Hey friends!  I hope you all had a Happy Halloween!  We had fun dressing up and going to parties, trick-or-treating and the rest.  I meant to post this yesterday, but I didn’t get around to taking pictures until the evening and by the time we got home, I was just too tired to do anything but sit on the couch!

Can we talk about carving pumpkins first?  It’s been so stinkin’ hot here lately that if you carve a pumpkin too early and it sits in 90 degree weather for a few days, the trick-or-treaters are greeted with rotten pumpkins.  So, Monday night we rushed through homework and dinner to fill our table with pumpkin guts.  It looked so easy, but really, do we want our kids hacking away with a knife?  Isn’t this really for the adults?  Brent and I high-fived each other for doing a great job carving up the kids’ favorite designs.

Also, I love these little Cinderella pumpkins you can buy at Trader Joe’s now.  I put them on top of the antique spools I just bought at the flea market.  Simple table decoration!

We hosted a Halloween party last weekend.  It was in the middle of a busy work schedule for both of us, so we whipped together a costume.  It was inspired by the awkwardly awesome school photo costume I saw on Cup of Jo.  We both raided Jake’s closet for my clothes, Brent’s tie and his head gear…ewww!  Also, thumbs up for posting stupid pictures of yourself and thumbs down for the bad quality of the iphone photo taken at night.

The kids on the other hand had awesome costumes!  Jillian was a peacock.  I made her costume from some of the cool stuff I bought at Michael Levine in downtown LA.  My mother in law, Kathy, came over to help with last minute costume assembly too!

Cooper’s costume was thrown together in about 30 minutes a few weeks ago when he told me the party he was going to that night was dress up.  A quick trip to Joann’s and a handful of sticks later, we were in business!

I ran out of steam by the time it came to Jake’s costume and our friend Marcus, who’s a way better seamstress than me, offered to make it.  Jake takes guitar lessons and is super into his electric guitar.  Most of the lyrics of popular songs he wants to play are questionable at best, so Brent introduced him to Stryper.  Marcus did a bang-up job with Jake’s costume and his was the hit of the night!

My camera is an extension of me.  If I’m nervous before a photo session, everything disappears once I get the camera in my hand.  It’s what I was made to do.  And I didn’t start my life knowing that.  But once I discovered it, I knew I’d never walk away.  This may not always be my job, but I will always love photography.

What’s your medium?  I think we all have a bit of artist in us.  It’s that creative expression that makes all the stress go away for a bit.  It mutes the noise of life.  Do you remember that season of American Idol where the guy had Tourette’s syndrome and when he sang the stuttering stopped?  All the symptoms went away.  Singing was his medium.

But, I’ve seen people that crunch numbers like an artist.  My accountant explains things to me that normally makes my mind spin.  My web guy makes something beautiful out of all my scribbled notes.  I’m inspired by people that do their job like an artist.  And they live their life like an artist.

So, what’s your medium?  Go inspire someone today.  Be an artist!

Packing lunches for kids can lead to boredom and possibly even wanting to pull your hair out.  I always tell my kids, you don’t have to eat everything in your lunch, but you’re not allowed to throw it away.  At the end of the day, I just want to see what things you like (and eat all of) and what things you don’t like or don’t have time to eat.  These talks are serious.  You’d think it was an ABC after school special.  But, seriously, I want to be an effective lunch packer.  I hate throwing food away, but I don’t want them to be hungry at school either!  I’m sure some of you can relate.

I’ve learned that marketing is key.  And packaging is everything.  If I can ‘sell’ it, they’ll be excited about it and want to eat it.  Let me give you an example.  Vegetables in the lunches are not a big hit.  I wanted them to be able to dip their vegetables, but the individual ranch packets you can buy are a) way too much ranch for a kid to eat at lunch and b) expensive.  I went on the hunt for tiny containers to hold dips and found these Lock-Ups at The Container Store.  I saw them in the office section, so I think they are meant to be for office supplies, but they are the perfect size and also dishwasher safe (on the top rack).

Carrots are now a lunch favorite and we have plans to use them for celery and peanut butter too.  I’ve even been thinking pretzels in a yogurt dip would work.  The Lock-Ups stack too, so you could pack more than one dip and have the containers connect.

I wonder who came up with the term comfort food?  It perfectly describes the way food makes you feel.  It warms your belly and makes you feel all cozy.  This stew is comfort food in every sense.  Maybe it has special meaning because a very sweet lady from church made it for us when we had our first baby.  We came home from the hospital in an ice storm and she had a big pot waiting for us on the stove.

Later she gave me the recipe.  It’s unlike any stew I’ve had before.  The ingredients are simple and the flavors are bright.  The beef doesn’t get bogged down with heavy bland flavor.  As we transition to fall, make a big pot of this stew, get yourself a crusty loaf of bread and get cozy!

Beef Cider Stew

(serves 6-8)

from Linda Richardson

2 large onions, diced

3T. butter

2 lbs. beef, cut in small chunks (I used tri-tip)

3T. flour

2t. salt

1/4t. pepper

1t. thyme

2 cups apple cider

1T. ketchup

3 large potatoes, peeled and cut into small chunks

4 medium carrots, peeled and cut into small chunks

1 1/2c. green beans

Brown onions in butter (in a large stock pot).  Set aside and brown meat in the same pan.  Combine flour, salt, pepper and thyme.  Stir gradually into the meat.  Stir in cider and ketchup.  Add potatoes, carrots and green beans.  Simmer for an hour, or until meat is tender.

School starts tomorrow.  As in, we’re laying out school clothes, packing backpacks and getting ready for a schedule.  Oh man.  I talked a bit on the blog about our relaxed traveling summer.  The one where we went to camps and took a vacation and made ice cream and had parties with friends.  It’s been great.  The kids are filled to the brim with memories.  When they write what they did over the summer tomorrow, there won’t be enough lines on the paper.  Or time in the day.  We’re blessed, for sure.

I didn’t always bring my big camera and sometimes I was working, so I just didn’t feel up to it.  BUT, I did use my iphone a lot.  I will be investing in a Life Proof case, because the only thing I missed out on was pictures while we were in the water.  And that happened A LOT!

Anyway, here’s some snippets of summer.  Most are instagram photos and all are taken with the iphone.