Repost: Delicious things to make with summer corn

I've contributed to the Orlando Sentinel's Moms at Work blog since 2010. The blog is changing content management systems and my old posts will no longer be available to the public, so I'm reposting them here, in the order that they were originally posted.


May 25, 2011

You may have noticed that there's a bunch of reasonably priced summer corn in the grocery stores lately -- or if you're especially lucky, you've got some growing close to home. It's so decently priced that I've bought a little bit each time I've been shopping lately, which has left me looking for clever things to do with it.

I was bored with corn on the cob, plain old boiled corn and corn chowder, so I was delighted to stumble on a lovely corn salad recipe. The recipe looked as though it would be delicious as is, but I substituted items I had on hand, for a modified version that came out like so:

Ingredients

5 ears of corn, (shucked, boiled and with kernels removed)

1 red pepper, roasted

3/4 cup of chopped red onion

1/2 cup of chopped mint

1 small zucchini, diced

1/4 cup feta cheese

balsamic vinegar

oil

chili pepper, to taste

salt, to taste

Repost: Could you travel the country with your family for a year?

I've contributed to the Orlando Sentinel's Moms at Work blog since 2010. The blog is changing content management systems and my old posts will no longer be available to the public, so I'm reposting them here, in the order that they were originally posted.


May 18, 2011

I'd love to be able to take a year off to travel with my family -- at least, I like to tell myself that.

My husband and I have fantasized about buying an RV and taking a year to introduce our daughter to every nook and cranny of the continental U.S., perhaps when she's in middle school.

It's likely to remain just a fantasy, though.

When I look at the preparations Orlando mom Britt Reints has made for a year-long trip with her family, it makes me rethink how I'd feel about doing the same with the people I love most. She's sold most of what her family owns, her husband's taking a year off from work and her family will be embracing homeschooling.

You know what? I may not be cut out to do all that.

First and foremost, RVs are expensive, and I think I can find better uses for that much cash. Also, I am absolutely a city girl, so although such a trip sounds great in theory, I'd probably be deeply unhappy spending so much time away from cities. And don't even mention camping, which would have to be a regular part of traveling with an RV. The mere word "camping" makes me shudder in horror  (I'm secretly hoping my daughter never wants to be a Girl Scout).  Finally, as much as I love my family, I think the minor things I find annoying about them and that they find annoying about me would be heightened if we had to spend so much time together.

Could you spend a year traveling with your family in an RV?

On Leonard Cohen's song 'Hallelujah"

This a lovely post about Leonard Cohen's song "Hallelujah," which reached greater heights upon the release of Jeff Buckley's cover of it.



An excerpt.



Enjoy:

"Transcendence is a strange thing, and even something as earthy as physical love can be the conduit for it. You can listen to the Leonard Cohen version of “Hallelujah” ten million times without getting half the buzz off it that the first ten seconds of the Jeff Buckley version gave me. And of course my opinion is not universally held. There are plenty of people who think that Leonard Cohen did it right and Jeff Buckley messed it up. But when I read about the song’s history, what had happened to it over time, I couldn’t help but think that somehow even though he was writing about orgasms, Jeff Buckley got at something more emotional and more fundamental than Cohen had been able to."

Repost: Judging other people's parenting choices -- on the Internet

I've contributed to the Orlando Sentinel's Moms at Work blog since 2010. The blog is changing content management systems and my old posts will no longer be available to the public, so I'm reposting them here, in the order that they were originally posted.


May 11, 2011

How would you respond if you knew someone had taken a picture of your child in public specifically to put the picture on a website dedicated to ridiculing a parenting choice you'd made?

Ladies and gentlemen, meet Too Big for Stroller, a website featuring pictures of children (albeit with their faces obscured) the photographer or writer judges to be too large to ride in a stroller.

This entire concept is unsettling, mostly because the writer, who admits that she has no children, has no idea why the "too large" children are in strollers.

Several of the pictures of children seem to have been captured at amusement parks, for example, which are places that can tire out adults and be completely brutal to small children. It's also possible that a child whose legs hang over a stroller is quite young but simply large for his or her age.  Although the writer says she's careful not to post photos of kids with physical disabilities, it's also entirely possible that some of the photographed children have some sort of physical, emotional or other developmental disability that the writer or photographer doesn't perceive.

And last, but certainly not least, I get that it can sometimes be fun to judge other people, but can we all agree that it's creepy to take pictures of other people's kids without permission, even if your aim isn't some sort of Mean Girls-style carping?

My daughter's still traditionally stroller-sized, but since my husband often isn't home by the time I take my afternoon run, I end up taking her along in a jogging stroller. I intend to do so for quite some time, and let me tell you, I'd be upset if a picture of her ended up on a website like this.

Wait, not upset. Livid. I'd be livid.

What do you think of this website? Are children in public fair game? Is it out of line to photograph other people's children and put the pictures on a website?

[h/t Jezebel]

Repost: What parents hope for their children, Tina Fey-style

I've contributed to the Orlando Sentinel's Moms at Work blog since 2010. The blog is changing content management systems and my old posts will no longer be available to the public, so I'm reposting them here, in the order that they were originally posted.


May 4, 2011

Tina Fey's new book, Bossypants, is on my to-be-read list, and I've really enjoyed several excerpts I've seen from it lately. I can't wait 'til I get a chance to dig into it.

One of the funniest excerpts I've seen is this one, called "A Mother's Prayer for her Child." It actually made me laugh out loud, especially since I, um, disappointed my own parents in a couple of these ways (sorry about the tattoos, Mom and Dad!).

Enjoy.

"First, Lord: No tattoos. May neither the Chinese symbol for truth nor Winnie-the-Pooh holding the FSU logo stain her tender haunches.

May she be Beautiful but not Damaged, for it’s the Damage that draws the creepy soccer coach’s eye, not the Beauty.

When the Crystal Meth is offered, may she remember the parents who cut her grapes in half And stick with Beer.

Guide her, protect her when crossing the street, stepping onto boats, swimming in the ocean, swimming in pools, walking near pools, standing on the subway platform, crossing 86th Street, stepping off of boats, using mall restrooms, getting on and off escalators, driving on country roads while arguing, leaning on large windows, walking in parking lots, riding Ferris wheels, roller-coasters, log flumes, or anything called “Hell Drop,” “Tower of Torture,” or “The Death Spiral Rock ‘N Zero G Roll featuring Aerosmith,” and standing on any kind of balcony ever, anywhere, at any age.

Repost: Diaper prices are going up again

I've contributed to the Orlando Sentinel's Moms at Work blog since 2010. The blog is changing content management systems and my old posts will no longer be available to the public, so I'm reposting them here, in the order that they were originally posted.


April 27, 2011

Add diaper prices to the long list of items costing more these days because of increased prices for fuel.

Procter & Gamble has announced that it is raising prices for Pampers by 7 percent -- although the price of a box of Luvs will stay the same.

I didn't have the patience to deal with cloth diapers when my daughter was born, but as the cost of disposable ones goes up, I feel a twinge of regret about that.

Luckily, she's showing signs that she might be ready for potty training within the next couple of months. I'll be thrilled when I can remove diapers permanently from my shopping list and budget.

Have you noticed increased prices lately for other staples you buy regularly for your children?

Repost: How we dress our daughters and sons

I've contributed to the Orlando Sentinel's Moms at Work blog since 2010. The blog is changing content management systems and my old posts will no longer be available to the public, so I'm reposting them here, in the order that they were originally posted.


April 20, 2011

I'm not the first person to notice that today's kids seem to wear clothes that are much more mature than the ones kids wore in the past.

A couple of weeks ago, my fellow Moms at Work blogger Katie Powalski wondered whether today's mothers feel too paralyzed by the truths of their own pasts to curb their daughters' attempts to behave in too mature a fashion.

This week, it's CNN commentator LZ Granderson, who said he was appalled recently to notice an elementary-school age girl in clothes he thought appropriate for a much older woman.