family day @ the pumpkin patch

Not what you were envisioning?

Were you thinking something more like this?:

Yes. Us too.

But when you head the pumpkin patch the day before Halloween to buy your cherubs some pumpkins to paint and carve and it's pouring down rain, you have to make do.

We've actually been to two different pumpkin patches this month, for a bday party and harvest festival, but never purchased any for our family decorations.

Good 'ole Trader Joe's to the rescue. 

We bought the tiniest pumpkins known to man (definitely not what I had in mind for this craft) and again, made do.

I also whipped up some bats Friday afternoon for our one other Halloween decoration.

Yeesh, next year I have to get my H'ween act together!!

Luckily our next door neighbor's get way into it so we just hang out over there a lot.

Happy Halloween!

into the mind of a six-year-old

I love being the mom of a 1st grader. 

Owen drew this yesterday.

As he explained:

the earth is exploding 

so the sun is cracking

and everyone is jumping into to the water to survive.

I would love to get inside that mind of his on a day to day basis. 
He's learning so much every single day and my pretty tight lipped kid comes running to me after school bursting with information. 
(It is a burst though so if you miss anything than forget it, you'll have to wait until he's swelled with emotion again.)
Clearly, he's dealing with a lot of information.


Our Starfish girl turned 9 last week:

And some other random sightings:

Roasted kabocha squash soup

A couple of weeks ago I spotted some kabocha squash @ the Farmer's Market. I have been reading about how nutrient packed it is but had never run into it. So I scooped it up, headed home and google'd a recipe.

The first one I found was this one. 

It sounded right up my alley (coconut milk, carmelized onions, roasting the squash, yum!) so I decided not to overwhelm myself with an exhaustive search for the best recipe and went with this one.

O.

M.

G.

Winner winner. 

It's the super (I won't go there with 'souper') duperest. 

I think this is mainly due to the fact that kabocha squash is just incredibly delicious. 

Warning though. 

Sharpen your cleaver. 

This baby doesn't give like a butternut squash. 

It's gonna take some work to cut 'er open.

Pick a time when you're frustrated and need to vent some of that emotion. 

Don't worry though if you're all blissed out when you take on the task.

You'll find yourself extremely frustrated very quickly.

But, it's so worth it!

The first time I made it I added a dollop of plain yogurt and sunflower seeds to the top.

The second time I made goat cheese croutons:

cut goat cheese into rounds.

dip rounds in egg, then whole grain ground cornmeal.

freeze 30-60 minutes.

brown 1 minute each side in a tsp. of olive oil or butter.

plop on top of soup.

slurp in the delicious, nourishing, and nutritious bowl of goodness surrounded by the ones you love.♥

$5 Slow Food Challenge

I just typed up this week's homework assignment for my classes and this is what it is (kinda. they have to write a reflection about their experience too).

Wanna do it with us?

If you haven't checked out Slow Food USA before, it is pretty great. 

Also, I read this post over @ MADE today and wanted to chime in about that book!

It's so beautiful. 

I pre-ordered it to get half off and I love, love, super love it. 

(Maya told me today that she loved Halloween Joe Joe's and Owen told her if she loved 'em so much she should marry them...oh brother.)

I haven't had time to really savor it but my initial peeks were inspiring. Oodles and oodles of gorgeous design ideas. Love it.

Have you heard of this guy?

He's (recently) 100 and runs marathons. 

Whoa.

Kinda weird but I thought about him yesterday while I was running and was getting tired. If this fella can rock 26.2 miles at 100 I can certainly get my booty thru 13 miles.

:)

13.1

We did it!

My favorite 4-year-old grabbed my high-fiving-hand as I ran past and kept on running with me through the finish line.

It was one of the sweetest moments of my life.

They gave her a 13.1 Girlfriends Half Marathon necklace at the finish line too.

Once I can walk like a normal person again I'm off to prepare for this one!!

music notes

We had a full-on family booty shake last night to this tune:

Which was totally great to me because the first words to a non-kid song Owen learned were: 'shut your eyes and sing to me.' 

I remember my sweet little toddler, snug as a bug in his car seat, rocking his little body to and fro, singing those words over and over.

Thanks Snow Patrol!

We also had a full-on family sing-along last weekend as we drove to the pumpkin patch. Upon Soulemama's recommendation I picked up some of Elizabeth Mitchell cd's @ the library. Freight Train was the tune we belted together but this tune is very lovely as well: 

In other music news: my new favorite grading papers musical accompaniment is the Ray LaMontagne station on Pandora. So lovely. 

Except, ugh, this is an admittance of how old I am. 

I use to like my music a lot more rockin'. I'm hopin' Owen brings the rock -n roll back into our lives. He definitley seems to be drawn to that kind of a sound.

I've pledged allegiance to the NPR blogs before but as the days pass I love them more and more. I could spend all day, every day on the All Songs Considered site and blog. To-tally wish I could have been here. What a dream. 

And, OM's dream:

These cookies baked weekly. Mmm.

And I'll leave you with this quote, emailed to me by the Event Director of the half-marathon, to keep up morale:

Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming --WOW--What a ride!

prom 1992

my sister texted me these photos today.

they made me smile.

In case this blast from the past doesn't put a grin on your face, perhaps this will:

Between my new job and all the running I'm doing to train for my half-marathon I feel like a mix of this guy:

and this guy:

SFH sent me this really excellent bag to carry all my academic paraphernalia. 

It's made out of truck tarpaulins, seat belts, airbags and inner tubes.
It smells like it's been places, I love it!

This is a clip we'll be watching tomorrow in Health class:

Happy Sunday!