Memorial Day

To all those who have served and those who are serving still.... Thank You!

Simple Pleasures. It is amazing how something as simple as a hand towel can make me smile.

duck...duck...geese!

Here are 2 of the brown ducks (there are 3 that travel with a mallard on our pond) and some of the goslings:
The goslings are getting so much bigger and much bolder, too. The parents and babies will now approach quite close looking for a snack. We had been out for a stroller walk, but when we saw the geese and ducks we decided to go home, ditch the stroller and grab 1/2 a loaf of bread. (I need to find a baked good thrift store for this habit.)

Look out, Carl!!

Look at this - they are hissing at me like their parents do. Um, dudes, I have the bread. Be nice!

You are supposed to look both ways before you cross the street!

blueberry understatement

I love blueberries.

There. That's the understatement.

I love blueberries!!! Back when I was pregnant with the twins, my morning sickness was so bad, I couldn't do any of that "eating for three" jazz they talk about. It kicked in during week 8 and I stayed on the medication for it (thank goodness for insurance, because without it, one week's supply was $1900.00) until week 28. The same time I got my gestational diabetes diagnosis. Just about the time I kind of wanted to eat yummy junk foods, they became banned.

But, all of that resulted in a twins pregnancy with a weight gain of only 6 pounds. 40 came off in the first 2 weeks after they were born. I am still lighter than I was pre-pregnancy back in 2005.

I am not advocating birthing multiples as a weight loss plan.

Nor did I set out to share details of the pregnancy. But, back to the berries.... even in the beginning when I didn't want to eat much, I craved salad and anything green.... and blueberries. We lived in Menonite country and had access to some kick hiney berries, too, by the way. I ate so many berries, had they come out purple, I probably wouldn't have paniced. Would have just figured it was high prenatal blueberry exposure. HPBE for short.

We had a family W.O.W. (Women Only Weekend) about 20 weeks into the pregnancy. I can remember getting teased a bit because everyone else was tossing down M&Ms while we played dice games at the kitchen table in The Farm and there I sat with my green cardboard quart of blueberries. Mmmmmmmmm. (OK, now I wish I had some of Peter's spaghetti sauce. Any chance he'd share his recipe?)

When we moved to NC, we discovered they have a Blueberry Festival! We went! You could buy quarts of berries as well as other fair foods, see crafts, listen to music... all that typical "Fest" stuff. We had to buy Gretchen her own quart to inhale. Apparently, she remembered the love of them. Carl ate some that first year (as well as the home made blueberry ice cream), but since then both kids have become more fussy and Carl won't eat the berries. (or any ice cream that is not Vanilla. Even at home, he won't eat Stewart's Philadelphia Vanilla because the little vanilla bean flecks are too much for him!) We're actually looking forward to this year's festival coming up in June. I hope it isn't as hot as it has been in past years, though.

So, the good news is that it is blueberry picking season here right now! We went to the same place we pick our strawberries (which are still available to pick yourself) and later in the season, we'll pick blackberries there, too. There were still a lot of green berries, so I think we have a good amount of time to go back. I can also pick them up close to home at the farm stand from that berry farm. Very cool!
The kids did well picking. Both were actually interested in it. Carl was trying to pick green ones at first, but we got him on track. You have to be careful not to bump into the bushes too hard, or you'll knock off other ripe berries. This was a challenge for Carl as he wanted to run in between the bushes and we had to keep him onto the grassy rows.
and of course, we made these with some of our fresh picked berries. mmmmm

up at 4:30am today

for this....

Aren't these rocks beautiful? The tide was going out early this morning. If it is high tide, the rocks aren't visible and you can't capture the gorgeous green mossyness along with the surf.

baby geese, turtles and Carl like bread

Used to be, Carl ate all the bread you handed him. Now, about half actually makes it to the geese. Occasionally, he tosses the piece at them whole, but that wasn't the case this day.

I think this mom is sending them up to say "thank you"

Hate to eat and run.....

This guy came right out of the water to get some pieces, too.

They don't like it when the other geese get too close. But, if those geese are patient enough, the 4 parents and babies leave and then they can come over for a snack, too.

it's not a holiday until someone paints their feet!

Last Sunday, I did not have the idea set in my head. I was leaning towards letting the Founders of My Mother's Day do all the work. Putting the shirt on the easel and letting them paint and use fabric markers on it. But, I just wasn't sure. I still wanted that "four year old hand print" recording type look. You know, the one that the early childhood teacher in me longs to give every parent to remember those tiny hands. So, because I couldn't picture it in my head, I couldn't get into making it. And, that's why the shirt wasn't ready for the official Mother's Day. Once I finally decided that yes, I wanted the crisp, clean adult-help-look the project came together easily. The kids are big enough now that you can do the painting on their hands and go right off to wash without any problems. And, they were able to stand on a chair while I painted their foot and they lifted their foot up to the table height for easy pressing. (Then Daddy whisked them off to the kitchen sink for a quick wash. Having a competent assistant makes crafting much smoother!)

Carl's hands are the blue and yellow ones. Gretchen did pink, orange and purple. You can see the difference between size 10 Gretchen and size 12 wide Carl's feet, right? I would not have put this stuffy picture of me up if the feet had been visible in the lower shots!

So, one week late.... Happy Mother's Day to me!! The Founders let me sleep in a little, I got to choose a favorite TV show (Imagination Movers on Disney... yes, I love children's TV), we made my shirt and then later on started the end-of-year teacher gifts (got 4 of 8 done already!) and they even posed with me for a couple photos after dinner before taking me out for ice cream!

I can still lift 84 lbs of twins! (46 & 38)

And I decided to pick up another blank canvas shirt for them to decorate for me on the easel and with fabric markers any way they see fit.

Happy National Chocolate Chip Day!

Yes, it's real. Google it. (of course, those blogs have better photos than I do. Let's pretend that they used stock photos. I had to snap the pics before my props got eaten and drank!!!) So, laugh if you will, but here at our house, we have fresh baked chocolate chip cookies in honor of the day. Still think it's a silly holiday? Then, you can politely say "No thank you" when I offer you a few cookies and a cup of milk. (not full, of course. As my Dad would say, "if you drink that, you can have more.")

If you're on board... c'mon over. I'll set a glasses out for y'all.