Fall Fun

If you recall, when it came to choosing which house to rent, I decided against the one we're in now because it had no trees in the back yard.  Through a small mix up, we ended up where we are anyway, and I was sorely disappointed.  What can I say, I am a tree lover, a shade lover, and most of all, a mother of three boys.

Trees and boys were just made to go together.  It turns out though that there is actually a much overlooked tree in our front yard.  The boys discovered that it was climbable a few weeks ago while my husband was out doing some yard work.

They were so happy, and I was grateful for that one little tender mercy.  Not only is there a tree in our yard, but it's a relatively safe tree to climb --not too high, lots of branches to catch you, etc.

Not to mention that it gave us just enough leaves for a good sized pile to jump in but not so many leaves that we were overwhelmed with raking them all up.

It was a first for the baby, and he swatted at the pile for a while, until we stuck him in the middle of it.  He wasn't so sure about that.

Anyway, this one little tree gave us hours of fun as a whole family that day.  We even made a little friend, which is another one of those things that little boys just love, and what's more, it's our neighbor's so I don't even have to take care of it.  It's a win-win situation for sure.

Don't worry, I was right behind the baby.  This is why we don't play in the front yard very often.

As for the lack of shade in the back yard, we took care of that ourselves earlier this Fall.

And it's portable!

Free basketball stand, plus $8 patio umbrella from the thrift store and voila! Portable shade!

Not that we need it now though.  Brrrrrr!

Enlightened

It's that time again...

Whoever came up with daylight savings didn't have young children.  In the Fall, while everyone else gets an extra hour of sleep, we parents simply have to wake up an hour earlier, because that's when our kids wake up.  Now all our sleeping and eating schedules are off.  Great idea...

Anyway, I won't bother complaining. It's not going to change anything. I'll just look for the bright side, such as... now my baby actually takes a nap before Church, and we'll have a little bit longer before we have to walk to school in the total dark.

I've also decided that when something initially angers you, it's better to find out more about it before passing judgement, then if it still makes you angry, you are justified.  (Okay, not really, anger is never a good thing.) Anyway, here's some interesting facts about Daylight savings time to help you all become more enlightened.

Daylight Savings Time Anecdotes.

Daylight Savings Time Explained by C.G.P. Grey:

Soup's On!

It's been getting colder, and we all know what that means... Soup Season is here!

Actually, I have to admit this is warmed up V8.  My kids call it "Soup Juice" and prefer it warm. Go figure.
I'm not going to argue since it has a third of the sodium and way more vegetables, and now I've found that I like it better than regular tomato soup as well.

I haven't always loved soup.  When I go to a restaurant, the last thing I would consider ordering is soup.  Of course, we didn't have a lot of soup growing up.  Chicken noodle soup was about the only thing I knew,  perhaps a few creamy soups like cream of broccoli and clam chowder (what's the difference between a chowder and a soup?) and I suppose you could call New England Boiled Dinner "soup." Other than that it was just a can of Campbell's here and there, but soup in general was one of those things my dad didn't care for so we didn't have it very often --like Mexican food.  Random fact about me... I had never eaten at a Mexican restaurant until I was on my mission in Poland. Polish Mexican food is very different from American Mexican food (as in, I don't think Americans put curry on their taco salad), which I'm sure is very different from real Mexican food (pretty sure they don't use curry there either) but I wouldn't know. As a side note, Polish Chinese food is way different from American Chinese food, which I'm sure is nothing like actual Chinese food, but what puzzles me is that they all employ Chinese chefs, so.... yeah.

Anyway back to soup.

On my mission I learned to love soup. I love Polish soups, (most of them) Cucumber soup being one of my favorites, and there were many more that I didn't even know what was in them but they sure hit the spot in the winter after walking around all day in the freezing cold.  I even had tomato soup made from, like, real fresh tomatoes!!  (I know, blows your mind.) It was fabulous! However, when I got back to the states, I forgot about my love of soup, and went back to eating like I always had (with the exception of eating at more Mexican restaurants --the very Americanized kind like Bajios and Costa Vida and Cafe Rio).  However, last Spring I was in charge of a Relief Society dinner, and what did we serve?  Soups! Several Ladies brought crockpots full of their favorite soups and we got to taste them all.  It revived my love for soups. Not only that, but it even snowed for the occasion and we all know there isn't anything better than hot soup on a cold day!

So where was I going with this.... Oh yeah.  So it's been getting cold here, and the other day I felt like eating soup.  I had also read this book to the kids recently (which is an awesome book, and seriously could solve a lot of the world's problems if we could all live by it --think Zion here) and it sparked a memory in me.

When I was in joy school, (a fancy name for a neighborhood preschool co-op), we read this story and then the lady who was in charge that day actually made Stone Soup right in front of our eyes.  I was flabbergasted that she would actually put a rock in her pot!  I remember eating the soup and (besides worrying about the dirt that most likely came off the rock) thinking it was the best tasting thing in the world (perhaps it was the novelty of it, or perhaps the fact that it wasn't Campbell's had something to do with it as well).  Anyway, the memory has stuck with me ever since, along with the principle the book was teaching, and so I decided to make Stone Soup with my children.
When I first suggested the idea to my kids they were excited, but then my very pragmatic 5 year old informed me, "but rocks are not good for us to eat. It would be bad for our bodies."
True. Very true. So I explained and we scrubbed a nice sized stone that he found outside very well before putting it in a pot (one that doesn't have teflon).

That's no potato.

I roughly went by the ingredients mentioned in the book which included water, salt and pepper, carrots potatoes, cabbage, beef, barley, and milk. I say "roughly" as in I used carrots and potatoes, however I also used vegetable broth with just a little bit of water, celery instead of  cabbage, Polish sausage instead of beef, evaporated milk instead of fresh milk, (I was basically cleaning out the leftovers in my fridge) and no barley (ew), but I added some chopped up spinach. It turned out to be delicious!  I was quite pleased with myself. Who knew soup could be so easy?  It was somewhat reminiscent of Zuppa Toscana (which is something I've heard is served Olive Garden, but like I said, I don't order soups at restaurants I was introduced to it at the R.S. dinner).

The kids said it was yummy (although they had to be coerced to finish their bowls), and my 5 yr old said, "I must have picked a good rock!"

So much for them getting the point of the book.

I tried to explain that it was the townspeople working together and sharing the little they had that created something wonderful that none of them could have created by themselves and that applies to more than just feeding the hungry, of course... but I could see I was going over his head again and finally told him that yes, he picked a very tasty rock.

Perhaps someday he'll understand the concept.

If you want an even greater understanding of the subject (not soup but cooperation and pitching in for the greater good) here's a great talk that I would suggest reading.