April 2015 - The Ten Thousand Hour Mama

5 tips to make bomb twice-baked sweet potatoes

April 30, 2015December 27, 2017catherinemryan

Twice-baked potatoes were one of my favorite dinners when I was growing up. I’d wait impatiently for them to bake and snag a top—a little piece of potato skin with melted cheese—as soon as they were out of the oven, inevitably burning my mouth. But it was so worth it! Now that I’m a little older (and more into easy, healthy dinners), twice-baked sweet potatoes are my go-to.

If you haven’t worked twice-baked sweet potatoes into your weeknight menu, here are 5 tips to make them delicious, every time. Twice-baked sweet potatoes are a phenomenal vegetarian dinner any day of the week!

5 tips to make the best twice-baked sweet potatoes, an easy weeknight vegetarian dinner! Ten Thousand Hour Mama Read more →

Spook Club Vice President, at your service

April 29, 2015catherinemryan

Old photo preschooler Catherine Ryan Gregory — Even as a kid, I delighted in an innocent scare.

When I was little, I was fascinated by feeling afraid.

One night, for example, my dad, sister and I walked from his office to his car past the graveyard on the University of Oregon campus. We made up an entire song (“The werewolf is howling, the vampire is prowling, it’s a fu-u-u-ll moon”) that I still hum to myself when I catch a glimpse of a moon anywhere near full.

And we formed the Spook Club, complete with a “secret” set of hand motions that we’d sign to each other with knowing looks and raised eyebrows. We mostly scared ourselves silly by watching black and white horror flicks, along with some movies of questionable suitability for an 8-year-old. I still get chills thinking of the bleak desperation of The Last Man on Earth, in which Vincent Price spends every day hunting vampires. I remember lying awake on my parents’ bedroom floor after the credits finished rolling, thinking that I’d never be able to carry on if I were that utterly alone.

This is a bit strange to be writing after my last post about children’s books to quell childhood fears, but I found myself thinking about Spook Club last night as I was reading before bed. I’m about halfway through The Boy Who Drew Monsters, by Keith Donohue (thanks for the rec, West Metro Mommy!), and I realized I haven’t changed that much since peeking from behind a blanket to watch The Twilight Zone and Alfred Hitchcock flicks. Read more →

Our favorite children’s books: Books about being afraid

April 27, 2015September 10, 2016catherinemryan

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“Too noisy!”

Peeper’s complaints about noise, and the genuine fear loud sounds inspire in her, continue unabated in these parts, and we’ve learned to adapt. I make cookie dough when she’s asleep. I look ahead to avoid loud things like lawn mowers or steam trains in our path. And we are patient when her conversations repeatedly steer back to the fact that something—a seal, tractor, Jeep—is “too noisy.”

Alas, we haven’t yet found a book that deals with fear of loud sounds, but we like these other books about being afraid. At some point, she might become afraid of the dark, or of getting sucked down the bath drain, or of vampire zombie bats living under the crib. (Who knows? She has a vivid imagination already.)

If your little one is spooked, these books about being afraid might help. At the least, they will say he’s not alone in being afraid.

Read on for a little courage—or at least encouragement!

When your child is scared, books about being afraid can lend a little courage. Ten Thousand Hour Mama Read more →

Goose eggs and gratitude

April 22, 2015catherinemryan

It’s been a hard week ’round these parts.

It started one day with Peeper throwing up at breakfast. She must have caught the GI bug that’s going around lately. I didn’t feel great, either, but powered through and managed to get some work done.

The next day, while she and Nana were at the grocery store, she bumped into a wire rack at the end of one of the aisles. The whole thing crashed down on her, and she ended up with two big goose eggs—and a trip to the doctor.

She’s fine, thank goodness, despite the bruises and bumps.

We then had a few nice days where we both felt fine, so we spent the weekend hiking, throwing sand in the Willamette River and enjoying the sun.

Then a few nights ago I became violently ill. I was sick all night and still can’t eat or hardly drink anything—a condition that’s especially rough when you’re pregnant.

Throughout it all, though, I can focus on what I’m grateful for. Read more →

Peeper had a little lamb

April 21, 2015catherinemryan

“And everywhere that Mary went, the lamb was sure to go.”

Peeper recently adopted Sheep as her go-to lovey, and while its fleece used to be white as snow, it has already acquired the dingy dishwater hue of a much-adored stuffed animal.

One day, out of nowhere, Peeper grabbed Sheep—a stuffed toy she’d never had much interest in—right before we went on a hike. Then, when I unloaded her and Finn, she wouldn’t let go. “Sheep come on hike,” she said, so I figured what the hell. Sheep has been Peeper’s Number One Partner ever since.

Sheep comes on our hikes. Sheep rides with Edie in the stroller when we go for morning walks. Sheep even accompanied us to IKEA—then to Mexico. Read more →

Cookie Painting: No-frosting sugar cookies

April 17, 2015February 28, 2018catherinemryan

A few times a year when I was growing up, my mom would break out the cookie cutters and we’d decorate sugar cookies. But we never had icing bags or tubs of frosting—no, no, no. Instead, we were the only family I knew that specialized in no-frosting sugar cookies. How did we do it? (And how did the kids not complain about the lack of the crazy-sugary icing?) Two words: Painting cookies.

Yessssss.

Painting cookies always seemed like a big event. We’d sort through the mountain of semi-misshapen airplanes, giraffes, gingerbread men and stars, picking out the ones for my mom to use. (There was never any question whether we’d select the Mystery Cookie Cutter, which looked kind of like California and kind of like a stretched-out stocking, of course.) She would lay out the raw dough on cookie sheets, and we kids would go at ’em.

Fluorescent sprinkles, those silver balls that I’m pretty sure were supposed to be inedible, and red hots—which everyone liked to use but no one except my older sister liked to actually eat—were all fair game. And under it all was painting cookies, a Ryan family technique that involves just egg wash and food coloring for no-frosting sugar cookies. They were delicious and fun to make.

We’d sweep up silver balls and wipe up sprinkles for weeks to come, but the mess was always worth the fun. (Isn’t it always?) Read more →

Family resemblance

April 15, 2015January 11, 2017catherinemryan

Family resemblance can be so strong. I just hope my daughter displays her aunt's personality traits, too. Ten Thousand Hour Mama

The other day I was looking for a particular photo when I stumbled upon one that made me gasp—no exaggeration. The family resemblance was striking.

I found an image of my older sister as a toddler, and Peeper’s resemblance is uncanny. See for yourself:

Toddler eat flower tulip — Aunt Bootsie, around 1 year old, develops a taste for the finer things

Toddler tulip festival Woodburn curls — Peeper investigates a tulip at the Woodburn Tulip Festival

When you’re terrible at meal planning: Learning to feed myself—again

April 14, 2015February 28, 2018catherinemryan

I may be terrible at meal planning, but Mama’s gotta eat. So I have to learn to feed myself (and my family!) so no one, especially me, gets hangry.

How to not suck at feeding yourself when you're terrible at meal planning. Ten Thousand Hour Mama

I’ve always been terrible at meal planning.

Case in point: One late night when I was in college, my roommate Cedar walked into the kitchen and found me eating cold refried beans out of the can.

He was mortified. I was mortified.

“At least heat them up,” he said. Oh, the shame.

I had a few semi-legit explanations for my sorry excuse for a meal. I was operating on an average of five hours of sleep a night, was the editor-in-chief of the journalism school’s magazine, tutored other college students 20 hours a week and maintained a 4.0 GPA. Cooking was not exactly at the top of my priorities.

The truth is, though, when things get tough on the home front, I’m terrible at meal planning in particular and, more generally, the basic skill of feeding myself. Worse, I have a very fast metabolism and burn through food like a hummingbird. I’m also the world’s most indecisive person if I haven’t eaten in a while.

But even though I’m terrible at meal planning doesn’t mean I can’t learn.

How to not suck at meal planning

Being terrible at meal planning has its consequences. Take, for example, one time (or, ah, multiple times) when I was pregnant with Peeper. I came home from work, sat down in the middle of the kitchen and bawled because I was so hungry but didn’t know what to eat.

Thank goodness for cereal, amirite?

Anyway, the notorious night of the refried beans popped into my head this week when I was ravenous and had stuck my head in the fridge for the fourth time only to see that, disappointingly, no fully prepared meals had mysteriously appeared. I ended up microwaving some refrieds and eating them with cheese on a tortilla. Not quite as pitiful as that college snack, but still.

Anyhow. This is all to say that especially because I’m growing another tiny life inside me, I need to be a little more conscientious about feeding myself (and the rest of my family).

Why meal planning is the answer

You and I already know the reasons to meal plan. It reduces food waste—a huge problem in the US, where we throw out 133 billion pounds of food every year. It saves money. And it saves the stress of having zero clues or inspiration on what to put on your plate each night.

I’ve been utterly crap at my previous attempts to plan our meals ahead of time. But we should never let the past define our futures! (Ok, I’m getting a little ridiculous, but you know what I mean!)

So help me, Internet world: What is your best advice for planning meals? Or are you like me and find yourself settling for canned refrieds for lunch?

Spring Break on the Oregon Coast

April 13, 2015catherinemryan

A few weeks ago, Spring Break released most of Oregon’s students—and, importantly, their teachers. After a rough stretch of classroom management right before the vacation, Eric was in desperate need of some time away from school.

Although we spent much of Spring Break doing things around the house and taking care of business-y tasks, we made a point of leaving town for a night. And boy, am I glad we did!

We hit the coast on a gorgeous day. We drove straight to Fort Stevens State Park at the tippy top of Oregon, west of Astoria. We’d never been there, and we adored the wide, enormous beach. I was disappointed at the number of cars on the beach (who does that in Oregon?) and the place was packed, but a short walk away from the parking area got us a clear stretch of ocean and sand.

Luckily the weather was warm because—predictably—Peeper just wanted to play in the waves. After a few frustrating and teary minutes of trying to keep her semi-dry, we gave up and let her play in the surf as much as she wanted. We were all happier for it. Read more →

The best gift

April 10, 2015catherinemryan

My parents provided me with so much as I grew up.

They gave me the love of travel. When I was 12, my dad taught in Singapore for six months, and my half-year stay in Southeast Asia inspired my curiosity about different cultures and places.

They gave me a love of words. To hear them tell it, I read book after book (kind of like a certain toddler I know). One of my earliest memories is “writing” letters—squiggly lines across a sheet of paper—that I’d “mail” to family members. I now make my living as a writer and am so fortunate to work in my dream career.

But one thing I value over every other gift: They gave me siblings.

Ugly Christmas pajamas family photo — An outtake from the Ryan Family Christmas 2007 card