ONE OF THOSE DAYS

Running late to get to swimming lessons early for a special one-on-one session 15 minutes before class starts. Still can't get over the fact that a 4-year old girl in my daughter's class has shown up to class with a different bathing suit every day. Who does that?! I was tempted to ask the girl's mom if they own a swimwear shop. You never know. Instead I asked her how old her daughter is since she looked older than my daughter. Turns out she's younger. Of course, my daughter is a tiny one.

Cinnamon, my middle child, has been running a high fever for the past few days and is still not feeling 100%. Today her neck hurts (like last month) and she can hardly move it. Swollen lymph nodes - again. I'm hoping the other two stay healthy before our trip and all three stay healthy in general.

"Am I done?", asks Cinnamon. "Sure my little girl. You can go play now."My husband tells me I need new clothes. How many women can say that? Do you know how much I loathe shopping for clothes? As much as a straight man does. I mean, what's so enticing about taking an armload of clothes into a dressing room to try on, only to walk out with maybe a shirt. Maybe.

In my case, I will gladly buy clothing for my children and my husband. But when it comes to myself, I stay away from stores until the very last minute - like a day or two before a trip. You know, that moment when panic sets in and you realize that you have only a pair of torn jeans and clothes from over a decade ago. I tried today. Ok, I spent about 60 seconds looking at a skirt (a dark gray one that's shorter in front than in the back) as we were on our way to babyGap at the dreaded mall (which is another thing I absolutely loathe). After about 60 seconds, all three kids were running through the clothes whilst one of the three or four saleswoman looked my way and said "Looks like they give you the run for your money!" I think my look said it all.

Saffi had two striped two-piece halter top bikinis in her hand - one for her and the other for her sister. The other two were holding shirts. I told them that if they didn't behave we would walk out of the store with nothing. I'm sure they were thinking, "Yeah, right". Well, we walked out with nothing for them and headed home.

Passport photos. Yesterday the pure white seamless paper arrived in addition to three other rolls: bone, fashion gray, and focus gray. Last week I used the Thunder Gray paper, but it turned out it didn't meet passport photo requirements nor did my husband find it amusing when I sent him the first photo (below). The middle one is from today's shoot. I hope that stray strand of hair won't be an issue. I just noticed it and it's too late to fix it.

I like the way the bone-colored paper photographs. I like darker better though.

The kids had fun modeling their new clothes - ones from last week, thanks to a great sale at babyGap. Who can turn down a shirt for $4.99? My son, on the other hand, has few clothes. Sometimes I think that Gap's designers favor girls more than boys because I keep seeing the same skull design, shirts with sharks, shirts with words (yet another thing I'm not a fan of), and sweat pants. Just make normal clothes for boys and stop discriminating.

The few leafy stems of the sweet basil plant I nearly destroyed on Monday, whilst trying to throw the garden hose over it, stared back at me from within Saffi's plastic pink orchid sippy cup. I need to use those leaves soon. So, I developed another new recipe using sweet basil this time and lemon zest. The kids were impatient and kept wanting to eat more. "I need them for tomorrow's shoot", I told them. It was already getting dark as I put the last batch of cookies in the oven which meant no time to photograph the finished product. Tomorrow...which will hopefully be a little less stressful day now that my husband has returned from a 2-day business trip.

New recipe for my KITCHEN NOTES feature...Lemon Basil Cookies

SUMMER IN BERLIN

The last time we visited Oma in Berlin was almost three years ago. It was the winter of 2009. It was cold and dark. It was very cold. Snow covered the streets and the girls enjoyed being pulled on the sled by Oma as we walked to a nearby park to go sledding. I remember that Sagey was 6 months old and that he fit into the bassinet of the plane on the flight back. Cinnamon was still a year old, although her birthday was less than two weeks away by the time we returned home, and Saffron had turned three during the summer.

We discussed for months about going to Europe this summer to visit family. Initially, the plan was to spend half of the time in Croatia visiting my family and the other half in Germany visiting my husband's family. I had also planned on doing some research on Croatian cooking for my cookbook which included interviewing the family and photographing the area.

Having spent a few summers on the beautiful island of Brač, I remember when most of the family would come together during the summer months to gather around the large marble table and indulge in briki-brewed Franck Jubilarna coffee and fresh bread for breakfast (along with napolitanke cookies), to swim in the Adriatic Sea, and to gather back at the table in the evening and indulge in fire grilled fish caught fresh that same day. Red wine had it's place at the table in abundance and you couldn't beat the view of the Adriatic Sea from my aunt's house.

That was the plan. However, plans change and many of the family members were not going to be there this year. This also meant that we were not going. Perhaps next year.

Nevertheless, we will enjoy spending time in Berlin this summer. More than anything, I look forward to walking around the city and spending some "children free" moments with my husband - as we did almost three years ago when we would drop off the children with Oma. I also plan on documenting our trip on this blog - if for nobody else but our family to remember our summer in Berlin.

A LAZY SUNDAY AND THE ART OF DOING NOTHING

"I work hard at doing nothing", my husband tells me as he rolls out the lounge chair onto the bright green grass to a shady spot near the children's sandbox and lies down to read a book.

"I'll be right out with a book to join you, just as soon as I...", I assure him as I chop the garlic and tomatoes for a simple tomato sauce to top the penne pasta. I really did intend to join him with Alice Waters' The Art of Simple Food - a book I've been reading on and off for the past month or so. Somehow, I never quite made time to relax, instead continued to put the finishing touches on Sunday dinner - including harvesting some of the fresh thyme leaves, oregano, and basil sitting in containers on the patio.

Breakfast was hot cereal exactly as the children like it: milk, 5-grain cereal, wild dried blueberries, almonds, honey, and cream. Because I took time to shoot the ingredients for a recipe post, breakfast was a bit delayed. While the cereal cooked, the kids sat outside at the patio table and I placed the last of the fresh red raspberries into a bowl for them to eat. Somehow, Sagey believed that the bowl of raspberries was intended all for him and thus proceeded to eat them all. Saffron was not too happy about that. I think she managed to get a few, but decided pouting was a better option.

After breakfast, my husband set newspapers out on the patio table to start a fun new project - the 50-cent project. Last weekend, he drove to at least six different Goodwills looking for some electronics parts. He came back with a new-looking dual cassette player for me (not that I ever requested that) that only cost him $14.99 and a craft kit for the children that cost 50 cents.

The children and Papa sanded the individual wooden pieces of the truck, painted them in green and blue and yellow, and made a great big mess, but they also had a lot of fun - which was most important.

As they worked outdoors, I ran around the kitchen on this hot Sunday afternoon looking for a cake recipe for a simple Sunday cake - another cookbook recipe that ended up making me wonder how much testing really takes place before a cookbook is published. The recipe was for Italian Cream Cake from a little cookbook I purchased way back in January 1999 (I found that I stamped the inside cover with a rubber stamp and wrote the date I bought it for some strange reason). I remember making this cake once before where I used two 8" cake pans and wanted to try out the author's alternate suggestion of using a 10"springform pan since I wanted a no fuss, no frosting cake. Besides the cake pan size, the other changes to the recipe I made include using rum - one whole tablespoonful - and topping the cake with sliced almonds. I was puzzled by the instructions stating to "Add the 3 egg yolks" seeing that the list of ingredients specified using 5 eggs with no mention of using 3 of those yolks in that list. I quickly wrote an email to the author (not that I thought she would actually reply - which she didn't) asking for clarification, but decided then to use all five yolks after doing a quick search on Google for similar cake recipes.

The baking suggestion stated 25-35 minutes - quite a wide range, but I figured the 35 minutes might be the suggested baking time for the 10"pan, so I went with it. After 35 minutes, the cake was jiggly in the middle. After 40 minutes it was starting to brown more than I'd like, but it was still not baked. After another 5 minutes, a skewer inserted into the middle came out clean and I decided to take the cake out to let it cool.

It started to pull away from the sides and fall onto itself. When I served it - with whipped cream and a sauce I made from blended sour cherries and Kirsch - my husband said, "You should have baked it longer". "I did", I exclaimed. Ok, so I won't be making that cake again, but I will be trying to make my own version of a simple Sunday cake - a cake with less butter, less sugar, and one that requires only one bowl to be used instead of having to wash the mixer bowl to whip the egg whites separately. Regardless, we still ate the cake.

After spending time outdoors, the three little ones went inside the air conditioned house and played awhile before deciding they were tired...one of those rare occasions where the house is quiet. Cinnamon fell asleep in this strange contraption: two Ikea plastic storage boxes for the Trofast system (the ones that held the wooden train tracks now strewn about the entire first floor), two sofa pillows, and another small German down blanket we use as a pillow.

Instead of taking advantage of the quiet and joining my husband outside in the beautiful shade on our nice green lawn, I continued running around the kitchen. "You need to learn to relax", he keeps telling me. I agree. I need to learn the art of doing nothing. Which reminds me that I have a book with that very title sitting upstairs on one of the many dusty bookshelves - the six that I happily assembled while pregnant with Saffron. Perhaps I should go find that book and see if I can learn to do nothing. Or perhaps I simply need to get back to yoga - something my husband and I discovered and greatly enjoyed before the children were born.

A SATURDAY SPENT OUTDOORS

Papa came home shortly after midnight last night after being away on a business trip all week long. Life is back to "normal" again and we spent the day together outdoors in the sweltering upper 90s. I read that next week it is expected to be in the low 100s.

The morning started out with my watching the children slowly wake up and being amazed at how Sagey still clings to his elephant (more specifically, the elephant's tail) and sucks his thumb at three years of age. Oma bought him that elephant pillow for Christmas when he was only 6 months old - when we visited her in Berlin - and he carries that pillow around with him wherever he goes. No, this is not an old Christmas photo. The kids wear their Christmas pajamas all year long.

Saffi was excited to show Papa what she made with her sister the day before. It was a simple craft with stickers and paper, but they were happy about it. The words (translated) read: "Saffi and Seena did it. Saffi did the lines. Seena did the stickers". Real teamwork. Well, for a child that's a big accomplishment.

We then looked outside the window and noticed the lizard I recently named "Thorn" - due to the end of his tail having re-grown at an angle and resembling a rose thorn. We think this is Minty's father. By the time I came back with my camera, Thorn had moved to the branch and changed from a bright green to the brown to match the branch on which he was resting.

After a quick breakfast, Saffi and Papa went to a ham radio meeting and returned with these two eggs...fresh from a hen.

Photo taken after my trip to Anthropologie this afternoon

We all then piled into the minivan and headed to The Domain for a special event, Taste of North Austin, where we got to sample some great food and both Seena and Sagey discovered the meaning of folding chairs.

We arrived later than I had hoped and the heat was intense if we weren't in the shade, but I did get to stop by both Sur La Table and Anthropologie and left with a few small colorful bowls...

...and a new mug for my mug collection/obsession.

When we arrived home, the girls quickly put on their bathing suits and begged Papa to take them to the pool - which, of course, he did - while Sagey stayed home with me. Sagey took a nap and I took some photos of my new bowls. It was close to 20h when the girls returned from the pool with Papa and it was still light outside.

The girls wanted to go ride their bikes and Sagey took the Plasma car. Papa also joined them on the scooter. Seena took a liking to some plastic goggles that were part of an experimentation kit and thought they were goggles for swimming. She loved wearing them while she rode the no-pedal balance bike (also a gift from Oma).

Did I mention that Minty returned? Yes, he's back! The girls discovered him sitting on the railing last night as I was washing the patio. He later moved over to the chive plant and slept on one tiny strand of chive all night long. I took this photo of him this evening before the girls headed to the pool with Papa. I'm glad he survived the squirrels and birds. Cinnamon (Seena) said last night that Minty went camping with his mommy and daddy and stayed in a tent. Oh the silly things kids say!

What a fun-filled Saturday we shared. Had it not been for these photos, I wouldn't have thought we did so much today.  

P.S. Thank you dear husband for smashing that blood-soaked mosquito into my white cotton voile drape. ;) Also, thank you for cleaning it afterwards.

EMBRACE THE MOMENT

 

Because one day the toys will no longer be lying all over every square inch of the house. The wooden train tracks carefully placed from the hallway at the front door all the way to the great room by the back door will have been put away in the attic - saved for future grandchildren. The Lego blocks and Lego table will also join the tracks in the attic, along with blocks and stuffed animals.

Embrace the innocent smiles...

...and the morning breakfast routine (Sagey's favorite being dark rye bread with almond butter and honey)

The sounds of two little girls signing the "Lulu" song (something they made up this morning), will be a distant memory. I opened up a Vimeo account tonight and need to learn how to compress and edit videos (in addition to actually learning how to shoot a video). The kids love watching themselves on video, despite the fact that it's not professional quality or anywhere close to it...just a simple home video for memory's sake.

The "Lulu" song from Natalija Brunner on Vimeo.