quick!

Before the tomatoes ripen! (Please please PLEASE let the tomato crop do well this year!) It's farm pickup this afternoon, and I'm anticipating the first significant tomatoes. I had a salad for breakfast using an entire store-bought tomato in order to clean the counters, fruit bowl, fridge for whatever we might be bringing home. (Yes, I do refrigerate tomatoes only if they're very ripe...don't want to feed the fruit fly population any more than necessary.)

So back to the end of the school year...






















AJ created scrapbook pages for his kindergarten teacher, and really wanted to give her a hand-decorated mug (as cliche as it sounds, but he did a really wonderful job and I know it's something I would have loved back when I was a teacher). We filled it with zucchini brownies with a copy of the recipe.
Maia joined Nate for his end of preschool ice cream party (we brought our own vegan equivalents of course), and Nate made cards to attach to the banana-apple-strawberry muffins he helped make with strawberries from the farm.

Nate was excited to
use his bubble blower
from his teacher, and
he spent weeks looking
at his big portfolio of
artwork and photos
from his second year
at preschool.

Then a couple of days
later was a final family
picnic where the kids
got their faces painted (except for AJ, he was at a birthday party where he got a cool hat). Nate had a dragon on his cheek, but wouldn't cooperate for a picture...typical 3 year old.

























AJ's
teacher
gift:




















Ryan had three
teachers to make
gifts for, so he
just made cards
with recipes to go
with baggies of
brownies.





Ryan's last lunch of the school year included some of his most favourite items: farm strawberries; leftover Gianni's spinach, mushroom & black olive pizza; zucchini brownie.

Lots O' Lunches

Lots of lunches...
I've
almost
caught
up to
the
end
of the
school
year.

Still to
come...
Maia's
bday,
farm
pics,
a pet,
some
hikes,
camping,
and a
new
oven!

more meals

Some more food from the end of the school year...
Teddy
Bear
Picnic
day
for
Nate
at pre-
school,
so both
his
snack
and
Ryan's
lunch
were
teddy
bear
themed.
I think
I'm
going
to have
to be
more cautious how "cute" Ryan's lunches are in 2nd grade this fall, since he will be turning 8. He doesn't complain either way, but I have the feeling that plainer lunches will be the norm for him, while I get creative for Maia's preschool meals!
A picnic dinner can save the day when there's no time to cook.Adding greens to hummus, and dark leafy greens to sandwiches, bumps the nutrition up a notch.Nate had a lot of end of the year birthday parties to attend. So I sent imitations of the party foods: chik'n nuggets and cupcakes.
Again, adding greens to something as easy as noodles makes lunch more healthy & colourful:When
it was
Ryan's
turn
to read
the
book
he'd
written
and
illust-
rated
in 1st
grade,
every-
one
was
invited
to an
author's
tea.
Parents
were
asked to bring a snack, so I tried to bring something different from the usual fruit & juice.

oh yeah, food!

The pics are successfully on to the new computer. But they're not backed up onto the external drive because the cord seems to have gone missing! How, you ask?? It's called having 4 kids and a husband. Yep, no other explanations necessary.

First a refresher...the good ol' muffin tin meal makes cleanup easy, and easy is what summer is all about in my opinion!

Lunches during the last few weeks of school:And AJ also needed a
lunch for grandma's
house.

The big boys sure are
getting bigger! Ryan
finished up first grade,
and AJ finished kinder-
garten!

mercy!

I've
just
about
had it
with
the
laptop.
Grrr.
It's
not
working
again,
worse
than
before.
Last
night's
post
seemed
to be
its last
dying
breath.
So I'm going to have to transfer to another computer (which thankfully we have due to the nature of my husband's work). In the mean time, I'll work off my phone pics. Sorry for the poor quality, but I just can't stand not blogging any longer! The withdrawal is really starting to hit me.

So recently I've noticed a resurgence in interest in eating on a budget, but healthier. As a self-employed family of 6, we understand this acutely. We're fortunate to have our local farm as a fabulous resources for deep organic local produce, and quite a few farmer's markets nearby during the local growing season. But if you don't have those options, or if that is out of your budget, there are ways to work healthy produce into your budget regardless.

First of all, as pictured above, many stores have a "seconds" produce section. It might be small, it might be hidden in the back of store (after all, they'd rather you bought the "perfect" produce and spend more money), or they may have a program to donate food to shelters and soup kitchens instead (so you may have to ask if they have any extra food at reduced prices available to the public). But if you don't see something like this, it might be worth asking. I will buy a dozen mangos or bell peppers or whatever, and cut and freeze them myself and save a ton of money.

If none of your local markets have this arrangement, then look to the frozen foods section. Frozen food is the next best thing to fresh raw foods, because it's been picked and processed quickly, and usually only lightly cooked if at all. I like bagged frozen fruits for smoothies, and chopped frozen veggies for soups, chilis, casseroles, etc. And best of all, the frozen produce was likely picked when that food was in season to save money, and that savings is passed on to you. It is far cheaper for me to buy a pack of frozen multi-coloured bell pepper strips than it usually is to buy 3 fresh peppers. So if you don't need them raw, frozen is the way to go. Avoid canned foods where possibly...nutritionally they are at the bottom, and the BPA lining in most cans has many people suspicious too.

I prefer to buy organic produce for many items, but even if you buy only conventional produce or frozen fruits & veggies, your health will be miles better than if you limited those foods because they were out of your budget.

Try creating meals based around whatever vegetable you could get cheaply. Add a whole grain or starchy vegetable like potato or corn on the side. Some nuts or beans round out the meal. I often save fruits for between meal snacks so the kids don't fill themselves up on it at mealtime.

Whether you have a family or not, exercise is essential to good health. But exercise can be expensive in our modern society: gym memberships, sports equipment, shuttling kids to multiple activities each day, camp and extracurricular activity fees, etc.
During the past year we let our YMCA membership lapse, and we opted not to sign the kids up for any extra activities during the school year. We allowed them one summer activity, which this year turned out to be the public school's summer program. I was nervous having them ride the bus to a school that none of us had ever seen, but their experiences these past weeks have been fantastic. They are home shortly after noon each day.
Ryan chose to take karate, treasure mapping, & games 'R us. AJ decided on gymnastics, Legos, & books. The class sizes are surprisingly small for a public school program, and it allows the younger two kids at home a bit more attention on the weekday mornings.

But what
to do on
the other
days??
While
others
may
spend
money
on beach
passes,
museum
admiss-
ions, &
vaca-
tions,
we have
opted
for
local
play-
grounds,
hiking on conservation land, campouts in tents, & water spray battles in the backyard. And if we really want to parttake in an educational experience like a museum or nature exhibit, the library usually has free passes available that need only be reserved ahead of time.
So tell me (if I have any readers left!)...what are your favourite free family activities where you are?

I know

I know, I know, I've been
gone from the blogosphere
for over a month! Really, I
have excuses, as lame as
they may be: end of school
year bustle, summer school,
solo hiking trip, excessive
rain, a fire at my husband's
office, jury duty, Maia's 2nd
birthday. But most of all
it was the crashed laptop
that did me in. Yes, we have
multiple other computers, and I keep all my photos on an external harddrive as well. But what a pain to move them to a new computer. I really like them all in one place. So I waited while the sick laptop was away...and waited. Then I started getting used to being away from it. And then school was done and there were no lunches to make. The laptop was gone almost a month, but finally it returned, functional, though not much faster and still crashing from time to time.
But then the unthinkable happened...our oven broke. Now, I've wanted to replace our oven since I moved here. It's old, a non-standard size, the door handle has broken off, and it does not hold a consistent temperature.
Hopefully next week I will be announcing the arrival of a brand new oven. It remains to be seen if it will fit, so we're keeping a crowbar on standby. I'll let you know how it goes!

In the meantime, I have a backlog of photos galore!! Why don't I start back with pics from one of our favourite places, Stearns Farm CSA. I have begun to lose track...it's our 5th? 6th? year there, and it's always changing and always wonderful.

























Early in the season is the farm's Spring Festival and potluck. My husband observed that out of the dozens of dishes people brought, not a single one contained meat. None. There are no rules about what to bring, and most people label their dishes, often with a complete ingredient list. Not only was everything vegetarian, but I'd say that two-thirds of the dishes were vegan! I'd never imagined going to a potluck that was not specifically vegan and being in the majority. What a pleasant shocker! It's so great that so many people in our community make their health, the planet's health, and that of animals a priority.

Maia is
big
enough
this
year to
really
enjoy
the
festival
and the
farm
envir-
onment.
The
kids
must
have
eaten
their
weight
in water-
melon.

So be prepared for a posting
marathon while I attempt to
play catch-up. I have just shy
of 1,000 photos in one folder,
and that doesn't include any-
thing from my phone.

I try to refrain from using my
phone for food photography,
but sometimes it just happens
since carrying two devices, no
matter how small, just feels so
redundant. Problem is, I've
taken to unloading my phone
pics onto the big computer since
that's where I sync my iTunes.
Somehow I have to get more
organized!