Summer vaca, first day

I'm a hoarder. It must come from having lived through the depression. Oh wait. I didn't live through the depression. I did have grandparents who said things like, "If we wipe off these paper plates, we can use them again." Or, "Here, let me have that wrapping paper. We can use it next Christmas." So I hoard. I buy things I love and then never use them for fear of running out.

And I love Limonata. Oh how I love it. It reminds me of Schwepps Bitter Lemon (my favorite childhood drink aside from Coke...I am a southern girl after all!) which I can't find at all anymore. When we were in California, I could get it at Beverages and More(!), but no where here. So on to Limonata. We can only get it in the can at Trader Joes (and our nearest one of those is just over 30 minutes away), so when I get it, I hoard it. For a too brief time I was the only one in our family who drank it. Callum didn't like anything "fuzzy" (his word for carbonated drinks), and Neel only drinks wine, coffee, martinis and scotch. So slowly, slowly, I would work my way through the three six packs I'd bring home from TJs every few months. This was a special occasion drink. I'd save it for a nice dinner when I didn't want wine, or a Friday lunch on my own while I watched CSI Miami. Ah, what a treat.

Then something terrible happened. Callum tried my Limonata one day and liked it. What the hell was I thinking?! Now he likes it and wants it. On all occasions. Even ones that aren't special treats. Like a regular every day lunch for crying out loud. For awhile I staved it off by sharing. Half for him and half for me. Then he wanted his own. Upstart. I said no. A lot. Only for special occasions, and lunch, just this plain old boring lunch of tuna salad and mac and cheese is not special enough. My question is this: am I raising him to be a hoarder just like me? Is he doomed to either never use the things he buys (like the Valentine's Day candy corn that I still have stashed in the pantry...not because I didn't like it or because I got tired of it, but because, well, what if I run out? Before the next Valentine's Day?) or to treat every occasion as a special occasion (like lunch on a Friday in front of CSI Miami).

These are some important parenting issues to ponder, but today we just relaxed. I'm calling it the first day of summer vacation because we've been gone and the end of last week was nothing more than recovery. Not that we're not all still recovering. Everyone is on a sleep-til-you-wake-up policy (that means 5:45 a.m. for me and 8:45 a.m. for Neel), and then we stayed in our jammies for a lot of the day. Callum and I had Book Club (he read me some Pooh, and I read him some Lloyd Alexander), and then we decided to make Neel a really nice supper.

It took all day.

The recipe is from Ina (Barefoot Contessa, at Home).

Callum chopped the cucumbers after I cooked the beets.

This part was concerning. Where we added the broth and sour cream and yogurt. And it didn't look at all like borscht.

But we soldiered on, adding the carefully diced cukes and beets, hoping things would start to pink up.

Callum used my favorite kitchen tool ever, my mezzaluna, to chop the dill.

After chilling for several hours, during which we had to check it regularly and stir it a bit, just to make sure the beets were still doing their work, we got this!

We set a nice table.

And what's this? This plate of deliciousness? I got this recipe from NPR. Their "From the Kitchen" segment did an article about cherries and this salad is from that article. Go check their site, but it's pretty simple really. The dressing blends cherries, mint, olive oil, rice wine vinegar, some edemame and salt and pepper. Mix the dressing with a cup of edemame (we used a little more actually, and that worked better), put it in the center of a plate ringed with smoked salmon. YUM.

For all of his hard work, Callum got one of these. First day of summer vacation, a special occasion indeed.

olives or aquamarines

On the metro from Athens to Piraeus.

Callum's been playing a new game lately. "What do you like more...?" and then he fills in the blanks with things that are increasingly harder for me to choose from. The only rule, and this is payback for years of my own unwillingness to compare things, is that I can't say, "apples and oranges." I have to choose. He has some of the quirkiest categories, like "olive oil or gold," or (maybe not so odd, but hard to pick) "beach or pool." I got a lot of this on this trip. When he was feeling neglected, the choices turned maudlin... "sapphires or me..." to which I'd have to say something like, "Who are you again?" I mean really kid, give me a break.

But here I am faced with my own dilemma. Is is better to have to wade through nearly 3 GIGS of photos from our trip and choose from my favorites or to have no photos at all?

No brainer.

Not "apples and oranges."

But, I have some work to do, clearly, before I can bore everyone with a serious pictorial history.

I always come back from a trip feeling really restless. I look around my house, my things, my whole life, totally dissatisfied. I want less things, better food, more time. If I were Greek (and a man), I'd close the door on all the unpacking and laundry and pantry restocking and head to the taverna for an ouzo, some mezedes, and several hours of sitting, watching and talking. In some ways it's exciting to think about reframing my life a bit, making it more Greek-like. Tamping the clutter (and tv) down to live more compactly. Constantly on this trip, I was pulling Callum in closer to me. He'd sprawl on the lobby floor of the hotel, pushing his ship back and forth, totally oblivious to the people who had to walk around him, or detour their rolling luggage out of his way. I wanted to reduce his footprint. Now that I'm home, I want to reduce mine.

But there is so much stuff. It swirls like static around me. Neel doesn't think I could leave it all behind me, all this stuff, and move to my Cycladic dream home. I can't move to my Cycladic dream home (yet...although I'll have some photos of some of my options to show you soon!), but I can make it happen here. I might need some therapy, or a personal organizer first, but I could wake up and take a frappe' out to the back yard with me every morning rather than turn on the TODAY show. I can cook from my pantry and not overbuy each week at the grocery store. I can reduce my clutter so there's less to do to maintain it. And then, I can settle in. Summer is a good time to try.

And in case you're wondering, I got a lot more olives (every meal) than aquamarines (none) on this trip. Even though I tried!

back safe, home again

Ahhh...Greece. It was so worth the 23 hours of travel it took us to get home yesterday. I have so much to show and tell, things like olives at breakfast and sleeping under an umbrella by the Aegean, but for now it's enough to have the early morning house to myself (my body thinks it's noon still) with Neel and Callum sleeping upstairs. Lucy is dogging (get it?) my every step, the crepe myrtle is blooming (!), and I didn't miss the hydrangeas (!), and our golden rain tree out front is deep yellow, showing me that color comes earlier to Virginia, compared to the same trees that line the streets of Athens.

More stories and pictures soon, bu for now I'm going to look up a recipe for frappe, buy a new Greek cookbook, and have a look at this which came while I was gone...and generally try to figure out how to make my life more Greek...

the BIG TRIP

And if I had a boat
I'd go out on the ocean
And if I had a pony
I'd ride him on my boat
And we could all together
Go out on the ocean
Me upon my pony on my boat

After many days of spinning around and debating things like where to stay, how to get there and what to knit, my family is preparing to leave on our BIG TRIP.

Nothing like a couple of weeks here to really make you feel like you're on vacation.

One of the nicest things about Neel being a scientist (aside from how lovely it is to be married to someone who truly loves what he does in the world) is scientific-meeting season.  It's a meeting that's getting us here in the first place, but as long as we flew all this way we may as well tack on a few days of family fun.

And since I know you're wondering, I'm taking  Monkey Socks, a scarf pattern (lace) and trying some embroidery (thanks again, Alicia, for your timely and inspiring post).  I will take lots of photos and hope to download and post as we go.  Keep checking back!

Kiss my ass I bought a boat
I'm going out to sea

winding up, winding down

We had a much needed all-day rain on Sunday, and two nights of big storms this week as well. The energy of the earth is shifting toward summer, but with some cool days still hovering, hasn't quite made it yet. We have a day and a half left of school, and as my three or four loyal blog readers know (come on Dad, would it kill you to leave a comment now and then?) on the day after school lets out, our family leaves on a BIG TRIP.

We're winding down and winding up.

I meet with a group of women for coffee and breakfast every Wednesday...well, the group meets each week and I make it there sporadically. I've been part of these women for about three years now, and the core group has been getting together for maybe six years (now maybe I'll get a comment as someone tells me how long it's really been!). Yesterday was our last of the year, and a birthday one to boot, so I really wanted to go. I don't always do my best in groups like this. In larger numbers I tend to retreat more than engage, but oh, imagine my joy when I was first invited to come along. Finally, finally that elusive feeling of belonging (It was a real Sally Field moment for me, I can tell you that much!). Not much has ever filled that junior high school hole in quite the way that these Wednesday morning meetings have.

Being there yesterday reminded me of how groups like this have a life of their own, really. This Wednesday-morning breakfast is its own living entity, has a heartbeat almost independent of the women who sit around the table. People move in and out of this weekly ritual, sometimes the crowd is intimate, sometimes we're pushing four tables together, always we're checking in, sharing stories and making plans. As we got up from the table yesterday, six of us were in the last days of the school year while one still had some days left to go, one of our husbands is about to be deployed, two of our children were "graduating" from the eighth grade, one of us jumps head first into a new job and four of us were getting ready to leave on trips. Safe travels everyone, happy summer.

First grade did their own celebrating yesterday, with a party for the volunteers who've helped out in the room. Neel got an invitation, and I callously barged my way in under the guise of "taking pictures." The kids worked hard on this event, and it was clear how proud and excited they were to open their class to the grown-ups. What a cliche, but where did the year go? Callum's had such an amazing experience at school, and one of my regrets about spiraling out of control this week (that BIG TRIP is looming, you know!), is that I haven't been able to really savor his last days of school. I'm dying to get a picture of him with his teacher, but she's elusive...kind of like a fairy with a distinct Susan Sarandon vibe. She opened up the world of learning for these kids, coated it with a layer of glitter and tossed it up in the air for them to catch. He caught that glowing, crystal ball and took off running with it. What a gift. Safe travels everyone, happy summer.