Cicada

30 June, 2011

This Moment

A delicious moment from our week, not to be forgotten. Thank goodness it's summer! Have a great fourth of July weekend, everyone!

25 June, 2011

I recently posted about the excessive anxiety I suffer when buying birthday presents for other people's children. Well today, I made birthday present history, at least in my opinion. It might not make the birthday girl's head spin around, and Bela will probably wish she were the one who got her the paper dolls with sturdy, reusable dresses, but...

I also recently posted about the almost 40 pounds of strawberries my family managed to pick last week on a trip to Indiana.

Today was one of those days I won't forget easily; one of those days where all in one fell swoop I solved at minimum three "problems" facing me in one afternoon.

Problem 1: Chris was out running errands all day, and I got up at 5am to run with my CARA group. This meant that I was tired, cranky, alone with the kids, and without any concrete entertainment plans.
Problem 2: The biomass of the strawberries in my freezer was literally weighing on my mind. Must. Make. Something. I already canned 14 jars of strawberry jam, but, eh, there were 6 gallon-sized freezer bags left.
Problem 3: Another birthday party tomorrow.

So today, we made a totally kid friendly version of jam: freezer jam. It does not require any special equipment, it does not require a lot of time spent around boiling water, and it does not require highly sterilized jars. In case you don't have kids, the three aforementioned requirements would have made this project an infuriating one to do with my children.

I'm including a link to the recipe here, in case you find yourselves with a surplus of strawberries and rhubarb. It was good. Very good. Bela was in charge of the portion of the jamming that required sharp objects: chopping the rhubarb into pieces and mincing it later in the food processor. Mae was my master strawberry smoosher and sugar shaker.

We quickly churned out 5 half-pints of strawberry-rhubarb freezer jam, and that's when I got inspired.

I ran out and bought a cute child's apron (didn't feel like sewing); I printed out a recipe for Bela's favorite Thumbprint Cookies (you know, the kind you dent with your thumb and fill with JAM?) and glued it to girly paper, and I carefully wrapped up a jar of Strawberry Jam and a jar of Strawberry Rhubarb to use in the making of the cookies. Genius? Maybe. Totally dorky and worthy of some 6-year-old eye-rolling? More likely.

But I can hold my head up high about this one. I even threw in a copy of the freezer jam recipe for the birthday girl's parents.

Happy Birthday indeed.

PS - We threw the thawed strawberry leftovers into the blender and made homemade popsicles with them. It was like killing 4 proverbial birds with one awesome stone.

From: Lorna Sass' Complete Vegetarian Kitchen

24 June, 2011

This Moment

A moment from our recent weeks, a delicious and kind of preposterous one that we don't want to forget. Have a great weekend.

23 June, 2011

Father's Day Diorama

Let's get the baby business out of the way here. Yes! We're pregnant! Yes! It was planned! (This has been, by far, the most commonly asked question as soon as people find out we are having our (gasp) third child.) We are expecting our third little blondie to make his or her appearance around Christmas.

Well, it feels like it has been so long since I've spent any time here in this space, and that makes me sad. I use Cicada to sort stuff out, record it, make sense of it, let it go. It's one of my most favorite selfish hobbies, but the truth is that I am just plum tuckered out. Bela and Mae's bedtime has traditionally been my most productive time of day, when I start typing, when I start knitting. Lately, however, baby Strong #3 has been sending me to bed soon after the girls are asleep. Have I ever been so tired in my life?

But life marches on, and we have been busy. There is so much I'd like to record in these pages so we never forget: Berries were picked and jam was made; the tooth fairy visited our home for the first time in 30 years; our green Honda disappeared into the hands of a thief; I spent three hours wheeling and dealing at the Mazda dealership and drove out with a replacement; and Chris and I spent a fantastic weekend in South Carolina full of family and food, fishing and fun.

Because we were away from the girls on Father's day, we did not get a chance to honor the Dad in our family in the way that he deserved. In fact, on Father's Day I caught a plane from South Carolina to Chicago while Chris drove on to Tennessee and Virginia for a photo shoot that lasted several days. This time away did, however, prove to be useful.

The girls and I had been working on a special project for Chris for weeks, but we had not finished. We would mention slyly to him every once in awhile that something was in the works, but they were sworn to secrecy and they did not let me down. My ultimate goal in this endeavor was simple: tears. I wanted him to like his present so much that he cried.

And here it is, without further ado, our first annual Father's Day Diorama:
(please excuse the poor quality photos. Believe it or not we found ourselves at home tonight with only the cameras on our phones)

We carried this box into the kitchen and he was visibly puzzled. Front view.

The back view with the battery box only caused more confusion.

And here he is at his finest: Chris the fisherman, with his trusty blue and white hat and the orange bucket he takes on all excursions fish related.

A close up: Doll's body is felted wool. I machine sewed a pair of jeans for little Chris and glued on his hat, stripe by stripe. The girls drew his face and then we attached his fishing pole. The orange bucket is an old spool of thread wrapped in felt with a wire handle. The foreground lake is coiled, knitted i-cord.

When we have an opportunity we will photograph it in all its glory, with battery powered stars in the pre-dawn sky (yes, all those wires have a purpose).

We all giggled with excitement and I actually found myself clapping uncontrollably and jumping up and down. As he took in the details his back was to me, but when he turned around I had confirmation that all our work had been worth it. Real live tears, from a man who never cries. Who knew it only took some paint, some glue, some moss, and a whole lotta love. We love you Chris Strong! Happy Father's Day!