Explosion

The bread ate the dish (tasted wonderful). 

My Favorite Gift

We arrived home Wednesday night after visiting family for Christmas and found what is probably my favorite Christmas gift in the mail box.  While we received some wonderful gifts this year, this particular gift has some very wonderful memories attached to it.  You see, every year my friend Sarah and her five children come to visit for a fun filled 24 hours (we also typically visit them when we go to Virginia in the summer).  This past year, after walking along the river behind the Red Mill in Jericho, the kids decided they wanted to go the the museum inside.  The museum is dedicated to Snowflake Bentley and his snowflake photographs.  When we opened our Christmas gift from them this year, there was a book about Snowflake Bentley and some snowflakes made by the four older children.  In the past few days, we have read the book several times and have hung the snowflakes in Little Man's bedroom window.  The book contains pictures of many places we know and love. In addition to this, both the snowflakes and book bring back wonderful memories of strawberry picking, walking by the river, visiting the museum and blowing bubbles in the backyard with our friends.  The bonus part of this gift: there was a huge snow storm the day after we opened it.  Definitely the best gift of the season. 

 

Loving the Snow

While I regret to say we did not have a White Christmas this year; I can happily say we have made up for it the past two days.  Yesterday's storm dumped well over a foot of snow on our area and we have been out enjoying every minute of it with a few hot chocolate interludes built in here and there.  We spent a big chunk of the day yesterday sledding with friends and today we just hung out at the house and enjoyed the backyard.  Winter has finally arrived!

 

 Little Man hanging out in the cherry tree, while I cleared the driveway before Andy slid into it on his way home. 

 Our snowshoe trail around the yard has officially been made. 

 

The reason we have a snowshoe trail; so we can enjoy the snow on the pine trees of course. 

Small Local Businesses

This year, there has been a small movement on Facebook and in the area we live in to support small local businesses this Christmas.  We decided as a family that we were going to attempt to make a conscious effort to buy as many of our Christmas gifts from small local businesses as we could. To be honest, I was not sure we would be able to pull it off.  As of right now, most of our shopping has been completed and ALL of it has been purchased from small local businesses.  In addition to that, most of the items we have purchased were also made locally.  While I did not think we would be able to do it, I have to say I am grateful for all of those people who posted things on facebook and blogs, so thank you if you were one of those people.  So what did I think of the whole process?

 

For starters, I have to admit it was slightly harder than shopping in the past.  You have to actually think about where you are going to go, what you are going to buy and how much you are going to spend.  You can not just go to the nearest box store, buy all of your gifts and be done.  It is a process, you have to consider what is near you for local businesses and if they actually have items you would purchase for those on your Christmas list.  Since locally made products tend to be more expensive, you actually put some thought into what people would like or need, you don't buy one item for everyone and you certainly don't subscribe to the "buy several gifts and one is bound to be the right thing" methodology.  In the end, there is a lot more time and effort put into your gift giving. 

 

While it is harder, the final product is so worth it.  You feel good about supporting local businesses and you know each gift was specifically picked out for the individual it is being given to.  I would certainly recommend this method of gift giving and can't wait until we actually give out the gifts we have waiting for people.  Of course I need to package all of them first.    

Patience

Patience: something I am trying really hard to have this holiday season.  My first mistake of the season was making a list of all these great things Little Man and I were going to create.  At this point, you would think that by now, I would have caught on to the fact that things that sometimes seem easy are not always.  My original goal: to do an art project almost every day of the holiday season with Little Man.  My new goal: to finish the Christmas presents we have set out to make.  No, I am not totally crazy, everyone is getting the same thing from Little Man this year.  The second mistake I made, the first activity we did for the season may have been a little too easy; we made salt-dough ornaments.  Simple, mix the ingredients, roll out the dough, bake and paint.  We have tons of them! My third mistake, choosing the Christmas present idea from Pinterest.  You would think I would have learned from the whole cup cake incident at Halloween.  Nope.  I should start by saying we have been working on this since the Saturday after Thanksgiving.  For those of you who are counting, that is 11 days and counting.  We have done this project in stages, because that is about all I can handle.  First Stage, teach Little Man how to use a glue gun.  Second stage, attempt to make little circles with hole punch.  Stage three, attach little pieces.  Stage four, teach Little Man how to use fabric shears while fearing he is going to cut my fingers off. Can't tell you stage five, that would ruin the surprise.  Finally, hand off final stage to daddy, who sits Little Man down at table with a cup of hot chocolate while he completes the gifts.  Yes, Little Man is currently sipping hot chocolate at the table, while daddy finishes his ornaments.(Can't let Little Man work with the explosives...that would be bad....)  Next year, I am sending him to M&M's to make ornaments, she has much more patience than I do. 

The Man Takes His Cooking Seriously

Note the look of concentration on his face.

Here Comes Santa Claus

For the second year in a row, I dressed up with 2,000 other crazy people and ran a 5K.  While my time tends to be slow in these races due to the fact that I am trying to hold my Santa pants up about halfway though the race; this is by far the race I have the most fun in all year.  While there is no way to fight the urge to race, the spirit among racers is happy and the spectators are a lot of fun, especially those who have no idea what is going on (one of our neighbors looked at me like I was insane as I emerged from the house in full Santa garb this morning). And next year I am planning to do it all over again!

Winter Farmers Market: Week 3: When The Samosa Man Knows Your Name

 From the minute hockey practice ends, through the trek across the auditorium, Little Man is on a mission.  His mission: to find the Samosa Man. Now, you might ask, just who is this Samosa Man?  He is a gentleman who came to Vermont as a refugee from Africa and with him he brought this fried pastry stuffed with meat, fruit or vegetables. Little Man loves them and the Samosa Man can spot him coming from across the gym.   I have tried to deter him a few times with offers of pastries, soft pretzels or maple cotton candy, but Little Man has his mind made up, he is going for the samosas.  He is a man on a mission.

 Once Little Man has filled his tummy with fried goodness, the family is free to roam the farmers market and purchase items for the coming week.  One of our missions is to eat foods we do not regularly include in our diet.  It is not that most of these foods are bad, it is just they are not typically available at the grocery store and when they are, it is for a limited time.  This week the item of choice is celeriac; a root in the celery family.  While it does not look very appetizing (Andy calls it a vegetable brain), this thing is amazingly good if cooked the right way.  Often it is cooked like potato pancakes or hash browns, or at least that is what we have done, and the results are amazing.  It is worth the roam around the farmer market to find.

Winter Running

It has recently become cold, dark and gray; for me this creates a major problem for my running.  While I know I will enjoy running outside much more once I am out and moving and will probably run much farther, the dilemma is trying to convince myself to actually go outside into the cold, gray and snowy world outside my warm house.  You see, there is a treadmill in our nice warm house, and while I hate running on it, it is much warmer in here than it is out there. 

 

This year, however, I am taking a stand.  Well, a mild stand.  Wednesday nights  and Saturday mornings, one of the local running stores hosts a Frosty Turtle challenge.  It is like a little running party. There are waves of people who go out on this one route, with blinking lights and head lamps, and often not all in the same direction.  It is a little glowing light parade (there are over 130 people signed up for this thing). Then, when you return back to the store, there are additional ways to earn points and enter the evening raffle, for example try the sales rep's shoes, earn a point, core work out 5 points, bring food for the local food shelf, more points.  Therefore outside I go, into the dark and the snow.  I hear they make studs for sneakers, I may have to try those later on as the snow falls.  Winter running here I come.

 

Dilemma

  

Since Little Man has been alive, we have gone to the same cut-your-own tree farm 2 miles down the road from our house to find the perfect tree.  Typically, because we have been away for Thanksgiving, we have not cut our tree until the Monday or Tuesday after Thanksgiving and it has been by flashlight in the dark (yes, they will let you cut your own tree in the dark and it is an adventure, since you never quite know what your tree is going to really look like until you get it home). This year, since we were home on Black Friday, we set out for the tree farm in the daylight hours since everyone else would be shopping at that time.  When we arrived at the tree farm, we noticed a tent full of trees that they were loading onto the tree stands and that the happy man handing out saws was not standing at his usual post.  Upon exiting the car, we found out that since the trees are exceptionally small this year, the man who owns the place has decided to give them a year to grow; however, there are trees cut from another farm the day before for people to buy. What to do? Since we had an eager four year old and well.... an eager mommy who were determined to have a tree in the house and decorated by dinner time, we bought one of the trees, went inside for our free hot chocolate and candy cane, and then headed home to decorate and enjoy. 

Daddy's not slouching, just trying to hear the little one's questions over the noise of the tree shaker!

 

While we did not cut our own tree, we have been thoroughly enjoying our tree.  The house smells like Christmas the moment you head down the stairs and I am pretty sure both little man and I spent an hour one morning staring at the lights.  My happy Christmas season has begun.   

Farmers Market: Take 2

Our second winter farmers market of the season has arrived! While our shopping was limited by the fact that Thanksgiving is this week and we will be dining on turkey and stuffing the second half of the week; we did not let that stop us from the fun of the market.  Actually the knowledge that we were not going to buy as much also meant that we would be purchasing meat at the farmers market.  If you have never bought local/grass-fed meat, it tends to run a bit on the expensive side.

 

Due to the shorter meal planning week we actually did go in with a slight shopping list this trip.  We knew we needed some kind of meat, honey and broccoli.  Once those items were purchased we were able to explore a little.  Our major discovery for the week; there is a cranberry bog in the fine state of Vermont.  Yep a cranberry bog less than an hour away from our house.  We of course had to try those.  Then, of course, the boys (who have a thing for redheads) managed to find themselves standing in front of a bakery table run by a cute redhead.  Not sure if they were there for the sweets or the redhead, but hey, she makes a wonderful chocolate croissant so I won't complain too much. Yet another great weekend at the farmers market. 

Indoor Farmers Market

In years past we have allotted some of my coaching stipend towards a CSA at one of the farms just down the road from us.  Unlike me, Andy is not overly thrilled with going because he can never figure out what needs to go in the basket and we always end up with way too many potatoes.  As a result of his dislike of the farm share and my need for vegetables in the winter, and to try things we would not ordinarily eat we decided to instead to put the money towards bi-weekly visits to the indoor farmer's market in Burlington. Today was the first one of the season, so off we went to explore and pick out a few foods for the week. 

 

Our first mistake of the day was bringing a hungry four year old to the farmer's market (he had just come from hockey practice).  He was not going to settle until he had something in his tummy.  While we tried to get him to try bacon soft pretzels, he had his mind set on his usual favorite: The Samosa Man! Once little man's belly was full we were free to explore. 

 Believe it or not, we did actually have a few planned items on our shopping list like garlic and cauliflower, but at the farmers market you can have fun with even your planned-out items.  Rather than the boring white cauliflower, we settled on purple and we picked golden beets instead of the same old boring red ones. 

 While Andy spent a significant amount of time talking to the woman serving up Maple Vodka made from maple sap, little man and I hung out at the Nutty Vermonter table.  After sampling some delicious nut butter varieties, we settled on the Maple Cinnamon one which was immediately pulled out and snacked on when we arrived home.  Our other interesting buy of the day was lamb snack sticks.  Having set a certain amount aside for the farmers market, let us play around a bit with purchases; it was great and we already have a few things picked out for our next visit in two weeks.  Ok, maybe Andy was right, the farmers market would be a lot more fun. 

Pumpkin Pie Soda

Why I should never have unstructured time: I try weird stuff.

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween!

 

 

Martha Stewart I Am Not

Historically, I am the first mother to sign up for the apple cider on the party food list. However, this year, thanks to Pinterest making projects look so incredibly easy, I decided to try for 'cool mom' status.  See this guy below......he will be joining the party table tomorrow. 

 

If you can't tell, he's an owl!

 Now before you get all impressed with my artistic abilities, let me explain the process that brought about these little wonders and further confirmed that I belong with the cider moms.  Looks simple right? Chocolate cupcake, Oreo and some Reese's Pieces.  Let's begin with frosting these little buggers: using the moist chocolatey cupcake mix is not a good idea when you are going to be frosting something.  Thankfully, after a few fails, I realized that you can cover over the frosting mistakes with the Oreo cookies. 

 Next up: the Oreos, and with all of the Oreos I have eaten in my life, I should have thought of this little problem before I started.  For those of you who have never eaten an Oreo before, those perfect little frosting circle centers happen in about every other cookie you open up, that is, if you don't break the darn thing in the process.  Good thing I bought the family pack.  Andy now has bowl full of broken Oreos to eat. (Buuuuurrrrrppp!)

Finally: Reese's Pieces do not stick to Oreo cookies all that well.  Oh well, live and learn. At least this year I can pretend that I am an amazing mom when we walk in with the cupcakes that turned out OK.  

Happiness

What I see when I walk though my back yard right now.

 

Raking

 

In case you have ever wondered why a four year old would help rake leaves.....

Putting the Beds to Rest

This Saturday was my first Saturday off since cross-country season began, so Lttle Man and I spent the day putting the gardens to rest for the winter.  Little Man helped dig the carrots out of the ground and then spent the rest of the time digging for worms to feed the chickens. 

 

Once the grasshopper he found jumped out of his hand, he spent the next ten minutes jumping in the raised bed after it.  It was very comical and I wish that there had been a video camera rolling while he was hopping around the garden bed, but as always, the best moments are never caught on tape. 

 

We then harvested our three sad pumpkins for the front steps.  Little Man is very proud of his pumpkin growing abilities; I think I'll wait until later to tell him they are supposed to be all orange.  Oh well, maybe next year.  Right now I'll let him think he is the world's greatest farmer. 

 

Another Down, Many More to Go

My fifth half marathon done and completed; 2 hours 4minutes and 2 seconds (I am the one in the bright green).  So far this is my best half marathon time.  One of these days I am actually going to break the 2 hour mark. 

Complete Contrast

There are moments in my life when I realize that the blog title "Haphazardly" may be the perfect fit for this blog.  While we try to foster good habits in our family, we have these completely off moments where we do the complete opposite.  For example, this past week I had Yom Kippur off from work and the rain got in the way of our long hike plans. Rather than hike up a mountain, we decided to walk through the trails and fields at one of our local parks.  We looked at all the changing leaves, followed some caterpillars around, looked for frogs in the pond, sat in the middle of the woods and listened to the wind blowing though the trees, and sat in the middle of a field opening up milkweed pods.  It was a wonderful, completely-in-tune-with-nature morning.  Then............

We ate lunch at a Chinese restaurant. 

 

Another great example(also this past week or so) was going apple picking with Little Man. Once again fostering those healthy eating habits, supporting a local business and just having a great time as a family. Then a week later...........

A visit to the world's largest candy counter. 

As you can see we are still a work in progress and apparently have a long way to go to get where we need to be.

Day 24: 3 Things

Three things I love about Fall are:

 

Pumpkins: I love the color, I love to cut them open and I love eating them; this year we are growing our own, but they have not yet turned orange, I am a bit worried. 

 

 Apples: I love to pick them, eat them and I especially love the smell of them baking in the oven.

Leaves (disclaimer: this picture is from last year, our leaves have not peaked yet): I love how they look, I love the sound of them crunching under my feet as I run through the woods and I love jumping in them. 

That is not all, I love apple cider - hot and cold, I love the crisp cool weather, I love squash, I love the smell of wood stoves burning and just about every other aspect of Fall. 

Day 23: Before Bedtime

I typically have a cup of tea or hot chocolate before bedtime; however, in the fall I am more inclined to eat a crisp apple from the counter that we picked from one of the local orchards.  I love fall!

Day 22:UP

 Mommy I want that apple way up there!That pretty much sums up our apple picking trip this weekend. Instead of ladders, they had a basket on the end of pole this year; much more fun than the ladders. 

Day 21: Sometimes

Sometimes I wish there was a fire pit in my backyard that I could enjoy on cool Autumn (almost) nights like tonight.

Day 20: Man-Made

Cairn: A man-made pile of rocks

 

Since late spring I have seen random cairns on the side of hiking trails (not as a guide to where the trail leads), in large groupings by the river, and in random fields.  I am beginning to think I missed the memo about "building a cairn in a random spot to make people ask questions" day. 

 

Day 19: Underneath

We have lived in our house for over four years now and I still have not figured out what to do with the space underneath the stairs.   I tried a reading corner, but it is by the back door and gets cold in the winter.  Then we tried a play corner; it was never used because Little Man does not want to be where he can not see people.  Now it is just an empty space under the stairs.  Does anyone have any suggestions? 

 

Day 18: Price

The price of my own insanity; about $30.  I registered for the Santa Race again this year.  Anyone want to join me?