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Food and Manipulation

Let me start out by saying that I probably have no business posting about cooking. I have no culinary degree nor nutrition license. I do, however, have a massive amount of experiences eating… and this does have to do with the whole table blog thing I’ve got going here…

I have a great desire to serve healthy food to the precious McBabies. When McBaby #1 was born, it was as if someone flipped a switch. Because I was nursing, I was suddenly so aware of everything I was eating and how it was going straight to my newborn. It began my interest in healthier eating, organic food, baby-food making, and cooking in general. Am I the picture of health and wellness? No. Am I your best reference? Absolutely not. Will I be posing in Shape magazine? Not on your life, but praise God for photoshop. Did I eat 2 baskets of French fries at Red Robin the other day? Maybe…

As I’ve mentioned, we order our groceries each week from Green Bean Delivery. It’s organic, locally grown, and in-season food. I get nothing from mentioning this, it’s just to say that I have had the new and exciting challenge of being surprised each week with the produce we receive and then figuring out ways to work it in to our menu. There are weeks where I realize that it’s been quesadillas for like 4 straight lunches and I must regroup. This is when I amp up the veggie-implementation-strategies again. See what serious business this is?

So, today, I realized that we had some red kale that we really needed to use. We’ve snuck it into fruit smoothies – we all love those. It’s an easy sell. We’ve made kale chips (just broiled bunches of kale with a bit of olive oil and sea salt and they shrink up) and then made a huge deal about how cool it is that Mommy and Daddy get to eat chips at dinner. We then wait for a “can I try one?” and put on our best “I dunno, what do you think honey?” face and give in and stealthily revel in our victory. Or maybe that’s just me. My friend said the other day that I’m the worst at manipulating my children to eat things. I take that as a compliment. Seroiusly, it’s not that they don’t know what’s in it, I’m just really playing up the fun of it all.

The McBabies are awesome at breakfast/lunch eating, but never have been big dinner-eaters. So, I often need to work in my veggies early in the day which I find a bit trickier. Today, I decided to try mermaid eggs for brunch. Mermaid eggs? This is, of course, because they were veeeerrrrry green like Ariel’s tail.

First, I put a tiny bit of butter in the pan and sautéed the kale. Then, I added a bit of water to really steam, soften, and shrink it. I then food processed that with a bit of whole milk. That may sound gross, but the milk was going to be added into the scrambled eggs anyways, so I thought that would be better than water in eggs. I then added my eggs and a little more milk and whipped it all together. I also added a pinch of salt and pepper.

Then a little cheddar cheese… don't buy the pre-shredded kind btw. It's covered in a waxy film to keep it from sticking together. If you start buying fresh and/or organic cheese, you will REALLY start to taste the difference should you ever go back.

Tada! The kids LOVED it. To the skeptics: please note that their plates are half empty during the shooting of these photos.

We have a lot of “cheers” moments around here too. We make a big deal of the group cheers before our first bites - and sometimes during the meal - to get everyone to try everything. The McBabies are great eaters so I don't typically force them to clean their plates. They do a good job of trying, eating, and letting me know their satiation level. Excuse McBaby #1's undies. Beyond the veggie thing, that’s my other big/small daily challenge – getting the kids to wear pants. Have a great Thursday!

Before & After

As I mentioned in my post the other day, I am all about before and after moments. You know, the big reveal on HGTV kinda moment. We don't have a TV anymore, but when I'm at the Y, I sweat to the oldies on the elliptical until the half hour turnaround comes and I watch that golden revelation with glee.

I have a number of projects that I've completed. I have even more that I haven't. Sometimes that makes me crazy, but normally, I just think it's a gift to have more ideas than time, right? Wouldn't it be a tragedy if it were the other way around? So, here is a before and after that I recently completed. This "artistic piece" was $6 at Goodwill.

Wait for it... wait for it...

I was looking for a chandelier and then realized there was one built right into that lamp. It just took some dismantling and some spray paint. Here are a couple of other "befores"...

The first of these 2 is at an amazing party my sister through the other night just to honor the girls in her life. She is even more amazing! She is a nurse and does all kinds of stuff hourly that would make me gag and worry. I thought the process of making those desserts was picturesque. This is before we finished making them, baked them, and then ATE WAY TOO MANY! The latter shot is the "before" of a fondue party we hosted this weekend. Um, I guess I forgot how much prep went into the "before"! In case you didn't look closely, this is my gorgeous friend with whom I get confused or told that I look like her sister and her the same. Well now, was that strange that I told you she's gorgeous and that people think we resemble each other? Probably, but I do think both are true. :) Now here is an after... while the 3 couples ate fun-do, our children sat and ate mac and cheese. They were so stinkin' cute at the kids' table and such a sweet reminder of the blessing that somehow 6 (before) became a baker's dozen (after). We've over doubled! (Not to be confused with doubled over... that's, again, what I would be doing if I were a nurse...)

So, I'm not the only one that likes befores/afters/durings/projects in general. McHusband is a tinker-er as well. A story that will really sum up part of his personality and his love for projects...

So, he loves Ace Hardware. Every time he comes home from there, he makes a very intentional point to say things like "you know, there's just no comparison between ______ (big box store) and Ace", "you just can't get customer service like that elsewhere", "those guys at Ace yada, yada, yada", and other versions of a kind-hearted person stickin' it to the man and supporting the little guys. After we learned that the Ace by us was closing, panic set in and McHusband drove over to get the scoop. He learned that they were relocating... again, wait for it... to a place within walking distance to our house!! Not that we would walk home with a table saw, lumber, or even paint, but, it's seriously that close. This isn't all. He went there on their very last day of being open in that location. He then waited until he was sure that he was the very last customer and checked out. Yeah, I didn't get it at first either. He had to point out to me that he was the VERY LAST CUSTOMER... EVER. He was like a kid in a candy store - so excited. Ahhh, I love him!! He actually asked them if he was the very last customer and an older gentleman went and rang a bell for him to commemorate the moment. Kinda a goober, but a hot one.

As far as befores and afters go, I think it's really about something much deeper. All of us were created to have befores and afters - to be in process, to be made over, to be made complete, made new. We may not experience the big reveal on this side of heaven, but we see glimpses of things reborn daily. Befores and afters.

Homemade

This Christmas, I aimed for more homemade presents for our families. I knew it would save money and fulfill a creative outlet for me, but, most important, it gave me time as I worked on the projects to just think on the people in our life. To put my hands to work and let my heart reflect on how grateful I am. Here is a picture of some homemade felt cookies. I didn't come up with the idea for these - I totally copied from MADE. You should go check out Dana from MADE's link there that I included. She is amazing and one of my favorite sewing/life bloggers. Don't forget to come back... :)

The kids have loved putting them on little cookie sheets and "charging" me after I've placed my order. $10 for a chocolate chip cookie. Yes, seriously. Lest you think they don't know what they're doing, I would call McBaby #1 a shrewd entrepreneur who must know the sign of the times for Hamilton County. I think people would pay it for a from-scratch-all-organic-gluten-free-locally-grown-sustainably-based-morsel.

The power of things homemade has certainly been on my radar more over the past few years as I am daily making a home. Over the advent season, I had the great privilege of playing 16 concerts. It was very busy, but very rewarding. There was one first for me in terms of performing when I played at an international event where probably over half of the audience members didn't speak English - or much English. I have to admit that it was particularly thrilling and moving for me to sing my song "We are all the Same" in this context. I met a woman who was telling me that she remembers the Koran and can quote entire portions because her parents read its words to her daily. She can speak the aged Arabic and retell lengthy sections, but couldn't tell you meaning or even speak much of her native language that she learned as a child.

This stuck with me as I ponder daily what pie I'm throwing on the wall is actually sticking. For better or worse! What happens at a young age for a child will last. I recognize my role joyfully and with great weight in our day to day tasks - whether that's at our house or on the go. I am so thankful to be with my children daily where they are being homemade. Made into who they will be straight from the love of a home. The care of a home. The creativity of a home.

I'd love to post more pics of things we've made this holiday season. Hopefully soon! So, do you have some things you've made this season... or are hoping to?

Happy New Year!

Happy new year! I have always been into making resolutions and I'd like a pat on the back for baking bread from scratch with the kids, rearranging my living room, and turbo-kicking it at the Y all today. What started out as resolve to continue/start some good habits has now morphed into dreams of me hanging out with Jamie Oliver (our BFF from across the pond... he just doesn't know it yet), and then flying back for my appearance on the Nate Berkus show, followed by a smashing spring as part of a new YMCA success story. I need some middle ground. For instance, I only know how to clean and rearrange one way:

Me: "Honey, why don't we take everything out of this room and start over?"

McHusband: "What do you mean everything?"

Me: "Like the furniture, the stuff. Maybe we should repaint while we're at it?"

McHusband: "Well, you know, it would only take like 20 minutes to kinda straighten up..."

I like befores and afters, what can I say? It all began with a new rug purchase at a bargain flea market a few days ago. That is a really glamorous name for what the place really was: booths of crap. But, amidst all of that I found a gem. An 8x8 beautiful hand-tufted rug for $75 and, I believe, it was brand-new. At least, it looks, smells, and was wrapped as if it was. I have googled to learn that I, ahem, “saved” hundreds of dollars. Bringing the rug in meant rearranging all of the furniture in the family room. Which meant moving some things upstairs. Which meant rearranging the rooms upstairs too.

Thankfully, McHusband compromised and agreed it was a good day to make some major adjustments around here. Doesn't he look happy? Ok, just kidding, he was pretending to be a wax statue. So random. Also, thankfully, the kids sugar must’ve finally worn off from Christmas at my grandma’s and they had a normal nap day. 1-5pm… awesome.

In the midst of all of this, I’ve thought a great deal about resolutions. No matter the specifics, maybe you’ll agree that they really always come down to a few basic categories:

1. Cherish the stuff

2. Cherish the relationships

3. Cherish the body, mind, and soul

In order to even move forward though to the new year mentally, I must pause to say goodbye to the old year. This normally takes me the first 2 weeks of January. I’ve looked through past journals, I know. I catch moonbeams. I store them in jars. The burlap-wrapped, twine-covered kind. Then I look at them nostalgically. I've always been quite melancholy this way - celebrating with glee small joys and instantly recognizing with weeping the fragility of life the next moment. I've blogged about this before, so you may know that I always write a goodbye letter on the eve of each birthday. It started with "goodbye 7." So, yeah, I've been this way for a long time. It's just hard for me to look ahead without pausing to grieve a chapter past.

I remember a couple of years ago before McBaby #2 arrived when McHusband and McBaby #1 and I sang Christmas songs and watched the flakes flutter out the window. That sounds too good to be true – actually, it kinda was. McHusband and I sang Christmas carols while McBaby #1 yelled at us to be “all done” and screamed “more Miley Cyrus”. Apparently, she doesn’t find “Lo How a Rose E’er Blooming” as musically captivating as “Party in the USA”. Still, it was a night at home, just the 3 of us and my heart was full.

In Genesis, the bible speaks of childbirth. (“… I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing; with pain you will give birth to children.” ~ Genesis 3:16) Before I was a mom, I always figured that this passage was referring to a physical pain. I understand that pain on this side of having children, but watching McBabies develop in the last handful years shows me that this passage is much more.

Every time McBabies enter a new stage, birthed, if you will, into a new season, they leave the old behind. It is not so much the pain of the childbirth as it is the letting go of the opposite that accompanies it. Even now as I’m overjoyed at the thought of delivering another precious miracle in a matter of months, I feel grief at the thought of going from 4 to 5 and losing this dynamic in a way. I also feel grief thinking on my first separation from the baby – the first of many times of letting go, I’m sure.

I’ve come to accept the truth of the pains the Scriptures talk about. Part of saying hello to anything is taking the hard time to acknowledge the goodbye.

Four Christmases plus One

A handful of Christmases ago, part of our McLaughlin family Christmas experience was going to see the movie "Four Christmases". This was pk (pre-kids) when going to a movie theater wasn't something to manage and would still enable you to remain off food stamps after buying the tickets and popcorn for everyone. The first thing that I remember about that trip was sitting next to our then-13-yr-old cousin. I fought urges the entire movie to cover her eyes. I digress... The movie dealt with the featured couple having to travel to 4 different places to be a part of each family Christmas. Well, we have little distance traveling to do, but we still traverse the rare blessing of making it to FIVE family Christmases yearly - and sometimes more depending on how much traveling we opt for.

This year, Santa came to our house on the evening of the 22nd. Because we were preparing for all of our family Christmases, there was no time to make cookies, so he was left 4 icy oatmeal chocolate rocks from our freezer. (Don't feel bad for our children on the cookie thing, we seriously normally make cookies here ALL the time.) Because we use Green Bean Delivery (which is awesome, by the way) for our grocery service and because carrots were not delivered last week, Rudolph received a parsnip. Here is a "before" shot when Santa had left everything. Following that is an "after". I didn't want to pretty it up with Instagram... after 5 Christmases, it ain't pretty. Just imagine our bedrooms and laundry room...

After Santa came to our house, he then visited Jeff's parents, then my grandmother's house, then Jeff's grandparents' house, then, finally, my folks' house. He had to work out special arrangements to then take everything from their house up to the cabin where we all stayed for 2 days and opened presents. All on behalf of S & J. He mustn't be union.

We had a beautiful time celebrating a myriad of different traditions, praying together, laughing together, singing together, and, of course, my favorite, gathering around the table together again. For many families heading to a cabin means bringing games, food, and walking shoes. We brought all of those things, but we also had percussion instruments, guitars, keyboards and amps. Ahh, Scharbrough family traditions...

We are a bit worn out, but very grateful for full cars and hearts.

xoxo

JW

This week, someone replied to my post about Joseph that I'd written right after he was born. My little baby boy turned 2 today! To celebrate him, I'm reposting this about his birth...

(Joseph Winslette McLaughlin born Dec 21, 2009 @ 5:26pm; 8 lbs 14 oz and 20 1/2 in long; pic @ 1 week old - 9 lbs 11 oz!!!)

I was privileged with Joseph to have a natural birth again. Believe me, during the day this time around, there were more times than not I would have chosen a word other than “privileged”. I had to look at the bracelet I was wearing during the day over and over – “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13). I’ve come to believe even in a week’s time with Joseph that his attitude during his entrance into the world is much like his personality – even-keeled, laidback, and wanting to know what the big hurry is. He is content to snuggle (and nurse) all the time. Oh, how I love and adore this little man already.

I recently read a beautiful article from The National Catholic Weekly. It moved me so very deeply as one article focused on a meditation on birth and the spiritual life.* When referring to birth, the author writes “…it does not allow diversions; it is more glorious and messy, more trying and transformative than a person might suspect. Basically, it is a lot like prayer.” She goes on later to write that “one reason that few people take seriously the physical reality of giving birth as a teaching ground for receiving grace is that sanitized hospital births, with epidurals at the ready, change the experience of giving birth from a gift received to an event managed.” Yes, I realize that’s a very strong statement, but one I’ve come to believe myself. (And, as she points out, women must tell their own stories – especially when it comes to complicated or tragic ends.) While pain brings discomfort and fear, I think my greater fear was always missing the opportunity to feel this amazing rite of passage. To be fully immersed in the moment that my children entered the world. To understand what it is that women all over the world and through the ages have experienced. To think of it as something to “get through” instead of something in which to deeply plunge scared me. Natural birth required the greatest of me – trust, surrender, and awareness in full. “How different it would be if we saw childbirth as something to receive, rather than something to soldier through” she wrote.

Psalm 139:13-15 (NIV) says “For you created my inmost being; You knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise You because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place.”

I’m no bible scholar, but I do love to read up on the back-story on passages. It’s amazing to find out that the phrase “wonderfully made” is actually defined as “to be beyond one’s power” and “to be difficult to understand” meaning that we are made with so much complexity and extraordinary detail that only God could truly know us. Also, when the passage refers to our “frame”, it’s referring to our “power, bones, and might” – our entire being. And the “secret place” to which the passage refers is defined as somewhere mystical and deep within the earth. I’m moved by these thoughts of sweet little Joseph being knit together within me, so complex that even I cannot comprehend him, and so divinely put together that it’s more mysterious than the center of the earth.

The choice to have a natural birth – and God’s gift that there were no complications requiring me to choose/have otherwise, I believe, allowed me to enter into the sacred process of attaching to my beautiful children. I do believe that childbirth is as the author writes “a transformative experience, the edge of life and death, the play of wind and breath, the shock of pain and joy. It is where a woman is given a new gift: a new relationship with God, her husband and their child – practice in receiving grace.”

* Excerpts from “A Fiery Gift” by Susan Windley-Daoust