Farm Day, July 29, 2009

Well. It's been a week since we've been ill. We're recovered, I think. And what better way to celebrate a new bill of health than to get an amazing harvest from the CSA? And to turn it into yummy food and eat it all? Oh, the large bag of peaches isn't pictured here, nor are the collard greens. Sometimes, we start eating before we get to look at all of it. Green beans pictured below.

I knew I was going to get MANY more green beans next week, so I put this week's in freezer bags (after washing, trimming, yada, yada, yada) and went ahead and ate our favorites. We like green beans, but next week it will be the biggest crop, so we'll eat them then.

I also diced up some of the carrots, beets, onions, green beans, and zucchini and put them in freezer bags for emergency meals. This combo makes a great minestrone...just toss the frozen veggies in beef broth, add a can of kidney beans and either a bag of frozen diced tomatoes (I'll be making those in a week or so...) or a can of them. Simmer. Throw some bread together, and viola! Dinner is served!

We had a hitchhiking caterpillar show up on our beets this morning. I found him in the bowl of greens. The kids want to see him turn into a butterfly (c'mon, we all know it's a MOTH), so he's in a jar now, with those beet greens and a few air holes. We'll see....

When Shredded Wheat Biscuits Become Cookies {or} What's That Stuff Coming Under the Door?

Eventful. This is a good word to describe my night. Of course, I prefer my nights to be uneventful, usually just consisting of some good old-fashioned sleep after about ten PM. It all started out OK, the kids were in bed by 8, Stephen was teaching and would be til ten. I was planning on a quiet evening to myself. And, at first, that's how it went. Yes, I got to fold laundry and wash dishes all in silence. It was nice. Then Stephen came home, and Chayce started to cry. Sometimes she cries because the door makes such a loud noise when closing, as it is in a door jam that is over one-hundred years old, and needs a good shove to be closed. One of the many quirks about this house we'll miss (ha ha). Anyhow, Stephen said he'd run up and console her and be right back, instead I hear, "Oh, no! Miss Chayce! Run down to your Mommy and have her help you take a bath." A bath? Why? The answer is all too clear as she descends the stairs...
{note, the post gets a little gross after this point, just so you know, you are warned! BUT, I have to record this for posterity, and so that I will have moments to look back on and NOT miss when I wish my children were still small...}

As Chayce descended the staircase, I noticed a very memorable smell, and that her white night shirt was covered in all the many colors of dinner. Sigh. I rushed her to the shower, with Stephen promising (and working on) cleaning her bed. I must admit, I had been praying earlier for a good time to really snuggle and hold my daughter, as it seemed she was growing up to fast. This wasn't what I had in mind, but we did get to snuggle on the couch as we waited for her bed to be ready. I kept thinking that my prayers get answered in odd ways, and I'm sort of tired of this heavenly sense of humor. At this point, I'm thinking that I'm glad it was just one, wondering what she ate that made this fiasco happen, and how can I help her? Right as I'm remembering where I put my stock pile of electorlytes (yes, I keep them on hand and buy them on clearance. I'm a mom, remember? I know I'll need these things sometime!), Stephen calls down the stairs that I need to help him for a minute. I'm wondering what could be wrong, as he'd already brought all the bedding down, but I go, leaving my sweet snuggle partner on the couch.

Stephen points out that there is the same color of liquid seeping out under Zachary's bedroom door. We're both wondering the same thing, "Did he get up and puke by the door, or did he spew across his bedroom, covering the place?" There's only one way to find out, and we have to, because we're the parents. Stephen bravely opens Zachary's bedroom door to find that the back of the door, the walls and the book shelf are coated in pink, chunky goop. There is a puddle of it seeping across the floor. Yet, clear on the other side of the room is a sleeping little boy, lying peacefully and content--pink drool coming out of his mouth. I jump over the puddle (we concluded that he got up, went to the door, puked violently, and went and laid back down, all in his sleep), and go to his side. I try to rouse him, but he's very asleep. I finally sit him up and wipe his face off, which wakes him. He seems very annoyed with me, "Why are you waking me?" he asks. I tell him that he needs to come out of his room so we can clean it, and that we need to clean him as well. He doesn't understand, too sleepy. So, I explain to him that he's been puking in his sleep. He sits up, and looks at the mess. Then he exclaims (in a cute way, I can't explain it, but it made me laugh), "Oh! What is wrong with me?" He then needs to puke again, and hurries off to the bathroom (but I did have to lift him over the mess on the floor, it was that big.)
The cleaning and vomiting continued til about 5 AM, when baby Payge woke up. Stephen went in to her room to snuggle her, and did for awhile, until in his sleepy state realized that she too smelled funny. Another bed to wash. And he realized that he'd been snuggling puke and needed to shower.

Needless to say, our food today has consisted of watermelon, pears and dry shredded wheat, which I told baby Payge were cookies. She agreed, and chowed down on them. I found it funny that my children would accept that a shredded wheat biscuit was a cookie, and it made me wonder what they must think of my cookies to accept this lie. ha ha. No, really, my baked goods are good, but their trust in me is astounding.

Those Crazy Tuellers...

So, what HAVE we been up to? It feels like we don't post much, but that's because we're busy DOING. hee hee. Life is fun, isn't it?

Zac at the 80's Prom Surprise Birthday Party for Aunt Ninny.

Mommy & Chayce, all dolled up for the party. Yes, the blue eyeshadow was supposed to look tacky, on both of us.

This was candid, and I wish we'd have gotten her whole face. ha ha!

Chayce, in Prom Queen attire, with Payge and Jared.

Trying to look geeky. Their genetics help them pull it off. (Right, Stephen?) ;)

Payge's first prom date. Keegan looks thrilled to be there!

Cheeze!!!!

So, I came home from the farm with only a few raspberries, thought maybe a cheesecake would stretch things...Payge had other ideas...

THEN, after I got Payge off the table, guess who I found on the table doing the exact same thing? Only dressed in about six more layers?
Chayce took this one of Payge. Cute, huh?

Super Hero Names

Today, I was given a super-hero name by Zachary. At first, he was naming me things like "Super-Hero Princess", but then I told him to base my new title on my talents. I should have stayed quiet. My new name?
Super Yell Cleaning Hero. Yup. If only my kids knew me before I turned boring. I wonder what my name will be when they are all grown up...maybe Super-Person-we-should-have-listened-to-the-first-time?

Zach's super-hero team name is BIG CRUSH, so if anyone wants to join, come on over. You have to pass many tests, including air fighting with a light saber. I passed, by the way.

Magazine Subscription giveaway

I don't know if you've noticed, but the coupons in WalMart's AllYou magazine are usually VERY good. (we're talking dollar amounts, not just cents). $5Dinners is giving away TWO subscriptions, if you leave a comment on her blog. Worth the tiny effort, I think. Here's the link.

Zach's Adventure

Sunday evening, Zachary took me on an adventure. We went into the woods and started following a trail with Zachary in the lead. My poor old eyes must not be working well, as I soon lost sight of the trail. Zachary, however, was always able to see it. Our adventure took us across logs spanning (really little) rivers and (what looked like) quick sand. The felled trees were, of course, put there by elephants. We never saw an elephant though. We did see a frog though.

Soon the woods changed to jungle, and we had to watch out for panthers. The bigger problem was the mosquitoes - I'm amazed neither of use was covered in big bites the next day. Once we crossed the river, we had to scale a mountain through the roots of old trees crossing a gorge cause by runoff water. Once at the top, we were on the practicing fields of St. Joe High. There we had the chance two watch a pair of deer. One came within 25 yards of us, just to see what we were doing. At that point, Zachary decided to take some grass to feed the deer. He came within 15 yards of the deer before they decided to leave.

After the deer ran away, we followed their tracks until we found them again. The ran back to where they started, and we continued on, back through the forest to home. Zach was a fantastic guide up until the last minute, when he decided he want to walk to the county yard waste facility to watch a wood chipper in action. I finally convinced him that it being Sunday, we were unlikely to see anything at the facility.

Feeling Thrifty.

So, I just have to brag. It's a short brag, but I wanted to. Not just because it was so fun (it was!) but because if I post it here fast enough, some of you may be able to go out and do the exact same thing and save a few bucks.
First, I went to Walgreens, where to Coppertone sunscreen is on sale for $10.99. Now that sounds pricey, I know, but they are also running a deal where you can get $10 back (in register rewards) if you buy $20 worth. to make the deal even sweeter, you can use 2 of these coupons: $5 off Dual Defense

Yes, it limits you to the dual defense type, but at SPF 70, and $1.76 (each, after tax) do we care?

THEN, I turned around and used the $10 back from the sunscreen to purchase PullUps, because we use them at night on the kids when potty training, and guess who is going to be 18 months? AACK! Anyhow, we'll use them. I used a coupon for $3 off (I would have used TWO, but was dumb and accidentally printed one coupon on top of the other, and there is a print limit!). If you are brighter than me, and don't mess up the printing, you can get an even better deal. Anyhow, I bought the Pullups for $10 each, one with the $3 off coupon (so $7), the other with the $10 cashback from the sunscreen. My out of pocket total? $8.40!! Oh, Huggies coupon, here.
Whew! Now, go do it, too!! But do it better, and your out of pocket will be $5.40.

Oh, wait, one more detail. I forgot. I also got $5 back in register rewards for the pull ups, so my out of pocket was $3.40, as I have $5 to spend there sometime (yes, I count it as $$), and if you do better than me (using TWO coupons), your out of pocket will be $0.40!!!!!

Motivation for the crazy.

Often, when talking to people about my lifestyle (the combination of homeschooling, gardening, canning, drying, running, having three small children, being LDS, believing in holistic approaches, but using western medicine, being a republican with a liberal outlook--it seems I'm quite the enigma) the word crazy seems to seep out of their mouths. At first, it bothered me, then I tolerated it, now, I'm starting to embrace it. I'm crazy (I think my brother even used the word peculiar on me once). And it's OK (wow, I feel like I should be in a 12 step program. I'm good enough, I'm smart enough, and dog-gone it, people like me--name that reference!) Anyhow, I loved the following clip. Enjoy. Maybe it'll inspire you to get a little crazy.

As the Payge Turns...

Aaack!
One more month, and my little, tiny, baby turns 18 months old!
Here's to you, babe.

Hi-ho Cherry-O

'Tis the season! For cherries! Stephen and Zac left early Tuesday morning to pick, and in just about 2 hours picked 88 pounds between the two of them. Stephen told me that Zac was a little picking machine! He did great, and was so proud of himself when he told me about his adventures. It was sort of funny, both Stephen and I thought to ourselves that he should bring a checkbook, but discounted the thought since they took cards last year. Ha, well, joke's on us because while they still take card, it was at the farmer's market with their booth, so check was required. Stephen came home & picked up the girls and I(and the checkbook) and we went back and washed and pitted our cherries. It was an easy task, because both my husband and son are quite organized and tidy, so there weren't any leaves or stems to pull out of our bucket. Seriously. Other families were sorting their leaves from their cherries, and I was just dunking whole buckets of cherries in cold water. My family rocks.


Here are some pictures of the events that took place after we got home (since I was forgetful and did not bring the camera to the cherry orchard).

Cherries in a pot...these will be a pie tonight, as a treat to those hard pickin' men!

Cherries in the dehydrator. Aren't they pretty? They'll be even prettier in oatmeal, trail mix and my tummy.

Cherry pie flavored syrup. WHAT?!? You ask? Well, see, last year when we picked cherries we had all this juice left over and didn't know what to do with it. So, we thickened it, sweetened it, and added almond extract and used it as a syrup. It was a hit! So much so, that it was requested that we make much more this year. So I did. 35 pints. Stephen even bought me a new stock pot so that I could be efficient and make it all at once, but we forgot one thing....which leads me to this photo:

Yup. We didn't have a spoon long enough to stir the pot!!! So, Stephen pulled out a large dowel we had on hand, we washed it, and now we have a stirring stick! ha ha. I told him I felt like I was stirring a cauldron.

America turns 233. We PARTIED!!

Some fun photos from our 4th of July celebration! Hope you had a happy 4th!!!

My Monkey...climbing onto the deck from the side.

Ahhh, cute!

Stephen, being the pyro. Yes, it's light out, but it was going to rain (is as I write this) and so we thought we'd celebrate early in the day. We saved a few fireworks in case it blows over...we'll see!

Turned some sweet treats into a sweeter one! Floats with a patriotic twist!

Dancing outside.

Chayce's version of patriotic clothing--pink and turquoise. It's close to red and blue, right?

Pointing at the fireworks in the driveway.

Sitting in the van watching the fireworks.

It's Pea Shelling Time!

Zero-Sum Econ Applied to Ice Cream

I'd purchased enough ice cream for each of us to have two servings, but baby Payge wasn't going to be taking her fill (she'd already smeared herself with the first serving, so we were telling her "No more."). As we went to put her serving in the freezer, Zac pipes up, "Hey! Dad! If Payge isn't going to have two ice creams, somebody has to have three..."