autumn layers and growing teeth

the weather here has been so lovely. i want to savor every minute of this too-short-season. right now, we are preparing for a trip to virginia for adam's art show, and although i am looking forward to the vacation, i am sad to be missing even one week of michigan in the fall. when we return, i will be more than ready to finish up suki's halloween costume and begin working to get ready for her birthday party. i also am very eager to spend some time in a pumpkin patch with friends searching for the most beautiful pumpkins, and to do some apple picking, apple pie baking, and jam making. i was most inspired looking at natalie's apple pie on the veganette. i highly recommend supporting the cause and eating one of those pies if you live in nyc. 

another aspect of fall that i love is the cosy layers and autumn sweaters. i have been planning for this season for quite awhile now and have found some real treasures for suki. thermal tops and pants are a must. the tops make for the most comfortable fall shirts and transition perfectly into a winter base layer. i love the rebe thermal debby gave suki last year. when i tried it on her last week, i could not believe it fit her. i remember how big it seemed when we first got it. 

what is your favorite autumn activity or fall style? 

vitamins supplements

suki has always been a great eater. she loves almost every fruit and vegetable (the only exception is the soft part of lettuce- it makes her cough), and we almost never have to prepare separate meals for her. the only time i can think of is when her teeth hurt from teething and all she will eat is almond yogurt, then she is back to normal after a day. that is always a stressful time, since we do our best to give her a variety of nutritious foods everyday. although, sometimes we do fail- the day gets busy and we have not planned ahead so we end up eating sandwiches for one meal then pasta with the same veggies for the next. these are the days i feel like a lousy parent. i have recently heard that multivitamins are linked to cancer, specifically related to the folic acid. this was very disturbing to me because even on the days when i have planned ahead and we eat a variety of nutrients we will sometimes be low on one thing or another. i don't want to completely rely on the vitamin but it has always been reassuring that we are covering the full spectrum everyday, even on the rushed, monochromatic days. we use garden of life vitamins that are vegan and made from plant based whole foods and they do contain folic acid. i found another vegan vitamin that does not include folic acid but it has corn syrup in it. yuck! i have always felt torn on whether or not to take supplements and with this new information feel even more uncertain.  do you or your children take vitamins?

string beans and bean eyes

we had a beautiful rainy morning here. therefore, we mostly stayed indoors. (suki has misplaced her rain boots and we have not found new ones for her yet.) we made a pillow fort in a new location, under the stairs. our pillow fort activities included reading, listening to records on her music box record player, coloring, making cards with halloween stickers, eating string bean snacks, and watching tales of beatrix potter. endless pillow fort fun! 

every friday, my mom watches suki while adam and i are working. she is very good at creating fun activities that help her learn. she is currently trying to master scissor cutting and circle drawing. this week in addition to circles and scissors, they made cute bead necklaces and this funny cat mask with bean eyes. 

this is suki's new favorite!

oven mitt update

as many of you know we have been making coffee companions for rowster new american coffee. so far, the items we have made include: raw granola, biscotti, matzo bark, vanilla cardamom ice cream and two different cookies (peanut ginger sesame and samoas). we have recently readjusted our business plan, and have decided along with the owners of rowster to keep them supplied with a more limited selection of oven mitt goods. you can now expect to consistently see one biscotti option and one cookie option. we may be rotating seasonal items as well- such as the ice cream for summer months. 

for those of you interested, we will be selling our raw granola for special order only. more details to come on that and other offers at a later date.

lastly, we are so excited about the feature article that our new friend denise wrote for the rapidian about our business. it was especially exciting because it was one of the first articles included in the relaunch for the new rapidian design, which is fantastic! 

 the above images were borrowed from denise's beautiful filckr page. 

 thank you, denise!

HAUSU

thanks to smart young friends, i can find out about hidden treasures like this band, hausu.
look for more tips on kolin's blog, royl space.

kitties and ed ugs

suki has two new cat friends. one is a small green hello kitty (he clips on to things!). the other is a sweet, little knit cat we found at an antique shop. suki named both of the cats herself. the green hello kitty is called george, and the knit cat is called boocha (most likely inspired by the beverage kombucha). boocha was made here in grand rapids, michigan by a company called mrs. ryan's. i did a small amount of research and found that mrs. ryan's stuffed animals were made in rutland, vermont as well. 

one of my biggest fears is bed bugs; i can barely even type it. this is why, although i love shopping at antique and second hand shops, i almost never allow myself to do it. a while back while cousins hillery and matt were in town, we went around to a few shops, and that is when we first spotted boocha. we did not buy her then because the man working was grumpy and we did not want to do business with him. after a few months went by, i was still thinking about this little cat so i thought i would go back just to see if she was still there and she was! the man working was nice that day too, so we brought her home. the first thing i did was open her up to make sure she looked clean on the inside. thankfully there was nothing scary hiding inside but still i washed her with hot water then dried her completely in the dryer on high heat, i then did that a second time. i don't feel nervous about the bb thing now, but for the first few days i was loosing sleep wondering if i did the right thing bringing this cat home. what precautions do you take when shopping for preowned things? any tips?

seven breakfasts

fruit and soy yogurt

tofu scramble with soy yogurt and toast

smoothie

banana bread

tofu tortilla sandwich

toast with chocolate cherry peanut butter

raw granola and blueberries at rowster

bon nuit

we were all a bit shaken up today when suki tripped and fell on her face. she was crying very hard which is unusual- she almost never cries when she gets hurt. when she calmed down a bit, she kept saying "nose hurts". her little nose started to bleed and swell very fast. we were worried that she may have broken it. we called our doctor and she said that would be unlikely. adam had to leave soon after this to go teach a night class. koji was needing to go for a walk, and suki and i just wanted to stay in and cuddle up with books. thankfully, our sweet friend sam came to our rescue and walked koji for us. 

after a nice warm bath, suki was tucked in to her bed with her friends and i read her eight books! she fell asleep while i was reading the eighth one. this was the first night she fell asleep without nursing. 

one week from groundswell

this is the part of summer i love! cooling weather and an abundance of fresh vegetables. this is also the part of summer that goes by too fast. we have to plan carefully not to let any of these precious fruits and leaves go to waste. every wednesday evening, after picking up our csa share, we process all things that can be saved for winter. for example, this week we froze broccoli and kale, we dehydrated eggplant and basil, made soups, and sauerkraut. i usually make a meal plan for the week that will utilize all of the remaining vegetables. 

what is your favorite way to save the bounties of summer and stock up for winter?

look at nataile's beautiful pickled green beans!

found friend

this little kitten has recently started hanging out on our porch, as well as many other porches and lawns on our street. suki named her bottle; adam and i named her gladys. she probably has many other names, since it seems many of the children on our street have claimed her as their own. i have seen a few little girls walking around with her, and until now we have thought she was a stray so we have been feeding her. we were happy to discover that she in fact lives at the house down the street. she is just very good at making friends. 

weekend news

adam's father and step mother were visiting us this past weekend. we had a nice time spending time together, shopping, and going out to eat at places we do not usually go. while they were here, suki did not take naps in her crib because she learned to climb out! we had to rush out to get this little bed for her. suki's papa and her abba put it together one night while she watched. she now often reminds me that they "made" it for her. the transition into the toddler bed has been much better than expected. she is actually sleeping better than she was in the crib- waking up half as much at night, and taking naps. yay! 

radiator hospital

"Out The Door" from GR Social Diary on Vimeo.

check out grand rapids social diary looking at radiator hospital- one of grand rapids' best bands.

beedle turns three

today we celebrated beedle! he will officially be a three year old tomorrow, but his party was this evening. it was batman AND mr. bump themed, plus it was a pizza party with a full spread of desserts. susan made him a mr. bump chocolate chip cake, laura made him a chocolate batman cake, kolin made his famous chic-o-stick pie, and adam made vanilla cardamom ice cream.

suki was dressed as little miss fun and beedle was batman, of course. 

 suki's nana and papa are visiting us from california, so they were able to join in the birthday fun. 

look at this little beedle face! could it be any more cute? impossible! 

beedle, we love you to the MAX!