Father's Day at the Farm

He's an amazing guy. Here's the list: he can and does play almost every instrument by ear and often; he's a great cook, gardener, conversationalist, and friend; he's an "awesome" father; quite handy, if not good with shapes then good at faking it!; and most of all....he's my best friend and Lil'Bug's awesome Dad.
I could list more things that he's good at or even his Kingdom of Loathing stats, but none really speak
more of his greatness than the photos I have provided.

This Father's Day he wanted to take Lil'Bug to the local farm museum. As we toured the different era farms she gave us her input:
1700's farm- "I will not live here. I don't like tents outside."
1840's farm- "Purple Baby doesn't like it here. Mama, it's too hot."
1900's farm- "This is Ok. Where is the farm cat?"


I'm not sure what she was thinking, but her responses were more real estate oriented than we intended the family outing to be. She did get to pet a lamb, a dairy cow, a horse, and a thistle. The purple thistle was by far her favorite.

My bugs, my bugs, my bugs!

So at another one of our lively family discussions, (which is not code for "argument that I won", btw) this idea was put out for ponder: Why are we smushing cabbage caterpillars and getting excited about the pretty yellow and black caterpillar to the point of checking on it everyday? They both essentially do the same thing, right? Short answer is this- the cabbage caterpillars turn into cabbage moths and they are both decimating my crop and the pretty bug will turn into a monarch butterfly and is only and exclusively munching on milkweed. I don't eat milkweed, she can have it. They both play a part in the balance of our garden, even if it seems that the only benefit is that we are communing with our plants each day to de-bug them without chemicals.

The picture on the right is of a clutch of lacewing eggs. Neat. These are good bugs- very, very good bugs. I grew up calling lacewings "Mosquito Hawks"- they eat mosquitoes, mosquito larvae, and lots of other pesties.

Not complaining for 30 days?!

Seriously, some of my mama friends are trying this out: not complaining or gossiping for thirty days. What a challenge.

I'd like to think of myself as an optimist, you know- someone who doesn't complain, but a friend once pointed out that I cross the line into "the worst kind of idealist" ie, I set impossible goals and sometimes ignore reality. On the other hand, Napoleon did not conquer most of the European world by thinking, "Maybe I'm not being realistic...." Anyway, maybe I do complain a lot, even if it's masked in amusing (hey, I think they are!) stories about our neighbor kids, neighbor adults, or local politics- it's still complaining.

I've decide to step up to the plate and support their efforts by creating a weekly gratitudes list too:
1) I am grateful that I married young and to the most amazing man, we've spent almost 1/2 our lives together and its only getting better.
2) My daughter is the happiest child and funny too. I am glad that her first words used in context were "Giggle giggle/ tickle tickle" and "quack". (Hey, that's a kids book!)
3) We live in a really cool house. I am enjoying our time here but I am happy we are moving.
4) The carrot cake I made this week was awesome (the frosting is not included in that statement).
5) I have the loveliest friends and some have wonderful children who are friends with my wonderful child.
6) I rock at Catch Phrase.
7) I have a tomato on the plant! Whoo hoo!

I'm sure that I will still be grateful for all of the above next week too. I'm grateful for that.

The hungry caterpillar

This evening I was weeding the perennial bed that I have terribly neglected this Spring. I was delighted to find a pumpkin plant! Heh. I threw out random seeds of various squash plants here and there and gave Lil'Bug some to "plant." I was examining it with dear husband to identify which yummy squash was going to grow and we found this lovely little caterpillar. I wanted to bring him in and feed him, but dear husband made a convincing argument for it to stay AND I'm not allowed to weed that bed anymore. I might have already removed its food source, which is not pumpkin. I know what kind this one is, do you?