CSA 2011 Week 10

Hot, Hot, Hot!

Wednesday morning started off pretty shaky, to say the least. Josey had had stomach issues overnight, and I didn't wake up to take her out. Which is to say I had a pretty awful carpet cleaning job to deal with in the morning. It's hard to keep a bright, sunny attitude when faced with that. Our carpet cleaner has completely died, so I had to borrow Mom's. On a positive note, this lead to us collaborating over a wonderful lunch at her house - Steak sandwiches with roasted tomatoes and onions. YUM! Afterward, we came back home and went to the neighborhood pool. It was so hot outside, that even the pool offered very little relief. We didn't stay for long. From there, we headed to karate, where both boys had class (and back-to-back no less!). THEN, we had a small snack and the boys had a session at Sandtray. It was their first chapter-book session and was on the book "Bless This Mouse." We had read it together the week before. Afterward, I treated them to dinner at El Picante. It turned out to be a pretty nice day.

CSA 2011 Week 9

Cincinnati Nature Center Adventure

I'm really working on adding some adventure into our summer. Despite my best efforts, when the boys are home all day they tend to do nothing but watch TV and play video games. So, especially since Tim is gone at Henderson Settlement all week, I need to be purposeful about keeping us busy and active. I chose Cincinnati Nature Center for Monday, since I THOUGHT it was going to be free. Turns out, free Mondays ended in the spring. Anyhow, we spent some time in the center itself. Jeremy is in a bird watching phase, so he was excited to sit and watch them through the big windows. We checked out an insect exploration backpack. The boys went through it as soon as we got outside. We hiked the turtle trail along with part of the deer trail. It was ridiculously hot, but the boys were sort of into it. They started out really into the bug thing, collecting a pill bug and a red ant. Then they kind of forgot about it. We saw fish, turtles, tadpoles, birds, and plenty of dragonflies and other bugs. They didn't even start to complain until we were almost back.


Dinner Monday night was hamburgers and fruit and fried zucchini, all courtesy of my awesome mom! Thanks for taking care of me while I'm doing the week on my own, Mom!

Big Day for Zachary

I have to admit I didn't know if it was going to happen. Thursday, when Zachary tried to break a board with his elbow, he didn't do it. I sort of thought he'd resist testing. But when Mrs. Patten talked to him in class on Friday, he said he would be there (though he couldn't come up with ways he'd improved in self discipline). So, we got him to testing, where the place was PACKED and the previous kids were still there. There were no seats, but we did get Mom to bring us soccer chairs. Zachary actually seemed pumped for the day. He was enthusiastic, and he even did well in sparring. When it came time for him to break boards, I was really sweating. He broke with his knee right away, then he missed the elbow. I thought he was done for. THEN, Mr. Patten cracked a joke, gave him some coaching, and let him go. AND HE DID IT! At the rank ceremony, Mr. Patten said how far Zachary has come, and how when he started he would cry at small things, and that he can really handle his emotions now. Zachary stood strong, and meanwhile I cried like a baby. I don't know how I could be more proud of him. He's such a brave boy!


Tim and I haven't had a date night in ages, so we were planning on having the boys spend the night at Mom's while we went out. We were so excited about Zachary's accomplishments (AND it was so late), that we decided we should all go out together. So, we went to Skyline (Zachary's choice) then the boys went back to Mom's. Tim and I rented Black Swan, which was extremely disturbing and maybe not the best way to end the night!

Another Day of Fun

Thursday morning, we took Goober to the dog park at Symmes. It was a great park, a nice little walk away from the parking lot. We saw deer, turtles, and a rabbit, BUT NO OTHER DOGS! Jeremy was in a complete funk, having accidentally carried books with him out of the car then regretting it. Zachary helped save the day by agreeing to take the books on the walk bag. We even had a few minutes to play at one of the small playgrounds.

We then went to our second Harry Potter library even in as many days. Though Madeira's event had some cool stuff (fire juggling, magic tricks, stilt walkers, live snakes, tarantula, and owls), the boys liked Loveland's better. It kept to the theme much better. Even so, I did especially enjoy seeing Zachary touch the 70 pound python at the Madeira branch! After we fought the completely full parking lot and made a long walk from our street-parking spot on a nearby street, the kids played some games, got some junk prizes, and they weren't even interested in the crafts. Zachary heckled the magician. Ugh!After the library, we had a few minutes before karate, so we stopped at Starbucks. At karate, Zachary asked to break a board with his elbow, but he didn't get it. He handled it well, but I started to worry about what would happen at testing on Saturday when he had to do the same thing.

Getting Back Into the Swing of Things

This morning the kids got the chance to do a fun session about the beach at the Sandtray Center. It gave me some time to take Josey to the vet for her checkup. At 1PM was the long-awaited Harry Potter "Visit to Hogsmeade" at the Loveland Library. What a treat! The kids could have stayed there all afternoon. As it was, we arrived just after 1PM and stayed until almost 4! I did have a chance to get the sleeping bags washed at the laudromat.
We left straight from there to get our farm pickup.

CSA 2011 Week 8

Tons of zucchini and squash this week. Need ideas!

Michigan Adventure

We made it home from our trip to Michigan this evening. The fun day we spent at the beach was definitely worth the drive. Saturday morning, we left for Grandma and Grandpa Case's house in Findlay. We enjoyed a nice afternoon with them, and we left after lunch at Cheddar's (where we were joined by Aunt Mary Ann and Tim's cousin Barb). The Bunk and Biscuit starts accepting guests at 4PM, so we were just on schedule when we got Goober there around 5. He didn't quite know what he was in for and neither did they! At any rate, it's a beautiful place with nice people - a good place to try boarding for the first time. Nevermind that Goober's accomodations were better AND more expensive than ours.

We arrived at our (tiny) campsite at 6PM and began the setup process. After a couple of hours, we were all set and ready to check out the beach. It was surprisingly crowded for a Sunday evening. The boys both got in the water, and Zachary really enjoyed talking to 2 little girls. He even helped them build a sand castle.
Our very late dinner consisted of bratts and orzo salad. We were so tired, we didn't even have a campfire. Our neighbors across the way pulled into their site, spent about an hour setting up kids' bikes, THEN set up their tent, and finally filled their 3 air mattresses at midnight.
We were up pretty early and had a quick breakfast on Monday morning. It was a good thing, since a thunderstorm blew in around 9:30 AM. As we had forgotten our soccer chairs, we used the opportunity to drive to the tiny nearby town and get some. When we got back to the campground, several sites were flooded (!), but ours was spared. There was still a bit of rain, so we hung out in the tent playing cards and reading. Finally, at around noon, we were able to head to the beach, where we climbed the dunes then spent the rest of the day swimming and playing in the sand. Good fun! The red flags were up to warn of high surf, but literally hundreds of people were in swimming anyhow. We did let the boys get in up to about their waists as long as we were with them. There was a sandbar about 100 yards out, but we wouldn't let them go out there. We stayed at the beach until about 6. Jeremy and Tim even hiked up the dunes a second time. The boys had an awesome time, but were WORN OUT. Jeremy hardly had the energy to eat his steak. We did get a campfire and s'mores in on Monday night, though it was a struggle keeping the boys awake for it! We all listened to some Harry Potter before falling asleep.


There was no time for anything but packing up on Tuesday morning. We arrived with about 20 minutes to spare to pick up Goober. He had barked alot while we were gone, but I think he enjoyed running with the other dogs.

CSA 2011 Week 7

In addition to the stuff above (squash zucchini, spinach, chard, kale, lettuce, broccoli, basil, and hot peppers, we got 2 cherry tomatoes, which I just couldn't stop myself from eating before I snapped the photo.

Forth of July Weekend

After a full day of cleaning on Saturday, on Sunday we went to church then came home and worked on the shelf in the laundry room. Jackie came over for dinner again. I fixed chicken tenders and pasta salad. We finally got out our sparklers and used up the whole pack. Josey disappeared into the wilds of the neighborhood, and it took an hour to get her back. We never did figure out where she had been.


Monday, we left for Coney Island at about 4:30. The kids rode a few rides, we had LaRosa's for dinner, we enjoyed the Pops patriotic-themed concert, and watched the awesome fireworks.

Summer Days are Here

Okay, after a week at the lake (sick with strep), a week of VBS prep, a crazy week of VBS itself, and a week of an icky cold, I'm finally ready to start summer for real. Last week was supposed to be a chill out and hang out sort of week, but it wound up being an awful, sickly, sneezy, grouchy week. I'm MUCH better now, though.

We did manage to have some fun last week, I guess. Monday was a totally lazy day, Tuesday, we watched Allison S. and went to the pool for a few hours. I had garden Tuesday night. As usual, I wasn't looking forward to going, but it turned out to be a nice evening. Wednesday we had an awesome lunch at Trisha's house (chicken fajitas!) and picked up our farm share. Thursday, we all met Tim at lunchtime, and Zachary got to pick a new bike. He's not super-excited about it yet. He's pretty sure his old bike was just fine. Even though his knees hit the handlebars when he rode. Friday, we managed to get to the library and grocery store. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was in on audiobook. We're all kind of excited about that. Jackie came over for dinner and spent the night. She did some water balloons and crafts with the boys. The loved it. We watched Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince LATE into the night. The boys weren't in bed until after 11 PM. Meanwhile, Jackie was asleep on the couch and Tim and I were almost asleep asking them if they would just watch the end in the morning.

Today was productive for a change. I cleaned out the horrid basement. Really? An entire day just to make it respectable? Ick. I packed up 2 big boxes for goodwill and delivered the ball pit to friends with younger kids. The little tykes playset that was down there AND the "box house" went away as well! The bad news is there was evidence of a mouse, and I'm completely grossed out by that evidence. There's more work to be done (including setting mousetraps), but it will have to wait for another day.

Dinner tonight was yummy, and mostly from the farmshare - "Chard-Tomato Peasant Pasta" and a big, delicious salad. Not sure what is Peasant-ish about the pasta, but it WAS pretty good.