coming soon...Official BluegrassMom blogger

Dear Potential Future Employer of My Children:

If you are reading this blog because you are trying to find out if my children are going to be good employees of your company, shame on you.  If, for example, you think my 12-year old son (who shall remain nameless in this particular post) would be unsuitable for employment because he once combed his hair with a salad fork OR thought a ball-point pen would work well as a first line of defense if facing down a wolf than perhaps my son ought not to work for you.

Sincerely,
Gwennie

P.S. If you are reading this blog because you just like being at home with us in the Bluegrass, we probably like you too. 

And, to those dear readers, guess what!  I'm going to be an official Herald-Leader (Kentucky.com) BluegrassMom Blogger.  Okay, some of you know that already because you know me in real life and I told you, but, I hope you won't mind that I'm selling out to be perhaps read by a larger audience.  Who knows!  Chances are it will still be the same 6 people who are reading this at the moment.  A girl can dream though (and in that dream Jennifer Aniston plays me in the movie).  Anyway, I hope the new readers don't mind that I don't always blog about parenting except that I'm ALWAYS a parent so therefore everything I write is about being a mom, right? 

And, to the person who declared that my children were going to HATE me (LOL...you know who you are), MR is cool with the new audience -- she read a few posts and didn't think it was too embarrassing.  Pfshew...I was little bit worried about that but I figured if she liked "Bike Lexington" all would be well. She did.  

Oh, and about the above letter to my children's future employers. I read an article recently about all the digital impressions of our children that were flying around the Internet these days--kids with their own domain names, baby photos on Facebook pages and blogs, et cetera.  The article claims that one day employers would be using this info to find out background info on potential employees  judging that if they were late potty trainers they might be "slow".  So, I just want to be perfectly clear, right now and forever more, that I firmly believe that the goofy things children do should not be held against them by anyone -- future employers OR voters  -- with the exception of their siblings who may tease them until the end of time about things they did as a kid.

Have I ever told you about when my brother pistol-whipped me after watching Wild Wild West?

Mr. Bones says...

Boo!

Time to get the skeletons out of your closet and onto the front door!!

Table manners..

True story from the Mathews' house: last night our wonderful new priest and her son had dinner with us.  During dinner, Will picks up his salad fork and starts combing his hair with it. 

I guess it's something to do with your salad fork when you hate salad.  If only he were 2 and not 12. 

(We all thought tt was pretty funny, but don't tell him I said that.) 



These are pretty ballet girls after going to see Lexington Ballet's
"The Haunted" on Saturday night.  These girls always have charming
manners and never confuse their salad forks with their hair brushes.



Off to the races...

I wish there were some ugly horses.  It might help
narrow down the betting choices.

Yesterday was the most beautiful of Kentucky autumn days that you can imagine.  And, lucky girl that I am, I spent my day at Keeneland as the guest of some very nice people who invited us to a party in their corporate box.  If you've never been in a corporate box at Keeneland, it's pretty swell.  There's really great food (yesterday some amazing sesame-crusted ahi tuna), delicious cocktails (nothing beats a Keeneland bloody Mary), great views of the track, and engaging company!  It's especially nice if you are at Keeneland and it's not the most beautiful Fall day in the history of Fall days.

I love betting on horses  and hearing everybody's different take on their horse of choice for a race.  Many people just bet the handicappers favorite listed in the front of the program -- almost fail safe but not nearly as fun as the strategies I typically use throughout a day to achieve betting success:  eyes closed - finger pointing, choosing the high pay-out long shot, betting on grey horses, or my favorite -- just choosing the one whose name I like best.   Yep, it's pretty scientific.  After I lose about $6 when the aforementioned techniques don't work, I forget the horses and just bet my favorite jockeys. Yesterday's winnings using the jockey technique? $3.60 which is just about enough for a pumpkin spice latte at Starbuck's.

End of the harvest

Remember last spring when I made all of those hopeful statements of what a great garden I was going to have this year? How I was going to compoast, blah blah blah. 

Here are the pictures that sum up the bounty of my harvest.   I grew a few peppers.  In total, there were four and one more still clings to the vine and a handful of cherry tomatoes.  There were a few big tomatoes, too, but hardly worth the effort it took to water them.  There wasn't any effort to plant them as my mother did it for me.

I think I'd better keep my day job and hope that I never reach a point where I have to grow all of my own food.  The Mathews family will be pretty hungry!

   

Voila...Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

The really yummy, even if you think you don't like pumpkin* Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffin Recipe

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp baking powder

1 cup sugar
1tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp nutmeg

1 stick butter (melted -- real butter, of course)
2 eggs
1 cup canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling -- just plain pumpkin)

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (Will and MR encourage more chocolate chips)

1/2 cup dried cranberries

Whisk together wet ingredients (butter, eggs, pumpkin) in one bowl then add chips and craisins and blend together stirring well.  Mix together flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar and spices in a separate bowl.  Gently fold in pumpkin mixture just until dry ingredients are moistened -- be careful not to overmix.

Spoon into greased muffin tins. 

Bake at 350 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes.

Makes about a dozen regular-sized muffins.

*Disclaimer: Marc does not like pumpkin OR these muffins so the title isn't quite true.  A lot of other pumpkin dislikers like it though.  Me, I like pumpkin.  I thought I didn't like pumpkin for a long time but I was young and stupid.  Now, I know better.  Pumpkin...good and good for you!

The Cathedral Writing Group

Writing is good for you.  I promise  It's something anyone can do and something everyone should do. 

I'm a huge fan of daily writing, not that I accomplish writing every single day, but I do believe it's a powerful means to knowing yourself better and understanding your story.  We all have a story to tell and we all tell our stories differently every time we tell them.  Knowing our own story can help us relate to other people and see the mysterious ways that God works in our lives.   Personally, I find it's an important part of my prayer life as well.  When life feels like it's spiraling out of control (and frankly when doesn't it!), I find writing brings the same kind of peace and balance to life that I get from running.

This Fall, after much deliberation and prodding from my friend Elizabeth who is the Minister of Christian Formation at Christ Church Cathedral, I am leading a writing group that meets on Thursdays at 12:15.  It's an open group with folks who make it in when they can armed with their pens and journals, I don't "teach" writing, I merely facilitate and I send group members a daily prompt (except Sunday) via email.  During our meetings at the Cathedral, we do a variety of exercises to explore writing and talk about what we find in our writing. 

While we don't use a particular text, Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg is probably my favorite writer who writes about writing.  I like Julia Cameron an awful lot too, author of  The Right to Write and The Artist's Way. 

If you'd like to be a part of the Cathedral Writing Group, let me know!  You can also be a virtual member and I'd be happy to send you our daily writing prompt. 

Top of the Muffin to you...

Remember that Seinfeld episode?  Brilliant, but then again, weren't they all? 

Oh happy times when the morning starts with pumpkin chocolate chip muffins.  Thank goodness the great pumpkin shortage of 2009 is over and a bountiful pumpkin harvest is at hand.  I have been checking the baking aisle at the grocery for months looking for my canned pumpkin and the empty "pumpkin" space is finally full!  Can you believe there was actually a crowd of us?  Well, two of us!  My larder formerly known as the pantry (had a nice appointment with a British client last week who showed me her "larder") is now full of pumpkin!  Six cans.  Just in case they run out again before my pumpkin tooth is satisfied.  I just couldn't stop myself from stocking up. 

Let me know if you want the recipe.  They are really yummy!

Race for the Cure

WEG...gone for a whole week as of today.  I still want to talk about it.  That and I have 100s of random pictures of horses doing reining, dressage, driving and dashing across road that I have no idea what to do with now.  Want to see them?

We're getting on with life here though.  Yesterday, was one of our favorite annual Fall events:  The Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure.  I ended up as the mom alone with a pack of ballet girls and a couple of boys at the race who ALL abandoned me as soon as we got to the festivities. After the race started we all managed to catch up with each other.  I ran the whole way, some of the girls took a short-cut (yeah Sarah for your fabulous run -- if ballet doesn't work out I think you might have a cross-country future) and the boys claimed to have not taken any shortcuts but somehow ended up beating me across the finish line anyway and I ran the whole way.  Hmmmm...They did claim to be highly motivated by the free stuff available at the end of the race.

Longing for excitement

One of the Double Dans demonstrating that you can
train your horse in the comfort of your living room.

When I drove to ballet last night, it was so quiet.  I miss the world and the odd things they do with their horses. 

At least, I  have the Race for the Cure to look forward to!

Good-bye World

Dear World,
Thank you so much for coming to Lexington for the World Equestrian Games.  Thank you for spending so many fun-filled weeks here, bringing your gorgeous horses and making Lexington the coolest place to be on the planet!  It was a great time. 



Driving World Championship

 Thank you, as well, for telling us how nice we Kentuckians are and how genuine that nice-ness was.  I think you are certainly nice, too, for noticing and for saying so over and over again!  You were a lot of fun and reminded me that I live in one of the most beautiful places in the U.S.  If you hadn't been here, I probably wouldn't have ridden my bike out Legacy Trail four times (!) or even gone to the Horse Park once before the end of the year, much less 6 times in two weeks. 

When you told us you were going to come visit four years ago, I never really believed that World Equestrian Games would live up to the hype.  In actuality, you vastly exceeded every expectation I had.

Again, World, thank you for coming.  I hope you have safe travels home and will come back to see us again soon.  We'll miss you!

With Best wishes,
Gwen

Indian Stairway

My minions

 


Queens of the Hill!





Spider Monkey demonstrating his beast climbing skills on the Indian Stairway



"I get up with a little help from my friends"...MR helps Christina overcome a slight fear of heights



Are y'all coming up?



This picture makes me think, "Yeah!"



My butt's not actually THAT big...it's just my fanny pack.



We found the Flintstone's Living Room!!  The latest in pre-historic furniture design!

Pretty....

Frog's Head.  So...we were amazed as we were told we'd go past a formation that looked like a Frog's head.  Wow...

Still happy.  The point we climbed up from was to the right of the photo and we hiked around the ridge.  We went past several rock houses we climbed down to (Flintstone's Living room) and then climbed back up to the ridge.

You can barely see the Frog Head across the ridge top in this photo.  Sadly, people had carved their initials and other unsavory things on his little head.  Bad vandals...

Adena Arch

Huh...well it turns out I hadn't ever been to the trail called Indian Stairway!  I think where I had been before was actually a place called "Cloudsplitter".  While I have a bit of a  tendency to live in the moment and think that whatever thing I'm doing, book I'm reading, Christmas tree I'm decorating, is the best ever, I think that Indian Stairway, might just be THE BEST TRAIL EVER (in the Gorge at least...thanks for pointing that out yesterday Will...we have hiked cooler trails out West -- that would actually be in the Virgin River in Zion Canyon, Utah!!)  Anyway...where was I...Indian Stairway, perhaps one of the best trails in the Gorge?  It definitely is at the top of the list and Mary Rollins said it was the best trail she'd ever hiked there!

I've heard about Indian Stairway for years but never hiked it because I couldn't figure out where it was.  It's not an "official" trail and I sometimes tend toward disorientation so I've hiked multiple other trails instead of the trail I'm looking for when my minions start to get irritated with my losted-ness.  But, yesterday, we struck gold and I found some awesome directions on the Internet which I copied and pasted into an email I sent to myself so we could keep looking at them in the phone while hiking  I was feeling pretty clever and while I suppose I could have printed them I'm trying to be paper conscious.  Also, I made sure that I had the message downloaded in my phone BEFORE we got out of cell phone coverage which happens pretty quickly in eastern Kentucky.

We did have a few "lost" moments even with the great directions and my iPhone compass and we only nearly took one wrong turn off a cliff (my bad...MR was leading the way and I was trusting her sense of direction as it's usually spot on!) and we found many many geological jewels along the way.  Will and Wyatt said they saw a wolf/coyote (MR sand I suspect it was a squirrel--it is easy to confuse them) and asked me for his pocket knife I was carrying to defend themselves.  Sadly, I could not find it in my bag at that very moment, so I gave him a ball point pen I was carrying.  The boys seemed quite pleased with that as a weapon and scampered ahead on the trail while Christina, MR and I went back for a fanny pack inadvertently left at the bottom of the Indian Stairway.  We made a loop hiking the ridge top with GORGEous views, hiked along a section of the trail that had us on the cliff's edge -- definitely not a trail for small children -- and ultimately ended up back on the Sheltowee Trail and back to our car.  In all, I suspect we hiked about 6 miles.

And a good time was had by all (except Will who claims he'll never go hiking with me again because I don't do what he says...)

"Tent City" behind Miguel's.

And, to end the day:  Miguel's pizza.  Hooray!!  We saw license plates from: Utah, California, Ontario, Indiana, Illinois, North Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Ohio and Connecticut.

Hooray for Fall Break!!



Destination Lunch...



Fall Break....fall break...fall break!!!!  I have four children upstairs sleeping in on a Wednesday that I shall soon roust from bed, feed some pumpkin chocolate chip muffins and force to go hiking in the Gorge today.  Yippee!!!   We're going to hunt for an "unofficial" trail called Indian Staircase that I haven't hiked since 1994.  There's a good chance we'll be hiking a different trail as my map-reading skills aren't always the best.  Probably it's a good thing, I have GPS in my car...

Technically, it's a "WEG Break", but we're making it a Gorge Break today (We'll be back out at the Games on Friday and Sunday).  And, if everybody's really nice and doesn't fall off any cliffs today we're going to Miguel's Pizza for lunch in Slade.  Miguel's is a super kooky little restaurant/climber rendez-vous joint with cars from all over the Northern Hemisphere in the parking lot.  I love just walking around checking out all the license plates.  Most of the time there are more out-of-state plates than in-state, with travellers coming from all over to climb and hike the Gorge. 

Four-legged celebrity alert

FYI...the horse that starred in Hidalgo as well as the horse that stars in Secretariat and Dreamer were both in town yesterday for the World Equestrian games.  They were here for some horse training demos at the Convention Center held in conjunction with WEG.  A friend of mine saw them yesterday. 
(And, he also bought a memory foam saddlepad for his horse.  Wow, that is one lucky horse -- a tempurpedic saddlepad.  Talk about things coming a long way.)

I wonder if celebrity movie star horses have special requests like no brown M & Ms...

Hello Fall...It's nice to see you again...

Pumpkin Picking 2004...just a little blast from the past

It must be Fall.  Yesterday, I wore a coat the entire day.  Even inside on two listing appointments and a home inspection.  I couldn't seem to warm up which seemed ironic because it was so chilly and dark at 6 am here that I ran on the treadmill for the first time in months and couldn't cool down for more than an hour afterwards.  But, I guess once I did cool down that was that.  This morning, I just came upstairs to write for a bit and I can smell the furnace which we turned on yesterday.  When MR came home from school yesterday, she even said, "oooooh, I love that smell when we first turn on the furnace in the Fall!"    It is certainly a scent that they haven't made into a potpourri yet.  Maybe we could and name it, "Fall Furnace". Or, maybe our duct work needs cleaning.

I probably spend too much time inside my head debating my favorite season.  I like them all no question -- one of the best parts of Kentucky is having four seasons but the real choice is always between Fall and Spring.  At this moment though, even with our trees a little too dry for the glorious autumn colors they normally achieve, I think Fall wins.  Boots, football, leaf raking, pumpkins, Halloween, sweaters, the beginning of Nutcracker season...

Of course, remind me of that next Spring when I am extolling the beauty of daffodils and looking back through pictures of Spring Break and Easter Egg Hunts.

In the meantime, I'm going to go make some pumpkin muffins and see what happened yesterday at the World Equestrian Games.  What's your favorite part of Fall?

Secretariat, the movie...



 As if Lexington weren't exciting enough, this photo that looks like an empty street is the closed street for the world premiere of Secretariat! The showing is at our own Kentucky Theater and Diane Lane herself is in attendance!! Unfortunately, I was not invited nor could I afford to buy my way in! Oh well, I had to pick Mary Rollins up from youth group at church so at least I got to see the closed street. 

Much of the movie was filmed in Lexington. We've seen the trailer with lots of great shots of Keeneland and Spindletop!  I can't wait to go see it.  I was only seven years old when Secretariat won the Triple Crown in 1973 but I still remember the day he won the Kentucky Derby.  My dad had Secretariat in our family Derby pool and fell of a ladder the same day.  I remember it was a lucky/unlucky day for him.  I also remember going out to Claiborne Farm as a girl to see Big Red in retirement.  Probably (if my parents could find any of their photos), I have a picture with him. 

Now that might make it worthwhile looking through my parents' basement! 

Spotlight Lexington

Happy Saturday.  I have a house full of guests!  Again!  Love it!  Some of whom came for WEG, some of whom came for a sleepover, and some just using us as way station while driving to Florida (but they're going to go to WEG while they are here).  Marc went out early and we have a huge box of carbs for our guests from Magee's Bakery -- my favorite including almond croissants!--and reported in that Magee's was full of Europeans.  Some Frenchies were standing at the counter holding a giant cinnamon bun while rapidly speaking French.  I wondered if they were questioning the quality of American pastry but he thinks they were yammering that "no wonder Americans are so freaking fat!!  Look at the size of this thing!"

Laura Bell Bundy at Spotlight Lexington in very short dress

Here's a picture from our great adventure last night.  As part of the World Equestrian Games, Lexington is hosting Spotlight on Lexington -- a festival of art and music.  We've had some great talent in town and last night we just had to go see Laura Bell Bundy (Broadway star -- Hairspray, Legally Blonde -- turned country music wannabe star).  There was a great crowd and the critical review of Laura Bell Bundy from my party of girls was that her dress was really short and they wished she were singing Broadway Show tunes.  Okay, really. that was just Mary Rollins and me wishing for Broadway show tunes.  After all, why would you want to be anything but a Broadway star?   For Seth Rudetsky fans (you know who you are) we think she's a head singer.

All in all, it was fun!  We stayed for three of her songs, pet the mounted police horses, MR's BFF stepped in some horse manure that was in the street -- one of the downsides of being "The Horse Capitol of the World", and went home to our little abode. 

Have I mentioned that anyone who lives within a day's driving distance to Lexington and doesn't come for the World Equestrian Games is missing the opportunity of a lifetime? 

The World Equestrian Games -- Day 6?

I know, it's Friday and you've been dying for a new blog post all week and been wondering why the heck I haven't written anything.  Who would've imagined that I would have been out at the World Equestrian Games almost everyday (except Monday which was raining but a really fun day anyway -- saving that for another post).

These aren't our actual bikes, however, we \
did ride bikes out there.  THREE TIMES!!

I think I'm officially a WEG addict.  My beloved sister (aka Mere) from SC has been in town since last Friday night (and we had Isabug here over the weekend too and are now missing her soooo much) and after the kids leave for school, we keep finding ourselves at the World Equestrian Games.  Tuesday, it started as a morning bike ride activity on the new Legacy Trail.  The next thing you know, there we are credit cards in hand at the Horse Park gates buying our $25 grounds passes to the park.  It was only 10 a.m. and it did seem like a shame to ride our bikes all the way out there and not actually go in.



Pretty horses...

 Wednesday, we're back again.  This time with tickets to Grand Prix Dressage courtesy of my mom and dad who wanted to take advantage of the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to go to the World Equestrian games.  They so nicely told me to buy tickets to any event that we wanted to go to for both of my sisters and for them.  (Silly me, I should have bought the $600 tickets to the Maker's Mark Pavilion).  Dressage looked to be at the best time for our schedule and it was fantastic to watch.  In retrospect, it was the perfect contrast to the Reining Championships we went to over the weekend! 

The California Cowgirls...their show is AWESOME!

Before we even left on Wednesday, we already decided to give in to the draw of the Games and come back on Thursday.  Maybe it was the opportunity to see the California Cowgirls.  Or, the Double Dans.  There's just so much to do and so much to see.  It's absolutely irresistible!