Soulard & Spontaneity

A little spontaneous decision making on a Saturday is good for any family, in my opinion. We woke up this morning and were out of coffee, which is inexcusable in our family as anyone who knows us will tell you. Now, had we risen in the normal way, with coffee to finish our waking-up routine, the adventure that unfolded for us today would never have happened...

But, it did. We threw a picnic together (because families on a seminary budget cannot afford both coffee and lunch out in one day, or even one week, for that matter), dressed ourselves and the girls (which I really can't believe happened, since only one of us had even had a sip of something caffeinated---Chip had what had been leftover from Macky's cup, and refrigerated) the day previous--and I need to end this sentence it's already become a paragraph unto itself. We weren't sure whether Kaldi's or Northwest Cafe would receive our hard-earned cash this day, and even the decision as to which way we would drive kind of happened of its own accord. I swear the ole "beamer" drove itself, and we wound up at the latter. It could be that the thought of no unwholesome odors of flavored coffee would hit us when we entered was the impetus for our decision, but in our lack of coffee delerium, I'm not sure anything quite so intentional really occurred.

Well, we got our coffee (and I might add that mine was an accidental quad espresso--hmmm) and Macky got her whip cream, and we were off like a shot (pardon the pun). As we began driving down the road once more, the next "agenda" after coffee came from the peanut gallery "I go park today!" Macky piped in the backseat (shortly followed by "I go church tonight", for those of you who used to worship with us at Grace, I thought you should know she was thinking of you). So, to the park we went. On our way, we passed a farmer's market (enter the next agenda, from yours truly). Chip squeeled the tires as he made a quick right into the parking lot where signs sporting things like "grass fed lamb" and "free range eggs" met our eyes. Upon short reflection we realized that we had not, yet, gotten any cash for the day, so this stop would be perhaps a little premature.

Next stop, the bank! Once again little shrill sounds of "I play park?" came from the back of the wagon, so we trickled downtown instead of retracing our steps to the market of Straub's grocery. Chip's first agenda (second, rather, I keep forgetting about all that lay BEFORE the coffee) was that we should go down to see "our friend" the arch. (Macky has a tendency of adopting inanimate objects as friends, I don't know why, but we have encouraged it...). Off to the great gateway to the west we went, and popped out our handy, dandy second vehicle: the jogging stroller (my best friend besides Chip). We took a lovely walk downtown in breezy, sunny morning weather reminiscent of CO summers, and arrived at our shiny, silver destination. After hearing and seeing: a 'honking boat' (riverboat), choo-choo train, helicopter, barge, airplane, geese, ducks, and squirrels, we decided it was time for our picnic. We sat down to chicken salad (Chip's specialty, I'll give you a recipe at the end), pasta salad, cheese, and bread (all eaten with our fingers as I had forgotten forks--no surprise there).

While Macky and Chip did their usual running around thing, Murmur and I quietly finished up our lunch. I was looking down at her, helping her finish up some noodle, when suddenly her little arms and legs started doing their excitement dance. For those of you who haven't seen it, Murmur stretches out her arms and legs as far as they will go, tensing up her muscles and widening her eyes and smiling all at the same time when she gets worked up about something. I had a baseball cap on, so I hadn't seen the squirrel approach, but when I looked up to see what had caught her attention, I glimpsed him. One of the little guys we had seen when choosing our picnic spot had seen me feeding my little one and decided I must be ok. I mean, what a cool deal that he had been checking us out, watching me nurture my child, and thought "this person won't hurt me". Anyway, the result was that even after Chip and Macky (the wild child) came back over, he was very bold in coming right up near us to check out our rye bread [thanks to free bread] and taste a little tomato that had dropped on the grass. The culmination of his visit with us was when he snuck around the back of us (to avoid Wild Child) and took a piece of bread right out of my fingers. What a cool little guy. I made a motion that we christen him Daring, but Macky just said "No, I don't think so." So we left it at that.

[Sidenote: don't you know that God's creatures find us interesting? That His creation is as relational as He is? That we reflect His image, that we are supposed to be their caretakers, that we have a broken relationship with animals just as much as with one another....all of that comes home to me in times like that, and I realize that part of having a "new earth" will mean renewed interaction with God's creatures BEYOND humans as well...]

By this time, Murmur was getting tired. It was twelve, and the church bells downtown rang (bells, bells! my wild child said) so we began walking back to the car, trying to figure out our next move. Murmur moved for a nap. So with her asleep, I decided to walk the mile or so down Broadway to Soulard, while Chip and Macky drove on ahead to find a potty. I love walking. I need to remember to do it more often (like, when I'm in a funk, which is all too often....friends, countrymen, lend me your acountability, if you see me/hear me in a funk, remind me to GO FOR A WALK). After my walk, I arrived at the bursting-at-the-seams farmer's market that is Soulard. It was about 12:45 at this point, which is time that some of the vendors are cleaning up and making deals. We got 2lbs of grapes for $1, 3lbs of onions for $2 and, the high point of our trip, 25lbs of roma tomatoes for $7 (and I could have gotten twice that much for $10!).

Now you may be asking yourself, what the heck is she going to do with that many tomatoes? The answer is: no, I didn't just buy them 'cause it was such a good deal, I will be canning with my downstairs neighbor. We have been trying to be home economists and put aside spagetti sauce, canned tomatoes, peaches, and applesauce (down the road a bit) for the winter....Nothing like trying to put husbands through school, rear children, try and take some classes ourselves, etc to inspire you to....do more? But that is Jen and me.

We are home now, and I am very pleased with myself, if you can't tell. We had a marvelous morning/afternoon and I have two exhausted young girls napping (still!) since 3pm (it is now 5pm). And it's Saturday night, so you know what that means....

Here's Chip's Chicken Salad:

2 rotisserie chickens, deboned (shredded, or if you have a kitchen aid, see below)
1-2 tart apples, chopped
chopped celery (to taste)
chopped onion (to taste)
1/2 cup sunflower seeds (salted and roasted are best, then you don't have to salt it all)
1 cup raisins or halved grapes
1 cup mayo (for those of you who do not like the M word, try a little olive oil to moisten, and perhaps a little grainy mustard, which would be lovely with the grapes and apples)
Freshly ground pepper

Chip likes to throw it all into our Kitchen Aid and mix it until it is super-pulverised, making it perfect for kiddos Murmur's age to eat--and she loves it, let me tell you!).