what's entertaining

Growing

We’re constantly warned from the day they are born – by moms and dads who know – because they’ve been where we are now – “they grow up so fast”.  But in the moment, when you haven’t slept through a night for 5 months, or haven’t had a thought to yourself for 6 days or haven’t heard please or thank-you attached to the demands all day, or when you haven’t been to the bathroom alone in 2 years… it doesn’t seem like it’s happening fast.   Then you stumble across your screen saver image from the holidays or the pics from last year at this time, or from five or ten years ago – and you realize… my god – they grow up so fast.  Don’t they?

I’m constantly torn between just wanting to hug them and stare at their little faces, and wanting to take as many pictures as humanly possible to remember each special moment … and just being in it – experiencing it, and from time to time still dreaming of going to the bathroom on my own.

Our little ones are ‘discerning’ eaters (read: picky).  They love fruit and veggies, especially carrots, corn, peas, peppers, apples, pears and cantaloupe.  But they are fickle, and have no reason to place value on food – since they have whatever they need each day.  So we decided as we watch them grow so quickly, we wanted to share the magic of growing  with them this summer, and maybe even teach them a little about the effort that goes in to their food in the process.  We’re growing our own veggie garden.

Cam, my uber-amazing husband – began wielding a drill and circular saw – and came up with this box to start our gardening adventures.

I was ready to order something to simply assemble and was blown away (and secretly super excited by what this means for future projects!) He measured the space and built the box from cedar two-by-fours (which I learned are actually 2 by 3.5’s … who knew) – ours is 6 feet long by 3.5 feet wide.  Many boxes we found online don’t have bottoms – but he attached slats so that we could move the box if we want to later.  Then he attached fabric to the bottom and sides to keep the dirt where we want in – in the garden.

We made an adventure out of picking the plants – we all went together to a real, big, green house in the country and everyone got to pick one thing they wanted to grow. Matty being the oldest is in charge this year, and also got to pick one extra plant to grow.

Charlie chose carrots, which we planted from seeds.  Matty chose cherry-tomatoes, and Kate chose peas, Cam wanted green beans too – so we purchased the starter plants for all of those.  Matt chose peppers as his last plant, which we also planted from seeds and we’re off to pick up some lettuce this weekend.

We also grabbed some strawberry plants and a couple of big, thorn-free raspberry plants – which we planted separately as they are known to take over, and we wanted to keep the veggies separate.

The kids learned about plants and roots and soil, and what size of hole to dig, and the importance of water and sunshine though the whole process. They also noticed our two resident rabbits eying up the veggies, so Dad built a little protective fencing around the box to keep out ‘predators’.

Last weekend we made filmo veggies – and cooked them so that they became hard.  This weekend we’ll attach them to little signs so that we have neat home-made stakes for each veggie.  My very creative friend Lori did this with her daughter in their garden and I loved what they looked like, but even more, I love that this was another step to make and create together.  Thanks for lending us the idea, Lori!

I grew up planting veggie gardens with my Dad in our back yard – I still remember the excitement of the day that the carrots were big enough to start pulling, and the pride of eating our very own peas in our salad.  We went and grabbed a few big buckets of soil from my Mom and Dad’s old compost heap/soil pile that we used in our gardens growing up.  It’s very fun for me to have a piece of that memory from my childhood live on at our new home in this way.  I hope the kids will look forward to doing it each year (and that they have the patience to wait out the next two months of care for the veggies before we actually get edible wares).  The picture below is their ‘grow’ dance/hike immediately after planting. We’ll keep you posted.  In the mean time if you have any favorite veggies to grow we still have one row left to plant and would love to hear your ideas!

keeping it real

I’ve had a lot of great conversations lately with people who, like us, struggle to understand how other people are “getting through” with seemingly so much more panache, or grace, or even just without scmootz on their blazer…

Here’s what I actually think: they are not real.

They are our perception, or a delicately built facade meant to impress us – either way – why are we so interested?  Common – you know you ‘re interested too.  You’re supposed to be in bed/at work/paying attention at that dinner party but you are trolling google to read more, or can’t stop thinking about that person – and how they do it all.

And then there are the people who would never admit to being interested – whether it’s for lack of time, interest or because they are that self-fulfilled.  Are they for real?

I don’t understand why we have this built in fear of what everyone will think.  It’s so powerful.  It shapes so much; our response, our choices and ultimately the mask we put on for the world.  Whether it means not admitting to that time we forgot to pick up our kid, or the time we lost it and cried in the bathroom for an hour, put a cup of salt in the soup instead of a tablespoon, bombed a presentation, or went for an epic drive to try to see if one really could just run away… Or that we only post on facebook when things are super fabulous, when we won the race, had perfectly polished kids, or an amazing vacation.  Why do we do it? I know I’m totally guilty.

And yet when I laugh with my sister about my little blog with no commenters where I spill my guts to an audience of 6 – she admits to me that she’d never put so much of her life ‘out there’ for judgement.  Colleagues and friends say very similar things – they have these brilliant ideas, robust lives and real experiences – but only the pretty is shared on facebook, instagram and email.  It might be because these people have more respect for your time, and don’t want to bore you – but I think it’s much deeper than that.  I think there is a fear of what you’ll think….

Do you think you’re better than me because I spell poorly? Because I place high value domestic efforts? Because we had 3 kids within 17 months?  More importantly … who are you and why do I care so darn much what you think?

I care.  Not because I want to – but it’s just a part of my dna.   I have those vacation photos and pretty kid shots on f/b because I want to share that wonderful part of my life with you.  And because I care I have grown to respect the real people SO much more.  The friend who looks like she’s got it all figured out, and is not at all afraid to share she doesn’t.  The stranger who doesn’t offer advice or a judgemental eye when I’m struggling to get my screaming kid out of the grocery store, but instead chooses to give me a smile and say ‘been there – you’ll get through it’.  The senior leader who admits to the failings in her personal life as the expense she was willing to pay (at the time) for her success in business.  The quiet clever colleague who has the whole mess figured out but doesn’t need to stand on anyone elses’ back to proclaim it.  You are the person I choose to respect and admire.  Your honesty and compassion and humility is refreshing and inspiring.

So, tonight I raise a glass to the ones who keep it real (and in the spirit of that I’d admit that said ‘glass’ is actually a spoon full of chocolate icecream).  Thank you.  You inspire me to try, and to be a little less afraid of what everyone will think when I do.

celebrating Easter

After tomorrow our spoiled kiddos will have experienced a whopping 4 Easter egg hunts this year.  They had a blast today when they woke up and realized the Easter Bunny had come over night, and had an incredible time screaming around Grammie’s with their big cousins for the hunt after Easter mass this morning… and yesterday was a great warm up to it all – a little hunt with a few friends.

We had 9 kids, the oldest at 4 whole years – was Matty. We spent most evenings after work and dinner last week baking and decorating cookies and cupcakes and loaves and muffins and freezing or refrigerating until Saturday morning.  We made some fun  recipes, I think the biggest hit were cin buns – so i posted the recipe for that below.  We  love having people over, sharing some good food and great laughs – and this was just the perfect mix of sunshine, bouncy castle, and sugar-high to make a wonderful morning get-together with some great little people…

Matt and I made sugar cookies last weekend while the girls napped – we froze the egg and carrot shapes until this Friday evening – but Matty decorated some dinosaurs last weekend that he and the girls chomped on through the week (we also made a pan of bunny rabbits that didn’t make it through the first day).  He loved making all the icing colours in little bowls himself and was thrilled at the end of the whole thing to be able to finally lick the knife … note the mischievous glint in his eye …

Kate and Charlotte love to hop up on the island and help with baking.  Their new thing is actually cracking the eggs themselves and pouring all the ingredients in the bowl (stirring is no longer enough … it means I’m not the only one making a mess in the kitchen now, so I’m totally good with it… and the shared blame for flour on the floor and our faces at the end of it all).  We baked and froze small banana breads one night, a cranberry orange loaf another night and then made the batter for mini chocolate chip muffins (thank you all recipes – HUGE hit in our house) and raspberry muffin batter (check out recipe on this post) that we popped in the oven the morning of the hunt so they would be fresh.

We also made chocolate cupcakes – into a carrot cupcake garden.  We baked a simple box recipe, and used a melon cutter to take out the centers – then iced them, and used some oreo crumbs to create dirt.  We made orange icing and stuck it a little ziplock bag (use an icing bag if you own one) and cut out a tip of one corner – we made “carrots” and topped them with little pieces of green licorice for the stems.  The next day I made the same thing as a slab cake for dinner at my sisters place and added worms for affect for the boys.  Super fun and sooo easy. 

I’ve said it before, I know – but I often think our most fun is in the lead up to events – Matty gets in on all the excitement now as well and for a week or more in advance of having people over he is planning and scheming and prepping.  This time it meant he helped me plan the scavenger hunt that accompanied the egg hunt.  He made sure that his turtle and his love of ‘dinosaur bones’ (pine cones) got in on the hunt card.  He also designed signs in the sunshine (and sometimes directed mommy to help with the pictures) that he put up all around the yard to help people find their way.

All the kids help to “decorate” the table and house… and they might even help clean up a little in advance if we’re super lucky. 

Charlie helped me make the healthy snack table this weekend – consisting of simple fruit and a clever little carrot …

I love how excited our kids get.  I loved seeing how much they wanted everyone to find their own eggs.  We had 7 kids 4 and under hunting so we made it easy by colour coding – each kid had a colour assigned to them in their pail and they found all the eggs in that colour.  Charlie was very busy finding other kids’ colours and bringing them to the right owner for most of the hunt.  Kate was happy after finding one or two eggs and Matt was a speed machine.  Love how different they all are.

Anyway – it was an awesome weekend … and I think those cin buns were a hit I might repeat one day soon … the icing made them amazing.  Find the recipe below with a warning that they are neither low fat nor low sugar… but ohhh so worth it.

I hope you had a wonderful Easter with your family and friends … I was so grateful for ours.  I think out of all of this my best memories will have been watching my sister do a “bum drop” on the trampoline post-wine/dinner tonight, and listening to the incredible version of Hallelujah while sitting next to my mom this morning at church and watching Kate’s little hand reach to hold her hand.

xoK

Cin Buns:

5 cups flour, 1 TBSP yeast, 1 1/2 C butter, 1 1/4 C milk, 1/3 C brown sugar, 3 eggs, 1 1/2 C brown sugar, 1 TBSP cinnamon

for glaze: 1 container of cream cheese, 1/2C butter, 2 Cups confectioners (icing) sugar

• place flour and yeast in your mixing bowl of a stand mixer
• melt 1/3 C butter in microwave or sauce pan and add milk, 1/3C brown sugar and pinch of salt
• add to yeast and flour and mix on low – add 3 eggs and mix for 5-6 minutes longer until dough is smooth
• let it rise in a clean, greased bowl in a warm place for 90 minutes – covered
• prep filling: melt rest of butter and add 1 1/2C of brown sugar and cinnamon – mix into a paste and add a bit of water to make it smooth
• turn dough onto a floured surface and punch it down to let out air.  then let it sit for 10 min (important)
• roll out with a floured rolling pin to about 1/2 inch thickness – spread the cin paste all over (right to the edges!)
• roll dough up into a long log and cut 12-15 equal rounds
• let sit in a warm place for 90 min to rise again or place covered in the fridge over night and bake in the morning
• back at 350 for 20-25 min
• make glaze – 1 container of cream cheese, 1/2 cup of butter – whipped with 2 cups of icing sugar
• turn out onto a pan and then flip onto another pan so that they are right side up again
• glaze with icing and serve …. yum!