home again

I'm sitting in Starbucks (a.k.a. my office), listening to the samba music they're playing. In what little time I've had to work in the past couple of weeks, I've been trying to pound out some essays, and a poem for a wedding this weekend, which doesn't seem to want to get written.

And we actually moved back into our house this week (at last!), which has meant even less time to work.

In some ways, it feels as though we never left.


Then I remember the piles of stuff in every room of our house, bulging suitcases, shelves that need to be assembled, bins of moldy sheets and towels from storage that need to be washed.

Not that this is all I have to show for a year in Brazil.

But listening to the berimbau and sweet Portuguese crooning, I do feel slightly dislocated and wistful (possibly exactly what Starbucks marketers are going for).

Remember the breeze under the palm trees, sipping coconuts on the beach? Remember Dete doing the laundry?

Ah, well.

It is great to have our house back, the rooms freshly painted in bright colors, and all new Craigslist furniture.

I have to admit, in many ways the last thing I want to do after finally, finally getting into our house is to pack up yet again and take a road trip with three small kids.

But we'll get to see a new niece/cousin on the way, see the wonderful Jenny and Ben get married, and catch up with old friends.

And when we get back, we'll still have a couple of weeks to listen wistfully to bossa nova while we do laundry and unpack before school starts.


P.S. When I get back, I promise to change this blog's banner photo and subtitle. Any suggestions?

breakfast

The problem with insisting that one's family eat real food (when you're not in Brazil, where we had a full-time, amazing cook) is that you're always in the kitchen. It seems like as soon as I finish cooking one meal, it's time to start the next one.

And believe me, it's nothing fancy. For breakfast, we have eggs, usually with rice, sometimes potatoes or cornbread. (I tried oatmeal, but no one really liked it, except Ju, who thought it made a great finger food.) So we're back to a big omlet, or over-easies when R. and E. have their say. Which means we go through nearly a dozen eggs a day.

For the other two meals, most of the time I make what E. refers to--so appetizingly--as mixed food. Rice (brown or basmati) sautéed in coconut oil in the cast iron skillet with some combination of: greens, squash, frozen green peas, tomatoes, ground beef or sausage from the farmer's market, or cut-up organic beef hot dogs from Trader Joes.


(Lest you think they're all perfect eaters, the older two tend to pick out most of the green things.)

I read one blog that suggests serving deconstructed dinners, where you separate all the parts of the meal so the kids can pick and choose what they want. This seems to me like it would take a lot more effort and dishes, encourage pickiness, and cost a fortune, because the only way I can afford meat (at least the local grass-fed blah blah blah), is to stretch it with some cheap starches.

I have to admit, though, the separate rows of flaked salmon and grilled asparagus and diced tomatoes do make a better photo than a big pile of mixed food.

Seriously, though, any suggestions? What do you feed your kids that's quick, cheap, tasty, and involves no sugar or wheat or processed stuff? Help, please!

limbo

We were planning to be back in our house by now, but apparently the home improvement gods have other plans for us. Our tenants left the house a mess--the floors are scratched, their kids drew all over the walls, and there's an ominous stain on the ceiling under the bathtub.

So it looks like we won't be moving in for a while yet.


In the meantime, though, we've gotten to visit with some dear friends,


and see my brother in concert.
(R. wasn't too happy right in front of the speakers, but Ju couldn't get enough.)

I'm starting to feel itchy to move into our house and get our life started here, but after a year in Brazil, you get pretty good at shrugging off unexpected inconveniences. Come to expect them, in fact.

And even, on occasion, appreciate the upside; in this case, we get a freshly painted, sanded, and leak-free house out of it.

Plus, it's going to be a hundred degrees every day for the next week, and it's kind of nice to be in air conditioning.



When we're not setting fires in the driveway.