Pass the veggies.

I was a little worried about how the kids would react to me becoming a vegetarian—especially Hawthorne who thinks that bacon is one of life's greatest pleasures. They've been great sports about it though. Of course, Hawthorne still gets to eat bacon, but we usually have vegetarian dinners that are a little more creative than our meals used to be. Tonight we had eggplant sandwiches. They were super yummy. The kids gobbled them up and went back for more. Ainsley took a picture of Carter's sandwich because he had the most left when it dawned on me to take a picture for our blog.

Here's the recipe in case you want to try it too.
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Eggplant Sandwich

1/2 cup all-purpose flour
2 large eggs, beaten
1 cup panko bread crumbs
1 medium eggplant cut into eight 1/2-inch rounds
1/2 cup canola oil, split
Kosher salt
lettuce
2 medium tomatoes sliced
4 ounces goat cheese crumbled or sliced
vinaigrette dressing

Place the flour, eggs, and bread crumbs in separate shallow bowls. Dip the eggplant slices in the flour, then the eggs, then the breadcrumbs, pressing gently to help them stick.

Heat 1/4 cup of oil over medium-high heat. Cook half the eggplant until golden brown and crisp, 2-3 minutes per side. Transfer to paper towel-lined plate. Wipe out the skillet and repeat with the remaining oil and eggplant. Sprinkle hot eggplant with 1/2 teaspoon salt.

Layer the eggplant, lettuce, tomatoes, goat cheese, and dressing to form sandwiches with the eggplant as the bread. Enjoy!
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The kids also really liked the eggplant dipped in ketchup, of course. Anything fried and dipped in ketchup is seriously good stuff.

You know what's not good stuff? All the dead and dying animals that Lucy keeps bringing in the house. We were home all day Saturday, so she brought us lots of presents. I think the final count was 1 snake, 2 moles, 4 lizards, 1 baby frog, and various yucky bugs. I appreciated having Carter and Hawthorne around to save me from having to round up and get rid of everything. I'll rise to the occasion when necessary, but I prefer it not being necessary.

Lucy's need for new stimulation is scaring me. Today she crossed the street. When Carter and I both went running out of the house after her, I think she realized what she had done wasn't a good idea. We got a little help from a very noisy scooter to reinforce the fear of the street lesson. Oh that cat! Here she is at the top of the trellis that is supposed to hide the neighbor's garage from sight. I think I'm going to have to get her a battery powered mouse to keep her entertained in the winter. Otherwise, who knows what she'll do in search of her next adrenaline rush!

wabi sabi

I have a new favorite magazine: whole living. It's a Martha Stewart publication, which made me skeptical at first, but they gave me a subscription rate I couldn't refuse. I'm sending it to all my favorite people for their birthdays. I would share with my Tallahassee friends, but I tear too many pages out! I received the September and October issues at the same time, and I've already torn out articles on mantras, easy meals to satisfy take out cravings, embracing imperfection (wabi sabi), and alternative ways to treat depression.  I'm also taking the advice of putting ferns in our bathrooms, reading dinneralovestory.com, buying recycled leather rugs, asking my family how I can love them better, and planting bulbs. In case you're wondering, Ainsley and Hawthorne both told me I could love them better by letting them eat candy. Hawthorne added that I could yell less. It doesn't take much imagination to guess Carter's answer! I went into my questioning with a plan to not be defensive at all. Everyone made it easy on me not to even feel defensive, but I did cave and remind Hawthorne that usually the reason I yell at him is because he doesn't respond to my calm requests. I asked how I should handle that differently. He didn't have a solution. I'll work on the yelling, but I'm not making any promises.

We did come up with a new plan for getting the kids to do their "chores." At the beginning of the week, we give them 20 poker chips worth $.25 each. Each time we have to remind them to do something they're supposed to do on their own, they have to put a chip in the Oops Jar. At the end of the week, they get to cash in their poker chips and start over. So far it seems like a pretty successful experiment. They aren't losing so many chips that they figure they can let it all hang out at the end of the week, and they seem proud of the of the ones they hold on to. Of course they don't actually have cash, just little IOUs in their banks because I never have any money either, but the IOUs seem good enough for them to get a kick out of it.

The weather here is hot again, but for the fleeting days of early fall, we tackled the yard. Living in Tallahassee is like living in the jungle. The rain makes everything grow (except the grass in the places you actually want it to grow). Vines pop up all over the place and take over entire azalea beds as if sprouting from magic beans. Huge elephant ears unfurl in every shady spot. And mushrooms of fairytale colors and size appear over night. Reigning it all in takes lots of time and muscle. Carter's new strategy is to flatten the dirt, put down plastic, and cover everything in pebbles. It really has worked miracles one flowerbed at a time. This weekend we started a new flowerbed that will become our butterfly garden. Gumbo trampled the old one, but we smartened up and are digging the new one outside his fence. We also removed wheelbarrows full of vines from our creek bed so that when the torrential rains come, they can actually get down the yard without washing out a foot of dirt (like they did last time).While Carter and I toil and sweat, the kids gather giant earthworms and create a breeze by flying on their trolley. I've attached pictures. It looks like fun, but I've tried it, and it's mainly just a scary ab and arm workout unless you're less than 5 feet tall and under 55 pounds.

Lucy also has been busy in the backyard. Killing critters. She brings in lots of worms, which I don't mind scooping up and dumping in the pot with the lemon tree. But she also brings in lots of gross bugs, which I have to call Carter to handle. Ick!!!! Today she brought us a giant mole. Really. My childhood cats used to bring me moles all the time. I'm used to cute little dead moles. But this mole was huge. Mouse sized. Why, Lucy? Why? I never felt very bad for the moles of my childhood because I knew my mom didn't like having them tear up the yard. Dead moles and people shooting at raccoons and armadillos is something you quickly get used to when you grow up in East Texas. But I so don't have a yard that can be hurt even by a giant mole, so I felt sorry for the furry little guy. I'm glad I'm so totally infatuated with Lucy because otherwise I'd be pretty pissed about the dead mole I had to fetch from under my kitchen table.

So I'll leave you with a mantra for the week: wabi sabi. It's fun to say, and it means, well for the most part, it means that there is beauty in imperfection.