Month: June 2011

What a long strange trip it was.

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Long time no post.  I’ve spent the better part of the last two weeks now on roadtrips.   Here are some highlights:
Pat got invited to a reception at the National Zoo in DC hosted by one of his funders.  I decided I needed to tag along, because I was sure it was going to be pretty cool and sure enough, it was.  They held it at the Big Cats exhibit (cut off in that photo).  They had practically the whole walk around the cats tented off, with multiple bars and food stations.  The food was quite good – they had these mini-crab cakes I couldn’t walk past without popping one in my mouth, as well as some white chocolate covered oreos that I also had a hard time walking past and not eating…  All sorts of gourmet popcorn – including cookies and cream.  That I had to try, being the popcorn junkie that I am.  It was interesting….but not as good as kettle korn.
Of course, it’s not a trip to DC without getting lost and ending up at the Pentagon.  This time, we had printed directions, a map AND a GPS and we still ended up circling around until Pat said, “Oh, look, the Pentagon”.  Sure enough, there it was.  After that we were able to get our bearings and get to where we were going, this time without circling the monuments.  Which is progress. 

So, we spent the night in DC, got up and drove to Richmond for Pat to attend a meeting for work the next day.  Ah, the life of a Riverkeeper.  While he was at his meeting, I wandered about downtown, checking out the Virginia State House.  Pretty darn Southern looking, isn’t it?  I saw a tour group on segways and got to watch one of them tumble, which amused me to no end, because hey, stuff like that cracks me up.
You’d think that after 24 hours of jet setting, we’d be ready to come home, but no.  Well, we did stop by and pick Edie up, for she got to join us on the next leg.  Pat had to be in Lynchburg for the Batteau Festival kickoff. (For those of you counting, that was 4 cities in one day.)  Edie & I decided to use it as an excuse to catch a ride down to visit friends and family down there.  So we checked out Catalano’s, the really great new deli downtown, owned by our friends Marisa & Clinton and spent a great weekend visiting with our Harrington cousins in Lynchburg.   
 We came home for a few nights in between, to do laundry, and get ready for the next week….
Pat had a Riverkeepers conference in Chicago, and since it was summer and I seem to never do well home alone with Edie during the summer, we hit the road.    Edie took a picture of her foot everywhere we stayed.

Sometimes she allowed others to join in. 

It was a whirlwind trip.  We visited a whole host of friends and family and thoroughly enjoyed our visits with everyone.  Spent some time in the town I grew up in and hit the thrifts.  Scored an American Girl Doll Dress that Edie already had the dress for the doll, so I was pretty happy to find the girl size dress for $3.  Edie had brought exactly one book for the entire trip, so we stocked up on lots of books for her.  At 5 for $1, it was a total steal.   Mickie made a fabulous dinner for us and allowed me to invite folks over – thanks Mick.  We’ll have to do it again sometime.  Saw my cousin Henry’s new house, which is a house we drove past everyday on our way to pick up my dad from work – to set foot in it was pretty amazing, as I’ve been in love with that house since I was a wee one.  (And yes, it was every bit as fabulous and cute as I thought it would be.  Maybe even more so.)  Spent some quality time with Andrea, who is still one of my most favorite people in the whole world.  We put the baby down for a nap, plopped the other kids in front of a movie and curled up in bed and chatted the afternoon away.  Just like old times.  So looking forward to our weekend together next month.  Also had lunch with my parent’s best friends.  It was great to see them and they want to come down and have some projects at our house.  I’m  looking forward to that.  Uncle Pete is very handy and very good at being handy, and I have a whole list of projects I’m ready to set him loose on.  Renee took us down the street for snowballs – how did I forget about them?  Man they are good.  They are totally a Baltimore thing and living a few hours south, they are hard to find, which I suppose is how I forgot about them. 
Last, but not least, I went to the Jedediah Thomas Smith Foundation Crabfeed.
I love crabs.  It was a good cause, a good price and all I had to do was sit and pick crabs while they brought a non stop stream of them to me.  Heaven.  Ran into folks from high school that I haven’t seen in eons and had a lovely time.  I am just in awe of Savannah.  Of course, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, despite how humble Kristin is about it.  Kristin gave me a great big bag of yarn she was giving away, so now I have a little stash to use up.  Thanks Kristin. Edie is already eyeing the cones of that yummy purple yarn for something for her. 
It was good to see everyone – we picked up something at just about every stop – plants, canning supplies, bags of yarn and more.  We ate some yummy food, had ice cream pretty much every day, and did some good shopping.  It was great to come home and see Daddy again and hear about his adventures in Chicago – including playing football with a Kennedy.  While we were away, the garden absolutely took off and I picked my first ripe tomato when we got home.  A zebra stripe.  The key I had left for the housesitter broke off in the lock, so her father & another neighbor came over to pick it and get the remnants out, so we didn’t have to worry about it when we got home.  Thanks Craig & Peter.  That was very nice of you.  The offer for drinks still stands. 
And now that we are home and getting back into the swing of things, I suppose I ought to clean this house.  June has been a whirlwind of visits, roadtrips and just general fun.  July looks to be more of the same, although at a slower pace.  Phew.  Not quite sure how much longer I can go on at this breakneck speed to be honest.  And I am feeling slightly inspired to whip this house into shape.  Better grab that while I have it.

Those coolers really do come in handy.

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We have quite a collection of coolers, acquired here & there for a variety of events and reasons.  So when the power goes out, they do come in handy for packing up and icing down the contents of the fridge.  Like the last 2 days, for instance, when a thunderstorm knocked out one of the transformers at the park and we were without power for 30 hours.  Not that I mind really.  The weather was sunny, 80 and breezy.  Just beautiful.  We have a gas stove and a gas hot water heater, so we can cook and have hot showers.  We just didn’t have a computer (although Pat did have his iphone).   I like unplugging now & again and to be able to do it from the comfort of my own home is nice.  I got a whole bunch of things done that I had been meaning to do, like weed the garden, sort through all the end of the year papers that came home with Edie, among other things, without the distraction of checking facebook and email and blogs…..I need to remember to do that more often – just unplug myself.

And, if nothing else, being able to use a bunch of those coolers when the power goes out, does make us realize having coolers in every shape and size is really a good idea.

The week that was.

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My (not so) baby girl attended her first concert this week, became a fourth grader and thus, top dog in her elementary school, and bonded with one of my dear college girlfriends.

Arcade Fire is her current favorite band and so when we heard they were coming to town, we knew she was going to want to go with us.  I even got her down on the very front row and at one point, Win Butler stood right in front of her and for about 3 words, sang directly to her.  She was in heaven.  What a great first show.  She took notes on how I managed to manuver her down in front and told me when we got home that she’s pretty sure we’ll be able to get her front row for the next few years to come.  That’s my gal.

Clarabelle came into town Thursday for the LOOK3 photo festival, so we spent Thursday and Friday afternoons on the downtown mall with her, taking in some of the events and having a thoroughly lovely visit.  I have this incredible group of women I was friends with in college and over the last 20 years or so we have loosely stayed in touch with each.  I know that I am who I am today in no small part because of them.  They are all strong, beautiful, smart, successful women and I love them, and our ongoing relationship, dearly.  We might not talk all the time, but when one of us talks to another, we bring each other up to speed on everyone.    Edie is getting to this age where she is starting to forge her own relationships with people, and so to see her do this with Clara this week touched me to no end.  Edie even included her in the latest foot self portrait shot.

Clara was more than encouraging about my new business idea.  While we were out hanging around downtown this week, two women sitting next to us at the gelato place struck up a conversation with me.  When they asked what I did for a living, I told them I was starting up a new venture and told them what it was.  They handed me their business cards and told me to contact them when I was a go, as they couldn’t wait to support me.  Which I took as yet another sign from the universe as a “DO THIS”.  So, while I might be quiet about it in this space for the time being, I am working on my master plan and I am feeling this is truly the path I need to explore.

Friday morning was the last day of school, and I helped put together the reception following the fourth grade moving up ceremony.  Hard to believe next year will be my daughter’s last in elementary school.   It really does go fast and I realize more and more how okay I am with stepping off career track to be a mom.  It’s made me a more tolerant, well rounded person, who has moments of patience, (but generally limited to those under the age of 10).  I am definitely looking forward to being a stay at home mom this summer and filling our time with home made popsicles, pool time, and just general lounging.  I’m also stepping up to be an officer for the PTO this year, so I’ll have lots to keep me busy, as if starting up my own business, being a mom and running a girl scout troop wasn’t enough.  Clearly, I like projects.

Strawberries!

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Somehow I have been too swamped the entire strawberry season to be able to pick strawberries and then have an an entire day to dedicate to putting them up.  A friend let me know the season was quickly winding down thanks to the recent heat wave, but my weekend was completely tied up with soccer.  (Oh soccer, I already have such a long list of reasons why I don’t like you,  to which this got added, but my daughter loves you, which really sort of trumps.  And we won’t get into how I resent motherhood for making me a better person and overlooking these things I hate simply because she loves them.) Monday morning, after I put Edie on the bus, I started calling around the local pick your own spots.  Turns out the season ended Saturday, of course.  The day I spent the entire day on the soccer field.  Grrrr.  I widened my search to a few places “over in the valley”.  The beauty of living 20 minutes from the Blue Ridge Mountains and the Shenandoah Valley is that they are always little bit behind the growing season from us (And a little cooler in the summer!).   Turns out, their berry picking season is still going, so I packed myself up and hit the road for Middle River Farms. 

It was, in short, the best berry picking experience.  The rows were marked where the last person had left off, so you knew exactly where to start.  They had someone in the field, directing you where to go. The prices were half of what we pay on this side of the mountain.  And all for an extra 15-20 minutes of driving time.  They were still less than 55 miles from my front door, qualifying as local.  The berries were much larger than the ones Edie & I had picked here a few weeks too.  So many things about it to make me happy.

At any rate, I picked a quick not quite 15 pounds, brought them home, sorted and dealt with them.  I froze some whole, chopped and stewed and froze some for yogurt, and kept some for a nice strawberry salad for dinner last night and strawberry shortcake for breakfast this morning. 

No, I don’t make jam.  I’ve tried, several years in a row, and it was a disaster.  I may try again one of these days, but I was not in the mood to fool with it yesterday.   And yes, we enjoy strawberry shortcake for breakfast.  Sub plain yogurt for the whipped cream, and voila, breakfast.

Although the chocolate sponge cake may have been a bit decadent.

My Weekend.

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Every tent needs a disco ball.
This weekend Edie’s soccer team was in the Sunburn Tournament.  She had been to a birthday party the evening before and brought her party bag along, because in her words, you never know when you’re going to need a party bag.  I discovered a disco ball necklace in there, so I hung it up in one of our many team tents.  We like our flair.   
It was warm and sunny and there was lots of soccer.  We had a few hours break between games Saturday, so as a team, we tailgated it, which may have been the highlight of the tournament.  We came darn close to winning the first game on Saturday and after that, lost to teams that were better than us.  Our girls still played their hearts out though and handled it well.   We treated them to many popsicles, and after their last game on Sunday, burgers at Riverside.  We definitely think our team had the most fun.
Sunday afternoon, our friends from Snuggle Acres dropped by for a visit.  We hit the pool, the kiddos picked the first blueberries from our bush for a snack and we had a quick little dinner before they hit the road back home.  It’s always good to see them and I love that we just happen to live on their way to visit Will’s folks in Lynchburg.

Munching Blueberries.

Edie & Abigail getting sunscreened for the pool all by their big girl selves.

Dinner, picnic table style.
Blueberries!
Speaking of blueberries, this morning I went out and picked a pint of berries for blueberry muffins for breakfast.  I love, love, love being able to go pick breakfast, lunch and dinner from our garden.  It just doesn’t get any fresher than that!

It’s Finished and It’s Alive!

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Edie requested I make her a skirt, one of my whimsical tiered skirts.  Of course missthing insisted on approving the design, ie, fabric selection.  I laid one out and had it approved, only to discover I didn’t have enough fabric to make it as promised.  Which led us back to the drawing board.  After going through a few versions that were deemed “Not ‘Alive’ Enough.”, we reached a compromise that would use all the fabrics in the approved ‘ALIVE’ design, but in accordance to the amount of fabric I had on hand, all of which were from the stash.
Apparently “ALIVE” is Edie’s new phrase.  I like it. 
Here is the skirt in question, finished!
The bottom has a small ruffle out of this really great striped seersucker type fabric.  It was supposed to be the bottom tier in a 4 tier skirt, but I realized I didn’t have enough of it, so we compromised and made it the ruffle. The bottom tier is a pale pink, with white raised dots that don’t necessarily like to show up in photos.

The middle tier is a solid purple linen and the top tier is a fun pink striped paisley pattern.  Paisleys were definitely my most favorite part of the 80’s and I still have a fondness for them.  Edie thought this fabric was ‘wild’ and she loved it with the polka dots and stripes at the bottom.

I drafted the pattern myself, something I don’t usually do with success, but I have found with elastic waist skirts, I can do it if I follow a certain formula.  So, I measured her waist and her length between her waist and knees and took it from there.  I made it a little big, so she had room to grow into it, planning to add elastic to the waist as needed.   Pat thought I was making myself a new skirt at first, because it’s not little girl sized anymore.  Then again, our girl is 4’9″, which is getting to be pretty tall.  Her new flip flops are women’s, sized 7/8 and quite frankly, there’s not as much room as I think there should be for her to grow into them.  My baby is no longer a baby, and not so much a little girl anymore.  She is definitely becoming a tween, as evidenced by the list of music she left on my desk this morning that she’d like for me to add to her itunes.  Heavy on the Taylor Swift.  Oh my.

That is as close to modeling the skirt as I’m going to get from her.  For now, it hits her mid-calf and is quite cute.  I’m hoping this will fit her for a few years.  When she was younger, she had a big aversion to anything ‘plain’ which she called boring and demanded I make fancy, by any means necessary. Then she went through a phase where she only wanted me to make her solid colored clothing.  A white linen blouse.  A purple linen dress.  I was quite excited to meet her demands for a skirt that was “ALIVE”. Even more excited to see her pair it with a patterned shirt.  It makes me happy to see her so fearlessly put patterns together with patterns because she pulls it off so well.  For a while there, I thought she’d outgrown that. 

I hadn’t finished a sewing project in what felt like forever.  I have a number of projects halfway done, or laid out,  but never find myself finishing them.  It felt good to finish something.  It’s pointed out to me that I finish lots of other things I set out to do, like gardens and cakes and canning, but it really nags at me that I have such a hard time finishing sewing projects.  I’m trying to be better about this and this was my first step towards it.  It feels good.

Things I’m good and bad at.

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I can’t remember when it became a tradition for me to bake Betty a fabulous chocolate birthday cake.  Part of it was wanting an excuse to bake, but part of it was wanting to give a single mom friend something nice.  Birthdays are meant to be celebrated in my opinion.  At any rate, for I don’t know how many years now, we’ve had a tradition of chocolate cake for Betty’s Birthday, usually something decadent.
I made Martha Stewart’s Moist Devil’s Food Cake for the second year in a row.  It’s a triple layer cake.  I learned the hard way last year the best way to transport a triple layer cake from your house to anywhere else is in pieces and assemble it there. 
See?  It’s tall.   Looking at that picture, I now see that it was going to be dry.  I didn’t bake it as long as the recipe called for and it was still dry. (Not terribly, just enough to bug me.) And the frosting….the frosting takes 2 1/2 hours.  You read that right.  It makes enough to cover 3 layers and any imperfections you have with putting 3 layers of cake together (including the cake being a wee bit on the dry side), plus, it’s really good, so I find it worth it.  However, I followed the recipe to the T and for about an hour and half of that 2 and 1/2 hours, I was worried my frosting wasn’t going to turn out.  While I was slightly freaking out, I googled it and found this. The video of Mrs. Millman making her frosting, which not only is informative, but a fabulous Martha moment.  Really wished I had watched this first.  Oh well.  Next time.

I grabbed some strawberries from everyone’s patches and used them to decorate the top. Another tradition that seems to have sprung up while we weren’t looking.
Happy Birthday Betty. 
I already have next year’s cake in mind.  Pat has suggested a few from the repertoire that I haven’t made in while, like this one. Otherwise known as 2 day cake around here, because it takes 2 days to make.  But worth it.

The weekend wasn’t all baking though.  Spent some time at the pool, trying to get the sun and the pool chemicals to help clear up the poison ivy.  It worked fairly well, I must say.  Took Edie strawberry picking out at Chile’s.  We wanted some strawberry shortcake and our little patch just isn’t producing for that this year.  It was a good mother-daughter field trip.  Once this crazy week full of lots of end of school year events is over, I’ll head back out and pick oodles to put up for the winter. 
We also took our annual Memorial Day canoe trip.  Once upon a time, this was also part of Betty’s birthday celebration.  The ladies of the ‘hood took the children by our lonesomes one year.  We did about a mile stretch of the Rivanna, the nice, little, local river and it took us all day.  We hit every rope swing, had several beer & cupcakes stops and by the time we got home, everyone had had a meltdown.  Since then, we have decided it’s best to have our husbands around for the trip.  If nothing else, they help keep the kiddo meltdowns to a minimum. (Okay, they are good to schelp canoes too.)
This year we did the Rockfish River in Nelson County.  Absolutely Gorgeous.  And we had it all to ourselves, which was even better.  Somehow I ended up steering a canoe with Edie & her pal
Sophia, but that didn’t last long.  I completely and totally suck at steering.  Not only did we run smack into a downed tree that came darn close to throwing me from the boat, we flipped over, all within a few hundred yards of putting in.   I got to go in unexpectedly a second time when I was in Virginia’s boat too.  Good stuff.  Edie says crocs float and I can assure you they do, because I had them kicked off when we went over the second time and had to quick swim downstream to save my shoes.  The only things lost besides my dignity were a few pairs of sunglasses.  Thanks to my Becky Bucket Pat got me for Christmas a few years ago, everything that needed to stay dry, like my camera, did.  So, I might suck at steering a canoe, but I can put a tight enough seal on my bucket to keep it dry under water.  Which really is comforting.
All in all, it was a completely relaxing, rejuvenating weekend.