Quitting my TV news career has come with many benefits but perhaps none as important as how it has affected my ability to parent. My relationship with the Producer would have consisted of about an hour in the morning (stressed about what I’d cover that day) and an hour at night (still stressed about what went wrong with my report that day). I’ve started “Hold On to Your Kids” by Gordon Neufeld and Gabor Maté and I highly recommend it. They describe the era since World War II as one where peers have taken over the role of parenting, calling it “peer orientation”. They write, “Orientation, the drive to get one’s bearings and become acquainted with one’s surroundings, is a fundamental human instinct and need. Disorientation is one of the least bearable of all psychological experiences. Attachment and orientation are inextricably intertwined. Humans and other creatures automatically orient themselves by seeking cues from those to whom they are attached.” This has also got me thinking about my pressing question about why so many journalists prefer group think over curiosity. Are we adults also suffering from “peer orientation”?
I hate to admit this but we just took down our Christmas tree a few days ago, weeks after our neighbors had decorations up for Valentine’s Day. I would blame it on the farm but we have always been late getting rid of our tree. I think our record is early March. At least this year we have a free tree removal service!
For weeks the feed store has had a sign out saying “chicks coming soon!” Today we drove by it and I did a double take. “Chicks are here!” So the kids and I made a dramatic u-turn with plans to just “see” the chicks. And we did see them. In fact, we still see them because they came home with us! 🤣Whoops. We got 4 Easter eggers and 2 Olive eggers. Lynn if you’re reading this, the little buggers begged to come home with us - how could we say no?!
The cold weather here in Florida annihilated our tomato plants before the tomatoes could ripen. We were overrun with green tomatoes, so we tried making fried green tomatoes for the first time. Honestly I had never fried anything before this! We did not really follow a recipe other than making sure we had the three staple items. You have one bowl of flour and corn meal mixed, a bowl of eggs and milk mixed together, and a bowl of breadcrumbs. When we try it again, I will add some kind of seasoning to the flour and cornmeal mix, maybe garlic and salt. First dip the tomato slice into the cornmeal/flour, then the egg/milk, then breadcrumbs. Then you just put oil in your pan, we used olive oil, and fry them up! Only takes a couple minutes. It was super easy and the kids loved it. I have heard that there are some good dipping sauces out there. We are simple people so we just used ketchup and mustard. I highly recommend trying this - it’s impossible to fail!
Here's a video that explains why we should try to source eggs from producers like Alison and other responsible farmers whenever possible.
Alex Karp's father. The father is not like his son.
2.32 Robert Karp on redlining and lead poisoning (J. of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved) - Hopkins Press Podcasts | Podcast on Spotify
https://open.spotify.com/episode/2vNElIsVXLUsdJQq7joMjb
