Adjustment Period

Surrounded, as we are, by buildings owned by three different schools, our neighborhood feels something like a large, quiet park all summer long.  We ride our bikes through empty parking lots and wander across grassy fields.  But then, 9:00 a.m., on an August Tuesday rolls around, and suddenly there is a stream of cars rolling down the street.  Cars doors open and slam shut, wheeled carts go rolling by, directions are given by cheerful college girls in purple shirts.  Box fans, clear plastic bins, cases of bottled water are carried down the street. There are some tears, some laughter.  By 6:00 p.m., there are 800 college freshman living across the street.  Noisy cars, the campus bus, car doors, foot traffic, the smell of cigarette smoke.  And then there's the first weekend where 800 19 year-olds have to find something fun to do on a Friday night.  I'll let you imagine what that sounds like at 1:00 a.m.

Of course, fall brings it own adjustments anytime.  Oli starts first grade.  NT goes back to work.  There are church groups and early childhood activities for Jacob and Henry.  I should make out a house cleaning schedule.  I should make a list of all the meals I like to cook and put them on a calendar so I don't have to look through cookbooks late in the afternoon.  I should make an exercise schedule.  And sign all the school forms.  But I'm not feeling very ready for all this quite yet.

{pretty, happy, funny, real}

{pretty}

I haven't felt much like planning meals lately so 4 o'clock usually finds me trying to figure out something for dinner.  Today I happened to take out a cookbook called, Savoring the Seasons of the Northern Heartland.  I usually think of this cookbook as being a good winter cookbook as most of the recipes seem to require a lot of cooking but the weather's been cool this week.  I found a recipe for Sarma, also known as stuffed cabbage rolls.  We just picked a cabbage from the garden the other day (and there's at least ten more cabbages waiting for us) so I thought this would be great.  It was tasty - I'll probably make it again.  You blanche the cabbage leaves and then mix pork, rice and spices together, roll them up in the leaf, and then cook in a sauce of pureed tomatoes.  We have tons of tomatoes growing right now too so this was a great fresh dish.  We had a creamy cucumber salad on the side.

{happy}

Eating blackcaps (wild black raspberries) at the garden.  Every time we would hand him one, he would lean back and eat it.


{funny}

These two...Oli and her friend J.  When they were four, they were in childcare together for a parenting group at church and decided they were going to have a playdate.  They've been friends ever since.  On this day, they planned a wedding.  I'm not exactly sure who was getting married but from my post in the kitchen I gathered it was a royal wedding with official proclamations, a wedding rock (which only they know the meaning of), piano music, singing, and decorations (note the decorated piano).  

{real}

At the beginning of the summer, I imagined myself bike riding all over town with the boys in the bike trailer and Oli on her bike.  I figured if we took the training wheels off, we would go much faster.  This was about May.  For a month, I tried holding onto the back of her bike while she would try to balance and ride.  This got us nowhere.  A friend of mine had read about taking the pedals off the bike to teach balance.  So one night, NT took off the pedals and had her practice coasting and balancing.  After about thirty minutes of this, he put the pedals back on, gave her a push and off she went.  It was like magic! Our next obstacle, was starting up on the bike without a push.  She was really afraid she was going to fall.  One day I offered to pay her a dime every time she tried to start riding on her own.  She tried and tried but just couldn't get it.  Finally, last night, as NT and I were standing outside talking to some neighborhood friends, she did it!