ZOO!!

Yesterday's adventure to Franklin Park Zoo was really fun!

Getting ready for school... Already?!

Although summer is still in full swing, a little "love letter" from the superintendent of schools reminded me recently that it's time to submit this year's homeschool education plans! They are due on Friday, and I'm quite proud of myself that I'm a wee bit ahead of the game this year. I wrote up the Ed. plans earlier this week, began purchasing books and supplies, and started reorganizing our homeschool cabinet. We're trying out some new stuff this year... a little more structure for some things, a little less structure for others. I'm finding that we tend to evolve and change things up a bit each year, adapting to the children's needs. It's nice to be able to do that! Yet another benefit to Homeschool :) In the coming weeks we'll be figuring out what our fall activities will be, what kind of extra classes we'll be taking, etc.

All that being said... We're not in a hurry for fall to get here, as we are still very much enjoying these last weeks of summer! We've still got quite a few summer adventures planned! Today we are off to the zoo! Photos will follow, for sure!

Squash Blossoms!

I learned something new, yesterday... squash blossoms, it turns out, are EDIBLE! And today I learned that not only are they edible, they are DELICIOUS! Since my squash plants are growing like kudzu, I have an abundance of lovely golden flowers, and at a friend's suggestion, I tried cooking some! I found a few recipes on the internet, but since I can't possibly follow a recipe to the letter, I actually ended up combining a couple of different recipes and changing a few things, and the results were quite tasty! Here is my version of Stuffed Squash Blossoms:

10 squash blossoms, freshly picked, rinsed and stamens removed.
1/2 lb. ricotta cheese
1/4 cup pecorino romano, grated
3 scallions, white and green parts, finely chopped
fresh parsley and basil chopped (about 2 tbsp each)
2 tbsp pine nuts, coarsely chopped
salt and pepper
melted butter

Preheat oven to 350. Combine cheeses, scallions, herbs, pine nuts, salt and pepper. Put the mixture into a pastry bag and carefully fill the blossoms, taking care not to overfill. Place them carefully in a baking dish, drizzle with melted butter and bake 15 minutes.

I served mine with fresh kale (from the garden, of course!) and brown rice with herbs and veggies (more garden!) Enjoy!!

From the Garden to the Table...

If you've read this blog before, then you are well aware that I LOVE my garden! I also happen to love to cook, and when I get to cook with fresh ingredients from my garden... Oh! Bliss! Today I brought in a huge basket of basil from the garden, as well as lots of other greens, beets, and tomatoes. With my littlest guy assisting in the kitchen, I made a big, fresh-from-the-garden kind of dinner... a big salad of spinach, roasted beets and goat cheese in a balsamic vinaigrette and whole wheat spaghetti with fresh pesto! My daughter helped set the table nice and fancy, and I enjoyed a lovely meal with my oldest and youngest child (middle boy was off for the day with Dad) It was quite delicious, according to my little gourmets!

Birthdays

This past Tuesday marked my 37th birthday. Birthdays, for me, are a time to take stock of my life... to see if my life is progressing as I'd like it to... to check off goals accomplished and set new goals for the coming year. That was a little strange, this birthday, as the past year my life has taken some very unexpected twists, and those changes have drastically altered my life path. This birthday, I have no idea what direction I'm headed in, and I'm desperately searching for a map. I thought, some time ago, that by this point in my life I'd be living a happy life with my happy family in a happy home, creating and selling my art and generally feeling pretty blissful. While that's not too far from where I am, I certainly never expected that I'd end up working a crappy night job, that my marriage would crumble or that the lousy economy would cause a screeching halt to my artwork sales. But the past year has also granted me many unforeseen gifts, as well... I've met some wonderful friends who have become a source of great strength and inspiration for me as a mother, an artist and a woman. A couple of my older friendships have deepened and grown stronger, and it feels good to know that I'm surrounded by people who care about me and my children. I'm trying hard to find the balance between taking control of my own happiness, and realizing that much of life is out of my control, and I need to just let it unfold as it will. Not an easy thing, for a person who is a bit of a control freak!

I celebrated my birthday by going on a Camping Adventure with my sister and kids. It was lots of fun, though admittedly, camping with 3 kids is a lot of work! I need a getaway to recover from my getaway! I do love the cape, though, and it was lovely to spend time with my sister and my kids there. My kids are already planning for next time!

More about Gardens...

OK... so by now I'm guessing people are getting tired of hearing about our garden... but Oh My Goodness I can't help myself! I can't believe it's actually growing and feeding us! The kids and I have our daily ritual... everyday around 4, after an afternoon of working and playing in the yard, we bring out a basket and fill it up with goodies from the garden for dinner, then we water the garden and head inside to wash up and prepare a meal with fresh produce from our own garden! We've had spinach and lettuce and herbs for quite some time along with a pepper or two... and now we have also been enjoying tomatoes, beets and cucumbers! There will be lots more as the season progresses, and we are trying hard to be patient as we watch the fruits of our labor mature and ripen.
Now that our vegetable garden is in full swing, we decided it was time to add more flowers to the yard. Annabelle has been asking for "cutting" flowers... she is like her Mother in that regard... she loves fresh flowers! We've been planning for a couple of weeks, and today we started a Butterfly Garden! So far we have bee balm, coneflowers, coreopsis, tall phlox and pincushion flowers. We're planning on adding to it in the coming weeks.
We are all learning so much from our gardening adventures! At the forefront of my mind lately is the "letting go" and realizing that in the garden, I cannot be in control. Things will grow only as fast as Mother Nature will have them grow, and a tomato will ripen in it's own time. The bunnies and bugs and birds and other critters do not care whether or not I want them in my garden, and so I am learning to make peace with them. I can discourage them, but I cannot control them. It's quite freeing, this realization! I'm trying really hard to apply these lessons to the rest of my life, too!
But the most important lesson of all... one that applies to both gardens and children, too... and what has been the mantra of my gardening experience... "If you love it, it will grow".

If you love it, it will grow.

Aah...Summer!

The busy month of June is well behind us… the craziness of the end of the dance-school year (two different dance school, 2 kids, 5 classes…EEP!), and our homeschool activities have slowed down for the summer, so we are now enjoying the much slower pace of July. We are taking time to enjoy summer’s simple pleasures… spending lots of time outside, tending our garden, playing in the sprinkler, eating watermelon on the porch swing, going for walks, ice cream… all the good stuff! There’s been a lot less “where to we have to be today” and a lot more “where do we WANT to be today?” We’ve got lots of fun Summer things to look forward to in the coming weeks, too… little day trips and our first-ever camping adventure! I really do love summer!
In other news… last night Annabelle and I hosted the first gathering of our new Mother-Daughter group! We had SO much fun!! Six awesome moms and six incredible girls between the ages of 6 and 9, all hanging out together, making tie-dye and then walking into town for ice cream! The group was inspired by an amazing book called The Mother-Daughter Project (which was recommended by good friend and awesome Mom, Leigh!). It challenges the notion that adolescent girls “need” to hate their mothers, and offers ways to maintain the mother-daughter bond through adolescence and beyond. I would highly recommend it!

Our Garden and Another Milestone!

I'm surprised everyday at how well our garden is growing!! It's truly surprising to me everyday when I go out there! It being our first attempt at a real garden, I didn't really have high expectations for this first year... we're pretty much winging it, and, as I've mentioned before, we're working on the theory that "if you love it, it will grow" And we do, and it is!

(For those who are interested, there are more garden pics on my flickr)

In other news...My middle child has lost his first tooth! Hooray! He's been waiting and waiting and waiting, wiggling the tooth and eating apples at every opportunity! The Tooth Fairy comes tonight!

Breakfast History!

Tomorrow is July 4th! The kids are REALLY excited! My 6-year-old history buff in particular, but the other two are pretty excited too! Annabelle is making red, white and blue paper chains to decorate the porch, and Harry has been asking everyday if it's time for the parade yet! We happen to live in the town which holds the claim of the largest Fourth of July Parade in Massachusetts! It's a little bit hokey, but there is a certain kind of small-town charm to walking into town, seeing all the lawn chairs lined up on the sides of the road, the marching bands, clowns, fire trucks, etc! We've been talking a fair amount about colonial America (one of Theo's favorite things to talk about, right up there with baseball and pirates!) and this morning we decided, in honor of Independence Day, to make Johnny Cakes for breakfast! We served them up with butter and maple syrup and applesauce... delicious!