Yesterday

I have a wonderful husband. My birthday was yesterday, and he planned an event-filled day for me to enjoy. My morning started with a surprise massage, followed by an informal party with Alex and Tricia, and then ended with a surprise evening out with friends.


Although this picture is horribly blurry, I just had to document the cake that was so lovingly prepared for me :)

I have a wonderful group of friends here that are so supportive and fun and helpful and encouraging.

Thanks, everyone, for a great day!

The Farm

"Community Supported Agriculture or CSA is a unique model of local agriculture whose roots reach back 30 years to Japan, where a group of women were concerned with the use of pesticides. Originally called "teikei" in Japanese, which translates to "putting the farmers' face on food," the concept later moved to Europe. Eventually, in the mid-1930's CSA made its way to the U.S.
It’s about FRESH, quality, locally grown produce direct from the farmers; from YOUR farm!
Being part of a CSA is a relationship of mutual support and commitment between local farmers and community members who pay the farmer an annual membership fee to cover the production costs of the farm. In turn, members receive a weekly share of the harvest during the local growing season. This arrangement gives the farmer a direct connection to and relationship with the consumer.
Ultimately, CSA creates "COMMUNITY-SUPPORTED-AGRICULTURE" where members receive a wide variety of local in-season foods harvested at their peak of ripeness, flavor and vitamin and mineral content."

I took this information from our farm's website. We share a membership with my cousins and bring home delicious vegetables each week. The kids love going. Typically, food is bundled and ready for us to pick it up, but we love it when they invite us to pick our own.

I haven't quite figured out what to do with turnips or beets or cabbage, but I've LOVED having fresh spinach and all varieties of lettuce. I've been cooking more with green onions this week and even incorporated these things called garlic scapes into our evening meals. This vegetarian is loving it!

Today we picked snow peas and snap peas. I wanted to take pictures for their scrapbooks so we didn't come home with too many peas (sorry Brittany and Eric), but we had a wonderful experience.

Why Blog?

My friend, Lynn, directed me to a blog of a women in her book club. I've glanced at it a few times.

I found this post, though, to be so true. I had my own ideas on the same topic a few weeks after I started my blog more than a year and a half ago.

So have I convinced my non-blogging friends yet?

Freckles

Summer Fun

And for all those that think otherwise, I dare say that Lydia's hair looks red in this picture :)

Beeman

We had an unusual phenomenon at our house last week. A swarm of bees took up residence in our small maple tree. Jonah was thrilled. He wanted to talk to everyone that called our home that afternoon.

"There's a beehive in our tree....and there's a queen bee....and there's a THOUSAND bees!"

Mike was excited too. He was excited to be our hero and save his helpless family from the killer bees. His first step? Call the maintenance department on campus. They advised him to wait until 10:30 at night when the bees wouldn't fly and gave him a spray to use.

Our friend, Mel, was visiting that evening. Mike, who will be called Beeman from this point onward, clothed himself from head to toe and ventured out into the darkness. Mel shone a spotlight through the window onto the swarm of bees. Beeman edged closer, holding the spray can at arm's length. He sprayed, ducking his head, crouching low, and preparing for a quick escape.

The bees did not move. He continued to spray. The bees still did not move. He realized that he enjoyed spraying and decided to drown the dying bees.

Silence.

The bees started falling from the tree. Like a melting icicle, they dripped off in clumps while the small branch lifted higher and higher, relieved from the weight.

Beeman had saved us all.

Cousin Abby

"Babby," as Lydia likes to call her, was here two weeks ago. Jonah and Lydia adore her (and her Nintendo DS)!! We had to document her visit with a photo session on the last day. I just posted them on my photography site.

Thanks for visiting, Abby. We love you!

Minds in Motion

Eye contact. I realized today that I never have eye contact with my son. Sure, he looks at me, but it's in this quick, frantic, dodging kind of way.

We started private Occupational Therapy two weeks ago. We've wanted to find a place for a while, but even therapists who said they had experience knew quite a lot less than we did about Jonah's special needs. The school therapists haven't known what to do, the pediatrician is clueless, and it feels like everyone just turns to us for answers. Most days I just look at God and say, "Help." I certainly don't know what to do.

But I have some hope. Through web research and a series of phone calls, we discovered a place called Minds in Motion. I sat in the waiting room last week before our evaluation and just felt relief. My child fit in there. My child was understood. I was understood.

Most meetings we've had with teachers/therapists/etc. have been a long discussion where we share about Jonah and they take notes. If we were "lucky," they'd demonstrate some knowledge by giving me advice: Do you listen to classical music to calm him down? How about a swing? Make sure he doesn't watch TV before going to bed. They were all conversations that annoyed the heck out of me and gave me no hope.

At Minds in Motion we were called back to the "play area" with Miss Kim, and I didn't have to tell her ANYTHING. She talked to me about the center while observing Jonah out of the corner of her eye. I had tears in my eyes as she explained Jonah to a "T" within the first five minutes of our meeting.

We're driving over an hour (one way), but I'm very confident that we'll see results from his time with Miss Kim. He has to complete an obstacle course two times a day for his homework this week to work on his "pinging." (That's how Miss Kim described it-- his focus pings, his eyes ping, his body pings, etc.) The course involves a mini-trampoline, a sit-&-spin, a balance beam, a swing, jumping on a series of carpet squares, etc. The purpose of the course is that he'll be purposeful with what he's asked to accomplish. If he falls off the balance beam, then he needs to start it over again. If he doesn't keep his feet together while jumping across the carpet squares, then he needs to do it over again. When he's done with an activity, he needs to look me in the eye and say, "I'm going to the sit-&-spin next" or "I'm going to the swing next."

If you know Jonah, then I think you can see what a valuable tool this could be. He's had to be so focused and deliberate with the obstacle course that I'm overwhelmed with pride when I see him complete a task. He's proud of himself too. Sometimes it takes six tries for him to look me in the eye while he says what he's going to do next, but HE'S TRYING. I think it actually feels good for him to have eye contact with me.

Tonight before bed, Grammy (we're visiting my parents this week) had him look me in the eyes and say, "I love you." He smiled. I smiled too.

Catching Up

It's been a while since my last post. We've had an eventful summer so far; I'll certainly have to share more in some upcoming posts. In the meantime, you can see that Jonah has been enjoying the mud that surrounds our yard. Now here's an interesting tidbit: Jonah was playing with three other neighbor boys on this particular evening and NONE of them were dirty. Gee.

My Shy Girl

Olivia

I was briskly shopping tonight at the mall when I heard a timid voice say, "Did you use to be a teacher?"

I looked up and said, "Olivia!"

It had been eight years. I was Olivia's eighth grade English teacher. She just graduated from college with a degree in Meteorology. She wasn't a favorite student; in fact, she was a little haughty, but I was certainly proud of myself for knowing her name immediately and very interested in hearing about her classmates that forever scarred me from teaching middle school again.

Ross is married and in the marines.
Phil is doing okay. He's actually having a rough time right now.
Brandon? She doesn't remember seeing Brandon after their sophomore year of high school.

Gee.

How weird it was to see her. I was Miss Tiberi. I had a "special friend" named Mike. I spent my evenings eating ice cream out of the carton and dining on cereal for dinner. I shopped. I sat in bookstores. I fell in love.

And the rest is...

life as I know it.

I Need a Favor, Please

Most of you know that I've been in the process of starting my photography business. Aside from being a bit consuming, it's going well. I have some work to do on the business-side: setting prices, determining policies, organizing online galleries, etc., so I'm going to slow down a bit with the photo shoots during the month of June. I'm officially launching the business on July 1. Yeah, I know I've already "launched," but I've really just practiced the whole picture-taking process on my friends.

So soon I'll begin taking appointments for July. I've already had a lot of potential clients ask for my website, and this is where you can help.

I need you to comment on my photography site.

I'm sure you know that comments = activity. If I go to a site and see a lot of comments, I know that a lot of people check that blog. I want potential customers to see activity on my site!!

I've changed the setting so you can be "anonymous" if you want, or you can sign your name. Potential customers aren't going to know that you're my best friends and family members!

Thanks for your help!