mamasewingcircus.com

I’m sure some of you will have seen this around the Internets, but it reminded me of my dad who doesn’t read all the same Blogs I do. Enjoy.
An 8mm stop motion, filmed in 1965 when the producer was 15 years old.

We are definitely enjoying having a porch in the back yard. Oh that, and the heat. Stella and Will spent a few hours hunting for insects and then inspecting their victims when we got home from school. I taught them how to run the net through bushes and grass to get the bugs to fall in – Mom, that college education going to good use!

Today was the second annual Trike-a-thon at KNS. The kids were instructed to bring their decorated vehicle and helmet this afternoon. Rumor on the playground was that most parents barely remembered to bring bikes, today, much less break out the decorations. But, they turned out.

At high noon, the kids took to the 10 foot diameter track and started scooting, pedaling, and kicking about while the parents counted laps. 60 kids under 6 in helmets and on wheeled vehicles. It was mayhem. There were traffic jams, head on collisions, pile ups and conjoined pedaling attempts, but no tears, shouting matches, bites, or pulled hair. I don’t think anyone made the owie list. The kids were too focused on having fun to bother getting hurt or angry. Professional cyclists could have learned something from these kids!

After about 30 laps, give or take 10 – some kids are fast! some kids are slow! – we called it an afternoon and relaxed with picnic lunches in the sun. Will is pooped. The kid fell asleep on our run this evening ~ 6PM.

Here’s his bike:

Living in the inferno has us craving cold foods. We’re having arugula pesto salad to make a dent in the arugula that has been threatening to overgrow the house. The kids’ pasta was accompanied by clown faced salads of salmon (mouth), mushroom (nose), black berries (eyes), and red pepper (ears).

Arugula Pesto
– 1 bulb of green garlic or 2 cloves mature garlic
– 1/2 cup walnuts
– all the arugula you have
– 1 cup parmesean
– 1/4 c toasted walnut oil or olive oil

I add these to the cuisinart one item at a time to get the garlic minced finely enough. No one but Doug likes raw chunks of garlic. Toss on your hot pasta and chill the salad until you are ready to eat.

And the last of my sewing this weekend. Mom, I hemmed it after I took the picture. I swear. I also took in the bust as even I was busting out.

I’m a sucker for suggestion. I’ve had 6 sewing projects sitting about in various states of completion for weeks. Most needed no more than a seam or two. One hadn’t yet made it from mind to pattern. Thanks to a good friend asking what I’ve been sewing lately, I was able to struggle through 4 of the projects this past weekend. Sylvie and I got new sundresses and she a new blouse. She also got a pair of blue jeans that will sit on the shelf until the fog returns.

Here’s the dress and Dorothy Sylvie dressed in ruby slippers on her way to the store to get ice.

It was a sweltering 92 degrees in San Francisco, today, and allegedly 95 in my neighborhood. Needless to say, my NoCal children are dying. Especially the kid who told me a few weeks ago when it was only 72 degrees, “Mom, is this what fire feels like?”

So, aside from reapplying sunscreen and sitting about on the porch – a lot! We’ve been making slushies.

Last night we used the Berkeley recipe – ice and organic apple juice pulverized in the blender. (When no one else was looking, 1 cup of organic sugar. Shh!) Meh. Tonight we opted for red (hawaiian punch from concentrate) and ice. Yum. I could tell it was good because my son’s nose is permanently stained with red sugary goodness.

means not crying when you scrape your arm on the concrete slide, even if it hurts and you swear you’re now missing 1/4 of your arm. Being the mom also means looking enthusiastic when your 4 1/2 year old son excitedly asks you to do it again. And again. But, being the mom, you’ll from this point forward put the rough side down and next time wear long sleeves.

Great instructional video from Curbly on dying eggs using natural ingredients.

Facebook is a problem for me. I have no self control. And lots of friends who work next to ovens. All of this explains why at 8:30 PM my kids are bathed and in PJs (it takes time for the dough to rise between rests) but still running about the house with unbrushed teeth like street children. I’m making bagels because Facebook told me to. Rather, a friend of mine happened to be trying out a bagel recipe 24 hours after I was lamenting to a different friend how I’ve yet to find a bagel that rivals the New York Bagel shop’s in Houston.

A few quick Google searches when I got home revealed that bagels are a quick bread – who knew? And that brings us to now. Over tired street children. Bagels in the oven. Me, blogging.

Using a recipe I found at Chow. These guys look right. Unfortunately, I read the comments while I was waiting for the dough to rise only to learn the salt is a little much. 

Here it is, please don’t call cps, the kids are fine and now eating bagels:

Why, it is a new, real DNS!

For a limited time, diego.org/sarah will continue to redirect you over to the new DNS, but if you come here by manually typing in the url, you might start weaning yourself from diego.org. 

Note: There is only one S in MamaSewing… because the proper 2 felt redundant.