Saturday in September

I woke up this morning and forced myself to go to Bikram Yoga. Normally I love Bikram, but today I was so tired that by the end, I staggered to the car and lay on the front seat for a good fifteen minutes before I had the strength to drive home. While lying there, I opened the windows and sunroof and had a great heart to heart with God and a lovely fir tree whose branches hung over my car. By the end, I was feeling better, so I thanked the tree (and God) for the lovely patterns the pine branches made and for the awesome smell they gave off.  I really feel like the tree and I bonded, and I am looking forward to parking under it the next time I go to Bikram.

(By now I seem really strange. Talking to trees, engaging in long distance magnet therapy, doing yoga…not that being a hippie is bad, but I am, for sure, not one. In real life I can generally be counted on to tow the Mormon party line.)

So anyway. Saturday–my favorite day. What did we do this Saturday?

Abe and Lydia painted and did crafty things in the basement while I did yoga, showered, read scriptures and wrote in my journal. I love my husband so much. Also, I basically never get around to cleaning the basement, so there you are.
Then Lydia and I made lemon ricotta pancakes. It looks somewhat peaceful, doesn’t it? Well, let me disillusion you. Lydia will eat anything, and so every step of the way I had to remind her not to eat straight: flour, baking soda, butter, salt, raw egg, etc. This was a precise, scientific recipe from Cook’s Illustrated, and I am sure the ratios were ruined by Lydia’s little sneaks of various ingredients. Plus, by the end there was a puddle of lemon juice on the floor, not to mention the piles of dishes. Mary woke up in the middle of our baking escapade, and that only added to the chaos. But this is a nice picture, and in spite of the mess, I actuallydo love collaborating with Lydia in the kitchen.

Then we went to the farmer’s market where I bought corn, onions and some tomatoes. After that, we went to buy a birthday present for Lydia’s friend, Espen, a calendar full of green stuff for my college friend, Missi (she’s making a collage to help her through a v-bac), and Whole Foods for mussels, shrimp and squash. This month’sCook’sIllustrated really hit it out of the park for me in that I want to almost every single dish in the issue. Normally I am intrigued by one or two, but this issue was amazing: pasta puttanesca with fresh tomatoes! lemon ricotta pancakes! evenly cooked mussels! fresh peach pie! creamy cauliflower soup! What an issue!

After our outing, we came home and I collapsed (again) in bed. Abe set up Lydia on the iPad while he studied, and Mary very obligingly took a long nap. Here is Lydia engaged in her favorite activity:

I am sure her eyes will be shot from this obsession. But when I need to lie down, glasses don’t sound like the end of the world now, do they?

We have to be at Espen’s birthday party in approximately five minutes, and I have yet to wrap the odd-shaped gift we got him. So I’ll stop blogging and go do that now.