It's Life in the fast lane...again..

Hello Everyone,

I'm sitting here listening to my guys argue with each other over the Patriots losing their shot at the Super Bowl. Personally, I don't understand a whole lot about this sport...I don't get all the intricate rules and regulations....downs, interceptions, fumbles, blocks, this yard line, that yard line, whatever...listening to it tends to be painful for me because Maestro wants sooooo badly to know what he's talking about that he will CONSTANTLY interject what he thinks is the correct terminology or understanding of the plays, and Music Man will (not very patiently, I might add) correct or explain something to him...then lose all patience when Maestro proceeds to make the same mistake one minute later. It's a play in frustration for all involved, and I'm not sure why Maestro loves the game so much. And, it's also a little, though very little, disconcerting to me that my 7 year old understand WAY more about this game then his mama ever will. I've tried, Music Man has attempted to teach me, and I don't get it. I'm considered an intelligent woman by most, but this just completely eludes me. I think if I really cared to learn it, I would, but I just allow this to be one of those things that is a "father/son" activity. Best not getting me involved because the emotion attached to the game is bewildering to me, I feel, it's just a game after all.

Okay, on to other things. I've thought recently about how this is going to be the year I get back into life. Since getting married and so soon after becoming pregnant with our first child, moving multiple times, buying and selling homes, new jobs, getting kids in school, blah blah blah, my life has completely become wife/mother/employee. Unfortunately, the whole "me" of me has taken such a backseat in life, it's almost unrecognizable. So, though I don't make resolutions so to speak, I did think that this is going to be the year I gradually rediscover my passions. My kayak sits unused after 8 years off water. It has not seen water since Maestro was in utero when I was concerned for our safety in the event of capsizing, to after his birth having absolutely no time to get it on the water. This year, I will be putting paddle to bay in Freeport and making it happen. I am going to be making the time to exercise more, getting more in line with the outdoor activities that I love and so dearly miss. This is the year, and I will make it happen.

I have also been thinking about the things in life that show complete faith. See if you can see it, too...

1. planting a garden...showing the faith that you will be here to harvest the fruits of your labor.

2. buying Christmas items in an after Christmas clearance sales....I will be here to see the next Christmas.

3. Saving money for that vacation to Ireland we're planning for hopefully in 2011 for our 10 year anniversary. Some of you may remember that we were booked to do this for our honeymoon, but since that was just a month after 9/11, I would not get on the plane...2011 is the year I will set foot on that plane, I pray...though perhaps medicated just slightly as I'm so terrified to fly now.

What do you have that helps you with your faith, what passions have you let fall by the wayside that you wish to re-ignite? Put a little thought and make this the year you decide to live if you've been putting you and your passions on the back burner. I have discovered that to be a truly happy person, and the best mother I can possibly be, I need to have my passions (read JOY) in my life. Join me in the quest for passions forgotten or missed, won't you?

Wishing you time to make joy, ~Peacemom

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas....

Happy Snowfall!

This is the picture of my guys walking up the lane to get our Christmas tree a couple weekends ago. Thought you might enjoy some of the beautiful scenery. Almost looks like a movie set or something, doesn't it?

Last weekend my mother-in-law took us out to eat and then onto our fabulous sleigh ride. She gives us this as a family gift rather then presents, which I LOVE. We had a wonderful time and even got to see Santa this year! Last year, we had earlier in the season reservations, but due to a monsterous sized ice storm, we had to delay them until after Christmas, and of course, Santa's on vacation then. This year, he was there with his reindeer, dressed in plaid overalls and chatted with the kids. It was magical and we had a great time. It's really wonderful to spend time with my mother-in-law, all of us as a family. I know she's making great memories for my boys and I'm very happy that they will have those. I have comforting memories of my grandparents as a child. I would go to their house and play with my cousin there. My grandfather would hide butterscotch candies on himself, in his cuff, or collar or something like that and we'd spot them and get to have a treat. I don't remember him well as he passed away when I was 9, but the memories I have of him are warm, wonderful and definitely added nourishment to my childhood. I'm glad my children will have the same memories of their grammy, too.

My parents live far away and can't be as interactive with the kids as I know they want to be, and that's hard for all involved. Time gets away from us and suddenly it's months since we've seen them. But, I'm thrilled that I will be seeing them again next week as they come down for our annual Christmas gathering. Which I'm hosting. The last time I tried to host was in our beautiful post and beam house of past and everyone had a flu (both my sister's families!) and could not come. I had decorated the house to the nines, bought lots of food and cleaned for days to get everything ready...and they could not make it. I had a very special announcement to share with everyone as well, but ended up doing it a different way. I had made a special card to share with our families that we were expecting another addition to our family tree...our second son was due the following August. I was sad that I was not able to make it a grand announcement for the whole family, but it was nice to have my parents open the card just the same. Wow, that seems like so long ago to me, and it was 6 years ago now. Like I said, time gets away from us.

Well, Little Red and I are baking brownies for him to bring to school and Music Man to bring to work for all his coworkers. I wish you all some delicious smells in your kitchen and wonderful Christmas memories as well.

Peace to you, ~Peacemom

It's a nice little tree

Joyeaux Noel!

Is this not a cute little picture? These are my three men, all hauling in the lovely Christmas Tree that is now adorning our living area. We decided last Sunday to go in search of a tree. Two years in a row now, we've been on our way to cut a tree in a town a bit away. There aren't as many cut-your-own tree places as there used to be, so we've been traveling a bit further each year. This year, we had a destination in mind, but thought as we did last year, if something promising pops up, well, we'll try that. As we were driving our way out to the tree farm, we passed by a sign for Green Tree Farm. Looked promising, so we took a side road to find out what it was all about. Pulled in, found the sign said they were getting out of the tree business (sigh) and that they only had cut-your-own this year (perfect, just what we were after) and all trees are $35.00 (within our budget). We needed to go in search of an ATM machine as I did not plan for this excursion ahead of time. Got the necessary funds and returned to the farm.

As we walked down the snowy lane, we came across a tree all decorated for us. There, I took the sweetest picture of the boys in front of the snowy tree. And yes, it is honoring the front of our Christmas cards this year. I was truly hoping to get snow (we did!) before we got our tree as I really need it to be snowy to enjoy the process to it's fullest. Then we found an honest to goodness blessing. Music Man pointed out to me that sometimes when you don't plan everything down to the letter (we rarely do), you have wonderful experiences. We happened upon this farm and met some truly nice people, got to pet a Christmas donkey (and Morgan Horse) and enjoy the stunning rolling hill beauty of their farm. It was peaceful, lovely and just one of those perfect moments in life. The boys got to throw big snowballs into a little pond, Music Man and I wandered around choosing the right tree (which for a change was so easy to do, we had to narrow it down from all the perfect ones!), and enjoyed the moment for all it was worth.

As we wandered back out up the lane towards the cars, hand in hand with our happy, chattering offspring wondering over lots of things, like the reindeer crossing sign (Little Red pointing out to me that not only SANTA has reindeer, you know), the tracks in the snow, and the beauty of their surroundings, I felt truly blessed. To live in such a gorgeous place, to have happened on such a fun moment, and to have met some new people in town, oh, that's a bit of perfection. I had peace in my soul on that walk back to the car, and felt honored to be part of that snapshot in time with my family.

May you have such blessings for your soul this holiday season,

~Peacemom

Giving Thanks

Happy Thanksgiving, Everyone!

Today is about those moments I'm increasingly adding to my life. It's about gratitude. It's amazing how much richer your life is when you take the time to be grateful for the blessings. I can honestly say I am a happier person all the way down to the soul level for having taken the time each day to recognize the wonderful blessings of my life. So many, so much, so thankful.

Of course, as always, I'm thankful for the wonders of my family. My boys are little people that give so much to me without even knowing it. They have opened a whole demention in my life that did not exist prior to their arrival. I knew I always hoped they would be in my life, and now that they are here, I can only thank God for the blessing of them. They offer me the ability to love more deeply then I ever thought possible, to grow in my heart and soul in ways I never knew I would, to feel more then I ever dreamed was available. That is not to say that all moments are bliss, because that is far from the case. But even in those hard moments, I can say I have had the feeling, whatever it is, and that's better to me then living a life unfulfilled. Mine without my boys would have been less whole. Since each person knows what works for them, what fulfills them, each can say what is best for them. I completely understand and respect people's decision not to have children in their lives on a daily basis either by circumstances or choice. But my life, in my time would have felt wholly unfulfilled without them. So, I am grateful that they are here.

I am thankful for the blessing of my husband. He's also one of those wonderful people in my life who allow me to feel things I never knew I could. I love him in a deep and wholehearted way, I care for his soul and know with great joy that he cares for mine. All my boys offer me the chance to give the love that was always within me, and I am so very thankful for that. Not only is he my husband, my love, but also my best friend. We truly enjoy each other's company, laugh together, brainstorm together and plan our future together. I am so thankful that at no time in our lives do we only "tolerate" each other as I see other couples do, only bearing the other. Oh, my life has grown immeasurably since the first day of a new job when I saw him and said "WHO'S that??" to my coworker. That was over 11 years ago and we're loving, enjoying, laughing, knowing, caring, commisurating, dreaming, learning and sharing our lives. That is not to say that every moment is easy-it is not-but we have grown enough together as a couple to weather the rough spots, and allowed each other enough individual identity to not lose who we are in the process. And a sense of humor doesn't hurt either. Yes, Dr. Phil, he's my safe place to fall.

I'm thankful for my friends that offer me the chance to love, to have fun, to care about someone other then my immediate family, to give and get advice, to listen, to talk, to laugh with, to cry with, to be joyful with and to share with. I honestly believe that friends are the family we chose for ourselves. I take moments to recognize the very valuable gift friendship is in my life.

I'm thankful for the rest of my family, extended, near and far. They offer me the chance to have the past, recognize the past, learn and grow from the past. To feel comfortable in a way that only people who've known you your whole life could do. With my family, I now understand what a gift that is. To not have to feel like everything I say or do (and let's face it folks, I'm fairly out there, what you see is what you get) is judged. That's not to say that they accept it with a "That's great!" to my every emotion, but have allowed me the safety to know I could express those feelings and not have them be taken as who I am on a soul level. They recognize that the emotion in the moment is not me, but only a part of me, and for that I am grateful. I will always be thankful for my mother and father and sister's love in my life, I don't take them for granted and know that they are special in their own ways. Ahh, they are all special in their own ways for sure.

I am thankful for many other things as well, I'll name a few quickly. I'm thankful for the job my husband has not been laid off from in this tough economy, I'm thankful for the blessing of my job that allows me so much freedom for the time with my boys that is so important to our family right now. I'm grateful for the warm home I live in on it's beautiful 3 acres, the town we're growing to love, the right school for Maestro and the courage to make the move to allow that to happen for him, the right preschool for Little Red, who is flourishing in his environment, the teachers who recognize the wonderfulness that is my boys, the beautiful country that surrounds me, the opportunities for growing food and eating the way we know is best for the planet, the friends that help make that possible, enough money to get us through and the help when that wasn't always the case, the maple trees that cast their fiery show every autumn and give us syrup for our pancakes, the food that is so abundant everywhere in our country and the skills to make my own and enough money to buy what I can't, healthy family, oh so thankful for healthy family, the car that safely gets me where I want to go, the eyes to take the photos I love to take, the brain to think clearly enough to write what I want to say...you see, the list could go on and on. I am so very thankful for so many things. This thankfulness allows me the ability to give back what I receive, to live a life uncommon.

Thank you for reading, and bearing with me on my walk down thankfulness on this, the Eve of Thanksgiving. May you enjoy bountiful food, blessings and love in your day. Take a moment to be thankful for all you have and all you are to another.

With abiding thankfulness, ~Peacemom

Old New England Foodstuffs

Good Day, My Friends!

Last evening I went to a lecture called "Baked Beans and Fried Clams, How Food Defines a Region". The talk was given by author Edie Clark. You fans of Yankee Magazine may know her from her many articles penned for them. She was quite enjoyable, funny and witty. It's a series of lectures from the NH Humanities Council. If you don't know how this works, basically, they provide lectures on different topics in a catalog of sorts. When a group wants to have a lecture come to their area but can't afford it, they can apply for a grant from the Council to pay for the speaker to come and give the lecture. I'm not sure about the finer points of how it all works, but that's my basic understanding.

Since the lecture was posted to start at 7:00, but had been told to some that it didn't start until 7:30, I had a chance to chat with Edie for a few moments. She was lovely and I got to hear bits of her life in Dublin, NH. She had some of her books with her and I browsed them. Got to tell her about the cookbook I've been working on for far too long now and she was very encouraging that I should complete it. When I told her I have no idea if it would ever get published, she told me "you never know, keep going". To be honest, this cookbook is a labor of love for me, and even though I don't have enough time to work on it with my life and adding working 30 hours a week to the mix, it's never far from my mind. I'm often working on it in my head and planning and trying new recipes and always wondering if they are good enough to make the cut. I know to my test kitchens, it may seem that the project is dead at the moment, I assure you good folks, it's always in the forefront of my planning. Right now, it's just not possible to find the time to make it happen as fast as I'd like. This is life with 5 & 6 year olds and working and all of life's duties, it's gotta be in the planning stages a lot right now.

I enjoyed Edie's lecture quite a bit. She has some wonderful and funny anecdotes about Julia Child and Fanny Farmer and author named Pearson whom I was unfamiliar with. After hearing some of the passion he had for food, I've got to find his now out-of-print books to bone up on the history of New England cooking. Hearing how he felt about his corn meal mush actually made me want to fry up a slab! He had a love affair with New England cooking that may be unrivaled these days with the advent of global eating upon us. Edie told us of some of her cooking escapades and in giving the history of a few of the most regional dishes, like Indian pudding and fried clams, made me want to put fingers to keys and get some of my recipes down. I also realized that there is much more history to be gotten before I can call my recipes traditional in the sense that I need to experience more about them. I've never had corn meal mush, scrapple or bean hole beans, so I definitely need to make a point of learning the finer points of the preparation of these recipes. Yes, there's more research to be had.

I know to Edie that this conversation with me was probably a passing moment in her life, she probably won't remember me in a bit. But for me, having a very published author, say to me, keep going, you never know...well, that was amazing. I love that my family and friends read my blog and enjoy my cooking and encourage me, and that means the world to me. But you know, they are going to do that because they love me, aren't they? That they would encourage me anyways, even if I was a mediocre cook or just write with no talent, they would do the same. And this is why I love them back. Because they have faith in me that I sometimes don't remember to have in myself. But to have an author that I know many, many people have heard of and read and published, tell me, keep going. Well...that's just an amazing touching of my soul. She somehow gave validity to that dream, that dream that I've been working on for 4 years now, that is really important to me, that preoccupies me to distraction and frustrates me with it's insistence, a dream I hold dear. That's a gift I can't ever repay, is it? It cost her nothing but to give a word of encouragement to an aspiring author, but it was bigger to me then a whole lot of things money could buy. It led validation to a dream and made it seem possible. And that's what life is all about, isn't it?

One of the other things that was great about her, her trust in a total stranger. I did not bring cash to this event, as is the way of most people these days, I don't carry much, I use my debit card for most purchases. But, I really wanted her Baked Bean Supper book as it gave a lot of the history of New England food along with some of her favorite recipes. I asked her if I could purchase her book locally as it's produced by a small publisher and not carried by larger bookstores. I explained that I didn't bring cash with me, but wanted to purchase one. She said, "I trust you to mail me a check and this way I can sign it for you if you'd like.". A defining moment of grace on her part, and I was humbled to think she would just do that for me. After her informative and fun lecture, I went to grab a book and she autographed it for me, handed me her card and I assured her I would send her a check in the mail tomorrow. It was not until after I got home that I read that inscription, and it set tears to lids.

It read simply, "Vonnie, Good luck with your cookbook" Edie Clark.

Humbled and renewed, ~Peacemom

All 'bout the Color, right?

Hello All,

I just realized that the whole month of September went by and I did not post a thing. Since my mother tells me she reads these little diatribes, I decided to put fingers to keys today and jot a little something down.

Here are 20 of my favorite things about October:

1. Crisp autumn morning air
2. The beautiful turkeys that are frequenting under my bird feeder and when the sun shines on them, their feathers are AMAZING. Who knew wild turkeys had so many colors in their feathers?
3. The smell of woodsmoke on a country lane.
4. Blustery rain storms that settle you in.
5. Blustery rain storms that make you want to hit the trail in them just to feel how alive you can be!
6. Pumpkins...EVERYWHERE! At the farmstands, on farm signs, over doors (a New England tradition, a little row of pumpkins across the front door, truly love), adorning scarecrow bodies...just everywhere.
7. Watching the leaves drift across the 3 open acres that are blown from the trees down by the road. Little Red and I have done this together on many occasions as I drag him outside to learn the finer points of becoming an autumn lover.
8. Seeing my boys in their dog-in-a-truck and lobster sweaters, so cute.
9. Wool socks and cozy slippers.
10. Chopping wood and the buzz that comes from that exercise. There's nothing to making you sore for days like chopping wood by hand.
11. Seeing how long you can take the chill before you break down and turn on the heat!
12. Apple picking and making applesauce, right through to the canning jars and all.
13. The smell of baking in the house. I love baking this time of year so much. There's nothing like molasses cookies, gingerbread or anything pumpkin baking in the oven to warm you to the soul.
14. The way autumn leaves look when floating on water.
15. Our now annual camping trip to Freeport, Me., where I hope to procure a new sweater and enjoy some breathtaking coastal beauty all it's own.
16. Speaking of sweaters, dressing in wonderful sweaters. The weight of them somehow makes me feel secure and cozy, just love to be wrapped in one.
17. Playing in the leaves with the boys, taking pictures of them in the leaves and rolling around and throwing leaves at each other...this is seriously high entertainment when you're 5 & 6 (and hey 41, too!).
18. Hiking on the splendor and beauty of an autumn trail, preferably one surrounded by hardwood trees...you New Englanders know what I mean.
19. The crackle of a fire in the fireplace, the wonderful taste of s'mores just made and enjoying both with a cup of hot pumpkin spice tea.
20. The LEAF symphony!!! Need I say more? The grandeur of country road driving with the trees ablaze on a sunny afternoon, preferably after a rainy night so the trunks are dark, is just amazing. There's no better site to this 'ol New Englander' soul then this.

So, I hope you enjoyed my little walk down a few of the reasons I love October. There are several hundred more, but for today we'll start here. Leave me a note and let me know what you like about the month.

A wonderful October feeling to you, ~Peacemom

Hmmm...

I'm beginning to wonder if I only write this blog for my sanity, or if anyone actually reads it...leave me a message with a recipe idea for fennel if you would...I got fennel at the CSA this week and not sure what to do with it...any suggestions?

Feeling lonely, ~Peacemom