APPLE PICKING: VERSION 2016

We almost didn't make it to apple picking this year. Our October is so very packed and there were some scheduling conflicts that made us think it could be too hard to make the trip. But I was adamant; this is my favorite thing to do in the fall, I look forward to it all year, and it's a tradition that marks the beginning of the colder months for me in a way that allows me to brace myself and buck up.  It turned out to be the coldest day it had been so far and it was also extremely windy, which made for the coldest apple picking experience we've had to date, but it was absolutely worth it and we came down the mountain feeling refreshed and excited for fall.

This is Sloane's 5th year! She's four years old, but she first went when she was 9 weeks old, then at age 1, 2, 3 and now 4...for a total of 5 times. I was also excited that Logan was old enough this year to hold and eat an apple all on her own - I considered this her official induction into the apple lovers club.

I love that Logan is wearing that hat Sloane wore when she was a one year old. It makes me feel all sorts of feelings.

The wind was really strong when we first got to the orchard, so we immediately got hot apple ciders to cup in our hands as we made our way up to the fuji apples. The wind was blowing so hard that Sloane would get swayed and pushed every which way and she kept shrieking with delighted laughter at the wind's attempts. Her face was like this the whole way up the mountain.

Watching these two together make my heart feel like it is bursting...especially seeing Sloane watching out for Logan and Logan trying copy everything Sloane does.

I came down the mountain full of love, wind and apples.

MAKING COZY

I really truly love fall. It is wonderful to watch the world shifting from hot and humid days to a sharp and crispy scene. If summer is languid and slow, then fall is alert and exciting. In the summer when we play outdoors for hours, time seems to stop and everything moves in slow motion, in the fall the time spent outdoors feels invigorating in a different way: there is a buzz and energy in the air. We've been spending a lot of time outdoors lately and the weather seems perfect - not too hot, not too cold. The kids love playing outside with their bikes and putting on dance show and collecting acorns. I've been baking more than I did this summer, which was zero, and the smell of something warm and spicy in the oven combined with the brisk air outside makes me feel like I am reliving all of my past years' falls...in a good way. Even so, with all of my love and appreciation in full bloom, there is also a gloom that I can feel descending and spreading over me. It's the knowledge that the sunlight is sparse and everything is colder.  It's a familiar feeling, it happens this time of year, every year, but I've gotten better at planning for it. I know now to make a game plan and to march into the darker colder season with purpose.  

The past couple of years I've been incorporating more of the Danish concept of hygge into the colder months.  If you don't know, hygge means creating a warm atmosphere and enjoying good things in life with people, so hygge can be anything that helps make that happen: candle light, the smell of cinnamon and cloves, sitting around a table having good conversation, mulled wine, snuggling under a blanket, drinking tea from your favorite mug.

Here are the things that I am going to do to practice hygge and blast the winter blues this year:

1. Candlelight at dinner: One of the things that make colder days difficult is how dark it is by the time we get home. It's depressing to have the time we spend together be dark, so my way to make the best out of that situation is to light candles for dinner every night. Eating by candlelight always lift my spirits, and it definitely creates a feeling of coziness.

2. Winter aid kit: I'm compiling a little bag to carry around with me everywhere, maybe even a couple of different bags - one for work, for the car, for home.  Often when I find myself feeling extra cranky because I have chapped lips and dry skin, replenishing my skin or swiping on some bright lipstick does wonders. My kit will include things like good quality lotion, lip balm, vaseline, bright lipstick, peppermint essential oil, peppermint candy.

3. Fleece-lined tights: obvious.

4. Drink lots of water: I heard something recently that said the reason why sickness is more prevalent during the winter time is because we don't get as much moisture and water. I don't know how true this is but it seems to align with the more well-known and accepted fact that drinking a lot of water will help your body ward off sickness.

5. Wake-up light: I've been thinking of getting a wake-up light like this for years now and maybe this year I pull the trigger.

6. Get around a fire as much as possible: I love any sort of campfire situation and this is one of those things that is much more appropriate for colder months, so being around a fire makes me feel like cold days are worth it.

7.  Mulled wine & mulled cider: I think an ambitious goal would be to have one of these going on in a slow cooker every weekend, with lots of spices. Just the smell alone is enough to create cozy.

8. Supplements like vitamin C and D: This is what I usually do during the winter, but this year I'm thinking of adding in magnesium and fish oil. 

9. Keep exercising: This is such an important one for me because 1) exercise is when I feel the most attractive and strongest, which seems to be an instant mood lifter, 2) sweating means that I am warm, 3) endorphins!

10. Bake as much as possible: and don't mind the extra layers, it provides warmth

11.  Decorate for the holidays early: Get at it the first weekend of December and keep it up until end of January! It makes all the cold days feel extra purposeful.

12. Tea: When I get stressed or grumpy I tend to turn to wine or bourbon at the end of the day to wind down, which isn't great because of the calories and cost, so instead I've taken to drinking tea for my wind-down beverage. My go-to for colder days is chamomile and peppermint (right now I'm going through Harney & Sons tins). One of my favorites in fall is Trader Joe's Harvest Blend Herbal Tea. I also recently tried this Gypsy Cold Care tea and really liked it. 




We kicked off our practice of hygge the other day with friends, by sitting around a fire, drinking hot cider or whiskey, and having good conversation. I finished off the night by eating a huge slice of apple pie. I'm on my way! 

THE PLAYROOM: BEFORE AND AFTER

I'm finally posting photos of the playroom! So far I've shared the girls' bedroom, the master bedroom, and the kitchen, but it's been a while since we did anything to the house. We are still in the middle of some projects, but we put those to a halt while we enjoyed the summer. Now that we are getting to colder months and spending more time indoors, here's hoping that we get some of those done! 

Instead of having the girls each have a room, we chose for them to share a room and turn the other room into a playroom. It is really nice having a designated place for toys and books, and it's great to be able to send the kids in here even while the baby is napping in the bedroom. I really like that their bedroom is meant for sleeping and winding down, and the playroom is for playing and winding up. And because of their ages right now, this means that when Logan is having her afternoon nap, Sloane can be in here having her quiet time listening to an audio book and playing with her animals or drawing pictures. 

Before:  THE RED.... AHHH. 

Even though this doesn't look like much, this room is one of the first ones we unpacked, if you could even call it that. It's a valuable lesson I learned about moving with small children: unpack all of their toys and books first so that they can still have things to occupy them in the midst of the unpacking, organizing and renovating chaos! For a long while the playroom looked like this.

AFTER: Much better.  I really liked that black and white rug from Ikea, but it was a little too busy for all the other color we had going on in the room. Since all of the books, toys, and artwork are so colorful, I wanted to get everything else as neutral as possible. 

I found this shelf on craigslist and these versatile pieces are my favorite kind - it works great for the playroom now, but it can easily be used for any room of the house later down the line if need be. The large pink basket holds all of their stuffed animals, the smaller black and brown one holds small baby toys for Logan, and the two low baskets hold things that are best used for pretend play, like owl wings, mask, paper hats, wands, etc. 

I'm looking for a shelf, maybe a circle shelf (maybe this one?), for that space above the pink armchair.  

We took the doors off this closet for what I thought would be a perfect reading nook but then the play kitchen fit in here so perfectly and we usually read on the pink armchair anyways, I decided to keep the kitchen in here. When the girls are a little older and want a hideaway spot to retreat to when they read, I'll turn this into a reading nook.  The basket next to the kitchen holds all the kitchen toys, and I'm papering the inside of the closet with the girls' artwork.  The shelf up above holds toys, blocks, puzzles, and other things that we can take down one at a time. 

Instead of getting a desk, we installed a floating desk along one of the walls of the playroom. It's a space saver and also sometimes functions as a shelf. The Ikea cart holds all the art supplies and I love how its portable. I still need to figure out what to do with the walls here. Hopefully, I'll be able to frame two large pieces of art by Sloane and Logan and hang them up here.

These little lambs are from Ken's sister's Scentsy business and Ken's mom got the girls these little cards with their names and meanings on them!

We are constantly going through books and rummaging through them, so this stacking method works pretty well for now. I put the books that are currently heaviest in rotation upright so that we can easily see and access them. 

And the chalkboard! This is one of the first things we did to do this room and I love having yet another surface on which the kids can draw. It may be hard to tell, but the scene they have going on currently for October is some of their favorite things, which is dinosaurs and Alice in the Wonderland. 

ORCHIETTE WITH BUTTERNUT SQUASH, SAUSAGE AND KALE

This is one of the ways I've been greeting fall. Hellooooo butternut squash! Helllooo carbs to fatten, I mean warm, me up! Helllloo easy meal!

This is what I do: 

1) cut up butternut squash into small pieces (or get the pre-cut kind) and roast in oven with a little salt and pepper for 20 min in 400 degree oven  

2) sauté sausage or bacon (cut-up)

3) sauté kale or arugula in the leftover grease from sausage or bacon 3) 

4) cook the orchiette (we love this pasta because its shape allows it to cup flavor and little bacon pieces, and the small size allows for manageable bites)

5) combine all together and add grated Parmesan if you'd like 

That's it! 

It's hearty, simple, and seasonal. I've been making different variations of this with great success, my next attempt is going to be a vegetarian (and more budget friendly) variation with cannellini beans and a hefty amount of garlic. 

STATE FAIR! VERSION 2016

One of the things that marks the beginning of fall for me is the Virginia state fair, which we have tried to go to every year, last year being an exception because it rained for that entire week. Even with all the crowds, and the parking spaces a mile away, and the overpriced food, I'm a sucker for it because I am in love with the idea of state fairs in general. I am probably thinking about fairs from long ago when these fairs would be the main event of the year, and people would come from all over bringing their animals and novelties to share. I also think of Charlotte's Web, and even when we are exhausted by hour three of walking, I'm grateful to be spending all of those hours outdoors.

My favorite part of the fair is seeing all of the cows, sheep, and horses from nearby farms that their owners bring out to show off. These animals are so beautiful and their owners are so proud of them- you can see it in their eyes. It's a joy for me, which is doubled by the wonder in Sloane and Logan his eyes as they behold the animals. The areas where they have the livestock also have stations where they are giving the sheep a haircut or milking the cows. It's something that our kids don't get to see on a regular basis, so I am so happy for them to see it.

We went this year with friends from DC, who stopped by on their way back home from the beach, and going with friends made it even more fun.

I would just like to take a moment to compare this moment to the very first year that Sloane was at the state fair: if you scroll down to the very bottom of that post you can see how she felt about those cows back then.

This is the only photo I was able to get of them together. They are constantly in motion! 

No but seriously, is there a way that we can somehow own a horse someday?

Bag o' grapes. 

Looking at the map and discussing where will go to next! 

look, red velvet funnel cake!

Victory! She was very happy about her giraffe, which she named Daisy, and which she has been carrying around all week long. 

Look at her face! All big girl. This here is her on the pony ride (her very first time) two years ago at the state fair. I don't know what to do with the storm that is this time warp in my brain.

 These next few photos are from my friend who captured the best shot of the three of them from that day, and also the setting sun as we staggered back to our cars after our adventures that afternoon.

Until next year, state fair!