oh, halloween

 cowboy Elliot, minus his hat, vest, boots, and gun

 princess fairy fashion girl Stella, complete with sass

 indian Oliver, with self-applied war paint

 hippie Mabel, who had fun trick-or-treating with friends

Phew, now that we've survived another Halloween, let's start thinking about what kind of pies we're going to make for Thanksgiving. I'm partial to pumpkin and german chocolate.

What are your favorites?

just some stuff

We have the late slot at church this year, which means that we make our way home after 4:30. The weather has been just right, so we leave the car with Mike (he always has to stay late) and walk into the lowering sun. Have I mentioned how much I love Arizona in the fall? I do! I love it!

Mike and I took our running shoes with us to Dallas last week. Sometimes I'm not sure I know who we are anymore. We are "training" for the Turkey Trot and didn't want to miss a run while we were out of town. Last night's run was a good one. It was the kind that felt almost effortless and easy and fast. It doesn't happen often, but I love when it does. And good news: my knees don't bother me much at all anymore! I was really worried there for a while.

Are you ready for Halloween? I'm ready to move on to Thanksgiving. I am looking forward to my month of thanksgiving posts. Do you want to play along? Just post something that you are thankful for on your blog (or you can leave a comment on my posts here, if you'd like) everyday for the month of November. You will end the month with a heart full of gratitude, I can promise you that. It is such a good exercise. I hope you will try it!

a quick trip to Dallas

Mike had a conference in Dallas last week and he brought me along. Thank goodness for Spirit Airlines and their super cheap red eye flights from Mesa to DFW! So while Mike was at his meetings, Leslie and I shopped (see photos a & b), went out to lunch, volunteered in Miles' class (c), and mostly just spent lots of sisterly time together (d). It was so fun! But darn, it made the miles between us seem so very tragic.

Leaving the kids always stresses me out, even when I know that they will be in the extremely capable hands of my sisters-in-law and mother-in-law. (Thank you Cathy, Abbie, Lindsi, and Susan! We totally owe you guys big time!) But getting away for a few days with Mike was wonderful. Even if it was just a boring business trip. I sure love that guy.

German Pancakes

Acceptable breakfasts at our house include: pancakes, french toast, and oatmeal, with waffles on the weekend, pumpkin pancakes when we're feeling festive, and donuts when we're being completely irresponsible. I was happy to re-discover german pancakes last summer and have since added them to our mix. They are a cinch to make, and lend themselves well to lots of different toppings.

German Pancakes

2 tablespoons butter
6 eggs
1 cup milk
1 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon salt

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. While the oven is heating up, put the butter into a 9x13 pan and put the pan in the oven until the butter has melted. Mix the rest of the ingredients in a blender, then pour the batter into the warm, buttery pan. Bake for 18-20 minutes.

We love them with lemon juice + powdered sugar. Or fresh berries + powdered sugar. Or buttermilk syrup. Or regular syrup. Or jam. You get the idea, I think. Delicious!

A note: one 9x13 pan feeds my 4 children and me, if I am lucky. If Mike is breakfasting with us, another half batch is required. 

weather report

It was nice enough to walk home from church on Sunday! And it's not even supposed to reach 90 this week! Ah! This is when I forgive Arizona for months June through September.


Ok, carry on.

Pumpkin Pie

In my family, it's not Thanksgiving unless there are pumpkin pies from Marie Callender's for dessert. Marie Callender's started in my home town, so their pies were always our favorite.

My parents are coming to town next month for Thanksgiving, and my mom and I were lamenting that we would have to do without a Marie Callender's pumpkin pie this year. Sadness.

Or not! I am still on my pie-baking quest, and after a little internet research I found a copy cat Marie Callender's recipe. Hooray!

So on Saturday I gave it a go. I used this crust recipe (with butter) and made a much more respectable mess of my kitchen. (No peeling and slicing of apples required for pumpkin!) Making the crust was so much easier this time. More practice and experience really made a difference.

The consensus: The filling was good! It tasted just how a pumpkin pie should - spicy and rich and creamy. The crust was almost raw on the bottom, though. Next time I think I will blind bake the crust for a few minutes first, or bake the pie on a pizza stone on the lowest rack. I'll let you know if it passes my mom's rigorous taste test next month.

We finished it off for breakfast yesterday morning. Because you know that pumpkin pie tastes best cold from the fridge and first thing in the morning, right?


Pumpkin Pie 
(Like Marie used to make.)

1 9-inch pie crust

3 eggs
1 15-oz can pumpkin puree
1/2 cup white sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
3/4 cup whole milk
1/4 cup heavy cream

heavy cream + sugar (for whipping)

Prepare the crust and chill it in fridge until it's time to bake. Preheat your oven to 425 degrees. In a large bowl, beat eggs. Add the pumpkin and stir to combine. In a medium bowl, whisk sugars, cinnamon, salt, ginger, cloves, and nutmeg together. Stir the spice mixture into the the pumpkin until combined. Stir in the milk and cream until well blended.

Pour into the prepared shell and bake at 425 degrees for 15 minutes. Then reduce the heat to 350 degrees and bake for 45-55 more minutes, until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.

Cool completely, then chill in the fridge until ready to serve. Don't forget to smother it in freshly whipped cream!

Pumpkin Donuts

This morning I thought that making pumpkin donuts would be a good idea. Why? Why do I do this to myself? Having a batch of warm donuts sitting on my counter is not in my best interest. I will never learn.

You can find the recipe here. They were yummy, but I still need to perfect my frying technique. Or not. No, I probably shouldn't.

my nativity advent

Guess what. Christmas will be here before we know it. Hooray!

Years ago, I was searching for the perfect Christmas Advent Calendar. I collect nativities, so a nativity advent is what I had in mind. But I couldn't find one anywhere! Oh, I looked and looked and looked, with no luck. So I decided to make my own. I cut and stitched and covered myself in teeny felt scraps for days. And in the end, I had this:

It is one of my favorite things, and turned out exactly as I had pictured it in my head. Every morning in December, my kids race to put up another little guy, culminating in the placing of baby Jesus in the manger on Christmas morning. It is so fun!

Jessica, a reader of my blog and felt crafter extraordinaire, recently opened an etsy shop where she sells a version of my advent calendar (with permission, of course). If you are on the hunt like I was, you can purchase one here!

It still feels like summer here.

I don't want to talk about it.

at the end of my day

I read this post by my wise friend Sarah at Clover Lane a couple of years ago and I revisit it from time to time. Most of what Sarah writes resonates with me, but I particularly love the idea of holding myself accountable as a mother. It's easy to get tricked into thinking that there are more important things for me to do with my time, but when it comes down to it, mothering is my job. And it's one I'd like to do well. (I want to be a Major League Mom!)

So I've compiled a little list of questions for review at the end of my day.

Did I read my scriptures? (I'm a much better mother when I have!)
Did I send Mabel and Oliver off to school with a smile and a hug?
Did I feed my family good food?
Was I patient with Elliot when he needed to do things himself?
When Stella had a million things to tell me, did I give her my full attention every time?
Did I read to them?
Did I ask Mabel and Oliver about their day?
Did I put away my phone?
Did I say yes as often as I could?
At the end of the day, was the house mostly clean?
Did we have family prayer?
Was I still nice by bedtime?

I've noticed a need lately to re-evaluate and try harder. More things on this list need to happen every day. This is what I know: my kids deserve the best that I can give them. And so I will try, try again. One of these days I will make it to bedtime with a smile on my face! :)

What makes you feel like a good mom? I'd love to hear your ideas.

Photo by Sunshine & Shade last November. Where did that baby go?

Buttermilk Chocolate Cookies

Sometimes I just need to bake something and that's all there is to it.

I found this recipe on pinterest and whipped up a half batch before church on Sunday. I liked that I could mix it by hand, which kept things quiet for my Elliot, who was taking his pre-church nap.

They were rich, with just the right amount of sweetness, and so chocolatey. Mix up a batch! You won't be sorry.

If you don't have buttermilk, you can always use the one tablespoon vinegar to one cup of milk trick.

weekend report

We spent all weekend with our windows open and it was wonderful. A few years ago Mike installed a whole house fan. We turn it on in the mornings and cool, fresh air floods into the house. Can I tell you how happy I am that another summer is over? Oh man, so happy.

I decided it was time to adorn my new front door. I'm neutral on this C, so it is staying. For now.

Mabel painted that teeny panda for my panda loving little sister, and I just love it so much! I'm thinking of commissioning something for myself. She is so talented.

I hope your weekend was a good one!
  
p.s. I'm barefootstephco on instagram, if you'd like to follow along.

scenes from my whiter kitchen

While the kids spent the week tearing up the basement, I worked on our backsplash. I've always wanted to add something there, and had always planned on tile. But tile is expensive. And I'm not totally confident in my tiling abilities, so I went with bead board instead. Guess what? It was easy. And cheap. And quick! And that makes it a winner in my book.

It really brightens the space, which is always my goal. Our house was not built with many windows, and the previous owners enclosed the back patio to be an Arizona room, so the kitchen doesn't get as much light as I'd like. Painting the cabinets, and now adding the backsplash has helped.

It's still cloudy and gorgeous here today. Our forecasted high is in the 70s! Pinch me. To celebrate, we are baking lots and lots of cookies. And probably going to the park. Or at least out back. Hooray!

checking in

We woke up to cloudy skies and wet streets this morning. It was wonderful! We opened our windows and let the cool air into the house.  Then we went out front in our pajamas.

Our new kitty, Inez, came too of course, wrapped up in Stella's nightgown. I would say that our family is split down the middle about that cat. Mike and the girls can't get enough of her. The boys and I aren't so smitten.

She is awfully sweet, though.

We've been having a quiet week. The kids are out of school for October break, so they've been sleeping in, making a gigantic mess of the basement, and relaxing. Today we are planning a trip to the library. We might just be the most boring people I know.

I managed to kill most of the plants in my front porch pots, but whatever this is has really hung on. And my crazy wisteria is always my favorite.

All week I've been re-watching General Conference talks. I think this one about spending our time wisely and with the people we love, and this one about loving the Savior and being His disciple, are my favorites. This one about protecting children is pretty great, too. Did you listen to Conference? What did you think?

come listen

My parents' yard in Sundance, Utah a few falls past.

In Arizona, fall is the prize for making it through another summer. There's an early morning chill in the air now that makes the afternoon heat bearable. I live for this time of year when everything feels crisp and easy.

This weekend is one of my favorites! It is General Conference. We will set up our computer somewhere in the house and snuggle in to hear the leaders of our church speak. I am hoping donuts are involved.

You can watch it, too! Here are the details.

two things

One: Elliot loves keys. He was sweating it out in our not-cool Arizona room the other day just so he could lock and unlock this door a million times. I never really think he looks like Oliver, but in this picture they are twins.

Two: We maybe got a cat. A compromise cat. Mike wanted to go to Rocky Point for October break next week, and I really didn't. Driving through hours of empty Mexican desert scares me to death, even in broad daylight. So we are staying in town with our new kitty. Mike is convinced that my cat allergies will magically disappear. We will see. The itchy eyes started last night and I've been sneezing all morning, so my hopes are not very high. For now, she is pretty cute, I guess.

procrastination

This week is turning out to be the one where I finally do all of those little things that have been on my to-do list for forever. Like mend a skirt that has been sitting near my machine for a year. One year! The silly thing was that it only took about two minutes of hand stitching to fix. Or rehang the curtains under my kitchen sink that have been bugging me since I put them up two years ago. Sometimes I feel so ridiculous.

I'm sort of on a roll. Maybe I'll tackle a kitchen backsplash next, but I should probably do the ironing first.

Play dough in pink, please.

Have you ever made play dough? I hadn't until the other day. Elliot was napping and Stella was bored (of course). We had already eaten donuts at Mike's office that morning, so our go-to activity of making a treat was out the window. In a moment of pure motherhood inspiration, I searched for a play dough recipe online and we went to work.

It was a cinch! And it kept Stella busy for hours!

And then Elliot woke up.

And Mabel and Oliver got home from school.

And everyone played with it all together all afternoon. It was magical.

I used this recipe, but for some reason my dough was really sticky and needed lots more flour kneaded into it. But I'd use that recipe again in a second!