Growed Up

One of my recent favorite blogs to read posted a picture of a Colorado sunset. That made me homesick for something I haven't known for a long time.

Sometimes I get called out on my childhood stories......"I grew up in Eastern Rural Colorado..." or, "I grew up in South Side Chicago....." or, Greeley, CO or Jennings, Sulfur, LA, or Kanankee, IL or Iowa.

All are true. So, where am I from?

All of those places and experiences shaped me in major and heartbreaking ways. Even when we move, I will call Iowa home. We moved to Iowa when I was 16. But sometimes, when I am driving home from the night classes at the rural campus I teach at, I get a pang of homesickness for the vast, yet anything but flat, open spaces of Eastern Colorado. The wide open sky, so little light pollution that you can actually see the stars (even the Milky Way), the clean smell of the wind, and how you can see trouble (both the metaphoric and the tornado kind) coming from miles away- even watch the devastation from a safe, yet beautiful distance. I miss the noise of wildlife and the quiet after a blizzard. The sunsets are so achingly beautiful that I cried at age 14 when I was told I had to go back to Illinois. You see, in that home I was loved, nurtured, and treated like a human being. Forever will the landscape surrounding that farmhouse be tied to who I am.

When I moved to Iowa I was on my way to being on my own. I met Dear Husband shortly after and a couple of years later we married and began a different life together that I had only known in brief encounters and on the ranch in Colorado. We made a home that makes its foundation on respect for each other and fostering our creative lives.

We are about to move again. Not next week or even in the next year, but it is impending and change is coming. We will be faced with the question yet again. We will say Iowa because it is simple and true. Iowa is very much woven into who we are now as a family. We will bring that with us. I will carry all of the places I've been in my heart.

Thank you for the memory.

Chai

What's in it:

• 1 cup water
• 1 1/2 teaspoons raw sugar

Then the spice mixture, your choice of the following:

• 1 whole cardamom pod
• 1 whole clove
• 2 black peppercorns
• 1 piece of cracked ginger
• Cinnamon or Cinnamon stick
• vanilla bean
• nutmeg
• anise
  

*Hint: Don't start using all of them!

Then:

• 3 teaspoons black tea leaves
• 1/2 cup warm milk

1. Combine the water and sugar in a small saucepan, and bring to a boil. Add the cardamom pod, clove, peppercorns (or your choice) and tea leaves. Remove from heat, and let the mixture steep for 2 to 3 minutes. Strain into a cup, and fill cup the rest of the way with milk. Sit back, relax, and enjoy!

So there you have it Angie, :), my Chai recipe is really a template for making your own. I found this template on some recipe site that I don't remember and modified it a little. Only the process is from that.

Setting New Fashion Trends

This morning I missed filing some paperwork by 5 minutes. That's not really a big deal. Then we ran late to get ready for music class. I put Lil'Bug's pants on over her pajamas and didn't notice until we were there. You know what else I noticed once we arrived? My pants were on backwards. How does that happen? Elastic waistband for one. Ok, I have no excuse really.

So I discreetly pull a protesting tot to the bathroom for a potty break she does not need AND she proclaims loudly for everyone to hear that I am taking off my pants BECAUSE THEY ARE ON BACKWARDS! Gah. Now they think we eat fried butterflies and I can' t dress myself.

New most embarrassing moment? Definitely a contender.

More (7) Random Things About Us

1) My husband's superpower is popcorn. He worked for Carmike Theaters when we met and I'm convinced he's a Carmike horcrux. Seriously. How else can a normal human produce buttery good popcorn on the stove top that tastes just like theatre popcorn AND, just like the theatres, does not use any butter? I kid you not. Crazy.
2) I grew up in homes that had bugs. All sorts. I have a phobia of sticking my hand in oven mits.
3) Nutella is crazy good too. If you've never had it, seek it out. Hazelnuts are a good source of protein.
4) Lil'Bug is a ham. She will ham it up when she sees the opportunity. Music class is no exception. Her superpower is that no matter how much she spins and spins and spits, everyone still thinks she's a doll. ;)
5) We love to cook. We love learning about kitchen chemistry....however, raw, whole chickens gross me out. Why is it that I am always the one that has to cook the night we have chicken?
6) We all love 1940's jazz. It was this love of jazz that first led me to meet Dear Husband.
7) My superpower is old house structure. I may have mentioned it before- I have an eye for old house's hidden secrets. I have yet to turn down an invitation to investigate an old house mystery!

Now, if you comment, tell me something about you that I don't know! What is your superpower?