Nesting Days?

(My apologies for such a long post, but it was a long weekend that I want to remember later).

I think this is the first weekend since perhaps April or early May that we had absolutely no plans and it was lovely. Plans did, of course, develop, but they were great and quite relaxed ones. Yesterday, we did the things we used to do on normal weekend days before all the events took over-- we took the recycling in, visited Starbucks, went to the farms market, did a little shopping, got snowcones (ok so that is a summer only thing). Then while B napped I read and scrapbooked while Brent played games online. We did mundane things too, like cleaning our house a bit. We spent the evening having dinner with Brent's parents and enjoying watching B.

Today, I apparently was in a baking mode. I made Berry Crisp (derivative of Mark Bittman's Apple Crisp from How To Cook Everything: Simple Recipes for Great Food which is a standard fall back book for me. The crisp made a great brunch when the guys returned from Target. We did a little laundry and I randomly suggested making homemade cinnamon rolls which Brent has been gently hinting for for ages. I haven't made homemade bread since we moved here so clearly it was high time. B helped after assuring us he had made them at Granddaddy's before. We had to convince him this would be slightly different.

Making bread via a family recipe is a bit by feel and I think my mom when I called to let her know what we were up to was a bit worried that I'm more than a little out of practice. Nonetheless, it actually worked great. While it was rising, B request that we make peanut butter cookies. We, of course, gave in even though it is illogical as I have this sense of wanting to do lots of things with him just the three of us in these final days. I don't really have a favorite recipe peanut butter cookie recipe at the moment so we used the one from Joy of Cooking: 75th Anniversary Edition - 2006. It is OK, but maybe a bit oily for me.

As you might guess, by the time the cookies were ready to bake B had lost interest. I perservered and finished up the cookies before moving on to the cinnamon rolls. While they rose, I made "ranch burgers." I suspect these are not common fare for most of you and I'm not sure their origin entirely. I think they are a derivative of kraut burgers/bierocks that are quite common in the heavily czech area of OK where I grew up. My mom shifted to the more widely popular ranch style beans and beef mixture and they became a staple of harvest fare and very popular at our house. More recently, they also include a bit of shredded cheese. (Ranch Style Beans --- are not available nation-wide so for my east coast buddies, they kind of like pinto beans in a mild bbq sauce, very tasty). I made these up and for once think I may have gotten the ratios close to right. They aren't quite as good as Mom's but a pretty good effort for me.

While the buns/rolls rose and cooked I read my book, B napped and Brent mowed the yard. I had a late lunch of fresh from the oven goodies. Belatedly, I noticed that I had forgotten to make any actual bread in all of this, which, I think, was disappointing to both Brent and I as we love the bread itself fresh from the oven and the next day for breakfast. Thankfully, we didn't have enough yeast or flour to make another batch as in my questionable mental state I just might have. Instead, I attempted to nap while Brent finished the yard. When he came in to shower, we noticed some noises from B's room...

Brent investigated and discovered B in bed with tons of random things from around his room and not at all asleep. Who knows if he slept at all? In any case, we talked to the Hoppers who were coming to visit and did some playing in the yard, cleaning the windows, etc while we waited. Mostly, we took time to just enjoy watching our naked little guy run around the yard watering things, watching bugs, washing his truck, etc...

Then the tornado of two small boys began. They actually played very well together today which was lovely. We had some dinner made of ranch burgers,and corn from the farmers market augmented by chips, sweet potato fries and sorbet from the Hoppers. We even got to watch Allie wander around adorably in the tutu we bought her. B was really good with Allie too. He took her for a ride in his wagon, very slowly and they fed each other goldfish crackers, just too cute. Then the bath time, routine and clean-up as I begin to realize I may have over done it. Ah well, we had a great weekend and did lots of delightfully normal wonderful things together. We are trying to treasure the moment for now and enjoy the wonder of ordinary time together. Hope you had a wonderful weekend as well.