The Pleasure of the Mundane

At 20.5 months the kids still take two naps. We're getting ready to start the transition to one nap, but for now, they still sleep from about 9:30 - 11 in the morning and from 2:30 - 4 in the afternoon. This means that big outings, like to a fair or a festival the next town over, are generally off the table. When you factor in meal times and nap times, our time out of the house is spent in brief 1-2 hour chunks.

Next summer I bet we'll be taking all sorts of trips all over town, and doing holiday weekend type journeys, visiting the state fair and the local arts festival and that kind of thing. This summer, we've stuck pretty close to home, and that's okay with me.  This weekend has been a nice, easygoing weekend.  We've been playing outside and on the back patio, enjoying the sunny, warm weather.

The kids like to play with the sodas in the cooler, left over from last week's party. Milo's got his trusty ball under his arm:

Yesterday one of the neighbor kids came over to visit with Milo and Nora. She's 6, and Milo was thrilled to have her visit. He was so excited that he ran around and around, showing off for her. This is why the poor kid always has two skinned knees. Also, I think his diaper is falling down one of his pant legs:

Here I display my magic hair, in which I can apparently get different parts of it to swing in different directions simultaneously.  

Last winter I made a ton of soups, because the kids will eat soup. Also, soups are convenient to make over the weekend.  They take a lot of time but you can do it ahead of time and then let it simmer all afternoon, so I can cook while the kids nap. This weekend we had beautiful, warm weather but the nights are getting cool and you can feel fall approaching. All of that meant that it's time to start breaking out the soups again. This morning I made a homemade chicken stock that will provide the base for lots of different soups. Chicken parts, onions, carrots, celery, leeks, peppercorns, and fresh thyme and parsley simmer for a couple of hours to fill the house with the most delicious aroma. This is the kind of thing I love about weekends and family: music playing in the background, kids' voices happily chattering away, and the aroma of chicken stock on the stove. It is such a homey feeling.

Then this afternoon I used some of the stock to make a Thai chicken lemongrass soup with coconut milk, lime, basil, and cilantro. Using the homemade stock was so worth it. This is a spicy soup, with red pepper and jalapeno pepper, and as it was cooking I tasted it and thought it was too spicy, too harsh. But just as the recipe promised, adding lime and fresh herbs amazingly cuts the heat. The result is an incredible blend of flavors, with a spicy, garlicky taste up front which then mellows to something sweet and citrusy with the taste of coconut, lemongrass, and lime. Seriously, it was so good.

Jake's review: I could eat this entire pot. Seriously, I can't stop eating this soup. 

Nora's review: No, I do not want to try it. No! No no no no no!

Milo's review: I like it! More please?

I couldn't believe Milo ate that soup. It really was quite spicy and I served it to him over rice and he ate it right up.  Amazing.

Afterwards the kids did some reading of The Very Hungry Caterpillar:

This lasted until they heard the music of the ice cream truck. What is that? Milo had to check it out:

I love this next picture because if you look between the kids, through the window screen, you can actually see the ice cream truck driving down the road. The truck has been hitting our neighborhood hard lately. The ice cream man was brilliant to drive around here tonight because tonight was one of our movie-in-the-park nights. It was the last one of the summer. The parents string up a giant sheet, and everybody from around the neighborhood comes and sets up blankets and picnic baskets, and somebody plays music until it gets dark. Then when it is dark they play a children's movie, and all of the kids watch (although half of them fall asleep before the end). 

Once the kids were in bed, we lit a fire out back and enjoyed the sound of the crickets and watched the stars. Here is Jake enjoying a beer by the fire. I got this picture with no flash:

Tomorrow it's Labor Day but it's back to work for me, since Jake has no classes and can stay home to watch the kids. There are no 3-day weekends for freaked-out professors barreling down on tenure. It's been a good weekend and I love being at work, so I'll enjoy going there tomorrow, getting (I hope) a lot of good writing done without any distractions since the building will be empty. 

Good weekend, hopefully a good week coming up. I really enjoy fall.