September 19th, 2011 by Busy Mommy

Here’s a few things we’ve been harvesting from the garden this summer- Cucumbers, Corn,Tomatoes, Broccoli, Green Beans, Kale, Lettuce, Carrots, and I have cauliflower that it almost ready!

I picked 14 lbs of Tomatoes yesterday and decided to can some tomato sauce- it made 4 pints of sauce- not much but hey it still gives me that feeling that I have some farmgirl in me.And my very favorite garden experience this summer is PURPLE GREEN BEANS!  Yes!  I didn’t realize that this wouldn’t be extremely exciting and stimulating to everyone until I brought over the first fruits to my parents house and I pointed out to my mom that they were purple and she was like “oh yeah…that’s nice”.  Later I kept talking about them and how amazing they were and she was like “you are such a farmgirl….I mean I don’t excited about green beans even if they’re purple.”  Music is food for my mom’s soul, and things like purple green beans are food for my soul.  Just look at that rich purple!! My only wish is that they stayed that color once cooked.One thing that has been a delightful surprise in our garden is the abundance of blackberries we are starting to get now- we have the Doyle’s thornless blackberries type and have literally produced quarts and quarts of berries this year- I wish I’d kept track of some real numbers.  I’ve been leary of berries ever since we tried growing blueberries with no success.  But they are big, delicious and profuse and they totally live up to their end of the bargain for the space they take up- especially with a little half and half thrown on them.But they are just as good eaten straight from the garden- I love that Nolan has been able to have a little taste of the “farm life” wandering around his home picking berries and munching on them while playing in the dirt.

No, Nolan is not wearing leg warmers- we told him to go get his socks and he came back with Daddy’s socks- we obliged him and put them on.

September 19th, 2011 by Busy Mommy

Nolan will be 23 months in just a few days.  His eyes are just as blue-grey-green as they’ve been since the day he was born, just more clear.  Here those eyes are at 19 days old, almost 2 years ago.  Everyone always comments on how striking those eyes are.

He talks so much now that I lost count of words and phrases a long time ago- right after I made a list when he was 18 months old of the words he knew which I think was around 150 words, his knowledge exploded out of control and became uncountable.  His ability to enunciate has really gotten good and he is now able to string some phrases of three words together.He loves to RUN everywhere.  It is the cutest thing to see.  Just running, and smiling, and laughing, everywhere.  He’s just become this little ball of energy and joy that totally lights up our life in every way.  A few years ago we had no intention on having children in this system.  A year and half a go I was still recommending to others that they skip children, as much as we loved Nolan, simply because it was SO HARD.  Ben and I both have health problems, Nolan was extremely needy (normal for a baby) , and we had such a hard time functioning each day and were very sad.  He’s become so endeared to us and lights up our life so much now though that I actually find myself thinking “everyone should have one of these!”  We have both learned so much and had so much entertainment and joy from watching Nolan grow this past 2 years, and especially this last year has been particularly enjoyable.  It just feels like it has rounded us both out as individuals and as a family and has helped us to understand what other families go through in life too which has made us even more understanding of people. He loves to say bye-bye to everything, whether it’s shoes, toys, or people.  And he actually plays with toys now!  I got him these cute little trucks and cars from the thriftstore and he loves playing with them.He has just started throwing more obvious tantrums- and so far this has been in response to a frustration on his part when he can’t get something to move or work the way he wants- ie. trying to push the tricycle we got him on the garden path and it keeps getting stuck.  He starts crying this frustrated mad cry and stamps his feet and shakes his little fists in the air.  I feel a little bad for him because he’s just frustrated trying to do things a little too advanced for his level.  Ben told me that he remembers having the same frustrated crying when he was little and couldn’t put the big boy tiny lego pieces together because his fingers didn’t have the dexterity yet.

September 19th, 2011 by Busy Mommy

Nolan is almost 23 months.  Santa Rosa recently had I think the 1st Heirloom Festival of Sonoma County.  It was filled with all veggies and animals heirloom or from bygone days.  There were of course displays of heirloom tomatoes, but there are a lot more heirloom veggies and fruits than just tomatoes.  Check out this display of corn for example.  There was this GORGEOUS dried corn the color of slate grey.  When it was ripe and fresh I’m sure it was more a deep blue color.  And yes the corn on the left really was that pink- no color enhancements here.I went with a new friend in my congregation and her youngest boy Alexander who is only a month apart from Nolan.  We had our ergo baby carriers and between the hot sun, the concrete, and either carrying our sons on our backs, running after them as they ran wild, or stemming the nervousness inside as we allowed them to climb on some bleachers but always read to jump to the rescue should one of them fall, I think us two mommies got pretty worn out- but we had fun. (And yes, that is a truckbed full of soil with lettuce planted in it inside a building).

The boys are still a little young to interact too much- hence why I had trouble getting ANY clear photos of them together.  At the animal pens, as soon as Alex would walk up to one, Nolan decided he was done and walked off to the next pen.  Only after numerous tries did I manage to get this one (of the back of their heads- oh well, I can’t complain at least they’re together):We don’t have too many farm-related activities going on here in the bay area much, and since I wish I lived on a farm, I was super excited to hear about the Heirloom festival.  Here’s a few more snapshots of the day:Nolan keeps calling pumpkins “matos”- aka tomatoes- I can see what he means- they do look like tomatoes- just exceptionally large.And my favorite “new idea” that looks like it’s probably been around a long long time for seed planting- looks like a board cut to fit this  seed planting flat, with corks glued to the board to make even indentations/holes in the flat for easy seed planting at regular intervals.The ride home was peaceful…..