I hope everyone is as excited about the warmer weather as I am and you are supporting your local farmers and buying all of their yummy produce.  My office is downtown so I have the luxury of being able to forward my phone, close a file and walk outside and shop twice a week at our market.  It’s a pretty great perk.  This week a friend came over to peruse my fabric stash and stayed for dinner.  She reminded me that she has a “million” food allergies, so would understand if I wanted to take the offer back.  I like a challenge and find that some of my favorite dishes have been born out of a challenge.  I had planned on making fish, rice and veggies and loaded up on produce at the market.  This included a big bag of kale.  As I started to prep, I realized that I had a lot of produce to roast with the fish and maybe I should forego the kale.  But we needed snacks!  Pinterest to the rescue and the kale chips would be had by all.  Everyone loved them, especially the kiddo.  So much so, that she asked for them the next day.  That’s success in my book.  Try them.  Let your kids make them.  You might be surprised.

Recipe:

Fresh kale

Olive oil

Salt/pepper

Cayenne or red pepper (optional)

Remove the meaty spines of the kale and tear leaves into desired size (bigger is more impressive).  Wash and dry thoroughly.  In a large bowl, add kale pieces and a small amount of oil (start with a tablespoon).  Massage the oil into all the leaves.  Spread out onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper (very important).  Sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Jazz them up with cayenne or Cajun seasoning or even cheap sprinkle Parmesan (you know, from the shaker can).  Bake at 300 degrees for about 20 minutes.  I used the convection setting on my oven and it worked great.

Remove from the oven and you’ll have a plate piled high with delicate, crispy goodness. 

  Kale prepped for baking.

The kiddo in kale bliss.

Enjoy your veggies!
 

I’ve been organizing the sewing loft.  This means I’ve been moving large boxes full of fabric and trying to convince myself that it is totally reasonable to own as much fabric as I do.  I finished up a couple of commissioned projects and am ready to do some fun sewing before jumping back into a couple of overdue quilts.  I’ve also had fun reading about other sewing bloggers getting ready for Me Made May.  So, let’s have some fun!

For some lucky reader, they will get a custom summer micro collection from me!

I’ve pulled two palettes to choose from.  The top palette is Santa Fe and the bottom palette is Seaside.

How to win:  comment below with your palette choice and what your go-to summer wardrobe items are.  I’ll pick a winner May 1st and coordinate with you for sizes and styles.  I’m thinking linen pants, maxi dresses or skirts, summer cardis, tunic dresses, etc.

It’s going to be fun!!!

During a recent school holiday, I decided to take the day off and only look at my phone/email every once in a while. Instead of sending the kid somewhere and heading in to the office, I took the day off and we played in the woods. I texted my #nodramamama friend, asking if they wanted to come over for a simple picnic, mud-stomping and sun-soaking. Invitation accepted! We made sandwiches, shoved fruit snacks, chips and oranges in a bag, grabbed the long-handled loppers and emergency whistles and walked out in the woods. Everything was brown, crunchy and SUNNY! We established home base, hung the hammocks for the kids and told them to go have fun.

There we were, playing in a little spring-fed stream with acres of rough-tumble fun all around and the kids wouldn’t get more than 30 yards from us.  We kept saying, “Go!  Play!  Run around.”  They just kept coming back or needing our attention or assistance.  And then I remembered.

The mom-tether.

That darn tether.  No matter how much we encouraged them to run around, explore, get dirty, etc., they just kept snapping back to us.

I shouldn’t be surprised.  We are great moms.  We love our children and want to keep them safe.  We try to keep them from running into traffic, ingesting toxic substances and watching smutty television.  But we were in the middle of the woods, in January, in sixty-degree weather.  There weren’t that many dangers.  They should have been running around, pushing the boundaries and causing the moms to ask, “Have you heard the kids lately?”

It got better.  Eventually the tether started to relax and maybe even fray a bit.  The kids became more comfortable in their environment and started to actually play.  I showed the kids how to build a dam in the stream (favorite pastime of mine as a kid) and before we knew it, the kids were covered in mud and they no longer “needed” us.

I don’t have any huge mom-epiphany or the ever-popular list of the top things moms can learn from their kids or vice verse.  I do know this…for me and my kid: she needs to play more.  She needs more unstructured play.  She needs more opportunities to create things that aren’t immediately graded or judged against her peers.  She needs more skinned knees and splinters.  She needs more mud.

Thankfully, I can do this.  We chose to live in the country, at the end of the road.  We have a lot woods and mud and space to run.  We have great friends that will come over and eat bologna, mustard sandwiches and play with us.  The tether will get longer.  I’m not sure if it ever severs completely (I get a little teary-eyed thinking about that possibility), but I will try and encourage healthy exploration and independence.

If that doesn’t work, I’ll duct-tape the kid to my leg and make it through life that way.

Check out my good, #nodramamama friend, Sarah at Musings of Motherhood for her take on the playdate and a lot of other great stories.