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"Words" Cabaret in a Riad in Fez Morocco

Travel Tuesday

 

Isn't it amazing what children can come up with when left to their own devices?

 

This is the tale of two 11-year-old Australian girls who decided to put on a little show for the wonderfully warm people that made the experience of Dar Seffarine fabulous during our stay there in April 2009. Dar Seffarine is a Riad located in Fez Morocco. (A Riad is a traditional Moroccan house or palace with an interior garden. The Riads were inward focused which allowed for family privacy and protection from the weather in Morocco.)

Recipe for Kale That You Will Love, Guaranteed

Meal Monday

Everyone knows we should all eat more leafy greens. They are high in fiber, low in calories and are awesome sources of Vitamins A, C, and beta carotene (although cooking destroys much of the Vitamin C), as well as a decent source of some important minerals, including calcium and iron.

And kale is at the top of the heap, even better than spinach. Plus, we get the benefits of sulforaphane, another one of those miraculous cancer fighting compounds. Bottom line: this plant will make you live forever and your children geniuses. Really.

Summer is Here: Time for Another Suite Life of Zack and Cody Marathon (Not!)

Family Friday

I thought I had exhausted this topic, but it appears that The Suite Life of Zack and Cody has again popped its shaggy little head(s) into my eight-year-old son’s repertoire of must-sneak TV.

Since summer vacation started, the television has been on slightly (OK, much) more than usual.  Luckily, my son gets so sucked into what he watches that he typically doesn’t notice the stealthy creep of parental feet until we are virtually on top of him.

One day this week, I walked up to my mesmerized son, who was perched stock-still in front of the TV.  It took about ten seconds for him to notice me, at which point he jumped two feet and started to sputter.  Apparently, he was simply walking by the TV and it turned on by itself.  And Zack and Cody just happened to be on.  Despite the telltale double-shaggy-blond-heads, he did not fully realize that the show was indeed Zack and Cody until the exact instant I appeared.  Uh-huh.

A few days later, I note that my son is playing what appears to be a very G-rated computer game, something involving soft fuzzy bears.  I leave the room, returning a few minutes later.  This time, the game he is playing appears to involve Zack and Cody!  How can this be?

Managing Email's Insanity

Technology Thursday

I shouldn't be writing a post about managing email as my email is currently in a state that can only charitably be described as "a mess." And I feel like I've written this post before. I'll probably write it again, too! Anyway, the folks over at Google recently put up a post full of tips for managing email in gmail. Almost all of my non-work mail now flows through my gmail account. Some of the tips I've already implemented, such as:

Smartphones: The Working Mom's Scourge or Savior?

Work Wednesday

Fresh on the footsteps of Father's Day weekend, which happily - for my husband - coincided with the beginning of the iPhone 3G S era, The New York Times kicked off the workweek with a little too close to home discourse on smartphone manners. Close to home because my husband and I now have, between us, two BlackBerrys (work-issued), one Treo, and one iPhone. (And we use them a lot.) 

The article, describing the phenomenon of heads bowed - not in prayer- in meeting rooms and around conference tables - framed the etiquette issues surrounding smartphones:

Traditionalists say the use of BlackBerrys and iPhones in meetings is as gauche as ordering out  for pizza.  Techno-evangelists insist that to ignore real-time text messages in a need-it-yesterday world is to invite peril.

Although the Times reported that the "etiquette debate seems to be tilting in the favor of smartphone use," the traditionalist view was more than well-represented on its website. Indeed, the nearly 200 comments were almost unanimous in their condemnation of smartphone users who email,text, surf, game, Twitter, and Facebook their way through meetings.  And the rest of life.

Rude, rude, rude, repeated the posters.

Self-important, self-centered, self-absorbed, charged others, using words like "infantile," "toddler," "second childhood," and "kindergarten" in their indictments.  (I'm puzzled by the number of references to children. Codewords for our need for instant gratification? Perhaps a clue to the generation gap?  For me, they brought to mind the image of my three-year-old son - who loves fruit of all kinds -  running around our house pretending to "eat" my 'Berry.)

Others reserved their disapproval for smartphone use that goes way beyond meetings to restaurants, theaters, the kitchen table, and even funerals!  One poster (Jeffrey from New York, comment #25) even forecast that constant smartphone use would "empty[] our lives of all quality, meaning and humanity."

I agree with the traditionalists.  (Even if I think Jeffrey overstates the case.) But I have to admit that I act with the (so-called) techno-evangelists.  I am a BlackBerry abuser.

Lead by Example - Note to Self!

Travel Tuesday

"In bathrooms, boardrooms, buses, bagel shops, and everywhere else, we all need to imagine a little girl following us around, repeating everything we say and everything we do. Think about all the things you want for yourself and your daughters, granddaughters, and girls everywhere - and teach them by living it yourself."

Nell Merlino in
"Stepping Out of Line: Lessons for Women Who Want It Their Way in Life, in Love and at Work (Broadway)

This line really appeals to me, on so many levels. In terms of travel and my daughter, I can't see any other way of role-modeling and demonstrating how to be a responsive and rounded "global citizen" (and what that even means) than to go on adventures with her. We get to try out things, and have conversations, and ask questions, and seek answers, and laugh, and cry, about all facets of life outside our comfort zone, in real time. And in the places of authenticity as opposed to those fabricated elsewhere.

Tapioca Pudding, Anyone?

Meal Monday

I will never understand why tapioca pudding does not get its due.

Last week, I picked up a container of Kozy Shack chocolate pudding from the supermarket. Not that chocolate pudding is all that hard to make: actually it is a snap to whip up.

(Here is a basic cocoa cornstarch pudding from allrecipes.com, and here is another from the same site for chocolate pudding made in the microwave. If you want to go gourmet with high end chocolate, take a look at Smitten Kitchen's version and a vegan coconut variation from 101 Cookbooks.)

But, if you are going to buy pre-made chocolate pudding, it is so much better to buy a brand that is pretty close to homemade than a concoction with hydrogenated fat, high fructose corn syrup, artificial colors, and artificial flavoring. (Seriously, why does chocolate pudding need red food dye in it?)

But, I digress.

Explaining the Miami Serial Cat Killer to a Child

Family Friday

As I've mentioned before, when I became a parent, I began to process tragic news stories in an entirely new manner.  Upon reading a heart wrenching item, my mind instantly creates a video of the scene, and my children and I play starring roles in the drama.  Usually, such videos become too painful to watch, so as I shudder, I consciously perform a mental shut-off. 

So it has been with the horrific case of the Miami serial cat killings.  One of the feline victims belonged to a six-year-old girl, and the unenviable task of explaining what happened fell to her parents.  When my mental video of that scene begins playing, I shut it off quickly!

When I was about eight years old, my two pet rabbits fell victim to a neighborhood dog (the canine in question allegedly belonged to a retired Orioles player who routinely allowed it to plunder the area at night).  The perpetrator somehow broke the hutch door, then chased the rabbits down as they tried to escape.  My obese little fluffballs succumbed quickly – one died immediately (probably of a heart attack) and the other turned up dead a few days later in a neighbor's yard.  Apparently she was cornered in front of a shrub and she too seemed to have died of fright.

 Although very sad, I was not particularly traumatized by this, as I knew on some level that this was the natural order of things – the dog was merely doing what dogs do.  No malice, no cruelty.

We know, however, that if a traumatic event involves deliberate, manmade intent, psychological effects persist for longer and are more disabling.  In other words, a natural event such as a hurricane or tornado may traumatize, but as these do not involve human cruelty, recovery from the trauma may be somewhat easier.  And of course what makes the Florida case so awful is the calculating and sadistic nature of the cats' murders.

In Praise of Child Care (Yes, Child Care)

Work Wednesday

This month we’ve reached two turning points in our family’s life - my daughter graduated from preschool and my son moved on from diapers. (At least, most of the time. We did have a relapse during last weekend’s interminable trip on the New Jersey Turnpike, which should require no explanation for frequent travelers in the I-95 corridor.)

While I could write a weepy, blubbering post about the fleeting, episodic nature of early childhood, I’ll hold back. Because, in truth, I’m gleeful about it all. I love seeing my kids grow, change, and develop the vocabulary to communicate their daily discoveries – whether it’s my daughter’s enthrallment with reading or my son’s enchantment with colors. (This morning he announced that he is done with orange and now favors purple. Just after I finally managed to find orange shorts for the summer!)

The one thing I’m sad about, though, is that these milestones mean that my children will move on from their current child care arrangements - my daughter to kindergarten at the end of the summer, my son to the next classroom at his child care center in less than a month. I’m both anticipating and dreading the transitions - and the ways in which they will change our current work schedules, commuting habits, and related family dynamics. (Definitely material for blogs to come.) But more than that, I realize that I’m going to miss my kids’ child care centers and, of course, their caregivers - a sterile phrase for the wonderful, multi-dimensional, and loving people - mostly women - who have played a significant role in helping my kids reach these markers.

Now, my son still has a few years before he’s kindergarten-ready, so I’m not truly saying goodbye. But my daughter’s passage from preschool (and my son’s progression to the potty) provides a moment for me to pay tribute to the role that good but not perfect (see below) child care can play in the lives of a working mom and her family.

When the Travel Bug Gets Sick

Travel Tuesday

Daughter has been crook (Australian for ill) with croup for the past 8-9 days, which in turn has raised two points of reflection for me:

1. Why has an 11-year old still got croup?
(The medical fraternity assures me that it is unusual, not unheard of, but unusual.)

2. Thank goodness it didn't happen when we were away on our last adventure, like it had one other time when we were in Dorrigo, in New South Wales (Australia).