HeatherKatsoulis.com

Syna just finished up her first semester of Music Together – the Bells Collection. She loved it and really wants to do the next session – Triangles starting in April. If you have children, I highly recommend this class.

Music Together is an internationally recognized early childhood music program for babies, toddlers, preschoolers, kindergarteners, and the adults who love them. First offered to the public in 1987, it pioneered the concept of a research-based, developmentally appropriate early childhood music curriculum that strongly emphasizes and facilitates adult involvement.

Learn more about Music Together

My daughter, Syna, singing “Two Little Kitty Cats” from Music Together’s Bells Collection CD:

The White House Organic Garden
Michelle Obama dug up a patch of the South Lawn to plant a vegetable garden, the first at the White House since Eleanor Roosevelt’s victory garden in World War II. There will be no beets – the president does not like them – but arugula will make the cut.


and a related site:
The New Victory Garden
You’ve heard of the Victory Gardens and rationing during WWII and how vegetables grown at home helped families and the war effort. Now, amidst a bleak economy and mechanized, nutrient and soil depleting agribusiness, many people are thinking about growing some of their own veggies but are unsure of how to get started. This site aims to be an inspired guide to resources in starting and maintaining a bountiful organic garden for any level of grower throughout the year.

So, this week has really been full of insight from a number or resources.

I first watched What Would Jesus Buy, a serious docu-comedy about the commercialization of Christmas.

Then, I read The City that Ended Hunger, an article about a city in Brazil recruited local farmers to help do something U.S. cities have yet to do: end hunger.

excerpt
‘“I knew we had so much hunger in the world,” Adriana said. “But what is so upsetting, what I didn’t know when I started this, is it’s so easy. It’s so easy to end it.”

Adriana’s words have stayed with me. They will forever. They hold perhaps Belo’s greatest lesson: that it is easy to end hunger if we are willing to break free of limiting frames and to see with new eyes—if we trust our hard-wired fellow feeling and act, no longer as mere voters or protesters, for or against government, but as problem-solving partners with government accountable to us.’

And today, I came across this video,

I am so into the slow food movement, new organic Victory Gardens, and just plain old slowing down in this culture.

Now, how can I make this my life’s work?

This weekend was exceptional. Friday is date night, so my husband and I went to Northampton for a soak in a hot tub, some oysters and a beer, then sushi. Since we’ve been having regular date nights, Valentine’s Day isn’t such a big deal; I don’t have to look forward to special holidays – I look forward to every Friday. We had a great night.

Saturday morning, Syna got herself out of bed and came to cuddle with us. Then we made a special Valentine’s Day breakfast:

After that, we made cupcakes:

We cheated a bit and used Cherrybrook Kitchen’s (all natural) Chocolate Cake Mix for the cupcakes. This is a great standby mix – moist, natural ingredients, chocolaty… Instead of corn syrup in the glaze, we used Lyle’s Golden Syrup; we used Ghirardelli 60% Cacao Bittersweet Chocolate Chips, too.

Syna truly enjoyed them:

Then Syna and daddy made Valentines:

Syna also got her own bed. Saturday was her first night in it. She loves it. Well, she loves getting in and out of it on her own. :)

Sunday, we met some old friends with their new baby for brunch.

cake, originally uploaded by hlkljgk.

I baked a round pink cake as requested by Syna. It was delicious and I highly recommend it.

To get the natural pink color I reduced the liquid from a can of beets and added a tablespoon to the frosting. Although, I just found out beet root powder would probably work better. Read more about it.

Here’s the recipe for the cake and whipped cream frosting:

Dorie Greenspan’s Perfect Party Cake
(adapted from Baking: From My Home to Yours)

Makes one 9-inch layer cake

For the Cake
2 1/4 cups cake flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1 ¼ cups whole milk or buttermilk (use buttermilk if you want to intensify the lemon flavor)
4 large egg whites
1 ½ cups sugar
2 teaspoons grated lemon zest
1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
½ teaspoon pure lemon extract

For the Whipped Cream
(double this if you want to cover the whole cake with whipped cream)
1 cup heavy cream, cold
1/8 cup sugar
2 tbsp raw wild flower honey (or another flavorful honey of your choice)

For Finishing
2/3 cup strawberry jam, stirred vigorously to loosen (feel free to use another flavor of jam)

Method
1. Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter and flour two 9 x 2 inch round cake pans and line the bottom of each pan with a round of buttered parchment paper.

2. Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt.

3. Whisk together the milk and egg whites in a medium bowl.

4. Put the sugar and lemon zest in a mixer bowl whisk until the sugar is moist and fragrant.

5. Add the butter to the lemony sugar mixture and working with the paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer, beat at medium speed for a full 3 minutes, until the butter and sugar are very light and fluffy.

6. Beat in the lemon extract, then add one third of the flour mixture, still beating on medium speed.

7. Beat in half of the milk-egg mixture, then beat in half of the remaining dry ingredients until incorporated. Add the rest of the milk-egg mixture, beating until the batter is homogeneous, then add the last of the dry ingredients.

8. Finally, give the batter a good 2- minute beating to ensure that it is thoroughly mixed and well aerated.

9. Divide the batter between the two pans and smooth the tops with a rubber or offset spatula.

10. Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until the cakes are well risen and springy to the touch – a thin knife inserted into the centers should come out clean. Cool the cakes in the pans for about 5 minutes, then run a knife around the sides of the cakes, take them out of the pans, and peel off the parchment paper. Invert the cakes so they are right side up and cool to room temperature. The cooled cake layers can be wrapped airtight and stored at room temperature overnight or frozen for up to two months.

11. While the cakes are cooling, whip heavy cream to soft peaks, then add sugar, slowly, continuing to whip. Once sugar is incorporated, add honey in a slow stream to the mixture. Make sure the honey gets incorporated by scraping the bottom of your bowl well, as the honey will sink to the bottom. Whip cream to stiff peaks and set in the refrigerator until you’re ready to assemble the cake.

12. Once the cake layers are cool, place one layer on a serving plate. Top that layer with the strawberry jam. On top of the jam, spread 1/3 of the whipped cream. Place the second cake layer on top of the whipped cream and top that with the remaining whipped cream. Enjoy!

[via cooklikemad.com]

Since everyone is doing it…

Syna was lovingly conceived (first “try”) on Mother’s Day, May 8th, 2005. She wasn’t planned, per se, but she was intended. We knew immediately that we were going to have a baby. And it was confirmed by a home pregnancy test the second we knew we could take one. I was pretty scared in the beginning. My morning sickness was just unending nausea.

08.26.06
We had a roller coaster ride of a week. It started when our ambiguous Doc told me I had a “big jump” in weight and size; twins? I’m just getting too fat? Something? Anything? No info. And a blood test…

The next day day I get the dreaded call: “The AFP in your blood test was low, and you are at a higher risk for having a child with Down Syndrome. Come in tomorrow for an sonogram and a conversation on further plans.”

We were just so crushed to hear that. Not that we would love a baby with Down’s any less, it’s just frightening and disheartening.

We looked up tons of info and found out the the AFP test is very inaccurate for detecting Down’s. It didn’t really make us feel better.

Today we went for the sonogram; it was just too cool. We found out it’s most likely a little girl. There is this really great picture of her hand at the top of the pictures below. She looked so cute (as if you can tell by a sono :). She’s a wiggler with a great heart rate and all of her tiny fingers and toes.

However, the sono didn’t tell us much else. So we are scheduled for a more detailed sono at Dartmouth Hitchcock in Lebanon, NH. If there are no abnormalities detected in that sono, our chances of having a baby with Down’s are halved to about 1 in 400 – pretty low. We feel a lot better after speaking with the doctor and seeing our little girl.

[link with images]

08.30.06
So we had the level 2 sonogram today. All looks well. See more pictures below.

[link with more images]

The second trimester was pretty uneventful. We thought about names forever. Solana was in the lead for a long time; coworkers and kids at school called her Solara since that was my husband’s car.

In November my mother and mother-in-law threw me a tea party baby shower.

I started getting back pain early on, and the weight just kept quickly adding up. I gained a total of 70+ pounds during my pregnancy. It was a concern. Blood tests and urinalysis always showed that although my numbers were close to gestational diabetes, they never crossed the threshold.

this is just 7 months

And there was the swelling. Much of my weight was water retention – I lost 40 pounds in 5 days after giving birth. My feet could only fit into flipflops in the dead of winter. I was sleeping in a recliner for the last weeks of pregnancy. And I was on home rest for the last week. One pleasure I had was feeling and especially seeing (my undulating belly) Syna kick and move. So cool.

At a regularly scheduled appointment with my OB, Friday, February 3rd around 4:30, the doctor was really concerned with my swelling, and asked us to come to the hospital later that evening to ensure the baby wasn’t stressed.

We went for a bite to eat at the Marina, then showed up at the hospital at 7.

The exam did show that the baby was showing signs of stress, and as she was finishing up my water broke – in. her. face. OMG.

So, that was the start of my labor. All in the hospital. Not what we were thinking, but hey, we were in good hands.

It was a tremendously busy night for the small community hospital in Brattleboro – something like 13 deliveries when the average was 2 per day.

I was progressing well. Did I mention that I was 2cm dilated for weeks before labor? For 17 hours I went pain medication free. I was in and out of a hot shower listening to Spencer Lewis’ CD In the Light of Autumn. Saturday before noon I really couldn’t take it any longer. However, being a small community hospital, the anesthesiologist was home. Calling her in took some time. I got an epithecal that lasts about 3 hours. It was sort of cool; I could feel the contractions but with no pain. I fully dilated after that but never felt any urge to push. I was urged to push, but I felt like I was doing it all wrong.

The epithecal was wearing off when Syna’s heartbeat dropped and stayed low for too long. So it was time to get her out cesarean style. It was pretty quick from that point. Jim tried keeping his head totally behind the draped cloth so as not to even risk a glimpse of the surgery. Then, at 4:01 pm, she was out – dripping over my face – all 10 pounds 4 ounces of her. So sweet. hhh

I had to be stitched up; Jim was with Syna. When I got back to my room, Syna was wheeled in. She hardly made it in the door before family was ogling her. I think I said something to the effect of, “Hey, what about me?”

She was wide eyed immediately and had a head full of dark hair. I thought it was funny that her arms were so floppy, always hanging at her sides. She took to breastfeeding quickly; my nipples didn’t. Ouch.

Healing at the hospital was good. Staff was amazing. Being a vegetarian there were fewer options for hospital food, so we ate tomato soup and grilled cheese every day.

We took her home in the outfit I was taken home in – a gift from my mom.

the rest is history

“Want tips to keep your family healthy? Environmental Working Group, EWG, is partnering with Stonyfield Farm to spread the word about organics, $1 donation at a time.”

Please help them to get to $20k.

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