Farm to Table Project

My kids' school has a farm share and each week the pre-schoolers get to go pick up the veggies.  Then the teachers have to figure out what to do with all those veggies.  They have made kale chips, beet pancakes, apple-carrot muffins and who knows what else.  The preschoolers get to help with the cooking and then they all get to taste the dish and even provide a rating on how well they liked it.  It's like one of those smiley-face pain scales they hang on the wall in the hospital.  (You know, the one that you would laugh out loud at while you're pacing the room in labor.....if laughing were an option at that moment).  In this case, I believe the food-rating options are "really liked it", "just liked it", "kinda liked it", and "didn't like it."  I'll wait until Tai is a little older to lecture him on constructing a valid likert scale. 

Eventually, the teachers got smart and enlisted the help of a few pre-schoolers, mine included, to compose a letter home to parents asking for help with creative veggie recipes.  Tai embraced this project whole-heartedly.  Over the course of a week, I heard about this letter from Tai approximately 27 times.  I got, "Do you have any recipes that use beets?  kale? edamame?" and "Maybe we can make pumpkin bread or beef stew?"

He had me at beef stew.

I am not a great cook, but beef stew is one thing I can do.  And it uses potatoes and carrots and garlic and onions.  I figured I'd jump on that and let some other parent figure out what to do with the rutabagas.

Earlier this week I gathered veggies from the school's share and last night after dinner, my entire family worked together to make a huge crock-pot full of stew for the entire school.  I don't know how I didn't realize this ahead of time, but everything takes three times longer when working with kiddos.  It was extra work for us to keep manufacturing easy, safe jobs for Quynh.  To his credit, Tai peeled all the carrots, but it took him a good 35 minutes and some of them were peeled to within an inch of their life.  Ever seen a carrot with a waist?  I have.

After struggling for a while with a butter knife and a raw potato, Quynh request a sharper knife.  She was totally jealous that Minh got to chop the garlic with a cleaver. 

This morning my two kids, beaming with pride, delivered the stew to school.  They scooped some out right away and brought it to the infant room for their morning snack.  I can't wait to hear how it goes over in the toddler and pre-school rooms.  After all that work, I do hope they eat it. 

There's Always Time For Coffee

Last Saturday I had an unusually bad morning.  When the kids woke at the Crack of Six I let them come snuggle in our bed and watch about an hour of TV.  Usually this tactic gets me a decent chunk of light sleep.  But last Saturday Quynh was having none of it.  While Tai sat and calmly devoured his allotted Screen Time, Quynh talked, wiggled, and kicked, and sat on my chest.  For the entire hour.  I should have just gotten up with them and saved the precious TV time for later in the day when I needed a break.  

So, somewhere around 7:15am, bleary-eyed, I stumbled into the kitchen to rustle up some breakfast.   After serving my kids, I scooped myself a large serving of what I believed to be vanilla Greek yogurt, topped it with granola and took a huge bite. 

Alas, it was not yogurt, but sour cream.

OK, that was horrifyingly gross, but I recovered quickly.  I simply dumped it out and started over with the actual Greek yogurt (that happened ot be in exactly the same shape, size and color contianer as the sour cream.) 

After breakfast the kids started in with, "Can you play with me? Can we do a puppet show?  Can we do an art project?"  Not having to be at Tai's swim class until 9am, I figured I'd take my coffee into the play room and spend some quality time with the munchkins.

I then proceeded to pour a full cup of coffee and immediately knock it off the counter onto my (wood) kitchen floor.  Tai came running in the from the playroom to, basically, point out that I had made a huge mess.  Thanks, I hadn't noticed.

After I cleaned up the mess and poured a fresh coffee, the kids and I managed to have a wonderful time playing together.  We built a zoo out of blocks and plastic animals, and then drew pictures of animals to hang on the wall.  I helped Tai use stencils to make a sign that said "Lions eat Zebras and Wildebeests."  All the while, Tai and Quynh happily shared their toys and refrained from yelling at or hitting each other.  It was lovely.

Until I looked at the clock.  8:52am.

Swim class is at 9am.

That's when I started yelling.  "Tai, we need to go to swim class RIGHT NOW!  Take off your shorts, put on your bathing suit, now go put on your crocs and wait for me by the door!"

Surprisingly he did not resist this abrupt end to our morning playtime, but did exactly as he was told.  I ran around the house, grabbing his towel and a change of clothes for him, shouting a reminder at Minh that he and Quynh were to take the cats to the vet in half-an-hour, and then actually took the time to stop and make myself a travel mug of coffee.

Yup, while my son was waiting obediently by the door I took the time to make sure I'd have coffee to sip while I watched him swim.  Then we breezed out the door a whole 4 minutes after I'd checked the clock.   Just as I pulled the garage door shut behind me I heard Quynh, still playing quietly in the playroom call out, "Mama?"

Too late, we were gone--on a mission to not miss more than 15 minutes of the 45-minute class we had paid for.  As we started down the street Tai commented, "Woah, Mama, you're driving FAST!"

Luckily, swim class is only about 7 minutes from home.  By 9:15 Tai was in the pool and I was taking my seat among the other parents.  There I sat, un-showered, teeth un-brushed, with no makeup on.  But coffee in hand.  I have my priorities straight.