Fall Bouquet

T doesn't like hothouse flowers but she does like fall leaves, especially those with a mix of colors.  In a recent walk in the woods, I collected a few of them for her.

That's happy, what else?

Real Life Conversations with JT: Rated R edition

The backstory:  Friday morning, during our drive to school, JT and I heard a review of a movie just out, the story of J. Edgar Hoover. 

Mama:  That sounds interesting.  Would you like to see it?

JT:  It's rated R.  So no, Mama.  I'm not old enough.

Thank goodness someone in the household is a grown up.

Food Friday: Black Bean Soup

A cool weekend is on tap around here and that has me thinking about soup.  I've got a bunch of soup recipes but this black bean soup stands out as one of my favorites.  It's a cold weather mainstay in my house.  My recipe comes together quickly, keeps well, and the taste is beyond compare.    Make some today!

1 tablespoon olive oil
3 medium carrots, peeled & sliced
1 medium onion, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 ½ teaspoon ground cumin
2 cans (15.5 ounces each) black beans
1 ¾ cup vegetable broth
1 tablespoon lime juice
sour cream

    In a large saucepan, heat oil over medium heat.  Add carrot, onion, garlic and cumin.  Saute until lightly softened; about 5 to 7 minutes.

    Stir in black beans (with liquid) and the broth.  Heat to boiling; reduce heat to medium-low and simmer for 10 minutes.  Remove from heat and cool for 10 minutes.

    Working in batches, puree soup in blender (or use a stick blender, if you have one).  Remove to the saucepan and reheat on low; stir in lime juice.  Serve with a dollop of sour cream on top.

Electricity, E-lec-tri-city

Between Hurricane Irene and Snowtober, 2011 has been a year to make the folks around here appreciate the local utility (that is, when we aren't cursing them because we don't have electricity).  It's not a bad thing to be aware of utilities (and our dependence on them), but it strikes me that the immediate crises have allowed us to ignore the long-term troubles on our electrical horizon.

I'm referring to the national electric grid, one that was modern back in the mid-1950s but has been permitted to deteriorate since then.  As our reliance on the electricity has grown greater, we've shown little national will to update the grid, let alone explore electricity that isn't generated by the burning of our shrinking supply of fossil fuels.  Perhaps I'm naive, but I hope that our recent flirtation with no electricity will create greater political will for looking after our electric infrastructure. 

At the very least, we should encourage Congress to allocate some national attention (and resources) to updating the grid.  It would create jobs, encourage more efficient and responsible energy management, and is just the sort of thing a national government should take on.

The Short Years

At my school, there is a tape measure where the faculty kids can measure their height and mark the passage of time.  The other day, after more than a few people had observed that my baby is nearly taller than I am,  JT and I stopped by to measure his height.  At 5 foot 2 inches, he's an inch away from being my height.  He can hardly wait for that moment when he tops me.   As for me, I'm not so sure about what all that height means.

There are some students in this year's senior class, 17 year olds whom I have known since they were 7.  These tall, capable, bright, young men are in my classroom this year, towering over me, and examples of the sort of maturity that is just around the corner in my house. 

At 5 foot 2 inches last week, JT was the same height as those Senior boys were in 2006.  When I realized that,  I was struck by the fact that five years has just flown by for those once-little boys who are now in my classroom on the cusp of adulthood.  Meanwhile, things are changing in my house far faster than I could have imagined.  Poof, and my baby is a boy.  And then my boy is a tween.  And my tween is on his way to full-sized teenage status.  When I first became a mama, a friend said to me that the nights are long but the years are fast.  These days, that truth is really staring me in the face.

Fiddling While Rome Burns

When JT was a baby, I learned the importance of getting sleep as soon as he was resting so that I had a fighting chance to retain my sanity.  But sometimes, in the quiet of a baby asleep I would choose to do something other than sleep ----- usually to read a book.  In those moments I would characterize that behavior as "fiddling while Rome burns."  But the allure of a good book was sometimes too great resist.  And so I fiddled.

Today, with essays to grade and letters of recommendation to complete, I took a brief walk outside and then I threw caution to the wind.  So I took a lovely book outside and read, soaking in the warmth and the amazing sunlight of the lovely fall day.  The work could wait just one more day, I decided.  I would fiddle while Rome burned.

Dogwood Monday: Week 6

Over the weekend, T helped me to rake up some of the leaves in my yard.  My town hands out free leaf bags (wherein free = thousands of dollars in property taxes enable me to enjoy "free" leaf bags) and last month T and I popped over to grab some up.  We took three packages because…..1. Property taxes are not a bargain around here; 2. I figured I will always have use for leaf bags; and 3. they looked like packs of 10.

Or so we thought.

Turns out they come in packs of 20.

Ahem.

We easily filled 10 bags up this weekend and the dogwood and Old Man Tree are not quite finished with their seasonal work. 

Snowstorms excepted, it's been a lovely fall, complete with beautiful leaves and cool mornings followed by mellow days.  I know that shorter days, cold, and snow are just around the corner.  So I plan to enjoy fall's bounty while it lasts.

Ingredients for a Happy Birthday

Homemade French toast breakfast.

Walk in the woods with the people I love.

New coffee pot.

With all the happiness that my last year brought me, I'm feeling like next has some pretty good prospects.  I'm looking forward to it.

The Sound of Home

My school has a small program for international students and there are a number of Chinese students enrolled in our classes.  These students are far from home, enmeshed in a world that is utterly foreign to them.  In U.S. History, this fact is abundantly clear and they work hard to make sense of such ideas as the Founding Fathers and New England…..ideas that make innate sense to native Americans but which require a bit more explanation when you are from another country.  The students work hard and do succeed, but I am always aware of how often they have to pause to make sense of our corner of the world.

Today, after lunch, my U.S. History class had a quiz.  It was a nice day and I opened the windows to the breeze and the fresh air.  As the students took the quiz, we could hear the sounds of a string quartet playing outside.  The music wasn't familiar to me, but it sounded lovely.  As the students handed in their quizzes, we talked about the music we were hearing.  None of the Americans recognized the tune, but all three Chinese girls did and with broad, happy smiles, they explained that the song they knew well; the story of a girl and boy in love.  A universal story, really.  It was the sound of home, one of the girls said, and then all three grinned as they enjoyed the comfort of a little familiar territory.

Halloween!

Last weekend, we carved up some pumpkins for Halloween.

Mine is the cat on the moon in the center.  JT went with the goofy-faced pumpkin on the right and T carved up the scary pumpkin on the left.  For the actual Halloween, JT hit the mean streets with his buddy D, his long-time trick-or-treating buddy.  JT went as Albert Pujols (a costume planned well-before his beloved Cardinals won the World Series).  D always goes out as something scary and this year he unzipped his face.

He's induced some bloody Halloween wounds before but this one set the bar higher than ever before.

The injury must have been well worth it, as the 2011 candy haul may very well be the best to date.