Making a Meal Plan

Today is my day to make the menu for the week, create the grocery list and clean out the pantry with leftover foods.  I usually make soup for Sunday dinner.  I had a round steak frozen and had planned to make a beef soup with it, but then ate lunch at Whole Foods today and that idea got shot to pieces.  This is because I thought with the temperatures so cold a nice soup for lunch would be great.  I looked at the choices and was disappointed until I saw Louisiana Gumbo.  Yeah, that’s the ticket; something from the old home town.  But the Cajun voodoo was playing tricks on non-suspecting customers.  For you see I knew when I scooped out my first spoonful of gumbo that this was not gumbo.

Carrots, green peas, green beans and potatoes????  Never.  Oh there was okra and chicken and celery and maybe some onions and soggy rice, but no bell pepper and no Cajun seasoning.  It tasted like thickened canned Campbell’s Soup Chicken Gumbo with added vegetables.  I closed my eyes and pretended I was eating chicken minestrone soup.  Then when I went to my recipe for tonight’s meal and saw mixed vegetables, potatoes, steak and tomatoes I knew I would have to come up with plan B.  My husband saw the meat and thought it was a flank steak.  He suggested we grill it.  It was a round steak.  But I have a great recipe for flank steak from Weight Watchers with salt and rosemary patted on both sides and then grilled 3 minutes on each side to desired doneness; heart healthy and delicious.  So I had to run to the store and pick up a flank steak.  I love making a menu and recipes and I love changing things around to fit the mood.

While I was “marinating” the steak with the rosemary and salt I worked on the rest of the week’s menu.  I had to find a substitute meal for the round steak and came up with a pot roast recipe in the crock pot.  Instead of a roast I’ll use the round steak.  Beef is beef.  And the truth is beef gives me a headache.  I’m going to suffer from tonight’s delicious heart healthy steak dinner, but it is worth it.  I’m hoping the mashed potatoes (which came from a box since the bag of potatoes had gone bad…plan C) and the delicious fresh spinach tossed in olive oil and pine nuts and garlic until it was wilted will counter the red meat.

Now I have to go write down on my chalk board next week’s menu, make notes on what I need from the pantry and start thinking about presentation.  Oh and I forgot, tomorrow is Halloween…..Mexican Lasagna is on the menu and I want to make a milk sponge cake in honor of Juliette Low’s birthday (founder of Girl Scouts) which is tomorrow (more on that later)…..and I have the granddaughter all afternoon.  I think I’ll get her to help me prep for the dinner and bake the cake.  She loves to cook with me.  I’ll write about that tomorrow…..can’t wait!

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A Child of God

My daughter asked me to write a note for her.  It reminded me of a day long ago when she was in school and needed an excuse for not doing something she was required to do.  Only this time, she has done all she can and more and still she feels she needs her mother’s help.  I am honored.

For you see, she wants me to write a simple note to whom it may concern about her precious daughter, my granddaughter Lexi affectionately known as Lou Lou to many in the family.  Recently diagnosed with Sensory Processing Disorder and the possibility of falling under the autism umbrella, my daughter and son-in-law are doing all they can to come to some definitive answer for her behavior.  It is easier for the specialist to say what is NOT wrong with her than what IS wrong and no one seems to agree.

Each week she goes to an Occupational Therapist and Speech Therapist and at the same time is going to the public school specialists for evaluation tests.  One may say she is behind while the other puts her three years ahead of herself in some things.  Ideally, she can be placed in the early childhood education program at the public school, at age three; so that by the time she enters Kindergarten she will be age appropriate.  But getting there is half the battle.

After observing Lexi for four days and being home alone with her two of those days, I shared my thoughts with my daughter.  She and her husband were impressed that I got it; I really got it.  But their frustration level dealing with doctors, specialists, bureaucrats in the school system is weighing them down.  (And I certainly mean no offense to the doctors or teachers as my son-in-law works in the medical field and my daughter works at a middle school.) Maybe this is why the whole process is so over-whelming to them at times.  But in the end, their number one concern is the well-being of their daughter and her happiness.

So I will write the letter as they have requested.  I will tell whomever reads it what I observed knowing that my background in early childhood education as well as caregiver/grandmother to two of my other grandchildren gives me the benefit of doubt that I might just know what I’m talking about.

What I won’t say in the note, but will say now is how proud I am of my daughter and her husband.  It took them two years of fertility clinic visits and then when they gave up trying, my daughter got pregnant.  They never forget that Lexi is a gift from God.  They also know that her emotional problems are minor compared to children with life-threatening problems and they thank God for that as well.  They do the best they can to do what is right for their daughter even if it means sacrificing things they might want to do but are wary of doing under the circumstances.  No one knows how brave they are to take their daughter out in public, shopping, eating out, birthday parties, or family gatherings.  This is because they never know what might trigger a “melt down” as we call her episodes.  But everyone knows instantly when they meet Lexi, they are meeting a beautiful gifted child.  One of her uncles, (my oldest son) said she has a deep soul and a way of penetrating your thoughts looking inside you.  Her smile and laughter and love for her family, including aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents is extremely strong and I give her mother and father credit for this.  For they have raised her to be proud, kind, gentle, and loving with a heart bigger than her tiny little body.

I don’t doubt that Lexi will survive this time in her life; that she will grow to become the woman she is meant to be; that I will live another twenty years to see her as she sees herself now – whole, well, happy, and good for she is a Child of God.

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A Secret Poet

Quite often I find myself sitting around a room or table and am called to introduce myself and my writing genre.  Almost always I say I am a freelance writer.  But if I’m comfortable with the group I add that I also write fiction but what I really enjoy writing is poetry.

My poetry comes from deep inside my soul.  It stretches me, turns me upside down, and shatters me to pieces.  I can barely read what I have written without crying; I think because I write from my heart and quite frankly I don’t know what I’m going to write until I see it on paper.

The Chattanooga Writers’ Guild (CWG) has a poetry writers group.  Many of the members are published and award-winning poets.  They meet once a month to critique their poetry and meet again the last Friday of each month (except November and December) at Barns and Noble at Hamilton Place Mall for open mic night.  Each time I hear one of the poets from the Chattanooga, North  Georgia area, my heart sings.  Each such a good poet.  They make me laugh, cry, and feel as though I am one with them as they recite their beautiful words.

Award-winning and published, KB Ballentine hosts this event.  Another member, Helga Kidder, was one of the three founding members of the CWG.  And a third active member of this group, Ray Zimmerman, also an award-winning poet, and past president of the CWG, is the executive editor of Southern Light: Twelve Contemporary Southern Poets, a highly acclaimed collection of poems by local poets. I want to join KB, Ray and many other fellow poets at one of the open mic sessions.  I’m too shy.  I like my poetry, but can I read it out loud in front of an audience?  Can I share my thoughts with strangers?  Can I dare to reveal my secret love for writing poetry?  Fellow CWG member and poet, Nancy Diwan tells me it is only scary the first time.

I guess if I don’t try, I’ll never know.

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Write What You Know…or Not

I came across an old article in Beginners Basic Magazine by Writer’s Digest.  Freelance writer, Linda DeMers Hummel writes that, “Writers should delve beyond the regular rules for writers to make your next book the best it can be.”

No. 1 on her list is to put a desk by a window.  I write at my desk in front of my window.  I posted on hearthealthyboomer.wordpress.com on that very subject.

No.2 is let the wall inspire you.  I have plaques and awards that I hold dear on one wall; my favorite being a water color of a Brownie Girl Scout, a gift for serving as the day camp director one summer in Houston, TX.  Another wall is filled with books and pictures of my grandchildren; a third wall has a piece of hand blown glass, and pen and ink prints of scenes on the Mississippi River in Louisiana, my home state.  And the last wall is where my writing desk and window sit.

No. 3 suggests making a list of negative people in your life.  These are the people that don’t read your work, don’t give you support when you think you need it.  When the list is complete, tie the list up and throw it away.  I have not tried this literally, but I do struggle to accept when I write something and then don’t seem to get any feedback or comments from some in my family.  But then No. 9 is don’t let your love ones read your work.  “They love you.  It isn’t their job to guide your career.  So I will quit stressing over that issue and move on.

No. 4 is my favorite suggestion and that is to make a list of twelve people you, “Like, love, admire, and don’t hear enough from.”  Then write them a letter (emails and cards don’t count); a relative who would  love to hear from you; an unknown author who appreciate your praise; an old college roommate.  “Good writing is about relationships, so resurrect, enhance, create or feel some of your own relationships.”

No. 5 is eavesdrop on the public.  I do that all the time and written about it.  She adds, “The best dialogue you’ll ever write has already been said.”  With No. 6 suggesting you give blood and not just because it is a good thing to do, but “It’s and eavesdropping paradise.”

No. 7 is to learn a new word every day.  She signed up for a free email with a new word.  So I did too at A.Word.A.Day by Anu Garg.  Today I learned the word picaresque.

No. 8 is don’t throw anything away and keep a notebook.  I carry my notebook everywhere I go, but what I didn’t know and do now is that I should not throw away my notebooks.

No. 10 is to start over every morning. Basically she is telling us to keep on writing. 

Today, I will write about something I have never written about before; I will write a letter to someone who has not heard from me in a long time; I will take the time to soak up my surroundings inside and outside and expand my mind; I’ll listen to the rhythm of words that I hear; and I will write about the things I know and then some that I don’t know.

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