May & June

So, it's been a while.  Farming life and the lack of internet at home have both gotten in the way of blogging, so there is a lot to catch up on...

May:

Brad spent the month of May harvesting blueberries.  We all love that time of year because our refrigerator is always full of fresh blueberries, and we eat them by the handfuls.  I am so happy to not have to pay for that habit because we would be broke!  

I took a couple of pictures while walking through the blueberry field one day:

Sanders and Gibson both have summer birthdays, so they got to celebrate their birthdays at the end of the school year.   I took the easy way out and had Publix make un-iced cupcakes, so all I had to do was put on some icing.  Our counter looked like a cupcake factory for a while!

I got a big surprise for Mother's Day this year -- my own iPad!  I think I said this before, but I got one for Brad for Christmas the year before last, and I really thought that I would probably be the one to use it more than he would (you know, one of those gifts you give someone that's really for yourself?!?!), but Brad loves the iPad and uses it constantly.  And if he isn't using it, then the kids are.  So I have been left out in the dust as far as the iPad is concerned...until now.

The girls had their dance recital Mother's Day weekend.  I didn't get any good pictures during the actual recital, but I got a couple before we left the house.  They had the cutest costumes ever this time.  The only problem with them is they dropped pink sequins all over the house every time the girls put them on.

What I don't love about May is that I always end up feeling like my head is spinning.  The kids are still in school and have a million end-of-the-year activities going on, Brad is never home, my work/commute schedule kicks into high gear, and life just seems to get out of control.  I am definitely a mommy who prays for the end of the school year,  if just to let some of the craziness die down.  

Once school does get out, I am thankful to get down to the coast and just take a deep breath.

This summer we moved into the same cottage that we stayed in last packing season.  It belongs to my great-aunt and -uncle, and it is in between my parents' house and another aunt and uncle.  We miss Brad while he is home busy with his harvest season, but it is so nice not to have to drive an hour-and-a-half to work every day, especially when those work days get really long.

Our family place on the coast is a little slice of heaven on earth...  

There is an old tabby wall in between the cottage and Aunt Sharon and Uncle Mac's house:  

Our home for the summer:
   

The kids love playing in the marsh in front of the house.  There are plenty of fiddler crabs for them to catch, or they can just get muddy!   Sanders, my little scientist, especially loves it.      

The view is not too shabby from any direction:

June:

And, of course, the reason that we are there in the first place, the tomato packing season... We started early this year, on my birthday, May 31.  It was my first ever packing house birthday, and I have to say I would rather not have a packing house birthday.  But, everyone at the packing house made me feel extra special -- there was a pile of gifts waiting for me when I got to work, and our cook made my favorite caramel cake.  So, I guess if I had to spend my entire birthday and most of the night at work, then my family definitely made it the best day possible.

This year held a lot of firsts for us as far as packing season.  It was our first year with our new sales team, our first year in our new office, our first year using two new types of software, and our first year changing the way we do a couple of things around the packing house.  For the most part, all of the changes were good.  There have definitely been some bumps and hiccups along the road, but I think (hope) that most of us would agree that (most of) the changes have been for the better.

However, at this point everyone is just pretty darn tired.  After working such long hours (until midnight or later a lot of nights), it is hard to think positively sometimes.  Right now we mostly live off of our caffeine of choice -- iced coffee and Coke Zero for me (and don't forget the cake!) -- and just try to make it from day to day without killing a family member.  Tempers can kind of run short.

But the last tomato rolled across the belt today, so we will be catching up on sleep soon enough.  I always think that is a bittersweet moment...

My children have been living the life as Brad and I have been slaving away.  Our babysitter, Mary Beth, keeps them very well entertained.  She helped them set up a lemonade stand one day, where they made $45!!  (If you don't count the $20 I spent on the lemonade...)

They have gone swimming at the pool and at the beach.  They go to the library once a week and check out plenty of books and Andy Griffith movies.  They have gone to the theater to see Brave.  They come to see me at the packing house every day for lunch and dinner, and it is a nice little break for me to spend some family time with my babies -- and it is a way for me to actually get to see the kids when they are awake.

This past week Mary Beth took the kids to art camp.  They made some really cute things, like Tyler's Coosaw (or "Cossaw") Farms banner, and they also did some artwork that really impressed me.  The girls really enjoyed art camp, but I am pretty sure that Gibson just got dragged along.

So that, in a nutshell, is our May & June.  I make no promises about my blogging future, but I hope to be around more.  At least more than once every two months...Happy Summer!

Summer Supper

I feel like I have been talking about food a lot lately.  Which is probably why I need to lose about three pounds before I put on a bathing suit in front of anyone.  But that is a depressing thought, so let's move on...

I made the best dinner the other night.  I had been wanting to try this recipe since seeing it on Designer Bags and Dirty Diapers, and it did not disappoint when I finally got around to it...

Summer Corn Cakes with Tomato Avocado Salsa

(probably I should copy the recipe here, but it's too late, and I'm too tired...just click on the link...)

We, of course, added some fresh blueberries on the side, because no meal is complete at our house these days without fresh blueberries.  AND, I tried my first blueberry cobbler, using my peach cobbler recipe and just substituting blueberries.  It was really good.  I immediately had to take it up to Brad's packing house to get it out of the house so that I wouldn't eat every last bite, which is why I don't have any pictures of it... I would love to know if anyone has a good recipe that is meant for blueberry cobbler.  It's all in the name of research!!

Today's iPhone Pics

Today has been a doozy...just one of those fun, nothing-goes-great days.  But, let's just not dwell on that...instead, here are some pictures I snapped with my phone today:

Hunt and I went walking around the Back Field today, so I checked in on the baby maters, and they are growing like little weeds (although I guess that doesn't really sound good, does it?!?!)

I have started making my own, very delicious, almond butter from a recipe I saw on Tasty Kitchen, or at least that's where I thought it was, but now I can't find it to link up.  It's almonds in the food processor until they turn to paste, sea salt, and honey.  That's it.  And did I mention that it's delicious?

I got my hair done today and decided to go blonde for the summer.  And I ended up with this non-color:

I am trying really hard not to be depressed about it, but I hate it.  It isn't blonde, and it isn't brown.  It is somewhere in between, and it is ugly (hence the ugly faces in the pictures...and we won't even talk about the baggage under my eyes...).  I may just wear a bag over my head until I can go back on June 23rd.  

So...that's my day in a (very small, leave out most of the annoying parts) nutshell.  Hope yours was lovely.

Easter...Yes, I Said Easter

I know.  It was a month ago.  But even if it is just for me to remember, I wanted to post about our first Easter in the new house -- and our first time hosting a family holiday -- here on the old blog.  I have already tried to upload these pictures once, and our internet in the boonies wouldn't let me, so I am finally getting around to it now...

Anywho.

We spent Saturday night of Easter weekend with my parents.  I don't know if you'd call it a tradition, but I think we have done it for the past couple of years.  The kids woke up to their Easter baskets in the same place that Hunter, Graham, and I woke up to ours back in the day.

And we had to have some of the obligatory stand there and look like you love each other pictures before church.  Some days those are harder than others.

We got some really cute pictures of all six of the grandchildren after church.  Cute, that is, if you don't care that they aren't all looking at the camera and smiling at the same time.  That would be impossible.

Funny aside -- the kids are all sitting on GranGran's gravestone in our family area of the graveyard.  Some kid came up and told Hunter that it is rude to sit on people's graves...  I don't really think he would care...

While it is hard to act like you love your sisters, it is not hard to act like you love your buddies...

We had a great meal at our house to celebrate after church.  My side of the family all went to my grandmother's house, so it was just Brad's parents and sister and brother-in-law at the house, but that was probably plenty for our first time entertaining the fam.  Sanders and Tyler did our flowers -- yes, really!  Louise brought our main course, Angela brought a salad, and I made Cranberry-Strawberry Salad, macaroni and cheese, and Strawberry Shortcake Cake, which ended up looking like a bleeding heart because I had to use my heart-shaped cake pan (it was the correct depth) and all the strawberries poking out looked like blood...oh well, it was delicious anyway.

After everyone left, I snapped a couple more pictures of my babies to try to get one where they at least looked happy to be together.  Maybe it was the sun in their eyes, but this one will do!!

We had a very blessed Easter (yes, a month ago), and I hope you did too.


Alleluia!  He is Risen!
The Lord is Risen indeed!  Alleluia!

Had Your Coosaw Berries Yet?

Have y'all gotten any of these guys yet?  If not, you need to go directly to your local grocery store and look for them!  The blueberries are extra delicious this year, and I can say that because I didn't have anything to do with growing them -- but I certainly have a refrigerator full of them, and the kids and I are eating them by the handful.

I know they are being sold at Publix (although not yet at the Publix closest to me because we are supplied by the Jacksonville distribution center, and right now Brad is only supplying the Atlanta distribution center -- hopefully they will be in all Publix distribution centers soon), BiLo, Fresh Market, Whole Foods, and some IGAs.  Go get them while you can!!

The Usual Catch-Up Post

I never mean to allow three weeks between my posts, but life just seems to go by at warp speed these days -- especially now that it is spring and blueberries are ready and we are getting ready for our season on the tomato farm.  Work has been taking up most of my time lately, and we won't even talk about how much of Brad's time it is taking up already.  You know it's bad when your child (Sanders) says to you "you know how you're always at work, and we are always with Kaitlyn (the babysitter)?"  Talk about a knife through a mommy's heart...and why don't they seem to notice that Daddy is always at work, even longer than Mommy?

Anyway, here's what's been going on, aside from work, since last we spoke.

Tyler got her braces on.  She already had the expander and some sort of contraption in the bottom, but now they have added brackets on her top permanent teeth.  She has been a real trooper through it all, and she has been great about brushing and flossing and all of the fun extra dental hygiene that comes along with a mouth full of metal.  And turning the key in her expander was really no big deal -- I was prepared for the worst, but she was a rock star as far as that went!  I am so proud of her.

I have cooked some good recipes that I wanted to share through some links...

These buffalo chicken rolls were awesome.  And easy.  Two words I love when describing a recipe.  

This Roasted Tomatoes with Shrimp and Feta makes my mouth water when I think about it.  It is easy, too, if you can get past peeling the shrimp.  I am the world's worst shrimp peeler, so it takes me forever.  I try to always have shrimp when Brad will be home to peel them, but I have done it twice for this recipe...it's that good that I will go through the effort! 

This pasta is an old standby, and I love, love, love it.  I could eat it once a week, I think.  

This past weekend I went to the wedding of one of my best guy friends from high school.  If you count the fact that our mothers went to lamaze classes together, I have known Justin since we were in utero, so he is really one of my oldest friends.  Justin married one of my brother's old girlfriends, so it was all of my old friends and Graham's old friends in one place.  It was great to see so many people from high school and to catch up on everyone's lives.  Most of us keep in touch pretty often, and we all know how Facebook makes the world so small, but I hadn't seen some of my friends since college!

Most of the weekend you could find the kids and me here...

We finally got to spend some time at the beach when it was actually warm (last time we went for the afternoon, it was freezing!) -- in fact, it was pretty perfect.  The kids are at an age where I can pretty much sit in a chair, look at a magazine, and relax.  (Of course, I keep my eyes on them, but I don't have to be quite as crazy about it as I was even last year; they just are growing up too fast.)

We also enjoyed our first watermelon of the year, but what do you know, I grabbed a seeded one from Brad's packing house.  But, at least the kids got to practice their seed-spitting skills.

Spring Break 2012!!

It's Spring Break around here, but sadly we don't get to do anything like this:

or this:

this year (or any year for that matter).  Instead, this is proving to be my busiest work week yet this year, Brad is gearing up to pick blueberries early, and the weather isn't quite as warm as the summer-like temperatures we have been having recently.  

But, I do hope to work like crazy for the first half of the week to try to get at least a little bit of time to enjoy with the chickens before they go back to school.  I'd love to try out this new fro-yo place in a nearby town and take the kids to a movie...I'd love to get to the beach one day (if it's warm enough!)...I'd love to get Gibson some summer clothes since he has grown like a weed over the winter...I would love to spend some time reading books, watching movies, and playing outside with the kids at our house before I get too busy and can't...I'd like to enjoy spring break!

One thing I am enjoying, though, even if I am having to work like crazy?  Sleeping past 5:45 am!  That early alarm is going to be a tough pill to swallow next Monday morning...