Feliz Navidad de La Republica de Panama

Felicidades de Panama! I wish. I'm in Upstate New York, watching snow fall.

One of my lesser known personal facts is that I was born in the Canal Zone, making me a Zonian, in the country which is now appropriately the Republic of Panama. To honor and enjoy traditions with my children, we celebrate an additional Holiday that is commonly celebrated in Panama on January 6. Three Kings Day, or  Dia  de los Reyes Magos, is celebrated as part of the Epiphany tradition. It's given weight as the day where the Three Magi came and gave Christ the child his presents of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

Lucky Panamanian and Zonian children could put out their shoes on the balcony, or a box of hay underneath their beds for the camels of the Magi, and in the morning of the 6th awaken to find presents left for them by the Three Magi. Usually there were a corresponding three presents, and that's the tradition we have continued in my family now.

That doesn't mean they don't celebrate Christmas. Panamanians put up Christmas trees and leave a few small toys for the children to open at Midnight on Christmas eve.

So let's talk Christmas. Christmas is celebrated with a parade, complete with marching bands, women in traditional layered ruffled dresses, and floats, and did I mention more marching bands? Bomberos are such a fun tradition, with every police or fire department offering up a band, and all the children learning to play musical instruments so that they can grow up and play in the fire department band.

The parade is typically earlier in December and is followed by every family setting up their nascimiento, or Nativity Scene, which grows each year and is proudly displayed. Some families do live Nativities but the majority have weather proof scenes set up outside. The church service is incomplete without a live nativity, and if you're lucky, even some animals are brought in, carefully,.

The real celebration is held Christmas Eve at midnight, fireworks blast off announcing the birth of the King of Kings. You'll never sleep through Christmas in Panama. Feasting begins at midnight, and the night time feast is followed by dancing and celebrating with your neighbors in the street. Because Panama is so international, their dinner menu is too. Chicken tamales, Arroz con Pollo: chicken and rice, Perhaps, pavo turkey and relleno, stuffing. Beautiful bowls of fruit, Flan and fruitcake are the traditional desserts.  I'm a fan of creamy flan with the syrupy caramel dripping down the sides of the custard as it jiggles on the plate.

Here's a photo of a successful flan, and a foolproof recipe, if you make no substitutions.


Easy Flan for Christmas Dessert

This Flan recipe is prized for it's simplicity. If you've never made flan before, now is the time to try this recipe.

Prep Time: 20 minutes Cook Time: 1 hour 

Ingredients:

• 1 cup and 1/2 cup sugar
• 6 large eggs
• 1 14oz can sweetened condensed milk
• 2 13 oz cans evaporated milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. You will need 6 ramekins or other specialty flan cook ware (a flan pan) and a large baking pan to put them in.

Pour 1 cup sugar in warm pan over medium heat. Constantly stir sugar until is browns and becomes caramel. Quickly pour approximately 2-3 tablespoons of caramel in each ramekin, tilting it to swirl the caramel around the sides. Reheat caramel if it starts to harden.

In a mixer or with a whisk, blend the eggs together. Mix in the milks then slowly mix in the 1/2 cup of sugar, then the vanilla. Blend smooth after each ingredient is added.

Pour custard into caramel lined ramekins. Place ramekins in a large glass or ceramic baking dish and fill with about 1-2 inches of hot water. Bake for 45 minutes in the water bath and check with a knife just to the side of the center. If knife comes out clean, it's ready.

Remove and let cool. Let each ramekin cool in refrigerator for 1 hour. Invert each ramekin onto a small plate, the caramel sauce will flow over the custard. It tastes really delicious!!

Note: you may substitute evaporated goat milk for the evaporated milk, but there is no substitute for sweetened condensed milk or you will have a flop. I learned from experience. Do not attempt to substitute, no matter how many encouraging words you find on the internet. 

As Christmas ends with dessert, and the children head off to sleep in the next morning,  they awaken to see a statue of Los Reyes on their dinner table. That's to remind them that the Three Kings are still coming.  January 6th is the big holiday -- and the children know that the Three Kings bring presents to the boy and girl who behaved all year long!
In fact one of the fun post-Christmas traditions in Panama is to take your Christmas tree down to the beach on Three Kings Day and burn it for your family bonfire, and party with the family in the tropical night air. Unfortunately, upstate New York weather discourages me from adding that tradition in, with subzero windchills not uncommon in January.

The night of January 5th, girls and boys cut grass or hay and put it in a shoebox or other small box or basket for the Three Kings' camels, and put the box underneath their bed with a brief wishlist on top. Hopeful aunts and uncles and grandparents insist the children put one under their bed too, just in case they're remembered for their good deeds too. The magic is that the Three Kings cannot stop at your house if you're awake, or if you're naughty. Children lay in bed feigning sleep, listening for the snorts of camels, or hoofbeats, or the jingle jangle of their caravan.

In the morning relatives come over with the boxes full of gifts that came under their beds, and children dart out of bed to see what the Three Kings left for them. They know the camels were there, because they snacked on the grass which has disappeared.

Another family feast is enjoyed, and children play outside with the bicycle or skateboard or hula hoop or rollerblades that Los Reyes brought them. This is a good night to have a whole roasted pig, Arroz con Pollo, tamales which are cooked in banana leaves instead of the corn husks like Mexican tamales are, or gallo pinto -- the Panamanian version of beans and rice with pork mixed in. Yucca fries, and fried plantains and fried empanadas are ever present. All the children, hot from rollerblading and bicycling will be looking for Raspados, a specialty in Panama. It's a snowcone with fruity syrup and the ever present sweetened condensed milk drizzled over the top. 

So if you're in need of a winter pick-me-up -- try telling your children the story of Los Reyes who came and brought baby Jesus a treasure of Gold, Frankincense, and Myrrh. Today in Caribean counties they remember the wisdom, preparation, and gift giving of Los Reyes by commemorating Epiphany on January 6th with a family dinner celebration and presents underneath the bed.

Legend tells us that those very costly gifts were used by Joseph, Jesus stepfather, to help pay for their timely escape to Egypt for safety when King Herod was killing all the baby boys in the Bethlehem area. The Three Kings saved the day!

If sweets are not your thing, try this family favorite from my childhood.

Arroz con Pollo

1 fat chicken, cut up into 8 serving pieces
1/4 cup olive oil
1 cup diced onion
3/4 cup diced sweet pepper
3 garlic cloves, minced
1.5 cups long grain rice
3 cups boiling water and 2 broth cubes or 3 cups hot chicken broth
2 T pickled capers, drained
2 T green pickled olives, sliced
Goya brand Sazon seasoning with saffron, one packet (or 2 tsp. salt and 1/2 tsp,. black pepper (or to taste), and saffron threads soaked in water, then drained and added to the rice 

*****************************

Dry chicken pieces, then season with salt and pepper and garlic powder and powdered oregano. Then fry in olive until brown on all sides, 10 minutes. Remove from pot, and set aside. To the same caldera, add the onion, pepper, garlic, and cook for 5 minutes, then add the rice. Stir and cook one minute, stirring constantly so that the seasoned oil coats all the rice kernels. Now add the boiling broth, the capers and olives and seasoning packet, and push the chicken pieces, skin side up, into the broth and rice mixture, and cover and cook for 25 minutes or until the chicken is done through to the bone. The rice is tender, the water is absorbed, and the bottom of the pan has a gentle brown crust of rice, the best part of the dish, claim the Abuelos. Top with thawed frozen peas, put the lid back on top, and let sit for a couple of minutes while you arrange the other dishes. This heats the peas, and leaves them fresh tasting. Now fluff the rice and scoop onto a platter, with the chicken on top, and stand back for compliments. Some abuelas decorate the top with slivers or flowers made of red pimento, but the children don't like to eat them. 

If you follow this recipe -- your dish may look like this:

Feliz Navidad y Feliz Dia de Los Reyes!

KelliSue Kolz

Meet Our New Goat Gretchen

Gretchen the goat lives up the street at a Mennonite Farm. She's pretty and has a sweet temperment. When she hears my voice she baas, being a very social animal. She shares her pasture with a horse and a pony and a herd of goats, and her barn stall with another goat named Blockie. It's Pennsylvania Dutch for something I've forgotten but is also a play on words for Blockhead in English because she's stubborn.

She gives just under a gallon of milk per day which Mrs. B filters and puts it in 2 quart jars for me to pick up later in the day, or the next day.  When I accumulate some leftover milk we didn't use, then I make some cottage cheese or vinegar cheese or paneer. It's delicious.

Six children and I - we drink a lot of goat milk. My husband still purchases cow's milk for himself. I just shake my head. We're so glad to move along and not have stomach aches and diarrhea. The enzymes in the raw milk also make a difference in my GERD. Reflux happens less with the raw milk in my diet -- and that's a good thing when I am sleeping.

Daniel, our toddler aka Dannyboy, also drinks more milk when it's raw goat milk. He drank some storebought ultrapasteurized goat milk and I'm grateful for it, but he clearly did not savor it as I had to keep pushing the milk on him to get a glass down. He just increased his breastfeeding to make up for it. That wasn't quite my very longterm goal for him since he'll be two years old in October.

Between the raw goat milk and some powdered goat milk in storage we should get through the coming winter just fine with our Dannyboy. No more soy milk sickness for him, or me.

Goat Milk

I had my first glass of store bought goat milk today. It's not very good. It's not very bad. It's not quite right. But it will have to do.

Dannyboy, almost 17 months old, transitioned to soy milk three days ago, and then 12 hours later began watery diarrhea and vomitting which has lasted for nearly 3 days.

It was very, very bad, and I called the pediatrician. He existed on breastmilk, gatorade, Pedialyte popsicles, and mom holding him. The ped said that was the perfect combination. I went and bought more galactagogue herbs. You can google that if you wish.

Danny baby slept through the night, twice now. He was too weak to get up and ask to nurse, I presume. When I woke up, I was convinced he was dead and prayed myself backed to calmness. Then I sat up, and he smiled at me. Whew. DonotscaremeagainlikethatIamthemotherofoldageandcannotlivethroughthistwice.

I predict he never sleeps through the night again. And nursing at night is okay with me. I get him all to myself, and he gets a midnight snack. Or consolation. Or both.

Yesterday Danny started reaching for food to eat again, and I held him off with breaking up Pedialyte popsicles into a bowl and handing him a spoon and fork. His diarrhea was still rather aggressive, and I didn't think food was a good idea yet. Sister sneaked him a graham cracker, but he only ate one nibble. Perhaps food really wasn't a good idea yet.

When Papa called on his morning break at the factory, he wanted to know if his boyo was feeling better. He said he grew so worried about his quiet that when the alarm went off at 4 am he got his flashlight out and shined it in the crib to make sure the baby had not died. (It's not just me!)

Then Papa called at noon, asked how the baby was again (just fine, running around giggling, still has diarrhea). And then I said: can you please buy some of that $4/quart goat milk for the baby, I think he may be seriously ill from the soy milk.

The goat is leaving in a few hours, so we have a pint of real goat milk per day until then (she's almost out of milk.) Wegman's carries Meyenberg goat milk, which is whole goat milk, ultrapasteurized. I drank some this morning, it tastes less goat cheesey than 3 day old unpasteurized, the texture is wrong, it feels funny in my mouth, but it won't give me a belly ache. I made a smoothie, for my calcium intake, and just hid the oddity of it. Baby drank some and didn't notice anything worth tossing a sipper cup for.

I've put the word out on the farm network that we're looking to buy two goats that recently freshened, so we can milk again for real goat milk. Since our goats were evicted from the village a Mennonite farmer up the road offered to board our goats and we'll pay their 12 year old son to milk them twice a day for us, and provide our own grain and hay for the goat girls. I hope that works out long term. It sure beats the taste and price of soy milk or $16 gallon goat milk.

Goodbye Goats

Thus ends an era. The village of Rushville, in their ill-advised rush to modern-ness and future planning have passed a new zoning plan that prohibits livestock and chickens and other animals in the village limits.

Even as the cities of Seattle, New York, and other major metropolitan areas loosen their zoning to allow families self-sufficiency and companion animals of many sizes, my rural village of six hundred people, with farms within a city block of it's borders, eliminated the use of one hundred year old pre-existing barns, as places for goats to peek out the window and nibble the vegetable scraps of my neighbors and my garden.

Go figure.

Now that's progress. .

The truth is, we've cut back our reliance on our goats gradually, when the zoning ordinance went up for review. I rallied the neighbors and some village members and as I first blogged a few years ago about this issue, when I saw our neighbors support and protest went unanswered, I saw the proverbial handwriting on the wall. Then Katie, our goat herd queen, passed away from old age, wrapped in a soft blue blanket.

We went a year without goat milk and purchased it from a Mennonite farm friend while I was pregnant with Daniel. And why did we have a year without goat milk? Because village dogs broke into my barn and tore open my goats, requiring surgery on three of them and providing me with a healthy farm visit vet bill.

Otherwise friendly labrador retriever and labrador mixes turned into ripping tearing, goat harassing creatures when let out to do their business with no leash. And my goats were zoned out of the village?

Monday morning is trash day in our village, and we usually see a few trash cans with their contents strewn about by a loose family pet of some village resident. My goats never leave their barn, provide milk, manure for the gardens of both my half acre and the neighbors, and eat up the weeds they pull for them.

I fail to see the wisdom of more rules for my barn. Perhaps enforcement of the dog leash law would have been time better spent. But that could just be my bitter bone speaking, I've noticed I have one when I lose the source of milk for my young children and source of cheese for my lactose intolerant family.

By all means, make more government, make more rules, invade my barn. And a plague of flies upon the swimming pool behind my barn during swimming season. I think this summer you'll have a very difficult time making the case that your flies are caused by my goats. Especially since I hang fly strips in the barn and they were usually quite empty!

Headache?

I think turning 44 years old shortly after giving birth to my sixth child had the unexpected effect of me watching in the mirror for curly white corkscrews. Not right away of course, because between a c-section and subsequent painkillers and then just the routine sleepless nights of a newborn on the every two hour meal plan, not to mention the needs of the other 7 people in this house proved rather distracting for a year.

About Daniels birthday celebration I finally gave in and sought some copper highlights to blend the curly white twists into the rest of my dark auburn hair. It was the perfect antidote to dreading the upcoming winter also. Those highlights were so subtle my husband gave me the deer in the headlights look when I asked him if he liked my new hair color. He desperately searched for where this haircolor was, as if I carried it in a grocery sack in my arms. I take that as a compliment.

It's the end of the dark and dreary but not too cold winter we had this year, and the corkscrews are popping up again. This time I took my 11 year old daughter in to get her eyebrows arched a little, a rite of passage into young womanhood in my family. While my highlights were wrapped in aluminum foil and baking under a bonnet hair dryer, I watched her face as her eyebrows were waxed. I had mine done while I was there too, but somehow I'm the only one that emerged with bright pink spaces around my eyebrows.

The stylist was skillful and pleasant, but a little short for my torso so she requested that I bend my neck at an odd angle for a couple of minutes to complete a task. Today, two days later, I still have the headache that I woke up with the next day, and I think I've identified that as the onset. Note to self, no thank you is a perfectly reasonable answer, she can use a stool, or lower the chair.

A brief pressure point massage from the same daughter went a long way to easing my achey temples, but isn't quite the cure-all I'd hoped. I'm pleased with my new highlights, although these are a bit more dramatic than I'd asked for. Which of course means my husband said "you look like you just spent some time in the sun! and my daughter loved the highlights and wants some for her hair. Thank you, but no expensive self-indulgences should be started at age eleven. And where did I put that giant bottle of Tylenol?

Midweek Waterpark Adventure

We took Thursday and Friday off of life and retreated as a family. The children had requested a Waterpark adventure, and there's no question that indoors is optimal in February in Upstate New York.

Our children are now the ripe old ages of 1 years old through 14 years old, from 33" to six feet even. With age and attention disparity like that, I was concerned about finding things for all of them to enjoy. I need not have worried, because Palm Island Indoor Waterpark at the Clarion Hotel in Batavia, New York fit the bill exactly.

We arrived at 4pm, hoping to avoid long lines. Our water park passes authorized us to enter at 3pm, but the logistics of six children, two dogs, and homework for the online student delayed us a little bit. The front desk employees were quick and efficient and patient with the argumentative potential patron in front of me. I was pleased that our special request of two suites, connecting, had been blocked out carefully for us, with no disappointment.

We purchased the waterpark package, x2 which included a room that potentially slept 6, $25 voucher toward breakfast at Bel Gusto restaurant inside the hotel, 4 water park passes, and unused $25 toward some nearby gambling establishment which will remain unnamed.

The children had a quick supper and changed into their suits, headed down to the waterpark and emerged again as it closed at 9pm, thrilled to tell me all about it. I confess I mostly nodded and smiled as I hurried through my Statistics homework. Husband texted a picture of Daniel, age 1, overcoming his fear of water and splashing in the six inch deep splash section.

While they spent hours splashing and carousing I had ordered room service for dinner. The bourbon chicken sandwich sounded really good, but the Bel Gusto Restaurant has some work to do on its execution. Chicken breast with bourbon sauce and swiss cheese on focaccia bread has great potential. But the condiments it came with, little packets of mustard and ketchup, left my sandwich naked with mayonnaise envy. Even better would have been a little pot of that bourbon glaze, but there was none to be seen. I ordered a sandwich for dinner in lieu of steak because I had my eye on their ultimate chocolate cake, but the kitchen called back to tell me they were out! I appreciated the heads-up, and opted for the redvelvet cake. It delivered! In fact, the delivery man offered that they had sent up two pieces to make up for any inconvenience. It was cream cheese frosting on red velvet heaven, in fact, the best piece I've had to date.

The beds are so comfortable at the Clarion that I was loathe to get out of ours. But I did, at 5 am with a cheerful little teething toddler who only uses one word. Up. Up. Up. I handed him off to his father at 7 am and headed back for a short nap.

At 8:30 we all used our $25 breakfast voucher and enjoyed their well-stocked breakfast buffet. With the range of ages of our children and their lactose intolerance, it was nice to see lots of choices. I had the scrambled eggs, a sausage link, a slice of bacon, a miniature biscuit with a dollop of nicely made country gravy, some melon cubes, and a glass of cranberry juice.

The baby enjoyed yogurt, fresh strawberries, sausage, a miniature danish pastry, french toast sticks and syrup, and a bit of Dad's biscuit and gravy. The eldest, six foot of walking hungry, ate everything in sight, and went back for more. In addition he had brought single serving soy milk containers to enjoy a box of cold cereal from the buffet, after he had sampled multiple tastes of every other item on it. The servers were solicitious but not intrusive, which we valued.

The husband and I made a quick trip for a forgotten item to the Target store next door, conveniently just across the parking lot from our hotel. Then we changed into suits and spent the rest of our second day at the waterpark. Half of the waterpark is devoted to little people, and our littles really enjoyed the splashing and playing in water that didn't exceed one foot deep. The bigger children, 10-14, played basketball in a deeper lagoon, soaked in the hot tub and double-dared each other to ride the two water slide tubes that descended from the second floor and swooped outside returning to a chute depositing the rider into the waterpark in view of all their friends.

The kids had so much fun that they hesitated to tell me that they were hungry at lunch time. We tried the adjacent mini-cafe's pizza, which came in pepperoni or cheese. We'll probably opt for take-out from somewhere else in the future, but in case of starvation, it will sustain life. We augmented the lousy pizza with chicken and vegetable quesadilla with sour cream and salsa, Chicken caesar salad, and a Julienne salad, from Bel Gusto Restaurant. The servers were polite, friendly, and helpful, but I'd like to have a chat with the cook in the restaurant. Julienne means thin slices, not wide planks of an inch or two. It was sliced cheese ready for a sandwich, and sliced meat, cut into planks, rather than julienned. They should be somewhat uniform - really I'm not overly particular - but this was the messiest salad I've seen, and I paid $7.95 or so for that mess. The caesar salad was close to what I expected, a grilled chicken breast sliced on top of romaine lettuce, store bought croutons, and a bottled dressing. I think that care should have been taken not to include the darkened crumbs at the bottom of the crouton package, because I kept mistaking them for some type of bacon bit, unwelcome in a caesar salad.

My children urged me to try the "easy, more mellow" chute. If they had nicknamed it "descent into terror" I would have been forewarned, but no, Sarah and Andy urged me into it, telling me that it was mellow and and had pretty lights and I'd really like it. Toward the end of what seemed eternity, about 2 seconds before I wished death as an escape, I had the though flash through my mind that I was going to throw up, or drown, or drown and throw up, and then suddenly it was over. While I searched for my equillibrium which remained somewhere behind me in the chute, I was helped up by my laughing son who saw the look on my face as I emerged from the chute of doom. Then my daughter caused a mini tidal wave as she emerged which knocked my dizzy self back off my feet and gave her a good laugh.

Once the urge to vomit left me I found the whole experience hilarious, and my second 14 year old then felt it was okay to laugh. He's a sensitive soul, when he's not sure if his life is on the line for urging me into the chute.

The 11 year old daughter who helped me up along as I was popping out of the chute laughed and urged me into the "Cobra" tunnel ride. I wisely declined that because I wasn't eager to see my salad displayed. The water rushing out of the "Cobra" tube was still churning, compared to the mere rush of water in the one I rode. I thought the first supposedly scenic ride was very fast, so I was not eager to compare the two. My two daredevil teen and preteen were! They thought it was exciting, colorful, and initially nerve-wracking, in a good way.

Check out time was 11 am for the room, and 3pm for the waterpark, and we stayed and enjoyed every minute until our integrity alone urged us out of the waterpark at 3pm.

We're eagerly looking forward to a return visit as a family during Spring Break. If you go, enjoy the breakfast buffet and the red velvet cake, but avoid the pre-fabricated pizza. P.S. 10 cent dum-dum lollipops from the gift store help make a quieter ride home too.

And tell them KelliSue Montague sent you!

Pumpkin Coconut Soup

I have some pumpkins and even more butternut squash taking a siesta in the root cellar at my parents' home up the street. They're calling to me today. They store whole for quite some time, but c'mon, I should be using them up more. So here's a recipe for the squash. You can substitute boxes of frozen squash puree, or any cooked winter squash or canned pumpkin puree you like. Spice it up with curry paste or curry powder if you dare.. but it's a nice subtle pumpkin coconut soup for those days when you aren't quite up to extra spice. I like to serve it with marinated venison or chicken grilled on a skewer, then served with tortillas. Hold a warm flour tortilla, and then place the skewered meat on your tortilla, and use the tortilla to hold the meat as you remove the skewer for serving. I'm hungry... so on to the recipe.

Keng Bouad Mak Fak Kham
Thai Pumpkin Coconut Soup

6 to 8 medium shallots unpeeled, roasted until soft
*or see substitution below
3.5 to 4 cups of pumpkin or butternut squash, cooked
*This is about a 4 pound pumpkin or squash, if you have whole ones in your root cellar
For many people, these may also be frozen squash, or cans of pumpkin puree
1 can 13.5 or 14 oz. coconut milk (check the Asian food section in your market)
3 cups vegetable or chicken stock
1/4 cup fish sauce (Asian)
Generous grindings of black pepper
1/3 cup minced scallions
Pumpkin seeds, if you have them.

Place coconut milk and chicken stock in a soup pot and then add pumpkin or squash puree, stirring to combine. Add roasted shallots or garlic, or the dried toasted onion option. Heat to a boil, stirring regularly. Add the fish sauce, turn down and allow to simmer for 5 minutes. At this point I usually use my stick blender and blend the soup smooth. It eliminates any stringy bits from our home grown squash or pumpkins. Store bought sieved purees may eliminate the need for this step. Taste for salt, but usually we don't need any extra beyond that provided by the fish sauce.
You can serve this really beautifully in a baked pumpkin shell, but in the winter there usually aren't any available. Serve in individual bowls or a soup tureen with each serving topped with toasted pumpkin seeds or minced scallions.

Another version of this adds some curry paste or powder for some spice. That's a good idea if you have colds or flu in the family. Either way, it's a good way to get extra vitamins in the family during cold and flu season.

*roasted shallots or garlic: place 6-8 whole shallots or 2 cloves of garlic in aluminum foil and drizzle with 1/4 tsp. oil, wrap well, roast until tender and the skin has darkened. Another option is to dry roast the whole cloves in a frying pan until the skin has darkened, but the inside is sweet and tender. You can also take 1 tablespoon of dehyrated onions and toss in a hot skillet and keep stirring and tossing around until dark tan, and then add to the soup.


A vegetarian version could include tiny cubes of tofu floating in the pumpkin soup, and use only vegetable broth, and substitute tamari sauce for the fish sauce. Either way, it's gluten free and nondairy.

Happy Winter -- It's been a mild one so far!

Have you noticed how commonplace it is to see a baby with a bottle on television now? When I was young Maria had a baby on Sesame Street. Then natural questions evolved from that. What is the baby doing? The baby is breastfeeding. Oh that's nice.






If all U.S. women followed medical recommendations to breastfeed their infants exclusively for six months, the nation could save $13 billion a year in medical costs and prevent 911 deaths, according to an analysis published in the new issue of the journal Pediatrics.

Thirteen billion dollars a year in medical costs saved by our nation? Now that's worth talking about. And where is a better place to start than Sesame Street. Again.

How cute is this child?

Daniel Martin Kolz was born October 6, 2010. I casually slip in that when he was delivered I drove myself to the hospital, and had him an hour and a half later.

He is our swan song. I turned 44 a few weeks after his gentle entry into the world, and Martin politely turned 50 a few months later.

It may seem like too much to tell you that Daniel makes us giggle each and every day, and he is the reason Daddy hurries home from work, the reason the big boys look carefully through the front door glass before opening the door after school and the reason why Emma wanted to stay home for homeschool instead of attending a public school elementary class. And of course, he's the reason the big sisters smile as much as they do.

I quip to my friends that I breastfeed him just so I get some time to hold him with all the competition! It was my only guarantee that every couple of hours he came back to my arms for some one on one time.

Heavenly Father may have packed his big smile into his little body before he was born, but I hope I can claim that our family is the reason why Dannyboy uses it so very often!

And a partridge in a pear tree....

I could claim insanity... with no disagreement from my family and friends. That's right, five college courses, 2 teenagers, 1 pre-teen daughter, 2 little girls, one nursing baby, and a partridge in a pear tree. Wrong song.. I lost track.

My friends are all excited about Pinterest. Sign up for Pinterest. Look at all the cute things I found/saw/made/coveted... on Pinterest. Like this lovely and cozy chicken sweater for your free range, organic, Upstate New York winterized chicken.



















I just laugh. I don't have time. We're having a blast, but no time for Pinterest. So sing the second verse with me: 5 college courses, 2 teen-agers, 1 pre-teen daughter, 2 L*I*T*T*L*E girls, one nursing baby, two house cats and a partridge in a pear tree.

Why do they have to eat every night?

One of my college professors assigned us to write eight blog posts. Thankfully I have six children who provide me with fodder on a daily basis, but lately their quips have gone to waste.

Today, at 4pm, after an afternoon snack should have mollified him, I assigned one of my 14-year-old sons to make supper. "Why do they have to eat every night?" ::hand thrown up in dramatic fashion::

I had to hold back laughter. I'm trying to get some school assignments done before their deadline. The kids are home on winter break from their middle school and elementary school. It seems logical to my mind that your average well-trained teenager can take on a task, especially with food involved. He's a well-fed boy by the looks of him. He did make barbecued beans from a can of pork and beans. It's rather simple and easily done. Chop and saute' one sweet onion in olive oil until transparent, add one large family size can of pork and beans. Add 2 T of brown sugar, 1T of molasses or maple syrup, 2 T of barbecue sauce of your choice, and salt to taste. Serve with hot dogs baked by your sister. Be sure and write a list of complaints that include your mother adds too many nutty ingredients to the beans. But do pass the beans, because the kids really like them.

I was reminded of this comic panel which was delivered to my Facebook page. I was amused. It's not funny to one of my 14-year-old boys. The other one takes after me and stifled his laughter.