Everyday Life for Four Seasons

Today:

We picked up our first fall CSA share at the farmer's market and were surprised to find so much food in our share;

Dinner with friends, who enjoyed the fresh-picked veggies and want to join the CSA too;

Rain, which is a nuisance on one hand but on the other is much needed by the plants and trees;

Love, all around.

We've been running around lately, doing all of the following and more:

*Visiting the Brookside Museum to learn about harvest days back in the 19th century

*Picking up our vegetables at the farm (I have so much produce in the house, it's unbelievable! We're definitely having squash soup for dinner tomorrow)

*Welcoming our pellet stove and feeling happy about the wonderful heat it gives us

*Enjoying the warm weather this week

*This one is just about me - I've working a bit this week on a new project (computer stuff, design stuff)

*Sewing Halloween costumes


Enjoy your autumn weekend!

I think I love turning leftovers into bread even more than I love turning them into veggie burgers. Tonight I made roasted root veggie bread, using the celeriac, sweet potato, turnip, onion, garlic and rosemary mix I made on Saturday. I made up the recipe and it's my first try at using vegetables in yeast bread, so bear with me... but it can be done! Here's what I did:

Dissolve 2 teaspoons yeast in 1 1/4 c. warm water
add:
1 cup roasted root veggies
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 Tablespoons olive oil
3 Tablespoons wheat gluten (to make up for the lack of gluten in the vegetables)
3 + cups of flour, enough to make a soft dough

Mix it together and knead until soft and smooth. I let it rise once in a greased bowl until doubled and then a second time in two bread tins. I baked it at 425 for 30 minutes. It came out of the oven hard as a rock but softened up as it cooled. This is a bread that goes well with soup!

We decided to "Ghost" a neighborhood family with young children and a neighbor who is older, just to spread the love over the generations and see what happens. Each ended up with two ghost pictures to hang on their door because we got going on making ghosts and couldn't stop. 'A' delivered the goods!

I'm rethinking 'H's fainting spells. A while ago, after we had a visit with her pediatrician about it, they stopped just as suddenly as they had started. I thought it was over. But it's creeping back in. I would still think nothing of it if it was just a fainting spell and nothing else, but I can't help but notice that she is a wee bit sleepy for the rest of the day after each spell. That concerns me. I think I'm going to bring her to a pediatric neurologist after all.

We walked forever today, partly to enjoy the nice weather, partly to run some errands in town. 'A's gold shoes are cute but not great for walking - ahhh... to learn such life lessons so young...


This afternoon I kicked a soccer ball around the house a few times and made us all run after it. I'll be dreaming of these days in a few months when my house is an island in a sea of snow!

Jeff made candy apples with the girls today. They're very excited to eat them tonight and I'm excited for them. Now that they made them and I tasted the candy, I know why I never thought to make them at home. The corn syrup sweetness is sooo not my thing. The apples are almost as unappealing as Candy Corn.

Luckily, I won't be around for the candy apple feast, because I'll be at my small group tonight, meeting with some thoughtful women to discuss life issues. For this group, I took time today to make apple muffins, a new recipe, one that turned out quite well.


I had the most wonderful dream last night. 'A' and 'H' asked (as usual) for our coin jar so they could play with the coins. I said yes (this never happens in real life). We ended up at my mother's house, at the Cape, out on the flats at low tide. The girls had great fun tossing the coins in the air, burying them and finding them over and over again, and scattering them everywhere. Before long, the tide started to come in. The sun was low in the sky, and it hit the surface of the water in a way that made everything sparkle. Big, bright sparkles were all around. I saw the scene from above, and what I saw were coins scattered for miles, as far as the eye could see, surrounded by shimmering sparkles. When I looked closer, I saw that the coins had grown in both size and denomination. The pennies because giant $100 coins. The dimes were enormous and the quarters were even bigger. What made me so happy was understanding that none of it was for us anymore. It was there for anyone who needed it. Whoever needed money to buy food or shelter could come and take some of this gigantic, sparkling money and use it to fulfill their needs. My girls had taken something of ours and in the process of enjoying it, they watched it grow, and it became something far bigger than what it had been.

The funny thing is, although the dream was about money, I don't think the money represented money to me at the time. I think it represented ideas, thoughts and feelings. I woke up with the feeling that my family had done something magical to change the world for the better. Wow, what a great feeling.

When we rejoined our CSA this year, I made a promise to myself to try everything we received. We did, with the exception of the fennel and the cauliflower (it took me so long to be in the mood for both of those vegetables, and by the time I was in the mood, they were past their prime, bigtime). Last week we got celeriac. In the past, we threw it out. Not this year! Tonight I braised it with turnips, onions and sweet potatoes (all from the farm). It wasn't bad. I'm not a fan of celery or the celery flavor, so it's not something I would seek out, but I will use it if it's given to me again. I can see how it would be good in soup.


This morning we picked apples at a local orchard and we decided to try some new varietals. Wow, apples in New York are just heavenly! We tried and loved Shamrock and Ambrosia apples for eating. Shamrocks are so sweet and all around delightful. We also picked some Macouns, Empires and Pinovas. Pinovas you say? They're spicy and tasted just right in the salad we had with lunch after we got home. All in all we have 5 big bags of apples ready to be turned into snacks, applesauce, muffins and assorted desserts. Yum!


This afternoon 'A' took my camera and shot this one (above) of 'H'.


... some family Candyland before dinner...

and just when we were ready to sit down to eat, our doorbell rang. We've been ghosted! Our neighbor left us a bag of treats with a ghost to hang on our door and a note explaining that we have two days to ghost another neighbor. I'm excited! I get to ghost two neighbors. Hmmm... this gives me something to think about (as if I need something else to think about!).

To follow up on yesterday's post about the yarn, we use yarn for play and for sewing projects, too. 'A' has been experimenting with sewing with yarn. It all started when we visited Old Sturbridge Village a few weeks ago and one of the interpreters told me that girls would start to hand sew when they reached 4 years old. It makes sense to me - at 4, she's able to understand the concept of sewing and she's coordinated enough to do it. Ahhh... 4 year olds, how I love them. They can do so much!

'A's Grandma Shelly knitted a square that she uses with a tapestry needle and a ball of soft yarn. Today, for the first time, she set out to "make a pattern." And she did... she make a nice, big 'A'!



We had the chance to visit the Round Lake Library today to pick up some books I had requested (gems, they are: EcoCraft: Recycle, Recraft, Restyle by Susan Wasinger and Plenty: Eating Locally on the 100 Mile Diet by Alisa Smith and J.B. MacKinnon). The girls love that library because it's super-cozy (small) and the librarians are so nice and accessible. They like to walk up to the desk and ask for help finding books. Today the librarian took them away to another floor while I waited, and I was so proud of them for wanting the books, asking for help, and going without me to find their treasures.

Do we experiment with yarn? Yeah, we sure do! I took it away after 'H' got it wrapped around her neck. Fun to play with, but only under supervision.

Two weeks left of picking up our vegetables at the farm. I'm savoring the trips there and I don't want it to end. In some ways, it's not like much will change at our house - we'll be getting our produce from Kilpatrick Farm, and if you stop by for dinner at some point this winter I'll serve you local fare just as I would now. But I'll be missing the trips to the farm with the girls. It's become a delicious part of our weekly routine, a trip that is welcomed by all.

I guess the optimist in me should kick in at this point and say, "won't it be exciting to go back next summer and reaquaint ourselves with it all over again?"

Sometimes the optimist "me" moves along too quickly and doesn't take time to savor the bittersweet feelings that mark passages of time.

Invariably our kitchen table becomes a showcase for all that Mother Nature has to offer each season. Right now our display includes green, red and yellow leaves, milk weed pods, and a bowl full of acorns, birch bark and pinecones.

'A' just informed me that I've spent a lot of time at home with her and 'H' and now it's my turn to go to work and Jeff's turn to stay home with them. I bet if he stayed home the house would look like this more often:


Today is sewing day. 'A' wants to be a princess for Halloween and I'm making her a very cute dress to wear. I sat down to start putting it together today and while I worked, the girls worked on their own sewing and cutting projects. 'A' suggested to 'H' that she make a mobile for Aunt Emily's baby (Emily isn't pregnant and probably won't be for a while, but hey, why not plan ahead?), so 'H' got to work on cutting up the paper pieces.

I started the morning with two very grown up girls and I am so proud of them! I heard 'A' get out of bed this morning but didn't see her for a bit. She came downstairs completely dressed in a shirt and skirt and tights that all kind of matched - same color scheme, if not the same pattern. She took it upon herself to get up and get dressed for the day. We sat down to breakfast and in the middle of eating, 'H' got down from her chair (her big kid chair - we got rid of her booster seat over the weekend) and said, "I be right back." A minute later she was in the bathroom, taking care of business all by herself. I was so proud! My approach to potty training her is pretty much "hands off." She has enough role models around, and when she's ready, she'll figure out how it all works.

Today's events are a reminder that my girls are so old and so young all at the same time. I guess that's true of all of us.