Living La Lupe

Vanessa

Affirmation

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crawling

Image by mitikusa via Flickr

Since making the decision to stay home with the Squeaker I have had this really nagging worry.  I worry that I am not actually teaching her anything and that she would be better off at daycare or with a nanny because at least there she could be with other kids and learning from them.  Obviously I know that moms staying home with their kids is a good thing but I feel like maybe I’m not teaching her the right way or teaching her at all.  I don’t know, maybe she’s supposed to be walking and counting up to ten by now and I have failed to get her there.

In the last week she has been making amazing strides in development.  She started crawling (army crawling) at the beginning of last week.  I was getting to think this was never going to happen because she always wants to be standing and hates to be on her tummy.

For the last couple weeks I’ve been trying to teach her some baby signs.  Specifically I’ve been teaching her “more” and “all done” and “water”.  Yesterday she started doing “more”.  I don’t think she knows what it means yet but she is copying my hand motions when I do it, so it’s a start.

She has also been sleeping in her crib like a champ.  And like a champ I mean an hour at a time but this is basically as much as she was sleeping in our bed at a time so that fact that she is doing it in her crib is amazing.

While I’m sure O would have learned these things in daycare if we had her there, it just affirms that at least my mom aptitude is not stunting her learning and she is reaching the milestones that she needs to be reaching.  Thank God.

It’s just nice to feel like maybe I’m not so bad at this mom thing as I feel sometimes.

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New Recipes

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Alton Brown

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These are a couple of recipes that I have tried recently.  They’re super, super fast and easy.  I am really slow in the kitchen.  Rachael Ray‘s 30 min meals usually take me 2 hours or more.  So when I say these recipes are fast, they really are fast.

Baked Eggs with Tomato – I made this for dinner last night.  Both me and Kraft are big fans of brinner.  I used one of those little 1/2 casserole size dishes, used 5 eggs, fresh mozzarella and basil that we had lying around on top of enough tomato slices to layer the bottom of the dish.  Granted I overcooked it and the egg yolks were totally cooked but even with this mistake it was pretty tasty with toast.  I would have thrown some bacon in for sure if I had it around at the time.

Right now I am o-b-s-s-e-s-e-d with BLTs.  Our CSA has been sending us tons of lettuce.  I am pretty good about liking most veggies but I really do not like lettuce and I am really bad at making salads.  So week after week more lettuce (not like regular lettuce like romaine or iceberg but peppery and bitter lettuce) gets sent and it piles up in our crisper drawer.  That is until I finally thought of this.  Easiest thing in the world and that bitter lettuce tastes amazing with bacon and mayo and juicy tomatoes. 

Lastly, for dinner tonight we had Sardine and Avocado Sandwiches.  I know, the idea of sardines totally grossed me out, too.  But we saw this recipe on Good Eats (one of the few cooking shows Kraft will put up with and watch with me) and we love Alton Brown so we decided to trust him.  I ran across some sardines in HEB last week and decided to give this a try.  Super quick.  Super yummy.  And super filling.  And it didn’t even taste that fishy.  Tuna has a fishier taste than sardines.

Bon Appetit.

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Project Runway

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Tim Gunn embroidery

Image by Totally Severe via Flickr

Ok, allow me this fluff.  I looove Project Runway.  So much so that I even like watching the really annoying and totally pointless 30 min show afterward about the models just because I get more of the story.

This past Thursday was the season finale.  The guy won that I thought should win but what really struck me was the reunion show that they aired after.  Basically just got all the designers and models together to stir up past drama and see if they had more to say about those issues. 

Let me give you some back story.  Usually in the last episode before the finale the judges choose the three designers that are going to show at Bryant Park.  On this season, the judges couldn’t decide and chose 2 to go to Bryant Park (Emilio and Seth Aaron) and two that had to design their 10 outfits and come to the judges again and then they would choose who was going on.  So basically is was a showdown between two designers for that last Bryant Park spot, Jay and Mila.

I was totally pulling for Jay.  Hawaiian community college dropout with really innovative clothes as opposed to morose Mila whose clothes looked pretty much the same to me.  They chose Mila.  Ok, she had a great show, I liked what she sent down the runway.

In this PR reunion show, Jay and one of the models got in an argument and he ended it by telling her that she had “bad teeth and thick legs”.  Really, on national TV?  What a jerk.  I’m sure when he watches that moment on TV he cringes.  What an awful thing to say.  So, in the end, I’m glad Mila went.

Another designer, Anthony, had some very memorable quotes:
-Honey, you think your life is hard?  Imagine being gay, black, and from the ghetto.
-You don’t have to have the crown to be a queen.
-He had apparently said something really mean about Mila to some newspaper and on the reunion show he apologized to Mila.  Tim Gunn proceeded to tell him that the comment was very unladylike of him.  He responded, “Tim, I already apologized.  There’s nothing more I can do.  I can’t give her a kidney”

I love Project Runway.

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Sin Nombre

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Sin Nombre (2009 film)

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Our good friend, E, lent us this movie (Sin Nombre) a long time ago.  We finally got around to watching today.  It is a story about life in Latin America and the journey north to the US.  This movie was heart-wrenching and haunting.

So many people think that undocumented immigrants are here in the US to mooch off its prosperity.  Besides the poverty, lack of jobs, lack of education, lack of resources, mostly corrupt government and police forces, Latin Americans also have to deal with the huge issue of drug cartels and gangs that have totally overrun the land.  I’ve heard of many stories where families or young men on their own have come to America illegally because their young sons or themselves were being targeted by these gangs to join.  Once they want you, you have no choice.  There is no way out except death or run.  And even joining means certain death.  Death of yourself to the gang.

I had not thought of these problems in a while.  I forget how much violence and evil exist in the world and I forget how totally helpless I feel when I think about it.  It scares me that people can be so evil.  So soul-less.  So hardened.  I almost feel total despair.  What can fix it?  What love can these gang members be shown that is enough to replace all the hate?

Here in Austin with a baby, what can I possibly do to help this problem?  I think of St. Therese of Lisieux.  Who believed that if she could just show love through every action then there would be that much more love in the world.  I believe that love and prayer are strong weapons.

So what am I going to do to fight this despair and to fight this hate?  Pray and love.  Because only Love can truly change anything.

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Kale and Panade

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Curly kale

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I have decided that kale is one of my new favorite veggies and definitely my favorite green.  Kale is hearty and strong.  It stays good for a long time and it doesn’t wilt easily.  I like it, I like it a lot.

Related, I had a ton of random veggies leftover that I didn’t know what to do with until I found this absolutely fool-proof recipe for a Panade.  The steps are easy and it came out perfect and tasty.  Into mine went beet greens, bok choy, kale, dandelion greens, carrots, corn, yellow squash, kohlrabi, sausage, onion, garlic, and parmesan cheese.  We had a ton of old leftover bread.  I didn’t even have to use fancy bakery bread, just a bunch of old regular sliced Mrs. Bairds bread.

Give it a try.  It’s a great way to get rid of leftovers.

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Catholic Schools and Gay Parents

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Jesus and children

Image by thuynw_sp08 via Flickr

I’ve been thinking about this post for a while now.  Should Catholic schools allow children with gay parents to attend?  I believe, yes.  And I believe Jesus would say the same thing.  Gay adoption is a whole other issue but if a gay couple comes to a Catholic school and wants to enroll their children, it should be allowed.

Jesus did not say, “Let the children only with perfect parents come to me”. 

Archbishop Charles Chaput of Denver issued a statement explaining the general policy of the archdiocese. “If parents don’t
respect the beliefs of the church, or live in a manner that openly
rejects those beliefs, then partnering with those parents becomes very
difficult, if not impossible.”

So according to that statement, what other children are we going to reject based on the lives of their parents?
Single, never married mothers?
Divorced and remarried with first marriage never annulled parents?
Parents that use birth control?
Parents of another faith tradition?

The list could be endless.  And, for that matter, should we start to reject kids that openly reject the beliefs of the Church?  What if a student believes that abortion is ok?  What if students are having sex?  What if a student is homosexual (not that being homosexual is a sin)?  Should we bar them from attending Catholic schools, too?

The purpose of Catholic education is to teach the Faith, teach love for God and neighbor, and to teach ethical decisions making when they are out in the world.  This is something that every child has the right to receive if the parents want them to.

Obviously a gay couple wanting to send their child to a Catholic school would know the position of the Church regarding  homosexual acts and as long as that couple is ok with the fact that the child would be taught this unapologetically, then I see no problem in the child’s attendance.

I read a really interesting article through Commonweal’s blog about why a lesbian couple wanted to send their adopted children to Catholic school.  They adopted 2 boys from Africa and stated that they flourished under the loving environment of the Catholic school with its small student to teacher ratio and “saints for teachers”. 

Can we really turn away children that have the potential to flourish in a Catholic school environment solely on the merit of their homelife?

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