Ah, September, the beginning of apple everything, darkening days, You’ve Got Mail viewings, sprinkling of stalks of wheat and mini pumpkins around the house, and that crisp feeling in the air that means only one thing – It’s (basically) Fall! I have so many things on my list for month. I’m so excited about it I could dance. I do have to make one tiny little disclaimer though that I may change a few things. I just got two magazines (this one, and this one) from the store the other day that have so many great recipes inside, I may have to make a few sub-ins. But I’m also so excited about the lists I already have that maybe I’ll just have to add rather than subtract. There is time to do it all, we just have to make our minds up to do it. So without further ado, The September list.
Monday – Beef ragú over egg noodles. We’re having this today over parmesan polenta with Caesar salad and garlic bread. We’ll have the leftovers on Monday with egg noodles and more bread for the boys.
Tuesday –Taco Soup. A recipe from my mother-in-law. I’ll post the recipe this week on Instagram, but the recipe I’m linking to looks identical! Liz (my mother-in-law says “It is very forgiving…. can substitute anything…. I just give it a shake or two of ranch powder… I use 2 fire roasted tomatoes and 1 stewed… and I add about a can of water. It’s so easy. The hardest part is opening cans!”
Wednesday – Sheet pan salmon and tons of veggies (zucchini, squash, broccoli, onion). Mixed with lemon pepper seasoning, garlic, oil and lots of butter. Spread in a single layer and bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes.
Thursday – leftovers always!
Friday – Pizza night! I’ve confessed that we’ve been picking pizza up from our favorite local spot lately and I have zero regrets as we’re still getting into the swing of being back in school!
Saturday – Date Night! Our anniversary is the 30th, so we’re hitting the town and the boys will most likely have hot dogs or chickens nuggets.
Sunday – Spaghetti Bolognese. A Sunday favorite, and the perfect weekend cooking project. It’s not hard, but it takes a long time.
Bake – Sourdough. It’s happening! I’m getting my poor languishing starter revived this week. I use Tartine’s country bread recipe and it’s not the fastest, nor easiest, but it’s easily the best.
Treat – Molasses Cookies. Feels very end of August-y. A follower shared this recipe with me and I have to try it! I have so many cookie suggestions from a story chat the other day, so I’m going to share a blog post with all of the links because I need to try them all.
Cocktail – Coffee Old Fashioned. Can you tell I’m already easing into September?
Make anything good lately? Please share with everyone in the comments!
Weeeeee! This week went fast, didn’t it? Or maybe it didn’t and it just went by in a bit of a blur for me. We’ve finally made it to Pizza night over here, and I can’t wait. I have a confession. I have not gotten it together enough the last few weeks to make homemade pizza. What with getting into the groove with school, I’ve just been wiped. So that dear, sweet husband of mine has been picking up pizza on his way home from work, and it’s kind of glorious? Like I don’t know what it’s going to have to come to for me to start making it myself again? I’ll probably get the urge after a few more weeks of this. But truly it’s been so nice to just be DONE. I just get to pick up my boys, go home, have a drink, and put my feet up. Such a treat. I have no reports other than that, so how about a few links from around the web?
I just finished this book and it was good! Took me a little time to get into it, but once I got to the good parts, I couldn’t stop. I think I’ll give it four stars.
My sister and I are having a Facetime date tomorrow night and are both making these. She starts school Monday and it’s a little farewell to our summer breaks.
I’ve always tried to keep a bit of a gratitude practice. Just taking a moment to feel deep gratitude for bits of my life that I generally take for granted. I used to even keep a gratitude journal where I would jot down a few things every day. Studies show that this helps us feel more satisfied in our life as a whole and happier in the long run. You might not know this about me, but in my adult life, I’ve kept a number of blogs before, admittedly a bit erratically. And they’ve all been fairly similar, but I have never been very good about keeping up with the practice of writing. Nonetheless, the writing bug is within me, and I think I’m generally more satisfied when I have a spot to write. I’ve always written about memory-keeping, books, food, lifestyle. Things that matter to me. And one thing that I’ve always done is write essays about simple joys. The ritual of making an iced coffee in the afternoon, cracking the spine on a new book, tiny bouquets of wildflowers, taking the long way home, the feel of a tiny hand gripping yours, a favorite pencil, writing on the first page of a new notebook and the like. Just simple things that make my heart swell a bit in my every day life when I slow down to think about them. I’ve called these different things over the years. I believe I called them sparks of gratitude in one blog, a small, happy life in another. But for the last couple of years, I’ve thought of them as Simple Joys, so that’s what we’ll call them here. We’ll make this a bit of a series.
The first one I’m sharing is a simple joy that’s so fresh in my mind because I’ve just finished the ritual. Every Sunday, when everyone has finally tumbled out of their beds and bellies are full of warm breakfast, and I’ve had at least one (maybe two!) coffees, I declare to the whole family that it’s “Linen Day!!!” I generally exclaim it with great excitement, with what I’m sure looks like a crazed smile on my face. The boys (who are 4, 3, and 1) have no idea that most people don’t get jazzed about stripping the beds and washing all the sheets. Indeed, most people probably find this a chore that they *have* to do rather than *get* to do. Nonetheless, there’s anticipation in the air in our house. Everyone bounds off to the bedrooms to start taking the sheets off and carting them off to the laundry room. Today we even had the great fun of using our sheets as an excuse for an indoor sleigh ride. Three boys piled on a sheet, being pulled through the house amidst giggles of joy. If that doesn’t scream joy, I don’t know what does. But it’s not just that. It’s not just the stripping of the beds. Honestly the making of the beds is where things die down a bit. But then – THEN! there’s that moment just before bed, when my little ones crawl into their clean beds just after a warm bath and their breaths start to slow, heavy lids drooping with sweet dreams. At that moment, I take a deep breath, and I know that another week is about to come, and no matter what it brings, my kids have a safe, clean spot where they’re showered with love to sleep at the end of the day.
But those clean sheets you know, it’s not just for them. It’s for me, you guys. It’s for me. Obviously I wash their sheets, but I wash ours too. And that moment when I climb into our clean bed, I fairly shake with contentment. You can tell when a bed has freshly washed sheets on it. You just can. It’s like I’m giving myself a warm hug and a pep talk for the week. You can do this. It’s a new, fresh week, and you can do everything that lies ahead of you. It’s such a simple joy for me, friends, I hope you find some in your week ahead too.
Well, I’ve only been marginally successful at my goal of daily blogging during the school year so far. I’ve been re-reading 168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think, by Laura Vanderkam, a fascinating book on how to make the most of your time by spending it on things that matter to you. I’ve determined that I absolutely have enough time to blog, care for my three kids, cook dinner every night, work full time, train for a marathon, meditate, learn spanish, bake on weekends and read at least one book for pleasure a week. haha. I know. That sounds ridiculous when you type it all out, doesn’t it? But people do it! It can be done! I’m going to do it, you guys. And then I’m going to share all of my secrets with you. This space though is one of those things that I know I can do with a little time.
Anyway – how was your week? The boys were at school all week, and I just went back yesterday, so it felt like a very fast week. We’ve been working out a few kinks (mainly in tender-hearted morning emotions), but overall it’s been good! The only thing dragging me down is that moment when my alarm goes off at 5am. I much prefer the yells of my children as an alarm clock.
Are you up to anything this weekend? I need to sit down with my husband tonight and discuss weekend plans over pizza and peach bourbon lemonades because as of yet, we’ve got nothing. A trip to the beach? A wander through the art museum? A kite flying expedition? A laze in the pool in our backyard? I don’t know, it’s going to be hard to choose between all those. We DO however, need to plant our pumpkin seeds because I’m hoping to have some homegrown Halloween pumpkins around here! Now, how about some fun links from around the web?
I’ve been looking forward to the newest episode of this show all week! Call me crazy, but I enjoy the old school excitement that comes from waiting for a new episode every week.
My friend just sent this video and I can’t stop giggling.
The Metroka Family 