No WAY

No way. No way! This is too hilarious. And I can still remember every single one of their names. Ohhhhhhhhh, Jordan. ♥

From my new favorite laugh-a-roo, Awkward Family Photos.com. It is just too much.

Streaming

No time for anything other than a streaming list of my thoughts...

• The garden is phenomenal this year. We are eating all kinds of things: chard, kale, spinach, lettuce, radishes, onions. I need to post a picture, because it looks like a real garden now instead of a flat patch of dirt.
• Salsify flowers are gorgeous. They are purple and open in the morning hours. As a biennial, it is a plant from last season that we are letting go to seed this year. Pictures! I need to do that.
• Our baby chicks being hatched by Mama Hen are doing fabulously. There are two now. We are SUCH greenhorns, it is outrageous. I've been so tired and busy the last month that I just read about taking care of broody hens and it turns out we should have moved her to her own space instead of setting up shop in the coop. Doh!
• They chicks are so cute, and it is fun to watch her mother them. It actually gets me a little teary. She is showing them how and what to eat and drink. They snuggle up under her breast feathers. She purrs and makes very low clucking noises to them. It is the sweetest thing ever.
• Truen has no limp at all -- one month later and he is 100% back to normal.
• Truen had a bit of nostalgia for his broken leg last weekend. He was saying, "Remember when I broke my leg?" and "Remember my cast?" and "Remember how I crawled around in my cast?" Then he insisted that we put his cast back on (tied in place with a scarf) and he wore it for more than an hour on two different days. It was pretty cute.
• Our Baby CSA is in process. We have 6 customers this summer! We originally planned on practicing on only two families, but the word spread and we had interested parties knocking down our door. The best thing about it - we have enough garden for them. Un-un-un-un.
• Diego is obsessed with bird nests and worms this spring.
• Truen had a quick, unexplainable 24-hour fever with no accompanying symptoms this week. He was lethargic and slept a lot, but had an appetite the morning of the second day. I am actually glad for it (not that I wished it to be) -- but I look at it as the flexing of his immune system. It gave the old boy some practice, and who knows -- maybe it cleaned his system out a bit.
• It is so lovely to have the leaves on the trees and birds in their nests.
• Truen heard a Mourning Dove cooing in the trees the other morning and said, "Hmmmm...that must be an owl." This kid is amazing! He is so keenly observant of his surroundings. He notices clouds moving in the sky, honey bees on clover flowers, ant hills, and wonders about the sounds birds make.
• I don't ever remember being that honed in on my surroundings. I asked Squeeze if he was, as he has always been obsessed with systems as a Rational. And he said, yes, he believes he was. Aware. In tune. Interested. It's amazing how "they are what they are" basically as soon as they come out.

A few observations

• I think radishes are the most beautiful spring vegetable. That red makes my eyes buzz.
• Why do clothes have to wear out? My favorite brown pants, of which I have two pair, of which were to replace my former pair of brown pants that wore out, are wearing out. What a pain.
• Life seems to go faster each passing year. How is that possible?
• We got a fiddler crab and I think I'm more excited about it than the kids. We are going to get him a few more to keep the old boy company. He was what you call, an impulse buy. Not a good idea when getting a pet. And guess the guilty party...? It wasn't Squeeze, that's for sure. Hee?

Workin' it

I am in the midst of planning Story Hour for both the 4-8 year olds and 9-12 year olds for the Summer Reading Program at our little library this summer. Last year, I did just the 4-8 year olds.

We will be doing two books a week. The first is water-themed with books about sharks, lobsters, otters, pirates, geese and ponds, etc. The other book will be character-based, using it as an opportunity to build the children's collection. June is Ezra Jack Keat's Peter. July is Mr. Putter and Tabby. August is Curious George. Believe it or not, but our library has NO Curious George except the spin-offs from the PBS show. Ay.

The 9-12 year olds did a puppet show based off a fairy tale last year, but the SAHD who organized it went back to work this spring. Oy. However, we did notice last summer that the older kids enjoyed being read to as much as the younger ones, so we decided to make it simple and do a Story Hour for them this year. We'll see how they like it.

Unfortunately, due to some unforseen complications I am just finishing things now...yikes. We start the first week of June. Volunteer postcards go out tomorrow.

Crook-crook-crook

One of our hens went broody last week and is sitting day and night on a clutch of eggs. She's in one of the nesting boxes in our chicken coop. Excitement!

Hopefully we'll get to see a mama hen with her baby chicks. It sounds thrilling. And I'm sure it will make me feel doubly-sorry for the little chickies we have in boxes in the garage, with no mama but a heat lamp to hover over them. It will be so interesting - we are all very pleased.

Stuck

I'm at that point of the year again where the root cellar is empty and the garden is only producing lettuce, radishes, and spinach.

I have no idea what to eat. I am like a deer in the headlights.

Going to the grocery store or having to plan into the future is unappealing - what a drag. I'd rather just have "whatever" out of the garden (or root cellar), then have to figure out what to do with it. It is so much easier.

So it's eggs, again. Mrarrrrrr!

Delish

Our household is currently head-over-heels for steamed cauliflower with butter (or olive oil) and salt.

What could be easier? I steam it whole and then we hack it up and feast. The boys, I'm not kidding, ask for seconds, thirds, and fight over the last bits. It is that amazing.

The Dirty Dozen and Clean 15

The 2010 Dirty Dozen and Clean 15 Lists are out, published by the Environmental Working Group through FoodNews.org.

The produce on the Dirty Dozen is most contaminated by pesticides - and what you should be willing to shell more out for organic. Because you're eating those chemicals, you know. The Clean 15 are the lowest in pesticides.

The Dirty Dozen:

1. Celery
2. Peaches
3. Strawberries
4. Apples
5. Blueberries
6. Nectarines
7. Bell Peppers
8. Spinach
9. Kale
10. Cherries
11. Potatoes
12. Grapes (Imported)

The Clean 15:

1. Onions
2. Avacado
3. Sweet Corn
4. Pineapple
5. Mangos
6. Sweet Peas
7. Asparagus
8. Kiwi
9. Cabbage
10. Cantaloupe
11. Watermelon
12. Grapefruit
13. Sweet Potato
14. Honeydew Melon

Though really, the best choice is locally produced food...and/or organic. We need sustainable agriculture, and at the very least, organic agriculture. Vote with your fork! Change the way food is brought to your table.

From China, Chile, and California...? Or from your state, from your farmers. Join the fight!

This must be what it feels like

ANOTHER JOURNEY

Another journey. The southern provinces,
Pennsylvania. I think also of you

in your wandering exile. What are
the differences? Perhaps only

the speed of change. A swallow here
zooms across the pond, becoming

a winter jay on the farther shore.
Snow whirls in the pass, torrential

rain drenches the cabbage fields,
the palace grounds are enshrouded

with mist. Old age and final illness
come with the swiftness of the Yangtze

flooding in springtime, or like
the quick unreeling cinematograph.


Hayden Carruth
A Summer with Tu Fu
Scrambled Eggs & Whiskey
Poems 1991-1995

First salad of the season

We ate our first garden salad of the season this evening - unusually early in Minnesota without cold frames or a greenhouse. But hey, we'll take it! Complete with different varieties of lettuce and spicy little radishes. Deluxe.

Incidentally, we also finished off our last squash from last season: butternut. What a keeper! The rest of our squashes - sunshine, buttercup, other butternuts - are long-gone. And some of the sunshines and buttercups were slightly moldy by the time we got to them mid-winter.

Butternuts are evidently superior keepers. Note to self.

I can't believe it

I just frittered away an hour doing two things:

1) Paging through the "old school" pictures of an elementary school classmate on Facebook. Not even a friend, folks - we just rode the same bus and lived in the same neighborhood. AND, I'm not even friends with her on Facebook. I accidentally bumped into her name through another persons's page. The pictures were junior high/high school, well after I had moved to an entirely different school district and town. I recognized a lot of people, though. Weird.

2) Spitting all over my computer screen chortling over this site: Awkward Family Photos. Go down to the bottom and hit "Older Posts" - that's where the good stuff is. This is the page that created the most spittle to clean up, though the cat skeleton is the weirdest. Wow.

Mishmash

• Truen got his cast off today - his little right leg was furry, scaly, and softer and smaller than his left leg. Saaaaad. But he's walking, a bit. With a limp. All in due time...
• There was a Public Hearing for our Small Town's proposed library project - and the townsfolk were 100% in favor of it. There wasn't one naysayer. Yesssssss.
• Ohhhhhh . . . perhaps I forgot to tell you? A building in town was donated to the city for the library. They are moving ahead with the application, have hired an architect, and we will be getting a new library. Not if, but when. Maybe by next spring? Less than a year and a half after we formed our Friends group! Yesssssssss - high-five!
• I stopped reading through Wendell Berry's Agrarian Essays about half-way through. It wasn't that I wasn't interested, but because the writing is so meaty and it spurred so much contemplation. As spring has picked up the speed of life, I just didn't have the time or umph to keep on. I'll pick it up again when I have the time to give it the attention it deserves.
• Meanwhile, on to something a little more easily digested - The Dirt on Clean: And Unsanitized History by Katherine Ashenburg
• I realize how hysterical this may seem to some people . . . this is my relaxing reading?? Oh, but it is! It feeds my insatiable curiosity and reads like a breeze.
• Don't you think the history of personal hygiene sounds fascinating...?

Here Come the ABCs

Diego self-initiated a spontaneous interest in drawing letters this week. (He's 4.5) We were coloring with sidewalk chalk with the cousins on Wednesday, and he drew an "X", "T" and "i".

"Look! I drew letters, Mama!" he said.

Later that night, at home, he picked out the exact same letters from our refrigerator magnets to show Squeeze what he had drawn that day. Again, all on his own, though the only letter he could verbally identify was the "T".

The next day, he drew "X", "T", "M" and "P". When I asked him what each letter was, "X" was "H", "M" was "K", "T" was correct again, and "P" was "Little D". I thought that was particularly interesting, as "P" truly is a flipped "d". I wonder if that was actually connected in his mind...? Perhaps subconsciously.

He still can't say his alphabet (I don't drill him on it), but I think I'm going to have some copy work ready for him when he is feeling inspired. We did a little bit of it yesterday and his favorite letters were "A", "I", "H", "X", "T" and "P". He tried "C" too, only it was square-ish and backwards, which he was disappointed about.

It is so fun to see the beginnings of reading readiness showing up . . . and so spontaneously, too.

Gadding about

After almost a week of gallivanting and visiting with family and friends, Diego said it best last night as he ran inside to go potty.

"I am glad to be at my house," he said, so happily. Part of the pleasure in that statement for me is that he spent a good chunk of time in woe before we left, sad to say goodbye to his "beautiful cousins".

But yes, it feels very good to be home --
Though visiting is so fun. Love it.

At Lyndi's house in St. Paul with Uncle Brent --

Schlepping across the sidewalk in his new roller skates,

Thrifted. He was so excited about them!

With Great-Grands O.,

and a Great-Aunt and Uncle,

and a Great-Great Aunt

who couldn't wait to get home to feed the cats.

Brent snuggling with Gram O.

Sidewalk chalk with some of the cousins.

Truen had me write,
"Grandpa, Grandma, I love you."

He's a cautious one

As I was reading The Marvelous Journey Through the Night aloud to Truen this morning, a book about sleepy-time dreams, a particular portion of the illustrations really stuck out to him.

He pointed to it and said, "Dat guy walking over da house! Dat's daaaaaaangerous."

So it's true: they must be born that way.

News, Part II

I forgot . . . I left something out.

• Does everyone know that one of our future goals is to operate a CSA...? Still a few years out, but definitely something we are working towards.
• With that in mind, this summer we are experimenting with two local ginea pigs: a family and an individual, both interested in subscribing to that weekly box of fresh produce, at rock-bottom prices. We need some practice and figured it was a good idea to start out small...really small. I'll be making my weekly delivery on Wednesdays: Library Day.

News from the homestead

• Our garden is half-planted (we are 18 days ahead of last year): peas, kale, cabbage, spinach, leeks, lettuce, two rows of potatoes, a new asparagus bed, etc.
• We have been harvesting parsnips and salsify that we wintered over in the ground - perfect timing, because just ran out of root-cellared carrots last month.
• We are getting around 18 eggs a day.
• The chickens are running free again, which cuts down on feed costs; and this year, Squeeze put up 3 foot chicken wire around the perimeter of our flower/herb gardens to keep them from digging (and destruction). Amazingly, this is working.
• We are going to have a "West Garden" in addition to our existing garden, now known as the "East Garden".
• West Garden = sweet corn, pumpkins, squash, watermelon, musk melon, potatoes, pole beans
• East Garden = carrots, radish, cabbage, broccoli, kale, chard, potatoes, parsnips, salsify, peppers, tomatoes, peas, bush beans, lettuce, horseradish, sunflowers, celery, okra, decorative corn, tomatillos, eggplant, leeks, onions
• We are taking back the perimeter of our property from the corn/soybean commodity crop rotation and plant it with native grasses and flowers. We took back the "Front Four" acres last growing season, which our neighbor planted with alfalfa - a three year commitment.
• Those pesky rabbits killed more of our fruit trees - a couple of apples and a plum. The snow was so high that they were able to get over the barrier and chew almost all the bark off around several saplings. Squeeze is going to encase them in chicken wire to their very tips this year: evidently, 4 feet wasn't high enough in an extra-snowy winter. Doh!

A Special Truen Update:

• He is scooting, rolling around, getting up and off of furniture, climbing stairs, crawling, doing somersaults, and going down the slide - I would say it is safe to conclude that his pain has desisted. Thankfully.
• We go into the Orthopedic Surgeon again this Thursday afternoon for a check-up. I'm sure they will do another x-ray and assess the situation. At the last check-up, they cut his cast on the side and put in a wedge to move the break to a 4 degree angle (previously healing at a 9 degree angle).
• If all goes according to the forecasted plan, Tru-babes should have his cast off in a week or so. I can. not. wait.
• Based off the stories from my 5 yo nephew, who broke his leg in the same spot in January, it may take awhile for him to ease back into walking. They said there was a lot of cramping at first and it took awhile for him to gain the strength and courage to try walking again. It makes sense . . . those muscles aren't getting used inside the cast. Our nephew is still limping in April - not because it hurts, but because his leg is weak. He was in his cast for 7 weeks, though, and his break was worse; I'm really hoping we can drop Truen's cast like a hot rock at 4 weeks. Maybe our transition will be easier? I can only hope. I want this over with.

Be My Wife

I adore David Bowie. Be My Wife is one of my favorite songs, off my favorite album, Low, cut my favorite year, 1977. And, in addition to all the other venerated things about Bowie, I really enjoy his theatrics. And pizzaz. And smarts. He's the package deal.

The title of my last post reminded me of this song for obvious reasons.

Be my wife

This afternoon, Diego cried piteously over the fact that he cannot marry me when he grows up. "But I want you to be my wife!" he wailed. "You are the most beautiful!"

The poor little guy. I remember a similar conversation very well, around the age of five, with my own father. My dad was tucking me into bed for the night and explaining why he couldn't marry me, because he already was married to my mom. I remember it boggled my mind at the time. How could I not marry my dad? He was the best!

The feelings were that of the desire to be with him, and my parents, forever. Taken care of. Safe. Loved. Not that I could have explained that then. But I can so easily remember those emotions, and the feeling of being a little scared that I couldn't marry my dad when I grew up. What else was there?

And that is exactly what Diego displayed this afternoon. "I don't want anyone else!" he bawled. "I want you!"

And you know, it makes me feel a little sad too. It is hard to remember that it won't "always be like this". Life changes gradually, and I know it is and feels normal, but trying to imagine that change now hurts.

I am reminded of the time when Diego was two months old, when I sat in our room, holding my beautiful baby, and wept miserably - grieving over the horrible truth that he would never be two months old again. So silly, I know, but my throat hurts and my eyes smart just thinking of it.

My mom has said something to the effect of, "You love them all along the way." Love grows and changes with them. I love Diego just as fiercely and affectionately as I did when he was a baby, only he is four years old now.

An earnest little four year old who wants to marry his mama.

I love him so much, it hurts. ♥

Way more demanding than usual

Just checking in to say --

Having a 2.5 year old with a broken leg is a lot like having a baby again, only this baby is enormous, cranky, and knows what he's missing out on.

He has also slipped back into long-gone nasty habits, like waking me up all night long demanding to nurse, then howling angrily when he doesn't get what he wants. Bah! It's terrible.

I should say, though, that little Truen is doing very well overall. His pain is nearly non-existent and he is starting to move around - stand, scoot, roll-over, etc. He plays with his toys with equal exuberance from his little stool next to the loveseat as if he were standing at the play-table.

That being said, I can't wait until things are back to normal.