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Today I am featuring a new blog by an amazing mother and fellow drinker named Janice. I met Janice 5 years ago when she was on baby #2 and I was on baby #1. She has all the things I like in a person: she is a Coug, a great mom, her kids have manners (and frankly her daughter is so cute I have threatened to kidnap her on more than one occaision), she is a writer, tequila doesn’t scare her, and she has just the right mix of down-to-earth, smarts, and funny.
Her husband recently gave her a cocktail recipe book as a gift ands she has turned her adventures in experimenting with new mixed — ahem — beverages into a fun, well-written, and clever blog named Ice+Clink+Drink.
Here is an excerpt:
If It Weren’t For Those Muddling Kids:
I don’t think Scooby Doo and the gang were making many cocktails (Shaggy was likely smoking his intoxicants), but they might view muddling as a mystery. Since this is a prominent part of making many cocktails today, let’s get it out there.
Muddling is pressing ingredients with a pestle-shaped muddler in order to release the juices, oils and flavors of fruits, herbs and chile peppers. If you’ve ever ordered a mojito, you’ve seen this technique in action, as the bartender muddles the mint in the bottom of the glass with sugar before adding the rum, lime juice and club soda. If done well, you get a pretty drink with greenery and a nice mint taste. If the drink mixer has aggression issues, you get a whole lot of leaf pieces shooting up your straw with each sip – where you know they’ll probably lodge between your teeth like you’ve been eating salad. Or, in the case of a frustrating blackberry mojito I had at the Ritz Carlton (where you’d think they’d know better) in Lake Las Vegas, a straw jammed with blackberry seeds.
See? See? Good stuff. Give her a try, eh?
Breathe
Renewal
Listen
Faith
Openness
Today
Blossom
Live
Empathy
Gentleness
Home
Release
Cherish
Enjoy
Clarity
Worship
Here are the words that came to some of us this past week. Thank you all for journeying with me to find our ONE LITTLE WORD. A double thank you to those who posted a comment revealing your word to me, to everyone. If you think about the idea that people out there are putting these words in front of themselves this year, then I think we can all have a sense of HOPE for 2010. I know that I do.
P.S. I will be checking back our journey with our one little word later this year.
Picking my ONE LITTLE WORD was not easy for me this year.
And it is my own fault.
My word kept banging on my door… and I kept denying it.
Which is ironic, because my word is OPENNESS!
This word is about the SCARIEST word in the world for type-A, control freaky, organizational-nuts like myself. There are a lot of unknowns in my life right now and if I had my way I would orchestrate it all… every detail unfolding in some master plan to rule the world (insert eville laugh here…). But, I don’t think that is gonna happen… not for lack of trying, mind you. I could organize the entire to/from school carpool for next Fall (yes…September…) right now, today, and send it out to everyone. But I am pretty sure my friends and neighbors would send in the men with the white coats… I mean, there is planning and then there is trying to be a demi-god.
I have to admit, at first I was holding out for a different word. “That is NOT my word,” I kept saying. But, alas, it IS my word. I have never really thought of myself as a closed-off person. But, with so much up in the air for my family in 2010, I think I need a reminder to hold my sense of control loosely, to remember there is more out there then what I can personally anticipate. So, OPENNESS is about letting go of control, and trusting that the path is clear of obstacles (well, at least “too many” obstacles) and to let my heart, my God, and the universe lead me to all that goodness waiting for me and us. I don’t really have much of a map, and I guess I don’t need one… well, at least that is what “openness” is trying to convince me of, anyway.
Okay. So. I am OPEN to whatever comes. Openness has an inherent quality of TRUST, of FAITH, of CONFIDENCE, and of HOPE to it. I think I can live with that.
Here are a few definitions that hit home:
1. Generous, liberal, or bounteous
2. Unguarded by an opponent
3. Free of navigational hazards
4. To render accessible to knowledge, enlightenment, sympathy, etc.
5. To unfold or expand, as a blossom, so as to reveal the interior
I really feel that 2010 is going to be an incredible year. But, I have no idea how that is going to manifest. So, I am open. Let’s see what happens.
Dare I call him Daddy-Bloo? I better not.
Since I am married, my wagon is hitched to my husband’s. So, I thought Dave should also get a chance to comment on the idea of ONE LITTLE WORD — from a man’s persepctive. So, here it is….
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In 2009 my word was “traction”. This worked well for me. I wanted to stop spinning my wheels, trying to catch… uh, greener grass somewhere, I guess. “Traction” meant slowing down and taking some thoughtfull deliberate steps – forward. Thanks to “traction” I left real estate sales and got back into teaching and coaching (as my wife had first suggested 4 years ago). Thanks to “traction”, I was able to take the time to fall in love with our new baby daughter this year. Thanks to “traction”, I’m happier than I was a year ago.
What’s my new “traction” word for 2010?
It needed to be something that hit me deep down. Like that movie “Rudy”. Something that inspired me and made me cry a little, but in a manly defying- the-odds sort of way. Something that combined the Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps with the coolness of Johnny Depp… actually, he’s a little feminine. Maybe Matt Damon.
I know, I know. I was really all over the map on this. I needed to use the lessons from my 2009 word to help me find my 2010 word. At one point, I thought I had it: Appreciation. I shared my word with Mamabloo (aka ”my wife”) and she said “ Do you mean “graditude’? I like it! You could use some graditude!” Wait a minute, “graditude” wasn’t what I said… oh, forget it. And I kept searching.
So finally, I found it. My word for 2010 is HOME.
I am not a wordsmith. Few words actually speak to me. But this one did. To me home includes family, taking time for myself, feeling good, comfort. After gaining all that ground in 2009, I want to be sure I know why I am working 60+ hours/week, why I forced myself to change careers, why I do what I do each day. I am not really after glory or fame (though, those would be nice… I think I will let my wife get all of that). But I do need to remember the five kids that wait for me each night when I come in the door, the wife who needs a foot rub, the garbage that needs to be taken out… again, and that home is not just my wife’s responsibility. I play a part, too. Putting that in front of me this year is just what I need.
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