A FIRE PIT COMES INTO OUR LIVES

...yes, a fire pit!!! 

But first, a bird feeder.  We finally put up the glorious bird feeder that we made a couple of weeks ago at Simone's birthday party. It was exciting! We've been checking it every day since.

After we put up this hunk of a treat for the birds and deer of our neighborhood, I showed Sloane the fire pit that I had made while she was napping. 

Ta-da! It's your very basic run of the mill fire pit, but I am terribly proud of it because I made it all by myself. Ken was more than willing to help, but he had a project of his own in the garage and with only a few free hours in the afternoon, i rolled up my sleeves and got to work.  I hauled 14 cement blocks from the car to the backyard, dug a hole about one feet deep and three feet wide,  placed the cement blocks around the hole, and then filled the bottom of it with marble rocks. Not a bad set up for $30 and two hours of work. 

I love a hundred things about a contained fire and I'm relieved that having this pit means several fireside moments these next few months. Fire-gazing, fancy smore combinations, hot dog on a stick, clothes seeping with the smell of campfire - bring it on!

Important lessons in fire safety.

At this moment, she breathed out a, "wooww!"

Our backyard looks like a campsite!

And then our friends came over...and we broke it in with marshmallows. Watching the tots rejoice as they roasted their marshmallows over the pit did me a world of good and reinforced my belief in humanity and hard work, and all that. 

LIFE LATELY

I apologize in advance if this post has no sense of cohesion whatsoever. I am planning for this one to be a brief scrapbooking session made up of photos from my iphone album and thoughts from my mind's miscellaneous box.

A couple of business items to start:

1. I love podcasts and I am so grateful to the internet world for the deep and diverse world of them. Recently, I have discovered a couple recently that I think are worth sharing. One of them is Serial, a new podcast from the creators of This American Life. I am more gripped by the unfolding of this investigative journalism into a particular case, than I have been for any recent television show. The other is Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day podcast. The other day, the word was 'tankini', which I knew, but what I did not know was the backstory for the word, 'bikini', which was explained in that 2 min segment (they are all about 2-3 min long) for tankini. Fascinating. 

2. This song. 

3. That photo up there is from Sunday morning- I adore these boys and so does Sloane. They were all in the middle of playing when they were asked to step off the playmat for a moment by adults needing to move things around, and so they stood to the side, waiting, and I said, 'hey look over here!' so that I could snap a picture and those are the faces they gave me. 

This weekend was full of accomplishments - one of them being that I ran my second Rugged Maniac race, the second being that I made a fire pit ! (rest assured, more on the fire pit later).  During the first five minutes of the race (similar to the first five minutes of the first time I ran the race back in May, and come to think of it, similar to the first five minutes of any time that I run), I thought to myself, why am I doing this again? And then the adrenaline kicked in and the first obstacle was in front of us and then I was having a blast. I almost didn't run due to a wonky foot situation but it all worked out and it felt wonderful to realize I had gotten stronger from the last time. 

On Friday though, before the race and while I was feeling sorry for myself regarding aforementioned foot injury and a tiring week, I self-administered the following things: 1) a trip to the wine store with Sloane for a wine tasting and a gorgeous bottle of Malbec, 2) a dinner of butternut squash soup, Gouda cheese, grapes and wine, 3) an hour of finally finishing up the book I was reading. 

Sloane took this picture! She said she wanted to take a photo of us. 

Sloane can get into the car by herself...almost.  Her efforts are inspiring.  And a family photo from the state fair, for good measure! This is towards the end, when we were covered in sweat and melted ice cream, the way all days at the state fair should end.

I have been making a lot of hash lately.  Squash has been shimmying their way to the big bins at the grocery stores and so I have made some sort of hash about three times already this week in various combinations having to do with butternut squash - pear - chorizo - sweet potato - breakfast sausage - kale - red onion - pepper, etc.  You would think a picture of hash would make perfect sense here but all I have is a photo of some glorious steaks before Ken put them on the grill, so here you go! I love it when that man grills.

And finally, a moment to acknowledge the amazing thing that is Sloane and Rusty.  She bosses him around, hugs his tail, his ear, his body, anything she can get her hands on, gets freaked out when he runs in her direction barking at the top of his lungs, spits bacon down to him when she thinks we're not looking, always makes sure he has water and food in his bowl, warns him not to eat her stuffed animals while she is gone, berates him in the same tone and manner we do,  and always wants to be the one that gives him his treats. 

And there we have it! I don't know how else to end this except to say I've been doing a poor job of getting enough sleep so I'm going to go give that another try and I'll be back, don't you worry. 

WE GO TO THE STATE FAIR!

The thing you have to understand is that, for Sloane, going to the state fair and seeing all the farm animals there is the equivalent of a huge celebrity sighting for an adult, if that adult cares about such things. 

We went to the state fair last year (and she wore the same chambray shirt! partly because I buy her clothes a little bigger and partly because she is little for her age...allegedly) and although she initially seemed interested in the cows, was terrified when we actually got up to them and she realized they were ginormous.  However, this year, she was 100% on board and couldn't have been more excited to touch the animals and get up close. 

A sweet passerby randomly offered to take a family photo for us. 

I wish she told me my shirt was doing a weird scrunchy thing. 

But also, Sloane seems so grown up here! 

Hey a quick game of find the baby girl with her papa!

The horse stables are my favorite. When I was young, my parents sent us to this summer camp for a few years where, among other things, we learned how to ride horses, and I loved it so much. I love seeing each of the horses; they are terribly majestic.

This girl showed us her horse and Sloane took it all in, her eyes wide as saucers. 

We ventured into the area that had the kiddie rides and games and we let Sloane play one game that had to do with picking up plastic ducks out of water. She 'won' and picked out a stuffed cow as her prize! She was pleased with herself and carried that cow around all weekend. 

This girl LOVES her ice cream. She gets it from her papa. 

She is also good at sharing. She gets that from her mama. 

And then we happened upon an area where they were offering pony rides! All the time we were looking at the horses, Sloane would ask if she could get on one, and I told her that unfortunately, she probably couldn't get on one for a few years, but then there we were! pony rides for anyone under 85 pounds! I was so excited for her I could hardly stand it.  Ken and I gave her pep talks, wondering if she would be able to handle it without getting freaked out, but turns out, she is a PRO. When it was her turn, she got on the saddle, sat straight up, held tight to the horn and rode that pony as if she'd been doing it all her life. The joy and pride that was coursing through that little body was pretty much the best thing ever. Ken and I were beside ourselves. There we were, two regular folk, watching this tiny human being that we had created (!) experiencing pure joy from being on a pony for five minutes.  This is the stuff life is made of, we would reflect to each other later. 

AND JUST LIKE THAT, IT'S OCTOBER...

I'm trying to refrain from the drama, but let's be real, the end of summer means turning down the dial of life a little bit. "Don't you just love fall?" they'll ask. And I do. I love the cobalt blue skies and crisp air, the colored leaves and harvest of autumnal vegetables. And best of all, the apples. There are things I'm excited about, believe you me. But also, there are less hours of daylight to work with, the cold air seeps into my bones and never leaves, my skin shrivels, and each trip out the door means a whole production of gathering up socks and jackets.

Last week, fall arrived, not with trumpeting skies, but with the grey skies and rain. I was under-dressed for such weather, couldn't get warm, my skin got dry like the desert, my hair got static-y and I couldn't settle into my skin.  (Yes, I realize I'm complaining about how it's getting slightly colder, and it's terribly silly, but I'm writing my feelings and trying to climb up a hill of optimism. Here it comes...)

What to do? There are remedies for rainy days (on a side note, I was texting with my sister that day and she was saying how she loves a good ol' grey and rainy day...so........there's some perspective for you), and I'm good at self-medicating.  I'll make a ceremony and celebration out of the small things when I want to connect. And I'll curl up on the couch under a blanket, with a book, in order to feel quiet.

Here are some tiny-sized stories about connecting:

1

That same rainy night, I went over to a friend's in the evening for a nightcap of sorts. We made coffee bourbon cocktails (which is my favorite right now) and snacked on potatoes fried in duck fat, smoked salmon, brie and sauteed greens. We sipped and ate with our fingers. We discussed hope. By the time I left, it was late, and it had stopped raining. The brisk air was positively refreshing. It'll be okay! I reassured all of my faculties.

2

Since then, there have been warm days (Thursday was sunny, and we went to the State Fair on the following Saturday, which had us sweating, gloriously, all day long), but I've felt the need to carry on with filling these innards with comfort food, and have pep talks about the end and beginning of things. On this particular Friday night, when it was just me and Soane for dinner, I cooked up shakshuka, a Middle Eastern dish that is eggs poached in tomatoes and loaded with spices. We sopped it up with baked pita chips, and spoonfuls of avocado in the intermissions.  It went down like a hug.

3

Since it gets darker sooner, Sloane has been getting more glimpses of the moon, and she has been a darling child of the moon. As we are driving, she'll shout out to me that she has spotted it, and then gasp when it disappears from sight. "It's gone!.....Is it on top of the car?" And when it reappears, "I catch it mom!" with her hands outreached towards the sky. She grabs a fistful of air and tucks her fist back into her chest. "I have it!"

4

And lastly, here is the story of the night we sat around a fire. It starts with a friend from afar being in town, and a bunch of ladies wanting to spend time with her. We scurried into the house she was staying at, with cocktails, wine and snacks in hand. An impromptu fire was made in the backyard and we went out to it (moths to a flame! Do we all know the Janet Jackson song? Is it playing in our heads?). We spent the rest of the night sitting around a beautiful fire, draining our cups, discussing things like babies, art, and what a good day looks like - all while staring into the flames.  The flames, the wine, and the presence of friends, warmed up everything. 

SLOANE BAKES A CAKE

Sloane baked a cake!

I read this book, "Bringing Up Bebe", when I was pregnant and there is a section in the book where it talks about baking a cake with your little one when they are young, the whole idea being they are involved in the process of making something, can assert their ability, and can pride themselves in the result. The cake is a yogurt cake that is very simple and is something that even a toddler can do. (The context within the book is that French children bake every weekend - they'll bake a cake in the morning and have it with their afternoon tea). The cake is actually is pretty good; it's dense and moist, I like the addition of the raspberries (you could add any kind of frozen fruit or even chocolate), and we slathered it with creme fraiche when we ate it. 

Sloane is still pretty young to bake a cake entirely by herself (she is 2 yrs and 2 months old), but she is so interested in 'helping' me cook in the kitchen (she helped me make salmon cakes one time with great success) and insists that she do things on her own (after I turn on the sink faucet for her, she tells me to go outside and closes the bathroom door so that she can wash her hands by herself...), that I felt like she was up for the task...and she LOVED it.

I helped her measure out the cups and then she poured each thing into the bowls and did the mixing. It brought me so much joy seeing how much she enjoyed this. The recipe is at the very bottom of this post, if you're interested!

 "I did it!!"

She was verrrryy interested in watching over her cake baking in the oven. I eventually had to distract her with something else because she kept asking if it was ready, every minute.

She was so proud!! Later on that night, when we were eating the cake with some friends, I leaned over and whispered, "Who made this cake we are all eating?" She grinned up at me and clasped at her chest, "Sloane!" 

Yogurt Cake with Raspberries (adapted slightly from Raising Bebe) - 

You will need:

• 2 (6oz) containers of french vanilla yogurt (keep containers for measuring the other ingredients)(I didn't have vanilla extract so I justified using French vanilla yogurt, but next time I will probably go with plain yogurt)
• 2 eggs
• 2 containers sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 3/4 of a container of vegetable oil
• 4 containers flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 2 container of frozen raspberries 
• Crème fraîche 

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 375 F
2. Coat a 9″ round cake pan with cooking spray or oil.
3. In a large mixing bowl, combine the yogurt, eggs, sugar, vanilla, and oil.
4. In a separate bowl, combine the flour and baking powder.
5. Add the dry mixture to the wet mixture, stir until just combined. Add the raspberries.
6. Pour it all into your baking pan, bake for 35 minutes or until golden and when a toothpick inserted is pulled out clean. Let it cool on a rack.
7. Serve with Crème fraîche.