Really?

I can complete our grocery shopping all year, December - August, knowing that the Brachs' Candy Corn is in the candy aisle and easily avoid it. But, as soon as the Halloween aisle appears (way earlier than it should) filled with Candy Corn it takes every ounce of will power I have to avoid buying a bag. It is crazy.

Last night, my girls and I had to grab snacks for Lucky Day at school, and there it was, the Halloween aisle. Of course, I had to walk down the aisle, mistake number one, but I really couldn't avoid it. Of course, I threw a bag in my cart. We went up to checkout (as you may remember, I gave up sugar for the month of August) and I was ready to buy it - throw caution to the wind - I was going to eat it on my way home, stomache ache and all. Fortunately, the Don't Eat Sugar the Month of August Gods were looking out for me and as I was paying I realized I had removed my Discover card from my wallet earlier in the day (that is the only form of payment I carry) and left it at home. So, I left my cart at customer service, went home, dropped of Eden and Clara, returned to the store and in the mean time had convinced myself not to get the Candy Corn. Thank God. September does not look good for me.

Hi Ho, Hi Ho...

Clara, Davis and Eden



Well, we did it. We went back to school today and back to work after a long, fun (some days more fun than others) summer. We were all up at the crack of dawn, me to ride my bike, my kids to get dressed. And we even managed to sneak in a few photos!

I survived, cried a little off and on throughout the day (okay every time I spoke of it), but realized that all was really good. I need to focus on work, both Bennett Schneider and GOOD artisan ice cream, and my kids need some structured time. All in all, a very happy day. On Monday, Clara came home from orientation and said to her dad, "Daddy are you going to miss us? Because after tomorrow we are leaving." If leaving always means they come home at 3:30 p.m., anxious to tell me all about the day and excited about tomorrow. I can get used to leaving!



For perspective ... Davis - Kindergarten 2006

I am ready!

Okay, all summer long, and especially for the last few weeks, I have been saying, and I believed it, that I wasn't ready for my kids to go back to school. I am going to be losing my twin daughters to kindergarten and that scares me. They are only five and they are my babies. That said...

Today, I decided I was ready. Is that bad? Does it make me a terrible, selfish parent? It isn't like my children are over demanding or bad. In fact, generally, they are extremely well-behaved. We have one more week. Unlike many schools in our area who started today, we are starting next Wednesday. I have to admit I was a little jealous watching all the moms and dads in our neighborhood walking their kids to school today. I have one more week, will we make it? Only if...

1. Eden stops the ridiculous whining she has become accustomed to the last few weeks. I know, she is the sensitive one, and I try to be sensitive to that, but does that mean it is okay for her to break down into complete tears because her mean mother made her go back inside and put shoes on to ride her bike? Wow!

2. Clara can accept the fact that watching Disney channel downstairs and a DVD in our room is not something any one person can actually do at one time. And no, I will not put two TVs next to each other! I must be the worst mother ever.

3. Davis acknowledges that the summer of 2010 can probably be renamed in our books as the "Summer of Davis" and take 45 minutes out of his day to sit and wait for his sisters to get haircuts, and, no, you can't bring your DS. Read a book. Which we did. He only complained twice. But the worst was the trip to grocery store after the haircuts. I have never heard a child say, "I am bored" so many times. What I wanted to say, but didn't, was, something along the lines of how riveting grocery shopping is for me. Oh well.

I'm ready...I think!

Speeding Up by Slowing Down

Lately, I have felt my life is in fast forward. I finish one thing and unfortunately feel like I need to get on to the next. I learned a very valuable lesson on Saturday morning about slowing down.

Saturday was a work day for me at Bennett Schneider. So that meant I was up early and off to the gym. Since I am taking a break from both running and weight training, I made it a swimming day. Now, I will admit I am not a good swimmer or a fast swimmer, but I have come to enjoy my hour long pool workouts. Meaning...it is so peaceful. I started swimming two years ago for two reasons 1) to have something to do while my piriformis was healing and 2) to be able to compete in the longer distance triathlons.

I did not bother to take swim lessons (I figured I took those in grade school) nor did I think form mattered. To me it was just a matter of getting in the pool and doing the laps. After my swim on Saturday morning, as I was leaving the outside pool heading back into the gym, a gentleman stopped me and asked if he could talk to me about my stroke. Slightly annoyed, I had somewhere to be, I stood and listened to his feedback about how I am not taking advantage of the strongest part of the stroke by waiting so long to bend my arm, blah, blah, blah. Okay, thanks...as I rushed home to get ready for work.

Fast forward, as my life seemingly goes, to Sunday night. Dave and I are sitting at my parents' table celebrating my mom's birthday and I bring up this pool incident. I stood up and demonstrated to Dave (who is an amazing swimmer) and my dad (who completed an Ironman Triathlon) the adjustments this gentleman told me to make. I was fully expecting some off-the-wall comment but was surprised to see my dad and Dave nod in agreement. Yep, that is exactly what you should be doing.

So, to test this new stroke adjustment I went straight to the pool this morning. Though today's pool workout should have been intervals, I decided to do the same workout I did on Saturday, just to compare. I will be damned. I swam the same distance five minutes faster than I did it two days ago. Now I know this is remarkable, because I have been trying for months just to knock a minute off that long swim.

Lesson learned...slow down, listen, you will never know what you will learn and from whom you will learn it. Though I will say that I still wonder how long that stranger in the pool on Saturday morning was watching me swim. Wierd. If I could thank him, I would.

Surprising Week

I have had a week full of very pleasant surprises I thought I would share:

1. A dear friend of mine wrote me a very delightful thank you note for nothing. Just a thank you. And as the owner of a stationery shop it means even more, because I know how rarely people write notes anymore.

2. My month without sugar and sweets (beginning August 1st has been surprisingly easy). Though I am making an exception for business related tastings (I had a GOOD artisan ice cream delivery today and I refuse to let an order go out the door without a taste) and my mom's birthday party on Sunday. However, I will say Thursday was not so easy. Why? Because I made this cake for a friend's birthday weekend and my favorite candy in the world might be Reeses' peanut butter cups. I should write a thank you note to the expensive cherries I ate while I baked and assembled.



3. My nine year old son, Davis, played fantastically well in a three day golf tournament ending Wednesday. He shot his best three rounds ever. And if you live in Kansas City you know that the weather this week has not been ideal. His endurance and desire to get back out there the next day in 100 degree heat was truly inspiring.




4. I had to give up running for a month. And I thought it would be hell. However, I have had a few great bike rides, swims and have started my pilates reformer sessions. It has been very pleasant to wake up pain free everyday this week. I could really get used to this.

5. Friday evening I went out to dinner with my longtime summer babysitter. I really even hate to call her that - she is much more a family friend than babysitter. I very rarely take a night out so it was quite enjoyable. Now I know this sounds terrible, but I was secretly hoping I would get home to find a house full of sleeping children (especially Eden and Clara). But, much to my surprise, their dad let them stay up until I got home. Once I got past the fact that I was tired and going to have to do the bedtime routine, I helped them up to bed, brush their teeth and find all the necessary bedtime accessories (blankets, stuffed dog, etc.). As I was tucking Clara into bed she asks, "Does God make the clouds?" I replied, "Yes. Why?" Clara replies, "Because he draws them good." Then rolled over, said good night and that was that. I really wanted to ask what made her ask me that, but the simplicity was so sweet that I didn't care. I just smiled and realized how glad I was to come home and find them still awake. What a nice surprise.

Saturday morning and Apple Fritters

We have a Saturday morning routine. I get up really early (say 5:30 a.m.), ride my bike to the gym, workout, ride home, eat, shower and head off to work. Dave heads to the gym while I am showering, comes home, mows the lawn (or mowers the lawn...as Eden would say), hangs with the kids. We usually meet at 5:00 mass then head home, grill out and hang with the family.

I was desperately craving something new Saturday and I didn't have to work. So, after we got up we went straight to the Overland Park Farmers Market where we grabbed all the fresh produce we needed for our Fire-Roasted Corn Salad, ate breakfast at Clock Tower Bakery, got Davis' hair cut at Sole Patch Barbershop in Corinth. After that we hung out at home, got our workouts done in the afternoon and had some great friends over for dinner!

The dinner was great, the time with some friends we hadn't seen in a while, even better. And to top it all off, we had homemade Apple Fritters (recipe below) with GOOD artisan ice cream in Vanilla Bean. Now my only experience with Apple Fritters up to this point was the kind my husband buys on the rare Sunday when we get donuts - and those to me are not good. So these, were a real treat.

What a great day! Enjoy!

Apple Fritters "ad hoc at home"

1 cup all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1⁄8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 large egg
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon whole milk
3 large Fuji, Gala, or Golden Delicious apples
Canola oil for deep-frying
Powdered sugar for dusting

If you like, serve them with Vanilla Ice Cream and a drizzle of honey. They’re best immediately after they are fried, so serve them hot.

Whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt in a medium bowl. Lightly beat the egg and milk in a small bowl. Whisk into the dry ingredients until combined. The batter can be covered and refrigerated for up to 3 hours. Peel the apples and slice the fruit from the core. Cut the apples into 2-inch-long, thick matchsticks. Fold into the batter. Heat about 1H inches of oil to 325°F in a wide deep pot. Set a cooling rack over a baking sheet and line with paper towels. Using two forks, lift up about 5 to 6 of the apple matchsticks from the batter, allowing the excess batter to drip back into the bowl—the fritter should be irregular in shape, with just a very light coating of batter—and add to the hot oil. Add a few more fritters to the pot, without crowding, and fry for about 5 minutes, turning the fritters from time to time, until crisp and golden brown. Use a skimmer or slotted spoon to transfer them to the paper towels, and fry the remaining fritters in batches. Stack the fritters on a serving platter, sprinkle generously with powdered sugar, and serve immediately.

Love/Hate

If I had to sit and make a list of all the things in life I have a love/hate relationship with, it would be many...

1. running - love the outdoors and fitness, hate the achiness in my piriformis

2. love and hate my twin daughters' very strong personalities (hope it serves them well later)

3. how overly cautious my nine-year old is - I told him yesterday he would make a great mom someday - he was less than thrilled

4. swimming - love that nothing aches (see no. 1) after an hour swim, hate the damage it does to my hair

5. love my house, hate the mortgage

6. hate our 9-year old Chevy Tahoe, love that I don't care what my kids do the backseat

and though the above list is definitely not all inclusive, today, a new one...

7. love cherries, hate the price! Cherry season, I do wish you could stay here forever, but my grocery budget will be glad when you are gone.

Princesses are Rich

This post is a result of a very interesting conversation I had with Eden and Clara yesterday.

Clara: Collin told me Princesses are rich. I don't think they are

Me: Why is that Clara?

Clara: Because they are little.

Eden: Clara, of course they are rich. They had to pay for all the nice stuff in their houses and when the lady at the furniture store gave them change they got rich.

And that was that!

So, here is what my kitchen would look like if I got lots of change from buying stuff for my house. Photo from Urban Grace Interiors

And regarding yesterday's lunchbox post - my nine year old is thrilled! Can't wait to get his.

Check out these lunchboxes!

I am really excited about these lunchboxes. After I swore off buying my kids new lunchboxes this year, a friend of mine posted something in Facebook about these lunchboxes. After about 5 minutes online reading about them, I was hooked.

We have been really good around here about not using baggies and throw away items to pack lunches, but the washing and putting away of all the sandwich boxes and fruit holders and cracker boxes is alot when there are three lunches to be made each day (our school doesn't offer hot lunch - not sure we would eat it anyway based on the things Jamie Oliver says). But this just removes that extra step - the lunchbox is the plastic containers all divided. So, at the end of the school day, I just throw the whole lunch box in the dishwasher! Done.

They are available here and you may want to order now as the expected ship date is August 16th and noone in the Kansas City area carries them.

I am a little worried about how my nine year old will feel about these, I know my kindergarten girls will love them - especially with all the cute stickers they come with. Also - note that great little drink holder - 8.5 oz. so I don't have the waste from drink containers either! Yeah!

Can't wait for them to get here!

Our Experiment

Okay - a while back I started focusing on making all my kids snacks from scratch, if they were not already that way (i.e. fruit, cheese, nuts, etc.). I really wish I had done a better job documenting these things along the way - but anyway here we are. What has come of this is my insatiable desire to create ice cream and gelato from scratch using only natural ingredients, good milk, nuts, fruits, spices and yes, even things found in our garden and our friends' gardens.

To make what could be a very long story, short, from this has come my own little venture into the custom culinary business, GOOD artisan ice cream. Now I know, ice cream is not as good for you as say a summer squash (though those are darn good) - it provides me a way to reward my family and friends for all the healthy eating and living we do and also allows me to make sure I know what my family is getting in their treats!

My husband and kids and I are navigating this world of too much of everything with the simple motto that Good things can be good for your body, mind and soul ... in moderation! We know we can't eat ice cream every meal, every day - but it is a great treat and knowing it is fresh makes it even better. So enjoy today's flavors... Blueberry Lavender and Mint Chocolate Chip and e-mail me if you would like to order some!



Blueberry Lavendar - This is made from fresh blueberry puree, lavendar steeped in warm milk, cream, eggs and sugar! I know it sounds funny, but it is a great combination.



Mint Chocolate Chip - Real mint here folks! Steeped in warm milk for two hours, eggs, sugar and dark chocolate chunks added during the freezing stage. This doesn't taste like store bought mint ice cream it has a really great leafy mint taste - very natural! Also, did you know, good mint ice cream will not be green - those are food colorings and dyes that make that color! You can see from below I was going to add strawberries and also make a mint strawberry, but my batch didn't make enough to split it! Will do again.




Other flavors now available - Salty Caramel, Lemon Poppyseed, Cherry Chip, Espresso with Chocolate-Covered Espresso Beans, Pistachio and of course, Vanilla.