There is a chill in the morning air that wasn't there a few weeks ago, and the late-afternoon light has a distinctly autumnal slant to it. I don't feel finished with summer yet, so I've been reminding myself that late summer brings delights of its own even if they're not of the popsicles-for-lunch-and-fans-in-the-window-late-at-night variety. Last night I had more produce from the garden than I could carry inside in one load, and there's still more to come. The cucumbers are almost at the end of their run but the tomatoes are still going gangbusters, so I'm going to have to come up with some creative recipes. Last night I made fresh salsa to go with the shrimp soft tacos I made, then I slow-roasted a big sheet pan of tomatoes for later use. There may be some grilled mozzarella and tomato sandwiches in our near future.
I love that Jack sees ripe squash and immediately gets excited about
pancakes. He's a much more adventurous eater now than he used to be(he recently tried and loved scallops), but now Matteas is on hunger strike most days. He seems to follow pattern of one day on, three days off. During his three days of non-eating, he subsists entirely on fishy crackers and bottles of milk. Not exactly nutritionally packed, but it's literally that or nothing. I've tried forcing him to stay in his chair until he tries at least one bite of food, but after two hours it became clear it wasn't worth it. I want my kids to eat when they feel truly hungry, not just because there is food in front of them. We are less liberal with Jack, who is four and tends to miss the signs of hunger but we are teaching him to recognize the symptoms and respond appropriately. One thing that has really helped is to make a big batch of pancakes and freeze them.
For one thing, kids will eat just about anything if it looks like a pancake.
Also, they freeze beautifully making it really easy to have a special breakfast ready in minutes.
Some of my favorite pancakes are oat and buttermilk, but you have to soak the oats overnight. Recently, I tried an experiment and it turned out rather well. I made a batch of 7 grain hot cereal, then added a cup of nuts I ground to flour consistency in the food processor. I added four eggs, a palm-full of baking powder, a splash of milk and half a cup of flour. The pancakes are nutty and dense, but not too heavy, plus they are loaded with fiber and omega-3's.
Last night Aaron took the boys out to ride bikes while I picked that huge basket of tomatoes. I'm glad he did, because today is cloudy and windy and the rain is just beginning as I look out the living room window. Lest my life appear too cozy, I feel compelled to add that as I type this, Matteas has a poop and Jack is prancing around the living room singing a song that goes "Cut out the butt loaf! Cut out the butt loaf!" I have no idea what a butt loaf is.
I love, love this picture of Matteas. It is so iconic of his personality; a blond, joyful comet of energy blurring past. I think that no matter how old he gets or how he changes, I will always remember him this way.
Jack models his new glasses. Right after we got these we found out we needed to change his prescription, so he will be modeling more new glasses soon.
In these days of fleeting sunshine and active boys, I find I have to remind myself to hold still, take a breath and let it all sink in. I don't want to forget. I want to remember what the boys were like this summer, all the things we did and all the ways we grew. Pictures help. So does writing. I've taken to keeping a wipe-off board up on the fridge so that when one of them says or does something funny I can write it down immediately. When the board gets full I transfer what I wrote into a journal I keep for them, then wipe the board off and start again.
For right now, as in right this very minute, we are going to head outside and pick our very first ripe sugar pie pumpkin. We will roast it and make a pumpkin pie with it to welcome Fall, to bid farewell to Summer, and to savor a little bit of the magic we made as we leave behind one season and head into the next.
