Where to put all that lettuce?

This is the first year that we've joined Round the Bend Farm for their summer CSA program. It is also the first year that we've decided to go for the full monty and book ourselves to receive a full share of local veggies every week. My bestest girlfriend who is receiving a half share from the same farm asked us how we managed a full box?

Short answer: We eat a lot of salad.

"Where do you get the time?"

"Where do you get the time?" is a question I get a lot. Where do I get the time to bake? Where do I get the time to sew? Where do I get the time to blog? The answer is always twofold - "after the kids go to sleep" and "you just gotta make time".

So right now it's quarter to twelve on Friday night and instead of heading out to a bar or club (which would be so 1999 anyway :), I'm sitting in my kitchen writing a blog post on my tiny smartphone screen and waiting for a couple of pies to finish baking. This is a particularly late "after the kids go to sleep" scenario as the bedtime has gotten later now that school's out and my youngest is very unpredictable in her feeding habits.

Now often my hubby and I would spend this precious time between the kids' bedtime and us passing out watching some late night TV and talking about our days. We'd probably crack open a bag of chips, maybe some beers, possibly a Dairy Queen Blizzard that we had stashed in the freezer...  Oh yes my children, you were right all along to suspect mommy and daddy telling you to "just go to sleep, we're not doing anything fun, we're just sleeping too"... But I digress...

Anyway, today instead of dulling my mind with unnecessary reality shows and indulging my own waistline with unneeded calories, I'm baking up enough butter pastry goodness to indulge our ten or so dinner guests coming over tomorrow. Of course, I could always just buy dessert but this is where the "you just gotta make time" comes into play, "gotta" being the operative word. Believe me, making time extra time at the end of the night to pursue leisure activities was, and is still not, easy for someone who would consider themselves a morning person and who would prefer to up at the crack of dawn rather than the stroke of midnight. However, it's easier to count on the children staying asleep than relying on them not waking up, so the making of time has "gotta" be at night.

But I guess the bigger question, bigger than "Where do you get the time?" is "Why?" And my only answer is that despite the four kids, or perhaps for their sakes, I don't want to let myself drown in the drudgery that comes with the title "mother of four".  I want to think that I don't have to give up Jane, the baker or Jane, the knitter or Jane, the runner just because I became Jane, the woman who couldn't stop getting pregnant. ;) I want the kids to know that you can become a parent and still have other identities too - that I'm their mom but I could also be their powder hound buddy or their fellow foodie or their nerdy mmorpg partner. I want them to know it and I want myself to believe it.

I stay up late to nourish and maintain some interests of my own in the hope that I don't forget who I am while I love and care for four little people who are slowly discovering who they are.

Farmshare 2014 - Round the Bend Farm

Summer at our house is now synonymous with receiving a weekly surprise of veggies in our CSA box. This year we've decided to switch to Round the Bend Farm whose box looks to have more variety and fruit than our previous farm. We've also upped the ante by booking a full share (versus half-shares in previous years) and adding on some fresh brown eggs every week. Other than eating a lot of fresh green salads (we got SIX! huge heads of lettuce last week), I'll try to post about what we do with the abundance of lovely, local vegetables we receive every week.

One of the things I love best about getting food that goes from farm to table is that we'll receive items that are rare, or at least harder to find, at your average supermarket. Like garlic scapes or tasty spring onions. We've already gone through our share of the fresh onions and I'm a little sad that we'll probably not be receiving any more of these fragrant beauties. We made good use of the ones we did get though: Russian dressing, Chinese green onion pancakes, ginger and spring onion noodle bowls and lion's head meatballs (which also used an entire head of napa cabbage!).

Another thing that I love about getting food straight from the farm is that nothing is wasted. Like these beet greens, where do things like this go when the supermarket sells jus the beet bottoms? We used ours recently in some crusty calzones.

Calzones are one of my go-to freezer foods because I can size them to perfectly fit in a lunchbox, they reheat in a flash in the toaster oven, they can be eaten warm or at room temperature and the kids will eat a surprising amount of veggies when they are stuffed into a pocket with some cheese.

So there's my first farmshare post and I'm officially blogging again. Maybe a recipe next time? Or a sewing post? Perhaps kids crafts (and antics)? I'll have to see what inspiration strikes...

Happy belated Canada Day and it's been a year since I've blogged...

It's been at least a year since I've devoted time to this blog and much has happened since then, most notably...

Yes, our "little" family of five has now become a family of six. Life is busy, happy and full.

And since I'm feeling ambitious, I figured now would be as good a time as any to once again attempt the plunge back into chronicling our household adventures.

Here's a short visual recap of ten moments from the past year that I thought to photograph but hadn't the inclination (or time ;) ) to write about:

On a Rainy Hallowe'en...

I've been on a bit of a hiatus lately owing to a lot of changes in our home lives... back to work (for me), back to school (preschool for the middle son and grade one for the eldest) and a new bun in the oven! Been tired and sick and trying to figure out how to juggle school, the midwife, work, swimming, Chinese school, etc. and still find time for my few pursuits and blogging.

Anyway, three months have gone by and I'm feeling a bit more like myself again and I am game for bringing this blog back up to snuff in the few months left before the next child hits our household. So here's a look at what's on tap for tonight's soggy trick or treating and I'll follow up later with some pictures of the costumes in the making.

I had a request for dinosaur costumes this year and because they are still subject to my will, I interpreted that to mean Dinosaur Train.

The general pattern for the costume can be found on the PBS website and I made a few modifications to make the hood more realistic.

That pattern also served as my template to create Tiny Pteranodon and Mr. Conductor (seen above without his signature uniform and below with all the pieces together).

Hopefully, hubby can get some nice pictures of the kids tonight before they step out and get soaked. Happy Hallowe'en to all!

Trying out Bloglovin...

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

A Canada Day Tradition?

We did it last year and I felt compelled to do it again this year...

Matching outfits.

This year our matchie-poo clothes are courtesy of sew, mama, sew! and Made by Rae via their Spring Ruffle Top Tutorial.

My top was made by following the directions exactly... no time to mess around this year with any variations since I started this project with a mere week to sew and too many work and school commitments to count!

I highly recommend this tutorial and top. The instructions were super easy to follow with lots of suggestions to help make the fit super comfortable and flattering!

More to come on how I made my daughter's dress in the next post...

(And I promise that there will be a next post soon. I know I've been really absent lately, but I do have a ton of posts/ideas/photos piling up that need to be published... Just need to start writing :)