Limitless Ramblings

I've learned that often times, when you have a lot of kids around the same age together in the same place, they won't always get along. I don't know if it's a struggle for power or cabin fever or what... but it happens to everyone. I've found the best way to handle it is to sit the kids down and have a chat with them.


I had to do this with my kiddos today, namely the two older ones... but in the spirit of "fairness" (I figure they're young and thus I will hold off on telling them that fairness is about as real as the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus... lol) I gave the lecture to all the kids.


I sat them down and explained to them that they were friends, and that they needed to treat each other like friends. That meant playing nice, sharing, and ultimately working together. They all paid attention, and the message seemed to get through. Good on you, Self! You taught them a lesson!!!


I learned later that all I taught them was that, if they all "worked together" and ganged up on me, they could get my hat away from me and I wouldn't stand a chance. They were able to keep my hat away from me for most of the day, in fact... due to a group effort, of course.

Good on you, Self. You taught them a lesson. Maybe next time I can teach them one that doesn't backfire.

It's always strange what things happen that remind you that time is going by. As a nanny, the biggest reminder that time is going by (a lot faster than we think) is the rate at which my kiddos are growing up.

I'm so used to seeing Camden have dinosaur shaped sandwiches for lunch. Today isn't the first day he had a "normal" sandwich, but it was the first day I really noticed it, and I think it's because he was so excited to eat it. Normally, he takes a while to eat his sandwich and wants to start with his chips or z-bar or fruitsnacks or anything that's not the sandwich, but today he really wanted his sandwich... and it looked bigger than him!!

It's really easy to miss that kids are growing up, but every once in a while it will punch you in the face with the smallest things. Compared to how Cam was when I started working with him, he looks sooo grown up. :(

as you can see, she is perfectly happy w/ the dress as is...

It never fails to amaze me just how early independence can be developed, the largest example of which is Bria, one of the littler kiddos I watch. Don't get me wrong, all of them are pretty independent, but Bria is easily the most so, and at a pretty early age. She just seems to want to do everything herself. Where the other kids will ask for help, she seems more inclined to try things herself first, before asking me for assistance. This will usually mean using chairs and tables to get things that are out of her reach, using toys to build barriers if she doesn't want the other kids to bother her, or simply trying something over and over again until it either A. frustrates her enough to ask for help or B. suits her just fine.

Take, for instance, the yellow and white flower dress in the dress up box. The other kids will usually ask for help while dressing up, but no Bria. She puts the dress on herself and wears it however it happens to hang on her that day, not really caring that it isn't on right. She's simply proud of herself for getting it on at all. And that's where accomplishment comes in.

There are many MANY perks that come with being an adult, but one thing that kids have on us is the fact that as we grow older, we become harder critics. Kids, however, are far more content to be pleased with just doing things, regardless of whether or not they are successful in their endeavors. Bria is more than happy to convert the dress to a skirt and will wear it that way all day without so much as complaining about it, and if you bring attention to it, she is happy as a clam and just beams with pride. Why? Because she did it herself. She didn't need any help.

Andersen's accomplishments can be seen on all over his face.

Camden tends to find accomplishment in the smaller things, be it making a basket with the little basketball or connecting two trains together. Most common is when he makes a gun or a sword or a baton or whatever out of the connecting toys we have in the nursery. More often than not he will have constructed the exact same thing each time, but he is just as proud when he says his creation is a gun as when he says it's a sword, and so on and so forth.

Likewise, Andersen can be proud of himself simply for doing something. It doesn't matter what it is... it could be feeding himself or crawling across the floor or making it halfway up the slide in the wrong direction. The kid is just pleased when he does something. The other day, he managed to climb underneath a chair, and was pleased as punch for most of the day.

I feel like, as adults, we have this need to be successful and do everything right, and we lose the magic of simply doing something. It's nice to constantly be reminded day in and day out that just waking up is an accomplishment. Maybe we should focus a little more on being happy about what we can do, and less on being unhappy about what we can't.

I'm not really into action movies. With the exception of a few very stellar movies, action movies tend to sacrifice character development and actual plot in favor of explosions, scantily clad women and... more explosions. What's worse, the action always seems to be unrealistic to the point of absurdity (see the Charlie's Angels movies). Until a little movie called Smokin' Aces came out, I was 100% against action movies. Since then, however, I've been more willing to give them a chance and I was actually excited to see the RED trailer.

I wasn't completely on board though... which is strange because I'd read most of the graphic novel and was absolutely in love with the idea, and the cast was fantastic (Helen Mirren and Morgan Freeman... need I say more?). I think I was still hurt over the train wreck that was Watchmen, and the fact that while it was great in graphic novel form, RED was still going to be a movie of the action genre. In the end, I went because I was suffering from Karl Urban withdrawals.

WHAT WAS GOOD:

For a graphic novel adaptation, it was probably one of the best I've seen. Each actor really captured the character's attitude and made them all very likeable. Hellen Mirren's character is so delightfully nonchalant about the fact that she was once a hired assassin, Bruce Willis is so absolutely pathetic that you can't help but root for him the entire time. Karl Urban's antagonist is also done in such a way that you can't completely hate him... or even at all, and half way through the movie you're not entirely sure who you want to come out on top. By far the best performance of the movie was John Malkovich as Marvin Boggs, a retired CIA agent that was given daily doses of LSD for 11 years. Boggs is like a dog that's been stung on the nose one too many times, and everyone thinks he's lost his nose when in reality, he just points at things with his tail. When you meet him, your first impression is that he's senile and paranoid... but you quickly learn that he's probably the best agent out of all of them.

As far as the plot goes, I liked it. They don't mention it too much, which is fine because the story is driven more by the characters, but it's actually a nice little conspiracy theory movie. And I'm not sure if it was just because I was too distracted by Karl Urban and his cute hair, but I didn't realize who the main antagonist was until right before he was revealed.

WHAT WAS BAD:

I'm willing to forgive them this transgression seeing as it was a GN adapted to a movie, but there were some action sequences that were less than believable, namely the one from the trailer when Bruce Willis steps out of the spinning cop car. However, his actions in the entire sequence are so BA, it's easy to overlook the "yeah like that abides by the laws of physics" mishaps.


The following "gripe" will be whited out because it contains spoilers. If you have seen the movie or don't mind having something (rather large IMO) spoiled, simply highlight the following portion to read the text.


FINAL SAY:

Ignoring the small gripes I had with the movie, it was a fairly well rounded film. It was great fun, and honestly it's probably one of my absolute favorite GN to movie adaptations. If you like great acting, conspiracy theories, BA characters and some pretty fast paced action, then I recommend RED.

Like snowflakes, right?

I made Julia Child's Beef Bourguignon last night for my family. It wasn't the first time I had made it, but it was the first time I had made it by myself.

The first time I made it was in Montana over the summer. A few of us were watching Julie & Julia and decided to make one of Julia Child's dishes, and Beef Bourguignon seemed like the best choice. It took us pretty much all day to chop, slice, brown, sautee, and simmer the dish, but it was a lot of fun because there were about 4 of us working together. It was a massive undertaking, but we eventually succeeded and the end result was absolutely fantastic.

This was a double recipe, prepared in the oven. It fed about 10 people and we served it over egg noodles with rolls on the side. It was the first time either of us (Danielle and I led the charge on this one) had attempted to make it, so we missed a few steps. For starters, we forgot to glaze the wine before adding it to the stew, and I think we forgot to add the tomatoes. This, however, did not seem to affect the taste any. We simply added the wine directly into the dutch oven and let it cook in the oven. We also used beef broth instead of beef stock, but there is very little difference between the two that I could taste.

Last night, I attempted a single recipe for my family, by myself (save for the mushrooms, which my father sauteed for me. I've yet to master that art) and took about 6 hours to prepare the entire meal. We served this particular batch over egg noodles, and had french bread and a salad on the side.




Once again, I forgot the tomatoes. BUT I did remember to glaze the wine... however, there were a few snags on this one along the way as well. I do not own a large, oven safe dutch oven, and thus had to cook the batch on the stove. In doing so, it seemed to evaporate all the water and alcohol very quickly and left no liquid for sauce. I was able to fix that by simply adding 2 cups of water to the stew. Because the recipe calls for at least 3 cups of sauce to whisk in the Beurre Manie, I simply removed the solids from the stew, placed the water into a glass measuring cup, and added about a cup of Zinfendel and beef stock (I eyeballed it. Exact measurements are for the weak). I then added the water, brought it to a boil to neutralize the alcohol, whisked in the beurre manie, and re-added the solids to baste a bit before serving. The result was a rather sweet sauce that gave the dish a lot more flavor than its Montana-born predecessor.

FAVORITE THING: My favorite thing about this recipe is actually two different things. The first is that it requires blanching both of bacon and onions. I had never blanched before, but honestly... it is so easy and it makes you feel so accomplished. You're only boiling the flavor out of something, but it's so cool to be able to add "blanching" to the list of things you can do without having to take a cooking class! The other thing is the price. You can feed 6 people with this, easy peasy, and the ingredients only cost about 40$. That's way cheaper than it would cost to get the same dish for 6 people at a fancy restaurant. And you're able to prepare it in your own home!

LEAST FAVORITE THING: Trimming fat is one of my least favorite things to do, and it is absolutely necessary with this recipe. You will not be able to avoid it, unless you find pre-trimmed meat.

HELPFUL TIPS: There are a few things I used the second time around that made things much easier on me.

1. Use pre-cut veggies. This will quite literally cut your prep time in half. Pre-cut carrots, tomatoes, onions, and mushrooms will allow you to get to the actual cooking portion a lot faster. Another idea is to cut the veggies the night before. The recipe calls for quartered mushrooms, however, so those are probably best to do yourself. No worries, though, it doesn't take very long to do it. 
2. Buy pre-cubed beef. You'll still have to trim the fat off - and I cut the cubes into smaller pieces - but it saves you time if you already have the meat cubed before it's even out of the package. 
3. Clean as you go. This wasn't an issue in Montana because there were people cleaning dishes as we cooked, but I knew that doing this by myself it would be an issue if I made a big mess. Keeping that in mind, I rinsed and loaded the dishwasher with every bit of downtime I got. 
4. Use the same pan for everything. One of the most amazing things about this dish is how all the flavors mix together and compliment each other. Because the food is all going into the same place, it's perfectly fine to use the same pan to sautee your veggies, brown your beef, and cook the pearl onions. This will help to minimize your clean-up.

CONCLUSION: Julia Child's Beef Bourguignon recipe requires a lot of work, but is a surprisingly flexible and easy dish to prepare. If you enjoy cooking on your own then it is the perfect project if you've got nothing to do for the day*, and its stew like quality makes it the perfect dish for the Fall/Winter season!

She pretty much earned it. This is my second Christmas as their "nanny" and I feel like this year will be easier because they're older. It's difficult when they're little because they're still learning what they like and can't tell you what they want... but with Kara in pre-school, I figured I could just ask her. So I did. "What do you want for Christmas?" I said. She thought for a bit and replied with "a fish!"

Well, that's kind of a "big" gift, seeing as it's a living thing. So I decided I'd talk to her mom about it but, just in case, I wanted to have a back up. "Is there anything else you want?" I asked. She thought for a bit - hard - before replying: "A bowl for my fish!"

At that point, I pretty much had no choice but to get her a fish. I mean, what an answer! Haha. So, she's getting a fish... I can appreciate higher level thinking. Often times, I feel like we don't give kids enough credit. They're way smarter than we think they are!

The thing that really makes me dwell on an idea; that really makes me want to spend time on a seed and see if it will sprout is the presence of a solid character. This character doesn't need a face, s/he doesn't need a name or an age... but the presence needs to be there. There needs to be potential for something strong. A powerful character/cast of characters will help you build the world they live in, and are probably the key components to having a story that will hook and impress. Regardless of how long I've been working at it; whether I've been planning a story for a year or a day, the presence of a strong character makes it stick. The development of said character is the part I enjoy the most, because it is one of the purest forms of creation/discovery I've ever experienced.

Imagine you're walking down a damp street at night. You've had a bad day at work, the air is cold, and all you can think about is getting home and going to bed and disappearing from the world for at least 8 hours. As you're walking, you pass a wall covered with posters promoting some generic something or other that you couldn't care less about. But as you're about to turn the corner onto your street, you notice one of the posters is not secured down and you can see something peeking out from underneath. Your curiosity gets the best of you, and you begin picking at the poster. It begins to pull away and underneath is a half finished mural. The more you reveal, the more excited you get. You begin tearing feverishly at the posters and, once a large enough portion is revealed, you begin to add to it. This would look better if you added this, and oh look if I reveal this piece than it makes this make more sense, and if I add this it all ties together... and before long the cold is not irritating but revitalizing, and the smell of rain is on fire in your nostrils and nothing at all could ever tear you away from this mural until you've finished. That's what it feels like when you start developing a solid character. The entire story feeds off of itself, and the whole thing started from this vague blob of a presence.

For The 11th Hour, that vague blob became Astrid Miller, and Astrid was born from a memory I had from Montana. Camden had left his shoes at the bottom of the hill and made me go down and get them and on my way up he said "HURRY UP UP UP!" My response was "hey, you don't get to tell me how fast to climb up this hill, I'm down here because of you!" And that right there was Astrid. She was meant to be the main character of my Under the Tuscan Sun idea, and stuck around as I melted all three ideas into one. The 11th Hour was the vehicle, and Astrid was the driver.

The best thing about a solid character is, 9 times out of 10, they talk to you. I realize that makes me sound insane but what I mean is... characters are constructed out of a number of things, not the least of which are environment, emotion, and social interaction. Inspiration for each of these traits can come from anywhere, and what it means to have a character talk to you is... say you're just listening to music, and you come across a song that has a certain mood to it, a certain sound, and suddenly, you feel like the character is saying "hey hey this is my theme song". The lyrics of that song, the mood, those then help solidify your character. The more definitive your character gets, the easier it is to build a world that could deal with her. If your character is this strong, than your world needs to oppress her this much, etc. etc.

The most important thing to focus on is his/her voice. A character needs a voice. This is, in a way, the essence of the character. It portrays how they interact with others/the world around them. It is effected by their past and will effect their future. One of the best ways I've found to solidify a character voice is through dialogue. This also happens to be my favorite way to fish for supporting characters. Basically, you just think of scenarios and adjust how your character would react. If Person X said this, your character would respond how? Stuff like that. Once you have a pretty good idea of their voice - it is important to realize that a character's voice will probably never be complete until the novel is complete - then you can start focusing on their physical attributes.

I've found the easiest way to solidify a character physically is to jot down or sketch out an idea of what the character would look like, and then "cast" them. For instance, given the voice and idea I had for Astrid, I used actress Odette Yustman to solidify her. She fit the character perfectly, and made it so that I could visualize her while constructing her. Then, if your story calls for it, you construct the character's background.

This, to me, is also very important. It seems silly to quote a children's movie, but I'm often reminded of Mater's line from Cars: "Don't gotta know where I'm going, just gotta know where I've been." This is the simplest way I can think to explain why character backgrounds are so important to me. Usually, the novel itself will serve as the move forward. You can outline and have an ultimate idea of where the character will end up, but your character will have a difficult time figuring out where they're going if you have no idea where they've been and what they've been through. This does not have to be specific. You just need to have an idea of what they went through; in Astrid's case, it was one idea. Her parents were murdered by the current dictator, and she wanted revenge.

At this point in development, steps start overlapping. Voice helps solidify background which finds new music to help solidify voice which finds even more music which adds to the background which adds to the voice, which effects social interaction, which helps develop other characters and solidify their voice, etc. etc. It is this fashion in which the story itself begins to develop: characters help create the world which creates the circumstances that help create the characters that create events and places that help further construct the world that further solidifies characters that create circumstances, etc. etc.

Finally, when I feel a character can stand on its own two feet, I write out character bios, organizing all the ideas and creating this person that, if alive in this world, would more than likely blend right in and whose life is intricately woven one way or the other with the life/lives of someone else.

And just the feeling of finishing the last paragraph and looking at where that character started - as this vague blob of nothing - and seeing what it's become... well, it's like pure creation, and there is truly nothing like it.