sorry about yesterday

I wasn't feeling well and well it's not like my posts are considered deep reading material. . . . . So today we are off to the deep woods and I won't have internet access so I'll probably not post Saturday and then late Sunday! We are off to MN for the Ethiopian Mehaber. Mehaber means gathering, so a gathering for all things Ethiopian. The girls will have a great time even though it's only a day event. . . We'll eat Ethiopian food, dance to Ethiopian music and even be able to purchase some Ethiopian goods! We went last year and had a nice time. . . So my pre-apologies for not possibly posting on Saturday, we'll see if I can find a hot spot and at least upload some pictures from the Mehaber. Until then, have a blessed weekend. Peace,

Just Chillin'

with his favorite masters shoe!

Sorry short post

I'm really tired. We had company over for dinner and they left a little later than perhaps expected, so now I'm doing my nightly can't sleep browse through the web world! Looking at crazy stuff like the wild goose festival and the blog writings of the sarcastic lutheran. It's an odd night and I'm needing to go to bed. . . .but my journey of weirdness isn't over yet!! Anyway, short post, good night.

Happy 4th of July - Happy Birthday America

I have to say that I am not really a patriotic person. I go along to get along on these holidays. . . Our city doesn't have a parade so that's an easy one. We have a picnic at church and I'm good with that, an opportunity to fellowship with people and meet new people seems like a good way to spend a holiday. The girls love the fireworks and I think they are "pretty" so we watch those too! I tend not to wear red, white and blue, in fact I wore green today. I don't know. . . a friend posted a poem by Langston Hughes on Facebook about 'America the free' and how really this American land hasn't been the land of opportunity and freedom, with slavery, overworked underpaid workers for years, etc. I should find the link and post it. So for my girls, the 4th of July is about the birthday of America and the cool fireworks and for me, it's about getting together with folks for good food, fellowship and sharing the fireworks too!

Swimming in the vegetables!

This year we joined a CSA. The acronym CSA stands for community support agriculture.

"Over the last 20 years, Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) has become a popular way for consumers to buy local, seasonal food directly from a farmer. Here are the basics: a farmer offers a certain number of "shares" to the public. Typically the share consists of a box of vegetables, but other farm products may be included. Interested consumers purchase a share (aka a "membership" or a "subscription") and in return receive a box (bag, basket) of seasonal produce each week throughout the farming season." (www.localharvest.org)

We are supporting a farm in a town nearby ours that offers 26 weeks of farm fresh vegetables. Additionally they offer a winter share and we are taking advantage of that as well. It's been great. We are eating local food, cooking differently, shopping differently and the family is loving it. We've not eaten as many greens ever in this house. Our CSA shares started in May and will end in November, just in time for the winter shares. Here is a picture of our first share box, a little light as the farmer says because it's early spring, but wonderful eating.

They also offer u-pick dates for strawberries, mulberries and in the fall picking out pumpkins. We had a great time picking strawberries as you can see.









So all in all, we are just lovin' the farm fresh vegetables and are enjoying trying and experimenting with a variety of new foods. We also a growing a garden of our own, but more for canning than anything else. More to come on that another time.

Pre-pool activities (before the pool)

Here is a short video of the girls and Fenric the dog are playing in the sprinkler. The girls almost always have to get their hair wet before doing anything else! I don't know why, it just is the way they are. So for the entire time the girls are working on their hair-do's, Fenric is trying to conquer the sprinkler, at one point, not on the video, putting his mouth around the sprinkler to contain it!! I like just watching, it's pretty entertaining.

To swim or not to swim

So July's theme is SWIM. Well, being that it is summer, I can do that! This month will be devoted to swimming in the real sense as well as in the abstract, such as swimming in thoughts, pictures from the recent few months and random swimmers itch! We'll see if I can actually stick to it this month. I don't have work, school (homework) or any other things to distract me. I will say I have lots of catching up to do from the past 16 moths, but with time and persistence I'll get caught up. . .

SO I BEGIN. .

Today it is going to be up to 100 degrees here in the great midwestern state of Wisconsin. We decided this year to get the girls a pool that they can use for the entire summer and we did not have to repeatedly fill and empty, fill and empty. . . .So we bought this~

And the girls love it. It's still a little cool/cold for the grown ups to go into, but yesterday after a lovely 90 something degree day, it felt "doable". Today I considered going in and then after lunch actually did go in and play with the girls. It was lots of fun.








We started out the summer with this! and it was just not a groovy pool! I'm sure you will concur!