My friend Tina always makes the best salads and for years, I couldn’t figure out how she did it. She is a great cook in every department – desserts, main courses, kid-friendly meals – but her salads are noticeable simply because most salads aren’t. Specifically, mine. Whenever we had people over for dinner, I’d put effort into the rest of the meal, but the salad would always be made up of a store-bought dressing tossed in with some lettuce and sunflower seeds. Good, but not memorable. So a couple of months ago I finally asked her what her secret was. She answered, “Recipes. That’s it. I always use recipes to make salads.” It’s simple and probably obvious but I’d never thought of it.

And so, I’ve started using recipes to make salads and I have to say, I’ve been making some pretty awesome salads recently.

Here are a few worth sharing. You can click on the title of the salad to go to the original recipe:

Harvest Salad Recipe

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts (I didn’t have walnut and substituted salted sunflower seeds, which worked well)
• 1 bunch spinach, rinsed and torn into bite-size pieces
• 1/2 cup dried cranberries
• 1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese
• 2 tomatoes, chopped
• 1 avocado – peeled, pitted and diced
• 1/2 red onion, thinly sliced
• 2 tablespoons red raspberry jam (with seeds)
• 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
• 1/3 cup walnut oil (I used olive oil)
• freshly ground black pepper to taste
• salt to taste

Then she woke up.

All three of our girls spent the past six months preparing to be in The Wizard of Oz. We listened to the soundtrack nonstop in our car, ordered every potential ruby slipper from Zappos, and watched Lucy practice her tornado moves across the kitchen floor before dinner.

As the time grew closer, the girls were excited and nervous about the play. Eevee started having stage fright dreams, especially when she found out that she’d also need to step in for another Dorothy and perform with another cast.

When the big day arrived, Eevee pointed out the “Dear Stomach, Sorry about the butterflies!” graffiti in the room backstage and Lu described her fellow actors as “just a bunch of kids running around, shaking with anxiety!” But when the music started, Eevee was wearing her costume and knew all her lines, Lu’s confidence on stage belied any nervousness and Noni, well you pretty much can’t go wrong when you’re four years old and dressed in a flying monkey costume.

I was so proud of all three of them for all of their hard work. And I love the lesson that they got from doing the play. Despite the butterflies in their bellies, they went on stage and had a great time. I also love the lesson that Boulder Performing Arts Company taught them about generosity, as they donated all the proceeds from ticket sales to There With Care.

Probably my favorite part of the play was looking around at all of the friends and family who came to see it. I feel so grateful that we have such wonderful people in our lives. I’ll never forget Eevee’s face when she looked out into the crowd and saw so many of her best friends in the front row. She couldn’t help but flash a huge smile, even though she was supposed to be worrying about Toto being dragged away on a leash at that moment. Thank you guys for coming!

One of our friends asked me how the girls can adjust to normal life after all the excitement this weekend. The answer? They’re off to practices for 101 Dalmations and Into The Woods this week. We’ve got the soundtracks rocking in the minivan already…

In that post, I wrote about finding inspiration from the book The Story Within. The author of the book puts together a weekly contest each week. Last week the assignment for the contest was to think about a list of ten things that you know by heart and ask yourself why you know them. Then write about that list in 250 words or less. I decided in an effort to keep the faucet running, to give entering the contest a try.

You can read what I wrote here: The Story Within Week 4

We found Eevee waiting to greet us at the entrance:

And then ordered from the menu:

We relaxed (to LMFAO’s Party Rock Anthem, which they play at every spa, right?) while we waited for our food to arrive:

Then we were served by the cutest waitress ever:

And we knew the food was clean and germ-free after we saw this sign in the bathroom:

Watch out Frasca! There’s a new restaurant in town!

1. Noni hasn’t been to school in about a gazillion years (it might be more like four weeks) and my regular exercise routine of biking, yoga and long runs has been somewhat disrupted over the holidays. I managed to get some runs in while Toby watched the girls, but going to a yoga class was out of the question. I tried some yoga videos on Netflix and on youtube, but most of them frustrated me by taking half the time to explain the moves. Having practiced yoga for fourteen years now, I didn’t need to learn downward dog. Then I discovered Bryan Jones. I posted two of his videos below, a warm-up and a half hour of power yoga, and he also has a great abs workout and yoga for weight loss video too. So if you find yourself stuck at home, or on a business trip with your computer, or anywhere without access to a yoga class, here’s my suggestion for the next best thing:

2. When you’re done with yoga, you might be hungry. Here’s a delish recipe for cauliflower soup that I found on allrecipes.com:

Ingredients

• 5 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 leek, chopped
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 carrot, chopped
• 1 teaspoon dried tarragon
• 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup dry white wine
• 6 cups chicken stock
• salt to taste
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground white pepper
• 1 head cauliflower, broken into small florets
• 1 cup milk
• 1 cup heavy whipping cream
• 2 1/2 cups shredded Swiss cheese (optional)

Never play cat and mouse games if you’re a mouse. – Don Addis

It occurred to me last week, as I walked down the street at 10 pm with Pip in my arms, that he might not be aware that he’s a cat. My neighbor had called me minutes before to let me know that Pip was in their mudroom snuggling up with their rottweiler and I should come get him for the night.  Thinking back, perhaps the first clue of his identity crisis was when he freaked out at the image of a kitten in the mirror looking back at him. Maybe he was simply shocked that he wasn’t seeing a reflection of a young boy with a backpack on his back, ready to head to school.

But yesterday, after a mouse poked his head out from behind our stove while we ate dinner with friends, Pip demonstrated that he does, after all, possess feline instincts. Fortunately he waited until our guests (who, I hope, did not notice the mouse) had left. Then, as Toby and I relaxed on the couch in the living room, we looked over to the kitchen and saw Pip sitting on the floor, staring intently at the kitchen countertop, his tail twitching and his body tense. A moment later, he was jumping down from the countertop with something gray and fuzzy in his mouth.

At first, we cheered. Yay! Pip caught the mouse! Cats are the best! What a helpful little guy!  Then I suddenly realized exactly what he was going to do with the mouse and it wasn’t kill it quickly and then carry it outside to bury it in the yard. And so I, um, ran upstairs and locked myself in the playroom and left Toby to take care of the mouse. And from up there I could here Toby encouraging Pip to go outside. Then the encouraging voice turned a little more insistent and then maybe even some swears were uttered and, when I finally emerged and peered over the banister, Pip had his head in a boot and was flipping the boot and himself over and over, trying to get the mouse in the toe of the boot. When he did, he grabbed the mouse in his mouth and then let it go again, encouraging the stunned mouse to make a run for it. The mouse, too terrified to move, stood there until Pip became bored and sprawled out on the floor. Then the mouse darted across the floor and Pip jumped up to catch it again, this time steering the mouse into our guest room. All this time, Toby was trying to catch the mouse but those little suckers are surprisingly quick.

After forty minutes of watching Pip throw the mouse into the air, chase it behind the refrigerator, and generally continue to torture it, we finally decided to just go to bed. But after I slammed our bedroom door and told Pip to try to do his job a little better, he stood outside yowling to be let in. So the mouse torturer, who is still incredibly cute even if he is a little bit evil, spent the night curled up and purring at the end of our bed and I spent the night just waiting for him to get up and then return to drop a bloody half alive mouse on my head.

This morning, once we were all safely awake and out of bed, Pip caught the mouse again. He let it go, of course, but Toby trapped it under a cardboard box and was able to get it outside, where it probably spent the rest of the day being tortured by Pip.

So I learned a couple of things this weekend. Like that Pip definitely knows he’s a cat; that my sweet, adorable kitten would gleefully waterboard a mouse if given the chance; that despite the great reputations that cats have for catching mice, you’re far better off with a good old fashioned mouse trap; and lastly, that you should always check your boots before pulling them on in the morning.

When he's not catching mice, he's trying to catch bubbles in sparkling water...

She was comforted by the thought that somewhere in that range of mountains , she could picture a dusty little mountain town… – Francie’s Fortune

This morning I headed out for a quick bike ride, but it was a beautiful morning and the weather report is calling for six inches of snow on Wednesday so I found myself reluctant to turn around. I kept going up and up until I found myself eleven miles away in Gold Hill. Eleven miles doesn’t seem that far, but I live in Boulder at 5,430 feet, while Gold Hill has an elevation of 8,300 feet. Not to mention that you have to go up higher than that and then down again to get there. Okay, so I know you Boulderites reading this are rolling your eyes, but for me it was plenty challenging.

It was worth the effort. I’ve never been to Gold Hill, but I’ve had several people ask me if it served as the inspiration for the town of Fortune in  Francie’s Fortune. I was actually inspired to write the book after my first visit to the the windswept mountain town of Nederland, but as soon as I arrived in Gold Hill, I felt like my imagination had come true to life. I was relieved, however, not to spot any mountain lions – friendly or not.

It’s hard to get a sense of the town from the pictures I took. For starters, I only had my cell phone, plus I had the whole exhaustion thing going on. But if you’ve read the book, take a look and tell me if they remind you of Fortune!

You know you're getting closer when the pavement ends...

Almost there...

Welcome to Gold Hill sign

Downtown Gold Hill

Could've been Augustus's truck

Some rusty stuff and what looks like a bucket of gold, though I'm guessing it's not a bucket of gold...

General Store

Then I woke up on Sunday morning and read Rapp’s article, Notes from a Dragon Mom. Every parent should read it. It will make you cry, but more importantly, it will make you think about and appreciate all that you have, and realize that all the little things that most of us worry about and complain about as parents are so so insignificant. While Rapp’s story is about raising a child who will die before he reaches the age of three, her message is universal:

This is a love story, and like all great love stories, it is a story of loss. Parenting, I’ve come to understand, is about loving my child today. Now. In fact, for any parent, anywhere, that’s all there is. 

Tiger moms take note.

It didn’t take long for my perspective to shift. I felt incredibly grateful that Lucy was just suffering from a flu, something that kept her in bed for the weekend, but that would soon pass. And I realized how selfish I’d been to spend a minute feeling sorry for myself when I am so incredibly blessed. It was a sad but beautiful reminder to be grateful, always, in each and every moment.

And speaking of being grateful, I saw a graphic on Facebook last week and thought it was another good reminder to appreciate each moment:

Namaste

A couple of weeks ago, we took the girls to Boulder’s Dinner Theater for a wonderful performance of Cats. The costumes were so authentic that they had Noni fooled. At one point, she turned to me and whispered, “I think they’re people. I can tell by their hands.” I so loved that she had even for a moment considered that we were watching giant cats on stage that I was tempted to tell her that the actors were just a rare breed of cats with hands, but of course I resisted.

Noni now knows that half cat/half human creatures don’t exist, but there’s one member of our family who is still in the dark. From day one, our cat Pip has believed he is part human. When the girls have playdates, he eagerly runs out to play with the kids in the yard and meows pitifully at the window if they don’t hold the door for him. And when we walk down to the playground, he follows us.

He doesn’t just think he’s any human either. He considers himself king of the neighborhood, free to roam wherever he chooses. Two weeks ago he chose to roam right into the living room of a house two blocks away and sprawl out on their couch in front of the television. The owner of the house brought him to the vet who scanned his collar. After a call from the shelter, I humbly picked him up an hour later.

Last week, he jumped over our neighbor’s dutch door and landed in their kitchen. They have a giant dog. (Actually a famous dog: click here to see.) Pip landed face to face with him. Fortunately he left their house covered in dog saliva but with all of his paws and ears intact.

Then today, I got a call from the school. It’s never a good thing to see your kids’ school  name on the caller ID as a call from the office probably means one of two things: a sick kid or a kid at the principal’s office. This time, it was about a cat. A little black cat who broke into the school by jumping through the window in the music room, to the surprise and delight of all of the students.

When Noni and I arrived to pick him up, the receptionist at the office told us that yesterday she opened her car door in the school parking lot and Pip jumped right in. She brought us to the room where they were keeping Pip and I was tempted to tell her, “Oh, that cat? Never seen him before!” But I do love him, even if he is a rascal. So I had to carry him home while pushing the stroller. (For the record, this was not a fun walk, as we were walking by dogs and moving cars. Imagine holding a set of flailing knives. Yeah, like that.)

And so now Pip is safely at home, lounging around after an exciting morning. But look at him in the picture below. Doesn’t he just look like he’s plotting his next move?