Angie Windheim

Sam’s second grade concert was so darned cute last night!  It was the first concert at Edy Ridge and the kids really put on a good show. Of course, the best in the bunch was Sam. He was front and center, so it’s a good thing he knew the songs 🙂  Sam had special instrument part as well. Unfortunately, we could only listen to that part.  The instruments were on the floor and we couldn’t see over the HUGE crowd of parents.  Anyways, Sam did great and definitely earned his special dessert to celebrate. He picked strawberry cake with vanilla frosting. Yu-um.

Oh, I should give a shout-out to Dani Aldinger, the music director. She is just awesome with the kids. Sam was lucky enough to have her in kindergarten as well. 2 of the best school concert performances ever. The songs are peppy and the kids have fun.

I just added my yummy pizza meatballs recipe to eHow. I also added a tip to convert the recipe to an even easier Italian meatloaf that is a huge hit at my house with some garlic mashed potatoes on the side.  I think I need to go to the grocery store 🙂

How to Make Amazing Pizza Meatballs | eHow.com.

Facebook always seemed unnecessary to me. I’ve got a blog, email, etc. But, after about the hundred zillionith time that I’ve been asked or prompted to add my content to Facebook, I folded. I’m now a member and I’m loading up my content.

I have to admit, it is pretty fun to sit down and think, “now who haven’t I heard from in a long, long time?” So far, I’ve been able to find just about anybody I’ve chosen to look up. It’s definitely not replacing my blog or photo site or even my book club site. But, it’s interesting to play with.

So my friend requests are going out!

The Lit Ladies Book Club finally chose Maya Angelou, one of my favorite authors. Yay!

I just finished reading Letter to My Daughter. It took me one afternoon. It’s bite-size Maya Angelou. Not exactly the depth and length of her autobiographies. I wasn’t sure how I felt about it at first. It was so quick. I wanted more. Her life lessons are so well expressed. She has an ability to be truly present in life and essentially snapshot meaningful moments.

While, Letter to My Daughter may not have the full punch of Heart of a Woman or I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, I did love it. After I finished it I immediately went back and reread some of my favorite sections. I began folding down pages for future reference. Guess that means it’s a keeper!

Ben has played guitar for several years now. Since February though he has developed some awesome blues finger skills thanks to a lot of practice and his instructor, Myron LeRoy.

Joe has been taking drum lessons from Randy Sage in Newberg since February 2009. He’s getting sooo good.

The Lit Ladies met this week to discuss the New York Times Bestseller Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. Unfortunately, it’s hard to discuss a book that more than half the group couldn’t even finish. That is rare for our group and I dare to say it is due to one or all three of the following:

1. Boredom with the story
2. Distaste for the main character
3. A lack of desire to find out what happens to this lady

Basically, not one of us could relate to Gilbert. We didn’t really like her or care much about her self-indulgent memoir.  This woman is desperately trying to make you like her, and that’s such a turn off.  A few threw the book a bone and mentioned that they liked her writing “style.”  It’s kind of like labeling a food nutritious. No one said it tasted good.

With that said, I can somewhat proudly say that I was one of the few that finished the book. I found some nuggets of goodness. Though I never bought into her spiritual growth in the memoir, I did enjoy some of the history and details of the people she meets and the places she roams.  Post divorce, Gilbert seeks to “find herself” by spending 4 months in Italy, 4 months in India and 4 months in Indonesia (Bali specifically).  She manages to find some very good teachers of life in all three countries. People with very thoughtful perspectives on what I would call universal acceptance. That acceptance includes ourselves, our friends, our family, our enemies and all of their strengths and weaknesses.

Gilbert seems to absorb some of her own message, but I do feel that even at the end, she is motivated by the need for everyone to like her. She even picks a man based on the fact that he worships her. She doesn’t have any strength in her convictions. She never argues, never stands up for anything. She bullies herself into meditation so that she can be less of a downer and more people will be drawn to her. She brags many times about her gift for making “friends.”  I’m thinking that if she had fewer, better, deeper friendships, she may have not gotten so lost in the first place.

I can’t recommend the book. I managed to get something out of it, but I think when only 3 out of 12 women can even finish it, there’s a big problem.

The annual food drives are a significant part of my family’s charitable contributions. Much to my dismay, the kids new elementary school is not collecting this year. This kicked my 5th grader’s teacher and myself in gear to coordinate our own classroom food drive. The kids are very excited. So, my job is to figure out who to donate the food, too. My first stop was the Sherwood Helping Hands. Well, it turns out that they are well-stocked.  This was a bit shocking to me.  Evidently, what they really need is a food drive in the spring. That’s when donations start running low.  We’re looking into a school-wide effort for that, too 🙂  But, for now, we need a home for our donations and it looks like it will be the Newberg F.I.S.H (Friends in Service of Humanity)  The food pantry provides for 363 families (over 1,300 people) in the Newberg area.  F.I.S.H. prides itself on providing the necessary basic food items to last a family for 8 to 10 days.  Each family can make one trip per month. It’s nice that they base the quantity of food on the number of mouths to feed in the household. Some groups do not adjust the amount of food to the size of the family.   F.I.S.H. is very enthusiastic about our donation and even offered to give the kids a tour of the food bank…that could be a very cool teaching opportunity.

My reward for the weekly trip to Winco has always been a trip to Taco Bell. I get the Steak Fiesta Burrito which is a reasonable amount of calories and I’m generally satisfied.  Today, I decided to go for a couple of the modest bean burritos (two is a little much, but I earned it pushing that cart :-).  Ah, but then I see they have a rice and bean burrito and decide to try that. Well, that was one of the best Taco Bell creations I’ve tried. So yummy. Unfortunately, it was so tasty because it’s smothered in Nacho cheese sauce! Diet disaster bells went off and so I left the second burrito in the bag.  Thank goodness, too. I checked the calories when I got home and it weighed in at 500.  If I’d been a little hungrier and dove into the second burrito, I’d have scarfed down 1000 calories. When dieting, I find it pays to stick to what you know. Decide ahead of time what you want to get and go online to check the calories.

Just added a few more tidbits of wisdom to eHow.  I share menu ideas for hosting a football game get-together and the breakdown of hosting a holiday brunch. I absolutely love the idea of brunches as a way to change up that Christmas Eve get-together. You can make everything the night before and you aren’t having to juggle those last  minute Christmas details with a bunch of big dinner clean up.  It’s also a nice way to keep family and friends off the road after dark on Christmas Eve.  I plan to blog some of my favorite breakfast/brunch recipes shortly so stay-tuned.