Farmer's Market

(Day 7 of my 7 daily posts)

(That's means I'm done. Good-bye.)

(Until later next week.)



The local, year round, farmer's market is something I've gone to hit and miss for years. And by years I mean at least 10 years.



But last fall, my friends, Wendy and Chris, bought a house about two miles from my house. And in an effort to eat more locally, Wendy and I started a Saturday morning routine of picking the other up, getting Starbucks coffee and going to the farmer's market.

If Josh or Carley want to join us, they do. If Walt has other plans then the kids don't get a choice and have to come. Usually though, they prefer to stay home snug in pajamas watching cartoons. And of course I don't mind the quiet.



Now that it's spring (almost summer) there is so much more produce to choose from. There are even two new grass-fed beef stands.



And the organic cheese is to die for. Delicious.



We still get our CSA box from the local farm but the Saturday routine has been so enjoyable and I can get things like eggs, meat, flowers and more fruit that we don't get in our CSA box.



So every Saturday, when other obligations haven't pulled us from our routine, that's what we do. And I love it.

A Chocolate Flop

(Day 6 of my 7 daily posts)



Carley is a self-proclaimed chocoholic. Someone once told her it's why her eyes are chocolate brown. She believes it.

Yesterday (after a quiet day to myself while the kids aren't quite yet on summer vacation), Josh, Carley and I made Carley's favorite chocolate cookies. They're called Chocolate Crinkle Cookies and the recipe comes from her very own kids baking book.

We carefully measured the ingredients, followed the direction, perfectly (minus Josh's) rolled the dough into balls and put them on baking sheets. 10-12 minutes later the delicious smelling cookies were pulled from the oven and placed on cooling racks.

The cookies are awful. (Shhh, don't tell the kids because they still like them.) Dry, bland, more bitter than usual.

This is the second time I've made cookies this week that completely flopped. The first time was a chocolate no-bake cookie that never set. I had to freeze the puddle of chocolate goo in order to eat them without a spoon.

I don't know what school has done to my recently acquired baking ability but it seems to be gone. Hopefully it's just a temporary affliction.

For now I think I should hand over the silicone spatula to Carley and let her make her own cookies. They'd probably come out perfectly perfect.

Basketball Star

(Day 5 of my 7 daily posts)

Josh is playing basketball. He came home from school one day with two basketball league flyers asking me to sign him up. He hasn't played with a league since he was 5 and at that age it wasn't competitive basketball, like no stealing and no score-keeping.



The spring season started back in early April. Josh really has had basketball experience only from playing at school during recess. He has improved tremendously over the past two months.



The league he's playing with is newly expanded to our area so there are only four boys teams for Josh's age group.



They've played each team twice. And then had one playoff game. Next week is the championship (and consolation) game.



Josh's team is ranked #2 of four. The team they play for the championship is undefeated.



These videos, taken on my phone, are of the last minute of the playoff game last week. They're playing a team that had only won one game but Josh's team trailed the whole game, until the fifth period. (They play 5 - 8 minute periods per game.)

Josh's team went into the 5th period trailing 8 to 15. They worked hard to bring it back. I started the video just after his team scored taking the lead by 1 point, 16 to 15.


Josh steals the pass right at the beginning of the video. His teammate didn't make the shot and the other team got the ball down the court. Timeout was called by the other team.


This is just after timeout when the other team inbounded the ball. They made the shot bringing the score to 16 to 17 with the opponents up by 1 point and only about 9 seconds left on the clock. Josh's teammate brought the ball down the court, threw up a 3-point shot and MADE IT! His team won the game 19-17. It was an amazing finish.

Next week is the championship game! Against the undefeated team. It should be a great game.

Decorations

(Day 4 of my 7 daily posts)

Carley loves to decorate. And she does it with drawings or random pieces of something taped to the wall.

Here's a look into what's been taped around the house the past few months.




"Happy Brthday Daddy"




"Happy Bth day Josh"





Sometimes I get tired of all the stuff randomly taped up. Then I remind myself that she won't be young like this for long.

And once she's outgrown this stage I won't have drawings taped around the house to show a happy girl lives here. Unless I did them myself. But that would be weird.

How My Garden Grows

(Day 3 of my 7 daily posts)

This year we did it… we started a raised bed garden! The corner of the yard, next to the patio gets the most sun.

Walt was great putting it together for me. The kids helped a bit too, including Josh’s friend who was over for the day.







I’m sort of doing a modified version of the square foot gardening since we have such little space. You can learn more about square foot gardening HERE.

We started some plants from seeds and some we purchased at the local farmers market.





So far we’re growing tomatoes, bell peppers, radish, cucumbers, Japanese eggplant, pumpkin, spaghetti squash, yellow squash, green onions, Thai basil, mint, dill and rosemary. Plus I just bought a six-pack of lettuce at SOIL BORN FARMS on Sunday, which still needs to be planted.

Some of the herbs may need to be moved and some plants may need to be pulled. For now everything seems to be doing well enough. Although I really don’t know what I’m doing, I just think they’re doing well.

So far we've harvested two radishes. Josh and Carley each got a turn pulling one up and both kids tried the radishes. Carley said "yum" and Josh was indifferent.

It was so much fun to pull up a veggie, wash it, slice it and eat it. Hopefully there is much, much more to come over the summer.

An Honor to be in Honor Band

(Day 2 of my 7 daily posts)

Josh’s Intermediate Band consists of five kids. He’s bored and nothing sounds really good with so few kids. He hates practicing plus I sort of strong-armed him (more like weak-arm really) into playing in band again this year.

But because he’s in intermediate band, he had the opportunity to try out for the school district’s Honor Band. He made it along with two other kids from his school!



Honor Band is a large group of kids who come from all the elementary schools in the district. They are given music to practice on their own until one day when they gather together for the day to practice and then perform that night.

It was Thursday. Josh missed school for the day to attend his “field trip.”
Although he was dreading it, he had a great time.

The performance was pretty impressive. I’m used to very few instrument types at his school concerts but this was a full band.


(Josh is on the far right side of the picture in black pants and white shirt.)





My Aunt Janeice came to watch as well. It turned out she went to high school (not in this area) with the director! Small world.


So here are two songs they performed but the quality of my tiny camera does NOT do it justice. In person, it was wonderful. Nearly brought me to tears when I heard them practice together.

This is my favorite. Pirates of the Caribbean.

(Josh is the closest trumpet player second row from the right.)

This is Josh’s favorite. Dr. ROCKenstein.

Veggie Chase Race

(Day 1 of my 7 daily posts)

Today the kids and I ran in the Veggie Chase again. We did it for their first race back in 2008 seen in this POST.


It was pretty chilly in the morning so the kids bundled (mostly played) in a blanket.

I ran a 5k (3.1 miles).


3 miles isn’t a big deal. I run it around my neighborhood for exercise, although that is about as much as I run lately.

Today it was much harder.

I don’t like to dwell on the negative (grass and gravel when I’m used to roads) and I want to keep this post positive (lumpy trails) so I won’t mention all the bad things (dust and dirt in the mouth).

There are much happier things to mention like that I passed a man who looked 80 and beat a kid from Josh’s basketball team!

Seriously though, it was a good run through a park and farm. It was great to see families out there running together.


Josh ran a 2k (1.25 miles) and did great. He’s a stud.

He didn’t win. He thought he’d win even though he didn’t train at all. Ha!




Carley ran the Big Kids Boogie (½ mile). She did great too! She was a little slow to start but picked up speed and showed up around the corner much earlier than I thought she would.




And Josh was proud of her. Here he is congratulating her.






Walt is a great cheering squad. He’s super supportive with these sorts of days even though it’s not really his thing.

The race supports SOIL BORN FARMS. After the races, we headed to the farm for their farm day.




The kids met some soft chickens. I bought lettuce to plant in my garden. Walt and I sat in on a vermicomposting (worm compost) workshop. And the kids went on a kids tour (more like hunt) around the farm.

Thankfully the rain due later this week didn’t show up early and we could have great weather for our races and farm day.



Wait! I can’t end with the grumpy picture.

Here….



Much better.

Finals Are Coming! Finals Are Coming!

The week of May 17th is my finals week. I'm almost done with my first year at Sac State! Finally. It's been a long, yet fly-by year.

Since I will -or should- have my head buried in books until I'm through with finals, I won't be posting anything for two whole weeks.

But because I know you'll miss me so much and to make up for two weeks of no posts... Starting May 23rd I will post a new post every single day for seven days.

So check back then. And celebrate the end of semester with me and my daily blog posts.

Fairytale Town Fun

Last weekend, my brother, Barry, had a swim meet in Davis. He's a swim coach. He had to be there both Saturday and Sunday. So he and my nephew, Leyton, stayed with us for two nights.


Carley and Leyton are only 4 months apart in age. They both were missing their front two teeth. Twinsy cousins.

On Saturday, Leyton hung out with us all day. I took the kids to Fairytale Town because we hadn't been there for a long time and the weather was nice.


Fairytale Town has existed in Sacramento for 50 years. I think it's geared mainly towards little kids.

Josh has fond memories of how fun it is there. He insisted we go there instead of the zoo. And he learned that slides and climbing aren't quite as fun as a "big kid." He had fun but was just a little bored.


He needs a haircut.


The crooked mile, plus the crooked stile and crooked house, are always a favorite.


The "there was an old woman who lived in a shoe" slide is the fastest.

Remember how fast, and how hot, those old metal slides were? Way better than the plastic ones that exist on playgrounds now.


The made paper-bag puppets too.



It was a great day.