Ruby stained fingers

This morning we all returned with ruby stained fingers. Driving South from our house, it literally takes 6 minutes or less to be surrounded by cornfields and rolling countryside. It is lovely. We drove the short 10 minutes to pick raspberries this morning.

Now our own raspberries are starting to grow well but it takes about 2-3 years to have them filled with berries. Although, our lawnmower broke about 10 days ago and the back property had not been mowed for about 10 days prior to that - as we walked back there yesterday in the tall grass, near the corner of our property - I noticed a little plant right by the fence that looked awefully similar to a raspberry cane. (mind you this is completely on the opposite side of the yard where we planted our raspberries) Looking closer, sure enough, there were a few tiny green raspberries - must be a fall bearing plant. As I started looking around, the whole area is filled with small raspberry plants! We will be sure to select them out this fall so they grow back thick and strong next year.

Back to this morning - we arrived at the raspberry orchard. They had about 10 very long rows of beautiful raspbery brambles, all tied up in perfect columns. Kade has become very good at selecting ripe raspberries - he carefully studies their color and gives them a gentle tug. If they slide right off the center cone, he knows they are ready. If they give resistance, he leaves them to ripen and if they crumble in his hand, he knows they are past their prime. Avram, on the otherhand, relies on only one sense to detect the ripeness of berries - taste. Berry goes in, if it tastes good, he eats it - if it tastes bad, he spits it out. Repeat. He plodded up and down the rows, bending here and there when a red berry caught his eye. By the end, of course, he was caked in dirt mixed with red raspberry juice and we all came home with ruby stained fingers - and raspberries - Yum!

Needed Vocabulary for a mother of a 4 year old

No!
Stop!
Don't do that!
Good job!
It's bedtime
Ok, we have to go now, can you put on your shoes?
careful...careful...
please go back to bed..
Be nice to your brother!
That was sweet.
Why did you do that??
Kade, it is TIME for bed.
I told you to put your shoes on 10 minutes ago!
I'm serious, really.
Please don't.
Time to go
Come on
Great work!
Hello, shoes??
I'm serious, it's getting really late, GO back to bed.
Thanks for putting your shoes on.


Repeat

Little Guy on Big Guy!

Circus World Museum Baraboo, WI

Peas and such

The other day, Kade and I sat at the kitchen table with a huge bowl of shelling peas that we had picked from the garden. His pea picking abilities have increased significantly this season. He has learned to look through the vines, spotting those peas who's shell bulges out from the fat peas within. He has even learned the delicate art of picking the peas while holding the vine, preventing the tendrills from detaching - which would lead to fallen vines. So we sat shelling them, each pea shell yielding with a snap, cracking open to reveal the peas within. We scraped each pea from it's pod, placing them into a small bowl. One thing that stood out was the fact that all of the peas varied in size. Some were large and fat, stretching their sheer skin. Others were small and ovoid. Yet, mixed together they will all be sweet and Delicious additions to stir fries, soups and salads.

It made me ponder the fact that so much of what we have done, to make life "simpler" has in fact made it so much less satisfying. How much easier would it be to just go to the store and buy a bag of frozen peas! - every pea uniform in size, not varying by more than a millimeter or 2. How much easier than digging the cold spring soil, turning in the sunken leaves, planting those tiny peas, driving in stakes, erecting a fence, watering, helping the tendrils curl in the right direction, watching the sweet flowers emerge, waiting until just the right pea length and fullness and finally picking the peas! And now - sitting here shelling all those peas - of all different sizes - starting from a huge bowl - left with a small cereal bowl of peas to be frozen and a huge pile of pods on the table. Those pods will be tossed into the compost pile, sweltering and breaking down all summer, awaiting to be returned to the garden this fall.

It is important to me that my children be connected to the food they eat - that they don't lose all idea of where food really comes from - i.e. not a grocery store! We are really enjoying our CSA, eating such a variety of healthful, organic foods. I recently heard an author discussing how organic food is so much harder to grow because the soil must be cared for exquisitely. Yet for conventional produce, the "dirt" is merely an anchor and a medium in which the plants are fed artificially. Yuck! Although, it is so obviously true.

Those peas - all different sizes - also makes me feel grateful for God's creations and the diversity of our species. Even my children - so similar deep down - deep enough to have almost identical genes - and yet so different in personality, size. How we can all be so different yet work so wonderfully together....