Breakfast can get boring around here. I surprise the kids with muffins or cinnamon rolls or bagels approximately… four times a year (that’s the official number). It’s usually yogurt and granola, eggs, or apples and peanut butter. Repeat. Again and again.
five things i’m absolutely loving right now.
one. steve was away last week for about 4 days. on day 3, parker was walking around holding our family christmas card from last year. i looked down at him and saw tears on his cheeks. “what is it buddy?!” he looks up and just says, “dad.” they have the most precious relationship. he always wants to be sitting on or near steve, they cuddle every morning, they read stories together every night. that boy loves his dad.
two. i watched the first episode of this is us the other day after someone on facebook suggested it might fill the parenthood void that like 90% of us still have deep inside our souls. (do you? i do. and on that note, FNL is close behind.) so far, so good. and it closed with a song that i cannot stop listening to. please go listen to it right now. “watch me” by labi siffre. it’s the sort of song that makes me sit back and take stock of my life and my many blessings and feel it all. you feel me?
three. mums! i have yellow ones outside, and a white one on my counter, and i love them. i also love how hardy they are for this brown thumb. plants that i have to really try to kill?! sign me up.
four. a tomato sauce that literally requires 4 ingredients of me. 4 ingredients. i made marcella hazan’s tomato sauce last week and i know i sound really hoity-toity when i throw around this beautiful, foreign name like marcella hazan followed by tomato sauce as though she called me up and shared the recipe with me herself. in truth: i am neither hoity-toity nor am i friends with marcella hazan–though, since she came up with a tomato sauce that takes 4 ingredients, i’d sort of like to be. (marcella? call me?) i found it when one of my dear readers commented about it on this post. said reader also called them “tinned tomatoes” instead of canned which sounds way lovelier rolling off the tongue. all in all, it was a positive discovery. one mistake. i made ina’s meatballs with it and then finished their cooking process in the sauce so i feel like i didn’t really get the truest read on the sauce but what i could tell was that it had a good flavor (hello! butter!) and that i will absolutely be trying it again (but doubling. i think it was still a little scant for 1 pound of pasta though it claims to be enough.). enough about sauce!
five. this perfect fall scarf. i’m something of a scarf-collector, maybe even hoarder. i don’t collect many things (though me and a friend collected covergirl ads when we were in middle school. i thought of it recently when i saw nikki taylor in an ad in real simple. she was one of my favorite cover girls at the time. well this is one random side note.) anyway, that is really a perfect one in length/thickness/color. do i need yet another?!
weekend links.
A picture from last weekend–some of the littlest cousins altogether. Isn’t this adorable? Love those faces. Hope you have a good weekend! Here’s some reading…
21 months of Anders.
Almost 22 months old and crazy as can be, that’s our Anders. He’s sassy and sweet and cuddly (except when he wants to nurse and you’re not nursing. Then cuddling will not suffice and don’t even touch him because he’s mad). He has an extra swingy left arm when he runs around the backyard, compared to his right which only so slightly swings. He copies everything Parker does, and wants a bun on his burger–like the rest of us–not just pieces of burger on a plate.
chicken divan and meal ruts.
My sister came over yesterday and I sighed, walking circles around the kitchen, “I have to make dinner again?” She nodded her head in agreement. What a nuisance. It’s not like a project where you can clap your hands together and marvel at your completed work with satisfaction. It’s never done. It comes around again and again, every 24 hours roughly, and for most mothers about 10 hours after breakfast and 6 after lunch. (Never mind all the snacking in between.)
a surprise party for steve.
for the last many days (weeks!), i’ve been totally preoccupied with plans for a surprise party for steve’s upcoming birthday (it’s a big one; steve, mind if i tell ’em? 5-0!). i had one particular night when from about 4 am on i had total monkey brain (you know, that middle-of-the-night thought pattern when everything seems way more stressful than it really is in the light of day?) and was going over all the details of the party from cups to napkins to timing to getting steve out of the house, so on and so forth. but, the party was saturday night, and it was a huge success!
weekend links.
Swimming in a sea of sunflowers. One more from that beautiful night. Hope you guys have a wonderful weekend. Here’s a few links for weekend reading…
sunflowers.
There’s not a flower that declares itself full of summer more than the sunflower. And yet, these ones waited until the very end, the last trickling days when the mornings require sweatshirts and the evenings tea, to show themselves. It’s like one last little hurrah before the leaves start to change. Eight days left, and these beauties have only just arrived.
taking stock / 16
The sadness fog of the whole back to school phase is starting to lift and I’m accepting, even welcoming, these cool mornings and nights that fall brings. Hey, I even had a Shipyard Pumpkinhead the other day. Plus, look at those cute (censored) boys in the bath. Hard to stay in a bummer mood for long when they’re around.
Making: I made this soup the other day and I liked it. Any new soups that should be in my rotation??? Please share! I love soups (or one-pot meals in general!). Also, I’m going to try to start sharing my weekly meal plans over here if I get my act together!
Drinking: water and I’ve had a few cups of tea lately. That’s one nice thing about fall. The return of tea in the evenings. (I don’t do it all summer long; do you?) My favorites are the Yogi bedtime tea (so much better than most bedtime teas) and Traditional Medicinals Throat Coat. Parker drank a whole mug of Throat Coat the other day when he had a cough and he really liked it too.
Reading: still reading Catastrophic Happiness.
Wanting: this throwback tee.
Listening: to a lot of Magic Treehouse audiobooks in the car; Parker loves it. Whenever we’re in the car we just pick up where we left off (except really short rides). We get them out at the library. Highly recommend!
Playing: with play-dough and lots of it.
Wishing: that we have a wonderful fall and that the trees hang onto their colorful leaves as long as possible.
Using: this shampoo but really not sure it’s doing anything for volume. Any favorites in that department?
Enjoying: the smell of my new fall candle; $5 from Marshalls and I love it.
Loving: when William empties the dishwasher in the morning just because; it’s really sweet.
Watching: the latest season of OITNB; it’s so much darker than the others. And the Lolly storyline broke my heart.
one last beach day.
That desperate scramble has begun, nay, it’s in full force: do all of the things before the warm weather leaves us! That’s just what I had in mind last Friday when I grabbed the boys and headed to one of our favorite beaches for the afternoon. Is it going to be the last beach day? There’s a good chance of that, I’m afraid. I’m already talking about apple picking this week. That is just so fall.