Belizean Potato Salad (Belize)

It's Transition Time! Yes, I am writing this on the eve of my very last day of a summer vacation well spent, which means tomorrow I will wake up three hours earlier than usual, pack lunches, pack backpacks, and pack myself into the car for a commute I haven't taken in two months. It's not just me transitioning this year either. Ian starts Kindergarten at the end of the week, and Suki starts preschool after Labor Day! These are not milestones that happen without some preparation though. Change has been in the air for more than a few days now.

There was the summer-long hunt for uniform bargains that had me dragging the boys into thrift stores and to back corner clearance racks. There was the epic morning of school supply shopping, in which I agonized over decisions, like whether I could substitute two pink erasers for the two white ones that were requested, all while managing the octopus hands that seemed to grow on my children in the
presence of so many shiny, colorful art supplies.

Then there was the cooking. Over three days I turned thirteen pounds of hamburger into five meat loafs, four batches of sloppy joe filling, and four quarts of Cincinnati chili that are frozen and waiting to conveniently be heated on tired nights in the months ahead. Today alone I cut veggies and whipped up a crab salad for the week's lunches, baked chicken for two recipes on this week's calendar, and now have a Chinese noodle salad to finish for tomorrow's open house picnic at Ian's school.

We even made time last night to hold a "family meeting" on the double twin beds in the boys' room. We talked about how our daily routines would change. That we might be tired or anxious in the days ahead, but that we can help each other when we are feeling this way. 

I did manage to fit in one last quintessential summer meal. Tonight we had grilled cheeseburgers, sweet corn and potato salad, Belizean Potato Salad, with enough of the essential ingredients to taste like summer, but with a few additions that subtly change the dish into a something more.

The end of summer is always bittersweet. I love the first days of school. So even as the days of reading on the patio or at the park or by the pool with the delightful soundtrack of laughing boys in my ears are winding down, I embrace the adage that change is good. The days ahead are about the world opening in new ways to students everywhere. And I am so excited to watch my boys experience this everlasting change.

Inspired Continuations: Ambesha (Ethiopia)

Last week I met a dear friend of mine for dinner in the suburban neighborhood where I spent my teen years. We became acquainted when we were sixteen years old and are now pushing almost two decades of friendship. To meet back where we spent so many hours building the foundation of a lifelong friendship was fun, if surreal in that way in which memory superimposes itself on streets that aren't quite as wide and trees that are much taller than remembered. Over Pad Thai and Lo Mein, we didn't so much reminisce as we did consider how we got from one place to another.

I considered the question of what would have happened if I had stayed in the old neighborhood instead of moving to first another suburb, then another city in another state, before making my way to the home I love now? What would a safe life have been like versus this one where I have leaped forward so many times to land with the two most beautiful children in my arms forever?

And that is what it comes down to for me. If my life hadn't twisted or turned the way it did, would I be writing this blog with Optimus Prime at my elbow, crayons at my feet, or legos on counter display as my boys take their afternoon rest in my kitchen full of light? It doesn't matter. Life twisted, I turned and here I am. One year after I started this blog, full of Ambesha from lunch, soon off to a play date with Thai pals, I continue to consider the blessings in my life, the lessons I can learn, the joys in small things, one recipe at a time.

Zucchinisuppe (Germany)

I'm a bit of a planner. I have a feeling if I looked over the last year of blog posts, that same sentence would appear more than once as a theme in my life. This weekend, we went camping to Blue Mounds State Park in south western MN, a 4+ hour drive from our home, in our quest to visit all of the fabulous parks in the state. I enjoy camping, and it is an activity where the best of my planning skills are put to use in gathering supplies necessary for living out of a tent around a camp fire all while accounting for the wild weather of our state. A planner's dream.

But about 90 miles into the trip, I realized I forgot to bring along our state passport kit, which gets stamped at all of the parks. And the chocolate bars for smores. And my medication. And a can opener. And my husband realized that he hadn't packed the boys' sleeping bags. Or his shower shoes. Or any newspaper to light the fire. Or our camp chairs. As we realized the failures in our planning over the course of that four hour drive, we floated from disappointed, frustrated, angry and irritated at ourselves until with each realization we finally just started giggling at the whole lot of it.

And then we embraced the adventure of it all. What did we actually need? (Sleeping bags!) What could we do without? (Shower shoes!) Where could we be creative? (Coloring book pages to light the fire!) And it freed us to step away from all the gear and layer of clothing and prepackaged food to simply enjoy being outside, with our kids, in a beautiful prairie with cliffs and bison and trails. The weekend turned into one of the most relaxing I've had all summer.

And I am determined to live in this relaxed state as long as I can! Tonight with no plan for dinner, went out amidst the wild sweet potato vines and towering zucchini plants and came back with peppers, cucumbers, sweet potatoes, and a cabbage to join the zucchini and cantaloupe already waiting on my kitchen counter. One loaf of Italian herb bread later and the end result was Zucchinisuppe, a thick and tangy zucchini soup, bread for dipping, sliced cucumbers and diced cantaloupe.We lingered well past the time we normally clean up, relaxed, full, content to just be together.