i am back!

wow, i took a really long bloggin' break. there is so much to catch up on! well, right now i am 28 weeks pregnant with my third girlie! i know, i know, crazy but we are so happy and so blessed that everything is going well. a little while after my last post in march is when we found out and i probably had about a week until the mother of all morning sickness gave me a visit. holy moly i was a mess! for all those mamas out there who know what i am talking about, it's a rough existence. and it lasted over 16 weeks! anyway, that is mainly the reason for such a long hiatus.

so, what's new? well, i have put design work on hold and maybe for a long while because i graduated from integrative nutrition last month. woo hoo! it was truly a great year and i actually miss my classes. after the baby is born and things settle, i am going to put my focus towards this next venture. until then i am looking forward to nesting, cooking away, being creative, blogging and maybe even catching up on some reading. it is going to be a peaceful autumn. aaahhh.

here's a little recap of our spring and summer. peace + love.

washington square park

one more time at moomah

buttermilk falls

serendipity frozen hot chocolate

a rare occurance

natural egg dying

tea party

lounging in the dandelions

liberty school garden

baseball

 school play

 strawberry picking out east

 our japanese cucs

 4 years old - mermaid party

 sweet girl

 rockland feis

 baby "girl"

 a harvest

 mermaids

 long beach island

 gramp's pyramid

 salt dough shell mosaics

 we found a starfish! we put him back, too.

 liberty garden's legit pumpkin patch

 stone barns center

 our bountiful garden this year!

a unique autumn

hello all! (i'm not sure how many is 'all' so if you read my blog, let me know! i bet it would inspire me to post more often ;) anyway, this crazy fall is flying by me. i have been super busy with my nutrition studies and design work and kids! it's interesting sometimes but i am loving it actually.

for us, this fall has been filled with the old familiar activities. harvest festivals, apple picking, haunted hayrides, pumpkin carving, halloween costume planning... but oh my, this fall seemed so strange! first of all, hurricane irene kind of wiped out our little harvest but we did seem to get some goodness out of our efforts (see pics above), then we found ourselves apple picking in almost 90 degrees! wha? there was a bunch of wining as you can imagine. october came with a boat load of rain which seemed to make the pumpkins mushy and then as you know, halloween weekend got topped off with a crazy insane snow storm that wreaked havoc on our trees and subsequently most of the power in the tristate area. a snow day on halloween! weird i tell you. global warming issues anyone?

ANYway, we always seem to have fun nonetheless.


a few weeks back, we visited a farm that i grew up around the block from - benner's farm in east setauket, long island. it was so nice to bring the girls there. it's a quaint little farm run by the nicest of families. we fed the animals, got a peck from a rooster, and the most fun was swinging on the big swing! we might go back later in the winter to witness the tapping of the maple trees.

i've been kind of slacking in the crafting area due to the lack of time on my part. (feeling a bit guilty) but we did make some playdoh monsters. easy + simple. pull out the playdoh (we used halloweenie colors) and random craft supplies - googly eyes, buttons, etc. then, create your monsters. you can let them dry out over a few days if you wish. here's ours:

i also came across this AWESOME idea. sensory boxes! hours of play that stimulate the senses (not really taste though). i got the idea, here, from pinkandgreenmama as well. i LOVE this idea. basically, you fill a small scale bin with filler of your choice. dried beans, fish tank gravel, cotton balls, popcorn kernels, rice, easter grass....whatever! then coordinate everything to a theme. i started with a fall/halloween theme. i used dried green peas, fake pumpkins, fake leaves, halloween trinkets and some real cinnamin sticks. my three year old truly enjoys playing with her sensory box (and so does my 9 year old - shhh). she brings her other little toys into it like her littlest pet shop animals and she pretends this is their habitat. and i give her spoons and cups, too. it's a tad messy sometimes (my husband took one look at it and rolled his eyes at me) but i keep it in the kitchen only (which really helps keep her occupied while i am cooking dinner) and she is responsible for cleaning any beans off the floor which she has really been good about. she gets out her little broom. i can't wait until we change it to a holiday theme and then winter wonderland! i know, i am enjoying this way too much...but don't you just love it?!

i've been reading a lot these days. mainly nutrition subjects. the first book that i actually bought is "the family dinner" by laurie david. 

this cookbook slash encyclopedia of why and how to bring back the family meal is jam packed with anecdotes and recipes. i am obsessed with this book. i love just flipping through it for ideas. in a society where things just seem to be going faster and faster, the family meal is taking the back seat and we are losing those precious moments of connecting with each other. after school activities, work and overscheduling is a reality and laurie david lends sweet ideas and reasons why we should bring the sit down family dinner back. it's so so so important! check it out!

the other book i am reading is "lunch wars: how to start a school food revolution and win the battle for our children's health," by amy kalafa from angrymoms.org and the documentary, two angry moms. I am starting to try to get involved with school food so that by the time my three year old is at the elementary school that my nine year old is now, i can help make real positive changes. my goodness, the area of school food reform is insane. there is sooo much bureaucracy and politics involved that it really requires some serious study to even present ideas to any such authority. i understand the basics but boy, are we all in the dark. don't even get me started!!!! anyway, if you are interested in changing things at your child's school, i think start with this book. i am only in the beginning chapters but it is looking like the bible of school food reform (especially in ny state). other authors to check out if you are interested in this subject is alice waters - theedibleschoolyard.org and ann cooper - the renegade lunch lady at chefann.com. 

my other pursuit this spring is bringing back the school garden to my daughter's elementary school. hopefully, cornell cooperative extension can help us out. i'm sure i will be blogging away about this adventure to come. wish me luck!

i have been trying tons of new recipes. i am currently in love with cooking. although, i'm going to save them up for my 2011 holiday cookbook - recipes & tidbits vol. 6! - which will be posted around the december holidays with all the past cookbooks i put together, to the right. check back for that. for now, why not try a smoothie for lunch? i am one of those people who reserve smoothies for the summer months because i am chronically cold but about once a week it's a great way to get your daily fruits or veggies when produce is sparse in the cold months. i buy a lot of frozen organic berries for this purpose. they are picked and immediately froze which means they still have all of that yummy nutrition. my girls and i like the standard blueberry smoothie:

frozen organic blueberries

rice or coconut milk

plain yogurt

flax meal (optional)

blueberry whey protein powder (optional)

another one they slurp up and is a great source of protein is the monkey smoothie:

nut butter

frozen or not organic banana

milk

plain or vanilla yogurt

flax meal (optional)

vanilla whey protein powder (optional)

of course, you don't need a recipe for smoothies, anything you feel like putting in works, but i just included this in my post as a reminder that smoothies are "ok" to drink in the colder months! you'll be surprised at the burst of energy this will give you mid day. and let's not forget juicing - just make sure you are getting your fresh organic produce from somewhere you can trust.

until next time! ciao!

hanging on to summer

september is here already? it seems too soon for this summer to be over. back to school is a phrase that has so much more attached to it now - now that i'm a mama. it's back to our routine and schedule. dance classes, soccer practice, brownies...... i couldn't really understand how the average american family did not sit down for a family supper until now. it is very difficult to carve out the time and plan in between everyone's schedule. it's hard but not impossible i guess. so to start out the school year (which should really be called the new year) my goal will be to have as many family moments as possible. dinner, walks, games. i am looking forward to autumn - i do love this season. the air seems different. autumn is my ever-reminder of the reality of Change. change is the constant. and in autumn you can actually observe change.

above are some recent summer pics. a view of the tree tops during a family hike, the infamous "barbie cafe," the cafe refrigerator, and our one lonely tomato (the abundance of rain truly had an impact on gardens this year). 

when camp is out and playdates are far and few due to vacations, summertime play is beautiful to watch. eden plays for hours on our porch. she has set up a cafe/market. i love when she engages in pretend play because so much of the time is school, activities, tag along mama chores. when i was a little girl, i so enjoyed my baby dolls and playing with small figurines outside in my grandma's rock garden. those are some of my fondest memories as a child (an only child that is). anyway, i hope to keep the cafe up and running through the fall. maybe she'll serve hot cocoa? 

victory gardens

to our dismay, we did not get a plot in the nyack community garden this year! at first i was shocked but then realized that we did not reserve a plot last year due to the fact that tressa was on her way and second, there is an influx of people wanting some space to plant a garden largely in part because of the many changes this country has gone through in the past year. the community garden sent us a letter saying that there were so many applicants this year that they actually had to turn a few families down. i am so bummed that they let us go but we are lucky enough to have our own house with a small yard and a patio for container growing. so that is what will will do - plant some veggies and herbs in containers. here is a link to tips for container gardens: http://www.gardenguides.com/how-to/tipstechniques/containerindoor/container2.asp.

so the popularity of small gardens this year reminded me what my grandmother had told me many times about victory gardens. during ww1 and ww2, the united states government asked its citizens to plant gardens in order to support the war effort. millions of people planted gardens. in 1943, americans planted over 20 million victory gardens, and the harvest accounted for nearly a third of all the vegetables consumed in the country that year. emphasis was placed on making gardening a family or community effort - not a drudgery, but a pastime, and a national duty. the economic situation of that time has been compared to that of the present. what a great idea to lighten the load of having to drive to your supermarket to purchase expensive produce that needed to be shipped from who knows where and most times packaged with excessive plastics to survive the lengthy trip. i wonder how much money could be saved if each family just planted their own lettuce or tomatoes? it sounds small but there is a quote which i cannot exactly recall that goes - it is a shame to do nothing because you can only do little...

so i will learn how to plant in different containers. i hope to find funky alternates to terracotta pots. i'd love to find a discarded ceramic bathtub but patrick would surely freak out and we do not really have a place to put anything like that. we'll see.

my other springtime love is the nyack farmer's market - every thursday from may through thanksgiving. i am counting the days until i can walk tres down to the market for some local organic veggies which is just a tiny part of the lovely experience of this weekly ritual. i meet with friends, chat with vendors, go to storytime, listen to the bossy frog band, taste wine... i still believe i will write a children's book about it one day. i can't wait!