10 Favorite Things

I just browsed through Keri Smith's blog and am feeling inspired. For one, she has a list of 100 things to do (to get you going artistically) and one is to list your ten favorite things not including people or animals. Other ideas from this list that I like: list the smells in your neighborhood; give away something you love; illustrate your grocery list; use post-its to make temporary art; tape art- postcards to the back of your cupboard doors so that you don' t lose sight of them but also don't grow deaf to them; and I love all the collage ideas.

Here's my list:

1) organic columbian coffee with cream, in the hand-made blue mug that Nicolas got for me (made by another farmer) for Christmas one year.

2) My perfectly seasoned cast iron pot that I got from an intern at the farm ten years ago. He had cooked such good meals in it for us himself. Chris had so few posessions that I was really moved by him giving me that pan. He also gave me some good recipes and was part of the inspiration to my caring about cooking well.

3) These three mexican mugs. They were my mother's. I love them so much that I chose my bathroom paint colors based on them. Gillen, Jesse and I drink lots of tea out of them.
4) Organic sheeets.

5) My mac. (now that we have DSL)

6) "This American Life" on NPR

7) The purple honeysuckle plant that Gillen and I got at a really cool nursery in the middle of nowhere on Wed. The purple star blossom at the beginning of this post is from this plant. I have never really cared this much about a plant (well, I do love the Gardenia that my friend Helen gave me on my 40th birthday). I end up killing so many of them. It is wierd that my mother, husband and son had/have such green thumbs and I so don't. But I am loving this plant and am honored to have it in Gillen's bird garden in our back yard.

8) funky shoes

9) Basic Grey brand scrapbooking supplies, especially their Urban Couture rub-ons and ribbons.

10) lobster (technically an animal but I am throwing it in here anyway). I only eat it if we're up north so that is very rarely. Lobster and really goood chocolate can send me into other realms. Lots of other foods come close but these are the best.

That was really fun, and hard. I didn't include so many things i love - my kids' art, JJill clothing, micro pens, BOOKS! (I really am addicted to reading ALL sorts of books), my digital camera (as small and simple as it is, still it's good to have digital), the Nessi paintings, my mother's antique desk that I am using right now, vintage sepia ink...MUSIC!! how to pick what music?... SO my mac and all the music on it in itunes covers that. I do have to say that my sister, who is 16 years younger thn I am and therefore way hipper, has introduced me to many of my favorites through her mixes she's made for me. Oh! and what about my perfectly worn in tiny blue sweatshirt with a hood that I got years ago at Old Navy?

I asked Jesse (Nicolas took Gillen birding) and other than Pokemon,Yu Gi Oh and Harry Potter books his list surprised me. He had things like "listening to French" and Egyptian pharoahs, and nature. Huh? Maybe just this moment in time. Cool.

Spring

Gillen and Jesse with the rest of the "Lightning Eagles" at practice for next week's youth birding competition.
Flowers picked for the market tomorrow

Some baby Phoebes waiting for food. Can you see the outline of their big yellow beaks gaping open? Reminds me of when mine were babes.

Commitments

"When you become your promises and your commitments you can't indulge in your preferences and opinions." -Purna Steinitz.

I made several commitments on Sunday - to blog (actually, that one was to use less space between sentences, but I am just proud that I am leaving less time between posts); to meditate, to cook from scratch, to exercise, to create every day and to farm more.

I didn't meditate even once. Sleep was a big issue this week. I did make kefir every day and cooked with my home made pot of beans and rice. I did not exercise with my new Pilates or belly dance DVDs but soo wanted to, just couldn't get past my aching body. I did however dance with Jesse to Mario Bros. Dance Dance Revolution game - the best reason, in my opinion, to have a Game Cube. I didn't create every day but did most days - crocheting for the most part. A friend is coming over soon and we are supposedly going to scrapbook (didn't commit to it or anything : 0). We both had difficult weeks with the more challenging of our separate boys and we may just drink beer and talk!

The commitment that mattered the most was the one I made to myself to farm more, and that I did. Today, with a sore neck and headache I went to the farm and picked herbs for a few hours. I really wanted to be checking out the new Goodwill that just opened. I wanted to NOT deal with Jesse not wanting to farm. But we went and it was great, despite the aches. I love the smell of a basket filled with one herb - Lemon Thyme or Marjoram or Chocolate Mint... I picked more than was needed for the order so that I could dry a bunch for us. If I can become this commitment, to help Nicolas at the farm, my senses (even if it's just a sense of exhaustion!) will take over egotistical, rambliing thoughts. I can serve something bigger. And Jesse left saying, "I really liked being there today."

It feels so good to follow through on a commitment. Why is it so hard for me to "just do it" so much of the time. The thing that is so challenging in one of my sons is also true of me - I am passionate and fiery and emotional. This can be what drives us to fantastic creativity or imagining and planning big projects or most often just the hilarious (to us) self-entertaining we do... But it can also create huge reactions and loudly proclaimed opinions and self-indulgent emotions. It can take us away from the simple task at hand, from the commitment - from crossing the finish line.

Finding clarity while in the fire (we are a Leo and Sagittarious) - that is our challenge. Breathe more, react less.

Three birds (and some bees)

This is indeed a post that is child and unschooling friendly. We're talking chirping birds and buzzing bees.

I wrote a long post about the birds in question - a penguin. a Bachman's Sparrow and a House Wren. Soon into the first bird tale (a story about "Happy Feet" and happpiness), a MEGA bee, truly the mother of all giant buzzing creatures, starting buuzzing behind my head in the lamp, its buzz saw sounds scaring me and my lap top from the room...

I finished writing my long post, added pictures of our morning spent doing bird training with an ornithologist (youth birding competition coming up in a week, Gillen's favorite day of the year last year) and a picture of the baby wrens in a shoe box on our screened in porch... And the internet DSLconnection times out. No more pictures. No more post. Not even a draft. Aaaargh. It was a loooong post.

....About being the only three to show up at a screening of "Happy Feet' at the library last night because of the school kids going to bed to get ready for their state tests this week. About dancing to Earth Wind and Fire at said movie, in the library. About seeing the rare, even endangered Bachman's Sparrow this morning, with Todd - our genuine ornithologist mentor. And my lack of sleep (insomnia last night and a very full day) had actually inspired some fun writing - it can do that, don't you think?

Am I up to this disappointment? Am I capable of rewrites in the middle of the night? Think I'll sleep on it.
one more bee thought - Nicolas did catch the bee, in a giant yogurt container, and then released it outside. I thought it ought to be preserved in amber or something for the Smithsonian (and for the safety of all small creatures including my children). But Nicolas. despite having been bitten by a bee, in the face, just yesterday, while changing his new honey bees from one hive to another... Nicolas, who is having his first second-thoughts about farming, ever, this week... He released the monster. Proving once again that he is the better human. May his bees reward him with lots of honey.

Art gallery

I am blogging at a coffee shop in Old Town Conyers - called this as opposed to the city of Conyers - overfilled, claustrophobic, bursting with the same fast-food and super stores as every other miracle mile in every part of the country. Old Town Conyers is quaint. It has beautiful old houses and it has a sweet alley of small businesses, where I am now, made up of brightly painted brick facades. Two colors on each building - vivid yellow and periwinkle blue next to a combination of fire red and summer orange, next to sea green with periwinkle as a trim this time.... It's beautiful. The kids are at their art class right across the street. I feel like my old city self doing this. Drinking a latte, in a big lilac mug, that was brewed and frothed FOR me. Sitting without kids in the middle of the day. I had been doing errands while they were in class. This is so much better. They play great music here. I just heard something that sounded like a sixties musical number but as done by Bjorg! I have to figure out what it is.

So here's to art class, which the kids love and which gives me a much cherished hour of my own thoughts. I also really appreciate the cool stuff they are drawing which is filling up the ledge I created for it all on our second floor. I happen to have a picture of it:





Gillen hasn't contributed anything new to the ledge in several weeks. According to his teacher he is recovering from having learned some hard shading . Mr. Morris is so layed back and encouraging. Gillen says he is working on a very difficult lake (and on getting to know one of the new guys in class). I do sometimes wonder if maybe Gillen didn't do more art before art class - when he used to only draw birds, so many of them and so unbelievably detailed. I miss his bird period. But he wants to be in this class, as does Jesse. And every artist moves through many stages! I'll just sip my Latte and appreciate the art of living in the moment.

Love my mac but..

I can't seem to get pictures up here without moving them from iphoto to my desktop. And even then, it didn't work when trying to add a photo to my profile (and yes, I followed the eblogger help menu instructions). If I actually let people know I was blogging, some other mac user might be able to help me. Still, I love my mac. Inordinately!

I watched "Babel" with Nicolas last night instead of blogging. It is about miscommunication and confusion and the frustration and anger that result. I felt so frustrated watching it. There is a senseless gun incident in it. I am so in favor of more gun control. Why are kids able to get the guns? Even college kids? Yes, teh senseless violence is due to so much more, incidences like what happened at Virginia Tech yesterday. For one, our children aren't attached to adult mentors anymore, they are floundering and can't feel safe to be vulnerable so their anger takes over.... but if only it were harder for them to get the guns!

I reread the book. _Hold onto Your Kids, Why Parents Matter_ by Gordon Neufeld recently and I once again got so inspired.

So, it's been a while...

I realize how backwards I am.

I wait impatiently for DSL so that I can do more blogging and have more fun with my digital photos. I get the DSL. There is cause for celebration. A new sense of control over my life - no more losing precious minutes, hours,days(when photos are involved) to dial-up. I can join the hip mama bloggers and remember our family's life by collecting moments here...

And then. I don't really know. It was fall and my kids were both old enough to want to go to more field trips. Gillen and I went, just the two of us, to a birding festival on Jekyll Island. Jesse went to Yu Gi oh tournaments at the mall (his favorite field trip). I don't really remember what else as I don't have it blogged! We were all outside a lot. Which is all to say.. nothing, really. I could have blogged about all of it. But I started thinking I needed to scrap book it all instead. Use the glue, stamps, paint, Basic Grey ribbbon and paper that I love so much. And I read lots of scrapbooking books and made some fun albums for nephews and my brother and my FIL, and I didn't do any for us. I made lots of sketches. I bought the cool supplies (always on sale, but too many) and used them only to make cards. In the end, I realized that blogging had not beeen my one obstacle to scrapbooking, as I still wasn't doing it.

Plus, I had always thought that is was important to catch up. An overwheliming prospect really . And, I now believe, a misguided notion. Will anyone, including me, be forever changed (or even notice) if I don't get to adding the photos of Jesse at MOMA or on the carousel in NYC? NO. 'Catching up' is a dangerous concept that leads me to guilt and perfectionism and sleeplessness.

I am choosing simplicity. Honesty and simplicity. I'm compelled to not edit the lazy, neurotic or ugly out anymore, despite my fears about family reading here.

I like this super sparce new layout I chose for the blog. "Clean and Simple -the sequel". That is the name of the scrapbooking book I just read by Cathy Zielske. I am so inspired by both of her books and by her blog! It is in her book that I learned about how much easier it is to read narrow columns, like in a magazine. AND she convinced me to give up two spaces between sentences (she is talking about on scrapbook layouts but I am trying it here). It's the little things that are getting me excited today.

Some other new commitments that I hope will work for me -

1) Working out again. It's been a year and I am feeling my age. I have two new DVDs - pilates and belly dancing, and of course my old faithful Firm DVDs.

2) Meditating,every day - this one gives me more patience and wisdom with my guys.

3) Doing something creative every day - this is for my sanity.

4) Keeping up even more with the cooking-it-all-from-scratch with a few needed restaurant visits now and then - don't want to become a fanatic or anything.

5) Allow my inner hip-hop goddess to express herself all over the house, at any time of day,, in any type of attire, no matter what other children or adults may be visiting.

6) Farm more. Nicolas is reaching twelve year burn-out as a farmer. It is so much work. We just had a freeze in April. It doesn't bring in as much money as he wishes it did. But the biggest thing is how much dang hard work it is. His body is tired. So I am going to help more there with the kids and to do more markets. I am going to return to my old role of farmer's wife. I am feeling so Eva Gabor rebellious right now, with "Green Acres" running through my head. But the babes are not babes any more and we CAN find the time.

September highlights

It was Nicolas' turn to proudly stand by his sibling at his brother's wedding. Damien and Stacy were worth missing the unschooling conference for - yes, they are that special. Here, they are surrounded by Damien's three siblings.

Gillen, Jesse and their three male cousins, strutting their stuff. The one girl cousin, Clementine, was busy with the bride.

Gillen and Remi, learning new handshakes.

We could have danced all night, if we were twenty and not 6 and and 42... Actually, Jesse DID dance almost all night.



Nicolas getting a rare visit with his father, here from Holland.

After the wedding, Nicolas' father, Jean-pierre, and stepmother, Marie-Helene, went with us on a trip to Block Island in Rhode Island. We stayed at the Surf Hotel, which I highly recommend to anyone who wants to have an old fashioned island hotel experience. There was no TV in the rooms and there were games of chess and checkers all over the lobby as well as people knitting, playing instruments, reuniting with other guests who have been coming back since they were kids. There is a huge porch overlooking the beach in the back and another one lined with rocking chairs in the front, overlooking the town. We loved it, though we weren't there much. Mostly, we biked, all over the island. Lots of nature, birds, seafood; we even saw a dead whale that had washed ashore. That was hard. Sad and very smelly. Jean-Pierre and Marie-Helene bike for at least an hour every day in Holland, usually much more! They do everything on bikes - buy their food, go to yoga class, meet friends, go to restaurants... I wish that we could live like that. Some day.






And that is just the beginning of the many moments that I want to remember here but may not have the time to recall, if I'm ever to rejoin present time! More attempts to come soon.

One month countdown to DSL...

I found, a week ago, that DSL is FINALLY available out here and I immediately ordered it. I thought I'd be filling my blog, oh so quickly, with lots of pictures by now. But no, I must be patient. I won't have my starter kit until Nov. 14th. Aargh. It's that feeling you have once you've given notice at a job and the remaining hours at work are torture. This dial-up is suuuuuuch an agonizing wa a a aaaade through wasted moments. Uploading pictures takes just too long. So I will be continuing with reading others' blogs while I wait for the miracle of speed on my own and in Nov. I will be posting way too many events at once. Gillen and I are going to a bird festival in Jekyl Island this weekend, just the two of us. And I still have to post pictures of the wedding, and of Block Island, and of the canoe trip we took last night on a local river and of the Green Lynx mama spider we had in our home that was protecting its egg sac for a week.

Date for "Good Eats" show

Alton Brown's okra episode will air on Wed., Sept. 27th at 10pm on the food network. We have started TVoing his show once in a while and it is so good. Funny, and full of science and inspiring me to cook new things.

We just got back, a few days ago, from ten days away! Damien, Nicolas' brother, got married in NJ (great wedding) and then we went to Block Island, RI with Nicolas' dad and his wife, Marie-Helene, who were here from Holland. We biked (alot!) and bird watched and collected shells and rocks, and some living things in shells that are now decomposing out on our deck. It is incredibly beautiful there - much of it is protected wildlife. It was so much fun to be up north again - to see Red Sox bumper stickers on cars and to hear northern accents and to eat lobster!!!! My favorite food on earth; even better than chocolate souffle. Gillen and Nicolas had to get back for the market and for Gillens' soccer game a few days before Jesse and I, so we drove (well, my FIL, Jean-Pierre, heroically drove) them to the Newark airport in Friday afternoon CT and NYC traffic!!! It was a close call - they almost missed the plane and our bladders almost burst - we were in the car for many hours without a break. Then we used the fancy GPS system to get us back to NYC (we were in Christine and Philippe's new car) only to arrive in different parts of Newark and Hoboken before figuring out where we had gone wrong in our pressing of buttons. Lots of traffic going home and two hours later we were in NYC. Made us all appreciate living in the country!

I do love the city though. I feel so at home there from growing up in NY and Boston. The next day I took Jesse to the Modern Museum of Art. We had only been to the Natural History Museum every visit before and wanted to try something new. He likes Van Gogh's "Starry Starry night" so we immediately looked for that. He loved the Picasso's and the Jackson Pollack's and the large green helicopter that was hung from steel wire in the walls. But his favorite thing was being high enough to look out of the windows and search for Peregrine Falcons in the skyscrapers. He claims he saw one. I missed it.

I have many pictures of our NY day (Central Park, street fair, parade) and of Block Island that I will post soon. We had access to wireless on vacation, from the coffee shop next door to our hotel - it is painful to be back on dial-up, truly torturous. Wish I didn't know what I was missing. So I am following a friend's advice and will try sitting with my laptop in a parking lot somewhere where they have wireless, to add pictures here.

Life is good. Only wish we didn't have to miss the NM unschooling conference - the pictures of it show how beautiful the location was. Also, I miss seeing so many unschoolers together and reuniting with friends.

And I wish that fantastically vital people who are so special to so many wouldn't keep being taken from us. Most recently - Steve Irwin. And Hannah Jenner, beautiful nine-year old Hannah. Her mom inspires me every day to see my children in technicolor, brilliant detail, to appreciate the moment and to be just a little more patient.

Alton Brown arrives, by motorcycle, in the rain!

We have not had more than an inch of rain, on the farm, since May. Truly. It's been DRY. And then, this morning, the morning that Alton Brown's "Good Eats" show is filming at our farm, the skies finally opened up - big time. It ended up being O.K. The crew said the lighting is better in the rain and I am sure that Alton's leather outfit (biking outfit) would have been miserably hot in our normal weather.


It was so cool. The crew set up right next to our okra field, with two tents filled with sound and camera equipment. They even had a trailer in the field, for Alton to wait in while they set up! Gillen hung out quietly behind the main camera man. I am always amazed at his boldness. I used to have that too. The crew were fine with it.


Alton Brown directs as well as stars in the show. I learned a lot more about okra. The kids learned alot about TV production. Alton blew a line a few times and then commented later about how he had not been swearing in these moments because there were kids there. He ased why they weren't in school and I said that they were - that this was school. He really warmed up to Gillen and was very sweet to both of them. He even had his picture taken with me! Watch the show if you can. It will air some time at the end of Sept. they said. It is on every night at 7pm on the Food Network. The okra has never looked so well-weeded. I slouched into a middle aged mama slant. Oh well. At least the farm is looking good.

Tonight, I watched his show and an old friend of mine was on it - playing "Mr. Cinaman" - cinammon dealer and expert in cinammon history, both fact and fiction. What timing.

The Hummingbird Festival

Gillen's birthday, last Fri., was the same day as the Hummingbird Festival (only 10 min. away!) so we met our playgroup friends there for the morning and then they came back here to visit. Gillen had saved up to buy some plants at the festival for his bird garden. His friend Shannon (who turned 11 two days later) helped him to plant them in the sunnyest part of our yard. We have so many trees that there isn't much full time sun. But we are radically assuming that his garden will thrive on the sun it does get! Already, the last few days, it has attracted so many hummingbirds. He got Agastache (smells like licorice), Pineapple Sage, Hibiscus (which I learned today from Alton Brown at the farm is a lot like okra - more on him later!), Crocosmia, and Stonecrop ("Autumn joy"). He planted them in a circle, inspired by the much bigger circular hummingbird garden we walked in,surrounded by tiny hummingbirds, at the festival. I tried for a picture of them. I was too slow.

Afterwards, here at home, everyone swam and ate and then somehow all ended up at the coffee table, doing art! From age 2- 11, one after another left the game cube,the pool or the toys in the bedroom to squeeze into the tiny art station,ignoring my offer of a much bigger table in the other room. It was my favorite part of the visit!

Gillen had his first sleeepover party the next night. He had four friends, all of whom only knew Gillen and then a friend who is Jesse's age to play with him (Gillen's idea). They all got along great. The older kids ended up playing with Jesse and "his" friend much of the time! There was swimming; a long,dark walk in the woods at the farm; and a spontaneous talent show at dinner (including many really creative burping displays as well as bird calls) and a movie - Jimmy Neutron, watched amidst paper airplane making and a few guys playing a Pokemon board game.

Cole gave Gillen a pocket knife. This was the dramatic unveiling of his present. Gillen also got a canteen and a sling shot, among aother things. All exactly what he would want and to which I have adjusted my initial unspoken flashback to "Lord of the Flies". I do love that he also wanted Playmobil. I was very glad to get him more for his farm set. He got to compare his pocket knife today to those of Alton Brown and his crew, all of whom are very into their knives. Who knew there was such a love of pocket knives among TV chefs, or maybe it's just on "Good Eats".

Praying Mantis Feeding

Gillen has been collecting bugs in the back yard or at the farm lately and keeping them for a few days at a time in bug houses. The Praying Mantis was so big that we could really see every detail of how it eats. I learned today that Praying Mantis females eat the male once they've gotten what they need from him. Wow. I informed Gillen and Jesse and was told that they already knew this from "The Most Extreme" on Animal planet. That show is sooo dramatic! I love to knock it!

Summer Farm Day

Here is Helen, my MIL and the owner of the farm. She is turning 70 this Sat! She is amazing. Here is Eva, a friend who does flowers with Helen. Growing the flowers was my job for a few years. I did love it. But Jesse is not as happy at the farm as Gillen is and frankly, it is OK by me! I get to take pictures of the cosmos, zinnias, sunflowers, etc. and press them for cards and love them, without sweating over them all day. Helen also started and runs the whole chicken operation and her true calling is natural medicine. She's only 5 ft. tall but is an Austrian powerhouse of a woman.














Some of the hoop houses. They have enabled Nicolas to radically extend his spring and fall seasons and to grow much more in the winter.


















Here is Jesse, surveying the land, having just wrangled a Rattler.

Farm Fame (by okra)

I have tried several times this week to upload some great new farming pictures, to no avail! I guess it's about my Mac browser? I don't really know. Maybe it's the dial up connection. But it worked a few weeks ago! Argh.

I will solve my technical problems and bring lots of pictures of summer bounty and hard labor here.

In the meantime... I have to scream with joyful anticipation of an upcoming event at the farm - I found out today that Alton Brown - the cool, whacky, witty, so appealing guy from the Food Network, is coming to the farm on Aug. 14th! His article in a Bon Appetit issue taught me how to make gourmet turkey at Thanksgiving. Apparently he used to be a music video director. I have only seen him on the Food Network once, but it was very memorable!

We have had the Food Network at the farm before, but not Alton Brown! He is coming to do a piece on okra. The good pieces on us are always about the okra! So strange. Fame by okra. Nicolas and Gillen were in a picture on the front of the New York Times food section a few years ago, in an article about our okra. Nicolas says this is why he must be growing it. If you haven't experienced it, okra is brutal to pick. It causes rashes that used to keep me itching for weeks. not everyone is so sensitive. If you wear long sleeves and pants it can't get you too badly.

I will get up early and go toil in the okra (even Jesse in tow) to be able to be part of this one. I hope he actually comes, and not just his crew. You never know.

Here's a great Okra recipe from the NY Times article :

Black Skillet Okra
time: 15 min.

1/3 cup all purpose flour
1/3 cup fine yellow cornmeal
1 pound tender young okra, washed
1/2 tsp. coarse sea salt
1/2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
4 tbls. vegetable oil (I would use coconut and olive together)

1. stir flour and cornmeal together in small bowl and set aside. Heat 9-10 inch, well seasoned cast iron skillet over medium heat 5 minutes. Heat oven to 200 degrees.

2. Trim stems and pointed ends from okra, and slice pods into 1/2 inch rounds, dropping rounds into colander. Rinse lightly with water, shake to remove excess drops, and toss okra well with salt and pepper. Sprinkle coating mixture over okra and toss in colander to coat evenly. Shake colander to remove excess coating.

3. Increase skillet heat to high. Add half the oil to skillet. Drop half the okra in skillet in single layer. Wait 5 seconds, and stir. Contimue to fry and stir until okra is deep brown and crisp with spotty char marks, about 5 minutes. Transfer fried okra to sheet pan in warm oven. Using mitts, remove hot skillet from stove and wipe clean with paper towels. Return hot skillet to burner over high heat. Add remaining oil and fry remaining okra. Serve okra hot with sliced tomatoes, cucumbers, fluffy rice and fried chicken or as croutons in a green salad (I serve it with corn bread and fried green tomatoes).

YIELD: 4-6 servings as a side dish.

The Kids' Week of Theater

Missoula Theater, a touring company out of Montana, came to little Social Circle, GA last week to put up "The Frog Prince", in only a week. They tour the whole country, as well as many other countries, putting up plays in a week using the local kids.

Gillen and Jesse were a little hesitant about going but are so glad that they did. Jesse played a Venus Fly Trap and Gillen was a Spider. They did great! It was fun for me to see them experience a bit of the theater life that I come from . It's great living in the country and having their grandmother's farm to explore... But I was grateful for a bit of culture right here, not an hour away for a change.

I also got a week filled with space to do whatever I wanted for a large chunk of the day. I admit to loving that! Knowing most of the people that they were with and feeling secure that they were happy helped a lot.

Wish I had pictures but my camera's batteries died at the beginning of their photo shoot.

Gillen's summer crops

Gillen loves the farm. He spent most of his first years there, napping on Nicolas' or my back while we worked, chasing butterflies, digging for Jerusalem Artichokes. By the age of four he was riding the tractor alone (when I wasn't there to see) and was selling vegetables that he had helped to produce, from his own table next to Nicolas' booth at the farmers' market. While Jesse is happiest with a good book, a long game or a huge puzzle challenge, Gillen is restless when home for more than a few days in a row. He is a farmer. He was there all week, working 8 hour days. This morning he got up at 5am to go with his father to the market (Jesse and I prefer to go later!). He is putting most of the money he earns in a savings account with plans to use it to take us all around the world.

This summer he is growing 1/5 of an acre of corn and a small row of watermelon. When I was taking pictures there the other day (to make a sign for our new store) Gillen rode up excitedly on his bike, covered in sweat, proudly clutching his first ear of the season. I think he may have picked it a week too early but he inhaled the hard kernels with gusto.

The Omnivore's Dilemma - a review

I just finished _The Omnivore's Dilemma ( A Natural History of Four Meals)_ by Michael Pollan. I highly recommend it to anyone who eats. I have been aware of many of the horrors of our industrial food system in this country but after reading this book am now determined to almost never eat meat or chicken (outside of that that is humanely raised, grass-fed and relatively humanely killed by farmers that we know). In addition, the processed food business! Even the organic part of this political creation... I am glad that we grow our own food and that I have the time to cook and freeze it.

I hope I haven't frightened anyone away from reading this book. It is not all gloom and doom. His writing is just wonderful. He writes about foraging for mushrooms and I learned of a whole underground world of fungi that I never knew was so fascinating nor how all important this world is to some people! Another section of the book that I particularly loved was the chapter describing his visit to Joel Salatin's wholesome grass-fed animal farm in VA.

I'll stop. He writes much better than I ever will. Please read this book.

Train, and farm update

How I wish that I had a picture of Pat and I to post here but they wouldn't let us bring cameras in at Chastain. oh, and there is the problem that I didn't actually meet them! Elif had her fellow Ritz-Carlton employee (who bartends for them whenever they are in town) tell Jimmy all about me. Wonder how crazed she made me sound? He said they would be happy to meet me but that this trip it couldn't happen as they were getting right in the bus after the show to drive to Miami for a concert there the next night. But, Nicolas and I did get to sit up front with Elif and her friends and it was an amazing show, as always. They are such good performers. Nicolas heard a bunch of guys in the restroom who had been dragged there by their girlfriends all raving about Train. sigh. You just have to experience it for yourself the next time they come within a 300 mile radius of you (even to a nearby state, or country for that matter - it's so worth it).

The kids spent the night with our homeschooling friends,Helen, Scott and their kids and had a blast with the twins. She has built a beautiful pond in their backyard with a gravel path leading up to it that will become a river (with a pump). I feel inspired to start working on our algae-infested pond and to get a pump for a water garden for the birds. Helen has a blog now about their garden and I'll post the address in my links.

Farm update....
The field is full of potatoes-


Nicolas' booth at the Sat. organic market in Atlanta




One last picture from life at home -
I have started exercising again and the kids were inspired to do their yoga tape -

Spring...

That blog entry title could become the new theme of my blog - seasonal entries.... four entries per year...NOT. That is all changing. I have finally figured out how to upload pic.s here on my mac and I have more time. So I will blog. Though there may be no readers left, I will blog in isolation!
My sister's wedding was April 8th and was held at the Burge plantation, here in Mansfield, down the street from our farm. It is where Nicolas and I got married, 11 years ago. It was a very stormy day up until an hour or so before the ceremony when the darkness and raindops were replaced by brilliant sun. It was a wonderful, creative, moving ceremony and a great week - lots of parties here so LOTs of work but a great time was had by all. We got to see Kenneth and Naomi (who came from Australia) and Wilson and Anita - who surprised Kenneth a week later at a dinner for his 40th birthday by flying in from Boston. I am so grateful that my sister and brother both married such fantastic people. Jesse agrees. Here he is making his moves to get Naomi to sign his dance card for every dance at the reception. He succeeded! Kenneth was very patient about letting Naomi be usurped by his nephew.
Here is a picture taken at the reception in a photo booth that Bhu and Matt had set up.
The picture at the top is of the bride and groom. Bhu and Matt secretly took dance lessons in NY and surprised us all with a beautifully choreographed number for their first dance. The night before, at 2am, they had snuck into my back yard (supposedly to discuss thier vows) and had actually rehearsed their dance by moonlight. And here is another women I am blessed to have in my family - Gillen's godmama and my father's goddess - Dina.

The other big event since my Jan. post is more of a lifestyle change, a revelation... A woman who goes to the market every week brought Nicolas a set of CDs about the Weston Price diet. It makes so much sense to me, intuitively and based on the evidence set down in the books I have since read. I am staying away from processed foods, am milling flour and baking our own bread and soaking grains before cooking them and eating lots of raw dairy and pasture-fed meat.... Also, lots of coconut oil and cod liver oil, tons of butter..... There is a great explanation at www.westonaprice.org if you are interested. I am spending a lot of time in the kitchen but am finding that I am serving the kids a lot better by feeding them so well and by staying out of their way more, just there when they need me. I have noticed that they are calmer since feeding them more homebaked desserts (with maple syrup and rapadura instead of white sugar). We have strawberries from the farm now so are eating lots of strawberry ice cream. Mmmmmm.

Another cool thing that happened lately was a birding competition at Charlie Eliott Wildlife Center. Gillen had wanted to enter it months ago but didn't know other kids (that were old enough ) who shared his passion for birds. We finally found a few other boys locally and had a team, just in time! They spent the last Sun. of April (from 7am -6pm) looking for birds. When two on the team had identified a bird (no adult help allowed) they could check it off the list. The mother of the other boys had connections! We were able to visit an eagle nest an hour north of us and to visit a building in Atlanta where her brother works that has a Peregrine Falcon nest.

We waited a while for the falcon to show up but did finally see him coming back to his family with prey (they think it was a barn swallow) which ws soo exciting. They saw 38 birds just at the farm and many at the wildlife center. Their total was 68 different species. At a reception that night, there was a birds of prey show and many door prizes. At home, Gillen said that it was the best day of his life. I am so glad that he was able to enter.

Jesse's yu-gi-oh passion continues.... He went to his third tournament last Sun. and in true Jesse style, won it! He wants a yu gi oh birthday party next month. His plan is to have the invited friends all play a tournament but we are attempting to persuade him to make this more voluntary and only one aspect of the party. He wants a Yu Gi Oh cake and pinata. Hmmm. I am going to try to create a pinata that is made of three giant yugioh cards but haven't figured out the cake yet...

His other interests lately are geomags and reading. He reads all the time. Reminds me of my brother and I. I love how varied his choices are - Greek Myths (which led to picking several different versions of odysseus at the library), Harry Potter 4, Dinosaur encyclopedia and Captain Underpants (he's on the bionic booger boy pair of books in the series).

Nicolas and I are going to see "Train" in concert tommorow night and may be meeting them after (thanks to Elif). Am I going to be able to speak? What shall I wear? I have to maintain calm and not turn into a crazed groupie at the age of 42!

Next blog will actually include the farm (and hopefully a picture of Pat and the guys in Train...).