What we have been up to

I'm still doing the May decluttering challenge, I just forgot to take pictures. But I have gotten rid of a lot of stuff. I've also started the weekly health challenge by the blogger Juggling Real Food and Real Life. http://www.jugglingrealfoodandreallife.com/p/weekly-challenges.html

I'm on the first week. I wasn't sure how my morning coffee would taste without white sugar(I often joke that I like sugar with a little bit of coffee mixed in) but I made a latte using a tiny bit of maple syrup and milk and it tasted pretty good, so I think I will be able to give up the white sugar in my morning coffee fairly easily. Since I'm the only one who drinks anything but water, this first weeks challenge isn't going to be that hard.

 Lucy and Jonas have enjoyed swinging in the hammock.

 

 Lilly is counting down the days till school is out.

 

 On Mother's Day Lilly got me up at 6:30 so that we could spend more time together. It is the thought that counts.

 I finally got around to making beef jerky with my dehydrator. I don't eat jerky so I never think to make it. But other people said it tasted good, so I will probably make some more.

 

 The girls have started swimming even though the water is still pretty cold.

 

 

We made whole wheat flat bread pizzas. The green stuff is spinach from the garden. The girls both love fresh spinach on pizza. Lucy does not care for pizza sauce.

Mornings at the park

Lucy has started having speech therapy at 8 in the morning. I have started taking them to the park afterwards. It is cool that early in the morning and we have the park to ourselves.

 

 This was at the newer part of Lineberger Park. There is a real train that goes in a circle around the park, but it isn't open during the week.

 

 Jonas loves the little bouncy car. They really should have put up more than one, though.

 

 This is at the older part of Lineberger Park, the part that I used to play at when I was a child. Back then it had the most amazing playground equipment; giant metal slides, a merry go round, the coolest metal swings ever, tire swings, monkey bars, and a kiddie pool. They replaced all of those things with newer, safer, but considerable less fun stuff. And I'm not really sure this is actually more safe, just less fun.

 They were both kind of bored so we went and walked the nature trail.

 

All through the trail they have these little boxes. You push the button and it will tell you about trees. The thing is, it takes about 8-10 seconds for it to start talking once the button is pushed, so Jonas and Lucy would push the button, stand there, nothing would happen, and then get scared when it suddenly started talking.



My Garden

 My carrot harvest. This is more impressive when you realize that I didn't actually plant carrots.

 

Lucy enjoying one of the carrots.

 



Lilly liked them too. She thinks the fairies planted them.

 



My lettuce is doing really well.

 



The spinach has been doing pretty well, but since it has finally gotten warm it is starting to slow down.

 

I also have tomatoes, peas, radishes, peppers, cucumbers squash and blueberries growing. Our field also has lots of blackberries. They are just starting to make flowers, so in about a month we should be able to get all the blackberries we could ever want. 

Mother's Day

I'm very lucky that the women in my life have been wonderful examples of mothers. Especially my own mom.

 No matter how challenging we got she handled us with love. Even the especially difficult children who refused to get their picture taken.  

 

 

 She was a firm believer in sticking little girls in bonnets.

 

 Especially if they were bald.

 

 And letting kids choose their own socks.

 

She realized early on that bow ties really are cool.

 

And that people should embrace their inner hippy.

 

 This is my great-grandma. I only met her a couple of times but she and my Grandma Brown were so much alike.  

 

 My grandma Brown was a big part of my life. She could cook so well and never used a recipe. I really wish I could make cornbread like she did.

 This is my grandma Robinson. She and my grandpa sold their produce for years at the Farmer's Market.  I can't go there without thinking of her.

 

I hope I can be as good of a mother to my kids as these women were to their children.

 

Happy Mothers Day!

 

What we have been up to..

 We went to the museum.

 

 

Jonas and Lucy had so much fun and we had the whole museum to ourselves.

 

 Lilly crawled around the yard like a cat.

 

 

Rosemary was fascinated by her behavior and followed her around.

We went to the farmer's market. We ended up with cupcakes, lettuce, garlic, tomatoes, and cheese. The girls got to plant sunflowers and tomatoes to bring home. 

May Decluttering

 I have seen several other bloggers spending the month of May finding stuff to get rid of each day. Since we have way too much stuff and I need to go through the cabinets anyway, I figured I would join in. My goal is to each day find at least one thing to get rid of.                               

May 1st - lids that I don't have bowls for, a duster that the wand that went with it broke, a coffee pot I no longer use.

 

 May 2 - Some mugs and jars that I don't use.

 

  May 3 - Soy sauce packets that I have had for an unbelievable long time.

 

 

 May 4 - Random broken junk from one of my kitchen drawers.

 

 

May 5 - More random junk from a kitchen drawer.