On my mind

Some really important things have been on my mind lately.

1. Squash
2. Square dancing
3. Bread and soup
4. Finishing some important knitting projects
5. Enjoying every last nanosecond of this weather we have been having.


1). First, the squash. I have a problem. I think I may need an intervention of sorts over here, a squash intervention, if you will. I don't know how it happened, but I turned around and the biomass of the squash that has accumulated in my kitchen outweighs that of the human members of my family. Delicata, acorn, butternut, pumpkin.

Here is one way I've been getting rid of it, er, I mean, consuming it:

from cooks.com
Pumpkin Bread

This is a nice loaf. It's not sweet like quick pumpkin bread, and it's not dense. I think it would be good with a mix of whole wheat and white, maybe with a little extra liquid. An extra rise.

We've also been exploring the world of pot pies. My memory of pot pies from my childhood are noteworthy only for their un-noteworthy frozen food convenience-ness. But have you tried a homemade pot pie? Imagine squash browned in butter, tossed with an assortment of fall/winter vegetables (cauliflower, potatoes, carrots, onions, garlic, leek) soaked in a bechemel sauce that has been infused with garlic and thyme, with a buttery homemade crust on top... Even Bela said, in a grown up and very nonchalant way 'Oh Mom, this dinner is great. Really yummy.'  Try Deborah Madison for some inspiration.

2). As for the square dancing, I don't know. I was just charmed by the little pavilion at Holstein Park, set up for the apple pie contest and fall festival. Chris has promised that, for my birthday, he will take square dancing lessons with me. I know. It isn't something you exactly need lessons for. How hard could it be? But it also isn't something we would do on our own.  So we'll wait until Old Town School wants to offer another class, and then we will be there. Even if I have to drag him.

3). Instead of ramble on about bread and soup, I'm just going to say the following:

These two books are rocking my kitchen lately. Man. That is all I have to say.

Book # 1
Book # 2




4). I really like to knit things for my girls. The patterns are cute, the yarn is splendid, the pace is.....FAST. Let's face it. Those kids are a fraction of my size, and knitting for them is ultimately more satisfying than knitting up something for myself. Nonetheless, every once in awhile I think about, and then attempt, to knit something in a grown up size. Like this:

From Rowan Purelife - Recycled Cotton Collection

I started this particular sweater in March. And got through the front, the back, and one sleeve by April. And then it sat. And sat. And sat. I am now finished with all the pieces, it's been pinned and blocked, and is sitting there waiting for me to sew it all together, to finish the neckline. If I finish it, if it looks half as good on me as it does on this lady here, then I"ll post a picture soon.

5). And finally, enjoying this season. I am working on a little collection that I hope to post soon. Just a representation of this season, by color. Stay tuned. In the meantime, enjoy these pictures of some of the things we've been up to, as we enjoy this beautiful season. Some are taken by Chris, some by Bela, and some by me.

As though it were even possible, my love for my kids has grown by leaps and bounds lately. Can I say that they are the awesome-ist little campers of all time? Bela made eggs and bacon for us in the morning, gladly stumbled out of the tent in the dark of the early morning to pee in the leaves, and obsessively pumped water for our camp. Mae hiked like a champ, collected acorns and earnestly looked for gnomes in the woods. Bela tossed a football around with Chris, climbed trees. Mae constructed forts and hide-outs, spent hours playing with her books and dolls inside them. God I love those girls.

From Kettle Moraine - Greenbush Campground

Garwood Orchards, Indiana - Apple and pumpkin picking

Indiana Dunes - Mt. Baldy

This Moment

You know the drill. It's Friday. It's time for This Moment. Every Friday, one image from the week that needs no words of explanation. Enjoy this moment from our week!

Weekend run

Before I say anything, I want to congratulate all the registrants, participants, volunteers, organizers and finishers of this year's Chicago Marathon. AMAZING!

And now...

I'm a farm girl at heart. I dream of goats, sheep, chickens. I really do. Chris and I seriously considered trying to buy an old farm house in Sidney, IL a couple years back. But somewhere along the way I made a choice that landed me here, in the third largest city in the country. I probably should have lived on some farm somewhere.

But I live in the city. And....I love it.


And because I live in this city, I run in this city. I've had some beautiful runs in my life, etched as firmly in my memory as the time I fell off my dad's shoulders at the McLean County Fair as a girl. I've run along a cold and foggy Oregon coast, through the forests of the Smoky Mountains, across the hot sandiness of Sanibel Island. I've woven my way through Urbana cornfields, Wisconsin farmland, Michigan river paths. But my weekend runs through my neighborhood here in the city rival them all in beauty, especially at this time of year.

My route meanders in a mostly North-South fashion. I head South out of Ukrainian Village, eventually veer East into West Town only to turn around back North and run through Wicker Park and Bucktown. For the most part, the brick two-flats and the tall condo buildings do a nice job of shading me from the sun, but when I pass those East-West cross streets, I'm hit with a blast of the most beautiful, magical autumnal sun imaginable. It's like being on stage, golden and illuminated and breathless. I can't describe how beautiful it is to run through the streets of my neighborhood in October.

My neighborhood

And this has been quite possibly the most beautiful week all year. The tops of the trees are reddening. The yellows are brilliant. The low angle of the sun is spellbinding and gives a sense of surreality to everything. I purposely trod on the fallen leaves because, like a little girl, can't help but love the sound of it.  I close my eyes as I run past wrought iron fences, because the play of light and shadow on my eyes (dark light dark light dark light) makes me dizzy.

7:00 a.m. on a Saturday or Sunday around here these days is all leaves and golden colors and people walking dogs and people with coffee and men playing chess in the park and the smell of bacon in the streets.

This weekend did not disappoint.

Cortez

Oakley

Grand Street Gardens

Grand St. Gardens - I used to be the manager here

Grand St. Gardens - Leavitt and Grand

Sundays in Wicker Park

Squash in Wicker Park

Sweet Autumn Clemantis

Sweet Cakes Bakery - Damen Ave.

Waiting for the leaves to fall

Our Neighborhood Ukrainian Church

And another one...

And another

Holstein Park

On the way home...

And finally home.

I ran around like a love struck lunatic this weekend and last, snapping pictures with my phone along my run. I can only hope my girls will join me one day, and I can only hope we live in a place I love as much as this one.

This moment

Every Friday, Amanda Soule posts an image with no words of explanation. Just a moment from the week, captured on camera. I'm doing the same here. Enjoy this moment. Happy Friday everyone.

The Halloween Purist

1982 - Me, in my Grandma's curtains.

Let's take a vote. Halloween costumes: handmade or store bought?

I'm not trying to be a snob, but I feel very deeply that a Halloween costume MUST be homemade. It doesn't have to be fancy, it can be done up with duct tape, permanent marker, and cardboard. But what is the fun of buying a costume?

I remember my days at Colene Hoose Elementary School in Normal, Illinois. Every year the Halloween parade was one of those days you looked forward to. And I mean you really looked forward to it. Until I came across these pictures, store bought costumes had no place in my memory of those days, but now that I look closer I see a lot of flimsy plastic masks.

Brian Bastion - 1982

Gail, Stacie - 1982

(Do you see that awesome green station wagon behind the clown? That's ours. And the red-leafed tree at the end of the driveway? I still remember the smell of rotten crabapples.)

Maybe I'm a purist. Maybe I'm a martyr. Or maybe I just feel I need to prove to everyone I'm a good Mom, even if in my wake I cause a lot of suffering and misery.

Mae will be Dorothy this year and Bela will be the Good Witch Glinda. Not that they have ever seen The Wizard of Oz, but they somehow know through cultural osmosis that these women are, in fact, important. And they want to be them.

That leaves open the Wicked Witch of the West for me (appropriate). Chris, instead of the obvious choice of The Wizard himself, would prefer to be my wicked companion.

We will be using dress E for Mae (bottom left) and dress B (center) for Bela:

Butterick B4320

Which means......I'd better get sewing. 

What are you going to be for Halloween?????

Sibling Rivalry

If given my 'druthers, I would choose to wake up every hour with a newborn for nighttime feedings, change 100 poopy diapers in a row, or soothe a teething toddler rather than spend one more day listening to my girls fight.

Oh my goodness they fight all the time. Any seemingly benign interaction is perfect inspiration for a good old bickering around here. For example:

• Who gets cereal first, or who gets more milk, or a bigger spoon, or the orange bowl, or the white bowl with orange flowers.
• Who gets a larger share of the warm air from the space heater now that the mornings are downright chilly in our old kitchen.
• Who does or does not look "beautiful" in her chosen outfit for school.
• Who climbs in the car first.
• Who has the 'tire swing' technique mastered. 
• How many times we listen to Bon Iver's 'Skinny Love' (Mae's pick) versus Bela's 'When you say nothing at all' (Allison Krauss). I'm so with Mae on this one, but I try not to take sides. At least once a trip Bela does request some Bruce Springsteen, which makes me mildly happier. And it's always a good day when she brings out the Ralph Stanley requests.
• Snotty looks, annoying noises, accidental physical contact, toys, blankets, the pronunciation of certain, more difficult words (three = thu-ree, not free), whose drawing is more realistic, whose coloring book that cute fairy picture was torn from and therefore to whom it belongs, whose chair is scooted closer to the dinner table, and who got more bedtime song action during the last three months combined.

I wish I were exaggerating. My husband is a saint. He completely tunes this all out, leaving me to simmer in a corner until I almost explode. "Why are you fighting over such silly things? Don't you know this is your sister and you will never have another one and you HAVE TO LOVE EACH OTHER NO MATTER WHAT??????!!!!!" Oh yes, I give them the sisterly love lecture. That always works.

Only, the sad thing is that it NEVER works, and that I too must find the strength to ignore this tendency for sibling rivalry, stepping in only to mediate the more egregious offenses. But this has been, hands down, the most difficult phase so far in my parenting. Remember the days when they cried because they were hungry? Wet? Tired? I could do that. I knew how to step in and make them happy. Stick a breast in their mouths, change them, rock them to sleep. I can handle concrete distress.

This Moment...

(Every Friday Amanda Soule makes a post on her blog called "this moment". It contains an image, with no words of description, that captured a moment in a day from that week. Check out her blog for an inspiring photo, or post your own and send me a link in the comments below!)