Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Happy 17 Jina!

17 years ago I welcomed Jina into the world.
Baby Jina
18 years old and a week before my high school graduation.
I had a really rough year and an even rougher pregnancy. I recall watching a lot of the OJ Simpson trial from a hospital bed.
I didn't take any birthing classes.
I didn't even have a significant other. I just went in and had a baby.
I had two friends in the delivery room with me taking a crash course class on how a baby was born.
It seemed like a sitcom episode at times.

Jina had a ton of brown/blonde hair and big doll eyes and had my heart ever since.

Bigger toddler Jina

Her being changed my life for the better. Not in a whole parental legacy way either, let me remind you that I was a bit of a troublemaker. Having her gave me real responsibility. Truly having to care for someone else besides myself. I had to quit being a jerk and do something good pretty promptly.

Jina & Me

Like any aspect of parenting it hasn't always been easy, but its always been "us".
She is an amazing person.
One of my favorite persons.

jul4_2011_jt
Happy Birthday Sunshine-


Friday, May 18, 2012

DIY Mint Extract

DIYMintExtract
DIY Mint Extract

Finally found a use for all my extra mint. DIY mint extract: Bunch of mint, smash it, add vodka, let it chill out for a month, strain, use.  Awesome! I always have way more mint than I can use. Every year when the pineapples or mangos make an appearance in the stores I snatch them up and make my pineapple or mango salsa which has a lot of mint too. 


I have a great picnic rice salad recipe to post. I've been a little swamped with work recently. Story of our lives right? 


I hope this is inspires you to make your own mint extract for holiday cookies or grown up drinks. 
Happy Weekend!


Thea

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Family Pictures

Thea (center) with her kids including the fur baby
The picture above was taken on Mother's Day, this past Sunday for our international friends. If you look very closely you'll notice that this seemingly good family portrait has a classic family element in it.

In my time of being a mom I have never had a family picture that was 100%.
Someone is blinking, looking the wrong way, choking themselves...(I seriously have a picture of my son choking himself in a studio portrait.)
It makes for interesting conversation when I have guests over.

I think since we as a society have moved away from the studio portraits since we have such amazing capabilities with digital we are more relaxed & ourselves in photos. I remember in the 1980's posing awkwardly in knee high socks and ugly pink dresses hating being positioned for the "perfect" picture. It was horrible. But in contrast there is something special about professional family portraits. I have copies of some my family's from the late 1800's. They are pretty amazing.

My youngest daughter has her classroom picture today and I always feel I have to coach my kids into smiling naturally. Not super cheesy anime face smiling. As most visual people I really enjoy looking at pictures to associate a time and place about someone. My kids in particular, duh right?  All though I wish I was better about remembering to print them more often. Are you guys good about that? Do you still take your kids to a studio to get family pictures? I wanna know if I am a slacker mom on this.

Momma's Boy & his Momma
And in case you didn't find the classic "element" in the picture above. Here's a bigger hint.

xo-Thea




Friday, May 11, 2012

What A Mom Really Wants For Mother's Day

Hello internet friends! I chose not to do a big post about Mother's Day.
Some of us lost ours moms, some love our moms dearly, some can't stand being in the same room as our moms and some of us have Asian moms (like me).

But there comes a time in our lives as mothers where we get a selfish bone and say;
"Hey!!! I'm THE mom. - That's MY DAY!" and you just send your mom a card or think a good thought of your mom & call it good and allow your children to lavish you with love and affection above and beyond what they normally do.

I know I just created a little dream scenario for you there. Most of us will end up doing housework and making dinner like any other day.
The alternative is fires in the microwave and messes that you will have to clean up Monday after work.

But I know a lot of mamas and honestly you know what makes us happy, sleep.
Good old fashioned uninterrupted zzzz's.

the first picture of me in 2011
Thea's not enough sleep pose. In the style of a Serendipity Book creature.

So for all of you teenagers/husbands/SOs/best friends of a mama the best thing you can give a mom is a couple extra hours of sleep.

Moms out there, can I get a "Hell Yeah!"

May your dishes be light, may your kids not fight and may Mother's Day do you right.
Have a lovely Mother's Day!

Thea



Thursday, May 10, 2012

Everything is popping up!


The pot broke but they're still growing.
Broken pot but the flowers don't care.

Aside from having random sneezing sessions I really love spring.  Varying shades of green reappear among our dark evergreens.

Lily of the Valley
Lily of the valley flowers.
I actually love all the seasons, not that we actually get them all in the Pacific Northwest but I think I genuinely like them all.  I am especially excited about spring this year because I installed a much larger gardening space in my backyard. 

Yesterday. I can grow food #power
New garden bed - early spring 2012. View from the second floor.
I needed more room for bigger foods, like potatoes, corn and squashes. 

Potato!
Potatoes are coming!
This year with my teenagers seemingly eating up all my groceries as soon as I buy them,  I decided to make an effort to grow as much food as my yard would allow. I've always grown the basics for salads including tomatoes but I wanted to take it up a notch.

Rhubarb
Rhubarb
My kids do participate with gardening. They help me with weeding, removing rocks, watering & general maintenance.  Even simple stuff helps and everyone likes to harvest what has grown. Especially fresh peas.... mmmmm!

Paper Pots Seedlings Progress
Baby tomatoes
I know gardening has been really trendy the past few years among folks in my age group. I think its wonderful and a great sign that people really do care about what they eat and using your spaces to the maximum. Its really such a shame to have a huge lawn and not do anything with it. Right?

On a semi related the Northwest's favorite chicken lady is doing her East Coast leg of her book tour right now. If you happen to be in the Washington DC/Maryland area and are interested in learning to keep chickens be sure to make it out to see her talks.
And don't forget to grab her book too!


Enjoy your gardens!
Thea


Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Senior Year - Introduction Part Two

As mentioned yesterday, my good friend Rebekah & I are doing a project called The Senior Year. Which will be a documentation of our birthday twin daughters Madison & Jina's "last year at home". It's totally for selfish coping reasons but we hope that it will encourage fellow moms who will also be experiencing this milestone to take it all in stride and squeeze every bit of bittersweetness out of it.
Being born 20 minutes later, hence the younger birthday twin this is the conclusion of the introduction - Jina.

--
The past few months Rebekah & I have been commiserating together over mail from colleges addressed to the girls.  Somehow that mail initiated a wave of emotion. This is it. We're in the home stretch, the goal is in sight.

17 is the great in between. Last year it was the driver's license and car. Next year will be graduation & "adulthood".
Ironically Jina often tosses a mini dialogue from a Gilmore Girls episode out at me:

Rory: "There wasn't really a point you know because I get it, he is starting his first real job. I mean, he needs time to adjust and focus and learn the lay of the land. I mean its good that he's trying to be a grown-up. You know, so now I'm trying to be a grown-up. So why am I gonna get all pouty because I don't get to do it?"
Lorelai: "Hmm. Well, that sounds like a real grown-up talking."
Rory: "Thank you."
Lorelai: "You know the one thing that grown-ups don't call themselves?"
Rory: "What?"
Lorelai: "Grown-ups.  They say, "adults," and they pronounce it "ah-dults."
Rory: "It stinks!"


She quotes it because I call myself a "grown up" but oddly enough that quote is relevant to this post.
I mean I get it, Jina is getting older. She needs to focus and learn the lay of the land.
It is supposed to be this way and I shouldn't get all pouty about it.

This is my mantra for this year.

I do consider myself lucky in the sense that she doesn't want to go to an out of state college. She loves the state she was born and raised in. She is hoping to attend a college I once roamed about 3 hours away from where we live now. There she will become the most attractive accountant that has ever existed.
glamspoon3
Jina
I was bragging to a friend about how she wants to stay in state just last week as he was recommending a good car to get her to replace the aging one she has now. He recommended a car that I thought would be bad on gas mileage, when I replied with that and also suggesting that she'll come home to see me often he had the nerve to say, "She's not going to come down and see you every weekend."
I wanted to reach through the phone and punch him for saying such blasphemy!
What does he know?!?! 
Instead I replied, "Yeah, you're right."

Any parent can imagine how crushing it is to know that their daily "reign" is drawing to a close. I will no longer be the daily authority, she will be her own self government. I know that she & I will forever be close but to remove her from my regular daily life will be very hard.  I already cry thinking about emptiness that will come from her inevitable departure. I joke that her room will become my new office but I know in reality it will be sort of a shrine to her.  It will be a museum of her old toys and clothes, scribbles on the wall, old school projects and other things that will illuminate the memory of the little girl that once lived in it. It will become just her room at her mom's house.
I've always known what the term empty nest means but I didn't realize that it would arrive so soon for me. I do have three other children but I am at the cusp of learning whether or not it will become easier with each child that leaves or will it get harder. I'm sensing that the latter is true. I know I sound a touch tragic but when she leaves it starts a snowball effect, my kids are only a couple years apart. I am bracing myself for one of life's roller-coaster rides.
Fact
Jina & Thea 2011
Being the oldest child she has had inherited privileges and responsibilities which have prepared her to stand alone on her own. Cooking, cleaning, grocery shopping, I'm confident that she can handle all of that. She has even enough foresight to have already asked me to write down in a book a collection of recipes I make to take with her. TO TAKE WITH HER.......? 
She talks so calmly about her goals and intentions as if she had this all planned out for a decade. Maybe she has. The only comment of concern I've heard from her is how one accumulates all the things needed for an apartment. Crock pot, couch, towels, etc. All valid concerns of course. But isn't she sad about the idea of not seeing me daily? Isn't she worried about how I feel, as selfish as that sounds?

I worry that I'm going to get a speeding ticket the first time she calls me and needs me there.
I worry about her being out late with friends and having to pass by unsavory people.
I worry that she's going to work too much to pay for school.
I worry because I'm her mother and I'll be worrying about her when I'm 87. 
To answer my own question, no she isn't.
Its not that I'm not relevant enough or not close enough to her. Its just her eyes are fixed on the home stretch too. The goal is in sight and she's ready to receive her prize.  (This is how my dad felt 19 years ago.)

glam.spoon
2011 Jina texting backstage at a benefit fashion show.
She is just days away from her school's Step Up day. The junior class symbolically steps up to the senior class as the current senior class graduates and says good bye. Things are getting real.
I feel like the school year just began, where did the time go?

As they say in business "The only nonrenewable commodity- is time."
So true that is. I feel like the past 17 years has just flown by with my best friend and constant companion since I was 18. My very special gift that I have completely given my all to, who made my heart grow 3 sizes the day she was born, my Sweet Child O' Mine.

-Thea Starr