Winter Garden?

Along with everything else we have going on, the garden bug has bit me. I would like to put in a winter garden...to make our summer garden even better next year.

Now if only this heat wave would end I'd be outside behind the shed with a hoe.

Time to Regroup and Regather

Summer is almost over. School has started up once again here and the parks are emptying out as the regular routines become reestablished.

We've been home at least as long as we were gone this summer and I am just now feeling like I can get my act together. I'm planning and thinking and deciding on the tone for our next year. Fall has always been the beginning of my year. The human-established rhythm of school eclipses the natural rhythms of harvest and planting. The sun has less influence of my daily life than the "Back to School" banners currently covering every store.

Stella and Elise are about to turn one. They are no longer infant blobs but little people with personalities and some impressive skills. Maia is three, spelling her name, drawing pictures that look like her world and holding court with strangers we meet while out and about. John and I are about to celebrate our fifth year of marriage...and soon we'll celebrate our ninth year as a couple.

Big milestones. And high time for me to take some control and shape our days and evenings into the family life we all desire and deserve. Establishing a family routine is not always easy. We've gotten started with family dinner--but we've allowed a certain amount of fluidity in that. But it's there. It's a beginning.

Preschool is going to start up, and while I feel like we're losing some of our good friends to more traditional schools, we're gaining great new ones in our non-traditional setting. I'm excited about taking on more as a teacher to my children and working with a good group of new women friends.

I've been asked to do some writing for a collabortive blog. I'm going to write about food as nourishment for home--not just for body. I am very excited to take this on. I would like to make a commitment to post at least one thoughtful essay a week. Some day, I would like to start my own food blog. Perhaps...next fall.

For now, I'm getting my ducks in a row and watching the last bits of Summer pass into our beautiful Indian Summer (I always think of this time as pre-fall) and waiting for a touch of chill in the air to signal that my new year has begun.

This is What Motherhood is All About

Maia came into our bedroom this morning, as she does every morning, to tell us that the sisters were awake and that I needed to get up and "Make me some breakfast".

She's standing by the bed and the covers are pulled down. I roll over to give John a sleepy good morning kiss and squeeze when I hear Maia speak up: "Mom. You have hair on your bum-bum. Maybe you should put on some pants."

Hmmm...maybe I should go back to my esthetician for a good waxing.

Adventure Day

I decided to blow everyone off today and take the girls for an adventure. I know, right. Packed them up and headed to The Monterey Bay Aquarium. We have passes we have under-utilized and I could tell it was just an ocean side sort of day.

Wish I had remembered to pop the camera into the bag, but I never seem to have enough hands to operate it anyway. Too bad. We had a wonderful time, despite the fact that it was "limited mobility" day and the number of wheelchairs and walkers competing for floor space with my double-wide stroller + toddler was just frightening.

Didn't do too much by way of sitting and watching fish swim by, but we did do a whole lot of water play, running, sliding, whale naming, computer playing and starfish touching. That was just Maia. Stella and Elise fish watched, open mouthed and astounded, crawled in a "kelp forest", made new friends, crawled in a baby circle, laughed and ate snacks in the stroller. I just tried to keep up. That is waaay enough for me.

The girls all behaved like the lovely ladies they are. More times like these, I might just begin to believe I'm a good mom. ;)

Back into the Swing

So. Our back porch chest freezer went out while we were on vacation. Of course. This time wasn't as bad last time, thanks to having vaccum sealed meat as opposed to butcher-paper wrapped. Still. 20 pounds of rotten hamburger and assorted steaks (all the good cuts we've been saving natch) make a healthy stink. And because we never did replace the plug on the front the drippings attracted a slew of ants. And some of those ants found their way into the house.

Good thing I did a fairly good wipe-down before leaving, otherwise I'd have gotten back in the car and driven back to Idaho. I hate ant infestations.

I'm fairly zen when it comes to most common household bugs. Mostly because killing them creeps me out more than just letting them be to a certain extent. Not ants. I go bonkers over even one...because I just know there are thousands more waiting in the wings. Yesterday I cleaned up the small trail, wiped down the counters and swept up the floor. This morning they came back. I was ready. I know the game.

Today it was ant spray on the outside of the door where they seem to be coming in. And spray on the deck by the (now clean, thanks John!) chest freezer. And pellets for good measure. Then a good deep scrub of the kitchen floor plus an airing out of the kitchen rug.

I'll finish working through the living room...gotta unpack today I think. At least I should start the process. Getting back into the rhythm of daily life is hard. But it's all worthwhile in the end.

Family Dinner

We are trying to get family dinner back on track, now that we have returned from our various adventures. The babies, being almost a year, (!) can now stay up a little later and we could stand to eat a little earlier and that way we can all eat together. I really believe that at least one family meal a day is really important and if we begin now by the time the kids are in school and busy dinner will be a habit and a cornerstone of our daily lives.

Tonight was the first great experiment and now I have a better understanding of what might work and what I need to work on.

Dinner was lovely. Grilled chicken sausages, heirloom tomato and fresh Buffalo mozzerala salad, sweet corn on the cob. Perfect summertime meal. I cut fresh corn for Stella and Elise, plated everything else for the older eaters and had dinner on the table by 6:30. The corn was well met. Well, Stella ate it like nothing else, of course, Elsie liked to grab a handful and drop it off the table. Great. But still, we all had a plate of *almost* the same food and were enjoying each others company.

Maia got a bit contrary...and it cemented in me the desire to keep a family meal going. The past month or two we've been having seperate meals. I've been making Maia "toddler food" along with Stella and Elises' baby food and then a dinner for John and myself. She has been living on chicken tenders and mac 'n' cheese and if we're not careful, she'll really start refusing to eat anything else. That would kill me. Tonight she insisted she didn't like tomatoes (she eats cherry tomatoes like candy), or sausage (she loves hot dogs and meat). We made her eat half her sausage and try her tomatoes (she inhaled her "white sweet corn") and drink her milk. I know. Worst parents ever. She likes food and I don't want her to forget that fact.

Stella enjoyed the new variety of foods--from corn to sausage and then. Buffalo mozzerella! I'll get her to be a gourmet baby yet. Elsie liked--playing with her food. But enough got in that I think she'll do alright.

My goal is to have dinner on the table at 6 PM sharp. Babies in bed by 7:30 and Maia to follow by 8. That still gives John and I some evening time to be grown ups together. We'll see how it plays out, but I am going to try my darndest. Because it's important. And delicious.