Tulsa, Tea time, and Tiny cookies

Wish I'd Done That: My friend Donna suggests a great idea for cleaning up the place. She puts the timer on for 10 minutes. The kids race to see how much cleaning/picking up they can get done in that amount of time. Another friend suggested using music; 3 songs would be about 10 minutes. It's a game, it's to music, and the house gets picked up/cleaned!

Tulsa Tea Time

Mom, LA and I escaped to Tulsa last week to investigate a tearoom there. Dragonmoon is a fun girl place with lots of great food and an assortment of teas from around the world. We all tried different lunch foods; they change daily. My turkey soup with stuffing dumplings was a hit with all of us. I had some quiche, too.
The 3 cup teapot we tried was "Blue Sapphire", a tea from South Africa. Really great, and they brewed it twice, so we got lots of tea. It really hit the spot on a sleet-spitting day.

For dessert, a sugar cookie filled with chocolate ganache, a nutmeg log, and a "shooter" of pumpkin mousse. Just enough sweet after a wonderful lunch.

Here's the blue sapphire tea in their adorable cup. Take some time out and enjoy a cup of tea.
Dragonmoon is on Harvard in Tulsa, just north of 21st Street.

Guest Blog

The blog's been on a tiny hiatus this week, but I'm back today with a special guest blogger: my daughter, Lauren. She's appeared in the blog before in my anecdotes; you may remember her as WordGirl, LA, or the grad school kid. Lauren's been home from school for a few weeks and offered to blog today.

Christmas Charity

When my brother and I were growing up, our parents made sure we understood the importance of giving to others. I remember in grade school they encouraged us to set aside some of our allowance money for the Lottie Moon offering at church or for the Salvation Army bucket outside Wal-Mart. I’m thankful that they taught me about giving when I was younger. Watching my parents give to others made it much easier for me to be a giver myself once I was off on my own—even on a grad assistant salary. I’d like to share a few of my favorite charities with you; feel free to tell us about your favorite charities in the comments.

826 National
826 is a national chain of community writing centers; it was started by one of my favorite authors, Dave Eggers. 826 chapters offer free after-school tutoring, in-school writing seminars, and writing workshops for elementary through high school aged students. Their goal is to work with local schools to encourage writing and creativity in children. Each 826 chapter features a storefront with a quirky theme; my 826 in Chicago is called “The Boring Store” and conceals a secret spy organization. Other chapter stores supply superheroes, robots, and pirates.

I’ve enjoyed the time I’ve spent volunteering at 826 Chicago—they’re truly a valuable service for kids who might not get enough attention at school. But if you don’t live near an 826, you can always give monetarily. And here’s the big bonus: 826 is always good about sponsoring unique fundraising programs. The Chicago store has a yearly mustache-growing contest, and 826 national usually releases several fantastic books a year to fund their programs, including some recent titles, The New Kings of Nonfiction and My Mistress’s Sparrow is Dead. My favorite fundraiser took place last week; 826 teamed up with one of my favorite online art galleries, 20x200.com, to release an edition of affordable artwork.


Kiva.org
Kiva is a fairly new grassroots organization that lends money to entrepreneurs in the Third World. Donors can give as little as $25 per loan and are able to choose which recipients they’d like to give to. So you can support only the specific projects or entrepreneurs that you want to—from computer schools in South America to soda salesmen in Africa to farmers in Asia. Entrepreneurs have their own pages with their pictures, brief stories about their businesses, and information about the local loaning organization that they receive the loan through. After the loan is collected, entrepreneurs repay their loans at an incredibly low interest rate in small installments, usually spread out of the course of the year. These payments are deposited into the donors’ Kiva accounts; they can then choose to reinvest the money in other projects or withdraw the money. Donors also receive periodic emails that update them on the entrepreneurs’ progress.


The above picture is Guzman Velazquez; he's the first entrepreneur I loaned to on the site. He's using his $775 loan to open a computer school so the people in his town in Paraguay can train for technology jobs. Guzman received the loan a few months ago and has already made payments on it. I’ve enjoyed using Kiva because it’s easy to give in small amounts and it’s gratifying to see exactly who you’re giving to. Kiva is also completely transparent—they publish the default rates of all their partner organizations and keep donors well-informed.

Christmas Gift Ideas

One fun way to be charitable during the holiday season is to combine charity giving with gift giving. 826 books make great gifts; Kiva has a store that sells calendars, shirts, and other goodies, including these totes.

You can also buy Kiva gift certificates that allow others to donate to entrepreneurs of their choosing.

Another great gift is Good Magazine. When you buy a subscription, the entire price is donated to a charity of your choice (Kiva.org and 826 are both options).

Christmas Goodies

Wish I'd Done That: While traveling to Grandmother's house for Christmas, give kids an old "pocketbook". When LA and Double A were little, my Grandma would get her old "pocketbooks" and fill them with all sorts of goodies. (I suspect this is how she cleaned out her junk drawer, but anyway....) She stuck something in every pocket, nick and cranny. The kids spent hours digging through those things. It really works, and Grandma had a blast doing it.


Here's a simple appetizer to take and serve anywhere. My "foodie" friends at the Taste and Spit were impressed with this, and that's saying a lot! Enjoy!

Terri's Crostini

One loaf french bread - the very small diameter ones

Slice thin and toast slowly in a 300 degree oven, about 10 minutes.

Feta cheese (or blue cheese, or Gorgonzola, etc.)

Honey

Toasted pecans (or walnuts or almonds)

Top crostini with cheese. Sprinkle on nuts and drizzle with honey. Be prepared to accept compliments! Very simple, but really great! Merry Christmas!

Hurricane Warning

Wish I'd Done That: "If it ain't broke, don't fix it". This may seem a strange parenting tip, but trust me, if you are a pregnant person, take heed. Many times, when LA was a newborn, Ace and I would be tempted to disturb her in her sleep or just being happy time. We soon learned to leave her alone if she was happy. When kids are happy, LEAVE THEM ALONE. Don't change their diaper, wake them, move them, whatever......Trust me, you'll be glad you listened to me someday....

Tomorrow, TU plays in Tulsa for the conference championship. This is joyous. However, you may remember that also tomorrow is our Open House. Poor planning. It wasn't that I didn't think the Hurricane would make it there, but I naively hoped the game would be played at night.
So, I'm going to miss the great event, which may never happen again in my lifetime.
Oh well, I struggle......

Great stuff about TU:
Great student to professor ratio: I think it's about 10/1.
No grad students teaching classes.
Great scholarship opportunities.
Located in a super town.
Good student athletic teams, if you're a sports buff.
Small classes.
Top 100 university in the US.
Wonderful reputation across the US.
And the best thing about TU:

Lovely, wonderful alumni......

Have a marvelous weekend: Go TU, beat ECU!

Thanksgiving Re-hash

Wish I'd Done That: To protect my floor while my two babies ate, Ace made me a 4 X 4 foot sheet of hard plastic to put under the highchair. It was easier to wipe up than the carpet in my dining area!

Please pray for Sharon today; she's off for chemo treatment #2. Give her peace, strength and protect her from nausea.

It was just the four of us on Thanksgiving Day since Ace's mom was still in the hospital. Ace carved up his smoked turkey - we hadn't ever done the whole-bird-on-the-table thing before. He liked doing it!

I kept waiting for that bird to go flying across the table, but Ace persevered, and he successfully carved the bird up!

LA did my flowers; they still look great today.....We had a lovely, family day of food, football and sitting in front of the fireplace.

2 days until the Open House! Bring your friends - there's going to be a door prize this year!

Counting Down......

Wish I'd Done That: Take advantage of your local library's story hours. You'll get a break (of sorts) and your kiddos will learn how fun books are. Let them check out several afterwards, and spend an hour going through them. You're promoting reading, and they'll sit in your lap!

Three days until the Open House! We've done a TV ad, and put an ad on the Women's Page of the B'ville paper........Planning the goodies today, and decorating tomorrow. Gosh, what fun!

LA is home, and that's so much fun. She's on trimesters at DePaul, so she's off til after the New Year.

I came home from a haircut, and walked in to a house that smelled fabulous! I didn't realize what a blessing that is! I guess I haven't experienced that since I lived at home and Mom was cooking. I could really get used to this.....

She's making my brother's famous soup: Headrick's Hamburger. It's great, filling, and smells terrific!

Headrick's Hamburger Soup

1 lb. hamburger

1 cup chopped onions

1 cup cubed carrots

1 cup cubed potatoes

4 cups tomatoes (2 cans)

1/4 cup rice

3 cups water

Italian seasonings, to taste.

(LA adds corn, and green pepper; whatever she has available)

Salt and pepper

Brown hamburger with onions. Add remaining ingredients. Simmer for 1 hour. Enjoy!

Christmas Open House

Wish I'd Done That: Buy (or make) a Christmas calendar for your little ones. This will make the time go faster until the big day. I made the ones with a treat or a very small toy behind the door. You can buy them almost anywhere now, and that would be easy! Let your kids count down the days until all the excitement!

Christmas Open House

Only 5 days until our Open House for http://www.laurasartin.com/. We have some really great savings for all who attend. I'm making some treats, and there will be hot cider to ward off the cold. Do your Christmas shopping with your friends. If you have one of our invitations, (or if you mention this blog!), we'll give you 10% off your whole order!

This painting is great framed in an antique gold. I've got it in my bathroom. Your mom and/or sister would really like this!

This one below is on sale Saturday. You'll be able to buy 3 16 X 20's for $90, plus an extra 10% off! A $115.50 value, you can get 3 for $81! That's a great buy, and the prints are easy to mail, too.

Buy this one (remember, they are double-matted), for all your friends with little ones, or those who are pregnant. We sell so many of these - they are really a unique and wonderful gift for babies.

All three of the larger sizes are on sale if you buy 3 of the same size, so come see what's new.

Laura has done 2 new prints, so you'll want to check those.

We have gifts for everyone; men, grandma, sister, mom ~ even something for yourself.....

Come by and get started on your Christmas shopping, or just stop by to visit - we can't wait to see you!