Professor Mom

Aliki
Chronicles the life of a mom, teacher, and writer trying to stay sane amid the chaos of daily life.

archives

December 31, 2008
Golden abundance
I've always found New Year's Day to be a bipolar sort of occasion, marked by extreme opposite ranges of emotions all crowding in for time in the spotlight. Even as a young child, I always felt both the thrill of a new year and the weight of the passage of time. I remember being awed and saddened, too, by the idea that one year was gone forever. I was often, on New Year's Eve, kept awake by the thought that a new year awaited, stretching out ahead like an empty patch of ocean, and that the familiar landscape of the poor old year, with all its bumps and glorious parts, had receded away into the...
Children, Cooking, Family, Food for Thought, Greece, Holidays, Recipes, Traditions
December 30, 2008
Tea with T.
I had really grand intentions of making a potato pizza yesterday. I never in a million years would have thought about the words potato and pizza in the same sentence, let alone recipe, but apparently I have been missing out on a true gastronomic pleasure. I discovered the recipe for the pizza when I discovered this site, which I have known about for some time now, but just haven't had the chance to sit down and take a look. A part of me knew that, with one click, I'd be lured into endless archives filled with delectable recipes and menu plans. With all the holiday baking going on, I just...
Activities for children, Children, Daughters, Moms, Parenting, Preschool, Social & Emotional Issues, T.
December 29, 2008
Absence makes the heart grow fonder
I think there's a famous saying that in order to truly appreciate a place, you have to leave it first. This applies so perfectly to how I feel about Washington, D.C. When I was growing up, we were only a short car drive away from the heart of the city. Sometimes on the weekends, as a treat, we would drive down to the museums, and as an even bigger treat, we sometimes would get lunch or a snack at the Cascade Cafe (at the National Gallery of Art). Sometimes we'd get to ride the carousel; other times my parents would buy us a bag of popcorn, or a street pretzel from the vendors along the...
Children, D.C., Family Activities, Family Travel, Holidays, Museums, Parenting, Travel with Children
December 26, 2008
The day after
It took approximately 5 hours and 35 minutes yesterday for the Christmas Day dust to settle and for there to be a window of relative quiet and peace following the frenzy of cinnamon-bun eating, coffee-drinking, present-opening, present-assembling, present-playing. Then we grown-ups, fingers tingling and aching from having assembled ridiculous numbers of Matchbox raceways, shortwave radio kits, wooden dollhouses, and puzzles, collapsed on the couch, thankful in a way that Christmas only comes once a year. (My ever-patient brother assembling a racetrack that would have sent me to bed for...
Children, Christmas, Family, Holidays, Lessons to Live By, Parenting
December 23, 2008
Holiday Food Traditions
As creative as my extended family is, we seldom vary the food we eat for holidays. Oh, sure -- we alter the peripheral parts of the holiday meals, but the core traditions stick. I venture to guess you have some food traditions, too. When I was a child, my family always spent Christmas Eve at my Uncle Dick and Aunt Susan’s home, eating, eating, eating the night away. It was so fun to see the gobs of gourmet dishes that graced their dining room table each year. Perennial favorites were my mom’s Bacon Wrapped Water Chestnuts, my aunt’s Meatballs, Shrimp Cocktail,...
Holidays
December 23, 2008
Home for the holidays
T. and I officially finished all of our holiday baking yesterday. And even though I love holiday baking and cookie-making, I have to say that by the time the last of the dough remnants were scraped off the counter, and the last bowl washed, and the last tray of cookies taken out of the oven, I was more than happy to have reached the end of it all. Every year I start down the road of holiday baking filled with energy and enthusiasm and holiday zest, and every year I get to this point (a few days shy of Christmas itself), and am more than ready to never see a batch of cookie batter or a jar of...
Children, Christmas, Family Travel, Food for Thought, Holidays, Parenting, Recipes, Traditions, Traveling with Kids
December 22, 2008
What to do about you-know-who
I had a disturbing and utterly frightening dream last night; the kind of dream that sends chills down a parent’s spine this time of the year. I dreamed that it was Christmas morning and that we’d all—everyone in my family—completely forgotten to fill the Christmas stockings, or—horror of all horrors!—leave cookies and milk out for Santa. Of course, I have to add here that even the horror of this dream did not compare to the reality of having actually left behind, two states away, some of T.'s critical Santa presents last year—but that's another story. In my dream last night, I felt a knot of...
Children, Christmas, Lessons from Little Ones, Parenting, Parenting Advice, Social and Emotional Issues
December 19, 2008
Sweet and salty (or salty and sweet)
Even though I am, by nature, a positive-minded person (at least I like to think I am), I also go through my days keenly aware of both the sweet and salty sides of life--the joyful and the bitter, the two-sidedness of every experience--especially as a parent. I've often written about how each exciting, monumental milestone along the road of your child's development--that first tooth poking through a pink gum, the first bow-legged tentative steps, the first words, the first of everything (because there is NOTHING like being a parent and getting to witness the unfolding of life firsthand) has...
Activities for children, Children, Christmas, Food for Thought, Grandparents, Lessons to Live By, Life in General, Parenting, Recipes
December 18, 2008
Deconstructed Cheddar Soup
Is there anything like a bowl of warm soup on a cold (nearly) winter's day?  I love the simplicity of having a hearty meal in one bowl, perfected by some crusty bread to dip in it. Cheddar Broccoli Soup is a favorite of mine, but usually it's richness comes from lots of extra, not-so-healthy ingredients and calories. This soup recipe is full of vegetables, much lighter than a typical cheese soup and serves as a terrific base for adding all sorts of good things. It is also kid-friendly, as the base of the soup can serve as the launch pad for adding whatever things you think your family...
Dinner, Healthy Soups
December 18, 2008
Gifted education
Are you done with your holiday shopping yet? We're not. Scott and I have been spending the past three mornings in various stores, our long list clutched in our hands. And although I wish we had done more of it earlier, it's nice that now that the semester is over, the two of us get some one-on-one time together to shop, and talk, and catch up. And kid-free holiday shopping is so much easier to get done. Taking your own children into a toy store right before Christmas is not a fun experience at all, although it can be a useful experiment in the weeks before Christmas, when you can stand back...
Children, Christmas, Holidays, Parenting Advice, Parents, School Daze, Shopping, Teachers
December 17, 2008
My top six best party foods EVER
Because we travel for the Christmas holidays, we love to host a party or two this time of the year. There's something a little sad about a decked-out house at Christmas when no one but the four of you get to see it and fill the rooms with laughter and warmth. Plus, we love to entertain, and Christmas parties are always such fun, and such a great occasion for cooking up warm and fragrant treats in the kitchen. We have piles of Christmas records we love to play (remember--we're quirky and collect records) and no matter how digitally mastered CDs are, there's something evocative about...
Activities for children, Cooking, Family Activities, Food for Thought, Holidays, Parties, Recipes
December 16, 2008
Still Celebrating Halloween?
So here we are on the precipice of Christmas and I feel as though Halloween has not fully ended. Why? First, some background… When my boys went trick-or-treating six weeks or so ago, SPH (Sweet Pea Husband) and I were appalled at how much candy we had allowed R and G to amass. Halloween is a big deal in our neighborhood; people go all out with their decorations--and also, apparently, with their candy.  We had tons of full-size and even (gasp!) king-size candy in our pint-size little boys’ bags. Perhaps since this was the first year we had two little boys...
Holidays, Sugar
December 16, 2008
Bag of tricks: the (special needs) holiday survival edition
Ever since Scott and I got married, we have traveled back home for the Christmas holiday. We used to travel for Thanksgiving and Christmas, but once we became parents, traveling for two back-to-back holidays became pretty unmanageable. In the old, pre-kid days, and even in the days when L. was very small, we used to travel home at Christmas for a long block of days, and spread ourselves thin over family visits (both our families live in the same area--and for those of you who think this might make things easier, trust me, it does NOT). We have several friends who do the same thing every year...
Bag of Tricks, Children, Christmas, Family, Family Travel, Holidays, Parenting, Social & Emotional Issues, Special Needs, Traveling with Kids
December 15, 2008
Litmus test
Yesterday afternoon I held a week-and-a-half-old baby for a long while, marveling at his tiny fingers and feet, and the way his hair lay in flat wisps across his scalp. I held him tentatively at first, then with more certainty, and watched his body twitch the way newborns do when they are fast asleep. I held him, and I held my breath, too, worried about what I would feel. Earlier in the afternoon, Scott had called on the way home from a tennis match. He proposed a quick visit to my sister-in-law's later that afternoon to see the new baby. "Oh, I don't know about today," I said, even though we...
Babies, Family, Growing Up Is Hard to Do, Parenting, Social & Emotional Issues
December 12, 2008
Three things I learned about gingerbread houses
Yesterday afternoon, T. and I snuck in a quick trip to the grocery store before we picked L. up from school. During final exams week, our house not only falls into a state of messiness and clutter (who can clean when they're knee-deep in grading?), but we tend to run out of necessities like food. While we were trying to find some bakery bread for L.'s lunch, T. spied a kit for making a gingerbread house. "Look Mama!" she exclaimed, "A Hansel and Gretel house!" She was a little worried about whether the kit came with a gingerbread witch, but I explained that there was no evil witch in the box...
Activities for children, Arts & Crafts, Children, Christmas, Family Activities, Holidays
December 11, 2008
Gifts from the Kitchen
If the word “canning” conjures up images of your grandma in a steamy-windowed kitchen all day mixing chemistry and culinary arts, I am about to challenge your notion of it. Up until last year I was weary of canning, as I thought it would require a whole bunch of equipment and items that I didn’t want cluttering up my kitchen.  Lo and behold, canning can be done with normal, everyday items, without a huge fuss. The recipe below is for pickles I tasted over the summer, when I was visiting my aunt and uncle.  The pickles were fabulous, and my aunt and uncle told me, “This is Ann’s...
Gifts from the Kitchen, Homemade Snacks
December 10, 2008
Bag of tricks: the giving edition
I'm knee-deep in final exams this week. Last night I was up until 11:45 calculating grades, and when I went to bed and closed my eyes, I saw small numbers and percentages and class participation points, instead of visions of sugar plums. This is the time of the semester when I get a type of tunnel vision: All I want to do is make it through the next exam, the next batch of exam grading, and the next set of calculations. At the other end of it all is Christmas, a tantalizing and magical oasis shimmering in front of me, my favorite time of the year. Lying ahead are days spent with my family,...
Bag of Tricks, Charities, Children, Christmas, Family Activities, Holidays, Shopping
December 9, 2008
Breaking up is hard to do
The semester is winding down and my days will free up a little for about a week, so I am compiling a long list of appointments I need to make for the kids, and things I need to get done. The list looks something like this so far: *Flu shots for kids (they'll love that one) *Schedule dentist appointments for kids (ditto that one) *Eye exam for L. (he wears glasses, but the school's eye exam tested him as needing a new prescription) *Look into finding a new pediatrician That last one has been a long time coming, but breaking up with a pediatrician is hard to do. I have nothing against the...
Children, Family, Health, Parenting, Parenting Advice, Special Needs
December 8, 2008
New Beginnings
When I was pregnant with my first son, I read just about anything and everything people recommended to me about pregnancy and preparing for life with a newborn. But one anecdotal story particularly piqued my interest. Someone (and for the life of me, I cannot remember who…I blame the subsequent sleep loss and constant state of distraction that stem from parenting) told me that she had heard of a study of pregnant women and carrots. Why were pregnant women and carrots of such interest to me? Well, the study went something like this: Take two groups of pregnant women. Give Group A...
Tales from the Sweet Pea Kitchen
December 8, 2008
Cooking love
I was speaking with a friend recently about party-planning, and she confessed to me that she hates cooking. It stresses her out, and makes her feel incompetent and flustered. I'm the exact opposite: Cooking actually relaxes and de-stresses me. When I'm in the kitchen, mixing and pouring, or kneading dough, with the smells from the different ingredients rising up around me and my T. helping in her own messy ways, I feel a sense of peace and calm. I thought about this on Saturday morning as I prepared food for the family Christmas party we hosted. I mixed in molasses for this bread, by far one...
Actiities for Children, Children, Food for Thought, Greece, Holidays, Recipes, Social & Emotional Issues, Tradition
December 5, 2008
Marshmallow heaven
Every now and then I'll embark on a baking/kitchen project I was once intimidated by and realize that it was really a lot simpler than I thought it would be. This happened when I made bagels for the first time, and the first time I ever baked my own bread, and while making doughnutswas a bit of a project, it wasn't too difficult in the end (just sticky and time-sensitive). Last year when I was shopping at Trader Joe's with T., we spied some "homemade" vanilla marshmallows. T. is a devout marshmallow lover. This is a tricky issue at our house because marshmallows, which contain gelatin, are...
Actiities for Children, Cooking, Food for Thought, Gifts, Holidays, Recipes, Vegetarian
December 4, 2008
Shelved
Yesterday when I picked up T. from preschool, I stood outside with the father of T.'s best-friend-forever, J., while the girls played "Ariel and Flounder" on the front lawn. We talked about current behavior woes (4-1/2 seems to be a universal age for these complaints), and I thought about how much I'll miss the chance to share parenting stories with other moms and dads when T. leaves preschool and moves on to kindergarten. We don't have a lot of friends with kids exactly T.'s age, and I enjoy the few minutes in the hallway outside her classroom each day, or outside in front of the...
Children, Christmas, Discipline, Holidays, Parenting, Parenting Advice, Preschoolers
December 3, 2008
Spread the love
We have a saying around Professor Mom's house in the weeks leading up to Christmas: Out with the old, make room for the new. The upcoming Christmas holiday is the perfect time, I think, to encourage your kids to help sort out and part with old toys, stuffed animals, and clothing that they no longer need or use. The clothing part is easy--both of my kids are usually pretty willing to part with outgrown clothing. The toy part, however, is another story. Even toys that have sat unused in the back of the closet for a solid year suddenly become the most important, precious, treasured things...
Activities for children, Charities, Children, Early Learning, Family, Family Activities, Holidays, Lessons from Little Ones, Parenting, Social & Emotional Resources
December 2, 2008
Snowflakes
One tradition T. and I started two years ago (a tradition which, thankfully, has not fallen by the wayside yet) is to make our own paper snowflakes the weekend we decorate the tree. The first year we did these, they were simple paper ones, and I used a hole punch to attach the string at the top. We hung them from the tree, from the kitchen ceiling lamp, from the dining room chandelier--we had white paper snowflakes everywhere. This year we got more ambitious and decorated them with silver and gold glitter.  If you shuddered at the thought of glitter when I first mentioned it, then you'...
Actiities for Children, Arts & Crafts, Children, Christmas, Decorating, Family Activities, Traditions
December 1, 2008
Unpacking the past (and future)
Even though all the evil super mega stores and malls everywhere decide each year to decorate for Christmas the day after Halloween, we pride ourselves on managing to hold out until a day or two after Thanksgiving. When I was growing up, we never decorated for Christmas until about a week or so before Christmas Eve. Every year as a child, I thought I would spontaneously combust on the spot from sheer impatience. I have always loved Christmas and decorating the house for the holidays. And while I really do think we need to give Thanksgiving its moment in the spotlight (it is also one of my...
Arts & Crafts, Children, Christmas, Growing Up Is Hard to Do, Holidays, Parenting, Social & Emotional Issues, Traditions