Things to Do - Grateful List (August 2015) & Cherish This Day

A boy and his dog, HAPPY FRIDAY EVERYONE!! Don't forget to check out this week's wonderful on Cherish This Day (lots of images today).

AUGUST GRATEFUL LIST:

ARTS
* Reading Among the Ten Thousand Things
* Reading Suite Francaise
* Reading Her
* Reading Crazy Rich Asians(guilty pleasure)
* Alpha Rev and Jared and the Mill at Jammin' Java
* Katy Perry's portrait & Revelations in Media Art at the National Portrait Gallery/ Smithsonian American Art Museum (Washington D.C.)
* ANTMAN! (possibly the best action movie ever made)

FOOD
* Bimibap bowls (F - "wow mom, everyone loves these so much, even T can't stop eating")
* Ami's strombolli

PLACES
* Lazy days at the pool (we needed this)
* Columbia Pike's new Starbucks
* Great Waves'waterpark on the last day of August (totally empty)
* Watching How to Train Your Dragon II outside at Penrose Square

ETC.
* Returning from Europe to wine night at Colleen's house and some much needed time with girlfriends
* Morning dog walks
* The constant rotating shift of neighborhood kids at our house
* Accidental happy hours with friends

VACATIONS

Smith Mountain Lake (Virginia)

* The kids playing with their cousins all week
* Family games of Settlers of Catan
* Taking the dogs on morning and evening walks through the country
* Swimming at dusk and family jumps off the deck
* F reading everything in sight (including all the old Archie comics)
* Dan's "surprise" birthday party
* "We don't care if you're interested, you're an adult so you at least have to ACT LIKE you're interested." P (to me, of course)
* "Well if they get extra dessert too then we get extra extra dessert." - P
* Our first family drive-in movie (the Man from Uncle), the movie was awful but the experience was awesome
* An easy hike to Turtle Island

Europe(for our Europe trip I decided to make a daily list, because it was a once in a lifetime sort of experience. Wow, that just sounded totally overdramatic).

Day 14 (Rome)

* Forno bakery (in the square by our apartment) for breakfast pastries
* Context tour's Underground Rome Tour (so. so. good.)
* the Pantheon
* Nachos and Hoegarrden for dinner while we watched Australian football at Scholar's Irish Pub (we were all so happy to eat nachos and burgers)
* 8 hours of walking the city (the kids were champs!)
* Dessert and cocktails at Magnolia for our last night in town

Day 15 (Rome to San Sebastian)

* A long (tiring) day of travel that ended with crazy good pinxos at 11:00 (T fell asleep so Dan got us carry out)
* A large quiet apartment with a view
* The scenic train ride from Madrid to San Sebastian (esp. the mountains)
* Amazing sunsets upon arrival in San Sebastian

Day 16 (San Sebastian)

* Morning pastries (seriously, the best yet)
* THE BEACH!!
* Mosto - red wine and beer
* The world's largest Zara (according to our landlord)
* T's excitement over a new castle to visit
* A walk on the beach at night before the storm came in
* T putting himself to bed every night (from exhaustion)
* The lack of selfie sticks in Spain (in Rome they were everywhere)

Day 17 (Rainy day in San Sebastian)

* La Muralla for a late lunch/early dinner and the girls loving their "fancy" meal
* The aquarium's tunnels

Day 18 (San Sebastian to Bilbao)

* A warm morning on the beach
* The scenery on the bus from San Sebastian to Bilbao and listening to Lord Huron on my iphone to block out the noise of P and T fighting
* T's excitement over the "milk" machine
* The view of the cathedral from our apartment
* The kids making us appetizers and bringing them onto the deck
* A whole restaurant of just fries? Yes please.

Day 19 (Bilbao)

* Walking the river (and talking about all the playgrounds along the way)
* Jeff Koons' retrospective and Richard Sera's sculptures at the Guggenheim
* Dan and the kids playing spades at a cafe while they waited for me to finish touring the museum (Dan looked so happy)
* Big and Jaws during "siesta" (yes, we siesta now)
* Homemade dinner on the balcony
* The river playground at dusk

Day 20 (Bilbao to Avila)

* Hotel Garbatros in the "Middle of Nowhere", Spain (esp. the kids playing on the swingset and petting the horses while we drank wine on the porch)
* Sheep, horses, and cows everywhere you look
* Avila's city walls (though it was crazy hot to walk on them)
* Dan mastering a very tricky stick shift

Day 21 (Toledo)

* A lovely morning walk through the country (as we tried to tune out P's constant complaints)
* After an annoying attempt to find our "hidden" hotel, discovering a much needed grocery store
* P and T playing in the pool while F napped

Day 22 (Toledo to Madrid)

* A huge room service breakfast in the morning
* Marzipan
* Madrid airport's Chocolate Factory (with chocolate mustaches!) and play structure by our gate
* At least when they lost my luggage I was wearing my new favorite dress

Day 23 (Disney Paris)

* Alice's Labyrinth and Ratatouille (the ride)
* Azteca - best Mexican food ever, right beneath our apartment


THE KIDS' LISTS:

F - Kindles, street performers, Zara, our vacation in Europe, my cousins, my grandparents, the lake house, Happy & Coco

P - the beach, Zara, the museum [Smithsonian American Art], playdates with my friends, Laney, Casey, my friendship bracelet from Casey, our cousins, the lake house, Happy & Coco, Settlers of Catan, that grandpa and I were two moves away from winning Settlers of Catan, swimming, playing Euchre with Grandpa especially when he told me that I'm getting really good

T - going to Cole's house, the movie [Sean of the Sheep] with my friends, the lake house, the boat, Happy & Coco

Things to Do - WHATEVER IT TAKES (and the fight for common sense gun laws)

One morning, during our vacation at Smith Mountain Lake, my sister in law went to the grocery store. Or at least tried to go to the grocery store. She came home letting us know that "town" (if a small shopping center even constitutes a town) was shut down due to a shooting. Um, what? Let's remember, Smith Mountain Lake is in the middle of farm country and we were there off season, we aren't talking about a "busy" place. Within the next hour, the internet was abuzz with reports that two local newscasters had been shot and killed during a live broadcast. And the killer was still at large. The kids were scared and wanted to lock all the doors. And despite being uneasy ourselves, we told them not to panic. And we meant it.

Because the thing I've realized is that dangerous people with guns are a big problem. And, lately, they seem to be everywhere. Panic isn't the answer. Do you know what is the answer? LAWS THAT ATTEMPT TO KEEP GUNS AWAY FROM DANGEROUS PEOPLE! Granted, you can't always stop pointless acts of violence, but better gun laws could stop SOME pointless acts of violence.

Look, WE ARE GUN OWNERS (along with crossbow and muzzleloader owners). Dan hunts. Venison is yummy. I have no problem with guns. They help feed my family. I also think laws involving waiting periods and licensing laws are important, as are mandatory background checks for all gun sales (VA does not require background checks on private gun sales).

This isn't a slippery slope. And it isn't a 2nd amendment problem. We all agree that free speech has limits - you can't defame people, you can't yell fire in a crowded movie theater, etc. Every "right" has limits. Otherwise there would be anarchy. Or we'd live in a country where classrooms full of children routinely prepare for "bad guys" by locking themselves in closets. Oh wait, we live in that country. LET'S MAKE IT BETTER, PEOPLE!! Seriously, MAKE IT BETTER!!!

I've been a big fan of Moms Demand Action for awhile now and I post regularly about their campaign on my blog. But Smith Mountain Lake made me realize that I need to do more. So a friend and I attended their rally on the mall (while babysitting the cutest toddler ever). And I will remember in November which which state and federal candidates support common sense gun laws.

And guess what? At the rally I received a free t-shirt (that I now wear everywhere). And stickers. And saw people of all ages/ethnicities/backgrounds trying to make a difference. So please, check out Moms Demand Actions' website and when an event comes to your community, make the time to go.

Because things need to get better. They just do.

Things to Eat - Summer Quinoa Salad & Our Four Week Meal Plan

I basically lived on this salad this summer. Lots of lunches and a few dinners too.

SUMMER QUINOA SALAD

INGREDIENTS:
* 1/2 cup uncooked quinoa
* 3/4 cup water
* 1 pound cherry tomatoes
* 1 tablespoon olive oil
* 1 and 1/2 cups corn kernels
* 2 and 1/2 cup steamed kale (or if you don't feel like cooking, just "massage" kale with salt for a few minutes (yes, literally massage it), to break down the leaves a little).
* 3/4 cup cilantro
* 1/3 cup toasted pine nuts
* Feta cheese to taste (about 1/2 cup for the entire salad)
* Salt and pepper to taste

DRESSING:
* 2 teaspoons dijon mustard
* 2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
* 3 tablespoons olive oil
* 1/4 cup buttermilk
* Salt and pepper to taste

1. Mix the quinoa and water in a pot. Bring to a simmer, cover, and cook for 15 minutes, until it easily fluffs with a fork.

2. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Halve the tomatoes and spread them on a parchment lined, rimmed baking sheet. Drizzle on a half tablespoon of the olive oil. Mix. And roast for 30 to 35 minutes. Remove to cool.

3. Heat remaining olive oil in a pan. Add the corn and saute, stirring once or twice, for about 2 minutes, until slightly charred on the outside.

4. In a large bowl, combine the kale, quinoa, and cilantro. When the tomatoes and corn cool, add them, along with the pine nuts to the bowl.

5. Mix the mustard, vinegar, olive oil, buttermilk, and some salt to make the dressing.

- slightly adapted from The Sprouted Kitchen Bowl and Spoon: Simple and Inspired Whole Foods Recipes to Savor and Share (my favorite new cookbook for amazing salads)
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WEEK 1

MONDAY - Dijon chicken and quinoa skillet (via Clean Eating magazine). The skillet was really good, the kids ate it up.

TUESDAY - Taco Tuesday - Ground beef tacos. Boring but easy. Plus, I also made some chipotle salsa (recipe here), which always makes me happy.

WEDNESDAY - Zucchini noodle spaghetti; regular noodles for the kids; with kale chips. Another boring but easy meal. As you can probably tell, it was sort of a boring but easy week (lots of days at the pool).

THURSDAY - Bibimbap bowls (via Clean Eating magazine). F's best friend is half-Korean so F keeps asking me to make more Asian-inspired dishes, which are not in my comfort zone. Luckily, this recipe was SUPER EASY and the kids loved it (rather than prepare the bowls, I put all the separate ingredients on the table, so the kids could pick and choose what they wanted). T only ate the steak and eggs, which P and F mixed everything together (well, except the egg because T ate all of our servings). Dan and the kids asked me to start making this on a regular basis, total success.

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WEEK 2

MONDAY - Quesadillas with leftover smoked pork and chicken from Dan's Sunday feast. So. so. good.

TUESDAY - Chicken sausage and sauerkraut (I'm addicted to Trader Joe's sauerkraut with pickles) with summer quinoa salad (via The Sprouted Kitchen Bowl and Spoon: Simple and Inspired Whole Foods Recipes to Savor and Share).

WEDNESDAY - Dinner at a friend's house.

THURSDAY - Bibimbap bowls (via Clean Eating magazine).

FRIDAY - Dinner at a friend's house.

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WEEK 3

MONDAY - Labor Day Happy Hour/ BBQ

TUESDAY - The last meal salad (via The Sprouted Kitchen Bowl and Spoon: Simple and Inspired Whole Foods Recipes to Savor and Share) with chicken and tomatoes for the kids. PROBABLY THE BEST SALAD I'VE EVER EATEN. I'm totally in awe of the Sprouted Kitchen right now.

WEDNESDAY - Stromboli with summer quinoa salad. My sister-in-law made stromboli at Smith Mountain Lake, using pillsbury pizza dough, and they were delicious. So we couldn't wait to make our own at home, but I did something majorly wrong, they tasted awful. I'll need to get more info and post a recipe eventually.

THURSDAY - Grilled zucchini salad (via (via The Sprouted Kitchen Bowl and Spoon: Simple and Inspired Whole Foods Recipes to Savor and Share) with pasta for the kids. Another great salad from Sprouted Kitchen.

FRIDAY - Vegetable Skillet Lasagna (via Dinner A Love Story:the blog). This was really good and super easy to make, though perhaps a little too cheesy.

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WEEK 4

MONDAY - Kale sausage and white bean stew (for our one autumnish day before the heat returns) (via Dinner: A Love Story: It all begins at the family table). The kids all like this (they like everything from the Dinner: A Love Story cookbook) and the recipe is fast/easy, perfect for Mondays.

TUESDAY - Black bean tacos for taco Tuesday (via Dinner: A Love Story: It all begins at the family table). P was VERY ANGRY that we hadn't taco Tuesdayed in a few weeks, so these made her super happy.

WEDNESDAY - Leftovers; mac and cheese for the kids.

THURSDAY - California quinoa (via via The Sprouted Kitchen Bowl and Spoon: Simple and Inspired Whole Foods Recipes to Savor and Share) w/ perogies and green beans for the kids.

FRIDAY - Dan's parents over for dinner so we went with curried chicken with apples (via Dinner: A Love Story: It all begins at the family table) and tomato salad (via The Sprouted Kitchen Bowl and Spoon: Simple and Inspired Whole Foods Recipes to Savor and Share) with sauteed zucchini (via 101 Cookbooks).

Things to Do - A New Playlist for Autumn & Cherish This Day

HAPPY FRIDAY EVERYONE! I haven't made a playlist in a long time, but the end of summer demanded one. So here it is - Sangria at Soccer Practice, 1.5 hours of awesomeness. Lots of Lord Huron because I'm a little obsessed with them lately (and I can't wait to see them play in DC on September 27). You can listen to it through spotify, the songs are also listed below.

Have a great weekend and don't forget to check out this week's dose of wonderful on Cherish This Day (18 gorgeous images!)!

SANGRIA AT SOCCER PRACTICE - A MIX TAPE

1. Until the Night Turns/ Lord Huron
2. 15 Years/ Houndmouth
3. Sagres/ The Tallest Man on Earth
4. Cassy O'/ George Ezra
5. Timothy/ The Tallest Man on Earth
6. Where is My Mind?/ Pixies
7. That Was Your Mother/ Paul Simon
8. Looking for Astronauts/ The National
9. Rollercoaster/ Bleachers
10. What Ever Happened?/ The Strokes
11. Hurricane/ Lord Huron
12. Head On/ The Jesus and Mary Chain
13. Nothing to Lose But Your Head/ Augustines
14. Sedona/ Houndmouth
15. Electric Love/ Borns
16. Tennis Court/ Lorde
17. Hero/ Family of the Year
18. Hey Rose/ Streets of Laredo
19. Two Weeks/ Grizzly Bear
20. The Only Thing/ Sufjan Stevens
21. Who Knows Who Cares/ Local Natives
22. There is a Light That Never Goes Out/ The Smiths
23. Budapest/ George Ezra
24. Fool for Love/ Lord Huron
25. Sideshow by the Seashore/ Luna
26. Angeline/ Bombadil

Things to Read - Five Articles About Education (Just in Time For Back to School)

1. (Overparenting) - NPR's article about How Schools Are Handling an Overparenting Crisis contains the following advice (personally, I'm frightened that all three bullet points aren't obvious to everyone):

Three things parents can do right away:

1. Stop saying "we" when you mean your kid. "We" aren't on the travel soccer team, "we" aren't doing the science project and "we" aren't applying to college. Our kid is. These are their efforts and achievements. We need to go get our own hobbies to brag about.

2. Stop arguing with all of the adults in our kids' lives. As Jess well knows, teachers are under siege from overinvolved parents insistent upon engineering the perfect outcomes for their kids. Principals, coaches and referees see the same thing. If there's an issue that needs to be raised with these folks, we do best for our kids in the long run if we've taught them how to raise concerns on their own.

3. Stop doing their homework. Teachers end up not knowing what their students actually know, it's highly unethical, and worst of all it teaches kids, "Hey kid, you're not actually capable of doing any of this on your own."
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2. (College) - The New Yorker asks (but can't really answer) What Is College Worth?, a question I ask myself more and more lately as tuition rates continue to skyrocket along with unemployed 20-somethings, plus can't we all learn everything we need on the internet now?)

" . . . . Studies, and there are lots of them, usually find that the financial benefits of getting a college degree are much larger than the financial costs. But Cappelli points out that for parents and students the average figures may not mean much, because they disguise enormous differences in outcomes from school to school. He cites a survey, carried out by PayScale for Businessweek in 2012, that showed that students who attend M.I.T., Caltech, and Harvey Mudd College enjoy an annual return of more than ten per cent on their “investment.” But the survey also found almost two hundred colleges where students, on average, never fully recouped the costs of their education. “The big news about the payoff from college should be the incredible variation in it across colleges,” Cappelli writes. “Looking at the actual return on the costs of attending college, careful analyses suggest that the payoff from many college programs—as much as one in four—is actually negative. Incredibly, the schools seem to add nothing to the market value of the students.”

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3. (Gifted) - Brainchild takes on gifted elementary programs, suggesting they create unnecessary anxiety and/or overconfidence.

"But what did it mean that he was “gifted”—in elementary school? That he was a quick learner? An early reader? In the top math group? That he has a higher than average IQ? If children are truly “gifted” (however that word might be defined), shouldn’t school communities wait to apply the label until it’s more obvious, until it really matters—in middle school or beyond. Why lock a child into a label with tattoo-like permanence at an age when they are still changing so rapidly?

Instead of inspiring these young kids, the expectation that gifted kids will automatically excel and succeed can often lead to anxiety and meltdowns over the fear of failure or getting an answer wrong. Or, in the case of my son, now fifteen, it leads to believing he’s smart enough that he doesn’t need to put forth much effort, creating a false sense of security when faced with an inevitable academic or emotional stumble.

“There’s a good chance Daniel will go all the way through high school without needing to study for a single test,” Mr. C., Daniel’s third grade teacher, boasted as he adjusted his stylish thick-framed glasses. But didn’t I want my son to study for tests, I wondered, shifting uncomfortably in my miniature chair? And how could Mr. C. predict into my son’s future? Is this the message the teachers, as well as the TAG program, had been sending my child?"
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4. (Sex Ed) - PBS makes a compelling case for starting sex education in kindergarten (based on the Netherlands' education system).

"You’ll never hear an explicit reference to sex in a kindergarten class.In fact, the term for what’s being taught here is sexuality education rather than sex education. That’s because the goal is bigger than that, says Ineke van der Vlugt, an expert on youth sexual development for Rutgers WPF, the Dutch sexuality research institute behind the curriculum. It’s about having open, honest conversations about love and relationships.

By law, all primary school students in the Netherlands must receive some form of sexuality education. The system allows for flexibility in how it’s taught. But it must address certain core principles — among them, sexual diversity and sexual assertiveness. That means encouraging respect for all sexual preferences and helping students develop skills to protect against sexual coercion, intimidation and abuse. The underlying principle is straightforward: Sexual development is a normal process that all young people experience, and they have the right to frank, trustworthy information on the subject."

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5. (Children's Sports) - And, finally, although this Harpers' article doesn't deal with education per se, it deals with coaching, which is similar right?

"According to a survey conducted by ESPN, 23 percent of parents believe that youth sports are putting a strain on their families. Perhaps this is because an astonishing 32 percent believe that their child has a good chance of winning a Division I athletic scholarship. Eleven percent believe that their child could be a professional athlete someday. I took some comfort knowing that other parents, at least some of them, cared as deeply as I did. But why? What was actually at stake? Nothing.

My daughter, it was obvious, was not going to play basketball at a high level, or perhaps even for another season, given the experience she was having. As a dad, I had previously taken my daughter’s athletic endeavors lightly, rooting for her but not obsessing over wins and losses. But now that I was coaching, the metronomic regularity of the beatings my team was taking wore me down so much that I became irritable around the house. My wife and my father both told me to quit."

. . . .

I couldn’t persuade my girls to walk down the line and shake hands with the Sky. I could barely shake Coach Stan’s hand. Most of the girls left without their second-place trophies. Half were still crying. Parents emailed me into the next day, vowing to withdraw their children from the league.

I struggled to find a lesson we could draw from the experience.

We simply lost. And maybe that’s the lesson, the most brutal of all. Sometimes you will lose, regularly, decisively, completely. And there will be nothing you can do about it."