Autumn Approaches

Harvest Soup



Today is an amazingly beautiful day here in southern Maine.  Watching the kids play happily out in the yard as the sun shines and a gentle breeze blows reminds me of why I love being home with my kids.  Because I love my kids so much, and enjoy the peacefullness of days like this, this week I decided to honor myself by making the tough decision to get rid of one of my daycare kids.  The reason it is tough is because a) the loss of income will be felt   b) I hate the idea of "giving up" on this child.

The child is a very, very difficult child.  She is 6, and is the size of an 8 year old.  She's very aggressive and "spirited" (as her mother put it).  I had her in my care the entire school year of 2009, and made the decision to ask that she not be in my care during her summer vacation from school this past summer. I thought perhaps that a summer away from her would refresh me enough to bring her back in September and try to tolerate her, but I simply cannot. She is very aggressive with the other kids. She gets in fights with kids at school as well as summer camp.  I did what I could to hang in as long as I can, but my heart is really speaking loudly here. I have tried working with the parents and with the child, but I cannot have her physically harming the other children here. She has had way more than "3 strikes".

The 1st pic above is of a recent harvest soup I made. I'd post a recipe, but really I make soup out of whatever I have on hand! As I recall, that soup had carrots (as seen above), green and yellow onions, garlic, tomatoes, squash, celery, kale, some frozen mixed veggies, herbs and spices from the garden and organic chicken broth. It was DELISH!  This is the time of year when I start making lots of soups, stews and casseroles. That's one thing I love about the weather getting cooler: making hot meals just seems to taste even more wonderful!



 We have begun another year of preschool this month, and the kids are really loving it! 

Is your child a fan of Thomas the Tank Engine? Well, mine sure is! We went to A Day Out With Thomas in North Conway, NH this summer and my son nearly lost his mind with excitement. If you ever get the chance to do this with your Thomas fan, I can highly recommend it. I would suggest, however, that you bring plenty of snacks and drinks, as lines are long and food is a bit pricey. Also, wear a good hat and sunscreen, as the wait for a ride on Thomas out in the sun was a bit rough. I followed up the visit with some coloring activities as well as some online Thomas activities (which you can find lots of if you do a search for it).

Before I end this post, I wanted to show another example of our garden harvest. These cookies are chocolate chip and nut cookies, made with zucchini. I know there is a good recipe on the website for Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, but basically I just add a small shredded zucchini to a recipe and adjust the flour if needed. Zucchini makes the cookies so moist! Another tip I'll give is that a little cinnamon does help make the cookies a little tastier. You really can't taste the zucchini very much, but it does change the flavor of the cookie a bit, so the cinnamon adds a nice zing.

Have a great day!