Tag: family

“You are my sunshine” (Grieving my dead relatives, continued)

by Karen, posted in family, good grief, health
Mary

So, it’s that time of year again; when the anniversary of the day a relative died rolls around and you try to remember without being too sad.

This is my mother. At the time this picture was taken, she was a sister, a daughter. At the time this picture was taken, she was not yet a wife, a mother.

She was graduating from high school then, and her life was ahead of her. Too soon, it was over.

My husband took me for a ride a few days after she died with no particular destination in mind. We ended up at a local market with an attached greenhouse. As I walked around the store clutching my Kleenex, I was drawn to some colorful plants that my husband told me were primroses. For a moment, I actually felt happy looking at the little faces of the flowers, so on impulse I purchased one. I took it home and placed it on the little shelf above my kitchen sink.

Every time I looked at it, I remembered my mother’s death with a pang that was then tempered with a little bit of calm. In the spring, my husband planted it in the back yard.

Each year that followed, I brought home another little primrose plant and in the spring we planted it outside. Over time, all of these plants thrived and soon, without specifically intending to do so, I’d created an entire garden of  primroses, which became sort of a tribute to my mother. I was very sad to leave it behind when we moved.

This year when I was browsing at Trader Joe’s I spotted some primroses which (of course) immediately evoked thoughts of my mother, so I bought one. This spring I intend to plant it in my kitchen herb garden to revive my mother’s tribute garden from years past.

I chose yellow for the first plant because when I was growing up, she bought me an outfit that I refused to wear: yellow pants and a yellow shirt. “Who wears that color pants?” I complained. She ended up returning the outfit which I wouldn’t  have been caught dead wearing. Years later though, I recall this incident and wonder, “Why couldn’t I just wear it? Give her what she wanted?”

It’s ironic that yellow is now my favorite color.

Also, “You Are My Sunshine” was a song she loved and sang to us frequently when we were kids.

She died on leap day, February 29. We joked afterward that she chose that day purposely, so we would only have to feel sad about the day she died once every years. She was nice like that. 🙂

Kennebunk Winterfest with tweens

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, family, fitness, friends, local fun, restaurants, tweens

The Kennebunk 2011 Winterfest was yesterday in (you guessed it) Kennebunk, Maine. It was great that it wasn’t February 25th, since we got (yet another unwelcome) snowstorm. It was fun, but would have been more so if it had been about 10 degrees warmer (I’m just sayin’).

It kicked off with a pancake breakfast at Duffy’s for $5.99 per person (the money went towards supporting the Winterfest event) which included a drink and 2 enormous pancakes. I didn’t photograph them because they weren’t anything special…they were too big, too thick, too pale, too insubstantial…a disappointment really. When we were leaving I saw some smaller, thinner, better browned pancakes coming out of the kitchen, but it was too late for us. I mentioned to the server that maybe the kid portions should have been one pancake if they were going to make them that ginormous; maybe they listened? It was also a little bit disconcerting that the food arrived so quickly. In one case, I saw people’s pancakes arrive after they had barely sat down and they hadn’t even gotten their drinks. I also felt like they were rushing to get us out, but wasn’t sure why.

Next year, I will go to Perfecto’s Caffe on Main Street in Kennebunk for breakfast instead.

Then next stop was the Kennebunk Town Hall where a craft show was held from 9am-2pm. There was a big crowd here (even Elvis made an appearance!)  Dory’s Dogs was there making Nutella and Banana Crepes to die for. I took a bite and died right there. They were amazing. I couldn’t get a picture because my hands were covered with Nutella…I wasn’t worthy.

The kids had the option of making some glass bead projects, but those were not cheap. The key rings were the least expensive project at $3, then there were earrings, bracelets, and other projects, some costing as much as $15. The two women running the craft were awesome: funny, patient, helpful. The kids loved it.

Next: the scavenger hunt. They were given “clue bags” and had to go around to area businesses to get the different parts of the snowman and then assemble it at the end to get the chance to win a DQ  or a toy store gift certificate (we’re still waiting for the call that we won…). This is where it would have been very helpful if it was a) warmer…it was in the low 20’s) and b) did not span the construction zone at the bridge or c) include the Mail It Unlimited Store that was way out of the way from the general location of all of the other participating stores. There was a shuttle, but there were supposed to be two (if found out later that one broke down). The one that was running was never at a stop when we needed it, and it was so cold that it was better to keep moving.

After some compromising (that involved driving to the last two stops that were past the construction area) we finished the hunt and headed for the Soup Contest. This was awesome. You paid your $3 and then sampled coups from 18 different pots and then voted for your favorite. It was tough; some of them were excellent, but some were decidedly not. After telling them that they should have had separate categories for cream soups and broth soups, I picked the Farmer’s Chicken Soup to win, and Izzy picked the Hot Sour Soup to win. My runner-up was the Roasted Chestnut with Sage and Creme Fraiche. This year, they didn’t disclose which local business made which soups (as they had done last year) so we were voting blind.

Overall, it was a great day: good food (except for the pancakes), good exercise to work it off, good fun with tweens.

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Head underwater

by Karen, posted in family, friends, health

Well, it isn’t really underwater, but it sure feels like it. I awoke last Friday with an odd feeling in my right ear. I mostly ignored it; I had plans to celebrate a friend’s birthday and so was distracted by good company and good food.  The next day, I awoke to a completely blocked right ear. It felt like it was stuffed with cotton…but from inside my skull.

I continued with my most effective health management weapon: denial. So, I got up, went to my yoga class, complained about it but not too much (I hope!), and then carried on the rest of the day at home with all of the self-care measures that I knew of, to no avail. By 5pm, it was worse, not better.

I’d been talking myself out of going to the Wells Urgent Care for hours…but finally, when it was going to close in an hour and a half, I grabbed my coat and keys and went. On the way over, I told myself:

  1. If it’s really crowded, I’ll just leave.
  2. If my ear (miraculously) becomes unblocked on the way over, I’ll just keep going on down the street (Dairy Queen is now open!) and turn around in the parking lot and go home.
  3. If the wait is too long, I can just leave (reference DQ note above~it wouldn’t be a total loss to have gone out!) and head back home.

Well, none of these things happened. I had barely gotten in the door and they greeted me and ushered me into an “intake” room where they checked my blood pressure (yikes!) and temperature (none) and wrote down my concern. Minutes later I was taken to another room to wait for the doctor, who came in almost before I could read an entire sentence in the book I’d brought to kill time while I waited.

Diagnosis: Otitis Media. What? Are you kidding me? Little kids get that! Stupid ear infections! Yes, plural: not one, but two ear infections, although the blocked ear (surprise!) was the worse of the two.

Let me just say that I now have a world of empathy for those poor little kids who have fluid in their ears and can’t hear properly for however long that lasts. In my case, they told me to plan on it clearing about 48 hours after starting the antibiotic. After  almost 72 hours, while it’s not actually clear yet, it’s much better. I’m very glad that I went because the morning after I did I woke up feeling much worse, but I wasn’t worried about it like I was the day before, when I didn’t know what the cause of it was. Knowledge is power…and peace of mind.

I decided that ‘head underwater’ is an especially appropriate title because I was under…well, overwhelmed by doing so much for so long that my immune system must have just said, “Hey, I need a break. You’re on your own for a while,” and then just went on strike.

It hasn’t been pretty. I’m hoping to woo it back with ten days of amoxicillin.

Celebrating with the kids: Valentine edition, part 2

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, family, local fun, tweens
My Valentine's Day bouquet

My Valentine’s Day started off great with a bouquet of flowers, with yellow (my favorite) being the dominant color. from my husband. I received them on Thursday night, since he would be at work for the next several days. I love flowers and was completely surprised (and thrilled!) with my gift.

I got to take my tween daughter Izzy out for lunch to celebrate our Valentine’s Day in advance. We went to one of “our places”, the Weathervane in Sanford and ordered way too much (fried)  food, as we almost always do.  After that, we continued up Route 109 to the Cupcake Fetish Bakery where we got dessert for ourselves, and we also picked up a little something  for my son and his girlfriend (Chocolate Dream with vanilla buttercream frosting for Anthony, Strawberry Nirvana for Lauren). The baker made little cupcake bites up (see slideshow below) for free samples in honor of Valentine’s Day and they rocked!

We came home and Iz worked on  her valentines to bring to school for her friends tomorrow, an eleventh hour decision. “This will be the last year, Mom,” she said. I recall her making the same statement to me just about a year ago…

Hmmm…we’re sitting here eating cupcakes for supper…it’s starting to feel sort of like Valentine’s Week (is that wrong?)… 🙂

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Colds

by Karen, posted in fitness, health

“The first wealth is health,” said Ralph Waldo Emerson.

You can say that again.

After not catching a cold for years and years, I have had two (this is my second) in one month.

How did this happen? True, my friends have had colds, and my husband and daughter are just getting over colds, but I have been surrounded by sick people every winter, not just this one, and have not gotten sick. At the first sign of a cold, whether it be my own or someone else’s, I took my Airborne and never gave it another thought.

Needless to say, this is not working this winter. (Hmmmm, I wonder if they’ve changed the formulation of Airborne…note to self: check on this!).

Okay, to be honest, the other thing that’s different this winter is that I am not religiously exercising at least 3 times a week as I have during winters gone by.Why not? That’s easy: I just don’t feel like it. In fairness to me, though, it’s also because a lot of the “found time” I’ve used for writing used to be carved out for exercising. Oh, and I’m eating small baked goods (read: sugar) way more often than I was last year. There is a school of thought that says sugar (in addition to feeding one’s soul) feeds one’s germs…

If your best efforts (Airborne, extra Vitamin C, good ol’ fashioned careful hand washing, and not touching your face)  fail to ward off that cold, what do you do? Besides suffer, I mean.

  1. Chicken soup.
  2. Tea with honey (oh heck, even just the honey! A nice, big tablespoon of it!).
  3. Rest in bed (or on the couch) under the comfy blanket with your best pillow (and biggest box of Kleenex).
  4. Okay, who are we kidding? You know that you’re going to end up having to go to work. Get up as late as you can and get back in bad as soon as you can.
  5. Try not to annoy the fam with your coughing (read: try not to be annoyed with the unsympathetic fam).
  6. Use cough drops, DayQuil, NyQuil (save money! buy generic!)…whatever makes you feel better.

Remember that “This too shall pass”. Even if it doesn’t feel like it will anytime soon.

National Homemade Soup Day

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, health, Karen's Kitchen, Pantry Project, tweens

This year, it’s this week (yesterday, actually) but hey, soup is forgiving! So….here’s some reasons to dive in:

Top 5 reasons to make some homemade soup:

  1. You’ve got some leftover turkey (or chicken)  bones from your Thanksgiving (or Christmas or New Year’s Day) dinner in your freezer.
  2. You are living in New England, it’s winter, and you are freezing your butt off.
  3. You are dealing with a head/sinus/chest cold (in which case, get someone else to make it for you).
  4. You picked up a rotisserie chicken for dinner, and want to get one another meal from it.
  5. You have a crock pot. Give it something to do.

You will find no shortage of recipes online (and probably in your own collection of seldom used cookbooks) for homemade soup, not to mention on the labels of canned or boxed broth.  Or just go on intuition and taste as you go…it’s hard to mess up soup.

Speaking of leftovers in the fridge, if you have any leftover pasta from another night’s dinner, use that in your soup (I happened to have some linguini). Don’t forget to forage in your crisper drawers for any (perhaps long) forgotten carrots, celery, onions, and other (still recognizable) vegetables to add to your soup.

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The first harbinger of spring

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, family, local fun, restaurants

I have some  happy news for all of you that live here in southern Maine. Spring is nigh. How do I know this?  Because:

THE DAIRY QUEEN IS OPENING TODAY!!!!

If your family is anything like mine, you’ve been counting the days until the DQ reopened…well count no more.

Now, after Memorial Day weekend and before Labor Day weekend, there is no shortage of places to get your ice cream fix here in southern Maine, but after that, who’s got your back baby? Only DQ; they hang in there until well into December, so it’s hard to begrudge them their little break, but by February 1st, we are SO READY to see them again!!!

Actually, I wonder…maybe with the coming upwards of 2 feet of snow over the next two days…they may reconsider their plan. Probably best to check first. I did call the Wells DQ and they are currently open (today, 11:00AM) but said that tomorrow “is iffy”, depending on what happens with the weather.

You have two from which to choose: Kennebunk (985-3050) or Wells (646-8212). If you get the SuperCoupon mailer (and you didn’t throw it into the recycle already) there’s some good coupons in there so go get ’em!

P.S. Ask what the “Blizzard of the Month” flavor is!

You, Mii, and Wii

by Karen, posted in family, fitness, health, Holidays, tweens

Hate exercise? Mii too.  Well, I do if you are referring to

  1. Going to the gym
  2. Jogging
  3. Stairmaster
  4. Shoveling

If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you are not shocked by this admission. I do to practice yoga and like to hula hoop, but getting exercise is a byproduct (for me) of the activity, not the goal.

Enter Christmas. Enter the Wii. Now, when I used to go to Curves, some of the older (than me) women would talk about how much they enjoyed exercising with their Wii Fit games. I was interested in their stories, but not motivated in finding out any more about it.

Then I went to my brother’s house for Christmas and they were using their Wii and the kids were having so much fun that I thought, “Hey, maybe there is something to this…” When my 12-year-old niece persuaded my brother to get off the couch and dance to “Viva Las Vegas” with her, I made up my mind to get that game for my family.

I’ve never looked back. After I bought the console to play the games, which came with one controller and one nunchuk, I sprang for an additional controller and nunchuk. You need two of each to play against each other in boxing, and my daughter wanted to box with me (should I read anything into that??).

It’s really only me and my tween daughter (and her friends) using the Wii right now, but I’m hopeful that my husband will join in at some point (hey, virtual boxing with your spouse could expel a lot of demons, don’t you think?). I made a “Mii” for him already (and he’s a hunk!) so he’ll be all set to go.

Can’t wait to knock him out.

🙂

Snow day top 10 fun things to do (Part 2)!

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, family, fitness, local fun, tweens

Can you believe that we’re (possibly) getting (yet) another storm tomorrow? Just in case you exhausted your personal Top 10 list of things to do, here’s another bunch of ideas.

  1. Go sledding. By now, you (most likely) have piles of snow that are plenty big enough for the kids to sled on right in your yard.
  2. Go snowshoeing and/or  ice skating (if it’s possible to get to a rink).
  3. Have a snowball fight. Better yet, suggest it to the kids and you (mom or dad) stay safely in the house and watch from the window.
  4. Go swimming…if only to break up the monotony. Lots of hotels/inns offer off-season (read: cheap) passes you can buy to use their pool.
  5. Send them outside with their hula hoop. Really.
  6. Have a “P” picnic (not that kind of “P”! Been spending too much time with the pre-schoolers??). Pizza, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, pancakes, popcorn, pretzels, pineapple chunks…have it INDOORS. Spread out an old quilt/blanket/sheet on the living room floor (move the coffee table, or whatever ou of the way) and have your picnic supper in front of the TV for a treat.
  7. Wii Just Dance 2…this is worth the effort for mom and/or dad to get up off the couch to play.
  8. Make cocoa. This make some planning to make sure you have some in the house before it snows. Swiss Miss is good enough (per Consumer Reports), especially if  you top it off with mini-marshmallows, whipped cream, cool whip (or all of the above)…Fluff will also do the job very nicely (careful that the volume of Fluff doesn’t outstrip the portion of cocoa. 🙂 )
  9. Pretend it’s still summer. Send the kids out to play with their sand pails and shovels (or kitchen utensils and plastic Tupperware bowls) to dig (or “cook”) in the snow.
  10. Make snow angels. Take pictures for the scrapbook.

Finally: avoid keeping the TV on those news programs that just spew an endless loop of doom and gloom and have some fun instead!

Kate Braestrup’s new book

by Karen, posted in books, family

Kate Braestrup’s new book is Beginner’s Grace and is a book about prayer: learning about it, thinking about it, finding occasions to engage in it. Kate talks about occasions of prayer that are present in one’s everyday life, and offers some simple words that people can use if they don’t already have their own. She describes prayer as a “practice”, like yoga, or medicine.

For people who want to pray but aren’t sure how to begin, or can’t remember to pray, or don’t know what to say, she firsts suggests that you try linking praying to another activity that you are unlikely to forget to do on any given day: eating, toothbrushing. She also shares some small prayers that you can say if you don’t already have one in mind. My favorite is the all-purpose, universal, emergency prayer that Kate says everyone already knows:             “OhGodOhGodOhGodOhGodOhGodOhGod!!!”

Other prayer-worthy occasions: bedtime, plane rides, loved ones leaving the house for the day (“threshold” prayers), illnesses and accidents. Kate also shares stories from her job as the chaplain to the Maine Game Warden Service, which are always interesting. What I love about Kate’s writing is that she delivers her message with such warmth and humor that you almost don’t realize that you are actually learning from her writing.

My only other comment is this: I listened to this book on audio CD, and was disappointed that it was not read by the author, as were Marriage and Other Acts of Charity, and Here if You Need Me. I think reading it was a “lesser” experience than it would have been if Kate’s voice had delivered her own words. (Oh, and that whole part about “feet?”  Whaaaa….?)