Thoughts - Fall Fun

No recipe today (though something containing apples should be appearing here in the very near future). We've been soaking up this glorious fall we've been having. It's not hard to crush on fall when the weather is so, so perfect. And when the adventures are fun and spontaneous. 

After a splendid morning football game for The Boy (we won!!), we decided we just couldn't  not do something fabulously fall. So we went to the orchard for some apple pickin'. What fun! The trees were heavy with fruit and short enough for the kids to easily examine and pick the very best apples. We chose to pick the Melrose variety, which is large, crisp and perfectly sweet. And, bonus, they look like they have tiny star flecks on their gorgeous red skin. Heavenly.

After we picked (and ate) our weight in apples, we still didn't feel like the day should end. We hopped in the car and travelled south down to Amish Country. We drove and explored, ate some fried chicken, and bought a bunch of cheese and candy. We took the time to notice that the trees are seriously being touched with some spectacular fall color. And we enjoyed being with one another.

When we finally came home we still could not relinquish the feeling of the day. We built a fire outside and sat talking until the darkness, and fatigue of amazingly full day, took over. Many moments of goodness and so much fun.

Thank you fall - it was a perfect day.

Cares

Thoughts - Bonding

To say that these last few weeks of summer break ending and school starting have been all sunshine, lollipops, and rainbows - would be a bold, fat faced lie. I'm not saying that the kids aren't doing well adjusting and having a wonderful start to the school year, they are. What a I am saying is that a bunch of the at home time has been cranky, loud, and annoying.

First, I must recognize that a lot of the banter between my two precious children has actually been hilarious. They're going to the same school together for the first time since preschool, so the discussions about friends, teachers, favorite subjects, and 'the naughty kids' is entertaining, to say the least. Yet, those funny discussions have turned ugly pretty quickly when a know-it-all tone comes into play. You've heard that tone before - from your kids, your family, your spouse - it can instantly grate your civil sensibilities and turn you into an inflamed reactor. Well, these two little...people...have been like lightening flashes with their all-knowing attitudes and whip smart responses to each other. And to me. And to their Dad. 

The bossing has been obnoxious. And loud. And tedious. I have no tolerance for it. And I have much less tolerance for the smarty pants back-talking. Ohhhhhh, that makes my blood boil. Sassy, back-talk drives me In.SANE!! My time-outs haven't worked fully. My quiet one-on-one talks haven't worked fully. My suggestions to take away this and that (and following through with said suggestions) haven't worked fully, either. So, I decided to take a page out of my Mom and Dad's discipline book. I put my kids to work, together.

Sunday morning, after breakfast, I gave each kid a bowl of soapy warm water, a wash rag and a toothbrush. I then showed my kids how to scrub the baseboards. After the brief tutorial, I sat them in opposite corners of the bathroom, closed the door and walked away. Ahhh, clean baseboards, there is nothing more gorgeous on a Sunday morning.

They talked and worked, all the while doing 'hard labor' cleaning the dirty baseboards. There was no bickering, and possibly a giggle or two. The lesson being learned - good attitudes, respect, and proper manners will keep you from having to do an awful household chore. A big lesson learned, indeed. But what they didn't realize was that there was another, hidden lesson, being ingrained into their hearts. Beyond doing Mom's cleaning, my kids were learning the lesson of sibling oneness. Us against them. 

It's an important lesson. Well, actually, it's more of a bonding exercise. During their mutual punishment they were forming a new tie to one another. A new thread in the sibling bond cord that grows stronger in times of anger at the parents and the after effects of sour behavior. My sister and I created many new bonding threads, ever strengthening for us a lifelong love and friendship for one another, during mutual punishment. And because I was at my wits end, feeling like a parent failure and trying to figure out how to tame the masses, I inadvertently intensified that sacred trust and cohesiveness between my two kids. A fusing of the souls. An 'I've got your back' mentality. A very important piece to the sibling relationship.

As for the bickering and bossy antics, this most recent consequence has held it all at bay, for the time being. With that said, I do permanently have two siblings with a tighter bond. 

And sparkling clean bathroom baseboards.

Cares

Thoughts - Three years

Hi there!

Guess what? Today marks three years since this humble little blog made it's début on the world wide web! Three years. That seems like such a long time. Much has been chronicled - food, food, life, food and more food. What fun Mimi and I have had - many laughs! Much has changed and lots of lessons have been learned. And the lure of this little corner of the web still brightens our day.

To all of you out there - friends and visitors - thanks! Thanks so much for stopping by and sharing this place with us. We're planning on being around for a while. 

Cares and Mimi

Thoughts - 4th of July 2013

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Happy Birthday America!!!

Where liberty dwells, there is my country.  ~Benjamin Franklin

Cares and Mimi

Thoughts - Oklahoma

Oh my, Oklahoma. We are so sorry and heartbroken for you. Heartbroken with you.

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I could never imagine what you have been through in the last 24 hours. The anxiety and fear you've felt.

The devastation. 

The loss.

Listening to the news is so....it's ugly. It's unbearable to hear but I can't turn it off. 

I'm looking for glimmers of hope. Those uplifting stories that will reveal themselves as time marches away from the initial catastrophe. I've heard a few and they are amazing and precious and heart healing.

Today Mimi and I pray for your comfort and peace. 

Cares

Thoughts - Boston

Dear Boston,

We love you.  ♥

Thoughts - In Honor

Today and tomorrow mark a year since my Dad and Grandma passed away. It feels both fresh and ancient, the heartbreak. Worn in and raw, all at the same time. This distance away from those two days last year seems unbelievable. How could we have already lived 365 days without them so quickly? It kind of takes my breath away.

But we have lived. And we've done it while crying and closing the door on the day. While being filled to the brim with joy and happiness. While laughing, often. And while telling the world to piss off a time or two. All in the last 365 days. 

And without wanting to, we've come to the first anniversary. And geez, doesn't that sound so ridiculous? The first anniversary...it makes me want to shove a big foot in the face of anyone who calls it that, mine included. So, how do I approach this point in time? How do I refer to these days without sounding morose and dramatic? Without making it depressing? Without reliving the overwhelming sad occasion of their deaths? How do I get through these days?

Well...I'm just going to do it. Seriously. I have a choice. My choice is to be happy through these days. Just like my choice has been to fill these last 365 days, and each day that follows, with as much goodness, love, hope, excitement, joy, hugs, laughter and peace as I can squeeze in. I haven't succeeded every day and I won't succeed every day to follow, but I will exhaust myself trying.

Why? Because we all have beautiful and horrible moments, periods, phases, in life. They happen and we react accordingly. However, in the large scheme of our lifetime, those moments, periods, phases, don't last nearly as long as the stuff in between those great highs and devastating lows. The stuff - the life- in between those times is where our hearts live most deeply. And in that time our hearts rejoice, repair, reflect. Our hearts live in the schedules and the day-to-day. Our hearts take in the small moments that later become the defining moments of our lives. Shouldn't we do our very, very best to make those moments our precious and most special moments? Shouldn't we go out of our way to live in this instant? To soak it into our fibers and imprint it onto our hearts? 

We have a choice. We all have a choice - no matter what the circumstance. We can choose to do a small thing. We can choose to do a big thing. We can choose. The gift of this life is our gift of choice. 

I choose to smile today. And tomorrow. And beyond. I choose to live in my happy memories of my amazing Father and my precious Grandmother.

I choose happy.

Cares

Thoughts - Merry Christmas 2012

Merry Christmas!

Love to you all!

Cares and Mimi

Thoughts - Singing

How do you know if your kids are happy? You know, besides hearing their great belly laughs and seeing goofy grins on their faces. 

I know my kids are especially happy when I hear them singing. It could be one of them singing the theme song to Good Luck Charlie. Or The Sprite singing in the shower. Both of them singing together in the car. Or The Boy singing while he rides his bike. 

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Singing alone. Singing together. Softly. Loudly. In this house singing is an indication of  immense joy being felt in the moment. 

I love their singing. No matter how very loud it can get. But my favorite kind of singing is the kind I catch them doing quietly, own their own. Today, for instance, I heard The Sprite singing in her room. I crept up the stairs to take a closer look. She was singing a favorite tune and twirling around her room. She was oblivious to my stare. She picked up her doll and spun her around. She then unceremoniously tossed her doll onto the bed, did a forward roll and a back walkover. All the while she sang. With inflection and passion. With happiness.

It made my heart swell right up. And it made me think about my childhood. I sang all the time. I was a very happy kid. And then I tried to think about when exactly the unbridled singing stopped. Mind you, I didn't suddenly become unhappy, I remain to this day a very happy person. But the singing stopped. Well, it subsided and I wondered why.


I have a sneaking suspicion that age did it. With age I became more self-conscious and acutely aware of my surroundings. "What if I'm caught belting out my favorite tune? Will they think I'm a dork? What if they laugh? Oh, I'd be so embarrassed." Age has a funny way of offering so very much while pulling away some precious things too.

Even though I still see The Sprite and The Boy as my babies, they are growing. They will outgrow their clothes and shoes, practically monthly. They will expand their palate by trying and loving new foods. They won't want to hold my hand anymore when we walk from the car into the store. They'll prefer the opinions of their friends over my opinion. They may stop singing.


But they are part of me. I know they will find their stage. Because happiness cannot be contained. They will sing unabashedly, at the top of their lungs in the car while they drive. They will close their bedroom doors, turn off the lights and have the privacy to serenade the picture of their crush. They will be home alone, crank up the speakers and sing and dance wildly. They will hear a favorite song and sing it with their best friends. Because best friends sing when they're happy too. 

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And they will sing with me because I have been and will always be a happiness example.

Cares

Thoughts - Change

Thursday, March 1, 2012. The phone rings at 12:30am. The call is expected. The voice on the other end is quiet and sad.

Friday, March 2, 2012. The phone rings at 5:42am. The call is not expected... so soon. The voice on the other end is loud and stunned.

Seven days into a life changing shift and in that time; thunder storms have washed the earth clean, a pure white snow has softly blanketed the ground and the sun has shone, all bright and wicked. 

Time stops for no one. In these last seven days I’ve been watching some things whirl by me from the sidelines, too tired to care. But mostly, I’ve put my head down, to see the path in front of my feet, and taken the first few steps. It would be excruciating, but I am numb.

I am numb until the kindness and love comes. The kindness feels like a stick that someone is gently, but repeatedly, poking you with. It can’t be ignored because it won’t stop prodding you until you look up and take it in. The love is more deliberate and assertive. It is like a searing, white hot blade. It slices right through to the heart and it is hardest to take. Accepting either takes an effort, but both are so appreciated. 

Appreciated to my very core.

My Grandmother (Mudgie), passed peacefully on Thursday, March 1, 2012.

My Father (Papa), peacefully passed on Friday, March 2, 2012.

Cares

Thoughts - Life

Life. It is so amazing. Full and beautiful. Happy.

Life. It is chaotic. Bittersweet and sad. Hard.


I mentioned at the start of the year that things around here have been rather turned upside down. At the time I joked about my computer bugging out, but so much more was going on and has been going on. And it has not been anywhere near joyful. It sucks. Our hearts are breaking.


But we have these most wonderful small, precious faces that buoy our souls. We have each other, our friends and new acquaintances that are keeping us wrapped in love and sanity. We are thankful and so very grateful for this.

And this place....From Which Things Grow. It is a favorite place. Treasured.


Things will be a bit thin here over the next weeks. Thank you for being here. It is our pleasure to share with you the things we make and love.

Cares

Thoughts - Good Times

Good morning friends!

Happy Friday! I hope this first week of 2012 has been treating you kindly. I can't say it's been all rainbows and fireworks here. No by a long shot. But we have had our blessings, if we look hard.

I won't dump the major details of the week on you. It would take too long. However, I will share with you why things here on the blog seem a bit different. Of course the changes of today weren't planned, just like everything else this week wasn't planned. But it's kind of a funny story. Sort of.

Christmas morning, after the kids had opened their gifts and were joyfully playing with everything, The Husband and I exchanged our presents. I opened a weighty rectangle and was surprised to find a spiffy new computer. Wow! I was so very thankful but The Husband saw the tell-tail sign.

"You need this," he said. "You're not allowed to return it." Hope quickly vanished from his face. "You're returning it aren't you?"

Yes. The computer was returned promptly. I have an amazing computer I purchased in 2007. And yes, I realize that's four years ago, but this baby is awesome. She has never given me any problems. I have never wanted to hurl her through the air or bash her with my boot. Those thoughts have never even crossed my mind with regard to this most wonderful machine.

She, on the other hand, was quite offended that another computer was brought into this home as a possible replacement. And even though she has been working beautifully, for.ever., she very suddenly decided yesterday to prove her disappointment. Confirmation from the Genius at the Apple Genius bar, she was angry and decided to punish me. No joke, he really did agree with my diagnosis, that my computer was seething with jealousy. And he also told me my options. Well, really, my option.

It's not all bad, a new computer is fun. Good times people. Good times.

I will be back, next week, with recipes and more jolly goodness!
Cares

Thoughts

I had every intention of sending you off into your holiday bliss with one more recipe. I am unable to deliver. Sorry.

I'm sure you will understand when I say that time has gotten the better of me. And I don't wish to become beastly to my family (which could easily happen if they keep making messes). I want to revel in the holiday. I want to be present in the moments of joy that are happening and in the ones that will occur.

I want to sit and listen to stories that my family will share. And laugh, because right now we all need a good laugh. 

So, I am finishing what I can today. 

And come next week I will be back here, still drunk on holiday goodness and cheer. And I will share the recipe love I have neglected to give you today.

Merry Christmas dear friends!

May you be bursting with joy and happiness today and always!

Cares and Mimi

Thoughts

Thank you for visiting with us time and again.
We so appreciate you - your kindness and thoughtfulness.
~Cares and Mimi

As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest 
appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.  
~John Fitzgerald Kennedy


The hardest arithmetic to master is that which enables us to count our blessings.  
~Eric Hoffer

Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like

wrapping a present and not giving it. 

~William Arthur Ward

Thoughts | Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday

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to us!!

It's our one year blogiversary!

Thank you all so very much for dropping in and allowing us 

to share our love of food and life.

Cares and Mimi

Thoughts | 4th of July

Happy 4th of July!

You're a grand old flag,

You're a high flying flag

And forever in peace may you wave.

You're an emblem of, the land I love,

The home of the free and the brave.

Every heart beats true 'neath the Red, White and Blue,

Where there's never a boast or brag.

But should auld acquaintance be forgot,

Keep your eye on the Grand Old Flag.

     

- George M. Cohan

Thoughts | Friends

My spirit is overflowing. I am so charged up I'd probably shock you if you touched me. I'm humming on a different frequency. Why, you ask? Well, because I have soaked in the goodness of my present. Seen the possibilities of my future. And I have drifted into the happiness of my past. 


All in one week, I have been honored and inundated with the presence of my delicious and dear friends. Past, present and future. I didn't intentionally plan for this, but it happened. And it was beyond good.

I cannot honestly recall a time when, so blatantly, I have been graced with my present, past and future. Or maybe I have and just wasn't looking. Just wasn't attuned. Just didn't see. But here it was, stacked up, one instance after the other. New friends, with budding friendships. So much to learn. Current friends. Deepening relationships, becoming old friends - for life. And old friends. Refreshing decades long relationships. Picking up where we left off, with ease and joy.

Yeah, I know it sounds pretty cheesy....the stars aligned, the universe shifted, it was magical. Well, it's true, true, true. And when it happens in your life and you recognize it for what it is, you have got to let it sink into your core. Drink it up people. Make that annoying noise with your straw while you're slurping up the last few delicious drops. 


Revel in your friendships.

Cares

Thoughts | Memorial Day

Without heroes, we are all plain people, and don't know how far we can go.

Bernard Malamud

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I believe it is the nature of people to be heroes, given the chance.

James A. Autry

Happy Memorial Day

Cares and Mimi

Thoughts | Happy Easter

HAPPY EASTER!

Cares and Mimi

And yes, that perfectly happy, properly sitting, smiling little lovely....is my sister.

♥ Cares

Thoughts | Intruders

The Husband was out of town. It was 3:33 am.


I snap awake hearing the creak of the hard wood floor. Foot steps coming determinedly towards my room. The dog didn't bark. Or even budge. That prickly fear started bubbling up. His dark outline standing there in my doorway.


He was a lot shorter then I expected (though for a five year old, he stands head and shoulders above his peers). I caught my breath and tried to slow my furiously beating heart. The Boy quickly climbed in on my right. Unbeknownst to me, The Sprite was already occupying my left side. Unlike her brother, she is very stealth.


My fear ebbed, I kissed each warm body next to me and put my head back on the pillow. I listened to them breath. Their inhale and exhale faster then my own, but peaceful and beautifully rhythmic. I touched their cheeks. So soft and still full. Not yet showing the angular shape of older children. There's still some baby left in these babies of mine.


The Boy said, "Goodnight Mama."
The Sprite wrapped her hand in mine.


I did not sleep.


Cares