strawberry jam

we made strawberry jam a few weeks ago. i used pectin and sweetened it with honey, which turned out delicious! the blueberry jam i made earlier this month called for 6 (!) cups of sugar, so this time i wanted to try something different. we have eaten it in some form or another everyday since i made it and today we are going to make soulemama's lemon scones, which i know will be fabulous with jam.

dirt

calvin loves to dig in dirt. so when we had to (re)plant the circle in the front of our house with some new hydrangeas and grasses, calvin was all over it. he loves to dig deep into the earth with his hands and squeeze the dirt. then he opens his hands and focuses in on seeing the tiny piece of earth that he is carrying.



the warm summer day ended with dinner on the beach, and my boys digging in sand and watching the water ebb and flow.

baby shower

i went a friend's baby shower on saturday. it was animal themed so i made these brownies (using ari's award winning recipe) and put animal crackers on top. the animal crackers added a nice little crunch. so good.

i made a quilt for the new little one. they do not know the gender so i went with yellow and orange. i used the pattern from here. all the fabrics were from my stash so they came from all different places at all different times.

i am back to work this week, part-time. i am looking forward to the predictability of a schedule, but not spending mornings with calvin depresses me a bit. i am eager to put my newly aquired masters degree in literacy to work.

summer cookin'

we have been on a quinoa kick and sam whipped this up the other night as a side for turkey burgers he was grilling. he sort of made up the recipe, but basically he stir fried asparagus, onion, garlic, and some curry powder. then added that mix to the cooked quinoa and added some feta. we loved it and best of all, calvin loved it too. yay! something we can all eat! it is so nice to make meal and everyone eats it.

we have tons of summer squash from the farmer's market right now so i made this summer squash pizza. i put the squash under the cheese which worked well. it cooked through and tasted delicious.

i also made this herbed summer squash and potato torte that i saw over at smittenkitten and i highly recommend this recipe (i also highly recommend looking at her sight because her pics are much better than mine...). we had it as a main dish, but it would make a great side. i cut the potatoes and squash by hand with a knife and it took me about 25 minutes, but a mandolin would make this a fast prep recipe.

it is a super nice august here in new england. it is a 'spend every moment outside' kind of nice. so we have been eating meals outside. we had a deer wander through the backyard the other night during dinner. calvin is now obsessed with deer. while playing outside he asks "where deer go?" when i answer that i am not sure he replies, "deer go home". this line of questioning repeats about every 15 minutes. i don't get tired of hearing his little inquisitive voice ask. so cute.

back to life, back to reality

we are back from the beach. it was a wonderful, relaxing break from all that has to get done everyday. although rain was predicted, the weather was perfect.

it was nice to be prefectly present with calvin. to dig in the sand, search for shells, watch a kite float on the wind with no timeline, no to-do list. one step closer to the mindful parent i hope to be for calvin.

it's your birthday..

we are on vacation at the beach right now. being here reminds me of how much i love the shore. i grew up at the ocean and i don't go enough anymore, partly because the connecticut beaches are not that great (especially swimming in the sound...) and partly because our schedule always seems filled with other stuff. calvin is loving it here. he digs, collects shells and plays in the water. he is so focused. figuring out how things work and how he can make them work. it is amazing to watch.

i love that i am getting a little less white and completing some old projects. my friend ari has always kept a birthday calendar and she is amazingly good at remembering to send a card and call on a friends big day (not a week late (or more...) which is the timeline i seem to be on).

i bought this beautiful birthday calendar from anthropology awhile ago on super sale. and i finally got the chance to fill it all in with the names of everyone i know next to their birth date. i am resolving to be better about remembering friends and family on their birthdays with a card and/or phone call. it is my mid-year resolution. (maybe this one will stick better than the ones i made in january...)

bag it!

last christmas my sister gave me a set of five envirosax reusable bags. they are awesome! all five bags roll up and fit into one little bag. i keep them in my purse or the diaper bag so that i actually have them with me at the store. not only are the bags stylish, but they open up to be huge and hold so much stuff.
they come in five different colors which makes color coding your groceries super easy. at the market i put all of the refrigerator stuff in the red bag so that when i get home if i have a crying or hungry baby i just have to unload the red bag and i can get the rest later. love it. i have the flora bags, but the retro and mikado are also super stylish. they also have plain and organic bags. get yours here.

1.5

today calvin is one and a half. crazy. in the last month he has changed so much. i try to savor each new word and discovered skill, celebrating with him when he accomplishes a new task and exclaims "i did it!". i try to remember it all, sometimes i remember to write it down.

the humidity took the day off here... so we are enjoying the day outside. i made this airplane library tote for calvin. i used timtex so that it would be super sturdy. i wanted it to be able to stand up on its own so that at the library i can just put it down and calvin can fill it with his book choices. i added one single strap to make it easy for calvin to carry it. he is "mr. i can do it all by myself" lately. calvin is into airplanes right now (ever since his cousin left on an airplane...) so when i found this fabric here i had to get it for him.

we are going to dine outside tonight (calvin's favorite place to eat) and have happy 1/2 birthday blueberry pie for dessert. perfect.

trippy

calvin and i took the train down to visit my family last weekend. he had never really seen a train before. we had been reading a few books from the library on trains to prepare but he still had trepidations about the whole idea of the train once it arrived in the station and he had to say goodbye to daddy and get on. it was packed so i just grabbed a seat next to a friendly looking fellow, but just as we sat down a super nice lady, who had an empty seat next to her, gave us her seats. (she said she had 18 month old twins at home so she new that we needed the space... so sweet. i renews my faith in nice people in the world that sometimes nyc can beat out of me) i brought some trader joe's freeze dried strawberries for the trip. they saved the trip. calvin loved them and would sit very still while eat them. it was a nice break from the zillions of trips up and down the aisles of the train cars. the train was much more fun for calvin than the 5+ hour car ride.

at my dad's calvin loved the dogs! he giggled when they licked him (which they did every chance they got).

my step-mom's garden is amazing and inspiring. we picked green beans and tomatoes and many colorful hydrangeas. calvin loved picking and looking at the beans. i hope to get a garden going here in the next year.

calvin when on his first merry-go-round. even though grammy held him the whole time, he was not sure of what was going on. he had a confused/scared look on his face. but he made it through the ride and it was darn cute to see him go around on that horse.

blueberry jam

the plethora of blueberry picking has led me to jam making. i have never made jam before, but i read about it here and was inspired. i got a few books from the library and read as much as i could about preserving fruits and making jam.

i found a recipe in one of the books for blueberry jam that did not require any pectin (since i did not have any). then i set to work. lucky i was on the phone with crissy as i was making the jam because she is an experienced jamstress and answered all of my questions. it smelled delicious as it was cooking. just the sort of summer berry smell i was hoping for.

i filled the bottles and boiled them shut.

ready and waiting for a cold winter day when i need that warm berry smell to remind me of summer.