Sep25

An Adventure with Food

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An Adventure with Food

This summer, our family participated in a co-op with our local farm, the Hubbard Farm, which is about two miles from our house.

Each Tuesday evening, I would drive by “The Old Store” with my two little ones and pick up huge baskets full of fresh produce.  My 5-year-old would always get a small bag of candy as a treat.  We would then get home and unpack everything onto our kitchen counter.  It was a thrill to see what we got each week.

When laying out the produce and grouping them, every so often, we’d say, “what is this?”  Spaghetti squash, acorn squash and white squash were a few of the new vegetables we learned about.

The goal of this adventure was to eat more fresh foods, support our local farm and learn new things.

We also made many first-time meals as well, including: eggplant parmesan, homemade salsa, fried green tomatoes, and homemade potato chips.

Here are the informational sites and videos that helped me this summer:

My goal for next year is to learn how to pickle and can!

Jul11

Toy Management

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Toy Management

On Sunday, I had enough of my 5-year-old asking me where his toys were. He had been going on and on for weeks asking us where certain toys were. Sometimes I’d know and point him in the right direction and sometimes I put up with the whining and let him try to find it on his own – which usually led to him finding something entirely different to play with.

For the first time, HE HELPED me clean out all of his toys. (This is something that needs to be done about every 4 months in our house.) I wanted to use it as a lesson in life and show him – visibly – that he has a lot!

I took every single toy in the house and made a pile in his room (I learned this trick from the book, Simple Parenting). He was overwhelmed by the size of the mound. Before we began to categorize, toss and save, I made it a point to talk to him about the mound of toys and have him realize that he has ENOUGH — no need to keep asking for more.

He did well with the exercise. He truly did help me clean it up — which included tossing a lot of junk, putting toys aside for friends to have, storing some for later and organizing the “now” toys in his closet.

This deep cleaning that I usually do twice a year allows us to re-organize everything and change out some of the stored toys to become “now” toys.

I hope I can just go a few weeks without hearing about a lost toy or needing something new.

Mar23

Optimized Parenting

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Optimized Parenting

With two children at home, I’m highly interested in increasing my knowledge of parenting topics.  Specifically, I like to learn more about how to be a great parent and really enjoy my time with my children and family.  I’ve been reading books and blogs on the subject for 5 years now (when the first child was in the belly) and I’d like to begin sharing some of my key learnings and advice on this page.

Recently, we’ve greatly reduced the amount of TV we watch at our house.  We normally let our preschooler watch 1 hour of TV a day and a little more on the weekends – this is actually quite low for American children.  One week, I decided just to keep the TV cabinet closed.  He whined for one morning and one afternoon and that was it.  I just said NO, and he moved on.  There was no discussion involved.  He found something else to do.  We went from watching 2-3 hours a day (as a family) to 2-3 hours a week!

Removing TV from our lives (for the most part), has made our life more simple.  There are less choices in the day and I don’t have to “build in” TV time in my preschooler’s morning routine.  Instead, we sit together at breakfast and I get to hear some of the great thoughts he has in his head.  We have increased those small, special moments during the day that are worth more than gold.  TV had previously filled up our time and not allowed for many of these moments in our life.

Interested in more on this subject?  Check out Simplicity Parenting by Kim John Payne.

Oct18

The Future of Gaming & Sports

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The Future of Gaming & Sports

I’m thrilled that gaming technology is growing away from always being stuck on a screen!  This application is forward-thinking and will certainly become a part of our culture in the years to come.  Kudos to Nokia + Push.

 

Aug20

Giving a NEW product an OLD story

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Giving a NEW product an OLD story

GrowlersPourhouse.com

Recently, I learned that a friend is opening a new bar/restaurant in the NoDa district of Charlotte. While the bar has yet to open, what I already like is that there’s a great story behind it.

 

They will focus on pouring craft beers and serving beer food. Pretty simple. But, the way in which the beer will be poured is quite special – via a beer engine. (This creates a unique “story” for this new establishment.)

They will use an antique Gaskell and Cummings beer engine from 1936 to hand pump the beer.

The Beer Engine

Apparently, not only is this a cool way to serve beer, but it also adds value to the product:

 

“The beauty of Cask-conditioned ales is their unfiltered, unpasteurized nature. These ales are naturally yeast-carbonated through not one, but two rounds of fermentation. When the yeast finish their work for the second time, the beer is left with a very light natural carbonation and a subtle depth of flavor. It is then pulled up to the glass by the force of a hand pump, rather than by the force of a CO2 tank.”

I love that there’s already a cool story for this place. It has a uniqueness about it that will surely transcend to the patrons.

Best of luck to my friends at the Growlers Pourhouse. To check them out, go here: www.growlerspourhouse.com