Pumpkin--The New Superfood?

  It is that time of year; I am becoming obsessed with pumpkin. One half-cup serving of pureed pumpkin has only 40 calories, ½ g of fat, 4g net carbs, and 2g of protein. Who can’t benefit from adding 5g of fiber to their diet? It should be considered one of the superfoods! I am experimenting with recipes and seeing what will benefit from the addition of pumpkin.

  I make my own pumpkin café au laits, pumpkin cream cheese, and pumpkin smoothies. I add it to plain hummus and mashed potatoes. But the most creative place I have used it is in chili. Seriously! Using a 3:1:½ ratio, take your basic homemade chili and add pumpkin puree and chopped green chilies. It adds health benefits and richness to a cool-weather staple.

  And for anyone with children who need a nutrition boost in their diets, try adding pumpkin to oatmeal or pancakes. If you have a child that will falter at the thought of pumpkin, you can try to hide it in basic tomato sauces or use it in the cooking water next time you make rice. Alexis actually eats pumpkin puree by itself with a spoon. I stir in a little agave nectar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger and she chows down.

  The following recipe for Pumpkin Pancakes comes from Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives on The Food Network.

Pumpkin Pancakes

  The other idea is to use pumpkin in a much more classic way, such as in a dessert. Nothing beats autumnal treats as Halloween and Thanksgiving creep closer. The following recipe is for pumpkin cookies.

Pumpkin Cookies

  Of note, when I make these cookies, I make it a generous ¾ c of pumpkin and I omit the raisins in favor of chopped walnuts.

  Happy pumpkin eating!

A Magic Moment

The following moment occurred while we were on vacation. Alexis is quite a spitfire. Like most toddlers, she is constantly going, going, gone. Add a fun new location to the mix and we had a little tornado on our hands! However, on our last day in San Francisco, we went down to the waterfront and Alexis played in the sand. She was calm, tranquil, and happy while she watched a ship in the port. It was impossible not to watch her, completely mesmerized. It was magical.

This is my link-up for Shell's My Magic Moment.

Suburban Hell--Keeping Up With the Joneses

  I am not immune. I find myself constantly noting where Alexis falls on her age scale. Is she big enough? No. Is she verbal enough? Yes, she could give grade-schoolers a run for their money. Is she coordinated enough? No, total klutz (Nick's genes). Is she artistic? Musical? Competitive?

  I heard it at the park the other day when I was chatting with a couple other moms about preschool. Mom A was discussing the advantages of a $395/week Montessori over a "cheap" daycare with a curriculum. I am pretty sure cheap is still around $200/week. She was talking about how she felt totally uncomfortable even walking around the daycare, in fact, I believe her actual phrase was "I wanted to shower as soon as I got home" followed by peals of giggles. When Mom A made that remark I glanced at Mom B assuming she would mirror my slight horror at what was just said, but she was laughing too. Mom B responds with "I don't even know why lower income kids bother with preschool. They will be behind in school anyway." Why am I talking with these women?!? Oh, and for the record, I was at a park in a wealthy suburb where there really aren't any low income kids and the daycare is likely more immaculate than my house. Wait, that doesn't say a whole lot. Well, either way, by no means is the daycare filthy, gross, or unhygienic. And I bet it has the same educational standards at the Montessori school down the street.

  Anyway, this conversation continued with both mothers comparing their preschoolers. They asked how old my daughter is and when I said "She is only two and a half, so no preschool for us yet! We are just doing ECFE once a week", I was promptly mentally dismissed. How tragic. I stayed to listen though because I couldn't believe how arrogant these two women actually were, essentially just because their husbands make a lot of money which affords them luxuries others aren't privy to.

  This was the conversation, with some mild paraphrasing due to the fact I am not a journalist and don't own one of those nifty recorders.

Mother A: "Bella actually counts up to 2 now. I could just listen to her all day counting her dollies, 1-2."

Mother B: "That is so precious! Eddy won't count. It might bore him. He is much more physically active. He tries so hard to tie his shoes like his older brother, but they are velcro!"

A: "How adorable! I am sure Bella could tie her shoes if we were working on that. But we are encouraging her to follow her interests. She could play with her dollies all day. Just counting them. We should get her more dollies so we can hear her count higher! Does Eddy say his alphabet yet?"

B: "Yes of course. He almost writes his name too! It looks a little like squiggles but he knows what he is trying to write."

A: "My Bella just won't sit long enough to learn to write. I bet she could write her name if she had more focus. But if she is not a focused kid, then we will just learn to deal with that. We are very loose in our house, we give Bella her freedom. That is why she needs Montessori. They can help her focus."

  I could go on and on because this inane conversation went on and on. Mercifully, Alexis came over shortly after and asked to swing. In fact, she said quite clearly in her piping little voice "Mom, can you push me on the baby swing?" She is very articulate and I love that I can communicate so clearly with her (and have been able to do so for months!).

  Yes, she now calls me Mom and yes, I can brag too.

Life Is Settling Down

  Thank God.

  I haven't posted in awhile due to absolute turmoil at home and literally no time. August was an emotional whirlwind. First, we went on vacation. Then, we came home from vacation. Nick went to work the following day and was told we were relocating to Eastern Washington, however, he was still going to be on night-shift Turnaround all of September. I was going to be relocating us practically by myself. Oh yeah, and doing it all with Alexis. Finally, after beginning to pack, locate a renter for our home, and coordinate all those obnoxious moving details, Nick got a job offer from a company he had interviewed with a couple months earlier.

  Every now and then the stars align and you actually get what you are hoping for and, needless to say, Nick accepted this new position and job offer. As of October, Nick will have the job he wants, working normal hours, every other weekend is a 3-day weekend, and no more Turnarounds. We both get the location we want, since I don't think either of us really wanted to leave Minnesota. It may be brutally cold in winter and stiflingly humid in summer, but it is home. And it has been for 12 years.

  This is simply a post to say sorry for the absence but I swear I had my reasons. Now back to normal. Or rather, better than normal.

San Francisco

San Francisco Parks

  We went to San Francisco. At least 15 things probably just popped into your head as you wonder what we could have done in such a historic, interesting city. Did we tour Alcatrez? Cross the Golden Gate Bridge? Walk the famous Lombard Street?

  We saw the city in terms of children's parks. We went to a park at Yerba Buena Gardens, Golden Gate Park, Chinatown, Nob Hill, and The Presidio. We even spent a huge chunk of our time at the San Francisco Zoo playing at the playground. Some parks were old and out-dated, some were extremely cool. One even had a 20-foot slide that Alexis bravely went down. There were wood, plastic, and metal playsets. There were mostly sand bases, however one of the parks had that spongy blue base. We found swings, teeter-totters, diggers, and bridges. Alexis even tried a tire swing at one of the playgrounds

  Nick and I are already envisioning our next trip to San Francisco. It will include Alcatraz, Coit Tower, the Muir Woods, the Saturday Farmer's Market, and a trip to Wine Country. We may be empty-nesters when we get back, but we will have to do the city sans children!

  A few pics from San Francisco...from the parks of course! No scenic predictable shots here.

  We had a wonderful trip and it was a terrific week of quality family time. But I think we could have had the same fun in Omaha, NE. Maybe we will go there next year.

Hotel Housekeeping

  The best part of staying at a hotel on vacation is the fact that no matter what you do to your living space, someone else cleans it up. Genius. However, now that we travel with a child, we need to prioritize our Housekeeping time. After all, not disrupting Alexis during nap is a common goal. So we ask ourselves, how few times in one week can we have the garbage taken out to avoid things growing in the trash can? Do we really need someone to change the sheets on the bed? Do we vacuum our own carpets in a week's time? There is much strategy and thought that goes into vacations with a toddler and managing hotel in-room service is one of them.

  You know those signs you hang outside your hotel door that say "Please Do Not Disturb"? Yep, I hung it on our door this morning so Alexis could nap today without Housekeeping coming in to disturb us. After all, yesterday was a very long travel day for all of us and included no quiet time whatsoever. Today is a day for restoring our energy and sanity. Hooray for naptime! Do. Not. Disturb.

  So what does Housekeeping do? They call our room to double-check that we meant to hang the sign on our door.

  Sigh.