Hopefully, by the end of this week, things will be looking and performing the way that I want them to be!

In the meantime, I just wanted to share this with you:

Milo writes his name

Milo wrote his name for the first time last weekend!

I have been writing his name and encouraging him to try to copy the letters underneath, and he has been able to do “I” and “O” for awhile, but this was the first time he wrote his whole name. I’m a proud mama.

Since I’ve already boarded the train to Bragtown, USA, check out this face he drew at preschool last week:

a face, by Milo

I know that I’m biased, but that’s a pretty good face, right? Every time I pass the fridge since I hung it up, I admire it. The hair is my favorite part.

Two weeks ago, Milo started attending preschool two mornings a week, and I guess that I was expecting it to be a big step for him, or for him to come home and regale me with stories for hours, but he seriously could not be more blasé about the entire experience. When Matt picks him up, he walks in the door and heads straight to the table where I have his lunch waiting. “How was preschool?” I ask. “Good. Chickpeas!” He eats his chickpeas with his fingers. “What did you do?” I ask. He shrugs. “Did you have fun?..” I ask hopefully. “Yes,” he replies. And that’s it. I think I’m getting a glimpse into what the next several years hold for us.

Milo put on my sunglasses to brush his teeth

I’m not too worried.

Fans of the vegan parmesan have told me that: it has made it easier for them to give up cheese; they never eat pasta without it now; there is always a canister of it in their fridge; they made a double batch and sent their daughter off to college with it; they have given some to omnivore friends and family who have preferred the taste of my vegan parmesan over the dairy variety sold at their grocery stores, and are now using mine exclusively.

I am always thrilled to get comments and emails like this because I know that for most people, eliminating animal products from your diet is a slow process which happens in steps, and every time you can replace a kitchen staple with a cruelty-free variety, you’re getting just that much closer to your goal.

So, I’ve been meaning to ask my readers some questions about what they would like to see around here, and thought that I would offer a 4 oz container of vegan parmesan, made by me, as an incentive for taking the 90 seconds to reply to a short survey.

Are you in? If so, reply to following questions in the comments before September 30. My first MoFo post on October 1 will announce the winner.

• What is your favorite type of post: parenting, recipes, links, home/decorating, Portland, I love, lists, general life-y goodness?
• Which of the new features are you most interested in or excited about: recipes on Monday, daily eats on Wednesday, Food for Thought Friday (food-related links for Friday afternoon reading)?
• Is there anything I don’t do regularly or haven’t done in awhile which you would like to see more of?
• What was your favorite entry I wrote in 2011? (Title or link are both fine.)

You have more than a week to enter, so if you want to think about it for a few days and come back, you can do so!

homemade pumpkin spice syrup

I have participated in Vegan MoFo every year, but I usually lose steam, my enthusiasm and my posts petering out after a couple of weeks. This year, I have decided to make more attainable goals for a working mom such as myself:

• I will posting at least 4 times a week in October.
• I will post new recipes on Monday, daily eats on Wednesday, recipe and product reviews on Friday, and then one other post each week.
• I will attempt to make these regular features on my site after October.

I think that I can stick to this!

I’ve also thought about offering to do super-cheap customized headers, banners, and even simple site redesigns (WordPress only) for MoFoers who need a fresh new look. If this is something you’d be interested in, comment here or email me at joannavaught at gmail dot com.

Are you participating in MoFo this year? Will you have a theme, or are you freewheelin’ it?

Wait, wait, wait one second. Are some of you viewing my site in a text reader? You are, aren’t you?

You guys, that will just not do. I’m going to all of this work to bring you this gorgeousness:

And all you’re seeing is this blahness?

That kind of breaks my heart. You and I both know that what you need in your life is more color.

So let me help you:

If you use Google Reader, you can use the Next bookmarklet, which allows you to read your blog posts within the design of their respective websites, rather than in the sad, stripped-down format of the reader. It’s very easy to set up, and it will seriously change the way that you read blogs for the better. Trust me on this one.

If you don’t use Google Reader…why not? Get on it!

There might be a few more changes around here before I’m done. I created this awesome tartan pattern using the same colors as the stripeys, and the only place it’s being used currently is in those tiny little stars in the header image! I have to find a better use for it.

I am a noob again

I was burnt out, plain and simple. For me, Twitter had gone from being a great way to find out what was going on in my friends’ lives and in my city to a depressing place where many users were complaining nonstop about their jobs, their kids, businesses they felt had screwed them over, politics, their coffee being too hot… a seemingly endless list of annoyances large and small.

I was guilty of it, too! As much as I tried to use Twitter to interact with friends and keep a mini-record of my life, there were plenty of occasions when I pulled up that window when I was in a ranty mood. It hit a tipping point for me last week, and so I just backed out. I know a lot of you have felt the same way, because you told me so in person, on Facebook, or via email.

Then I attended Vida Vegan Con. I know that after my last glowing post about Vida Vegan Con, I am in danger of edging over into zealot territory here, but the conference made me feel so positive and hopeful about the virtual community of which I am lucky to consider myself a member. I want to be an active participant.

I am back on Twitter now. Truthfully, I rejoined mostly so I could have more access to all the incredible people I met this past weekend!

there is a lot about these two dudes

Please follow me if you’re so inclined! I will warn you right now that my Twitter feed is about 50% food, 30% Milo quotes, 10% Portland, 5% roller derby, and 5% miscellaneous. It’s basically like a mini version of my website, but with a little more cursing and talking about Parks and Recreation, so fair warning if you’re offended by that. I know some people are turned off by Parks and Recreation, and that’s okay.

I’m excited about the fresh start! See you over there.

It will highlight my current craft project (assuming that said project isn’t a secret gift for someone, in which case I will probably just leave up the photo of my last project), what books I’m reading, what I’ve cooked lately, what music I’m listening to…whatever I feel like sharing that doesn’t warrant its own blog entry.

I hope you enjoy it!

I decided that my preferred method to keep track of which recipes I had cooked would be to keep a blog, so I started it today: Cooking Everything Vegetarian.

If that kind of thing is up your alley, I invite you to follow along with my process there.

If you have no idea what I’m talking about because you read all website posts in an RSS reader: Did you know about the Next bookmarklet feature of Google Reader, which allows you to read all your unread bookmarks in their intended format, rather than in the stripped-down format of the reader? I know I’ve mentioned it here before, because it really made my daily blog surfing so much more pleasurable, so I’m always eager to pass it on to friends.

For the first half hour, I totally panicked. All of my hard work! Years of entries!

Then I got a tiny bit of perspective and remembered that this is just the latest incarnation of a web presence that has spanned fourteen years; that I had willingly and intentionally deleted entire websites at the touch of button a dozen times before; that pressing the reset button is a good thing for us creative types.

Then I immediately went over to Google and used the cache to rescue all of my recipes. I will be posting those back up here as individual entries over the course of the next couple of days so that you can have them. Thanks for your patience during this time!