The Farm Market

Last summer, a farm market was started in our little town.  With people in general being more aware of "buying homegrown", it seemed like a good time to try to start a market here.  Each Saturday, we take our little table and whatever vegetables might be ready from the garden and sell at the market.  Both kids, especially the 13 year-old, love to sit behind the table and greet whomever may come by our spot.

"These are spinner gourds," he'll explain "kids would play with them like a top" and then he'll demonstrate how to spin the gourd.

Just a little reading in-between customers

"We have hostas and black cherry tomatoes and chocolate covered pretzel rods".

He's such a salesman.

Actually they love going to the market.  I don't think it's just for the little bit of cash they earn for their efforts.  Honestly, they seem to enjoy going, helping, selling (ok -- and eating).

For me, it's almost like a small town gathering place, a small social event.  It's a time to visit with our "neighbors" and other people from town.  It's a nice opportunity to chat with people that we normally might only see in passing.  Oh, yeah, and a chance to pick up some fresh fruit and vegetables that we don't have in our garden.

                            Sandy makes wonderful cookies and Kris' vegetables are always beautiful

Jane Snow cooks up some stir fry with fresh vegetables from the market

This past Saturday, food writer Jane Snow came a gave a cooking demonstration using foods from the market.  She made some sauteed radishes and some vegetable stir fry.  The little girl had three samples of the stir fry.  Well, one she tried to give to her brother, but then volunteered to eat it when he declined.  Such a nice sister. 

It was a great day at the market and now I have another recipe to try that I know at least one of my kids will eat.

The Shoes

Yes, these are my son's current shoes.  Well, at least as of yesterday.  Pretty sad, I know.  I should be ashamed of myself for letting my child wear these shoes.  In public.  At school.  To dinner.  To the Indian's game.  What a bad mother I am.

Last week, when the boy stepped in a soft, muddy spot, you should've seen the look on his face.  Or, maybe the cringe on mine.  It's not that the child didn't have any other shoes.  He had another pair.  A nice, practically  new pair.  Thing is, he didn't like them.  These were some fancier "Shaq" basketball style shoes that I found on clearance.  Some deal that was.

"But my old shoes are comfortable," he would say.

"There's barely any shoe left," I told him. 

He didn't care.  So, this is what he'd wear most of the time.  Unless a parent would notice and make him wear the "Shaq" shoes.  He leaves for camp on Sunday, so these will be great shoes for camp.  If they last that long.  I had visions of the shoes completely coming apart while he's on a hike in the middle of the woods.  There would be looks of "what kind of mother sends her kid to camp with shoes like that."  So, I finally went out and found another pair of shoes.  On clearance.  Hope this pair works out better than the last ones I found on clearance.

Father's Day

After spending Friday afternoon parking cars and from 6:30 am - 5:00 cooking chicken on Saturday for the annual Seville Yard Sale, Dad requested a quiet day at home.  We helped Dad in the garden, which he seemed to appreciate and fixed a special dinner of grilled salmon, baked potatoes and grilled vegetables.  It was a nice, relaxing day, which I think we all enjoyed.

Even though we didn't celebrate in a big way, we are all so very thankful and consider ourselves so very lucky to have this wonderful person in our lives.  Happy Father's Day!

The last day of school…..

It’s the start of summer break around here.  The last day of school was Tuesday, June 8th.  It’s hard to believe that the school year is over with.  Around here, we’re glad to have a break from homework and school projects, but overall it was a good year for both of the kids.

For the fourth-grader, the last day was filled with awards presentations and the principal’s famous year-end slide show.  John happened to be around for the power point presentation and said that it must’ve contained at least a thousand pictures and took about 40 minutes to present.  The entire school was there and enjoyed the whole presentation.  Seems as though the principal really tries to get as  many pictures of as many kids as he can.  The little girl was thrilled to find herself in seven of the pictures.  The very last slide -- “THE END” – was one similar to this one from this past Halloween when Emily decided to dress up like Principal Falkenberg.

She received recognition for artwork that will hang in the school next year (it’s the cupcake picture from the Art Expo), perfect attendance, honor roll, spelling bee participation and for earning her “multi colored belt” in recorder.  She was pretty excited about that one!  -- To explain that a little, the fourth-graders started learning to play the recorder in January.  Over the last few months, they’ve been assigned songs to learn.  As they complete and perform a song, they are given a yarn “belt” to attach to the bottom of their recorder and then they move on to the next level of songs.  The fourth-grader earned every level and even had the teacher pull out more songs so she could learn those as well.  Too bad they don’t have recorder in marching band!

The seventh grader’s last day was a little less exciting, but he did earn an invite to the team’s donut party for his efforts in turning in all of his homework on time this past grading period.  Some food is all this boy needs to make his little day!

Absent for awhile…..

I’ve been absent from the blogosphere for awhile.  I’m going to try to write down some of the things that have been going on around here for the last few months (before I completely forget) and may just do this in random order.  

Hope everyone is enjoying the start of their summer!

The Sorting Hat Cake

I'm not much of a cake baker/decorator.  I've tried a few and some have turned out, some not.  There was the year that the little boy wanted a lego cake.  According to my husband, the "legos" looked like something else entirely.  Figures a man would think that.  The bowling pin cake and the tie-dyed t-shirt turned out but some others ended up looking like blobs of cake and frosting.  So, when the little girl decided she wanted a Harry Potter theme for her birthday, I wasn't quite sure what kind of cake would work with that.  She found a sorting hat cake on the internet. 

Great, just great. 

I decided I'd better give this one a trial run.  I made my own marshmallow fondant and used a variety of bowls as templates to cut the cake into different sizes.  I was pretty pleased with how this turned out.  Hope the "real" one turns out just as well.  Otherwise, I might be making a last minute trip to Dairy Queen.

Been a busy few weeks…….

It's been a busy few weeks.  We've have the usual piano, trumpet and violin lessons and J.C. Kids choir practice.  Throw in several indoor soccer games and three different school choir concerts.  There was the School Art Expo and several church meetings.  Guess it's just that time of the year.  Sometimes, it's a little bit tiring, but it's all good.

One Sunday, we took a day for a “family day”.  We headed out to Milan to see Thomas Edison’s birthplace and museum.  Along the way, we stopped for brunch at a little restaurant in downtown Norwalk.  We love finding local places to eat at when we’re out.



We had a little time before the museum opened and stopped at a local antique store.  The kids love to check out antique stores.  Not.



We enjoy checking out the homes of yesterday and hearing interesting facts of the people that have had such an impact on how we live today.



The fourth-grader has been enjoying indoor soccer.  Indoor soccer is very different from outdoor.  Besides being obviously, indoors, the ball bounces around.  A lot.  It’s almost as if the players are in a live pinball game.  There are walls, and getting the ball out from the wall can be a challenge.  All in all, she’s enjoyed playing.  There have been no practices.  The intent is to just get the girls some playing time and be ready for the outdoor season.  Practice for outdoor starts this week and I think  she’ll be ready and anxious to play outside.

 







March was “Music in our Schools Month”.  We’ve had three different evening concerts in the last three weeks.  Although one of them was really, really long (about two hours) they all were enjoyable.  The kids do a great job.



Last weekend was the district’s annual Art Expo.  The fourth-grader had a couple pieces of her artwork on display.





I’m not sure what these kids were up to.  Probably no good.



On Sunday, Grandma and Aunt Pam were here for a visit.  We had a rousing game of “Sorry” to end the visit.



So, there ended March.  Happy April, everyone!