Ten Things

"Ten Things" is something I got from a blog I read called Soule Mama. The point is to post ten things you're thankful for during any given week. They don't need to be big things (house, husband, son). In fact, small things that seem inconsequential - maybe even hardly noticeable - are the best. Things that add even a wee bit of light.

Here are mine this week.


TEN THINGS:

1. A little boy of mine who smirkily says, "Oh, Mama" when I goof off. (If he was a teenager, you could cue the eye-roll.)

2. A handy bowl when he threw up his breakfast this morning (again).

3. When same little boy sweetly asks for help. "Help?"

4. My man, who made me crock-pot white chili AND cleaned the bathrooms this weekend.

5. The pleasant whir of our motor-less mower as I cut the grass for the first time (yes, in almost 8 years).

6. The cool breeze that has been moving across Michigan for the past few days. No humidity whatsoever.

7. Days at the office where I spend no more than a few minutes in stress mode.

8. Getting paid to poke around on social networking sites...for a good cause.

9. An afternoon of mindless labor. Hours spent stuffing envelopes for a mailing over trying to save the world is some kind of relief.

10. The (somewhat) new ability to center myself and let it all come down around me. If I was left with nothing, I would still have my life and my God.

Anything you'd like to share? :)

The pic demonstrates taking pleasure in little things: Ella's poofy neck would make your day too.

18 months

Some of the best parts about this age so far (sorry, the list is long):

• Jono was driving Jude somewhere the other day and vaguely noticed he was fiddling with his shoe. A few minutes later he turned to look in the backseat and saw Mr. Chunktastic with a sock placed carefully on top of his head and a huge grin on his face.
• "Bapa" (Grandpa G) taught Jude how to direct the choir. Now whenever he hears music his two index fingers pop into the air and sway back and forth to the beat.
  
• He has a good memory now. We went to see our friends Jan and Becky in Chicago a few weeks ago. Jude liked Becky and was calling her "Beck" by the end of the weekend. When we saw a girl two weeks later on the street with long blond hair like hers, he immediately said "Beck". This gives me hope he may remember his out-of-state uncles soon :) He was calling Brett "Butt" while he was here, so maybe when he shows up in a month again we'll hear "Butt" and be proud.
• He can imitate a mourning dove perfectly after hearing one in the yard.
  
• After a week and a half of being sick with an upper-respiratory/ear infection/molar coming in, he stopped walking. A few days ago he finally started up again; now he makes a solid effort to walk in the opposite direction from us at all times.
• He knows most of his body parts now: eyes, nose, mouth, tongue, hair, ear, feet, toes and then the term we're using for his privates (which I'll go ahead and keep private). We're working on "bum".
• He loves to turn light switches off and on and says "off, on" while he does it.
• He LOVES Mona, and constantly prattles on about "Nana" and "good girl" while he rubs his face on her, pats her, and tries to lay on top of her. Poor dog.
• He enjoys a nice couch pillow. Pulls it off the sofa, throws it on the floor, and rubs his face in it, saying "pillow, pillow, pillow".
  
• He folds his hands to pray before we eat. Not because we are especially pious, mind you, since the other night when we finally took a second to glance up at him as we were digging right in, we were reminded to pray by two chubby folded hands and a cherubic look from our son.
• He likes girls already. Especially waitresses. He flirts with them endlessly. Oh boy.
  
• He gives us kisses through the bars above the slide at the park. Too much.
• When we're just sitting around quietly, he likes to suddenly yell, "Mama! Dada!" over and over, looking from one of us to the other with a thrilled look on his face.
• He loves our neighbor Calvin and yells at the top of his lungs across the yard at him whenever he leaves his house.
• He is an interesting mix of strong-willed, decisive and driven, but also cautious, detail-oriented and gentle.
  
• He's becoming more social with other kids. Instead of staring or hiding when they approach, he waits for them to come over. The other day a girl baby walked up at the park and ceremoniously placed her hand flat on his face. He stood there quietly and let her keep it there for probably 30 seconds, then eventually walked away. Weird toddler social rituals.
• He loves bugs. When he sees an ant he says "buck", extends a fat finger, and tries to squish it. He saw a worm in a sidewalk crack the other day and tried to squish that too. We will begin teaching kindness to animals as soon as this stops being cute.
  

Here are a few videos of the little man, as of late:

munch, munch, munch...

The dough, rising. I used a mix of bread flour and whole-wheat. Forgot the salt, and they still turned out.

Divided into ten future bagel mounds.

One of the fun parts was rolling them into six-inch lengths before wrapping them around my hand to form the ring.

Then this guy woke up from his nap. I kept him happy by giving him his rubber ducky and yogurt to dip his Cheerios in. (Kid loves to dip.)

Final product: sea salt and sesame seed bagels. I guess one of the secrets to good bagel-age is the boiling of the dough before you bake them. That's why they're so chewy.

It helped that I had said I would make these bagels because then I was actually forced to do it. I am notorious for getting super excited about a project like this and then dropping it on a Saturday afternoon in favor of reading, sleeping, etc.

Be warned: you must have a 3.5 - 4 hour block of time to make these. They don't take four hours to actually make, but the dough takes two hours to rise, and then there are two 20-minute intervals where you must let it "rest" before moving on the next step.

Luckily, my new ReadyMade magazine had just come in the mail, so I devoured that while the dough did its thing.

Good news: they are magically delicious. I had Jono's dad and step-mom try them at our picnic yesterday, and Jan said, "These are the best bagels I've ever had! You can't get them this fresh!" (I can always count on her for enthusiasm.) We are munching happily over here on this fine Memorial Day.

If anyone has any bagel recipe shortcuts, I'd love to be enlightened. Otherwise, this working mama will need to save bagel-making for long weekends or rare, random bursts of baking ambition ;)

I'm making bagels.

We have a long weekend coming up and strangely we have made almost no plans.

We love "no plans", because then we can do whatever the heck we want (within reason). I'm going to make bagels.

I dislike searching for recipes online because I have no idea whether they're delish or a waste of time. I was thrilled to find this recipe posted on Angry Chicken with her glowing recommendation. Does anyone else have a good one?

Notice the blogging binge? Sheesh. Just tell me when to stop blabbing.

I'll let you know how they turn out :)

Squeaky Clean

Clean obsessed? Here are a few reasons to get over it. This woman from The Zero Waste Home can be a wee bit preachy, but she has some good things to say. I had fallen into some of these habits by accident - being a non-germophobe and all - though one thing I don't think I'll ever attempt is the "Diva Cup". Sorry. (Line drawn within millimeters of that one.)

I admit these "non-wasteful" habits are not about me being wise or forward-thinking. They're part of an obsession beginning in my childhood with hoarding things I mysteriously deemed rare and precious. Once I saved a gummy worm next to my bed for months because it was the new kind that had a face and I couldn't bear to eat it, and also because I didn't know if I'd ever get another one (thanks Mom and Dad for not spoiling me... except for with love.)

Back to cleanliness: Jono would like to point out that exceptions can be made for those with extreme dust and dust-mite allergies... in other words, if you are one of these peeps you are advised to wash your bedsheets every week in hot water.

In addition to that, you may want to replace your pillow every year or two, and buy a mattress cover designed for people with these allergies. You can ask Jono about the ratio of dust/dust mite feces to pillow fluff after a year; I admit, it's a little shocking (slash revolting.) Perhaps there are things we just shouldn't know.

Captain Clear Passage (as he was known in college) knows his stuff after his latest visit to an allergist. His allergies are so bad that he just began a years-long series of weekly shots to build up his immunity to them. *Sigh* Maybe someday we shall return to my ideal of a twice monthly washing of sheets and towels (but being married to a not-so-housework-challenged Klooster Male, it's not likely. Jan K, you know what I'm talking about. Perhaps I should be thankful :)

Man, I'm almost defeating the purpose of posting the "don't be too clean" link here.

For those who check this blog for only one reason, there will be more posts on Jude squashing bugs with one pudgy finger coming right up.

Latest/Greatest

Now he's just showing off.
(As usual, click on it to see it better.)

Gah!!

I just love this drawing.

Remember my soap box post about organic food? I don't like to seem paranoid or over-protective. I'm the one who doesn't clean my house very often (though it is tidy) and lets my kid crawl in dirt. Pretty much the most non-germophobic person ever, which is maybe kind of gross to some people. I occasionally roll my eyes when people sterilize their homes or hover too closely over their children. But on the other hand, common sense seems to hint one shouldn't spray toxic chemicals on food. That is fed to children.

I realize farmers feel this must be done to keep up their yields, remain competitive, etc. etc. I know consumers have done nothing but enable this sort of thing. I know it's not the farmers' fault. (Watch Food Inc. if you get the chance; best documentary I saw all year.) But still.

I'm ranting about this again because a recent study linked certain pesticides that are widely used on commercially-grown produce with ADHD in children. They still need to do more research, but if further studies show a more direct link, some of these pesticides may be banned. The rates of ADHD (and other problems, like autism) have been steadily rising 3% each year since 1997. The article I'll link to below talks about other contributing factors like over-use of video games and television, but apparently there is a pesticide connection.

What's upsetting to me is that the facts about a chemical often come out once it's too late for most people. Companies go ahead and sell things when long-term safety has never been proven, even when common sense points in the opposite direction. In most cleaning and body products, companies are not required to reveal all of their true ingredients - mystery items are listed as "fragrance".

It makes me mad, to be honest. We've mostly gone organic with Jude, but I feel angry for all of the people who've trusted the way things are conventionally done (I don't blame them), and have had small children during the years they've been using these pesticides so heavily. Are we guinea pigs, or human beings?

It's a good thing most kids are resilient. I don't mean to make anyone overly worried; I know how it is to lie awake in bed wondering what long-term effects something you've done or allowed to happen is having your child (ahem...when we had Jude vaccinated for H1N1). But I thought it was worth sharing an article on the study that appeared in Time (and also others posted on reputable sites: here and here). Have at it if you're interested, especially if you have kiddies.

What's really handy is this Dirty Dozen/Clean 15 list I shared in an earlier post. You can print it out and keep it in your wallet for when you go grocery shopping. I'm not saying one must always buy organic because I know it's expensive, but if you can commit to just buying the "dirty dozen" sans pesticides, that would be a big step.

Still reading? I'm impressed :)

P.S. Watch this flick. It's very revealing, and it made me cry.
Sorry to get all bossy on you. But do it.

Top image from idiomsbykids.com