Little sprouts

Little Omi's pea plants have sprouted and are growing fast. The other day I pulled 2 of the 3 plants to make room for the biggest one to grow, and we studied the different parts of the plant. Eric Carle's book The Tiny Seed helped out a lot, too.

Golden countdown

photo credit: Laurie Sparham/New Line Cinema

The movie version of the Phillip Pullman novel The Golden Compass opens December 7, and Big Omi and I are so excited to go. My dad originally recommended the book, which is part of the His Dark Materials trilogy, when we were visiting him way back in 2001. Without going into a lengthy book review, I'll just say it's the only book I've ever owned that I've given away to a friend who expressed interest in reading it, because I just hoped someone else would read it so we could talk about how great it is.

While I was somewhat worried when I read there would be a movie version, I have to say after seeing the trailer that I'm totally on board. Nicole Kidman is going to make a perfect Mrs. Coulter, the icy villainess/mother figure to our plucky heroine, Lyra. Plus, Ian McKellan as the voice of the armored bear Iorek Byrnison! Sam Elliott as cowboy-hot-air-balloon-aviator Lee Scoresby! Hooray! Even Daniel Craig as Lord Asriel isn't too bad, even though I imagined him to be darker. I guess Daniel Craig is reinventing dark-haired characters one by one.

P.S. Check out that beautiful bonnet on Lyra. I'm excited for the costumes in this movie, too.

GABA-dabba-doo

Am I the last person on Earth to find out about GABA rice? We eat a lot of rice at our house, 99% of it Calrose. I recently picked up a copy of The Healthiest Kid in the Neighborhood by Dr. William Sears which really drives home the benefits of eating brown rice. Now, I grew up eating brown rice, but Big Omi refers to it as "dog food." I can see why, too, since our rice cooker does a very poor job with it (see how I conveniently blame the rice cooker when it's likely that I should be soaking the rice prior to cooking it, but we'll get to that) and it often comes out underdone and slightly crunchy.

As it turns out, scientists have discovered that pre-heating brown rice at 104°F for 2–8 hours before cooking it activates "gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), an amino acid believed to have health giving properties such as lowering blood pressure, improving kidney function and relieving stress" (from the Zojirushi Web site). Wow. I should point out that it was Big Omi who came home with this information, saying that he was on board with making the switch to brown rice, but was I ready to commit to the extended heating and cooking time? And, oh, yes, we would probably have to buy a fancy new rice cooker that has settings to pre-heat your brown rice and get the GABA flowin'. Okay... now all I need to do is find a good local source of quality brown rice.

While she naps

We have really experienced a peak in sewing productivity around here. Yesterday I managed to start and finish the sweet wee jacket and woodland elf hat from Amy Karol's Bend-the-Rules Sewing. We're talking starting with purchasing the material in the morning, to sewing the flower onto the hat around 2 a.m. but I'm still counting that as one day. Of course none of this could be achieved without the help of a sleepy Little Omi, who suddenly decided a few days ago that she would like to sleep in her very own bed at night and for naps! (OK, maybe we gave her an incentive by removing the crib rail and attaching the guard rail and calling it her "bed" instead of "the crib.") I don't know what it is, but she seems to sleep better alone in her little bed than in our big bed. I'm not questioning it, though, instead I'm celebrating and enjoying my new-found bit of time to myself in the afternoons.

I used to watch Big Omi completely mesmerized by his computer in the evenings and think, "What could possibly be that interesting?" And then I discovered craft blogs and all the wonderful women out there sharing their experiences as mothers and crafters and cooks and artists and writers. The very first blog I ever read is called While She Naps. I literally stumbled onto it after Googling "teddy bear pattern" and spent the next few evenings completely engrossed in the world of Abby Glassenberg and her evolution from soft toy maker to soft sculpture artist. After that it was all over for me. I was glued to the computer every night, just like Big Omi, catching up on all my favorite blogs and discovering new ones. Thanks, Abby!

A banner day for the postal service

Pretty much everything I ever wanted arrived in the mail today. That stack of fat quarters came from Keepsake Quilting, courtesy of a birthday gift certificate from Dad (Thank you, Dad!). There are 14 1930s prints and 14 1860s reproductions in there. What a nice birthday present! Wouldn't some of those make perfect sunbonnets? The books and T-shirt came in a box from the lovely and thoughtful H. There are some very adorable and not-too-intimidating costumes in the aptly-titled Baby Costumes. Can you believe that Halloween is just around the corner? You probably can, if you've ventured into any retail store since they cleared out the back-to-school supplies and replaced them with Halloween stuff.

We love the Cotton Ginny T-shirt, of course. Here's a view of the back:
Little Omi has taken a particular liking to the shirt and has been carrying it around all day. It was actually quite difficult to get these photos, as evidenced in this failed shot:
(Insert shirt-swiping sound effect here.)

Air! Is it real?

Today my mom, Little Omi, and I took a day-trip to Chickasha, Okla. We picked up some lunch and took it to Shannon Springs Park, a large city park with a pond and geese that Little Omi found very fascinating (although she found the mulch in the toddler play area more fascinating). This park is where the city holds their annual Festival of Light, which I have never been to but I think we'll have to check it out this Christmastime.

After lunch we headed to Main Street, one of many like it in our state and all over the country, I'm sure. It's a sad street, full of the ghosts of thriving businesses from another time. Now it houses a few antique shops, the Chickasha chamber of commerce, a tanning salon, etc. We hit the antique stores and I picked up this book from the 1950s. It has some excellent explanations of earth science with fun little experiments to conduct at home. I think Little Omi will have fun with it in a few years. Check out this great title:


It was so nice to get out of town and drive through the country, even for a short trip. Oklahoma is so beautiful this time of year, and this drive was especially pretty. I kept wishing I had brought my camera! I promise to take it on the next trip and post photos of my beautiful part of the world.

P.H.P.D. (no spoilers)

I finished reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows this morning. I know, I know—waiting until August to read the final book in the series automatically disqualifies me as a real Potterphile, but I have my reasons. And let me just say that avoiding all the spoilers that have been around, including in my very hands, has not been an easy task. (It wasn't quite as difficult as, say, finding and destroying Horcruxes, but it was pretty tough. My husband, Big Omi, was kind enough to remove several incriminating pages of Entertainment Weekly, only to hide them in his sock drawer. I know this because I put away his clothes, and promptly found the pages only a few days later.) My main reason for waiting this long was that I wanted to see the fifth movie, then re-read the sixth book and get all caught up before starting book seven. My memory just isn't what it used to be, and J.K. Rowling doesn't spend much time reminding her readers of what happened in the previous books. (Not like in, say, The Bobbsey Twins or Nancy Drew, where you got the same lengthy description of Ned Nickerson in every book.) So now, after all the waiting, all the catching up, and all the great lengths I went to to avoid finding out what happens, I know. I have read the final word in the final chapter of the final book. I am very, very satisfied with the way things ended: with certainty and no ambiguity (cough—I'm looking in your direction, David Chase). Now I have been officially diagnosed with P.H.P.D. (Post-Harry Potter Depression). When I was reading the book, it was at a breakneck pace. Sometimes I would have to make myself slow down or go back and re-read passages just to catch all the details. I just couldn't know fast enough. But now, of course, I am sad to be finished with it. It's like I sat down to a full-course meal, savored each bite through the entire dinner, then swallowed the dessert whole. Ah, well, I'm sure Phizer or Merck are working on a new lifestyle drug to take away the pain of P.H.P.D. Until then, I can always go back and start the whole series over again... I'll probably have forgotten what happens in book 7 soon enough.

Simply the best

I mention in my profile that one of my interests is learning to cook. What I mean by that really is learning to like to cook. Ina Garten's TV show and cookbooks got me started. After seeing Ina say "How easy is that?" enough times, anyone would be willing to give one of her recipes a whirl (plus they're all so delicious). With some confidence gained after roasting approximately fifty chickens, I was ready to take on this behemoth. Intimidating only in its size, The New Best Recipe offers 1,000 recipes—some quite basic, others advanced, but all extensively tested to make them literally the best. My favorite bits are the detailed essays included on how they arrived at each recipe, like how it worked better to cook a meatloaf on a baking sheet instead of in a loaf pan, or how to bruise the basil leaves before making pesto in a food processor to mimic the action of grinding in a mortar and pestle. Delightful! My sister just gave me The Best Make-Ahead Recipe for my birthday, and I can't wait to give it a try.

Two excellent books

We have two new favorite books in our house. Little Omi is absolutely in love with Taro Gomi's Where's the Fish? It's a very basic Where's Waldo-type book from the author of such classics as Everyone Poops and Spring Is Here. I was quite surprised to see Omi-chan point out the fish on every page on the very first read. Of course Big Omi (my husband) and I decided she must be the most brilliant 15-month-old ever. (This is quite similar to the time we visited the pediatrician for her regular shots-and-measurements check-up and her head circumference was in the 99th percentile. We were practically popping buttons with pride over our daughter's enormous noggin.)

Anne Lamott's Operating Instructions: A Journal of My Son's First Year is my new love. I read the first 100 pages yesterday while Little Omi napped beside me, and I had to stifle my laughter every few minutes just to keep from jostling her awake. Lamott's writing is so conversational, humorous, and so very, very honest. She reveals her deepest, darkest thoughts with such refreshing openness that it makes you feel better about the times you wanted to throw the baby on the dung heap just so you could get some sleep or read more than a few bleeping pages of Harry Potter in one go. I almost hesitated to post about this book because reading it is like spending time with a wonderful new girlfriend that you don't want to share with any of your other friends in case she likes one of them better than you, or a really great band that you love but secretly hope doesn't become too successful so you can always be cool for liking them. Having gotten over that feeling, I have to say I highly recommend this book to any mother, especially those who have just made it through that first special year.