Beans: a celebration

Twitter informs me in an unusually non-soul-crushing hashtag that it is National Coffee Day, which is terrific because I had been feeling pretty rudderless this morning and now I have a raison d'être. Coffee! Our most celebrated of drug addictions. Go forth, friends, and be wired.

Last night I made lentils and everyone ate them. I'm not sure what's going on with the food consumption this week but I suspect some sort of changeling situation.

Good luck fairies, hope you have plenty of cereal bars

Dan is out of town again and again we are spending our time constructively.

Blending in to your surroundings is a valuable skill, probably

Podcast Corner: lately I have been wanting to listen to interviews with competent people, so I've been catching up on The Turnaround with Jesse Thorn and How to be Amazing with Michael Ian Black. Give those a go if you find people who are good at stuff to be soothing.

Also, what if: pasta every day?

I can't remember who mentioned The Lazy Genius on Twitter (sorry/thank you, Twitter friend) but I've been poking around those parts and have emerged with several helpful ideas, first among them "always eat pasta on Mondays." Okey dokey!

I picked this Vegetarian Citrus Pasta with Swiss Chard recipe because (brace yourself, brag incoming) I knew we had some chard in the garden that needed to get eaten and because I had enough energy to weather the storm of whiny children certain to object to green flecks and whole wheat pasta and the taste of lemon and the angle of the sun etc. etc.

And then do you know what happened?

They both just...ate it. And one of them had seconds. And they said I should make this recipe again. So the moral of the story is: eight years and 74 days into parenthood I am still absolute garbage at predicting the whims of my progeny.

They are riddles, wrapped in mystery, inside a miasma of Goldfish crumbs and confusing Minecraft factoids

I got to do one of my very favorite things this weekend, which is watch live tapings of podcasts.

And now I know for sure that Ana Marie Cox raises her eyebrows questioningly just as often as I imagined she must

I also got do do one of my other very favorite things, which is go out for Mexican food.

VERY SUCCESSFUL, THIS WEEKEND. TWO THUMBS UP.

Time to eye my light jackets longingly

 Happy fall equinox, everyone! Hope you're ready for some nice cool 7:00 am walks to the bus stop!

BRRRRRRRRRR

We are celebrating with a very carefully thought-out, labor-intensive theme this week.

If that isn't enough to ward off the chills, remember: you can always just climb right on top of your sister to share body heat.

She won't mind.

Calendar-ignoring heat aside, I am actually very excited to be spending the weekend at The Texas Tribune Festival, where I intend to see many, many people that I follow on Twitter and maybe also my senators. But maybe not! Because honestly, those two dudes can go jump in a lake. YEAH, I SAID IT. RIGHT IN A LAKE.

But it's Friday and it's fall and I want to close on a happy note, so here is this: proof that the kids are alright.

Hot marshmallows, cold tomatoes

Yesterday was very hot because September is a very hot month every year despite my eternal optimism that it will not be, just this once. So I made my family eat cold soup.

They weren't that excited but only because they didn't realize how fast it was to put a bunch of ingredients in a blender for a minute. Then they would have shared my enthusiasm, I'm pretty sure.

We spent the weekend with friends, mournfully noting the end of summer, contemplating transitions, wistfully covering every possible surface in a gloss of marshmallow goo.

But we emerged ready for the next phase of the cycle: dressing ourselves as various internet memes.

Finally some cuteness innovation in safety features

Because 100% of my magazine subscriptions were gifts with the purchase of, I don't know, moisturizer or something, and I refuse to internalize their continuing existence in my life, I am surprised/delighted every single time they appear in my mailbox. This week's mailbox surprise: "I still get Rachael Ray Every Day?"

Better make some Grilled Peaches Caprese Rotisserie Chicken Salad, I guess!

WOOF, that name, but look how pretty and even the children scavenged some edible bits.

Unfortunately, my children generally behaved like small, busy, functional humans this week, rather than tiny hilarious face-making photo props. As this trend is likely to continue, I fear for the future of the Anna-scowls-at-fun-things blogging industry. Alas. Here instead is some Ivy art to get you through your Friday.

A cat very very much enjoying some pizza with black olives.

A rocket ship...hmm...deploying its heart-shaped air bag upon impact? 

Big donut-related announcement in here

I'm finishing up my tour through the Love & Lemons cookbook that I checked out from the library, as it is soon due back at said library.

Vegan Cherry French Toast. This went over very well with every member of the family who did not have to pit a bunch of cherries.

Some kind of summer vegetable pasta that I didn't exactly follow the recipe for. But the combination of basil, oregano, smoked paprika, and red wine vinegar is aces.

Have some very exciting news to report, we encountered a donut hole that looks like...Pusheen.

Apparently. If you squint. And spend 3-4 hours a day looking at pictures of Pusheen.

Last night Dan managed to capture the Ivy-est of Ivy sentiments which coincidentally happens to line up with the Erica-est of Erica sentiments.

"I don't like all the people, though, so don't write down people."

A post shared by Dan H (@danh1979) on Sep 11, 2017 at 6:00pm PDT

[Tina Belcher anxiety groan]

Mood: a big terrible thing wrecked a chunk of my state and another big terrible thing is about to wreck the entirety of another state and already took out ONE ENTIRE ISLAND etc. and I only recently realized how much of the country is on literal fire and I can't protest it or make phone calls about it or vote against it so there's nothing to do other than feel small and helpless and wait.

Primitive, nonintellectual underlying mood: it was 58 degrees this morning and that was extremely good.

Still gotta eat though.

Brussels Sprout Breakfast Tostadas

Vegan Broccoli Soup from the Love & Lemons cookbook

Turns out that above recipe was too healthy, so I had to add tater tots to it.

Still got hungry again and ate half a bag of pretzels before bed

Now that I have two children who get out of school at the same time I am faced with an unprecedented amount of information that is crucial to convey to me in the three-minute walk from the bus stop and I think I might have to grow another brain/set of ears to process it because my retention rate is about 15% right now.

Becoming reacquainted with vegetables

Since the other grown up who lives here has returned from his work trip, I have somewhat begrudgingly reverted back to grownup food, at least for the moment.

Cold Cucumber Soba Udon from the Love & Lemons cookbook. Four out of five stars, I docked one for reminding me for the eightieth time that my HEB does not carry soba noodles. *shakes fist* *remembers that HEB is actually amazing though* *gives fifth star back* *gives ten stars to HEB* *cries a little*

We had a very good and easy Labor Day weekend, although Anna was (not unreasonably) skeptical of supper in the pool.

We are sad that it's over.

Another way to help; pancakes

I've been lone-wolf parenting for two of the past three weeks, and the first item I tend to remove from my daily checklist when Dan is out of town is "endure dinner-related whining from my progeny." So, gingerbread pancakes it is.

We might be slightly vitamin-deficient 

But we are happy

If you are in the Austin area and you want to help out with Harvey relief but you are overwhelmed by all the potential approaches and wish someone would just give you a specific list of what is needed and and address to drop it all off HEY GUESS WHAT YOU'RE IN LUCK because Mayor Adler has done just that. As of last night they were still in need of a bunch more evacuee welcome kits, so everyone who is able/inclined to do so should get on it. Isabelle found it very easy and fulfilling.

"Be helpful by going to Target" is the irresistible siren song of my demographic