Favourite Things: September Edition

Upstate New York was our home base throughout September. We finished house sitting for my in-laws while they were in the Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, and Germany, then stayed a few extra weeks since Andrew is on parental leave. It’s great to have that flexibility right now!

Read

I read Taft by Ann Patchett, so I’ve now finished 6 of her 9 novels. It made me too uncomfortable to recommend wholeheartedly, but I still love her writing. I started a few other books I may mention in upcoming posts. Meanwhile, I think you should check out The Search for the Giant Arctic Jellyfish, Opposite Surprise (a clever board book with fold-out pages), and Goose and Duck (an easy reader by the author of My Side of the Mountain).

Eat

One of my birthday presents was a Heath bar, which was so nostalgic — it tastes exactly like the Skor bites I used to devour. We also sampled some European chocolate in September, including Tony’s Chocolonely, Frey, and Migros.

Speaking of nostalgia, these raspberry jam bars are perfect when you want a non-chocolate square for a potluck, dessert, or snack.

I tried a new technique of roasting beds of potato slices with olive oil, garlic, and thyme, then laying a fish fillet on top for the last 15 minutes of cooking. I recommend!

Do

The kids started a scrapbook of family travels and they’ve already made several entries. First off, we spent a day and a half in Vermont:

Another week Andrew and his dad took the kids to the Wild Center in Tupper Lake, NY. They watched otters and an albino wood turtle, played on a giant spider web, saw a video about wildlife, and more. Afterwards they went swimming and canoeing at Lake Eaton. It was a long day and it sure looked fun from the pictures!

One afternoon we took the kids to Ottawa:

  • We used spending money from our next door neighbour to buy food at Byward Market: danish, beaver tail, crepe, poutine, gelato, all that good stuff!
  • We spent a couple of hours in the National Gallery (free on Thursdays from 5pm to 8pm), where we admired some Group of Seven and Monet paintings and found a painting by Tintoretto (artist of the term) and the portrait of Joseph Brant that we read about last year; we even met up with an old friend and her family for a quick visit

Also in September, Malcolm got his cast off! He is doing very well.

Listen

The first hymn the kids and I learned this school year was “For All the Saints” — I love the words and music.

Meditate

“And [God] said to man,
‘Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom,
    and to turn away from evil is understanding.'” – Job 28:28

Do you have any September favourites to share?

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