Pickin' Strawberries

When we visited the farmer's market last weekend, we visited our strawberry farmers from Lyon Farms.   They told us that we could come on out and pick berries.  The kids and I did well today getting things checked off our list.  Breakfast- check.  Workout- check.  Homeschooling-check.  Hang clothes on the line- check.  Lunch- check.  Unload and reload dishwasher-check.  Pick-up- check.  It was gorgeous out and it just kind of came to me that we could go pick strawberries.  I ran to the dining room and yelled, "who wants to go pick strawberries?"  They all squealed and in unison yelled "I DO!"

The farm is out in the country about 25 miles from home.  It is a nice break from city life here in Durham.  The strawberry fields were full, gorgeous and green.  We just went at it and had so much fun.  After we paid for our berries, we went around to a very wooded area and a pond.  The kids were looking for frogs or toads.  We caught some last June when we were there picking blackberries.  Julian caught a frog and he let everyone hold it.  We thought it best that the little guy stayed there at the farm.  

We returned with five containers of strawberries.  We'll have some for breakfast and then make jam with the rest.  Homemade jam is the best.  I hope to go back in May and pick some more strawberries.  I love having shared this rich and happy experience with my kids today.  I hope they will hold this memory close.  

Toothless

Sweatin' Hot Days

Madelyn has this saying when she is hot, she says, "I am sweatin' hot."  Indeed she was this weekend.  We all were.  It was a warm one and we packed a lot in.  

We caved and let the kids play in the sprinkler.  

We went to the Carrboro Farmer's Market early on Saturday morning.  Jules and Kalen like picking out a cucumber to munch on.  

Madelyn used some of her money to buy a piece of vegan carrot cake and some marigolds for the garden.  

At the farmer's market they were giving tomato plants to kids that day.  We were delighted to walk away with four free plants.  The kids enjoyed picking them out and helping plant them later that afternoon.  We also picked up some addition tomato plants, including some patio cherry tomato plants.  

Scott, Kalen and Brayden hanging out while watching Julian's soccer game.  Notice Kalen and Brayden in their own jerseys.  

Here's an action shot of Julian playing defense.  

Brady helped make our pancakes this morning.  

I'm not sure what this was about, but I thought it was worth posting.  

These are my attempt to recreate something I saw at Lowe's.  They had these buckets full of veggie plants and herbs.  They were beautiful.  I used buckets we already had and filled them with potting soil and planted various herb and pepper seeds in them for our back deck.  Two of the containers have the two patio cherry plants from the farmer's market in them. I used herbs like oregano, parsley,  and dill.  I also planted some pepper seeds in a couple of the containers.  These seeds were some that Julian saved from our pepper harvest last year, like jalapeno, red and green.  I am excited to see how these do.  

Our garden to date.  We have planted a lot more since I last posted about it.  We put in over a dozen tomato plants along with eggplant, peppers, zinnias, and ocra.  

I cut up these garden beauties (red leaf lettuce and radishes) for our salad tonight.  They tasted so good!  

Brayden Going Green

Monday

Yesterday was nonstop. In short, it went from homeschooling to grocery shopping.  Then we went to soccer and ballet.  Then we did the pick ups and both soccer and ballet. Then it was time to go home for supper. The kids really didn't miss a beat. I was impressed with their ability to just roll with what comes next. Of course, the fussing comes and goes as with the setting.  With Madelyn and Julian being involved with their activities, life is different and more full of going and coming.  After neglecting to do grocery shopping all weekend, the line-up for our schedule yesterday was quite hectic.  We managed and actually did quite well.

Whenever we go grocery shopping at the Whole Foods in Chapel Hill, which is a glorious experience since they have expanded the store and there is actually room to get all my children easily down the aisle without totally being in the way of on coming shopping traffic, we always go to the thrift store right by it.  Yesterday, I had with me a few extra bucks I had made at the yard sale I was involved with while home a couple of weeks ago at Mom's.  I hadn't planned on spending it, but we each found something and it all came up to $7.  Here's my favorite find, an oriental skirt for Maddie, just her size.  I love it!

We go shopping weekly.  This is what we came home with at 3:30 pm.  We go to three different stores when we grocery shop.  We visit Harris Teeter for produce and canned veggies.  We go to Whole Foods for 365 brand items, bulk stuff, and frozen veggies and fruit.  Then it is on to Trader Joe's for breads, coffee, tofu products, nuts, spaghetti, oils, crackers, hummus and the all important and cheap wine.   

 

Madelyn had just gotten in the van as we were all rushing about to get to soccer practice and ballet on time.  Soccer starts at 5 and it was currently 4:48 pm.  I caught her touching up her face.  I love this shot.

This is just before take off.  Notice Brayden's pocketbook.  He had it stuffed with Diego, monkeys and such.  Cracks me up.

Dropping Jules off at the clubhouse just above the soccer fields.  This was about 4:58 pm.  I am not very accustomed to this drop off thing.  It is a weird feeling.  I am learning more and more how to let go and allow my kids to be independent.  

Here we are entering into the ballet school at 5:10, class starting at 5:15.  The boys are in tow and Maddie is all ready.

Madelyn and her friend, Simone.  They are the only two in their class.  We have been quite happy with the fact that these two get one on one training from Mr. Barriskill.  They have learned a lot of technique this year.  They have been at it for nine months and will have a performance in 4 weeks.

So, the boys and I walk out of the ballet school and I catch this quick picture of our two little guys.  Check out their new shirts from the thrift store.  Kalen really wanted this shirt he found.  I told him he had never been to DC, but we really want to take him soon.  I also told him that is where the president lives.  Quickly, he said, "Oh Mommy, I really want this shirt, because this is where Barack Obama lives!"  Julian and I found the green soccer jersey for Brady at the thrift store.  Brayden is crazy about soccer.  In fact, right now he has on his jersey and big yellow soccer socks that come up to his upper thighs.  So cute.  Since Brady had been wearing Kalen's jersey, we thought it would be only fitting that he have his own.  It swallows him.  The kids said he must be on the Green Lizards team.  

We go back to Julian's field, as Maddie is in class, and watch him for a bit.  I caught him scrimmaging his fellow teammates.  

He made the this shot.  I love how the sun was shining so bright that the rays were in this photo.  

The boys and I hurried off the field to zip back over to Madelyn's ballet school to get her, five miles up the road.  We successfully made both pickups on time and were headed home for supper at 6:30 pm.  The kids snuck in a little neighbor playtime in our backyard, as I prepped and cooked supper.  Karina, Desmond, and Ellie came over to play for a bit until 7:30 pm.  Then we ate and I put the kids to bed around 8:15 pm.  All the while, Scott was busy trying to wrap up his semester with classes and meetings.  He has a couple more weeks of work until he finishes his coursework.  At 8:45 pm, I loaded these photos and then went to unload the dishwasher, clean up the kid's supper and start fixing mine.  Of course, then there was the picking up that needed to be done all in between.  I cozied up in a chair with my supper around 10 pm and started watching Oprah.  I get a phone call from Scott and he is on his way home from his meeting.  Ahh . . . what a day.  

The Morrison Family Celebrating

Jan, Jerry and Shanda came to us today to celebrate our April birthday kids, Maddie and Kalen.  They gave them gifts and took us out for lunch.  It was a gorgeous day here in Durham.  We had  a lot of fun.

Brayden, Kalen and Madelyn loving on Aunt Shanda outside Weaver Street Market.

Grandpa hanging out with the kids outside with lunch.

Brayden and Grandpa sharing a sweet moment.  

Scott was not feeling well today, so his sweet sister and dad mowed his grass for him.  

LEGOS for Kalen.

Hooray!  Madelyn was given some new rollerblades!  She had been practicing with Kalen and Julian's.  She is quite good.

Aunt Shanda gave Kalen some protective gear for all of his skating adventures.

Julian and Nana shared a game of Scrabble together.  This is currently Julian's favorite game.

Kalen built this LEGO dump truck all by himself.  Great job, buddy!

The Skin You Live In

I have a book recommendation for you.  The Skin You Live In, by Michael Tyler with illustrations by David Lee Csicsko, is a rhyming picture book that can help parents and teachers tackle tough topics like differences, friendship, acceptance, self-esteem and diversity- in a fun, accessible way.  The pictures are so happy and colorful.  We went to the library this afternoon and this one caught my eye.  I enjoyed snuggling up with my kids on the couch tonight and sharing this hopeful message with them.  I love when picture books can foster change in the way a child sees the world.  

Here's an excerpt:

...So whenever you look 

at your beautiful skin, 

from your wiggling toes 

to your giggling grin… 

Think how lucky you are 

that the skin you live in, 

so beautifully holds the 

“you” who’s within. 

And like flowers in the fields 

that make wonderful views, 

when we stand side-by-side 

in our wonderful hues… 

We all make a beauty, 

so wonderfully true. 

We are special and different 

and just the same, too!

Garden Growth

Currently, this is our garden.  The only thing we are harvesting now are chives.  This spring I decided to split the garden into sections.  I did this for a couple of reasons.  One reason is I wanted to be able to walk through our garden without stepping on something and give the kids a path as well.  I also wanted to make these eight sections so next spring we can rotate around and plant veggies in places that they were not just planted in the season before.  I read that in my handy dandy gardening book.  Kalen and I put the bricks down the center.  When we moved in, we found a lot of bricks in our crawl space under our house. I thought it would be pleasing to the eye and yet another path for the kids.  

Come take a look at what we have growing.

Our lettuce is growing nicely.  This is romaine.  Looks like I need to get rid of that stray grass growing.  

Here you can see, from bottom to top, kale, red leaf lettuce and chard.  These were all started with plants we bought instead of seeds.

Just beyond the chard we have four rows of four different kinds of potatoes.  This is our first try at planting potatoes in our garden.  If you are a faithful homegrown sunshine reader, you'll remember we have harvested potatoes before, but that was from our compost.  :)

In this section, I have four rows of turnips and four rows of radishes coming up nicely from seed.  Beside this section, up and to the right, I have two sections of other veggies I have started from seed.  I planted kale, spinach and chard.  We shall see how they do.  They are coming up, just slowly.  

Here are our onions and garlic.  We planted these last fall.  The green part you see has to turn yellow and fall to the ground before they are ready.

I planted onion bulbs and they have done well.  The onions are what you see at the bottom of this photo.  My chives are there on the left side in a big bunch.  Then, around the cages Scott built and put up, you can see our snow pea plants climbing.  We grew those from seed and they have really done well.  We tried those last year, but planted them when it was already very warm.  They like it cooler.

  

Here's a better picture.  Isn't it neat how they cling to the cage. I think it is so amazing and beautiful.

My pride and I have a hard time coming out with this.  Remember all those seeds I planted and grew indoors?  I only had about 20 or so of those to turn out.  Here they are waiting to be planted.  I wish they had all done this well.  I have learned a lot about growing from seed and starting indoors.  Making mistakes and learning from them is necessary, but can be very disappointing.  Pictured here is lettuce, brussels sprouts, and parsley.

We have two whole sections that we have left unused.  These areas are for our tomatoes.  We will plant those in May, I think.  So, our garden consists of colder weather veggies.  We hoped we have planned it all out well.  When the colder weather veggies phase out, we will plant cucumbers, peppers, ocra and whatever else we find at the farmer's market this summer we want to plant.