to the mountains and other ramblings.

A few weeks ago I published a whole bunch of posts all at once.  Several had been written for a long while, and the others at the time that I posted them.  It helped me cross something off my mental "to-do" list - finish all those posts in my draft folder, and it felt good to accomplish it.  Then, I started a "currently" post a week later, and never finished it.  It felt forced, and kind of boring even to me.  At the same time, I started going through something of an existentialist crisis (ok maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration) and got all anti-screen time for a couple of weeks, not turning on my laptop once.  I have come around to finding more of a balance with my electronic devices, and while I still plan to keep the blog going, I am trying to figure out which direction to take it.  For a while, I was hoping it would be like the popular blogs that I read regularly, with hundreds (thousands?) of followers.  But then I got all nervous about trying to "promote" it.  Who are these people reading about my private life and seeing all my pictures of Arlo?  Likely harmless moms like me who just enjoy reading about other parents day to day adventures, with an occasional recipe or craft idea mixed in.  But there will always be the worry that it might not be a harmless person, as well as the nagging feeling that maybe when he is old enough, Arlo won't want his photos and such shared with so many people.  Case in point - I have this pin I put up a while back on Pinterest.  It's a picture I took of leggings that I crocheted, and I just happen to be modeling them.  The picture only shows me from my knees down, and my feet are bare.  It has been pinned something like 1,300 times.  This means that thousands of people have seen this pin of my feet, and it kind of weirds me out.  And these are just my feet. 

I am not planning to change the settings of the blog to private, as I think anyone reading this found their way here through me or someone who directly knows me.  And luckily I have never received any negative comments on my posts, something else that I fear would change my relationship with this space.  When I started this blog it was strictly for me.  I wanted to document our first pregnancy so I could always look back and read about the little details.  Then, it kind of grew into what it is today.  I expect that this blog will continue on something of the same path it has been on, perhaps with fewer posts but more meaningful content.  If there is a recipe I want to document, I will post about it.  Arlo's growth and development updates will continue.  There will also probably be random life updates here and there as well.  But as for the posts that were more geared towards capturing more followers, those are probably done.  If you are here reading this, I am so glad you are.  And I don't mind if you share the blog with people you know personally if you think it's something they might enjoy reading.  My posts going forward will be things that I want to remember and read again.  Which brings me to why I sat down to write this today.  We took a little family trip to the mountains this past weekend, and it's definitely worth remembering...


The mountains are my happy place, and one of the main reasons that I fell in love with North Carolina and decided to move here.  Every fall since we moved down south, Erik and I have taken a trip to Asheville or a nearby city.  In light of the fact that this year has been an extremely expensive one for us, and our previous house still hasn't sold or rented, we almost scrapped our mountain trip this year.  I am so glad we decided not to.  I look forward to this trip so much, and always come home feeling happy and recharged.  This year was no exception, we all had a wonderful time.  This was Arlo's third trip to the mountains - last year he was not even walking yet and the year before he was still in my belly!  We always stay in a place that is dog friendly so Lucy can come along.  I like to think she enjoys the mountains as much as I do, but I think she is just happy to be going anywhere with "her people."

yay family wagon!

Photo above taken on the drive out.  If you look closely, you can actually see all of us (Erik is in the reflection of my sunglasses!)

We stayed in a little cottage up in Mars Hill, about 25 minutes north of downtown Asheville.  It was somewhat slim pickins for lodging because we waited so long to book the trip, needed something in our limited budget and wanted a house that would allow dogs.  So it was kind of in the middle of nowhere, and the pictures online made it look a bit run down.  So, I didn't expect to like it as much as I did.  There were two bedrooms, so Arlo had his own room.  The living room windows offered the most beautiful mountain view.  There was a full kitchen, bathroom, sunroom, and laundry.  So maybe the floors were a little slanted and the heat was this weird underground propane blower that came up through a big grate in the floor.  I think it just added to the character, and was just right for a weekend away. 

We headed west on Friday morning, I would say early but that is only ever a pipedream when it comes to getting out of the house with a dog and a toddler.  So we didn't actually arrive to the mountains until mid-afternoon, and we were starving when we finally got there.  We had lunch at this adorable little restaurant in Boone called the Hob Knob Farm Cafe.  Afterwards we found a neaby park where Arlo could run and stretch his legs after the drive.  After picking up some groceries for the weekend at the local natural grocery store, we finished our drive to Mars Hill, and it was already getting dark by the time we arrived.  Arlo of course was wired after sitting in the car for so long, but we managed to get him to sleep quite easily at a reasonable time.

The next morning we headed into Asheville for the day.  We started in the west side of town, which is a destination itself.  We did some shopping at the cutest kids consignment store, where we totally scored on winter clothes, boots, and a Halloween costume for Arlo.  We had lunch and then headed over to a hard cider brewery that a friend had recommended to me.  I felt a little weird drinking while having Arlo with us, but we ordered a flight (tray of small cider samples) and Erik and I split it.  So we basically just tasted some different ciders, not really drinking enough to feel the effects.  And Arlo didn't care, we were sitting outside where he could run around in their greenspace and use their corn hole game as a ramp for his trucks  :)

After the cider we headed towards downtown Asheville, and stopped at Votex Doughnuts on the way.  It has been something like eight years since I had eaten a doughnut, so I was well overdue.  And oh man, was it worth it.  We split two doughnuts, taking one for later, and I could have easily eaten all three myself.  So. freaking. good.

We burned off the doughnuts by walking around downtown, doing a little shopping and enjoying all the things that makes Asheville what it is.  For example, live music playing in front of the giant yarn-bombed iron. 

It was late in the day by the time we left downtown, so we made our way back to the house, picking up stuff for dinner on the way.  We might have also bought potato chips and ice cream that we later enjoyed with a side of doughnuts.  Hey, it's called vacation for a reason!

On our way home the next day, we stopped at a pumpkin patch a bit south of Asheville.  They had a corn maze and hayrides but we opted to keep it simple and just pick up some apples and cider, and take some photos in the pumpkin patch.  Here are a few of my favorites:

 See you next fall, Asheville.

thirty three.

Last weekend I had a birthday.  The big thirty three!  Historically, I have never been one to make a big deal or get very excited about my birthday.  I know that I had birthday parties as a kid, but the memories are foggy.  I was after all, a kid.  And although I have no idea what I did on my 16th birthday, I like to think it was a good one.  I mean, I could start driving on my own, and that was pretty sweet.  And 18.  I had just started college at WMU.  And discovered college parties.  And beer.  And the ability to stay out as late as I wanted with no one to answer to.  So although it is another birthday that I don't recall the details of, I bet it was pretty special.  I mean, I could start voting, and that was pretty sweet.  And 21.  Surprisingly, I do remember my 21st birthday.  One of my best ever, thanks to my college friends who threw me a crazy fun party at the bar.  And I mean, I could rent a car too, so that was pretty sweet.

So, 33.  How will I remember my 33rd birthday?  Like this...

My birthday started early.  I mean, really early.  At 1:30am the battery in one of the two smoke detectors right outside our bedroom door decided to crap out.  Erik sleeps through events like this, but not me.  So, around 1:33am here I was, half asleep and standing on a chair, trying to pull down the smoke detectors (why on gods green earth anyone would hang two detectors on the ceiling three feet apart is beyond me.)  Finally get them down, batteries out, and back to bed.  Around 3:30am the alarm on Arlo's clock radio that we let him play with so he can listen to music when he wants to, starts blaring.  Erik actually hears this one, goes to his room, and presses all the buttons until it goes off.  Thirty minutes later, a repeat alarm clock experience.  This time he unplugs it and comes back to bed.  Arlo sleeps though it all.  The clock radio is still unplugged to this day.

I wake up around the usual 7:00 hour, foggy from what felt like a night of almost no sleep.  Happy birthday to me, ha!  But I wasn't going to let anything get me down, we had a lot planned and it was after all, my special day.  After breakfast, we all set out early to head to a kids consignment sale that I had been looking forward to for months.  I didn't find much at the sale, but still had fun looking.  We had to run a couple other errands in the area, and ended up at our favorite Indian restaurant for lunch.  I should mention that we were spending the day in our old "hometown" so we were trying to soak up as many local amenities as we could!

Here I am at lunch, the owner of the restaurant brought us some spiced cashews, a cupcake, and a fruit bowl when she learned it was my birthday!

After lunch, we headed to my friends house for her sons 1st birthday party.  Arlo had a great time playing with all the kids and toys at the party, and I had a fun time visiting with friends.  After the party, we headed just down the road to John & Rhiannas house.  Their little lady, Lyra, is one of Arlo's besties.  So he of course was super excited to see her and have even more toys to play with!  The Ohio State football game was on, which the boys watched while mama R and I played with the kiddos.  We had homemade vegan chili and cornbread for dinner, and the best ever chocolate cupcakes for dessert.  I mean really, these cupcakes were heavenly.  R shared the recipe with me, and now I am sharing it here on the blog.  I want these cupcakes to get as much exposure as possible, they are really that good.  Best ever cupcakes.

Arlo helping me "blow out" my candle.  We relit it and he was actually able to blow it out on his own. 

Here are a few shots of the kids playing together.  They are so sweet with each other and at such a fun age.  A & L are only a week apart in age, and I have a feeling they are going to grow up being great friends!

laying down taking a rest and pretending to "sleep"

playing the piano together and giving hugs.  don't mind Arlo's pants, he was trying a new style  ;)

So that was my first day of being 33.  I went to bed feeling loved, happy, and full of gratitude for the people in my life.  And also with new batteries in the smoke detectors...

chocolate + vanilla chia pudding

Here is another post I wrote many months ago.  I don't make this recipe as often as I should, but I whipped up a batch of it yesterday so I could take photos for this post, and it reminded me how much I still like it!

I have finally jumped on the chia pudding bandwagon.  And welcome to the year 2009!  Seriously, I feel like chia pudding is what everyone around me (or at least the foodie blogger people) have been making for several years now as an alternative to the traditionally unhealthy, high-sugar dessert.  I tried it a while back and it didn't wow me, and actually seemed to upset my digestion a bit.  I recently gave it another shot, and low and behold - loved it!  And thankfully so did my digestive system, which is why I have been recently playing around with some recipes until I finally hit a home run.  Look no further, your chia pudding recipe has arrived.  And what's that you say?  You can't ever decide between chocolate and vanilla pudding?  Well, now you don't have to!  You can have it both ways, and get some pretty damn good nutrition at the same time!  (Read about chia seed benefits here.)

chocolate + vanilla chia pudding

serves 2

 ingredients:

• 1 cup non-dairy milk (I used unsweetened soymilk)
• 4 tbsp chia seeds
• 1 1/2 - 2 tbsp maple syrup (less if your milk is sweetened)
• 1/4 tsp vanilla
• 3 tsp cocoa powder

what you do:

The best way to mix up all the ingredients is to put everything besides the chia seeds into a food processor or blender and run it until everything is well combined.  Then, slowly sprinkle in the chia so it doesn't stick together in clumps.  However - since I am kinda lazy with food making, like to take shortcuts, and dislike doing dishes, I have gotten away with just putting everything in a mason jar with a blender bottle mixing ball and just shaking the bejesus out of it.  Yea, you might end up with some clumps of chia seeds, but I actually like those chewy parts of the pudding!
Once your ingredients are combined, let it hang out in your fridge for at least four hours.  Eight is probably better, but I have found that it will firm up quite a bit after just a few, and have been known to sneak bites before it is fully set on more than one occasion.

optional add-ins:  peanut butter, blueberries, chocolate chips, or top with whipped coconut cream!

Enjoy this guilt-free dessert knowing that it contains (per serving) a whopping 13g fiber and 10g protein (using soymilk).  Not to mention the Omega-3's, Calcium, Manganese, Magnesium, Phosphorus, Zinc, Vitamin B3 (Niacin), Potassium, Vitamin B1 (Thiamine) and Vitamin B2 that you get just from the chia seeds alone!!  This recipe is a delicious guilt-free dessert, but would also make a great breakfast and even travels well in a small dish or glass jar.

And if for some strange reason you can't get on board with the whole chia pudding thing, I present to you your plan B.

cha-cha-cha-chia!