There will be mud

When the child wakes up and is raring to go before 6am, it's always a long day.  I know I will be exhausted by the end but there is not much I can do but muddle on through.

We spent the morning on the island exploring the beach and picking raspberries from the trail.  We traveled by trike.  Highlights included watching a backhoe remove some old cement and finding a few hermit crabs in tide pools along with meeting a kind kayaking family with a big shaggy black dog named remedy. 

Lunch was early as I was starving and then my little guy marched right into bed declaring "nap."  He went down in a flash and I decided what the heck, I'll have a soak in the mini hot tub.  Very relaxing and marvelous.  I wouldn't mention but it makes the afternoon activity more funny.

After nap it was time to drop off some of moms old stuff at goodwill and check out the local playground. Whew what a lot of cool things to do there!! I am sure I'll be back and maybe take photos but maybe not because it was all I could do to spot my adventuring climbaholic.  When we saw some kids scramble up a near by stream I knew that would be our next stop.  While it was uneven and rocky as the cold water curved back and forth down a steep bank, I thought well this is why we are wearing water shoes.  Together we ventured up that stream stomping along and climbing rocks.  When we got to the top and saw the exit was more then 10 feet up a muddy bank I definitely thought I had made a mistake.  The little eyes looked up at me and I said,"you wanted to be a big boy! C'mon, we can do this!" There were no hand holds or trees growing, just slick clay up up up.  And half way up we slipped and slid down several feet on our stomachs.  My dear one began to cry and my dress and legs were covered it mud. "It's ok buddy, mom fell too, we will just have to rest and try again."  He stopped crying as I held him and held my shoes like is asked him to.  I scrambled up that bank with my clinging little guy, humbled by his misfortune.  We came out of the weeds triumphant and got many looks from the other park patrons.  We were really covered in mud but I felt satisfied that we had really done something together and I let Owen be brave enough to climb a stream without knowing how we'd get out.  This is childhood, trial and error.  It's thrilling to let life have some question marks and get a little (or a lot) muddy.

Fridays: farmers market

Hooray for Friday, belfast maines farmers market day! Can't wait to visit and pick up some local meat, don't need any veggies- the fridge is stuffed with those!  Also we will check out the library today and maybe meet some little ones, would be fun to have some play dates or just learn about the toddler goings on here.  Excited for a great day!

Morning at the farm

When my mothers friend invited us to visit her garden I expected to visit a garden, what we visited was a farm! Blueberry bushes and raspberry bushes hanging heavy with fruit.  Cucumbers and zucchini just begging to be picked.  Fire wood stacked here.  Saplings growing there.  Sunflowers on thick stalks ready to burst.  It was magical and heaven for any wanna be Gardener like me.

But that's not the best part!  I was told that we were going to let my little guys "feed the fish."  I will admit right now my suburbanites mind pictured a coy pond in the corner of a manicured yard and my son sprinkling in some store bought fish food. Oh no, that was far from the experience we had! The pond was big and had a tiny dock with old wagon wheels on one end.  First we had to dig. Why did we dig? To get worms of course!  With some wigglers in the bucket down to the pond we went and I was skeptical.  Shame on me! Those fish came to gobble each worm dropped in such a frenzy it was thrilling! What a good time we had.  Sorry worms, but as I was told "that's life on the farm!"

In the afternoon we played at the beach and then I made dinner of pork tenderloin and all those veggies gifted to us- summer squash and zucchini and green beans, plus beet greens and lettuce in a salad.

A moment in between

It's my second morning waking up in my mothers home in Maine.  I have decided to use my long forgotton blog to journal my trip.  I think perhaps I can jot a note or two during nap time or at other moments in between the busy-ness of the day.

Yesterday when I got up with my little one (who at 19 m is really only little in relativity but is actually big in many ways) we ended up going for a walk barefoot with grandma.  I think we were all excited to be together in this calm and cool place, surrounded by beauty but most importantly OUT of the car.  The previous evenings trip left us all weary and drained.

Then I made bacon and scrambled eggs for breakfast in my moms old cast iron skillet that I am just in love with.  New ones just aren't as good.

The rest of the day was equally simple.  We saw a garter snake in the driveway, a backhoe on the island, waded at the beach, and did some grocery shopping.  I even got a shower in and I am already feeling recharged and relaxed after one day. What a great feeling!

Cherishing moments can be a tall order when there is always so much to do.  Diapers, meals, social obligations.  Today and yesterday I was wondering about those times when you get "trapped" by your child who has fallen asleep and you want to "sneak out" and "get something done." I try my best to talk myself out of leaving, hoping he will just roll over eventually and that means I can go but that I should stay in that moment as long as I can.  And that everytime he wants me to carry him I should because the time I can carry him is so short.  It is impossible to keep these lofty ideals of stopping the world constantly, but it's important to me that I do it some times.  The rest of the time I think to myself, " I gotta get out of here... Should I move away slow like a glacier or rip myself off quick like a bandaid??"

Leftovers Lorna-style

I am not great at eating the same thing twice in a row.  Sometimes I do, but mostly I like to change it up.  This is easy to do when you have great ingredients on hand. A left over chicken leg became a venue for fresh basil and tomato with some quinoa and a couple of beans left from my earlier visit to the antipasti bar at wholefoods, and voila: a brand new lovely and flavorful dish.  I ate it with a salad to my delight.

Grilled chicken with zucchini & peppers

When buying chicken straight from the person who raised it, you most likely aren't going to get a lot of choices. There is no creature that grows four boneless skinless breasts or thighs.  This packaging abstracts us from the source of our food: an animal, and to a certain extent babies our cooking skills. My chicken options are: half or whole and it comes frozen. I usually opt for halves because the defrosting is much faster.  At first making the transition to dealing with bones and skin totally threw me. I was pampered by packaged meats.  Through experimentation and research I have learned how to quarter a chicken and also spatchcock which removes the backbone. One cannot be squeamish when performing these tasks and it makes me face my food. There is no abstraction, I am eating a creature. I think that's good. I think everyone should face the reality of their diet if they chose to eat meat.

This chicken was marinaded with garlic, hoisin, and toasted sesame oil and grilled on aluminum foil.  I made greens in little aluminum foil packets and mixed some sautéed fava beans with garlic scapes into some quinoa for fun.  Fava beans and scapes being a new food for us.  Great meal!

Survived the Six month checkup

My little guy is weighing in at 20 pounds and supposedly on track to be over 6 feet tall.  My goodness!  He is growing well and was had a great time crawling around the examination table.  He cried a bit when he got his shot but recovered well.  Unfortunately, he has had some side effects from the shot, namely restlessness through the night that has left us both very tired. 

Grabbing is getting to be his favorite past time.  Nursing on the couch yesterday, he suddenly was eating the remote and today I found myself wearing my morning tea.  The lesson is: mama must be very careful with what goes on the shelf behind the couch, as in nothing is safe from Reachy McGrabsalot. No problem, I can do that.

Mobility is also blowing my mind.  He is not crawling exactly but can turn and turn and scoot where ever he wants to go. Backwards is also a favorite direction.  When the motivation is there, he's determined to get there. It's entrancing to watch him explore his world.  I love every moment.

Oatmeal for breakfast

Breakfast is easily to look forward to when it's so delicious.  We start our day with oatmeal filled with nuts, seeds, coconut, dried fruit, and honey .  I usually skip the dried fruit and honey for berries and cinnamon because I try to stick to fruits with a low glycemic index.  This breakfast starts the day right with lots of fiber, protein, and deliciousness.  Oatmeal doesn't have to be bland or boring or sweetened with sugar.

Camping Meals

My husband and I are avid hikers and love to be in the woods.  This summer we caught the camping bug and our little guy seems to have it too! He loves the woods too! No one should be surprised.

My husbands new favorite meal is highly portable and about as easy as it gets.  After learning that Trader Joes canned goods are bpa free, this meal has become a staple. It's chicken chili. Combine all this in a crockpot or for me a dutch oven with cumin, garlic, chili powder and oregano and cook on low for several hours until it is thick and the meat  shreds.  So good so easy. Eat it in the woods, even better.

You'll notice kale has been added, no meal is complete without a leafy green. And a salad.

Grilled pork chops with sweet potatos and green beans

Porkchops used to throw me.  I cook using a thermometer because food safety is paramount in our house and I am not that good at determining when things are done yet. So I was cooking pork to 165F. Don't do that. It's too much. Once I learned that 150F is perfectly fine, my porkchops became delicious instead of dried out.  I don't get too fancy with them: I usually pair them with rosemary.  Sometimes I use maple syrup with Dijon mustard if I am doing a roast loin but really rosemary is so good with pork, I stick to it.  Because grills are hot, I sliced some apple to be my porkchop's protector. I always have apples to spare and this makes an impressive plating too, who doesn't love a little warm apple and cinnamon?

The green beans get wrapped in aluminum foil with garlic & olive oil and just hang out on the cooler part of the grill. They take about 10 minutes to get super green and tender then take them off and wrap them back up.  The sweet potato is actually Japanese sweet potato and if you try it, you'll never go back.  I sprinkle coin slices with cinnamon and coconut oil then on the grill they go. Slice them thin for fast cooking but not too thin or you'll get fast burning.

This is a really easy meal and a standard at our house. The green beans get swapped out for whatever green leafy is in season and a salad always tags along.

Movie lover & hater

I rarely have mellow reactions to films. I like it, or I'm angry. A lousy movie can spoil an evening and spill over to the next day.  Do I think this is one of my more endearing qualities? No. Do I intend on changing? No.

 I love to take movies on fully and be immersed in the characters and story.  The price of that is occasional disappointment when faced with a poorly crafted film. Of which there are many. I will be reviewing new movies I see here and also blathering on about some of my favorites, but first I must tell you a little more about my feelings about movies.

I consider films the same way I think about dreams.  Like little windows into understanding masked with sometimes outlandish characters and settings that can be deconstructed into important personal meaning.  A movie should entertain while you are watching it but should later linger as you wonder how it relates to your life as you would a dream.  This extremely personal and perhaps self indulgent view of films has me locked in and always looking for more.  But most important to understand is that I rarely think of them as a project created by lots of people as a job for profit who sometimes don't give a fig for viewer enlightenment.  This is exactly why I failed to break into the film industry. There, I said it.

Salad is our buddy

Once upon a time I opened a bag of greens and put it on the table. That was our salad. Half the time hubby didn't eat it, sometimes he forgot and others who knows.  He is a stickler for good presentation of food.  Before you go condemning him for being too picky, like I used to, I'd like to point out many healthy eaters have this same quirk: it's a great habit to care about your food looking appetizing and making a meal a special occasion- that's how it's done all over the world.  Anyway, that bag just wasn't cutting it and had to evolve.  Now our salads are present at both lunch and dinner and add lots of variety to our meals.  At first the extra step was difficult to incorporate but now, I wouldn't dream of a meal without a salad.

Today's salad featured our fresh strawberries grown in our backyard and some pine nuts that looked irresistible at our local market.   Greens are arugula and red leaf along with cucumber and radish.  Dressing is our homemade balsamic vinaigrette that I never get tired of.

Fabulous Feet Friday

Of the under-appreciated appendages, feet must be right up there in the top five.  Momma's need their feet for running after little ones and in my case lots and lots of walking.  In the last couple of years anticipating motherhood and embracing my old-fogey married status, I gave up high heels.  But I did not give up a love of shoes.  Every Friday I will dedicate to those hard working feet of ours and the importance of taking good care of them.

Fajita Chicken with veggies

Fajita Chicken with mexican wild rice, refried black beans, veggies and avocado

We are off the gluten.  No flour tortillas for us.  Or bread or cookies or pasta or a hundred other things I do not miss.  That summer squash was straight from our garden but the refried beans were straight from a Trader Joe's can.  The chicken and other veggies were from the farmers market and the organic rice purchased in bulk at Whole Foods.  This was my first time seeing if I could get away with a tex/mex flavored meal minus tortillas and cheese of any kind.  It can be done! I added cholula to my plate because I love a little kick and the color makes me happy too. 

That's a lot of vomit.

After months of little to no spit up, we have had 3 impressive vomit displays in two weeks.  All of which have happened in our bed.  Last night we knew exactly what to do! Strip the bed and the baby, husband gets things changed while I clean the baby and myself. It was a great show of team work and calm parenting.  We settled back into bed and congratulated each other on a job well done. And that's when a voluminous round two began. We repeated all the steps a little shocked and bewildered, feeling concerned even though the little vomiter seemed unphased by his handy work. The clean sheet supply is depleted and we almost cleaned up when we are attacked by throwing up round three. This is the stuff novice parents are terrified of and seasoned parents laugh at. 

While I do the third clean up of the baby and myself, my husband ventures into the attic to get the home birthing left overs that has our last bed sheet and some absorbent pads and makes the bed again.  I forgo the onesie this time and lay down some towels to settle in. At this point the poor little bugger is showing signs of discomfort and fatigue and cannot lay down.  I rock him to sleep in the glider until we can lay together and I watch him stir hoping the performance is complete.  

Today I am worn out and the little one is now sleeping in a bounce chair I am bouncing with one foot as I eat oatmeal. There's a lot of laundry to do and the big question: will we still go camping this weekend?

The cat smugly sits on a sleeping bag as if to say "I never throw up that much."

Lobster Alfredo with Sweet Potato Gnocchi

I am a pinterest junky and when I have time, I love to try out the recipes I find. 

A decadent Lobster Alfredo with Sweet Potato Gnocchi on a bed of greens

That delicious Alfredo sauce was made from cauliflower! and was amazing on lobster.  I also went to the trouble of making these little bad boys which added depth and sweetness to the plate.  I had it twice while my non lobster loving husband was off in the woods camping. The Alfredo was so easy and decadent I will definitely make it again.  The sweet potato gnocchi were delicious but too much work for a repeat.

The tea bag says it all

Last night fussy baby phase continued. Hot and needy, my little man needed much effort to get comfortable and sleep.  I was awakened frequently to help him in his quest for slumber.  In the morning my darling husband snuck out and let us sleep as babe seemed content finally and we rested well for about an hour. That was good. As he woke up he began to smile and coo and perhaps it will be an easier day.  He enjoyed his jumper at breakfast that he wanted nothing to do with yesterday so that's a good sign...I think.

I, however, devastated a tea bag like a groggy morning monster, tearing through the envelope and into the bag itself. So that's the indicator of my condition. ;)

The current phase.

After many weeks of an easy peasy baby, we are in week two of a fussy short fused needy baby.  He seems uncomfortable often and needs to be close to me.  Thank goodness for my ergo baby carrier that keeps him close even while I do chores and meal prep.  But it's taxing. And I'm tired. So I started a blog to keep track... Of course we think its teething, but for sure "it's just a phase."

Grilled Brook Trout

Grilled Trout with bacon wrapped asparagus, grilled red pepper baby bella and greens

Fish is good for you.  I recently found out that I should be eating fish 3 times a week.  And not just any fish, specifically Wild Salmon, Mackeral, Trout, Sardines, and Anchovies.  Why these fish are good for you. Of these Salmon is the easiest to get fresh but the others can be found canned relatively easily, just make sure the can is BPA free and you are on your way to good healthy. This was the meal I made for my husband before he went off on a guys camping trip to ensure he would be well fed and miss me. It was easy, healthy, and delicious.

What Matters Most

It came to my attention in my sleep just the other night that most of my time is spent doing something that involves one of three categories: Meals, Movies, or Motherhood.  Of course the first and last take up most of my time and the last is certainly my favorite.  My life is an adventure everyday and I longed for a place to explore it and document it so here I am in my fresh new blog where I can chat about all the things that matter most to me.