Pumpkin Patch Girl

What a beautiful day at the Pelzter Pumpkin Farm, which is just down the road in wine country!

Katie frolicked amongst the goats! She absolutely loved petting and feeding them and also meeting the bunnies and chicks and ducks and turkeys.

Sitting on the hay bale, revelling in the day...

Right after we parked on the grass and got out of the car, Katie saw what awaited and started running and making sounds of delight!

Beautiful little Autumn Girl.

Pumpkin love! We ran and laughed and explored all over the field. We also played peekaboo behind the hay bales.

Katie dances in the hay, with the golden afternoon light shining all around.

Gently petting Mr. Goat. I definitely want to return with her---she seemed to light up inside with the animals.

Katie and a goat.

Happiness!!!!!

Peekaboo with the pumpkin cut-out!!! The farm was so cute: scarecrows and ghosts and all kinds of autumnal decorations.

Playing with the hay....

We love the pumpkin patch!!!

Hello, Mr. Goat, I am Katie June!

Katie wanted to feed the goats, and the goats wanted to be fed.

Baa-aa--aa....

Strong and beautiful and full of light!

Good morning on our front lawn, amid the fall leaves.

Pondering her next move... Mr. Goat checks out the food dispenser.

My little cowgirl farm girl.

After the pumpkin patch, we made a stop at home for lunch and then headed to the library. Katie is napping now, while I write this and watch Waitress. Waitress is one of my favorite films, especially since it was one of the first ones I saw while holding Katie after she was first born. That film always reminds me of that most special time...

When Katie wakes up, I think we will make some pumpkin bread...

The Turn of the Leaf

It has been a very, very long time since I have given a formal, prepared, performative speech; teaching was informal public speaking. I did write and memorize a short speech for Connie Cutler's retirement events, but even that kind of speech is different from a very formal type of speech.

So naturally I could feel the adrenaline coursing through my veins this morning as I headed to Toastmasters for my first prepared speech: The Icebreaker.

I have three main goals for my membership in Toastmasters: 1) learn to be more extemporaneously humorous; 2) learn how to control my nerves and be more in the moment with confidence; and 3) live fearlessly with an openness to those around me, acknowledging all that I might learn from this group of people.

I find Toastmasters to be a perfect group of people in which to push myself and to learn. Many of the members are veterans; many of them trade puns and jokes on the fly. They are fast thinkers, eloquent speakers. And so professional: I have loved discovering what my fellow members are involved in outside of this group. There is an unspoken code that no one brags about resumes or is there to network superficially. We don't talk about where we went to school or how successful our businesses are---though I have researched some of my new friends and many of them are highly successful and some are even published. But we are all there together for an authentic reason: to learn and to grow and to push ourselves. We get to know each other personally and genuinely.

So therefore it was very important to me to try to EARN their respect with my first formal speech. They have only heard me speak extemporaneously before: my first impromptu (I think) made me sound a little juvenile, while my second impromptu helped establish better credibility. But the point of the "icebreaker" was to present my set of values, and I was eager for the chance to do this. Each person in that room inspires me to want to be better than I am. Like I do, the other members all believe that no matter how good they are, there is room to improve. I really respect that as a truth. There is always something to work on---if there weren't, what point is there in anything?

Of course, right before my dad and I left this morning, I was thinking to myself a little facetiously, "Why did I sign up for this again?" I mean, the central question is, why bring such nervousness on myself?

I guess the best answer is that I believe, and always have, that if you don't face productive fear, part of you stagnates and dies. If you don't challenge yourself to achieve or to try to be the best you can be at something, then there is very little point in life's journey. If you don't put yourself out of the comfort zone, you will never grow. It doesn't have to be public speaking...but for me, I constantly work on getting out of my head and inner monologue and opening up to people around me.

I love Toastmasters. I love how everyone there stimulates my mind in ways that only that kind of setting can. I think being immersed in that kind of creativity is making me a more creative mother for my daughter at home. I have never felt such a heightened sense of creative power in my life. I so much look forward to Toastmasters every week. Next week I need to bring in the "Thought of the Week" and I am excited.

So my speech, "The Turn of the Leaf,"went well. I know that I could have done a better job of suppressing my nerves, especially in the intro, and I know I kind of stepped forward and back a little too much in the small space when it might have been better to stand still. But I was able to use the speech to honor Grandpa Don---which is what I wanted to do---and to convey my thoughts regarding the source of love, and lasting quality of beauty, and the importance of family. The response seemed good: several people connected to the speech and were crying, and I got encouraging and positive feedback on my feedback forms from the audience. I wanted to leave a piece of my heart in the room, and I think I did. I wanted to explain what can be learned even with loss. I was very honored that I got voted for "Best Speaker" today and received the first place ribbon. At least now I can feel free too experiment more widely with my other assigned speeches and, even if I fail them, hopefully people will remember this speech and not think I am a total boob.

It was a great day, and I am proud that I am making myself do this at this point in my life. We never stop learning, and we should never think we are so great that we can rest on our laurels.

After Toastmasters, I went to pick up my pre-ordered Snow White from the Disney Store, and then the whole fam went out to lunch and frozen yogurt. Katie and I played in our garden and watered all of our new and old flowers.

I think when I look back many many years from now on my life, this autumn is going to be one of the best there ever was. I am trying to press each day close to my heart and to be thankful for time...

A Day of Mums

As I type, Katie is finishing a rather late afternoon nap. I hear the waterfall outside, the breeze is blowing gently through the house, the windchimes sing, and out every window I look I see the fruits of our afternoon work: flowers everywhere, little pops of color in a yard that feels evermore like a wonderland where Katie and I love to play.

We began the day, though, with some Starbucks and her Toddler Time class.

Here Katie is playing with a pegboard and pegs.

The theme today was "Do you know the Muffin Man?" and we entered the class to the scent of freshly baking blueberry muffins. It smelled heavenly. We sang and danced to the Muffin Man song, and Katie really got into the dancing this time and was doing many of the steps Mrs. Russo was asking her to do. Here, she is sharing her muffin project.


Katie takes her empty sippy toward the line for apple juice. She also tried the blueberry muffin and seemed to enjoy it!

Katie builds blocks in her class.


After class, we went to Home Depot to pick out our mums (and some other flowers). We are in love with our mums. Katie helped me to pick out everything, and I let her choose most of the mum colors. She was very drawn to the purple mums especially.


Katie wanted some snapdragons. I lined them all around her in the cart, surrounding her with beauty.

Katie gets one of her watering buckets and is ready to start our afternoon of gardening---yay for dirt and mud and air and sunshine and the scent of autumn!

Katie looks around for some of the places she wants to put the pots of flowers.

We break open the potting soil and begin our first of many pots. She is such a little helper. I love her desire to do everything. She loves to learn and to help.

Katie helps to shovel dirt into the first pot.

I love her look of determination here. She is working so hard.

Katie brings a bigger mum to me to put in our big pot. I love planting mums---they are part of my fall tradition. The planting of the mums is one of my favorite days each year, made even better by sharing it now with my beautiful daughter.

We worked for a couple of hours and then got quite wet and covered with potting soil. We took a break to change clothes and for lunch and to visit with Amie and Uncle David. I finished a couple more pots as we all played outside.

What a magical, wonderful day! I am so grateful that I am lucky enough to have such a truly happy life.

"A dream that will need/All the love you can give..."

Lest anyone doubt the power of naming or the influence of language on perception, let this forever be known as the day when Katie discovered the joy of "pea ice cream." We were adding frozen peas to our stew, and I ate one frozen and told her it was "pea ice cream" and that I love frozen peas---whereupon Katie proceeded to eat about 1/4 cup of the peas herself:

Yummy pea ice cream! By the handful!

Mouth full of frozen peas! Eventually her Batman figurine started getting mischevious and stomping on her peas to the beat of The Lonely Goatherd from The Sound of Music. She thought this was absolutely hilarious!

And speaking of Batman, he was very pleased with today's craft:

We were decorating for Halloween more in earnest this morning (we have autumnal decorations up, but today was the day for ghosts and spiders and so on), and we decided that we needed some bats. I made templates for the body and wings, and we cut them out, decorated them, and glued them on clothespins so that we could hook them around our family room and kitchen, like they are flying.

Katie really loved this. She loved drawing on them and putting on their eyes (she has some good dexterity with that). She chose all of the places to hook them: she wanted one on each lamp, one on the lace curtains to the french doors, one on the valance above our cozy chair and one over new the fireplace. She would squeal with delight each time we attached one.

Here's another one, flying in toward our cozy chair.

We spent a long time outside today, enjoying the smell of autumn in the air. It was a bit chilly, but that didn't stop Katie from her favorite pasttime: watering with her bucket. We also played with Tuna Cat and I got caught up on my Gratitude Journal.

After lunch and a change of clothes, we commenced work on dinner: chicken stew with homemade biscuits on top. It really was more of a chicken pot pie recipe topped with biscuits instead of pate brisee. I just loved simmering onions and chicken stock and heavy cream on a chilly day---the whole dinner was quite cozy. Katie helped so much: she helped pour in the chicken stock, unwrapped the chicken boullion, unwrapped the butter and put it in the pot, handed me the carrots to peel, cut out all of the biscuits with the cutter after I rolled the dough, etc, etc. She loves to help and almost anytime I go in the kitchen these days, she will immediately offer, "I want to help. I want to help." We sang along to The Sound of Music and also made up our own songs. Katie initiated "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" and can sing the whole thing by herself. We spent a good couple of hours singing and cooking---and that was just dinner. We also made Sunday breakfast (pancakes) together this morning while singing along to our Music Together CD. She mixed all of the ingredients and proudly told her daddy all about it when we sat down together.

A cozy fall meal. I have sooooooooooooo many things I need to make now that it is October.

This week is another crazy busy fun week. I need to make time to plants pots and beds of mums (an autumn tradition for me), we have Amanda's birthday, my formal speech, our Snow White pre-order comes in, Toddler Time, music class, etc. etc.

I LOVE FALL!!!!!!

Fullness of Heart

Life just keeps brimming with happiness; I am supremely contented. I think part of the secret is keeping a "holiday attitude" in my heart everyday. That is, I have been trying to approach each day as though it is extra special---and it is, simply because we're alive and able to embrance life fully.

After a week of the sickies in our house, I finally felt the cobwebs clear from my head and body and was able to start putting my house back into order and cleanliness. I cleaned all the floors up and down and the bathrooms and tidied and worked on refreshing the kitchen. That felt good to accomplish.

We played outside a few times, read books, listened to our Music Together CD, danced, and played with the dollhouse and colored.

I was also able to use my leftover roast chicken and leftover pate brisee to make carmelized onion, apple, and roasted chicken tartlets with cheese. This is the second time I have made it, and I still like it, so I should write my recipe down. But then I would need to know precise measurements, and I just go by feel, smell, and taste. Maybe next time I will be more exact and write as I go.

Oh, and Katie helped me paste my pictures on my big poster board for my speech on Tuesday. She is really helpful with pasting, and now when I feel nervous on Tuesday all I will have to do is look at my poster and think of her helping in order to recenter myself. Actually, I wasn't nervous at all, and now I am getting quite twisted about in the stomach. But, all the more reason to do it: to meet the challenge of mind over matter. Ever since I delivered Katie, I have had a mantra that gets me through every difficult situation and that is this: if I could give birth to Katie naturally, I can do anything I set my mind to do. And that's really true---a natural labor is all about mind control and using the strength of your mind to transcend the pain. I should be able to give a little public speech now, shouldn't I?

I am going to feel so relieved and full of good adrenaline when I am finished... Eyes on the goal, Sarah. Eyes on the goal!

Music Class and Homecoming

What a gloriously full day for our family!

Katie and I had our first Music Together: The Vocal Experience class today at 9:30 in Fallbrook. We are so thankful that our friend Gina encouraged us to find a Music Together program. Here is the Music Together website. A national program, Music Together is a highly structured curriculum centered on the belief that all children can develop musical aptitude. It is such a blessing that our local community music class was cancelled last month, for we might have otherwise missed out on this opportunity. Our new teacher is such a great fit for us, and the class is very small, maybe a dozen children. Katie got to play with all kinds of instruments today and we sang and danced and saw how a pitch pipe is used. Our teacher (Kara Howard) told us that the expectation of us as parents is that we will always participate, and that we need to be ready to sing solo, work on harmony, and perform rounds. I am excited---this will help my musical education, too.

Anyway, I am tremendously excited for our 10-week program, and I even love that we get to have this experience in Daddy's hometown. It will be a good memory in Fallbrook for us.

After our music class, we went to visit Amie and Boppa and Uncle David.

Amie continued the music theme of our day by teaching Katie some piano.

Maybe someday Katie will want to study piano? We want to give her lessons in an instrument for sure.

Amie and Katie playing piano.

Playing with her lego people.

My little Sweetie Face.

When we got home, we ate some lunch, read some books, and Katie napped. While she napped, I rehearsed my Toastmasters speech over and over and over. My first formal speech is scheduled for Tuesday, and I want it to be up to my standards. I worked out a couple of issues that have been difficult with respect to the speech, and I am excited to deliver it.

Katie and I went for a brief walk after she awoke, and then Daddy woke up from his nap, too. We gathered Uncle David and all went to the TVHS Homecoming game! We stayed just through half-time, as Katie was looking tired. She had so much fun, though, watching and waving to the balloons released into the sky. She also loved the two bear mascots. She called them the "dancing bears" and thought they were funny. She ate most of her pizza and some of a Jamba Juice. Being there with her was so perfect. I remember right after Bill and I got married, we went to a game that fall and I saw a little girl there---and I remember how much I wanted a baby of my own at that moment and how much I wished I had a little girl or little boy to take with us. And now I do...and once again, my life has come full circle. She wore her dark brown party skirt and leggings, a white polo and yellow bands around her pigtails. We took a coat, and she did need it. And I loved wearing my own letterman's jacket again.

When we got home, she seemed to perk up and wanted to reenact the dancing bears.

Here is my little dancing bear. I was also a dancing bear. We turned on music and danced around the house. She stayed in the "dancing bear" character all the way through her bath. She really loved them

T-E-M-E-C-U-L-A! Temecula Bears, fight! The two dancing bears take a rest.

So we had a pretty late night, but oh it was so fun! What a day! So many new experiences...

Appley-Dappley Days

Happy October 1st, family, friends, and visitors!

We are well into my favorite season---Autumn---and Katie and I are making the most of each day. I am still fighting a cold, but life goes on, as they say. Tired or not, there is not a moment to waste. Although we have been mainly at home the past two days (today we did make it to the store), we have been working on some quieter projects. We wanted to do an apple print project and we've been trying to catch up on our baking. (I meant to bake some bread today, but that will have to happen tomorrow after Katie's music class).

Yesterday, we commenced our apple print project. We cut a red delicious in half and used our red tempura paint to make a print of one half of the apple:

Here, we have made several prints. We tried pressing hard and soft, and we did one exercise in which we covered the apple with paint and then stamped it in a row until we could see the paint fading in the print.

While it dried, we went outside. Katie, here, was telling me that Tuna Cat just petted her elbow with Tuna Cat's tail...

Pretty little Katie with her hair in red-bowed pigtails. We decided to let the apple prints dry over night and finish them the next day.

This morning, we played before heading to the market.

Good morning, Tuna Cat.

We love to look for "pokey pods"---the little seed pods from the trees.

They have developed a mutual affection for each other.

In the afternoon, we decided to make oatmeal cookies to make the whole house smell like fall.

Katie adds her own ingredients: her bendy bunny.



I gave her a spoon and she helped to form the cookie dough into balls. I love my perfect helper.

While the cookies baked, we finished our project. We glued our best prints onto some green construction paper. We also counted the seeds and glued them between the prints. Katie helped to write all of the words on the paper. I guided her hand as she held the pen correctly, which she enjoyed. I asked her for descriptions of the apples (which we also tasted), and she said "4 seeds" and "tasty" so we wrote that down. We added a red ribbon and hung it on Daddy's office door.

Ways to extend this lesson for Katie when she is older include: comparing and contrasting prints of different apples, cataloguing the seeds, doing a taste test of several different apples and charting the relative sweetness, etc. Also, it would be easy to add on a lesson about Newton or any other apple-themed tale. And of course, we are planning on making an apple pie this season and maybe trying to pick some apples.

Katie's newest hobby is to water---to water everything. We have let her play with the hose this week while I finish up chores in the kitchen after dinner. It has been so warm lately. She really goes to town and tries her best to water all the plants...and the chairs and her wagon and herself. It's pretty cute. Here, she is watering a couple of our new morning glory plants.

Filling up a bowl of water for Tuna Cat. She loves to help with the feeding...

Katie invented her own tool: she uses her sidewalk chalk bucket as a small watering can. She even figured out on her own how to hang it from Grandpa's fountain so that it self-fills while she waits. I had no input into that---smart girl! Here, she is watering our olive tree, the one from our wedding.

I remember how much I was going to miss our morning glories when we moved, and now we are growing more. I take Katie out almost daily to look at all the new buds and growth---in part to impress upon her the fruits of her diligence at helping to water them. She knows they are growing and thriving because of her work and care for them.

Beautiful girl in the afternoon light.

And so it was a lovely October 1st. We made a roasted lemon and thyme chicken and could hear the salt crust crackling. I love whole roasted chicken. We also made scalloped cheesy potatoes and orange rolls (which, I admit, were both a short-cut tonight, as I used some store-bought help on those two items). I try to make as much from scratch as possible, but sometimes a person needs expedience. It was a delicious meal, and Katie loved helping to prep the chicken.

Tomorrow Katie begins her Music-in-Me class in Fallbrook and I am determined to awake with a clear head and nose!

Yay for cozy fall days!