Happy May!

The May weather is gorgeous and I celebrated the day by reducing my carbon footprint. I went to a local farm and bought fresh, organic, LOCAL produce instead of buying the same thing at the grocery store for more because it had to be shipped from Chile. Less travel for my food means more lovin' for my Mother Earth. They're going to addict me though because there are new things everyday (depending on what was harvested) and he specifically said that this early in the season, you just never know about the strawberries. So it looks like I'll be making frequent trips to check out the strawberries and while I'm there who knows what else will tempt me. They had fresh eggs (too bad I just bought some yesterday), olive oil pressed at a local pressery (?) from olive grown on the farm, and marinara sauce canned (jarred) from last years crop of tomatoes. How cool is that?

I am now sufficiently motivated to go back to making my own chicken stock (in fact I picked up some yummy celery tops just for that purpose!) and baking my own bread. If only we could get that deep-freeze freezer so that I could buy beef in primal cuts instead of those pricey supermarket cuts and then we'd be in business. I'm trying to talk DH into getting me a pressure cooker too. (Anyone watching The Alaska Experiment on Discovery Channel? They've really piqued my canning and preserving interests.) And a dehydrator. OK, now I'm being greedy, but I say we're only about 6 years away from our first family backpacking trip and I need to be prepared!

But all that may be a little too ambitious considering my state of mind lately. Yesterday, I left an hour late for an hour long class. Do the math - it doesn't work out well. Thursday I was still debating whether or not C&C should go to science class but on Friday morning I decided that Greyson was doing so much better that we'd go ahead and go. I wanted to stop at the store on the way and pick up some bread and tortillas so I got everyone ready to go at 10:40. I figured that would be plenty of time to go shopping and then drive the half hour to the 11:00 class. Hmmm, again, do the math. We ended up leaving a bit late and pulled into the Trader Joe's by our house at 11:00 exactly. I was reminding the kids to hurry up because we were running a tad late and Cameron said, "Mommy, doesn't Science Class start at 11:00?" D'OH!! OMG, my heart just sank. I have never felt so much like I let my kids down as I did right then. Thankfully, they forgave me and thankfully we didn't go because Cameron ended up feeling badly and running a low fever a couple hours later. Man, I felt like a punk though. I'm glad they didn't give me a guilt trip about it because I think I might have cried. ;)

So at home we whipped out our own science books and did the entire chapter on the water cycle. We did a fun little experiment where you put boiling water in a beaker, cover it with aluminum foil, and put a couple ice cubes on top. In a few minutes, you have yourself your own little water cycle complete with "clouds" and rain. Next, mean Mommy that I am, I made everyone get into the car and run to the library because our Magic Tree House book on the first Olympics had come in. We came home and read the first chapter but that was all Cameron could handle. He was then released of his scholarly duties for the day and allowed to play video games. Suddenly he seemed much better. Hmmmm.

Today Cassia went to Mini-Mentor Day at ballet. It was a class to benefit the City Ballet and each little 4 - 6 yr old dancer was assigned their own real ballerina to mentor them as they learned the Butterfly Dance from A Midsummer Night's Dream. They followed that up with a tea party (complete with macaroni and cheese and apple juice!) and then a cute little picture with their mentor. It was so sweet and Cassia had the biggest grin on her face when we got there and she was assigned to her mentor. But alas, The Sickness caught up with her too and even though she made it through the class, she told me that she turned down the mac & cheez (!!) and then she came home and collapsed on the couch for several hours complaining of tummy pains. :( The good news is that Greyson is about 90% better and Cameron seems almost as good as new today. He's still drained and doesn't have much appetite, but it doesn't seem to have hit him too hard. *knock on wood*

Tomorrow will probably be a lazy day making sure no one gets too sick. I really should transplant my green onions before they get too big (didn't I learn my lesson from the corn?) but the thought of bending over all those itty bitty plants makes my back hurt. ;) The corn and the beans look like they've handled their transplantation quite well. They're all perky and green and happy looking. Yay! Now if only we can get everything in and flowering before the bees make their pass, we'll be good. Last year we had no corn and only a couple squash because we got things planted too late. We'll see how we do this year. The weather has been so odd - I think if I would have planted anything earlier we might have lost it because there have been several weeks of super hot then super cold weather. We'll see. Maybe the gardening gods will appreciate my trek to the organic farm today and bless my vegetables.