Asher and I are spending more time together lately, which means I have to come up with things to do for us to enjoy the days. Meaningful work is one of the keystones to happy preschoolers, so I’ve been roping Asher into some household activities for some fun and frolic.

That’s his own dirty clothes that he’s washing. The novelty of this activity was very appealing to him, and he likes that he got them clean. It didn’t take long for him to figure out the best way to have fun was to stomp the clothes clean. I showed him how to rinse them and then hang them up on the patio chair backs to dry. Presumably he did that before he sat in the basins to splash and play because when I came back to him (I was gardening), he had hung all the items up to dry.

Earlier this week, we decided to bake some muffins together. I have a lovely strawberry bread recipe that works well as muffins, too. And since we have zucchini from our garden we grated some to add to the recipe. Asher took to this task beautifully as well.

The muffins are yummy, and now I know to cook them 22 minutes instead of 25. We ate some right away, as soon as they came out of the oven and were cool enough to eat.

Strawberry Zucchini Bread

1 c. strawberry puree (2 10-oz packages of frozen berries or two pint baskets)

1 c. grated zucchini

4 eggs

1 c. vegetable oil (my next task is to figure out if I can substitute coconut oil)

3 c. flour (all-purpose or a mix of all-purpose and whole wheat)

1 1/2 c. sugar (you can use less if you want)

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 c. chopped nuts (optional)

Note: If you want to make these muffins extra healthy, you can add a couple of tablespoons of ground flax, protein powder, or a 1/2 cup of rolled oats. These all make good additions.

Combine strawberry puree, zucchini, eggs, and oil. Blend in sugar, cinnamon, and baking soda. Add flour(s) and nuts, if using. Batter will be pinkish! Pour into greased and floured loaf pans (9 x 5 inch). Bake 40-50 mins. at 350 degrees. Cool completely before removing from pans. Makes two loaves.

Muffin variation:

Pour batter into greased muffin tin (or use papers). Bake at 350 degrees for 22 minutes. Watch closely. Makes about 18 muffins.

Happy Equinox! Happy Mabon! Happy Last Day of Summer!

It was a busy day. I had originally planned to celebrate the equinox on the 23rd, but when I looked closer at the exact time of the equinox, I decided it couldn’t wait till tomorrow. (Tomorrow we can celebrate the First Day of Autumn!)

We’ve been watching for signs of Autumn around here. Mama’s been scoping out all the garden plants with a project in mind….

After a quick, $9 trip to the craft store today, we came home with a flat twig wreath base, some floral picks (wooden picks with a small amount of wire on one end), and some green floral twine, which we ended up not using. We wandered around our front and back yards and clipped little snippets off trees and shrubs, including liquidambar leaves (still green), flowering plum leaves (purple), mallow, Chinese elm, Japanese maple (purple and green), redwood sprigs, pittosporum, and lantana berries, heavenly bamboo fruits, rose hips, lavender flowers, and the spiky flowers from some ornamental grass. We also walked up the street a little ways and gathered fallen bits of live oak leaves.

While the vegetable soup was cooking I tried to get the kids interested in making the wreath with me. At first they couldn’t be bothered because they were too busy chasing around the backyard. But after I got the first layer on the wreath base, it caught Lucas’s eye and he came to help me. He did a great job of adding to the wreath, and especially enjoyed using the floral picks to wire items without strong stems into the wreath.

We pulled some deep orange/bronze seed lanterns off our goldenrain tree, plucked a touch of dusty miller, and added some rosemary from our herb patch. We added in a few acorns we had gathered from the neighborhood yesterday. Basically, if it was interesting and sturdy enough to be stabbed into our wreath, we used it. I’m delighted with all the colors our wreath has! I had feared that not enough foliage had begun to turn fall colors yet, and that it would be bland.

Here is the finished wreath, sans baby toes and with a few sticks we had gathered and displayed last spring. Ian helped us hang our equinox wreath above our nature table (which is really the top of our upright piano) in our great room. Since these plants are largely fresh, our wreath will wither and wilt over time. It may begin to fall apart, which in itself will be symbolic of the seasonal changes. I’m interested to see how well or poorly it lasts. I’ve never made one of these before.

Lucas then chopped our “finger salad,” mere raw zucchini rounds into halves, symbolizing that today the day and night are perfectly equal. While he did, Ian asked him math questions, which was fun.

Our backyard equinox table setting (blue plates for night, yellow plates for day, of course). I didn’t take a photo of our yummy vegetable lentil quinoa soup. (I’m no food photographer!) We ate homemade bread and soup and zucchini halves, and talked about what summer things we were thankful for (swimming lessons, swim team, Waldorf summer camp, play dates, our anniversary trip to Seattle, Burning Man—particularly because we came home with four noses, eight eyes, eight ears, 16 limbs, and 80 digits!).

We finished our celebration with pumpkin pie! Asher helped with making the pie crust and Lucas mixed up the filling and helped me roll out the crust.

And now, the holiday is done and I’m beat! Good night, and may the many blessings of the season be yours.