Mendolonium

Henry

 My “little guy” weighed in at 9 pounds (!) this past Thursday (four weeks and one day old).  Clearly, my worries about an early birth resulting in nursing difficulties were totally unfounded. 

Thoughts on Being the Mother of Two

Short version:  It’s great!  I love Henry!  I love Thomas!  Children are awesome - I want lots of them!

Long version:  Both Henry and Thomas are utter perfection to me.  I love them both deeply and fiercely.  Love may be infinite, however, time is not.  Shockingly, meeting every one’s needs to my unreasonable perfectionist standards is proving to be impossible.  What I want is to spend hours every day going on adventures and baking with Thomas, while also finding the time to take hours for nursing, rocking, singing to, and gazing at Henry.  Oh and while I am at it I want the time to dig in the dirt for an hour or so, a sparkling clean house, to develop a new recipe at least once a week, and a pampering getaway for a hair color and a massage.  What I get is a preschooler exclaiming ”I want to hang on mama” while I nurse the baby, frozen macaroni and cheese from a box for lunch, and dyeing my hair myself in the bathroom at 11:30 pm. 

Viruses

I am pretty sure hell isn’t filled with fire and brimstone, but with snot.  We are all sick – again.  Last time it was bronchitis.  This time it seems to be a mild cold.  With a bit of luck, there won’t be a next time for quite awhile.  Given that Jeff and I are both home now, Thomas will be taking a leave of absence from preschool  – aka “the den of disease”.

The Incredible Edible Egg

After a year and a half of fantasizing about a fried egg sandwich, taking an hour or two to get through the grocery store as I scrutinized every label with the precision of one reading about how to diffuse a bomb, making some truly craptastic cookies, and thinking of chickens as “the enemy” it appears that Thomas is no longer allergic to eggs.  It’s a long story that I honestly have no desire to write down but the end result seems to be that he can safely eat the previously forbidden eggs, garlic, and pepper (sesame is still off limits).  Thomas had no reaction to ”food challenges” of baked egg, egg in pancakes, scrambled eggs, and finally raw egg (in the form of banana bread batter).  Not only does this mean realbreakfasts, royal icing, cheesecakes, pâte à choux, and cookies that actually stay together, but it means that Mendolo farms is going to get itself some livestock.  Oh yeah. 

Independence Days

Yes – I am actually still doing the Independence Days challenge.  My mom and dad were visiting this past week and I actually got quite a bit done with the help of their excellent preschooler entertaining and and baby holding skills:

1. Plant Something or Take Care of Something You’ve Planted:

• Watermelon (4 “Sugar Baby”)
• Cucumbers (1 “Diva, 2 Marketmore 76)
• Cauliflower (4 “Snowball Y”)
• Green Beans (12 “Nickel Haricots Verts”)
• Zucchini (1 “Round French”)
• Carrots (“Danvers”)
• Moved all strawberries to the front yard.

2. Harvest Something:

• Peas.
• Lettuce.

3. Preserve something:

• Not this week.

4. Prep something:

• Organized the boy’s clothing. 

5. Cook something new:

• Lot’s of cooking, but nothing new. 

6. Manage your reserves:

• Working on eating up items (i.e., cherries) that we preserved last year prior to them coming into season this year. 

As part of an ongoing (and hopefully accelerating this year) trend away from mainstream consumer culture we tried to make the majority of our Christmas gifts this year. One of the very successful and fun items that I made were “spice blends” of garam masala, curry powder, and chili powder. The back story behind the development of these blends lies in Thomas’ food allergies. When we found out last February that Thomas was allergic to garlic as well and black pepper it took a dizzying array of foods off the table for us, literally. I was devastated when I found out that I couldn’t even use spices that I thought were safe such as chili powder. It turns out that these spices are all actually blends of multiple spices including, garlic and pepper. A world without curry is not a world I want to live in so I set out to make my own blends. Even if Thomas grows out of his allergies I will definitely keep making our own spice blends. The flavors are so much more intense and fresh, the product is vastly more inexpensive, and it fills the house with wonderful smells while the spices are toasting and blending. Here are the recipes for my current three favorites:

Garam Masala

Ancho Chili Powder

Curry Powder

For ingredients I recommend growing your own or going online to buy in bulk from Mountain Rose Herbs or Penzeys. I also recommend buying whole spices (rather than ground) whenever possible as they will taste much fresher and keep much longer.

A couple of weeks ago I sat in a rocking chair nursing and rocking Thomas (and myself) to sleep when I suddenly awoke to a great deal more rocking than I was making. I quickly realized that we were having an earthquake and calmly walked out the hallway with Thomas to ride out the quake. It was only a moderate earthquake and we didn’t suffer any damage but I took it as a warning to update and improve our “go bags”. Our go bags are backpacks filled with the basic necessities of survival (excluding water and food which we have stored separately) for three days.

Regardless of whether or not you live in earthquake country it is a good idea for everyone to have a go bag at home and, if you work farther away than a home office, a go bag to keep at work. A well stocked go bag is particularly important if you or a member of your household has any medical conditions or food allergies that might not be able to be accommodated at a shelter. Ideally you would “shelter in place” during a disaster and our home is well stocked to do so. However, sometimes as in the case of a small scale disaster such as a gas leak or a large scale disaster such as hurricane Katrina it is just not possible to remain at home. That is where the go bag comes in. So what’s in our go bags?

In my home go bag I have enough supplies (excluding water and food) to keep me reasonably comfortable for three days. My home go bag contains:

• A 30 day supply of my non-refrigerated prescription medication
• A moderately sized first aid kit with an additional bottle of Tylenol arthritis strength
• A complete change of clothing including two pairs of underwear, two pairs of socks, pants (that zip into shorts), a tank top, a long sleeved t-shirt, and a sweater
• Comfortable walking shoes (my old athletic shoes)
• A cosmetics bag including: shampoo (can also be used as soap), contact solution, a contact case, a toothbrush, toothpaste, a hairbrush, hairbands, lip balm, a fingernail clipper, feminine hygiene supplies, sunscreen, and a small sewing kit
• A package of tissue
• A extra pair of glasses
• A flashlight + extra batteries
• Matches
• A map of Los Angeles County
• A chamois towel
• A charger for my cell phone
• A laminated emergency card listing the phone numbers, addresses, and emails of everyone in our immediate family
• An empty water bottle
• $20 broken down into a roll of quarters, a five dollar bill, and five one dollar bills
• A dust mask
• A hand crank emergency radio
• A pocket knife

We also have a go bag for Thomas which has a somewhat different makeup and includes:

• Thomas’ medications (includes infant Tylenol)
• A box of hemp milk
• A bottle
• A sippy cup
• A small spoon
• Favorite snacks (freeze dried fruit, snappea crisps)
• A onesie
• Long sleeved/long pants pajamas
• Socks and shoes
• A sun hat
• Sunscreen
• A blanket
• A sling
• 18 Diapers
• One package of baby wipes
• Small amusements (a notepad + crayons, stickers, two board books)

We have had go bags at home for a couple of years now, however, with the recent earthquake striking during the daytime I realized that in a significant disaster we might need to make our way home from our respective workplaces without a car or public transportation. I work only 2 miles from home, however, Jeff works 17 miles away. Certainly walkable but it would be a much more pleasant and safe walk with a few supplies. Therefore Jeff and I now each have go bags that we keep at work. Jeff’s work go bag includes:

• A small sized first aid kit
• Comfortable walking shoes
• Sunscreen
• A hat
• A flashlight + extra batteries
• Matches
• A map of Los Angeles County
• A laminated emergency card listing the phone numbers, addresses, and emails of everyone in our immediate family
• An empty water bottle
• 2 liters of water
• Powdered Gatorade “singles”
• Granola bars
• $20 broken down into a roll of quarters, a five dollar bill, and five one dollar bills
• A dust mask
• An old pair of work gloves

In addition to our go bags we also have a go box (actually a cat carrier) filled with emergency supplies for our pets which includes leashes for all,disposable litter boxes, three days worth of food for each animal, disposable food/water bowls, and a blanket for each animal.

I hope we never have to use the bags, but knowing we have them ready to go brings me a small bit of peace every time the earth starts to shake.

For the past six months Thomas and I have been on a rather difficult diet: no soy, no eggs, no garlic, no pepper, no sesame, and no cantaloupe. Thomas’ issue with soy is an intolerance, not an allergy. Intolerances are more commonly outgrown than allergies and there is some evidence that after food allergens are eliminated intolerances improve. After nearly 6 months on an allergy-free diet we decided to try to introduce soy back into my diet and add it to Thomas’ diet. Over the past month we have been gradually incorporating soy: starting with trace amounts in the form of soy lecithin (a common food additive) and culminating with a tofu and veggie stir-fry. I am thrilled to report that there have been no problems and we can now remove one our major dietary restrictions.

That said, I don’t believe that soy is a “miracle food” and there is evidence that excessive consumption of soy can have negative health consequences. The experience of eliminating soy has also taught me how disturbing our industrial food system is: soy is in a huge amount of processed foods: chocolate, baked goods, ice cream, and snack foods. From a health or taste standpoint, there is no reason that soy is present in any of those foods and we certainly will not return to purchasing these foods now that we have added soy back into our diets. We will be consuming soy in moderation and in it’s simpler forms e.g., tofu and miso as opposed faux foods such as to soy bacon or “facon”. As you can see from this week’s menu I am, however, very much looking forward to partaking of the soybean once again.

Thursday:

• Pupusas and lemonade at the farmer’s market, served in our own containers (tomorrow I’ll post our change of the week: no more takeout containers)

Friday:

• Three cheese, roasted pepper, and basil pizza
• We were supposed to eat this Wednesday night, however, Jeff was sick so we just munched on what we already had in the fridge.

Saturday:

• Summer Birthday Party at Jeff’s parents
• We’ll be bringing black bean burgers, corn (if available at the farmer’s market), and dessert (most likely a cherry crisp and a carrot cake with cream cheese frosting).

Sunday:

• Breakfast for dinner!
• Scrambled tofu (A new recipe I am trying)
• Skillet roasted potatoes
• Toast (with bread from the book and homemade strawberry jam)

Monday

• Spaghetti with homemade marinara sauce, tomatoes, and parmesan cheese

Tuesday

• Another new recipe: Ceylon style tofu curry

Wednesday

• Black bean soup
• Lettuce, tomato, cucumber, and avocado salad
• Cornbread
• This is one of my favorite meals and I will make a quadruple batch to freeze in Pyrex bowls for a quick lunch or dinner