Pierced Ears!

My sweet little daughter turned 10 yesterday. Ten years old! I can't believe it. And she's a fifth grader, so this is the last year I get to make her special birthday cookies for her class. She will be way too cool for this next year in middle school.

 

The thing she wanted more than anything was pierced ears. I have been reluctant to let her, because I got my ears pierced by a teenager at a mall when I was a kid and it was miserable. They were uneven, and kept getting infected, and I finally let the holes grow back together. I wanted Lucy to have a better experience but there aren't a lot of options in central Vermont. I was on the verge of driving several hours to a tattoo/piercing parlor that was willing to take kids. But then we heard of a salon not too far away, with a very experienced ear piercer, and my mom offered to pay for it as a birthday present.



 

It seemed pretty easy and straightforward -- so I got mine done as well. The woman said she'd done thousands of ear piercings but never did a mother-daughter duo before.

 

 



Granny Torrelli

 

On Monday, we hosted this month's book club discussion on Granny Torrelli Makes Soup, a sweet little novel about a girl going through relationship troubles with her best friend, a boy, and finding a listening ear in her Granny Torrelli while they cooked together. This book was specially recommended by Linda Urban. Naturally, we had to make soup! So the girls came a little early to make some vegetable soup and a salad for dinner. They did all the work themselves, with just a little bit of help from the moms. Sharon was still in town and agreed to join us, provided nobody tried to call her Granny.

 

After dinner, a fun and enlightening discussion of the book. Love these girls!

Exponent Weekend

I so look forward to the Exponent Retreat every year. Just look at these awesome ladies I get to hang out with:

 

 

Rachel and Sarah from Philly days, Rachel's sister Kirsten, and Sharon, my mother-in-law, who came out to participate a second year. Then there are all the other wonderful women not in the photo, who enrich and edify my life on the one weekend a year we get together.

 

Sharon snapped this picture of me chatting with Laurel Thatcher Ulrich. I'm the new official Exponent historian, a post which in the past has mostly involved creating scrapbooks (I am lousy at scrapbooks) but which will now involve taking lots of photos at the retreat and dealing with the archives of the organization, going back to the 1970s. First order of business: decide whether BYU or Harvard gets the archives. Both want them. I'm thrilled that such a project will require me to work closely with Laurel, who is one my heroes.

The horses went home last Monday, but were here long enough for Sharon to get some pictures, and for Howard to get to feel like he was visiting a farm. 

No pics of Howard and Austin and the kids going to Tunbridge Fair and Lucy's soccer games -- but I heard they had a wonderful time together too. I hope the Exponent-weekend visit from Sharon and Howard becomes a yearly tradition.

Gavin's Birthday

 Oh, they grow old so fast, don't they?

Gavin in his new Gandalf wig.

Gavin wanted an engineering party this year, but I just couldn't figure out how to do engineering activities for seven-year-olds. So he settled for a Lego party, which turned out to be just as fun.  

Lego cakes!

We played a bunch of games involving Legos -- but really, the kids had the most fun just building cool stuff together. And eating cake. And running around outside on a beautiful early fall day.



Sparkle is one patient chicken.



Labor Day Weekend

Labor Day is Northfield's big holiday, and our little town celebrates with three days of events, kicking off on Saturday with a 5K road race. This is fun because the turn-around is right in front of our house, so we always stand out there to cheer on the runners. This year Austin did the run, so we could cheer for him. And get a picture.

 

Sunday afternoon was a Salsa contest. I entered a new, secret-ingredient salsa that Gavin has named James and the Giant Peach Salsa. (Can you guess what we are reading right now?) My salsa took 2nd place! Admittedly, this is not a big town, and New England isn't known for its salsa, but still! And no, I don't have a picture of me proudly accepting my ribbon. I forgot and left the camera at home. But the ribbon is proudly displayed on my refrigerator, lest anyone forget my mad skillz as a domestic goddess.

Monday was the Labor Day parade. It's a funny little small-town parade, with homemade floats and lots of antique cars and tractors. Still, it's fun to go, since we end up knowing a lot of the people marching by. Austin liked the bagpipers, Lucy liked Santa riding a Harley, Gavin liked the float with the giant inflatable pig, and I loved the Shriners with their little red hats riding around on go-karts. Though the roller-derby ladies and the farmers leading decorated baby calves were close behind in the voting for me.

Lucy and her pals waving at the floats.

Gavin and his buddy. They look like twins to me.

 

The highlight of the weekend for Lucy and Gav had to be the face painter. They showed up at her booth first thing to get a number for later in the day. We got there just in time -- the kids took two of the last three available numbers and their turn didn't come up until 3:00 in the afternoon. But it was worth it, they looked really amazing.

 

Painting eyeballs on Gav's eyelids. Creepy.

Eyes closed.

Eyes open.

 

The other big activity of the weekend was canning a huge vat of salsa. It pretty much took all weekend. Saturday I picked buckets and buckets of tomatoes and peppers, Sunday I peeled and chopped the tomatoes, and today I added the other ingredients (thank goodness for food processors), cooked, canned, and processed it all. The salsa filled my huge stockpot almost to the rim, and I ended up with 29 pints when I was done. Yeah, that should see us through winter. 

 

For any that might be interested, here are the recipes I've been using for canned salsa, based on recipes in the Ball Book of Home Preserving.

Award-winning James and the Giant Peach Salsa

 

4 cups chopped, peeled tomatoes. (I run the chopped tomatoes through the salad spinner to remove as much liquid as possible, then freeze the liquid for making soup later.)

2 cups chopped, peeled peaches

2 cups chopped, peeled pears

1 red pepper

1 cup chopped onion

4 jalapeno peppers, chopped (I like it spicy so I leave seeds in)

1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro

1/2 cup honey

Grated zest and juice of 1 lemon

1/4 cup balsamic vinegar

1 T chopped fresh mint

 

Bring chopped veggies and fruits to a boil, then add the honey, lemon zest and juice and vinegar. Reduce heat and boil gently until slightly thickened, about 5 minutes. Add cilantro and mint at the end. Can and process 20 minutes.

 

 

Garden Salsa

7 cups chopped, peeled tomatoes, run through salad spinner to remove liquid.
2 cups chopped onion
1 cup chopped green pepper
8 jalapeno peppers (I add a few more, and leave seeds in)
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 6oz. can tomato paste
3/4 cup lemon or lime juice
1 tsp ground cumin
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro (add after cooking)

Combine all ingredients except cilantro. Bring to a boil over medium heat, reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes. Add cilantro. Can and process 20 minutes.

First Day of School

Off to another year at Northfield Elementary School! This is the last year they will both be in the same school, since Lucy is a fifth grader and will be in middle school next year.

 

 

I feel like I want to freeze time and keep the kids right at this age forever. They are so much fun. Both of them are big and independent enough that we can send them out to wander and explore without us, but they are small enough that they still think we are hilarious and everything we say is true. They are big enough to cook for themselves but small enough to want special family dinners. They still want to be read to and tucked in at night. They still like each other -- and their parents -- a lot. I'm not sure how long that's going to last.

 

 

Things I want always to remember about Lucy Gray in Fifth Grade:

• Her affection for her chickens.
• Her delight in frogs, bugs, worms, newts, caterpillars, and all other creatures.
• The way she adores Gavin, and watches out for him, and needles him.
• Her wonderful, imaginative mental world, which comes out in the stories she writes.
• Her strong sense of justice.
• How easy it is to bribe her. (This summer she did 200 dives for a candy bar!)
• Her sweet patience with younger kids.
• Her sense for the dramatic in songs, plays, and dress-up.
• Her emerging sense of fashion, so uniquely her.

 



Things I want always to remember about Gavin Gray in Second Grade:

• His absolute insistence on wearing mismatched socks in all circumstances.
• The way he loves having his hair gelled straight up in spikes.
• His enthusiasm for learning anything and everything.
• His love of mad libs.
• The way he follows Lucy around like a puppy dog.
• The "random hugs" that come out of nowhere.
• The way I can't sit down without getting a Gavin snuggle.
• His skinny little arms and legs.
• His love for swimming and baseball.
• The fact that, given the choice, he would wear only swimsuits and jammies.
• His willingness to try any food, even though he never agrees to like it.
• His little "BooKKids" book club.
• The way he likes to wear cowboy boots and western shirts to church.

Cock a Doodle Doo

One of these things is not like the others . . . Can you tell?

 

Our cute little Araucana chick, Connie, turned out not to be a chick. Or at least, she didn't turn out to be a nice, egg-laying hen. Instead, to our surprise, Connie turned out to be a gorgeous but extremely noisy rooster. A few weeks ago, Connie (now Conrad) began to greet the first suggestions of dawn around 4:30 in the morning with a loud and very enthusiastic crowing.



Austin was . . . less enthusiastic. After he finally threatened to throttle Conrad with his own hands, I found a new home for the rooster. Conrad now lives with Farmer Tom. I think Conrad was originally destined for the stewpot, but Tom seems to quite like him (he is quite the handsome rooster, I must say) so Conrad is going to be housed with some nice, productive, broody hens where he can pass on his beautiful coloring to a new generation of chicks.

 

A happy ending for all.