CSA Week 16!

Holy motherload of produce!!! Wowee!

We got spinach, gala apples, cantaloupe, carrots, cherry tomatoes, sweet girl tomatoes, corn, romano beans aaand cucumbers!

CSA Week 15!

We got quite a bit this week! Drew traded out some blackberries for more cucumbers since we aren't big fans of blackberries (maybe he was sick of getting them in his lunch :) ) so we got: sweet girl tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, gala apples, cucumbers, romano beans, lettuce, onion, 8 ears of corn!, and strawberries. I wish it wasn't so hot so cooking some of this stuff wouldn't be a big deal. ah well :)

CSA Week 14!

Hooray for produce that I don't have to pick out :) Definitely a bonus to this thing.

We got: lettuce, sweet girl tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, garlic, zucchini, melon (no idea what kind?), cucumber and corn.  They gave us a little info on corn- I can't believe so much is grown when it is such a hassle to grown. Insane.  (Oh, and there were blackberries, too- but we ate those before I had a chance to take a picture :) )

CSA Week 13!

I can't believe we're already half way over! My one and only complaint this year has been way too many potatoes- we definitely didn't get this many last year...weird...  Otherwise, it's been fantastic!

Just ignore the extra tomatoes in the background and crummy pic quality- I had to take the pic with my phone since my camera was at the house, but the house wasn't ready for food yet :)

What we got: potatoes, carrots, cucumber, lettuce, tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, blackberries, onion, zucchini/pattypan squash  - yum!!

CSA Week 12!

Alrighty, we got basil, carrots, summer squash, fingerling potatoes, strawberries, garlic, blackberries, cherry tomatoes and sweet girl tomatoes. 

I was honestly shocked we didn't get any lettuce! I had planned 2 of our meals (an my lunches) around them.  Ah well, I'll pick some up at Lifesource later this week. :)  Hooray for fresh produce!

CSA Week 11!

Sometimes I don't remember what we get unless I look at my pictures :)

This week, we got lettuce, cilantro (I should have traded it out), 2 lbs tomatoes, pint of cherry tomatoes, pint of strawberries, 1/2 pint blackberries, carrots, potatoes, and garlic

Elisabeth has already eaten all the strawberries and cherry tomatoes...so much for sharing!  She gets her little stool out, takes a handful and runs away.  It makes me laugh so much I can't say no. :)

CSA Week 10!

This week, in our box, we got:
lots o potatoes, 2 pints of strawberries, lettuce, lots of tomatoes, lots of zucchini (I LOVE the pattypan squash!), a red bottle onion (cool!) and some corn.

I must admit though- corn in Oregon doesn't compare to the corn in Utah- weird, eh? I don't know why, but for some reason, those Utah farmers have it down.  Nothing else is better there. hehehe

Check what else I made!

It's a cutie baby blanket for my sister who's having a little boy girl!!! ;)

Lastly, what do you do with 3 bazillion cherries?  No, seriously, I have no idea...I got a little over my head...

I do know what to do with 38 cajillion blueberries though- I know what we're doing this weekend!!

CSA Week 9!

I got it up finally! PHEW! This week has been a bit rough, but we got through it.  So here's what we got this week:
a HUGE thing of red leaf lettuce, radishes, zucchini, cherry tomatoes, garlic, basil, blackberries, lots o tomatoes and some spinach

yum, yum, yum! Elisabeth ate through the pint of cherry tomatoes that night and through all but about 5 of the other tomatoes the next day- whoa!

CSA Week 8!

We're back- we had a good time, but now for the box!

I did a trade this week- I don't think I've done that before, but I looked at the raddichio and knew that there was no way my stomach was going to eat that this week.  Sooo, I got more tomatoes. They looked mouth watering delicious, and I'm glad I chose wisely.  We went through 3/4 of them that night.

So, we got: Spinach, onion, raspberries, cherries, 2lbs sweet girl tomatoes, zucchini, pattypan squash, random other squash, and potatoes.

There was a great chicken salad recipe (week 18- the curried chicken salad) the farm shared with us last year that incorporated the spinach very well.  We had that the other night, and I think I could eat that for a week straight!

I'm also apparently stock piling potatoes.  We just don't eat them as fast as we get them...darn carbs!  But when we do, oh man are they delicious!

For the squash? I'm going to make a summer vegetable succotash with it- also way good.  I use whatever beans I have on hand since I'm not supposed to eat edemame (allergic to soy)

I bought a cherry pitter (is that even a word?) so I didn't have to mama bird the cherries w/little one.  Boy that thing is great!!! we downed a ridiculous amount of cherries in a very short time!

CSA Week 7!

No CSA Box this week.... we're on vacation! .... :)

CSA Week 6!

I forgot our little newsletter that helps me remember all that we got- or more specific names, so here we go off of memory/picture :)

2 heads red leaf lettuce, turnips, radishes, cherry tomatoes (the orange ones are my favorite), raspberries, red onion, garlic, cucumber, strawberries, zucchini, potatoes

I couldn't resist the picture of the little hand eating all the raspberries.  She makes me smile!

CSA Week 5!

This week, we got: red lettuce, celery, romano green beans, cherries, raspberries, zucchini, cucumbers, oregon spring tomatoes - delish!

CSA Week 3!

I totally forgot on Sunday that our CSA farm was having a potluck.  I loved going last year, but didn't remember until today.  That made me sad.  Ah well...maybe next year?

Anyway, this is what we got today:

Lettuce, basil, white onion, strawberries (YUM), Nicola potatoes, cucumber, white turnips and a cabbage.

My mouth is watering for some cabbage soup! Oh, Oh! And some pesto, cucumber sandwiches! ...not quite sure what to do with the turnips yet...but I know they're good if you cook them w/potatoes and mash them.  It was also suggested to use them like radishes? hmmm!

CSA Week 2!

I'm a little late- it's been a week. But here are the beauties! :)

We got: purple viking potatoes, carrots, salad mix, garlic tops, snap peas, zucchini, strawberries (I promised I wouldn't eat them first), bok choy!

I smell some stir fry on the horizon!

CSA Week 1!

Our CSA started this week- hooray!!!

We got lettuce, carrots, garlic, basil, new potatoes, onions, zucchini and not show, some absolutely delicious strawberries.  They were totally so delightful, they were eaten before we left Salem :)  SOoooOOooOo good!

What I especially like is that this box is usually the smallest of the 26, and there's only good stuff to come!

Thankful for 16

Is it just me, or is this week incredibly long?  It's not even Wednesday! We got granted a "jeans" week at work.  I'm taking full advantage of it.  I love jeans- you know what I love more than jeans? Flip-flops. :)

The thing I'm thankful for today is my family.  I love them so!  Even the lame ones. :)  I'm glad I have a mom who listens and loves me.  I'm glad for my sister who I talk to daily.  I'm glad for my brother for our fun teletubbie jokes. I'm glad for my little sister who is always keeping me on my toes.  I all my in-laws, my niece and nephew.  I love my aunts, uncles, cousins, and cousins-in-laws and their kiddos!  I love my Grandma's (and all my grandparents who are waiting in heaven :) )I'd even go so far as to say I love Drew's family, too!  There's going to be a new addition to the Jackson clan in March that I'm pretty excited about as well(not ours!)  Thank you all for being in my life, enriching it, and making up part of me!

Elisabeth couldn't be bothered with sitting down to eat today.  She had to take what was on Drew's plate and eat it at a chair (she put her food on the seat of a chair and ate it as she walked around).  We also went to the store this afternoon to get some cranberry items for some math I'm doing tomorrow with my students.  The Mother's animal cookies were on sale, so I threw some in the cart.  She immediately starting saying cook-cook (cookie) and signing please over and over again.  This child has never had these cookies.  How in the WORLD does she know what they are, and that she needs them so badly?

I put them on the conveyor belt to get scanned and she screamed at me (cause she was trying to figure out how to open them to eat).  So afterward, we get in the car and immediately she starts up with the cook-cook again and saying please.  I gave in :)  She even SAID please to Drew in the car  after we went and picked him up...it was pretty cute!


This is our second to last produce box for the year.  I told the lady who drops off the boxes that I'm going through withdrawls already and I don't know what I'm going to do for 26 weeks until it starts up again!  She agreed!

Today in our box, we got 2 leeks, 3 pounds of rome apples, 1 bunch  ofcarrots, 1 bunch of beets, 1 bunch of collard greens, 1 acorn squash, salad mix, 2 pounds of yellow finn potatoes)  ---our produce drawers are exploding, and I couldn't be happier!

Thankful 10 & 11

I did it again.  Forgot to post.  Elisabeth has had a pretty nasty cold, and I've had the same cold. Yuck.  I'm out of energy and cranky, she's out of energy and cranky.  The only nice thing I can do is take cold medicine.  For her, I have to think up every trick in the book to get her to sleep for a couple hours.  I know I have no room to complain compared to others' issues in life, but I'm whiney (sp?), and right now, sleep is scarce in our house.

(I'm not going to put in an ad for watching TV, but she did watch Nemo for about 15 minutes while I changed sheets - hooray for little things!)

So back to things I'm thankful for: Numero 10 has to be my Harvest Box we get each week.  Our little letter reminded us that we only have 2 weeks left.  Our box contents are getting a wee bit smaller, like the beginning of the season, just because everything is finishing growing.  I have absolutely LOVED getting the experience to try new foods, to have local, RIPE food, an over abundance of different tomatoes, salads daily, fennel! (oh my gosh, I am in LOVE with fennel now!)  This whole experience has been wonderful for me, and I'm so grateful to Drew's coworker for introducing it to us- Thank you!!!

We've even started saving up a reserve to that next year's box won't set us back so much money like this one did.


(what we got for this week! - Butternut squash, bok choy, brussel sprouts, tomatoes, onions, salad mix, apples, persimmons, fennel!) Yum!!!

The next thing I'm thankful for is: Harry Potter.  OK, this may sound totally and completely lame, but it's true.  All through school, I detested reading.  I'm not very fast, and stories got boring quickly.  I remember looking at books and thinking, ok, only 3 more pages until the chapter ends, I can do it, and feeling like it took FOREVER to finish.  I hated, hated, hated reading.  A couple different people from my side, and Drew's side of the families had suggested it to me right before the 3th book came out.  My mom was all super excited about the 1st book, and my brother had even gone out to buy #3 cause we didn't have it at the house so he could catch up faster.  It was crazy.  So I figured I'd hop on the wagon and see what it was all about. I am SO glad I did.  I read through those books so easily.  I loved the storyline, I loved the universe J.K. Rowling had created.  I just loved it so much!

I didn't read a whole lot other than textbook stuff until I was out of college.  There just isn't time to read, and when there is, you better be studying.  So the only things that I did read were the new Harry Potter books as they came out.  I am such a follower that I went to the midnight releases for #5, #6, and #7.  I even dressed up for #6 and #7!!  I even have Quidditch goggles! :)


So yeah, totaly Harry Potter geek right here, and I'm proud to admit it.
(I'm beating myself up for not going to the midnight premiere of the first half of #7, but I just can't realistically go to work the next day on so little sleep :( )

And now for cute pictures, cause I like to share

 We got her a rocking chair for her room that was a bit more comfortable than her highchair

 We also got her a bike! It expands so it'll grow with her for a few years.  She loves it!  She also needs a bluetooth...

 ...aaannddd a pettiskirt.  She loves it!  She wears is all the time!

 And this was was just for fun, Drew put his Utes sweatshirt on her :)

 

Love this girl!

Odds and Ends

I haven't been exercising as much as I should. Part of me doesn't care, and the other part is freaking out.  I don't have a whole lot to talk about otherwise.  Work is stressful, I'm counting down the days until we get a break for a few days.  I'm excited about Thanksgiving coming up.  I'm frustrated that I'm still 10lbs away from my pre-baby weight goal, even though I had promised myself I'd be there by now.  Losing weight isn't easy for me, and and it starts to get dark and cold at night, I have very little willpower to go outside.  I've been contemplating a gym membership, just to get out, but I also don't want to spend the money.  I have DVD's, but they get so stinking boring.  I really miss my treadmill today...

On the other hand, I have a beautiful baby who is picking up words by the handful daily.  She is the light of my life and I couldn't ask for anything more.  She's also been wanting to sit on the toilet, then get off and flush it to say bye bye to the water.  I think we might need to buy her a little potty chair to check out. :)

I've also been reading some books that deal with post-apocalyptic situations and it's totally freaked me out that my 72-hour kits aren't sufficient.  I'm going to rip them apart over the next couple weekends and revamp the whole thing to make sure I have exactly what I feel is necessary.  I also need to pick up a 2nd backpack because we have it all stuffed into 1, and I don't think it's sufficient.  I also need to get together one that has clothing in it as well.  I sure am good at making myself panic. 

 Isn't she adorable? This is her first time on a big kid swing by herself

 She also slid down the slide all by herself, too!

 Chasing each other around the fountain

CSA day was yesterday- we only have 3 more weeks. BOOHOO!!! I will surely miss these little treats every week.  We got salad mix, cherry tomatoes, sweet girl tomatoes, 2 bell peppers, carrots, cabbage, black kale, and cameo apples (which are really good btw).

My goal for next year is to be more sufficient in the canning department, and do a good job of getting together some food for the winter time.  We had about 2.5 gallons of blueberries at the beginning of August and they're already gone.  I had no idea Elisabeth would be chowing those down so fast.  They were so delicious and amazing.  We're going to have to have at least 10 gallons next year! (I need a deep freezer....)  Anyway, we live in such a wonderful place for fresh produce that can easily be canned, and I feel I need to take advantage of it for our winter time needs.


This last little bit made me laugh today.  Elisabeth can now get herself up and down from the couch.  She gets up like a normal kid, but getting down is kind of silly...

(blogger won't let me type under the picture, but the first one, she's telling me Cheese! and the second one, she wanted to show me her M&M before she ate it. --She even put the blanket on herself!



















 
 As for these down here, she lays down on the couch and sort of scoot, pushes herself off the couch. It looks terribly difficult, but it's the only way she'll accept, and she's gotten quite fast at it.  No going backward for her!




 And she landed! hahaha (and yes, she sorts her candies to eat them...oranges go first, blues were last)  What a goof

CSA, Elliebeth, Rainbows- DOUBLE Rainbows!

I seem to have weekends where nothing is going on, and others where I have double, triple and sometimes quadruple booked myself unintentionally.  This upcoming weekend is one of those where there were too many choices and someone's feelings are going to get hurt somewhere because we just can't do them all.  I'm not quite sure what's going to be let go yet though.

We got our produce box today.  We received: lots of peppers again, that fancy squash that I like to call Cinderella pumpkin, salad mix, spinach, fancy apples, onions, cherry tomatoes(which are quickly being done for the season so some are not ripe yet, but honestly, I'm not complaining cause we really do have a hard time keeping up with the supply we get), and yummy carrots.  I am absolutely amazed at how flavorful the carrots are.  Well, everything, really.  But the carrots are so sweet and carroty!(did I just say that?) Anyway, they're good. I love the green tops, and I love that they aren't all perfect. :)

 It looks cute but it didn't last long :)

 This was at 6:30pm on Sunday. She wanted to go outside (got her shoes, brought them to me and sat down so I could put them on.) I put on her jacket cause it was dark, cold and raining.  She went out, walked around for a bit and came back inside. I guess she wasn't ready to go to bed yet cause she needed to play more. :)

 I know it's fuzzy, but look how happy she is! Drew had come in the door while she was eating, and as always, we had to scream when he came in the door. (I also remembered why I have a hard time letting her feed herself. soooo messy!)

This made me giggle.  This double rainbow was from Monday after work.  It was amazing. I though to myself, "this is amazing, WHOA!" hahaha and IMMEDIATELY reminded myself of this dude:

I hope it works...if it doesn't, here's a link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQSNhk5ICTI

...how embarrassing... lol

16 Months

My tiny little baby, who isn't a baby anymore despite my denial, is officially 16 months old today.  She's amazing in my eyes.

The past month, she's learned to say "cheese!", "thank you"(dank you), a more defined byebye, cat, car, a good great horse sound, and a very clear yes.  She's also been really into her alphabet letter magnets on the fridge.  She'll say the letter sounds with the Q, I, H, K, F, A, and M.  She'll play the beginning part of the song that has the letter sounds over and over until she has it right- amazing!  Just in the past week or so, she's started responding to requests with very precise accuracy, like "would you like your shoes off?" she'll say yes and sit down for me to take them off.  Or, would you like some blueberries? she'll say yes and run to her highchair.  I know for those that have had kids, or watched them grow up, it's part of the whole growing up deal, but to see this little baby grow into a little girl is just phenomenal to me.

Now for produce! We got a LOT today! wow! There were winter banana apples (and heirloom variety that I haven't tried yet, but plan on eating tomorrow), broccoli, a leek, butterball potatoes, tomatoes, sweet potatoes, lettuce, celery, giant sweet peppers-look at those guys! They were like a foot long!!!

raarrr!!!

Drew had told her the box was for her head, so she did as instructed!

I feel awful that I have slacked on the monthly Blaire photos.  I remembered today though.  Getting her to lay down was a feat in and of itself.  She was laughing at her popcorn vacuum, and was helping vacuum while I took the picture.  It didn't last very long.  In fact, I'm amazed I got this.  (Do you like all her hair pretties on the floor?  She takes the container out, dumps them out, puts them back in the box, dumps them out, tries to put them on her head, and then puts them back in the box, dumps it out, etc., etc., etc.,)

See, it didn't last...she needed to do things

We don't wear clothes in our house. hahaha (she was on her way to the bath)- Drew had been folding his arms cause he was cold.  When Ellie sees folded arms, she thinks it's time for prayer.  Luckily I was snapping some pictures and got this one- so cute!

our cutie little pumpkins we got at the farm this year.  Elisabeth even picked out her own tiny guy!