Kalen Beat Boxing

The other day Scott and Kalen were beat boxing.  They do this from time to time.  I mentioned this before in a previous post.  It is so super cute.  Kalen is getting really good.  

They watched a clip on You Tube of a beat boxer named Felix Zenger.  In my absence, Scott filmed Kalen beat boxing after being inspired by Zenger.  

Secret Revealed

I've been keeping something from my loyal blog readers.  I can hold it in no longer.  Scott and I began foster care and adoption classes last week.  In North Carolina, MAPP (Model Approach to Partnerships in Parenting) classes are required when you are interested in starting the process of fostering or adopting foster children within the system.  As many of you know, foster children and adoption have tugged at my heart for years.  I did a lot of research for a couple of months and found that adopting from another country, or even domestically, would cost more than we have right now.  I read an article in the paper around Christmas time.  It was short and sweet.  Basically, the writer was encouraging people in our area to consider adopting children from Durham that need homes.  My heart melted and I began gathering information from our Department of Social Services.  There is minimal cost when adopting from the system.  Currently there are over 230 kids in Durham in the foster care system.  After talking with Scott about this for many months, we decided to sign up for these classes to take a step forward and see how devoted we truly are to this.  Whether we choose to foster a child or adopt one, the process is very complicated and warrants a lot of thought and consideration.  So far, the classes have been wonderful.  Our instructors/social workers present information about the process of fostering children and adopting them in a way that I can truly understand, and there is always much to grapple with.  Our classes last for 5 weeks.  We go twice a week.  In planning for this, I asked many of our Durham friends to help out with watching our four kids.  We have been so blessed to have them come to our home on Tuesdays and Thursdays to love on our children.  

Scott and I just returned from our fourth class.  My head and heart are full.  I am grateful for social workers.  I am thankful for their role in our city.  They are special people that do a tough job.  I really enjoy our classes.  They are full of everything that I wanted them to be.  The information that we are learning is challenging me.  I am extremely thankful for Scott and his willingness to support me in pursuing foster care and adoption.  He is totally on board and has affirmed me so well in my desire to find out all I can.  It is neat to have lead the way into this.  Scott has shown so much love as he has listened to my heart and heard about my passionate desire to love on a child that needs a home.   

I will keep you all posted about our experience on this journey.  I am sure there will be a lot to share along the way.  

Pool Days Begin

Thanks to our parents, we are now members of our neighborhood pool.  The pool opened on Saturday and we have gone every day since.  I have four new meteorologists in my home now.  I now get full weather reports every hour.  They really know how to butter me up as well.  Just this morning, they were extremely eager to get their chores and school work done before going.  

We have a wonderful clubhouse, tennis courts and fitness room we get to enjoy as well.  We are so thankful to have the luxury of using all these amenities.  So, you know where we will be the majority of the summer.  

I took the kids around 11:30 am today.  We stayed for about 2 hrs.  I felt really comfortable doing it by myself today.  Scott had come with me twice before.  I also got some helpful tips from my sister-in-law, Stephanie.  She takes my niece and nephew frequently to her pool in High Point.  It takes quite an effort to get to and from the pool.  Once we are there it isn't as nerve racking as I thought.  The kids are at great ages to really enjoy being there.  It helps that the shallow part is 2ft then 3ft.  I am really proud of how our kids can get around.  None of them have totally got the swimming thing yet, but I think they are close.  There for a moment, I just looked at all of them in amazement.  How did we get this far, so fast?  I am a proud mama.  Being there at the pool with them is going to be good for my relationship with my kids.  At home, it is easy to get busy with laundry, meals, emails, schooling and whatever.  At the pool, we just hang out and play.  What better togetherness could there be?  

The following pictures were taken this past Saturday.

This taken just after this . . .

Madelyn posing for me.  We got their new suits from Lands End (Sears) this year.  The swim shirts are great and totally worth getting.  They were 30% a week or so ago.  

Brayden has fallen asleep during bedtime stories each night.  Just can't hold out on these fun filled pool days.  

Tomato Cages

Scott has been in the business of making tomato cages lately.  He made some for us and had some extra cage stuff left over.  He thought he would take a chance and try selling the cages on Craig's List.  He didn't expect so many responses so soon.  He has gone back to Home Depot a couple of times to get more materials and has sold quite a few.  I am proud of him.  This is some serious labor he is putting forth for some extra cash.  Thanks Honey, you are my hero.

Recipes

A few of my faithful readers asked for these recipes, so here they are.  

Rainbow Chard

This yummy leafy green makes a wonderful side dish.  Wash the leaves, dry them,  and use them soon.  Lately, I have been cutting, washing and cooking them straight from the garden.  The leaves and stalk both can been eaten.  The multi-colored stalk has a nice celery-like crunch to it.  You can chop or leave the leaf pieces bigger.  I put them in my pan, drizzle a little water over them, as well as lemon juice, tamari (soy sauce), sea salt, pepper and olive oil.  I turn my burner on medium and only allow it to cook for about 7-9 minutes.  I do stir occasionally.  It is better when it is crunchy verses chewy.  That is it!  Super simple.

Turnip Greens

This is a new favorite for Scott and me.  You'll need the entire turnip, leaves and all.  Cut off the turnips, wash, and chop.  Put them in a large pot with olive oil and chopped garlic.  Saute those on medium until tender.  As those are cooking, wash the leaves and chop them up pretty small.  Add a dash of water to the pan of turnips and then add the greens.  Stir them well.  Add some apple cider vinegar (to your taste, not too much though), also add tamari, olive oil and pepper.  Stir well and cook them for about 10 minutes.  Enjoy my favorite southern side dish!

Madelyn's Ballet Performance

We are proud of our dancer.  Madelyn's ballet school had their spring performance last night.  Madelyn did a beautiful job.  After ten months of class, she is now taking a break for summer.  She showed great commitment and grace this whole year.  We are so thankful for Madelyn and her many talents.  

Scroll down to the bottom and you will find Madelyn's You Tube clip of her performance.  

Madelyn with her classmate and friend, Simone.

Just before the music began. 

This is right after her performance.

The bouquet awaiting our star.

Julian, Kalen, and Brayden did an amazing job waiting over two hours to see their sister perform.  

Madelyn with her teacher Michael Barriskill, artistic director and c0-founder of the ballet school.

How is my garden growing, you ask?

Wonderfully!  I couldn't be more pleased with our garden.  It has been so much fun harvesting so many tasty vegetables.  Here are a few pictures of our garden recently.

I have never grown spinach.  I have always wanted to. It is gorgeous and so good.

Here is some parsley that just keeps shooting up right next to some romaine lettuce.

More lettuce.  

I have really enjoyed our rainbow chard.  This is before I cut them off to eat for supper that night.

This is a little bit of cilantro that has exploded recently.  So flavorful and super on salads and sandwiches.

The bright green plants you see amongst the lettuces are actually volunteer tomato plants.  This is where our tomatoes were grown last year and we have had several to come back right there.  

This is our unplanned pumpkin plant growing from our compost.  :)

We went to the thrift store this past weekend and found this wonderful outdoor furniture.  After a lot of thinking it over, we decided to go for it.  It is perfect for our deck. 

Recent picture of our potatoes.

A glimpse at how our tomato plants are growing.

Our rain barrels are great for watering our garden.  

My little garden helper, Kalen, with a bunch of worms.

turnip

Harvested chard, lettuce, snow peas and spinach.

Different harvest, chard and turnips.

Did you know you can eat the green part of turnips?  

Rainbow chard just before cooking.

My first pot of of homegrown turnip greens!  They were amazing, just like I remember from my childhood.  

Vintage Dress Up Party

My Tuesday night girls got together this week and headed to a local designer's shop to have a shopping party.  Jamie Powell allowed us to come and check out all her wholesale and retail vintage clothes for women and men.  You can find Powell's stuff here at Revamp.  She had racks and racks of shirts, dresses, coats, and skirts.  She also had some vintage belts and scarves.  Jamie takes some of the vintage apparel and designs her own clothes to sell.  

Devon, Andrea, Kris, Nellie, Rebecca, Lauren and I had a ball trying on clothes, chatting and laughing.  This was serious girl time.  I think Madelyn was pretty jealous when I left that night to go out with the girls.  She couldn't believe that, as a thirty-something, I could go to a dress-up party.

I came home with three skirts.  They are totally me.  Jamie said we could come back whenever we want.  We all agreed that we definitely would.  

Devon with one of the racks of vintage dresses.

What do you think?  I liked it, but didn't go for it.  There were loops made for a belt and I am not a big belt person.  I had fun prancing around in it though. 

Devon bought this one.  We all thought it suited her.  She is an artist and mother of two.  

She can put anything together and pull it off.  

Here's Nellie in a sweet pink satin dress clearly from the 70's.

Andrea said she felt too much like Laura Ingalls in this one.  I thought she looked cute.  

Nice, right?  Ha aha ha.  I think this is one of those square dancing dresses.  So funny.

Nellie bought this gorgeous dress minus the belt.  She is very tall and the length is perfect.  She is considering cutting the bottom off (remember this is a sewing and crafty bunch).  She didn't know how much she liked the ruffle look at the bottom.  

Andrea found this cute dress and bought it.  It fit her so well.  She said all she needed now was a stewardess name tag.  She said she was going to wear some red pumps with it.  

We went half the night without noticing the box full of vintage scarves for a dollar each.  We had some fun rummaging through them.  Devon and I chose these two.  I bought Madelyn a pinkish peach one. 

Down below are the skirts I picked out.

Madelyn modeling her new scarf.