Panzanella Salad

A day at the beach...and dinner on the deck.



Grilled Chicken, corn on the cob, brown rice, and...

Panzanella Salad:
2-3 Large Red Garden Tomatoes (Roma or other), chopped
1-2 Garden Cucumbers, sliced
Green leaf lettuce (or butter, or bibb, etc.)
Fresh Mozzarella (cut into cubes)
Toasted bread (cute into small squares)
Kalamata olives

Dressing: (recipe from my friend, Erica)
1/2 cup of olive oil with 1/4 cup of balsamic vinegar add salt and pepper (I sprinkle in 4 shakes from my salt and pepper shaker) and 2 Tbls of sugar (or 1 packet of stevia).

So many things...

...to be grateful for. And so many things to blog about.

I keep checking this blog, so disappointed each time to see that nothing has changed. Somebody better start posting here!

You'd think with a summer of freedom and rest, with heaps of decadent time spent with family and friends... that my fingers would ache to express my joy and share my stories.

Yet despite my delightfully short to-do list and our full social calendar, I've been rather silent here.

A few summer highlights that deserve more words (and pictures) but may or may not be revisited in future posts:

• a full week spent at the cabin (overlapping with brother, Daniel and boys)
• my new love for kayaking
• Mackinac Island
• a plentiful summer garden
• fresh summer salads and fruit pies
• home organizing projects
• my new jewelry display, made from an old printer drawer
  
• new bedding (I finally made our bed pretty after 9 years of marriage)
• beach days with friends
• pool days with friends and family
• Grand Haven boardwalk dates
• a long and delightful 'ladies night' spent telling stories with some beautiful women on the patio at The Lake House
  
• college girls reunion (they came from Denver, Chicago, and Cincinnati for a 3-night sleep-over at my house)
• beach day with Ryan and girls
• Baby Camden Paul Fisher's birth

a taste of summer

Another rewarding concert season is over, a mere six days of teaching remain, preschool is finished for Maya, I have clean laundry (mostly), a clean house (finally!), two sleeping daughters (and a snoring husband), a hot bath, clean sheets, an Audrey Niffenegger novel, a slow Saturday ahead with the possibility of sleeping past 5:30 am...unbelievably grateful.

That was my facebook status from the weekend. The possibilities for the weekend seemed so beautiful and hopeful that Friday night. And after lots of sleep Friday night, we woke to the sun shining through our cream curtains. We had whole-wheat oatmeal pancakes (from scratch...and there's more mix in the freezer!), scrambled eggs and turkey sausage for breakfast. All day, Ryan worked on the shed with his dad, and I weeded and put fresh mulch in the front garden. The girls played and laughed in their new 'kiddie pool' and took great naps in the afternoon. We worshiped together with friends at Converge and thought about the ways that we are inclined to enslave ourselves (like the Israelites) and God is inclined to deliver us. And....that God has made us uniquely gifted to help deliver one another too. That reminder of our role in relationships just keeps rolling around in my mind...especially as we spent time with friends from Lifegroup, grilling and eating, laughing, crying, praying, listening, and sharing our lives.

Somehow, there was lots of time just being at home, and lots of good time with friends too. I even got to take the girls on a date with my mom to the ballet (Sleeping Beauty).
And today, I woke up without an alarm or yelling children (I even got to run before the girls woke up).

The precarious balance of relaxation and productivity, solitude and conversation, contemplation and laughter, generosity and indulgence that marked my weekend seemed as sweet as the combination of rain and sunshine today.

october

Of the many reasons that I've grown to love October so much in the last few years, my favorite reason (at least for today) is the connectedness that I feel to the earth. The richness of the colors and smells. The cold air that fills every part of me, my lungs, and fingertips... The apples and pumpkins and squash and vegetables that we collect in the cold and bring home to be eaten and baked or transformed to soup. The many trips to the farms and orchards, the farmers' market, carving pumpkins with our hands and getting the stringy insides everywhere...

But I love November too...

spring rain

The warm sunny evenings have lured us outside just a little too late all week. The girls' bed times have been stretched a bit more than usual. And as a result, our mornings have been more whiny and emotional. But Maya's and Sophie's long hard naps always brighten them up for the evening full of swinging and digging and running around the yard...

And the cycle repeats.

But the warm grass, the swings, the sandbox, and the sidewalk chalk, the neighbors...we just can't resist. We've been spending our mornings outside too, playing in the yard, a long walk with the double stroller, meeting Ryan for a picnic lunch at a park.

We've also been planting this week...just little things here and there. Ryan built another little garden next to last summer's first attempt. We now have flourishing mint, green onions, oregano, chives, and cilantro, a new strawberry plant, tomatoes (beefsteak and cherry), cucumbers, and a bunch of little snow pea seedlings (that are now ready to be planted).

Last night, Ryan planted an apple tree in our side yard. I'm already daydreaming about home grown apples to eat fresh from the tree, to bake in pie and muffins... It's a pretty small tree now, but I can still dream, right?

The rain that came last night was perfectly timed for all our new plantings. And all day, it seemed right too. Misty and warm. We stayed inside most of the day, cleaning, and pretending, reading, and coloring and cutting and gluing.

And I ended the afternoon with some rare fun...playing string trio music with two wonderful musicians. Unfortunately our rehearsal room had no windows...but I could imagine the rain.

May

Maybe it is just my (somewhat childish) excitement for school to soon be over, the promise of summer, the long hours of sunlight that stretch the days, the wind blowing through my kitchen's open window, all the little seedlings that are popping through the soil in their tiny pots on my deck, the birthdays of some of my very favorite people on earth, the spontaneous outdoor adventures on weeknights and weekends, the first picnics of the year, the first strawberry shortcake, waking up to the sun....

...for so many reasons, May is extra beautiful. Whether the days are cold or rainy, hot, or windy...it doesn't matter. May is still here. It is still spring. All those cold and gray early months of the year now seem distant and insignificant. A settling (and also giddy) kind of happiness about the world arrives in May.

I finally believe that summer will come.

a few of my hopes for Spring Break...

• play outside
• go running
• build blanket forts in the living room
  
• pretend play ("Mikey", Laura and Mary, babies, orphans, doctor...)
  
• walks
• bike ride(s)
• zoo trip(s)
• lots of art projects and writing
• play dough
• read several chapters of Little House on the Prairie
• catching up on ironing
• organizing a drawer or two
• a play date with friends
• plant something
• finish reading Eat. Pray. Love.
• library trip
• a date with my Love
• get some sleep

So far, we've already filled the first weekend with Yorkshire Pudding, one long family bike ride followed by a shared vanilla milkshake, two church gatherings to remember/celebrate His death and resurrection, some very messy Easter egg decorating, three family birthdays (one party), one family Easter celebration, one quick and magical zoo trip, lots of clean/folded/put-away laundry, some swinging on our new swing set (built by Ryan and 'Papa'), running in the grass, reading, a long wandering car ride through the country while listening to Vivaldi (an unsuccessful attempt to induce post-Zoo naps), late night movies, a little too much coffee, a lot too much sugar, and not quite enough sleep (yet).

We found "The Very Hungry Caterpillar"

He was eating through one of our tomatoes in the garden...so we let him have it. It's been about 3 days, and he's almost finished it. I don't think I've ever seen such a huge caterpillar...he's larger than any of my fingers.

Maya named him...or her..."Maya, a 'gayl'. Cuz I love Maya. I love my name."

Romaine, basil, mint, red pepper...

...green onions, beefsteak tomatoes, cucumber, and green beans.

Our first attempt to grow food.

We may have been a little over-zealous in our quantity, for such a small garden. Some of the cucumber plants (that Ryan and Maya started as seeds) already seem to be a little scrunched and choked....or maybe they're just wimpy. But most of the other plants are still looking quite hopeful.



I'm mildly concerned about the hungry animals that make their home in our yard. Do squirrels like to eat lettuce and tomatoes? I've only ever seen one 'Peter Rabbit' in our yard this year...but we do have squirrels in abundance.

But if the rabbits and squirrels don't steal it all, we may have some very fresh salad at our house this summer for our friends who come to visit.

You'll have to wait a few weeks though.

Of course you're still welcome to come sooner if you're not just in it for our organic food.

maybe this summer...

...I will actually visit the farmer's market regularly and have fresh, locally grown food all the time.

...I will start a vegetable and herb garden.

...I will attempt to cook some real Indian, Greek, Italian...foods that Ryan and I love.

...I will plan for school as thoroughly as I always hope to.

...I will actually start exercising again.


Sometimes publicly posting my long-wished-for-and-oft-listed-but-never-actually-accomplished
goals helps me do something productive towards their success.

Want to come help me with my (so-far-still-imaginary) garden? I don't really know what I'm doing.

For his first Father's Day present, Ryan told me that he wanted a new suit...navy blue pinstripe. So, when we finally had a day without a million commitments, we drove to Grand Rapids to hunt for the perfect suit. But on the way to the mall, Ryan suggested a spontanious detour to the Frederick Meijer Gardens.

The Meijer gardens were breathtaking...hundreds, maybe thousands of complex, fragile plants and trees from all over the world growing inside of an enormous glass greenhouse. Among the flowers, there were other masterpieces: sculptures by Degas, Rodin, an artist's recreation of Davinci's horse, and other contemporary pieces. It was an amazing collection of beautiful work.

My grandmother Linda was a gardener. The careful, daily tending and nurturing was a natural part of who she was. She sketched detailed maps of her gardens...labelling each plant and flower. I like to think that I could someday create something that beautiful and alive. I do share many of her traits. Her long thin fingers and toes. Her unruly eyebrows. A bit of her eccentricity. Her love for books, art, shopping, carefully wrapped gifts, Les Cheneaux". But her gardener's blood does not flow through my veins. I lack the dilligence and patience it requires. But I love to enjoy the work of those who have this gift. A walk in any garden inspires me to pay more attention to detail, to think about the complexity of creation, to actually water the few tropical plants in my living room (that I usually allow to slowly die of thirst and neglect).

Maybe someday Maya will learn to love and care for flowers like her great grandmother.
She certainly enjoyed her first day at the gardens.


...we did find a suit. And of course, Ryan looks amazing in it. Maybe someday I'll post a picture of my handsome husband in his Father's Day present from me.

But Maya got him the present he really wanted. A remote control airplane.