We Have A Lime Belt in the House!

This past Saturday, Noah passed the test for his lime belt in Taekwando. He even had a high enough score to earn his extra tip! The school that Noah attends uses a mixed martial arts approach. The first three belts (white, yellow/gold, orange) are all Taekwando. At the lime belt level, the technique changes to Maududo...which (from what I understand) is more of a hand to hand grappling technique used in practical self defence. Now that Noah is a lime belt he will begin sparring! He actually really surprised me by telling me that he is looking forward to this.


This is Noah with his instructor, Mr. Patten, after passing his test for his new belt. Not my best camera work ever....it looks a bit lopsided, doesn't it?!

Above, is Noah receiving his new belt. Here Mr. Patten is reading out his scores.

This video is of Noah performing his form. It consists of a sequence 28 kicks, punches and steps. He also had to perform three different 'one steps' and answer some theory questions before passing his test.

He did so well.....we are very proud of him! Most importantly, he improved some of the scores in the categories that he was marked down on during his last belt test. That is all we can really ask for...isn't it?

:)

Journal Entries

One of the challenges that I am taking on this summer with the kids is to have them write journal entries. The difficulty is in the fact that they don't always enjoy doing it, and therefore don't do their best work. I haven't decided, but this may be one of those such entries. I am pretty sure that this is not Rebekah's best artwork, but the entry is about a milestone, so I included it here nonetheless.

On Wednesday of this past week, Bekah lost her first tooth! I have the sneaky suspicion that this child is going to need DENTAL WORK....but we can hope for the best, right?! The tooth behind started coming in before the baby tooth fell out. The baby tooth was loose, but just a bit. Well, it seemed like it went from just being minorly loose to hanging by a thread in no time flat! Before we knew it, I was brushing her teeth and that thing was wobbling so much that I thought she might swallow it. With a bit of coaxing from me, and some offers of gifts from Noah (a fancy eraser and mini notebook), Rebekah let me pull her tooth out!

This is Bekah's journal entry depicting the event. I am not sure why she has two pink teeth while the rest are yellow....but when asked she just said she changed her mind after she started. She drew in the missing tooth below and I helped her to draw the arrow to indicate the space from which it had come. Like I said before....I have seen her draw much better than this lopsided looking self portrait with only one ponytail! LOL! Hopefully I will get to portray more of her artwork in future posts! Oh...and I just noticed that she left an 'e' out of her name too....can we say 'rushed job'?!

:)

CSA Week Two

I realized after I took my CSA share pic last week, I forgot to include my eggs. This week I remembered! The eggs are from free range, grain fed hens at the farm from which we get our produces. I get a half dozen eggs each week.


This week, we also received an herb plant. The choices were parsley or chives, so since Kevin was doing the pick up, he made the choice. We got parsley.

Here is Bekah (last week) enjoying picking the remaining popcorn of the cob. Not all of it popped off...the cob came out of the bag with some of the popped corn still stuck to it!


The rest is much of the same as last week....garlic scapes, popcorn, scallions, radishes, lettuce, swiss chard and strawberries. Now that I am feeling more comfortable cooking with garlic scapes (after the success of last weeks potato salad) I am on a mission to figure out what to do with swiss chard.......


:)

CSA Share Week One

I am very excited about our first entry into the world of CSAs (Community Supported Agriculture)! Generally speaking, a CSA operates by selling shares of all of the crops that a farm grows for an entire growing season. As a CSA member, you pay a flat price and then you get a share of the crops each week from the end of May/beginning of June until Sept./Oct.

The beginning of the season is lighter, with peak season offering each share member a bushel or more of produce each week. Ohio has been VERY rainy, and this too affects the crops. That is the risk of participating in a CSA...if the farm does well so do you, but if the farm has a poor growing season, you receive smaller portions of each crop. The benefits include knowing where and how your food is grown, reducing the distance your food travels from farm to table, supporting your local economy....and in our case, a family run farm.

Our first share contained strawberries, lettuce, radishes, swiss chard, scallions, garlic scapes and popcorn. This was our first experience with 'on the cob' popcorn and the kids loved it! I didn't even know what to do with it, and had to read my farm newsletter to figure it out. It turns out that you put it in a paper lunch bag, fold over the top of the bag, put it in the microwave using your popcorn setting and then stand and watch the show. The bag dances around as the heat causes the kernels to pop right off the cob! We had a blast watching it.



I have already tried a new recipe as a result of the CSA. That is the hope, that we will expand our horizons, learn to eat new things and eat healthier along the way. I didn't know what to do with the garlic scapes either, but I found this recipe and really enjoyed it.

Garlic Potato Salad

6 cups / 1.5 L new potatoes (cubed)
Boil in water until tender...about 5 minutes. Set aside.

6 garlic scapes or 3 cloves garlic (minced)
1 cup / 240 ml green onions (minced)
1/4 cup / 60 ml olive oil
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
2 teaspoons fresh rosemary (chopped, or 1 tsp. dried)
salt and pepper to taste

Combine in a large bowl. Add cooked potatoes and stir to coat. Chill about 3 hours before serving.

I look forward to documenting our CSA journey, and learning a lot along the way!

:)