soup to nuts {life}

Honestly? I don't have a lot for today. As I was straightening up some papers last night (again), I came across some notes I jotted down during our Blogging Your Way Course. I'd said several times that I for the blog I wanted "more evocative photos and writing." Ha! You won't be getting that today! Yesterday kinda knocked us flat around here. Poor Neel had an awful day. He actually handles illness pretty well. If you ask how he's doing, he'll usually say something like Fine, just stuffy. Not Sunday. On Sunday, we got responses like, Pretty awful, actually. He had a big day yesterday. Lunch meeting with the president of the medical school where he works. Neel's also the president of the school's faculty senate and they had their usual monthly meeting last night but it was their first with their new dean. And yesterday morning Neel accidentally too nighttime cold medicine instead of daytime cold medicine. Oops. He mucked through but still feels pretty crummy.

I had a migraine all flipping day. Fighting technology all day long and freakishly warm winter weather will do that to you. And poor Callum, who has really stepped up his game and is working so hard at being a good kid lately, had to get rubber bands in his teeth in anticipation for bottom braces coming next week. This January has been weird and hard. Maybe I'll start my new year in February from here on out.

We're all really fine though. Just overwhelmed. The queen-sized sheets I got barely fit our bed, and I think I accidentally washed the pillow cases three times. And I fail to understand how we can start each day with a clean (relatively) kitchen island and end the day, homework aside, with it looking like such a disaster area. At least we found Callum's iPod. Even though my phone continues to misbehave. It works in my car though, so maybe I'll just drive around all week.

And Squarespace! Don't get me started! I have felt nothing but love for this blogging platform since I moved over in November. Until lately. Comments are hard to make and needing approval and this CAPTCHA thing is so stupid. The upside is that I've decided to blame that on the fact that my comments are dropping off and not the fact that all I write is self-indulgent drivel which is how I was feeling about things over the weekend.

I think about these things, you know. I mean, I take pictures, but this isn't really a photography blog. Although I've been asked to talk about my photography process. I'm happy to do that, if you'd like to hear. Would you? I talk about my family and tending to them and raising Callum, but this isn't really a parenting blog. Although I've been told that if I wrote a parenting blog, I'd have at least one reader! (Hi Jenni! I know I owe you an email!) Food plays a big role here too, both as part of the photography and the family-tending, but I rarely include recipes. Would you like that? I'll give you one today, how about? I love to tend to my home and peruse design blogs, but I almost never talk about that here. How weird is that? This is how it always seems to happen for me. Just when I'm trucking along, putting one post in front of the other quite happily, I suddenly panic. There's no theme. There's no niche. What the heck am I doing here?

Yesterday, my very first photography instructor from the Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art asked me (and I'm sure several of her former students) to come and speak to her current advanced class about my photography journey. I am so touched and humbled by this opportunity, alternately fearing that I'll have nothing to say and that I'll talk too much! And the timing was interesting. Right when I was trying to figure all this stuff out. What should I tell them? What should I tell you? So I thought I'd just ask. If you were sitting in that class with me, what about my journey would you want to hear? And to stretch the question, what in general do you want to hear?

We did not have this soup last night. We had leftovers and Callum had to eat his hot wing dip with a fork because his mouth was too sore for chips. Callum has always been a soup boy. We used to have soup and quesadillas for lunch almost every single day. So I do know what to feed him, even if winter isn't really winter this year. But if it's cold where you live, this minestrone is perfect for winter. It's a good Friday night soup because it's easy, and it's a good Sunday soup because it smells so good bubbling away on the stove. I had a recipe once, but now I just make it up as I go, depending on what I have in the house.

4 slices of bacon, chopped
1 medium to large onion, chopped
4 cloves of garlic, minced
1/3 - 1/2 lb. ground beef
1 cup each, minced celery, carrots, zucchini
2 cups tomato puree
2 cans stewed tomatoes
1 cup chicken or beef broth
1 can French onion soup
5 cups water
1/4 cup red wine
1 teaspoon each basil and oregano
2 cups sliced spinach
1 can garbanzo beans

In a stock pot, cook bacon and drain off fat. Add onions, garlic and beef to bacon and cook until the onions are translucent. Then add celery, carrots, tomatoes, broth, soup, water, wine, herbs and salt and pepper to taste. After about 15 minutes, add zucchini, spinach and garbanzos. Simmer another 15 minutes and serve with grated parmesan cheese. It's even better the next day.

So dear readers, weigh in, if you will. I'd love to hear what you're thinking. And what you'd like to hear. And I'll try to be a little less needy tomorrow!

monday mash up, january 23

Okay, so back when I spent time with people who knew about stuff like this they used to have explainations for times when technology COMPLETELY FAILED ME. Mercury's in retrograde? Something like that? I don't know. All I can tell you is Squarespace is freaking out on my comments, my phone stopped working (See that sweet "no service" message in the center photo? It's not talking about Callum.), and now Picnick is going away? What that monkey?! I don't do any editing there, but all my collages like the one you see here for example, are so freaking easy in Picnick. I'm irritated. And the phone? Don't even get me started.

We actually had a pretty nice weekend. Neel and I had a date night at one of my favorite restaurants on Friday night and Callum had another good basketball game on Saturday. They only had six kids show up for his team so he played all but about four minutes of a 40 minute game. No wonder he's dozing off in front of the playoffs. It was cold and drizzly all weekend so we did lots of snuggling and catching up on our mid-week DVRing. (Erin, I thought the mod dress was totally inappropriate and too goth for Miss Piggy and should have gone home. Just sayin'. And Austin Scarlett's bows were ri-don-culous.) Saturday night I snuck out to a friend's all-girl 40th birthday party. Get a load of her cake! A zombie-tennis-kermit cake. Not one you'd see everyday. Other than that I recharged with a lot of leisurly cooking (Callum made an omlette!) and studied my camera manual and Neel got sick. Winter had come.

five things, january 20th edition

1. I think that despite it all, Neel had a pretty nice birthday. We had sushi for lunch and went to see Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. We're both big John LeCarre fans, and this book is one of my all time favorites. Tricky to condense into just over 2 hours, but it didn't disappoint. And look what lovely gifts his lab gave him! A too-too generous gift certificate to one of our favorite restaurants, a gorgeous tie wrapped up as only a science lab can do, and these stunning cookies! Test tubes, beakers, viruses. What more could a tried and true science dork ask for? I am so touched and not at all surprised that these folks feel so kindly towards my husband that they go out of their way in such a big way for him.
2. I think I plan on spending a serious chunk of my weekend with my camera and notes from my class. One of my classmates suggested Bailey's in my coffee, and I may take her up on it.
3. I think it was really, really nice to talk to my friend Debbie this week.
4. I'm thinking I'm sad that it's the last weekend of football of the year. I know, I said it. Sad. I'll probably lose readers over this too.
5. I think it's probably really good that we went to Callum's school for Bowls for the Hungry last night. It was so good to be there and see Callum among his friends. Sixth grade has been hard, no lie. And part of me has to wonder if his anxiety and disquiet stems from school. Are we asking too much of him by asking so much? But he is happy there, it's terribly clear. And part of the reason he is at this school at all is because he was ready to step up his game. We chatted for a minute with his social studies teacher, (and trust me Callum loves him some social studies.) and the irony was not lost on me when his teacher immediately said, "I love Callum. He has such a positive attitude. He has a smile on his face 24/7." It was just what I needed to hear.

Project 52:3 {life}

You can imagine how excited I was to learn that this week's theme in the Project 52 was food. New camera, one that's meant for portraiture and still life photography and one of my favorite subjects! Time to have some fun, people.

I grabbed these beets at the grocery store this weekend (On my gigantic weekly shop...I can't change on a dime, you know.). We have a nice produce section in our local supermarket, filled with lots of local and organic options. Ideally, I'd start shopping regularly from the Farmer's Market and the seafood market...you get the picture. But these are habits I need to change. Still, I'm starting, when I see some pretty veggies or fruit, to grab it with the thought of taking it up to the studio. I knew that for this week's project, I wanted nothing clever (and believe me, there are lots of clever food photos showing up; I'll try to find the flickr feed to link for you) but instead, just a still life of some gorgeous food.

You'll note the different light. Some shots were taken in the morning. Some in the evening. Light is amazing isn't it? I'm trying to assimilate so many things right now. The skills that are being taught in my class, the complexities of a new camera. So many people in my class are having things "just click" for them right now. I'm not quite there yet. I'm trying to be paitent with myself and realize that I'm absorbing a lot of things at once. Just keep moving forward and those clicks will come. What I like about these pictures is the gorgeous color of the beets, and how I'm clearly learning to find and trust the light. The folds in the cloth they're resting on remind me that it's new, from our recent visit to Ikea. I like having that little hint to place this photo in the context of our lives.

Poor Neel ended up with a bit of a bust of a birthday evening last night. All of your comments and the birthday wishes he got on facebook meant so much to him! We had a great dinner, but I got a big-time headache (major temperature drop here), and our son was a big-time headache! Poor Callum. Oh Lordy. Being a (pre) teen is so, so hard. From his very first breath, this kid was intense. He's only getting more so. All fall I've been kicking around a blog post about how challenging parenting him is right now, and I haven't quite gotten there yet. It's still in there, waiting to be written.

Sometimes, when the meds don't kick it with my head, the only thing that soothes is a super-hot bath. Neel and Callum were mucking their way through some challenging math (rubbing salt in the wound!), so I took myself up to the tub. I'm not sure what happened, but something new upset Callum, and as I sat in the scalding water with my head on the edge of the tub as he cried and cried in the next room, I thought, quite simply, "I don't know what to do for him." And then, just an instant later I thought, I can feed him. That much I can do. I can feed his body and keep on loving him, much as he may push and rail against it.

Tonight we're attending something called Bowls for the Hungry at Callum's school, as part of their Great Depression studies. (If that's not ironic, I don't know what is!) We'll get a "meagre" meal and the proceeds from the evening will benefit a local food bank. I'll cook these beets for us on Friday, as part of a savory tart I've been wanting to try. With some corn chowder to go along side. I can't think of much more healing and restorative than a bowl of soup. Feeding and loving my family. That's what I can do.

his day {life}

So this will be short because I often find myself humbled and without words when it comes to describing Neel, but today's his birthday! Hooray Neel!

I took these photos (Big Daddy!) of Callum and Neel working on an invention that Callum is doing for school (sanctioned parent participation, I promise!) because the singlemost important thing I can say about this amazing man I married is what a stunningly wonderful father he is.

He's creative and kind and patient and a gazillion kinds of fun. Neel's the kind of guy who will notice if you have a new haircut or who decides that he would like to start opening car doors for me and just does it. He's trying to teach our son to do these things too. I know that my happiness is important to him, and I hope he knows that his is just as important to me. I remember once, fairly shortly after we met, Neel and I were roaming a cemetery near our college campus. A deer bounded in front of us and he said, "Watch!" And with each of the deer's leaps he said, "now," timing his words perfectly to the rhythm of the deer jumping. I thought, if a guy can do that, he must be pretty cool.

He'll probably kill me for posting this picture! It's the very first shot I took with Big Daddy. I wanted to include it partly because I want you to see this man that I adore, but also, this photo feels symbolic to me. Neel's support means the world to me. Without it, I wouldn't be half the woman or mother that I am. Babies love him. Dogs love him. Callum and I love him too. Happy Birthday, my dearest one.

road trip {life}

I love taking road trips with Neel and Callum. They're so much easier now than the one we took to move here from California when Callum was four. A bit trickier, that one. We definitely had a phase where Callum watched DVDs in the back of the car, and on our most recent long trip this past summer, I read a book aloud. For this short trip (just over 6 hours), we mostly just chatted and watched the world go by.

I kept my camera in my lap the whole time.

We're making friends, this camera and I. Getting to know each other. Not quite there yet, I'd say. I knew that the only way to really start getting comfortable would be to dive right in, so I kept it with me as much as possible. I took Old Faithful along, because I didn't want to miss any important moments, but in the end, I didn't get her out. Right now, I feel like my brain is trying to assimilate so much information; I've reached my processing limit. I'm taking a photography class with Clickin' Moms, so there's that input going in. I'm trying to adjust to a new camera. More input. We'll work the kinks out, but sometimes it's hard.

Sometimes, it's enough to watch the world go by.

It's scenes like this that make me love the Eastern Shore so much. A humanity so different from my own. The pulse of rural life appeals to me, a life lived amid the heart beat of the land. I could have taken hundreds of pictures just like these. Maybe someday I will. I'd love to make this our destination on some future journey. The marshy by-ways of this natural wonder.

But the road eventually leads away from these tiny towns, dotted as they are by solitary farms and store fronts. Headed further north, away from these scrubby pines, we grow more industrial. The heartbeat of the mid-Atlantic.

There's beauty here too.

And Pennsylvania welcomes us.

monday mash up, january 16

Hi guys! Sorry I'm late! We went away for the weekend and got home late last night. This morning's been all about finishing homework and starting the laundry and hitting the grocery store (still one big shop for the week, alas) and settling back in. Catch up day. We had a great weekend with friends in Eastern PA. Kind of like Emily, we're trying just to go more. These guys used be neighbors, but in a Navy town, neighbors move a lot! They have sons that bookend Callum, one older and one younger, and getting those boys together is a delight. We rarely saw our boy all weekend until we were back in the car coming home. We took a little tour through Doylestown, we (briefly) hit Ikea, we saw the 8th grade basketball team come from behind to win in thrilling fashion. We were well fed. More on that later this week, I suspect. On the way home we stopped off to have lunch with Neel's aunt and uncle and I was given a delightful gift. More on that later too. The drive up to the Northeast corridor takes us up the Eastern Shore of Virginia, Maryland and Delaware. It's a beautiful drive (On our way up, the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel was on a wind restriction, and the waves were high!), especially coming home as the sun was setting over the flattening farmland. And those geese in the center picture, just breathtaking. I've never seen so many geese. We're so lucky to live here. I need to remember that more.

I did play with Big Daddy. It's an adjustment, for sure. I shot in JPEG instead of RAW, and that freaked me out a little too. I haven't downloaded any of the pics yet, so we'll see. And thank you all so much for your support of Mark and Fred. It was them on CNN! That Mark, always so attention-grabby. Maybe not this week, but I'll likely write about those guys and how much they mean to me someday too.

So, how's everybody doing? What were you all up to this weekend? Are we going to make it through another week?

five things, january 13th edition

1. I think winter has been a total bust so far. No snow. Minimal cold. If it's not going to snow, I don't really want it to be terribly cold. Just enough for sweaters and fires in the fireplace. Thanks.
2. I think the pace of the start of the year has not been to my liking. Too rushed. Too harried. Things slipping through the cracks (I have yet to really pick up my camera!) I'm hoping to get myself on a little straighter next week. I've been missing your blogs. I've been neglecting to give mine necessary attention. I've been neglecting to give lots of things the necessary attention.
3. I think so far we're doing okay on side dishes. It's been a near thing, though. Last night, after taking an hour to make my normal 20 minute trip to get Callum (rain), I texted Neel when I got to school and said, "Let's get pizza!" We never do that, but it was just about the best pizza ever. And still, I made us some snap peas to go along side.
4. I think that aside from the pace of the year, 2012 has gotten off to quite a somber start. No less than three of my friends have lost their mothers. Since Christmas, another lost an uncle and a grandfather. Another lost her beloved dog, a woman known only on my photography forum lost her very young son to a tragic accident. On top of this, my dear friends Mark and Fred struggle to keep their family intact. These are dark days, and they remind me that my complaints about the pace of my days or the laundry piling up or the traffic on I-64 in the rain are thankfully small.
5. I think I will do what I always do when days are dark. Camera in hand (and sometimes not), I will look for the light.

Project 52:2 {life}

Theme: Up.

Readers, I got it.Say hello to Big Daddy. Thanks to an amazing deal from Adorama Camera, all of your encouragement, a boost from our savings, endless hours of research and Neel saying, "You need to do it. Sometimes you're too tentative," we brought this puppy home. I've been too busy to do much more that get him out of the box, but that's okay. We're getting used to each other slowly. From across the room. So far, I've taken all of three pictures with it, the first of Neel. I'll have to post it here sometime, for posterity.

Speaking of posterity, here's a picture of me with my original DSLR, a Christmas gift from my dad. One of the best gifts I ever got. (Although the necklace I'm wearing in that picture, which was Neel's gift that year, was pretty awesome too!) We're calling her Old Faithful now, and I feel so grateful to her. It's so funny to think of how different things are now, getting Big Daddy, than they were back when Old Faithful moved in. I knew so little then, but I just started snapping away! She's an awesome back-up to have.

Big Daddy is a very different animal. Bigger, more heft in my hand. Already I can tell that the dials are more intuitively placed. The main difference between Big Daddy and Old Faithful is that Big Daddy is a full-frame camera, where as Old Faithful (as are most consumer level DSLRs) is a crop sensor. Here's an article that explains the difference, and if you're interested I can throw a totally lame-o tutorial up here on the blog sometime too. For me, the difference was gasp-worthy. I can't wait to start playing around.

I likely wouldn't have done it without all of your encouragement. Without you nudging me along, telling me that I'm worth it. That my work is worth it.

The theme for this week's Project 52 is "Up." I'm stepping up my game.

brussels {life}

I've been reading the memoir The Kitchen Counter Cooking School by Kathleen Flinn. Have you read her stuff? Her first book, The Sharper Your Knife, The Less You Cry is one of my all-time favorite memoirs. When I first read it (and I've read it a lot), I was working for a small, struggling private school, and I had this epiphany to write a memoir about how this school came back from the brink. I was going to journal the whole year and bring all the amazing personalities of that place to the printed page. And then my astonishing success would bring untold riches to the school and pull it back from the brink. Well, that year didn't turn out at all like I expected. The little school is trucking along quite nicely, we're no longer there, and my dreams of a memoir died.

I still love the book. Who knows, maybe I'll still write a memoir someday. Writing like this, and taking pictures suits me just fine.

In Kitchen Counter Cooking School Flinn uses the skills she learned at Le Cordon Bleu to help average folk (like you and me!) learn their way around a kitchen. She teaches them shopping basics, knife skills and simple recipes to bring them away from processed and fast foods and back to good, simple, healthy cooking in the kitchen. I always like books that secretly make me want to be a better me. Self-help books not so much, but books that subtly show me a way to be. That's nice. Flinn's books are good like that. She talks about how differently the French shop from Americans, and I'm sure I'm not telling you anything you don't already know. Hitting the stores nearly every day. Smaller fridges. Fresher food, less meat. You know what I'm saying.

Honestly, I'd love to shop like this. I should shop like this, and there's no reason why I can't. I have flexibility and time (sort of). It's routine and laziness (I guess) that holds me back. I'm used to mapping out our meals for the week and doing a big weekend shop (Neel and Callum need a Saturday hoagie, you know.). It would take a major alteration of my system and routine to re-tool the way we eat, but I think I could do it. Couldn't I? How do you shop? Are any of you more successful at the small-stop shopping that I am? What are your tips? I have a lot to learn, but I'd love to try to learn how to do it. I guess I need to keep reading.

I've been doing better on the side dishes, as per my resolutions. Poor Callum hates brussels sprouts. Neel has always liked them, and I've just discovered that I do. I can't fault Cal, nor can I complain. He lists two items among those that he won't eat. Only two. Mushrooms and brussels. I have faith that he'll grow out of hating both. We'd been making brussels around here this fall, but very rarely. I think Remedial Eating had the first recipe I tried. Braised. With bacon. Bacon. How bad could they be?

My friend Seamane introduced us to her way of preparing brussels when we spent Thanksgiving with them, and it pretty much trumped mine. As simple as you can make them. Minus the bacon.

Halve your brussels or quarter the big ones and spray a cookie sheet with olive oil. Sprinkle with salt and pop 'em in an oven. I think I do it around 350 degrees for awhile. Until they turn brown and crispy. Crispy is important because who wants slimy brussels? That's the whole problem with brussels in the first place. Seamane serves them with balsalmic to dip and that's pretty awesome, but I'm thinking some bacon would be pretty awesome too.

One quick note. Many of you know and enjoy my friend Mark from his comments here on my blog. He and his partner Fred and their family mean the world to us and they have a very big day ahead of them today. If you have a second, please pop over to his blog and show him some support.

it's electric {still + life}

My favorite electrician was here for most of the afternoon again yesterday (sigh), so I lost power to the computer and access to the WiFi (WiFi, that, thanks to Annie's suggestion, I'm going to start charging guests to use). That set me behind at work, and now I'm all disgruntled. But, Neel has power to his shed, which he nearly pulled me out in my jammies last night in the rain to see. I'll look today. In response to your comments yesterday, Heather @ It's So Suburban, I think the skill at sewing is directly proportional to the cursing involved. Two stupid rectangles took ALL DAY. And Mom, those were Callum's hands, but don't worry, he was just keeping Neel's seat warm. Mark, if Fred could recover my ottoman that would be great. And Noreen, look for a brussels recipe tomorrow (I hope!). They're Callum's favorite. Har Har.

monday mash up, january 9

Hey guys! How was your weekend? Dude. I made curtains. They puddle. They don't puddle very well, and I'll ask you not to look at the hems too closely, but they puddle. I'm hoping I can blog about that this week. We had a good weekend. Callum started a Saturday basketball camp at school, and I played around with panning with my camera. Haven't downloaded those pics yet, but I'm curious! My favorite electrician was here all day Saturday (sigh), and Neel got out his Christmas edger for the first time. He's happy. I started moving my body with some gals from the hood and that felt good. I think I'm coming down with a cold, but other than that, it's all good. Oh! And we watched Murder on the Orient Express and on Sunday morning Callum and I watched a feature on the DVD about the real Orient Express. $20,000 people. But meals are included. I'm thinking it might be worth it.

five things, january 6th edition

1. I think I must be turning into an old lady since I fell in love with this punch bowl that our neighbor Jean loaned us for New Year's Eve and now I WANT. ONE.
2. I think it feels good to have the house back in order and be back in a routine, but re-entry can be a bear.
3. I think I've been reading so many awesome resolutions around the internets lately, I almost want to add to my list. Almost.
4. I think I need to have more faith in myself. And I think the universe has gone beyond dropping me hints. Now it's slapping me in the face!
5. I think, I know, I wishwishwish it would get cold and snow already.