Hawk

Just as Sarah and I were about to sit down for lunch today, we saw a hawk with the same idea. He was on the swing set, 60 feet from the kitchen window. E's good lens allowed us to not only capture the moment but see his magnificent body in more detail. If you click the image, you'll view a 1000-pixel version.

King Tut and the Honey Farm

©2009 - Sandro Vannini (photo courtesy of National Geographic)

Now Matt is out of diapers, the choices for weekend fun seem endless. In the last 4 weeks we've visited: Eagle Creek Park for canoeing, a street art fair, an unusually cool farmer's market and the circus. On Friday night Sarah and I attended the celebrated King Tut exhibit (much thanks for the tickets, Stacy!). On Saturday, the kids and I took in a fall festival at a local honey farm.

Tut was more interesting than I expected. I'm not a huge Egyptian history buff but seeing the artifacts in person was dramatic. The gold and inlaid artistry was amazingly beautiful. What I appreciated most about the exhibit was how simple it was organized. It was easy to read all boards and the information was both fascinating to me, as an adult, and attainable by Sarah (age 8). While I loved the hands-on opportunity to educate Sarah about the ancient culture, she seemed most absorbed in the "spooky" aspect. Recipients of a special pass, we viewed the exhibit after the museum closed. This was very exciting to a child who's seen Night at the Museum too many times. However, she didn't seem disappointed that a mummy didn't chase us back to the parking lot.

Getting to Hunter's Honey Farm was half the fun. The trees were starting to turn and we saw a lot of them––we essentially had an hour's worth of back, snaky, hilly country roads to reach the Farm's annual Festival. It was worth it though. The farm owner (a teacher/beekeeper who is the son of a teacher/beekeeper who was the son of a teacher/beekeeper) first gave us a very informative demonstration of the hive. The 30-minute bottling tour was also fascinating. We saw honey removed from the hive, clarified, and packed for distribution. I often bake with honey and was disappointed to learn that baking depletes all nutritional benefits BUT I learned about additional by-products like pollen and tincture which we may try some time. [Pollen has 96 nutrients and is the most "perfect" food; it has more antioxidants than any other food.]

At the Honey Farm, Sarah and I remarked how different the Tut trip was from the trip to rural Martinsville. What a funny coincidence though––5 minutes after we said this, the Honey Farm tour guide said, "Anyone heard of King Tut?" He proceeded to tell us how honey never spoils and how archaeologists discovered edible honey in his tomb. Go figure.

Little People

Our house is into "little people" lately. Matt can't get enough of his Fisher Price Little People. Once I showed him the Playmobil and Lego websites. Now he thinks my laptop exists for the purpose of showing him "the sets." Good thing his imagination is more abundant than my pocketbook and he also loves using blocks and cardboard boxes with his Little People.

Sarah's imagination has been stirred lately with The Borrowers. We've been reading it together. The vocabulary is more expansive than I remembered, the characters more complex. The story must be in Sarah's head a lot as she's always pointing out small household items that would work well for Pod, Homily and Arrietty. [Does anyone remember the British film version from the 1970s?]

Little people books would not be complete without mention of Mary and the Mouse, a charm of a book we discovered this year (from the words to the illustrations it's total candy) and Beatrix Potter's Tale of Two Bad Mice. The latter was a childhood gift from special family friends. I loved that book although I remember being absolutely horrified when the mice broke items in the dollhouse. I need to find it soon and read it again to both kids.

Apple-Oatmeal Crumb Cake

I have two notebooks overflowing with recipes collected over 30 years. The thing is, I ignore many of them––I seem to stick to my favorites. Here's one we tried recently. I cut it from Cooking Light years ago. The recipe makes a small cake––good for a day or two of snacking before moving on to another new-old recipe.

Apple-Oatmeal Crumb Cake

Ingredients
1 c. all-purpose flour
1/3 c. regular oats
1/3 c. granulated sugar
1/3 c. packed dark brown sugar
1/8 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. ground nutmeg
1/4 c. chilled stick margarine or butter, cut into small pieces
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/3 c. apple juice
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 large egg (or egg substitute)
1 1/2 c. coarsely chopped peeled McIntosh apple (about 2 apples)
Cooking spray

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350º.

2. Lightly spoon flour into a dry measuring cup, and level with a knife. Combine the flour and next 5 ingredients (flour through nutmeg) in a bowl, and cut in the margarine with a pastry blender or 2 knives until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Reserve 1/2 cup flour mixture for topping; set aside.

3. Combine the remaining flour mixture, baking powder, and baking soda, and add the apple juice, vanilla extract, and egg. Beat the mixture at medium speed of a mixer until blended, and fold in the chopped apple.

4. Spoon the batter into an 8-inch round cake pan coated with cooking spray, and sprinkle the reserved 1/2 cup flour mixture over the batter. Bake at 350º for 30 minutes or until cake springs back when touched lightly in center. Cool the cake on a wire rack.

Abraham Lincoln

I have a weakness for children's books with pencil illustrations. Since my own childhood, I've adored the work of Garth Williams and Lois Lenski. Last year Sarah and I enjoyed discovering the books of Wanda Gág and learning about her life. This summer, while at the Abraham Lincoln Museum in IL, we discovered the partnership of Ingri and Edgar Parin d'Aulaire. Right now we are reading their book on Abraham Lincoln. The pencil drawings are fascinating and approachable and the book, which focuses on Lincoln's childhood and personality, would appeal to children age 4 and up. We are looking for more by these authors.

And, Happy International Literacy Day!

For $ale – Used Jogger

It’s the end of an era and I can’t stop thinking about it. No, it’s not the end of summer or Sarah in 3rd grade or even Matt starting full-time preschool. It’s the baby jogger––I am selling it.

The jogger has gathered a few cobwebs this summer but thoughts of an impending sale have me out running with Matt. Pushing a wiggling 4 ½ year old boy is akin to running with a shopping cart (with the milk hopping around). But, while others may be nostalgic about baby clothes or cribs, I’ve realized I am sentimental about running with my children.

A friend once told me my children will have memories of being “whooshed” through their world. She told me this on a February walk with the kids. I don’t remember which child was in the jogger but I remember the snow was slushy.

The story of the jogger really feels like my story of motherhood. It was nearly nine years ago when I zipped 5-week-old Sarah into a snowsuit to run with me. It’d been a difficult birth but I was eager to get back to my design business and running. We both found joy in seeing the creek, bridges, birds, trees, and more in our neighborhood park. A bushy-tailed Sam always ran to the left of the jogger. On Saturdays we three ran with a running club. There was another new mom running with a jogger as well as two other golden retrievers. Life was good in Rolling Meadows, IL.

We then moved to Indianapolis, IN. The roads got bumpy for a while––I lost a friend and my father. I put my business on ice to work 3 days/week in an office. Sarah went in daycare and I ran early in the morning, in the dark, by myself. It took a while for life to even out. It took years before I discovered good routes for running. And just about when Sarah learned to ride her bike beside me on runs, there was 5-week-old Matt. For a long while there were 4 of us––Sarah on the bike, Sam to my left, and Matt in the jogger. I felt like Cecil B. DeMille directing way too many extras but we all had fun and it definitely was good exercise.

Now Sam’s eleven years old, too arthritic to run. Sarah’s way fast on her bike and I expect Matt to be on two wheels soon, too. What can I say? I have Empty Jogger Syndrome.

Like my work, the jogger has been my way to get out the house and join the world. I’ve wanted my children to see that grit and determination don’t have to stop when motherhood starts. I hope they are the kind of people who fight their way up hills––mentally, spiritually and physically––all through their lives. I hope we are always able to run together as a family.

There are not so sentimental aspects to the jogger, too. My doctor says I weigh the exact same as I did before I became pregnant with Sarah. [hmm…tell me why then have I outgrown my first running shorts?].

The jogger won’t fetch much cash, perhaps just enough for a running shirt or two. What else do I need? I have my memories.

Back to School

This school year seems to have started without our consent. Between a reunion, family visits, and the mr340, we've been gone much of the last month. Where did the summer go? And, can this be the same girl? Third grade here we come, ready or not.