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Personal Blog of Author Kathryn Thompson

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Archives for March 2016

Madama Butterfly – Fathom Events Giveaway

March 22, 2016 by Kathryn

butterfly

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’ve only attended one live opera. I wasn’t expecting to like it since I’d spent my entire life making fun of opera singers and their vibrato but I figured I had to go to one once in my life. The show I attended was La Traviata and I fell deeply in love with Verdi and gained an appreciation for opera music in general. The music was so passionate, so intense, and the level of skill needed to perform it was so high that I’ve been an opera fan ever since.

So, when Fathom Events reached out to me to see if I wanted to give away some passes to their upcoming live broadcast of the Metropolitan Opera’s performance of Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, I couldn’t pass it up.

The show is Saturday, April 2nd at 9:55am PST and the tickets I have are for AMC Southcenter near Seattle. The show is being broadcast all over the country and there’s an encore performance on April 6th. They have an amazing cast and crew and it should be a gorgeous production. If you love opera or if you’re even curious about it, I recommend you check this out.

If you’d like to see the show, leave a sentence or two with your feelings about live opera and how many tickets you’d like. I have 5 admit-2 passes to give away and I’ll draw for winners this Friday night, March 25th, at 10pm PST.

Filed Under: Around Town, Movies, Reviews and Giveaways

Leprechauns and Expectations

March 17, 2016 by Kathryn

The Leprechauns must be stopped. That much is clear.

I think the unicorn blood we’ve smeared over our front door is working because we’ve been largely spared their antics, some green milk here, shamrock-colored toilet water there. It’s just harmless fun at our house.

But others are not so fortunate and sadly my kids have been affected by what Leprechauns are doing at their friends’ houses.

When fifth-grader Magoo came downstairs this morning, he looked intensely in my eyes and said, “I wonder what the Leprechaun brought us.”

“Um… I’m pretty sure nothing,” I said, “Leprechauns don’t bring gifts to this address.”

“Oh,” he looked deflated.

This surprised me because for the past several years, as Leprechaun activity around our town has escalated to the point of total Pin-sanity, we have been continually spared. It’s not as though last year the Leprechaun swept in like an abusive husband, trashing our house and leaving reconciliatory gifts, but then forgot about us this year.

No.

Green milk.

Every year.

That’s all she wrote.

So Magoo continued, “I’ll go check my shoes… just in case… to see if he filled them with Rolos or gold coins.” Again the intense eye contact, pleading, hopeful.

The heck? I bought you Lucky Charms and offered you spinach eggs (WHICH ARE GREEN!!). What more do you want from me?

lepro

I do not understand the magic of Leprechauns.

Santa and the Easter Bunny bring gifts, symbolic of the gifts of the Savior. The tooth fairy brings money in exchange for harvested body parts. These make sense to me. But Leprechauns?

They trash your house or school room and then I guess feel bad about it so they leave you gold or high fructose corn syrup or adorable hand-made prizes as seen on Pinterest.

What’s next, a Flag Day Gollum who burns your house down and then leaves you a new car or fills the charred remains of your socks with diamonds?

I’ve been thinking a lot about this and I’ve come up with a plan.

Next year.

For St. Patrick’s Day.

I think I may go crazy and dye the milk green. I think the kids will love it.
lepro2

Filed Under: About Me, Family Time, Holidays, Kids Live Here, Magoo, Parenting, St. Patrick's Day

Pi Day – Beef Broccoli Cheddar Pie

March 12, 2016 by Kathryn

My kids love Pi Day almost as much as I love Labor Day, and that’s saying something.

They have each memorized more digits of Pi than any sane person should know and every year we celebrate.

This year, in honor of Pi day on March 14th, why not make pie for dinner?

This recipe is a healthied-up version of a family favorite my mom used to make when I was growing up. Even with the changes, my kids love this. Enjoy.

cheddar-pie

Beef Broccoli Cheddar Pie

Filling:
1 lb ground beef
1/4 cup of chopped onions
1/2 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1/4 cup dry bread crumbs
8 oz of tomato sauce

Topping:
1 egg
2 egg whites
2 oz cheddar
6 oz low-fat cottage cheese
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp dry mustard
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1/2 tsp dry parsley
1 cup small-cut broccoli florets

Steam broccoli until just tender enough to stick a fork in. Set aside. Brown beef and onions and drain well. Mix beef and onions with remainder of filling ingredients. Mix topping ingredients except broccoli. Fold in broccoli. Spoon filling into pie plate. Cover pie with topping and bake at 350 until the topping is bubbly and cooked through, about 30 minutes.

Filed Under: Domesticality, Holidays, Main Dishes, Recipes

BlogHer and Me

March 9, 2016 by Kathryn

If you’re a woman and you’re blogging, you’re probably already familiar with BlogHer. They were a crucial resource for me at the beginning of my blogging career and I’m sure they will be again as my kids start school full time next year and I get serious about blogging again in the fall.

It’s been years since I’ve worked with them, but this week I’ve got a post up on BlogHer. Their site is the perfect place to blog about all the things I could have done when Drops of Awesome went viral a few years ago to help build my blog.


Featured on BlogHer.com

Filed Under: About Me, Blogging, Drops of Awesome, Ways to Be Awesome

I Used to Do That

March 2, 2016 by Kathryn

used to do
I wasn’t always this perfect. And I won’t always be as imperfect as I am now.

A while ago I said something epically insensitive to a friend of mine who struggles with infertility. She didn’t say anything about it at the time but in a quiet moment later that day it occurred to me how hurtful my comment may have been. In this particular instance I felt strongly that bringing it up to apologize would only cause her more pain so I could relieve myself of guilt.

I felt terrible every time I saw her after my open-mouthed foot insertion. The guilt was eating away at me. I thought, I am so insensitive. I can’t believe I said that to her. I always speak before I think.

And then I stopped.

No, I thought, I used to do that. As of this moment, I don’t do that anymore.

This was a profound moment for me and I’ve used that phrase over and over since.

I used to do that.

As a mature woman who allows myself to evolve and change, when I look back at my life, I find there are things that I just don’t do anymore. There are little bad habits, sins or unkindnesses that come to mind and I think, I used to do that. But I don’t anymore.

I try not to beat myself up over these Used-To-Dos. If I don’t do them anymore, then thinking about them should make me happy. Oh, my, how I’ve grown!

But how long do you have to wait before you go from, “Dang! Why do I always do that?” to “I used to do that”? A week? A month? A decade?

Nope.

I propose that if you want to conquer a bad habit, you turn it into a Used-To-Do immediately. Whenever you do something you wish you hadn’t, rather than beat yourself up again, say, “Wow. I used to do that.”

Fix it if it needs fixing. And then move on.

If only wishing made it so, you might think. Saying, “I used to do that,” doesn’t automatically make it so I won’t do it again. Nope. I believe it can. Over time. At least far better than shaming and guilting yourself.

Let’s say you want to get up on time in the morning but you always find yourself hitting snooze. You wake up far too late, in a grouchy mood, and start the day off frustrated. You spend all day thinking things like, Why do I always do that? I know better than that but I’m so lazy. I’ve got to get up earlier but it’s so hard. If I don’t do better tomorrow, I’ll have another lousy day. I am so bad at mornings.

There are a few things that are messed up about this line of thinking.

1. You are reinforcing the negative behavior – “I always do that.” “I’m so lazy.” “It’s so hard.” “I’m so bad at mornings.” By telling yourself this story over and over again, you are digging it into your neuropathways, reinforcing it with steel beams and covering it over with cement. If you want to keep sucking at mornings, this is the way to accomplish that.

2. You are marinating in shame and guilt – Who was ever motivated to peaceful positive change by excessive shame and guilt?

No one.

Shame and guilt are key components of addiction and other out-of-control negative behaviors. A small amount of shame can help us fit into society by providing that little voice that tells us not go topless to the mall and a small amount of guilt can help us desire to make things right when we hurt another person. However, excessive shame and guilt can leave us feeling hopeless and grind us to a halt on our journey to healing and growth.

3. You are not being productive – There are no real solutions in this type of thinking. You are tearing down, rather than building up, criticizing rather than motivating.

Now think about this. Your alarm goes off one morning and, as usual, you hit snooze several times. You wake up late and frustrated and you think, I used to hit snooze a million times in the morning. That did not help my day go smoothly. Good thing I don’t do that anymore.

Throughout the day, as you feel unprepared or frazzled you think, This is frustrating. I used to feel like this a lot when I used to hit snooze in the morning. I’m glad I don’t do that anymore.

This does a few things to help your progress.

1. It stops your negativity before it spirals out of control – This is frustrating. But it’s temporary because I don’t do that anymore.

2. It redefines who you are and what you are capable of – I’m a person who makes positive changes. I have a plan to improve and I am improving at this very moment.

3. It reinforces positive behavior – All day long you rehearse the new improved version of yourself. I am a person who gets up early every morning.

You may need to do this again the following morning. And the next. But, if each time you hit snooze you think, I used to do that you will likely find that you hit snooze less and less.

Eventually you will transition to a place where your alarm goes off and, as you reach out your arm to hit snooze, you think, I used to do that, and slowly sit up in bed rather than dozing off again.

You reach the final stage when you don’t reach for the snooze button anymore, when talk of snooze button abuse comes up at a PTA meeting (as it so often does) and you think happily to yourself, I used to do that.

Saying, “Drops of Awesome,” when I do something positive helps me celebrate the good and keep my momentum going. Saying, “I used to do that,” when I do something negative interrupts the destructive behavior and reminds me of who I am and can be.

In the middle of writing this post, I went to the kitchen for a snack and saw the other half of Wanda’s breakfast grapefruit sitting on the counter. I should eat that before it goes bad, I thought. But then I decided there was probably more appetizing fruit in the fridge. I started to walk away and leave the grapefruit on the counter to die but then I thought, I used to waste food, and I ate it.

I used to eat chocolate right before bed. I used to say insensitive things in the name of humor. I used to ignore my kids when they got home if I was in the middle of writing.

What did you used to do today?

Filed Under: About Me, Aspirations, Drops of Awesome

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