Professor Mom

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

archives

December 30, 2011
Apple of my eye
One of the rooms I always miss the most when we travel away from home is my kitchen. I miss the space of it, and the light coming in through the windows in the morning; I miss how I feel when I'm in the kitchen, cooking up food for my family, or making myself the first pot of coffee in the morning. At our house the kitchen is very much the heart of the home. I felt this the minute we first saw the house. I didn't care that the walls were covered in 1960s flowery wallpaper, or that we'd have to replace the appliances immediately, they were that bad, or that there were brass knobs...
Baking, Cooking, Family, Holiday, Parenting, Recipes, Vegan Recipes
December 29, 2011
Sweet and salty
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...
Celebrations, Children, Christmas, Holidays, Parenting, Tradition
December 27, 2011
A life like mine
Every year for Christmas, I buy at least one book for L. and T. They love books, and it's not difficult to find one to please them. When I was growing up--and well into my twenties--one of my favorite parts of Christmas was getting a good book or two and spending those lazy, quiet days post-Christmas curled up on the couch by the fire, reading. I thought about those days when I watched L. seated on that same couch, absorbed in the new Steve Jobs biography, and when I happened upon T., on another couch, reading this book: When I shopped for books for the kids this year I happened upon A...
Activities for children, Books, Children, Parenting, Reading
December 26, 2011
Christmas then and now
When the kids tumbled out of the van and into my parents' house, with the usual chaos and excitement and pent-up energy after 6 + hours in the van (I think this was the first roadtrip in many that passed so peacefully--no bickering, no meltdowns from L.!), they converged around the Christmas tree, as they do every year, soaking up the look of it, and lifting the lids of cookie and candy tins, just as they do every year. I love watching my kids rediscover all the things they savor about Christmas at my parents' house--this is the best part of the trip for me. L. especially appreciates...
Children, Christmas, Family, Holidays, Memories, Parenting
December 23, 2011
Stained glass cookies
Scott and I have been working away at a long to-do list this week. We made the most of the three days the kids were still in school to do lots of wrapping, and last-minute gift buying, and organizing the odds and ends that always go along with Christmas. On Thursday we were all home together, and I had cookie baking on my to-do list. Cookie baking--at long last! What I did not have on my list was taking both kids in to the pediatrician. L. has been complaining of a sore throat for a couple fo days now, and T.'s sinus infection, which clearly didn't clear up after the first round of...
Children, Family, Food for Thought, Holidays, Parenting, Recipes, Vegan Recipes
December 21, 2011
Party, deconstructed
I had such a good time cooking and baking for our Christmas party this past weekend. I tried some recipes I've been wanting to for awhile, like this one for sugared cranberries: They were so addictively delicious, the way they popped in my mouth with a sweet-tart burst of juice! I might have eaten away at the entire bowl if I hadn't been so busy. I love tempeh, but it has to be doctored up, in my opinion, to bring out the best of the flavors. I made my own honey-sesame glazed tempeh (mixed about a 1/2 cup of soy sauce with a 1/2 cup of honey and sesame oil and tossed the...
Family, Food for Thought, Parenting, Recipes
December 20, 2011
Legacy
I left the house with L. yesterday at 7:00 a.m, and around the corner to our street we could see the rhythmic rotating smudge of red ambulance lights, breaking the gray morning. My heart fell to think why they might be there--some older neighbor, perhaps in that yellow house on the corner, stricken in the night? "Maybe someone died," L. said, in that abrupt, realistic way 11-year old boys sometimes have of talking.  "Oh no," I said emphatically. "Maybe someone fell and got hurt." I said it because I wanted it to be true--it's too close to Christmas for...
Family, Food for Thought, Holidays, Parenting, Parties, Recipes, Vegan Recipes, Vegetarian Recipes
December 19, 2011
Vegan spinach dip
Yesterday we hosted the family Christmas gathering for Scott's side of the family. I made lots of vegan food, and didn't tell anyone what it was. I've found that announcing things as vegan--or vegetarian--to die-hard, life-long meat-eaters just predisposes them against it, no matter how yummy it tastes. I like to take people by surprise. Once they try something I've made, and exclaim about it, then I'll reveal the "secret." Sometimes the experiment falls flat, as it did this past Thursday, when we had our good friends L. and P. and their kids over for dinner. At...
Food for Thought, Holidays, Parenting, Parties, Recipes, Vegan Recipes
December 16, 2011
Less is more
I've been in meetings most of the week, and trying to control the impatient itch I've been feeling to get out and Christmas shop. On Tuesday though, one of my morning meetings ended surprisingly early so my good friend/colleague L. and I decided to seize the moment and head to some local shops together. While our goal was to holiday shop, somehow, happily, we ended up at my favorite thrift store.  There are few shopping experiences I enjoy more than thrift-store shopping with the right friend. While sorting through odd framed prints and picture frames, I found this: and fell in...
Cooking, Family, Food for Thought, Holidays, Parenting, Recipes
December 14, 2011
Road blocks
L. had a presentation due yesterday in one of his elective classes. He doesn’t talk about schoolwork much (if at all) but he let slip mention of the upcoming presentation a few times these past two weeks--that's how I knew it was big. One time last week he asked me if he’d be in school that next Tuesday. “Of course,” I answered. “Great!” he said. “That’s the day of my presentation.” We didn’t know much about the grading standards for the presentation. It’s an elective class, and all work for electives is supposed to be done...
Children, Homework, Middle School, Parenting, School Daze
December 13, 2011
Parade of lights
In my continued efforts to cheer up T. (she stayed home from school on Monday) I came home from work and we made these cupcakes, and T. licked the bowl clean. By 5:15 the kitchen smelled heavenly. At 5:30 a friend came by to check up on us. She sniffed the air. "Your house smells divine," she said. Then, "How's T.?" "How's Scott?" "How's Willa?" "How are you?" We're all in recovery mode around here. My bronchitis is almost all cleared up, Willa got her stitches out yesterday, and T. soldiers on, waiting for the hives...
Children, Early Learning, Parenting, Shorts, Social & Emotional Issues
December 12, 2011
Gingerbread cheer
Only one full weekend left until Christmas!  I'm trying to make good my promise to myself to make each minute of pre-Christmas preparations, baking, and excitement count for all they are worth. It's been difficult, though. We are still working through the sadness of Scott's grandmother's passing, and her absence this year at our family Christmas gathering next weekend, and I spent Sunday morning in urgent care with T., who had an allergic reaction to the antibiotic she was taking to clear up her sinus infection. As you might know (but I hope not), allergic reactions are...
Christmas, Family, Holidays, Memories, Parenting, Tradition
December 9, 2011
Going solo
Scott left town on Tuesday to fly to Texas for his grandmother's funeral, leaving me to solo parent for a few days. After a few days alone with the kids, I am ready to kneel down and worship single parents everywhere--I mean those truly single parents, who take care of their kids 24/7 365 days/year. I've been sick with bronchitis all week, trying to grade final exams, put together end-of-semester reports, tend to our still-invalid dog and the rest of our menagerie, AND recover/learn enough algebra skills to help L. with his homework, and have felt, mostly, barely human. But I'm...
Children, Juggling, Marriage, Parenting, Social & Emotional Issues
December 7, 2011
More thoughts on digging deep
When I posted yesterday's column to my Facebook page I was happy to get quite a bit of feedback/commiseration/perspective back (thank you everyone who posted there, and here, too!). Many parents are struggling with the same issues: trying hard to teach self-motivation to their growing children, making numerous trips up and down stairs to rouse slumbering middle schoolers; cajoling and threatening (and bribing) their kids to get ready on time. I think I was reassured that, for the most part, the type of morning we face with L. seems fairly normal. It also seems that a large...
Childhood, Early Learning, Motherhood, Parenting
December 6, 2011
Digging deep
A couple of weeks ago I ran into an acquaintance/friend who I used to see more often. Her daughter is a year older than L., and an only child. I mentioned to her how rough the mornings are these days, with the early start time now that L. is in middle school. I told her what a battle it was to get him up and out of bed--it's a two-parent job, for certain (three parents would work even better, if we had another one on hand). I expected her to commiserate--I needed her to commiserate--but instead she told me that her daughter gets up on her own at 6:00, fixes herself breakfast, and...
Children, Early Learning, Middle School, Motherhood, Parenting
December 5, 2011
Cherish
My husband's grandmother passed away this weekend. It's not my story to tell, so I won't tell it here, but we walked around sad and heavy-feeling all weekend and everything around us felt very fragile and impermanent, the way it does when a death touches you so closely. Yet life itself is fragile and impermanent--there's no getting around it. We learn this early on, and bury this knoweldge deep inside, where we don't have to look at it everyday. A loss reminds us of this fact, even when we're feeling our most confident, and healthy, and powerful. I'm reposting...
Children, Loss, Motherhood, Parenting, Social & Emotional Issues
December 2, 2011
Big bang
Willa's surgery went very well--thanks for the well wishes! On Wednesday evening, after a long, long day--with an afternoon meeting, and a rush to throw together a simple meal in twenty-five minutes for me and the kids (Scott was teaching late), I tried to take the kids out to the vet hospital for visiting hours. We got lost (driving at night + following directions = disaster for me) and took forty minutes to get to the hospital which couldn't have been on a more tucked away, off-the-beaten-path side-road, dwarfed by towering car dealerships. By the time the kids tumbled out of the...
Children, Lessons from Little Ones, Parenting, Pets, Social & Emotional Issues