international cuisine

I started today by making scones for a Royal Wedding watch party (don't judge). The party ended up getting canceled due to some cable outages and crying babies, so Graham and I had a party here on our own. I found a way to watch it on the internet (keep in mind that this was not in the middle of the night like it would have been for you in the States, because we are an hour behind London time here), so Graham and I whipped out our best British accents along with some English tea and had a jolly good time. Graham accidentally fell off his chair and actually stayed in character the whole time by proclaiming in his best accent, "I'm alright. I'm alright. Carry on."

Might he be an actor?

Since I had a bunch of extra scones lying around, I took some to the farmers right behind my house. I was pleasantly surprised by the small conversation I was able to hold due to my slowly developing Italian skills. The farmers obviously weren't going to let me go home empty-handed, so they gave me a bucket load of fava beans. I'd never seen these things before living here. Since I live in farm country, I now notice them growing everywhere. I did some research and discovered that they are a "cover crop" to protect soil. They also help replenish the soil, so farmers will cut them back and use them for mulch. Pretty interesting, huh?

 

No?

Anyway, some say they've been eating these things in this part of the world since ancient times. You can eat them just like a fresh pea out of the pod, or you can boil them up and add them to pasta, or salads, or just about anything.

Can I tell you a secret, though.

Yes?

Okay, thanks. Um, I don't like them. They have a much stronger flavor than expected and can sometimes be rather sharp and biting. My research tells me they are supposed to taste creamy and buttery, but my research is sadly incorrect. So disappointing. Don't always believe what you read, especially on Google.

Have a nice day.

Oh, and what should I do with all these beans??

sweet home alabama

 My daddy is from a little 'ol town in Northern Alabama named Cordova. Home of the Blue Devils. 

He picked up and moved to Wyoming back in his hippie days, so that's where he ended up having and raising me. Eventually, he moved back to his roots, but that was long after I was out of the house, so I never got the chance to live down South. It still holds a very dear place in my heart because we always took the time and money to visit it. My whole life, Alabama has been a place to look forward to, a place to long for, a place of refuge and vacation.

For me, Alabama is banana puddin', sittin' in Grandma's living room, playin' with cousins who had funny accents, honey-butter on homemade biscuits, Grandpa playin' guitar, Grandma's sweet tea, long games of poker around Grandma's table, cornbread, fishin', hikin' in the bluffs, baseball, humidity, lots of huggin', air conditioning, and, of course, fried green tomatas.

It's a place where Grandma and Grandpa Howell lived good, long lives and are now buried right next to each other along with many of my ancestors. It's a place that always makes me feel at home, even though I've never lived there.

My heart is aching for Alabama and especially Cordova right now. Much of the town was blown away by the storms. As far as I know, all of my family members are okay and they are taking care of each other.


To all my family, I feel really far away from home right now and wish I could give ya'll big hugs... I'm sending hugs and prayers from afar...

 I pray that you can soon find peace.

Love ya'll.

teach your children well

In addition to enjoying our days in the Italian sun, Graham and I are spending some time with these books.

 This one is awesome, so far. It keeps Graham's attention really well, and he seems to be grasping the concepts, little by little. The best part for me, a mom who has no idea how to be a teacher, is that it is scripted. It tells me exactly what to say to him, and he responds really well to me when I go into my "teacher mode." This book also includes some writing exercises, which are a struggle for my little guy. He doesn't seem to enjoy learning to write letters. He puts up with it for about five minutes and then just wants to draw circles. I'm hoping that every little bit will help and one day he will enjoy it...

Optimism and persistence are the keys, right?

The Easter Bunny brought these books. Graham really likes them, but it is difficult for me to get him to read them by himself. He just likes to look at the pictures while I read, because that is what he's been doing his whole life. It's a weird transition for him to start sounding out the letters. Another problem I'm finding with these books is that they are so simple that he just memorizes them, so it's hard to tell if he is really getting it. What I love about them is that they use the same concepts as the 100 lessons book, so Graham can see it all come time life.

I tell you what. This is quite an adventure teaching a kid to read. I had tears in my eyes today as he truly read some of the words on the pages. It's an incredible process.

Thanks to my dad always singing around the house, I can usually think of a song to go with my thoughts during the day.

Here is the song I've been singing in my head today (you can click on it to listen):

"Teach the Children Well."

scenes from my Pasqua

Oh, had I a golden thread and a needle so fine

I would weave a magic strand of rainbow design

of rainbow design.

 

In it, I'd weave the courage of women giving birth






 


In it, I'd weave the innocence






of the children of all the earth



 
 


Children of all the earth.





Show my brothers and my sisters my rainbow design





Bind up this sorry world





With hand and heart and mind





Hand and heart and mind.






Oh, had I a golden thread and a needle so fine





I'd weave a magic strand of rainbow design





Of rainbow design.




Above are some images from my Easter weekend, along with the lyrics from the song, "Golden Thread." Performed by Eva Cassidy, and written by Peeter Seeger.

(One of my favorite songs).

talladega nights

This is Graham's good friend. They are pretty much the same age. They both loves race cars, especially Lightening McQueen. When they get together, I often hear them discussing monster trucks just before entering into hour long wrestling matches.

In some ways, they remind me of the guys in the movie, "Talladega Nights."

I imagine it's only a matter of time before they start saying something like, "Shake n' bake."

beautifully bizarre Napoli

There simply are no words...

our humble villa

Help.

I am not an interior designer. It is possible that I could be an interior designer, because I can dream up the perfect room. What holds me back is that I am not a shopper. In fact, shopping produces a very strange anxiety in me that usually results in me getting nauseous and then deciding that I can live without whatever it is that I am shopping for and leaving the store refusing to spend a cent on anything.

Everything in our house, except for our beds, was either borrowed, purchased second-hand, or simply given to us. The same goes with most of my clothes. They are either from Ross or from a good friend. I just can't bring myself to spend money on things. I look at the price before I look at anything else. When I was in college, I would go to the grocery store and try to get what I needed while spending the least amount of money possible. Tony has helped be break this habit by convincing me that we need to eat, and we like to eat good food, so spending money on food is a necessity and an easy way to improve our quality of life. He taught me to just consider it as one of our bills. Now, I just load up the cart and close my eyes when I run the card through the money-taking device.



As you can imagine, then, I do not know how to shop or spend money to give some flare to a home. This particular home needs a lot of flare, because it is a lot of big, open space. This is the upstairs.


It is where we spend most of our time, and it is not comfortable to me. The thing that makes it the least comfortable is that there is not room for all three of us to sit together. When Tony and I sit on these two chairs, Graham crawls all over us and jumps from chair to chair until I finally just stand up and say, "Enough!" Then, I go hide under the covers and hope the room transforms itself overnight.



We have a couch downstairs that matches the two chairs. I am thinking of bringing it up, but I'm not sure where to put it. Plus, it is really heavy. Plus, then there would be nowhere to sit downstairs, which is where we put the TV for watching movies. Since we don't have network TV, Tony and I end up watching a few shows online, which means we sit in these two chairs and look at the computer together, which is never very comfortable. See, it's a problem.

We won't talk about the empty wall space, because I think I have a solution for that. Tony picked up a couple of paintings on canvas from Africa. They are currently being stretched onto a board so we can hang them up on the walls. I'll show you pictures when that happens.

In the meantime, please tell me. What would you do with this kitchen/dining/living-type-room-thing? Help! Oh, yes, and as you shout out all your wonderful ideas, please keep in mind that the walls are sort of diagonal. Does that even make sense??



Okay, so that's what I don't like about this space. The things I do like are: the natural light from the windows, the window above the sink, the fact that the windows are actually doors that lead to the patio, and, of course, I loooove the view I get to stare at all the time.

Oh, and here's a picture of our bathroom, where we spend a good amount of time, as well.




Stay tuned for more pictures of our villa. I'm working on getting each room clean enough to photograph!

Plus, taking pictures of rooms is quite difficult. More props to all those wonderful bloggers who blog about their homes and take good pictures of them.

This is tough business.