Just a little update about what in the world we're doing these days…
Nick took the kids out for a little practice. Him on the camera, and them on the vehicle of their choosing. Here’s what resulted:
Are you sure about this, dad?
He’s down!
No wait, he’s up!
Race ya!
This is the most fun I’ve ever had… except for that time I got to jump in the mud.
I turned 29 last month. It’s the end of an era, really. I never really pictured myself older than my twenties, so I’m holding on to this birthday for as long as I can. Actually, because I have a weird number fetish, I think 29 is a rather ugly number, and kind of wish I could have stayed at 28. But, as we have no control over such things, I had to move on.
My wonderful awesome spouse knew of my desire to remain 20-something, and so he planned a surprise party for me, with the theme of “Forever 29.” He did a wonderful job, and I really had no clue what he was up to. Truly, he is a really bad liar and I never expected him to be able to pull something like this off. He even got friends and family to write favorite memories of me which he put together into a little book. Much awesomeness. We had a wonderful mesh of family and friends come to enjoy the day with us, and more who participated long distance with their messages. It was so much fun!
Waiting For the Party to Start
Nick also made a large poster of me that was a collage of pictures of my growing up years all put together to make my portrait (and yes, he’s talented… but he had software to help in the process… he’s not that talented). On the bottom it had big words printed to say “Karli – Forever 29.” I’ll admit, it kind of creeped me out and seemed a little like memorial. So, I decided that even if it would be cool to be 20-something forever, I think I’ll be happy to move on, because one more birthday means one more year I have been blessed to spend with all of you wonderful people that are in my life. But I still might tell people I’m 29 for as long as I can pull it off 
P.S. Here is the mosaic using the program found at http://www.andreaplanet.com/andreamosaic/
Mosaic Poster
After Nick created my most wonderful Blog Book for me for Christmas, I came to treasure my blog a little more. And I have a renewed and deeper desire to keep the goings on of the Winters Family a little more up to date. So imagine my surprise when I realized that the thing that’s been occupying most of my time of late has yet to be included in any postings on Winters Kids! Thusly:
Last summer I had a dream.
Okay, that is completely and totally inaccurate. Let’s start over.
Me as a Townskid in "The Music Man", age 7
When I was growing up, I was heavily involved in our local community theatre. In addition to participating – from age seven on – in their annual musicals, I would spend most of my summers in theatre camps there. And each summer, there would be a variety of teenagers that would assist the camp directors as apprentices.
I idolized those teenagers, and thought they pretty much had the coolest job in the world. And it turns out… they did. Because at some point, I got to be that teenager, and I got their job. And it just so happens that when I did, it was with a brand new director that had rolled into town.
Lois, the new Youth Theatre director had begun her own non-profit youth theatre in Portland just a couple years before she started coming down to Klamath Falls in the summers for theatre camps. Eventually (insert long story here), the whole operation moved down full time. So summer after summer (and occasionally during the school year) I worked for her through high school and into college.
To make a long story short… eventually I had to grow up and move on. You know, get a college degree… do that whole “get married, have a baby thing,” and I stopped going back in the summers to help. For her part, Lois grew her theatre program substantially, but eventually had to close it down when she moved back to the Portland area. She sadly hung up her hat and thought she had closed that chapter in her life, as I had a few years earlier.
But the show must go on!!
It turns out that both she and I (and our families, of course) moved back to the Portland area at about the same time. Of course, we’re on opposite ends of the city, so we didn’t get to see each other a lot. But at one fateful dinner party last spring, what started out at the beginning of the evening as “Man, wouldn’t it be fun….” turned into “Well, why the heck not!?” by the time everyone went home.
One thing led to another and, Northwest Youth Theatre is back in business baby!!
From our website: The mission of Northwest Youth Theatre is to educate and enrich the lives of young people by providing meaningful opportunities for them to explore the performing arts. Our purpose is to provide education and experience in the performing arts to children regardless of their past experience or training. We offer youth a variety of performing opportunities, through after school and summer day camp programs, and NYT classes are filled without requiring students to audition — we believe that by working on performance skills and team-building activities in the rehearsal process, every group of young people can produce an excellent program.
We’ve put in lots of hours getting it up and running again, but boy is it fun. We’ve enlisted the help of our loving, patient, tireless and wonderful husbands to assist us in such duties as website development and marketing. We have found incredible generosity from the Hillsboro School District, and especially Brown Middle School. And most importantly, we’re quickly finding the kids!
We started out in the first rehearsal of our Fall ’09 term with about 7 kids. It was disappointing, but we were hopeful. By our performance in December, we were up to 21. And a few weeks later when we started our Winter ’10 Term, we hit 40 students, and at this point, we’re a little worried about having to cap our Spring ’10 enrollment because in the 3 days that registration has been open, they’re already steadily rolling in. We’re excited, to say the least. Not to mention that the students we have are just about the greatest EVER. They are so much fun to teach, and are so full of energy.
Rehearsals for "A Place in the Christmas Choir", Fall 2009
The best part about this job, is it’s something I love. I feel at home here, and always have. And now as a grown-up, it’s even more wonderful because I get to share it with my own kids. Mylie has loved being in both productions we’ve done so far, and is already jazzed about the next one. We feel truly blessed that the doors have continued to open for us on this latest adventure, and look forward to all that is in store for us down the road!
Mylie as a Dog in "A Place in the Christmas Choir"
And P.S. Don’t forget to check out our super-cool website on which Nick has labored intensively as my slave.
And P.P.S. If you’re in the area, please join us for our Spring Performance of “It’s A Jungle Out There” and “At the Hop” on Thursday, March 18th at 7:00pm at Brown Middle School.
Does anyone else find it rather remarkable that you can use rotten fruit and curdled milk and end up with something that’s not only gorgeous, but absolutely delicious? We had some rotting bananas hanging around, so before the fruit flies moved in, Mylie and I decided to make some banana bread. Of course, my recipe calls for buttermilk, which we do not have. BUT, did you know you can substitute a scant cup of milk that you mix with one tablespoon of lemon juice? The acid curdles the milk and gives it the same chemical properties as buttermilk. Or something like that. Anyway, you come out with delicious bread, and this time we experimented with one of my Demarle molds (best bakeware EVER). So not only did it taste delicious, it was rather gorgeous to look at, if I do say so myself .
Here’s the recipe, if you’re interested:
1.Move oven rack to low position so that tops of pans will be in center of oven. Heat oven to 350°F. Grease bottoms only of 2 loaf pans, 8 1/2×4 1/2×2 1/2 inches, or 1 loaf pan, 9x5x3 inches.
2.Mix sugar and butter in large bowl. Stir in eggs until well blended. Add bananas, buttermilk and vanilla. Beat until smooth. Stir in flour, baking soda and salt just until moistened. Stir in nuts. Pour into pans.
3.Bake 8-inch loaves about 1 hour, 9-inch loaf about 1 1/4 hours, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes. Loosen sides of loaves from pans; remove from pans and place top side up on wire rack. Cool completely, about 2 hours, before slicing. Wrap tightly and store at room temperature up to 4 days, or refrigerate up to 10 days.
From: The Betty Crocker Bridal Edition Cook Book
We’ve booked our tickets and will be heading out mid-spring to visit our good friends who have lived there for the past two years. We’ll be making a couple stops off in London and Paris too, and anywhere else our gracious hosts tell us we must see. For a girl who’s entire international experience can be described as… Vancouver, B.C…. this is an exciting and welcome chance of a lifetime!
A post has been rolling around in my head for quite some time (approximately 2 months, as you will see from the date of my last post). I’ve been hesitant to post it, as I am not completely sure how to present my ideas without appearing to fish for compliments from the three of you who still occasionally check my blog my loyal followers. And yet, I proceed.
I’ve espoused the wonders of “Google Reader” on here before. Google Reader, or any other “feed reader” allows you to “subscribe” to your favorite blogs, being notified instantly of any new postings. And as soon as I caught the fire of a feed reader, I ran with it. One blog that I follow will link to a new blog that they like, and so I discover hundreds of new blogs. I am also able to cyber-stalk friends and past acquaintances by finding links to their blogs on my other friend’s blogs. It’s a wonderful system.
But here’s the rub. I am currently subscribed to 132 blogs. Yes, that’s right. 132. No wait, I just added another. Now it’s 133. And I’ve got them all sorted out in folders for different categories. I’ve got blogs on Digital Scrapbooking, Emergency Preparedness, Home Improvement, Education, Crafts, Penny Pinching, Family, Friends, Fun, Recipes, Religion, Politics, and blogs to tell me about when Google updates it’s feed reader. Seriously, it’s an addiction.
Now, of course, some bloggers are like me… their activity ebbs and flows, sometimes going dead for months. But, others make their living blogging, and so they post upwards of…well…let’s just say the number is infinite.
At first, I was really excited about all the cool information I was collecting. I got great deals, I got great craft ideas, found awesome recipes, and kept track of my family and friends. But as time went on, what I really started focusing on was how much I’m NOT doing. I’m not spouting crafts out my ears, like my friend Summer. I’m not an ace of cakes like Nick’s cousin. I don’t do educational activities each day like the chick on Chasing Cheerios. I try using coupons and save our family a little money each week, but it’s chump change compared to what the women on Frugal Living Online and Super Coupon Girl save. Occasionally I find the time to make my family a nice, well-rounded meal, but Annie at Annie’s Eats works full time as a Resident Medical Student, has a toddler, and still manages to create gourmet dishes from scratch AND blog about them – usually daily. I think I feed the kids fairly healthy food, but when I read the blogs at Super Healthy Kids it makes me feel like I’m practically poisoning them with garbage.
And then there’s the parenting skills. I’ve got a couple good blogs that post GREAT articles on parenting techniques. My favorite, Half-Full Blogversations, espouses such gems as “Emotion Coaching” and “Positive Parenting” and “Teaching Emotional Literacy.” They teach you how to stay calm when you’re angry and believe that rewards are bad for raising healthy adults. Sounds pie in the sky great, but when I try it out on my own kids – well, let’s just say the conversation doesn’t go quite the way they describe it. And when my kid gets more worked up the calmer I stay, I have to wonder what I’m doing wrong?
Growing up, I always pictured myself as becoming the kind of mom that did cool projects, that always had a stash of things to pull out of her hat to do. I pictured myself loving to spend time in the kitchen cooking with my kids. I pictured educational adventures abounding, and my children gathered at my knee singing in 4 part harmony. I thought I would be the quintessential Maria Von Trapp mixed with Martha Stewart with a little bit of Marie Curie thrown in. And that’s just what I see when I look at all these blogs. The culmination of everything I ever wanted to be… and I continue to fall short.
But wait… there’s still the life lesson. This Christmas, my wonderful and adoring husband gave me the best Christmas present ever… he published my blog into a book. It was something I have wanted to do for awhile, but… again… couldn’t find the time to fit it in. So, I got a little time to spend perusing the last two years of my life. And a light started to come on…
Then, as we’ve thought about our goals for this wondrously hope-filled new year, we’ve started to list our priorities. What is it that we want to make sure we fit in to each day? Turns out… all those things I thought I wanted to do are not even listed on my priorities list. Sure, I’d still like to get there some day. But what most of those people do… well, they specialize. They’re like a gourmet restaurant that knows what they do well, and they serve that up perfectly every night. They’ve got talent and they capitalize on it. Of course, I’m not saying these people can’t do anything else besides what they blog about. It’s just, that’s the only thing we get to see about their lives.
My talent? Well, from the day I was born my talent has been a desire to do EVERYTHING. And some of the time, I can make it happen. But as I grow older, I’m learning that “Jack of All Trades, Master of None,” is not just some meaningless adage. My list of things I want to do keeps growing bigger and bigger, and my time availability keeps growing smaller and smaller.
So, my goal for this year? I’m going to stop comparing myself to the blogosphere. I’m going to remember that what people publish is just a little tiny capsule of their lives… one that they choose to let you see. I’m going to remember that I’m just one person, and couldn’t possibly do the work of 133. I’m going to focus on my priorities, and realize that even if I yell at my kids, or never make a paper mache’ volcano with them, or let them watch TV for an hour every day while I sit at my computer, I can still keep my priorities in order. I can and will do the important things… I will read to them, I will spend a little more time with them. I will teach them the things that I AM good at, and I will give them the space to determine what they’re good at. I will pray with them, and read the scriptures with them. And, hopefully, I will teach them how to love, be loved, and how to love themselves. And maybe one day I’ll figure out how to do it all, and I’ll be that gourmet meal of a mom. Until then, I’m going to be satisfied with this delicious buffet line I get to dabble in and sample from.