In A Nutshell

Goin' to the Mardi Gras, Mardi Gras..down in New Orleans

2011-03-08T16:50:00.001-08:00

We spent the morning on St.Charles Avenue watching Rex, one of the Mardi Gras parades.

You are supposed to dress up, similar to Halloween. So we were fancy cats (the kittens did not want to get their picture taken)

We met up with neighbors, had a mimosa, and watched the parade.

A couple of hours was enough for us, whereas our neighbors arrived early and stayed late (and they've gone to every single Mardi Gras parade in New Orleans...about 10-20, I'd guess.)

When we got home we sorted all the toys and beads the kids have collected from parades, allowing them to keep just a few beads and toys. We have 2 large shopping bags of stuff to get rid of now!

We've had fun during Mardi Gras and love the way it brings out everyone for a common cause of having fun and dressing up, but the focus on collecting junk and then trashing it feels too wasteful. Next year we might take advantage of a weeks vacation from school and work (as everyone in New Orleans is granted this during Mardi Gras week) and head out of town.

I wanted to share a bread recipe that I've been using for our daily sandwich bread. It's from a cookbook called "feeding the whole family" by Cynthia Lair. I love it because it always turns out good, is relatively easy, allows for variation in the ingredients, and utilizes leftover grains. I hope some of you enjoy it, too. (the entire cookbook is great and one of my favorites.)

Homemade Whole Grain Bread - makes 2 loaves

Fermenting the starter dough take 24 hours; kneading, rising and baking takes 3 to 3 1/2 hours

Starter Dough

2 cups cooked whole grains (oatmeal, rice, quinoa, beans, or whatever is leftover in your fridge)

2 cups water

1/4 cup olive oil or melted butter

1 tbsp sea salt

1 tbsp yeast

1 cup whole wheat flour (more or less)

Blend grains and water in blender until creamy and pour into large mixing bowl. Mix in oil, salt, and yeast. Add enough flour to make the mixture look like thick-cooked cereal. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a damp towel and leave for 12 to 24 hours at room temperature.

To Make the Bread

1/4 cup maple syrup or honey

2 cups whole wheat flour

3 to 4 cups unbleached white flour or whole wheat flour

After 12 to 24 hours, add sweetener to starter dough and stir. Stir in whole wheat flour. As you add the additional white or wheat flour, the mixture will be too difficult to stir. Knead it by hand in the bowl and continue to add flour. When the dough is less sticky, transfer it to a floured surface and knead 10 to 15 minutes, or until dough is soft and springy, but not too sticky.

Wash and dry mixing bowl and oil it. Place dough in bowl, cover, and let rise in a warm place 1 1/2 to 2 hours.

To make the loaves, lightly oil 2 loaf pans. Divide dough in half. Punch down and shape the dough using the following instructions: Flatten half of the dough into a square on your working surface. Press all the air out of the dough by vigorously slapping the dough with the palms of both hands. Fold the flattened dough into a triangle and press it down again. Fold two corners into the center and press again. Fold the top point into the body of the dough and press it down again. Pick up the dough with both hands and begin rolling it into itself. This stretches the outside of the dough and creates a tight roll with no air pockets. Seal the seam by flattening it with the heel of your hand. Shape the dough into a nice loaf and place in the pan seam side down. Repeat punching down and shaping with the other half of the dough.

To Bake the Bread

1 tsp water

1 tsp maple syrup or honey

1 tsp butter, melted

1/4 tsp sea salt

Mix water, syrup, butter, and salt in a small cup or bowl and coat the top of each loaf with this mixture. Cover and let rise in pans for 45 to 60 minutes until the loaves have doubled in size. Test the bread for readiness. If you press the dough and it wants to stay in, but still has a little spring, it's ready to bake.

Preheat oven to 350. Bake 45 to 50 minutes. Bread will come out of pans after 5 minutes of cooling. Let it cool 30 minutes before slicing.

Winter's Come and Gone

2011-03-05T20:10:00.000-08:00

Winter is gone in the Crescent City with temperatures up to the lower 80's, flowers blooming, tomato starts put out, strawberries at the farmers market, and mosquitos biting. Mardi Gras is in full swing with parties, dancing in the streets, absurd amounts of "made in China" stuff being flung off floats by masked riders, face paint, marching bands, tourists, magical evenings for young and old, king cakes, and ladder "stands" for the kids lining Napoleon Boulevard and Magazine Street...

Ramona got her ears pierced and lost her first tooth...

Reuben's first camping trip at Desoto National Forest in Mississippi, hotdogs and s'mores on the campfire, our private beach, and a canoe trip down Black Creek, perfect...

Astrid in the bubble bath and lookin' cute at the insectarium

Roo in his crawfish jammies, riding the street car with Grandpa, and huggin' his Mama

Hiking at Fontainebleau State Park

Playing at City Park

Bike riding

Momo's 6th Birthday Party

The good stuff in life

2010-10-04T19:35:00.000-07:00

Making raised beds, this one for herbs, with more soon to come

wildlife under the planter box...an unidentified snake, a gulfcoast toad, a little black salamander, and various insects

Friday pizza and movie night...our new TV only once a week rule
The New Orleans tradition of Red Beans and Rice every Monday

Andrew and I celebrating our birthdays together again

Helping with natural births at my new job at Touro Infirmary L&D

Our weather forecast today: Hi 74, Lo 55 and the arrival of Autumn

Free outdoor spots around town: Lake Pontchartrain, Audobon Park and City Park

Mumsey and Grandpa coming to visit

...and I said to myself, what a wonderful world.

2010-07-21T20:55:00.000-07:00

We now live one hour from white sandy Gulf coast beaches. I've been waiting for this for years! The kids grabbed their beach toys and suits and we drove to the Mississippi coast. The beaches were pretty with sea gulls and pelicans all around. We had the whole expanse to ourselves...except for the large groups of workers cleaning up from the oil spill. The kids ran up and down the beach and threw sand and chased the waters edge...just barely missing it. They wanted to know why they couldn't get in the water.

We walked to a gas station to get something cold to munch on and asked the lady at the cash register about getting in the water. She said, "They say it will be at least a year before it's safe to get in here again, if the oil leak stops today. I love this place. I grew up here, but I'm moving now. It'll never be the same and I'm scared what's going to happen when the next hurricane comes. It's sad." Ironically, it turned out she was moving to the same area of Tennessee that we just left.

What a reality check! We've stayed current with the news of closed beaches and long term effects of toxic oil, but until you bring your kids to the beach and see it just as big and amazing as ever, but you're scared to touch it...I guess it never seemed real until now. We're hoping that life on the coast is more resilient than we realize. We're hoping to bring our kids back to the beach next year for a swim.

Until then we're exploring and touching the fragile beauty that we can.

Baby Reuben Arrives!

2010-06-14T09:11:00.000-07:00

Reuben James Laughlin was born at home in New Orleans on May 31.

He is healthy and weighed 7lbs 11oz.

The labor and birth seems like a dream, as Reuben arrived 2 hours after active labor began. Our midwife got to the house just 10 minutes before the birth! Mumsey took Astrid to the grocery store when labor became painful and Ramona decided to stay for the birth. Ramona saw Reuben "crowning" and helped to cut the cord after the birth. We called Mumsey and Astrid after the birth and they were still at the grocery store and couldn't believe Reuben had already arrived...we couldn't believe it either. Wow!

Ramona and Astrid are in love.

Reuben seems to be a mellow and easy-going little man. We're actually getting sleep at night!

We were lucky to have Mumsey and Grandpa to help.

We moved out of our house in Johnson City and drove down to New Orleans to settle in a few weeks before Reuben's birth. The girls and Andrew and I will miss our friends in Johnson City and Asheville, and we'll miss those mountains and forests and rivers. (One day we may just have to move back to the Appalachians.)

Andrew has accepted a 5 year PhD position at Tulane University studying tree swallows in the wintering roosts along the Gulf Coast. Ramona will be starting Kindergarten in mid-August at Morris Jeff Charter School. She's been so brave with making new friends here in New Orleans. We're lucky to have many families with young children on our street. Today Ramona and her new friend from our neighborhood had a lemonade stand and made $2.50! We've all been loving the pools at Tulane. Ramona has learned to swim underwater, flip, and dive and Astrid likes bobbing around on her floats and jumping off the side of the pool.

There is so much to see and do here: City Park and Audobon Park, festivals every week, all sorts of museums, the bayous and swamps, the music, the food, and, of course, all of the friendly folks who live here.

We are renting a house a few blocks from buses and street cars and we have an extra bedroom, so please come to visit!

Happy Birthday Astrid Millay

2009-10-27T17:28:00.000-07:00

Astrid was born two years ago tonight and look at her now!

Check out Momo sporting the Pippi Longstocking with those torn tights.

Momo and Astrid up a tree on a little nature hike

We love looking out our front windows to see this dayglow maple tree

The beautiful North Carolina Outer Banks. Here's the soundside...

And there's the crazy Atlantic Ocean

Just me and my girls

Astrid helped me shell these Scarlet Runner beans from our garden...they're purple!

Momo's inspired artwork...with a little parental advice on spelling
The latest on Andrew's school search and where we might move this summer... he's got three PhD advisors interested in him: Tulane in New Orleans, NC State in Raleigh, NC, and VA Tech in Blacksburg, VA. New Orleans offers the most interesting research project, but we're reticent to move so far from family. Also, we know nothing about living in New Orleans...just drinking in the French Quarter! If anyone has lived there or has any advice or info, please send it our way!

One last bit of news that it's still a bit early to spread, but I've never been one for keeping a secret...Astrid's not only 2 years old, but she's going to be a big sister in June. Surprise! (for us, too)

Our Summer

2009-09-14T20:21:00.000-07:00

Our Summer has come and gone and I am ready to settle back into home for the Autumn.

Andrew was busy with his field work in the surrounding mountains this Summer.
Here's where Andrew stayed for free when working in the Smokies...biologists have it made!
We were out town so often that a suitcase was always sitting half-packed.

I stopped making bread and barely cooked a meal...I don't know what we ate.

The garden grew and grew and became a tangle of vegetables and flowers. It was too dense and full of mosquitoes for me to tackle. I just let it go wild.

My Fall vegetable garden seems so tame compared to the Summer garden...the simplicity of uniform greens and occasional golds...kale, spinach, beets, lettuces, and collards.

Autumn is by far my favorite season. I love the colors and anticipation of what's to come, the order of a school day.

Ramona has started preschool five days a week. Her class includes children from Zimbabwe, Mexico, Pakistan, and India.

Astrid has started daycare twice a week, but prefers to stay with her family. She is a brave and busy little girl who loves bugs, painting, and books.

Ramona has been loving drawing, music, witches, playing with her good friends, and swimming.

Ramona, Astrid, and Andrew all go to school at the University and we've enjoyed biking the kids to school in the bike trailer, although Ramona's almost too big for it now.

Andrew is teaching a 200 student biology lecture and likes being Professor Laughlin. He's looking into PhD programs to research tracking of avian migratory patterns. He hopes to teach at a university when he finishes.
States we're considering moving to in the Fall are Oregon, New York, Mississippi, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and New Jersey, to name a few. I don't know where we'll end up!

I am working 2 or 3 days a week in Labor and Delivery at a small hospital near our house. After considering graduate programs in public health or midwifery, I'll decided to stick with L&D nursing for now.
I love the free time my schedule allows me to spend with the kids, garden, travel, hike, and bake.
garden

At the Frog Pond

2009-06-16T18:38:00.000-07:00

We almost walked right by this muddy pond as we hiked through Buffalo Mountain. It looked like a big mud puddle and I've since discovered these big mud puddles are called Vernal Pools. They appear in the Spring with the rains and often dry up later in the year. They are amphibian breeding grounds.

It was Momo who wanted to take a closer look and this is what we saw...zillions of tadpoles

And frogs. All in different stages of development.

We fashioned a homemade net out of an onion bag, a wire coat hanger, and a dowel and caught some of these little guys to investigate further.

Here's Momo's rendition of one of the tadpoles we caught.

We also spotted birds, deer prints, beer claw marks, millipedes, centipedes, snails, dragonflies, snake skins, and this Great Spangled Fritillary.

Andrew has been doing his fieldwork in the spruce-fir forests tracking out Hermit Thrush and Veery breeding territories. Usually this is done by ear, until now. He spotted his first baby Hermit Thrush!

Here are some beautiful Flame Azaleas from the Unaka Mountains.

And a beautiful view.

2009-06-04T19:42:00.000-07:00

Late Spring...

Shelling peas from our garden, or, in Astrid's case, eating peas from our garden

Enjoying our homemade meal - peas, kale, carrots, mint, and cilantro from our garden, homemade bread, and raw milk from a nearby farm

Finding trilliums in the woods

Discovering the magic of a Spruce-Fir forest...where fairies must live

Celebrating Emily's 33rd Birthday

Experiencing the excitement of a dance recital

Looking under rocks for salamanders

Hanging out in our backyard

Vacationing with family at the beach

2009-05-11T18:44:00.000-07:00

Happy Mother's Day! Every day is a good day to be thankful for Mothers. I just found out the origins of this holiday and am so excited to share this original proclamation of Mother's Day by Julia Ward Howe.

Andrew, Ramona, Astrid, and I have been enjoying the spring in our garden, with friends here in Johnson City and back in Asheville, and with our families. We were happy to witness the coming of Spring with our very own robin family nesting on the front porch. Ramona and Astrid watched the whole process from mating, to nest building, to little blue eggs appearing fresh each day, to mama sitting and sitting, and finally the babies all pink and tiny, then the growth in size and of feathers, and then they were gone...we did see them one last time a few days later still being fed by their parents out on our birch tree.

We have been eating the first of spring harvest from our garden...spinach and kale. I have lots of new ground planted and am trying to keep "peter" rabbit from eating much of my baby plants. I think it is rabbits because we have seen big brown cottontail rabbits a few times in the back yard and my turnips are always all eaten down to a nub. (Isn't that what Peter Rabbit loved out of Mr McGregor's garden?) We just finished putting up a new fence, hopefully that will keep Peter out of my garden.

We just spent a wonderful weekend going to the Lake Eden Arts Festival and hanging out with good friends. I'll have to say that even Andrew was dancing at the festival. If you've never heard Haitian music and want something that will get you dancing try this artist. There was a kids tent full of instruments and Ramona really enjoyed playing with the violin.

Andrew has finished his first year of grad school and will soon start his field work in the Smokey Mountains. I am still working two days a week on Labor and Delivery as an RN. Ramona has gotten into a full-time preschool that will start in late August. Astrid will start attending daycare twice a week in the fall and hangin' solo with Mama the rest of the weekdays. Of course, Andrew and I are still pondering all sorts of plans for where we might move when grad school ends, but our top two are Missoula, Montana or Chapel Hill, NC.

Happy Spring!

Spring Fever

2009-02-11T18:56:00.000-08:00

I hope everyone's been enjoying this "Spring" weather. We've been playing in the backyard, playgrounds, the woods, and the sidewalks... anywhere outdoors! Ramona's favorite outdoor art is painting windows (we replaced our house's windows and saved many of the old ones) and drawing with chalk.

Lately she also enjoys collecting rollie-pollies (I have no idea how to spell that), helping with the chickens, and riding her tricycle. Over this hot spell she has been donning her swimsuit and playing in the sprinkler!

Astrid likes to paint, too.

But more so she enjoys opening and closing the containers of paint. She also loves the birdbath.

I think her favorite outdoor activities are running up and down the sidewalk and climbing everyones stairs, "riding" Ramona's tricycle, and playing with the gravel in our driveway.

All you need is love...

2009-02-02T19:06:00.000-08:00

We've entered a new era in hiking with the kids. Ramona can trek for a couple of hours without usually complaining about being tired. The only hitch is that she wants to play hide and seek the entire time we're hiking. So one of us must run ahead with her to hide, while the other must look the opposite direction and wait. Here's Ramona climbing up some tree roots that run down a rocky face.

And here's Andrew rescuing her like a cat up a tree.

The river was beautiful and made us want to try fly fishing.

Here's a cool tree.

Looks like a beaver borrowed this tree.

Some of you were interested in the recipe for those 4 loaves of bread I pictured in the last blog entry. Here it is from "Home Baking: The Artful Mix of Flour and Tradition Around the World" by Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid (My favorite cookbook authors).

This is a slow rise bread and need to start 2-3 days before you want to bake, timing is flexible. Makes 4 large loaves, each weighing 2+ pounds.

large-batch whole wheat pan loaves

Poolish
3 cups lukewarm water
Scant 1/4 tsp active dry yeast
3 cups all-purpose flour

Bread
6 cups lukewarm water
11 cups whole wheat flour
3 tbsp salt
2 1/2 to 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
About 2 tbsp unsalted butter or mild veg.oil to grease the pan

Make poolish at least 12 hours before using:
Place lukewarm water in medium bowl and sprinkle on yeast and stir to dissolve. Add flour and stir well to make smooth batter. Cover with plastic wrap or tight lid and set aside to ferment for 12-36 hours, whatever is most convenient. The batter will develop bubbles and look lively.

When ready to proceed, place lukewarm water in a large bowl. Add poolish and stir to dissolve. Add 2 cups whole wheat flour and stir in, always stirring in the same direction. Add another 4 cups whole wheat flour and stir in the same direction until smooth, then stir for 1 minute longer. Now you have a sponge. Cover with plastic wrap and set aside to ferment for 8-18 hours.

Stir the honey into the sponge, then sprinkle on salt. Add the remaining 5 cups whole wheat flour, 1 cup at a time, stirring and turning the dough to combine it completely. The dough will become heavy and difficult to stir. Sprinkle about 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour over a wide area on your work surface and turn dough out. Use a dough scraper to lift one side of the dough and fold it over, and continue to use the dough scraper to knead by folding the dough over on itself. You will soon need to add another 1/2 cup flour or more to your work surace, and soon thereafter you will be able to knead using your hands, as the dough gradually gets less sticky and more smooth. Use a dough scraper to keep your work surface clean, and knead for a total of 10-12 minutes, until the dough is very smooth but still soft and a little sticky.

Place dough back in clean bowl, cover, and let rise 4 hours, until doubled.

Lightly flour work surface with all-purpose flour. Turn out dough and fold over on itself several times. Use a large knife of dough scraper to cut the dough into 4 equal pieces (weighing about 2 1/4 pounds each). Loosely cover dough and butter/oil four 9x5 inch bread pans.

Gently flatten 1 piece of dough in to an oveal about 12 x 8 inches, then roll from narrow end into a cylinder. Pinch the seam closed and place seam side down in pan. Repeat with remaining.

Cover loaves with plastic and a cloth and place in reasonably warm place (68-75) to rise. After they have proofed for 1 hour, start preheating over. Place rack in lower third of oven and place baking stone or sheet on it. Preheat to 425. Fill a sprayer with water. (I just use a bowl of water and fling it with my fingers)

When the loaves have proofed nearly 2 hours they will have risen a little but will not have doubled. Slash one loaf two or three times diagonally with sharp knife, spritz generously with water, and place in oven on stone/sheet. Repeat with all. Then spritz them all again generously. Close door and reduce to 400. Spritz generously every minute for 10 minutes, then bake for 35 minutes. Lower the heat to 375 and bake for 30 minutes. (I lower the heat after only 25-30 minutes and then bake another 30 minutes, I guess my oven cooks faster) Remove the loaves from the pans and place on stones/rack and bake a few more minutes, until corners are very firm when pinched. (Sometimes I forget to do this and it doesn't make much difference.) Let cool completely on a rack before slicing.

Note: Let stand 12 hours before wrapping in plastic to store at room temp or freeze. Defrost by leaving out overnight at room temp.

Enjoy!

Snow and Bread

2009-01-22T18:15:00.000-08:00

Butterflies, Fairies, and Peaceful Protests

2009-01-18T18:30:00.000-08:00

There is so much excitement in the air with this upcoming inauguration. Andrew was just saying today that if John McCain had been elected this inauguration would not be half as publicized or festive. It would have just been another rich, white guy in the white house. People are excited because Obama represents the hopes of many of us who felt underrepresented in the past. And that's great. But he can't do it alone. On that note...

For those of you with a yearning to get out of your house and shake things up...there is a massive peaceful protest being planned in March in DC to put the word out about the nasty effects of coal mining. This includes such major issues as global warming and mountain top removal. Andrew and I just might do it...let us know if you're going, too. I've included a link in the post below to the Capitol Climate Action website for more info.

Here in our lives the kids could care less about politics. Crafting and dancing have been all the rave. We worked on a large butterfly mobile today and collected supplies for making little flower fairies. Ramona has become quite the prima ballerina and was doing some lovely ballet performances to the new (and wonderful) Bob Dylan album "Tell Tale Signs" tonight...she's very postmodern! She called her performances "the butterfly dance" and "the fairy dance". We've also managed to spend fun times outdoors, despite the cold front. Today we were walking through the neighborhood and stopped to watch the street maintenance crew. They dumped a load of gravel into a huge hole with a dumptruck and scraped it neatly into place with a bulldozer. Ramona loved it and said that she would bring her cousins and some of her Asheville friends to come and watch next time.

Capitol Climate Action

2009-01-18T18:26:00.001-08:00

Homelife, Career, and ..... more?

2009-01-16T19:57:00.000-08:00

It feels good to be home. Today felt like our first "normal"day in weeks. Andrew had class, the girls and I stayed home baking and reading books, then some friends came for dinner...ah, the good life. We did enjoy the holidays. The week before Christmas was busy with preparations for travels, visits with my family, and work. We spent most of Christmas week in Pennsylvania with Andrew's family where Ramona and Astrid had a great time playing with their six cousins. We were home long enough for me to work a couple of days and then off to Athens to stay with my parents for a few days. Then a couple of more days of work and that brings us back to the present...just where I want to be.

I was talking with a friend tonight about how difficult it is to find a balance between cultivating a meaningful lifestyle (which for me includes much baking, cooking, gardening, active time with my family, reading, and exploring the outdoors), working for a living, and maintaining an active involvement in community and civic action. Since becoming a parent I find myself reading and thinking about the changes I would like to see in my community and the world, but I just don't have as much free time to volunteer, or be part of a protest, or organize a community group. I had planned to volunteer at a non-profit health clinic, only to come to the obvious realization that I would need to pay for daycare for my children in order to go volunteer. So, I have been trying to incorporate my visions and hopes for my community and the world into my everyday life and work. Instead of driving to work in a rush and just going through the ropes, I walk there. The moon and stars are out these winter days as I leave for work at 630am and they remind me of all those reasons I wanted to be involved in women's health, the changes I hoped to make, and the support I hoped to provide. I arrive to work ready to do my basic job and hopefully a little more. One of my friends that came for dinner tonight is very involved in educating others and organizing against mountain top removal for coal mining. I am inspired by her energy and courage. She is presenting to a Yale law conference, creating school age curriculms, and planning to be part of the organized civil disobediance (protest) in DC this march. At the same time she is a mom, a full-time graduate student, and has just moved to a new city. It feels good to find a friend that inspires me to not stand back and hope, but to actively work with others to create a change. On that note, I feel very hopeful about our next years as a country under the new guidance of our President Elect, Barack Obama!

Happy Holidays!

2008-12-19T17:51:00.000-08:00

We have been busy with holidays, final exams, work, and on-going house renovations and I feel like there is quite a bit of catching up to do here on our blog.

We are moving Astrid and Ramona into a different bedroom that has more windows. We talked to Ramona about the move and she requested that their new bedroom be "sparkly princess pink." I told her that we were planning on painting it yellow. So, she said, "Can it be princess yellow?" Of course!

I am proud to announce that Astrid is going to bed so much easier now. We decided to "train" her to go to sleep on her own, rather than holding her until she was asleep and then putting her into bed. And it worked!

We have been reading Ramona "The Wizard of Oz" at bed time. It's her first big kid book, with only a picture on every other page and lots of words, and chapters. She seems to be enjoying it. I had never read "The Wizard of Oz", only seen the movie, and there are some differences. For example, Dorothy's shoes are not red, they are silver. Nevertheless, Ramona will wear nothing but her red sparkly shoes that Mumsey gave her.

Andrew and I have been daydreaming lately about moving to Hanover, New Hampshire. There is an ornithologist there at Dartmouth that studies the effects of global warming on migratory songbirds, which is exactly what Andrew would like to study if he enters a PhD program. The state of New Hampshire is also a great place to study and practice as a midwife legally and socially. I think about 25% of pregnant women give birth with a midwife there and homebirth midwifes have a lot of freedom in their practice. So, we've been daydreaming, even though we would be very sad to leave the close proximity to my family. Guess we'll just have to see where the wind blows us. In the mean time we'll be here in Johnson City for another year and a half while Andrew finishes his graduate degree.

Andrew finished his finals about a week ago with straight A's and is now on break through the second week of January. So, he's been spending lots of time with the kids, feeding the ducks, baking cookies, swimming, taking walks, and going to get treats at the store. I'll have to admit, he seems to get so much more done than I do when I am home all day with the kids. I get home from work at 730pm and he has the kids asleep, dinner made, the house clean, errands run, a batch of homemade cookies, and stories of what fun things the kids did that day.

We spent Thanksgiving with my family here at our house and had a wonderful time.

My sister and parents spent the night, we played at our favorite park, ate a little roasted chicken and some other yummy food, watched a very cool documentary on Andy Goldsworthy called Rivers and Tides, and just enjoyed hanging out together.

Ramona made this artwork titled "I Am Thankful".

Here's a little close up of "At the playground with Grandpa sliding down the twisty slide"
and "strawberry ice cream" and "jumping on the couch"
We will be spending Christmas in Fenelton, PA with Andrew's family out in the country. Ramona loves getting together with her cousins and has been talking about this visit for months. I think there may even be a surprise visit from Santa Claus and Mrs.Claus when we're there! Andrew and I have been looking forward to this visit, too, and can't wait to see all of his family and celebrate the holidays with them.

I hope that all of you are have safe and happy holidays with your loved ones!

Happy Birthday, Ramona!

2008-12-07T18:33:00.000-08:00

Ramona turned 4 years old on December 6th. She is sure that everything about her is larger now, even her teeth. She had four friends over for a dress-up birthday party. There were, of course, presents, cake, games, and lots of running around and laughing. That night Ramona got to stay up late and get all dressed up to see a ballet performance of "A Christmas Carol" with her Mumsey (my mom) and me. I think it was a wonderful birthday!

Late November Snow

2008-11-23T18:46:00.000-08:00

Waking up to snow is so peaceful and lovely. We were in the midst of falling leaves and now they are all raked away and snow is in their place. It happens so quickly...just as I'm finding this peaceful and lovely and (and sometimes maddening) time of life with our children is passing so quickly. Astrid began walking yesterday and Ramona is turning 4 years old in a couple of weeks. She still asks us to carry her and we complain, but we love having her so close, her head on our shoulder and cheek.

Here are some images from our week of hiking, baking, and greeting the snow and here's the link to a song by Ferron that I love, called Girl on a Road.

In the Kitchen

2008-11-16T18:17:00.001-08:00

The cool weather makes me want to cook and bake and eat. Tonight Ramona and I started making Buttermilk and Currant Whole Wheat Bread...yum! Ramona says, "Can I help you dough it?" This means "knead it." She loves to knead and eat the dough. Tonight I told her to stop eating it. She says, "Why? Are there rotten eggs in it?" What she meant was, "Are there raw eggs in it?" Andrew said that it sounded like a Southern specialty..."Rotten Egg Bread".

Andrew and I have started having "dates" every week or two. The kids stay home with a babysitter or go to a friends house, while we spend a few hours doing whatever we want. This afternoon we went to Barnes and Nobles (Johnson City doesn't have an independent book store or we would have gone there instead) for our date. I know it doesn't sound that exciting, but for two book lovers it is. I was so pleased to discover a book on Indian food, Mangoes and Curry Leaves: Culinary Travels Through the Great Subcontinent, by two of my favorite cookbook authors, Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid. They have the coolest job as food anthropologists and cookbook authors ... traveling around the world with their two kids studying, eating, and photographing food and the people who make it. I have two of their books, Seductions of Rice: A Cookbook and Home Baking: The Artful Mix of Flour and Traditions from Around the World.

2008-11-14T17:25:00.000-08:00

We have been passing around an upper respiratory infection for the past 2 or 3 weeks! So, I missed my two night shifts at work this week...and stayed home cooking Indian food, sewing curtains, reading "Arthur's First Sleepover" and "Madeline's Christmas" over and over, baking bread, making birthday party invitations, and drinking hot ginger and sage tea. I'm happy to say that the food was all delicious. The Indian recipes are from the River Cottage Family Cookbook, the bread recipe is from Bread Alone, and the tea is from the Kripalu Cookbook. The fireplace was, of course, blazing all through this ... and today we got the gas bill. FYI, the gas fireplace insert uses a lot of gas. I did discover that placing bread to rise near the fireplace works really well if you have a cool house like us. You just need to keep the towels covering the bread moist so that the dough does not dry out.

Andrew is happy that his grant proposal was accepted. He now has money to buy a GPS and some other supplies for his bird research and to pay for gas. He has decided to do his research near Johnson City on Roan Mountain and Unaka Mountain. I plan to tag along for much of this "research" with the kids...what a great excuse to go hiking and camping this spring and summer!

I have just started to volunteer with the Johnson City Downtown Clinic, which serves the uninsured and patients with Medicaid. I will be working primarily with the Hispanic prenatal patients. I hope to improve my Spanish, gain more experience with prenatal care, and try to start a doula program. I keep mulling over the pros and cons of returning to school for Nurse Midwifery and I hope that volunteering here will help me in that decision.

Astrid is going on 1 year and 1 month and is really trying to walk and talk, but can do neither yet. Andrew thinks she's a budding birder...hard to tell. She does love eating, drawing, and putting things into and out of containers. Ramona likes to yell "Stop it!" when we tell her not do something naughty. Her favorite games are chase and hide and seek, especially when it's time to get dressed, leave the house, eat dinner, or any other timely event. She has become quite the little radio hog, listening to primarily Billy Jonas about 3 times a day, and complaining loudly if we turn it off to listen to our music. I am happy to say that she's a big fan of Gillian Welch's One Little Song, Otis Redding's Dock of the Bay, the Grateful Dead's Ripple, Old Crow Medicine Show's Wagon Wheel, Cat Steven's the Wind , and Leo Kottke's Corrina, Corrina.

I have become fascinated with the McKenzie River area of Canada and want to visit there this summer...before it has been changed for the worse by our quest for oil. On that note, Ramona, Astrid, and I took our first trip on the Johnson City Public Bus this week. It was clean, cheap fare, and the driver was so nice. We'll definitely be utilizing it more often. I encourage all of you to try out your city's public bus...it's fun!

Here are some photos of the past couple of weeks.

At the Park

Visting with Mumsey and Grandpa in Asheville

Birthday Invitations

Outdoor Plexiglass Painting

The Chalkboard

Apple Picking with Friends

A Fireplace

2008-11-01T20:00:00.000-07:00

A warm, bright fire brings so much to a living space. I have just discovered how wonderful our gas insert fireplace can be. It provides heat and flickering orange flames. All we have to do is turn a little knob...it just seems too easy. So, does anyone know about the environmental and health effects of these gas inserts. Do they use excess amounts of gas or give off detrimental fumes? Is it okay that I have it on most mornings and evenings for a total of about 6 hours per day? There are (soapstone?) logs in the fireplace and tile on the hearth that seem to absorb and retain the heat. Above the flames is a partially closed shutter. I think it is broken and doesn't completely close. This was another question to anyone who may know...do we need to have an open chimney with a gas insert or does this just waste heat?
Before I realized how much I like this gas insert, I had planned to install an old cast iron wood burning stove of my father's. It was in my house as a child and seemed to provide a good deal of heat, not require too much wood, and had a little window where you can see the fire burning. Any thoughts on this style of woodstove.
Thanks!

Outside in the Autumn

2008-10-26T19:31:00.000-07:00

Andrew and I love Autumn. We have been spending as much time as we can outside during this beautiful time of year. I have to admit that Ramona is a bit of a homebody and will usually choose to lounge about in the house over playing outside (much to my dismay.) We were lucky enough to get tickets for the Lake Eden Arts Festival (LEAF) for a full weekend of music, art, and outdoor play. This festival takes place just outside of Asheville, NC at a large piece of land with a lake surrounded by mountains and features international musicians and artists from around the world. Here are just a few glimpses of what it was like:

Andrew took a week-long trip with his school to study birds in the Outer Banks on the northeast coast of North Carolina.

One day they took a boat 60 miles out to the Gulf Stream where he saw flying fish, dolphins, and several bird species he had never seen before. He caught some large mahi mahi that he ate for dinner that same night. Here's a little frog he spotted on a hike there.
This weekend Andrew, Ramona, Astrid, and I hiked part of the Appalachian Trail near Johnson City...so, so beautiful!
Tomorrow is Astrid's First Birthday!

Sunny Days, Rainy Days

2008-10-09T18:02:00.000-07:00

Sunny Days...

Hiking in the Unaka mountains, building snail houses, collecting leaves, acorns and berries, playing in the sprinkler, gardening, jumping rope, biking, the Apple Festival, freeze tag, dinner outside with friends

Rainy Days...

Homemade hot chocolate and popcorn, a big pile of books, puddle jumping, dress-up, splitpea soup and warm bread, bubble baths, naps, dance parties, visiting the library, candlelight

Summer is Behind Us

2008-09-29T20:05:00.000-07:00

We have been so busy this summer. Laura is now working as an RN in Labor and Delivery at a small hospital 2 nights a week. Andrew is a graduate student at ETSU and is teaching labs and working on a research project. Ramona has been spending 1-3 days per week at her new friends house (so that Laura can sleep before and after working night shifts)

and is taking ballet, playing soccer, and loving books and art.

Astrid is crawling around, exploring the world, and eating everything she can get her teeth into.

We just returned from a beach trip to Keawah Island, SC with Griff, Claire, and Emily. There were tidal pools with hermit crabs and fish, we found live horseshoe crabs, and we played in the ocean and swam in the pool. It was great!

This summer we spent a lot of time outside hiking in the Appalachian mountains,
playing in the yard, preparing a new garden bed, and exploring nature,

building a chicken coop,

swimming and playing in the local lakes, rivers, and streams, and riding our bikes (the kids ride in our new Burley D'Lite bike trailer!).

Laura's best childhood friend, Catherine, invited us to be in her wedding in Laura's hometown of Eufaula, Alabama. When we were there Ramona got to play on the same playground where Laura and her sister used to play.

We are all excited to be entering Autumn with it's gray misty mornings and crunchy fragrant leaves. There is the excitement of new projects to be completed in the cooler, darker time of year. Andrew will be planning and researching his bird breeding project to be done in the spring and Laura is trying to start a volunteer doula program for indigent pregnant women and hoping to apply to Nurse Midwifery school. Momo is excited to drink much hot cocoa, read Charlie and Lola, dance to Billy Jonas, and draw hearts, flowers, and mad faces. Astrid will be tumbling about laughing in her attempts to walk and talk and keep up with her big sister. Please stay in touch and let us know what is happening in your lives, too! We wish you all much love.

Joining the "Network"

2008-07-11T18:58:00.000-07:00

Andrew and I have finally broken down and purchased cell phones. Although this may seem mundane, it has been a big decision for us. I already feel as though my ear is glued to the phone too often during the day. Ramona has commented, "Mama, stop talking on the phone," and I have to agree with her. But here are our new numbers, and do feel free to call. Our new land line numbers have not yet been established.
Andrew #432-767-5589
Laura #432-767-5590

bird banding

2008-06-26T20:14:00.000-07:00

Here's Andrew with a Golden Crowned Kinglet that he's banding up in the mountains. He volunteers at a preserve with their full-time naturalist to monitor the birds who live there.

A New Home - posted by Laura

2008-06-16T19:20:00.000-07:00

We move in mid-August to our new house in Johnson City, TN, just an hour north of Asheville. There are mountains and forest surrounding the city... very beautiful and lots of good hiking and camping. Andrew is starting a graduate program here at Eastern Tennessee State University to study biology with a focus on ornithology (birds, that is.) He's getting paid to go bird watching full-time...this is his dream come true. He has been working hard to get here...Congrats, Babe! You did it! We are looking forward to spreading out in our larger home, painting the rooms, creating an art space/playroom for the girls, and gardening. There will be two guest bedrooms if anyone wants to come visit...please do! Our new address will be: 712 E.Myrtle, Johnson City, TN 37601

Happy Father's Day

2008-06-16T19:13:00.000-07:00

For your constant love, support, and kindness...We Love You!
Laura, Ramona, and Astrid