The Organic {summer} Life

This past week has been filled with a hint of summer. The weather has been pretty much anything but summer, yet our family life has been filled with the lazy, work-in-the-yard, fruit-and-ice-cream joys of the hot season.

We recently acquired one of the coolest free things I have ever received:

Our kids have since been constantly dreaming up wars, having secret meetings and even shooting BB guns (with daddy, of course) from the window of the fort, popping perfectly-placed water balloons.

We wrapped up school for the year, and celebrated with face painting, doughnuts, and a delicious cheese pizza from the Whole Foods cafe. The kids frolicked in the warm sun that happened to be peeking through the clouds that day and thoroughly enjoyed racing on scooters and helping me tend to our slowly-growing tomatoes.

M-Dog was stung by this icky-looking bee. We made sure to give it a proper burial...into the bottom of my shoe. I know, I know...don't alert PETA. The bee started it.

I've been on an organic kick lately. Although the more books I read, the less likely I feel that it's just a "kick." My Kindle has taken over my free time, beckoning me to read, read, read. I suppose it's not a bad thing, although Superman may start to get jealous if I continue on with this fervor for an inanimate object.

I've finished "Fast Food Nation," "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle," and just started "The Omnivore's Dilemma." I'm sure my fellow conservatives are clenching their nervous fists as I liberalize my mind. =)

All this reading about what I am putting into my body (and the bodies of the little munchkins running around our house) has really made me more aware. It's actually been an exciting challenge to eat as much locally-grown, organic food as possible. We joined a CSA for this month, picking up a weekly box of fruits and vegetables; grown so close, they're practically in our back yard. I'm embarrassed to admit that the past few weeks, I have cooked Kale, Pea Shoots, Chard, Arugula and a host of other produce I have never even eaten. But it's been nothing short of enlightening. This morning I picked up this week's box and was giddy as a dog waiting for its puppy chow while I opened it. You see, each week is a surprise. And this was what I saw when I carefully pulled each fresh, crisp item out:

So surprisingly delicious!

On the adoption front, we are thoroughly enjoying the joys of being a completed family. And the further we get away from the day we signed papers, the more I forget about the uncertainties of life before.

Four more days of work for Superman, and then he joins the rest of us at home for more than two months. Oh, summer, how I squirm for you!