SNAP SHOTS!

It is early evening and I'm in the kitchen making supper. The smell of roasted rosemary chicken is coming from the oven and I can also smell the fresh carrots I'm cutting up.  Adrian has come home to look at wedding venues and his fiance and Randi's husband are both working so it is just the 4 of us, the original family unit, for dinner.

I set the table and place the chicken in the middle. 

This is a good moment. A snap shot in my life where all is safe and  at peace. But how quickly the time flew by! Wasn't I just tucking my kids into bed after hugs and prayers? Wasn't I just scooping them out of bath tubs and wrapping them in fluffy towels?? 

So here's a snap shot history of my summer. Things that made me feel content or happy. Scroll down and blink and it will be over in less than 5 minutes!

Our dessert after roast chicken. Peach crisp and ice cream! If that doesn't make you happy, I don't know what will

Bee balm

Hydrangea. Always a pleasure to watch what's growing in your garden

A good game of Settlers. Played outside cause it was too hot inside!

A girl's night at the cottage with good food and one on one time with my daughter.

No. Not my car. But a very cool one nonetheless. Came across this during one of our trips to the County with friends

The best Latte I have ever had....so far. 

No. Not my bike. But a very cool one nonetheless. Spotted it during a walk on my lunch hour at work

Roasted Marshmallows and camping trips make me very content. 

I'm cheating a bit here. This was actually taken last year. But this is a very precious snap shot to me that captured a moment I hope never to forget. 

I know all you moms and dads with little ones that won't sleep or teenagers that are causing you great angst are thinking this will never end. But it will. And it does. In the blink of an eye.

 Quick - take a snap shot!

SAD BANANAS AND COLD, RAINY WEEKENDS

Last week was hot. Hot, Hot, Hot! On average, it felt like 36 Celsius (that's 96.8 for you farenheit folks). That means I spent most of last weekend doing afternoon napping. Too hot outside, too hot inside. 

But on Friday we took a nose dive and  Saturday and Sunday have been cold, wet and rainy. In fact, today most of Belleville is pretty sleepy cause in the middle of the night there was a fantastic electrical storm with thunder booms that shook, rattle and rolled us all. I was pretty sure I would wake up to see cindered trees and craters in the pavement from all those lightning bolts!

I've had a very busy week - out every night for one thing or another so after work on Friday I got groceries, went home and crashed. No reason to go anywhere except directly to the kitchen and putter! Besides, I've not done a foodie blog in a while.

I had a few things to use up. For some reason, bananas have fallen from grace in my house and they sadly turn brown utterly forgotten on their pretty platter until I move them into the freezer for their final demise. I also wanted to stock up on some vegetarian dishes for when they are needed.

First up was a chick pea, potato and cauliflower stew. This is supposed to have apple in it but I did not have one. Mango was up for grabs instead. This is a nice hearty vegetarian option!

Next was a squash soup (I threw in the rest of the cauliflower as well).

I like to add roasted sunflower seeds as a garnish for a nice crunch!

Then there were all those sad, brown bananas in the freezer waiting to be redeemed. So I made a chocolate banana cake with a cream cheese frosting:

And finally I finished the weekend with two loaves of banana bread - one with chocolate chips and one with pecans (special request). 

I froze the soup and stew for later use and the baked goods will be eaten up this week - either at church or the drop in Centre downtown or work. 

The moral of this blog is, if you are feeling forgotten remember the Bananas - they have the last word!

NIGHT RIDES AND SPIDERS

This past week I had to work the 12-8 shift - by no means my favourite but every now and then, it has to be done. By the time one gets to work everyone else is well into the groove of the day and just as you are starting to catch the beat, everyone is leaving!

It has been hot, hot, hot all week so I rode my bike most days. The only issue is by the time I'm leaving a little after 8, it's quite dark. Now back in my young and foolish days I would ride my bike in the dark all the time (and without a helmet!) but I'm older and more cautious now. Riding a bike in the dark feels, kind of risque. I kinda liked it! Look at me, zooming along in a perfect temperature, making all you poor people in cars nervous, unable to discern that big stick in my path until I barely have enough time to zip out of the way, making all you poor people in cars even more nervous. The one thing I did not like was all the bugs. No I could not see them but yes, I sure could feel them hitting my face. 

Which is my segue into spiders. I'm pretty sure I was hitting spiders. Big, fat ones, hanging from trees, minding their own business until, WHACK! Along comes some human on a bike out of nowhere. All I kept telling myself was "keep your mouth shut Cyndi, just keep your mouth shut!"

 In the morning, while I'm having coffee in the garden, big fat, contented spiders are hanging around everywhere, finely attuned to every vibration made in their elaborate glass houses. The other morning I watched a honey bee buzzing along and suddenly Mr. Bee was immobilized, caught in one of the big fat, contented spider's webs. Mr. Spider quickly scampered down to check out who was coming for dinner, was satisfied with today's catch and scampered back with glee to a corner, probably to assess what spices were on hand. I thought to myself, that spider is big and fat. Mr. Bee is, according to the world wide web, becoming obsolete. So I took a branch and removed the portion of the web holding Mr. Bee and helped him down to the ground, much to Mr. Spider's chagrin, I'm sure. 

Night rides and spiders. This would have made a great Halloween post. Alas, like coming to work on the 12-8 shift, I'm out of the groove!