Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Strawberry Fields Forever



This past week we took Abi Kate strawberry pickin’ (it seems more Southern without the ‘g,’ right?). Tommy’s schedule differs from about 95% of the people we know. He works Saturdays and usually takes off one day during the week. It’s a bummer sometimes because when everyone is posting their fun Saturday plans, our day is relatively normal-- just her and I. But, the benefit is that we get to do things during the week together when everything is less crowded….

As Abi Kate has gotten older we often try to spend our family day together doing something purposeful, going somewhere together. I’m really big on giving her experiences, no matter how big or small they are. Anything out of the ordinary becomes a great learning opportunity and gives her a chance to create fun. We also just like doing things together as a family, so win win. J

I’ve written about our pursuit of cleaner living right here. It is still an ever-evolving process, and we go up and down with it. But, one of my favorite things about Spring and approaching Summer is that it makes it much easier to find quality produce locally. Instead of paying exorbitant amounts for organic produce at the grocery store, we can find it much cheaper at a variety of Farmer’s Markets and pick-your-own farms. So, we went on the Tennessee Pick-Your- Own website, found a nearby strawberry farm, and trekked the 45 minutes out there this week. While they’re not certified organic, they don’t spray, and that’s good enough for me! I also tend to be a bit more lenient with local farming practices simply because the food is typically so much richer in nutrient content. It wasn’t picked two weeks ago in California, packaged through a facility, and flown out to my local chain grocery store where I buy it after it’s been on the shelf for two days….  Freshly picked=more live enzymes, nutrients, and minerals. So for me, I come up pretty even on buying certified organic that’s two weeks old with freshly grown produce that isn’t certified… I’m also big on supporting local farming so that quality food can stay in MY community instead of supporting a farm in California that I don’t live even remotely close to… you get the picture. They’re also such a great price it’s easy to get a ton and freeze them for later when they aren’t readily available or in season.

We almost opted not to go because it’s started sprinkling rain as we loaded up, and a chilly wind was kicking in. We went anyway, and I’m so glad.

It was a little bit like heaven walking through those strawberry fields. For one, we are strawberry eaters. They’re delicious and are one of Abi Kate’s favorite foods. And these not only look beautiful, they are hands down the best strawberries I have ever eaten. Juicy and soft, sweet not tart…

We put Abi Kate down to let her have a go at picking them, too. Her favorites? The white ones. You know, the unripe ones. Every time I’d turn around she’d be sneaking a bite of one…. After showing her a few times, she started choosing the red ones. Usually. I loved watching her chubby little hand grasp that red berry and yank hard to get it off the vine. Precious. Sometimes, she put it in the bucket. More often than not, it went directly into her mouth. Seriously, they were so good, who could blame her?! When I tried to show her that we put them in the bucket, it was met with a hand up and a, “No.” ;0



So, we made a dropping game out of it and she decided the bucket might be ok….

 Still sneaking the strawberries at every chance ;)

It started raining while we were picking, so Tommy said he’d run to the car and grab his big umbrella. I thought he meant a golf umbrella. Incorrect. He meant a Tommy Bahama beach umbrella. And it popped backwards in the wind, which was also hilarious. I know that farmer was looking at us like we were crazy, going up and down the rows with a white-strawberry stealing baby under a huge porch umbrella. I’d laugh at us, too. J


We were damp and cold by the time we finished filling up two gallons worth of strawberries, but the experience was so fun. Watching her enjoy the activity we chose was so fun.



 Learning about strawberries :)
 This little girl adores her Daddy


So we headed home, eating strawberries from the bags… You know how you keep saying, “Just one more. This is the last one. Promise.” That happened on that 45 minute drive. Like over and over again. Oops….

Every summer we try to make a big batch strawberry jam and freeze it. It’s so much healthier than store bought brands, lasts for several months, and it also just tastes really good….

 STILL snatching strawberries at every chance she can ;)






Once the honey and sucanat went into the berry mix, this girl was a bowl licking fool! She threw a great big fit when we pulled her away….bless her, it’s hard giving up a snack you really want!


So we got out her little table to give her a cooking station of her own, threw some whole wheat flour in a bowl and gave her a spatula. Not too much “cooking” went on there. It was mostly her eating the flour. 



I think it's obvious how she feels about the flour... look at that face :/

I love these days spent with my best friend and the little girl we share. 

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

For the Love of Reading

“Books are the quietest and most constant of friends; they are the most accessible and wisest of counselors, and the most patient of teachers.” 
I adore Charles William Eliot’s take on reading. It sums up, in one short sentence, the way I feel about literature. I am the person who stood waiting at the mailbox for my early delivery of Harry Potter 7. The person who read for nearly 12 solid hours until my eyes were so fuzzy I could barely make out the words, stopping only to call my friend in another state at 2 am to discuss how magnificently the characters were developed throughout the series.  I am the person who can’t get rid of a book because I might need to re-read it at least three more times. The one who couldn’t stop herself from finishing another series within three days, even though I wanted to slow down. And now that you have a clear picture of how big of a nerd I am…… I just love reading. Always have. When I taught Kindergarten, I had 17 plastic milk crates filled with books in my classroom library at all times. They were switched out monthly with the other books I had kept in my storage cabinets. And then there were my “teacher books”-- the ones that were so precious, I couldn’t stand to have them “Kindergarten-ized”, so I read those books to them.

I love all books-- non-fiction and fiction, though I prefer the latter. I love getting so wrapped up the characters that I feel emotional and exhausted when a book ends. I love slipping into the mind and heart of the author while I read their words. And I’ve always felt that if you can read, you can learn anything. You can teach yourself anything. That’s why it was so important to me to instill a love for reading in my students, and now in my child. I’ve always read to Abi Kate. And I like her to see me reading. I saved almost all of those crates of books from my classroom, so she has a large library to choose from.  My mom is a school librarian, so we’re never short on receiving new books either. Even my best friend’s Christmas gift to her was a Pride and Prejudice counting board book. Her first classic. (The same friend that talked with me at 2 am about Harry… Shocking? Not so much.)  And as of late, if you were to walk into my house at any given moment, this is probably what you’d see…



 Abi Kate’s favorite thing to do right now is read. I cannot tell you how excited I get over this (again, with a glimpse into my great nerdiness). In her waking hours, she truly spends the majority of them bringing books to me to read over and over again-- I’ve never been so thankful that I saved all those books-- I switch them out for new ones frequently. You can only read Ten Tiny Puppies so many times…. I often find her sitting down and flipping through the pages herself-- quacking at ducks, mooing at cows, meowing at cats. Sometimes, she just babbles while she turns the pages like she’s just making up her own little story. And I swear I could just sit there and watch her for hours.

I hope she always reads like this, appreciates the words and the stories. Granted, there’s no great depth to  Spot pop-up book or beautifully worded phrases in The Little Red Hen, but we’ve got to start somewhere right?! ;) Poor child, she never really had a chance in this house. I’m such a believer in the benefits of environmental print and language development through books. With all these books, who needs My Baby Can Read?! Seriously, who needs it… No one. That’s who. (I almost got on a soapbox about developmentally appropriate practices and the importance of phonemic awareness and phonics…. You’ve been spared. Trust me.) 

She looks like a little girl when I find her this way, not like a baby. And when she’s not reading, she’s chatting, often words she’s learned from her books. She uses about 25-30 words consistently and independently. They’re just little words right now, words that usually don’t hold great meaning to most (or many syllables for that matter haha.) But one day, I hope she comes to love the words she reads, that they teach her about life and people,  that they make her laugh out loud and cry freely. I hope that she will read with intention, appreciating the way words can be woven together to create a tapestry of vitality. I hope she learns that words are powerful and that she chooses hers carefully.  




I know it appears as though she's literally inhaling the book. And while I'd like to think that it's an outward expression of her hunger for books, she's really just kissing herself in the mirror on the page. ;)

Those books are already becoming her most “patient teacher.” And I love that. Even though the reading and the new words make her seem older, I still love those books.

So read on, sister! “The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go.” Dr. Seuss (Except don’t go too far… your momma can’t handle that.)

Thursday, April 5, 2012

Spring, Easter, and Everything Else

I’m loving this weather. Loving it. Like I just want to gather it all up into a big ball and give it a hug. I love living in the South, particularly in Tennessee. There’s a host of reasons why, but one of the big ones is that we get to experience every season. And yes, I know our weather has been a bit stranger this year-- an almost snowless winter and a warm Spring-- but we still get to watch the seasons shift and fade from one into another. And that is good for my soul. At the risk of sounding like I’m a BFF with Mother Nature, I really do love when a new season begins. I love that it’s new, a fresh start. I feel that way at the beginning of every season.

Because the weather has been so lovely, it’s afforded us the chance to do some outdoorsy things with Abi Kate. And she has proven thus far that she is not her mother’s child. She loves being outside. I often open up the back door in our kitchen in the morning while she eats breakfast, and as soon as the child is done eating she runs to the door and shouts, “Down! Down!” (Safety Sally won’t go down the steps by herself yet). She just wants to be outside all the time. So much so, that my closing the door this morning so we could get dressed ended in an official toddler tantrum. I like being outside. I really do. I just like it better from the porch, in a rocking chair, with a drink, hiding from the bugs. Since she seems to be a big fan of this new season, too, it made this next part an easy choice…

Easter is just a few days away. This significance of Resurrection Day is huge in our home-- it’s the source of our salvation. But I always feel like Easter gets left out in our culture. Stores spend forever on Christmas. Christmas Eve, Day, Week, Month-- it’s ALL a big deal. But Easter seems to be looked over. An egg hunt, a new dress, church, Easter dinner, and it’s done. Forgotten until the next year. The truth is, without Easter, sweet little baby Jesus’ birth would’ve meant something different on Christmas Day. The purpose of His birth was ultimately His death our forgiveness. I know there’s a big push amongst most believers I know to make sure that their children understand the true meaning of Christmas, the importance beyond the materialism, why we give the gifts that we do. And I think because the celebration of Christmas lasts for essentially a month (or earlier if you’re Walmart), there are so many opportunities to bring things back around to Christ’s birth. It’s easier. With Easter, there’s no big preparation. I realize that’s part of the purpose of Lent- but even with that, it often seems to be only a personal and quiet sacrifice, which is great. But there are no company parties, no dinner celebrations/gift exchanges with friends leading up to it, no outward preparations made in the culture. Because of that, we wanted to make sure that Easter morning is understood by Abi Kate for what it is, so we opted to do a Spring Basket instead of an Easter basket from the Bunny. When she wakes up on Easter morning and we get ready for church, it will be a big deal-- the cross will be a big deal. And P.S. I totally think you can do Easter baskets and make Jesus a big deal in your home. We just wanted to be sure that WE didn’t skip over the real meaning in our home. We aren’t anti-Easter bunny, or anti-Santa people. We like Santa and the Bunny. In fact, my mom always does Easter baskets, so the Bunny will just go to her house and Abi Kate will have a basket whenever we see them. We just want that morning as we prepare for worship, the days leading up to it, to be all about Jesus and nothing else. And since I love new seasons, it was easy to pick a Spring Basket. She gets to open her basket on the first day of Spring, which was March 20 this year. (We were late by a few days. Oops! Good thing she has no sense of time.)

Target $1 bins were good to us this year and I got a host of her things from there. Bubbles (hence her new word which she pronounces “bo-buhls!”) Sand and water toys for the new sand and water tables gifted to us from some sweet friends. A Praisebaby DVD for rainy days (this has been a source of much hilarity as we watch her dance). A new diaper-- seriously, there’s always a reason for a new diaper. Besides, it’s getting hot outside and she’ll be running around in just them soon. Like I how justified that one?! Books for her car book basket (she looks at books while I drive so I keep a basket of her books in my car). 
 Going after the snacks first... Smart girl
 And immediately taking them to Daddy to open


 Her current favorite pasttime-- reading. She's my child for sure!

So far, I think her favorite thing has been the bubbles. She figured out really quickly they were a necklace, so she wears them around the house all day and quacks when she finds them since they’re in the shape of a duck. Best $1 purchase ever.
 Bubbles with Aunt Ra
Safety Sally strikes again... Despite the fact that the patio is flush with the ground, knees are needed to get down ;) 
Love this sweet giggly girl.

Easter always elicits sweet memories for me. Every year we dyed eggs, made Jell-o jiggler eggs and rabbits, hunted for the golden egg. You know what else I remember a lot about Easter? The clothing.

 My mom made our dresses very often. Sadly, I did not inherit her domestic goodness in the sewing department. We almost always wore white hats and white gloves and usually a corsage. Thank you, Southern living. I’ve always been a girly girl, so I loved it. I remember spinning in the dresses to make sure skirt twirled when I spun, obviously the most important part of any dress. And I remember my sister going, “Mom, this is so scratchy. I don’t like it. Mom, do I have to wear these gloves? This flower is poking me.” Despite our close friendship, Rachel is about 180 degrees the opposite of me. She did not heart the dresses, the white hats, ribbons, or flowers. She did, however, make out with fabulous Easter gifts, which I very obviously NEEDED

The significance of Easter was never lost in our home, and I’m grateful for that. I really love all holidays, and I love the old memories and new ones that we’re making.

I especially love that my sister got the dress with the collar, extra lace, high neck, and puffed sleeves. She loved it, too. Just look at her face. And have no fear, there WERE gloves with these dresses.

I thought of our “Easter best” because when I was shopping for Abi Kate’s Spring basket, guess what was in their $1 bin?! White Easter hats. I almost bought one, just for good measure…..

And just to throw in one more flash back--
 What a difference a year makes! (We deemed this the Easter dog as he kinda didn’t look so much like a rabbit in the picture.)

I hope your Easter is filled with sweet memories, white gloves or not, and that the message of the cross and the life it gives echoes throughout your home. Happy Easter, friends!