I’m not usually one to get excited about sales online and especially not in stores, but earlier this week I was putting together a very short list of things I might need for fall and winter (a rain jacket, a hat) and realized that Gap was having a pretty awesome sale. Watching Sophie grow so rapidly these past 9 months has me pretty much refusing to pay full-price for any of her clothes, so I decided to buy a few things for her own little fall and winter wardrobe! Now I’m even more excited about autumn’s arrival and daydreaming about what she might wear for her birthday and Thanksgiving.

There’s tons of stuff on sale (I have my eye on these joggers), I just went a little crazy on the baby stuff. Here’s what I got for Sophie (and a couple of things I wish I had grabbed…although there’s still time):

• The hat that started it all—I kept thinking it would be so cute to get Sophie a pom pom hat for the winter and this is the one I got.

• I ordered three of these little onesies: the polka dot one you see below, a striped one, and a really pretty yellow color that I loved.

• I didn’t get this dress because they don’t have the size we need but holy cow did I love it. If one of you has a younger baby please get it and send me a picture so I can live vicariously through you.

• Sweet little denim joggers. I mean, come on.

• Sophie has a pair of lighter overalls that she wore this summer, but I love these darker ones for fall and winter (probably paired with one of the long-sleeved onesies!).

• Another hat—this one I found after I placed my order and am wondering if it’s worth ordering on its own and paying for shipping. What do you think?

The sale goes through the 15th, just make sure to use the code COZY at checkout! Like I said, I don’t usually post about sales like this but I texted enough friends about it that I figured I might as well share on the blog, too!

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I personally think the best kinds of recipes are the ones you throw together without a plan and then realize it’s so good that you have to write it down so you remember how to make it again, and that’s what this is! I’m a huge fan of a delicious, slow-simmered meat sauce on spaghetti or zucchini noodles (or over rice, or with a fried egg, or some greens…really I’ll put meat sauce on or under anything), but sometimes I don’t have the time, energy, or ingredients to make it happen.

This “sauce” has like 6 ingredients and took me 20 minutes to whip up. I spiralized a couple big zucchini and tossed the noodles in a skillet, threw them in a couple bowls, and topped it with my quick meat sauce and some fresh herbs from my patio. It was a quick, easy, and delicious Monday night dinner when I otherwise might have ordered takeout.

Ingredients:

• 2 large zucchini, spiralized

• 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil

• 3/4 of a white onion, diced

• 2 cloves of garlic, minced

• 1 pound of ground beef

• 1 1/2 tablespoons of tomato paste

• About 1/2 cup of water or broth (chicken, beef, or veggie would work)

• A handful of cherry tomatoes, if you’ve got ‘em

• A couple tablespoons of chopped green onion and fresh basil (optional but recommended)

• Salt and pepper, to taste

• Parmesan cheese for topping (optional but also recommended)

Instructions:

1. In a large pan, heat olive oil and sauté onion over medium heat. Cook for 4-5 minutes and add the garlic. Season with salt and pepper. (While that’s going on you can salt your zoodles—I recommend putting them in a colander and letting them sit with a generous amount of salt on them for at least 10 minutes.)

2. Add the beef and cook until browned, using a wooden spoon to break beef apart into smaller chunks. Raise heat slightly and cook for 2-3 minutes. Pour the water in and add tomato paste, stirring well to combine until smooth.

3. Add about half of the green onion and basil. Toss in the cherry tomatoes and allow them to cook until some of them start to wilt or burst. Season everything with salt and pepper. Remove from pan and set aside.

4. Rinse the zucchini noodles and add to the pan. Cook over medium heat for 5-7 minutes, or until cooked to your liking (I prefer mine a bit on the underdone side so they’re still nice and crunchy).

5. Transfer zoodles to bowls, top with sauce, and finish with some Parmesan cheese and the remaining green onion and basil. Serve immediately.

Like I mentioned earlier, you could serve this with regular pasta, stir it into rice, or even eat it plain (which is what I did for breakfast yesterday)—it’s pretty chunky so it’s not soupy or super saucy to eat on its own.

This morning I woke up early, after a night of nursing and infant Tylenol and rocking a teething baby. Usually if Sophie wakes up early I'll change her, feed her, and put her back down and we all sleep another hour or two, but today I felt simultaneously restless and well-rested, so going back to sleep felt risky--I really hate trying to sneak in an early morning nap and waking up feeling worse than I did when I was awake earlier.

We've been leaving Ender out at night instead of putting him in his crate, and when I returned to our bedroom he had snuck in from across the hall and curled up into my warm spot in the bed. He was sleeping with his eyes tight so shut, a thing he does when he feels like he can finally relax. "The baby's not crying, dad's right here next to me, mom is back...ahhhh"--I can practically hear it in the voice we do for him.

He is definitely not getting as much exercise as he needs these days. We hired a dog walker a few times a week which helps, but I have this annoying thing where I feel like I should be able to do it all. Sophie is getting too big to wear while I walk him and I haven't mastered the leash and stroller combination yet, so if it doesn't happen before she wakes up or after she goes to bed, he and I don't usually go on walks together anymore, which makes me sad--that used to really be our thing.

So I leashed him up, put on a sweater, and snuck out of a sleepy house with my dog--into the quiet, early morning; sun still not quite up yet, cars still in the driveways, misty haze hovering, chilly air fragrant with eucalyptus.

We moved into a new house two months ago, and even though it's only a mile away from the other one, the entire vibe is different. Orange trees along the sidewalks have been traded for figs and apples, and I always walk Ender down a long road that's lined with eucalyptus trees--a plant with a look and scent that bring me back to being a kid in Half Moon Bay for chilly summers with my aunts, uncles, and cousins. Sometimes you can't smell them very well, but when the air is cold and wet (the way it so often is in the late summer and early fall here in the Bay Area), you can't ignore it.

I pulled my sweater closer around me and started thinking about how two years ago we were on the road, leaving hot and muggy North Carolina and passing through Tennessee, Alabama, and Kansas, before waking up in chilly Colorado on the first day of autumn, then continuing on through Utah, bundling up for another early morning walk in 40-degree Lake Tahoe, and finally arriving in Silicon Valley. It was such an adventure, just me and Rob and Ender. It literally felt like we were traveling toward our new life and a new season, as every state got chillier and chillier and we rearranged our luggage, trading our shorts for sweaters.

And now Sophie is here, our next great adventure, and I'm beside myself with excitement and a little nostalgia as her first autumn approaches along with her first birthday. Life in California is so new to us still sometimes, but I have childhood memories here that run deep.

I can already picture her toddling around with a little pom-pom hat on her strawberry blonde head--riding a train on a farm, reaching out her tiny hand at a petting zoo, picking out a pumpkin in Half Moon Bay on a late September afternoon; feeling that coastal breeze on her little face and smelling the eucalyptus in the air like I did before her for years and years and years.