movies – Peaceful Reader

Merry Little Holiday

December is here and nearly gone and then we’ll move into a brand new year. We’ve enjoyed most of the month together both at school and here at home. The holiday season is different when you have adult children instead of small creatures running about the house. Adult children help you in the kitchen, and they don’t require the same kind of toys under the tree. Oh, don’t get me wrong I vividly remember the pure joy of the holiday time for children; it’s a different joy when they are older. The three adult children like each other much better now. There is no awkward competition except for the fun banter over games and gifts, the kind of banter that is learned through good relationships. It’s a breath of fresh air.

Our holiday time was spent talking about current politics, eating excellent food, playing a few new board games, and watching Christmas movies. Hot Frosty, The Merry Gentlemen, and The Noel Diary were top of our list. We drove Kaylee to the Minneapolis airport so she could fly home and Japhy, Greg, and I had the opportunity to see a beautiful play, The Heart Sellers, at the Guthrie Theatre.

We made vegan pho for Christmas dinner and it was the loveliest, so warm and nourishing. I used the recipe from Love and Lemons to make the broth a day before and were inspired by a NYT and Cookie + Kate recipe for topping choices. The broth was very aromatic with deep flavor, didn’t take me a long time meaning I’ll make it again. We added in shitake mushrooms, carrot slivers, sprouts, green onions, edamame, and tofu plus lots of love. We made a double batch so we had plenty to eat that night and Tristan took a full Ball jar home with him and we had a full jar as well which Japhy ate today for lunch. I love leftovers.

I have some wonderful gifts to take me into 2025 including a new yoga bolster (Tristan), a mini Kindle (Japhy), and a beautiful brown sweater from Quince (Kaylee). My husband ordered a heated vest for me to wear because I am always cold. I’ve read a lot of books in 2024 (more on this next post) using the Kindle app on my phone so I think it will be a nice change of pace to have this Kindle for reading instead. My phone is plugged in away from me overnight so that’s a problem if I’m reading a great book digitally.

I hope you’ve all had a merry holiday season and have your feet firmly on the ground, bracing for 2025. With love and peace to you…

Thanks and Giving

Gratitude is everything. I don’t feel great about the whole holiday experience surrounding conquerors and Indigenous people. In my vivid imagination I can see what a different world we might be in if only the “pilgrims” had learned from the people already living here on this land.

Greta Thunberg would be living a different reality. We might have created a much simpler life and people wouldn’t be thinking past gratitude to Black Friday. Or planning and prepping the copious amounts of food on this holiday and others as well. We’d eat what we needed and share easily with others.

I feel passionately for the underdog and celebrating a holiday that represents a misguided look at history and what came after is wrong to me. I understand why Abraham Lincoln made it an official holiday (to bring unity to the nation during the Civil War) but when we know better we should do better.

Find ways to connect to the Wampanoag people because they welcomed and helped the first immigrants to survive. Make a donation this year to American Indian College Fund or the First Nations Development Institute. Read a book about Native life such as Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer or books by Joseph Bruchac, Kent Nerburn or Louise Erdrich. Seek out Native authors and Native films. Think about what foods the real Thanksgiving might have had and give that a try. Branch out. Make fry bread or wild rice soup. Check out The Sioux Chef’s Indigenous Kitchen by Sean Sherman and Beth Dooley, the book or the restaurant in Minneapolis.

This PBS article and video are worth exploring. I would love to go one day to Cole’s Hill to be part of this National Day of Mourning. Why can’t we give more land back because in the long run this land will help to save the earth. Returning Native forest land to it’s original intent over commercial property is a win for nature. Native Americans are a thriving community and once again we could learn from them.

I’ve worked on this post on and off during November. Just having a hard time getting all the words out. I feel a turning in as the winter weather marches out and as my thoughts focus on Mother Earth it coincides with my mother’s health issues. I feel a snapping inside myself as time becomes stretched too thin.

My hope is that everyone had a lovely time with family, connecting in a positive spirit and that gratitude was a guest at your table.

We took a quick trip to Chicago to see the oldest daughter Kaylee and ate the most amazing vegan food at The Chicago Diner. Usually vegan and vegetarian people have a small selection (sometimes one choice) on a average menu but here at the diner it was almost overwhelming as Kaylee put it because everything was an option and it all sounded delicious. Even our one meat-loving papa enjoyed his vegan Radical Reuben sandwich.

What I’ve cooked: This amazing pumpkin soup from Cookie and Kate. I made it with canned pumpkin and it still tasted like all the goodness of the earth.

What I’ve read: I just finished The Children’s Bible by Lydia Millet and I highly recommend. It coincides so well with how I’m feeling right now. We, the children, are the caretakers and our children will be the radical change-makers.

What I’ve watched: Fell in love with Ted Lasso (totally late to the game here), trying to finish up Outlander because the book arrived on my doorstep the other day, and began watching the Shadow and Bone series with Groovy Girl because the Leigh Bardugo books were thrilling!

I am grateful to each and everyone of my readers. I appreciate the comments, texts, and connections I’ve made through my posts. Peace be with you this month and into the next as we avoid more over abundance. Be well in spirit and mind.

Poetry Thursday, it is Thursday, right?

{Langston}

The weather is all over the place. Today it is sunny and then snowing, and also windy. While we are learning at home I would like it to be Spring warm weather not this all-over-the-radar coldness. It is great to be outside as you work on school work and I’ve video taped reading books outside. It’s lovely. Today not so much but I’m getting into a groovy with school work. Are we in it for the long haul-all the way through May? I don’t know but I am mentally preparing myself. Browsing through a poetry book this morning I found one of my favorite Springtime poems from Langston Hughes.

April Rain Song

Let the rain kiss you.
Let the rain beat upon your head
with silent liquid drops.
Let the rain sing you a lullaby.

The rain makes still pools on the sidewalk.
The rain makes running pools in the gutter.
The rain plays a little sleep-song
on our roof at night-

And I love the rain.

Langston Hughes

I love it because it’s positive and simple. I wish I could hear Langston read it and I did look and I found this clip of him reading his famous “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” and “I, too” : his voice reverberates with strength.

I’m reading Love among the ruins by Robert Clark
I’m watching Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist on Hulu and we watched Pixar/Disney’s new movie, Onward, with Groovy Girl last night. We had popcorn and everything and the movie was very good. She and her dad built a Rube Goldberg machine for one of her Learning @Home assignments. She is assembling the video they took when they finally got it to work. It was super cool involving one of our dogs, many cardboard pipes, a candle, two rooms of our house, a marble, and a glass of water. There is learning happening here.

So Much in February

Tomorrow is CAUCUS day-a pretty big deal here in Iowa but for everyone as well because if we pick well it can be a positive push for the nation. For example if my choice Mayor Pete Buttigieg has great numbers at all caucus locations than suddenly people in other states will be saying his name a bit more often. It’s exciting stuff. I’m ready for it and I’m kind of ready for it to be over. If you are politically active it makes for busy days. On Friday night Groovy Girl and I walked for 2 hours knocking on doors for Pete. It was snowy, a little cold, and we had one or two really great conversations which made for a lovely Friday night.

February is Black History Month which I feel awkward about because I feel like this should be something integrated into our curriculum naturally all the time every day but I also understand the need to highlight and move beyond the quick Dr. King and Rosa Parks stories. The week surrounding Dr. King’s birthday I shared his “I have a Dream” speech with 5th and 6th grade students and we discussed then vs. now and racism today. I was a little taken aback that so few students really understood the reason for the holiday is to celebrate his birthday. Clearly this area does need constant work! My teaching plan for this month is to share stories about a variety of African Americans from history and the present.

I recently watched Ava DuVerny’s documentary When They See Us on Netflix and I highly recommend everyone watch this. It was a struggle to watch because it made me so angry! It’s helpful that it is offered as 4 parts which helped break it up for me. I literally couldn’t wait to get the last one to find the positive for these young men so wrongly accused and abused by the police and the whole system. It easily brings to mind all the more recent unjust deaths like Philando Castile. And while scrolling though Twitter I found Black History in Two Minutes narrated by Henry Louis Gates Jr. Challenge yourself to find something directed by, created by, or written by a Black/Brown American this month. I’ll be following up with more throughout the month.

Be peaceful with one another…

Hello June

There are some people in our lovely little house making a movie, creating art. About 7 people and my husband, shooting, holding a boom mike, and going over lines. Groovy Girl and I have sequestered ourselves on the second floor, in our rooms, doing homework and reading. Not what I expected to do with my day, ALL day, but such is this life.

It is a fairly gorgeous day out and I did take the dog for a long walk. It seems like it would be a perfect hammock day but I cannot for the life of me find where I stashed them over winter. I always keep them in one particular place for safekeeping and they are not there. I think the husband must have taken them down and stored them and he needs to find them. We are missing precious hammock lazy moments.

So with lots of time on my hands, I finished Anne Tyler’s A spool of blue thread, a good solid story that tells the tale of the Whitshank family of Baltimore. It doesn’t have a major plot upheaval and yet generally that is how family stories often are in life. Just a straight line with many zigs and zags up and down. This was my first Anne Tyler and I would read another. With that one done I’ve started Tangerine; a novel by Christine Mangan plus reading more of Cleo Wade’s Heart Talk, a very inspirational book of wisdom.

I love it when a friend orders a book based on my recommendation. It happened this morning; I raved about a book, News of the world, to my friend Tim at our church picnic and sent him a photo of it when I returned home. He responded back a few minutes later with “Just ordered it from Amazon!”

We have just 2 1/2 days left of school! The year has flown by and in a few short days, it will truly be summer. Groovy Girl and I are taking to the road, headed to Denver, CO to stay with family for about a week. It’s been quite a few years since I’ve made this road trip myself and while G.G. will keep me awake, she isn’t able to drive just yet so it will be all me. Generally, my husband does most of the driving (while I read) but I used to make this trek at least once a year when I lived there before there was a husband so it’s a challenge for myself. Bring on the Red Vines and blue chips, the loud music and the laughs.

Oscars

We love to watch the Oscars. We try to watch as many of the nominated movies so we have an opinion. Before any of the bigger awards are given out I want to share my favorites.

Hidden Figures: A brilliant story with excellent actors. How have we missed these historical women’s stories! I thought this one was really well done. I need to read the book now and am thrilled to have this up for best picture; a great ensemble piece.

Lion: I saw this yesterday morning here. I specifically knew this would be great to see on the big screen. I loved especially the train moving through the mountains. I loved this story of loss, survival, instinct, and a boy’s love for his mother. I thought everyone in this film did an amazing job as well.

Arrival: I believe this movie spoke to us about how we communicate; how deep are you really willing to go? And I love that the story was not cyclical making the viewer question when exactly certain events took place. I thought the back story of her life (Amy Adams) was an important element.

Hacksaw Ridge: I had a really hard time with parts of this movie (war = blood/guts) but the incredible tale of pacifist Desmond Doss. As a peace activist myself I respected his deep commitment to not carry a gun. I’m not a fan of Mel Gibson but I thought this was a very well-done movie.

Loving: Like Hidden Figures this is a story that people need to know. Love is love no matter who you are and who you choose to love. This film highlights the Loving family who took their right to marry all the way to the Supreme Court. We are all grateful for their difficult journey to change this law.

Captain Fantastic: This is a delightful tale of a family living off the ground in Washington state. He’s teaching his 6 kids how to survive but it’s a hippy thing instead of a religious thing which, of course, made it much more interesting to me. He’s kids are unique, brilliant and free thinkers. The best part is the end when Viggo shows he can adapt. I especially loved the kid’s costumes.

Florence Foster Jenkins: Funny! Meryl is just so talented. I loved the joy she shares through her love of the arts. Her husband adores her and that is magical. The costumes and the supporting roles were also very good.

Do you watch or care about the Oscars? As a political person, an eco-friendly person, a concerned citizen I am worried about our world right now. The Oscars to me is an escape but also an inside look at our world. Will the Oscars choose diverse or a more white-centric view?

Whether you watch or not the above films are above and beyond amazing stories to be enjoyed for more than just their artistic value. They share something about our human story. Enjoy.

Happy birthday to Dr. Martin Luther King; what would he say now?

What a mess we are in and yet I see hope everyday-we’ve got to stick together and make a difference. Children today have spent the last 8 years with a black president-a graceful, well-spoken, thoughtful, intelligent, and well-educated president. I know, for the most part, this is my “opinion”-stating things like this can start a small twitter war with all kinds of hateful comments. I will miss the Obama family in the WH.

I am not looking forward to a Trump presidency; he has no backbone, is only focused on his own opinion, uses bluster and smoke instead of facts and clear thinking, and lives in opposite land with a silver spoon clutched in his fist. His nickname should be Puff Daddy but that insults the actual Sean Combs. A rooster, maybe. With the flurry over comments made by Congressman John Lewis about the legitimacy of Trump’s presidency based on Russian hacking (which I agree with btw) and DT’s response all during Dr. King’s weekend. It’s hard to see how we are moving forward cuz we some days we aren’t. We are moving ten to 1,000 steps backwards and that is scary folks.

Generally we are a family that does something to commemorate this holiday, even if it is just a discussion about Dr. King and the Civil Rights movement. I had a planned volunteer opportunity this year, packing food boxes, at The University of Northern Iowa. It was cancelled due to extreme icy weather. We took that open time to see “Hidden Figures” to enlighten ourselves. We did slide down our driveway in our little Prius but the roads were okay. Groovy Girl and our second “daughter”, her best friend, came with us. The movie is well-done and we came out filled with discussion. What if we’d known their story in the 60’s/70’s; it could have changed the playing field a long time ago for women and POC in stem. Reading this NPR article confirmed my thoughts-we should have known their stories years ago but at least we have them now. Frankly we can use the inspiration right now!

From the article:

Johnson, who became a high school freshman at age 10, says she always liked learning. She’s concerned about today’s youth relying so heavily on the Internet for information. “They’re hurt and don’t know it,” she says quietly. “They’re not using their brain. … And you’ve got to use your brain for it to grow and for things to be learned.”

As a teacher/librarian I couldn’t agree more with this thought shared by Johnson, a 98-year old mathematician. We need kids to realize the damage they are doing by staring at screens nonstop and expecting Siri and Alexa to answer the questions.

Go see this movie, keep an open mind, educate yourself, be kind and thoughtful, do not take the bait, be ready to speak up, and remember, always remember, the peaceful path Dr. King took even while he was jailed and mocked. What would his tweets look like today?

I just finished Sugar by Jewell Parker Rhodes (excellent elementary fiction about Reconstruction era) and am now reading Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad (harsh but a very gripping tale).

Oscars and Food.

As we get ready to watch the Oscars I wanted to share this interesting animated Short nominee. We’ve had a busy weekend with lots of cooking and fun. Friday night Groovy Girl had a friend sleep over and I cooked a simple pasta dish with red sauce-you just never know what other people’s children are going to eat so this was an easy choice. I took a chance though and whipped up these broccoli bites I found on Maria Rodale’s website. They were a huge hit and it made a full pan so we had enough for two dinners. Now I’d like to change the veggie and see if still entices them in.

{Broccoli Cheese Puffs}

For a sleep over treat we made snow ice cream since we had plenty of fresh snow Thursday and Friday and been graced with a snow day on Friday. The girls went out and scooped up two big bowls of fresh powder and we added sweet and condensed milk (half a can), some vanilla, and we stirred in a little salted caramel sauce for fun. The flavor was good but it had huge ice chunks that we couldn’t stir out. I think the best part was in the making!

We do watch the Oscars at our house even though the are an example of over-indulgence (not peaceful or green) but my husband loves the movies as he is an actor and a director. We’ve watched almost all of the Best Picture nominees including my favorites: Beast of the Southern Wild and Silver Lining Playbook. I also loved Ben Afleck’s Argo. Today we watched Moonrise Kingdom which was quirky and should have been nominated for best cinematography. Denzel Washington and Jennifer Laurence are my choices for individual awards. Do you watch the Oscars? What movies are you rooting for?

Happy New Year's Eve day; welcome to our geekdom.

How do you usher in the New Year? We hunker down as a family. Generally we don’t go out on the town or even to parties. Last year we did go to a family friendly bowling party and we had fun but the kids begged to stay home this year. We are grateful for this. In just a few minutes I will be in the kitchen preparing a few appetizers most of which are planned leftovers from friends visiting us the other night. I have homemade hummus and a delicious cranberry salsa dip to share plus Brie cheese to heat up. Easy.

For dinner I am making a Thai chicken curry using the leftover farm-fresh chicken from our Christmas dinner.
We have some bubbly to share and we’ll play a board game or two. Over the holidays we’ve played the card game, golf, Scattergories, Guesstures, and lots of PS 3 Jeopardy. Tonight will probably be Mexican Train and Pictionary. Last night we put together a Christmas gift puzzle of classic baseball cards. It was really so much fabulous fun. As I type though I think there may be naysayers in the crowd who may be thinking “boring” and that’s okay we love our inner geek! I’m happy my kids are happy to be home hanging out. We also watch crazy movies after Groovy Girl’s gone to bed. That list defies our goody-two shoes image with titles as diverse as The French Connection, GoodFellas, Pulp Fiction, The Day of the Jackal, and Seven. My husband loves cinema and wanted the teens to watch specific scenes in each of these movies which involves watching the whole movie of course!

We spend a fair amount of time reading as well. Oldest daughter is reading Emma while I’m reading Abarat by Clive Barker. The girls commandeered the television away from the football boys to re-watch the very first Downton Abbey just to begin to refresh. I want to be ready for the January 6th.

I also have to soak our black-eyed peas for tomorrow’s hoppin’ john. Time to get into the kitchen, pour a glass of wine, and start making some magic.

Hey, how are you spending the day?

Movie treats!

My husband and I went to a matinee of the new movie, Lincoln. We eat pretty healthy most of the time but when my husband goes to the movies he loves to get the BIG bucket of popcorn (not the wimpy size pictured above) and a large cherry coke. I even wait in line to get these snacks and sometimes I’ve even paid for them! It makes me feel like a hypocrite. There have been a few exceptions like when we’ve just eaten a big meal or one time we were at an art house theatre and the snacks were extremely expensive so we skipped it altogether.

It does not matter that my husband religiously reads Runner’s World and that we both choose pretty healthy food outside of our theatre time. So much so that we are now getting a little backlash from Teenage Boy who has taken to buying a secret loaf of white bread when he puts fuel in his car-so yes, gas station bread (blechhh), because he’s tired of our 100% whole grain bread everyday. If he’s going to rebel I’d prefer he do it at home instead of next year when he’s off at school but really, WHITE bread. I shiver just thinking about it. Better than rebelling with a bottle of Boone’s Farm wine I guess.

But I digress which often happens when I talk about food. Back to the bad for you popcorn and syrupy soda. We don’t even have soda at home except for the occasional Whole Foods soda, Jones soda or a yummy root beer, but all without high fructose corn syrup. And I make lots of homemade popcorn both on the stove and in an air popper-all delicious-but at the movies you’ve got to have the big bucket with a little of the fake butter sloshed on-not too much or it’s easily overkill.

When we first started going to the movies together I loved to get a box of Junior Mints to share, the salty and sweet made me happy but now the overly sweetness of the Cherry Pepsi is enough for my taste buds. Our theater switched from Coke to Pepsi a few years ago and we both miss the real Coca-Cola tang but did we stop buying a soda? Nope, we suck down that Cherry Pepsi still but we cheat on it by wishing it were a Cherry Coke. Luckily we don’t go to the movies very often or we’d have to cut back on this crazy addiction. Since we don’t I think we are safe to indulge in our movie treats.

It’s a little like a holiday.

The movie, by the way, was excellent. The entire theatre watched in near quiet rapport on the edge of our seats hoping the 13th Amendment would pass as we quietly chomped popcorn and slurped our sodas, Daniel Day Lewis, Sally Field and the rest of the cast were impeccable. This should be nominated and win in many Oscar categories. If you haven’t already made it out to see it, do, and let me know if you had the big bucket of popcorn with it.