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Thankfulness at our table

At our Thanksgiving table we all took turns telling what we are thankful for, wrote it on a card and hung it on our Thankful Tree – a larger version of the ones we made here.

We are thankful for: family, mom, dad, God, each other, cousins, sisters, health, togetherness, our wives, our husbands, our kids, the good times and pulling through the difficult ones. My card said, “My sister-in-law. We did it!”

For the first time in my grown up life the two of us made the entire meal, from beginning to end, all the way down to the strawberry sauce for the homemade cheesecake. So yeah, there was room for celebration. We cooked (and ate) for two straight days!

In between the cooking we found some downtime for crafts with the kids, fun flower arranging, Lincoln Log building and to make the table look – oh my gosh so cute. Some of the ideas were ones I featured in my Pinterest post earlier in the week.

The write-on tablecloth for the kids was a huge hit. It was brown builder paper available in the paint department at big box home improvement stores. I highly recommend it for your next family gathering. Involving the kids in preparing for the day was rewarding for all of us. And yes the dolls had a table too, set by the girls.

I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving. And hey – thanks for reading! I am truly thankful for each and every one one of you.

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Some Pinterest ideas for your Thanksgiving table

Wednesday will be spent with cousins running about, playing, skipping, crafting and going in and out, running through the woods and bringing some of nature back inside – I’m sure of that. The adults will talk about food, family, plans, and the baking I imagine.

I’m going to give the girls (because they are all girls) the task of making some table decorations for the big feast. There’s no kid’s table where we will be . But I guarantee you the table will be more childlike than adult like. And honestly, that’s just how I like it.

Here are some simple ideas I found on Pinterest, and pinned in my Thanksgiving board, that I’ll be passing on to the girls, hopping for some masterpieces (only slightly kidding here) for our table. Also, don’t forget about our Thankful Trees we made earlier this week. And for more ideas, including fun food displays kids will love, check out the Pinterest ideas over at Family Friendly Knoxville, where I got the idea for this post.

These boats will be simple to pull off, seeing we are never in short demand of coffee runs, and can stock on up reusable coffee sleeves between now and Thanksgiving – no problem! And plus, what kid doesn’t love getting to make the assigned seating arrangements? I’ve got some extra floral foam I think I’ll stick in the bottom for the sticks, and use a nicer card stock for the drawings.

 

 

 

What about those half and half containers that go with your coffee? Now they can have a home, literally. And those cartons of goldfish that are a must while tying to get though an errand or a last minute grocery store run, with sanity intact. I think I’ll have to pick up a paint brush myself for these. I love them that much!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This made me think of the idea my aunt did a few years back using teepee’s from a Lincon Log set and making a whole Lincon Log village on the table. We even have one of these sets, with a little Indian. Cliche I know. But I’d rather have this on my table than a crafty smiling turkey, seeing I don’t eat turkey and am not amused by making them cute.

 

 

I love this idea of having brown paper on the table, skipping a fancy tablecloth, letting children draw on the table and the grown ups drink wine linger a little longer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Good luck, have fun, get creative, be thankful and let the kids take over – because really, that’s what holidays are all about. See you on Friday!

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My baby stuff gets passed on

Today my big baby items hogging up major space in my basement – items that have been around since baby number one – moved on to a good home. It was a really good home, to those adorable twin boys you see up top. I secretly (maybe not such a secret now) fantasize about having twins. And if I could be guaranteed twin boys, I’d probably sign up for that pregnancy. Because honestly, just one boy in this house might have a rough time of it.

When me and the Mister got married I said I wanted two girls and he wanted two boys. Both of us grew up with one brother and one sister, but not a sibling of the same sex. So at this point, if we have were to have a boy, I kind of hope there would two of them. Not that any more babies are happening at all! Err, right now at least. I have to say, when I saw these twins today my out loud reaction was, “It’s a good thing I ovulated last week.”

The twin boys are my neighbor’s newest nephews. Giving up this stuff is never easy for me. Seeing I have pictures of all three of my girls in that red Combi baby rocker seat at age four months wearing the exact same outfit. It’s a seat that was the posh thing to have seven years ago, with built in speakers for your walkman, yes walkman! Technology has come a long way since then! But the cord also holds today’s iPod, to stream those peaceful tunes right through the built in speakers in the canopy top. Ridicules really, but hey – Gwyneth Paltrow had one! So it was cool.

The bigger picture here is that I’d rather see this stuff go to good use than to live in my basement when someone else could be using it. Yes I could have sold the red rocker, the jumperoo, the wooden booster seat, the extra large playpen that they don’t even make anymore, and the wooden German made floor gym. But it was too much trouble to think about. And it just feels better this way.

My baby stuff in general has been passed around my neighborhood where there have been 22 babies born in the last five years. It’s like my free storage plan and insurance just incase I need them again. Just incase there is another baby, I know where to find them. However, my co-sleeper and my Australian made baby hammock are staying with me – those are the two items as a new mom I have loved them most. The hammock is super expensive. But I got mine for a great deal, from an Australian couple in my neighborhood who brought it back to the states and decided it didn’t work for them.

But oh look at those twins. They are too sweet for words. I could eat them.

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Weekending

This is what we’ve been up to today.

Raking, smiling, helping, climbing, loving, and silliness with PJs included.

I hope you’re having a nice day too.

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Making Thankful Trees with children

As a board member at Lisa Ross Birth and Women’s Center I volunteered to host a craft table for children, at the 20th anniversary celebration that happened on Saturday. I wanted to do something interesting, using materials that didn’t cost a lot of money and even perhaps introduced some parents to the idea of natural crafting with children. Too often we rely on store-bought kits and the run of the mill preschool crafts seen over and over again. I wanted to do something seasonal, but different than your average turkey hand crafts where the parents are doing the hand tracing, directions of the glue and generally overseeing the process to get the results they had in mind.

After searching some Thanksgiving craft ideas on Pintrest, I adapted my own version of a Thankful Tree, for this event that attracted young children of varying ages.

I precut rectangular shapes of fall colored paper, provided leaf stamps, non-toxic washable ink and a child size place for them to sit. Stamping is something kids of all ages enjoy, and can do well. I had the challenge of coming up with a craft that didn’t require long drying times for glue or paint, since the kids would be walking off with it the second they were finished. And this fit that need perfectly.

Older and more advanced children were able to write things on the cards that they are thankful for. Younger ones just enjoyed the stamps. I also provided a scrapbooking hole puncher that cut holes like this -|| – perfect for looping yarn through and creating a way to hang the cards on the twigs. At home we made a larger version of this Thankful Tree using a glass vase and a branch large enough for the whole family, making it a group craft and time for sharing.

But for the children’s event I just used clear plastic cups (made from corn) and river rocks to hold the twigs in place. I knew the toddler aged children would love picking out rocks and putting into the cups, which they did.

To get my stack of twigs, because I knew the park where the event was being held had zero trees, I found a house in my neighborhood with a down tree and sifted through the stash.

Children who really got into the stamping, and were a little older, made banners like the one taped on to the table above. I provided a few blunt, dull needles used for embroidery work that children utilized to “sew” the cards onto yarn through the hole punches that so perfectly go like | |.

The punchers, and many other useful ones to add to your paper crafting stash, can be found in the scrapbooking isles at craft stores.

In addition to the Thankful Trees and leaf banners, children made birthday crowns to celebrate the LRBWC, drew on art boards placed on the ground with white paper taped to them, covered the concrete with sidewalk chalk art and strung bracelets and necklaces from wooden beads.

It was really fun spending this time with the children birthed at the LRBWC. I look forward to the next 20 years to come!

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Tablecloths for the Montessori classroom

I’ve been known to sew all new tablecloths for birthday parties using enough children’s size tables to seat 12 kids with real dish ware and glasses, and tablecloths of course.  When my middle daughter’s teacher at her Montessori school started hinting that she would love to have tablecloths for the children to use at snack time, I stored it in my brain waiting to get the time to do it.

Friday’s Thanksgiving breakfast was the perfect time to surprise her with them. Actually, my daughter took them to school the day before, with 10 new glass vases and three bouquets of flowers to decorate the room. This is the fourth straight year I have had a child in this classroom with the same two teachers. And at this rate, it will be another four between my three girls.

Below are a few pictures of the room, which is shared by the 19 students in the class,  ranging in ages from 3-6. The set up with the metal bowls is a washing station for the children to wash their own dishes after snack time. The last one is a bit blurry (sorry about that). I was putting my new iPhone 4s camera to the test. Next time I’ll take my Nikon.

The tablecloths were sewn using back-to-back coordinating fabrics to be reversible and provide more options for different seasons. They are 45″x 33″ sewn inside out, then stitched around the edges. They are simple enough that anyone with a sewing machine could manage this. I made seven of them in three hours, from nap time to snack to a having my toddler nursing while I sewed – always an interesting combination! But it got the job done.

They are lovely if I don’t say so myself. Fabrics and flowers always add a perfect burst of color. Then again, making this Montessori room shine is simple to do, because it is already so fabulous. Every time I step foot into the girls classrooms I feel so blessed to have them going to school there.

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This Thanksgiving I’ll be traveling with my veggies

Let me start by saying I do not enjoy typical Thanksgiving food. I’ve never been a fan of casseroles, or turkey, or gravy, or anything cooked inside of a bird, or fruit that comes from a can or salads with marshmallows. I just like food to resemble food, in it’s original state. And I prefer it to be local, organic and vegetarian. That’s not too much to ask is it? Right?

Even though I don’t like the traditional food, I do like to be thankful and feel festive, with cooks spending the day in the kitchen and little ones waking up to watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. And even though I don’t eat turkey, I really love that my mother-in-law pulls out her vintage blue roaster every year to cook the turkey, the same one her mother used since 1950s, along with her same hand-written recipe simply titled “hen.”

We live 200 miles away from family so every year we pack up our kids, leave the dogs at home with the pet sitters, and hit to road to take part of the food and festivities. My family is always very understanding of the gargantuan obstacle it is just to get there much less cook for the day. They never expect me to bring anything other than bread. I am very thankful for that! Really, I am!

But there is a part of me that has always wanted to do more, fantasizing about one of those gourmet vegan feasts in the Vegetarian Times magazine.  I love to cook. I just don’t want to cook regular old Thanksgiving food.

So this year I’ll be printing off my recipes, packing up my CSA veggies, my spices, my cast iron skillet, my farm fresh eggs, my homegrown caned pears, my immersion blender and my favorite knife. My sister-in-law and I will be doing the cooking this year. We’ve been “put in charge.”

 

So far this is what I’ve got on my list of what I want to make. 

Deviled eggs

Brie served with pear honey from our very own pear trees

Gorgonzola Mashed Potatoes

Whipped Sweet Potatoes stuffed and baked inside hollowed clementines

Broccoli potpie with biscuits – Farmer Megan from our CSA told about this one. She said to lightly cook broccoli, carrots and peas in butter, toss in flour, stir in milk, cheese, salt and pepper then pour in an oven safe dish and top with drops of biscuit dough. Bake at 350 until the biscuit top is slightly brown.

Butternut squash soup, pumpkin chocolate chip cookies and cheesecake cookies – which are all seasonal favorites of mine and things I’ve written about recently. Plus my husband will make his soon-to-be famous pecan pie.

 

In the end, as a vegetarian Thanksgiving will always be about dining on a land of sides. One year, somewhere around 2001 (before I learned of the evils of processed soy), I made a Tofurkey. It was awful.

I make the choice to be a vegetarian because I don’t like the consumerism of meat, the treatment of the animals, the taste of eating animals or the growth hormones that most receive to get big and fat in a hurry. The Tofurkey is made to resemble the texture of turkey and replace it’s symbolism at the table. I almost find that offensive as a vegetarian. And I’d just about rather eat a good, local, organic, free-range turkey bought from a farmer with a good reputation.

I won’t be packing a turkey along this time. But I might need an extra suitcase. Because it looks like I’ll be packing half my kitchen – at least all the good stuff!

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My look back as birth center marks 20 years of babies

Saturday Lisa Ross Birth and Women’s Center will celebrate its 20th year anniversary of catching babies. It makes me think back to the 15th year anniversary celebration, that I attended and immediately knew it was the place for me to birth my babies.

Five years ago I was pregnant with my second daughter and had lived in Knoxville for less than a year. I had a wonderful birth experience at a small hospital with a midwife in Atlanta, for my first. It was just the birth I wanted.

Nearly everything I envisioned went according to my drawn out birth plan (a colorful sketch of me in a claw foot bathtub) from my Birthing From Within birth class. My romantic idea of giving birth came true, within reason.

Jump forward to baby number two in a new town.

I had a hard time accepting that I would be birthing without my same midwife, who I bonded with while she sat scrunched under that bathroom sink for three hours and 17 minutes while I worked to push out my first baby girl. The midwife also lived in my neighborhood where I could stop and talk while she watered her garden, ask baby questions and eww about how fast my girl was growing.

I was thankful there was a freestanding birth center in my new town, but I wasn’t quite sold on it yet. Because I still missed my old midwife.

Getting very pregnant, I attended the Lisa Ross Birth and Women’s 15th Anniversary Celebration. When I saw the midwives all together, their presentation of birthing women and the 200 some people that showed up for this reunion of sorts – I was sold. I knew I was in the right place and that this was going to be a good thing. I could stop longing for my old midwife. I was ready to embrace this new experience.

My feeling was right on. What I thought was a perfect natural birth the first time around, went beyond what I could have imagined with the birth of my second daughter.

The peace of being at a birth center, where I was never separated from my baby, who was never even taken off the bed with me where my husband and I slept after the birth – was amazingly different and wonderful from my first birth in a hospital. When I didn’t think my birth experience could have gotten any more empowering or beautiful, it did.

After my second daughter was born at Lisa Ross I was so moved by my birth experience that I started volunteering there, which led me to become a member on the Board of Directors. Three years later I had another baby there. And two years later I’m still on the board, here to tell everyone why I so wholeheartedly believe it’s such an amazingly special place for women and families.

But just don’t take my word for it. Come out on Saturday to The Lisa Ross Birth and Women’s Center 20th Anniversary Celebration! It will be a celebration of 20 years of caring for moms and babies in our community, with new moms coming and old one reuniting.

It will take place November 19, 1:00pm – 4:00pm at New Harvest Park in East Knoxville, at 4775 New Harvest Lane.

There will be live acoustic music, children’s activities, Waldorf style puppet show by Rainbow Theatre,  a silent auction and a special program celebrating the center’s 20-year history.

To read the wonderful anniversary story in News Sentinel about LRBWC, written by Kristi Nelson, click here. To read more about why I think Midwife Support its the Best Push into Motherhood, read that post. This post and my story originally ran on Family Friendly Knoxville, helping to spread the word about this great event.

About the photo up top: It’s my second baby girl laying on the bed at LRBWC after her birth, being measured while she took a brief break from nursing and snuggles with mom. 

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Gift Guide: Green Bath Toys for Tots

With Christmas coming I’m starting to tackle the challenging task of thinking of gifts for my third daughter who already has everything including two big sisters, her entertainment of choice. But if there is one thing all two-year-olds love, it’s bath time.

Bath toys have always been a pet peeve of mine. Many are marketed to look like lots of fun, but they are made of harmful phthalates. Throw them in, along with the BPA found in most plastic bath toys, and the toxins are sure to leach their way into the hot water.

I have to resist my own temptation to buy these fun bath time toys that you stick to walls, pour, squirt and paint. But the truth of it is, aside from the chemicals leaching into the water that was supposed to be getting my kiddos clean, most of those toys get moisture trapped in them and are a quick source for mold. They live a short life of fun, then a long life in a landfill leaching all those chemicals into our soil.

When it comes to the bath tub paints, I pass over even the safe homemade versions like this and this. Because, well, the clean up on my part is just not worth the fun time in the tub. Plus our tub is surrounded by subway tile with white grout – lots of grout to clean. It’s the one bathroom in our 90-year-old house that we all share, and I have to keep the small 5’x8′ space running smoothly. It’s usually an assembly line of getting in the tub, having fun, getting out and getting ready for the next person. We just don’t have the luxury in our house of messing up the tub. For that, I send them to paint in the basement.

My list of mom approved green bath toys, without BPA or phthalates or PVC, consists of toys made in the USA, from recyclable materials, from rubber, wood and wool. For the crafty, there are links to Etsy for handmade options to do at home. Yeah, I though of all. I love bath time. And hoodie towels are a must too! Ones made of organic cotton are plus.

Green Bath Toys for Tots 

Green Sprouts EVA foam pack of 15 Sea Friends

Green Sprouts stacking cup set with drainage holes 

The Original Rubber Duck Toy for the Bath

Green Toys Tugboat

Boon Water Bugs Floating Bath Toys with Net

Boon Odd Ducks Bath

Peg’s wooden paddleboat by Nova Natural

Handcrafted wooden bathtub boats by Mainetoys.com

Red Anchor Pull Rowboat Water Toy on Etsy

Pirate and Dinghy Felted Boat on Etsy

For the crafty folks who crochet, here’s a pattern for a crocheted duck and washcloth set that is just lovely, from Etsy.

Another goodie from Etsy, this fish and shark washcloths pattern would be really cool made into a fishing for the tub by sewing magnets into the fabric and creating a fishing pole using a stick, string and a magnet. Just a big net would be fun too for the catching, for children at risk of pulling out magnets and getting them in their mouths.

To keep the kiddos from bumping their head on the waterspout, try this whale of a cover by Skip Hop. It’s BPA free, phthalate free and PVC free. That would have saved some head bonks at our house, especially when all three girls hop in together and space is tight. And this cover looks versatile enough to even fit on our retro, 1920’s waterspout.

To keep toys organized toss them into a stainless steal or galvanized bucket that fits your available space. I personally don’t want some big frog hanging on the wall of my one bathroom to hold all the toys. But if you had a bathroom just for kids, Boon makes some really cute eco-friendly ones, frogs and ladybugs, with good reviews against mildew and functionality. Skip Hop makes a sleek blue fabric toy holder that suctions to the wall and can go in the washing machine, which I like.

Don’t have money spend on bath toys? Be creative with makeshift toys too, like those play-size stainless steel pots and pans from the kitchen, wooden spoons and metal measuring cups. Really, toss anything in the bath tub and it turns itself into fun.

About the photo up top: those boats were made my by daughters, with my dad in his Gramps Lamm workshop. Every time we visit his Georgia home he has a special project planed for the grandchildren. It makes this crafty, green mama very happy! And the kids like it too.

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Easy, yummy, not-so-bad for you Cheesecake

I L-O-V-E cheescake. I love it so much that I’ll eat if for breakfast and not feel guilty one bit. Recently I finally, as in I’ve been wanting to read it for five years, picked up the new version of the classic 1970 cookbook, The Tassajara Bread Book. Before that I borrowed it from my expert bread-making friend. When I saw the recipe for Cheesecake Cookies I knew I had to stop procrastinating and buy it.

Yesterday as five girls (each big girl had a friend over) played in my house, I cooked dinner. And alongside I whipped up these Cheesecake cookies for desert – they were THAT easy to make! And they are really good. I’m extremely picky about cheesecake. If it’s not fresh, homemade-tasting and light and fluffy, then I’ll easily pass using my “not worth the calories mantra.”

Here’s the recipe for my fellow cheesecake lovers, even though they are technically “cookies.”

Cheesecake Cookies
1/3 cup butter
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 C Whole wheat flour
1/2 Chopped walnuts (I left those out in mine, for a smoother texture)
1/4 cup honey
8 oz cream cheese
1 egg
2 tbs. Milk
1 tbs lemon juice
Grated peel of 1 lemon
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp nutmeg (optional)
Garnish with optional fruit slices: orange, apple, banana, strawberry
• Pre-heat oven to 350. Blend together first three ingredients with pastry cutter to make a crumble texture. Mix in chopped nuts or seeds. Reserve 1/2 cup for topping Press remainder into oiled 8″ square pan, bake for 12-15 minutes. Soften cream cheese with mixing spoon. Using an electric mixer, blend in honey, blend in remaining ingredients and beat well. Spread over baked crust. Sprinkle reserve crust. Garnish with fruit or nut meats. Bake for 25 minutes.

Cool and cut into 2″ squares – or just dig in with a a fork like me!

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