"Hey Mom, take a picture of this!"

Life through the eyes of a child is such a gift. Kai was washing apples this morning and yelled at me that I needed to take a picture. (Tea woke up and saw a moth outside and wanted me to take a picture of that--I guess they see me taking a lot of pictures). Anyway, what a great shot! The most exciting part is that I am finally figuring out how to use the manual settings on my camera and this is especially helpful when I'm taking shots indoors and don't want the flash to go off.
Tea's clothes didn't stay dry for long.... I love the shot with just her arm and the apple in the faucet. There's probably something artistically wrong with a photo with just an arm, but to my amateur photographic eye, it looks cool.

I don't know if I can ever move back to South Dakota after living here. The growing season is almost six months long and the amount and types of food you can grow here is amazing. The Farmer's Market is a feast for the eyes! We've been picking hickory nuts from our backyard, black walnuts from the park, and I've been drying lemon balm and making lemon balm, echinacea, and thyme tinctures in addition to the apple juice and apple pies we made today. We went to a Chestnut Festival last weekend where there were local trees and plants, pecans, chestnuts, black walnuts, elderberry concentrates, goat cheese and wine and beer. We brought home 3 pounds of pecans, some blackberry wine and muscati wine, and elderberry extract. We're going apple picking at a place about a mile away on Thursday and I'm picking up 50 pounds of locally grown sweet and white potatoes as well as a turkey from a friend tomorrow. Ah, I just love this place and I love the feeling of knowing I have a bounty of locally grown food in my cellar and freezer for the winter. It's just too depressing to shop at Hy-Vee and eat that lackluster produce in the winter!

Chamomile Caterpillar

I couldn't figure out why my chamomile was blooming and then dropping it's petals so quickly. Today I found out why. It's a tiny little caterpillar that has adapted itself to look like a flower or maybe it covers itself in chamomile petals to camouflage itself or to store them for later. Either way, it's hard to be mad at such a smart little thing! The last pic shows it on the yellow part of the flower (I'm sure there's a fancy name for it but it's escaping me right now).

Tomatoes, tomatoes, tomatoes

I've been meaning to post this and then saw that SouleMama, who has a great crafting blog, had posted about her tomato canning. She inspired me to get my pictures up. The tomatoes we so beautiful!

My friend Deborah moved this year and gave me all of her canning supplies before she left. What a great gift. I went to a canning party earlier in the month and we canned apples, tomatoes, and blackberries. Then it was the 30 pounds heirloom tomatoes I brought home from the farmer's market, and the peaches for peach jam and apples for apple butter. Such a satisfying thing to be saving this food that's ripe and in season. I just want to avoid eating that tasteless produce the grocery store sells year round.

The kids had a great time with the tomato canning. They cleaned (and threw) and weighed the tomatoes and handed them to Jevon and me to process.

Lots of work but well worth it.

VOTE

This is such an important election. I personally have never cared about politics until the last 8 years and this election, especially, has me reading the news constantly.

It's our right to vote. I hope all of you out there are registered! There's no reason why you shouldn't be:
http://www.voteforchange.com/

I find this such an important issue that I've even been volunteering for this election, bringing the kids along and all.

I've had this song in my head for days now. It's Power to the People by John Lennon. I've got the cover version of it by the Black Eyed Peas on the Instant Karma Save Darfur album. Here's the original--a great video from You Tube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wos-dDxpJlQ

I get chills when I hear it. Makes me sad that this video was made 37 years ago and people were fighting for the same things we are now. Change has to be coming, doesn't it?

This campaign is giving me hope that the world will really be different and that the visions of people like Martin Luther King and John Lennon will come true.

The Haunted House Halloween by Kai

Gigi [grandma Debbie] sent us some stuff. I got a skeleton, some springs, some Halloween clothes, some socks. Then I put up a skeleton in my haunted house room. That's all I wanted to write.

Kai

Happy First Day of Autumn!!

We're heading out soon with a picnic and a blanket in search of a pile of leaves! Have a great first day of autumn!

Final Days of Summer

Summer is almost over. Sigh... This year the end feels even closer because August has been so cool. And while I am not the type who can tolerate heat very well, I am still sad to see summer go. I will definitely miss peaches, blueberries, and blackberry picking (but not what happens when kids eat too many blackberries--FYI: blackberry leaf tea is the antidote to blackberry diarrhea). Tea got her first haircut, which looks adorable. That was a big milestone. Now she seems so much older!
Kai's been drawing all the time, as usual. That's exactly what I loved to do when I was little--that and reading and riding my bike. He's also been loving learning about dolphins, armadillos and is learning how to swim! I just wish we would have spent more time at the pool. I can't believe school has started and the pools are closed. Luckily we have a great indoor pool that's open year 'round and a lake nearby that's open until the end of the month. Tea loves to play with her dolls still and do anything Kai is doing. We checked out some board books on tractors for her at the library. She and Kai LOVE kitties and our neighbor has two new kitties that we visit as often as we can.
The start of fall immediately made me want to start crafting, especially after I got my fall issue of Living Crafts magazine. They had darling felt crowns in there, but my kids didn't want a king or queen crown or even the toadstool crown. They had their own requests. Tea wanted a ladybug and Kai wanted a crab.
Kai and Tea aren't much into posing for pictures lately.The sun was also very bright that day.
With fall comes peace, which I can feel in all aspects of my life but the kids are showing it too. The stillness is wonderful and overwhelming with the open windows and quiet that comes when the air conditioning is off (what an annoying sound it does make!).

There's so much more to write. I will just say that I am very thankful for my family. We had a camping/canoeing trip that nearly ended in disaster, with me grabbing Tea and getting out of the boat before it went under (not without getting a big ol' bump/bruise on my leg--Tea was unharmed). We were rescued by some lovely people while Jevon held onto the boat and tried to grab out things. Kai was in another boat with friends, thank god. Needless to say, I will not be doing that again. I have always been afraid of water and am not sure why I wanted to go on a river in a boat when neither I nor Jevon knew what we were doing (although I thought he did know how to float in a canoe--he later admitted he didn't).

If my DSL weren't so slow I'd write more now and post more often but the kids were only happy for so long and now it's time to go outside!