insider at the farmers market

Every household has it popular sayings, phrases and buzz words. For us, no thanks to me, one of these for our family is farmers market.


Even Elias, who is two-and-a-half, talks of the faw-moos mah-kit quite often, asking if we will be visiting the vendors on any given day. I think he enjoys it almost as much as I do!

I had the privilege and pleasure today of being part of the farmers market as in insider and not just a customer. As part of my role as Nutrition Educator for this amazing program that I work for part-time, I am also often asked to plan outreach events. Talking to people about food- how we choose it, prepare and and offer it to our families- is one of my favorite things to do.

To say that I was giddy over my latest project would be an understatement. I was tickled pink, ecstatic and over-the-moon excited about being asked to plan the outreach event for the last farmers market of the season today.

I chose a topic that is such a passion of mine and it was so fitting for the event today. It was

Saying Farewell to the Farmers Market:

How to eat locally and nutritiously during the winter months even after the farmers market is closed.

Topics such as yummy dishes using winter vegetables, storing pumpkins and squash, supporting restaurants and supermarkets that buy from local farmers and even a recipe for homemade fruit leather were on the "menu" for today.

Okay, okay. Maybe this isn't as exciting for the rest of you as it is for me. But this is my kind of thing and I was so happy to have to opportunity to share with others in the community about all of the wonderfully inspiring information and evidence that I have been storing up inside of me for quite sometime from here and here and here.

If anything, it gave me an outlet for my thoughts and ideas so that my children don't have to listen to their mother talk daily about the importance of eating fresh locally grown produce, dairy and meat versus the food-like-substances that fill the aisles of our grocery stores.

Yeah, I think my kids will be really glad that I had this day.

{Oh, and don't think I left there empty-handed. I left the farmers market with a box full of fruits and vegetables that I have big plans for over the weekend! Yes, a box.

nostalgia

I was feeling nostalgic today, so I scanned a pile of old photos that I recently acquired from a family member onto my computer. Seeing them on the screen has really brought them to life and has brought up so many emotions and memories.

{my family, circa 1982- Seth on Mom's lap, me on Dad's lap and Bethany in rocking chair}

It's amazing how many similarities there are between my family growing up and the family that Mike and I have grown into. Like my parents, we have three children spaced roughly two years apart and we are living in Connecticut in a small space with lots of energy, creativity, music and love flowing through our home.

But then there are the things that really separate our experiences, mainly, the world around us and the expectations that society is currently placing on families like ours.

It just seemed like simpler times back then and my mom will vouch for this. She is always saying to me, "We never had to worry about (you fill in the blank) back then. Nobody cared about that sort of thing."

You can fill in that blank with so, so many ideals, images and mandates that so many people in our society are striving towards with each and every breath they take.

Anything and everything from

worrying about creating "well-rounded children",
making our children's social lives a priority over our own,
giving our kids an edge with early preschool,
trying hard to "balance" all three meals and snacks with equal amount of plant/protein/carb/fat, worrying about what our front lawn looked like,
caring enough to decorate the outside of our house for every major and minor holiday,
caring if our kids only "did" one sport/club/dance class and not asking other people about how many sport/club/dance classes their kids were taking,
car seats,
bike helmets,
too much TV time,
eating candy,
riding bikes outside at dusk,
putting children before a marriage,
trying to make every weekend into some spectacular experience/memory,
feeling guilty because we are not scrapbooking each of our children's entire lives,
worrying that we are not reading aloud enough to each child or spending enough alone time with each child,
spending hundreds of dollars on a child for his/her birthday,
making sure our kids are dressed well
trying to make our homes look images seen in magazines
and worrying that we, as mom look as if we are "balancing" all of this and more.

{my sister and I at home, circa 1983}

Don't get me wrong. Some of these new-fangled ideas and ideals are actually beneficial to the well-being of children and families. Like safety rules about needing to ride in a booster seat or wearing a bike helmet while cruising your neighborhood streets.

But then there are the others. The burdens that we attempt to carry in the name of trying to be a "good parent". Often these loads are so heavy and so impossible to carry that our knees buckle under the weight of them before we can even come close to the finish line of that particular rat race.

{my mom, sister and I in Cape Cod, circa 1980}

I wonder why so many of us are choosing to accept and follow these ideals instead of digging deep and asking those hard questions that bring us to the point of being brave enough to invent our own families values. Swimming upstream with all of the other fish is so easy to do. Living a counter-culture existence is often oh-so hard and tiresome. But I have to belive that it is worth it and that it is this higher calling that will define a family in so many ways in a culture that is filled with strong currents and big fish.

the mundane, again

I touched on this subject a few weeks ago, but just had more to say on it I guess. Head over to the Blessed Nest if you'd like to read my post on The Mundane .

picture study: Primavera

Our latest artist study...

Primavera, Sandro Botticelli, circa 1482

This painting was studied last week by the older pair and once again, their attention to detail was very inspiring. Here are just a few of their observations...

there are trees with fruit

one side is dark, with a "witch" trying to grab a lady from the others by pulling her in


there is a naked baby trying to shoot the people

*there is a man standing off to the side who looks bored there standing with all of the girls, so he is picking fruit

there are lots of ladies who are naked

* This one is my favorite description. How many times has a man felt like this in the presence of such a large group of women? Proof that art speaks to the human condition and spans the ages!

The discussion later opened into talk of cupid, love, match-making, Spring, evil and body parts. Certainly a worthwhile conversation!

{Go on and read the description of the painting for yourself by following the link form the title above. Very intersting!}

the terror and delight of homeschooling

"The terror of home-schooling is you have to be super on all the time, finding crafty things to do.” - Joanne Rendell, homeschooling mother living in New York City

I just had to share this article published in The New York Times on Wednesday. It is an article on homeschooling, specifically unschooling and alternate methods of homeschooling, and I am just feeling so inspired after reading it.

Alright, so not everyone homeschools or even has an interest in homeschooling. In fact, the second most popular response from outsiders upon learning that our family homeschools is this phrase, almost verbatim, "I could never do it". The first response is the never-failing concern about socialization and the question about if my children have friends, leave the house or if my children would know how to function within a formal classroom if they had to. This article speaks to so many issues and desires concerning raising children that anyone interested in enriching their children's lives and exploring some new thoughts on education just has to read it.

The article really hits on some sensitive and possibly unspoken sentiments concerning families who choose to educate their children at home and brings up some really taboo issues concerning homeschooling like

culture clashing with mainstream American public schooled children,

possible jealousy by non-homeschooling parents who feels they are being "out-hipped or out-cooled" by mothers choosing to stay home with their kids and do all sorts of insanely fun/crafty/outdoorsy things with them

and how insane it is for the school system to be pushing academics so hard with such young children.

One of my favorite points is the redefining of the old label, stay-at-home mom into the newer, and perhaps more appropriate for some, credential of out-in-the-world mom. Any of us mothers who delight in seeing the world with our children and visiting new places can really appreciate this point.

Don't misunderstand me. I need my time at home. Days with no agenda. Days with no gas being used on errands or soccer practice or planned playtime with friends. I have realized that quiet, carefree, lazy days at home are a key component of my mental and emotional health. But the myth that we moms who are at home with our children are frittering our days away sitting on the sofa in our pajamas watching morning talk-shows and eating bon-bons just needed to be busted.

So, if you'd like, read it for yourself and share your thoughts with me about this terrifying and delightful thing called homeschooling!

the orchard

A morning out picking apples- warm apple fritters, apple cider donuts, tractor rides, tractor fumes, large buckets, buzzing bees, eager hands, lots of reaching and even more eating.

Time at the orchard was well spent. In addition to picking apples, there was talk of what we would do with the apples. Eating the fruit itself, sure. But our talk somehow always led to making these gorgeous fruits into some sort of a dessert.

I was given a mini-lecture on the anatomy of the apple- the stem, the skin, the flesh, the seeds, the core, the "inside"- some words were more descriptive than others. But overall, it was evident... these kids know their apples!

I had to beg Elias to stop picking apples and plunking them into the 30 pound bucket I was collecting our harvest in. If we added anymore I was either going to lose my arm from carrying it or spend my entire week's food budget on apples. Could I justify that. I just might be able to.

That night was spent peeling, slicing and mixing our apples into some very delicious desserts. I was inspired by the apple fritters at the orchard and made these Apple Fritters (basically donuts, my first time ever making such a thing!). And then I searched for the perfect apple pie and knew I had found what I was looking for when I saw this Sour Cream Apple Pie.

Needless to say, two pies and dozens of apple fritters later, we are still loving our apples.

running

We spent our weekend running
running
running.

Another sunny fall weekend spent at the Hartford Marathon where Mike, Sophia and Nicolas took part in the annual races. Mike ran the half-marathon and the kids ran in the Kids-K. They all came home with medals, t-shirts and a lot of pride and accomplishment.

All very inspiring. Enough to make me think (yet again) about participating next year.

lean-to

Well, we don't know how long the lean-to will last, but it was certainly still standing tall this morning when the kids went out to see their fort.

They spent some more time packing in damp leaves and laying smaller logs on top of the fort before we left for a day out with our homeschool co-op. They couldn't wait to get home to work on it some more and spent the day trying to convince me to let them camp out overnight in it.

I told them they could have a half-sleepover. You know, everything you would do on an overnight of camping out right up until the point when you would actually fall asleep.

After numerous mentions of terms like nightfall, supplies, sleeping bags, flashlights and the possibility of wolves, they were all set to take up their spaces in the little fort.




I don't know what they were talking about during their time in the fort. I do know that they were happy and made do with a bowl of buttered popcorn and a flashlight. They were content and proud and feeling quite independent.

This is a view from inside the fort. As you can see, lots and lots of wood and leaves were used to build this thing. But more than that, loads of creativity, large amounts of muscle and a great deal of brother-sister teamwork.

They were proud. But I think I was even more proud.

mundane

I blinked. And another week passed quickly. Wasn't it just last Sunday night that I was sitting here writing about what sort of weekend we had? Yes, it was. One week ago.

One of the things I hate most is when someone asks me how my _____ was, and I can't quite remember what exactly I did. This past week was one of those weeks. I don't really know quite what we were doing to make the week pass so quickly.

It probably has something to do with the mundane. For those of you who have read this blog before, you may know that I write quite a bit about the mundane. For me, the mundane is

the part of life that you must do to survive. It's meeting needs, not necessarily wants. It's doing what is right in front of you instead of looking ahead and meeting a future goal/completing a special project. It often involves the practical parts of life.

For me, usually meal preparation, housework (both inside and in the yard), bathing children, lots of routines and copious amounts of laundry constitutes the mundane.

At times, I am completely at peace with living in the moments of the mundane. After all, motherhood is an enormously high calling and all it encompasses is vital and important. But there are times when I ask myself, "isn't there more to this life than just meeting the needs of both myself and my familiy? What about identifying and pursuing some of the wants?"

This part is so important for humans, and mothers specifically. Whether it be finding time to knit, sew, go for a run, attend a yoga class, meet a friend for coffee, go on a date with your husband, put your house in order, write a blog post, attend a birth, receive a massage, go for a haircut and many, many other seemingly insignificant pursuits, it is important to do something for yourself out of the realm of the mundane!

Today, I beat the mundane by spending the better part of my afternoon on the front lawn with my children building a lean-to. Yes. You heard me right. A lean-to.

There is just something I have always loved about pretending to be fighting for survival and needs to build shelter, find food and the like. Apparently my kids have inherited this gene because they too enjoy living like nomads and building forts of wood.

The fort is amazingly sturdy, spacious and would serve us well if indeed we were stranding out in the middle of the forest for the night.

There was lot of teamwork, heavy lifting and loads of laughter during the building of this pretend home. In the end, we were all very proud of our handiwork and all huddled inside to see just what it would be like to share such a small space.

The kids asked me if we could leave it up forever. I told them we would just have to see how long our little fort lasted.