dance – Peaceful Reader

Happy Birthday Baby!

(Upside down in Maryland)

(In Virginia)

My youngest child turns 17 years old tomorrow! I truly can’t believe it. This is her senior year and after that she will fly the coop and I’ll have to find new things to do with my time. I’ve been chasing after her for so many years I won’t know what to do with myself. I mean I will but it just feels so lonesome to contemplate.

(in Central Park)

She has always been full of positive energy with a quick laugh. She also can be brutally hard on herself especially when it comes to her dancing skills. She loves to be in motion, dancing, yet she pushes herself and still never feels like she gets to where she wants to be. I say let it go and enjoy the beauty that is you. She gets a little tired of my ability to spin everything to the positive saccharine. level. Each and every one of us has our quirks and at some point in our lives it’s best just to play to your strengths and let go of what isn’t working. I wish I could give her a boost of real confidence for her birthday gift so that she would truly believe in her abilities and help her move forward when things are rough. I think it has to do with developing resilience. We could all use a little dose of that right now in our world- that and patience. And those skills take time to develop…

Groovy Girl was a beautiful baby and she is a stunning young woman; I love snuggling with her at any time of the day. She has always loved baking and creating in the kitchen and now her “concoctions” are delicious Indian dinners that we can devour together. She is thoughtful and insightful, a champion for all kinds of inclusive causes.

(Look at her beautiful tiny face)

Happy birthday my dear little one! You are greatly loved and appreciated.

Guests

(source)

We’ve had a major weekend here at the Peaceful Reader house. My in-laws arrived on Friday night for Groovy Girl’s dance recital on Saturday. Her recital is pretty much an all-day event and you have to really be prepared. We had a delicious breakfast to start our day and by 11 am were waiting at the event venue so we could get good seats. In between the 1:00 pm show and the 6 pm show we met at one of our favorite healthy joints in the Cedar Valley, Greenhouse Kitchen, so we could make it through the second show. Unfortunately she hurt her leg during one of the dances, danced two more dances and then gracefully exited the stage after it became unbearable. She’s wearing a brace and hobbling around with a borrowed pair of crutches. Hopefully it heals fast for her.

Beyond the injury I love having guests to cook for and my in-laws enjoy good food. Here’s a smattering of recipes I’m using this week. Tristan and his girlfriend joined us overnight so I needed a few vegan options as well.

Basil Chicken Coconut Curry: delicious and I made a second version with scrambled tofu for our vegan/vegetarians. The flavor was amazing and I would make this recipe again.

Curried Chickpeas with mint and cilantro chutney: I made this early in the week for everyone to have for dinner during the busy week. I already had a jar of chutney from an Indian grocery store so I didn’t make that part of the recipe. This was so yummy Groovy Girl happily ate it and she is not a fan of chickpeas! I used two cans of organic coconut instead of the one the recipe called for-it just looked like it needed more.

Cheesy Grits Casserole: I made this easy yet delicious (you can never go wrong with cheesiness) breakfast recipe on Saturday morning. We also had Icon donuts and Milkbox bagels for everyone. You need to calorie load even when you are just going to watch the day of dance.

Tomorrow night we host book club at our house for Their Eyes were watching God by Zora Neale Hurston. I’m going to make this Best Black Bean Soup from the New York Times for our gathering.

Bombay Frittata: I have yet to make this but I plan to one day this week for breakfast.

I hope you are cooking some amazing food at your house as well.

29 days of book love..

We love ballet at our house and we’ve read a lot of ballet books over the years. We are attracted to them as Groovy Girl would put it.

We’ve had Tallulah’s Tutu by Marilyn Singer for a few years and love it for many reasons. Every once in awhile we do sort through the books on her book shelves and we pass them on to others but the ballet books she tends to keep.

We love that this book has lots of real ballet words in it, we love that her little brother’s name is Beckett (I have a nephew with the same name), and that there is a boy in her ballet class, and that the illustrations show a variety of ethnicity. The illustrations are done beautifully in shaded tones by Alexandra Boiger. This is a whole series; Tallulah’s Solo, Tallulah’s toe shoes, Tallulah’s tap shoes and Tallulah’s Nutcracker. If you have a budding dancer we recommend any of these titles. Tallulah isn’t perfect and she learns to work at her practice of dance, learning it’s not just about the tutu!

Taking November by storm…

{Scene from Mn Ballet-The Nutcracker}

I feel terrible when I look at this blog that I love so much and see that a month is half over and I haven’t posted books or recipes or even what my life is like. If I review blog posts many of them share a common theme of crazy busy happy life. The month of November has been like that + more, like us amped up on lots Halloween candy.

Groovy Girl is in rehearsal for The Nutcracker with the Minnesota Ballet through her local dance studio. She is excited to use her dramatic and dancer skills in such a favorite production. We’ve gone several times to this show as she was growing up and I remember the first time like it was yesterday. She had on a magical deep blue dress and she couldn’t sit still. Luckily we were sitting on the aisle in a front balcony and I could let her dance next to me as the dancers on stage made her want to dance with them. The performance is soon and I will be happy to watch her perform and then happy to cross it off my schedule.

While she has been busy with that I decided at the end of October that this was the perfect time to try my hand at National Novel Writing 2015 so every spare moment between her rehearsals for Nutcracker and regular dance classes (5) and cheerleading activities I’ve been piecing together a story. I’m at about 21,000 words and I need to write double time to finish by November 30th. I don’t know if what I am writing is good but it feels fantastic to write it out. Several pieces of the story are real events that I’ve always wanted to incorporate into something real.

I also threw in two weekend trips because they were already scheduled and I wasn’t going to give them up. My husband whisked me away to Iowa City for a night away-I was able to do some writing there. I also had a date with two college friends in St. Paul and that provided research as that is the setting for my story. It all works out. That’s my mantra.

Work is also crazy right now even though about a week ago I felt caught up-in that one moment because now I’m racing to get things finished up for conferences and our Scholastic book fair which occur very quickly after Thanksgiving. Oh and I am really looking forward to that lovely day of relaxation with my family. We are eating very unconventionally and then have a playdate with freinds for board games and cocktails at our house. Hopefully by then I will have really caught up in my daily word counts for nanowrimo2015 and I won’t feel a bit of guilt as I hang out with friends.

Three note-worthy picture books for you to enjoy!

We checked these three out recently and I thought they were worth sharing.

The ABC’s of Yoga by Teresa Anne Power (2009); Each letter has more than one pose assigned to it so the “D” page has “dolphin” and “do nothing” pose together. Each direction rhymes and we found most of the poses on our favorite children’s yoga site, Namaste Kid. Sample:

Frog

Squatting

With my feet apart wide,

I am a frog

With a big underside.

Bringing my arms

Inside my knees,

I jump up and say

“R-r-r-r-i-b-b-i-t!”

On the count of three.

Millie and the Big Rescue by Alexander Steffensmeier (2012); Millie the cow plays hide-and-seek with her barnyard friends until one day she gets herself stuck up a tree. She’s found the best hiding spot of all and nobody can find her! With cute results all the animals (and the farmer) join Millie in her clever spot. I noticed there are two other Millie books; Millie waits for the mail and Millie and the snow that look equally as funny!

Catty Jane Loved to Dance by Valeri Gorbachev (2013); This was Groovy Girl’s favorite and I love Mr. Gorbachev’s work. Catty Jane loves to dance and has been dancing since she could walk. Eventually her mother signs her up for dance class at Mrs. Herron’s Dance Academy. Mrs. Herron informs her that it “takes a lot of practice” to become a ballerina. Her friends host a dance party but she thinks they are silly and don’t really know how to dance. She overhears their fun though and decides dancing together is far more fun.

All three of these books were checked out from my public library and are now overdue. Luckily next week is Library Week and I can take in cans of food to pay for my many fines! Love your library.