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SHAKING THE FAMILY TREE • 10 GOURMET FOOD TRUCK • 34 STEP-KIN SURVIVAL • 40

TOGETHER WE WILL At the University of Washington, we believe that our best work is done when we link arms.

That’s why we’re committed to teaming with communities and institutions across our state, including the University of Washington School of Medicine-Gonzaga University Regional Health Partnership. Together, we’re working to educate the next generation and nurture healthier futures for Washington — and beyond.

Discover how the UW is fostering collaboration:

uw.edu/spokane

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Inside

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ON THE COVER: Don Hamilton Photo

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75 LOCAL HIKES • WEDDING VENUES CAN’T-MISS EVENTS

Home

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DREAM KITCHENS • HOUSEPLANTS CREATIVE UPHOLSTERY

Family

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STEP-KIN SURVIVAL • POWER OF PRAISE BLOOMSDAY WITH KIDS

SHAKING THE FAMILY TREE • BOOK DRIVE DEPRESSION AND EXERCISE

Food

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GOURMET FOOD TRUCK • RECIPES TO TRY LOCAL GRANOLA

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Advanced Solutions, Individualized Care At Cancer Care Northwest, we are committed to providing an individualized approach to treating and healing cancer.

From the most sophisticated cancer detection and imaging technologies, to precise cancer treatment options that target your cancer on a molecular level, we’re here for you. Advanced treatment solutions, individualized cancer care, Cancer Care Northwest.

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FROM THE EDITOR SPOKANE • EASTERN WASHINGTON • NORTH IDAHO also at inlander.com/health&home

STAY CONNECTED Email Health & Home Editor Anne McGregor at annem@inlander.com.

The conversation continues on the Inlander Facebook page, and stay in touch with us at Inlander.com/Health&Home.

DON HAMILTON PHOTOS

Finding Connections

BY ANNE McGREGOR

O

ne of the many surprising things that happens when a baby is born is how much everyone searches for who the baby resembles. There’s no doubt the similarities can be uncanny: Those are his dad’s eyes! She has her mom’s nose! Our almost compulsive search to understand those connections to the past has fueled the incredible rise of direct-to-consumer DNA testing.

When combined with massive online databases, it’s now possible to explore further into our pasts than ever before. The information we learn sometimes confirms our long-held beliefs about our identities. But as Mitch Ryals discovers in “Testing the Family Tree” (page 10), sometimes it doesn’t.

In our Family section, E.J. Iannelli looks at a different test that families often face: the addition of a step-parent (page 40). Three experts offer insightful advice, not the least of which is maintaining a sense of humor about the whole situation.

Whatever family issues you may have, it’s likely they’ll be discussed around the kitchen table.

Creating a kitchen that serves as the family hub, as well as providing functional space for cooking and entertaining, requires skill. Blythe Thimsen asks local interior designers for tips on how to make a kitchen shine in her story, “What’s Hot in the Kitchen” (page 20).

1227 W. Summit Parkway, Spokane, Wash. 99201 PHONE: 509-325-0634

EDITOR Anne McGregor

annem@inlander.com

MANAGING EDITOR Jacob H. Fries ART DIRECTOR Ali Blackwood EVENTS EDITOR Chey Scott CONTRIBUTORS Sheri Boggs, Tuck Clarry, Don Hamilton, Mariel Hester, Jonathan Hill, E.J. Iannelli, Young Kwak, Robert Maurer, Joe Nuess, Jon Pece, Mitch Ryals, Carrie Scozzaro, Blythe Thimsen, Matt Thompson, John R. White, Nathan Weinbender, Samantha Wohlfeil PRODUCTION MANAGER Wayne Hunt ADVERTISING DIRECTOR Kristi Gotzian DIRECTOR OF MARKETING Kristina Elverum ADVERTISING SALES Autumn Adrian, Mary Bookey, Jeanne Inman, Susan Mendenhall, Claire Price, Carolyn Padgham-Walker, Wanda Tashoff, Emily Walden EVENTS & PROMOTIONS Emily Guidinger Hunt SALES COORDINATION Andrea Tobar, Sarah Wellenbrock

Cheers!

CONTRIBUTORS

DESIGN AND PRODUCTION Jessie Hynes, Derrick King, Tom Stover DISTRIBUTION MANAGER Justin Hynes BUSINESS MANAGER Dee Ann Cook CREDIT MANAGER Kristin Wagner PUBLISHER Ted S. McGregor Jr. GENERAL MANAGER Jeremy McGregor

CARRIE SCOZZARO has built a life using words and images as a graphic designer, technical writer/illustrator and public school art teacher. In addition to writing about art, education, culture and food in the Inlander, she directs programming for a Coeur d’Alene arts magnet school, spending equal time in her kitchen, garden and art studio. In this issue, she writes about house plants (page 30) and an impressive North Idaho food truck (page 34).

E.J. IANNELLI is a regular contributor to the Inlander, who can investigate and write about nearly any topic with insight and style. He also works as an editor for academic manuscripts and offers translation services from German to English. He’s translated automobile magazines, textbooks and even financial software. E.J. serves on the Emerson/Garfield Neighborhood Council. In this issue, he digs into the challenges of blending a new step-family (page 40).

Health & Home is published every other month and is available free at more than 500 locations across the Inland Northwest. One copy free per reader. Subscriptions are available at $2.50 per issue: call x213. Reaching Us: Editorial: x261; Circulation: x226; Advertising: x215. COPYRIGHT All contents copyrighted © Inland Publications, Inc. 2018. Health & Home is locally owned and has been published since 2004.

SUPPLEMENT TO THE INLANDER

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Meet a WSU Spokane Scientist Dr. Peixoto is working to understand the genetic links to autism and related symptoms, such as learning disabilities and disturbed sleep.

Her research may someday improve the lives of those impacted through better diagnosis and treatment.

Learn more at spokane.wsu.edu

Lucia Peixoto, PhD #SpokaneCougs

Neuroscientist and Computational Biologist | Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine

APRIL - MAY 2018

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Planting Your Dreams

BY CHEY SCOTT Spokane Home & Garden Show

It’s time to get serious about making your backyard oasis a reality. The annual Spokane Home & Garden Show offers plenty of ideas and resources to get you inspired, including a presentation from this year’s celebrity guest speaker: HGTV and DIY Network star Matt Blashaw (pictured). The host of Yard Crashers and Vacation House For Free is scheduled for two presentations about designing your dream backyard, followed by meet-and-greet sessions, during Saturday and Sunday of the show. April 13-15: Fri noon-8 pm, Sat 10 am-7 pm and Sun 10 am-5 pm. $8/adults; $6/seniors, military; free/kids 12 and under. Spokane Convention Center, 334 W. Spokane Falls Blvd. spokanehomeshows.com

OTHER UPCOMING EVENTS

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Mindful Self-Compassion for Pre-Teens Self-mindfulness is strongly linked to emotional well-being, lessened anxiety, depression, stress and the continuation of healthy habits. This course for children ages 11-13 is intended to teach young people key components of self-mindfulness. Weekly meetings utilize activities such as meditation, short talks, group discussion and tips for home practice. Read more about the course and its goals online; adult classes also offered.

April 11-May 30; meets Wed from 6-7:30 pm. $175 for series. Plum Tree Center for Mindfulness, 520 E. 20th Ave. plumtreemindfulness.org (747-1040)

Chocolate & Champagne Gala This annual gala pairs two delightful treats into one classy evening to benefit the important programs offered through Lutheran Community Services Northwest’s Sexual Assault & Family Trauma Center (SAFeT). Now in its 34th year, the Chocolate & Champagne gala allows LCSNW to continue operating services such as its 24-hour sexual assault crisis lines, which are staffed with volunteer advocates who provide medical and legal to support to callers during moments of trauma and vulnerability. Sat, April 21 at 6 pm. $95/person. Historic Davenport Hotel, 10 S. Post. lcsnw.org/ccgala (343-5078)

Inland Empire Gardeners’ Expo “Garden Fiesta — Let’s Party!” is the theme for the 19th annual Inland Empire Gardeners’ expo, set to feature hundreds of local and regional vendors of plants, seeds, landscaping supplies, home and garden decor and more, as well as plenty of helpful seminars and demonstrations from local experts on a variety of topics. See the website for this year’s presentation schedule. Sat, May 12 from 9 am-5 pm. Free admission. Spokane Community College, 1810 N. Greene St. tieg.org

Kidical Mass The local series of family-friendly bike rides kicks off the 2018 season for Summer Parkways and Kidical Mass in the Chief Garry neighborhood of Spokane. Head out to the three-mile ride on anything that rolls: bikes, trikes, scooters, tandems and more. Don’t forget your helmet! This ride is co-hosted by Summer Parkways and Christ the King Church, and begins/ends at the park. Sat, May 12 from 1-3 pm. Free. Chief Garry Park, 2701 E. Sinto Ave. summerparkways.com

Health& Home

DADWARD HO!

Ease into Exploring

In-Home Personal Care

T

hanks to DAY HIKE! SPOKANE, COEUR D’ALENE AND SANDPOINT, I might actually break in those sadly neglected hiking shoes I bought two years ago. This accessible guidebook contains 75 local hikes that you can do in one day, from the familiar and easy (South Hill Loop, Centennial Trail) to the less-trodden and more challenging (Coal Creek).

“Hikes at a Glance” in the front of the book gives you the hike’s name, its rating on a scale of one to five stars, best months for hiking it, suitability for kids and/or dogs and its level of difficulty.

From there the hikes are more thoroughly explored in order of easiest to hardest, with insider intel that takes into account our hot arid summers; the need, if any, for permits; and even what wildlife you’re likely to run into. Small trail maps for each hike list total distance and elevation gain/loss.

Punctuated with the folksy “dad humor” of author Seabury Blair, Jr., even those who don’t see anything funny about exercise will be won over by the guide’s color photographs, which are lovely and plentiful, making this one guidebook no self-respecting Inland Northwesterner should be without.

— SHERI BOGGS Sheri Boggs is a librarian with the Spokane County Library District.

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o you own a home that’s big enough to host a wedding?

A new startup out of Spokane, WEDDINGS BY OWNER, is poised to become the Airbnb of wedding venues, pairing homeowners with couples looking for a place to get married that’s less restrictive about who can cater or how they can decorate.

Weddingsbyowner.com was started by Connor Simpson and Jordan Allen, both of whom have a background in the vacation rental market. So far, the site, launched early this year, has more than 30 venues in Eastern Washington, North Idaho and even a few in Thailand. The ultimate goal is to have venues all over the world, Simpson says. The first wedding already booked through the site is scheduled for May. “Our niche is that we’re tapping new inventory for venues,” Simpson says. “The price point we’re bringing on is going to be a lot lower than standard venues, and they’re completely customizable.”

Owners don’t pay a fee to list (the site marks up the prices that owners ask for and takes that percentage) and the site provides all the information about the owners’ preferences and rules. Weddingsbyowner is updated live, so there’s no time wasted calling to see if a certain date is available, Simpson says.

“We’re trying to provide all that information up front and make that process less of a headache.”

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ALI BLACKWOOD ILLUSTRATION

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Testing the Family Tree Popular and affordable, DNA tests offer a wealth of information, sometimes including unsettling surprises

BY MITCH RYALS

I

dentities divide us. Democrat or Republican. Black or white. Male, female, transgender or gender nonconforming.

Gay or straight. Christian or Muslim. Spokanite or Seattleite. South Hill or Hillyard.

In some ways, we’re allowed to choose our identities. Others are inescapable. In the past several years, as DNA testing has become more affordable, through services such as ancestry.com and 23andMe, millions of Americans are discovering hidden truths and finding definitive answers about their lineages.

Some are affirming of the stories and beliefs they’ve held their entire lives. Some results rock that foundation and force people to reconcile that undeniable evidence with previous notions of themselves built on race, family, tradition, religion and country of origin.

As more people pour their DNA into these databases, and as the technology gets smarter, faster and cheaper, we stand to learn more about where we came from, both in terms of people and place, but also

how to treat diseases for one person and another, and yes, even our most genetically optimized partner. Although there is an app that will combine your DNA and social media profiles, the science of a match based on genetics is, at best, shaky.

“DNA is a very transitional point in genealogy,” says Kelsi-Lyn Smith, an accredited genealogical researcher for ancestry. com. “A lot of people see their ancestry as a weight. I see it more like support.”

Smith, who is 28 and lives in Spokane, has built an elaborate family tree, with some lines reaching back hundreds of years. When ancestry.com users click the button for “expert” help tracing their own lineages, Smith is on the other end fielding those questions.

By submitting her own DNA to ancestry.com’s database, she’s found several more relatives and some incredible stories — including a connection to King Henry VII. Others who shared their experiences with Health & Home have been surprised

by the results. One woman uncovered a 50-year family secret about her biological father, and another discovered Irish ancestry despite her father’s fierce insistence that the family is Scottish.

Each one of the these people was looking to satisfy his or her curiosity. Where they found some answers, more questions popped up. But one thing is sure, despite our beliefs about ourselves, and despite the identities that divide us, we’re more alike than we think.

ROYALS Perhaps on some level, Kelsi-Lyn Smith always knew she had royal blood. When she was little, her grandmother used to call her a “Welsh princess,” and an “English rose.” And she’s always been fascinated with everything Tudor-era England, in part because of her knowledge of her family history.

That knowledge came from her paternal grandmother, Pauline, a former ...continued on next page

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Kelsi-Lyn Smith displays photos and some of her vast collection of information on her own family history. YOUNG KWAK PHOTO

“TESTING THE FAMILY TREE,” CONTINUED... librarian and keeper of the family’s stories, secrets and heritage. Smith is now preparing to take over that role.

“Education and culture are incredibly important in my family,” Smith says.

Before she submitted her DNA to ancestry.com, Smith knew a lot about her dad’s side, but had very little information about her mom’s, beyond a few pictures and talk of a Jewish heritage.

The DNA results confirmed her Jewish ancestry, but they also helped her find several cousins she hadn’t met, some of whom live in Spokane. The DNA also revealed fascinating stories about her ancestors.

Among the more recent family members Smith found are a long line of “badass women,” she says. Her great grandmother was a single mom who raised four kids, she says, at a time when that was fairly uncommon.

One of those kids, Smith’s grandmother, was a scientist at Kaiser Aluminum.

Going even further back, another male ancestor helped smuggle slaves into Oregon Country to freedom, Smith says. And another defeated the governor of North Carolina in a duel.

“Along that same line there was a very

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rich family who owned a plantation,” she says. “And it went back to this family coming over on one of the original ships that came to the Americas. Sometimes in genealogy, those families are referred to as ‘Mayflower descendants.’”

Even further back, Smith was able to trace her lineage all the way up to the Seymour family line and Jane Seymour, who was the third wife of King Henry VIII. She gave birth to King Henry’s first male heir, who eventually became King Edward VI. “In my eyes, it was reaffirming,” she says. “It was like ‘Oh that’s why I’m this way. I come from a long line of badasses.’

Empowering is another way to say it.”

But while some dig into their past and find affirmation, for others, DNA results can obliterate the stories they’ve been led to believe their entire lives.

LAURA AND LARRY For 50 years, Laura Lynn Koger thought both of her fathers’ names were Larry.

Koger is adopted, and both her biological father and her adoptive father are named Larry.

Or at least that’s the name that appears on her birth certificate.

About a year ago, Koger hired a private investigator to find her birth parents. In less

than a day, the PI found them.

Koger says her initial interaction with her birth mother, Martha, over the phone was uneasy, though she she found out about a sister Koger didn’t know she had.

Koger has met her sister once in person, and hopes one day they can have a relationship. She’s not so sure about her mother.

The man listed on her birth certificate, Larry, is living in North Carolina. But he doesn’t look anything like Koger, she says.

She had to know for sure, so she and Larry submitted DNA for testing. The results?

Larry is not her father. Her birth certificate is wrong, which means that for 50 years, not only did Koger believe her biological father was Larry Raeburn, but Raeburn believed he had a daughter he didn’t know.

Koger says she confronted her birth mother about the discrepancy.

“That’s all I was seeking was the truth,” she says. “The truth would have been nice from the beginning. When I confronted her on the phone, she said ‘That’s bullshit,’ and hung up on me.”

Her birth mother later sent her a letter explaining the situation. She writes that shortly before she went to visit Larry at his college in Alabama, she went dancing one night with a friend, and met a man in a brown suit. They spent the night together, she explains in the letter, but she cannot remember his name, only that he was a good dancer.

“I stayed with him that night,” Koger’s biological mother writes. “No doubt this has to be the guy who got me pregnant.

The only thing I remember about him is he was an average size, wore a brown suit. I never saw him again and his name is a total blank.”

Koger says That’s the percentage of she feels let every human’s DNA that down, but she’s is identical from person not angry. In to person. We do have a fact, the whole lot in common! thing has given her a new perspective on the parents who raised her.

“It gave me 100 percent gratuity to the family I do have, and the mom and dad who raised me,” she says. “They’re wonderful and loving people. I had a structured and loving family, and I’m happy for that because a lot of kids get adopted and don’t have a great life, but I did. It wasn’t rich in money, but it was simple.”

For her 50th birthday last year, she

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Testing Frenzy The number of people worldwide who used consumer genetic tests to analyze their DNA more than doubled in 2017, soaring to 12 million. An astounding 2 million people submitted tests to ancestry.com in the last four months of 2017 alone.

Ancestry is by far the largest purveyor of home tests, followed by 23andMe, MyHeritage and FamilyTreeDNA, according to the MIT Technology Review.

Most offer testing for $100 or less, with occasional specials bringing the price to $70 or lower.

Ancestry employs more than 1,600 people, most of them in Utah, and reports its members conduct 75 million searches each day. There are 100 million family trees in Ancestry’s database, including 10 billion ancestral profiles.

Records on the site go back as far as the 13th Century.

— ANNE McGREGOR

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received flowers from Larry, the man who is still listed on her birth certificate, even after he found out she wasn’t actually his daughter.

“I remember him saying he had been waiting 50 years to send me flowers,” she says. “I hope to take a trip to visit him and his family some day. But for now, his name is on my birth certificate, and I’m good with that.”

NEW LINEAGE Like Smith and Kogers, Spokane City Councilwoman Lori Kinnear was also curious about her ancestry.

A family member had traced some of her heritage back to the 1100s in Scotland, which confirmed the culture in which she was raised, she says.

“I grew up in a very Scottish culture,” Kinnear says. “Immersed. And when I got the results back, about 33 percent was Welsh, Scottish and Irish.”

It was the Irish heritage that surprised her most. Along with being immersed in Scottish culture, she says, her father frequently spoke disparagingly of the Irish.

“If he knew we’re Irish, he’d probably be spinning in his grave,” she says. “He so fiercely wanted that Scottish identity. It was ...continued on next page

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Don’t Know Much Biology

75 23 “TESTING THE FAMILY TREE,” CONTINUED... always: ‘We’re Scottish.’ Apparently not.”

While the Irish heritage is a pleasant surprise for her, Kinnear says she was disappointed when no African heritage showed up.

“I’m kind of a disrupter, and would have liked to have gone back and said ‘Hey! We’re part African.’”

Although that wasn’t Kinnear’s experience, others have been surprised to learn of unexpected heritage. News reports of white nationalists finding African lineage, for example, have popped up around the country.

The percentage of respondents who did not know how many pairs of chromosomes humans have, in a 2017 survey by 23andMe. (Hint! Hint!)

Number of pairs of chromosomes in humans. X-tra Credit: Females have two X chromosomes; males have an X and a Y chromosome.

CHANGING PERCEPTIONS Catherine Ball, the chief scientific officer at ancestry.com, says those kinds of surprises happen all the time.

In a 2017 interview with Wired Magazine, Ball talked about how DNA is changing people’s ideas of themselves and their families.

“We’re working really hard to separate ourselves from others based on our careers or religions or the parts of our family history we’d like to put forward,” Ball says.

“But instead we have so much more in common. We are far more related to each other. The reasons we’re here have to do with wars and famines and droughts and

political issues and opening up homesteads somewhere and so much less to do with the ego and the individuals at play. We live in a river of history.”

By some estimates, around 12 million people (mostly Americans) had submitted DNA for testing by the end of 2017. Ancestry.com announced earlier this year that the company has tested seven million people.

23andMe comes in second with around three million.

As companies continue to amass huge databases, we stand to learn much more about ourselves as individuals but also human behavior on a large scale.

While some research digs into humans’

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post-colonial migration patterns, other studies explore individuals’ perceptions of themselves, and how that differs from the DNA results. The researchers with the DNA Discussion Project out of West Chester University in Pennsylvania, for example, found that generally, people of color tended to expect more diversity in their results, whereas white people tended to predict close to 100 percent European heritage.

“The DNA Discussion Project’s findings support the notion that culturally, narratives function less to advance the ‘truth,’ but rather to give the most advantageous plausible explanation of one’s circumstances,” the researchers write.

And this year, the chief scientific officer for MyHeritage used DNA results to build a 13 million-person family tree.

“The DNA is the proof, the story is in the paper trail: newspaper articles and photos,” says Smith, the local genealogical expert for ancestry.com. “I think they should be used together. You can have your family of your choosing, but I think there’s something to be said for the family in your blood. It’s almost unavoidable.”

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Spokane Psychiatric Hospital Takes Shape As the new joint project of Fairfax Behavioral Health and Providence Health Care nears opening day, Dorothy Sawyer is named CEO

BY SAMANTHA WOHLFEIL

A

fter wrapping up her tenure as CEO of Eastern State Hospital, Dorothy L. Sawyer has taken a new job as CEO of a 100-bed psychiatric hospital currently being built in Spokane.

“We’re incredibly excited about having her,” Fairfax CEO Ron Escarda says. “She’s got just a tremendous breadth of experience.”

Sawyer, who led Eastern State from August 2013 until the end of March of this year, earned both her undergraduate and graduate degrees from Eastern Washing-

ton University. She worked as a nurse in the Spokane area before holding CEO positions at two Arizona hospitals and then returned to the area for the Eastern State job.

“At a time when demand for behavioral health services is growing, it’s rewarding to be a part of such important work to expand access to behavioral health services for our community,” Sawyer says in a news release about her hiring.

The hospital, a joint effort by Fairfax Behavioral Health and Providence Health

Care, is slated to open this fall and will significantly add to the number of mental health beds available in the area.

Located on the Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center campus at Fifth Avenue and Browne Street, the new building will serve adults and children with behavioral health needs, offering outpatient and short-term inpatient services. It will be able to serve involuntary inpatients from Eastern Washington and offer short-term crisis stabilization, Escarda says

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GET A MOVE ON!

Tackling Depression I have been treated over the past 10 years on two occasions with medications for mild depression. I went to my doctor last week because I don’t feel good and think that my depression has come back. He wants me to try exercise. Is there any evidence to support this?

A

bsolutely. A great deal of work has been done in recent years evaluating the impact of exercise on depression. Back in the ‘70s and ‘80s we knew that exercise increased levels of natural opiates (endorphins), but since then we have learned that exercise has multiple effects on brain chemistry. It can cause increases and help to modulate the same neurotransmitters that some of our most widely used medications affect. These include dopamine, serotonin and norepinephrine.

Exercise also increases an important substance in your brain called BDNF. Additionally, there have been studies comparing the effectiveness of antidepressants and exercise on depression. One of the first good studies was called SMILE. This study determined that about 30 minutes of aerobic exercise three times per week was as effective as sertraline (Zoloft). Six months after the beginning of the study they reported that the exercise worked better than the medication over the long term. So exercise is something to consider.

However, it’s important never to stop taking antidepressants or consider treating oneself for depression without being under medical su-

pervision. The important questions to ask your provider are: 1. Is it safe for me to exercise?

(In other words, do you have underlying medical conditions that would make exercise dangerous?)

2. Would exercise be a viable option to medication at least for a trial period?

3. How much and which exercises should I do?

If you’re interested in this topic, you might enjoy Spark! How Exercise Will Improve the Performance of Your Brain, by Harvard Psychiatrist John Ratey, M.D.. He also has plenty of information available online.

— JOHN R. WHITE John R. White is Chair of the Department of Pharmacotherapy in the College of Pharmacy at WSU-Spokane and the author of two books.

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PAGING THE FUTURE

Behind-Bars Book Drive

A

small volunteer collective in Spokane is working to help ensure some of the more than 2.2 million incarcerated people across the United States maintain access to educational materials and literacy.

The Spokane chapter of BOOKS TO PRISONERS (B2P), modeled after an established organization based in Seattle (bookstoprisoners.net), began collecting donated reading materials about a year ago to fulfill prisoner requests from across the nation.

“Obviously they need access to education [materials] so they can succeed when they get out, but for us it’s also about human dignity,” explains B2P member Hannah Dean. “These people are really dehumanized going through the system, so seeing that need and fulfilling it

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is really important to us.”

Dean says one B2P PHOTO of B2P’s top needs is postage money to mail requested books to prisons across the U.S. (Because restrictions for individual prisons tend to widely vary, B2B isn’t able to send items to certain facilities, including the Airway Heights Correctional Facility.)

They also need donated books to fulfill requests: dictionaries, black and Native American history books, Spanish language books and other up-to-date, education-focused titles, including textbooks, are popular.

“Really, any kind of book will usually do.

Whatever people have is great, so that is why

I focus on sharing what we don’t need, like a textbook about computers from 1995,” Dean explains.

Contact the group via email or Facebook to organize a book donation pick up; books can also be dropped off at the Community Building in downtown Spokane, at 25 W. Main.

— CHEY SCOTT Find out more: Facebook.com/B2PSpokane.

Donate at donatenow.networkforgood.org/ pjals (put “Books to Prisoners” in the dedication box)

LUXURY It’s Closer than you think

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Worley, Idaho | 25 miles south of Coeur d’Alene APRIL - MAY 2018 19

WHAT’S HOT

in the

KITCHEN

The hardest working room in your home combines function and style

BY BLYTHE THIMSEN

T

he most unbelievable scenes ever shown on television may be when Caroline Ingalls, better known as Ma on Little House on the Prairie, would emerge from her tiny kitchen, with platters of fried chicken, fresh biscuits and hot coffee.

It is unbelievable that any culinary miracles happened in such a cramped and primitive kitchen.

Nowadays, kitchens serve as a food prep area, entertainment space, activity center and showcase piece.

There has never been a greater need for a well-designed kitchen.

“The kitchen is still the heart of the home,” says Deanna Goguen, owner and interior designer at Designology in Spokane. “Open-concept living is great for seniors who wish to age in place, young families and those who love to entertain and want to spend time with their guests while they cook.”

“I call it ‘dinner theater,’” says Sarah McGovern, principal and owner at Milieu, a Spokane design firm.

“People gravitate to the kitchen no matter what, but they don’t have to be in the way. I try to keep the audience outside of the work area.”

S

o when it comes to whipping up meals, entertaining guests and dinner theater, what trends are

hot?

“White cabinets, of course, and elements of white in every interior, regardless of style,” says Tammie Ladd, principal and owner of Spokane’s Tammie Ladd Design. “I’ve purposely tried to steer clear of just cool grey and white; I think it can come off a bit too cold and sterile. Even though I’m seeing it everywhere, I’m not convinced it will stick. I prefer a graceful balance of warm and cool elements in a palette for lasting appeal.”

Open-concept living puts the kitchen in the center of it all. This one, above Fernan Lake in Coeur d’Alene, was designed by Tammie Ladd. DON HAMILTON PHOTO

...continued on next page

APRIL - MAY 2018

21

“WHAT’S HOT IN THE KITCHEN,” CONTINUED...

Lasting appeal is important, considering the average price of a kitchen remodel is $21,000, according to Home Advisor and Bankrate. Most people’s pocketbooks, as well as their sanity, can only afford it once.

As hot as white is, Designology’s Goguen loves color. “Purple was just named the color of the year by Pantone, and we saw it all over the Olympic skating venue,” she says. “It’s on runways and in home decor, so why not in kitchens where it looks best paired with shiny white surfaces?”

Goguen is in the finishing stages of designing a kitchen with navy blue cabinets in the butler’s pantry. “When adding cabinets in different colors, use the same door style throughout the space for overall consistency,” she says.

Whether colored, white or neutral, cabinets are one of the greatest expenses in a kitchen. Save the cost — while embracing a hot design choice — by opting for open shelving.

“Traditional upper cabinets are used less and less if the design allows, or are at least anchored by towers of cabinetry,” says Ladd. ...continued on page 24

ABOVE: “I’ve purposely tried to steer clear of just cool grey and white,” says Spokane’s Tammie Ladd. She designed Audrey, Tad and Luke’s Coeur d’Alene kitchen to have lasting appeal, through a carefully selected combination of warm and cool tones. DON HAMILTON PHOTOS BELOW: A door concealed in the cabinetry hides the hard-working butler’s pantry, leaving the open kitchen sleek and uncluttered. TAMMIE LADD DESIGN PHOTO

22

Health& Home

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“WHAT’S HOT IN THE KITCHEN,” CONTINUED...

Open shelving on upper cabinets is eye catching, but if your inner slob rules, it’s going to need to abdicate power, because while open shelving is popular and attractive, it is also unforgiving. You can’t shove unopened mail and mismatched mugs onto open shelving, but using it in your home can create a minimalist look.

“I’m seeing more clients open to the idea of clean lines, decluttered counters and hidden prep and clean areas,” adds McGovern. “I have drawn up plans for butlers’ pantries that contain full-sized sinks and dishwashers, so that after-meal messes can wait in a closed off space until guests leave.”

While open shelving may leave cabinets out of the picture, there are plenty of doors and drawers in the rest of the kitchen.

“Brass is back, and various metals are being used in conjunction

with each other in great harmony,” says Ladd of some of the hottest knob and pull styles.

“I try to think of ease-ofuse and comfort with pulls, not trends,” adds McGovern. “It’s important that your kitchen pulls don’t hurt your kids’ foreheads or snag your shirt as you move around. I also love to throw in something singular or repurposed to add interest.”

R

epurposed and reclaimed items prove what once was old, now is new.

“Found pieces, or pieces designed to look like furniture, are hot right now,” says Goguen. “Islands made to look like architecturally salvaged pieces are really big.

Oftentimes, clients will come to me with goods they’ve had for some time, and we can incorporate them into the design. Other times, designers can make an island that looks like a found ...continued on page 28

24

Health& Home

Designer Deanna Goguen created this kitchen in Spokane. “Islands made to look like architecturally salvaged pieces are really big.” She notes sleek, uncluttered counters crafted from materials that are “less visually active” than granite appeal to clients. ROCKET HORSE PHOTOGRAPHY, JON PECE PHOTOS

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27

“WHAT’S HOT IN THE KITCHEN,” CONTINUED... object by using reclaimed materials.”

For anyone with stenciled grape clusters and fake ivy in your kitchen, be warned. “Any themed kitchen is passé,” says Goguen. “Now, we’re seeing quartz and ultracompact surfaces that outperform granite and are a lot less visually active. People are making the switch to LEDs or halogen.”

But what if themed is your personal style? According to McGovern, your home should be a reflection of what you have acquired from your life experiences — not just things, but knowledge and beliefs, and a designer’s job is to edit it, make it work and make it beautiful.

“We each want our home to say something about us,” says Goguen. “I get to the root of what my client wants to hear their home say. Whatever they want their home to feel like — and to say — is their brand. No one else has it.’’

Whether with a designer, or through your own research and personal style, it’s possible to create a kitchen where food, family and fun all combine. One that would leave Caroline Ingalls saying, “Unbelievable!”

“People gravitate to the kitchen no matter what, but they don’t have to be in the way,” says designer Sarah McGovern, who worked on this South Hill kitchen. The large island creates a functional barrier that still allows guests to interact with the cook. JOE NUESS PHOTOS

Kitchens Do’s

Local designers share what’s current in kitchen design:

CABINET FINISHES

APPLIANCES

• Simple profiles or slab doors • A mix of natural wood and paint • Variations of white oak (completely different wood species than the ‘80s red oak) with custom stains and colors

• Think clean lines and hidden function • New dark graphite finishes are looking to unseat stainless as the best option for cool, modern looks • Integrated or built-in coffee makers, microwave drawers, wine coolers in every size, vegetable steamers and warming drawers • Appliances fit more snugly than ever in cabinets, creating a sleeker kitchen look

COUNTERS • Classic marble transcends time • Use of nontraditional pieces for islands

KNOBS

28

Health& Home

• Brushed brass is still hot

APRIL - MAY 2018

29

A Touch of Green Foliage offers an easy way to freshen up decor

BY CARRIE SCOZZARO

H

ave a space that needs some help?

Looking to fill up an empty corner or add interest to a blank wall, but finding that your taste in art is a little beyond your current budget? Indoor plants may offer a lively solution to a number of common decorating dilemmas.

Plants are “kind of like a piece of art,” says Pepper Ballien, who designs and maintains indoor plantscapes through Spokane’s Interior Garden, which serves mostly commercial clients in Eastern and Central Washington, North Idaho and parts of Montana.

“Plants soften decor,” says Ballien, because leaf shapes are not only irregular, but also change over time. With the help of a soft breeze, plants add movement and leaves reflect light and create interesting shadows.

Tall plants or trees, as well as tall narrow planters, can add much-needed verticality in a space. Or plants can add width, like a living screen. Plants can also add color, Ballien says “and are easier to change than a wall color.”

Keeping decorative plants healthy is not difficult if you spend a little time understanding what they are trying to tell you.

The most common symptom of an unhappy plant is yellowing of the leaves.

Unfortunately, it is a vague complaint that can result from overwatering or underwatering, a lack of nutrients, damaged roots or a plant that’s ready to be moved to a larger pot.

However, “The most common mistake is overwatering,” says Asia Huska, of the ...continued on page 32

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30

Health& Home

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Light Terms Plant labels often carry lighting recommendations. Here’s what they mean: DIRECT SUN: Plant is in a south or southwest-facing room or windowsill.

BRIGHT INDIRECT LIGHT: Plant is within a few feet of a south, southwest, east or west-facing window LOW OR PARTIAL LIGHT: Plant is in a room with strong morning sun or in front of a north-facing window — CARRIE SCOZZARO

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Grab a Chair

A

s a newlywed and young mom, TOBY KEOUGH wanted home furnishings reflecting her love of color, art and vintage design. So she taught herself upholstery techniques and scoured local thrift shops for materials to make one-of-a-kind seating — couches, chaise lounges, ottomans, and her signature wingback chairs — which Keough soon realized were highly marketable.

“I’m always trying to stay relevant but push myself,” says Keough.

Her goal is for each piece to stand on its own, enhancing a customer’s existing décor or becoming a focal point on its own. She often pairs bold geometric or floral prints with more subtle ones, as well as adding unexpected accents like vintage bags stitched to the side of the chair for a convenient magazine holder.

“I love functional art,” says Keough, who has recently expanded her line to include pillows and doll chairs.

— CARRIE SCOZZARO Check out Toby Keough’s work at Spokane’s Lucky Vintage and Pretty Things, and at Boulevard Mercantile.

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31

“A TOUCH OF GREEN,” CONTINUED...

Plant Farm in Spokane Valley.

Overwatering drowns plant roots and can make plants vulnerable to disease. If you find you’ve overdone it, try to pour off excess water, or even repot the plant in dry soil.

Better yet, say the experts, don’t overwater in the first place. Pay attention to each plant’s appearance, especially during

the change-of-season and when changing location. Keep track of watering. If a quarter cup of water is sufficient week-to-week, but the plant seems to need more in the summer, increase watering, but slowly.

Pinching yellowed leaves and dead flowers will allow you to quickly see if new growth occurs, which means the plant’s issue have been resolved.

“They’re kind of like cats,” says Huska.

“Every one is different.”

Ballien recommends fertilizing during the growing season (generally April through October). Dusting plants with a feather duster or spraying them with a mister can help keep leaves clean; dirty leaves are less efficient at absorbing light and might contribute to some pest growth.

Adding a small amount of dish detergent to the mister can deter mites.

Home& Garden

When you think back to last summer,

were your hanging baskets the envy of the neighborhood or were you envying your neighbor’s? I`m going to give you a few tips to having the best baskets in the area. #1 It all starts with the plants in the basket. Select a basket made with high performance plants from a grower who focuses on quality.

#2 Water, Water, Water - as the seasons and months change, your watering schedule should be changing too. In early spring you don’t need as much water as you need in June. In July and August you need lots of water and in September, when the nights are cool, you need to reduce the water. #3 Use Systemic Granules to prevent any pests. #4 Use a slow release fertilizer monthly.

#5 A weekly fertilizer. If you have a petunia basket you need to use Jack’s Petunia Feed because it has 3 forms of chelated iron that helps to lower the ph in the baskets so that the plant can take up the fertilizer.

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Health& Home

Beginner’s Luck Here are some easy-care plants that are guaranteed to grow for beginning indoor gardeners.

PHILODENDRON Requires minimal water and light to do well and is generally forgiving about changes in both.

RUBBER PLANT AND DRACAENA Freestanding and forgiving plants with leaves that thrust upward.

SANSEVIERIA (aka snake plant or devil’s tongue) A hardy plant that grows up spear-like from the soil.

AIR PLANTS The ultimate beginner’s plant.

Air plants grow without soil or water.

POTHOS AND SPIDER PLANTS Often grown in hanging containers and are easy to propagate. That’s good because if the plant’s demise seems imminent, simply cut off a runner and allow it to root in water.

SUCCULENTS, INCLUDING CACTUS Like the aloe vera pictured, they tend toward minimal care and a small footprint.

Time to Fool Mother Nature WILL PLANT THEM FOR YOU. BRING IN YOUR EMPTY PLANTERS AND WE YOU’LL GET A HEAD START ON SPRING!

— CARRIE SCOZZARO

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Left Coast Fusion food truck owner and chef Tony Shields creates most of his menu from scratch. YOUNG KWAK PHOTO

Fine Dining for the Streets Cooking out of a Coeur d’Alene food truck, chef Tony Shields stays true to his principles

BY CARRIE SCOZZARO

T

hai-style shrimp topped with lemon-thyme cream sauce and hibiscus lavender caviar served with orzo pasta, roasted vegetables and balsamic glaze. Five-spice teriyaki chicken nestled inside lettuce wraps topped with fried rice and carrot slaw. Yellowfin ahi tuna and

34

Health& Home

crab Oscar. If that doesn’t sound like your typical food truck fare, that’s because Left Coast Fusion Truck’s Tony Shields isn’t your typical chef.

Left Coast offers “fine dining for the streets,” says Shields, whose brick-and-mortar restaurant background includes cooking

at Hagadone Event Center, Thai Bamboo and 315 Martinis and Tapas. His ties to the Coeur d’Alene community go back even further, as his parents owned Shields Produce in midtown for 35 years.

The menu tends toward Asian flavors ...continued on page 36

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The efficient kitchen inside Chef Shields’ food truck.

YOUNG KWAK PHOTO

“FINE DINING FOR THE STREETS,” CONTINUED...

— Shields spent a portion of his youth in Hawaii — and is a play on West Coast fusion, with dishes like lemongrass and ginger-braised beef and a Vietnamese pho wrap he calls a “phoritto.”

His three kids like the seared ahi, he says, noting that having a kids’ menu

was essential for him. “Munchkin Meals” include from-scratch chicken fingers and lamb sliders (another Shields-family favorite).

Shields runs his truck as if it were a kitchen capable of putting out high-end meals. He buys local ingredients when pos-

sible, working with both farms and wholesale vendors, including a recent partnership with Coeur Greens, which grows the butter lettuce for Shields’ popular lettuce wraps.

His go-to techniques include sous vide, a method of vacuum-sealed cooking more common in Michelin-starred places than ones with four tires. The vast majority of the menu is created from scratch — the herb-infused bread for banh mi sandwiches, the tortillas for their signature Thai tacos, the fresh cut truffle fries — so Shields and his kitchen staff (of one) prep extensively.

Their hours are 11 am to 6:30 pm, says Shields, yet he starts his day at 8 am or earlier, especially when they have a catering job.

The success of the catering business prompted development of a second truck, with more refrigeration capacity and a vital extra 24 feet of kitchen space. Left Coast regularly caters events for University of Idaho’s Coeur d’Alene offices, and Shields estimates he’s catered 650 weddings in the course of his career. Each event is treated with care. For a small business, Shields says, “You are nothing without word of mouth.”

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Health& Home

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TRY IT FOR YOURSELF

ROASTED BEET AND GRAPE SALAD Flavors and colors of late spring blend perfectly in this simple yet nutritious salad. And the scratch-made Gorgonzola and pear dressing might just be your new favorite for the salad season. Serves four.

SALAD INGREDIENTS 4-5 whole raw beets, red and orange varieties ½ cup feta cheese Spring mix greens, washed and dried Green grapes, sliced in half Fresh mandarin oranges, peeled and sectioned Pear and Gorgonzola dressing ⅓ cup extra virgin olive oil 3 tablespoons pear nectar (sold in a bottle at most grocery stores) 1½ tablespoons white balsamic vinegar ½ tablespoon fresh lemon juice ¼ teaspoon Dijon mustard ½ of a ripe Red Bartlett Pear, peeled, cored and diced ½ cup coarsely crumbled Gorgonzola cheese (you can substitute blue cheese) ¼ teaspoon kosher salt, plus extra for seasoning ¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, plus extra for seasoning

• Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

• Wash but do not peel beets.

• Place beets on top of heavy duty aluminum foil.

• Top with another sheet of foil, then crimp edges to seal.

• Set the foil packet on a baking sheet and roast for 1½ hours or until a knife inserted into beets slides in easily.

• Remove beets from oven and let cool.

• When cool enough to handle, use a paper towel to rub the skin off the beets. Discard skin.

• Slice beets into wedges and refrigerate until cooled completely.

• In a blender, blend the oil, pear nectar, balsamic vinegar, lemon juice, mustard, diced pear, cheese, salt and pepper until smooth (will keep refrigerated up to four weeks).

• Add the spring greens to a plate and arrange beets to one side.

• Top with green grapes, feta cheese and orange slices to finish.

• Drizzle lightly with the dressing.

— RECIPE SHARED BY TONY SHIELDS OF LEFT COAST FUSION

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Healthy Indulgence Anita Eccles is digging up recipes for all dietary needs in her Five Mile Prairie kitchen

BY ANNE McGREGOR

S From mining engineer to food engineer: Anita Eccles in the garden.

easonal work on her Five Mile Prairie farm just wasn’t keeping retired mining engineer Anita Eccles busy. So she returned to a hobby she’s enjoyed her whole life: baking.

With a purpose. Working in her own commercial kitchen to avoid allergen contamination, incorporating impeccably sourced raw ingredients, Eccles turns out a whole line of tasty treats and granolas

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Health& Home

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Join us for the replete with healthy side benefits.

“There isn’t really anything like them on the market,” she says. “The other gluten-free cookies are mostly junk food, sweetened with rice syrup and cane sugar.”

Her line of NeedACookie products features seeds and tree nuts, and all of them are peanut-, gluten-, soy-, dairy- and egg-free.

“The recipes took a while to come up with, but I wanted to work with certain ingredients. And I chose them because they are good for you — even the sweeteners have redeeming qualities.”

The cookies are labor-intensive: She grinds her own sunflower seeds in a Cuisinart to make uncontaminated sunflower seed flour. But despite eliminating so many common allergens, customers had more requests. “People started talking about vegan cookies,” she says, which couldn’t contain honey. So Eccles developed new recipes, including the Coconut Pecan cookie that uses agave syrup.

What’s coming next? Paleo cookies.

Still a scientist at heart, Eccles likes filling spreadsheets with nutrition facts, and she remains fascinated by recipe creation. “A lot of investigation goes into this,” she says describing the process of varying how many grams of various ingredients end up in each recipe. And even though she acknowledges cookies aren’t high on most healthy diet lists, “a lot of people are going to eat cookies anyway, so I try to find a version that is better for them. That’s the most important thing — something that people enjoy eating that can be part of a balanced diet.”

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39

Stepping Into Success The process of merging two families is filled with challenges — and rewards

BY E.J. IANNELLI

S

ix decades ago, at the very start of the Swinging Sixties, around 13 percent of married American adults were in a second or subsequent marriage.

Unsurprisingly, perhaps, that figure has shifted. These days, the proportion of married adults who’ve been married before is closer to one-quarter, according to a 2014 study by the Pew Research Center based on U.S. Census data. Of new marriages, 40 percent now involve one or both partners tying the knot for a second or third (or more) time.

What does that translate to in practical terms? Well, if you’re part of a married American couple under the age of 55, the chances are good — more than six in 10, in fact — that you have step-kin in your immediate family.

Even as increased exposure to divorce, remarriage and step-kin have softened societal attitudes, the act of bringing together, or blending, a stepfamily remains as challenging as ever. Stepparents have to negotiate an established family structure, with all its quirks and unspoken rules. Stepchildren have to contend with a new authority figure in addition to their biological parents.

Add to that the pressures exerted by the doubly extended family, potentially

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Health& Home

fraught relationships with ex-spouses, the general tumult of personalities and life and the mammoth task of blending becomes painfully clear.

“The hardest thing is figuring out your role in the family and coming to terms with it,” says Andy Woodhull. “When you’re the new person in the family, the kids are like, ‘Who are you? You just got here.’ I don’t know what the rules are. They can say, ‘Kids normally stay up till midnight,’ and all I have to go off is that I don’t think I got to stay up until midnight when I was a kid.”

W

oodhull is a nationally touring comedian who married into a family of three in 2013. As a way of coming to terms with his own abrupt transition from bachelor to stepfather to two young daughters, he started channeling his experience into his popular stand-up act as well as comedy albums like Step Parenting 2: The Teenage Years.

While Woodhull’s self-professed “coping mechanism” as a stepparent dovetails with his career, many stepfamily experts consider humor an absolute necessity when trying to fuse individuals or existing families into a larger blended family.

“I’m a huge proponent of having a

JONATHAN HILL ILLUSTRATION

sense of humor,” says Barb Goldberg, who maintains a blog with the tongue-in-cheek title The Evil Stepmother Speaks. She remarried as a single mom after “misplacing” her first husband, only to learn that her three stepchildren had dubbed her The Wicked One, something she says isn’t helped by the archetype — think Cinderella and Hansel and Gretel — of the stepmother as villain.

It was her ability to find the lighter side that helped Goldberg roll with emotional setbacks instead of succumbing to fear, which she sees as a serious threat to remarriages.

“A stepfamily is almost rooted in fear from the start,” she says, citing potential issues like financial uncertainty, emotional and practical expectations, sibling and partner rivalry, residual divorce guilt and exes’ varying and sometimes unpredictable levels of involvement.

“Like many things in life, most of us go into [remarriage] believing that we’re the exception. When you’re dating someone, some of these things may not necessarily show themselves until you’re in it. You love this person and this child or children, it’s great, and then things start to come up,” Goldberg adds. “That’s really what drives a lot of the drama.”

According to Ron Deal, an internationally recognized expert on blended families and author of Daily Encouragement for the Smart Stepfamily, among many other related books, Goldberg and other stepmothers often have a steeper hill to climb. ...continued on page 42

POWER OF PRAISE

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Not All Attention Is Equal

“T

he only choice parents have is deciding which mistakes to make.” This piece of wisdom was imparted to me years ago by a well-known and highly respected family therapist and researcher, and I suspect that many caring parents who try to navigate through the tonnage of advice shared in books, among parents, by well-meaning grandparents and others might feel that way often.

While science has not always been helpful in this regard, often leaving us alone to make what we hope are the right decisions about bedtime challenges, friendship choices and the appropriate use of smartphones, science has offered up a few insights that may be of help. One of the most important of these is the knowledge that ATTENTION IS ESSENTIAL. When we hear, “Mommy, Daddy, look at me!” we wisely recognize this as a healthy desire for attention. However, studies undertaken by Dr. Carol Dweck at Stanford University have revealed that not all attention is equal. She describes two major types of attention, both well-meaning but not equally helpful.

When researching, she and her team discovered that, while praising children for their talent, intelligence and creativity is certainly kind, it can create problems as they grow. This is due to the fact that no matter how smart or naturally gifted a child might be, challenges and competition tend to increase across time. When this happens, their confidence is threatened and they may grow to fear or resent difficulties they encounter. On the other hand, praising children for their effort and persistence (what she calls the “growth mindset”) invites a lifetime of learning and exploration.

As challenges arise, these children tend to expect them and, in response, often work even harder. As they grow into adolescence and adulthood, they more readily seek feedback, are more open to criticism and they tend to accept setbacks as part of the process of growing.

Even when our kids are grown, it’s never too late to encourage a growth mindset by praising them for their persistence and passion in the pursuit of their dreams.

— ROBERT MAURER Robert Maurer is a Spokane psychologist, consultant and author of One Small Step Can Change Your Life.

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“STEPPING INTO SUCCESS,” CONTINUED...

“Moms still expect of themselves — and society tends to expect moms — to be the emotional hub of the home. When stepmothers try to step into that space with children who have a biological mom who’s very much involved in their world, there’s no room for the stepmother, and the biological mother feels highly threatened by the stepmother’s efforts. Now there’s this battle over territory in the child’s heart,”

Deal says.

However, stepmothers certainly aren’t alone in dealing with complex emotional dynamics. Just as with biological families, territorial battles and jealousy are common points of contention. That’s why both Goldberg and Deal say that holding out hope for a “full blend” while accepting the far more demanding reality is the first step when forming a stepfamily.

“Most stepfamilies honestly do not ever

arrive at a full blend,” Deal explains, “but my contention is that they’re still a family.

They’re a family on day one, but they’re a family in process. What they might not understand on the front-end is that it’s very much a journey to arrive at [a full blend]. It requires a great deal of time and effort.”

Forcing the matter — and the inevitable frustrations that entails — is typically what causes the most pain.

“You cannot demand or insist on love,” he says. “What you can do is create an environment where love can happen. Now, that can be a little hard to swallow, because the stepparent is paying for everything, taking the kids to school, making tons of sacrifices. You can do everything right and they still don’t let you in. Part of the trick is embracing who you are today, knowing that time and energy and love will deepen those relationships tomorrow.”

Advice for Stepfamilies • Set realistic expectations and keep a sense of humor • Read blogs and books on the subject • Join stepparent and stepchild support groups on social media and in person • Seek out a therapist or counselor specializing in blended families

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Health& Home

Deal draws a comparison between slow cookers and smoothie blenders. The former allows the ingredients and flavors to mingle with time over a low heat. The other uses sharp blades to puree everything quickly into a homogenous whole. He advocates for the “slow cook” approach to stepfamilies.

T

he barriers to family blending can sound numerous and daunting, but patience and perspective pay off, Woodhull says. His now-teenage stepdaughters might not share his genes, but he sees his own idiosyncrasies reflected in their behavior — such as when they order Chinese food after being told not to order out for pizza, or when they circumvent the “no TV before homework” rule by sitting on the sofa in front of a blank screen.

“They are becoming incredibly literal smartasses,” he chuckles. “That kind of stuff is infuriating, but I have to laugh because I like to think they get a little of that from being around me.”

Seniors now have easy access to rides on demand

By Amy Stice, Co-founder, Arrive Rides Last summer, I had some extra time to spend with my grandmother, who is now 93 years old. She drives a well-loved Camry to all the places she feels comfortable: church, her local library and the grocery store. But whenever she wanted to go into downtown or to her doctor’s office, with its busy parking lot, she’d call upon my aunt for a ride. And if my aunt wasn’t available, Nina would reschedule her appointment.

That summer, I pitched in on giving Nina rides around town, and was struck by how little she needed my help…except behind the wheel. My grandmother is confident on her feet and mentally sharp. All she needs is for someone to drive her around—which is what companies like Uber and Lyft do. Those companies allow their users to order a ride by pressing a single button on their smartphones, which summons a nearby car to come pick them up. It’s easy, and simple, and I use those services all the time myself.

There was just one problem: Nina doesn’t have a smartphone. In fact, sixty percent of people over the age of 65 don’t have one, which means that ondemand transportation isn’t available to the age group that may need it most.

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I created Arrive Rides to solve this problem. What we do is simple: We connect people who don’t have smartphones to the services of Lyft and Uber.

REQUEST: When you’re ready to ride, call our members-only concierge line and we’ll send you a Lyft or an Uber immediately.

Arrive Rides members can call us from any type of phone—home phone, cell phone, the convenience desk of the grocery store—to request a ride. We handle the technology to dispatch a car through Lyft or Uber, and let our member know what kind of car is coming for them and when exactly it will arrive. We then call the driver to let them know how to find the member: “You’re picking up my friend Gloria. She’s a 70-year-old woman in a blue sweater and is standing in front of the pineapple display outside Trader Joe’s.”

RELAX: We phone the driver to let them

know how to find you, and monitor the ride to ensure you’re picked up as planned.

ARRIVE: We handle the payment, so there’s no need to carry cash!

The freedom of driving, without the hassle.

We use Lyft and Uber’s technology to see exactly where the car is at any given time, and ensure that the member is picked up as planned and on time. Any car dispatched can accommodate a foldable walker or wheelchair—so long as the member can move themselves from a mobility device into the car, the driver will handle collapsing the equipment and storing it in the trunk of the car. Many of Arrive’s members let us know that they have a hard time getting into and out of SUVs; for those members we will always find a sedan.

Arrive Rides charges $10/month as a membership fee, and ride costs are based on the time and distance of the trip, with a $12 minimum per ride. There’s no additional charge per rider, so Arrive members treat their friends to trips, too!

For more information, call Arrive Rides’ information line at (866) 626-9879, or visit us online at www.arriverides.com.

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APRIL - MAY 2018

43

CBD New Answers for Athletes zone

The just-completed Olympics in South Korea were the first where athletes were allowed to use cannabidiol products to treat their pain

BY TUCK CLARRY

A

s the world gathered around its TV sets to watch the Olympics in February, we all got to see the final product of a grueling regimen and journey that the games’ athletes endured to make the globe’s biggest stage.

For the few minutes they’re on screen, viewers may not understand the pain and toll participants’ bodies take for a chance to bring home a medal.

Or that the athletes can now self-medicate with cannabidiol (CBD). Thanks to the World Anti-Doping Agency’s (WADA)

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PAID ADVERTISING SECTION

decision in September of last year, CBD is no longer a prohibited substance.

However, the international agency still prohibits THC for tested athletes. Theoretically, CBD users could still test positive, but it would take irregularly large dosages for a positive result. CBD products do not get you high like marijuana.

The alternative medicine for inflammation and pain relief is now available to members of over 660 sports organizations.

It’s a move that will not only help athletes, but also help reshape

the narrative on the merits of marijuana internationally.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) originally banned marijuana and other social drugs after the 1998 Winter Games, when Canadian snowboarder and gold medal winner Ross Rebagliati tested positive for THC. The IOC tried to strip Rebagliati of his medal, but the Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled that the committee had no finite marijuana-testing provisions.

And while CBD is now permitted, don’t expect many — if any — competitors to make a statement on their usage. (Cannabis is illegal in South Korea, where the Olympics were held.) And while WADA has warmed up to CBD, athletes’ sponsors most likely haven’t.

But there are also athletes outside of the Olympics coming out in support of medical marijuana. Prior to the Super Bowl, former NFL running back Willis McGahee spoke at the NFL and Marijuana conference in Miami, showing his support and raising awareness.

Bennet Omalu, the physician who discovered the brain trauma known as CTE and its lasting effects on athletes, was the keynote

CONTINUED ON PAGE 48

NOTE TO CONSUMERS CANNABIDIOL-BASED (CBD) PRODUCTS in this advertising section come in two varieties. There are CBD products made from hemp (aka CBD Hemp Oil) that are federally legal for sale in all 50 states.

There are also CBD products made from cannabis that are only legal to purchase where allowed under specific state laws, as in Washington’s retail cannabis shops allowed under RCW 69.50, RCW 69.51A, HB0001 Initiative 502 and Senate Bill 5052.

(For more information, consult the Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board at liq.wa.gov.) Neither CBD product contains the psychoactive properties of cannabis flowers and extracts.

APRIL - MAY 2018

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APRIL - MAY 2018

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CBD zone

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 45 speaker for the conference, which discussed football players’ health and how the league’s stance on brain trauma and alternative medicine has put them in danger.

McGahee joins NFL offensive lineman Eugene Monroe and MMA fighter Nate Diaz as vocal advocates for medical marijuana use by ailing athletes.

Diaz, an athlete tested by WADA, made waves when he used a vape pen with CBD oil immediately after his 2016 fight versus Conor McGregor.

“It helps with the healing process and inflammation,” Diaz told the assembled media after the match. “It’ll make your life a better place.”

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LACE ’EM UP!

Running for Fun

F

inally! A non-competitive athletic event for kids. For anyone convinced that adults are conspiring to ruin kids’ sports, Spokane’s annual Bloomsday race offers an antidote. Kids under 13 are encouraged to participate, but they won’t be seeded the front of the pack “no matter how talented they are,” and BLOOMSDAY won’t publish “comparative placing in divisions below age 13,” according to the website. “In our book, every kid who runs, jogs, walks or wheels 7.46 miles is a winner. And we encourage parents to make sure that message comes through loud and clear.”

For kids in third grade or younger, there’s also the Marmot March, a one-mile event on Saturday, May 5. Children and adults participate together (no more than 4 kids per adult), and registration is limited to the first 300 kids who sign up. Marmot March T-shirts for the kids are available at the Bloomsday trade show on Friday and can be decorated prior to the event.

Soles4Youth will be collecting gently used running shoes, clothes and accessories at the Marmot March booth. The organization provides donated equipment to grade school kids participating in Cross Country and Fit for Bloomsday.

— ANNE McGREGOR Register at bloomsdayrun.org.

Tics and Docs Best practices for managing children’s nervous tics

BY MATT THOMPSON

L

et’s talk about tics. Not the crawling, creepy ticks that suck your blood, but the kind that involve twitchy muscle movements, like eye blinking, or little squeaks or clearing of the throat.

Tics are very common and may occur briefly and subtly for some, but can be more persistent and pronounced for others.

For most, tics are first noticed between the ages 4 and 12 and they affect boys four times more often than girls. They’re also more common in kids who tend to be a bit more anxious or “Type A” — more Felix Unger types than Oscar Madison.

Often, the tic movement or sound follows a sensation or irritant: dry eyes leading to frequent blinking, dry lips leading to lip licking or a grimace, tight muscles leading to shoulder shrugging, an itchy nose causing a rabbit-like nose scrunching or post-nasal drip leading to a recurrent throat clearing or cough.

Tics can vary considerably in quality and severity from simple motor movements or simple vocalizations, to complex clusters of movements and sounds, such as twirling when walking, contorting the face, hopping or repeating one’s own words multiple times. However, unlike what Bill Murray, aka Bob Wiley, depicts in What About Bob?, very few individuals with Tourette’s syndrome demonstrate “coprolalia,” a symptom where they are unable to control their use of profanity.

For most kids, these sounds and movements last less than a year, often less

than a few months, and are considered “provisional tics.” Less often, the tics can persist longer than a year, and for a rare few (between one and eight cases per 1,000 kids) tics can persist for more than a year and involve both motor movements and a vocal sound — these individuals meet the criteria for Tourette’s syndrome.

Tics tend to drive parents and teachers

With that in mind, here are a few tips for dealing with tics: 1. Focus on relieving underlying tension and stressors that may be exacerbating tics, especially sleep deprivation.

2. Learning to relax and distract from too much focus are usually very helpful.

3. Try not to encourage suppression of tics. Let them let it out — the tension that typically builds with suppression can be far more debilitating than the tics.

4. Consider seeking treatment for any underlying exacerbating factors, such as dry eyes, post-nasal drip, muscle tension, etc. Although they are not the sole cause of the tic, they may drive sensations that worsen the tics.

5. If tics are upsetting to the child, impairing function in learning or relation-

For most kids tics are a temporary thing, and they’re also essentially out of their control.

— Matt Thompson, pediatrics specialist at the Kids Clinic crazy, but the more the parent or teacher encourages the child not to make the movement or sound, the more frequently they seem to do so: That’s because stress and anxiety tend to result in more tics. Sleep deprivation also definitely drives more tics.

Usually tics can be temporarily suppressed, only to happen more than ever once allowed to freely occur. Like an itch that needs to be scratched, if the tension builds it can become very uncomfortable for the individual if they can’t address the sensation and make the movement or sound that brings them relief.

ships, associated with significant anxiety, obsessive or compulsive tendencies, difficulties with focus or attention or associated with other neurological or behavioral changes, a visit to the primary care office is appropriate.

The best advice is often to give those with tics a break. For most kids tics are a temporary thing, and they’re also essentially out of their control. Drawing attention to them just makes it worse.

Dr. Matt Thompson is a pediatrician at the Kids Clinic in Spokane.

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Out of Africa Newport’s Ruth Calkins publishes a children’s book about her recent humanitarian trip to Africa

BY NATHAN WEINBENDER

D

on’t ever let it be said that age is a barrier for entry. Just ask Newport resident Ruth Calkins.

Calkins, now 91, has published her first book, an illustrated children’s story called Max Goes to Africa. It was inspired by a trip Calkins and her pet dachshund Max took in the summer of 2016, traveling to the country of Malawi in southeastern Africa. Calkins was there representing the World Medical Fund, a U.K.-based organization that provides medical care to sub-Saharan Africa.

Told from the perspective of Calkins’ daschund Max (“translated by Ruth Calkins,” the front cover proclaims), Max Goes to Africa describes, in rhyming couplets, their adventure: the plane ride, the long car trip to the village itself, the people they meet in Africa, and the strange animals Max encounters.

“I made up the first two lines while I was in Malawi,” Calkins tells Health & Home. “Then I couldn’t think of any more rhymes, so I thought I’d have to give it up. When I got home I decided to pick it up, and it was pretty easy once I started.”

T ABOVE: An illustration of Ruth Calkins and her dog Max from Max Goes to Africa. MARIEL HESTER ART BELOW: Ruth on a recent trip to Malawi.

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he trip that inspired Max Goes to Africa was actually Calkins’ third visit to the continent. Her late first husband worked for the U.S. Agency for International Development, which focused on agricultural innovations in poor countries. Their travels over the years took them to Sri Lanka (“a gorgeous place; the people are marvelous,” Calkins says), India, England, Germany, Spain and Italy.

But the first time she visited Africa, Calkins says, she felt compelled to do something about the conditions she witnessed there. The more she learned about the African AIDS epidemic, she says, the more distraught she became.

“I was so unhappy about that, because I knew how poor they were before that,” she says. “It just really bothered me.”

Upon returning to the States, Calkins says she started a website that she hoped would provide information to people about the AIDS crisis, and it was through that site that she met WMF CEO Michael Burt.

“They seemed to be doing very good work, and I told Michael that he ever wanted to expand to the U.S., I was interested,” Calkins says. She eventually became the organization’s U.S. secretary.

On this third trip to Africa that inspired her book, Calkins brought along several bulky sewing machines and suitcases full of craft supplies.

The women of Malawi were taught how to sew and then paid to quilt and

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Custom Designed. make craft projects, which were then sold to benefit their villages.

Calkins and a (human) traveling companion lived in a small, sparsely-furnished concrete hut during their stay in Malawi.

Because it was the African winter, the temperatures typically hovered around the low 80s during the day. The dining room had no table or chairs, and the kitchen had only an electric stove and a freezer. There was indoor plumbing, but the water and electricity would go in and out, Calkins says, and the internet connection was spotty.

Knowing she’d be away for most of the summer, Calkins decided to bring Max along with her.

“I didn’t want to leave him for threeand-a-half months, so I decided to take him with me,” Calkins says. “He turned out to be a very good traveler. He acclimated very well. There were no problems.”

Max did lose three pounds during the trip, Calkins says, “but he’s [since] gained two of them back.”

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C

alkins has been living in Newport for 16 years, and has five children and three grandchildren. Though she’s no longer involved with the World Medical Fund, and says her traveling days are behind her, she still follows their work.

“The clinics are absolutely amazing,” Calkins says. “They go out to villages, and women walk for miles and miles to come with their kids. There are generally about 150 children they see at one time. They’re really very dedicated.”

Calkins says she previously sold a story about living through the Great Depression to the children’s magazine Cobblestone, but Max Goes to Africa is her first book. She has already written three more stories about Max, she says, and the next one, a Christmas adventure Max Visits Santa Claus, will be published in the fall.

“I wrote it mostly as an entertainment for children,” she says, “and I hope children will enjoy it.”

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Now’s the time to embrace what you’ve always wanted to try and experience. Whether it’s painting, Tai-chi, woodworking, continuing education or dance, you’ll find all that and more at Rockwood South Hill. We invite you to visit us and learn what other residents have already found about the gracious and active community of Rockwood South Hill, Spokane’s non-profit community of choice since 1960.

800-727-6650 | 509-536-6850

EQUAL HOUSING OPPORTUNITY

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Independent • Assisted • Skilled • Memory Care | rockwoodretirement.org | 2903 E. 25th Ave, Spokane WA Health& Home