Food Bank-Making Good on My Promise

November 24, 2009 in Uncategorized by OSO | 2 comments

Firstly, between work and now this post, I feel like I’ve been writing my fool head off all night. Secondly, there are worse feelings. I actually kind of like writing now that I have some critical distance on Dante’s seventh circle graduate school and I’m no longer required to spew forth academic nonsense on command. Incidentally, for those of you academics and recovering academics out there, have you seen this Random Academic Sentence Generator from the University of Chicago? It’s hilarious, although it brings back memories of that intense terror that I’m the only person in the classroom that doesn’t know what the hell is going on. So yeah, funny in a traumatic kind of way. Ha?

So summary of previous paragraph: writing = good, graduate school = v. expensive therapy

Right. Moving on.

I took Sweet Girl down to the Mid-Ohio Foodbank today to drop off some food per our previous conversation. We had never been down there before, and I was thoroughly impressed by what I saw. The people there were so kind and helpful, and took the time to talk to us despite the fact that they were noticeably busy. When they gave away Christmas baskets last year, they gave away 1 million pounds of food in two days. I can’t get my head around that number. They typically have about 3 million pounds of food stored away at any given time. They have a HUUUUGE warehouse that we got to see, and they have massive scales to weigh it all as it arrives. I have to admit that I teared up when I walked into the warehouse. It was SO MUCH FOOD. And our donation of about 30 pounds was so small. And despite all that food, people still don’t have enough to eat. I can’t get my head around that either. I am BEYOND privileged (I refuse to say ‘blessed’ because despite my currently ambivalent religious leanings, I refuse to believe that God ‘blesses’ some with enough to eat and then would rather the rest of us starve). My daughter is growing up with all she needs and then some. It is our responsibility to give what we can, and it is our responsibility to foster that little seed of generosity in our child. So we’re going to look into some opportunities there to volunteer where Sweet Girl can participate. They’re apparently starting up a young kid’s program at the food bank, and we’ll see if it’s something she can be a part of. Again, throwing this out to the locals: anyone else interested in joining up? Or maybe the local Columbus bloggers could host a food drive for them? Or something? Help me out here, peeps.

Finally, I’ve been telling Sweet Girl about all the things you guys do to give back and help the hungry. She likes that. She asks some questions while we talk, but it’s obvious she’s thinking about all of this and taking it all in. I know it’s a lot to ask a nearly 3-year old to think about. Hell, it’s a lot for me to think about, too. But I want her to know that there are lots of good people in this world who do good things, and that she has the potential to do her own good things to make a sometimes crappy world a little better. And if that resonates with her? Well, what more could I ask for?

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Questions That Keep Me Up at Night

November 23, 2009 in Uncategorized by OSO | 2 comments

Okay, so maybe they don’t keep me up THAT late because usually I’m too stinkin’ tired to do anything but fall on my pillow and commence drooling, but still.

1) Why don’t people wear their seat belts when they drive? It seems…willfully obtuse. (My apologies if you don’t wear your seat belt routinely, but this is something I just don’t get.)

2) When did they stop teaching rules of right of way? Arch Support nearly got run off the road by a punk frat boy the other day, and it happens to me routinely, too.

3) When does “potty trained” mean really potty trained? Like with no random inexplicable accidents?

4) Why did the previous owners of this house exhibit such great taste, but such cheap-*ss execution on the home-improvement projects they tackled?

5) What will Arch Support do with the millionth bag of beets that I gifted her today from our weekly CSA share?

6) Would I look goofy with longer hair with a perm? Not a spiral perm, but nice loose waves.

7) Where is the missing whale sock that I lost in the wash over a year ago?

8) Will we ever decide we’re ready for more kids?

9) Why don’t they make all kids toys out of soft, squishy materials that compress gently under adult feet? Legos and miniature plastic dolls HURT.

10) Am I going to meet my goal of running a marathon next year? Or will injury or the busy-ness of life get in the way?

Now to go ponder these upon my pillow. G’night, y’all.

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Invasion of Yo Gabba Gabba

November 22, 2009 in Uncategorized by OSO | No comments

We’ve been listening to the Yo Gabba Gabba CD ENDLESSLY for the last few weeks. Sweet Girl doesn’t watch the TV show, but she can rock out to just about every song on the CD now. As can I. There’s a song on the CD called “There’s a Party in My Tummy,” and part of the song goes something like this:

Carrots!
Ye-ah!
In My Tummy! Party, party!
Ye-ah!
In My Tummy!
Green Beans!
Ye-ah!

Etcetera, etcetera, ad nauseum, ad infinitum. So now as a result of listening to this song roughly 412348908 times, Mr. Shoe and I will suddenly, randomly bust out with “Carrots!” and the other person in the house will respond “Ye-ah!” and the instigator will respond with “In My Tummy!” Tonight, Sweet Girl was getting in on the singing action at dinnertime and most of dinner’s conversation was some combination of the song lyrics. As we were cleaning up, I jokingly substituted “Carrots!” with “Sweet Girl!” She stopped dead in her tracks and just smiled at me. I tried again, trying to elicit the response “Ye-ah!” Instead she said “No-o!” “Why not?” I ask. “I don’t go in your tummy, Mama. That was only when I was a tiny baby.” And I’ll be honest, my first response was “Why on earth does she think I eat babies?” Yeah, no, clearly the explanation that babies come from mommy’s tummies that we had MONTHS ago stuck on some subconscious (or maybe not so subconscious) level. Have I mentioned that I love how her brain works? Have I also mentioned that I need to get out more? An entire post about a Yo Gabba Gabba song? Oy.

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Recycled Crayons

November 21, 2009 in Uncategorized by OSO | 8 comments

I haven’t talked about it much around here, but I’ve got a bit of a crafty streak in me that makes me want to try to make things most people don’t make. There’s plenty of things I can do, like knit and sew, but these activities aren’t particularly kid friendly what with the sharp pokey bits and the fast-moving sharp pokey bits and the sharp scissors and me really wanting to get my kid through childhood with all body parts intact. So anyways, I try to keep my eyes open for kid-friendly hands-on projects, and we tried one this week that was mostly kid-friendly that I thought I might share.

In a nutshell, we took all the broken and nubby crayons we had around, peeled all the paper off of them, broke them into tiny pieces, put them in silicone baking molds and melted them into the oven into new crayons that are WAY more fun to play with than the little nubs. There are tons of tutorials out there with variations on how to do this, but if you’ve got a baking mold you don’t mind never using for food again, crayons, and an oven that heats to 200 degrees you can basically do this project.

Sweet Girl had a blast peeling off the paper and breaking the crayons, then watching them melt. I did have her stand a safe distance back from the oven when I saw how very liquidy and spillable the wax was, and also because I may or may not have skimmed over the portions of the tutorials that said how hot the oven should be, and I may or may not have heated the oven to 350, and the crayons may or may not have been smoking by the time I pulled them out. My new crayons may or may not still be non-toxic after withstanding those temperatures. Ahem.

Anyways, here are the results of our little experiment! (Not the best photos due to crappy light in our house, but you get the idea.)

Recycled Crayons

And a closer look at my favorite of the bunch.

Gingerbread Crayon

So yeah, we’re totally making more of these to give to the cousins for Christmas.

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Who ever thought this Nablopomo thing was a good idea anyways?

November 20, 2009 in Uncategorized by OSO | No comments

It’s more than halfway through the month, it’s altogether too late tonight (how does the time always get away from me like this?), and I’m just too tired to put anything together. So go back to yesterday’s post and comment, because I’m starting to share your acts of generosity with Sweet Girl, and I want her to know how awesome you all are! :)

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Generous Beyond Her Years

November 19, 2009 in Uncategorized by OSO | 9 comments

Perhaps the most fascinating thing about being Mama to my darling girl is the joy of watching her personality emerge and grow. Over the course of the past three years there have been several of these moments where she catches me completely off guard with her observations, where she gives me glimpses of the person she is and the person she’s going to become. It’s hits me in the gut each time, and it’s absolutely humbling. This little person is amazing and beautiful and so very much her own person, and I’m overwhelmed by my love for her.

Let me get to today’s story. I’ve been struggling for weeks now to be patient with Sweet Girl while she eats. She’s a frustratingly slow eater, precisely as I was when I was a child (yes, karma’s a b*tch, and yes, my parents think this is hysterical, haha…ha…) We remind her to keep eating, we try to help her eat, we remind her some more, but she’d rather be doing a million other things and then snack later, which is a habit we don’t want to encourage. We’re working on some ways to handle this better, and today, after getting quite upset with her because breakfast had taken nearly an hour and a half, I sat her down and started to explain why it is so very important for her to take the time to eat. She needs the food to grow big and strong; carrots help her eyes see better; milk helps her bone grow strong; you know the schpiel. Anyways, I decided to explain to her that she’s very lucky to have delicious food available and that there’s little boys and girls out there who aren’t as fortunate and don’t have food to eat, and some don’t even have a place to live . Yes, a few weeks shy of 3 years old is perhaps early to begin this very important discussion; however, she’s a very astute little girl and today seemed as prudent a time as any to mention it.

After we talked a little more, I could see the wheels turning in her head. I waited, and she finally said “Mama, can I give food to the little boys and girls who have no food to eat?” “Wow, Sweet Girl, I think that that’s a really fantastic idea.”

“Mama, can I give them someplace to live, too?”

“You can, honey. There’s special groups of people who help little boys and girls who have no food and no place to live, and we can bring them food and other things to give to those little boys and girls. Would you like to do that?”

“Yes, mama, I want to do that.”

“Well, the next time we go to the grocery store, how about we pick up some extra food to give them?”

“Okay, let’s do that.”

You know, this next month is going to be chaotic at best, and it’s SO damn easy for me to lose track of how Thanksgiving and Christmas are as much about giving back as they are specifically for our own enjoyment. Leave it to my daughter to bring that front and center for us. We’re going to buy food, and we’re going to take her to a food pantry for her first exercise in service. May she always be as generous in heart and spirit, and may I have the wisdom and humility to continue to learn from her.

What I’d really like to tell her is that I asked you all to undertake the same task to buy some extra food for local families who need it. Perhaps this is something you already do, which is awesome; I’d like to tell her that, too. Perhaps this is something you’d like to do, but needed an extra nudge, like I did, to put it on the priority list. Locals, who would like to come with us this weekend to drop off food? Non-locals, would you be willing to organize something similar among your friends and neighbors? I can’t think of a better use of this blog than to turn her idea into something bigger than what our little family can do. And I think I’ll forego the new recipe idea this year for spending a little extra time and money on those less fortunate than ourselves.

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Confessions of a Procrastinator

November 18, 2009 in Uncategorized by OSO | 4 comments

Dude, I have GOT to stop waiting until 11:30 to start writing these posts. Starting much earlier, however, would break with my tradition as master procrastinator. I routinely waited until the last minute to write papers both in undergrad and grad school (not to say I didn’t do my research beforehand, it was just the writing that I put off) and only once did this truly backfire and bite me in the ass with a mediocre grade. I routinely wait until the last possible moment to pack (this backfired once when I forgot to pack underwear for a visit to the in-laws’). I routinely wait until the last possible moment to leave for the airport (this nearly backfired recently when I forgot Sweet Girl’s passport and we had to go back to the house to get it). I routinely wait until the last possible moment to leave for meetings and appointment (this backfires all the friggin’ time). For all that my anal type-a personality wants things done a certain way don’t you DARE think about deviating from My Plans, I work most efficiently and most effectively under ridiculous deadlines. (And yes, I know that this means my personality conflicts with itself; even on my best days it’s like Ringling Brothers’ around here.)

So anyways, it has come to pass that I will be hosting Thanksgiving this year for the in-laws, which actually is fine, I quite enjoy making Thanksgiving dinner. And typically, I will dash around like a crazy person the last two days before Thanksgiving trying to gather recipes from all across creation and the internet, collect all the ingredients from sundry stores around town, defrost the damn turkey in time to bake it for Thanksgiving not Christmas, and so on and so forth. I do, however, occasionally see the wisdom in trying to work slightly in advance of T minus 2 seconds from a deadline. In an effort to get my shit together before next Thursday, I’m soliciting your help for recipes. Yeah, we do the turkey and the mashed potatoes and gravy and all the normal stuff, but each year I like to add something new and interesting and hopefully edible to the spread. Last year it was maple-glazed acorn squash (they were pretty meh); the year before that it was pumpkin cream cookies (there were none of these left over because I was busy hording them in my cheeks like a chipmunk sharing them with my guests); a couple of years before that we had artichoke dip for an appetizer (if artichokes weren’t so expensive I’d bathe in this stuff). It doesn’t have to be anything terribly complicated, just delicious. So tell me, what would you suggest I add to the mix? Oh, and if there’s interest, I’m happy to post some recipes of dishes that have gone over well with the crowd here in years past, just say the word.

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My Ideal City

November 17, 2009 in Uncategorized by OSO | No comments

Katie asks:

…into which Hogwart’s house would you be sorted?

Okay, let me try again. Proximity to family aside, where would you live if you could? (Please say Knoxville, please say Knoxville…) :)

Item the first. Having read all the Harry Potter books, you’d think I’d be able to come up with some witty rejoinder about which house I should be in and why. I can’t tell you much about ANY of the houses except to say that Gryffindor generally = good and brave, and Slytherin generally = not so good, which is a really unhelpful binary. I did, however, go to sortinghat.com just for you, Katie, and took the sorting hat test which put me into Gryffindor.

Item the second. Despite Katie’s frequent and convincing arguments, unfortunately Knoxville wouldn’t be my ideal place to live. I will say, however, that I would happily take Katie and her lovely family with me wherever I might live. To live in my ideal city, not only would I have to put proximity to family aside, I’d have to put the ability to earn a living and support my family aside, as well as the ability to communicate beyond a pre-school level with the city’s other inhabitants aside. Long story short, I’d choose to live in Tokyo. We traveled there a ton when I was a kid because my aunt lived there for many years. It’s a beautiful city in an amazing country that still holds fast to its ancient traditions but is also hell-bent on developing the next great thing. I love that the people of Japan are really good at not taking up too much space, and I think life in Japan would force me to simplify my life in ways that most cities in the U.S. just won’t allow for. Smaller living spaces, public transportation, proximity to all the necessities of life, and proximity to some of my other favorite cities in the world.

That being said, I’ve told you about my wanderlust, right? After a few years in Tokyo, I’d probably be looking for the next amazing place to live. Picking a new city to live in is far less hard for me than the getting used to the idea of spending the rest of my life in the same place. In fact, when thinking about living out the rest of my life here in Columbus, my mind instantly starts to ponder which nursing home I’ll end up in (hopefully none because my lovely daughter will be independently wealthy and will be able to care for me in the comfort of her own home…or something like that) and then subsequently I start to wonder which cemetery I’ll be buried in. Morbid, for sure, but these are the things that keep me up at night. There’s still so much to see and do in the world, and I want to see and do as much as I can before I kick it, you know? Maybe I have huge commitment issues. Maybe I’m still a pie-in-the-sky kid dreamer who believes anything is possible. Either way, it’s a great big world out there and I want to see it and share it especially with my husband and daughter.

And now that I’ve gone back and re-read Katie’s question, I have realized that she didn’t ask me where I want to spend the rest of my days nor did she ask me to choose my final resting place, but simply where I would live if I could. Sheesh, maybe the commitment issues aren’t so far off since that was one commitment-phobic tangent if ever there was one. But while I’m at it, let me modify my answer: if I had to pick one city, then yes, Tokyo it would be. If money were no object and I could live wherever I wanted whenever I wanted, I’d start in Tokyo. Then I’d move every couple of years to whatever city struck my fancy next. Those cities would likely include London, New York, Toronto, Hong Kong, Athens, Sydney, San Francisco, Beijing, and many, many more. Now, to find one of us a job (outside of the armed forces) that would allow us to do that and still leave me plenty of time to sightsee with my family and keep in touch with old friends while making new ones? That might be even harder than getting me to commit to live in one city for the rest of my life.

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Falling off the Nablopomo Bandwagon and a Shoe Sale!

November 16, 2009 in Uncategorized by OSO | No comments

After 13 consecutive days of posting, I completely lost steam. This happened to coincide with me coming down with YET another cold precisely one month to the day from the start of my last cold. Then last night, Sweet Girl started showing symptoms, so we all crashed reasonably early, but of course we had a miserable night of sleep to boot. Mercifully, this cold doesn’t seem quite as bad as the last one, but nevertheless Sweet Girl is congested, and she loves sucking her thumb, and those two things don’t mix because of the whole needing to breathe thing. Ugh. And can I just say that I hate the makers of Nyquil who package their medication in those tiny little plastic bank vaults that you can’t get open when you’re in peak health much less when your brain is foggy and your arms feel like lead. Also, there is nothing worse than waking up in the morning and having to clear your sinuses of everything that has gathered through the night. Even my kid was like “Mama, what’s that sound?!” Honey, that’s just the sound of Mama trying to expectorate her brains through her nose. Nothing to worry about, dear.

Anyways, to make up for missing two days of posting, I’ll try to double-post today and some other day this month to get me to 30 posts by 11/30, but in the meantime I wanted to give you all the heads up that 6pm.com has all their Nine West shoes on sale for $14.95. This is a STEAL, people. Check it out! Thanks to my lovely friend, Melanie, for the tip!

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I Wish I Could Wear These

November 14, 2009 in Uncategorized by OSO | No comments

I thought it would be nice to take a short break from the your questions and end the week with a pair of completely adorable, but totally impractical shoes.

Emilio Pucci flats

I love the print, I love the colors (apparently, I’m going through an orange phase right now), but first, the obvious lack of support would destroy anyone’s feet, let alone mine with plantar fasciitis. Second, $225?! For those? I may love shoes, but Imelda Marcos I am not.

Enjoy your weekend everybody, and back to your questions tomorrow.

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