iraqi bundle of love

Today, at the last minute, I am sending off my Iraqi Bundle of Love. This is a project started by a wonderful man in the army over in Iraq who is returning home soon and simply wants to leave Iraq with a little bit of goodness. As the husband and son of quilters, he came up with the idea of donating fabric and sewing supplies to sewing cooperatives and individuals in Iraq. Yarn and knitting supplies are also welcome. He has called this project Iraqi Bundles of Love (IBOL) and keeps a blog about it here with all the specs for donating a bundle. I regret that I did not do better in spreading the word, because today is the last day to mail off a bundle, but if you are reading this and would like the address from me today, give me a call. I'm going to pick up Sam from school and have him help me pack up our package at the post office, while trying to explain something about giving things away to people who might need them more than we do.

strawberries and delayed gratification

My past experience with Seascape everbearing strawberries has been that the plants are easy to grow, produce abundantly, and that the berries taste magnificent. My CSA members in Berkeley would pronounce our strawberries the best they had ever tasted. This is not a variety widely grown for production because of the fragility of the berries, but when sweetness and flavor are of the utmost importance, usually for a small grower, nothing beats the Seascape in my opinion. So of course when we bought our own house, and with a 2-year-old berry-lover to think of, I planted them again.

Early on in June, I let go control of the harvest and allowed Sam to pick and eat and learn with minimal direction from me. I guided him to look around the whole berry to make sure it was all red and ready, and after picking a few that were barely pink, he now makes sure only to pick ones that are truly ripe. With only 6 container plants, Sam eats almost all of our strawberries himself, which is just fine with me.

Recently Sam has been picking strawberries and declaring that he must "save it for breakfast and put it in the refridgerator." So he runs inside with his berry (or handful of berries) and deposits it on the top shelf of the fridge. The next morning, he eats them cut up in his oatmeal. This has been going on for a few weeks now.

I am reminded of an interesting article I read recently about children and self-control. Simply put, studies show that children who are able to delay gratification early in life can have greater success as adults. If I hadn't provided Sam the guided freedom to pick his own strawberries, I wonder if he would have expressed this ability to save them.

As far as the Seascapes go, I think they do much better in a more coastal climate. I find our productivity and flavor to be not quite as amazing, and the plants that are doing the best are the ones with the longest shade period. I will try some additional varieties next year.

ground cherries

I was excited to see ground cherry starts at my local farm supply nursery this spring. I had only seen the plant once before, on a farm in the Sierras where a friend worked years ago. I visited her one day and tasted this unique fruit for the first time, filing the name away in my head before hopping off a boulder for a luxurious mountain swim.

Ground cherries are in the Solanaceae family (one of my favorites), the same family as tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant, and are closely related to tomatillos. Our plant grew only about a foot tall but spread 3 feet or so in all directions, in a seemingly friendly competition for space with our butternut squash. Flowers are yellow and star-shaped, and the berry-sized fruits hang like little green lanterns. Ground cherries are ripe when the papery skin becomes brown and dry and the fruits drop to the ground. Peel off the papery skin to reveal a small orange fruit with a unique taste--part pineapple, part citrus, part tomato.

The taste is not for everyone, but they are pretty popular around our house. Good thing because they are quite plentiful these days. Sam has said more than once, "I love ground cherries Mommy!" and he searches for them every time we are out in the garden. I think unwrapping the papery skin is a big part of the appeal. One of Sam's Montessori teachers is really into doing tastings of unusual foods with the kids, and she was excited when I told her about our ground cherries. I plan to bring some into his class for a tasting soon.

garden visitors

I ran to the garden to pick a few cherry tomatoes for Sam's lunch today before heading out to pick him up at school. As I was approaching the vines, some movement on a leaf of our tiny orange tree caught my eye. Looking closer, I noticed it was a very large insect. A praying mantis, very nice! I didn't have time to linger, so I continued towards the cherry tomatoes, started picking, and then noticed the droppings of a gigantic tomato hornworm. There it was on the tomato stem, munching away.


I hadn't seen one in many years. Not something you really want to see on your precious plants; these guys have big appetites. I had to leave to get Sam, but found it in the same spot hours later and took these pictures (no such luck with the praying mantis). I picked it off the plant and put it on the ground for Sam to get a closer look. It is fatter and longer than my finger, felt muscular when I grabbed it bare-handed, and writhed with its stubby legs from being disturbed. Small bugs do not bother me; we allow small spiders in our home, but relocate the large ones outside (or down the toilet). I am careful not to instill a fear of insects in Sam. So I swallowed my discomfort, picked up this thing again with a leaf, showed it to our neighbor, and carried it over to our green waste bin where I said a little apology and dropped it inside.


I also explained to Sam that we don't want this caterpillar eating our tomatoes, even if its camouflage is rather elegant. Later I looked it up in my insect books and realized that the horn actually protrudes from the rear end, and that they are sometimes parasitized. Now I wish I'd checked for signs of ovipositor attack, although it really was so fat and muscular that I rather doubt it was being eaten from within.

evening in the garden

Just before dinner we stepped out to the front yard to pick something to eat. Among many other things we put into our harvest basket, we found three paricularly large vegetable-fruits: one Celebrity tomato, unknown green zucchini (we thought we were planting yellow zucchini), and a lovely Armenian cucumber. The tomato was especially welcome, because, although our vines are heavily laden with tomatoes, they are all (except for a handful over the past weeks) eternally green:


Will they ever ripen? At least we still have as many beautiful cherry tomatoes as 3 people can eat, and more:



And I'm still loving all the butternuts ripening everywhere:


Sam's vegetable of choice for dinner tonight? Raw green beans that he picked himself.

first day of school

In the next few minutes Sam will be saying goodbye to his Daddy and entering the new world of Montessori school. We have been preparing him for weeks for this day.

I decided at 4 pm yesterday that I needed to make him a new schoolbag...

...to hold the ceramic mug which will be his water cup at school. Denis gave me this bee mug for our first Christmas/Hanukkah together, after I had admired it at a craft fair. Now it will be Sam's "little piece of home" at school. Comfort, style, and utility, all in one self-chosen object; I love this practice at his school.

Sam chose this bug fabric that I have had in my stash for 12 years. Tiny tote bag pattern from my much-used and always good Bend the Rules Sewing book. Of course everything needs to be labelled now.

We think he's really going to love it there. And I can't wait to pick him up in a couple hours and hear all about it!

drumming

Sometimes you just need to hit something, especially when you have, as your father puts it, a kinetic personality. You may start out hitting with a frustrated passion and a pushed-out lower lip, but a smile soon settles in. It's quite satisfying having an audience as well.

Denis, who owns probably a dozen or more musical instruments, bought this African drum years ago from an old friend of his. This particular friend is a professional drummer, and played in an African drumming/dancing group that often performed at the ranch where I used to live and work, long before Denis and I knew each other. The group fit in well with the hippie-earthy vibe we had at the ranch, though I was rather ambivalent about drum circles myself. When this guy got married, his wedding was at the ranch, and Denis attended, while I observed the festivities from my tiny "elf-house" abode, neither of us aware, of course, that our future spouse was in our midst.

When we moved into our first home together as boyfriend-girlfriend, this drum was part of our bedroom decor. Now it lives in our son's closet, to be pulled out on afternoons when manic energy is running high. More than once this past week, I've been taken down memory lane listening to the new sounds of little hands pounding.

garden for dinner

This is a good example of one of my easy dinners. I don't think I ever made exactly this before last night, but variations of it pop up a lot when I've had a particularly long day.

Put quinoa in the rice cooker; pick green beans and cherry tomatoes from the front yard; trim, slice, and steam green beans al dente; quarter cherry tomatoes; mix veggies with quinoa and add olive oil (plus butter for Sam); season with garlic salt (I turned up my nose at this for years, but recently purchased the 'good' stuff-no additives-and it makes things so easy sometimes) and black pepper; add grated parmesan at the table. It's the parmesan that elevates this dish from bland to yummy, and the complete protein in the quinoa makes it perfectly nutritious. Nothing too special, but the whole thing took less than a half hour to make, and all three of us ate it up. Garden yummies + protein + quick = perfect.

p.t. update

For anyone on the edge of her seat (or his seat), and for posterity, here's the scoop: using the potty clicked for Sam on the third day of at-home nakedness. Transitioning to undies at home has yet to click after more than two weeks. A few successes but mostly accidents. I've been letting him take the lead, with gentle reminders from me, but no forcing him to sit. Lots of accidents. Not the easy kind. Lots of laundry loads consisting of one tiny pair of underwear and one tiny pair of shorts. Part of the problem may have been that we ran out of reward m&m's soon after the transition, which was part of our plan (not wanting to continue the sweets reward for too long), and for which we gave lots of reminders (look, they're almost gone) and provided a substitute reward (stickers). Possibly Sam decided that using the potty was no longer so fun without m&m's, or possibly he is just having trouble recognizing the need to go when he has clothes on. Either way, I soon bought more m&m's for the reward jar. Still the accidents continued.

As of today, we do more diapers and occasional nakedness, but a few days ago I quit the underwear unless he asks for it. I was starting to get frustrated with the messes and didn't want to pass on the negativity to Sam's process. Just a little break for me, I suppose. School starts next week, and they will help with training Sam, along with a few other kids, so hopefully the group experience will help him. Meanwhile I'll do a little research and continue with underwear when I get my mojo back.

sungolds

This is our ridiculously abundant cherry tomato harvest this morning. From two sungold plants. Also a few (red) sweet 100s from one plant. Minus those that Sam kept eating as we picked and photographed. Can you tell that his garden boots are on the wrong feet? He doesn't care. It is interesting to me how many sungolds we are getting, because for the first time I did not do any pruning of suckers this year. They are a sprawling mess and it's challenging to pick them without stepping on branches and fruit clusters, but the bounty is worth it, don't you agree?

early august garden

We have honeybees in the poppies, hummingbirds in the tithonia, and neighbors exalting our bounty and bringing their friends over to see. Even I am amazed at the vigorous growth of every one of our plants. Despite the significant shade cast by our 40' mimosa tree, everything in the garden is thriving. The pole bean teepee is taller than all of us:

This single butternut squash plant is my favorite this year; the vines are still snaking their way onto paths and adjacent garden beds, producing lots of enlarging fruits along their way:

We have harvested only 2 slicing tomatoes so far, but have had many handfuls of sungold cherry tomatoes, most have which have been gobbled up by one eager eater:

Soon we will make our first batch of pickles, using the beautiful dill flowers pictured above in my new blog header. For weeks we've all been eating a high proportion of green beans and cucumbers in our diet (we pick this much every few days):

The last of the beets and carrots will make room for a winter garden bed to be planted next month:

I must mention that all this lush growth is definitely not the result of high water use. We are very aware of water shortages this year and are extremely frugal with our water use. Each garden bed is heavily mulched in straw, and plant spacings are closer than normal (biointensive style), providing a canopy over the soil to minimize moisture loss. We often wait until plants are droopy before watering. On our ornamental plantings, we are almost exclusively using reclaimed water from Sam's bath and our showers, and we do not have a water-thirsty lawn at all. I am proud to say that we are using relatively little additional water this summer, and our garden still kicks ass.

woos-gick class

This summer we've been doing music classes on Thursdays. It is a Music Together program, which is based on the premise that all children are musical. It is a small group class of "music immersion," with strong parent participation (we are considered our children's models--with no time to take pictures btw), and a curriculum of songs each term. We received cds of the songs, including suggestions to bring music into our home life (e.g. Sam playing a flute at home, above). Each class involves singing, movement, and percussion, using a slightly different approach each week to the now-familiar songs.

Sam LOVES woos-gick class! He plays the cds at home, sings along (though not in class for some reason), and we even hear him singing the songs on his own without the cd as well. Every morning he asks if we are going to woos-gick class, and when we are driving there on Thursday mornings, he is very animated discussing our route, especially when we are in view of the parking lot where he practically busts himself out of his carseat with excitement. "There it is! There it is! There's the woos-gick class Mommy! Right there!" In class, he loves all the movement and percussion, and smiles when his name is sung during the hello and goodbye songs. Above all, he adores our wonderful teacher. With Helen, I feel like we got so lucky. She is so engaging and down-to-earth, very fun, keeps the music fresh (and thankfully not cheesy) each week, and most of all really connects with the children.

Today after class, in a perfect display of his shy-but-loves-people personality, Sam ran up to Helen as if to hug her goodbye, then immediately averted his eyes and ran away. Why I love Helen is that she totally got it: she gave Sam a loving smile and told him (from across the room) that she felt special for getting such a nice goodbye from him. I don't know who of the three of us was happiest in that moment.

county fair

Sam calls it the "fair-ya," and we had some great summertime fun just minutes from home. He went on his first roller coaster (and ferris wheel) with Daddy:

Visited some farm animals:

Ran around a barn while I checked out the old-timey home and garden contest entries:

And savored some classic fair foods:

We loved it!

phase 2

I am a total mommy-blogger cliche right now, posting about potty training, but it's a pretty big deal (I'm learning), so here I go! Our commitment to the process has yielded some surprisingly positive results (along with the darker results of an exhausted mommy and a week of dinner failure). Sam now will use his little potty almost unfailingly while at home and naked. He's been doing this since day 3 of serious training (about a week now). As of yesterday we are in Phase 2, transitioning to underwear at home. So far there have been a lot of wet underpants hanging on the clothesline, but we persevere! Stay tuned!

kickin it

Sam seems to have endless supplies of energy. Some days it is hard for me to give him enough physical activity. He rarely appears to be truly "worn out," and in fact he often has so much pent-up energy that he clenches his fists, chatters his teeth, and shakes his entire body! I do what I can with parks and walks, but strangely, in those situations he often just wants to sit near me or be picked up. Sadly, we haven't found our exercise rhythm together these last many months. So imagine my happiness when we found we both enjoyed kicking the soccer ball around the backyard last week. I was never much into sports as a kid, preferring reading or wandering around the woods, but I think with such an energetic child I will have to start learning a few things. Turns out, kicking a ball around isn't so bad, especially when Sam squeals with glee as if all my kicks are awesome, and always volunteers to retrieve the ball from the bushes. And even if 45 minutes of hard playing didn't slow him down one bit, it's a start.

here we go

Yes it's true, potty training has begun in earnest. We are still within the first 24 hours of serious commitment. Despite Sam's past refusals to try to use the potty, I am making the effort now because preschool is right around the corner. Once we start on that schedule, we won't have continuous days when we can stay home to focus on the process. I am hoping that making a big push now will get Sam at least "potty-learned" for preschool. We will be staying home as much as possible, armed with a stack of kids' potty books from the library, a boy baby-doll who can pee in his own tiny potty, calming music (right now, Iron and Wine's Our Endless Numbered Days--haha), doorlocks to lock off the carpeted rooms of the house, nakedness (for him), rags and towels (already in use), and, hopefully for both of us, giant quantities of patience. I cajole the nakedness, but otherwise I am mostly letting Sam take the lead.

So far, he is most interested in giving his baby doll the water bottle so that babydoll will pee. As for Sam's own pee, well, he keeps saying, "I already peed!" and then shows me where to clean it up.

It's almost 10am, and I've had 4 interruptions writing this post. I am exhausted already! But positive, and determined.

beautiful redwoods

It had been feeling like a long time since we'd gone on a fun summer outing as a family. So many other things beckon: swim lessons, naps, the garden, the sewing machine, the dirty bathrooms, the cluttered garage, "unstructured time." This past Sunday we set all that aside and finally got ourselves out to a new place: Armstrong Redwoods near the Russian River. Above is the obligatory heads-up shot of these majestic trees, the tallest trees in the world.

Even after living in this area for 10+ years these trees still amaze me. Even after I lived down the road from Muir Woods and snuck into the groves in moonlight after hours, or pitched a tent on a ridge nearby (also illegally) and spent the night, or visited on rainy days when the crowds were elsewhere staying dry, redwoods have not lost their power.


It was a hot day at home, but we planned (and hoped) for possible cool fog in the coastal redwoods. We were sweating in our tshirts though, as it was hot there too, with hot-bright patches of sun surrounded by very warm shade. We let Sam run freely as much as possible on our easy hike, explore the picnic area, point to and identify letters on the signage, and climb into fire-hollowed bases of huge redwoods. My favorite part was asking Sam who might sleep in the burrows of these trees. Below he is wondering if a bunny is in there. The hat Sam is wearing was picked out by himself and his Daddy, and has a basketball on the front (not something I would choose myself). All day I was loving how his blonde hair curls up from under that cap.

making things

I love the new look of our closet door with this simple curtain I made with fabric from one of my favorite fabric designers. Our bedroom has beautiful blue walls and crisp white trim, and this new curtain adds the perfect touch of pattern. It replaces a wooden folding door that was just too loud and bulky for my tastes. I'd still like to add some weights to the bottom hem to help it hang a bit better, but I love it already.



I whipped up these baby bibs for a playgroup mom friend expecting a baby girl. (Excuse the ugly fake wood background; I had to take this picture in a hurry before the baby shower brunch yesterday.) This was a fun project because it was quite easy and I learned how to use a snap setter. The pattern came from this awesome book.



I made these dresses for another playgroup mom friend who just had a baby girl. The pink one is for the newborn and the green one is for her older sister, Sam's friend Sadie, and I like that they are the same style without matching. I used a great free pattern found here. I loved making these because they were actually my first garments ever, and I think they turned out beautifully. I learned a few new skills here: making gathers and attaching piping and bias binding.




I made this felt board awhile ago, using this free tutorial. At the time, Sam was very interested in learning letters, but alas, since I made this, his interest has waned a bit. He knows all the letters pictured here and a few more, but I can't really say that he has used this felt board and learned anything. Maybe in the future!

this chair

It's just a cheap lounge chair, not pretty, not even particularly comfortable. We bought it at Fred Meyer in Boise when I was pregnant with Sam three years ago, and this past weekend we dusted off the cobwebs in preparation for our first summer bbq.

Yesterday during Sam's naptime I pulled it into the sun for a few minutes of reading. I couldn't help thinking about those early summer days three years ago, when I was just coming out of the worst of my debilitating morning sickness, during which I lived prostrate on the couch trying not to hurl the single piece of peanut butter toast which was the only food I could bear to eat each day. But I was feeling a bit better, and I requested from Denis that we buy a chair so that I could recline outdoors and enjoy the warmer weather. I was eating a slightly bigger and more varied single meal each day, and I would lie on this chair, still too nauseous to read, so grateful that I could eat more and that it wasn't nose-biting cold anymore and that I could even see buds on our lilac bush. Sitting in this chair three years ago I started to feel like myself again.

Yesterday I sat here for the first time in three years, and felt gratitude again. For the successful 5th of July bbq we had, the wonderful family who came and had such fun together, for the comfortable yard in our new house, for the perfect sunny day, and for the opportunity to read (without nausea) a great book (The Liars Club) while my not-quite-three-year-old (finally) napped inside.

Sam's lens

That round steel object in Sam's hands is the lid to a nutchopper kitchen gadget (to us). To him, it is a camera. This is a picture of Sam taking a picture of me. Usually he just carries his camera around, after pulling it out of the kitchen cupboard, occasionally announcing its presence to me, and plays with it on his own. I love hearing about his imaginings. Lately, he has been going to various stores in the backyard on his tricycle. Over by the shed is Macy's, the side yard houses the ice cream store (the site of a booboo), and his favorite store TJ Max (or as he puts it, "ChayChainNax") seems to be located in the front yard some days, and down the street other days. Lots of little things become keys and doors (longtime favorite objects finding new ways to amuse him). Backyard gravel becomes salad for dinner. Many months ago, soon after we moved here, Sam even alerted me to the presence of imaginary people, usually "the lady," who would sit with us at the table, but who have not appeared lately. We encourage all of this of course, which is why I asked Sam to take a picture of me today. It's not a request I normally find myself making, but for my little dreamer-with-a-camera I'll do it.

preschool bound

We have just confirmed Sam's enrollment in a wonderful preschool beginning in late August. This curious, active, loving little guy will now have more stimulation, space, and people in his happy life. I could not be more excited. I visited the school twice, including two classroom observations, and I literally got chills imagining Sam's world expanding to include this lovely preschool. Sam himself kept talking about going back to school after we left. The time is right for me too---I have been craving more time to work on my own projects, which hopefully will help bring in some money to help pay Sam's tuition.