more about shopping in Texas: Grocery

I am still stunned and amazed at the size of the stores in Texas. And here’s what I love about the grocery situations: wine and beer and many many choices. Only one stop and you’re done. But there is one choice, one huge section of the store that has been freaking me out. The meat aisle. Or, as I’ve been referring to it lately, the morgue. See, it’s vast and there’s this one section of low open freezers that contain nothing but ribs. Racks and racks and rows and rows of them. Then there’s the ground beef in big tubes. It’s like ground Jimmy Dean sausage but bigger and beef, and there are piles of those, too.

Here’s the thing. I am not a vegetarian. I like juicy sloppy burgers, I like sausage with onions, I like bacon, and I’m certainly not saying that I didn’t try to braise some very disappointing short-ribs. But sometimes when I’m standing there, looking at the aisles of parts, and ground meat, I just can’t deny the Food.Inc-ness of it. The Forks Over Knives-ness of it. It’s the volume. And suddenly, it’s not just about me enjoying my little plate of cooked flesh and bones….It’s about many many plates of cooked flesh and…well, you get the idea.

So it’s the notably titanic nature of our local meat aisle that has given me pause. I’m not saying I’m going to go vegetarian, either. I’m not saying I wouldn’t eat a brisket that my husband had smoked all day. But I have started thinking about my meat sources.

When we were living in Massachusetts, we used to order grass-fed beef from a small farm in Vermont. It was high-quality, responsible, and delicious. It was part of a co-op and it just felt like, ok, if we’re gonna eat meat…this is about the best way we can do it, short of hunting or raising the animals ourselves.

So the other day when my son requested tacos, I stood in front of the ground meat section to make the call. I ambled over to the Angus Section and asked the butcher if they had any grass-fed. He did. In one teeny section there were 1lb packets. It was a little more expensive to buy, but somehow it made me feel better. I felt like, if I was going to make the choice, at least it was informed and hopefully better for us and the environment. (Note: there are smaller markets that carry organic, local, and whole-food items. They’re just a little further out.) Good peeps have shown me the way.

Now, there’s only one question left, what about the chicken nuggets?

honesty is the best policy

we all have our days.   some good, some bad.

i’ve told both of my children, on countless occasions, that all i ever want from them is honesty.  tell me something good, tell me something bad, but just make sure it’s the truth.  you can tell me anything…anything.

so yesterday, for no particular reason i was crabby.  nothing really wrong, just a crabby pants.  crabsalot.  crabby mccrabbenstein….you get the idea.

then my kids come home from school, and like any mood…it expands and influences whoever is nearby.  so they got crabby.  then the crabby escalated.  my son in particular, he’s like a barometer…a predictor, and at times, an amplifier of feelings.

so he started crabbin’ about his wii not bending to his will, my daughter started crabbin’ about how she couldn’t double up on the flav-or-ices.  then, like a tennis tournament of interjections, words were exchanged.  some were smashed out-loud, some lobbed and mumbled , and some were tapped over the net, whispered only to god.

later that night, before bedtime, we all cuddled up for some stories.  after lights out and a little drift off to sleep i said, “kids, i love you so much.  i’m really sorry for being a crabby mom today.”  and it was weird, like on cue they both leaned over, kissed me, and said in stereo, “that’s ok, mom.”  i sat with my eyes closed, quiet, and reflected on how lucky i was.  lucky to have love, and even more lucky to have 2 amazing kids who were communicating the power of forgiveness.

i got choked up.  then about 3 minutes later, still in cuddle formation, my son says, “mom?”  i say, “yes love?”  he turns and wraps his warm small hand around mine…”and i’m sorry for calling you a screaming old-lady, good night.”

gosh, i hadn’t heard that one.  as i bit my tongue with a grimace, i thought, yes, yes it is.

Texas Friday Night Fun

Local HS football was an amazing night

Acclimatization

I haven’t been posting for a while for several reasons. First, and obviously, I’m helping my family get settled. Second, and more likely the first reason, my computer’s not hooked up. I’m blogging from my iphone, which can be done, but kinda feels like using toenail clippers to cut up a chicken.

My report on Texas so far: Heat bad / Not having to put everyone in snow pants, boots, coats, and hats good. Also, not having to chip 2″ thick ice off my windshield good.

People are wicked nice.

The school is great.

My kids, despite a few sad moments, are totally on-board and having fun.

The shopping situation is of particular interest to me. We lived in NYC for a couple of years where everything is minature size. The grocery stores have tiny aisles, and you get a tiny cart that looks like a fun-size kiddie cart. That was an adjustment. There’s an adjustment here as well…the stores are HUGE.

I really kinda got lost in Target the other day. I was thinking I was back in my old Target, then all the sudden I was in a grocery section, then there was booze on the shelves (folks from NE know how weird that is) and I got confused. I called my husband and he’s like, “Um, where are you and whadda you doin’?” I asked him what time it was…turns out, I had been wandering around this olympic mega-store for close to 2 hours. It felt like that scene from Contact…when Ellie goes through the machine, and she’s gone for like 18 hours, but special relativity means that she was only gone for a few seconds of earth time, and everyone thinks she’s nuts; but she swears she was on a fantastical voyage seeing new galaxies and communing with an alien disguised as her father. It was just like that. Only (for the purposes of this post) the space-time continuum was in reverse.

So here I am; a midwestern girl who comes from average size stuff, via NYC with tiny size stuff, to Texas with giant size stuff.

I gotta say, I could get used to this. When my closet’s bigger than my daughter’s old bedroom, and my bathtub could be used as a koi pond….you won’t catch me complaining.

So, I’ll take the heat….if that also means there’s a giant mac in my future.

Should be sleeping, or unpacking, or cleaning

After some songs and cuddles, the kids are asleep. They’re understandably scared. They’ve been troopers during the day, but at night the nerves start to show. It’s like that for me too. When I start to fret, I should know enough to go to bed.

I like to stay up for a little while though. As any parent can attest, those few hours of quiet at night are blissful.

The house will take some time to get organized. Funny, I keep thinking about painting and changes – but we’re renting and I realize that I might not want to invest all that work and time into something we’re just borrowing for a while.

Our stuff looks strange against a new backdrop. All my antiquey things looked normal in a 1910 colonial. Here, against a white wall and clean carpet, they all look a little dusty.

Some of our stuff got dinged up in the highway jostling, but that’s what happens. The journey leaves it’s marks. And the marks and scars are what tell the story.

I’m all over map with my blogging tonight. I’m tired and I’m big enough to tell myself to go to bed.

note: Thanks for these songs that help my kids sleep. We’re gonna be friends, Yellow submarine, Go to sleep my zoodle, and Hush little baby (The sweet version from the children’s book.)

Home

Mother’s Log, Trip Date: 08.11.11

We are here in Leander, TX! We made it by around 8 pm. We are staying with dear friends until our rented house is ready on the 15th.

Open house for the school tonight.

Erik’s unloading the uhaul into a storage facility to be retrieved later.

Looking forward to beginning again.

Many new things to take care of and to discover. For now, just gonna take it all in.

Mother’s Log, Trip Date: 08.10.11

Travelling

We made it to Little Rock last night. Before we left yesterday, we took the kids to the hotel pool. We discovered that a later start was worth it, because letting the kids go nuts first = much better car ride.

So we did the same thing this morning. Only the Comfort Suits in Little Rock has a freakin’ water park! Awesome. The kids went crazy then we hit the road.

We’re gonna try to make it to Austin tonight. It’ll be a haul, but I think we’re ready for our ride to end.

I would’ve loved to have had a less, “we’re just passing through” mentality. But this was a relocation trip, and we need to get settled before school starts, and hopefully make it to the open house so the kids can meet their teachers and see their classrooms.

Road Thanks

I have to give a special thanks to the kind moms in NC. I can’t even remember what town we were in – but one of our kids needed a bathroom. Immediately. So we pulled off the highway at what we thought was gonna be a commercial area. The highway sign was blue and said, “Restaurant and Inn.” After driving for awhile, all we saw was a very lovely gated community. Desperate, we pulled into their private pool area. Erik got out and asked a mom if we could use their pool house restrooms for our kids. 2 very nice moms said, “yes, of course.” They were on their way out, so the stayed back a minute and let us in…I wish I could thank them again.

Pending Arrival

It’s gonna be weird when we get into our house. I don’t think it’s fully hit me yet that we’re resettling. I’ve been in hyper-drive since we made the decision, and I wonder if I’ll have a little reality crash. Or, maybe not.

I feel a poetry reference coming on…Here’s a bit of Robert Frost. Seems fitting:

“The woods are lovely, dark, and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep. “

…396.3 to be quite literal about it all.

One of the best games to play in the car. We modified by not keeping score. It’s a disgusting game that made the kids laugh for an hour straight.

Mother’s Log, Trip Date: 08.09.11

Comfort Suites in Little Rock – you are WICKED AWESOME!