Food Friday

Earlier this week, Jordan and I were talking and thinking about the possibility of just the two of us going out to New York this Fall (I'm not ready to leave our kiddos, but even considering it was a big step!) Besides the experience of an extended date with Jordan, two things were most compelling -- first was just the feel -New York City in the Fall! (the best!) Second was the food (ha!) We could pick up lunch from the Halal Guys street cart, one of those best ever peanut butter cookies with the fudge inside from that one bakery, and try one of everything from Amy's Bread (above)... 

And here are few other fun food things I'm enjoying right now: 

+ I got Jordan these little fried egg ring things a few years ago, and every time I use them (like for my lunch a few minutes ago) I think how cool they are :)

+ My favorite lunch lately( a couple times a week) is a super quick huevos rancheros-ish thing: corn tortillas with cheese toasted on the griddle while a fried egg cooks, and a tiny bit of salsa + avocado slices. 

+ When I was a senior in high school, I once visited Jenny in the dorms and her roommate was making dinner - a BLT on whole wheat bread, cut in triangle halves with orange slices as a side. And so when I went to college the next year, I'd sometimes make myself BLT's on whole wheat bread, cut in triangle halves with orange slices on the side and I felt so grown up.  My kids all complain when we have BLT's, but I still think it's the best dinner to have with garden tomatoes!

+ When we were in Victoria last summer, we got some currant curry hummus from the farmer's market and it was so great that we went back and got it again the next weekend too. And I've still been thinking about it all this time, so this week I finally tried to make some by just mixing in some curry and currants to our favorite store-bought hummus. And it was great! Not perfect, but still really fun to try again!

Ten years!

Sometimes when we talk to the kids about 'when they were little', I'll tell them about when Landon was a baby and toddler, and Dad used to leave in the morning for work and we'd sing a song and wave to him out the window as he'd leave, and then it would just be me and Landon at home all through the day. And this little story feels so funny and different to all of them, because they've all grown up with Jordan just working in his office here at home. (It was only a few years ago when we were talking about rush-hour traffic one day with Ellie and she was a little confused because she didn't understand that people usually left their homes to go to work each day!)

I have this very clear memory of being at April's house(just over 10 years ago!), playing with Landon in her living room while Jordan sat at the dining table working on a take-home assignment from a job interview he'd just done.  And I was telling him something like, 'There is no way we're going to move to New York City, so why worry about finishing the project?" But he did finish it, and then they decided to try out letting him work from home (though they flew our whole family out to NYC with hopes of convincing us to move I think!) and then it was working great and kept on working great and here we still are!

(He stayed with Animoto for 6 years, then Bonobos in NYC,  LostMyName/Wonderbly in London, and now we're back to NYC with TeachersPayTeachers)

We both have felt so very grateful for the work he's been able to do for these really great places. And it has been so fun to have this little New York City part of our lives too for all these years now (plus a couple years of London in the middle!) I love that our kids have grown up with the little bit of New York mixed in with their Logan memories.  And it has been such a great thing for our family to have Jordan home with us all these days for all these years too!

Some fun NYC snapshots over the years  --

September 2008 -- Jordan & Landon at the Central Park Zoo

October 2009 -- Landon and Ellie playing at our NYC rental apartment

July 2010 -- Jordan, Landon & Ellie at Top of the Rock Observation deck

December 2010: Jordan, April & Nathan in Times Square

December 2012: A google hangout screenshot with Jordan at the Washington Square hotel. Whenever he'd travel on his own, he'd stay here. And whenever we'd talk, those famous actresses/actors would be his background :) He's had lots of solo trips like these over the years!

December 2011: Me, Landon, Ellie & Owen on a Sunday walk with Jordan in Central Park (+ testing out these wrist straps I had made to use in subway stations or crazy busy spots -- It looks pretty silly to me now, but I know I was pretty scared about keeping these kiddos safe when I was on my own!)

December 2013: April, Jordan, Landon Ellie, Owen & Porter (in the pack, warm inside Jordan's coat!) watching the Christmas light show at Saks 5th Avenue by Rockefeller Square

April 2015: Jordan, Landon, Ellie, Owen & Isaac at church/Manhattan temple

Our little garden

This was going to be called 'our poor garden', but then I went outside to get a quick picture and there were so many lovely little spots out there that I felt like I couldn't really call it names :)

This year each of the kids had their own garden box to take care of and work on each day. And they were super at going out there each morning all summer long, but still our plants have kind of  really struggled! Jordan kept mentioning that they looked like they could use some more water, and I kept telling him "I know the kids are watering every day" Then around back to school time Owen got into the conversation and mentioned something like 'Oh, I just water mine for about 1 second each day.'

And amazingly, in the 2 weeks since I took over everyone's boxes for back-to-school time, all of our plants have started to grow!  (You were right dear!)

I suspect that it will probably freeze before we do ever get any veggies (though I'm rooting for that tiny pumpkin up there!) But our empty harvest summer meant that we've enjoyed zucchini and other extras shared from our neighbors!

Also, our tomatoes have been great (Porter and I shared that box ;) and that's our favorite garden veggie anyway. We've also had one cucumber (that we enjoyed last night with falafel), and a few happy sunflowers too.

I almost think with it's super-slow growing this year that it was kind of even more magical for Porter - with a "Look, Mom! You have to come see!" along with each tiny bit of growth.  So thank you little garden for giving us these sweet little celebrations!

Labor Day Weekend

+ Landon's working on his cycling merit badge and getting ready for "Bike the Bear" - a 50 mile ride around Bear Lake next month. On Saturday, he and Jordan went for a 25 mile ride, ending at Lee's for breakfast. By the time they finished, he was still feeling energetic so he rode up the hills home, then looped around our neighborhood again and again to complete another 10 mile ride. It's been so fun seeing him getting more excited about biking! (And it helped that this weekend he got to try out his new road bike too! :)

+ After they got home, I biked to the farmers market and picked up peaches and nectarines and patty pan squash and pears. 

+ We've had a round of colds this past week, and poor Ellie was pretty sick for most of the weekend (plus two nights in a row up sick - Jordan took the first night and I took the next...seriously how did we survive the sleepless night years??)

+ I stayed home from church with Ellie and Isaac on Sunday. I was very grateful for Owen's nice teachers so quickly and happily agreeing to teach my class too. And it was so fun to see Ellie and Isaac together for the morning. They were sick, but not miserable so they played quietly together while I cleaned up the kitchen, then Ellie and I did some drawing videos while Isaac played and wandered in and out, and then they played magnatiles together some more while I got lunch ready... I wished I could go to church, but still it was just a nice and calm, happy morning. 

+ Sunday afternoon while Isaac napped and Ellie rested we played Agricola with the boys and it was just fun - Porter was learning to play and everyone was being a good sport and it was just a nice afternoon.

+  Monday we all rode to Kneaders for a breakfast/lunch (after a late start getting out the door!) then had a calm afternoon of checking things off our project/to-do list. (Mostly Jordan did this actually while I mostly recovered from the rough night before!)

+ And we ended the weekend with a fun labor day BBQ at Jen & Jeremiah's!

+ Also, this cute collage popped up on my phone from our Labor Day weekend two years ago -- A camping trip with baby Isaac!

Listening Lately

This summer, I started listening to a few podcasts on my walks some mornings, and this little bit from a conversation with Yo-Yo Ma on OnBeing has stuck with me. The interviewer (Krista Tippett) mentioned the joy that audiences felt from him in his performances, and he explained it as wanting to be a gracious host, and then this - 

Krista - "But you don't have to be joyful, right?...You can be gracious without being joyful..."

Yo-Yo Ma - "Well, maybe the joyfulness could be the hope of joy."

I think this is just so beautiful. It has stayed in my mind, and it's still sifting around a bit. I love the choice of it - you don't have to be joyful, right? And also the explanation, maybe what others see isn't even necessarily joy he feels in that moment (though maybe it is), maybe it's just the hope of that -whether the joy is there yet or not... I'm still sorting it out, but I loved this.

(And I've really enjoyed most of the other OnBeing podcasts I've listened to so far too)

On a Wednesday (little thoughts from yesterday)

a new spot for a quiet time walk  (Porter reminded me of this path on one of our morning walks lately -- he's up there in the picture, a tiny spot of red riding up ahead on his bike!)

Poor Isaac is sick today -- nose dripping, eyes wet, easily sad... He sat at lunch sniffing and wiping his nose on his sweatshirt sleeve (Momma will get you a tissue!) and saying every once in a while to Porter "so sick!"

We're pulling out all the warm gear for the morning bike rides to school -- I had two jackets, ear muffs, and gloves today and was still thinking I could use another layer!

Jordan rode bikes with Landon and his friends to middle school today for their late start day. I wasn't sure how the return (uphill) trip would go, but Landon called me as soon as he got home to tell me he made it back up the hill, even with his old bike plus a flat tire.

We've had a fun new dinner a few times lately -- Thanksgiving sandwiches. (Based on our favorite grilled cheese sandwich place in Pleasant Grove and a fun restaurant we've visited in Park City) It sounds either super weird... or like what every other person already does with Thanksgiving leftovers probably... but it's been a fun new thing for us to try. (Open faced and eaten with a fork: garlic toast + mashed potatoes, turkey & gravy, stuffing, cranberry sauce (and every thing in that list I've made the easiest way possible -- no actual Thanksgiving prep involved here)

I sure love Lee's grocery delivery. I went once with all the kids at the beginning of the summer to buy groceries for the week... and after that just ordered the main things we'd need every other week or so (you can just add your last order to your cart and adjust as needed) and then when I did need to go it was only a 10 minute trip,  not a whole shopping ordeal with all the kiddos!

Ellie asked if we could go to the park to pick some plums, so we took a little trip over there after school and piano practice yesterday.  And just as we were about to head back home to meet Jordan and Landon, Jordan rode over on his scooter and surprised us with an ice cream cone party!

This quiet time thing is feeling all very new again to me! If I stopped to think about it, I knew I kind of missed having some time to myself in the middle of the day, but I'd forgotten just how really great it is! I sat out in the sun yesterday and read a magazine (!)  and went on an extra walk in a new spot I hadn't walked on my own before. It is feeling like such a treat!

Thank you notes

A grandmotherly woman walked by our house a few weeks ago, slowing down as she looked over at our yard. I was heading out on a walk with Isaac, and kind of cringing inside as I wondered what had caught her attention -- the plates and cups from a forgotten picnic snack, the remnants of paper airplanes, the scooters, bikes & rollerblades scattered across the lawn...

Then she said something like this, "I just love seeing that dirt under your swings! You know that grass will grow back someday, but your children will just keep growing! "

Thank you sweet woman for taking a minute on your morning walk to look closely and see the beauty in those little patches of dirt, and for telling me about it too!