Meatless Mondays

I just found out my sons school district does "Meatless Mondays" within their school lunch program!

Hey so do I! I mean, sort of. I started meatless Mondays then the whole bit of... well there are left overs from a meat dinner in the fridge, or oops I forgot to plan ahead.. and there is burger already defrosted so I 'll make it anyways took over.

Now I have a renewed interest and inspiration in going meat free at least once, if not several times a week, if an entire school district can pull it off, why can't I?


Tonight will be: pita sandwiches with pre-made falafel and Tiziki sauce, hummus and sliced veggies and a simple greek-ish salad.

And the best part is: it's all in the fridge and ready to go, easy peasy mac-n-cheesy!

How I spent my summer vacation: A review

For lack of a more original opening, I'd like to just say " wow, the summer sure did fly by! "Four months since my last my post, shame on me. Gee what could have been keeping me so busy, so anti-writing, so non-reflective. Let's do a quick review since my last post on Romans 5th birthday. After his birthday we quickly descended into:

End of school year festivities, as co-room parent for Romans pre-k class there were gifts for teachers to prepare ( photo scrapbooks from the class and I got them something hand made by my artistic cousin).

I tackled the task of lining up summer play dates, camps, swim lessons and activities with Alpha Mom intensity.

Aaron and I ran the Bolder Boulder ( my 3rd time, his second) I got a personal best time of 66 mins.














We talked a lot about buying bikes, but never got around to it.

I took the boys back to CA for a week.

Developed a Mad Men obsession and got all caught up to current season.

Celebrated my 7th wedding anniversary with some pampering at the Spa at St. Julien

Had a BFF visit for 5 days!

Took a Rustic Bread making class at the Culinary School of the Rockies with my friend Laura V and sister-in-law Becca.

Got family pictures taken by Lynsey Peterson




I worked out, I played with the boys, I bought farm fresh eggs, made mojitos, tequila sunrises, pina coladas, lemonade from scratch and sat on my back porch watching 3 rows of mammoth sunflowers sprout.

We did not do a lick of camping, or boating, or any major home or landscape work. But with the smattering of day trips, hiking, amusement parks, pool time, BBQ's and of course gardening and tropical drink-drinkin', it sure felt like summer.

The 2 boys are playing together more and more, their laughter is infectious, their messes are unfathomable at times, and their energy unending, I kept busy keeping them busy, entertained, enriched. We indulged in the occasional snow cone, and took many " time outs " both them and me, but all in all " Camp mom" was good, I'd take my camp again if I were a kid.

Till next time, which wont be 4 months from now, I hope!

My Kiddo on the Go

Get out the kleenex cause my 1st baby boy just turned 5.

He once looked like this:
Roman @ 1 day old.














Now he looks like this:














Roman @ 5 years old, he has been wanting to be 5 since he was 3


He has been called: button, kiddo, baby boy, Ren, and Renny, Rentastic, ( he was not able to say his name correctly at first he called himself " Ren" and it stuck ) I also call him from time to time, bubba scoob, Romonster, Ro-Ro, love.

A lot has happened to me as an individual, a mother, our family has grown, have had the usual and not so usual up and downs, risks have been taken, crisis averted, a smattering of hospital visits and some long, dark tearful nights. But the last 5 years of Romans life have been amazingly fun, gleeful, challenging in ways I could have never imagined...and yes he makes me crazy, he's turnign into a little boy, but he still puckers his lips to kiss me, wants to be "snuggled down" and read to and I think he still thinks I'm pretty neat sometimes, when I am not being " always mean and never nice "

I'd like to take a brief pause before the next 5 years fly by to highlight some Roman-isms I compiled in a journal of the last couple of years.

Starting with:

" You are my best heart "

" Mommy way strong "

" Brownie and poop Rhyme?!"

"That cloud looks like an alligator " ( His first cloud picture siting)

"This piece of ice looks like a dog bone."

"I think you ate the baby that is why it is in your belly".

A conversation that took place one morning when he needed me to fix something went like this: I said, " Mommies can fix almost anything, except broken hearts" he stepped back, looked at me and said very assertively "Hearts can't break mom!" I said, " no, I guess not when you are 3 years old" he replied, big eyed, all five fingers raised, "Not when I am 5 either mom!. "

" One day when I grow up to be a MR. Daddy, I can ride a motorcycle and have a squirt gun. "

" I had a weird sleep last night"

" I see the tooth fairy, I see a shooting star!"

after the first time getting an ice cream from the neighborhood icecream truck he proclaimed " I didn't know they( Icecream trucks) existed in this world "

" I have a wishing finger"

" Where do wishes go?"

when asked where or from who he learned something he might reply "My brain told me"

" Mommy, the baby is ALWAYS looking at me!" ( Ryan was about 4 months old, we were in the car)

" I didn't know the baby would love me" ( One day while gleefully playing together, it dawned on Roman that Ryan really liked him ;)

Started calling Ryan "silly rainbow"

Up until just recently he used to tell us he loved us and that we were his "best friend, all the time, anytime the mood struck him, even if that meant yelling it from on top a play structure. I sure miss that.

My new local fondness: Simply Bulk Market

I make my own granola.

So when I need ingredients to put in the “one day to be famous” said granola I go to Simply Bulk Market in downtown Longmont, CO.

I like this place, even though it’s on Main St and I drive there dreading the whole parallel parking chore. I was completely enamored with this store on first visit when greeted with a stack of wicker baskets in which to place my purchases in. The tagging and bagging system is clean and simple, you can weigh your bags to in case you are like me and have no idea what a pound of slivered almonds looks and feels like. You will find just what you need, or atleast I found what I needed. I shouldn't make promises. But this market has promise as being as useful as a trip to costco.

I did a lot of browsing on my first visit and I took note of all the staples one could pick up such as coffee, soaps, a variety of flours and beans, and plenty more you'd never think you needed, but now can not live without, like chocolate covered espresso beans, hand made soap and spicy dried mangoes (to name just a few of the goodies that now fill my cupboards). Ok, the scoop of chocolate covered espresso beans never made it home to the cupboard, but they were delicious as a car snack. Also, I finally stumbled upon dried blueberries, and man, do they sure make a tasty addition to my granola.

I’d love to see more recipes and products ideas scattered around- maybe a recipe rack or wall of product use ideas… maybe a workshop on bean soup making or something. I don’t know just throwing it out there.

I overhead the proprietor say his highest expense after rent is credit card processing- so use cash/ check when you can – help a local business out!

A Little Ditty I Like to Call: Haiku 2

Electronic Mail
life made simple with its speed.
Pen and ink forlorn.

To Whom Much is Given

Within every crevice of every room in my house is some sort of written material. Recipe books and mail pile up in the kitchen, schedules and notes are tacked in the laundry room, labels on food packaging in the pantry, lists and cards on the fridge. Throughout the house sit piles of papers, magazines, there are stacks and racks overflowing with books, some light reading, text books, reference materials and outdated travel guides. The upstairs loft has been coined “the library” by the neighborhood kid- probably due to the 7 ft tall book shelf standing directly across from a 5 foot book shelf- both crammed with both mine and Aaron’s lifelong collection of books. My night stand is actually the cleanest it has been in long time, with only 1 magazine, my journal, a current novel and 2 baby books. Aaron’s nightstand however is a testament to the written word-piled almost a foot high with his latest wine tasting book, gardening books, one magazine, one catalog and one rather large and thick parenting book. All this, and we even sell and give way books on a regular basis. My daily planner is filled with lists, upon lists, receipts, coupons, flyers, appointment cards. It just seems normal to me. I don’t even “see” the visual clutter. Yet, after training as literacy tutor I will look around every so often and imagine not being able to decipher over half of it. I wonder what my life would be like if I was never exposed to reading and writing in the first place.

It was sobering to find via tutor training for the nonprofit organization BoulderReads that there are over 16,000 functionally literate people walking amongst us here in just Boulder county alone. Boulder County folks, is one of the most affluent, healthiest, greenest and artistic communities in all of the Rocky Mtns, perhaps nation. Some of these illiterate people are native English speakers; others are immigrants, with English being their second language. Many will come to the program testing at a 4^th – 5^th grade level; some just need to work on vocab, spelling, maybe and conversation writing skills. Some people need to learn how to read grocery labels, bus schedules and paycheck stubs.

Being illiterate in the world today takes a lot of work, they learn how to hide it, to use their own codes for things, to make excuses, to avoid tasks that involve much reading or writing, spouses take the lead on paperwork and many just take jobs that require little or no written communication.

As we finished up our final and 20th hour of training- the fresh eyed training group had to go around and share what has struck them the most. We all had variations of the same theme, being which, a feeling that we really have taken for granted our ability to be joyfully literate. I was greatly saddened when I heard that many of the students that come to Boulder Reads were not read to as children. Between Aaron and me we must read to our boys Roman and Ryan 10 or more hours a week- since Roman could walk and before he could really talk much he has been chasing us around the house with books. Not reading to a child is child abuse, plain and simple. It is also scary to think that many kids fall through the public school system and manage to graduate without being able to read beyond a 9^th grade level.

Quickly after training I was assigned my first student a Korean women with a Phd in meteorology, on assignment with NCAR. Wait, a Phd… needing tutoring? Yep. BoulderReads helps everyone, on all levels. She wanted help with pronunciation, popular American English phrases, jargon, and even jokes. See, she was isolating herself from her co-workers on a social level because she could not “joke around with them much” she did not understand certain expressions and phrases. She basically just wanted practice talking English. It was fun, we met 6-8 times for an hour or so each time in a NOBO coffee shop in the mornings. Sadly, her NCAR contract ended, and she had to move. Not long after, I got pregnant with my second son and the tutoring gigs fell by the way side. I do hope to get back into when baby boy is in a preschool/ moms day out program. I have not forgotten my passion- the written word, the spoken word, and tutoring the second language learner.

My passion is just buried under all these diapers! I was so humbled and the same time empowered to be invited into the BoulderReads training program, and here I am over 2 years later- blogging about it. To be able to make a difference in the “ literary life” of someone can be a bit overwhelming at times, but one look at Roman, tonight, like just about every night he is literally curled up in bed with his “ last book” of the night. Seeing that makes it all seem more than possible and important.

Still in Negotiations

on day 9 of Ryans possible nursing strike...

this has been the run down since last week, on Ryans 8 month birthday, Sept 29th, he bite into me- hard, I screamed baby no bite, took him off and put him on the floor. For the last few days prior to this incident he had been exceptionally wiggly, pulling my hair and while nursing often, seemed generally never really satisfied- this coming from a baby which I deemed boob sucker of the year.. I did not start to worry till that afternoon and again in the evening, when worry turned to panic when he started kicking and screaming and literally pushing himself away from me when I thought he might want/ need to nurse again...uh oh I thought, I scared him, and he is teething, lets see what happens in the coming hours, the morning rolled around, I was engorged and he was a no- go on the boob. I broke out my old pump, rear- rear-rear, drip drip drip 30 mins later I was empty. Ugg

I immediately enlisted the advice of other mother friends, La Leche and my Drs office for advice. After ruling out illness, we were instructor to keep him hydrated and to ride it out for a few days. Not content to ride it out, I start to panic, see the major rub with this kid is that he does not take a bottle, nor will he really use a sippy cup yet, armed with a medicine dropper and spoons we approach him at meals times to get milk and water and even some pedialite.


day 5, I forked over $150 for a new breastpump ( which I determined equals 5 canisters of organic formula @ target), let's see formula or fresh expressed breast milk... well... if its being spoon fed might as well be the good stuff...although now I starting to feel like pumping is for the birds, my back and arm get cramped, the pump rubs me the wrong way and it's hard to find time in the day , now with Ryan's sit down meals taking upwards of 90 mins not including clean up.....

the big rub is this- he won't take a bottle and the spoon - table feeding is taking forever,and it's messy, and limits us to being on the go.... plus I still think he needs the comfort of nursing if only for his naps and bedtime.. he nuzzles me now instead of fighting me off, falls asleep in my arms in our glider in his darkened room. If it's teething I hope he breaks a tooth soon ( minus anymore the biting) if I scared him off for good, well, now I know I have a sensitive baby on my hands, bit if he is done, so be it, but he has 5 days before I think i will stop offering and might even stop pumping....Word on the street is this strike ( if it is a strike) can last 2 weeks, next Wednesday is his deadline. I am being patient, and somewhat optimistic that he will return to nursing....but for now we are still working out terms and conditions....