thirdeyemom's Open Salon Blog

The Sunday Post: Wonderful

Sun, 4 Nov 2012 15:11:29 -0500

“Only count the sunny days” – Anonymous

Maybe it is due to the weather. The graying skies and the barren trees are making me feel a bit gloomy. I hate gray. I detest a day without the sun shining. Although I live in a cold climate, I find the warmer, grayer month of November to be deeply bland and moody. Ironically enough December is usually beautiful. It may be colder but we generally have snow and sun, the perfect combination to lift one’s mood.

Call me crazy but winter in Minnesota can be fun and enjoyable. As long as you dress warmly, put on a smile and embrace it. There is nothing better than a bright sunny day after a fresh snowfall when the world outside is blanketed in brilliant, glistening wet snow. It is perhaps one of the most spectacular creations of winter. When the trees are laden with heavy, drippy, iridescent snow and the sun is melting it right before your eyes. For me, this is truly a wonderful time of year.

One thing that comes with snow is skiing. I love to ski and learned to ski when I was a tiny tot. As soon as we get the first snowfall, I’m itching to go out. It won’t be long now until we get our first snow fall and I can hit the slopes. In the meantime, a little winter dreaming will brighten an otherwise downcast day.

A wonderful day in Taos, New Mexico – February 2011

A fresh coat of snow meant powder! It was time to take our skis off and hike up to the bowl. There she is….waiting.

We climb, climb and climb. The sun is so brilliant it hurts your eyes. The air is so fresh and pure. It is simply wonderful up here. The views from the top of the mountain are absolutely stunning. I feel elated. I feel alive. Life is good.

They even have a set of Nepali prayer flags on top for me and my dad to enjoy! Now is time for the ride down….

And of course it goes without saying…an apres-ski icy cold beer. Wonderful!

Soaking in the rays and enjoying life…

Then we pick up my daughter Sophia at the kiddy ski school and do a few three-generational runs. A great way to end a wonderful day!

Less than one month away until the ski hills open here…..I can hardly wait!

This post is in response to Jakesprinter’s Sunday Post: Wonderful. To read more entries, click here.

I am Malala: A crusader for girls education worldwide

Sat, 3 Nov 2012 17:11:37 -0400

I won’t forget the morning I saw the news. I reluctantly picked up the paper and my heart sank. There on the front page was her picture. A pair of deep dark eyes stared back at me. The innocent yet determined eyes of a child well beyond her years. Her name is Malala Yousafzai and she is on the cusp of womanhood. A mere fourteen years old. Half child. Half woman. Still a girl but with the power, bravery and perserverence of only the strongest women on earth. The strength and courage to stand up to an entire nation built on repression. The determination to fight for something so important to her, that she would risk her life for it. The simple right to learn.

Malala Yousafzai is the fourteen-year-old school girl from Pakistan that was savagely shot by the Taliban on her way to school. A symbol of bravery, courage and strength for over 32 million girls worldwide who are denied the simple right to an education each and every day.

Malala Yousafzai. Photo credit: Wikipedia Commons

What is so incredibly striking about Malala is that she made a decision to stand up for what she believed was wrong. That girls should have the right to go to school. Little did she know that her act of defiance would make her a crusader and activist for girls education around the globe.

Unfortunately education is not universal, especially in the developing parts of the world where children are denied the right to education which further reinforces a vicious cycle of poverty and desperation that is spiraling about of control.

Here are some sad facts regarding children’s education around the world:

115 million child laborers are involved in hazardous work.
61 million children are shut out of primary school.
34 million adolescent girls are not in school.
16 million children with disabilities not in school; 1/4 of these children are blind.

These facts are a tragedy. However, they are even more devastating when we examine the statistics on girls education:

Globally, more than 600 million girls live in the developing world and of that number, 77.6 million girls are currently not enrolled in either primary or secondary education.
Of 163 million illiterate youth in the world, more than half – 63 percent-are female.
Around the world, 250 million adolescent girls live in poverty.
Sixty-five low and middle income countries are losing approximately $92 billion per year by failing to educate girls to the same standards as boys.
One girl in seven in developing countries marries before age 15.

Imagine the endless possibilities if girls are educated. Think of all the untapped potential that nations are washing down the drain. Not only is the right to education a basic human right that all people should have regardless of gender, it makes an enormous amount of sense to educate girls. Imagine the improvement in peoples lives if girls were educated.

Children would be transported from devastation like this….

To a future like this…a future full of hope.

Stand With Malala on November 10th:

“The world is encouraged as Malala Yousafzai continues her fight since being shot in the head by the Taliban simply because she wanted to go to school. This weekend when she stood up for the first time since being laid low by the dreadful attack, the world witnessed her standing up for 32 million girls around the world who are denied daily their right to go to a classroom and learn.

That is why we are declaring November 10th a global day of action for Malala and 32 million girls more. On that day, one month following the assassination attempt, as UN Special Envoy for Global Education, I will travel to Pakistan to deliver to President Zardari our million-plus petition to make education a reality for all Pakistani children. We will let the world know that we will no longer accept keeping girls out of school. You can find out more and sign the petition by visiting www.iammalala.org.”

Source: The Office of the UN Special Envoy for Global Education

http://educationenvoy.org/press

Malala Day (November 10): Across the globe, millions of children, especially young girls, are denied access to education. This issue often goes unnoticed. We often feel helpless in these kind of situations, but there is a simple way to let your voice be heard in support of Malala. Here is how you can help:

Sign the petition to call on Pakistan to agree to a plan to deliver education to all its children: http://educationenvoy.org/
Spread the word. Inform your audience of the #IamMalala campaign and invite them to sign the petition.
Spend November 10th in solidarity for Malala Day. Former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown – the UN Special Envoy for Global Education – and his wife Sarah will deliver this petition to the Pakistani president on this day.

Please take a few moments out of your day to help girls receive an education! We can no longer tolerate intolerance. It is time to let our voice be heard.

Pure Geometry

Fri, 2 Nov 2012 16:11:11 -0400

When I saw this week’s photo challenge “Geometry”, my mind instantly went to one place: Guatemala. The reoccurring earthquakes that destroyed Antigua over and over again left this lovely city with some of the most fascinating mixture of geometrical shapes on earth. I could have spent hours just exploring the ancient ruins and snapping away at the perfectly formed yet mishappened lines of the old cathedrals.

There are four of my favorite photos a little reworked for this week’s challenge. Enjoy!

I love the view of the volcano through the window.

For more entries to this week’s challenge: Geometry click here.

A visit to Alpage de Ritord: A traditional cheese maker in the Alps

Fri, 2 Nov 2012 10:11:03 -0400

One of the oldest traditions in the region of Savoie is making cheese. Three alpine cheeses are made in this region of the French Alps: Abondance, Beaufort, and Comte. These cheeses evolved over time due to the unique, isolated community of alpine herders who collectively used their dairy supplies during the summer months to make large cheeses that were easy to transport down the valley into the markets.

Since I know nothing about cheese except how much I love to eat it, I thought I’d do a little research on the history of Beafort and how it is made. I found a wonderful website called Cheesemaking.com where I gathered all this information on alpine cheese below:

Alpine cheeses were traditionally made in remote regions of the mountains in eastern France, where large collective herds were moved to the alpage (mountain pastures) in May/June and remained through the middle of September each year. The cheeses needed to be large enough to accommodate the large amount of milk as well as sturdy enough to withstand the rigors of travel to the valley markets. Each region developed it’s own unique style due to herd sizes, remoteness and local preferences.

These cheeses were produced in the primitive mountain chalets where the cows grazed. Sometimes a particular herd would have 2-3 chalets located at different levels on the mountain as the cows moved during the summer and the vats would be moved with the herd. The cheeses were collectively referred to as Gruyere. The Gruyere of old being the assigned person who monitored the grazing activity and assesed the taxes for these Alpage areas. Specific cheeses such as Abondance, Comte, Beaufort, Ementhaler, and Morbier are good examples. The Abondance and Beaufort are the current remaining examples of traditional Alpage production, whereas the others are now produced in Valley cooperatives with the milk being transported.

Beaufort is produced in the Beaufortain, Tarentaise and Maurienne valleys, as well as parts of the Val d’Arly valley, all located on 450,000 hectares of the Savoie region. Our hike through Vanoise National Park took us through the ideal landscape to make wonderful Beaufort the traditional way. Of course a hike through this park wouldn’t be complete without stopping by one such place to see Beaufort made and have a taste for ourselves of perhaps the freshest cheese I’ve ever had.

Leaving our last refuge in the Alps.

First sight of cheese Heaven…

Packs down and time for our tour of course after I take a ton of pictures of all the signage.

Direct sales of fresh cheese….as fresh as you can possibly buy!

A step inside the cheese making room was suprisingly hot, smoky and steamy. I couldn’t imagine working in here all day long making cheese. It is a lot of work and hard manual labor.

The cheese is prepared using 11 liters of milk for every 1 kg of cheese desired. The milk used in one variety comes from the Tarentaise or Abondancecows that graze in the Alps.

To make Beaufort, first, the milk is heated and then cast into a beechwood hoop or mold which gives the cheese its distinctive concave shape. It is pressed for 24 hours, taken out of the hoops and then cooled for another 24 hours. Once cooled, it is soaked in brine and then stored on spruce shelves for one to two months. During this part of the process, one side of the cheese is hand-salted each morning, then turned over and massaged each afternoon. Once the cheese rind has reached a level of maturity, the cheese is smear-ripened with a mixture called morge which produces its strong flavor and pale yellow rind. The prepared cheese must then age for 6–12 months, or even longer, in a cool mountain cellar.

*Source: Cheesemaking.com

Here is a good illustration of the steps from Cheesemaking.com. I found it fascinating! Feel free to check it out if you are interested.

Now back to our tour. We stepped inside to a steamy, smoky room and marveled at the manpower it took to make Beaufort the old-fashioned way without all the modern day processing.

The mixture boiling.

The mixture is poured inside this container and flattened.

A close up look….sorry the picture is a little misty!

After the tour came the best part….the tasting! I remember during my time living in France the tradition of eating fresh cheese….jelly, salt, and/or plain. It is delicious any way you like!

Mmmmmmmmmmmm……

Our guide Mark inspecting my dad’s broken reading glasses….ha ha….

So Dad, “How was the cheese”?

After too much indulging it was time to go and hike it off. We had three more hours left in our hike and we would be back in civilization. It was a bittersweet feeling as I was excited to have a real bed again but sad to leave my beloved mountains.

Stay tuned…

A Spooky Night of Halloween Fun

Thu, 1 Nov 2012 17:11:50 -0400

Last night the kids and I had the quite the time Trick or Treating through our spooky neighborhood. The weather was unseasonably warm and there was a full moon which added to the mass of kids enjoying one of the funniest, strangest holidays of the year.

I’ve always loved Halloween and have so many wonderful memories of the Halloweens of my youth spent with my brother and sister. We would literally bring an empty pillowcase and walk for hours or at least that is what it felt like. In the eyes of a child, Halloween was an exciting, magical time of year surrounded solely on having fun. Dressing up in cool costumes, ringing the door bell in anticipation and even getting a few scares by some of our crazy neighbors was all part of the game.

As I got older, Halloween wasn’t as fun until I had children of my own and got to see the same excitement, anticipation and fun that I felt as a child. In a way, spending Halloween trick or treating with my children brought back a little bit of the child in myself.

Here are some highlights of our night….Hope you all enjoyed a fun Halloween!

Sophia and Max…Fairy and some character from Star Wars….

The day was off to a wild start as it was “Orange Day” at school. The kids couldn’t wear their costumes or celebrate Halloween (we had to be politically correct unfortunately meaning no celebration of “holidays”) but the children were still alive in excitement and anticipation for the day’s events.

I helped in my son’s afternoon Orange Day party where we made pumpkins and played games. By far the favorite activity was stuffing the “dead” hand with popcorn and candy. Pretty creepy looking indeed!

The plastic glove is stuffed with popcorn and “Dots” candies at the end to give the creepy effect….

My daughter’s Kindergarten class had more “cute” Halloween activities such as pin the broom on the witch and design your own pumpkin which was my station.

By the time 3:30 rolled around, the school was wild. The kids raced out the door and wanted to get home as soon as possible to start the festivities. First it was time to get costumes on.

I forgot to mention that Sophia got to wear her costume to ballet. Had to include this cute picture of her.

Max adding the finishing touches of the cobwebs in the garden.

Proudly displaying our “Trick or Treat” for UNICEF boxes.

Getting ready for the first guests who arrived at 5:30 PM!

Putting the pumpkin out (we had to wait until the last minutes because the squirrels love to eat them up).

Finally, Dad got home to man the door and candy giving. It was my turn to go around the neighborhood Trick or Treating with the kids. I could hardly wait!

The houses were all decorated with cool, creepy pumpkins. Some people made bonfires and sat out front to deliver their candy. Other people had ghoulish sounds playing and creepy steam spraying. It brought back so many memories of long ago. Some things never change!

I snapped some photos of my favorite pumpkins…

This one is extra toothy…

Wish I were this creative!

Then we made the mistake of going in the neighborhood Haunted House. It was the fifth annual year and there was so much hype about it. In a whim decision, I agreed that we could go in thinking that it must be for children, right?

Bad choice….

When we entered we were asked by a scary looking monster how many skulls we liked? One to Four? I said “Least scariest meaning One Skull”. I should have known that even one skull would freak out my son who is afraid of everything.

We followed through the misty fog and saw ghoulish things and scary sounds.

This mask freaked me out but I was more afraid by the “butcher cutting up fake body parts”. I made sure to steer my kids eyes away from that or the “scary babysitter”!

The further we got inside, the creepier it got. It was a little too odd for my taste and I was just hoping that my kids weren’t too afraid or else we would be up all night trying to get them to bed.

We continued on to a few more blocks as the weather was great and I was loving seeing all the pumpkins alive at night. The smell of smoke fire rose through the air and the moonlight sidewalks guided our way.

One of my friends in the neighborhood sat outside dressed as a witch by a bonfire sipping wine.

I loved all the fun decorations that brought the neighborhood to life.

Now this one is spooky!

Yet I loved the Peace Pumpkin! So great!

By 8:30 the kids were beat. It was time to go home and start winding them down. Meanwhile the doorbell kept ringing and ringing as the older kids started to come out. We had to have a least a hundred trick or treaters before we turned off all the lights.

It took another two hours to get my son to bed still scared from the haunted house. Better luck next year, I guess!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN…….