through six hands before it hits the pot! However last night everyone loved being involved, from the first what’s for dinner question, to the setting and clearing of the table.

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In the new year I’ll let the kids take the lead

I used to joke with my kids by telling them, “I’m the boss of the house.” Then they got smart and said, “No, I’m the boss of me.” Really, I think all us parents are kidding ourselves if we think we’re in charge. We may tell ourselves that we set the examples, and make the rules and decide what road we take on general family choices. But I’m learning that when I sit back and listen to my kids, they know exactly what our family needs.

I was reminded of this many times recently while our family spent entire days together at home doing nothing but mounds (and mounds and mounds and mounds) of laundry after lice was discovered on our kids’ heads. And since we all bed share at some point of the night, in revolving beds, the buggers ended up sharing our heads too – meaning none of us were spared. Yuck!

During the week-long process of de-licing our house, our washing machine and dryer BOTH broke and new ones were delivered on New Year’s Day (you can bet there was some begging on my part to get that done). So unplanned to us, we rung in the new year getting clean clothes and clean heads. Once again, I was not the boss of that plan!

In the process of it all the kids spent many hours entertaining themselves. And let me tell you, they did just fine.

Yesterday these cardboard houses that we made during our TV Free Summer where the tube stayed off, made a resurgence. They got some repairs with fresh duck tape and my oldest daughter created some new “games” and “TV channels” on the walls inside the houses.

Then much to my surprise, last night I discovered – along with the New Year’s Eve Family Day sign up top from two days ago – the following sign that my oldest daughter taped to our TV armoire. Then, she told me the rule applied to me too! Now look who’s boss.

Because of the lice fiasco and ignoring leaving the kids to entertain themselves for hours on hours, we finally sat down to do our New Year’s Day dinner and family resolutions, a day late.

Last year we started this tradition where we, as a family, share our New Year resolutions while all drawing pictures of what we share. Then I memorialized the resolutions by writing them and sewing them into a book, which we revisited on New Year’s Eve.

While telling our New Year’s resolutions my kids kept reminding me that I’m not in charge here, and that sometimes their ideas are much better than mine.

Too often I hurry my kids along, out the door, to make their beds, to pick up their toys, put their shoes on, and well…you know the drill. I have my agenda and they have theirs. Sometimes we meet in the middle and sometimes my ideas get thrown to the wind for a game of Storytelling or Go Fish. When it’s the later, I never regret it.

Last night, I loved what my kids said.

My middle child said, “I want to smell more flowers.”  She also drew pictures of our pets, those with us and those we have lost.  And she did her best to draw stairs because she likes going upstairs to play now, as we are slowly taking steps (physically and mentally) to move some big kid play items upstairs – soon to be followed by whole bed rooms I’m sure.

Everyone is feeling the need to stretch out a bit right now. Home improvements have been on our lists since last year. Which is why I found it ironically intuitive when our toddler asked me to draw a picture on her paper of “The Brown House” – the name we call our 90-year-old craftsman house that owns us jus as much as we own it.

My oldest daughter was very detailed on her resolutions about her plans to move her bedroom, along with her sister, upstairs. She also drew about sledding with mom, building a big snowman in Colorado with her cousin, looking at more stars, and finding more consultations. On the back of her paper she wrote, “Pray for Mae Mae a lot,” who is my mom suffering from Multiple Sclerosis. Along with, “Have lots of fun with family,” and “Make lots of crafts.”

Now doesn’t all that sound lovely? I think yes. Because on a busy day when I’m feeling overwhelmed with all the little things in life that don’t really mater at all, I’ll glance up at their New Year’s resolution pictures on the fridge and know exactly who’s in charge here.

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Oh kitty, it’s cold outside!

This is for the cats. Because I tell you how much I love my loony, whippersnapper of a dog Lulu and our old dog Blair that died last month, I’m posting this one of the cats. As a mom (and a vegetarian) I love that my kids are growing up with furry friends and a genuine desire to respect animals.

These cats are indoor/outdoor cats. Tonight it’s 18 degrees outside. So like any smart cat would do, they found their way inside. Sometimes they enter through the upstairs window in the sewing room if they see the light on. But tonight they used the backdoor. And let me show you, they are making themselves right at home tonight!

For a bit of the backstory, the black cat is Vera. She has been with us since October of 2000, when we lived in in a carriage house in Midtown Atlanta, off 10th St. – one of the busiest streets in town. We called the joint “The Love Shack.” She was a stray that my aunt found mangled with a broken tail. Around Halloween we took her in for her own safety, given bad people do bad things to black cats on Halloween. She HATED being inside. Since the days of The Love Shack we have called her the Alley Cat with 42 lives because she hung out on the sidewalk of 10th St., along with the homeless people who stopped to eat my tomatoes growing in the front yard.

Vera is sassy, snarky and gives a mean bitch slap. She still hangs out on the sidewalk. She even sleeps in the road! But when it’s 18 degrees outside she comes in to sleep on the heat vent. She’s also smart.

Then there is Fruit Punch, our newest furry family member. Some of you who used to read my Brown House News blog may remember when I was trying to find him a home. It turned out he found a home with us.

He showed up on our back porch on Easter, with a missing toe, an oozing pirate eye and weighed about five pounds. My middle child insisted that we take him to the vet for help. On the way there she named him “Fruit Punch.” Then we found out he was Feline Leukemia positive. Some awesome pet loving friends helped get him into a free spay/neuter program and all fixed up for a very low cost to us. Since then he’s done nothing but stick close to our home, and eat and eat and eat. He is HUGE now. The term fat and happy definitely applies to Fruit Punch, in the best way possible.

Wanna know the best things about these cats? They know when to go outside to use the bathroom. That’s right. There is no litter box in our house. And that makes us all very happy pet owners.

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Happy 2012! From our home to yours.

Happy New Year to all! We rang in 2012 at home tonight, on Paris time, with the girls and lots of fun. There was a dance party, chocolate hats for eating, a big blue ball drop from dad and a whole lot of racket using instruments brought up from our basement band space (where the loud things live).

We revisited our resolutions from last year, from the book that I sewed and wrote about here. We realized we accomplished many of those things – from acting classes, running a marathon, a new blog and me starting to write for real publications again, to taking more adventures, and full-filling one little girl’s request for more play dates. There’s more still do, but we’re saving those for 2012. We can’t wait to see what it holds for us!

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Celebrating New Year’s Eve at home, on France time

New Year’s Eve was fun before I had kids, like when I rang in the new year in New Orleans wearing a formal dress and being entertained by a 12 piece jazz band. That was a blast! It was a different life then and I’m not even going to bother trying to remember what year that was.

After we started having children, getting a sitter on the busiest going-out night of the year was never even considered. So we’ve made our own traditions and we have our own fun at home.

Ringing in the new year on France time, at 6:00, works perfect with young children. It’s a great opportunity to discuss timezones with your kids and there are several websites you can use to watch a count down.

On timeanddate.com they have countdowns listed from around the world.  And hey, you can pick another timezone if the 6:00 one doesn’t work for you! I love the beauty of that.

TVnewsradio.com will be streaming New Year’s Eve celebrations from around the world, including Paris via CNN LIVE.

For a real version, in French visit parisrama.com.

On About.com Paris Travel you can read, and share with your kids, about some of the customs and happenings of a Parisian New Year’s celebration.

We plan on having some fun while we celebrate at home, watching our computer! We made crowns this year for us to wear for the countdown. We’ll turn on some music, hang some fabric banners and bring up some instruments (tambourines, drums, bells, harmonicas…whatever) from the basement for the countdown. There will be sparkling juice for the girls and French wine for mom and dad. And then, a normal bedtime for the kids!

Last year on New Year’s Day we started a new tradition, of having family art time after dinner while we all talked about our resolutions and plans for the new year. We used paper and pastels to draw out all our hopes and dreams (err, sort of)! This was so much fun that I wrote down everything we said, and sewed a book out of it using printer fabric paper. I suppose you could say this was my form of art.

On New Year’s Day we’ll have a dinner with some traditional fare – black eyed peas and kale (instead of collard greens) – as well as some stuff I know the kids will like since this is supposed to be fun for them. Meaning, I’ll save the new recipes and mega veggie meals for another day.

Cheers! See ya next year.

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Nursing in public doesn’t have to be a BIG deal

Incase you have not heard by now, hundreds of moms made national and local news on December 28 partaking in a national nurse-in at more than 30 Target stores across the United States.

It was organized through the Facebook group, “Target Nurse-In,” and it was started by Michelle Hickman in Houston, Texas after she was asked by a Target employee to go in a fitting room to nurse her baby. As of today the group has swelled to 7518 members, helped by all the recent media about the event.

I have mixed feelings about this and what a nurse-in really accomplishes. I am proud of the moms who went out and stood their ground to say they have a right to feed their babies wherever and however they please. But I wish we didn’t have to do that in the first place. And I hope these participating moms will continue, on a daily basis, to nurse in public confidently and respectfully.

Nursing in public while displaying ease and grace is what makes nursing seem normal and acceptable, and paves the way for other mothers to do the same in our society.

Unfortunately this is not quite the message some people hear when they see a nurse-in on their 6:00 news. While a nurse-in can be very educational to some, it seems a bit rebellious to others. And nursing a baby in public is anything but rebellious.

New moms are nervous about getting out with their new bundles of love. Most are very apprehensive about nursing in public, at least in the beginning. I know I was.

I still remember my first time. I was sitting in a booth with my six-week-old baby at The Cheesecake Factory while meeting my mom and her friend for lunch. When my baby started to cry I got nervous. I fumbled about, trying to figure out what to do.  I was going to get up and walk my screaming baby across the restaurant to the bathroom. Until my mom’s friend calmly said, “Just nurse her. Go ahead.”

I needed that little bit of permission to feel like it was allowed.

Now I have been a breastfeeding mama for seven years and I can’t think of a place that I have not nursed a baby! I even mastered nursing my third baby while wearing her in an Ergo carrier, as I peacefully walked the grocery isles to accomplish my shopping. No one ever noticed and no one ever cared.

But if they did, I was confident and knowledgeable enough to tell them that according to my state laws I was allowed to nurse my baby in public any way I chose.

I have never been approached and asked to “cover up” or move to a private place to do breastfeed.

And yes, I have plopped myself down in the isles of Target to nurse a crying baby. Once when my two big girls were with me ,we even made ourselves quite comfortable in the beanbag isle! After our frazzled group recovered, we made it to checkout desk in a calm manor.

The way I see it, a crying baby is much more disruptive and stressful to others (including mom and siblings) than a content baby snuggled with mama getting just what she needs.

As I got more experienced at nursing in public, I noticed not all moms were confident doing so. And I began to feel like nursing in public was an act of advocacy for other moms, future moms, and even my own daughters!

The more of us moms who make breastfeeding in public seem like no big deal, the less of a big deal it will be and the more our society will accept it.

There have been times in restaurants and in my pediatrician’s waiting room where I’ve seen new moms obviously nervous about nursing, and I’ve nursed my baby just to make her feel more at ease about it.

So to all the new moms out there who didn’t feel brave enough to join a nurse-in this week, I’m here to tell you it’s OK. You don’t have to shine a spotlight on yourself to nurse your baby in public. Doing it any old regular way is just fine.

I just hope you do it. Do it for your baby, for other moms who are scared to do it and for all the babies who want nothing else other than the best milk mom has to offer.

Below is a photo of me nursing my third baby on a crowded beach in Florida. It’s not exactly Target. But it’s these moments that I would not trade for the world. 

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Goodbye Swagger Wagon, Hello Peace Cruiser

On Christmas day we could have been the hottest new advertisement selling Honda minivans. Who needs tricked out reversible seats when you just take them out so your dog can ride first class?

For years we traveled with our old dog Blair, who we had to put down last month. Waiting in the ranks was our young whippersnapper dog, AKA “Loony Lulu,” for her first trip to Georgia since she was six weeks old.

Blair always just rode in the back, with the seat folded down, next to our oldest daughter. But the whippersnapper dog is not trusted to be let loose in the car because she has been known to get motion sickness and puke in cars seats.

So after a long morning and afternoon of present opening, packing, lunch and all cramming our way into our minivan we call Betty the Bus – all the girls, including 55 pound Loony Lulu in her large size crate – settled in for a late afternoon nap as we hit the highway.

Over the hills and through the woods to grandmother’s house we went – a dog in a crate, three sleeping girls and two parents who were VERY thankful to find a Starbucks open on Christmas day. Because they DID wake us up at 5:15 on Christmas morning.

Next we’ll be looking into getting Lulu her own headphones so she too can enjoy the movie on the road while mom and dad have a rare, peaceful conversation without worrying if the dog is going to puke on the kids.

Don’t you think that would make a great ad for Honda? Move over Swagger Wagon, here comes the Simmons crew on the Peace Cruiser – dog crate, Starbucks and all!

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Meet our wool eating, wood chomping organic dog that is in need of a few good sheep to herd

During the last night of old dog Blair’s life I sat on the floor helping him get water and soothing him with pats on the head, while our young dog Lulu got her first bout of freedom sleeping without being locked in her crate.

While sitting with Blair, Lulu nuzzled up to me with her cute little beady brown eyes and looked at me in a way that I knew she was trying to tell me something. It was time. It was time to let him go.

With tears streaming down my cheek and with a crackly voice, I said, “Ok Lulu. Are you ready to be top dog?”

Since then this young whippersnapper dog of ours has gone up in the four-legged ranks of our family. And with more freedom to roam about the house, she (who will be two-years-old this spring) has become the top chewing dog of all things organic and natural.

This dog of mine has chewed the hands off of a wool Waldorf doll, the wooden feet off of two wool unicorns for fairies, and the wool turnip, tomato and cabbage from a set of large organic wool play food.

She has also snacked on wooden play eggs, wool and jute rugs, and took a bite out our Christmas doormat. I find that last one very metaphoric, as I found the mat with a bite taken out of the word Joy. Lucky for her, I just laughed it off.

There is something in me that just really wants my children to grow up with pets. They add so much fun-loving life to our family, and I have felt that way since I was a little girl when I would venture out to find stray cats in the woods to bring home. With that said, I’m a pet lover. Which is why I have so much tolerance for our wool eating, wood chomping, book devouring dog.

She goes for art supplies too – crayons that are whittled out of sticks from nature, ones that were melted and made into new shapes, paintbrushes, and pencils. Really, we should get her into some art classes to release all this artistic energy!

My oldest daughter had a Christmas present under the tree that she made for her middle sister. It was a bracelet made from wool beads that she felted in an art class.

Our “top dog,” also affectionally known as “Loony Lulu” and “Wacko Head,” sniffed out the present and devoured the whole thing leaving only shreds of paper and the metal parts from the bracelet.

Aside from my daughter being distraught, this made a light bulb go off in my head. My whippersnapper dog is part (or more) Austrian Shepherd. I have concluded she is longing for some sheep to herd and therefore sniffing out every last piece of wool in our house.

It’s a good doggone thing that this loony dog and me have this special bond – which began during her puppy months of me, her, and baby number three sitting under the stars during our nightly 2 am potty breaks/nursing sessions.

I know what you’re thinking, who gets a puppy with an eight-month-old baby? Words cannot explain it, other than I was sad about Blair getting old and adopting a new puppy seemed like the fun, spontaneous thing to do on the first day of summer break.

It was nuts. I am nuts. And she is nuts too!

But we love her, despite the town’s top dog trainer telling us Lulu is the most “stubborn dog” she has trained and that “Lulu is lucky to have us” – and you know what that means! It’s also a good doggone thing I have such an awesome husband who loves me enough to love my crazy dog.

And there you have it – the story of my perfect little Montessori/Waldorf dog who has very expensive tastes in toys, artistic talents and who can devour a book in no time, literally.

Below are scenes from Lulu’s most recent destructions. It happened while she was accidentally left home alone and not locked in her crate, one morning while I volunteered in my daughter’s classroom at her Montessori school.

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