31 for 21

I'm reposting this picture from Saturday's Buddy Walk because I just love it.

October is National Down Syndrome Awareness month.  And although I'm not usually a big "awareness" kind of blogger, I've signed up for the 31 for 21 blog challenge this month.  We'll see if I make it posting every single day in the month of October.  October is a really busy month and I've got a lot of high-stress deadlines coming up, like the inspectors coming to watch my classes, various appointments, and a large amount of carpooling and schlepping, but parenting a just-turned-13-year-old beautiful girl with Down syndrome is not generally one of my high-stress factors. 

And because my blog is my happy place, I figured I could try to share more about one of the factors that helps keep me sane, happy, and balanced.  Having a child with Down syndrome is, perhaps surprisingly, a big stress-reducer in my life.  I wish more new parents knew this.

So why is it that 13 years ago, I was devastated, morose, convinced all chance of normalcy was gone forever from my life?  I knew a little about Down syndrome before the doctor came into the room to break the news; enough to know that most babies diagnosed in utero aren't allowed to be born and join the rest of us.  I wonder, now, if what I thought I knew about how "horrible" Down syndrome must be was more what I had absorbed from society subconsciously.  Because I can tell you from my perspective, 13 years in, that kids with Down syndrome are awesome!  They have so much to offer that the fear and stereotypes just do not hold water.  I have to be careful not to love my daughter more than my other 3 kids.  (Hmm, is it even okay to say that?!)

So I'll be welcoming some new readers to my blog this month and I hope they stick around for some of my ramblings.  Most of the time here in CarpeLanam land I gab about knitting, quilting, spinning, teaching Latin, my favorite books, politics, food, and family.  I plan to continue that during October but focus on Down syndrome a little more than usual.  Because Down syndrome is really just one facet of my life, and I would like to see a society where people with all levels of ability are routinely accepted and included, just as my daughter has been in our family.

Randomday: the Buddy Walk

Shortly following Tertia's 13th birthday (I have three teenagers now... how can that be?!) came the annual Down Syndrome Buddy Walk.  This year I took both girls.

There was a bounce house. 

There were carnival games with silly prizes.

There were hula hoops.  Two different strangers came up to me and said Tertia was a world class hula-hooper.  Of course, this is one of those events where no one is a true stranger.

There were Star Wars characters, inexplicably made friendly and huggable and transported to Portland.  I'm pretty sure Tertia thinks of Chewie as a close personal friend; she remembers him from last year.

The Central Catholic cheerleaders were there to kick off the walk.  I loved the "poms down!" order right before they did a cheer with lots of clapping.

After the walk they turned on the fountain in the Rose Quarter Commons.  It didn't take long before the inevitable wetness for all kids ensued:

At first it looks like they might stay mostly dry...

... but not for very long.

A good time was had by all.

WIP Wednesday and Yarn-Along

It's been awhile since I had any real progress to report... actually, it's been since the start of school.  I can't help feeling jealous of all those bloggers and Facebook friends celebrating sending the kids back to school so they have time to sew!  Somebody has to sacrifice quilting time to teach those kids!

But, I finished quilting my Log Cabin yesterday.  This was one of my long-term UFOs and it's now almost finished!  I just need to make a hanging sleeve, trim the edges and sew on the binding.  I'm happy to get some machine-quilting mojo back, before I start on some other quilts that demand something a little more than just squiggles. I'm linking up to Freshly Pieced.

And I'm also linking up to the Yarn-along at Small things.  That lump of blue yarn is my handspun Wensleydale that I'm attempting to knit into the EZ Half-Pi shawl "camping".  Been working on it since Family Camp in August and it's sloooow.  It looks like a big jumbled mess and I'm taking it on nothing but faith that it will ever look good once it's blocked.  And I'm doing a quick scan of Mossflower by Brian Jacques, which I've read multiple times before, as I read through the entire Redwall series in chronological order and prepare to write a book review of each of them.  Except, nothing is quick these days... except the kids growing up!

This little girl turns 13 today!  She wants to get on Facebook now. 

Political Tuesdays - We Have Met the Enemy, and He is Us

It was a frustrating night, knitting at Starbucks.  First off, I discovered I had left the directions for the shawl I was knitting at home.  I suffer from Monday Night Brain anyway, so I decided to start a pair of socks with yarn and pattern I did have in my knitting bag.  I made it through Judy's Magic Cast-on and was trying to knit the first 2 rows, when the conversation around the table turned to politics.  Not real politics, though.  Things like, "Vote-by-mail is awesome" and telling Ron Wyden so on Twitter and how many new followers she got as a result (seems like a lot of interest in Oregon voting for a Washington resident, but I said nothing).  And how someone's husband donated to the Obama campaign last time around and now they keep sending stuff (surprise!) like autographed pictures of Joe Biden.  I may have said something just mildly snarky at this point, but the general sentiment seemed to be that Biden embodies silliness.  He was right up there with the Ron Paulites in their minds... which is pretty close to the way I feel actually.  I did observe at one point (I had long since abandoned hope of getting any knitting done) that the Republican convention had the edge because they were the only one with balloons.  And what fun is a convention where only confetti drops from the ceiling, no balloons?!

Then an older woman piped up, "It's no one's *%$ business how you vote.  It should be secret!"  A sentiment I somewhat agree with, especially when with knitters.  Nobody should really bring up politics in knitting groups, it never ends well.  We'll just admire each others' yarn and patterns and stick to trivialities, and all will be well.  But then the same woman went on to say, "All politicians are the same, they just want power for themselves. They're all liars, every single one of them!"  It does make me wonder, why anyone who really believed that would bother to vote at all, secret or not.  That much cynicism surely cannot be healthy.  As for me, I'm planning on cheerfully voting for people that I believe are telling me the truth, and I agree with the vast majority of their stated policies.  But I surely miss living in a state where my vote actually matters.

I heard that President Obama sided with the Green Bay Packers and against the Seattle Seahawks in their disputed game.  I wonder if he's so sure of Washington State that he doesn't care if he ticks off the Seahawks fans, just so he can become more competitive in Wisconsin?  Probably so.  It's nice to know that he's keeping his full attention on the political situation, and avoiding petty distractions like a nuclear Iran or the jobless rate.  Oh, and he's keeping his interview skills sharp with the ladies on the View, while keeping those tiresome world leaders in their place by not meeting with them.

Book Review: Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter

I've read three vampire books in my life, and this was the funniest.  I'm not necessarily going to recommend Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter, because it has a limited appeal, or it could easily have strong appeal to some groups that have no business reading it.  You have to be able to appreciate horror, humor, and history in almost equal amounts, which is a strange combination at best.  You also should not read this if you are young and have not had your historical awareness kindled yet.  It would be wrong to leave an impressionable young mind with a conviction that beheading vampires was the real use of Abe Lincoln's axe.  And the implication that vampires were the real reason for slavery (because of the constant supply of human prey) and that their unholy alliance with the wealthy Southern landowners was the real danger in the Civil War, trivializes the historical complexities to a point that no teacher of history can condone.  But it was funny! I have a feeling the movie (which I won't be watching) has a harder time keeping the humorous tone than the book, because there are just so many gory scenes.  Fortunately I don't get grossed out by reading, and the verbal description of gore is so over-the-top that even though I don't like that particular horror element, I found the book very entertaining.  I consider it in the category of alternate history, which is a favorite of mine... and if you can keep the distinction between fantasy and reality, you might enjoy it too.

The genius of the author is in his ability to capture the feeling of a biography, with specific historical detail that has been tweaked just enough to make you want to Google it to find out for sure if it's made-up.  Of course, that's also the insidious thing about it.  I'll have to be careful in future years as I read about the Civil War, that I don't recall some interesting tidbit of information as factual.  It has implications for the modern day as well... for example, I will always wonder now if there isn't a different reason than I had assumed for why Secret Service agents always wear dark glasses.  And never smile.  And I will certainly never be able to recall "Now he belongs to the ages" in quite the same way.

Bram Stoker's Dracula is a classic and just about anyone could read it without getting creeped out too much.  It doesn't linger on the gory or gruesome; and vampires are unquestionably evil, which is probably where they should stay.  Only in a warped culture such as ours can vampires play the romantic lead.  And no, vampires don't sparkle.

I like a vampire story of literary quality, not just pulp fiction: so I'd like to promote an overlooked treasure - The Stress of Her Regard by Tim Powers.  A slightly more likely mash-up of the Romantic poets (among them of course Percy Bysshe Shelley and his wife Mary, the author of Frankenstein) and La Belle Dame Sans Merci, with the riddle of the Sphinx in there too for good measure.  Like Abraham Lincoln, this book is rich with historical and biographical detail, but it doesn't confuse the issue by trying to spoof historical characters. 

Randomday - Wat's in the Crockpot

You never know wat you're going to get on Randomday! 

Wat's in the crockpot?  Wat's in the crockpot!  (Wat was in the crockpot earlier in the week, actually, I'm just blogging about it today.)

This one's for you, Dad.  I used a recipe from Stephanie O'Dea's latest book, but it's also on her website A Year of Slow Cooking.   Ethiopian Chicken Stew, also known as Doro Wat.  My mom always made it with beef and served it with pancakes, to replicate the injeera bread that is the authentic way to serve it.  It was always too spicy for us kids to eat, so we had a pancake supper!  But we might venture to eat one of the hard-boiled eggs that had absorbed some of the sauce, just enough enough to know what Wat tastes like.

I tinkered with this recipe a bit... I added chopped kale since I had it and I like greens cooked along with my meat.  I didn't have enough hard-boiled eggs, but that worked out okay.  And I didn't add water since I remember our family Wat being a very thick stew.

1 14 oz. can diced tomatoes
5-6 boneless skinless chicken thighs, frozen
Juice of half a lemon
1 T butter
2 diced onions
1 t. ginger
1 T. paprika
1 t. cayenne pepper (more if you're my Dad)
1/2 t. black pepper
1 t. turmeric
1 bunch kale or other greens, chopped
1 hardboiled egg for each diner, peeled, to add later

Add everything to the crockpot except the eggs.  Add water if desired, up to 2 cups if you want a more soup-like stew.  Cook on low for 6-8 hours, or high for 4-5.  Stir once or twice during cooking.  Add the eggs about 15 minutes before serving.

I served this with rice in the time-honored Bogue tradition.  It was very good, although I think the Wat spices blend that came from Ethiopia propbably had a few secret ingredients in it that I don't have in this recipe.  And as good as it was, I had a bit of an upset stomach for a few days afterwards... so go cautiously with that cayenne.  This is 1-handkerchief Wat, Dad.  You would probably like a full tablespoon of cayenne!

Book Review: Martin the Warrior

Source: amazon.com via Katherine on Pinterest

Martin the Warrior, by the late Brian Jacques, is chronologically second in the Redwall saga, following Lord Brocktree.  Of all the Redwall books I've read, I think in this one Jacques was exploring more advanced themes than in his typical work.  There are few of the wordplay puzzles and archetypal quests that draw young readers into his other books; instead, it is a tale of slavery and resistance, a serious meditation on the evils of war and vengeance, and definitely closer to a tragedy than a comedy, even with the light and humorous characters that populate it.

The story follows the hero mouse Martin, a natural leader, as he follows the painful path of a hero in his attempt to defeat the evil stoat Badrang, reclaim the stolen sword of his father Luke, and free his enslaved friends.  Along the way he meets Felldoh the squirrel, Brome and his sister Rose of Noonvale, and the faithful mole Grumm.  Badrang has troubles of his own trying to recapture the escaped slaves and hold onto the fortress of Marshank while Clogg, his old enemy, threatens to take it over.  There's also a troupe of travelling actors, a kind-hearted cartographic owl, and dangerous cannibal lizards, among many others.  The book suffers a little from a cast of thousands approach, so that it's hard to remember all the characters, but you can be sure they all have a role to play before the end.  This is an approach that will appeal to children who are proficient readers and enjoy exhaustive detail in epic form.  Jacques was inspired to become an author by reading the great epics, and he does not set the bar low for his readers.  Younger children can enjoy it as a read-aloud, as with all the Redwall books.  Especially if the reader can do the moles and other voices well!

The story of Martin is a prehistory to the events of Mossflower, before the founding of Redwall Abbey.  It also sheds light on the character of Martin, both a driven and a reluctant warrior, and why the peaceful Abbey, when it is built, is a metaphor for all that is good in a dark world.  Jacques wrote many books in this series: if you're only going to read three, this should be the third after Redwall and Mossflower.  Or you can attempt the great Redwall race and read them in chronological order along with me.  I might finish in a few more years!