Reefing the Sail

This is a parenting technique I learned from sailing.


"Reefing is a sailing manoeuvre intended to reduce the area of a sail on a sailboat or sailing ship, which can improve the ship's stability and reduce the risk of capsizing, broaching, or damaging sails or boat hardware in a strong wind." -Wikipedia

For example, if four of your children simultaneous declare they need to use the one and only bathroom in your apartment, but the seven year old is the only one who says, "I need to go. I'm after Mom!" and your nearly-teenager starts having a stomp-shout fit about it because she was technically the first to say, "I need to go!," then you can reef the sail. In this, hypothetical case, you may smack said pre-teen with a long wooden kitchen spoon imported from Tunisia. Or you may take her precious face in your hands and fiercely whisper, "Don't do this." Or you may smile smugly to yourself at the cliche response of those under the influence of what we here like to call The Pubonic Plague and move on to helping another child find their socks, grateful you've already had your turn in the loo. This last would be an example of reefing the sail.

Fair Winds!

More of my favorite sailing eye-candy

Glutenny

I've been baking wheat bread for 15 years. Lately, I've been grinding my own hard red winter wheat to make it. Last week I inherited eight boxes of gluten from a sometime vegetarian fleeing the city for less crowded, less competitive and (let's face it) less filthy streets. I am astonished at the difference. I thought I had enough gluten because every batch of bread I make mixes for eight minutes on medium creating this vital ingredient in the process. Gluten composes about 80% of the protein contained in wheat seed. More important to eaters, it gives kneaded dough its elasticity, allows leavening and contributes chewiness to baked products. The above package claims that additional gluten will also increase the shelf life of my home made bread.

Protien
Elasticity
Leavening
Chewiness
Increased shelf life
Yes!

I didn't really think that a few teaspoons of tan powder would make much of a difference with my heavy home ground wheat. I'm happy to be wrong. This bread is everything I want it to be. Thick, soft and chewy, but not too dense. It has a nice crumb, cuts beautifully and is perfect for sandwiches. I can't test the shelf life claim because the family is noshing it into oblivion. Is this cheating?

This sudden jump in bread quality got me thinking about life. I believe in the law of the harvest. I believe in sowing what I reap and small and simple things bringing great things to pass. I'm creating my own little bit of gluten in the process. But sometimes I learn from another's vast experience. Sometimes I can blend their additional knowledge into my life and experience an astonishing jump in personal growth over a short time. It makes me more substantive (protien), flexible (elasticity), confident (leavening) and likable (chewiness). It may not extend my expiration date, but it will definitely increase my quality of life and get me off the shelf more often.

Right now, I'm ingesting 20+ years worth of distilled experience in home and family organizing from Teri Ebert.

Have you had leaps in your progression?

Who inspires you?

Slam edition-Des Moines

After Las Vegas we routed through Denver to see family which is always a good time.  Denver marked the end of the vacation portion of our travels.  We had to get down to business, log miles and haul it home.  We hit Des Moines right on schedule, but then we hit a deer!  That was not on our schedule.  

We saw two deer dart into the two lane interstate.  I looked at the speedometer and noted that My Hero was able to slow 10 mph to 60 before we collided with one of the deer.  He didn't swerve, just came to a stop.  I remember saying, "You did a good job.  You did the right thing."  This was later verified by Geico and Iowans alike.  Swerving usually exacerbates the problem.  We were unscathed, but shaken.  The kids were especially scared and we wouldn't let them get out of the car.  There was glass everywhere, but we showed them the pictures that we took.  Four cars (including one Semi) pulled over behind us and they say the deer flew 40 feet in the air before landing beside the road.  The deer did not fare so well.  We used our magic phones to call our insurance company.  Meanwhile a police officer pulled over, walked up to my window and said, "Welcome to Iowa."  He got an accident report for us pronto.  

Then we used our magic phones to google for repair shops near Des Moines (at this point I'll stop being shy about it; I'm completely in love with my iPhone) and there weren't so many shops open after noon on a Saturday, but we found one only 30 miles backwards.  The engine was fine, so I put on some ski goggles to protect myself from flying shards of glass and held a map over the windshield hole with my feet.  My Hero took it nice and easy.  After we settled into the waiting room at the repair shop, I started to get the shakes and tears.  People started telling us stories of untimely death and destruction in similar scenarios.  The inside of our car looked as if it had been sprinkled with pixie-dust, there was so much glass, but no one had been cut.  Finally, the air bags did not deploy.  For short people like me, that can often cause the most damage so I thought that was a miracle, too.  It was basically a three hour delay in our journey and some hotel juggling to get us on track again.  I'm feeling tender about life.

 

We didn't see the deer as we passed the collision spot.  We have two theories.  1.  The deer was merely stunned and eventually scrambled to it's feet and continued on it's way as well.  2.  There is a list in Iowa for people who want to haul away fresh road kill as cheap, delicious wild game (this part is not theory), so we think somebody took the deer home for dinner.  Maybe someone from the list or maybe one of the four cars that pulled over to make sure we were okay.

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