Tag: kindergarten

Artichoke Spinach Lasagna

Published on by poolepartyof510 Comments

So our family is going through this kindergarten transition very well, but there are some signs of stress.  My baby is becoming a young man and I feel so, so proud of him.  The day feels long without him and even though I was ready to sell him to a band of gypsies by the end of this summer, I miss him.

So, when I feel a little out of control, I either make lists or I make food to freeze.  I guess the idea is that even if I don’t know what is coming around the bend, at least there will be food to eat in the freezer.  I am someone who does not love to cook.  But, I do like projects.  So I enjoy cooking recipes in large batches and then breaking them down and freezing them in sizes that make sense for different sized gatherings.  Then, on any given day (when things get even crazier than they are today), I have a bunch of homemade meals ready to thaw in my freezer.  We have our standbys, our favorites and these meals are fabulous because they make the house smell wonderful and like someone has been cooking all day.  But, it wasn’t me… at least not that day.

So for the last three days, since Sam started Kindergarten, we have been cooking nonstop.  I have FILLED, and I mean FILLED our freezer.  Mission accomplished.  This mama is feeling the intensity of big changes in our family…

This recipe is adapted from an Artichoke Spinach Lasagna I found on allrecipes.com.  Double the below quantities to make enough to freeze.  Not only is this a great method of cooking for busy families, but it is great to have some meals available to share with friends or for impromptu entertaining.

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Artichoke Spinach Lasagna

yield: 8 servings

olive oil cooking spray

9 uncooked lasagna noodles (I prefer no-cook Barilla)

1 onion, chopped

4 cloves garlic, chopped

1 (14.5 ounce) can vegetable or chicken broth

1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary

1 (14 ounce) can marinated artichoke hearts, drained and chopped

1 (10 ounce) package frozen chopped spinach, thawed, drained and squeezed dry

1 (28 ounce) jar tomato sauce

salt & pepper to taste

3 cups shredded mozzarella cheese, divided

1 (4 ounce) package herb and garlic feta, crumbled

(double or triple for freezing of multiple future meals)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Bring a lage pot of lightly salted water to boil.  Add noodles and cook for 8-10 minutes or until al dente; drain.  (Or skip this step if using no-boil lasagna noodles).

Spray a large skillet with cooking spray and heat on medium high.  Saute onion and garlic for 3 minutes, or until onion is tender-crisp.  Stir in broth and rosemary; bring to a boil.  Stir in artichoke hearts and spinach; reduce heat, cover and simmer 5 minutes.  Stir in tomato sauce.  Add salt and pepper to taste.

Spread 1/4 of the artichoke mixture in the bottom of the prepared baking dish; top with 3 noodles.  Sprinkle 3/4 cup mozzarella cheese over noodles.  Repeat layers two more times, ending with the artichoke mixture and mozzarella cheese.  Sprinkle crumbled feta on top.

Bake, covered, for 40 minutes.  Uncover, and bake 15 minutes more, or until hot and bubbly.  Let stand 10 minutes before cutting.

Enjoy tonight or 3 months from now!

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Side note:  Another important thing I want to mention is how happy it makes me that Muir Glen brand of tomatoes has decided to get rid of the BPA in their cans.  Tomatoes are notoriously difficult to deal with for corporations because of their high acidity.  They lead the industry in their choice to take the chemical of BPA out of their canned goods.  More and more companies are trying to get with the program, but for now, I trust and applaud Muir Glen for making the choice to help us keep our families safe from chemicals in our food.  Just FYI, the way you can tell if your cans are free of BPA (when talking about tomatoes only) is the copper lining color that you see below.  Thanks, Muir Glen!

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Block Party

Published on by poolepartyof54 Comments

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Neighbor:  neigh·bor  /ˈnābər/

Noun
A person living near or next door to the speaker or person referred to.

There is a house near us that has children a few years older than our own.  For months my husband has been encouraging me to knock on the door to meet this family.  For whatever reason, I had resisted.  I was feeling shy, or just wasn’t sure how to connect.  I have found myself feeling a bit bolder as a result of the conference I attended a few weeks ago (possibly because I was talking non-stop to strangers for 36 hours).  This past week, I saw the family unloading their car from some fun summer activity and I turned my car around and stopped.  I crossed the street and said “hello”.  I introduced myself and asked if any of their kids might be interested in being a mother’s helper for us.  They were all incredibly nice and friendly.  I learned that this family has chickens, which is glorious, because now I don’t need chickens.  (My kids are obsessed with getting chickens.)  Now they can go and hang with the chickens at our neighbor’s house!  I don’t know where this relationship will go.  We gave them apricot jam and they gave us a bowl of fresh eggs.  But, I am so glad I stopped and said “hello”.  Sometimes, all it takes is stepping outside one’s comfort zone and being a little bolder than normal.

Community:  com·mu·ni·ty  /kəˈmyo͞onitē/

Noun
  1. A group of people living together in one place, esp. one practicing common ownership: “a community of nuns”.
  2. All the people living in a particular area or place: “local communities”.

As I have mentioned a few times this year (okay, maybe a few dozen times), our oldest will start kindergarten this fall.  I feel the typical growing pains associated with this transition; nervous, excited and a teensy bit anxious.  But, I have also begun to feel confident.  Confident that the community we have chosen to live will help with this process.  This is a pretty new feeling for me and I find it really exciting.  We moved two years ago to the town where we live with the themes of “community” and “education” in mind.  And over the past few years of living in this place, we have grown to feel more and more comfortable.

Randomly, on multiple days this week, a “suspicious individual” has been spotted discreetly snapping photos of children playing at a local elementary school playground.  Obviously this is a creepy situation that no one would like to see occur near your home or progress to something worse. But instead of quietly stewing, parents called the police after spotting this guy and another parent sent out an email to alert friends of these strange incidents.  I heard about it, but didn’t expect much follow-up.  In the last few days, I have received at least five forwards of this original email alert from other sources within my community.  Our police department has been taking this threat seriously and patrols the parks more regularly.  In a different frame of mind, I could get pretty paranoid about this.  But, from this negative event, I feel the strength within the community where we live.  I hate the idea of anyone dangerous being anywhere near our children, but I find myself feeling hopeful as I see that this community truly cares for our children’s safety.

By speaking up and making sure that people know to be on the look-out, we are seeing community in action.  This is exactly what I hoped for in choosing a community to raise my family.  I realized today that I am putting my trust in this community.  I will still send my child to kindergarten in less than a month.  The alternative is staying in at home all day and night with the doors locked and starting to home-school come September.  I see that children are still playing in these parks, but eyes are open and people are talking.

August 6th is Seattle Night Out, an event “designed to heighten crime prevention awareness, increase neighborhood support in anti-crime efforts, and unite our communities.” (http://www.seattle.gov/police/nightout/whatis.htm)  This block-party type event is the perfect time to get together with neighbors and get to know one another!  If your block doesn’t do this yet, start this year!  You can find out more information and register your event with the Seattle Police Department here.  We used to celebrate this annual event in our old neighborhood, and I am going to take my newfound boldness and make sure that we start doing it in our new neighborhood.

The Dalai Lama said recently, “A compassionate community will not be achieved only through prayer; I pray myself, but I accept its limitations.  We need to take action to develop compassion, to create inner peace within ourselves and to share that inner peace with our family and friends.  Peace and warm-heartedness can then spread through the community just as ripples radiate out across the water when you drop a pebble into a pond.”

Community can come in many forms.  It can be people in close proximity to one another or a group of people you feel a connection with.  It can be people with whom you share interests or activities.  It can be family.  The important part is connection.  It is easy to live anonymously these days – technology makes this even easier.  But, our lives are less full when human connection is missing.  I want this connection for all of us.  To live in places and in ways that people speak up, smile, and offer help to one another.  We are all better for it.

Author note (added 8/7/13):  Sometimes it is necessary to admit momentary defeat… I wasn’t able to pull a block party together on our block this year, but there’s always next year!  On this particular day we just had one too many activities and we all benefitted from a quiet night at home.  That was just the right choice for the day.  Happy Summer!!

Choose Kindness

Published on by poolepartyof5Leave a comment
A small gift from one friend to another...
A small gift from one friend to another…

Is my preoccupation with the idea of kindness because I am adjusting to the fact that my oldest will be starting elementary school in the fall?  Is it that I am around the 5-&-under set all day long and witness both trivial and monumental disputes on an hourly basis?  Is it possible that R. J. Palacio’s book, Wonder, has entered my consciousness in ways I am still trying to figure out?  Yes, on all accounts.

My husband and friends can attest to the fact that I am someone who is highly sensitive to the media that surrounds me.  Books, song lyrics, and television all touch me in ways that can alter my outlook for weeks at a time.  Because of this “media sensitivity”, we just do not watch scary movies in our home.  Then, there was that time that I was reading The Black Dahlia and Gone Girl in book club, and I was sure my husband was evil.  Believe me, he isn’t, but I think I slept with one eye open for a full week… You can imagine how much he loved that phase.  Well, the opposite is true too.  When I have been positively touched by a book, that sentiment stays with me as well and for a time becomes the lens with which I view the world.

Wonder, is that kind of book.

August Pullman was born with a facial deformity that, up until now, has prevented him from going to a mainstream school. Starting fifth grade at Beecher Prep, he wants nothing more than to be treated as an ordinary kid—but his new classmates can’t get past Auggie’s extraordinary face… In a world where bullying among young people is an epidemic, this is a refreshing new narrative full of heart and hope. R. J. Palacio has called her debut novel “a meditation on kindness”—indeed, every reader will come away with a greater appreciation for the simple courage of friendship.  (from http://choosekind.tumblr.com/)

Each day we have the option to “choose kindness” in big and small ways that can have huge meaning to those around us.  When we are in line for a cup of coffee, do you greet the barista with a smile, or feel annoyed that you had to wait?  When you see that other preschool mom that never smiles, do you say “hello” anyway?  When you fix yourself a cup of water, do you get one for your partner?  When you are sitting at the lunch table are you the person that scoots over to make room for someone new?  Or, do you look away?  Whether out of fear, insecurity, and shyness over the years, I can think of too many examples where I have been one to look away.  But… I’d like to be the person who moves over and makes room for one more.  The one that smiles and says hello.  A person who actively chooses kindness.

Recently, another preschool mom remarked that she enjoyed a post I wrote about struggling with friendships that are in transition (click here to read, In Between).  She voiced that lately she felt as though she is “back in high school”.  I think that what she meant by this is she feels the constant effort of trying to make new friends and find one’s place.  We can all relate to this universal struggle.  Yet it is see easy to see peers acting critically of one another, casting judgement without empathy.  Aren’t parents (and women specifically) known for this frustrating behavior?  In Wonder, there is a quote that states, “If every person in this room made it a rule that wherever you are, whenever you can, you will try to act a little kinder than is necessary – the world really would be a better place.”  I feel like it all boils down to that.  Being kinder than is necessary.  Whether you are a child entering elementary school, a teenager searching for acceptance, or an adult still looking for your place, we can all choose kindness as a place to start.  That much is within our power.  If I could pass just one lesson onto my children, I believe this might be it.  I think that these small acts can move mountains.

Wonder has started a national movement that I wasn’t aware of as I began writing this post.  Kids are reading Wonder and realizing how important these acts of kindness are in our relationships.  There is even a CHOOSE KIND pledge.  There have been so many examples of hate and cruelty around us lately, it is possible to wonder if there is any good left in the world?  But here is an example of love and grace.  People are signing this pledge and believing in kindness (I think I am number 11,331)!  Whether you sign the pledge or not, I hope that next time (and every time after that) you choose to be “kinder than is necessary”.

In Between

Published on by poolepartyof57 Comments

There is a phase in friendship where all feels natural and wonderfully close, but there is a phase right before all that loveliness that feels like a lot of work.  As thirty-somethings with three kids, there is not the abundance of time that we once had during college days to forge friendships – through all night gab sessions over beer and mediocre pizza.  Most recently we were making baby friends.  This is a special phase where new parents support one another with bleary-eyed conversation fueled by coffee and wine, all while googling over our new little lovelies.  But time goes on, and relationships shift.  Families begin to reallocate time and energy resources to the school community.  It makes sense, I get it.  We’ll be there soon.  With Sam starting kindergarten this fall, I am really looking forward to settling into that new community and being a part of things too.

But right now, this minute, we are in a funny place.  We have friends, lots of great friends – some near and some far.  Yet, I see that we (and they) are all in transition.  Everyone is so damn busy!  It is tough to actually carve out time to see one another.  People talk about the times in one’s life when close friends are made: early childhood, high school, college, post-college work, when babies are born, and when those babies start elementary school and you meet those kids’ parents… The cycle goes on and on.  Plus, add to that the many geographical moves that take us away from loved ones, and there you have it.  We’re currently in between.  It feels like we are starting over (again).

I yearn to jump forward to a place with a cozy group of friends that feels comfortable, like your favorite hoodie.  The one you reach for when you just want to be yourself, to be known.  Lately, as we meet new folks and try to find our way, it feels like wearing beautiful heels all the time.  The ones that you take off the minute you walk through your front door… And maybe that’s the problem.  Eureka!  Maybe I have solved it after all!  We need to go out into the world with a big smile and favorite-sweatshirt-attitude versus a high-heels-attitude.  We’re nice people.  Yes, a bit sleep deprived, but we try not to let this fact get us down.  Our favorite shows are: Parenthood (well, obviously) and Mentalist (Simon Baker, enough said).  We’re semi-sporty.  We enjoy long walks and great conversation.  We’re perfecting our creme brulee recipe in hopes of wooing you and yours.  Just FYI… we’re looking for some new friends and you might be next on our list.  Watch out.

I know that this bit of discomfort will pass.  Like everything else, it will shift and change.  In a few weeks, or months, or years (please god, no), we will nudge each other and say… “Wow!  Look at this group of friends we are a part of!  I don’t even remember a time when George, and Sally, and Sue weren’t around!”  Its probably just around the corner…

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