Tea, Earl Grey, Shortbread Cookies

Ugh, although fall may bring with it the flavors of pumpkins, cinnamon, apples, and cranberries, it also brings with it the responsibilities of school, soccer, dance, homework, and doctors appointments.  In the summer, I could still fake dinner.  I didn’t have to have anything ready because anytime I could go pick up some stuff and start it.  Now, I have to plan everything because I have to be here at this time or there at that time.  I hate that.  That is the antithesis of my personality.

It turned out to be a really easy dough to work with.

I am the mom whose kids from the ages of 0-4 don’t know what a schedule is.  If you are napping and I want to go somewhere, I will wake you up.  If you are up late, guess what?  Mommy is too.  Like my mom before me, if we have the time and/or the money we will do something special just because.  Going to the park, the movies, driving to use our Knott’s passes, or simply letting everyone get their own Slurpee cause it is so darn hot are the best times I have with my kids.  Sometimes just spending a Saturday or Sunday afternoon playing Lego Harry Potter with my 9 year old makes life worth living for me.

Intellectually, I understand why the structure of school and after school activities is important.  My mom brain, though, just kind of wants to hang out with my kids and get to know them a little better.  I also had been avoiding making appointment my kids have needed for awhile because I was just trying to hold off the driving everywhere for as long as I could.  Unfortunately for me, that now means a three month wait for the dentist instead of the two week wait I am used to (seriously? what happened? grrr….).  Angela and I will probably get new glasses soon (after she casually mentioned that she lost them, then claimed they may be behind her desk), after Robert’s physical he will start preschool (yeah, I held off on that appointment for pretty obvious reasons: my baby, my last one, and preschool, ahhh!), and Sarah will have her first eye exam.

All of this won’t hinder the baking, but the blogging…we shall see.  I hope not.  I think I am going to have to get on a schedule, ugh.

My GeekLink for this week is more like a rant.  I don’t get why the organizers for The Star Trek & Sci-Fi Summit decided to have this shindig on the same weekend as Gallifrey One.  I guess they are trying to maximize the people they would get coming from out of town.  I don’t know.  I am pretty sure both shows have fan bases that overlap but neither fan base would want to miss anything either.  I know I wouldn’t.  I am super bummed because frickin Sir Patrick Stewart is going to be there. Unfortunately for him, Sir Derek Jacobi is going to win this round cause I am going to Gallifrey One.

Our Summer Days Are Numbered

Scarlett O’Hara Pecan Bars

I baked two things earlier this week but nothing I felt was good enough to share, sorry.  So I am bringing you a few things I made for my brother-in-law’s 40th we celebrated in June and a couple things I made my dad for his birthday yesterday.  Not my recipes but some pretty pics and some things to share.  First up, my sister and brother-in-law have my firstborn and have kept her almost a week, galavanting up and down the state of California (with two days in Nevada to visit my brother) and I am deep in the throes of missing her but she doesn’t get home till late tomorrow.  My husband is worse off than I am, with her siblings barely noticing.  I completely trust them but they haven’t posted many pictures and yesterday we didn’t get any.  My husband asked me three times yesterday, “Any new pictures of Angela?”

Making Pecan Bars…

Especially for my oldest, this summer has been the greatest for us as a family so far.  We couldn’t do much in June because of all the prep work for the girls’ recital (they haven’t gone back to dance once yet, it has been a nice break for all of us).  I fit in a trip to Knott’s before recital week because I knew we would be stuck not doing anything for awhile.  Then we went camping and the week after my husband had jury duty.  It lasted about a week and a half.  We didn’t do anything then because well, it was the first time my husband had a 9-5 type schedule since, well, ever.  It was nice to have him home during the evenings plus there was always the chance he might come home early.  Once that was all over, we made it a point to do something with the kids on his days off.  We went to the mountains (to play in the streams), the beach, Knott’s Berry Farm, and planning a return trip to both the mountains and the beach for their last two weeks off (yes, two weeks!).  By ourselves, the kids and I went to a few movies and Soak City and had a few lawn sprinkler and kiddie pool days.

Birthday Desserts and my first frosting rose!

My husband thinks they are doing too much.  It doesn’t help that the girls are already planning to spend the night at my aunt’s house next week.  I feel like we need to make up for last summer where we kept saying we were going to do stuff and we just let the summer slip by (to be fair, last summer was the summer of girls down the street coming over EVERY day).  Luckily for me, I already have my girls ready for school in the clothes department.  That is what I did while the 9 year old was gone.  She is not a shopper.  I do have to make a doctor’s appointment for Bob so we can have him start preschool in the fall, Angela needs some new glasses, both girls need haircuts and other than that we are all set.  Despite the fact that we have been operating on limited funds over the summer (thanks again Sally cat!) it has been a really great summer with lots of good times with the kiddos.

Zucchini Squares

Finally, some GeekyLinks from Comic Con.  Mostly, if you wanna see some cool panels check out GeekNation.  They have videos from quite a few panels at Comic Con, including Fringe, Buffy, Doctor Who, Walking Dead and more.  Lots of new trailers also came out that week, like this one, but for the life of me I cannot find the few pieces of footage that were shown for Pacific Rim, which I heard looked fantastic!  On a sadder note, Sally Rides’s passing this last week really hit my heart.  I was the little girl that wanted to be an astronaut.  That wanted to go on Double Dare just to win it all and go to Space Camp.  I worshiped the movie SpaceCamp.  I was angry at the little kids that said they didn’t want to be astronauts after the Challenger tragedy.  I just figured that was a risk I was willing to take to get into outer space.  I grew into the woman that watched Contact and just wished Matthew McConaughey would just get off Jody Foster’s back and stop trying to deter her from going on that mission.  The woman that totally geeked out the first time she went to a NASA JPL open house.  It wasn’t only because Sally Ride was a female but more because she was just a girl from California like me.  She could do it, so I could do it.  My life went a different way and other interests took precedence but she was always someone I admired.

Making Zucchini Squares…

Pull Apart Cheesy Herb Bread

The weather was getting cold this week and I just really wanted some bread in the oven.  It was as simple as that.  I had several recipes on deck but this one cut in line simply for having yeast in it.  Also, I finally restarted my sourdough starter!  I cannot wait to have me some homemade sourdough.  If all goes well I will share the whole process, but if you cannot wait please check out where I learned on Joy the Baker.

Rolled out ball with herbs and cheese.

Otherwise, everything is the same.  The lights still aren’t fixed and my husband starts his work week again tonight so I guess that is another week I’ll be waiting unless I get frustrated enough and try to fix it myself.  It might happen but I am kinda busy this weekend.  I made a cake this week for a cakewalk that they are having at my nephews’ Family Fun Day at school and I am going to take my girls to enjoy the festivities later today.

Made into pockets!

That is if they don’t drive me crazy first.  It amazes me how renewed and energized I feel pretty much every morning or at least a good three times a week and how quickly the kids just suck it all out of me.  Really, I would be done and finished with this post over half an hour ago if my youngest daughter, Sarah, didn’t keep chasing the kitten around and if my youngest, Robert, didn’t keep screaming when I have to keep him quiet so daddy can sleep because he has to work later.  Angela, my oldest, is keeping to herself right now.  Did I mention she is really smart?

Shove those pockets in there and make them fit!

My husband always says that it is my baking and/or blogging that gets me all stressed out and frustrated but I point out that when I am home alone baking or baking late at night, I am as happy as a clam and baking is as cathartic for me as ever and totally relaxing.  I don’t even mind doing a mound of dishes if I get something really tasty and pretty out of it.  It is when life happens all around me and I just can’t keep up or keep it all straight, that is when I go a little batty.

All egg washed up, with extra cheese, ready for the oven.

Anyways, the kids have calmed down a bit so I’d better hurry up and tell you about this bread.  The original recipe calls for fresh dill and parsley but I didn’t have any so I used dry.  It is too expensive to buy herbs too often, especially when they go bad so soon (we are starting to grow some but I only have basil so far).  After baking, I still would have used a smidge less and I did adjust the amount in the recipe.  It wasn’t that easy to pull apart, so it is up to you if that is how you want to eat it.  It might have been easier if I hadn’t added the extra cheese on top, but I wanted the extra cheese on top so there.  Enjoy!

See, came right out!

GeekyLink this week I got was posted on the The Nerdist website the other day “Doctor Who” Series 6 in 89 Seconds.  Chris Hardwick wrote a book coming out soon called the The Nerdist Way and I enjoy the podcast and the site so much that I just might actually get it.