My Brilliant Kid

A few weeks ago we had a pretty significant problem crop up at school.  My fifth grader came home in a very bad mood (which is just not like her), and when pressed a bit for details tearfully admitted that her class was studying nutrition and she just didn't know how she was supposed to answer the questions.  You see, the standard American ideal of nutrition that is taught in the schools does not at all match what our doctors have taught us and what we practice at home.  My poor girl was stuck between wanting to do well on her health unit but not wanting to lie.

I immediately composed and sent an email to her teacher, explaining the problem and asking if she had any ideas as to how we could come to a compromise for my daughter.  Bless her heart, she wrote back within an hour, telling me that she understood and would do some brainstorming.  The next morning she wrote again to let us know that she had decided that our girl didn't have to take the test, but instead could write an essay about the hows and whys of our family's paleo diet.  It was a perfect solution, and I simply cannot thank her enough for coming up with an outside of the box plan! 

The essay came home in her folder today, with a 100% and a big star on top.  I was blown away when I read it! I loved it so much that I asked her if I could share it with you, and she graciously agreed.  (Spelling and punctuation is all hers....remember, this is her first essay test!)

Some people eat chips, sandwhichs, cheez-its, and cookies for lunch.  Other people eat meats, veggies, fruit and maybe some funky looking soup or meat.  I am one of those other people who eat different nutrients. 

I eat what is called a paleo diet.  It is made up of fruits, veggies and meat.  Basically, we don't eat anything with a label on it.  My family doesn't eat one hundred percent paleo but we do our best.  My sister and I take gluten free items in our lunch and we are allowed to cheat at parties and other events.  We have turkey burgers as a snack instead of doritos.  When grocery shopping we raid the produce isle, picking up whatever's on sale.  We basically eat like dinosaurs.  They idn't have cheerios, ritz, or bread.  We still eat nuts though but no beans.  We also don't eat processed foods. 

We eat this way because we have allergies.  Mom being the most allergic and dad being able to eat whatever.  When I eat grains and dairy I get headaches, I get grumpy, I get tired, and I don't feel well.  We believe that grains aren't healthy because grains can be hard to digest and irritate the digestive system.  Grains also have anti-nutrients which prevent and disrupt digestion.  All grain products are refined in some way which means they were changed in the manufacturing.  Then the body doesn't know what to do with them.  It doesn't recognize processed foods.  When grains get digested, they break down like sugars do which can cause swings in blood sugar which causes mood swings and energy spikes. 

If you compare my diet to another persons diet, even though they have more options, paleo has more nutrients.  When I eat this way, I feel better.  We replace flour with almond flour and we have found a way to make paleo pancakes.  We have more options then you think.  We have a lot of great recipes to choose from even though most nights we have turkey burgers and roasted carrots with steamed broccoli.  We get healthy fats from steak instead of bad fats from chips.  When we buy things with labels, they usually have very natural products in them.

When we pack lunches, we usually find gluten-free versions of what other people eat to make us feel "normal."  We buy the healthier versions of chips by buying kettle chips and gluten-free cheese puffs.  When we cheat we have to keep in mind that we won't feel well if we eat it so we have to weigh our options.  When we go to church reunion in the summer we bring a bin of food to help us not get as sick.  When we get meals in the lodge, we usually load up at the salad bar and have our snacks later.

We eat differently because it makes us feel better.  We have different nutrition than some people but allergies get in the way.  That's why we eat like dinosaurs. 

A Cranky Letter

Dear Family Sitting At the Table Next To Me,

I'm sorry.

I'm sorry that I've managed to offend you by the simple fact that I've chosen an entire table for myself this morning.  I know you would prefer that I sit at the large communal table...because you discussed that, pointing to me and then to the table in as obvious a manner as you thought you could get away with.  I believe the exact quote was "She should be over there."

The irony is that if I had been doing my usual - knitting with my earbuds plugged in and a podcast playing - I likely wouldn't have even noticed.  But today I was doing some Hard Work that needed to be done.

Hard Work that didn't need to be interrupted by a rude family.

I thought about getting up and saying something snide....but that just isn't in me, and you aren't really worth it.  I have no desire to call you out publicly or make a scene.

Besides, I have a reputation as a nice girl to maintain!

But you did hurt my feelings, and I wanted to respond somehow...especially as you kept sending me vitriolic looks the entire time you were here.

And so....

Shut it, dear family sitting next to me.

For starters, it is not MY Fault that the tables and chairs are set up like this.  This place went through a major overhaul this summer, and the powers that be decided that they could get more people packed in here if they redid the seating.  Thus...instead of many individual tables there now exists one big communal table, a computer 'bar' along the window and just a few individual tables.  Nope, it's not really ideal, but it is what it is.  The important thing to remember here is that I DID NOT DESIGN THE TABLES.  Like you, I am working with what I have.

The fact of the matter is that I've tried...I really have tried to sit at that big table.  As I am generally here by myself, I know I probably  *should* sit at the group table.  The fact of the matter, though, is that I was excruciatingly uncomfortable sitting there - uncomfortable at being forced into such close proximity with people I don't know...distracted by so much movement and noise at such a close range...unable to focus - yeah, it was ugly.  I shouldn't have to explain my own neurosis to you.

Nor should I have to explain simple human kindness and consideration.  If it's pretty darn clear to me upon entering a coffee shop that people have chosen their seats for their own  personal needs and comfort, than it should be clear to you.

Besides, coffee shops are first come, first serve.  Blame your own darn selves for getting here at a particularly busy time of day.  Anyone could have told you that it would be difficult to find seating during lunch hour at a busy location.  This is a high traffic store...I regularly see people making the best of it with cheery dispositions.  Maybe you should try that?

So you are just going to have to deal with the fact that you have a smaller table than me.

Tough Sh*t.

One last note.  I LOVED the look on your faces when a friend came in and the barista yelled out pretty loudly, "Kristin, do you know EVERYONE!?!"

Dude...they've got my back.

Sincerely,
Kristin

PS.  In the 10 years that I've been seeking refuge in coffee shops, this is honestly the ONLY negative experience I've had.  All in all, that's a pretty darn good track record.

The Starborn Peacock

 This is a big deal, friends.

 Why?

 Because not only did I knit this scarf....

 ...I knit it from handspun silk.

 The fiber is from Chasing Rainbows Dyeworks in the Starbirth colorway.

It's the first time I'd ever spun silk,

and I'm delighted with how the colors gently stripe in the finished project.

 The pattern is Nancy Bush's Peacock Tail and Leaf Scarf

from her beautiful book, Knitted Lace of Estonia.

I used an Addi Turbo, US 4 to do the work.

 I took my time....I started knitting it on June 23, 2012, and finished it on October 23 of this year.

I did the actual finish work just a few days ago.

It's lovely.

What Turned Out To Be A Sillyish Post

Well Hello Friends!

 

It's been a long while since we've had just a newsy, chatty sort of post...so here it goes!

• It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...
• Actually, not so much.  We're having trouble figuring out where to put our tree.  The orange chairs have made our living room extremely comfy...but also pretty crowded in terms of furniture, and our tree is very, very large.
• There's also the issue of how to put up a tree so that the rather large one-year-old puppy doesn't destroy it....
• Yeah, I've got nothing.
• Speaking of the rather large one-year-old puppy, Winston and I have been taking Pet Manners One.  He's doing really, really well for a very, very immature lab with puppy brain. 
• Seriously...I am proud. 
• I've only wanted to throttle him during one of our sessions. 
• Much better than expected.
• Winston would like you to know that he's very sad that it is now too cold to go swimming.  I'm sad, too.  It is super-fun to watch him swim.
• I never in a million years thought I would be a dog park sort of girl...but there you go, I am one.
• It's taken two and a half years, but my cat has finally - FINALLY - figured out that it is her job to sleep on my feet at night.  She's also finally decided to be a snuggle cat.  I cannot even begin to tell you how much I'm enjoying this.
• I am not enjoying the ongoing battle I'm having with my daughter's cat over my yarn.  Sigh.
• My children are still fantastic.
• My husband is also still fantastic. 
• I'm pretty lucky that way.
• Enough about them. 
• I'm still working really hard to get myself back on my allergy diet.  I've cleaned most everything out except for some occasional potatoes, coffee and some chocolate. 
• ....and tomorrow is the day when that stuff goes away too.  Fingers crossed. 
• Nope, I really haven't found the peace I so need with my allergies, nor is the depression gone.  It's going to be a long road folks, but I take pride in the fact that I keep putting one foot in front of the other. 
• There are signs of life returning, which is a blessed, blessed thing. 
• For example, I'm almost done with that beaded lace shawl.  It was a simple and quick knit, but I thoroughly enjoyed it.  It's beyond good to get back to something I love so much. 
• I mean, really...I didn't knit lace for almost six months.  Clearly that was a red flag.
• This is completely random:  My hair is now shorter than it's ever been, making the cowlick I didn't know I had a HUGE pain in my arse.  90% of the time I have a big chunk of hair sticking straight up.  As annoyed as I am, I also think this is pretty funny.
• Back to the knitting...which is what we were sort of talking about, and is now the tangent I'd like to follow.
• I like knitting.
• And with that, this has officially degenerated to silliness on a level that is unacceptable for further writing. 

Have  a great week everyone!

November!

1.  Five Days At Memorial, Sheri Fink - (BOTNS recommendation)  My library ebook hold came available just as I was finishing up last month's marathon of horror novels, and so I decided a nice, narrative non-fiction book would be an excellent palette cleanser.  It was, in a word, riveting.  In fact, I finished it in less than 24 hours (and it's a hefty book) because I literally could not put it down.  (Sorry girls...)  Fink's book was also considerably more terrifying than anything I read in October, being the story of what happened in New Orleans Memorial Hospital in the aftermath of Katrina.  Shivers.

2.  The Cats of Tanglewood Forest, Charles De Lint and Charles Vess- I'd been saving this for a rainy day, and after last month, and Five Days, I really needed something gentle.  It was beautiful...and quiet...and peaceful...and exactly what I needed/wanted.  Then again, I knew it would be.  To my intense delight, both of my girls chose to read this book as well!  They checked out an extra copy from the library so that they could both enjoy it at the same time, and I managed to snap a quick - and very adorable - picture of them reading together.  Love that we've all had a special moment this month with my favorite author!

3.  Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, Susanna Clark (audio) - You all were right, it's much better in audio!  Very reminiscent of Dickens, and I happen to love listening to Dickens. I did find that periodically I had to look the chapter up and reread it, but that's a minor complaint.  Even though I liked it better in audio, though, I still didn't finish it...Sigh.  I'm not giving up...but this could take a while. 

4.  Clair of the Sea Light, Edwidge Danticat - (BOTNS)  Oh my, was this ever a beautiful book.  Now I swear I had read the first chapter before (perhaps it was published as a short story somewhere?), but I haven't figured out where or why.  I agree wholeheartedly with the reviews I've heard which state that it's rather like poetry.  I believe I must go read more Danticat now.

5.  Some Kind of Fairy Tale, Graham Joyce - I honestly hadn't heard of Joyce before, but when my favorite author, Mr. DeLint, and his wife, MaryAnn Harris, recommended his work on Facebook I decided to give him a read.  I loved it!  This should come as no surprise to anyone as many of the authors I enjoy are folk I tried because they had a De Lint blurb or review.  Ahem.  I will also be reading more Joyce.  Fairy tales have always been my favorite...and now I'm craving more and more.

6. Writing Down Your Soul, Janet Conner - A very good friend of mine sent me her extra copy of this lovely book, knowing it was something I could benefit from.  She was right.  Conner has written a guide to taking one's journaling practice to a deeper level, which is just exactly the sort of thing I needed.. 

7.  Lord John and the Private Matter....and

8.  Lord John and the Brotherhood of the Blade...and

9.  The Custom of the Army...and

10.  A Leaf in the Wind of All Hallows...and

11.  The Scottish Prisoner, by Diana Gabaldon. - I hadn't read the Lord John books and novellas yet.  Thanks to the library, I now have....and it was super-fun!  Must say, though, they don't come anywhere close to the magic of the Outlander Novels. 

12.  Songs of Willow Frost, Jamie Ford - (BOTNS) - Sighs...another beautiful book.  I don't know that I expected to like it as much as I did, but when I saw that it was available from the library I decided to give it a try.  I think what I love most about this book is that Ford has taken a very common orphan storyline and twisted it in an unexpected direction.  The ending was perfect. 

13.  A Fatal Likeness, Lynn Shepherd - I must say, I liked this one quite a bit better than I liked The Solitary House.   Same main characters, same witty literary connections...but this time Shepherd dumped the 'being clever for clever's sake' nonsense that so aggravated me with the first Charles Maddox book.  The central mystery revolves around the true story of  Percy Bysshe Shelley and Mary Shelley.  In fact, Shepherd had to invent very little (and she does clearly spell out what was true and what was fiction at the end of the book) because the real life events were so dramatic...and nutballs.  I loved it so much that I have three of the biographies that Shepherd used on hold at the library to pick up tomorrow!

Grandpa's Wisdom

I've been sharing my grandfather's beautiful words of Thankgiving since I started my blog, and likely it will always be my Thanksgiving gift to the world because I simply cannot do it any better. May you all have a wonderful holiday filled with love and laughter, and may you recognize your many, many blessings.

The following poem was presented to the Woods Chapel congregation of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (now known as the Community of Christ) by my grandfather, Stanley E. Curtis, on February 27, 1994, two months before he passed away.

"I am a farmer and a minister, and I see all these things that God has made and they are good.

• To know that out under the ice and cold of winter, there are tender shoots of wheat that will emerge in the warmth of spring and produce a golden harvest next summer
• To watch a baby calf being born, struggle to its feet and find nourishment at its mother's side
• To ride the crest of the Missouri River in an aluminum canoe and sense the power of millions of gallons of water searching its way to the gulf 1000 miles away
• To ice skate to school when the roads were too slick for cars or school buses
• To wade waist deep in the Little Blue River searching by hand for fish hiding under snags of tree root - and finding them
• To watch very fragile soybean plants push up huge clods of dirt as they emerge in the spring
• To see a buck deer with a three-foot wide rack standing in my pasture looking exactly like a Hartford Insurance ad
• To watch a doe raise a pair of twins later on in the spring and summer in that same pasture
• To ride a sled down a half-mile long hill with family and friends after a new-fallen snow
• To be up early enough for most of my life to watch the sunrise
• To watch rivers overflow their banks covering thousands of acres of land causing millions of dollars of damage; yet realizing this has created some of the richest farm land in the world
• To watch a nest of baby rabbits grow up less than 20 feet from the back door
• To stand in a corn field on a warm summer afternoon and hear the corn grow
• To watch my border collie bring a herd of cows from the pasture, up the road and into the barn to be milked
• To smell the warm fresh milk on a cold winter morning
• To hear the howl of a coyote on a moonlit night, and to see his shadow out the bedroom window
• To have seen the Canadian Rockies, the Norwegian Fjords, the Hawaiian Islands, the Finger Lakes of New York, the Coast of Maine, the canals of Holland, and so many other places of breathtaking beauty
• To see a wild tom turkey strut in the spring
• To stand on a hillside and watch a summer thunderstorm move across the valley below
• To taste fresh, tender sweet corn roasted in its husk over an open campfire
• To stand in our storm cellar doorway and watch an approaching tornado pass harmlessly overhead after it had created a path of destruction ten miles long and a quarter mile wide
• To smell a field of new-mown alfalfa hay
• To sit under the hands of two very fine elders in administration and receive strength and healing
• To feel the pain and yet the privilege of officiating at the funeral of a neighbor I had known and worked with for 45 years
• To hear the scream of a mountain lion and see just ahead two huge eyes in the beam of my flashlight
• To come home from seeing the fall colors in New England and see our own countryside ablaze with spectacular beauty
• To see forty young friends show up to help move property out of harm's way as floods threatened
• To watch our 12-year old daughter lead her 2000 pound Holstein into the winner's circle at the state fair
• To stand before you this morning to testify of the overwhelming power of God's presence in my life, in you my friends, and in all of nature

From these and a Host of other experiences, I can truly say, I see all these things that God has made and they are beautiful."
Happy Thanksgiving, and God Bless.

Why I Let Her Do It

Recently my beautiful little girl went from this:

To this!

She was...and still is...a very, happy little girl who loves her new look.



 And people have asked,

"Why did you let her do it? Why would you let her cut off all of that gorgeous hair?"

 

 First and foremost...it's her head, not mine.

 

Secondly...it's just hair, and it will grow back.

 

But really,

 

Really I let her do it because of this:

 

"Jan. 1, 1988 ...  I have long brown hair that I think is my only vanity."

 

That is quite literally the fourth sentence in my first journal.

 

It's also the only nice thing I say about my appearance in any of my journals.

(I might be wrong, I've only reread through my college years, but I know myself and I'm 99% sure this is true.)  Pages upon pages upon pages are devoted to what's wrong with my appearance, and the only nice things I ever say about myself are about my hair.

 

Yes, it is incredibly sad.

 

It's also infuriating.

 

I want better for my girls.

 

I want them to know they are beautiful because they just are.

 

I want them to know that they are more than their looks.

 

I want them to have fun with their femininity...and all of the crazy things that go along with that.

 

I want them to be free of societal expectations.

 

I want them to believe in themselves...in their WHOLE selves.

 

And yes, I want them to know that a bad hair day or a bad haircut isn't the end of the world.

 

So I let her cut her hair. 

 

Goodness bless, she'll have it better than I did...of that, I am sure.