Weekend List!

Sarah's List:

This week Congo "welcomed" back the body of Mobutu. I say, "welcomed" because I heard exactly zero people mention this news.

"The Leopard's Last Monument." But does anyone really know of a monument to Mobutu?

  by  Julien Harneis 

In other news, Congo got its name ranked pretty high on the Global Slavery Index. (As you can imagine, a high ranking on this list a not a good thing.)

The New York Times had an article this week on A Reason for Hope in Congo's Perpetual War. Really. Can there be hope in a perpetual war? I guess you take what you can get.  

"Lac Vert." Another plus. It never stops being beautiful here.

  by  Julien Harneis 

Can't we just all get along in Congo?

If you've got a kid who can read and you live in the States (or even abroad) chances are at one point or another their reading level has been assessed. I was tipped off to Lexile.com during a little teacher PD this week and mind. blown. You can find out exactly which books are on their reading level and perfect for them.

I can't wait until Charlotte can read more than the letter "C." (Turns out it's really hard to assign a reading level to a kid who can only recognize one letter.)

Mademoiselle Nancy. (Or Fancy Nancy, for the less fancy.)

The Touch-Screen Generation. Sigh. And an interesting theory to just put the iPad in the toy basket with everything else and see what happens.

Want to see an exasperated American expat? Ask them what they do about their taxes. Some say it takes us 40 hours to do our taxes and then we still don't get them right.

    Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com 

Oh man. HonestSlogans.com. So, so true.

Still in a Halloween mood? Here's the recipe for movie blood. And I've always wondered what's wrong with people who like being scared. Turns out they are different.


Jill's List:

I loved this Cup of Jo list about the not-so-good things about living in NYC.  Though, I refuse to believe that the pizza tastes like cardboard.  I started thinking of a similar list for Kinshasa...and then stopped.  Better to focus on the positive.

I took these with the Hipstamatic IncrediBooth App against our NYC cityscape photo
after Elias declared that he "really wanted to move to New York City...because it's so close to New Jersey."

One of my favorite ways to practice my French literacy is by reading Garance Doré's blog.  I force myself to ignore Google's kind offer to "translate this blog" and hit "Nope."  Not only do we share the same frizz-prone hair, but Garance's French lessons involve makeup and beautiful photography. Magnifique.

Read in English here.

Did you see this article?  What do you think?  I was surprised to feel conflicted about it.  Even though it doesn't quite address the issue (artist friends, I know!) I thought Swiss Miss's quote for the day summed up some of my pensiveness:

“Be generous with your time and your resources and with giving credit and, especially, with your words. It’s so much easier to be a critic than a celebrator. Always remember there is a human being on the other end of every exchange and behind every cultural artifact being critiqued. To understand and be understood, those are among life’s greatest gifts, and every interaction is an opportunity to exchange them.”- Maria Popova

I've been thinking about rugs.  We actually bought a huge sisal rug at Ikea after our first year, rolled it up, and brought it with us on the airplane as oversize luggage.  The airport people thought we were fools.  Rightfully so.  I like them that much.  I've been perusing this site with love.

Go!  Check out this gorgeous store here.

One of my favorite things about looking at Africa is the signs.  Advertisements, store names, and traffic directions are all painstakingly painted by artists all over the city surfaces.

Check out this video demonstrating a more Western-hipster hand-lettering technique:

My 7th graders are working on a mini-development lesson where they are researching, developing, and implementing a plan to get middle schoolers to wash their hands more often.  We're using Graham Wallas' 1926 theory of the Four Stages of Creativity as our guide.  I'm sold!

See.  Look how creative he was.

On Sunday November 3^rd, Christy Turlington Burns will run the ING New York City marathon to raise money and awareness for her non-profit organization, Every Mother Counts (EMC).  Those who have been reading for awhile know how much we appreciate the mission of EMC to make motherhood safer all over the world.  Watch this to understand a little more:

And. Our kiddos in all their costumed glory.  Spaceman Spiff thrilled with his pagne lightening bolt and the batik alien princess kept her wire crown on for 80% of the Trick-of-Treat trek.

We forgot the Chocolate Frosted Sugar Bombs.

New fake smile.  Seems Loulou has been an alien princess before.  Look:

Circa Halloween 2010.

The girls.  2013.

Plus.  Had to tack this one on to the end.  (Thanks, Anne Callie!)  Favorite line:  

Twentysomething party: Food is a couple of bags of random tortilla chips.

Thirtysomething party: Someone brought something homemade and uber-fancy to show off how good they are at cooking.

This might be a photo of a party in which I participated a few years ago.
Dead give away for thirtysomethings party?  The LAMP on an outdoor table.
No twentysomething would ever be caught dead with such a set up.

Tweet

Omelet.

Last night, I surveyed the situation and found myself with a sick husband, two hungry kids, and an empty fridge.

After some rummaging, I found the following:

• half a can of black beans
• 1 small, forgotten green pepper
• 3 good potatoes, 1 squishy potato
• 2 limp, tiny leeks
• 1 carrot
• half of a cucumber
• 36 eggs

That's right.  36 eggs.  We eat a lot of eggs and have them delivered by the flat-full every week.  They arrive covered in feathers and muck.  It's kind of great and kind of gross.

I wanted to prove that I was totally capable of single-handedly taking care of morning and evening routines at our house...even if the main cook was sequestered miserably in the back room.  I kept thinking about this radio program I used to listen to when we lived in Seattle. People would call in and report the pathetic contents of their "empty" refrigerators and a famous chef would calmly explain to them how to make a gourmet meal out of nothing.  I wanted that number.  If I emphasized that I was calling from the Congo, I would be sure to make the cut.

Image from here.

I decided there was one solution:  french fries.  When crisped up in some oil and salt, even a squishy potato can be reborn into something delicious, right?  I followed the Martha Stewart pre-soak process and got the fries going in the oven.*  I ignored the unbelievably annoying behavior that arises from post-homework, pre-dinner children.  I tried to figure out what goes with french fries.

Which brought me to the holy omelet.  A little fancier than scrambled eggs and a perfect hiding place for some slightly old cheese (hey, I cut off the moldy bits) and those two tiny leeks.  As I've repeatedly stressed, Johan is the cook in our house.  He is the one who knows things about eggs.  So, I turned to Cup of Jo for assistance.  This article, in fact.

And, now, I'm convinced that I am some sort of omelet savant.  The recipe was that good.

I mixed up the rest of the vegetable remnants from my house into some sort of black bean salad (using Smitten Kitchen - who else? - as a guide), set everything on the table, and lit some candles.  And by "candles," I mean "iPad" - on which we all watched Barbapapa.  Sometimes, it truly is okay to watch TV while you eat.  Last night being case and point.

Eating ethereal eggs + cheese + french fries while watching bizarre French cartoons with quiet, chewing children is an experience that every mother should have when her partner deserts her for a stomach virus.  I highly recommend it.

Image from here, here, and here**.

And this morning, I know three things:

• I need to go grocery shopping.
• I'm really happy Johan has rejoined the land of the living.
• I make incredible omelets.

* I would like to note that nobody makes fries like Adam Sensamaust.  Nobody.  Even Martha Stewart.
**Read more about Barbapapa amazingness at the incredible blog, "Vintage Books My Kid Loves".

Tweet

Friday List!

It's that time of year again when I start googling places in the world we can live where it's cold for the 2 weeks around Christmas and then nice and tropical the rest of the year. This climate exists somewhere, right? I want Christmassy weather without the SAD until February.

Cranking up the AC is no substitute for cold weather, but maybe the smell of these baking in the oven might help.

Spicy Gingerbread Cookies by Smitten Kitchen

Our best friend, Joanna (okay, we've never actually met her) has been keeping a nice collection of gift guides this season. Ideas for mom, dad, sister, husband, best friend, favorite mom bloggers in Congo...

Felt mistletoe from catbirdnyc.com

Or become the gift and tie your hair in a bow. Has anyone in real life ever done this?

Ordering our Christmas cards from Pinhole Press. We like to patronize them because they happily pull our order to specially put the trema in Annaïs’ name. Who does that to their child? Apparently no one. 

Ultrathick pinstripes make up for missing Christmas, right?

And to commemorate our first Christmas in 8 years in which we will wake up in our own beds (or country in which we reside) I'm going to ask our favorite wood workers if they can make one of these. If you don't have your own personal atelier. You can get one here. 

A gutschein adventskalender from klotzaufklotz.de

Jill's List:

Step away from the $84 candles.  Step away from the $84 candles.  (But they possess the ability to make Congo smell like Christmas...)

I have recently developed a Pinterest obsession.  It started out as an innocent way to promote this blog.  Now, I find myself craving $84 candles.  Check out this article about the power of Pinterest and Glossi. 

Don't tell me that since hearing the happy news, you haven't indulged in a little lunchtime People Magazine online browsing.  For example: "British Royal Maternity Fashions."  I mean, I certainly would never do such a thing...

I started my New Year's Resolution early.  I'm reading Trollope.  On the heavy recommendation of some of our dearest friends (Thanks Bethany & Peter!), and despite an earlier false start, I'm far enough into the first book of the Palliser Novels to feel super impressed with myself AND the prolific postman who wrote these stories...

Making these cookies for the sixth time in as many weeks.  So amazing.  (And, a testament to the fact that sometimes things that would normally be expensive can be randomly found in Kinshasa for not much at all.  Example: saffron.  But forget it if you want to find laundry detergent for under $40 a box.)

Our perfect, packable, Christmas tree: from Virginia to Kinshasa to Cape Town for all your decorating needs.  And, it's true what it says on the box:  "Will not lose needles!"  But, thank goodness my six-year-old is an assembly whiz.  This one was a doozie.  Maybe he has a future at Ikea...

And, way to sum it up, Dan. Feeling a lot of Seattle pride this week.

Tweet