Amish friends

So I realize that a month has passed since I dangled that juicy little tidbit about our 'amish friends'. Well, the time has come for the whole fun story.

It starts with Loni wanting to dabble in the world of Community Shared Agriculture (see more on CSA here.) But once upon a time all the CSA boxes she could find cost more than she wanted to spend. Then one Saturday morning, Loni and Co. were wandering around the farmers market (one of Loni's most favorite hangouts) and there she found a golden sign and heard angels singing. Ok, no angels, but there was a handwritten sign on yellow paper that read "Ask about our CSA box." So I did. And the stand/farm owner just happens to be Amish and the CSA boxes they offer just happen to be inexpensive and full of beautiful heritage veggies.

We signed up for a whole year immediately and started getting boxes the first week in August. I love the veggies. We're talking, huge yellow, green, and red heritage tomatoes. Crispy green beans, picked that morning. Delicate little beets with the greens still on them (so yummy just boiled and finished with butter.....beet greens :)......yummmmm) Yukon potatos. Melons that I can't even identify. Brown speckled eggs. Fresh garlic--use with caution--EXTREMELY strong (the pesto we made from this stuff didn't just rock our socks, it blew them straight off and across the room). And most recently? Apples, homemade apple cider and --the very best of all--homemade brown bread and rolls.

All of it is so delicious but the coolest part? We are helping support little families just like ours. Our box comes from 2 farming Amish brothers. The brother we mostly talk to is the father of 6, his youngest was just born the end of August and is truly one of the sweetest people I've ever met. He's sincere and serious with hands stained by hard work and chat sprinkled with old-fashioned sayings. The whole interaction/delicious veggie experience is just delightful. Looking forward each Friday to picking up my CSA box has just made my summer. As it starts to get colder we'll only get our boxes ever 2 weeks but they'll be full of all kinds of root veggies, popcorn, herbs.....I'm so excited.

So the questions on my mind today is 'What will I get in my box?' and 'What kind of yummy things do I get to make this week?'

LOVE IT!

today's lazy goings ons

Don't you just get excited for fall? I do. That little bite in the air is so perfect.

I just spent the whole glorious afternoon outside chatting with good buddies and watching my kiddos play with friends.

I didn't wash my sink of dishes, clean my kitchen windows that bear the evidence of most of last weeks meals on them (thank you, Wrennie-babes), or work on the baby quilt. And I didn't even feel guilty. amazing. Maybe it was the mother's yoga class I went to today. seriously relaxing.

Now if I just had someone to whip up some kind of a dinner with the giant eggplant in my fridge (thank you, my Amish friends! .... more on that later). And, since we're dreaming here, if they could throw together some baked apples with cream for dessert that would be the perfect end to the perfect fall day.

What do you all love about fall? (You can see I'm just assuming everyone loves fall....how can you not?)

the hobstital

Yesterday Wren kept telling me she had ouchie on her foot like brother. After looking over both her feet I told her I couldn't find anything but she just kept insisting.

After looking at Wren's foot for the forth time she said to me "I haffa go a hobsital. See daddy." Ah ha.

So, I should mention that when Judd had his ER trip Stevo came down from his work (he was all caught up) and hung out with Judd and I. He was with us the whole time. When we were finally done we even went to lunch with him at the hospital cafeteria. Wren was staying with a friend of mine and didn't go.

I should also mention that Steve is on a Genereal Medicine rotation at the hospital. General Medicine=Lots of Work=We don't get to see him much.

I guess somebody misses their daddy a bit.

Pictures

Here's the foot injury! Poor guy! But don't feel too bad for him, its kinda exciting to have a big ouchie. Gotta milk it, you know. Lots of movies are being watched, ice cream is on its way and he still won't walk on it. (and no, we are not going to take the wrap off to show you the actual cut. That's gross, folks!)

Wren was loving that Judd was getting pictures taken. She kept saying, "And me, mom! and me, mom!" She's a silly girl but look at those cute pigtails poking out! Ok, She's the cutest.

Frequenting the ER

You know you're at my house if you have to sword fight your way through the front door, dodge flying missiles while trying to have a conversation, and "Hi-yah" is constantly warning you of incoming karate chops.

We have a full-time warriar/fighter-guy at our house. And he's very dedicated--for which we are grateful. We are well protected from poor sweet little girls who just want to play dolls and any of mommy's friends who just find it too hard to talk over constant battle. Thank heavens we don't have to worry about any of those threats.

Our fighter-guy, "Yoga" (as he calls himself if he's playing Star Wars), can take a good hard lightsaber thrust to the head and can wrestle/punch/shove (but NO biting!) with the best of the best but recently he has met his match on 2 different occasions in the last month. (He's pretty much wearing mommy out.) And the worst part? They weren't even when he was fighting.

Our most recent trip to the Emergency Room was yesterday. Judd stepped on something at the beach and now has a good inch and a half long cut on the bottom of his foot. It was cut at the river meaning no stitches because of the risk of infection. Boo.

And our earlier trip was due to the obligatory-childhood-cut-on-the-chin-from-falling-on-a-table injury. That one did get 4 stitches--resulting in some serious emotional scars. :)

I guess we officially have a real boy (or Wisconsin is way more dangerous then we prepared for). And we love every bit of him. Pictures to come!

Residency

We are officially headed to Wisconsin the 1st of July. And I'm currently shopping for some serious winter wear.

Change

I've been thinking a lot lately about improvement. Personal improvement to be exact. Do any of you have things about yourself you would like to change? I do. yes.

But you know what? I believe in change. REAL change.

I remember a conversation I had with my dad about change. The basic summation was that change, REAL change, is possible but not easy. In fact, I think the two main ingredients in real change are time and, because I believe in God, my Heavenly Father's help. It starts with a desire to do something different, usually involves messing up a few (ok, LOTS of) times and having to fight the temptation to just give up, and becomes finally becomes, as all good things do, work. Diligent, enduring work. Consistent work, to be that something different.

So how do you know if the change "took"? I mean, isn't the definition of change that you are in essence different. You no longer do what you did or want to do it. I have decided that only time will tell. And when I say time, i mean a life time. There is something about looking at a long positive tract record that really shows who and what you are.

What prompted all this thought? Well, it started with my reading of Louisa May Alcott's book "Little Men" and ended with me looking at myself (Little Women or really any of the books in that series always has a pretty similar effect on me. Try it--they're better than any self help book) And the result. I want to change. I want to be healthy, happy, rested, and better. Kinder. More thoughtful. I want to slow down and play with my kids. I want to really love them and teach them. I want to improve my little knowledge and talents. I want to be strong and supportive of my dear husband. I want to become the kind of person that is quietly serving and sees what needs to be done (thank you Tara for being such a great example of this to me!)

So, I've started my work and I feel good. Now come the diligence part. And sure, this is just now, the beauty of this life is in time, I will want to be better again. Hopefully,(and I do have hope) at that time, I will be building on the foundation I'm trying to lay now and not rebuilding it.

Well, moral of the story, I love LOVE getting inspired. No, even more specifically, I love encountering that spark of truly divine truth and goodness anywhere and enjoying the desire it gives me to truly change. It feels good.