Virtual Coffee {29}

Hello dear friends, welcome to coffee.

Our hostess Amy with her hillbilly latte inspired me to improve my regular blah coffee a little bit. Unfortunately my frother has gone on strike lately so my new and improved morning drink isn’t as visually appealing as it could be, but it’s definitely yummy, and that’s all that counts.

In case you’re interested it’s two teaspoons raw cane sugar, two teaspoons cocoa powder, a dash of cinnamon, a dollop of fresh raw cream, all this gets mixed vigorously with a teaspoon in the bottom of my cup and then I add a “long” shot of decaf coffee from my Nespresso coffee maker.

I’d also have to share with you this interesting “bouquet” I got from a friend the other day. I swear, her dad grows the biggest cauliflowers on the planet. Seriously, what does he feed his plants, I wonder?

If we were really meeting for coffee today, I’d tell you that we finally got to spend a relaxing weekend at our beach apartment, with a full complement of doors, windows, and working heating this time. The kids loved it, and though the weather wasn’t great we still spent several hours on the beach trying to get as much sand as we could in our clothes and shoes and watching the surfers.

Much like most of you we’re also gearing up for Turkey Day, which we will celebrate on Sunday – because it’s not a holiday here - with about 15 of our closest expat friends (and their kids, which will likely feel like a legion of barbarians descended upon us). Unfortunately, my Thanksgiving dry-run from the beginning of the month (or the great turkey mishap, as we like to call it) has totally put me off turkey roasting this weekend, thankfully someone else graciously offered to pick up that ball, so I’m off the hook!

And if we were really having coffee I wouldn’t be able to hold in my excitement because I got my tickets for Houston, y’all!! These birds are going home for Christmas and we’re over the moon!! (Or I am, the Boy keeps asking if Santa will know to go to Nana’s house this year.) The trip is going to be long and tedious but then we’ll be there for a month and a half so I’m thinking that should be long enough to forget about the nightmare 14 hour plane ride. I’ve already started my list of activities for the kids and obviously my shopping lists for me… and, in fact, if anyone from Houston has suggestions of fun stuff to do with a toddler and a preschooler they’d be very welcome.

I really hope my Mom and her husband survive having guests for that long!

So that’s all folks, now tell me, what are your plans for Thanksgiving? And have you started your Christmas shopping, cause I haven’t and I’m really hoping everyone’s as behind as I am?! I’m off to bake a three-layer, no food coloring, red velvet cake for the girl’s birthday tomorrow, which I’ll post on this week if it turns out decent.

Toodles, and thanks for visiting, now pop on over and say hi to Amy! 

p.s. notice anything weird about the following photos of me? Apart from the crazy hair I mean!

Yeah, it's like my iPhone is glued to my hand or something! And then I have the gall to try and "limit screen time" for my kids...GAH!

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Silent Sunday

Wondrous things

This is my first time doing one of MamaKat’s writing prompts. We’re meant to “List your life’s Seven Wonders. Describe the most amazing 7 things you’ve seen with your own two eyes.” Now, my memory’s notoriously terrible and I thought and thought about the seven most amazing things I’ve seen, but the thing is, I’m pretty sure I don’t remember them. So I’m going to go with the first seven amazing things I came up with off the top of my head. I’m pretty sure I’m going to be coming up with even more amazing things I could’ve listed all week… except for number one, that’s the most amazing one of all the things I’ve seen and done, even though it’s trite and boring for a mom to list.

1. My kids being born. I know, I know… go ahead and roll your eyes at me, but I couldn’t not mention them could I? And it is amazing, The first time I saw the Boy as the nurse brought him up close to my face after a crazy labor and whirlwind c-section. I saw him and sighed in relief that he was ok, and then I did a double take, cause the bald, blue-eyed, porcelain-skinned baby I had been imagining was red, and scrunched-up and wrinkly, and had a headful of long, dark hair. Shocking! and Amazing! And the first time I saw the Girl drop out of me (literally) and I thought, I made you, I made you from scratch, and I brought you here into this world. I dare any of you to say childbirth isn’t amazing!

2. I’ve been very lucky to have travelled a lot in my life and there are many, many beautiful, amazing, wondrous places in the world (many of which I still haven’t seen). But the first time I went to New York as an adult, with my husband, we dropped our bags off at the airport and went strolling around the city straight off a nine hour intercontinental flight and… I don’t know if it was the jet-lag, the fact that we hadn’t slept in over twenty-four hour or the butt and jaw clenching cold that is New York in February, but I stopped in the middle of Broadway and turned slowly in a circle on the sidewalk and just took it all in. The smells, the energy, the people jostling me to get by, the lights… and it took my breath away.

3. Last year in Sao Paolo (Brazil) I saw the most amazing / ridiculous thing I have ever seen in my life: a dog in a stroller. A dog in a stroller. And that’s all I have to say on the subject.

4. My kids standing unassisted. (See how I just slipped another child-related one in there.) Our children do the most surprising / amazing things on a daily basis, but the first time they pull themselves up off the floor on their own and stand, my God, the sense of accomplishment, the surprise, the pride in their eyes, the fear (am I going to fall, what the heck am I doing?), the glee. Amazing.

5. Copacabana on New Year’s. If you ever get the chance, spend New Year’s in Rio de Janeiro, it’s so worth it. As the sun sets on December 31^st people go to the beach and put flowers in the water as an offering to Yemanja, the goddess of water and fishermen. Everyone dresses in white in Brazil for the New Year and as the evening progresses the beaches fill up with more and more people and by midnight you no longer see the beach, just a sea of people, ringing in the New Year in front of the Ocean. One of the most beautiful sights I’ve ever seen.

6. The first snowfall every year. Every winter I spend a great deal of time tweeting and posting statuses (statii?) on facebook about how much I effing hate the snow, shoveling snow, my car getting stuck in the snow, snow getting into my boots, socks, pants, neck, hair… but every year finds me staring in wonder at the sky when the first snowdrops feather down my upturned face.

7. My Grandma on her 101^st birthday, because really, she’s a hundred and one. She was born in 1910 almost a century before my own children, she was a flapper as a teenager, she remembers both World Wars, she rode horses cause there were no cars when she was little. I’m not even going to mention technology. And you know what’ll be even more amazing? My Grandma on her 102^nd birthday, next February.

I have pictures to post with almost all these entries, but it’s 1am here and I’m linking up without them. I’ll add them tomorrow, if anyone’s curious enough to come back!

There, but for the grace of God

A few days ago I ran into a lady I know, and I found out that she recently lost her husband. Her husband had cancer, from asbestos. They diagnosed him last December, he passed in August. She’s doing what any of us would be doing in her place, she’s going to work, going about her daily activities, doing what needs to be done, she’s holding up, she’s… surviving…

But she’s devastated, she looks terrible, she’s aged, and her eyes are sad. Her eyes are vast pits of sadness, I could barely stand to look into them, such was the loneliness, the hopelessness, the unadulterated, boundless, inexplicable, all-encompassing despair.

Seeing her didn’t so much as take my breath away as it quite simply sucked it so violently out of my ribcage I wondered if I would ever breath again. I had no words, no comfort to give, nothing to offer that could possibly make her feel better, because, let’s be honest nothing will make her feel better for a really, really long time.

And all throughout this brief encounter, as I let her talk because talking about it seemed what she needed in that moment, as I looked at her, tried to show her support, tried to express something, anything that would show her I cared, a teeny voice whispered in my ear… “there, but for the grace of God, go I”.

Linking up today with Shell at Things I Can't Say

Virtual Coffee {28}

Hello dear friends, welcome to coffee. 

I’m all abuzz today as I just realized I have four rather large events I need to get ready for before Christmas, so if we were really having coffee I’d probably be fretting about that.

I’m trying to plan the husband’s 40^th birthday party for December 10^th and realized I haven’t got an awful lot of time… right now my main concern is coming up with a great theme, I have an idea… which I can’t share in the (very remote) case he reads it here and I’m trying to keep at least that part a surprise… but I don’t know if I can pull it off as I don’t have enough time (damn me and my procrastinating ways!). Then I have to invite people, figure out where we’re doing it and if I should get it catered or have it directly in a restaurant. Thankfully I ordered his gift last year, though since it’s kind of hard to find, I just found out it may not be here in time for the party but will at least definitely be here in time for his actual birthday a week later. One day I will become an organized person, dammit!

I also had the bright idea to try and organize a big thanksgiving feast with all the American expats here in Cuneo (if you read this and I haven’t contacted you yet, call me, cause chances are I’m too disorganized to get to you in time). I love big gatherings and I love Thanksgiving, I’m just totally scattered this year and time is getting away from me. But I’ll manage, I just have to remember to order enough turkeys!

And the Girl… the poor Girl who always comes last because despite her best efforts to be noticed I always seem to drop the ball when it comes to her, is turning two next week and I have organized nothing, zip, nada, nisba, niet. It certainly doesn’t help that her birthday is the day before Thanksgiving this year. So, the thanksgiving shin-ding may just have to double as her birthday party too!

We have a wedding to go to the weekend of the husband’s birthday and we still need to buy a gift, figure out what we’re wearing, where we’re staying and what we’re doing with our children (bringing them, leaving them at home…).

And let’s not forget a little thing called Christmas coming up, which we’ll be celebrating early with all the husband’s family since we’re spending Christmas in Houston (YAY!!). Incidentally, I still haven’t got my tickets for Houston, so I should probably get on that or I won’t be able to go and wouldn’t that just make me feel like a complete idiot since I’ve been talking about this trip for two months now.

I thought writing this stuff out would somehow make it seem more manageable but it’s actually just freaking me out more, so please, tell me how you’re doing, are you gearing up for all the holidays? Do you have any special events coming up? How do you cope with pressure? Cause I used to thrive with the more things I had to do and now I just get flustered for no reason at all! Luckily I have these two little people that remind me to just relax and enjoy autumn sometimes:

This is how they like to spend their Sunday morning

Now don’t forget to visit our hostess Amy!

I need bigger arms

I have two kids, one comfortable lap and two arms, sounds like that should be enough, shouldn’t it? Apparently, It is not. I need bigger arms. I’ve already mentioned the hell that is bedtime at our house; recently the situation has taken a significant downturn with the introduction of a new point of contention: my lap. Used to be that I would hold the girl for a while, sing to her, cuddle a bit while the boy hung out with daddy, brushed his teeth and did secret “man stuff” (I don’t know either, do they wrestle, have burping contests, lie there staring vacantly into space with their hands down their pants?) and then I’d put the girl down and hold the boy for awhile, sing, cuddle and whatnot.

Now for some reason everybody wants to sit in my lap together, like when they were teeny tiny, except now they’re quite large, and wiggly. So now at the tail end of the entire, exhausting, infuriating ritual we have an additional five minutes of pushing and shoving on my lap, of elbows in my ribcage, of heads banging against my shoulders, my chin, and occasionally my nose. Let me just say that it is in no way pleasant or comfortable for anyone involved, but for some reasons they need this further reassurance that I do, indeed, love them the same.

So I need bigger arms, à la elasto-girl, just until they realize that they don’t actually both fit in my arms at the same time and the previous way was better. Which should be any day now cause we all know how reasonable toddlers and preschoolers are, right?

And the windows of the heavens were opened and rain fell upon the earth

Last week in Genoa, six people died due to rivers overflowing. Some were children. It’s hard to believe that something like this could happen in this day and age – people died because it’s raining. It’s humbling isn’t it? 

No matter our advances in technology and communication, no matter how evolved we are, how large our brain stems, nature is always stronger, faster, and mightier than we will ever be. I’d like to comment on how people reacted on the news (negatively, and oh so stupidly) to the events, but I won’t cause otherwise it seems I’ve always got it in for Italians and I really don’t, many more people were altruistic, helped out, made intelligent, compassionate comments and generally behaved decently and like human beings. There are always a few bad apples, right? So I’m going to focus on something else related to this tragedy.

The thing that amazes me about Italy is that (as far as I know – I’ve been accused of generalizing) they don’t do an awful lot to prepare people for natural disasters. I remember when I was in school in America we had fire drills, and talks about what to do if a hurricane or a tornado hit, if there was flooding. Parents were encouraged to make emergency plans with their kids, where do you go, who do you call, establishing a family meeting point – I don’t know if schools in Texas still do all this, but I think it’s pretty important.

Granted there are no tornadoes and hurricanes in Italy, but there are earthquakes and there’s flooding and I’m sure there are a whole host of snow related emergencies in mountain areas and yet they don’t teach kids (or adults for that matter) what to do. Schools don’t even have fire drills. Sure, all buildings here are made of cement or brick and mortar not wood, so there are fewer fires in general, but it’s not completely unheard of, I can’t even imagine the panic that would ensue here with no plan in place in case of a fire in a public building.

A mother and two children who died in Genoa last week ran into a building when they saw the waters rising thinking they’d be safe. When rivers flood waters rise very quickly, so they ran into the closest building and closed the entrance door. But they didn’t go up. So the force of the water blew open the door and (I’m assuming) they drowned. Some kids tried to get to safety by going in a basement.

Six (or seven, reports are sketchy) people died. Many people in the media here (and on the street) are blaming the government, blaming the rampant unregulated construction. It’s true, surely these things are somewhat to blame. In fact, did you know that in Italy most people will build without a permit and then wait for something called the “condono”, which basically is something that happens every few years in which the government says oh, ok fine, here’s your permit for this building, house or whatever you built with no permission, pay a fine. Ridiculous. Everyone just does whatever the hell they want and wait to get approval post factum. This is related because unregulated construction is part of the problem with flooding rivers apparently.

Anyway, back to the flood. A host of different things could have been done differently to prevent this, but it’s easy to point fingers after the fact. Natural disasters happen, floods, earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, fires, damns break, lighting strikes… shouldn’t the very first step be teaching the population a few basic survival techniques to face them? If there’s flooding go up, don’t sit on the bridge with your iphone filming it. Talk about it in schools, write articles on what to do in the event of this or that apocalyptic scenario, talk about it on tv. And have drills because when people are in danger, they panic and often don’t think straight, or they sit and stare incredulously at what’s coming at them without trying to get the hell away, but if they know what they’re supposed to do they at least have a fighting chance against nature. That’s what our government can do for us. People need to be taught how to react in case of emergency, any emergency, and they need to be taught to listen to the authorities telling them what to do when in the midst of one instead of just doing whatever the heck they want. 

I’m pretty sure our public schools and our public television can spare some resources to educate the public on safe emergency procedures, after we’re done, you know, talking about whom our prime minister is sleeping with of course.

Natural disasters happen, whether we provoke them or not, the key is being prepared. So let’s hope we can stop the finger pointing long enough to educate people and coordinate our resources so that, not if, but when this happens again the casualty count will be zero. There will always be damage to property and infrastructure when things like these happen, but I’m pretty sure we can count ourselves lucky if no one dies because it rained too much. 

So, Italian Government, please, do something to educate us, to prepare us because knowledge is power, even over nature sometimes.

Virtual Coffee {27}

Hello dear friends, welcome to coffee. 

If we were really having coffee today I would tell you that I’m seriously thinking of investing in a canoe. For when my entire neighborhood floods from all the friggin’ rain. If I get a canoe I can still go grocery shopping and stuff, it’s called planning ahead. But I really shouldn’t be making light of all the rain and water everywhere after what happened in Genoa last week, several deaths due to flooding, mostly moms and children. Moms trying to get their children from school. Insane.

I would also tell you that despite my silence on the subject I’m still slowly but surely going ahead with my de-cluttering project (i.e. one and only new year’s resolution). I finally did my biannual seasonal closet rearrange for winter this weekend and have two more huge trash bags of clothes, one to give away and one to sell. And that’s just my stuff, I still have to do the kids and husband. They recently opened a huge used resale shop near my house (totally new concept here!) so I finally have somewhere to sell all my stuff as there’s no such thing as yard or garage sales here.

I would tell you that I’m very excited that my Mom’s arriving today for a couple of days. The kids can’t wait to see her, and I’m anxious to iron out details of our Houston trip in person and get my tickets. Or at least to book them as we have to wait for the Husband’s doctors to give him final approval to travel. He’s discussing it with them on Friday and I’m keeping everything crossable crossed. He’s having some GVHD (graft versus host disease) problems, which is good on one hand because it means his immune system is working and will take care of any remaining cancer cells floating around – we hope -  on the other hand it needs to be kept under control (they can’t let it get out of hand cause he could end up with permanent damage) and it’s making him a little uncomfortable. It’s hit his lungs and his eyes mainly for now, so he’s got diminished lung capacity, which basically means that he can go about his daily activities but if he exerts himself even just a little he gets short of breath. So no running in his near future. His eyes are a bit of a pain because he has no tears, zero, nada, this is incredibly annoying cause his eyes are extremely irritated and his vision is slowly going down. So he got glasses both to see better and to protect his eyes from the elements (like air), thankfully he looks good in glasses so he’s not too upset. Also, his hair’s starting to grow again so he’ll soon be back to his old handsome, albeit way skinnier, self.

Wow, what a veritable mish mash of news today… well, that’s what you get with coffee sometimes, I’m just scattered lately, it’s the rain’s fault!

Now go on over and visit our hostess Amy and fawn over her kiddos!

Silent Sunday - a Story in Photos {2}

Rainy day Beef Stew

It’s a crappy rainy day today and we’ve all been sick for like two weeks so tonight was comfort food night and since I finally got my new Le Creuset (you may have read it was one of my birthday presents) it’s become my new comfort food pot. It’s not the first time I’ve used it, I have a couple of other recipes I was waiting to post first but I decided to just seize the day with this one since I wrote it down as I was making it and it’s ready to go. 

I already have enough posts in my “half-assed unedited where the hell am I going with this” folder.

You may notice that as precise as my measurements are when I bake, when I cook I definitely tend to eyeball measurements rather than actually… eh… measure… them. Also I’m extremely lucky to have an amazing butcher who practically reads my mind when I walk into his shop. So all I have to do is say I feel kind of crappy, need a comforting beef stew but since it’s five pm already I don’t have 3 hours to cook it and he’s all over it. So if you have any questions feel free to write them in the comments or email me and I’ll get right back to you cause I’m pretty sure I’ve missed some vital piece of information! So here goes, make this on the first rainy day when you don’t feel like fussing too much but your stomach’s asking for something hearty and comforting.

This is what you need:

a nice piece of beef for stew (cut into large cubes)

1 cup fatty bacon (cut into largish cubes)

1 large onion (diced)

2 separate glasses of red wine

5 or 6 tomatoes (diced quite large)

6 large potatoes (cut into largish cubes)

Salt

Dry seasoning to taste – like thyme, oregano, cumin, black pepper, mustard powder (go easy on this)

Fresh herbs to taste – like rosemary, fresh oregano, sage (I would suggest not to use parsley or basil)

This is what you do:

First of all, if you don’t already have it, get someone to buy you a Le Creuset cast iron pot (or any good quality cast iron pot), because you will start the love affair of your culinary life, trust me.