The CTA-team

One of the questions I'm asked frequently as an urban mom is how we get around in such a big city. While we do still have a car, it's often the least practical option for transportation given traffic and the availability of parking at our destination. That's why we make our way on the CTA!

We're lucky enough to live within walking distance of three different "El" stations and have a bus line that stops at our back door. The station in the picture is next to B's school and we can zip downtown on the green line in less than ten minutes. We have a friend with us in the picture because she comes along on Tuesdays to ballet class. Urban carpooling at its finest: the green line is my minivan.

The Little Dragans love the CTA. What was B most excited about when she turned 7? Getting her student card.

Kids 6 and under ride free, but 7 and up need a pass, although it is heavily discounted on school days. Cheezits are always optional, but highly recommended.

Like most things in my life, I try to turn our frequent trips into learning opportunities disguised as games. When we're riding on the CTA one game is "How Many Stops?" Before we board a train, the kids race to answer questions about which line we're on, how many stops until our destination, and what our stop is called.

Little Guy is really good at this game and can even tell you alternate lines that you can take in the Loop. The purpose of the game is to help them be aware of their surroundings, but there's a safety motive, too. If we should ever be separated (*currently knocking on wood that this never happens!!*) I want them to be able to tell someone where they were going.

When we're on one of Chicago's elevated trains, this is how we ride:

There's a lot to see out there, and we wouldn't want to miss a single thing! Headed into the Loop we're treated to a passing view of some really interesting murals on the sides of the buildings and they are a huge hit. Here are two of our favorites.

Hebru Brantley's  Chi Boy is one of his recognizable characters adding energy and movement to the positive narrative that he brings to street art around Chicago. As the train travels north, Chi Boy actually flies into view! It's difficult to get a sense of the size of this mural from this photo, but it is impossible to miss. Brantley has created such a memorable aesthetic that the Little Dragans can pick out his work anywhere. Here's another site to learn more about his work: https://www.artsy.net/artist/hebru-brantley

This photo-illustration entitled Moose Bubblegum Bubble by Jacob Watts makes us laugh and creates a wonderful tension just as the train begins its curve into the Loop. As the moose disappears behind us, what will happen? Will the bubble pop leaving bits of bubblegum stuck to his antlers? Our anticipation builds and mirrors the feeling that something is just about to happen as we enter the bustling heart of the city.

It's not always so picture perfect on the CTA. Grant and I can both regale you with tales of unpleasant travel companions, indescribably horrific odors, and the occasional mugging. Just last week Grant's bus driver stopped the bus and exited the bus in the middle of Clark at rush hour with no explanation. 

Growing up in a town of 900 people, I'm sure I never envisioned my future life having anything to do with bus schedules or educating my children about train stops. The blue haze on the mountains I once watched from the reverse seat in the way, way back of our family's station wagon has been replaced by street art and occasional glimpses of the lake between rows of skyscrapers. I choose to enjoy this adventure on the CTA, and happily answer those who ask that getting around in a city is an exciting challenge. If 1.6 million riders PER DAY can do it, so can we!

BONUS BYTES WITH B

Hi! Me again...B! When you use the CTA it's fun to look out the window and see the city. That's exactly what you should do! My favorite thing to see is the big buildings of the city because sometimes you can see people inside the windows. What's yours? Leave a comment below!

XOXO,

B

Zootopia Review

A trip to the movie theater is a rare treat for a Dragan of any size, mostly because by the time we've paid for the tickets, popcorn, and Raisinets we've almost matched our monthly mortgage.

It's tough to turn down popcorn and Raisinets, though.

We'd heard so many positive reviews of Disney's Zootopia that Little Guy and I decided we had to check it out.

Explanation

Judy Hopps (Ginnifer Goodwin) wants to break the family tradition of carrot farming to pursue her dreams of becoming a police officer in the big city, "Zootopia." As a young bunny she has to overcome many obstacles, namely her parents' expectations, a fox bully, an academy designed for animals much larger than herself, and a chief who limits her to parking-meter duty. When a series of kidnappings threatens the carefully maintained equilibrium in Zootopia, Judy has the opportunity to find a missing otter, but she must do so within forty-eight hours or she will lose her job. With the help of a shifty fox, Nick Wilde (Jason Bateman), Judy uncovers a far more complicated scheme with sinister implications. Judy and Nick have to put aside their differences and work together if they want to save Zootopia.

Explication

Zootopia tackles issues that may or may not reach a child in the audience, but they do so within the context of a beautifully designed movie with laughs for all ages. Employing animals in allegory is not a new concept, but the film uses some new tropes in the predator/prey relationship. In Zootopia, animals of either camp have supposedly evolved beyond being a danger to one another, but lingering stereotypes and fear continue to divide the animals. Wisely, the writers leave room for interpretation, and I have found convincing analyses of Zootopia reading it as a commentary on ISIS, the drug war, and racial profiling, to name a few. The central message, as reiterated by Gazelle's catchy song (Try Anything, performed by Shakira!) is that while fear can only divide us, celebrating our differences lets us all achieve our dreams. The theme is conveyed with importance, but without preachiness, and will resonate with most audiences.

Extras - for the Kids

In addition to the astronomical price, one of the reasons we don't take the little Dragans to the theater often is the overwhelming sensory experience. Movies with big jump scares or long, intense scenes leave one or both kids scrambling for my lap, and I wonder why I've paid for more than one seat as I peek through their hair at the screen. Zootopia is rated PG for thematic elements, rude humor and action. There are a few of those jump scares and one very intense passage. Little Guy was on my lap for the last forty-five minutes. The PG rating is subtitled "Know your kid," and, in this case, I agree. Zootopia was just fine for Little Guy: the jumps didn't leave him hysterical, the intensity resolves, and the rude humor went totally over his head. B can wait for the DVD; jumps are harder on her.

A great website to use while evaluating movies for kids is "Common Sense Media". It gives a kid and adult rating and breaks down the specific rationale behind the MPAA rating, which can be vague. My favorite section is the "Families can talk about..." tab that offers topic suggestions for further discussion with kids. For Zootopia, they suggest conversations about stereotyping; character strengths such as courage, empathy, and teamwork; and also bullying, which is a part of both Judy and Nick's backstories.

Extras - for the Adults

The film is full of laughs, jokes, and references that are in place for adults in the audience. A scene mocking the DMV, references to The Godfather, and Breaking Bad, and numerous "Easter Eggs" that I won't spoil here will keep adults laughing and engaged. It doesn't seem to matter that these jokes go over the heads of most of the younger audience, as there is enough humor in the tight script for everyone. I prefer any children's entertainment with a few allusions thrown in for the chaperones to the more saccharine films and tv shows that ignore an adult audience. I'm definitely more engaged with something that works on both levels and then more likely to talk about it later with my kids.

An interesting question that this film raises is whether or not the message, in addition to the jokes, is actually aimed at an adult audience. Are the filmmakers deliberately putting forth a topical issue for the consideration of the adults in their audience? Gene Demby addresses the message of police profiling in this article on the NPR blog, "Codeswitching." Or is it the adult audience member who brings his or her own analysis and interpretation to the allegory? Either way, Zootopia entertains, delights, and leaves family members of all ages with jokes that linger and questions to ponder. Little Guy and I highly recommend it!

HAM-bundance

Eating (or otherwise using up) an entire Ham within a week the octave of Easter

The Easter meal is serious business in Draganland. There are traditional, time-honored recipes featured. We have ordered rare ingredients by mail before. The preparatory shopping trip takes at least two hours, all for the supporting cast.
Because there can be only one star.

The ham.

Ham is the meat of a Dragan Easter, so it has been proclaimed and so it will be forever more. Dining at someone else's house? We have a ham delivered ahead of time. We don't mess around.
There's a problem, though. Hams (good hams, anyway) come in two sizes: big or bigger. And there are just four Dragans, two of whom eat like tiny little birds. Ever see a tiny bird take down a hog and eat it?

Yeah, me neither.
So we have A LOT of leftover ham. I know what you're thinking: Why don't you all just invite some people over for Easter supper and share the wealth? Believe me, I've tried. Grant gets this crazed look in his eye because he knows I will try to send these kind, unsuspecting people home with some of HIS HAM. And if there's one thing that he relishes more than the Traditional Easter Feast, it is the Ceremonial Easter Leftovers.
Have you experienced a HAM-bundance of leftovers in your home? I'm here to help.

Day 1: Feast
Feast your heart out on ham today. Have seconds. Try thirds. Pick a little ham off the platter every time you walk by the counter. Look the other way when the cat sneaks some off of a plate -- it's Easter! Everyone should celebrate. And there's plenty of ham to go around!

Day 2: Leftovers!
You're excited about leftovers today! The potato salad's flavors have married nicely. The ham hasn't started to drip all over your refrigerator yet. You are still residually fueled by the 86 Cadbury mini eggs that you ate while washing dishes last night. Leftovers are great! Why do you get so sick of this every year?

Day 3: Ham Sandwiches
These are pretty good. Grant has mastered the leftover Easter sandwich. At one point we daydreamed about starting a food cart that sold holiday-themed sliders. The Easter sandwich would have been a best seller. We brainstormed Easter, Thanksgiving, 4th of July, and Hannukah sandwiches for the menu. Come to think of it, this was one of our better business plans...
Here's the Easter sandwich:
Ham (duh)
mayo (make it Duke's, people)
provolone cheese
bread and butter pickles
Hawaiian roll
Assemble and microwave for a minute. Enjoy. Ignore the emerging puffiness around your eyes.

Day 4: Cheesy Ham and Potato Soup
Make this soup. It's really good! Keep repeating this to your children so that they'll eat more of it. See if you can stretch the 1-2 cups of diced ham that the recipe calls for to 1-2 pounds; you've barely made a dent in the ham. Didn't your friend just have a baby? She'd love a few bowls gallon or two of this soup! Walk it over to her house, you haven't gotten off your couch in days.

Day 5: Ham -- The Gift that Keeps Giving
Don't let anyone leave your house without a freezer-size Ziplock bag full of ham. Ignore their polite refusals/protests/looks of disgust. They want this ham, they just didn't know how to ask for it. The neighbors sent you a Christmas card, surely they that earns them some ham! Write all notes to your children's teachers on ham. Slip slices between pieces of outgoing mail for your mailman.

Day 6: Get Creative
How is there still ham left?? Sew new soccer jerseys for your daughter's team and suggest they change their name to the Hamsters. Fashion new wedding bands out of ham since your old ones won't seem to fit over your fingers anymore. Reupholster that couch you've barely left. With ham.


Day 7: Ham Coma
Ban the use of the word ham in your home and place of business. Swear off pork products and research religions that would help you abstain. Assume an unresponsive fetal position on the new HAM-polstered couch until your husband threatens to call the HAM-bulance, he said Ambulance, he swears! Stop swinging that ham at him, wait -- SWEET GOODNESS THAT'S YOUR ARM!!

Day 8: Only the Ham Hock Remains
YOU'RE NOT GOING TO THROW THAT AWAY, ARE YOU??? There's a lot of meat left on that bone! Throw that in a stock pot with some red kidney beans, some celery, peppers, and rice -- baby, you've got yourself a stew! (recipe credit: Carl Weathers) Start oinking all affirmative sentiments.

Rehamilitate for 357 days.

Eggs, three ways

Happy Easter (Monday), everyone!
There was no chance of a blog post yesterday, I was in a candy coma.

The Easter Bunny sure does have good taste in candy!

We had a beautiful weekend celebrating together and I thought a lot about holiday traditions: the ones that everyone shares, the ones we bring from our heritage, the ones we make for ourselves. I thought I'd share one of each.

Dyeing Eggs
This is a fun tradition that's hardly unique to our family, or even to Easter! Did you know that in China, dyed eggs are passed out at a traditional party held for a one-month-old baby to announce his/her name? The meaning is similar. Just as at Easter, the eggs symbolize new life.

I hard-boiled a dozen in good old colossus (remember it?).

I just learned that you can steam eggs to hard-boil them and in colossus it is as easy as pressing the steam button and walking away. Life changed. If you already knew this, congrats, you win this round of "Most Efficient Life." But also, WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME? I have been messing up hard-boiled eggs for years...

We used a kit. I'm not cool enough to make my own dye.

They had fun with this for about 10 minutes, then asked if they could take the water outside to make a lemonade stand.

This entertained them for a full 90 minutes. Go figure.
Finished product:

And also:

Sirek, aka Easter Cheese

Grant's family is of Eastern European heritage (Russian, Croatian, Serbian, etc.) and my family is 100% British Isles. This meant that when we got married we got to merge lots of holiday traditions and learn some new ways to celebrate. Most of these revolve around food and hey, I'm not complaining!

Grant learned how to make Sirek (which is one of MANY possible spellings, but it's pronounced like SID-ack) from his dad and no Easter is complete without it.
It takes a LONG time to heat up a dozen eggs and a quart of milk (throw in some salt and white pepper) at very low heat while constantly stirring.

B helped. Little Guy just photobombed.

This part takes close to an hour. When it hits that magic spot -- cooked to curds, but not too rubbery -- you have to tie it up in cheesecloth and let it drain.

I know what you're thinking: Where is the cheese in this Easter Cheese?
Easter Cheese, it turns out, is neither cheese, nor all that particularly Easter-y.
Discuss.
The finished product is, well, congealed scrambled eggs. I don't know why they don't call it that. Wait, yes I do.
When Grant told me about this, I was appropriately grossed out. Now, though, after fifteen Easters with the guy, I can't imagine celebrating without it. It's become our tradition and now we will pass it down to the kids. If there's a better metaphor for marriage (slowly cooking, congealing together over time) I haven't found it yet.

Tastes significantly better than it sounds like it would.

Bird's Nests

Finally, I love cooking projects with my kids. It's one of the traditions that I'm creating with them that means a lot to me. I hope it means a lot to them, but I'm also willing to bribe them with chocolate until they say they enjoy it.

I saw these little Bird's Nests online and just had to make them. It was such a good excuse to eat fistfuls of Cadbury mini-eggs (the BEST!!). I used this recipe from a very cute blog called "Chef in Training," but I modified a few things. Some pics:

These, on the other hand, taste EXACTLY as delicious as you would imagine.

There's something that unites these "eggs, three ways," these seemingly unrelated traditions, borrowed and passed on. The driving force behind stirring eggs for an hour is the very same thing that makes a family in China dye eggs to celebrate the new life in their family. It's the same thing that led Jesus to gather his friends around him and start a new tradition, one we still keep verbatim more than 2000 years later, of breaking bread and remembering Him. 

It's love.

Love for those who came before us, and love for those with us now. And maybe the hope that some day, when we are long gone, this time of year will come around and they'll remember that love. Maybe they'll even teach their children to make Sirek. 

Spring Cleaning

The Garden Team at B's school had some hard work to do this Saturday morning.
After receiving a grant from Wild Ones, we will be planting native wildflowers that will help attract native pollinators to all of the gardens planted around the school. Native plants are important to our ecosystem for three reasons:
1. They provide food for the bees, birds, and butterflies who are hard at work pollinating other plants.
2. They have deep roots which act as an early, natural water filtration system before runoff reaches our streams and rivers.
3. A lawn of native plants (instead of turf) reduces our carbon footprint. And it's just so much prettier!
Before your wildflowers can bloom, however, you have to prepare the ground. We were tasked with clearing a bed on the sunny, south side of the school. This was no easy task!
Aided by a volunteer team of eager middle schoolers, we worked for a few hours and finally had a clear bed to plant!

B looked for rocks. When she read this she informed me she is holding a doughnut hole. So not really helping at all.

Some of the roots we had to dig up were huge!

We dug up and bagged more than thirty bags of debris.

Little Guy's contribution was to eat 2 cookies and 7 doughnut holes and then play on the playground while the rest of us worked.

Finally seeing some progress! It's not quite beautiful yet, but the groundwork is laid.

Work hard, play hard. 

It's so satisfying to work hard at a project and actually see the fruits of your labor. Even more satisfying was working with this group of middle schoolers. It reminded me of how much I admire this age group. They are so optimistic and so powerful because they do not yet know their own limitations. Middle schoolers can change the world simply because they believe they can. I think this is why I write about them. And for them.

I'm doing quite a bit of spring cleaning on my writing, too. I've been incredibly privileged to have received invaluable feedback from two very talented friends who agreed to be early readers. Danielle, an incredible writer and an inspiration to me in many ways, provided specific and detailed critiques and encouragement. Martha, a copyediting master and designer extraordinaire, went over my manuscript with a magnifying glass. The results look a bit like this:

Not unlike the southside garden bed, I have a mess to clean up and many bags of refuse to pull out of this novel before it is ready to bloom into something beautiful. 

I am rolling up my sleeves.

I have my tools in hand.

I have a great team beside me.

I am ready for spring cleaning!

Sláinte!

The little Dragans and I are pretty proud of our Irish heritage, especially around this time of year!

They're also very proud of their Russian and Slavic heritage, stay tuned for an Easter recipe in a few weeks!

In a rare bout of crafty inspiration (seriously, this hardly ever happens, crafts usually give me hives) I came up with a fun little St. Patrick's Day project and we thought we'd share it with you!

 

Disclaimer: I'm not much of an artist or a craftswoman, my sister got those genes, so these aren't meant to be my entry into an unofficial "Best Mom/Artist of the Year" competition. Just a fun activity with the kiddos. Not Pinterest-worthy. Not even really #Pinterestfail- worthy, although that is a very entertaining timekiller.

We started with simple black origami boxes. I really love origami and find it really relaxing. If you want to make the simple box, or any number of other fun folds, I'd look here. I made these ahead of time for the kids, but I think B could have handled it. To jazz them up a bit we added some fun Irish sayings in metallic sharpie (!) like "Happy St. Patrick's Day" and "Sláinte" which means good health, or basically "Cheers!" in Irish Gaelic.

Then we painted cardstock strips to look like rainbows. We had markers, crayons, and watercolors on hand, and I really think the watercolors looked the best. 

I did a quick staple surgery to make the rainbow and then we glued on cottonball clouds. Thank you, Sunday school, for teaching me how to gently pull apart a cottonball until it looks like a cloud. 

Then it was time for the best part -- filling the pot with gold! We used Rolos and Hershey's Nuggets for our gold because, well, they're gold. And delicious. Obviously we sampled some, it would be very rude to deliver unsampled treats to friends and neighbors. A pretty funny dichotomy of personalities emerged in candy distribution methods. B is of the "I will count out an equal number for each pot" mentality whereas Little Guy adopted the "fistful" method in between attempts to steal more samples. Very telling. They should use this as a job interview question.

This was a really fun project and we already delivered our first pot o' gold to our wonderful neighbors. We have big plans for the weekend of St. Patrick's Day celebrations like checking out the green river and making a feast of corned beef brisket and cabbage.

True or False: I bought all of the Irish/St. Paddy's Day products at Costco.

False.
I bought ALL BUT ONE of the Irish/St. Paddy's Day products at Costco because I already had that one at home. It was the Kerrygold butter, or according to the Little Dragans: the good butter. 
Because Irish kids know what's up.
Sláinte!

BONUS BYTES FROM B

Hi,

It’s me B,

I had a great time decorating the box.

You can let your imagination go wild!

Have you ever made a holiday gift for other

people? Like us and subscribe!

See you next time,

B

Unexpected

This crack appeared on my windshield out of nowhere, and on my birthday no less.
Thanks, Universe.

After empirically proving that I could not wish away the crack, I called around and made an appointment to get the whole windshield replaced (argh). Cost aside, I actually had myself talked into an enjoyable and productive morning of errand running, reading and phone call returning while I waited for the work to be done. Multi-tasking queen.

But then little guy threw up his breakfast. And the whole day changed as we would now be a party of two for the windshield adventure. Too far to train it home, we were stuck for at least a few hours. Temperature: a sunny 19.

A funny thing happened, though, with this unexpected, unstructured time to ourselves.
We wandered.
We searched for Great White Sharks.

Great news, the city is safe. Little guy thought he saw some penguins, though.
We found a Toys R Us and spent, no exaggeration, an hour looking around.

We'll pretend it was like going to a museum... a museum of capitalism and desire. We managed to escape with just one purchase, and a pretty fun one at that.

The plastic stands are called "navigation guides," which I guess is the Star Wars consumer-approved way to say "finger puppets."
We worked up quite the appetite, guess that stomach bug was short-lived.

You're going to want to dunk that donut right in the coffee, guys, the restaurant didn't get its name by accident. Oh, and it's a French Kruller, because they're the best.

It wasn't what I expected from my morning which began with me nearly losing my temper over how many times this kid has been sick this winter. I commented to Grant that it feels like we've been stuck in the breakers, barely getting our feet back under us when another wave of sickness just rolls in and knocks us out again. But it was a great morning, as much for its unexpectedness as for its forced lack of agenda. We get these little gifts sometimes, reminders to slow down and put away the to do list for just a second. Sometimes it takes a cracked windshield, or a stomach flu to make us pay attention to them.

So yeah, thanks, Universe.

Little last thoughts with Little Guy:

I liked going to the store because I saw an Ewok, and now I feel better. Do you want the Millennium Falcon or the TIE Fighter to win in a battle?