Happy Birthday Megan!

Yesterday was Megan's birthday. We started the celebration on Sunday at a Lady Vols softball game.

Here's Megan's favorite player, Lillian Hammond. Megan went to a softball camp this summer where Lillian was one of the counselors. Lillian, who is a slap hitter like Megan, chose Megan for an Outstanding Camper award.
Brendan and Krisden came too. And that's David up in the corner. He's watching the game:). Doesn't Nicholas look like he's having a good time?

After the game, we went to dinner at Megan's traditional favorite, Macaroni Grill. Tia, Drew and Riley joined us there. Isn't Riley cute?After, there were some shenanigans in the parking lot:

The next morning, Megan opened her presents. She was most excited about this present-- pierced earrings! She is getting her ears pierced as soon as softball season is over. Nicholas gave her a dolphin Webkinz. Isn't sibling love grand?




Here's my beautiful ten year old!

Tournament in Crossville

David and Megan headed to Crossville for a softball tournament today. (I worked and Nicholas spent the day with Grandma and Grandpa.)  Megan's team, the Fury, is the same team she has played on since teeball. Last spring, the girls played in a tournament in Crossville and lost every game by a lot. 

Today, we had the same record (lost 4 games) but in a much more competitive fashion. Two of the games were lost by a one run margin.

Although frustrating, it is very encouraging to see how far the team has come since May. 

We have a good group of girls and parents, so we usually have fun regardless.

My Cat, Dash

Here is an original poem by Megan about her kitten Dash that she wrote as a school assignment.

My Cat, Dash

I'm a fierce tiger, hunting the prey, alert for any movement, by the door, yearning to go out.

"Dash, dinner time!"

Wait, did she say dinner time? She did! My favorite part of the day. 

I want to be by the food, with the food, oh food, your fantastic, festive, fresh flavor is like a fantasy. Oh food you smile up at me.

"Meow, meow. It tastes so good."

Okay, I'm finished. Thank you for feeding me, and thank you for listening.

"Meow, meow, meow. (I smile up at you.)"

baby kittens

At my work, everyone has been pitching in to help raise some little abandoned kittens. Our head technician, Angie, took them in several weeks ago (and another little munchkin who showed up the following week). After she did the hard work the first week, we have all been taking a turn caring for the babies. Last week we hosted Waylon, Big'un, Tater, Shadow and Grub.

Megan and Nicholas enjoyed helping:

Now the older 4 are old enough to eat on their own, but their adopted brother still needs a bottle. Little Grub is, therefore, still making the trip home with someone each night. Last night he came to our house.

There really is nothing cuter than a baby kitten. Don't you agree?

CSA

We belong to a CSA which stands for community supported agriculture. The way it works is that the consumer pays the farmer a set fee at the beginning of the season and the farmer provides the goods (in our case a variety of fresh, organic, in-season locally grown vegetables) each week during the growing season. The benefit to the farmer is improved cash flow and a more predictable market for his produce. The benefit for the consumer is, well, obvious: beautiful produce which has not been contaminated with pesticides or trucked across the country (or the world). Often we get heirloom varieties which were bred for TASTE not portability. And supporting the local economy is a bonus.

We began this endeavor because we were trying to reduce the distance our food travels (at least some of our food, for part of the year). On average, food in our grocery stores has traveled 1500 miles to get to us. This produce from our CSA has just come down the pike from Grainger county. Although we won't achieve the admirable goal of eating 100% locally outlined in Barbara Kingsolver's book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, we have definitely improved over last year, including (other than our CSA produce) some meat and dairy products. 

We visited our CSA, Green Man Farm, last fall and got to see their beautiful setup.

Megan and Nicholas had a great time. That's Gabriel, below, on the left, he's the farmer's son and he really took a shine to Megan.

So we don't have a lot of sun in our yard and gardens in the past have been a bit of a disappointment. This year we decided to take advantage of our mild winters and plant a fall/winter garden. The bonus is that the plants will get more sunlight after the leaves fall off the trees.

Weekend before last, Nicholas spent 2 hours helping me plant the garden. We planted broccoli raab, sugar snap peas, chard, scallions, spinach, lettuce, calendula, pansies, clarkia, and sweet peas.


Nicholas says to say that the broccoli raab (aka broccoli robber) seeds are tiny compared to the sugar snap pea seeds. And that the plants are coming up perfectly. (This is a sugar snap pea.)









Here is some chard 8 days after planting:


And here is a volunteer asparagus from a previous endeavor:

And this is what it looks like if you don't harvest it and eat it!

First post

Yesterday, we spent the early part of the day in Talbott, TN at Megan's first horse show held at Walnut Grove Stables. We have tried 2 or 3 times before but something (illness, lost horse shoe, changes of plans, softball) has always interfered.

But finally we got the opportunity to leave our house at 5:45 am (actual departure time was about 6:04 am) all dressed up to ride. She was entered in 7 classes (3 beginner hunter over fences and beginner hunter under saddle and 2 beginner equitation over fences and beginner equitation on the flat). In the hunter classes, the judge looks more at the horse to see how she is making it around the course, and in the equitation portion, he looks more at the rider.

Megan's trainer had Megan's favorite horse, Bella, all shined up and ready to go. All we had to do was help tack her up.

Megan was quiet and (I think) a little nervous when we first got there. But after schooling (warming up by riding Bella in the ring where they were to compete later), she seemed much more relaxed.

We had quite a wait until it was Megan's turn to go, plenty of time for her cheering section to arrive.

Finally, we headed up the hill to her first competition.

She seemed exhilarated following her first round. Gail (the trainer) complimented her on a good first go, and had some areas in which she wanted her to improve (she cut her corners). But when Bob, Gail's husband and trainer to the older riders, showed up he didn't mince words.

"She's cutting her corners! She came in sideways in that far corner! I don't know how Bella made it! She ought to kiss Bella for jumping that jump." (Then to Megan.) "You've got to go deeper in that corner. That was the worst corner I've ever seen and the horse still make the jump."

Now Gail teaches the younger kids for a reason. She has a way of letting you know what you did wrong and what you need to do to fix it, while still making you feel good about what you did. But Bob, well, let's just say that Bob is more direct. Megan's face fell a bit after his tirade. I was afraid she would fall apart. But instead, she just went out and rode better than before. She got a second place on that first round and a first place on the next one! Unfortunately, in her third round Gail accidentally told her the wrong course so she was disqualified :(. Megan learned a valuable lesson from this though, and she made sure HERSELF what the course was for the rest of the rounds. She got a third in the under saddle portion of the beginner hunter division.

Despite the (admittedly mild) adversity in her first few rounds, she finished strong in the equitation division, with a fourth on the flat and two firsts in the over fences. And, in her very first show, she got Grand Champion in the equitation division!

She was all smiles for the rest of the day.

Following the show we all went to my parents' house for my dad's 65th birthday. (Happy birthday, Dad!) Mom made a great spaghetti dinner followed by a delicious chocolate cake. All in all, a great day.