Summer Vacation: Day 4

We have been to the farmer's market.  I'm going to call it FM for short, because it was a very small farmer's market and I can't justify spending so many letters on it. For over a year, I've been kicking myself every Friday morning for missing the FM on Thursday afternoon.  I feel particularly obligated to go to this market because it is sooo close to my house and it seems silly to get all indignant about how far away most of our produce comes from and then fail to seek out the local produce.  So, finally, I put the time on my calendar, got the kids all worked up for our adventure, and off we went. We were all surprised at the intimate scale of the FM, but the advantage was that, even allowing time for chit-chat and encouraging Matty to figure out how much the veggies would cost, we were able to visit both booths without making ourselves late for our next appointment.

After much discussion and negotiation--primarily with my children who wanted to buy everything except the squashes-- we came away with 5 tomatoes ($2), 3 cukes ($1.50, one of which has already been eaten), two very cute little lettuces (50 cents, and where is that cool c-with-a-slash-through-it symbol when I want it???), a fresh garlic bulb complete with stem (50 cents again), and a quart of strawberries (a splurge at $3.75, particularly in light of the number of berries in the garden and fridge right now).  By happy accident, we have red onion, yellow onion, jalapeno, and cilantro in the house, which means that tonight we will be making pico de gallo.  And some strawberry jam.  And I think I will finally be bold enough to pick my spinach and use it with the eggs for omelets.



Our black raspberries are finally coming in, too.  The problem with the raspberries is twofold.  First, they grow wild along the driveway.  We don't make any effort to tame them or even to clear the other foliage away from them and sometimes (like this year) that means that we just stand on the driveway, wide eyed and salivating, and stare at the perfect, plump berries that are just out of our reach.  If we try to get to them, we are simultaneously attacked by thorns and armies of guard mosquitoes. Problem two is that I like to take my assistant pickers with me, but they eat an awful lot more than they add to the bucket, so I only invite them along when I'm feeling very generous.



The kids are still finding creative ways to entertain themselves without leaving home.  Yesterday it was kite flying



and standing on top of the van to have a shout-conversation with El Husbando, who was on the other side of the right-hand window, inside the house.




Today we are dressed in sand toys and making impromptu swimming pools out of wheelbarrows.



One person sits in the wheelbarrow while the other uses the garden hose to fill the wheelbarrow.  Really lucky players get to have the Nemo bucket (which is first filled with water) placed on their heads just before they are dumped out of the wheelbarrow and onto the ground.  Apparently it's endless fun.  They've been doing it all day, although when they first started doing this in the morning they were wearing their pajamas instead of bathing suits. Except for Matty, who was naked.



Knitting is moving along so slowly that I'm surprised all my projects haven't unraveled themselves in protest.  I'm using some leftover DK to make a pair of shorty socks.  These have been the riding in the car/waiting at basketball games project lately.  I'm learning how to knit them without actually looking at them, which is useful when the kids try to claim that I didn't watch them play.  Now I can stare at them the entire time they are on the court and still knit.  Ha.



And, just in case  you were feeling cold, here is a nice, warm, wooly scarf that I started in December.  It is supposed to be for El Husbando.  If it is ever done.  Which I'm sure it will be, sooner or later.  Or, as I heard someone else say today "I should be able to finish by the time this is done."



There are other knitting projects going on, but I'm trying to stick to just these two for now to avoid Project Dilution, which is what happens when I knit little bits on lots of things and then get mad because nothing seems to be getting done.  Instead, I've been knitting little bits on just a few things, and it turns out I'm still mad that nothing is getting done.  Ah, well.  Off to make some dinner and jam from today's FM loot.