Winning!

My desire to frolic about on the intraweb has waned drastically over the last couple months. It started with No TV Tuesday and the very appealing concept of a digital sabbatical. More and more, I find I'm less and less entertained by the shiny baubles of technology. It's not a bad thing. It's a fabulous thing, really.  Stepping away from the computer means, for me, stepping back into my day. My house. My garden. My projects. My daughter. My husband. My life.

My life.

What would it be like if we didn't have (gasp!) an internet connection? Can you imagine?! I try. I've definitely cut waaaaay back on the amount of time I spend in front of a screen of any sort. Checking my email one afternoon, I realized very little of it was from actual people--the majority was advertising and sales. Sales for things I don't need with links to more things I really don't have any interest in perusing. In a fit of tears (seriously), I systematically unsubscribed from nearly everything that was cluttering up my inbox and I can't begin to tell you how liberating it was to cut those cords.

This is my life. These are the days that make up my life. Why on Earth have I been spending so much time clicking it all away when I could be doing something? And I'm being pretty hard on myself here, because I don't (didn't) spend all that much time online. I still managed to accomplish a lot with my days. What I noticed, though, was a deeply engrained habit of "just checking". Email. News. Blogs. Weekly grocery ads. Any random thought that needed further clarification. And it wasn't making me feel good. So I stopped. Well, I'm stopping. It's a process.

Now...now I am beating the jeepers out of my to-do list. The collection of sites I actually pay attention to has dwindled until they can be counted on one hand. I'm reading so much more--in fact, I find I crave time to read a book more than I yearn to watch a movie lately. I'm imagining, in full color, what it would be like to completely disconnect and live outside of town. To raise a child with books and gardens and seasons, rather than Elmo, iPads, and days full of often fruitless tasks that do nothing but lead us further and further from feeling genuinely satisfied.

So, what's left is for me to find a balance. I do get some satisfaction from writing, but I'm not super thrilled that it sometimes feels like an obligation. We can't run away and build a life in the hills just yet, so I'll just have to bring the hills down to the Valley floor for now. And we haven't won the lottery, so the epic cross-country tour and the EuroVan will just have to wait. In the meantime, there are plenty of amazing things for us to do right here at home. And I will write when I feel like it.

 And I will cook.

 And step outside...

 ...to take a very good look...

 ...at all the extraordinary things...

...that are happening in my life.

Great Backyard Bird Count

If you're looking for the perfect excuse to sit quietly and stare at a tree the weekend after next, I'm here to help. It's The Great Backyard Bird Count! It starts a week from Friday and you can participate as little or as much as you'd like. It's an "annual four-day event that engages bird watchers of all ages in counting birds to create a real-time snapshot of where the birds are across the continent."

Minimum time commitment is 15 minutes and you don't have to be an experienced bird watcher to participate. You don't even have to be in America--Canada is taking part, too. Even if you only know the name of a single bird, you can just count that one. Is this getting easy enough for you, yet?

Dig around their website a little: click. You'll find tons of information about past Bird Counts and step-by-step instructions on how to participate this year. 

viva la birdies!

Things that have worked

 The Biggest Girl has moved away from the plastic kid bowls and into Fiestaware. I only wonder why I didn't do it sooner. Yes, the ever-looming possibility she may drop one (a green one!) exists, but she's old enough to learn responsibility and truly seems to appreciate eating out of the same dishes as Mom and Dad. She uses the salad plates as dinner plates and the smaller bowls for oatmeal (lots and lots of oatmeal). When the meal is over, she takes her dishes to the kitchen and then washes her hands. It's pretty amazing.

 Vegetable Lasagna with Butternut Bechamel

I found the recipe at one of my new favorites, The Kitchn. We had some squash in the garage that was threatening to go all rebel on us, so I cooked it up, froze some of it, and used the rest to make this delicious, nutritious bit of lasagna delight. It's strange, at first, to have a non-tomato based lasagna, but it does a great job of being unapologetically sweet. And it's got chard! Perfect meal for late winter crops and, since there's no meat, it's also great for Meatless Monday. 

 Pumpkin Cranberry Walnut Bread

Also roasted, pureed, and froze some pumpkin the same day as the squash. I kept some out and made an extremely tasty pumpkin bread. The recipe made two loaves, so I put cranberries in one for the Biggest Girl and chocolate chips in one for Mr. Mallard. I got the best of both world when I made a tiny sandwich with a slice of each and ended up with Pumpkin Cranberry Chocolate Chip Walnut Bread. de-lish. As soon as I remember which recipe I used, I'll get back to you. 

 I am making a potholder. Just saying that reminds me I need to finish it, asap. It's for another contest at Prudent Baby--this time the prize is a badass sewing machine. I was feeling super confident until I saw the most recent entries. Holy moly. These folks can sew. It's inspiring and soul-crushing all at the same time. 

I left the house and hung out in a new backyard for awhile. 

It was just what I needed.

 I taught a good friend how to sew this past weekend. And I didn't yell at her a single time. I also didn't rip the project out of her hands and tell her I'll just do it myself. I was patient and kind and encouraging and this is good news for anyone who has to/wants to work next to me in the kitchen. I am learning to be patient while other people learn. I'm proud of her for bustin' out some adorable curtains the same day she sat down at a sewing machine for the first time ever and I'm proud of myself for knowing enough to teach her how. We're a good team. 

 The Super Bowl was a sort of whatever incident here at Casa de Mallard. I did make a White Chili that was delicious, though. It wasn't as chili-y as we thought it would be, but it was tasty. Tonight, we'll be scarfing it down as a quesadilla filling on homemade tortillas. I will be very honest with you here: the homemade tortillas are not the result of a passion for cooking from scratch. Nope. They are the result of my absolute lack of interest in leaving the house for just one thing. And so I will make them. 

I also made the most delicious cornbread I've ever had in my entire life, but I have to go get dinner started now, so the recipe will have to come later. 

Mrs. Mallard, out!

Flying Ant Day

When we left the house this morning, I noticed there were more birds flittering about, perching on the gutters and such, and I thought, "Look at all the birdies! So sweet...all different kinds of birds just getting along. It's going to be a good day."

Ha! It's Flying Ant Day--the day ants swarm the neighborhood and breed like crazy all over your lawn before they lose their wings and die. It's a rough life, I'll admit, but for someone (like me) who has curly hair, swarms of insects are simply not cool. Etymologist race outside, while I sprint inside, shaking my head furiously, hoping I don't have any Flying Ant Hobos stuck in my hair. Oh, they give me the willies!

See...totally creepy.

And they're all over the place. From the living room window, I can see the ones who have already lost their wings crawling around aimlessly on the street, probably unaware they are on the verge of death.

Shivers!

Fortunately, Flying Ant Day is really only supposed to last a couple hours. I'll be skittish for days.

Get ready...it's coming to your town soon!

Leavin' on a jet plane

Some things we learned about flying with a toddler...

1. If you can, drive yourself to the airport. Parking in the long-term garage costs more than having friends or family drop you off, but it gave us a chance to freak out in private on the way to the airport and decompress on our own once we got back home. If we lived in a city that had an actual airport, I'd probably recommend saving the parking money in favor of letting someone give you a ride, but we had to drive almost 100 miles to the airport and there was just no way we could deal with a witness to our jitters/sighs of relief. Parking garage=money well spent.

2. Clean out the diaper bag before you pack it for the trip. I took a trip down memory lane when I cleaned out every single pocket in the Biggest Girl's diaper bag. Look! There's the sticker she got after her six-month check-up. And I thought she ate it on the way home...

3. Once it's cleaned out, overpack the diaper bag. Most airlines don't count the diaper bag against your carry-on allowance, so make the most of it. More diapers than you think you need, teething tablets, tylenol, diaper cream--anything you might need should come with you. And snacks. Lots and lots of snacks. Not only do airport stores not carry tasty baby snacks, you never know what you'll encounter on your trip. Delays can spell disaster if you've got a hungry baby on your hands and nothing to feed them. Plus, having a familiar snack can make things seem less bizarre for the wee one.

4. Check your stroller at the gate. Even if you end up carrying the baby through the airport, you can use the stroller as a cart for your carry-ons. Some airports (Atlanta) don't have luggage carts available, so the stroller was a blessing. We checked our fancy BOB stroller at the gate--we wrapped three bungee cords around it to keep it from flopping open--and it was waiting for us every time we got off a plane. It survived the trip and came home without absolutely no damage.

5. Buy a seat for your baby, regardless of their age, and strap them into an FAA-approved car seat for the flight. This is my soapbox. I am climbing on it now. You wouldn't sit in the front seat of a car with a baby on your lap, so why should an airplane be any different? Yes, you can save yourself some money by holding your child for the duration of your flight, but is it really worth it? The FAA recommends a car seat for all children. And here's a pop quiz for you: The cabin loses pressure and the oxygen masks drop down (it happens--ask around). Your baby is on your lap, so you've got one mask for the two of you. Who gets it?

6. Check in at the gate and ask to board early. Ask for a seat belt extender for the seat that will have the car seat. The standard seat belt will fasten just fine, but getting it unfastened is a nightmare. The extender makes it so it fastens outside the car seat, rather than behind it, where it turns out there is no room to lift the lever high enough to get it to release. Lesson learned. The hard way.

7. If people are getting snarky about how long it takes you to get the seat and the baby and yourself situated, just smile and keep working. Remember when they used to let people traveling with small children board early? They don't really do that anymore. As a result, the general public is going to have to just sit tight while you do your best and if they don't like it, that's tough. Maybe they should write a letter to the airline and then people traveling with small children will be allowed to board early once again.

8. Given the choice between a 30-minute layover and a 3-hour layover, go for the 3-hour layover. The extra time allows you to forgo the stress of trying to make a tight connection and gives the wee one a chance to stretch their tiny legs. This is more important than you can imagine, especially if you've got a toddler.

9. During takeoff and landing, have a sippy cup or bottle at your side. Every time you feel even the slightest bit of pressure in your ears, offer your child a drink. When I explained that it would make her ears feel better, the Biggest Girl totally got it and eventually started to take sips on her own. Anything that gets them to swallow--snacks work--will help pop their ears and make the beginning and ending of the flight more bearable.

10. Stock your purse (or backpack or whatever) with paper and pens and a new book or two. The novelty of a new book can buy you more time than you think. Drawing is a big deal for the Biggest Girl right now, so being allowed to use Mommy's pen was pretty darn exciting. We also spent fifteen bucks on a little lap desk for the flight home and that proved to be money well spent. It clips on to the car seat and provides tray table for drawing and snacks. Stash it behind the car seat for takeoff and landing. And if you use it in the car when you get home, make sure it's attached snugly and use a bowl with a suction cup for treats--one big corner will send an unsecured snack bowl flying across the back seat and cause some serious distress for anyone under four feet tall who happened to be enjoying that bagel before it went airborne.

11. The freakout will happen. Maybe not on this flight. Maybe it will be the next flight. Who knows? Here's what you do--do the best you can to fix the freakout and don't let the eye-rollers get you down. Case in point: the Biggest Girl's freakout on the way home. Less than an hour into our five-hour flight, Mean Guy (that's not what I really called him) in front of her reclined his seat all the way, so he was essentially sitting in her lap. She started to lose her little marbles and pushed on his seat with her feet. To her credit, she really moved the seat quite a bit, due in large part to her superhero-like strength in moments of distress. Mean Guy was not impressed, though, and shot me a nasty look, along with the hissing of a "Do you mind?!". Umm...yeah, I mind. You're a Mean Guy. I tried to play nice, though, and did what I could do keep her from kicking his seat. This created more angst which led to more kicking which led to me physically restraining her for the first time in her life and that made her cry and that made me cry. Even writing about it is going to make me cry. It was awful and I was doing everything I could and then Mean Guy rings for the flight attendant and asks to switch seats because he just "can't stand to spend the whole flight like this". The angel who was disguised as a flight attendant looks at me wrestling the Biggest Girl/Incredible Hulk with tears running down my face and she smiles ever-so-sweetly at Mean Guy and says, "I'm sorry, but the flight is full. You're just going to have to make the best of it." Ha! In yo' face, Mean Guy! Take that! Five minutes later, all was quiet. The Biggest Girl passed out the moment before the beverage cart rolled up and, after charging Mean Guy seven bucks for a beer, the angel disguised as a flight attendant very loudly complimented my efforts, commended the Biggest Girl on her ability to adapt to a difficult situation, and then bought me a drink. That's right--I'll have a whiskey and ginger ale and I don't have to pay for it because I did the best I could. The lesson? Do what you can. Everyone else can just piss off. And if there's a baby freaking out on your flight, don't be Mean Guy.

12. Don't even try to get off the plane until everyone else does. This is where the longer layover will come in handy. Just wait patiently while everyone else crams into the aisle and attempts to push their way to front of the plane. It's sooo much easier once everyone else is gone.

13. Be prepared to sit by a window and look at planes during your layover. There is no way around this, unless you blindfold your child.

14. Bring an extra set of headphones. The bigger Delta planes we flew on had televisions in the backs of every seat, so you can plug your kid in to Nickelodeon or Animal Planet for a bit, if you like. The Biggest Girl doesn't watch much TV, so this was a fabulous treat for her. The flight back wasn't as much of a treat, though, thanks to the "When Animals Attack" marathon. If you're traveling with a laptop, take advantage of the wi-fi in the terminals and find fun things on youtube to keep tiny travelers amused, should the lure of the planes lumbering about outside wane.

15. I'm not a fan of using Benadryl or Dramamine to keep a baby quiet on a flight. To me, that equates to drugging a child to get it to behave the way you want it to and that's just not cool.

16. Since you're obviously going to hang on my every word and will be paying for a seat so you can use your car seat on the plane, sign your kid up for a frequent flyer card. That way, the whole family accrues miles and then you can all fly for free someday. Or upgrade to first class where it's rumored they have actual leg room, free drinks (no freakout required!) and better snacks.

17. Oh! If your little one is walking, bring a leash. We call it the Froggy Backpack and it saved us during our layovers. Yes, people will look at you funny, but whatever. The Biggest Girl got to run in front of us and dance around while we stumbled behind her like zombies. Trying to hold on to a tiny hand in a big airport can be difficult. The leash is extra security for you and extra freedom for whoever is on the other end.

I think that's it. I mean, I'm sure it's not, but that's all I've got for now.

Happy travels!

Buy Nothing Day 2009

It's that time! Take a stand by doing nothing--could it be any easier?

Buy Nothing Day is a challenge to consumers to stop consuming for 24 hours and it just happens to fall on one of the busiest shopping days of the year--Black Friday. The idea is that we don't really need the crap that's on sale, but we're so programmed to want it that there's a knee-jerk reaction by most that leads us blindly to the mall, credit card in hand. Buy Nothing Day is a chance to liberate yourself from over-consumption and the debt that follows, as well as do the planet a favor by just chillin' at home, rather than driving from store to store to collect a bunch of disposable goods.

Give it a try--don't go shopping the day after Thanksgiving. This means no grocery shopping, no ducking out for anything. No online shopping, either. Don't spend a single penny. Keep your hard-earned money for yourself. Appreciate the things you have. Spend the day with your family, instead. Unplug yourself from the machine and just be for a day.

Our commitment to participate in Buy Nothing Day was permanently engrained in us when a Wal-Mart employee was trampled to death last year at 5am on Black Friday. In the rush to get in the doors for the oh-so-great bargains, the Wal-mart customers knocked down and killed an employee. He died and the store remained open. The same people that pushed to get past and climb over his dying body got to finish their shopping and suffered no consequences for their truly horrendous actions. All in the name of Christmas...the most wonderful time of the year, right?

Right...

Oregon 150 Challenge-Time is running out!

Get moving! The deadline for entries to The Oregon 150 Challenge is September 30th at midnight. Only three days to go, but that's plenty of time to get your adventures in and be eligible to win some of the sweetest prize packages ever. Take a look at the list of categories and destinations and you might find you've already accomplished your five tasks without even knowing! If you have a task or two left to go, get to it. Once you're done, you'll be entered to win and you'll get a fancy certificate that certifies you as an official Oregonian.

...and GO!

The Oregon 150 Challenge

If you're in Oregon (or if you happen to visit before September 30, 2009), there's just no excuse for not completing The Oregon 150 Challenge. Part of the state's sesquicentennial celebration, the contest is simple--just go to five places in Oregon, document your travel, and you are then entered to win one of seven super sweet Oregon travel packages. The five places you visit have to be in two different regions and must fall into one of four categories: food/drink, events/activities, landmarks, and outdoors. The fifth task is a freebie in the category of your choice. If you live in The Valley (or Portland) and go to the coast for one of your adventures, you've already covered the two different regions requirement. 

I'm excited! The prize packages are all awesome and I love the idea of being rewarded for doing things we were going to do anyway. All we have to do now is log in and share our adventures. 

This link will take you to a pdf that explains the whole contest: click

And here is the contest's official site: click

Oh, and if you win the Central Oregon prize package, you have to take me with you.