Run, Sela, Run!

One of these days I'll take some decent photos of Sela's cross country meets. I always get too excited and distracted with the race. Here's my pitiful attempt.

This is the beginning of the race. Sela is in front with the red shorts.

Stiffer competition this week.

Zig made sure to cheer Sela on at as many parts of the course he could get to. Unfortunately, he often got in the way of my photos. Sela is that little shadow in the background.Maybe I should have titled this post "Run, Zig, Run."

She pulled ahead here and never looked back.

This is the final stretch. These girls ran so hard! Yea Sela!

Nina!

With all of Sela's cross country and tennis, Rollin's stunts, and Evan's babyhood naturally grabbing the spotlight, I realized I hadn't written about just Nina in a long time! And things are certainly happening in this girl's life! She is loving school and her friends, her teacher and riding the bus. She is a creature of habit. Every single night when I tuck her in bed, her last words, after having me inform her of all the activities of the following day, are "snuggle you in the morning, don't forget, sleep tight and don't close the door, I love you so much." Every single night. (And she says it SUPER fast. She can't sleep without this ritual. And her pink blanket. I like her parting words much better than Rollin's, "Please don't die Mom! Goodnight"  In the morning, she never, ever forgets to make her bed. She's a great example to her sister, brother, and DAD.




My newest role in Nina's life is "starter of the apple." As in, "Mom, can you start this apple for me?"  She lost her two front teeth in a matter of weeks. I'm sure her constant wiggling hurried the process along. When the hole remains for a year, we'll know why :)



Nina and her best little buddy Kate were voted ASB reps for their class. They will meet with the other representatives from the other grades to plan fun activities for the school, which is right up Nina's alley.

Nina is my best helper with Evan, and most importantly, she watches him like a hawk to make sure he is safe. She is so concerned about him and has such a little mother instinct about her. She has a great singing voice and likes to use it, but don't try and join her mid song. That will send her into orbit if your name happens to be Sela or Rollin. She is high emotion, high energy, and likes to feel special and unique, and she is.

We all love our little Nina!

free day, free bird

I opened my eyes this morning to find the sun streaming through the windows. The combination of nowhere to be and sunshine is a recipe for a perfect Saturday in my book. Zig and Rollin snuck out of the house before 7 to get a mountain bike ride in and Evan and I snuggled until he finally forced me up with a very determined bite to the neck. He gets impatient and biting is his M.O., unfortunately. It's hard to believe someone so cute can be such a little monster when his wishes are not met.

                                                                 keeping those teeth busy

pumpkins

Errands can wait...the sun is out and I'll be staying home today.


The kids were scarcely seen all afternoon. Rollin and Nina were spies for at least 5 hours straight. Darting back and forth all over the yard. The bunnies got walks on the leashes and I spent some more time in the garden. Sela edited the play she's been working on for the past three weeks and started working on a series of friendly monster chronicles.

Right after lunch as I was changing Evan's diaper outside, I decided it was about time he had another "free bird" day. After all, he didn't get his fair share this summer. He is so happy to run free, and I don't blame him. I imagine if I were a baby, being free of that darn saggy diaper would pretty much rock. He got a nice 7 hour break from clothes, but don't even think about taking those boots. He has two pairs of furry booties and he cries at night when they have to come off. He loves his shoes and will run all over the house looking for them. I think his first word aside from "Ma" and "Da-Da" might be "shoes".

evan knows where all the food is on the property

I shook that tree just as hard as I could....

naked hammocking...this is the life!

Nina and Sela picked all the overgrown carrots for their rabbits. It's feast time in the barn tonight. I finally got around to pickling my beets. The only problem is I have to pace myself. I could eat the whole bowl in one sitting.

        pickled beets+feta+walnuts...a perfect combination

more tomatoes

The kids deemed the grapes ripe and started snacking on them...there are a few starting to turn, but the rest are still fairly tart, although that did not deter them one bit. I noticed Evan snacking on an ornamental bush berry the other day. He thinks everything small and round and berry like is edible.

stems and all

So another mellow Saturday is wrapping up. With the school year and many good and fun activities filling our days, it is so important for the kids to have a nice long Saturday to be free to do their thing, whatever that may be.

homegrown tomatoes

We've had some funky weather this year...spring in January, winter in June, etc. So it's been an interesting year for gardening to say the least. Fortunately, we've had some real successes this year despite the lack of summer sun. We had bumper crops of strawberries, raspberries, kale, beets, carrots, cucumbers (many varieties), romaine lettuce, red leaf lettuce, rainbow chard, rhubarb, eggplant, peppers, fennel, herbs, squash, potatoes and tomatoes! We are getting so many wonderful varieties of tomatoes right now. Zig went with lots more cherry tomatoes this year which was a great choice. They are the perfect snack. I love the way my hands smell after picking tomatoes.




Last year I lamented (briefly) about the fact that our pumpkins didn't do too well, and how I wished there were more. And knowing Zig, would it surprise you to learn that we have dozens of pumpkins and gourds growing all over the place this year? They are everywhere and we have some pumpkins that are probably 50 pounds by now. There are Cinderellas and warty gourds and mini pumpkins. We have a patch in front, a garden bed devoted to them, and there are gourds growing on vines up the arbors. Oh, it's wonderful. I started decorating the house for fall and it was so much fun to go out to the garden and pick dark sunflowers and gourds for the table.

I love when summer and fall overlap...the time of year where we're still eating summer salads but also having butternut squash soup. In fact, this little stretch of time should be its own season. It would definitely be my favorite.

Tomato Goat Cheese Gratin...I could live on this.


Several crops also fizzled this year...red cabbage, cauliflower, snap peas, corn, and Zig's greenhouse attempt at watermelons. And all the stone fruit, of course, thanks to the weather. It's always a gamble and different every year. That's the beauty of living in the Pacific Northwest!

run, run, run

Wednesday was a good day for everyone. We scrambled in the morning to get lunches and breakfast and the house picked up for the house cleaner and out the door by 8:15. We were running late and barely slid into the bus stop just in time. I drove another 4 minutes to the tennis courts, dropped Evan and Rollin in the childcare with the super nice mom who is thankfully working there again and ran and played some singles. Unfortunately, amidst the rush and the creation of a big healthy breakfast for the kids, I forgot to eat myself. Doesn't happen often. I got shaky towards the end of our match, and then the thought about the breakfast occurred to me. I mean, I know I'm out of shape, but usually I don't feel so utterly tired out. We came home and cleaned up the house, made lunch, played outside and picked veggies in the garden. Rollin went to preschool and our new babysitter came over to play with Evan while I went back to play doubles. Twice in one day doesn't happen much, but I filled in for someone at the last minute. After the match, I remembered Sela needed new running shoes so I made a mad dash to pick those up. When I came home Zig was back. He flew back from Mountain View to see Sela's cross country meet only to turn around this morning and head back down to the valley at 5am. But it meant a lot to Sela...even if we MISSED HER RUN!  I got a new little camera to keep in my purse and I was planning to video Sela today, finally. As I was talking to my friend about how I was going to finally get some good footage and photos of Sela running, I heard cheering, looked up and what do you know, it's Sela crossing the finish line. I missed it again. At the last minute her Coach asked her to run against the 6th graders, who happen to run first. The races go from oldest to youngest so typically Sela is right in the middle. I guess there wasn't time to tell us about the change. Luckily we were able to see the last five seconds where she came across the finish line, even though I was still wondering what was going on, whether this was a practice run or what. It was the real deal and Sela got 2nd place, and only by a hair. Zig thought for sure if he could have cheered for her during parts of the race, she would have won. He's her biggest fan :) Sela ran to as many parts of the course as she could to cheer for her friends in the 4th grade race, which was so much fun for her. 

We stopped by PCC on the way home to eat dinner and listen to Evan shriek like a crazed animal and then I dropped the girls off at art, which no matter what kind of day they've had or how tired they are, they always look forward to with such anticipation. When they came home we all sat at the table together while the girls did homework, I worked on my calendar, Rollin colored and taped stuff, and Zig read. Thankfully, we have a very unscheduled and lazy day today. And more sun in the forecast. I think I'll stay home all afternoon and finally make something out of all my beets!

highlights of the week

Sela had her first cross country meet of the season. She was nervous and excited and then nervous some more. Just as school let out, the rain started to pour and I felt a cancellation was likely. We headed to the host school anyway and as we drove up, the rain quit and the meet was on. We didn't race at this school last year and I was a little surprised to find it had a HUGE hill that the kids called heartbreak hill. I was tired just watching them run up the thing! After the big hill, the kids run out of sight and then aren't really able to be seen until they round the last corner and head to the finish line. Sela was neck-n-neck with her good friend Morgan (an incredible sprinter!) on the uphill, and I thought there was a good chance Morgan might pull ahead on the downhill. But as the runners approached and the cheering started, out Sela popped in front of the pack. I was so excited for her. She ran her little heart out. All the HH girls did really well and I think the 4th grade girls took 1st through 5th place. And there was lots of hugging and laughter at the finish line.These kids really support each other!




Sela and Morgan

Jasmine, Gracie, Morgan,  Annie and Sela...such a fun group of girls!

 I played my first competitive singles match in 16 years on Friday. And let me just tell you how wierd it feels to say 16 YEARS! How is that even possible? Where has the time gone? I still feel like I'm 25. Erin and I were talking about that on the phone this week. She feels much the same way. I remember my last high school singles match like it was yesterday and now I have four kids and I life I could not have imagined back then. Never would have thought I'd be (somewhat) settled in Washington for sure. It's all strange even to think about. But anyway, back to the tennis. I kind of got thrown in at the last minute to play on a Cup team this year. But that's another story. My first match took place on Friday and it was really tough. No one warned me, but apparently this lady was a 5.0  and one of the top players. We had a close match, but I was behind at the buzzer so the win went to my opponent.  I really did not expect to lose, I don't know why, but I was way too tentative, played it safe, and she made me pay. But it was awesome to be competing again. And I'd definitely rather play hard players because that is the quickest way to get back to my game. I was dripping with sweat at the end...I could have wrung out my clothes, and to be able to get that kind of workout at something I love, well, I'm pretty stoked about that. My teammates are great women, they play hard, but they don't take it too serious. They have lives and kids and balance and are just playing for fun. They're all business on the court, but all laughs afterwards. I lucked out because at this level not all teams are like that, some take it WAY too seriously.

  Aside from playing tennis a few times this week, I stayed home a lot during the day. I tried to prepare meals in the morning so our evenings would go smoother and that was very helpful. I took some time to read. I have a huge stack of books beside my bed calling my name. I carted the kids around in the afternoon, but because I had lots of downtime in the morning, I wasn't too worn out. Here's what we had for dinner:

Monday: Warm Butternut Squash and Chickpea Salad
Tuesday: Wild Rice Cherry Soup
Wednesday: Sengalese Peanut Soup (recipe coming)
Thursday: Crisp Black Bean Tacos with feta and slaw
Friday: Goat Cheese Ravioli with Tomato Sauce    Saturday: Tomato Goat Cheese Crostini (my favorite summer meal)  Sunday: Grilled Salmon, Greek salad, and potatoes For family night, we made Eclairs before Sela taught the lesson. Sela has been wanting to learn how to make them since she had one at a bakery this summer. Rollin and I made the dark chocolate icing during the day and the girls and I made the filling and shells and put them all together in the evening. I'm glad it takes several steps to make these things so I won't be tempted to do it too often!  

Blogger is really acting up and I'm tired of re-doing stuff so I'm going to have to cut it short tonight and prepare for the week ahead.

what's for dinner?

evan likes to follow me around in the garden. he especially loves to "harvest" green tomatoes and other almost ripe fruit and veggies. we had fun trying to make a meal out of what we picked this week. with our broccoli we made a delicious broccoli and cheddar soup. I loved this recipe because it used the stalks and the heads of the broccoli so nothing was wasted. we also made a tomato and cucumber salad and blueberry peach bars for dessert.

we love checking on our pumpkins and gourds. we have an incredible crop this year. thank you ZIG!

and we always pick flowers.


mycute little model and my really bad photos. missing my camera :(

savory breakfasts

I've been trying to add more savory breakfast ideas (preferably vegetarian) to my repetoire. Now that the kids are back in school, I am saving pancakes for the weekend and trying to curb their little sweet tooths (teeth?) to prepare for flu season and to put them in the best frame of mind for learning and staying focused. I'm also re-reading a book about cancer and there is such a huge connection between over-consumption of  sugar (even in natural forms), the immune system, and ultimately disease. I think we can all do better in this area, Zig and I included. So anyway, the point of this post is that I tried a new recipe this weekend that is a perfect easy, healthy breakfast and it fits my criteria for savory breakfasts. I don't mind spending a little extra time in the morning to prepare breakfast because it is such an important meal, but this recipe is super fast. The recipe is for Okonomiyaki, or Japanese Pizza and it disappeared in a flash! Cabbage is one vegetable that everyone in our family totally loves and the bulk of this pizza is leeks and cabbage.  It got the thumbs up from the three oldest. Evie had already eaten his peaches and eggs by the time I made the real breakfast (he's my earliest bird), but I think he would like it too. When I read some of the reader comments on 101 Cookbooks, I noticed many said this pizza is served with a sauce made of mayonaise and tamari in Japan, or at least some mayonaise/soy sauce concoction. So I mixed some tamari and mayonaise and this simple sauce did make the dish perfect. We had chives from our garden for garnish and toasted almond slices. And ours looked just like the picture on 101, only my camera is broken and had to be sent back to Nikon to hopefully be fixed. Sadness.

Anyway, I'll post more keepers as I find them. I'm on the hunt!

* I also found this recipe at Mothering with some additional ideas for Okonomiyaki.

goodbye summer??

I enjoy blogging, but I hate doing catch-up blogs, which is why I usually try to post fairly often. But I fell off the blog wagon and have more catching up to do than I have time for. So I'll just blurt out a few things and try and find some pictures (because that's all you want anyway, right Mom?)

Zig took 3 weeks off from ALL work at the end of the summer. And that was heaven. He didn't take time off and do projects around the house. He didn't organize, build something, or help me decorate the house. That may or may not be because Eric is too busy right now to build a bike park in our forest :) Anyway, there was no shopping for art or furniture which has taken up a great deal of our extra time the past couple of years. Nice to have most of that behind us for this house. There wasn't even much gardening, other than just mild weeding, picking, admiring, and dinking around in the greenhouse. He hung out, played with the kids, took them mountain biking a lot, to skate parks, and on outings. They ate it up. So did I. I played tennis five times in one week and it was so nice to be able to play any time of day without thinking about who would watch the kids. I'm quickly meeting people to play with and joined a team that plays other clubs on Fridays in the fall.  The rust is slowing starting to wear off, and that feels GREAT! Wondering why I waited so long. I love it.

We went to Whistler for Labor Day with the Hendershotts. This family is spontaneous and very fun. I think they've done more hikes in their two years here than we have in ten. I questioned their sanity when they said they wanted to stay together in Whistler because you know, we have four (sometimes) crazy kids, and they have one very well-behaved and darling boy, Rune. But they are obviously not only spontaneous but also adventurous! We biked with them the weekend before and casually talked about biking in Whistler as we were eating lunch after our ride. Somehow, by the next Friday, we were on the road to British Columbia with eight bikes between us. Whistler was quite the mountain biking mecca. Broc had been before and he's got some serious skills. Zig and Broc rented downhill bikes in Whistler and after our ride with the kids, where Sela hit a tree and Rollin crashed in a ditch, they headed off on their own for the afternoon to ski the crazier tougher runs. They returned in one piece and Zig was already talking about our next trip back to Whistler!

Ready to ride (well, some of us)

Can we go yet???


Ketsy (6 months pregnant), was so kind to watch Evan while we rode.


It was hard to take pictures on the trail but I got a couple non-action shots.

Sela pre-crash.


There was an awesome kid area with all kinds of jumps, ramps and obstacles (I'm sure there are more correct terms for this stuff).




rollin psyching himself up for the see-saw
Nina and Rune at the hot tub


On Sunday we had a picnic at these falls after church.

I told Rollin and Rune to make a funny face (since all Rollin's faces are funny faces) and Rune said "I am making one!" So cute.



School started last week. I had grand visions of being organized, having a special back to school meal, goal setting session, etc, but I just wasn't ready for school this year, plain and simple. I was too busy milking every last drop out of summer. I did take the girls for their back-to-school pedicures, which are almost a necessity after the way their feet are nearly permanently stained with dirt from the long days outside. The one other thing I did do in preparation was stare at a huge calendar for hours and hours trying to get everyone's activities organized and falling midweek. My strategy this year is to try and keep weekends free and schedule most activies on Tues, Wed, and Thurs. It's not easy, but I think it's going to mostly work. Sela is going to be doing cross country,tennis team (3X a week), and art.  Nina is in gymnastics (with Micah again), tennis, and art. Rollin has preschool and gymnastics because they happened to have a class for his age group at the same time as Nina. Nobody begging for soccer this year. HALLELUJAH!

We didn't start getting the kids in bed earlier to ease the transition, we didn't make a big trip for back to school shopping but rather picked up a few needed items when we were out, we barely got pictures the morning of. The one thing I did do was make a nice warm breakfast, but I always make breakfast. I managed to get little notes into the lunch boxes, and that's pretty much it this year. Somehow the kids still felt very excited, and special on their first day of school. They all woke up on time, seemed pleasant, and made it to the bus. Sela opted for her older well-worn clothes, rather than her new ones, because she wanted to be prepared just in case it was PE day. Love that girl.





We gave big hugs and off they went. I didn't meet them at the school this year for another round of pictures as they bounced off the bus and even more  hugs. They were happy to have each other and venture off without me. Normally I would have gone anyway, but I had a tennis match, and I thought, well, they're happy so what's the big deal? At the end of the day Zig, Rollin, Evan and I met them at the bus. They came off the bus smiling, overflowing with details,and seriously excited about teachers, friends, and a new year. The first thing Nina said was "Mom, I loved it, and I WASN'T TIRED!!!" I think she had heard me mention to friends in conversation that I was worried at how Nina would do being away all day. But she did fine and she has the same teacher Sela had, Mrs. Struthers. She's a very nurturing teacher and has an abundance of energy. Perfect combo for Nina.




We fed the horses apples on our way home, a sure sign of fall.




Rollin started Mrs. Judy's preschool this week. Obviously, no hesitation there, only about a million "is it time yets?" He ran right on in, went straight to the toys he's been admiring for the two years Nina was at Judy's, and took his rightful turn! They have a wonderful class with great kids and moms as well. We have a sweet little carpool this year, and that alone makes my life much easier. I'll only drive one day a week. Yippee! Zig adn I were a little concerned about Rollin transitioning from "nature boy" to "school boy" so we had lots of talks about where to go when you need to go potty and you're playing outside. I hope his mind can overcome his instincts!! Oh boy, life on the farm.






We tried to get a normal smile...it's apparently all or nothing for this boy.

Ah, there's the smile! Happy to be at Mrs. Judy's

Very happy

Zig went back to work this week, and life seems to be moving along pretty swell. I am amazed at how well the girls jumped right back into their school year habits. I filled out the literal mountain of PTA forms the very first day so as not to have that looming over me and I'm slowly getting excited for fall. I have no choice I guess. The weather is getting cooler, the pumpkins are getting bigger, and it's time to pull out the jackets that were packed up for oh, about 6 weeks.

So a very hesitant and reluctant goodbye to summer 2010. We took it way easy and this was my favorite summer by far. Let this be a lesson, Ashley, that less is often more!!!