Strawberries and jam

Such an absolutely perfect weekend. First we hosted a Friday potluck, then a Saturday at the farmer's market, spent time in the yard planting more herbs (4 kinds of basil!) and veggies and the evening at Cirque du Soleil. And then an impromptu strawberry picking expedition on Sunday lead by the world most adorable strawberry spotter. The strawberries were gorgeous at the farmer's market this weekend I developed an obsession with picking strawberries this spring. My indulgent husband let me hijack our other plans.

Child labor

We've been playing the game Orchard in which a rascally raven steals your fruit. Joey was very concerned that we needed to get to the strawberries before the raven came and ate our fruit. If you have a 2 - 5 year old, you need Orchard. Joey loves it and it's tolerable for us to play over and over and over...

Lifting 25% of his body weight in fruit

Berry boys

Anyway, we picked 8 lbs. of strawberries. We had another 3 lbs. from the farmer's market in the fridge. So that's 11 lbs. of berries. Ummmm, yeah. Clearly, I was a little excited to see them in season again.

I've put up 10 jars of jam and have plans to freeze most of the rest. Now that I'm over my fear of canning, I really love it. The jars look so pretty lined up in the pantry and Joey had a blast using the potato masher to smash the berries. Well, smash and eat. Look here for more info about canning. I love busting out all the weird shaped jars I inherited from my Grandma. They are perfect for jam!

Garden Boots

Hey, Joey.

Yes, Mommy.

Let's get dressed and go outside to water the garden.

OK, Mommy. I'll get ready. 

Silence

Joey, what are you doing?

I'm ready to go now!

 

My child - nude except for his gardening boots and a camera. 

Welcome Spring.

Happy International Women's Day

And if you haven't read it, you might want to check out the first White House Report on the Status of Women since Eleanor Roosevelt lead the effort in the 1960's. Spoiler alert: we're still a long way from equality.

Parading, parenting, and participation

Mardi Gras 2007

Instead of parading today, which is what any reasonable person would be doing, I'm feeling a bit down in the dumps since I have to be at work. I need glitter and king cake.

Instead, I'm at the office. Wait, you say, isn't it spring break? Yes my friends, but since I'm now in the land of professional studentism spring break just means time to catchup on all the work stuff I can't get to in a normal week including grading three weeks worth of papers. Chuck laughs at me when I complain about the piddly amount of grading I do.

So today I'm preparing for a series of participatory evaluation workshops for the project I work on. Since I have time this week (See: Spring Break), we've scheduled 5 workshops with our community partners. After a series of meltdowns this morning with Mr. J involving markers and shoes, I realized that many of the lessons of participatory research are basically the same as my parenting philosophy:

• Respect the process
• Meet people where they are instead of where you want them to be
• Acknowledge that you cannot instill a desire for change or action from the outside
• Knowledge comes in many forms - classroom and experiential
• Realize that perfect is not possible or desirable
• Long term commitment is the only way to make improvement
• Granola bars can restore goodwill and
• When all else fails make a joke

Also, patience. And more cake. Happy Mardi Gras!