Transplant's Pantry

How many women do I know that rave about food co-ops?  My roommate in college, my mother-in-law, and countless others who possess that cooking soul and demand fresh, organic products for their culinary creations.  

Since we're transplants for awhile, and I'm officially weary of the cost necessary to feed my family humanely by means of Whole Foods, I decided to do the homework on food co-ops.

Today my son and I made the trip to Anner's Pantry, a Tulsa, OK based organic, as-local-as-possible food co-op.  What a treasure, in true Glass Collector spirit!  Fruit and veggie bags, juice bags, weekender bags, meat, dry goods, spices, you name it!  

Anner and her family run the co-op out of their home in Maple Ridge, something reminiscent of  Dorothy's Kansas home transplanted to OZ.  I fully expected to find two legs in striped stockings and boots emerging from the slab as we approached the porch.  And as if this delectable discovery weren't enough, Anner maintains an enormous circular herb garden in her front yard.  Members may come to pick herbs at their leisure, day or night.  Just bring a pair of shears if it's after hours!

Last Night of Winter Solstice

            

There you lay so gentle and calm, an ease about your youthful face, not a crease or a furrow to be found.  The day’s excitement has settled, and your body has followed suit.  You lay curled comfortably with that same soft blanket that cuddled you as an infant, a toddler, and now a young boy.  It’s tattered and worn, and there is a small hole on the backing fabric that only I know exists.  You have not found it yet, but once you do, you will be intent on bringing it to my attention.  This I know.  

I kiss your face, feeling the smooth, soft surface that first took life inside me,  softened my soul and sharpened my instincts.  Your legs stretch out beyond the length of the blanket, having outgrown it many months ago.  I move your head back to the pillow, and as your eyes slightly open, they just as quickly close in comfort that mommy is here. 
My son, how quickly the time passes, and how beautiful you have become in that span.  How sensitive is your soul, and tender your loyalty to your father, sister and I.  What a man you will be, soon enough, too soon really.  I ache at the passing of time as you grow into your own person, but am equally anxious to discover him.  To see what will inspire and drive you, what curiosities will bring you to the ends of the earth, even the pains that you will surely live, just as surely as you are to pass as your father and I.  I simply cannot wait to see it all unfold as we end this last night of Winter Solstice. 

August 8, 2013

Photo by Wayne Devon
Courtesy of fineartamerica.com

WASTE LAND

Vik Muniz does something spectacular with the garbage pickers in Rio De Janeiro Jardim Gramacho landfill.  The people who sift through the trash of millions, end up enlightened and infamous.  Well worth a viewing.

WASTE LAND

The day my son picked me flowers

Not long ago my son began picking flowers.  Well, gripping and ripping them low on the stems is more like it.  He gets hold of the base of a branch of vanhoutte spirea in my father's back yard, and yanks intently on the shrub, the tiny yellow, orange and red flowerettes snowing down around him as he labors to pick just one.  He looks puzzled.  

Today I am reminded of his determination when I hear him approaching me "Mommy?  I picked these for you."  His little hand grasps tightly around a small bouquet of red-orange vanhouette, three stems maybe, with a few leaves half falling off.  I kneel to acknowledge him, looking him square in the face and smile.  "Here Mommy."  He nubs the stems into my hand.  They are warm from his perspiring grasp.  My heart is heavy.  He smiles and so do I.  

Stirling talent

Lindsey Stirling

Quite the performer.  I stumbled upon Lindsey on another quilter's blog and I immediately fell in love with her combination of classical violin, funky moves and dramatic facial expressions.  It takes some serious talent to rock the violin and brake it down.  Bravo Stirling!

Disembarkation

Alright Moms, let's get off the crazy train!  Meg Meeker gives us her brilliant insight into making Mother's Day an exercise in letting go.  Have fun reading and experimenting.  And Happy Mother's Day.

Let them be eaten by bears

Peter Brown Hoffmeister was a troubled teen who carried guns to high school in the 1990's.  His mother forbid video games, saying they would "dumb him down".  These were the days before Call of Duty and Halo and the like.  And although he got into many fights and was expelled from school, he never shot or wounded anyone with a weapon, even though he admittedly thought about it many times.  In fact he turned his life around, became a high school teacher and wrote a book titled Let Them Be Eaten By Bears, A Fearless Guide to Taking Our Kids Into The Great Outdoors.  He goes back to my favorite remedy for bringing young boys back from the brink in today's tough world of violence.  He is also the author of End of Boys, writes a sharp blog about related issues and for the Huffington Post.  Check him out.  

Huntington Lodge

Snuggle up in front of this fireplace on the Craftsman couch with a quilt and a glass of vino.

My father-in-law spent the 2008-2009 season restoring this Adirondack gem, the Huntington Lodge in Newcomb, NY.  The SUNY-ESF Adirondack Ecological Center commissioned a renovation of the Huntington Wildlife Forest historic camp lodge, the result of which is an astounding renaissance of the Great Camp era structure. Read more history about the restoration and Huntington Wildlife Forest here.

  

The Trophy Room

Art of Solitude

Why do we need solitude (and silence, which often accompanies it)?  We need it because solitude makes us more sensitive mothers.  Removing ourselves from constant stimulation and noise actually sharpens our sensitivity.  Also, solitude forces us to face ourselves.  In solitude we learn to like ourselves better because we are faced with our own company.  It helps us heal from old hurts so that we can be free to enjoy the present and it refreshes us in ways that the company of others can't.  Finally, solitude centers us and brings about a deep peace that cannot be achieved while staying immersed in either the good noise of friends and family or the awful noise of raucous media.  We must retreat into quiet aloneness so that we learn to be the women we were meant to be.  

-Meg Meeker, MD

Boys Should Be Boys

On this still Saturday night I got a few blocks pieced together, listened to some country, and am ending with a chapter of another Meeker must.  Boys Should Be Boys is the answer to all those pressing questions about raising a son today.  She discusses the devaluation of masculinity, noxious pop culture and the divorce of children from their parents today.  And then she goes further... she tells us how to turn it around, how to get boys back to the forest, and dirty and running and jumping, and just growing up happy and healthy.  Ditch the ipads, video games, computers, the hyper-scheduling of extracurriculars, and just be together.  The more time spent engaged in activities apart from parents, the worse off they are.  This is demonstrated in the astronomical increase in ADHD and other learning disabilities among boys.  Go fishing, read aloud, chop wood, paint a fence, whatever, just do it together, because our boys need it.  Oh and one more thing, they need a father.  More than anything in this world, they need a man to lead them from infancy to adulthood, and to set an example of how to be a strong, caring man who is in touch with himself and with his world.  A son is his father's apprentice.  

Read about it here.

Meeker on 10 Habits of Happy Mothers

On my eternal quest for simplicity, my husband found a great book for me.  I wasn't too keen on the title, one of the billions of self-help titles that I avoid at the bookstore.  Surprisingly, it's been a refreshing reprieve from the medical journals and texts I traditionally put first, and brought me back to the roots of what makes us happy as women.  Meg Meeker is a pediatrician, and gives a great spin on motherhood, career and keeping life simple.  She addresses the importance of friendships, our extended tribe of women, and prioritizing who and what comes in and out of our lives in this age of acceleration. Two thumbs up!  Other titles by Meeker: Strong Fathers, Strong Daughters and Boys Should be Boys.