Thanks for the Crabs Maddy

Our BFF Maddy hails from Whidbey Island. For 15 years she has been promising me a crab feed on the island with the whole crab boil just like they do it in the movies.

This has proved impossible to schedule in all these years so every once in a while, Maddy tosses us a teaser crab here and there.

Thursday night Laramie laid out the spread.



Everything was perfect: the crab, the beer, the butter, the pilaf, the kale.



We even had a lovely soundtrack.



OK, so not everything was perfect. We tried to ignore those pesky children for as long as possible. Didn't they understand we were eating CRAB for pete's sake?

In the end, we sucked every bit of meat from those crabs, finished the beer and the children stopped crying, although I can't share with you how we made that happen…

Conditional Love

Emotional blackmail does not work.



My work here is not done however. I will not give up my quest for the Atomic…It will be mine. BWAAAAAAA

Oh, the Atomic

This is the beauty of all beauties: The Atomic. It is a stovetop espresso machine originally made in Italy in the middle of the last century. Now they are made by an Australian company, Sorrentina Coffee. Go figure

When I lived in Lake Tahoe with Kim, my neighbors Joe and Paula had one. We lived in 2 of 4 tiny cottages with about a foot between them. Joe would stick his head out of his kitchen window, into my bathroom window and say "Girls, would you like to come over for an atomic?" Heck ya! I have fond memories of sitting out among the trees, sipping my espresso, with good friends.

When we traveled to Australia, I found the shop in Sydney that sold them. We were traveling on a budget that didn't include a $400 espresso maker. Gazing at an Atomic through the shop window was the closest I would get.

But look, I found the Atomic again. It keeps coming in and out of my life. Is this a sign? Are the heavens aligning? Moments after finding this site, I emailed Laramie with this bit of emotional blackmail:

if you love me…

we can buy this.

http://sorrentinacoffee.myshopify.com/

Hmm, think it will work.

Stay tuned.

Bike Adventure

We had an almost great bike adventure on Saturday. We made a picnic, loaded up the bikes with children and supplies, and headed north to Capitol Hill. I knew the route but didn't quite communicate it to Laramie. So when she kept going straight down the steep hill instead of turning, and then tried to take the turn at the last minute, she made the turn but the trailer with Windham in it didn't. It toppled over. Fortunately he has securely strapped in and other than a few short cries, he was back to sleep in a minute. I am glad it happened. Good to know this set up works well.

We made it to the Hill with smiles on our faces and the accident nerves gone.

Then we were reminded of the many reasons we did not like living on Capitol Hill. In short, too much smoking, street kids tweaking with their rats, more street kids having public sex, agro dudes…At least we didn't have any poop incidents. ( We have lots of poop stories from our time living on Capitol Hill).

Harper had a great time playing on the big toys and swinging, for the first time.

So in short, the biking was great, the family was great, the destination, not so great. But I am happy to know we can load up and ride anywhere we want to go!

Oh and did I mention Laramie rode all the way in her skirt and red heels?

CHIMICHURRI - YUM

I'm not a stickler for a recipe. I like to do what works, use what I have and can easily procure from the yard/grocery/farmer's market/veggie box. This is one of favorite "sauces" these days. It gets heavy rotation in the meal playlist. Very simple, very delicious. We eat it with pasta and meatballs but it would be good on beef, fish, tofu.

CHIMICHURRI

2-4 cloves garlic
1 bunch fresh cilantro
1 bunch fresh flat-leaf parsley
1/4 cup distilled white vinegar
about 1/4 cup olive oil
salt, to taste
dash of cayenne or a pinch of crushed red pepper flakes

I throw it all into the food processor, and let Harper push the pulse button until everything is chopped.

If you want a more elaborate recipe, go here

This is how good it is…

Victory Gardens

In my frenzied nesting before Windham was born, I ripped up the front yard to put in our new vegetable boxes. I had become interested in eating locally as well as connecting with my neighbors by putting the garden in the front yard.

We had already been moving in that direction when we built the berm in the parking strip in front of the house. The neighbor kids helped shovel compost, our neighbor Kim offered peony seeds and Laramie met new folks by inquiring about different plants she liked and wanted for our own.

In an attempt toward more self-sufficiency, we planted lettuce and kale and arugula, broccoli, brussel sprouts and cilantro. Tomato plants and basil were welcome gifts from generous friends who put up with me proselytizing about how messed up our food system is and Michael Pollan wrote this and blah, blah blah.

I found this video via DigginFood and think it is great idea.



And on another level, is there anything cooler than Harper toddling into the yard, ripping off a handful of kale or broccoli and stuffing it into her mouth. A toddler who happily and enthusiastically eats her vegetables. Right on.

Harper is The Best Helper

Laramie went back to work on Monday. Now I am home, with only 2 arms, one lap and sans any lactating breasts, from 2pm into the witching hour, to dinnertime to night night. Needless to say, I was nervous. But so far, so good. It is 7:50pm, Tuesday and both children are asleep. Whew.

One advantage to having an almost 2-year-old is that Harper is very eager to help. As I was getting ready to roll out the pizza dough for dinner, she pointed to her step stool and said "help." Up she climbed and helped me roll out the dough and sprinkle the stone with cornmeal.





I lost her though when it was time for the toppings. She became immediately occupied with dipping a bottle lid into my glass and drinking all of my lemonade. The things we sacrifice for quiet, busy children.

I was able to get the pizza in the oven and have dinner for us in a timely manner. And it was pretty tasty too. Ugly, but tasty.

Better than Christmas

Last night Laramie gave me the best present ever…

I love bike riding. I love Laramie. I had a dream I could love the two together. Not so. Over the years I have tried to get Laramie to ride with me. Once I bribed her with with a beer and burger at the Redhook Brewery in Woodinville. I have made offers of a new bike, a new saddle, a new hoo-hoo, all in the spirit of riding together. Eventually I gave up the dream and let it go. Cycling would be my thing. Just like baking is her thing.

Last night she agreed to ride with me and the children down to the Farmer's Market. Harper on Eliza and Windham in the trailer on Laramie's bike. I secured the car seat to the trailer and Mr Chumbawamba had a ride fit for a king.

We rode, we shopped, we nibbled, we chatted with neighbors. Harper was at her wits end and crying as I attempted to strap her into the bike seat for the ride home. But as soon as we started moving, she was calm and quiet. We took the long way home to enjoy the warm evening. Ok, we also went the long way to find the smallest hills. I had an edge though. As we started to go up, Harper helped by putting her hands on my rear to help push us along.

As we rode the last few blocks, Laramie said, "I have to tell you something." She said, "I will ride with you. I don't know what it is, but riding with the kids is so much fun. I'm in"

It was the best gift she could have given me. Thanks sweets.

Exhausted!

What a day we had on Tuesday.

We made it to the courthouse, saw the judge and made it official. Judge Erlick was very sweet. He swore us in, asked some questions and we said a lot "yes." Harper preferred to spend most of the hearing in Nana's lap and Windham just blew spit bubbles with an occasional coo for emphasis. It lasted 15 minutes and at the end, we were officially a family. Harper is now legally Harper Nevaeh Holliman and Windham Porter Holliman is now, in the eyes of the law, my son too.



We headed home to a house full of friends and family. We saw some friends we hadn't seen in awhile and the neighborhood came out in force. It means so much to me that so many people truly love our kids. We ate, we drank, we laughed, we even brought Eliza out for a ride at the end of the evening.

By the end of the night we were exhausted, relieved, overjoyed at the love and support we have and simply happy we are legally a family.

Adoption Day!

Today is Adoption day. We will both be adopting Harper and I will be adopting Windham.

It is amazing this day has finally arrived. With all of the ups and downs and crazy anxiety that came with fostering Harper, we always knew in our hearts that she was meant to be with us. It has been a year an a half since we brought her home. Our lives would forever be changed by this charming little creature with the golden curls.

Mr Windham is no less charming but with a greater girth than his big sister. I am mostly thrilled and only a bit irritated that I have to adopt him for him to be legally mine. He was mine from the moment I looked at that pregnancy test and said "Uh, Laramie, I think this pink line means you're pregnant."

We see the Judge at 4pm. The hearing will be short and sweet. We will most likely cry tears of relief and joy.

One big happy, at last.

Our First S24O

An s24o is a less than 24 hour overnight biking trip. Load up with one night's worth of gear and you are off. For our inaugural trip it was me, Harper and Maddy.

We loaded up Eliza the bicycle with most of the gear and Harper and headed for the 11:25am ferry to Bainbridge Island. The ride to the campground was lovely and not too hilly but we worked up a sweat to be sure. Well, Maddy and I did. Harper squealed "WEE, WEE" for the first half of the 6 miles and slept for the last half.

Fay Bainbridge State Park is the only camping option on Bainbridge and as we rode up to the camping area, there were 3 parties and 2 sites left. We offered to share a small site with a party of two, but they deferred to us, since we were on our bikes (sweet). We set up camp and played at the beach all afternoon. We spent a good deal of time throwing rocks into the water, singing and just doing nothing.

On a side note: Maddy and I realized we very rarely do nothing. There is always something to do, an errand, pay a bill, clean. The joy of this trip was that for 3-4 hours that afternoon, we had no other options. I must say, doing nothing with Harper is the best time a girl can have. Kids are wonderful that way. They bring an amazing amount of much needed nothing time.

Back to camping. Laramie and Windham stopped by with Mary, Josh and Anders to say hello as we were making our dinner. Quesidillas with kale, zucchini, garlic whips, avocado and salsa. I only burned the first one and the rest turned out delicious.

Early to bed, early to rise. We packed up our campsite after coffee, fruit and fried bagels. Our ride back was lovely and calm, right up until Maddy tried some stunt riding and flipped over her handlebars. She earned some well deserved oohs and aahs for her road rash and bloody knee. She escaped any major harm and looks pretty butch as well.

As we arrived home, the neighbors were playing on a slip and slide. We kindly pushed the children out of the way and had a go. It was a refreshing way to end an awesome trip.