Calling All Women

A friend of mine has been asked to speak on family health at the American Mother's convention in May of this year. She's a great lady with a lot of good ideas to share but she's looking to expand her knowledge base with real data from real women.

She invited a bunch of women over to her house last week and asked us some questions that sparked a lot of conversation. We talked about our idea of success as a wife and mother, our secret desires and our challenges. It was great to realize that we all have challenges and they're all different but ultimately, we'd all really like a nap.

She's posted many of these questions online to gather more data from as many women as possible. If you have a moment, and you're a woman, please go complete her survey. I'll post the results that she compiles and I'm hoping to convince her to give me a copy of her speech as well.

American Mothers Health and Nutrition Survey

If you're a man, please pass on this link to the woman in your life that influences your health and nutrition the most. Thanks!

Yo-Yo Gomm Strikes Back

After Random's Fall Concert he was promoted to advanced strings. We were so proud! His rehearsal schedule was switched from Tuesdays and Wednesdays at 7:15 to Wednesdays and Thursdays at 7:15. You can see how that would be quite an adjustment to our lives. :-P

He has been practicing regularly and seems to enjoy his 'jam sessions'. One of these days we might get him to practice his assignments but for now watching him having so much fun and explore the joy of musical expression is good enough for me.

His Spring Concert was last night at 7:30. All of the elementary students and beginning strings from the middle schools for the entire district played together. It was an army of string players and was given even more bulk with the teachers playing piano, drum set and guitar. It really was a phenomenal sight and an even more phenomenal sound. You haven't lived until you've heard 100 beginning string players wail out Twinkle Variations with drum set accompaniment.

They also performed a version of Beethoven's Ode To Joy. I've heard this tune plenty of times voiced in many different ways. This is the one that makes me smile the biggest. Not only is Random sawing away in the front row with great feeling and gusto, it's got a rockin' drum beat! Beethoven and high-hat...does it get any better?

We had to get home and get our kids to bed so we were unable to see the rest of the groups play but next time we'll try to plan better so Random can stay and hear the older kids. There was a huge improvement between Fall and Spring and I'm sure the High Schools would have been inspirational for him.

In lieu of hearing the high schools perform, Troy loaded up our computer with buckets of Yo-Yo Ma and we've been rocking out to his tangos all day. The cello is really a gorgeous instrument...too bad it doesn't have a double reed. hehe

Silver Falls

Hike: South Falls
Date: April 26, 2008
Distance: .7 miles
Elevation: 177 ft

This hike is part of the Trail of Ten Falls that we want to eventually complete. This leg of the Ten Falls trail is a very easy hike but still really spectacular. The short little trail has 3 separate waterfalls on it, amazing geological features and we even got to walk behind South Falls.

Troy and I spontaneously (that's the word we use when we want to give our lack of foresight and planning a positive spin) decided to head out there this weekend but weren't necessarily planning on hiking at all. We wanted to see what the park was all about and find out more about the Ten Falls trail. We stopped at one of the ranger posts to grab a brochure and just couldn't go back home without wandering around in the park. It was perfect weather and the park was too pristine to leave so soon.

Our first stop was the lodge (it was an hour drive and we all had to go potty). The stalls in the women's room had two toilets in it which made Savannah, Scout and I giggle (which is why I took a picture...see the slideshow below).

We hiked around the loop, took tons of pictures and then stopped to eat our granola bars at a picnic table at the top of the falls. The kids chased "butterflies" (moths, flies, bees, whatever) and played with the fallen sticks scattered around while Troy and I marveled at the beauty and plotted our return trip.

We all loved it although we also wished we had brought charcoal and some hotdogs for a picnic dinner. The stale granola bars and warm temperature water was a little dissatisfying compared to the aroma of cooking burgers and s'mores. To make up for it we stopped at a tiny family operated burger joint in one of the tiny towns we passed to get back home.

Multnomah Falls

Hike: Multnomah Falls
Date: March 23, 2008
Distance: 2.4 miles (1.2 one way)
Elevation gain: 600 feet

Multnomah Falls is the second highest year-round waterfall in the United States and is just up the road in the Columbia Gorge. For our first "real" hike of 2008 we thought we'd give it a try.

It was a gorgeous Easter Saturday but when we got out of the car and walked to the lodge and into the shadow of Larch Mountain we were a little concerned...it was COLD. We thought we'd start by walking the .2 miles up to the bridge that spans the river and leads to the trail. It was even COLDER as we were pelted with all the tiny droplets of spray from the falls. The kids were still excited though so Troy and I thought we'd give it a little longer before we headed back to the warmth of the car.

Once we got over the bridge and around the bend in the trail we warmed right up. That had a little to do with the lack of wetness, a little to do with the occasional sun burst through the trees and a whole lot to do with the switchbacks. We definitely learned that 600 feet in 1 mile isn't your average stroll through the park...especially for short little 4 year old legs.

The top of the falls had a lookout that extended over the falls and gave us a great view. We were all pretty impressed with ourselves when we saw how high we had climbed.

The way back was a lot faster but a little more nerve wracking with the kids and their apparent disregard for the CLIFF that they were careening so close to. I spent the whole way down saying "Don't run. Get away from the edge. Don't run." and Troy spent the whole way down saying "Breathe Amanda. Calm down Amanda. That vein in your forehead is gonna pop Amanda."

My personal favorite moment was after we were down and heading back to the car. The path leads under a train trestle and we happened to be going under at the same time a train was going over. The trestle was low enough that Troy and I could have reached up and touched the track. I've never been so close to the bottom of a moving train before. It was really scary and really really LOUD! Thinking back on it, it would have been smarter for us to wait for it to pass but it was just one of those things that you just gotta do.

Well, for some reason, I've read a TON of books in the last few weeks, here are my reviews.

^___^


Sabriel
I really enjoyed this book. It's mostly a fantasy novel, and I believe it's a young adult book. Sabriel is a coming of age novel about a young girl who’s just completing the equivalent of high school. Oh, she's also a necromancer.

The magic system in it is unique, but not really well described (it doesn’t lay out all the rules like you find in some fantasy novels), but that doesn’t prevent it from being intriguing. Garth Nix pulls you into the story right away and does a fairly good job creating a few memorable characters that you really care about. He also creates some vivid imagery that I won’t soon forget (Abhorsen’s house, the paperwing flight). The book has some memorable lines that are reinforced by the themes of the story (“Everyone and everything has a time to die” and “Does the walker choose the path or the path the walker”).

I highly recommend this book. I found out that there are two sequels to this book (“Lirael” and “Abhorsen”) which are on my To Read list.

Darwin's Radio
This is the first book by Greg Bear that I’ve read, and I really enjoyed it. Darwin’s Radio is a contemporary novel set maybe a few years in the future. It follows the discovery of a family of Neanderthal mummies, the discovery of mass graves in The Republic of Georgia, and the outbreak of a disease targeting only pregnant women (don’t worry, I haven’t given you any spoilers!).

I found the book to be well written in that it not only had believable and interesting characters, but also intriguing scientific contemplations. The book deals with theme of evolution (I was reading Spin when I started this book, so the evolution ideas were doubly interesting) as well as how the public reacts to a disease outbreak. I have no idea how authentic the biology presented in the book is, but it did make me check the wikipedia entry on several ideas (like endogenous retroviruses), so that’s got to be a good thing!

I’d recommend this book if you’re in the mood for some present day speculative science (light on the speculative, heavy on the science). I just found out that this book has a sequel, Darwin’s Children. I’ll add that to my To Read list too!

Quantico
This one was my second Greg Bear book, and I’ll say it was OK. This is also a contemporary novel set a few years in the future. The book follows several FBI agents as an anthrax-related terrorist plot unfolds. Greg Bear does a fair share of ruminating on the ways society has changed since 9/11. He posits that we can never return to the pre-9/11 state of quasi-innocence and asks the reader to decide if humanity would be better off forgetting that it ever happened. It’s a decent story with ok character development. There wasn’t a lot of story to it, though, and I often wanted to just skip to the end.

If you are really in to police stories or want some terrorism-related food for thought, then definitely try this book. Otherwise, I’d skip it.

The Last Colony
This is the third book in the Old Man’s War series (by John Scalzi). This book, again, is a very different kind of book than the previous two. It follows the story of a group of colonists settling a new planet. It sounds a little mundane (and I almost lost interest in the first couple of chapters), but it turns out to be very satisfying. There are ample twists and turns, and the author ends up taking his ultra-violent Old Man’s War universe in a direction that I found very satisfying.

If you liked the first two in this series, then you MUST read this book. Scalzi says in the afterward that this is his last book in the series, however, a fourth book is coming out this year and I can’t wait!

Axis
Axis is the sequel to Spin (by Robert Charles Wilson), which I couldn’t say enough good things about. I wasn’t sure how Spin could have a sequel, but there were enough unanswered questions from Spin, that I was excited to read Axis. The thing that made Spin really stand out to me was the combination of superb character drama with a great “big science” science fiction story. Axis has a lot of both the character drama and the “big science,” but Wilson doesn’t do either quite as well as he did in Spin. Axis felt like less of a complete story than Spin did, mainly because it covers a much smaller chunk of the characters’ lives, and doesn’t go nearly into the same depth. Also, Axis doesn’t really move the Spin universe forward, you end sort of where you began, albeit with a slightly better understanding of their world.

That said, it’s still a good book and it’s very well paced -- giving you a little more substance in every chapter. If you liked Spin, you should probably read Axis too.

Artemis Fowl
I read the first chapter of Artemis Fowl about 3 years ago, but I didn’t continue. This time I read it all the way through and I’m really glad I did! This is definitely a young adult book, but there are a few non-critical references some kids might not get. Without spoiling the book, Artemis Fowl is a super-intelligent 12-year old criminal mastermind who tries to discover the secrets of fairies to get his hands on their gold. One of the reasons I liked this book so much is that for most of the book you’re not quite sure who you should be rooting for! There are definitely two sides in conflict, but both of them have antagonist and protagonist facets to them. That uncertainty keeps you guessing until the end, and frankly, I wasn’t sure how I wanted it to turn out until I’d finished.

This was a quick read but very enjoyable, and I highly recommend it.

Artemis Fowl: The Arctic Incident
The Arctic Incident takes place 1 year after the first book, with a 13-year old Artemis Fowl. This story (as hinted in at the end of the first book) involves Artemis being forced to work with the LEP. As such, it feels a little different than the first book. There’s a clearer antagonist and the plot is a little more complicated than the first book (it’s still not that complicated for you adult smarty-pantses!). The story is quick-paced and fun and gives all of the main characters some development. I recommend this one as well.

Lord of the Isles
Oh my. Lord of the Isles by David Drake.
OK, it’s my policy to give a book 100 pages. If it can’t hook me in 100 pages then it’s not for me. After dragging myself through 70 pages of this little gem, I gave up. This is just a poorly written book. David Drake may have some fabulous ideas for a neat-o magic system and Earthsea-like world, but he’s a bad writer.

One thing that really bothered me was his use of highly obscure jargon – all the time! Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m pretty geeky. I’ve read my share of fantasy novels, DMed my share of D&D games, and gotten addicted to MMORPGs, so I know my way around a fair bit of medieval lingo. Well, apparently David Drake believes that you need to be institutionalizably (yes I said it!) into old world ship building or medieval dress making if you want to ride his ride. Well, sorry, I don’t know what a ship’s cordage or your boat’s thwart are, and I’m OK with that.

The other big problem is Drake’s awkward prose. I’m not sure how to describe it, but I kept having to re-read several sentences every paragraph to figure out what he was trying to say! I may make Amanda read a chapter or two to see if she can figure out what the problem is. Lastly, the fight scenes were boring, but at least they were long. This is going to come as a surprise, but I recommend running away from this book!

Recommend me some more books!
If you're reading anything good let me know!

Scout Ella-Normal Gomm

Jammies, gloves, popsicle, apple slices, chocolate frosting. Ahh to be 4 again.

Happy Anniversary

Yep. That's right. It's the big One-One for us this year. I (Amanda) thought in honor of this spectacular occasion and a nod to our friends who were there at the beginning, I'd make a Top 20/Bottom 10 list for the last 11 years.

Top 20:

-Port Townsend
-Watching the 6 am showing of Return of the Jedi at the theater on the first day it came out
-Inside Jokes (the baby dropped the flour, I'm a Seahorse, at least they're not having a rhumba party)
-When Rand was born and he looked like some kind of big handed blue alien but we loved him anyway
-When Savannah was born and we both almost died...but we didn't!
-Minnesota: Great Mall of America shopping every weekend, Tornadoes, Pudding Fingerpaints, Dora The Explorer World Premier
-Shinders (where it all started)
-Camping out for Halo 2
-Staying up too late talking whenever family came to visit
-That first magical Michigan summer--fireflies and barbecues
-Carrying sleeping kids to the car at 2 am after games at the Leningtons
-Virginia: The Great Dismal Swamp, the beach, Kittyhawk, the pool
-All the pee on the doctor when Scout was born (let's not speak of WHOSE pee that was)
-Game Conventions with the Claesons
-Road Trips to visit Tom & Kim in Virginia ("Shhhh...They're saying their names") and Florida (8 months pregnant in July)
-Canada: car fires, Wasaga Beach, Jack Johnson, Canada Day, Toronto, Zellers, Deep Fried Pickles, eh
-Thanksgivings with the Twitchells
-Kathryn's visits (Did Somebody Say McDonalds? Nooooo.)
-Quitting: Dofus, Ford, daycare
-Driving around Oregon and realizing we actually get to live in this paradise

Bottom 10:

-Monopoly
-The Mushroom Apartment
-The poop stripe on the floor under Random's baby swing
-When What's-Her-Name (you know, the lesbian runway model) showed up at our house in handcuffs, escorted by a cop
-Depression
-The Idaho Bank Incident (aka that time we had to dig around in the couch for change to buy bread)
-Kidney Stones
-Back pain
-Screaming in the night
-Putting the house back on the market

I don't know if these are the real top moments but they're the ones that came to mind this morning as I looked back over the last best 11 years of my life. Thanks Troy. Whaddya say to another 11?

Here Mommy

Things I was handed today...

A marble
A sticker from an apple
An old bandaid
The soda can I had left in the kitchen on purpose
Dirty socks ("Will you please pick up your dirty socks." "Sure. Here Mommy")
A dime
The vacuum (heaven forbid I not be touching it at all times)
my lunch
An m&m
A barrette

I took a parenting quiz recently to determine my parenting style. The first question was "How do you want your children to describe you?" I want them to see me as fair, loving and fun. Second question, "How would they ACTUALLY describe you?" I think the answer to this one is clear..."Mommy is silly, she has a lot of pockets and she likes holding things. Oh...and Mommy, here's a pen cap."

Green Eating: The Rhubarb Story

Attempt number one at Greener Eating by using local produce was successful. I made Rhubarb Bread I from the Allrecipes website with a few alterations (I added 1/3 c applesauce for half of the oil, used 1/2 whole wheat and 1/2 regular flour and used only 1 c of brown sugar).

It tasted really good and the whole family ate it up. Scout did pick out the "squishy pink stuff"...so much for getting Scout on board with local eating.

I'm still on the lookout for a non-dessert rhubarb recipe but I can't bring myself to make rhubarb soup. We'll see if I can get Troy to eat pork chops with rhubarb chutney...that should be a fun challenge!

Rhubarb Bread I

INGREDIENTS

• 1 cup milk
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups brown sugar
• 2/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1 egg
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 1/2 cups chopped rhubarb
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon butter, melted

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Lightly grease two 9x5 inch loaf pans. In a small bowl, stir together milk, lemon juice and vanilla; let stand for 10 minutes.
2. In a large bowl, mix together 1 1/2 cups brown sugar, oil and egg. Combine the flour, salt and baking soda, stir into sugar mixture alternately with the milk mixture just until combined. Fold in rhubarb and nuts. Pour batter into prepared loaf pans.
3. In a small bowl, combine 1/4 cup brown sugar, cinnamon and butter. Sprinkle this mixture over the unbaked loaves.
4. Bake in preheated oven for 40 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of a loaf comes out clean.

Deal or No Deal?

No Deal.

The buyers of our lovely Michigan home (going cheap, call me!) have pulled out.

The house is back on the market, and we are back to where we started. Hoping for showings, praying that the Michigan housing market pulls out of the biggest slump since they started keeping records during the depression (true story), and trying to find a way to keep the lawn green and mowed throughout the summer.

The good news? We get our stuff back. We've been living college-chic while we've been in Oregon so far: borrowing mis-matched furniture and kitchen gear from family, supplementing with what we can find at the dollar store. Now we'll be living the high life. Our own mis-matched furniture and dollar store kitchen gear will be arriving here next week. WOOOO!

Gomms Go Green: An Update

I found a list of "easy" ways to reduce your family's impact on the environment. One of the first things they recommend is to eat locally.

Great idea right? It reduces the travel time, and therefore the carbon footprint, of the ingredients in your meals and it supports the local economy. Oregon is notoriously organic (psycho-hippy might be more accurate) so not only will the food will be fresher, it is likely to be more healthy or at least not so be-chemicaled.

I found a website for finding your locally grown/raised foods:

http://www.nrdc.org/health/foodmiles/default.asp

So I entered my information. So excited to find out what I can buy here or what new exciting things I will find to incorporate into our meals!

Where do I live? Oregon.

What season is it? Late April.

What amazing new locally grown foods will we get to eat for the next few weeks? Rhubarb.

Rhubarb.

What?!

OK so for the next 2 weeks I will be trying my darndest to figure out a recipe that meets the following criteria:

• My family will eat it
• It contains rhubarb as a major ingredient
• It isn't pie (not that I don't like pie but finding new sweet treats that are environmentally friendly isn't really the point)

Anybody got any ideas? I mean really...Rhubarb???

Kids Books

I asked for everyone's suggestions on children's books a couple of weeks ago. I've had some people ask what others had suggested, which ones we really liked and what else we had found. Here's what I checked out last week and how we felt about them:

Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Eric Carle
Verdict: Must Read
This one's a classic. The kids loved reading the last page along with me (children, children, what do YOU see?). We also made our own "What Do You See" book using a collaborative book I got at the library. If you haven't read this book...HI! welcome to 1992...now go to the library! Jeez.

The Carrot Seed by Ruth Krauss
Verdict: Relatable
When I first saw this book I thought it looked too old to be interesting. I know, age discrimination. I'm a bigot. But, you know, the colors looked a little 70s and I thought it would be boring. The story isn't exactly a edge-of-your-seat thriller but it's NOT boring. The girls followed the story and identified with the little boy who planted, watered and weeded the carrot seed but was told at every turn that it wasn't going to grow. When the carrot finally popped up, the girls were overjoyed. They were a little confused since I think they thought carrots grew on trees like apples but once they saw him carrying the carrot around in a wheelbarrow they cheered and wanted to read it again and again.

If you take a Mouse to School by Laura Joffe Numeroff
Verdict: Been There, Read That
It's another "If you _____ a Mouse a _____" book and follows the same circular formula that originated in "If You Give A Mouse A Cookie." The illustrations are fun and the kids love it. It's not too long and although it's not going to make my top 5 all time favorites, if you've got If You Give A Mouse A Cookie (Take Him To The Movies, Give Him A Pancake, Buy Him A McDonald's Franchise etc) memorized because your child can't get enough of those wacky antics, you might try this one. It will be a refreshing change of venue for you but has all the elements that made the first ones such a hit.

Rumble in the Jungle by Giles Andreae
Verdict: Elephing
This one described jungle animals giving one page of cute illustrations and one stanza for each of the classic animals of the jungle. One problem with it was that it changed meters occasionally making reading it aloud a little weird. It only changed meter when it changed stanza though, and it came with a "read along" cd so it wasn't the end of the world. A few things in the book made me laugh though. The elephant wanders "through the jungle Just elephing around" Elephing. ha. If the chimpanzees can't find any food they "munch each other's fleas" the boa constrictor knows that it's not very friendly to squash his prey but, hey, it's tastier and the crocodile loves to come to the river for a little animal watching but thinks its so great that he can't help eating a few of them. The end has some scary moments when it describes the leopard and tigers prowling the night and making you "tremble with fear." Good for jungle themes but flip to the end first and make sure it's not something that would frighten your readers.

Little Pea by Amy Krouse Rosenthal and Jen Corace
Verdict: Amanda Pick
Of this group, this is my pick for best all around. The story is timeless and timely (Little Pea doesn't like to eat dinner...he just CAN'T STAND all that candy). The pictures are very simple but really expressive (the faces he makes as he eats could be caricatures of my kids eating their veggies). If you've got kids in your life in any capacity, you should check this one out and read it together. Next time you're serving a meal and meeting some resistance, bring up Little Pea and how he ate his candy even though he didn't like it...Pleh.

Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus by Mo Willems
Verdict: Kid Pick
This one would be the pick for best all around by the kids. They talked about this book days later and were so upset when I took it back to the library. Luckily, the pigeon has more adventures that we will be checking out. It's a short, simple book (I was surprised when it ended) but has some opportunity for great thespian moments while you read this one aloud. The girls jumped, covered their ears and then wouldn't stop giggling after I yelled "LET ME DRIVE THE BUSSSSSS!" at the top of my lungs.

Thanks for all the suggestions and keep 'em coming. I only have a few more left on my list and those just came into the library. I definitely need more good ideas!

Say Cheese!

A friend of mine here in Oregon is starting her own photography business and putting together her portfolio. She asked if she could use my kids as models and pay us in pictures. I said I'd have to check with their agents but it should be ok.

The kids had a blast at the photoshoot. They found their inner Fashion Model and hammed it up in the way only Rand, Savannah & Scout can.

Mandy (the photographer) was great with the kids, let them be goofy and silly and just shot and shot for a couple of hours. She experimented with different lighting and backgrounds and funky poses and ended up capturing some truly precious and quintessentially Gomm-Kid Moments. Afterwards she digitally altered some of the pictures for some unique effects and sent us a HUGE file full of startling and sweet photos.

I love Mandy's photography style. You can see her other great pics including lots of architecture and still life shots from her urban exploring as well as other people she's captured here at her blog.

Here are some of my favorites:

I didn't realize Video Games were that...religious?

So we picked up a video game on Saturday for the kids to play while we did the taxes. Rand finished his homework today like the good boy he is and was anxious to invite a friend over to play. I overheard him choosing his "team" and I could have sworn he chose to play the Mennonite team. Well it turns out that he had said MetaKnight. I've got to say I was a little disappointed. Donkey Kong versus the Mennonite just gave me the giggles.

It got me to thinking...what would a religious brawl video game look like. And what would it be called? Bible Brawl...Super Smash Pulpit...Pew Pound 2008. What about the "moves" you can unlock? The Bible Belt...Transmogrification...Jihad Jump.

And then I was struck by lightening.