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We're off to enjoy nature for the weekend!

This is our first official family camping trip. I'm really excited. (And a little stressed out--hopefully the drive will soothe me.)

We are having lots of fun!
Keeping up with my blog is becoming more and more difficult as our days go careening by. I think I'll focus on pictures this summer. Give you glimpses here and there of what we're up to.

Here are the boys splashing happily in the little stream at the arboretum.

Three days down. Two to go. I'm Craft Master, and we're having a blast at VBS. Can't wait to show you pics of the week's creativity. These kids are great!!

to my little boys' daddy. who is very good daddy, indeed.

And to my Dad. who I love very much.

We've been getting our CSA box for several weeks now. I knew I wanted to do this partly because it's in my blood to support local agriculture. But over the past few weeks this abstract idea has developed some concrete realities for me. I don't choose what goes in the box. The farmer grows stuff and once a week gives me a box of what he's growing, so that means, we get whatever is in season. I remember growing up with times of plenty in the area of tomatoes, cucumbers, zuchinis and such. But that was a long time ago, before i was doing my own coking. And didn't involve greens.

I like greens. But I've never had access to greens in seasonal proportions. Eating in season requires a lot of creativity, because the stuff is there now. Some of it can be frozen (not martha has a great tutorial on how to blanch and freeze kale), but some it must be eaten now. I've also had access to a greater variety of greens than I've ever had before: chard, mustard greens, beet greens, spinach, purple curly kale, dinosaur kale, regular (?) kale, arugula, green leaf lettuce, red leaf lettuce, bok choy, cabbage. I'm sure I'm leaving something out. They just kept coming!!

At first I just sauteed the greens with lots of garlic, which is actually super yummy, and I enjoy the simplicity of this. But I made a few dishes that I think were a creative use of greens. First, there was the pasta dish that I already blogged about, which is a great use of spinach. I also liked topping pizza with fresh spinach.

This first of these is a vegetarian recipe. Greens in Pastry Pockets.

* Sautee onions, garlic,
* add chickpeas (white beans would be good, too; or chicken or fish for a meat option), sundried tomatoes, a few tablespoons of creamcheese, and some herbs (like rosemary and thyme)
* Stir in whatever greens you have until they are wilted.
* spoon into pastry shell. (Or I've been cheating and using pillsbury crescent rolls, pressed out into squares. Usually need two tubes for 8 squares)
* and bake for about 12 minutes.

Then there's what I'm calling Creole Greens. It's sort of inspired by Gumbo z'Herbes.

* Sautee onions and garlic. (I promise I do have other ways to start recipes.)
* Add ham (or bacon), creole seasoning, red pepper flakes.
* Stir in whatever greens you have until they are wilted.
* Serve over rice. Garnish with fresh parsley

When I made this I had purple kale and beet greens, and the purple and the red were so pretty.

Spring is moving into summer, and the greens are fading. We're getting more variety: broccoli, cucumbers, onions. The past couple of weeks we've gotten garlic scapes, which I've never had before--and they are so yummy. They are sort of like garlic meets aspargus, but tenderer.

I'm having a great time doing this. And it really is helping my kitchen ennui.

Ellis's birthday was yesterday, but basically he's been celebrating his birthday for the past three weeks. I explained to him that first, it was Marlowe's birthday, then his, then Daddy's (whose bday is in a couple of weeks). As soon as M's birthday was over three weeks ago (they are exactly three weeks apart), it has been E's birthday. This past weekend was the real party, though.

Saturday was birhtday party day. This is the first year that Ellis has truly grasped the anticipation of his birthday. After he went to bed on Friday night, I decorated the kitchen and set the table for his birthday breakfast. Marlowe woke me with plenty of time to prepare his chocolate chip pancakes before he woke up. So everything was perfect when he came out of his bedroom. Candles. Pancakes. Smoothies. It was like Christmas.

I found an album of his baby pictures and set that out for him. He loved looking at it. Pointing out all the pictures of baby Ellis. Finding the album was sort of an afterthought, but I thought it might be a fun tradition: birthday breakfast and looking at the baby pictures.

After breakfast we went over to the arboretum to say hello to the trains.

Then we went to Grammy's house for the big birthday. Grammy and Poppy gave Ellis his presents in the afternoon so that he could enjoy them for a little while. A watch and a bike. He looks so grown up!

We planned a fun party outdoors, but about 10 mins before the guests were due to arrive the low rumbling of thunder told us that it was time to move indoors. My optimism ran out. Thus began the most chaotic hour of my life. Kids. Screaming. Running. Inside. I suppose if I had had a clearer head, I could've done more constructive activities. But to be honest, I had been concentrating on optimism that it wouldn't rain. But then we ate and let them watch Tom and Jerry. Which turned out to be a good move, because then the adults could enjoy each other's company more. And the kids had a great time despite it all.

We had a few church friends over, kids Ellis has grown up with. But this year we invited a couple of school friends that he gets along well with. Both of these boys come from Deaf families, so we had a lot of fun hosting our first mixed Deaf/hearing party. As Ellis has gotten older, sometimes big parties overwhelm and he retreats to the basement. But with his Deaf friends, he was so much more vibrant. It's been amazing to watch him develop socially like this. How, at four years old, sharing a common bond of language is already so important.

On Monday, his actual birthday, I sent brownies to school. He came home wearing a Happy Birthday sticker on his shirt. And we took him out to eat for dinner. I am ready for birthday to be over. I think it'll take a little while for him to ease out of it. We may just end up with a summer of birthday.

Today Ellis is four!!!

We've been having Big Birthday Weekend. I'll write more about that soon.

I just can't believe how BIG Ellis has gotten. My little baby who was born a month early weighing six pounds, now is so big he wears 5T clothes.

He's a vibrant, steady boy. He has tremendous focus and likes to let information soak in. He loves to snuggle and bestows the family with the best hugs and kisses. He loves ABCs, counting, cars, monkeys, cooking, painting, and photography.

I love my boy so much. I pray that he will grow up to be a great man.

Two weeks after Marlowe's birthday, we celebrated our eighth anniversary. This past Monday.
It's been four years since we've moved to Philly. Going out for our anniversary was one of the first things we did when we got here. I was hugely pregnant. Four years later, half of marriage later, we have two kids.

We've come so far, by the grace of God.

For our anniversary, we went out with NO kids! Sometimes it's less stress to just bring Marlowe. Now it's getting to be the other way. So we just don't go out without our kids or we just stay home (besides, we kind of like them). But you can't go see movies with them (at least not all movies). So Grammy and Poppy obliged. Even put them to bed for us! Yay!

We went to see the new Star Trek movie, which we LOVED! Despite any flaws. It was so fun! I think the last movie I saw in a theater was Ratatouille. Hmm. (Almost two years ago.) In fact, we go to movies so seldomly, that ticket prices are always raised every time we go. We did NOT want to go home after the movie, so we grabbed some ice cream at Friendly's. But then we got the call that Marlowe was on the war path for mommy, so home we went. We had so much fun, though!!

I have a couple of Marlowe posts. First, his birthday party!!! Which was over two weeks ago. Marlowe turned one on May 25, Memorial Day.
Or, you could say, he turned Uno.

I made him a first birthday Tshirt with a freezer paper stencil. I had seen the idea somewhere on the internet. Can't take all the credit for it, but I can't remember where I saw it. I also made a garland out of Uno cards. And got primary colored paperware. So it was a little themey that way.

We had strawberry shortcake, because strawberries are his favorite food. Ellis helped carry the cake, and we signed and sang "Happy Birthday!" I helped Marlowe blow out his candle, to which Ellis gave me the look of greatest consternation and firmly told me that it was Marlowe's birthday and that I should've let him blow out the candle. Trying not to fall off my chair laughing at Ellis's brotherly earnestness, which was very comical, I had to explain that one-year-old's need a little help.

The party was huge, it was sort of doubled up with another party, a farewell wherein a great band of friends were disbanding into frays of Real Life, attached by wireless routers all over the country. We'll miss our dear ones.

And Marlowe was a little sick, a little bug with a low grade fever. He mostly sat in my lap.

But he did it! He turned one!

Because it's great blog fodder, too.

Sew, Mama, Sew is one of my favorite crafty blogs. I've been reading them forever. They always have great ideas, tutorials, and, my favorite, handmade holidays!! This month is sewing machine month, and there's a SWEET giveaway of a sewing machine this month.

Anyway, they're hosting a sewing machine meme, so I thought it sounded like a good idea, and needed something to post about since you already know that we went to Ikea for dinner and that Ellis got a new sleeping bag if you're following me on Facebook. meh.

What brand and model do you have?
Janome Sewist 509

How long have you had it?
2 yrs

How much does that machine cost (approximately)?
$200

What types of things do you sew (i.e. quilting, clothing, handbags, home dec projects, etc.)?
All of the above. Everything. clothes, bags, curtains. I sew with heavier weight home dec fabrics, and have even sewn knits on it.

How much do you sew? How much wear and tear does the machine get?
I go in seasons. Sometimes almost daily, others about monthly.

Do you like/love/hate your machine? Are you ambivalent? Passionate? Does she have a name?
It's very smooth. I can sew a ton of layers of heavy material, and it just tromps over them like butter. So it's a real workhorse for me. I did not name it. I think of it as "the Sewist" which sounds sort of academic to me.

What features does your machine have that work well for you?
Well, this is a basic, basic, basic machine. I can do zigzag, buttonholes, and straight stitches. And they all work well.

Is there anything that drives you nuts about your machine?
nope.

Do you have a great story to share about your machine (i.e., Found it under the Christmas tree? Dropped it on the kitchen floor? Sewed your fingernail to your zipper?, Got it from your Great Grandma?, etc.!)? We want to hear it!
I turned in my master's thesis, and the next week bought a sewing machine. :)

Would you recommend the machine to others? Why?
Yes. This is a very good basic machine. It is reliable, extremely easy to use. The perfect first sewing machine. I had major sewing fear before I got this. And the ease of the machine made it easy for me to fall in love with sewing.

What factors do you think are important to consider when looking for a new machine?
I wanted to just get a basic machine when I was looking for this, my first machine. I wanted to know myself more as a sewer before I looked for my features. I think I'd be interested in some interesting stitch pattern options, and a programmable buttonhole. For me, though, I don't need much.

Do you have a dream machine?
I'd like something that could do anything. Could quilt, could serge, could embroider and be very good at the "basics" too.

(read more entries on the Sew, Mama, Sew blog)