Squeezing in a post

There is too much to say and not enough time to write a coherent post, so I defer to the list-post.

• We had another huge green salad for lunch today, topped with tuna, sunflower seeds, raisins, radishes, shredded cheese and olive oil with balsamic vinegar.  It was scrumptious.  I am endlessly pleased that my boys eat this without batting an eyelash.
• I bought two quarts of strawberries from the farmers' market in Big Town, SD yesterday.  We ate sliced strawberries with breakfast, made strawberry-banana creamsicles this afternoon, and will have strawberry shortcake this evening for dessert.  Though actually . . . it will be shortbread.  Same-diff.?  Not sure, but it is gonna be awesome.
• Eating our strawberries this morning I pondered on the idea of eating seasonally and came upon something.  I realized that I don't mind eating strawberries just during June, or tomatoes in August and September alone, because there are so many other wonderful treats rotating throughout the year.  Citrus and soups in the winter months.  Apples in the fall.  Asparagus and spinach every spring.  What a rich cyclical bounty!
• Of course, we are eating home preserved and processed foods throughout the year as well, but there is something very special about eating fresh food in season.  I never would have known.  I'm so glad to have conditioned myself to this way of eating.  It is so much more of a thrill.  Honestly.
• We've been eating another seasonal treat recently as well: ice cream.  We have the ice cream attachment for our KitchenAid stand mixer (oh my goodness, if you have the mixer, buy the ice cream attachment).  Oh my, but what lovely delights that can be made with that little beauty!  And no filler.  Just cream, egg yolks, maple syrup, vanilla.  Yo.
• Our little Jamie.  What a cutie.  His new words are "Go!", "Hi", "Cheese" and he even said Grandma when prompted last week, though I can't remember how it went.  He likes it when I say, "One - Two - Three - Gooooo!" and joins me on the "Gooooo!", sliding down the slide or whatever other magnificent feat he's performing.  It's adorable.
• Speaking of the little bugger, I've added peeing on the potty right before bed to his potty-training regimen.  Every morning and every night, I sit him down and ask him to potty.  He almost always does.
• Two weeks ago, I noticed that his little hands were so dry that his thumbs were cracking.  Ugh!  It was terrible.  He squeezed a kumquat and cried and cried because it stung so horribly.  I started giving him cod liver oil in what we have now started calling "chewy pills" (AKA softgels) and they are healing nicely.  I tried giving him cod liver oil from this spoon this past winter, but he spit it out on to his shirt and peeeee-uewy, but that will stink for untold amounts of time. 
• I learned that trick from dealing with my own poor cracked thumb in the winter months.  Starting the year after Diego was born, my right thumb started cracking along the right-side of my nail line and nothing I did would heal it: lotion, ointment, band-aids, whatever.  It would heal up and crack right open again.  Oy, it hurt.  Enter cod liver oil, and *poof* gone.  It has threatened to come back in recent winters, but I amp up on the CLO and it disappears.

The baby awakes.  Much love.