Fireflies

You know it's summer in the south when the fireflies start to come out.  The twinkling of those little bugs are like fairy dust sprinkled in the air.  Magical!

As most child love to catch fireflies, so do my littlest ones.  With some guidance from the girls on our street, they have discovered the magic of fireflies.  They giggle with delight trying to catch them and jump as high as they can (about 3 inches off the ground) with not much luck.

Their joy in fireflies has prompted a bedtime routine centered around these fairy tale creatures.  On a whimsical night, instead of reading a story to Kate and Luke, I started telling a story about fireflies.  Every day we tell a different story but they all start out like this:

"Once upon a time there was a little boy named (Luke jumps in with a name he likes to add, usually "Luke") and a little girl named (Kate's addition to the story usually involves a girl named "Momo" her favorite name for herself).  

And they lived in a castle *way up on the hill*.  (said together)"

Then they story always involves the boy and girl's love for fireflies and usually involves a firefly named "Buzz" after a certain little boy's favorite movie.  Sometimes the story is plotless and requires lots of quick thinking on Mom's part just to get through it and other times it just rolls off the tongue.  The kids don't seem to notice, they just hang onto every word.  Sometimes even the bigger kids join in listening to the crazy adventures of Buzz the Firefly.

It's a family tradition turned into a deep love for story-telling for me.  I was over the moon, however, when my babies decided to tell a firefly story on their own last night.  The plot was a bit thin and it required a couple of questions. but the story line was Buzz was sad because he was missing his friends.  Eventually he found his friends and...

*They lived happily every after!* (said together)

Blueberries

We live in a fabulous area for finding local food.  I am blessed with friends who have provided me several paths to fresh, local beef and chicken and a local dairy and egg co-op.  In addition to my beloved garden, our town has three farmer's markets a week and TONS of local pick-your-own places.

Last weekend we went with our cousins back to the CSA we belonged to a couple of years ago and picked some wonderful blueberries.

They were plentiful and wonderful and I fell in love with the bugs and the heat from our old CSA once again.  Despite these things they could complain about, the kids obviuosly had a great time.

Lance insisting on carrying the large box to fill, and he did a pretty good job!

Kate loving every minute!  In spite of her strawberry stealing at home, she was quite reserved with the blueberries...until we got home!

Kyle with his bounty!

Luke so happy to have filled up his pint container, with a little help from Trent and Dad.

Coming home with our harvest, we dutifully pulled out the big, juicy berries and popped them in our mouths while saving some for some future blueberry pancakes.  The rest of the blueberries went into making this...

TOTALLY worth the bugs and heat!  I'd share some with you but it was devoured in three seconds flat! But if you come visit, I'll make one for you!

My Garden

One of my passions is gardening.  It gives me absolute pleasure to work in the dirt and I'm over the moon if I find a big juicy worm or toad who find my garden to be a suitable home.

When we first moved to the country, we joined a Community Supported Agriculture group.  It was fabulous!  Every week we brought home a variety of seasonal fruit, vegetables and herbs from the local farm.  Belonging to a CSA really made us try new veggies and forced us to eat them more.  I found, however, that as our family grew it was hard for me to do something with the three beets in our box or even the four ears of corn.  After two years of belonging to the CSA, I decided to take that money and put it into a garden of our own.

Ever since I was a kid, I have dreamt of owning a garden.  Most little girls dream of becoming a princess, living in a castle and living happily ever after.  If I could live in my garden, I would be happy!  Our neighbors had a fabulous garden when I was little.  I remember the dad out there tilling and planting and watched as they harvested later in the summer.  Of course, there was always too much zucchini and far too many tomatoes and I felt so blessed when they shared with us.

Three summers ago I got to work...er, rather I got Steve to work.  We borrowed a tiller from our friends and he spent an eternity out there trying to dig up our rocks and clay into a palatable garden for our veggies and fruit.  The kids and I tried the best we could to get the grass and rocks out as he tilled.  It was a huge undertaking and I know he already dreaded doing it again the next year.

Our first year of gardening was a success.  We planted the requisite number of tomatoes and squash, along with some other veggies and fruit.  To be honest, our first summer wasn't a stellar success.  There were lots of weeds and grass, rocks and clay.  I loved getting out there but the twins were small and I couldn't pay much attention to the garden.

The next year was met with high enthusiasm.  I planted seeds in March and Steve tilled in May.  Tilling was easier than the previous year, due in part to added compost from our compost pile and hay laid the previous fall.  The kids were more enthusiastic about helping and it was a successful season.

However, this year has been the best by far!  Tilling took about ten minutes and we barely found any rocks at all.  It's only July and I only harvested my first tomato yesterday, but it's just a fabulous season due in part to Mother Nature's blessing us with a lot of rain in the spring and periodic rain throughout the summer.  I found an interesting article early this spring about ways to get your kids involved in the garden.  It laid out a plan which looked similar to my garden already so I decided to try it.  Basically it uses plants which catch kids eyes like pole beans on teepee trellises and plants named "PacMan Broccoli".  Interesting plants that catch their eye like kohlrabi (I know, what's that?), ferny asparagus and big sunflowers.

My tomatoes are falling over from the weight, my corn is far taller than me as opposed to the saying "knee high by the 4th of July", my strawberries are producing some gorgeous red berries I would love to make into a pie if only a certain little girl would stop going in there to eat them all!

In my beloved garden are blueberries, raspberries, three varieties of tomatoes, zucchini, yellow squash, jalapeno peppers, a cabbage (from a contest Trent is involved in), corn, watermelon, romaine lettuce, strawberries,

cantaloupe (look at those awesome orbs forming - yummy!),

potatoes which are so much fun to harvest (we've already harvested the new potatoes and look forward to the fall for the final big harvest), see that one poking from the ground?

pole beans given to me by fellow twin mom and gardening extraordinaire Jenn (who I love to get ideas from and talk "garden"),

aforementioned PacMan Broccoli, which, by the way, the name does not get the kids to want to eat it any more than before

the ferny asparagus which was an impulse buy from the gardening store, we have to wait three years for harvest but it's such an interesting little plant I look forward to watching it mature over the years,

and kohlrabi.

 So what is kohlrabi?  Apparently it is a turnip-like vegetable that grows above ground.  It was listed as something the kids would like to watch because of it's cool purple and green colors.  It has intrigued both kids and adults!  Harvesting was another issue...

PULL!!!

I said PULL!!!

Come on!  PULL!!!

After some help from Mom, we were finally able to get it out!

Lance's enthusiasm about the kohlrabi was quickly dissipated as soon as it was put on his plate.  We cooked the leaves that night and are saving the turnip-like veggie for another night.  The leaves were spiny and thick, and very hard to eat.  It's understandable why it's not a more popular vegetable!  

4th of July in our Small Town

I've done the big July 4th celebrations.  When I was a kid, my family would go down to DC to listen to The Beach Boys and stay for the fireworks at the Washington Monument.  I don't remember much about it, other than the nasty bathrooms, awful heat and humidity, and my father getting pissed when a stranger tried to stand on our cooler to get a better view of the concert.  Let's just attribute that grumpiness to the heat and humidity.

As I got older and lived near the city, Steve and I made our annual trek out to the Mall to watch the fireworks.  In fact, my favorite memory of the 4th of July is one year we got tickets to a radio-sponsored event that filled a parking lot with sand and misters, drinks and activities, and some of our favorite local bands.  As the evening drew near, a little tipsy and very sweaty, we went closer to the Mall and watched the fireworks.  Good times.

I guess the turning point came when Steve and I rode the Metro into DC and got off the train.  As we exited the station and saw the crowds, we both kinds looked at each other and turned around to come home.  Let's just attribute it to the heat and humidity.

Now that we have children and live further from the city, this is what our 4th of July looks like:

Steve with the kids waiting for the parade.

The beginning of the parade, photo courtesy of Kyle's magnificent photography.

Our town's parade is typical of any small town.  Lots of fire trucks and local scouts, teams, and businesses sponsoring floats.  And this year TONS of politicians.  It was a very long parade.  I think the highlight for the kids is the goodies thrown out by the people on the floats.  This year the kids brought home water, necklaces, frisbees, boatloads of candy, and even water balloons!

We are fortunate to have friends who live on Main Street and are always wonderful about inviting us to watch the parade from their yard.  Thank you to the Backmans for your wonderful hospitality and the fabulous barbecue following the parade.  This was a 4th of July not to be forgotten!

Our family on the stairs of the Backman's home.  Lovely!

The evening ended with another barbecue at our neighbors and a fantastic fireworks display a short walk away.  I think we saw five or six firework displays from neighboring towns just from our vantage point.  It was awesome!

One day we will take the kids to the Mall for the fireworks, but until then we will enjoy this small town's  4th of July festivities and enjoy every minute!

Hope your 4th of July was as much fun as ours!