Tonight, we forgot all about our menu, and for dinner we had some bowls of locally made Dandelion-Leek Miso (oh how I love you, South River Miso!), with raw carrots and parsnips freshly dug from the garden, and some of this dip (a favorite from my childhood):

Yogurt Dill Dip

1/2 cup yogurt

1/2 cup mayonnaise (I like The Ojai Cook’s Lemomaise)

1 Tbsp lemon juice

1 Tbsp fresh dill, or 2 tsp dried dill

Mix all together, and serve chilled with any sort of vegetable for dipping.  (Also works great as a sauce for fish.)   Only gets better as it sits.  Add some paprika or pepper flakes for a spicy kick if you prefer.

This week, I’m reading lots and thinking about these words in particular:

“The sage Abayei, orphaned from birth, was raised by a nurse he called Eim (Mother).  Said Abayei: “Eim told me, ‘To raise a child one needs warm water [for bathing] and oil [for annointing].  When the child is a little bigger, he needs things to break.’” . . . Arrange to ignore some benign mayhem . . . Give them a bit of privacy to be children, even slightly naughty ones. . . You are parents, not police or undercover agents.  Think of all of this as preventative misbehavior; the small temblor that releases tectonic pressure and forestalls a bigger earthquake.”  -from The Blessing of a Skinned Knee by Wendy Mogel (I’m rereading this one).

On karma:

“All phenomena are interdependent, with our every act conditioning the next one.  Nothing arises by itself.  In this verse, the Buddha shows the importance of thoughts in creating our karma:

The thought manifests as the word;

The word manifests as the deed;

The deed develops into habit;

The habit hardens into character.

So watch the thought and its ways with care,

And let it spring from love

Born out of concern for all beings.”

-from Buddhism for Mothers by Sarah Napthali

On anger:

“Anger, like the common cold, is a recurrent problem.  We may not like it, but we cannot ignore it . . . When we lose our temper, we act as though we have lost our sanity.  We say and do things to our children that we would hesitate to inflict on an enemy . . .Resolutions about not becoming angry are worse than futile.  They only add fuel to fire.  Anger, like a hurricane, is a fact of life to be acknowledged and prepared for.  The peaceful home, like the hoped-for peaceful world, does not depend on a sudden benevolent change in human nature.  It does depend on deliberate procedures that methodically reduce tensions before they lead to explosions.” – from Between Parent and Child, by Dr. Hiam Ginott (the emphasis is his).

I guess you could say I’m charging my Mama batteries.  Ella is definitely leaving behind her babyhood, and quickly becoming a child, which requires an almost entirely different set of skills.  I might not be ready, but here we go!

(Oh yes, and I’m trying [but not very hard!] to resist making everything in Meg’s new book Sew Liberated, but it’s awfully hard.  Seriously, have you seen it?)