A collage of pictures taken recently in my Nana M’s garden. The rose bush brings her extra joy because my brother and I gave it to her 6 years ago for her 80th birthday. The star jasmine brings a wonderful scent to the front walk. The cone flower serves double duty - first as a beautiful flower, then as “nature’s bird feeder” as the birds eat the seeds from the cone. The butterfly bush was pruned by my brother, and then we collected the flowers so Nana could enjoy the scent and beauty for a little while longer, before it flowers again in the Spring.

Take some time today to find joy in your journey. Stop and smell the roses. Stop and enjoy the flowers, the joy, the children, the pets, the world around us, and life. As I heard recently, “May we fill our lives with those things that matter most.”

(and now I have to get back to working on the book!)

Today I submitted a chapter and a revised table of contents to the editor for my book which includes many of my recipes.

I am freaked out, excited, and anxious. No matter what, though, I am lucky to have a supportive family. It warms my heart to look at these pictures, women who have helped me so much and have made so many wonderful foods for me.

So Poof! We vanished. We left for a week in a neighboring state, and visited my grandparents and some friends. It started with a wonderful day of tie dye with old friends, an activity we kept meaning to take part in when we lived there, but kept missing.

My friend K was totally amazingly awesome. Not only did she drive up to pick us up (and then drove us home!), but she also made her house allergy safe. While I was at my Nana’s house for a few days helping her with errands, chores, and life, my kids were with Karen and her 2 kiddos helping them…. um, stay energetic and making sure there wasn’t too much silence.

I was able to get some work done on the book while I was there, thankfully. I now have more of the recipes restructured, and more blocks of text, too. I received a similar book to look at, and also talked with the editor about plans for the cover! Eeeep!

All of us came home very energized and encouraged. It’s wonderful to spend time with family and good friends. I was able to see my brother for a few hours last Saturday, then on Sunday my girls and I visited with my grandparents (my other Nana turned 91!) and my uncle & aunt. On Tuesday I was able to be there with my Nana and Grandpa Bob while the delivery man brought the new dryer (yay!), while the girls were at a homeschool park day with our old friends.

We had a blast. Unfortunately, I came home and promptly got a fever and sinus infection, then lost my voice. but I’m climbing out from under the covers and getting back into life.

Lets see how many balls I can juggle this week!

I’m in the middle of taking a week away from the mundane to spend time reconnecting with friends and family. My friend K and her kids P&P drove up to our house, then picked us up and brought me and the girlies to their house.

After spending a day and a half at her house (and learning how to tie dye!), they dropped me over at Nana M’s house. I’ve been hanging out and helping out here, and have also had some nice quiet time for writing.

Tomorrow my brother will be visiting, and on Sunday I get reunited with the girls, plus my Uncle Peter (who you can see playing music on NECN) and his wife will be visiting. Fun for all, for sure!

This weekend I will see my Nana R. for her birthday (91 on the 22nd), as well celebrate a bit for Nana M’s husband Bob’s birthday (94 on Oct 5). It’s my half-birthday on Monday, too. Nana R and I are 6 months apart, well plus a few years.

We’ll spend the last part of Saturday and Monday with K and meet up with some other friends we knew when we lived nearby. We’ll leave for home on Monday, bringing our trip of reconnecting with family and friends to an end.

The girls spent some time yesterday and today working with their Easy Bake Ovens. Since the mixes have gluten & dairy, we adapted some recipes, and created Chocolate and Cinnamon Easy Bake cakes, which they have proudly baked and given to the whole household. Yum!

The girls did great with measuring stirring, etc - they followed the recipes beautifully! I’m so proud

Current status:

• 41 pages of recipes

• 11 pages of writing
• Outline - 8 pages

So, as distractions, I’m playing scramble on Facebook, learning Skype, finding a Sarah Palin doll, and playing with the Sarah Palin name generator.

No matter what else is happening around here, I still need to make meals. Last night I made Chicken and Broccoli Alfredo, and it was a big hit. I will be emailing people about recipe testing in the next week or so (I’m listing folks as vegetarian or not, too).

Currently the girls are making baked donuts in their Easy Bake Ovens.. they smell divine.

As another note, I’m traveling again to CT this week, and the girls are coming down with me. Visiting both Nanas, one of whom will be 91 a week from Monday! Life keeps chugging along!

My colleague and I have signed the book contract! I’m just waiting for the advance check now!

Updates will be minimal. I still have some hand and wrist pain, so I’m trying to limit most of my typing to book-related work.

I’ll contact people in the next couple weeks about testing recipes to be testers.

This is the first political post on this blog this year, and it’s pretty long. If you aren’t interested in reading more, feel free to skip. Please remember to keep comments polite.

A woman on the ballot for VP??? My first thought was that it sounded too good to be true! I remember as a kid when we named our cat for Geraldine Ferraro, Walter Mondale’s running mate in 1984. I wasn’t expecting a female VP this election cycle, so I was really surprised when a friend told me about John McCain naming Sarah Palin as his VP choice. The choice made sense, though, choosing a woman could pander to the upset Hillary Clinton supporters, and possibly swing female voters to McCain.

When I first started reading about Sarah Palin, I was impressed: she’s an active and involved mom of 5, she calls herself a hockey mom (I think that’s the Alaskan version of a soccer mom), she enjoys outdoor winter sports such as ice fishing and snowmobiling, she’s well-loved in the community (85% approval rating!), she’s been an active partner in her husband’s fishing business, and she became involved in government - city council, mayor, and then governor partly to clear out the corruption and excessive spending in the Alaskan government. She’s type of woman that mothers of daughters want to point at - you can do whatever you set your mind to do! Sarah Palin sounds like someone I’d like to have coffee or lunch with - definitely a strong, unique, and fascinating woman. (Even if her office has a the skin of a grizzly bear her father shot on the sofa)

After I got over my initial “oh wow! a woman!” excitement, I looked at her stand on issues that are key for me. Any remote possibility of me supporting her politically disappeared completely at that point. Read the rest of this entry »

This is clearly a week for food in our family! I signed the contract for my dairy-free book with a bunch of recipes, and now MG is featured in a Hack College entry about cooking in dorm rooms.

Whatever will come next? BG being interviewed by the newspaper for her mad cooking skillz? LG’s “recipe” of ham wrapped around grape jelly featured in a cookbook?

I’ve been hanging out with the designers from shirt.woot for the past few months. It’s been fun to see how tshirts are created, how the community works, and how designers improve their skills over time. They have also helped me to laugh, smile, and just be goofy while I was stressed about my grandmother’s health, family issues, my own health, the book, etc etc etc. They’re Good People, and I’m thrilled to see their designs being printed at other places, like Tee Fury and Designs By Humans. Most of these friends are also more than happy to test out my recipes for The Book, too (assuming they can cook). It’s great to also get opinions about the taste of the recipes from folks who don’t have to cook “special” foods.

If you’ve ever bought anything at Threadless, I have another favor for you. If you haven’t before - go pick up one of their shirts that are on sale for $9 or $12 until Monday If you don’t want to buy a shirt, you can still go there and register (but then I don’t get any “points” for referring you), and then vote for my friend Sharp. I was brainstorming with her when she came up with this design months ago, and I’m thrilled to see how it has evolved into this design! It’s now up for voting at Threadless - just click on the “I’d buy it as a T” and then “5″
PS - while you’re at Threadless, check out the awesome vampire shirt that glows in the dark AND reacts to sunlight!

Every week there is a Derby at shirt.woot, where people vote for their favorite designs. Voting starts midday Friday, and ends midday Thursday. The top 3 vote-getters are printed Fri, Sat, Sun. Right now there are a few great designs by some of these wonderful friends, so please check them out! Clicking on the design thumbnail will take you to the full design, where you can vote if you have bought anything from any of the woot.com sites. If you haven’t bought anything, may I suggest BG’s favorite, Oh Burned!!! by JadenKale, which she recently modeled at the beach.

This week’s theme is “At the Luau”, so if you’re interested in any Hawaiian themed shirts, this is a good time to vote for a few you’d like a chance to buy! (You can vote for as many or as few designs as you would like) Some of our faves this week, in alphabetical order by designer’s name:

Ansharp’s Sometimes I explode, and I don’t know why
Chris Risse’s Tiki Gods Bless This Limbo Pole
• EyesLikeSugar’s Monsters like luaus, too
• Geekfactor12’s Fine Young Cannibals
• JadenKale’s Tiki Treat
• Patchitect’s Oh! The Cocanity!
• Sokowa’s Luau Fire

A couple other fun designs are the always-unique- Edgar’s (Title eaten by giant fruit.); Tgentry’s Tiki Beast from 50 Fathoms and Luau Beast from 90 Fathoms; rglee’s How Baby Islands are Made and Maiself-tai; and SkekTek’s Let’s All Go To The Luau!!!. Happy voting!

Hope everyone has a great (if rainy on the East coast) weekend!