Penny's new trick...

She can pull herself up to stand! 

A new me.

No, not really. 

Just a new haircut and new glasses. $16 glasses are THE BEST. 

Farm Box Love

We started getting a farm box every other Tuesday this month. 

If you know me at all, you know that I love to plan. That's mostly the reason I've waited so long to commit to a farm box; it's actually really hard to NOT be able to plan out all of our meals each week. 

Needless to say, like most things that are uncomfortable, this farm box has turned out alright and has given me an opportunity to grow in letting go of control in that freakish, sinful, I-like-to-control-my-own-destiny kind of way. I still get to plan ahead for the most part because it's every other week (as opposed to each week, so we're not totally dependent on the box contents for meals) but I actually really like the surprises that come in the boxes every other Tuesday. 

Here was our first farm box:

 Heirloom tomatoes, purple peppers, cherry tomatoes, mission figs, Japanese eggplant, I forget what the green stuff in the bag was (beans?)

 We mostly ate the tomatoes as is, added the purple peppers to salads and made eggplant parmesan (yummy and easy!). My favorite was the figs because I got to make a fig-goat cheese-lemon-honey galette (above.)

Farm box #2 (just found it on our doorstep this morning!):

nantes carrots, padron peppers, cherry and heirloom tomatoes, granny smith apples, green beans, assorted sweet peppers...

...arugula and gold beets!

Exciting! I've never cooked with padron peppers or gold beets before!

(And a picture to melt your hearts into heart-shaped puddles...)

Quiet

Jeff's in LA for work, Jonas and Penny are napping, and I get to enjoy the quiet... a warm cup of vanilla rooibos tea, homemade apple hand-pie and fresh figs from our farm box, and a good book for my soul. I'm tempted to think that this is the quiet before the storm, but trying to fight that temptation (why is it so easy to give up blessings like a quiet afternoon with worries about evenings alone with the kids without Jeff to help me?) and instead enjoy my yummy snack and clear my head a bit.

Oh, and it's not actually so bad being home with the kids... Have you seen them? They're pretty darn cute... especially this one nowadays...

Peek...

...a...

 ...BOO!

Summer Goals Revisited...

Ha. So technically, there are still 23 days or so left of summer, so I still have time to complete some of my goals from June. AND it's actually kind of sunny outside so maybe we'll get some semblance of summer-like weather after all, even it's for a bit.

But I'm revisiting my goals and thought I'd share some revisions with you all  here.

(What I'm about to do is probably not allowed in the world of goal-making & -accomplishing...)

Even though I haven't accomplished many of my summer goals, we have accomplished many other things here in the Locke household, so I thought I'd use some of those things to count as some of my summer goals completed.

Here we go:

• Make ice cream (sans ice cream maker): I TOTALLY TRIED TO DO THIS (with this idea) but my food processor/blender decided to break on the day we were going to make banana ice cream. Going to get a new food processor and try again later this month.
• Learn how to pick a delicious watermelon: Lo and behold... my mom taught me how! Knock knock...
• Host Sunday Suppers: Hmmm... so I was going to make this a formal thing (like plan menus and such) but to make things easier, let's say that I've done/been doing this because on the Sundays we've been in town, we have had suppers here with our friends. :)
• Make my own cleaning products: DONE!
• Plant herbs: Nope. Instead, we sent Jonas to preschool for the first time! (Yes, totally unrelated.) See pictures below.
• Mail 3 surprise packages in the mail: I've actually done this for two friends. I'm really horrible at documenting things.
• No jeans for a week: ummmmm.... later? I've been waiting for nicer weather.
• Potty train Jonas: DONE!
• Sew a dress and wear it outside: well... I definitely thought about doing this. I think that we'll use this activity to substitute (even though it's technically not sewing). I actually wore my bracelet a lot, until it fell off. :(
• Learn how to grill stuff: I'm going to replace this one with learn to make lots of pies. Cause I already did that. 

And now I bring you, Jonas goes to school...

(We walked because it's literally around the corner from our house.)

(What's in his backpack? A change of clothes and snacks that he wouldn't need because they feed him at the school. Can I just tell you that I'm actually really SAD that I don't get to pack him a lunch for school?!?!?! I love packing lunches.)

(Sorry about the blurriness. We get in, he takes off his jacket, backpack and shoes, and is gone like the wind. Each day when I've gone to pick him up, his teachers always say "he's so independent! he had so much fun!" Yay Jonas!)