Meyer Christmas Newsletter 2011

Hello friends and family!

Thanks for saving us time, paper, and postage by coming to our blog to catch up with all things Aaron and Rika in 2011. If you didn't know already, Christmas letter time is one of my favorite times of years, because I love seeing what everyone else has done, even if we've lost touch a little bit. It gives me a chance to live a little vicariously through all of you. (so if I'm not on your mailing list yet, add me! Really! I wanna know!)

After returning from a delightful trip back east to see my family, we got right back into school/work/fun mode. We met up with some friends, Kelli and David from Tennessee-to go snowboarding in Tahoe one weekend, and are still in shock that we live that close to glorious snowboarding.


I was working part time for an after school program, and Aaron was working hard in the dorm and preparing for a mission trip to Thailand. He left in March with many other students and faculty from Rio and together, they helped install a water system in a village to help the nomadic villagers get one step closer to citizenship. Along with working hard, Aaron and the team was treated to a nice dinner and a trip down south to Phuket to spend time on the beach and shopping.



Shortly after Aaron returned from his 2 week trip, I left for Southeast Asia to visit Hong Kong and Taipei for a recruiting trip for Rio. I visited many schools and families over there and learned more than I could comprehend about the school systems and expectations for kids in both places. There were several families who were excited about sending their kids to a less-stressful environment that would give their children more options for universities. I was able to reconnect with friends from high school and our time in Taiwan, and got to mark Hong Kong off of my world travel list.


In April, I also got a call from family that my Grandma Margy was in pretty serious condition. I left that weekend and spent some time with her talking, telling her stories, and listening to her breathe. She passed away a little over a week later, and I was so glad that I got those couple of days to tell her goodbye. She was one of my favorite people in the world and our family celebrated her life together, remembering how special and God-led she was. We're relieved that she is no longer a slave to her Alzheimer's and failing body, but miss her so much.




We were so glad to have a real life summer break! Our dream for the summer was simple. Have tons of fun, act like little kids, and go to Disney Land. We spent a week in June house/dog sitting for the cousins in Southern California and were reminded as we sat in traffic each day, of how lucky we are to live in Nor-Cal. (No offense, guys). Our dreams came true at Disneyland and we even had a friend get us in for free! Best day ever! We spent a day in Loma Linda Land seeing all our doctor friends who are going to let us sleep in their backyards someday when we're broke and homeless, and we gave Bam Bam his first dog beach experience.

In late June and July, both sets of our parents came out to visit and we got to show them our stomping grounds. We spent a lot of time hiking, canoeing & paddleboarding, and showing Aaron's parents the Pacific Ocean and Redwoods. We really wanted to give them a relaxing summer vacation without any pressure, and lots of adventure, and it gave us an excuse to re-visit all of our favorite places up here.

The week that Aaron's parents came, we also decided to adopt a baby. Not like a human baby, but a puppy. We named her Ema (her original name was Mae), and she melted our hearts from the very beginning. Ema is half Olde English Bulldog and half boxer and she's got a mind of her own. We're hoping that Bam's perfect personality will rub off on her, or at least a manner or two.





In mid-July, I started working full-time with the organization I had been with. In becoming a manager, I was suddenly in charge of staffing, programming, discipline, facility management....the list goes on and on. I am glad to get to know the kids and community of our town of Healdsburg better, and it's really challenged and grown my leadership experience.

We put in a garden and barbecued our monster squash and tomatoes all summer and fall. Aaron took off on a motorcycle trip to Northern California and Oregon, and we both got hooked on go-cart racing. (Not to brag or anything, but I am currently second in our Rio staff races).

By fall with school starting, both Aaron and I threw ourselves into work and the last three months have been a blur of projects, kid-stories, highs & lows, and lessons learned. Aaron's a great dean and is teaching an outdoor education class to a group of nature-deprived kids. But most kids are, right?

Our goals for next year? Balance! More travel! No babies! More fun, music, laughter, and peace! And I hope all those things for you as well.

Merry Christmas!

Composting for Dummies

My garden is finally at the place of production. After fighting off weeds, hungry neighbors, and weird bugs, the monster of a yellow squash plant that has taken over half the bed is cranking out some baby squash. I have 3 green bean plants that are hanging in there but not putting out that many green beans, and some swiss chard that couldn’t take the heat. My 12 tomato babies are just about to pop out some huge juicy tomatoes, and my basil is on fire! Also, I have a huge sage bush but have run out of ideas on what to use sage for other than the Thanksgiving or Special K loaf.

Since my garden has sucked me into the mysterious world of the growing seed, I’ve been experimenting with organics and most recently have bought a big old flipable composter. Since none of this stuff is common sense to me, I’ve had to read up and research all the right and wrong ways to garden. Below (for all you nerds out there!) is just a little excerpt from my instruction manual that blew my mind.

There are four basic ingredients for composting: nitrogen, carbon, water and air. Food consists of two classes of materials, simply referred to as “greens” and “browns”. Green is high in nitrogen and brown is high in carbon. The greens simply provide protein for the micro-bugs, while the brown materials provide energy. Anything in your yard is potential food for these microbes. Layer and mix these materials into the Tumbling Composter, add water and tumble to add air.

When mixed, the critical mass hits the temperature of 140 degrees F and starts to break down, then the magic happens.

Use 25% Nitrogen, 75% Carbon

Nitrogen (green)................ ........................Carbon (brown)
Table scraps, fruits & veggie scraps............Leaves (shredded go faster, best carbon)
Chicken/rabbit manure ..............................Straw
Coffee grounds ..........................................Pine needles (acidic-use sparingly)
Grass clippings ..........................................Wood ash
Garden plants, flower cuttings, seaweed ....Cardboard (breakup)
Weeds ........................................................Dryer lint (?!)
..................................................................Woodchips & sawdust (use sparingly)


After all this is done, the box claims that within 3-4 weeks, I’ll have beautiful, nutrient-rich soil that has a pleasant earthy smell.

I’ve been shoveling leaves, keeping all my compostable food scraps, and am gearing up for the winter garden that I’ll plant when we just can take the squash and tomatoes anymore.

I figure that this composter will pay for itself in about three to eight years. I’m pretty sure I’ll have way more compost than I can handle. Oh well, I’ll just have to share it then!

I think I’m about to outgrow this garden. Maybe a farm next?

Snippets from a boarding school dean's wife...

These are the last days of school. This is the time when many of us, who have lived along with these kids-disciplining, commending, encouraging, advising, and watching-begin to reflect on the actual growth that has occurred in these kids. One example: the freshmen boys. Many of these guys come at age 13 from various family backgrounds and situations. They come as babies, basically. They’ve never done their own laundry, they lose their homework, backpacks, room keys, everything imaginable. But they have grown the most. Most of these freshmen guys are some of the sweetest and most considerate in the dorm. Yes, they’re still boys and are more wild than a barrel full of monkeys, but they are so LOVABLE! Sometimes one or two will come to my door and ask for a snack and I cave every time and beg them not to tell any of the other guys in the dorm. In the beginning of the year, I called the worst one, “Baby V”, because he was the most immature of all. Now, I can’t call him that anymore because he’s grown out of that stage. He's growing up, learning how to share and do his laundry. He sat down with me and opened up his heart about some things that he's been going through this year in his personal and home life and it just made me love this kid even more. I can't wait to see what's in store for him and his other freshmen, now sophomores.

This morning someone left a prank on our door. I’m not going to say what it is, but investigation is underway. It was nasty; a cry for attention. None of the guys will tell us who it was, but we know who knows. This part of living in the dorm is un-amusing and makes me want to really dig, find the perpetrator, and punish them. But really, it doesn’t matter. Because his friends don’t think he’s cool, and neither do I. And he’ll have to live with himself. Another student cleaned it up anyway. He’s the hero in this story. When we found out it was him, we wanted to hug and celebrate him, but we cooked him meat instead.

Friday night was the last full-school vespers and focused on wrapping up relationships through the flower ceremony. After a short talk, the students were given three choices of flowers. Red means, I love you. White, I’m sorry or I forgive you. And multicolor means, You inspire me. I remember doing the flower vespers when I was in high school and how emotional it was for me. It was all about clearing the air with ex-boyfriends, or sharing tears while untangling misunderstandings in friendships.

I loved walking through the crowd slowly, catching phrases from various conversations. “I just wanted to tell you that…” “I’m so sorry for not being there for you….” “It was me who spread that bad rumor about you….” Don’t worry, I didn’t listen in on the whole thing. I gave flowers to students and got some flowers too. Both Aaron and I got the white flowers from kids who had felt bad for things that we’d long forgotten about.

I took my freshmen/sophomore girls to town yesterday for a year-end party. We had a real-life photo shoot then got ice cream. These girls have really been working hard the last month or so, even putting up with my genius idea of starting “Study Hall Bootcamp” where we study hard and silently for 20 minutes, then do 2 minutes if intense cardio exercise. I read somewhere that taking lots of breaks mixed with physical activity helps the information seep into the brain better, or something like that, so we tried it. I have no way to tell if it worked or not but the girls were a lot more focused while they studied.


During the shoot, all the girls hammed it up. We had so much fun, and I’m pretty sure I’m going to miss all of them over the summer. I hope so badly that they find hope and meaning in life, more than just makeup and boys. But how different was I when I was their age?

For graduation weekend, there was a handful of guys whose parents couldn't come for various reasons; mostly international students. On Saturday, the school puts on a big parent appreciation program for the parents who have come for the event, and these guys were given special permission to skip it. So they came to our house and cooked. It was all they wanted to do. These guys, from Korea, Hong Kong, and China, cooked tons of chicken, beef, and even a special tofu number for me. After stuffing our faces, we all sat around and the guys shared about their experience in the States, and we laughed at all the cultural differences between all of our respective countries. We spoke of China power, eating dog (more common in Korea than China, it turns out), and where these guys are going from here. That afternoon, we became a family.



Now the kids are gone. Graduated, home for the summer, releasing us of all of our expectations of them. The campus is still, bright, beautiful. We try to eat outside as much as we can. Aaron and I are re-discovering the art of reading. We’re racing go-carts, walking the dog, shampooing our carpets, cleaning the house and messing it up again. Summer time never felt so good!

Living Online-

I think we all spend a little too much time online. I know I do. I saw this video and couldn't help but chuckle at the ridiculous-ness of it. So funny and so true!

Getting paid to play

I don't know if I've explained my job yet on the blog, but I get paid to play with kids after school. Yes, we still do the boring stuff like homework, but we spend the rest of the day playing playground games, discovering nature, and learning new skills that the public schools don't have the budget to teach. These kids, who I now think of as my kids, are predominantly 2nd generation Mexican kids between the ages of 5 and 12, and there's about 16 on average each day.

The age group is difficult because it spans over a huge difference in interests and capabilities so I constantly have to plan each day with the age thing in mind. We also have a very limited budget, which actually makes it easier to get creative with thinking and inventing games and activities. That being said, here are some of our favorite games/activities.

Kickball
4-square
Capture the Flag
Ultimate Frisbee (just taught this one, with a playground ball though)
Fitness tests

Cartooning
Learning computer skills
Origami
Nature hunts
Gardening
Cutting up paper and throwing it all over the floor
Cooking...and eating!

And the funniest to me, Memory. They go nuts over memory. I took the video of it on Friday, but here's a pic...the kids get down right vicious playing Dr. Suess memory. Just wish my brain was as bright as theirs' are.


Playing Money Management (do any las vegas kids remember this? I created my own, less-cool version of my 5th grade teacher's game, and these kids go crazy over it!) Actually, I'm going to just talk about this one really quick. Every Friday, I count up the "money" that the kids have earned during the week by doing their homework and helping out with tasks around the club like cleaning or reading to the kindergarteners. Then they gather around the game board which is just a poster board split in half between "Busy City", and "Rikaville". Their goal is to save up enough money to eventually move out of the child-laboring factories and live on the magical islands of Rikaville, while getting an education, working, and paying bills.

Quick story, I draw names each week to select 4 kids who have an event happen to them. One girl, who just graduated from fake law school rolled the dice and ended up having a baby. She bothered me all afternoon about it, because she was adamant that she was not ready for children and had a career to focus on. I told her that this is just a game, but sometimes in life, parents have kids that they're not really planning for and at first they're upset but usually (and hopefully) come around and see how beautiful and sweet this precious baby is and are changed forever. She didn't buy it and asked if she could give it away. I eventually told her she could put it up for adoption for $5000 (the price of a house). We'll see what happens. She's 10, and says that the baby idea is giving her nightmares.

I have two more weeks with these kids and then I'm not sure what I'm going to do for a job. I have some photography jobs and weddings over the summer but am actively looking for the full-time deal. Five different part time jobs just aren't cutting it anymore.

Special Sauce

A couple months ago, one of the groomsmen from our wedding, who's also a good friend of ours, went on a cross-country trip while living in his van and graced us with his presence for a couple of weeks. He taught me something that changed my life and my relationship with pasta forever. And now, I'm going to bestow this knowledge onto you, you lucky goose!

Remember last fall when I attempted (and succeeded) to can an entire bucket of roma tomatoes? Well, this tomato sauce kills that homegrown version because of it's simple yet fresh and balanced flavor. Ready for it? So easy! Go!

(this is my amended version which I made this weekend for a make-your-own pizza night with some students).

1 large can of tomatoes (get crushed if you don't have one of those handblender whiz thingies)
1 can of fire-roasted tomatoes (adds an extra zest-you don't have to though)
a little bit of sugar
salt to taste
3 cloves of garlic (or in my case, i used 3 of those frozen cubes of garlic from trader joes'-it's deliciously garlicky!, but you don't have to do this part either)
half a stick of butter (secret ingredient! don't leave this out!)
Half an onion

Prep time: 3-5 Minutes, makes enough for pasta for 4, or pizza for 8

Throw everything into a pot and boil, then simmer for an hour or so while stirring occasionally. Don't do anything to the onion, just stick it into the pot and the layers will eventually separate as it cooks.

After a while, take it off the stove, pull out the limp onion layers, and serve. If you used whole tomatoes, just whiz it up til smooth.

SO EASY! And, I might add, perfect for the creative types like me that hate recipes and are determined to tweak and change depending on mood, the weather, or other variables. The smartest thing to do with this recipe is make a bunch of it and keep it in the fridge for a quick and easy meal.

The Garden-

I have never been good with plants. It's funny, I like plants, but I've never been successful at keep plants alive for any period of time. However, since we've been here and have been blessed with the promise of a more permanent living arrangement (something I haven't had since I was about 14 years old), I have had this little sprout of a dream to grow my own food.

I wrote several articles on gardening and interviewed many seasoned growers about what it takes to start a garden and I was convinced that I could do it. It's taken a couple months but we have just installed and planted about 15 little plants that will hopefully give us some good food this summer.

We tried to be cheap as possible but it turns out that the cost of a garden still comes with a price tag. Here's the major expenses of starting a garden:

Soil-$40 (a special kind, supplemented and mixed with local soil)
Plants-around $15 or so
Shade-$15 for a 6x3 piece
Wire for mole prevention-$12
Plant food-(hey i need all the help I can get!)-$10
Watering device-$15


So it was about $120 to start this garden. We used recycled wood from a barn that was torn down as well as invasive bamboo to hold the shade up, because our poor little plants were about to die from all the sun they were getting. My hope is that we will be able to keep it up and the up front costs won't be as high next year. Plus, garden veggies are WAY better tasting than store bought vegetables. Here's what's in the garden:

garden beans, basil, yellow squash, swiss chard, spinach, red pepper, sage, eggplant and some tomatoes in a planter.

I want to repeat that I still don't feel like I know what I'm doing because there are so many factors that I'm still learning about with predators, soil types, composting, and taking care of a garden. So I'm just learning as I go along. So far, most things are still alive, and I only have about two pepper plant casualties that were fried by the hot sun.