Mixed emotions

It's 6:45 a.m., and I'm checking email, nursing a baby and writing a blog post. Sounds about right for myself these days.

Our grand opening of the Openlands Lakeshore Preserve is today and tomorrow - hence the lack of posts in the last couple of weeks. I've been working on this opening since I returned from maternity leave in early April. I'm honored to be a part of a wonderful team who is making this weekend and the Preserve happen. The weather is looking good, and we are ready.

As the retrospectives for 9/11 play on TV, I enter this weekend with one part concern and two parts feeling blessed. My concern is that Jeremy has to fly tomorrow on 9/11 to New York for business. He will be fine, but I don't love it nonetheless.

Okay, on to the fun stuff: I'm blessed that my parents are driving here right now and I get to spend the weekend surrounded by them and my children, spending time looking inward and being reminded of what's most truly important to me.

I also get to participate in a weekend of activities at the Preserve. The Preserve is situated on a working military base. About 400 Naval families are stationed here, and we've invited them to participate in our open house today. It's nice to be part of something bigger than my own little life this weekend, spending time looking outward, enjoying nature with a lot of people.

I'm armed with my camera and my Flip - hopefully to capture some of the weekend for you. And after this weekend, I'm looking at some exciting things for my writing here - beautifying the blog design and I'm potentially entering a partnership to learn more about local farming, so I can bring you some original, firsthand information about feeding your family local, healthy foods without breaking the bank.

Happy Saturday! Here's a picture from the Preserve's lake bluffs, which my colleague just took:

Living right now

It's Labor Day weekend - the last official weekend of summer. Jeremy and I are at home with the kids, having one last weekend of hanging around in our jams, eschewing nap schedules and sipping another glass of red wine after the kids go to bed. We watched Northwestern's first victory of the season yesterday, and Jack and I made a new chocolate chip cookie recipe:

Chocolate Chunk Oatmeal Cookies from Secrets of a Restaurant Chef

Ingredients

·         2 cups all-purpose flour

·         1 cup rolled oats

·         1 teaspoon baking powder

·         1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

·         1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

·         1 cup brown sugar

·         1/2 cup granulated sugar

·         2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature

·         2 eggs

·         1 teaspoon vanilla extract

·         12 ounces block dark chocolate, coarsely chopped

·         1 cup walnuts, chopped

·         Large flake sea salt, for garnish

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

In a small mixing bowl, combine the flour, oats, baking powder, cinnamon and kosher salt.

In large mixing bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the brown sugar, granulated sugar and butter. Using an electric beater or the paddle attachment of the stand mixer, beat together the butter and sugar until it they are light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time and beat them into the butter and sugar mixture. Add in the vanilla as well.

With a rubber spatula or with the stand mixer on low, gradually add the flour mixture into the butter/sugar mixture. Mix until just combined. Fold in the chocolate chunks and walnuts.

Spoon the cookie dough by 2 tablespoon-size balls onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Place the cookie dough balls 2 inches apart on the cookie sheet. Place the cookie sheet in the oven and bake for 12 to 13 minutes.

When the cookies come out of the oven immediately sprinkle each cookie with a few grains of sea salt. This is really important to do while the cookies are hot.

Let the cookies cool for 2 to 3 minutes and then transfer them to a cooling rack.

* * *

But don't let the laziness trick you: We're readying ourselves for a crazy month. I won't bore you with the details but a quick list includes my first gala benefit for Openlands, Jack's first day of preschool, business trips for Jeremy, budgeting at work, visits from family, milestone birthdays for both of our dads and a trip home to Cleveland. Oy.

I got a little worked up this afternoon just thinking about it all, so Jeremy declared we were going outside. He barely packed a thing, and I practically got hives at the prospect of leaving the house with no sippy cups, no snacks and no sun hats.

We headed to Northwestern's lake fill to soak in the sun, the views of Chicago and the waves of Lake Michigan. Being outside, I was able to let go. And it was nice to just be.

We ended Daddy's outing with an early dinner at Lulu's. If Lulu was a woman, Jeremy would have left me for her and her wide rice noodles year ago. And Jack loves the dinosaurs they have to play with.

So tomorrow, we rest one more day, and after that, September, it is on.

Poor second kid

As I was feeding Jossie baby food out of a plastic cup with a plastic spoon at the eating area of Whole Foods last week, this thought crossed my mind: I would have never done this with Jack.

As Jack's parents, Jeremy and I are slightly nervous, always tired and afraid that each phase might not end. We put a lot of research into everything, diligently reading our child-rearing books. I just put a bunch of back-to-school books on hold at the library to ready Jack - and frankly, me - for his first day of preschool.

As Jossie's parents, we are more at ease - even when we were given a three-pound baby. She goes with the flow and so do we. We cuddle her to no end because we know these baby days are brief.

A few other differences that make me laugh at us...

• I read in one of my four baby food cookbooks that lamb is the most easily digestible meat for babies. For baby Jack, I bought ground lamb, browned it and pureed it into a fine paste with water.  It was disgusting. Neither he nor I ate it. And Jossie had her first bite of meat this past weekend, and she loved it: tiny bites of rotisserie chicken breast from Costco. Yum!
• When Jack was little, he had days where he wouldn't stop crying, unless we held him. I was so tired and had to lay down. I was so afraid I would roll over on him, so I put him in the Baby Bjorn on my chest, and then propped pillows around me so I wouldn't roll over. We blissfully slept that way in the afternoons. On the other hand, encouraged by Dr. Sears, Jossie and I co-slept - as a tiny baby, she would sleep on my pillow, cupped in my hands, our faces toward one another. As she got older, she easily slept in the crook of my arm. I trusted myself and my body to know I wouldn't roll over.
• And then there's this move Jeremy pulled the other day:

Happy almost-Labor Day!